LegendaryLife.com Blog

I am sure there is enough worthless commodities in our universe to create an identical copy of our entire galaxy using just rubies, diamonds and gold… why are these commodities that can be found EVERYWHERE used as the foundation of our economy?

The true value of mineral resources

I find it interesting that the worlds economies are based on, to be quite honest, things that have absolutely NO value! Let’s look at gold, you can’t eat it, you can’t bring it with you when you die and mores importantly, it can’t do a damn thing! When was the last time you saw a piece of gold cook you super or better yet, provide your family sustenance to keep you alive for yet another day. You could say the same thing about diamonds, rubies and many other minerals… whose value is perceived (brainwashed?) rather then real. If I had to choose between a certified check from Google for one billion dollars or a half-rotten fish in a survival situation, the half-rotten fish wins hands down unless I was looking for something to start a fire… in which the check may have some value
Why do we value gold, diamonds and rubies so much?

Did you know that diamonds and rubies can now be created by man for a fraction of the price both environmental and financial? Did you know that the vast majority of diamonds are actually used as industrial polishers and cutting tools? Now you do, all that marketing crap about “diamonds are forever” is just that, marketing of a product that is essentially worthless other then for industrial applications. The reason why we value these minerals is simple, we are groomed at a young age to attach value to it, just like we do with paper money where there is no difference between a million dollar bill and a one dollar one, they are both just paper. Sadly, our entire economy is based on useless substances. Paper grows on trees, yet just because it has a picture of some dead guy on it, it’s worth now many times the value of the tree it came from? This is just silly. I am not even getting warmed up, consider the stock market, “virtual” currency and God knows what else we attach value to.

Are we really smarter then our closest cousins?

Let’s look at the plight of our closest genetic cousins, Chimpanzees. They live out their lives rather happily when not being killed off by humans as we clearcut their habitat. They multiply and are born in the same way we do it, they eat leaves, sometimes go hunting for insects and are relatively peaceful, living within the means of their local environment. Now, look at us, running around with our head chopped off buying our food, buying cloths, buying gadgets and widgets… working our entire lives towards the goal of accumulating the most gold which we cannot bring with us when we die anyhow. Now, who is really smarter? I go with the Chimps, they have a lot to teach us, if we can just open our eyes that other methods of existence are not only possible, but better for us!

How much Gold, Diamonds and Rubies are there anyways?

I haven’t a clue how much of these self-perceived valuable resources actually are, but considering there are trillions of stars out there in the universe, each with the possibility of some sort of planet made up of carbon (essential building block of these resources), I can easily assume that there is an unlimited amount of each that we could never run out even if our species lives on for billions of years. Gold, diamonds and rubies are not a limited resource, they are an unlimited resource.

What does this all mean?

Think about this, who benefits from making an unlimited resource perceived to be limited? Hmmm…. I don’t know… other humans? I have never seen a squirrel go to the bank to buy some jewelery using the nuts it has picked up over the previous season, only us humans attach value to worthless commodities. Back to the original question, what does this mean? Well, most of us have bought in to the myth that wealth itself has some value, that it creates happiness (you don’t buy diamonds because your sad do you?) and most importantly, the only way to ultimately succeed in life is by accumulating more resources then your fellow man.

Wealth is worthless?

Well, YES! Wealth itself, defined by “financial freedom” has the same value as a rock falling down a mountain. Wealth itself has absolutely NO value, as stated before, wealth is the accumulation of an unlimited resource that is given value by our society that brainwashes all of us to give it value. How can an unlimited resource have any type of value? Only limited things can have any type of value, not unlimited ones.

What’s your point?

Well, once you realize that financial wealth is worthless, you should be able to make sound decisions based on what is best for you and your family not on artificially created nonsense. The pressure to get a higher paying job, getting a mortgage that you cannot really afford nor need and just trying to best others just dissipates. We are pounded on a daily basis that the only true way towards ultimate happiness is the pursuit of wealth, what I am saying is that this way of thinking is all wrong, not only that, it’s based on flawed fundamentals. Don’t base your life around something that is flawed!

The Bottom Line

The sharing of love, experiences and life is the only true method of achieving happiness and fulfillment in life.

ps: Oil isn’t mentioned because it has no value what-so-ever, it’s a toxic soup that simply comes from decayed organics (vegetation, bacteria, animals, birds… ) and cannot be found where life does not exist. The extraction of oil is equivalent to digging up our ancestors from a graveyard and shoving them into our gas tank.

I believe we do our entire planet wrong by not realizing how vast the sandbox we all reside in actually is. There is an entire universe, across endless dimensions that evolves at it’s own rhythm completely out of our control and most peoples thoughts. To the universe, our entire solar system has even less value then we place on the the bacteria that lives under our toe nails… harsh? Well, this is the reality that most of us ignore to acknowledge and accept.

The value of life in the universe

If you look at enough images from outer space, even looking up at the stars, you cannot help but be overwhelmed not only at the grand scale of things but at it’s mind boggling vastness. Can you even imagine how far the distance of 15 billion light years actually is or even how a million years is simply a blink in the eye of the universe? It’s absolutely incredible! The moon spins around the earth, the solar system around the sun and if you go large enough, our entire solar system, one of billions, simply rotates around an enormous black hole that is in the middle of our galaxy. All this happens everyday regardless of whether life exists or not. To the universe, a rock is has the same value as life, absolutely none. It doesn’t care, it has no consciousness nor reason for being, it simply is.

Astronomy pictures of the Day

NASA and JPL release a picture of the day on their site, illustrating the beauty of the universe we are lucky enough to inhabit and igniting the imagination as to what could be, here are a few great pictures to expand your mind.

A Beautiful Boomerang Nebula
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team, J. Biretta (STScI) et al., (STScI/AURA), ESA, NASA

This symmetric cloud dubbed the Boomerang Nebula was created by a high-speed wind of gas and dust blowing from an aging central star at speeds of nearly 600,000 kilometers per hour. The rapid expansion has cooled molecules in the nebular gas to about one degree above absolute zero - colder than even the cosmic background radiation - making it the coldest known region in the distant Universe. Shining with light from the central star reflected by dust, the frigid Boomerang Nebula is believed to be a star or stellar system evolving toward the planetary nebula phase. This Hubble image was recorded using polarizing filters (analogous to polaroid sunglasses) and color coded by the angle associated with the polarized light. The gorgeous result traces the small dust particles responsible for polarizing and scattering the light. The Boomerang Nebula spans about one light year and lies about 5,000 light years away toward the constellation Centaurus.

The Strange Trailing Side of Saturn’s Iapetus
Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

What has happened to Saturn’s moon Iapetus? Vast sections of this strange world are dark as coal, while others are as bright as ice. The composition of the dark material is unknown, but infrared spectra indicate that it possibly contains some dark form of carbon. Iapetus also has an unusual equatorial ridge that makes it appear like a walnut. To help better understand this mysterious moon, NASA directed the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn to swoop within 2,000 kilometers just last month. Pictured above, from about 75,000 kilometers out, Cassini’s trajectory allowed unprecedented imaging of the hemisphere of Iapetus that is always trailing. A huge impact crater seen in the south spans a tremendous 450 kilometers and appears superposed on an older crater of similar size. The dark material is seen increasingly coating the easternmost part of Iapetus, darkening craters and highlands alike. Close inspection indicates that the dark coating typically faces the moon’s equator. Whether Iapetus’ colors are the result of unusual episodes of internal volcanism or external splattering remains unknown. This and other images from Cassini’s Iapetus flyby are being studied for even greater clues.

Sun Storm: A Coronal Mass Ejection
Credit: SOHO Consortium, ESA, NASA

What’s happening to our Sun? Another Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)! The Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft has imaged many erupting filaments lifting off the active solar surface and blasting enormous bubbles of magnetic plasma into space. Direct light from the sun is blocked in the inner part of the above image, taken in 2002, and replaced by a simultaneous image of the Sun in ultraviolet light. The field of view extends over two million kilometers from the solar surface. While hints of these explosive events, called coronal mass ejections or CMEs, were discovered by spacecraft in the early 70s, this dramatic image is part of a detailed record of this CME’s development from the presently operating SOHO spacecraft. Near the minimum of the solar activity cycle CMEs occur about once a week, but near solar maximum rates of two or more per day are typical. Strong CMEs may profoundly influence space weather. Those directed toward our planet can have serious effects.

Massive Stars in Open Cluster Pismis 24
Credit: NASA, ESA and J. M. Apellániz (IAA, Spain).

How massive can a normal star be? Estimates made from distance, brightness and standard solar models had given one star in the open cluster Pismis 24 over 200 times the mass of our Sun, making it a record holder. This star is the brightest object located just to the right of the gas front in the above image. Close inspection of images taken recently with the Hubble Space Telescope, however, have shown that Pismis 24-1 derives its brilliant luminosity not from a single star but from three at least. Component stars would still remain near 100 solar masses, making them among the more massive stars currently on record. Toward the image left, stars are still forming in the associated emission nebula NGC 6357, including several that appear to be breaking out and illuminating a spectacular cocoon.

Earth at Night
Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive

This is what the Earth looks like at night. Can you find your favorite country or city? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earth’s surface, including the seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange goods cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The above image is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the orbiting DMSP satellites.

Z Machine Sets Unexpected Earth Temperature Record
Credit: Z Machine Collaboration, Sandia National Lab, Lockheed Martin, NNSA, DOE

Why is this plasma so hot? Physicists aren’t sure. What is known for sure is that the Z Machine running at Sandia National Laboratories created a plasma that was unexpectedly hot. The plasma reached a temperature in excess of two billion Kelvin, making it arguably the hottest human made thing ever in the history of the Earth and, for a brief time, hotter than the interiors of stars. The Z Machine experiment, pictured above, purposely creates high temperatures by focusing 20 million amps of electricity into a small region further confined by a magnetic field. Vertical wires give the Z Machine its name. During the unexpected powerful contained explosion, the Z machine released about 80 times the world’s entire electrical power usage for a brief fraction of a second. Experiments with the Z Machine are helping to explain the physics of Solar flares, design more efficient nuclear fusion plants, test materials under extreme heat, and gather data for the computer modeling of nuclear explosions.

Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Star Shadows Remote Observatory

The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone. A deep exposure shows that the dark familiar shaped indentation, visible just below center, is part of a vast complex of absorbing dust and glowing gas. To bring out details of the Horsehead’s pasture, amateur astronomers at the Star Shadow Remote Observatory in New Mexico, USA fixed a small telescope on the region for over seven hours filtering out all but a very specific color of red light emitted by hydrogen. They then added the image to a full color frame taken over three hours. The resulting spectacular picture details an intricate tapestry of gaseous wisps and dust-laden filaments that were created and sculpted over eons by stellar winds and ancient supernovas. The Horsehead Nebula lies 1,500 light years distant towards the constellation of Orion. Two stars from the Orion’s Belt can be found in the above image.

The Bottom Line

We are surrounded by beauty, from the smallest living things to the largest. The price of entry is simply opening your eyes and mind to the possibilities that exists around us.

Buzvia: NASA Picture of the Day

Even in big companies where many staff, contractors and third parties play a vital role in keeping everything moving forward, there is always, except in partnerships, that sole entrepreneur trying to make sense of everything before it blows up.

Entrepreneur = Train Engineer

Startups are like a train, usually going completely out of control, where there is but one engineer at the helm who, somehow, keeps things relatively going in one direction. This direction, the vision of the entrepreneur, is very difficult to communicate to others as usually, this deep passion or inner desire simply cannot be transplanted. Of all the entrepreneurs I call friends, they all have this solitary road that sort of links all of us together regardless of market, success or expertise. This solitary road is like a proofing ground, that must be vanquished in order to proceed further into the quest of hoped success. Things don’t always work the way originally envisioned but the proofing ground pays dividends with ever future venture that the entrepreneurs chooses to undertake. Sometimes an entrepreneur hits a land mine with the first few steps, other times, only after great investments in time and money does this happen.

Opportunity Clairvoyants

You can teach somebody how to draw, you can show somebody how to change a tire on their car but you cannot without herculean effort, teach somebody to see opportunity even where there are none. Like clairvoyants of bygone days, entrepreneurs have the instant ability to see and project a business opportunity in just about everything. Like a bodybuilder who can do one tonne squats after years of training, the muscles within the entrepreneurs mind have re-orientated themselves into vast arrays of entanae that are able to pick out and analyze data at an incredible rate. Not to say they are any better then the layman’s reasoning, it’s just that they have developed this ability at a higher level. Most of them have also developed the ability to organize their lives around their businesses and, most importantly, become expert negotiators and sales people. When your living depends on your wits, the opportunity honing devices come fast and furious!

Are entrepreneurs like Superman or Superwoman?

Hmmm… no. We entrepreneurs are like everybody else, sure, the majority of us are obsessive about the next opportunity, if you talk to us long enough over a few years, you will notice that entrepreneurs are always on the “verge” of some breakthrough or another. “Strike while the iron is hot” sounds nice but for entrepreneurs, the iron always seems to be hot! It never has time to cool down! We aren’t like Superman or Superwoman though, we get sick and go through life’s tribulations like everybody else but the scale is different depending on which swing up or down they are currently on. Entrepreneurs life can be seen as a roller coaster, one minute everything is going perfectly then, like a rock getting stuck in the chucks of a skateboarder, everything goes to hell.

Motivation comes from within

Passion or motivation comes from deep inside entrepreneurs, for some, it’s the desire for vast riches while for others it’s simply a method of seeking approval from others or proving them wrong. Regardless of where the passion comes from, it’s there in abundant quantities regardless of how a venture or business goes. It’s like that stain on a shirt that simply will not go away, the motivation to keep working on something even while it’s going downhill is insatiable.

So why is the road a solitary one?

Well, an entrepreneur is a mad scientist of sorts, they have a little organism in a petri dish that they want to see mature into a beautiful being. The hours of careful attention and spirited thought that are involved with this process make a 40 hour workweek sound like child’s play. This comes at a cost, some entrepreneurs are able to find balance but just as many get swamped into their work like a black hole sucking the light out of the universe. The hours, days, months, years FLY by but what entrepreneurs must realize is that unlike a time machine, you cannot go back and relive those lost times that are just as important as the venture itself.

The Bottom Line

Entrepreneurship is an adventure that lasts a lifetime regardless of outcomes.

I must admit, being paid to walk around with a big gun, driving rather unique and powerful vehicles does sound like a fun until you realize that your main purpose is to be an efficient killing machine.

Documentary Summary

You should watch this video but here is a summary if you don’t have time.

• war doesn’t only cause physical scars but also mental ones that remain with soldiers for a lifetime, hidden from sight
• solders, when they first entered Iraq, needed verification from their buddies that what they where seeing wasn’t just in their imagination, from destroyed vehicles to dead bodies laying along the road
• reports of suicide bombers where rampant as soldiers first entered Bagdad so they where very fearful as everybody looked like a potential enemy
• solders opened up fire with over 15 weapons against a woman in a black burka that didn’t obey their commands, slowly approaching them only to discover she was trying to pull out a white flag to show the soldiers
• soldier who initiated the first shots decided to hide this experience from others but it began to have a mental toll on him
• there is no protection during war for the mind as you are constantly witnessing death by the hands of others and yourself
• once soldiers return from the battlefield, they begin to regain their emotions and realizing, replaying, the tragedy that they had witnessed
• returning veterans have frequent troubling dreams, feelings and thoughts
• nobody comes back from combat unchanged
• depression, anger and emotional turmoil take their toll and the army re-enforces these thoughts by telling them that their lives are already over and not to worry about their mortality as it don’t make things better
• on any given day, there are more psychological casualties then physical ones during war
• psychological trauma was referred to as shell-shocked in WW1 and battle fatigue in WW2
• 1/3 of returning Vietnam vets suffered from psychological problems upon returning, referred to as post-Vietnam Syndrome
• after Vietnam, the medical community called this problem Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• military focuses too much on physical abilities at the cost of being able to mentally handle the ramifications of an action
• solders are not suppose to show any weakness
• there is a huge stigma towards receiving psychological help, it’s even career ending for soldiers
• Iraq was the first time that psychologists where introduced onto the battlefield to help soldiers cope with what they where experiencing, referred to as Combat Stress Control Teams by the Pentagon
• after a soldier asked for help from the Combat Stress Control Teams, they where mentally abused by the command structure and later discharged for cowardice
• military heavily frowns upon soldiers who refuse to fight or fear dying
• Veterans Affairs is not part of the military and any information given to them is strictly confidential
• resilience treatments are being performed by the military in order to help soldiers cope with their mental problems, ironically, once they are “cured”, they are sent right back into the environment that caused the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• few studies have been made on sending somebody with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder back into a battlefield, military states that combat is their job, regardless of the impact on the mental or physical costs
• purpose of the military is to win wars, people with mental or physical problems are of no use to them
• in January 2005, the Department of Defense slowly began to take steps towards dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in it’s ranks

The Bottom Line

War is the ultimate failure for both diplomats and the soldiers tasked with fighting them.

Frontline Documentary: The Soldier’s Heart

When you live paycheck to paycheck… there is no style nor life to your lifestyle. I am a student of life, and I wanted to experience first hand what life was like for far too many people on this planet.

Background

Business was slow over the holidays last year and so I figure I might as well use this opportunity to find out what it’s like to work at minimum wage for a change. I tried 3 different jobs, all though different job agencies. I substantially dumbed down my resume, removing anything that would show that I had achieved anything in life, otherwise there is no way I would have ever been considered. People are given minimum wage jobs because the employer knows they need the job, as soon as they are not needed – their power is gone. I wanted to guarantee I got the job, and I got one within 5 minutes of stepping into the first recruiting agency. They needed manpower for a quick project, I was at the right place at the right time… $8.25 was the wage without any negotiations!

The three jobs from hell (Canada)

I worked at 3 different spots, the first was through a temp agency, essentially working in a heavy metal stamping plant. I was paid 9$ per hour, I am sure the agency was sub-contracting me at about 14-15$ per hour based on what the others told me they where getting paid. The other was helping to cap wine bottles, yes, putting on one cap at a time after bottles where filled up with their expensive wine. The last job was doing inventory control with a Wizard.

Observations

• minimum wage jobs seem to be generational, I talked to many of the employees and it wasn’t rare when they stated their father, mother, brother or even husband was doing similar work
• minimum wage jobs are exploitive to the tilt! These job agencies where making a living off my efforts, day in and day out, taking away much needed money and putting it in their pocket. I met people working these jobs that where far smarter then the agencies but due to circumstances, stuck in the minimum wage rut
• people fear loosing their minimum wage jobs, this was the most surprising of discoveries, I told one boss I was heading to the bathrooms (it was a factory) and he told me to wait till break time, I told him “I don’t think so” after a lengthy discussion that was going nowhere then proceeded to the bathroom. When I got back, the employees who overheard me where shocked that I talked back to the boss and where worried my job was on the line as a result (???)
• there is a heck of a lot of turnover in these jobs, even during the short term I was working there, those who where smart where taking studies to get out and others where looking elsewhere
• you don’t know monotony until you have done the same damn thing like a robot day in and out, I don’t know how these people do this for years, after a week I felt myself loosing my sanity
• minimum wage people are among the toughest jobs out there and the people are tough both physically and mentally
• I never saw so many smokers in my life! Seems the rates of obesity, ill health and alcoholism are rampant within this segment of the population.
• I never saw such a bunch of unhappy people, who have lost hope in their lives, you see it in their eyes, they want more but are exploited from ever achieving any worthwhile goal in their lives
• you are not appreciated for your work or your creativity, you are but a body that must perform X task over and over and over again, without complaint, without thought and without hope of getting out as you are easily replaced

After doing the above for a little over a month, I proceeded to walk away from each job without even giving them notice, what is there to say when you no longer need to work for a slave master?

One Great Job from Hell (Australia)

In the above jobs, my average pay rate was $8.25 an hour and then there where government deductions so maybe I was lucky to net $7.00 an hour. Australia… wow… most minimum wage jobs started at $9.00 an hour but I was lucky enough to net a job that was union based for a large printing company. My minimum wage job? $23.00 an hour! I was doing the same monotonous jobs, saw just as many smokers and people who gave up on life but wow… $23.00 an hour was nothing to complain about. This job was incredibly boring, the company (other employees) where, for the most part, quite dull with substance abuse problems but I kept my mouth shut most of the time. Unlike the minimum wage jobs in Canada, this job actually had a way out if you worked long enough. During my short few months there, I received forklift training, was managing production for my manager and was becoming a valued member of the staff. I heard a few people complain behind my back, who had been there for YEARS (some 20+) who where not happy that I leapfrogged over them within the first month there!

Overall Observations

As a person who has no lack of self-esteem and self-confidence, minimum wage jobs and my personality just don’t jive. I have no problem telling somebody that they are wrong, standing my ground and even telling them off if needed. I have a very direct managing method, no bullshit, no stories, good or bad, just tell me what is going on. Office politics aside, if somebody stands in front of me, like they did in the factory in Canada, trying to tell me to go to the bathroom just for their own power trip, the best get out of the way. One more thing I noticed that came to me a few months later, just about everybody who worked minimum wage jobs had HORRIBLE ORAL HYGENE. I don’t mean bad, I mean HORRIBLE. Broken and missing teeth, gingivitis was rampant, my only guess is that alcohol, tobacco and poor diet along with a completely loss of hope of every achieving something in life had been made representational in their mouth. These people where branded for life, good luck getting a corporate job with a mouth that looks like it belongs in that of a wild animal!

The Bottom Line

There are many Hells on this Earth… minimum wage jobs is probably among the worst.

I read these two books a while back… here are a few quotes which stood out while reading them.

Trump! Surviving at the top

What separates the winner from the loosers… is how a person reacts to each twist of fate… life is a series of struggles.

I know that, whatever happens, I’m a survivor, a survivor of success, which is a very rare thing indeed

What’s Luck got to do with it?

If you make a mistake, admit it and it will be OK. If you don’t admit a mistake and try to cover it up… then you’re going to have real problems.
-Ted Waitt, Founder of Gateway 2000

The real key to success is the contact economy. Humans crave connections and anything you do to boost that connection, those units of social intimacy, is going to be wildly successful.
-Jim McCann, Founder of 1-800-FLOWER

…in business you have only 2 ways of surviving: Either your product is better than your competitor’s or it’s cheaper
-Jim Koch, Founder of Boston Beer Company

When you appeal to the highest level of thinking, you get the highest level of performance.
-Jack Stack, Founder of Sprinfield ReManufacturing Corporation

Let’s push for more discussion, not less – everywhere. Let’s seek common ground wherever we can find it.
-Gary Hirshberg, Founder of Stonyfield Farms

As far as an entrepreneur is concerned, I think the successful entrepreneur never feels that the game is over
-Steven Hamerslag, Founder of MTI Technology Corporation

I read an article from Forbes about the problems @ Pfizer for their new anti-heart-attack drug called Torcetrapib and it got me thinking… why are these companies spending BILLIONS of dollars annually to solve problems that are mostly preventable? Wouldn’t that money be better spent on prevention and education?

What’s in it for the big pharma

Profits, the sole focus of a corporation is to generate profits, the more, the better… the most efficient way for big pharma to generate profits is to create drugs that must be taken for the rest of the patients life – mortality is the ultimate motivator. Remember, their focus is on profits, not the health of the individual. I repeat, if its more profitable to treat a condition then to prevent it… the big pharma will focus on treatment. They ARE NOT in the business of altruism no matter how much marketing they do portraying otherwise. I acknowledge their efforts and applaud them – I am not anti-pharmaceutical, they have their place.

What’s is in it for the government

The role of government is to make sure we are all on an equal footing and can enjoy life in a stable environment. In my world, the easiest way to achieve this is through perfect health, rich or poor – if everybody was in the best shape of their lives throughout all their lives, the world would be a far better place. When people can focus on their dreams instead of finding money for a gym membership or even fixing a root canal – you have created an environment of not only stability but exuberantly positive self-esteem, curing many social ills and diseases that plague us today. If you choose to be unhappy in this environment, then it’s the governments role to ship you to a remote island to be with others of your unhappy kind.

Drugs aren’t the answer

Let’s see, obesity 99% of the time is directly related to poor diet and exercise habits. It’s no secret that the diabetes epidemic is directly related to the obesity epidemic that is spreading throughout the world. What is big pharma doing to solve the problem, they are pouring billions of dollars into anti-obesity, anti-cancer, anti-diabetes etc. drugs that as their patient get sick, they can generate revenues to extend their lives. Again, I am fine with that, but where is the government in all this? NOWHERE! I see more self-congratulatory public service announcements during non-election season about how good the party you didn’t vote is doing then I do about how to prevent obesity, diabetes, cancer etc… what do I take from this? The government doesn’t care – and if they don’t care about me, then I don’t care about them. No wonder they are increasing irrelevant.

Drugs have BAD side effects – habits do not

If something works, it generally has both positive and negative effects. All drugs, by their nature have side effects. Drugs are made public when their positive effects are perceived to exceed their negative ones. Good habits on the other hand, don’t generally have bad side effects when correctly performed – if you choose not to brush your teeth, you get cavities, if you don’t have money, then you pop pills to dull the pain but if you brushed your teeth correctly to begin with, the need for drugs would have been eliminated. The same goes with many other diseases that plague western culture.

Drugs cost money, habits save money

Using the above example, if you invested in a good toothpaste and toothbrush and spent TIME correctly cleaning your teeth, you wouldn’t need to spend money going to a dentist to fix your cavities, nor would you need to spend money on pain pills NOR would you suffer from the side-effects that poor oral hygene bring into your life – social, economic, health and opportunities lost.

Drugs have their place

I think drugs have their place, when I got my appendix removed, I was happy a pharmaceutical company developed Demerol to keep me unconscious during the proceeding days to heal properly – but when it comes to treating preventable conditions, the focus of government should not be on ignorance.

The Bottom Line

If you are looking for a magic pill to cure what you have done to yourself on purpose through a lifetime of poor habits – you are fooling yourself into an early grave.

Important Links:
http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2006/12/02/pfizer-cholesterol-fda_cz_mh_1202torcetrapib.html
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/Diabetes/dh/3135

Go through the aisles of your local food market, it seems that everything now says “all natural”, “natural ingredients”, “organic” or their many derivatives. Even what is traditionally known as junk food is starting to look pretty good - but is it?

Natural = Healthier?

Ask people on the street what their definition of what a natural product is and what you will hear is that it’s healthier for you, organically sourced and usually unprocessed. I guess somebody forgot to tell this to the food manufacturers

The problem is most people only read the front of the box their food comes in instead of looking in the back - sections called ingredients and the food label!

Ingredients list

In North America at least, the ingredient list is sorted by most to least, so if you see for instance olive oil followed by flour, it means there is more olive oil then flour in the food you are about to consume. What it doesn’t tell you is if the flour was deep-fried in olive oil.

The fact is, the ingredients list is a good start but I sure wish it told me a little more about how a food was “processed”. The fact is something can be labeled “all natural” and still contain a lot of sugar, fats and other ingredients not normally associated with healthy eating make some “healthy natural foods” essentially overpriced junk food.

Labels lie

You got to wonder who writes the FDA specifications for food labels, the government or the food company. If I tell you I am finally debt-free, that means I no longer have ANY debt. Not so according to FDA specs. Using their logic, I can still be in debt with many creditors yet, still being considered debt-free if I spread the debt around enough to create smaller amounts.

Now, when you go through the specifications, notice how it usually says, “per serving size”, this is very tricky. Go through your cupboard, look at your favorite food and eat ONLY the serving size - I bet you will be surprised as how little companies think you actually eat of their product. If regularly eat 3-6x the suggested serving size, so that means what the food label said should be multiplied 3-6x - but most don’t realize to do this final multiplication. No wonder obesity and diabetes is reaching pandemic proportions!

FDA Specifications for labeling claims

Fat-Free Less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving, with no added fat or oil
Low fat 3 grams or less of fat per serving
Less fat 25% or less fat than the comparison food
Saturated Fat Free Less than 0.5 grams of saturated fat and 0.5 grams of trans-fatty acids per serving
Cholesterol-Free Less than 2 mg cholesterol per serving, and 2 grams or less saturated fat per serving
Low Cholesterol 20 mg or less cholesterol per serving and 2 grams or less saturated fat per serving
Reduced Calorie At least 25% fewer calories per serving than the comparison food
Low Calorie 40 calories or less per serving
Extra Lean Less than 5 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol per (100 gram) serving of meat, poultry or seafood
Lean Less than 10 grams of fat, 4.5 g of saturated fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol per (100 gram) serving of meat, poultry or seafood
Light (fat) 50% or less of the fat than in the comparison food (ex: 50% less fat than our regular cheese)
Light (calories) 1/3 fewer calories than the comparison food
High-Fiber 5 grams or more fiber per serving
Sugar-Free Less than 0.5 grams of sugar per serving
Sodium-Free or Salt-Free Less than 5 mg of sodium per serving
Low Sodium 140 mg or less per serving
Very Low Sodium 35 mg or less per serving
Healthy A food low in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium, and contains at least 10% of the Daily Values for vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, protein or fiber
“High”, “Rich in” or “Excellent Source” 20% or more of the Daily Value for a given nutrient per serving
“Less”, “Fewer” or “Reduced” At least 25% less of a given nutrient or calories than the comparison food
“Low”, “Little”, “Few”, or “Low Source of” An amount that would allow frequent consumption of the food without exceeding the Daily Value for the nutrient - but can only make the claim as it applies to all similar foods
“Good Source Of”, “More”, or “Added” The food provides 10% more of the Daily Value for a given nutrient than the comparison food

Fat-free foods is an oxymoron
I hope the above chart made you realize how trivial your nutrition is taken into account by those you may trust to feed and protect your family, now one more interesting fact. Here is a simple calorie calculation chart:

1 gram fat = 9 calories
1 gram protein = 4 calories
1 gram carbohydrate = 4 calories
1 gram alcohol = 7 calories

People purchase foods that are labeld fat-free (I hope you now realize they can still contain fat), now for a shocker… if you really did eat food that 100% fat free but it contained carbohydrates or alcohol, guess what happens to all the extra calories you consumed - your body converts it to fat. So you can still become fat by eating fat-free foods.

The Bottom Line

Cook all your own meals using fresh ingredients; this will save you from a lot of potential health problems in the future caused by an improper diet.

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of premature death in the United States and many other industrialized countries.

I run a health site – of course my enemy #1 is tobacco related products, followed by obesity and general health laziness – all of which are lifestyle CHOICES that lead to a premature death and dramatic decrease in the quality of life.

My experiences with smoking and smokers

When I was a kid, I was as curious as anybody else and did try smoking – if everybody was doing it (especially back then)… it should be good for me too Well, I took one puff and my throat constricted and I felt like I inhaled a camp fire as I coughed immediately and vowed to never do that again. As I come from a French Canadian background, smoking seems to “us” as natural as eating or sleeping, when I visit my relatives – they pretty much all smoke (or are in the cycle of vowing to quit). So to me, living a life with nicotine addiction would not have been frowned upon very much.

If smoking is so bad for you – why do people do it?

I have come to the realization of many things in my 30 years of existence, the main factors as to why I think people prefer to slowly kill themselves instead of simply getting a gun and getting it over with are:

Smokers… a generation lost

We have added a new section on myfoodcount.com, it’s within our “famous people, everyday problems” section under Nicotine Addicts. I was surprised how many really famous people died prematurely from smoking related causes… here is a partial list of only entertainers (we have almost 300 so far from all fields of life).

If tobacco related products are so bad to you – why can you still buy them?

I blame this squarely on our government – the “don’t smoke” ads are a joke, they tend to make smoking look like eating cheese, “its not that bad for you but hey, if you want to stop eating cheese, give us a call”. The penalties regarding underage smoking are rarely enforced and worse, the government subsidizes tobacco producers (????).

The Bottom Line

Nobody cares about your health other then you… so you must take the initiative and make it YOUR top priority.

LINK OF INTEREST
Cigarette manufacturers increase nicotine yield in the past 6 years
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=2371123

“We are not tired at the end of the day because we get too much exercise. We are mentally, emotionally and physically drained from being sedentary. Walking through the door exhausted each night is not a living; it is merely surviving large stretches of the only life we’re likely to have.” - Dr. Henry Lodge from the book Younger Next Year: turn back your biological clock

Excuses are just that- EXCUSES

Had a buddy tell me a few months back how he stopped exercising because he was simply too exhausted after work, had another friend who told me they where too busy for exercise- and the list goes on. I am sure you have heard this as well at your end, no matter what their justification, leading a sedentary lifestyle is simply a lazy excuse to not be active, to make it worse, it is a CHOICE!

Our bodies are meant for movement!

Try to imagine life 100 thousand years ago, before electricity, supermarkets or even any type of machinery - including agriculture. Life was tough! We where at the mercy of the climate, cycles of abundance and drought, never knowing if tomorrow we where eating or going to be eaten.

Survival Mechanisms - how our bodies work

If we did happen to sit around for a period of time, our bodies evolved to take that as a signal of famine, why else would you just sit there unless there was NOTHING to eat? Remember, there is no such thing as TVs, Computers, Internet or even a comfortable couch Lack of food- metabolism, critical functions, muscles breakdown (atrophy) and even your own mental alertness- they all slow down. Keep sitting there for an extended period of time- your body actually begins to decay and shut down- depression sets in and diseases get a leg up. Not a pretty sight, remember famine = little to no food- how does obesity occur in nature then? IT DOESN’T! You cannot gain weight by eating too little.

Use our survival mechanisms in our favor!

Here is a nice thought, our bodies have NOT EVOLVED to modern living, if you sit all day, even if you are surrounded by food, your body still thinks your in a famine situation. This is a survival mechanism developed over billions of years, and thank GOD we have it - it is among the most important gifts we have ever received!

The Bottom Line

You are never too old or “out of shape” to begin transforming your mind/body into a lean machine! I not only gave you this insight for FREE, but I also built an entire system to support your endeavors at NO COST to you- all I ask is that you use it anonymously! I hope I have taken away any excuses you may have for not getting into shape and staying that way.