For Sale: Beautiful Heart. Broken

By Klemente Cisneros

            Your memories smell like craigslist. They do not smell like love, compassion, or even bliss anymore. Now, they’re just the mocking physical stuff left after a bad breakup that won’t let you let go. Every single thing is like a highlight of the ending of every chapter to an infinite book of love stories. Some of those things make you smile, but most of them make you cry. But you don’t need more saddle in your back. You've got already enough emotional baggage in your heart to swift through all those unwanted memories in your closet: a stuffed bear holding a heart with an "I love you" embroidery; a box set of both her favorite TV show; a painting of him gathering dust in the closet; a gold heart charm in perfect condition, unlike his. Accepting a loved one is gone can be tough to the point we want to hold onto their memories forever. Until we realize it's over, we want to believe they still think of us every time we flick through the memories of us. But, when we wake up and realize they don't even care anymore, all we want is to get rid of them. That's why saying the last good bye to a significant love can end up in a bonfire of well-worn clichés.

           I know it can be tough to hold your need to light up your ex’s depressing junk. I have been there. In some stage of mourning you might think that getting rid of everything he or she gave you is the best option. Well, think again. Instead of burning your memories, you should sell them. Besides being unoriginal mementos, memories can be expensive keepsakes as well. Never Liked It Anyway is the perfect place to do it. If you want to star over, clean and sober, this website created by Bella can help you sweep out your post-breakup closet the Eco-friendly way. The webpage is some sort of like eBay for post-breakup memories. As simple as buy, sell, or tell, you can get things for more than half the original price, depending on how bad was the breakup. You can also sell your stuff and tell about it to the online community. It is totally anonymous, if you want, and you can get some profit for crying all night long for someone who doesn’t even deserve it. This website really caught my eye because besides getting revenue from your unwanted stuff, you can get more benefits from the site as well.

            How many of us have been through a bad breakup? Unless you’re a lucky forever alone, breakups can be really hard to handle in the secrecy of our hearts. Some of us need someone to tell what we are going through and sometimes we don’t have enough support from our families or our friends. Either, because people don’t understand you, or, simply, you can’t tell your folks, openly talking about it to other people who understand what you feel can really relieve your pain. We all need to say how we feel because it makes us a little less anxious or worried. If you tell your story to people that will listen and can give you feedback and support, your breakup might as well be a social climbing rather than a lock up from society. Another thing I found interesting is that there are stories on the site you could learn about. You can go crazy searching online why your date or boyfriend/girlfriend is acting a certain way, but until you hear it from someone who has experienced in life and flesh your research is useless. That way, if you hear a story like “I signed for the entire wedding costs, but he decided no to get married, leaving me broke and heart broken,” you might want to think twice about paying for the wedding yourself. Finally, in a symbolic way, getting physically rid of something can help you let go of all the emotional baggage and rage you've been carrying around for days, or months. When you toss out some material things you were given, let’s say a golden heart charm, you let go of a part of the relationship that is torturing you. Now, getting cash for purging that past of bad memories is a really nice added bonus.

           Whether you’re heart broken, or simply broke, and want to sell the things that bother you while you tell your story, you should check out this site. It’s a win-win transaction that helps the broke and your broken heart. So before you burn those tickets to the “I Love You Forever” concert, consider recycling them instead. There are plenty of buyers out there whose forever isn’t over yet, and would really like to listen to those love songs. After all, you never liked it anyways.

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Recommend This Article! 

The South Breach Diet

By Klemente Cisneros

          You gained weight these past days. Some of you, who ate a little, might not even notice it. Though, those of us who ate a lot might’ve registered a new record on the scale, or even in the ER. Now, you're not only left with many presents in your stocking. You're also left with a post Christmas challenge that might threaten your forever altered manscape. That's why new year's resolutions were created; to try to fix all those mistakes made over 365 days, including Christmas' muffin top. Each and every thing on the list promising to ditch the bad habits for a newly committed year. In spite of this, most of us will "fudge-that-sheet" one week in our new diet and exercise programs. Yes, that's totally normal for most healthy folks that have the chance to dump the challenge. However, what about those who are left with no choice at all but only a do-or-die option?

I am talking about a life-threatening disease here; diabetes, cholesterol, pancreatic disease, high blood pressure, you name it.  How much of a choice do you have if after all the bad eating behaviors finally reached their limit? You get an illness from malnutrition and the doctor asks you to avoid everything you enjoy eating because it will literally kill you. Are you left with nothing but healthy food on the table? That’s what I thought. Now, you know that most of the food that makes you happy will also kill you. But how about the food that doesn't kill you, will make you stronger? For most, it will just make them grumpier. For few, however, it’ll make them brighter, if they’re smart and love life like fashion designer Marc Jacobs.

Image: refinery29

In 2007, a painful case of ulcerative colitis inspired the designer of famous brand Marc Jacobs to dump sugar, caffeine, dairy, and white flour from his daily diet. Added to that, a little sparkle of two-and-a-half-hour daily workout sessions gave the far-from-sexy designer a redesigned anatomy of bulk and definition. This did not only transform the designer's life and body, but his entire brand, and the fashion world completely.  Now, the designer, besides being a paparazzi’s favorite, is also the model for his very own brand. "When I went from 21 percent body fat to 5 percent body fat and I had muscle, I was like, 'This is great!'" said Jacobs, who confidently posed nude, displaying his new body for the BANG fragrance campaign last year. The designer did not only focus on the seriousness of his condition, but gave it a whole new insight for today’s looks-obsessed world.

Image: Men's Health

Reading about this story made me think about the role disease plays on today’s glorified male image. Are we doing something really wrong that our body has to tell us it needs some trimming? I think so. Even with America’s new male body obsession, the way you look at the mirror isn’t changing the way you look at the plate. You know you’re obese. You know you’re unhealthy. But still, you keep stuffing your mouth with deliciously lethal food in a way the Greeks never intended. Is it ever going to be too late when you realize you’re doing it wrong? It might, and there’s an app for that in your medical record called chronic degenerative disease.

Image: Scientific American

Physique is something really important we should take care of for our good personal image. Thus, we diet and make sure our BMIs are far from the overweight numbers. Obesity, though, is not the only thing we should be worried about when taking care of our bodies. There are numerous illnesses on record that are caused by bad eating habits. One of the most lethal diseases from obesity is high blood pressure. It is sometimes called the silent killer, because your blood pressure might be reaching the edge of heaven and you might never even notice until it’s too late. Secondly, the bitchy sister, diabetes, is the other side of the challenge. It is a malfunction of the liver to process glucose in the body to such degree that the organ can’t keep up with all the tasks it realizes, like healing. Most of us know these sisters are the ones we should be most scared about, because there’s no point back after you get them. It’s like a car’s engine that happens to malfunction until it no longer runs. However, there are the other evil cousins, like gastritis, colitis, high cholesterol, appendicitis, among others, that might get in the way of you and your double cheeseburger. That’s why you should be very careful with what you put in your mouth (STI’s are a different topic).

Even though I'd like to give you more reasons to stop your evil muchies, I’ve listed enough for you to know it's wrong. I will not fully cover the entire list of illnesses and caused by bad eating habits. My intent here is to motivate you accomplish your new year’s resolution for a better life. You don’t need those illnesses to come up to you and say you’re nourishing wrong. Food tastes great, but the main purpose of it is to nourish our bodies, not our tongues. Our taste buds are just a tool to differentiate food and liquids. Although our brains play a big part, too, in our eating disorders, there’s always someone out there that might help you out. The weight-loss craze is always trending. There are millions of diets and exercise programs that are designed for a certain type of people. Look for the right one for you and make it work. Don’t wait for an illness to come chew your butt, literally, and tell you to change your Snickers bar for a weighted barbell.


-Klemente Cisneros


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Recommend This Article! 

Beats Of My Heart

                 I absolutely love music. I like anything from classical, to country, to pop, and dance music. As an architecture student, there aren’t many things to do while working up to twenty-four hour sessions but to listen to a good, long playlist that will keep me going. Yet, even when I had the coolest jams out there, my regular iPhone headphones weren’t making my listening experience any better. That is why I decided to buy one of the best on ear headphones on the market. I was skeptical, however, about whether getting OE2i by BOSE, or the Solo Beats by Dre, both around the same price and quality. As a victim of massive media advertising and publicity, I decided to get the Solo Beats. Besides looking good, I had more personal recommendations of them than any Bose product out there. Although, it has some downs to it, after using them for a while, I can say I totally love this product and I’ll tell you why.

1. BUILD

As a very careful, but destructive person, I need things that will not break easily. These headphones are built to be tough. They are well crafted, and look and feel very solid to the touch. The headphones are divided into two parts. The top part, the headband is made out of tough plastic on the outside and soft rubber on the inside.  It bends just enough for an accidental pull or pressure. However, I don’t know how much they can resist exactly for I’m not willing to break them apart. The bottom part, the speakers, are made out of the same material on the headband part and attach to the top part by a very solid stainless steel piece that makes the entire headphones adjustable.  The speakers are made out of soft, well-sown faux leather sponge. Although the speakers can move about twenty degrees from left to right, up, and down, they don’t allow enough space for them to detach from the headband. Entirely, the product looks and feels very durable without compromising design.

2. DESIGN

This is my favorite part of this review. Many of you have seen the Beats featured in many music videos and movies. Lady Gaga is probably the most iconic female artist that advertises and promotes the Beats very well. For some reason, more than ever before these headphones are making a fashion statement across the globe and are being socially trending almost everywhere. Well, I personally think that besides being a commercially iconic product they are very well designed and styled. In comparison with the BOSE headphones, the beats have a very nice design that makes them look like an accessory rather than just a normal headphone. Just like the Apple products, which might not be flawless products, the design and style, I think, is what makes them a gadget, not just another electronic. As for the functional design of the headphones they have two features that totally caught my eye. First, the Monster cable is totally independent from the headphone itself. It easily detachs from the speaker and can be stored easily anywhere you want. This feature is very clever because if for any reason you damage the cable (for those people who own a cat or a dog) you can easily replace the cable for a new one, which is also included in the package. The negative aspect of this cable, however, is the control-talk piece of the cable. It is very big, to my delight, and gets suck almost everywhere. The top part of it has fallen off twice when it got stuck on my backpack. On the good side, comes the other feature. The “ingenious trifold design,” as the product page claims is really ingenious. Being a busy and clumsy student that takes his laptop, iPad, books, and architecture tools to school, this feature saves me a lot of space in my backpack or bag. They easily fit a small bag when folded, and what’s more interesting, this way the speakers are virtually protected from anything sharp that might get into your purse or backpack. The downside of them, however, is the case. It is not very stylish and the soft neoprene material doesn’t protect the headphones from hard hits. Yet, this doesn’t compromise the headphone itself entirely, it’s just a little detail I find disappointing.

3. QUALITY

The Dr. Dre claims the Beats are all about the quality of their products. Truthfully, the sound of the headphones is pristine. Compared to any other products out there, besides the Bose headphones, this product has no comparison, so far. I made a few tests with some of my friend’s headphones, and, honestly, the sound of these headphones is very clear and has a lot of definition in the music. Even when loud, the sound stays untouched and is not neglected by the high resonance of the songs. Even rock music sounds clear, and that is something to admire from these headphones.

4. PRICE

About the price, well, these are $199 plus tax headphones. A little bit pricey if all you’re looking for is listening to blah, blah, blah and la, la, la. However, if you want a really good music experience, I believe the price is right. We buy phones and mp3 players all the time, not to mention lots of music (for those legal peeps like me). Yet, we never actually invest in the way we experience music. I think it is very important to buy good headphones for you can really enjoy the songs you most like. Personally, after these headphones, I have been listening to the good side of music. It’s like if all my life I was hearing just the tone of the songs and not the actual music. Now, even though I will sound a little bit arrogant, I can say bad sound makes my ears bleed, metaphorically. 

5. BOTTOM LINE

If you’re looking for quality headphones and have $199 plus tax to spare, I totally recommend you buy this product. Whether you are a beginner producer, a small studio artist, or just a regular folk that loves music, the Solo Beats will make your jams a much better experience. If you invested in a nice mp3 player or cell phone, why not invest in a great set of headphones like the beats, as well? It doesn’t make sense, let’s say, buying a really nice smartphone if you have a crappy network. However, let me warn you that if you decide to buy the Beats, don’t be surprised if you’re disappointed to hear the artist you love sings totally far from amusing music. 

Solo HD Headphones by Dre. $199.95. Beatsbydre.com

POSTED BY K&CO EDITOR

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Dishonest Reality

By Klemente Cisneros

                  
          She was, perhaps, the most beautiful woman that my eyes ever wanted to see. She was, no doubt, the book that I most enjoyed reading from all the others that I didn’t understand and the ones I believed to comprehend. It was her open eyes, the page where I was distracted for the most time to kill my seconds, which I no longer considered important. It was her, the index of all my desires and everything I wanted to travel through each moment. It was I falling in love with those moments that suddenly happened without a call. It was the confidence that after her there’d be no other choice but to remember her for the rest of my days. The sum of everything after her was to compare her with the others. Every and each attitude in which I knew she could not be equaled. Because, it is this simple: we choose a person in our lifetime to make of her our particular image of perfection, imperfect, with all the hateful details and all the beautiful features that we shall ever remember. 

Somebody should have told me this was what I imagined; that I'd go through every ending of every chapter, plentiful, that the book seemed infinite. Somebody should have told me I would miss him, that it would hurt, and that I would never stop thinking of him like a whore, like a saint, and like my savior in the darkest of my days. He was going to be my wisdom, my oblivion, my conclusions, and my unrequited questions. He was going to be my all. Somebody should have told him I keep thinking of him. Someone should have told me about death, my death; about the night I waited for him believeing about the promised times. Somebody should have foreseen that my story was going to be like the rest of us: ephemeral, promising, and painful. Someone should have told me this was going to happen. Then, I wouldn’t have done it, and later regret it for the rest of my life. Somebody should have told him not to die in my thoughts every single day.

I met her on the road, on a trip with a tight itinerary, long walks, and not a single intention of finding her. Right on mile 22 between one place and another, right when the sun set to light up the night, there she was, laughing out loud and passing through my mind as just a thought of liking her. But the thought died right after my prejudices ran onto her body. She was not attractive, interesting, but loud and childish. She was not my fantasy. Not until later when she called my name and after I’d fallen. It was just a matter of time before she knew my name, before she said it twice a day. It was I knowing her for the first time. I had no intention of love, affection, or anything related at the moment, but she managed to awake all those demons I hid for longer that I ever thought. I managed to keep my distance and think of him merely as a fantasy; that he would jump in my car and we’d take off to marry the night. But him, with the courage to do it, abruptly cutting everything I ever thought of her not getting in my car, sent my fantasy directly to trash. I could no longer imagine what I’d do to her in the dark, with lit candles, and a bottle of wine, all, because she decided to jump inside. I could no longer feel her without touching. Now, I had to do it in real life. It happened to me just like everyone whose fantasies come true, and she was my favorite fantasy. She was, while we were together, after she left, and before she died. She was my fantasy the first time she put his head on my shoulder, the first time her lips touched mine, and after she gave me a hard time holding my urge to rip her clothes out and make her mine on the first night. I could never finish her body. I could never touch her face and feel guilty for caressing something so soft it could break at the sightless rose of my calloused hands. I could never give her a final kiss. Thus, every night I close my eyes and start numbering all the kisses I never gave her, every touch, and every word. I make a list of everything I have to do the next time I see her, perhaps, the next time I make her mine. But the next day just comes around to remind me she is gone. I got stuck on his memory. He got stuck in my heart.

The easy part about our relationship was before I never had him. Missing is easy when you have nothing physically to hold on to. Later, I wanted things to end before it was over, before I became attached. But when I fell in love, after he was gone, I wanted things to end more than anything because my life was running out. He was my dream, although, perhaps I was his nightmare. I was his interrupted orgasm and he was all my wet dreams. I was consumed each day, living him extremely, feeling him extremely, and loving him extremely. Therefore, he needed to go, dead, and forever. But he had to live, tough, for I could to miss him and think he’d come back someday. For as much as I wanted to, I could never stay away. Yet, I could never stay close. I never was so far away from someone so close, nor so close to someone now that he was gone. Some days I believe he never actually got into my car on that mile 22 that day in the fall. Maybe I was the one who remained on that part of the road to never come back. I think invented love with him and never actually happened because I like to live between reality and fantasy. Maybe I never met him, maybe I never was.

Perhaps everything it’s just a made up tale because her love was so little that it wasn’t enough to continue our story. She was so eager bout adventure. I was so willing to tell them with her. But our times weren’t right because she had her prejudices ahead of her, while I had my insecurities buried deep in my past. Thus, all my will and all my excitement got exhausted by the words of the same story, of the weakness of my pride, and the emptiness of her answers.  We could not be compatible. That’s why she died. That’s why we died. That’s why I’m here not able to remember what was true and what is a lie. I don’t remember her name, even though I gave her many to tell everyone about her and know her everywhere. I don't even know if it was her... or him. I dressed her in many outfits, in many shoes. I remember her always. I put him in my wall, in the corner of my memory where I can find her, where she’s real, but also where she can’t find me so often that I don’t run out of nights. She was everything and I… I did what I could.

This is my story and I tell it every time I can. I like to add some things that might not be real, like that he was here, with me that perhaps never happened. I don’t know if I even had him or I just imagined it after the mile 22. I really don’t know, but I like to know I did and taste it every time. Sometimes, the midnight breeze caries his perfume. Other times certain foods taste like his lips and let me know I did everything for him and for you; to meet you half way, to look interesting with my shadow stomped by failure and dead memories. It’s been a while since I looked very abundant of these moments of felicity. Now I take another road to let the world turn, hoping that next time around someone can make up the inconclusive sentences of my story he was too scared to finish. I want to be able to walk on the mile 22 and see the sun without a pain in my heart, hoping I keep on going and perhaps ,with a little luck, I never lose my path. But if I do, I hope I lose it holding someone else's hand. 

In this nasty world that sometimes is very beautiful but most times wicked, why don't you lie to me? What’s your story? What’s your end, the parts that you remember the most? I invented love with him. Perhaps with a little holes and hollow details, but it's real. I ask you to invent your own love with someone. Then I shall call you some day and have a drink together for you can tell me your story. Tell me, friend, what are your ways of invention? Tell me how you did it and where you met her. I will tell you my story and you will interrupt me saying my story was beautiful, but your story is even more. Invent anything to make sense of everything that happened; because we forget. Sometimes we remember, the beginning, the middle, and most of all, the entire end of the relationship; but other times we're left with empty spaces and end up with a sad story. And we tell it to ourselves, without pause, in the solitude of our minds, alone. That makes us smile a little but makes us cry a lot. Make up for the little details that aren't there anymore and make of them a happy ending. It might be a dishonest reality, but, at least, you will not be sorry. 

Love,

Klemente

Die-ting On Christmas

By Klemente Cisneros

‘Tis the season to indulge. Under the mistletoe, besides the tree, on the table, or at the kitchen, you’re always eating on Christmas season. It doesn’t matter how much you want to stay healthy, face it. You’re on vacation, comfortable at home, and with real food in front of you at no cost and with no effort. But are these really the real reason why you just can’t stay healthy the entire time? Well, be surprised because they are not entirely guilty for your holiday naughtiness.

A study in the University of Alberta conducted by Robert Fisher says our conflicting rules and norms about eating are the consequence of our eating habits. Most of you know how to maintain a healthy weight, but it is the lack of will power to keep form over eating that makes you lose the battle. Fisher defines them as a conflicting set of descriptive and injunctive norms.

Basically, injunctive norms are whatever you believe is good or bad when doing something. It is all about what others, your family, peers, or organizations, say it’s wrong or good doing. Let’s say a family says it’s a good thing to get excellent grades and rewarded their kids for doing it, as whether other families do not reward their kids neither punish them for not doing so. Descriptive norms, conversely, are basically those actions or behaviors that everybody does and it’s perceived as regular daily life things; like eating pizza or beer on a regular Friday night.

Fisher discovered in his studies that the people who had higher BMIs were actually those who knew better how healthy or unhealthy were the things they consumed. The problem here is that most people who knew they were doing wrong had a less controllable urge to reject the food because of our nature about acting in a contradictory way. Therefore, Fisher concluded that knowing what’s healthy for you doesn’t guaranteed good eating habits and that people had all the knowledge but the problem laid on having enough motivation to do it. It’s all about changing behaviors.

Is it really about changing behaviors, thought? I think so. Most of us perceive diets as something temporary and completely out of our daily life. The majority suffers just hearing the word calories, fat, carbs and take dieting as a means to achieve something rather than a lifestyle change. Are we really fooling our system with this or is it fooling us? Truth is we are just fooling ourselves. Dieting is not about suffering because it will never be successful. I can personally tell you that unless you accept a lifestyle change in your eating habits, dieting will only make you frustrated, hungry and totally grumpy. Just like the many times you diet one morning and indulge in the afternoon, dieting will not make you loose weight successfully. Therefore you will never change your disorders, for your brain will always think you’re doing something wrong.

Think of it this way. Dieting is like doing something really bad when you were a child, that you got punished without allowance or TV for two or three days. As you grew older you learned some things were wrongdoing and you did them less often or never at all. Diets work the same way. When you deprive from the food you enjoy and punish (diet) yourself for it, you are telling your brain healthy food is bad for you, and therefore it should not be consumed without feeling regret and guilt, training your brain to enjoy healthy less and less. How can you change this?

If you change your injunctive norms to learn eating habits to reprogram your brain and make it think healthy food is doing the right thing, then your brain is going to focus less on unhealthy food because it thinks it's the bad deed. But how can you do this, you may think? Well, there are plenty of diets out there to lose weight healthy and without rebound. My favorite one is the Abs Diet from Men’s Health. You basically eat six delicious meals a day without suffering from starvation. There are other diets out there that also give you excellent recipes and tips to keep you from being hungry while losing weight. Yes, you’d have to prepare you own food, but, hey, nothing comes easy as 1,2,3. If you want to lose weight you’ll have to make some effort. Also, remember it is all about perceiving healthy food as good rather than how big your will power is.

Changing your descriptive norms can really help you change your injunctive norms easier. Learning healthy is good can be tough in any environment that sees unhealthy food as the cool kid. Therefore, find a group of people that eats healthy and exercises and unite them. Go to a yoga class, join a running crowd or connect with a community group that practices healthy habits. If you’re around people that are always eating unhealthy, you’ll have a hard time believing you’re right and they’re wrong. It’s a majority rule. Therefore, dieting on Christmas can translate into die-ing with a t. You’re surrounded by food and everybody’s eating tasty treats and tamales, if you’re Mexican. That’s why it is impossible dieting on the holidays, but it doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Stuffing your muffin during Christmas is fine. It’s the holiday, there is food everywhere, and, yes, you will gain two or three pounds but you can work them off later with healthy food and exercise. Nonetheless, always remember not to hate anything you eat. Enjoy unhealthy food as if you were on vacation from work or school, like if it was something temporary and totally unusual. When you get back on your healthy eating, though, enjoy every piece of it. Never regret any healthy bite you eat. Rather think as if you were eating something totally normal and ordinary like sleeping. Every time you accomplish a goal prize yourself for it. Either buy a new jean, new shoes, or simply reward yourself with a spa day. After all, you deserve to treat yourself right. Being healthy is the right way to do it. Come on, let’s face it, if you’re healthy, you think good, feel good, and, most importantly, look good. And if you’re looking good enough, you might as well find someone who will toss your salad.

Happy holidays,

Klemente


Source: University of Alberta. Design and editing by Klemente & Co 2011. All rights reserved.

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