watch tHe skies

So the NHS are going to make the fat pill (rimonabant) available for prescription. Trials suggest that obese individuals taking a course of the drug lose 10% of their bodyweight. At £60 a month, this is an expensive treatment.

The recent report on the BBC suggests that there is also evidence that people coming off the drug have a tendency to put the weight back on. There is a good reason for that: these people still have the same unhealthy relationship with food that got them obese in the first  place. Remove the chemicals and that problem is there, and if anything it will get worse because we are talking about people who don’t accept accountability for their problem. By pinning their hopes on a wonder pill they are removing themselves further from the fundamental issue that who they are is a result of what they have done.

Whilst the pill definitely has a place in helping people improve their health, it should be used in conjunction with a programme to help them change their lifestyle and eating disorder. At the end of the course they should be back in control of their lives, their eating, and have cast away old habits. I fear that the real situation will be lardies thinking that they can have an extra slice of pizza thanks to the medication that they are taking.

It’s been nearly a month now since my Father passed away, and I can certainly say that knowing the change curve intimately does not give me the ability to circumvent it. Common change theory suggests that every change to our routine lives effects a response. After all we are closed loop systems, and our neurology is designed to maintain stability, so any impulse of change will be acted against by our systems.

And so I am destined to ride out the change curve whether I know about it or not. Perhaps knowing about it is actually worse, because I’m aware of the stages, I’m just not in control of when I will reach them. (more…)

There’s an interesting post over at The Winning Attitude, talking about how we focus on the negative, particularly with respect to self-talk, our inner voice.

For most people, the inner voice is the loudest influencer on our daily lives. Our coach, our adviser and our critic. And with respect to the critic, of course constructive criticism is useful, but how often is our inner critic constructive?? As Robert Anton Wilson would put it, the “thinker” part of our brains comes up with an idea to believe in, and the “prover” part sets about finding data and making it fit to prove that we’re right. This self-fulfilling prophesy gets us focusing on the negative aspects of who we are and, as you get what you focus on, this type of thought can suffocate creativity, ambition and enthusiasm, leaving you ever more negative.

So something as simple as positive self-talk can break that cycle. Start with something small; a few compliments here and there, and how well you are working towards your goals, then gradually open it up and become more and more positive. After all, if you can’t be positive with yourself, who can you be positive with?

 

The Guinness Widget is a neat feat of engineering and it does pour a halfway decent pint from a can, compared to what you’d get from a keg at a pub, but my latest gadget is considerably more impressive than a little plastic thing that you don’t get to see unless you rip the old can apart (which is a fairly pointless use of your time and energy, believe me, I know). The Guinness Surger is a electrical device with a small metal plate on it; you pour a little water onto the plate, put a pint of the special Guinness Draught Surger Beer in place and then turn the power on, sending ultrasonic pulses up through the beer to create the creamy head we all know and love.

If that sounds incredible, you really need to watch the video and see it in action, or alternatively go out and get one. Currently only Tescos sell it, but it is sure to catch on. It had better do, as you need to buy flat guinness to get it to work.

Ok before I start getting complaints, the headline is only really there to get your attention. Following on from my recent posts on goals and goal seeking, I promised that I would delve further in to the how, the actual nuts and bolts of building a list of goals that will motivate you to reach them.

Before I start on that subject, I would like to talk a little about business.

“What has that got to do with it?” you ask. Well, most people that I tell this story to find it useful in setting goals, so I’ll tell it anyway and you can skip right by it if you are bored. (more…)

Is anyone else in the UK watching How I Met Your Mother? Probably not helped by a ridiculous starting time of 11.30pm on a monday night on BBCThree, this show gets funnier every week.

And, it would appear, it is able to fly. How a mouse could be crossed with a cockroach is never explained.

There is so much still to learn about this creature, but I fear that we will never fully understand this mysterious, and yet strangely grotesque, species

 

“The most important thing about goals is having one.”*
Geoffry F. Abert

I thought for today’s rant I would return to an oft mentioned subject of mine, and delve a little deeper in to why goals are useful. This may sound odd but many people I know think that it all sounds a little too pushy.

So instead of justifying their usefulness, I thought that I would go a little further back in to human pyschology and look at why we are happiest as goal-oriented creatures, and how goal setting and goal achievement can lead to a happy life. (more…)

The other day I was sat on my pc building a new playlist on iTunes aimed specifically for listening to in the gym. My aim was to generate a list of tunes that motivate me to put in that little bit of effort.

The kind of tunes that I selected included:

Eye Of The Tiger - Survivor
Take A Look Around - Limp Bizkit
What Time Is Love? - The KLF

Three quite different genres, and yet the playlist keeps me going and stands repeated listenings. It occurred to me that my reasons for selecting each tune were based on any anchors that I have associated with that particular tune. I started to explore what the common themes might be between the tunes.

Eye of the Tiger is an obvious selection. For me, as with many people, this song has an anchor to the Rocky movies, that, aside from being full of people exercising, are about rising to the challenge, insurmountable odds.
When I hear the tune the immediate anchor for me is visually Rocky running up those steps, in fact it seems to link to the “Gonna Fly Now” tune from the films, so in my head, one tune is actually anchoring imagery AND sounds. A very strong anchor indeed, it would appear.

Take a look around is an odd one, it would appear, until you think that it, for me, links to the movie Mission Impossible 2. This movie is 2 hours of action and testosterone, and the immediate anchor when I hear the tune is the bit in the bunker, lots of violence, kung-fu kicks and over the top karate chops. For me this would seem to be about energy.

What time is love? is a straightforward anchor, linking me back to Uni days, pogoing on the dance floor of the friday night Mega at the Student Union, drinking Purple Nasty (beer, cider and blackcurrant), without a care in the world.

So it seems that every time i select a track it is based to some extent on memories or emotions tied to that tune. Not all tunes have attached anchors; there has to be some experience or related happening to anchor a tune, and I think that often you won’t even be able to understand why you like a particular tune - one of my favourite tunes of all time is Radiohead’s “Talk Show Host”. To my knowledge I can’t think of any anchors attached to it, but perhaps there are other sensory anchors that in my current state of mind I can’t get to?

So the point of all this is that music is an incredibly powerful way to change state. I use it to attempt to get in to an energetic, positive state when I drag my sorry carcass down the gym. I like to listen to Rock when I drive but find that if I do, I drive faster than when I listen to alternative music. I chill out in the bath to some laid back ambient and on a monday morning, as I psyche myself up for another week at work, trance is the order of the day. And I did all of this before I discovered NLP. But I certainly use it more deliberately now I understand the power of music in changing states.

And on a final note, when I hear “Simply The Best” by Tina Turner, all I think of now is David Brent (The Office). So not all anchors are positive!

Bryce Zabel (Dark Skies), in conjunction with J. Michael Straczynski (Bablylon 5) recently posted on his blog a treatment proposed to Paramout in 2004 for a “reimagining” of the original Star Trek series.

Back then I remember reading something about it, although at the time I don’t think that a reimagining was that publicised. However I am sure that I would have been horrified at the thought of tampering with the mythology.

However, we are now 2 seasons in to the excellent reimagining of Battlestar Galactica, which has brought us a dark and brooding version of the story that is so good I wouldn’t even dream of watching the old show again.

And having now read their treatment for the show, I am so disappointed that they didn’t get a green light. What the treatment does it look back at the original and weave in an overall arc, reasons behind the original mission and knit it together with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Focusing on the relationship between Kirk, McCoy and Spock, having an end game in sight from the off would give better focus and purpose to the show, making it essential viewing week in, week out.

Whilst I am a big fan of JJ Abrams and I’m sure that his movie will be great, given the choice I would rather see a reimagined, darker, grittier Star Trek show week in-week out, than a one off movie. Paramount really missed a trick here, given the success of Battlestar, do do something new and fresh that builds on the existing fan base and generates a new generation of trekkies.

Baby won’t stop crying unless you rock him \ her? Some people drive baby around, but not us, we purchased an automated baby rocker that gently moves pram \ basket \ chair back and forth at around 60-70rpm, simulating movement and, for the most part, soothing the irate infant.

We’ve had ours for a few days and it certainly seems to quieten him, maybe for 30-60 minutes a day, but with him content to play, it gives us a little time to make a cup of tea or nip to the loo, both of which seem at a premium when little Ben is demaning attention.

You can find out more about the dream mover here.