Global Warming and the Elephant on the Coffee Table

Fact: Methane is 21 times more potent than carbon monoxide as a greenhouse effect gas, making it one of the primary proponents of global warming in our world today.

Fact: Animal agriculture is the number one source of methane output, as it produces an astounding 100 million tons per year through various “digestive byproducts.”

Fact: The livestock sector is responsible for about 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This is nearly 5% more than the transportation sector!

Yes, friends, the animal agriculture connection to global warming is glaring pretty fucking bright these days, and it’s not just the treehuggers trying to make this point. A recent 400-page report from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, entitled Livestock’s Long Shadow, identified the world’s 1.5 billion cattle as the premier culprits in the threat to our forests, wildlife and climate. They also cited our exploding population of cows for a number of other environmental offenses, including poisoning our rivers and drinking water, creating alien species, acid rain and deserts, and producing dead zones in the ocean while destroying our coral reefs.

And yet, I’m still waiting for virtually any meaningful discussion about this in our mainstream media. The animal agriculture/global warming connection has become the proverbial elephant on the coffee table. Whether it’s Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” (which I otherwise dug), the growing slew of magazine articles on the subject, or even John Edwards direct question on the subject from Bill Maher on Yahoo’s recent Democratic Candidate Mashup, nobody’s talking about the overwhelming influence animal agriculture has on the earth. There remains a serious disconnect between the trashing of our earthly resources and its link to the factory farm industry. Everyone either avoids the issue outright or dances around it and says nothing.

It makes you wonder: How far reaching is the meat industry’s grip in the world that Al Gore can’t talk about it…that the media doesn’t want to write about it…and that our political candidates won’t directly address it?

Scary…

The Balancing Act

When lifting weights or doing any kind of resistance training, resist the temptation to focus on those body parts that are already comparatively well-developed. Instead, focus on total balance and symmetry throughout the body.

This is often easier to do in theory than in practice because, let’s face it, we tend to prioritize those muscles that respond the best to our training.

Genetically speaking, I always had decent biceps, so I was overzealous about blasting them in the gym when I first started training so they would get even bigger. Fortunately, my weightlifting mentor, Lynn Branam, noticed what I was doing and nipped that concept in the bud right away. Instead, he encouraged me to balance out my triceps first, then eventually get back to the biceps later. So, for the first year or so of working out, I didn’t even train the biceps beyond the general level of conditioning that they received from all of my back workouts.

The net result of this “balancing act” is a more symmetrical physique, less chance of injury and more overall strength.

The Power is in the Plants, People!

After 17 years on the veggie path and over 12 years of working on a fanatically researched book on the subject, here’s a bottom line you can bank on:

Every nutrient you will ever need comes in its purest form direct from the earth, via a variety of plant-based foods.

That’s where the animals get them, and when someone eats animal products, they are getting a second-hand version of these nutrients, encased in a “delivery system” (the animal’s flesh, milk or eggs) that is devoid of any dietary fiber or live enzymes and usually loaded with factory farm-related toxins, artery-clogging saturated fats and protein ratios that make our blood acidic.

With this in mind, Rock-Solid nutrition begins with the many fiber-rich, largely alkaline plant-based foods like fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds and all of their many derivatives like smoothies, salads, soups, sandwiches, trail mix, cereals, certain snack or sports bars, veggie burgers, burritos, rice/pasta/potato-based dishes and a whole host of other delicious plant-based meals and snacks. Here is where you can enjoy the optimal assimilation of every important nutrient there is, and you can do it in a way where there is a surprising amount of variety and flavor.

In depth analysis of various cultures around the world continually demonstrate that many plant foods-based communities exhibit greater longevity, better overall health and far less incidence (in some cases zero) of various diseases and ailments than do the meat-eating cultures.

There are also many other perspectives, from the anatomical to the medical, that unequivocally support the merits of the plant-based regimen, as well. The time-tested, quantifiable results and benefits of the veggie diet as illustrated by these many perspectives is, to me, the true measure of how efficacious an eating regimen is; not some flavor-of-the-month diet that has you losing some weight on the short-term, but clogging up your arteries and turning your blood stream into an acidic river of ketones on the long-term.

So eat from the earth for the highest level of health.

Welcome to the Inevitable: The Blog!

Yes, friends…if you’ve got something you wanna say these days, I suppose it’s inevitable that you embrace a variety of platforms to say it. Books, public speaking, web sites, e-zines, podcasts, teleclasses, MySpace, YouTube, hotline numbers with voicemail updates…and now, blogs? What the fuck?

Honestly, it’s tough enough to just do all the daily maintenance stuff of life: hit the drums, work on new books, get in a workout or two, make a couple smoothies, etc. And now this?

Yes, I realize I’m a little late to the party, as blogging has been going strong for a number of years now, on one level or another. And I guess I’ve had what I call a “healthy resistance” to cluttering up my calendar by adding yet another technology-based task to my daily to-do list.

But – I’m really not complaining. If these technologies enable me to get my message out there to as many folks as possible…then let the late nights get later.

Actually, I’m glad you’re here, reading this right now, and I’ll do my best not to waste YOUR valuable time with this ongoing series of rants. The focus of this blog will be about what I call “Living Rock-Solid.” Everything and anything relating to superior mind/body fitness and high-energy health, as expressed in a lifestyle that’s considerate of our planet and all of our fellow humans and animals.

On any given day, we might cover nutrition, exercise, the mind/body connection, veganism, animal or planetary issues, etc. Why so diverse? Because any holistic lifestyle philosophy that doesn’t include all of these things can never be truly complete. If you have a super clean diet but don’t exercise, it’s incomplete. If you have a good diet and train regularly but are stressed out all the time, it’s incomplete. If you think you have the nutrition, exercise and mind/body thing covered, but your regimen includes things that promote harm or exploitation to animals or our planet…then it’s incomplete.

And yes – while I don’t believe in mudslinging, blatant self-righteousness, embarrassing others or grandstanding – this will be the place where I will “go after” any of a number of the ridiculous untruths and misperceptions out there that are CONSTANTLY perpetuated in the media. Why? Because I am a man on a motherfuckin’ mission, people! There is so much unnecessary suffering in the world, and so much of it can be avoided with just a little information. And “Rock-Solid” information is what I promise to deliver to you here…albeit in a slightly more conversational style than usual.

So on that note, I’ll bring blog #1 to a close. See you in a day or two…

BR