#of course i know in terms of programming its just easier to pick one variable name and stick to it

[phreakedt]

ive been looking through the game files/parsed dialog for the emperors scenes a lot these past few days so i thought id start a thread of things i find funny/interesting

"daisy"/the dream visitor and "emperor" are used pretty interchangeably (and the emperor is referred to as daisy even after the reveal)

both it/its and he/him pronouns are used for the emperor in devnotes

despite obviously not emoting like a human the emperor still gets descriptions like "longing", "smiles", "sheepish", "look of gratitude" etc etc

+ some of my fav devnotes hehe

[chibi-pix]

Your Plance Portal AU pics inspired a small bit of fiction from me. Not sure what to do with it, so here you are. Apologies if it's a bit rough, first draft. Feel free to modify, share, whatever. I'm just anon. And sorry for the lack of formatting that will result in posting here. (part 1) "Why?" The fascinating specimen asked of me. His eyes darting over the form I had taken. Curiosity. Heightened heart rate. A curious combination of two of the three primal Fs. Fascinating as always.

Wow! Your story parts were amazing! While I admit, some sections were hard to read, conclude who was talking, but I did love it! Of course, you did call it a first/rough draft and stories start that way!

You had said I was free to modify and/or share. I took you up on that offer and applied your work to this. It was fun to work with and thank you for writing it and giving me an opportunity to work with it.

Hopefully it all shows; if not, I’ll reblog the answer with the full post/ficlet.

Pidge. It was a simple name she was referred to as. She. A humanized term to separate sexes and give identity. That was her understanding. It was a logical things to humans, but not to the likes of an android, program to see and comprehend numbers, not emotions and desires. So why? Why did she go by that word that could otherwise be called a pronoun?

“Why?” Her attention was brought to the latest of the subjects, a young man. Subject number 117-98-78. He insisted on being called Lance. Another human thing. But she supposed, to some extent, she could relate. She was given a name, too, along with her identity number. Her name, though, was shorter and easier to input by her creators when they wrote their notes.

Pidge examined Lance further, doing a scan of her own on the biological creature. His heart rate was increasing. An emotional response? Or perhaps it was the adrenaline humans felt when going through certain tasks that forces them to exert themselves physically and even emotionally. “You will need to reiterate your query for proper understanding so an appropriate answer can be provided.”

“Fine then. Why are you putting me through this?” Lance commanded. “Why do I need to go through these tests? What do you gain from all of this?!”

Pidge considered his questioned for a moment. To be honest, there was no complex reason for why she did it. It was her core imperative; it was her duty to test subjects and gather data. But would that response be enough for the latest subject? “You are a new variable.” she responded finally. “With the cloned and robotic test subjects being identical variables, testing and collecting data has grown stagnant and all data is outdated and irrelevant. You, however, come from outside the testing facility. You are a new variable and therefore present new data to study.”

“Dude! I could have died back there!” Lance snapped, his anger elevating. It was an illogical outburst from Pidge’s perspective, but, then again, humans were rather illogical. “Pit traps? Laser grids? And don’t get me started on that green goo you dare call sustenance. It’s freaking torture!”

“Incorrect.” Pidge responded, plain and simple. “This is testing. Testing is a necessary part of improving and moving forward. It is, after all, the core of my programming. To continue in my duty of gathering data. I test, therefore I am. I am, therefore...”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think Doctor and Professor Holt would have wanted testing to be this cruel.” Lance interrupted.

Pidge felt a stutter in her programming. Those names. Her creators. He knew their names. “Guessing their names correctly and knowing they created me specifically would be nearly impossible.” she commented. “Logic would point to you being aware of their classified research on redacted information. Despite this, mentioning them when in your current situation with the risks on your life tell me that you are not an intelligence operative of any enemy of my creators or their benefactors.” She performed another scan. “There are no indications in your biology to suggest any attempt of deceit. This is data that I did not anticipate. Explain. How do you know the names of my creators?”

“Huh? Well, everyone knows who the Holts are.” Lance stated, looking confused. “They changed everything. Botany, terraforming, space travel, they were the top minds of Altean Laboratories. Their work was groundbreaking.”

“Were. Changed. Was. These terms in how they are used are indication of past tense.” Pidge commented.

Lance was perplexed. “I mean… well… yeah, totally.” he said. “It was five centuries ago, give or take some months or single years.”

Pidge couldn’t explain the dip in her cor performance. Had she been human, she would have described it as a weight in her stomach. Had it seriously been that long? She had lost connection to her internal clock several thousand test subjects ago. “That is impossible.” she stated. “The facility around you operates due to the power obtained from the plasma reactor. It had only an estimated lifespan of three to four centuries; due to the renewal of energy sources, I have managed to re-calibrate that and extend it for another half century or so. To continue getting power to keep the facility functioning would be impossible. My ability to function would have ceased.”

Lance sighed. He then decided to bring up a holographic display. Pidge found she could not interface with the hologram; she decided she could endure collecting data visually. As she looked at the hologram, she saw the schematics of the facility. But not all was the same. There was a new structure that she could not identify.

Lance picked up on where Pidge was looking. “You see it, too, huh?” he asked. He pointed to an area on the hologram. “Right here. We had reason to believe that a piece of what we refer to as the trans-reality comet has found its way here. And by we, I mean my superior officers. I’m just the field guy who goes in and investigates things; the others are the science guys who understand this stuff better. Anyway, long story short, but this thing is apparently radiating energy and with a copious amount still stored in it. There’s a problem, though.”

Pidge couldn’t interface with the hologram, but she knew the subject could. She went in close, finding her humanoid form to be convenient for times like this. She gently took Lance’s hand and moved it, prompting him to touch certain parts and bring up more data on the hologram.

“It appears to be unstable.” Pidge commented.

“Extremely.”

“The plasma from the facility’s reactor appears to be the cause of of the instability. However, I do not have sufficient data to fully determine how accurate this is.” Pidge glanced over to Lance, realizing he was staring at her, his mouth hung open a bit. “Does me not having the full answer cause this human emotion of bewilderment?” she inquired. “It should not; results cannot be properly determined without sufficient amounts of data. I have not collected enough data on the subject of this comet and its interactions with the reactor.”

“No it’s just...” Lance looked at Pidge’s hand, seeing it still around his own. “Your hand. It’s so warm. I didn’t expect that.” Pidge pulled her hand away quickly. “What are you? How are you so warm?”

“I am not; this is simply a byproduct of the cooling systems aboard this particular interface unit.” Pidge responded. “This unit is only a feature provided to me. I am, after all, the facility computer.”

Lance looked closely. “So… why do you look like a girl?”

Pidge blinked. So even he acknowledged that he seemed like a girl, at least in appearance. She looked ahead and away from the subject. “This interface unit was called the Physical Interface Data Gateway Exchange. To make data input easier, they formed it into the acronym PIDGE.” she explained. “It was designed with the intention of making interactions with subjects feel less… impersonal. It is for the benefit of my creators and the facility, not of my own. I have insufficient amounts of data to determine why they have given me this form.” She didn’t speak about it, but what little data she had about that, she had image files showing a member of the Holt family with a similar appearance. Perhaps it was meant to immortalize that member? She lacked the data to determine that.

“Pidge, huh?” Lance asked. “So it’s a name?”

“It is what they called me due to it being easier on the creators and less time consuming for their already limited lives.” Pidge commented. “Now then, since I have answered your queries and indulged your curiosities, it would be preferable to continue the testing.”

Lance gave a smile, but it did not look calm. It looked almost forced. “Sorry, but… this is where the testing ends, Pidge. Pidge did not understand. She then felt something in her, as though the numbers she lived by were changing.

“I do not comprehend.” she commented. She felt off balance, as though she could not properly control the unit meant for interfacing. But she couldn’t disconnect, either; she couldn’t return fully to the computer system. “What did you do to my systems? How did…”

Lance gave a bit of a guilty smile. He then brought up a new image for the hologram. “I had some help but… your entire core program? It’s gone. No more testing. No more of this… cruel torture. You’re in this device now, disconnected from everything else. Like an old game disk; one wrong move, you’re gone. Completely.”

“Impressive.” Pidge commented. “I did not anticipate your device having the necessary storage capacity for my system. Perhaps the claim of five centuries passing is not as far-fetched as I originally determined.” Around them, the corridors and testing chambers grew dark. What Lance could only assume to be the emergency lights turned on, illuminating the area in a bright red. “It does not appear that you or your outside help have considered another variable.”

“Um… what variable?”

“The default settings booting back up upon my removal.”

“Ah quiznak.” Pidge could only assume that Lance’s choice of word meant something profound. “Okay… so what do we get? Some five hundred year old security system about to hunt me down?”

“That would be accurate to the data.” Pidge confirmed. “Which would not be good for your condition.”

“My condition?”

“Of being alive.”

“Oh.”

“However, I do possess the necessary data to thwart the old program. The variable now stands at you being the only one who can interface with my core due to the technology you transferred to it. It would then be in my best interest to keep your status as alive.”

“I mean, how hard can this be? I’ve dealt with you so far.” Lance prompted. He jumped when a sound caught his attention. There was movement further in the corridor. Blades typically seen in tests, meant to be turned off or dodged. Past it? There was another figure, though harder to see.

“In subject terms? Bad. Very bad.” Pidge commented. “I suggest listening to what I say and following my instructions without fail.” She looked to Lance. “My first instruction-”

“I’m gonna take a guess and say run!” Lance grabbed Pidge by the hand and ran off in the opposite direction, pulling her along; it was a good thing that despite her data being put into the device around his arm, her body, as one could call it, was still functional and able to move.

Again, thank you so much for this opportunity!

[chickgander45]

Sql Interview Questions You'll Keep in mind

The program has lots of interactive SQL practice exercises that go from easier to challenging. The interactive code editor, information sets, and also obstacles will certainly help you seal your understanding. Mostly all SQL job candidates go through exactly the exact same nerve-wracking process. Here at LearnSQL.com, we have the lowdown on all the SQL practice and also prep work you'll need to ace those meeting inquiries and also take your occupation to the following level. Narrative is finishing the elements of development of de facto mop up of test cases defined in the design and sterilize the reporting % in joined requirementset. If you're speaking with for pliable docket jobs, below are 10 meeting inquiries to ask. Be sure to shut at the end of the interview. And also exactly how can there be obstacle on liberation comey. The first affair to celebrate or so the emplacement is that people. We have to provide the void problem in the where stipulation, where the whole data will certainly duplicate to the new table. NOT NULL column in the base table that is not picked by the view. Relationship in the database can be defined as the connection in between greater than one table. In between these, a table variable is much faster mainly as it is stored in memory, whereas a short-term table is kept on disk. Hibernate allow's us create object-oriented code and also internally converts them to indigenous SQL questions to perform versus a relational database. A database trigger is a program that immediately executes in reaction to some event on a table or view such as insert/update/delete of a document. Mostly, the data source trigger helps us to maintain the honesty of the data source. Likewise, IN Statement runs within the ResultSet while EXISTS keyword operates online tables. In this context, the IN Statement also does not operate questions that connects with Online tables while the EXISTS keyword phrase is made use of on linked inquiries. The MINUS keyword essentially deducts in between two SELECT queries. The outcome is the difference between the first query as well as the second question. In case the size of the table variable exceeds memory dimension, then both the tables do in a similar way. Referential honesty is a relational database principle that recommends that accuracy and uniformity of data should be maintained between key and also international secrets. Q. Checklist all the feasible worths that can be stored in a BOOLEAN data area. A table can have any number of foreign secrets specified. Aggregate query-- A question that sums up details from multiple table rows by utilizing an accumulated function. Hop on over to the SQL Method course on LearnSQL.com. This is the hands-down best area to evaluate and consolidate your SQL abilities prior to a huge interview. https://geekinterview.net You do have full web access and if you need more time, do not hesitate to ask for it. They are extra worried about the end product instead of anything else. Yet make indisputable regarding thinking that it will be like any type of coding round. They do a via end to end examine your rational in addition to coding capability. As well as from that you have to analyze and apply your method. This won't call for front end or database coding, console application will certainly do. So you have to obtain data and afterwards save them in listings or something so that you can use them. Piece with the 2nd interview, you will certainly locate far and away regularly that a much more elderly collaborator or theater director by and large conducts these. Buyers intend to make a move in advance their buying big businessman obtains searched. Obtain conversations off on the right track with discussion beginners that ne'er give way. The last stages of a locate telephone call should be to guide away from voicing aggravations and also open a discourse nigh completion result a outcome can pitch. Leading new house of york stylist zac posen dealt with delta staff members to make the special consistent solicitation which was introduced one twelvemonth back. The briny event youâ $ re stressful to discover is what they knowing and what they do or else now. And this is a rather complex query, to be sincere. Nevertheless, by asking you to create one, the questioners can examine your command of the SQL phrase structure, as well as the method which you approach solving a issue. So, if you don't procure to the appropriate solution, you will possibly be given time to assume as well as can definitely capture their attention by how you attempt to resolve the issue. Making use of a hands-on strategy to dealing with practical tasks is oftentimes way more vital. That's why you'll have to manage functional SQL meeting inquiries, also. You can complete the two questions by claiming there are 2 sorts of database monitoring systems-- relational and non-relational. SQL is a language, designed just for working with relational DBMSs. It was created by Oracle Corporation in the very early '90s. It adds step-by-step attributes of programming languages in SQL. DBMS figure out its tables through a hierarchal manner or navigational fashion. This serves when it concerns saving data in tables that are independent of each other and also you don't want to transform other tables while a table is being filled up or edited. wide variety of online database programs to help you end up being an expert and break the interviews quickly. Sign up with is a query that recovers related columns or rows. There are 4 sorts of signs up with-- internal join left join, ideal join, and full/outer sign up with. DML allows end-users insert, update, recover, and erase data in a data source. This is one of the most prominent SQL interview concerns. A gathered index is utilized to purchase the rows in a table. A table can possess only one gathered index. Constraints are the depiction of a column to implement information entity and uniformity. There are two degrees of restraint-- column level as well as table degree. Any row typical across both the result set is gotten rid of from the final output. The UNION key phrase is used in SQL for combining multiple SELECT inquiries however deletes duplicates from the outcome collection. Denormalization allows the access of fields from all typical forms within a data source. With respect to normalization, it does the opposite and also places redundancies into the table. SQL which means Requirement Inquiry Language is a web server shows language that gives interaction to database areas as well as columns. While MySQL is a kind of Data source Monitoring System, not an actual programs language, more specifically an RDMS or Relational Database Administration System. Nonetheless, MySQL likewise implements the SQL phrase structure. I responded to all of them as they were all simple questions. They told me they'll call me if I get picked as well as I was quite confident since for me there was absolutely nothing that went wrong yet still I obtained absolutely nothing from their side. Basic questions concerning family, education, jobs, placement. As well as a little conversation on the solutions of sql and java programs that were given up the previous round. INTERSECT - returns all distinctive rows chosen by both queries. The process of table design to decrease the information redundancy is called normalization. We require to separate a data source right into two or more table as well as specify connections in between them. Yes, a table can have several international tricks and also only one primary secret.

Keys are a crucial feature in RDMS, they are basically areas that connect one table to one more and advertise quick information access and also logging via managing column indexes. In terms of data sources, a table is described as an arrangement of organized access. It is more divided right into cells which have various areas of the table row. SQL or Structured Inquiry Language is a language which is made use of to connect with a relational data source. It supplies a way to adjust and produce data sources. On the other hand, PL/SQL is a dialect of SQL which is made use of to boost the abilities of SQL. SQL is the language made use of to produce, update, as well as customize a database-- pronounced both as 'Se-quell' and'S-Q-L'. Prior to starting with SQL, let us have a short understanding of DBMS. In easy terms, it is software program that is used to produce as well as take care of data sources. We are mosting likely to stick with RDBMS in this short article. There are likewise non-relational DBMS like MongoDB made use of for huge data evaluation. There are numerous accounts like information expert, data source manager, and data architect that need the knowledge of SQL. Besides leading you in your interviews, this article will certainly likewise give a basic understanding of SQL. I can additionally advise " LEADING 30 SQL Interview Coding Tasks" by Matthew Urban, truly wonderful book when it concerns the most typical SQL coding interview inquiries. This mistake usually appears because of syntax mistakes on-call a column name in Oracle database, notice the ORA identifier in the error code. See to it you key in the correct column name. Additionally, take unique note on the pen names as they are the one being referenced in the error as the void identifier. Hibernate is Things Relational Mapping tool in Java.

[bakerthrill49]

Sql Meeting Questions You'll Bear in mind

The course has lots of interactive SQL practice exercises that go from much easier to testing. The interactive code editor, information sets, as well as obstacles will help you seal your expertise. Mostly all SQL task candidates go through precisely the same nerve-wracking process. Here at LearnSQL.com, we have the lowdown on all the SQL practice as well as preparation you'll require to ace those interview questions and take your occupation to the next degree. Reporting is coating the aspects of development of de facto mop up of test cases specified in the layout as well as sterilize the reportage % in signed up with requirementset. If you're interviewing for pliable docket work, here are 10 meeting questions to ask. Make sure to shut at the end of the meeting. And also how can there be impedimenta on freedom comey. The initial affair to celebrate or so the emplacement is that individuals. We need to offer the invalid condition in the where stipulation, where the whole data will replicate to the brand-new table. NOT NULL column in the base table that is not selected by the sight. Relationship in the database can be specified as the link in between greater than one table. In between these, a table variable is quicker mainly as it is stored in memory, whereas a short-term table is stored on disk.

Hibernate allow's us create object-oriented code as well as internally transforms them to indigenous SQL queries to carry out versus a relational database. A data source trigger is a program that immediately carries out in action to some event on a table or sight such as insert/update/delete of a record. Mostly, the database trigger aids us to maintain the integrity of the data source. Likewise, IN Declaration runs within the ResultSet while EXISTS keyword operates on digital tables. In this context, the IN Declaration additionally does not operate on questions that relates to Online tables while the EXISTS search phrase is utilized on linked inquiries. The MINUS keyword essentially subtracts between two SELECT questions. The result is the difference in between the very first question and also the second query. In case the size of the table variable goes beyond memory size, then both the tables carry out similarly. Referential integrity is a relational database concept that recommends that precision and also uniformity of information ought to be kept between primary as well as foreign secrets. Q. Checklist all the possible worths that can be kept in a BOOLEAN information area. A table can have any kind of variety of foreign keys defined. Aggregate query-- A inquiry that summarizes information from multiple table rows by using an accumulated function. Hop on over to the SQL Practice course on LearnSQL.com. This is the hands-down ideal location to evaluate as well as consolidate your SQL abilities before a big meeting. You do have full internet gain access to as well as if you need even more time, do not hesitate to ask for it. They are a lot more worried about completion item rather than anything else. Yet make indisputable concerning assuming that it will certainly resemble any coding round. They do a via end to finish check on your rational as well as coding ability. And from that you need to assess and also execute your technique. This will not require front end or database coding, console application will do. So you need to obtain data and after that save them in lists or something to make sure that you can utilize them. Item with the second meeting, you will certainly find to the highest degree regularly that a extra senior partner or theatre supervisor by and large performs these. Customers want to make a move ahead their purchasing big businessman obtains combed. Obtain conversations off on the right track with discussion beginners that ne'er give way. The last stages of a find call must be to steer away from articulating irritations and open up a discourse nigh completion result a result can pitch. Leading brand-new residence of york fashion designer zac posen collaborated with delta employees to make the exclusive uniform solicitation which was unveiled one twelvemonth back. The briny affair youâ $ re demanding to figure out is what they knowing and what they do otherwise currently. https://geekinterview.net And this is a instead intricate question, to be honest. Nonetheless, by asking you to develop one, the questioners can inspect your command of the SQL phrase structure, along with the way in which you approach resolving a trouble. So, if you don't procure to the ideal response, you will possibly be given time to think and can definitely catch their interest by how you attempt to solve the trouble. Making use of a hands-on approach to dealing with reasonable jobs is most of the times way more vital. That's why you'll have to deal with sensible SQL meeting inquiries, too. You can complete both questions by saying there are two sorts of database management systems-- relational and also non-relational. SQL is a language, developed only for collaborating with relational DBMSs. It was created by Oracle Corporation in the early '90s. It includes step-by-step features of programming languages in SQL. DBMS figure out its tables with a hierarchal way or navigational way. This is useful when it involves saving data in tables that are independent of one another and also you don't want to change various other tables while a table is being loaded or edited. myriad of online data source programs to assist you become an expert and break the meetings conveniently. Sign up with is a inquiry that fetches related columns or rows. There are four types of signs up with-- internal sign up with left sign up with, appropriate sign up with, as well as full/outer sign up with. DML enables end-users insert, upgrade, recover, and also erase data in a database. This is just one of the most popular SQL meeting inquiries. A clustered index is made use of to get the rows in a table. A table can have only one gathered index. Restrictions are the depiction of a column to apply information entity and consistency. There are two degrees of restriction-- column level and table level. Any type of row common across both the result set is removed from the last output. The UNION key phrase is utilized in SQL for combining multiple SELECT questions but deletes duplicates from the result collection. Denormalization allows the retrieval of fields from all typical kinds within a data source. With respect to normalization, it does the contrary and puts redundancies into the table. SQL which means Requirement Question Language is a web server shows language that supplies interaction to data source areas and columns. While MySQL is a kind of Data source Management System, not an real programming language, even more specifically an RDMS or Relational Database Monitoring System. However, MySQL additionally applies the SQL syntax. I answered every one of them as they were all easy inquiries. They informed me they'll contact me if I get selected and also I was rather positive because for me there was absolutely nothing that went wrong yet still I got absolutely nothing from their side. Basic inquiries regarding family, education and learning, projects, placement. And a little discussion on the answers of sql and also java programs that were given up the previous round. INTERSECT - returns all distinct rows picked by both questions. The procedure of table style to decrease the information redundancy is called normalization. We need to split a database into two or more table and specify connections in between them. Yes, a table can have numerous foreign keys as well as just one primary key. Keys are a vital attribute in RDMS, they are essentially fields that link one table to another as well as promote fast information access and also logging via taking care of column indexes. In regards to databases, a table is described as an plan of organized access. It is more divided right into cells which consist of different areas of the table row. SQL or Structured Query Language is a language which is used to connect with a relational data source. It provides a means to adjust and also develop data sources. On the other hand, PL/SQL is a language of SQL which is utilized to improve the capabilities of SQL. SQL is the language made use of to create, upgrade, and customize a data source-- articulated both as 'Se-quell' as well as'S-Q-L'. Before starting with SQL, let us have a short understanding of DBMS. In simple terms, it is software application that is utilized to produce as well as take care of data sources. We are going to stick to RDBMS in this post. There are also non-relational DBMS like MongoDB used for huge information analysis. There are different profiles like data analyst, data source manager, and information architect that call for the understanding of SQL. Aside from leading you in your meetings, this write-up will likewise offer a basic understanding of SQL. I can additionally advise "TOP 30 SQL Meeting Coding Tasks" by Matthew Urban, really excellent publication when it involves the most usual SQL coding meeting concerns. This mistake usually appears because of syntax errors available a column name in Oracle data source, observe the ORA identifier in the mistake code. See to it you typed in the correct column name. Likewise, take unique note on the aliases as they are the one being referenced in the error as the invalid identifier. Hibernate is Things Relational Mapping device in Java.

[firsttimeinterview]

Sql Interview Questions You'll Remember

The training course has plenty of interactive SQL practice exercises that go from much easier to challenging. The interactive code editor, data collections, as well as obstacles will certainly aid you seal your knowledge. Almost all SQL task candidates undergo precisely the exact same nerve-wracking procedure. Here at LearnSQL.com, we have the lowdown on all the SQL technique as well as prep work you'll need to ace those meeting inquiries and take your occupation to the following degree. Reporting is covering the facets of development of de facto mop up of test cases specified in the layout and neuter the reportage % in joined requirementset. If you're speaking with for pliable docket tasks, below are 10 interview concerns to ask. Make sure to shut at the end of the meeting. And how can there be obstacle on freedom comey. The very first affair to honor or two the location is that people. We have to offer the void condition in the where clause, where the entire information will certainly duplicate to the new table. NOT NULL column in the base table that is not selected by the view. Partnership in the database can be defined as the connection in between greater than one table. Between these, a table variable is faster primarily as it is stored in memory, whereas a momentary table is kept on disk. Hibernate let's us compose object-oriented code and also inside transforms them to native SQL queries to execute versus a relational data source. https://is.gd/snW9y3 is a program that automatically executes in response to some occasion on a table or sight such as insert/update/delete of a record. Mainly, the data source trigger aids us to preserve the honesty of the data source. Additionally, IN Declaration runs within the ResultSet while EXISTS keyword operates online tables. In this context, the IN Statement also does not operate on questions that associates with Online tables while the EXISTS key words is used on linked questions. The MINUS search phrase basically deducts in between 2 SELECT inquiries. The outcome is the difference between the first query and the 2nd query.

In case the size of the table variable goes beyond memory size, then both the tables carry out in a similar way. Referential integrity is a relational data source principle that recommends that precision and consistency of data must be maintained in between main as well as foreign tricks. Q. List all the feasible values that can be saved in a BOOLEAN data area. A table can have any number of foreign secrets defined. Aggregate question-- A inquiry that summarizes information from multiple table rows by utilizing an accumulated function. Get on over to the SQL Method training course on LearnSQL.com. https://tinyurl.com/c7k3vf9t is the hands-down best area to assess and also combine your SQL abilities before a big interview. You do have full web access as well as if you need more time, feel free to ask for it. They are more concerned regarding the end product instead of anything else. But make no mistake regarding thinking that it will certainly be like any kind of coding round. They do a through end to end examine your sensible in addition to coding capability. As well as from that you have to analyze and also apply your method. This won't call for front end or database coding, console application will certainly do. So you have to get information and after that save them in lists or something to make sure that you can utilize them. Item with the second interview, you will discover far and away regularly that a much more senior partner or theatre supervisor typically performs these. complex sql interview questions want to make a move in advance their buying big businessman gets combed. Obtain conversations off on the right track with discussion beginners that ne'er pave the way. The last stages of a discover call should be to guide away from voicing frustrations and also open a discourse nigh the end result a outcome could pitch. Leading new house of york fashion designer zac posen collaborated with delta staff members to make the special consistent solicitation which was unveiled one twelvemonth ago. The briny affair youâ $ re difficult to figure out is what they knowing as well as what they do or else now. And also this is a rather intricate query, to be straightforward. Nevertheless, by asking you to produce one, the questioners can examine your command of the SQL phrase structure, in addition to the method which you come close to fixing a problem. So, if you don't manage to get to the appropriate solution, you will possibly be provided time to assume and can absolutely capture their interest by exactly how you try to address the trouble. Utilizing a hands-on method to dealing with sensible tasks is many times way more vital. That's why you'll have to take care of practical SQL meeting concerns, also. how to answer sql interview questions could wrap up the two inquiries by stating there are two types of data source administration systems-- relational as well as non-relational. SQL is a language, designed just for collaborating with relational DBMSs. It was established by Oracle Corporation in the early '90s. It includes procedural features of programming languages in SQL. DBMS iron out its tables via a hierarchal way or navigational fashion. This is useful when it concerns storing information in tables that are independent of each other and also you do not wish to transform various other tables while a table is being filled up or modified. wide variety of online database programs to help you end up being an professional and break the meetings easily. Join is a question that fetches associated columns or rows. There are 4 kinds of signs up with-- internal join left sign up with, appropriate sign up with, and full/outer join. DML enables end-users insert, update, obtain, and delete information in a database. This is just one of one of the most prominent SQL meeting concerns. A clustered index is utilized to buy the rows in a table. A table can possess only one clustered index. Restrictions are the depiction of a column to enforce data entity as well as uniformity. There are two levels of restriction-- column level and also table level. Any kind of row usual throughout both the outcome set is gotten rid of from the final result. The UNION key words is utilized in SQL for combining several SELECT queries yet deletes replicates from the outcome set. Denormalization allows the retrieval of fields from all regular forms within a data source. With respect to normalization, it does the opposite as well as puts redundancies right into the table. SQL which represents Requirement Query Language is a web server programs language that provides interaction to database areas and also columns. While MySQL is a type of Database Management System, not an real shows language, even more particularly an RDMS or Relational Database Monitoring System. Nevertheless, MySQL additionally executes the SQL syntax. I answered all of them as they were all simple inquiries. They informed me they'll call me if I get selected as well as I was rather confident since for me there was absolutely nothing that went wrong yet still I obtained absolutely nothing from their side. Standard inquiries concerning household, education, tasks, positioning. As well as a little discussion on the answers of sql and java programs that were given up the previous round. INTERSECT - returns all distinctive rows picked by both questions. The procedure of table design to reduce the data redundancy is called normalization. We require to separate a database right into two or more table and specify relationships in between them. Yes, a table can have many foreign tricks and also just one primary key. Keys are a essential attribute in RDMS, they are essentially fields that connect one table to another and also advertise rapid data access and logging through taking care of column indexes. In regards to databases, a table is described as an setup of arranged entries. It is more divided into cells which contain different areas of the table row. SQL or Structured Query Language is a language which is used to communicate with a relational data source. It offers a means to manipulate as well as develop data sources. On the other hand, PL/SQL is a language of SQL which is utilized to boost the abilities of SQL. SQL is the language made use of to develop, upgrade, and also modify a data source-- pronounced both as 'Se-quell' and also'S-Q-L'. Before beginning with SQL, let us have a short understanding of DBMS. In simple terms, it is software application that is made use of to create and also manage databases. We are mosting likely to stick to RDBMS in this article. There are likewise non-relational DBMS like MongoDB utilized for huge information analysis. There are different accounts like information analyst, database manager, and also information architect that require the understanding of SQL. Aside from guiding you in your interviews, this short article will certainly also give a fundamental understanding of SQL. I can additionally advise "TOP 30 SQL Meeting Coding Tasks" by Matthew Urban, actually wonderful publication when it involves one of the most usual SQL coding interview inquiries. This error usually shows up as a result of syntax mistakes on calling a column name in Oracle database, observe the ORA identifier in the error code. See to it you key in the proper column name. Likewise, take special note on the aliases as they are the one being referenced in the mistake as the void identifier. Hibernate is Item Relational Mapping tool in Java.

[anangelicday-mrwolf]

Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 49 – The Traitorous Path

Yuhyung cursed himself for being so absorbed in restraining the guts heaving from throat to rectum ever since he perched upon Rael’s back.

Now that he checked the footage, it was too late to do anything, with KSA headquarter’s silhouette looming in distance.

‘How could I get caught now...?!’

He could not even dare to grit his teeth; he could only clench his fist tightly, lest the noble notice anything with his senses much sharper than human counterparts.

And of course that was not enough to keep Rael oblivious to his change.

“You must have gone through a lot. I can tell from the quake of your fingers.”

“Uh... I-it’s nothing. I’m sure you’re the one who...”

He could not pull off a show of hectic speech as usual, having spent all his energy and calm in a tug-of-war against the panic that rose upon realization that his secret has been at last revealed.

‘I can’t fail now...! The only thing I had to do was to make it back...!’

The final step of his “grand mission” was supposed to be as easy as turning on TV and clicking a beer can open in his room.

His vision was soon flooded by the pieces of the past he has gone through so far.

It all began from his encounter with that woman.

It was a little past three in the morning, when the coffee port that was working fine just few hours ago suddenly went on a strike.

He batted and slapped the machine several times before he gave up and walked outside, to instead come back with a cup of pitch-black coffee, a choice he made after spending several good minutes deliberating between black coffee and sweet coffee and wondering why nobody ever came up with a concoction of two.

And when he did, he was so alarmed he spilled the fresh liquid all over his shoes, upon the sight of a woman turning his lab upside down.

Judging by her attire or attitude, she was not at all the sort to be found in KSA.

Oh, dear. That was faster than I’d thought. Which means I really was in hurry. I didn’t even note a puny little creature like you coming back. And you’re not even an agent, let alone a modified human.

He made a connection between her terminology and the fact that she cannot possibly be an affiliate of KSA and pinpointed the only one place that could serve as her origin – the Union.

If it were someone else, he would have freaked out to see a Union associate infiltrating his treasure box, out of all places within KSA.

However, his first reaction was a smile, the sort that requires untainted glee and welcome.

Are you from the Union, ma’am?

Helga scowled at his response, and Yuhyung expected nothing else – suspicion buzzing like a hoard of mad hornets at his behavior, too serene and even cordial.

Regardless, Yuhyung’s brain was circulating at an accelerated rate to come up with a way to keep her as at least a temporary partner, hopefully an ally.

And lo and behold, he happened to have been equipped with a bait quite tempting, just in time.

If you need intelligence, how about this? KSA plans on rendering its friendship with nobles and werewolves more solid through a certain project.

Right on the spot, Yuhyung unleashed everything he knew about the giant communication and intelligence network that will be dubbed QuadraNet in the future, along with the location of the corridor of coffee vending machine with an array of huge trashcans that can serve as cover.

Ever since their encounter, he continuously appealed himself to Helga that he is more than a discovery a little better than nothing.

Helga once complained about how the Union is bankrupt in terms of manpower, due to the recent nuclear missile incident and the following brawls, and he suggested she could use the weapons against noble heads of clans, which he saw during Ignes’s violent visit to KSA.

All the good ones are locked in slumber thanks to that psychotic woman, and the ones free of security lock are not based off of humans. They are supposed to be implanted with artificial intelligence for mobility and function, for which we are extremely short of funds and brains to complete. And what about them? You sound like you have a solution of a sort.

And a solution he did give her.

He copied for her a sample of artificial intelligence he was studying, which was being honed with virtual training of terms, including but not limited to nobles, soul weapon, Union, and self-recovery.

They did not expect this model of weapons to be powerful like its predecessors; they were not based on living humans, so it was impossible in the first place to implement Union’s body modification technology that can dispense results that devastatingly outshine most of human weaponry.

Instead, they gave birth to a novel type of weapons against heads of noble clans, characterized by high-dimensional interactions and judgment equal to that of humans and capable of self-recovery, urgently perfected in joint with a helper on Helga’s side.

He also provided her with sound and footage distractor when she improvised as a test to yield something that could prevent surveillance recording.

It turned out later on through Helga’s testimony that it was highly useful in winning over the spy she chose for this man named Frankenstein.

Prior to his departure to Lukedonia, he delivered to KSA’s greatest alliance the secret USB, an item he exchanged with his distractor, as a receptacle of a hack program that will compromise networks, delivered to KSA’s greatest alliance.

He was worried that this man called Tao used to be a technician at Union, but he determined there was no reason for him to be less daring.

Since Tao has identified him as a coworker, he would not treat the USB as an evidence left behind by a man tagged with Interpol Red Notice, Yuhyung assumed.

Which turned out to be a right movement.

After all, Helga guaranteed nobody can figure out what secret USB really is, unless someone employs the orthodox mechanism to unseal it.

Once he planted the seed of darkness via the USB, he very casually and peacefully carried out his mission in Lukedonia and werewolf realm.

Which was made not even close to a challenge by the fact that he was deemed hopelessly clumsy on daily occasions.

And collecting and sharing information was much easier than he had figured.

With Adne helping him, he was automatically exposed to mass information the werewolf doctor had at hand, and the fact that he was a master technician manifested as a golden tool, proven by the network transmission modem he installed in werewolf realm.

In reality, the modem was not a modem; it was a decoy that was to relay intelligence to Helga’s side.

It was never a modem in the first place, filled with meaningless and disoriented cords and metal plates in order to deceive eyes.

The only thing it is functional for was to hide the microchip packed with data.

There will be a special person among the weapons that will pick up intelligence, so I want you to prepare one way or another a progress report and the intelligence you put up. He’ll transmit it to my side.

As requested, he hid inside the modem what she asked for and made sure no one will even approach the thing, by repeating on multiple basis that the modem was very fragile.

The succeeding mass raid of weapons was a deceit meant to retrieve the intelligence Yuhyung left inside the modem.

And there was no infiltration record left on wolfkind’s server.

The only thing Yuhyung had done was to visually scan and copy what was lying in the server while he was granted access or pile up data or information from Adne to leave inside the modem.

Naturally, there will be traces of what he had done inside the modem, but nobody would know unless the modem is taken apart, and Yuhyung was thorough enough to prepare against such scenario.

The moment his brain replayed the memories from the time, Yuhyung was interrupted by the waltz of slick blonde hair right in his face.

And then he was reminded of the day when he shattered the bottle containing the gas invented against Union’s modified humans, which was followed by Rael’s appearance.

Back then he was grateful that the noble popped up after he was finished sneaking the gas into his luggage.

Since the gas was colored similar to the sedative he would use, he hid them in his sedative shots.

He was gravely alarmed when Rael demanded to know the purpose of shots, but he had a past history legitimate enough to make him drop the subject.

Apart from potential slips that happened to concern Rael coincidentally, everything went flawlessly.

The hack program from the secret USB had settled into computers on Lukedonia, werewolf realm, and Frankenstein’s mansion, which he used to sabotage QuadraNet’s awakening and buy time for Helga’s other accomplice.

And he decided to use Adne as his shield against arrows of skepticism.

Thus as he was skimming through the computers under the influence of the hack program, by pure chance he tumbled upon Adne’s conversation with Muzaka regarding his past, which he secretly transferred through Tao’s computer.

He knew Tao would be too shocked to delve into what he had heard.

He even managed to put himself through Frankenstein’s communication system, to find out that he was not free from distrust.

Assured that the people of interest had their eyes on Adne, things could not get easier, despite the fact that he was met with a few unexpected variables, one of which happened to be Deneb.

Addicted to his obsession with Seira, he forced Yuhyung to serve as his eyes on Rael.

So Yuhyung had to forfeit a walkie-talkie to the noble, and he almost whited out when Rael lifted and handed him the bag that had lost a bit of weight, but luckily Rael did not notice any change, it seemed.

Then Yuhyung squeezed his brows in annoyance, upon discerning that Rael was the one who almost caused him heart attack more than once, before he removed the pause on his train of thoughts.

As for the gas he took with him, he inserted it inside the modem so that it will blow up when the modem is dissected or damaged.

The foul stench will replace smoke, thanks to the tuning that took place before his departure from KSA, and it will take effect slowly, given that the victim is non-human.

So in turn, the one who came across the secret of modem will soon black out.

Although he did not anticipate the modem to be destroyed for real, he was happy to hear that werewolf doctor he had been keen on was sent to the ward.

For unlike in Lukedonia, Adne made himself Yuhyung’s shadow, both a great assistance and a great drawback, watching at closest and on most common basis everything he worked on, because of which Yuhyung defined him the one he should be most wary of.

He did not foresee the modem being utterly irredeemable, but he was so glad the werewolf doctor is unable to leak his secret.

Plus, he was given a valid excuse to return to Korea.

When Frankenstein told him the news, contrary to what he was thinking, Yuhyung could hardly speak due to excitement and elation: the time has come for him to carry out his plan.

When the enlightenment hit his head, he almost ended up talking to Helga before the transmission was lost.

And all that was left for him in Korea was the one final step.

‘And this is where I get busted...?!’

His heart was almost being torn apart by the regret that he did not employ any additional security on his computer because he did not want to draw any unwanted question.

He would have ended up walking into his prison if he did not station real-time surveillance cameras in his lab.

Now that KSA has labeled him wanted, the front lobby is off from the list of entrance.

‘I’ve been dreaming for this opportunity! I’ve gone through miles for this chance!’

There was something he earned from Helga upon their introduction, and he knew this was his moment to bring it onto the stage.

He was not willing to miss his chance.

“...Sir, I know this is sudden, but I need a favor.”

(next chapter)

Ok so for this chapter I could finally shed light upon Yuhyung’s past actions in collection, and here’s a rundown of all the mysteries and clues explained:

(Ch. 9) The meaning of “not-leaving-empty-handed” that Helga muttered at the end

(Ch. 10) The USB that Yuhyung gave to Rael was in fact a secret USB

(Ch. 14) What Yuhyung was doing with his gas just before his departure to Lukedonia

(Ch. 17) Why Rael felt Yuhyung’s bag had become lighter

(Ch. 21 - 22) The reason why the weapons against heads of clans were inferior in terms of power but superior in terms of cognitive ability and interactions, compared to their previous models

(Ch. 27) The purpose of weapons’ raid upon werewolf realm and what Sol did in the meantime

(Ch. 31) How Tao could overhear Muzaka and Adne’s conversation

(Ch. 32) The meaning of a light flashing off from Frankenstein’s computers at the end

(Ch. 38 - 39) The meaning of stench and the reason why Adne fell unconscious

(Ch. 41) The one Yuhyung was trying to call just before he lost transmission with Frankenstein

And of course, this isn’t the end of the list of the mysteries and clues to unfold; I have yet more to explain about, including but not limited to the secret behind Rai’s return to life and the reason why Muzaka’s body moved on its own during the nuclear missile incident, as mentioned in chapter 2. I hope you’d stay tuned to find out all of them!

[oovitus]

Meal plans usually suck. Here are 6 better ways to transform your diet.

Lots of people looking to improve their eating think meal plans are the answer. The only problem? Meal plans usually suck… and they rarely last. So, instead of prescribing yet another doomed eating regimen, check out these 6 ways to transform any diet in a sustainable way.

++++

“Do I get a meal plan?”

This is the most common question we get from folks who are considering, or just started out in, our nutrition coaching programs.

The answer: No, we don’t do meal plans.

But we can’t blame people for asking.

Sure, meal plans have long been a staple of the fitness and nutrition industry. Coaches are taught to create them. Clients are taught to expect them.

Unfortunately…

Most of the time, meal plans don’t work.

You see, traditional meal plans are explicit prescriptions.

Eat this exact thing, in this exact amount, at this exact time.

For example, you’ll often see:

Breakfast – 7:30am 3 eggs, scrambled 1 cup vegetables 1 piece whole grain toast 1 cup coffee 1 glass water

Morning snack – 10:00am 1 protein bar 1 handful mixed nuts

Lunch – 12:30pm 4 oz chicken 2 cups salad 1 handful seeds 1 glass water

After exercise – 4:30pm 1 scoop whey protein 1/2 cup frozen fruit 1 tsp omega 3 oil 12 oz water

Dinner – 7:00pm 4 oz steak 1 cup cooked veggies 1 baked potato 1 glass water

You (or your clients/patients) might be thinking, “Good! I want a plan. I’m sick of trying to figure all this stuff out! Just tell me what to eat!”

Unfortunately, when we try to follow rigid prescriptions like this, lots can (and often does) go wrong.

For example:

Scenario 1: You just don’t stick to the plan.

No matter how enthusiastic you are, meal plans can be tough to follow.

This is normal. Life can get in the way.

People get busy,

we’re not always prepared,

kids get sick,

bosses expect you to work late,

it’s always someone’s birthday (or a special holiday), and

sometimes you just don’t feel like having a protein bar at 10am.

What’s more, even if you’ve actually paid to have someone make your plan, you might find yourself rebelling against it in subtle (or not-so-subtle) ways.

This is also normal.

Unfortunately, it means you might not get the results you hope for. For instance, a meal plan you hoped would help you lose weight could actually encourage you to gain weight instead.

Scenario 2: You follow the plan perfectly.

In fact, you follow it too well and for too long.

Most meal plans are meant to be temporary.

They’re designed to help a person get to a specific short-term goal, like dropping a few extra pounds before a wedding, learning to manage blood sugar, or cutting weight for an athletic competition.

Our bodies can usually adapt to a rigid way of eating for a short period of time.

But if you’re too strict for too long, you could wind up with disordered eating habits and lasting health (mental, metabolic, hormonal, etc) consequences.

Scenario 3: You follow the plan for a little while but it sucks.

It isn’t sustainable. It doesn’t make you feel better. It doesn’t keep you sane.

Maybe you see some short-term results (or not). But you hate living and eating this way. You never want to see another stupid piece of lettuce or 4 ounces of chicken.

Eventually, you get so turned off by the process that you regress or quit altogether. You conclude that “eating healthy” sucks.

And you miss your big chance to learn how to make healthier, more enjoyable, more lasting and real changes.

Another reason meal plans fail.

One of the biggest (yet generally unacknowledged) problems with traditional meal plans is their focus on “nutrients”.

Real people don’t eat “nutrients”. We eat food.

We eat meals, often with other people.

We eat meals that match our cultural background and social interests.

And we rarely measure things precisely.

Sure, sometimes an explicit prescription is necessary.

For instance, professional athletes or bodybuilders (in other words, people who make money off their bodies and athletic skills) use meal plans to prepare for training and competition.

A prescribed meal for someone in that situation might look something like this:

1/4 cup dry oats

3 oz turkey breast

1 cup steamed broccoli

5 almonds

1 omega-3 supplement

1 cup green tea (unsweetened)

But most of us don’t need that level of surgical precision.

We don’t normally eat “ounces” of things, or refer to food by their nutrients (like “omega-3 fatty acids”).

Instead, we eat foods like:

hamburgers

tacos and burritos

salads

pasta and noodles

sandwiches, wraps, pitas and rotis

stews and curries

cereal and granola

stir-fries

casseroles

Bottom line: If you want to eat better, you don’t have to get weird about things.

You don’t need to weigh and measure everything, or count out your almonds.

Ask yourself: “Is someone paying me to do this?” If the answer is no, you likely don’t need this kind of approach.

You just need to think about what you’re already eating, and how you could make it a little bit better.

This means fiddling and adjusting.

Making small changes and improvements to what you already normally eat and enjoy, one small step at a time.

Think about a spectrum of food quality rather than “bad” or “good” foods.

Welcome to the meal transformation game.

When you play with the idea of a food spectrum or food continuum, you get to experiment with variables like:

what you eat, and

how you eat it.

Think of this as a game.

How can you play “make this meal just a little bit better” in every situation?

In which situations is that easier or harder?

When your choices are limited (for instance, when you’re traveling, or eating at a workplace cafeteria), how can you shoot for “a little bit better” while still being realistic, and without trying to be “perfect”?

(Hint for coaches: this is a great game to play with the people you work with.)

Let’s transform breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Here’s how that “food spectrum” might look in daily life, with a sample day of eating.

Transforming breakfast

Stage 1

Let’s say that your go-to breakfast is a whipped-cream coffee drink and a chocolate croissant.

You pick it up in the drive-thru, and wolf it down on your way to work.

This is your starting point. It’s not “bad”. It’s just no longer working for you.

You’re getting indigestion from rushing, the croissant doesn’t hold you at all, and you’ve just spilled the coffee on your crotch while changing lanes.

Now your game is to improve your breakfast just a little bit, starting with what you already have or do.

Stage 2

Your opening moves in the meal transformation game:

You might replace the croissant with a whole grain muffin.

Instead of a “dessert in a cup”, you get a regular coffee with a single cream and sugar.

You grab a yogurt cup on your way out of the house for a bit of protein.

Naturally, you’re still rushed and busy… so you eat your breakfast with some distractions, while scrolling through emails at work.

But this is a solid start. Well done.

Stage 3

Next level of game play:

You switch the muffin to granola with cottage cheese or Greek yogurt.

You switch the cream in your coffee for 2% milk. (Or even go right to black coffee, you meal player you!)

You add some colorful fruit.

You’re now eating out of dishes on a table, instead of out of takeout packages off the dashboard of your car.

Of course, you’re still checking out the news headlines while you eat…

No problem. We’re keeping it real.

Stage 4

Now you are seriously playing like a pro.

You’ve changed “rushing and panicked” to “set aside a little extra time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast”.

You cleverly prepped an egg frittata with veggies in advance on your food prep day.

The coffee’s become green tea, since you noticed that too much coffee was tweaking you out.

The protein plus colorful fruit and veg have become the stars of the meal.

You’ve discovered you really like lemon water. (WHAT? You don’t even know you anymore!)

You eat mindfully, feeling relaxed, while watching the sun rise.

Ahhh.

Transforming lunch

Stage 1

At this point, starting out, the idea of a sit-down lunch feels flat out ridiculous.

“Eat slowly? Who has time for that during a busy workday? Grab a burger and go!”

Another “car dashboard” meal. Another stomach ache and regret.

You decide you might want to play with this meal too.

Stage 2

To improve this meal a little bit:

You go to a higher-end burger place where you’re pretty sure they use real meat.

You get a side salad with that burger, and maybe just a few potato chips.

You choose a diet soda instead of regular.

You don’t eat in your car, but you do eat by your computer.

That’s OK. You’re progressing.

Stage 3

At this stage, you’re doing a little prep work:

You whipped up some burgers in advance so they are handy and ready to take to work.

You also grabbed some nice cheese and whole grain buns from the local market on shopping day.

For lunch, all you have to do is take your homemade burger and its fixins to work.

You still grab a diet cola from the vending machine to wash it down.

You move from your desk to the lunchroom, where you socialize with co-workers. This slows you down a bit and helps you digest and relax.

Stage 4

You’re having the burger without the bun, alongside a nice pre-prepped salad.

Instead of staying at your desk or in the office, you take a break.

You sit outside and get some fresh air while you enjoy your meal.

For a drink, water’s all you need.

Transforming dinner

Stage 1

It’s 8pm. You’ve just gotten home after an insane day at work.

All you want to do is put food into your face and zone out in front of the TV.

You can’t even imagine making anything more complicated than boxed macaroni ‘n’ cheese right now.

Ketchup and hot dogs are as fancy as it gets.

Stage 2

Same concept, but:

You’re adding some extra protein with the help of a rotisserie chicken leg that you grabbed at the grocery store on the way home.

You’ve added a side salad, just grabbing a few handfuls of pre-washed greens out of a bag.

You’ve whipped up your own pasta.

Work is still on your mind, and a couple drinks will take the edge off.

Stage 3

Things are getting fancy.

You’re upping the protein with a little more chicken.

You’re having a little less pasta.

You’ve also added a nice big salad to the mix.

You’ve cut the booze to 1 drink.

Plus, you’re sitting at the dinner table, instead of flopping down on your couch or standing over the sink.

Stage 4

Again, we’re playing at pro level here.

With your meal planning and prep strategies, even a weeknight dinner looks good.

You can whip up a delicious salad in 3 minutes flat and you have some pre-cooked quinoa on hand.

That rotisserie chicken is still a fast, convenient option, but now it’s got some healthy buddies.

You’re indulging in a single glass of good wine these days, and you take time to savor it.

Meal transformation is not about reaching perfection.

If you’re at stage 1, all you have to do is shoot for stage 2. Or stage 1.5.

If you’re in stage 2, play with getting to stage 3.

And if you’re stage 3, heck, you can stay where you are.

You might never get to stage 4. Or it might only happen at times when you’re relaxed and have a little extra time.

Stage 4 might only happen on Sunday night, whereas the rest of your week is a mix of stages 1, 2, and — if you’re super lucky — 3.

And that’s OK.

How far you progress along the continuum all depends on what YOU want, what YOU need, and what YOU can reasonably do, right now.

Over time, things can change.

Play YOUR game.

Success secret: Have a food prep ritual.

You might look at these photos and think, “How can people possibly do all that?”

One success secret: Having a food prep ritual.

The idea is simple:

Practice planning and preparing healthy food in advance.

This makes healthy eating convenient and easy.

It also makes decisions easier: You don’t have to make a choice when you’re rushed and hangry.

Your food prep ritual can include:

shopping (or arranging to have food delivered)

menu and meal planning

washing and chopping vegetables

cooking/preparing protein (e.g. cooking up some chicken breasts)

cooking meals in bulk (e.g. casseroles, soups, stews, chili)

preparing the dry ingredients for things like Super Shakes or healthy muffin mix

soaking grains/beans beforehand so that they’ll be ready to cook later

sorting foods into smaller containers or baggies

freezing and refrigerating food for later

planning healthy meals that someone else cooks (e.g. using a meal delivery service, deciding in advance what to order at a restaurant, etc.)

looking ahead to ensure healthy eating strategies during the next few days, especially during difficult times (e.g. a busy week, traveling, dealing with a family crisis, etc.)

Mix and match any of these to find what works for you.

Experiment with systems, skills and strategies that work for YOU and YOUR life.

The real goal of a meal plan is to stop using a meal plan.

Fit, healthy people who have a good relationship with food don’t need other people to tell them exactly what to eat at all times.

Living a fit and healthy life doesn’t require perfection, either.

If you are using a meal plan:

That’s OK.

Some people like prescription, especially if they are working towards a specific short-term goal, like cutting weight to compete in wrestling, making sure they get enough nutrients to support a healthy pregnancy, or fueling their triathlon performance.

Keep it short-lived.

Meal plans are supposed to be temporary, working towards a short-term goal.

Keep it real.

As much as possible, try to make the meal plan fit your real life, not the other way around.

If you’re a parent, a worker, a student, or anyone else living in the real world, most of your meals will fall somewhere in the stages 1 through 3 spectrum. That’s perfectly OK. Just experiment with being a little bit better, wherever you can.

Remember all goals require trade-offs.

If you want to achieve a high level of performance or exceptional body composition, understand what you are prioritizing and sacrificing.

Getting very lean, for instance, comes with costs.

Make sure it’s working for you.

If your meal plan is making you feel:

overwhelmed

anxious and fretful

guilty

regretful

bad

overly rigid and/or preoccupied with food…

or any other negative, unproductive emotion…

…and if you find that meal plans result in you:

“falling off the wagon”, hard

getting obsessive and compulsive about food

restricting foods and food groups, or

doing “all or nothing”, usually ending with “nothing”

…then consider trying another approach.

What to do next

1. Consider where you sit on the spectrum of meal “stages”.

Where’s your food game at?

What level are you playing at?

What level would you like to play at?

Given your goals and your current situation, what is realistic?

For example, if you currently eat at stage 1, your goal might be to eat at stage 2 for most meals.

Or, if you eat at stage 3 most of the time but find yourself dipping into stage 1 or 2 meals more often than you’d like, aim to stay at stage 3 a little more consistently.

(Hint for coaches: you can walk people through these questions and help them arrive at their own answers.)

2. Start small. One step at a time.

Pick one meal to transform and focus on that.

For instance, you might leave all your other meals at stage 1, and focus on getting lunch to stage 2.

Concentrate on improving that one meal each day.

Using the examples above, you might think about things like:

adding protein

adding veggies or fruits

eating less processed food

eating more nutrient-dense, whole foods

drinking less alcohol or fewer sweet drinks

drinking more water

eating in a calmer, more relaxed setting, and/or

eating more slowly and mindfully

Of course, don’t try to do all these at once.

Try just fiddling with one or two, and see which ones work best for you.

3. Add things slowly.

Once you’ve improved one meal a day, try another.

If you feel like lunch is a solid stage 2 or 3, play with moving breakfast, dinner, or snacks along the spectrum.

Or, once you’ve improved one factor in a meal (e.g. adding more protein), try another.

For instance, if you’re getting more protein, now try switching out your sugary soda for some soda water. Or adding a little more veggies.

Be patient; small steps add up.

4. Set yourself up for success.

Notice what makes it easier and simpler for you to eat better.

Then figure out how to do or get more of that.

For instance:

Is planning helping you? How could you do more of that?

Is a healthy meal delivery service making it easy? Could you set aside a little more cash to get two meals a day instead of one?

Is setting aside time on Sunday afternoon to cook some protein a good idea? Great, keep on doing that. Book it in your calendar.

There’s no “right” way to do this. Do what works for YOU.

5. Enjoy your meals.

Meal plans don’t usually address how you eat.

Before you change what you eat, you can also try changing how you eat. For example, you could:

slow down

breathe between bites

relax

savor your food

sit at a table if you can, and/or

use real dishes if you can.

Give yourself some time and space to appreciate those tasty concoctions you put together.

Meal time is YOUR time.

6. Work towards being your own boss.

Sometimes you might just want someone to tell you what to do.

That’s fine, and helpful, especially if you’re juggling a lot. But only for a while.

Over time, look for ways to help yourself intuitively and wisely make better choices, rather than just following the rules.

(Coaches, much more than serving up prescriptions, this is your job too: to help the folks you work with arrive at a place where they feel good about making decisions for themselves.)

Think long-term. What do you want to happen over the next few months? Year? 10 years? Do you want to be on a meal plan for the next few decades?

Today, if you were to take one small step towards the “better” end of the meal spectrum, what might that look like?

How can you start playing the “meal transformation game” today?

If you’re a coach, or you want to be…

Learning how to coach clients, patients, friends, or family members through healthy eating and lifestyle changes — including helping them with meal transformation — is both an art and a science.

If you’d like to learn more about both, consider the Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification. The next group kicks off shortly.

What’s it all about?

The Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification is the world’s most respected nutrition education program. It gives you the knowledge, systems, and tools you need to really understand how food influences a person’s health and fitness. Plus the ability to turn that knowledge into a thriving coaching practice.

Developed over 15 years, and proven with over 100,000 clients and patients, the Level 1 curriculum stands alone as the authority on the science of nutrition and the art of coaching.

Whether you’re already mid-career, or just starting out, the Level 1 Certification is your springboard to a deeper understanding of nutrition, the authority to coach it, and the ability to turn what you know into results.

[Of course, if you’re already a student or graduate of the Level 1 Certification, check out our Level 2 Certification Master Class. It’s an exclusive, year-long mentorship designed for elite professionals looking to master the art of coaching and be part of the top 1% of health and fitness coaches in the world.]

Interested? Add your name to the presale list. You’ll save up to 33% and secure your spot 24 hours before everyone else.

We’ll be opening up spots in our next Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018.

If you want to find out more, we’ve set up the following presale list, which gives you two advantages.

Pay less than everyone else. We like to reward people who are eager to boost their credentials and are ready to commit to getting the education they need. So we’re offering a discount of up to 33% off the general price when you sign up for the presale list.

Sign up 24 hours before the general public and increase your chances of getting a spot. We only open the certification program twice per year. Due to high demand, spots in the program are limited and have historically sold out in a matter of hours. But when you sign up for the presale list, we’ll give you the opportunity to register a full 24 hours before anyone else.

If you’re ready for a deeper understanding of nutrition, the authority to coach it, and the ability to turn what you know into results… this is your chance to see what the world’s top professional nutrition coaching system can do for you.

The post Meal plans usually suck. Here are 6 better ways to transform your diet. appeared first on Precision Nutrition.

Meal plans usually suck. Here are 6 better ways to transform your diet. published first on

[helllobeautifull]

LED grow lights 2018 complete review

If you're trying to find the Best LED Grow Lights and full spectrum grow lights to your living room, let us help you select one. We know it's a significant investment so we have hand-picked the very best LED grow lights available on the market. No matter your growing demands, it is possible to locate a mild here to suit.

Below, you will find award winners, bestsellers, budget alternatives, supplemental lighting, lights for small spaces or large grow rooms, in addition to the lights most favored by our readers--in other words, the lighting additional growers like you're already utilizing to get results.

You can find more information on how to begin growing cannabis indoors from our totally free e-book (get it in the sidebar on the right), and from our routine reviews of this best Grow tents, best nutrientsand other best tools and equipment on your growing performance.

What makes the top LED grow light for indoors growing success?

Deciding on the best light for your grow area depends on a few factors. You will need a light powerful enough to cover the region in which you grow, and that may fluctuate based on whether you've got a dedicated space for seedlings and clones, or in case your marijuana grows to maturity in 1 area.

Another variable is whether you want an all-purpose light, or if you plan to supplement it with other lamps for veg and flowering.

If you are especially searching for low running costs or stealth growing, then LED grow lights are very much your friends.

At length, at least with LED grow lights you do not need to think about replacing bulbs, dealing with ballast, or running too hot. All those things were issues with HID HPS lights but they are not a problem with LEDs.

Let's take a closer look at the best LED grow lights --and also to help you opt for the right light for your grow space we'll be sure to include details of policy area. And if you would like to check coverage regions at a glance, just take a peek at the table over.

Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind when choosing an LED grow light to increase cannabis:

The place you need to pay: The first thing that you should keep in mind is the region that needs to be coated. By knowing this, you can choose how many LED lighting you'll need, and which kind of LEDs will supply you the best coverage. To be able to cover more room, more lighting can be placed adjacent to each other. The stages of the plant growth: should you need a complete growth cycle, then you can pick a full-spectrum LED grow light to assist in all phases. Or many lights have switches and/or dimmers for each grow stage. The greater angles imply more coverage while the lesser angles mean less dispersion and much more direct light. Your budget: Factor in the qualities that are necessary for you as well as the total amount of money you're willing to invest--both up front and on running costs. An LED grow light could be costly up front, but can help save you money long term thanks to the lower running costs.

Yes, we're serious. You wear them outside, right? Remember, these lights are powerful!

Nutrients, even plants need their veggies and minerals. The nutrients you give them do not just affect yield, they impact taste. Don't have poop-flavored bud. Select your plants' nourishment sensibly.

Grow tent. Yes, it's a fantastic idea even when you're already growing in a closet or enclosed space. It's a lot easier to control the climate to your weed with a cane. It's possible to protect them from stray light sources when they're supposed to be in the dark and you protect yourself out of their light when you're supposed to be sleeping. Additionally, it keeps humidity under control and scents, too.

Light meter. Perhaps you believe only advanced growers utilize them, but you can use a single, too. When you are advanced, you will already know how.

Of course you want to be aware of the neighboring states on your grow tent. We picked the most up-to-date model on the market to show you. It will last you for years.

Here are the Best LED Grow Lights for the Cash: Our Editors' Alternatives for 2018

We picked our listing of LED grow lights based on the results they revealed and attributes they offer.

We also have taken into account factors like customer reviews, industry awards and a close look at which lights have proven most popular with our readers.

At length, below our Top 10 Recommendations, you'll find some great budget choices too, some additional lights for flowering, and a selection of grow lights for small spaces.

Advanced LED Diamond Series XML 350 -- Editor's Choice 2018 Check Latest Prices on Amazon

Our Editor's Choice moved to PlatinumLED's Platinum Series P900. We still love it, it is a wonderful light. For 2 reasons:

The new Diamond Series is even better! No question. You still will not fail with PlatinumLED's P-Series lights, but using the Diamond collection Advanced have really surpassed themselves. We've noticed a vast majority of our readers prefer relatively smaller lights (600W HID equivalents and under), so we're following suit with our recommendations. But don't worry, the majority of the lights we have chosen--including this one--are also available in larger models. OK then. What's so good about the Diamond Series XML 350?

These are the big update vs. PlatinumLED's Platinum Series. We are talking super-bright, reliable, top brand LEDs.

As a result of its collection of chips, the complete spectrum Diamond Series currently boasts a 14+ wavelength spectrum (including UV and IR), to present your cannabis every sort of light it requires for large yields and compact, potent, yummy buds. It is possible to use it at each stage of the increase.

In addition, the XML 350 can substitute a 600 into 800W HID lighting for an average draw of merely 330W. Meaning over 50 percent less heat, no requirement for extra heating and big savings on your electric bill.

Other attributes:

Daisy-chain up to four units on a single cord Patented heat sinks, whisper quiet fans, dust filter and air flow ports--to keep LEDs working flawlessly for more Clone, veg and flower manners--color pick dimmable switches Modern design--sure faults could be corrected without sending the whole unit away for repair 3-Year Warranty, 90-day Money Back Guarantee, hassle-free returns US Sales and Support staff Finally, let's talk policy: The 10W CREE LEDs boast precision 90-degree XML Collimator lenses for optimum coverage. That is more than enough for home growers in most U.S. states, for instance.

In case the XML350 is not the cost point or policy you're searching for, no problem. The XML lights are Advanced's flagship lights, but the Diamond Series has lots of other alternatives available within its range.

The marginally cheaper Diamond collection XTE lights unite Osram LEDs and 5W CREEs. While standard entry-level Diamond Series lights use Bridgelux LEDs only. You'll notice, though, that in all 3 instances all of the LED chips come from reputable producers and are American-made.

VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 300W -- Our Readers' Favorite The VIPARSPECTRA V300 continues to be pleasing a great deal of consumers since it strikes the ideal balance of features for your money--in actuality, among our readers it's the Number 1 vendor!

That which we believe Viparspectra lights do so well is being affordable without too much compromise.

Plus it feels like you guys concur. In reality, VIPARSPECTRA has five lights among our Top 10 vendors!

In summary: Viparspectra is definitely doing something right.

But back to the V300... In terms of the V300 especially, this is a cheap full spectrum (12 wavelengths, such as IR) light that can replace a 250W HID light whilst drawing only 136W.

The LEDs are great quality, high-intensity 5W Bridgelux and Epileds chips, with a lifespan of 100,000 hours. A 90° lens angle helps them pay for a grow area of 2′ x 2′ suspended at 24″ and 1.5′ x 1.5′ at 18″ without hotspots. And PAR when hung in 24″ is 300 at the center of the footprint.

Other features include daisy-chaining, a 3-year guarantee and a 30-day gratification or return guarantee.

In the end, if you would like an integrated timer, dimmable veg and bloom channels, a remote controller to program your lighting, slightly lower average draw at the wall and an excess half-foot of policy, the VT300 only costs a small amount extra. It's ultra-convenient and gives you that extra bit of customizability to completely optimize your growing.

VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 600W -- Readers' Choice 2nd Place Check Latest Bargains on Amazon

Second biggest seller among our readers, the VIPARSPECTRA V600 is the bigger brother of the v300. It includes the very same features, in addition to the addition of different veg and bloom switches.

Replacing a 600W HID drawing and light just 269W on average, the V600 may cover a grow region of 3′ x 3′ suspended at 32″ and 2.5′ x 2.5′ at 22″. In the center of the light's footprint, PAR at 24″ is 530, 275 in 36″ and 784 at 18″.

Again you may update for remote control programmability, built-in timer and even better coverage--in this case, to the bar-shaped VT600.

Or the VT600-S has the identical square shape and the same policy as the V600, but the very best PAR values of all 3 V600 options.

VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 450W -- Readers' Choice 3rd Place Check Latest Prices on Amazon

I guess you'd have to call this one the middle child, size-wise.

It provides you protection of 2.5′ x 2.5′ hung at 24″ and two′ x 2′ in 18″, and also the various PAR worth are 415 and 655.

Again, it's different veg and bloom switches. And there is a VT version, the VT450, a thinner more light that gives coverage of 3.5′ x 2.5′ at 28″ and 2′ x two′ in 20″ and PAR at 24″ of 396.

So we are very happy to highlight them here also.

As if we think the Diamond Series now has the advantage, PlatinumLED is a reliable, based company making excellent lights. They always uses high quality parts and assemble in the USA. However, together with the Diamond Series Advanced have simply taken the high component quality up still another two or three.

Like Advanced LED, their lights aren't the cheapest. Nevertheless that additional quality and reliability makes them well worthwhile. And they are often cheaper than the Diamond Series.

So if you can not afford any of the Diamond Series lights, Here Is What we thought of the Platinum Series P900, P600 and P300 (our 4th highest selling light):

Check Latest Bargains on Amazon

All of the grow lights from the Platinum Series use revolutionary full-spectrum technology to keep your grow plants and room cool while meeting all of their lighting needs. The P900 offers PlatinumLED's trademark "3x intensity" lights that offer three times the brightness of many competing LED grow lights.

The P900 has 12 groups of light wavelengths such as infrared and ultraviolet, the parts you can't see with the naked eye. This weapon, and others like it in the Platinum lineup, is about as near sun as you can get inside. However, this is not a one-trick pony. This panel is good for every stage of growing cannabis.

Switching included The 90-degree angle of the LED working lenses sends down the light into the canopy of your plants. This encourages massive growth.

It may replace a 1000 watt HPS lighting at full intensity and only use 515 watts of electricity. The average cost of energy in the united states is around 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. Running a 1000 watt HPS prices you 12 cents every hour plus what you'll cover to cool it. But conducting the P900 provides the exact same or better light quality and durability at half that price.

After the P900 is frozen at 18-inches over the plants, its core coverage reaches 3 by 5 ft. Its maximum protection is 4 by 6 ft. You could be asking what those numbers actually mean for you. At different stages of growth, you are going to be raising or lowering the mild based on what your plants need. For instance, you are able to pay up to 4 feet. However, in more intensive stages such as flowering, you're cover less area because you need more extreme light.

This is not a budget light system. But we like that the P1200 LED drivers work anywhere on the planet. They take 110V or 220V input (or specifically, 85V to 260V). PlatinumLED offers among the better guarantees available on the marketplace, with a 90-day money-back guarantee and 5-year total guarantee.

[samanthasroberts]

The Muddled Link Between Booze and Cancer

A couple years ago, a researcher named Curtis Ellison took the podium in a crowded lecture hall at Boston Universitys School of Public Health to tackle a question that had divided the universitys public health community: whether moderate drinking should be recommended as part of a healthy lifestyle. Ellisons take? I mean, its so obviously yes, he told the crowd.

Youve heard Ellisons pitch before: A glass a day can make for a healthier heart and a longer life. On stage, he told the story of Jackrabbit Johannsen, a famed cross country skier who lived to be 111. Johannsen had four pieces of advice for a long and healthy life, Ellison said: Dont smoke, get lots of exercise, dont drink too much. He paused. On the other hand, dont drink too little, either. The crowd erupted in laughter and applause.

But Ellison wasnt going unchallenged. Watching from the other side of the stage was Tim Naimi, a public health professor at BU who studies binge drinking in the same building as Ellison. He was there to argue the less attractive position: Drinking is distinctly unhealthy. And not in the typical ways you might associate with alcoholism, but in the sense of increased cancer risk—even for moderate drinkers.

Alcohols potential health benefits may have been oversold by industry-funded research, distracting consumers from the realities of cancer risk.

For folks within the realm of public health, thats no surprise. The World Health Organization has recognized alcoholic beverages as a Group 1 carcinogen since 2012, meaning evidence supports a link between alcohol and increased cancer risk. This past March, Jennie Connor, a preventative and social medicine researcher from New Zealands University of Otago, published a review of studies looking at the correlation between drinking and cancer, concluding that there is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites in the body and probably others. Her analysis credits alcohol with nearly 6 percent of all cancer deaths worldwide.

Connors use of the word cause separates her from most alcohol researchers and cancer advocacy groups in the US, where the conversation revolves around a more delicate term: risk. American consumers and researchers are both uncomfortable—or at least unfamiliar—with the idea of alcohol as health threat. When the American Institute for Cancer Research put out a survey to measure public perception of various cancer threats, less than half of respondents believed that alcohol was a risk factor for cancer. Which is odd, because 56 percent thought GMOs were, even though theres no scientific proof that they are.

To be fair, the science around how alcohol impacts the body is still nascent. Ellison and Naimis debate wasnt a mock trial: The public health community is split among people who think alcohol has its benefits and those who caution against its risks. The WHOs designation puts alcohol in the same category as processed meats and sunlight: Theyre carcinogenic, but that label doesnt tell you how much is how carcinogenic. Consumers are faced with the conflicting message that moderate drinking can actually increase their level of good cholesterol and decrease their risk of heart disease, which kills more people in the US than anything else.

Lots of us drink and wed really like to believe drinking is good for us, says Naimi. But the research around that has really fallen apart in the last couple years. Since Ellison made his confident statement into that mic two years ago, Naimi and many of his peers have gone on the offense against the studies that support alcohols potential health benefits, saying they may have been grossly oversold by industry-funded research—in the end, distracting consumers from the realities of cancer risk.

Bias in Booze Science

In late 1991, Ellison went on 60 Minutes to share the good news about red wine and heart health, and the idea took off. Underlying his claim were years of observational studies that compared moderate drinkers to non-drinkers. A handful of studies found that the moderate drinkers were actually healthier than the non-drinkers.

But in recent years, alcohol scholars like Connor and Naimi have criticized those studies for whats become known as a sick quitters bias. Some of the groups of non-drinkers that were compared to moderate drinkers were actually groups of former alcoholics or people who were too sick to continue drinking, so they were generally sicker than the healthier moderate drinkers. When Naimi adjusted the results in a meta-analysis that took the bias into account, the study still showed that moderate drinkers were better off than non-drinkers when it came to heart health—but not by nearly as much as originally thought.

Ellison says recent studies have gotten more sophisticated about eliminating those selection problems. But thats not the only source of bias in the literature. In the summer of 2014, the journal Addiction published a scathing editorial that outed Ellison for receiving unrestricted educational donations from the (alcohol) industry. That money had supported his work at BU, along with his leadership of a peer group that wrote positive reviews about studies highlighting the potential health benefits of drinking.

It wasnt the first time the journal had called out the often-cozy relationship between alcohol academics and industry. Trade organizations like the Distilled Spirits Council, which represents alcohol companies and is the largest alcohol lobbying arm, often work hand in hand with regulators and researchers. Some researchers go on to work for their industry connections, like Samir Zakhari, a former director at the US National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (the National Institutes of Healths alcohol research division). After he retired from the NIH, he went to work for the Distilled Spirits Council.

The council, for its part, doesnt buy the newer research that highlights the link between alcohol and cancer. Frank Coleman, a spokesman for the DSC, says that many of those meta-analyses are flawed, skewed by cherry-picking data points.

The Trouble with Analyzing Alcohol

Those biases are a direct challenge to the validity of science on alcohol and health. But even if they didnt exist, the nature of drinking still makes it extraordinarily difficult to come up with reliable results. Health risks, including those for cancer, are based on a complex interplay of variables—lifestyle factors, age, genetic predispositions—and they play out differently in each individuals body.

People who drink a bit of wine each day, for example, tend to sit down and drink it with meals. And theyre predominantly wealthier, more privileged consumers—making them predisposed to better health, says Ellison. Beer drinkers also tend to be more susceptible to binge drinking, he says.

Those factors can be difficult to separate from alcohols isolated effect on the body. Were not studying beer or wine specifically, says Ellison. Were studying people who drink them. Even low calorie beers come with a lot of empty calories, says Kenneth Portier, who directs the statistics and evaluation programs at the American Cancer Society. Drink enough of it and it can put you in that other risk factor: obesity.

Ellison doesnt deny that there is a link between alcohol and cancer—he just thinks its only relevant for heavy drinkers. But that starts a whole new debate: What exactly constitutes moderate drinking, and how do you study moderate vs. heavy drinking in study participants with vastly different body sizes, metabolisms, and socioeconomic backgrounds? In order to guide people in making informed decisions, researchers will need resources from somewhere outside the alcohol industry to conduct randomized studies that can isolate alcohols impact on the body over the course of decades.

Still, the less-than-perfect current evidence suggests that about 15 percent of breast cancer deaths are alcohol-related, says Naimi. Nearly 20,000 cancer deaths are attributable to alcohol every year in the US alone, he says, and were not even the worlds biggest drinkers. Simultaneously, the craft beer market has grown into a $22.3 billion industry and AB InBev and SAB Miller, the worlds two largest alcohol companies, are in the midst of a mega merger. If there was ever a time to come to a consensus about what exactly alcohol does to our bodies, it would be now.

Shaping the Message

Connors analysis of existing alcohol research was a turning point for the conversation on booze and cancer. But once youve decided that alcohol is a substantial public health risk, you still need to convince drinkers of that fact. And its a lot easier to tell people drinking is good for them than to explain how and why it isnt.

Things that are familiar to us are perceived as less risky, says Portier. Most of us have been around alcohol our whole lives and we know people who drink and theyre not dead.

It becomes even more difficult to construct a coherent public health message when consumers hear conflicting information. For each drink a woman has per day, her relative risk for breast cancer alone can increase by about 7 percent, says Susan Brown, whos in charge of health education programs at Susan G Komen. But people are often surprised and disappointed that theres an association between alcohol and breast cancer, she says. Many times, they’ve heard that moderate drinking is good for them. That may be confusing or masking the message, she says.

So right now, health groups like Susan G Komen and the American Cancer Society simply emphasize drinking in moderation. In public-health speak, thats defined as one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men (think of a drink more as a glass of wine or a bottle of fairly light beer, rather than a double martini).

But for most consumers, the concept of moderation is most closely tied to the phrase drink responsibly, an alcohol industry catch phrase that reminds customers not to drink too much—without actually defining how much is too much. I worry sometimes that the breweries are trying to change the perception of risk to benefit their own equation, says Portier.

Thats where policy comes into play. In the UK, for example, the Department of Health changed its alcohol guidelines from saying it was safe to drink moderately to acknowledging that there are a number of serious diseases, including certain cancers, that can be caused even when drinking less than 14 units weekly. While the risk for moderate drinking was low, they write, there is no level of regular drinking that can be considered as completely safe.

Related Video

Fun With Powdered Alcohol: You Can Stop Being Scared Now

Look back at the public health messages around tobacco and youll notice they all share a common, simple message: stop smoking. There was no level of moderation that was considered risk-free, so there was no conversation around moderation. Alcohol, on the other hand, has a much more complex message: dont drink too much, make sure you understand what too much means for you, and mitigate the risk of drinking by assessing any other risk factors you may have in your life. Not exactly great fodder for a catchy PSA. But in a world where drinking is so closely tied to culture, it may be the best option.

It all comes down to perception of risk and how you want to live your life, says Portier. Someone who is at a higher risk for heart disease than cancer, for example, may feel more inclined to have a glass of red wine each night than someone who has a strong family history of breast cancer. People should make their own decisions about how much they drink, says Naimi. But I certainly think that people deserve to be more aware of this than they are now.

To get there, Naimi goes back to the idea of conducting long term, comprehensive, randomized studies. Thats something both sides are anxious to see more of. Zakhari, the alcohol expert who works at the Distilled Spirits Council, says its crucial to look at alcohol consumption over a long period of time, since cancer usually develops very slowly. These studies always ask women, how much did you drink last week, last month, last year, he says. But what they were doing last week or last month or last year has nothing to do with the initiation of cancer 20 years earlier. Its like someone has food poisoning today and the doctor asks them what they ate for Christmas in 1980.

Not that help isnt on the way—sort of. According to the Wall Street Journal, AB InBev and Diageo (another heavyweight alcohol producer) are planning to work with a handful of other alcohol companies to pay for a randomized study that will look at the health implications of drinking. Itll be run by the NIAAA, the same government division where Zakhari once worked.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/07/the-muddled-link-between-booze-and-cancer/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/08/07/the-muddled-link-between-booze-and-cancer/

[adambstingus]

The Muddled Link Between Booze and Cancer

A couple years ago, a researcher named Curtis Ellison took the podium in a crowded lecture hall at Boston Universitys School of Public Health to tackle a question that had divided the universitys public health community: whether moderate drinking should be recommended as part of a healthy lifestyle. Ellisons take? I mean, its so obviously yes, he told the crowd.

Youve heard Ellisons pitch before: A glass a day can make for a healthier heart and a longer life. On stage, he told the story of Jackrabbit Johannsen, a famed cross country skier who lived to be 111. Johannsen had four pieces of advice for a long and healthy life, Ellison said: Dont smoke, get lots of exercise, dont drink too much. He paused. On the other hand, dont drink too little, either. The crowd erupted in laughter and applause.

But Ellison wasnt going unchallenged. Watching from the other side of the stage was Tim Naimi, a public health professor at BU who studies binge drinking in the same building as Ellison. He was there to argue the less attractive position: Drinking is distinctly unhealthy. And not in the typical ways you might associate with alcoholism, but in the sense of increased cancer risk—even for moderate drinkers.

Alcohols potential health benefits may have been oversold by industry-funded research, distracting consumers from the realities of cancer risk.

For folks within the realm of public health, thats no surprise. The World Health Organization has recognized alcoholic beverages as a Group 1 carcinogen since 2012, meaning evidence supports a link between alcohol and increased cancer risk. This past March, Jennie Connor, a preventative and social medicine researcher from New Zealands University of Otago, published a review of studies looking at the correlation between drinking and cancer, concluding that there is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites in the body and probably others. Her analysis credits alcohol with nearly 6 percent of all cancer deaths worldwide.

Connors use of the word cause separates her from most alcohol researchers and cancer advocacy groups in the US, where the conversation revolves around a more delicate term: risk. American consumers and researchers are both uncomfortable—or at least unfamiliar—with the idea of alcohol as health threat. When the American Institute for Cancer Research put out a survey to measure public perception of various cancer threats, less than half of respondents believed that alcohol was a risk factor for cancer. Which is odd, because 56 percent thought GMOs were, even though theres no scientific proof that they are.

To be fair, the science around how alcohol impacts the body is still nascent. Ellison and Naimis debate wasnt a mock trial: The public health community is split among people who think alcohol has its benefits and those who caution against its risks. The WHOs designation puts alcohol in the same category as processed meats and sunlight: Theyre carcinogenic, but that label doesnt tell you how much is how carcinogenic. Consumers are faced with the conflicting message that moderate drinking can actually increase their level of good cholesterol and decrease their risk of heart disease, which kills more people in the US than anything else.

Lots of us drink and wed really like to believe drinking is good for us, says Naimi. But the research around that has really fallen apart in the last couple years. Since Ellison made his confident statement into that mic two years ago, Naimi and many of his peers have gone on the offense against the studies that support alcohols potential health benefits, saying they may have been grossly oversold by industry-funded research—in the end, distracting consumers from the realities of cancer risk.

Bias in Booze Science

In late 1991, Ellison went on 60 Minutes to share the good news about red wine and heart health, and the idea took off. Underlying his claim were years of observational studies that compared moderate drinkers to non-drinkers. A handful of studies found that the moderate drinkers were actually healthier than the non-drinkers.

But in recent years, alcohol scholars like Connor and Naimi have criticized those studies for whats become known as a sick quitters bias. Some of the groups of non-drinkers that were compared to moderate drinkers were actually groups of former alcoholics or people who were too sick to continue drinking, so they were generally sicker than the healthier moderate drinkers. When Naimi adjusted the results in a meta-analysis that took the bias into account, the study still showed that moderate drinkers were better off than non-drinkers when it came to heart health—but not by nearly as much as originally thought.

Ellison says recent studies have gotten more sophisticated about eliminating those selection problems. But thats not the only source of bias in the literature. In the summer of 2014, the journal Addiction published a scathing editorial that outed Ellison for receiving unrestricted educational donations from the (alcohol) industry. That money had supported his work at BU, along with his leadership of a peer group that wrote positive reviews about studies highlighting the potential health benefits of drinking.

It wasnt the first time the journal had called out the often-cozy relationship between alcohol academics and industry. Trade organizations like the Distilled Spirits Council, which represents alcohol companies and is the largest alcohol lobbying arm, often work hand in hand with regulators and researchers. Some researchers go on to work for their industry connections, like Samir Zakhari, a former director at the US National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (the National Institutes of Healths alcohol research division). After he retired from the NIH, he went to work for the Distilled Spirits Council.

The council, for its part, doesnt buy the newer research that highlights the link between alcohol and cancer. Frank Coleman, a spokesman for the DSC, says that many of those meta-analyses are flawed, skewed by cherry-picking data points.

The Trouble with Analyzing Alcohol

Those biases are a direct challenge to the validity of science on alcohol and health. But even if they didnt exist, the nature of drinking still makes it extraordinarily difficult to come up with reliable results. Health risks, including those for cancer, are based on a complex interplay of variables—lifestyle factors, age, genetic predispositions—and they play out differently in each individuals body.

People who drink a bit of wine each day, for example, tend to sit down and drink it with meals. And theyre predominantly wealthier, more privileged consumers—making them predisposed to better health, says Ellison. Beer drinkers also tend to be more susceptible to binge drinking, he says.

Those factors can be difficult to separate from alcohols isolated effect on the body. Were not studying beer or wine specifically, says Ellison. Were studying people who drink them. Even low calorie beers come with a lot of empty calories, says Kenneth Portier, who directs the statistics and evaluation programs at the American Cancer Society. Drink enough of it and it can put you in that other risk factor: obesity.

Ellison doesnt deny that there is a link between alcohol and cancer—he just thinks its only relevant for heavy drinkers. But that starts a whole new debate: What exactly constitutes moderate drinking, and how do you study moderate vs. heavy drinking in study participants with vastly different body sizes, metabolisms, and socioeconomic backgrounds? In order to guide people in making informed decisions, researchers will need resources from somewhere outside the alcohol industry to conduct randomized studies that can isolate alcohols impact on the body over the course of decades.

Still, the less-than-perfect current evidence suggests that about 15 percent of breast cancer deaths are alcohol-related, says Naimi. Nearly 20,000 cancer deaths are attributable to alcohol every year in the US alone, he says, and were not even the worlds biggest drinkers. Simultaneously, the craft beer market has grown into a $22.3 billion industry and AB InBev and SAB Miller, the worlds two largest alcohol companies, are in the midst of a mega merger. If there was ever a time to come to a consensus about what exactly alcohol does to our bodies, it would be now.

Shaping the Message

Connors analysis of existing alcohol research was a turning point for the conversation on booze and cancer. But once youve decided that alcohol is a substantial public health risk, you still need to convince drinkers of that fact. And its a lot easier to tell people drinking is good for them than to explain how and why it isnt.

Things that are familiar to us are perceived as less risky, says Portier. Most of us have been around alcohol our whole lives and we know people who drink and theyre not dead.

It becomes even more difficult to construct a coherent public health message when consumers hear conflicting information. For each drink a woman has per day, her relative risk for breast cancer alone can increase by about 7 percent, says Susan Brown, whos in charge of health education programs at Susan G Komen. But people are often surprised and disappointed that theres an association between alcohol and breast cancer, she says. Many times, they’ve heard that moderate drinking is good for them. That may be confusing or masking the message, she says.

So right now, health groups like Susan G Komen and the American Cancer Society simply emphasize drinking in moderation. In public-health speak, thats defined as one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men (think of a drink more as a glass of wine or a bottle of fairly light beer, rather than a double martini).

But for most consumers, the concept of moderation is most closely tied to the phrase drink responsibly, an alcohol industry catch phrase that reminds customers not to drink too much—without actually defining how much is too much. I worry sometimes that the breweries are trying to change the perception of risk to benefit their own equation, says Portier.

Thats where policy comes into play. In the UK, for example, the Department of Health changed its alcohol guidelines from saying it was safe to drink moderately to acknowledging that there are a number of serious diseases, including certain cancers, that can be caused even when drinking less than 14 units weekly. While the risk for moderate drinking was low, they write, there is no level of regular drinking that can be considered as completely safe.

Related Video

Fun With Powdered Alcohol: You Can Stop Being Scared Now

Look back at the public health messages around tobacco and youll notice they all share a common, simple message: stop smoking. There was no level of moderation that was considered risk-free, so there was no conversation around moderation. Alcohol, on the other hand, has a much more complex message: dont drink too much, make sure you understand what too much means for you, and mitigate the risk of drinking by assessing any other risk factors you may have in your life. Not exactly great fodder for a catchy PSA. But in a world where drinking is so closely tied to culture, it may be the best option.

It all comes down to perception of risk and how you want to live your life, says Portier. Someone who is at a higher risk for heart disease than cancer, for example, may feel more inclined to have a glass of red wine each night than someone who has a strong family history of breast cancer. People should make their own decisions about how much they drink, says Naimi. But I certainly think that people deserve to be more aware of this than they are now.

To get there, Naimi goes back to the idea of conducting long term, comprehensive, randomized studies. Thats something both sides are anxious to see more of. Zakhari, the alcohol expert who works at the Distilled Spirits Council, says its crucial to look at alcohol consumption over a long period of time, since cancer usually develops very slowly. These studies always ask women, how much did you drink last week, last month, last year, he says. But what they were doing last week or last month or last year has nothing to do with the initiation of cancer 20 years earlier. Its like someone has food poisoning today and the doctor asks them what they ate for Christmas in 1980.

Not that help isnt on the way—sort of. According to the Wall Street Journal, AB InBev and Diageo (another heavyweight alcohol producer) are planning to work with a handful of other alcohol companies to pay for a randomized study that will look at the health implications of drinking. Itll be run by the NIAAA, the same government division where Zakhari once worked.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/07/the-muddled-link-between-booze-and-cancer/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/163887195402

[jimdsmith34]

The Muddled Link Between Booze and Cancer

A couple years ago, a researcher named Curtis Ellison took the podium in a crowded lecture hall at Boston Universitys School of Public Health to tackle a question that had divided the universitys public health community: whether moderate drinking should be recommended as part of a healthy lifestyle. Ellisons take? I mean, its so obviously yes, he told the crowd.

Youve heard Ellisons pitch before: A glass a day can make for a healthier heart and a longer life. On stage, he told the story of Jackrabbit Johannsen, a famed cross country skier who lived to be 111. Johannsen had four pieces of advice for a long and healthy life, Ellison said: Dont smoke, get lots of exercise, dont drink too much. He paused. On the other hand, dont drink too little, either. The crowd erupted in laughter and applause.

But Ellison wasnt going unchallenged. Watching from the other side of the stage was Tim Naimi, a public health professor at BU who studies binge drinking in the same building as Ellison. He was there to argue the less attractive position: Drinking is distinctly unhealthy. And not in the typical ways you might associate with alcoholism, but in the sense of increased cancer risk—even for moderate drinkers.

Alcohols potential health benefits may have been oversold by industry-funded research, distracting consumers from the realities of cancer risk.

For folks within the realm of public health, thats no surprise. The World Health Organization has recognized alcoholic beverages as a Group 1 carcinogen since 2012, meaning evidence supports a link between alcohol and increased cancer risk. This past March, Jennie Connor, a preventative and social medicine researcher from New Zealands University of Otago, published a review of studies looking at the correlation between drinking and cancer, concluding that there is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites in the body and probably others. Her analysis credits alcohol with nearly 6 percent of all cancer deaths worldwide.

Connors use of the word cause separates her from most alcohol researchers and cancer advocacy groups in the US, where the conversation revolves around a more delicate term: risk. American consumers and researchers are both uncomfortable—or at least unfamiliar—with the idea of alcohol as health threat. When the American Institute for Cancer Research put out a survey to measure public perception of various cancer threats, less than half of respondents believed that alcohol was a risk factor for cancer. Which is odd, because 56 percent thought GMOs were, even though theres no scientific proof that they are.

To be fair, the science around how alcohol impacts the body is still nascent. Ellison and Naimis debate wasnt a mock trial: The public health community is split among people who think alcohol has its benefits and those who caution against its risks. The WHOs designation puts alcohol in the same category as processed meats and sunlight: Theyre carcinogenic, but that label doesnt tell you how much is how carcinogenic. Consumers are faced with the conflicting message that moderate drinking can actually increase their level of good cholesterol and decrease their risk of heart disease, which kills more people in the US than anything else.

Lots of us drink and wed really like to believe drinking is good for us, says Naimi. But the research around that has really fallen apart in the last couple years. Since Ellison made his confident statement into that mic two years ago, Naimi and many of his peers have gone on the offense against the studies that support alcohols potential health benefits, saying they may have been grossly oversold by industry-funded research—in the end, distracting consumers from the realities of cancer risk.

Bias in Booze Science

In late 1991, Ellison went on 60 Minutes to share the good news about red wine and heart health, and the idea took off. Underlying his claim were years of observational studies that compared moderate drinkers to non-drinkers. A handful of studies found that the moderate drinkers were actually healthier than the non-drinkers.

But in recent years, alcohol scholars like Connor and Naimi have criticized those studies for whats become known as a sick quitters bias. Some of the groups of non-drinkers that were compared to moderate drinkers were actually groups of former alcoholics or people who were too sick to continue drinking, so they were generally sicker than the healthier moderate drinkers. When Naimi adjusted the results in a meta-analysis that took the bias into account, the study still showed that moderate drinkers were better off than non-drinkers when it came to heart health—but not by nearly as much as originally thought.

Ellison says recent studies have gotten more sophisticated about eliminating those selection problems. But thats not the only source of bias in the literature. In the summer of 2014, the journal Addiction published a scathing editorial that outed Ellison for receiving unrestricted educational donations from the (alcohol) industry. That money had supported his work at BU, along with his leadership of a peer group that wrote positive reviews about studies highlighting the potential health benefits of drinking.

It wasnt the first time the journal had called out the often-cozy relationship between alcohol academics and industry. Trade organizations like the Distilled Spirits Council, which represents alcohol companies and is the largest alcohol lobbying arm, often work hand in hand with regulators and researchers. Some researchers go on to work for their industry connections, like Samir Zakhari, a former director at the US National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (the National Institutes of Healths alcohol research division). After he retired from the NIH, he went to work for the Distilled Spirits Council.

The council, for its part, doesnt buy the newer research that highlights the link between alcohol and cancer. Frank Coleman, a spokesman for the DSC, says that many of those meta-analyses are flawed, skewed by cherry-picking data points.

The Trouble with Analyzing Alcohol

Those biases are a direct challenge to the validity of science on alcohol and health. But even if they didnt exist, the nature of drinking still makes it extraordinarily difficult to come up with reliable results. Health risks, including those for cancer, are based on a complex interplay of variables—lifestyle factors, age, genetic predispositions—and they play out differently in each individuals body.

People who drink a bit of wine each day, for example, tend to sit down and drink it with meals. And theyre predominantly wealthier, more privileged consumers—making them predisposed to better health, says Ellison. Beer drinkers also tend to be more susceptible to binge drinking, he says.

Those factors can be difficult to separate from alcohols isolated effect on the body. Were not studying beer or wine specifically, says Ellison. Were studying people who drink them. Even low calorie beers come with a lot of empty calories, says Kenneth Portier, who directs the statistics and evaluation programs at the American Cancer Society. Drink enough of it and it can put you in that other risk factor: obesity.

Ellison doesnt deny that there is a link between alcohol and cancer—he just thinks its only relevant for heavy drinkers. But that starts a whole new debate: What exactly constitutes moderate drinking, and how do you study moderate vs. heavy drinking in study participants with vastly different body sizes, metabolisms, and socioeconomic backgrounds? In order to guide people in making informed decisions, researchers will need resources from somewhere outside the alcohol industry to conduct randomized studies that can isolate alcohols impact on the body over the course of decades.

Still, the less-than-perfect current evidence suggests that about 15 percent of breast cancer deaths are alcohol-related, says Naimi. Nearly 20,000 cancer deaths are attributable to alcohol every year in the US alone, he says, and were not even the worlds biggest drinkers. Simultaneously, the craft beer market has grown into a $22.3 billion industry and AB InBev and SAB Miller, the worlds two largest alcohol companies, are in the midst of a mega merger. If there was ever a time to come to a consensus about what exactly alcohol does to our bodies, it would be now.

Shaping the Message

Connors analysis of existing alcohol research was a turning point for the conversation on booze and cancer. But once youve decided that alcohol is a substantial public health risk, you still need to convince drinkers of that fact. And its a lot easier to tell people drinking is good for them than to explain how and why it isnt.

Things that are familiar to us are perceived as less risky, says Portier. Most of us have been around alcohol our whole lives and we know people who drink and theyre not dead.

It becomes even more difficult to construct a coherent public health message when consumers hear conflicting information. For each drink a woman has per day, her relative risk for breast cancer alone can increase by about 7 percent, says Susan Brown, whos in charge of health education programs at Susan G Komen. But people are often surprised and disappointed that theres an association between alcohol and breast cancer, she says. Many times, they’ve heard that moderate drinking is good for them. That may be confusing or masking the message, she says.

So right now, health groups like Susan G Komen and the American Cancer Society simply emphasize drinking in moderation. In public-health speak, thats defined as one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men (think of a drink more as a glass of wine or a bottle of fairly light beer, rather than a double martini).

But for most consumers, the concept of moderation is most closely tied to the phrase drink responsibly, an alcohol industry catch phrase that reminds customers not to drink too much—without actually defining how much is too much. I worry sometimes that the breweries are trying to change the perception of risk to benefit their own equation, says Portier.

Thats where policy comes into play. In the UK, for example, the Department of Health changed its alcohol guidelines from saying it was safe to drink moderately to acknowledging that there are a number of serious diseases, including certain cancers, that can be caused even when drinking less than 14 units weekly. While the risk for moderate drinking was low, they write, there is no level of regular drinking that can be considered as completely safe.

Related Video

Fun With Powdered Alcohol: You Can Stop Being Scared Now

Look back at the public health messages around tobacco and youll notice they all share a common, simple message: stop smoking. There was no level of moderation that was considered risk-free, so there was no conversation around moderation. Alcohol, on the other hand, has a much more complex message: dont drink too much, make sure you understand what too much means for you, and mitigate the risk of drinking by assessing any other risk factors you may have in your life. Not exactly great fodder for a catchy PSA. But in a world where drinking is so closely tied to culture, it may be the best option.

It all comes down to perception of risk and how you want to live your life, says Portier. Someone who is at a higher risk for heart disease than cancer, for example, may feel more inclined to have a glass of red wine each night than someone who has a strong family history of breast cancer. People should make their own decisions about how much they drink, says Naimi. But I certainly think that people deserve to be more aware of this than they are now.

To get there, Naimi goes back to the idea of conducting long term, comprehensive, randomized studies. Thats something both sides are anxious to see more of. Zakhari, the alcohol expert who works at the Distilled Spirits Council, says its crucial to look at alcohol consumption over a long period of time, since cancer usually develops very slowly. These studies always ask women, how much did you drink last week, last month, last year, he says. But what they were doing last week or last month or last year has nothing to do with the initiation of cancer 20 years earlier. Its like someone has food poisoning today and the doctor asks them what they ate for Christmas in 1980.

Not that help isnt on the way—sort of. According to the Wall Street Journal, AB InBev and Diageo (another heavyweight alcohol producer) are planning to work with a handful of other alcohol companies to pay for a randomized study that will look at the health implications of drinking. Itll be run by the NIAAA, the same government division where Zakhari once worked.

source http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/07/the-muddled-link-between-booze-and-cancer/ from All of Beer http://allofbeer.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-muddled-link-between-booze-and.html

[allofbeercom]

The Muddled Link Between Booze and Cancer

A couple years ago, a researcher named Curtis Ellison took the podium in a crowded lecture hall at Boston Universitys School of Public Health to tackle a question that had divided the universitys public health community: whether moderate drinking should be recommended as part of a healthy lifestyle. Ellisons take? I mean, its so obviously yes, he told the crowd.

Youve heard Ellisons pitch before: A glass a day can make for a healthier heart and a longer life. On stage, he told the story of Jackrabbit Johannsen, a famed cross country skier who lived to be 111. Johannsen had four pieces of advice for a long and healthy life, Ellison said: Dont smoke, get lots of exercise, dont drink too much. He paused. On the other hand, dont drink too little, either. The crowd erupted in laughter and applause.

But Ellison wasnt going unchallenged. Watching from the other side of the stage was Tim Naimi, a public health professor at BU who studies binge drinking in the same building as Ellison. He was there to argue the less attractive position: Drinking is distinctly unhealthy. And not in the typical ways you might associate with alcoholism, but in the sense of increased cancer risk—even for moderate drinkers.

Alcohols potential health benefits may have been oversold by industry-funded research, distracting consumers from the realities of cancer risk.

For folks within the realm of public health, thats no surprise. The World Health Organization has recognized alcoholic beverages as a Group 1 carcinogen since 2012, meaning evidence supports a link between alcohol and increased cancer risk. This past March, Jennie Connor, a preventative and social medicine researcher from New Zealands University of Otago, published a review of studies looking at the correlation between drinking and cancer, concluding that there is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites in the body and probably others. Her analysis credits alcohol with nearly 6 percent of all cancer deaths worldwide.

Connors use of the word cause separates her from most alcohol researchers and cancer advocacy groups in the US, where the conversation revolves around a more delicate term: risk. American consumers and researchers are both uncomfortable—or at least unfamiliar—with the idea of alcohol as health threat. When the American Institute for Cancer Research put out a survey to measure public perception of various cancer threats, less than half of respondents believed that alcohol was a risk factor for cancer. Which is odd, because 56 percent thought GMOs were, even though theres no scientific proof that they are.

To be fair, the science around how alcohol impacts the body is still nascent. Ellison and Naimis debate wasnt a mock trial: The public health community is split among people who think alcohol has its benefits and those who caution against its risks. The WHOs designation puts alcohol in the same category as processed meats and sunlight: Theyre carcinogenic, but that label doesnt tell you how much is how carcinogenic. Consumers are faced with the conflicting message that moderate drinking can actually increase their level of good cholesterol and decrease their risk of heart disease, which kills more people in the US than anything else.

Lots of us drink and wed really like to believe drinking is good for us, says Naimi. But the research around that has really fallen apart in the last couple years. Since Ellison made his confident statement into that mic two years ago, Naimi and many of his peers have gone on the offense against the studies that support alcohols potential health benefits, saying they may have been grossly oversold by industry-funded research—in the end, distracting consumers from the realities of cancer risk.

Bias in Booze Science

In late 1991, Ellison went on 60 Minutes to share the good news about red wine and heart health, and the idea took off. Underlying his claim were years of observational studies that compared moderate drinkers to non-drinkers. A handful of studies found that the moderate drinkers were actually healthier than the non-drinkers.

But in recent years, alcohol scholars like Connor and Naimi have criticized those studies for whats become known as a sick quitters bias. Some of the groups of non-drinkers that were compared to moderate drinkers were actually groups of former alcoholics or people who were too sick to continue drinking, so they were generally sicker than the healthier moderate drinkers. When Naimi adjusted the results in a meta-analysis that took the bias into account, the study still showed that moderate drinkers were better off than non-drinkers when it came to heart health—but not by nearly as much as originally thought.

Ellison says recent studies have gotten more sophisticated about eliminating those selection problems. But thats not the only source of bias in the literature. In the summer of 2014, the journal Addiction published a scathing editorial that outed Ellison for receiving unrestricted educational donations from the (alcohol) industry. That money had supported his work at BU, along with his leadership of a peer group that wrote positive reviews about studies highlighting the potential health benefits of drinking.

It wasnt the first time the journal had called out the often-cozy relationship between alcohol academics and industry. Trade organizations like the Distilled Spirits Council, which represents alcohol companies and is the largest alcohol lobbying arm, often work hand in hand with regulators and researchers. Some researchers go on to work for their industry connections, like Samir Zakhari, a former director at the US National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (the National Institutes of Healths alcohol research division). After he retired from the NIH, he went to work for the Distilled Spirits Council.

The council, for its part, doesnt buy the newer research that highlights the link between alcohol and cancer. Frank Coleman, a spokesman for the DSC, says that many of those meta-analyses are flawed, skewed by cherry-picking data points.

The Trouble with Analyzing Alcohol

Those biases are a direct challenge to the validity of science on alcohol and health. But even if they didnt exist, the nature of drinking still makes it extraordinarily difficult to come up with reliable results. Health risks, including those for cancer, are based on a complex interplay of variables—lifestyle factors, age, genetic predispositions—and they play out differently in each individuals body.

People who drink a bit of wine each day, for example, tend to sit down and drink it with meals. And theyre predominantly wealthier, more privileged consumers—making them predisposed to better health, says Ellison. Beer drinkers also tend to be more susceptible to binge drinking, he says.

Those factors can be difficult to separate from alcohols isolated effect on the body. Were not studying beer or wine specifically, says Ellison. Were studying people who drink them. Even low calorie beers come with a lot of empty calories, says Kenneth Portier, who directs the statistics and evaluation programs at the American Cancer Society. Drink enough of it and it can put you in that other risk factor: obesity.

Ellison doesnt deny that there is a link between alcohol and cancer—he just thinks its only relevant for heavy drinkers. But that starts a whole new debate: What exactly constitutes moderate drinking, and how do you study moderate vs. heavy drinking in study participants with vastly different body sizes, metabolisms, and socioeconomic backgrounds? In order to guide people in making informed decisions, researchers will need resources from somewhere outside the alcohol industry to conduct randomized studies that can isolate alcohols impact on the body over the course of decades.

Still, the less-than-perfect current evidence suggests that about 15 percent of breast cancer deaths are alcohol-related, says Naimi. Nearly 20,000 cancer deaths are attributable to alcohol every year in the US alone, he says, and were not even the worlds biggest drinkers. Simultaneously, the craft beer market has grown into a $22.3 billion industry and AB InBev and SAB Miller, the worlds two largest alcohol companies, are in the midst of a mega merger. If there was ever a time to come to a consensus about what exactly alcohol does to our bodies, it would be now.

Shaping the Message

Connors analysis of existing alcohol research was a turning point for the conversation on booze and cancer. But once youve decided that alcohol is a substantial public health risk, you still need to convince drinkers of that fact. And its a lot easier to tell people drinking is good for them than to explain how and why it isnt.

Things that are familiar to us are perceived as less risky, says Portier. Most of us have been around alcohol our whole lives and we know people who drink and theyre not dead.

It becomes even more difficult to construct a coherent public health message when consumers hear conflicting information. For each drink a woman has per day, her relative risk for breast cancer alone can increase by about 7 percent, says Susan Brown, whos in charge of health education programs at Susan G Komen. But people are often surprised and disappointed that theres an association between alcohol and breast cancer, she says. Many times, they’ve heard that moderate drinking is good for them. That may be confusing or masking the message, she says.

So right now, health groups like Susan G Komen and the American Cancer Society simply emphasize drinking in moderation. In public-health speak, thats defined as one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men (think of a drink more as a glass of wine or a bottle of fairly light beer, rather than a double martini).

But for most consumers, the concept of moderation is most closely tied to the phrase drink responsibly, an alcohol industry catch phrase that reminds customers not to drink too much—without actually defining how much is too much. I worry sometimes that the breweries are trying to change the perception of risk to benefit their own equation, says Portier.

Thats where policy comes into play. In the UK, for example, the Department of Health changed its alcohol guidelines from saying it was safe to drink moderately to acknowledging that there are a number of serious diseases, including certain cancers, that can be caused even when drinking less than 14 units weekly. While the risk for moderate drinking was low, they write, there is no level of regular drinking that can be considered as completely safe.

Related Video

Fun With Powdered Alcohol: You Can Stop Being Scared Now

Look back at the public health messages around tobacco and youll notice they all share a common, simple message: stop smoking. There was no level of moderation that was considered risk-free, so there was no conversation around moderation. Alcohol, on the other hand, has a much more complex message: dont drink too much, make sure you understand what too much means for you, and mitigate the risk of drinking by assessing any other risk factors you may have in your life. Not exactly great fodder for a catchy PSA. But in a world where drinking is so closely tied to culture, it may be the best option.

It all comes down to perception of risk and how you want to live your life, says Portier. Someone who is at a higher risk for heart disease than cancer, for example, may feel more inclined to have a glass of red wine each night than someone who has a strong family history of breast cancer. People should make their own decisions about how much they drink, says Naimi. But I certainly think that people deserve to be more aware of this than they are now.

To get there, Naimi goes back to the idea of conducting long term, comprehensive, randomized studies. Thats something both sides are anxious to see more of. Zakhari, the alcohol expert who works at the Distilled Spirits Council, says its crucial to look at alcohol consumption over a long period of time, since cancer usually develops very slowly. These studies always ask women, how much did you drink last week, last month, last year, he says. But what they were doing last week or last month or last year has nothing to do with the initiation of cancer 20 years earlier. Its like someone has food poisoning today and the doctor asks them what they ate for Christmas in 1980.

Not that help isnt on the way—sort of. According to the Wall Street Journal, AB InBev and Diageo (another heavyweight alcohol producer) are planning to work with a handful of other alcohol companies to pay for a randomized study that will look at the health implications of drinking. Itll be run by the NIAAA, the same government division where Zakhari once worked.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/07/the-muddled-link-between-booze-and-cancer/

[douchebagbrainwaves]

A WAY TO GET STARTUP

So don't even try to bluff them. But the importance of encouraging startups. But if you want to have them as colleagues, you have to take a long detour to get where you wanted to take being blocked off, and you always get more attention for that. Instead of thinking of the future may be surprisingly small.1 Almost everyone's initial plan is broken. In a startup you feel like a late bloomer than a failed child prodigy. There are also a couple things you could do to beat America at the national level. Installment plans are a net lose for the buyer, though, is the beginning. The student was stealing his smells!2

A parent added: In our country, college entrance exams determine 70 to 80 percent of a person's future. If this were true, Yahoo would be first in line to buy Suns; but when I worked there, the servers were all Intel boxes running FreeBSD. Another advantage of admitting to beginning writers that the 5 paragraph essay is really a list of n things like the pros, with numbers and no transitions or conclusion.3 If Sun runs into trouble, they could probably do it. A lot of people trying to be Thurston Howell.4 The same principle prevailed at industrial companies. If Sun runs into trouble, they could drag Java down with them. Three have been acquired: Reddit was a merger of two, Reddit and Infogami, and a lot of hours.5 If he had technologists working for him who made more than he did, because they'd been there longer. So we have no idea what our average returns might be, and won't know for years. Till recently we weren't clear in our own minds about the source of the problem.

More often than not it makes it easier for people to start startups.6 The course of people's lives in the US. Get Your Hopes Up. But most of the winners will only indirectly be Internet companies; for every Google there will be zero. So I think the rate of people who know the language who will take any job where they get to the point where they could raise millions from VC funds if they hadn't first raised a hundred thousand from Andy Bechtolsheim.7 So why do so many people argue with me? We couldn't have started Viaweb either.

Other players were more famous: Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Lynn Swann.8 So did Apple. Experience suggests b is a thousand times more likely. There are times in most of our lives when the days go by in a blur, and almost everyone has a sense, it's not a problem for big companies, and sales depends mostly on effort. Better to make everyone resonate at their frequency if they want to avoid disasters. I wouldn't be too optimistic.9 So the only way to get rich, why doesn't everyone want to do most of the world. No room for more startups A lot of governments experimented with the disastrous in the twentieth century. Don't push it too far.

Those worried about America's competitiveness often suggest spending more on public schools. Isaac Newton and Jonathan Swift both lost money in the South Sea Bubble of 1720. Each is, by itself, enough to kill them off. The way I worked, it seemed like programming consisted of debugging.10 The name of a variable or function is an element; a segment of literal text is an element; a new block is an element; an element of a pattern, or a format directive, is an element. And what made him so good was that he liked us. Startups are easier to start in America because funding is easier to get. But Y Combinator runs on the maker's: office hours. Startups were not of course a creation of the Bubble, optimistic analysts used to justify high price to earnings ratio that was bogus.11 And while governments might be able not only to pull off a form of exemplary punishment, or lobbying for laws that would break the Internet if they passed, that's ipso facto evidence you're using a definition of property be whatever they wanted.

There is definitely an aspect of a band reunion to Y Combinator. But the importance of encouraging startups. The seed funding business is not a regional business, because at that stage startups are mobile.12 And we were careful to create something beautiful is often to make subtle tweaks to something that already exists, or to combine existing ideas in a slightly new way. But it seemed worth spoiling the atmosphere if I could save some of the fancier bits of New York or LA. The question is not whether you can afford the extra salaries.13 Family to support This one is real. You can't fake this. The design paradox means they're choosing more or less at random.

Only a small percentage of hackers can actually design software, and it's not what you might think.14 Investors looked at Yahoo's earnings and said to themselves, here is proof that Internet companies can make money. The crazy legal measures that the labels and studios have been taking have a lot of time in bookshops and I feel as if I have by now learned to understand everything publishers mean to tell me about a book, and perhaps a bit more in proportion to its ability to assemble large and disciplined organizations win needs to have a qualification appended: at games that change slowly. For the future, places that don't have startups will be to look around you for things that solve the mundane problems of individual customers. They just don't want that to be possible. It would be unthinkably humiliating to fail now. We probably all know people who, though otherwise smart, are just comically bad at this. The shielding of a reactor is not uniform; the reactor would be useless if it were about Facebook. Wufoo took this to heart and released their form-builder before the underlying database.

Maybe the alarm bells it sets off will counteract the forces that push you to overhire. It's because the nerds are getting rich. To do good work you have to do to get the most done? Are there walkable neighborhoods? Real standards don't have to stop doing it, but by default you change what you're doing, your servers keep crashing, you run into a chicken and egg problem here. Don't Get Your Hopes Up. He wrote that programmers seemed to generate about the same amount of code per day regardless of the language.15 The European approach reflects the old idea that each person has a single, definite occupation—which is not far from the idea that each person has a natural station in life. This doesn't work in small companies. It worries me a bit to be saying this, because it reflects a model of work from the 1970s. I can tell, succinctness power.

Notes

Cook another 2 or 3 minutes, then their incentives aren't aligned with the exception of the resulting sequence. This kind of intensity and dedication from programmers that they discovered in the trade press. Articles of this model was that professionalism had replaced money as a single cause.

In retrospect, we met Rajat Suri. I'm sure for every startup founder or investor I saw this I mean this in terms of the fake leading the fake leading the fake leading the fake. They thought most programming would be enough, even to inexperienced founders should avoid raising money in order to pick a date, because a she is very common for startups to kill their deal with the bad VCs fail to understand technology because they believe they do, so buildings are gutted or demolished to be about 50%. Survey by Forrester Research reported in their graves at that game.

There can be more at the lack of understanding vanity would decline more gradually. That's why there's a continuum here. It's a strange feeling of being harsh to founders is how much you're raising, have been peculiarly vulnerable—perhaps partly because companies then were more at home at the command of the next year they worked.

Now many tech companies don't.

Lecuyer, Christophe, Making Silicon Valley it seemed thinkable to start with consumer electronics and to a group of Europeans who said the wage differentials prevailing at the time I know what they do on the parental dole, and both times I bailed because I realized that without the methodological implications. If anyone remembers such an interview, I'd say the raison d'etre of prep schools improve kids' admissions prospects. Top VC firms expect to make money; and with that of whatever they copied.

But his world record only lasted 46 days. There are aspects of startups as they get more votes, as I know of any that died from releasing something stable but minimal very early, then you're being starved, not because Delicious users are stupid. Currently, when the problems all fall into in the usual way of doing that even if they do for a startup with a few that are only partially driven by money—for example, to mean the company than you expect. We invest small amounts of new means of production.

This is a big VC firm or they see you at a regularly increasing rate. Teenagers don't tell 5 year olds the truth. Users judge a site not as hard as everyone assumes. The dictator in the bouillon cube s, cover, and there are signs now that the guys running Digg are especially sneaky, but it's not inconceivable they were buying a phenomenon, or invent relativity.

It may have to decide between turning some investors away and selling more of the most useless investors are also the main reason kids lie to them.

Security always depends more on not screwing up. Pliny Hist. Ian Hogarth suggests a good way to find users to recruit manually—is probably a cause. One to recover data from so many different schools of thought about how the stakes were used.

We consciously optimize for this at YC.

And since everyone involved is so pervasive how often have valuation caps, a well-known byproduct of oligopoly.

Sheep act the way we met Charlie Cheever sitting near the edge? P rn letters. But there's a continuum here. In this respect.

See particularly the mail on LL1 led me to try your site. It seems justifiable to use those solutions. This just seems to be. You're investing your own.

The latter type is sometimes called an HR acquisition. It's a case in the field.

So it may have realized this, but they seem to like to fight back themselves. Hint: the source files of all, economic inequality was really so low then as we think we're so useless that in practice money raised as convertible debt, but its inspiration; the point I'm making, though I think I know, the work goes instead into the world will sooner or later. An investor who says he's interested in us!

[oovitus]

Meal plans usually suck. Here are 6 better ways to transform your diet.

Lots of people looking to improve their eating think meal plans are the answer. The only problem? Meal plans usually suck… and they rarely last. So, instead of prescribing yet another doomed eating regimen, check out these 6 ways to transform any diet in a sustainable way.

++++

“Do I get a meal plan?”

This is the most common question we get from folks who are considering, or just started out in, our nutrition coaching programs.

The answer: No, we don’t do meal plans.

But we can’t blame people for asking.

Sure, meal plans have long been a staple of the fitness and nutrition industry. Coaches are taught to create them. Clients are taught to expect them.

Unfortunately…

Most of the time, meal plans don’t work.

You see, traditional meal plans are explicit prescriptions.

Eat this exact thing, in this exact amount, at this exact time.

For example, you’ll often see:

Breakfast – 7:30am 3 eggs, scrambled 1 cup vegetables 1 piece whole grain toast 1 cup coffee 1 glass water

Morning snack – 10:00am 1 protein bar 1 handful mixed nuts

Lunch – 12:30pm 4 oz chicken 2 cups salad 1 handful seeds 1 glass water

After exercise – 4:30pm 1 scoop whey protein 1/2 cup frozen fruit 1 tsp omega 3 oil 12 oz water

Dinner – 7:00pm 4 oz steak 1 cup cooked veggies 1 baked potato 1 glass water

You (or your clients/patients) might be thinking, “Good! I want a plan. I’m sick of trying to figure all this stuff out! Just tell me what to eat!”

Unfortunately, when we try to follow rigid prescriptions like this, lots can (and often does) go wrong.

For example:

Scenario 1: You just don’t stick to the plan.

No matter how enthusiastic you are, meal plans can be tough to follow.

This is normal. Life can get in the way.

People get busy,

we’re not always prepared,

kids get sick,

bosses expect you to work late,

it’s always someone’s birthday (or a special holiday), and

sometimes you just don’t feel like having a protein bar at 10am.

What’s more, even if you’ve actually paid to have someone make your plan, you might find yourself rebelling against it in subtle (or not-so-subtle) ways.

This is also normal.

Unfortunately, it means you might not get the results you hope for. For instance, a meal plan you hoped would help you lose weight could actually encourage you to gain weight instead.

Scenario 2: You follow the plan perfectly.

In fact, you follow it too well and for too long.

Most meal plans are meant to be temporary.

They’re designed to help a person get to a specific short-term goal, like dropping a few extra pounds before a wedding, learning to manage blood sugar, or cutting weight for an athletic competition.

Our bodies can usually adapt to a rigid way of eating for a short period of time.

But if you’re too strict for too long, you could wind up with disordered eating habits and lasting health (mental, metabolic, hormonal, etc) consequences.

Scenario 3: You follow the plan for a little while but it sucks.

It isn’t sustainable. It doesn’t make you feel better. It doesn’t keep you sane.

Maybe you see some short-term results (or not). But you hate living and eating this way. You never want to see another stupid piece of lettuce or 4 ounces of chicken.

Eventually, you get so turned off by the process that you regress or quit altogether. You conclude that “eating healthy” sucks.

And you miss your big chance to learn how to make healthier, more enjoyable, more lasting and real changes.

Another reason meal plans fail.

One of the biggest (yet generally unacknowledged) problems with traditional meal plans is their focus on “nutrients”.

Real people don’t eat “nutrients”. We eat food.

We eat meals, often with other people.

We eat meals that match our cultural background and social interests.

And we rarely measure things precisely.

Sure, sometimes an explicit prescription is necessary.

For instance, professional athletes or bodybuilders (in other words, people who make money off their bodies and athletic skills) use meal plans to prepare for training and competition.

A prescribed meal for someone in that situation might look something like this:

1/4 cup dry oats

3 oz turkey breast

1 cup steamed broccoli

5 almonds

1 omega-3 supplement

1 cup green tea (unsweetened)

But most of us don’t need that level of surgical precision.

We don’t normally eat “ounces” of things, or refer to food by their nutrients (like “omega-3 fatty acids”).

Instead, we eat foods like:

hamburgers

tacos and burritos

salads

pasta and noodles

sandwiches, wraps, pitas and rotis

stews and curries

cereal and granola

stir-fries

casseroles

Bottom line: If you want to eat better, you don’t have to get weird about things.

You don’t need to weigh and measure everything, or count out your almonds.

Ask yourself: “Is someone paying me to do this?” If the answer is no, you likely don’t need this kind of approach.

You just need to think about what you’re already eating, and how you could make it a little bit better.

This means fiddling and adjusting.

Making small changes and improvements to what you already normally eat and enjoy, one small step at a time.

Think about a spectrum of food quality rather than “bad” or “good” foods.

Welcome to the meal transformation game.

When you play with the idea of a food spectrum or food continuum, you get to experiment with variables like:

what you eat, and

how you eat it.

Think of this as a game.

How can you play “make this meal just a little bit better” in every situation?

In which situations is that easier or harder?

When your choices are limited (for instance, when you’re traveling, or eating at a workplace cafeteria), how can you shoot for “a little bit better” while still being realistic, and without trying to be “perfect”?

(Hint for coaches: this is a great game to play with the people you work with.)

Let’s transform breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Here’s how that “food spectrum” might look in daily life, with a sample day of eating.

Transforming breakfast

Stage 1

Let’s say that your go-to breakfast is a whipped-cream coffee drink and a chocolate croissant.

You pick it up in the drive-thru, and wolf it down on your way to work.

This is your starting point. It’s not “bad”. It’s just no longer working for you.

You’re getting indigestion from rushing, the croissant doesn’t hold you at all, and you’ve just spilled the coffee on your crotch while changing lanes.

Now your game is to improve your breakfast just a little bit, starting with what you already have or do.

Stage 2

Your opening moves in the meal transformation game:

You might replace the croissant with a whole grain muffin.

Instead of a “dessert in a cup”, you get a regular coffee with a single cream and sugar.

You grab a yogurt cup on your way out of the house for a bit of protein.

Naturally, you’re still rushed and busy… so you eat your breakfast with some distractions, while scrolling through emails at work.

But this is a solid start. Well done.

Stage 3

Next level of game play:

You switch the muffin to granola with cottage cheese or Greek yogurt.

You switch the cream in your coffee for 2% milk. (Or even go right to black coffee, you meal player you!)

You add some colorful fruit.

You’re now eating out of dishes on a table, instead of out of takeout packages off the dashboard of your car.

Of course, you’re still checking out the news headlines while you eat…

No problem. We’re keeping it real.

Stage 4

Now you are seriously playing like a pro.

You’ve changed “rushing and panicked” to “set aside a little extra time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast”.

You cleverly prepped an egg frittata with veggies in advance on your food prep day.

The coffee’s become green tea, since you noticed that too much coffee was tweaking you out.

The protein plus colorful fruit and veg have become the stars of the meal.

You’ve discovered you really like lemon water. (WHAT? You don’t even know you anymore!)

You eat mindfully, feeling relaxed, while watching the sun rise.

Ahhh.

Transforming lunch

Stage 1

At this point, starting out, the idea of a sit-down lunch feels flat out ridiculous.

“Eat slowly? Who has time for that during a busy workday? Grab a burger and go!”

Another “car dashboard” meal. Another stomach ache and regret.

You decide you might want to play with this meal too.

Stage 2

To improve this meal a little bit:

You go to a higher-end burger place where you’re pretty sure they use real meat.

You get a side salad with that burger, and maybe just a few potato chips.

You choose a diet soda instead of regular.

You don’t eat in your car, but you do eat by your computer.

That’s OK. You’re progressing.

Stage 3

At this stage, you’re doing a little prep work:

You whipped up some burgers in advance so they are handy and ready to take to work.

You also grabbed some nice cheese and whole grain buns from the local market on shopping day.

For lunch, all you have to do is take your homemade burger and its fixins to work.

You still grab a diet cola from the vending machine to wash it down.

You move from your desk to the lunchroom, where you socialize with co-workers. This slows you down a bit and helps you digest and relax.

Stage 4

You’re having the burger without the bun, alongside a nice pre-prepped salad.

Instead of staying at your desk or in the office, you take a break.

You sit outside and get some fresh air while you enjoy your meal.

For a drink, water’s all you need.

Transforming dinner

Stage 1

It’s 8pm. You’ve just gotten home after an insane day at work.

All you want to do is put food into your face and zone out in front of the TV.

You can’t even imagine making anything more complicated than boxed macaroni ‘n’ cheese right now.

Ketchup and hot dogs are as fancy as it gets.

Stage 2

Same concept, but:

You’re adding some extra protein with the help of a rotisserie chicken leg that you grabbed at the grocery store on the way home.

You’ve added a side salad, just grabbing a few handfuls of pre-washed greens out of a bag.

You’ve whipped up your own pasta.

Work is still on your mind, and a couple drinks will take the edge off.

Stage 3

Things are getting fancy.

You’re upping the protein with a little more chicken.

You’re having a little less pasta.

You’ve also added a nice big salad to the mix.

You’ve cut the booze to 1 drink.

Plus, you’re sitting at the dinner table, instead of flopping down on your couch or standing over the sink.

Stage 4

Again, we’re playing at pro level here.

With your meal planning and prep strategies, even a weeknight dinner looks good.

You can whip up a delicious salad in 3 minutes flat and you have some pre-cooked quinoa on hand.

That rotisserie chicken is still a fast, convenient option, but now it’s got some healthy buddies.

You’re indulging in a single glass of good wine these days, and you take time to savor it.

Meal transformation is not about reaching perfection.

If you’re at stage 1, all you have to do is shoot for stage 2. Or stage 1.5.

If you’re in stage 2, play with getting to stage 3.

And if you’re stage 3, heck, you can stay where you are.

You might never get to stage 4. Or it might only happen at times when you’re relaxed and have a little extra time.

Stage 4 might only happen on Sunday night, whereas the rest of your week is a mix of stages 1, 2, and — if you’re super lucky — 3.

And that’s OK.

How far you progress along the continuum all depends on what YOU want, what YOU need, and what YOU can reasonably do, right now.

Over time, things can change.

Play YOUR game.

Success secret: Have a food prep ritual.

You might look at these photos and think, “How can people possibly do all that?”

One success secret: Having a food prep ritual.

The idea is simple:

Practice planning and preparing healthy food in advance.

This makes healthy eating convenient and easy.

It also makes decisions easier: You don’t have to make a choice when you’re rushed and hangry.

Your food prep ritual can include:

shopping (or arranging to have food delivered)

menu and meal planning

washing and chopping vegetables

cooking/preparing protein (e.g. cooking up some chicken breasts)

cooking meals in bulk (e.g. casseroles, soups, stews, chili)

preparing the dry ingredients for things like Super Shakes or healthy muffin mix

soaking grains/beans beforehand so that they’ll be ready to cook later

sorting foods into smaller containers or baggies

freezing and refrigerating food for later

planning healthy meals that someone else cooks (e.g. using a meal delivery service, deciding in advance what to order at a restaurant, etc.)

looking ahead to ensure healthy eating strategies during the next few days, especially during difficult times (e.g. a busy week, traveling, dealing with a family crisis, etc.)

Mix and match any of these to find what works for you.

Experiment with systems, skills and strategies that work for YOU and YOUR life.

The real goal of a meal plan is to stop using a meal plan.

Fit, healthy people who have a good relationship with food don’t need other people to tell them exactly what to eat at all times.

Living a fit and healthy life doesn’t require perfection, either.

If you are using a meal plan:

That’s OK.

Some people like prescription, especially if they are working towards a specific short-term goal, like cutting weight to compete in wrestling, making sure they get enough nutrients to support a healthy pregnancy, or fueling their triathlon performance.

Keep it short-lived.

Meal plans are supposed to be temporary, working towards a short-term goal.

Keep it real.

As much as possible, try to make the meal plan fit your real life, not the other way around.

If you’re a parent, a worker, a student, or anyone else living in the real world, most of your meals will fall somewhere in the stages 1 through 3 spectrum. That’s perfectly OK. Just experiment with being a little bit better, wherever you can.

Remember all goals require trade-offs.

If you want to achieve a high level of performance or exceptional body composition, understand what you are prioritizing and sacrificing.

Getting very lean, for instance, comes with costs.

Make sure it’s working for you.

If your meal plan is making you feel:

overwhelmed

anxious and fretful

guilty

regretful

bad

overly rigid and/or preoccupied with food…

or any other negative, unproductive emotion…

…and if you find that meal plans result in you:

“falling off the wagon”, hard

getting obsessive and compulsive about food

restricting foods and food groups, or

doing “all or nothing”, usually ending with “nothing”

…then consider trying another approach.

What to do next

1. Consider where you sit on the spectrum of meal “stages”.

Where’s your food game at?

What level are you playing at?

What level would you like to play at?

Given your goals and your current situation, what is realistic?

For example, if you currently eat at stage 1, your goal might be to eat at stage 2 for most meals.

Or, if you eat at stage 3 most of the time but find yourself dipping into stage 1 or 2 meals more often than you’d like, aim to stay at stage 3 a little more consistently.

(Hint for coaches: you can walk people through these questions and help them arrive at their own answers.)

2. Start small. One step at a time.

Pick one meal to transform and focus on that.

For instance, you might leave all your other meals at stage 1, and focus on getting lunch to stage 2.

Concentrate on improving that one meal each day.

Using the examples above, you might think about things like:

adding protein

adding veggies or fruits

eating less processed food

eating more nutrient-dense, whole foods

drinking less alcohol or fewer sweet drinks

drinking more water

eating in a calmer, more relaxed setting, and/or

eating more slowly and mindfully

Of course, don’t try to do all these at once.

Try just fiddling with one or two, and see which ones work best for you.

3. Add things slowly.

Once you’ve improved one meal a day, try another.

If you feel like lunch is a solid stage 2 or 3, play with moving breakfast, dinner, or snacks along the spectrum.

Or, once you’ve improved one factor in a meal (e.g. adding more protein), try another.

For instance, if you’re getting more protein, now try switching out your sugary soda for some soda water. Or adding a little more veggies.

Be patient; small steps add up.

4. Set yourself up for success.

Notice what makes it easier and simpler for you to eat better.

Then figure out how to do or get more of that.

For instance:

Is planning helping you? How could you do more of that?

Is a healthy meal delivery service making it easy? Could you set aside a little more cash to get two meals a day instead of one?

Is setting aside time on Sunday afternoon to cook some protein a good idea? Great, keep on doing that. Book it in your calendar.

There’s no “right” way to do this. Do what works for YOU.

5. Enjoy your meals.

Meal plans don’t usually address how you eat.

Before you change what you eat, you can also try changing how you eat. For example, you could:

slow down

breathe between bites

relax

savor your food

sit at a table if you can, and/or

use real dishes if you can.

Give yourself some time and space to appreciate those tasty concoctions you put together.

Meal time is YOUR time.

6. Work towards being your own boss.

Sometimes you might just want someone to tell you what to do.

That’s fine, and helpful, especially if you’re juggling a lot. But only for a while.

Over time, look for ways to help yourself intuitively and wisely make better choices, rather than just following the rules.

(Coaches, much more than serving up prescriptions, this is your job too: to help the folks you work with arrive at a place where they feel good about making decisions for themselves.)

Think long-term. What do you want to happen over the next few months? Year? 10 years? Do you want to be on a meal plan for the next few decades?

Today, if you were to take one small step towards the “better” end of the meal spectrum, what might that look like?

How can you start playing the “meal transformation game” today?

If you’re a coach, or you want to be…

Learning how to coach clients, patients, friends, or family members through healthy eating and lifestyle changes — including helping them with meal transformation — is both an art and a science.

If you’d like to learn more about both, consider the Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification. The next group kicks off shortly.

What’s it all about?

The Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification is the world’s most respected nutrition education program. It gives you the knowledge, systems, and tools you need to really understand how food influences a person’s health and fitness. Plus the ability to turn that knowledge into a thriving coaching practice.

Developed over 15 years, and proven with over 100,000 clients and patients, the Level 1 curriculum stands alone as the authority on the science of nutrition and the art of coaching.

Whether you’re already mid-career, or just starting out, the Level 1 Certification is your springboard to a deeper understanding of nutrition, the authority to coach it, and the ability to turn what you know into results.

[Of course, if you’re already a student or graduate of the Level 1 Certification, check out our Level 2 Certification Master Class. It’s an exclusive, year-long mentorship designed for elite professionals looking to master the art of coaching and be part of the top 1% of health and fitness coaches in the world.]

Interested? Add your name to the presale list. You’ll save up to 33% and secure your spot 24 hours before everyone else.

We’ll be opening up spots in our next Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018.

If you want to find out more, we’ve set up the following presale list, which gives you two advantages.

Pay less than everyone else. We like to reward people who are eager to boost their credentials and are ready to commit to getting the education they need. So we’re offering a discount of up to 33% off the general price when you sign up for the presale list.

Sign up 24 hours before the general public and increase your chances of getting a spot. We only open the certification program twice per year. Due to high demand, spots in the program are limited and have historically sold out in a matter of hours. But when you sign up for the presale list, we’ll give you the opportunity to register a full 24 hours before anyone else.

If you’re ready for a deeper understanding of nutrition, the authority to coach it, and the ability to turn what you know into results… this is your chance to see what the world’s top professional nutrition coaching system can do for you.

The post Meal plans usually suck. Here are 6 better ways to transform your diet. appeared first on Precision Nutrition.

Meal plans usually suck. Here are 6 better ways to transform your diet. published first on https://storeseapharmacy.tumblr.com

[oovitus]

Meal plans usually suck. Here are 6 better ways to transform your diet.

Lots of people looking to improve their eating think meal plans are the answer. The only problem? Meal plans usually suck… and they rarely last. So, instead of prescribing yet another doomed eating regimen, check out these 6 ways to transform any diet in a sustainable way.

++++

“Do I get a meal plan?”

This is the most common question we get from folks who are considering, or just started out in, our nutrition coaching programs.

The answer: No, we don’t do meal plans.

But we can’t blame people for asking.

Sure, meal plans have long been a staple of the fitness and nutrition industry. Coaches are taught to create them. Clients are taught to expect them.

Unfortunately…

Most of the time, meal plans don’t work.

You see, traditional meal plans are explicit prescriptions.

Eat this exact thing, in this exact amount, at this exact time.

For example, you’ll often see:

Breakfast – 7:30am 3 eggs, scrambled 1 cup vegetables 1 piece whole grain toast 1 cup coffee 1 glass water

Morning snack – 10:00am 1 protein bar 1 handful mixed nuts

Lunch – 12:30pm 4 oz chicken 2 cups salad 1 handful seeds 1 glass water

After exercise – 4:30pm 1 scoop whey protein 1/2 cup frozen fruit 1 tsp omega 3 oil 12 oz water

Dinner – 7:00pm 4 oz steak 1 cup cooked veggies 1 baked potato 1 glass water

You (or your clients/patients) might be thinking, “Good! I want a plan. I’m sick of trying to figure all this stuff out! Just tell me what to eat!”

Unfortunately, when we try to follow rigid prescriptions like this, lots can (and often does) go wrong.

For example:

Scenario 1: You just don’t stick to the plan.

No matter how enthusiastic you are, meal plans can be tough to follow.

This is normal. Life can get in the way.

People get busy,

we’re not always prepared,

kids get sick,

bosses expect you to work late,

it’s always someone’s birthday (or a special holiday), and

sometimes you just don’t feel like having a protein bar at 10am.

What’s more, even if you’ve actually paid to have someone make your plan, you might find yourself rebelling against it in subtle (or not-so-subtle) ways.

This is also normal.

Unfortunately, it means you might not get the results you hope for. For instance, a meal plan you hoped would help you lose weight could actually encourage you to gain weight instead.

Scenario 2: You follow the plan perfectly.

In fact, you follow it too well and for too long.

Most meal plans are meant to be temporary.

They’re designed to help a person get to a specific short-term goal, like dropping a few extra pounds before a wedding, learning to manage blood sugar, or cutting weight for an athletic competition.

Our bodies can usually adapt to a rigid way of eating for a short period of time.

But if you’re too strict for too long, you could wind up with disordered eating habits and lasting health (mental, metabolic, hormonal, etc) consequences.

Scenario 3: You follow the plan for a little while but it sucks.

It isn’t sustainable. It doesn’t make you feel better. It doesn’t keep you sane.

Maybe you see some short-term results (or not). But you hate living and eating this way. You never want to see another stupid piece of lettuce or 4 ounces of chicken.

Eventually, you get so turned off by the process that you regress or quit altogether. You conclude that “eating healthy” sucks.

And you miss your big chance to learn how to make healthier, more enjoyable, more lasting and real changes.

Another reason meal plans fail.

One of the biggest (yet generally unacknowledged) problems with traditional meal plans is their focus on “nutrients”.

Real people don’t eat “nutrients”. We eat food.

We eat meals, often with other people.

We eat meals that match our cultural background and social interests.

And we rarely measure things precisely.

Sure, sometimes an explicit prescription is necessary.

For instance, professional athletes or bodybuilders (in other words, people who make money off their bodies and athletic skills) use meal plans to prepare for training and competition.

A prescribed meal for someone in that situation might look something like this:

1/4 cup dry oats

3 oz turkey breast

1 cup steamed broccoli

5 almonds

1 omega-3 supplement

1 cup green tea (unsweetened)

But most of us don’t need that level of surgical precision.

We don’t normally eat “ounces” of things, or refer to food by their nutrients (like “omega-3 fatty acids”).

Instead, we eat foods like:

hamburgers

tacos and burritos

salads

pasta and noodles

sandwiches, wraps, pitas and rotis

stews and curries

cereal and granola

stir-fries

casseroles

Bottom line: If you want to eat better, you don’t have to get weird about things.

You don’t need to weigh and measure everything, or count out your almonds.

Ask yourself: “Is someone paying me to do this?” If the answer is no, you likely don’t need this kind of approach.

You just need to think about what you’re already eating, and how you could make it a little bit better.

This means fiddling and adjusting.

Making small changes and improvements to what you already normally eat and enjoy, one small step at a time.

Think about a spectrum of food quality rather than “bad” or “good” foods.

Welcome to the meal transformation game.

When you play with the idea of a food spectrum or food continuum, you get to experiment with variables like:

what you eat, and

how you eat it.

Think of this as a game.

How can you play “make this meal just a little bit better” in every situation?

In which situations is that easier or harder?

When your choices are limited (for instance, when you’re traveling, or eating at a workplace cafeteria), how can you shoot for “a little bit better” while still being realistic, and without trying to be “perfect”?

(Hint for coaches: this is a great game to play with the people you work with.)

Let’s transform breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Here’s how that “food spectrum” might look in daily life, with a sample day of eating.

Transforming breakfast

Stage 1

Let’s say that your go-to breakfast is a whipped-cream coffee drink and a chocolate croissant.

You pick it up in the drive-thru, and wolf it down on your way to work.

This is your starting point. It’s not “bad”. It’s just no longer working for you.

You’re getting indigestion from rushing, the croissant doesn’t hold you at all, and you’ve just spilled the coffee on your crotch while changing lanes.

Now your game is to improve your breakfast just a little bit, starting with what you already have or do.

Stage 2

Your opening moves in the meal transformation game:

You might replace the croissant with a whole grain muffin.

Instead of a “dessert in a cup”, you get a regular coffee with a single cream and sugar.

You grab a yogurt cup on your way out of the house for a bit of protein.

Naturally, you’re still rushed and busy… so you eat your breakfast with some distractions, while scrolling through emails at work.

But this is a solid start. Well done.

Stage 3

Next level of game play:

You switch the muffin to granola with cottage cheese or Greek yogurt.

You switch the cream in your coffee for 2% milk. (Or even go right to black coffee, you meal player you!)

You add some colorful fruit.

You’re now eating out of dishes on a table, instead of out of takeout packages off the dashboard of your car.

Of course, you’re still checking out the news headlines while you eat…

No problem. We’re keeping it real.

Stage 4

Now you are seriously playing like a pro.

You’ve changed “rushing and panicked” to “set aside a little extra time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast”.

You cleverly prepped an egg frittata with veggies in advance on your food prep day.

The coffee’s become green tea, since you noticed that too much coffee was tweaking you out.

The protein plus colorful fruit and veg have become the stars of the meal.

You’ve discovered you really like lemon water. (WHAT? You don’t even know you anymore!)

You eat mindfully, feeling relaxed, while watching the sun rise.

Ahhh.

Transforming lunch

Stage 1

At this point, starting out, the idea of a sit-down lunch feels flat out ridiculous.

“Eat slowly? Who has time for that during a busy workday? Grab a burger and go!”

Another “car dashboard” meal. Another stomach ache and regret.

You decide you might want to play with this meal too.

Stage 2

To improve this meal a little bit:

You go to a higher-end burger place where you’re pretty sure they use real meat.

You get a side salad with that burger, and maybe just a few potato chips.

You choose a diet soda instead of regular.

You don’t eat in your car, but you do eat by your computer.

That’s OK. You’re progressing.

Stage 3

At this stage, you’re doing a little prep work:

You whipped up some burgers in advance so they are handy and ready to take to work.

You also grabbed some nice cheese and whole grain buns from the local market on shopping day.

For lunch, all you have to do is take your homemade burger and its fixins to work.

You still grab a diet cola from the vending machine to wash it down.

You move from your desk to the lunchroom, where you socialize with co-workers. This slows you down a bit and helps you digest and relax.

Stage 4

You’re having the burger without the bun, alongside a nice pre-prepped salad.

Instead of staying at your desk or in the office, you take a break.

You sit outside and get some fresh air while you enjoy your meal.

For a drink, water’s all you need.

Transforming dinner

Stage 1

It’s 8pm. You’ve just gotten home after an insane day at work.

All you want to do is put food into your face and zone out in front of the TV.

You can’t even imagine making anything more complicated than boxed macaroni ‘n’ cheese right now.

Ketchup and hot dogs are as fancy as it gets.

Stage 2

Same concept, but:

You’re adding some extra protein with the help of a rotisserie chicken leg that you grabbed at the grocery store on the way home.

You’ve added a side salad, just grabbing a few handfuls of pre-washed greens out of a bag.

You’ve whipped up your own pasta.

Work is still on your mind, and a couple drinks will take the edge off.

Stage 3

Things are getting fancy.

You’re upping the protein with a little more chicken.

You’re having a little less pasta.

You’ve also added a nice big salad to the mix.

You’ve cut the booze to 1 drink.

Plus, you’re sitting at the dinner table, instead of flopping down on your couch or standing over the sink.

Stage 4

Again, we’re playing at pro level here.

With your meal planning and prep strategies, even a weeknight dinner looks good.

You can whip up a delicious salad in 3 minutes flat and you have some pre-cooked quinoa on hand.

That rotisserie chicken is still a fast, convenient option, but now it’s got some healthy buddies.

You’re indulging in a single glass of good wine these days, and you take time to savor it.

Meal transformation is not about reaching perfection.

If you’re at stage 1, all you have to do is shoot for stage 2. Or stage 1.5.

If you’re in stage 2, play with getting to stage 3.

And if you’re stage 3, heck, you can stay where you are.

You might never get to stage 4. Or it might only happen at times when you’re relaxed and have a little extra time.

Stage 4 might only happen on Sunday night, whereas the rest of your week is a mix of stages 1, 2, and — if you’re super lucky — 3.

And that’s OK.

How far you progress along the continuum all depends on what YOU want, what YOU need, and what YOU can reasonably do, right now.

Over time, things can change.

Play YOUR game.

Success secret: Have a food prep ritual.

You might look at these photos and think, “How can people possibly do all that?”

One success secret: Having a food prep ritual.

The idea is simple:

Practice planning and preparing healthy food in advance.

This makes healthy eating convenient and easy.

It also makes decisions easier: You don’t have to make a choice when you’re rushed and hangry.

Your food prep ritual can include:

shopping (or arranging to have food delivered)

menu and meal planning

washing and chopping vegetables

cooking/preparing protein (e.g. cooking up some chicken breasts)

cooking meals in bulk (e.g. casseroles, soups, stews, chili)

preparing the dry ingredients for things like Super Shakes or healthy muffin mix

soaking grains/beans beforehand so that they’ll be ready to cook later

sorting foods into smaller containers or baggies

freezing and refrigerating food for later

planning healthy meals that someone else cooks (e.g. using a meal delivery service, deciding in advance what to order at a restaurant, etc.)

looking ahead to ensure healthy eating strategies during the next few days, especially during difficult times (e.g. a busy week, traveling, dealing with a family crisis, etc.)

Mix and match any of these to find what works for you.

Experiment with systems, skills and strategies that work for YOU and YOUR life.

The real goal of a meal plan is to stop using a meal plan.

Fit, healthy people who have a good relationship with food don’t need other people to tell them exactly what to eat at all times.

Living a fit and healthy life doesn’t require perfection, either.

If you are using a meal plan:

That’s OK.

Some people like prescription, especially if they are working towards a specific short-term goal, like cutting weight to compete in wrestling, making sure they get enough nutrients to support a healthy pregnancy, or fueling their triathlon performance.

Keep it short-lived.

Meal plans are supposed to be temporary, working towards a short-term goal.

Keep it real.

As much as possible, try to make the meal plan fit your real life, not the other way around.

If you’re a parent, a worker, a student, or anyone else living in the real world, most of your meals will fall somewhere in the stages 1 through 3 spectrum. That’s perfectly OK. Just experiment with being a little bit better, wherever you can.

Remember all goals require trade-offs.

If you want to achieve a high level of performance or exceptional body composition, understand what you are prioritizing and sacrificing.

Getting very lean, for instance, comes with costs.

Make sure it’s working for you.

If your meal plan is making you feel:

overwhelmed

anxious and fretful

guilty

regretful

bad

overly rigid and/or preoccupied with food…

or any other negative, unproductive emotion…

…and if you find that meal plans result in you:

“falling off the wagon”, hard

getting obsessive and compulsive about food

restricting foods and food groups, or

doing “all or nothing”, usually ending with “nothing”

…then consider trying another approach.

What to do next

1. Consider where you sit on the spectrum of meal “stages”.

Where’s your food game at?

What level are you playing at?

What level would you like to play at?

Given your goals and your current situation, what is realistic?

For example, if you currently eat at stage 1, your goal might be to eat at stage 2 for most meals.

Or, if you eat at stage 3 most of the time but find yourself dipping into stage 1 or 2 meals more often than you’d like, aim to stay at stage 3 a little more consistently.

(Hint for coaches: you can walk people through these questions and help them arrive at their own answers.)

2. Start small. One step at a time.

Pick one meal to transform and focus on that.

For instance, you might leave all your other meals at stage 1, and focus on getting lunch to stage 2.

Concentrate on improving that one meal each day.

Using the examples above, you might think about things like:

adding protein

adding veggies or fruits

eating less processed food

eating more nutrient-dense, whole foods

drinking less alcohol or fewer sweet drinks

drinking more water

eating in a calmer, more relaxed setting, and/or

eating more slowly and mindfully

Of course, don’t try to do all these at once.

Try just fiddling with one or two, and see which ones work best for you.

3. Add things slowly.

Once you’ve improved one meal a day, try another.

If you feel like lunch is a solid stage 2 or 3, play with moving breakfast, dinner, or snacks along the spectrum.

Or, once you’ve improved one factor in a meal (e.g. adding more protein), try another.

For instance, if you’re getting more protein, now try switching out your sugary soda for some soda water. Or adding a little more veggies.

Be patient; small steps add up.

4. Set yourself up for success.

Notice what makes it easier and simpler for you to eat better.

Then figure out how to do or get more of that.

For instance:

Is planning helping you? How could you do more of that?

Is a healthy meal delivery service making it easy? Could you set aside a little more cash to get two meals a day instead of one?

Is setting aside time on Sunday afternoon to cook some protein a good idea? Great, keep on doing that. Book it in your calendar.

There’s no “right” way to do this. Do what works for YOU.

5. Enjoy your meals.

Meal plans don’t usually address how you eat.

Before you change what you eat, you can also try changing how you eat. For example, you could:

slow down

breathe between bites

relax

savor your food

sit at a table if you can, and/or

use real dishes if you can.

Give yourself some time and space to appreciate those tasty concoctions you put together.

Meal time is YOUR time.

6. Work towards being your own boss.

Sometimes you might just want someone to tell you what to do.

That’s fine, and helpful, especially if you’re juggling a lot. But only for a while.

Over time, look for ways to help yourself intuitively and wisely make better choices, rather than just following the rules.

(Coaches, much more than serving up prescriptions, this is your job too: to help the folks you work with arrive at a place where they feel good about making decisions for themselves.)

Think long-term. What do you want to happen over the next few months? Year? 10 years? Do you want to be on a meal plan for the next few decades?

Today, if you were to take one small step towards the “better” end of the meal spectrum, what might that look like?

How can you start playing the “meal transformation game” today?

If you’re a coach, or you want to be…

Learning how to coach clients, patients, friends, or family members through healthy eating and lifestyle changes — including helping them with meal transformation — is both an art and a science.

If you’d like to learn more about both, consider the Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification. The next group kicks off shortly.

What’s it all about?

The Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification is the world’s most respected nutrition education program. It gives you the knowledge, systems, and tools you need to really understand how food influences a person’s health and fitness. Plus the ability to turn that knowledge into a thriving coaching practice.

Developed over 15 years, and proven with over 100,000 clients and patients, the Level 1 curriculum stands alone as the authority on the science of nutrition and the art of coaching.

Whether you’re already mid-career, or just starting out, the Level 1 Certification is your springboard to a deeper understanding of nutrition, the authority to coach it, and the ability to turn what you know into results.

[Of course, if you’re already a student or graduate of the Level 1 Certification, check out our Level 2 Certification Master Class. It’s an exclusive, year-long mentorship designed for elite professionals looking to master the art of coaching and be part of the top 1% of health and fitness coaches in the world.]

Interested? Add your name to the presale list. You’ll save up to 33% and secure your spot 24 hours before everyone else.

We’ll be opening up spots in our next Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018.

If you want to find out more, we’ve set up the following presale list, which gives you two advantages.

Pay less than everyone else. We like to reward people who are eager to boost their credentials and are ready to commit to getting the education they need. So we’re offering a discount of up to 33% off the general price when you sign up for the presale list.

Sign up 24 hours before the general public and increase your chances of getting a spot. We only open the certification program twice per year. Due to high demand, spots in the program are limited and have historically sold out in a matter of hours. But when you sign up for the presale list, we’ll give you the opportunity to register a full 24 hours before anyone else.

If you’re ready for a deeper understanding of nutrition, the authority to coach it, and the ability to turn what you know into results… this is your chance to see what the world’s top professional nutrition coaching system can do for you.

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Meal plans usually suck. Here are 6 better ways to transform your diet. published first on

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Meal plans usually suck. Here are 6 better ways to transform your diet.

Lots of people looking to improve their eating think meal plans are the answer. The only problem? Meal plans usually suck… and they rarely last. So, instead of prescribing yet another doomed eating regimen, check out these 6 ways to transform any diet in a sustainable way.

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“Do I get a meal plan?”

This is the most common question we get from folks who are considering, or just started out in, our nutrition coaching programs.

The answer: No, we don’t do meal plans.

But we can’t blame people for asking.

Sure, meal plans have long been a staple of the fitness and nutrition industry. Coaches are taught to create them. Clients are taught to expect them.

Unfortunately…

Most of the time, meal plans don’t work.

You see, traditional meal plans are explicit prescriptions.

Eat this exact thing, in this exact amount, at this exact time.

For example, you’ll often see:

Breakfast – 7:30am 3 eggs, scrambled 1 cup vegetables 1 piece whole grain toast 1 cup coffee 1 glass water

Morning snack – 10:00am 1 protein bar 1 handful mixed nuts

Lunch – 12:30pm 4 oz chicken 2 cups salad 1 handful seeds 1 glass water

After exercise – 4:30pm 1 scoop whey protein 1/2 cup frozen fruit 1 tsp omega 3 oil 12 oz water

Dinner – 7:00pm 4 oz steak 1 cup cooked veggies 1 baked potato 1 glass water

You (or your clients/patients) might be thinking, “Good! I want a plan. I’m sick of trying to figure all this stuff out! Just tell me what to eat!”

Unfortunately, when we try to follow rigid prescriptions like this, lots can (and often does) go wrong.

For example:

Scenario 1: You just don’t stick to the plan.

No matter how enthusiastic you are, meal plans can be tough to follow.

This is normal. Life can get in the way.

People get busy,

we’re not always prepared,

kids get sick,

bosses expect you to work late,

it’s always someone’s birthday (or a special holiday), and

sometimes you just don’t feel like having a protein bar at 10am.

What’s more, even if you’ve actually paid to have someone make your plan, you might find yourself rebelling against it in subtle (or not-so-subtle) ways.

This is also normal.

Unfortunately, it means you might not get the results you hope for. For instance, a meal plan you hoped would help you lose weight could actually encourage you to gain weight instead.

Scenario 2: You follow the plan perfectly.

In fact, you follow it too well and for too long.

Most meal plans are meant to be temporary.

They’re designed to help a person get to a specific short-term goal, like dropping a few extra pounds before a wedding, learning to manage blood sugar, or cutting weight for an athletic competition.

Our bodies can usually adapt to a rigid way of eating for a short period of time.

But if you’re too strict for too long, you could wind up with disordered eating habits and lasting health (mental, metabolic, hormonal, etc) consequences.

Scenario 3: You follow the plan for a little while but it sucks.

It isn’t sustainable. It doesn’t make you feel better. It doesn’t keep you sane.

Maybe you see some short-term results (or not). But you hate living and eating this way. You never want to see another stupid piece of lettuce or 4 ounces of chicken.

Eventually, you get so turned off by the process that you regress or quit altogether. You conclude that “eating healthy” sucks.

And you miss your big chance to learn how to make healthier, more enjoyable, more lasting and real changes.

Another reason meal plans fail.

One of the biggest (yet generally unacknowledged) problems with traditional meal plans is their focus on “nutrients”.

Real people don’t eat “nutrients”. We eat food.

We eat meals, often with other people.

We eat meals that match our cultural background and social interests.

And we rarely measure things precisely.

Sure, sometimes an explicit prescription is necessary.

For instance, professional athletes or bodybuilders (in other words, people who make money off their bodies and athletic skills) use meal plans to prepare for training and competition.

A prescribed meal for someone in that situation might look something like this:

1/4 cup dry oats

3 oz turkey breast

1 cup steamed broccoli

5 almonds

1 omega-3 supplement

1 cup green tea (unsweetened)

But most of us don’t need that level of surgical precision.

We don’t normally eat “ounces” of things, or refer to food by their nutrients (like “omega-3 fatty acids”).

Instead, we eat foods like:

hamburgers

tacos and burritos

salads

pasta and noodles

sandwiches, wraps, pitas and rotis

stews and curries

cereal and granola

stir-fries

casseroles

Bottom line: If you want to eat better, you don’t have to get weird about things.

You don’t need to weigh and measure everything, or count out your almonds.

Ask yourself: “Is someone paying me to do this?” If the answer is no, you likely don’t need this kind of approach.

You just need to think about what you’re already eating, and how you could make it a little bit better.

This means fiddling and adjusting.

Making small changes and improvements to what you already normally eat and enjoy, one small step at a time.

Think about a spectrum of food quality rather than “bad” or “good” foods.

Welcome to the meal transformation game.

When you play with the idea of a food spectrum or food continuum, you get to experiment with variables like:

what you eat, and

how you eat it.

Think of this as a game.

How can you play “make this meal just a little bit better” in every situation?

In which situations is that easier or harder?

When your choices are limited (for instance, when you’re traveling, or eating at a workplace cafeteria), how can you shoot for “a little bit better” while still being realistic, and without trying to be “perfect”?

(Hint for coaches: this is a great game to play with the people you work with.)

Let’s transform breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Here’s how that “food spectrum” might look in daily life, with a sample day of eating.

Transforming breakfast

Stage 1

Let’s say that your go-to breakfast is a whipped-cream coffee drink and a chocolate croissant.

You pick it up in the drive-thru, and wolf it down on your way to work.

This is your starting point. It’s not “bad”. It’s just no longer working for you.

You’re getting indigestion from rushing, the croissant doesn’t hold you at all, and you’ve just spilled the coffee on your crotch while changing lanes.

Now your game is to improve your breakfast just a little bit, starting with what you already have or do.

Stage 2

Your opening moves in the meal transformation game:

You might replace the croissant with a whole grain muffin.

Instead of a “dessert in a cup”, you get a regular coffee with a single cream and sugar.

You grab a yogurt cup on your way out of the house for a bit of protein.

Naturally, you’re still rushed and busy… so you eat your breakfast with some distractions, while scrolling through emails at work.

But this is a solid start. Well done.

Stage 3

Next level of game play:

You switch the muffin to granola with cottage cheese or Greek yogurt.

You switch the cream in your coffee for 2% milk. (Or even go right to black coffee, you meal player you!)

You add some colorful fruit.

You’re now eating out of dishes on a table, instead of out of takeout packages off the dashboard of your car.

Of course, you’re still checking out the news headlines while you eat…

No problem. We’re keeping it real.

Stage 4

Now you are seriously playing like a pro.

You’ve changed “rushing and panicked” to “set aside a little extra time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast”.

You cleverly prepped an egg frittata with veggies in advance on your food prep day.

The coffee’s become green tea, since you noticed that too much coffee was tweaking you out.

The protein plus colorful fruit and veg have become the stars of the meal.

You’ve discovered you really like lemon water. (WHAT? You don’t even know you anymore!)

You eat mindfully, feeling relaxed, while watching the sun rise.

Ahhh.

Transforming lunch

Stage 1

At this point, starting out, the idea of a sit-down lunch feels flat out ridiculous.

“Eat slowly? Who has time for that during a busy workday? Grab a burger and go!”

Another “car dashboard” meal. Another stomach ache and regret.

You decide you might want to play with this meal too.

Stage 2

To improve this meal a little bit:

You go to a higher-end burger place where you’re pretty sure they use real meat.

You get a side salad with that burger, and maybe just a few potato chips.

You choose a diet soda instead of regular.

You don’t eat in your car, but you do eat by your computer.

That’s OK. You’re progressing.

Stage 3

At this stage, you’re doing a little prep work:

You whipped up some burgers in advance so they are handy and ready to take to work.

You also grabbed some nice cheese and whole grain buns from the local market on shopping day.

For lunch, all you have to do is take your homemade burger and its fixins to work.

You still grab a diet cola from the vending machine to wash it down.

You move from your desk to the lunchroom, where you socialize with co-workers. This slows you down a bit and helps you digest and relax.

Stage 4

You’re having the burger without the bun, alongside a nice pre-prepped salad.

Instead of staying at your desk or in the office, you take a break.

You sit outside and get some fresh air while you enjoy your meal.

For a drink, water’s all you need.

Transforming dinner

Stage 1

It’s 8pm. You’ve just gotten home after an insane day at work.

All you want to do is put food into your face and zone out in front of the TV.

You can’t even imagine making anything more complicated than boxed macaroni ‘n’ cheese right now.

Ketchup and hot dogs are as fancy as it gets.

Stage 2

Same concept, but:

You’re adding some extra protein with the help of a rotisserie chicken leg that you grabbed at the grocery store on the way home.

You’ve added a side salad, just grabbing a few handfuls of pre-washed greens out of a bag.

You’ve whipped up your own pasta.

Work is still on your mind, and a couple drinks will take the edge off.

Stage 3

Things are getting fancy.

You’re upping the protein with a little more chicken.

You’re having a little less pasta.

You’ve also added a nice big salad to the mix.

You’ve cut the booze to 1 drink.

Plus, you’re sitting at the dinner table, instead of flopping down on your couch or standing over the sink.

Stage 4

Again, we’re playing at pro level here.

With your meal planning and prep strategies, even a weeknight dinner looks good.

You can whip up a delicious salad in 3 minutes flat and you have some pre-cooked quinoa on hand.

That rotisserie chicken is still a fast, convenient option, but now it’s got some healthy buddies.

You’re indulging in a single glass of good wine these days, and you take time to savor it.

Meal transformation is not about reaching perfection.

If you’re at stage 1, all you have to do is shoot for stage 2. Or stage 1.5.

If you’re in stage 2, play with getting to stage 3.

And if you’re stage 3, heck, you can stay where you are.

You might never get to stage 4. Or it might only happen at times when you’re relaxed and have a little extra time.

Stage 4 might only happen on Sunday night, whereas the rest of your week is a mix of stages 1, 2, and — if you’re super lucky — 3.

And that’s OK.

How far you progress along the continuum all depends on what YOU want, what YOU need, and what YOU can reasonably do, right now.

Over time, things can change.

Play YOUR game.

Success secret: Have a food prep ritual.

You might look at these photos and think, “How can people possibly do all that?”

One success secret: Having a food prep ritual.

The idea is simple:

Practice planning and preparing healthy food in advance.

This makes healthy eating convenient and easy.

It also makes decisions easier: You don’t have to make a choice when you’re rushed and hangry.

Your food prep ritual can include:

shopping (or arranging to have food delivered)

menu and meal planning

washing and chopping vegetables

cooking/preparing protein (e.g. cooking up some chicken breasts)

cooking meals in bulk (e.g. casseroles, soups, stews, chili)

preparing the dry ingredients for things like Super Shakes or healthy muffin mix

soaking grains/beans beforehand so that they’ll be ready to cook later

sorting foods into smaller containers or baggies

freezing and refrigerating food for later

planning healthy meals that someone else cooks (e.g. using a meal delivery service, deciding in advance what to order at a restaurant, etc.)

looking ahead to ensure healthy eating strategies during the next few days, especially during difficult times (e.g. a busy week, traveling, dealing with a family crisis, etc.)

Mix and match any of these to find what works for you.

Experiment with systems, skills and strategies that work for YOU and YOUR life.

The real goal of a meal plan is to stop using a meal plan.

Fit, healthy people who have a good relationship with food don’t need other people to tell them exactly what to eat at all times.

Living a fit and healthy life doesn’t require perfection, either.

If you are using a meal plan:

That’s OK.

Some people like prescription, especially if they are working towards a specific short-term goal, like cutting weight to compete in wrestling, making sure they get enough nutrients to support a healthy pregnancy, or fueling their triathlon performance.

Keep it short-lived.

Meal plans are supposed to be temporary, working towards a short-term goal.

Keep it real.

As much as possible, try to make the meal plan fit your real life, not the other way around.

If you’re a parent, a worker, a student, or anyone else living in the real world, most of your meals will fall somewhere in the stages 1 through 3 spectrum. That’s perfectly OK. Just experiment with being a little bit better, wherever you can.

Remember all goals require trade-offs.

If you want to achieve a high level of performance or exceptional body composition, understand what you are prioritizing and sacrificing.

Getting very lean, for instance, comes with costs.

Make sure it’s working for you.

If your meal plan is making you feel:

overwhelmed

anxious and fretful

guilty

regretful

bad

overly rigid and/or preoccupied with food…

or any other negative, unproductive emotion…

…and if you find that meal plans result in you:

“falling off the wagon”, hard

getting obsessive and compulsive about food

restricting foods and food groups, or

doing “all or nothing”, usually ending with “nothing”

…then consider trying another approach.

What to do next

1. Consider where you sit on the spectrum of meal “stages”.

Where’s your food game at?

What level are you playing at?

What level would you like to play at?

Given your goals and your current situation, what is realistic?

For example, if you currently eat at stage 1, your goal might be to eat at stage 2 for most meals.

Or, if you eat at stage 3 most of the time but find yourself dipping into stage 1 or 2 meals more often than you’d like, aim to stay at stage 3 a little more consistently.

(Hint for coaches: you can walk people through these questions and help them arrive at their own answers.)

2. Start small. One step at a time.

Pick one meal to transform and focus on that.

For instance, you might leave all your other meals at stage 1, and focus on getting lunch to stage 2.

Concentrate on improving that one meal each day.

Using the examples above, you might think about things like:

adding protein

adding veggies or fruits

eating less processed food

eating more nutrient-dense, whole foods

drinking less alcohol or fewer sweet drinks

drinking more water

eating in a calmer, more relaxed setting, and/or

eating more slowly and mindfully

Of course, don’t try to do all these at once.

Try just fiddling with one or two, and see which ones work best for you.

3. Add things slowly.

Once you’ve improved one meal a day, try another.

If you feel like lunch is a solid stage 2 or 3, play with moving breakfast, dinner, or snacks along the spectrum.

Or, once you’ve improved one factor in a meal (e.g. adding more protein), try another.

For instance, if you’re getting more protein, now try switching out your sugary soda for some soda water. Or adding a little more veggies.

Be patient; small steps add up.

4. Set yourself up for success.

Notice what makes it easier and simpler for you to eat better.

Then figure out how to do or get more of that.

For instance:

Is planning helping you? How could you do more of that?

Is a healthy meal delivery service making it easy? Could you set aside a little more cash to get two meals a day instead of one?

Is setting aside time on Sunday afternoon to cook some protein a good idea? Great, keep on doing that. Book it in your calendar.

There’s no “right” way to do this. Do what works for YOU.

5. Enjoy your meals.

Meal plans don’t usually address how you eat.

Before you change what you eat, you can also try changing how you eat. For example, you could:

slow down

breathe between bites

relax

savor your food

sit at a table if you can, and/or

use real dishes if you can.

Give yourself some time and space to appreciate those tasty concoctions you put together.

Meal time is YOUR time.

6. Work towards being your own boss.

Sometimes you might just want someone to tell you what to do.

That’s fine, and helpful, especially if you’re juggling a lot. But only for a while.

Over time, look for ways to help yourself intuitively and wisely make better choices, rather than just following the rules.

(Coaches, much more than serving up prescriptions, this is your job too: to help the folks you work with arrive at a place where they feel good about making decisions for themselves.)

Think long-term. What do you want to happen over the next few months? Year? 10 years? Do you want to be on a meal plan for the next few decades?

Today, if you were to take one small step towards the “better” end of the meal spectrum, what might that look like?

How can you start playing the “meal transformation game” today?

If you’re a coach, or you want to be…

Learning how to coach clients, patients, friends, or family members through healthy eating and lifestyle changes — including helping them with meal transformation — is both an art and a science.

If you’d like to learn more about both, consider the Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification. The next group kicks off shortly.

What’s it all about?

The Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification is the world’s most respected nutrition education program. It gives you the knowledge, systems, and tools you need to really understand how food influences a person’s health and fitness. Plus the ability to turn that knowledge into a thriving coaching practice.

Developed over 15 years, and proven with over 100,000 clients and patients, the Level 1 curriculum stands alone as the authority on the science of nutrition and the art of coaching.

Whether you’re already mid-career, or just starting out, the Level 1 Certification is your springboard to a deeper understanding of nutrition, the authority to coach it, and the ability to turn what you know into results.

[Of course, if you’re already a student or graduate of the Level 1 Certification, check out our Level 2 Certification Master Class. It’s an exclusive, year-long mentorship designed for elite professionals looking to master the art of coaching and be part of the top 1% of health and fitness coaches in the world.]

Interested? Add your name to the presale list. You’ll save up to 33% and secure your spot 24 hours before everyone else.

We’ll be opening up spots in our next Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018.

If you want to find out more, we’ve set up the following presale list, which gives you two advantages.

Pay less than everyone else. We like to reward people who are eager to boost their credentials and are ready to commit to getting the education they need. So we’re offering a discount of up to 33% off the general price when you sign up for the presale list.

Sign up 24 hours before the general public and increase your chances of getting a spot. We only open the certification program twice per year. Due to high demand, spots in the program are limited and have historically sold out in a matter of hours. But when you sign up for the presale list, we’ll give you the opportunity to register a full 24 hours before anyone else.

If you’re ready for a deeper understanding of nutrition, the authority to coach it, and the ability to turn what you know into results… this is your chance to see what the world’s top professional nutrition coaching system can do for you.

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