Pack Light: environment

In the soft dusk, we could see all the family lined up ashore. They flashed their headlights and honked their horns, jumped up and down and waved madly, and we did the same. Slowly we drifted farther and farther away with the wind. We were both sad to have to leave so soon, but grateful that the weather had afforded us those precious 24 hours spent there. After half an hour had passed, we saw the lights of the cars heading home and turned to take on the passage ahead.

Time with family is a precious gift! Regardless of our lineage, I hope we will learn to treat each other like the One Great Human Family that we are!! One Love!

Dirtbag Diaries Podcast: Be Mine

Head Over Heels (video)

Bad sleep 'dramatically' alters body (James Gallagher)

The activity of hundreds of genes was altered when people's sleep was cut to less than six hours a day for a week.

What Happens to Your Body During a 30-Minute Run? (Jaylin Allen)

Our Common Waters: Every living thing has the right to clean water (Patagonia)

Steph Davis: Learning to Fly

When my marriage and my career unraveled simultaneously, I found myself slipping into a downward spiral of anxiety, fear and loss of faith as my world fell apart around me.

Monday, January 14, 2013

|Heart Health -- Summary (UPDATED)

I recently posted two collections of resources on healthy hearts:

I also asked some people for their thoughts, and this is what they shared. First, a comedian, I mean, physician wrote:

So the heart is an incredibly important organ. Actually so important that without it working, the average person would die. This may be able to be proved in studies, the NIH is still considering funding for this kind of groundbreaking research.

As you have demonstrated, there are many voices giving recommendations on what is heart healthy. Very little can be proved or disproved. I do find it fairly compelling that a Mediterranean style of eating is associated with a lower risk of heart disease (nonstarchy veges, olives/olive oil, avacado, legumes, almonds, etc).

I agree with exercise being important. The hardest issue for most people is just doing it. I recommend at least 30-35 minutes a day, if it can be done together for a sustained heart rate effect, all the better.

My reading of, The China Study, would lead me to suggest that animal-based proteins, such as in eggs, milk, cheese, or delicious meat, may be more problematic than the cholesterol content. This may especially be true for cancer promotion.

What you feed your heart is important, but of course ultimately the most important is Who lives in your "heart." A merry heart is good medicine. No matter how many years your heart beats on earth, your "heart" can be filled with His Spirit.

Exercise--yes. Eat heart-healthy foods--yes. Sleep 7.5 hours a night--yes. Laugh--yes. Lose weight if needed--yes. Trust in God--yes.

A family member shared:

I purchased an ebook on walking. They said there is not a lot of difference in health between walking 30 or 60 minutes, six days a week, but a huge difference between none and 30.... The best straight supplement for the heart, most say, is Co-Q10.... Also, turmeric and vitamin k-2 are both for helping the blood system. Turmeric prevents (among many other things) atheroschlerosis and k-2 takes the calcium from the blood vessels and redeposits it in the bones where it belongs.

A medically-trained individual recommended these two films:

Neal Barnard, "Kickstart Your Health."
Michael Greger, "Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death." [notice the differences between his findings and what I posted on the "eggs" page. this is a good example of the various findings that confuse non-scientists/non-nutritionists like me.]

A PA (physician's assistant) shared:

A good book is "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. MD. His ideas are slowly catching on, but many consider him possibly too extreme. I doubt it, but, maybe a little in my estimation.

And a compatriot recommended Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

I also value Michael Pollan's advice: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

And I've appreciated most of these (and hope to see the others soon) that cover personal, community and planetary health:

I originally watched them with a general interest in health. Now I want to watch them again with a bit more urgency.

This TED Talk by Dan Buettner also has wisdom--How To Live To Be 100+. More on Blue Zones here.

BONUS:

Portlandia: Pasta addiction (from the episode Winter in Portlandia)
Portlandia: Shopping bags
Portlandia: Chicken dinner

Friday, August 24, 2012

|Yvon Chouinard & Patagonia

I appreciated Yvon Chouinard's first book, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, in which he shares his own life story as well as the story of the company he started, Patagonia. Now I would like to read his more recent book, The Responsible Company: What We've Learned From Patagonia's First 40 Years.

You can learn more about Yvon and Patagonia here:

And if there's another old dirtbag who equally impresses me, it's Fred Beckey.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

|The Reader

Dear Pack Light Reader (I found out today that there is one!),

You may find bits of interest at my other projects:

Love, Jeff

Monday, September 21, 2009

|Articles

Here are two of my more recent writings:

And this one by Ryan Bell at Spectrum caught my attention.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

|Wednesday Potpourri

These caught my attention today:

Friday, December 19, 2008

|Friday Potpourri

Two interesting folks--Nicole Buffet and Jamie Johnson. Now I'd like to watch One Percent and Born Rich.

Curious what hazards are killing people? Check out this Death Map. And why are you so morbid?

I recently wrote about global warming, ZapRoot and AMiCUS at AEA.

And check out this post about young people in Israel who are rejecting military service.

Monday, December 15, 2008

|World News Served Hot

Online today:

Sunday, September 28, 2008

|Analysis of Words and Diet

Jon Stewart's team is so good. Check out this clip comparing two of Bush's bigger crisis speeches.

Also, today I came across an interesting analysis of eating locally. I wrote about it at AEA.

In conclusion we watched War Made Easy last night.

Monday, September 15, 2008

|Graphics

US Military Spending graphic from Global Issues.

New Offshore Drilling graphic from Adventist Environmental Advocacy blog.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

|Pura Vida

Ten days in Costa Rica is not enough. Long live Pura Vida. I had the privilege to travel with a mission group that was there to do dental, medical and construction work, as well as offer programs for the children.

Three things stand out to me about Costa Rica--vibrant colors (frogs, birds, forests, paint...), amazing food, and kind and generous people. Add to that an army that was constitutionally abolished in 1948, and you have the makings of a fine country.

Unfortunately, I lost my camera. I later heard a line of a song that went something like, "They can't take from you what you've already given away."

The town where we stayed closed it's only gas station when a petrol leak was discovered. Now the closest station is 1 hr 45 min away at the bottom of the mountain. They bring up cans of gas when they return from the world at large. They'd rather be inconvenienced than pollute their waterway.

I met an Adventist who works in one of the nature reserves, and she is seeing geographical population shifts among animal species that she attributes to global warming. Interesting stories that will likely show up on AEA.

I brought home a t-shirt with the words No Army. Costa Rica abolished its military some 50 years ago. Compare that with Nicaragua to the North and Panama to the South. It's the Switzerland of Central America, if you will.

Quotes from Wikipedia:

Costa Rica was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army.^[1] Among Latin American countries, Costa Rica ranks 4th in terms of the 2007 Human Development Index, and 48th worldwide.^[2] Costa Rica is ranked 5th in the world in terms of the 2008 Environmental Performance Index, up from the 15th place in 2006.^[3]^[4] In 2007 the government of Costa Rica stated that they want to be the first country to become carbon neutral by 2021.^[5]^[6]^[7]

On December 1, 1948, President José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica abolished the country's army after victory in the civil war in that year.^[1] In a ceremony in the Cuartel Bellavista, Figueres broke a wall with a mallet symbolizing the end of Costa Rica's military spirit. In 1949, the abolition of the military was introduced in the Article 12 of the Costa Rican Constitution.

The budget previously dedicated to the military now is dedicated to security, education and culture; the country maintains Police Guard forces.

Unlike its neighbors [Nicaragua & Panama], Costa Rica has not endured a civil war since 1948.

More personal stories and reflections to come...