Since tigers exist, being vigilant can save your life. Being lost in thought can get you (and your loved ones) killed.

I’m using “tigers” to refer not only to deadly nonhuman animals from insects and snakes to large predatory mammals like big cats and bears but especially to human predators.

There have always been tigers. There will be even more in the future.

This is because of the increasing urgency of such global trends as over-population, global warming, and oil depletion. These cause social dislocation as well as economic distress like currency degradation, even higher unemployment, and increased underemployment. These contribute to criminality as well as civil unrest.

In 1970-71, I spent a year in the army in Korea. I’d never spent an extended period outside the United States. At least in those days, Korea was a much more peaceful society than my homeland. I quickly realized that walking around Seoul at night was much different from walking around, say, New York City. I eventually felt the stress lifting off my shoulders. It didn’t return until I returned home.

There were far fewer tigers there; being vigilant wasn’t as important. However, because of the adverse trends mentioned above, no country is immune.

Fernando Aguirre in Surviving the Economic Collapse: “During good times people can afford to be spoiled, lazy, and let others handle issues that they should solve themselves. Crime rates are low . .. But one day that changes . . .” He experienced it after the 2001 economic collapse in Argentina.

Since 2007 we have been experiencing a slow-motion economic collapse in the United States. If so, being vigilant is more important than it has been in recent years, and, at least for a while, it will become more and more important.

By way of contrast, saints let themselves get eaten by tigers.

Are you a saint? Can your loved ones easily afford to lose you to tigers? Are you willing to sacrifice yourself?

That’s one extreme option. Furthermore, it’s a noble option! I certainly am not arguing that you ought to spend the rest of your life being vigilant merely in order to continue living. That would be a categorical imperative, and I don’t know what you should do.

Being vigilant is important if remaining alive is a priority for you. That’s only a hypothetical imperative: if you want to remain alive, even if only to serve others, then being vigilant is important.

The imminent economic crisis is already transforming our lives. The relatively benign times that we have enjoyed for the last couple of decades are ending.

That should not be surprising. Flux is incessant. This world is one of Becoming. Whether you like or don’t like current conditions, just wait and they will soon change!

If you anticipate and prepare for change, if you are committed to being vigilant as well as resourceful and positive, you may not only survive socio-economic breakdown but emerge stronger and more prosperous.

Are you ready to be tested physically as well as emotionally?

Are you prepared to deal with unfair and intense suffering all around you?

Could you thrive for a while even without easy access to medications, physicians, and dentists?

Are you prepared to stand up to criminals without the aid of police?

Are you a weak or fat or unfit wimp who would be unable to function without eyeglasses?

Imagine how life used to be for your ancestors. They always lived in small bands, which are much better for mutual protection and aid than living alone or with a single partner. Tigers took the very old, the very young, and the very foolish. As you are now, would they likely have taken you?

If so, why not improve your condition?

Being vigilant isn’t just about always being aware of your surroundings. Being vigilant is also about always being prepared to deal with emergencies. (Also see Bug-out Bag.)

A helpful exercise in being vigilant is to imagine yourself as a criminal. If you were looking at your life from the outside with the eyes of a tiger, would you be a ripe target?

There’s no such thing as perfect security. If you want to survive an emergency, your goal is only to be less vulnerable than those around you. Tigers aren’t stupid: they always prefer the easiest prey. They understand that, except in extreme circumstances, attacking strong prey is too dangerous.

For example, when you are walking alone, is your tread that of a confident, strong person with a clear destination? Would someone looking at you think you are distracted and lost in thought or that you are alert and being vigilant? Do you look healthy and fit? What does your clothing (especially your shoes) say about you? Do you have an air of being tough-minded and ready to fight to the death to defend yourself?

If you look like a fawn, expect tigers to attack.

Do you always practice being vigilant in public? If not, expect to be attacked. For example, if you enjoy an occasional night out on the town and permit yourself to get a little drunk, for that night you will be an easy target even if most of the rest of the time you practice being vigilant.

Especially if you are not big and strong, do you always have a weapon ready-to-hand when you are alone in public? It may be something as simple as bear or pepper spray, which will not permanently injure an attacker, but being vigilant includes always being prepared. If you are mentally prepared to use them, know how to use them, practice using them, and they are legal, what about carrying an easily-accessible knife and hand gun?

Are you ready to react quickly and violently if attacked?

Do you always pay attention to whether or not there are potential weapons in your environment? These include bottles, scissors, pens or pencils, chairs, and pieces of wood or pipe.

There was a story on the television news a week or so ago about a women who was alone in her bedroom. She knocked out a male intruder with a wooden bed post! She then contacted the police who arrested him.

Except in a crowd, do you practice keeping people at a physical distance or always acknowledging them when they invade your private space? In a crowd, do you maintain balance with your hands relaxed but up?

Have you had training in how to react if you are physically assaulted?

Do you regularly do strength training and fitness training to increase your physical strength and fitness? (Regular exercise also greatly enhances mental or psychological well-being.)

Being vigilant is about paying attention.

The most effective way to develop your ability to pay attention is use a spiritual practice (such as zazen meditation or Presence practice a la Eckhart Tolle) several times daily. If you are usually distracted from life by incessant thoughts, you are condemning yourself to missing your life as well as to leaving yourself vulnerable to tigers.

(Please see the spiritual well-being section of this site for more on spiritual practices.)

You’ll find it helpful to repeat frequently to yourself a saying from the bush: “Always alert, never get hurt.”

A bug-out bag is also called a “72 hour kit,” “get out bag,” “GO bag,” or “emergency response kit.” It’s a personal preparedness bag that is filled with what you need to survive for 3 days.

Emergencies happen. If you never experience one, excellent! However, that’s just luck.

If you experience one without being prepared, shame on you! Why not at least be somewhat prepared? Since you can use whatever clothes and equipment you gather for your kit in other circumstances, there’s little downside to having a bug-out bag ready to go. There’s no need to rely solely on luck.

Assume you’ll have to leave the shelter of your home, office, or car. Assume that you’ll have no access to electric power for at least several days.

In an era of global warming, extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and severe storms occur more frequently. Other events such as earthquakes, civil unrest, or evacuations ordered due to damaged nuclear reactors or terrorist attacks are also possible.

Everyone who lives with you should have at least a bug-out bag at home. A good place to keep it is out of sight nearest your most likely exit door. If you work away from home, you may also want to keep another in your workplace. If you have one and spend much time in it, consider keeping a third in your car (and always keep your car well-serviced with a gas tank that is at least half full.)

If you have already had the thought that having a ready-to-go bug-out bag is a good idea, then do it. It doesn’t have to be perfect: a half completed bug-out bag is much better than none.

Do not assume that you’ll have time to put a bug-out bag together after you learn about an emergency. There may be no time. That’s as foolish as not wearing a car seat-belt because you think you’ll be able to buckle up after you see that an accident is imminent.

If you don’t already have a good one, please take a few minutes immediately after reading this post to make an initial list of what you’d like in your perfect bug-out bag. Then start one with whatever items you already have on hand. You can improve it over the next few weeks and months until it contains everything you’d like.

Preparedness contributes to peace of mind.

It’s possible, but not necessary, to spend a small fortune on survival gear. What’s important is doing what you think is reasonable to keep you (and your family and friends) safe during a temporary emergency.

You’ll find that having a bug-out bag with you when you are away from home will sometimes be very helpful even if there’s no real emergency. Maybe you spend the night with a friend or in a motel and need a toothbrush. Maybe you have low blood sugar and need a quick, decent meal. Maybe you just find yourself at a picnic with no way to start a fire!

There’s no perfect bug-out bag.

If there were, it would be inexpensive, small, and lightweight while containing shelter for all 4 seasons as well as everything you might need for three days in terms of water, food, fire, light, medications and emergency medical supplies, tools, security, clothes, and comfort.

When they are all considered together, those criteria are incompatible. Trade-offs are required.

I suggest that you simply focus initially on putting together what you consider a good bug-out bag and over time make it an even better one until you are satisfied with it.

Don’t make it so heavy that you cannot carry it. Put everything in one bag with shoulder straps so that you can carry it on your back. Mine’s in a waterproof river duffle. (L.L.Bean sells a fancier one they call a “waterproof hybrid duffle” that’ll give you the idea.)

Decide in advance about how much you are willing to spend and how many bags you want.

Decide in advance what kind of emergency you are most likely to have to confront.

Presumably you already know your geographical location, which will affect what kind of shelter and clothing to be included. If, like me, you live in the north, once you put your kit together, you may want to check it every spring and fall to ensure that what it contains is suitable for the forthcoming season.

Consider the following ten categories. To help you imagine what you’ll need, I’ve included some suggestions in each.

Water

2 gallons of distilled water may be sufficient, but they weigh 16 pounds and take up a lot of space in a bug-out bag. Still, do keep some water in your kit in a proper storage container (such as an MSR Dromedary bag available from places like REI).

Also, be sure to have a back-up or alternative such as iodine or chlorine tablets and a water purifier such as the First Need XL or the Sawyer Complete. Your selection should be determined by the kind of contaminants (such as bacteria, viruses, salts, pesticides, fuel, oil, herbicides, or other urban contaminants) that water near you may have.

Food

MRE’s are my recommendation. (‘MRE’ abbreviates ‘Meal Ready to Eat.’) Yes, they are expensive, but they are not that expensive for just a few days.  There’s nothing wrong with ordinary canned goods such as salmon, tuna, chicken, (preferably organic) vegetables, beans and lentils. Why not some favorite peanut butter?

Partly because freeze-dried foods use real meat rather than textured vegetable protein like dehydrated foods, I generally prefer either canned goods or freeze-dried foods to dehydrated foods.

That does not mean that you shouldn’t have some dehydrated food.  For some with a long shelf life, click here. (I haven’t tried it, but apparently Costco sells an affordable meal Bucket of dehydrated foods.)  Engineered foods like protein bars can also work.  Ensure that you’ll be getting plenty of protein and calories.

Consider also having a way to heat foods such as a Jetboil personal cooking system or Primus Omnifuel stove (especially if you might be in cold weather); if you do, be sure to include sufficient fuel as well. (I have a two-burner Coleman white gas stove that is great for camping, but it’s way too big and heavy for a bug-out bag.)

Shelter

A tent, tube tent, or tarp with cord to protect you from cold, heat, rain, snow, wind, and sun. An inexpensive option is the SOL Emergency Bivvy. Sleeping bag, sleeping bag liner, blanket, or SOL survival blanket. Large, heavy plastic garbage bags. Duct tape.

Fire

In addition to a flint/magnesium stick and striker, always have back-ups such as inexpensive lighters and waterproof matches. Small fire starter sticks can be very helpful.

Light

Flashlight. Batteries. Consider a new, bright LED light or headlamp by Surefire that runs on small batteries. Lithium batteries can have a 15-year shelf life, so they are excellent for a bug-out bag. It’s a good idea to keep a small light stick or keychain light in an outside compartment of your bug-out bag or near its top. Shakable flashlights also can work well. Metal mirror (for signaling).

Medical Supplies

Prescription medications sufficient for a week or two. Supplements. Trauma supplies. Wilderness medical kit. Snake bite kit. Sting relief. Epi-kit. Asthma inhaler. Vaseline. Maxi-pads. Alcohol gel. Insect repellent (such as 100% DEET). Surgical scalpel. Butterfly bandages. Sunscreen. Superglue. Wilderness medicine book. Antibiotics. Iodine. Cauterization powder. Aspirin or ibuprofen. TENS machine.

Tools

Good quality (such as Leatherman or Gerber) multi-tool knife. Small shovel. Hatchet. Gorilla tape. Heavy leather gloves. Folding camp saw or SaberCut saw. Manual can opener. Compact binoculars or monocular. Goggles.  GPS unit with batteries.  550 parachute cord. Whistle.

Security

Good quality fixed blade knife with full tang. Survival knife. High quality folding knife (such as CRKT). Bear or pepper spray. Body armor. Protective [gas] mask. Smoke protection. If legal and appropriate: Firearm with ammo and cleaning kit.

Clothes

High quality hiking boots. Socks–including some wool ones. Underwear. Extra shirt. Extra trousers. Sweater (I like L.L.Bean’s commando sweaters). Rain suit or the GI Plus Brand poncho, which can also serve as a shelter. Parka. Wool or Polartec cap. Sun hat. Sun suit.  (Remember that, while synthetic fabrics can be great for protection from heat, cold, sun, rain, and bugs, sparks from a campfire can ruin them.)

Comfort

Toothbrush and small tooth paste. Dental floss. Hand sanitizer and wipes. Baby wipes. Extra glasses (including sun glasses). Toilet paper. Anything like caffeine or nicotine that you are addicted to. Chap stick. Soap. Towel. Small book. Portable radio with battery. Survival manual. Coins for emergency cash. Pencil & small pad of paper. Local map. Handkerchiefs. Small sewing kit. Deordorant. Ear plugs. Skin cream (like Nivea). Perhaps survival playing cards (click here for more information).

If you trouble yourself to put a good bug-out bag together, don’t be surprised if you feel and sleep a bit better!

Robert Kiyosaki:  ”If you prepare for the worst of times, you will only know the best of times.”

Suggestions for additional reading: David Morris’s Urban Survival Guide and Fernand Aguirre’s Surviving the Economic Collapse.

As always, please consider forwarding this to others you care about and leaving a comment.

It can be important to have a clear understanding of food intolerances, especially in relation to food allergies and food addictions.

They are not the same as food allergies, which are abnormal immune system responses to certain foods. Food allergies are very serious. They can kill you.

Touching, inhaling, or ingesting a food to which you are allergic can sometimes trigger anaphylasis, which is a severe reaction that can impair breathing and cause loss of consciousness. Without immediate medical treatment or an injection of epinephrine (adrenaline), anaphylasis can be deadly.

If you had any food allergies, you are quite likely to know it. Exposure to even a trace amount of the food to which you are allergic can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, itching, hives, swelling, respiratory congestion, itchy or runny nose, sneezing, wheezing, or coughing.

Although nut, fish, and shellfish allergies tend to be exceptions, many childhood food allergies are outgrown by adulthood. If you suspect that you have a food allergy, I recommend that you consult with a physician who is board certified in allergy and immunology.

It’s important to understand that allergic reactions can differ: it’s possible to have a mild reaction on one exposure and a serious one on another exposure. Furthermore, allergic reactions can occur in phases. Anything that has come in physical contact with an allergen can be dangerous. Sometimes one epinephrine self-injector may be insufficient to quiet a serious reaction; a second may be necessary.

Food intolerances are quite different from food allergies. One difference is that food intolerances can become more common with age.

Food intolerances are digestive system problems. They occur when your body is unable to break down and absorb certain foods.

Typical symptoms are bloating, gas, and diarrhea. However, not all symptoms of food intolerances are digestive. Migraine headaches are an example.

Different kinds of foods can stimulate them. They are commonly caused by sugars (specifically lactose and fructose), cheese, chocolate, and wine.

Lactose is found in dairy products. Fructose is found is honey, fruit, and some vegetables.

Figuring out whether or not you have any food intolerances can be tricky.

I recommend starting with a thorough physical examination to rule out other conditions that may be causing your symptoms, such as another digestive disorder or side effects of some medication.

The next step is to keep a food diary of everything you eat. You may be able to correlate ingesting a certain food with your symptoms.

That, though, is not a fool proof method. For example, even if you are intolerant to lactose, you may be able to digest hard cheeses or fermented milk products like yogurt without much difficulty.

Furthermore, you may perceive what you are looking for, which is called “expectation bias.”

Even if you identify some food to which you are intolerant, it may not be easy for you to eliminate it from your diet.

If you suspect that you have food intolerances, what should you do?

I don’t know. For reasons that I’ve explained in other posts, nobody else does, either.

What I would do is this: I’d put myself on a paleo diet. Then I’d reintroduce foods one at a time to test whether or not any symptoms were triggered.

Why?

It’s because our diets have dramatically changed in the last ten thousand years. That’s too short a time for evolution to have caught up completely with our new diet. That may explain why certain individuals have food intolerances to certain foods.

Consider, for example, lactose. Guess what? Before farming, our prehistoric ancestors never ingested dairy products. Might they cause a problem for some of us? Duh!

What about fructose? Our prehistoric ancestors did, occasionally, find honey and, I’m sure, delighted when they did. However, they consumed it infrequently.

The fruits and vegetables that we eat are quite different from their wild ancestors that our ancestors ate. They do contain healthful phytonutrients and fiber, but eliminating their consumption temporarily won’t damage your health at all.

Similarly, our prehistoric ancestors never consumed cheese or chocolate. They also didn’t have wine until after the Agricultural Revolution.

So, whether you realize it or not, your body is well adapted to a “paleo” diet. If you return to it, you are likely to find that all your food intolerances have disappeared.

If you like that suggestion and want to learn more about it, you’ll find some relevant pages on my lasting-weight-loss site.

I also recommend the following books: Audette and Gilchrist’s Neanderthin, Cordain’s The Paleo Diet, Cordain’s The Paleo Diet Cookbook , and Wolf’s The Paleo Solution.

Here’s a final point, which is about food addictions, that you may find intriguing:

Food addictions can mask food intolerances.

At first, that seems to make no sense, which is why it is interesting.

Let’s suppose that you sometimes crave dairy products like ice cream. That craving may be a sign of a food addiction.

How, then, could that mask a food intolerance?

It’s because in such a case you are not actually addicted to the ice cream. In fact, although you don’t realize it, you are intolerant to ice cream!

What happens when you eat it is that, in an attempt to preserve homeostasis, your body secrets chemicals to counteract the ill effects of your consuming the ice cream – and it is actually these chemicals to which you are addicted!

If this topic interests you, I recommend Ross’s The Diet Cure.

As always, if you have any comments on this post, I encourage you to leave them below.

Do protein shakes work?

Let me answer that question by telling you how they work for me and, even better, how you can obtain the best in the world at the distributor’s price even without being a distributor!

I’m not making any retail profit on your orders now, am I? So it doesn’t cost me anything to be generous.

I’ve been a distributor for the last 15 or so years for a company that is #1 in the world in online health and beauty sales. Mostly, what being a distributor enables me to do is to purchase products at the distributor’s price.

Although it’s the best of the multi-level marketing companies (the federal government considers it the gold standard), I’ve never built a “downline” of distributors I’ve recruited.  Its annual sales are in the billlions of dollars. They have terrific customer service and I’m glad to be associated with them.

Back to: do protein shakes work?

No single product will work well for everyone. It’s the same for protein shakes.

They are “engineered” foods and may contain ingredients (such as dairy or soy) that affect some people the wrong way. Furthermore, some people think that, even if their food counts are equal, liquid foods are not as satisfying as solid foods.

Do protein shakes work for me?

They certainly do. I relied on them almost exclusively a couple of weeks ago and was very pleased with the results. (Click here to visit the relevant post if you want and then return so you don’t miss the offer).

Do protein shakes work for breakfast?

They certainly do for me. Whether mixing my own from powder or enjoying a cold ready-to-drink one from the refrigerator, I’ve had one for breakfast for years. The best ones will enable me to forget about eating again for several hours.

Do protein shakes work prior to working out?

They do for me. Having one about 90 to 120 minutes before a hard training session is the timing that works best for me.

Do protein shakes work after working out?

It’s important to seize the anabolic window that opens briefly for a while after hard strength training. This is one time an ordinary protein shake doesn’t work well – unless you combine it with some high glycemic index carbs. (I have a page on this topic at another site; click here if you want to read it.)

Do protein shakes work to replace other meals?

Not as well as natural foods. However, they work better than so-called “meal replacement” shakes or bars.

Remember that your total daily intake for grams of protein should not fall below the number of pounds of your lean body weight. So, for example, if you weigh 200 pounds and are at 25% body fat, your intake of protein for a day should be 150 grams. If you do hard strength training, it should be higher than that, at least equal to the number of pounds of your body weight.

I hate it when I’m traveling and run out of protein shakes! If you have ever tried finding a decent meal at a fast food joint or unknown restaurant, you know what I mean.

Do protein shakes work the same?

Hardly. Just like anything else, there are good ones – both in terms of nutrition and taste – and bad ones. Some have way too many grams of carbs and, even today, some taste as bad as most did 50 years ago.

In terms of ingredients, Nutrilite protein shakes can’t be beat. (If you are interested, check them out for yourself; just click here and select “Why Nutrilite?” at the top of the page that opens.)

In terms of taste, I also happen to think they can’t be beat.

Want to try some? Well, it’s impossible to purchase them at a local store. The Nutrilite company was purchased years ago by the company for which I am a distributor. The only way to get them is through one of that company’s distributors – like me.

Here’s the offer: if you would like to try them, simply contact me and sign up as my customer. Once I have your customer number, I’ll reset all your prices to distributor prices! I’ll never make one penny on anything you purchase.

There’s nothing shady about this. The company doesn’t care; in fact, it’s good for them because they’ll be selling more products. It doesn’t matter to them if I sell the products at cost and don’t make any profit by selling their products at their retail prices.

You win because you will be able to receive their products at cost without paying the annual distributor’s fee. (I think so many of their products are outstanding that I’ll keep paying my annual fee anyway.)

Of course, if you want to sell products yourself at retail prices or build yourself a MLM downline, you’ll have to sign up as a distributor and pay the yearly fee (like I do). I’m perfectly willing to sign you up as a distributor if that’s what you want.

However, there’s no need to do that if all you want to do is to save money and time by purchasing excellent products at distributor prices.  Again, you’ll be able to purchase all their products, including great cleaning and cosmetic products, at distributor prices, not just their outstanding Nutrilite shakes and supplements.

Do protein shakes work? Why not find out for yourself by trying the best at distributor prices?

Why am I doing this?

Why not? I’ve very grateful for the life I’ve had. Helping you improve your luck will make me feel good, too.

If you want, consider it a bonus for reading my blog at least once!

It’s a concrete way for me to give thanks.

Simply use the comment section below to send me your contact information if you want to take advantage of this offer.  (Only I shall have it and I’d never share it.)

Even if you are not interested in saving money on nearly all your routine purchases, do you know anyone who is under financial stress? If you tell them about my offer, that’ll give them another concrete reason to feel good about being your friend.

Liquid diet weight loss can be a good way to break through a weight loss plateau.

Normally, it’s best to avoid any kind of temporary diet. Sometimes, though, an effective short-term tactic can contribute to long-term success.

Our bodies have set points around which our weight stabilizes. Is there an effective way to drop below such a set point quickly?

Yes.

In fact, I did it myself the week before last.  My liquid diet weight loss in one week was just under 6 pounds!

I’m 65 years old, which is relevant because it’s typical to see an age-related decline in metabolic rate. I did that with no physical exercise whatsoever. I averaged only about 5 hours sleep per night, too, which is relevant because getting sufficient sleep is an aid to weight loss.  Nor did the weight quickly rebound to the previous set point when I resumed eating normally.

Those results surprised me. Not that I was adverse to it, but I wasn’t even trying to lose weight!

What happened was that I attended a week-long Zen training. There were about 55 other people there. It’s done mostly in silence. It involves a minimum of 10 hours daily of formal meditation. My purpose was simply to improve my practice.

All practitioners are advised to go on a temporary starvation diet as well as to get less sleep than normal.

Wanting to lose as little lean muscle as possible, I wanted to ensure that I was at least getting sufficient protein daily. With permission, I took with me a supply of ready-to-drink protein shakes. They were the source of my liquid diet weight loss.

The retreat lasted from one Saturday afternoon until the next. I had only two small normal meals during the week.

Breakfast on Sunday morning is required so that everyone gets an assigned seat in the dining hall. I had at that breakfast about a cup of plain yogurt, 5 prunes, and a cup of tea.

I also ate a similar breakfast on Wednesday morning. Actually, it was even larger because it also included a blueberry muffin with butter.

The reason I ate breakfast Wednesday was in an effort to prevent my body from going into starvation mode. One reason why starvation diets don’t work is because, in response to them, our bodies soon drop their metabolic rates to save energy.

The way to lose fat is to increase your metabolic rate—not decrease it. So, eating Wednesday’s breakfast was a deliberate attempt to prevent my body from decreasing its metabolic rate.

Other than those two small meals, I relied solely on (lukewarm!) protein shakes. I had 5 on Sunday and Wednesday. I had 6 on the other days, which was one about every 3 or 4 waking hours.

Here’s the food counts for one day of 6 shakes: 1020 calories, 1800 mg sodium, 2160 mg potassium, 30 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 12 g (net) carbs, and 150 g protein. They provided 24 g of dietary fiber.

Using the standard set by the World Health Organization, that’s obviously a starvation diet. (The standard is 2300 calories for men and 2100 calories for women.)

In addition, I had my usual dietary supplements — including fish oil, which raised the daily grams of fat to over 32.

Again, my liquid diet weight loss for the week was just under 6 pounds and I was very sedentary.

I ended the week in a deep state of ketosis, which means that my body was burning fat rather than sugar. That’s because my carbohydrate intake was so low. (When digested, all carbohydrates become sugar.)

Here’s an important point: I never once had any food cravings. That’s probably because my daily protein intake was sufficient. Similarly, I never had any headaches or digestive problems.

Please do not try to emulate my liquid diet weight loss without the advanced blessing of your physician or other licensed medical professional. After all, it’s obviously not a natural diet, which is one our ancestors from tens of thousands of years ago could have used.

On the other hand, it’s undoubtedly true that our ancestors occasionally experienced starvation diets or brief periods of famine. If you are healthy, there’s no reason to think that occasional periods of liquid diet weight loss would be harmful to your health.

In fact, fasting is a traditional aid to flourishing spiritually. Because it undermines physical well-being, however, I never recommend fasting.

Done properly, there’s nothing wrong with liquid diet weight loss in the short-term. Here are six suggestions for doing it properly.

First, keep daily protein intake sufficient. Your intake will be sufficient if the number of grams of protein you ingest are about equal to the number of your lean body mass in pounds.

Second, keep your net daily grams of carbohydrate intake low (preferably below 15).

Third, use supplements, especially fish oil, as normal.

Fourth, drink plenty of water—at least 2 or 3 quarts daily.

Fifth, in order to prevent your body from decreasing its metabolic rate, don’t go for more than about 3 to 6 days without a significant spike in both calories and carbohydrates.

[Why?  After about a week, your leptin levels will drop by half.  This will slow your metabolism and fat loss.  A one-day spike will restore them to normal so that fat loss can continue.  In other words, this will prevent your body from going into starvation mode.]

Sixth, exercise is optional, but, if you really want to make fast progress, do some.

So, if you follow these suggestions, especially if you would like to lose weight and are stuck on a plateau, liquid diet weight loss should work at least as well for you as it did for me.

After you have reached your desired percentage of body fat, using such a liquid diet one or two days weekly should make it much easier to maintain your fat loss. This is important because it’s more difficult to sustain weight loss than it is to lose it initially.

Also, if you would like to try the same ready-to-drink protein shakes I used, contact me.  (You can simply use the comments section below to contact me.  Only I read them.  Be sure to include your contact information, which, of course, I won’t publish.) I’ll give you the brand name and tell you how to obtain them; they are available online and only online.  The flavor I used was chocolate fudge, but they come in several other flavors including strawberry.

The seated barbell press is an extremely effective upper body exercise that, when done correctly, is even safer than a standing or military press. It’s the safest overhead press.

It will really work your deltoids, triceps, and traps.

The purpose of weight lifting is to increase your strength and quantity of lean muscle. That won’t happen if you injure yourself. So always perform exercises with perfect technique. If you do, you’ll find strength training extremely safe as well as very beneficial.

This exercise requires access to a sturdy, stable bench that can be adjusted to about 75 or 80 degrees. Do not use a vertical (90 degree) bench. Do not use a bench that is so high that it doesn’t allow your head to go back slightly, especially at the top of the movement. (You won’t have to think about this during the movement; your head will just naturally go back slightly.)

Some benches have an adjustable seat whose front can be raised to help prevent you from slipping down and off when pressing. If yours has such a seat, use it.

Put the bench inside a power rack. Center it so that you don’t hit the rack’s uprights while moving the bar. The barbell should be on pins set at the height at which you begin the ascent at the start of the exercise.

Commercial gyms sometimes have special pieces of equipment specifically designed for the seated barbell press. If your gym has one, it may work well for you, but it’s more likely that it won’t. If you don’t have access to a suitable bench and a power rack, squat stands or spotters can work well.

Do not use a Smith machine for the seated barbell press. Its strictly vertical motion is unnatural and can cause shoulder problems.

Do not do behind-the-neck presses (or pull-downs on a lat machine). It’s true that some trainees can do them for years without problems, but why risk it? Doing them can cause neck or rotator cuff problems as well as shoulder problems. The damage may not show up for many years and, once it does, it may be irreversible.

Keep your eyes forward during the movement.

Throughout the range of motion when doing a seated barbell press, keep a normal hollow in your lower back. This is the normal weight-bearing position for your backbone. If you exaggerate it, you are inviting injury. Simply keep your chest up and maintain a normal arch with your lower back.

When you are ready for your first seated barbell press, your feet should be flat on the floor and slightly wider than shoulder width. As with a bench press, keep your heels either directly beneath an imaginary vertical line dropped from the middle of your knees or slightly in front of that line. (If you pull them towards your head, you’ll exaggerate the arch in your back.)

Do not start a seated barbell press from too low a position or you will unnecessarily stress your shoulder joints. If you have shorter arms, you may start the movement at about the same height as your clavicles; if you have longer arms, you may start the movement at about the same height as your chin.

How wide a grip should you take? Have someone ensure that your forearms are vertical when viewed both from the side and your feet at the bottom of the movement. In other words, at the bottom of a seated barbell press your elbows should be directly under your wrists. This is likely to be just wider than shoulder width.

Use whichever grip you prefer. As with the bench press [click here for how to bench press], you will probably want to wrap your thumbs under and around the bar. On the other hand, while a thumbless grip will give you less control over the bar, it will also force you to have better bar balance and may prevent you from spraining a thumb.

Do, though, use a pronated grip, which is one with your palms facing forward.

When you are ready, fill your belly with air and press the bar up vertically. Keep it close to your face without hitting your face. It’s fine to lift your chin slightly as you begin to press upward. Come close to your chin without touching it with the bar. Do not let the bar track forward.

Press evenly with your arms and shoulders. Keep the bar parallel to the floor at all times. Do not let one hand get ahead of the other. This is especially important near the end of a set. Especially when you get tired, force yourself to focus hard to prevent technique deterioration.

When the bar gets above your head, allow it to track slightly to the rear for a more natural movement. The horizontal distance will be about two or three inches.

Instead of resting by locking out your elbows, go to just short of lock-out and pause momentarily before descending. Inhale either during that pause or while descending, whichever you prefer.

Lower the bar under control; do not let it drop down. Do not lower it farther than your safe point or bounce at the bottom. Pause momentarily at the bottom before beginning the next rep and exhale during the ascent.

As with the bench press, keep your wrists rigid throughout the seated barbell press. Using wrist wraps [not straps] is a good idea.

Keep your body tight throughout the movement. This especially applies to your legs, abs, buttocks, and back. Do not relax until the set is over.

There’s no magical number of sets and reps. I suggest not more than 3 sets and 2 are probably sufficient. Usually it’s best to keep the reps between 5 and 15. For example, 2 sets of 10 to 12 reps or 3 work sets of 5 reps would be fine.

What about auxiliary exercises?

Probably the best are the seated dumbbell press, bench press, incline press, dips, chins, back raises, core (midsection) work, and tricep work (such as pushdowns in a lat machine).

The seated barbell press is an extremely productive exercise. If you train intensely and regularly using perfect exercise technique, you are likely to be delighted with the results.

For most trainees the barbell bench press is an excellent upper body exercise.

Perhaps because it’s done lying flat on your back, it’s certainly a popular exercise! Although it’s more important to master squats or deadlifts, “How much can you bench?” is a much more popular question than either “How much can you squat?” or “How much can you deadlift?”

It’s a more productive exercise for some than for others. Differences in individual body structure matter a lot when benching. For example, long arms are a real disadvantage.

Regardless of your natural leverage, if you use proper exercise technique and some auxiliary exercises, your pectorals, deltoids, triceps, and upper back muscles will really benefit.

Either master perfect barbell bench press technique or don’t do them.

The reason for this is simple: they are the most deadly weight lifting exercise. If you mess up your technique on other exercises, you might strain or sprain or even break something or blow out a joint. If you drop a loaded barbell onto your throat when doing a barbell bench press, you could kill yourself. Sadly, many have.

There’s more to mastering barbell bench press technique that you might initially think.

If you are a beginner, if you are breathing correctly during the exercise and a day or two afterwards experiencing some DOMS [delayed onset muscular soreness] in your pectorals, you are doing alright. The initial task is to master barbell bench press technique sufficiently well so that you do them safely and also avoid becoming a shoulder bench presser.

If you don’t have spotters, only do benches inside a power rack with properly positioned safety bars (or something similar like squat stands or a half rack).

Use a horizontal bench with a straight barbell. Center the bench between the weight supports so that (i) you won’t hit them when moving the bar up or down and (ii) you minimize how far you have to move the bar horizontally when racking or unracking it.

When racked the bar may be directly above your nose or forehead – it depends upon what works best for you. The safety bars should be set so that they are about one inch below your inflated chest when you are in position. Use an unloaded bar to ensure that everything is adjusted properly.

Lie back on the bench under the bar with your feet flat on the floor and wider than your shoulders. Your heels should be directly under your knees; do not bring them closer to your head or you will tend to arch your back too much. Do not lift your heels off the floor when doing a barbell bench press or otherwise squirm around.

Grip width is important. Ensure that your hands are exactly equidistant from the center of the bar. How wide is the correct grip?

When you lower the empty bar to your lower pecs, have someone ensure that your forearms are vertical when viewed both from the side and from your feet; in other words, your elbows should be directly under your wrists.

Remember that hand position and always use it. Never use a grip that is too wide. Why? It’s important always to think long term in the gym, which is why you should always leave your ego at the door; a wider grip is more likely to cause shoulder or pec problems over time.

Adult men may start with a grip that is 18” between the hands and adjust it from there. Adult women may start with a grip that is 14”.

Use whichever grip you prefer. You’ll probably want to wrap your thumbs under and around the bar like powerlifters always do. On the other hand, a thumbless grip will give you less control over the bar, but that will force you to have better bar balance and may keep you from spraining a thumb.

Keep your wrists rigid throughout the movement. Using wrist wraps [not straps] is a good idea.

To begin the movement, fill your belly with air, raise the bar off the pins and lock out your arms with the bar steady above your chest.

Pull your shoulders back and immediately lower the bar under control to your lower pecs just below your nipples. Keep your elbows slightly tucked on the way down. Do not drop the bar. The descent should take 2 or 3 seconds.

Never bounce the bar off your chest.

Touch your chest with the bar and, after a moment, push it back up as you exhale. Keep your elbows tucked as you drive the bar off the bottom but allow them to flare out about halfway up. Keep your shoulders back and your chest spread throughout the movement.

Never lift your butt off the bench.

Never lower the bar to your throat or high on your chest.

Depending upon which feels best for you, the bar will rise vertically or at a slight diagonal (with two to four inches of horizontal movement) towards your head.

Unless it is your last rep or you are deliberately using a rest-pause technique, do not lock our your arms at the top. Go to just below lock-out and begin another rep.

If you fail to complete a rep, simply lower the bar to your chest, exhale, and slide out to the side.

The worst mistake with respect to doing a barbell bench press is to stop breathing, which can cause you to black out and drop the bar on your throat. Don’t.

The second worst mistake is to fail on a barbell bench press rep outside a power rack and without spotters. If you ever have to roll a loaded barbell down your chest and stomach to get out from under it, you won’t do that again.

What about sets and reps?

A classic way to train is to do 5 sets of 5 reps. The first two sets are really warm-up sets. Increase the weight for each set and do as many reps as possible on your last set while maintaining perfect exercise technique.

What about auxiliary exercises?

Probably the best are other kinds of bench presses (such as dumbbell bench presses), military presses, dips, chins (or pull-downs), and bent over dumbbell rows.

If you follow these guidelines, progress slowly, and train regularly and intensely, you may soon be able to do a barbell bench press with your bodyweight – or, even better, double that!

Should you invest in a home TENS machine?

Well, I’m a believer. It’s a good idea for every home to have one as a method for treating pain.

Perhaps because the F.D.A. only permits certain kinds of them to be sold in the United States, they are still relatively unknown in the U.S. They seem to be much better known in the U.K., Canada, and Australia.

TENS (T.E.N.S.) stands for ‘transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.’ A TENS machine operates on battery power. (Mine uses 2 AA batteries.) It delivers electrical stimulation between adhesive pads placed on the skin.

Like cold from ice bags or heat from heating pads or hot water bottles, a TENS machine can deliver effective, safe, drug free pain relief. Unlike them, it’s also portable.

How does it work?

If its pads are correctly placed, the mild electrical stimulation may block the nervous system from transmitting pain signals to the brain. As long as you are otherwise promoting healing in the injured area, this may itself relax the injured tissue and allow it to heal more quickly.

Furthermore, the electrical stimulation may actually increase endorphin production.

Biologically, pain’s purpose is to signal a problem. It would be foolish to block the signal without treating it cause. You wouldn’t try to run on a broken leg.

However, once you are treating its cause, blocking pain can itself speed healing.

It many cases, you may already understand what is causing pain: perhaps a sprain, a strain, arthritis, sciatica, migraine, menses, neck pain, or post-surgical pain. Often you are already treating it with rest or elevation or compression in addition to heat or cold.

A TENS machine is perfect for those situations.

Sometimes, the pain relief is almost immediate. Often, it just takes a day or two instead of several days.

Of course, it’s not a good idea to use a TENS machine if you have a heart pacemaker or a heart rhythm problem. It’s risky to use one if you are pregnant.

Nor is it a good idea to use one if you are operating or driving machinery. The reason for this is that using one can — depending upon the strength of the stimulation, the program used, and where the pads are placed – cause muscles to twitch.

Unless it is used by a licensed physician, it should also not be used for epileptics or children under 12.

If you have any concern at all about using one, consult your physician in advance.

However, for localized, ordinary pain relief, a TENS machine is seriously worth considering.

For many years in my 30’s, I played full-contact ice hockey. I simply could not have done that without an ice bag, a moist heat heating pad, over-the-counter pain relievers, and muscle relaxants. I wish I had known then about the benefits of a TENS machine!

Owning one is especially valuable for those occasions when it’s important not to miss an activity. For example, I always take mine on week-long Zen retreats. Having one might be especially important before, for example, a wedding, a reunion, a vacation, or when giving a speech.

These days, rather like treadmills, some of them come with multiple preset programs. Having a variety of programs from which to choose is a good idea. On the other hand, cost increases with the variety of programs.

Even one with a variety of programs does not cost a lot of money. Prices seem to range from about $50 to $100. It’s easy to check online for options.

I’m glad that I have mine! I’m grateful to my friend Anna in England for encouraging me to purchase one.

It’s certainly an option worth considering.

What’s the best weight lifting routine?

You may understand that getting stronger to build muscle mass is one of the two best ways to exercise for physical well-being. The other is cardio.

Because everyone understands how to walk or run or bicycle, there’s nothing initially intimidating about cardio.

The opposite is true when it comes to pumping iron. If you are inexperienced, just entering a gym can be intimidating and actually doing, for example, squats or deadlifts for the first time can be can be scary!

While the best way to do cardio is high intensity interval training, there is no best weight lifting routine.

Even if there were a best weight lifting routine, describing which exercises to do — as well as training frequency, number of sets, number of reps, length of pauses between sets, and so on — would be useless or counterproductive without detailed descriptions of how to perform the exercises.

I have posts on some major exercises. For example, click here for one on squats and click here for one on box squats. I plan to do more. I also plan to do some videos or DVD’s demonstrating perfect exercise technique. Even if I do, you may want immediate assistance.

Perhaps surprisingly, done correctly weight lifting is very safe. It has important psychological as well as physical benefits.

Though it’s impossible to describe even one weight lifting routine completely in a blog post, what is instead useful is providing you with a short list of excellent resources you can use to get started.

Permit me to provide 4: the first are web pages I’ve written and the other three are paperback books.

First, please make full use of all the relevant information that I have provided on the lasting-weight-loss.com site. It makes no difference whether or not you are interested in lasting weight loss: the information I provide there is, in my not so humble opinion, excellent for all trainees. (If nothing else, it’s a good review even for those who are already masters.)

The information is free as well as valuable. I recommend printing out the relevant pages on standard size, 3-holed paper and keeping it in a 3-ring binder for reference. When you actually begin training, you can keep your training log in the same binder.

Simply visit the website and look down the menu bar to find relevant sections on weight lifting.  They will lead to other relevant sections as well.  For example, there’s a section on core (mid-section) training. Here’s the site:  click here.

Second, Stuart McRobert’s Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great.I’ve never seen a better all-around book on strength training.

In addition to discussing the theory and psychology of strength training, he provides detailed exercise descriptions as well as information on putting together routines that will work well for you.

He emphasizes safety throughout. Training safely is not just about what you should do such stretching, warming up, or always using perfect exercise technique; it’s also about what you should not do.

In particular, there are a lot of exercises that you should never do because they are too dangerous (such as Smith machine squats [click here for my post on them] or behind-the-neck presses or pull-downs). If you limit yourself to doing only the exercises listed and described in McRobert’s book, you won’t go wrong.

Third, I recommend Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1. He details a simple, effective weight lifting routine.

Since I just started it myself yesterday, it’s too early to report that it worked well for me. However, it’s based on sound training principles that should be the basis of any weight lifting routine. He provides all the details required to implement it, too.

Permit me to give you here just an overview of his weight lifting routine.

Using, as always, perfect exercise technique, step one is to determine your one rep max for each of four basic, compound exercises such as the squat, bench press, deadlift, and military press. (You are not limited to those four exercises.)

Step two is to use specific percentages of those one rep maximum poundages to determine the load you’ll use for your work sets.  Using the percentages he provides is critical.  Then you are ready to train.

In each training session you’ll do just one of the four exercises and, usually, some additional assistance work for it. Basically, you do 3 sets of 5 reps using weights that match the percentages you have determined in advance. However, you do as many reps as possible, going to near failure, on your third set. The assistance work consists of standard exercises such as dips, chins, push-ups, dumbbell rows, leg presses, and lunges.

I’ve decided on the option of spreading the four training sessions over two weeks. Monday of the first week is for squats. Thursday is for bench presses. Monday of the second week is for deadlifts. Thursday is for military presses. Because I’m older and recover from training more slowly, I know from experience that that training frequency will work well for me.

(I’ve made two other modifications. First, since I’m tall, I’ll be using a safety squat bar to do squats rather than a standard, straight Olympic bar. Second, because the basement where I train has a relatively low ceiling, I’ll replace the military presses with seated military presses.)

This is a weight lifting routine that, if executed properly, will work well for you whether you are a beginner, an intermediate trainee, or an advanced trainee.

Instead of using it twice a week as I am doing, you can use it just once a week or three times weekly or four times weekly. I suggest beginning with twice a week for a couple of months and then adjust your frequency based on feedback from your body.

Fourth, Brooks D. Kubik’s Dinosaur Training. Mr. Kubik is an attorney whose hobby is weight lifting.

If you read it, you’ll learn plenty of “secrets” of old time strength training.

The chief reason, though, that I recommend it is because you will learn how to think well about strength training. He won’t con you: “building a truly strong and muscular body will take years of steady effort.” He will help you keep your efforts in perspective.

He will also help you with the psychology of successful lifting. For example, “Don’t listen to negative influences . . .” Instead, “Write your favorite slogans on the cards – one per card – and post the cards where you are bound to see them every day.”

Many such psychological tips will help in your achieving goals that have nothing to do with strength training.

That’s it! If you use those four aids in the order listed, you’ll very soon have the ability to design for yourself an effective weight lifting routine.

Would you like a few more resources? If so, click here.
(If you happen to know any other resources that are as good or even better than these four, I hope that you’ll share them with the rest of us in the comments.)

Especially if you are beginning a cardio exercise program, I recommend Graded Exercise Protocol (“GXP”). It’s simple, safe, effective, and efficient.

(A task is effective if it gets you closer to your goals. Performing a task as economically as possible is performing it efficiently.)

Whenever you consider making any major changes to your exercise or nutritional habits, it’s best to get your physician’s blessing in advance.

What is graded exercise protocol?  How does it work?

I learned about it from Richard Winet, Ph.D., in his “Master Trainer” newsletter. He stated it was developed by Ralph Carpinelli, Ed.D., based on research done by Dr. Robert Otto.

What interested me was his claim that, although it was easier than high intensity interval training (“HIIT”), it was nearly as effective.

HIIT is the most effective protocol for cardio exercise. Because it is so intense, it must be brief, which is why it is also the most efficient protocol for cardio exercise.

Graded exercise protocol is not quite as effective or efficient as HIIT, but it’s nevertheless very good. Furthermore, it’s easier than HIIT. That’s why it’s especially good for anyone beginning a cardio exercise program.

If you want additional fitness after you have done GXP for a few months, then simply shift to HIIT. [I explain below when to shift.] If you are satisfied with your results from graded exercise protocol, just stay with it indefinitely.

The chief idea behind graded exercise protocol is simple:  keep your heart rate between 80 and 85% of its maximum for a specified amount of time. (In HIIT you do intervals of higher and lower heart rates.)

Since your heart rate is measured precisely, it’s easy to track your progress.

It’s imperative to know your age adjusted maximum heart rate (VO2max). If you happen to know it from recent standard exercise testing, use that number.

If you don’t, it’s easy to estimate it. There are different ways to do that. Here’s the most common:

Subtract your age in years from 220. 85% of that number yields your maximum heart rate for GXP. 65% of that number yields your minimum heart rate for GXP.

For example, if you are 40 years old, 220 minus 40 is 180. Multiplying 180 times .85 is 153. Multiplying 180 times .80 is 144. So, during the work phase [see below] of Graded Exercise Protocol, simply keep your heart rate between 144 and 153.

To do that, you must have a heart rate monitor. There are two serious mistakes you could make with GXP. The first is not using a heart rate monitor. Please never do GXP (or HIIT) without one.

The second is not cooling down properly.  Never just stop after intense cardio exercise; instead, always cool down.

There are three phases to GXP: warm-up, work, and cool-down. It is important not to rest between the three phases; go straight from one to the next.

The warm-up phase involves taking about 3 minutes to elevate your heart rate from normal until your 80% level. If, for example, you are using a stationary bike (which is what I use and recommend for either GXP or HIIT), get on it and start pedaling slowly. Simply increase the speed at which you are pedaling for several minutes until you hit your 80% level.

The work phase involves adjusting the speed of pedaling so that you are maintaining your heart rate between the 80 and 85% levels for the specified time.

The cool-down phase involves taking about 3 minutes to lower your heart rate back to normal. Simply decrease the speed at which you are pedaling for several minutes until your heart rate is back to normal. (In practice, I quit cooling down once my heart rate decreases from triple to double digits.)

How frequently should you do GXP? I recommend 3 times weekly. (I recommend against doing it more frequently than every other day. I recommend against doing it less frequently than 2 times weekly.)

How long should the work phase last? I recommend from 3 to 10 minutes once you have adapted to GXP.

How long should the work phase last when you are initially adapting to GXP? I recommend starting with 15 seconds and increasing its duration by 15 seconds until you are up to 3 minutes.

So, your first work phase should last 15 seconds, the second 30 seconds, the third 45 seconds, and so on.

If you do a three minute work set three times weekly, that’s only 9 minutes of exercise weekly! Even if you include warm-ups and cool-downs, that’s only 27 minutes weekly.

If you don’t think you have time for sufficient cardio exercise, you are lying to yourself.

What if you eventually want to do more than 3 minute work sets? Just increase the duration of your work sets by 15 seconds until you are doing 4 minutes, or 5 minutes, or 6 minutes and so on up to 10 minutes.

If your work sets eventually reach 10 minutes, you are doing them 3 times weekly, and you want even greater cardiovascular efficiency, then it’s time to switch to HIIT. [I intend to do a post on HIIT. Until then, you can find various HIIT protocols described online by simply doing a search for it.]

Otherwise, you may continue the graded exercise protocol with a work set duration between 3 and 10 minutes until your dotage. (Note: as you become more fit, you’ll have to work harder using GXP anyway.)

What if you want some additional mild cardio? I recommend brisk walking, but if you are walking to burn fat please don’t do it more than once weekly. (Why that limitation? Click here for the answer.)

Work up to one of these three: walking 2 miles in 30 minutes, 3 miles in 45 minutes, or 4 miles in 60 minutes. Any of these will make you comfortably tired and increase the amount of fat you burn each week. (Again, however, more frequently is not better for fat loss in this case.) Just don’t drop the GXP in favor of the walking.

If you haven’t been fit since junior high school and begin graded exercise protocol, you will soon enjoy the thrill of increased fitness. Being fit feels really, really good.

I wish you well!