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Mind Bombs: The Need For Self-Renewal [Unfinished thoughts]

Mind Bombs: The Need For Self-Renewal [Unfinished thoughts]

Had I not been subject to the darkness, I could not have seen the light.

- Midrash (translated from Hebrew)

Every now and then, I feel the need to expand on my level of knowledge or experiences to create a change in myself, whether major or minor. The easiest way for me to do this is by reading an article, blog, or book that I normally wouldn’t find myself reading, but I also enjoy going somewhere that I haven’t been yet. When I do this, I set off a mind bomb and become more aware of myself and my surroundings.

In the Everything is a Remix video series, the author gives concrete examples of how film is reliant on previous films in order to create something new. This could be applied to most art forms, such as the Romans copying the original Greek statues and making them their own.

With life, as in art, who we are now is greatly influenced by previous events, or in anticipation of future events (birth of a child, a concert, a move). We can fight this concept to death but the result will be the same: we are mirror images of the people who we have had direct or indirect contact with. The list of potential influencers on our lives is infinite, but includes parents, teachers, news stories, the creepy old man on the bus, a sign in a foreign language, and so forth.

Knowing that what we come into contact with is going to change us, we can tweak the system so it works more in our favour, make things less of a surprise.

This is not about preparing ourselves for what may happen, but instead putting yourself out there to allow a change to happen. Becoming a lifehacker in its truest sense.

This can be an exciting and scary process all at once. I am not a radical at all, so my suggestions will be relatively safe – meaning calculated risks. Here are three different examples in some core areas of everyone’s lives:

Political or Religious Beliefs

We have all grown up in a culture that is somewhat (or extremely) religious, or a culture that was more atheist. Likewise, we generally grow up in a political environment that leans one way or other on the political scale and resist being completely open to other opinions. Once I started reading some different books that had some religious undertones (Lord of the Rings and Shogun being two that come to mind), I started to open myself up a bit to exploring other cultures to see what really is out there. I did not want to be fed information from the media or other pop culture. I took a dive into some of the original texts (ie The Book of Mormon, the Koran), watched foreign films to see alternative ways in creating culture (The Last Emperor, Raise the Red Lantern, Red/White/Blue), and developed friendships with people living alternative lifestyles (emo, gays, lesbians, ravers).

I did this out of curiousity, but the end effect is that these experiences either strengthened my previous opinions, or allowed me to destroy those opinions and develop new ones. In almost all cases, it helped me develop a universal respect for people and how they chose to live their lives.

The only real exceptions are two experiences that may have been potentially dangerous for me to do. It was a barrier I wanted to get past though.

When I worked in Hartford, CT as an intern at a theatre, I was housed in two different areas of the city. One area was south of the downtown district in an older area of the town, not too far away from a Whole Foods and strip malls. The other area was in West Hartford, which is the more affluent area of the city (incidentally, Mark Twain’s house is in this area). The common aspect of them both is that they have a ghetto area close by that was known for the gang activity.

In Syracuse, NY, when I lived there five years after living in Hartford, I lived relatively close to downtown and could walk to work. I could take a long way to work and go through the heart of downtown, or take a short cut through a predominantly African-American neighbourhood. Looking at the houses and buildings in the area, I would say that it is a lower income housing or a lot condemned buildings.

In both cities, I chose to walk through these very, non-Caucasian areas to experience what those people live in. I did this almost daily in Syracuse, only during the week in Harford avoiding the weekends. Every time I walked along those sidewalks at night, my heart skipped a beat every time I saw more than one person together. When I looked down one street and saw two large groups of people yelling and pointing at each other, I kept walking. Faster than usual.

Both of these experiences solidified what you see in movies like Boyz in the Hood or Menace II Society (both great movies, by the way): life can be dangerous on the streets.

I would still do it all over again in a heart beat to test my opinions and previous judgments.

Creating Discomfort

This is a similar to the last two stories. By placing yourself in an uncomfortable situation, you are forced to either adapt or to get out. In creating discomfort, it can be as simple as going to an art gallery opening or attending a symphony concert – something you normally would never do.

  • To place yourself in an uncomfortable zone to discover new likes/dislikes
  • Expand your cultural acceptance of new art forms, music, food
[An unfinished draft, but I wanted to get it out there instead of wasting away]
The 4 Hour Body – Free Chapters – by Timothy Ferriss

The 4 Hour Body – Free Chapters – by Timothy Ferriss

When the release of The 4 Hour Body (my full review, condensed 4 Hour Body review here) was quickly approaching in December, I noticed something happening across several of the blogs I followed. A lot of them not only had interviews with Timothy Ferriss that mentioned the book, they were including sample chapters.  Only after reading the book did I realize how complete these chapters actually were.

I thought it would be beneficial for someone to gather all of these links into one spot for people to browse and decide once and for all whether the book is worth buying.

Please note, I do not advocate piracy of any nature, but all the chapters listed below are links to material published by Mr. Ferriss on his blog or on others. Please also note that the material published online is not 100% the same as the book. You will be able to discover the tips of the ice berg for a lot of the ideas found in the book, but will have to read the book to get the full value of that information. Some of the links are also to the original posts on Mr. Ferriss’ blog, so the information is the same, but the style of writing is a bit different.

As other sections are discovered, I will add them here.

Also be sure to check out Tim Ferriss’ latest book: The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life

Table of Contents

Start Here

Thinner, Bigger, Faster, Stronger? How to Use This Book

Fundamentals – First and Foremost

The Minimum Effective Dose: From Microwaves to Fat-loss
Rules That Change the Rules: Everything Popular Is Wrong – PDF download of first two Chapters

Ground Zero-Getting Started and Swaraj

The Harajuku Moment: The Decision to Become a Complete Human
Elusive Bodyfat: Where Are You Really?
From Photos to Fear: Making Failure Impossible

Subtracting Fat: Basics

The Slow- Carb Diet I: How to Lose 20 Pounds in 30 Days Without Exercise
The Slow-Carb Diet II: The Finer Points and Common Questions
Damage Control: Preventing Fat Gain When You Binge
The Four Horsemen of Fat-Loss

Subtracting Fat: Advanced

Ice Age: Mastering Temperature to Manipulate Weight
The Glucose Switch: Beautiful Number 100
The Last Mile: Losing the Final 5-10 Pounds

Adding Muscle

Building the Perfect Posterior (or Losing 100+ Pounds)
Six-Minute Abs: Two Exercises That Actually Work
From Geek to Freak: How to Gain 34 Pounds in 28 Days
Occam’s Protocol I: A Minimalist Approach to Mass
Occam’s Protocol II: The Finer Points


Improving Sex

The 15-Minute Female Orgasm-Part Un
The 15-Minute Female Orgasm-Part Deux
Sex Machine I: Adventures in Tripling Testosterone
Happy Endings and Doubling Sperm Count

Perfecting Sleep

Engineering the Perfect Night’s Sleep
Becoming Uberman: Sleeping Less with Polyphasic Sleep

Reversing Injuries

Reversing “Permanent” Injuries
How to Pay for a Beach Vacation with One Hospital Visit
Pre-Hab: Injury-Proofing the Body

Running Faster and Farther

Hacking the NFL Combine I: Preliminaries—Jumping Higher
Hacking the NFL Combine II: Running Faster
Ultraendurance I: Going from 5K to 50K in 12 Weeks—Phase I
Ultraendurance II: Going from 5K to 50K in 12 Weeks—Phase II

Getting Stronger

Effortless Superhuman: Breaking World Records with Barry Ross
Eating the Elephant: How to Add 100 Pounds to Your Bench Press

From Swimming to Swinging

How I Learned to Swim Effortlessly in 10 Days
The Architecture of Babe Ruth
How to Hold Your Breath Longer Than Houdini

On Longer and Better Life

Living Forever: Vaccines, Bleeding, and Other Fun

Closing Thoughts

Closing Thoughts: The Trojan Horse

Appendices and Extras

Helpful Measurements and Conversions
Getting Tested—From Nutrients to Muscle Fibers
Muscles of the Body
The Value of Self-Experimentation
Spotting Bad Science 101: How Not to Trick Yourself
Spotting Bad Science 102: So You Have a Pill . . .
The Slow-Carb Diet—194 People
Sex Machine II: Details and Dangers
The Meatless Machine I: Reasons to Try a Plant-Based Diet for Two Weeks
The Meatless Machine II: A 28-Day Experiment


Bonus Material

Spot Reduction Revisited: Removing Stubborn Thigh Fat
Becoming Brad Pitt: Uses and Abuses of DNA
Creativity on Demand: The Promises and Dangers of Smart Drugs
An Alternative to Dieting: The Bodyfat Set Point and Tricking the Hypothalamus
The China Study: A Well-Intentioned Critique
Hyperclocking and Related Mischief: How to Increase Strength 10% in One Workout
The Top 10 Reasons Why BMI Is Bogus (Better Title: Do You Believe in Fairies, Unicorns, or the BMI?)
Heavy Metal: Your Personal Toxin Map

Appendix

I compiled some resources for people to get a jump start following a 4 Hour Body or Primal Lifestyle. I personally switch between a 30 pound and 40 pound kettle bell depending on the exercise (I prefer to do more one-arm kettlebell swings then the two-arm). The Primal Blueprint Recipe Book is real tasty and easy to prepare, and the DVD was useful for me in the start of my program. Alternatively, there is the Paleo Recipe Book, which includes a meal planner, recipe book, and a spices and herb guidebook. One of my favourite recipes is for paleo bread. It’s delicious, try it.

I hope you find these useful:

Disqus Comments

I discovered that I could change the commenting feature on this Squarespace blog by adding support for Disqus. I thought it would be most valuable in helping people identify their own blogs for people to jump over to. That and it would help eliminate the amount of spam I receive on the site. For a small blog like this, I get quite a few spammy comments, which is strange. 

 

Of course, after I installed the script, all the comments have been wiped out from public view. I can still see them in the website management views, which helps me, but still makes this blog look quite barren. I will leave the Disqus up for now and see if people prefer it or not. 

 

Apologies for the error in enabling this feature.

How to Get in the Groove: Work, Jason Fried, and Timothy Ferriss

How to Get in the Groove: Work, Jason Fried, and Timothy Ferriss

The only way to stop this perpetual growth of an object without physical borders is for you to create your own borders. Those borders are discipline, self-control, an editor’s eye for “enough.” The ultimate border is one simple word: no. Someone in charge has to say no more than yes.

Jason Fried, How to Kill a Bad Idea

It’s Monday today. All across the web there is going to be a lot of talk about how to be productive, how to maintain your to-do list, and Get Things Done (GTD).

Few people out there write about the philosophy behind work, though. The emphasis is on how the individual performs, but it is equally important as to how the office is structured in order to allow people to do the things they need to do.

I think one of the best people that routinely writes and speaks about the philosophy behind work is Jason Fried, of 37 Signals (creators of Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack and Campfire, authors of ReWork). He gave a speech at TED last year titled Why work doesn’t happen at work. I finally got around to listening to it on the weekend, and I highly recommend you listening to it as well.

In his talk, Fried outlines some of the problems surrounding work in the office (namely anything that pulls you away from your work – meetings, phone calls, email). He also identifies the three things a person requires in order to actually work: a place, a time, and movement (and, I suppose, position as there is a move to work while standing up). I think he left out one important aspect that could possibly relate to the items he identifies: an aural environment.

Aural Environment as Muse

Timothy Ferriss (who was recently interviewed by 37Signals) has developed a definition of a muse as a “low-maintenance business that generates significant income.” A more traditional definition of a muse is “A guiding spirit or source of inspiration.” To me, the aural environment plays an important part in getting work done and in creating something new. Whether it is our favourite track of music, the hum of the espresso machines and crowd noise at a coffee shop, or complete silence, without the correct aural environment, we are not going to be able to create as much as we would normally would like.

If I add the aural environment to Fried’s list, here is how my ideal work environment would shape up:

Place: At home, either at the kitchen counter or in my Lazeboy recliner.

Time: Between 10pm and 3am.

Movement: Slightly rocking motion or spinning motion if at the kitchen counter.

Aural Environment: Techno music (Tiesto, Daft Punk, Digweed)

Without having all of those elements, I find the work I do do is sub-standard. This only applies to my writing, because I obviously could not have been blaring techno music while working at the front desk of a hotel or in my shared office space. I also find that music can be a great inspiration while working on something. Perhaps there is a dramatic shift in the tempo of the music that causes me to write a little slower and be more reflective, or maybe it is a pulsing track that propels me to just bang out the words and worry about being reflective afterwards.

Comfort Can Be a Dangerous Thing

After thinking about how the aural environment plays such a strong role in my productivity, I came across the interview with Tim Ferriss that includes this quote:

It’s worse to tolerate your job than to hate it because, if the pain is painful enough, you’ll make a change,” he says. “But if it’s tolerable mediocrity, and you’re like, ‘Well, you know it could be worse. At least I’m getting paid.’ Then you wind up in a job that is slowly killing your soul and you’re allowing that to happen. Comfort can be a very, very dangerous thing.

Although he is talking about your job, it can be important for your work environment, too.

When I find that my writing is less inspiring than usual, I look to my work environment first before I think about what is happening internally. People generally do not lose their touch for writing or art, barring a major accident. Work suffers primarily because of the environment – the music is not as inspiring, the books and authors you read are not inspiring ideas, or perhaps the window you keep looking out has become ordinary.

There is only one solution: change it.

The easiest way for me to do this is by reading a different blog. I find that spending even just 20 minutes reading some new blogs help me create some new ideas about what to possibly write about, or maybe it is their style of writing. Tristan Higbee, of The Blogging Bookshelf, recently published a list of the blogs he reads and comments on. Such lists used to be quite popular across the web, and I am putting together my own list of blogs I visit that influence me.

I also like discovering new music. This can be a bit more difficult depending on the genres you enjoy listening to, and also the friends you have. I rely on my friends posting up their favourite bands on Facebook to help me discover new music, or the YouTube videos they share. I also try to follow some music blogs which are a major help, even if some of their suggestions are hit and miss. I want to compile a list of these sources for people, too, but I will share one of my favourite new band’s song at the bottom of this post.

For other people, changing their physical environment may be more beneficial. Change the coffee shop you normally go to, or go to a coffee shop instead of your home office. Go to the library or other public space where you are comfortable.

Enough is Enough

With all this being said, there comes a point where you need to stop trying to identify your environment or tweaking it. Continually playing around with the environment is as dangerous as constantly changing your blog’s design: the more you play, the less work you get done.

It’s a trap I fall into all the time, but I try to put a time limit on myself. If I feel like I am in a rut with my writing, I keep an eye on the clock and spend no more than 20 minutes trying to improve the environment. First, change the music I’m listening to.

Second, read something in a different spot (take my laptop to the couch, read my Kindle in my chair).

Third, stretch, have something to drink, and get back to work.

As Seth Godin likes to say, you have to stop the lizard brain from working and start creating again.

Muses

M.I.A. “Paper Planes”

4 Hour Body Review PT3: Occam’s Protocol, Sex, and Trojan Horses

4 Hour Body Review PT3: Occam’s Protocol, Sex, and Trojan Horses

It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.

- William of Occam (c. 1288-1348) “Occam’s Razor”

[This is Part 3 of my review for The 4 Hour Body. Here are the links for Part 1, Part 2, Full Review, and a collection of free chapters from the book]

Getting through The 4 Hour Body book can be a daunting challenge. As I mentioned before, this book is massive at over 600 pages. A portion of that is the index in the back, but a nonfiction book of 500 pages is still quite lengthy. Because of the length of the book, this last part of the review is a bit over due. Nearly a month after the first parts were published, I have been taking my time to read through the final chapters, and take the pulse of the internet in terms of reception of the book.

Occam Criticism

Occam is one of Ferriss’ favourite people to bring up and form his theories around. In short, Occam is used to get results by doing only what is required of you to do. It means not doing ten different exercises in a gym session, and lowering the number of repetitions done and increasing the length of time for a repetition. Everything that Ferriss writes about Occam’s protocol is interesting and helpful. It compares very well to some of the other popular fitness routines available, namely the always popular CrossFit program and the new Primal Blueprint Fitness program.

Occam could have been put into use when it comes to the criticism found across the web, too. Several writers go at length to be critical of the book. The NY Times review, by Dwight Garner,  was fairly negative in its tone, but it does not look like they did the research about the Slow Carb Diet and why it works for so many people. For example, he writes:

Mr. Ferriss makes difficult things seem very easy. But that line from the old Tom Waits song applies here: “The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.” Mr. Ferriss, for example, makes a big deal about how, on his diet, you’re encouraged to go wild one day a week, eating whatever garbage makes you happy. “Welcome to Utopia,” he says. Everybody ready to dig in?

There is a very good reason to allow people a cheat day, or some sort of permission to indulge in foods that are normally discouraged in a diet. By giving people that option, it wipes away any guilty feelings they may have if they do cheat, or they will find it increasingly difficult to stick to a diet. Surrounded by temptation, people will generally give in to those temptations – especially with food. The Primal Blueprint allows people to cheat on 20% of their diet, so this concept is nothing new.

Penelope Trunk writes negatively about Timothy Ferriss every now and then (Tim Ferriss diet, 5 Time management tricks I learned from years of hating Tim Ferriss) and appears to be very jealous of his success. Here is her snarky comment about the book:

Now, with the diet book, Tim tells us how we can take out all the emotional and mental health benefits of fitness and understanding your own body. But look. I have a better plan. You can get plastic surgery, and you can take Creatine, and you can use diuretics, and you will get the physical fitness results Tim promises in LESS than four hours a week. I should write a book.

None of these reviews and criticisms of The 4 Hour Body are very helpful for someone who is wanting to decide whether to buy it or not. I hope my review will be helpful in the end, whether you decide to purchase the book or not.

Ferriss should have heeded the advice given by Occam himself, however. This book is chock full of information that appears redundant at times as it is repeated earlier in the book, or contradicts other sections. This book would have been a much easier read if the sections were pared down to only the Slow Carb Diet, Occam’s Protocol, and the Running Faster and Farther chapters. Some of the chapters go by so quickly, they probably would have been better utilized as a blog post or extra content through the website (i.e. swinging like Babe Ruth, holding your breath longer than Houdini, perfecting sleep, etc). By the end, I felt like out of a 600 page book, maybe half of it was actually useful to me.

Garner puts it perfectly in his review:

Mr. Ferriss offers advice about so many disparate things — not simply losing weight and building muscle and improving sex and living forever, but learning to hold your breath longer than Houdini (!) and hit baseballs like Babe Ruth (!!) — that paging through “The 4-Hour Body” is like reading the sprawling menu in a dubious diner, quite certain the only thing you’d dare order is the turkey club.

There are some certain highlights of the book that I would like to mention though.


Becoming The Hulk

There are two common, perceived problems with today’s men: some men are too scrawny, others are too fat. There is also one thing almost all men want to be: stronger and bigger. Ferriss really zeroes in on this aspect of gaining muscle, as there are several sections highlighting it: From Geek to Freak (How to Gain 34 Pounds in 28 days), Occam’s Protocol, Injury Proofing Your Body, Effortless Superhuman, and Eating the Elephant (How to Add 100 Pounds to Your Bench Press). Of course, these sections are not grouped together for easy consumption. If you focused on the sections for muscle building, you will be doing a lot of page flipping to come to the proper chapters. A minor inconvenience when reading the hardcover book, but more of a nuisance if reading on a Kindle.

The techniques he outlines in the book will be recognizable to anyone that has picked up a fitness magazine in the past few years. They focus on compound movements that involve more muscles rather than focusing on small movements that only work one or two muscles. He does mention the kettlebell swing as the only exercise you really need to use to give your body a sufficient work out. I do agree that the exercise will work out your body, but I think it needs to be supplemented with at least a pushup-like exercise (to work the chest) and a pulling exercise (to work the back). I have yet to read about anyone following the one exercise only program. The reviews of Occam’s Protocol (which is the main workout program listed) are starting to come out through comments on Ferriss’ blog. Perhaps in another month or two, I will pull out some of the comments to see how people are progressing.

Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby

The tagline for the book is: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman. The chapters about sex (The 15 Minute Female Orgasm) are smaller in scope to the fat loss and becoming superhuman portions, but are the most useful ones. Everything else in the book requires money of some kind (buying different foods, supplement pills, extra books, exercise equipment, etc). The sex portion only requires a willing partner to give it a go.

The chapters have some of the more interesting stories shared and you also meet some people that you will rarely come across in your daily lives. Tallulah Sulis (the “female ejaculation expert”), Nina Hartley (Professor Sex), and Violet Blue (the sex pundit). This section is probably the most difficult to fully review on a site like this. There are several techniques illustrated for coitus and to help a woman achieve orgasm more easily, as well as, some steps men can take to produce more testosterone and have “sex like a wolverine.”

Without getting into too much detail here, all I will say is a lot of what he suggests does work.

Very well, in fact.

Trojan Horses

In the final chapter, before reaching the appendices, Ferriss mentions how, ” this book is a Trojan horse full of unexpected transfers.” It’s a very good assessment of the book. After staying true to one protocol, you will find benefits occur in other areas of your health and life.

After following the paleo/Primal diet for six months now, I can attest to how much more energetic I feel without eating a lot of the food others are feasting on. Before, I could devour a small pizza on my own, but now I feel incredibly bloated after even two slices. I feel sluggish after eating a few pieces of bread, too. Feeling more energetic transfers into how I feel around the house and helps me be more productive overall. It certainly helps with waking up in the mornings with my daughter. After nights of maybe five hours of sleep, I find myself waking up with her easily – without drinking pots of coffee. A handful of almonds in the morning is more beneficial than a cup of coffee in the end.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a lot of information to take in with this book, and not all of it will be useful to you. The chapters about the Slow Carb Diet will benefit the most people if they can make the transition into it completely and stick to one cheat day a week. The fitness regimes can be discovered online easily enough, as can information about improving your sleep.

What this book does offer is a quick and easy read to touch on a lot of related subject areas. Within a week of sitting down to read this book, you can easily plan out a diet to follow, and a simple exercise routine to help sculp the body you would like to achieve. In addition, the book is a highly entertaining read as the language is simple and straight forward. The books reads more like a conversation between you and Ferriss with several people dropping in to provide their two cents.


Is It Worth It?

Ultimately, that is the question everyone thinks of when they have a book or other product in their hands. These days, books are more than just a book. They are a portal to a whole library of information with books having dedicated web pages with additional resources (Excel spreadsheets, extra articles, discounts for products, and so forth). The 4 Hour Work Week website has a lot of extra information available to the people who have purchased the book. In The 4 Hour Body, there are mentions of extra content being available on the website and a dedicated forum for readers, but that is not the case yet. There is no mention of when, or if, it will actually appear, which is disappointing.

The resources located within the book’s content will provide you the extra information you may be looking for in the end. If you are looking for a quick read and are willing to hunt for some juicy stuff, The 4 Hour Body is the way to go. If you are looking for a more polished book with access to extra information and a thriving community, I would suggest The Primal Blueprint. In addition to that book, the author Mark Sisson has a blog updated daily (Ferriss’ blog is updated around once or twice a week) about the primal movement (complete with recipes), a cookbook that can be purchased, a free eBook about fitness programs, and additional products for sale. The Primal Blueprint focuses entirely on health and diet, though.

In the end, The 4 Hour Body is an excellent introduction to many subjects and will help you transform your body through some simple programs. With a price of under $15.00 online, you will be hard pressed to find another resource that provides so much for so little.

Appendix

I compiled some resources for people to get a jump start following a 4 Hour Body or Primal Lifestyle. I personally switch between a 30 pound and 40 pound kettle bell depending on the exercise (I prefer to do more one-arm kettlebell swings then the two-arm). The Primal Blueprint Recipe Book is real tasty and easy to prepare, and the DVD was useful for me in the start of my program. I hope you find these useful:


2011: Don’t Move, Improve

2011: Don’t Move, Improve

Success will come only to those who are willing to have a little blind faith–in themselves, in their art, and in their ability to stand tall and take the world by storm.

Ashley Ambirge, The Middle Finger Project

With 2010 now over, a lot of people have been writing about their meditations on the previous year and what they have planned for the next (examples: Murray, Tristan, Steve Pavlina, Ingrid). I have spent a lot of time reflecting on 2010 myself, because it was a landmark year for me. My daughter was born December 31st, 2009, so 2010 was a full year with her changing dramatically. I had moved to a new city at the end of 2009, too, so 2010 was my first full year here experiencing the (hot) summer weather, exploring the city, adjusting to dealing with agressive idiots and morons. There have been many problems to deal with, too. It’s turning into a laundry list, and I write them here for me to remember in the future, and maybe some will find it unbelievable.

  • January 2010, discovered black mold throughout our basement suite after having only lived there two months. Had to find a new place ASAP because of our newborn.
  • March 2010, a month after living in our new apartment, my vehicle was broken into. Passenger side window smashed, GPS stolen, etc. The incredible thing is we have underground parking. It was someone within our building doing it.
  • April, the transmission on my Jeep starts to act up and not shift properly. Not incredibly expensive to fix since it is just one part, not the entire transmission failing.
  • June, make a road trip to see family with a side trip to see one friend. Said friend keeps delaying when to connect with us, and when we do connect, only has 30 minutes with us. Hotel + ferry + parking + food = $300 for a 30 minute visit.
  • July, the month where I committed to sticking to the Primal Blueprint and setting up this blog. To date, I’ve lost 45 pounds and am under 200 lbs for the first time since University. The blog started off slowly, but I’ve learned a few things and reached 1,000 unique views in the month of December. Never thought I would get to that point after six months, so I’m happy.
  • September, picked up a side gig for a week escorting a meeting group around the city. 70 hours during the week, and it was an absolute gong show of a job.
  • October, mother-in-law lived with us for six weeks. An experience I hope I never have to go through again because it’s incredibly awkward at times – but we do get along so it could have been much, much worse. Also received a notice of a possible eviction from our place, for a few drops of oil in our parking stall of all things. To celebrate our first year in the Okanagan, we spent a few nights at the Sparkling Hill Resort, which I really should write up properly.
  • November, turned 31. All downhill from here, I imagine!
  • December, the most eventful month of the year. Vehicle was stolen this time (parked outside) and driven 5 blocks before being ditched because the transmission acted up on them. $300 for towing, $400 in repairs. I had three job interviews this month. With one of them, I had an offer at the end of it, but was told to wait a few days to think it through. When I called back, someone from another of their hotel’s had applied and they have a policy to hire internally first. That was a real bummer. I was short listed for another position, had a great interview, but never heard back either. Not even a courtesy email. Some people these days. In the last two weeks, there was my girlfriend’s birthday, my daughter’s first Christmas (spent with my girlfriend’s family), and my daughter’s first birthday on New Year’s Eve. It’s quite a whirlwind of a period and I will get to go through it every.single.year.

And that brings us to 2011. After enduring all the changes the past year and making some personal triumphs, how do I keep that up for the next year?

Don’t Move, Improve

It is tempting to move away from some of the problem areas in my life and start over, but I think the better solution is to improve upon the current situations that are problems. Moving away from them is, in a sense, quitting, and quitting is a negative experience in my opinion. Looking ahead to the new year, I am taking a cue from Meryl Evans who writes:

The experts’ suggestions for goal setting and planning overwhelm and paralyze many folks, including me. Rather than commit myself to particular goals at the beginning of the year, I watch my business and professional lives, do a little temperature-taking throughout the year, then make decisions based on what’s actually happening.

Here are my three simple steps:

  1. Figure out your passion.
  2. Create rules to support these passions.
  3. Make decisions based on the first two steps.

For 2011, I want to focus on three items that I know I am and can be passionate about 365 days of the year:

  1. My young family – daughter and girlfriend
  2. My health – mind, body, and spirit
  3. Four Sides blog

The first item is a no brainer. The second, is a common item for most, but I feel as though I’ve made huge strides with it in 2010 and can easily keep it up. I have read The 4 Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss (review part 1, part 2, part 3 is coming), and wish to focus more on body composition than fat loss. As I mentioned before, I have lost over 40 pounds through following The Primal Blueprint, but I want to improve upon these successes and make my body better than before. The diet is the main component of it, and now that my girlfriend is on board with it, I think both of us can go a long way with this.

The Four Sides blog has been growing, but isn’t at the level I would like it at. Here is the traffic summary from the stats provided by Squarespace.

I have discovered that my traffic remains consistent even when I do not post anything, and that my most popular posts are in regards to people/products, and not entirely my own ideas and opinions. Of course, my own ideas posts spark more conversation in the comments. I have been thinking about how to improve upon this mix, and improve the blog, without a major change in course (ie writing about a specific niche). Here are the three rules I want to stick with on this blog:

  1. Write one review (book, blog, product) a week, and one pensée post. Ideally, write at least one 1500 word pensée a month.
  2. Migrate the blog to WordPress when the contract is up in April with Squarespace for better control.
  3. Focus any inspirational reading on certain blogs and magazines to eliminate distractions.

I have decided that my overall motto for the new year is going to be:

Enhance the Personal

I want to make this blog more personal and passionate; make my life more personal and start living and working for my own needs, not to fill someone else’s.

If you have suggestions on how I should be doing things differently on this blog or want to share your own rules you are going to live by this year, please do share them. I have an insatiable curiousity to learn more.

And, because I simply can’t resist sharing this, here is my daughter, reading a book:

About.me – The Online Business Card

About.me – The Online Business Card

Once I had posted my last link to the business cards that included a Seth Godin quote, I started to see news about a rather new website that has popped up, about.me.

About.me can be described as a grand landing page for people around on the web, but it also serves a double purpose of discovering people. You can do this either by searching by name, clicking a link and being taken to a random profile, or by looking through the directory. The directory includes only three sections: featured, spotlighted, and inspirational. I’m not entirely sure how someone would get listed in these directories, but the service is only starting out and will expand to make things like that easier to do. Right now, I have a feeling it may be based upon the number of views each of those profiles have received.

The landing page is simple. No status updates, no stream of information, no way to follow people. The landing page has a few different components to it: avatar, biography, background, and services/links. You have full control over the font used for the biography and links, as well as, all the colours used. The services that you can tie in include: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, WordPress, LinkedIn, posterous, YouTube, and a few others. Once you include a service, the icon appears on your landing page for people to click on. You can also include other links (your blog, or favourite websites). The support for RSS feeds was not working for me, but I will keep experimenting with it and doing some research about the problem.

When they do click on one of the services, a pop-up will appear with the recent updates for the services in an extremely simple format.

About.me – Twitter feed


I first read about About.me back in September when a post showed up at TechCrunch. I thought nothing of it at the time because they were in a closed beta. The next thing I know, the beta is opened up to everyone, and they were purchased by Aol. The news release about the purchase is fairly upbeat, and for good reason. This service has a lot of big players advising its development that reads like a laundry list of who’s-who on the Internet: Om Malik, Timothy Ferriss, Kevin Rose, Matt Mullenwag, Peter Rojas, and more.

I know a lot of people consider their blogs as the primary landing page for them, and others use LinkedIn or a Google Profile to capture everything. Having people come to your blog as a landing spot can be a bit overwhelming. They will be surrounded by your latest posts, the most popular posts, possibly advertisements, and have to hunt for a “contact me” button. LinkedIn can pose similar problems, and the Google Profile can connect people to too much information about you if you are not selective enough. Here is the profile for Leo Laporte that seems to include everything he has touched online, for example.

About.me is a service that gives people quick and easy access to your vital information: the sites you list for your online identity, and options to connect with you directly (Facebook, Twitter, an email button). The design of it is simple and clean like a business card. If I ever have to print up business cards to promote myself, I could see myself printing cards that say “about.me/jamesmccullough” and nothing else. One of the most useful parts of an About.me profile is the opportunity to gauge your reach easily: how many clicks on your profile, on your outgoing links, how many contacts combined on your services, etc. Of course, mine is all at zeroes right now, but I can’t wait to see some of the data get entered in the coming days.

With a growing user base, and expanding media coverage, I suggest people take a visit, if only to reserve their name.

Has anyone else setup a profile there?

Linchpin Business Cards

Linchpin Business Cards

Seth Godin mentioned that Moo.com has business cards that have quotes from his book, Linchpin, on the front. I personally love the colours, and am extremely tempted to purchase the set myself.

But I am still questioning whether I need a business card, and whether it would be better to have this blog’s logo on the front or my own quote.

The 4 Hour Body Review PT 2: The Devil is in the Details

The 4 Hour Body Review PT 2: The Devil is in the Details

[This is Part 2 of my review for The 4 Hour Body. Here are the links for Part 1, Full Review, and a collection of free chapters from the book]

It’s Day 2 with The 4 Hour Body (Part 1 here), and everywhere I look, Tim Ferriss is popping up. Tonight, there was a segment on Nightline (ABC) about the book. I also came across another video interview on ZenHabits, and a fascinating interview with 37Signals about how he used their products to organize the book’s creation. Almost every interview I have come across has highlighted a different part of the book, and it’s incredible the amount of information Tim Ferriss can pull out of his head when asked a question. The other thing of interest about all of these interviews and promotional materials is that it was all planned out very thoroughly.




The Blitzkrieg

Tim Ferriss wrote about the challenges he was going to face with the release of this book: the holiday season competition, competing against The Guiness Book of World Records, and the lack of traditional media coverage that he otherwise may have received if the book had been published earlier or later (read about it at The Huffington Post). In order to drive up the sales heading into the new year (“New Year, New You” as he puts it), he was going to have to do things differently.

Being Different is much a motto for Timothy Ferris as Think Different was for Apple.

I was blown away with the buildup to this book launch: the NYC party, the $4,000,000 in giveaways, and constant drum beating of buy 3+ copies and get special gifts. This does not include the contest that was held earlier in the year to find the best advertisements to put across the web – graphic or textual. Currently, there is a contest for the person that promotes the book the best this week. This is all a new experience for me as this is the first major book launch that I have pre-ordered and have followed the buildup from announcement to launch. It has been an all-out blitzkrieg of promotion, media, rocking YouTube videos, and more.

I was thinking of all this when I started to get into the meat of the first third of the book: the diet section.

No “Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away” Slogans Here

As I mentioned in the first part of this review, the diet Ferriss suggests, The Slow-Carb Diet, is a modification of the paleo/Primal diet that I have been following for the last half of this year. Outlined in five simple rules, this is a diet that takes some adjustments to be successful at. With the first rule being “Avoid ‘White’ Carbohydrates,” it is most likely the toughest rule to get over. Majority of the cultures of the world feast on breads or grains of some form (tortillas, naan, rice, etc) and our world is full of various offerings that are too easy to go for (crackers, chips, cookies). Even for me, someone who does not indulge in a lot of sweets, it was a slow process of cutting down to one piece of toast in the morning instead of two, and cutting down on the amount of rice at night with a stir-fry. Eventually, I did get there. Another part that may be difficult to get around is the lack of fruit in the diet. This is a common thing with the paleo/primal diets, but is even more against the grain than eliminating grains is (pun intended).

Once you have cleaned up your system, you will start to be acutely aware of how sensitive your body is to certain foods. It seems to me that our body adapts and accepts some of the bad things we eat as normal, so when the body stops receiving those items, there is a period of re-adjustment back to a clean slate. Once that item hits your stomach again, watch out. At first, I noticed this effect with milk and other dairy products. My stomach was almost always upset after I even had a few slices of cheese. If I had eaten an ice cream cone as a treat, it made me suffer through the night until it had all been eliminated. Now, I’ve become more aware of the effects of bread and other carbohydrates on my system. I can almost predict when I will have a sugar crash if I treat myself to a chocolate bar.

Ferriss uses the phrase “the devil is in the details,” in a title of a section about the effects of cold temperatures to the body, and more specifically, burning off fat. I think the phrase applies aptly to the majority of the diet section, because the smallest things really do matter the most. Whether it is the foods you cut out of your diet, or the supplements you take, or following a regime of cold treatments or standardized eating times, they all add up to major improvements. As he states in his promotional video above: 2.5% effort for 95% of the results.

All that being said, the two combine into an overwhelming force. When you are faced with a blitzkrieg of small details that truly do matter, it can be tough to take it all in. Some of the paragraphs about the various supplements are daunting to myself to comprehend at times, and I think the book’s primary strength (so far) is when the information is laid out in an easy to read, comprehensible style. If the book was completely a reference guidebook, some of the meatier sections would be fine, but the combination of the two give the book a different feel compared to most.

He does recommend skipping certain sections in order to get the most valuable information in and not get too overwhelmed. It was a recommendation I did not listen to at the start, but I might follow through with it during the sections when it gets biology/chemistry heavy.

As for implementing the suggestions for a Slow-Carb Diet, I am in the planning stages of a transition. I am not one for jumping into things without some guidelines and a clear plan. Ferriss suggests starting with a change with the breakfast meal, as it will have the biggest impact on your goals overall. In the summer months, I was eating a lot more eggs than I am now, and that is when I had the biggest weight loss. Needless to say, I bought two dozen last night to get me jump started again. The rest of the cupboard space is getting cleaned out and restocked this coming weekend to take the Slow-Carb Diet head-on. I am looking forward to exploring beans and other legumes again, as that was a restriction that the Primal Blueprint advised against.


The Muscle section is coming up now. A new section to read and plan for; and surely, by the time I finish it, I will have come across several more interviews and promotions.

The 4 Hour Body Review – Part 3: Occam’s Protocol, Sex, and Trojan Horses

Appendix

I compiled some resources for people to get a jump start following a 4 Hour Body or Primal Lifestyle. I personally switch between a 30 pound and 40 pound kettle bell depending on the exercise (I prefer to do more one-arm kettlebell swings then the two-arm). The Primal Blueprint Recipe Book is real tasty and easy to prepare, and the DVD was useful for me in the start of my program. I hope you find these useful:


The 4 Hour Body Review PT 1: Harajuku Moment

The 4 Hour Body Review PT 1: Harajuku Moment

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear.

Bene Gesserit from Frank Herbert’s Dune

[This is Part 1 of my review for The 4 Hour Body. Here are the links for the Full Review, and a collection of free chapters from the book]

The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss downloaded to my Kindle last night, and there was no way I could not dive into it right away. This is an embarrassing geek moment in my life, but I happened to stay up past midnight in hopes of getting a first glimpse of the book through the Kindle to prepare myself for he journey ahead. This is a massive volume (nearly 600 pages) of information to go through. At first, I thought of doing one big review once I had finished it, but because it is so big, I think I will break it down into sections.

First Impressions – Chapters 1-3

If you have read The 4 Hour Work Week, the style of writing will be all too familiar to you. If you have never read his book or his blog (I’m not sure how many haven’t come across his work yet), Ferriss’ conversational style will appeal to you. This book is easy to read, and the information will be absorbed into your mind without a lot of re-reading of facts. There are lots of real world examples presented, with plenty of stories to help explain the process of attaining the results in the examples.

The book is laid out in different sections that you can skip ahead to if you like. This makes it more of a reference book than his previous book, which may appeal to some people. In the first chapter (which he posted on his blog), he outlines various groupings of chapters that should be required reading depending on what goal you would like to achieve from reading it (fat loss, muscle gain, strength gain or total well-being). Each chapter also includes optional sections that include more information that is geared towards information geeks like myself.

I decided that I would read the book from the beginning to end without jumping around. I do not have a goal set as to what I would like to achieve from reading this book yet, but I am looking for improvement.

Principles

As in his previous book, Ferriss introduces us to some concepts that most probably were not aware of. In the first book, I am sure most would agree that they had never come across Pareto’s Law (the 80/20 principle). In this book, Pareto’s Law comes up again, along with some similar concepts, such as Minimum Effective Dose. I do not wish to get into these concepts right now, as I do want to encourage people to read the book and find out from the source.

But I will comment on how such introductions to unknown concepts are extremely valuable to the general population. By bringing up terms like Pareto’s Law or the Minimum Effective Dose, I am transported back to my University classes where I was able to discover terms and theories on my own outside of class, or reminds me of watching a documentary on PBS or Discovery Channel (which, incidentally, Ferriss ends his day with – presumably when he is not testing his sex techniques). I am a big proponent of the idea that the more people know, the better we all are for it. Ferriss introduces me to a concept, and then it is up to me to master it on my own, but it is always in my toolbelt now when I need to pull it out. Pareto’s Law has been used widely, and I am sure the Minimum Effecive Dose, along with the other concepts I will be discovering in the remainder of the book, will be spread widely as well.



Harajuku Moment

The Harajuku Moment (Spoiler Alert) is the term given to a personal tipping point, made popular by Malcolm Gladwell. The example given is of Chad Fowler and his decision to start losing weight. While reading this story, I started to reflect on my own decision to be more conscious of my own body and make a serious effort in being in better shape. I wrote about it here under the title The Paleo Leap, or A Step Back In Time back in July, but the true starting point for me was after the birth of my daughter last year.

Most people have New Year’s Resolutions, and the timing of my daughter’s birth could not have worked out better – December 31st. At the time, I was weighing around 245 lbs and out of shape. If it wasn’t for my years of lifting heavy objects during my technical theatre days, or walking frequently in the summer time, it could have been much worse. Years of stressful jobs had taken its toll on me in the form of weight gain. When the scales started inching towards 250, I knew I had to do something; otherwise, I wouldn’t be around for the life of my daughter.

I started to explore different options, and came across the paleo/primal lifestyle. Reading The Primal Blueprint and adhering to the diet it lays out, has most likely saved my life. I weighed myself a few weeks ago, and I came in at 205. 40 pounds shed in just over six months. Can’t really ask for better results than that. I still have a ways to go before I get the look I want, and that is where The 4-Hour Body comes in.

I am at the section of the book that describes the diet we should be following on this journey. The diet is less restrictive than the Primal Blueprint diet, but follows the same basic guidelines: no processed carbs, no white carbs (rice, bread, potatoes), more meat, more vegetables, no/little fruit. It does allow for legumes (lentils, chickpeas), which the Primal Blueprint wants people to avoid, as well. There is also one free day a week for people to eat whatever they want. The Primal Blueprint sets up a 80/20 rule – adhere to the diet 80% of the time, and allow the other 20% to be less restrictive. If I translated the one day of the week into a percentile, it comes to 14%. In a way, I guess, it is more restrictive.

In the coming days, I will finish the diet section and possibly do a complete analysis comparing the two diets together if there are some major differences. The next section is about adding muscle, which I am interested in doing more of in the coming months.

If the above is of interest to you, but not enough to convince you to dive into the book, here are some other items of interest that Timothy Ferriss has been involved with in the past week in the lead-up to the launch:

[The 4 Hour Body Review PT 2 here]

Appendix

I compiled some resources for people to get a jump start following a 4 Hour Body or Primal Lifestyle. I personally switch between a 30 pound and 40 pound kettle bell depending on the exercise (I prefer to do more one-arm kettlebell swings then the two-arm). The Primal Blueprint Recipe Book is real tasty and easy to prepare, and the DVD was useful for me in the start of my program. I hope you find these useful:


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