ENGAGE. INVESTIGATE. CONTEMPLATE.

Did you know that it takes seven years for swallowed gum to digest? Did you also know that you can use algorithms to predict college basketball scores and make millions? Are you aware that we only use 10% of our brains? Here is a popular one, turkey makes you sleepy. Or, how about that chocolate acne.

I imagine that at some point you have heard one of these myths, maybe all of them. If you are still performing the Heimlich on children in order to ward off a colon blowpop…stop.

My advice: Engage the proclamation. Investigate its validity. Contemplate your own thoughts and conclusions.

I know, it’s easy to accept certain proclamations as fact. Hell, I once told a slow kid at my junior high school that reading backwards helped people study better. He believed me, and tried it for several weeks…also, at nine years old I told my classmates that I was the lead singer of STYXX. Later, they realized that I did not even know the lyrics to the #1 single, Babe. Back then, I thought if you were stupid enough to believe it, then you deserve to look like an idiot. Although, later on in life, I realized giving people good and factual information is very important. We all as individuals make decisions based on what we believe is FACT. When people give me information…I engage, investigate, and contemplate.

Recently, I heard a proclamation that diet sodas can increase insulin production and cause weight gain. Really? C’mon. What is sad, is that certain individuals, that hear this sort of thing, will definitely quit drinking soda. Then they will tell friends not to drink diet soda, without ever validating the claim. Yes, basic common sense tells me that diet soda is not optimum versus water. Duh!

I love learning about nutrition, there is certainly a lot to learn. However, there are so many different interests out there that some nutritional facts get pushed out into the world based on someone filling in the blanks.

Okay, let me try one:
The number one cause of male impotence, worldwide, is _________.

Now, I will fill in the blank:
The number one cause of male impotence, worldwide, is due to prolonged sun exposure.
It doesn’t sound too ridiculous if you are the person trying to get it up and you are totally willing to stay out of the sun for the rest of your life…Thusly, when I heard that someone believed that diet soda was about to send every diabetic that drinks non-caloric soda into a coma, I had to engage.

My investigation led me to that following (beware: this is a blog, so I am not going to cite references, just go look for yourself):
A study, reported by the Journal of Nutrition on Nutritional Epidemiology, found no evidence of the claims regarding insulin. The study included 2500 subjects. They tested insulin levels on three control groups. One of the groups was a “zero calorie diet drink” group. The study concluded that insulin was not affected by diet drinks.

And the weight gain from diet soda? A study was done, but it appears someone is only reporting half of the truth on this one. Among the group of surveyed diet soda drinkers, 57% were likely to eat more calories because they were drinking a diet soda. There was correlation, but no causation…And yes, when you combine diet root beer with ice cream, it’s not the root beer that is making your ass look bigger.

As I pondered these findings, I also remembered that calories are essentially energy. Insulin, in so many words, is about energy conversion. It would be doubtful that a diabetic would risk his/her health by drinking diet soda …

Studies on nutrition are being done daily. Engage. Investigate. Contemplate

Now, excuse me, I have to go rub peanut butter on my feet. Someone told me that it helps get rid of bad breathe.

The New Self

Most people that I know, in some way or another, are dissatisfied with how they look. I have been there too. At two points in my life, I had become distraught enough over my physical appearance to do something about it.
The first time I tried to get fit, I was in my early twenties, and I was supercharged to succeed. My mission was to be big and buff. I joined a city gym that was popular for spitting out more Golden Glove contenders than offspring from the Octomom. The place smelled like sweat through and through. This gym was host to some of the fittest people around town. I felt it was the best place for an up and coming bodybuilding superstar. I had ambition to see big changes. I trained threes days a week for two years. I ate massive amounts of food. I even ate raw eggs like Rocky Balboa (Yuck!). I gave myself daily pep talks. Day in and day out, I did these things to get bigger and stronger. Eventually though, I quit working out. I quit eating all the food, I quit giving myself pep talks, and I never became that superstar. The reason I quit altogether is that I felt that, inside and out, I was the same as I was two years prior. I had done all this work and spent money on food and supplements to get minimal results. I was still the same guy. I expected some type of revolutionary change. The revolution never came. For the twelve years that followed, I simply did not care to spend any time worrying about my health or physique.
A few years ago, I finally forced myself to get back to a gym and start working out. At the time, I wasn’t all that into it…I just didn’t feel like any hard work in the gym would amount to anything. However, I was paying for the membership, so I thought that I might as well get my money’s worth. I went to the gym and played with some weights, along with some cardio machines, and then I would pose/flex like a douche-bag in front of the mirror. This pattern continued for several weeks. Then one day, I went to the gym early one morning. That week had been a troubling week for me at home and at work. I decided to just take out my frustrations on the weights. So I killed it in the gym.
While I was killing it in the gym, a gym employee spotted me for several exercises. He didn’t say much, mostly nodded and observed. At the end of my workout, after I had just brought more intensity than ever before, and when I finally had nothing left, he said to me, “That’s it bro, find the new self!”
Bent over on a bench and out of breath, I thanked him for his help.
During the following days, I could not stop thinking about what he said to me. I was trying to interpret what he meant. It eluded me. And he did too, because I never saw him in the gym again.
Is there a “new self” inside me? That seems “New Age-y”, and yeah, kind of gay. I did find something; Intensity. It made me feel incredible.
Subsequently, each day, I was in pursuit of more intensity. My diet got more intense. My mental fortitude changed intensity. My workouts delivered more intensity. I even started giving myself intense pep talks before I worked out (In my head though, because if I gave myself out loud pep talks, someone might have called the cops). I wasn’t working out to be some superstar anymore. I was trying to be the best I could be in the gym. I gave all that I had to every rep. I worked out harder each time I went to gym. I even made myself puke a couple of times.
Through these years, I found the know-how. I found the passion. I found the discipline. I definitely found…The New Self.