“Ignore the numbers on the scale” turns out to be good advice:

What matters more for the health

Taken at face value, the numbers on the scale represent nothing more nor less than your relationship with gravity.

On a more complex level, weight reflects muscle, fat, water, hormonal fluctuations, food*, stress, and sleep, so the number can stay the same while your body shrinks.

^{*Literally, the food itself, not the consequences. Let’s put it this way: if you eat an entire cabbage, then you’re not going to “put on weight” from it, but nevertheless, the mass of the cabbage is inside you right now and the scale will reflect that.}

As you probably know, muscle weighs more than fat, so if you gain the former and lose the latter, you can look leaner at the same weight. In other words, losing inches without losing weight means body recomposition is happening and your body is probably doing well, all else being equal. This also means that you can see progress sooner than the scale would tell you, by taking measurements and noting how your clothes fit.

A common mistake that many people make when trying to “lose weight” is cutting calories and adding cardio, but that usually breaks down muscle and slows long-term fat loss, rather than hastening it.

A three-step process that’s better:

• Set your intentions by replacing restricting and overtraining with fueling well, training with purpose, and recovering intentionally too
• Add protein, nutrient diversity, water, and energizing whole foods that contain plenty of fiber
• Strengthen by focusing on strength training and progressive overload, which outperforms cardio for long-term fat burning

Some myths to not fall for:

• The muscle and fat myth: muscle does not turn into fat; losing muscle lowers daily burn and increases fat storage
• The menopause myth: you can build muscle during menopause by adjusting training, protein intake, and recovery
• The cardio myth: cardio burns energy briefly, but muscle burns energy all day and thus has a bigger long-term impact

For more on all of this, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like:

Can You Gain Muscle & Lose Fat At The Same Time?

Take care!

If you’ve ever wanted to go to sleep and never wake up, or have some accident/incident/illness take you with no action on your part, or a loved one has ever expressed such thoughts/feelings to you… Then this video is for you. Dr. Scott Eilers explains:

Tired of living

We’ll not keep them a mystery; here are the five things that Dr. Eilers wants us to know about passive suicidal ideation:

• What it is: a desire for something to end your life without taking active steps. While it may seem all too common, it’s not necessarily inevitable or unchangeable.
• What it means in terms of severity: it isn’t a clear indicator of how severe someone’s depression is. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the person’s depression is mild; it can be severe even without active suicidal thoughts, or indeed, suicidality at all.
• What it threatens: although passive suicidal ideation doesn’t usually involve active planning, it can still be dangerous. Over time, it can evolve into active suicidal ideation or lead to risky behaviors.
• What it isn’t: passive suicidal ideation is different from intrusive thoughts, which are unwanted, distressing thoughts about death. The former involves a desire for death, while the latter does not.
• What it doesn’t have to be: passive suicidal ideation is often a symptom of underlying depression or a mood disorder, which can be treated through therapy, medication, or a combination of both. Seeking treatment is crucial and can be life-changing.

For more on all of the above, here’s Dr. Eilers with his own words:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like to read:

• The Mental Health First Aid You’ll Hopefully Never Need ← about depression generally
• How To Stay Alive (When You Really Don’t Want To) ← about suicidality specifically

Take care!

Fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants, though in truth they are neither, and cannot be killed in a way that matters:

Decay exists as an extant form of life

The fungal kingdom ranges from athlete’s foot to mushrooms to the underground mycorrhizal network that allows trees to communicate with each other and share nutrients.

About that last one… Yes, really! Many plants depend on mycorrhizal fungi, which exchange soil nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen for carbon produced by plants, as ectomycorrhizal fungi surround roots, while arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi penetrate root cells to facilitate nutrient exchange. This symbiosis also means that when it comes to knowing* what’s happening, the fungus functions as though part of the plant, meaning that if more than one plant is connected to the same mycorrhizal network (as is almost always the case in the wild), then each plant has the same information as the entire network.

^{*Without getting too sidetracked, we’ll quickly mention that despite not having brains, yes, plants do process information, using various kinds of chemical signalling similar to animals’ use of hormones and pheromones, electrical signalling, and more. And yes, that includes sensory information, because plants are very receptive to light and dark, and thus can (to varying degrees) “see”. Perhaps the most clear example of this is Boquila trifoliolata, a plant known for mimicking the appearance of nearby plants. Researchers got curious (as researchers do), and placed one next to a plastic plant (so: no mycorrhizal or otherwise chemical signalling can be happening), and yes, it mimicked the leaf shape and color of the artificial plant that it evidently could indeed see. Fun stuff!}

You can read more about that one here, if you’re interested: Boquila trifoliolata mimics leaves of an artificial plastic host plant

Now, back to fungi:

Fungi were once classified as plants because many grow from the soil on branching, root-like networks, but they differ fundamentally in biology, for example:

• Most people know that unlike plants, fungi don’t use sunlight for energy but instead decompose organic matter or obtain nutrients from living organisms.
• Most people don’t know that fungal cell walls are made of chitin (the same material found in the exoskeletons of insects, arachnids, and the like) rather than cellulose as in plants.

On which note, yes, many fungi produce compounds including antibiotics, toxins, and psychedelic chemicals to defend themselves, exploit other organisms, or manipulate their surroundings, including:

• Altering minds: mushrooms in the Psilocybe genus produce psilocybin, which binds to serotonin receptors and causes hallucinations in humans, though it likely evolved to discourage grazing by slugs and snails.
• Zombifying ants: many Cordyceps fungi infect ants, alter their nervous systems and muscles, compel them to climb to elevated locations, and then release millions of spores from their bodies.
• Eating radiation: some fungi thrive in harsh environments, including the radioactive ruins of Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where at least 37 fungal species have been identified, and studies aboard the International Space Station found that fungi such as Cryptococcus neoformans can convert absorbed gamma radiation into usable energy.

For more on all of this, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like:

The Magic Of Mushrooms: “The Longevity Vitamin” (That’s Not A Vitamin) ← about ergothioneine, of which mushrooms are an excellent source

What kind of mushrooms? All kinds, but please stick to non-poisonous ones!

Take care!