Tell Yourself a Better Lie – by Marissa Peer

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.

As humans, we generally lie to ourselves constantly. Or perhaps we really believe some of the things we tell ourselves, even if they’re not objectively necessarily true:

  • I’ll always be poor
  • I’m destined to be alone
  • I don’t deserve good things
  • Etc.

Superficially, it’s easy to flip those, and choose to tell oneself the opposite. But it feels hollow and fake, doesn’t it? That’s where Marissa Peer comes in.

Our stories that we tell ourselves don’t start where we are—they’re generally informed by things we learned along the way. Sometimes good lessons, sometimes bad ones. Sometimes things that were absolutely wrong and/or counterproductive.

Peer invites the reader to ask “What if…”, unravel how the unhelpful lessons got wired into our brains in the first place, and then set about untangling them.

“Tell yourself a better lie” does not mean self-deceit. It means that we’re the authors of our own stories, so we might as well make them work for us. Many things in life are genuinely fixed; others are open to interpretation.

Sorting one from the other, and then treating them correctly in a way that’s helpful to us? That’s how we can stop hurting ourselves, and instead bring our own stories around to uplift and fortify us.

Get Your Copy of “Tell Yourself A Better Lie” on Amazon Today!

Don’t Forget…

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

Recommended

  • Aging Backwards – by Miranda Esmonde-White
  • Holistic Approach To Resculpting A Face Affected By Hypothyroidism, PCOS, Or Menopause
    Mila Magnani shares her holistic method for managing PCOS and hypothyroidism – lab tests, natural remedies, and mindful lifestyle changes for hormonal balance.

Learn to Age Gracefully

Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • The Whole-Body Approach to Osteoporosis – by Keith McCormick

    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.

    You probably already know to get enough calcium and vitamin D, and do some resistance training. What does this book offer beyond that advice?

    It’s pretty comprehensive, as it turns out. It covers the above, plus the wide range of medications available, what supplements help or harm or just don’t have enough evidence either way yet, things like that.

    Amongst the most important offerings are the signs and symptoms that can help monitor your bone health (things you can do at home! Like examinations of your fingernails, hair, skin, tongue, and so forth, that will reveal information about your internal biochemical make-up), as well as what lab tests to ask for. Which is important, as osteoporosis is one of those things whereby we often don’t learn something is wrong until it’s too late.

    The author is a chiropractor, which doesn’t always have a reputation as the most robustly science-based of physical therapy options, but he…

    • doesn’t talk about chiropractic
    • did confer with a flock of experts (osteopaths, nutritionists, etc) to inform/check his work
    • does refer consistently to good science, and explains it well
    • includes 16 pages of academic references, and yes, they are very reputable publications

    Bottom line: this one really does give what the subtitle promises: a whole body approach to avoiding (or reversing) osteoporosis.

    Click here to check out The Whole Body Approach To Osteoporosis; sooner is better than later!

    Share This Post

  • PCOS Repair Protocol – by Tamika Woods

    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.

    PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) affects about 1 in 5 women, and the general position of the medical establishment is “Oh dear, how sad; never mind”.

    …which leaves a lot of people suffering with symptoms with little to no help.

    This book looks to address that, and while it doesn’t claim to cure PCOS, it offers a system for managing (including: reducing) the symptoms. The author, a clinical nutritionist by academic background, tackles this in large part via being mindful about what one eats, in the context of the gut and endocrine system specifically.

    It’s not just “have a gut healthy diet and eat foods with these nutrients”, though (although yes: also that). Rather, the author walks us through in-depth quizzes and lab testing advice, to advise the reader on how to understand the root cause of your PCOS symptoms, and then address each of those with an individualized management plan.

    The style is on the low-end of pop-science, notwithstanding the clinically-informed content. For those who like a very chatty informal approach, you’ll find this one perfect. For those who don’t, well, you won’t find this one perfect, but you will most likely find it informative all the same.

    Bottom line: if you or someone you care about (do you know 5 women?) has PCOS, the information in here could make a difference.

    Click here to check out PCOS Repair Protocol, and suffer less!

    Share This Post

  • Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key!

    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.

    Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key!

    Yesterday, we asked you for your opinions on antidepressants, and got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses:

    • Just over half of respondents said “They clearly help people, but should not be undertaken lightly”
    • Just over a fifth of respondents said “They may help some people, but the side effects are alarming”
    • Just under a sixth of respondents said “They’re a great way to correct an imbalance of neurochemicals”
    • Four respondents said “They are no better than placebo, and are more likely to harm”
    • Two respondents said “They merely mask the problem, and thus don’t really help”

    So what does the science say?

    ❝They are no better than placebo, and are more likely to harm? True or False?❞

    True or False depending on who you are and what you’re taking. Different antidepressants can work on many different systems with different mechanisms of action. This means if and only if you’re not taking the “right” antidepressant for you, then yes, you will get only placebo benefits:

    Rather than dismissing antidepressants as worthless, therefore, it is a good idea to find out (by examination or trial and error) what kind of antidepressant you need, if you indeed do need such.

    Otherwise it is like getting a flu shot and being surprised when you still catch a cold!

    ❝They merely mask the problem, and thus don’t really help: True or False?❞

    False, categorically.

    The problem in depressed people is the depressed mood. This may be influenced by other factors, and antidepressants indeed won’t help directly with those, but they can enable the person to better tackle them (more on this later).

    ❝They may help some people, but the side-effects are alarming: True or False?❞

    True or False depending on more factors than we can cover here.

    Side-effects vary from drug to drug and person to person, of course. As does tolerability and acceptability, since to some extent these things are subjective.

    One person’s dealbreaker may be another person’s shrugworthy minor inconvenience at most.

    ❝They’re a great way to correct an imbalance of neurochemicals: True or False?❞

    True! Contingently.

    That is to say: they’re a great way to correct an imbalance of neurochemicals if and only if your problem is (at least partly) an imbalance of neurochemicals. If it’s not, then your brain can have all the neurotransmitters it needs, and you will still be depressed, because (for example) the other factors* influencing your depression have not changed.

    *common examples include low self-esteem, poor physical health, socioeconomic adversity, and ostensibly bleak prospects for the future.

    For those for whom the problem is/was partly a neurochemical imbalance and partly other factors, the greatest help the antidepressants give is getting the brain into sufficient working order to be able to tackle those other factors.

    Want to know more about the different kinds?

    Here’s a helpful side-by-side comparison of common antidepressants, what type they are, and other considerations:

    Mind | Comparing Antidepressants

    Want a drug-free approach?

    You might like our previous main feature:

    The Mental Health First-Aid That You’ll Hopefully Never Need

    Take care!

    Share This Post

Related Posts

  • Aging Backwards – by Miranda Esmonde-White
  • Real Self-Care – by Pooja Lakshmin MD

    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.

    As the subtitle says, “crystals, cleanses, and bubble baths not included”. So, if it’s not about that sort of self-care, what is it about?

    Dr. Lakshmin starts by acknowledging something that many self-help books don’t:

    We can do everything correctly and still lose. Not only that, but for many of us, that is the probable outcome. Not because of any fault or weakness of ours, but simply because one way or another the game is rigged against us from the start.

    So, should we throw in the towel, throw our hands in the air, and throw the book out of the window?

    Nope! Dr. Lakshmin has actually helpful advice, that pertains to:

    • creating healthy boundaries and challenging guilt
    • treating oneself with compassion
    • identifying and aligning oneself with one’s personal values
    • asserting one’s personal power to fight for one’s own self-interest

    If you’re reading this and thinking “that seems very selfish”, then let’s remember the “challenging guilt” part of that. We’ve all-too-often been conditioned to neglect our own needs and self-sacrifice for others.

    And, while selfless service really does have its place, needlessly self-destructive martyrdom does not!

    Bottom line: this book delivers a lot of “real talk” on a subject that otherwise often gets removed from reality rather. In short, it’s a great primer for finding the right place to draw the line between being a good-hearted person and being a doormat.

    Click here to check out Real Self-Care and “put your own oxygen mask on first”!

    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

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Dates vs Raisins – Which is Healthier?

    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.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing dates to raisins, we picked the dates.

    Why?

    There are benefits for each fruit, but we say dates come out on top. See what you think:

    In terms of macros, while they’re both dried fruits, dates contain more water (unless you leave them sitting open for a while), which will tend to mathematically lower the relative percentages of other components because they’re being held against water weight too. However, even though this is the case (i.e. dates are being mathematically disadvantaged), dates contain more than twice the fiber that raisins do (8g/100g compared to raisins’ 3.7g/100g).

    While we’re talking macros, dates are also lower in total carbs, as well as obviously net carbs, and have a much lower glycemic index than raisins (dates have a glycemic index of 42, considered low, while raisins have a glycemic index of 64, considered medium; their respective glycemic loads are even more telling: 13 for raisins and just 2 for dates!).

    About those carbs… For dates, it’s an approximately equal mix of sucrose, glucose, and fructose, while for raisins it’s 49% glucose and 49% fructose. Because sucrose is the only disaccharide here, this (as well as the fiber difference) is one of the reasons for the different glycemic indices and glycemic loads, since glucose and fructose are more quickly absorbed.

    That’s more than we usually write about macros, but in this case, both fruits are ones especially often hit with the “aren’t they full of sugar though?” question, so it was important to cover the critical distinctions between the two, because they really are very different.

    Summary of macros: dates win easily in every aspect we looked at

    In the category of vitamins, raisins get a tally in their favor. Raisins are higher in vitamins B1, B2, C, E, K, and choline, while dates are higher in vitamins A, B3, B5, and B9, giving raisins a 6:4 lead here. In dates’ defense, the difference in vitamin K is marginal, and it’d make it a 5:4 lead if we considered that within the margin of error (because all these figures are of course based on averages), and the vitamins that dates are higher in, the margins are much wider indeed, meaning that both fruits have approximately the same overall levels of vitamins when looked at in total, but still, we’ll call this category a nominal win for raisins.

    When it comes to minerals, dates have more magnesium, selenium, and zinc, while raisins have more copper, iron, phosphorus, and potassium. Nominally that’s a 4:3 lead for raisins, but if we consider that raisins also contain more sodium, it’s more like a tie here. If we have to pick one though, this is a very slight win for raisins.

    Adding up the sections, we have one huge win for dates (macros) with two very marginal wins for raisins—hence, we say that dates win out.

    Still, of course enjoy both; diversity is good for the health.

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Which Sugars Are Healthier, And Which Are Just The Same?

    Take care!

    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

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Infections Here, Infections There…

    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.

    This week in health news, let’s take a look at infections outside and in, and how to walk away from it all (in a good way):

    The bird that flu away

    This one cannot be described as good news. Basically, bird flu is now already epidemic amongst cows in the US, with 845 herds (not 845 cows; 845 herds) testing positive across 16 states. The US Department of Agriculture earlier this month announced a federal order to test milk nationwide. Researchers welcomed the news, but said it should have happened months ago—before the virus was so entrenched. It currently has a fatality rate of 2–5% in cows; we don’t have enough data to reasonably talk about its fatality rate in humans—yet.

    ❝It’s disheartening to see so many of the same failures that emerged during the COVID-19 crisis re-emerge❞

    ~ Tom Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations

    Read in full: How America lost control of the bird flu, setting the stage for another pandemic

    Related: Cows’ Milk, Bird Flu, & You

    Alzheimer’s from the gut upwards

    Alzheimer’s is generally thought of as being a purely brain thing, but there’s a link between a [specific] chronic gut infection, and the development of Alzheimer’s disease. This infection is called human cytomegalovirus, or HCMV for short, and usually we’ve all been exposed to it by young adulthood. However, for some people, it lingers in an active state in the gut, wherefrom it may travel to the brain via the vagus nerve “gut-brain highway”. And once there, well, you can guess the rest:

    Read in full: The surprising role of gut infection in Alzheimer’s disease

    Related: How To Reduce Your Alzheimer’s Risk

    Walking back to happiness

    Analyzing data from 96,138 adults around the world, showed that more steps meant less depression for participants.

    You may be thinking “well yes, depressed people walk less”, but more specifically, increases in activity showed increases in anti-depressive benefits, with even small incremental increases showing correspondingly incremental benefits. Specifically, each additional 1,000 steps per day corresponded to a 9% reduction in depression:

    Read in full: Higher daily step counts associated with fewer depressive symptoms

    Related: Walking… Better.

    Take care!

    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

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: