Seven Good Things I Did for My Body in 2010
1. Gave up nicotine – I was never a smoker, but since my early teens, I was addicted to smokeless tobacco (aka snuff, Skoal). On Sunday, December 5, 2010, I finally gave it up.
It was a battle initially, but the cravings have decreased, and I’m out of the woods. Strangely enough, the frequent, low-grade headaches have disappeared too.
2. Switched from coffee to tea – Coffee is very acidic, and combined with my nicotine habit above, the near daily heartburn was brutal. Not to mention the negative long-term effects on my health. Although I still grab a cup of java from Dunkin Donuts now and again, my daily drink of choice is now a steaming mug of Stash Premium Earl Grey Tea.
3. Switched from dairy milk to almond milk – this was part of my overall goal to reduce the amount of animal products I take into my body. There’s plenty of research out there that shows it’s a healthier way to go. Plus, Ellen (my vegetarian girlfriend) recently read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and it wasn’t pretty. (If you decide to try almond milk, make sure to get the unsweetened kind)
4. Cut way back on sugar - Refined sugar is deadly, and excess sugar of any sort has been shown to contribute to a slew of health problems (see The 76 Dangers of Sugar to Your Health). Plus it plays havoc with your energy levels throughout the day. I now read all food labels to check for added sugar and avoid almost anything that has it.
5. Made it a habit to take 1000mg of Vitamin C each day – Vitamin C’s list of benefits keeps getting longer. I can’t remember the last time I had a cold or went to the doctor.
6. Added more vegetables to my diet – I still have a long way to go here, but it was a great start. I’m even eating veggies for breakfast, as well as on my pizza now and again.
7. Cut way back on TV – Research shows that too much TV sucks the life out of you, and contributes to obesity. I wrote about my own TV addiction several months ago, and kicking that habit was one of the best things I ever did. Amazon.com is pretty happy about it too, because they sold me a’lotta books in 2010.
How about you? What did positive changes did you make in 2010?
What’s on tap for 2011?
Diary of a Recovered TV Addict: How I Reclaimed My Life and Gained Two Extra Months Per Year
My girlfriend doesn’t own a TV; a fact that puzzled me when we first met. What does she do for entertainment, I wondered. How does she get the news? Doesn’t she get bored? How can she live without Seinfeld?
I didn’t ask her those questions directly though, because I really didn’t care. In fact, on a deeper level, I respected and envied her for that choice.
There was a time when I watched 5-6 hours of television every day. As evening approached after a long, hard day, I’d plant myself on the couch and vegetate till I fell asleep around midnight. Eight hours later, I’d wake up with the TV still on and me still feeling tired.
If you do the math, at that rate, it works out to around 2000 hours over the course of a year. That’s about three months. THREE MONTHS. In front of a TV. Hypnotized. Tuned in, but zoned out. Disconnected from the real world. Ahh yes, life was grand.
Actually, life wasn’t grand. In truth, it was quite the opposite, and TV had become a full-blown addiction; an escape mechanism. Medication for the deeper wounds and issues I refused to deal with in my life. For me, TV filled the void of an otherwise empty life; a life barely lived by a soul knocked to his knees and struggling to get back up.
“In its easy provision of relaxation and escape, television can be beneficial in limited doses. Yet when the habit interferes with the ability to grow, to learn new things, to lead an active life, then it does constitute a kind of dependence and should be taken seriously.” – Robert Kubey & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Scientific American (PDF)
There’s more to the story, of course, but that’s for another time. For now, it’s enough to say that – although my legs are still a bit wobbly – this soul is back on his feet and moving forward; due in large part to a commitment to gradually wean myself off television.
Interview: Conscious Business and the Hero’s Journey With Brian Johnson (Part 2)
Today’s episode is part 2 of my interview with Brian Johnson from PhilosophersNotes (listen to part 1 here). During this part of the discussion, we talk about the how Brian came up with the idea for PhilosophersNotes, as well as other cool topics such as:
- Follow your bliss and the hero’s journey.
- The deeper purpose of business and multiple bottom lines.
- Creating your ideal life.
This episode runs about 28 minutes, and here is one of my favorite quotes from Brian:
“You follow your bliss into the forest of the unknown, and then you’re on a hero’s journey. [Joseph Campbell] says if there’s a path, it’s not your path. It’s the one certainty. If you’re walking on a path that’s already trodden, you know it’s not yours. The hero’s journey is truly discovering your own unique path.”
Interview: Conscious Business and the Hero’s Journey With Brian Johnson (Part 1)
In this, my inaugural episode of Bigger Life Radio, I speak with Brian Johnson. Brian is the Chief Philosopher of PhilosophersNotes and one of my new favorite people. He’s a wealth of information on many subjects, including optimal living and conscious business. In this episode, which runs about 30 minutes, we talk about the following:
- Brian’s experience and approach to optimal living and conscious business.
- The secret to greatness and genius.
- The key to joy.
- The power of authenticity in business.
The initial interview ran about an hour, so I divided it into two parts. I’ll publish part two later this week. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from today’s episode:
“Being real is an outcome in itself, and the by-product is a better business. I think people are using ‘being real’ or being authentic as a means to an end.”
Sites mentioned in this episode:
How Well Do You Know Yourself?
“We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other peoples’ models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open.” – Shakti Gawain
Most marketing gurus will tell you how important it is to know your market, and I completely agree. You need to have a thorough understanding of the wants, needs, desires and problems of those you serve. Without that information, how can you hope to make a difference in their life?
Further, no matter what type of product, service or information you offer, the bottom line is you are compensated in direct proportion to the amount of value you provide to your market, so you’d better know what your market finds valuable.
But here’s something the marketing gurus often overlook. It’s also important to know yourself. You may wonder why I say that, and to explain it, I’ll use myself as an example.
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