Links from the week

Michigan woods from the Michigan in Pictures blog

• Steve Sailer discusses how Keynes was a fan of eugenics.  I wonder if his economic theories were purposefully wrong to kill off people stupid enough to follow them.
• Sylvia Onusic writes at Kim Hartke’s blog about how Slovenes love their raw milk.  They are smarter and freer than Americans.
• Dr. Mercola demonstrates that once again beauty equal health.  This time he talks about complexion.
• The Elusive Wapiti describes how cops actions in “self defense” make them more hated by their serfs citizens.
• I’m not the only fan of cold showers.  Here are people ice water jumping.
• The fitness black book describes how schools are killing people’s love of exercise.
• Brian Douglass at the Mises Institute talks about Hayek and Belloc predicted our descent into slavery.
• The Cellulite Analyst requests experiences you have had with cellulite and weight gain or loss.

Where should you rest your hands? [Esther Gokhale Part 6]

This is the fourth in a series of posts on posture based upon what I have learned from Esther Gokhale. The introduction is here.  The first part on head positioning can be read here.  The second part on pelvic tilt can be read here and the third part on high heels can be seen here.  The fourth post is on shoulder positioning and the fifth is on pelvis positioning and its relationship to overall health.

In the fourth post I discussed shoulder positioning and how to successfully keep your shoulders from hunching over.  Once you get the hang of ow to keep your shoulders back it becomes second nature, you’ll have trouble figuring out what to do with your arms.  Most of the time I would rest my arms by folding them across my chest, but my arms have a hard time reaching when the shoulders are back.

I skimmed through the book sample on Eather’s website and found a couple solutions which work for me.   She gave more details in the book, but I will explain the arm resting techniques and my experience with them. 

Interview with The Cellulite Analyst, Part Three

Recently I had a chance to talk with the Cellulite Analyst who runs the Cellulite Investigation Blog.  She is interested in determining the errors in conventional thinking about cellulite, coming to a better understanding of cellulite, and learning how to get rid of cellulite.  Her work and training as an intelligence analyst are helping her to sort through the ambiguous, ambivalent, and incomplete data on cellulite.  This is the third part of our interview.  You can read the first part here and the second part here.

First off it is nearly impossible to remove fluoride from your tap water.  Reverse osmosis filters, the most effective filters available, leave 5% of fluoride in the water.  Because fluoride is in so many sources of water, it shows up in places you would never expect.  Cereal has fluoride because cereal is made with water which is evaporated out during processing.  The water evaporates but leaves its fluoride behind.  Many pesticides are based on fluoride as the active ingredient, so the plants which we eat contain fluoride from the pesticides.  Grapes and consequently wine are especially bad.  Incidentally, before fluoride was added to the water supply it was primarily known as a rat and bug poison.  Animals are fed fluoridated water, so the fluoride builds up in their bodies and we consume fluoride when we eat these chickens and cows.  The analyst is unable to eat chicken soup because of all the fluoride which comes out of their bones into the stock.

Pelvic allignment is central to healthy movement [Esther Gokhale Part 5]

Esther Gokhale

This is the fifth in a series of posts enumerating lessons I’ve learned about posture from Esther Gokhale.  The introduction is here.  The first part on head positioning can be read here.  The second part on pelvic tilt can be read here and the third part on high heels can be seen here.  The fourth part on shoulder positioning can be read here.

The most common places where problems originate are the feet, hands, and lower back.  People blow out their lower backs all the time, but it is not as commonly realized that many problems start in the hands and feet.  Bad running form is caused by weak feet and travels up the leg.  Bypassing weak hands by using straps to hold your weights leads to upper body injuries from weightlifting. The lower back is the center of the body and is the base from which your body moves.  Problems from other areas of the body often manifest themselves through pain in the lower back.

Links

A michigan red fox from Michigan Pictures

• Michigan in pictures red fox photo
• Steve Maxwell talks about his bare foot experiences
• Mark Sisson talks about the need to keep an open mind about diets and exercise
• Roissy talks about his experience with the primal diet
• The thinking house wife discusses paternity fraud
• Matt Metzgar shows an error in low-carb diet theory
• The Cellulite Investigation holds its first Q&A with Bronwyn Hewitt

Homeless Russian Children: healthy feet?

A bunch of boys with bare feet

Wearing flip flops

Shadow boxing with bar feet

Feet of homeless children in Russia

Feet which have been bare their entire life

I was looking through a photo essay on EnglishRussia.com about homeless children when one picture caught my eye.  Two children were sleeping with bare feet.  Their feet reminded me of the feet I had seen on a post by Tim Ferriss of the Four Hour Work Week about using vibrams.

Thanksgiving: You have it good

I’m reading The Icon and the Ax by James Billington.  On page 119, he says that there was so much death from warfare, famine, and plague during the Time of Troubles in 1660 that in Moscow the sex ratio was 10:1 (women to men) and 4,000 wolves invaded Smolensk during the winter.  Wikipedia says that The Times of Trouble were earlier in the 1600’s, but we have not had things this bad in a long time.

Review of the Sanuk Vagabond

My Sanuk Vagabonds

I have been wearing my Sanuk Vagabonds for a while now.  I first wrote about them in this post where they were recommended as a minimalist weight lifting shoe.  These are the original Sanuk shoe and you can see them on the Sanuk website.  There are several important factors in considering whether a shoe is “minimalist,” so I will describe how these shoes fares in each category.

• Flexibility: The sole of the Sanuk is very flexible.  It has the sole of a flip-flop.
• Heel Lift: The sole is completely flat.  Again, it is a flip-flip sole.  It is almost impossible to find a shoe without heel lift, but this fits the bill.
• Tactile Sensitivity: There is not much tactile sensitivity because the sole is relatively thick and soft, so it masks all texture on the ground.  You can feel the edge of a curb or something large, but you won’t feel that you are stepping on a rock or twig.
• Toe Wiggle Room: This shoe has the most toe room of any that I have worn.  Part of this is the soft canvas upper which is pretty loose.  I usually wear this shoe without socks making my toes even freer.
• Attachment to Foot: Loose shoes often have problems falling off but not the Vagabond.  Although, I would not recommend this for a running shoe, I have run in it several times:  it stayed on my feet without a problem and worked fine.  Flip-flops require you to grasp the sole with your toes which is unnatural.  The Sanuk does not have this problem.

Interview with The Cellulite Analyst, Part Two

Recently I had a chance to talk with the Cellulite Analyst who runs the Cellulite Investigation Blog.  This is the second segment of our interview the first can be read here.  She is interested in determining the errors in conventional thinking about cellulite, coming to a better understanding of cellulite, and learning how to get rid of cellulite.  Her work and training as an intelligence analyst are helping her to sort through the ambiguous, ambivalent, and incomplete data on cellulite.

Cellulite usually only occurs in men when they are undergoing estrogen therapy.  This seems odd to me because men should be having the same lymph problems as women.  The Analyst said that there is not a consensus on this issue.  One view is that male lymph problems may contribute to abdominal fat in males while a second view is that lymph congestion translates into heart disease in men.  One theory for waste being converted into cellulite in women (but not men) is that a woman’s body must be concerned with these toxins floating around during a pregnancy and cannot let them circulate around in the system.  In this sense, cellulite might actually be a protective mechanism.

How to keep your shoulders back and have them stay there [Esther Gokhale Part 4]

This is the fourth in a series of posts on posture based upon what I have learned from Esther Gokhale. The introduction is here.  The first part on head positioning can be read here.  The second part on pelvic tilt can be read here and the third part on high heels can be seen here.

You are often told to keep your shoulders back for good posture; however, most Americans’  shoulders are hunched forward.  The modern hunch has many causes including using a computer all day and doing too many chest exercises.  There are three different ways of getting your shoulders into the “back” position.  Only two work and only one is good for you.

1. Pull your shoulders back with your muscles
2. Lift your chest
3. Do a shoulder circle