#if anything looks wrong cut me some slack :c these took 11 hours

[janilee]

tankeo and niri

that is all

[howtoloseweightfastsafely]

How To Beat Your Mental Roadblocks And Why It Can Be The Difference Between A Happy, Satisfying Life And A Sad, Fearful Existence

1. Set a specific goal

a. Write this goal down somewhere you can see it every morning when you wake up, and every night before you sleep

i. Train your thoughts to remember this goal daily and keep it in the forefront of your mind

b. Goals must include both of the following:

i. A measurable metric ("10 pounds" or "2 dress sizes")

ii. A deadline or time frame ("June 30th" or "2 weeks", preferably use both)

c. Here are some bad goals

i. "Lose 20 pounds"

ii. "Get lean"

iii. "Look hot for beach season"

d. Here are some good goals:

i. "Lose 50 pounds before beach season (June 30th)"

ii. "Drop 1 dress size in the next 2 weeks (November 25th)"

iii. "Lose 4 inches from my waist in the next 6 weeks (December 25th)"

e. Every 2 weeks or every month, review your goal and adjust it based on your progress so far

2. Understand that everybody needs a "Harajuku Moment"

a. This moment is an "an epiphany that turns a nice-to-have into a must-have." Without this tipping point, you will fail.

b. This was first popularized by Tim Ferriss in the 4 Hour Body, and it has been crucial for all major obstacles I've overcome in my life

c. Until I had the psychic shift which turned "I want to lose weight" to "I must lose weight", I never had lasting success.

3. Relax and ease your mind with meditating

a. Start with just 2 minutes a day and slowly build the habit.

b. Add 1 or 2 minutes each week, until you're up to 10-20 minutes daily.

c. This can come in the form of prayer to, or a mix of both.

4. Write a very short, simple daily journal in which you record "wins", priorities, and gratitude

a. Every evening take just 2-3 minutes and write down 3 "wins"/things that went well today.

i. This can be something major "prepared and packed all meals for the week" or something very simple like "paid my phone bill".

ii. We all deserve great things, yourself included. Let these "wins" serve as a daily reminder of the positive momentum you're making towards your dreams.

b. Also, plan out 3-5 things you want to get done throughout the day.

i. This "priorities" list makes it clear what needs to get done to reach your goals.

ii. By keeping it at a max of 5 things to do, we keep the list manageable and doable in a daily basis.

iii. Imagine how productive you would be in just 1 month if you did anywhere between 3-5 things every day in pursuit of your goals.

c. Lastly, record a very simple daily "gratitude list"

i. Basically, write the names of people you're grateful for today

ii. For me, this usually comes in the form of family, close friends, co-workers, and anybody else you feel has had an impact on you, on a certain day.

iii. Feel free to write things/material possessions or spiritual things also

On certain days, I may even write down how grateful I am for the simple things like having a roof over my head and a warm meal at night.

This is made even more clear to me from walking around lower Manhattan at 9 a.m. and seeing homeless, penniless young people my age (25 y.o) who slept on the street overnight, in a thin sleeping bag, with 30-degree temperatures outside.

iv. This is a daily reminder that whether you have just 1 person or 1 thing, or if you have 20 things to be grateful for, you're doing OK, and no matter what obstacles you're stuck with, you'll be OK.

 5. If you feel out of place in the gym, repeat this simple mantra a few times to remind yourself to work hard and stop thinking that people are watching and judging you:

i. "You look amazing. No one is watching you. Keep up the good work."

6. Every weekend choose 2 meals each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Write them down in your journal or in a safe place.

a. Then head to the grocery store and buy the ingredients you need

b. Then cook the 1st set of these meals to last you 3-4 days.

c. Once these run out (usually on a Wednesday or Thursday, if you cook on Sunday), cook the 2nd set of the meals to last you til the weekend.

d. As a result, remove all barriers and unnecessary "thinking" attached to food choices.

7. Look at other "little things" in your life that take up big chunks of mental space, and hack away at the unessential. Some of my personal examples:

a. I use Mint.com to track spending, and I use CreditKarma.com to monitor my credit score.

i. Instead of constantly thinking about how much money I "need", I start by identifying weak points/unnecessary spending

b. I never watch the news on TV. I'll occasionally talk to people for a few minutes to hear what's going on in the world, or if I have a few free minutes I'll scroll through the major articles online.

i. As a result, I have much less stress, more positivity, and don't worry myself/build an unhealthy fear around things that are 100% out of my control.

c. I've cut out "binge" TV watching, and instead spend time doing productive things that allow me to help other people (and feel amazing as a result), like writing this book and building up a health business.

i. I'll occasionally watch an episode of something that makes me laugh like Family Guy or The Office if I want to de-stress a bit

ii. I try to never watch TV series and/or dramas since they are very, very easy to get addicted to. (I make a weekly exception when Game of Thrones is on).

iii. Don't be that guy or girl who watches 6 hours of the Walking Dead or one of their 7 other "can't miss" TV series, and gets nothing done for themselves.

d. I have 7 "nice shirts" (5 dress shirts and 2 sweaters) and 8 "nice pants" (5 dress slacks and 3 pairs of jeans/casual pants).

i. These are all well-fitting and comfortable, and I just rotate this week by week.

ii. I no longer worry about what to wear in the morning or how I'll look or anything meaningless like that.

iii. Live is much, much simpler in the morning. (I can actually get ready, from bed to the front door, in less than 7 minutes on any given day. Sure it's a bit rushed, but it works like a charm.)

iv. Also, I used to always worry that "people saw me wear this shirt last Tuesday, I can't wear it again!!". This is crazy. Trust me, no one cares to remember what you've worn on any given day, so stick to a few simple clothing choices and just rotate them every 7-10 days.

Remember: None of these strategies will work for you if you don't do them! So get to it!!

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

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

Read the next article about "Maximum Fat Loss in Minimum Time: The Body Type Solution To Quick, Lasting Results"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic 11: The Easy Way To Determining Your Calorie Intake

Topic 12: Calculating A Weight Loss Deficit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic 23: Choosing High Quality Foods

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

Topic 25: 7 Steps To Reduce AGEs and Slow Aging

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic 50: Putting It All Together

Learn more by visiting our website here: invigoratenow.com

[ridleykemp]

Pandemic Notes #5 (notes on a note-free meme)

If you’ve been anywhere near social media, mostly Facebook I presume, you’ll have seen this one: Day X of "20 Albums In 20 Days". Covers only, no explanations. Albums that impacted your life in some way. Nominate someone else to do the same thing each day.

That kind of list-making is absolute catnip to me. There’s one little problem: “no explanations.” If there’s anything I love more than music it is talking about why I like music. So, while I did the thing over on FB, I’m going to cheat now and provide the stories that go with my selections. Why? I don’t even know what day it is anymore, so cut me some slack on this one.

1. Oil and Gold - Shriekback

“Nemesis” was absolutely all over the clubs back in the day, which is appropriate because it’s a great song. When I finally bought the records, though, I was shocked. It was maybe the sixth or seventh best song on the album. Literally everything on Oil and Gold is great. These albums were in no particular order, but this was as easy a pick as I’d get to make.

2. Viva Terlingua! - Jerry Jeff Walker

I was raised on showtunes (mom) and 70s country music (dad). This was a particularly bloodless era in the history of C&W. The “Nashville sound” just didn’t work for me. This, however, is not Nashville. This was my introduction to “outlaw” country, which was much more my speed. It was my first exposure to country where the band seemed as important as the singer, and the Lost Gonzos were one hell of a band.

Jerry Jeff was my first concert, too, at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth. I won tickets to a New Year’s Eve all-you-can-drink show. Not a bad first show, huh?

3. Suffer - Bad Religion

Matt, one of my co-workers at the record store, recommended this to me. Or, rather, he recommended Christian Death’s record and I mis-remembered it. Some accidents work out. This changed how I looked at punk with the intelligence, the quality of the vocals, and the energy of the performance. I was reliably told that real punk doesn’t have harmonies, but I can live with that.

4. Hearts of Oak - Ted Leo + Pharmacists

Newly divorced and in a strange city, I was re-discovering discovering music in the early 2000s. Canadian music video channels and especially Spin magazine were two of my more reliable sources. I loved Ted Leo before I heard a single note of his music, so it was a tremendous relief when I finally got hold of this album and found that the music lived up to the hype. Leo was obviously influenced heavily by the stuff from the 80s that I wasn’t cool enough to like then.

5. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine

Sigh. I was given the promo copy of Loveless (on cassette, no less!) at the record store. I listened to it once, decided it wasn’t really my thing, and gave it to Curtis. A decade or so later, I heard “Soon” in some random place and realized I’d made a huge mistake.

6. Fear of a Black Planet - Public Enemy

Stefan, a guy I waited tables with, knew I was heavily into Nine Inch Nails and thought I’d dig this. So I went over to his house and he put on “Welcome to the Terrordome” and damned if he wasn’t right. This did for hip-hop was Suffer did for punk, at least for me. I had to re-evaluate everything I thought about the genre because Fear of a Black Planet is undeniable. And Bob, if you’re reading this, I still remember your take on the title track.

7. Flood - They Might Be Giants

In 1990, there were two albums that were reliably in the record collection of every girl I knew: This one and Yaz’s Upstairs at Eric’s. I was already a TMBG fan, but the fact that they covered a song my mom used to sing to me (“Istanbul”) kind of freaked me out. At the show on this tour, instead of shirts, they sold fezzes, which has to be the most TMBG thing ever.

8. Pretty Hate Machine - Nine Inch Nails

This album was my life for longer than I care to admit. Every track still works for me. In August of 1989, when “Down In It” hit the clubs, none of us had heard anything like it (well, Skinny Puppy fans had…*cough* ). I don’t think I wore anything but black for a couple of years. I got the CD at the most alternative store in Dallas (that would be the Hastings at Valley View and yes that’s a joke) in November and haven’t stopped playing it since.

9. LP - Ambulance, LTD.

One of two bands on this list that were murdered by label issues. I found Ambulance by accident. I went to a SxSW showcase at the Red-Eyed Fly to see Stellastarr* (who were terrific) and got there in time to see an opening act that played absolutely perfect guitar pop, stuff Matthew Sweet might have come up with if hadn’t listened to so much Television. Anyway, the flyer for the show had the band order wrong I thought I was looking for The Unicorns, and it took me a couple weeks to find out who I’d really seen. This is a strong contender for best album of the millennium.

10. Young Team - Mogwai

I choked on this selection. I love the album, and Mogwai Fear Satan is one of my favorite songs to play loudly (if not well) on guitar. But…if I were to pick a Mogwai record, it should probably be Rock Action, which was my first and I still use the intro from “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong” as my alarm song.

11. Electric Version - The New Pornographers

Another Spin discovery. The reviews were glowing but didn’t really give me any sense what they sounded like. Eventually, this album was added to the jukebox at Casino el Camino and I got to give it a listen. It was love at first note. All of their albums are hook-stuffed, harmony-rich power pop perfection, but this one is my pick of that very fine litter. The first four songs would make the best EP in rock history.

12. This is the Day…This is the Hours…This is This! - Pop Will Eat Itself

1989 was weird. “Can U Dig It?" got a smidgen of airplay on the corporate-indy station in Dallas for some reason. It was the first time I’d heard music that was largely sample-based that actually rocked. The whole album is a mad cut-and-paste collage with Clint Mansell and Graham Crabb rapping over the top (very over the top, in fact). They’re one of five bands on this list I’ve never seen, but it’s not for lack of effort. They cancelled their last show due to visa problem, and when the opened for NIN on The Downward Spiral (and their own, equally excellent Dos Dedos, Mis Amigos), well…that a memorable night.

13. We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed - Los Campesinos!

I love Los Campesinos! unapologetically, and that is the only way to love them. Their heart is on their sleeve and their sleeve is in your face. The title track, a minor masterpiece of tweeXcore, has one of my favorite lines:

”Oh we kid ourselves there’s future in the fucking, but there is no fucking future.”

They’re a band I can listen to any time I need to feel exactly that way. They also figure several times in Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s Phonogram, and they capture how I feel about Los Campesinos! perfectly:

14. Over-Nite Sensaton - Frank Zappa and the Mothers

“Montana” was my introduction to Zappa. In Jon Lamendola’s car outside Collin Creek mall, he put this tape in and..it was so dumb, and so funny, and yet also so good. It was like listening to a Loony Tunes soundtrack with the smarted, weirdest guy you know making up a narration. It’s probably not my favorite Zappa record, but it’s certainly the one that means the most to me.

15. Dusk - The The

I bought this at the Sound Warehouse on Park and Preston one night after work because I kind of liked the single, “Dogs of Lust”. At the time, I was a little disappointed because the rest of the record is far less aggressive, but it stuck with me through all these years. The bookends, “Love Is Stronger Than Death” and “Lonely Planet” are absolute masterpieces but it’s strong start to finish. I tend to come to things late, and this album got me through the early 2000s in style.

16. Like This - The dB’s

Oh, college radio. KCOU in Columbia, Missouri was my first college radio station and they were playing all the college-appropriate bands of the era (Smiths, REM, U2, and a lot of Zappa), but there’s no question as to the identity of the biggest band of my freshman year: The dB’s absolutely dominated airplay that year. Five songs from Like This got huge play. This is the other band destroyed by their label, which went belly-up right after the release of Like This. The Holsapple-led dB’s should have been one of the giants of their day. Instead, it would be a decade before this record ever made it to CD.

17. Discipline - King Crimson

I was an Adrian Belew fan before I was a Crimson fan. “Big Electric Cat”, from his Lone Rhino album, was the first music video I remember seeing on a video-only show. Anyway, for as weird as their record is (and it ain’t normal), it’s incredibly accessible as well. My sister was on a date with her eventual husband and they stopped by his flat before going out. He told her to put a record on and this is the one she pulled from his collection. He was both shocked and impressed, but he shouldn’t have been; my sister has always been much cooler than me.

18. OK Computer - Radiohead

There seems to be a lot of Radiohead backlash now and I don’t get it, but there’s a lot that I don’t get. I’d heard “Creep” and thought it was pretty good, but I hadn’t really kept up. Driving down to south to go camping with Andi and her mom, we listened to this and The Bends over and over…in no small part because I kept asking her to put it back on. Like the Crimson record, it was weird (duh) but accessible (huh?) and hypnotic. Those two remain my favorite Radiohead albums, with OK Computer getting the nod because the last three songs are perfect.

18.5 Peter Gabriel (third album) - Peter Gabriel

Uh oh…I’ve got too many albums to list and not enough space to do it! So, I cheated and went with 18.5 because I was not going to leave this album out. It’s still my favorite Peter Gabriel record. This is the “melting face” album, and I had a button with the cover of the album on my jacket. At the arcade (because we all went to arcades back then), a kid came up to me, looked at that button, and said “Eww! I bet that’s a sick rock guy!” That’s Pete, all right: A sick rock guy.

19. Reckoning - R.E.M.

I’m an unabashed R.E.M. fanboy and love all of their records, but Reckoning is the one that is “mine” more than any. I saw them do “So. Central Rain” on Letterman and there may have been a great deal of alcohol ingested by the band prior to the performance, but it only served to make it hazier and more southern-Gothic. I’d put side 1 of Reckoning up against any other album side out there.

20. Three Sides Live - Genesis

No, it’s not the best Genesis record. It may not even be their best live record. But, I saw them for the first time on this tour and side three may have impacted my life more than any other piece of music. That’s the side that has “In The Cage” and “Afterglow” with an extended instrumental medley between them consisting almost entirely of Tony Banks keys and Phil Collins’ dueting with Chester Thompson on drums. The instrumental section still gives me chills. The primary reason I’ve owned (and even tried to play) the dozens and dozens of pianos and synths I’ve owned is down to that one section of music.

So, that’s the list from Facebook. It’s not perfect. In fact, it’s not even really the right top 20. If I were to do it again, I’d probably leave Mogwai off the list. I’d have to find some way to shoehorn in The Pixies’ Doolittle or Sisters of Mercy’s Floodland or Arcade Fire’s Funeral. Anyway, those the short versions of the stories behind the 20 album covers.