Single Girls Guide

by Erin Foster

THERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW WHEN YOU’RE WALKIN’ IN THIS WORLD ALONE AS A SINGLE GIRL. THERE ARE PIT FALLS TO AVOID, SONGS YOU SHOULDN’T BE LISTENING TO, AND THOUGHTS YOU SHOULDN’T ADMIT TO THINKING, LIKE “CAN I COUNT MY CAT AS A DEPENDENT ON MY TAX FORMS?”

First and foremost you need to remember that being single is AWESOME! You are a free bird, a rolling stone, and you don’t have to wear a football jersey on Sundays that is comprised of your least flattering color palette.

Being you is fantastic. I know, because being me is fantastic.

There will be some lows. That just comes with job. As your guide through this life, I like to test the limits of where our singledom can take us. I like to make a fool of myself in order to report back to you that what I did should be avoided at all costs. For instance, exactly four nights ago I cried on the phone to a guy I love and the only words I managed to get out were, “I…I…want…a…baaaaby!! (continued crying sounds).” I did this for you.

Here is our first list of Do’s and Don’ts:

• Take notes when your girlfriends complain about their boyfriends or husbands. Reading these will get you through tough times.
• Don’t spend time with a guy who says, “Are you PMS-ing?”
• Either be super low maintenance or go full blown crazy to the point where you throw phones in the street and threaten the lives of attractive women in your eye line. They both work surprisingly well. In between won’t get you anywhere.
• Only wink at someone if you are a great winker. You either have it or you don’t. I don’t.
• If you don’t want to date a 30 year-old who hangs out at clubs, don’t BE a 30 year-old who hangs out at clubs.
• Change your hair every 6 months.
• Be a Girl’s Girl. This involves giving girl friends approval of pictures they upload online, leaving a fun party early when they feel uncomfortable, and listening to the same story several times with consistent amounts of interest.
• Stop saying how much you want to get married if you’re really just thinking about the wedding and forgetting you’ll have to BE married after that.
• If you want to meet up with someone you met online, ask if they’re a murderer first.
• Remember that no one is out of your league. Ryan Reynolds dated Alanis Morissette.

Till next time ladies. xo

Erin Foster is an actress and comedy writer who was born and raised in Los Angeles. She writes the popular blog TotallyConfidentAndCompletelyInsecure.Com

Effing the Ineffable

How do we express what cannot be said?

By ROGER SCRUTON

Thomas Aquinas, who devoted some two million words to spelling out, in the Summa Theologica, the nature of the world, God’s purpose in creating it and our fate in traversing it, ended his short life (short by our standards, at least) in a state of ecstasy, declaring that all that he had written was of no significance beside the beatific vision that he had been granted, and in the face of which words fail. His was perhaps the most striking example of a philosopher who comes to believe that the real meaning of the world is ineffable. Having got to this point, Aquinas obeyed the injunction of Wittgenstein, whose Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus concludes with the proposition: “that whereof we cannot speak we must consign to silence.”

But Aquinas was exceptional. The history of philosophy abounds in thinkers who, having concluded that the truth is ineffable, have gone on to write page upon page about it. One of the worst offenders is Kierkegaard, who argues in a hundred ways that the ultimate is inexpressible, that truth is “subjectivity,” that the meaning of life can be given by no formula, no proposition, no abstraction, but only by the concrete experience of surrender whose content can never be given in words.

The same idea occurs in Schopenhauer, for whom the truth of the world is Will, which cannot be represented in concepts. Schopenhauer devoted roughly 500,000 words to this thing that no words can capture. And he set a fashion that continues to this day.

I am currently reading a mercifully short book by Vladimir Jankélévitch, Music and the Ineffable, in which the argument is stated on the first page  — namely, that since music works through melodies, rhythms and harmonies and not through concepts, it contains no messages that can be translated into words. There follows 50,000 words devoted to the messages of music — often suggestive, poetic and atmospheric words, but words nevertheless, devoted to a subject that no words can capture.

The temptation to take refuge in the ineffable is not confined to philosophers. Every inquiry into first principles, original causes and fundamental laws, will at some stage come up against an unanswerable question: what makes those first principles true or those fundamental laws valid? What explains those original causes or initial conditions? And the answer is that there is no answer — or no answer that can be expressed in terms of the science for which those laws, principles and causes are bedrock. And yet we want an answer. So how should we proceed?

There is nothing wrong with referring at this point to the ineffable. The mistake is to describe it. Jankélévitch is right about music. He is right that something can be meaningful, even though its meaning eludes all attempts to put it into words. Fauré’s F sharp Ballade is an example: so is the smile on the face of the Mona Lisa; so is the evening sunlight on the hill behind my house. Wordsworth would describe such experiences as “intimations,” which is fair enough, provided you don’t add (as he did) further and better particulars. Anybody who goes through life with open mind and open heart will encounter these moments of revelation, moments that are saturated with meaning, but whose meaning cannot be put into words. These moments are precious to us. When they occur it is as though, on the winding ill-lit stairway of our life, we suddenly come across a window, through which we catch sight of another and brighter world — a world to which we belong but which we cannot enter.

I too am tempted to eff the ineffable. Like my philosophical predecessors, I want to describe that world beyond the window, even though I know that it cannot be described but only revealed. I am not alone in thinking that world to be real and important. But there are many who dismiss it as an unscientific fiction. And people of this scientistic cast of mind are disagreeable to me. Their nerdish conviction that facts alone can signify, and that the “transcendental” and the eternal are nothing but words, mark them out as incomplete. There is an aspect of the human condition that is denied to them.

Moreover, this aspect is of the first importance. Our loves and hopes in some way hinge on it. We love each other as angels love, reaching for the unknowable “I.” We hope as angels hope: with our thoughts fixed on the moment when the things of this world fall away and we are enfolded in “the peace which passes understanding.” Putting the point that way I have already said too much. For my words make it look as though the world beyond the window is actually here, like a picture on the stairs. But it is not here; it is there, beyond the window that can never be opened.

But a question troubles me as I am sure it troubles you. What do our moments of revelation have to do with the ultimate questions? When science comes to a halt, at those principles and conditions from which explanation begins, does the view from that window supply what science lacks? Do our moments of revelation point to the cause of the world?

When I don’t think about it, the answer seems clear. Yes, there is more to the world than the system of causes, for the world has a meaning and that meaning is revealed. But no, there is no path, not even this one, to the cause of the world: for that whereof we cannot speak, we must consign to silence — as Aquinas did.

6 best fat-burning superfoods

(By Dr. Natasha Turner ND)

People ask me all the time if there is a magic supplement they can take to look younger, shed body fat, boost their energy or improve their skin. In reality, the answer is food. The right food, at the right time and in the right quantities, can have a dramatic affect on your appearance and overall health.

Here are a few superfood suggestions to include in your spring diet - they just might help to slim your waistline in time for summer:

1. Avocados: 
Avocados contain glutathione, one of the most potent antioxidants and disease-fighting agents available. Unfortunately, avocados - high inmonounsaturated fats - got a bad rap during the past low-fat era. But avoiding avocados will only work to impede your weight loss, depriving you of a source of healthy fats and antioxidants that are good for any complexion.

Studies show that people sustain their nutrition program longer and have greater weight loss when on a diet that contains about 30 percent healthy monounsaturated fat, like those in avocados, rather than a low-fat diet. This is because fats, when eaten in the proper balance with carbohydrates, can help to slow the release of sugars into the blood stream, thereby triggering less insulin release. Insulin is basically the hormone that instructs the body to store energy as fat while preventing the use of stored energy, making it a dieter's nemesis if levels are too high.

2. Whey protein:
Protein is essential for immunity, for maintaining healthy body composition, for keeping blood sugar balanced, for healing and repairing tissues, for developing muscles, and for producing hormones, chemical messengers and digestive enzymes in the body. However, by adding a bit of whey protein to your meal, you will also reduce your short-term food intake. According to research done at the University of Toronto and published in the Journal of American College of Nutrition, whey protein has potential as a functional food component to contribute to the regulation of body weight by providing satiety signals that affect both short-term and long-term food intake regulation. Whey protein reduces insulin and can even help to reduce blood pressure.

3. Blueberries:
Free radicals cause cellular damage, accelerate aging and contribute to the development of diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's. However, blueberries are absolutely loaded with antioxidants and fibre, which will keep you full and looking younger. They protect against sun damage, support eye health, are low in naturally occurring sugars, and contain a potent dose of proanthocyanidins beneficial for skin, cognitive function and cardiovascular health. This same antioxidant activity is also present in pomegranates, pink grapefruit and tomatoes, which makes them an important addition to your plate for both cancer protection and heart health.

4. Cherries: 
Cherries are the new wonder food - and not just because they taste great and can satisfy even your sweetest cravings. This fruit contains red-pigmented antioxidants and is high in soluble fibre and low in calories, which can help improve insulin sensitivity. Scientists have identified a group of naturally occurring chemicals abundant in cherries that could help lower blood-sugar levels in people with diabetes. In early laboratory studies, the chemicals, called anthocyanins, increased insulin production by 50 percent, according to a study published in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Anthocyanins are a class of plant pigments responsible for the colour of many fruits, including cherries. They also are potent antioxidants, highly active chemicals that have been increasingly associated with a variety of health benefits.

That being said, when having any fruit you should be sure that they are part of a meal or snack that includes protein and essential fats. A great morning smoothie might include one cup of Liberte non-fat vanilla yogurt, one serving of whey protein isolate, one tablespoon of ground flax seeds and a handful of fresh cherries (pitted with the stems removed).  

5. Broccoli: 
Next to your favourite source of protein, stir-fried broccoli is a welcome companion. Somesources say that just 2½ cups of broccoli a week may reduce your risk of various types of cancer. Broccoli is high in fibre, numerous minerals and vitamins, as well as a compound called indol-3-carbinol (I-3-C). I-3-C is an anti-cancer compound because it helps to convert estrogen, linked to breast and prostate cancers, into a less harmful metabolite. Since higher amounts of estrogen are associated with belly fat and increased fat around the hips and thighs, this superfood just might help you shed a few pounds before bikini season. The soluble fibre in broccoli is also fantastic for lowering LDL cholesterol and stabilizing blood sugars. Soluble fibre keeps the bowels moving and can help to prevent constipation.

6. Eggs: 
Our grandparents had it right - eating eggs for breakfast improves appetite control and boosts energy levels. A 2005 study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that participants who consumed eggs for breakfast had greater feelings of satiety, and consumed significantly less energy and grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fat for lunch. Energy intake following the egg breakfast remained lower for the entire day as well as for the next 36 hours. For a balanced meal, scramble one or two whole eggs with three or four egg whites and an assortment of your favourite diced veggies.

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a naturopathic doctor and author of the bestselling books The Hormone Diet and her newest release, The Supercharged Hormone Diet , now available across Canada. She is also the founder of the Toronto-based Clear Medicine Wellness Boutique.