Presidential Physical Fitness Test

When I was 10 - 12 years old we were required to take a new physical test that was Sponsored by the good old United States of America. As my website states I want to age “Gracefully”. To be honest I have stepped it up a notch since we have closed our physical retail store. I currently run as much as I can when I am in warm climates, particularly on the beach. I do hot pilates a few says a week when I can. I peloton almost every day when I am in cold climates. I also enjoy surfing when the waves are good. I do bike on the beach when the tide is low and look forward to bring my road bike down in a few months. In our quest to organize our lives we have been going through old boxes in our house. Basically getting rid of 16 years worth of what ever the fuck you call it. Going down memory lane and transitioning in life led me to reflect on the Presidential Physical Fitness test that we took when were in grade school. I knew we had taken it but did could not find the right box with the proof, until I did!

There it was, actually there were two. Apparently I had passed the test in two different years. One certificate was signed by President Ronald Reagan and the other was signed by Georg W. Bush. Two stickers and 2 patches. Well, when you are me and you are trying to age well by eating healthy and working out there is only one thing there is to do.

TAKE THE DAMN TEST AGAIN JACK

It’s how I am wired and challenge accepted. I am going to train to hopefully pass the Presidential Physical Fitness test again before I turn 50, or maybe when I turn 50. I haven’t figured out the jist of it yet but thus we proceed. I am going to train for this like I trained for the marathon I did. I am going to follow a daily training regiment to see if I can accomplish it and going to blog about it as I train.

Here are the requirements, although I have seen certain measurements being a bit different.

🏅 Presidential Physical Fitness Award (Classic 1980s Version)

President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports

How it worked:

• You had to score in the top 15% nationally for your age and sex

• Across 5 events

• No substitutions, no averaging — you had to perform in all five

🧪 The 5 Required Events

6

1️⃣ Pull-Ups (or Flexed-Arm Hang for some kids)

• Boys standard (top tier): ~12–15+ pull-ups

• Strict form. Full hang → chin over bar.

👉 Adult reality check: This will likely be the hardest one at 49.

2️⃣ Sit-Ups (1 minute)

• Boys top 15%: ~45–50 sit-ups

• Hands behind head (old-school), feet held.

3️⃣ Shuttle Run (Agility)

• Distance: 30 feet (10 yards) back and forth

• Top tier time: ~8.5–9.0 seconds

This one sneaks up on people — explosive legs + coordination.

4️⃣ Sit-and-Reach (Flexibility)

• Top tier: ~12–14 inches past toes

• Slow, controlled reach — no bouncing.

Good news: hot Pilates + surfing = built-in advantage here.

5️⃣ 1-Mile Run

• Boys top 15%: ~6:30–7:00 minutes

Cardio efficiency matters more than brute speed.

Today I did 43 sit ups in 60 seconds and was able to really grab my toes when properly stretched.

I am pretty sure I can do the mile but will have to wait for warmer weather location for that training. The shuttle run has me a bit concerned but I think I should be able to pass it. Pull ups and sit and reach have me most worried but I am going to train and make sure I hit those numbers. Time will tell.

GO BEARS!!!!!!!!

Inflammation Nation

I write this blog after the holidays and things have calmed down and its time to get to work. It allows me the chance to reflect on a holiday that was a reminder of my past. It always seems to happen around a big day or event. Weddings, dances, parties and the holidays are the time of year that we want to look best. For someone who is hyper-sensitive to food and it’s inflammatory effects these are the exact times of year when it seems to strike. Let me share my story.

It is mid-December 2025, we just wrapped up the Thanksgiving Holiday and are roaring toward a great Christmas Season. I noticed an inflammation under my right cheek. For those who do not experience side effects like that let me explain. The initial indication that I have poisoned and therefore inflamed myself is not visual, it is a sensation you get in the area that you know you are going to have negative visual side effect. Of course I spent everyday trying to figure out what I had eaten this time. A week went by and I thought this was not going to be a major facial episode until it did become a major facial episode (atleast to me it did). This moment was about as apparent as when we found out our son was allergic to dairy (this I will explain in another blog). As the mound on my face began to gain size and redness I was driving with my wife who was having terrible tooth pain. It was pain to the point that she was going to try and book an emergency trip to the dentist. As we drove I reflected on what I ate and why my reaction seemed almost “ignited”. The red mark that came in subdued a week ago was all of a sudden not at all subdued. Something in the last 24 hours I had eaten had to be the cause of my new aggressive feeling and looking reaction. Remember, I do not eat a very wide variety of food so I immediately began to investigate. All I had to do was ask my AI if the cheese I had on my pizza the night before might cause my cheek inflammation. Bingo. Cheese can absolutely cause facial blemishes and redness due to inflammation side effects caused by dairy. We had been doing Taco Tuesdays and that is what I had to kick off the initial mark on my cheek. The pizza a week later kicked it into over gear. Problem solved for me but I still had a wife in pain who needed to figure out what was up with her molars. That’s when I asked my AI if cheese could be causing the tooth pain my wife was having. Holy Shit, PROBLEM SOLVED. Of course my AI suggested that pain in teeth is a common side effect to cheese and or dairy. These are WOW moments people. Moments that you realized something that will effect with you for the rest of your life, in a very positive way. My AI indicated that the inflammation could last weeks and gave me advice on how to best mange it. It is January 26th 2026 and I am free of inflammation. I had one hiccup and paid a small red mark price after eating some gluten free cheese its. I took a picture of the ingredients and asked my AI what might be causing inflammation and the first answer was dairy. I have not knowingly had dairy/cheese in about a month. I have replaced cheese with avocado on Taco Tuesdays. I stare at my face in the mirror in awe when I get home when I see no flush red face. I wake up the next day with no new red marks or any inflammation.

This holiday season I was reminded what growing up me was like. I was reminded how often you go into a bathroom to find a mirror to see what is the status of your face is. Imagine having an egg and cheese muffin for breakfast, a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch and maybe a cheese burger for dinner. Cheese on tacos, salads and vegetables. Grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese and crackers there is cheese everywhere. The end result is that your face and many other parts of your body go into a hyper sense of inflammation.

So I start the new year off feeling blessed more than ever to have my food allergies. Blessed to try to understand the balance of my body’s physical health and mental health. Blessed to have learned that all of the past struggles I have had with facial flushness and acne have been caused by different triggers. Triggers that can be controlled. Cheers to 2026. What’s your triggers??

Silent Celiac

In my quest to learn more about my Celiac disease I have grown more frustrated than ever. My happiness to have discovered what was causing all of the negative side effects in my life has been counter balanced by the discovery that the disease that I conquered is fucking with more people than I ever imagined. Deep diving Celiac disease led me to discover that only 20% to 30% of people who have the disease actually have it diagnosed and or confirmed by a doctor. Or let me say it another way, of all the people on earth who have Celiac upwards of 70 to 80% of them do not know they have the disease. I have to let my audience know, Jack’s mind has a very difficult time trying to rationalize that. Celiac disease affects 1% of the population. Yep, that’s it only, 1%. As I write this blog there is an estimated global population of 8.16 billion people on the Earth. That means roughly 81.6 million people have the disease that I have, Celiac. Here’s where things get fucked. Only 20 to 30% of those people have it diagnosed and confirmed like I did. So it is horrifying for me to try to understand that of the 81.6 million people with the disease that I have, there are between 57,000,000 to 65,300,000 people that are traversing the earth not knowing they have Celiac. Only 16,300,000 to 24,600,000 people know they have it.

THAT IS FUCKED FOLKS!!!!

Lets break that down in the United States of America where I live. There are roughly 348,000,000 people in the United States. That means there are 3,480,000 people with Celiac disease. Of those people only 700,000 to 1,000,000 people know they have the disease . Thus meaning upwards of 2,440,000 to 2,780,000 people in the United States are living with Celiac disease and do not know it or have it diagnosed. In my house we call this a SECURITY ALERT, SECURITY ALERT!!!!

You have got to be fucking kidding me ! Its got to be a joke? Sadly, it is not. Look it up, you will not believe it.

Google Silent Celiac Symptoms and see if anyone you know, including yourself may fit that description. I’ll save you time and do it for you.

Silent Celiac Symptoms -can be subtle or not the classic gut-related ones. People might notice things like

Feeling more fatigued than usual

Maybe a bit of Brain fog

Issues like anemia because they are not absorbing the nutrients well

Joint Pain

Subtle skin rash

Little clues that something’s off

Breathe Jack. My anger stems from the fact there are people of all ages living the life I did from the age of 7 to 33. A life filled with bizarre negative side effects and poor health all from the gluten in the food and beverage they consume daily. Imagine not knowingly taking some sort of small dose of poison. Not a dose of poison that will kill you, but a dose just big enough to make you bend over in with abdominal pain. A dose just big enough to cause skin rashes. A dose just big enough to make you experience brain fog. A dose just big enough to make you stop your normal task and take a break to rest for reasons you cannot figure out. A dose just big enough to make you feel that you live in a state of low grade irritation. A state of constant unwell.

Well now you can imagine what it like to live with silent Celiac. And if you or someone you know has any of those symptoms it’s time to do yourself and them a favor and cut it out. That’s it, CUT IT OUT. Remove the Trigger. Yes, there it is again,

It’s why I am here, to help you

REMOVE THE TRIGGER

Try it for a day. It is easy. I will help if you need.

YOU WILL FEEL BETTER!!!!!

So as I wrap up this blog I hope, I hope that someone reads this and or listens to my podcast and tries this. Because it will work and someone’s life as a result will change for the better. They will feel and look better. And that’s it, it started once one person figures is out, there’s approximately 65,299,000 more people to go. Our work has begun. Why don’t you be the one. Join me and help. Let’s do it. It’s time

CELIACS UNITE

Cheers

Jack

Sealiac Life Podcast

Thus we begin! My journey has started to help those who are being negatively affected by food and more specifically the ingredients in food.

First I must explain why I want to do this. When I was about 11 months old I experienced a weight decline of nearly 9lbs. I was sick!!! 16 days in 3 different hospitals and I was released with the diagnosis of Celiac Disease. They thought there was a chance that it may be Osteoporosis, but hey hey, Celiac it was! Seems pretty simple right, wrong! It was relayed to my parents that after a while (years) the symptoms from Celiac may become dormant/go away. Their due diligence was commended. I spent 6 years living gluten free. On top of that each year I would go back to the hospital and get tested to confirm what the already confirmed. I had Celiac. On my last visit the doctors threw out the word “Dormant” and that’s all my parents needed to hear to think that I was Celiac free. No more doctor visits, no more yearly stuffed animals for spending a day in a hospital getting tested for hours on end.

Instead, it was years of twinky’s, ding-dongs, trisquits and gold fish. Micky D’s, B-K, Subway and more. The mountain Dew, oooohhhh the Mountain Dew. Peanut butter and jelly was my jam, hot dog Tuesday was particularly memorable for the warm bun wrapped in tin foil. Bring on high school cafeteria, life on the road as a hockey player. Not one memory of gluten free. High school, college and career, beer was a big one! It was the heydays of Budweiser and Miller Light. Natty Light was the choice in college. Hell, I worked for Boston Beer Company for a quick minute after I got out of school. The memories are horrifying now when I think back to the beer I consumed in high school and college. Fire engine red skin break outs at lunch meetings at Sam Adams was a “favorite”. My young adult life was pretty consistent. As I have learned I was living in a “state of low grade irratation”. Quietly poisoning myself with Gluten on a daily basis and living with negative symptoms that I came accept to as feeling “normal”. My feeling like shit was my normal! Then came 2008. I was at a very interesting time in my life with my wife and family. I decided a marathon was a bucket list event I was ready to conquer. The training was grueling, so many, many miles. After a night of pasta with a friends family I awoke for the challenge. I am a competitor and I like to win. Little did I know that attitude is not a good one for a first time marathoner. As in many instances I was niave about the situation. The start was amazing, the pitter patter of the feet, traversing the dark morning streets of Detroit and over the bridge into Canada. Back to the States through the tunnel, I was going on at a nice pace.

Mid-race I was surprised when being passed by a few racers and grew confused. That’s when I saw a sign with 2 arrows - half marathon to the left, full marathon to the right. That’s how naive I was, I didn’t even know there was a half marathon within the damn marathon! I hauled ass the rest of the way. When it was all said and done I crossed the line in 3:16:35 gun time 3:16:03 chip time. I wrapped myself in a silver blanket and tried not to lose my physical shit while waiting for my wife and kids. I can’t describe it as a pain but I think its more like “this is how I feel and I hope I feel better REALL REALLY REALLY SOON”. We drove home and my life resumed without running. I needed a break from the experience and my wife and I were starting a business and raising our kids. Then the problems started!

The worst part was the visible skin rash. I “wrote off” the rash on my upper legs as a by product of wearing a hockey garter belt my entire youth life. The view back from the mirror when I looked was not a healthy person. I was underweight and had the facial acne and I could not understand where it was coming from. I had people comment on my “losing weight” and question “was I sick” My hair was exiting stage door left and there were days I had to stay home from work due to facial acne. I was a mess!

My natural instinct was to try to figure out what the hell was going on. I knew I was told I had Celiac as a child but didn’t remember any side effects because my life was full of side effects. And I be damned if after a reminder from my Mother-in-law about the celiac she heard I had as a kid came up. Problem solved! Thank you MIMI!! It was pretty much overnight, the symptoms subsided one by one in time. After being cleared by the university of Michigan with no small intestine damage I was a free! Free to proceed through life traversing the challenges of having to be gluten free. Traversing a gluten free life being poisoned and being able to recognize it. Traversing to an age of 49 to ultimately learn that Celiac disease is one of the best things that has happened to me!

28 years of being poisoned vs 22 years of living Gluten Free. That’s why I am here! I have the experience! I have what I hear them say on ESPN all the time “that guy/girl has the receipts” to back-up their game and or performance. The “Cred” if you will. I have determined that I have the “receipts” necessary to help.

Today the kids are out of the house and we are transitioning. Life changes a lot and it’s time to pivot. I look forward to helping anybody and everybody who chooses to listen to my life experiences and follow along as I study the disease that is Celiac. My podcast starts with Celiac and grows from there. My deep dive into Celiac disease has opened my eyes to many other oddities I am ready to chat about. Time to get to work!

Cheers,

Jack

Jack’s Life by AGE

0-1 Poisoned

1-7 Gluten Free

8-33 Poisoned

34-49 Gluten Free

49- Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily Life is Gluten Free

Bye Bye Barn

“Wow, that was quite something” That’s what my wife said to me as we stood alone in our old, practically empty Red Barn that was built in 1837. I was confused! Was she referring to the exhausting days it took to close our physical retail furniture store so we could invest our time, energy and future into our online store and interior design business or was she referencing the whole 16 years? The sixteen years of retail that started in 2008 during a recession, throw in a little COVID, only to be bookended by where we stand today, in the “mess” that are the tariffs and more? The “mess” that now includes competitors with names like Amazon and Costco selling home goods, furniture and more! The “mess” that is the “retail apocalypse” that our industry publication suggested was going to occur?

It was both. The 6 weeks spent closing the Barn was exhausting, mentally and physically. By getting through it though, we found ourselves at a moment where short term and long term intersected. Long term we started and operated a great business with great future potential, short term we needed to get out of the “mess” and move in a new direction. We realized this moment needed to happen 3 years prior and here we were; at the intersection of exhilarating and horrifying. Exhilarated at the idea and decision of moving our business in a new direction, using upgraded methods that have allowed many others to work from home and or any remote location of their choice, all while not being tied down to schedule and location. Horrified at the thought of my mind trying to fool itself into thinking that staying the course, in our Red Barn, continuing with things as usual was the way to go. All while knowing most retail businesses these days are online only and there are additional ways to make money while not requiring such a scheduled/structured life.

We happily chose Exhilarating Ave. “New day, new way”

So here ware are, on the new road excited to grow our business. Excited to start this new podcast. Excited to announce our first sponsor Bell Tower Lake House Living Co. “The Lake House Store For Everyone” visit enjoylakehouseliving.com and buy something for your home. Excited to create a platform where I can share my “food journey”. A journey filled with years of food allergies and food diseases. A journey where I went to college with out the internet and graduated with the internet. A journey that has witnessed changes to our food, medicine, health, aging awareness and more. This podcast and website are a big part of our new journey so I hope you stay tuned, visit, read and listen often.

Jack Kosin