An Upward Spiral

A food pyramid you can trust

Finally, a reliable source of nutrition advice that is up-to-date with the latest research and not influenced by the food industry.  The faculty at Harvard's School of Public health has put together their own food pyramid, seen below.  Their website has a wealth of information guiding and informing you about the components of a healthy diet.  Click on the pyramid to see a larger version.

(Healthy Eating Pyramid Copyright © 2008 President and Fellows of Harvard College)

 

Here are their 5 quick tips to the pyramid:

1. Start with exercise. A healthy diet is built on a base of regular exercise, which keeps calories in balance and weight in check.

2. Focus on food, not grams. The Healthy Eating Pyramid doesn’t worry about specific servings or grams of food, so neither should you. It’s a simple, general guide to how you should eat when you eat.

3. Go with plants. Eating a plant-based diet is healthiest. Choose plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and healthy fats, like olive and canola oil.

4. Cut way back on American staples. Red meat, refined grains, potatoes, sugary drinks, and salty snacks are part of American culture, but they’re also really unhealthy. Go for a plant-based diet rich in non-starchy vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. And if you eat meat, fish and poultry are the best choices.

5. Take a multivitamin, and maybe have a drink. Taking a multivitamin can be a good nutrition insurance policy. Moderate drinking for many people can have real health benefits, but it's not for everyone. Those who don’t drink shouldn’t feel that they need to start.

Why you need an electric toothbrush

I've gone years and years without using an electric toothbrush and always felt like the manual toothbrush did the job.  My wife has had an electric toothbrush ever since I've known her and she has excellent oral health.  I'd wondered to myself why she needed a technological innovation on a product that already guaranteed great results.  I recently decided to try it out since she already had one.

So what did I think?  Unbelievable!  In as little as one brushing I noticed the difference.  It felt like I had just had my teeth cleaned by the dentist.  Here are some of the advantages I noticed:

1. More control.  Since a circular head is oscillating back and forth I didn't need to worry about brushing in circles or going back and forth.  That made it far easier to navigate around each tooth and fully clean it.
2. Easier on the gums.  One problem I and many others have is that we brush too hard causing irreversible gum wear.  Since the brushing is being done automatically with the electric toothbrush you only need to worry about directing its position.
3. Proper timing.  The electric toothbrush I was using had a two minute timer that automatically started when I turned it on.  This really helped me know that I was giving my teeth the attention they needed.
4. Cleaner.  At the end of one session my teeth felt cleaner than they ever had.  I had wondered why my dentist never insisted on my using one.

The electric toothbrush is an item you didn't know you needed until you use it.  Research published by the Journal of Clinical Periodontology confirms the superiority of the electric toothbrush.  It removes more plaque and tartar and is better at preventing and controlling gingivitis.

How to improve your sleep and wake up early

    Your sleeping pattern substantially effects your life.  If you are unable to get it under your control your sleep cycle can cause fatigue, restlessness, depression, irritability, memory loss, and an inability to concentrate, among other things.  If you have been living many years with an ineffective sleeping habit you might think that's just who you are.  Chances are you are known as a person who can't go to sleep at night or can't wake up in the morning.  Your sleep probably causes you to miss out on some things in life.  Trust me, I know;  I lived like this most of my life.

    The good news is you can change.  You implicitly know this by researching ways to improve your sleeping habit.  But the fact is your current sleeping habit is controlling your life in ways you may not even realize.  How many hours does it take you to feel like you've woken up?  How do you treat people in this fatigued and irritable state?  Do you fly out the door late for work, having to miss breakfast and other things you wanted to do?  It is incredibly important to acknowledge that sleep controls your life.  I recommend writing down all the negative consequences of your current sleeping pattern.

    The ability to control your sleeping habit will significantly improve your life.  The 80/20 Principle states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.  Applying this to life that 20% includes sleep, diet, and exercise habits.  Your ability to control these causes and allow them to benefit you will have profound effects on your daily life.  You will experience increased energy, less irritability, improved mental acuity, and freedom.  You will finally feel a sense of control in your life.  The inability to control your sleep saps your willpower and therefore is the most important habit to correct.

     Below is a list of methods that you can put to use to correct your sleeping habit.  I urge you to make use of as many as you can to begin.  The first few days will be among the toughest.  You might encounter some situations weeks from now that will test you.  I compel you to succeed.  When I began this course I had to change my lifestyle to give sleep its proper place in my life.  If you need to do that I assure you you will be rewarded.  As the weeks and months go by and you discover the control you have over your sleep, scale back the following methods as you see fit.

1. Avoid caffeine.  If you can, stop drinking it altogether.  You might experience a headache and other withdrawal symptoms.  If you refuse to give it up, at least give it its proper place.  Try to limit all caffeine intake to the morning.  Only have one cup of coffee.  This is important because caffeine remains in your system many hours after you feel the energy boost it gives you.  Caffeine greatly effects your ability to sleep.
2. Avoid alcohol in the hours before sleeping.  Alcohol disrupts the sequence and duration of sleep cycles.  It also can effect the time it takes to fall asleep.  Depending on your lifestyle this may be difficult for you.  Once you have your sleep under control you can have drinks again at night and you will be better able to see its effects.
3. Make the bedroom a place only for sleep.  Associating the bedroom with sleep may be a difficult transition especially if you read or watch TV in bed.  Maybe you think you can only fall asleep by doing these behaviors.  Apparently not if you are reading this list.  Get the TV out of the room.  A side benefit of that is that it might improve your sex life, according to recent studies.
4. Go to bed at the same time every night.  Set two times, a time to go to sleep and a time to wake up, that will work for everyday of the week.  Make sure to allow an adequate amount of time to sleep (7-8 hours).  I began with midnight and 7AM.  I am now at 11PM and 5:30AM.  Rigidly adhere to this schedule with as much willpower as you can summon.  Let it alter your social life for the time being.  Go home early when you are with friends at night.  Go to sleep by your scheduled time even on the days when you think you don't really need to (Friday and Saturdays).  You might notice that you aren't tired as your bedtime approaches.  Go to bed anyhow.  You need to develop the habit. Be controlled by habits you control.  Don't let habits you don't want control you.  These days, before I go to sleep, I'm not tired at all.  Once I lay down though I fall asleep immediately.  That is control.
5. Always wake up before a certain time, even on your days off.  This is a corollary to the last method.  If you have determined you will be waking up at 7AM, you have to do it even on days you don't feel you have to.  You need to because you have a sleeping problem that needs to be corrected so you can live your life.  This will be especially difficult in the first week.  The sooner you are consistent with this and the last method the sooner you will experience results.  Stop living like the character from Fight Club.
6. If you wake up naturally before your alarm get out of bed.  While sleeping, our bodies operate in cycles.  The best time to get up is immediately after an REM cycle.  After every REM cycle you actually wake up briefly even if you're unaware.  This might amount to 3-5 times a night.  Your REM cycle lengthens as you sleep longer (those who write their dreams down soon discover they wake up and are aware after every cycle).  Anyhow, if you wake up during an REM cycle you will feel sluggish and more irritable than if you were to have woken up after it.  Don't let this be an excuse to sleep in past your set time though.  The point is, if you decide to wake up at 7AM and one morning you naturally awake at 6:30 then you ought to get up.  If you don't you will fall into another REM cycle that will make your will to rise at 7 difficult.
7. Make your bedroom dark.  This may improve your focus on sleep and will help associate the bedroom with sleep.
8. Limit nighttime distractions.  Get the pets out of the bed; turn the phone off; don't listen to music; use the bathroom before sleeping if you wake up to pee, etc.
9. Don't watch TV or use the computer 1-2 hours before you go to sleep.  The unnatural brightness of screens and monitors may make it difficult for you to fall asleep.
10. Turn bright lights down in the evening or use floor lamps instead of overhead lights.  This is just another example of calming your mind and body down before sleeping.  You are preparing yourself an hour or two in advance to fall asleep.
11. Don't eat immediately before bed but don't go to bed hungry either.  The first may effect your sleep the second counts as a distraction.
12. Create a bedtime ritual to prepare yourself for sleep.  My bedtime ritual is fairly common.  I go in the bedroom and turn on the lamp at the headboard.  I then clean out my cats' litter box, wash my hands, floss, brush, use mouthwash, go to the bathroom, go to the bedroom, take off my clothes, get in bed, and turn off my lamp.  I do this every time in the same order.
13. Exercise regularly.  If you don't exercise read my article on how walking can change your life.  Have you noticed how tired children get after playing versus a day of being sedentary?  They are much more likely to be sleepy when bedtime comes.
14. Eat well.  Research in recent years has shown that eating 4-6 smaller meals throughout the day is better at regulating your metabolism and energy levels than 3 big meals a day.  I will have more information on this topic later but for now I will provide a useful link for a healthy diet at the very credible Harvard School of Public Health's Nutrition Source.
15. Do not rely on anyone else to wake you up.  Don't let your spouse or friend wake you up.  You need to be in control.  Even if sleeping in might make you late for something you must be the prime mover of your self.  Do not relegate the responsibility of waking up to someone else.
16. Make a list of all the things you've missed in your life because of a poor sleeping habit.  I recommend this to give a concrete form to the failings and consequences of your current habit.  You are seeking excellence, not failings.  Use your past slip-ups as motivation to change.
17. Think about how a bad sleeping habit effects you during your day.  How would your day be different if you were energetic when you woke up and productive all day?  How would your social life be if you weren't so irritable?  How would your family life be if you weren't always so sluggish?
18. Remind yourself of other habits you have in your life that you are successful in.  If you have made it this far in life surely you are able to do something right.  Remember that nearly everything you do is out of habit.  You have learned to respond to a variety of situations with a habitual response.  Right now you understand you have a sleeping problem and you are researching ways to correct this.  This is an intellectual pursuit.  Now you must carry out the knowledge you've gained in the physical realm to be successful.  In the case of sleep you have not cultivated the habits necessary to be successful.  Knowledge of the methods of success by itself does not entail success.  You must act!  What is the point of learning how to change if you won't change?  Where else in life are you successful?
19. Make a sleep checklist.  Make a spreadsheet by writing these methods across the top of a piece of paper and down the left side write the days of the week.  Every day check the methods you used, either immediately before going to sleep or upon waking.  Make it your goal to check off every box consistently.  You will see that as you become more consistent on this checklist you will experience greater control over your sleep.

A note: Don't try to make other changes in your life beyond what's on this list.  Attempting to make too many changes at once will result in an increased likelihood of failure.  If you have other ideas to be added to the list, post a comment or email me.  When you succeed write about it.  Post it under this article.  In the immortal words of Aristotle, "We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

Walking can change your life

A consistent exercise program will exponentially improve your life.  It is one of the 3 greatest factors under your control that will influence your health and well-being; the other two being avoidance of tobacco and a proper diet.  The list of positive effects that exercise will have on your life is so astonishing that it is almost difficult to believe. Believe it!  A CONSISTENT EXERCISE PROGRAM WILL EXPONENTIALLY IMPROVE YOUR LIFE!

So why isn't everyone doing it? Consistency is one of the fundamental components of the claim that exercise will change your life.  It's not enough to exercise sporadically every few months or to exercise for a couple months every couple years.  That behavior may actually lead to injury.  Injury during exercise is a leading cause of injury for people in their 30's and 40's.  If one is injured while attempting to improve their life through exercise is it likely they will continue to exercise when they recover?  Probably not.  But kudos to them for even trying in the first place.  Many don't even try out of embarrassment of their own bodies.  Many don't try because they don't know how to use the gym.  Many don't try because the cost of a gym membership and exercise equipment is prohibitive.  But the reason why nearly everyone fails to exercise consistently is because they fail to develop the habit of exercise.

To achieve some of the health benefits associated with exercise you don't have to go the gym, buy equipment or wear special clothes.  All you need to do is walk.  You don't even need to do it for 30 minutes a day.  Do it one minute a day, every day for a month if you like. Next month do it for 5 minutes a day.  The month after that do it for 10 minutes a day and so on.  Be consistent!  You don't even need to go fast.  Go slow if you like.  Go slow if you are slow.  Just keep doing it day after day.  You will find that as you develop the habit of exercise you will get better at it.  Our goal is for you to eventually reach the stage where you are doing moderate level exercise regularly.  Develop the habit of exercise.  Aristotle wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”  Develop the habit.

Walking will change your life because it will serve as the foundation of your new life.  A walking habit can easily be converted to a walking/jogging habit.  That habit can easily be converted into a running habit, and so on.  If you decide to lift weights approach it in the same way as you did the walking habit.  After you develop the habit of exercise you may wish to develop the habit of healthy eating.  Remember to develop habits, not plans or programs.  Those words have the connotation of ending sometime in the near future. You are developing habits because you are developing excellence.

Let this be the beginning for you.  If you have a difficult time changing habits in your life only change one at a time.  Commit to walking at least 1 minute a day for 2 months and make no other changes in your life during that time.  Schedule it.  Try to do it at the same time daily.

A final note: You might be fully aware that it is embarrassing to be obese.  You know that you are being looked at critically and sometimes with disdain and pity.  The person that loses 50, 100 or 200 pounds is always respected for his courage to accomplish such a task.  They will ask how you did it.  What will you tell them?

Let me know how this advice works for you.

 

The Iliad of Homer

I completed my first book in the Great Books of the Western World series yesterday when I finished The Iliad.  I think most people are aware that The Iliad is a story of the
Trojan War and is loosely portrayed in the recent movie Troy so I won't attempt to summarize.  Here are few points:

• Iliad means "pertaining to Ilion," which is the main city in the state of Troy.
• The Iliad is incredibly bloody and gruesome.  Hollywood has not come close to the graphic violence of Homer.
• The famed Trojan Horse is not mentioned in the book and the story actually ends upon the funeral of the Trojan hero Hector. 
• Although gruesome and sometimes seemingly childish, The Iliad evokes a sense of our own culture, and it becomes clear that this book is a foundation of Western Civilization.  I enjoyed the heroes striving for glory.  It communicates very positive emotions in a surprising way.
• If you have thought of the Greek religion in the same way as you may think of Christianity you are in for a surprise.  The Gods are more personal, more human and are often the parent or grandparent to a character in the story.  They even quarrel with one another throughout the story.  You might want to think of them as immortal humans with special powers meddling in the affairs of mortals.

Overall, I enjoyed the book even though I was eagerly anticipating the Trojan Horse scene that never came to be.

Life: A multiple choice test

Imagine settling into your seat at a table and happening to see in front you a pile of papers stapled together with the a title in bold, black letters stating, Life: A multiple choice test.  Intrigued, you look around to see if it might be any one else's but no on else is there.  You decide to pick it up and flip the page only to see a series of questions not unlike most multiple choice tests you've taken.  But you immediately notice that this test is different.

The instructions read, “In the following questions you will be asked to select an answer that corresponds best to the life that you aspire to live.  Try to think of each question this way: when you mark a choice on the test it will be carried out in your life.  There is only one rule: you must answer every question.  Please proceed with the test."

 

1. Choose one:
   • Life
   • Death
2. Choose one:
   • Choose healthy behaviors such as regular exercise and consistently eating well
   • Make health choices based on whim
3. Choose one:
   • Use your mind consistently to understand, create, problem solve, reflect and grow.
   • Rarely challenge yourself and let your mental powers dwindle over time
4. Choose one:
   • Treat people you know with respect and make an effort to understand them
   • Treat people based on whim
5. Choose three:
   • Learn a new language
   • Learn to play an instrument
   • Let some people know regularly that you are bored
   • Learn how to cook
   • Join a sports team
   • Start a journal
   • Regularly complain to friends of having nothing to do
   • Volunteer or get a part-time job
   • Spend 20 minutes a day, 5 times a week telling people about things that have irritated you
   • (write in)
6. Choose one:
   • Make an effort to use your time wisely
   • Feel that you aren't getting things done
7. Choose two:
   • Create problems
   • Avoid problems
   • Solve problems
   • Exacerbate problems
   • Maintain problems
8. When faced with a task you clearly don't have the skills to do, would you:
   • Give up immediately?
   • Learn the skills necessary to complete the task?
   • Try using skills you do have until you lose interest and eventually move on?
9. When talking with a group of people about a problem, would you:
   • Immediately tell people what you think the best choice is and not back down from your       position?
   • Listen to what others have to say and then try to formulate the best solution?
   • Abdicate the responsibility of problem solving to others and not worry about it?
10. When you live your life will you (choose one):
    • Do what you can to live in an upward spiral of success and happiness?
    • Not put much effort into it and wonder what you could have accomplished?
    • Continuously make poor choices and head into a downward spiral?
    • Complain that you are powerless to make your dreams come true?

Alright, have you finished taking the test?  What I find interesting about a test that involves choosing between alternatives is that people make the best choice based on knowledge they have.  Generally speaking, people do not select answers simply to be funny or to be wrong.  People always try to get the answer right.  In life, generally speaking, most people know the best answer to most of their problems but for some reason they make choices that are not beneficial.  In life, most people's biggest problem is themselves.

Think about it, a guy slides into debt and keeps spending;  A person knows they are eating unhealthy and not exercising but they do nothing except take pills and have surgery;  A man wonders why things are falling apart with his spouse but then treats her rudely when he sees her instead of loving her.  I also know that if you are having these problems you could write a book about how I don't understand and that it's more complicated than that.

The saving grace is this: You are the only solution to the majority of problems in your life.  If you will take the time to figure out what is wrong and find out what you can be to help, you will make your life better. The sooner you begin to work consistently at being the solution to your problems the sooner they will go away or ease your burden.

The point is this: Life is easy.  All you have to do is make the right choices.

The Appalachian Trail: April 22nd-October 17th

After five and 3/4 months, 14 states and 2,175 miles, our extraordinary adventure has finally come to an end.  We began hiking north from Georgia on April 22nd and finished the 17th of October in northern Maine on the snow-covered summit of Mt. Katahdin in Baxter State Park.

Each year over 1,000 hikers from all walks of life set out to complete the Appalachian Trail in its entirety and of those approximately fifteen percent finish.  People drop out for a myriad of reasons ranging from financial, environmental, psychological to physical.  The average hiker takes 5-7 months to finish and some are unable to finish because severe winter weather closes the trail ascending Katahdin.  Since the completion of the trail in the 1930s fewer than 10,000 people have ever hiked it's length whether straight through or in sections.

On average the trail is very rugged with rocks and roots covering the path frequently.  There is 90 miles of elevation change over the entire trip which is equivalent to hiking up and down the Grand Canyon every 2-3 days. Getting lost is usually not a concern as the path is well worn and also marked with 2" by 6" white strips of paint called "blazes" at least every 1/4 mile.  In rocky areas where a trail is indiscernible piles of rocks called cairns mark the route.

Everything we needed was carried on our back including cold-weather gear, wet-weather gear including an umbrella, a sleeping bag, a tarp with net tent, a sleeping mat, two liters of water, three to five days of food, a stove (Jet Boil), hygiene items, water purification drops, clothes, other assorted items and a guidebook.  The guidebook clued us in to where towns, campgrounds and water sources were along the trail.  When we needed to go into town to resupply we'd hitchhike and when we needed water typically we stuck our water bottles in a spring and treated it with a small amount of chlorine (AquaMira).

The trail also has its own community that you become a part of simply by the nature of thru-hiking (hiking the entire AT from end to end in one season).  Over time you begin to know the other hikers on the trail and you keep up on the trail community through trail registers.  Registers are notebooks located in three-sided shelters every six to ten miles along the path where people write about trail conditions or anything on their mind.  People identify each other by their trail name which is usually given to you by another hiker for any number of reasons; mine was Hawkeye and my wife's was Wyoming.  Although most people like the peace of the outdoors they also tend to seek out the joys of friendship and camaraderie.  Every night people tend to meet up at campgrounds and spend the night together typically sleeping on the ground or in shelters. 

The peace and the beauty of the wilderness is what I loved the most.  My favorite states were Maine and New Hampshire for their ruggedness and beauty but it would be wonderful to be in any of them once again.  The biggest challenges are the physical and mental challenges a journey of this magnitude inevitably entails.  It isn't easy hiking 8-10 hours a day and when you throw mountains, weather and a backpack into the mix it gets tough.

Every hour of every day you are rewarded by the magnificent views, landscapes, flora and fauna.  During the trip we saw black bear, moose, rattle snake. porcupine, bobcat, deer and a range of other beautiful creatures.  There is no reason to be afraid of these animals either.  Typically they will run from you before you even see them.  A lot of the wildlife we saw was a result of listening and being able to spot them before they got out of sight.  It's beautiful.

My words of advice for any prospective long distance hikers are to go light.  The less weight you carry the easier it will be for you.  I encourage anyone with the desire to go out and do it.  You CAN succeed.  You don't have to be an athlete to walk and carry a pack.  Indeed, there were 70 year old people who passed us and overweight people that plodded along at a snail's pace and succeeded.   You will never know  your capabilities unless you push them.  It is an experience of a lifetime.

"It were as well to be educated in the shadow of a mountain as in more classic shade.  Some will remember, no doubt, not only that they went to college, but that they went to the mountain."  -Henry David Thoreau

If anyone would like further information please feel free to contact me via email with your questions.  I am happy to pass along my knowledge from this experience.  For more pictures and information please be sure to visit my photo albums.