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Q: I love the stainless steel shelving above the stove on the title photo in this article: 7 Kitchen Storage Spots You May Be Missing.
Do you have any information on where I can purchase these shelves and what their dimensions are?
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
“What we do in life, echoes in eternity.” – Maximus Decimus Meridius
Life sucks sometimes.
On September 12th, 2015, my friend Scott Dinsmore tragically passed at the far-too-young age of 32 while climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. Scott is one of my best “internet” friends, the creator of LiveYourLegend.net. He was on a trip around the world with his wife, doing what he loved. Chelsea, I’m so sorry for your loss 
To say I am heartbroken is an understatement.
I like to think our businesses, lives, and communities grew up together; Scott was more like me than anybody else I knew in this online space. In fact, he was always pushing me to be a better version of myself and led by example: he was in amazing shape, with a beautiful family, a thriving business, and had a love of life that was unparalleled.
I’m still trying to make sense of this tragedy, and can’t imagine what his family is going through. My friend Chase Reeves (who designed both this Nerd Fitness site and Scott’s) captured Scott’s personality better than I ever could, and there are already dozens upon dozens of tributes to a man who impacted a lot of people.
Earlier this year I lost another friend at the age of 31. I’ve lost three grandparents since I started my adventures, and two good friends have died far too young. It’s never easy.
I don’t have all the answers, but I know I’m not alone in dealing with tragedy. Life is short, and it can be taken from anybody in an instant.
Today I wanted to write an article about how I’ve tried to cope with these situations in a healthy way, and encourage you to share your stories too.
This first part is the worst, and more often than not feels like a Falcon Punch to the gut.
I woke up on Sunday morning to an email from Scott’s wife Chelsea with news of his passing, and I burst into tears and just sat there numb. I kept waiting for more news to come in, or another email to say that it had been a hoax. How could Scott have died? The dude was bullet proof. It didn’t make sense to me.
I got angry at fate. I got angry at nature. I got angry at mountains. I got really really sad too. I kept waiting for things to be different – to not be as they were.
I later met up with my good friends from college and gave them all big hugs. I called my dad and talked to him for a good hour or so. I told my friends and family that I loved them and that I was happy for the time we have had together.
Being with people I loved helped.
We try to make sense of these terrible situations, or ask what the heck happened… what could have been, what if, and what else could have been done. It’s natural, it’s part of coping. It’s not supposed to make sense. And it always sucks.
If you are dealing with an unexpected loss, cry your eyes out. Get mad at the universe. Hug somebody and squeeze them tightly. Call somebody and vent. Once I got confirmation and heard from other friends who knew Scott, reality set in, and I had to think about life without a dude who only made the world better.
The above picture with Scott and James Clear is from a conference I attend each year and get to catch up with friends. You’ll notice both James and I are covered in paint, and Scott is wearing a cape. Why a cape? Because he just wanted to. Seriously. There was no theme or costume. He spent the night wearing a cape, throwing imaginary smoke bombs and disappearing like a ninja because that’s what he wanted to do. That’s Scott.
Earlier this year I lost my friend Tiffany unexpectedly while I was out at sea with a lot of her friends and former co-workers on the Rock Boat. We gathered for a moment at the back of the ship, watching the boat quietly slip through the Caribbean; despite the chaos happening everywhere else on the boat, we were alone in silence back there. We shared stories, laughed, cried, and then all took a shot in her honor as members of the Shot Club, a “secret club” that Tiffany had helped create years prior. Although she was gone, it was a way to connect with her memory and share a happy moment with those who knew her well.
Scott was one of the most amazingly persuasive people I have ever met. In fact, the first time we met, he got me to go running! If you’ve been reading this site for a while, you know running and I don’t necessarily get along; within minutes of us meeting, he had me convinced this was a swell idea. No joke, I haven’t run a mile since then. Then the last time we hung out together, he challenged me to a handstand contest at 3 AM. Sure enough, I said yes.
Last week I went for a jog through Central Park, and then did some handstands; it was seriously the first time I have just “gone for a run” since I met Scott four years ago. It was something that he and I had done together, and something I hadn’t done since. It gave me a chance to be thankful and reflect on the impact he had made on my life, pushing me to step outside of my comfort zone.
If you’ve lost a loved one, look for a specific activity that tied you to that person in a unique way. Like the Viking tribute to fallen warriors destined for Valhalla, or Maximus being carried out of the Coliseum.
Share a story with those who are grieving, and do something that connects you to the person who was lost. Like a paddle out circle in the surfing community, a 21-‘shot’ salute when golfer Payne Stuart died, the ordering of a special drink (it was “Dewers on the rocks, please” when my grandpa passed), or even just a quiet reflective moment in a specific location that was special to both of you.
Make it a point to do this deliberately.
When there is a devastating loss, life is flipped upside down in an instant. At this point, it’s very easy to slip into major depression and get completely derailed. In fact, anything other than a complete shutdown can make us feel guilty, as if we’re not mourning the deceased enough. It’s tough not to ask or feel: “Did I mourn enough? Too much? What’s the protocol?”
Because we all grieve in different ways, it’s up to us to determine how to move forward, how to honor their passing, and how life will be different.
Unfortunately, the default for most of us is to spend days and days and days grieving, drinking, eating poorly, curling up in a ball, and shutting out reality. After all, if we avoid reality, then maybe it didn’t really happen, right? Unfortunately, we don’t have access to time-machines and we can’t change what happened, no matter how desperately we want to. We can’t change history. If we’re not careful these few days can turn into weeks, months, and years before we realize that we stopped living.
The best thing I’ve found to help me grieve is asking myself: “If I could talk to this person right now, what would they want me to do?” I know that if I could talk to Scott, his response to me would be “Live, you idiot! Get out there and make a great story. Maybe also wear a cape.” Scott’s site was called “Live Your Legend,” and he truly was a living legend.
I know Scott would be angry if I said no to an adventure as a result of his death. He lived every day as if it was his last, and he got to spend his last day on earth doing something he loved, with the person he loved more than anything, in one of the most beautiful locations in existence. We should be so lucky.
I remember the first time I saw Star Wars IV: A New Hope when I was 5 or 6 – specifically the moment when Obi Wan was struck down by Darth Vader:
I didn’t want to believe it. How could Obi Wan die? He was a freaking JEDI! It didn’t make sense to me, and I thought the movie was ruined as a result. I probably started crying. However, I also remembered Obi Wan’s words before he relented to Vader: “If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”
And sure enough, although this great Jedi passed away, his impact was felt through every molecule in the galaxy after that. In fact, it was Obi Wan’s impact on Luke (“Use the Force, Luke. Let go.”) that allowed him to successfully blow up the Death Star.
Although Obi Wan had died, he did in fact become more powerful than anybody could have imagined. It was through Luke and the other Jedi that his legacy lived on. Luke took fundamental steps to live a life that Obi Wan would have been proud of. He changed his fate.
When Scott passed away, I couldn’t help but think of the scene above. Although Scott is gone, it’s clear to me that he has already changed the world, and with 2.7 million views and counting on his TEDx talk, he will continue to change the world long after his passing. Just like Obi Wan, Scott’s impact will be measured through the people who choose to fundamentally change their lives as a result of knowing him.
Like Luke and Obi Wan, Scott will pop into my mind for the rest of my life, and I’ll ask: “What would Scott do in this situation?” And I’ll do my damndest to leave this planet a better place than when I arrived. Scott has become my Obi Wan, and it’s my responsibility to make a fundamental change to do and be better.
I challenge you to do the same. If you are dealing with a loss – most people say things like “things are going to be different now,” or “I’m going to make a change.” And within a week or two, no positive progress has been made. Think long and hard about the person who passed, and ask yourself “What would they want me to do?”
And then I want you to make a fundamental change to your day-to-day life. It can be a small change, but it needs to be something that sets you on a happier, healthier, and more grateful path. After all, that’s all we can ask of life. We have no idea when that game over screen will show up.
Although I’ve watched the video, “A Story for Tomorrow,” probably 50 times since discovering it years ago, I think today is a good a day as any to share it again here on Nerd Fitness.
Ultimately, we hope we get to answer the question, “Did you enjoy your story?” With a “hell yeah.” I will forever think of my buddy Scott when I watch this video, because it seems like something he and his wife Chelsea would make.
We should all be so lucky to experience as much as Scott had in his 33 years on earth. Ben Franklin once said, “Some people are dead at 25, but aren’t buried until 75.” That was not Scott, and I’m thankful for the brief number of years that we got to spend together on this planet. He made my life better, and he made the world a better place before he left it.
This is a goal we can all aim for:
This is how I’ve chosen to deal with death and tragedy over the past handful of years. Do you have any stories or words of advice for your fellow Rebels? Are you going through a tough situation yourself?
I still know I’m going to break down crying at random moments, or when I’m next with other distant friends that knew Scott well, and that’s okay. I’m going to continue building my living legend, and try to help as many people as possible do the same.
Scott, I miss you man.
The Rebellion salutes you.
-Steve
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The rise in craft breweries has put a damper on Guinness’s profits over the past few years. To counteract that trend, the Irish company has started branching out beyond their classic stout to appeal to a wider range of beer drinkers.
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For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering three of your question, dear readers. First, are there any caffeine-free ways to boost energy during a (really) long workday? Absolutely (but caffeine still might help). Second, what’s the deal with cotton candy grapes, a new designer fruit? Is it just junk food on the vine, or can designer fruits be a healthy part of a Primal eating plan? The last question comes from Shirley, a dedicated weight lifter and macronutrient-counter who’s tired of tracking and planning everything. She just wants to enjoy herself and be content with her body without all the calculation. How can she do it?
Let’s go:
Hello Mark,
I love your website and all of the great advice and ideas you have on here. I wanted to know what your thoughts are on natural energizers for working long days other than coffee. I am currently working two jobs so I usually work from 7:30am until 10pm about 4 days a week, so on those nights I usually only get about six hours of sleep. Is there anything that would be beneficial to help keep my energy levels up? Also would it be ill advised to workout while working that much?
Thank you,
Owen
7:30 to 10 is a tough gig, but you can do it.
Get out in the sunlight at every possible opportunity. Light entrains our circadian rhythm, which in part controls our sleepiness and energy levels. The most powerful form of light is the one coming from the sun, so get out into it.
Keep moving. Get up and take frequent walking breaks. There’s nothing so exhausting as sitting in the same place for hours at a time, slumped over, dissolving into the chair. Movement may expend more energy, but it also perpetuates itself.
Blue light. Get a blue-light emitting device and, well, look deeply into it. Some offices even switch their indoor lighting over to blue wavelengths in order to increase energy, alertness, and reduce sleepiness. As far as smartphone apps go, iOS has Blue Light Therapy and Android has Blue Sleep Therapy. Turn the brightness up.
Breathing. A buddy of mine showed me a nice breathing exercise to do when energy levels drop. Start with deep but soft and slow breaths (in through the nose, out through the nose). Start taking progressively more forceful breaths until you’re really inhaling with all you’ve got. Then, bring it back down to where you began. The whole process takes between a minute or two.
At some point, though, fourteen hour days are just tough for humans to deal with. You’re going to run into issues and you have to accept that special considerations are required. Coffee or some other source of caffeine might really help, as long as you can tolerate it and make sure to avoid it at night (it even goes well with blue light, so that you need less of each).
As for training, keep it short and sweet. Intensity over volume:
Don’t do all those things every week. Don’t sacrifice sleep to train. Keep hard workouts (CrossFit WOD, long run, big weight session) to once a week at the most.
Make sure you get extra sleep on the nights that allow it. Sleep debt is real, but sleep surplus chips away at it.
Dear Mark,
I have recently come across cotton candy flavored grapes and love them! However I was wondering if they are truly safe to eat or if this is just another clever marketing scheme. What is your take on them? Love the site and all the sound nutritional advice.
Hunter
Cotton candy grapes are an example of a designer fruit. Now, “designer” anything has a negative connotation in common parlance. Like those newfangled designer drugs pumped out of Chinese chemical manufacturing facilities who end up coursing through the veins of overdosing London club kids, or designer babies whose physical, mental, and psychological traits are pre-selected to be perfect by the eugenicist parents, or genetically modified foods designed to withstand herbicides. The idea of designing biological systems from the top down is scary to some people. And I’ll admit that the potential for bad decisions with huge consequences exists.
But this may surprise you: I love designer fruits.
See, most fruits are designed for durability and shelf-stability. Producers want their tomatoes to survive being shipped halfway across the world. They want apples to last five months in the storage refrigerator. They want people to enjoy the flavor, I suppose (although I’ve never met a store-bought tomato that had any flavor to enjoy), but it’s not at the forefront. They’re counting on the fact that people have forgotten what good produce really tastes like, if they’ve ever tasted it in their lives to begin with.
David Cain, horticulturalist and creator of the cotton candy grape created it to get back to how grapes used to taste. He wasn’t trying to create cloyingly sweet candy on a vine (the cotton candy grape is only slightly sweeter than the average table grape). He wasn’t inserting fish genes into a table grape. He created a hybrid of two grape strains that minimized the acidity, thus allowing the sweetness to linger on the tongue. Concord grapes, if you’ve ever tasted them, are incredibly sweet, complex and delicious. They’re also fragile, contain seeds, and their skins fall off to reveal the unsightly pulpy interior, so they’re mainly used for juices and jams. The cotton candy grape is a successful attempt to blend the Concord grape with the common table grape, improving upon both.
Other designer fruits include pluots (plum-apricots that are more plum than apricot) and apriums (apricot-plums that are more apricot than plum). When I hit the farmer’s market, I see far more pluots than plums or apricots. And you know what? Good. Pluots are far superior to either parent fruit.
If you’ve ever enjoyed a Meyer lemon, you’ve consumed an unholy abomination, a fusion of the common lemon and the mandarin orange. You monster.
Boysenberries are blackberries mixed with raspberries.
All those delicious apple varieties we enjoy are hybrids. Heck, pretty much every bit of produce we buy at the grocery store or farmer’s market results from selective breeding. That’s a good thing. When you combine a healthy fruit with another healthy fruit, the result is a healthy fruit.
Don’t fear the designer fruits. Eat them.
Hi Mark,
I love your site and have been following your Primal Blueprint plan for a week. I’ve dropped a couple of lbs of fat already.
I just turned 58 and have always been in excellent shape. 5’2 currently 106 lbs. However, I am beyond over counting macros and being obsessed with my meal planning. I have been obsessed with it for many years and I need help in breaking this cycle.
I want to enjoy being 58 and stop comparing myself to fitness models half my age.
I want to be able to eat the primal lifestyle and not calculate everything like I have been the last 10 years of my life.
I’ve already changed my workout routine, instead of 5 days a week of heavy lifting to 3 days a week of moderate workouts.
Do you have any articles or words of wisdom to help someone like me transition out of the typical weight lifter mentality as the diet goes, with counting every morsel of food in MFP? I’m already sold on the Primal Blueprint diet…so no problem there. My body loves this way of eating. I was carb sensitive and it took this diet to show me that.
My goal is to stay in shape but not be so obsessed. I want to live the way you are living. Older in age, and still in beautiful shape.
I thought maybe I still need to do MFP until I get the hang of it. I appreciate all of your words of wisdom very much.
Thank you so much,
Shirley
You’ve spent decades building a beautiful body. All those hours, days, weeks, months spent working with the iron, counting calories, tracking macros, putting together meals for the week ahead, avoiding junk food.
Now it’s time to enjoy what you’ve built in the gym. Go back thirty, forty years and think about what you loved to do as a kid. When you went out with your friends on a free summer day and you had until the street lights came on to get into trouble and go on adventures, where did you go? What did you do?
It’s time to figure out how you play. It’s time to explore the environment with your body. That’s what I finally discovered a decade or so ago. More and more I’m realizing that the Primal Blueprint is a toolkit for play and pleasure. It gives you the tools to be healthy and vibrant and virile enough to eat great food (and enjoy it), move your body through the environment (and enjoy it). Too many healthy eaters (even in this community) turn food into work. Every meal becomes a dissertation on micronutrients. Every bite is analyzed for trace mineral, protein, polyphenol content, and fatty acid composition. And the fun’s gone.
Likewise, too many serious students of physical culture forget that moving well and being strong isn’t just good for you or your physique; it makes life more fun.
And then, when you get out of your own way and start focusing on what really matters — the taste of the food, the joy of physical play and sport — the other stuff still happens. You’re still healthy, because healthy, nutrient-dense food tastes good. You’re still fit and strong (if not fitter and stronger) because joyful movement perpetuates itself. Heck, you’re healthier and fitter than you were before. And the fact that you’re playing and moving and performing well is proof that your eating and training strategy is working. You no longer need the scale, the calipers, or the nutritional logging to tell you you’re on track.
Does “MFP” refer to MyFitnessPal? Sure, you can use that, but do it a little differently. Instead of entering your food and activity in real time, write them down in a separate document. Then, at week’s end, enter it all into MFP. You’ll get the results after the fact and chances are you’ll discover that your intuitive sense of eating and exercise is sufficient to get you the nutrients you need. After a few rounds of this, you won’t need MFP at all.
Ultimately, I train so I can play. You’ve trained your entire life. It’s time to play.
That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading and be sure to help out down below with your own responses to the questions!
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We’ve all seen those kitchens: the ones with neatly arranged open storage, jars lined up in a row, gleaming in glass and freakishly perfect, with the telltale signs of healthy eating on display — red and green lentils, grains, organic tea leaves. Does your kitchen look like that? Yeah, neither does mine. But I do love to have a few canisters of frequently used supplies out for ease, and these stoneware jars keep them looking stylish.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
In the world of sports performance, it’s often said that strength underpins everything we do. But is that really true? There’s no doubt athletes need to produce and absorb forces quickly and reactively. However, it’s not possible to force any more strength out of an athlete’s body’s than his or her nervous system allows. And yet coaches and trainers often do just that – demand more from their athletes with supersets.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
In the world of sports performance, it’s often said that strength underpins everything we do. But is that really true? There’s no doubt athletes need to produce and absorb forces quickly and reactively. However, it’s not possible to force any more strength out of an athlete’s body’s than his or her nervous system allows. And yet coaches and trainers often do just that – demand more from their athletes with supersets.
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