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Beyond “Make Your Bed”—life lessons from experience

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Beyond “Make Your Bed”—life lessons from experience

This is Admiral William H. McRaven, a former United States Navy four-star admiral who served as the ninth commander of the United States Special Operations Command.

So, for those of us whose day-to-day lives don’t involve coordinating military operations, what does he have to offer?

Quick note: 10almonds’ mission statement is “to make health and productivity crazy simple”.

We tend to focus on the health side of this, and in the category of productivity, it’s often what most benefits our mental health.

We’re writing less for career-driven technopreneurs in the 25–35 age bracket and more for people with a more holistic view of productivity and “a good life well-lived”.

So today’s main feature is more in that vein!

Start each day with an accomplishment

McRaven famously gave a speech (and wrote a book) that began with the advice, “make your bed”. The idea here doesn’t have to be literal (if you’ll pardon the pun). Indeed, if you’re partnered, then depending on schedules and habits, it could be you can’t (sensibly) make your bed first thing because your partner is still in it. But! What you can do is start the day with an accomplishment—however small. A short exercise routine is a great example!

Success in life requires teamwork

We’re none of us an island (except in the bathtub). The point is… Nobody can do everything alone. Self-sufficiency is an illusion. You can make your own coffee, but could you have made the coffee machine, or even the cup? How about, grown the coffee? Transported it? So don’t be afraid to reach out for (and acknowledge!) help from others. Teamwork really does make the dream work.

It’s what’s inside that counts

It’s a common trap to fall into, getting caught up the outside appearance of success, rather than what actually matters the most. We need to remember this when it comes to our own choices, as well as assessing what others might bring to the table!

A setback is only permanent if you let it be

No, a positive attitude won’t reverse a lifelong degenerative illness, for example. But what we can do, is take life as comes, and press on with the reality, rather than getting caught up in the “should be”.

Use failure to your advantage

Learn. That’s all. Learn, and improve.

Be daring in life

To borrow from another military force, the SAS has the motto “Who dares, wins”. Caution has it place, but if we’ve made reasonable preparations*, sometimes being bold is the best (or only!) way forward.

*Meanwhile the Parachute Regiment, from which come 80% of all SAS soldiers, has the motto “Utrinque paratus”, “prepared on all sides”.

Keep courage close

This is about not backing down when we know what’s right and we know what we need to do. Life can be scary! But if we don’t overcome our fears, they can become self-realizing.

Writer’s note: a good example of this is an advice I sometimes gave during my much more exciting (military) life of some decades ago, and it pertains to getting into a knife-fight (top advice for civilians: don’t).

But, if you’re in one, you need to not be afraid of getting cut.

Because if you’re not afraid of getting cut, you will probably get cut.

But if you are afraid of getting cut, you will definitely get cut.

Hopefully your life doesn’t involve knives outside of the kitchen (mine doesn’t, these days, and I like it), but the lesson applies to other things too.

Sometimes the only way out is through.

Be your best at your worst

Sometimes life is really, really hard. But if we allow those moments to drive us forwards, they’re also a place we can find more strength than we ever knew we had.

Keep on swimming

It’s said that the majority in life is about showing up—and often it is. But you have to keep showing up, day after day. So make what you’re doing sustainable for you, and keep on keeping on.

Don’t Forget…

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  • Clams vs Oysters – Which is Healthier?

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    Our Verdict

    When comparing clams to oysters, we picked the clams.

    Why?

    Considering the macros first, clams have more than 2x the protein, while oysters have nearly 2x the fat, of which, a little over 5x the saturated fat. So, in all accounts, clam is the winner here.

    In terms of vitamins, clams have more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12, and C, while oysters are not higher in any vitamins. Another win for clams.

    The category of minerals is more balanced; clams are higher in manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and selenium, while oysters are higher in copper, iron, magnesium, and zinc. This makes for a 4:4 tie, though it’s worth noting that the margin of difference for zinc is very large, so that can be an argument for oysters.

    Nevertheless, adding up the sections makes for a clear win for clams.

    A quick aside on “are oysters an aphrodisiac?”:

    That zinc content is probably largely responsible for oysters’ reputation as an aphrodisiac, and zinc is important in the synthesis of both estrogen and testosterone. However, as the synthesis is not instant, and those sex hormones rise most in the morning (around 8am to 9am), to enjoy aphrodisiac benefits it’d be more sensible, on a biochemical level, to eat oysters one day, and then have morning sex the next day when those hormones are peaking. That said, while testosterone is the main driver of male libido, progesterone is usually more relevant for women’s, and unlike estrogen, progesterone usually peaks around 10pm to 2am, and is uninfluenced by having just eaten oysters.

    So, in what way, if any, could oysters be responsible for libido in women? Well, the zinc is still important in energy metabolism, so that’s a factor, and also, we might hypothesize that oysters’ high saturated fat and cholesterol content may increase blood pressure which, while not fabulous for the health in general, may be considered desirable in the bedroom since the clitoris is anatomically analogous to the penis, and—while estrogen vs testosterone makes differences to the nervous system down there that are beyond the scope of today’s article—also enjoys localized increased blood pressure (and thus, a flushing response and resultant engorgement) during arousal.

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Does Eating Shellfish Really Contribute To Gout? ← short answer is: it can if consumed frequently over a long period of time, but that risk factor is greatly overstated, compared to some other risk factors

    Take care!

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  • I’m feeling run down. Why am I more likely to get sick? And how can I boost my immune system?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It has been a long winter, filled with many viruses and cost-of-living pressures, on top of the usual mix of work, study, life admin and caring responsibilities.

    Stress is an inevitable part of life. In short bursts, our stress response has evolved as a survival mechanism to help us be more alert in fight or flight situations.

    But when stress is chronic, it weakens the immune system and makes us more vulnerable to illnesses such as the common cold, flu and COVID.

    Pexels/Ketut Subiyanto

    Stress makes it harder to fight off viruses

    When the immune system starts to break down, a virus that would normally have been under control starts to flourish.

    Once you begin to feel sick, the stress response rises, making it harder for the immune system to fight off the disease. You may be sick more often and for longer periods of time, without enough immune cells primed and ready to fight.

    In the 1990s, American psychology professor Sheldon Cohen and his colleagues conducted a number of studies where healthy people were exposed to an upper respiratory infection, through drops of virus placed directly into their nose.

    These participants were then quarantined in a hotel and monitored closely to determine who became ill.

    One of the most important factors predicting who got sick was prolonged psychological stress.

    Cortisol suppresses immunity

    “Short-term stress” is stress that lasts for a period of minutes to hours, while “chronic stress” persists for several hours per day for weeks or months.

    When faced with a perceived threat, psychological or physical, the hypothalamus region of the brain sets off an alarm system. This signals the release of a surge of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.

    Human brain illustration
    The hypothalamus sets off an alarm system in response to a real or perceived threat. stefan3andrei/Shutterstock

    In a typical stress response, cortisol levels quickly increase when stress occurs, and then rapidly drop back to normal once the stress has subsided. In the short term, cortisol suppresses inflammation, to ensure the body has enough energy available to respond to an immediate threat.

    But in the longer term, chronic stress can be harmful. A Harvard University study from 2022 showed that people suffering from psychological distress in the lead up to their COVID infection had a greater chance of experiencing long COVID. They classified this distress as depression, probable anxiety, perceived stress, worry about COVID and loneliness.

    Those suffering distress had close to a 50% greater risk of long COVID compared to other participants. Cortisol has been shown to be high in the most severe cases of COVID.

    Stress causes inflammation

    Inflammation is a short-term reaction to an injury or infection. It is responsible for trafficking immune cells in your body so the right cells are present in the right locations at the right times and at the right levels.

    The immune cells also store a memory of that threat to respond faster and more effectively the next time.

    Initially, circulating immune cells detect and flock to the site of infection. Messenger proteins, known as pro-inflammatory cytokines, are released by immune cells, to signal the danger and recruit help, and our immune system responds to neutralise the threat.

    During this response to the infection, if the immune system produces too much of these inflammatory chemicals, it can trigger symptoms such as nasal congestion and runny nose.

    Man blows nose
    Our immune response can trigger symptoms such as a runny nose. Alyona Mandrik/Shutterstock

    What about chronic stress?

    Chronic stress causes persistently high cortisol secretion, which remains high even in the absence of an immediate stressor.

    The immune system becomes desensitised and unresponsive to this cortisol suppression, increasing low-grade “silent” inflammation and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (the messenger proteins).

    Immune cells become exhausted and start to malfunction. The body loses the ability to turn down the inflammatory response.

    Over time, the immune system changes the way it responds by reprogramming to a “low surveillance mode”. The immune system misses early opportunities to destroy threats, and the process of recovery can take longer.

    So how can you manage your stress?

    We can actively strengthen our immunity and natural defences by managing our stress levels. Rather than letting stress build up, try to address it early and frequently by:

    1) Getting enough sleep

    Getting enough sleep reduces cortisol levels and inflammation. During sleep, the immune system releases cytokines, which help fight infections and inflammation.

    2) Taking regular exercise

    Exercising helps the lymphatic system (which balances bodily fluids as part of the immune system) circulate and allows immune cells to monitor for threats, while sweating flushes toxins. Physical activity also lowers stress hormone levels through the release of positive brain signals.

    3) Eating a healthy diet

    Ensuring your diet contains enough nutrients – such as the B vitamins, and the full breadth of minerals like magnesium, iron and zinc – during times of stress has a positive impact on overall stress levels. Staying hydrated helps the body to flush out toxins.

    4) Socialising and practising meditation or mindfulness

    These activities increase endorphins and serotonin, which improve mood and have anti-inflammatory effects. Breathing exercises and meditation stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms down our stress responses so we can “reset” and reduce cortisol levels.

    Sathana Dushyanthen, Academic Specialist & Lecturer in Cancer Sciences & Digital Health| Superstar of STEM| Science Communicator, The University of Melbourne

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • Heart Healthy Diet Plan – by Stephen William

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    We’ve covered heart-healthy cooking books before, but variety is good, and boredom is an enemy of health, so let’s shake it up with a fresh stack of recipes!

    After a brief overview of the relevant science (which if you’re a regular 10almonds reader, probably won’t be new to you), the author takes the reader on a 28-day journey. Yes, we know the subtitle says 30 days, but unless they carefully hid the other two days somewhere we didn’t find, there are “only” 28 inside. Perhaps the publisher heard it was a month and took creative license. Or maybe there’s a different edition. Either way…

    Rather than merely giving a diet plan (though yes, he also does that), he gives a wide range of “spotlight ingredients”, such that many of the recipes, while great in and of themselves, can also be jumping-off points for those of us who like to take recipes and immediately do our own things to them.

    Each day gets a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and he also covers drinks, desserts, and such like.

    Notwithstanding the cover art being a lot of plants, the recipes are not entirely plant-based; there are a selection of fish dishes (and other seafood, e.g. shrimp) and also some dairy products (e.g. Greek yoghurt). The recipes are certainly very “plant-forward” though and many are just plants. If you’re a strict vegan though, this probably isn’t the book for you.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to cook heart-healthy but are often stuck wondering “aaah, what to cook again today?”, then this is the book to get you out of any culinary creative block!

    Click here to check out the Heart Healthy Diet Plan, and widen your heart-healthy repertoire!

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  • Make Your Negativity Work For You

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    What’s The Right Balance?

    We’ve written before about positivity the pitfalls and perils of toxic positivity:

    How To Get Your Brain On A More Positive Track (Without Toxic Positivity)

    …as well as the benefits that can be found from selectively opting out of complaining:

    A Bone To Pick… Up And Then Put Back Where We Found It

    So… What place, if any, does negativity usefully have in our lives?

    Carrot and Stick

    We tend to think of “carrot and stick” motivation being extrinsic, i.e. there is some authority figure offering is reward and/or punishment, in response to our reactions.

    In those cases when it really is extrinsic, the “stick” can still work for most people, by the way! At least in the short term.

    Because in the long term, people are more likely to rebel against a “stick” that they consider unjust, and/or enter a state of learned helplessness, per “I’ll never be good enough to satisfy this person” and give up trying to please them.

    But what about when you have your own carrot and stick? What about when it comes to, for example, your own management of your own healthy practices?

    Here it becomes a little different—and more effective. We’ll get to that, but first, bear with us for a touch more about extrinsic motivation, because here be science:

    We will generally be swayed more easily by negative feelings than positive ones.

    For example, a study was conducted as part of a blood donation drive, and:

    • Group A was told that their donation could save a life
    • Group B was told that their donation could prevent a death

    The negative wording given to group B boosted donations severalfold:

    Read the paper: Life or Death Decisions: Framing the Call for Help

    We have, by the way, noticed a similar trend—when it comes to subject lines in our newsletters. We continually change things up to see if trends change (and also to avoid becoming boring), but as a rule, the response we get from subscribers is typically greater when a subject line is phrased negatively, e.g. “how to avoid this bad thing” rather than “how to have this good thing”.

    How we can all apply this as individuals?

    When we want to make a health change (or keep up a healthy practice we already have)…

    • it’s good to note the benefits of that change/practice!
    • it’s even better to note the negative consequences of not doing it

    For example, if you want to overcome an addiction, you will do better for your self-reminders to be about the bad consequences of using, more than the good consequences of abstinence.

    See also: How To Reduce Or Quit Alcohol

    This goes even just for things like diet and exercise! Things like diet and exercise can seem much more low-stakes than substance abuse, but at the end of the day, they can add healthy years onto our lives, or take them off.

    Because of this, it’s good to take time to remember, when you don’t feel like exercising or do feel like ordering that triple cheeseburger with fries, the bad outcomes that you are planning to avoid with good diet and exercise.

    Imagine yourself going in for that quadruple bypass surgery, asking yourself whether the unhealthy lifestyle was worth it. Double down on the emotions; imagine your loved ones grieving your premature death.

    Oof, that was hard-hitting

    It was, but it’s effective—if you choose to do it. We’re not the boss of you! Either way, we’ll continue to send the same good health advice and tips and research and whatnot every day, with the same (usually!) cheery tone.

    One last thing…

    While it’s good to note the negative, in order to avoid the things that lead to it, it’s not so good to dwell on the negative.

    So if you get caught in negative thought spirals or the like, it’s still good to get yourself out of those.

    If you need a little help with that sometimes, check out these:

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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  • Antihistamines for Runny Nose?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small 😎

    ❝Do you have any articles about using Anti-Histamines? My nose seems to be running a lot. I don’t have a cold or any allergies that I know of. I tried a Nasal spray Astepro, but it doesn’t do much.?❞

    Just for you, we wrote such an article yesterday in response to this question!

    The Astepro that you tried, by the way, is a brand name of the azelastine we mentioned near the end, before we got to talking about systemic corticosteroids such as beclometasone dipropionate—this latter might help you if antihistamines haven’t, and if your doctor advises there’s no contraindication (for most people it is safe for there are exceptions, such as if you are immunocompromised and/or currently fighting some infection).

    You can find more details on all this in yesterday’s article, which in case you missed it, can be found at:

    Antihistamines’ Generation Gap: Are You Ready For Allergy Season?

    Enjoy!

    Don’t Forget…

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  • Women’s Strength Training Anatomy Workouts – by Frédéric Delavier

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    We’ve previously reviewed another book of Delavier’s, “Women’s Strength Training Anatomy“, which itself is great. This book adds a lot of practical advice to that one’s more informational format, but to gain full benefit of this one does not require having read that one.

    A common reason that many women avoid strength-training is because they do not want to look muscular. Largely this is based on a faulty assumption, since you will never look like a bodybuilder unless you also eat like a bodybuilder, for example.

    However, for those for whom the concern remains, today’s book is an excellent guide to strength-training with aesthetics in mind as well as functionality.

    The exercises are divided into sections, thus: round your glutes / tone your quadriceps / shape your hamstrings / trim your calves / flatten your abs / curve your shoulders / develop a pain-free upper back / protect your lower back / enhance your chest / firm up your arms.

    As you can see, a lot of these are mindful of aesthetics, but there’s nothing here that’s antithetical to function, and some (especially for example “develop a pain-free upper back” and “protect your lower back“) are very functional indeed.

    Bottom line: Delavier’s anatomy and exercise books are top-tier, and this one is no exception. If you are a woman and would like to strength-train (or perhaps you already do, and would like to refine your training), then this book is an excellent choice.

    Click here to check out Women’s Strength Training Anatomy Workouts, and have the body you want!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

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