How To Motivate Yourself To Self-care

Alfred E. Newman

With regard to people not taking care of the one and only body they will EVER have, I never hear likeminded individuals assign the same justification for their willful inaction when it comes to maintaining their car, their house or their credit rating. Allow me to apply their well-rehearsed fitness inaction spiel to a car analogy:

“I know I should take better care of my car because its condition is not only affecting my everyday mobility, but how bad it looks these days seems to be reflecting poorly on me socially. That’s unfair! Okay, I’ll confess I really hate going to the body shop and the mechanic, but who doesn’t? I don’t have the time, and it’s such a bother. So what if my car not only looks like crap but is barely limping along at this point—in fact it’s hard to start some days. But, hey.

“Additionally, as it continues to break down (with me doing nothing to stop it even though I can—I’m just not motivated), I find myself sinking further and further into deep shit. I can no longer go places I used to go, or do things I used to do. 

"Having a car that barely runs, is dented, crippled by flat tires, and looks awful, yet is parked right there in my driveway for the whole world to see, affects my self esteem as well as my ability to accomplish the things I’d like.

“I can look all around me and see examples of car crashes happening to others due to their inattention and ignoring of basic maintenance, but I’m sure that won’t ever happen to me, for no other reason other than that’s what I prefer to believe.

When I see other people driving cars they keep in beautiful shape and running condition, well, it makes me mad because that’s an impossible standard that the average person has no hope of achieving! They’re throwing their sleek auto bodies and exceptional horsepower in our faces just to make us feel bad about the fact we’re ignoring our own cars! Most of us just don’t have the time and energy. When I come home from work, I’m exhausted. On the weekend I just want to chill. The last thing I feel like doing is maintaining my car.  

“I expect my car to run regardless of my never getting a tune-up and ignoring oil and other fluid levels and the like. I did notice though, that once I got the idea to put kerosene in the gas tank rather than high octane, it really started affecting my car’s performance negatively for some reason. I haven’t figured out exactly why yet. What difference should it make what I put in the gas tank? I just don’t understand why I can’t just fill my gas tank with whatever crap I have on hand and still have my car run like new.

“Sure, in a perfect world I would like to drive a nice car that people would admire and that runs well, but I have no idea how to go about doing that, or even where to begin. Can you spoon-feed me? Can you hold my hand and walk me through it? Because I have no clue. It’s not like there’s some manual out there for how to take care of your car! It’s not like there are books and magazines and TV shows and Google and thousands of videos on youtube, or professionals I can hire who can teach me!

“Anyway, to sum up, I really resent being shamed for my car’s terrible condition due to my bad habits, poor decisions and lazy inaction. The fact I don’t take care of my car isn’t my fault—it’s a disease.”

James Grage Inspiration

https://www.instagram.com/james_grage_/?hl=en

The Advice You Get From "Man's Magazine" GQ Mostly Comes From Women

I don't know what to make of GQ, the self-proclaimed "man's magazine," publishing so much advice/guidance/opinion from women.

Today (February 18, 2020)  you'll see on GQ's splash page articles by Sophia, Sophie, Emily, Danielle, Gabriella, Sable, Rachel and Caroline. Are half the writers at GQ's sister magazine, Vogue, men? Of course not.

I habitually reject most of GQ's men's fitness advice regardless of the writer's gender. At least half of it comes from the keyboards of women, but no matter the source it is not useful, and sometimes it's just plain invalid. Since men overwhelmingly are interested in building impressive muscle, and women not, I reject the value of female writers' "fitness advice" to men, especially after having read so many poor examples.

Vogue's female readers might read an article by a man instructing them on how to walk in 5-inch stilettos, but something tells me the advice of another woman who actually spends hours every day walking in 5-inch stilettos, and proves her proficiency at it by your just watching her, would land a bit more authentically, and be taken more seriously. 

Used to be publications aggressively sought out proven experts in their field. Women advising men on how to build muscle is less than useful, just as fitness trainers who have no muscle/definition/tone (look around your gym to see what I mean) are absurd. Have you noticed how many so-called fitness experts on TV talk shows don't have an impressive hard toned physique, whatever their size, much less actual defined muscle, yet these are the class of posers that idiot producers invite on their shows? We live in a bizarro upside down world.

As a writer I understandably pay attention to such things, but as a fitness trainer and author, I really pay attention to all the static from writers who reveal their lack of knowledge and experience, as well as clueless department heads at TV shows and printed and online publications who, having no experience in fitness whatsoever themselves, choose to publish articles or validate posers' advice by booking them on their TV shows. 

Sid Krofft: What an Asshole

Photo Courtesy the Daily Mail

From time to time I post stories about interactions with "celebrities," my having lived in Hollywood for over three decades working as a waiter in a celebrity restaurant prior to becoming a photographer for the LA Times and others, as well as being a member of Gold's Gyms for much of those years.

Years ago I was a member of Easton’s Gym on Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles. One of the other members was Sid Krofft, who along with his brother Marty just this week received their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (see photo above). The brothers produced a shitload of kids TV shows that aired mostly on Saturday mornings.

Sid in his younger days was handsome, very rich, and had a rockin’ body—and arrogantly acted every bit the part. He was a regular at Venice Beach, showing up every weekend with a new boyfriend. He and I had said hello a few times as people do when regulars at the same gym.

His name was Sid. Everyone called him Sid. His production company was advertised and promoted as “Sid and Marty Krofft Productions.” One day at the gym I passed him on my way to use a flat bench and said “How you doin’ there, Sid?”

He replied, “Sydas.”

I said, “Excuse me?”

He repeated, “Sydas. My name is Sydas.”

Picking up on his bullshit instantly, based on overhearing past exchanges between him and those he looked down upon I said, “So, you changed your name now? It’s now “Sydas and Marty Krofft Productions?” I didn’t notice that change on the credits of your TV show last Saturday. When did that happen, Sydas?”

The gentleman never spoke to me again.

Why I’m Not A Millionaire

A search of Google Images for "home exercise equipment" results

in a mind-boggling, very expensive array of choices. People love

to spend money on complicated ways to do basic no-cost exercise.

I can’t sell something that I don’t believe in. I can’t lie to people. Maybe it’s because I’m lied to every day and resent it, while lies for others, it seems to me, are like water off a duck’s back. They expect to be lied to and can shrug it off. I don’t. I can't.

My fitness philosophy is simple: work out regularly with focus, and don’t eat garbage—crap like processed food and fast food. Uncomplicated.

But people don’t like uncomplicated. You can’t monetize simple, but you can monetize the hell out of complicated, because that’s what people want. The more complicated you make fitness and diet, the more attractive people find it. Because basically people don’t want to do the basic work, the simple, uncomplicated, logical work required to remain healthy and in shape.

"The more complicated you make fitness and diet, the more attractive people find it." 

That’s why we buy expensive "fitness trackers." And perk up watching Peloton commercials. And try the latest fad diet. And buy Lululemon. That’s why there are hundreds and hundreds of complicated supplement products on the shelves at GNC. And novel “new” ways of working out. And an endless stream of exercise gadgets on infomercials. And special guests on talk shows blabbing their way around whatever scam they’re currently offering. And the vile Gwyneth Paltrow. And Oprah backing charlatans and scammers and snake oil salesmen like Dr. Oz and Bob Green and Marianne Williamson and proselytizing the ridiculous, damaging “you can have it all!”

Garages and basements all over the world are crammed with stair-steppers, rowing machines, ellipticals, treadmills and more, currently serving more as clothes racks and dust collectors.

People pay good money for all this rigmarole so as to distract from the unpleasant fact they have to do the hard work involved in maintaining healthy weight and fitness. There is no magic pill. No "new" exercise. No bogus guru who can lead you to success. There’s only the adoption of healthful nutrition and regular exercise as a lifestyle.

Why Nutrition Labels Need To Include Country of Origin

Chinese noodles are just one example of intentional poisoning.

Search youtube for dozens of videos about poisoned

baby formula, chocolate, meat and more.

China can’t be trusted—neither to contain a viral pandemic that can kill you, nor to produce food that's not going to kill you. 

The understaffed and overwhelmed FDA cannot be trusted either. The FDA, which is a US government agency tasked with monitoring the safety of our food, only inspects a TINY percentage of food, both imported and domestic.

Obviously when vital information about our food is withheld from us, or missing altogether, there’s something rotten in Denmark.

Chinese citizens in Shenzhen, a huge city very close to Hong Kong, board the train with multiple empty suitcases weekly to load up on food in Hong Kong, including baby formula due to the history of poisoning of China’s food by illicit manufacturers.

Most people don’t know anything at all about what the hell is in the food they’re eating—and most people don’t seem to care, yet they want to complain about their illnesses, their lack of progress at the gym, sleep issues, digestive issues, etc., as if physical problems have no relation to what they are eating. 

China has no qualms about poisoning its babies, much less adults, as the video I will post at the end of this clearly, blatantly shows—so why would you eat anything that comes from China? Thousands of beloved pet dogs have died from Chinese-manufactured dog treats, yet PetCo and many of the big box stores STILL continue to stock these deadly time bombs.

It’s time we can see, in LARGE PRINT, on the very visible Nutrition label on all foods, right there AT THE TOP, the country where that food, or any ingredients whatsoever in that food, was manufactured, grown and raised.

Just try and find such information on current packaging. If it doesn’t say where it originates, then it’s suspect. If it was made/grown/raised in a trustworthy country, then the corporate goons who sell it would be shouting that positive asset from the rooftops; but the fact they do not tells the true tale.

Read your labels.

Has This Guy With The 10-Pack Made The 6-pack Obsolete?