I hate the food industry.

Preying on children.  It's absolutely pathetic.  It's hard not to think the food, health, and drug industries are all in bed with each other.

All the child geared marketing for all the sugar loaded products.  I used to not give a rip about this stuff.  My body and health has always been pretty awesome.  I could eat just about whatever I wanted.  It would effect me, but nothing I couldn't counter act.  I'm a very active guy so I could burn through a lot of junk.  Who doesn't love the joy on kids faces when the are eating sugar?  They love it.  It's almost like a drug.  Oh wait.....

It's in everything.  And marketing agencies don't help one bit.  We now think that a "green" package is healthy. We think Low or Reduced Fat is better.  It's not.  At all.  It tastes like cardboard and needs other additives to help it taste better, like more sugar.

But wait, Whole grains are good for you.  Right?  Maybe.  But not as good as not eating grains at all. And most foods that say "contains whole grains", well, they are there and pulverized into tiny little bits. This means it still spikes your blood sugar.

Just because it's gluten free doesn't mean it's good for you.  Your gluten free foods can still contain corn starch, potato starch, tapioca starch and be loaded with....sugar.  Eat real foods.

Did you know that many food companies put small, trace, amounts of "healthy" stuff in their products just to say it's in there.  Omega 3's, Whole grains, Anti-oxidants....etc.  And the amounts in this food, when paired with the actual food product, you see no benefit.

Real sugar....like sugar in the raw, evaporated cane sugar...etc.  Guess what?  It's still sugar.  Sorry.

Ok..so you gave up sugar.  But you still eat artificially sweetened foods.  Ok.  But know that the sweetness from the artificial sweeteners can still produce a hunger response from the brain and cause you to eat more.  Trust me.  I've been there.

But back to my original point.  Kids don't know whats good for them or not.  We have to teach them. The problem?  No one food is really healthy.  It all depends on what we eat with that food over the course of the day and week.  Eating options have to be a lifestyle.

But there is so much junk food, like sugar filled yogurt and cereal geared towards kids.  Snack foods like cookies, crackers, cheese itz, chips, pretzels are loaded with sugar and carbs.  None of these are good for kids.  Even the gluten free ones.  Can they be eaten sparingly, maybe.  Most likely.  But who rations out their kids foods?  And why do we even want to train their brains to even recognize these foods.  Seriously?  Look at the obesity problem in america.

I AM NOT FAT SHAMING.  Ok, last year, I did.
I couldn't understand why people could ever let themselves get big.  But you know what, I changed.  I started to understand how different types of food effected us.  I understand that most people don't gain weight due to lack of will power or because they are lazy.  It's because they just don't understand how our bodies process foods.  And most people get their information about things that are "healthy" from the food industry.  And the food industry doesn't give a shit about your health.   All they want to do is take your money.  I promise you that.  They assume you are an adult and can make decisions for yourself and it's your decision what to eat.   It can be frustrating when all your life you've been given certain foods and they haven't really effected you, than one day they do.  And people blame age and metabolism.  Which is maybe some reason.  So you start working out and try to "diet" a little bit.  But it doesn't work.  So you just give up and realize this is life and there are more important things to concentrate on.  Who can blame you?  I can't.  But when I learned that exercise has very little to do with weight loss and that people could lose hundreds of pound on diet alone....SOLD!

Daily allowance is 9-12 teaspoons.  I
hope you aren't eating any more sugar for the rest
of today and half of tomorrow.  

Did you know they don't have the daily allowance percentage of sugar next to the amount on the labels?  BECAUSE IT WOULD BE OVER 100% ON JUST ABOUT EVERY FOOD!!!

Now, I'm not a nutrition expert yet.  But lets just say, when you cut carbohydrates significantly.  It pushes you to real foods with minimal ingredients.  Usually one ingredient.  Your calories are NATURALLY restricted because the sugar contains a shit ton of calories.  I haven't counted calories in months.  I count fat, protein and carbs and my calorie count should sit right at that daily allowance, 2000-2500 a day.  Imagine that.  But seriously, it's not about calories.

Back to my original sentiment.  NOTHING in the consumption industry should be marketed to kids.  Remember when smoking companies had to change their marketing strategies?  What about the sugar industry?  Sugar is killing just as many, if not more people than smoking.

And then the health industry...READ THIS FOR THAT.  Obesity is preventable for the majority of people.  And it's costing us billions.  This should infuriate people.  If you complain about rising health care costs....this should absolutely rile you up.  But dang those unhealthy foods are good. And why are we so addicted to them....we were marketed those foods as kids.  And we kids were very persuasive at getting our way.  We've created an addiction to sugar.  You want to know about that?  Read about sugar and it's addictive qualities here.   And why wouldn't us parents trust the food industry?  For sure they have our best interests in mind.  WRONG.

Freedom can be a double edged sword.

Just a couple more things about the current "protesting" happening in the nfl.   And honestly...I don't really want to post this.  Because I'm afraid it's too late.  But I'm going to anyway.  At the risk of people thinking I hate the national anthem.  I don't.  But I'm afraid some people can't see through that.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't make a song that special.  I don't really care if you like the Ataris song "San Dimas High School Football Rules".  You don't have to rock out to that song when it plays.  It's ok.  It doesn't speak to the entirety of your being.  Guess what?  I don't listen to mainstream music.  I've never listened to an entire beatles album.

Secondly.  I don't want the National Anthem to turn into a symbol of...If you stand you are protesting anyones right to not stand and you think black people need to shut up about wanting equality.  And I don't want those that choose not to stands message to be confused with hating america and disrespecting soldiers.

I don't like calling any thing they are doing a protest.  They are people saying we need to change the way african americans and other minorities are treated.  AKA, Stop racism.  They are NOT protesting all of america, it's soldiers, or it's people.  Sorry they had to use the National Anthem as an opportunity to start that message, but(have you listened to the part of the song we don't sing?)

You know I have a growing distaste for the national anthem?  I really do.  Because it's becoming something it's not intended to be.  And it's everyones fault.  Long before Colin K took a knee.  Now, I know, I know, this song means a lot to people.  It's roots run deep.  But for the vast majority of americans, it's nothing more than a patriotic song played before school and sporting events.  I'd even go as far to say that it's part of a pre-game ritual and athletes us the song to spur emotions from previous performances to get the psyched for the game.  It's way overplayed.  It's not special anymore for most people.  And it sucks.  Because for those that the Star Spangled Banner holds a special meaning, their song is being dragged through the mud.  It's like the horse from that war horse movie that got caught in the crossfire.  I feel like the National Anthem is not becoming a symbol of division within america.  And honestly...it's the ones that promote the NA that are doing the majority of that dividing.  Because those kneeling are NOT protesting the song.  They are using the song as a tool to deliver a message.  And instead of listening to the message, people are mad they didn't stand.  And this is infuriating.  When you can't put your tradition aside to listen to the plight of someone.

Fuck this.  If you disagree with me, you disagree.  I'm not changing your mind.  If you agree you agree.

And that's all that seems to be happening.  There is no middle.

I want to see people work together.  I really do want to stop arguing about what's wrong with the petty shit.  Take all my favorite songs.  I don't give a shit.  If it means everyone be treated as equals, take every special song that every existed in my playlist.  Oh, you mean to tell me those songs aren't as important as the national anthem?   Says who?  You?

I get it.  It's an important song to you.  I need everyone to really listen to that.  I understand this is an important song to you.  But who you are, as a person, and your emotions are more important to me than a song.  The entirety of your being is not a song.  Your song that means so much to you, means so much to you.  Because I guarantee that when I hear that song and when you are hear that song, we both think totally different things.   But maybe...just maybe, because of whats happening with athletes today and their "stand" for racial equality, maybe we are thinking the same thing.  That racial equality does need to happen.  And we need to make sure the symbol that unites us all, remains that way.  And if America can't become the land of the free (which it mostly is, but we can't ignore the minority where it isn't) with liberty and justice for all, we need to stop pretending it is and stop forcing people to acknowledge a lie.

Especially when stores are using CK jerseys as doormats.  And people are blaming kneeling for dropped passes and calling in karma.  And all the hateful insults being slung for someone trying to make things better.

FYI...I'm not going to engage outside of this blog.  I usually don't anyway.

Fake or Truth? Boobs or Buildings.

This will be a shorter blog that I may continue tomorrow.  Not sure yet.

Yesterday there was a lot of shows, media clips, moments of silence and remembering 9/11.  From all the victims of that day, to the heroes that took over flight 93 and those that rushed in to help people.

I love (as much as I hate) hearing the stories of bravery and unity that come from that day and the months following.

But then I see the "truthers" out there that insist that this was an inside job.  That there is no way the towers fell as a result of the plane crash.  Some think the U.S. Gov't was responsible.  Some think there was bombs in the basement.  Do you want some truth?  Nearly 4,000 people lost their lives that day.  And whether there was bombs in the basement or the gov't knew that this was  real possibility but did nothing, matters not to me.  Over 3000 people died unexpectedly that day by an attack.

Do you know that we don't know everything.  Especially us civilians. You can speculate all you want about the things that don't makes sense are create case.  You might even have some real convincing evidence.  So why don't you hop in a time machine and place things out differently.  Could you have stopped it?  What if this even was a "necessary evil"  that if it didn't happen, tens of thousands more would have died in another way.  There are just so many things we don't know and never will.

What I really want to know is WHY?  Why do you "truthers" care so much?  What are you trying to prove?   If it's only a truth you are after...what would change?   If you want more truth, find out why 30 million people die every year from preventable causes.  And why aren't people throwing nearly as much of a big stink about that?

What I'm just saying is...I don't understand what's so important about you being "right".

I view it like I view Christianity and the existence of Jesus.  What difference does it make if it's true? Eternity?  Is that it?  So you follow the teachings of jesus for a meal ticket when you die?  I don't give a shit what happens when I die if it means looking out for my brother (which I could always improve at).  If you follow the teachings of Jesus and there is no jesus, what have you lost?  Nothing.  Because it's never about what's in it for you.  And honestly...And I'm pretty sure it's biblical, that if you spend your whole life caring for the least of these and don't believe in Jesus you'll be welcomed in heaven.  But if you go your life only looking our for yourself but praise his name ever sunday, you'll be ignored like the plague when you go looking for heaven.  How cool would it be if you are God to sit back on your throne and see all these people loving each other because that's just what they do?  God is out of the equation.  But if all you see is a bunch of robots doing things out of duty and obligation because of fear of the hand of God would punish you if you did't?  That sounds oppressive.  And it sounds like a jerk of a God.

You know what that God sounds like?  The people that want to force others to stand for a song.  Sounds oppressive.  Oh yeah...that's cause it is.  Freedom is wonderful.

Stranger? Things.

What's the deal with this show?  I made it three episodes in and lost interest.  I'm just not sure what the draw is.  I'm not really sure what the draw is to any of these shows that people "binge" watch on netflix.  I started watching Parenthood.  This one was pretty good for a few seasons, but interest was lost a few episodes into the final season.  I even tried again to finish it.  Couldn't do it.  BORING.  Same thing with Agents of Shield.  Tried the new season and just couldn't get into it.

For the love of God, lets hope this trend doesn't continue with the new season of Hawaii Five-0.  I will watch that all day long.  Only two other shows, Arrow and Longmire.  

I just don't get into Netflix at all.  I guess not netflix, but TV in general.  Give me some real life.  Give me real conversations.  But be honest....when y'all are watching netflix, how many of you are on your phones at the same time?

But put The Fast and the Furious on TV?  I'll watch that from whatever point I find it to the time it's over.  Any of them.  

Annnnddddd, I'm now distracted by sportscenter.  You know fall is on the horizon right?  And that means football.  

Have great day.  Week one of NFL today.  

Fasting for the Win

Hour 106 is on the horizon.  106 hours of fasting, or incredibly restricted eating for those fasting purists out there.

Monday night at 9pm I embarked on a journey to fast for 108 hours and then run a 5k.  My plan was to go my first two days with coffee, water and la croix.  No calories other than coffee.  From day 3 onward I planned to not be dogmatic about it and add some heavy cream to my coffee and maybe some coconut oil.  I did have about a cup of bone broth.  Through this point I've had no more than 75g of fat, 20g of protein and 3g net carbs through 4 and half days.  That's about 750 calories if you are counting.  Last night I did have 3 small pieces of the chicken stir fry dinner my wife made.   It was just to tell my body and mind to shut up.  Then I went grocery shopping.  The only battles were psychological.  Of course...if you aren't fat adapted, fasts are miserable.  Your body revolts.  And then day three...it gets a bit easier.  If you are fat adapted, you just lose a ridiculous amount of ten year old fat stores and battle your mind.

The bible tells you not to tell people you are fasting.  I'm not sure why.  Fasting is awesome.  Even if you aren't into the whole Low carb/keto thing, intermittent fasting or a 5/2 diet is awesome for your brain and losing fat.  Look into it.

The biggest battle came last night.  I was ready to call it a success and eat dinner.  But I wondered what the ramifications would be by not finishing the goal I had set for myself.  Mind you, the longest true fast I had done so far was 60 hours a few weeks ago.  There was no real basis for my goal.  So, 94 hours would have been an amazing accomplishment.  I would have done great.  But was "great" what I was after?  Or was committing to what I started more important?  And why was it so important that I finish? Wasn't what I had already done good enough?  Why did I even set that goal?  What was I trying to prove?  That answer to all these.....I don't know.  

Here I am, three hours to the starting gun.  And I'm gonna crush this 5k.  But honestly, I don't care what my time is.  Ok...maybe a little.   I set my playlist last night for 27 minutes.  I'm slightly ambitious.

The moral of this story?  I don't know.  I just needed fodder for my blog.

Totally kidding.   I know the moral,  if you don't know why you are doing something, it's hard to keep going.  But maybe along the way, your "why" changes.  That's also ok.  Maybe you don't know why you are doing something, or you don't know if what you are doing will produce the desired results.  That's ok too.  You can still do things.  Like me getting up at 5:30 am and writing every day.  I don't really know for sure what I'm doing is doing anything.  It's more of a habit now.  And I'll never get good at writing if I don't practice.

But after 105 hours with that extremely minimal amount of food, I feel great.  I'll let you all know how the 5k went later this morning.

And now.  The obligatory middle class white american privilege guilt trip.  Spoken from the viewpoint of my inner self.  He's an necessary asshole sometimes. So Jon, you have all this food in your house.  You have plenty of money to buy food.  You don't have a real reason to not eat.  You are in great shape.  And you chose not to eat for 4.5 days to play a mind game with yourself?  You do realize people around the world don't get that choice.  They go for days without eating, because they can't.  They don't have access to food.  So good for you, you just didn't eat for fun while others don't eat and have to survive.  And now you feel like you have to write about it as some badge of honor.  You don't deserve your middle class white american life.  You did nothing to earn it.  It just showed up on your doorstep when you were born.  Don't EVER take for granted what you have.  Don't EVER think that all americans have it like you do.  You have a pretty resilient and adaptable body, you were given that.  You did nothing to deserve that.  But God damn it, thank you for not letting it go to waste.  Thank you for using it.  Thank you for using it to ultimately inspire others.  But don't ever forget it could all be taken away any minute.

So Much Ridiculousness.

We've seen it with Colin Kaepernick.  People seem to want to throw a big stink about Kap not standing for the national anthem as he protests the racism and oppression found within the police force of the USA, and just the US in general.  These people throwing a fit seem to care more about the fact he sat, instead of WHY he sat.  This is a problem.  "Hey Kap, why you sit for the national anthem?  Oh, because racism in America still?  Well, shit.  Let's get to the bottom of that so we can both stand together."   Or maybe....that person will actually see the horrors of why Kap sit and they sit with him.  Newsflash to Jon....maybe you are more frustrated at the people mad at Kap then the reason Kap sat in the first place.  Fuck me.  It does seem that way doesn't it.  Well, I don't.  Sometimes I just don't know how to anything about it.  See paragraph 4.

And now...people are more pissed that Gary Johnson didn't immediately recognize Aleppo when asked about it, then they are pissed about Aleppo.  Hell, I didn't put Allepo to Syria Refugee Crisis at first.  I know of Aleppo.  But if you were to ask me about it in mid sentence, it might take a minute.  Why?  Because every calls it the Syrian refugee crisis.  And I even wrote a blog about it a few weeks ago!!!  When you see a bloodied little boy sitting in a van, that is Aleppo.  But everyone knows Aleppo by that boy.  "Hey Gary Johnson, What about the events in Syria?  We've seen photos of little children with massive injuries as a result of the violence in Aleppo, what are you planning on doing about that?"

I feel like we are so busy to criticize a person.  We all need a scapegoat.  We all need someone to throw under the bus.  I usually do that to groups of people.  But we need to be better than that.

What are we talking about?  Look at whats trending on Facebook and Twitter.  Mostly all bullshit.  That's what's trending.  Or maybe there is some good stuff in there.  Maybe the problem is that we are sitting with our faces buried in the digital world and not enough time spent out in real life talking to real people.  I don't know.   Some would argue that digital interaction creates connection.  I'm sure it does in ways.  But it's only connection with the people of our choosing.  It's so easy to ignore people when they aren't standing right in front of you.  It allows us to create a circle of like minded thinking. Unless we purposefully engage in with things we don't agree with.

Low Fat = Higher Fat

When companies started making low fat foods, they stumbled across a major discovery.  They taste like a piece of cardboard.  So what did they do?  Either kept the sugar in it, or added sugar to it.  You'll notice that nearly all of those low-fat foods have the same amount of sugar as their full fat counterparts.  And we aren't talking glucose.  We are talking fructose.  Fructose fails to shut of the mechanism that tells you that you are full.  Eating that low-fat snack or meal....yeah, you end up eating more than you would have anyway.  You stay hungry.  And all that fructose?  Guess where it goes.  Right to being stored as fat.  So the very thing you are trying to get away from....you didn't.  Low fat diet's without restricting sugar simply do not work.  So you introduce artificial sweeteners because you want low fat, low sugar.  And now you have chemicals out the wazoo.   All those carbs you are eating because you don't feel full because your Leptin levels have decreased get stored as fat. Why is your Leptin level decreased?  All the fructose we had as kids.  This is why kids are getting fat.  Added sugar.  Juice.  Goldfish crackers.  Candy.  Cookies.  Crackers.  Their leptin, the hormone that signals satiety, fails to function.  That's why once you pop, you can't stop eating Pringles.


This isn't just about losing weight.  This is about long term health.  Look at the obesity problem in america.  IT'S NOT BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE LAZY or have a lack of will power.

IT'S BECAUSE BIG COOPERATIONS ARE GREEDY!!!!

Don't tell me it's to expensive to eat healthy.  It's not.

Don't believe me?  Lots of research here.  I'm sick of people being lied to by big corporations about what works and what doesn't.  BIG MONEY COMPANIES DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR HEALTH.  Why low fat diets don't work.

Yesterday, in one of the keto Facebook groups I'm in, a friend who has lost a crazy amount of fat over the past few weeks asked a question about post workout recovery on a keto diet.  I really can't answer that.  Lack of knowledge about sports nutrition makes keto good for me.  But for people with certain goals or a specific look in mind, you have to be picky about what you eat.  In this case, I don't think there was a need for that yet.  I haven't done anything specific for muscle recovery in 4 months.  Even after long bike rides 30 plus miles.  I don't do anything specific after my 100 push-ups, 40 pull ups, 12 minute plank and squat exercises when I do them.  I just eat my normal daily foods as the day progresses.

One person chimed in that they enjoy a beer post workout.  And that it wouldn't hurt to add some carbs back in since you've burnt through the stores in your liver.

Timeout.  

What?  The purpose of Ketosis is to burn through your carb stores and allow your body to burn fat (which is totally safe and natural for about 95% of people, certain medical conditions exist that may cause exception).  You don't need to replenish carb stores on a keto diet.   I haven't replenished my carb stores in 4 months and I'm in the best shape of my life.  So I was a little taken aback by this careless advice.   Not the beer part but the carb replenishment.

However, it led to a discussion about rewards for working out.  And the one gentleman who I know from an online relationship is a great guy and very successful at his version of keto.  But it isn't a standard keto diet.  Which is fine.  He gets results with his modified version.

Back to rewards.  I don't cheat on this diet.  I have no reason to.  I have no desire to.  There are no foods, drinks or treats that I want.  Seriously.  No chocolate cake, no pizza, no beer, no ice cream or any thing that contains carbs and sugars.  Not even extra fruit.  My brain and tastebuds are turned off to sugar.  I'm not special.  You can do this too.  It takes about a month of complete avoidance, but once you do, you'll find yourself happily not eating sugar, especially fructose.  You will still eat small amounts of glucose in various real foods.  This guy said that because I don't allow a reward after a hard workout it resembles an eating disorder in his opinion.  What?!?!  So because I learned to control the foods I put in my body, I may have an eating disorder.  No.  If you think you need to give yourself a reward for working out.  And that reward is food, but not just any food that will benefit your work but a food that will not add value and that you only get a psychological response from, THAT sounds like an eating disorder.  But it's not.  It's just doing what we've always done. Used food as a reward.  And some people need that.  Because how many times have we told our children they will get a treat for good behavior.  Oh, that needs to stop too.  But it's conditioned in us from a young age that food is a reward.  And that's what got us overweight and gave us an unhealthy relationship food in the first place.

So don't call my discipline and healthy living an eating disorder.  If you need to have a reward for your workout, great.  Don't expect everyone to do that.  Not everyone needs to do that.  In fact,  no one actually needs to do that.  I encourage people to break that mentality that every good work we do needs to be rewarded with food.  Why not allow the good work you just did and your results be the reward?  That's the goal.  Break the unhealthy bond we have with food.