Consciousness

I am occasionally asked, “Joe, what is your program really about?”

And my answer since 1979 is: quality of consciousness.

What does “quality of consciousness” mean? Quality of consciousness is the power of our conscious awareness. All we have is our attention.

A fundamental question: Where do we place, focus, or direct our attention?

That is our life.

What or who do we pay attention to?

How powerful, penetrating or deep is our attention?

What is our attention span?

What is the power of our concentration?

How long can we sustain our full attention? 5 seconds? 10 seconds? 

30 seconds? A full minute? 5 minutes? 15 minutes? 30 minutes?

Can you read a non-fiction book for a full uninterrupted hour? In college, how long did you study each night?

The above are simple indicators of the quality of your consciousness.

If we are interested in increasing the power of our mind, our power of focus and concentration, it helps to understand the fundamentals. The foundation of our conscious awareness.

Our brain is our principle organ of attention, focus, and concentration.  

Your mind, your focus, your attention is only as powerful as your brain is healthy.

Now we begin to grasp the true physiological foundation of our quality of consciousness.

What is the Joe Dillon Difference essential #1? Water.

Our brain is over 70% water. That is clue #1.

If we are slightly dehydrated, we are slightly less smart. We can’t pay attention nearly as well. If we are seriously dehydrated, we are dramatically less smart. We can barely pay attention at all.

What is the Joe Dillon Difference water / hydration guideline?

That’s right. Take your total body weight in pounds. Divide that total by 2. That is the minimum number of ounces of water we need to drink. Each and every day.

THE number one cause of memory loss at any age is dehydration.

Now imagine you are a coffee drinker. Caffeine is a major dehydrator. For every ounce of coffee you drink, you need to drink an extra ounce of water to compensate for what you lost.

Now imagine you are someone who drinks coke or high sugar, high caffeine energy drinks. Now you get a double dehydration whammy: caffeine and sugar.

Now for every ounce of regular coke , Mountain Dew or Monster energy drink, you need to drink at least two additional ounces of plain water just to break even. Because both caffeine and sugar are major dehydrators.

Another example: Orange juice or any kind of “pure, 100%” fruit juice is pure sugar. So, for every ounce of “pure, fresh squeezed” orange juice, you need to drink an extra ounce of water for every ounce of juice just to break even. Juice of any kind is NOT a hydrator.

Now imagine you are someone who drinks alcohol of any kind.

Alcohol of any kind is a major dehydrator. Light beer is about as dehydrating as coffee. Regular beer is a little worse. Wine, which has a much higher alcohol content (proof) than beer is even more dehydrating. And hard liquor (vodka is 80 proof) is a massive dehydrator.

What is ABV? ABV means alcohol by volume.

Regular beer is 5% alcohol by volume. Wine is 12% alcohol by volume. 80 proof vodka is 40% alcohol by volume. 100 proof hard liquor is 50% alcohol by volume. 12% craft beer has more than twice as much alcohol by volume than regular beer.

Example: for each shot of vodka, you would have to drink a full cup (8 ounces) of water per shot just to break even.

Another example: if someone is eating pizza and drinking beer or soft drinks like coke or Mountain Dew, that is a major dehydration event.  

Now if we walk through a not unusual day in an average American’s life, we can begin to grasp the magnitude of the problem.

• Breakfast: a large Starbuck’s coffee plus a muffin or sweet roll.
• Lunch: McDonald’s Big Mac, fries and a soft drink.
• Dinner: pizza and soft drink, or ribs drown in sugary BBQ sauce.
• Maybe another one or two coffees and/or Monster energy drinks sprinkled throughout the day.

Most Americans do not drink any just plain water at all. Ever.

Couple this with how sugar spikes our insulin (as we have discussed before) and how alcohol literally kills brain cells, and it is easy to see why America leads the top 20 economies in the world in dementia, senility and Alzheimer’s.

Why America has the lowest education level of the top 20 economies in the world.

Why we lead the world in obesity and diabetes.

Why America spends more money per capita on health care than any major economy in the world. And yet we, America, are the wealthiest country in the world and yet we are the fattest, sickest major economy.

Why is American life expectancy getting shorter every year?

The answers are so simple and would actually save most people a substantial amount of money.

America is such a great country. We Americans can drink all the water we and our families need right out of the tap.

Begin to avoid some of the major dehydrators that I mentioned and simply begin to drink the Joe Dillon Difference water guideline (divide your body weight by 2 – that is the minimum number of ounces of water you need to drink every day) and within a few days, you will be pleasantly surprised how much more energy you have. How much smarter your brain is. How much quicker and more retentive your memory is. How much stronger you are (our muscles are 70% water – a dehydrated muscle is a weak muscle).

In a week or ten days, you may even notice your clothes getting looser as you begin to shed some body fat.

And, as a bonus, every thing I have suggested is 100% safe for you and your family.

Want a stronger, smarter mind? Eliminate or avoid the dehydrators. Start drinking more pure water every day.

Avoiding dehydration and emphasizing more consistent hydration will increase the quality of your consciousness and your life.

Thanks for listening.

Again, I appreciate your business and your support.

Joe