Favorite Home Remedies

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I need some inspiration along my journey.

Pretty much every day, if I can get it, in fact.

I usually turn to blogs for that inspiration, for whatever I’m doing. When my wife and I need inspiration for unschooling, we look to blogs. Same thing for blogging, writing a novel, simplifying my life, quitting smoking, anything.

Lately my journey has been focused on fitness, and of course I’ve turned to some of the best blogs out there to give me my daily dose of motivation.

Today I’m presenting some of the best of those fitness bloggers — the ones I truly treasure. I’ve asked each of them to list their favorite fitness blogs (up to 5 of them) so that we could benefit from what they read. Of course, everyone’s list is subjective, and there are lots of other great ones out there (share yours with me on Twitter). And of course, there’s some overlap among their favorites.

I need to give a nod to my sister, Kat, for introducing me to many of these blogs. She’s a personal trainer and nutritionalist, my running partner, one of my best friends, and definitely one of my fitness inspirations. Keep rocking, Kat!

Next week, I’ll feature these same six bloggers but ask them a different question: best tips for getting lean.

1. Mark’s Daily Apple. Mark Sisson shares his unique philosophy of “primal living in the modern world”, and while he wasn’t the first to advocate a return to the diet and activity style of our primal ancestors, he’s become one of its leading proponents and spreaders of the idea. In fact, he wrote the book: The Primal Blueprint. He’s a must read, even if I ocassionally disagree with him (on vegetarianism and endurance running, both of which I do for reasons other than health). Here are Marks’ favorite fitness blogs:

1. Theory to Practice.
2. CrossFit.
3. Fitness Spotlight.
4. Conditioning Research.

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2. Fitness Black Book. Rusty Moore advocates the “Hollywood” type of fit body, rather than the “bodybuilder” type. Meaning: slim, athletic, sexy. Nothing wrong with that, in my book. And Rusty delivers, with great posts on different types of workouts and eating, breaking down conventional wisdom, and showing us how to stay fit year round. Here are some of Rusty’s favorites:

1. Fitness Spotlight. Mike O’Donnell had a site called “IF Life” a while back (about intermittent fasting). Scott Kustes had a site called “Modern Forager” about healthy eating and healthy fats. On their own, these were two of my favorite fitness blogs. When they joined forces over a year ago and formed “Fitness Spotlight”, it was a complete No-Brainer…this site rocks for great info!
2. Conditioning Research. Chris over at “Conditioning Research” is like the news source for the fitness industry. He is really dialed in. My guess is that he has a million “Google Alerts” set up and other tools for him to stay on top of what’s happening in health and fitness. His site is the first with the story A LOT of the time.
3. Adonis Lifestyle Podcasts. John Barban is a gentleman who was Head of R&D for a large supplement company. He was also a professor of Strength and Conditioning for the Florida Gators. I like to listen to his podcasts from his blog as I work online. I have a pad of paper and jot down notes for future posts and content for my blog. I consider this like a weekly lecture and always have more clarity about a subject after he talks about it. Incredible info.
4. Feel Good Eating. Marc is a guy who lives in a beautiful part of the world…Naples, Florida. He has a small little blog that is just filled with amazing low carb recipes (with awesome photos). I love his blog, because it is 100% pure. He simply does it for the enjoyment of sharing and connecting with people. I am not sure what he does, but he looks like he does very well in his chosen career and just does this blog for the love of the subject matter. I am not against blogs that make money (I make a full-time income from FBB)…I just love these little “pure” blogs.

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3. Zen to Fitness. Chris writes about a lot of common-sense fitness topics — or maybe they’re just common-sense to me because we have similar philosophies. Either way, great stuff. Here are his favorites:

1. Mark’s Daily Apple. An obvious one but great content consistently.
2. Theory To Practice. Extreme workouts, good discussion and regular input.
3. Arthur Devany. The pioneer of evolutionary health/fitness.
4. Fitness Spotlight. Overall a real winner, packed with great articles on a good level for every kind of reader.
5. Turbulence Training. Great workouts and podcasts from Craig.

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4. Fit and Busy Dad. Chris Lopez lives in Toronto and shares some great tips, workouts, and strategies for dads (actually all parents and anyone who is busy) who want to get and stay in shape. Great videos, fun to read. Here are some of Chris’ favorites:

1. Jason Ferrugia.
2. Brad Pilon.
3. T-Muscle.
4. Turbulence Training.
5. Ross Training.

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5. Fitness Spotlight. This is an excellent blog jointly written by two bloggers — Mike O’Donnell and Scott Kustes — who previously had blogs I enjoyed separately. Those two blogs — the IF Life and Modern Forager — seemed to have been abandoned when they created Fitness Spotlight, but those losses are more than made up for with the new blog. Excellent fitness and health articles throughout the week. Since I like both bloggers, I’m featuring both of their favorites here.

Mike O’Donnell: I have cut down on my blog reading, but the ones I do keep around and check up on once in a while on my reader are:

1. Mark at Mark’s Daily Apple.
2. Rusty at Fitness Black Book.
3. Stephan at Whole Health Source.
4. Ross at Ross Training.
5. Chris at Conditioning Research.

Scott Kustes:

1. Mark’s Daily Apple.
2. Robb Wolf.
3. PaNu.
4. Whole Health Source.
5. Speed-Endurance.com.

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Yesterday, February 5 was Wear Red Day, a day when women across the United States were called upon to wear one article of clothing that is red. This was in order to show support for and raise awareness of women’s heart disease.

According to this write up, one third of women will die from cardiovascular disease which is the No1 killer in the country.  Another shocking statistic: Ninety percent of women have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease.

Wear red day is meant to talk about cardiovascular disease, making people aware of its risks, and celebrating those who have managed to come out of it unscathed.

While there is little one can do about one’s genes (we can pick our friends not our parents after all) we can do all that we can about eating right, exercising,  cutting out smoking and cutting down on drinking.

It is also important to get regular checkups and be honest with the doctor. Don’t be either brave or scared, do what is required to be done for cardiovascular health. If tests and follow-ups are required, get those done. This is not about later, or I don’t have the time.

Symptoms to be watching out for: chest discomfort is the most obvious, then there is breaking out into a cold sweat and experiencing shortness of breath, nausea, and pain in the back or jaw.  This is not a message just for the overweight, or just men or just women; everyone fat or thin needs to get on board.

Pleurisy, also known as “pleuritis”, an inflammation of the pleural membrane characterized by a stabbing pain felt within the chest region indicated with deep breathing, coughing or sneezing.

Chest pain is a severe manifestation that may indicate a critical heart attack. The discomfort might stay in one place, or may extend to the shoulder or back and other nearby areas. At times, it becomes a consistent blunt ache.

Pleurisy, commonly caused by viral infection that shows certain symptoms such as rapid and neritic breathing, chills and fever, severe cough, unexplained weight loss, sore throat followed by pain and swollen joints.

Unfortunately, many people regard this type of disorder to a mild heart problem such as heart burn or angina and taken for granted the possible problems it may entail in the future. Medical histories, physical examinations and diagnostic tests can help determine early signs of this disease.

Treatment of pleurisy is aimed and directed to fully eliminate the underlying cause of this disease, relieve the symptoms and removing the liquid or blood from the pleural space.

Specialists also prescribed certain medications to relieve pleurisy symptoms through intake of paracetamol or certain anti-inflammatory agents and codeine-based cough syrups to alleviate severe cough.

A person who suffers from this is encouraged to start changing their lifestyle consistently for effective treatment and later achieved full recovery.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity.

For more than ten years I’ve operated a string of one-man businesses. My model is: keep it lean, hire no one, and outsource very little. I’ve made my share of mistakes (a long list!), but one thing has remained constant—I want to add extreme value to my customers, and I want to make a good living without simply creating a job for myself.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

1. Hire no one. My Unconventional Guides business took off in early 2009, and for a while I felt an internal pressure to hire some kind of virtual assistant—mostly because that’s what everyone in the internet world seems to advise these days. “Get someone to do the things you don’t want to do,” is how the idea is usually sold.

I finally realized that another answer to dealing with “the things you don’t want to do” is to just not worry about doing them at all. If I have to supervise someone else doing boring work, it’s not that different from doing it to begin with. The things are still on my mind one way or another. Therefore, it’s just me in the virtual shop, working from more than 20 countries a year.

2. Outsource very little. The conventional alternative to hiring employees is to outsource your life through overseas agencies or virtual assistants. But instead of outsourcing, you can just stop doing stuff. I don’t want employees, assistants, or clones in India to answer my email. I actually like hearing from my customers and don’t want to create a barricade between them and me.

3. Offer no customization. As Henry Ford famously said about his Model-T automobile, “They can have any color they want, as long as it’s black.” Once you start providing options, color, sizes, and so on, things get complicated. If you want to stay deliberately small, don’t customize.

(I also offer no shipping services, since everything I sell is digital. Therefore I have no need for inventory, trips to the post office, or worries about lost orders.)

4. Pursue a lot of opportunities, but don’t be afraid to cancel. Last year I developed four new products, but I almost developed two others. No one heard about them, because they ended up not being a good fit for the mission. Failing quickly is OK; dying a slow death is not. Don’t worry about what you’ve spent to get to the point where you are. In the words of Seth Godin, “The only cost that matters is the one in front of you.”

5. Offer more to the right people. Properly set up, the creative use of cross-selling and upselling can rock your business world. Most businesses earn much more money from existing customers than from new ones. When I first set up a very basic cross-sell – “Would you like fries with that?” – I increased sales by 23% immediately, without increasing the workload. Then I set up a simple upsell – “If you bought x, you’ll love y” – and increased sales a further 12%.

6. Set a clear, non-ambiguous goal. Most businesses have the goal of “maximizing shareholder value.” There’s nothing wrong with making money, but an unclear goal is hard to achieve. How will you know when shareholder value has been “maximized”?

Therefore, my goal is basic: happy customers who benefit from my work, and a good living for myself. I don’t need seven-figures or an overseas call center to achieve either of those objectives. Instead, I need to be able to travel and work from anywhere without worrying about money.

7. Provide the strongest possible guarantee, and stop worrying. I don’t mess around with guarantees. My Frequent Flyer guide guarantees that customers will receive at least one free plane ticket (25,000 miles) in exchange for $49, or I don’t get to keep their money. Everything else is guaranteed for life, or for as long as the bank that processes my Visa transactions will allow me.

Some people ask, With such a generous guarantee, what’s the refund rate? Answer: less than 1%.

But don’t people take advantage of you? Answer: most people are honest, so why worry about the dishonest ones? Life is too short.

8. Focus entirely on relationship building and cash flow. That’s it. This is what your very small business will live or die by, so avoid getting sidetracked by anything else. Relationship building activities include talking to customers and creating new products based on their feedback; cash flow activities include joint venture promotions, sales, and offers to existing customers.

9. Track two key metrics and ignore the rest. For my blog I want to know: how many new readers did we add today? For my business I want to know: what was the total revenue that came in today? Everything is evaluated according to those figures. At the end of the month I also quickly look at a few other metrics like visitor value, sales from affiliates, and a few social media stats. But it’s all very simple; it takes fifteen minutes to update monthly, and I ignore everything else.

As Zen Habits readers know well, you can often do more by doing less. What you give up is just as important as what you hang on to—and besides, choosing to be very small in business is fun.

Chris Guillebeau writes for a small army of remarkable people at The Art of Non-Conformity. Follow him on Twitter here.

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Migraines are intense headaches that attack the sufferer periodically and are accompanied by discomforts such as nausea, dizziness and inability to function normally.

Seemingly, they affect women much more than men and are more frequently experienced just days before or during menstruation.

It appears that as estrogen levels in the blood fall just a couple of days before the period, migraine activity has a tendency to rise.

The onset of migraines has been identified at a younger age for boys, 10 years, than girls, where many experience them initially at about 14 years.

Research studies indicate that about 60% of women who experience migraines tend to have the attacks in close association with their monthly menstrual periods.

These attacks typically manifest a couple of days before or during the menstrual period. This pattern enables women to use short-term preventive treatments intended to prevent the migraine attacks from occurring or at least reduce the severity of headaches in the event that they occur.

Migraine attacks also typically manifest mid-way in the menstrual cycle, at the time of ovulation when there is less estrogen in the blood which causes greater sensitivity to pain, making women more susceptible to migraine problems.

Managing diet along with other lifestyle practices can effectively prevent or control migraine attacks.

Dietary measures involve taking of meals as regularly planned and ensuring diet is well-balanced.

You should not skip meals as hunger and low blood sugar encourage migraine attacks. Ensure intake of plenty of fluid to prevent dehydration, a common trigger of migraine attacks.

It is recommended that you decrease intake of salty foods a few days before the menstrual period as well as alcohol, chocolates and sweets to decrease probability of migraine attacks.

Other measures include getting enough rest and maintaining regular sleeping schedules.

Treatments for migraine problems in regular menstrual periods can take the form of prescription medications, natural therapies and non-medical measures.

Prescription medications can be recommended by your health care provider and when taken a few days before the onset of your period or whenever the attacks tend to occur, suffering will be alleviated.

Natural therapies include massaging eucalyptus, peppermint or lavender oils on the forehead which greatly eases the severity of menstrual migraines. These oils give a unique aroma which is very effective in calming and relaxing the mind thus useful in treating the migraines.

You can also soak some henna flowers in vinegar for 10 minutes, then massage onto the painful area to ease menstrual migraines. Yet another helpful herb for relieving menstrual migraines is rosemary.

Inhale the steam from a cup of rosemary mixed with boiling water twice a day for beneficial results. Drinking fresh beetroot as well as grape juice is also very effective in countering menstrual migraines.

Researchers have found that there is a link between excessive internet use and depression.

It was reported by this Fox News article, that the more time one spends on the internet, the more likely it makes you depressed; the less likely you would be happy.

The depression is also linked to addiction. It was found that the average depression score of the hardcore internet users who spent many hours on the internet each day was more than five times higher than that of non-addicted users.

Researchers are not categorical about the cause effect relationship here however; whether it was the internet that was causing the problems or whether it was that people who already had mental issues were drawn to the internet. There may be some basis in the perception that over-engaging in web sites that serve to replace normal social function might be linked to psychological disorders.

What do you owe to the future and the past – if anything? Do you owe anything to your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and other people from the generations before you? What, if anything, do you owe to your children? Many people are in the habit of speaking of debts and dues in regards to the future and past generations of their family, but what do you really, truly owe?

I want to take a simple example. If your parents paid for your college education, do you have an obligation to pay for your children’s college education, or does the “college education obligation” reset at zero each generation? One line of thinking would be that it is a gift, given by your parents to you. You have no obligation to pass on the gift. Another line of thinking would be that you are selfishly failing to repay the assistance you received.

To complicate it even further, what if you think it’s a mistake? What if your grandparents put themselves through college, paid for your parents, who then didn’t pay for you because they thought their grandparents came out better for working their way through college? I know that may be a bit of a stretch, but it’s possible. But by increasing the “generational obligation” are you increasing expectations unreasonably?

A college education is one thing, but take material items. I was given a brand-new car as a high school graduation present. Does that mean I owe my children new cars? Should I only give it to them, if, like I did, they receive full scholarships to college (and therefore didn’t need any of the money that my grandparents and parents had thought I might for school)?

I don’t plan to buy my kids ‘fancy’ cars or send them to school. Plans change, of course, as do circumstances. But the concept of a generational contract – something that is owed – is odd when you think of it, because in a sense you have no choice in it, and due to your own circumstances you may not have the ability to live up to your obligation. Even if my parents had paid for me to go to a private college (say, $10,000 per year at the time) I am not sure I would be able to do the same for my children – if in 18 years the same school would cost $40,000 per year. Or more.

In the best circumstances, people love their families and will do anything for them. But does that mean giving up career choices? A choice of a place to live? If you have ailing parents in the future and they refused to move, would you give up following your career or even just living in a place of your choosing to stay near to them? If your parents raised you in a particular religion or ethnic culture, do you have an obligation to at least introduce it to your children?

I can imagine that some people look at the level of obligation implied by children and get a little queasy thinking about everything they will owe to them. It’s not the first thing you think about in regards to children, but it is one of the things to consider. And your parents (and other older relatives) will rely on you when they are older for support and care and even “continuing the family traditions.” In some senses, one of the hardest things may be to break these expectations – to not raise the kids Catholic, or tell your parents you are moving to California when they don’t want to leave their home in Chicago. Knowing what your choice will be in these types of situations, before you have to make it, is probably worth considering.

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our debt to the future and past is an original article from the website brip blap.

I’ve been sick for a few days – nothing serious, just a head cold – but nothing puts priorities in perspective like even a small drop-off in energy. Getting the dishes washed – or even, frankly, the hair washed – becomes a struggle when you don’t have energy.  Too often I think productivity gurus focus on the way to get things done rather than the energy needed to get it done.  I could have the greatest productivity system in the world, but if I’m exhausted it won’t do much.  Exercise, diet and proper bodily maintenance (vitamins, etc.) have a lot more to do with productivity than “productivity systems” do.

Links:

• My Thoughts on Frugality vs. Earning More:  Right along my own thought pattern.  Listen, be frugal.  Pay off your debt, and adjust your spending to less than your earnings – and then forget about spending and focus solely on increasing earnings.  There is no secret to wealth that says “make the same wage the rest of your life and live within it.”  In today’s economy, you have to learn how to earn more.
• 4 Ways to Soften the Sting of Unemployment:  These are desperation tips, but you know what?  You’re unemployed.  Be desperate.  I was mildly desperate when I couldn’t find consulting work after the crisis, and you know what kept me from doing things like this?  An emergency fund – but that having been said, I should’ve imagined I had no emergency fund and lived a bit more…well…frightened.
• Poll: What Would You Do If You Had a Million Dollars:  Hire a night nanny.  Seriously.
• Do You Overlook the Indirect Costs?:  I do.  It’s a weakness of mine, particularly in regards to home ownership.  It’s always easy to overloook the “extras” that will be required for any project.
• Hired a Cleaning Service (and Personal Finance Links):  To quote Larry the Cable Guy:  Git ‘er done.  We had a cleaning service for years in Jersey, and while we don’t have one yet in Florida I remain convinced that this might be some of the best money you ever spend.  Certain people can do certain tasks.  I, for example, do not mind washing dishes.  I really don’t.  I get some satisfaction out of washing dishes by hand.  On the other hand, I detest vacuuming and dusting.  I don’t want to do it, I’d rather leave it for weeks than do it myself.  Hiring a cleaning service in this case?  Reasonable.

A few more good links:

• The Two Financial Measures that Determine the Health of Your Finances (AKA Two Financial Measures to Track Your Finances)
• Should I Save For Retirement While In Debt?
• Talking About Finances With Your Aging Parents … or Grown Kids
• New Roth IRA Rules
• How To Identify A Shopping Addiction, Poor Spending Habits

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linklings, sickness and productivity edition is an original article from the website brip blap.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

I get asked a lot of questions, many of them repeatedly, and I figured instead of answering them all over and over, I’d compile my answers for everyone here.

Of course, there’s a lot more about me and this site on the About page, and I’d always love it if you checked out the Books page.

I hope you find this useful!

1. Why did you turn off comments on Zen Habits?
This has been the most difficult decision I’ve made since starting Zen Habits, as I truly loved comments here. I love hearing from readers, and it was my opinion that the comments often held better tips than the posts themselves. I learned (and still learn) a lot from my readers.

So why did I turn off comments? There was too much comment spam, resulting in huge headaches for me. Seriously, it took up a lot of my time — time I wanted to spend creating, or with my family. And the tiny minority of legitimate comments were mostly bloggers trying to get noticed — not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I just don’t want to spend my life moderating spam for this reason alone.

Edit: Yes, I’ve tried several different software solutions for comment spam, and they don’t really solve the problem of humans leaving comment spam. Even things like Askimet (and numerous other such filters) and CAPTCHA let a lot of spam through. Trust me, I’ve done a lot of research, and when spammers are motivated, they’ll find a way through for a site with this kind of traffic.

People can still give me feedback via Twitter, and if I don’t always respond I do listen. Getting rid of comments has been regrettable, but they don’t scale, and it has brought peace to my life.

2. When and why are you moving to San Francisco?
We’re moving to San Francisco this summer – in late June 2010.

And we’re super excited.

We’ve bought our plane tickets but haven’t reserved a house or apartment yet. We’ll be living in the city, going carless.

We’re selling all our stuff but a handful of clothes and my laptop, and a few pieces of artwork. Read more about selling all our stuff on our “yardsale” site (if you don’t live on Guam, you can’t buy anything).

I know the burning question is why. The reasons are manifold, but here are a few:

• Guam will always be home, but we’d like to experience more of the world, and we’d love our kids to see more than this tiny little slice of life, however wonderful it is.
• San Francisco is one of my favorite places in the world – I lived there as a teen-ager, and I fell in love with it. It’s beautiful, the people are diverse and crazy and awesome, there’s no shortage of things for kids and teens and adults to do, the food is great, the weather is superb, and the areas around it are varied and gorgeous, from the California coastline to the mountains to the redwoods to wine country to Oregon to the north to Disneyland to the south (I know, but we have six kids, so.).
• As a blogger, I can work anywhere in the world, and I’d love to meet online blogging friends and readers in real life from time to time.
• As homeschooling parents, my wife and I want to expose our children to more opportunities to learn from the world around them. Guam is a great place for that, but San Francisco offers more. It’ll be an incredible learning experience for our kids.
• We hope to go carless, and San Francisco is a good place to do that, with muni and BART and a cycling friendly city and the ability to walk and things like Zipcar and City CarShare if we need them. Guam is a very bad place to go carless if you have kids.
• I’m vegan, and Guam is also a bad place for that. There’s exactly two vegan/vegetarian restaurants on Guam, and great as they are, I’d love to be in a place with more options. I can’t wait to try veggie restaurants in S.F., or at least restaurants with more veggie options than, you know, salad. Farmers markets and natural food co-ops and leftist bookshops and such are also attractive to a person like me. We also considered Portland and Eugene, OR as options, for these same reasons, but for complicated reasons S.F. is our choice.
• We have awesome family in the Bay Area, and I can’t wait to spend time with them. Seriously, other than the family I have here on Guam, the ones in S.F. are among the rockingest I have (well, there’s also the ones in Eugene and Austin and Vegas and Scottsdale and Chicago and a couple other places, but I digress).
• My oldest daughter will be a senior in high school next school year, and being in California will help her visit and apply to colleges and even establish residency should she decide to go to college in CA.
• I try to buy as little as possible, but when I do need to buy something, I prefer to buy used. Guam’s options for thrift and second-hand shops are, shall we say, limited.

Again, these are just a few. I could go on all day.

I love Guam, but it’s time for a change. We’ll always come back to Guam. We just want some new experiences, and we can’t wait.

I hope to see some of you there!

3. What’s your current workout/running routine?
At the moment, I run 3-4 times a week (training for a half marathon), and I go to the gym 3 times a week, and bike a couple times a week. You can see my training plan on this spreadsheet, but be aware that it changes from month to month, depending on my goals.

I like to mix things up. I don’t often train for races anymore, but I still love running. I’m trying to build a little muscle, which is why I’m lifting weights right now, but in a few months I’ll probably stick to bodyweight exercises and the like.

I’m riding my bike right now to get in better bike shape — I hope to make it my main form of transportation when I move to San Francisco.

I also eat fairly clean, about 90% of the time. You can take a look at my Daytum to see how often I’ve been eating clean this week. Diet has been the biggest part of my weight loss, actually — I’ve lost 30 lbs. in the last year on my Bellyfat Challenge.

4. Cool. But can’t you give us a sample of what you typically eat during a day?
Um, sure. But before I do that, a couple of caveats:

1. Obviously I don’t eat exactly the same thing every day. It varies.
2. I usually have a “cheat meal” each week, and sometimes two.
3. I don’t recommend my diet for everyone — pick the eating style that works for you, your goals, your health situation, etc.

That said, here’s a typical day (lately):

• 7 a.m. 1/2 cup cooked rolled organic oats w/ berries, raw almonds, cinnamon, raisins, ground flaxseed.
• 10 a.m. Unsweetened coconut flakes w/ berries, almonds, soymilk.
• 1 p.m. Quinoa, steamed veggies, and some kind of protein — usually black bean chili or lentil curry or a veggie burger.
• 4 p.m. Soy yogurt w/ almonds, berries, some other fruit, ground flaxseed.
• 7 p.m. Quinoa, steamed veggies, and some kind of protein — usually black bean chili or lentil curry or a veggie burger.

I don’t eat many grains other than the rolled oats (quinoa isn’t a grain). I am vegan. I get more than enough protein. This diet is about 400 cals per meal, or 2,000 cals daily — which will net me a 500-1000 cal deficit depending on exercise and activity during the day.

5. What time do you go to sleep/wake up?
This question arises as I’ve written in the past about waking up early and becoming an early riser. One thing to realize is that those posts were written in 2007, so things have changed in the last few years.

At various times in 2007, I was waking at 5:30 a.m., 5 a.m., 4:30 a.m., and 4 a.m. Part of that depended on where I was in my marathon training — when I was doing long runs, I’d wake up at 4 a.m. so that I could leave by 4:30 or 4:45 for a 2 or 2.5 hour run. On days when I wasn’t doing the long run, I’d use the extra time early in the morning to write my blog before I had to go to work.

Or sometimes I’d sleep in. And these days, I sleep in half the time, as I don’t have a day job so I can blog any time in the morning. I still get up early many days — 4:30 or 4:45 usually — but on other days I’ll sleep in until 6 or even 7 a.m. and let my body recover from the previous day’s workout.

When do I go to sleep? I prefer to go to sleep by 9:30 or 10 p.m., but my wife likes to watch a little late-night TV (not cable TV but one of our favorite shows on the Apple TV), and I stay up with her, usually until 10:30 p.m.

6. Can you provide a sample “schedule” of your day?
Hoo boy. That’s a bit difficult, as I don’t follow a set schedule anymore. I prefer to live moment by moment and go with the flow of life. That’s a bit vague for most of you, so here’s an attempt:

1. 4:45 to 6 a.m.: Wake up, have coffee, read. The time I wake depends on whether I’m going for a morning run.
2. 6 a.m.: Run (Mon, Wed, Fri and sometimes Saturday)
3. 7-9 or 10 a.m.: Write, do other most important tasks.
4. 10 a.m. to mid-afternoon: Smaller tasks, catch up on RSS feed reading, research various things I’m interested in (and will often blog about later). This really varies.
5. Late afternoon – evening: Spend time with kids. Sometimes get a gym workout in. Or read. Also varies from day to day.
6. Evening until 10 or 10:30 p.m.: Eat dinner, spend some time with wife and kids. Watch one of our favorite TV shows (The Office, Community, How I Met Your Mother, Mad Men, Lost, 30 Rock, not in that order). Once a week Eva and I will go on a date.

Again, this is a rough sketch, but in general:

• I go for runs early and do other exercise later in the afternoon.
• I write and do other important tasks next.
• I do less important stuff later.
• Always try to find time for Eva and the kids.

7. What happened to the Search function on Zen Habits?
I took it off as part of my simplification of this site’s design. I took off a lot of things, including links to the Zen Habits Forums (which are still running, btw, and a great way to form habits), a lot of ads, and a crapload of links.

I know this is a little less convenient for some folks, but in my experience not many people used these links. And if you want to do a search, I suggest a Google search of Zen Habits — it works better than the old search box I had.

8. What theme are you using on Zen Habits? Is it available for download?
The theme is custom designed by a professional designer. It’s based on a premium theme that I am not able to share, but I plan to switch it over to another theme that I can share. I’ll let you all know when that happens.

9. What’s your story, buddy?
Hey there, friend! You can read my story here.

10. Can I use a post you’ve written here for my blog, my book, my magazine, etc.?
Yes, please do! Read my Uncopyright.

There is no need to email me for permission. You already have my blessing.

11. I’d like to do a guest post. What’s the deal there, buddy?
I don’t take guest posts. I run about a guest post a week, by invitation only, and at the moment I have enough for the next couple of months.

12. Why does Zen Habits have the word “Zen” in its title? Are you a Zen Master or Zen Buddhist?
No, I’m not. Read more about all of that here: Why Zen Habits.

13. How do I contact you via email?
I’m a bit of an email recluse, sorry. Here’s why I ditched my email inbox. You can always contact me via Twitter, though I don’t guarantee a response.

My focus is on creating, and spending time doing the things I love most. Email gets in the way of that.

14. But … I’d like to share my new book/blog post/product/seminar with you!
Thanks, but no. Please don’t ask me to promote your product, book, website, service, or blog post, or I will karate chop you to death.

15. Do you still wear Asics? Also, have you tried barefoot running?
Yep, still use Asics. Love em.

I’ve been trying barefoot running lately, a little at a time, at the recommendation of several readers. In fact, I ordered a pair of Vibram Fivefingers KSO and will be giving these a try. Basically, there have been a few studies done on barefoot running (including a couple of recent ones), but even those acknowledge that there are many questions and lots of other research needs to be done.

16. How can I follow Zen Habits? How can I thank you with a donation? Where else can I read your brilliant stuff?
OK, I’ll admit these aren’t really common questions, but hey, any opportunity for a shameless plug (or three), right?

I’d love it if you subscribed to Zen Habits via email or RSS subscription. It’s completely free (and always will be), and you get about three posts a week, all quality posts without the fat.

If you’d like to support Zen Habits, I’d love it if you bought my print book, The Power of Less, or one of my ebooks. Or you can make a donation if you have some extra cash lying around, Mr. Moneybags.

Other than my books, you can read more of my writing at my other blog, mnmlist, or little tips & brilliant insights on Twitter, or occasional thoughts on Zen Habits Offloaded, or links that I like to share on the Zen Habits tumblr. I also co-own and often contribute to Write To Done (for writers & bloggers) and Zen Family Habits. And then there’s my new site on changing habits: 6 Changes.

Other questions that I should add to this list? Ask via Twitter, & I’ll do my best to answer the most common ones. And feel free to share this post via Twitter.

A stomach or peptic ulcer is a small hole or lesion in the inside lining of the stomach, small intestine or esophagus.

This ulcer is also known as gastric ulcer (if found in the stomach), duodenal ulcer (if found in the small intestine), or esophageal ulcer (if found in the small intestine).

Peptic ulcers were first thought to have been caused primarily by stress in the patient’s life and his diet.

Later research showed that the formation of excess stomach acids (hydrochloric acid and pepsin) contributed more to peptic ulcer formation.

However, recent studies have shown that peptic ulcers are, in most cases, caused by a bacterial infection from Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). These cork screw–shaped bacteria can at times weaken the protective mucus, making the stomach or small intestine becomes more susceptible to damage by stomach acids, and an ulcer develops. H. pylori can be transmitted through food, water or through close contact with an infected person.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen sodium can also cause peptic ulcers.

NSAIDs can inhibit the production of prostaglandins that help protect the lining of the stomach or small intestine from damage caused by chemicals or physical injury. Without prostaglandins, the lining becomes more susceptible to damage by acids, causing bleeding and ulcers.

Smoking also contributes to the development and recurrence of peptic ulcers, because the nicotine in tobacco can increase the amount of acids generated by stomach. This also may be true for caffeine and alcohol, although the increase in acid volume cannot be attributed solely to either substance.