I am the chief editor of Organic Lifestyle Magazine. And I’m fat. I am not fat like I used to be. At my peak I weighed 368 pounds with a 56 inch waist. I was a big boy back in the day. I was 17 when I started losing weight. I didn’t do it right, but I had great motivation. I wanted to get laid. Julie was my motivation. She was gorgeous, and way, way out of my league, and I knew I would have to get in shape to have her.

The first time I saw Julie I was the fattest I had ever been. Then I started exercising like crazy and I followed the food pyramid diet. I felt like crap half the time but teenage hormones and the desire to lose my virginity were my fuel.

How I Lost the Weight

I was weightlifting five days a week, I played basketball for ninety minutes a day and ran 6 miles a week once a week. Can you imagine a guy as out of shape as I was playing basketball for ninety minutes without sitting out a game? Like I said, I was motivated.

When I was around twenty-four I ballooned back up to 280 pounds. I was with a woman who was a bit of a chubby chaser who loved to eat and never seemed to gain a pound herself. I fed her and fed myself. We ate. I got fat. She didn’t mind at all. I didn’t even notice.

How I Lost the Weight the Second Time

I lost that weight when I was incarcerated for 18 months for a crime I did not commit. I came out at 210 pounds. In jail we were not allowed to run but I had a workout group that went up and down the stairs repeatedly, did bodyweight exercises, and we made water weights out of trash bags and weightlifted. In prison I ran, played basketball, and used 110 pound floor buffers tied together to make 220 pound free weights for squats and bench.

I am six feet three inches. Right now I weigh 220 pounds. I am stronger than the average person, I can do around 15 chinups, 45 pushups, and I squat 255 and deadlift 345. I can run a few miles and I can ride a bicycle at least 100 miles on level ground.

I’m in decent shape, but nowhere near where I want to be. I want to be the kind of fit that you would expect a health nut to be in. I want a six pack. I want to squat 400 pounds. I want to be able to do more than 100 pushups and more than 50 pullups. I want to be able to complete a hot power yoga class. I want to be able to realistically consider doing a triathlon.

But I’m fat. If I weighed 180 pounds I would have no fat. That means I have 40 pounds of blubber.

Loose Skin

Plus, since I used to be so overweight I have loose skin. Actually, I don’t have loose skin. I have lots of empty fat cells. I have loose fat.

It is a common misconception that people that lost some weight have loose skin. You may, but if you eat right and you are healthy your skin should tighten up. The problem is that when fat is burned it’s not burned like layers being stripped away. It can be kind of random. Imagine a honeycomb, with each cell being filled with fat. A cell here, and a cell there gets burned as you exercise.

Six Pack

The way you get the six pack, the rock hard abs, the tight skin, is to get your body fat very low, like under 7%. Then, if you want to be a little fluffier, a little softer, you can add more fat, and it is added in tight layers as opposed to the flabby jelly I have now.

So here it is. My “before” picture, which is current as of this post, 10/27/2011, here below.

I’m embarrassed. I’ll probably get a bunch of comments that say, “Hey man, don’t be embarrassed…” and I’ll get a few that say, “You should be embarrassed…” But I’m embarrassed. I’ve let this go too long. I want my rock hard abs. I want to be lean. I want to be stronger. I want to be in shape. I want to take off my shirt and impress people.

So I’m putting it out there. I will get in shape. The holidays are going to be tough. I do love to eat! On the next update. I will also tell you all what I am doing and how I am doing it.

My Goals

• Bench 300 pounds
• Squat 400 pounds
• Deadlift 500 pounds
• 50 pullups
• 100 pushups
• 34 inch waist
• 6% body fat
• Visible six pack

I will achieve my goals with weightlifting and High Intensity Interval Training and cardio. I will also add bicycles and yoga when I get closer to my goals.

If you are looking to get in better physical condition, leave your goals and plan of action as a comment below!

We are the 19%

Driving my daughter to school early one morning, I was thinking about suffering. Real suffering. I was thinking about a story I recently heard about mothers in Somalia who embark upon a two-week trek to reach food and water. Along the way, a child becomes too weak to walk any further. The mother is forced to make a decision between 1 child and her remaining six. Does she stay with the 1 child, a decision that will ultimately result in the death of all her children? Or does she leave that one child behind, to die alone, sparing the lives of the other six? This story is stuck in my head. It doesn’t go away. Sometimes, I’ll just be watching my kids eat breakfast

and get overwhelmed with gratitude for being born into a life so abundant with food, water, and shelter. I’m grateful that I am not one of those mothers, yet pained by the fact that I feel absolutely helpless and powerless to change their circumstances.

How is it that we can extract oil from the other side the world, transport it across an ocean to refineries that turn it into a substance that can power millions of vehicles, yet we cannot get these starving children food and water?  Why can’t we get transportation for these mothers and their children who are walking for two weeks and dying along the way?  How is it that we can land on the moon and travel through space, but not get food and water to a country here on our very own planet?

How can we look at ourselves in the mirror and still want more, knowing that there are people in this world whose basic needs are not being met? As a mother, how can I want more, knowing that another mother has to leave her child behind to die to save her other children?

We are occupying Wall Street by the thousands. We are occupying Wall Street because our way of life has become threatened. We have lost our jobs. We have lost our homes. Our cars have been repossessed. We can’t afford to shop at Hollister; we have to settle for Target instead. We scrape the bottom of our purses looking for change to purchase our $2.45 cup of coffee from Starbucks; no more venti caramel macchiatos. We are not the 99%. We are the 19%. The majority, 80%, live in varying degrees of starvation, malnourishment, and extreme poverty, while 1% keep the 19% drunk on material wealth and gorged on stuff, stuff, and more stuff. The 80% are out of sight and out of mind. Industrialized agriculture has stolen their food and killed their soil. Manufacturers in search of cheap labor have polluted their air and water. Corrupt governments have raped their land of natural resources. ALL OF THIS is done so you and I can have more stuff. WE, the consumers, are the problem. WE, the consumers, have ALL THE POWER. If tomorrow, everyone in support of occupy Wall Street spent NO MONEY, and demanded that somebody, somewhere get those mothers and their babies in Somalia some food and water before we will spend another penny, we would see change happen fast. Yes, we might have to get a little uncomfortable. We might even have to get a little hungry for a few days, but WE would know our power and we would never forget it, nor would the corporations or the 1% whose very existence relies on the certainty that tomorrow you and I will wake up and at some point throughout the day, we will spend money.

I hate the high cost of air conditioning. I also hate stuffy houses, the closed windows, and the loss of fresh air. And yet, each year it seems that once those windows are closed and the air conditioner is turned on, it stays turned on until the fall, regardless of the fluctuation of outdoor temperature.

Knowing this phenomenon, I always wait as long as possible to turn on the air conditioner. I strip down to short shorts and tank tops. I run fans and take cold showers. I hold out as long as I can, but when that temperature hangs in the nineties during the day and refuses to drop at night, heat makes sleep impossible. That’s when the windows are slammed shut and the switch is flipped on, usually for the duration.

In the last few years, I lived in a huge house with lots of windows. All but one of them was near to impossible to open. This inability to easily turn that air conditioner off and open the windows made me even more aware of the fact of how many days or nights it was cooler outside than inside.

So why do we do it? Why do we batten down the hatch and flip the switch, never looking back until summer’s end? Summer storms are certainly one factor. When we leave those windows open when we aren’t home, rain blows in. Pollen is a problem. Crime may be another. But I think the primary reason we shut those windows for months on end is a combination of laziness and a lack of knowledge in how to cool our homes naturally.

When daytime temperatures are high and nighttime temperatures drop, it’s fairly easy to keep your house cool. Shut the windows in the morning and open them at night. You can use fans to help cool down the house at night. Set half of them to draw in air and the other half to blow it out. If you have a two-story house, try using the downstairs fans to draw in cool air and the upstairs fans to blow out hot air.

If you do turn on that air conditioner, pay attention to the outdoor temperature each day and each night. Turn off that air conditioner and open those windows every chance you get. Your diligence will be rewarded when you receive your electric bill.

Why does the CDC ask parents to use low fluoride or non-fluoridated water when mixing water with baby formula? Once again, it seems there is more to the story than we are being told…

Is our water decaying our teeth and damaging our bodies? CBS Atlanta recently interviewed Daniel Stocktin of the Lillie Center, a group whose sole mission is to remove fluoride from the public water supply. Stocktin warns of the known dangers associated with too much fluoride—dental fluorosis—and the unknown effects of the chemical on the soft tissues of the body. He warns that we ingest fluoride through water, food, and toothpaste and that it accumulates in the body.

Dental fluorosis is caused by the ingestion of too much fluoride. The first symptom is spotting on the teeth. More severe cases involve pits and holes in the enamel that resemble cavities. The worst cases involve severe erosion of the teeth.

The American Dental Association and the Centers for Disease Control continue to endorse water fluoridation, though they do admit excessive doses can be toxic. Both organizations declined to be interviewed by CBS Atlanta, instead referring the reporters to written information which Stoktin said is bad science and outdated.

Why does the CDC ask parents to use low fluoride or non-fluoridated water when mixing water with baby formula? Once again, it seems there is more to the story than we are being told, especially when recent data from the CDC states that two out of every five children have mild fluoridosis (spots on their teeth.

We want to applaud CBS Atlanta for taking on stories such as these. It is time for us to question all of the chemicals we breathe, put on our bodies, or ingest.

Cat Mutiny

I’ve been eating healthier than the average American for years and years. I stopped cooking processed foods thirty years ago when I realized the effect food colorings, preservatives, and additives had on my children’s ADHD and allergies. Eating better wasn’t good enough. Eating well, really well, took effort and discipline.

I struggled with my diet for years in an effort to battle auto-immune disease. I finally discovered what foods fed Candida and that I was sensitive to gluten. I’m sure I have celiac disease, but I have no intention of spending a few thousand dollars to confirm the diagnosis through conventional means. Why should I go through a biopsy when I know every time I eat gluten I break out in weeping sores and suffer from muscle and joint pain? Obviously gluten and I don’t get along.

So I’ve really cleaned up my diet. And because I eat so well and have eaten so well for so many years, processed foods and fast foods don’t taste good to me. The more I eat organic fresh fruits and veggies, the more anything else is second best—a far second. But this is only true because I don’t eat junk foods. The truth is, bad food and junk food, is truly addictive.

Recently our cats have reminded us how cheap bad foods crowd out the desire to eat well. We raised our cats on a clean, raw diet. Their typical fare was Bell and Evans ground turkey mixed with a little quinoa, spinach, carrots, eggs and eggshells, and a few other veggies thrown in. They loved it, so much so, we had to train them not to attack our hands as we lowered their bowls to the floor. Then they growled at one another and at us if we were stupid enough to try and pick the bowl back up.

But our indoor/outdoor kitties started eating junk food. We have a neighbor who feeds her cat regular kibble and leaves the bowl outside. So our cats have started eating out. And now, they have little interest in anything we try to feed them, even plain raw or cooked meat or fish. They sniff at their bowl and reject their food, going so far as to scratch the floor as if they could bury the offensive offering. So we bought a bag of organic kibble and they ate a little, then rushed outside to raid the neighbor’s bowl.

Now their health is suffering. Taz is chronically constipated. Both she and Jazz are copiously shedding for the first time in their lives. Obviously, an intervention is in order.

A recent study showed that rats fed a healthy diet and later fed junk food would rather starve than go back to eating a healthy diet.

This is such a reminder to us about the addictive nature of processed foods. If we give in to our children’s demands to eat fast foods, candy, sodas, and other junk foods—even as a rare treat, we are training their palates. We are toying with addiction. We are making food that is bad for them, deadly for them, a reward.

We deserve the best food. Our children deserve the best food. And so do our pets-100% of the time.

In the same way that modern buildings and appliances are grounded, placing your bare skin directly on the Earth physically grounds you. This grounding prevents a buildup of electricity and any potential interference that may occur as a result of that electrical buildup.

Being barefoot easily conjures the feelings of freedom, peace, and simplicity. What is often the norm for young children, playing outside, is rare for most of us as we age. Would being barefoot on the Earth each day, every day, be worth another go if we were aware of its myriad, seriously powerful benefits?

I’ve always enjoyed being barefoot outdoors. During my college years, roommates and friends would tease me about my diligent practice of sliding off my shoes the second class was over. Walking home barefoot was a true delight from the moment my feet hit the ground, one that I felt intuitively connected to and instantly at ease with, but an experience I wouldn’t completely understand or be able to fully transmit into words until later. Fast forward a few years, load up on more responsibilities, and load down on time spent outdoors sans shoes. For those who are energetically sensitive, this combination can feel near disastrous. I can feel the shift in vibration the second I enter a home from the outdoors, and at times, it can be suffocating, so much so, that for years, I’ve enjoyed sporadic stretches of sleeping outside, nightly.

I began thinking about the difference in the air and ground waves outside versus the waves inside several years before I became motivated enough to dig deeper into its energetic on-goings. The second I did, however, doors began opening (as is the norm when the Universe is nudging you in a certain direction) and information became available that I immediately resonated with, incorporated into my life, and wouldn’t turn away from embracing and sharing for anything.

In the same way that modern buildings and appliances are grounded, placing your bare skin directly on the Earth physically grounds you. This grounding prevents a buildup of electricity and any potential interference that may occur as a result of that electrical buildup. While the practice of grounding is standard in the care and maintenance of current construction, somehow we’ve glossed over applying this understanding to our own bodies. We have, faithfully, been blocking the current from the Earth for years, the precise current, the flow, that we’re designed to be connected to 24 hours a day.

Wearing shoes with rubber soles completely disconnects the Earth’s flow into our body. Most people are physically lodged in a house or office all day, walking on asphalt, all while wearing shoes. This means that many of us are gliding through each day never discharging the buildup of free radicals imperceptibly reverberating around us.

The Earth is a limitless source of free electrons that stream into the body only when it is grounded. This infusion of negative ions from the Earth into the body and the discharge of destructive positive ions is essential for well-being. Excess positive ions in the body are associated with disease and degeneration. Negative ions are associated with vitality, good health, and healing. The more time you spend grounded, the less inflammation you are likely to experience, resulting in improved overall health, a sense of calmness, clarity, and vitality. Jumping into a body of water or simply touching the Earth with bare feet starts the process of these negative ions cascading up through your body clearing out positive ions—simple, free and amazing!

There are crazy, wonderful amounts of research now underway showing that the process of grounding yourself or connecting with the Earth holds collective and diverse benefits for both the physical body as well as mental and emotional harmony.

Mulch over the implications of this awareness for a hot minute. Just touching the bare Earth with your hands or feet actually transfers these damaging free radicals into the Earth, away from your body! While that stream of harmful free radicals shifts out, a stream of electrons shifts in. These electrons restore balance and a rich overtone of tranquility to your entire system—your muscles, tissues, bones, brain pathways. The benefits are wildly attractive. Again, they are free and almost so easy that they can be readily dismissed by those looking for a more complex path to atonement and wholeness.

It thrills me (I just noticed that I’m lit-rah-lee on the edge of my seat right now, I’m that enthused) that this availability, this option, is always there for us, you and I, without costly equipment or supplements. We just have to make the choice to take it, to love it, to allow it to nourish and love us.

Reflecting back to the boundless energy, serene qualities and the quick-healing nature of childhood holds vast insight. Cheers to never outgrowing foot to Earth play!

Editor’s note: If you are stuck inside working on your computer most of the day, here is a good way to get grounded and connect with the earth:

As the debate about vaccine safety intensifies, new laws have been passed to protect the pharmaceutical companies from litigation. No new laws have been passed to protect the victims of vaccine injury. Against rising proof that vaccines are unsafe and linked to autism, ADHD, and other serious outcomes, the same mantra is repeated by government sources—that there is no proof of cause and effect between vaccinations and health concerns.

Now let’s get real. The truth is, risks have always been known and accepted. Every parent who signs a vaccination form and bothers to read it, knows that they are risking their child’s life by agreeing to a vaccination. I will never forget the dread I felt signing those forms. Oh the risk was slight, but my child could contract the very disease I was vaccinating against or encephalitis or another complication. And death? Oh yes, that was listed as a possible outcome. And as this fact was sinking in, the nurse was pushing me to sign, telling me it was perfectly safe. I felt like I was sending my child outside to run back and forth across the street in hopes he would not get hit by a car. After all, the odds were on his side for that risk as well.

When my ADHD child was 3 and I told the testing psychologist I was going to try diet management (rather than the Ritalin he wanted to prescribe) he told me the link between diet and ADHD was nonsense and he had a study to prove it. When diet mnagement worked, with amazing and immediate results, he didn’t want to see the proof or witness the change in behavior. We do not as yet have good solid research to prove a link between autism and vaccines, but all you have to do is speak to a parent of a bright, verbal toddler who, after a vaccination, suddenly lost both speech and normal behavior to know the link is real. It is an dramatic cause and effect, witnessed over and over and over again by parents across the country.

I work for non-profit organizations, writing grant proposals. One of my jobs is to search grant databases, including grants.gov, the site for federal grant opportunities. Today I stumbled across two requests for proposals from the Department of Social and Health Services, grant opportunities to research vaccine safety.

One announcement reads, “This R21 research opportunity invites studies that address scientific areas potentially relevant to vaccine safety such as 1) physiological and immunological responses to vaccines and vaccine components, 2) how genetic variations affect immune/physiological responses that may impact vaccine safety, 3) identification of risk factors and biological markers that may be used to assess whether there is a relationship between certain diseases or disorders and licensed vaccines, or 4) the application of genomic/molecular technologies to improve knowledge of vaccine safety.”

Our government may be continuing to deny the link between autism and vaccines, but at least they are funding research.