Septocalypse

The concCERN about what CERN is doing in September is so unfounded I nearly dismissed it. I recently heard conspiracy theories about how September 2015 is going to be really terrible and that we all need to prepare. 

In all fairness, the world also ended on 12/21/12 as the Mayans "predicted" - not going to lie, I did throw myself an apocalypse birthday party because that's my birthday. 

Now that the world had already ended, can it possibly end again? Conspiracy theorists seem to think so. September is to bring about CERN opening a hole into the Abyss referred to in Revelation, of the bible. The economy is supposedly going to have a massive debt bubble burst, and apparently a meteor is going to kill us all. Man, and all these kids just went back to school...

Let's look at these points individually and evaluate their legitimacy. 

CERN

So the current theory is that they will open up the abyss for the antichrist because they are going to create the God particle. It's so uninformed I am literally having to reorganize my thoughts as I write.

A few notes regarding the Large Hydron Collider (LHC):

1 - it doesn't create particles, it destroys them

2 - it isn't doing experiments this month, it's closing for upgrades and maintenance 

3 - it doesn't open or close anything

The LHC is largely responsible for helping verify the existence of the Higgs Boson, a.k.a. "The God Particle"

So what is a Higgs Boson?

Largely we aren't sure, but we know the function of a Higgs Boson and how it operates based on the observations of waves in the "Higgs field" if you will. We know that it is what "makes matter matter." That is to say it is the basis by which energy converts to matter and vice versa. Imagine a room with a light overhead. Light in this scenario would be energy and darkness would be mass. In this example, the Higgs Boson is the light switch. It is the smallest particle that we have been able to verify and we verify it by observing the wave. Physics has this property in the quantum level that says you can either observe something as a particle or as a wave but never both at the same time. It's called particle wave duality. Every particle is both a particle and a wave and observing one by default means you lose the ability to observe the other. 

Since the Higgs is the smallest we have observed, it's ridiculous to infer that we could make one. That's like saying you could build a Lego castle from a single Lego. 

ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE 

There is a lot of unrest regarding the economy for September. Theorists are siting a loss of 600+ points in the Dow as a sign.

Here is what they fail to mention. 600+ points as a loss happens every few years with a "recovery" right after. People panic and then realize the fears were unsubstantiated so the market bounces back.

The Chinese economy is slowing faster than thought and people panicked. The thing people forget is that superpowers of the world tend to have a savior complex. Even though the Chinese economy is slowing and suffering, generally other powerful markets move to stabilize the system. Not once has the global economy entirely collapsed. 

So when the Chinese economy slows we took a turn anticipating their recovery, and when it didn't we turned and recovered. In 2008, the flaw wasn't the 778 point loss in September. It was that combined with subsequent losses totaling around 2700 points from September to December.  That is a monster loss, considering the Dow is now only 15k points. 

In the wake of a weakened China we have seen our economy bolster for impact. The economy isn't falling out in September. 

BLOOD MOONS

I refer you to my other blog regarding Blood Moons.

PALASTINE

There are biblical prophecies regarding the land of Israel and the woe to those that separate God's land. 

Let's be honest. The Palestinian people had kept that land divided for nearly 2000 years. While I don't think making them their own nation will solve anything, certainly the land isn't changing hands soon. 

SUMMARY

I guess everyone likes a good piece of gossip and a controversy but there are people who jump on these trains and don't do research. It's dangerous to play games with people's minds like that. Hopefully this blog has informed you a little so that you can begin your own search for information.

Transphobia Everywhere

Today I saw an article online about a white gal who has made her skin darker and changed her hair to appear darker because she identifies as black. Two weeks ago I read an article about how a man changed his body to appear more like a woman because he/she identified/identifies as a woman

In our culture today, it is seemingly always pushing the boundaries of what seems more risqué and edgy. We push away traditional ideals and push for the newest and most "original" ideals. 

There is a convoluted and mixed mentality that somehow everything needs to be fair and right, but when was the last time anything felt fair? When is the last time things felt right?

I am 100% an advocate for equal rights for all people. I am entirely in favor of everyone being free to be who they are and not feel condemned by other people. Regardless of beliefs or personal convictions it is never anyone's right to make someone else feel like less.

With all the news about Caitlyn Jenner, it's really surprising to me that people will two weeks later treat this Rachel any differently.

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between feeling like a man or a woman feels like? How can anyone in a male body know what being a female is like aside from stereotypes? How can anyone who is white or black know what it is like to be another race aside from stereotypes?

Really, for Bruce to think or realize that he/she is a woman, those suppositions need to be premised on an idea of what a man is and what a woman is and an internal evaluation of which group he/she belongs to.

For Rachel to say she identifies as black versus white, there needs to be suppositions about what it means to be either of those things.

That said, I am outraged that two weeks ago everyone wanted to be on the pronoun train and supportive of someone identifying in a different group and today I noticed people from that supportive group making fun of another for their exact same cause.

The only difference between Bruce and Rachel is that Bruce identifies as a different gender and Rachel identifies as a different race.

If Bruce is transgendered then Rachel is transracial. Deal with it and respect people for people rather than their choices

Feeling Fat

GETTING FIT

Step By Step

For those of you that know me, you know that I have been both very large on the weight scale, and last year I was below 200 lbs - which was an accomplishment. At the time, it was really more out of a desire to win a competition. My wife and I attended a gym and they had a competition. The winner won a large volume of money so I found the motivation there. 

In order to win, I had to lose the highest volume of body fat percentage based on a scale and then it went to votes for overall most change. At the time, I felt like my body really wasn't changing much, although I did notice that I had some clothes fit much better. 

Since then (about a year ago) I have had another child and I have really let go of all of the things that I should be doing. I am using this blog post as a starting point. I am jumping back on the train this week, and I will update this in a few weeks, but here are some of the things that I learned. 

During that time I went from weighing 269 lbs to 195 in 90 days. Here are the tips I have:

1. DON'T JUST WORK OUT - VARY YOUR WORKOUTS

So the first thing to know is that you absolutely need to be working out. Sure there are diets, but the important thing to know is that the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn in your resting metabolic rate (RMR). That means, even when you're lounging on the couch, having more muscle will help you lose more weight. The way to get muscle is to work out.

You need to vary your workouts in several levels. Not only do you need to change what you are doing day to day, but after 3-4 weeks you want to change what your weekly order looks like. Your body is an amazing adapter and will adapt to your strategy.

My suggestion:

1. Get some index cards - write out what your workouts are on them
1. Each index card should be labeled on one side with a cagegory (cardio, biceps/back, triceps/shoulders/chest, core, quads/calves/glutes, circuit training, endurance training, stretching, etc.)
2. On the back side of each card should be a specific work out. 
2. Each category of workouts should be grouped together (all cardio goes in a stack, etc) and the categories are assigned to days of the week and rotated bi-weekly
3. When you are on any 1 given day, you shuffle the cards in that category, pick out cards until your workout is done. If you are doubling up, then you do so in rotation. (if you couple core every two days or cardio every two days, then you want to change which goes first each time)

This will help you switch up your workout routine and you can always add other cards in to your exercise routine.

2. EAT HEALTHY FOODS

So there are a million diets out there. Here is what I know. I've tried the "low fat" stuff, and it didn't work for me. I don't have much an issue with portion control, but I have always been a big boy. It wasn't until I went to my gym last year that they helped me figure out the problem - carbs. 

So it's not a problem to eat carbs but, for me, the balance of carbohydrates in comparison to everything else that I ate was way out of control. I could eat a whole pizza myself and not blink. I still can. I love carbs. What they let me know is that there is a difference between fast/slow and simple/complex carbs. What you want to aim for with carbs is the stuff that I don't like so much. Fast and simple. Fruits, veggies, legumes, and such. 

What they informed me is that you want to aim for a higher protein than carb intake. 

My suggestion: 

Don't avoid what you like as if it were going to completely spoil you. The goal should be to aim for a 2:1 protein to carb ratio. If you eat 1 carb, you also need 2 proteins by the unit. 3g carbs = 6g protein. Really simple. This means, you can absolutely have the awesome cupcake at the wedding. You can have the delicious cookie that the gal brought into work. Just make sure that you have protein to go with it. 

Avoiding what you want will make you want it that more and will completely derail you when you "slip" - but really you should allow yourself a "cheat" object of the day or "cheat" meal of the week. Your body is, again, amazing at adapting, so having one bad meal isn't ruining your whole day. Enjoy that there is freedom in maintaining the balance. 

3. *WHELP* WEIGH YOURSELF DAILY

So here's the thing, weight is not the only indicator of your health. When you first start working out, your weight may just as well increase because of gaining muscle faster than losing fat. If you are building muscle faster than your fat is being burned, the weight will go up and you are going to look down and keep your head down all day. Don't be discouraged. 

Understand a few things. 

1. Your weight (based on water, food intake and a few other things) can fluctuate around 3-5 pounds throughout the day. 
2. Weight is only one element of your health - so is body fat percentage, flexibility, etc. 
3. Your body will always have some water weight

So knowing those things, you can make a plan on how to know what you are doing and rate your improvement/set goals, etc.

My suggestion:

Weigh yourself, and measure your arms/legs/and waist on the same scale at roughly the same time every day. It should probably be in the morning. Use a scale that can roughly estimate body fat %. It will not be perfectly accurate

You want to weigh in the same place with the same scale to remove the error of the scale itself. Then you can say, "this scale at this place said I was 55 pounds and now it says that I am 53 pounds." This is the win. You are down 2 pounds. If you go to the gym and that one says you are 54 pounds, you didn't lose 1 less pound. That scale would likely have originally measured 56 lbs assuming you were weighing there at the same time every day also. You want to use a body fat scale because (even though it's not entirely accurate) you can measure over time the overall average change and as long as body fat, weight, or inches are going down then you are moving toward your goal. 

SUMMARY

Work out, eat healthy, and keep track. I personally was doing 2x/day work outs when I lost the weight before. I won't be that intense this time, but your frequency of work out is up to you. Anything that is more than what you are currently doing will mean progress, but make sure you do take a rest day. It's important for your body to be allowed time to recoup from all of the restructuring you are aiming for. 

I'll post another blog like this in about six months, but for right now I am at 250 lbs again and...feeling fat...