Great news on the blood work and life insurance Todd. Nice when healthy decisions can literally reward you financially.
That's a true statement and it goes well beyond life insurance. Energy is a major factor in success. So is image. Without sounding like a pompous asshole , I've had a bunch of clients tell me how good I look over the last year. My mentor Jim Rohn said, "Success is like butterflies, what you chase often eludes you. Success is attracted by the person you become." I didn't really have a firm grasp on this philosophy until I lived it. When you improve yourself mentally and physically, people take notice. They feel your energy, attitude, and intelligence.
Tony, I'll have to dig deeper into the wheat. My understanding was that the GMO wheat has different Amino Acids that cause depression and multiple other problems. Wheat may contribute to obesity but I can tell you for a fact, it doesn't effect my weight negatively.
Tony, I'll have to dig deeper into the wheat. My understanding was that the GMO wheat has different Amino Acids that cause depression and multiple other problems. Wheat may contribute to obesity but I can tell you for a fact, it doesn't effect my weight negatively.
Yes the Gliadin in wheat is said to bind to the opiate receptors and cause all kinds of problems for autistic kids, or people with depression, bi-polar or other chemical imbalances.
My suspicion is all of that is an unintended side effect from the modification designed to increase appetite, much like high fructose corn syrup does. The more you eat it, more you crave those processed wheat/sugar foods.
When I stopped drinking soda, I stopped being hungry all the time. When I stopped eating wheat, I stop craving sweets. My wife did the same and we both had these results.
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Regarding processed foods, yes I agree they're very bad. But I'm not ready to throw meat under the bus. The meat our ancestors ate was very healthy because it was natural. Now there are all sorts of toxins involved in factory farming. This is where we are getting the disease, not the meat itself. The same goes with dairy.
This is very dry but explains what Weston Price discovered many years ago...he studied the diets of isolated tribes and villages from many cultured and noted what they ate. The healthiest ones ate natural meat, dairy and fermented grains. The others had a processed western diet and suffered from rotten teeth and disease.
Is said to be the age when the average man cements his own personal philosophy. What does that really mean? It's a sum of everything we've absorbed throughout our lives. The influences of our parents, teachers, friends, church, government, experiences, etc. Ultimately, it's what we decide to employ in our daily lives and accept as right or wrong.
One of the greatest challenges of life is determining who we really want to be and having the guts to puff out our chest and live that life. From the day we were born until today, all those external sources have tried to influence us to have their philosophy. In many cases, we had no choice but to accept that fate. While we rebelled at the start, over time it became a habit and part of our personal philosophy. Engrained in the way we think and act.
Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having and image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. -Don Miguel Ruiz
Look around, how many are living their lives by comparing themselves to some imaginary American yard stick? For example, buying the biggest house, nicest car, designer clothes, that they can't afford.
Are the standards you've set for yourself from your own education and experience or is your current philosophy based on negative influence from the past?
My previous example was based on image but it runs much deeper. For example, one of my weaknesses is judging people and being way to critical of them and making assumptions. I know for a fact that it was ground into my brain through my childhood by my parents and society. While I pinpointed the problem say 6 months ago, I've spent 35 years thinking this way. It's certainly not who I WANT to be but the way we think takes time to change.
Just being ourselves is the biggest fear of humans-Don Miguel Ruiz
It's my opinion that we must welcome new experiences and continually feed our mind with new positive influence through education to cement our TRUE personal philosophy.
How many people do you know that graduated from high school and then college and thought they knew enough so they stopped learning?
What I've found on my personal development crusade(Estimating over 600 hours of study in just over a year) is that the things I once Hated I now Love, and what I once Loved I now Hate. Until you allow yourself to go outside your comfort zone through new experiences and study the wisdom of some of the pasts most influential and successful, maybe your life made up of standards set by society and past influences, GOOD or BAD.
The way we judge ourselves is the worst judge that ever existed-Don Miguel Ruiz
My mentor Jim Rohn said, "The way we feel about ourselves is one of the greatest challenges of life".
If you are living your life based on somebody else's standards, (Whether it's societies or personal influences) it could be one of your greatest sources of unhappiness.
It's crucial that we pinpoint our weaknesses and work on improving them. They are energy and attitude suckers.
I have an accountability partner that I meat with every month. Last month we decided to have those closest to us (Spouse, Parent, Employee, Eachother) make a list of our 3 greatest strengths and two constructive criticisms. It was very interesting to see myself from outside the picture frame. I can honestly say that there were positive and negatives that I wouldn't have thought in a million years. However, once I thought about it I realized that they had me nailed. I never saw myself as having a great attitude. On the flip side, I didn't see myself as rigid either. I highly recommend this exercise.
Bottom line, weave the greatest personal philosophy you can create. Pinpoint your weaknesses and work on them constantly. It will have a great effect on the trajectory of your life and ultimately, how happy you can be.
My weakness is being negative. It's as simple as that. When I just made a conscious effort to discover silver linings, and just focus on positive aspects of my life, it made a difference in my happiness. It also showed me how negative some others were around me, that I had never noticed, because I was in that same mindset. It's so cliche, but since it's always been my biggest weakness, it was hard to see that.
My new favorite response to negativity? First world problems. We have it pretty good here, and most of our stress is nothing compared to how other people live in the world, or how our ancestors lived.
That's a big one Tony. As Jim Rohn said, There has never been a better wind in 6,000 years than we have today. It's all perception.
That's why philosophy is so important. It dictates how you think. How you think is the biggest factor in how your life turns out. It's also a huge challenge to beat negativity into a small corner. Pinpointing your weaknesses through personal development and developing new philosophies is how you become a better person. It's made a HUGE difference in my life.
I can tell you this is a fact. When I originally changed my nutrition, good foods actually started to taste, good. As I progressed the foods I used to crave now gave way to healthier options. I've now went off the deep end.
The key is to give it a chance. A few weeks minimum. It also takes time to learn how to prepare healthier options. One of the best ways to prepare vegetables is on a cookie sheet with olive oil and spices. 45-60 minutes and you have great vegetables. Onions, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Beets, Cauliflower, etc.
Yup. Junk food is like an addictive drug..once you get off, you crave real food.
I went to super Walmart last night..it was like stepping into the Matrix...all the wheat/sugar/processed oil products. Everywhere was just the same combination of a wheat/sugar product in different packaging.
I understand why the markets are stuffed full of processed foods and there is a fast food restaurant on every corner. Americans are short on time and there is serious demand for food with our world population. Health has moved down the line in order of importance. "I don't have time to educate myself, eat healthy, or exercise."
You can't afford not to MAKE the time to take care of yourself. There is nothing more important. Without your health you can't take care of yourself, let alone your family.
I tend to get a little aggressive with these posts but I'm trying to motivate people to buy what I'm selling. I know what a profound difference it's made in my life. I'm very passionate about it.
Tony, I know it has in your life as well.
If we motivate one to change their lives, it will be worth the effort.
I've read this thread several times and not responded, but now might be a good time too...
I'm 47, 5'11", and recently weighed in at an all time high of 275 pounds. I have been blessed with and enjoyed excellent health all my life despite being a smoker and being overweight. Things needed to change and I started on both issues 2 weeks ago.
I immediately cut out sodas, I'm feeling a dramatic change from that already. I'm down to 8-10 smokes a day, I should be completely free of them late next week. I've cut out the starches, fructose, and processed foods out of my diet and feel far better already and I've already lost 7 pounds in 2 weeks.
When I was a Marine 20 years ago I was in great shape but a GSW to my right knee made running long distance (my favorite exercise) almost impossible. I tried to counter the loss of running with weight training but it never seemed to maintain my condition like running did so I started gaining weight. By 2000 I had gone from 175 when discharged to 210 and I continued to slowly gain weight until 2008 when my wife passed away. I had stayed around 240 for the 2 years prior but dropped back to 225 after her loss, mostly because I didn't have a beautiful Italian woman pushing pasta on me all the time.
Moving to Minnesota, the land of starches, and having 2 teen-age boys in the house has made the weight come rushing back in a "big" way until I hit the shocking number - 275!
Several things have motivated me recently - health in general, wanting to see these boys grow up, wanting to be healthy and energetic again, and wanting to look at pictures of myself without being shocked. Another motivator that I didn't expect was driving a road course. I hadn't done so in 6-7 years and when I did I realized just how much more strain it put on my body with the extra weight. Holy crap, it wore me out after 5-6 laps!
My Firebird is going to take about 2 years to complete and now as I build it I'm going to rebuild my body so I can enjoy it once complete! Getting down to 175-180 is where I want to be and of course, smoke free. I will post updates as I go along!
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Russ "Murco" Murray "Liquidating excess cash through the automotive hobby!"