Satisfaction

Being able to resist short-term satisfaction is very hard for a variety of reasons. While I won't pretend to know the science behind it, from an evolutionary perspective, it makes perfect sense. In the past, if we decided to fulfill a short-term interest that didn't coincide with survival, such as finding food, we were quickly met with, at best, sharp hunger pangs, and at worst, death via starvation. However, we now have nearly every facet of the bottom rung of Maslow's hierarchy of needs at our fingertips. We no longer have to forgo other urges in order to feed ourselves. The food is readily available. It becomes paramount that you develop the discipline to stave off what Seth Godin refers to as the "lizard brain." It's fear that will masquerade as boredom. It's that voice telling you you have better things to do. That you can't/won't make a difference.
You have to identify what it is that causes you issues and cut it off at the pass. The internet, as great as it is for connecting us and providing information, also provides a great "escape" and avenue for sucking away time. You may have to disconnect your internet. There are even programs you can get that will do it for you at certain blocks of time that you set. You may have to somewhere that doesn't have internet access. Whatever it takes.
Plan your day. Taking the time to plan your day and then having the discipline to follow it through will make a world of difference. I don't remember which business book or blog I read it in, but one of the best pieces of advice I've seen is, "you should never wonder what to do next." Have a backlog of ideas and projects and things to do. This doesn't just mean busywork (though sometimes that's necessary). It means have your meaningful work scheduled, lined up, and ready to go, then carry it out.

Atheism Should End Religion, Not Replace It

This was a fantastic piece Penn Jillette penned (no pun intended) for the New York Times a few years ago. Really well written. I'm not quite as hardcore anti-religion as Penn, as I feel that whatever gives someone comfort and some sort of compass is fine, so long as it doesn't entail hurting others. But, he does make salient points, many of which are beyond the scope of this article. In any event, here it is:

Religion cannot and should not be replaced by atheism. Religion needs to go away and not be replaced by anything. Atheism is not a religion. It’s the absence of religion, and that’s a wonderful thing. 

Religion is not morality. Theists ask me, “If there’s no god, what would stop me from raping and killing everyone I want to.” My answer is always: “I, myself, have raped and killed everyone I want to ... and the number for both is zero.” Behaving morally because of a hope of reward or a fear of punishment is not morality. Morality is not bribery or threats. Religion is bribery and threats. Humans have morality. We don’t need religion. 

Religion is faith. Faith is belief without evidence. Belief without evidence cannot be shared. Faith is a feeling. Love is also a feeling, but love makes no universal claims. Love is pure. The lover reports on his or her feelings and needs nothing more. Faith claims knowledge of a world we share but without evidence we can share. Feeling love is beautiful. Feeling the earth is 6,000 years old is stupid. 

Religion is often just tribalism: pride in a group one was born into, a group that is often believed to have “God” on its side. We don’t need to replace tribalism with anything other than love for all humanity. Let’s do that, okay?

Religion also includes fellowship, joy, compassion, service and great music, and those can be replaced by ... fellowship, joy, compassion, service and great music. 

Atheism is the absence of religion. We don’t really need atheism. We just need to get rid of religion.

You can go read the piece yourself here. 

Back into the Swing?

As life has been ridiculously busy, blogging has, of course, been pushed to the very furthest back of the burners. However, as always, I have thoughts rolling around in my head that I feel like getting down when I can. I've also been video blogging (vlogging I believe the kids are calling it these days), which I will get around to posting at some point. In any event, I was reading a bit of Lyle McDonald's treatise on Training the Obese beginner, which can be found on his website. As Lyle always is, he is quite thorough, but one point he makes (and makes often if you've read his stuff, visited his forums, etc.) is that obese beginners simply aren't capable or up to training with any great intensity very frequently. And yet, this is what you repeatedly see dipshit trainers doing ALL. THE. TIME.

 It's quite funny to me to see, because that was something that occurred to me long ago, really before I ever trained my first client. I'm not going to claim I had figured out all the variables at that point, nor that I have now, but meeting the trainee where they are seems like a pretty straightforward and obvious point to be made. And yet, it's a mistake that you routinely see people make. 

Yes, working harder makes you tired and feel like you did something. And yes, it also will make you not particularly want to do it again any time soon. The point I always make to people wanting to start an exercise regimen is, first and foremost, to find something they enjoy doing. Because if they enjoy doing it, they will do it more often. And doing it more often is what is most important, especially at first. Again, even a few moments spent thinking should alert the trainer to this fact.

I guess, getting down to it, the thing that pisses me off the most is that this is what is presented in the mainstream as the way to go. Look at shows like Biggest Loser, look at magazines, look at class offerings at any gym ("boot camps", etc.), and it all reinforces the idea that one must kill themselves to realize their weight and fat loss goals. And, in the short term, it may work. But for long-term adherence, it sure as shit won't for most.

And thus endeth my rant.