The fitness industry has a saying: simplify for results; complicate for profits.

In order to stay in business, muscle magazines have to publish fresh articles every month, trainers have to provide clients with novel routines, and equipment manufacturers need interesting new machines to sell. Yet, when it comes to actually getting in shape, coaches and trainers are well aware that the methods for strengthening muscle and reducing fat have not changed substantially in at least the last 3,000 years. Indeed, the taut abs and toned limbs of classical Greek and Roman art prove that the ideals of physical fitness have been consistent for millennia.

Why would a young man arm himself with a gun or knife, go to an unprotected area full of defenseless strangers, and try to kill as many people as possible, usually including himself? The “Active Killer” — that most modern of criminals — is perhaps the 21st Century equivalent of a medieval werewolf: a core of genuine human violence artificially aggrandized by widespread fear and ignorance.

Sherlock Holmes famously identified three universal attributes of crime: Means, Motive and Opportunity. Unless he had a complete understanding of all three, Holmes did not consider a mystery to be solved. Yet today, the…

The fact of the matter is that, with exercise, consistency is the most important factor. WHAT you do doesn’t matter nearly as much as WHETHER you do it. With people stuck at home while gyms are closed for COVID-19, lots of folks will be picking out new exercise programs, and the challenge for many of us will be sticking with those programs long enough to make exercise a healthy, long-term habit.

In the book, “The Power of Habit,”Charles Duhigg explains that every Routine action (whether good, like exercise, or bad, like smoking) is associated in the brain with both a…

What Is A Carb?

First of all a carb is not a TYPE of food, it is a PART of food. There are three substances that are classified as carbohydrates.

1. Sugar. This can be sugar from fruit, honey, or a box labeled “Dixie Crystals.” While there are different types of sugar that we eat, they are all considered “simple” carbohydrates.
2. Starch. This is a long chain of sugar molecules. Once we eat it, the body breaks it down into sugar. However, because it is “complex,” the process takes longer.
3. Fiber. Fiber is also considered a complex carbohydrate, but unlike sugar and starch, it is…

In Emotional Agility, psychologist and TED Talk favorite Susan David encourages us to seek the wisdom in our sadness, anger, and heartbreak. Conversely, in Positive Intelligence, neuroscientist Shirzad Chamine argues that mental anguish is the equivalent of physical pain — useful as a warning, but unhelpful and unnecessary once its message has been received.

Both authors agree that we should not ignore difficult feelings, and suggest tactics to manage them. From this common starting point, they diverge completely.

“Too much stress on being positive is just one more way our culture figuratively overmedicates the normal fluctuations of our emotions,” David…

As the soon-to-legendary 2020 toilet paper panic vividly demonstrated, the supply chain that keeps our stores stocked is dangerously fragile. A little bit of public anxiety, and suddenly an abundant household staple is impossible to find. Now … Imagine the same problem, but with food.

Even at the best of times, the most densely populated parts of the USA are also the areas at highest risk for natural disasters. Add COVID-19 to the mix, and emergency preparedness goes from being a fringe obsession to a mainstream priority.

Traditional WWII-era “Victory Gardens” are back in vogue, as is interest in home-scale…

Editor’s Note:

My great-grandfather, Leon Kupperman (1883–1942), the author of this article, was a remarkable man: fluent in six languages (Romanian, Yiddish, French, German, Hebrew, and English), he studied sculpture with Auguste Rodin, wrote original works in Yiddish, translated literature from Romanian into English, and from German into Yiddish (including a 2-volume translation of Goethe’s Faust), was for many years the theater critic of the New York Yiddish-language newspaper, Der Tog, and taught sculpture to young people under the WPA program in the 1930s. …

“Psychotherapy is a private, confidential conversation that has nothing to do with illness, medicine, or healing.” — Thomas Szasz

Warning

This is not another article about gratitude lists, identifying your “type,” or finding the silver lining. If you are looking for simplistic advice that sounds good but works about as well as a band-aid on a bullet hole, you won’t find it here.

However, if you’re interested in learning a sustainable, science-based approach to overcoming your brain’s natural tendency to get caught in a vortex of negative emotions and thoughts, please read on.

A Little Background

(Feel free to skip this part if you…