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Humans are not supposed to be alone - we are social creatures wired to live in communities. Modern-day trends are forcing us out of our natural habitat. Urbanization and technology mean we spend more time with ourselves and commonly feel isolated and disconnected. Social communities like churches are witnessing declining membership. In the 1980s, 71 percent of American households were members of a church according to Gallup. In 2020, for the first time ever, this number fell below the 50 percent majority to 47 percent. People are withdrawing into the world of social media and looking there for connection and validation. But this is the worst place to look for connection and validation. It is fickle and judgemental. It is not possible to transmit your true self via this medium which leaves people frustrated and lonely. It also can lead to resentment. As you feel more marginalized and misunderstood, you start to resent the people that appear to have it all. What happens as a result of all this is concerning. There are seven potential paths. Path 1: You lower your standards and latch to anyone that is prepared to make themselves available to you. You do not require the person to be interesting, attractive, kind, thoughtful, or any of the usual things we look for in a partner. You are so desperate and impatient, that you are not prepared to wait for the 10th or the 100th candidate. In fact, you doubt you will even have the luxury of being exposed to ten candidates. You irrationally think this is your first and only chance at finding a connection so you jump right in. The only person that will end up with the person they deserve is the person are those that have properly reconciled themselves to the prospect of never being with anyone at all! Path 2: You come to terms with the following: being with the person that is not quite right for you is like having a pebble in your shoe - it is irritating but it is not going to kill you so you keep walking. The problem is that the pebble taints every experience you have. That small amount of discomfort will take the shine off your annual holiday, and the irony is that you start to feel more alone than you would be if you were not in a relationship at all. Path 3: You will not be equal in the relationship. Your desperate need to avoid being alone makes it impossible for you to communicate your needs, or reveal your true self in the relationship. Your partner will sense this vulnerability and weakness and could use it as a means of getting their own way, which in turn could lead you to feelings of helplessness and resentment. Path 4: You become completely helpless and dependent on the other person. You can find no happiness in yourself - all your happiness is generated from your partner and you cannot imagine a life without this symbiosis. You could never imagine going to a movie by yourself or having dinner by yourself. You develop no skills to fend for yourself, fill the hours of a lonely weekend, or find pleasure in doing something alone like walking, reading a book, or cooking. Path 5: As you become more trapped in this restrictive relationship, you start to regret the freedom you have sacrificed and the missed opportunities to meet new people. You realize there is a large number of charming people you will never get to meet because you are so terrified of sleeping alone for a few more months or years. Path 6: It isn't just other people you will not get to know, it is also yourself. The constant presence of other people means you never get to know yourself. You fail to develop your own identity because it is constantly tied to the identities of others. Whenever you are faced with a challenging personal issue, you immediately gravitate away from spending time alone to deal with it and find contact with others as a way of avoiding having to think and deal with it. There ends up being so much you won’t ever really feel or understand about yourself, so many big questions about your ultimate purpose that you will ignore, because there is always someone else on hand to chat to about what to watch on Netlfix. Path 6: You may completely avoid being miserable and you will become inordinately comfortable with a life of mediocrity and comfort where you are never challenged or curious. You stop learning and exploring because there are no deep questions you need to answer. You are not constantly asking questions like “what is my purpose in this life” or “am I living my best life” because you have become so comfortable wallowing in your own mediocrity. The lesson you need to learn as quickly as possible is that if you are alone, it does not mean there is something wrong with you. Instead, it means you are being appropriately patient and waiting for that which will truly satisfy you. Also being alone romantically does not mean you should cut yourself off from all humanity. You need to go out and make meaningful social/non-romantic connections. Join a church, a sports club, or a charity, and make an effort to make genuine human connections. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

The financial system is designed to keep you ignorant and poor. It has no interest in you becoming financially free. It is the same as the pharmaceutical industry which has no interest in you eating well, exercising, and drinking plenty of water. It wants to keep you overweight and hooked on junk food and coca cola. In this way, you remain unwell which means you will be a repeat customer that comes back for more medicine. The financial industry wants to keep you financially illiterate so you will keep coming back to buy their shit products. They will keep selling their credit cards, home mortgages, auto loans, revolving credit facilities, and low-interest saving accounts because that is how they make their money. If banks told you to spend less than you earn, get out of debt, and learn how to invest they would lose the majority of their customers. This is not a conspiracy theory - these are the facts and this is what you need to do today to break out of this exploitative system and be financially free. Your first step to financial freedom is understanding what money is. Money has evolved over thousands of years. Today it exists in two forms. The first is in the form of paper and cash which is what most people first think about. About 8% of the world's money is in physical cash. The other 92% can be found in the second form which is digital and I am not talking about cryptocurrencies. I am talking about those numbers on your bank account balance. This money is simply a journal entry and for obvious reasons, you are more than happy to keep that money where it is. You have faith that the bank will look after it for you. Some countries have more than 8% in physical cash and some have less. Sweden is predicted to become the world's first cashless society in March 2023 - 6 months from now. How would you feel about living in a cashless society? So money is either a piece of paper or a number on your bank balance. How does that make you feel? Hopefully a little nervous because money is not backed by anything. Before 1973 all money in the world was backed by gold but we have moved off this system which means that money is now backed by governments. Now you should be more nervous because now you need to ask the question, do you trust the government? The role of governments is to provide leadership, maintain order, provide public services, and provide national security and economic assistance. If your government does a great job in all these areas, you can jump ahead to the next section. If not, keep reading this section. What is the risk of having too much money? The biggest risk is that it gets eaten by inflation. Inflation is the rate of increase in prices over a given period of time. One thing that tends to cause prices to rise is an increase in oil prices. Oil is used to produce petrol and diesel which is used to power trucks that move goods from producers to consumers. In the middle of 2020, oil prices were around 40 dollars per barrel. In two years they had tripled to 120 dollars per barrel because of the Russian war in Ukraine. Since then they have come down to about 90 but they are more than double from 40. If inflation is 10% - meaning that prices in general increase 10% over a year - it means your money can buy 10% less. Inflation eats your money. When money was backed by gold, inflation was not much of an issue because gold is a physical asset and its price tends to go up with inflation. Do you now understand the vulnerability of money against this silent killer of inflation? Another risk is that your money gets stolen by the government which you hope never happens. More probable, however, is that governments print too much money like what happened in post-World War I Germany. The risk of printing too much money is that it generates hyperinflation and renders money worthless. This second point is essential. I have already said that 92% of all money is digital. So governments do not actually physically print money - they simply add a bunch of zeros into the database. Can you see how this is potentially more inflationary than high oil prices? Governments are inflating the money supply without producing anything. This means the value of money goes down and the price of goods goes up. This makes money in your bank account worth less. What does this mean for ordinary people? We have always been taught to save money because this is a lie that has been propagated by the financial industry. Savings accounts are great business for banks. In the same way that drug companies tell diabetics to take medication instead of eating healthy, banks make money off you holding money in savings accounts. They can lend your money at a high-interest rate. They may pay you a few percent, but when they lend it out on credit cards they get 20, 30, or sometimes even 40% interest!! How sweet is that- for the banks! What happens when inflation increases as is currently the case? The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the middle class gets wiped out. The rich are financially educated and they understand all these points I am mentioning. They do not have their money in savings accounts. They are investors. They use their money to acquire assets. An asset is something that provides you with a flow of future cash flow or economic benefits - like a share portfolio, a business, a rental property, a fleet of vehicles, an item of heavy machinery like a bulldozer or excavator, a portfolio of vending machines that you have installed on third party premises, a chain of laundromats, etc. Rich people know the difference between an asset and a liability. Most people think they can tell the difference between an asset and a liability. I would argue that most people use the accounting definition and not the financial one. This can have a very negative outcome because accounting and finance are two very different disciplines. Accounting tells you a car, a house and a motorcycle are financial assets. However, the definition of a financial asset is something that provides you with a flow of future cash flow or economic benefits. A simpler way to look at this is to ask the following question - does this "thing" put money in my pocket or take money out of my pocket? An asset puts money in while a liability takes money out. If you own a car and you use that car for your personal use, is it putting money in or taking money out? You pay insurance, petrol or diesel, tax, parking, maintenance, and fines and it depreciates. If you financed the car, you are also paying installments. I am not seeking much money going into your pocket. The same is true for a motorcycle and to a lesser extent a house (although a house has a greater chance of appreciating than a car does). Does that mean that these things are ALWAYS liabilities because they are taking money out of your pocket? The answer is NO. If you buy a car and put it to work in Uber, and if you do it right, you will have more money coming into your pocket than going out. If you buy a house and rent it out, the same will happen. Rich people know this and there buy high-quality assets whose returns are higher than inflation. Rich people are not immune to inflation. The difference between them and poor people is they take the time to get educated and they spend time finding investments that outstrip inflation. What does it mean to outstrip inflation? This is very simple maths. If you put your money into a savings account that earns 2% and inflation is 8%, you are 6% poorer every year. Let's say you want to buy a pair of sneakers that cost 1,000 bucks today but you don't have the cash. Let's say I want to give these sneakers to you as a gift but I also want to teach you about money, so I open a savings account in your name and deposit 1,000 bucks but say you can only touch that money in 12 months. The savings account pays 2% interest. After 12 months, will you have enough money to buy the sneakers? Your savings account would have grown 2% to 1,020. However, because inflation is 8%, those sneakers now cost 1,080. Those sneakers are 6% too expensive. Rich people understand how inflation works so they will approach this from a different angle. They will do their research and find a friend who wants to open a laundromat. He needs 12 month loan to buy a washing machine and you agree to lend him the money at 14%. You know the guy is solid and is unlikely not to pay you. Again, what happens after 12 months? Your friend pays you 1,140 and you go out and buy your sneakers and you have 60 bucks left over for your next project. Inflation hits the middle class far harder than it does the rich and the poor. The middle class spends a larger portion of their salaries on rent, car payments, gasoline, and groceries. This puts a massive squeeze on their monthly budgets while the value of their savings is eroded. Inflation also leads to a deterioration in the economy which means that employees are more concerned about their job security and therefore are less likely to demand inflation-linked adjustments in their salaries. So what must you do with this information? You want to be on the right side of this inflationary scenario. This is what you want to do today. 1) If you have any savings, do not leave them in the bank. You want to do your homework and find inflation-beating investments. 2) You want to stop buying stupid shit and start saving more, and investing that surplus. 3) If you have debt linked to a variable interest rate (check your loans to see if your interest rate is fixed or variable), you want to do your best to pay down that debt. When inflation rears its ugly head, interest rates tend to go up. If you have borrowed money at a variable rate, your monthly payments are going to increase. If you cannot pay off this debt, try and negotiate with your debt counterparty to convert that loan to a fixed rate. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

If you want to better understand who you are today, you need to understand where you came from. I am not talking about the story of your great-great-grandparents, but our ancestors who lived thousands of years ago. These hunter-gatherers lived in caves and wrestled with wild animals. Life was a constant battle for survival. A significant portion of this blog is inspired by Yuval Noah Harari’s bestselling book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. If you are generally curious and are interested in why we do the things we do, this book will provide you with loads of insights. Here is a list of the nine things we need to understand about our caveman past because they deeply affect our present and future. 1) Humans Are Pretty Pathetic Humans rule the world. We have no natural predators and we sit on top of the food chain but this was not always the case. For 2 million years, humans were vulnerable and marginal creatures. We lived in constant fear of predators, rarely hunted large game, and subsisted by grouping into tribes and gathering plants, stalking small animals, and sucking the marrow of the bones left by larger predators. It is believed that the earliest implements were used to crack open bones to get to the marrow. When a lion took down a giraffe, it would take its time and feed off the best parts. Then came the hyenas and the jackals and the vultures. It is only after all these scavengers had finished that we got the green light to pick on the scraps. For hundreds of thousands of years, we found ourselves in the middle of the food chain. It was only 100,000 years ago that we catapulted ourselves to the top. So how did we get there? Most creatures rose to the top of the food chain through millions of years of evolution and adaption. Humans however did so quickly that was no time for the ecosystem to adjust. Most creatures at the top of the food chain are majestic creatures. Humans on the other hand are like banana republic dictators- we are full of fears and anxiety which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous. We rose to the top of the food chain by accident. We discovered fire. With fire, we were able to protect ourselves against large hungry animals. We could burn bushes and forests to produce grasslands and fields for growing shit. We could cook and this made food easier to digest. This was a big deal because it now meant we did not need such a long intestinal tract. Large brains and long intestinal tracts use large amounts of energy and it is difficult to have both. Now, with less energy needed to maintain a long tract, more energy could be channeled to the growth of our brains. Our bigger brains allowed us to control our environment - harness the winds, start a fire, build a protective shelter, and rise to the top of the food chain. 2) We are Storytellers Sociologists believe that under normal circumstances a group of up to 150 people can exist in simple cohesion. There is no need for titles, boards, and strict social structures. You have a dominant alpha - normally male - and in order to depose this male, there needs to be an effective coalition of a group of betas. But once this threshold of 150 is passed, problems arise. How has it been possible for modern humans to band into cities of millions? The secret lies in the belief in common myths. This storytelling. The difficulty lies not in telling the story, but in getting people to believe them. When people believe these stories, the power is immense. It facilitates millions of strangers to cooperate and work towards common goals. Imagine how difficult it would be to create states, churches, or legal systems if we could only talk about things that really exist such as rivers trees, and lions. 3) When it Comes to Food, We Have little Self Control Have you ever wondered why, when you open a packet of cookies, you are inclined to wolf down the entire packet? This is natural and it does not mean you are a glutton. If a stone-age woman came across a tree full of figs, she would eat as many as possible on the spot before the local baboon stripped the tree bare. Refrigerators had not yet been invented and storage of food was primitive - hence the need to ingest it before it spoiled. 4) We Love Sweet Things When we used to hunt and gather, there was always the risk that we came across a poisonous berry. Poison tends to be bitter. When we came across a sweet berry, the sweetness told our brains that it was good to eat and would not kill us. Sugar today elicits the same response of well-being, which begs the question, why does everyone tell us that sugar is bad and should be avoided at all costs? The modern man consumes too much sugar. It is readily available 24,7, 365. We now have an overabundance of this white poison and we have become addicts. Hunter-gatherers would only have sugar in the summer and only on the rare occasion, they stumbled upon a bush of sweetness. Another important biological response to sugar is how our bodies convert sugar into fat. This was super smart because our ancestors ate sugar in the summer which comes before the winter when sweet berries do not grow. Our bodies knew to store this sugar as fat and enable us to get through the winter. Today, we have access to sugar all year round which explains the global problem of obesity and diabetes. Incidentally, as you put on more weight, so too does your brain shrink - if that doesn't get you off sugar, then nothing will! 5) Industrialisation has Made us Stupid The size of the hunter-gatherer brain of our ancestors started to decline as we grouped ourselves into larger communities. As hunter-gatherers, we need to be on the ball. We needed to know which plants they could eat, and generally how to survive. We had to map our territory, know how to set a rabbit trap, how to survive the winter, and how not to be engulfed by an avalanche. Industrial society allowed us to specialize and rely on other "specialists". This meant we used our brains less and became more stupid in the process. 6) Hunter-Gatherers had a Better Life - Most of the Time On the whole, hunter-gatherers enjoyed a more comfortable and rewarding life than the factory and office workers that followed in their footsteps. They also worked a lot less. They hunted once every three days, gathered for 4 to 6 hours a day, ate a more varied diet, and were not bogged down by modern chores such as driving to the supermarket, vacuuming and washing dishes, and paying bills. Gatherers also suffered less infectious disease. Many modern maladies such as smallpox and measles and tuberculosis came from domesticated animals. The gatherers only domesticated dogs. In addition, industrialized communities were concentrated in dense unhygienic permanent settlements while the gatherers wandered the hills and the forests in small bands that could not sustain epidemics. One however should not be too quick to idolize this lifestyle. Life was often hard and short. Those that could not keep up would be killed or sacrificed. Unwanted babies were slain and you did not want to be someone who fell out of favor with the clan. Violence between adults however was rare. Women and men were free to change partners at will. They smiled and laughed constantly and were not obsessed with success and wealth. What they valued most were social interactions and high-quality friendships. 7) Wheat is One of our Worst “Inventions” Wheat is one of the most successful plants in the history of the world. It went from being a wild grass limited to the plains of the middle east to something that was grown almost throughout the world. Presently wheat crops cover a surface area 12 times the size of Great Britain. But this move to wheat came at a cost. Less rich in minerals and vegetables, more difficult to digest, and bad for your teeth and gums. Babies were weaned quicker because mothers need to tend to the crops. This saw a spike in child mortality rates because porridge is less rich in nutrients than mother’s milk. Diets became less balanced and more reliant on wheat. They also had to store the wheat, making the granaries vulnerable to theft. They, therefore, had to build walls and stand on guard duty. Humans slowly realized that this farming exercise had not been so successful. Why did they not abandon it? The problem was that they were too committed to it. It is not unlike the scenario when young people opt for a well-paid corporate job with the idea of working hard and retiring early. It seldom works out like this. They get married, have kids buy a big mortgaged house, 2 cars, and frequent holidays abroad. Instead of easing into a simpler lifestyle, they double down and slave on. Luxuries tend to become necessities and spawn new obligations. This is known as the luxury trap. 8) Farming has made us More Anxious One of the most controversial events in history is the wholesale abandonment of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and the concentration of people into farming communities which enabled the rapid growth of populations. Some say it set humanity on the road to prosperity while others focus on the greed and exploitation that ensued. Either way, after this revolution took place, it was the point of no return. The die had been cast and no longer possible to put the hunter-gatherer genie back in the bottle. In 10,000 BC the earth was home to 5-8 million nomadic foragers. By the first century AD, only a couple of million nomads remained and there were 250 million farmers. Humans went from wandering vast distances over the plains and forests to be fixed down to tending a small plot of land and living in a small wooden or stone structure measuring a few meters to which they grew very attached. They spent lots of time warding off the encroachment of wild plants and animals. They also started to accumulate objects which served to tie them down even further. Their time frames also changed. Instead of focusing on the next hunt, farmers had to think about seasons, cycles of planting and harvesting, storage of crops, and payment of debts, and with this, we enter the age of anxiety and worry. After a solid crop harvest, peasants could celebrate as if there was no tomorrow. But within a week or so the harsh realities of the next crop had to be confronted. Farming and anxiety go hand in hand. There has also been a massive domestication of animals and they are also miserable. Today we have a billion sheep, a billion pigs, more than a billion cattle, and 25 billion chickens but the domestication of these animals came at the cost of their happiness - they are miserable beasts. Domestication is brutal and cruel - wild animal instincts are broken to serve the great good of mankind. Modern farming techniques are inhumane and cruel. Animal life expectancy has been cut from years and decades to weeks and months and growth hormones cut the time between birth and slaughter. Animals are crammed together and are filled with antibiotics that we ingest and fuck us up. 9) Our Caveman Brain Holds us Back The human brain is a very powerful piece of hardware, but it is also dangerously flawed. To better understand the brain, we need to go back millions of years. The brain was first designed to alert our ancestors of physical threats - woolly mammoths, saber-tooth tigers, and invading tribes wanting to steal food and nubile women. Fortunately, many of these threats no longer exist. Unfortunately, the brain has not been very successful in adjusting to the myriad of new challenges we face in our complex societies. Your brain is programmed to be paranoid. It is unable to differentiate between real and imaginary threats. This manifests in one of the biggest epidemics of the modern age - rampant anxieties! Let's have a closer look at the THREE inherent defects we have in this hardware between our ears. Defect 1: It Makes Stupid Assumptions The brain processes information assuming it was obtained in rational and objective conditions. It does not consider the possibility of the body impacting the process. For example, we are not ourselves when we are hungry or tired. Your brain might tell you to quit your job because your boss is a narcissist dickhead, or leave your wife because she is a controlling bitch. In reality, the solution may be far simpler - you need a snack or take a nap. In moments of ambiguity, the brain can jump to crazy conclusions. The brain is designed to make quick instinctive decisions. These days, there is merit in taking your time before making important decisions. Before you lose your shit, stand back, count to one hundred, and try to approach the issue in the cold hard light of day. Defect 2: It Comes With a Built-In Desire to be Liked The threat of not being liked does not pose any immediate danger. It does, however, generate a potential future danger. We used to live in tribes/villages/small communities, If you acted like a dickhead, and pissed off most people in the community, you ran the risk of being expelled into the wilderness and devoured by rabid packs of wild dogs. You could also face less extreme consequences. Your status in the community could be downgraded. From deputy chief, you could be demoted to assistant water collector, and with that, curtailment of your access to the most nubile women. Instead of making sweet caveman love with the buxom young hottie in the kitchen, you would need to content yourself with the toothless widow two huts down. This potential loss of life, or sexual privileges, leads your brain to hardwire itself into understanding the need to ingratiate yourself with your fellow cave brethren. The brain also understood the importance of paying special attention to those with the most influence and authority. Defect 3: It is Easily Manipulated Given the strong desire to please others, that defective computer of yours can be hacked. This manifests in conformity and following the crowd because you do not want to stand out and be labeled as the village idiot. Social media preys on this burning desire to fit in and be accepted. The more time you spend on social media, the more you are being manipulated by algos that "tell" you what to buy and what to believe. Google and Facebook are not doing the manipulation – they are getting you addicted to their platforms. The manipulators are the corporations that use these platforms to sell you their stuff. This is different from traditional advertising – TV, billboards, and magazines. The algos are observing you, tracking what you do, and then looking for ways to change your behaviour. They are pushing you to buy that new pair of shoes, to take that expensive vacation to the Maldives. Combine this blatant propaganda with Instagramers displaying how “perfect “ their lives are in these fancy shoes and exotic destinations, and you quickly believe that you “need” these things in your life. You whip out your credit card, make the purchase and then spend the next 12 months digging yourself out of debt. #finance#money#business#investing#investment#entrepreneur#financialfreedom#success#stocks#wealth#trading#realestate#stockmarket#invest#motivation#forex#bitcoin#investor#accounting#cryptocurrency#marketing#wallstreet#startup#trader#personalfinance#entrepreneurship#credit#smallbusiness#goals

There is a new word in the English dictionary that reflects the plight of the modern man - that word is "incel". It is an abbreviation for "involuntary celibate". Wikipedia describes it as an ideology, online subculture, and/or movement characterized by public displays of sexual and or romantic frustration. Some discussion in incel forums shows signs of hatred, misogyny, self-pity, and self-loathing, racism, a sense of entitlement to sex, and the endorsement of violence against women and sexually active people. The first reported incel mass killing took place in August 2009 when George Sodini opened fire on a LA Fitness health club in Pittsburg Pennsylvania. Three women were murdered and nine other people were injured after Sodini killed himself. He reportedly expressed sexual frustration and complained of constant rejections by women on a website he registered in his name. His actions have been embraced and glorified by members of the incel community, who sometimes refer to incel violence as "going Sodini". Incel communities tend to believe a few key things. Firstly, women have become highly promiscuous over time. The nickname they give to attractive and sexually available women is "Stacy". Second, they believe that a small number of men dominate the sexual market place and their dominance is growing. These men are referred to as "Chads". Finally, they believe that the sexual marketplace is winner-take-all with a small number of Chad's bedding all the Stacies. These Chads are helped by social media, Tinder and other dating apps. Incels use the Pareto principle to come to the conclusion that 20 percent of the Chad's are having 80 percent of the sex. So let's take a closer look at these incels. Based on the 2020 poll, they are mostly male between the age of 18 and 32. There are women who identify as incels (in fact the very term was coined by a woman) but they are not welcomed on incel message boards. Fifty-five percent identified as caucasian while the remaining 45 percent were divided among the range of ethnic groups including Black, Latino, Asian, Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Other. A total of 84 percent of respondents to the poll said they were virgins. Inceldom is not exclusively about sex - it is about finding a romantic partner. Nearly 63 percent said they had never kissed anyone. More extreme incels would suggest that kissing a "foid" (a derogatory incel term for a woman) disqualifies you from being a real incel. Mental health questions (and responses) provide a critical window into the incel experience. Most incels reported profound dissatisfaction and unhappiness with their lives. They feel insecure and have a fundamentally pessimistic view of the world. This is also referred to as being black-pilled- this is a hopeless attitude that regardless of what they do, they will remain celibate and inferior to other men. More than 95 percent found that this black pill ideology was a good reflection of their reality. Almost three-quarters of the respondents experience anxiety, stress, or emotional distress in a "constant manner". The majority believe they are in the position on account of their physical attractiveness - overweight and below average height are common attributes. They even coined the term "heightcel" to refer to an incel who is short in stature. Incels place a massive premium on physical attractiveness and believe that if they looked a certain way, they would have success with women. All factors mentioned as being the reason behind their lack of success with women: 1) Physical appearance - 86 percent 2) Self-confidence and social anxiety - 74 percent 3) Lifestyle (too much time indoors) - 66 percent 4) Status (eg wealth and job) - 59 percent 5) Physique (weight and muscle mass) - 58 percent 6) Height - 48 percent 7) Personality - 45 percent 8) Autism or similar conditions - 39 percent 9) Location - 39 percent 10) Race - 31 percent You will notice that the top 5 choices all fall under the umbrella of physical appearance which reinforces just how important this is to incels. There are several reasons for this sex drought. Young men are withdrawing into the online world and are consuming more pornography. They are also living longer with their parents, which is a real boner killer. But possibly the strongest reason is that women are becoming more selective about who they drop their panties for. They are focusing more on their careers, and delaying marriage plans or canceling them altogether. As women progress in their careers and start to unlock their economic potential, they also see how their sexual market value increases. Women are hypergamous by nature – they only want to hook up with people on the same socio-economic level or higher. Given that men are in a throes of a crisis, this pool of dateable/fuckable men is declining. This means that a smaller number of alpha-type men are having more sex. The Pareto principle of 80/20 is very much in play – 20% of men are having 80% of the sex. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

We have always been told cholesterol is bad. Drug companies have done a great job in reinforcing this belief as they protect a market for cholesterol drugs worth in excess of $25 billion. They incentivize doctors to prescribe their drugs, they run clinical trials that they can choose to make public or not, and in the US they are the single biggest funders of the Food and Drug Administration. The pharmaceutical industry is riddled with conflicts of interest. We are taught to avoid foods high in cholesterol like eggs that clog our arteries and lead us to an early grave. I personally have high cholesterol and I am happy to inform you that cholesterol is not the antichrist that it has been made out to be. In the blog, I will address three common myths about cholesterol and their truths. Myth 1: All Cholesterol is Bad for You Fact: Your body needs cholesterol to perform important jobs. It is an antioxidant, strengthens the immune system, helps in hormone production, and aids digestion. There are two different kinds of cholesterol in your body - good (HDL) and bad (LDL). Bad cholesterol was believed to promote the formation of fatty plaques in the arteries. That’s why numerous pharmaceutical drugs, namely statins, target this cholesterol. Now prepare for your mind to be blown. Research in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) suggests otherwise published the findings of experts from seven different countries who evaluated data collected from 19 studies on a total of 68,094 older adults. The team was seeking to determine if LDL cholesterol is associated with death in older adults. According to the cholesterol hypothesis, it should directly relate. According to the BMJ study, it doesn’t. Researchers say almost 80 percent of the participants in the studies who had high LDL cholesterol did not die because of their cholesterol level. On the other hand, researchers discovered people with low levels of LDL cholesterol, or LDL-C, had the highest rates of death related to cardiovascular disease. Myth 2: Foods High in Cholesterol Increase the Risk of Heart Attacks Fact: The amount of cholesterol in your blood and in your diet are two different things. Although it may seem logical that eating high-cholesterol foods would raise blood cholesterol levels, it usually does not work that way. When your dietary intake of cholesterol goes down, your body makes more. When it goes up, your body makes less. This breaks the link between cholesterol and heart disease. Myth 3: All High Cholesterol Foods are Bad for You Fact: Not all foods high in cholesterol are bad for you. You are seven that are actually very good for you. Top of the list is a food that is always top of the list of enemies - the humble egg. One egg delivers a powerful punch of cholesterol - 207 mg in total. Research is now showing they don't raise bad cholesterol levels and actually increase good cholesterol. Aside from being rich in cholesterol, eggs are an excellent source of highly absorbable protein and beneficial nutrients such as selenium, vitamin A, and several B vitamins. Secondly, full-fat cheese does not raise bad cholesterol levels, and they also provide a good amount of calcium, protein, and vitamin A, and B vitamins. Third on the list is shellfish. A 85 grams serving of canned shrimp has a whopping 214 mg of cholesterol. Shellfish — including clams, crab, and shrimp — are an excellent source of protein, B vitamins, iron, and selenium. And here is the kicker, these “bad” boys of the sea are being shown to lower the risk of heart disease and level of bad cholesterol. The last four are pasture-raised red meat, sardines, organ meats like liver, and full-fat yogurt. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

I love breakfast - it is in my top three favourite meals of the day. It is the one meal you feel you really deserve after fasting 10 to 12 hours, so we tend to let our guard down. Food companies know this and they have done a great job in pushing breakfasts to us that are not at all good for our health. Here is a list of the top 15 worst things you can throw into your mouth in the morning. Cereals Filled with Sugar Most people oversleep so breakfast is always a mad rush. There is nothing more convenient than throwing some granola in a bowl, adding a dash of milk, and wolfing it down in 3 minutes. We don't pay much attention to the back of the box. We only see the big bold letters like “multigrain goodness”, “low in cholesterol” and “stay in shape on the go” that we overlook it is packed with sugar, and by 11 am we hit a mega sugar low and we have to pound another double espresso to stay awake in the sales meeting. Waffles and Syrup This is obvious. People try to make themselves feel better by adding a few strawberries on the side, yet the fact remains that this is an empty-calorie breakfast that will serve you no good. White Toast and Margarine All the wholegrain has been removed to produce white bread, meaning it has zero vitamin B. Margarine is filled with vegetable oil and may also have trans fat added which is worse than sugar. This breakfast will send you to an early grave if you stick to it. Muffins Many people believe this is a healthy breakfast snack, but it is nothing more than a cake masquerading as a healthy breakfast. Not only is it filled with sugar, but if it was commercially produced (as opposed to homemade), it has been painted with vegetable oil to increase its shelf life. Fruit juice OJ is eviler than you think. When you remove the juice from its natural fiber, Vitamin C is useless to you. In addition, it has the same amount of sugar as Coca-Cola. Granola Bars Here is another food that is supposed to be healthy. However, they generally contain large amounts of sugar, corn syrup, and sorbitol, and this is a lethal combination that will make you gain weight. They also contain soybean oil. Finally, they contain BHT, a widely banned carcinogen. A good alternative is to make your own granola with oats, nuts, and seeds. Bacon and Sausages Who doesn't like bacon for breakfast? Bacon is incredibly unhealthy and not only because of the fat. As a result of the curing process, bacon and sausages contain nitrates and nitrites, which transform into nitrosamines, which are highly carcinogenic when exposed to high heat. It does not matter how you cook them, the heat transforms them into cancer bombs. Unfortunately, there are no healthy alternatives. Fruit Yogurt Most fruit is good and so is yogurt - however, when you combine them the result is not great. Firstly, fruit yogurts are packed with sugar. Secondly, the beautiful colouring in the yogurt often does not come from the fruit but from fruit juice concentrates so there is more sugar again. But that is not the worst additive. The worst thing is carrageenan. It is an emulsifier that can cause inflammation. The best alternative is to buy unflavored yogurt and add natural fruit. Sugary Coffee Drinks We all need our cup of Joe in the mornings to kick start our day. Again we let down our guard and before we know it we are gulping down a calory bomb. I counted approximately 10 Starbucks coffees with over 500 calories. Top of the list is the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappucino with 590 calories per serving. This is a bomb of fat and sugar, and every cup is subtracting time from your life. Bananas This may come as some surprise - after all, it is a fruit. The problem is that it is full of sugar, and the riper the banana, the higher the sugar content so you are better off eating the greener ones. Sugar is a type of carbohydrate, so eating bananas means eating a fair amount of carbs, with little good fats and practically no protein. So a simple banana for breakfast won’t sustain you for long, and you’ll be hungry in no time as they’re not a complete food when eaten on their own. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

A big mistake we make when it comes to food is we focus only on what is printed on the front of the food packaging. What you find on the front is 100% marketing bullshit. The most misleading food labels are: All-natural No sugar added Sugar-free Zero trans fat Immunity boosters Free range Fat-free Gluten-free Made with real fruit Lightly sweetened Cholesterol free Organic You need to learn how to read what is on the back of the packaging. The problem is that food regulations are complex and sometimes it is not easy to. understand these labels. The objective of this blog is to clue you in on what to look for when you flip the packaging. Step 1: Look at the List of Ingredients The ingredients in a food product are listed in order of weight, with the largest quantity first. Sugar is the biggest enemy in modern diets. Manufacturers have become creative in disguising sugar through fancy names. All sugar is bad and it does not matter where it comes from. Organic raw sugar is no better than white sugar. Syrup, honey, and agave nectar are not much better than normal sugar. Any ingredient ending in -ose is sugar (for example lactose, fructose, galactose, glucose, and maltose). Also be on the lookout for barley malted, molasses, corn sweetener, dextran, malted powder ethyl maltol, fruit juice concentrates, disaccharides, and maltodextrin. Step 2: Look at the Nutritional Information Table The key things to look for in this table are energy, protein, carbohydrates, sugar, fats, fiber, and sodium content. The information is presented per 100g and per recommended serving size. When you are comparing products, I would recommend focusing on the first column which is the per 100g. Energy Energy is measured in kilojoules and calories. If a food is high in calories, it is not necessarily bad. On average, one avocado has more than 300 calories. KFC Chicken Littles also has 300 calories. Avos are exponentially more healthy than KFC Chicken Littles so you need to understand that not all calories are created equal so you probably don't want to place much attention on this line on the label. Protein While fat and carbs are controversial, everyone agrees that protein is important. Protein reduces appetite and hunger levels and therefore prevents overeating, it increases muscle mass and strength, is good for your bones, it lowers blood pressure, and helps your body repair itself after injury. Can too much protein be harmful? The short answer is yes. As with most things in life, there can be too much of a good thing and if you eat too much protein, there may be a price to pay. For example, people that eat very high protein diets have a higher risk of kidney stones. Recommendation: You want to aim for medium consumption of protein in your diet. Fat Thirty years ago it was believed that all fats were bad and everyone was aiming for a low-fat diet. This shift away from fat did not make us healthier because we cut back on the healthy fats and the harmful ones. Good fat helps your body absorb vitamins and minerals, blood clotting, muscle movement, and build cell membranes. The worst fat is trans fat - they have no known health benefits and there is no safe level of consumption. Then you have saturated fats that come from red meat, milk, cheese, coconut oil, and many commercially prepared baked goods. Although not bad for you, they need to be consumed in moderation. The final member in the fat camp is the mono and polyunsaturated fats. They are awesome and come mainly from vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fish. The biggest difference between mono and polyunsaturated fats, and saturated fats is that the former are liquid at room temperature while the latter is solid (think about cooled bacon grease). Recommendation: You want to aim for foods with zero trans fat, medium reading on saturated fat, and high numbers on mono and polyunsaturated fats, Carbs and Sugar Of those markers, total carbs and sugar are the most important information you need to focus on. Remember that carbohydrates convert into sugar once ingested into your body. You there want to meet your carb and sugar intake down. The reason for this is that you want your body to switch to using fat as its primary energy source instead of glucose from carbohydrates which is fucking up your mind and body. Sugar is a poison and you need to reduce your sugar consumption. Fat, on the other hand, is a very energy-dense molecule and you have plenty of it to fuel your body. Recommendation: You want to aim for foods low in carbs and sugar. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

Do you know who invented the phrase “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”. It was invented in the 19th century by James Caleb Jackson and John Harvey Kellogg. Focus on the surname of the second person - KELLOGG. They invented this phrase, not based on scientific evidence, but to sell sugar breakfast cereal to gullible idiots like us. Breakfast simply didn’t exist for large parts of history. The Romans, for example, didn’t eat it – usually consuming only one meal around midday – breakfast was actively frowned upon. Other examples of bullshit phrases that we believe are gospel are “sugar gives you energy” and “fatty food will make you fat”. If you want to live a high-quality life that will allow you to live to your full potential, you need to be educated on food. To help you on this path to enlightenment, I have prepared 10 food laws that you need to start implementing in your life NOW. Law 1: You Don't Need as Many Carbs as You Think There are three major food groups - carbohydrates, protein, and fat. The biggest source of carbs are foods like bread, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, pasta, soft drinks, corn, and cherry pie. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that carbohydrates make up 45% to 65% of total daily calories. The reason they offer this is that carbs are your body’s main energy source. The problem with this advice is that it is bullshit. Sure, if you are going to be lifting weights or sprinting 100m, you need quick access to energy through carbs. But what about going for a run, or a cycle, or hiking a mountain? You don't need this quick fuel to burn and fat is a perfect fuel source. The biggest problem with carbs is that they cause a spike in your blood sugar. Your body breaks down the carbs and turns them into sugar and then waits for you to use the sugar. If you don't use the sugar, your body needs to store it somewhere, and that is usually inside fat cells that can accumulate inside your liver (we discuss this in more detail further on). So unless you are doing mega sets of weights in the gym, or lining up against Usain Bolt on the track, you don't need even close to 45% to 65% of your daily calories to come from carbs. Do you know what happens when you reduce your carb intake? It will not make you light-headed. It will teach your body to start burning fat as a source of energy. Hands up if you would like your body to burn more fat! Law 2: All Foods Were Not Created Equal Bodies are machines. Their performance depends on how they are fuelled. If you fill them with shit, they will perform like shit. If you fill them with high-octane, high-quality fuel, they perform optimally. All food in its raw and natural state is filled with goodness. Over the decades, man has processed all the goodness out of food. So the rule is simple - the more a food has been processed, the lower the quality of the fuel. So how do you know if food has been processed? It is simple, when you look at it, you haven't got a fucking clue where it came from. If the food comes in a box, it is probably processed. Take a big fat juicy doughnut. Do you think some farmers planted doughnut seeds and then harvested a crop of doughnuts? Of course not - doughnuts are full of processed shit - sugar, flour, fructose, glucose, colorants, preservatives, etc. Add to this list food like bread, cookies, chips, fruit loops, and other sugary cereals, sweets, etc. Let's now move across to high-quality foods. When you walk into a supermarket, what foods do you ordinarily find close to the walls? Fruit, vegetables, meat, chicken, fish, milk, cheese. When you look at these products, you have a pretty good idea of how they existed in their pre-supermarket state. These foods have not been processed. This is high-quality fuel. These are called whole foods. Law 3: Junk Food Makes You Fat and Stupid A big mac is delicious but it is low quality. The problem with junk food is that it does three things to you: 1) It Gets You High and Fat: Dopamine is our very own natural feel-good chemical. We have a reward center in our brains. When it produces dopamine in response to what we do, we feel good and want to do more of whatever it is that’s making us feel so mentally healthy. That, in turn, leads to even more dopamine production. Junk food is fucking delicious and it floods our brains with dopamine when we stuff it into our faces. This creates a high. As we eat more Big Macs, the brain adapts and makes more receptors to dopamine. To get that same virgin high, we need more burgers. This is classic addiction. The more burgers we eat, the fatter we get, the less exercise we do, the more our testosterone levels drop, and the less masculine energy we have to master our lives and become high-value men. 2) It Makes us Do Stupid Shit: Junk food is like porn – it is delicious and grabs our attention. To resist this temptation, we need a set of brakes in our brains. This is the prefrontal cortex which only matures in our early 20s. This explains why teenagers often do stupid shit – they have no brakes. Research has shown that excessive consumption of sugary drinks negatively affects the development of these brakes. This lack of self-control makes you a slave to your impulses. You crave instant gratification. It is this inability to master your urges that is a defining trait of low-value, weak and depressed men. 3) It Fucks Up Your Ability to Learn: Learning is the accumulation of memories in the memory center of the brain known as the hippocampus (think of it as a campus full of hippos!) Have you ever noticed that you learn things easier when you experience them in real life instead of reading them in a book? Those are your neurons firing and wiring together in a process called neuroplasticity. High-value men are continually learning – finding new ways to make money, solving complex problems, understanding client needs, interacting with a dynamic and vibrant world, and being exposed to new and potentially life-changing experiences. If your brain is not firing on all cylinders, you are missing opportunities and living below your potential. Junk food fucks up with your neuroplasticity. In simple terms, it makes you stoopid! Law 4: Sugar is Not a Treat We are all familiar with the mid-afternoon energy slump. Our response is common. We either pound a strong coffee or grab a stick of candy. Studies are finding that sugar does not lead to any improvement in mood or alertness. In fact, it found that it could even have the opposite effect and deepen the energy slump. So, if sugar does not give you the energy boost, and may even sap energy from you, what other damage could sugar be doing to us? 1) Weight Gain: Sugar is driving the global obesity epidemic because it increases hunger. Animal studies show that excessive sugar consumption may cause resistance to leptin, an important hormone that regulates hunger and tells your body to put the brakes on eating. 2) Heart Disease: Heart disease is the world's number one killer. Sugar spikes your blood sugar levels, and your blood pressure and causes inflammation. These three evils are all risk factors for heart disease. 3) Acne: Foods with a higher glycemic index such as processed sweets raise your blood sugar and insulin levels, leading to increased androgen secretion, oil production, and inflammation all of which play a role in acne development. 4) Diabetes: The incidence of diabetes has more than doubled over the past 30 years and the trend is still to the upside. While no study has conclusively proven that sugar causes diabetes, there are strong connections. Prolonged high sugar consumption leads to your body building up a resistance to insulin, a hormone e produced by your pancreas that regulates blood sugar levels. Insulin resistance causes blood sugar levels to rise and strongly increases your risk of diabetes. 5) Cancer: While there is no study showing that sugar causes cancer, it does cause conditions that increase your risk of cancer such as obesity, inflammation, and insulin resistance. 6) Depression: High sugar consumption has been linked to cognitive impairments, memory problems, and emotional disorders like anxiety and depression. 7) Drains Your Energy: We all know the spike we get from a can of Coke. The problem is that this is a temporary spike and then causes a sharp drop in blood sugar which is often referred to as a crash. 8) Fatty Liver: Your liver is the largest solid organ in your body. It is supremely important to your well-being because it removes toxins from your body's blood supply, maintains healthy blood sugar levels, regulates blood clotting, and performs hundreds of other vital functions. You, therefore, want to look after your liver. In the liver, sugar is converted into energy or stored as glycogen. The liver's storage capacity is limited and when it runs out of space it turns excess glycogen into fat, and a fatty liver is far less effective in the performance of its vital functions. Law 5: You Have Two Brains The first thing you need to understand when it comes to food is the link between your gut and your brain. What is the first thing that happens when you get stressed? Your gut reacts and it is not positive. Heartburn, indigestion, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, and associated lower abdominal pain are common gut reactions to stress. Most of us know this movement from north to south. What most of us don't know is that signals are bidirectional - in other words, your gut also sends signals to your brain. This means that if there is a problem in your gut, that can cause anxiety, stress, and depression. What you put in your mouth is massively important because your gut is your second brain. Not only will it affect how you feel physically, but it will also determine how you feel mentally. Have you ever noticed how you can be eating and then all of a sudden you feel full? Your stomach brain is a little retarded. It takes 20 minutes for your stomach brain to tell your cerebral brain you are full. That is problematic. If you are eating dinner and you are stuffing your face, at 6 pm you are full, but you don't feel full so you keep shoveling calories into your face. By 6.19 pm you have offloaded another 500 calories into a full stomach. At 6.20 pm the signal arrives and you feel stuffed. You feel lethargic and you want to take a nap. You may also feel a little guilty as you move to the couch, loosen your belt, and collapse onto the soft cushioning like a big lump of lard. So this is what you want to do. 1) Eat slowly - you want to limit your calories per minute consumption. If you pack 500 calories in 20 minutes, that is 25 calories per minute. If you can cut that to 10 per minute, in the 20-minute delay between stomach and brain, you will only overload by 200 calories. 2) Pay attention to what foods affect your stomach. Lactose has become public enemy number one. I love dairy - milk, cheese, yogurt and ice cream all make me excited, but lately, they have been upsetting my stomach and putting me into a shit mood. I feel less energetic and powerful so I try and stay away from them. This is what you want to consume to improve your gut health. High-fiber foods (legumes like black beans and chickpeas; whole grains like oats and quinoa; vegetables like broccoli and asparagus; nuts like almonds and pistachios; fruits like apples and peaches) Garlic Fermented foods like sauerkraut and yogurt Law 6: There are 10 Superfoods You Need to Incorporate into Your Diet The superfood trend dates back over a hundred years ago and is believed to have been started by the humble banana. Let's dive into the list of 10 best superfoods along with their health benefits. Your goal is to consume at least three of these superfoods on a daily basis as a gateway to a healthier and stronger lifestyle. 1) Avocados: They are packed with magnesium which is important in regulating blood pressure and blood sugar. The avo is also packed with fiber which is good for your heart. Serving suggestion: avocado on whole wheat toast with black pepper and sea salt. 2) Berries: Any fruit ending in -berries is great for your brain. You want to include either blackberries, blueberries, cranberries (the fresh, not dried or juice variety), strawberries, and raspberries, to name a few, are low in calories, high in fiber, and packed full of antioxidants that help fight against cancer-causing free radicals. Serving suggestion: include berries in your morning smoothie. 3) Seafood: Fish is full of protein and rich in healthy fats and Omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 can help play a role in reducing your risk of a heart attack and stroke and alleviating depression. Seafood with the highest concentration of omega 3 is salmon, sardines, mackerel, and herring. Serving suggestion: you want to have seafood at least twice a week. 4) Garlic and Onions: Although a little smelly, both their foods deliver potent health benefits, and if well cooked, a lot of the after-smell can be avoided (although it has to be remembered that most food is healthier great uncooked). Garlic and onions are part of the allium vegetable family. They play a role in preventing cancer, and garlic in particular may benefit people with diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Serving suggestion: throw some garlic and onions into your egg omelets. 5) Nuts and Seeds: Health gurus say you should eat almonds for your heart, cashews for your brain, and Brazil nuts for cancer. Seeds like chia are easy to add to smoothies and are packed with vitamins and minerals. Both nuts and seeds fill you up quickly and are perfect snacks when you are feeling peckish and you are watching your weight. Serving suggestion: grab a handful and throw them into your mouth. 6) Dark Leafy Greens: The darker the colour of a vegetable, the more nutrients it has. The darkest leafy Greens are kale, arugula (also known as rocket), spinach, lettuce, and Swiss chard. Kale is one of the best sources of vitamin C. One cup of raw kale contains more vitamin C than a whole orange. Serving suggestion: throw your leafy greens into a large bowl, cut in an avo, and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. 7) Ancient grains: Brown rice and oats are packed with fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins. So why are they called ancient grains - these are grains that are largely unchanged over the last several hundred years. Serving suggestion: raw oats, banana, and apple dusted with cinnamon makes for a super breakfast. 8) Citrus Fruits: The sweet and sour bite of citrus fruits like grapefruit, oranges, lemons, and limes are low in calories and high in water. You want to consume these fruit in their raw natural state and not in juice form which may contain added sugar. Fruit must be consumed in moderation because even in its natural state, it has high sugar content. Serving suggestion: Throwing lemon slices into a cup of hot water first thing in the morning on an empty stomach helps in improving digestion, and metabolism and increasing energy levels. 9) Sweet Potatoes: Root vegetables are a solid source of health. Carrots, beets, parsnips, and potatoes are packed with healthy carbs and starches that provide energy. Sweet potatoes in particular are believed to help prevent diabetes, obesity, cancer, and other health conditions thanks to their anti-inflammatory, antioxidative and antimicrobial properties. Serving suggestion: bake sweet potatoes with a few blobs of butter makes for a perfect snack. 10) Dark Chocolate: The cacao in dark chocolate is full of antioxidants that may play a role in cancer prevention, heart health, and weight loss. But it has to be dark. Serving suggestion: rip off the foil and chow down. Before you go and pig out on superfoods, there is a health warning. We have all heard the phrase that too much of a good thing is not good. The same is true with food. A new buzzword that is becoming more common online is “superfood”. The problem with all the hype around superfoods is that you are quickly led to believe that the more you eat them, the better they will be for you. That is not always the case. Here are some “superfoods” that if consumed excessively can be bad for your health. 1) Fatty Fish: Salmon, mackerel, and sardines are loaded with omega 3 which is great for your brain and your heart. Many people pop omega 3 supplements on a daily basis in the hope of finding their inner Einstein, or at the very least hoping to lose their car keys so often. The problem with too much omega 3 is that it can cause blood thinning in healthy people. You therefore may want to limit your fatty fish consumption to once or twice a week. 2) Tuna: Tuna is also a fatty fish but deserves its own special mention because it contains large amounts of mercury. Mercury is a neurological toxin that can adversely affect your vision, coordination, and your hearing, and speech. Tuna that is older, and therefore larger, tend to be served as premium steaks in restaurants and high-end grocery stores. On account of their age, they have accumulated more mercury. Smaller tuna tends to find its way into the cans and therefore have lower levels of mercury. As oceans become more polluted, so too do mercury levels increase. 3) Cruciferous Vegetables: Leafy greens like kale, spinach, arugula, and broccoli have been linked to reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. The problem is that excessive consumption of these greens can hamper your body's ability to absorb iodine, and this can lead to weight gain, dry skin, constipation, and reduced energy levels. 4) Brazil Nuts: These nuts are one of the best sources of selenium which helps to make DNA and protect against cell damage and infections. Too much selenium can lead to selenium toxicity which can result in hair loss, memory problems, and digestive issues. Law 7: 15 Foods You Want to Avoid at All Costs There is much confusion about which foods are healthy, and which are not. Coca-Cola was invented by a doctor and pharmacist and today it leads to weight gain, diabetes, and cardiovascular conditions. To help you out, here is a list of 15 foods that are unequivocally not good for you and some healthier alternatives. 1) Sugary drinks: When people drink sugar calories, the brain does not register them as food. This means that when we pull into Mcdonald's and order a Big Mac with fries and a tall coke, we don't realize that you are ordering a calorie bomb. A large Coke should cause us to compensate by eating less. However, we often don't see all the sugar in the beverage. When consumed in large quantities, sugar can drive insulin resistance in the body and is linked to a fatty liver, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. The alternative is to drink water, tea, or coffee. 2) Pizza: This is the world's most popular junk food. The dough is most often made from highly refined wheat flour and the meats are highly processed. The alternative is to make your own pizza with healthy ingredients with a thin crust and healthy toppings like avocado, arugula, and olive oil. 3) White Bread: Most commercially available bread is unhealthy because they are made with refined wheat which is low in essential nutrients and leads to a rapid spike in blood sugar. The alternative is whole-grain bread. 4) Most Fruit Juices: Most people assume incorrectly that fruit juice is healthy. The reality is that fruit juice contains almost the same amount of sugar as a Coke. The alternative is to look for fruit juices that have overwhelming health benefits notwithstanding the sugar content such as blueberry juice. 5) Industrial Vegetable Oils: There has been a dramatic increase in our consumption of soybean, corn, cottonseed, and canola oils. They are cheap and versatile. However, they are also very high in omega-6 fatty acids that cause oxidative stress in the body. They have also been linked to an increased risk of cancer. The best alternative is extra virgin olive oil. 6) Margarine: This used to be considered a healthy alternative to butter. It is a highly processed pseudo-food that has been engineered to taste like butter. It is full of artificial ingredients and to make matters worse, it is loaded with vegetable oil. The alternative is to use real butter - it does not spread as smoothly, but will make you look and feel a hundred times better. 7) Pastries, Cookies, Cakes, and Donuts: They are filled with refined sugar, refined wheat flour, and added fats. One alternative is the consumption of rice cakes. 8) French Fries and Potato Chips: Potatoes in their natural form are healthy. Fries have been deep-fried in vegetable oil. Potatoes are best boiled or baked. 9) Bacon and Sausages: Who doesn't like bacon for breakfast? Bacon is incredibly unhealthy and not only because of the fat. As a result of the curing process, bacon and sausages contain nitrates and nitrites, which transform into nitrosamines, which are highly carcinogenic when exposed to high heat. It does not matter how you cook them, the heat transforms them into cancer bombs. Unfortunately, there are no healthy alternatives. 10) Sugary Cereals: Cereals tend to get a free pass and manufacturers have done a great job in masquerading their products are "healthy". I am not talking about Fruit Loops because everyone knows they are junk food. I am talking about Blueberry Clusters, Special K Protein, and Cheerios Multigrain. If you read the labels you will see that are packed with added sugar. They are selling health but not giving it. The alternative is oatmeal but you want to stay away from instant oatmeal because it is full of sugar and colorants. 11) Deli Meats: There is nothing more harmless than the traditional ham sandwich, right? Deli meats are not good for a number of reasons. Firstly, they may contain traces of bacteria, especially if not stored properly. Secondly, they contain bucketloads of sodium. If you have to consume deli meats, you should look for low-sodium options. 12) Dried Fruit: This is another snack that is believed to be healthy. Yes, they are still fruit but they often contain added sugar and contain vegetable oil. They are often coated with this oil to prevent spoilage and preserve the taste. The oil lightly deals the fruits from losing their natural aroma and original flavour. It also prevents mildew from infesting the fruits by sealing their pores from fungal spores. Eat nuts and seeds instead. 13) Fruit Yogurt: Fruit is good and so is yogurt - however when you combine them the result is not great. Firstly, fruit yogurts are packed with sugar. Secondly, the beautiful colouring in the yogurt often does not come from the fruit but from fruit juice concentrates so there is more sugar again. But that is not the worst additive. The worst thing is carrageenan. It is an emulsifier that can cause inflammation. The best alternative is to buy unflavored yogurt and add natural fruit. 14) Granola Bars: Here is another food that is supposed to be healthy. However, they generally contain large amounts of sugar, corn syrup, and sorbitol, and this is a lethal combination that will make you gain weight. They also contain soybean oil. Finally, they contain BHT, a widely banned carcinogen. A good alternative is to make your own granola with oats, nuts, and seeds. 15) Frozen Fish Products: Most fish is healthy. Most manufacturers, however, use STPP (sodium tripolyphosphate) to retain moisture in various frozen fish products. The problem is that this is a pesticide. Enough said. Stay away from these products and eat fresh alternatives. Law 8: You Need More Fat Twenty years ago you would have been burned at the stake for saying this. Fat used to be the devil. Modern research has found that you need fat because it helps give your body energy, protects your organs, supports cell growth, keeps cholesterol and blood pressure under control, and helps your body absorb vital nutrients. When you focus too much on cutting out all fat, you can actually deprive your body of what it needs most. The nine best sources of fat are avocados, nuts, fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines, and tuna), dark chocolate, eggs, seeds, cheese, extra virgin olive oil, and full cream yogurt. Law 9: Constant Snacking is Bad for You Have you ever wondered why the human body can go for one to two months without eating? Our bodies were designed for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Our cavemen ancestors 12,000 years ago ate what they killed and they had limited ability to store food. So when they made a kill, they would stuff themselves because they did not know when they would eat again. We then settled down and started farming. Today, people are eating more frequently than they ever have before. Most people start eating around 6 am and end at around 10 pm which is a 16-hour feeding window. Is this good for our bodies? The short answer is NO. Our bodies have not evolved to our new lifestyles. They are still able to survive long periods without eating. So what happens when we eat for 16 hours every day? You have heard the theory that it is better to eat 6 small meals than three large meals. That is bullshit! You need to understand what happens in your body when you eat, and this is where it gets a little technical. When we eat, we do not just take in nutrients – we also trigger our immune system to produce a transient inflammatory response. Inflammation is a normal response of the body to infection and injury, which provides protection against stressors. This means that just the act of eating each meal imparts a degree of physiological stress on the immune system. And so if you are snacking around the clock, your body can often end up in a near-constant inflammatory state. You want to give your body a break. Instead of eating for 16 hours and fasting for 8, try and flip that around and fast for 16. Not only will you give your body a break, but your body will become more efficient. Your body has two sources of energy - sugar from carbs (also known as glycogen) and fat. Sugar is your body's default energy source. It burns quickly. If you are feeling low in energy, you going to hit a chocolate bar - not a t-bone steak. When you are eating, your body is feeding. When you are not eating, you are fasting. Let's say you have dinner at 8 pm. Assume you wake up at 8 am - your body has now fasted for 12 hours. If you eat something, you break the fast - hence the term "breakfast". After 12 hours of fasting, your body has burned through all your sugar reserves and therefore kicks into fat-burning mode. Burning fat is good. The longer you can stay in this fat-burning state, the more fat your burn. Intermittent fasting suggests you fast for between 16 and 20 hours - between 4 and 8 hours of fat burning. You want to aim for the 16-hour fast. Try to have dinner at 6 pm which means you need to power through to 10 am the next day. When you wake up in the morning, hit a couple of black coffees without any sugar. That keeps your body in a fasted state. You can also have unsweetened tea - you need to stay away from the sugar. You can also exercise in a fasted state - this means that your body is burning fat during exercise which increases the rate of burn. You are not going to pass out if you skip breakfast but you need to approach this smartly. It will take your body and mind a while to adjust. Here are two hints to get you through the 16 hours: 1) drink lots of water. 2) get a good 8 hours of sleep. Law 10: Don't Forget the Beverages Beverages are the cause of much confusion. The biggest mistake people make is that they think that all liquids are good because they keep you hydrated. The problem is that the majority of beverages are full of sugar and empty calories which means they are hydrating you at a very high cost to your health. The ten worst things you can drink are soda (regular and diet) like Coca-Cola, fruit juice, powdered drink mixes, low-fat milk, liquid coffee creamer, sweet cocktails, flavored water, energy drinks (Red Bull), and fancy coffees. Unfortunately, the list of healthy beverages is shorter: plain filtered water, tea, and coffee. Now we need to address the elephant in the room - alcohol. Heavy drinking is never good and will take a toll on the body. It can cause inflammation of the liver (alcoholic hepatitis) and lead to scarring of the liver (cirrhosis), a potentially fatal disease. It can increase blood pressure and damage the heart muscle. What about moderate consumption? While not good for you, you can limit the damage by choosing beverages low in sugar and calories. Clear liquors like vodka, tequila, and gin are the lowest in sugar and calories and are easiest for our bodies to metabolize. Red wine, although slightly higher in sugar, has been shown to help your heart, bones, and brain when consumed in moderation. The worst alcoholic beverage is beer and sweet cocktails. Conclusion We are living in times of high anxiety and depression. We have just come out of a global pandemic and into a war in Ukraine. Inflation is creeping up. Economies are not growing like they used to and people are anxious about their futures. So look after your body and fill it up with high-quality fuel. Bodies are machines. Their performance depends on how they are fuelled. If you fill them with shit, they will perform like shit. If you fill them with high-octane, high-quality fuel, they perform optimally. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

We greatly underestimate the work our bodies can do. Physiologists used to believe that we feel exhausted when we physically cannot go any further. It used to believe that fatigue was nature's way of telling you to stop and this made sense in theory. There was one physiologist, however, who believed this was not the case. In 1924, Archibald Hill proposed the idea that when the body was working hard, the brain would start to send messages to the muscles to slow down in order to store energy to survive challenges we might deal with. Going back to our caveman hunter-gatherers ancestors, they may have been walking around for 2 or 3 days looking for food. Their caveman brains would start sending signals to conserve energy in case a saber-toothed tiger attacked them. Recently, an ultra-distance marathoner, sports scientist, and countryman, Tim Noakes, started to test this theory. He came to the conclusion that the brain will create this sense of fatigue that has very little to do with the actual muscle's ability to continue to work. These findings have massive implications for our physical energy and our willpower. Willpower is like a muscle which means it can also feel tired and the same principles apply. When you get home from a long and stressful day, you can feel as tired as if you have run a marathon. When the brain starts to expand mental energy, it will start sending you messages to rest. It will make you feel more mentally drained so as to keep some resources in reserve just in case. How does this manifest? Unhealthy food may seem more tempting, exercise may seem more daunting. You need to realize that your body can still do one more at this time. One more what? One more set at the gym, one more kilometer on the run, one more hour on the bike, and one more wave when you are surfing. Your body is stronger than you think. Your will is stronger than you think and your mind is stronger than you think. Not many people can say they have truly defied their own limitations in their lifetime. So go out and test your limits - you will be amazed as to how much more resilient and tough you are. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

I have always wondered why we battle to kick bad habits like sugar addictions, watching too much TV, not doing enough exercise, and not sleeping enough. I always thought it was because we are weak and pathetic but this is too simplistic and probably even false. The true reason is our lack of patience and our inability to understand the long-term implications of our actions. Let me explain. Think about two actions - one bad and one good. The bad habit is hitting your local Starbucks every morning for a mocha cookie crumble frappuccino. The good action is putting in your running shoes and hitting the road for a 5km run first thing in the morning. Let's start with the frappuccino. This is undeniably delicious. It gives you a rush of dopamine and the 140 mg of caffeine helps kick-start your day. The problem is that after months and years of scarfing down this 600-calorie beverage, it is likely you are going to pick up a few kilos which may lead to heart, cholesterol, and obesity problems. So the short-term high is great but the long terms consequences are slightly more nefarious. Let's now move across to the running example. Most of us are not morning people and getting up is a mission. Add to this challenge the additional complexity of going for a run and for many you have created a mini Everest. But after weeks, months, and years of getting this habit deeply engrained into your day will start to yield amazing benefits. You will feel the benefits of exercising self-control and discipline, the endorphins from the run will keep you coming back for more, your heart will strengthen and you will feel like a million bucks. So the short-term is negative but the long-term benefits are hugely positive. So now we better understand the challenge of breaking bad habits. Our brains tend to fixate on the short term. We often ask the question: how will this affect me now? We are not great at understanding the long-term implications. This is why getting people to change their bad habits in climate change has been so challenging. The damage we do today will only be realized in the years and decades of the future. That is why education on the dangers of AIDS in Africa was so complicated. How do you warn people of a disease that may only affect them years or decades in the future when their short-term survival was so precarious? The only way to break bad habits is to troubleshoot this short-term obsession in our caveman's brains. These are brains that were designed to protect us from immediate dangers such as bad-tempered lions and were not well designed to prepare us for the threat of a flash flood that may only happen five years from now. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

We are all familiar with the mid-afternoon energy slump. Our response is common. We either pound a strong coffee or grab a stick of candy. Studies are finding that sugar does not lead to any improvement in mood or alertness. In fact, it found that it could even have the opposite effect and deepen the energy slump. So, if sugar does not give you the energy boost, and may even sap energy from you, what other damage could sugar be doing to us? 1) Weight Gain Sugar is driving the global obesity epidemic because it increases hunger. Animal studies show that excessive sugar consumption may cause resistance to leptin, an important hormone that regulates hunger and tells your body to put the brakes on eating. 2) Heart Disease Heart disease is the world's number one killer. Sugar spikes your blood sugar levels, and your blood pressure and causes inflammation. These three evils are all risk factors for heart disease. 3) Acne Foods with a higher glycemic index such as processed sweets raise your blood sugar and insulin levels, leading to increased androgen secretion, oil production, and inflammation all of which play a role in acne development. 4) Diabetes The incidence of diabetes has more than doubled over the past 30 years and the trend is still to the upside. While no study has conclusively proven that sugar causes diabetes, there are strong connections. Prolonged high sugar consumption leads to your body building up a resistance to insulin, a hormone e produced by your pancreas that regulates blood sugar levels. Insulin resistance causes blood sugar levels to rise and strongly increases your risk of diabetes. 5) Cancer While there is no study showing that sugar causes cancer, it does cause conditions that increase your risk of cancer such as obesity, inflammation, and insulin resistance. 6) Depression High sugar consumption has been linked to cognitive impairments, memory problems, and emotional disorders like anxiety and depression. 7) Drains Your Energy We all know the spike we get from a can of Coke. The problem is that this is a temporary spike and then causes a sharp drop in blood sugar which is often referred to as a crash. 8) Fatty Liver Your liver is the largest solid organ in your body. It is supremely important to your well-being because it removes toxins from your body's blood supply, maintains healthy blood sugar levels, regulates blood clotting, and performs hundreds of other vital functions. You, therefore, want to look after your liver. In the liver, sugar is converted into energy or stored as glycogen. The liver's storage capacity is limited and when it runs out of space it turns excess glycogen into fat, and a fatty liver is far less effective in the performance of its vital functions. So how can you go about reducing your sugar intake? Firstly you want to ditch sodas, energy drinks, and fruit juices and opt for unsweetened water, tea, and coffee. Stay away from diet sodas because they contain ingredients that spoke your hunger. Secondly, instead of buying fruit yogurt, you want to buy plain yogurt and add natural fruit. Thirdly you want to consume fresh fruit instead of dried fruit or sugar-sweetened fruit smoothies. Fourthly, consume dark chocolate instead of candy. Fifthly, use olive oil and balsamic vinegar instead of store-bought salad dressing. Sixthly, you want to trash your sugary breakfast cereals for a bowl of rolled oats (not instant oats because they are full off added sugar). You want to pay close attention to the labels on the food you buy. Per 100g serving, you do not want to consume anything with over 10g of sugar! #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

Debt is not always bad. When used to acquire high-quality assets that deliver a stream of cash flows above the cost of servicing the debt, debt is a very powerful financial weapon. At the same time, we understand that at times, through necessity or moments of weakness, we overextend ourselves financially and enter into the deep, dark, and murky world of expensive and unproductive debt. If you find yourself in this position, we propose using the snowball method of paying it down. I did not invent this strategy, but (for what it is worth), we fully endorse it. So How does it Work? The strategy assumes that your debt is not consolidated – which means that you owe money to more than one party – more than one bank credit card, a few store cards, and possibly even a loan from Shady Larry from around the corner. Point 1: Start with the smallest debt first This goes back to the law of the jungle. Predators focus their efforts on separating the weakest member of the herd. You are this predator and the weakest is that debt of a couple of hundred dollars you owe on your Amazon credit card for a village of garden gnomes you bought after a drinking game with your mates. Once the smallest debt is paid off, one proceeds to the next larger debt, and so forth, proceeding to the largest one last. This method is sometimes contrasted with the debt stacking method, also called the "debt avalanche method", where one pays off accounts at the highest interest rate first. Point 2: Why are we not paying off the most expensive debt? This strategy wants to keep you motivated so that you can build momentum in your debt liberation method. It may be that your largest debt is also your most expensive. Let's assume you go after this debt as Edmund Hillary went after Everest. If you are not in good financial shape, by the time you reach the base camp, you are going to be suffering from altitude sickness and crying for your mother. So instead of going after Everest, let's start off with Kilimanjaro and then work our way gradually up to the Himalayas. Methodology The basic steps in the debt snowball method are as follows: Step 1: List all debts in ascending order from the smallest balance to the largest. This is the method's most distinctive feature, in that the order is determined by the amount owed, not the rate of interest charged. However, if two debts are very close in the amount owed, then the debt with the higher interest rate would be moved above in the list. Step 2: Commit to paying the minimum payment on every debt. Determine how much extra can be applied towards the smallest debt. Pay the minimum payment plus the extra amount towards that smallest debt until it is paid off. Note that some lenders (mortgage lenders, car companies) will apply extra amounts towards the next payment; for the method to work the lenders need to be contacted and told that extra payments are to go directly toward principal reduction. Credit cards usually apply for the whole payment during the current cycle. Step 3: Once a debt is paid in full... add the old minimum payment (plus any extra amount available) from the first debt to the minimum payment on the second smallest debt, and apply the new sum to repaying the second smallest debt. Step 4: Repeat until all debts are paid in full. In theory, by the time the final debts are reached, the extra amount paid toward the larger debts will grow quickly, similar to a snowball rolling downhill and gathering more snow, hence the name. Example An example of the debt-snowball method in action is shown below. In a real payoff scenario, the different interest rates on debts will affect payoff times and might make the debt-snowball method less efficient than other plans. However, for the sake of illustrating the method, the example ignores accruing interest. Assume you owe the following Credit Card A - $250 balance - $25/month minimum Credit Card B - $500 balance - $26/month minimum Car payment - $2500 balance - $150/month minimum Loan - $5000 balance - $200/month minimum Assume you have an additional $100/month which can be devoted to the repayment of debt. First two months - under the debt-snowball method, payments would be made to the blood-sucking creditors as follows: Credit Card A - $125 ($25/month minimum + $100 additional available) Credit Card B - $26/month minimum Car payment - $150/month minimum Loan - $200/month minimum Third-month balance (presuming the person has not added to the balances, which would defeat the purpose of debt reduction) - Credit Card A would have been paid in full, and the remaining balances as follows: Credit Card B - $448 Car payment - $2200 Loan - $4600 Third-month payments - the person would then take the $125 previously used to pay off Credit Card A and apply it as an additional payment to the Credit Card B balance, which would make payments for the next three months as follows: Credit Card B - $151 ($26/month minimum + $125 additional available) Car Payment - $150/month minimum Loan - $200/month minimum Three more months (six total) - Credit Card B would be paid in full (the final payment would be $146), and the remaining balances would be as follows: Car Payment - $1750 Loan - $4000 Then the person would take the $151 previously used to pay off Credit Cards A & B and apply it as an additional payment to the car loan balance, which would make payments as follows: Car Payment - $301 ($150/month minimum + $151 additional available) Loan - $200/month minimum It would take six months to pay the car loan (the final payment being $240), whereupon the person would then make payments of $501/month toward the loan (which would have a $2800 balance) for six months (with the last payment at $234). Thus in 17 months, the person has repaid four loans, with two of them being paid in five months and three within one year. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business