The speaker is best-selling Christian author and pastor, John Ortberg, whose works include, of course, When The Game Is Over, It All Goes Back In The Box and The Me I Want To Be, which also comes in a Teen Edition.

Unfortunately, it never took off. I still listen to it myself though. Anyway, my bad luck story could be good news for you. Here’s why. If a merchant doesn’t make a sale on Kunaki within 180 days, they take the product in question off their system. Considering the half day you can easily spend getting the darn thing back up on their servers, it’s worth it to buy someone a copy to keep it alive.

Here’s how it’ll work. As when I gave away a year’s subscription to Environmental magazine, I’ll be using the atmospheric noise, random number generator at random.org to pick from the entrants. Just leave a comment that you’d like to enter (sorry only people in the U.S. to keep shipping costs down) then send me your mailing address using the contact form with the subject “my entry”. Don’t worry, it won’t be used for anything but sending the one person his or her CD.

Time is of the essence, so I’m picking the winner Monday night (March 22nd, 2010) before I hit the hay, sometime between 9 PM and midnight. I’ll leave a comment announcing who it was then close things off. And hey, if no one enters, I’ll just send it to a family member.

You’re on top of the world and don’t understand how others don’t find it enjoyable too. Since when is exercising a chore, right? It’s fun and makes you feel good!

Then suddenly, some disruptive force throws your “mojo” all out of whack. Maybe it’s a big life change: you lose your job (hmmm), a loved one, a marriage. Maybe it’s a little thing — harder to put your finger on — that wouldn’t seem like it should matter, say, a loooong cold and rainy streak (hmmm).

Whatever it is, you notice some weeks or even months later, what used to be routine requires extra effort to motivate yourself. Or, you’ve simply stopped doing it altogether.

Well, I’m there now. Still skinny by most standards and appearance, and still eating healthy vegan, but according to my scale, my body fat percentage (and weight, to some extent) is increasing. And, I can tell.

So, here’s the plan, I’m getting back to regular, daily, exercise, even if it’s only a 20 minute walk outside or a 10 minute jog on the treadmill. (I think that’s part of it; we get to saying, “if it’s not all then it’s got to be nothing,” but where does that leave SOMETHING?)

In addition to exercise, I want to get back to calorie restriction. To that end, I’ll be doing some sort of personal food challenge as a sort of wash-out period to banish cravings. I haven’t decided yet whether it’ll be another two-week green smoothie diet or the full six week Eat To Live plan with my online friend Em.

Either way, I’m starting on August 1st or 3rd (Monday’s seems like logical start days to me, but so do the first of a month). So, anyone want to join me in putting their foot down and committing to recommitting this summer? Which challenge would you prefer I take up with you? Please leave a comment and let’s do this!

For me, as I wrote previously, I planned and have undertaken a shift to more beans, carrots, corn, and the like (you know, heartier stock) in order to keep costs down; the price on greens around here is often just outrageous.

What I didn’t anticipate was how strongly these foods and that other legume, the peanut (in butter form), would cause the ‘ole “carb cravings.” Still a healthy diet, mind you, but it’s made controlling calories all the more difficult.

In some ways, stress is likely a contributing factor as well. And yet, I’m having fun and doing what I want. It’s largely the same work (programming), except now it’s for my own and other entrepreneur’s projects rather than for a corporation and is more web-based than what I was doing at the j.o.b..

It’s also easy to see why there’s been a reported trend toward beer and away from wine and spirits. The reasons given in the aritcle where I read this in the latest Beer Advocate magazine attribute it to a money saving trend (though they point out wine and spirit drinkers don’t immediately jump to Bud, but instead to high end beers which are still less expensive). I blame it on the carbs! Just kidding… I think… a little.

Apropros the times, I thought you might enjoy this clip. There’s such truth in comedy, wouldn’t you agree?!

 
Check out Paul and Meredith’s new ebook.
I don’t think these two ever waver on their calorie restriction!

I’ve been fascinated with psychology lately. While that’s always been the case, it’s been understandably rekindled and pronounced these days due to my current circumstances and the economic and societal climate in general.

Here’s the Full-Text.

A couple noteworthy images and a definition follow for the skimmers.

They could have picked prettier colors, eh?

The first graphic shows the latest study period, the second the trend versus the 1993-2001 timeframe. (Note, both time blocks compared in the paper came before the recession.)

So, what are we looking at here? What is FMD? The article defines Frequent Mental Distress as having 14 or more Mentally Unhealthy Days (MUDs) in the previous 30 days! Ouch.

vitamins A, C, D, E, B1, B5, B6, B12, Green Tea, Rhodiola Rosea, Ginseng, 200mg caffeine