One of the most powerful, yet least publicized and understood psychological concepts, is Locus-of-Control (LOC). LOC identifies the various differences in how people experience the world, based on the extent to which an individual believes he has control over what goes on his life. People with low LOC may experience more depression and anxiety, as well as be more defensive and blaming of others for their misfortunes.

LOC isn’t fixed in stone and may be amenable to positive change. Certainly we can see the negative changes that often happen to high LOC people as they move through the life-span: It isn’t unusual for people who were high in LOC during their working lives, to become low LOC as they get older and experience various changes associated with aging such as retirement, illness, etc. The use of anti-depressants in later life is quite staggering, something the medical establishment likes to link to “chemical imbalance” because they can then prescribe their way out of a psychogenic predicament for which they really have no time, knowledge, nor alternative solutions.

Most of us function best with high, but not too high LOC, i.e. it is best to believe we have some control over our destiny, yet the maturity to also know that “bad things do happen to good people” as part of a normal life.

LOC is of particular significance to weight-loss and health. The overwhelming reason that all diets fail is that they externalize LOC to a  “diet”, “program”, or other external tool such as calorie-counting, points, etc. The idea of using such tools in the first place makes some sense (at least intellectually), i.e. the tools may help us “learn” how to be more aware of what and how much we’re eating. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way, evidenced by the now absolute scientific fact that diets do not work at sustainable weight loss.

The problem is that the moment you allow a dietary “tool” into your life, your psyche automatically shifts LOC to the tool! The psyche says to itself, “Whew, what a relief, I no longer have to worry about losing weight because this ‘program’ will do it for me”.

There is no question that it is useful to have an eating and lifestyle philosophy or model that can serve as a platform for what and how you eat. The diabetic and/or cardiac patient needs to understand Metabolic Syndrome and how that affects his disease and how he must eat to control it. The vegetarian has made a commitment to a certain ethical or health paradigm and more power to him. Whatever floats your boat!

But at the end of the day, unless you develop the LOC to know when to start and when to stop eating…the game is over before it has begun. One thing is for sure: Unless your eating fits in with your environment, you are doomed to failure or to becoming a social pariah whom no one wants to be around. Then you’ll really be depressed and need anti-depressants!

I haven’t worn my Mephisto Sano shoes for about two months, having switched to the MBT’s and their more aggressive curvature. The MBT’s and the Sanos are part of a new generation (some say fad) of shoes that change the dynamics of walking by increasing the curve of the sole so that you are forced to work harder on the heel-to-toe movement, thereby engaging more muscles and increasing leg strength, endurance, etc. And as far a s I can tell, they work. With my three ruptured disks and damaged sciatic nerve, they make it possible for me to walk much farther and at a faster pace.

Today I decided to wear the Sanos, mostly because they were close to hand and I was in a hurry to get dressed and take my “kids” shopping at Jean-Talon Market. To my surprise, after two months on the MBT’s, the Sanos felt great, the same feeling but much more gentle…they felt far more “normal” than the MBT’s and it was a welcome feeling. The MBT’s still leave me with a variety of aches and pains as my body tries to reluctantly adapt to their demanding design. Yin and Yang, I guess. But I will continue to wear the Sanos and may even get a dressier pair.

My first pair of Alden shoes…the Cordovan Wing Tip Bal Oxford

Little known fact….my first entrepreneurial business venture was in the high-end men’s shoe business. I was a corporate honcho at the time, but had strong entrepreneurial urges. One of my closest friends in those days was straight out of GQ; a very snazzy dresser with a fetish for hand-crafted shoes and clothing. He introduced me to Alden shoes of Massachusetts, which was at that time one of the premiere makers of traditional “Goodyear welted” shoes for men. In the mid-’80’s there were three or four (Johnston & Murphy, Allen Edmonds, and maybe one more). Today, only Alden remains. Fortunately, by staying close to its traditional values it has survived and flourished as the finest maker of men’s shoes in America and one of the best in the world (the other brands still exist but they are all “offshore” and leverage their “brand”).

My friend convinced me to start a sideline business together, selling bespoke custom-made shirts, ties, and shoes under our own brand. Our “shtick” was to sell these to like-minded individuals in their own homes, in the evening (after our own business hours, of course) or on week-ends. We had one Helluva chutzpah in those days, actually convincing some of the greatest names in men’s clothing and shoes to make private label stuff for us (and for most of them, we were their only private label account ever. How’s that for balls?).

A couple of funny stories. I occasionally used to pick up my 6 year-old daughter from school. I drove a new Alfa Romeo sedan and was impeccably dressed with tailor-made suits, shirts, and absolutely gorgeous shoes. My daughter would see me receive shoe inventory at home, and would observe me sorting the orders and loading them into my car for delivery in the evening. One day at her school, each of the children was asked to stand up and tell the class what their father did for a living. My daughter’s answer: “My Dad is a shoemaker”. I’m sure the teachers must have had a dramatically different view of shoe-making as a profession after that!

The second story. I used to travel extensively to Europe and the Far East in those days….probably six times a year. I had never been stopped in an airport by anyone before I started wearing those Aldens….but no joke….a couple of strangers would routinely stop me on every trip and excitedly ask: “Are those Aldens?”. How weird is that? But Aldens were a cult shoe in those days (perhaps even more so today with the demise of most of the world’s great shoemakers).

Anyway, I’ve never been more comfortable than when wearing a fine pair of hand-crafted shoes that fit properly. My partner used to say: “A man should invest the most money in the two things in which he will spend the greatest time…his mattress and his shoes”. And he was right. Great shoes are a terrific investment. I have every pair of Alden, Church, and Dack’s shoes that I ever bought and they are all in excellent condition. Over time they have come to fit like a glove and are supremely comfortable. They also look great. They have paid for themselves many times over. There are three simple rules to making great shoes last for generations:

1. Never wear them two days in a row.

2. Always keep them in cedar shoe-trees so they can dry properly in their original shape.

3. Occasionally give them a good polishing (I hate doing it so usually reserve that for a professional shine at the airport).

Most people are astonished when I mention what a good pair of shoes should cost: $300-$500. They are used to $59 specials from Payless, and the Timberland knock-offs from the outlet stores that have become the benchmark for men’s shoes. Some comment that they don’t want their shoes to last a long time as they prefer to always be in style. Others are convinced that traditional men’s shoes are no longer in style. I disagree. Visit GQ’s web site and go to the Style section. Type in “Shoes”. You will see that traditional leather brogues, wing-tips, and loafers are still the benchmark shoes for men of style (as opposed to fashion).

If you ever have a chance to buy a pair of Alden shoes……don’t hesitate. Treat yourself to a life-altering experience of comfort and an appreciation for what hand-crafted tradition stands for.

Sadly, back surgery three years ago (three ruptured disks as a result of many sports injuries) now force me to wear heavily padded shoes that take the weight off my spine. Even there however, there are some great quality choices. Ecco, Mephisto, and others make excellent “modern” shoes…they still cost $200-$400 though. But I still try to wear my Aldens as often as I can when my back feels good (most of the time these days fortunately). And hopefully, I will add a new pair ro my collection shortly:

Object of desire – the Chukka boot – a shell cordovan (horsehide) version of the iconic ’60’s desert boot

I only ever heard of two kinds of Spot….one was a dog who ran with Dick and Jane….and the other usually manged to find its way onto my best tie. But there’s a new kind of Spot and it seems like a pretty cool device, especially if you hike, ski, sail, or drive off-road. In fact, it sounds like something that might be good to have on you at all times, just in case of any emergency where there are no other people around.

I’m seriously going to look into getting one. “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”.

Many of you will be familiar with the term “nanny state”, which refers to what many see as excessive, institutionalized government intervention for the protection (hence the term “nanny”) of the people against perceived threats, especially in the areas of health, culture, and the environment, among others.

Strangely enough, while the nanny state operates at a macro level, its effects appear to funnel down to the individual level, a condition I call the “ninny state”. This condition appears to intensify as one gets older (perhaps as the prospect of death looms larger), and also appears to be more prevalent in women (based on my purely personal observations, YMMV), perhaps because they are by nature more caring, protective, and nurturing (whew!, talk about the ninny state…just the fact that I felt compelled to qualify my statement is a perfect example).

The ninny state is characterized by an excessive preoccupation with doing things correctly. Here are a few examples:

“Oh my, what a beautiful sunset! Be careful not to look at the sun too long, it might damage your retinas. We should have brought extra-dark sunglasses”.

“I don’t think we can just wander into the hotel lobby like that….isn’t it just for paying guests?”.

“Make sure to put on lots of sunscreen, skin cancer you know!”.

“I don’t eat large fish…too much mercury”.

“Close the balcony door, the air-conditioning is on and you’ll waste electricity” [It was open for all of 30 seconds as I tried to get a whiff of fresh air, Heaven forbid]

“I love the house, but there’s no way I’d live anywhere near there, too many power lines nearby”

“Isn’t this a great cereal…loaded with Omega-3’s and fiber”.

Men, by and large, appear to be more resistant to the ninny state, fueled perhaps by an innate sense of devil-may-care, poor judgment, alcohol, machismo, and other qualities antithetical to the very nature of the ninny state.

My own philosophy on the topic is: “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission….now leave me the f%*k alone”.

Einstein said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

One of the dubious benefits of working from a home office is that you can catch occasional glimpses into daytime television, a very special world serving a unique demographic. Oprah is the undisputed ruler of the daytime talk-show genre, and she has even been quite successful in spinning off guests into their own shows, most notably Dr. Phil. Her most recent spin-off has been Dr. Mehmet Oz, the cardiologist and frequent medical contributor to the Oprah show.

I caught the first episode of Dr. Oz a couple of weeks ago and it was absolutely awful. As good as Oz was in simplifying medical concepts to Oprah’s audience, clearly his own demographic must require an almost infantile distillation to the equivalent of Pablum. I’ve caught the show now several times and it hasn’t gotten any better. It is split into essentially two types of topics: Scare tactics intended to make you fearful of just about everything and everyone you come into contact with, and obesity.

Yesterday’s guest was a former supermodel who had opened a cookie business and ballooned to 385 lbs. Dr. Oz had a psychologist guest expert, who apparently specializes in obesity treatment. First, being called an obesity treatment expert is an oxymoron akin to jumbo shrimp. There may be experts on what causes obesity, but there are no experts on its treatment since the research conclusively shows failure rates in the 95-98% range within 2-3 years of losing weight. And frankly, unsustainable weight loss is a worse failure than never having started, since weight-cycling is now known to be a greater risk factor for disease than overweight itself.

I laughed out loud when I saw Oz’s prescription for this lady: He showed her a variety of healthful and low-fat dishes that she could use to reduce her calorie consumption. This while showing video clips of her in near-orgasmic ecstasy as she was sampling the cookie dough and end-products of her business. Jeez, Dr. Oz, you’re right, she probably didn’t have a clue that eating cookies all day and huge platters of pasta and meatballs at night was making her put on weight.

But the killer was the perpetuation of the six-small-meals-per-day recommendation that has reached near mythic status in the modern world. I love how thin people who’ve never been fat love giving recommendations to fat people: “Eat less”, “Stop when you’re full”, Exercise more”, “Never go hungry…eat six or more small meals a day”. Don’t you get it, Dr. Oz? There is no such thing as a small meal for a fat person. Every meal is a big meal….telling them to eat six times instead of three is a license to kill! Hell, if I could eat a small meal of any kind, I wouldn’t be fat!!!!

And to really gauge the true hopelessness of the whole endeavor, just take a look at Oprah herself. She has more money that God, Bob Greene is her personal coach, she can have a crew of personal chefs designing and preparing any diet-conscious meal she wants, she can have an entire Nautilus gym in her house…..and she’s still obese!!!!

There is no hope until someone comes up with a radically new perspective on the problem, and frankly most of the research these days is on drugs rather than behavioral change.

I just caught Bob Blumer’s 2005 documentary, Thirst for Life, on the Discovery Health channel. This is a must-see if you are interested in eating well, living well, and enjoying life. It explores the French Paradox, the phenomenon whereby the French (and many other cultures) achieve outstanding health and longevity by eating and drinking close to their cultural roots rather than attending to the guidelines of Nutritionism (the focus on specific components of food such as Omega-3’s, fiber, fat, etc.).

The funny thing though is that we call it the French Paradox, rather than the American Paradox. The real paradox is how Americans (and Canadians) pay so much attention to diet and yet have the highest obesity and heart-disease rates. I think that we are on the verge of uncovering perhaps the greatest “conspiracy” of all time: Driving an entire nation into obesity and ill-health so that we can offer them a vast array of services and products to “cure them”. Now that’s a great business!

“Advil has been clinically proven to reduce the pain of migraine headaches”. “Danon probiotic yogurt has been clinically proven to improve digestive health”. It seems these days that every ad for health-related products carries the “clinically proven” add-on. You may be surprised to know that this is however, a completely bogus statement that has little meaning outside of marketing-speak. Most of us might well envision that the “clinically-proven” claim is somehow backed up by well-controlled and peer-reviewed research. That would not be an unreasonable expectation. But the world of marketing doesn’t tick along on the same clock as the rest of us. In fact, “clinically proven” can mean as little as surveying people who took a certain pain-killer for migraine and seeing if any of them experienced relief…even if the relief came as a result of other factors such as time, rest, etc. Or it may involve a small, company sponsored study, done by the company’s own researchers, and unpublished for peer review in any credible journal.

Often, the “clinically proven” designation doesn’t even relate to the product itself, but to research done on one of its components, e.g. “Spinach has been clinically proven to prevent anemia because it contains iron”  (iron has been proven to prevent anemia, yet the iron in spinach is generally not bio-available because it is usually bound to oxalic acid). Many studies use specially selected populations that have a specific disease and then the results are extrapolated to the rest of us. For example, probiotics are used to repopulate the intestinal bacteria of people who have been on long-term antibiotic or chemotherapy treatment. But the specific cultures used and the amounts given are completely different from what is commercially available in food products. Nevertheless, this doesn’t stop cunning marketers from making the claim that probiotics can contribute to intestinal health.

So beware the “clinically proven” statement…it’s right up there with “part of a healthy breakfast”, “your mileage may vary”, “a good source of…”, “limited time offer”, and my all-time favorite example of marketing speak: “Real”.

A close friend of mine was recently diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, or cancer of the bile ducts. He became ill very quickly and doctors thought it was a case of Hepatitis-B which is often food-borne, but usually resolves on its own without treatment. But he kept getting yellower and yellower, and sicker by the day, as the bile built up in his system. Advanced tests, scans, and exploratory surgery revealed inoperable cancer of the bile ducts (inoperable because one tumor is so large and right on the artery), as well as several other tumors on both lobes of the liver. “Go home and prepare for the end” the doctor said, “you have between six months and a year”.

On my intense urging, my friend agreed to contact an M.D. associate of mine who brokers a “second opinion” service that refers your entire file to Harvard for review and assessment as to what else can possibly be done. The doctors there were intrigued by the fact that all his tumor biopsies were negative for cancer, but the tumors looked and behaved as if they were cancerous.

Canadian doctors agreed to re-open his case and now suspect that he has a benign form of the disease caused by, get this…..eating sushi in Asia (my friend had been to Asia some months previously)! It turns out that a liver fluke parasite found in fish in Asia (but not in North America) has the ability to cause tumors to grow in the biliary system. Here is a fascinating abstract from the American Journal of Gastroenterology, dating back more than 20 years, that talks about how many Asian immigrants to North America actually have the fluke resident in their livers.

“In the Far East infection with the liver flukes Clonorchis sinensis and Opisthorchis viverrini is the most frequently documented cause of cholangiocarcinoma. Liver fluke infection in the United States remains a health problem for more than 500,000 Southeast Asian refugees who have immigrated to this country since 1975. Recent surveys have revealed that up to 26% of Asian immigrants have an active liver fluke infection. However, the common clinical manifestations of this condition, as well as the possibility of developing such long-term sequelae as cholangiocarcinoma, remain unknown to many physicians providing care for this population. This report describes a clinically unsuspected C. sinensis infection associated with cholangiocarcinoma in an elderly Chinese immigrant, and emphasizes the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of all liver fluke infections in the prevention of bile duct neoplasms in high risk populations”.

Anyway…..I know that I won’t be touching sushi next time I visit Asia! I am unfortunately addicted to the stuff here and will continue eating it since there are very few cases of any infections (of any kind) reported in North America.

References:

Am J Gastroenterol. 1986 Jan;81(1):76-9.// <![CDATA[//

I’m sore in places I didn’t know I had places. Six hours wading the rocky-bottomed Chateauguay and Trout rivers in search of the elusive trout. Mercifully, the water levels were pretty low (2-3 ft. deep), making the wading slightly less treacherous, but the trout slightly more elusive. Wading a rocky-bottomed river is fantastic exercise because it makes you use an infinitesimal number of rarely-used small muscles in your legs, back, abdomen, etc. for balance.

My son and I have been looking for a good trout fishing river close to home, and had heard about the Chateauguay and Trout rivers about an hour from Montreal and without the need to cross the US border. As usual, we hired a fishing guide for the day, a great investment in that you can benefit from his years of familiarity with the place.

We caught a half-dozen small fish, one 12-14 incher, and a massive brown trout (about 5 lbs. according to the guide), who managed to snap the leader with a huge leap into the air. Catch-and-release of course. Fishing is a terrific activity: Fresh air, camaraderie, good exercise, and the chance to reconnect to the primordial need to catch your own food.