The Psychology Of Fitness

1 – Sexy Item of the week:  Although it’s taken me a couple of weeks to actually sit down and get through it all, the Thyroid Health Guide by Dr. Bryan Walsh is quite damn sexy.  Too bad it’s not being sold right now.  It took me so long, because I studied it  like I would be taking a test on it.  I could explain almost everything explained in the videos without having to look at them again. If I had a Thyroid problem though, this is definitely the program I would have.  Since I don’t want to link to the program because it’s not currently being sold, I will link to one of his articles that explain 7 Thyroid Issues Your doctor may have missed.  On second note, scratch that and watch this video on Thyroid Physiology from him instead…or better yet, go to both.

2 – Book of the week:  The book for this week was Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.  Reading the book already sparked a post that I’ll be putting up next week on “How to Decide to Workout.”  During finishing up this book, I also started to dabble in the book Influencer.  Apparently, they talk a lot about the same methods for getting someone to care enough about a behavior and to actually change their actions.  One of my favorite parts of the book was about “Visualization.”  I don’t know why, but I’ve always hated self-help books that say “visualize what you want” (I’m not talking about The Secret at all here…actually, I am).    Here’s what the book said:

“A group of UCLA students were asked to think about a current problem in their lives, one that was “stressing them out” but was potentially solvable in the future…The students were told that the goal of the experiment was to help them deal with the problem effectively, and they got some brief instructions on problem-solving…A second group of students, the “event-stimulation” group, were kept in the lab.  They were asked to mentally simulate how the problem had unfolded:
We would like you to visualize how this problem arose.  Visualize the beginning of the problem, going over in detail the first incident…Go over the incidents as they occurred step by step.  Visualize the actions you took.  Remember what you said, what you did.  Visualize the environment, who was around, where you were.
The event-simulation participants had to retrace, step by step, the events that led to their problem…A third group, the “outcome-simulation” group, was asked to mentally simulate a positive outcome emerging from the problem:
Picture this problem beginning to resolve, you are coming out of the stressful situation…Picture the relief you feel.  Visualize the satisfaction you would feel at having dealt with the problem.  Picture the confidence you feel in yourself, knowing that you have dealt successfully with the problem.
The outcome-simulators kept their focus on the desired outcome:  What will it be like once this problem is behind me?”  (Made to Stick, pg 210-211)

The bottom line is that the “event-simulators,” those that went back to delve into how the problem occurred took more actions to solve their problems and did better along with every other dimension tested vs visualizing the future.

3 – Evidently in one of my previous posts, I said I had found another justification for drinking more.  I didn’t necessarily agree with the author though.  This post makes a much smarter claim as to why that previous post was complete and utter bullshit.   Awesome!

4 – This post shows males have a higher sex drive than women.  I’m not sure how that was ever controversial, but evidently it is.  The question that pops into my head though is, if males have a higher overall sex drive is that because studies are typically done on college students.  Of these college students, males typically hit their sexual peak earlier, versus women who typically hit their peak later.  Does that mean that as women get older, they have equal sex drives, higher or is it low testosterone levels and lack of novelty the cause of low sex drives for men as they age?  If it’s low testosterone levels, well, man up and stop overwhelming yourself with xeno-estrogens and follow this protocol to help boost testosterone levels.

5 – I tell my friends and family about some of the things I’m learning and obviously, this weekly summation here gets to about 5-20% of the actual things I’m reading/rummaging through per week.  In other words, it’s only the tip of the iceberg.  What I have told most of them though is that xeno-estrogens suck (xeno = foreign).  What I forget though, is that they like “credible” sources – as if I’m not enough…Sheesh!  (Btw, who says sheesh?  Maybe I need to follow that testosterone protocol)  I guess we all want credible sources though.  So here’s an article, on why xeno-estrogens suck.  Read it!   Before you do though, here’s the facts, Testosterone levels have dropped by over 50% in the last 50 years.  Most males have weak and insufficient amount of sperm.  Low testosterone levels in males lead to higher aggression/depression, low sex drive, “bad” sex and less zest for life overall.  There are many causes of this, from the amount of testosterone you had while in your womb (which means women should be concerned about this – the xeno-estrogens also raise cancer rates in women), how much you strength train, how stressed you are (physically, mentally and emotionally – and yes, lack of sleep is a physical stressor), along with vitamin/mineral deficiencies.  Beyond those reasons, there are environmental factors that will influence your free testosterone (the type your body uses), mainly through estrogen-mimickers.  In case you didn’t get the message, I suggest you read this article on things you can do to avoid them and why they suck.

6 – On a sadder note (although that last one is pretty damn sad if you’re a guy), the US now is 49th in the world in longevity, despite spending much more than every other country on health care.  49th?  That’s just pitiful.

7 – On a less serious note, whenever I am in a relationship and want to blame my being irresponsible on “being a guy,” I can change it and just say that I’m just not very conscientious overall.  Thanks Psychology Today.

8 – Finally, after all of that, I will leave this post with my “I need to literally laugh out loud and have my eyes tear up from the laughter” best f’n website of the year:  Hyperbole and a half.

I don’t know how to describe it, but you MUST give the website 5 minutes.  It will change your life forever (ok, that was quite a bit of hyperbole – whatever ~~).    But I’m serious…If you don’t you might be the tipping point in the “Sneaky Hate Spiral.” Just sayin’.