It’s Time to go and Do Something (Part 3)

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Become a better man in 30 days.

30 Days of Discipline.

Even the smallest habits make the biggest difference.

How To Whiten Your Teeth For Less Than $10

When I was a kid I had perfectly white teeth. I also had allergies. My mom took me to an “Allergy Specialist” who put me on about 10 different medications. I guess to “see what worked”. None of them did work, unless the intended goal was to turn my teeth yellow and spotty and put me in the hospital for a week.

Over the years I have used almost every commercially available teeth whitener with zero success. I have also paid over $300 for professional laser whitening which did not work either.

It wasn’t until I stopped using fluoride toothpaste, in fact I stopped using toothpaste altogether, that my teeth whitened. In an effort to stop ingesting fluoride I stopped using toothpaste and I used a new miracle drug to brush my teeth. What is this new miracle drug?

Good old fashioned Baking Soda
Not only did my teeth get an excellent cleaning I also noticed after a few months that my teeth were a full shade whiter.

For a particularly effective method of teeth whitening you can brush with Baking Soda and Hydrogen Peroxide 1-3 times per week. The combination of the baking soda and hydrogen peroxide form a chemical reaction that breaks down film growing on your teeth and uncovers hidden bacteria, making brushing far more effective.
To brush your teeth with baking soda all you need to do is get a cup or glass, pour in a bit of baking soda, add some water, stir with your toothbrush and brush your teeth with the mixture the same way was with toothpaste. On the days you use hydrogen peroxide just don’t add any water. Don’t swallow the solution.

Before you throw away tons of money on professional whitening and expensive over the counter products why not give baking soda and hydrogen peroxide a shot? It’s worth it even just to get off the poison that is fluoride.

The simplest methods are usually the best.

Baking Soda: $3.79
Hydrogen Peroxide: $4.99
Whiter & Healthier Teeth: Priceless

Become a better man in 30 days.

30 Days of Discipline.

Even the smallest habits make the biggest difference.

Learn To Defend Yourself

Even in an emasculated society there are countless testosterone filled men who will not hesitate to snap your neck. If the shit hit the fan could you defend yourself or your family against a man the same size as you? Against a man bigger than you?

If a man bigger and stronger than yourself slapped you in the face in front of your wife, girlfriend, or kids would you take him out?

Or would you hang your head in shame?

Walking away is always the best option, but what if it isn’t an option? 99 times out of 100 a bar-room altercation will not come to blows, but that 1 time it does won’t end up so well for you if you get beat up. If another man strikes you you strike back. Even if you do get beat up, when you go down you go down fighting.

The late, great Jack LaLanne tells a story about being a younger man, eating in a diner and 3 punks come in and start making fun of him, calling him “muscles” and ridiculing him. Jack took the 3 punks into the parking lot and dealt with each of them and went back into the diner to finish his meal. All the patrons in the diner thanked him and clapped for him.

There is a difference in walking away from a silly fight and being a coward who has no pride.

Steps to learning to defend yourself:

Get into shape: a frail body isn’t defending anything. A man in good shape is more intimidating to someone who want to pick an easy fight.

Learn some form of defense: could be boxing, mixed martial arts, Brazilian jiu-jitstu, a self defense class, or you could have a friend teach you some moves. Watch some self-defense videos if you have no other options. The confidence alone from knowing you can hold your own and defend yourself is worth more than money. Walking down the street I am comfortable in the fact that if a bigger man than myself gave me some trouble I can hold my own. I may take a few licks but I’ll give just as good as I got.

Talk yourself out of the fight: If a fight can be avoided, it should be avoided. You never know who’s carrying a knife or a gun, or if he has friends waiting in the distance.

Position yourself for easy defense: If a man is getting in your space you never keep your hands in your pocket, you keep them up to defend your face. Don’t make an overt boxing stance, you can pretend to be scratching your chin or something like that. Your hands always need to be ready to act. When the fight starts always protect your face with your forearms, hold your arms up at a 90% angle, thumbs facing your head.

If it comes to blows: Move quickly. Get your hits in as fast as you can, subdue him as fast as you can, and get away as fast as you can. A hard punch to the throat will take him out. A rear-naked choke will take him out. A hard kick to the knee will take him out. A hard knee to his face will take him out. If you’re trading blow for blow you aim for the jaw. Always keep your hands up in front of your face to protect yourself.

Fight dirty if it’s life or death: If you’re fighting for your life all rules of combat decency evaporate. This is where you kick the groin, bite the nose, poke the eyes, any severe damage you can do.

Never pick a fight: Only finish one if it is necessary. A man has no business not knowing how to stand up and fight for himself.

Become a better man in 30 days.

30 Days of Discipline.

Even the smallest habits make the biggest difference.

Live Like a Spartan : Own Your Own Car

“Buying” or leasing a brand new vehicle is just about the silliest thing you can do. I say “buying” in quotation marks because when you purchase a brand new vehicle more often than not you finance it. You don’t really buy anything, you put yourself into massive debt, or what I like to call debtors prison.

What happens if you think you have a secure job, you purchase a brand new car to keep up with the Jones’ and six months down the line you get laid off or fired? You still have the car payment barreling down on you like a semi going full speed on your direction. Let me tell you, as a person who has both financed a car and been fired many times it gets very worrisome trying to come up with that car payment every single month when I’ve got no income.

Same scenario: you get laid off or fired. This time, however, you were smart enough to save up a couple grand and you purchase your vehicle in cold, hard cash. All you have to worry about now is paying for gas and paying for insurance. Average liability only insurance premiums for an American are $900 per year, and if you were smart you pay six months in advance. That means all you worry about is gas.

The average price paid for a new car is $28,400. At a modest 6% interest rate over four years you pay a grand total of $32,014.79 (assuming no down payment or trade-in) and $666.97 per month. That much money per month can let you live comfortably in a decent apartment. Imagine getting rid of that six hundred bucks per month in expenses. You can save up for a few months and buy a car in cash and never worry about making another car payment again. Taking the bus for a few months is a great trade-off in never making another car payment.

Even if you pay for the car in cash there is no reason to purchase a brand-new vehicle. As soon as you drive that car off the lot it’s value plummets. Purchase the same car a year or two old and save yourself some money. In one year that brand new car you bought is now an old car and you wasted several thousand dollars.

Of course, if you live in a city with a good public transportation system you can get rid of the car permanently. Even better because then you save money on gas and insurance AND get you don’t have to drive in grid-iron, bumper to bumper traffic.

Look familiar?

If possible, riding a bicycle or a moped (I know it looks stupid) is an excellent money saving method of travel and if you ride a bike you will get tons of great exercise. I dare you to find a fat person who rides a bike everyday. Driving a car is one of the most dangerous things you can do. As an added bonus you save yourself a 1 in 84 chance of dying in a car accident. You could die thousands of times in a car accident before ever winning the lottery or being eaten by a shark.

Use your bicycle to impress girls.

There you have it, trade in that money hemorrhaging hunk of junk, get ride of those payments, save up and get yourself a cash car that gets good mileage and has a reputation for buying a quality vehicle.

I won’t go into much detail about the absurdity of leasing a car other than to say you are paying an arm and a leg to rent a car, you have to carry full coverage insurance, you are limited to a certain number of miles…you might as well drive a car with a gas leak. You could just give $20 to every single person you meet and make some new friends.

Simplify your lives, gentlemen. It makes things so much easier.

Become a better man in 30 days.

30 Days of Discipline.

Even the smallest habits make the biggest difference.

How to Pick Appropriate Workout Attire

There is a silly myth that when you start working out you need to go buy some “workout clothes”. Nonsense! Work out in whatever is comfortable and forget about what other people might think about you not wearing the “appropriate” workout clothes. Like there is such a thing. In the 80′s it was spandex, in the 70′s it was short-shorts, now it’s knee-length shorts, basketball or running shoes and a t-shirt.

I’m comfortable in jeans, a t-shirt or tank top, and boat shoes. I rarely see anyone in the gym wearing jeans which boggles the mind. Jeans are the de-facto uniform of millions of blue-collar physical laborers. If jeans are good enough to work 12 hours a day lifting heavy shit and doing other laborious activities they are certainly ok to lift weights in for an hour. Unless you’re doing leg exercises jeans are perfectly acceptable to lift in. Hell, I even wear jeans sometimes when deadlifting or squatting.

As for the shoes, I pick the shoes with the flattest sole. All the basketball shoes that cost $150 bucks a pair are a waste of time and money for lifting weights. The soles of those shoes are arched for “heel support” and throw you off balance. The foot is a perfect invention by itself, you don’t need heel or arch support from your shoes just like you don’t need mittens or gloves for hand support.

Work out in whatever is comfortable to you and stop worrying about what other people think.

Become a better man in 30 days.

30 Days of Discipline.

Even the smallest habits make the biggest difference.