#'but its science only!' they still got guns and are very trigger happy about it

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Ah, I see the UNIT Defenders are at work now with UNIT being revealed to be recruiting literal children (Rose Noble and the kid we've been seeing in UNIT shots in trailers).

[denkilightning]

I have to ask what you think of Grace. (Do not worry about offending me at all - I have super mixed feelings on her)

i think shes one of the narratives two "bad victims" (the other being alastair obv) - the ones who "take it out" on others instead of only themselves, as if theyre not trying to actively chew off their own leg out of a bear trap.

shes also alastairs tragic mirror - she has a silver tongue, he has a savage one both being their main shields. theyve both been groomed and tried to run away from their abusers only to have a realisation moment they will never be free from them. they both would do anything and everything for their sibling. and while al got a happy ending with his lightwood, graces lightwood.... well we all know what happened. (which btw i refuse to accept it and any and all post tlh headcanons and stuff of mine have All The Merry Thieves And Co. Alive Content And Happy)

i am however very happy that her most important character dynamic thats the dearest to her heart is her older brother. as a younger siblings i cant get enough of that

shes a very tough character to wrap your head around and thats the way its supposed shes written to be. all her life shes been nothing but a puppet on tatianas strings, the bullet in the gun not the one pulling the trigger. but when a bullet gets shot someone still gets hurt.

but all in all im glad shes free and that shes found solace in science. i hope shes happy and i hope james never has to interact with her ever in his life again unless he chooses to.

[killing-all-joy]

“Can we stay like this forever?” but angst (analogical, Virgil says this while they're cuddling but when he falls asleep Logan leaves to go do something that might kill him)

virgil is bi in this, fyi. sorry if i wrote this in a way you Did Not Want Me To

cw: homophobia, death threats, guns, violence, injury, graphic murder (no major character death don’t worry), swearing

Logan felt Virgil’s head fall onto his chest. They had been watching a movie together, but it had finished long ago and now they were just cuddling on the sofa.

Logan put an arm around his boyfriend. Virgil made a noise of contentment. His eyes were closed but he still managed to direct a blissful smile up at Logan. Logan looked at him with admiration and love, hand moving to caress Virgil’s cheek and brush his hair out of his eyes. Virgil hummed happily at this, nuzzling into Logan’s touch. He took Logan’s free hand in his.

“Can we stay like this forever?” asked Virgil, running his thumb over Logan’s knuckles.

“I hope so.”

“Me too,” Virgil replied, moving his head a bit so he could kiss Logan’s hand. “I love you so much, and you’re so comfy.”

Logan chuckled, leaning down to place a kiss on Virgil’s forehead. “I love you too.”

Virgil hummed. “I love you more.”

“Falsehood.”

Virgil giggled. Logan thought it was the most adorable and beautiful sound; he only wished he got to hear it more. Usually Virgil was much more composed and displayed a negative attitude. Right now, though, he was tired and with his boyfriend—two things that lessened his need to have a filter on his words.

“You gonna stay with me, L?” asked Virgil.

Logan hummed.

He didn’t want to verbally confirm and end up lying to his boyfriend, but he also wanted to keep Virgil happy. A noise like a monotonous hum could make Virgil think Logan meant ‘yes’ when he actually didn’t mean that at all.

Logan continued to run his fingers through Virgil’s purple hair. It was soft and beautiful and Logan’s favorite hair in the world since Virgil was his favorite everything. Favorite person, favorite boy, his eyes were Logan’s favorite pair of eyes, he sometimes wore Logan’s favorite smile, etc. Logan constantly thought about how lucky he was to have Virgil.

After ten minutes of silence, Virgil fell asleep. This didn’t surprise Logan; Virgil hadn’t gotten more than three hours of sleep the night before. Him napping was good.

Logan stayed still for about thirty minutes after Virgil had fallen asleep, wanting to make sure he had entered a deeper sleep before Logan moved. When that had happened, Logan slowly untangled himself from Virgil and moved off the sofa, trying to be as undisturbing as possible. Logan stacked a couple pillows to replace himself so Virgil wouldn’t notice he was gone. He then tiptoed to his room, took a gun from the dresser, and then tiptoed to the door where he took the keys off the keyring and exited the apartment.

He quickly made his way to his car. He drove off and into the downtown area of the city. Parking in the parking lot of a small park, he rechecked his pockets to make sure he had the gun before exiting his car. He locked it, and then started walking to a nearby alley.

Logan wasn’t here for no reason, and that reason was correlated with why Virgil hadn’t slept well the previous night.

At around 4 a.m., Virgil had been awaken by a threatening text from an ex-girlfriend. She didn’t know Virgil was bisexual when they dated. She had learned yesterday, was very disgusted, and threatened to kill Virgil (perhaps worse) for not telling her that she was dating someone who was also into guys. She demonstrated that she had the means to and would strike when least expected. Logan had come over to Virgil’s house at eleven in the morning when Virgil didn’t show for their breakfast date, and Virgil, sleep-deprived and terrified, told Logan everything.

Logan was scared. This ex-girlfriend could clearly kill Virgil—and would, if she got her way. So, Logan had texted her, pretending to be someone with money to give her. They were to meet in this alleyway at 10 p.m.

It was precisely that time now (this was a rare instance where Logan didn’t want to be early), so Logan quickened his pace. He kept the hand on the pocket containing the gun.

He entered the alleyway. It was dimly lit by a streetlight, so he could faintly see the back of a person ahead. He figured it was Virgil’s ex. She had long, fairly straight blonde hair which was clearly dyed, and was wearing a brown leather jacket and light blue jeans. Her boots were dark brown and worn.

When Logan had reached the distance he wanted to be from the woman, he drew his gun. It was clear she heard him, because she started to pivot on her heels to face Logan.

“I don’t see a briefcase,” she called, taking a couple of stalking steps towards him.

“I do not have one with me presently.”

“Where is my money?”

Logan didn’t answer that question. He took a few steps forward of his own. “I did not bring money to this rendezvous.”

Her hand started to drift towards her pocket.

“You will leave Virgil Storm alone forevermore.”

She laughed. “You’re what? His boyfriend? Come to protect him? I bet you’ve never held a gun in your life.”

Logan rolled his eyes. He didn’t answer, though, as any information could give her the upper-hand. He pointed the gun at her head.

“You will not kill Virgil Storm,” he growled, knuckles going white on the gun.

She laughed again. “No.”

“I do not want to use force.”

She took another step towards him, feigning curiosity while still keeping the conceited confidence that gave her the dominating air in the conversation.

“If you don’t want to use force,” she said, running her tongue across her upper lip, “then why do you have a gun?”

“I will use force if necessary.”

She pouted. “But it’s not necessary. You could leave without any harm done to you, and-”

“You will kill Virgil.”

She nodded in consideration. “Yes, I will. But, still. You don’t have to use force. You could just as well let nature run its course.”

“I will not allow you to kill him.”

“You, someone clearly well-read and with a profitable career ahead of him, probably in science, are going to throw away everything you have for your boyfriend? When you have obviously never even come close to committing murder ever before?”

Logan didn’t dignify that with a response. Instead, he cocked his gun.

“If you promise you will not kill Virgil, I will spare you,” Logan threatened, gritting his teeth.

“Alright, you want to play dirty,” she conceded with a sigh.

Within the second, the gun in her hands was cocked, aimed, and had her hand on the trigger.

Logan fired.

Her eyes widened and her movements stopped, her firing arm slackening. She obviously didn’t think Logan was capable of murder. The bullet soared through the air and landed in her forehead.

Logan watched as her body fell backward. Her head hit the asphalt with a crack of what was likely the breaking of bones in the skull. Logan switched on the safety to his gun and slowly put it down, satisfied.

“LOGAN!” he heard a voice shriek, followed by dashing footsteps.

The voice was loud, terrified, and definitely spoken by someone who was currently crying.

“LOGAN!” There it was again, accompanied by the running footsteps that were getting progressively louder.

Logan frowned. Who could that be? He hadn’t told anyone what he would be doing.

Logan watched the figure round the corner and enter the alleyway. Logan’s eyes widened as he realized that it was Virgil.

Nevermind that Virgil was supposed to be asleep, how did he know he was here?

“LOGAN! Oh god, Logan!” Virgil shouted, running over to him. He stopped three feet in front of Logan.

“Why are you awake?” asked Logan curiously. “And how did you know I was here?”

“The neighbors were loud and you got a text that worried me so I checked it out,” said Virgil dismissively. “What happened?”

His last sentence was frantic, worried.

“Are you bleeding? Do I need to call 911? I heard a gunshot and I got terrified,” Virgil rambled. “Obviously someone fired a gun here and I was so scared they killed you, L, so goddamn scared...what the hell is wrong with you, going to a dark alleyway at night? I thought you said you’d stay.”

“I did not say I would stay, I merely made a noise acknowledging that I had heard your request,” Logan corrected.

Virgil glared at him. “Those were the less important of my questions.”

Logan sighed. “I am unharmed, Virgil. You do not need to call 911.” Logan glanced behind him. “In fact, I’d prefer it if you didn’t.”

Virgil looked confused. “Then what happened? Did they miss you? Why aren’t you in shock? Where are they?”

Logan took a step to the side and gestured behind him. “No one missed a shot.”

Virgil’s bewilderment did not cease. “I see a dead woman. Who killed her? Were you tending to her?”

“Take a closer look, my love.”

Virgil would have blushed at the pet name if it wasn’t such a dire situation. Virgil took a few cautious steps towards the corpse. His eyes widened in recognition.

“Oh...oh my god, it’s her,” said Virgil, no longer confused. “Who killed her?”

Virgil turned around to face Logan in time for him to hold up the gun. Virgil’s eyes widened. Logan was scared that it was in fear.

“You...you killed her,” whispered Virgil.

“I did not want to,” said Logan matter-of-factly. “Truly, I didn’t. However, she was aiming to kill me and I had no choice.”

“For me.” Virgil still seemed to be in shock by the news.

Logan blinked. He looked down at the gun thoughtfully. “Yes. She demonstrated the means and the desire to kill you. I confronted her. She tried to kill me and stated that she would kill you in the future. I killed her instead. Simple.”

Virgil shook his head. “You killed someone, risked so much...for me?”

Logan bit his lip, but nodded. There was a moment of silence.

“You idiot!” Virgil suddenly shouted. “You absolute moron! Why would you do that? I told you not to do anything about it, that I would be okay. We could have called the police! But no, you went out here and almost got yourself killed!”

“We fucking hate the police, Virgil!” Logan replied, not matching his boyfriend’s volume but still raising his voice. “Besides, she could have struck at any time! I was unwilling to take any chances! Not when your safety is concerned!”

“I am not worth you risking your life for!”

“Like hell you aren’t!” Logan shot back. He took a deep breath, calming himself. “I’m sorry for yelling. But what’s done is done. She is dead by my hand. You are no longer in danger.”

Virgil’s eyes narrowed. “You are much less bothered by that than you should be.”

“About murder?” asked Logan coolly. “You mistake my impressive education for having prosperity in my youth. I grew up in the most dangerous and criminal neighborhood in the city. I have certainly fired a gun before, and I have witnessed murder more times than that.”

“Have you killed before?”

Logan shrugged. He didn’t answer. “Let’s go home.”

“You haven’t.”

“There is always a worthy situation. Protecting your life will forever be one of them.”

Virgil was silent, looking as though he didn’t know how to respond.

“Thank you,” he muttered, looking down to his shoes. “Can we go home?”

“Of course, my darling,” replied Logan, putting his arm around Virgil. Virgil blushed at the term of endearment, leaning into his boyfriend’s side. “Now we can stay in each other’s arms without any external interruptions.”

Virgil smiled. “Logan?”

“Yes, V?”

“The authorities have wanted her dead for a couple of years now for a variety of murders. I don’t figure they will investigate someone who finally took her down.”

Logan grinned. “Thank you, Virgil. I was worried about that.”

They walked back to Logan’s car.

“I can’t wait till we get home and I can cuddle the shit out of you,” Virgil said excitedly as he put on his seatbelt.

“Nor can I.”

~

Taglist (I forgot it for my last one, sorry!): @somehow-i-got-an-account @justanotherhumanstuff @neo-neo-neo @fander-fic-recs

~

I know I kind of strayed from the prompt (did I?) so I’m sorry for that. It’s not as angsty as you probably wanted it to be, Lila, but at least there was a happy ending (right?). I hope you liked it!

[straightouttaneptune]

Chosen 02

Pairing: Avengers x reader, Natasha Romanoff x reader

Warning: MIND B L O W I N G SCIENCE jk idk if it makes sense lmao. Fluff, fluff, fluff, sassy Dr Strange, implied smut but no smut.

Summary: The reader is a senior in a local high school, watching Avengers: Endgame in cinemas when something absolutely mind-blowing happens.

A/N: I present to you, Chosen pt. 2!! Take that, writer’s block!!! I’m obsessed with Nat, so obvi this one’s Nat x reader as well😂

Special s/o: @ihaeresortedtonothingness @blackreaders-assemble @katykat71114 @hpspngot @pyrowolfgirl1408

Part one

———————————————————————

The next few weeks were mind blowing. The people you thought were fictional for all those years, they all surrounded you now, and you’d slip a few happy tears when everyone else weren’t looking.

Is this what it feels like to finally belong? Steve placing a warm blanket on you during movie nights, Wanda making tomato soups just for you after a tiring day of genetic tests, late nights with Tony down in his lab as he teaches you all you need to know about mechanics, playful banters with Sam and Bucky, talking to pigeons with Clint, and so many ordinary things that you would give your kidney to keep.

"Okay, place your fingers on the trigger, both hands, eyes on the target," Natasha brushed up against your shoulders as she coached you through gun training, all part of Bruce's plan to figure out what kind of spectacular powers you possessed to be chosen by the universe. "And shoot." 

"This isn't just a coincidence?" You furrowed your brows at Bruce, still not seeing what was so surprising that they had to actually create a rip in the multi-verse and reality to bring you here. 

"It's not. We looked through every possible explanation, and we only found that you were meant to happen." Bruce looked over at Tony as if to ask for support, explaining everything as best as he could. 

"We found a prophecy, kid. Well, technically, Chancellor Neighsay found it- but, it means that you were meant to be found, and you were meant to be brought back." 

“Chancellor Neighsay? Did I miss something?”

“He means Stephen Strange. He looks like Chancellor Neighsay from my little pony.”

“Ah. There was a meme about that.”

Bang! The gun forced your hand back with force, making you stumble back a few steps. The loud echo rippled through your eardrums even through the protective ear muffs. The bullet hit right on target, though. You were able to tell from Natasha's proud grin. 

“Maybe your talent is with guns. And fighting, and tech, and science, and, well, everything.”

Natasha stared at you, just as curious as you were of yourself. You’d never learned how to shoot guns, or to fight, or anything about tech. But it all came so naturally. Maybe you did really belong here.

“I don’t know why I can do these things.” You sighed short-breathed, fueled by adrenaline and the excitement.

“Whatever it is, I can tell that you belong here.” Natasha’s smile was contagious, leaving the two of you to stare at each other with a huge grin on both of your faces.

The trance is only broken when Bruce, Stephen, Tony and Steve all runs into the room exhilarated and out of breath.

“Y/N! Y/N, we- we found out why you’re here.” Bruce hunched down to take a breath, while Nat sprinted toward Tony to look at the documents he was holding.

“Oh- okay. Why?” Your eyes twinkled, finally about to find out what made you, a seemingly ordinary girl to be so important. Weirdly, it felt like a scene from a movie. Perfectly rehearsed. But this was reality for you now.

“You passed every test with flying colors because you have the power to do anything. Absolutely anything. You- are the product of the power stone.” Stephen announced as if it was the most dramatic and astonishing thing in the world, but all the reaction it brought from you was a furrow of brows.

“What?”

Stephen sighed discontentedly, expecting you to understand like it was the easiest thing in the world.

“Don’t go all Sherlock on me, Bohemian Cucumber.” You replied slyly to his annoyed reaction, knowing very well that Stephen won’t understand a thing.

“Wha- okay. Anyways, with the Big Bang, came the infinity stones. The first keeper of the power stone, she wanted to harvest and protect its powers so she hid it in the void of the multi-verse. Waiting for the right living thing who would be chosen by the stone to possess its power.” Avengers started to gather in the room, Friday must have called for them.

“It chose you, Y/N. The day you were born. The power was too strong, and it killed your mother, father, and everything inside the hospital. That’s why you were found alone. Why you grew up in an orphanage.” Bruce explained, corners of his eyes dropping as he touched a sensitive subject for you as gently as possible.

“That doesn’t explain why I’ve been normal ever since though... I remember getting sucky grades for P.E.” You reminisce to the terrible elementary school years, cringing at the memories.

“Simple. It’s the nature of your original universe. It blocks your powers. When you got the powers is another story. Your original world contained it as best as it could. If uncontained, it could’ve caused a massive supernova on Earth.” As if reading your mind, Tony answered the lingering question in your mind. It all actually made sense. It was still very surreal, of course... but it made sense.

“And now you’re needed here.” Natasha’s hand enveloped around yours, the warmth radiating off of her palms.

“Now I’m needed here.” Your voice was lighter, feeling like a huge weight has been lifted off of your shoulders. You no longer felt trapped in your own life. Looking deep into Natasha’s eyes, you felt a sense of belonging.

Time skip to 2 years later

“Y/N!!! Sam stole my bedsheets again!” Bucky’s high-pitched yell sounded through the new and remodeled Avengers facility.

“Why would he steal your bedsheets??” You screamed back, placing the teacup onto its saucer.

“Because it’s a pain in the ass to put em back on the mattress!” Sam laughed maniacally, rushing past the living room with a flowing cape that was Bucky’s bedsheets dragging on the floor behind him.

“Let them do their thing, baby. Let’s go to our room.” Natasha placed her empty cup on the coffee table, grabbing your wrist and looking at you with mischievous eyes.

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” You giggled as she led you down the hall into the elevator, pushing you into the compartment as soon as the doors opened.

In the next few hours, Tony would regret (again) that he didn’t make the walls sound-proof.

Life truly is a surprise.

[a-shepherd-blog]

Hi all! I’m Rey and I’m here with my fave Andrea!

The TL;DR version is:  U.S. marshal who is just a little too trigger happy. Used to work for the NYPD as a detective and then climbed through the ranks. Comes from a mafia family but has gone straight - can’t deny her inherent nature either. Andy’s an old west gunslinger who’s been born into a different era. Above all she’s about putting bad guys behind bars and protecting good people; she’s a hunter.

I’m always looking for plots and connections! Also you can read her super extra bio below. Feel free to hit me up here or on discord at the_revati#8487. 

Give it a like and I’ll slide into your DMs!

ANDREA SHEPHERD ;

&&. word has it ( andrea shepherd ) was just spotted around the city. ( she ) is/are a ( thirty-two ) year old affiliated with ( nypd ). it’s been said that ( she ) resembles ( stella maeve ). ( she ) has been said to be ( tenacious & resourceful ) but also quite ( judgmental & self-destructive ). ( she ) is currently serving as ( a u.s. marshal ). 

(bio below)

tw: death, murder, self- mutilation  

BACKSTORY

Her father was a Voloshyn and that meant he was a part of the Ukrainian mafia that existed in a certain corner of the world. His family? They didn’t live in this corner. Though born in Odessa, Ukraine, Andrea was raised by her mother Alice Shepherd in New York. Alice had grown up in the Hudson Valley and she’d spent most of her life in New York working as an art curator. When motherhood struck, she decided that keeping her children far, far, far away from Odessa was the best choice for them. Mikhail was her first born, but her daughter Andrea was born two minutes later. When they were older, Alice would tell them they came into this world holding hands.

New York was a decent enough place to grow up. Like any city, it had its dark underbelly. Alice did her best to keep both Mikhail and Andrea away from it, but the two grew up a part of the city as much as anyone else. It’s where Andrea picked her first fight, had her first kiss, got drunk for the first time. And Mikhail? He was her best friend.

For the most part, Andrea and Mikhail didn’t see their father. The holidays were the exception and dinners were always silent when Alexi Voloshyn sat at the head of the table.  There was a shock in this pattern when the twins turned 11. Summer break rolled around and, all of a sudden, Mikhail was whisked off with Alexi to spend the summer in Odessa. Ever summer after that was the same. Mikhail would leave in the dead of night and Andrea would get left behind. It became increasingly obvious before long that Alexi was grooming Mikhail to step into his shoes. The young girl grew increasingly bitter about this tradition with the passing of each halcyon season. Mikhail would return just in time for school to start with nothing but a “It was fine” as a reply to Andrea’s “Well? How was it?”  

It’s not that Andrea wanted her own hand in the criminal underworld of Europe - she was too young to understand that - she just wanted to be taken as seriously as her brother. She began to act out as a cry for attention - but all attempts went ignored. A stray comment from Alexi about marrying her off one Christmas dinner set off the final fuse. Andrea was 15 and at peak teenage rebellion. Without blinking, she grabbed the carving knife from the ham in front of her, and cut off her own ring finger. She tried not to cry when she did it and felt immensely betrayed by the three tears that managed to leak out during the act. The entire thing was very much a ‘fuck you’ to the path that had been laid out for her. It was very much supposed to be a ‘fuck you’ to her father. He wanted her to get married? Fuck that. Ring finger? Gone. Now she could never get married.

Instead of reacting with anger or fury, her father simply looked at this act of defiance and laughed. In her 15 years it was probably the first time Andrea heard such a sound. It was a warm, accepting laugh. As the family doctor stitched and patched her up, Alexi finally conceded that Andrea could join them in Odessa next summer. The young woman learned that acts of self-destruction as loyalty held a certain sort of esteem in her father’s eyes.

Sure enough, Andrea went to the Port of Odessa the next summer. It’s where she learned how to fire a gun, worked as a hired hand on a ship, saw her first dead body. She’d been brought along but it was Mikhail that Alexi continuously sent into the fray. It was Mikhail that went on the ride alongs and once again it was Andrea that was left behind. You’d think a father would be more precious with the life of his son but, again, acts of self-destruction as loyalty held a certain sort of esteem in Alexi’s eyes. One cold night, a deal went south and shots were fired. Andrea heard about it from one of her father’s friends the next morning. She heard that while Mikhail’s body had been found, Alexi’s was conveniently missing. Whispers floated that her father had managed to flee the scene. Any sadness Andrea had for her brother was swept away with the resounding notion that her father was a fucking coward.

Andrea returned home to Alice alone. That was Andrea’s tipping point. At her mother’s insistence she applied to colleges in New York and wound up settling on pursuing a political science degree at Columbia. There was an intense irony with the fact that Andrea was quickly falling into a path carved out for law enforcement, but the second she noticed it, she leaned into it. It was another ‘fuck you’ to the memory of her father. More than that, she had a knack for it in a way that she a knack for nothing else.

Andrea joined the NYPD fresh out of college when she returned home and quickly climbed the ladder to the rank of deputy sheriff. In the police department, she finally found the family she’d been searching for.

She continued on up, leaving for the state department and then eventually the federal sector. She spent some time as a firearms instructor in Glynco, Georgia at the U.S. Marshal’s training center before she became a full-blown Marshal herself.

During her time with the Marshal’s service, Andrea was assigned to several different field offices across the U.S. She gained a reputation for being trigger happy and was thus stationed in increasingly remote stations. (It seemed she was still, in many ways, her father’s daughter.) Alice passed during Andrea’s time in the Fairbanks office and due to poor weather conditions it was a week before Andrea got the news. Alice had left Andrea the house in New York. 

Her life continued in other ways. During the day she would do her job, and at the night she would come back to the husband she’d met during her time on the NYPD. For a while, life was right. When Andrea caught whiff that Alexi Voloshyn was making the journey from the Port of Odessa to the Port of New Orleans, Andrea caught the first flight she could to Louisiana.

CUT TO: two weeks later. Andrea. Run out of New Orleans by the Ukrainian mob for publicly killing Alexi Voloshyn.

Andrea has been lying relatively low in in New York ever since the incident a year ago at the insistence of her U.S. Marshal Chief. Criminals infest the city and Andrea has done her best to stay above it. Andrea has a rigid view of most things. While others see the world in shades of grey, she sees it in shades of black and white. The thing about killing her father though, was that all the debts that Alexi had (the coward he was) were suddenly transferred to his only living family member upon his passing. 

Now, Andrea lives alone in Prospect Park with the occasional roommate that comes and goes. She keeps most of the estate boarded up and only really uses the parts she needs. She still conducts her business from the police department.  She’s been trying handle her father’s debts. Above all else - hunting is in her bones. She plans on cleaning up this city.

PERSONALITY / OTHER

grew up in New York, went to college here, but then was stationed all across the country - has been back permanently for about a year or so

an old-west gunslinger born into a different era

trigger happy

deep seeded anger towards the criminal underworld of this city. All about putting bad people behind bars and protecting good people.

holds a mother-fucking grudge like no other.

methodology: shoot it before it shoots me.

honestly, “back in the day” she’d be pretty close becoming an outlaw herself. She walks a dangerous line but shhhh we don’t talk about that

is no-nonsense

If you missed it in her bio, she’s missing her ring finger. She cut it off herself cause she didn’t want to get married. Ever. She always wears a glove on her left hand.

forgets to eat. Survives on a diet of scotch and gummy bears.

has two facial expressions: scowling or smiling slyly

is angry. Always. Keeps it bottled up. Always.

crime never sleeps and neither does she.

likes crossword puzzles

plays the saxophone and the piano. A fan of jazz music.  

“I think she had fun, once” - the gas-station lady

also has a goldfish that she keeps forgetting to feed it’s a wonder it’s still alive.

“Call me Andy.”

Is all about the vigilante life, actually.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

I’m down to get creative with any of these! Also, I love angst???

Debts! - Did Alexi owe your gang member a debt? Congrats! Andy now owes YOU. Have fun with that. 

Housemate - There is too much room in her parents estate in Prospect Park for her live there alone. Andy’s put up a “for rent” sign with the intention of renting out one of the rooms to another citizen. (CLOSED - Marcelo Rodriguez )  

Former friends, exes, frenemies - Maybe she lost touch with them, maybe she didn’t. If your character grew up in New York, there’s the chance they knew each other. Maybe they had sleepovers, maybe they were childhood enemies, maybe they dated. Bonus points if they lead lifestyles she disapproves of now! (open)

Hate-sex - they hate it but they gotta get it on. (open)

Drinking buddies - dear god, Andy consumes so much whiskey. (open)

Siblings - Andy and Mikhail were Alice and Alexi’s oldest, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have had other younger siblings. Also open to having Alexi have had other affairs. (open)

The Hunted - they’ve crossed paths in the past and she’s got a vendetta against them (open)

Ex-husband - He joined the criminal underworld. She left him. Simple as that. (open) *** would give my kidney for this one

Co-worker - Other police department friends. (open)

And literally anything else!

[susandsnell]

whaaat Hadestown sounds awesome!!! i’ll definitely check both those out but it sounds like Hadestown is like, the style of my dreams. also anything that starts as a folk opera is awesome bc i love the concept of a folk opera. follow up: i’ve seen some things about Be More Chill and somehow missed its jump to Broadway? what’s it about?

Sorry I took a day to get back to you, musical anon, but I just had to write my penultimate final first thing this morning! Hadestown is the style of everyone’s dreams, and I really hope you like it when you do check it out. It’s incredibly unique. 

As to your second query, permit me to have some obnoxious gif usage because life is short and I am now permanently on my bullshit. And, well. You just asked me, Coco, about Be More Chill.

WELCOME TO HELL. YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE NOW. 

(Festive, right?) 

So! 

Be More Chill is a very loose adaptation of a (vastly different and quite offensive) 2004 novel by the same name. It did the work of my dreams, which is combine my two favourite genres, science fiction and musical theatre, in a big way, while also stealth being a narrative about mental health, recovery, friendship, love, and sexy computers.  Also, the songs are absolute bops and the music style is contemporary but still unmistakably Broadway. It’s also openly inspired by Little Shop of Horrors (while also being very much in the vein of other wacky, culty musicals like Reefer Madness, a bit of Rocky Horror thrown in, etc), which is a major plus. 

It’s a darkly hilarious, sci-fi-horror-teen drama-romance-musical, in short. 

In long??? A little gist: 

So, our leading man, Jeremy Heere, is a (canonically Jewish! Canonically Jewish! CANONICALLY JEWISH!!!) typical high school geeky outcast who struggles with severe anxiety, self hatred, and a vast panoply of other issues. He’s badly bullied, only has one friend, Michael Mell, who is quite literally the savior of the universe, and crushes on the local theatre kid (and a literal queen), Christine Canigula. In an effort to impress her, he takes the advice of the local bully, Rich, and buys a pill from the back of a Payless shoe store called a SQUIP (short for Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor), which, if ingested and activated by Mountain Dew (just go with it I promise it’s worth it), installs a computer chip in his brain that can manifest the illusion only he can see of a personification that is an intensely attractive person (has been cast as multiple genders depending on the production!!!) who will instruct him on what the right thing to do or say is so that he can overcome his perceived social and personal failings, and improve himself, and maybe get the girl. 

Of course, this thing goes evil, and absolute epic mayhem ensues. 

Where do I even start with what I love about this musical? 

The characters are incredibly true to life; literally nobody is who they seem to be in terms of typical high school, sci fi, or even theatre tropes. which is part of the ultimate message (and I love that!!!) Jeremy’s narrative is very much a subversion of the typical entitled-nerd-boy-goes-wild-trying-to-get-the-girl, because his actions and mistakes are steeped very much in long lasting mental health struggles (he literally mentions having to go to the nurse constantly due to his anxiety attacks), as well as a heartrendingly realistic and depressing home life, and the show is very clear about this, pulling no punches. He’s flawed, he’s sweet, he’s funny, he’s tragic, he’s redemptive, he’s just…wonderful. 

Michael, who in any other show would be ‘the goofy best friend’ character and that’s it gets an incredible arc showing his brilliance, and his own inner demons, including the big showstopper Michael In The Bathroom, which is famous not only for being an incredible song, but because it goes there; it depicts the entirety of a severe panic attack in gut-wrenching detail. All set to awesome music, of course. His depth is revealed in that the otherwise cheerful, happy-go-lucky best friend character whose life seems to revolve around the protagonist’s brought to the logical conclusion of this archetype; extreme codependency and other mental health struggles. This is by no means all that he is – I’d explain why, and what an incredible, positive, heroic character he is, but I won’t dare spoil where his arc ends up going. 

Christine Canigula, our leading lady, is a badass feminist and so much more than a perky theatre kid; she’s shown to struggle much in the same ways Jeremy and Michael do, she’s politically involved and dedicated, while still being desperately uncertain about what to do with her life, her entire character is dedicated to subverting expectations (all her big numbers end with a subverted rhyme to prove this!!), she’s developed so much more than other love interest characters, and is in so many ways so much more than a love interest. She’s fiercely intelligent, but tempted to take the easy route to popularity in different ways than Jeremy, while being more inclined to being true to herself, and her autonomy drives the plot. She’s also canonically a woc who has ADHD and she’s a gun control advocate. Like??? When will your faves ever?  Her romance is believable and wonderful and driven by what she wants and her arc, while subtle, is integral to the plot. 

I could do a paragraph for each character (and if you’re on my blog, I’ll probably get around to writing meta for each of them), but the popular kids, the bullies, even the apparently useless parent character…none of them are what they seem. As for the SQUIP, I don’t dare reveal the awesomeness of that particular villain, except to say that it’s a metaphor for…a number of things, while incredibly enthralling, and The Pitiful Children, the big villain song, is honestly up there with any of your Disney villains for a truly epic sci-fi experience. It’s a completely irredeemable villain whose appeal lies in its irredeemability, especially fascinating because it’s a machine, and hence gains no sadistic pleasure from it’s evildoing; it merely seeks results, which is just chilling. 

The cast is incredibly diverse, and there is a TON of LGBT+ representation, including Michael having lesbian mothers, a completely non-stereotyped bisexual male character who ACTUALLY CALLS HIMSELF BISEXUAL OUT LOUD, and who is arguably the most tragic character in the show, but that tragedy is separate almost entirely from his orientation, and more. 

While being lighthearted sci-fi fare, it deals pretty straightforwardly with a number of heavy topics, such as mental illness, suicidal ideation, extreme loneliness, self-hatred, isolation,  trauma, abuse, sexual orientation, dysfunctional families, dysfunctional friendships, existential crises, near-death experiences, brainwashing, addiction, bullying, torture (of the sci-fi variety but still pretty damn hard to watch), and even (albeit briefly, but it still bears mention) male sexual assault, and handles all of them exceptionally well, never overdoing it on any of them (they’re interwoven and sometimes entirely subtextual to the plot) but also being honest enough about the fact that some of our darkest moments include incredibly dark comedy, all while never making light of these serious issues. That being said, consider this the trigger warning paragraph if any of that’s a limit for you! They’re so wonderfully balanced by a narrative of healing and forgiveness and loyalty and love that it makes the story all the stronger; seeing everyone facing these awful things, and being able to overcome them together. 

It’s also the type of sci-fi that I love; the kind that, like Back to the Future, Weird Science, and Stranger Things embraces a retro aesthetic, and is a smaller, singular fantastical/sci-fi element contained in a setting that is otherwise very recognizable to our world; the kind of adventures you feel like you could have between your own classes. The sci-fi effects and costumes are incredible, especially in Act 2. 

AND, and and and, It’s an underdog story within an underdog story; it opened in a regional theatre in Jersey for a limited run in 2015 and closed very quickly, and everyone assumed it would never be picked up again, but in Winter 2017, it blew up by sheer word of mouth due to a combination of the original cast album being on Spotify and the popularity of certain amateur productions since it got licenced; eventually, it got a 2017 regional theatre revival at Exit 82, and that sparked an online fandom so strong that the show got a second chance with an off-Broadway run that happened this past summer, which in turn got so successful that the show is transferring to Broadway. All the way from a seemingly failed regional limited run, with most of the original cast (who are darlings, as are the creators, incredibly empathetic people bringing this wonderful, weird, warm story to the forefront). And who doesn’t love the meta of the show itself being an underdog when the cast is entirely of underdogs?

Just. Please. Do yourself a favour and check it out. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cheer.  I heard about it only peripherally since around mid-2017 ish and then only really got into it this past May/June, and….gosh. My life’s gotten so much better since. I’ve met dear friends through the fandom, dragged other dear friends into this glorious pit, and the show, as a narrative of healing, is helping to heal me, too. 

Possibly a new all-time favourite. 

[dazzlingfantasiesblogs]

Hurricane P37

Happy x REader

Warnings/Triggers: 18+ only. If under 18, kindely un-follow me please! Smut.. sort of. Cheating.

Notes: ... I don’t even know..

Tags: @moodygrip @trippinjenni @jenny885 @mywhitehatisbigger

“Happy I gotta go.. Gotta check on my girls.” “Five more minutes… who knows if I will ever feel my arms wrapped around you again..” He put his head in your neck. He ignored the hickie Lorenzo left on your neck, knowing he didn’t want to ruin the moment. He pressed a kiss to your neck, sending a jolt threw your body. He felt you freeze and then shiver slightly in his arms. Internally he groaned remembering how responsive your body was to his. He pressed one more near the hickie causing you to slightly moan out. You covered your mouth shooting up. “I wish you happiness..” was all you said as you sprinted into the club to look for Sammy and Trina.

Happy watched you leave and felt his heart crack in two. He could tell that you still loved him, by the way you held onto him and the moan you gave him. Was this goodbye? Where you really done with him all together? He slowly got up. His body felt lighter but heavy at the same time. How was that possible? He got everything off his chest and you left, almost saying goodbye forever.

You felt your phone go off at your side in your deep jeans pocket.

Lorenzo: “So… I did something bad.”

You: “What?”

Lorenzo: “Can I call you, are you busy?”

You: “At the club house with Kozik and the girls. Let me step out. Call me in five minutes.”

Walking back out the club, you snuck into TM. Getting on video chat with Lorenzo he looked like shit. He had slight bags under his eyes. You where certain it was because of lack of sleep and the office pushing him to his limits since he had been gone. He had not asked for any help, probably leaving it for the big guys you rationalized. He sighed a bit deep and you knew something was wrong. He only did that sigh when something was terribly, terribly wrong. “I ugh… I… slept with that new girl… last night… I am sorry.. I know we said..” you held your hand out. 

Your body wanted to give out. Knowing you two where not a thing, you made a promise to yourself you would not show him how heart broken you where. Not him or any man after Happy. “All good we where not together. Talk to you later.” “Y/N.. WAIT!” you hung up the phone blocking his number immediately. Was it childish, yes. Did you feel like a million trains hit you? Yes. Tears flowed down your cheeks and you quickly wiped them. Was this how it was going to be with the men you loved? Stabbing you in the back? Everyone except Kozik, Trina and Sammy. You knew they always watched over you.

Walking back into the club you went straight to the bar. “Seven shots.” The bartender looked at you shocked. He nodded lining seven shots up and poured the tequila you ordered. Happy seen you across the room. He counted the shots and looked at them confused and hurt. He pushed Koziks shoulder slightly to point to him what you where doing. “Shit.. somethings..” before he could finish, you slammed all seven of them down. Shaking your head slightly at the burn. You walked a bit over to the pool table where Sammy and Trina where chilling with the Charming SOA boys and Lily. They always knew how to fit in so perfectly with any crowd anywhere. You envied them for that. “Hands off..” Sammy yelled to a patch you had not seen before. She kept swatting his hands away from her hips. You stormed over there, being protective as usual. “Hands off. She’s no croweater!” You growled to the man. He looked at you and rolled his eyes. Sammy turned around standing next to you. “Did you just roll your eyes at my best friend?” you both hit him in the face with a fist, causing him to fall flat on his back. “HOLY SHIT!” Tig yelled stunned standing up, spilling his beer slightly. “Asshole..” you hiccupped. Sammy felt her phone ding as she checked it.

Kozik: “Somethings wrong.. she just took like seven shots in a row.”

Sammy looked at you slightly concerned. “What happened? You seem off.. did Happy?” “No… Happy was fine…” you held you hand up. “He is always so fine..” you smirked and laughed.

Sammy looked down at her phone again to see a group text with Trina And Lorenzo.

Lorenzo: “Y/N wont answer my calls.. I slept with another girl.. She said she was fine.. tell her to call me please!”

Sammys face shot up looking at you. You looked at her sad and confused. She grabbed you, Trina coming behind you and hugging you both. The guy stood up behind Sammy, all of you not noticing. “Stupid bitches!” The guy yelled. He went to throw a punch and it was caught. “Touch any of these girls..” Happy took a gun out of his holster “I will add you to my smiley collection..” He shoved the mans hand back, he simply snarled and walked away. You look to Happy nodding to him slightly. “Thanks..” you whispered. He nodded walking away in the opposite direction.

You sat at the picnic table feeling the effects of the alcohol. You talked with Sammy and Trina for an hour, trying your best to convince them you where fine. Of course they didn’t buy into it. You told them to enjoy the Charming boys and that you all could relax and binge watch shows on Netflix tomorrow after you cured this hangover you where certain to have. Staring at the stars it had to be about 3AM. Your eyes started to flutter close as you breathed in the cool air. You where unsure where Kozy was, expecting him to most likely being with his ‘uncle’ Tig as Tig called himself. You laughed drunkly thinking about it. Your heart felt like a fucking tug of war game and right now you just couldn’t deal with much.

Kozik looked down at his phone seeing thirty-two missed calls. He checked who they where from and seen it was from Lorenzo. He quickly walked out of the club and didn’t see you laying on the picnic table. “Hey bro you called like over thirty times what’s up..?” “Did you see my messages??” “No..” Kozik said confused. “Where is Y/N?” “Unsure.. she punched a guy in the face for hitting on Sammy.. well they both double teamed him.” “I.. I slept with another girl.. She acted like it was fine but I seen the disapp..” Koziks face went from worry to furious in .03 seconds. “What the fuck is wrong with you?! You hurt her too?! I am fucking done! No one is allowed to go around her!! Besides Sammy and Trina. Bottom fucking LINE! Stay in NEW YORK till this shit blows over!” “Kozik..” Lorenzo tried to get a word in. “No! Even if you where not together.. come on man.. you treated her so well.. Fuck this.. man..” Kozik hung up the phone punching the wall. “Brother it is fine..” you spoke not even looking back at him. He walked over to you quickly surprised to see you there.. He could tell you where wasted by your glossed over eyes. “Sis..” “Just numbing the pain a bit… I only trust you and the girls.. Hell… after that conversation with Happy I think I am square with him.. I think I am going back to Tacoma..” you mumbled. “Sis.. don’t leave me again..” Kozik sat on the bench of the table. “I know..” you sighed a bit. He grabbed your hand and kissed the top of it. “I am sorry sis..” “I think it hurts more because we where close friends..” you spoke, tears falling down your cheeks. “I know..” He rubbed the top of your hand, holding it tightly. “How about you and Kozy come with the club to Montana for a few days on the run. I know Jax wouldn’t mind it. We are leaving Friday. Girls leave in a few days. You could be of help to the Montana charter I am sure.” You looked at him. “Ok.” Was all you could say. You closed your eyes slightly. “Go back to the club bro, I am fine. Kinda enjoying this numb feeling.” He kissed your head and sighed. You frowned when he left, feeling bad for him always being in the middle of everything.

You woke up feeling a banging in your head. You look to see a clock that said 7AM. Opening your eyes fully you looked around. It was Happys dorm room. Sitting up, you fell back down on the bed, dizziness happening. The door opened and you slowly tried to sit up. Happy walked in with two iced coffees and something in a bag. “How you feeling champ..?” He mumbled. “Like I got hit by a fucking plane..” he chuckled a bit grabbing the pills and water from the night stand. “Take and drink.” Nodding you did as he told. He handed you the coffee and put the straw in it for you. “Thanks..” you sipped the coffee and sighed. “The moment I said it was for you Craig gave me everything on the house.” You chuckled a bit. “He is a nice guy. Very much a family guy. Likes close nit stuff like communites..” Happy nodded taking out a bagel and cream cheese handing it to you. “Blueberry bagel with light cream cheese.” He spoke. “You remembered…” “How could I forget.. we drank a lot in Tacoma..” He laughed a bit.

Waking up it felt like someone took a fireplace poker and stuck it through your skull. Hangovers where rare, but the Tacoma guys had a huge deal go through and it was balls to the walls. Looking around the room your vision was blurry. “Ugh.. fuck…” you held your head. Happy walked into the room chuckling at the sight of your head in hands. “My poor babe. You may have drank Kozik and I under the table.. but you’re the one feeling it.” He handed you the iced coffee, and your famous blueberry bagel with light cream cheese. He always got those for you since your first hangover with him. You always said for some reason it made you feel 100% better after that. Taking a bite of the magic bagel you almost felt like jumping for joy. Logically it was science not magic, but no fucks where given with this wonderful hangover curing food. “MMM MMM MMMMM!!!” you almost yelled. Snorting he sat next to you kissing your temple. “Glad its good beautiful.” He grabbed your coffee from you, holding it so you could devour your meal. “Those bagels are good as hell. Ate mine on the way home.” You seen him eyeing your bagel. Holding it to his mouth, he took a bite of yours. “Thanks babe.. still hungry.” He smiled, speaking with bagel in his mouth. Wiping the extra cream cheese off of his bottom lip you ate it. “Mmm” you smiled stretching out. Grabbing the coffee you drank it quickly and slowly stood up. “Bath and movies?” nodding to Happy you wrapped your arms around his neck. “My breath probably smells.” Happy nodded slightly. Laughing you turned to go brush your teeth. He slapped your ass following you to the bathroom. Being goofy and honest worked for you two in the past.

“Thanks… seriously.” “I couldn’t let you sleep on the picnic table with a bunch of drunk men around. Bunch of animals. There my brothers.. but still.. You may be Lorenzos.. but..” “No. I am no ones.” You demanded. He narrowed his eyes slightly. “Sorry..” mumbling you drank the rest of the coffee. “Your toothbrush and toothpaste are still here, as well as your shower stuff. “Do I smell?” “No, usually you always shower after a night of partying and drunkenness.” You nodded walking to his bathroom.

Stepping out from the bathroom the steam followed you out. Happy was laid up in his bed watching TV. “Sammy and Trina are still knocked out in Chibs and Jaxs room. Kozy is awake and went to go chill with Tig again. He slept in here last night.” “Thanks for keeping an eye on him. Kinda feel like a bad mom..” “No please.. He was having fun with Tig.” You glared at the word fun. Knowing Tig could be a little on the crazy side. “Tig bought him a few chew toys.” You nodded. Happys eyes trailed your body in the towel. “Can.. I ugh.. borrow something to wear?.. Shirt smells like liquor..” he nodded, walking over to the dresser you stood close to. He, without thinking placed his hand on the small of your back as he searched through the dresser drawer. The feeling of his heavy hand on your back felt way too good for you liking. He went through his shirts and found one. “Here.” IT was his black Reaper shirt. On the back saying TACOMA in huge letters.” “Reminds me of home..” you smiled at him. He agreed. Opening his other drawer he grabbed black basketball shorts. “Here.” You grabbed them both and laid them on the bed. Slipping off your towel, you ignored the fact Happy was even there. “No.. fair…” He stared at your glorious body, almost drooling.  You looked at him, his eyes slightly dilated. It was not surprising he was like this, he was primal when it came to you. You knew this too well. Both of you would do it in public places where you could not be seen if he and you wanted too in the past. You wanted to pick up that shirt and put it on but you couldn’t.. something felt so wonderful to have his dark eyes ravaging your body. “Y/n.. if you don’t put that shirt on now.. I am not sure…” you walked up to him, begging. Pleading with your eyes to make the first move. Standing up he looked down at your perfect body in his eyes. He knew why, he knew you didn’t want to feel the guilt. “Is it only because he slept with that girl..?” Happy choked out the question. “No.. not at all..” you where sure Kozik had told him out of anger, not even telling him on purpose. Happy grabbed your hands and put them around his neck. He grabbed your thick waist, lifting you in his arms. His hands slid to your ass. He pressed a kiss to your lips and kissed you deeply, passionately. He was so sure that he was never going to touch you again. He was so thankful to feel you. He knew not to get his hopes up that you two would become a thing. Yet touching your was next to the best thing in the world, besides having you.. He laid you down and ripped his shirt off. His hands slid down your sides, as if trying to mesmerize everything about your body. Happy licked to your neck, biting it hard. Right in your favorite area. Arching your back, you ground into his hard-on. Feeling his teeth sink in your skin, caused you to moan out. “Happy.. Church Lad.” Happy stopped hearing Chibs banging on the door. “Cant it wait?” “Jackie boy said he just needs ta dell us sumthin..” Happy groaned “Be there in five…” “A’right..” you seen the shadow of his boots leave. Happy pressed his forehead to yours. “I want to so bad.. to ignore them..” you laughed a bit shaking your head confused your own actions. “Maybe it is a sign.. who know..” “Shut up.. let me take you out on a date Y/N. Diner on 44th. 7PM.” He spoke, standing up sliding on his shirt and kutte. He smiled at you as he walked out the door. Leaving he had no clue the emotional bliss he left you in and physical frustration.

Driving back to the house the girls had a million questions for you as you did them. All of you agreed to binge Netflix and eat junk food till 7PM that night. “Lorenzo wont stop calling me..” Sammy spoke up. “Or me..” Trina said calmly. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to relax in pajamas and drink some wine with my girls and Kozy.” “Alright.. but you better tell us how you got that hickie because girl.. I gotta say.. Happy was after you girl!!” Sammy and Trina both said. You rolled your eyes laughing with your best friends. Kozys head asleep on Trinas lap as you drove home.

[directionlessbuthappy]

Dawn of the Draugr: p1

In a pre-apocalyptic world, there is Elyse, a 21 year old woman who was going to community college in her small town in Northern California, working on biology and medicine courses. Doing what young adults are expected to do at her age. But her future spirals into uncertainty with a pandemic spreading across humanity. An illness which infects and shuts down the body, reanimating the brain and turning the person into something only seen in repetitive shitty movies and your nightmares. Being on her own, Elyse would have to lose her morality or sanity to survive. Maybe both. However, she may be able to keep them now that she’s found Alex Lothbrok and his brothers. Or, she may lose it even faster…

Modern AU: Alex H. Anderson x Reader 

Warnings: graphic violence, language, blood, death

Note: I kept the last name Lothbrok for the brothers to distinguish characters vs reality. I doubt they are anything like the characters (based on them for visual purposes) I’m writing, so I prefer to add an element of unrealism here to reiterate this as fiction. Cheers xo

Tagged: @missrobyn81

It wasn't a normal day.

Everyone likes to think when the world ends, it'll start out totally normal, and you'll have no idea what's happening or whats coming. You won't see it until its too late. People sell it that way for drama, for TV shows and the movies, but its not real. The truth is, you do see it. The warning signs are everywhere, but without someone telling you to run, you aren't sure if you should. People are like sheep; they don't know what to do without instruction. When the epidemic spread from South America and Asia, nobody here was worried. We had central America in our path, and a whole ocean separating us from Japan. It seemed like the black plague at first; killed massive amounts of people over the last two years. But since there were minimal cases of it here in the US, nobody was worried. 

For a while.

My family was split; my mom and I were alone most of my life. She married a man who already had two kids. I was an adult at that point, indifferent to the pairing but still living at home. Going to community college. Everything seemed normal despite everything we were seeing on the internet and on TV. Coverage of the epidemic was getting less and less clear as more people were panicking and packing up their things. Our whole neighborhood moved out in a week. Northern California felt safe enough, we hadn't had any sightings/cases of epidemic here. There was some in Texas, and Arizona...

One day after a phone call, my mom told me she was going with her husband to go get his kids. It was their week to visit us, and their mom wasn't comfortable driving on the roads with how crazy it was getting out there in Washington state, so my mom and her husband planned to go get them. I was in denial, in a way...not really considering how bad it was yet. it felt eerie, being home alone after that. Our little three bedroom, one story house on Sweedland Way felt like a mansion while I waited for my mom to come home. I'd stopped going to school; we'd got an email that class was out due to teacher shortages. Out, indefinitely. I remember when I got my first taste that it was all real, not some widespread panic about the cold.

I was sitting in the living room, checking through a few websites that hadn't posted in over a week. I was studying animal medicine in college (when I was still going) so I understood a lot of technical jargon when reading on the epidemic. All the articles and different notes on the contagion were unfinished; even Wikipedia was useless in explaining what it was. Most researchers first found it in South America, comparing the disease to a virus hiding behind the symptoms of bacterial infection...making it less concerning in its early stages. Researchers didn't catch on until about 6 months in, when more hospital staff were infected verses healthy. Infection was mostly caused by saliva, whether its ingested, gets in your eyes, or most commonly seen in the reports I found...you get bit. Like a rabies virus on cocaine, the disease ravages your system and fries pretty much everything...except your spinal cord and your motor function. The nervous system was preserved by the disease and regenerated itself; the body would be able to function, move, and respond to things like noise. But otherwise...

I didn't like to entertain the idea the dead could come back to life. That wasn't true, it was science fiction bullshit. Granted, I loved cheesy movies where the dead would rise, but that was all they were. Movies. If anything, these sick people were just very sick...maybe it was a new type of cancer, that was why it scared people so much.

I was wrong.

...

"See the sight lined up to the chest?"

"Yeah..."

"Shoot it."

"But I need to hit the head."

"I know Elyse. Take the shot."

I swallowed and pulled the trigger. The gun popped against my chest like a light bump, and the bullet went straight through the target's "neck." I was surprised.

"It aims high!"

"Bingo," Alex replied. "Its the only red sight we have. Jordan can't get the tilt quite right but it still works eh? Now aim at the neck."

I do so, trusting his word now more than before. I squeezed and the gun pops; the bullet hole in my target's head was clear. With a giddy squeal, I aimed to take another shot, but missed. Alex grinned from behind me, I knew this because when I turned he was already doing it. 

"Nice shot."

"Shut up," I replied, faintly hurt. He chuckled and outstretched his arm for the gun. I handed it over, safety on.

"Wanna try with the handguns?"

"Actually..." I whined. Holding my arm up to show off the bruise blooming on my tricep, Alex frowned slightly. "Can we take a break?"

"Sure punkin," he shrugged. I still took the time to roll my eyes at him before sitting down on a hay bail. Our little training field wasn't too far away from the house; Jordan and Marco could still see us from the second floor's porch. We were safe, mostly. The treeline that surrounded the house on the hill made me the most nervous, especially at night. Jordan called them "fight nights" for fun, but he was good at making others feel better. I could see right through it. Just like I could see them coming through the treeline every other night.

Sometimes it was just one, sometimes a pack of them. They traveled in groups pretty often. They're always so listless, walking like they were drunk and heavy and yet they weren't slow in their pace. They'd drag their feet, and although they were responsive to sound, it didn't seem like they understood anything. From the material I've read and studied in the last couple months the disease is as unpredictable as its victims. Sometimes you'd die in a week...sometimes it only took 24 hours. But if you got bit at all, you were fucked no matter how long it takes to die.

"Jordan's still not worried about the ammo?"

Alex shrugged, taking a mag and shoving it into the cartridge of his 47. "We have enough to get us through a month of assaults. You and Marco are the only ones worried."

"We have enough for a month of assaults with automatics, Alex. Our handguns are limited. They're attracted to noise, and we can't haul ass with ten pound metal death machines on our shoulders!"

"We'll be fine. If you're really that worried, go down the hunt shop on West 10th. They'll have something," he replied coily. I scowled at him.

"That's not funny."

"Was I laughing?"

"Alex!" I snarled. He had the sense to look a little upset, sighing once he realized he'd actually upset me.

"I'm kidding Lees," he muttered. "I'll go with you tomorrow. Would that make you happy?"

"Are you being sarcastic again?" I replied warily, buttoning my flannel up and down with the same button. Alex took a few shots, turning the head of one of our dummies into swiss cheese. He put so many holes in it the head actually fell off. It made us both chuckle.

"Do you want me to go on my own?"

"No!" I squeaked instantly. Alex grinned and turned his back to me, lining up the sight of his automatic again. The kid was growing on me...

[coolbaby92]

 having a classic meltdown for the first time in like 9 months and I figured it would be helpful to make some lists

current stressors:

finishing this last bit of school so that I can be done with school forever (maybe) and no longer have to take so many fucking tests to show I’m ready to do a thing and instead do a thing

trying to find a place to do that thing at after graduation

slowly preparing to move out of here by October, because I’m living in my grandmother’s condo while she is at a care home and she’s not coming back so it’s being sold to continue paying for her care

also, yeah, my grandma is pretty much dying...she’s not on her death bed by any means, but she is completely wheelchair bound which is causing blood clots to form in her legs. she’s also in a lot of pain, but they can’t do the proper surgery on her to relieve the pain because she is on blood thinners AND she is fucking 91 years old dude it’s so dangerous to put her under...she is still very lucid though, and in good spirits at the place she’s at

8 months of daily classes all about death and I still find myself unable to cope with the mortality of those around me/close to me. I’m told this is normal and that the only thing that matters is that you can detach and get the work done, but I also feel like an inadequate funeral service practitioner because of it

speaking of detachment and learning how to do it, I’ve experienced many firsts not only in the last 8 months but in the past month...things have gotten bloodier and messier and I’ve handled it well but I think seeing things like the bodies of multiple men who shot themselves in the temple is something that is going to weigh on my subconscious for a while

more in firsts, I worked on my first autopsied body, first person under like 60, and first SIDS baby, all at the same time, because yeah, it was an autopsied baby. I was hoping that I would get to work my way down in age and get used to seeing more young people before I would have to embalm a baby but, you know, death has its own plans and you just have to go with it...or at least try to...but anyway, yeah, it’s another case that is probably contributing to some underlying PTSD I think I will now always have (another thing that is very common in this line of work, but makes you feel like a total pussy regardless) 

switching gears, there’s a straightup Nazi in my classes, and I’m filled with hatred toward her whenever she is within like 50 feet of me, and feeling so much anger and negativity toward someone is more poisonous to you than it is to them...it’s why you should try not to be so negative about others, but in this case I feel it is at least warranted, even if it is chipping away at my sanity trying to wrap my head around why this bitch dares to be alive. she is protected by the school’s discrimination rules or whatever so whenever I’ve tried to report her or do anything about this situation, I’m met with this opinion of people in charge that I’m the one being irrational for being outraged by this, which is just super gaslight-y and disorienting because it fucks with my logic so bad...

also everyone else in my classes are stressful in their own special ways and it makes me question each day if I truly belong in civilization

I’m ugly and fat, boohohhobjohbjhkojkj

my boyfriend has a 10 year old son, which is crazy and he’s a handful in unique ways

the son’s mother is a complete deadbeat and I have this really visceral sense of resentment toward her...Devin told me the whole story of their relationship, how she manipulated him for years, how she made him marry her so that they could keep qualifying for subsidized housing because apparently she doesn’t understand that jobs are a thing (she has literally never worked a day in her life) and forced Devin to stop trying to take college classes because he wasn’t spending enough time with her, and then she got pregnant and when their son was born, she didn’t do anything to take care of him and kept finding excuses why she couldn’t, leaving Devin to take all of it on himself. then she broke up with him, but as soon as she did, she “started” dating this other guy, before Devin even had a chance to move out, so they fucked all the time while he was raising a baby in the other room WHAT the fuck okay then she left with this guy, got addicted to meth or something, broke that off, eventually found this old ass dude to have two more kids with. I guess as of a couple years ago she came back into the picture, and now thinks she deserves mandatory visits with her son when she does not, legally and otherwise. the son gets absolutely depressed after every single visit with her and has mentioned some possible abuse going on with her, so Devin cut her off, and now she’s a monster that’s just kind of in our lives now, tormenting these people I love. recently, Preston was begging to see his mom on Mother’s Day, so Devin tried to reach out, but she came up with some bullshit excuse not to, and Preston is crushed. She’s gross. again, negativity toward others only hurts you, so I’m hurting

here’s some GOOD STUFF

LOVE! I’m in love and it’s just about how I always imagined it would be when I really found someone special...there’s no weird tension or bitterness. there are complications, because he has a kid and so he lives with his parents while his son attends school there until he gets a good computer-y science-y job, but these don’t feel like dealbreakers or like there’s ultimatums, they’re just things that I feel confident we can get through. I don’t write about him much, which I think is a key difference...I feel no angst about our relationship, I don’t feel resentful toward him for any reason nor do I feel defensive around him or anything. it’s comfortable...it’s undramatic, but it’s not unremarkable. it’s healing. 

I think I’m top of my class...or at least in the top 3...which I’ve never been able to say. I’ve always had shit grades, zero work ethic and a brain that’s hard to articulate and show my work (which is why this type of journaling helps, I think, because otherwise it’s just all jumbled in there so I’m just generally distressed) and it feels good. I have to go buy my honors tassel...

I bought a playstation 4 because I could technically afford it, and it’s proven to be a very good tool for unwinding and figuring out how to do the “detachment from death” thing by keeping my activities on it very light and happy...I can watch netflix and stuff, and I’ve been playing a LOT of Stardew Valley and Katamari and some puzzle games...I think if it will be shared in a future household, I’ll make a rule that nobody can play violent games when I’m around, because I’ve found that that’s a bit of a trigger (ha) for me lately...guns and car crashes...but back to the good stuff, I love my playstation

I’m tired and I should have gone to sleep like 2 hours ago but I was crying on the toilet earlier and decided that I needed to type some thoughts out...

[allenmendezsr]

The Red Wine Diet

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/the-red-wine-diet/

The Red Wine Diet

 Buy Now

    THE RED WINE DIETslicedigital2019-04-29T20:02:48+00:00

Dear Wine Lover;

I’m about to tell you the story of how one twist of fate during a vacation completely turned my lifelong beliefs–and my career–upside down…

And how I discovered that a large portion of the science we thought we knew about weight loss is just plain false…

I’ll admit…It was a “WOW” moment that changed my life…and could quite possibly change yours.

The old-school thinking goes like this:

Drinking alcohol is bad for you…

It makes you gain weight…

It gives you the dreaded “beer belly.”

Well, it turns out they’re WRONG.

By the time you’re finished reading this, you’ll see that it REALLY works like this:

If you combine a glass of red wine with some of your favorite foods, in this very specific way, you shift your metabolism into hyperdrive!

It’s important you get the full story about how one “off-the-wall” observation I made during a West Coast vacation will change how you look at alcohol and weight loss forever…

This quirk of science–which on the surface is a complete contradiction to what we’ve all been told, has been right under our noses for decades…even centuries.

I’m a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and Certified Nutritionist, hired to help people lose body fat.  

Period.

I have been in the fitness industry for roughly 30 years.  And for the last decade, I’ve keep detailed records of how much weight my clients have lost.

At last count, my clients have lost over 5000 pounds of body fat!* 

That’s two and a half TONS of ugly fat.

*NOTE:  This is fully documented through my in-house Biometric Tracking software.

Frankly, if you lived anywhere near my facility north of Boston, I’m the guy you went to when you absolutely needed to lose weight…kinda like a “hired gun of weight loss”, if you will.

I only mention it to highlight an important point…

I’m a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and Certified Nutritionist, hired to help people lose body fat.  

Period.

I have been in the fitness industry for roughly 30 years.  And for the last decade, I’ve keep detailed records of how much weight my clients have lost.

At last count, my clients have lost over 5000 pounds of body fat!* 

That’s two and a half TONS of ugly fat.

*NOTE:  This is fully documented through my in-house Biometric Tracking software.

Frankly, if you lived anywhere near my facility north of Boston, I’m the guy you went to when you absolutely needed to lose weight…kinda like a “hired gun of weight loss”, if you will.

I only mention it to highlight an important point…

Do you think all of my successful clients STOPPED drinking wine while they lost all that weight?

Of course not!

In fact, many of my clients started drinking a little more wine��(not to excess, of course!)

But…now I have a bit of a confession to make…

At first, I had no explanation of why they were losing this weight so easily (of course, I could take some of the credit, but I knew inside there was more to it).

Not that long ago, I was one of those trainers who was telling my clients that they had to stop drinking alcohol if they wanted to lose weight.

The thing is… many of them had no intention of giving up their favorite glass of red wine…yet time and time again, they still lost weight!

And even though I never fully understood the reasons behind their fat loss success, I thought…

“Hey, if they’re happy, I’m happy!”

But all the while, something kept gnawing at me.  I just knew there was more to the story…

After all, 5000 pounds of fat loss doesn’t just happen by accident!

My personal revelation, and how it triggered the journey that changed everything!

I was on vacation visiting friends in California I hadn’t seen in at least 15 years.  

I was really looking forward to getting together with them again…

And as I figured we would…we had a great time.

Now, this is a really fun crowd, and as expected, the wine was flowing freely.

The weather was ideal and Northern California looked as beautiful as I remembered…

I’d lived in California for a while in the 80’s and early 90’s when I was competing at a world-class level in the shot put and discus.

Back then we throwers all had one dream in common…

To throw as far as we could…and if everything fell into place at the right time, earn a spot on the US Olympic Team.

Staying ‘fit and lean’ was not our concern.  Our dream required us to get as big and powerful as possible.

But that was then….and, as  life goes on, our priorities change.

These days–with all of us in our 50’s or older–most of us pay close attention to our health and nutrition.

(In fact, I have made it the focus of my career.)

Anyway…

After back-to-back days of socializing with old friends, lots and lots of good food – and plenty of wine – it was time to head back East.

And this is  where things took a strange turn…

When I got home, I couldn’t help but notice something…

My pants fit a little looser than normal, and I could feel something was different.

I stepped on the scale expecting bad news from a week of eating and drinking way more than usual; but, instead of gaining weight, something really bizarre happened…

I actually lost about 5 pounds over the course of 4-5 days!

On top of that, I didn’t even notice the weight loss happening…

The weight was just gone.

And, I’ll admit to one thing for sure…

It was certainly not for a lack of calories!

I overindulged a LOT during this trip.  Eating plenty of food and–yes– getting a little “buzzed” on a pretty regular basis.

That’s exactly why none of this made any sense.

As a fitness pro, this was just weird…

I mean, I’d been doing the weight loss thing for over 25 years, and was at a total loss as to what was happening.

I was experiencing first-hand the exact same effect I saw in my other weight loss clients for years.

And I was more than a little intrigued.

Something unusual was going on here, and that’s when the professional side of me took over.  I could no longer sit back and take credit for something I didn’t fully understand.

So I sat down, grabbed a pen and paper and did something that I ask of all my clients to do…

I wrote up a complete ‘food recall’ of everything I ate over the course of my trip.

Every meal.  Every snack. All of it…

I even tracked how much red wine I drank…admittedly that was a little tougher…(hey, don’t judge me)!

As I looked at my food log, an unusual pattern started to emerge…

As the guest, of course, I was eating whatever food I was served, and since my friends could be considered “foodies”, the menu had a lot of things on it I didn’t normally eat.

Apparently, the change in my menu was the trigger.

And there it was, right there on the paper…staring me in the face.

A food-wine combination that burned fat like gasoline!

It turns out, I had accidently stumbled onto something science had just recently proven in the lab.

A newly discovered process that turned “traditional” weight loss assumptions upside down!

Because of my eye-opening vacation experience – and my geeky love for research – I dove in and quickly became an expert on alcohol and its powerful connection to weight loss.

I soon realized that a lot of the warnings about alcohol and red wine just didn’t hold up. 

As you may have already heard, not all alcohol is created equal.

Red wine is actually one of the healthiest types there is.

Studies on red wine have been popping up in the media for a long time now.  You may have seen some of them…

Here is summary of an expert opinion from the Mayo Clinic.2

The alcohol in red wine can…

Help prevent artery damage caused by high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the “bad” cholesterol

Produce positive changes in blood pressure

Raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the “good” cholesterol

Reduce the formation of blood clots

In fact, there was some great news for women specifically!

“A study of more than 19,000 middle-aged women from the Archives of Internal Medicine found that women who drink a moderate amount of alcohol, such as a glass of red wine a day, are less likely to become overweight or obese than women who don’t drink.”

Here’s another one…

“Scientists followed nearly 16,000 middle-aged women in a seven-year study for the Women’s Health Initiative found that women who drink moderately are more likely to maintain a healthy weight than non-drinkers.”

However all of this good news comes with one important warning:

If you make a common mistake and combine your wine with the wrong types of food, most if not all of these health benefits can be lost!

You’ll shut down your fat burning machinery completely!

It all started with research being done at the Washington State University and Harvard Medical School.  

Professor Min Du’s work at Washington State verified the existence of a previously unknown fat burning process in humans.

And it even has a name:  “The Fat Conversion Pathway”

Let me explain…

Without diving into the details too deeply, here’s how it works:

Dr. Wu and other researchers discovered there’s a powerful enzyme with the sole function to trigger the conversion of stored fat into energy.

The problem is (and the reason you haven’t lost weight with wine before) there are toxins common in most diets that makes it impossible for this enzyme to do its job…

This enzyme (called AMPK for short)–when activated–ramps up your metabolism and melts fat off your stomach, arms, and thighs faster than nearly any other nutrient out there.

The problem is these toxins inactivate this enzyme.  Now, I’ll give you one guess where this “fat-converting” enzyme can be found…

Yup.  Red Wine.

Right away, I’ll bet there’s one question in your head you’re just dying to ask…

Can I really drink wine AND lose weight?

The short answer?  

Yes. Absolutely!

In fact, I now believe that drinking wine is exactly what you SHOULD be doing to lead a healthier life, while you get rid of those unwanted pounds…

…even if you drank wine in the past and actually GAINED weight!

…even if you’ve tried all those MISERABLE fad diets…

…even if you DESPISE working out.

Because today, you’ll discover how to lose weight

...without giving up your favorite glass of wine…

…without spending hours at the gym…

…and without weeks or months of deprivation spent trying to get that body you’ve been longing for.

Believe me, as a wine-drinker myself, I’d be skeptical too…but since I’ve pulled all the pieces together and witnessed this approach work soooo many times, there’s just no denying it!

In fact…

My newly discovered approach has helped my clients collectively lose more than 5000 POUNDS total!

And I’ve pinpointed a simple food-wine combination that reignites AMPK, and turns on a fat-burning pathway inside your body that’s so powerful…

You could lose 15 pounds in just 60 days

Keep in mind, like so many fitness experts,  I’d sworn off alcohol for both myself and my clients whenever weight loss was the goal.

But, because of this new discovery, now you don’t have to choose between enjoying your favorite wines and losing weight.

You can have both.

Listen, if you’re over 45 like me (OK, so I’m actually over 55)

You’re not looking to get ‘ripped’…

You don’t have illusions of being a fitness model…

You’re not training for a bodybuilding competition…

This may sound weird coming from a fitness business owner and former All-American athlete, but the reality is –

It is NOT my mission in life to see how shredded I can get my abs.

The majority of us simply want to…

feel better…

move better, with fewer aches and pains…

have plenty of energy throughout the day…

maintain a clear mind…

keep stress levels in check…

enjoy life with family and friends…

and yes, lose weight and look good while doing it!

I suspect most of you would agree, these are not outrageous goals.

Can you imagine what your life would be like if these simple desires fell into place?

No longer carrying around that extra 10, 15, 20 or more pounds…

No more waking up with aching and painful joints…

Walking through your day with a surge of additional energy, without that jiggly fat slowing you down…

Noticing your endurance levels suddenly skyrocket…

Stepping on the scale every morning and seeing the numbers drop lower and lower…

Breaking out in a big grin when your clothes start to fit the way they’re supposed to…

Feeling a renewed confidence as you make your way through the day.

Realizing your stress levels are plummeting…

And even starting to turn heads like you did years ago…

But, all the while, never giving up one minute of your valuable social life.

This is all possible with this newly discovered approach.

In fact, putting this process into place involves nothing more than “tweaking” the things you ALREADY do!

Here’s why this matters to you…

I had finally figured out the one simple factor that can make the difference between weight-loss success or failure for the average wine drinker…

Now, I can finally explain how you could be sabotaging your own weight loss, without even realizing it, by rendering your own “fat-converting pathway” inactive!

When you take red wine and combine it with this simple food trick you push your own metabolism into  overdrive – by re-activating AMPK!

In fact, it turns out that drinking red wine may actually be the ‘missing link’ to your weight loss goals.

I realize this is completely contradictory to what every fitness expert in the industry may tell you, but research has verified it!

Losing body fat does NOT have to involve weeks and months of starvation and stress.

Just as I had proved it to myself over the course of a few short days in California…

I don’t mind telling you that once I figured out that AMPK was the weight loss explanation I was after…

I was ecstatic!

…And it’s something so simple, ANYONE can put it to use!

This powerful secret explains how red wine can go from being a cause of your weight gain to your most powerful weight-loss ally!

So, here’s what I did next.

I wrote down what I consider to be a simple set of guidelines for anyone looking to lose body fat, but still have a full and vibrant life…

…including drinking red wine!

It’s called

The Red Wine Diet is your complete guide to putting the power of this simple daily food-wine technique to work… quickly and easily… so you can slash up to 15 pounds of ugly body fat in the next 60 days.

The Red Wine Diet pulls all these factors together into a plan that you can literally live with for a lifetime. 

You CAN drink red wine and lose weight!

In fact, The Red Wine Diet will show you how you can target body fat, get the physique you’ve been after, AND enjoy your life while you do it!

…even if you drink wine but have watched helplessly as the scale moved in the WRONG direction…

…even if you’ve tried–and failed–with all kinds of other diets in the past…

…even if you don’t have any intention of living in the gym in order to achieve your goals…

And you can do this without...

…giving up your social life and

…passing up that relaxing glass of wine at day’s end…

…plodding along endlessly on a treadmill…

…giving up the things you enjoy in life in order to achieve the body you’ve been after.

Very quickly, let’s talk about what The Red Wine Diet is NOT…

It is not physically demanding

It’s not complicated

It’s not expensive

Again, my clients – and now hundreds more who have purchased my book in a dozen different countries all over the world- have lost thousands of pounds of body fat by following the simple, science-backed approach in my book…

Most importantly, in “THE RED WINE DIET” you will also find simple and easy-to-understand explanation of…

A listing of the foods that can halt your results almost instantly, so that you can avoid ‘self-sabotage’

A step-by-step plan to guide you to fat loss success -even if you have stumbled and failed before

How to shut off your fat storing mechanisms, while cranking up the Fat Conversion Pathway

Exact meal plans based upon the proven, but little known, food-wine combination

A list of “weight loss accelerators” designed to speed your progress by as much as 30%

A “Done for You” list of 9 simple rules, proven to put you on the path to a leaner, healthier and longer life

All for a price LESS THAN a decent bottle of Pinot Noir!

I clearly spell out…

How just one simple food trick could hold your key to fat loss by turning on your own fat burning machinery…

When you drink and with what foods will determine whether you gain weight or lose weight

How to CRUSH the obstacles holding you back…

Why alcohol is not the enemy of weight loss…

What the REAL health benefits of wine are…

A list of foods you must avoid like the plague…

A list of specific steps you can start today to speed up your results…by as much as 30%!

The 9 science-based rules for living a LONGER, HEALTHIER LIFE…

And if you order my book today…I have a few more treats for you!

BONUS #1:  “The Red Wine Diet Cookbook” – FREE!

What possible good is a diet book without a matching cookbook?

So I went “all in” and commissioned this cookbook from a professional European chef.

My one requirement?

I needed 150 recipes that fit your lifestyle, and are in line with my unique Red Wine Diet approach…

The finished product is a cookbook I could not be happier with!  It’s a perfect fit!

Bonus #2: “Stress Elimination Solution” – Free Report!

Throughout my years as a weight loss expert, I have encountered one enemy of weight loss that seems to be EVERYWHERE!

It has become an integral part of our lives…

It disrupts our sleep…  

Harms our health…

It literally shrinks our brain…

And is a direct cause of weight gain!

I’m talking about STRESS!  

…but, stress is more under our control than we realize.

Stress also happens to be one of the most powerful causes of weight gain known to man!

Since the vast majority of my clients are fighting the same battle against stress we are, I HAD to study stress in serious detail.

So much so, that eventually, I became certified in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Brain Fitness…

To that end, I produced a 21 page report on the topic called the “Stress Elimination Solution”

Previously, I have only provided this finished paper to my clients, but to help you battle against this relentless enemy…

I want you to have the report for FREE, when you purchase The Red Wine Diet!

BONUS #3: “Successful Aging Blueprint: A Step-By-Step Guide To Reclaiming Your Health And Developing A Resilient Mindset After Age 45”

Also FREE!

This is  something I’m also incredibly proud of…

I’ve dedicated my life to helping the clients at my facilities, as well as coaching clients across the country, to OWN their aging process.

(And believe me, you don’t need to be over 50 to start planning!)

My latest book–available on Amazon for $9.95 presently–picks up where The Red Wine Diet leaves off…

You’ll get instant access to my best and proven lifestyle changes that will allow you to dictate your health for decades to come…on your terms!

If you have any intention of maintaining an independent and vibrant life for the rest of your days, you’ve found a roadmap for the process in my latest book.  

Inside you’ll find an exact plan to “OWN” the coming decades by:

Developing an ability to achieve any goal you set

Understanding the unique nutritional needs of anyone over age 45

Learning how to design and execute the ideal workout to suit your needs

Identifying the REAL enemies of successful aging we all face

Keying in on ‘core concepts’ of being a Successful Aging Rebel!

Yes, I’ve included a LOT of bonus material here because I truly want to get The Red Wind Diet into your hands, and have that decision be a “no-brainer”!

So go ahead and click the “Order” button and grab “The Red Wine Diet” NOW!

The price for instant access to my incredibly popular book, The Red Wine Diet is only $14.95!

*No physical product will be shipped

One final note…

Over the years, clients have paid me thousands upon thousands of dollars to get results, and to get access to the kind of information found in these books.

But I’m not charging you thousands…

I’m not even charging hundreds…

Actually, if you priced The Red Wine Diet  book plus all the bonuses out separately, it totals just around $65.00…

That’s FAR less than I would charge for a single workout with me at my facility.

And I’m not charging that much either…

So why would I practically give way years of research and insights for $14.95?

Because I have seen first hand how frustrated people are by the entire weight loss process

AND I know that the myths that persist, along with confusing headlines are NOT helping you reach your weight loss goals!

You need clarity.

You need this information.

And it’s now priced at $14.95.

You may say, “Hold on Art, what if I read the book and decide this approach is not a good fit?”

Well frankly, in that case, I don’t want your money.  It’s that simple.

“If you are not satisfied for any reason within 60 days of purchase, I will happily give you back every penny of your investment.”

No questions asked.

You can drop 15 pounds in as little as 60 days, all while you’re drinking wine every day…and finally be rid of the weight.

All for $14.95

AND it’s completely risk-free because it’s fully covered by my guarantee.

You have zero risk, so why not?

Is there any reason not to check it out?

I stand behind “The Red Wine Diet” without reservation!

(I DARE you to find a guarantee like that from any diet book on the market!)

So click the button below to start losing weight today.

*No physical product will be shipped

I look forward to helping you along your journey.

Cheers!

Founder – Successful Aging Academy Author | Speaker | Wellness Activist

Enjoy Life.  Lose Fat.

P.S. – If you have read this far, I HAVE to believe you are truly interested in losing that stubborn body fat AND having a fun-filled life.  

I am so eager to get my book into your hands as soon possible, I am offering “The Red Wine Diet” for only $14.95…

AND I am adding the Cookbook (Also a $14.95 value)

AND the Stress Elimination Solution report (A $29.00 value)

AND my latest book “Successful Aging Blueprint” (priced at $9.95)

All Bonuses FOR FREE.

*No physical product will be shipped

P.P.S. – Keep in mind, you have nothing to lose…except unwanted body fat, that is…you’re protected by my irrefutable, unshakable, ironclad, no-hassle 100% Money Back Guarantee.

(Did I include enough adjectives for you!!!)

Click on the “Order Now” button to get instant access to EVERYTHING described and be reading my book in just minutes.

NOTE:  This is a digital product. A physical book will not be shipped.

If you prefer a physical copy, you can simply order my best-selling book on Amazon.  

However, neither the cookbook, nor any of the other bonuses items are available for free with Amazon…

*No physical product will be shipped

Fischer-Posovszky, P. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, July 2010; vol 92: pp 5-15.

Anderson CA (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Sept. 23, 2013

News release, University of Buffalo.Ghanim, H. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2010.

Kodali M, Parihar VK, Hattiangady B, Mishra V, Shuai B, Shetty AK. “Resveratrol prevents age-related memory and mood dysfunction with increased hippocampal neurogenesis and microvasculature, and reduced glial activation.”  Sci Rep. 2015 Jan 28;5:8075.

Howe et al.  Presented at 24th Scientific Meeting of International Society of Hypertension, 22 Oct. 2012.

Gresele P, et al. Resveratrol, at concentrations attainable with moderate wine consumption, stimulates human platelet nitric oxide production. Journal of Nutrition. 2008;138:1602.

Red Wine and Your Heart.  Circulation American Heart Association: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/111/2/e10.full

Alcohol and heart disease. American Heart Association. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Alcohol-and-Heart-Disease_UCM_305173_Article.jsp. Accessed Sept. 5, 2013.

Saremi A, et al. The cardiovascular implications of alcohol and red wine. American Journal of Therapeutics. 2008;15:265.

Tangney CC, et al. Cardiovascular benefits and risks of moderate alcohol consumption. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed Sept. 3, 2013.

Resveratrol. Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/phytochemicals/resveratrol/. Accessed Sept. 5, 2013.

Resveratrol. Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. http://naturaldatabase.therapeuticresearch.com/nd/Search.aspx?cs=SCHOOLNOPL~AER&s=ND&pt=100&id=307&ds=. Accessed Sept. 5, 2013.

Carrizzo A, et al. Antioxidant effects of resveratrol in cardiovascular, cerebral and metabolic diseases. Food and Chemical Toxicology. 2013. In press. Accessed Sept. 5, 2013.

Mukamal KJ, et al. Overview of the risks and benefits of alcohol consumption. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed Sept. 3, 2013.

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The Red Wine Diet | 2019 | Email Support: info@successfulaging.academy

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

1965

(Year One of My Rock & Roll Fandom)

  By  Stephen Jay Morris

Wednesday.   June 12.   2019

©Scientific Morality

             Selective memory?  Why not?  It’s my past and I can review it anyway I want!  Yes.  I do remember the bad times. Yes.  I try to avoid past mistakes.  True. Nostalgia is a symptom of depression. I went to my doctor and he prescribed a drug from which I am still withdrawing!  You want to know what’s over rated?  Modern day.  Now! The only people who are happy are narcissists.  Technology?  Fantastic!  Pretty soon a drone will deliver my pizza.  I’m still waiting for flying cars.  Well?  Where in the fuck are they!?

So, let me indulge in my reminiscences of a crappy youth.   I may die of natural causes tomorrow.  This is my party and it’s freaking me out, baby!  You don’t dig old farts?  Then flake off!

           Every older generation thinks the music they heard in their youth was and is better than that of the present day.  I plead guilty.  Let’s explore why I feel that way.

A certain musical tone will reflect the character of the times.  As recording Technology changes and improves, the tone of music changes.  In my youth, analog magnetic tape produced an inimitable sound.  In the 50’s, most music was recorded live onto a two-track, stereo tape.  In the, 60’s it grew to four-track and was no longer done live.  Engineers would overdub recordings onto each individual track. Well, not to go over the evolution of recording, but to put it succinctly, recording went from analog to digital.  Hell, you don’t even have to sing well anymore; you’ve got auto tune!  Warning:  old man whining alert.  That is why there aren’t any more requirements for talent.  It’s all about sex appeal and fake masculinity and not emoting the lyrics of a song.  It’s no longer about art!  It’s about being a braggadocios Dandy.  Well, you can have it.   Not me. I am going back to 1965.  

Where do I start?  All I need is a list.  The science community always said that one’s olfactory is a trigger mechanism to memory. You smell something familiar and you are transported back in time.  For me, it’s a song.  With every song, comes a memory.  Here is an example:  Whenever I hear a Four Tops song, like “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch!),” I remember my dad driving my young family to the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park.  We would drive through the Black community of South Central Los Angeles to get there. I would see Black kids sitting on stoops of old Craftsman houses, listening to portable radios blasting out that Motown sound.  They were engaged in happy conversations or good, old fashioned horseplay.  I wanted to get out of the car and join them! Instead, I had to listen to my dad pontificate, like he was some collage professor!  I would later learn that he was really stupid and it was all a false front.  What I resented was his absolute control of the car radio.  We either had to listen to news or a station that played only classical music. Conversely, whenever my mom drove the car, she would tune it to the local pop/rock station.  I used to tell my mom I was saving up to buy a Japanese transistor radio.  I really was.  I had my own piggy bank. In 1963, she bought me a transistor radio for my birthday!  For the next two years I would listen to Dodger radio with Vin Scully.  Then, I saw the Rolling Stones on the Ed Sullivan Show.  I recently looked this up: It aired on a Sunday, October 25, 1964. That would be only time my dad allowed me to watch the Stones on T.V.   After that, he would chase me out of the room because of something negative about them he’d read in the newspaper.  But, all I needed was that first exposure.  I fell in love with Rock & Roll!  

I must have spent a lot of chump change on batteries for my handheld radio.  The station I listened to the most was 93 KHJ AM.  It had the strongest signal in Los Angeles, 1600 Kilocycles.  At night, its waves would travel all the way to Utah! Then, there were the DJ’s who had funny pseudonyms like “Machine Gun Kelly,”  “Bobby Tripp,” “Robert W. Morgan,” “Sam Riddle,” and the one and only, “Humble Harve.”  He would play the most Rolling Stones records than any of the other disk jockeys.

In 1965, radio was popular among teenagers for music listening.  Television soon got worried, so they created dance shows to attract the youth market.  On the local stations there was “She-Bang,” “Hollywood-A-Go-Go,” and “Boss City.”  On the major networks, there was “Shindig,” “Hullabaloo,” and “The Lloyd Thaxton Show.” They all booked musical acts who would come on and lip-synch to their records.  They also featured dancers, most of whom looked like mannequins. These shows aired for either 30 minutes or one hour.  However, the radio was on 24 hours a day!  That was except for holidays.  Every Christmas and New Year’s, they played only stupid Christmas music!  Radio was everywhere you were!  At supermarkets, car garages, public parks, the beach, and just about any place within earshot.  I did most of my radio listening in the privacy of my bedroom, with the door locked.

There wasn’t much reading material for Rock fans. There were the teenybopper magazines like “16” and “Tiger Beat.”  These consisted mostly of gossip and interviews with the musician of the month, asking such questions as what his favorite color was.  I’d glance through it, flipping pages.  The only redeeming value of these zines was the photographs, most of which were in black and white.  That was the scene in 1965.

I didn’t like all of the music that year.  There was this novelty record called, “The Name Game.” It was an American pop song written and performed by Shirley Ellis, as some rhyme game that creates variations on a person's name.  You could take anybody’s name and make it rhyme.  Here’s an example, using the name “Katie:”

Katie.   Katie.   bo-batie,

Bonana-fanna fo-fatie,

Fee fi mo-matie

Katie!

 It was as an annoying song, especially when my sister sang it!

One thing I can say about the music on A.M. radio was that it had variety!  You could hear all types of music.  Country & Western, Soul, Motown, Folk-Rock, Jazz, Tex-Mex, British Invasion, Pop, and good old Rock & Roll.  There was one country song I remember by Roger Miller.  It was called, “King of the Road.”  Then, I heard my first “answer song,” meaning the music was the same, but the lyrics had been changed.  It was called, “Queen of the House,” by Jody Miller (no relation to Rodger), about the trials and tribulations of being a housewife. There were the double-entendre songs that sounded goofy, and I mean goofy!  Their music sounded as if it was produced by a roller rink organ!  One was called, “The Birds and the Bees,” by Jewel Akens. It’s about this horny guy, reciting the facts of life to his virgin girlfriend.  The music sounded so fibrous and idiotic; you would think the song was about watching clowns at a circus.  This next one was a channel changer.  When I heard the first five notes, I was out of there!  It was called “Yes, I’m Ready,” performed by Barbara Mason.  It was lyrically about a young, inexperienced girl who didn’t know how to make love.  Of course, the man was going to teach her.  Barbara intentionally used a voice inflection that was off-key to sound like she was nervous.  It worked!   For years, this song had no face to me.  I thought some white, nerdy, teenage girl did it.  It turned out it was actually recorded by an attractive, Black R&B singer.  She later had another hit that made a lot more sense, “Baby, I’m Yours.”  I’ll bet her manager put a gun to her head and made her do it!  The song did make it into the Top Ten.

           Recently, I found a list of the top 100 records from 1965.  You know something?  I know 98% of the songs listed!  Every one evokes a memory.

My mom and our neighbors took turns in car-pooling us kids to school.  One morning, we had a sing along in the back seat.  We sang Herman’s Hermits’ “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter.”  We mimicked their British accents as we sang. In the schoolyard, during lunch period, my classmates broke out in song and sang “The Game of Love” by Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders.  I sang the bass part.  

           At this time in my life, I was not having a happy childhood.  I was a fat kid with braces.  It was at this time that I started experiencing panic attacks, but didn’t know what they were.  I also had a bad constipation problem, so much so that family and neighbors dreaded me using their toilets!  I was doing very badly in school and suffering very low self-esteem.  My dad verbally abused me and physically hurt me. School bullies would come after me. I was an uncoordinated fat kid who was fearful of the world.  The only thing my dad would say to me was, “Be a man!”  Yeah.  At the age of 11, I was supposed to be Superman!

My transistor radio was the only refuge I had.  Music was my best friend and it consoled me in that extremely difficult time of my life.

So, if I seem sentimental about the music of 1965, it is because I am.  I am currently going through a rough patch in my life, and while I lay in bed at night, I revisit the music of 65.

[piratescarfy]

Writeup of a game of Space Themed Dungeons and Dragons that we called 'Space Gays'

So essentially, I refereed this game and liked the characters so much I decided to write our adventure up. We used the brilliant system Lasers And Feelings, a free, one-page rpg you can find online with very very simple rules. We did all the character creation beforehand and I told the group that we would start the game on 'episode 2' so that we can just say everyone knows everyone and it's all established, and we could get right into the plot immediately. Our Heroes: Lance Thunderkunt: A sexy, suave envoy whose main objective is to bang sexy aliens. Is friends with Chad because Chad always looks terrible so it’s good for his image. Rando: A trigger-happy ex-soldier who loves following orders and just wants to hear a superior call him “outstanding”. Once had his life saved by Keith. Keith: An android therapist with a variety of useful robot tools and psychic powers. Secretly in love with Hunk. Hunk: A well-meaning paramedic who was the original owner of the crew’s spaceship and recruited people to split the mortgage. Secretly in love with Keith. Chad: A man who loves to explore but couldn't get a job. The crew found him at a spaceport holding a cardboard sign reading 'wil explor 4 food’ The crew were on the bridge when their heat detection devices picked up the presence of a foreign life form, constantly changing shape. They saw it enter the ship and get into the kitchen. Chad, well-meaning explorer that he was, decided to investigate. When he reached the kitchen, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but his multitool detected the alien heat source was coming from the fridge. When he opened it, there was a huge frankfurter sausage that wasn’t there before, but before Chad could do anything, the sausage leapt at his throat and tried to strangle him. The rest of the crew heard screaming and Rando went to see what the fuss was about. Seeing the sausage attacking Chad, he shot it, and the sausage leapt away, shape-changed rapidly for a few seconds, turned into a hamster, and scuttled down a vent. Rando and Chad went back down to find Hunk waiting for them. Hunk patched up Chad's wounds while Keith offered awkward robot hugs. During all this, Lance was just chilling on the bridge, doing his hair. On the heat detection screen, Lance saw the alien enter the science lab, then all the lights on the ship flickered and cut out. Lance assured everyone he would stay on the bridge and keep an eye on the whereabouts of the creature, while Rando accompanied him, and Chad, Keith and Hunk decided to follow it to the science lab and fix the lights while at it. Chad got a bucket from the cleaning cupboard to protect himself with. The alien-hunters set out along the dark corridors of the ship. Chad lead the way, but then a familiar Birmingham accent boomed from the darkness ahead. It was his terrifying old French teacher from school! While Chad was paralysed with fear, Hunk decided to intimidate the creature by shouting "ALLER!" at the top of their voice. The creature seemed to react badly to this, and it transformed into a squirrel and ran away again. Chad threw his bucket at it to try and capture it, but to no avail. Hunk went to the fuse room to try and fix the lights, but they discovered no fuses had blown, so the problem was located elsewhere. Chad and Keith picked up a big heat signal from the science labs and Chad decided the best way to deal with this would be to try and make friends with it, so he walked into the lab, singing Love Me Do at the top of his voice, to discover the room was on fire. Some cables at the back of the room had been chewed and had set some folders alight. Keith used his robot hosepipe attachment to put out the fire, drenching the singing Chad, but the electricity ran back up the water jet and paralysed Keith's circuits. Chad, still bravely singing Love Me Do, dragged the prone android into the fuse room, to Hunk. There was a tragic dramatic scene where Hunk tried to revive Keith, cradled in their arms, but it failed, and the whole thing was slightly spoiled by Chad who was still singing Love Me Do. Meanwhile, Lance and Rando on the bridge had got drunk off the alcohol Lance kept hidden under the map, when suddenly, a beautiful purple woman, (with tits for days) burst onto the bridge. She was wounded and pleaded with Lance and Rando to help. Rando demanded the woman identify herself and how she got on the ship. Lance immediately tried to hit on her. She said she had been hunting the creature on their ship, that it was incredibly dangerous and the only way to defeat it was to say nice things to it. She seemed to be struck by Lance's beauty, even mistaking him for a male model. Rando hit Lance in the head with his gun, and would have again, but Lance avoided it and in the process, showed off his abs to the sexy alien woman. She asked to touch them, but when she did, her face contorted, her body went through a horrible change, and then she was suddenly a sabre tooth tiger. Lance mumbled into his communicator: "God damn, not again." Chad, Keith and Hunk heard growling and yelling through their communicators and finally, Hunk managed to jump-start Keith's circuits. That moment made the two of them realise their love for each other, but the network this show runs on didn't want to lose their right-wing viewers, so we cut away before they actually kissed. Back on the bridge, Lance was being crushed by a rabid sabre toothed tiger and having some pretty confusing feelings about it and to spare everyone the mind bleach, Rando shot the tiger, which bounded away, transformed into a rat, and disappeared down another corridor. The crew decided to regroup and come up with a plan. Everyone met up in the med bay, and exchanged stories. While Hunk patched up Lance's wounds, (and Lance was weirdly sexual about it), the crew decided the best way to deal with the creature was to shoot it with tranquilisers and throw it out of the airlock. Chad was volunteered by the rest of the crew to be bait, and Hunk and Rando worked together to create tranquiliser darts from med supplies. At the airlock, everyone put spacesuits on, and Chad demanded that since he could be sacrificing himself, the rest of the crew should give inspiring speeches. Halfway through this ceremony, Chad started singing Starman by David Bowie, at which point Rando promptly shut the airlock on him. This airlock was mainly used for garbage disposal, and was in a pretty untidy area of the ship, so the crew hid behind scrap metal and crates. Then, there was the sound of clanking, thumping footsteps, and a robotic T-Rex came round the corner and headed for the airlock. It transformed its tiny arms into beefy, human ones and started forcing the doors, at which point Lance deemed it a good idea to stand up and shout "Hey! Stop changing into things and hurting people!" The creature stopped what it was doing, changed one of its arms into a sword and swung at Lance. He wasn't quick enough and had his arm chopped off. The creature turned back to the airlock and continued forcing it. "Metal bastard…" said Lance, and the creature stopped. It looked back at Lance and seemed…upset? Keith took this opportunity to use his psychic powers to attack the creature's mind and make it feel worthless. The metal T-Rex started sobbing oily tears and its feet began to melt. Rando shot it while it was distracted, and, having melty legs, the creature collapsed, and then, through the communicators, came Chad's voice: "Your mother never loved you!" At that point, Hunk jabbed the airlock button and both T-Rex and Chad were shot out into space. The crew dashed back to the bridge. Through the big viewing window, they saw the T-Rex still alive, reaching for Chad, its arms transforming and stretching out to grab him. Rando lifted the cover on the missile launcher and pulled the lever. The creature was exploded into pieces which shot out through the galaxy, never to meet again. Patting each other on the back, Lance, Rando, Keith and Hunk all went off to get some celebratory drinks. Roll credits on Chad, as he hopelessly floats in front of the ship, through space. "….Guys?...Guys?"

[paleorecipecookbook]

RHR: How to Slow Down Aging—with Sara Gottfried

In this episode we discuss:

Telomeres and their connection to aging

Genetic vs. environmental factors

The role of inflammation on aging

The FTO, APOE, and JAK-2 genes

The clock gene and its effect on weight

How do you measure aging?

The FKBP5 gene and stress response

The effect of eating meat on aging

Show notes:

Younger: A Breakthrough Program to Reset Your Genes, Reverse Aging, and Turn Back the Clock 10 Years by Sara Gottfried

[smart_track_player url="http://ift.tt/2oEWQ9R" title="RHR: How to Slow Down Aging—with Sara Gottfried" artist="Chris Kresser" ]

Chris Kresser: Hey, everybody, Chris Kresser here. Welcome to another episode of Revolution Health Radio. Today, I'm going to be talking to Dr. Sara Gottfried about aging, genetics, the exposome, and the environment. Dr. Gottfried is a Harvard-educated physician and two-time New York Times bestselling author. In her new book, Younger, she shows how to reset gene expression in order to slow down aging and lengthen healthspan. We’re going to get back to the listener Q&A format pretty soon. We have been doing some interviews lately with Robb Wolf and Stephan Guyenet about their books, and this will be the last one of these for a little while. But as you probably know, I'm a voracious reader, and this kind of research and learning is a big part of what I do, and I also consider it to be my job to bring these new resources to your attention when they become available if I think they're valuable. It just so happened that three of the people that I respect the most in terms of their work and their perspective have published books almost back to back. In particular, with Sara’s book, Younger, this is one of the few popular resources that goes into depth but is still accessible on genetics, the exposome, and aging. Those are topics that we’ve talked a lot about, the relationship between genes and the exposome on my blog and a little bit on the podcast, but we haven’t gone into much detail on those topics as they relate to aging and healthy aging, which of course is a concern for everybody. Sara’s one of the people that I know that has done the deepest dive in this area and she knows more about it than just about anybody. I'm really excited to welcome her on the show and to share some of this knowledge with all of you. So, without further ado, let’s do that. Chris Kresser: Sara Gottfried. It's such a pleasure to have you back on the show. Dr. Sara Gottfried: Happy to be here, Chris. Hi. Chris: I'm excited about today because I have definitely written and spoken about genetics, epigenetics, and the exposome on my blog and podcast, but I haven't really done it in the context of aging well, and that's really what your latest book, Younger, is all about. It's something that really spans all ages and demographics. There's nobody that's not interested in aging well, at least on some level. How interested they are and how much they're changing their behavior as a result is a different question, but I think if you ask just about anyone on the street, they would like to age well. I'm really looking forward to diving into this with you. Sara: Yeah, thank you. I agree with you. I think there's no lower limit on age, or even an upper limit, although sometimes it's the big birthdays that get you more intrigued. I just turned 50. You had 40 a couple of years ago, but it's often, I think a lot of people don't know that aging can be happening at a faster clip than they realize. That's what I want to bring attention to.

Can you affect how fast your body ages? Sara Gottfried says you can.

Telomeres and their connection to aging

Chris: It can be a birthday for some people and for other people it can be kind of really an extreme kind of stress event or maybe an injury or an illness. You, yourself, diagnosed yourself in kind of stress failure or the failure state as you refer to it. Was that the turning point for you? Tell us a little more about what happened there. Sara: Yeah. I definitely had a failure state that occurred five years ago. (I just want to apologize here at the beginning because I've got a bit of a voice “failure state” today. Hopefully, we can laugh a bit which helps it immensely.) For me, I think of these failure states as a failure of homeostasis. I remember you talked about this in your show with Peter Attia and you and I have talked about this for years, but there are a lot of different failure states. It could be a failure of the stress response system, which was my story. It can be cancer. It can be SIRS. It can be depression, fatty liver, diabetes. What happened in my case was when I was 44 I got very interested in the science of telomeres, in part because we have luminous neighbor, Elizabeth Blackburn, who got the Nobel Prize along with two others in 2009 for her work on telomeres. I imagine your audience has heard of telomeres before. They're the little caps on chromosomes that are a marker of your cellular aging process. It's a proxy for biological aging compared with your chronological aging. At 44, I thought I was doing great. I thought I was aging well. My hormones were in a healthy place. I was a yoga teacher. I was relatively sane but this test showed otherwise. At 44, I had the telomere length of a 64-year-old woman. Chris: That was a little bit of a wakeup call, huh? Sara: Huge wakeup call. From that test, I concluded that I was aging poorly and I needed to do something about it. I think you may do this too. When I have a health crisis like this, that can sometimes create fear and humility. What I do in response is to dive into the literature. Knowledge really becomes the best salve for me. I dove into the studies looking at telomere science and accelerated aging. That's how I created this functional medicine protocol that became my new book, Younger. But I should add that it wasn't just my telomeres in isolation, it was part of a larger narrative. Before the telomere test, I definitely had problems with my control system for stress, my HPA axis (the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis), and this went on for about a decade at least, that I was measuring and looking at. At 35, I had a serum cortisol that was three times where it should be. I had a fasting blood sugar of about 110, a hemoglobin A1c that was 5.8 to 6. There were multiple biomarkers showing me that my homeostatic system was toast. I had fried it. I needed to surrender to kind of a new way of thinking about it, a new paradigm, in order to heal it.

Genetic vs. environmental factors

Chris: That's interesting because from one perspective you could look at that and say, “Oh, too bad. I have bad genes and that's just the fact that I was dealt.” But of course, that's not actually the way to look at it, is it? Sara: It's definitely not. I imagine you were taught this as well. But I went through medical school beginning in 1989 and at that time we thought that your genes were probably your fate. The idea that environment plays such a large role, that's relatively new. That's been the last 12 to 15 years. Of course, the gene–environment interaction is complex and at the risk of oversimplifying, I think, about the 90/10 rule here. The idea which you've talked about in your amazing podcast is that genes load the gun, but environment pulls the trigger. Honestly, I want a less violent analogy. Chris: Yeah. We’ve got enough of the war analogy all through medicine, don't we? Sara: We totally do. But it's a helpful way to look at the relative weight of your genetics that you got from your parents versus environment. And when it comes to chronic disease or the signs of aging, genes are only about 10 percent of the story. Environment is 90 percent, much of which is under your control. Chris: Let's use a gardening analogy. You need good seed, healthy seeds, in order to grow a plant, but so much more. There is the water, the quality of the soil, the sun and the care of the gardener making sure that weeds don't take over and get in the way of that. How’s that? Are getting closer? I think it worked. Sara: That’s so much better, so much better. Chris: Okay, great. Now we just need a short pithy way of referring to it in seven or eight words or whatever the other one is, but we'll work on that and get back to everybody. Sara: All right. Chris: All right. Yes, definitely, we've talked about this in other contexts where 85 to 90 percent of the chronic disease burden has been estimated to be related to environmental factors. Certainly, our genes determine what our predispositions are, and I always explain this to my patients as like, “One person when they're exposed to our modern diet and lifestyle will develop rheumatoid arthritis, whereas another person will develop multiple sclerosis, whereas yet another person will develop, you know, IBS or inflammatory bowel disease.” And to me, both our own genes and then the genes of our microbiome are what are driving how the actual expression of disease. Sara: That's right. I think it's a helpful place to start because it gives you probabilities. It helps you focus on maybe what your vulnerabilities are. A good example here is I probably have some genes related to my HPA axis that are different than your system. And so, the way my life has been constructed, the way it's been architected, has made some of those genes turn on. It silenced other genes in your case. I think you've shared this publicly before. You have a vulnerability with your gut function. We all have different vulnerabilities and it relates to our exposome. How that affects gene function with the external factors and also the internal environment we create as a result of that exposome.

The role of inflammation on aging

Chris: Absolutely. In your book, you used this great term, I'm not sure if you came up with it or someone else did. Sara: No, I didn’t. Chris: “In-flam-MAGING” or “in-FLAM-maging,” there are different ways of pronouncing it. “In-FLAM-maging” makes it sound like hemorrhaging, like, “This is very serious. We need to stop it.” While “in-flam-MAGING” sounds almost a little like a French word or something. I'm talking just about the phonetics, but of course, we’re really referring to a combination of inflammation and aging here. Tell us more about what you learned in your deep dive about the contribution of inflammation to aging. Sarah: Yeah, I definitely call it in-flam-MAGING. It's not a sexy French word. It's an unfortunate combination, as you said, of inflammation and then how that accelerates the aging process. I didn't come up with this term. It's something that I read about, but I think it's a helpful kind of pin on which to hang a hat because it's a way of thinking about this process of information, which is a through line, really, in all of functional medicine. I was trying to think before talking to say, “Are there any conditions you can think of that don't have inflammation as part of the back story?” Chris: I've tried to think of those for a long time and I have not been able to come up with a modern chronic disease where inflammation isn’t implicated in some way. Sara: Right. I've been doing the same, so we'll have to keep sleuthing. Chris: Right. We can say a very high percentage. Whether we come up with one or two, it's above 99 percent. Sara: For sure. In my case, I definitely had this background of inflammation that accelerated the shortening of my telomeres. I have these short stubby telomeres. I’ll actually tell you towards the end about what's happened with my telomeres over time. But it shows up in different ways. For some people, it starts in their muscles. I also had an issue with this a couple of years ago. I went to a spa with my husband, who is a former athlete and loves physical fitness. We went to a high-intensity interval training class, and the instructor who was 25 and gorgeous, wanted us to jump up and down on a box, jump box. He put this 18-inch box in front of me, and I thought, “Oh, you know, I'm a former gymnast. I can do this.” I did it and I was sort of proud of myself and then he wanted us to do it 13 more times and three sets. I pretty much wiped out. I just realized that I didn't have those fast-twitch fibers. I didn't have the jumping capability that I had in my 20s and 30s. It was another wakeup call where I believe that I had some issues with my mitochondria. I didn't have the power that I used to have in my muscles. That's a common way of looking at the early signs of inflammaging. Another way to look at it is your memory recall, your executive functioning that involves more inflammation in the brain and how that accelerates aging. We all have different ways that aging can show up. For some people, it's in their face with kind of more puffiness and wrinkles. I think it's a helpful way to kind of think about the aging process. Chris: Yeah, I would definitely agree. Especially that the cognitive symptoms seem to be from what I have seen in working with a lot of patients, one of the most reliable observable indicators of inflammaging. There’s this difficulty with word recall, not being able to remember names or even common words, difficulty concentrating. Of course with Alzheimer's and dementia, as prevalent as they've become and as serious as they are, it's one of the signs that should be triggering all of us to get help when we start to notice that sort of thing—especially if it's happening earlier on in life, in the 40s and 50s. Sara: For sure. And I would even go further and say unfortunately the symptoms of memory loss or having a problem with your hippocampus—that part of the brain that's involved in memory consolidation and emotional regulation—I want to address inflammation ideally a few decades before the symptoms show up. For our listeners who are thinking, “You know, I walk into a room and I remember why I went there, I don't know what they're talking about with this memory issue. That's not my problem.” These are things that you want to address ideally in your 30s and 40s, early 50s before the symptoms begin.

The FTO, APOE and JAK-2 genes

Chris: I want to switch gears a little bit and talk about some specific genes. You know there's been a lot of discussion in the blogosphere about MTHFR. A lot of people have heard of this gene by now and I've talked about it on the podcast several times with several different guests, but let's talk about some of the genes that people may be less familiar with or some that are somewhat familiar, but you have an interesting take on. The ones that come to mind are FTO, certainly APOE, especially since we’re just talking about Alzheimer’s and dementia, and JAK-2, which is a breast cancer gene mutation that doesn't get as much play as BRCA and some of the other genes that are involved there. Why should people be paying attention to these and what should they know about them in terms of actionable steps they can take if they have polymorphism in those genes? Sara: Right, right. I have variants of pretty much all of these genes, and I hope it's okay with you to give a little bit of the background of talking about this with you because you and I have been in a mastermind together for years, and I remember when I first started writing this book and I said, “Guys I've narrowed this down to 25 genes and I'm going to focus on in this new book.” And you, along with the others, were like, “Okay, you've got to narrow down further, 25 is still way too overwhelming.” FTO—it's unfortunately named the “fatso gene.” I think of FTO as a nutrient sensor. It stands for fat mass and obesity-associated gene. It's located on chromosome 16, and its job is that it's strongly associated with your level of fat composition, so your body mass index and consequently, your risk of obesity and diabetes. I have the variant. I have a large number of obesity genes. I joke that I'm genetically programmed to be a 200-pound diabetic with thinning hair, which is not exactly the picture of middle age that I have for myself. Chris: Nor is it what you look like, most importantly. Sara: That's the benefit of environmental changes. Chris: Exposome. Sara: Exactly. When you have the variant, the main thing that it does is you have sloppy control of leptin, so you knew I was going to work in hormones somewhere here. Hormones are so key, and genes control so much of hormonal balance, and leptin is the hormone that's responsible for satiety. It tells you to put the fork down. For people who have a problem with this gene, they are hungry all the time, and that was certainly my story before I learned how to regulate this gene. This gene is interesting because it's very prevalent in the Amish population, and one of the ways that the Amish regulate this gene, because you don't think of the Amish as being obese or diabetic, but one of the ways they regulate it is with hard physical labor. Chris: Manual labor all day. Sara: Right. That's certainly not what I do, but it turns out that even 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day can regulate this gene in a way that helps you prevent obesity and diabetes. You can also do it with your carb thresholds. A lower-carb food plan, that's kind of a murky, complicated topic because I think you need enough carbs to kind of take care of your adrenals and thyroid function, especially if you're female. But really, defining your carb threshold can help with this gene along with making sure that you get adequate fiber. That's a really important gene. You also mentioned APOE, which is I think one of the most fascinating genes. As you mentioned, if you inherit one of the variants, APOE4, that can put you at a greater risk of Alzheimer's disease, so this is kind of known as the Alzheimer's gene. There are other Alzheimer's genes, but this is the one that's responsible for about 95 percent of the genetic risk of Alzheimer's. This one, if you inherit one copy of the APOE4 allele, it gives you about a two- to threefold increase risk of Alzheimer's disease. It's not a death sentence, but it does increase your risk. If you inherit two copies, it's somewhere around 8- to 15-fold increased risk. But this gene is a little bit complicated because it's not … the number of different alleles is ... there are four of them. There are three that are kind of popular, but four in total. You can inherit the APOE2, the APOE3, and the APOE4. I happen to be an APOE2/3, and what that means, because this gene is in some ways also a nutrient sensor, especially how you respond to fat and it's involved in the trafficking of cholesterol in your body, so what this means for me is that if I go on a low-fat diet, which was kind of all the rage when I was in high school and college, it actually creates inflammation and it increases my risk of heart disease. Not only is it modulating your risk of Alzheimer's, it also modulates your risk of heart disease, and it can give us some guidance about how tolerant you are of fat in your diet. Chris: Right. And then JAK-2, that's an interesting one because it’s, as I said, not one that gets as much airplay in terms of breast cancer risk. Sara: Yeah. JAK-2 is super-interesting. It's a tumor suppressor gene, so similar to BRCA1 and BRCA2 in that regard, but I had never heard of it, honestly. I've done research on breast cancer. I've kind of followed the breast cancer field pretty carefully, but it wasn't until I sat down to make a list of all of the gene mutations related to breast cancer risk that I started to look at the literature on JAK-2. In some ways, I feel like writing this book saved my life because I discovered as I made this list of gene mutations that I have the JAK-2 mutation. What that means is I have about a threefold increased risk of breast cancer. My lifetime risk of breast cancer is about 39 percent. For most women living in Northern California, that risk is about 12 percent lifetime risk. That really got me into action in kind of a new way in the way that I look at this particular gene and how to modulate its expression. I also have a greater risk of colon cancer. What's recommended if you have a gene mutation like mine with JAK-2 is that you start mammograms and breast MRIs every 6 to 12 months starting at age 40, colonoscopy every five years. This was a big change, you know, versus what I had been doing for breast cancer screening. But it also, in some ways, it's strangely liberating to learn about your genetics because it allows you to kind of accept your probabilities in a different way. It kind of gives you a place to focus with your lifestyle management and with your exposome. It's definitely changing the course of what I'm going to do to prevent breast cancer. Chris: Yeah. I mean, I think this is really something that is shifting and I'm glad to see it shifting. All of my listeners will know I have been a huge advocate of a personalized approach to diet and lifestyle and behavior, environmental exposome factors, and that was largely what my first book was based on. Part of the argument for personalization comes down to these differences in gene expression. That conversation comes up a lot in my patients who have elevated lipids, like LDL particle number and lipoprotein(a), and the conversation I often have with them is, “Look, maybe that a low-carb, high-fat diet is a good idea for a lot of people, but we have clear evidence that it's driving your LDL-P through the roof, and we need to have a conversation about what the additive risk is there and what other alternatives there might be in terms of diet that would still meet your other needs without causing this increase in LDL particle number.” It's just a much more nuanced, individualized way of looking at nutrition and diet than I think what the conversation that we had been having for a couple of decades leading up to this. Sara: Yeah. Well, this is why your waitlist is so long, Chris, because I think this way of practicing that you and I have of being preventive, predictive, participatory—the four Ps of medicine—it's the future. At least I hope it's the future because our healthcare system is completely broken. But it allows us to look at that issue of inflammation and to say, “Okay, here's the genetic contribution to the aggregate of inflammation in your body. What can we do about it?” How do your genetics point to a particular way of addressing your lifestyle design so that we can really dial this in and reduce your risk of chronic disease?

The clock gene and its effect on weight

Chris: Along those lines, there are a couple other genes I would love to talk about that are really interesting. One we've already kind of referred to in terms of the HPA axis and reprogramming of that by stressful events that can actually pass down from one generation to another, which is I guess not the greatest news since we don't have control over that, but as you said, it can be liberating to know that. FKBP5 and then clock gene. Sara: Yeah, the clock gene is a little simpler, so maybe I'll start with that one. Chris: Yes. Sara: The clock gene on chromosome 12, it modulates your circadian rhythm, your ideal 24-hour sleep-wake cycle. If you have the bad variant, which once again I have, you have higher blood ghrelin levels. That's the hormone that makes you hungry. Chris: Appetite. Sara: It increases appetite. It makes you pick up the fork, as opposed to leptin, which makes you put down the fork, and you have resistance to weight loss. Pretty much, there are so many hormones that are released on the circadian rhythm. They're affected as well by the clock gene, and the idea here is that you have thousands of biological patterns in your body that are regulated by the circadian rhythm. We have an epidemic of dyscircadianism. If you inherit the variant of the clock gene, the idea is to really protect your circadian rhythm to keep your body on a normal sleep-wake cycle, and that will help you regulate hormone production. For me, if I want to lose weight, I have all these obesity genes and I'm trying to manage, I have to get seven to 8.5 hours of sleep if I want to lose weight. Weight loss isn't the only factor, but it's one of the outcomes that has been probably defined the best when it comes to the clock gene. Chris: This is something we've talked about a lot on the show, how the circadian rhythm is just absolutely crucial to all aspects of how every single cell in the body responds to it and even the simplest single-celled organism appears to be impacted by the 24/7 light-dark cycles. In Stephan Guyenet’s most recent book, we just had him on this show and we were talking about the neurobiology of weight regulation, he believes—and I think the research supports this—that aside from diet, sleep and circadian regulation is possibly the second-most significant controllable factor when it comes to weight gain and weight loss. These are really important things to be paying attention to. Sara: I totally agree. I mean, I think that restorative sleep may be as close to a panacea as we have in functional medicine. When I go back to that failure state that I had at 44, I think one of my issues beyond the ten-plus years of problems with my HPA and with cortisol production, one of my issues is that I was skimping on sleep. It's just kind of the nature of being a mother (working mother or a working father), and I can't tolerate that. Only about 3 percent of the population has the short sleep gene, where they function well on six hours or less per night. The other 97 percent of us, for the most part, need to really pay attention to circadian rhythm. For me, I was working full time at 44, practicing functional medicine, and then I was writing my first book at night, and so my sleep was definitely affected. I was getting to about six hours a night and using caffeine to kind of make up the difference ... which I think of now as a high-interest loan. So I really had to pay attention to this. What happened over that time is that I steadily, somewhat below the radar, gained about 20 pounds and inflammaging was ... it was part of this process.

How do you measure aging?

Chris: When you did this research for the book, you looked at the genes, you looked at all of the markers, the telomere test, and all of the other biomarkers (some of which you talked about earlier). When you put this all together, what's your current take on the best way to measure aging? I mean, there's still a lot that we don't understand about aging and what it even means and how to measure it. Where did you come out on that? Sara: I came out a little disappointed, honestly, because I wish we had one simple blood test that could tell you definitively. But here's where we are, and I do want to answer your question about one of the stress genes, the FKBP5. I talked about telomeres kind of at the beginning, in the way that I defined a failure state for myself, and they're a good marker, but they're not perfect. Despite what you might hear from telomere books, it turns out that cancer cells, for instance, have longer telomeres. That's part of the failed homeostatic mechanism is that the telomeres are longer, so you can get—if you're looking at the question of rapid aging, telomeres can give you a false negative. They're not a perfect test. If you look at the Baltimore Longevity Study, one of the markers that they think is the most helpful is interleukin 6, which is one of those cytokines or chemical messages of inflammation. Hand grip strength. I'm a fan of using any markers that are free, and hand grip strength is a good one. It's used in a lot of the studies of aging, especially in older folks. The way I work on my hand grip strength is to hang from a bar, like a pull-up bar. I go to bar class about four times a week and I hang from a pull-up bar for about one to two minutes. Testing your hand grip strength is another way of looking at this. There are a lot of different ways of looking at aging. I think some of the inflammatory markers beyond interleukin 6 can also be helpful. Do you have a way that you measure it, Chris? Chris: Not quickly like that. I mean I just put together a picture with a number of these different inflammatory markers, some of the cardiovascular disease risk markers. I look at cognitive markers for cognitive function. I guess the shorthand version is it's kind of a gestalt at this point and I'm looking at mostly markers of inflammation from a biomarker perspective, but this isn't something that I've looked into in as great of detail as you have. Sara: Well, you know what I did, I did the same thing. I created a gestalt and what I did was to put together kind of the latest thinking on how to track the aging process. I have a quiz, kind of a lengthy quiz, that you can do to assess your health span. There's also the RealAge Test, for instance, which is now about 15 years out of date and doesn't include a lot of the latest thinking about inflammation, but if people are interested in doing that quiz, we can mention that as well. That's what I used, kind of the quiz together with some biomarkers. Fasting blood sugar is another good one. I think it's another way of kind of looking at the failure state. How's your glucose homeostasis? That's a really important predictor of the aging process. When I turned 50 two weeks ago, I was very sad to discover a study that showed that your fasting glucose goes up by about 10 points by age 50, and then it continues to climb if you don't do anything about it. Depending on diet and sleep and these other levers of healthspan, kind of that period of time where you feel like you're in your prime and your biology is working for you. It continues to climb by about 10 points every decade. I think fasting blood sugar is kind of the easiest thing that people can get from their conventional doctor and it's a really important biomarker.

The FKBP5 gene and stress response

Chris: Let's return to FKBP5 and the role in the stress response and PTSD. I just did a presentation not last weekend, but the weekend before at UCSF on the myth of adrenal fatigue and I talked about genetic and epigenetic reprogramming of the HPA axis that can happen even in utero that leads to changes in cortisol levels throughout a person's entire life. I didn't go into any detail on the specific genes and gene expression involved there, but I'm curious. A lot of the research I've seen is the same as what you refer to, the Holocaust, and the Dutch Hunger Cohort, and then 9/11. There's also Norrbotten, the far northern part of Sweden and the feast-and-famine kind of research there. Tell us a little bit more about this gene and its role in the stress response and then how stress affects our physiology. Sara: Yeah. Well, this gene FKBP5 is involved in your HPA. And I agree with you—traumatic stress has lasting effects on your body, and it can also affect your children and your grandchildren via epigenetic change. When I struggle with my stress response system and my telomeres, my fasting blood sugar, my cortisol levels, it's helpful to know that it's not necessarily all you. It could be related to the stress your mother or grandmother felt. In my case, my mother was going through a divorce when she was pregnant with me, so she definitely had a lot of stress and it was at a time in 1967, it was the era of Twiggy. She was underweight and only gained about 20 pounds with me and it wasn't trendy to breastfeed. There were a number of epigenetic changes that occurred for me. But more specifically, let's look at the science. The person who's done the most compelling work in this field is Rachel Yehuda. She's at Mount Sinai Hospital. She's a professor of psychiatry and neurosciences. Her work has mostly been on the Holocaust and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. First with the Holocaust, she looked at the genes of 32 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. She lives in maybe the perfect area to study these folks and then she looked at the genes of their children. She compared as a control group their results to Jewish families living outside of Europe during the war. She had a really profound control group and her focus was FKBP5 because it's the gene that seems to regulate the HPA perhaps more powerfully than other genes. What she found was epigenetic inheritance of the survivor trauma. The DNA didn't change in the survivors, but the epigenetic marks did. I think of those marks as being kind of like sticky notes that attach to the FKBP5 gene, and they increase your risk of post-traumatic stress disorder. Those sticky notes that she found in the survivors that attached to this gene were passed on to their offspring. She also looked at the women who were pregnant at or near the World Trade Center in New York City during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and she had a total of 35 pregnant women. Again, they had alterations to FKBP5, and they increased a woman's risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder and then passing it onto her baby. There's another study that is worth mentioning because it was a different type of stress, and this might even be more relevant for our audience today. It was an ice storm in Canada that occurred in 1998, and what happened was a vicious cold snap. They had severe sub-zero weather that led to power outages and extreme cold exposure that went on for several weeks, and people were basically homebound. They were stuck at home. Researchers have then tracked the women who are pregnant at that time, and their kids are now, you know, 18 to 20 years old, and they looked at genetic tags that were placed by the prenatal stress and then compared them to normal women. Again, they found that the DNA methylation signatures were different in the children of these women that were in utero during the ice storm and the cold snap, and what is profound to me is that they found that their immune cells showed profound differences. They had methylation in gene promoter regions, which are the switches for genes to be turned on and off, especially the genes that control insulin and blood sugar and maybe even immune function. This provides even more evidence of the epigenetic switch that can occur during severe stress. Chris: Yeah. And as I was saying before, that it's really crazy to see how much these genes can affect every part of physiology. We now know there are connections between changes in the circadian rhythm and blood sugar regulation, inflammatory signaling, which, as we talked about, virtually affects every chronic disease that we know about so far, affects changes in hormone balance and regulation. We have ... we evolved in this environment of 24/7 light-dark cycle that was unchanged for millions—billions of years, really—and it wasn't until the last 150 years that we developed artificial light and the ability to get exposure to light at night. That affects our circadian rhythm, and it's just this gigantic experiment. It's not really surprising, actually, to me to recognize that the changes in the expression of these genes can have such a profound impact on our health. Sara: Yeah, huge. And I think it's helpful maybe to just talk briefly about the Dutch famine study because it points to a few other outcomes. If we didn't get your attention with the diabetes and the genes that can regulate your risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, when you look at the Dutch famine, that data is really compelling to me because this was 1944 in Western Netherlands. There was a German blockade of transport and it led to a catastrophic drop in food availability, and people barely survived on a dramatic reduction in the calories that they were getting each day. Some even dropped down to 600 calories per day. They were so desperate they were digging up tulip bulbs to eat. They then got liberated by the Allies in 1945, and they had 20,000 people who died of starvation. The women who were pregnant before, during, and immediately after the famine, they then looked very carefully because the Dutch keep such meticulous health records; and now these famine babies, there's about 2,400 of them there now about 70 years old, and they know that the babies born to those women who were in the Dutch famine, they had a normal birth weight. They were able to kind of get what they needed from their mothers, but their children were fat. The offspring, the Dutch famine grandbabies, had neonatal adiposity. They were fatter babies and they also had poorer health later on, and then another piece that I think is interesting is that if you look at the brains of the people who were in utero during the famine, they have accelerated aging. There are about 300 adults that survived, and now the most recent data shows they have definitely weaker hand grip strength. They have weaker muscles. They have physical frailty and their brain function, especially attention and focus, is compromised compared to controls.

The effect of eating meat on aging

Chris: Right. I want to talk about one last thing here, which is meat. It’s always fun to talk about meat. We earlier talked about this new, maybe not new, but a shift in the idea that there's not just one diet that's best for anybody. Now of course we've been talking about this for years, but I think this is this concept is starting to get out there more in the mainstream, and I'm glad to see the discussion shifting maybe a little bit from low carb or low fat or this idea that everyone should do the same thing, which is preposterous. Tell us what your thoughts are (which may be different than my thoughts or the thoughts of other people who have been on the show) about meat consumption and an individual approach to that based on gene and environment interactions. Sara: Sure. Well, I think in some ways you and I are very much on the same page agreeing that there isn't one-size-fits-all, and even what worked for you 10 years ago might not work for you now. For most of my life, I've been an omnivore. I had a period of time in medical school when we were doing anatomy dissection where I was just so grossed out by the fat and the flesh that I went vegan, and when I went vegan I dropped weight. I had no energy and frankly I looked like I was on the cover of National Geographic. My boobs deflated. I probably had almost no estrogen, almost no pregnenolone. I come at this from a place of being an omnivore, but what I found is that there some very interesting work, especially by Martin Blaser. Chris: Yeah. Sara: Looking at the microbiomes and how it's involved in estrogen modulation. Specifically, what's known as the estrobolome. What I suspect personally is that when I eat more red meat, I tend to recycle estrogen to excess. The concept here is that your gut microbes can influence your systemic estrogen levels, as they contain certain enzymes like glucuronidase which render estrogens re-absorbable. It may be that modulation of the estrobolome could be helpful, and this seems to be more of a factor for women than men. For women, it may impact your risk of breast and endometrial cancer or maybe even diabetes, and for men more your risk of prostate cancer. I have to acknowledge that the evidence here is limited. Much of it is association, not causation. Most of it is observational. But women who eat more meat seem to have higher serum estrogen levels. Now, it could be other things that they're having with the meat, maybe it's the barbecue sauce or the bun or the French fries cooked in industrial seed oils. Maybe it's SIBO. Maybe vegetarians are less stressed, we don't really know. But I do have a gene called PPARG which seems to perform better with marine fat compared with animal fat, and observational studies show that there's more weight loss in women who have this gene variant who eat more seafood compared to meat. There's some other evidence that supports this, pretty much all observational. Including after menopause, eating red meat can increase your breast cancer risk by a modest amount, about 22 percent. Dairy consumption is associated with higher estrogen levels. Vegetarians have lower estrogen levels than omnivores and have a lower risk of breast cancer, but maybe it's fiber. Maybe it has nothing to do with the meat versus no meat. Japanese women definitely less meat than American women. They have lower rates of breast cancer, but who knows, maybe it's the green tea. I say this because you know I love your work and I think part of the takeaway here is what's the N of 1 experiment—in many ways a randomized trial is the gold standard that we have in medicine, we're kind of stuck with it—but the N of 1 experiment I think is even more important when it comes to figuring out what's the truth for you when we talk about this gene-environment interaction. Chris: Yeah. It's very much underrated, actually, I think. I mean, certainly we have to be aware of the limitations of N=1, and I think the biggest limitation or concern is that people use N=1 experience and extrapolate that to assume that that will be other people's experience as well. For example, the diet evangelists, someone here whose life was changed by a low-carb diet or a vegan diet or whatever, and then assumes that everybody else will have the same experience. But if you do understand the limitations of N=1 and you know how to properly perform those experiments, it can be incredibly powerful. At the end of the day, I'm always having this conversation with patients, “No matter what you believe, your body is the final arbiter.” If you think a ketogenic diet sounds really cool and you're convinced by what people are writing about and talking about in relation to it and then you try it, you stick with it, and you feel like a total train wreck, then what's the more important piece of factor there in that decision? I would argue that it's your experience. Sara: Oh, for sure, for sure. I totally appreciate that. I don't think I'm a food evangelist. I think I'm more of a food agnostic because I really want people to do this N of 1 experiment and I'm not saying that I don't eat meat. I mean, you know that because I've shared a cow with you. My freezer might have a little bit more meat than yours left over. I totally agree with you. I went on a very strict kind of Paleo regimen, and I could get to a body mass index of 23, and I couldn't get lower than that. And so for me, my N of 1 experiment showed me that if I want to fit into my clothes, I need a few more carbohydrates, I have to modify. And I tried a ketogenic. I think you and I talked a little bit about this a couple of summers ago. I went on a ketogenic diet with my husband. I was my usual kind of obsessive way of going about it and checking blood ketones throughout the day. I was in ketosis for three months and I gained 14 pounds. It was a disaster. There are about 10 different enzyme defects that can make you have a lot of difficulty and inflammation with a ketogenic diet, and I probably have one of those. This N of 1 experiment, I think, is just a really important way to be thinking about how to slow down the aging process, how to reduce inflammation that's at the root of all the chronic disease that we're talking about. Chris: Yeah. And this is something that always comes up with patients. In fact, I can think of several off the top of my head who I thought would be a great candidate for a ketogenic diet. They have a number of conditions that would benefit from it, they're overweight, they have some neurological issues, neurocognitive problems, maybe chronic infection. They're kind of the poster child for benefiting from a ketogenic approach, and yet when they do it—even with a lot of tweaking and sticking with it to get through that difficult transition period of fat adaptation and trying exogenous ketones and trying different ratios of macronutrients, lowering protein intake, adding some low-intensity aerobic exercise like walking, all the tweaks, and not to say that there still aren’t others that might have worked—but at some point, you start to realize that you're kind of beating your head up against a wall trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. For me, fortunately, that doesn't go on for as long because I don't have the belief that it should work for everybody. Sara: That's right. Chris: Yeah. Well, Sara thanks so much for coming on the show. It's always a pleasure. I appreciate your balanced and measured approach—your evidence-based approach, but also your consideration of other factors outside of the framework of the cherished randomized controlled trial. Which, as we all know, has shortcomings and those shortcomings have become even more apparent lately with the work of John Ioannidis and others who've pointed out the inherent flaws in our current research paradigm. It's great to see how all of those different perspectives come together in your book, Younger. Tell people when is it out, where can they find it, and anything else they should know about it. Sara: Yeah. My book is out. It's available anywhere books are sold. You can get it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local independent bookseller. I really want for people to care about aging. That's kind of my bottom line and to care about the N of 1 experiment. Those are the two biggest takeaways. The other great part here is that you're never too young, you're never too old to care about aging. Chris: Yeah. I agree with that completely and I've seen pretty remarkable turnarounds even late in life for people who've never really thought much about this, so it's never too late to start, and yet the earlier you do start, the better. If you're a young person listening to this, it might be harder for you to think about the perils of aging because you haven't really had an experience of your own mortality or morbidity perhaps, but the sooner you can get tuned into some of this stuff, the better your chances for a long healthy lifespan will be. Thanks again, Sara, and I'll see you next week, but we will make sure to have you back on the podcast for your next book, which I'm sure there will be one. Sara: That's for sure. Thanks, Chris. Thanks everyone.

Source: http://chriskresser.com April 06, 2017 at 06:05PM

[idealisticrealism]

Blindspot 2x12 recap

(Aka the one where Roman gets to go on an outing, the show rights a bunch of wrongs, and Weller develops new fantasies regarding Jane and motorbikes)

So this is the first episode I’ve been able to/have chosen to watch live since seeing the pilot at Comic Con-- thanks to the triple miracles of live online streaming, a deserted office in a currently unused part of the hospital, and a rare patient-free afternoon-- and man am I so glad I did. Lbr I rode the high from this ep for the rest of the damn day (okay, week) lol.

Which, naturally, means that there is a ridiculous amount of flailing waiting below the cut. Enjoy.

So Weller seems to be regretting his boss-role rn as he is badgered by an assistant lol-- one named either Brianna or Rihanna (seriously Weller you need to enunciate more clearly sometimes), which is a fact that apparently either Weller briefly forgot, or Sully did, since there was just a fraction of a pause before he said her name haha. And okay Weller I know you are sad about the whole bye-bye baby thing (goddammit now I have Bay City Rollers in my head), but seriously, someone in your position should NOT be signing anything without reading it first! Like, who is this ‘new analyst’, who is being tested for drugs, who is getting security credentials for the deputies committee, and exactly what's in the departmental budget?? What if the ‘budget’ you just signed cuts all the funding to the Sandstorm taskforce? Or if any of the security passes you just approved are going to Sandstorm moles?? Dude. As a sidenote, though, I like Weller's signature, and it entertains me because its style is literally exactly the same as Sully's signature. Which is hardly surprising, obviously, but cute all the same. Man we really need them to get a new Assistant Director though-- Weller never seems happy behind a desk, as demonstrated by the fact he literally ran when he got the message from Patterson lol. The boy needs to be out in the field, needs to be running free with a gun in his hand and his wifey beside him, saving the world

Loolllll I love Zapata teasing Reade about his hookup last night. He tries to act all affronted and reminds her that the girl has a name, only for it to immediately backfire when she challenges him to tell her what it is because he doesn't know either. Oh, you really backed yourself right into that corner, buddy. And then in very sibling-esque fashion he's just like 'argh I don’t have a comeback to that so just leave me alone alright' lol. And omg speaking of siblings, Jane is proudly telling everyone how Roman solved the leopard tattoo, while Patterson mutters little corrections from the background, a tiny bit put out that Roman is getting all the credit for her discovery and analysis. Shhh, it's okay, baby. They all know you're the smartest one in the room, not to mention that you've cracked like 90% of the tattoos. Let Jane have her moment of being a doting big sister haha. But anyhow Patterson still has the kicker-- not only does the tattoo point to the biker gang (okay so we call them 'bikies' in Australia, so you have no idea how hard I have to concentrate to type ‘biker gang’ each time) but anyway it actually revolved around a government agent that was running guns over the border for them, and he was already caught just before the tattooing happened, which could be why Sandstorm scrapped the leopard tattoo. Jane is all for using the photo of the biker girl to help jog Roman's memory, whereas Nas (and her pet shrink) are against triggering any more memories on the belief that it will also trigger his 'antisocial behaviour'. Hey does anyone remember that scene in the movie iRobot, where Will Smith sneezes and apologises for being allergic to bullshit? I wanna put him in a room with Nas and her shrink and watch him dissolve into a marathon of constant sneezing fits every time either of them opens their mouth. But hey, maybe they're actually totally right, like remember how Jane's memory of shooting a nun made her go on a killing spree in every church she could find? Oh, wait... 

But anyhow, thankfully Weller is seeing a bit more sense this week, and immediately backs up his wifey, leading he, Nas and Jane to stand in the next room and watch as the shrink prompts Roman with the photo. I have to say, using the motorbike sounds was a good move, and clearly it worked. I'm excited to see him having real memories of his adult life, especially ones that could give us more clues to Sandstorm’s plans. And in the memory, Kat's teasing concern about him driving over potholes definitely implies that he's transporting explosives. But then again, this is Sandstorm, and they collect explosives like birds collect shiny things, so it’s hardly a revelation. And ughhh Weller and Jane share a meaningful look (with Nas again forgotten in the background, my second-favourite way for her to be, the first being absent altogether) and then Roman looks to Jane, who gives him an approving smile and a nod and my baBY SmiLES baCK and ugh just look at this puppy. Look at him. He's adorable and we need to keep him, even if he used to bite people and chew everything and pee on the rug. We'll train him up and he will be a Good Boy, I swear. 

So with this fresh intel, the team reconvenes in the meeting room, and tbh despite Weller being the one standing at the end of the table, Jane is totally the one running this show, and he's literally just watching her in rapt attention haha. And as she poses the theory that the tattoo was removed by Sandstorm because it might link too closely back to them, everyone actually listens, with not even a skeptical glance from Reade of a snarky comment from Zapata. Jane might not be entirely forgiven yet, but she's finally no longer a scapegoat, and I LOVE IT. And you know who has noticed this change too? Nas. She's definitely seeing the old team start to knit back together, and in particular the old partnership reforming between Weller and Jane, and she knows it doesn't bode well for her. Damn straight, lady. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. (Or, as you do with everything else, just pretend to and then lie about it). But anyway here comes the real kicker of the ep-- the biker gang is notorious for never snitching, which means they need someone on the inside, and I love how straightforward and 'in the box' the team's thinking can sometimes be, because the moment Jane suggests sending Roman in, they're all like "whaaaaaaa????" as if that option had never even had the possibility of occurring to them. Like yes, fair enough he's kinda a 'prisoner of war' at the moment, but he's also their only current choice, so...? But ugh, I love that even though Weller is taken aback by her suggestion, he lets her make her case, his eyes never leaving hers even for a second. (Be still my bruised little shipper heart.) And then they seemingly get the shrink to come in to give her opinion, and I like that Weller is now sitting down at the table rather than standing like before, as if putting them all on even ground. Everyone gets a chance to have input. And then ugh: "He's a terrorist"//"So was I". Wow, Jane, that's a big statement. Just look at my baby taking responsibility for what her past self has done, even if she is now a completely different person and would never do the things Remi did. And lil Patterson next to her raises the point that they didn't know that she was a terrorist, and I love that after she says this, she keeps her eyes locked with Jane's even as Nas is saying her piece (lbr Nas isn't worth her attention anyway) but ugh I just love how expressive that look is? Is she thinking about Borden, and how they never knew HE was a terrorist? Or is it a look of apology, like 'I'm sorry we considered you a terrorist for a while', or both, or...? Honestly I really want to see more of the relationship between these two, especially if it involves seeing Jane supporting Patterson in her grief/betrayal over Borden. But anyway Nas raises the point that they know nothing about Roman's past interactions with the gang, so they'd essentially be going in there blind, and the shrink chimes in that in that setting he might suddenly lash out and become violent. God, she sounds like a broken record. And then when Jane says she can keep him in line because of their relationship, the shrink insists (after spending literally like 15 mins total with him) that he is completely incapable of love or human connection and therefore Jane won't be able to handle him. Geeeezzzz, lady, if anyone with any psych training overheard you spouting this crap, you'd probably get deregistered. Psychology might not be an ‘exact’ science but that still doesn't mean you can just make up whatever shit you want!!! Ugh. But anyway, what's this???? My son has finally found both his common sense and his spine, and firmly states that they need to do whatever it takes to stop Phase 2, and that includes taking this chance on Roman. Which basically just translates to "I trust my wifey so now you all better as well". Nas looks understandably bummed at this, because clearly she's watching the tight leash she had on Weller fray and snap, and she knows she'll never reel him back in again. Whereas my precious Jane can barely believe her ears-- she's so used to all her ideas and suggestions being ignored or smacked down, and her feelings disregarded, but not anymore. All that's changing now that Weller's head has been freed from his ass, and I absolutely love the resigned looks from all the others like 'oh we're back to this then, the Weller and Jane show" lol (but for real hallelujah)

Nawww Roman, so desperate to get out but then asking uncertainly if she's sure that letting him out is actually a good idea.  And ugh she's so supportive and encouraging and assures him that she trusts him when he's worried that he'll hurt people. See that concern for the well-being of others?? That alone literally DISQUALIFIES him for a diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder. Ugh. I literally want to find the biggest psych textbook I can find, open it to the page on APD, and then throw it at the shrink's face. But anyway omg-- this moment in the bullpen. I can’t. The team’s all right there; Patterson slowly pacing with an ‘I don't know if this is a good ideaaaa...’ expression on her face, Reade with his hand shoved in his pockets and a ‘This is totally a bad idea’ expression (and Zapata doing pretty much the same, except with arms crossed), and Nas standing off to the side fidgeting with her phone and looking vaguely guilty. Although lbr that's probably just her shadiness manifesting physically, so meh. But then there's freakin' Weller standing there in his nice suit looking like he's doing a practice run for when he's at the altar and Roman walks Jane down the aisle toward him. I literally cannot deal rn. And ugh then Jane gently guides Roman through the bullpen, reassuring him that though he may not have many supporters among the FBI right now, she will always support him. And lbr she knows what it's like to walk through this bullpen and have everyone eyeing you with dislike and distrust. But she was able to rise above it and earn her place back, and Roman will earn his. But aaaahhhhh Weller greets him by name and thanks (!!) him for helping them and ugh I'm really emotional about it. Though lbr he's gotta be on his best behaviour, I mean this is his future brother-in-law, after all. Patterson follows his polite lead, though is clearly uncomfortable. But I'm actually impressed with how the team rallies, putting aside their discomfort and getting down to business. (Gotta defeat those Huns). But come on, guys, don't give those looks when he mentions a gun. Literally anyone would be wanting to know if they're going to have any protection when walking in to a possible deathtrap. Of course, Jane smoothly handles the situation, throwing a brief look of gratitude at Weller as she leads Roman out to get some clothes. A look which Nas definitely doesn't miss, nor does she miss the way Weller himself watches the siblings walk away.... 

Speaking of this brother-sister team, damn are they looking both badass and fine as they walk into the bar. And ugh Jane is so supportive of him. Which is kinda the opposite of Remi, apparently, who is being pretty damn harsh to him in this memory while she unpacks a whole heap of C4. (Good thing New Roman knows that Jane was wiped too, and is nothing like his sister used to be!). But oh boy, this memory has just taught us that Roman and Kat were a lot more than strangers. Which is kinda sweet, but definitely not good for them right now. His "We have a problem" is so cute haha. And then Kat (who is stunning, by the way, good taste Roman) comes over and punches him in the face. And well, at least we know he doesn't immediately flip into violent mode when attacked? Also tbh he's actually doing a really good job at being out in the field, reading the situation and thinking on his feet just like Jane does. I feel so proud. And now they've managed to score a meeting with the big boss-- who we know is Bad and Dangerous bc he's beating the crap out of some guy the moment we meet him. Also Jane said earlier she'd have a gun on her but the dudes didn't say anything when they searched her-- did they just take it, or did she not have one? Idk I'm just curious. But ugh then my babies cleverly construct a story using just enough truth to be believable, giving an excuse for both his absence and any future 'unusual' behaviour. Then they broker a deal where if the bikers set up a sale and draw Shepherd out, the gang will get to keep both the money and the fancy explosives that Shepherd apparently wants. And ugh I'm so proud of my baby Roman, bluffing that he knows where to get the explosives and agreeing to the bikers coming along to steal it. My puppy is doing so well. And then just to remind us again how Scary this biker dude is, he shoots the unconscious form of the dude he's been beating. Better keep working on those poker faces, guys, because I saw the utter empathy from both of you just then ugh

Back at the lab, the team is chastising Roman for doing things the way he did, and while I'm kinda like ‘leave him alone guys he did his best’, I do appreciate that one of their main arguments is that he could have gotten Jane killed. Because they CARE. They don't want to see anything happen to her because she's one of them and I'm so emotional about it. Anyway Zapata raises a very good point, one that I've been waiting for someone to mention-- basically that Shepherd herself probably won't show for the sale anyway, but Weller points out that capturing any Sandstorm operative would be a huge help to them. I like that Roman is kind of excluded from that category, and I know it's pretty much only bc he has no memories of it, but still. And then Patterson makes it clear that the only way to get this military-grade explosive is to steal it, and Nas is all ‘meh so they'll steal it’ and walks out to start some shady dealings, and pretty much everyone stares after her like she's just grown another head. Are you really surprised, guys?? Nas doesn't exactly give a shit about doing things by the rules... rules other than her own, anyway. And then Patterson and Zapata are all 'we can't give real explosives to a biker gang and a terrorist group' but Weller knows Jane's right when she says they’ll test whatever they do get and won’t react well to fakes, so they need to use the real stuff.

Reade admits to Zapata about Freddy's ex and how both of them were feeling guilty, and as usual she immediately defends what he did and tries to convince him to let it go, bc she knows that if he’s not careful, he'll let his guilt grow into a self-destructiveness that could have huge consequences. And speaking of that kind of guilt, Patterson approaches Nas about wanting to be present for the Sandstorm trap, and her guilt over Borden and ughhhh my baby is hurting so much (damn you Borden!!!) but it's interesting how her words kind of describe the S1 Weller/Jane situation a tiny bit (Weller's feelings for Jane clouding his judgement, blinding him to reality, and vice versa) and apparently also describe Nas's experience at the NSA. So the Sandstorm mole in her department was her lover? Interesting. I wonder if the shrink worked with her there too, and that's how she got her injury? But anyway yaaaasss Patterson getting (rightfully) angry at Nas for being blind to Borden's betrayal bc she was too busy spying on the rest of them-- finally someone calls her on it! You go, Patterson. 

Oooooh I am so here for Weller calling Jane aside, his hand lingering unnecessarily at her back as he draws her away from Roman, the sad-hearteyes fixed on her as he tells her to be careful, not to let her guard down around Roman. And then ugh "I know you want Roman to be something different, but you have to treat him like any dangerous asset, the same way I treated you when I found out who you were". Ugh, I love the implication here that he didn't really want to treat her like he did, but treated her how he felt he had to. (After she came back, I mean. That night he arrested her he wasn't really thinking through his actions at all). And then ugh she calls him Kurt and insists that Roman wouldn't hurt her and that he is capable of love and I love how balanced their exchanges are now? They're totally on the same level, no bitterness or pain between them. Just two people who know each other as well as they know themselves. And aaahhh Weller is honest about his concerns that Roman is manipulating her and manipulated Kat, too, the way ‘she manipulated Jeffrey Cantor’, aka using his feelings for her to get what she wanted. I LOVE that he knows that wasn't the case with him. Everything between them was real, he knows that now. But ugh I love the look Roman throws at Weller as he and Jane get in the elevator. Lbr, he knows Weller is in love with her-- he doesn't need his memories to know that, not when it’s written all over Weller’s face.

Nawww Roman telling the bikers the plan and answering all their questions so confidently and ugh I am so proud of my lil puppy. Also lol I love the fact that Mr Scary Biker Man is scared of Shepherd. And then aaahhh they all head off and Kat rides with Roman, and "How come you never came back for me?"//"You ever came looking". Damn, boy, you're smooth! Also uh oh she just gave him a gun, hope he won't need to use it... but duuuuude this whole bike-to-truck thing is crazy! How did he know he'd even be able to do that??? I can't believe he didn't lose his balance and splat on the road lol. And then omg the drivers are Weller and Reade????? Oh geeeezzzzz this can't go well. Jane doesn't look surprised at all to see them, though, so I'm guessing it was part of the plan? And so the bikers now have the explosives, but in a shocking-- lbr not all that shocking-- twist, Roman now has to kill Weller and Reade. Sigh guys, are you really telling me you didn't think this miiiight happen if you were witnesses to this whole thing? The two of them look shocked, but that just might be their acting (nice work boys) whereas Jane's pokerface definitely slips into genuine fear for them both, before she quickly covers and tries to talk the bikers out of it without making it too obvious that she's trying to protect them. But my puppy Roman knows that if he doesn't kill them, the bikers will kill all four of them, so he takes a chance, the only one that will ensure his sister survives and hopefully that he and Weller and Reade do as well. I'd like to think that he noticed their puffy-looking jackets and realised that they had vests on underneath, but maybe it was just a solid guess. And ugh I just want to hug my baby Jane, because while she doesn't make a sound I can practically see the anguished scream echoing behind her eyes as the two of them fall to the ground. In that moment, she thinks she's lost both the man she loves and a man who's like family to her, plus she thinks that it's her fault and that she was wrong about Roman, and is now still in danger of losing her own life, and on top of that, will be shunned by the rest of her FBI family. Basically, if that moment had been real, Jane would have literally just lost everything. Ugh, can we give her a hug yet? She's still staring at Weller's body when Roman grabs her and pulls her away, and I bet he didn't miss the way she flinched when he touched her. Ugh my baby, it's all okay, he would never hurt your family unless he had no choice, he's just doing what he has to do to protect you! Ngl tho, when he first shot them I was like WHAT!?!?? and then my immediate thought was ‘maybe blanks??’ and then I was like wait no that's not possible bc it was a real gun and then honestly my brain was still freaking out by the time they started picking themselves off the floor and then I was finally like ohhhh rigggghhttt, vests exist haha. I love Reade's "He knew we were wearing vests, right??" Yeah just go with that, Reade, because that's probably the more comforting option. Oooooohh but now Jane is super pissed at Roman, but she can't deny the sense in his words when he said that it was better to risk shooting them in the vest than hesitating too long and having all four of them get shot in the head. Apparently their little ruse worked, too, because the bikers have set up a meeting with Shepherd for later that night. Kat pulls Roman away for a second, and ugh he's sweet with her and honestly even though I'm super hopeful (aka trash) for Roman/Zapata, I'm really kinda shipping these two rn. Like they clearly really cared about each other?? I love seeing more Roman backstory. I wonder what happened that morning that he was supposed to come meet her? Did Remi stop him, or Shepherd? 

They’re back at the FBI now and tbh I’m bummed that we didn’t get to see the scene where Jane and Roman arrive and see Weller and Reade alive and (mostly) unharmed. Is someone gonna fic it, or?? (Please don’t make me do it lol). But anyway aww Jane takes Roman back to his cell, and she knows that he remembered something, and oohhh there's a little bit of tension between them bc he's still got the memory of Remi's treatment of him in his head, plus he feels like the team is still viewing him as the enemy. "You still trust me, right?" Ugh. I really hope he believes that she's being honest when she says yes...

Lol Weller sitting at his desk in a shirt with two bulletholes in it. And ugh Jane watches him through the glass for a second and it's clear she's so guilty that he got hurt and worried that he'll be angry at her or Roman for it and ughhh she's so apologetic as she comes in and then ugh "I'm so thankful that you’re both okay-- when he shot you, I thought--" SHE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD. SHE THOUGHT SHE'D JUST LOST THE MAN SHE LOVES. HELP ME. But thankfully he instantly assures her that Roman made the right call, and that must also be a relief, knowing that her brother wasn't going to face a lynchmob for kinda gambling with their lives. But ugh then the ever-perceptive Jane (who also is just very attuned to Weller, lbr) asks if something else is going on, bc she can tell there's something upsetting him. And for a moment he brushes it off just like he would have earlier this season, and in that time she's learned to obey the dismissal when it's given, so she’s about to leave but then (hallelujah) Weller gives in and confides in her like he used to, admitting that Allie's moving to Colorado. And ughhhh you can see the instant panic and distress in Jane's eyes as she stumbles through asking him whether he's going too, because no no no no please no-- and then ugh the way she lets out a tiny relieved  breath when he says he's staying. She was seriously terrified for a second there that he was going to leave and she'd never see him again. And then as he admits that his place sudenly feels really empty now that there's not gonna be a baby in it, the Jane hearteyes come out, and ugh honestly I think I love them even more than the Weller hearteyes. They're very different, more of a 'I know you will never be mine but I love you with everything that I am and I always will and I would sell my soul in a heartbeat if it meant you would be happy'. UGHHHH SHE JUST LOVES HIM SO MUCH. SO FREAKIN MUUUUUCHHHHH. And she's halfway through saying something sweet and genuine to comfort him and suddenly Zapata's interrupting (what, were Patterson and Nas too busy to perform their usual interrupting duties???) and so now the Feels wil have to wait bc the sting is onnn

Is it just me or is Weller looking very tense?? You know, almost like the woman he loves is walking straight into a potentially deadly situation?? Oh wait... But lol lbr he'd be in there in a heartbeat if there was any sign of anything going wrong. You can bet that he placed himself and Reade-- aka the two big tough men-- at the position closest to be able to get in there and provide help quickly, while Nas and Zapata are sentries around the back or whatever. I'm pleased that there has been very little Nas/Weller teaming up lately, and this time there's not even the potential explanation of Zapata and Reade avoiding each other to account for this split, bc they're all cool now. Maybe it’s because the use that Weller and Nas had for each other has passed... But anyway oh boy, this deserted bar is not a good sign for the amnesiac siblings. And Kat looks piiiissed, even more so when she raises a gun. Ooooh boy the jig really is up. Kat knows Roman's off, apparently because he didn't want to shoot the guys earlier, and because he held her hand. Idk about you, lady, but that kinda seems like an improvement overall?? And Jane agrees: "He's different now, ever since he got shot. He's better." Ugh but that little look Roman gives her when she says it-- I mean, it's kind of praise but also not? Like a 'yay she likes who I am but wow how little did she think of me before?' kinda thing? And then Roman spills the beans about the FBI while Jane is there beside him like 'oh shit', and meanwhile outside Nas is saying they need to go in now-- but Weller (rightly) waves her off without even a moment's pause because "Jane knows what she's doing". Hell yeah, look at all that beautiful support from hubby. And lol devil lady don't think I didn't see that expression on your face. Your witchy words used to have power over Weller, but not anymore. Jane is his talisman, and his love for her not only makes him better in every way, it makes him immune to you as well. To quote King Theoden: You have no power here! lol. But anyway as we're watching the inexorable crumbling of one pairing (I refuse to say 'ship' in regards to them bc imo they don’t qualify) we’re watching another one teeter on the edge-- Roman is all puppy-eyed and spouting ‘I love yous’ and Kat is wavering in her determination to kill them, and Jane is basically in the background trying to be as unobtrusive as possible bc she knows even one wrong look could get them both shot and god I hope she’s picturing Weller in that moment and hoping that she’ll one day get to tell him how she feels and then the scene switches to the other room and BAM there's the gunshots and lol I love all the biker dudes just chillin' and sipping their beer. And then aaaaaah Kat comes out and turns on her own gang for Roman and ughhhhhh I feel like this means things are about to go really badly for her. Ugh, the poor girl. Seems like this show really has a theme about suffering for the ones we love. Anyway lol at the mayhem twins being sprawled over various bits of furniture, like good work guys you're so convincing haha. And then omg they're fighting the guys (lucky only two came in) and I don't think I appreciated this the first time round (literally how do you people deal with watching live?? And only once?? I'm constantly pausing and rewinding when I watch) but anyway Jane pulls a flag off the wall and then uses it as a weapon against her opponent??? Like damn, that was badass. And then Kat literally kills a guy that she's probably known for years to prevent him from going in to join the fight??? Dude. Of course Weller sees the gunfire from outside and is immediately into his MUST SAVE WIFEY mode. Have to say though, said wifey is doing just fine at taking care of herself-- and of her brother-- given that she literally just smashed a chair over a guy to protect an incapacitated Roman. PROTECTIVE SIBLINGS UGHHHHH. But nooooo Kat's been shot (told you she would suffer for loooovee) and Roman doesn’t even notice the presence of the final shooter as he runs to her side-- but thankfully bro-in-law is not about to let anything happen to his wifey's favourite brother, and bursts in and takes the guy out before he can shoot Roman. Jane's in the room seconds later, locking eyes with hubby over the barrels of their guns (well, at least they've got protection for all that intense eye-sexing) and ugh my baby Roman is reassuring Kat and idc if he feels like a fraud, I'm glad she died believing he loved her. And tbh I don't think he was as unaffected as his abrupt turnaround made him seem. I like that he immediately hands off his gun to Weller, and Weller just accepts his determination to get the job done and rolls with it while Jane is still mentally (or rather, emotionally) catching up. Ugh, this trio is going to be the death of me, I just know it.

As they race to the meet point, the invaluable Patterson gives Weller the lowdown while Jane stares at Roman, and then as soon as there's a quiet moment, she checks if he's okay-- with Weller intently listening in. Honestly no one can see how much Jane cares about Roman without instantly becoming a little bit more smitten with her, so it must wreak havoc on Weller’s already Jane-owned heart lol.  Roman then mentions his need to ask Shepherd why she erased his memory, leading to some intense Jeller eye contact in the rear-view. I love that it's not like a guilty glance between co-conspirators; it's more her saying 'I hate that I did this thing and I can't get through it without your support' and him being like 'I know you did this thing because I asked you to and I promise I won't let you carry the weight alone'. Literally no one can convince me it was otherwise lol. Anyway the whole FBI team arrives at the meet point-- SWAT guys and all-- but do we all notice who is front and center, making the calls? Weller... and Jane. Zapata, Reade, and Nas are all a couple of steps back, and the Mere Mortals are even further behind them. And then when everyone fans out, Nas is with Jeller, but still stuck behind as they move together, side by side. As they flank the door, they realise simultaneously that it hasn't been opened in years, and then-- dun dun dun-- they discover that they're too late and Sandstorm has already been and gone, taking the explosive and leaving all the dead bikers. If this ain’t a ‘well, shit’ moment, idk what is lol

Back at the lab, the team is not having a happy time, but I am very much enjoying watching frustrated Weller in his bullet-riddled shirt (dear god please keep the shirt for posterity reasons. Bring it out on holidays/family occasions when you and Roman are arguing about which football team is better or something and be all like "Remember when you shot me?? You don't get to have an opinion!" lol) I mean idk, I'm just really attached to this shirt. I'm sentimental about things like that... bullet riddled shirts, Jane-sized duffelbags, etc... But anyway, damn, Jane is leaning against some pillar thing and even in her dejected state she still looks damn good. Though I do prefer her more natural look, she has really been rocking the dark lipstick and all-black/leather outfit. Damn. But anyhow now the team is debating how Sandstorm could be staying one step ahead of them, and lol literally everyone in the team gets to have input (Patterson's being particularly sad, about how she sweeps for bugs every morning and that maybe there's another mole in the NYO) and then it finally gets to Nas' turn and Weller just totally cuts her off before she even gets three words out. Heheheh that's right, Lady Wormtongue doesn't deserve to have an opinion. And then when she eventually gets to speak-- telling them all that they'll get the explosives back and somehow find Sandstorm, she gets nothing but chilly silence haha. Yaaaassss team. FREEZE HER OUT. DO IT.

Oooooh Mr Grumpy has headed to his office for some Serious Brooding Time (there's even teeth-gnashing and furniture-abusing involved) and we all cross our fingers, hoping for Jane to appear and soothe him as only she can... aaaand instead Nas appears. Boooooo. We’re treated to some insincere apologies and a flimsy explanation of them clouding each others' judgement, and lol I love that she thinks he used the HMX as bait bc she asked him to. Oh, honey, I thought you were supposed to be perceptive??? Literally everyone could see he did that for Jane, just as he let Roman out in the field for Jane. He's back on Jane's side now, and let’s be real now, you know it. Which means you know that being in a relationship* (*term used very lightly) with him is no longer of use to you, because it is no longer an effective means of controlling him. Don't even try to deny that you created this entanglement solely to prevent him getting re-involved with Jane (and also probably to get some good sex out of the deal, lbr here) and now that it is completely failing in its original purpose, you're cutting ties. That's just smart resources management, and you’re nothing if not methodical. But oh man I’m getting a good chuckle out of the line "we have feelings for each other, of course we do". Mmmmm-hmmm. That was so convincing. But loooollll Weller's like 'So that's it then' and literally does nothing to fight it, doesn't offer up any argument, actually almost looks pleased?? Lbr I would have rathered Weller be the one to break things off but this way works for me just fine, bc it's clear that he broke things off emotionally (if they ever even existed emotionally) quite some time ago... 

Aaaaand speaking of nonsensical and emotionless pairings, Reade-- who just happens to have his damn fine chest on display at this moment-- has an unexpected visitor. Freddy's ex (do we have a name for her yet? Calling her Freddy's ex makes me uncomfortable) comes in, while valiantly keeping her eyes up top. Well, mostly. Dw girl, no one is perfect. But anyhow as she cries about being afraid Freddy is dead and having contributed to it, Reade tells half-truths and tries to assuage his own guilt by reassuring her. Following which she becomes VERY concerned with the state of his chest, fussing over bruises that tbh could just be very determined hickeys. But then she touches the ~bare chest~ and seals the Coital Prophecy-- you know, the one where two characters (generally) of opposite genders, regardless of actual connection to one another, become powerless to resist getting it on after one of them touches the other in an area usually covered by clothes? But well, there's just no going back now, because he basically told her ‘you're not a nuisance’ and we all know that's actually code for ‘why aren't we already naked’. But for real dude, I hope you washed your sheets after last night's romp with bar girl... and don't forget that little talk we had about protection! Safety first!!! (please I can’t handle any more baby drama)

Thankfully the next scene is already 50000000x more enjoyable, and so far all it involves is Jane standing in a doorway. I am very supportive of this, and of literally anything she does. And then ugh she goes and joins Roman on the floor, and he instantly admits that he lied to Kat about being in love with her, and seems dejected at the thought that he might never have really felt anything for her and asks what's wrong with him. Oh, honey. A person without empathy or emotions would never even think to ask those questions in the first place, or be worried about the answers. And Jane, speaking from experience, tells him that feelings can't just appear like memories; they have to develop. And may I just send a big kudos to whichever brilliant person in the sound-editing department put a tiny snippet of the Jeller theme in there at that moment?? Bless you, you subtle geniuses. This conversation also says a lot about her relationship with the team vs her 'relationship' with Oscar (which I still believe was devoid of any feelings other than Jane needing to get comfort from SOMEWHERE while also needing to get info out of Oscar. Two birds, one stone, so they say). But oh man am I so relieved that Roman actually tells her that Remi was the reason he and Kat were separated, because it gives her a chance to show that she's not like Remi-- she doesn't want the same things for him that Remi did, and she is constantly trying to make up for the things that Remi is responsible for. Much like he will have to make up for what Old Roman did. And then ughhhhh she tells him not to stay fixated on who he was, but to try to embrace who he is now-- and ugh it literally seems like she's telling him what she wishes she could go back and tell herself the night she met Oscar. Chasing the past nearly cost her her future, and now that she's getting another chance at it, she's not going to let anything stop her. And ugh she promises to get him out and tells him she really believes he loved Kat and ughhh my babies I love you both so much

Damn, dark-side Borden is still pressing my buttons. I can’t help it! But anyway I’m intrigued by this increasing screen-time for this Parker guy-- who tells Borden he's there to see this country burn, aka just basically regurgitating Sandstorm's tagline-- it makes me wonder if he's actually not all he seems? Maybe he has managed to infiltrate Sandstorm (anyone notice that their name shortens to SS??) in a way Jane wasn't able to, and is secretly working against them. Either way, I'm intrigued to see what his future role will be. I'm also appreciative that he and Borden are filling in the scenes that would otherwise require Shepherd in them. Any ep that I don’t have to look at her face is a good one imo

AaaaaaaahhhhhHHHHH. I'd already seen the spoiler pics before watching this ep; had already been waiting all episode for Jane to show up at Weller's door. But for a moment when he opens it, I’m still struggling to believe it’s really happening. Jeller. Happily hanging out, alone, after work hours. Oh how I have missed this dynamic. But lbr even before we see Jane's face, we know it's her at the door, because his eyes go from surprise to HEARTS HEARTS HEARTS in like 0.00001 of a second lol. And Jane's leaning there, looking all casual, acting like her heart isn't racing and stomach isn't swirling with butterflies over the fact that it's been a long time since they had this kind of interaction and she can't be sure she's allowed to step into this territory (both figurative and literal) again and ugh just think how much guts it would have to take to reach out like this when he'd rejected her or frozen her out so many times since she'd been back?? But lbr she's always been pretty in tune with this thing between then and she can tell, now, that it's different again, that it's back to how it used to be. Or maybe even better than it was then, because there's no 'Taylor' in her that's making the focus of his affections unclear. And of course, the Assistant Director of the Jane Fanclub (the director being me, obviously) would never dream of turning her away, not anymore or ever again, and he's showering her with those heart eyes while she shyly finishes her sentence from their conversation hours ago-- because she's precious and adorable and wants to support him and reassure him ughhhh-- and then ugh in literally one of the bravest acts we've seen her do (and lbr ‘Brave’ is practically Jane's middle name) she brings him his favourite beers-- which she would have OBVIOUSLY have had to go out and buy for THIS VERY SPECIFIC PURPOSE, since it's not like New Yorkers have Pennsylvanian beer just lying around-- and ughhhh this is the best olive branch (slash date-invitation??) ever and oh man I seriously need to know how long she's had those beers and how long she's been wanting to do this and aaaaahhhhh Weller must be like 'thank GOD that foolishness with Nas is over' (I know we are) and ughhh he invites her right in and omg they're finally getting to have those 'drinks' they owed each other (technically didn't he owe her? Like you said last season, you’re racking up the debt, buddy). But aaahhhhh someone save me bc they both look so HAPPY and relaxed but also a little excited and Jane's hearteyes are killing me because legit I have never seen anyone be such a literal manifestation of 'to gaze adoringly'?? I feel like she's been suppressing these heart eyes as best she could during this last two weeks since she got back from Sandstorm-- since Weller realised what a jackass he'd been and started showing her that he really does care about her-- and she just can't hold them back anymore and ugh it's so beautiful. And then ugh my big silly baby totally overplays his 'bullet wounds' (too bad he didn't have his shirt unbuttoned like Reade, eh??) leading to some sweet little flirty banter and ughhhhhh now it's his turn to gaze adoringly as she asks him to give Roman a window or let him go for a walk or something, and lbr if he could, he would do literally anything she asked just because he wants to make her happyyyyyy. I'm so glad our big stupid son finally made it back to this point. And ughhh I am so upset at these two idiots and the way they're smiling at each other all goofily while they drink their dumb beer and then OMG SHE SEES THE FILES THAT SANDSTORM HAS ON WELLER. FINALLY. I think we've literally all been yelling "WHY AREN'T YOU SHOWING THIS SHIT TO JANE?????" ever since he found out about its existence. And then they move over to the table together and she gets adorably excited to see his yearbook thing (this literally feels like looking at your boyfriend's baby photos lol) and within two seconds she has found him. Because of course she has, she's been seeing that face in both her waking life and dreams ever since she came out of the bag (and apparently long before that, in her previous life), so of course she'd know him anywhere. He’s her person. And ugh he jokes that he could have gone pro with ball and she actually giggles and then gazes up at him as he talks about the game, the heart eyes so intense that she's practically glowing with it (you know that fuzzy glow around the sun on really hot days? Yeah, picture that) and then she looks back down at the page and BAM. Shepherd is in the crowd. And Weller REMEMBERS her. And just like that, the connection between these two has given them a HUGE break in their fight against Sandstorm. (Which lbr we all knew was going to happen and was exactly why the writers never had Jane look at this stuff before now.) Also don't even get me started on the fact that he and Jane achieved together in moments what he and Nas hadn't been able to do in weeks. Symbolism, much??????? 

But anyway that's pretty much all the rambling I have for today because all the rest is just incoherent screaming about having my show and beloved characters back lol so see you next time for more Jeller perfection aaaahhhhhh

[ecotone99]

[SF] Chapter One: Emergency

The deafening sound of the alarm woke Petra up. She was on her guard duty that night and seldom anything goes wrong when she’s on the guard duty. She quickly rose from the perch, already dressed in the battle uniform, which wasn’t really a piece of clothing. It was mostly just patches of thick leather held together by an old cotton fabric that worked as pads while inside the battle suits. Just so that it doesn’t hurt too bad while moving. It hurt anyway.

Petra got up and ran towards the The Bull which was the name she’s given to her battle suit. Not every battle suit has a name. Many of them lose their pilots way before the time comes to name it. But the Free People living inside the Capitol needed heroes, they needed hope and so it has been decided, that any soldier who survives more than ten battles earns the right to name his suit.

She was just eleven by the time she got to name hers. Back then she didn’t really give it much thought, she was always very stubborn and the name just popped into her head. As the time went by, it only felt more and more appropriate. With every battle, her rage only grew, fuelled by each one of her failures, failures to make progress, to make a change, to find those who have been lost to the Desolace. Desolace being an appropriately banishing term for whatever lied beyond the great wall. The last line of defence for mankind as it knew it.

The Capitol on the other hand, was brimming with life (so was the Desolace, but it was being kept a secret, for safety reasons). The Free People were living inside the city walls for generations. The last two never even saw the world outside, or heard any rumours about it. The life in the Capitol had a steady flow and people obeyed it. Most of the Capitol’s people were actually quite content with their lives. Those who could, meaning mostly orphans and people too poor to have a choice, would join the defensive force of the city, but they’d be effectively banned from participating in what others called a normal life. There was a great fear that someone might come into contact with the virus while defending and carry it back inside the city. That would surely mean a disaster. For the city’s defensive force and the belief in the founding fathers’ construction skills were the only two things that were keeping the terrible illness at bay. It was kept outside in the Desolace where it could do whatever it pleased, as far as the Capital’s people were concerned. As long as they felt safe inside their honeycomb-shaped armed-to-teeth wall, everything was fine.

Yet, all the ones that joined the defensive force had a feeling that everything wasn’t so perfect, especially now, a hundred and fifty years after the final day of the construction. The wall was starting to age, getting rusty, some of the blades didn’t extend as far as they used to, some of the mincers were too rusty to start up and in places, the bite marks on the steel frame prevented the safety door from closing. The screeching sounds every time it needed to move. The ones who noticed that were subtly given an idea, that their safe haven might not last forever, as it was advertised.

After all, Petra knew that nothing last forever. Her mother had died shortly after childbirth and her father died when she was five, she could barely remember his face, the only thing that she had left was a cheap necklace with a plastic half a heart. When she was one year old, her father passed it to her, it was after her mother. Her parents bought two necklaces, each with one half of a heart as a symbol of their love and because they were drunk and it seemed like a good idea. While looking distinctly cheap and meaningless, in her hands it was like a golden family heirloom. It was the only thing she could hang on to when feeling down and lost. Over the years, she often did. The formerly red plastic heart was tainted by time, and dirty, oily hands, it’s become black. At first Petra tried to clean it, but later she gave up the effort. In time she was actually proud of the colour, for it signified the black emptiness inside her. The hole left by her family she never had. She had many colleagues and fellow soldiers but she never had a friend, or at least that was how she felt. If there ever was somebody close to her, it was Henry, a strange man who’s lost much; just as she did.

The wall was a honeycomb-like structure, over hundred meters tall and just about ten meters thick it was way beyond anything a creature could jump, even a very fast, agile and dangerous creature. It used to be dark red and you could still mostly make that colour out, but it was accompanied by others as well. Some newly added modules did not keep with the former red colouring, resulting into something that could almost be called a piece of art. The wall made a full circle around the ruins of Old York Colony. It had no ceiling, but there was a net of wires in a honey-comb shape that covered the skies effectively creating a barrier from all possible sides.

The wall’s been keeping humankind alive for more than hundred and fifty years. An ingenuine idea a modular wall. Each steel cell was hollow, but weaponized. Initially with but a few types of defence mechanisms, like cutting blades, or a saw, or a simple machine gun. But as the wall had to be repaired over the years and as its modular design allowed; human creativity gave birth to a plethora of all thinkable and unthinkable weapons, neatly stacked in their respective honeycombs just waiting for an enemy who would dare to approach. It was not unusual to see weapons like laser grids, mass-decomposers and other high-tech gadgets invented with the idea of killing in mind. All this meant that the wall could be easily and quickly repaired just by replacing a damaged cell. It also meant that was fairly light and thanks to its structure it could be excessively high.

The battle suits were at first only invented as a way to service the wall. What normally needed a crane and around ten people could be easily done with just one or two technicians, when they were equipped with an exo-suit. But in time, the monsters started to focus their attacks more, they were cooperating and it got dangerous. The people of the Capital had to have some other defence as well, for when they went to exchange a damaged cell the creatures would try to seize the opportunity to force their way inside. About a hundred and twenty years ago, the Free People upgraded some of their exo-suits to battle suits, replacing steel grabbers with blades and guns. They also replaced technicians for trigger happy individuals, who were deemed the best at protecting the less adventurous inhabitants of the city.

Whatever the reason for their attacks, the creatures came in all shapes and sizes the only thing that connected them all was the desire to kill everyone inside the city. They were ferocious, merciless and selfless as well, sacrificing great numbers to jam a single cell to gain a chance to attack. While the creatures were pushing through, the second line of defence came to action. The Free Guards – as they were called composed mostly of orphans but sometimes people with great determination to protect what’s their own. There wasn’t much of a life expectancy for a Free Guard, they would often die within mere months after enrolment but thankfully the poorest layers of the Capital’s society provided almost infinite supply of real orphans, or soon to be orphans anyway. For life was fast for the poor and it was the decisions made at the end of each day that mattered. With all viable options exhausted, they would often enrol themselves. Begging was strictly forbidden, much like in the wall, in the city everyone had their designated place. A place to live, a place to work and, of course, food rations. These were hard times, as the mayor often repeated from behind his large wooden desk. Everybody had to do their bit of work and thanks to that ultimate form of cooperation, the city “flourished”.

It also flourished thanks to its innovative cold-fusion reactor. It was one of its kind, for it has been invented in a very special place. The Capitol stood on a huge deposit of liquid metal, a priceless element and also a great magnetic stabilizer. The metal was extremely heavy but also in liquid state. It was kind of like tar; it created a very stable flow within itself generating one of the most stable magnetic fields. It provided the much-needed protection from radiation and in turn, allowed science to do experiments that simply weren’t possible before and in time led to the discovery of a monopole-magnetic field. Main advantage being the fact that on the inside it was able to create immense magnetic force strong enough to literally force two atoms through each other and on the outside, it had no measurable magnetic properties what so ever.

It was this invention that gave rise to the technology of today, all battle suits, all of the wall’s cells and of course all of the city was powered by the cold-fusion reactor relying solely on the fact, that from the outside, it was harmless while on the inside it could compress a whole universe, if it needed to. There was one problem, however, with the extraction of liquid metal. The field it generated was very stable, precisely because the amount of liquid metal in the ring-shaped cave system underground was always the same. But if anybody dared to remove some from the system, it would immediately start falling apart. Yes, it could be helped with various flow stabilizers and extra pumps that would maintain the flow where the missing mass couldn’t. The science that got humans here was all done by the civilization that preceded them. Most of it was done by a team of scientists and one in particular – who ended up being one of the founding fathers of The Capitol.

George M. L. Kinsworth was his name. A hundred and fifty years ago he stood at the brink of extinction, together with what was back then “all that’s left of humanity.” He and a team of scientist were supposed to invent a shield, some kind of force field, that would allow humans to survive the radioactive fallout from the fifth world war. They were working days and night in a makeshift shelter only to realize that the task is too big. They had seen the looming failure, but were powerless to do anything while under the control of authorities. After some time, the team has decided to act on their own; present a different solution to the same problem.

The Bull booted up and welcomed Petra with a familiar beep. She double checked that her belts are tightened, because she’s seen enough defenders die a sorry death while falling out of their machine only to get trampled by it mere seconds later. She gripped the two joysticks that controlled the metal frame and initiated start-up sequence check. Usually it took about two minutes for a battle suit to get ready, but if she really wanted, she could skip some procedures to get close to one minute. That is why she almost always got the first kill making her popular for the propaganda, but less popular for other defenders.

On the inner side of the wall, there was burnt gore all over the place. All the cut-up creatures some remains of the allies and an unreasonable amount of blood reminded everyone who got close enough to see of their own mortality. It also created many jobs, as these remains had to be incinerated after each battle. There wasn’t another wall to protect the citizens from the sight, but there was a thick plastic foil, from one side sprayed with blood and from the other, with graffiti. It was one of the few cases throughout human history, that no one felt the need to wash them off.

With all buttons in The Bull shining red and green as if armed and ready Petra made her way through the piles of gore towards the gate. She was followed by a few other defenders from the quick draw department. There was no gate, of course, but there was a cell where you could simply push a button on the inside which would disable all the weapons and so enable a harmless passage through and otherwise very harmful wall cell. Once she got outside, she took a deep breath; one short look on the horizon and then she began to run along the wall towards the point of reported attack. Followed by her fellow defenders she could already see the group of creatures trying to push their way through one of the cells.

It seemed to her, as if they are getting smarter every time they try. This time they brought an iron stick, a girder to be more precise, but in their hands, it looked like a stick. They probably tore it off some broken-down post-war building. There sure were many of these visible on the horizon, but Petra never went there, she never even felt the need or the desire to go. There was a mission for here to carry, a purpose and it was very clearly defined, she never had to think about her parents, or about anything else, in fact, she could only focus on the missions and in between on maintenance of The Bull and she’d be just fine. The mayor seldom rewarded the defenders with a holiday. Much rather he’d give them special upgrades for their Battle suits, promotions and extra rations. But once a person entered the Free Guards, he could expect to get enough food and water to get by, he or she could also expect to get a modest amount of money. But it would stay in the cities’ account, for the soldiers spent the vast majority of their time defending the city, often dying for the cause and so it was unnecessary to give them the money anyway, or so the major thought. There was an agreement that any soldier who would manage to last more than ten years in service would be labelled a senior citizen, given all his earned money and a new place in the society. It was with great shame and a motivational speech that, at the end of each year, the major read a list of names, who didn’t make it and stressed that it’s no reason to give up, for there already is one senior citizen who went through the ten years of hell and that would be him himself and so the mayor made himself a living proof of a dream that killed so many people.

Petra couldn’t remember her childhood friends, or any friends as a matter of fact. But as of late she met an older guy who she had some interest in. He joined the Free Guards very recently, but already managed to get a name for his battle-suit, he called it The Mammoth. He used to be an engineer in the Capitol’s reactor room, but he lost one of his arms in an experiment, an experiment which yielded him widespread recognition as the man who went out.

Henry was his name, and once he couldn’t hold his scientific curiosity anymore, he built himself a special suit and decided to go out and explore. He thought that it might not be so bad after all, for it has been quite some time since the last person went out and came back. Henry managed to stay outside for a day. Which was a long time considered that the longest defensive actions lasted only a bit more than an hour. In the evening, when he approached the city again, he was silent and without one hand his expression a painful grimace. Later he built himself a new battle-suit that more than compensated for his disability. He gave it a name, because it had bigger proportions, more weapons, and a huge metal shield with spikes.

This time Petra couldn’t see him. The creatures attacking today looked like giants from a fairly-tale, but they were covered in ooze dripping form their pores. The sun, together with the radiation burned through their skin. They had to cross the sandy plains to get to the city’s wall. As they did, the burning pain almost decomposed their skin but fuelled their anger. One of the brutes was holding a girder under his arm. Then he rushed towards a wall cell. This one was armed with several spinning saws moving on robotic arms. The brute rushed through the others, shoving them aside and then rammed the iron girder in the cell stopping the wheels of death and enabling other creatures to get through.

Petra was already engaged with one of the late-comers when she noticed that some of the attackers were already pushing their slimy bodies inside the cell, making their way through. She was looking around for assistance, shouting into the radio. But it seemed that everyone had more than enough fighting on their hands. It was right then that together with a large wave of blood and broken-off pieces of bodies the creatures got pushed out of the cell as The Mammoth ran through it from the inside out pushing its spiked shield into the creatures’ faces. Everyone engaged turned towards The Mammoth and stared for a few seconds, dumbstruck by the sheer destructive power of the machine and the madness of the man who built it. With a few quick swings Henry dealt several fatal blows to the creatures who were dangerously close to the broken cell. He needed to buy time, for repairs were already under way. Two mechanics started to remove the cell and two others were already on their way with a new one.

Still, there were enemies to deal with. Petra snapped out of the moment and started doing what she knew the best. With her trusty machine gun in one hand and a giant spiked hammer in the other, she rode The Bull tearing through enemy ranks. In something over twenty minutes, most of the attackers were either dead, or mutilated enough that they posed no threat. She made a rule of not leaving anybody to needlessly suffer, so she went around and finished whatever was still moving off with her hammer. The others have already started to retreat back into the safety of the city, soon it was only her and Henry left outside. Both of them in their formidable battle-suits stained with blood and gore left from those who had to face them. She only caught Henry by the glimpse of her eye, he seemed to be gazing into the distance; sometimes she though that he’s going to run away again but she didn’t know when or why would he do it, it just seemed that way.

Everyone and everything seemed to be dead. She turned towards the wall and radioed Henry, who was now close to the cell that was already repaired, to go back inside. He agreed, turned towards her and fell down. The brute that was carrying the girder and ended up dying in the first charge of The Mammoth wasn’t so dead after all. It managed to hold on to a splinter from the girder and had the intention to return it where it thought it belongs. With last bits of strength, lying on the ground, he used the iron splinter to pierce the The Mammoths back together with its pilot. Petra rushed towards Henry, quickly dispatching the brute’s head she jumped out of her suit and tried to remove Henry out of his, but from up close she saw that it’s too late.

Petra got out of The Bull and tried to get henry out of his machine, panicking, shouting…

“Come on! I’ll take you to the doctor! Get out! It’s gonna be alright!”

Henry coughed and as he did an obviously important part of his insides fell out of his mouth.

“I just never knew… never knew when… There is something wrong with this life, isn’t it?”

Those were Henry’s last words. Finally, unstrapped form safety belts his lifeless body fell into Petra’s arms and then, on the ground. Petra looked at Henry’s corpse then at the wall and then at the horizon. She silently nodded her head three times at each of the things she was facing and then she returned back.

submitted by /u/A_Rutkil [link] [comments] via Blogger http://bit.ly/2EJhsUy

[allenmendezsr]

The Red Wine Diet

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The Red Wine Diet

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THE RED WINE DIETslicedigital2019-04-29T20:02:48+00:00

Dear Wine Lover;

I’m about to tell you the story of how one twist of fate during a vacation completely turned my lifelong beliefs–and my career–upside down…

And how I discovered that a large portion of the science we thought we knew about weight loss is just plain false…

I’ll admit…It was a “WOW” moment that changed my life…and could quite possibly change yours.

The old-school thinking goes like this:

Drinking alcohol is bad for you…

It makes you gain weight…

It gives you the dreaded “beer belly.”

Well, it turns out they’re WRONG.

By the time you’re finished reading this, you’ll see that it REALLY works like this:

If you combine a glass of red wine with some of your favorite foods, in this very specific way, you shift your metabolism into hyperdrive!

It’s important you get the full story about how one “off-the-wall” observation I made during a West Coast vacation will change how you look at alcohol and weight loss forever…

This quirk of science–which on the surface is a complete contradiction to what we’ve all been told, has been right under our noses for decades…even centuries.

I’m a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and Certified Nutritionist, hired to help people lose body fat.  

Period.

I have been in the fitness industry for roughly 30 years.  And for the last decade, I’ve keep detailed records of how much weight my clients have lost.

At last count, my clients have lost over 5000 pounds of body fat!* 

That’s two and a half TONS of ugly fat.

*NOTE:  This is fully documented through my in-house Biometric Tracking software.

Frankly, if you lived anywhere near my facility north of Boston, I’m the guy you went to when you absolutely needed to lose weight…kinda like a “hired gun of weight loss”, if you will.

I only mention it to highlight an important point…

I’m a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and Certified Nutritionist, hired to help people lose body fat.  

Period.

I have been in the fitness industry for roughly 30 years.  And for the last decade, I’ve keep detailed records of how much weight my clients have lost.

At last count, my clients have lost over 5000 pounds of body fat!* 

That’s two and a half TONS of ugly fat.

*NOTE:  This is fully documented through my in-house Biometric Tracking software.

Frankly, if you lived anywhere near my facility north of Boston, I’m the guy you went to when you absolutely needed to lose weight…kinda like a “hired gun of weight loss”, if you will.

I only mention it to highlight an important point…

Do you think all of my successful clients STOPPED drinking wine while they lost all that weight?

Of course not!

In fact, many of my clients started drinking a little more wine…(not to excess, of course!)

But…now I have a bit of a confession to make…

At first, I had no explanation of why they were losing this weight so easily (of course, I could take some of the credit, but I knew inside there was more to it).

Not that long ago, I was one of those trainers who was telling my clients that they had to stop drinking alcohol if they wanted to lose weight.

The thing is… many of them had no intention of giving up their favorite glass of red wine…yet time and time again, they still lost weight!

And even though I never fully understood the reasons behind their fat loss success, I thought…

“Hey, if they’re happy, I’m happy!”

But all the while, something kept gnawing at me.  I just knew there was more to the story…

After all, 5000 pounds of fat loss doesn’t just happen by accident!

My personal revelation, and how it triggered the journey that changed everything!

I was on vacation visiting friends in California I hadn’t seen in at least 15 years.  

I was really looking forward to getting together with them again…

And as I figured we would…we had a great time.

Now, this is a really fun crowd, and as expected, the wine was flowing freely.

The weather was ideal and Northern California looked as beautiful as I remembered…

I’d lived in California for a while in the 80’s and early 90’s when I was competing at a world-class level in the shot put and discus.

Back then we throwers all had one dream in common…

To throw as far as we could…and if everything fell into place at the right time, earn a spot on the US Olympic Team.

Staying ‘fit and lean’ was not our concern.  Our dream required us to get as big and powerful as possible.

But that was then….and, as  life goes on, our priorities change.

These days–with all of us in our 50’s or older–most of us pay close attention to our health and nutrition.

(In fact, I have made it the focus of my career.)

Anyway…

After back-to-back days of socializing with old friends, lots and lots of good food – and plenty of wine – it was time to head back East.

And this is  where things took a strange turn…

When I got home, I couldn’t help but notice something…

My pants fit a little looser than normal, and I could feel something was different.

I stepped on the scale expecting bad news from a week of eating and drinking way more than usual; but, instead of gaining weight, something really bizarre happened…

I actually lost about 5 pounds over the course of 4-5 days!

On top of that, I didn’t even notice the weight loss happening…

The weight was just gone.

And, I’ll admit to one thing for sure…

It was certainly not for a lack of calories!

I overindulged a LOT during this trip.  Eating plenty of food and–yes– getting a little “buzzed” on a pretty regular basis.

That’s exactly why none of this made any sense.

As a fitness pro, this was just weird…

I mean, I’d been doing the weight loss thing for over 25 years, and was at a total loss as to what was happening.

I was experiencing first-hand the exact same effect I saw in my other weight loss clients for years.

And I was more than a little intrigued.

Something unusual was going on here, and that’s when the professional side of me took over.  I could no longer sit back and take credit for something I didn’t fully understand.

So I sat down, grabbed a pen and paper and did something that I ask of all my clients to do…

I wrote up a complete ‘food recall’ of everything I ate over the course of my trip.

Every meal.  Every snack. All of it…

I even tracked how much red wine I drank…admittedly that was a little tougher…(hey, don’t judge me)!

As I looked at my food log, an unusual pattern started to emerge…

As the guest, of course, I was eating whatever food I was served, and since my friends could be considered “foodies”, the menu had a lot of things on it I didn’t normally eat.

Apparently, the change in my menu was the trigger.

And there it was, right there on the paper…staring me in the face.

A food-wine combination that burned fat like gasoline!

It turns out, I had accidently stumbled onto something science had just recently proven in the lab.

A newly discovered process that turned “traditional” weight loss assumptions upside down!

Because of my eye-opening vacation experience – and my geeky love for research – I dove in and quickly became an expert on alcohol and its powerful connection to weight loss.

I soon realized that a lot of the warnings about alcohol and red wine just didn’t hold up. 

As you may have already heard, not all alcohol is created equal.

Red wine is actually one of the healthiest types there is.

Studies on red wine have been popping up in the media for a long time now.  You may have seen some of them…

Here is summary of an expert opinion from the Mayo Clinic.2

The alcohol in red wine can…

Help prevent artery damage caused by high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the “bad” cholesterol

Produce positive changes in blood pressure

Raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the “good” cholesterol

Reduce the formation of blood clots

In fact, there was some great news for women specifically!

“A study of more than 19,000 middle-aged women from the Archives of Internal Medicine found that women who drink a moderate amount of alcohol, such as a glass of red wine a day, are less likely to become overweight or obese than women who don’t drink.”

Here’s another one…

“Scientists followed nearly 16,000 middle-aged women in a seven-year study for the Women’s Health Initiative found that women who drink moderately are more likely to maintain a healthy weight than non-drinkers.”

However all of this good news comes with one important warning:

If you make a common mistake and combine your wine with the wrong types of food, most if not all of these health benefits can be lost!

You’ll shut down your fat burning machinery completely!

It all started with research being done at the Washington State University and Harvard Medical School.  

Professor Min Du’s work at Washington State verified the existence of a previously unknown fat burning process in humans.

And it even has a name:  “The Fat Conversion Pathway”

Let me explain…

Without diving into the details too deeply, here’s how it works:

Dr. Wu and other researchers discovered there’s a powerful enzyme with the sole function to trigger the conversion of stored fat into energy.

The problem is (and the reason you haven’t lost weight with wine before) there are toxins common in most diets that makes it impossible for this enzyme to do its job…

This enzyme (called AMPK for short)–when activated–ramps up your metabolism and melts fat off your stomach, arms, and thighs faster than nearly any other nutrient out there.

The problem is these toxins inactivate this enzyme.  Now, I’ll give you one guess where this “fat-converting” enzyme can be found…

Yup.  Red Wine.

Right away, I’ll bet there’s one question in your head you’re just dying to ask…

Can I really drink wine AND lose weight?

The short answer?  

Yes. Absolutely!

In fact, I now believe that drinking wine is exactly what you SHOULD be doing to lead a healthier life, while you get rid of those unwanted pounds…

…even if you drank wine in the past and actually GAINED weight!

…even if you’ve tried all those MISERABLE fad diets…

…even if you DESPISE working out.

Because today, you’ll discover how to lose weight

...without giving up your favorite glass of wine…

…without spending hours at the gym…

…and without weeks or months of deprivation spent trying to get that body you’ve been longing for.

Believe me, as a wine-drinker myself, I’d be skeptical too…but since I’ve pulled all the pieces together and witnessed this approach work soooo many times, there’s just no denying it!

In fact…

My newly discovered approach has helped my clients collectively lose more than 5000 POUNDS total!

And I’ve pinpointed a simple food-wine combination that reignites AMPK, and turns on a fat-burning pathway inside your body that’s so powerful…

You could lose 15 pounds in just 60 days

Keep in mind, like so many fitness experts,  I’d sworn off alcohol for both myself and my clients whenever weight loss was the goal.

But, because of this new discovery, now you don’t have to choose between enjoying your favorite wines and losing weight.

You can have both.

Listen, if you’re over 45 like me (OK, so I’m actually over 55)

You’re not looking to get ‘ripped’…

You don’t have illusions of being a fitness model…

You’re not training for a bodybuilding competition…

This may sound weird coming from a fitness business owner and former All-American athlete, but the reality is –

It is NOT my mission in life to see how shredded I can get my abs.

The majority of us simply want to…

feel better…

move better, with fewer aches and pains…

have plenty of energy throughout the day…

maintain a clear mind…

keep stress levels in check…

enjoy life with family and friends…

and yes, lose weight and look good while doing it!

I suspect most of you would agree, these are not outrageous goals.

Can you imagine what your life would be like if these simple desires fell into place?

No longer carrying around that extra 10, 15, 20 or more pounds…

No more waking up with aching and painful joints…

Walking through your day with a surge of additional energy, without that jiggly fat slowing you down…

Noticing your endurance levels suddenly skyrocket…

Stepping on the scale every morning and seeing the numbers drop lower and lower…

Breaking out in a big grin when your clothes start to fit the way they’re supposed to…

Feeling a renewed confidence as you make your way through the day.

Realizing your stress levels are plummeting…

And even starting to turn heads like you did years ago…

But, all the while, never giving up one minute of your valuable social life.

This is all possible with this newly discovered approach.

In fact, putting this process into place involves nothing more than “tweaking” the things you ALREADY do!

Here’s why this matters to you…

I had finally figured out the one simple factor that can make the difference between weight-loss success or failure for the average wine drinker…

Now, I can finally explain how you could be sabotaging your own weight loss, without even realizing it, by rendering your own “fat-converting pathway” inactive!

When you take red wine and combine it with this simple food trick you push your own metabolism into  overdrive – by re-activating AMPK!

In fact, it turns out that drinking red wine may actually be the ‘missing link’ to your weight loss goals.

I realize this is completely contradictory to what every fitness expert in the industry may tell you, but research has verified it!

Losing body fat does NOT have to involve weeks and months of starvation and stress.

Just as I had proved it to myself over the course of a few short days in California…

I don’t mind telling you that once I figured out that AMPK was the weight loss explanation I was after…

I was ecstatic!

…And it’s something so simple, ANYONE can put it to use!

This powerful secret explains how red wine can go from being a cause of your weight gain to your most powerful weight-loss ally!

So, here’s what I did next.

I wrote down what I consider to be a simple set of guidelines for anyone looking to lose body fat, but still have a full and vibrant life…

…including drinking red wine!

It’s called

The Red Wine Diet is your complete guide to putting the power of this simple daily food-wine technique to work… quickly and easily… so you can slash up to 15 pounds of ugly body fat in the next 60 days.

The Red Wine Diet pulls all these factors together into a plan that you can literally live with for a lifetime. 

You CAN drink red wine and lose weight!

In fact, The Red Wine Diet will show you how you can target body fat, get the physique you’ve been after, AND enjoy your life while you do it!

…even if you drink wine but have watched helplessly as the scale moved in the WRONG direction…

…even if you’ve tried–and failed–with all kinds of other diets in the past…

…even if you don’t have any intention of living in the gym in order to achieve your goals…

And you can do this without...

…giving up your social life and

…passing up that relaxing glass of wine at day’s end…

…plodding along endlessly on a treadmill…

…giving up the things you enjoy in life in order to achieve the body you’ve been after.

Very quickly, let’s talk about what The Red Wine Diet is NOT…

It is not physically demanding

It’s not complicated

It’s not expensive

Again, my clients – and now hundreds more who have purchased my book in a dozen different countries all over the world- have lost thousands of pounds of body fat by following the simple, science-backed approach in my book…

Most importantly, in “THE RED WINE DIET” you will also find simple and easy-to-understand explanation of…

A listing of the foods that can halt your results almost instantly, so that you can avoid ‘self-sabotage’

A step-by-step plan to guide you to fat loss success -even if you have stumbled and failed before

How to shut off your fat storing mechanisms, while cranking up the Fat Conversion Pathway

Exact meal plans based upon the proven, but little known, food-wine combination

A list of “weight loss accelerators” designed to speed your progress by as much as 30%

A “Done for You” list of 9 simple rules, proven to put you on the path to a leaner, healthier and longer life

All for a price LESS THAN a decent bottle of Pinot Noir!

I clearly spell out…

How just one simple food trick could hold your key to fat loss by turning on your own fat burning machinery…

When you drink and with what foods will determine whether you gain weight or lose weight

How to CRUSH the obstacles holding you back…

Why alcohol is not the enemy of weight loss…

What the REAL health benefits of wine are…

A list of foods you must avoid like the plague…

A list of specific steps you can start today to speed up your results…by as much as 30%!

The 9 science-based rules for living a LONGER, HEALTHIER LIFE…

And if you order my book today…I have a few more treats for you!

BONUS #1:  “The Red Wine Diet Cookbook” – FREE!

What possible good is a diet book without a matching cookbook?

So I went “all in” and commissioned this cookbook from a professional European chef.

My one requirement?

I needed 150 recipes that fit your lifestyle, and are in line with my unique Red Wine Diet approach…

The finished product is a cookbook I could not be happier with!  It’s a perfect fit!

Bonus #2: “Stress Elimination Solution” – Free Report!

Throughout my years as a weight loss expert, I have encountered one enemy of weight loss that seems to be EVERYWHERE!

It has become an integral part of our lives…

It disrupts our sleep…  

Harms our health…

It literally shrinks our brain…

And is a direct cause of weight gain!

I’m talking about STRESS!  

…but, stress is more under our control than we realize.

Stress also happens to be one of the most powerful causes of weight gain known to man!

Since the vast majority of my clients are fighting the same battle against stress we are, I HAD to study stress in serious detail.

So much so, that eventually, I became certified in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Brain Fitness…

To that end, I produced a 21 page report on the topic called the “Stress Elimination Solution”

Previously, I have only provided this finished paper to my clients, but to help you battle against this relentless enemy…

I want you to have the report for FREE, when you purchase The Red Wine Diet!

BONUS #3: “Successful Aging Blueprint: A Step-By-Step Guide To Reclaiming Your Health And Developing A Resilient Mindset After Age 45”

Also FREE!

This is  something I’m also incredibly proud of…

I’ve dedicated my life to helping the clients at my facilities, as well as coaching clients across the country, to OWN their aging process.

(And believe me, you don’t need to be over 50 to start planning!)

My latest book–available on Amazon for $9.95 presently–picks up where The Red Wine Diet leaves off…

You’ll get instant access to my best and proven lifestyle changes that will allow you to dictate your health for decades to come…on your terms!

If you have any intention of maintaining an independent and vibrant life for the rest of your days, you’ve found a roadmap for the process in my latest book.  

Inside you’ll find an exact plan to “OWN” the coming decades by:

Developing an ability to achieve any goal you set

Understanding the unique nutritional needs of anyone over age 45

Learning how to design and execute the ideal workout to suit your needs

Identifying the REAL enemies of successful aging we all face

Keying in on ‘core concepts’ of being a Successful Aging Rebel!

Yes, I’ve included a LOT of bonus material here because I truly want to get The Red Wind Diet into your hands, and have that decision be a “no-brainer”!

So go ahead and click the “Order” button and grab “The Red Wine Diet” NOW!

The price for instant access to my incredibly popular book, The Red Wine Diet is only $14.95!

*No physical product will be shipped

One final note…

Over the years, clients have paid me thousands upon thousands of dollars to get results, and to get access to the kind of information found in these books.

But I’m not charging you thousands…

I’m not even charging hundreds…

Actually, if you priced The Red Wine Diet  book plus all the bonuses out separately, it totals just around $65.00…

That’s FAR less than I would charge for a single workout with me at my facility.

And I’m not charging that much either…

So why would I practically give way years of research and insights for $14.95?

Because I have seen first hand how frustrated people are by the entire weight loss process

AND I know that the myths that persist, along with confusing headlines are NOT helping you reach your weight loss goals!

You need clarity.

You need this information.

And it’s now priced at $14.95.

You may say, “Hold on Art, what if I read the book and decide this approach is not a good fit?”

Well frankly, in that case, I don’t want your money.  It’s that simple.

“If you are not satisfied for any reason within 60 days of purchase, I will happily give you back every penny of your investment.”

No questions asked.

You can drop 15 pounds in as little as 60 days, all while you’re drinking wine every day…and finally be rid of the weight.

All for $14.95

AND it’s completely risk-free because it’s fully covered by my guarantee.

You have zero risk, so why not?

Is there any reason not to check it out?

I stand behind “The Red Wine Diet” without reservation!

(I DARE you to find a guarantee like that from any diet book on the market!)

So click the button below to start losing weight today.

*No physical product will be shipped

I look forward to helping you along your journey.

Cheers!

Founder – Successful Aging Academy Author | Speaker | Wellness Activist

Enjoy Life.  Lose Fat.

P.S. – If you have read this far, I HAVE to believe you are truly interested in losing that stubborn body fat AND having a fun-filled life.  

I am so eager to get my book into your hands as soon possible, I am offering “The Red Wine Diet” for only $14.95…

AND I am adding the Cookbook (Also a $14.95 value)

AND the Stress Elimination Solution report (A $29.00 value)

AND my latest book “Successful Aging Blueprint” (priced at $9.95)

All Bonuses FOR FREE.

*No physical product will be shipped

P.P.S. – Keep in mind, you have nothing to lose…except unwanted body fat, that is…you’re protected by my irrefutable, unshakable, ironclad, no-hassle 100% Money Back Guarantee.

(Did I include enough adjectives for you!!!)

Click on the “Order Now” button to get instant access to EVERYTHING described and be reading my book in just minutes.

NOTE:  This is a digital product. A physical book will not be shipped.

If you prefer a physical copy, you can simply order my best-selling book on Amazon.  

However, neither the cookbook, nor any of the other bonuses items are available for free with Amazon…

*No physical product will be shipped

Fischer-Posovszky, P. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, July 2010; vol 92: pp 5-15.

Anderson CA (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Sept. 23, 2013

News release, University of Buffalo.Ghanim, H. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2010.

Kodali M, Parihar VK, Hattiangady B, Mishra V, Shuai B, Shetty AK. “Resveratrol prevents age-related memory and mood dysfunction with increased hippocampal neurogenesis and microvasculature, and reduced glial activation.”  Sci Rep. 2015 Jan 28;5:8075.

Howe et al.  Presented at 24th Scientific Meeting of International Society of Hypertension, 22 Oct. 2012.

Gresele P, et al. Resveratrol, at concentrations attainable with moderate wine consumption, stimulates human platelet nitric oxide production. Journal of Nutrition. 2008;138:1602.

Red Wine and Your Heart.  Circulation American Heart Association: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/111/2/e10.full

Alcohol and heart disease. American Heart Association. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Alcohol-and-Heart-Disease_UCM_305173_Article.jsp. Accessed Sept. 5, 2013.

Saremi A, et al. The cardiovascular implications of alcohol and red wine. American Journal of Therapeutics. 2008;15:265.

Tangney CC, et al. Cardiovascular benefits and risks of moderate alcohol consumption. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed Sept. 3, 2013.

Resveratrol. Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/phytochemicals/resveratrol/. Accessed Sept. 5, 2013.

Resveratrol. Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. http://naturaldatabase.therapeuticresearch.com/nd/Search.aspx?cs=SCHOOLNOPL~AER&s=ND&pt=100&id=307&ds=. Accessed Sept. 5, 2013.

Carrizzo A, et al. Antioxidant effects of resveratrol in cardiovascular, cerebral and metabolic diseases. Food and Chemical Toxicology. 2013. In press. Accessed Sept. 5, 2013.

Mukamal KJ, et al. Overview of the risks and benefits of alcohol consumption. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed Sept. 3, 2013.

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The Red Wine Diet | 2019 | Email Support: info@successfulaging.academy