“To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.”
– La Rochefoucauld

What to eat before a workout, a simple question with a simple yet complex answer.

Most people are unsure whether it is a good strategy to eat before a workout, and so they might only eat after their exercise. Others think it is best to eat before exercise and not after. And while both strategies are good for performance, health and fitness, what to eat is dependent on several factors — length and type of exercise, health factors that might influence the way you process food. What is certain however is that nutrition plays a big role in building fitness.

Your choice of foods before you exercise can make or break your workout. As they say, food is fuel, and it is important to have some fuel prior to exercising. It serves several functions:

• Fuels your muscles. Both with food eaten in the days before as well as the hour or two before.
• Helps settle your stomach and avoid hunger after the workout.
• Helps prevent low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Hypoglycemia symptoms include nausea, headaches and dizziness.
• Strengthens your mental state by knowing that your body has enough energy for the exercise.

The meal you eat before bed is just as important as any of the other meals you consume daily. If you are careful with what you eat before bedtime, you will find that you are able to sleep much better as a result. As a matter of fact, you might be able to even cure your insomnia by eating the proper foods before going to bed. Of course, opinions vary when it comes to when exactly to eat before going to bed. Whether you choose two hours, fifteen minutes or any other time, the decisive factor should be your personal preference so don’t be afraid to experiment.

Speaking in front of a crowd is a very difficult task for most people, and some would prefer to die rather than do it. But even those who do it without much trouble can face concentration and emotional issues.

Concentration is a process of distraction from less important matters. It is not the time to think about the cut of your coat when you are up on the platform, so the ideal thing is to center your interest on what you are about to say. Easy to plan on doing it, but many things can go wrong, one of the most important ones being what you just ate.

The Gay Science

Friedrich Nietzsche

(trans. W. Kaufmann), s. 42

Work and boredom. – Looking for work in order to be paid: in civilized countries today almost all men are at one in doing that. For all of them work is a means and not an end in itself. Hence they are not very refined in their choice of work, if only it pays well. But there are, if only rarely, men who would rather perish than work without any pleasure in their work.

On January 12, 2009, the Australian Queensland Tourist Board started advertising for a position they referred to as ‘the best job in the world.’ It is basically a six-month paid vacation on the gorgeous Hamilton Island, which has year-round sunshine, sandy beaches, warm lagoons and sea life galore. The job (‘island caretaker’) doesn’t require any academic qualifications, although you need to be a good swimmer, enjoy snorkeling, scuba diving and have the ability to create and maintain an online blog — weekly reports via blogging, a photo diary and video updates. The successful candidate will live rent free in a luxury three-bedroom villa with pool on the island and return home $150,000 AUS richer.