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Start the Weekend Right Link Series – Volume #5, Edition #3

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Back again with another Start the Weekend Right Link Series after last week’s successful offering. Just a note before we get started, I continue to recommend using Feedly as an RSS reader (and, again, I am not getting any payment for recommending this product – I just really like it as a replacement for the old Google Reader). If you already have a Feedly account, then you can follow my blog by clicking here.

Resignation Letter, Bari Weiss
Well, this is a complete and total destruction of the New York Times and their editorial page. Ms. Weiss is the now-former opinion editor at the New York Times and in this scathing resignation letter she tears apart what many of us have grown to begrudgingly accept about the newspaper – that its opinion page is more than far-left, it’s off the left side of the charts. As someone who is an avid New York Times reader, I know that they have a broken editorial page that, as Ms. Weiss says, operated by an “enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.” Yuck. If you enjoy reading about the behind the scenes in today’s media scene, then you want to read this resignation letter.

To Ask or Not to Ask: Experiments in Charitable Giving, Freakonomics
As you may know at this point, one of my favorite topics in the volunteering world is the business of philanthropic giving. In this 2011 post from the Freakonomics blog, they offer some commentary on a then-recent study of philanthropic giving related to the Salvation Army bell-ringers at the front of stores during the holiday season. One of their big takeaways is that giving increases 75% when you just ask someone to donate. Shocking, right?

Students Say No to Healthful School Fare, The NY Times Well Blog
This is another blog post from later in 2011 where the NY Times’s Well Blog wrote about how students in the LA Unified School District were rejecting the new, healthier food options. You might remember that about 10 years ago in this country, there was a push to make school breakfasts and lunches healthier (great idea, in my view). Well, this blog entry tells you how that played out some 9 years ago: “Students have been throwing away meals and bringing their own junk food to school, forcing the district to bring back some of the foods it worked so hard to replace.”

Higher Education is Still a Very Good Investment-Becker, The Becker-Posner Blog
The Becker-Posner Blog was a great read for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the two authors were renowned intellectuals who put their minds to work in the judicial and economic spheres. When Gary Becker passed away in 2014, Richard Posner cited that the blog would also be ending. Luckily, this blog entry is from 2013 and gives the authors’ take on why going to college is still a good investment, even in the face of increasing tuition costs.

The Four Lessons I Learned By Taking a MOOC, AIR
Even though this link is some 7 years old already, it has particular relevance to me as I am planning on taking a MOOC this summer. I saw that one of the students I mentor (at a different school and in a different state) completed a MOOC earlier this summer and that got the ball rolling in my mind about whether or not I should take one of these. For those who are unfamiliar, a MOOC is a massive open online course where enrollment is usually free. These days, many institutions of higher education have MOOC offerings from their premier schools and you can purchase a low cost certificate after completing the course showing your efficacy in that subject matter. Again, I plan on taking a MOOC this summer so I will likely report back on my experience. Stay tuned!

The Paleo Diet Debunked?, Nerd Fitness
Nerd Fitness is one of the most entertaining websites when it comes to fitness tips and health information. The author writes from a nerdy world view (I love it!) and takes on big issues in the health and fitness field. In this entry, he writes about the popular Paleo diet (in short, eat like a caveman) and the common criticisms of that approach to consuming food. If you are looking for a really good defense of the Paleo diet and all of the reasons why it could potentially work for you, then this is the page to read. And I also recommend clicking around the website a little bit to learn about the Nerd Fitness approach to health (I use an old Nerd Fitness weightlifting program when I’m at the gym… during non-coronavirus times).

As an aside, the more I go through these old links that I have bookmarked or saved in Feedly, the more I realize many of them lead to content that no longer exists or has been taken down. When and where possible, I will try to replace that content with duplicate versions of the material as is the case above with the article from AIR (originally posted to a blog that I follow that has since taken down the old post).

Have you come across any great articles lately? If so, then please share those links in the comments below. All subjects count from money to volunteering to higher education to sports and more! And one more time for those of you who love reading online articles, I strongly recommend using Feedly as an RSS reader. You can follow JerseySmarts.com on Feedly or you can add us to your existing RSS aggregator. Enjoy!

Book Review: The Eat-Clean Diet for Men

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When you’re constantly trying to lose weight (or, in my case, trying to find the time in your day to just get to the gym), you come across a lot of different diet books, workout regimes, and “quick fixes.” With respect to the quick fixes, I don’t buy into any of that stuff because the quick fix is usually depriving your body of certain essential items (such as fat or carbohydrates – the body needs these things!).

The other day I was watching one of the morning talk shows before leaving for work and one of the guests was a woman that lost a ton of weight. Part of her routine was the Eat-Clean Diet. I’m always interested in what people are doing to lose large amounts of weight. Usually, I’m looking to see if those people are finding success while juggling a crazy professional and personal schedule. In other words, I want to see if anyone can lose 100+ or 150+ pounds when they are busy from 7am through 10pm on most days. I haven’t found that success story yet…

But I digress. I looked into the Eat-Clean Diet for Men and was immediately happy to see that it isn’t so much of a diet as it is a plan to eat natural foods in proper portions. The Eat-Clean Diet for Men, created by Robert Kennedy and his wife Tosca Reno, focuses on creating a schedule of food intake that works for a man to achieve whatever he wants to achieve (be it losing weight, gaining muscle, or maintaining a certain weight). Folks, I’ve been on all sorts of diets and when I did manage to lose 120+ pounds a few years ago (before gaining it back), I did it by staying away from fad diets and, instead, just eating smaller portions and working out more often. That’s what I liked about the Eat-Clean Diet – it’s not a fad diet. Instead, it focuses on eating real foods.

And as it turns out, I’ve been eating the same foods that are recommended by the Eat-Clean Diet for Men for years. I take the supplements that they suggest taking and I eat the food that they suggest eating. My problem for the last few years where I’ve gained the weight back has always been on two issues. The first is portion size. I eat gigantic sandwiches and large bowls of pasta and I shouldn’t do that. I get progressively better at reducing these portion sizes as time goes on, but I still sometimes have portion sizes that are too big. The second problem is timing.

During the college semester, it’s very hard for me to get to the gym for an intense workout. Sure, I can get to the gym and have a half-assed workout at the end of the day for about 30 minutes, but it’s not worth the effort since I’m not achieving anything in that scenario. Between the two hour daily commute to and from my day job, teaching two nights per week, and attending a class on a third night each week, I get pretty tired by the time I get home at night. Further, when I do get home it is usually between 9pm and 10pm after having been awake since 6am.

For me, the Eat-Clean Diet for Men plan doesn’t address how to juggle a ridiculous professional and personal schedule and thus doesn’t add much “new” information for me. In fact, the information presented in the book (which is a very well prepared book, by the way) is nothing new to anyone who has been researching health and healthy lifestyles. In fact, there was nothing new in this book on that front. However, I can see how this book can be a very valuable resource to those people who do not know which foods are good and which ones are bad for improving health.

I’d recommend this book for someone who is in that latter group and for someone who has the time to dedicate to really changing their entire lifestyle for the cause of improving health. For those of us who are over-scheduled from the morning hours through the late evening, the only new thing you’ll find in this book is which foods are good and which are bad. For those of you who already know which foods are good and which are bad and if you’re over-scheduled and trying to find a way to lose weight, then the Eat-Clean Diet for Men might not be for you.

The Jerk on the Cell Phone at the Gym

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Don’t you hate it when you go to the gym and there’s a guy on his cell phone the entire time talking too loud and making a gigantic scene? Ugh…those people are the worst. What’s their problem? Can’t they get off of the phone and pound out a workout?

I’m sorry.

I’m apologizing because I was that guy at the gym tonight. 🙂 Yes, I was the guy on the treadmill on his cell phone holding a conversation that had nothing to do with working out. As many of you know, I serve on the Board of Trustees for a national foundation. At some point around 7pm tonight, I got on a phone call with the Executive Director of our foundation. Since my back was hurting me this morning when I woke up, I had to go to the gym after work – and since I had that phone call scheduled, that meant that I couldn’t go to the gym until after the call.

But do you ever get on those calls where you just have to stay on the line because the discussion is so good that you need to explore it a little bit further? Well, our Executive Director and I had what I thought was an excellent conversation tonight about a variety of issues (some of which were eye-opening to me). But as the call went on I began to worry about getting my workout in. So I drove to the gym and sat in my car for another hour or so on the phone (one of my roommates actually arrived at the gym after me and left before me while I was taking the call).

Then when it got to be 9pm, I knew I had to get a workout in before I was too tired to do it. So I was that guy on the treadmill on his cell phone, but it was for a good reason. And now I will think twice about those other people who are on their cell phones. On the other hand, though, I was on an important phone call and I kept my voice down. Most of those other people get on their phones and start to talk way too loud and in an obnoxious tone!

By the way, tonight marks 18 days in a row that I’ve been to the gym. Pretty good for a guy who isn’t even on a diet and is just working out for the fun of it.

Congratulations Helen – The Biggest Loser for Spring 2009!

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Last night was the live finale of The Biggest Loser on NBC and the show’s content did not disappoint. Jerry, the oldest ever contestant on the show, won $100,000 for the “at home” prize and Helen, a 48 year old mother, won the $250,000 prize for being this season’s biggest loser. Helen had a remarkable transformation from a big 257 pounds down to a skinny 117 pounds. It was amazing. Look at Helen’s before and after pictures:

Last night’s live finale gave hope and inspiration to all of those people who feel that they have been “categorized” into not losing weight. In other words, those people who feel that they cannot lose weight because they are too old or are within a certain age range for a certain gender see now that it can be done. Jerry is 64 years old for goodness sake!

My only gripe with the finale was that it was too long. A three hour finale is completely unnecessary. The entire show could fit into a 90 minute show, which would be nice since there could either be a 30 minute pre-show or a 30 minute post-show. But NBC relies so strictly on the results it gets from audience testing that it completely misses how to put on a television production that makes viewers comfortable while watching the show. Sure, people tuned into the finale to see who was going to win, but the truth is that watching any NBC show is horrible because of the crappy timing and pacing of their shows.

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For those of you who are looking for even more commentary presented from a unique New Jersey point of view, be sure to follow JerseySmarts.com on Twitter @JVince81. Also, sign-up for our quarterly newsletter by using the sign-up form in the box to the left. The newsletter is sent four times each year to provide links to just a few of the top stories that you might have missed. That’s it – there’s no random sales pitch and we do not sell our mailing list to any third party advertising companies. The only updates you will ever receive are from JerseySmarts.com with links to the latest updates from this site. That’s it. Period.

Anyway, congratulations to Helen and Jerry as well as everyone who lost a ton of weight. Mike’s (the 18-year-old kid) transformation is also an amazing story. I’m happy for him and I hope that he sticks to a good diet and workout regime because he can now be healthy for the rest of his life.