Comments on: Facebook Fun

By: Dream

Dream — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:01:20 +0000

@Ryan

Add a share tool to the bottom of each post (“socialable”), but more importantly, use stumble upon like crazy, and encourage others to do so as well. Hands down one of the best sources of traffic out there.

Also consider making the home page excerpts of full posts rather than actually having the full posts all on the home page.

And, keep punching away. It takes time to build a readership!

@Erika

Doing “nothing” in terms of exercise is better than what most people consider “exercise”. Doing “nothing” in terms of eating though… eh, depends on your personal preferences then. Doesnt work the same way exercise does though! =)

-Anthony

By: Erika Awakening

Erika Awakening — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:58:13 +0000

And what about, as has been the case for some weeks now, I just feel like doing nothing? Where does the precious art of doing nothing fit into your philosophy? :-p

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:00:49 +0000

Anthony,

You bring up a very good point. Yes responsibility lies in the individual. However, when the people look at a magazine for health information, they are expecting it to be correct. This is my beef with popular media. Yes their goal is to make money, and to be honest I understand completely where they come from. But when making money starts to teeter on the honest and ethical totter, then we have a problem.

- Ryan

Thanks for checking out my blog. Just started it about a month ago. Still in the beginning stages. Any advice?

By: Dream

Dream — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:42:33 +0000

Well said.

I will add though, that the magazines are no more at fault than Mcdonalds is for the condition our country is. They are a business, trying to make money, and should not be blamed for our problems. We are not forced to eat Mcdonalds, soy, corn, wheat, other grains, and so on – and we are not forced to read those magazines, or look to them for a source of “truth”.

The responsibility lies in the individual.

-Anthony

ps- pretty cool blog btw, lookin over it now

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:59:26 +0000

“Extreme Health” is a goal that the majority of people strive to obtain by “recreation”(cardio and chronic, low intensity weight training). Because professional athletes can lift huge weights, run everyday and have a single digit body fat %, we see them as the epitome of being “Extreme Health”. This state of mind has lead all of us, at one point or another, down the wrong path of overall wellness. The fact that professional athletes have superior genetics to everyday people is almost never applied. “If they can look like that, I can look like that” or “because they lift weights or run every day, then I have to too in order to look like that.” By adapting this mentality we have 1) Wasted a lot of time. 2)Put ourselves at risk for injury and 3) In the case of cardio, actually degraded our overall health.

This mental comparison has lead us down a delusional path of what diet and exercise should be. Like you mentioned above, we define our own sense of health. Whether it be freedom from disease, a strong immune system, or lowering the chances of future health problems (joint damage from running everyday), we need to decide based on our own needs and goals in life.

Popular culture leads us to believe that Men’s Health, SHAPE and SELF magazines preach the correct way to exercise or eat if we want to obtain “extreme health”. These mass media outlets have only one goal in mind: money. They do not care if we live lose weight, gain muscle, or live longer.

Extreme health is impossible to define, therefore it is impossible to obtain. We as a culture need to create our own definition of what “health” is. And pursue it based on our own beliefs not what popular culture is telling us.

Keep up the good work,

-Ryan