Tag Archives: Health

Step 2 as I Move toward Kidney Donation

Good News:

I pass my blood work and now onto other tests.

Good Morning John

Your appt for Tuesday will be as follows:

These first 3 appts will be at ( Transplant Clinic) Make sure when you get in that you are a potential kidney donor and that you have an appt.

@ 8:30AM Dr F transplant nephrologist

@ 9:30AM Dr K transplant surgeon

@ 10:00 M J social worker

@ 2:30 CTA, This is a procedure that will look into your kidneys. This will be at the main hospital at Smillow Cancer Center on the second Floor. I will bring you there.

Before they will do the procedue, they will put an IV on you and give you contrast. Please let me know if you are allergic to dye, shellfish or tape.

Your blood test came back normal.

Live Donor Kidney Transplantation

What you need to know to be a Kidney Donor

Living_Donor_Kidney

Let’s see if I pass the tests and match up…..

The World’s Healthiest Foods

www.WHFOODS.org

Yes, a commercial site, but the information may be helpful for those of us who wish to improve our health and/or lose weight. Take all this with a grain of salt :). Be skeptical, but open-minded.

the most nutrients/less calories = healthy foods.

Eat Wild
Local Harvest
Eat Well Guide
Paleo Hacks
Weston A. Price  Foundation
Beyond Vegetarianism
CrossFit
Scirus

Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-resource-guide/#ixzz22DBQsiRC

Exercise is not the issue

Twenty minutes of walking = 100 calories for an average person = one tablespoon of dry roasted nuts. This illustrates how good the body is at balancing our energy needs but also why many of us gain weight with a high consumption of unhealthy carbrohydrates like sugar and fries. Exercise for health, but don’t expect weight loss.

The Paleo diet http://www.marksdailyapple.com would eliminate grains and most dairy products while advocating less high glycemic fruit like bananas or watermellon unless after intense exercise.

Confusing? Just eliminate sugar and refined carbs (white bread, cereal, sugar, flour). Eat fresh veggies (a lot), fish, fowl, and meat and fruit in season.

The World’s Healthiest Foods

127 foods that can serve as the basis of your Healthiest Way of Eating. Links to the articles about these foods can be found below.

Of course, there are many other nutritious foods other than those that we have included on our list that we feel are wonderful, health-promoting foods; if there are other whole foods – such as fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, whole grains, etc – that you like, by all means enjoy them. Just because a food is not on our list doesn’t mean that we don’t think that it can be included in a diet geared towards the Healthiest Way of Eating as long as it is a whole, natural, nutrient-rich food.

To find out why some of your favorite nutritious foods are not included in our list, read The Criteria Used to Select the World’s Healthiest Foods.

Vegetables

Seafood

Fruits

Eggs & Low-Fat Dairy

Beans & Legumes

Poultry & Lean Meats

Nuts, Seeds & Oils

Grains

Spices & Herbs

Other

Anti-Inflammatory Foods

Health

To invest for the long -term you will need to live a long, healthy life to harvest your investments.

Video on your health:http://live.wsj.com/video/how-inflammation-can-ravage-the-body/

Article on anti-inflammatory foods: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/top-6-anti-inflammatory-foods/#axzz21SfRx1Ey

The Power of Habit and Investing

I am was a serious chocaholic. After robbing a candy store, I tried to gobble down the evidence as the cops closed in. How was I ever going to stop my fixation on dark, rich, creamy chocolate and replace my bad habits with healthier ones?

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” –Warren Buffett

To learn more about habits:http://charlesduhigg.com/

An excellent 3.5 minute video on the power of habits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6p3lG9EDXw&feature=related

The author’s words: What sparked your interest in habits? I first became interested in the science of habits eight years ago, as a newspaper reporter in Baghdad, when I heard about an army major conducting an experiment in a small town named Kufa.

The major had analyzed videotapes of riots and had found that violence was often preceded by a crowd of Iraqis gathering in a plaza and, over the course of hours, growing in size. Food vendors would show up, as well as spectators. Then, someone would throw a rock or a bottle.

When the major met with Kufa’s mayor, he made an odd request: Could they keep food vendors out of the plazas? Sure, the mayor said. A few weeks later, a small crowd gathered near the Great Mosque of Kufa. It grew in size. Some people started chanting angry slogans. At dusk, the crowd started getting restless and hungry. People looked for the kebab sellers normally filling the plaza, but there were none to be found. The spectators left. The chanters became dispirited. By 8 p.m., everyone was gone.

I asked the major how he had figured out that removing food vendors would change peoples’ behavior.

The U.S. military, he told me, is one of the biggest habit-formation experiments in history. “Understanding habits is the most important thing I’ve learned in the army,” he said. By the time I got back to the U.S., I was hooked on the topic.

How have your own habits changed as a result of writing this book? Since starting work on this book, I’ve lost about 30 pounds, I run every other morning (I’m training for the NY Marathon later this year), and I’m much more productive. And the reason why is because I’ve learned to diagnose my habits, and how to change them.

Take, for instance, a bad habit I had of eating a cookie every afternoon. By learning how to analyze my habit, I figured out that the reason I walked to the cafeteria each day wasn’t because I was craving a chocolate chip cookie. It was because I was craving socialization, the company of talking to my colleagues while munching. That was the habit’s real reward. And the cue for my behavior – the trigger that caused me to automatically stand up and wander to the cafeteria, was a certain time of day.

So, I reconstructed the habit: now, at about 3:30 each day, I absentmindedly stand up from my desk, look around for someone to talk with, and then gossip for about 10 minutes. I don’t even think about it at this point. It’s automatic. It’s a habit. I haven’t had a cookie in six months.

What was the most surprising use of habits that you uncovered? The most surprising thing I’ve learned is how companies use the science of habit formation to study – and influence – what we buy.

Take, for example, Target, the giant retailer. Target collects all kinds of data on every shopper it can, including whether you’re married and have kids, which part of town you live in, how much money you earn, if you’ve moved recently, the websites you visit. And with that information, it tries to diagnose each consumer’s unique, individual habits.

Why? Because Target knows that there are these certain moments when our habits become flexible. When we buy a new house, for instance, or get married or have a baby, our shopping habits are in flux. A well-timed coupon or advertisement can convince us to buy in a whole new way. But figuring out when someone is buying a house or getting married or having a baby is tough. And if you send the advertisement after the wedding or the baby arrives, it’s usually too late.

So Target studies our habits to see if they can predict major life events. And the company is very, very successful. Oftentimes, they know what is going on in someone’s life better than that person’s parents.

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I recommend reading The Power of Habit : Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg: http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/1400069289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340109798&sr=8-1&keywords=the+power+of+habit

The Mental Habits for Investing

Obviously we seek to learn from other great investors, but how to incorporate their habits as part of our own?

The power of mental habits for investing: http://marktier.com/Excerpts/chap01-01.php

Emphasis on Global Crossing Case; Good Health

A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. –Steven Wright

Every man who says frankly and fully what he things is so far doing a public service. We should be grateful to him for attacking most unsparingly our most cherished opinions. –Sir Leslie Stephen

Know The Global Crossing Case Cold

I joke while presenting the Global Crossing case, but you should spend time to really understand what happened and why.  Always in these situations there is much noise and hoopla over new technology, massive growth, booming profits, etc. But you have to stand back to listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1INb5FM_1lE&feature=related.  Obviously, growth does not occur without investment, and growth without profits is DESTRUCTIVE.

….And think strategically. A friend took out margin to buy a huge bundle of out of the money puts on Global Crossing and Level Three (LVLT).   See the chart on LVLT here—the collapse will take your breath away. http://www.scribd.com/doc/77916697/Lvlt-Chart.

I asked him, “Are you out of your $%^&*! Mind? What the heck is the matter with you?” He replied serenely, “Have you ever read The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. Christensen and the Disk Drive Industry?” http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_i/innovators_dilemma3.asp

“No,” I said, “I am too busy reading the Lehman report on Global Crossing.”

Research by Lehman on Telecom, Fiber Optics and Global Crossing 1998 http://goodbadstrategy.com/wp-content/downloads/LehmanReport.pdf

“Too bad,” he replied. “Because it is the same situation with the telecom companies only worse.  (WHAT is the situation he is talking about____?) Ask yourself what is the WORST industry structure you could possibly design to destroy profits?  Sometimes it is easier to know which companies will face certain death than pick the winners. Also, here is the coup de grace—what happens when marginal costs decline to $0.00!?”

One more time: “Can anyone tell me in two or three words what is the first thing when looking at a company/industry? _____  _____  ______

At the end of the weekend, there will be an analysis of the Global Crossing Case.

So what happened to my friend? Here he is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmMS9nvi6eg&feature=related

Health

At the age of 97 years and 4 months, Shigeaki Hinohara is one of the world’s longest-serving physicians and educators. His secrets to a healthy long life:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/print/fl20090129jk.html

Podcast on Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes: http://www.lewrockwell.com/lewrockwell-show/2012/01/11/247-why-we-get-fat-and-what-to-do-about-it/