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You are. You know some things, and really, maybe even a lot of things. Some of them valuable, most of them not.

But we are still stupid.

We all have habits that we know are wrong, and continue on with them because they’re habits. We are tricked into buying things we don’t want or need on a regular basis, because the commercial was super impressive or the salesperson was really nice.

And you might be happy with that.

But we are still stupid.

We live in a society where everyone works together to accomplish great things while never actually working together. Which would be fantastic, except we fight over which things are going to happen based on a black and white “I hate those guys” system.

And it’s sort of working, but really, there’s got to be a better way. But we’ll never agree on it.

Because we are all stupid.

With knowledge freely available to everybody, and with all the daily comforts already taken care of, we shouldn’t be so stupid. But it’s easier. And we’re lazy. And sometimes ignorance is easier.

And I need to know what happens on my favorite TV shows or how good the next big blockbuster movie is going to be.

So let’s all be stupid.

But if that’s going to be our plan, let’s not get upset at the people who choose not to be. Let’s not get angry when the people in charge make decisions we’re not happy with. (They’re from the other team, though!)

You have just as much ability to put yourself in the position to influence the way things work. Most people don’t, and that’s why it’s so easy for the few that actually go out of their way to accomplish anything to make change.

And if you can rally people behind you, then maybe you can make sure we don’t all stay stupid.

Or, you could just sleep in a park and call it a protest.

Because that’s not stupid.

There’s something like eight hundred million people touting that they can help you find Twitter followers. Which is just great of them. Some of them are even helpful.

But it doesn’t really matter if your incoming feed is garbage. Here are four different ways to find the best people to follow on Twitter.

Twitter bird by eldh via Flickr - Creative Commons

“Similar to you”

There’s a good chance you’d be interested in people similar to you. Unless you really hate yourself.

If you click onto your own profile, the box on the right includes a feature showing people who are similar to you. The problem with this function is it seems to go completely mental once in a while. I have no idea what criteria Twitter uses to decide what makes people similar, but the recommendations can be completely ridiculous.

Just check out the “Similar to you” box on your profile every couple of days and you’ll occasionally find somebody fantastic to follow.

Recommendations, I guess

The built in recommendation system for Twitter doesn’t differentiate between celebrities, completely automated feeds, and “real actual people.” It’s fairly useful because it gives you a constant stream of options, but you might as well just randomly add people if you actually intend on trusting this feature.

Unless you just want to follow celebrities.

Twitter’s search function

You know those #hashtags everyone’s always using on Twitter? Well if you search for one that interests you, you will find people interested in things that interest you. You can also search for just regular words, but that doesn’t sound as fancy.

If you try a search every day or two you will find active people discussing topics that you find interesting. And that’s probably a good indicator that you will enjoy things they talk about.

Actually interact with people

If you already follow a few interesting people, then just follow people that they are talking to. Check their profile once in a while and skim through the people who they seem to be having the most lively conversations with.

This is probably the best option, as it actually ensures you’re getting active users who engage others.

Never ever check trends

They’re the worst. They’re all ridiculous and useless and why are they even. Just don’t. You’ll have better luck just following anyone attached to a “Promoted” tweet.

For some reason or another, once something hits trending on Twitter, the average user starts attaching nonsense to it. If you’ve had the misfortune of ever checking out a Trending page on Twitter then you know.

Regardless of how many followers you have or how engaging your followers are, you can enjoy your twittering by ensuring that the side of the stream you can directly control is in good shape.

Stop working out ways to trick people into following you, and just start having genuine conversations with people you find interesting.

7 – San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio is one of the fastest growing cities in the country in more ways than one. In the last decade the city has grown to over two million people.

With over 70% of men and over 50% of women are considered to be either overweight or obese, you have to wonder what everyone was moving towards. If the city doesn’t get its act together it will only be a matter of time until a McDonald’s opens up at the Alamo.

The Alamo as McDonalds

6 – Kansas City, Missouri

One up on San Antonio, Kansas City at least has an excuse. The city is somewhat famous for its regional barbecue food.

Arthur Bryant’s, a restaurant founded in 1908 by Henry Perry – considered the father of Kansas City barbecue – started loading their food with molasses. Luckily, for the people of Kansas City, this phenomenon caught on.

Kansas City now has over 90 barbecue restaurants in the metropolitan area, nearly all of which are thriving on the sale of molasses heavy foods, at the expense of the health of everyone in the city.

Fattening you up with molasses for over 100 years!

5 – Memphis, Tennessee

One of the largest celebrations held in Memphis each year is the World Championship Barbecue Cooking contest. The largest pork barbecue cooking contest in the whole world.

Memphis has great roots, known for being the home of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and other musical greats. Maybe if Elvis wasn’t from Memphis he would have done something about his later years.

4 – Dallas, Texas

This is where the trend gets obvious. Dallas is a major southern city with a hankering for some barbecue. Dallas is the proud hometown of the restaurant chain Chili’s. Chili’s made the list of most fattening food chains with help of their Jalapeno Smokehouse Bacon Burger.

Probably not the only reason that people from Dallas are fat

3 – El Paso, Texas

Texas. Texas, Texas, Texas. Seriously, what is wrong with Texas? As the third of five entries thus far, Texas is proving to be a fat, fat state.

It’s almost as though there’s problems with Texas as a whole.

El Paso’s primarily employers are educational institutions and call centres. In fact, seven of the top ten employers in El Paso are call centres. Which means a huge portion of the population is sitting in a dank cubicle all day being poorly paid.

She’s fatter than this picture leads you to believe. It’s all angles.

2 – Charleston, West Virginia

Charleston, West Virginia holds the distinction of being almost the fattest city in the country.

And that’s about it. There is basically nothing interesting at all about Charleston. Shoney’s is from Charleston, though. Gotta love Shoney’s.

And the fattest city in the United States of America is…

1 – Corpus Christi, Texas

And back to Texas we go.

Corpus Christi is the fattest city in the entire country. San Antonio has a 70% obesity rate for men and a 50% obesity rate for women. And Corpus Christi is fatter.

The city briefly offered free wi-fi city wide. Until a local resident ate it. (the service was sold off to Earthlink and ceased being free in 2007.)

Artists rendition of a Corpus Christi resident

Not getting fat isn’t exactly rocket science, but when surrounded by an obesity pandemic, the culture of these cities grow more accepting of being overweight.

Nobody’s perfect, but there are a lot of things you can do to help ensure that you don’t help boost your town onto this list. Check out this list of five super foods you should be eating more of, and don’t be afraid to start practicing healthier habits.

Don’t forget to sign up to the RSS feed. It brings you more things like this. That’s good, right? 

Whether you have a commitment first thing in the morning, or you just need to get a bit more sleep than usual, you need to get to sleep fast even though you’re not tired. Which is pretty much the worst thing ever.

These four tips will help you fall asleep fast without the use of any sort of nonsense sleep aids. Guaranteed. 

Image by sergeant killjoy via Flickr - Creative Commons

No More “One More Things”

We’re all guilty of it. You know you have to be in bed in five or six minutes, and you have just one more thing to do. And when you’re done that, you have just one more thing to do.

More often than not, that one more thing is internet-related. Even if that “one more thing” was finding this information on going to sleep faster, shut it down. There is no more one more things. You’re going to sleep.

Turn off the TV

In fact, take your television out of your bedroom. There’s nothing worse to prevent you from falling asleep than actually doing something you find interesting. And if you have the television on and you’re not even watching something you find interesting, then you’re just ridiculous.

The light and the noise both disturb your ability to sleep. Shut it all off. Don’t listen to music, and don’t watch TV.

Limit Light – Darker is Better

It’s not just the television – if you have any sort of light source, get rid of it. Turn off the lights and shut the curtains. If there’s still light coming in from outside, get better curtains.

Your body limits the secretion of melatonin when subjected to light. Melatonin is a naturally occurring organic compound that is also used in sleep aids and relaxation drinks.

So instead of going out and buying some ridiculous pill or powder, just turn the lights out when it’s time for bed.

Don’t Worry About a Thing

It really doesn’t matter what you have to do tomorrow or what you did today. Especially not if you are trying to go to sleep.

You need to clear your mind of all worry. There’s nothing you can do about it when you’re supposed to be sleeping anyways. In fact, by spending this time at night thinking about the problem, you’re only going to end up more tired tomorrow. And how is that going to help?

If you find it hard to clear your mind, simply focus on your breathing. And nothing but. When your mind begins to wander, just remember: focus on your breathing.

When it’s time for sleep you should be in a dark, quiet room, and be doing absolutely nothing. Were you looking for a magical solution?

If you have any tips of your own on getting a good night’s sleep, please leave them in the comments. More is always better.

What are Super Foods?

They are really just regular foods. Regular foods with a fancy name attached by marketing types to sell you their açaí juices and blueberry slurry.

Super foods are nutrient dense foods – usually loaded with anti-oxidants, essential fatty acids, and fiber.

They are known to come with a number of long term health benefits, including:

• Regulation of metabolism
• Lower blood pressure
• Lower cholesterol
• Potential to protect against heart disease and cancer

Image by David Blackwell via Flickr - Creative Commons

1. Garlic

Garlic is a super food that nearly everybody can get behind. It’s loaded with health benefits. It has been linked with:

• Lowered cholesterol
• Lower blood pressure
• Reduced risk of blood clots
• Destroying viruses and bacteria
• Could possibly help fight against Alzheimer’s
• Detoxification effects
• and more…

Garlic is pretty much the one food that you can never have enough of.

There’s one minor catch, though. Cooking garlic reduces (or flat out eliminates) most of the health benefits.

So you may need to start eating a raw garlic clove every now and then.

2. Onions and Leeks and Chives and… (The rest of the Allium family)

Garlic isn’t the only member of the allium family of foods that has impressive health benefits.

Leeks, chives and just about every type of onion are loaded with an antioxidant called glutathione. Glutathione helps your liver deal with toxins and carcinogens. And since your liver is responsible for clearing bacteria, alcohol, and excess glucose from your blood stream, you definitely want to keep it running smoothly.

3. Everything Green

Green foods in general are good for you. Leafy green vegetables, specifically. It shouldn’t be any surprise that salads are going to keep you healthy.

More specifically, though – adding a bit of wheatgrass or barley grass to your diet will increase the health benefits dramatically. Both are more similar to vegetables than grains as they are still in their early stages of development, but at this stage they are loaded with antioxidants and help reduce inflammation.

Most people find them fairly disgusting, though. Blend them up with something more appetizing and call it juice.

4. Hot Peppers

Hot peppers don’t just add spice to your food. They add the spicy compound called capsaicin. Capsaicin is known for anti-inflammatory, heart healthy effects, as well as a potential link to reduced cancer risk.

And if that’s not enough to convince you, hot peppers contain more vitamin C than citrus foods.

Specifically in smokers, who often suffer from a vitamin C deficiency, this can be a serious benefit.

You don’t want to end up with scurvy, do you?

5. Beans (Lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, etc.)

Beans are low in fat, calories, sodium, but very high in fiber. A single cup of cooked beans can provide well over half the recommended dietary fiber intake recommendations. They also contain protein, which makes them an important staple for anyone on a vegetarian diet.

Compared to grains, beans and lentils are extremely low on the glycemic scale, which also makes them an important food for diabetics looking to increase their fiber intake.

With this combination of five foods, you can create a meal plan that will cover most if not all of your dietary requirements. You can also do it extremely cheap.

And you will be healthier than most people for doing it.

Basically, if you spent your days dipping jalapeno peppers and raw garlic cloves into a hummus dip and eating it with a side salad topped with wheatgrass and onions, you might just live forever.

For recipes using some of these super foods, check out How to Cook Hero or sign up for their weekly food newsletter.

Making excuses for not going to sleep at night is surprisingly easy. And having legitimate reasons for not sleeping in late is even more common.

The effects of sleep deprivation can be massive, and influence many aspects of your life.

Image by TheGiantVermin via Flickr – Creative Commons

Sleep Deprivation Effects Your Health

There have been many studies linking lack of sleep to health. Many of which will effect your overall mood, as well.

A lack of sleep can lead to weight gain

Not sleeping enough can cause a hormonal imbalance that directly affects your appetite. An increase in the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates appetite, and a decrease in leptin, which suppresses it.

If you’re spending an hour a day at the gym or twelve hours a day stressing out about your diet, and then sleeping five hours at night, you are doing yourself more harm than good.

Increased susceptibility to some major health problems

Specifically, chronic lack of sleep has been linked to an increased risk of both diabetes and fibromyalgia.

Diabetes can cause you to require a restricted diet, and fibromyalgia is just a way to say “you will be in pain basically all the time.”

Long term effects of sleep deprivation can also interfere with the body’s ability to regulate glucose. Basically, you’re going to mess up your blood pressure in a way that may be permanent. Which means heart problems later in life.

Sleep more now, and live longer later.

Sleep Deprivation Just Makes You a Jerk

If the effects on your health aren’t enough to convince you, why not consider how it effects your mood.

Tired people are irritable

When you’re irritable it means you’re prone to over-reactions.

When someone does something that’s sort of annoying it’s normal to tell them to stop. It’s not normal to threaten to burn their shirt down.

If you have a history of getting overly frustrated, you’re probably not getting enough sleep.

You’re a jerk when you’re depressed

Many cases of clinical depression are linked to, cause, or are a direct result of a chronic lack of sleep.

If you are feeling down and out, you’re going to be generally less agreeable for no good reason. And that makes you a jerk. Especially if you could make everyone happier by prioritizing rest. Which is an easy thing to do.

Sleep Deprivation Drains Your Charisma

Have you ever had a conversation with someone who looks like they’re about to fall asleep? They look bored. They look disinterested. And they probably are, because they’re too tired to care.

When you are obviously over-tired everybody knows it. And that can damage your relationships, your career, and in the long-term – your self image.

How You Can Sleep Better

Even if you can’t sleep the full eight hours on any individual night, you should be doing your best to ensure that you sleep well as much as possible. By instituting a proper sleep routine that you follow every single night, you can ensure that you are well rested every single day.

Not everybody actually requires a full eight hours sleep, but even if you don’t need it, don’t you want it?

Image by Lee Nachtigal via Flickr - Creative Commons License

Typically, there’s two schools of thought on how to sleep.

Many people set themselves a schedule and go to bed at the same time every night. This can result in laying in bed needlessly for hours and the decision that you have insomnia. More importantly, you’re wasting time that could be put to more productive use.

Others just sleep when they’re tired and wake up whenever they’re done sleeping. Which will always end up with you sleeping far more than is actually necessary.

There is a simple solution to getting a good night’s rest every single night.

Go to Sleep When You’re Tired

From now on, you will stay awake until you’re tired.

You may stay up much later than you’re used to. Just stay awake until you are tired enough to go to sleep. When first starting out, it’s best to ensure you have a day or two to relax, because you will probably stay up much later than you’re used to.

Try to use some of this “found” time on something productive, because you are going to regret wasting it over the first few days.

Wake Up at the Same Time Every Day

It’s important to find a trigger that will wake you up quickly and successfully every single time. You’ll probably do fine with a standard alarm clock, but if that fails you may have to get yourself something a little more intense.

For the first few days this may be difficult, but you have to stick to it. By waking up at the same time every day you will end up becoming tired earlier, and be able to go to sleep at a more appropriate time.

This allows you to maintain your schedule, but still get as much sleep as you need.

Follow a Morning Routine

If you don’t already have a strict routine in the mornings, it’s time to start. You should have the first ten to twenty minutes upon waking planned and you should follow the exact routine at the exact same time every single day.

Typically this routine should include a glass of water, breakfast, and a shower. But you can do what you want. Just never vary your morning routine.

Within a week of following these three simple rules you will fall asleep faster and wake up feeling well-rested every single day.

If you found this helpful, check out our weekly newsletter for more ways to improve your sleeping habits.

Every single person has some excuse for not taking care of themselves. Most of those excuses will relate to not having enough time. But you make time to check your Facebook and Twitter feeds dozens of times a day. Just start doing these nine things and you will be guaranteed to end up happier and healthier.

1. Sleep 8 Hours Every Night

There is absolute mounds of evidence that the human body needs at least seven hours of sleep every single day. And that’s a minimum. You will be happier and more alert if you ensure you consistently sleep a minimum of eight hours each and every night.

Image by Katherine Squier via Flickr - Creative Commons License

You’re considered to be sleep deprived if you rely on an alarm clock to wake you up in the morning. Never mind hitting the snooze button.

And there’s no such thing as a “sleep debt.” You’re not catching up on the weekends. You’re just getting an appropriate amount of sleep.

Several studies show that not only does sleep deprivation effect your mood and concentration, but also your life span. A lack of sleep has been shown to increase risk of heart disease, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and weight gain. Weight gain from not sleeping enough. Which is going to increase your risk of for heart disease.

It’s a vicious cycle.

So go to sleep earlier.

2. Eat Home-Cooked Food

Most grocery stores are designed similarly. The meat, produce, and dairy sections along the three outside walls, and all the processed garbage along the aisles in the middle.

The majority of foods purchased in the middle aisles of a grocery store are loaded with preservatives and other things that aren’t food. If you can’t pronounce the name of an ingredient, you shouldn’t be eating it.

The time it takes to prepare food from “scratch” is negligible if you take the time to prepare a meal plan. A simple meal plan prepared the week before and designed around eating a healthy balanced diet allows you to purchase and prepare much of the food in advance.

You can make your own pasta and have it keep for days. You can make your own sauces and have them keep for weeks.

Image by dbgg1979 via Flickr - Creative Commons License

You can simply just make things easy enough that you don’t have to worry about keeping them around at all.

It’s not important to eat organic, but it’s certainly important to eat actual food. If it was created in a lab to taste amazing for nine cents a pound, it’s probably not food.

3. Don’t Drink Soda

The majority of ingredients in soda are unpronounceable, and the rest of them are corn.

There is almost no nutritional value in sodas – but there is a ton of calories. Unless you’re drinking “diet” sodas, in which case you’re just consuming large quantities of a chemical that has a(n unconfirmed) link to several types of cancer. Is spending several dollars a day on something that’s making you unhealthy worth the risk?

Think about it for a moment. You’re drinking water, dyed brown, loaded with chemicals. But at least it’s sweet, right?

4. Exercise At Least 30 Minutes a Day

Thirty minutes a day to keep your body in working order. Is that too much to ask?

A simple aerobic exercise, just enough to elevate your heart rate for an extended period of time, will have a powerful long-lasting effect on your cardiovascular system. Thirty minutes of exercise as infrequently as three times per week has been shown to dramatically reduce plaque build up in the arteries. Which very simply means a longer life.

You don’t have to be doing P90X.

Image by Mike Baird via Creative Commons License

Moderate daily exercise has been shown to elevate your mood, increase your overall stamina, and even keep your cognitive abilities sharp into your later years.

It will also keep you from getting fat.

5. Drink at Least One Glass of Water Immediately After Waking

Signs of dehydration include:

• Headache
• Dizziness
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Cravings for sugar or salt
• Dark urine
• Thirst (If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.)

And a huge number of people spend all day, every day, dehydrated. Many don’t even realize when they’re thirsty.

After sleeping all night you haven’t ingested any water in a long time. (Hopefully at least 8 hours.) There may be water in your coffee, teas, and sodas, but it’s important to start the day off right with at least one large glass of water.

Intentionally drinking several glasses of water throughout the day is great, but making sure you start the day off with a big infusion will work wonders.

6. Eat Breakfast

Why don’t you just sit down and have a nice big glass of water with the meal you’re supposed to eat every morning.

Studies have shown that nearly 80% of Americans don’t eat breakfast. Other studies have shown that it’s the most important meal of the day. Is anyone paying attention?

Image by Fin Fahey via Flickr - Creative Commons License

Eating breakfast will help give you energy first thing in the morning. It will help suppress your appetite while you’re working and unable to prepare a meal. And when you’re hungry and unable to prepare a meal, you’re going to eat some sort of pre-packaged vending machine garbage.

And of course, since you will most likely be eating breakfast before you go to work, it can’t hurt that eating breakfast has been shown to assist with concentration early in the day.

7. Don’t Drink (Much)

At least, don’t drink often. The “it’s the weekend, let’s get wasted” routine is going to kill you. Seriously, look:

Chronic excess alcohol intake, or alcohol dependence, can lead to a wide range of neuropsychiatric or neurological impairment, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, and malignant neoplasms. The psychiatric disorders which are associated with alcoholism include major depression, dysthymia, mania, hypomania, panic disorder, phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, personality disorders, schizophrenia, suicide, neurologic deficits (e.g. impairments of working memory, emotions, executive functions, visuospatial abilities and gait andbalance) and brain damage. Alcohol dependence is associated with hypertension, coronary heart disease, and ischemic stroke, cancer of the respiratory system, and also cancers of the digestive system, liver, breast and ovaries. Heavy drinking is associated with liver disease, such as cirrhosis.^{[12]  – The negative effects of alcohol as listed by Wikipedia.}

There is some evidence that moderate alcohol use can actually benefit your cardiovascular system. But moderate use is in the area of 1 or 2 drinks at a time. When Friday night comes around, you should probably work on a hobby instead of a six-pack.

8. Don’t Smoke

Definitely just don’t smoke. You can actually make an argument for drinking. But smoking? Why bother?

Seriously, you’re basically just spending a ton of money on being addicted to a habit that consumes your money, your health, and somewhere in the area of an hour or two a day that you could spend more productively. You could at least spend that time sleeping, since you’re probably not getting enough time for that either.

Image by Isabel Bloedwater via Flickr - Creative Commons License

9. Be Happy

Just be happy. You can control how happy you are surprisingly easily.

Seriously, most people don’t understand that being happy is as simple as deciding to be happy.

Other than obvious complaints about being fatigued or irritable, which points one through eight will fix, why are you unhappy?

Just don’t be. Be positive. Help others. Just be happy.