self improvement

Enough

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In the pursuit of “fine” to “great,” we chase products. Through no fault of our own, we fall prey to messaging from social media users, algorithms, and expert marketers, urging us that this shampoo or this rug will shift the scales toward enoughness. “This is how the marketplace continues to work,” says Brooke Erin Duffy, an associate professor of communication at Cornell University, “which is by amplifying our inadequacies and insecurities.”

Baked into these social platforms is a natural ecosystem for comparison. In the past, people weighed themselves against celebrities in the media and those within their immediate social circles, Duffy says. Now, we can compare ourselves to the idealized version of millions of strangers online — who may be perpetuating an aesthetic trend inspiring us to buy in order to participate.

How to be enough
Our obsession with self-improvement is making us miserable. https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/24091379/how-to-be-enough-habituation-hedonic-treadmill-comparison

How to be enough.

How to have enough.

Know when enough is enough.

You’re welcome.

Ten Commandments of Emergency Medicine Revisited

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#2 Remember naloxone, glucose, and thiamine (NGT)
Original: Consider or give naloxone, glucose and thiamine
The number of patients presenting with opioid intoxication is growing, and the gentle reversal of patients without severe respiratory depression with naloxone is in the art of medicine – consider starting with 0.4mg and titrate to effect.

In contrast to empiric administration of glucose in the altered or ill patient, rapid assessment of glucose level with point-of-care testing is recommended.

Thiamine deficiency may be less prevalent than previously thought in intoxicated patients, but we now know that giving 100mg of IV thiamine can benefit other malnourished patients, including those with calorie-malnourishment from cancer, gastric bypass, hyperemesis gravidarum, and eating disorders. Personally, I use the ‘T’ of ‘NGT’ to remind myself not to miss alcohol withdrawal.

Ten Commandments of Emergency Medicine Revisited — https://journalfeed.org/article-a-day/2021/ten-commandments-of-em-revisited

Why does this matter? I hear you thinking we underwrite life insurance, we’re not doctors. So true. But if we think like doctors we will get better at what we do by recognizing the subtleties buried within the medical charts we read. Here’s what my eyes/brain picked up.

The bold in the excerpt above are mine to illustrate how the mind of a mortality risk expert works. In Emergency Department records pay attention to the initial treatments provided which in some cases hints to a serious condition impacting mortality. Naloxone and opioids are obvious. But would you have associated the administration of IV thiamine to malnutrition or alcohol withdrawal? I thought so.

So read and research widely. You’ll always find little jewels to improve your skills and to impress your friends with. Or in my case to make Dr. Lee think his old man knows more than he actually does.

Being present to the ones we love – Oklahoman.com

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We all have difficult days and unfulfilled dreams and sometimes need a place of comfort. We have joyful days and want someone to celebrate with us, but if we’re not paying attention, significant moments can be overlooked.

So turn off the television, log off social media, pocket the mobile phone, and if you can’t mute the phone and ignore it, then leave it in the car when you go out to eat. Be present — not just with your ears, but your eyes, as well. Pay attention. Don’t interrupt. Say, “Tell me more or help me understand,” and just listen.

Charlotte Lankard is a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice. Contact her at clankard@opubco.com.

Source: Lankard: Being present to the ones we love | Oklahoman.com

Daily Weigh-Ins Keep Dieters on Track – MedicineNet

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Daily Weigh-Ins Keep Dieters on Track – MedicineNet.

Journal of Obesity — An Open Access Journal.

A two-year Cornell University study found that tracking the results of daily weight checks on a chart helped people lose weight and keep it off.

Sometimes I forget but I try to weigh myself every day.  I keep a log on a Google Sheet.  It is a daily reminder of whether I’ve been good or bad.  Bad behavior is not hard to recognize.  Too many restaurant meals, too much animal protein, ice cream, pizza, beer, etc.  Good behavior is harder but achievable.  Grilled chicken on mixed greens, choosing the smaller burrito rather than the giant version, more plant based meals, less beer.

Periodic weigh-in’s work.  It’s part of the routine ever since losing over 200 pounds.  Boom.

Anne Lamott – Time Lost and Found

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Finding time – Sunset.

 

I sometimes teach classes on writing, during which I tell my students every single thing I know about the craft and habit. This takes approximately 45 minutes. I begin with my core belief—and the foundation of almost all wisdom traditions—that there is nothing you can buy, achieve, own, or rent that can fill up that hunger inside for a sense of fulfillment and wonder. But the good news is that creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty.

Then I bring up the bad news: You have to make time to do this.

This means you have to grasp that your manic forms of connectivity—cell phone, email, text, Twitter—steal most chances of lasting connection or amazement. That multitasking can argue a wasted life. That a close friendship is worth more than material success.

Stupidity is Worse for us than Either Sugar or Saturated Fat

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Stupidity is worse for us than either sugar or saturated fat.

Read this article and you’ll encounter a well reasoned rant with lots of links for further reading enjoyment.  My personal journey includes a significant weight loss experience in my early 20’s.  Over the years I’ve gained back some of the 200 plus pounds lost.  Over the years I’ve also gotten lazy with my dietary habits.  Too many calories and an aging metabolism is not a combination for staying trim.  So I got serious (again) and have dropped 12 pounds the past three months.  I’ve always known what to do but failed to do what needed to be done.

And so it goes.  Change. Adapt. Repeat.

Yogurt and Diabetes

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Eating yogurt can reduce the risk of getting Type 2 diabetes by 28 percent, compared with consuming none, according to a study published today by Diabetologia. Higher consumption of low-fat fermented dairy products, such as yogurt and some cheeses, also lowered the relative risk of diabetes by 24 percent overall, the study showed.

via Yogurt May Be an Ally in Fight Against Diabetes: Study – Bloomberg.

Update 03.28.14

I’ve started eating yogurt every day.

READ THIS NOW – Writing Wednesdays: “Poof Goes the Middle Class”

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People are becoming entrepreneurs. The mind-set of the employee is vanishing like the factory where it was born. It has to. We’ll all die if we wait for some force outside ourselves—business or government—to bring us jobs or teach us who we are or how we ought to live.

We have to invent our own ways, and that’s just what we’re doing.

via Writing Wednesdays: “Poof Goes the Middle Class”.

Poof goes the middle class – latimes.com.

A couple of weeks ago I caught up with my old college buddy on the phone.  I asked how his son was doing after taking refuge in his parents’ basement post college graduation.

“Michael’s doing great.  He moved out to Brooklyn and is doing project work.  Very happy, very busy.  Michael has four or five projects on the go.”

Call it what you want – freelancer, contract worker, portfolio careerist.  The employee mindset is becoming a thing of the past.