Learned Resilience
• Norman Garmezy might be the father of resilience research, a career sadly shortened by early dementia. But many have followed in his footsteps with promising results. Why do some people go through significant, often tragic, adversity and come out stronger and successful? Resilience researchers describe individuals who ‘meet the world on their own terms … seek out new experiences … and have positive social orientation.’
• Resilient people harbor an internal locus of control – they do not give in to learned helplessness. Just like the stress-is-enhancing mindset, a resilience mindset can be practiced. We can shape our perception of potentially traumatic events. And of course as Victor Frankl recommended, we should seek meaning in whatever suffering we endure. Read more in the article by Maria Konnikova.
Meat: It Depends
• This article from the PURE database concludes what many prior studies have, the type of meat you eat matters greatly. The cool thing about PURE (with multiple studies on dairy, fat intake, etc) is that the 21 different countries are of diverse economic status, with a mix of high, middle, and low income.
• People argue about grass-fed vs grain-fed, red vs white meat, etc. But this paper and many others make the distinction between processed and unprocessed meat. Just like grains, seeds, and most other foods, more processing = worse for your health.
• The take home point from this new study is that unprocessed red meat and chicken did not correlate at all with deaths or cardiovascular disease events. But processed meat (“salted, cured, or treated with preservatives and/or additives’) DID correlate with adverse events.
• Check out this recent blog post criticizing potentially misleading presentations of data on saturated fat consumption.
The Human Foot
• Do you run or walk or wear shoes or have feet? If so, you really need to listen to this Peter Attia podcast where he interviews Irene Davis, a physical therapist with expansive knowledge of the human foot. The podcast is packed with information, both foundational and practical.
• Did you know that if you start wearing thick shoes with extra arch support, within weeks the muscles in your feet literally get weaker? Go straight to the one hour mark to find out why you might not want to wear arch support inserts. How often do you walk around barefoot? You should!
• The brands of shoe she recommends are VivoBarefoot, Innov8te, and Xero.
• Pair the podcast with this article from evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman on the evolution of the human foot. Somewhat technical, but worth a deep read. Irene Davis references Lieberman’s work often during the conversation.
Row machine
• There aren’t many exercises that can get you from resting comfortably to intense shortness of breath and nausea in a minute. Sprinting up a hill, high resistance exercise bike, burpees. If you have access to a row machine, take advantage of this full body intense exercise. Look up pointers on how to properly perform the movement, and ease into it. All row machines are not equal, I love the C2 rower. Great for warm up, burnout, or to do in between other exercises. [For UL folks, the UL HSC gym just returned the machine (it was gone due to aerosolization of covid concerns).]
Sitzfleisch
• Daniel Lieberman’s new book Exercised will appear in many more PWell newsletters – it is phenomenal. He has a long chapter on sitting (spoiler alert: it probably is the new smoking). But sitting isn’t all bad, being able to sit for long periods is a lost art, and of course German word this ability.
A useful German word with no English equivalent is Sitzfleisch. Its literal translation is “butt flesh,” but figuratively it refers to the ability to sit patiently for long hours to accomplish something challenging. Sitzfleisch connotes perseverance and endurance. To win a chess game, solve a complex math problem, or write a book requires Sitzfleisch. The word is generally a compliment, but calls attention to an important principle about dosage: for some things, how often and when you do them are just as important as how much. If I gulp down four cups of coffee all at once, I’ll become jittery and get a headache, but if I drink them over the course of a day, I’ll be fine. Is the same true for sitting? Additionally, does a daily bout of hard exercise negate the effects of sitting for the rest of the day?
• This article has a nice description. Basically the German word for the ability to do Deep Work.
Financial Wellness
• I am pretty sure some of the readers might owe a couple hundred bucks in student loans. If so, check out this new White Coat Investor site dedicated to student loan advice. They just started it but it looks solid already. Dr. Dahle had so much content on WCI already.
Dessert
• My wife absolutely killed it with these low carb carrot cake muffins with cream cheese icing. Prep time not bad at all, be sure to make a lot because you will eat a couple immediately!
Quote
“If you are truly convinced that there is some solution to all human problems, that one can conceive an ideal society which men can reach if only they do what is necessary to attain it, then you and your followers must believe that no price can be too high to pay in order to open the gates of such a paradise. Only the stupid and malevolent will resist once certain simple truths are put to them. Those who resist must be persuaded; if they cannot be persuaded, laws must be passed to restrain them; if that does not work, then coercion, if need be violence, will inevitably have to be used—if necessary, terror, slaughter…the search for a single, overarching ideal because it is the one and only true one for humanity, invariably leads to coercion. And then to destruction, blood—eggs are broken, but the omelette is not in sight, there is only an infinite number of eggs, human lives, ready for the breaking. And in the end the passionate idealists forget the omelette, and just go on breaking eggs.”
– Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin
