The Scope of Godliness & the First Mountain Man

🔎 In This Fit Tip Friday 

 Inside you'll find:

• Tip: The scope of godliness

• Finds: 5 longevity tactics to prevent chronic diseases (and more)

• Story: The mountain man

• Quote: He went back for seconds

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🌐 The Scope of Godliness

Fitness is important. But it’s not the most important thing.

Paul makes this clear in his first letter to Timothy.

But the scope of godliness is vast.

Living a life of reverence before the Lord, honoring Him with our thoughts, actions, words, and loving Him with our heart, mind, soul, and strength encompasses every area of life.

Including fitness.

Put another way, if godliness is of value in every way… in every area of our lives… then it will inform and instruct how we pursue fitness.

🔎 Finds This Week

Here are some of my favorite finds this week:

• Peter Attia’s 5 longevity tactics to prevent chronic diseases (more)

• Racers can retrace the John Colter run every year with this event (more)

• This 51 year old UK man who lost a leg broke a strongman record (more)

• In my opinion, this is the best tasting protein shake (more)

• How far back does kettlebell training go in history? (more)

• This burger bowl recipe shared on X (more)

• 4 tips on how to lose weight without counting calories (more)

🏔️ The First Mountain Man

In their famed expedition, Lewis & Clark set out from Illinois in 1804 to explore the largely unknown regions of the western United States after the Louisiana purchase. They finished their trek in 1806 in Oregon.

Lewis & Clark put together a team of over 30 people for their journey. Their companions had a wide variety of skillsets, competencies, and experiences.

One man in particular was selected for his outdoor skills on the frontier. This man proved to be the party’s best hunter, a skilled barterer with local tribes, a trustworthy surveyor, and was reliably healthy by never being sick during the voyage.

The guy’s name was John Colter.

He popularly receives the title as the first American Mountain man. This title is well earned. After the Lewis & Clark expedition, Colter continued his frontiersman life.

• He was selected by the Missouri Fur Trading company in 1807 to negotiate with local tribes. He did this alone by setting out on a 500 mile journey with just his pack and his rifle.

• He was likely the first non-native man to see Jackson Hole and Yellowstone.

But his true toughness was seen in what’s now famously known as “Colter’s Run”.

In 1809, Colter and his friend John Potts were in a canoe going up Jefferson River in Montana when they encountered several hundred Blackfeet natives.

Potts was shot with arrows and was hacked to pieces. Colter was stripped naked and all his possessions were taken. The tribe told Colter to run, but only gave him a head start so they could hunt him.

Colter ran for his life for a total of 5 miles. He was able to outrun all of the tribe except for one man, who kept up with Colter stride for stride. Colter stopped suddenly and turned to face his pursuer. This startled the man, who dropped his spear of both exhaustion and shock.

Colter grabbed the spear, killed his assailant, took his blanket and clothes, and continued running before hiding under floating logs in a river. He waited until nightfall, and once he felt like he could emerge safely, he walked another 11 days over hundreds of miles to a local fort.

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I’ll see you next Friday.

Be strong,

Don

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