Strength for Life

The Strong Forge on Fueled by Belief, Passion…

In this lifetime you will come across an infinite number of easy roads, you will be offered millions of short-cuts, easy ways… there’s always another one promising you a way around the real hard work that stands between you and your vision or dream.

And guess what? You got it… take any of them and you’ll find yourself back to square one eventually, hopefully wiser, certainly more exhausted.

In order to achieve anything worthy of your valuable time on earth you will find passion and purpose indispensable co-pilots. Only when you’ve found a vision, have a purpose and are filled with passion will you have a chance in hell of making it through the long road to a worthy achievement.

When I built the world’s first and only true premium nutrition shake I never fantasized that there would be anything easy about sharing it with others. I recognized in a time when MRP’s and numerous average nutrition shakes have become an interchangeable commodity and people have learned to buy price alone, that creating a off the scale top-end passion driven product was anything but a wise business move.

The Mythic God of Mediocrity

Apollo, Aphrodite, Hercules, Zeus,… the Greeks revered their many, mighty, mythic gods. For all that our modern lives owe to this fertile civilization it’s not a stretch to assume that the heroic tales of these iconic gods may have provided the people with an inspiration for excellence. 

Today, in America, it seems that we’ve taken to aspiring to the mythic god of Mediocrity—the patron saint of “good ‘nuff.”

You see it everywhere you look… it’s in our food—nearly every restaurant a chain, it’s in our clothes and same stores in every mall, in our media; magazines, news, movies, it’s even in our water (take a good look and taste of the largest water brands and you may go back to your own tap). 

It’s this dilution of nearly everything, the copy-cat, me too, average, vanilla world product offerings that marketing guru Seth Godin so eloquently captured in his blog, “Dumbing Down.”

Brady Quinn: Don’t Call Him Dumb

Ill-informed, careless or even ignorant on nutrition, sure… but “dumb” is a little harsh. Even when I know he meant “stupid” not dumb.

If you’ve caught any of the NFL playoffs you may have seen the EAS TV commercial featuring Brady Quinn.

On one hand, I’m happy to see the company formerly known as "the leader" doing something—anything—rather than embrace complete collapse. Still, it feels a bit like a team down by 24 points with three seconds to go  in the game throwing a hail-Mary pass: somewhere between pointless and in denial.

Now is the Time!

You've heard about "it" enough that it may be starting to just go "in one ear..." and you know the rest.

I generally stay away from doing many podium rants on obesity because it's so darn easy to go on and on about - and that's mostly what people do. It's the cause of our time being used by as many for self-promotion and everything from book, food and movie sales as there are good people trying to make a difference.

That said, ran across a great, conscious, real post on the subject this morning from the editor of a large nutrition information company in the UK.  It begins as follows:

09/05/2006- It is time to admit that society is fighting a part-time battle against the bulge, willingly lambasting soft drinks, burgers and chocolate, while shuffling silently away from a fairly dismal exercise rate.

The debate on rising obesity rates has become lopsided.

Societies in several western countries have spent much time and money chasing the latest fad diets or cajoling food firms to reformulate and get unhealthy products out of schools. Last week’s deal to get high-calorie soft drinks out of US schools was only the latest in a long line.

You can read it all here: The Full Article

My response to Chris follows:

Chris,

Thank you for talking about this most important topic at the most important time, now.

Hope is a wonderful thing and terribly deceiving thing as well… the promise of a brighter future, the message we’ve all been promised for a century (and likely before) can be wildly effective at allowing people to "take the day off." Heck, "there’s always tomorrow."

Right?

It’s not true – tomorrow is a concept, not a reality. Today is the only reality – right now. This is the time to put the Twinkie down. Not tomorrow.

Please join me in asking everyone who is listening: “What are you doing today to live at full strength?”

In Strength,
Shawn Phillips

Well, now you know the question I'm thinking about today. You?

The Cream Always Rises

In the event yesterday's comments on ice cream research felt a bit harsh to you, I'm pleased to come back today with some redeeming, positive news on the same subject: ice cream.

[Why all the focus on ice cream, I find myself asking...perhaps it's the warm weather arriving here in CO. Perhaps...]

With sales and profits of functional foods (the adding of nutritive ingredients to regular foods to make "super-foods") and drinks exploding companies are being propelled to new product designs with a functional health twist. Keen to recognize this booming market, an Israeli company called Frutarom has launched a "functional" ice cream product range.

The company says its solution “combines natural fruits, natural flavour extracts and natural functional ingredients that enhance and support well-being.”

Examples include ice cream with Aloe Vera “to support inner beauty”, or with green tea for “stress relief”.

Well, that's today's good news on ice cream. Oh yes, and if you're eager to get your hands on some ice cream that "supports inner beauty," which I can only imagine would show up on a colo-rectal exam, or relieves stress, which I find most sweet, sugary snack foods are fairly good at (short term), I've got a friend with some amazing beach front property in Florida you might want to get a look at.

Here's to good ol' fashion ice cream, enjoyed in moderation.

Shocking New Science: People Like Ice Cream!

From the “amazing but true” category comes this shocking new research that you too may find hard to believe.

In a recent scientific study a well funded team of highly skilled researchers has been able to probe deep inside people’s brains to uncover the necessary support to prove, once and for all, that people do like ice cream!

This ingenious application of science, surely motivated by deep compassion for the quality of human life, was funded by Unilever, the world’s largest maker of ice cream (and the kind folks that bring you the nearly equally as nutrition product Slim-Fast). Okay, maybe there’s some small profit motive in there as well but dare we allow this to taint our perspective of this profound study.

The report says…

“Unilever, the world's largest ice cream maker, backed this expensive, but small study, in a bid to build a stronger picture of the brain’s direct response to ice cream.”

Yes, I can imagine that would be a handy thing to know.

In this rather costly study, the participants’ are fed 15 teaspoons of vanilla ice cream while a massive functional magnetic resonance imaging machine looks inside their heads – studying the reactions of the brains to the stimulus of ice cream.

The report continues…

“Ice cream has an immediate effect on parts of the brain that previous research shows responds to pleasurable tastes, including the orbitofrontal cortex, the ‘processing’ area of the brain” say the UK scientists.

"This is the first time that we've been able to show that ice-cream makes you happy. Just one spoonful of Carte D'Or lights up the happy zones of the brain in clinical trials," says Don Darling, vice president of development at Unilever Ice Cream Europe.

“They are hoping findings from this fundamental research will be used as a foundation for future product development in ice cream.”

Alright. I suggest they seize the moment and go deeper with this already amazing discovery. They might try having the participants smoke a cigarette while eating the ice cream and see how that lights up the brain! Of course, if one is really looking to step up the “happiness factor” from the brain scan perspective, toss in a couple shots of scotch with that cigarette and ice cream and now you’re talking HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!

What confuses (i.e. infuriates) me is that these scientists most certainly (and others involved in this study most likely) know that the process of activating the “happy” sensory areas of the brain described in this study has been also seen in similar studies on addictions – addictions to drugs, cigarettes, alcohol... and yes, food.

The cycle of addiction is pretty simple from this perspective: We eat it, our brains “happy place” lights up; we eat some more. Soon we are not “happy” unless we are lighting up the brain with our trigger of choice. The result, addiction.

Like many experts, I believe that an addiction to food is a major contributor to the obesity issue in the U.S. and the world. It seems likely to me that this is exactly what is being seen here.

The only good I could vision resulting from this research is to find a way to inhibit ice creams ability to trigger the happy place. But this is highly unlikely as I can’t imagine a corporation investing in a way to destroy their profits.

Could it be that this research will lead to ways to enhance ice creams’ “happy effect” on our brains. No, say it’s not so. Keep your eye out for new flavors of ice cream – when you see a vanilla, tobacco, scotch malt we’ll have the answer!

More on Riding the Low-Wave

It's always comforting to know that the good people at Harvard are seeing eye to eye with me.

The following is from The Mind of the Market Laboratory at Harvard Business School...

Enduring customer-seller relationships are rooted in customers' beliefs that a company has their best interests at heart, while acknowledging that companies have self interests, too. Companies most likely to develop strong bonds with its customers are those who (1) do have customers' best interests at heart, and (2) are able to effectively convey this to them.

I know it's risky to most to put purpose and people above profits but it's the right focus for real lasting value and a good nights sleep!

To Ride the Low Wave?

According to the Natural Products center (NPI) getting in now, to ride the cresting wave of low carb product sales is a “smart business move.” With over 1,000 new low carb products landing on the shelves in the last 15 months and the over $1.4 billion market expected to triple in the next three years, that certainly looks like sound business advice. Unless…you’re aiming higher than this financially booming market.

While there’s not a thing wrong with being profitable, I take issue with companies who seek profits above principle and jump on to “ride the wave” and the publications that encourage this. When you put profits above people’s health you're in for a short ride.

The way I see it, the bigger market is the business helping people live healthier, happier and more fulfilling lives — and staying true to your principles along the way. I happen to know that there are still people and businesses with the integrity and vision to stand by their beliefs even when the waves of profits are cresting all around. I see it every day in the people I work with, who adhere to the sound, simple truth that basic balanced nutrition is best – the results in people prove it all the while those using profits as their measure see it differently.

I admire and respect those who’ve pioneered and believe whole heartedly that low carb is the path to physical salvation (without buying into it myself) and am equally repulsed by the profiteers who feed the public one thing than go home and feed their family an entirely different fair.