AndrewBrunelle.com

I read something yesterday that had to do with minimalist living, a form of decluttering, if you would.  Getting rid of things that are not necessary.  To tell you the truth, there isn’t even much to say about minimalism except that fact that getting rid of extra possessions allows you to have a more clear mind and remving excess thoughts from your head does the same.  It is a kind of simple living that allows you to appreciate nature and life itself, rather than having your enjoyment of life rooted in external possessions, like your fifty-inch television.  I think that this is a good philosophy to adopt and I am working towards it. (I started yesterday, but have been thinking about this for almost a year.)

I do not own my own house or apartment yet, so the best I can do is minimalize my room.  Yesterday I spent about two hours cleaning and decluttering.  It felt good to get rid of some of the old junk, but even some of it I could not dispose of.  Some of my old papers from school, some papers that people in my family would say, “What are you crazy?  Why did you get rid of your W-2?”  So I kept some things, but my wastebasket is full once again after being full the previous day with other junk.  I’m also planning on eliminating junk from my life, excess packaging, etc.  It is good for the planet anyway.  I wish they recycled down here in South Carolina.  I can’t believe they don’t have someone come around and collect your recyclables.  It shows that living in a more developed area (RI) and then moving to a place like this (SC) can have its shortcomings.  I just find it hard to believe these people don’t even really consider it.  Plastic bottles go in the trashcan.  I mean, it only makes sense to cut down on waste and recycle the things you can, otherwise we wil be in dire straits in the next fifty years.

I think the best thing to consider is to not get things you don’t really need.  I mean, if you really look at it, the only things that are pertinent to a human’s survival is food, water, and shelter, so I can see how some people could cut down that far, but not me.  I don’t need a laptop and internet connection, but it would certainly be beneficial to me.  I don’t need a desk to put my laptop on, but the damn thing rips my leghairs off when I put in on my lap.  I don’t really need a bookshelf, but I look at it as a shelter for my books.  I need a chair to sit in so I don’t develop scoliosis.  I need a bed to sleep in because sleep is very important to me.  Everything we buy is pre-garbage anyway, so everything else is really dust to me.  I don’t own much clothes, only two pairs of shoes (both sneakers), maybe 20 shirts, which I never wear anyway, except on rare occasions when I am not working.  I am going to strip down my life to as simple as I can get it.  That way I’ll have extra money and resources to pursue what I want to pursue.  And I almost forgot, I no longer have a television in my room.

So, I’m going to try this and I’m pretty enthusiastic about it.  Cutting down on the things I have and cutting down on the waste I produce from having those things is something I believe will contribute to making the world a better place.  All right, it is time for me to go eat a plum and an orange, part of my nutritious breakfast.  Have a nice day.

Now, I know everyone wants to be healthy.  We all want to have good vitality and vigor.  But sometimes, it’s so damn inconvenient to cook up a big healthy meal, isn’t it?  To chop all the vegetables, to mince the garlic, to crush the tomatoes.  So what’s a good alternative?  Well, I’ve been perusing various websites, and what I’ve come across is a blended salad is one key component to eating healthy without using up much of your time.  Here’s how it works:  You take lettuce, carrots, celery, maybe an avocado, and other vegetables that would normall go in a salad, tomatoes and such, and place them in a blender.  Use the celery or carrots as a plunger to push all the veggies down to the blade and then let the blender blend them, too.  Once it is all blended, you can pour it into a bowl and enjoy.

I’m sure it will not look appetizing and you may consider not eating it, but try it.  It’s good, believe me.  It may not be perfect on your first try, but experiment with different ingredients to make your ideal salad and then blend it.  No chewing required.

One thing I’ve really been wanting to do is liquify most of my diet.  Puree all the fruits and veggies so they are easily absorbed and I will not spend so much energy digesting all of them.  Not only that, I don’t have to waste time chewing all of it.  I’ll still get all the nutrients I need from it, as well as be able to save time and energy.  It will also push me towards a raw diet, which is supposedly the best possible diet around, seeing as the foods are not destroyed by cooking.  Now all I have to do is buy a blender.  I feel it will be a worthwhile investment, though. 

I may even eat this sort of concoction two or three times a day for optimal health.  It’s a much better alternative than a burger or chicken parmesan, with much less calories as well.  I’ll test out different recipes and see what works for me.  I may even throw in a piece of chocolate (for the antioxidants).  Wouldn’t be a bad idea.

I cannot believe how much time it takes to eat an orange, especially one of the navel variety.  It’s like a marathon and it is similar to eating a pomegranate, but nowhere near as frustrating.  Eating a pomegranate was impossible, as I only cut it in half and then said, “I’m done.”  I did not want to spend six and a half hours getting into that thing.  But I was under the impression that oranges are not very time-consuming, but I was dead wrong.  Maybe it’s just the navel variety of oranges, and the fact that they were on sale for 25 cents each, maybe that all contributed to this arduous task.  I ended up buying four of them on Friday night, but I only ate one so far and that was today. 

The skin was a pain to get off, especially because there was still this white pulpy stuff all around the orange.  That must have tkaen me five minutes or so and then I started shaving off some of the pulp with a knife.  I had most of it off on one side, so I decided to take a bite of it to see if it was any good.  It was a taste explosion.  So good, so great, so wonderful.  But I decided to slice it up as I go, slicing off each piece as I wanted it.  I ended up spitting out a lot of the extra pulp as it does not taste particularly good, but I did swallow some of it as well as chewed it into submission.  When I got halfway through the bastard, I was thinking, “I’m only halfway done.  this could be a long day.”  But I pressed on.  I almost cut my finger at least seven times, but noticed it quick enough to get away from the knife.  But I eventually finished it and it left me feeling quite full and satisfied, so I decided to make it my breakfast.  It took me about a half hour to consume…

Here is the reason I feel it was on sale for so cheap:  There is a time investment that is coupled with the low price.  Time is more valuable than money, so I’m feeling like I was duped here.  I can eat an apple in ten minutes, a kiwi in five, some celery sticks in five to ten, but fruits like a pomegranate and oranges/grapefruits take me at least a half hour, with the POM being way longer.  The taste is extraordinary, but the time investment is not.  The time it takes for me to devour something of that magnitude could be spent pursuing other endeavors.  But I guess this is the way one must eat if he/she wants to live a healthy life.  I can get used to it, I must get used to it.  It’s not a hard pill to swallow, but it can take away from my other activities.

I am going to make it a goal of mine to eat three servings of vegetables, three servings of fruit, and at least one serving of nuts each day, preferably all raw.  I may have a soup every now and then, but the goal here is to completely revitalize the nutrients in the foods I’m taking in.  I had never really taken into consideration the damage that’s done to cooked food in the process of cooking.  Although I cannot forsee myself taking cooked food completely out of my life, to eat it as minimally as possible would definitely be a good goal to follow, but then I have to define minimal and possible.  Last night, at work, I was riddled with temptations from coworkers:  “Do you want a piece of pizza?  How about a chocolate bar?”  I said, “No thank you, I just ate.”  I think the best way to go about doing this is to always have a snack on hand.  Something like a pear or some brccoli/celery so that you’re not tempted by other things because you have something at your disposal to steer you away from the “devil foods.”

Another thing that’s been bothering me is dairy products.  They taste decent, but they wreak havoc on my stomach and digestive system to the point I feel lousy when I wake up the next day.  It’s probably best to avoid them as much as possible as well.  Not to mention the cholestorol and high saturated fat content in most of these products, but it’s more the destruction of them that get to me.  They boil these products and mess up the chemistry of it just so it has a longer shelf life.

In a post about whether or not I want to go raw, located here, I talk about how it may be worth a shot trying it out for awhile, but there are so many external pressures in life that totally take away from your attempt, like going out to eat with family.  People are going to wonder why you’re getting just a salad and all that.  “Why don’t you want to eat like a man?”  Things like that.  But that is not really a problem, just a proposed one.  It hasn’t actually happened to me, but the very thought of it, for some reason, can make me change my diet back to cooked foods.  I’ll have to start figuring out solutions to this problem.  I’ll post in the future about this conundrum.  If that’s how you spell that word.  Later.

I just read an article called The Medium vs. The Message on Steve Pavlina’s site. It explained how some people define themselves through a job title or as a blogger, which is empty in itself as defining yourself as a medium and not by your message is very limiting because you don’t really show the value you provide by doing this. If you say, “I’m a lawyer,” you’re not really giving a concrete example of who you are. You’re more saying the medium in which you work. And this is something that can give a false representation of who you are and what you do, and will be an empty shell because a medium in general is empty without a message to fill it. I wake up much earlier than I used to. I’ve heard so much how waking up early is so good for you, so I decided to make it a habit. Eight o’clock right now is the time I wake up. However, waking earlier than that may inhibit my sleep time at night, so for now I’m going to stick with eight o’clock or if I wake up earlier, then. It wasn’t that hard to do this, either. I just set an alarm away from my bed, so it forces me to get up and go over to turn it off. I use a cell phone alarm, so I never really know what time it is, so if I wake up, I get up, oblivious to the time. As long as it’s not dark outside, I’m okay. I can usually fight off a cold or any other sickness now because I’ve become more immune due to my new habits, but right now I am a little sick. It’s the first time in maybe eight or nine months this has happened, so it’s just a freak accident, I think. But I’ve been pretty healthy in that regard and I have to credit it not just to my diet, but my mental state of being. I have been at peace and have been relaxed for a long time now and it’s really helped my creativity in a large way. I’ve totally gotten rid of the “rat race” mentality and focused primarily on doing what comes natural to me. So far so good… What does this mean about the message vs. the medium? i feel that what I do has to do with different aspects of my life. If you limit yourself to defining yourself from one aspect of your life (i.e. your job), then you neglect other parts of your life, I guess I’ll say. But all these businesspeople say you should pick a focused niche when doing your career… That’s only true in a profession where everyone is a carbon copy of everyone else and there’s so much normality it would make me vomit. You are unique, so you should bring your unique capablilities and personality to everything you do. Have a nice day. So as I use the blogging medium to express myself and show that if you limit yourself to just one medium or define yourself by that medium, then you’re not really telling the whole story. If someone comes up to you and says, “I’m a teacher,” does that really explain their entire existence? Does it give you any insight into the kind of person they are? It may give some sort of insight, but it will not allow you to really know what these people live for. Another thing is that using the medium to define yourself limits you from realizing how to use your message in other ways. If you’re constantly reinforcing the lawyer medium and you get a chance to do something else that’s not related to lawyering, and it would most likely be a good experience, then you may not choose to do it because it’s not in harmony with your job title. This is why I find that when people ask me what I do for a living, I simply say, “I stinulate minds and try to make people think, while at the same time laugh.” I’ve been into personal growth for awhile, ever since I had a brain tumor. That was the first spark of growth that started this thing. Then I grew a beard, and now I’m starting to grow internally. And it’s a pretty rapid pace. But I enjoy it to some extent. The place in which I feel it’s really made a difference is in my clarity of thinking and being able to write for hours without being bored. I don’t succumb to the usual mental distractions that plague all of us at one time or another. It’s a great feeling so far. But it’s more than that. I’m starting to make quantum leaps forward in many areas. I’ve drastically improved my diet and eat a variety of fruits and vegetables I would have never tried before. I’m hooked on kiwis. I also have been eating smarter, meaning less in calories, but more in nutrients. I’ve even looked into an all-raw diet in the near future if I ever want to try it.

 Edit:  it seems like every time I put a link on any blog post, it erases half of my post, so the rest of it was mysteriously lost in the ether.  The basic message was that there is no job title for your life.  You are a unique person and you bring a unique quality to everything you do, so don’t limit yourself by calling yourself by your job title, but by the kind of person you are.  Now, if I could only figure out how to stop this inherent depletion of data from continuing.  I’ll most likely have to start typing these in a Microsoft Works Document, which is actually just as risky.  But at least I’ll have a dual copy of it. 

So the main message is to be yourself and don’t let labels define yourself.  No label can be put on the vast experiences you’ve had that are not like anyone else’s.  If you can remember that, I’ve done my job.  If you can’t, you may want to look into memory improvement techniques…

Okay, so I took a nap today.  Not to mention I kind of liked it.  And I’ll probably be up all night now.  Is that necessarily a good thing?  I like to think so.  Here’s what I’m thinking:  If I sleep maybe six hours a night, wake up earlly, and nap right before I go to work around 2 PM for maybe a fifteen minute span, I can effectively increase my awake time by more than two hours.  That’s not a bad idea at all if I think about it.  It’s a form of biphasic sleep I think, but I feel like if I start waking up earlier, I can go for a jog/walk, eat a big breakfast, which is always beneficial, and work on my array of projects I’m currently creating.  If I spend maybe fifteen to twenty minutes napping around 1 PM, I can effectively get my sleep requirements by sleeping less.

But I have to have a reason for doing so.  I’m considering working out again.  Just to increase my strength somewhat and be able to do things easier.  I want to meet my physical body again, as we’ve lost touch, except when I’m at work.  Tomorrow I plan to wake up around 7 AM or so, go to the health club in my development, which opens tomorrow, do some weight lifting and cardio work, then come home, eat a big breakfast, work on some comedy, mostly scriipts and then get working on developing the book I have this idea for.  It’s a book based on creativity and allowing ideas to come to you when they do and not rushing them.  It will also have to do with relaxation and stuff like that, which will allow more creative ideas to flow to you.  I really don’t know how much I can say about this, but it will relate to all different kinds of situations.  It will be a book about living a more creative life in all aspects possible. 

I’m really looking forward to writing a book about this and I feel if I can wake up a bit earlier and get working on myself extensively as well as writing this book, which I hope to finish by the end of the year or so, I will be able to be more productive while essentially not stressing to get things done in what will seem like a scarcity of time.  I want to increase the amount of time I have in each day so I can spend it in a variety of ways.  I feel if I can incorporate some sort of routine into my life that starts early, I’ll be setting a positive pattern for the rest of my life.  Also, I want to start getting to bed earlier, maybe 10-11 PM.  It’s not that I’m tired at that time, it’s just there’s really nothing to do during those hours.  Before I stopped watching TV, I used to watch TV.  Now I spend it doing mindless activities online that I don’t even remember the next morning, so what’s the point of doing them?  I feel that if I can change the waking/sleeping hours, I’ll be able to really focus on comedy at decent hours and not have to feel stressed and trying to get things done so fast, because stress and a feeling of time scarcity leads to an inhibition in creativity, as I’m sure we all know.  I’m searching for a title for the book as well, so I’ll brainstorm some ideas.  I’m not going to rush anyting, though.  If one day I don’t feel like writing or don’t feel like working out or whatever, I won’t.  I just can’t let it become a pattern.  I don’t think it will be a big problem anyway.

I’m working on some creative comedy as well.  I want to create a show that will be very absurd, but it will also be very funny.  I may pitch it to someone and see what they think and eventually pitch it to some network once I get the groundwork done.  I’ve got what I want it to be, so I just need to build a foundation underneath it.  A good foundation is key because without one, it will be hard for the show to stand on its own.  I’m going all out into this, although it will be in a relaxing way. 

A sidenote:  I’ve been intending for more money to come into my life, so I’m sure you’re familiar with the Deal or No Deal lucky case game.  I don’t really watch the show, but I enter ten times online in the lucky case game every time the show airs with a shot at winning $10000 dollars, which would certainly have me on my way to getting enough to live independently without having to get a job.  This will also allow me to do what I love, whether or not it makes me money.  That will be a fine day.  So that’s what’s going on.  I’ll be going to bed around 1 AM tonight as I took a nap, but tomorrow starts the new sleep schedule.  I’ll see how it works and fill everyone in!

I have been reading a lot of different websites about a lazy way to success and it really inspired me to think about how I look at success and how we view work vs. fun. Here is what I came up with, but it’s not complete yet:

People think that they only way to success is through hard work. Hard work. That doesn’t sound very good, does it? Hard work is not something anyone looks forward to, I’m sure. All of these things I’ve been reading have said that it’s not working hard that grants success, but working from your passion, your strengths. And enjoying every step of the way. Enjoy the process. Don’t set your happiness off in the distant future. Enjoy the path itself. This is why people have so much trouble grasping success. Success isn’t some external validation of your talents, success is inside of yourself. If you are happy, healthy, and comfortable and you do what you enjoy every day and you avoid doing the things you hate to do, you are successful in your own right.

The whole thinking about success is usually given to someone who makes a lot of money and it’s true to some extent if the person who has the money isn’t miserable and didn’t have to step over a hundred people to achieve that success. If you want true success, you have to harmonize yourself with the world and you don’t want to step over anyone to become successful. A truly successful person will try to make it so everyone can achieve the same level of success. People who are successful are not taken aback by external circumstances very much because e their level of inner peace is so grand that it rivals anything that will come in its path.

Here’s a side note on the nature of this blog: I know this blog hasn’t been “funny” very much lately, but it’s only because I’m going through some major life shifts mentally and physically and I’m coming into myself much more than I even have before. I’m learning constantly about various subjects and I’m enjoying myself so much in self-exploration that the joy I have is better than any joke I could tell right now. So, if you come to this website for a cheap laugh, you will most likely be disappointed. But if you want to get a look inside someone who is very funny, but also very insightful and intuitive, you will enjoy this blog. My previous blog tried to start out as a comedy blog as well, but it eventually became the same kind of philosophical, purpose-driven blog. If you want to read it, the link is here.

My next step for this blog is the arduous task of linking blog posts together at the bottom of each entry. I don’t know how long this will take me, but I’ve got an entire life to do this. It’s one of those things where I wish I would have done it as I go, but I just didn’t. So now I have to go through over 100 posts or so and link them to other posts synonymously and it will probably take months. But “the time is going to pass anyway.” That’s one of my favorite quotes from Steve Pavlina. It’s so true it almost begs for you to get off your ass and do something.

But I’m feeling good, feeling great, about the way the blog is progressing. I like how I usually can come up with at least five or so a week and it only takes me maybe a half-hour to forty-five minutes to write a post of this length or more. I’m writing for both myself and the people who read it. This blog is definitely a tool for expression of self and sharing new ideas, or old ones with a different spin on them, to the world.

But I’m not going to do anything overkill. I’ve got plenty of time to get this all done. There are no deadlines. I don’t have to rush. I may even buy a hammock, as I mentioned in a previous post. So, if this blog ever does become successful, it will have done so in a lazy way. And I appreciate that. Being a Type-Z personality, which leades to more relaxations,  is quite a great way to go through life. Now all I have to do is find a lazy way to support myself financially. Maybe I’ll become a freelance journalist/writer. It’s definitely what I love to do. Why would I be writing this right now if I didn’t enjoy it? It’s not like I have to meet a quota or anything.

I know that often my posts don’t have a narrow focus, but you know, neither do I. So I want to share with you a story about a fruit I bought yesterday. Think of it as a post within a post. You’ve seen picture within picture on TV and if you’re familiar with programming, your familiar with nested loops, so here we go:

I’m scared as hell. I’ve heard so much about the health benefits of pomegranates, so yesterday, after some of my co-workers convinced me, I bought one for $2.50. A high price, but I figured it would be worth it. I also heard that it’s a challenge to eat one. So I figured I’d better research it. It turns out that you have to do all these steps and the juice is so potent it will stain anything it touches and it’s recommended to eat it naked. But it even stains your skin, so you’d better eat it as part of an out-of-body-experience. So, there it is, sitting on my countertop, taunting me, laughing in my face. It knows I don’t want to be up to the challenge. But I have to know. I have to know if it’s as good as people say it is. Supposedly it takes almost an hour to consume. So I may wait until Wednesday to eat it because at least I’ll have the whole day to myself. I may have to quit my job if I like them enough because it will probably take five to six hours out of my week. I’ll update you on that situation later.

Well, it’s about time for me to do something, although I’m not sure what. It certainly won’t be writing on this blog. I’ll add links to this post before it goes out, and I’m done writing here for the day. I’ve got to go to work today, but I most likely won’t work to hard. It’s a good thing I get paid by the hour and not by how hard I work because right now, there really is no motivation to work hard anyway. Okay, I’ve rambled long enough. Peace.

I love going to bad movies.  Not just the run-of-the-mill bad movies, but the ones that Ebert and Roepper chopped their thumbs off.  The ones they use for torture in terrorist death camps.  Those are the movies I like to go see.  You know why?  Because if something is bad, I can talk to the people there with me about how bad it is.  It’s hilarious.  It’s like, “Hey, ths movie is awful, isn’t it?”  “Yeah, it sucks.”  And eventually, we go get our money back, not sit through the entire thing because I don’t give a shit how it ends.  All I care about it having the whole theater to myself.  I like to throw candy all over the place and yell random stuff out.  I remember when I went to go see, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  What an awful movie!  I couldn’t believe how bad it was.  And then there’s Taladega Knights.  Oh, my God, was it awful.  I spent the whole movie laughing at how bad the plots and just how bad the acting was.  It was funny because it wasn’t funny at all.  I spent more time complaining at how bad it was, it made me laugh.  I hate people who actually like those movies, though.  I think I know what it is.  They’re trying to justify spending the money to go see it.  That’s a bunch of total crap.  If you didn’t like it, don’t lie to yourself and say you did just to make the expense sensical. 

I love going to bad movies, though.  Ones that people wouldn’t ever even bother going to, ever.  Although, the value of renting bad movies is pretty good as well.  Like if you were ever to rent Master of Disguise, you’ll know what I’m talking about.  The worst movie, ever, I think.  So bad and so worthless you had to laugh at the sheer volume of it, that someone would actually think this thing up and actually think it would do well at the box office.  That’s the real comedy in it all. 

I also hate people who say that generic products taste just as good as the name brand ones.  Like at a supermarket they have too versions of Frosted Flakes.  One of them is the Kellogg’s brand, and Tony the Tiger says, “They’re great!”  On the generic brand they have a cockroach saying, “They’re okay!”  And it’s a smaller box.  And they taste terrible.  Then there’s the people who say, “They taste the same.”  You know what the name for those people is?  Cheap bastard.  But stores are going to the absolute limit.  They actually have a generic brand of Gogurt and Triscuits.  Can you believe this?  The Gogurt is called “Grab ‘Ems” and the Triscuits are called “Wheat ‘Ems.”  How stupid is that?  They feel they have to compete with those companies, too?  I’m waiting for generic caviar or something.  Mmm mmm, the taste of generic fish eggs for 99 cents. 

I can’t wait until I get a hammock, though.  That is going to be so sweet.  I can just relax in it all day.  It’s like the ultimate relaxation furniture, if that’s what it’s classified as.  I wonder how much they cost, because I hear they’re pretty popular.  If I could get one that’s really comfortable, like the ones they make in Mexico, I’d be all set.  I had a friend in colllege who had his own dorm room and he had a gigantic hammock in there.  I was like, “Hot deal, man.  That’s awesome.”  What’s better than having one.  It’s so much better than stressing my back in a chair.  I’m going to check some prices on one and I’ll get one if it’s not too expensive.  I don’t need an iPod, I need a hammock.  Then I can practice Hammockology and become fucking awesome.  Well, let me know if you know how much a hammock costs.  I’m sure I can get a good one for less than $200 dollars.  But we’ll see.  See you later, peace.

Perscription drugs are crazy.  They always claim to have a new disease out, and then they make some drug for it, which in turn creates side effects.  The side effects are usually worse than the condition you’re treating, so now you have to take more perscription drugs to treat the side effects, which in turn have more side effects.  And the cycle continues until you have every perscription drug on the market, wallowing in thousands of pills a day for the rest of your life.  So why do we put up with this?  Most of these drugs are just a quick fix to a problem.  There’s usually a bigger, better solution that people just don’t want to commit to, so they take a pill and it temporarily eases their pain.  But after awhile, they become used to the drug, and then they need to up the dosage to get the same effect, which means they have to buy more and the drug companies, mainly the FDA, gets all the profits.  I just don’t see how they can live with themselves. 

If you get on a drug that helps you with depression, it causes weight gain, so now you have to take a pill that induces weight loss, but that makes your heart beat too fast, so now you have to take heart medication, which causes inpotence.  So now you have to take Viagra, which leads to you having sex like crazy and eventually suffering a massive heart attack.  So now  you’re even more depressed, so you get put on Paxil, which causes hair loss, so now you have to get rogaine, which causes paranoid thoughts.  So they end up putting you on some anti-psychotic drug and now you just walk around like a zombie all day, all because you started out depressed.  Your perscrition bill is over $500 a month and you don’t even realize it because you’re all zonked out because of all the pills you’re taking. 

Then you buy into the whole Life Alert thing.  You know, that thing that if you ever fall or have a heart attack while no one’s around, you can press a button and the ambulance will show up at your house.  That’s another 50 or so a month that you give away.  You never use it, except that one time you rolled over in bed and accidentally pressed it.  The ambulance ride costs you seventy dollars, and you didn’t even ride in it.  It’s messed up.  But we all accept it.  And i don’t know why.  I think we need to stand up and do something.

Did you know that the FDA has a monopoly on any cure for anything?  They state that the only thing that can cure a condition is a drug.  When they know damn well that other things can cure people.  What about herbs and stuff?  What about good foods and a healthy diet?  Why would those cure anything?  They’re not drugs.  What a bunch of morons.  Like a pill is going to cure your obesity.  The only thing it might do is lower your self-esteem. 

 Then there’s the king of it all:  Restless Leg Syndrome.  You’ve got to be kidding me.  Supposedly this is a syndrome where right before you’re about to fall asleep, your legs start moving uncontrollably.  Come on.  And they actually have a pill for this.  I’ve heard of some fake diseases in my day, but this takes the cake.  If your legs move at night, you should tie them to the fucking bedposts.  Don’t spend money on pills that could just as well be spent on some good shackles.  I’m not going to push this point any further, but it just doens’t make any fucking sense.

Then there’s the Social Anxiety Disorder.  These are people who are afraid of people.  They’re afraid of social situations.  Get over it!  You don’t need a fucking pill to solve your problems for you, unless that pill is Get Over It.  If you’re afraid of talking to someone in public, then go out and do it.  Eventually, you’ll get over your fear.  Don’t think a stupid fucking pill is going to solve your problems for you.  It’s just a circular half centimeter in diameter drug. 

I guess that’s all I really have to say about them.  Too many side effects, too many pills.  Somehow to control all our problems, or so it seems.  But it’s when you get to the core of the motivation behind these bastards, you’ll see it all comes down to a bunch of green papers known as money.  So remember that when you see the next drug ad, “Have you ever fallen asleep watching TV?  You could have Dozing Off Syndrome.  here’s a pill that will help.  Side effects include: vomiting, death, SIDS, homicidal thoughts, suicidal thoughts, cancer, kidney failure, herpes, and restless leg syndrome.”  Good night, yall.

Right now, I’m going through this health phase where I’m trying to change my diet in hopes of more energy and vitality.  We all want to be healthy.  That is most people’s number one goal.  But many people never do anything about it.  You want to lose weight but you don’t want to stop going to McDonald’s or Burger King.  You won’t give up soda nor will you admit you’re addicted to sugar or aspartame.  It’s just insane.  People are always looking for some quick fix solution to lose weight or become healthier, but they have to understand it will take a life-altering change in order to lose the weight.  And it’s so much harder to lose weight after it’s been put on.

I’ve read many cases for all different types of diets.  Two of the best ones I’ve dealt with were Sugar Busters and an all-vegan diet.  I’ve actually done Sugar Busters and am working my way towards giving up meat and dairy products.  Sugar Busters was amazing, though.  I lost ten pounds in one month.  And I’m not overweight by any means.  I was average weight before I did that, and now I’m leaner than I’ve ever been.  Basically, what the diet entailed was to cut all sugar out of your diet, to some extent.  You could still eat fruit and vegetables, and some other natural sugars, but no processed, refined foods.  Like white bread, pasta, and other white flour-based foods.  You could eat lean meat, but only very thin cuts.  On this diet, I discovered all kinds of interestiing fruits and vegetables I never tried before and grew to love many, many different ones.  My new favorite fruit is the pluot.  It is amazing, but it’s no longer available at my grocery store.  It’s the juiciest fruit I’ve ever tasted.  I love mangoes as well.  And organic oranges are to die for.  Kiwis are just insanely good and most apples are decent.  I try to eat organic at all costs, mostly because the taste difference is amazing.  And this kind of diet really adds energy to your life.  Believe me.  Or don’t believe me, what do I care?  It’s not like I’m pitching a book or something.  Eat for optimal energy.  That’s all I ask. 

I’ve heard all kinds of cases for a vegan diet as well.  I hear the mental clarity and energy boost is quite amazing.  This is what makes me curious to try it.  There’s also a branch of this diet known was the all-raw diet that supposedly has even more benefits.  The reason that this diet has all these benefits is supposedly because animal products toxify your body and take extra energy to digest.  Some fanatical vegans will even say that when you eat an animal, you are carrying the torture it went through with every bite you take.  That’s possible, but let’s not get into that sort of thing now.  It’s about feeling your best.  If you want to feel better, get more energy, and gain some sort of mental clarity, give this a try.  I’m planning on doing this very soon.  I just have to make that quantum leap.  It will take some practice, but I’m sure in the next year I’ll try it for at least a month.  And from there, I’ll weigh the pros and cons and eventually figure out what it is I need to do. 

The media conditions us to eat unhealthy from a young age.  Look at McDonald’s and Burger King.  They advertise to children and promise them a toy with every meal they eat there.  And once they get one toy, they’re going to want to collect them all.  For me, I used to do that very same thing.  I remember going to McDonald’s when I was a child collecting the toys every once in awhile, but I didn’t go half as often as some of my peers.  This was mostly because my mother knew that that kind of food can cause serious problems.  And I’m glad to this day that I don’t go to places like that hardly at all.  But our nation’s youth is so into that sort of thing.  Fast food because they supposedly don’t have a lot of time.  Soda and sugar-laden juices like Sunny-D because they enjoy the taste better than natural juices and water.  And it’s just sad, but it’s true. Sugar is addictive as hell.  Everybody who’s tried it knows.  It’s just so tasty.  It’s like a taste explosion.  This is why I will never give up fruit.  While they still contain sugar, they also contain specific enzymes that contribute to development of the mind, body, and spirit.

If you give up refined, processed sugar, you may find that you lose maybe five pounds the first week, three pounds the second week, one pound the third week, and then plateau.  And that’s very common.  It’s mostly because the first week is a detoxifying week.  You rid your body of all the toxins that sugar and processed foods had stored inside of you.  It’s something that will slow down, but if you need to lose more weight, I recommend getting of dairy.

Dairy products are awful.  They really don’t do much for you unless they aren’t pasteurized, homogenized, and preserved.  Raw milk is one of the best nutritional assets our country has, but heat it up and cool it back down and you’re talking about something that messes up your mental clarity and influences weight gain.  But whatever you choose to do, do it in a conscious way.  Don’t just swallow the next fad diet.  It could and probably will just work for a little while and then