Last Saturday, I made my triumphant return to running and running a little bit of distance.

I've actually been running fairly regularly for the past few years, but I logged into my account

at ultra signup.com to find out that my last ultramarathon was the Kayamaka 100K in late 2017.

And my last 100 mile race was the Lake Tahoe 100 miler in 2016, which is part of why

I have stopped calling myself an ultra runner during the intro of my podcast, because it was early

2018 when I tore my meniscus playing basketball. And it wasn't until the end of 2018, after putting on a few, came more than a few pounds, that I got an MRI and I was told that my meniscus resembled somewhat of shredded chicken. And that rather than have surgery, the surgeon said, how about you lose some of that weight that you had put on over the past year? First, I said, how dare you, as I sat there with all of my weight on the table? And I felt like that was truly my Uncle Rico

moment. If you've seen Napoleon Dynamite, when I looked at that doctor and I said, I used to run

100 mile races, 24-hour events where I covered up to 125 miles. Similar to Uncle Rico, telling

Napoleon and Kip that he could throw a football over those

mountains over there. The doctor really didn't seem very impressed. So fast forward, almost three

years later, and it turns out that losing weight did, in fact, help with the pain, and it's

fairly manageable now, and my wife and I completed the half marathon, So the comeback is on. Now, with that said,

I was talking with Melissa and Brittany of my social media team, the yeah-ya agency, a few days prior to

this half marathon, and they were talking me through the finer art of sharing some content

through Instagram stories. And I asked what type of content from a race and they shared anything. In essence,

it was the proverbial you do you, boo. And I said, well, what about poop talk? To which Melissa very

eloquently shared to Brittany that both young mothers and runners alike seem to enjoy sharing

their poop stories. And I realized at that moment how wise Melissa was. She was correct. She suggested

that I do preface the story with, hey, for you runners out there, I have a story. So, for you runners,

I do indeed have a story and it's about poop. But for you non-runners, I also have some data that

we'll talk about that actually links gratitude to good health, reduce stress, and a better digestive system.

So yes, gratitude does, in fact, help you poop. So for your runners, here's the story that I was

...