Carbless Happiness

Admittedly, I'm the type of person that gets intense personal satisfaction from proving skeptics wrong. A perfect example has to do with spanking children. Every person I told that I wouldn't be spanking my kids gave me this big smile and a big we'll see how long that lasts look (or sternly warned, 'you have to be a parent not a friend'...idiots). It's that supposed wisdom that raises the hairs on my neck and has been a part of my strong dis-taste for authoritarian (e.g. Alphas) figures throughout my life.

So, after reading some headlines about some recent pop culture experiments in marriage, it got me thinking: I wonder if I can find someone that disagrees with this idea...come on now, tell me I can't do it. :)

Is my daily happiness a factor of doing what others think can't be done? This would explain a lot about my desire to surprise instead of simply fulfilling the status quo (remember those ten dozen roses in Vegas Teri, and all of those sweetest/valentines/other lame holidays without a single flower?). A monkey can repeat a task over an over again. But to seek out why the task is being done and how to do it better, to thirst for new challenges and knowledge, to scale new heights in one's personal development, that's something unique, that's something to live for. Complacency (a form of wickedness in my book of life) never was happiness.

As a parent that once proclaimed to all that would listen, that he was going to attempt to raise responsible, well-adjusted kids without using physically, initimidating punishments such as spanking, this article/study is priceless.

The analysis of four studies by Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire-Durham, suggests that children whose parents spanked, slapped, hit or threw objects at them may have a greater chance of physically or verbally coercing a sexual partner, engaging in risky sexual behavior or engaging in masochistic sex, including sexual arousal by spanking.

Wow. Heh. I bet no one thought this could be true. It's fun to watch people get so upset when the use of spanking is assailed. "I was spanked and I learned real quick, not like these kids today that don't respect their parents" Blah. Blah. Blah. I've always felt spanking, unless it was a matter of life and death, was a weak, selfish means of achieving instant compliance. However, I didn't imagine that making the choice not to use spanking, slapping, or hitting, may lessen the chance that my children would have sexual problems.

Straus found that those who had experienced corporal punishment had increased probability of coercing sex, risky sex or masochistic sex.

Then, are children that have experienced corporal punishment, more likely to associate Happiness with aggressive, dominating actions? Is the way we think of Happiness a factor of choices made by our parents, and their parents and their parents?

I guess it isn't odd to consider that our parenting decisions will affect the quality, quantity, and type of Happiness that our children seek out. I'm glad I didn't give in to the natural urges that Man feels that leads to corporal punishment. I'm pleased that I have been firm in my desire to treat my children as I would have them treat me, and everyone else they meet. When I see the bullies around our neighborhood, and listen and watch the way my son acts and speaks, I'm tickled that all of the skeptics (parents, friends, and other family) have been wrong.

I made it Doug!

It's every Fattie's dream (as the resident Fattie on this blog I can use the word Fattie), food equals better sex! I chuckled a bit at first as I read this article, and then I started to wonder: can it be that while attempting to be good about the Atkins diet, I'm unknowingly depriving my body of the foods that tend to improve my "mood"?

Let's see what the recommendations are in this article. A short warning, if you don't like to read the word orgasm or lubrication, I recommend skipping the following:

Warning: "Without an adequate amount of it (Nitric Oxide), guys can’t get erections and women can’t become engorged and lubricated".

Recommendation: "Bags of almonds and walnuts into your cart, then cast your eyes toward the seafood counter for salmon, cod and halibut."

Warning:“They (Antioxidants) keep your plumbing clean and your cells healthy by mopping up free radicals, molecules that wreak havoc on the body in a process called oxidation,”

Recommendation: "Her advice is to load up on antioxidant-rich produce in all colors of the rainbow, including tomatoes, red peppers, garlic, spinach, broccoli, beets, berries and red grapes. Another good source is dark chocolate."

These and other advice can be found in Great Food, Great Sex. The point of the book, which I haven't read, appears simple: if your body is healthy, you will have a greater chance of feeling fulfilled and pleased with the way you are and the way you live and you will want to share that with other people. And food can help that process or hinder it, depending on our choices. So food can equal happiness and sadness. But what to do now? It would appear that increasing my Nitric Oxide rich intake through fish on Atkins, would be an appropriate way to implement some of these recommendations, along with more red peppers and spinach...spinach, as a function of great food for great sex...Popeye anyone?

Although, this idea of tying food to sex to happiness is a good one. Anything that makes us less inclined to want to share our lives and ourselves with each other, is something that can take away happiness. I'm surprised they haven't written Bad Food, Bad Sex: the Guide to Losing Happiness One Carb Coma at a Time.