Cameron's Brain

time to get a health coach

I need to lose another 10kgs, so I've got myself a health coach - beti from The Health Show. She provides a fantastic online health coach service for g33ks. She's already whipping me into shape over email. :-)

Ya gotta be in shape if you wanna take over the world, people. This is a battle This is WAR. And guess what - the powers that be WANT you to be fat, unhealthy and lazy. Why else do you think Caesar said:

Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

The people in power want you to eat fast food - not vegetables and fruit. They want you to watch reality TV and dull your senses. They want you to read the newspapers and believe you are "informed". They want you to listen to manufactured pop, designed NOT to spur you into action, NOT to make you think, NOT to inflame your passions. They want you dull, fat, lazy. Watching weekend sports from the comfort of your easy chair, beer in hand, wasting energy yelling at television umpires, "unwinding" from that hard week's work sitting behind a desk. Reading "women's magazines" so you care about Tom and Katie, Brad and Jen, but ignore the homeless in your suburb and the size of your personal credit card debt. They want you terrified that we're going to die of bird flu, but ignoring what's happening to the indigenous population of your country. They want you to think more about who's going to be the next Australian Idol than you think about who's going to be the next Australian Prime Minister.

 

If you look like this... it's time to get a health coach, people. This is a war, and you are either going to be a soldier or cannon fodder.

How To Live To 1000

Today I had the opportunity to interview Dr Aubrey de Grey, biogerontologist from the Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, UK, and one of the leaders in field of anti-aging research.

Now I’m not talking about the Ponds Institute kind of anti-aging… I’m talking about CURING aging. I’m talking about genetic science which will enable you to live hundreds of healthy, productive years. And I’m talking about research which, if properly funded, could deliver these results within MY lifetime.

Check out the interview here.

The Hacker's Diet

A few years ago I decided to lose weight and get healthy. Being something of a geek, I wrote a spreadsheet to help me manage my progress. In this spreadsheet I'd record the kilojoules and grams of fat of everything that went into my mouth every day. I'd record my exercise and the amount of calories I was burning up. I recorded my BMI regularly, weight, waist measurement, etc. I managed to lose 20Kg and haven't put it back on. Now I want to lose another 10 - 15Kgs.

Tonight I discovered THE HACKER'S DIET. It contains several spreadsheets much more sophisticated than mine! It seems John Walker did all the works years ago. I wish I'd discovered it back when I started!

I discovered the diet via Jim Hughes' blog. Jim's a new fan of TPN Rock. Speaking of TPN ROCK, there are new episodes of it and THE MIXTAPE SHOW up today! Both excellent, check them both out. Also a new episode of MATT, FREAK & THE FATBOY. Marc Orchant was telling me today how he was listening to MFF while at the dentist recently and was laughing so hard the dentist nearly drilled a hole through his cheek! We'll have to put up a new disclaimer.

the numb finger

Played Star Wars Revenge Of The Sith XBOX last night for a few hours. From midnight until 3am. When I finally put the controller down, I noticed the tip of my left hand index finger, from the tip to the first knuckle, was NUMB. And now, 7 hours later, IT IS STILL NUMB.

.... any doctors in the house? Should I be concerned?

Will milk help you lose weight?

I've been avoiding dairy for years and personally believe it is pretty bad for you. That's a common theme in alt health circles, but it's interesting to see this report in the Washington Post:

Children who drink more than three servings of milk each day are prone to becoming overweight, according to a large new study that undermines a heavily advertised dairy industry claim that milk helps people lose weight.

The National Dairy Council has spent $200 million since 2003 to promote the idea that milk can help people lose weight.

The researchers analyzed whether the children would have been better off if they replaced the soda they were drinking with milk but found no benefit.

Yeah but what about "low-fat milk"?

The association held, even though most of the children were drinking low-fat milk.

[source: GNN]

And if you're interested in health issues, check out the new episode of "The Health Show" on The Podcast Network. This week Vienna and beti discuss the relationship between Amino Acids and Proteins, how to get great abs, and how to make a quick, easy and healthy breakfast which is also great as a snack!

Store Wars

hehe everyone else is linking to this so I guess I should as well, before Lucas's minions stop counting their money and stomp on it.

Grocery Store Wars tells the story of Cuc Skywalker (a cucumber) and Obi-Wan Canoli, who, with Ham Solo and Princess Lettuce, battle the Dark Side of "the farm", lead by the evil Darth Potato.

"That's no moon... that's a melon! A death melon!"

It's a very clever video talking about the value of organic produce. Clever viral marketing.

Suicide Solution

"Suicide Solution" is the title of an old Ozzy Osbourne solo track from the 80's that I always liked as a teenager. "Wine is fine but whiskey's quicker. Suicide is slow with liquor."

With another recent high profile suicide in Australia (Rivkin offered me a job back in the late 80s... we were drinking in a bar in Collins St I seem to recall...), some information on suicide stats has come to my attention. A 9th grader student in the US called Nina Grebin has put together this site which has some interesting stats from the US. They probably translate well to Australia. These caught my attention:

• Suicide rates are highest among whites.
  
• Between 1958 and 1978, the rate for the 15 - 24 age group tripled.
• With about 30,000 deaths per year, suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S., and the 3rd leading cause among teens.
• The leading cause of suicide is depression, which affects over half of the people living in the United States.

Yeah... I'm having one of those days.

Veggie Low-Fat Diet Helps Lower Cholesterol Levels

Who would have guessed?

A conventional low-fat diet will lower your bad cholesterol, but if that low-fat diet is made up of mainly vegetables, fruit, whole grains and beans, then you can lose twice as much, according to a study conducted by Chris Gardner and colleagues from Stanford University and published in Tuesday's Annals of Internal Medicine.

(more on foodconsumer.org)

my good deed for the day

my new fav gadget

A $19.95 pedometer from Target. I started running again today. God how I hate exercising, especially alone. But with my iPod playing Tablet PC Show #2, it seemed like I was running along with my buddies James and Marc, chatting to me about all manner of Tablet geekiness.