If you've known me for a while (college and before) you know that I was a huge Coca-Cola drinker.  I would literally drink about a 3 litter a day.  I knew it was bad for me.  I saw the ads with sugar cubes and such.  I even saw the specials on TV showing me how you could fight rust using Coke.  I was still hooked and continued drinking it, I'm not sure why.

I'm not here to talk you out of drinking it, you'll have to come to that conclusion yourself or suffer the consequences.  Like anything else in life it's 100% up to you.  All I want to do is make an observation to all of the Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Vanilla Coke drinkers out there.

First off Diet Coke and Coke Zero.  We drink it because the marketing claims better health.  These products have less calories and less sugars then the real thing but the 'same' taste. Of course with that logic why even sell the original but I'll keep moving on.  So in order to give you less calories and make a product healthier I would assume the product would take out some ingredients right?  Let's take a look...

The article flowing around Facebook today finally made me want to write a small blog post about responsibility in reporting.  If you don't know what I'm referring to, it is the article about Miss America 2014 and a number of people being hateful (to put it lightly) to the fact that she is Indian-American and won the Miss America Pageant.


Now my blog has nothing to do with Miss America but at the reporting that was done, and in many ways how most 'reporting' is done.  Post after post today on Facebook seemed to be about my friends screaming about racism and how they couldn't believe there were so many horrible people out there.  Hey I agree, there are plenty of hateful people out there.  But I'd like to rewind for a second and discuss what started this entire thing in the first place.

I have two problems with this article, and guess what, neither has to do with the hateful people out there, that's an entirely different subject that I'd rather not get into.  They have their own opinion and while I don't agree with it, it is their opinion.  Note:  I'm not even going to link out to the article in question because I don't believe it deserves any more attention, I'm sure you can find it if you like.

ONE.  
The facts of this story are straight up wrong, or at the very least extremely misguiding.  There are about a dozen or so horribly negative and hurtful things being said, and I'm sure there are more.  But what it fails to mention is all the wonderful and amazing things people have said. I don't know if this fact is true or not but one person posted that there were 314 million tweets posted about Miss America.  If a dozen or so were negative, do you realize how small a percentage of negative vs positive that is?  If 12 vs. 314,000,000 (negative vs positive) is where we are as a society, than we are progressing, congrats! :)

But this particular article decided to title their article "A Lot Of People Are Very Upset That An Indian-American Woman Won The Miss America Pageant."  Thanks a lot!  What exactly defines 'a lot' of people? Because my numbers are showing something much different.  If you're going to do some reporting why not give us a real statistic that takes into account all tweets for a given amount of time.  By singling out a few horrible ones, and title your article as such, you've now put a whole slue of people into a fury.  Or better yet why re-post the negative ones at all?  Are you improving anyone's lives by doing this?

Ok, I'm pretty sure I know why they did this, it attracts more attention to their webpage.  More people click on links that they're emotionally attached too.  But come on  Is this really what we're willing to do to get some attention?  The sad truth is, it is.    

TWO.  
Do you really and truly care?  Or are you looking for something to complain about.  I don't know about you but I don't even remember the last time I thought about Miss America.  Couldn't even tell you any of their names.  What I'm trying to get at is does this outcome really affect your life in anyway?  Does Miss America even really affect that much in the average persons life?

If this pageants outcome does, or you still really have strong feelings about it are you willing to do anything about it?  I mean it's one thing to complain when something directly affects your life and you're willing to take action.  It's another when you just feel like complaining.  In my opinion if you're not willing to take action, then you shouldn't be complaining.

Look I'm not suggesting I have the answers here but in my opinion I think we as HUMANS should start focusing our attention on the things that really matter.  Making our own lives better and making others lives better.  If we all just focused on those two things, all of this other 'fluff' would simply fade away, and in many cases falloff into the background.

Oh and if you want to stop these people from reporting like this.  STOP reading this junk.  Ok fine, I read it too, but now I'm upset that I did.  You can bet I won't go back to this website from here on out.  If people like this have no audience, things like this won't be reported any more.  But it's going to take all of us to take a stand to not fall into these 'marketing' traps anymore.  Can you imagine how uplifting life would be if a large portion of the news and things being reported on were positive?!?

Oh and if you know someone like this, who truly feels this way; ignore them.  It's not easy but it is simple. Ok I'm done ranting... for now :) Now go be HAPPY and don't let things like this upset you!

I don't know if this is one of those things where the older I get the wiser I get, or maybe I'm more comfortable with myself now so I don't feel the need to go down these roads any more.  What I'm talking about is 'being challenged to do something.'

I used to be the guy who, if you wanted me to do something, just bet me I couldn't  The sad part is, there usually wasn't any reward, it was just a simple bet.  It was a need deep inside me to 'prove myself' to other people.  I had to show them that they were wrong and that I could do anything I put my mind to.  I'm not claiming this part of me has fully gone away, I still enjoy a good challenge every now-and-then, but recently I see others making the same choices I used to and I think to myself, 'ugh is that, or was that me?'

I heard a commercial on the radio the other day where a woman was trying to empower other women.  She said the same old tune, 'tell me I can't do something and I'll show you I can.'  Then in the background you hear a bunch of other women cheering for her and her 'can do' attitude.  What I'm wondering is what kind of message are we sending when we hear or do things like this?  Is it truly a positive one?

Growing up my parents were always very supportive of me.  They always instilled the idea that 'I can do anything I put my mind to.'  Great values in my opinion, especially in a day in age where more and more people seem to be willing to give up before even trying; and where failure is now looked so far down upon instead of being realized as an act of trying to accomplish.

My question is, where did we find the need to prove that point to other people?  I know I can do anything I set my mind to, why do I feel the need to prove it to you?  In most, if not all cases, I don't even care about the task you are assigning to me.  It's not going to improve my life, and when it's all said and done, you're just going to give me a smile and say, 'I can't believe you just did that.'  Then we'll chuckle about it for a few minutes and then it's over.

If this is you my point is this, dig deep within yourself and ask yourself why you do these things.  Are you simply looking for attention that you aren't normally getting?  Or is there some other need deep within you that isn't being fulfilled?  Maybe you should challenge yourself to fulfill that need first.  Or at the very least really consider the challenge.  Does it align with your own personal goals?  Will it improve your life in a meaningful way?  Will it at least improve others lives in a meaningful way?  What is the real reward you're getting out of this challenge?

In my own case I think it's just a simple need for attention.  Maybe I wasn't being taken serious enough within my own group of friends.  Maybe I just felt like I wasn't being heard.  In either case I think I just wanted the attention.


I think our new message should be something like this.  'YOU CAN DO anything you set your mind to!  But choose to do the things that are going to be MEANINGFUL to your own life, or the people's lives around you.'
If this blog hasn't changed your mindset then I want to throw out some challenges of my own for you...

1.  I challenge you to become truly happy.
2.  I challenge you to make other people's lives better.

Good luck and I bet you can't do it!

NOTE:  I want to explain something.  This blog is the step before you start a fitness and nutrition plan.  This was written to hopefully help you get your mental attitude straight before you go into your plan.  If you're looking for fitness and nutrition tips and tricks, I'd love to help you, but that's not what this is about.  In my opinion this is more important.  Getting your mind right before you change your body in any way can drastically make things easier later down the line!



I doubt there's anything I could say during this blog to get anyone to stop weighing themselves, but hopefully after reading this blog you'll stop putting so much stress and concern on what the scale says and shift that focus and energy into what really matters.

Let's start at the beginning.  Do you really want to lose weight?  Almost all the people I know trying to lose weight would answer 'YES of course I do.'  I'd like to argue that in fact you don't want to lose weight.  Let me explain further...

When you daydream of losing weight, what do you think of the most?  How you'll look in a swimming suit? Maybe the feeling of more confidence?  Maybe the activities you'll be able to now perform better; running, jumping, pull ups?  Something else possibly?  The point is this, it's not the weight loss you desire, it's the measurements, the feeling and or the actions that you truly desire.