Hate to get all Tony Robbins here, but I put this on Twitter and Facebook earlier today and also want to mention it here and bookmark it via a blog post because I really believe this to be true.
In a nutshell, how you think about others and talk about others says as much about you as it says about them.
They discovered particularly strong associations between positively judging others and how enthusiastic, happy, kind-hearted, courteous, emotionally stable and capable the person describes oneself and is described by others.
“Seeing others positively reveals our own positive traits,” Wood says.
The study also found that how positively you see other people shows how satisfied you are with your own life, and how much you are liked by others.
In contrast, negative perceptions of others are linked to higher levels of narcissism and antisocial behavior.
The mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. If you’re attacking, criticizing, and saying hateful things about others … think about where it’s coming from.
Special K Bars. Only 90 calories each (as you can see) and they taste delicious. Totally not like granola bars, which I don’t like. These have flavor. They taste like something between cereal and and a Rice Krispie Treat (which I don’t like, usually).
We get the variety pack above — chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry — but we buy the blueberry separately, and those are the best.
Did I mention they’re only 90 calories each? Love ‘em.
Like, all the time. It’s the end of May, the temp was in the mid-60s today, and I’m bundled up in jeans and two shirts. I tried to wear shorts and a polo shirt around the house today, but no; had to put on warmer clothes.
Cari says it’s because of the weight loss. There’s less fat to keep me warm this year. (I’m currently at 33 pounds lost even though I stopped trying after reaching my 26-pound goal.)
She might be on to something. I’ve been cold for about two months now, and that’s how long it’s been since I reached my goal.
Still, weird. Don’t like. Ready for an 85-degree day, and the sooner, the better.
I woke up today, stood on the scale, and good news: I reached my weight loss goal!! Woo-hoo! I’ve lost 26 pounds since January 6 and now weigh what it says on my driver’s license.
Now, I’m no diet guru or health expert, and I’m really hesitant to write this post because it’ll look that way … but, a couple things:
Whenever I mention my weight loss (including today on Twitter), people inevitably want to know how I did it.
If, by sharing this, I can help even one other person lose some weight and get in better shape, it’s worth it.
Twitter has been a waste for the past 18 hours or so. Republicans are crying and Democrats are gloating, but to me both sides come out looking bad because politics and government shouldn’t be about one side winning and the other side losing.
It seems to me that politics in the US has become just another sport. It’s us vs. them. One side tries to “push through” its bills and pet projects, just like an NFL team tries to push through at the goal line and score a TD. The other side tries delay tactics, like an NFL team calling time out right before a game-deciding kick or a baseball manager going out to the mound to slow down an opponent’s rally. Both sides use the media to advance their own agendas and spin things for their own good. And the public laps it all up on their cable TV channel of choice, like rabid animals desperate for confirmation that they’re rooting for the Good Guys and the other team is Pure, Unadulterated Evil.
Meanwhile, there’s not a whole lot of leadership and governing going on, is there?
If it were up to me, we’d toss out the president and every member of both houses of Congress. Tomorrow. And we’d start from scratch with people who want to lead a country, not people who want to win an election. We’d limit the amount of time they’re allowed to spend on TV, radio, and talking to the press. We’d limit how much time they can spend trying to get re-elected. We’d require them to vote against their own party at least 25% of the time. We’d force them to focus on being leaders, and do whatever it takes to get them to stop being politicians.
I don’t know if the Health Care Reform bill is Good or Bad, but like everything else that comes from government, I suspect it’s got some of both. I was just reading this article, and I like this part here about the changes that are coming in 2014:
Insurers will be required to take all applicants. They won’t be able to turn down people in poor health, or charge them more.
States will set up new insurance supermarkets for small businesses and people buying their own coverage, pooling together to get the kind of purchasing clout government workers have now.
In the two years that I’ve been buying health insurance on my own for the McGee family, our premium has gone up 24.4%. That’s ridiculous. I love the idea of being able to pool together with other individuals to get better rates.
On the other hand, back to the real topic of this post: leadership. I understand that this bill doesn’t cover the president or members of Congress, all of whom will continue to enjoy an apparently much better health plan than the one they just voted for the rest of us to get. What does that say about how great the bill is? More than that, what does it say about how broken our system of government is that the people deciding things like this aren’t affected by their decisions?
No. Reform and change will only happen when we have more leaders in Washington, DC, and fewer politicians.
Is it okay to brag for a little bit? Hope so. I’ve been waiting to share some good news — and a tip — about the diet I’ve been on, and I decided I’d post something when my weight loss reached 20 pounds. Well, I woke up this morning and skipped right past that to 21 pounds. Wooo-hoooo!
It all started when I woke up on January 6th and weighed more than I ever have in my life. I’d always told myself I’d get in shape and lose weight someday when I had more time to exercise, but this was a tipping point. Figured I had to make time to exercise, and it was now or never.
My plan: No fancy diets, just eating right and getting more exercise. I mentioned last month that a new fitness club was opening up less than a mile away, so everything was perfect.
I have to say that I had a little extra help in the form of an awesome iPhone app called Lose It! This is a screenshot of the home page, but there’s so much more going on.
With Lose It, I set my weight loss goal at the start: 26 pounds over six months. Seemed attainable and not risky. Lose It then told me how many calories I could eat each day and still lose that weight — it gave me a food target, which was a huge help.
Every morning (or as often as I want), I input my daily weight and it charts how I’m doing. After every meal, I also input what I ate and it tells me how many calories I ate and how many I have left. It has a lot of foods in its database, but I also have to “create new food”(s) when I eat something that’s not in there, and that’s easy to do (and kinda fun, I dare say).
When I exercise, it tells me how many calories I burned and those get subtracted from what I ate — in other words, credited toward my daily calorie allowance. It has all kinds of exercises in its system, all the basics that I do when I workout at the gym, and it even has stuff like yard work, hedge clipping, lawn mowing, etc.
This app has been a huge help. Thank you, Lose it!
I haven’t quite reached my goal — five more pounds to lose for that. When I get there, I’ll actually be at the same weight that’s listed on my driver’s license.
So, enough bragging about weight loss. Just wanted to share and, in case anyone out there in Readerville is also trying to or thinking about losing weight, offer some advice and info about the Lose It app. I think you’ll love it.
I’ve been working out pretty consistently for the past six weeks or so. And by that, I mean I’m going to the gym about 4-5 times per week. My workout usually consists of a little weightlifting, some situps, and I’m now up to 45 minutes on the treadmill. That’s where the music comes in.
I’ve got a workout playlist on my iPod with 24 songs. Here are the best workout songs I’ve found so far:
“Chocolate” by Snow Patrol
Such an ironic title for a workout song, but this one has the perfect drum beat and rhythm. I’ll let me treadmill time go a little long when this song comes on at the end. It’s too perfect. Unquestionably, the greatest workout song ever.
Another one that’s great because, depending on how fast you’re walking, each step hits at the same time as each drum beat. There are some slow parts in this song, so it’s pretty good at the beginning when I’m just starting the treadmill session.
Great, short song from an Irish band you’ve never heard of. I’ve never seen this video until just now when I went searching on YouTube (since LaLa doesn’t have it).
“Hysteria” by Muse
Perfect song for the middle of a long treadmill session. “Uprising” is another great Muse workout song, but I like this one better.
Remember this song from the Dodge TV commercials a couple years ago? It was good then, but even better for a workout. Again with the consistent drumbeat that you can walk to super easily.
Another one I couldn’t find on LaLa, so here’s the video. If everyone listed to this song first thing every morning, there’d be no need for coffee runs. Wait ’til the drums kick in at the 15-second mark, and then you’re off.
“Bad” by U2
You knew there’d be U2 somewhere on my workout playlist, didn’t you? I’m still searching for good U2 songs to include, but the live version of “Bad” is winning so far. It’s kinda slow in the beginning, but builds up over the second half of the song. It’s good at the beginning of a walk, and also at the end for winding down.
After dealing with this spinning head stuff for about a month now, I was finally able to get in to see an ENT specialist today. Saw the same guy who did ear surgeries on both my kids when they were wee little ones and had lots of ear infections.
So, if there’s one condition that would just be too perfect for a U2 fan to come down with … a condition that involves dizziness and spinning heads … what condition would that be? I’ll give you one hint:
The main symptom is a feeling that you are spinning or tilting when you are not. This can happen when you move your head in a certain way, like rolling over in bed, turning your head quickly, bending over, or tipping your head back.
BPPV usually lasts a minute or two. It can be mild, or it can be bad enough to make you feel sick to your stomach and vomit. You may even find it hard to stand or walk without losing your balance.
That pretty much describes it to a “T”, but I’m lucky to have not had any vomiting or nausea. Everything else – been there, done that. The doctor gave me an information sheet that also talked about feeling lightheaded for several hours at a time, which is how things were at their worst a few weeks ago — couldn’t get anything done at all.
On the bright side, it’s really not terribly serious. The most common treatment is nothing. There are some procedures that can be done to minimize the dizziness, but most people learn to live with this. As long as I control my head movements, I should be okay. Driving isn’t a problem. Yardwork has been okay. Playing with the dogs, the kids, doing the shopping – all good.
I’m supposed to monitor my dizziness for the next week — which way am I turning my head when I get dizzy, what position am I in, etc. And I’ll see the doc again late next week and we’ll decide what, if anything, needs to be done.
Thanks to all who emailed after the last post about this. Really appreciate the thoughts and support. Now if you’ll just tell my daughter to stop walking around the house singing, “Hello, hello, you’ve got a disease called Vertigo,” everything will be much better!
I tested myself last night (Thursday). I hopped in the car and drove three hours to a remote part of Idaho to see Collective Soul do a tiny, little warm-up gig before their main tour starts next week. They advertised the show as being in Coeur d’Alene, but it was actually closer to Worley, Idaho, about a half-hour south of CDA.
I’m still fighting the spinning head thing, but mostly in the mornings. (I see an ENT specialist next week.) Usually I’m doing pretty good by about 11 a.m. each day. At the show, I didn’t have any dizziness issues … but my McDonald’s dinner wasn’t agreeing with me, and since I decided to join the crowd and rush the stage during the third song, I was surrounded by people, getting very hot and sweaty, and extremely thirsty. I left the mob at the front after the band’s main set and found some ice water. Then went back and watched a bit of the encore before calling it a night and leaving early. (No, I’d never leave a U2 concert early.)
That’s a six-hour roundtrip drive to watch about 80 minutes of live music. And it was all worth it because I got to hear “The World I Know” live — surely one of the best 4-5 songs ever written. I could listen to that 20 times in a row and not get tired of it. In fact, if you check my Last.fm profile, I probably have listened to it 20 times in a row!
Other than being a little tired from the long drive, and having a small headache, the test went well. But hopefully they’ll play somewhere a little closer next time.
Welcome to my home away from home on the Interwebz. When I'm not here, you might find me on Twitter (@mattmcgee), Flickr, StumbleUpon, or maybe even Yahoo! Answers. I'm a big sports and music fan. I watch LOST religiously. I love big, juicy cheeseburgers, and ice cream. With M&Ms. The ice cream that is, not the cheeseburgers.
Like, all the time. It’s the end of May, the temp was in the mid-60s today, and I’m bundled up in jeans and two shirts. I tried to wear shorts and a polo shirt around the house today, but no; had to put on warmer clothes.
I have to say that I had a little extra help in the form of an 
