What I've learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0092

4551.  If you have to pay something late, pay a credit card late.  Do not pay your mortgage late (if you can pay for it);

4552.  One 30-day late payment to your mortgage will drop your credit score 100-150 points and it will affect your credit score for a year;

4553.  If you have more than 1 mortgage payment late, you will not be able to get a loan (i.e., 2 30-day late payments or 1 60-day late payment);

4554.  A balance above the credit limit impacts your credit score negatively, similarly to a late payment, regardless if the balance is $1.00 over the credit limit or $100.00 over the credit limit;

4555.  A F.I.C.O. (credit) score of 740 or over is considered “excellent;”

4556.  A F.I.C.O. (credit) score of 700 (to 739) is considered “very good;”

4557.  The credit scores you get when you order them from the consumer credit agencies are not the same scores used in the mortgage business.  The scores you get are usually 10-50 points higher than those in the mortgage industry because the consumer credit agencies do not use as much data and their algorithms are different (i.e., concerned about mortgage default v. credit card default);

4558.  The 3 bureaus for business credit reports are: 1.  Equifax; 2.  Experian; and 3.  Dun & Bradstreet;

4559.  2 simple rules to follow to stay healthy and fit: 1.  Stop eating gluten; and 2.  Stop eating refined sugar;

4560.  Eat as much as you want of: 1.  Fibrous vegetables; 2.  Unprocessed meats (excludes deli, cured & smoked meats, sausage & bacon); 3.  Fish & shellfish as long as it’s not smoked.  There are no rules about the frequency you can eat these foods, but you should try to eat a lot more fibrous vegetables than meat, fish or shellfish;

4561.  For the first 3-4 weeks, you can eat these foods to offset hunger (and then gradually reduce their consumption afterwards): 1.  Nuts – 3-4 large handfuls a day; 2.  Healthy oils (i.e., coconut & olive oils) – 3-4 tablespoons a day; and 3.  Avocado – 1-2 avocados a day;

4562.  Avoid these foods for the first 3-4 weeks and afterwards you can have these amounts of servings: 1.  Lower glycemic fruit (i.e., berries & grapefruit) – 2-3 servings a day; Eat at breakfast or lunch (so your body can work them off).  You can add 1 serving on a workout day especially before a cardio workout; and 2.  Complex carbs (i.e., starchy vegetables – peas & sweet potatoes; whole grains - quinoa & brown rice);

4563.  What to eat for breakfast: 1.  Eggs with vegetables (i.e., omelet with mixed vegetables cooked in olive oil & avocado on the side; spinach salad with grape tomatoes & peppers with poached eggs; hardboiled eggs on a kale salad with peppers, mushrooms & onions); 2.  Add chicken to an omelet or salad; 3.  Cauliflower or nut bread with tomatoes, onions & avocado or with almond or cashew butter; 4.  After 3-4 weeks, you can add fruit (i.e., bowl of berries or grapefruit) and complex carbs (i.e., brown rice or quinoa); and 5.  Grilled chicken/fish with steamed vegetables;

4564.  What to eat for lunch and dinner: 1.  Meat/fish with vegetables cooked in healthy oil; and 2.  After 3-4 weeks, you can add fruit and complex carbs with lunch;

4565.  What type of snacks to eat: 1.  Nuts (i.e., almonds, walnuts & cashews preferably) – preferably raw nuts then roasted nuts with light salt – no nuts with coatings; 2.  Vegetables (i.e., cherry & grape tomatoes, bell peppers, celery & carrots) – no dressing; 3.  Avocado; and 4.  Meat (i.e., steak, fish or chicken);

4566.  Foods that you can eat at restaurants: A)  Meat (i.e., not fried & without sauce); Always try to add vegetables to your meal; B)  Mongolian: Anything except skip the sauce and the fried rice; C)  Thai: 1.  Stir fried vegetables with meat; 2.  Chicken satay – no peanut sauce; 3.  Tom Yum soup; 4.  Koo Moo Yang; 5.  Papaya salad; and 6.  Larb; D)  Japanese: 1.  Sashimi; 2.  Teriyaki without the sauce; and 3.  Brown rice sushi/nigiri (after the first 3-4 weeks); E)  Chinese: 1.  Vegetables with meat; 2.  Ma Po tofu/eggplant; and 3.  Peking duck without the pancakes and sauce; F)  Indian: 1.  Tandoori (i.e., chicken, lamb & vegetables); 2.  Mint masala; and 3.  Chicken saag.  Avoid the heavy curries; G) European/American: 1.  Salad; and 2.  Grilled piece of meat with vegetables; and H) Latin American: 1.  Ceviche; 2.  Guacamole without the tortilla chips; 3.  Grilled fish/meats; and 4.  Fajitas without the tortillas;

4567.  You can try to avoid risk, but it’s impossible to manage every variable.  You simply cannot control the future or other people’s choices and actions;

4568.  You do have two options: to retain risk or transfer risk;

4569.  Trying to avoid risk is really just retaining it.  And purchasing insurance is how you transfer risk through auto insurance, homeowners insurance, life insurance and more.  These are proven ways to transfer risk from yourself to insurance companies.  And in doing so, you’re protecting yourself, your family, your assets and your ability to produce;

4570.  The other value of insurance is protecting your human life value.  It protects your peace of mind, your creativity and your ability to perform at your best.  When you know that you’ve transferred risk with insurance, you can let go of worry and produce at the highest levels;

4571.  “Safe” isn’t safe.  Chasing your dream in life (yes the risky one that’s impossible to guarantee) is the safer choice;

4572.  If you’re not truly passionate about what you’re doing, you’ll always subconsciously limit yourself.  Like putting an imaginary brick wall between you and your true potential;

4573.  The safe choice is just another way of guaranteeing you never become happy;

4574.  When you pursue your passion, you have a chance to be really, really great at something because you actually care;

4575.  When you pursue your passion, you won’t waste years of your life on things you don’t care about.  Every second of every day will feel meaningful no matter what;

4576.  The fact is, most people choose a safe path in life because the end result (even if it’s mediocre at best) is guaranteed;

4577.  You want that guarantee.  You can see it way off in the distance.  The path to it is crystal clear.  And does following your passion have that same guarantee?  No, it doesn’t.  But what you lose in a guarantee you gain in happiness;

4578.  By following your passion, you’ll force yourself to be the smartest, best version of you and you’ll love every second even if you fail.  There’s the safety you’re after.  Real safety comes from being great at something.  And the only way to become great is to be absolutely crazy about it.  You can’t fake passion;

4579.  (Just remember) the safe path is the scary one;

4580.  If you want to make an unbreakable piñata, ask Becky (Henry);

4581.  If you want to give your oatmeal some flavor, try some adding (some) blueberries or raspberries;

4582.  Apparently, Ann Gillespie, who played “Jackie Taylor” on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” is a senior associate rector at (Historic) Christ Church in (Old Town) Alexandria;

4583.  William Duvall (the current lead singer of “Alice in Chains”) sounds just like Layne Staley;

4584.  “Alice in Chains” has a lot more hit songs than I realized;

4585.  Axl Rose can be punctual;

4586.  Axl Rose’s voice (actually) isn’t shot;

4587.  Guns N’ Roses live sounds like you’d want them to sound;

4588.  Slash is an amazing guitarist;

4589.  Richard Fortus (the lead and rhythm guitarist for Guns N’ Roses) is a pretty good guitarist too;

4590.  Axl Rose can whistle . . . and he actually does when performing “Patience;”

4591.  Axl (Rose), Slash and Duff (McKagan actually) seem to get along;

4592.  What’s a stupid way to get home from a Guns N’ Roses concert at FedEx Field (in Landover, Maryland)?  The answer is: Getting into an old, paint-faded, dark gray, Crown Victoria that pulls up on Central Avenue with a guy who says his car is a taxi, but there's no taxicab sign on the car, no meter and no GPS and he isn't quite sure how to get you (back) to (Old Town) Alexandria;

4593.  Nuts are nutritious, but they're also calorically dense.  A cup of (roasted) mixed nuts is almost 900 calories;

4594.  An uncompleted project is no better than a project you never began;

4595.  Procrastination is really an escape from living present moments as fully as possible;

4596.  As long as you say maybe, or hope, or wish, you can use these as a rationale for not doing anything now;

4597.  All wishing and hoping are a waste of time.  No amount of either ever got anything accomplished.  They are merely convenient escape clauses from rolling up your sleeves and taking on tasks that you’ve decided are important enough to be on your list of life activities;

4598.  You can do anything that you set your mind to accomplish.  You are strong, capable and not the least bit brittle.  But by putting things off for a future moment, you are giving into escapism, self-doubt and most significantly, self-delusion.  Your putting it off is a movement away from being strong in the now and toward the direction of hoping that things will improve in your future;

4599.  Some techniques for ousting postponing behavior: 1.  Make a decision to live five minutes at a time.  Instead of thinking of tasks in long-range terms, think about now and try to use up a five-minute period doing what you want, refusing to put off anything that would bring satisfaction; 2.  Ask yourself, “What is the worst things that could happen to me if I did what I’m putting off right now?”  The answer is usually so insignificant that it may jar you into action.  Assess your fear and you’ll have no reason to hang onto it; 3.  Think of yourself as too significant to live with anxiety about the things you have to do.  So, the next time you know you are uncomfortable with postponement anxiety, remember that people who love themselves don’t hurt themselves that way; 4.  Be courageous about undertaking an activity that you’ve been avoiding.  One act of courage can eliminate all that fear.  Stop telling yourself that you must perform well.  Remind yourself that doing it is far more important; 5.  Decide not to be tired until the moment before you get into bed.  Don’t allow yourself to use fatigue or illness as an escape or to put off doing anything.  You may find that when you take away the reason for the illness or exhaustion – that is, avoidance of a task – physical problems “magically” disappear; and 6.  Look hard at your life.  Are you doing what you’d choose to be doing if you knew you had six months to live?  If not, you’d better begin doing it because relatively speaking, that’s all you have.  Given the eternity of time, thirty years or six months makes no difference.  Your total lifetime is a mere speck.  Delaying anything makes no sense;

4600.  If you want the world to change, don’t complain about it.  Do something.  Rather than using up your present moments with all kinds of immobilizing anxiety over what you are putting off, take charge and live now!  Be a doer, not a wisher, hoper or critic;