The Primal Blueprint

"If all you do after reading this book is cut back on grains, you will dramatically improve your health."

"Doctor visits today are a direct consequence of lifestyle choices that misaligned."

"Our last decade or two (until we reach the average life span of about 78 yrs.) is usually characterized by inactivity, excess body fat, assorted medical conditions, and a host of prescriptions."

"27% of us will die from cardiovascular disease and another 23% will die from cancer."

"...70% of that is spent on lifestyle-related chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. "The sober reality is that today's technological age i enjoyed by the fattest, laziest humans in history."

"Considering all the comforts and medical advancements of modern life, we could easily argue that we currently exist in a state of devolution."

"Genes don't know - or care - whether environmental signals promote or compromise your long term health; they simply react to each stimulus in an effort to sustain your short term survival."

"Human genes are adversely affected by sugar ingestion for two weeks."

"Your lifestyle behaviors can either destroy or support many aspects of your health."

"Ideal body fat levels and stabilizing appetite and energy levels. Hint: it's all about moderating your insulin production."

Insulin



"It's all about insulin."

"The insulin story is perhaps the most health-critical in the book."

"When blodd insulin levels are high, those same fat cells store not only the excess glucose but the fat you ate at your last meal."

"High insulin signals the fat cells to hold on to the fat and not release it for energy."

"Realize how important exercise is to increasing insulin sensitivity."

"Frequently empty your liver and muscle cells of glycogen with brief, intense workouts."

"If you are routinely eating 150-300 grams of carbs per day (USDA), you will likely gain weight."

"Success depends on how aggressive you are in keeping dietary insulin levels moderated, thereby extracting more of your caloric needs from fat stores."

"Carbohydrates control insulin; insulin controls fat storage."

The Primal Blueprint Laws


Eat Lots Of Plants And Animals


"Ramp up your fat metabolism by eliminating processed carbohydrates from your diet to minimize your body's insulin production."

"Eliminate not only sugars and sweets but grain products, including wheat, rice, pasta and corn (yep, corn is a grain, not a vegetable."

"More insidious as dietary "poison" are processed grains (wheat and flow products, such as bread, pasta, crackers, snack foods, baked goods, etc., as well as rice, corn, cereals, etc.)."

"You cannot reduce body fat on a diet that stimulates excessive-or even moderately excessive-levels of insulin production-period."

"Eating fat - healthy fat - will help you lose weight as well as regulate your daily energy levels."

"Vegetables and fruits are a central component of the PB eating strategy."

"Lowering your average carb intake to 50-100 grams per day will allow you to easily drop 1 to 2 pds of body fat per week."

"If you have excess body fat, it's directly reflective of the amount of insulin you produce from your diet combined with your genetic predisposition to store fat."

"Your ability to reduce excess body fat and maintain desirable body composition is directly reflective of your ability to moderate insulin production."

"There is no physiological reason for you to consume high levels of carbohydrate."

"Carb intake level is the decisive factor in your weight-loss success or failure."

"Eliminating grains and sugars from your diet could be the number one most beneficial thing you ever do for your health!"

"Eat to the point which you are full, but the point at which you are no longer hungry for the next bite."

"Plants (vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices) and animals (meat, fish, fowl, and eggs) should represent the entire composition of your diet."

"The fact remains that no culture or society has ever survived for an extended period of time on a meatless diet."

"Fat is your friend."

"Fat has little or no impact on blood glucose levels and insulin production."

Avoid Poisonous Things


"Dispel the conventional wisdom tenet that grain products are healthy."

"Other foods to avoid include legumes, processed foods and sugars."

"If you have the urge to indulge, do yourself a favor and choose a high fat, fresh made, premium-quality treat instead of a store bought product."

Move Frequently At A Slow Pace



"Emphasize explosive movements over deliberate pace."

"Conduct full body, functional exercises."

"Finish most sessions in 30 minutes of less."

"Go barefoot frequently to develop natural balance, flexibility and leg strength "

"Learn why millions of joggers and gym-goers put in the time and effort to lose weight yet routinely compromise their health and accelerate the aging process."

"Blend of frequent, low-intensity energizing movement (walking, hiking, easy cardio), regular short, intense strength-training sessions, and occasional all-out sprints."

"Fat is the main fuel used for low-level aerobic activity."

"Strive to accumulate two to five hours per week of low-level exercise."

"The movements that dictated how our genes evolved were simple: squat, crawl, walk, run, jump, climb, hang, carry, throw, push, pull and more."

"I cannot emphasis enough the importance of slowing down the pace of your cardio workouts to improve your health and fitness."

Lift Heavy Things




"Following a strength-training program featuring natural, total-body movements (squatting, lunging, push-ups, pull-ups, etc.) helps you develop and maintain lean muscle mass and increase metabolism."

Sprint Once In A While



Occasional "Primal" max efforts (including sprints) promote optimal gene expression, hormone flow and organ function = delay of aging process."

"Sprints on hills, grass or beach; plyometric drills; and intervals on a stationary bike."

"Sprinting is a physically stressful activity that requires a significant fitness base, muscle strength and flexibility."

Get Adequate Sleep


"Humans have adapted to obtain great benefits from even brief naps."

"Fast-moving, flickering images on the screen (0ften violent or otherwise arousing) caused irregular stimulation to Ken's retina."

"It's more likely that emotional factors, lack of sufficient vigorous exercise, and poor dietary habits (sugar binges, caffeine intake, lack of healthy fats) are to blame..."

Play



"Time to read, day-dream, free associate, or gain an adequate understanding of currents events, history, and other mainstays of cultural sophistication goes by the wayside..."

Get Adequate Sunshine



"Vitamin D intake might be more critical than calcium to bone health."

"Bag some rays in your lounge chair might be better for your bones than drinking a glass of milk and swallowing a bunch of calcium pills."

Avoid Stupid Mistakes



"Hyperviligance and risk management were premium skills hone to perfection every day."

"Devote a little more attention and energy to risk management in your daily choices so you can enjoy a long, happy life."

"As society continues to modernize exponentially, we arguably exhibit less and less common sense in avoiding stupid mistakes."

"...deep down, we know we can afford to make them...safety nets of modern society has compromised our capacity to take responsibility."

"Each of us must admit that we have brought various levels of misfortune and trauma into our lives from lapses in concentration or critical thinking."

Use Your Brains



"Opportunities for intellectuals stimulation are everywhere in daily life. Commit to some personal challenges, such as learning a new language, playing a musical instrument..."


"80 percent of your ability to reduce to excess body fat is determined by how you eat, with the other 20% depending on proper exercise, other healthy lifestyle habits, and genetic factors."

Jackie's How To Get Thin Forever

"Being fat is a problem, staying fat is a disaster."

"There's nothing loving, acceptable, or positive about eating your way to unattractiveness, fatigue, cancer, depression, and other terrible problems."

"...recognize that weight gain is a result of out-of-whack hormones, excess sugar, and poorly functioning organs."

"You've got to give up the trans fats, cheap sugar, excess sodium, and unpronounceable additives dumped into junk food)."

"We are a nation of sick, unhealthy people wasting away and mutating into sad, fat, and lethargic people, just getting fatter and sadder by the second. We are an out-of-control nation with out-of-control waistlines."

"You're appearance, health and fitness are as important as anything else."

"We make a choice every day to get either strong or weak. Let this be your day to get strong."

"Fat control has largely to do with hormones."

"When blood sugar is low, your body pumps out more human growth hormone. The best way to capitalize on this situation is to keep your carbohydrate intake low in the evening."

"Eliminate sugar and highly processed foods. Look for organic meat and dairy products that are certified free of hormones. Boost your intake of whole grains, plant-based proteins, good fats, colorful fruits and vegetables, green tea, and good sweeteners such as Truvia, which is a stevia-based sweetener."

"Sugar is the devil."

"Choose foods with 5 grams or less of sugar."

"If you want to lose weight, you could enjoy a healthy, low-calorie meal like a grilled chicken salad with low-cal dressing. Or you could chow down on high fructose corn syrup, yogurt flavored coating, partially defatted peanut flour, honey corn syrup and the other ingredients in some of the popular nutrition bars out there."

"The third reason you're getting fat is your organs: an overworked liver, a sluggish thyroid and exhausted adrenals."

"Always try to combine carbs with protein in a meal to slow the digestion of the carbohydrate food."

"Processed foods...chemical cuisine."

"Metal tubings to dispense diet soda eroded so quickly that they had to be replaced monthly. What do you think that same sweetener is doing to your insides?"

"Your behavior is consistent with your identity."

"The last six letters in attraction are action. Successful people are intensely action-oriented. They move in the direction of their desires."

Excerpts from...

Real Food Has Curves

Excerpts:


"It's processed, packaged, ridiculously sweet, unbelievably salty, mass-produced in such plummeting quality that it'shad to be shellacked with fat and artificial junk just to make it palatable-not to mention pumped with preservatives and emulsifies to keep it on the shelf well into the next Ice Age..."

"Elves don't make cookies. Uncle Ben doesn't convert rice. And Mrs. Baird doesn't bake bread."

"The road to Hell is paved with fake food."

"It's not that we love food to much. It's that we love food to little."

"Resolution aren't plans."

"You don't really want boxes, mixes or frozen entrees. You want ripe, gorgeous tomatoes; chicken with a crisp, brown skin; and a fruit crisp with a fulfilling allure..."

"A key part of finding real food: preparing it."

"...pantries of ready-to-eat meals we call restaurants."

"If a peach doesn't smell like anything, it won't taste like anything."

"Step away from all that is processed, packaged, low nutrition and poor quality. You just started down the road to enjoying food more, weighing less and being more content with your life."

"Taste: a seriously underrated sense."

"Taste's only rival may well be sexual arousal."

"When we talk about the texture of food, by and large we're talking about how quickly it becomes bolus..most of what we eat is soft. It becomes a bolus very quickly."

"People who chew more eat less. Chewing more means more time at the table. Chewing is the first step to good digestive health."

"Why are they called cheese food and not cheese?"

"Ideally, look for a small restaurant where someone is not just cooking but actually creating dishes in the kitchen. You want a place without corporate recipe development."

"What can I order that has lots of texture?"

"Do you really want to eat something that won't spoil until after your birthday next year- or even the year after that?"

"Since we don't eat real food anymore, we have had to add essential ingredients where they don't naturally occur to make up for the deficit. These additives are replacements for natural fats and proteins, all of which eventually go bad or rancid."

"Shelf life has become more important than taste or nutrition."

"BHT (organic compounds that preserve fats) is also used in jet fuel, exfoliating creams and embalming fluids."

"Sodium Benzoate (a salt that slows growth of mold and bacteria in salad dressings and soda) is also the stuff that makes fireworks whistle."

"Salt water injected into the meat as well as artificial flavorings...what would the chicken taste like if they didn't add flavorings?"

"Many canned broths are stocked with MSG...beef flavor."

"No one has tested all those additives and preservatives for long term use. They were given a human trial of forty days, three months... no one knows what those chemicals do in combination with each other."

"one draw back to real food is price."

"Fat free is not real food."

"When people say they don't have the time to make real food, they really mean they don't want to spend the effort."

"The amount of effort we put into making real food will pay off in better health, better weight maintenance, and better all-around contentment."

"People of normal weight spend more time shopping for and cooking food than people who are overweight."

"Cooking itself can be enjoyable, a way to experience life fully and to be creative."

"If our goal is to lose weight, we need to stop boiling dinner in a bag, or going on the fat flush purge, or doing any of the other unspeakable things all those diets require."

"In 2010, it's projected that the average American will spend EIGHT MINUTES a day preparing food at home - not per meal, but for all three meals, snacks included."

"Only 58% of our meals use at least one raw ingredient. Milk on cereal counts. Which means 42% of foods cooked at home did not include even one raw ingredient."

"If you're serious about taking control of what you eat, you start to find it really hard to go out."

"Imagine yourself as a person who slows down, who takes time with what you eat."

"Calories may be equal in science but they're not in our bellies. Protein and fiber leave our stomachs slowly."

"We don't just need to slow down; we must also choose foods that will stick with us for longer periods of time...protein and fiber."

"Foods are more than a vehicle for salt, fat and added flavors."

"Ever make cookies at home? Ever had them sit around for a month? If they don't mold, they'll probably rocks. But not those packaged ones"

"Why do people butter their bread? Or dip it in olive oil? Because it tastes good. You'll never see anyone corn-oiling their bread."

"soothing fears...calm down...that's not the point of food, that's the point of a bath, walk or favorite movies while snuggled down in the den."

"Food must not anesthetize, it has to stimulate."

"No part of a turkey, chicken, or pig looks like a football."

"Always push for the better alternative, buying the best you can afford."

"Why is it so difficult to add more vegetables? Because most require preparation."

Mark Scarbrough also writes the blog Real Food Has Curves.

The Help

Before we married, Doug and I flew to California so I could meet his family. And Sybil, the black Louisianan who helped raise him. She sat between us, took our hands and said, "Now what ya'll did to get each other ya'll keep doing to keep each other." Sybil loved Doug and Doug loved
Sybil.


Some months back, Jessica called to tell me about a book she was reading. It was about black women raising white children in the South and the complexities of these relationships. Jessica was thinking of Doug's and Sybil's bond, as well as his other nanny, Rose, as she read the story and wanted me to experience it.


I guess Sybil was more like Aibileen and I have met a few Minnys in my day. Rose was no certainly no stranger to the treatment that the "domestics" in the book endured by families before the Bells. Sybil was one of the family at the Bell household, at least that is how they saw it. She has passed so I can't ask her about how she saw it.

The book weaves the cruelties blacks lived with in a white ruled Southern world in the story beautifully. The book seems timely and strong feelings about my experiences about race come to the surface.


"You ain't nothing but a n___a lover." In 3rd grade, Ike Smith was my best friend. He was by far the most amusing...and the most motivated. After hearing about Ike for weeks, I got to introduce him to Daddy at school during Halloween. Later Dad asked me why I never mentioned Ike was black.

3 years later, my education about whites and blacks relations would begin. That's when the Duval County School Board and NAACP decided to integrate schools with bussing. Our school was locked up and barbed wired like a prison and my ignorance about racial tension was removed. A couple of years later my parents would buy a house in a more racially even school zone. There I learned blacks could hate just as cruelly as whites - with every pound of their fists onto my head because a white girl needed to be made an example. Later, the middle school would be closed due to threat of racial rioting by 8th graders and I refused to attend school there. We moved.

By high school, Frieda and Eva were among my best friends and my black teachers had great influence on me. We would deal with passive racism (Eva's dad wouldn't be home when a white child was in his house, My parents having to grow to accepting then loving Eva as any other) and the aggressive racism of neighbors, school mates and extended family. Poor Eva was even my bridesmaid when I married into a family with no love for black people!

Ramona once said I "collect black people". Karen has lamented about my being "color blind" because it blinds me to more of the racism that goes on. Kim and I didn't have to pretend about what's what while dealing with the white do-gooders at the preschool. As Aibileen hoped in the civil rights charged era novel, at least in my life, friendships with women of color have more to with what is inside rather than what is outside.

Minny had a word for the white upper class without a clue; fool. I hope to not be one. For as many blacks that have loved me, many never will. Because of history, their history, much like that told of those in "The Help." I am not black and will not know what it is like to be black any more than I can know what it is like to be a man. A story like this does deepen my understanding.

I have heard the statement above more than once. And not one time did it hurt.

"Why don't you just go ahead and call him n__ger." Incredulously, a white liberal acquaintance forwarded this rant to those she knew who were critical of President Obama. What a friggin fool.

I have lived almost 5 decades. I didn't know you were supposed to catagorize people by color as a child. I did not cave to pressures from either race as a teen. I have befriended, work with and for, raised money for, sponsored and educated people my whole life...some of them white and some of them black. I have advocated for blacks in my community. I have helped reverse racial prejudice in my family and am proud that my daughter sees people like I do.

And I have about as much patience for fools as Minny does. That friggin fool Kristen cries over the plight of the children of Haiti (while denouncing my politics as racist), yet she hasn't once got her Chomsky loving, liberal white ass in the car, drove over to local black church and donated her farm fresh goods or helped a black child with literacy or a job. That fool that married into the family that equates being a Southerner with bigotry must think Rodney King took his beating in Los Angeles located in Georgia and credits a cracker with nicknaming Latinos "beaners", his California being so pristine and all. That fool brother-in-law of mine didn't pass on his idiot hateful ways to his kids after all, thank God. Those white fools pulling the D lever in the voting booth can keep believing they are better to blacks than those racist-R pulling-Tea Partiers, all while never having attended the birth, wedding or funeral of a black they call friend (and the help will tell you, if you pay 'em, they ain't your friend).

Hearing the statement above makes my blood boil. Really, we are now using racial slurs to attack political opponents? I have a pretty good idea what racism is because I have lived with it all my life. I know blacks know what racism is. It's thinking black people have different diseases than you. It's beating a boy blind because he is black...and it is beating a girl senseless because she is white. It is arresting "integrationists" because they work for racial equality. It is hanging a man because he wants the same education, employment and life opportunities as others. If you've been letting the politicians, academics and journalists tell you what racism is and who the racists are, the "domestics" in The Help can clue you in.

Law, what I wouldn't give for Ms. Rose, Ms. Sybil, Ms. Aibileen and Ms. Minny to see a man of mixed race elected President...despite his sorry ass.

The 9 Steps to Keep The Doctor Away

On the recommendation of our wellness trainer, Dr. Michael Norwood, we got a hot-off-the-press copy of The 9 Steps To Keep The Doctor Away. Dr Michael knows of our commitment to fitness, nutrition, preventive and longevity medicine and alternative therapies. He thought we would benefit from Dr. Buttar's perspective, especially regarding toxicity and hormone replacement.

Introduction

"Anyone and any condition can be healed."

"...sit idle, blindly hoping that nothing bad happens, and then potentialy succumbing to the pressures of drugs, surgery and other standard medical treatments."

"Your health is in your own hands (not their hands) and realize the power of being in control of your own body, no person, institution or force on Earth can take that realization away from you."

"The current medical model is simply not working."

"Authority is threatened by evolution of new ideas."

"The old way of practicing medicine is dying. Most of the misinformation that continues to be propagated in the name of medicine and science is actually harmful to your health over the long term."

"These essential principles won't be easy for you to incorporate into your daily life because they're most certainly not based on what you want to hear."

"Doctors are just human beings with a license to make life and death mistakes as long as they are using an approved method with the standard of care."

"You can achieve a level of health beyond anything you've imagined, but you have to first believe that it is possible."

Another Self Help Book?

"One of the most prevalent and dangerous perspectives in modern medicine has been to simply attribute diseases like cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and arthritis, plus a host of other medical problems, to the aging process."

"It's not because you're getting older. It's because your doctor doesn't have a drug to cover up the symptoms of increasing oxidative stress."

Inflammation - The good and the bad

"The ultimate cause of all chronic diseases is the oxidative damage due to free radicals...toxicity-induced oxidative injury that causes the disease process to start in the first place."

"We may not be able to stop oxidative damage completely, but we can significantly reduce the extent of oxidative damage by removing any source of oxidation and thereby reduce inflammation."

"We can also reduce this inflammatory cascade by changing our habits and making specific lifestyle choices."

"The four most important organ systems in the body related to detoxification are among the four primary organs of elimination...the hepatic system (liver); gastrointestinal system (stomach and intestines); integumentary system (skin), which is the largest organ of elimination."

"The liver and GI system are arguably the most important for detoxification and nourishment - the tow major components of healing and rebuilding."

"If the liver or the GI system is not functioning properly, your body is highly vulnerable."

"Cleaning up a toxic world is a monumental task. Cleaning up our individual lives is equally monumental, but it is simpler in the sense that we have greater direct control."

"Every choice you have made in your life up to this point has led to your current state of health."

"You've chosen what to do with your body. You've chosen what to put inside your body. You've chosen what to put inside your mind."

Three Foundations

"It doesn't matter if the toxin is a heavy metal, a pesticide or a food additive. Every toxin uses the same method of creating physiological damage - oxidative stress."

"All chronic disease stems from some type of toxicity."

"Systemic detoxification must be undertaken...the first foundation."

"A significant portion of your immune system (second foundation) exists in your gastrointestinal tract."

"Digestive problems are the first chink in the armor of your immune system and your body is sounding the alarm."

"Imagine how compromised most people's immune systems have become after decades using various drugs (OTC, prescription, illegal), lack of exercise, drinking toxic tap water, or worse, drinking sodas and eating nutrient deficient synthetic filled imitation food."

Third foundation is hormone optimization.

"Imbalanced or low hormone levels can create many problems in the body."

The Body Fat Solution

Doug and I started the year with a goal: reduce body fat and increase muscle mass. So far, I can celebrate a 4% point decrease. Doug's results are even more dramatic, about 10%.

New exercise science studies reveals that consistent levels of cardio for 30-60 min isn't doing us the good we thought. Interval training and methods such as Tabata are proving to burn more body fat and more efficiently (15-30 min).

One of the best selling books on fat loss is The Body Fat Solution.


"The only thing necessary for most people to succeed was a handful of daily behaviors and a shift in mind-set."

"If you have more body fat than you want, it is because you've been consuming too many calories."

"Whole, natural foods will be the secret to your success."

"The results you get will come in direct proportion to the effort you invest."

"You can either make excuses or get results, but you can't do both."

"The real issue is compliance."

"You can only receive in direct proportion to what you give."

"To shed fat, you must create a calorie deficit."

"Increase your energy expenditure or decrease your food consumption."

"Even healthy, nutrient dense food will cause weight gain if you eat too much of it."

"One of the best times to consume your starches, higher calorie carbs and simple sugars is immediately after your workout."

"90% compliance approach is far more effective than allowing an entire cheat day."

"Any time you reduce your calories, you run the risk of losing lean body mass along with the fat. Adding resistance training helps you maintain your muscle when your calories are low."

"With diet alone, you may end up with nothing more than a smaller version of your old self."

"Even the best workout can't compensate for a lousy diet."

"Everything helps or hurts, nothing is neutral."

Settled Science Is Neither Settled Nor Science

"When a scientist tells you that 'the science is settled' in regard to any subject, he's ceased to be a scientist, and he's become an evangelist for one cult or another. The entire history of science is that nothing in science is ever settled. New discoveries are continuously made, and they upend old certainties."

-Dean Koontz, Breathless

In Defense Of Food

"Don't eat anything your grandmother or great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" wrote Michael Pollan in his book, Omnivore's Dilemma. I came across his wise advice while researching the real food or whole food movement.

I just read his more recent volume, In Defense Of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. I have to laugh...and recognize his philosophy's simplicity as truth.

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

"...eating a little meat isn't going to kill you, though it might be better approached as a side dish than a main. "

"You're better off eating whole fresh foods rather than processed food products."

"Avoid foods that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it's not really food."

"The plain fact that the chronic diseases that now kill most of us can be traced directly to the industrialization of our food."

"Letting the scientists decide the menu would be a mistake."

"Nutritionism supplies the ultimate justification for processing food...fake foods can be made even more nutritious than the real thing."

"Nutritionism has become the official ideology of the FDA." "...presuaded thousands of Americans to trade all pleasure in eating for health-promoting dietary regimens."

"McGovern "Goals"...National Academy Of Sciences report...dietary guidelines of the American Cancer and Heart Associations...US Food Pyramid....direct responsibility for creating the public health crisis that now confronts us."

"Declines in deaths from heart disease is due not to changes in lifestyle, such as diet, but to improvements in medical care."

"What people don't eat matters as much as what they do."

"It might be wise to eat more plants and less meat." "People underestimate their food intake all the time."

"When you cook at home you seldom find yourself reaching for ethoxylated diglycerides or high fructose corn syrup."

"If you manage to just eat food most of the time, whatever that food is, you'll probably be okay."

"...using meat more as a flavor principle than as a main course, treating it as a condiment for vegetables."

"Organic Oreos are not a health food."

"Pay more, eat less."

"How often would you eat french fries if you had to peel, wash, cut and fry them yourself-and then cleanup the mess?"

"People tend to eat more when they can have exactly what they want."

"Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does."

"Eat deliberately."

"Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup. They have crossed from foods to food products. "

"Avoid food products that make health claims....to make a health claim it must have a package, so right off the bat it's more likely to be processed than a whole food."

"Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle." "Get out of the supermarket whenever possible." "You are what what you eat eats too."

"Eat mostly plants, especially leaves."

Atlas Shrugged - Part Two

"People don't want to think. And the deeper they get into trouble, the less they want to think."

"Do you know the hallmark of a second rater? It's resentment of another man's achievement."

"There might be some sort of justification for the savage societies in which a man had to expect that enemies could murder him at any moment and had to defend himself as best he could. But there can be no justification for a society in which a man is expected to manufacture the weapons for his own murderers."

"Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think."

"An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more that he has produced."

"Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent."


"The man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it."

"Money is the barometer of a society's virture. When you see trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to prodcuce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-scarafice - you may know your society is doomed."



"Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of moral existence."

"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lost their lives for the purpose of becoming fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting is rewarded."

"Throughout men's history, money was always seized by the looters of one brand or another, whose names changed, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor."

"Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exhalted the looters, as aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers, as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers - as industrialists."

"Just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted."

"...who drift from failure to failure and expect you to pay their bills, who hold their wishes as an equivalent of your work and their need as a higher claim to reward than your effort..."

"...yours is only to give, but theirs is only to take, that yours is to produce, but theirs is to consume..."

"You have been called arrogant for your independent mind. You have been called greedy for the magnificence of your power to create wealth."

" You must support them because they cannot survive without you."

"If you saw Atlas, who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - what would you tell him to do?"
"To shrug."

" We are able to act. They're not. So it's we who'll win in the long run, no matter what they do to us."

"Any human being that accepts the help of another, knows that good will is the giver's only motive and that good will is the payment he owes in return." "You're an object of charity who's exhausted his credit long ago." "Thanksgiving was a holiday established by productive people to celebrate the success of their work." "...no man had the right to seek his good through the violation of the rights of another." "They're eating us alive, and it's no use fooling anybody about how it's the rich that they're after." "If you want to defeat any kind of vicious fraud - comply with it literally."

"Pleasure is not an essential of existence."

"When in doubt, it is the weak that must be considered, not the strong."

"They have no right to fail, no matter what conditions happen to come up."

"Freedom has been given a chance and has failed."

"One had to deal with the situation of the moment without considering its cause."

"Those who are big have to serve those who aren't. If they refuse their moral duty, we've got to force them."

"If we do away with private fortunes, we'll have a fairer distribution of wealth."

"Nobody will be permitted to decide anything."

"You might have to worry about another other breed of men, but not about the modern intellectuals; they will swallow anything."

"We want to leave people with the illusion that they're still preserving their property rights."

"He was seeing a long line of men stretched through centuries from Plato onward, whose heir and final product was an incompetent little professor with the appearance of a gigolo and the soul of a thug."

"His purpose is not to operate a railroad, but to hold a job."

"It's just a journey to talk people into continuing to break their backs at making profits in order to support men who are superior by reason of not making any."

"Man can never be free of hunger, of cold, of disease, of physical accidents. He can never be free of the tyranny of nature. "

"When all of Europe put into practice the ideas he preached, he came to live in America."

"It doesn't make any difference to the poor whether their livelihood is at the mercy of an industrialist or of a bureaucrat."

"We can never lose the things we live for. We may have to change their forms at times, if we've made an error, but the purpose remains the same and the forms are ours to make."

"Wherever you are, you will always be able to produce."

"How could it be possible that the educated, the cultured, the famous men of the world could make a mistake of this size."

"There wasn't a man voting for it who didn't think that under a setup of this kind he'd muscle in on the profits of the men abler than himself."

"I'm making enough for my needs - and nobody else's."

What happens if Atlas shrugs?

The idea of Going Galt is more appealing to me every day as I am mystified by the actions of our government in the last 9 mos or so.

Going Galt comes from the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, where economic producers withdrew causing the motor of the world to stop. As an antil-socialist/communist, the book's theme that wealth producers force wealth redistributors and their supporters to suffer the consequences of their oppressive misuse of government is a wickedly delightful concept to me.

"Galt leads a revolutionary movement in which all the top leaders of the banks and corporations forsake their corporate jets and perks to work in diners or as subway repair guys. No they weren’t fired by Galt. Rather, Galt urged them to go on strike and withdraw their expertise from an increasingly socialist world. Deprived of the genius of their genius, the world economy collapses."- Tristero

One libertarian columnist ridicules Going Galt as the right's version of the left's "moving to Canada if Bush is reelected.". Except the left didn't follow through. Does the right have more doers and producers that mean what they say and say what they mean?

Only time will tell if our current political climate is going to save us all or bring about economic catastrophe of Gore-Inconvenient Truth-End Of The World proportions. Meanwhile, I am enjoying Atlas Shrugged and pondering ....

"Experts agree...is hopeless."

"By the way, Henry, do you mind if I ask you to give me the money in cash? You see, Friends of Global Progress is a very progressive group and they have always maintained that you represent the blackest element inn social retrogression in the country, so it would embarass us, you know, to have your name on our list of contributors."

"When people are unanimous, how does one man dare to dissent?"

"Her superiors, who held the authority, seemed afraid to exercise it, they spent their time avoiding decisions."

"economic self-sufficiency"

"It was said that the large, established railroad systems were essential to the public welfare; and that the collapse of one of them would be a national catastrophe; and that if one such system had happened to sustain a crushing loss in a public-spirited attempt to contribute to international good will, it was entitled to public support to help it survive the blow."

"I'll make sure I take the rest of you along with me."

"All that lunacy is temporary. It can't last. It's demented, so it has to defeat itself. You and I will just have to work a little harder for a while, that's all."

"Whatever we are, it's we who move the world and it's we who'll pull it through."

"It is not advisable to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener."

"There's nothing of any importance in life - except how well you do your work. Whatever else you are, will come from that."

"The code of competence is the only system of morality that's on a gold standard."

"They dislike me, not because I do things badly, but because I do them well."

"I am in a position to speak of large sums of money. Government money."

"This is not the day for people who refuse to cooperate."

"Questions of truth do not enter into social issues."

"For thirteen years this Institute has had a department of research, which has cost over twenty million dollars and has produced nothing...you can imagine what the public reaction would be if an individual comes out with a product that revolutionizes the entire science and proves to be sensationally successful!"

"If we want to accomplish anything, we have to deceive them into letting us accomplish it. Or force them. They understand nothing else."

"Thought is the tool by which one makes a choice."

"No...not an assurance of victory - who can ever have that? - only the chance to act, which is all one needs."

"Maybe its something you've got that they haven't got."

"I'm entitled to my share."

"It seems to me that before we worry about giving some people a chance to expand, we out to give some consideration to the people who need a chance of bare survival."

"I am sure you wouldn't understand any consideration other than dollars and cents, but some people do consider their social and patriotic responsibilities."

"Either your good at running the mills or you're good at running to Washington."

"I can proudly say that in all my life I have never made a profit!"

"Our plan? We put into practice that noble historic precept: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. Rewards were based on need, and penalties on ability."

"People don't want to think. And the deeper they get into trouble, the less they want to think."

"There might be some sort of justification for the savage societies in which a man had to expect that enemies could murder him at any moment and had to defend himself as best he could. But there can be no justification for a society in which a man is expected to manufacture the weapons for his own murderers."

"Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think."

"An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more that he has produced."

"Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent."

"The man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it."

"Money is the barometer of a society's virture. When you see trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to prodcuce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-scarafice - you may know your society is doomed."

"Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of moral existence."

"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lost their lives for the purpose of becoming fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting is rewarded."

"Throughout men's history, money was always seized by the looters of one brand or another, whose names changed, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor."

"Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exhalted the looters, as aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers, as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers - as industrialists."


"Ultimately, "Atlas Shrugged" is a celebration of the entrepreneur, the risk taker and the cultivator of wealth through human intellect." - Stephen Moore

Things Good Mothers Know - Quotes

"It seems that in order to appreciate the luxury of simplicity, we first need to crowd our lives with things and with obligations that accumulate until we feel a bit overwhelmed."

"What is simple and beautiful is appropriate."

"Wise people live with their means and save for a rainy day."

"When you know what you want, life is simpler."

"Eliminate an item when we add something."

"Keep an even keel in order not to keel over."

"We can't always choose what happens, but we can always be in charge of how we handle ourselves."

"One shift in reality affects everything else."

"Let us be content with less."

"Peace of mind is not the absence of problems, but rather the overcoming of suffering by training our mind to cope better."

"We stumble on happiness."

"The whole point is to share what we have and create lasting memories."

"The secret is to give yourself the best part of the day. Go one hour..."

"Parents are not meant to shape their children in their own image."

"Children must grow up, and it is childish to want everything."

"We will never feel our life is successful unless we live each day in our own particular, often peculiar way."

"When something doesn't work out or is no longer appropriate or fun, I do something else."
- Alexandra Stoddard

"Harmony and strength exist in our lives only when our outer selves match our inner selves." - Albert Schweitzer

"Circumstances! I make circumstances." - Napoleon


"The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances." - Aristotle

"Every man is a consumer and ought to be a producer." - Emerson

"Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires." - Lao-Tzu

Come Into Your Own In 2009

Come Into Your Own in 2009 is the latest teleclass with author, international speaker and life coach Victoria Moran. Each Tuesday night in January, Victoria will be leading classes on topics such as Clarify Your Vision, Purify your Vehicle, Amplify Your Abundance and Intensify Your Impact. There will be bonus, follow up classes through out the year to help you stay on target.

Ages ago, I happened upon a small book that would have great meaning for me. It's title was Creating A Charmed Life, it's author, Victoria Moran.

Books that are basically a collection of essays are everywhere today but not so much so in those days. This easy-to-read compilation of 75 chapters was an invaluable source for me as I set about inventing my authentic life in my 30s. One chapter, Do The Next Indicated Thing, was so significant to me I had the quote printed on my business cards as a frequent reminder to do just that.

Victoria and I know each other now. I am excitedly awaiting the new Charming volume coming this April. I can attest to Victoria's ability to teach, enabling us to make the real changes we need to live the lives we want. I hope you will check out her teleclass this January or the new book this spring.

Visit Victoria's website, www.victoriamoran.com for more details on the classes or background. For more info or to enroll, email charmedassistant@aol.com with your address, telephones day and night, mobile phone and payment preferences. The class is $395.

Rereading Orwell's 1984

Observing events of late, I find myself troubled by how much of it seems reminiscent of previous rises to power of the Socialists and Communists of the 20th century. These were leftist Totalitarian regimes with their progressive leaders promising "change". And change they delivered - witness the 100 million graves dug in order to make a better world by Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Jong II, Castro and others.

Myself, I am a staunch anti-communist. Watching the Democrats select a Socialist/Communist as their Presidential candidate is almost as disturbing as watching a Republican President allow the nationalization of an industry.

I located a used copy of Orwell's masterpiece dystopia. It was as awful a tale as I remembered. I just hope it remains in the fantasy rather than non-fiction category at Amazon.




"...he seemed to have lost the power of expressing himself..."

"It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy."

"...a mass of imbecile enthusiasms - one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges...

"Nearly all children nowadays were horrible...ungovernable little savages...It was almost normal for people over thirty to be afraid of their own children."

"The enemy of the moment always represents absolute evil."

"Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past."

"We're destroying words - scores of them, hundreds of them, every day."

"Don't you see that the whole aim of New Speak is to narrow the range of thought?"

"...a feeling that you had been cheated of something that you had a right to."

"Nearly everyone was ugly."

"The Party claimed, of course, to have liberated the proles from bondage. So long as they continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance."

"Truisms are true...laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet."

"The older generation had been mostly wiped out in the great purges..."

"If you're happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?"

"It's all Inner Party stuff. There's nothing those swine don't have, nothing."

"The Hate continued exactly as before, except that the target had been changed."

"It is precisely in the Inner Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy is the strongest."

"The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought."

"The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim...is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal."

"The new aristocracy was made up for the most part of bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists and professional politicians."

"In general, the greater the understanding the greater the delusion: the more intelligent, the more insane. One clear illustration of this is the fact that war hysteria increases in intensity as ones rises in the social scales."

"Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship."

"Power is the power over human beings. Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation."

"There will be no art, no literature, no science."

"The more the Party is powerful, the less it will be tolerant, the weaker the opposition, the tighter the despotism."

"The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world. The worst thing in the world varies from individual to individual."

"For everyone, there is something unendurable."

-George Orwell

Happiness Experiment

Excerpt from Good Housekeeping...

My twinge of nostalgia for those premarital days was triggered by the arrival in my mailbox of a book called Happiness for Two: 75 Secrets for Finding More Joy Together. The sender was an editor friend who thought I'd make good use of it. The author was Alexandra Stoddard, an interior designer and author of dozens of books on "the art of living well." A self-proclaimed pioneer of the happiness movement, Stoddard spreads the word — literally — at "Happiness Weekends," where she lectures on how to find joy, bliss, and, for a little change of pace, color coordination.

A quick glance at the book's table of contents revealed three of her main themes:

1. Improve yourself. (Hence "secrets" like "Read some quality literature.")
2. Be considerate. (E.g., "Mess up, clean up" and "Sincerely say you're sorry.")
3. Do things à deux. ("Explore together your invisible wealth," "Read together"...and, just to drive home the point, "When you are together, be together.")

I'd read only three pages, and I was altogether ready to scorn Stoddard's neo-Victorian idea of a harmonious marriage. Any adult in need of reminders like "Don't correct each other in public" would be better off with a marriage counselor.

That said, some of the suggestions weren't as easy to scoff at. So I read on, and after cutting out the trite, irrelevant, and useless, I whittled down her list of 75 to 10:

1. Write each other's New Year's resolutions. This intrigued me. It was a bit early for resolutions, but we could certainly make a wish list of what we would each like the other to accomplish. If written, prods weren't nags.
2. Begin each encounter with a smile. So quaint, but there was hard research that smiling does improve outlook.
3. It feels good to look good. An opportunity to get Steve to wear nice clothes for a change, and not his ragged favorites.
4. Write love notes. As mentioned, we used to send beautiful, hilarious e-mails to each other. I wanted to revive our epistolary connection.
5. Give the gift of eye contact. We both had the bad habit of staring at the TV or computer screen when we talked.
6. Grumpiness is contagious. Being more mindful of mood could ward off secondhand blues.
7. Try not to interrupt. Stoddard meant bothering a partner during his alone time, but interruptions in conversation were also a problem for us (me).
8. Generous compliments lighten the heart. He was fairly reticent with the flattery. I wouldn't mind more of it.
9. Control your tone. Sometimes, I could be as obnoxious as a 16-year-old prom princess. For his part, Steve could be a tad condescending.
10. Celebrate more. We lavished gifts and parties on our daughters, but Steve and I downplayed our own birthdays and accomplishments. Making a big deal of little things could add excitement to our lives.

To view the article in its entirety, visit Good Housekeeping.

We know not the good we do

Here are three stories from different spiritual practices (Christian Gospel, Modern and Hindu) that points us to the possibility to the good we may be doing as we go on our way without even knowing it.


"The kingdom of the father is like a certain woman who was carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking on the road, still some distance from home, the handle of the jar broke and the meal emptied out behind her on the road. She did not realize it; she had noticed no accident. When she reached her house, she set the jar down and found it empty."

-Gospel Of Thomas


"There is a Sufi story about a man who is so good that the angels ask God to give him the gift of miracles. God wisely tells them to ask him if that is what he would wish. So the angels visit this good man and offer him first the gift of healing by hands, and then the gift of conversion of souls, and lastly the gift of virtue. He refuses them all. They insist that he choose a gift or they will choose one for him, 'Very well,' he replies, 'I ask that I may do a great deal of good without ever knowing it.'

The story ends this way: The angels were perplexed. They took counsel and resolved upon the following plan: Every time the saint's shadow fell behind him it would have the power to cure disease, soothe pain, and comfort sorrow. As he walked, behind him his shadow made the paths green, caused withered plants to bloom, gave clear water to dried-up brooks, fresh color to pale children, and joy to unhappy men and women.

The saint simply went about his daily life diffusing virtue as the stars diffuse light and the flowers scent, without ever being aware of it. The people respecting his humility followed him silently, never speaking to him about his miracles. Soon they even forgot his name and called him 'The Holy Shadow.'

-Naomi Reiman, Kitchen Table Wisdom


A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you. "Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?"

"I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said.

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path." Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it somewhat. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."

-Author Unknown