Scary and Worrying Things You Should Know About GMOs (Must Watch)

If you believe in whatever you've seen here, and believe that others also deserve having the same education on this topic, please kindly share it with your friends and loved ones.

Sometime ago, I was introduced to this topic about GMO (genetically modified organisms) by my mentor, and was advised to take precautionary steps to protect myself against any potential health hazards caused by GMOs. Out of trust, I took heed of his advice and started paying attention to my gut health.

Today, after spending nearly an hour watching this film below, I finally realize how serious this problem can be if no action is taken to protect ourselves from the GMOs.

Here's a film produced by the Institute for Responsible Technology about the untold story of GMO's harmful effects on humans and nature. I really recommend that you spend some time watching this film, as there are simply too many things to be discovered about this topic.

Original link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YDzZc-QFIwk

Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of Our Lives

Here are some of the points which I have got out of watching this film:

• From the laws of nature, we understand that all organisms which have gone through thousands of years of evolution to survive until today are basically part of this whole big ecosystem to maintain harmony and balance. GMOs are simply created in labs and have not gone any "test of evolutionary process", thus may cause unpredictable effects when consume by our body.
• GMOs contain "Frankenstein elements" which our body system do not recognize, thus resulting in allergies when consumed. If your children have suffered from allergies to a certain food, most likely you've got in touch with GMOs in your diet. Children are more likely to suffer the effects of GMOs because their immune and digestive systems are much more sensitive compared to adults.
• GMOs are highly resistant to pests. Once consumed, it will turn our intestinal flora into a living pesticide factory. And this "living pesticide" will continue to live and duplicate in our intestines, causing problems like leaky gut syndrome.
• Statistics have shown a direct correlation between the increasing consumption of GMOs and the increasing frequency of diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colotis, chronic constipation, gastroesophageal reflux, diabetes, autism, etc. 
• GMOs generally contain lower nutritional values compared to natural organic crops, therefore resulting in chronic malnutrition which leads to various types of diseases.
• Even if we were to avoid direct consumption of GMOs, we still couldn't know for sure whether GMOs exist in our meats (chicken fed with GMOs), dairy products (cows fed with GMOs), soy milk (made of GMO soy beans), supplements (derived from GMOs), and even infant formula (made of GMO soy beans). There are 4 major brands of infant formula shown in this film which contain more than 40% of GMO substances, which is rather worrying.
• If a product is not labelled as "organic" or "non-GMO", chances are, it is a GMO.

And many more.

Here are some precautionary steps which we can take to protect ourselves:

• Read labels.
• Choose organic or non-GMO certified foods.
• Always question the source of the foods - are they grown in organic or non-GMO certified farms?
• Eat foods which repopulate our intestinal flora with good bacteria.

Most importantly, share this knowledge with more people, so that the drastic drop in sales of GMO foods will trigger the manufacturers to stop producing GMO crops and foods.

Recently I have listened to a very good piece of audio material shared by a very successful business owner from the US. In his speech, he shared a funny piece of article which he found from the internet called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective QUITTERS".

I made a search on Google, and manage to find the piece of article that he has mentioned. Here's the full article taken from http://impossiblehq.com/7-habits-of-highly-effective-quitters .

Besides having a good laugh on some of these points, I would also encourage you to reflect on yourself, ask if you're also having some of these "Quitters' Habits".

Enjoy  :)

P/S: Thanks to Joel Runyon for sharing this wonderful piece.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Quitters

MARCH 7, 2013 BY JOEL RUNYON

We’re switching gears today.

Today I want to talk about those people that don’t get a lot of mentions here on the blog.

The unsung heroes.

The ones who are always right.

The ones that never get enough attention.

The realistic ones.

The quitters.

This ones for you.

And for all of you doers out there – maybe you can pick up a lesson or two from these 7 Habits of Highly Effective Quitters

7 Habits of Highly Effective Quitters

1. Don’t Even Start

The best quitters never even start. After all the best way to quit is to quit before you even start. That way you leave no question about things. If you don’t start anything, you’ll have so much more room for other activities!

Seriously, the more time you waste on doing something or pursuing something you want, the less time you have for important activities like quitting projects, complaining and generally talking about how lame it is that nothing ever works out.

2. Get Really Good At Explaining Your Excuses

Now, if you’re really unfortunate, you might have some friends who want you to make yourself better.

STOOOPID.

Work on your quick draw. Have at least 5 really great excuses ready for why you didn’t start.

• I’m tired.
• It’s hard.
• It’s complicated
• It’d easy
• You don’t understaaannnnnnnd (best one ever)

Remember, use the last one only in emergencies. Or every single time you’re questioned. Either way. Unstoppable. Win!

Another stellar option is any time someone does something they’re proud of quickly dismiss this with a flip “I could totally do that”, quickly followed up by a short list of totally legitimate reasons why it’s not worth your time because you’re better than them.

It simultaneously lets you be egotistical, diminish others accomplishments without making you actually have to do anything. 3 birds. 1 stone. Boom.

3. Believe Your Own Stories

It’s not enough to convince others about your excuses. You need to sell it to yourself.

COMMIT TO IT

You know how Christian Bale lost 60+ pounds to be in the Machinist? You need to do that. Become the person you need to be in order to sell yourself on your inability.

Forget all of your natural talents, abilities and potential if you actually applied yourself. Focus on the obstacles and convince yourself how hard you specifically have it.

Remember, the key to this is maintaining a vacuum. Here’s a few tips.

1. Believe the world revolves around you and your happiness. If you do, life will make more sense and you can become more easily outraged at the fact that traffic doesn’t stop when you need it to and that the billions of people for some strange reason aren’t acting with your specific intersts in mind. For some reason they’re not considering YOUR NEEDS while going about their 7 billion other lives. WTF?
2. Do your best to forget the fact that you have more opportunity and technology available to you than 90% of the world and pretty much all of human history.

Remember, your life is hard because

• you don’t know what terms to google to figure out just about anything you could want to learn.
• the gym is like, at least, ten minutes away from your house.
• people might look at you weird if you try something different
• flying around the world takes all of 12 hours. 
• candy bars are really tempting.

Life. Is. Rough.

Stay away from news about wars, poverty and other basic things like water oreducation that other people struggle with on a day to day basis . Those might tempt you to think that your definition of “hard” might be slightly relative.

Lies.

Remember, this is about all about you. Whatever you do, remember that it doesn’t matter how thin the pretense for your excuse is. If you believe it to your core – it doesn’t matter if others believe you or not. You’ve already won.

4. Make Sure To Tell Others

It’s not good enough for you to quit. There’s strength in numbers so make sure to spread it around. Surround yourself with other quitters.

Hopefully, these are people who are well practiced in the art of giving up before they ever started.

If you’ve got friends who are actually trying to do something, be sure to tell them them to give up as soon as possible. Encourage them to quit quit and remind them of how hard it is. Focus on why they can’t do it and why the idea is dumb and the other countless reasons why action is pointless. Offer unsolicited advice about why it’s impossible.

If you can make them discouraged, you’ve got a good chance.

The louder you are, the better. If you have a whiney voice – practice it in the mirror. It will let people know that your reasons are really serious and emotional. Bonus points if you throw in: “I used to think that too but then I became [smarter/faster/older/wiser/better] than to believe such things. Condescending sneers are encouraged.

5. Spend Lots of Time Consuming

Every once in a while you might feel like doing something yourself.

Screw that (see item #1).

Never create anything yourself. This is a gateway drug. If you do this, you might create more things, find that they’re useful and get addicted to making things and impressing your will upon the world.

Stop. 

Fill any and all free time with mindless activities. Ideally these include Netflix, Reality TV, Celebrity Gossip, Video Games, YouTube videos and Cat GIFs.

Whatever you can do to numb your mind – do it.

If you feel the need to satisfy doing something, here’s a quick fix.

1. Don’t do it (this is important).
2. Google “person doing X activity”
3. Find a website/youtube channel or other outlet of some person doing X activity.
4. Read & Watch everything they’ve ever written. Once you’ve gone through all their content, go through it again.
5. Breathe & Relax. You’ve successfully avoided the temptation to do something yourself. You’ll notice the dopamine start to fill your brain as you reassure yourself that, “I’m reading about people doing cool things – so I get partial credit for doing them myself.”

6. Never Try Anything New

Pick one language in one town and one thing and stick to it. Go on vacation one time a year – hopefully on a cruise so you can go to a lot of different coutnries but still experience all-you-can-eat-buffets, casinos and ‘MURICA! while never getting off the boat.

If you start to think about doing something new: immediately pre-disqualify yourself (use imaginary reasons if necessary). These new ideas are dangerous and if let them progress too far, they may lead to action. Don’t let this happen (again, see rule #1).

7. Be Really Defensive

No one has the right to challenge you. No one.

They don’t know what you’ve been through and they’re not you – so how dare they try and challenge you to change something and do it better?

It doesn’t matter if they have a good point, a different point of view or other experiences that might be beneficial to you in some way/shape/form and it especially doesn’t matter if they care about your or not.

Don’t try to listen. Instead defend your status quo to the death. It can’t get here fast enough!

Be as easily offended as possible. That way everyone will know you’re right by how outraged you get. Never even consider thinking about another point of view. That will make other people think that you think you’re wrong – which you never could be. No one can understand your unique position in life, but through sheer cunning and ingenuity, you understand everything perfectly and can dissect world problems with surgeon-like precision.

Remember: your rightness is directly correlated with how angry you can get.

If possible, avoid any actual discussion as much as possible. Better yet, if you’ve done your homework on step #4, you should be surrounded only by people who only approve of your current lack of activities – that way you never have to question yourself.

If you do this right, you’ll never even even have to interact with any of these “offensive” people, but you’ll always feel like you’re being actively persecuted by them (so you get the best of both worlds!).

Above All

Above all, remember that anytime you come to a crossroads, just quit. It’s the easiest thing in the world – and after all – life is about making things easy. I mean seriously, if it’s hard, that must mean it’s probably not worth doing.

And remember: the easy choice is always the right choice. Always.

—

Or…you could suck it up, decide that what you want is worthwhile, realize your excuses suck and that it’s not all about you, decide to do the hard stuff anyways, put your head down, persevere and go for it….but that sounds way too hard.

—

How to be The Best?

Here are 5 popular questions and beliefs which all of us are very keen on getting answered.

Are vegetarians physically weaker than meat eaters?

Is there any food that can help reduce stress at work?

Are 3 meals a day or snacking better for your working day?

Why does a high carb diet keep you going longer?

Does caffeine give us a mental edge?

In this BBC documentary, they have conducted some studies to answer the 5 questions above. I believe these findings can be very helpful for all of us. Do have a look.

BBC's the Truth About Food: How to Be the Best

Summary:

#1 - Meat eaters have yet to be scientifically proven to be stronger than vegetarians.

• The experiment here shows that there is no "statistically-significant" improvement in the physical strength of vegetarians when they start taking meat, even though most of them have felt slightly improved.
• As for Colin Jackson, after turning into a vegetarian for one month, he has shown a drop in physical strength, as well as experiencing weakening muscles.

#2 - Omega 3 may well help you deal better with stress.

• 7 out of 10 people don't eat oily fish because they don't know how to cook it.
• The experiment here shows that eating oily fish 4 times a week for 12 weeks has helped reduce stress hormone in the body by 22%, and increase anti-stress hormone by 12%.

#3 - Snacking can make you more productive than eating large meals.

• After a big meal, blood rushes into the gut to help digest the food. This temporarily reduces the blood supply to other parts of the body, which means muscles can't work efficiently. This causes a dip in the body's energy level.
• Snacks are easier to digest, requiring lesser blood in the gut to help digestion, thus keeping sufficient amount of blood supply to other parts of the body to maintain the body's energy level.
• The experiment here shows that snackers (who snack on healthy food) produce 25% higher performance.

#4 - A high carb diet is better for long endurance activities.

• Carbs can be easily turned into energy during strenuous exercise.
• Fat molecules are structured in a way that the body finds harder to convert into energy during strenuous exercise.

#5 - Caffeine vs decaf for mental edge? It makes no difference.

• The experiment here shows that when someone quits coffee, initially there will be a coffee withdrawal symptom where alertness will drop drastically, but as time goes by, the mental alertness will get back to its normal state as before (all within 7 days).

Thanks to BBC's effort in making these documentaries, now we can be better informed when it comes to health related topics.  :)

Bruce Lee

One of the famous personalities whom I like and draw inspiration from is the late kung fu icon - Bruce Lee.

While I was surfing youtube for some inspirational videos, I stumbled upon these two clips which I find very interesting and come with some highly philosophical quotes.

Be Water My Friend - Bruce Lee

"I said empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

Bruce Lee speaks on 'balance of mind'

"To me, at least the way when I teach it, all type of knowledge ultimately means self-knowledge."

"So what I'm saying it's a combination of both. I mean here is a natural instinct, and here is controlled. You are to combine the two in harmony. Not, if you have one in the extreme, you become very unscientific; if you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man, no longer a human being. It is a successful combination of both. Therefore it is not only pure naturalness or unnaturalness. The ideal is unnatural naturalness or natural unnaturalness."

I continued my search on Wikiquote and found lots of brilliant philosophical quotes by Bruce Lee, such as:

Don't think, feel....it is like a finger pointing a way to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory!

There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.

Emptiness the starting point. — In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup. My friend, drop all your preconceived and fixed ideas and be neutral. Do you know why this cup is useful? Because it is empty.

Seek to understand the root. — It is futile to argue as to which single leaf, which design of branch, or which attractive flower you like; when you understand the root, you understand all its blossoming.

To read more, see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee .

Apparently, Bruce Lee had understood the importance of mastering both the conscious and unconscious minds, and use both of them in harmony to achieve greatness.

How to Stay Healthy

Would you like to know how you can stay healthy by eating the right food?

Continuing my research on health related topics, here's a documentary by BBC which explores the effects of certain food to our health.

#1 - Things you need to know about cholesterol health

• Cholesterol is produced naturally by the liver, and released into the blood to be transported all over the body to build healthy cells.
• There are good and bad cholesterol. Diets too high in saturated fat will increase the amount of bad cholesterol, which can stick to the walls of arteries and cause blockage, thus resulting in cardiovascular diseases.

#2 - Things you need to know about your gut health

• Foods high in fibre helps to reduce the transit time of waste through our digestive system.
• The intestinal walls squeeze and push any food that are not absorbed through our digestive system all the way to the anus. The squeezing slows down if there is insufficient fibre in our diet.
• Potentially toxic substances need to be passed out from the body before they cause any harm to our body, such as bowel cancer.
• Scientists also believe that fibre plays a role in lowering cholesterol in the body.

#3 - Things you need to know about garlic

• When the level of cholesterol rises, it causes blockage in the arteries leading to the penis, thus not having enough rush of blood into it to cause an erection. Erection problem is normally a prerequisite to heart attack.
• Garlic reduces the deposit of cholesterol in the arteries, thus allowing more blood flow to the penis to produce an erection.
• Improve your erection by eating 4 cloves of raw garlic per day.

#4 - Things you need to know about vegetables

• There are billions of bacteria living inside our colon, both good and bad ones.
• Vegetables with prebiotics encourage the growth of good bacteria in our body. These good bacteria give us 10% of energy, extra vitamins and crucially to prevent an over-growth of bad bacteria, thus help protect our body against infection.

#5 - Things you need to know about our "ancestor's" diet

• Eating like an ape for 12 days, i.e. eating raw fruit and vegetables only, can lower cholesterol level by 23%.

Choose your food wisely to stay healthy.

The 6 Personal Emotions

Quite some time ago I had the opportunity to learn from Keith Abraham live at a seminar, covering topics like passion, purpose, and goals.

One of the topics which I find very interesting to share is "the 6 personal emotions". See if you can identify which of the following applies to you.

#1 - Lost

• Description
• You're caught in a situation where you don't know where you come from, where you're at, and where you're heading for the future.
• Solution
• You need to DECIDE.
• Toughen up and get rid of your fear of failure, fear of success, and fear of change.

#2 - Frustrated

• Description
• You're frustrated because you don't know what you want.
• Solution
• You need to look at the OPPOSITE.
• Find out what are the things that you don't want, turn to the opposite and rephrase them as what you want.

#3 - Confused

• Description
• You have no idea how to get to where you want to be, where to start, and you don't have a mentor to guide you.
• Solution
• You need to DESIGN your life.
• Get help from a mentor to design a plan.

#4 - Unclear

• Description
• There are too many things that you want, but all of them are not clear.
• Solution
• Look into your HEART for answer.
• Success follows your heart.

#5 - Unsatisfied

• Description
• You have achieved things, yet you don't feel fulfilled.
• Solution
• Create a personal MANIFESTO.
• You need to get a bigger reason to do something, a reason bigger than yourself.

#6 - Certain

• Description
• You know what you want and where you're heading to.
• Solution
• You just need to FOCUS.
• You need to avoid from getting distracted by circumstances.

Can you identify yourself with any of the above categories?

How to Stay Young and Beautiful

If you hate tomatoes...if you like drinking wine...if you've ever been told to drink extra amounts of water...if you like eating berries...if you don't like eating greens like spinach...if you have tried a detox programme...I'm sure you'll get a whole lot from watching this documentary by BBC Health Care, as many of your questions would be answered scientifically.

[Discovery Health Care] How To Stay Young and Beautiful

Here's a summary of the important discoveries:

#1 - Eating tomatoes can help your skin stay younger for longer.

• One of the main cause of aging is free radical attack in our body.
• Tomatoes contain a phytochemical known as lycopene (colour pigments which make tomatoes red), which acts as a natural antioxidant to prevent wrinkles and skin damage from sunlight.
• The group of people in this experiment, as a whole, experienced 30% less damage to their skin when exposed to the same amount of UV light.

#2 - Red wine from high altitude grapes and made traditionally are better for your heart.

• Polyphenols (pigments which give the red colour in the skin of grapes) make our blood flow more easily, make blood vessel more flexible, and help prevent fatty deposits from building up, thus reducing the risk of heart disease.
• The French, despite their high-fat diet, have one of the lowest incidents of heart diseases in the world. This is also known as the "French paradox".
• Red wine made in the traditional way, where the grape skin and seed are soaked longer in the wine, allows the maximum amount of polyphenols to be absorbed into the wine, thus giving better health benefits.
• Grapes grown in higher altitudes are also known to have higher amount of polyphenols in them.
• Some grape varieties like cabernet sauvignon and tannat grapes have naturally higher levels of polyphenols.

#3 - Eating food when you drink red wine can help your heart and help your liver.

• Drinking wine with an empty stomach causes a person to get drunk more easily.
• Drinking wine with an empty stomach allows the alcohol to reach our intestines faster in huge amount, being absorbed into our bloodstream far too quickly, and reach our brain within just a few minutes.
• When drinking wine together with food, as the food and wine enters our stomach, the pyloric valve clamps shut holding the food in our stomach to be broken down, same for the alcohol. The gradual release of food by the pyloric valve allows alcohol to reach our intestines in smaller amount, and reaching our bloodstream slowly, giving our liver plenty of time to neutralize it.

#4 - You don't need to drink extra litres of water on top of your normal diet.

• A suitable allowance for water for adults is 2.5 litres daily.
• Most of the amount of water that we need daily can already be obtained from our normal diet.
• Drinking extra amount of water on top of those obtained from our normal diet doesn't change the condition of our skin.

#5 - Can berries improve memory?

• Experiment has shown that for some people berries do improve their memory, but not all of them experience the same. Overall not being significant.

#6 - To help protect your eyesight, you should eat spinach once a week.

• Spinach contains lutein (a yellow compound giving spinach its colour) which is used by our body to build a jelly-like solution in our eye to protect the retina and prevent macular degeneration.
• Macular degeneration, a kind of blindness in the eye normally related to aging, is caused by damage of the retine due to sunlight.
• Experiment has shown that eating spinach has helped the group of people achieve 19% increase in levels of macular pigment.

#7 - A detox regime won't improve your body's natural detox processes.

• Experiment has shown that there's no difference in the level of detox processes in the body between those on a detox diet and those on a normal diet.

This is truly an education for all of us. I hope this helps quell some of the arguments on these topics, where most people are still relying on "hearsay" for information.

Questioning the Source of Information

I just can't stop sharing what I learned yesterday, haha!

Here's a short 44-second video clip which illustrates the importance of communication:

Improve your English

Isn't it funny?

Apart from the message that we should improve our command of language to avoid miscommunication, what I realize is that, in real life, all of us could have heard about something from the same person or source, but each and everyone of us could have also interpreted the same message differently. Just like the gentleman here who interpreted "sinking" as "thinking". When the original message is interpreted differently, it also gets passed on differently, sometimes even far off from its original message.

You'll understand this if you have played the game "Pass the Message".

Therefore, we should always strive to learn from the right and original source of information, instead of just relying on some free and so called "3rd party" information. Some of these "3rd party" information are shared with good intentions, but lack accuracy and credibility; while some others could be biased towards certain ulterior motives or intention.

We should always learn to question the source of information, especially information which is published on the internet by anonymous sources, before we adopt the information as part of our knowledge and pass it on to others.

Asking the Right Questions

Here's another lesson I learned yesterday, a simple illustration of why learning how to ask the right question is very important if you want to succeed in life.

Man: Will you be my girlfriend?

Woman: Before I answer yes or no, let me ask you, do you have a bungalow? Yes or no?

Man: No.

Woman: Do you have a BMW? Yes or no?

Man: No.

Woman: Do you have a 5-figure salary? Yes or no?

Man: No.

Woman: You don't have a bungalow. You don't have a BMW. You don't have a 5-figure salary. How can you afford to have me as your girlfriend?

And so the woman left.

The man stood there wondering.

Man: What's wrong with this woman...I don't have a bungalow, but I have 5 penthouses. I hate BMWs, that's why I drive a Lamborghini. I hire hundreds of employees for my company, how can she expect I have a 5-figure salary?

Funny? But true.

Many times people ask "Can I really become successful?". Obviously, the answer is in their hands. But most of the times asking this question will make them lose their confidence more than gaining confidence.

Instead, people should learn how to ask "What do I need to do to become successful?" Because, the answer to this question is the SOLUTION to become successful, not just a yes or no answer.

If you want to achieve your dreams and goals, learn how to ask the right questions  :)

Have You Heard About the Story of A Little Frog?

Yesterday was awesome!

I had the privilege of learning from a very successful business owner from Singapore, who came all the way to Penang to share his secrets of success.

Here's a powerful motivational story...let's just call it...

The Story of A Little Frog

There once was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a running competition.

The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.

A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants.

The race began.

To be honest about it, no one in crowd really believed that any of the tiny frogs would ever reach the top of the tower. You could overhear people saying such things as,

“Oh, this is way too difficult for a bunch of tiny frogs; they’ll never make it to the top."

"Not a chance in the world they’ll ever succeed. They’re just too small, and the tower is much too high!"

One by one, the tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one they fell to the ground, except for those who managed to find a fresh tempo.

Those went climbing higher and higher, but the crowd continued to yell at them.

"It is too difficult!”

“None of you will make it!”

Once again, more tiny frogs got tired and gave up. It looked like everyone was right. The goal the tiny frogs had set for themselves was just too hard to reach.

But even after all the others had stopped trying to climb the tower and had dropped to the ground, one little frog continued higher and higher and higher. That tiny little frog just wouldn't give up.

At the end of the race, all the other little frogs had given in to the crowd’s gloomy predictions. They had given up trying to climb the tall tower because, just like the voices below kept telling them, it was much too difficult a task.

Except for the one tiny little frog that - after one last big effort, was the only one who reached the top.

When he got back to the podium, he accepted his trophy with a smile, and all the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how he had managed to climb the tower. How did he do it?

A contestant came forward, got in his face, and asked him, point blank, how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal. But the little frog couldn’t hear him.

As it turned out...the winner was DEAF.

The morale of the story is:

If you have a dream or a goal that you want to achieve very badly, fight for it wholeheartedly. Don't listen to those bystanders who are merely interested in offering their "free opinions". More importantly don't listen to those who try to run down your confidence by belittling your noble intention.

 Learn how to be like the little frog...fight for your dream...inspire others!

Why Are Thin People Not Fat?

Some people remain overweight despite working very hard to lose weight, while some people remain underweight despite trying hard to put on weight.

Here's a fat cell under the microscope

Is there a scientific explanation for this?

This interesting documentary explains it all, backed by findings from a very controversial "over-eating" experiment.

BBC Horizon: Why Are Thin People Not Fat

Here are some important points taken from this documentary:

• Fat is stored in our body as a emergency source of energy during times of famine, when food is scarce.
• People whose body is genetically better at storing fat have a higher chance of surviving a famine. Therefore these genes have a higher chance of being passed on to the next generation. This explains why there are more people who easily put on fat than people who don't.
• Putting on fat easy might be an advantage for people living in the past, but in today's environment the opposite is true.
• All of us have a natural body weight which our brain remembers, and our brain will always work very hard to keep us at our natural body weight. Some people can easily resist the urge of over-eating because their brain wants to stop them from gaining weight, and vice versa.
• Scientists have also found that a common human virus called "adenovirus-36" is strongly linked to human obesity. Those infected with the virus are significantly heavier than the average. But this viral infection is NOT the only cause for obesity, as obviously there are other reasons causing people to become obese.
• When a normal healthy cell becomes a fat cell, it will grow bigger having the ability to accumulate more fat in the cell. At the same time, our body will also grow more and more fat cells to accumulate more fat when it finds that the existing cells have achieved their maximum fat storage.
• Once these fat cells have grown in our body, it is almost impossible to remove them.
• It's easier for our body to produce fat cells during childhood or adolescence. Overweight children have a higher tendency to grow up as overweight adults.
• For some people, over-eating will result in more muscle mass being produced, instead of fat. This also contributes to weight gain.
• Once stopping ourselves from over-eating, our brain will act to bring us back to our natural body weight which it remembers.

Here are some information regarding the findings on "adenovirus-36" obtained from WebMD.

Title: Obesity Virus: More, Bigger Fat Cells 

Link: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20070820/obesity-virus-more-bigger-fat-cells

"Dhurandhar's team finds evidence that Ad-36 has a direct effect on human fat cells. Infection of adult stem cells from human fat triggers their transition into pre-fat cells. And these virus-infected cells hold much more fat than normal pre-fat cells. The end result: more, fatter fat cells." ~ WebMD

To me, these findings from the documentary sound more like good news than bad news for me. Why? Because it says that our brain remember the body's natural weight and will do all it can to prevent us from gaining weight. So, the catch here is that, in order to gain or lose weight, apart from going through the weight gain or weight loss process, we must make our brain "reset" the natural body weight which it remembers and to create a new reference point.

Measuring Commitment and Motivation

I like this part of the book which talks about how we can measure commitment and motivation.

The author Jim Winner explains:

Many of us are what could be called "good intenders". We set good goals for ourselves, and we "intend" to accomplish them.

What I understand from this statement is that a "good intender" is different from a "good contender".

"Intend" simply means "to have in mind".

"Contend" means "To strive in opposition or against difficulties".

From these definitions, I would say that the difference between "good intenders" and "good contenders" is COMMITMENT.

Business Coach Marshall Goldsmith shared that there are 5 reasons people do not succeed with their diet and fitness goals:

1. Time - they feel that it takes too much of their time than expected
2. Effort - they find that it's harder than expected, and not worth the effort
3. Distractions - "problems" that emerge and give them reasons to not complete the program
4. Rewards - they don't get as much reward and attention as they hoped for
5. Maintenance - they feel it's hard to maintain that success, thus choosing to give up completely

If we were to look into some of the things that we had started but then chosen to give up on, it's exactly the same reasons we didn't succeed.

Again, the way to ensure we accomplish what we have started, is COMMITMENT. To increase the commitment, we have to first increase the motivation.

Motivation is our "motive or reason for action".

Commitment is "the state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action".

Here's a formula for motivation by Bonnie St. John Deane which can serve as an ongoing measure of our commitment:

Most of us use this formula intuitively to help us decide what level of effort we will put into something.

Example:

When we start a new business venture, we expect the payoff to be high, the odds of success to be high, and the amount of work to be reasonable in relation to the payoff. According to the formula, our motivation would be positive and possibly high as well. Thus we get excited and commit to take action. 

Then, as we bump into frustration in the business venture, the potential payoff hasn't changed, but the amount of work required may be exceeding our initial perception. With a few setback coming along the way, we would start to perceive our odds of success to have dropped as well. According to the formula, our motivation would drop, possibly even to the extent of having negative motivation. This is when most people give up or cut down on their commitment to their initial goal of succeeding in the new business venture.

If we understand and buy into this idea about commitment and motivation, then we need to consciously remind ourselves to stay in the Positive Cycle and RE-COMMIT to our dreams, instead of going out LOOKING for a new one and repeat the Negative Cycle. (Read here: http://seed-of-thoughts.blogspot.com/2014/01/positive-cycle-vs-negative-cycle.html)

Another thing that I learned from this formula for motivation is that we can always tweak the "numbers" in the formula to help us maintain the positive motivation.

For example, instead of working on a humongously huge goal, why not break it down into smaller achievable goals -- when the goal is smaller, despite the payoff being smaller, the odds of success would increase and the work required would decrease, thus giving us positive motivation.

Personally, understanding how this formula for motivation works has given me a sense of fun in achieving my goals because I can tweak the "numbers" anytime  :)

"Kangkung" the Superfood

In the midst of this "kangkung craze" created by the beloved PM of our country (see "Cultural reference"), I made a search for "kangkung" on Google and found some amazing facts about this food.

A fellow blogger referred to "kangkung" a.k.a. water spinach as a "superfood"...
Article: "Superfoods you don’t know: water spinach"
Link: http://johnswannack.com/superfoods-you-dont-know-water-spinach/

While there's a website called "Nutrition Rank" which rated the water spinach as a "good food" for its nutritional values. By the way, this website is really cool!
Link: http://www.nutritionrank.com/calories-water-spinach-415826

While I personally think that the PM's "endorsement" of the water spinach was merely a political "spin" instead of an intention based on nutritional facts, I somehow have to thank him for bringing up this topic and lead me to find out more about this unsung "superfood" that grows in abundance in our country.

I guess the message is right -- let's eat more kangkung!  :)

Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?

William Li: Can we eat to starve cancer?

In this TED video, the speaker William Li talks about "angiogenesis", which researches have claimed to have caused the growth cancer in a human body.

In short...

"Angiogenesis, the growth of new capillary blood vessels in the body, is an important natural process in the body used for healing and reproduction. The body controls angiogenesis by producing a precise balance of growth and inhibitory factors in healthy tissues." ~ The Angiogenesis Foundation

You can read more about works done in the field of angiogenesis at the following link:

http://www.angio.org/

Here are some important points taken from the video:

• Angiogenesis is important for the healing and reproduction of cells and tissues in the body.
• When angiogenesis gets out of balance in the body, it causes diseases such as heart disease, cancer, obesity, etc.
• Having insufficient angiogenesis means that normal healthy cells and tissues heal too slow or little compared to the on-going damage incurred.
• Having excessive angiogenesis means that abnormal unhealthy cells and tissues grow too fast or much that the body fails to dispose them.
• Cancer cells are just like normal cells in the body, which also require feeding from blood vessels in order to grow. With antiangiogenic theraphy, the feeding of cancer cells is cut off, thus stopping the growth (or ending the life) of cancer cells.
• Most of the time cancer is treated too late. A better way to fight cancer is to prevent angiogenesis by means of early intervention, effectively inhibiting the spread of cancer cells.
• Diet accounts for 30-35% of environmentally-caused cancers. Instead of just reducing the intake of food which increases the risk of cancer, we can also resort to increasing the intake of food which reduces the risk of cancer.
• There are many natural antiangiogenic foods which can be taken in our diet to prevent cancer, such as green tea, fruits, ginseng, spices, tuna, olive oil, dark chocolate, tomatoes, etc. Each food has different level of antiangionenic potency.

In my personal opinion, there are many similarities between the concepts of "antiangiogenesis" and "antioxidant". Both serve the purpose of inhibiting the growth of cancer cells in the body.

It is important to get ourselves educated more on these topics so that we can make a better choice of the nutrition that we take.

Mediterranean Diets Starve Off Diabetes

Source: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/features/article/study-even-without-weight-loss-mediterranean-diets-stave-off-diabetes

MADRID, Jan 8 ― A new study finds that even if you don’t lose weight or boost exercise, following a Mediterranean diet can help prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.

In the Spanish study, people at risk for heart disease who followed a diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, and fats from nuts or olive oil were about 30 per cent less likely to develop diabetes over a four-year period than those who ate a low-fat diet.

The research was a subanalysis of last year’s influential PREDIMED study, involving 7,447 subjects at high risk for cardiovascular disease. Researchers from Universidad de Navarra found that subjects who ate a Mediterranean diet had a 30 per cent greater reduction in the risk of heart attack, stroke, or death from cardiovascular disease than those who ate a low-fat diet. The new paper, published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at the development of diabetes among 3,541 subjects who didn't have diabetes at the beginning of the study.

Even just adding olive oil to your diet resulted in a health boost, the study suggests. Participants who added fats from extra-virgin olive oil were 40 per cent less likely to develop diabetes during the study compared with those who followed a low-fat diet.

Recent evidence from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston also found that middle-aged women who follow a Mediterranean diet may live healthier, longer lives. Scientists evaluated the diets and medical records of 10,670 women and found that after 15 years those women who followed a Mediterranean diet were 40 percent more likely to survive to age 70 or over without heart disease, diabetes, or other chronic disease. ― AFP-Relaxnews

Get Yourself Educated on Food

I was very impressed with this speech delivered by Jamie Oliver at TED advocating the cause for a food revolution.

Jamie Oliver's TED Award speech

Here are some of the best quotes which impacted me in his speech:

The statistics of bad health are clear, very clear. We spend our life being paranoid about death, murder, homicide, you name it...it's on the front page of every paper, CNN...look at it, homicide at the bottom, for god's sake. (see chart at 2:20) Every single one of those in the red is a diet-related disease...Fat, diet-related disease is the biggest killer in the United States right now, here today.

The labeling in this country is a disgrace...How can you say something is low-fat when it's full of sugar?

(The lunch cooks in schools)...They're doing their best. But, they're doing what they're told. What they're being told to do is wrong. The system is highly run by accountants, there's not enough or any food-knowledgeable people in the business, that's a problem. If you're not a food expert, and you have got tight budgets, and it's getting tighter, then you can't be creative, you can't duck and dive and right different things around things. If you're an accountant and a box-ticker, the only thing you can do in this circumstance is to buy cheaper shit.

If you don't have forks and spoons in school...all you're endorsing is fast food, because it's hand held.

Guess what fix that? Two one-hour sessions. We got to start teaching our kids about food in school. Period.

The whole speech was delivered with full conviction and full of illustration of how modern foods are seriously affecting our health causing problems, especially diabetes (see how much sugar is consumed through milk alone for a 5-year period at 13:10).

I'll leave you to watch the rest of the speech yourself. And last but not least, this final part of the video really touched me:

"I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity." ~ Jamie Oliver

A very powerful mission statement aside, I must agree with him that the biggest challenge mankind is facing today is obesity.

Get yourself educated about food starting today!

Low Fat Food? Think Again

It was quite fun watching this documentary about processed low fat food that is commonly sold over the counters in grocery shops. It featured a British TV personality Zoe Salmon, who was put through a 4-week "low fat diet", and at the same time, recorded the changes she had been through and how she had felt throughout the 4-week diet.

BBC Horizon: The Big Fat Truth About Low Fat Foods

These are the key messages I get from the documentary:

• Processed low fat food is not the same as natural low fat food.
• Food which is low in fat typically don't taste so good.
• In processed low fat food, when fat is removed from the food, manufacturers have to replace it with sugar or alternative sweeteners to improve the taste of the food.
• The added sugar and alternative sweeteners result in more frequent hunger pangs and makes a person eat more frequently.
• Interestingly, low calorie processed food may still contain high levels of artificial sweeteners which deliver the same damaging impact on our body, just like sugar do.
• In general, when food is processed, it loses a lot of its nutrients. Therefore, going on a diet with processed low fat food will deprive the body of essential nutrients and antioxidants.
• Processed food, as compared to natural food, breaks down faster in our digestive system, thus increasing the amount of glucose in the body, which may result in higher risk of getting diabetes and other diseases.
• Instead of helping consumers lose weight, processed low fat food may actually cause weight gain and increased body fat due to the increase of glucose in the blood. The over supply of glucose will also be converted into body fat.

Choose natural whole food which is low in fat, and NOT processed low fat food. There's a whole lot of difference. Don't be fooled by the "low fat" label.

What Has Quantum Physics Got to Do with You? MUST READ!

I came across this article written by John Assaraf and found it mind-blowing. Read the article yourself, and you'll understand why.

Article: Why You Should Be Aware of Quantum Physics?

Link: http://johnassaraf.com/law-of-attraction/why-you-should-be-aware-of-quantum-physics-2

If you understand and buy into the ideas presented in this article, then you'll find that some of the supernatural phenomenon which you have seen in television make more sense now, such as:

People who can bend a spoon just by concentrating their thoughts on the spoon.

REAL Matrix Spoon Bending - Telekinesis!!

People like David Blaine who can hold his breath for 17 minutes.

David Blaine: How I held my breath for 17 min

People who have psychic healing powers.

REAL PROOF of psychic energy (Amazing footage)!!!

The common theme found in these cases is that all of them attributed their capability of doing such supernatural acts to the power of concentration of their mind, or in other words, meditation.

Buying into what John Assaraf has explained in his article, this is how I would simplify my understanding:

• First, I form a mental picture of an object in my mind (such as a house).
• Then, my thoughts gather all the energy in my body to take action, such as getting a piece of blank paper and a pencil.
• Next, my thoughts transfers the energy from my body, through the pencil, onto the paper.
• After a while, the mental picture is transferred onto the piece of paper.

This is an example of what our conscious mind can do. And our conscious mind works only when we're focusing our thoughts on something.

As we know, our subconscious mind runs all the time without stopping. If our subconscious mind also works with the same process as our conscious mind, think about the amazing potential and opportunities that we can tap into to help us achieve our goals in life.

This is simply amazing. Thank you very much for sharing this article, Mr John Assaraf!

The 4 Stages of Learning

While reading this book by John Assaraf, I found this to be quite interesting. Learning is something that we experience throughout our life, though sadly to say, for most people, the amount of learning is somehow indirectly proportional to their physical age.

Here are the 4 stages of learning shared in this book:

First stage: Unconscious incompetence

• The state of ignorance, i.e. we don't know what we don't know.

Second stage: Conscious incompetence

• We know and admit that we're incompetent.

Third stage: Conscious competence

• We understand and know how to do something, but it requires a lot of focus and concentration.
• This comes from doing the right things in the right order repeatedly.

Fourth stage: Unconscious competence

• We had so much practice and become so good at the skill that it has become second nature and can be performed effortlessly.

I can easily relate this to my experience in driving. When I was small, I didn't even bother whether I knew how to drive. As I grow older, I realized that I needed to learn how to drive or else I'll be a burden to others. I remembered that on the first day of my driving lesson, it was such hell of an experience that I had so much stress focusing on the road, cars and my instructor. But as time went by, it got easier and easier, and today, I don't even have to remind myself what to do when I step into my car driving to my destination.

If you watch in envy wondering how some people can do something so effortlessly, it is because they have been through the 4 stages of learning. It's impossible for anyone to just jump from the first stage to the fourth stage of learning in a short period of time. As long as you understand this concept, I'm sure one day you can do what those people you envy did too  :)

10 Things You Need to Know About Sleep

Here's some useful tips for some of you who face problems in having good quality sleep at night.

BBC: 10 Things You Need to Know About Sleep

This BBC documentary talks about 10 things that you need to know about sleep. I have summarized the key points in the following:

#1 - Bath before sleep

• It's not the temperature of your body, but rather the drop of your body temperature that makes you feel sleepy.
• Taking a warm bath at least an hour before you sleep will first raise body temperature, then allow it to go down after that.

#2 - Beating insomnia

• Most people with insomnia spend longer time in their bedroom trying to get to sleep, but that doesn't work.
• To overcome insomnia, try restricting the amount of time you spend in your bedroom for getting to sleep, and always get up at the same time each day.

#3 - When to nap

• The best time to nap is between 2-5pm in the afternoon, and ideally for 30min.
• Your body will fight any attempt to nap between 7-12pm in the morning and 6-8pm in the evening, so do avoid those times.

#4 - How to stop snoring

• The mechanics of snoring (video 19:17).
• Over-the-counter remedies like moistening strips are designed to reduce the vibration of tissues in the mouth that causes snoring.
• Heavy snorers who also fall asleep during the day should consult the doctor as it may be a sign of a serious health condition.

#5 - Don't mess with your sleep cycle

• There are 5 stages of sleep which form a cycle: Stage 1 (feel drowsy), Stage 2 (light sleep), Stage 3 & 4 (deep sleep), Stage 5 (dream or REM).
• A healthy sleep will consists of 4-6 cycles.
• Taking coffee before sleep causes a person to experience more moments of light sleep and less moments of deep sleep, which results in a restless sleep cycle.
• Taking alcohol before sleep helps a person to fall asleep quickly and have quite amount of deep sleep, but later on experience more moments of wakefulness, i.e. not able to maintain sleep.
• Don't drink coffee or alcohol more than 4 hours before bed.

#6 - Power of daylight

• A remarkable finding on how daylight affects sleep pattern (29:00).
• At night the body increases the supply of melatonin hormone to help you sleep.
• During the day, when the retina senses the "blue light" from daylight, it sends a signal to the brain to reduce the production of melatonin hormone, as a result helping you becoming more alert.
• To sleep better, your bedroom should be blocked out of any daylight.
• You can also use daylight to make you more alert and make it easier for you to get out from bed.

#7 - Eat to sleep

• A comparison of the effects of carbohydrate and protein to our sleepiness (37:00).
• Taking a carbohydrate-rich meal makes you feel sleepy, while taking a protein-rich meal makes you feel more alert and energetic.

#8 - How to beat jet lag

• How human's internal clock works (39:50).
• When the body is starved 16 hours hours, the food clock is activated and took over the sleep pattern.
• To prevent jet lag, try avoid eating for the whole flight, and only eat again at the first regular meal time when you arrive (quite some sacrifice, but it works).

#9 - Relax

• Stress affects the quality of our sleep.
• See how a simple relaxation therapy can help you sleep better (48:00).
• Try tense and relax your muscles for 15 minutes before bedtime, is a simple and effective method to help you sleep better.

#10 - Herbal potions

• The smell of herbs like lavender helps you to relax and thus induce sleep.

Hope this helps. Have a good sleep tonight  :)