Raise your hand if you're a vegan and you're freaking sick of tofu. Sure, getting enough protein is crucial on a plant-based diet. But why is tofu always the default option? Enough is enough.
Enter vegan protein powder. Back in the day, vegan protein powders tasted, well, revolting, says Las Vegas vegan nutritionist Andy Bellatti. But times have changed. “Many are now very low in sugar or come in newer flavors like salted caramel, coconut, or chai,” he says. And they’re not all soy either. Popular brands are also made from hemp, brown rice or pea protein.
Even if you’re not vegan, plant-based protein powders are worth checking out. “Some misconceptions about vegan protein powders are that you can’t get enough protein with them, or they won’t keep you full or provide all the essential amino acids,” says Carolyn Brown, registered dietitian at Foodtrainers in Manhattan. In fact, many vegan powders contain 15 to 22 grams of protein per serving. Compare that to whey protein powders, which generally contain 20 to 25 grams of protein per scoop.
They've also got a ton of fiber. “Because of the high fiber content, the exciting thing about plant protein is that it takes a while for your body to digest,” says Khorana. “The more your body works on metabolizing the plant protein you have eaten, the better your body is at burning the extra fat you are trying to get rid of.”
Try spiking your smoothies, ice coffee, coconut water or pancake mix, suggests Priya Khorana, New York nutritionist and exercise physiologist. You can make breakfast balls by mixing protein powder with your favorite nut butter and oats and rolling them in chia or hemp seeds, says Monica Auslander, a registered dietician from Miami. Bellatti also recommends using protein powders as a base for coconut macaroons. Curious? Here's your guide to the best vegan protein powders (and the key differences between them):
1). Pea protein is having a moment. Why? It's complete protein, containing all nine essential amino acids that you need to consume to effectively build muscle. “It’s actually one of the best plant-based forms of protein that you can eat and, when flavored and sweetened well, has a uniquely pleasant taste,” says Khorana.
2). Brown rice is considered to be the least allergenic of the plant protein sources (a.k.a. least likely to trigger food allergies) and is full of B vitamins, which aid muscle metabolism and growth. Yet it’s not considered a complete protein on its own. “That means you will need to pair it with tofu, quinoa, or beans to round out the nutrients you need,” says Khorana.
3). Hemp protein powder, which is derived from the hemp seed, has a lower protein count (at around 15 grams per serving) than some other plant sources, but it’s highly digestible. “This means that it can work as a pre-gym supplement that will not cause stomach issues during your workout,” says Khorana. Despite its higher fat content than other sources, it contains a ton of fiber and omega-3 fatty acids.
4). Blends (made from a few different plant-based proteins) can help vegans diversify their protein intake. “There are so many products on the market, it can be overwhelming,” says Brown. “I like a diversity of protein sources like hemp, pumpkin seeds, and pea protein, with low sugar content and ideally a few grams of fiber.”
5). Soy is a vegan standby for a reason. Soy protein powder consists of fiber, isoflavones, and essential amino acids needed for muscle growth. It's also is a good source of iron, calcium, potassium, and omega 3-fatty acids. “It’s easily digestible and has a palate-pleasing smooth consistency when added to foods and shakes,” says Khorana. Still, there’s concern that soy acts like estrogen in the body and increases one’s risk of developing breast cancer. Although the American Cancer Society says it’s okay to eat soy in moderation, experts are cautious about consuming too much in supplement form—so stick to the recommending serving size on the package to be safe.
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Is the Earth Flat?
BY DANIEL LOXTON
Recent news stories,1 celebrity endorsements, and Google search trends2 have highlighted an apparently growing conspiracy theory belief that the Earth is not a globe, but instead a flat disc. According to believers, government forces promote a completely fictitious model of the cosmos in order to conceal the true nature of the Earth. Are these claims true?
No. The Earth is Round
The evidence for a spherical Earth is overwhelming.3 Most obviously, there are many thousands of images and videos of the Earth from space, including a continually changing live stream view of the globe from the International Space Station—not to mention all the astronauts who have personally seen the Earth from orbit. Flat Earthers claim that all images of the globe are fraudulent inventions, and all testimony from astronauts is false. It is unreasonable to dismiss all of the evidence from the entire history of space exploration, especially when there is zero evidence for a decades-long “globularist” conspiracy. However, we do not need to rely on evidence from modern space agencies to confirm the roundness of the Earth for ourselves.
The globe has been clearly understood for thousands of years. Indeed, this was one of the first cosmic facts to be worked out correctly by ancient people because evidence of a spherical Earth is visible to the naked eye.
By the time of the philosopher Socrates and his student Plato, many Greeks understood that the Earth could only be a sphere. Sailors would have noticed that the sails of approaching ships appeared before the hulls of the ships became visible because the surface of the sea is slightly curved, like the surface of an enormous ball.4 When you sail toward a ship, island, or lighthouse, their tallest points are the first thing to peek up over the curve of the horizon.
Plato’s student Aristotle offered further “evidence of the senses” to support his own conclusion that the Earth “must necessarily be spherical.” First, there was the evidence of lunar eclipses. When the Moon passes through the shadow of the Earth, that shadow is always the circular shadow of a sphere. Also, Aristotle argued, “our observations of the stars” make it clear “not only that the earth is circular, but also that it is a circle of no great size.” He pointed out that “quite a small change of position to south or north” significantly changes “the stars which are overhead, and the stars seen are different, as one moves northward or southward.” Just as ships can be hidden from view by the curvature of the horizon, so too can the stars.5
The debate about the shape of the Earth has been settled for over two thousand years. An ancient scholar named Eratosthenes—the head of the famous library of Alexandria in Egypt—even correctly approximated the circumference of the Earth using experimental measurements of shadows in two cities and some geometry.6
Despite modern legends about Medieval backwardness, there never was a time when educated people went back to thinking the Earth was flat. Once discovered, the true shape of the globe was too simple and useful a fact to be forgotten. Sailors were reminded of the planet’s roundness every time they climbed a mast to see further over the horizon or looked to the stars to determine their position. By the time of Columbus, his crew and even his critics understood that our world is a globe.7 It had been an established fact for centuries. For example, here’s a passage from the popular astronomy textbook On the Sphere of the World, published over 250 years before Columbus sailed: […]
Do You Know Your Carb Tolerance?
A Simple Guide To This Crucial Dietary Element
Carbs don't exactly have a great reputation these days. You've probably heard something about how carbs spike your insulin levels, and if insulin is the "fat storage hormone," then carbs must make you fat…right?
That topic is a whole article in itself, but the main thing you need to know is that carbs in and of themselves do not make you fat. Only overeating (taking in more calories than you need) does. But, that's not to say carbs are beneficial in the same amount for everyone.
Some people thrive on loads of carbs and feel great when eating them, while others feel sick by just looking at a potato. How can that be? The reason carbs affect people differently is due to something called carb tolerance. Carb tolerance is the reason there's so much conflicting research on low-carb dieting.
What is carb tolerance? Certain studies found that low-carb groups came out on top when it came to fat loss, yet others found high-carb groups fared well.
A 2016 study found that women who were carb intolerant lost more weight on a low-carb diet and were also more adherent to a low-carb diet as compared to a high-carb diet. Now, this doesn't mean carb intolerant individuals can't lose weight on a high-carb diet. They certainly can, and over the long-term. How can this be? Simple: it's how well your body tolerates carbs.
As I previously mentioned, people have varying responses when it comes to consuming carbs. This mostly comes down to two factors: their genetics and their insulin sensitivity.
I'm not going to get fancy here and spout biology jargon at you, but let's just say some people don't produce enough of a certain enzyme that's responsible for carbohydrate digestion. In fact, a 2014 study found that people with less of this enzyme are generally predisposed to obesity due to the high-carb diets typical of average Americans. However, those who have higher-than-usual amounts of the enzyme have lower body fat levels and may feel that carbs taste "sweeter" or "richer" than your average person.
When carb intolerant people consume carbs, they typically experience symptoms such as: bloating, fatigue, brain fog, and increased hunger Another aspect of carb tolerance is your insulin sensitivity.
Insulin sensitivity refers to how your body responds to insulin, an important hormone. When you eat a meal, insulin is released to shuttle nutrients from your meal to different cells in your body. If your cells are resistant to insulin, then you need to produce a lot of it for it to be able to do its job. This can slow down your rate of fat loss, but it doesn't directly stop it. Studies have shown that even insulin resistant people can still lose fat on a high-carb diet, provided they're in a caloric deficit.
And that's the main point I want to hammer home: low-carb diets are not necessary for fat loss, but they can definitely help in the case of carb intolerance.
As I've mentioned, insulin resistant people were more adherent to a low-carb diet than a high-carb one, and adherence is the single most important aspect of any nutrition plan.
What to do if you’re carb intolerant: although the simplest way to know if you're carb intolerant is if you experience the aforementioned symptoms after consuming carbs, a doctor can also run some tests (such as an oral glucose tolerance test and a fasting blood insulin test) to help you know for sure.
If you have reason to believe you're carb intolerant, here are some tips on how to make the most of it.
1). Decrease your carbs. You don't necessarily have to go full no-carb, but slowly decreasing your carb intake until you find a sweet spot with few symptoms is a great idea.
2). Get down to a low body fat. Studies have shown that higher body fats are typically associated with a lower insulin sensitivity, so if you want to optimize it, getting lean should be one of your priorities.
3). Make sure you train with resistance frequently. Something that most of you are probably doing already, but for those who aren't, now's the time. Resistance training has been consistently shown to improve insulin sensitivity in people with or without diabetes.
4). Get a good night's sleep. Sleep is so underrated for muscle growth and fat-loss purposes, and its effects on insulin sensitivity are well documented. For example, in one study reducing sleep to 4 hours resulted in immediate decrease in insulin sensitivity and other health markers.
5). Reduce your stress. Along with sleep improvement, stress reduction is a very underrated method of improving your results, including insulin sensitivity. High levels of mental stress cause high levels of "stress hormones" to stay active in your system, which ultimately leads to insulin resistance.
Assessing someone's carb tolerance is one of those little diet tweaks that could have a huge difference on their performance and daily life. While carb intolerant people can lose weight on a high-carb diet, dietary adherence and progress is typically much greater on a low-carb diet. Find what works best for you and stick to it.
Carbs don't exactly have a great reputation these days. You've probably heard something about how carbs spike your insulin levels, and if insulin is the "fat storage hormone," then carbs must make you fat…right?
That topic is a whole article in itself, but the main thing you need to know is that carbs in and of themselves do not make you fat. Only overeating (taking in more calories than you need) does. But, that's not to say carbs are beneficial in the same amount for everyone.
Some people thrive on loads of carbs and feel great when eating them, while others feel sick by just looking at a potato. How can that be? The reason carbs affect people differently is due to something called carb tolerance. Carb tolerance is the reason there's so much conflicting research on low-carb dieting.
What is carb tolerance? Certain studies found that low-carb groups came out on top when it came to fat loss, yet others found high-carb groups fared well.
A 2016 study found that women who were carb intolerant lost more weight on a low-carb diet and were also more adherent to a low-carb diet as compared to a high-carb diet. Now, this doesn't mean carb intolerant individuals can't lose weight on a high-carb diet. They certainly can, and over the long-term. How can this be? Simple: it's how well your body tolerates carbs.
As I previously mentioned, people have varying responses when it comes to consuming carbs. This mostly comes down to two factors: their genetics and their insulin sensitivity.
I'm not going to get fancy here and spout biology jargon at you, but let's just say some people don't produce enough of a certain enzyme that's responsible for carbohydrate digestion. In fact, a 2014 study found that people with less of this enzyme are generally predisposed to obesity due to the high-carb diets typical of average Americans. However, those who have higher-than-usual amounts of the enzyme have lower body fat levels and may feel that carbs taste "sweeter" or "richer" than your average person.
When carb intolerant people consume carbs, they typically experience symptoms such as: bloating, fatigue, brain fog, and increased hunger Another aspect of carb tolerance is your insulin sensitivity.
Insulin sensitivity refers to how your body responds to insulin, an important hormone. When you eat a meal, insulin is released to shuttle nutrients from your meal to different cells in your body. If your cells are resistant to insulin, then you need to produce a lot of it for it to be able to do its job. This can slow down your rate of fat loss, but it doesn't directly stop it. Studies have shown that even insulin resistant people can still lose fat on a high-carb diet, provided they're in a caloric deficit.
And that's the main point I want to hammer home: low-carb diets are not necessary for fat loss, but they can definitely help in the case of carb intolerance.
As I've mentioned, insulin resistant people were more adherent to a low-carb diet than a high-carb one, and adherence is the single most important aspect of any nutrition plan.
What to do if you’re carb intolerant: although the simplest way to know if you're carb intolerant is if you experience the aforementioned symptoms after consuming carbs, a doctor can also run some tests (such as an oral glucose tolerance test and a fasting blood insulin test) to help you know for sure.
If you have reason to believe you're carb intolerant, here are some tips on how to make the most of it.
1). Decrease your carbs. You don't necessarily have to go full no-carb, but slowly decreasing your carb intake until you find a sweet spot with few symptoms is a great idea.
2). Get down to a low body fat. Studies have shown that higher body fats are typically associated with a lower insulin sensitivity, so if you want to optimize it, getting lean should be one of your priorities.
3). Make sure you train with resistance frequently. Something that most of you are probably doing already, but for those who aren't, now's the time. Resistance training has been consistently shown to improve insulin sensitivity in people with or without diabetes.
4). Get a good night's sleep. Sleep is so underrated for muscle growth and fat-loss purposes, and its effects on insulin sensitivity are well documented. For example, in one study reducing sleep to 4 hours resulted in immediate decrease in insulin sensitivity and other health markers.
5). Reduce your stress. Along with sleep improvement, stress reduction is a very underrated method of improving your results, including insulin sensitivity. High levels of mental stress cause high levels of "stress hormones" to stay active in your system, which ultimately leads to insulin resistance.
Assessing someone's carb tolerance is one of those little diet tweaks that could have a huge difference on their performance and daily life. While carb intolerant people can lose weight on a high-carb diet, dietary adherence and progress is typically much greater on a low-carb diet. Find what works best for you and stick to it.
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
3 Myths About High Protein Diets Debunked!
By Dr. Jose Antonio
Protein plays an important part in everyone’s diet, even more so if you do strength training or are a body builder. But, is going heavier on the protein too much of a good thing? Here’s some research-based answers.
Anyone who pursues bodybuilding or other strength sports quickly learns that the U.S. government guidelines skimp on protein. While there's near-unanimity that Uncle Sam undervalues the muscle-building macronutrient, debates rage about the proper amount. There are also rumblings, verging on fear-mongering, that too much protein can wreck your kidneys and do all sorts of other harm to your body.
Spoiler alert! It doesn't. Let's look at some of the common myths—as well as some facts—about high-protein diets.
Myth 1: High-Protein Diets Cause Fat Gain: Not true. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Several years ago, in my capacity as a researcher at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, I performed a study in which my team had subjects consume 4.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, more than 5x the RDA.
These subjects neither gained fat mass, nor did they gain lean-body mass. However, when we increased the amount of training the subjects performed, we saw a drop in fat mass and an increase in lean-body mass.
Myth 2: High-Protein Diets Wreak Havoc on Your Kidneys: Here at the university, we have data showing that if you are a trained male bodybuilder and consume a high-protein diet for at least two years, you will experience no harmful effects to your kidneys, liver, or blood lipids.
Myth 3: High-Protein Diets Leach Calcium from Women's Bones: According to this myth, eating too much protein can make a woman's bones brittle and weak. We have done studies up to six months in length that looked at the effect on the bones of women who consumed 2.5-3.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day—about 3x the RDA. Once again, we found no decrease in bone health. In fact, the data suggested that if women eat a high-protein diet, their lumbar bone-mineral density may actually increase!
The Truth: To experience the most benefit from their workouts, bodybuilders and other athletes should consume around 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Not only will this extra protein help you build more lean muscle mass, but it will also diminish your appetite, making you less apt to cave in to cravings.
Protein can help you lose weight because of its ability to act as a potent thermogenic agent. That means your body burns more calories digesting protein than it takes to digest an identical amount of carbohydrate and fat. Protein can also burn fat by increasing the number of calories you use during "non-exercise activity thermogenesis," aka NEAT. NEAT refers to the energy you use to do everything outside of sleeping, eating, and sports-like exercise. NEAT activities include walking to and from work, typing, doing house work or yard work, climbing stairs, even fidgeting where you sit.
Protein plays an important part in everyone’s diet, even more so if you do strength training or are a body builder. But, is going heavier on the protein too much of a good thing? Here’s some research-based answers.
Anyone who pursues bodybuilding or other strength sports quickly learns that the U.S. government guidelines skimp on protein. While there's near-unanimity that Uncle Sam undervalues the muscle-building macronutrient, debates rage about the proper amount. There are also rumblings, verging on fear-mongering, that too much protein can wreck your kidneys and do all sorts of other harm to your body.
Spoiler alert! It doesn't. Let's look at some of the common myths—as well as some facts—about high-protein diets.
Myth 1: High-Protein Diets Cause Fat Gain: Not true. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Several years ago, in my capacity as a researcher at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, I performed a study in which my team had subjects consume 4.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, more than 5x the RDA.
These subjects neither gained fat mass, nor did they gain lean-body mass. However, when we increased the amount of training the subjects performed, we saw a drop in fat mass and an increase in lean-body mass.
Myth 2: High-Protein Diets Wreak Havoc on Your Kidneys: Here at the university, we have data showing that if you are a trained male bodybuilder and consume a high-protein diet for at least two years, you will experience no harmful effects to your kidneys, liver, or blood lipids.
Myth 3: High-Protein Diets Leach Calcium from Women's Bones: According to this myth, eating too much protein can make a woman's bones brittle and weak. We have done studies up to six months in length that looked at the effect on the bones of women who consumed 2.5-3.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day—about 3x the RDA. Once again, we found no decrease in bone health. In fact, the data suggested that if women eat a high-protein diet, their lumbar bone-mineral density may actually increase!
The Truth: To experience the most benefit from their workouts, bodybuilders and other athletes should consume around 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Not only will this extra protein help you build more lean muscle mass, but it will also diminish your appetite, making you less apt to cave in to cravings.
Protein can help you lose weight because of its ability to act as a potent thermogenic agent. That means your body burns more calories digesting protein than it takes to digest an identical amount of carbohydrate and fat. Protein can also burn fat by increasing the number of calories you use during "non-exercise activity thermogenesis," aka NEAT. NEAT refers to the energy you use to do everything outside of sleeping, eating, and sports-like exercise. NEAT activities include walking to and from work, typing, doing house work or yard work, climbing stairs, even fidgeting where you sit.
Friday, March 09, 2018
First pizza!!!
A woman (Jody) posted this image on Twitter yesterday. "My daughter just tried pizza for the first time."
The photo cracked me up. I have to say that I don't remember it being such a praiseworthy event, but looking at her, I think I can totally identify with it. Some pizzas are THAT good.
The photo cracked me up. I have to say that I don't remember it being such a praiseworthy event, but looking at her, I think I can totally identify with it. Some pizzas are THAT good.
This Specific Gym Equipment Is Dirtier Than a Toilet Seat
To minimize risks in any publicly used area (grocery carts, bank ATMs, rental cars, keyboards, retail door handles, etc), wipe those areas down and use gloves where applicable. But above all, keep your hands away from your face, and wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. There is no substitute for good old soap and water. Using sanitized is good, but using it too much has it's own risks.
http://www.thehealthsite.com/…/hand-sanitizers-9-reasons-y…/
This Specific Gym Equipment Is Dirtier Than a Toilet Seat
http://www.thehealthsite.com/…/hand-sanitizers-9-reasons-y…/
This Specific Gym Equipment Is Dirtier Than a Toilet Seat
Screen Time Syndrome
This article validates what I already suspected and I think when you look at our society and the people around you, you can see how this behavior flows into teenage and then adult life. It's something to ponder. I think there is much more to this story than we want to acknowledge. You can see plenty of your own examples. Just look around.
SCREEN TIME SYNDROME: BRAIN IMAGES EXPLAIN WHY KIDS ARE MOODY, IMPULSIVE & CAN’T PAY ATTENTION
SCREEN TIME SYNDROME: BRAIN IMAGES EXPLAIN WHY KIDS ARE MOODY, IMPULSIVE & CAN’T PAY ATTENTION
Thursday, March 08, 2018
Prostate cancer information
What is prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer is cancer that begins in tissues of the prostate gland. Located just below the bladder and in front of the rectum, the prostate is the male sex gland responsible for the production of semen.
Every case of prostate cancer is different. The disease may behave differently from one patient to another. By age 50, about half of all men experience small changes in the size and shape of the cells in the prostate, as part of the typical aging process. Understanding whether those changes are signs of disease and knowing your risk for developing prostate cancer are the first steps in protecting your health.
Fortunately, prostate cancer is one of the most treatable malignancies if it’s caught early. Routine screening has improved the diagnosis of prostate cancer in recent years. In addition, evidence-based therapies may help to minimize the side effects of prostate cancer treatment, including incontinence and erectile dysfunction.
The cancer experts at Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA) have extensive experience in staging and diagnosing the disease, and developing a treatment plan tailored to your specific type and stage of prostate cancer.
Wednesday, March 07, 2018
What would the world be without religion?
The following is borrowed for the author and not my work. He has done an excellent job of putting it all together.
Casualties
- 1.5 million people during Crusades
- 7,000,000 during the Saracen slaughters in Spain.
- 2,000,000 Saxons and Scandinavians lost their lives opposing the introduction of Christianity.
- 1,000,000 in the Holy Wars
- 2,000,000 to 4,000,000 Deaths during the French religious wars
- 8,000,000 during the thirty years war
These figures are from between around 1090 to 1650 and I have only included the major religious conflicts, there are millions more in smaller but still significant occurrences. So within around 600 years 23 million people died between 6 conflicts and mass murders.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Have you ever stopped to think about what our world would be like without religion? Well, I have. And it would be incredibly different. Religion has disadvantaged the human race in more ways than one and it is time to change and rid the human race of its many unrealistic superstitions. True that there are many disadvantages because of religion however, I do not deny that there are many advantages because of religion. My problem with this is that there is much good without religion and I will not give credit to religion for all the good in the world any more that I blame religion for all the ills of the world. The optimum word here is ALL, but definitley some on both sides.
What would the world be like without religion? "Religion without science is blind." This quote is from one of the most intelligent men that has ever lived, Albert Einstein. People like Einstein were prevented by the churches from spreading their knowledge throughout the world. For example Galileo, through his studies, discovered that the earth revolved around the sun. But the churches of the time opposed his solid evidence, saying that - because of what they had read in books written around 1100 years before-hand by a few old men; who had not even come in contact with ‘Jesus’ – the earth was the centre of the whole universe. It is estimated that if religion never existed, the human race would be three times more advanced than we are now, this is equivalent to man having a colony on Mars. Religious principles have been proved wrong by science over and over again. I have a bit of a problem with saying religious principles are proven wrong...which principles? and wrong how?
What would the world be like without religion? “Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity“. This is a quote from another historical figure, Thomas Jefferson. If it were not for religion, and in this case, Christianity, millions upon millions of people of different religions would not have been murdered throughout the crusades, witch-hunts and other cases where religion was the cause or excuse for the murder and execution of people, mainly in the dark ages. It is also possible that the dark ages themselves would have not existed if religion didn’t. During these times many people were brainwashed and believed that witches and other supernatural beings were everywhere, causing them to hunt down so called witches and werewolves. Enough said here. No amount of denial by the religious community can refute this.
There have always been tensions between different religions and in many instances, conflict. There have been many injuries and deaths as a result of these conflicts and many of these casualties are not even from the fighting in the conflicts, they are the elderly, or women and children brutally murdered, raped or bludgeoned because they believed in a different ‘outlandish’ religion and ‘bogus’ god. More often than not, the conflicts were a result of a play for power by a dominant leader, wanting more, using religion to justify their acts of inhumanity.
Even in today’s world there is great tension between different religions, for example the terrorist attacks where; once again, innocent people were needlessly killed. Muslim extremists who believed that Christians are evil and must be destroyed, decided to ram two planes into a couple of buildings killing thousands of mothers, fathers, daughters and brothers, affecting a whole nation, and even the whole world, and They justify the slaughter by saying its an act of God. For example, the mass murders and the ‘holocausts’ that have happened in recent centuries, over 200,000,000 people of different faiths have been murdered because they do not fit in, or they clash with the beliefs of a more powerful religion. This is a comparatively small amount however when compared to the amount of people who have died as martyrs which come to a total of over 290,000,000.
There have been many people who have died because of this blind stupidity. When people believe that there is somehow a better, more peaceful life beyond this life, it undervalues this life. Consider the following for example, Heavens Gate cult or more commonly known, religious establishment at ‘Jonestown’ in 1978 was led by Jim Jones who was a great leader. However, he believed that the world was coming to an end and believed that the Bible said that the only way to get to the ‘kingdom of heaven’ was to have a ceremony and commit suicide. He did this, along with 909 other weak minded people that he tricked using his religion. Without the power of religion this would have been unlikely to happen.
Even more recent, is the ‘Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God’ in 2000. The leaders of this group claimed that they had seen visions of the Virgin Mary and also believed that the world was going to come to an end. They told their many followers these outlandish claims, and conned 778 people into killing themselves and others in a series of fires, poisonings and murders. This is yet another example of the power of religion and its destructive properties.
What would the world be like without religion? Many people die every year from diseases and sickness, some of which could be treated and saved from a certain death but who reject transplants and transfusions due to their religious beliefs one such religion is Jehovah’s Witness. These people do not accept or give blood because they believe that blood is sacred to God. They also do not allow organ transplants. There are a number of other religions that do not accept organ transplants and blood transfusions; these people die long and painful deaths which can be prevented.
It’s not just the physical impacts that religion has on humans, but the mental. People who are deeply involved and taken up by religion believe in religion itself and nothing else. Christians for example, believe that the earth and everything in it was created 6000 years ago. They also believe other similarly unrealistic fables written down by senile men, who were probably experimenting with mind expanding substances, around 2000 years ago. These indulged people do not allow anything scientific to interrupt their religious beliefs and therefore leads to them being ignorant and intolerant about what’s really happening around them.
If you, the person reading this are totally indulged in your religion, this whole essay would have gone over your head, and you have just wasted 5 minutes of your life. But these 5 minutes can’t compare to a whole life time that you have already wasted, following some thing that isn’t real, chasing something that doesn’t exist.
Casualties
- 1.5 million people during Crusades
- 7,000,000 during the Saracen slaughters in Spain.
- 2,000,000 Saxons and Scandinavians lost their lives opposing the introduction of Christianity.
- 1,000,000 in the Holy Wars
- 2,000,000 to 4,000,000 Deaths during the French religious wars
- 8,000,000 during the thirty years war
These figures are from between around 1090 to 1650 and I have only included the major religious conflicts, there are millions more in smaller but still significant occurrences. So within around 600 years 23 million people died between 6 conflicts and mass murders.
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Have you ever stopped to think about what our world would be like without religion? Well, I have. And it would be incredibly different. Religion has disadvantaged the human race in more ways than one and it is time to change and rid the human race of its many unrealistic superstitions. True that there are many disadvantages because of religion however, I do not deny that there are many advantages because of religion. My problem with this is that there is much good without religion and I will not give credit to religion for all the good in the world any more that I blame religion for all the ills of the world. The optimum word here is ALL, but definitley some on both sides.
What would the world be like without religion? "Religion without science is blind." This quote is from one of the most intelligent men that has ever lived, Albert Einstein. People like Einstein were prevented by the churches from spreading their knowledge throughout the world. For example Galileo, through his studies, discovered that the earth revolved around the sun. But the churches of the time opposed his solid evidence, saying that - because of what they had read in books written around 1100 years before-hand by a few old men; who had not even come in contact with ‘Jesus’ – the earth was the centre of the whole universe. It is estimated that if religion never existed, the human race would be three times more advanced than we are now, this is equivalent to man having a colony on Mars. Religious principles have been proved wrong by science over and over again. I have a bit of a problem with saying religious principles are proven wrong...which principles? and wrong how?
What would the world be like without religion? “Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity“. This is a quote from another historical figure, Thomas Jefferson. If it were not for religion, and in this case, Christianity, millions upon millions of people of different religions would not have been murdered throughout the crusades, witch-hunts and other cases where religion was the cause or excuse for the murder and execution of people, mainly in the dark ages. It is also possible that the dark ages themselves would have not existed if religion didn’t. During these times many people were brainwashed and believed that witches and other supernatural beings were everywhere, causing them to hunt down so called witches and werewolves. Enough said here. No amount of denial by the religious community can refute this.
There have always been tensions between different religions and in many instances, conflict. There have been many injuries and deaths as a result of these conflicts and many of these casualties are not even from the fighting in the conflicts, they are the elderly, or women and children brutally murdered, raped or bludgeoned because they believed in a different ‘outlandish’ religion and ‘bogus’ god. More often than not, the conflicts were a result of a play for power by a dominant leader, wanting more, using religion to justify their acts of inhumanity.
Even in today’s world there is great tension between different religions, for example the terrorist attacks where; once again, innocent people were needlessly killed. Muslim extremists who believed that Christians are evil and must be destroyed, decided to ram two planes into a couple of buildings killing thousands of mothers, fathers, daughters and brothers, affecting a whole nation, and even the whole world, and They justify the slaughter by saying its an act of God. For example, the mass murders and the ‘holocausts’ that have happened in recent centuries, over 200,000,000 people of different faiths have been murdered because they do not fit in, or they clash with the beliefs of a more powerful religion. This is a comparatively small amount however when compared to the amount of people who have died as martyrs which come to a total of over 290,000,000.
There have been many people who have died because of this blind stupidity. When people believe that there is somehow a better, more peaceful life beyond this life, it undervalues this life. Consider the following for example, Heavens Gate cult or more commonly known, religious establishment at ‘Jonestown’ in 1978 was led by Jim Jones who was a great leader. However, he believed that the world was coming to an end and believed that the Bible said that the only way to get to the ‘kingdom of heaven’ was to have a ceremony and commit suicide. He did this, along with 909 other weak minded people that he tricked using his religion. Without the power of religion this would have been unlikely to happen.
Even more recent, is the ‘Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God’ in 2000. The leaders of this group claimed that they had seen visions of the Virgin Mary and also believed that the world was going to come to an end. They told their many followers these outlandish claims, and conned 778 people into killing themselves and others in a series of fires, poisonings and murders. This is yet another example of the power of religion and its destructive properties.
What would the world be like without religion? Many people die every year from diseases and sickness, some of which could be treated and saved from a certain death but who reject transplants and transfusions due to their religious beliefs one such religion is Jehovah’s Witness. These people do not accept or give blood because they believe that blood is sacred to God. They also do not allow organ transplants. There are a number of other religions that do not accept organ transplants and blood transfusions; these people die long and painful deaths which can be prevented.
It’s not just the physical impacts that religion has on humans, but the mental. People who are deeply involved and taken up by religion believe in religion itself and nothing else. Christians for example, believe that the earth and everything in it was created 6000 years ago. They also believe other similarly unrealistic fables written down by senile men, who were probably experimenting with mind expanding substances, around 2000 years ago. These indulged people do not allow anything scientific to interrupt their religious beliefs and therefore leads to them being ignorant and intolerant about what’s really happening around them.
If you, the person reading this are totally indulged in your religion, this whole essay would have gone over your head, and you have just wasted 5 minutes of your life. But these 5 minutes can’t compare to a whole life time that you have already wasted, following some thing that isn’t real, chasing something that doesn’t exist.
Factiness: Are we living in a post-truth world?
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN “SKEPTIC” COLUMN FOR MARCH 2018
In 2005 the American Dialect Society’s word of the year was “truthiness,” popularized by Stephen Colbert on his news show satire The Colbert Report, meaning “the truth we want to exist.” In 2016 the Oxford Dictionaries nominated as its word of the year “post-truth,” which it characterized as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” In 2017 “fake news” increased in usage by 365 percent, earning the top spot on the “word of the year shortlist” of the Collins English Dictionary, which defined it as “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting.”
Are we living in a post-truth world of truthiness, fake news and alternative facts? Has all the progress we have made since the scientific revolution in understanding the world and ourselves been obliterated by a fusillade of social media postings and tweets? No. As Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker observes in his resplendent new book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (Viking, 2018), “mendacity, truth-shading, conspiracy theories, extraordinary popular delusions, and the madness of crowds are as old as our species, but so is the conviction that some ideas are right and others are wrong.”
Even as pundits pronounced the end of veracity and politicians played loose with the truth, the competitive marketplace of ideas stepped up with a new tool of the Internet age: real-time fact-checking. As politicos spin-doctored reality in speeches, factcheckers at Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, and OpenSecrets.org rated them on their verisimilitude, with PolitiFact.com waggishly ranking statements as True, Mostly True, Half True, Mostly False, False, and Pants on Fire. Political fact-checking has even become clickbait (runner-up for the Oxford Dictionaries’ 2014 word of the year), as PolitiFact’s editor Angie Drobnic Holan explained in a 2015 article: “Journalists regularly tell me their media organizations have started highlighting fact-checking in their reporting because so many people click on fact-checking stories after a debate or high-profile news event.”
Far from lurching backward, Pinker notes, today’s fact-checking ethic “would have served us well in earlier decades when false rumors regularly set off pogroms, riots, lynchings, and wars (including the Spanish-American War in 1898, the escalation of the Vietnam War in 1964, the Iraq invasion of 2003, and many others).” And contrary to our medieval ancestors, he says, “few influential people today believe in werewolves, unicorns, witches, alchemy, astrology, bloodletting, miasmas, animal sacrifice, the divine right of kings, or supernatural omens in rainbows and eclipses.” […]
7 Foods You Should Never Eat When You’re Constipated
Plugged Up? Read This!
by Claire Lampen for Women’s Health
We've already told you what foods will help you avoid constipation, but sometimes, sh*t happens. Or rather, doesn'thappen. According to the National Institutes of Health, constipation qualifies as fewer than three bowel movements per week, and/or, small, hard bits of stool that are painful to pass. And it's a common problem: The NIH estimates that some 42 million people nationwide deal with constipation, and women are apparently more prone than men. Go figure.
The most important thing you should do to avoid constipation is eat a balanced and varied diet, says Leslie Bonci, a registered dietician and the owner of Active Eating Advice. "We've got to think about being good to our bowels because if our gut doesn't feel good, we don't feel good," Bonci says.
Fiber is a reliable way to keep things moving, but it's important to also incorporate carbohydrates, which draw in water and can soften stool, says Bonci. But above all, stay hydrated. "If somebody eats a lot of high-fiber foods but consumes little or no fluids," Bonci warns, "it tends to worsen the situation."
When disaster strikes, along with increasing your water intake, Bonci says you should definitely avoid these seven foods:
1). Dairy: People whose bodies can't process the sugar in milk products might end up constipated or with diarrhea after dairy consumption. Still, about 65 percent of people have difficulty digesting lactose after infancy, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, and some dieticians will caution constipated patients against dairy consumption, due to its ability to make you feel bloated.
2). Fried Foods: Bonci says that high-fat diets tend to yield blockages. "A lot of times things that are really high in fat aren’t really high in fiber," she says, and all those fats "take longer to mobilize from the stomach." Fat takes a long time to digest, whereas fruits and vegetables typically vacate the body in under 24 hours. If you're feeling backed up, avoid foods that have been fried in oils or butter.
3). White Flour: Fried foods may also be battered in white flour, and while carbohydrates tend to get a bad reputation when it comes to constipation, Bonci says they're good for the gut. However, she explains, "White flour doesn’t have as much fiber in it, so if somebody’s doing white flour all the time in the absence of adequate fruits or vegetables, they might become irregular.” Bonci suggests people make a gradual switch to "whole grain, high fiber" foods.
4). Tea: This one may surprise readers, but Bonci cautions against tea consumption when constipated. While herbal teas are unlikely to have a negative effect, generic, bagged black teas contain tannins, which bind stool together. Tea will often contain caffeine as well, and while a little bit of that can get the digestive system moving, too much can dehydrate the body for the opposite effect.
5). Bananas: Bonci recommends avoiding them because "they can make the body hold instead of moving things through." That's especially true if they're not quite ripe yet.
6). Apricots: Fruits typically offer a solid source of fiber, but Bonci says apricots should be off-limits if you've got irregular bowel movements. "Dried apricots can be more binding," she adds. It's also easier to over-indulge on dried fruits than it is on larger fresh fruits, meaning you might overload on fiber (with no accompanying fluid) and end up messing with your GI tract.
7). Rice: Rice is another food item that sits in your digestive system rather than passing quickly through, Bonci says. While carbohydrates are good in moderation, white rice lacks the fibrous elements that brown rice retains. Given the option, pick brown rice for a healthier gut. (However, if you have diarrhea, white rice is your best friend).
by Claire Lampen for Women’s Health
We've already told you what foods will help you avoid constipation, but sometimes, sh*t happens. Or rather, doesn'thappen. According to the National Institutes of Health, constipation qualifies as fewer than three bowel movements per week, and/or, small, hard bits of stool that are painful to pass. And it's a common problem: The NIH estimates that some 42 million people nationwide deal with constipation, and women are apparently more prone than men. Go figure.
The most important thing you should do to avoid constipation is eat a balanced and varied diet, says Leslie Bonci, a registered dietician and the owner of Active Eating Advice. "We've got to think about being good to our bowels because if our gut doesn't feel good, we don't feel good," Bonci says.
Fiber is a reliable way to keep things moving, but it's important to also incorporate carbohydrates, which draw in water and can soften stool, says Bonci. But above all, stay hydrated. "If somebody eats a lot of high-fiber foods but consumes little or no fluids," Bonci warns, "it tends to worsen the situation."
When disaster strikes, along with increasing your water intake, Bonci says you should definitely avoid these seven foods:
1). Dairy: People whose bodies can't process the sugar in milk products might end up constipated or with diarrhea after dairy consumption. Still, about 65 percent of people have difficulty digesting lactose after infancy, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, and some dieticians will caution constipated patients against dairy consumption, due to its ability to make you feel bloated.
2). Fried Foods: Bonci says that high-fat diets tend to yield blockages. "A lot of times things that are really high in fat aren’t really high in fiber," she says, and all those fats "take longer to mobilize from the stomach." Fat takes a long time to digest, whereas fruits and vegetables typically vacate the body in under 24 hours. If you're feeling backed up, avoid foods that have been fried in oils or butter.
3). White Flour: Fried foods may also be battered in white flour, and while carbohydrates tend to get a bad reputation when it comes to constipation, Bonci says they're good for the gut. However, she explains, "White flour doesn’t have as much fiber in it, so if somebody’s doing white flour all the time in the absence of adequate fruits or vegetables, they might become irregular.” Bonci suggests people make a gradual switch to "whole grain, high fiber" foods.
4). Tea: This one may surprise readers, but Bonci cautions against tea consumption when constipated. While herbal teas are unlikely to have a negative effect, generic, bagged black teas contain tannins, which bind stool together. Tea will often contain caffeine as well, and while a little bit of that can get the digestive system moving, too much can dehydrate the body for the opposite effect.
5). Bananas: Bonci recommends avoiding them because "they can make the body hold instead of moving things through." That's especially true if they're not quite ripe yet.
6). Apricots: Fruits typically offer a solid source of fiber, but Bonci says apricots should be off-limits if you've got irregular bowel movements. "Dried apricots can be more binding," she adds. It's also easier to over-indulge on dried fruits than it is on larger fresh fruits, meaning you might overload on fiber (with no accompanying fluid) and end up messing with your GI tract.
7). Rice: Rice is another food item that sits in your digestive system rather than passing quickly through, Bonci says. While carbohydrates are good in moderation, white rice lacks the fibrous elements that brown rice retains. Given the option, pick brown rice for a healthier gut. (However, if you have diarrhea, white rice is your best friend).
Nightshade Vegetables and Inflammation: Can They Help with Arthritis Symptoms?
Not all nightshade plants are safe to eat
Nightshade vegetables are members of the Solanaceae family of flowering plants. Most nightshade plants aren’t edible such as tobacco and the deadly herb, belladonna.
A handful of nightshade vegetables, however, are edible and well-known staples in our diets, including:
- tomatoes
- eggplant
- potatoes
- peppers
All nightshade plants contain compounds called alkaloids. One alkaloid found in nightshade vegetables, solanine, may be toxic in large quantities or in a green potato. There’s no evidence solanine is harmful in typical food amounts. And solanine isn’t only found in nightshades—blueberries, huckleberries, and artichokes contain it, too.
Thanks to anecdotal evidence, nightshade vegetables have earned a bad reputation for causing inflammation in the body. But not everyone with painful joints who eliminates nightshades from their diet experiences pain relief and some evidence suggests that the nutrition content of nightshades may help with arthritis symptoms.
Friday, March 02, 2018
Juicing for Health or Torture
BY HARRIET HALL, M.D.
We are ingenious at finding new ways to complicate our lives and torture ourselves. One of those ways is adopting fad diets in the quest for health. Juicing is a big fad today. I find that hard to comprehend. I recently endured two interminable months on a liquid/pureed diet while my fractured jaw healed. It was miserable. If I were a prisoner being interrogated, the promise of solid food might have tempted me to tell all. It was hard to maintain a nutritious diet and find foods that could survive being blenderized and still tempt the appetite. The only “health benefit” was the loss of a few pounds that I really didn’t need to lose; it brought me down to a BMI of 18.8, close to the “underweight” range of 18.5 or less. Since that experience, I cherish the pleasures of being able to chew. We have teeth for a reason. The idea of systematically taking delicious solid fruits and vegetables and reducing them to liquid strikes me as a truly revolting idea. I don’t object to the occasional fruit juice, but celery without the crunch? No thank you.
Health Claims for Juicing: Detoxification
People juice for various reasons. One is “detoxification,” a buzzword that is a red flag for pseudoscience. My liver and kidneys do an excellent job of removing toxins from my body, thank you very much. They don’t need any help, except in the case of acute poisoning with lead or other heavy metals. And juices are useless in acute poisoning. Several companies will sell you juices for detoxification. Some examples:
Juice Served Here tells us “everyday life contributes to the congestion and buildup of harmful toxins in the body from processed foods, pollutants and stress.” They offer a Soft Cleanse, a Semi Cleanse, and a Hard Cleanse: 25% off; originally $55 a day! When a customer asked Juice Served Here to specify the toxins he’d be flushing from his system, the company answered with this lame copout: “Unfortunately, due to regulations by the FDA we are unable to specify exact health claims for our products.” Naturally.
Paleta offers a PURIFY Cleanse that will “cleanse the toxins right out of your system so you can experience a more joyful and healthful life.” Benefits? Lose weight, kick the caffeine habit, reduce or stop smoking, detoxify your liver, boost your metabolism, refresh your mind and body, curb sugar cravings, increase energy and stamina, improve skin, hair and nails, sharpen cognition and focus, reduce sensitivity to allergens, and improve moods. The full 10-day program costs $645. Gee, if it really could do all that, it might be worth that much.
Moon Juice offers “plant-sourced alchemy to nourish and elevate body, beauty and consciousness… Juice cleansing enables the body to naturally go into detox mode while flooding it with live nutrients and enzymes… Some signs that it is time to cleanse are: a weakened immune system, troubled skin, allergies, low moods or anger, sleeplessness, poor digestion, weight gain, low energy, feeling and looking blah.” (I can relate to feeling blah, but I’m not sure I understand “troubled” skin.) They offer Rainbow, Indigo, and Green cleanses that they claim will “flood your system over the course of the day with over 20 pounds of certified organic, raw produce and nuts or seeds. The only thing missing is the fiber.”
Pure Pressed offers Green Cleanse, Detox Cleanse, and Energizer Cleanse.
That’s enough examples. You get the idea. […]
The Voice of Consistency: the Angel vs. the Devil
Consistency Reigns Supreme from Brian Johnson’s Optimizer
Tony Horton created P90X. If you’ve ever done P90X you’ll never forget his high-energy approach to getting your workout on. In addition to helping shape the fitness industry, Tony wrote a fun little book called The Big Picture where he shares “11 Laws That Will Change Your Life.”
The first law is based on his motto “Do Your Best and Forget the Rest.” He got that from Don Miguel Ruiz’s 4 Agreements which is kinda interesting but today I want to chat about Law #5: “Consistency Reigns Supreme.” First, Tony makes the point that there are simply no “cons” to consistency. Therefore, it should really be called prosistency. (Hah.)
But that’s not what I want to talk about either. Today, I want to talk about the voices in his head. So, again, context, for those who may not know: Tony Horton is Mr. Jumbo Super Fitness. Do a Google Image search on him. The guy is jacked and has the energy of an energizer bunny.
Now, I have a question: Do you think he’s always motivated to work out? Answer: Not at all. In fact, he tells us: “Here’s a dirty little secret: I don’t get all that fired up about exercise most of the time.”
What? Really? Mr. Health & Fitness Supercrusher isn’t all that fired up about exercise most of the time? You mean he’s just like you and me?! Yep. Well, then… Hmmm…. How in the world does he get himself to get at it?
Answer: He listens to the Voice of Consistency and ignores the other voices in his head. Tony tells us that, on any given day, he’ll hear from one of three voices in his head chiming in on whether or not he should work out: Devil Tony, Angel Tony and Consistent Tony. He even gives us a ratio of how often each shows up. It goes something like this.
Angel Tony is all about working out. “YAH!!! Let’s *crush* this!!” That voice, apparently, is present about 21.35% of the time. Then there’s Devil Tony. Devil Tony says, “Are you kidding me? Can’t believe we have to do this right now.” He’s yelling in Tony’s ear 35.4% of the time. (Hah!)
Finally, there’s Consistent Tony. This guy is, as Tony says, “about as exciting as a wet dish rag.” But he gets the job done. He’s all matter-of-fact about it and says stuff like, “All right, here we go, time to train.” Nothing flashy. Just helping him do what needs to get done. He’s talking 43.25% of the time.
Put Mr. Angel + Mr. Consistent together and you have 64.7% on the side of the Good Guys — enough to outmuscle Mr. Devil and get the job done.
Today’s idea, in 3 parts.
#1. Let’s recognize the fact that we’re not alone in not wanting to exercise consistently (or do all the other Optimizing stuff consistently). (Enter: Common Humanity.) Even the best among us don’t always want to do what’s best for them. The difference, of course, is that they do it anyway.
#2. Take a little inventory of the voices in YOUR head today.
#3. Make sure the Good Guys are winning the battle.
Tony Horton created P90X. If you’ve ever done P90X you’ll never forget his high-energy approach to getting your workout on. In addition to helping shape the fitness industry, Tony wrote a fun little book called The Big Picture where he shares “11 Laws That Will Change Your Life.”
The first law is based on his motto “Do Your Best and Forget the Rest.” He got that from Don Miguel Ruiz’s 4 Agreements which is kinda interesting but today I want to chat about Law #5: “Consistency Reigns Supreme.” First, Tony makes the point that there are simply no “cons” to consistency. Therefore, it should really be called prosistency. (Hah.)
But that’s not what I want to talk about either. Today, I want to talk about the voices in his head. So, again, context, for those who may not know: Tony Horton is Mr. Jumbo Super Fitness. Do a Google Image search on him. The guy is jacked and has the energy of an energizer bunny.
Now, I have a question: Do you think he’s always motivated to work out? Answer: Not at all. In fact, he tells us: “Here’s a dirty little secret: I don’t get all that fired up about exercise most of the time.”
What? Really? Mr. Health & Fitness Supercrusher isn’t all that fired up about exercise most of the time? You mean he’s just like you and me?! Yep. Well, then… Hmmm…. How in the world does he get himself to get at it?
Answer: He listens to the Voice of Consistency and ignores the other voices in his head. Tony tells us that, on any given day, he’ll hear from one of three voices in his head chiming in on whether or not he should work out: Devil Tony, Angel Tony and Consistent Tony. He even gives us a ratio of how often each shows up. It goes something like this.
Angel Tony is all about working out. “YAH!!! Let’s *crush* this!!” That voice, apparently, is present about 21.35% of the time. Then there’s Devil Tony. Devil Tony says, “Are you kidding me? Can’t believe we have to do this right now.” He’s yelling in Tony’s ear 35.4% of the time. (Hah!)
Finally, there’s Consistent Tony. This guy is, as Tony says, “about as exciting as a wet dish rag.” But he gets the job done. He’s all matter-of-fact about it and says stuff like, “All right, here we go, time to train.” Nothing flashy. Just helping him do what needs to get done. He’s talking 43.25% of the time.
Put Mr. Angel + Mr. Consistent together and you have 64.7% on the side of the Good Guys — enough to outmuscle Mr. Devil and get the job done.
Today’s idea, in 3 parts.
#1. Let’s recognize the fact that we’re not alone in not wanting to exercise consistently (or do all the other Optimizing stuff consistently). (Enter: Common Humanity.) Even the best among us don’t always want to do what’s best for them. The difference, of course, is that they do it anyway.
#2. Take a little inventory of the voices in YOUR head today.
#3. Make sure the Good Guys are winning the battle.
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