It’s very easy to get caught up in the day to day of our lives. Wow, I never realized how much that sentence sounded like the popular TV show! But in all honesty we get so bogged down. I write often about how to make the most out of your day, how to be more productive, how to be more time efficient and how to manage your time in the best way possible. And all of that is pivotal in ensuring you don’t waste time, because time is something you can never get back.
I cant help but think about the concept of simplicity though the more and more involved my life gets. The more important my job becomes and the more responsibility I have, I yearn to be able to come home and just switch off. I keep musing about having this utopia where I can be earning really good money but working from home. Right now that isn’t a reality for me and I couldn’t just make a change because of a number of things, predominantly because my husband and I have some specific financial goals we’d like to achieve and me not working would be detrimental to those goals. Furthermore, I like my career. I’m unfazed about my current job, because it’s a bit boring, but my career and the opportunities within it is what I absolutely love.
I read often about people who are in these corporate jobs who hate it and yearn to leave and when they do they miraculously, well not always miraculously but they end up finding this random thing they fall in love with and end up doing and they’re content and make bucketloads of money….you get the drift. But the thing is for me, my current career is what I really truly love and I know I won’t be satisfied if I just up and change. This is why the side hustle is a good thing for me. Something to give me a creative outlet but that can be managed passively so I can still work a 9-5.
I sometimes feel as if I am a work of contradictions, but when it comes to simplicity, it really shouldn’t be that out of scope. You see, one of the reason we do all the planning and organizing and scheduling and time management is for efficiency, and to make sure our lives run smoothly with as little interference as possible. It’s not to say that our lives will be predictable, although I can see how it could be construed that way – its merely to encourage simplicity as the ultimate goal.
Simplicity could also be looked at in the same context as minimalism, and there’s a huge movement for minimalism right now world wide. I’m sure if you did any keyword search on minimalism you will find blogs and social media and guides and pages and all sorts of information about how to simplify your life. Basically what this means in simpler terms is removing clutter, improving efficiency and having less around your life that will create complications.
So how do we get back to a simpler life? How do we feed our internal fitology meter? Well, I have a few ideas about how it can be done if you’re not already doing it. I think you’re here because not only do you like my witty prose, but you also think I might be able to help you work something out. I hope so, because when I worked it out for myself it was like a sigh of relief.
Essentially, what we need to be mindful of is keeping the right balance in our lives. There’s an excellent quote by Joshua Becker, author of the book “The More of Less” which says, “Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it.” My mum has been saying something similar to this for years, especially when it comes down to physical things. She used to teach me about de-cluttering before it was a ‘thing’ – her mantra was basically, if you haven’t worn it, used it or reached for it in six months, get rid of it. How often does it happen when you’re planning on moving house and suddenly pack up 3/4 only to realize you didn’t need any of those things as you waited for settlement and were surviving on those ‘basic essentials’?
It’s so easy to get caught up in having and needing and wanting in order to keep up with others. And even when we don’t intentionally believe we do so, sometimes we do try to keep up with others to the detriment of ourselves. So going back to basics isn’t just something that you can do once off or on a whim – back to basics, simplicity and minimalism needs to be achieved progressively as you look at what you need and what you don’t, and what you want, and what you don’t. A simple question I ask myself when I see makeup – do I need it, or do I want it? Do I need to have highlighter palettes in colors I will never use just because the price is right? No. I have one highlighter I use and I will wait until I finish. Do I need to have eight pairs of black shoes? No. I need a flat pair, a mid heel and a wedge – see what I mean? Instead of having quantity, have quality. Save your extra $$ from buying those extra five pairs of shoes to invest in a good leather pair you’ll get longer wear from. Not only is it financially viable, but you will be able to spoil yourself on buying quality items that are elegant, sophisticated and timeless, to go with that new minimalist wardrobe you’re decluttering also!
Simplicity is not a fad. I try to make as much of my life as simple as possible. My commute to work? The reason it sucks is because I live in a semi rural area already on the end closest to the deep country. If I were to live in the metro or suburban areas I would go nuts. My zen and my simple life is on my farm, tending to my animals, having pasture raised duck and chicken eggs, looking at the stars litter the sky every single night. I can do the job I do because of where I come home to. I can take that extra stress, pressure and responsibility and throw it into my work, because my home life is so calm, peaceful and enjoyable. And whilst there are still some things I’d like to change to further simplify my life, I’m lucky I’ve got it to the point it is now. It’s been a massive learning curve and journey – and when you’re in the thick of it and wanting more, remember to come back to this article and get some reminders of what else you can simplify in your life.
I’ve recently written about how to pick your writing style and in developing your writing. I hope some of those tips have been useful in your writing endeavors! When it comes to writing in any style, you need to be very clear about the message you’re trying to convey and who your audience is. Your intended message will be better received if it is in the right format, so understanding the various contexts you need to write within is really important to successful engagement.
When it comes to writing an opinion piece or overarching viewpoint, editorial style articles are an excellent way to do so. They give you the length and format to not just go on an absent-minded ramble, which is also an ok way in getting your message across (though I don’t think it would be very positively effective). The purpose of an editorial post will be so that you can dissect your argument or provide other sources and references. It’s like writing a short essay but it comes from your point of view.
Characteristics of an editorial article
There’s some important characteristics of editorial articles. They need to be cohesive and well written because they are going to showcase your viewpoint. You want to be professional. Regardless of your point of view, the purpose of the article is intended so that you can either persuade others in a change of opinion, provide praise for something well done, interpret a circumstance or topic and especially, to criticize the actions, decisions, behaviors/ideologies or events that your subjects are involved with.
Writing an editorial article – the elements
The fun part! When it comes to finally writing your article, you do need to be mindful of a few key elements. I’ve summarized them in the infographic, but you do need to be aware of them in their entirety.
For example, you need to have the following planned for a really effective article:
Picking a topic that is not only close to your heart, but also relevant to current news. If one of your goals is to increase your traffic, popularity or showcase something new in your portfolio, you need to showcase that you are a dynamic and robust writer who can challenge current topics and issues. You need to show you can develop engagement and interest potential audiences.
Collect all your information, conduct fact checking, do wide research and develop a plan. It’s easier to map out your thoughts this way and find the for and against arguments, ensuring that you have valid evidence backed discussion.
State your opinion at the beginning, but without using “I”. make it brief so you can get on with the rest of the article. Explain the issue objectively and why it is important, or up for discussion.
Depending on the length of your article, pick a variety of for and against viewpoints. If your article is 2000-4000 words, then you might need 3-5 view points on each side. Each opinion will have a slightly different angle and can potentially be a lead for a future article. If your article is shorter though, then be more realistic about displaying too many viewpoints. The aim is to provide your viewpoint, with supporting for and against opinions.
Encourage debate and refute the argument. Make sure you use facts and research to back it all up.
Be rational. That includes finding something within the opposing view that you resonate with.
Make sure you have adequate paragraphs and address each point for discussion concisely. This enables you to reinforce your opinion and to establish key phrases.
Provide recommendations and solutions that are realistic.
Provide a conclusion that restates your opinion and summarises the article.
Finally, hit publish, post or send and let the world be thy oyster. Stand by your opinion and be confident!
Writing doesn’t have to be a chore, especially for those of us who love to write. Learning about writing in new styles and formats is always challenging, but once you master any type of writing, your confidence is boosted and your skills are developed. Plus, it’s always a great addition to have to your blogging repertoire as you seek to one day make your blog more of a life change or transfer your skills to freelancing.
Now that we’ve got all that covered, what are you planning on tackling as your next editorial project?
I’ve been trying to do research lately on categories and tags, and whilst there is a lot of information about tagging and SEO, it was really quite difficult to find information on categories. I did find one post at http://www.lindsayhumes.com/organizing-blog-categories which was awesome in discussing how best to develop themes and categories for your blog. For those out there who are in the blog marketing and promotion world officially, they have that innate knowledge and ability to understand marketing strategies that best drive traffic to the blog and enhance blog promotion.
For the rest of us however who are learning on the fly, what often happens, as what happened to me, was that we write stuff down because we have something to say. We think we’re going to talk a hell of a lot about one thing, but end up talking about it minimally. We develop far too many categories because we’re “lifestyle bloggers” and we like a variety of things and so we put many categories out there to describe a post type. And this is great, this is what makes us human and individuals and makes us wonderful. But for the purposes of promoting our blogs, it doesn’t really do much other than create confusion. For example, if someone is blogging about travel or fashion, I may not have as much of an interest because I am not really into those things to the point that I have a piqued interest. Yes I like to travel, but travel doesn’t have a huge value for me. I don’t read about travel and don’t really talk about travel, so it’s unlikely I am going to find a travel blog specifically interesting unless I’m researching a particular place and want honest feedback and reviews about it.
What happens is that we end up lost in an online world of blogs where everyone is talking about something. But not a lot of tailored traffic, where people with the same interests can share the digital space and come together, is directed toward those blogs. And part of that I believe, is how well your categories are described and what they reference. As I mentioned before, when I see a blog marketed as lifestyle and have a better look and its travel and fashion, the use of categories or better site descriptors would help me initially assess whether or not that is something I have interest in. It doesn’t hurt me to click on this page still and have a look but essentially, it is the bloggers whose sites and themes resonate with me more who I will make a greater effort in engaging with.
That being said, I recently sat down and looked at my own categories and how they were structured. I looked at what themes had the greatest grouping of posts and what had little to none. It really is important because one of the categories is one I am thinking of turning into a second blog, so potentially my site is going to be restructured. I also need to make sure I don’t get distracted from what I want thatfitologylife to be and to represent.
I’m no master in blogging. I am learning as I go along, and I attempt to share my knowledge with all of you. So I am going to give you 5 tips to help you master your category selection when reviewing your blog. (I say reviewing because I think that like me, you’ve come to this post because you’re probably seeking guidance now on better blog promotion and marketing. You’ve been blogging for a few months and you like what you’re doing, but you want to increase engagement and drive traffic to your blog, so you’re reviewing it to see how you can make it better).
Look at the admin section of your site (if using WordPress, this is easily done in WP Admin) and write down your existing categories. Look at how many posts you’ve written on those topics and whether there is any crossover. For example I had Food, LCHF and recipes. I really don’t post that many recipes that it needs to be its own category, but LCHF likely will be, so I’m going to add the category “Nourishment” to cover food, recipes, LCHF and other wellness. (One post I read said not to use strange collaborations of words only known to you as a category as it will get lost in communication because your readers won’t understand where you’re going with it. I chose nourishment because it epitomises the notion of nourishing your body and your life, which fits with the theme of thatfitologylife.)
Look at the layout of a blog similar to yours and see whether the way they structure their posts and categories and tags is something you can implement. Also, if they have a large readership or engagement, then maybe making contact with them to discuss how they laid out their blog would be not only a good way to network, but to get some more experienced advice.
Learn about the basics of niche work, branding and promotion. There are many blogs and books and resources that cover this information that is easy to digest. It’s important to know strategies used in this type of marketing so that you can tailor your blog within its genre. I will compile a list of posts and sites I’ve used in the coming weeks and link back to it here.
Reduce your categories. If you have anything over 10 categories, look at condensing them. Lindsay Humes (in her post linked at the beginning of the post) uses the analogy of categories on the blog being like book chapters. She cites that bloggers often have too many categories and not many posts within those categories. It is far more effective to have fewer categories (say 8-10) and 10-100+ posts within these categories. It’s a great way to organise your content, direct attention to specific themes and be really professional in your blog.
Understand the analytics of your blog. At this point, you’ve been blogging for a few months and trying to do your best in promoting your blog posts. You put a lot of love and time into writing great content for your blog. You love your blog! But you also need to understand which of your existing posts are getting more attention and why. So in this regard, use Google analytics or WP analytics to look at the search terms used to bring readers to your site, or where your traffic has mostly come from. Essentially, these key terms are topics that people are interested in, and will determine if there is a higher demand for one topic over another. Use these key terms to develop your blog categories, reduce overlap and give better definition to the skeleton of your blog.
Some useful links for understanding blog categories I hope you enjoy:
I just wanted to share something quickly with you before we get back to our regular programming today. I signed up to fiverr yesterday offering a variety of packages for blog and online article writing and research based writing.
I’ve been thinking and looking at ways of making blogging viable for me. For now I’d be happy if I could at least get it to be a passive income stream and the more and more involved I get, the more and more I truly want to be able to do this as more than just a side hustle. I’ve already got ideas for my next blog, which will hopefully kick off this year and will look at the trials and tribulations of moving into small base pasture farming, which will be sustainably driven to support the environment, provide a clean food source for us and some additional income. We’re hoping to move our base to a more rural farm and I’d love to document life on the farm in a separate blog full of images and creativity.
But I can’t run two blogs and work a full-time day job and run a farm. It will be way too much – I mean I probably could do it, but I’d be exhausted as all hell. So something will need to give, or something will need to be in place by then to make this whole transition easier for me.
Also, running a blog including all your social media can be equivalent to a second job. And in the beginning, a lot of what we’re all doing is grinding and working really hard to push out new innovative content with not much back in terms of financial compensation. We do a lot of free work! Yes it’s easy to do it like this in the beginning, but we all end up wanting to eventually make it more concrete, more of a reason to keep doing what we’re doing. Many bloggers use a variety of passive income streams. Some use their blog as just a medium to communicate about their products, and some use it to sell their products, and some use it as their online space first where the ideas for products come later. I don’t know which of those I will be but I am working on those ideas too.
But from the beginning what I have really wanted the most is not to have intrusive advertisements running all through my blog. Nothing irritates me more than advertisements. Especially when you can’t click a link or go onto a site because there are so many ads that loading the content you wish to see becomes intolerable. I can tell you now that as a consumer, when I see that I immediately stop looking at that site. I find it most on recipe sites for some reason too. I have no issue with people who do sponsored content or who use some affiliate programs and who notify their readers they are doing so. Again we all need to make some money if nothing, to cover the costs of running our blogs and this is a nice way to do it without having to be intrusive.
For me though, I like to be up front. I signed up to fiverr because I wanted a logo made and someone in an online blogger network group mentioned she had done so in the comments. I had a quick look and took a gamble with a $6 USD purchase. Nothing huge, and I got two different logos which were both excellent, for my own use on my blog. When I realized how many other professionals were offering their services as freelancers from SEO to social media management to a variety of writing skill sets, graphic design etc I couldn’t not do it. I mean, it made total sense right!?
So I setup a 3 tier package offering a variety of writing options. I have created only one gig so far to capture the blog post and online article writing but I may consider adding a few others as I do have experience in other writing styles. Essentially, I would love for it to be viable enough that I could change my status on there to full-time, so I will be eagerly looking at ways I can get involved in their community and develop a good reputation as a freelance writer.
If you’d like to see my packages or what I have available, look for user thatfitologylife or go to https://www.fiverr.com/thatfitologylif {yes without the e at the end}.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but part of my IRL job is to write quite complex analysis and assessment reports. Often, the subject matter is quite specific or involved, and I need to be able to present the facts to decision makers who may or may not have knowledge of the subject. So for that, I’ve perfected my communication technique to write relatively succinct reports that allow my stakeholders to make an informed decision.
Blog writing however, which I do as my creative outlet, occurs at a different level. I try to write how I speak and often, even in emails, my friends tell me they can almost hear my voice as they read my emails. Whether or not that’s a good thing, I don’t know, but I know I find it easy to write this way. Many struggle with writing in alternate styles because they fear just being themselves. Too often, people are judgmental of their method of communication, wanting to write eloquent prose that isn’t in their voice. When you blog, especially when you’re giving your opinion or wanting to come from a place of authority about something near and dear to you, your writing style needs to reflect the voice you’re trying to convey. Think of it this way, if you were saying what you were writing, how would you say it?
Mastering your writing style is therefore, paramount to successful communication. Writing helps you convey your message, regardless of what the subject matter is. Whether you are writing a university paper, a journal entry, a blog post or an opinion piece – your writing is your voice, so it needs to be you.
There are a few useful hacks (or tips) that I have used to really delve into my style of writing and develop it to where it is today, and I offer them to you today so that your writing can improve and so that you can develop confidence in the way you communicate, especially online.
Write frequently. Whether you have a word file or journal with your ideas, write naturally. Don’t worry about constructive sentences or being overly creative – just write. Spend some time writing creatively, or writing instinctively. A way I managed this was to write down dreams I remembered or a scenario that played out during the day. For example, if you see something interesting, like a street performance or an interesting looking person, describe it/them in as much detail as possible. Practising this will allow your creative juices to bubble as you start thinking of more interesting ways to describe things. As an after effect, it could also be a blog post you launch in the future!
Write in different formats to determine which style you prefer. Editorial style or advice column or investigative journalism – all of these styles have a different purpose, to provide more or less information, or to provide a specific message in a specific space/for specific impact. Write sample articles in each style to find which you prefer, and which you are naturally better at.
Find a writer/blogger you enjoy reading. What is it about their writing style you enjoy? Write down a list of positives and compare your skills against them. It gives you the opportunity to see if there is a way you can emulate this for yourself, or whether there is a recurring theme within their writing style that resonates with you.
Consequently, read often. The more you read, and the wider you read fiction and non-fiction, the more your own writing style will naturally develop.
Seek feedback on existing work. Find a trusted person and write something. Ask them to critique your post/writing style with specific questions on whether it was easy to read, enjoyable, gave enough information, was digestible, suited your personality etc.
The reason I know these work is because I do these myself, and have done this in order to better my own writing. The way I sought feedback was by posting on my blog and actually sharing my blog with close friends and family. Whilst scary, it was awesome to hear them say that they could hear me through my writing, which meant that I’d achieved my goal of finding an appropriate way to communicate. I trust that if you utilised even one of these tips, your confidence in writing and your personal betterment in your writing style will improve.
What other tips and tricks have you got that you’ve been able to use to develop your writing skill?
I haven’t been on my blogging journey for long, so my answers to this statement are not going to be prophetic by any means. Regardless, it doesn’t mean that your journey isn’t one where you’re always learning and I dare say that at different points in your blogging life, you’ll have learnt different lessons.
But to start with, let’s consider this in a personal way. What have I learnt by blogging? Well, let’s have a look:
I’ve learnt that self-expression is really important and finding the right medium can be hit or miss. You don’t have to use every type of social media – social media platforms I think are tailored for different types of communication and I also don’t think you need to use every single one if you don’t want to. Whilst I boycotted Facebook for my own personal reasons and my personal profile, I did keep my page for the blog active because I want to use blogger network groups to learn and network.
I’ve learnt that having a good foundation makes blogging easier. Sometimes it’s hard to have an idea of what you want though which is where many blogs and bloggers give up. Like anything though, I think if you’re at a moment in your life where you are thinking that you want to blog for expression or to develop something as a side hustle, you already have an innate, internal context of where you want to go. The discovery part, is what is exciting.
Speak in your own voice and in your own language. If you try to imitate people whose prose is eloquent or poetic, when you’re not that type of writer, you will not only waste time trying to replicate that, but you’ll develop a set of standards for yourself you don’t actually want to achieve. By all means, if improving or changing your writing style is a goal, there are other avenues to take, and maybe blogging is an outlet for that, but I don’t think you should try and imitate someone for the sake of imitation if it’s not something you want. It makes sticking to that new style of doing something that much more difficult.
Keep writing. Even when you don’t feel like it. As a backup, when you’re in the mood to write, have a word document with things written about your main categories so you have some go to posts ready for when you’re not in the mood. Alternatively, if you have some time to spare, an extra day off or whatever, do some scheduling and pre-post some content so that you’re a few weeks in advance. Especially if you’re planning a themed week or on doing something slightly different, like more research or an editorial style post. It also frees up more time to develop that product or downloadable or ebook or whatever other tasks you have going on the side.
It’s important to get involved in new blogger groups, boards and forums. When I decided to reinstate Facebook for my page only, I made sure to join groups where you could share posts about your blog, and ask for assistance in something in particular. Other bloggers could then give you tips, tricks and advice for improving. Within two days of doing this, I changed the layout of my blog and have increased page views. For one, I introduced categories as themes to my menus, added a sidebar about me description and outlined the days I post. These three changes alone have now given a better message to new readers about what they’re going to get when reading my blog. It’s so easy to miss these simple things and learning this just by reading other people’s blogs and blog posts encouraged me to make those changes.
Look at the post themes other bloggers within your niche discuss and make notes about their personal branding. It helps to get some tips about how they’re presenting information, in order to see how you could make it your own.
Get feedback, often.
It takes time and love to nurture a blog. It needs scheduling, apps, content, pictures, and understanding basic marketing, social media posting and branding to really launch…especially if you’re offering a product.
It’s ok to change tack midway through. If you are doing an editorial post for example and not getting many views, try a week or two of more regular posting. If this increases your views, then your readers prefer this content. It’s ok to experiment.
Get involved with guest posting.
Don’t use overly bold colors for the backgrounds of your blog. Pick neutral colors, but use vibrant pictures. Try to use as much original content.
Link appropriately and give credit where credit is due.
Stand by your opinion.
Write well. Use spell and grammar check, and read over your draft with fresh eyes often to ensure your writing is as professional as possible.
Your blog is about your life. It doesn’t have to necessarily be about things in trend because it’s your story, and your space.
Have a nice place to write in. Whether its a nice space in your study, a beautiful app on your iPad, or a nice journal you jot notes in. Make sure that your writing space is innately yours.
And lastly, get involved in online communities. Like other people’s posts and comment on things important to you. If you want to develop a positive brand, you must be proactive.
What about you? What lessons have you discovered on your blogging journey so far?
I’ve had a shitty few weeks. I’m now on round 2 of the flu and have had to cancel all my lifting sessions. Nothing annoys me more than being sick because I hate the feeling of not being able to do things.
But, in anticipation of something light hearted for the end of the week, here is my list of 10 random new things I learned this week.
If you’re in a bullet list in word and in the second bullet/row to the bullet list and press enter twice, it goes back to the original bullet.
Being fat adapted means that your body is in a better state of ketosis and is using fat stores as energy. I am currently fat adapted.
6000 characters with spaces equals approximately 3000 words. There are even online conversion tools for this.
The medicine Tamiflu can cause throat and tonsil ulcers.
Bindii weeds are extremely difficult to eradicate.
The documentary movie Icarus opened my eyes to the use of performance enhancing drugs in elite sports at the Olympic level. Trust no-one.
Facebook pages increase blog post traffic (and I HATE that).
Dettol in laundry washing is the bomb. It provides anti-bacterial qualities and is awesome for gym clothes (or husband’s smelly socks!)
Alpaca’s are very protective of their herd.
Personal branding, as in, developing yourself as a brand, is totally a thing.
Now that we’ve covered those strange new facts, do you have any enlightening, awe inspiring random facts that have made you go hmm this week?
Please note: the featured image header has been obtained from YouTube for The Magic Pill documentary listing. Link provided in image description.
I have some time to spare today due to a work course finishing early. Great for me, because I can finally write the review on the documentary movie The Magic Pill.
Let’s not waste any time. Some of you might know that I recently moved to the LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) way of eating. I was in Melbourne about 7-8 weeks ago for my grandmother’s funeral and came back a bloated, heavy, swollen mess. I noticed even on previous trips, I would come back a bloated, heavy, swollen mess. I’ve been eating organic and clean for a few years now – and by that I mean being really cognizant of where my food comes from, how it’s made and created and processed and what it’s sprayed with. I am absolutely and fundamentally anti-GMO and have been for many years. In fact, I’ve been following the motto of “’ïf your grandmother can’t pronounce it then it probably isn’t good for you’’ for some time.
I come from a big European family where eating lots of carbs is considered normal. My grandparents came from a peasant village in the Former Yugoslavia where corn was not only used to feed livestock when there was nothing else, but women gave birth in these same fields, and went straight back to work like nothing happened. My grandmother has stories of German soldiers in WWII giving candy to children so they weren’t afraid. So, in that war time period, my grandmother was used to having to rely on water, flour and salt to make dough, and utilised her own homemade cheese from her own cows to make savoury pastries called “pita” to feed the rest of the family. Eating food to ‘keep you through the winter’ was normal – when my family migrated here they did the same thing, and unfortunately you couldn’t ever reason with that mentality because if you tried to, there would be huge backlash. So, coming from a big European family meant we didn’t stop eating – food was never put away after a meal, and we would sit at the table while we picked and picked at it all day till we couldn’t breathe. Potatoes, pasta’s, cabbage rolls with mince and rice, pastries, cakes….the list of carb and sugar laden food was endless….
So going low carb was more of a mental challenge for me rather than an actual challenge considering I had already made amends to rectify the way I ate. I read about LCHF constantly for about 3 weeks and had been hearing reviews about its effectiveness for even longer, but somehow taking that plunge seemed so daunting, despite me knowing the effects wheat and grain and high carb foods had on my body personally. Like so many women I suffer from PCOS and have been riddled with secondary issues from PCOS (including weight gain and the inability to lose weight and insulin resistance) since I first got my period at 11. But back then, Dr’s didn’t know about PCOS and I had many doctors tell me it was puppy fat or that I ate too much when in fact I never did. If only someone knew about intolerances or the damage that what we now call wheat is actually doing to our bodies back then…
So I went low carb just like that. Overnight. I decided one Sunday, tomorrow is the day, and the next day I just did it. I spoke to my weightlifting coach about it and he was supportive, reviewing my food plan and caloric intake and especially making sure that I was fueling my body for all those awesome lifts he had planned for me. Together, we said if nothing, it would be a great experiment to see if I could shift some weight around my tummy and ease the load on my left knee which was also suffering tightness from an inflamed and unstretched ITB (I know it’s the tendon from the hip to the knee and shin, but that’s about it!).
I was about 3 weeks in to LCHF when the opportunity to go and see a documentary about low carb came into my FB newsfeed. (This was before my social media boycott!). So basically, a woman from Brisbane Paleo Group called Leah Williamson, who also runs the podcast Low Carb Conversations organized for a viewing of The Magic Pill documentary, co-produced by renowned Australian Chef Pete Evans. Viewings occurred though a company called Fan-Force. Fan-Force operates on the premise that you put out an EOI basically on what movie you would like screened and pre-sell the tickets. If all the nominated seats are sold, then the movie goes ahead. If not, the ticket purchaser gets their money refunded. So Leah got involved as a host basically, to see if we could get a screening of this movie in Brisbane. Low and behold, the screening had heaps of interest and was sold out in a few days.
Here is the trailer for you, just so I know we’re on the same page:
The movie looks at Australian examples and American examples of families who were unwell. For the Australian families, there was a look at remote Indigenous communities and in the American example, the Director Robert Tate’s family offered to be the subjects. The premise of the movie is that modern diseases are symptoms of wider problems. It argues that we medicate far too quickly and far too often for diseases which are man made, so to speak. Nobody asks anymore about what food we eat or where we sourced it from, but doctors are very quick to prescribe medication upon medication upon medication, instead of treating people holistically. There were so many phenomenal examples of where this occurred, and where this traditional notion of health was debunked. For example young Abigail who is the daughter of the Directors cousin, has Autism, is non-speaking and has epilepsy. Her father talks about how every day he is medicating her in the same way a heroin addict is medicated. He says surely, there has to be something better than medicating little children with heavy narcotics. Poor Abigail doesn’t communicate and because of her illnesses does not attend kindy or has other friends, so she does display some learning concerns. In the beginning, we get to see what kind of food the family and Abigail eat. Her diet consists entirely of chicken nuggets and flavored corn chips and sodas.
The family decide to convert their diet to a low carb way of eating. Which is basically removing all refined and processed carbohydrates, and eating whole clean foods, full fat dairies and meats and lots of vegetables.
Other examples include within the Indigenous community, where large scale levels of diabetes and heart disease as a result of Indigenous persons not eating their natural way are prevalent within the community. One of the beautiful ladies talks about how she’s lost so many friends and family to all these diseases. They even ask, what did people used to die from? They pause to think, but then they go through diseases like typhoid or diphtheria, communicable diseases we now have vaccinations for.
This made me think of that show Life Below Zero. There are so many depictions in that show about ‘paleo’ eating. One specific example is the Inuit family who eat no carbohydrates and very little fruit other than bush berries – all their food comes from locally sourced salmon and other fish they catch, seal blubber as fat (and then they use the hide to make a vest to keep warm in sub zero temperatures), eggs, caribou, moose, ptarmigan birds and other local wildlife. And these people have no doctors nearby – in fact they don’t even have sealed roads – they travel on skidoos and plan their entire year around where they will hunt and fish to source food for their family.
I recently listened to David Asprey on the Tony Robbins Podcast (What’s it mean to be Bulletproof) discuss his Bulletproof coffee (another LCHF/Keto staple) where he also mentions that Paleo eating is native to the tribe. For example, a traditionally Islander indigenous community is likely to have access to perhaps bananas and mangoes and lots of fresh fish and some vegetables, compared to an Eskimo or other northern native group of people who have access to more land animals like moose, caribou, wolves and bears, which might sound strange to us, but is the way that people used to eat.
Mind you, NONE of these people on the show Life Below Zero are considered overweight or obese, yet their diets are large amounts of fat and protein and very little carbs.
It makes you think about what the hell we’ve been doing all this time, and why we’ve been manipulated into thinking that this old way of eating is the right way of eating.
The documentary is phenomenal. There are far too many things to recall, but they do have the Diet Dr, Joel Salitan (who, if you’ve watched Food, Inc and other documentaries, will have seen him and his beautiful farm many times), Professor Tim Noakes and the account with his matter where he was reported as providing unsolicited advice when he told someone to eat a low carb way – the snippets from the trial itself, and at the end when they find him not guilty, I actually cried. This poor man was set to lose his livelihood and everything he worked for because people were just not willing to listen when he said, but I have proof this isn’t working.
The human examples are endearing. People genuinely thought they were doing what was best for them by following the standard western diet. There were examples of diabetics, asthmatics, children with aspergers and autism – all of these examples tried eating low carb and all of them showed significant improvement in the way that they progressed in life. The children with autism began communicating – Abigail’s dad said she lost the bloating in her tummy – the Indigenous tribe went back to their roots and learnt the skills they had within them about eating the way they were supposed to, and not the Western way.
I am so totally and utterly an advocate for this way of eating. I’m even now trying to get my mum into it, by developing her an eating plan and trying to wean her off carbs. She is so ridiculously unwell, and inflamed and swollen, and overweight and tired, and her excuses are always about something – oh, dad won’t eat that, or I just don’t have time, or I’m too tired. I’m sorry, but when it comes to your health, you should never be too tired or without time…never.
I urge you, with every fibre of my being, to go and see this documentary. Go and see what the message is about – there is no fanfare, no hysteria and no random facts. The advice provided is expert, the knowledge is passed through generations and the filmography phenomenal– we need to stop and learn to listen to our bodies. And it was great because, at the end we had a Q&A with Chef Pete and someone asked about carb counting and macro counting. And it was awesome that he acknowledged he knew about that (the different between keto and LCHF, for those that don’t know, is that keto eaters stick to <20grams of carbs every day and LCHF 20-50g carbs) and that he didn’t think we needed to focus so heavily on that. I agree. I monitored caloric intake in the beginning and macro counts just to see where I was favouring my food intake, or where I could fill extra gaps, but now I eat intuitively, but with the LCHF way in mind. I eat when I’m hungry – I don’t overeat – I eat until full, and I eat clean, organic or pastured, whole foods, completely unrefined and unprocessed, the way nature intended.
As a result of my own journey with LCHF, I’ve lost 13cm off my waist, 10cm off my hips, 4.5cm off my chest and 7.3kgs in 7 weeks! I look like a different person. As for my weightlifting – I have lost no strength and funnily enough, gained muscle by 2cm in my thighs and biceps. Surely with these types of results, it can’t be wrong. The Magic Pill acknowledges that – The Magic Pill aims to remind us of where our roots hail from, and about slowing down the industrialization of the world as we know it. We’re going too fast, to the detriment of our livelihood, health, well-being and our sanity. Go and see this movie. I guarantee you, you will be awe-inspired and humbled by the experience. Go, now.
Gah! A little late in last week’s posting! So there are a few reasons why but rather than get too much into it, I wanted to outline what I will do, because as a result of being late for last week’s post some new things have popped up which I think are really exciting!
First: I’m working on an LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) meal plan for my mum. I made her a 7-day meal plan and am halfway through calculating the macros. And then I thought, this would actually be an AWESOME free downloadable I could provide for the site, since it fits into the theme of living a fitology life. So keep posted for that because I will hopefully have it done within the next few days and as a result, I need to possibly add an LCHF page, or a recipes page, or a something page to the site. I’m still thinking, but I would really like to incorporate some of the LCHF stuff I’m doing to thatfitologylife. I also would like a space where I can update specifically about that, without it affecting the rest of the site. I want it to be a standalone but connected endeavor.
Also, I really wanted to review the documentary movie “The Magic Pill”. So I will link to that when I’ve written it because I wanted to make sure I covered all the important elements off. I think everyone needs to see it.
Another thing I’ve been thinking of lately is making a suite of downloadables I use often. I always talk about productivity, habit formation, motivation and goal setting, yet haven’t materialized any of that formally. So I am working on a suite of organizational tools for download or to be included in your existing planners and diaries. And, it will be FREE!
In other news, the ducks are settling in really well. We calculated that they’re about 7 weeks old and I think the fact that there was 4 of them ensured they weren’t picked on by the chooks. They LOVE bathing in their little tub and no wonder the water gets so dirty! They jump in with dirty feet and splash around. Hey, if it works for them, it works for me. So far they’ve been very low maintenance and incredibly intelligent. By the first day at home they already knew where the house was and where the food was, and now they know when I come home from work usually means they can be let out of their yard (they have half an acre) to fossick around. It’s like they’ve been around for ages. We don’t know their sexes yet, but are eagerly waiting for them to mature a little bit so we can see if we’re going to have a layer or two.
I’m also trying to develop a network on G+, Pinterest and Instagram and that is proving much trickier than I originally thought. So, as per last weeks post about boycotting Facebook and Twitter, I need to find new ways to reach readers and so I’m trying to get involved in other networks for new blogs, group boards on Pinterest, in guest posting and other collaborations. I don’t want to lose time by doing nothing, but I’m also trying to do things about branding and marketing whilst learning, about branding and marketing…There’s a whole suite of apps and sites that have been recommended to me, and it’s just about scheduling time to review them and learn the basics of how to use them. The other thing with this is, when it comes to using scheduling apps for posting, I also then need to make some original image content because I don’t want to just use something that someone else is doing. So, finding the time to cover off a bunch of tasks on blogging day ends up being an entire day and then I always miss something.
Sometimes I wish I could do this full-time for a good like, 6 or 12 months or something so I could really kick it off and make it viable without being intrusive or using overt advertising to make money. When it comes to blogging one thing that really resonates with me so far is how much people talk about it being a full-time gig. Like, it isn’t just a random thing. Well it could be an entirely random thing, but when you have it in mind that you want to share your views and thoughts and message to the world then it becomes something you’re really passionate about. Ideally, I’d love for it to be viable enough to supplement income. So if you want a blog like that, you need to be able to invest a good chunk of hours to blogging, to making original content, research and writing and some marketing, promotion and branding. And all of that plus working full-time can be overwhelming. It’s about finding the right balance and I haven’t found the correct combination for me….yet.
I did also mention last week about wanting to talk about wasted energy. I wanted to dedicate at least a post on this, as it resonates a lot with what I learn from my weightlifting coach right now, so I won’t tackle that today. But I will make sure to link through to it when done.
And with that…I must go. I’m starting to feel the early stages of the flu (which I thought I could beat this year, but, that seems unlikely) and still have afternoon errands to run. Luckily for me though, I got to work out of another office today and my travel time was reduced to an hour return trip as opposed to 3-4 hour trip from my normal workplace. Definitely something to negotiate about with my boss. But I just wanted to give an update, and provide a landing page of sorts for some link throughs to new posts I will be doing this week.
Until then!
p.s No music list today. But I was thinking to have an active playlist feature on the sidebar too….so many ideas in my brain right now!
Wow. A lot has gone on this week. And the more and more busy my life gets; the more and more simple I want it to be. I mean, I think in comparison I have it relatively cruisey – no kids, no school pickups, no extra lunches or homework, no after school activities. Just work during the day, chores around the house, training and caring for my husband and animals. In comparison, its cruisey.
We deal with some more important things this week. The predominant one being internet privacy. I heed you to stay with me and read through to where my blog title makes sense. The theme image is a great depiction – it suggests that we now live in a world where there is a convergence of the traditional and the new…that our interactions within the digital space will continue to develop, and that the world is becoming a ‘smaller space’.
Reading the morning paper though and seeing that a new skydiving center is being built right where my work is has given me angst. It’s one of the busiest shopping centers north of Brisbane and I’m already struggling with having to drive there every day. Coming from what’s colloquially called ‘Southside’ (meaning the South of Brisbane CBD), I waste (and lose) 3-4 hours every single day commuting to and from work, because I get stuck in the worst ends of traffic. And this is still the good end of it. If I were to leave later, my return trip would be more like 5-6 hours…I’m not even kidding. And if I were to drive to this same location in no traffic it would take me an hour each way. But the roads in Brisbane are so badly designed that even the new toll roads, which people refuse to use mind you, are just in the way.
This is what is making me think of wanting an easier life. Yes there are options for me through my new job to access work from home options or potentially, hopefully, even move locations to a south side location which would reduce my travel time to 30-40 minutes one way, but I’m only half way through my probation period and so I still have another 3 months to go before I can even negotiate this. I’m not the only one in this boat, but in comparison, others who have this available to them are able to negate the effect of wanting to mow people over because they’re causing you road rage by spending a day or two working from home.
But it isn’t just that ya know. Sometimes I think of just doing something completely random. Like going and doing something I would never do. I’ve been thinking a lot about having a little coffee shop in a country town, specializing in low-carb and whole, clean foods, sourcing local produce and just having a better footprint in society. Something like this would need a lot of work to start with because I’d be making a lot of the pastries and cakes and recipes myself. So it wouldn’t be something I could start up and slide into every so often. I’d really need to be giving it a lot of my time, perhaps even take some time off work and all to set it up.
I guess it’s something I can consider. I mean we are now looking to get a country property, even though we live semi-rural, but we’re looking for greater land and to have some animals on there for our own purposes. It’s something I can give some greater thought to.
Side note – Nelly Furtado with Say it Right is playing right now on my Spotify list. It’s like this song came on at the right time as I’m writing this. The mood of the song is just so right!
Now, back to business after that weird intro. A few great things occurred this week and I really wanted to discuss them. Honestly, I was thinking to do a mid-week post but I wasn’t feeling the prose flow despite being pretty fired up about a particular issue.
So, using my journal, I’d like to nominate a few key points for discussion:
New jobs popped up in my field of work
Goals checklist and journaling
Cancelled/Deactivated Facebook
Documentary screening of “The Magic Pill”
New jobs
In my field of work, jobs come up like hen’s teeth. It’s one of those areas very tight knit and very private. Often, people get earmarked for positions because they know the people in the know and they know the job. It’s sensitive work all the time. Despite whatever job you currently have, when new jobs pop-up you apply for them, or you miss out, and then when you miss out, you kick yourself for not giving it a go. I made that mistake once where a position popped up pretty close to home. It wouldn’t have permitted me to get a promotion for some time, but it was close to home! I kept debating over it and never applied for it and then got messed around for ages in these other whack jobs and I always regretted just not putting in for it at the time. So now, my rule of thumb is when you see it, apply for it. Even if some of the requirements are more technical or you might not have full proficiency for that field (as in it’s a developing proficiency and not knowledge of) you chuck in for it. You never know when it will come back to you, or who will remember you.
Same happened with the job I currently have – I have a very specific knowledge of my discipline and I’m very good at it in this particular section. This job was effectively the next level which I had minimal training in and had only done a very small amount of. But my new boss has the same background as I do and has worked at exactly the same places in the past, and he remembered me from an interview more than 6 months before and said he thought I still had the necessary skills to do my current job. He basically headhunted me, and gave me a 2-level promotion to come over to his team, which is why even though I complain about the driving and commute, I’m still willing to give this job and new workplace a hell of a go, because my boss believed in me and chased me, instead of me chasing them.
These jobs that have popped up are more in the specific areas I have expertise in, and more what I would like to do, so I am still going to put in my applications and see how I fare.
Goals checklist and journaling
I’ve been writing in my journal daily. Mostly for planning purposes and to make sure I am on top of everything. I can definitely say it has made productivity a lot better! I do want to consider writing more for just writing, as in getting my thoughts out. Lavendaire who I mentioned last week, had a great Youtube video about this type of writing.
I am writing down every single thing. For example, here is a re-typed snippet of Wednesday:
-Email from lease company stating lease will be ceased. Fwdd to HR.
-Do washing!
– Pay $100 off electricity bill. Schedule payments!
NBN message. Rebooked for 11/AUG/2017 @ 0800-1200.
Cancelled/deactivated FB acc.
This has been an excellent task in timelining tasks into smaller things. For example, I pay $100 a fortnight to my electricity bill. This has helped immensely when it comes time to paying your bill at each quarter, because you find that often you are in credit, or, only need to pay an extra $100-200 off your bill. It definitely makes budgeting easier. It’s also a reminder for me to setup a regular payment schedule each fortnight so I don’t forget to pay it.
In the case of the vehicle lease, it provided a chance for me to timeline events, emails, and contact with the company as they hadn’t changed my vehicle over to my new job in over 2 months, and I was out of pocket for the vehicle expenses to the tune of $4,000 as a result. Again, an excellent way to be able to be able to go back and see everything that has happened and be able to provide it as a holistic representation of an event. Specifically with the lease, I was able to provide all my relevant corro to the company with emails and dates to prove my point when I did call them two days later and gave them what for.
It doesn’t matter how organized you think you are, and how good you think your memory is, you simply cannot remember everything in your own mind these days with the amount of interference everywhere.
Another side note: There’s dew on the grass. The sunlight is shining from the rear neighbor’s side through to our backyard. The fog is only just burning off because the air looks wet, and despite the sun being out, it’s only about 5 degrees C. A phenomenal morning for coffee, slippers and blogging!
Facebook
Now…this was a pretty serious one. The basics of what happened:
I ordered whey protein from a company I’ve never used before. I paid for the whey protein using PayPal which is linked to my private primary home email as it is the most secure.
I had Facebook on my phone through an app, but I used a separate login and email for FB, using an alias name also. I have never linked my mobile number to my profile.
The company I purchased the whey protein from sent me a message through FB messenger saying “hey thanks for your order, it’s on the way!”
The company had my mobile and my mobile is also attached to my PayPal account.
I attributed that they were able to search my mobile on Facebook and send me a message through Facebook messenger, despite me having no social media or other relationship with them.
I raised the issue in a group I was part of for low carb high fat #LCHF eating. A lot of people were alarmed. Some said it happened to them and they couldn’t work out why. Others who had small businesses stated that this was an option provided to them. One woman said that knowing what kind of a reaction it could generate from the consumer, she was not going to be adding this service to her business. Many were appalled at the intrusiveness of this feature and a huge discussion developed. A good discussion where people were able to talk about their experience.
I started the post as a way of saying, you guys are great, but I do not want to be a part of this and will be deactivating Facebook, and henceforth leaving the group.
There are SERIOUS issues with this in relation to privacy. It isn’t just about ‘tailoring advertising and marketing’ relevant to you, as the consumer and in the way Facebook is marketing this bullshit. But why does an American company need the mobile numbers of Australian people? What purpose does it serve them? For law enforcement purposes their law enforcement and intelligence agencies have no jurisdiction here, the same as ours and other countries have none over there, so for what fucking purpose do they need that much of our private information? The issues result in a large company such as Facebook having the large-scale ability to look at our behaviors and actions, our patterns. No-one needs to know this about us. We seem to be providing this company a hell of a lot more information than ever before, and yet if a Police Officer came to your house and asked you information you could very easily tell to them to fuck off, or return with a search warrant. So why people, why, are you GIVING UP FREELY, all your personal information?
One of the women was talking about how she didn’t even have her Facebook open, but was talking about buying something with her husband in the car and the next time she opened up social media there was random adverts for it. Is Facebook listening? Is it all a grand conspiracy?
I’m not into the whole, aliens and reptilians are ruling the world and the Queen is a reptilian crap that losers like Alex Jones or David Icke spread hype and rumors about. But I do get concerned when this type of shit happens. It’s happened to me before and yet I chalked it all down to a weird coincidence. My husband and I were driving and I said to him I really felt like iced milk (which is my way of saying iced coffee). As I opened my Facebook not even 5 seconds later, I had ads for all these different pre-mixed iced coffee and chocolate milk products you could purchase from Coles and Woolworths in Australia. Like WTF?
You really need to be asking yourself about what you want the world to know. For the sake of social media, are you willing to give up the privacy, safety and security of things like, your personal mobile number, your location, what your children and family members look like, your private vehicle and anything else you think is “safe” to unleash on social media? What do you use it for? When I started thinking about mine, it was a feed full of pages and memes about thing I liked which I was already capturing on Pinterest and Instagram – so why do I need another social media site to capture the same shit I am capturing in other places? Also – it wasn’t as if I was keeping in touch with family or doing anything like that. Some of my family were interactive, the ones who actually gave a shit. The rest……Why interact with the cunts on social media when you don’t do it in real life anyway? Why be around people who just put you down, ridicule you, tell you to fuck off or whatever other shit they do, only to follow them on social media? No thanks. You can be blood all you want but you’re fucking rude assholes, and you have no right to tease me, belittle me, make fun of me, put me down or put my sister or my parents down….so in that case, what do I need it for?
Side note: As I write this rant a second time, Michael Jackson’s They Don’t Really Care About Us….still gives me goosebumps this song. I actually stopped writing and just turned this song right up and sang. No no, we won’t just hyperlink the song, we’re also going to add the video clip.
Another thing to consider, and this isn’t a wives tail because we’ve seen the media thrash out reports recently of this occurring, is the ability of hacker groups and other online activists (aka Hacktivists) to chase higher profile companies for the information they hold about consumers. There is no doubt in my mind, and I am no cyber crime expert, but there is no doubt in my mind that Facebook is targeted often by hackers for a variety of purposes. And yet, here you are, regular social media consumer, uploading pictures of your baby or your new car, or selling something in a local buy, swap and sell group and giving your number away to whoever can read making ALL of your private information freely available.
The worst thing is that even when you deactivate your social media profile, it isn’t entirely gone. I’ve tried twice to remove myself from Facebook and both times within a month or so I was able to come back and my entire profile was restored. So, deactivating is only removing you visibly from the interwebs – technically, Facebook still has an archive of your life in their mega data storage somewhere in the world.
And unfortunately, Facebook seems to gobbling up and acquiring other social media. Instagram, which I do like using as there is no need for too many words, is owned by Facebook…
Now that we’ve ranted, what I also want to mention is how much wasted time was Facebook taking up? I was listening to a Ted Talks I believe, podcast episode, about how much time we wasted on entertainment, social media and gaming apps on our smart devices, yet they were evidenced as being the ones that gave us the least joy. Apps requiring interaction and learning fared much better. So what does that say for our current state of being, and our minds? I noticed immediately I reached for my phone less, and was more in the moment. Whether it was paying more attention to something, or taking the time to go out for a walk or whatever, I’ve removed myself from scrolling mindlessly through my phone. On the other hand, my husband, seems as if his Facebook addiction is not entirely gone. We went for breakfast yesterday and he spent the majority of time fast scrolling through his Instagram feed instead of having a fucking conversation. And then came home and spent the entire day with his headphones on. I’m all for having time out, I am truly because I need it regularly, but is it timeout you need or some other simulation? What are you bored with?
Rant over!
Now, I know it made it this far, and I hope you’re still with me (I wasn’t planning an editorial post but it kind of came out that way!) The headline of my post this week is from the Michael Jackson song They Don’t Really Care About Us. I was reading an article about the recently shot down Justine Damond, the Australian woman in America who was shot by Police. Horrific…but there’s this article talking about how the Black Lives Matter protest movement (who have been protesting since Philando Castile, an African American male, was also shot by Minneapolis Police and the perpetrator was found not guilty of committing any offence) have joined in solidarity the people protesting the death of Ms Damond. I mean, I love that everyone is joining in solidarity, but it shouldn’t be like this. I just don’t see why people or how people, can hate each other for their differences in religion or race or nationality. I just don’t understand. To me, people are people. If you’re an asshole, you’re an asshole regardless of your values, ethics, morals, religious background, sexual orientation or the colour of your skin.
Damnit people we’re not fucking Neanderthals. It shouldn’t be black versus white versus whatever in this day and age. It should be human helping human. Our hearts all beat the same for fucks sake.
One more thing – I was going to add the review on documentary movie The Magic Pill here, but I think this post just got serious really quickly! And I like talking about serious issues, but let’s also take a step back. I will do a review for The Magic Pill in a separate post.
Goals for the coming week – practice mindfulness and really consider what it is you’re doing on social media…make plans and lists to increase productivity, and tackle something you’re afraid of. Stop looking at your phone and redirect your energy. Don’t waste energy! I’ll hopefully discuss my experiences with these topics next week, provide an update on my weigh in and #lchf way of eating, and some pictures of my new ducks!
Tell me what you think! Was this editorial type post good for you? Did you lose interest? Do you prefer me to tackle larger issues, or just write short and sweet? I’d love the feedback! Email me at thatfitologylife@gmail.com.
Until then.
**Edit: As I’m boycotting Facebook’s intrusiveness I thought I might like to use Twitter to promote my blog posts. Not happening. I made an account specifically for this blog and they would like to use my mobile to verify my account ID. As such, I will not be using Twitter either.
That Fitology Life 