Adventures in Juicing (The Raw Veg Kind)

No, I’m not going to start using steroids. That pretty much garners the opposite of the effect I’m going for here.

Recently, I saw an amazing documentary on health, diet, and weight loss called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.” The film is about a man named Joe Cross who had lead an extravagant life, but ended up overweight, on steroids and a dozen other meds to stabilize an autoimmune disorder, and fearing death. His research and drive for health take him on a journey across the U.S. while on a 60 day juice fast in an attempt to reboot his life and get back on a healthy track. In the end, Joe made massive corrections to his weight, blood chemistry, and eliminated the autoimmune disorder and need for medication, all the while inspiring people to do the same.

Having seen this documentary, I find myself moving along Joe’s original course. I have gained too much weight over the years. My blood chemistry is not where it should be. If I keep this direction, I will soon find myself heavily medicated to balance out what I choose to eat.

This is why I am choosing to reboot my own life. Starting on Friday, June 10th, I will be starting a 15 day juice fast to detoxify my system and lose enough weight to start exercising productively. If I feel, at that time, that I need to make more progress, I may continue with the fast, but we’ll see when we get there.

I have created an account at http://www.jointhereboot.com and will be updating my status there as well as on twitter and here. I will post updates on what I eat (drink), how I feel, and where my weight goes.

If you’re interested in the documentary, you can find it at http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com or you can join the reboot community at http://www.jointhereboot.com.

Psych 101

This is not mine, but it’s brilliant:

If you start with five monkeys inside a cage and in that cage is a set of stairs leading to the top of the cage. You hang a banana on a string at the top of the stairs and before long a monkey will climb the stairs to get the banana.

As soon as he touches the stairs, you spray all the other monkeys with cold water. After a while another monkey makes an attempt with same result … all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to stop him so they don’t get sprayed.

 

Now, put the cold water away.

 

Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and attempts to climb the stairs. To his shock, all of the other monkeys beat the crap out of him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

 

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys, replacing it with a new one.  The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked.  The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment… with enthusiasm.

 

Then, replace a third original monkey with a new one, followed by a fourth, then the fifth.  Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs he is attacked.

 

Most of the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs.  Neither do they know why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

 

Finally, having replaced all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys will have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, none of the monkeys will try to climb the stairway for the banana.

 

Why, you ask?  Because in their minds… that is the way it has always been!

 

This my friends, is how Congress operates… and is why, from time to time, all of the monkeys need to be REPLACED.

Sunset from my neighborhood

Thought it looked particularly nice this evening. I thought I would share.

Good on You, WikiLeaks

Looks like the U.S. Government wants to get WikiLeaks added to the list of terrorists. I think they need to look along different avenues of solving the problem.

Because wikileaks is simply reporting fact and was not directly or indirectly implicit in the removal of these docs from government custody, they should be protected by the constitution under freedom of the press. If these documents were being released by the New York Times, you can bet your ass that’s what would happen.

Also, the public attention that they are driving is an act of civil disobedience that is designed to improve our government by exposing flaws, correcting behavior, and increasing security and should be openly supported. It is part of what our founding fathers stood for and encouraged.

It is the responsibility of the government itself to maintain its own secrets and prevent the initial theft, and those thieves should be dually prosecuted under the law. But… Further recipients of those stolen secrets, which are now basically public domain, hold no culpability in the theft, regardless of what is done with them.

Based on this, if you were to prosecute wikileaks, then where do you stop? If I visit the websitE and look at the docs, then I now have a caches copy on my computer and am now in possession of stolen secrets. Am I now liable as well?

I don’t think so.

Good on you, wikileaks. George Washington would be proud.

Pot Roast?

I know… You’re thinking “Really?”

I’m saying hell yes. This is some seriously good cow.

A Short Page Layout Rant

Stumbled upon this just now. Don’t click it unless you want to see a horribly designed page.

I would like to read this article, but I can’t. I find it impossible. Here’s the short on why:

First: Ads above the title bury the content to below the fold on most wide-screen monitors.

Second, and more importantly: This type of arrowed navigation tends to indicate some form of display applet that does not exist. Each click of the arrow loads a complete new page, positioned at the top, so I then have to scroll again to find the content buried under the header ads.

I know this particular click-through style is used to increase page-views, but I’m asking designers to give it a rest. If the content is worth the effort, it will generate traffic on its own.

Separation Content and Distribution

I was just reading about the Comcast/NBCU merger possibility over at consumerist.com and I think I have a solution…

Separate the companies who create entertainment and/or provide news from the companies who distribute or broadcast them. Make a firm division between the cable/satellite/communications companies and any network or station that they may carry.

Simply disallowing Comcast, or any other provider, from owning the content they distribute allows for an automatic fair and neutral competition.

This week’s Barbecue Adventure

Applewood smoked pork tenderloin with Bock & Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce. Served pulled on a bun with slaw and tater salad.

IMG00004-20100808-1827

Now, that’s what’s for dinner!

Input vs. Output

First, a little disclaimer: I am not a doctor or nutritionist, nor have I ever received any formal training in any areas that relate to what is stated below. This post is simply a reflection of my opinion of what I’ve observed and in should no way be considered valid medical advice or utilized as possible treatment for any medical symptoms or conditions. That said…

At lunch today my coworkers and I were talking a bit about diet, mostly because I’m on one and have lost almost 20 pounds in the last month. Someone brought up that there was a report in the local paper lately that basically said that increasing exercise alone without changing dietary habits will not generate weight loss. They listed a couple of reasons for this, but the main cause was that if workload increases, appetite generally increases as well. Seems right to me as the body seeks balance.

I see it like this. It’s a matter of Input vs. Output. The more we put into our bodies, the more we have to work (generate output) to achieve balance. If we work less than we consume, then we gain weight. If we work more than we consume, then we lose weight. It really is rather simple.

Of course, there is also a quality factor to consider. If our 2000 calories of intake come from lousy sources, then our ability to generate output can be hindered. Bad food makes us lazy and unhealthy. High quality, natural, unprocessed, non-manufactured food not only makes us healthier, but can increase the efficiency of our output.

I also think this carries over into other aspects of total health. On a basic level, all forms of stimulation can be considered input. Everything we sense is input to our physical and mental being. If we don’t have sufficient outputs for the various types of inputs we receive, then we’re knocked out of balance and suffer from stress or overload or burnout. In severe cases this can manifest in disorders like ADD or depression.

So, to bring down the weight and bring up the health, we need to break old habits and adopt high-quality forms of input matched with meaningful and efficient outputs.