True & False

TOO TRUE

Every day we learn something that we accepted was true yesterday, is now false. Especially when it comes to food.

Red wine. It was believed we should drink small amounts as it contains antioxidants and could actually be better for us drinking this particular kind of alcohol to prolong life as apposed to being a tee-totaller. It's popped up again recently and there's a reversal on this thinking suggesting it's now NOT something that's good for our health. The odd glass of wine can work wonders after a stressful day or enjoyed with friends.
Butter. Avoid it. Use spreads and olive oil. NOW it turns out - it's all based on flawed research.
Cereals. I grew up on Coco Pops, Shreddies, Corn Flakes, Sultana Bran...cereals oh yeah and white bread. I'm still alive and pretty well? Yet, there's now a real hate campaign on grains. AVOID! I have to say, I'm kinda taken to this one as there's so much negativity surrounding it and haven't touched cereal in a few years now. But, stick to the least processed variety and the ones lowest in sugar and pretty I'm sure it'll be fine.
Bread. Staple of the French, Italians and Europeans. AVOID. I'm only eating decent wholegrain or rye bread occasionally now but really, is it that bad?
Fruit juices. Get your five a day. WRONG. Low in fibre, high in sugars, acid, and calories. Just eat some fruit or make your own juice using fresh fruit and vegetables. Get a decent cold-press juicer.

And the list goes on - here's 7 more foods that have had a reversal.

Thing is - we're being constantly advertised to with deceptive marketing spiel and the media is full of fantastical rubbish designed to get us reading their papers etc. It's no wonder people are so confused what's good and bad for them - and this is just the food. Exercise is now being linked to shortening life and even taking health supplements could increase chances of cancer. What does it all mean? It means stop reading the papers (especially The Daily Mail!), question the information being fed to you via advertising and gossip, make your own investigations, do what you enjoy in moderation and if there's anything that you know makes you feel bad, keep a diary of what you do & eat and asses the results yourself. Over time you'll see/feel the results and know. We're all different and what works for some, doesn't always work for all.

Question 'truths'
I'm now half way through Counter clockwise: mindful health and the power of possibility, written by Ellen Langer. She encourages us to be more mindful and question science, research and results. We are all different and nothing is set in stone, yet, science bases it's results on facts - facts that can not be clear cut if you take into consideration there's so many factors not included in this research that affect everything and everyone, so we need to have 'shades of grey' answers. The consequence of this type of black & white reasoning is that we set our minds to 'facts' and it's this definite inflexible mindset that makes the result and consequently we become inflexible too. Telling ourselves something is bad, can and will end up becoming true if we allow our minds to tell us so.

Inspirational Reads

GREAT BRITISH COLLECTIONS

It's a busy day for me today. I've been up early at boxing this morning, then had an MRI scan on my neck. Amazing luck for me - it is another beautiful day here in London and I'm cycling around taking in some of he sights like a true tourist.

After meeting a friend for lunch, I dropped in on another old work colleague who used to box with me in the mornings. He's now running a pop-up restaurant at the Jeremy Bentham pub near Euston. Only running since 3 months ago - they are already creating a bit of a stir - get in there before it gets too popular! Check out their menu at slowrichies.com

So, afterwards, I nipped into the British Library (pictured above with St Pancras behind). They have a free exhibition of 1000 year old bibles, The Quo'ran and other fantastic old books - beautifully scribed in colourful inks & gold, bound in leather. There's music scores from great composers like Beethoven and Chopin, napkins with the lyrics jotted down on them by The Beatles and diaries with excerpts from Scott referencing perils experienced during his expeditions & Gallileo, with sketches illustrating mountains on the moon (Here is another reminder of a great injustice for humanity - as Gallileo, like Socrates, was sentenced to death standing up to defend his beliefs & truth). There's going to be a series of discussions throughout March discussing 800 years of The Magna Carta - one of, if not the most important, defining document written for Britain - essentially giving power to the people with 'The rule of law'. This law was also carried through to the bill of rights and Constitution of The United States and is the reason why we live in a free society. I will definitely make some time to attend these talks.

Talking Masters

Outside the museum there's a bronze of Issac Newton and this is really cool...our statues have a voice! Just look up online talkingstatues.co.uk and for Isaac at speak2.co/Isaac

I would have liked to take in The British Museum too - but this place deserves a day all to itself - and it was super busy anyway, so I sat in a Caffè Nero where I am now still, waiting for another old friend as I write my blog. We're heading off to an iOS geeks convention to get some info on programming - for an idea I have, I'll feed back when I have more info...

Inspiration Overload

AN APPETITE FOR LEARNING

It's getting a little bit crazy in the mornings. Whereas I started the year with a blank mind and let the thoughts manifest on to the virtual page. I'm now having internal conflicts about what to write, when to write, how much to write and I've created a log-jam of new material to read, absorb and use - which I have to do before I can honestly write about the benefits. I need to de-clutter and get some order back!

I'm hungry for learning but I don't have enough time or the right head space to properly absorb all of it in a day. Every time I find another teacher or subject that interests me, I'll stumble upon another and another. There's just so much great stuff to learn.

So, starting from today, I'm going to set aside 2 hours to read, listen and watch my new material. I've added a reminder in my diary and a list of the things I'll be learning. I've allowed a bit of time to take notes after each one - as a way to help absorb the learnings and provide some reference for the content of my next post on them.

Quiet time

It's so easy to get overloaded and stressed by running a business, looking after a family or trying to fit relationship, work, friends, exercise and quality me-time all into one day. You don't need the extra stress from having inspiration overload.

I've started the day with just my blog window open and ended up with 17 tabs of inspiration. I've got over 70 podcasts lined up and 4 new books to read. Consequently, I'm behind on my blog. Today's topic was a subject about something completely different - but I've taken inspiration from what's right in front of my nose instead - having too much information to digest. Reading Paul Brunsun's piece about overload, I've remembered to 'stack' my reference pages out of sight - ready for a later read. A great tool for doing this is Pocket. It bookmarks all your pages into one place. You can add Pocket to Chrome as an extension and assign a keyboard command for even more efficiency.

{pause.}

I've just done something I should be doing more of - ie. taking time to look up. Quiet time and inspiration taken by lifting my gaze away from my laptop and peering straight ahead at the blue sky and view over London today. it's a beautiful crisp day - I'll have to get outside for a walk today too.

Looking out of the window in front of me, reminded me again of Leo Babauta's page from the other day. A reminder to be in the moment, to be present in the here and now, to breathe and be still. It also reminded me of Geoff Thompson's 'Everything is Scripture' podcast - everything I'm now looking at out of my window, is scripture and an inspiration. 

I will go back to these teaching again in the future....but for now, back to a bit of quiet reflection and on to my learning for the day