The Weekly Curator – Volume 1 Week 5

This is my weekly forum where I curate what I’ve researched during the past week. I do all the research so you don’t have to! Here is what I found worth sharing this week:

Podcasts:

In honor of our new month March, especially for you poetry readers (and even if you’re not – give it a try), you may really enjoy the podcast “The Daily Poem.” I enjoyed this particular reading of poet laureate Richard Wilbur’s “March.”. If you listen to the previous episode you will get to listen to some Tolkien Easter Eggs!

Along the same vein, a friend sent me this podcast of Mary Oliver reading some of her poems. I love hearing authors read their own poems and since Mary has moved up to the next floor of existence, this is a gift to allow us to keep her with us.

In praise of poetry: One of the reasons I so much love poetry is because a poem is a little snippet of delight that makes me sit and think about whatever emotions/images/themes that the poem stirs. The topics may be something I would not normally consider. As an example, I didn’t really even think about how March began this week. For much of the country – it is still a time of winter with sprinkles of spring. It is a time of hope and renewal mixed with the firm squelching of winter’s efforts holding strong. Yes, I will always have my literary nerd card. I am an English major after all.

SLEEP – Dr. Rhonda Patrick interviewed Matthew Walker on the importance of sleep. His best selling book Why We Sleep is next on my list. Dr. Walker is the director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Human Sleep Science and his discussion with Dr. Rhonda Patrick is nothing less than inspiring to revamp your sleeping habits for just about every reason imaginable. If you need to be sharper at work, feel more connected, get in better shape, look better and stay healthy, this book will teach you why sleep is a non negotiable.

I can’t recommend Dr. Patrick’s podcast more.  She is very technical and conducts long form interviews (many longer than 2 hours), but she has so many world class experts on her show, it is worth sticking with some of the more scientifically challenging parts of the podcasts for us lay people to stay on top of the latest in health and wellness trends.  Her website is at FoundMyFitness.com.

What I’m Reading:

Outside Magazine released their “Trips of the Year” issue. I love this magazine that inspires people to go outside. That is one of the reasons I have a secret (or not so secret) travel blog called Joyful Adventures. This year’s issue did not disappoint and I was pretty excited to see that my home state Arizona was on the list (featured photo this week is from Sedona). It is awesome to live in one of the world’s most beautiful and adventure inspiring places. Of course there is Colorado and Utah – two of my other most traveled states. I was also excited to see that New Zealand made the cut – especially considering we will be honeymooning there in just two months! Make sure you check out the entire list of 33 trips.

Dr. Weil had a great article on procrastination this week. As someone who struggles to get everything on my to do list done in an optimal timeframe, this was helpful.

I was introduced to Jay Campbell by his appearance on the Ben Greenfield Podcast. I found his knowledge on testosterone and Metformin fascinating which prompted me to read the Metabolic Blowtorch Diet this week (twice). I’m now following the advice in that book and working on a feeding/fasting alternating regimen, which I really like because I only have to work through a day of fasting at a time. I think it is a great approach to keep the metabolism going strong while optimizing fat loss. Pay attention to the difference in intermittent fasting times for women vs. men.

Also for those of you interested in longevity and anti-aging, you will want to listen to Jay’s take on Metformin. I was happy to discover that my functional medicine doc can prescribe Metformin and we agreed to add it to my regimen in a couple of months since I also just added Thyroid, we want to make sure we note individual results rather than combining things to start. I will be providing my results on everything from the Wiley Protocol, to the Thyroid, and Metformin as I do the analysis. I expect to see body fat reduce and general overall energy and health optimize. Stay tuned.

Career:

Last but not least, I was super proud of my oldest who graduated from Web Development code camp at Galvanize this week. I am a huge fan of these code camps because I believe the immersive experience allows students to develop their skills fast and with excellent preparation to move into a junior developer job. Not everyone wants a four year college experience and more and more people are realizing that a four year degree is coupled with crippling debt for a lot of people. Not the best way to start out in life. I really liked the program at Galvanize. If you’re thinking of starting a career in IT, this might be the best value.

That’s all for this week folks.  Have a great weekend and remember to do something nice for yourself!  I would appreciate your comments below!  (Scroll all the way down)