People diet for many reasons, including to lose weight, gain muscle or improve sporting performance. The requirements of these diets can be worlds apart, but there’s one thing they often share: ‘cheat days’.A cheat day is a scheduled break in a diet. The concept emerged around the same time as ‘clean eating’, and is based on the idea that a dieter can ‘cheat’ for one day a week as long as they eat to their diet plan for the remaining six days. Social media has increased awareness of these days off, notably among those dieting to gain muscle.

Diets: The Cheat Day

<a href="https://www.academia.edu/30884726/A_thematic_content_analysis_of_cheatmeal_images_on_social_media_Characterizing_an_emerging_dietary_trend">A study</a> published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders analysed a sample of 600 Instagram images from 1.6 million tagged with #cheatmeal. More than half of these contained “very large quantities of calorie-dense food”, providing an insight into the types of meals considered a cheat. Hamburgers, chips, pizzas and ice cream were commonly featured. The study also found #cheatmeal is often featured alongside muscular bodies.

Cheat Day: The Study

Two main motivations for #cheatmeals are identified. First is the theory that cheat days boost your metabolism, causing you to burn more calories. The logic goes that when you restrict your calorie intake, your body eventually adapts and resets your metabolism to your new lower intake. Second is the theory that cheat days help you stick to your diet. Your levels of leptin fall when you diet, and this can make it harder to resist eating. The theory goes that cheat days help keep your leptin levels up.

The Two Theories Of Cheat Meals

Both these ideas suggest that cheat meals should be planned into a diet rather than being a spur-of-the-moment thing.Big cheat meals may not be a big deal for the Rock, as he is an ex-wrestler who has built up a diet and exercise routine over decades and is already in the shape he wants to be in. But that does not mean they’re not a big deal for the rest of us.

Planned Meals

A cheat meal can be more of a psychological tool than a physical one. It’s something to look forward to.Can cheat days actually keep your levels of leptin up and therefore suppress your feelings of hunger? Whether leptin has a role to play in controlling body weight is still a subject of debate among scientists, and the evidence that leptin actually increases after a cheat day is inconclusive.Wanting a cheat day can also be a “reflection of a very restrictive and unenjoyable diet. The more you restrict some foods, the more you’ll think about them.

Sticking To Your Diet

A moderate weight-loss diet that doesn’t leave you craving cheat days is likely to be more beneficial for physical and mental health than a very restrictive diet with cheat days.One version of the ‘cheat day’ is the ‘treat day’, which sounds more positive, but it still alludes to some foods being good and others bad. No one food is bad, it is how much and how often you eat it that counts.Some foods are more nutritionally dense than others but food isn’t just good or bad. It needs to be “repackaged” to add other elements, such as enjoyment.

The Treat Day

The most effective strategy for long-term weight-loss and heart health is a healthy dietary pattern that’s compatible with what you like to eat and your lifestyle. It’s about finding what works for you. Cheat days can have a psychological effect, and it can be positive or negative – for some people it can be easier to stick with a restricted diet if you have a cheat day to look forward.

To Cheat Or Not

The experts take a look at the popular cheat day and discuss whether it is a good idea on a diet.

Stashed ideas

Are diet ‘cheat days’ ever a good idea?

Creating unique videos and releasing them on your socials after editing is one way to go, but you can take this technique a step further when you choose to live stream across multiple time zones to connect with all your followers at once.When something is happening in real-time, you’re generating more excitement around the content. If your audiences don’t join in now, they’ll miss the video, sale, or opportunity for good! Live streaming also allows you to interact with fans instantly, where you can answer questions, give shoutouts, and even integrate live chat solutions to respond to concerns.

Go Live

An online contest is a fantastic way to generate interest in a product release or in your business in general. Contests allow fans to engage with you in a fun, creative way.As you develop a contest that makes sense for your business, consider what’s relevant to your operations. Ask fans to submit ideas for a product name or mascot, or create a video challenge that advertises a new product and allows you to share fan submissions related to your business.Contests work best when you offer prizes in exchange for encouraging your audience to take on a more active role.

Friendly Competitions

Part of what keeps fans engaged with your business is the people behind the scenes. Instead of a faceless corporation, your audience wants to see who actually keeps the company running. If there’s only been one person in charge of your social media campaigns, it’s time to stage a social media takeover. Over the course of several months, you could have different members of your team take the helm, sharing their job, a look behind the scenes, and a day in the life of their position at your company.With this strategy, you’re generating excitement on both sides—with fans and employees. Y

Social Media Takeover

Many businesses keep the same level of professionalism on their social media as they do throughout their company. Unfortunately, this can lead to stiff and boring socials. Your website is where you want to maintain that sense of professionalism—let down your hair and show off a little personality on social media!Some ways you can incorporate more lighthearted levity into your social media content includes:<ul><li>Incorporating Memes & GIFs</li><li>Participating in Viral Challenges</li><li>Creating Posts of Work Pets</li><li>Dancing in Tik Tok Challenges</li><li>Referencing Pop-Culture.</li></ul>

Join in on the Fads

If someone has already purchased a product or engaged with your content, you want to keep them communicating. Instead of replying with an emoji or a “Thanks!”, keep the conversation flowing with a question. Ask for feedback, get their views on the best feature for a product, and generate a little more back and forth to hold their attention. The longer you keep them engaged, the more you get to establish your brand identity, present yourself as an expert on a topic, and make sure they remember your excellent customer service.

Keep Communication Active

Social media management is all about building a connection and trust with people who may never meet you face to face. Create content that sets you up as an expert, respond to concerns in a meaningful way, and ensure your customers turn to you whenever they need help.

Building Trust

The way you choose to engage with fans and followers online is a great way to showcase your brand identity,

Creative Ways to Connect with Your Online Community

An American cheeseburger is designed to be loved. The gooey cheese, ground beef and toasted buns make it a global favourite, even having its own day: The National Cheeseburger Day, September 18.
Invented by Lionel Sternberger in 1924 in Pasadena, the cheeseburger cost 15 cents at that time and was called the Aristocratic Hamburger.
Hard to believe, but Sternberger invented the cheeseburger!

The Cheeseburger

<ul><li>The biggest cheeseburger was cooked in the Mallie’s Sports Grill & Bar, weighing 1,800 pounds. It is available for USD 10,000 with a three-day notice.</li><li>The tiniest one is made by the Japanese, as shown in a YouTube channel.</li><li>American cheese is the most preferred one to be added to a burger, all over the world.</li><li>The correct placement of the cheese slice in a burger is on the top of the patty, not the bottom!</li><li>Jimmy Buffet wrote a song on the beloved cheese burger in 1978, called ‘cheeseburger in paradise’.</li></ul>

Facts About The Delicious Cheeseburger

When and where was the cheeseburger invented? What's the right way to add the cheese? HowStuffWorks answers your burning cheeseburger questions.

Cheesy Facts About Cheeseburgers

The 1804 Napoleonic Code influenced civil law codes across the globe. It was very influential in developing countries outside Europe, especially in the Middle East.
<ul>
<li>It replaced the fragmented laws of pre-revolutionary France.</li>
<li>It recognised the principles of civil liberty, equality before the law for men (not for women in the same sense), and the state's secular character.</li>
</ul>

The Napoleonic Code

Before the Napoleonic Code, France did not have any set of laws. Instead, law consisted of local customs. Napoleon wanted to reform the French legal system in keeping with the French Revolution.  During the Revolution, the last traces of feudalism were abolished. A new legal code was needed to address the changes in the French's social, economic, and political structure. The code was published in 1804 and named the Civil Code of the French but later renamed the Napoleonic Code.

Legal system in France before the Code

<ul><li>The development of the code fundamentally changed the nature of the civil law legal system. It stressed clearly written and accessibly law.</li><li>The laws could be applied only if they had been promulgated and then published officially. No secret laws were authorised.</li><li>It prohibited laws that apply to events that happened before their introduction.</li><li>The codes also prevented judges from refusing justice based on insufficiency of the law, meaning they had to interpret the law.</li><li>It forbid judges from passing general judgments of a legislative value.</li></ul>

The Code was adopted in many countries occupied by the French during the Napoleonic Wars and became the foundation of the law systems of Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and their former colonies, and Poland. Romania also used a civic code with strong Napoleonic influences until 2011. Thus, the civil law systems of the countries of modern continental Europe have been influenced by the Napoleonic Code (except for Russia and the Scandinavian countries).

The Napoleonic Code influential in Europe

Self Improvement

The Napoleonic Code | History of Western Civilization II

We all have had weird dreams with laughable and bizarre scenarios that defy any kind of logic.
According to a new hypothesis, the random weirdness in dreams is there for a reason: to help us handle the unexpected in a better way, as life is unpredictable and always in flux.

Dreams: A Dose Of Weirdness

Dreams add some chaos to our mundane life, a form of random noise that contrasts with routine life in the daytime.
By creating a Bizarro version of the world around us, dreams help us gain a well-rounded and less simplistic understanding of it.

A Random, Chaotic Dream World

<ol>
<li>Sigmund Freud believed dreams are our latent desires and repressed wishes, which are sometimes symbolic.</li>
<li>Some scientists believe dreams help us consolidate our memory and are a sort of brain housekeeping.</li>
<li>Some believe dreams are ancient biological radars, helping us to practice upcoming threats.</li>
<li>Dreams may help us make new connections by joining together random strings of memories.</li>
<li>Dreams are also seen as a way to build empathy between people by sharing stories.</li>
<li>Dreams may be a way to help us regulate our emotions.</li>
</ol>

Main Theories About Dreams

AI inspires hypothesis that sleeping human brain might try to break its overfamiliarity with daily data 

Weird dreams train us for the unexpected, says new theory

A journey is more memorable if it doesn't go according to plan. Some trips only have a few unplanned events, such as a missed connection or a rained-out parade.
Other trips turn into adventure literature, such as the 1910 Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica, "The Worst Journey in the World."

Good trips come and go. Bad trips are remembered.

Social scientists found that we're not very good at predicting what will and will not make us happy. We think more stuff will make us happy, but research shows that experiences bring the greatest pleasure.
We assume the perfect journey will make us happy, but unexpected twists make the trip memorable.

We don't know what will make us happy

We travel to stretch our abilities, to test ourselves. Bad trips help us to become the hero of the journey.
The steps in a hero story are always the same. The hero starts a journey, is tested, passes the test, and finally returns home transformed.

We travel to stretch ourselves

Bad events make deeper impressions than good ones. Over time, we forget the bad stuff in it and remember the good - known as the "fading affect bias." Researchers show that we will remember the positive ones with heightened emotions in them. 
When we retell a tale, our minds revise it. With each retelling, it gets bigger. You don't just say the fish you caught was the size of a small car, you believe it because you remember it that way.

The memory of a tale makes it memorable

Disastrous journeys tend to be transformative and more memorable than perfect ones—and actually make us happier.

Why bad trips can make for great stories

“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it."

A mindset hack is to expect nothing, and don’t think of anything that is happening as good or bad. Accept things as they happen, as if that is what was planned, letting you move in the particular landscape in a mindful way.
This simple hack makes us less unhappy and less disappointed all the time.

Just Stop Judging And Expecting

Imagine a good thing that happened to you recently and a bad thing. Just imagine those recent incidents as just events, not good or bad in any way. When we stop judging, we are not burdened with emotions, and not chained to the world. Nothing is really good or bad, but in reality, is just our interpretation and perception.
Even big events are events that just happened. Festivals and wars keep happening. Death is always happening everywhere, let it be.

No Good No Bad

<ul>
<li>We feel angry, frustrated or sad with our friends, loved ones and family members because they don’t live up to our expectations. </li>
<li>If we don’t have any expectations in the first place, we would not judge them accordingly, and their actions or non-actions will not cause emotional reactions inside us.</li>
<li>If we travel somewhere with great expectations, we are bound to be disappointed. If we just go somewhere without any expectations, we may be delighted and would enjoy whatever experience comes forth.</li>
</ul>

Dropping All Expectations

We need to stop judging and expecting because it stops our factual understanding. We have already come to a conclusion, our preferred way of something to be, and reality is bound to be different.
Expecting and judging will make us unhappy as reality is never what we expect it to be. We need to stop killing our happiness and start to live our lives instead.

The Reason For Not Judging And Expecting

<ol>
<li>Become more aware during the day, noticing more things around you.</li>
<li>Every time a judgement or expectation is made, just note down the moment and repeat this: No expectations, no good or bad.</li>
<li>Be curious as to why people behave or act in a certain way, removing your coloured glasses behind.</li>
<li>Take whatever comes in your life and experience it. You can only control your responses.</li>
<li>Accept circumstances and people as they are.</li>
<li>Understand that the present moment is a gift, containing infinite possibilities.</li>
</ol>

How To Stop Judging

The Elements of Living Lightly

Is a simple and effective thing to do if you want to stick with a habit for good. No matter the format (calendar, journal, app), it provides immediate evidence whether you are making progress or need to change course.

Habit tracking

<ol>
<li>It creates a visual cue that can remind you to act.</li>
<li>It is motivating to see the progress you are making. You don't want to break your streak.</li>
<li>It feels satisfying to record your success in the moment.</li></ol>

The power of habit tracking:

<ol><li>Manual tracking should be limited to your most important habits.  </li><li>Record each measurement immediately after the habit occurs.  </li></ol>

To make habit tracking easier:

The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing one day in keeping a habit is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.

When your habits break down

This article includes an excerpt from Atomic Habits, my New York Times bestselling book. If you want to stick with a habit for good, one simple and effective thing you can do is keep a habit tracker. Here's why: Elite performers will often measure, quantify, and track their progress in various ways.

The Ultimate Habit Tracker Guide

<ul>
<li>The theory that states that the Earth's "outer shell" is split into huge slabs of rock we call "plates," glide over the Earth's mantle is known as the Plate Tectonics</li>
<li>Alfred Wegener proposed this theory back in 1915 when it was still named the continental drift</li>
<li>Before plate tectonics, the continental drift theory was used to explain the geologic features of a region, which eventually became the unifying theory of geology.</li>
</ul>

Facts About Plate Tectonics

<ul>
<li>Like a pot boiling on a stove, the driving force behind plate tectonics is the convection in the mantle where the hot material near the Earth's core rises while the colder materials sink. </li>
<li>The geologists see it differently though. They believe it's more of a "repeated collision" and call it plate boundaries. The three types of plate boundaries are: Convergent, Divergent, Transform.</li>
<li>These tectonic plates move at a rate of 1-2 inches per year.</li>
</ul>

How It Works: Plate Tectonics

There are seven major plates that currently exist:
<ol>
<li>North American</li>
<li>Pacific</li>
<li>Eurasian</li>
<li>African</li>
<li>Indo-Australian</li>
<li>South American</li>
<li>Antarctic</li>
</ol>
Although, evidence has been found that the Indo-Australian plate has cracked therefore making the total existing plates to 8.

Existing Plates: How Many Are There?

The earliest evidence of the tectonic plates was found in Greenland which was estimated to be abbout 3.8 billion years old. Covnersely, researchers have found that the tectonic plates have been active for as long as 4 billion years ago. 
There have been two supercontinents: The Rodinia which happened a billion years ago while the most recent one The Pangea formed about 300 million years ago.

Earliest Evidence of Plate Tectonics

Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth’s outer shell is divided into several plates that glide over Earth's mantle. It explains the geological features and movements of Earth's surface. 

What Is Plate Tectonics?

<ul>
<li>In the mid-19th century, archaeologists found the ruins of the world's oldest known library in Nineveh (modern-day Iraq). </li>
<li>It dates back to the 7th century B.C and includes 30,000 cuneiform tablets, mostly containing archival documents, religious incantations and scholarly texts.</li>
<li>The Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal compiled much of his library by looting works from Babylonia and other territories he conquered. The majority of its contents are now kept in the British Museum in London.</li>
</ul>

The Library of Ashurbanipal

<ul>
<li>The ancient world's intellectual jewel was established by general Ptolemy I Soter after Alexander the Great's death in 323 B.C. </li>
<li>At its peak, it may have included over 500,000 papyrus scrolls containing works of literature and texts on history, law, mathematics, and science. </li>
<li>The library was supposedly burned in 48 B.C. after Julius Caesar accidentally set fire to Alexandria's harbour during a battle against the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy XIII. </li>
<li>However, most historians believe that it only came to an end in 270 A.D. during the reign of the Roman emperor Aurelian, while others believe it occurred during the fourth century.</li>
</ul>

The Library of Alexandria

<ul>
<li>The Library of Pergamum was constructed in the third century B.C. by members of the Attalid dynasty in modern-day Turkey. </li>
<li>It was housed in a temple complex devoted to Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom.</li>
<li>The ancient chronicler Pliny the Elder said the Library of Pergamum became so famous that it was considered to be in "keen competition" with the Library of Alexandria.</li>
</ul>

The Library of Pergamum

<ul>
<li>The collection of the "Villa of the Papyri" is the only collection to survive to the present day. </li>
<li>About 1,800 scrolls were located in the Roman city of Herculaneum.</li>
<li>When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D., the library was buried - and preserved - under 90-foot of volcanic material. It was rediscovered in the 18th century. </li>
<li>The library contains several texts by an Epicurean philosopher and poet named Philodemus.</li>
</ul>

The Villa of the Papyri

<ul>
<li>Around 112 A.D. the multi-use building complex was completed by Emperor Trajan in the city of Rome. </li>
<li>It consisted of plazas, markets, and religious temples as well as a library. </li>
<li>Two separate structures housed the library, one for works in Latin, and one for works in Greek and each included large central reading chambers and two levels of bookshelf-lined alcoves containing about 20,000 scrolls.</li>
</ul>

The Libraries of Trajan’s Forum

<ul>
<li>Around 120 A.D. the son of the Roman consul Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus completed a memorial library to his father in Ephesus (modern-day Turkey).</li>
<li>The building featured four statues representing Wisdom, Virtue, Intelligence, and Knowledge. </li>
<li>The library may have held some 12,000 scrolls. </li>
<li>Celsus himself was buried inside it in an ornamental sarcophagus.</li>
</ul>

The Library of Celsus

<ul>
<li>The library was built in the fourth century A.D. under Constantine the Great but stayed small until the fifth century. </li>
<li>The collection increased to 120,000 scrolls and codices.</li>
<li>The Imperial Library size continued to increase and shrink over the following centuries due to neglect and frequent fires. </li>
<li>A Crusader army finally sacked Constantinople in 1204, but the scribes and scholars preserved countless ancient Greek and Roman literature pieces by making parchment copies.</li>
</ul>

The Imperial Library of Constantinople

<ul>
<li>Baghdad (the Iraqi city) was once one of the world's centres of learning and culture. </li>
<li>The House of Wisdom was established in the ninth century A.D. during the reign of the Abbasids.</li>
<li>The library was stocked with Persian, Indian, and Greek manuscripts on mathematics, astronomy, science, medicine, and philosophy. </li>
<li>In 1258, the House of Wisdom came to ruin when the Mongols sacked Baghdad. According to legend, so many books were thrown into the River Tigris that its waters turned black from ink.</li>
</ul>

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Kieron L
@kieronl

Are diet ‘cheat days’ ever a good idea?

Creative Ways to Connect with Your Online Community

Cheesy Facts About Cheeseburgers

The Napoleonic Code | History of Western Civilization II

Weird dreams train us for the unexpected, says new theory

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Kieron L@kieronl

Are diet ‘cheat days’ ever a good idea?

Creative Ways to Connect with Your Online Community

Cheesy Facts About Cheeseburgers

The Napoleonic Code | History of Western Civilization II

Weird dreams train us for the unexpected, says new theory

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Kieron L
@kieronl