Okay, I'll admit it: I just want my page to come up if anyone ever does a search for "Chocolate Air Force."
Weird title, but the point is I'll be giving up chocolate, ice cream, and all sugary sweets for a while. My good friend Brad has joined the Air Force and he heads off for training on the 2nd of January. Thanks for your service, Brad!
So knowing he'll be having many aspects of his life totally controlled for him, I decided it was a good idea to get some areas of my own life in better control. Hence, no chocolate or ice cream for me during his basic training. If it gets hard at any point, I can just remind myself that what he's doing is a much greater sacrifice and much more difficult to do. How can I wuss out when he's doing what he's doing?
In the interest of full disclosure, I have asked him to text or call me the MOMENT he gets back in town. I've also suggested that showing up at my door with a carton of ice cream and a chocolate bar is an acceptable means of letting me know he's back. I've read that initial training is 8 1/2 weeks, but he doesn't know his actual schedule.
And that's something I have to admire. He's signed up to serve his country, and is basically going in with the attitude that whatever happens will happen, so much so that he hasn't really even checked to see what his schedule will be or when he'll get a break back home. Awesomely committed.
So I also don't know when I'll have any chocolate or ice cream. Might be 8 1/2 weeks. Might be months. I trust that he'll really let me know when he's back in town and not just decide that a continued choco-fast is best for me.
Good luck, Brad, we'll be missing you at the gym!
Move the way your body was intended to move.
Eat what your body was intended to eat.
Be really fit!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
One For The WTF File
I suppose this could also be labeled Why I Hate Whole Foods. It pisses me off every time I go to Whole Frauds to buy some grass fed beef, and I'm inundated with vegan propaganda horseshit.
Oh well, they do seem to have the best grass fed beef. But this other stuff just kills me:
On my most recent trip, I was walking down an aisle and noticed something labeled "Primal Jerky" and got excited for a moment. Then I read the ingredients. Wholey Crap! Please check it out here, at the appropriately named FakeMeats.com. Really?
If you don't follow the link, let me just say there's no meat in it, and the first ingredient is GLUTEN!
W
T
F
Seriously. Nothing says "Primal" better than gluten and soy, oh my! So I tossed it back on the shelf in disgust and stopped over in the produce section to grab some sweet potatoes. While picking them out, a helpful employee stopped to advise me on how to choose them. His advise was interesting, but the conversation was even more interesting. He asked how we cooked them, and I said we peeled them, cubed them, and cooked them in coconut oil. His response was one for the record books! He said "Wow, I just started cooking with coconut oil. Evidently it's one of the best oils to cook with because it's the one lowest in fat."
So pure fat is the lowest in fat.
Uh...wait...no, divide by zero...carry the zero...crap, my brain nearly exploded!
In a moment of Zen-like oneness with my non-asshole side, I took a moment to calm myself and ignored the 3,256 smartass responses that burst into my head. I just smiled and told him that if he really enjoyed coconut oil he should try cooking the sweet potatoes in it. I shared that it gave them a wonderful rich flavor that was brought out further with some salt and onion or onion powder. Am I getting soft in my old age?
With the sweet potatoes loaded in the basket and a chuckle I headed for the checkout aisle. On the way I noticed the book section with a book on how to feed your kids. I flipped the book open to a random page and read "It's good to start with some protein first thing in the morning, so some veggie sausage as a starter, and then some oatmeal with brown sugar..."
Was That For-real? (See how I sneaked another WTF in there?) I must not be getting too old because I wanted to start beating the crap out of the people responsible.
I live in a world where "Primal" jerky strips are made from gluten and soy.
I live in a world where coconut oil is healthy because it has less fat.
I live in world where veggie (meaning soy in this case) sausage followed by grains and sugars is considered a good breakfast for my kids.
I thrive in this world in spite of the craziness because I choose to educate myself and act accordingly.
And I stay out of jail because I refuse to give in to the impulse to punch the daylights out of the vegan Whole Frauds employee who tries to push his propaganda on me.
Oh well, they do seem to have the best grass fed beef. But this other stuff just kills me:
On my most recent trip, I was walking down an aisle and noticed something labeled "Primal Jerky" and got excited for a moment. Then I read the ingredients. Wholey Crap! Please check it out here, at the appropriately named FakeMeats.com. Really?
If you don't follow the link, let me just say there's no meat in it, and the first ingredient is GLUTEN!
W
T
F
Seriously. Nothing says "Primal" better than gluten and soy, oh my! So I tossed it back on the shelf in disgust and stopped over in the produce section to grab some sweet potatoes. While picking them out, a helpful employee stopped to advise me on how to choose them. His advise was interesting, but the conversation was even more interesting. He asked how we cooked them, and I said we peeled them, cubed them, and cooked them in coconut oil. His response was one for the record books! He said "Wow, I just started cooking with coconut oil. Evidently it's one of the best oils to cook with because it's the one lowest in fat."
So pure fat is the lowest in fat.
Uh...wait...no, divide by zero...carry the zero...crap, my brain nearly exploded!
In a moment of Zen-like oneness with my non-asshole side, I took a moment to calm myself and ignored the 3,256 smartass responses that burst into my head. I just smiled and told him that if he really enjoyed coconut oil he should try cooking the sweet potatoes in it. I shared that it gave them a wonderful rich flavor that was brought out further with some salt and onion or onion powder. Am I getting soft in my old age?
With the sweet potatoes loaded in the basket and a chuckle I headed for the checkout aisle. On the way I noticed the book section with a book on how to feed your kids. I flipped the book open to a random page and read "It's good to start with some protein first thing in the morning, so some veggie sausage as a starter, and then some oatmeal with brown sugar..."
Was That For-real? (See how I sneaked another WTF in there?) I must not be getting too old because I wanted to start beating the crap out of the people responsible.
I live in a world where "Primal" jerky strips are made from gluten and soy.
I live in a world where coconut oil is healthy because it has less fat.
I live in world where veggie (meaning soy in this case) sausage followed by grains and sugars is considered a good breakfast for my kids.
I thrive in this world in spite of the craziness because I choose to educate myself and act accordingly.
And I stay out of jail because I refuse to give in to the impulse to punch the daylights out of the vegan Whole Frauds employee who tries to push his propaganda on me.
But You're Not a (Fill in the blank)
When are you qualified to have an opinion? When are you qualified to state that you know something?
Apparently, you have to be a doctor to be qualified to speak on nutrition and health. I got it just it the other day. Partway into a discussion on why I eat the things I eat and don't eat other things I was hit with "But...you're not a doctor!"
That's right. I'm not.
If someone told you to put at handful of sand into your car engine with each oil change are you qualified to disagree? Are you a mechanic?
If someone told you to spray gasoline on your yard to help it grow are you qualified to disagree? Are you an horticulturist?
What the hell has happened to people that they don't realize you can be knowledgeable on a subject without holding a degree? Sheesh!
I think it's just another excuse for people to choose not to educate themselves. Of course, what do I know, I'm not a psychologist.
Apparently, you have to be a doctor to be qualified to speak on nutrition and health. I got it just it the other day. Partway into a discussion on why I eat the things I eat and don't eat other things I was hit with "But...you're not a doctor!"
That's right. I'm not.
If someone told you to put at handful of sand into your car engine with each oil change are you qualified to disagree? Are you a mechanic?
If someone told you to spray gasoline on your yard to help it grow are you qualified to disagree? Are you an horticulturist?
What the hell has happened to people that they don't realize you can be knowledgeable on a subject without holding a degree? Sheesh!
I think it's just another excuse for people to choose not to educate themselves. Of course, what do I know, I'm not a psychologist.
Racism Is Racism
I haven't posted in quite a while, but recent conversations provoked me to make a VERY short and somewhat political post. Take it for what it's worth:
It's racist to not vote for a man just because he's black.
It's racist to vote for a man just because he's black.
There you have it.
It's racist to not vote for a man just because he's black.
It's racist to vote for a man just because he's black.
There you have it.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
What Is Commitment?
I'm going to pile a few ideas in here. It will come back to diet and exercise, but first I'm going to define commitment my way:
Commitment is the decision to do something even when you don't want to based on a value choice at an earlier time.
Why is commitment needed? Well, it's needed any time the desire for something will vary by situation or over time, yet you can still identify the value for the long term. So let's look at how the idea plays out in another area: Romantic relationships.
What does it mean to be committed to someone? What does it mean to be in a committed relationship? It's very simple. Commitment is the choice to stay in relationship past the low spots.
Consider that commitment would not even be needed if your experience of the other person was 100% awesome 100% of the time! You would need no commitment whatsoever because you would just always be loving what was going on and would naturally choose to be with that person. That actually describes pretty well the initial stages of a great romantic relationship. It's 100% fantastic and you want to spend all your time with your new love.
Then one day your 100% perfect partner does something really annoying. Do you decide you don't want that relationship now? For most people, they have (perhaps subconsciously) made a commitment to the relationship after some time, and the bad will be overlooked because they know the good stuff will be right around the corner.
And there's the critical idea to commitment. It's designed to take you past the low spots because you know the good is still there. Think back to the first time your loving partner got in a bad mood and was unpleasant. Did you say "This is nasty, I'm outta here!" Probably not. You might have that approach with a stranger, so the same stuff that would push you away from a stranger will not push you away from your committed relationship.
If you look at relationships as having highs and lows, or peaks and valleys, then we choose the relationship for the peaks. Then we fill it in with commitment to take us past the valleys.
Looking at it that way, the fewer valleys and the more peaks we can create the easier it is to stay (and be happy) in the relationship. We work on things to try to reduce the valleys and increase the peaks. And intuitively we know that the relationship is more likely to continue if that's the case. It makes sense, because commitment will only carry us through so many valleys before we start to reevaluate whether it's worth it for the random and very occasional peak.
I love my wife with all my heart, but if she chose to act in such a way that it was a continuous valley, eventually I'd run out of commitment. There has to be some reason to get past the valley. Also, if she did something that was more like a giant canyon than a valley (picture hot monkey love with the pool boy), that single event would end my commitment. Too big a gap to cross.
Again, commitment is just the decision ahead of time to keep at something even when it is temporarily not what you would choose.
Now come back to diet and exercise. If you're going to commit to a plan for either, please consider how commitment works in a relationship. No sane person would ever set out to find the ugliest, most unpleasant partner possible and declare "I'm committed to you. It doesn't matter how hard it is to be around you, how repulsive I find you, how vile you are, I will stay with you no matter what." Yet I see people do that with diet: "I'm going to eat nothing but 3 quail eggs and roasted acorns every day until I wear a size 0."
Okay, slight exaggeration, I realize no one would eat that many quail eggs. ;)
The point is you need to find the diet and exercise plan that requires the least commitment possible yet still gives you results. Commitment won't make you do the eternally unpleasant, it will just take you past the low spots. Plan on commitment to take you past short periods of hunger. Plan on commitment to have you occasionally eat something that isn't wonderfully tasty. Don't plan on commitment to have you be hungry and eat food you don't like forever. That's a plan to fail.
So identify what really matters before you commit to it. Committing to nothing but grass fed rather than conventionally raised beef? Great. Doable. I might relax it a bit from there, but if you go the other way and commit to only eating grass fed beef from cows that were personally named by a loving rancher who gave them daily massages and tucked them in at night, you're planning to fail.
Find what works. Identify what works. Then try your hardest to make that SO FREAKING EASY that commitment is barely needed. Then you've got a darned good chance at sticking to it.
You wouldn't marry a troglodyte. Don't commit to an ugly diet and exercise plan.
Commitment is the decision to do something even when you don't want to based on a value choice at an earlier time.
Why is commitment needed? Well, it's needed any time the desire for something will vary by situation or over time, yet you can still identify the value for the long term. So let's look at how the idea plays out in another area: Romantic relationships.
What does it mean to be committed to someone? What does it mean to be in a committed relationship? It's very simple. Commitment is the choice to stay in relationship past the low spots.
Consider that commitment would not even be needed if your experience of the other person was 100% awesome 100% of the time! You would need no commitment whatsoever because you would just always be loving what was going on and would naturally choose to be with that person. That actually describes pretty well the initial stages of a great romantic relationship. It's 100% fantastic and you want to spend all your time with your new love.
Then one day your 100% perfect partner does something really annoying. Do you decide you don't want that relationship now? For most people, they have (perhaps subconsciously) made a commitment to the relationship after some time, and the bad will be overlooked because they know the good stuff will be right around the corner.
And there's the critical idea to commitment. It's designed to take you past the low spots because you know the good is still there. Think back to the first time your loving partner got in a bad mood and was unpleasant. Did you say "This is nasty, I'm outta here!" Probably not. You might have that approach with a stranger, so the same stuff that would push you away from a stranger will not push you away from your committed relationship.
If you look at relationships as having highs and lows, or peaks and valleys, then we choose the relationship for the peaks. Then we fill it in with commitment to take us past the valleys.
Looking at it that way, the fewer valleys and the more peaks we can create the easier it is to stay (and be happy) in the relationship. We work on things to try to reduce the valleys and increase the peaks. And intuitively we know that the relationship is more likely to continue if that's the case. It makes sense, because commitment will only carry us through so many valleys before we start to reevaluate whether it's worth it for the random and very occasional peak.
I love my wife with all my heart, but if she chose to act in such a way that it was a continuous valley, eventually I'd run out of commitment. There has to be some reason to get past the valley. Also, if she did something that was more like a giant canyon than a valley (picture hot monkey love with the pool boy), that single event would end my commitment. Too big a gap to cross.
Again, commitment is just the decision ahead of time to keep at something even when it is temporarily not what you would choose.
Now come back to diet and exercise. If you're going to commit to a plan for either, please consider how commitment works in a relationship. No sane person would ever set out to find the ugliest, most unpleasant partner possible and declare "I'm committed to you. It doesn't matter how hard it is to be around you, how repulsive I find you, how vile you are, I will stay with you no matter what." Yet I see people do that with diet: "I'm going to eat nothing but 3 quail eggs and roasted acorns every day until I wear a size 0."
Okay, slight exaggeration, I realize no one would eat that many quail eggs. ;)
The point is you need to find the diet and exercise plan that requires the least commitment possible yet still gives you results. Commitment won't make you do the eternally unpleasant, it will just take you past the low spots. Plan on commitment to take you past short periods of hunger. Plan on commitment to have you occasionally eat something that isn't wonderfully tasty. Don't plan on commitment to have you be hungry and eat food you don't like forever. That's a plan to fail.
So identify what really matters before you commit to it. Committing to nothing but grass fed rather than conventionally raised beef? Great. Doable. I might relax it a bit from there, but if you go the other way and commit to only eating grass fed beef from cows that were personally named by a loving rancher who gave them daily massages and tucked them in at night, you're planning to fail.
Find what works. Identify what works. Then try your hardest to make that SO FREAKING EASY that commitment is barely needed. Then you've got a darned good chance at sticking to it.
You wouldn't marry a troglodyte. Don't commit to an ugly diet and exercise plan.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Meat can be real food as well
Wow. Just Wow.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is being interviewed about the evils of sugar, and recommends real food. What is real food? Of course the first thing he says is "vegetables" but then he follows that up with "Meat can be real food as well."
Well there you have it. Meat can be real food as well.
Thanks, Dr. Gupta. I had no idea. He doesn't cite any studies to back up his claim that meat can be real food, but he is a doctor so I'm buying it.
The video is here on CBS news video
Shout it from the rooftops: Meat can be real food as well!
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is being interviewed about the evils of sugar, and recommends real food. What is real food? Of course the first thing he says is "vegetables" but then he follows that up with "Meat can be real food as well."
Well there you have it. Meat can be real food as well.
Thanks, Dr. Gupta. I had no idea. He doesn't cite any studies to back up his claim that meat can be real food, but he is a doctor so I'm buying it.
The video is here on CBS news video
Shout it from the rooftops: Meat can be real food as well!
Sunday, March 25, 2012
The Suck of Short Duration
Come on, get your mind out of the gutter. I'm not talking about that type, I'm talking about things that suck in a painful, uncomfortable, or unpleasant way.
And if you're up to ANYTHING in life, it's required. If you're not up to anything, or at least anything rewarding, then it's not required. Instead you will live a life of quiet despair. A life that holds no flavor, no juice, and isn't really worth getting out of bed for.
My belief in this area is simple: You either accept and embrace the occasional Suck of Short Duration (SOSD) or you end up with a lesser intensity of suck...ALL THE F'ING TIME.
Don't want the SOSD of quitting your job? Fine, hate your job all the time.
Don't want the SOSD of ending a friendship? Fine, hang out with losers.
Don't want the SOSD of a workout that makes you wish you'd vomit just to feel better? Fine, hate the way your body feels and performs.
Don't want the SOSD of putting the ice cream down and just...walking...away? Fine, hate trying to button your too-tight pants every morning.
Don't want the SOSD of a difficult conversation with your spouse? Fine, simmer in dissatisfaction and risk long term resentment.
Don't want the SOSD of deciding to save and invest 10% of your income no matter what? Fine, work longer and harder than you have to the rest of your life.
It applies to everything. Finances, relationships, physical manifestation, work, starting companies...everything! Accept and embrace the SOSD to get results in areas that matter to you then enjoy those results all the rest of the time.
If you're truly willing to have 1 to 3 percent of your time uncomfortable, challenging, perhaps even painful then the other 97 to 99 percent will rock. Or you can have the full 100% relatively crappy all the time.
Your choice.
And if you're up to ANYTHING in life, it's required. If you're not up to anything, or at least anything rewarding, then it's not required. Instead you will live a life of quiet despair. A life that holds no flavor, no juice, and isn't really worth getting out of bed for.
My belief in this area is simple: You either accept and embrace the occasional Suck of Short Duration (SOSD) or you end up with a lesser intensity of suck...ALL THE F'ING TIME.
Don't want the SOSD of quitting your job? Fine, hate your job all the time.
Don't want the SOSD of ending a friendship? Fine, hang out with losers.
Don't want the SOSD of a workout that makes you wish you'd vomit just to feel better? Fine, hate the way your body feels and performs.
Don't want the SOSD of putting the ice cream down and just...walking...away? Fine, hate trying to button your too-tight pants every morning.
Don't want the SOSD of a difficult conversation with your spouse? Fine, simmer in dissatisfaction and risk long term resentment.
Don't want the SOSD of deciding to save and invest 10% of your income no matter what? Fine, work longer and harder than you have to the rest of your life.
It applies to everything. Finances, relationships, physical manifestation, work, starting companies...everything! Accept and embrace the SOSD to get results in areas that matter to you then enjoy those results all the rest of the time.
If you're truly willing to have 1 to 3 percent of your time uncomfortable, challenging, perhaps even painful then the other 97 to 99 percent will rock. Or you can have the full 100% relatively crappy all the time.
Your choice.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Do You Have A Dream? Really?
Did Martin Luther King's famous speech sound like this?
Does that motivate you? I didn't think so. I suggest you compare it to an actual excerpt below:
There are many things to be learned from Martin Luther King. In this case King didn't bow to the bleating masses who said things like "Isn't that a little extreme?" or "All things in moderation." Mindless sheeple didn't constrain his speech or his conviction.
So with that in mind, what better place to make no compromise than in your dreams?
The dream is where it all starts. It's the first step, the mental picture of what you want. You can dream big or small, but the cost to dream is always zero so for God's sake, dream big!
The actual manifestation of your dreams will require actions, and it's easy enough to compromise there so why start early if you don't have to? If you're going to dream, dream big. Dream boldly! If you miss the mark you're still ahead of the game.
So now narrowing the focus even further, here's how NOT to dream about your fitness goals:
"I'm going to lose some weight."
"I'm going to build some muscle."
"I'm going to get a little stronger."
Those are lame, and uninspiring.
How about:
"I am going to create an athletic body to carry me through the world. A body that provides a richness of experience with strength, grace, beauty, and health. A body I love living in."
"I am going to lose 50 pounds, get six pack abs, and buy clothes I haven't fit in since I was in high school."
"I am going to become an athlete, and LOOK like an athlete. Men will want to be me and women will want to be WITH me." (obviously change this as applicable regarding gender)
I can sure as hell promise you that the next time you're tempted to down a bowl of ice cream and skip your workout, the first three ideas above will do nothing to redirect you, but the second three just might.
Be bold in your dreams. Be public with your dreams. King was, and the world is a better place for it. Don't spend time with people who won't get on board with your dreams because they don't want you to achieve them. It will be work enough to get yourself to do what's required without the burden of dragging someone else into your reality.
I have a dream that some day a few of the people in this nation will rise up at least a little bit and try to live out the meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Of course I don't dream that everyone will do this, but I do dream that some of the people will at least consider it.
I also occasionally have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I'm not so bold as to think they would actually do it, just that at least a few people would think they were able to sit at that table together.
I sometimes daydream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state that is at times a little unjust and oppressive will be slightly less oppressive and a little more just. In my dream the change is somewhat noticeable, though not radical.
I also have the random thought that perhaps one or two of my four little children will one day live in a nation where occasionally they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Yes, if this was the case for one of my kids that would be a good change.
Does that motivate you? I didn't think so. I suggest you compare it to an actual excerpt below:
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
There are many things to be learned from Martin Luther King. In this case King didn't bow to the bleating masses who said things like "Isn't that a little extreme?" or "All things in moderation." Mindless sheeple didn't constrain his speech or his conviction.
So with that in mind, what better place to make no compromise than in your dreams?
The dream is where it all starts. It's the first step, the mental picture of what you want. You can dream big or small, but the cost to dream is always zero so for God's sake, dream big!
The actual manifestation of your dreams will require actions, and it's easy enough to compromise there so why start early if you don't have to? If you're going to dream, dream big. Dream boldly! If you miss the mark you're still ahead of the game.
So now narrowing the focus even further, here's how NOT to dream about your fitness goals:
"I'm going to lose some weight."
"I'm going to build some muscle."
"I'm going to get a little stronger."
Those are lame, and uninspiring.
How about:
"I am going to create an athletic body to carry me through the world. A body that provides a richness of experience with strength, grace, beauty, and health. A body I love living in."
"I am going to lose 50 pounds, get six pack abs, and buy clothes I haven't fit in since I was in high school."
"I am going to become an athlete, and LOOK like an athlete. Men will want to be me and women will want to be WITH me." (obviously change this as applicable regarding gender)
I can sure as hell promise you that the next time you're tempted to down a bowl of ice cream and skip your workout, the first three ideas above will do nothing to redirect you, but the second three just might.
Be bold in your dreams. Be public with your dreams. King was, and the world is a better place for it. Don't spend time with people who won't get on board with your dreams because they don't want you to achieve them. It will be work enough to get yourself to do what's required without the burden of dragging someone else into your reality.
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