Gooooooooaaaallll! Or not.

Part of the fitness/nutrition program Jamie and I are following (The Metabolism Advantage) was a section on goal-setting. It said that there were two main types of goals -- result-oriented and behavior-oriented. It also said each type was essential to making progress in health and in life.

One problem. I have no result-oriented goals I can think of. None.

I used to have results-oriented goals. High GPA in college. Get my MBA. Buy a house. Those big things are done with, and my whole focus now is on behavior.

Here's a sample list of the kinds of things I strive for:

• Work hard at my job, while being positive and having fun.
• Love my kids and wife with all my being, even when I don't feel like it.
• Eat well and exercise.
• Learn about people. Listen better and pay more attention.
• Enjoy life. Strive for balance in all things.

There are no results in that list above. It's all behaviors, and I'm totally cool with that. I don't really care whether or not I get a promotion this year... I just want to work hard. I don't care if I develop a rock-hard body with 6% bodyfat... I just want to exercise and eat well because it makes me feel good. I know well enough that I can't control whether my kids become astronauts or window washers... I just want to do my best as a parent.

Some of the self-help gurus may label me lazy or unambitious, and they might be partly right. But mostly I just feel contentment with my life. There are no major hurdles, issues or injustices I have to overcome. I'm just doing my best with each day and letting the results flow naturally. It's a fun place to be.

Personality-type may also come into play here. The stereotypical "Type A" personality is always pushing ahead, and would probably be miserable without goals to strive for. That's not me. In fact, most of the personality tests I've taken have shown me to be a chameleon, or someone who doesn't really fit well into any particular group. I just float from type to type over time.

Perhaps that's why I have no results-oriented goals. I'm not the type of person who forges ahead and overcomes his environment to achieve something. I usually just roll with the environment and let the achievements take care of themselves.

Think of David in the bible. What was he, really? Was he a shepherd, poet, musician, romantic, warrior, king? He was all, of course, and I believe none of them was a charade. He truly was those things, depending on the situation and his stage in life. We all are like that to some degree.

So I'll just keep on truckin' ahead, trying to make sure my daily behaviors are in line with who I want to be. But I really couldn't tell you what results it will lead to, nor do I care to even think about it much.

Houston Miscellany

• Jack is sick again. Congestion and terrible cough that's keeping him awake. He got more antibiotics today (surprised he hasn't drained the world supply yet) and Jamie will probably sleep with Jack in his room tonight. They have a fold-out thing set up in there they can share. She's a good mom, and will surely be tired tomorrow.
• I went to Macy's to buy a pair of jeans today (had a gift card from Xmas). I do this approximately every three years, so it's kinda a big deal. I find jeans I like and I wear them 400 times until they develop holes. Then I wear them more until the holes are in places they shouldn't be. Then I relent and buy a new pair. Today I picked out Calvin Klein relaxed fit, which was the only brand that had my size (33/34, which are always tough to find). They were listed at $70, but were 50% off. Good enough deal, I guess. Imagine my surprise when it rang up at the cashier as a price of $7.44. She checked it twice, but that's all it was. So with sales tax I walked out with great jeans for eight bucks. A few dozen more deals like that and I can start a little side business.

Book Review -- "American Theocracy"

Since I have a good-sized daily commute to and from work, I decided to try a book on CD. "American Theocracy" by Kevin Phillips was the perfect candidate because it was educational, challenging, and way too freakin' long for me to read in the normal book-like fashion. 17CDs later... I finally got through it.

The full title is "American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century." The title pretty much tells the premise of the book. Phillips looked back on world-leading empires throughout history (Rome, Spain, Britain, etc...) and examined the dynamics of these cultures that preceded their downfall. Three common themes came up in his analysis:

1. Too much dependence on a resource that was either scarce, out of the empire's control, or both.
2. Radical religion that eventually worked its way into domestic law and international relations, polarizing the empire's citizens and the rest of the world.
3. Shifting from a manufacturing/production economy to a finance economy, basically trying to manipulate markets to profit from other countries' efficiencies.

He proceeds to illustrate how each of these three factors are already evident in the United States, which is undoubtedly the world's "leading power" today, at least in terms of economy and military. I'll give a brief review of these three sections and then a final wrapup.

Section 1 -- All Oiled Up and Nowhere to Go

The US consumes nearly 25% of the world's oil production today, yet we hold only 5% of the oil supply. This is an inevitable source of tension, and at least partly explains why we have been involved in turmoil in the Middle East for more than a century. There's just too much at stake here at home if we didn't have vast, cheap access to the oil fields of Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, etc...

Two points were most interesting to me in this section:

1. "Peak oil" is less and less debated these days, and is generally accepted as imminent. With the huge growth of China and other countries, demand for oil as an energy source will only continue to skyrocket. And pretty soon production will plateau. Alternative energy sources just aren't ready yet.
2. Iraq was noted as a country with huge oil fields, but also with very low-level technology. In other words, most of the oil in Iraq probably hasn't even been discovered yet. And the field that are known are not being tapped by the best drills and pumps. There are billions of barrels of oil sitting in that country... think it may continue to be a hotbed of conflict?

The historical connections here were mostly to Britain and their heavy use of coal in the 19th century. After making their entire economy dependent on coal, while America's fledgling system was in flux and better able to adapt to oil, the Britains were eventually forced to hold onto old technology while America flourished. Now it is America who sits with power grids, transit systems and suburban city planning that relies on oil far more than any other country. Will we be able to adapt as the resource supply dwindles, or as more efficient energy sources become available?

I liked this section, and thought the analyses and connections were accurate, but it didn't really scare me. I am an optimist when it comes to the human race, and while change is never easy, I think we will solve these energy issues as they arise.

Section 2 -- A Revival Up In Here

Welcome to my least favorite section. Not because I'm a Christian and felt attacked or defensive, because I didn't. This was by far the longest part of the book, and the least reliant on analysis and objective research. He clearly has some big, big bones to pick with religion and the Republican Party. Hey, I've got issues with both groups too, but there's a time to show some restraint. One of those times is when you're writing a big, visible book that's supposed to be impartial in its approach.

His historical tracings of Protestant and Catholic groupings were excellent. I daresay that most regular church attendees today don't even really know where their church came from and how it was formed. It was fascinating to follow the changing tides through the decades of Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist and Episcopalian histories. I've read histories from Christian authors that weren't nearly as clear and accurate as Kevin Phillips, an atheist, achieved here.

Unfortunately, he soon descends into tirades against rednecks, right-wing extremists and Republicans, and eventually says that all three groups are one and the same, and that they're taking over the country. He says that a religious culture based on "Left Behind" theology will inevitably make bad decisions, banking on the rapture to save them all from earthly consequences.

I think his historical connection for this section was mostly Rome and Spain, but both were poorly done. I totally understand how an evangelical approach to international relations is generally a bad idea (Crusades, anyone?), yet the parallels with Rome and Spain just didn't seem very strong. Overall there was some good stuff in this section, but it was an arduous and painful process to siphon it from the glut of bitter attack on religion in general.

Section 3 -- Show Me The Money

Another interesting section, although not very convincing as a whole. I agree that the soaring national debt, combined with low levels of personal savings and a potentially shaky currency, all make for a scary economic mix. But I don't buy his argument that our shift to a Finance economy, no longer strong in manufacturing, signals our doom.

Alan Greenspan was with me on this one (he always followed my advice). One thing you gotta like about the service and finance sectors -- they consume a lot less oil than the manufacturing sector. And the profits are usually better, and competitive advantage can often be sustained for longer.

The reminders about government spending and personal savings were timely and important. We've gotta balance the budget, both in Washington and at home. But I don't really think that Korea is going to overtake us because they can make plastic monkey toys cheaper and better than we can.

I think his historical connection here was with the Dutch in the 1700s or something, but it all sounded like jibba jabba by this point. You try listening to 15 hours of this stuff and see how you feel.

Wrapup

In the end, this really was the perfect introduction to books on CD. And I got a lot more out of my commutes for a month than I normally would have. Somehow, listening to Phil Collins' "Sussudio" and commercials for laser hair removal just don't seem to make me any smarter.

But I never could have actually read that book. Way too long and dry.

What world do YOU live in?

I've recently gained a deeper appreciation for the fact that each of us lives in a unique universe. Your universe is shaped by your perspective and the way you experience things. So is mine. Nobody has quite the same perspective, therefore none of us lives in quite the same place. Yet somehow we have all been interacting for many, many generations and haven't annihilated ourselves yet. Good job, us!

The fitness quest continues to go well -- I'm back to deadlifting more than my bodyweight (200+ lbs) for reps, just in the second week of training. Definitely possible to be lifting over 300 pounds by the end of March... muscle memory is a beautiful thing! And the nutrition plan is the best I've ever done. We find ourselves not even using all of our available "cheat" meals, because we like the food and we like how we feel.

Back to the perspective thing. My time in the gym has provided me a chance to observe some interesting people. Here are a few examples of people I've encountered recently, with guesses about what world they were living in when I met them. Yes, I realize and love the irony here... this is all based on my perspective, so I could be wrong about the whole thing. My blog, my rules, my hypocrisy. :)

#1 -- Fit Man

A guy was talking with his "homeboys" in the gym when he lifted his arms out wide and declared, "I am the fittest guy in here!". Oooookay. What exactly does that mean? What's the definition of "fittest"? He sure as heck wasn't the strongest guy in there, nor was he the fastest. Maybe he had lots of endurance, but does that make a marathon runner more "fit" than a decathlete?

His comment was totally meaningless, but even if it was possible to see who was the fittest, and even if he was numero uno, it still shows amazing amounts of ego and self-doubt. His world, at least at that moment, was a world filled with people who were competing with him.

#2 -- Dubious Inquisitor

When I left the YMCA on Tuesday, I was approached in the parking lot by a woman. She started asking me lots of questions about the YMCA -- its service, cleanliness, safety, equipment, crowd levels, and on and on...

I patiently and honestly answered every one of her questions, but each answer seemed to make her more stern, and cause her eyebrows to drop lower. It appeared she didn't really believe me, and was looking for any excuse possible to not join the YMCA. I didn't have any dirt on the place, so I didn't fit her agenda. She finally thanked me gruffly and went inside. I have no idea if she is now a YMCA member.

Her world, at that moment, was a place she already had totally figured out. She just wanted one other person to agree with her so she could feel good about her assertions.

#3 -- Grey Snow Woman

The free weights part of the YMCA is on the second floor, with windows peering out onto a new walking path that was recently built. The walkway is very nice, with gentle curves and slopes, landscaping, ponds and fountains, the whole bit.

Anyway, I look out the window during a rest between sets, and there's a woman walking out there and using ski poles. To walk. On the sidewalk. In Houston, Texas. At first I thought the answer was simple -- she's clearly unbalanced and off her meds. Next thing you know she'll probably hurl a pole at an imaginary unicorn while using the other pole as a sword to defeat the squirrel army as she sings "Life in the Fast Lane" by the Eagles.

But I was wrong. This was just my very imperfect perspective jumping to conclusions.

Instead, she's obviously hip to the latest trends. "Skiwalking' is all the rage in Europe. Her world is fast-paced and changing, and she's not about to fall behind.

#4 -- Mr. Redneck Immunity

Last night Jamie and I got to go to the Houston Rockets basketball game. Both of us enjoyed it greatly, although we would miss some of the on-court action due to our incessant people-watching. We just love observing people, especially in crowds or groups. And adults are also fascinating to us, since we spend most of our time and obervational energy on kids. And here at the Toyota Center were more than 15,000 adults... and we didn't have the kids with us.

Yet we need not look far for interesting people. On the row right in front of us was a guy, maybe 30 years old, who wanted to pass for 20. His jeans had fashionable holes in all the right places, his earring was just right, the hair was frosted, and the shirt... ooooh, the shirt. It was pale blue, slightly worn and frayed, and he had the collar popped up, Elvis-style.

Common enough, sure. But when the collar was up, you could see large letters on the underside of the collar, only visible when that sucker was straight up poppin'. And the letters spelled the following genius: P-R-E-P-S-T-E-R. We were sitting right behind The Prepster! What fortune!

I don't know exactly what world this guy lives in. And I'm not sure I want to. That's my right and my perspective, and in my world Mr. Prepster will always be on the fringe, sort of blurry and unknown. :)

#5 -- Slave or Seer?

I saved the best for last, and this one's serious. In fact, I'm going to give you a warning right now:

If you don't have 10 minutes available to watch the following video all the way through, please don't start it. Come back when you can finish in one sitting.

I'll post the video below, but if it doesn't work for you, the link is here. And the girl's blog is here. She has an amazing story and perspective on the world, and only in the 21st century, and in a handful of countries, would she even get a chance to tell it. How many thousands before her never got the chance?

You will want to skip forward after the first minute or so -- don't do it. Stick with it; there's a reason for the pacing of the clip.



Questions I Now Ask Myself

When I'm with Jamie, am I really with her? Am I paying attention, aware of her presence? Am I communicating love and appreciation? How about when I'm with Jack or Samantha? Do they really know I'm there, in the moment with them, or do I go through the motions too much? How is my view of the world shaping their view?

When they get older, what do I want them to see?

And what about everyone else? And the planet itself? Do I remember that we're all connected in a completely mysterious and amazing way? That somehow, even after the chaos, drudgery and isolation of suburban life... we're all in this thing together?

Book Review -- "The Maker's Diet"

My dad graciously gave me this book when we stayed with them for Thanksgiving, and I finally finished it recently. Here's a little background on the book:

The author is a doctor who almost died of severe Crohn's disease as a teenager -- his body had simply lost the ability to absorb nutrients from food. He is Jewish and eventually returned to the strict Jewish diet and hygenic lifestyle that's recorded in the Old Testament (mostly the book of Leviticus). By hygenic I don't mean anitseptic by any means; it's more of a "return to the earth" and letting the good bacteria and flora work in our system. Within months he had fully recovered his health, and now he claims that his diet, supplement and hygiene regimen can help lose weight, regain energy and even cure disease.

What I Liked

He seems very passionate and geniune about his journey, and a lot of the science behind his recommendations is solid. I thought several of his points about diet and hygiene were right on:

• Fatty foods aren't killing Americans... refined carbohydrates are. The human body just wasn't designed to run optimally with insulin spikes all day long. Look up some statistics about the Type-2 diabetes epidemic in our country if you don't believe me.
• A good mix of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and even some saturated fats (animal fat, mostly) are essential for good health. Dietary fat doesn't necessarily make you fat, just like dietary cholesterol hasn't really been shown to raise blood cholesterol. The human body is weird like that.
• Vegetables are essential. Period. Eat lots of colors and lots of textures; variety is good.
• Meat is very good. Beef, poultry and turkey are all good sources of protein, healthy fats and tons of quality phytonutrients (this means it's neither a vitamin nor a mineral). It's important to avoid meat from animals fed a steady diet of corn, antibiotics and growth hormones. Grass-fed animals produce far superior meat.
• Milk is okay, but the healthy reputation is a little overblown. Again, organic is key. My family only buys Horizon-brand milk for this reason (they promise no artificial hormones in their cows). Wanna take a guess what type of hormones you have to give a cow to produce extra milk? Estrogens, the same hormone that helps women lactate. Do you think any of those cows fed tons of estrogen hormones, far beyond normal levels, might pass some of that on through their milk?
• Exercise should mimic life. Not many of us need to walk or jog dozens of miles a week, but almost everybody uses some basic muscle functions to do their daily activities. Strength, endurance, mobility and balance are all important parts of a well-rounded, functional body.

What I Wasn't Crazy About

• He proposes an end to vaccines given to children, saying that they are the primary cause of the rise of allergies. This is possible, but unproven, and there could be dozens or hundreds of other environmental factors in the increase of people with severe allergies. I have a pretty bad peanut allergy, as does my daughter. We'll still take that over diptheria or pertussis.
• Sometimes it felt like he was saying that technology is our real problem, while providing no alternatives or suggestions. So maybe computers, air travel and electricity all wreak havoc on the human body. Whether or not it's true, that's not a particularly useful statement to me unless I'm planning on joining an Amish fellowship.
• The last 50 pages of the book are long lists of businesses that provide foods, supplements, natural clothing, soaps, etc... It felt much more like paid-for advertising than a helpful reference.
• His half-dozen or so "real-life stories" of people whose lives were changed by The Maker's Diet felt pretty forced, and they weren't really corroborated in any way. Real names weren't used and no other witnesses were cited, so I have no idea if the stories are genuine or not.

Overall it was a useful book, although people who aren't bible fans will be put off very quickly by the author's reasoning (using Leviticus as a guide for 21st century life).

Tidbits from Houston

Here's the latest:

Health front

Jack's fever was 104.7 tonight. He's been fighting cold/congestion symptoms for more than two weeks, and had some low-grade fever to go with it, but nothing this high. The doctor gave us yet another antibiotic prescription and Jack is sleeping now (9:30 pm). I swear, this boy has had more medicine in 19 months than some people have in a lifetime. I'm just glad we live in a time and place where this type of care is available.

Our fitness plan continues to go well. Jamie didn't get her workout in today due to taking care of the human inferno, but life happens and the past year or two has taught us how to take these things better in stride. She still cooked a delicious and healthy dinner, and made enough to give a full meal to a family at our church who just had their third baby.

Sleep front

At 5:30 a.m. today a super-loud alarm started blaring in our house. In three years here, we'd never heard that sound before. We have an alarm system that goes off if a door or window is opened... but it wasn't that alarm. We have smoke detectors that go off sometimes... it wasn't that sound either. This was far louder and more obnoxious, more of a wailing than a "beep".

So there we are in the hallway outside the kids' bedroom, with Jamie waving a pillow at the alarm box (in case it was a smoke detector) and me scratching my head incredulously (that word's for you, Lost Dog). Samantha pokes her head out of her room to ask what's going on, and Jamie tells her it's okay and we'll make the noise stop. Jack sleeps right through it -- I don't know how. I've been to two Metallica concerts, and they weren't as loud as this alarm.

I finally decide to just tear the cover off the alarm box and remove the batteries, if there are any. It's clear that the house isn't on fire and we're not in a dire CO2 situation or anything. The cover wont' come off... it's screwed on. Jamie goes downstairs to get the screwdriver and notices that the alarm panel is lit up. She enters our passcode and the noise stops.

Turns out the issue was our phone line -- it's been having issues lately and finally came totally disconnected at 5:30 a.m. Unfortunately the alarm system is connected to the phone line, so I guess this was our alert that we were "off the grid" for the security company. At least now I know that if a burglar ever cuts our phone line in an attempt to disable the alarm, all he'll end up doing is setting off an even louder alarm.

We obviously weren't going back to sleep after that episode, so we just started the day 30 minutes earlier than normal.

Off the front end

Saw several interesting drivers on the roads today:

1. A man in a Chevy Malibu somehow turned right in front of me while simultaneously talking on the cell phone and picking his nose. I'm still not sure how he did it.
2. A woman cut me off as well, driving a huge SUV with three kids and a dog inside. And she was on the cell phone and messing with her lipstick.
3. A woman was just sitting at a blinking red light on a four-lane, low-traffic road. I saw her stopped at the light about a quarter-mile ahead of me, and she was still there as I pulled up next to her. She was still there as I pulled away. She finally hit the gas a few seconds later. Maybe she never quite learned the whole "blinking red light" rule, so she was paralyzed by confusion. Did I mention she was also on a cell phone? (Note: I did look over at her to make sure she was OK... she was fine. Just stumped.)

Apparently most people in Houston have far better things to do with their time and brain than drive vehicles. I'm cool with that, but please don't do all those things while you're driving a vehicle.

Verbal fencing front

Tonight's conversation with Samantha:

Samantha: Daddy, what do you want to be when you grow up again?

Me: You mean like another job? Hmmm, I don't know. What do you think?

Samantha: You could be a doctor, or a firefighter or a teacher. Daddy, do you know how to start a fire?

Me: Yes I do.

Samantha: Good, you could be a firefighter then, if you wanted to. (Lowers head and whispers)...Do you know what I want to be?

Me: What?

Samantha: A window washer!

Upfront about the future

I've been trying to post regularly on Mondays and Thursdays and it seems to be working pretty well, so for now that's the plan on blog updates. Next week I'm planning on writing some short reviews of the two books I recently finished (The Maker's Diet and American Theocracy), but something else might take precedence. Hopefully I won't be writing about re-visiting Texas Children's Hospital with a feverish son. :)