Herbal Medicines

This morning, I came across an ebook on MOLES, WARTS, AND SKIN TAGS removal. I got curious and continued to read what author Chris Gibson had to say about it. For many people, having warts and moles can bring embarassment and awkwardness which can be detrimental to the self esteem and inner confidence within. As much as you like to say that ‘Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’, people are still judged on first impression.

The information on the website claims that by No More Moles, Warts, or Skin Tags™, you will be shown how to remove your moles, warts, and skin tags in as little as 3 days! I know of people who had problems with moles and warts irritation. Some have dealt with this self conscious issue by choosing burning or painful surgery with little or no long term results. Apparently, the book will give you clear, concise, easy to follow, and step-by-step directions so you can…

* Eliminate most - if not ALL - of your moles, warts, and skin tags in as little as 3 days!

* Get back to living your life without fear of pain and anxiety.

* Do everything you have always wanted to do, but were not confident enough to pursue.

* Have a permanent solution for unsightly moles, warts, and skin tags for you and your entire family.

Now, you too can discover the only proven, natural way to heal, restore, and have beautiful, healthy skin. You will use the same exact methods that Chris used to keep his skin… mole, wart, and skin tag free for over 20 years. It is the practical way to repair your self-esteem and increase your confidence. By the time you finish following the steps in the ebook, you will know you look good and you will feel great!

If you want to check out a great site for your vintage t shirts then you have to go to http://www.vintagetshirtstore.com/. This site has fabulous selection of some of the funniest and most innovative t shirts I have seen in a long time. And everyone needs that comfy t-shirt to lounge around [...]

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Whether you want to admit it or not…every one has that occasional question regarding sex. TheFrisky is a great new site that has your sex advice column section as well as great outlooks on relationship advice, dating hot guys and even celebrity gossip. I always love to read these...

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I was reading a news articles that stated that if a child has more than 2 hot dogs a week they double their chances of developing cancer. Hot dogs are just not good for anyone but they are especially not good for children. It also said that if they had a lot of [...]

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I have really come to like Country Music since my good friend in college loved it. We would even go country line dancing…I was horrible at it but it was a lot of fun! But it is even better when you know the Country Music Lyrics to sing along with the music. [...]

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I have really come to like Country Music since my good friend in college loved it. We would even go country line dancing…I was horrible at it but it was a lot of fun! But it is even better when you know the Country Music Lyrics to sing along with the music. [...]

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For one reason or another, we’ve all been stuck in a lazy rut. From productivity guru to average-joe, we’ve all faced our share of down time. Ever since I came back from Israel I’ve been feeling pretty lazy, and just thinking about not being lazy hasn’t fixed the problem.

Laziness is ultimately caused by a fault in our thinking. A great article would dissect this fault and provide a quick-fix. This could effectively launch the earth into a new age of productivity.

I have no quick fix - I’m not THAT good - so you’ll have to settle for some practical techniques to dig yourself out of your own lazy ruts. It will take some work on your part, but I’m sure that whatever works for me can work for you too.

“I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person.”
~Og Mandino

11 Practical Ways To Jump Out Of A Lazy Rut

1. Start Somewhere, Anywhere. We can think of the discipline muscle as a strong pillar. Metaphorically speaking, if this muscle is big and tall it will serve as a Pantheon of productivity. Pick any one of the ideas below, or any one of your own ideas, and get started!

If you follow the action consistently for 30 days, you will build a habit. Once you’re in the “habit of making habits” you’ll be able to build new ones. Maintaining takes much less energy than starting, so you can keep on adding on new habits to your “habit-happy” life.

2. Self-actualize, Be Conscious. This happens to be the most important point in the article. Think. By questioning your source, reasons, and intentions, you are able to transcend whatever obstacle you find in your way.

When you sit down and think you’ll discover all the wonderful things that make you feel passionate, and fulfilled. This will inevitably lead you to launch yourself into life — to live!

3. Improve Exercise Antics. Exercising on vacation is not so easy {convenient excuse}. During my 2 weeks away in Israel I didn’t exercise, and felt too jet-lagged and dehydrated the week after my return to get back into the routine. This turned into another week. The thought of returning to the gym, and running, while feeling out of shape is a bit daunting.

Sometimes I find myself laying in bed, just listening to audio books on my iPhone. Big mistake. The simple hack is to take that one hour, go outside with my iPhone and just walk around the neighborhood. A brisk walk will get my blood flowing, heart pumping, and my body rejuvenated by the time the one hour is up. At an hour per day it more than fulfills my weekly walking requirement as well as enhances my personal growth.

4. Engage In House Cleaning. We all get to the point where we let our house go a bit past, okay- way past, the point of being perfectly clean. This makes me feel a bit guilty because I know that one of the keys to a clear mind is a clean home and workplace. It gets to the point where the cleaning job will either demand a lot of time, or force you to move out.

If you’ve slipped in the clean-as-you go process, you can use the 15 minute rule to get out of your rut. Pick a room, and designate just 15 minutes to clean something up (i.e. just the desk, just the closet, just the floors). Use up all 15 minutes and continue the next day. In the mean time clean as you go and you’ll find a clean room within about a week.

5. Cultivate Reading Habits. It’s a sad fact that most Americans don’t read. One of the reasons I started this site is to cater to such people. My sentiments were that reading a full book, and compressing the gems into a 10 minute read, can be convenient for even the most modest of readers. Incidentally, after running this site for this long, I’ve come to realize that you guys are in the upper echelons of intelligence and do spend a nice chunk of time reading. I feel like you can relate when I say that falling off the reading wagon is a commonly occurring disaster.

The best thing to do with a dropped habit is to get back into it slowly. It’s not about quantity at this point, but about forging a life-long positive habit. All you need is to dedicate 15 minutes, as soon as you wake up, each and every morning. This is when you’ll be most alert to read, which you can do by waking up 15 minutes early. Commit to just 30 days of 15 minute mornings, and eventually expand the hours if you like the new habit.

6. Get Back On Track With Writing. In the creation of this site I have made a 180 turn in my thoughts about writing. It used to be a painful chore, but that’s before I realized what I’m passionate about writing. Now I love writing for this site, and the other sites where I freelance. After all, I only delivered 1 article last week, and it wasn’t due to lack of time or lack of material.

The technique that works best for me is scheduling a writing time the night before. When I set aside 2 hours in a day, I’m able to write anywhere between 1-4 articles. If it’s more than 1, I can give it away, or set it for a future date. However, I need to make sure I’m in the habit of getting back the next day to do some more writing, or else the lazy bug will slip up on me.

7.  Hydrate For Productivity. One of the things that I’ve found to be continuously daunting is the reappearance of dehydration. This beast works in such subtle ways that I never experience a thirst, but only consider that it could be a possible problem after it’s taken its course.

Drinking 2 liters of water a day gets every atom of my body resonating and jumping with energy. Not 2 liters of soda, not coffee, and certainly not 2 liters of juice. It must be water, and I think many people underestimate how much they need and the mere fact that this could be at the root of their lack of productivity.

8. End Over-Sleeping. Sleeping is a monster that uses catch-22 to attack our productivity. The more you sleep, the lazier you are. The lazier you are, the more you sleep. By applying a couple of standardized rules in the form of habits we’re able to break out of this sloth-like cycle.

First, when you hear the morning alarm, and before you lay there and question yourself, jump right out of bed! Walk over to the sink, wash your face with cold water and immediately bring yourself to your schedule or to-do list. Need an afternoon nap? Set your alarm for 20 minutes and do not allow yourself to sleep more than this optimal time under any circumstances.

9. Don’t Eat Lazy Food. Have you noticed that with laziness comes bad food choices that are high in fats, sugars, and processed carbs? No? Is it just me? Maybe with bad food choices comes laziness, which is also very feasible.

One of the things that helps me break the cycle is placing some rules on the table. No eating 4 hours before bed, unless it’s a piece of fruit. Using fruits and vegetables as the only snacks between meals. Having vegetables be the entree of my meals, no the side dish. Eating 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day to avoid lethargy. Healthy food gives you more energy, which is one sure-fire way to get out of the lazy hole.

10. Simplify Your Life. Being overwhelmed is a very viable reason for why we might find ourselves in a lazy rut. It’s not our fault per se, but our environment and the world around us makes things way more complicated than they have to be. Think about it, extensive filing systems like GTD require months to learn, just so you can figure out what to do today. Cars come with 5 billion features that will warm your coffee, massage your butt, and orchestrate a bank job if you punch in the right keys.

They even put peanut butter and jelly into the same jar, which I’ll never understand. Your mission — simplify. When you take away as many unnecessary layers and distractions, your mind will be clutter free and excited at the opportunity to tackle what’s important.

11. Embrace Your Laziness. Consider for a moment that you’re run-down. Physically, emotionally, or spiritually you’re experiencing a leak in your battery that’s leaving you sluggish throughout the day. That’s both understandable and reasonable.

Put up the white flag, go to sleep, get hydrated, eat some healthy food, go for a sweaty run and refer to number 2 — think. Perhaps you know what the problem is, but something tells me that if you stand in front of the mirror and look yourself in the eyes for 10 minutes, a little voice will come out and tell you exactly what’s wrong — fix it.

“A person is lazy because he wants serenity and quiet. Comfort-seeking is the root of laziness. But realize that although the lazy way might at first appear to give comfort, in the long run, a person who is lazy will lose greatness. Why? His life will be one of mediocrity!”
~Rabbi Pliskin

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Here is a great quick trip. If you want your skin to be clean without having spend all the money on special cleansers try to go the all natural way. Take 2 grapes and rub the skin all over your face. Then just rinse with cool water. And try oatmeal and [...]

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Slippery Saturdays

Researchers say Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the most productive days of the week. Monday tends to be ???recovery??? day from the weekend, and the rest of the week, well, we???re often coasting along waiting for the weekend to arrive, aren???t we? (Ah, the lure of the weekend: the free time, the social activities, special occasions, the chance to kick back…) But is our cherished refuge also our health???s downfall?

A study from the Washington University School of Medicine suggests that the tendency toward weekend backslide on health goals is a common problem. The researchers assembled daily weight, caloric intake, and physical activity data from participants both before and during assigned intervention programs. The participants included a total of 48 men and women, aged 50-60, whose BMI scores ranged from normal to obese.

Initial, ???pre-intervention??? data showed that participants ate an average of 236 more calories on Saturday than during the week. To top it off, activity levels on Sunday hit a slump. Researchers found the same pattern after assigning year-long weight loss intervention programs, which included a ???caloric restriction??? group (20% reduction in daily caloric intake) and an ???exercise??? group (20% increase in daily physical activity). Participants kept food diaries or wore activity monitors throughout the intervention programs. During this period, the caloric restriction group lost weight during the week but only managed to hold steady over the weekends. The exercise group also lost weight during the week but actually gained weight over the average weekend given the higher caloric intake.

Susan Racette, the study???s author, offered this perspective on the findings: “There is less structure on the weekend for a lot of people, and that can wreak havoc. …A little indulgence turns into a big indulgence. Being vigilant on the weekends is really important for people either trying to lose weight or maintain a weight loss.”

The study seems timely, given the responses of a few Primal Health Challenge participants (and other readers), who have noted that staying Primal on the weekend is tough. We would agree. As the study author suggests, weekends don???t go by the book. Weekends are, after all, about three hour brunches getting caught up with friends, long days at the beach with the kids, an afternoon of errands and home projects, long naps on the couch, movie theaters, dinners out, hosting guests. They???re packed, spontaneous, free form. And that???s the point of weekends really, don???t you think? A break from the day to day grind.

But we think that ???grind??? shouldn???t necessarily include a good diet and fitness program. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water! (Can you hear the siren song coming from the kitchen, the concession stand, or the weekend specials menu?) It???s hard to hold onto the regimen when life becomes, well, so unregimented over the weekend. Nonetheless, if you???re committed to sticking to your goals 100% (like the Primal Health Challenge), it???s clear you need to up your resolve on the weekends. Get up in time to make a decent breakfast. Pack your ???lunch??? the night before if you???ll be on the run all day. Call ahead or check online for restaurant menus to plan any dinners out. Have a hearty salad before heading out to Batman.

And then there???s the other side of the coin. Though the Primal Health Challenge dares us to go for the gold every time, settling into that personal, sustainable level of Primal can mean simply allowing for Sensible Vices on weekends as part of an overall health and wellness scheme. No, it???s not about letting everything go to pot, but it is about letting loose (guilt-free) to enjoy the best weekends life has to offer.

What are the tricks and treats behind your Primal weekends? Best strategies to share? Most frequent temptations?

Oh, and by the way, Happy Thursday, everyone. Back to the regularly scheduled grind…

Johnny Thirkill Flickr Photo (CC)

Further Reading:

How Our Eyes Deceive Our Appetites

The Original Sensible Vices

Sensible Vices: Round 2

The Art of Compromise

How to Eat More Chocolate and Drink More Wine Every Day

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If Grok Can Do It So Can You

In the modern world it???s hard to get more ???primal??? than dried meat. Consider it one of Grok???s many talents and culinary achievements. Jerky is essentially strips of lean meat that have marinated and dried. The result? Tasty, rich, salty and pumped with about twice the protein gram per gram of regular ???hydrated??? meat. To boot, you???ve got a snack that travels well under circumstances as varied as weekend camping trips to NASA missions. Awesome, huh?

But when we say jerky we mean something so much better and healthier than the processed strips and sticks (e.g. ???Slim Jims???) you find at the gas station checkout. The best jerky is made from whole-muscle meat, homemade or in small batch varieties. We???ll agree that there???s some great small label jerky out there. Meat shares from small farms often include it. To try out a few varieties, farmers’ markets are a great place to pick up some of the real deal especially if you???re new to the world of genuine jerky.

But there???s real pleasure and a very primal sense of accomplishment in making your own. But rest assured that the endeavor needn???t be the tedious, complicated effort many people think it is. Sure, the overall time commitment involves several hours, but most of it is plain old ???dry??? time when you have the liberty to go about your business at home, fixing the front steps, weeding the garden, watching the kids in the pool, catching a cat nap, etc. Consider it a great excuse to enjoy hanging out at home on a weekend afternoon.

But don???t I need a dehydrator or smoker? Nope. If you have an oven, consider yourself set. Many long-time jerky connoisseurs actually find oven-made easiest and on par taste-wise. If you???re, in fact, using a dehydrator or smoker, simply follow the manufacturer???s instructions. If you???re going the oven route, we???ve got some tips.

The Devil Is In the Details (of prep, that is)

Tip #1: Go for a meat with next to no fat. This is not the time to look for marbling. When it comes to jerky: fat just doesn???t work. It goes rancid ??? unhealthy and, well, downright unappetizing. Jerky can be made from beef, venison, bison, and (less often) pork, turkey, and chicken, ostrich, and salmon. Beginners might start with beef for simplicity and availability sake. An easy and common cut is flank steak. London broil cuts are a good option as well. (As always, we suggest clean, grass-fed meat if you can get it.)

To save time and frustration, you can always request that the butcher do the trimming and cutting for you. Go for long, ?? inch strips cut across the grain for tenderness. A tip for trimming your own: put the meat in the freezer long enough to firm up but not harden and then get out the ginsu.

The next step involves the marinade. You???ll get a lot of advice on marinades. A million different opinions, actually. In addition to the marinade recipes themselves, there???s the marinade method. As the folks at Oregon State University tell us, the USDA recommends that jerky meat ???be heated to 160 degrees F before the dehydrating process in order to destroy pathogenic microorganisms.???

Some people dry in the oven at this temperature, but another method for heating is the ???hot marinade??? option. Instead of letting the meat ???soak??? overnight in a plastic bag, you can boil your marinade mix and drop in your meat strips for a minute or two. Rest assured that a lot of people swear by this method just for the taste itself. If you???re using conventional meats, going the safe route is a good idea. Raised, grass-finished might present less risk. The safety of wild meats like venison often depends on factors as various as overpopulation to butchering mastery.

As for marinade recipes, chalk it up to personal taste. We???ll offer a humble suggestion to get you started in your experimentation.

For a 2-lb cut:

?? cup low sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. liquid smoke
3 minced or crushed garlic cloves
2 ?? tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. hot chili powder
??-1 tsp. each of salt and black pepper

(Hint: For a hotter taste, add red pepper flakes or hot sauce. To add a hint of sweetness, include a Tbsp. of honey.)

The Heat Is On

Again, if you???re using an oven, you???ll use the power of the dry heat to dehydrate the meat over several hours. Lay the strips across clean wire racks or a broiler pan, and place in the oven. You???ll want to put a lined pan in the oven a couple rack bars lower than the strips in order to catch the drippings. If you don???t have racks that will hold the strips, line backing sheets with aluminum foil, and lay your jerky strips on the pans. Make sure the strips don???t touch. Particularly if you used a hot marinade, you can use a lower temperature (150 degrees is common) for 6-8 hours. Turn strips half-way through cook time.

Jerky is done when it???s darkened and cracks when bent. (It shouldn???t break apart.) Allow to cool completely at room temperature.

Call It Good

Once the strips are fully cooled, it???s time for storage. Homemade jerky (i.e. jerky without all the nitrates and preservatives) won???t store long at room temperature. Vacuum sealing is your best bet for this option. The packaging will allow you to bring the jerky with you on that longer backpacking trip minus the fuss and worries. In the meantime, your best bet is refrigerator or freezer storage. Wrap or vacuum seal in plastic, and store for 2-3 months in the refrigerator. (Freezer storage, provided you???ve wrapped the jerky well to prevent frostbite, will buy you a few more months.)

There you go. A nice big batch will give you plenty of portable protein nourishment for days walking on the trail or biding your time in the airport. Once you get the hang of it, you???ll be a jerky convert, we guarantee it. It???s a subculture in itself, we tell ya.

Got stories, recipes, tips and trials in your own jerky-making ventures? Do share, we say. Enjoy!

alau2, lightsoutfilms Flickr Photos (CC)

Further Reading:

Definitive Guides to:

Homemade Condiment Creations

Top 10 Meat Questions Meet Answers

10 Delicious DIY Salad Dressings

DIY - Butter, Yogurt, Kefir, Oh My!

Tips on Foraging in the Modern World

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