#anyway man. I hate dealing with inflammation

[zooblesbutchpuppygirl]

I want to draw Fuzzy and Stretchy hanging out but. The inflammation :(

[lia-jones]

OC-tober - Day 4 - Medicine

Author's note: Thank you to@oc-growth-and-development for the challenge, I think this will be pretty interesting, as it got my creative juices already stirring (you can find their amazing blog and challenge here).All my stories for this challenge will feature my OC Andrea Jones and Victor Li, from the MLQC fandom.

His leg had been hurting for days. Not that he would tell me.

VIctor’s recovery from the accident had been truly remarkable, like everything about him. He was a proud man, and the idea of having someone taking care of him was horrid to him, so he pushed through the injury and the exhaustion, and he didn’t stop until he felt confident enough to move around on his own and drive to work himself.

A fast recovery comes with a price, though. The body needs time to heal, tendons need time to mend, and Victor hadn’t given himself any. As a consequence, every time he was more stressed, or the weather changed, or he outdid himself in one of his running sessions, his leg would throb in fury, lamenting the punishment it had received.

During those days, he wouldn’t let me near him, let alone admit he wasn’t feeling well. Victor would enclose himself inside his walls, insisting on dealing with the pain on his own, snapping at me if I even mentioned it. So I would just observe him closely, secretly taking action so his day would be easier, hoping the pain wasn’t getting the best of him.

Until one night, after putting Owen to bed, I found him sitting on the ottoman of our walk-in closet, half-naked, his hands pressing on his left thigh.

“This is ridiculous.” I scolded, kneeling in front of him to massage him. “Are you really that stubborn that you can’t ask for help?”

His lack of a snarky comeback made me take a closer look at him. He looked pale and clammy, and when he looked at me, I could see an unbearable pain in his eyes. Victor hadn’t only reached his tipping point. He had surpassed his pain threshold a while ago, without me noticing it.

“Ok, we need to get you to bed.” I took his arm and wrapped it around my neck. “I’ll support some of your weight, do you think you can walk that far?”

His expression showed me a steely resolve as he nodded. Even feeling like he couldn’t give another step, he lifted himself with his right leg, trying to balance himself not to weigh too much on me. When I sat him on the bed, he was panting.

“I’ll be right back.” I ran my fingers through his hair, leaving the room.

When I came back, holding a pill and a glass of water, he hadn’t moved an inch. His eyes were closed again, his breath still a bit fast. It was probably worse than I could tell.

“Take this.” I showed him the pill and the water.

“Can’t you just massage it?” He gave me a pleading look. “The muscle relaxants make me drowsy.”

I internally cringed at the tone of his voice, which reminded me so much of our five-year-old son. Victor looked nothing like the strong man he presented himself to be, strong and confident, able to excel at everything. At that moment, he was a scared little boy in pain, craving comfort. It made me wonder if he was like that when he was little, and if he had someone to rely on when he was sick. Probably Mina or Terry.

“You’re going to bed anyway, what’s the difference? You’ll get a good night’s sleep, you surely can use one.” I pushed the glass of water towards him, but he ignored it. “Come on, the pain won’t go away with just a massage, you let it go too far.”

It was the oldest trick in the book, guilting him into doing something, and I hated to do it. But the thought that his own action (or lack of it) had led them to a point of needing me was enough to make him more complacent, taking the pill from my hand and swallowing it with a big gulp of water.

“Good.” I smiled at him. “Now lay down, let me give you a good rub.”

He obeyed in silence, lifting his thighs from the mattress so I could remove his pajamas slacks, waiting patiently for me to start. At the first pressure, he couldn’t help but let out a pained cry, making me remove my hands immediately. His leg was hot, there was surely inflammation in the tissue. Maybe a massage wouldn’t solve it.

“I’m sorry.” He croaked. “Please go on.”

“Victor...Maybe we should go to a hospital.”

“No, no hospital.” He shook his head. “I’m really not that bad, you can continue.”

I started reapplying pressure, grimacing every time I felt him tense up in my hands, covering his mouth with the tip of the pillow to muffle his complaints. After a while, he started relaxing, and the sounds stopped. The massage was working, but most importantly, the muscle relaxant was starting to work. I took the chance to massage him deeper, trying to discover any knots in his tendons, hoping I would be thorough enough to prevent it from hurting again.

“I’m sorry you have to do this.”

I looked up, noticing his glassy unfocused eyes. He was high. All his emotions were on display now. I stopped the massage and quickly went to wash my hands, wanting to milk that rare moment as much as possible.

“You should get some rest.” He slurred slightly. “You must be tired from taking care of me.”

“I don’t mind at all.” I laid beside him and started playing with his hair. “I like taking care of you. You do such a good job taking care of me, it’s good to retribute.”

I smiled as my husband closed his eyes in delight, leaning his head a little closer like a sleepy kitten. I started softly scratching his scalp, knowing he secretly loved it.

“Hmmmm…” He tilted his head so my hand would go where he wanted it to be. “That feels good.”

“We could have more moments like this, Vic.” I tried my luck. “Everyone needs to be taken care of sometimes. You don’t need to wait to be in searing pain to ask for it.”

He opened his eyes to look at me but didn’t say a word. The sadness in them made me reconsider my actions. Victor had a hurt little boy inside him, and hurt little boys don’t need to talk, or to figure out their emotions. They need to be hugged. They need to be loved.

“Do you want to sleep naked or should I put on your pajamas?”

“I won’t be cold if you sleep close to me.”

Without a word, I climbed into the bed and pulled the thick comforter over us, leaning against his right side. I kept on playing with his hair, planting kisses here and there, as I watched him grow more and more relaxed, until he fell asleep.

I took a moment to look at the man I loved before I turned off the light, hoping I had done more than help him with his leg pain. Maybe I helped soothe the little boy that needed comfort and was too afraid to ask for it. Maybe I helped the adult see that it was ok for him to let his guard down and trust someone once in a while. Anyway, I was happy to watch him sleep, perfectly unaware of the world around him, soft snores coming from his parted lips.

There are certain scars that only love would heal. Victor deserved all the love in the world. I would give it to him.

[repulsivepangolin]

SEAL Team Whumptober 21/31 -Trent

No 21. I DON’T FEEL SO WELL Chronic Pain | Hypothermia | Infection Alteration: Infection --> inflammation

_____________

They had officially been deployed in the worst part of the world he could imagine for almost three months. And he was miserable.

Why in the world did they have to deploy to an icy hell out in bumfuck nowhere? Wasn’t their abilities more needed elsewhere? What kind of punishment was this?

Most of the boys had started joking about having pack ice forming in their family jewels, and he was almost certain it would be a reality within long.

He hated the cold. For many reasons. When cold weather dipped below a certain point on the thermometer, it was painful. For everyone. Except maybe the locals who seemed to thrive in the freezing hell outside their barracks.

It was painful for everyone. But it sure didn’t help his case any that his lower right arm had almost as much metal hardware inside it as it had real bones, and almost as much scar tissue as regular skin. -Or that he was missing a good portion of insulating fat from where his scars were the worst either.

He had never regained a full range of motion after the accident. His elbow wouldn’t straighten those last few degrees no matter what temperature he was in, but the fact that it was cold enough to toss boiling water in the air and have it come back down as snowflakes sure didn’t help.

His range of motion was severely compromised, and the pain was worse than he could remember it being for years. He was barely able to wrap his hand loosely around a hot coffee mug, much less actually grab something with his right.

The pain in his elbow made him be cautious of that entire arm, and that made his shoulder and neck hurt. Which all just made him more miserable.

He was used to a little pain. He’d been in some sort of chronic pain since 2008, but he could manage that pain. He was the master of that pain.

This. No. He did not know how to deal with this constant, throbbing, shearing, aching pain the cold weather brought him. He did not know how to keep the inflammation down, how to keep his elbow and everything else from getting worse.

*    *    *

“You’re aching…” it was a statement, not a question.

“That obvious?” he sighed.

“You look like your arm should be in a sling…” cold eyes locked on his, “How bad is it?”

He looked down at the table, not really interested in having to look Full Metal in the eyes as he answered, “I don’t feel so well… -Feels like I’ve got a bunch of broken glass in my elbow.”

“The cold getting to you?”

He nodded.

“Wait here…” Metal tapped his hand against the table top, “I’ll be right back.”

*    *    *

About ten minutes later, Full Metal returned with something in one of his hands. Then he placed it in front of Trent, “Place that on your elbow, or wherever it hurts worst.”

“A long sock?” Trent scrounged up his nose.

“Filled with rice.” Full Metal nodded, “And microwaved a minute or something…”

Trent eyed it suspiciously before he grabbed it with his left, “Oh, it’s warm!”

Metal nodded.

Trent placed the warm sock-turned-heating-pad against his achy elbow, he slumped down with his head against his left arm and a satisfied sigh rolled off of him. “You, my man, are an absolute angel.”

Metal chuckled, “Not sure anyone has called me an angel before, but okay…”

Trent chuckled a little.

“Does it feel better?”

Trent nodded against his left forearm, “It’s nice.”

Metal smiled a little, “You probably should try to massage it for a while, loosen up those muscles and tendons.”

“You ever tried to massage your own elbow and shoulder?” Trent chuckled.

“Elbow should be manageable…” Metal’s eyebrows drew closer together, “But I’ll admit shoulder would be harder to get a proper angle on…”

Trent nodded, “And that’s when you can move your elbow exactly like you want to…”

Metal frowned, “Yeah, didn’t take that into account…”

Trent nodded against his forearm once again.

“I’ll do it.” Metal shrugged, “As much as this cold weather is a killer for my back, it’s gotta be worse for you and that part terminator arm of yours.”

Trent looked up a bit, “You mean that?”

“About giving you a shoulder rub?” Metal chuckled a bit, “Yeah, of course.”

*    *    *

Twenty minutes later Trent was pretty much asleep on his own left forearm. Full Metal’s giant hands were attempting to ease sore and stiff muscles near Trent’s elbow.

Metal looked up when the door opened and Sonny walked through it, covered in what had to be somewhere between five and ten layers of wool, wool, wool, down or fiber jacket and a shell layer to cover it all up.

“I’m next.” He drawled as he raised a hand towards where Full Metal was rubbing Trent’s arm. “I also want a hot bubble bath for my spa treatment.”

Full Metal chuckled and reached for the nearest throwable object and tossed it at Sonny.

“Hey, whoa!” Sonny chuckled as he ducked the unopened MRE, “What did you do to Trent anyway? He’s OUT COLD!”

Full Metal smirked, opting for a lie “Pressure points. He’ll wake up in a little while.”

“Okay, I’m out!” Sonny frowned, “Yeesh… Why do you always have to be so scary?”

[professorpalmarosa]

Flame Fatale - Malva, Team Flare

For my play-through of Pokémon Y, Malva was repeatedly one of my favorite parts. From the first time she showed up and gave me lip about defeating “big bad Team Flare” in Pokémon League HQ to her pretty much telling me to fuck off at Hotel Richissimme in Xerosic’s post-game arc, I couldn’t get enough of her. She made me giggle profusely, just because it’s been ages since any Pokémon character threw that much sass in my direction.

I miss you, Professor Rowan. Please come back in a Sinnoh remake.

One of the main reasons I keep coming back to the Battle Chateau in Pokemon Y is just so I can kick Malva’s ass again and get called a wicked little trainer. I love her. Well…her game version, anyway. She was alright in the anime, but homegirl went overboard in the manga.

I mean, who on earth thinks it’s okay to chain a grunt up in a dungeon somewhere and beat him senseless for failing a mission? She’s downright adversarial toward Diantha, unnecessarily rude toward poor Xerosic, thirsty as a dehydrated Spheal toward Lysandre, and struts her stuff as though she’s the first lady of Team Flare!

Oh…wait. That’s exactly what she is, isn’t it? I take everything back. Ha ha!

When designing a bath bomb for Malva, it had to smell just as beautiful as it looked. I wanted the water to turn as vibrant pink as her hair, but surround me in a sea of potent aphrodisiacs. The end result is a blend of some well-known amorous boosters (sandalwood, ylang ylang, jasmine, blood orange) with some lesser-known libido boosters (vetiver, osmanthus). All of this partnered up with end notes of patchouli and lavandin grosso makes for an experience like no other.

So light a few candles, grab a naughty book, heat that bath water up until you can barely stand it, and bathe like a queen. You deserve it.

Now it’s time to talk about the pros and cons of these oils from a safety perspective…

Aromatherapy isn’t just about pretty smells and scented bath water. Essential oils are in such a high concentration that even absorbing them through your skin can leave you with the therapeutic (and potentially toxic) benefits.

If you are allergic to a plant, you are 100% without question going to be super allergic to the essential oil.

There’s also such a thing as contraindications: where some oils may affect you in weird ways if you have a certain medical condition or take certain medications.

The information below is for your safety if you want to attempt to make this blend at home (as a bath bomb, a body spray, or even scented bath salts). And do be sure to wear gloves. Some of these oils (especially the Balsam of Peru) have recommended dilution rates as small as 0.4%. You don’t want that to slide on bare skin!

Indian Sandalwood Essential Oil (20% of Synergy)

Sandalwood has a warm, woody scent and is very popular in men’s soaps, colognes, cosmetics, and incense. In certain parts of the world, it is also popular as a flavoring for foods and drinks. It’s a very dense wood, so it’s also very popular for wood carving.

Note: I received my Indian Sandalwood as a gift from a friend who was on a business trip. If you are going to attempt to make this blend at home, I recommend buying Australian Sandalwood as it is way more ethically and sustainably sourced.

Pros:

In traditional Ayurvedic medicine, Sandalwood Essential Oil can be used as an antiseptic and astringent. It can also be mixed into pastes to soothe inflamed, itchy, or flaky skin.

Bugs also hate Sandalwood, especially lice and mites.

Additionally, Sandalwood is one of the best aphrodisiac essential oils you can purchase. There’s a reason a lot of men’s cologne uses this wonderful wood as a main ingredient!

Cons: Although Indian Sandalwood is considered to be a universally safe essential oil, people with very sensitive skin have reported an increased risk for temporary inflammation. This is also not a cat-safe essential oil.

Vetiver Essential Oil (15% of Synergy)

Vetiver has a unique smell. By itself, it reminds me of marsh grass minus the stench of pluff mud. It’s like tall long stalks of grass with a cool, crisp undernote. It’s a lesser-known aphrodisiac, but can also help put you to sleep if you’re finding it hard to drift off to dreamland.

Pros:

Reduce the damage of nerve and circulatory problems! Vetiver can be inhaled to ease your sore joints and muscles.

Have a slow period? Vetiver can help bring it back to a regular cycle!

Reduce stress and anxiety! In fact, Vetiver’s considered so effective for this that people will diffuse it during times of emotional trauma, grief, and shock.

Fight insomnia! Vetiver is a natural sleep aid and very effective. However, its sedative properties are so strong that you might want to avoid using Vetiver in the morning or if you intend to drive or operate heavy machinery. Pull this oil out right before bed or at least once you’re in for the night. It’s worked for me!

Repel lice and other unwanted insects! In the summertime in Charlotte, we sometimes get these nasty giant cockroaches called “Palmetto Bugs.” Since my old house was in a wooded suburb, the bugs were unavoidable and you’d get about 3 or 4 in your house per summer. On days I’ve diffused Vetiver Essential Oil, I didn’t see so much as a fly in the house!

Cons:

Vetiver Essential Oil is an emmenagogue (can be used to start a period) and some people use it as an intentional abortifacent. If you are pregnant, intend to become pregnant, or nursing; do NOT use Vetiver Essential Oil.

Lavandin (10% of Synergy)

Lavandin Grosso is not a naturally-occurring plant. It is a man-made Lavender cousin to better regulate the lavender scent in the perfume industry. You’ll find that on average, Lavandin Essential Oil is cheaper than Lavender. They share a lot of therapeutic benefits, but aren’t the same thing.

Pros:

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia or Lavandula latifolia) is perhaps the most versatile essential oil out there, as it pairs with virtually everything. It has a slew of therapeutic benefits, while Lavandin has much fewer.

That said, what Lavandin does do, it does really, really well. It has a stronger, and slightly more camphorous smell. Just one strong whiff will clear out your nasal passage. It’s intense, sharp, and in-your-face…in a good way!

Cons:

Due to its high camphor content, Lavandin is not safe to diffuse around cats or dogs.

Although rare, some people experience allergic reactions to Lavender and Lavandin. If you experience difficulty breathing, a closed throat, a swollen tongue, puffy lips, or hives; discontinue use and seek help from a physician immediately.

At higher concentrations, Lavandin may cause drowsiness. If you need to drive, operate heavy machinery, or need to concentrate at work, don’t diffuse or apply this oil.

When combined with alcohol, Lavandin can increase drowsiness. Exercise caution while drinking.

When combined with some antidepressants, alcohol, antihistamines, sedatives, anxiety medications, pain relievers, muscle relaxants, or seizure medications, Lavandin may increase the effect of those drugs. If you’re on a medication that may also cause drowsiness, don’t use Lavandin Essential Oil or this bath bomb.

Jasmine Absolute (8% of Synergy)

Jasmine Absolute is one of the most costly, expensive, marked up oils you can potentially buy. This is because it takes 3.6 million flowers just to make one pound of Jasmine Absolute Oil.

There are several artificial fragrance oils for the scent (which you can purchase at places like Brambleberry and Whole Foods) that are only a fraction of the cost, but have none of the benefits. This is one of the safest, but also most useful, oils on the aromatherapy market and the scent truly is unforgettable.

Despite the cost, I actually do have the real deal in this bath bomb because I bought some Jasmine Absolute in Hong Kong!

Pros:

It’s a very potent aphrodisiac! Mix this oil with some Blood Orange and Ylang Ylang, and prepare to have a steamy, passionate night of love-making. Not only does the scent carry some seductive qualities, but Jasmine Absolute can be used to aid with sexual problems like impotence and premature ejaculation.

Restore your dry or dehydrated skin to its natural radiance! Dry skin, dehydrated skin, eczema, or dermatitis can be treated with Jasmine Absolute. However, it’s important to note that you should not apply Jasmine Absolute to open wounds.

Regulate your menstruation or labor pains! Jasmine Absolute is a strong emmenagogue, which means it stimulates menses. This can be used to speed up a period that hasn’t yet arrived, as well as reduce cramping by having more material flush out of your uterus at once. Some studies indicate that it can be beneficial during childbirth, as it strengthens contractions and promotes breast milk flow.

Treat spasms! Coughs, cramps, and muscle spasms don’t stand a chance against Jasmine Absolute.

Banish negativity and boost your spirit! The smell of jasmine brings with it feelings of joy, positivity, and confidence. Emotions like guilt, shame, stress, and grief melt away; leaving you with a calm, peaceful mind that’s ready to take on anything.

Cons:

Jasmine Absolute Oil is considered to be universally safe, non-sensitizing, non-toxic, and a non-irritant (though my sister gets migraines from the artificial fragrance oil). That said, do not use the oil if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

You should also never orally ingest an essential oil. Put Jasmine Absolute in a diffuser or on your skin with a carrier oil. Just remember to use it in moderation as going overboard might interfere with your concentration by “relaxing” you a little too much.

Blood Orange (12% of Synergy)

There’s a large and vast variety of orange essential oils out there, but most fall into two categories: those derived from the Seville bitter orange (Neroli, Petitgrain, etc.), and those derived from the sweet orange (Sweet Orange, Tangerine, Mandarin, Blood Orange, etc.).

Out of the sweet orange oils I have, the Blood Orange has the strongest and juiciest scent. If you love oranges, Blood Orange is something you’ll want to get for yourself. It smells fantastic!

Pros: The peel of sweet orange varieties (which includes Blood Orange) can be used to increase your appetite, reduce phlegm in your nose and lungs, treat coughs and colds, calm down asthma, reduce intestinal gas, settle indigestion, treat kidney stones, lower cholesterol, regulate blood pressure, and reduce the risk of stroke.

Some research even indicates that Blood Orange Essential Oil can help with prostate cancer and cancerous breast sores.

One other super cool thing about Blood Orange is that it’s listed as an aphrodisiac oil. Spritz yourself with a little and have yourself a grand time!

Cons:

Due to its high limonene content, Blood Orange is not safe to diffuse around a cat. Your dog should be fine, but cats lack a liver enzyme that helps them break down this chemical. It can create a toxic buildup and make them very, very sick.

Although Blood Orange is perfectly safe for adults, do not use the essential oil with babies or children under the age of 6.

If you are taking any of the below medications, do not use this essential oil:

Celiprolol (Celicard)

Ivermectin

Pravastatin (Pravachol)

If you are taking any of the below medications, exercise caution when using this essential oil:

Quinolone antibiotics such as Ciprofloxacin (Cipro), Enoxacin (Penetrex), Gatifloxacin (Tequin), Levofloxacin (Levaquin), Lomefloxacin (Maxaquin), Moxifloxacin (Avelox), Norfloxacin (Noroxin), Ofloxacin (Floxin), and Trovafloxacin (Trovan).

Fenofenadine (Allegra)

Medications moved by pumps in cells (P-Glycoprotein substrates) such as Etoposide, Paclitaxel, Vinblastine, Vincristine, Vindesine, Ketoconazole, Itraconazole, Amprenavir, Indinavir, Nelfinavir, Saquinavir, Cimetidine, Ranitidine, Diltiazem, Verapamil, Corticosteroids, Erythromycin, Cisapride (Propulsid), Fexofenadine (Allegra), Cyclosporine, Loperamide (Imodium), Quinidine, and others.

Ylang Ylang III (12% of Synergy)

Ylang Ylang is a powerhouse oil for those who want to get a good night’s sleep, keep their hair looking beautiful, or just want to spice up the bedroom. It’s one of the strongest floral oils and can cost a pretty penny!

A good Ylang Ylang will make you want to close your eyes and pretend you’re running through a Victorian greenhouse. A bad Ylang Ylang will smell like pool water.

I’m not exactly new to the rodeo. I bought the good stuff.

Pros:

Fight insomnia! Ylang Ylang is a natural sleep aid and very effective. However, its sedative properties are so strong that you might want to avoid using Ylang Ylang in the morning or if you intend to drive or operate heavy machinery. Pull this oil out right before bed or at least once you’re in for the night. It’s worked for me!

Repel head lice! Ylang Ylang can be used in a combination spray to repel and even kill head lice. Developing evidence suggests that a homeopathic blend of coconut oil, anise oil, and ylang ylang oil had a 92% effectiveness rate on killing those unwanted creepy crawlies in children’s hair.

Lower high blood pressure!

Increase your sex drive! Ylang Ylang is a natural aphrodisiac and has been used for millennia for that exact purpose. There’s a reason this flower is also known as the King of the Flowers!

Cons:

Ylang Ylang Essential Oil is considered to be universally safe for general use. However, it is not safe to diffuse around a cat.

Ylang Ylang Essential Oil is a very potent sedative. Do not use this oil in higher concentrations if you plan to drink alcohol, take melatonin pills, or are taking any sort of sleep aid.

Patchouli Leaf Essential Oil (13% of Synergy)

If you aren’t familiar with the smell of patchouli, stoner shops tend to burn it as incense to hide the smell of cannabis. It’s spicy, smoky, and very distinct. It blends with a lot of different oils and is one of the few that actually grows stronger with age!

Patchouli Essential Oil has a familiar smell. This scent was a favorite among the Hippie Counterculture of the 1960s and we still associate it with stoners and smokers today. It covers the scent of marijuana and blends wonderfully with so many things. It’s actually my grandmother’s favorite essential oil!

It has a slight peppery aroma and is also the key ingredient in my favorite Lush fragrance (Lord of Misrule).

Pros:

Aside from being the quintessential pot deodorizer, patchouli oil is also used as medicine for colds, tumors, headaches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.

Also, if you’re an alcoholic and suffer from chronic bad breath, patchouli oil can be used to hide the smell.

I also love the fact it can be used to increase your libido!

Cons:

Patchouli Leaf Essential Oil is generally considered to be safe, but is best avoided if you suffer from asthma. We found that one out the hard way in my family.

Osmanthus Absolute (10% of Synergy)

Despite my best efforts to convince my favorite essential oil distributor that they really need to up their game and add Osmanthus to their product line (even as just an Oil of the Month), they have yet to do so. As a result, it’s a royal pain in the ass to locate it without breaking the bank.

Good Osmanthus absolute can run you at about $90 to $200 for a tiny bottle, so I took my chances with a lower quality oil I refuse to diffuse because it’s chunky. My sister has smelled the real deal and says it smells legit, so that’s close enough.

I don’t know too much about the pros and cons of this oil, other than the certified aromatherapist I spoke with at Plant Therapy said it’s considered “universally safe.” Whatever that means. Still, it’s best to be on the safe side and dilute it if you’re going to put it on your skin.

[howtoloseweightfastsafely]

Part 3 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Part III:

Before getting to some action steps, I'll end the "theory" part of this chapter by, ahem, "droppin' some knowledge".

When it comes to finally getting in shape (or really, any major obstacle in your life), do you ever find yourself saying any, or all, of the following?

"I'm too busy"

"I would lose weight but I have a bad back (or knees, or shoulder, or [insert another body part which has no impact on what you put into your mouth])"

"I'm too tired."

"I have to watch my kids"

"I work so hard already. I deserve a break."

"My coworkers or family eat junk around me, so it's impossible not to join them."

(Or, really any other excuse that's keeping you from your goals)

The thing is, we all have to deal with these, every single day. Even now, I sometimes find myself saying "I just have so much to do today, I can't go to the gym". And this is exactly when I know I have to cut the crap and do exactly what I'm avoiding.

Essentially, we need to train our minds to immediately recognize these B.S. rationalizations for what they are and push through them anyway.

You see, these phrases are called "surface excuses", or excuses that we tell ourselves to cover up our underlying fears.

In other words, surface excuses actually have nothing to do with being busy, or injured, or tired.

While you may actually be busy, in some pain, or really tired, that doesn't mean you can't find 15 minutes to cook a healthy meal or 20 minutes to take a walk or do a quick workout.

In reality, these "surface excuses" mostly have to do with covering up our:

"It's never worked in the past. Why should it work now?"

"Who am I to deserve an attractive, fit body, and will I even be able to maintain it?"

"People are going to laugh when they see me waddling around the gym"

First. No one "made it" by giving up after a few failures.

And even if they really put in the effort and still failed, it's because they followed bad instructions, or they followed no instructions.

With the system laid out in this book, you won't need to worry about that. You get clear, well written and simple instructions from someone who knows exactly how to maneuver around the sticking points.

Second. No one cares about your round stomach, jiggly arms, or big butt. This "self-image" issue can be a big obstacle for many of us who are just starting out. I was like this too: I dreaded working out because I figured people were constantly laughing to themselves about how fat I was.

In reality, though, this is all negative self-talk, and it's simply not true.

One of the most important things I've learned over the years is:

People are much more concerned with how they look in the gym, or what they're eating for dinner, or how they can't wait for the next season of Game of Thrones, or how good the cashier at Starbucks looked today, or [insert mindless drivel that goes through my head, and the heads of 99% of people on the planet].

I also heard a study once to the tune of this: people think 7,000 thoughts per day. And 90% of these thoughts are about themselves. So, while you may personally think you have a huge butt or big ol' man boobs that everyone is secretly mocking, there is a good chance that it's simply not true to the rest of the world. They have their own problems to deal with, and you're probably not one of them. So do what you have to do, and don't worry for even a second about what others think.

Third, and last. I personally get very excited anytime I see someone overweight or obese in the gym, or if I see an overweight coworker bringing in a healthy home-cooked meal.

For me, and likely anyone who works hard in the gym (and/or kitchen), it's incredibly refreshing and empowering to see someone who is busting his or her butt, especially if they're not in great shape already. It shows us they're willing and ready to change, and it reminds us of the struggles and obstacles we faced on the way to our dream bodies.

SO when you see that lean guy or gal at the gym, realize that they aren't mocking you when they look your way; rather, there's a very good chance they're very proud, and maybe even surprised, to see someone out of shape finally taking charge of their life.

 Interested in losing weight? Then click below to see the exact steps I took to lose weight and keep it off for good...

Read the previous article about "Part 2 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality"

Read the next article about "Part 4 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality"

Moving forward, there are several other articles/topics I'll share so you can lose weight even faster, and feel great doing it.

Below is a list of these topics and you can use this Table of Contents to jump to the part that interests you the most.

Topic 1: How I Lost 30 Pounds In 90 Days - And How You Can Too

Topic 2: How I Lost Weight By Not Following The Mainstream Media And Health Guru's Advice - Why The Health Industry Is Broken And How We Can Fix It

Topic 3: The #1 Ridiculous Diet Myth Pushed By 95% Of Doctors And "experts" That Is Keeping You From The Body Of Your Dreams

Topic 4: The Dangers of Low-Carb and Other "No Calorie Counting" Diets

Topic 5: Why Red Meat May Be Good For You And Eggs Won't Kill You

Topic 6: Two Critical Hormones That Are Quietly Making Americans Sicker and Heavier Than Ever Before

Topic 7: Everything Popular Is Wrong: The Real Key To Long-Term Weight Loss

Topic 8: Why That New Miracle Diet Isn't So Much of a Miracle After All (And Why You're Guaranteed To Hate Yourself On It Sooner or Later)

Topic 9: A Nutrition Crash Course To Build A Healthy Body and Happy Mind

Topic 10: How Much You Really Need To Eat For Steady Fat Loss (The Truth About Calories and Macronutrients)

Topic 11: The Easy Way To Determining Your Calorie Intake

Topic 12: Calculating A Weight Loss Deficit

Topic 13: How To Determine Your Optimal "Macros" (And How The Skinny On The 3-Phase Extreme Fat Loss Formula)

Topic 14: Two Dangerous "Invisible Thorn" Foods Masquerading as "Heart Healthy Super Nutrients"

Topic 15: The Truth About Whole Grains And Beans: What Traditional Cultures Know About These So-called "Healthy Foods" That Most Americans Don't

Topic 16: The Inflammation-Reducing, Immune-Fortifying Secret of All Long-Living Cultures (This 3-Step Process Can Reduce Chronic Pain and Heal Your Gut in Less Than 24 Hours)

Topic 17: The Foolproof Immune-enhancing Plan That Cleanses And Purifies Your Body, While "patching Up" Holes, Gaps, And Inefficiencies In Your Digestive System (And How To Do It Without Wasting $10+ Per "meal" On Ridiculous Juice Cleanses)

Topic 18: The Great Soy Myth (and The Truth About Soy in Eastern Asia)

Topic 19: How Chemicals In Food Make Us Fat (Plus 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply)

Topic 20: 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply

Topic 21: How To Protect Yourself Against Chronic Inflammation (What Time Magazine Calls A "Secret Killer")

Topic 22: The Truth About Buying Organic: Secrets The Health Food Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

Topic 23: Choosing High Quality Foods

Topic 24: A Recipe For Rapid Aging: The "Hidden" Compounds Stealing Your Youth, Minute by Minute

Topic 25: 7 Steps To Reduce AGEs and Slow Aging

Topic 26: The 10-second Trick That Can Slash Your Risk Of Cardiovascular Mortality By 37% (Most Traditional Cultures Have Done This For Centuries, But The Pharmaceutical Industry Would Be Up In Arms If More Modern-day Americans Knew About It)

Topic 27: How To Clean Up Your Liver and Vital Organs

Topic 28: The Simple Detox 'Cheat Sheet': How To Easily and Properly Cleanse, Nourish, and Rid Your Body of Dangerous Toxins (and Build a Lean Well-Oiled "Machine" in the Process)

Topic 29: How To Deal With the "Stress Hormone" Before It Deals With You

Topic 30: 7 Common Sense Ways to Have Uncommon Peace of Mind (or How To Stop Your "Stress Hormone" In Its Tracks)

Topic 31: How To Sleep Like A Baby (And Wake Up Feeling Like A Boss)

Topic 32: The 8-step Formula That Finally "fixes" Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested (If You Ever Find Yourself Hitting The Snooze Every Morning Or Dozing Off At Work, These Steps Will Change Your Life Forever)

Topic 33: For Even Better Leg Up And/or See Faster Results In Fixing Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested, Do The Following:

Topic 34: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 35: Part 1 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 36: Part 2 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 37: Part 3 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 38: Part 4 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 39: How To Beat Your Mental Roadblocks And Why It Can Be The Difference Between A Happy, Satisfying Life And A Sad, Fearful Existence (These Strategies Will Reduce Stress, Increase Productivity And Show You How To Fulfill All Your Dreams)

Topic 40: Maximum Fat Loss in Minimum Time: The Body Type Solution To Quick, Lasting Results

Topic 41: If You Want Maximum Results In Minimum Time You're Going To Have To Work Out (And Workout Hard, At That)

Topic 42: Food Planning For Maximum Fat Loss In Minimum Time

Topic 43: How To Lose Weight Fast If You're in Chronic Pain

Topic 44: Nutrition Basics for Fast Pain Relief (and Weight Loss)

Topic 45: How To Track Results (And Not Fall Into the Trap That Ruins 95% of Well-Thought Out Diets)

Topic 46: Advanced Fat Loss - Calorie Cycling, Carb Cycling and Intermittent Fasting

Topic 47: Advanced Fat Loss - Part I: Calorie Cycling

Topic 48: Advanced Fat Loss - Part II: Carb Cycling

Topic 49: Advanced Fat Loss - Part III: Intermittent Fasting

Topic 50: Putting It All Together

Learn more by visiting our website here: invigoratenow.com

[bookreviewsandsamples]

How I Lost 30 Pounds In 90 Days And How You Can Too

NEW YORK, NY --- IT ALL HAPPENED SO FAST.

I was in the midst of what I could only describe as a mental breakdown.

For the past few weeks, I'd been visualizing my "future self" quite often...

This "future self" being a healthy, happy and incredibly fit young man.

An image that, up until this day, had seemed like a sure shot.

As the wise men say, though, "all good things must come to an end". And in line with the prophecies or whatever you want to call them, my fairy tale had come to an end.

This end was the day I that my three, incredibly fast months of weight loss came to an abrupt stop.

(In reality, it had actually ended at least a few weeks prior. I'd just been too blind to realize it.)

It was the end of 30 pounds of rapid weight loss.

The end of an incredible amount of fat that disappeared, like a miracle, in less than 90 days.

A miracle that went just as fast as it came.

It went, even as I foolishly kept thinking I was "doing great" and "getting lean".

It went, until the fateful day I realized that I had made ZERO progress over the last 2-3 odd weeks.

...That the scale wasn't moving an inch.

That the fat on my stomach looked exactly as it did in the weeks prior.

And that my muscles seemed to look me back with the "ain't got time for yo' bullshit" look.

My BODY had officially had it.

And truth be told, I deserved it.

I thought I could read a 300-word blog post and follow its 6 "diet rules", learn NOTHING about nutrition, learn NOTHING about exercise, learn NOTHING about my body, and somehow transform from an obese slob to a lean, mean fat-burning machine.

Not so fast, buddy!

And so began my quest.

A quest that culminated in massive, lasting success to the tune of 76 pounds lost. And to the reality, not just a pipe dream, of transforming from an obese slob to a lean, mean, fat-burning machine.

But a quest that, for me, included the time to understand the finer points of nutrition. To understand the inner workings of both body and mind. To discover both time-tested strategies, and modern tips and tricks --- and to proverbially "hack" my way to the upper echelons of fitness. To hack my way to a level of mastery in the field, that ranks far above the "experts" spouting off their un-researched, unproven "facts"...yet below the level of claiming complete, unquestionable knowledge of the field.

Because as I've learned by studying the real experts, the claim of unquestionable knowledge is nothing more than proof of a tremendous ego and a complete lack of humility.

There is no one, I repeat no one, who knows everything there is to know about nutrition, exercise, physiology, psychology, and all the other components of building a healthy, happy, well-rounded person. (But there are some who know a whole lot, myself included. [end shameless plug])

The best we can really do is keep an open mind, and always strive to learn more, to apply more, and to test more.

To be better than we were yesterday and as good as we can be today, for ourselves, and for our clients, for our families, and for our friends, and to every single person, we come into contact with on a daily basis.

And in doing so, we can sow the seeds for an amazing, fulfilling, freeing life.

At least that's how I see life today, and how I hope you see life too (or start seeing it.)

Anyway, I know that was a bit philosophical, but it's important to get out there.

Moving on, let's get to the "meat" of what the book is all about.

I formally introduce you to one of the most comprehensive books on fat loss, fitness, and body-mind wellness that I know of (and trust me, I've read a TON of books on the topic) -- a book that combines:

Hundreds of conversations with health & wellness specialists, NY Times bestselling authors, world-class fat loss experts, and more.8

Insane amounts of study, research, testing, and application, both with myself and my clients. (This includes studying and implementing strategies from over 40 full-length books and 600+ research papers & expert commentaries.)

My unique 8+ years of small "successes", followed by seemingly insurmountable failures and culminating with the final, lasting 76-pound weight loss success that I have now.

Furthermore, I introduce you to a book that you can use to, at a minimum, grasp the "big picture" of fat loss so you can start transforming your body today (while of course delving deep into the knowledge if you'd like).

And lastly, I introduce you to a book that takes away all the guesswork, and makes it simple and easy to change your body, without all the B.S. of trying out a hundred and one things just to lose a damn pound!

I hope that you use this guide wisely. Use it with as much (inner) strength, vigor, and dedication as you can muster, and in doing so, you too can have your very own extreme fat loss transformation.

 Interested in having a similar success story? Then click below to see the exact steps I took to lose weight and keep it off for good...

 Read the next article about "How I Lost Weight By Not Following The Mainstream Media And Health Guru's Advice - Why The Health Industry Is Broken And How We Can Fix It"

 Moving forward, there are several other articles/topics I'll share so you can lose weight even faster and feel great doing it.

 Below is a list of these topics and you can use this Table of Contents to jump to the part that interests you the most.

Topic 1: How I Lost 30 Pounds In 90 Days - And How You Can Too

Topic 2: How I Lost Weight By Not Following The Mainstream Media And Health Guru's Advice - Why The Health Industry Is Broken And How We Can Fix It

Topic 3: The #1 Ridiculous Diet Myth Pushed By 95% Of Doctors And "experts" That Is Keeping You From The Body Of Your Dreams

Topic 4: The Dangers of Low-Carb and Other "No Calorie Counting" Diets

Topic 5: Why Red Meat May Be Good For You And Eggs Won't Kill You

Topic 6: Two Critical Hormones That Are Quietly Making Americans Sicker and Heavier Than Ever Before

Topic 7: Everything Popular Is Wrong: The Real Key To Long-Term Weight Loss

Topic 8: Why That New Miracle Diet Isn't So Much of a Miracle After All (And Why You're Guaranteed To Hate Yourself On It Sooner or Later)

Topic 9: A Nutrition Crash Course To Build A Healthy Body and Happy Mind

Topic 10: How Much You Really Need To Eat For Steady Fat Loss (The Truth About Calories and Macronutrients)

Topic 11: The Easy Way To Determining Your Calorie Intake

Topic 12: Calculating A Weight Loss Deficit

Topic 13: How To Determine Your Optimal "Macros" (And How The Skinny On The 3-Phase Extreme Fat Loss Formula)

Topic 14: Two Dangerous "Invisible Thorn" Foods Masquerading as "Heart Healthy Super Nutrients"

Topic 15: The Truth About Whole Grains And Beans: What Traditional Cultures Know About These So-called "Healthy Foods" That Most Americans Don't

Topic 16: The Inflammation-Reducing, Immune-Fortifying Secret of All Long-Living Cultures (This 3-Step Process Can Reduce Chronic Pain and Heal Your Gut in Less Than 24 Hours)

Topic 17: The Foolproof Immune-enhancing Plan That Cleanses And Purifies Your Body, While "patching Up" Holes, Gaps, And Inefficiencies In Your Digestive System (And How To Do It Without Wasting $10+ Per "meal" On Ridiculous Juice Cleanses)

Topic 18: The Great Soy Myth (and The Truth About Soy in Eastern Asia)

Topic 19: How Chemicals In Food Make Us Fat (Plus 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply)

Topic 20: 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply

Topic 21: How To Protect Yourself Against Chronic Inflammation (What Time Magazine Calls A "Secret Killer")

Topic 22: The Truth About Buying Organic: Secrets The Health Food Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

Topic 23: Choosing High Quality Foods

Topic 24: A Recipe For Rapid Aging: The "Hidden" Compounds Stealing Your Youth, Minute by Minute

Topic 25: 7 Steps To Reduce AGEs and Slow Aging

Topic 26: The 10-second Trick That Can Slash Your Risk Of Cardiovascular Mortality By 37% (Most Traditional Cultures Have Done This For Centuries, But The Pharmaceutical Industry Would Be Up In Arms If More Modern-day Americans Knew About It)

Topic 27: How To Clean Up Your Liver and Vital Organs

Topic 28: The Simple Detox 'Cheat Sheet': How To Easily and Properly Cleanse, Nourish, and Rid Your Body of Dangerous Toxins (and Build a Lean Well-Oiled "Machine" in the Process)

Topic 29: How To Deal With the "Stress Hormone" Before It Deals With You

Topic 30: 7 Common Sense Ways to Have Uncommon Peace of Mind (or How To Stop Your "Stress Hormone" In Its Tracks)

Topic 31: How To Sleep Like A Baby (And Wake Up Feeling Like A Boss)

Topic 32: The 8-step Formula That Finally "fixes" Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested (If You Ever Find Yourself Hitting The Snooze Every Morning Or Dozing Off At Work, These Steps Will Change Your Life Forever)

Topic 33: For Even Better Leg Up And/or See Faster Results In Fixing Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested, Do The Following:

Topic 34: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 35: Part 1 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 36: Part 2 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 37: Part 3 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 38: Part 4 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 39: How To Beat Your Mental Roadblocks And Why It Can Be The Difference Between A Happy, Satisfying Life And A Sad, Fearful Existence (These Strategies Will Reduce Stress, Increase Productivity And Show You How To Fulfill All Your Dreams)

Topic 40: Maximum Fat Loss in Minimum Time: The Body Type Solution To Quick, Lasting Results

Topic 41: If You Want Maximum Results In Minimum Time You're Going To Have To Work Out (And Workout Hard, At That)

Topic 42: Food Planning For Maximum Fat Loss In Minimum Time

Topic 43: How To Lose Weight Fast If You're in Chronic Pain

Topic 44: Nutrition Basics for Fast Pain Relief (and Weight Loss)

Topic 45: How To Track Results (And Not Fall Into the Trap That Ruins 95% of Well-Thought Out Diets)

Topic 46: Advanced Fat Loss - Calorie Cycling, Carb Cycling and Intermittent Fasting

Topic 47: Advanced Fat Loss - Part I: Calorie Cycling

Topic 48: Advanced Fat Loss - Part II: Carb Cycling

Topic 49: Advanced Fat Loss - Part III: Intermittent Fasting

Topic 50: Putting It All Together

[adz]

i wrote a not very good essay a while ago about connections between William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom and Chuck Palahniuk’s Rant (specifically about the relationship between Faulkner’s alleged anti-Eurocentric style of retelling colonial histories versus the splintered time theory of Rant) and found it today and thought i’d throw it into the void, here goes~

A Man Who Wanted A Son: Faulknerian Techniques in Palahniuk’s Rant

        Absalom, Absalom is widely considered one of William Faulkner’s most difficult novels to comprehend and enjoy. It is a dramatic and ambitious work, and its plot spans nearly a century. It is not unlikely that this novel and its companion, The Sound and the Fury, were primarily responsible for Faulkner’s Nobel Prize win in 1949. In Absalom, the story of one of Faulkner’s most enduring protagonists is told: Thomas Sutpen, the obsessed, incestuous, murderous patriarch of a doomed dynasty.

        One of the vital characteristics that sets Absalom apart from most novels with clear main characters, and even from Faulkner’s other novels, is that Sutpen doesn’t do the telling: his past is relayed by a series of characters, most of whom heard their information secondhand. It’s a difficult and complex storytelling technique, and Faulkner certainly doesn’t make figuring it out easy for the reader, but knowing the absolute truth about the events in the novel isn’t really the point. As Richard P. Adams writes in Faulkner: Myth and Motion: “In the text, the question of ‘truth,’ in any sense of historical accuracy, is hardly relevant. The issue is not what is true about Sutpen but what it is like to live in the South.” (183)

        Sutpen’s goal, and his eventual downfall, is his obsession with conceiving an heir who would live up to his own self-imagined legacy. During an interview at the University of Virginia in 1957, when Faulkner was asked by an unnamed audience member whether the central character in Absalom, Absalom was actually Thomas Sutpen, he responded: “The central character is Sutpen, yes. The story of a man who wanted a son and got too many, got so many that they destroyed him. It's incidentally the story of—of Quentin Compson's hatred of the—the bad qualities in the country he loves. But the central character is Sutpen, the story of a man who wanted sons.” (Faulkner at Virginia)

        Comparing any author to Faulkner tends to elicit impassioned responses, which is fine, because Chuck Palahniuk and Faulkner don’t have very much in common anyway. Faulkner was an undisputed master of prose who won multiple Pulitzer Prizes, and is continually considered one of the greatest American novelists and essayists of all time, whereas Palahniuk is mostly known for his 1996 novel Fight Club, which features a scene in which a man steals human fat from a liposuction clinic dumpster in order to make soap. Despite occasional tastelessness, Fight Club is a widely-known and relatively respected novel—at least compared to Rant, which Palahniuk published 11 years later to significantly lesser acclaim.

        Rant was kind of unprecedented, even to Palahniuk’s cult followers. The novel presents itself as an “oral biography:” a compilation of interviews with friends and acquaintances of Buster “Rant” Casey, our protagonist, concerning his childhood, activities as a young adult, and the events leading up to his suicide in a fiery crash. (Henceforth, he’ll be referred to as “Buster” to reduce confusion with the title of the novel.) The story takes place in two locations: Middleton, Buster’s fictional Southern hometown, and the unnamed city Buster moves to in order to realize his goal of becoming a sort of patient zero for rabies.

        Rant takes place in a science-fictional America in which society has been crippled by a voyeuristic form of entertainment known as “boosting peaks,” which is best described as a sort of mental virtual-reality lens that allows users to jack into others’ experiences and view them firsthand, complete with all the sensory stimuli. Only someone with a surgically installed ports can boost, and a port can be deactivated by something like a traumatic injury or brain inflammation. Buster’s actual objective in spreading rabies throughout the populace is to disable as many people’s ports as possible, and free society to live in the physical realm, rather than basking in self-induced mental dissociation. Admittedly, it’s a bit of a heavy-handed metaphor.

        Although the harmful detachment to the real world caused by the ubiquitousness of technology is the most obvious “message” of Rant, there’s an even more intricate subplot that is revealed late in the novel: it is discovered that by crashing a car just the right way, an individual with rabies can travel through time. Most of the narrators don’t fully understand how it works, but one character who calls himself Green Taylor Simms claims to have done it himself. As Buster’s father describes it, Simms visited Buster and explained that one could achieve immense power and even immortality by going back in time and impregnating their female ancestors. The purity of the bloodline would turn the traveler into some sort of superhuman, according to Simms.

        Then, in a Fight Club-esque twist, Simms reveals that he’s actually Buster, and Buster’s father, etc., and that Buster is his (Simms’s) heir; an alternate timeline version of himself. Simms also explains that his process involves returning to the past and murdering his female ancestors once they’ve served their purpose. It’s supposed to then be Buster’s job to repeat the directions he’s been given by Simms and achieve immortality, except that Buster chooses to defy Simms’s plan and instead attempts to travel back in time to rescue his mother from Simms.

        It’s unclear whether Buster succeeds in traveling through time and kills Simms, succeeds in traveling through time but arrives too late, or merely dies in a burning wreck, as most of the characters in the book assume. One of several interpretations posited by writer Marvin Sanchez has Buster trapped in an endless cycle of traveling back in time and arriving a minute too late to stop Simms, then living as his own father and raising himself as a son, over and over into infinity. Naturally, where time travel is concerned, the possibilities are literally endless.

        Whether you love or hate Palahniuk, it’s a pretty ambitious plot. In many ways, Rant seeks to investigate some of the same sick visionary psyche that saturates the pages of Absalom, Absalom. Thomas Sutpen and Green Taylor Simms, the protagonists, if they are protagonists, each attempt to create the same thing by the same means: rape, violence, and incest. Sutpen’s immortality may be a good deal more figurative than that of Simms, but both believe that their pure bloodlines will produce perfect offspring and preserve some sort of lasting legacy. However, Sutpen’s children end up murdering one another, and his eventual heir is Jim Bond, a mentally handicapped mixed-race child: sort of an ultimate failure for the elitist, racist Sutpen. Buster similarly defies his father’s predetermined future for him, but in an even more direct manner: he travels through time to thwart Simms at the very beginning.

        In Rant, we’re treated to a close look at the environment and upbringing from which Buster/Simms came: Middleton, an impoverished wasteland somewhere around the Bible Belt. Sutpen’s background is significantly hazier. It is described to us by narrators who heard it from people who heard it from other people. Since Sutpen’s intention is to leave his past behind and recreate himself as someone powerful and worthy of respect, it is reasonable that he would avoid spreading information about his time in Haiti, especially his miscegenous marriage and mixed-race son. “...A dispossessed and exiled Southerner, Sutpen marries into the Haitian plantation, gaining thus access to class and wealth, but he repudiates his wife and son on racial grounds. In exchange, he receives the slaves and the money that provide for his new beginning on the Mississippi frontier…” (Broncano 109)

        It’s worth repeating here that despite Faulkner’s sentiment, Sutpen may not be the best candidate for protagonist in Absalom. There is an argument to be made for Quentin: “...the text, if I read it at all correctly, shows that the heart in conflict with itself is that of Quentin...” (Adams 181) and possibly for Jim Bond. Palahniuk’s book is no different: Buster is asserted to be the protagonist, but this presents problems with his relationship with Simms (since they’re in a sense the same person), not to mention the fact that the book all occurs in real-time after his alleged death. Sanchez argues that perhaps the actual protagonist is Echo Smith, Buster’s girlfriend and the only significant interviewee in Rant who doesn’t appear in the book’s “contributors” section. Additionally, by traveling back in time herself and aiding Buster’s efforts not just to eradicate Simms, but also the technology that would allow boosting—the root cause of the dystopian society in the novel—Echo could have changed the present in the novel to the one we currently live in: the world in which Rant is merely fiction.

        In Sanchez’s words, “...Palahniuk wanted to present the novel as a real piece of history that had turned into fiction because the events that transpired [couldn’t] be proven anymore.” This description is particularly reminiscent of analyses of Absalom, Absalom. Quentin and Shreve have no way to confirm the veracity of any of the information they’ve accumulated, beyond what Quentin actually experienced. “There is an impenetrable pattern of relatedness and non-relatedness: those who were actually involved in the events were too involved to be objective; those who were capable of objectivity were too remote from the events” (Longley 210).

        The narrative techniques in both novels necessitate wariness from the reader; we have no way of discerning who is misinformed, and who is deliberately misinforming. Although the following quote was written about Absalom, Absalom, it applies to both: “An act of imagination is needed if we are to get at lifelike, humanly meaningful, truth; but to gain the lifelikeness we sacrifice the certainty of the publicly demonstrable” (Waggoner 152). The story must lose the absolute certainty of capital-T Truth in order to be told in a way that does justice to the intensity of the events within. Many modern tabloids would agree.

        In both Faulkner’s fictional world and Palahniuk’s “real” (but actually just barely fictional) one, there’s maybe some actual Truth beyond what’s filtered down to us by the narrators, but it’s as unattainable to us as it is to Quentin, Shreve, or to any of Buster’s acquaintances, except Simms and perhaps Echo Smith.  It’s mostly accepted that Faulkner did this on purpose as some sort of statement on reality (or perceived truth) versus Truth, but there’s not an overwhelming amount of evidence to suggest that Palahniuk had the same intention. As a result, the ambiguity at the end of Absalom, Absalom feels like a result of Faulkner’s decision to withhold information, whereas in Rant, it’s simply the outcome of Buster’s and Simms’s actions to empower themselves and to destroy one another. The “true” ending has been shrouded in mystery by those involved.

        According to Hosam Aboul-Ela, much of Absalom, Absalom’s uniqueness comes from what he calls “the poetics of peripheralization,” which express a relationship between the way Faulkner constructed the novel, and his use of an anti-Eurocentric history of coloniality. “This relationship is manifested in the structure of the novel. The resulting narrative is fragmented, jumbling time by presenting counterintuitive beginnings and endings and multiple flashbacks, flashforwards, and jump cuts. It uses multiple perspectives to emphasize the multiplicity of histories and realities and eschews the unified subject in favor of split narrative foci” (Aboul-Ela 136).

        Perhaps Faulkner would describe the colonial history in Absalom as anti-Eurocentric were he alive today, but it is just as likely that this interpretation, from 70 years in his future at the time he was writing Absalom, is merely applying a modern lens to a technique that Faulkner meant only to serve his trademark technique of delayed revelation. 40 years before Aboul-Ela’s analysis, Longley wrote: “The sheer magnitude of Sutpen’s grand design requires a matching magnitude of form and content: locale and time-span, geographical spread, and analysis of the meaning of history.” (209) Maybe Faulkner adopted this anti-Eurocentric historical method without realizing it in order to do justice to Sutpen’s sinister “design.” We can never know; we can only accept or deny each interpretation as we read them, same as Quentin.

Bibliography:

-Aboul-Ela, Hosam. Other South: Faulkner, Coloniality, and the Mariátegui Tradition. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh, 2007. Print.

-Adams, Richard P. Faulkner: Myth and Motion. Princeton: N.J., 1968. Print.

-Broncano, Manuel. "Reading Faulkner in Spain, Reading Spain in Faulkner." Ed. Annette Trefzer and Ann J. Abadie. Global Faulkner. Jackson: U Of Mississippi, 2012. N. pag. Print.

-Longley, John Lewis, Jr. The Tragic Mask: A Study of Faulkner's Heroes. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina, 1963. Print.

-Sanchez, Marvin. "Interpreting Palahniuk's ‘RANT:’ Splintered Time Theory." The Comfy Chair Massacre. N.p., 01 Feb. 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2015. <https://moonwalkerwiz.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/a-long-long-rant-about-palahniuks-rant>.

-Waggoner, Hyatt H. William Faulkner: From Jefferson to the World. Lexington: U of Kentucky, 1966. Print.

-"Faulkner at Virginia." Interview by Frederick Gwynn, Joseph Blotner, & Unidentified participants. Faulkner at Virginia. University of Virginia, 13 Apr. 1957. Web. 02 Dec. 2015. <http://faulkner.lib.virginia.edu/display/wfaudio06_1>.

[ncmagroup]

By Andrew Draughon

Turkeys and polecats are natural enemies.

(Polecats are European weasels, by the way.)

  So how do you imagine a mother turkey responds to the sight of a hungry polecat threatening her young?

If you guessed squawking, clawing, and gnashing of the beak—you’d be right!

In fact, in an experiment by animal behaviorist M. W. Fox…

Turkeys flew into an uncontrollable rage and attacked their lanky predators in self-defense…even when the “polecats” in question were actually fake, stuffed replicas.

Which makes sense, right?

Turkey sees polecat-looking shape—turkey becomes alarmed and enraged!

Well, here comes the twist…

What do you think happens when the researchers place a recorder playing a baby turkey’s “cheep cheep” call inside the stuffed polecat?

Shockingly enough, the mama turkeys welcome the toy instead of attacking it.

They would even get on top of the stuffed animal to protect it, just like they would a baby chick.

So what’s happening here?

Well, an animal behaviorist parlance, this is what’s called a “fixed-action” pattern, which is essentially a sequence of automatic behaviors initiated by a specific queue.

In turkeys, their “fixed-action” pattern to accept and protect their young is triggered by the “cheep cheep” auditory queue made by their chicks.

…even if the sound is emitted by their natural enemy and predator—the polecat!

Now, we humans fancy ourselves above such instinctual, “robotic” behavior.

But just how correct is this belief?

Read on to find out!

Persuasion is the product of hardwired psychological triggers

Humans are funny.

Or, at least, we should try to be!

Here’s why…

According to cognitive neuroscientist Scott Weems, simply watching comedies after a major surgery can cut your need for pain medication by 25%.

Additional research even indicates that using humor as a stress-relief mechanism significantly cuts your risk of heart disease and stroke (by up to 40%!), and can even prolong your life by up to four-and-a-half years.

Impressive right?

Studies like these demonstrate that while humans have sophisticated hardware between our ears (especially in comparison to a turkey), we also have a number of innate psychological triggers that profoundly influence our thinking and well-being.

…often without our knowledge or consent!

Which, in many instances, is a wonderful thing (like in the case of humor).

And let’s be honest…

People often need a firm nudge to act in their own best self-interest

Think diet and exercise, for instance.

As we proceed, you’re going to learn a number of “persuasion hacks” that powerfully influence people to do what you want.

Now, it’s critical to use these methods ethically.

And not in a creepy, “cult-leadery” way, which certainly isn’t cool.

When marketing on the internet, as entrepreneurs looking to add value to people’s lives, our main concern should be to persuade our prospects to change their lives for the better.

And this is going to mean overcoming the objections, which are keeping them stuck.

How are we going to do this?

Well, it all starts with…

The Seven Principles of Ethical Persuasion

I first learned these principles from Tim Erway—my mentor in all things related to copywriting, conversion, and influence—who also happens to be our CEO here at Elite Marketing Pro.

It’s important to note…

What you’re about to discover is based on decades and decades of clinical research conducted by Dr. Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University, whose seminal work, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, is a MUST READ for all marketers.

In fact, Cialdini begins Influence with the story of the turkey and the polecat…

With the strong implication that we’re not as different as we’d like to think of our favorite holiday feast.

So without further ado, let’s dive in!

Imagine a close, personal friend comes over for brunch.

I’m talking someone you feel connected to, a person that gets you, someone who understands and looks out for you.

Now, this friend tells you about a positive new change in their life, which is the result of a new product or business they’re involved with.

Either way, he or she says…

“Hey, how would you like to try it, too? I’d love to hear what you think. There’s no risk—you get your money back if you don’t like it.”

Your knee-jerk reaction is probably to say “what the heck, sure!” right?

You don’t need a long, drawn-out ‘spiel’ to buy from someone you like and trust.

That is the law of connection at work.

Its core idea is that we only buy or do business with people we have a certain level of trust with.

When we’re talking about buying a can of coke, that level is understandably low.

But once large sums of money are on the line, you need a MUCH stronger connection, especially when marketing on the internet.

Ultimately, trust trumps everything.

If you have enough of it, people will do business with you…even without “board certified” credentials, results, or credibility.

I mean, think about it…

If you’ve got chronic back pain and your best bud says…

“Hey man, I thought I was going to have to fuse my disks until I found this ultra-low frequency emitter that sends out these signals that relieve pain and inflammation. Works like a champ. Now I don’t need surgery anymore. It’s a miracle!”

Sure, you might be a little skeptical—who wouldn’t be?—but chances are strong that you’ll be compelled enough to take a closer look and purchase the trial.

You WANT to believe (and hey, I know I do too!).

Now here’s a trick…

When marketing on the internet, you can invoke the law of connection in your business by crafting a relatable story—and simply opening up.

Be vulnerable; share yourself; let people know and see the real you.

That way, people will FEEL a connection.

Even if they’ve never seen you in the flesh!

This is the “simplest” one of the bunch.

It’s all about our natural instinct to move away from pain and towards pleasure.

Because that’s what desire really is…

A force that compels action by showing a path to less pain or more pleasure (or both).

Having said that, this principle is simple, but it’s also difficult.

To influence people with it…

You’ve got to forget about your wants and focus on what others want when you’re marketing on the internet.

That’s counterintuitive to human nature—so you need to stay keenly aware of what others truly want.

And what happens when you don’t?

Well, let’s think back to the infamous Coke fiasco.

In April 1985, Coca-Cola introduced a new formula for its world-famous soft drink.

The product was called New Coke.

In blind tests, people preferred it to Coca-Cola Classic and Pepsi by a HUGE margin.

It tasted the best, so naturally, it eclipsed all other soft drinks when it was released.

Right?

Wrong!

The executives didn’t understand that what people desired from Coke wasn’t the best taste.

People craved the old, familiar taste they grew up with.

Coke ignored principle #2 and New Coke is said to have cost tens of millions of dollars.

Ouch!

Fortunately, Coca-Cola brought the classic flavor back (and, as you know, recovered just fine).

So here’s the lesson…

Unless you can afford to make mistakes like that, remember:

Influence is about focusing on others’ desires, not yours.

And it doesn’t matter what you think they should desire, only the market can decide that!

Even the most ridiculous fad products make people rich.

As long as they get popular enough.

Don’t believe me?

I mean, I know you do—but here’s a story to prove the point, anyway…

In 1975, Gary Dahl became a millionaire by selling pet rocks.

His product was silly, but people were persuaded to buy it simply because it was popular.

That’s how social proof works.

You “prove” that your product or organization is legitimately using the power of popular opinion.

To invoke this principle, highlight your results.

For example, at Elite Marketing Pro we can say…

We’ve got over 10,000 active members

Our top affiliates make multiple six figures

We’ve generated several hundred thousand subscribers

We serve people in over 100 countries

So when a newcomer reads those facts, they instantly know—this is a serious business that makes people money!

On an instinctual level, it persuades them to trust us and our advice.

This is why testimonials are so powerful when you’re marketing on the internet.

They are proof!

And you can do the same thing by drawing attention to your own results.

Again, the principle of social proof helped a guy make millions off selling pet rocks…

Imagine what it can do for you with an actual, life-changing, valuable product!

Imagine you walk into a car dealership.

A self-satisfied slob in an ill-fitting suit saunters over to you.

He smiles, leans in and whispers…

“Have I got a deal for you today, friend!”

How would that make you feel?

If you’re like me, you’d be pretty repulsed!

And I should know…it’s a recent, true story.

Everyone hates this kind of selling—and you probably don’t want to be on the giving or receiving end, either.

The solution is giving people value so they want to come and buy from you.

Here’s a real-life example…

LeBron James is worth over $300 million and has a (rumored) $1 billion contract with Nike.

As you can imagine, his manager is doing quite well financially.

And who’s his manager?

Not some big-name sports agent.

LeBron’s manager is Rich Paul; a guy who selflessly hooked him up with two throwback jerseys LONG before he even made it to the NBA.

Rich gave genuine value with his gift, and that was the key to beating out every other sports agent who wanted LeBron.

Now, you don’t have to give people physical gifts—that’s not quite the point.

The idea is to lead with value.

Here at EMP, we teach what’s called attraction marketing.

The idea is that we freely give away lots of valuable content, in the form of blog posts, monthly webinars, Facebook Live presentations, etc.

And once you’ve consumed enough of our content to get value, produce results, and come to trust us…

You’re going to want to do business with us by buying our products and services.

To invoke this principle for yourself, simply find a way to demonstrate value before asking for the sale.

Share your knowledge freely, and be friendly and helpful—even a kind word is valuable and goes a long way towards influencing people.

Adlai Stevenson once introduced John F. Kennedy with the following anecdote…

In Ancient Greece, when Cicero finished speaking, the people said, “How well he spoke.” When Demosthenes finished speaking, they said, “Let us march!”

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be likened to Demosthenes…

The guy that persuades people to take immediate, decisive action!

After all, business is about getting paid, not being pretty, right?

If you agree (and maybe even if you don’t)…

You’ll love this principle, which directly persuades people to agree with you when marketing on the internet.

You may have heard of the “yes ladder” method, where you ask questions in which “yes” is the natural answer?

It works like this…

After a while, folks get comfortable agreeing with you—and open up to your suggestions.

Examples of “yes ladder” questions include:

That’s fair, isn’t it?

Sounds good, right?

Nice day, huh?

Isn’t that great?

Don’t you agree?

You might even notice that I ask you to agree from time to time, right?

Now, it doesn’t matter what you ask—what matters is that people say “yes” to you.

This is one example of the principle of consistency.

The idea is simply getting people to say multiple “yeses” to you on minor things.

Once they get used to that, you’ll have a much easier time with the bigger “yesses.”

Einstein’s famous formula states that something can’t turn into nothing.

Energy and matter can turn into each other, but they don’t just disappear.

Instead, when energy is released, an equivalent exchange happens—even if we can’t see it.

The same law applies to human behavior.

Humans hate to just take something without giving anything in return.

It’s not in our nature.

Instead, when people receive something, they want to pay back.

It can be with a kind word, a positive thought or money—but there’s always an exchange.

That’s what the principle of reciprocity is about.

When you give something away for free, people want to pay you back.

Charities know this, which is why they give out stamps, name labels, gifts, etc. when asking for money.

You can do the same thing by giving value (see Principle #4) first.

Don’t be afraid to “pay it forward” when you’re marketing on the internet

Make the first move, and you’ll see that people will want to reward your efforts.

Have you noticed that new iPhones sell out each time…

Even before they’re released?

For example, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus received over 10 million pre-orders and yet were out of stock days before the September 2015 release.

Now, why does this happen?

Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world.

It’s not like they can’t make enough phones.

So what’s this really about?

Well, it’s all about scarcity.

This principle states that people want what they can’t have.

They want the exclusive; the limited; the forbidden.

Apple is a huge success, in part because their products are launched with scarcity.

You can do the same thing to influence people in your favor.

Just don’t lie about it—people hate that!

A simple way to add scarcity is with one-time offers that only appear once.

Another is with expiring offers that run out at a certain time and date.

We use both here at EMP.

And when it comes to the rationale behind scarcity, it’s honestly “anything goes.”

For example, you could say…

“I wanna work with leaders and decisive action-takers. If you’re not ready to act, you’re not the kind of individual I want on my team.”

Or you could say…

“If you don’t take action today, how will your life be different a year from now? So to help you move forward right now, this offer is only available for the next hour. After that, the price doubles.”

In the end, it doesn’t matter—so long as there’s scarcity, and a logical reason for it.

Okay, that wraps up our 7 principles!

Here they are again…

Connection

Desire

Social Proof

Value

Consistency

Reciprocity

Scarcity

Until next time, Andrew Draughon Director of Content Elite Marketing Pro

Now, each of these principles Andrew talked about is contingent on one thing…

You first must capture your prospect’s attention

That means you need to learn more about marketing.

  Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

The Seven Principles of Ethical Persuasion By Andrew Draughon Turkeys and polecats are natural enemies. (Polecats are European weasels, by the way.)

[4rhealth]

By ICIM Member Valeska Wells DO: What’s the big FAT deal??

  Ever notice how there are certain things in life that always come back in style? Whether it’s in the fashion world, architecture, old-fashioned films or cars… some classics always make their way back into the spotlight a few generations later. Just hang on to those bellbottoms a little longer- you’ll see! Well, I’m here to talk about one such classic of the nutrition world that was thought to be “out of style” (not to everyone) for a while, but now is back in the spotlight. A diet essential that we now know should never have been removed in the first place… dietary fat. That’s right- fat is back, baby! and we will all be better off for it!

Every five years the USDA and Department of Health and Human Services release the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These established guidelines influence our food supply in numerous ways including school lunches, military food programs and recipes used in restaurants- it’s safe to say that they undoubtedly influence what you and your family eat on a regular basis. Thankfully, one major topic in this year’s revision was the role of dietary fat.

Since the late 1970’s, the Dietary Guidelines have recommended no more than 30% of calories to come from fat. This included all fats (not just saturated) because fat contains more calories (9) per gram than carbohydrates and protein (4), thus the proposal that low-fat diets would help prevent obesity. Seems simple enough, right? Well, if only nutrition were so cut and dry.

Soon enough low-fat foods made their way into every aisle of the grocery store and countless kitchens around the country. However, since this low-fat craze rates of Alzheimer’s, obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer have only increased. How? This enigma can be answered a multitude of ways- I will do my best to explain the main culprits below…

The first problem with removing fat from our nation’s plates begins as a matter of calories. Now, if you are familiar with my view of nutrition or have visited me at Whole Health Houston you will know that I hate talking calories – counting, tracking, obsessing – it just doesn’t honor food (which if you haven’t heard is pretty darn essential to our survival therefore should be honored) and in the long run can harm or relationship with it… anyway, more on that below. According to research from Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, 28% more calories are consumed when we choose low-fat products because we think they can eat more of it than we should. So not only do we end up eating more overall calories in a day (remember, those extra calories are why fat is criticized in the first place) the majority of these calories are coming from processed carbohydrates! Think the low-fat yogurt, chips, cookies, candies and peanut butter you see dominating the grocery store isles (another reason to shop the perimeter of the grocery store). These products pack a processed carbohydrate, sugar and calorie bomb to our systems due to the dramatic shift they undergo when fat is removed to make them “low-fat” and therefore “healthier.”

This shift in macronutrient composition is due to the next problem with demonizing fat…flavor (or lack thereof). When the fat is removed from a food, so is the flavor. Low-fat foods taste bad – they just do – but food manufacturers have to sell their product so to make it palatable they add flavor enhancers, oxidized vegetable oils, iodized salt, colors, dyes and sugar. This swap of ingredients turns any food product that boasts the claim of low-fat to be synonymous with the label of high-carbohydrates. In addition to the abundance of highly processed carbohydrates, damaged vegetable oils replaced healthy saturated fats which become oxidized and lead to free radical accumulation and inflammation in the body. One can argue that it is too many of these processed, nutrient devoid, inflammation producing carbohydrates that is really at the root of our nation’s obesity epidemic.

This post is not one of doom and gloom, but of hope because major changes are on the horizon! In fact, this year’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans guidelines concluded that “reducing total fat (replacing total fat with overall carbohydrates) does not lower CVD [cardiovascular disease]risk… dietary advice should put the emphasis on optimizing types of dietary fat and not reducing total intake.” Furthermore, total fat was not recommended as a prevention for obesity, but instead LESS sugar-sweetened foods and drinks and refined grains are recommended! And the biggest relief of all – dietary cholesterol is no longer listed as a “nutrient of concern.” Meaning that research has proven that cholesterol isn’t the bad guy it has been made out to be! This change is parallel with recent scientific evidence that showing there is no relationship between dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol.

Here at Whole Health Houston, we have been telling clients for a long time that health and nutrition is so much more than just a matter of balancing calories in vs. calories out. This claim can be justified by just one example: diet soda and water are not equals! If I told you and your family that all you have to do to be healthy is burn more calories than you eat, I could just tell you to drink all of the diet soda that you wanted because it has zero calories – just like water – so that means it is equally as healthy. You would probably call me crazy and leave my office because you know that water is essential to your survival whereas sodas are not. In fact, researchers have discovered that just one 12oz diet soda per week increases your risk of diabetes by 33%!

What’s more is that, “randomized trials confirm that diets higher in healthful fats, replacing carbohydrate or protein and exceeding the current 35% fat limit, reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease!” This is where we see that good old classic, healthy dietary sources of fat, rising above the rest and reigning supreme above all of those man-made fat-imposters. You see, nature doesn’t make a bad fat. This includes sources like pastured butter, pastured eggs, nuts and seeds, heavy cream, raw cheese, olive oil, olives, coconut oil, coconut milk, avocados and fats from fresh-caught fish as well as organic, grass-fed meats. These are the original sources of essential nutrition that should never have been messed with in the beginning. These fats help to promote weight loss, lower triglycerides, decrease inflammation and the harmful kind of LDL cholesterol that causes oxidative damage in our bodies.

Just like a classic car lover might say nothing will ever be able to replicate the original model-T car, I say nothing will ever be able to replicate unprocessed saturated fats found in nature. Don’t be fooled by refined seed oils like canola oil, corn oil, safflower oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil and vegetable oils just because they tout the claim of being polyunsaturated fats. Polyunsatured fats don’t automatically mean healthy because they are not saturated. These industrial seed oils are heated to extract the oil from the seed which damages the fat and forms free radicals that mutate in the body. This process increases LDL particles (mostly bad guys) and decreases HDL particles (good guys), causes oxidation and a low-grade, systemic inflammation that is at the root of much of our nation’s health troubles today. Unlike polyunsaturated fats, saturated fats are not damaged when they are heated and therefore reduce inflammation in the body.

What’s more is the overuse of man-made (hydrogenated) and/or damaged fats that we are consuming in fried foods and baked goods. These are likely made from GMO-sources and are nearly impossible to avoid if you are eating outside of the home on a regular basis. In addition to harmful fats, there are many questionable ingredients used in restaurants that we simply would never cook with at home – making eating out more of a guessing game then you may realize. I encourage you to fill up with a balance of whole food carbohydrates, clean animal sources of protein and healthful fats prepared in the comfort of your own home as much as possible. I call it the MACRO-trio plan (look for more posts on this later or schedule an appointment with us to learn more). This way, when you do choose to enjoy a night out (let’s be honest, you wouldn’t want to avoid Tex-Mex in Houston forever, nor should you!) your body isn’t already at its breaking point and can handle some less than healthy choices! After all, life is about balance.

It may take some time to re-train our brains from the fat-phobia that has been instilled in us. However, I think these facts about fat will help with that process:

Fat keeps us full. Fat contains more calories per gram than any other macronutrient (protein or carbohydrates), so if you are only focused on counting calories it may be the first place you look to cut back. Don’t do it! We will teach you that not all calories are created equal and that achieving your health goals is more than just about counting calories anyway. Flus, without fat our brain doesn’t get the signal that we are full and can stop eating. This leaves us with intense cravings for sugary foods and makes us feel deprived and hungry. That’s the exact opposite of what food should do for your body!

Detox requires fat. The liver round up toxins from the entire body and collects them in bile which is stored in the gallbladder. When dietary fat is consumed, it triggers the release of bile to digest this fat and other foods we eat. This bile is then excreted in the feces. Without adequate dietary fat, this bile is not released and toxins build up in the gallbladder and liver. What’s more is this toxic load increases overtime and the body may reabsorb these stagnant toxins back into circulation.

Fat aids in weight loss and weight management. Because weight loss is so much more than “calories in vs. calories out” fat actually encourages weight loss. Excess sugar in our body (carbohydrate), gets stored as fat which leads to undesirable weight gain. Protein and fat keep our blood sugars from spiking, and trigger the pancreas to secrete glucagon (the fat-burning hormone) instead of insulin (the fat-storing hormone). I am not encouraging you to cut out carbohydrates from your diet – carbohydrates are essential to your body too – we just need to choose the right kinds. Focus on fruits and vegetables as main carbohydrate sources, and consume every carbohydrate with a protein and a fat source.

Vitamin activation. Fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K are critical to overall health. As recorded by nutrition pioneer Weston A. Price, traditional diets of cultures from around the globe contained 10 times the amount of fat soluble vitamins than the modern diet. As one example, we can only obtain the active form of vitamin A from naturally fat-rich sources like cod liver oil, grass-fed dairy, liver, and egg yolks. Yep – only from these sources, not carrots! Not only are dietary fats a good source of these vitamins, they also activate vitamins found in other foods. For example, a plain bowl of steamed broccoli will actually be healthier for you with some good grass-fed butter on top of it!

Falling and staying asleep. Did you know that enjoying a couple tablespoons of fat and about a half cup of carbohydrates (we teach you to visualize portions rather than count calories here) about 15 to 30 minutes before bed can you fall and stay asleep? Yes, technically there are carbohydrates and fat in a milkshake but this isn’t the kind of snack I am taking about! Try some guacamole and carrots, a delicious bowl of berries and heavy cream, celery slices or half a banana with almond butter or half of a sweet potato with coconut oil and cinnamon for your next bedtime snack and feel the difference in the AM!

There is so much more… fat reduces inflammation, supports cholesterol balance, aids in proper brain function and is essential for hormone production (especially progesterone and testosterone)!

from The Alliance for Natural Health http://ift.tt/2ks7wEe via Aloe for Health

[howtoloseweightfastsafely]

How I Lost 30 Pounds In 90 Days And How You Can Too

NEW YORK, NY --- IT ALL HAPPENED SO FAST.

I was in the midst of what I could only describe as a mental breakdown.

For the past few weeks, I'd been visualizing my "future self" quite often...

This "future self" being a healthy, happy and incredibly fit young man.

An image that, up until this day, had seemed like a sure shot.

As the wise men say, though, "all good things must come to an end". And in line with the prophecies or whatever you want to call them, my fairy tale had come to an end.

This end was the day I that my three, incredibly fast months of weight loss came to an abrupt stop.

(In reality, it had actually ended at least a few weeks prior. I'd just been too blind to realize it.)

It was the end of 30 pounds of rapid weight loss.

The end of an incredible amount of fat that disappeared, like a miracle, in less than 90 days.

A miracle that went just as fast as it came.

It went, even as I foolishly kept thinking I was "doing great" and "getting lean".

It went, until the fateful day I realized that I had made ZERO progress over the last 2-3 odd weeks.

...That the scale wasn't moving an inch.

That the fat on my stomach looked exactly as it did in the weeks prior.

And that my muscles seemed to look me back with the "ain't got time for yo' bullshit" look.

My BODY had officially had it.

And truth be told, I deserved it.

I thought I could read a 300-word blog post and follow its 6 "diet rules", learn NOTHING about nutrition, learn NOTHING about exercise, learn NOTHING about my body, and somehow transform from an obese slob to a lean, mean fat-burning machine.

Not so fast, buddy!

And so began my quest.

A quest that culminated in massive, lasting success to the tune of 76 pounds lost. And to the reality, not just a pipe dream, of transforming from an obese slob to a lean, mean, fat-burning machine.

But a quest that, for me, included the time to understand the finer points of nutrition. To understand the inner workings of both body and mind. To discover both time-tested strategies, and modern tips and tricks --- and to proverbially "hack" my way to the upper echelons of fitness. To hack my way to a level of mastery in the field, that ranks far above the "experts" spouting off their un-researched, unproven "facts"...yet below the level of claiming complete, unquestionable knowledge of the field.

Because as I've learned by studying the real experts, the claim of unquestionable knowledge is nothing more than proof of a tremendous ego and a complete lack of humility.

There is no one, I repeat no one, who knows everything there is to know about nutrition, exercise, physiology, psychology, and all the other components of building a healthy, happy, well-rounded person. (But there are some who know a whole lot, myself included. [end shameless plug])

The best we can really do is keep an open mind, and always strive to learn more, to apply more, and to test more.

To be better than we were yesterday and as good as we can be today, for ourselves, and for our clients, for our families, and for our friends, and to every single person, we come into contact with on a daily basis.

And in doing so, we can sow the seeds for an amazing, fulfilling, freeing life.

At least that's how I see life today, and how I hope you see life too (or start seeing it.)

Anyway, I know that was a bit philosophical, but it's important to get out there.

Moving on, let's get to the "meat" of what the book is all about.

I formally introduce you to one of the most comprehensive books on fat loss, fitness, and body-mind wellness that I know of (and trust me, I've read a TON of books on the topic) -- a book that combines:

Hundreds of conversations with health & wellness     specialists, NY Times bestselling authors, world-class fat loss experts,     and more.8

Insane amounts of study, research, testing, and     application, both with myself and my clients. (This includes studying and     implementing strategies from over 40 full-length books and 600+ research     papers & expert commentaries.)

My unique 8+ years of small "successes",     followed by seemingly insurmountable failures and culminating with the     final, lasting 76-pound weight loss success that I have now.

Furthermore, I introduce you to a book that you can use to, at a minimum, grasp the "big picture" of fat loss so you can start transforming your body today (while of course delving deep into the knowledge if you'd like).

And lastly, I introduce you to a book that takes away all the guesswork, and makes it simple and easy to change your body, without all the B.S. of trying out a hundred and one things just to lose a damn pound!

I hope that you use this guide wisely. Use it with as much (inner) strength, vigor, and dedication as you can muster, and in doing so, you too can have your very own extreme fat loss transformation.

 Interested in having a similar success story? Then click below to see the exact steps I took to lose weight and keep it off for good...

Read the next article about "How I Lost Weight By Not Following The Mainstream Media And Health Guru's Advice - Why The Health Industry Is Broken And How We Can Fix It"

Moving forward, there are several other articles/topics I'll share so you can lose weight even faster and feel great doing it.

Below is a list of these topics and you can use this Table of Contents to jump to the part that interests you the most.

Topic 1: How I Lost 30 Pounds In 90 Days - And How You Can Too

Topic 2: How I Lost Weight By Not Following The Mainstream Media And Health Guru's Advice - Why The Health Industry Is Broken And How We Can Fix It

Topic 3: The #1 Ridiculous Diet Myth Pushed By 95% Of Doctors And "experts" That Is Keeping You From The Body Of Your Dreams

Topic 4: The Dangers of Low-Carb and Other "No Calorie Counting" Diets

Topic 5: Why Red Meat May Be Good For You And Eggs Won't Kill You

Topic 6: Two Critical Hormones That Are Quietly Making Americans Sicker and Heavier Than Ever Before

Topic 7: Everything Popular Is Wrong: The Real Key To Long-Term Weight Loss

Topic 8: Why That New Miracle Diet Isn't So Much of a Miracle After All (And Why You're Guaranteed To Hate Yourself On It Sooner or Later)

Topic 9: A Nutrition Crash Course To Build A Healthy Body and Happy Mind

Topic 10: How Much You Really Need To Eat For Steady Fat Loss (The Truth About Calories and Macronutrients)

Topic 11: The Easy Way To Determining Your Calorie Intake

Topic 12: Calculating A Weight Loss Deficit

Topic 13: How To Determine Your Optimal "Macros" (And How The Skinny On The 3-Phase Extreme Fat Loss Formula)

Topic 14: Two Dangerous "Invisible Thorn" Foods Masquerading as "Heart Healthy Super Nutrients"

Topic 15: The Truth About Whole Grains And Beans: What Traditional Cultures Know About These So-called "Healthy Foods" That Most Americans Don't

Topic 16: The Inflammation-Reducing, Immune-Fortifying Secret of All Long-Living Cultures (This 3-Step Process Can Reduce Chronic Pain and Heal Your Gut in Less Than 24 Hours)

Topic 17: The Foolproof Immune-enhancing Plan That Cleanses And Purifies Your Body, While "patching Up" Holes, Gaps, And Inefficiencies In Your Digestive System (And How To Do It Without Wasting $10+ Per "meal" On Ridiculous Juice Cleanses)

Topic 18: The Great Soy Myth (and The Truth About Soy in Eastern Asia)

Topic 19: How Chemicals In Food Make Us Fat (Plus 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply)

Topic 20: 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply

Topic 21: How To Protect Yourself Against Chronic Inflammation (What Time Magazine Calls A "Secret Killer")

Topic 22: The Truth About Buying Organic: Secrets The Health Food Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

Topic 23: Choosing High Quality Foods

Topic 24: A Recipe For Rapid Aging: The "Hidden" Compounds Stealing Your Youth, Minute by Minute

Topic 25: 7 Steps To Reduce AGEs and Slow Aging

Topic 26: The 10-second Trick That Can Slash Your Risk Of Cardiovascular Mortality By 37% (Most Traditional Cultures Have Done This For Centuries, But The Pharmaceutical Industry Would Be Up In Arms If More Modern-day Americans Knew About It)

Topic 27: How To Clean Up Your Liver and Vital Organs

Topic 28: The Simple Detox 'Cheat Sheet': How To Easily and Properly Cleanse, Nourish, and Rid Your Body of Dangerous Toxins (and Build a Lean Well-Oiled "Machine" in the Process)

Topic 29: How To Deal With the "Stress Hormone" Before It Deals With You

Topic 30: 7 Common Sense Ways to Have Uncommon Peace of Mind (or How To Stop Your "Stress Hormone" In Its Tracks)

Topic 31: How To Sleep Like A Baby (And Wake Up Feeling Like A Boss)

Topic 32: The 8-step Formula That Finally "fixes" Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested (If You Ever Find Yourself Hitting The Snooze Every Morning Or Dozing Off At Work, These Steps Will Change Your Life Forever)

Topic 33: For Even Better Leg Up And/or See Faster Results In Fixing Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested, Do The Following:

Topic 34: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 35: Part 1 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 36: Part 2 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 37: Part 3 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 38: Part 4 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 39: How To Beat Your Mental Roadblocks And Why It Can Be The Difference Between A Happy, Satisfying Life And A Sad, Fearful Existence (These Strategies Will Reduce Stress, Increase Productivity And Show You How To Fulfill All Your Dreams)

Topic 40: Maximum Fat Loss in Minimum Time: The Body Type Solution To Quick, Lasting Results

Topic 41: If You Want Maximum Results In Minimum Time You're Going To Have To Work Out (And Workout Hard, At That)

Topic 42: Food Planning For Maximum Fat Loss In Minimum Time

Topic 43: How To Lose Weight Fast If You're in Chronic Pain

Topic 44: Nutrition Basics for Fast Pain Relief (and Weight Loss)

Topic 45: How To Track Results (And Not Fall Into the Trap That Ruins 95% of Well-Thought Out Diets)

Topic 46: Advanced Fat Loss - Calorie Cycling, Carb Cycling and Intermittent Fasting

Topic 47: Advanced Fat Loss - Part I: Calorie Cycling

Topic 48: Advanced Fat Loss - Part II: Carb Cycling

Topic 49: Advanced Fat Loss - Part III: Intermittent Fasting

Topic 50: Putting It All Together