I’M BACK

I am back now.

I am going to start posting again on this site.

Moving!!!

This will be my last post on this particular site...I will be moving my activity to another site. If you wish you may come along to www.douglas-semple.com. See you there and have a wonderful day...

Just Wondering

Each day I check this blog, hoping that someone will comment...that way I will know that someone actually comes along to read it. I say to myself as I think this, “I wonder the things I ramble on about affects people”......

Quiet Of the Soul

“Sometimes it is the quiet observer who sees the most.”
― Kathryn L. Nelson, Pemberley Manor

If you are full of turmoil;
If you are filled with anxiety;
If you are angry;
If you are not at peace because you think that persons have caused you to be like so;
Then you are never going to be in good health.
Only when you find the ability to quiet your mind and realize that you have total control over your emotions are you ever going to have a chance to have quiet in your soul,
and to have good health to take you into many years.


Therefore....

If bills and lack of money keep you up at night, look at where your responsibilities lie with this matter and then do something to make these concerns go away. Make a resourceful plan to quietly pay down the bills.

If your relationship(s) are causing you to be in angst, look at where your responsibilities lie in this matter and then do something to rectify the situation...and having done all, forgive and walk away. Just because you forgive does not require you stay in a situation where angst and turmoil reign.

Take a deep breath, sit down, close your eyes, and be in the presence of your wonderful God Who has created you, and Who loves you so much....

Watch Your Fitness Levels Closely May 17, 2014

It is vital to keep fit when planning to maintain a lifestyle that is healthy. Eating a well-balanced meal is just as important as ensuring you get enough exercise.Getting fit means that you are going to have to stick to an exercise schedule. A lot of people sign a gym contract and go to a few fitness sessions. There are many people who do not enjoy exercising amongst other members of the gym as they are sure they are judging them. The equipment at the gym can become confusing for some people and these people often are not sure how they should be using them.

 

There is no need for you to give up the idea to improve your level of training just yet. An alternative to exercising in the gym is exercising at home. There are a lot of easy exercises a person can do in their living room. Often people feel that they will need exercise equipment that will help them get to a good shape. They end up purchasing many gimmicks and more than often these gimmicks are hardly ever used and take up space while gathering dust.

A great tip to do when setting up the area for you to start exercising would be to find your favorite cd and turn up the volume.Playing awesome music will create a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere and the workout will not feel as if you are doing a boring chore. When you start exercising at your house, it can sometimes feel like a total drag and in many cases you end up postponing your sessions. If that is what you tend to do, then get a friend to be your accountability partner. You can easily assist and encourage each other.

The first step on your exercise program will be walking on one spot. You might find that doing it to music will help you. You should do this for 5 minutes then start running on one spot for a 15 minutes session.

Next you are going to start with knee lifts. Raise your right knee so that it reaches your left elbow. Then raise your right knee so that it reaches your left elbow. You should do this between 5-10 minutes, depending on how fit you are. You are going to then spread your arms out at shoulder length.

 

When your cardio and legs are done, you will then start with stretch exercises. You will start by standing with your legs open with your hands touching down on the floor for 2 minutes. Bend one of your legs and leave the other one straight. Alternate between both legs so you are stretching your leg muscles. Once you are done stretching, lie down on your back. You will need to make sure that you are bending your knees and your feet are flat on the ground. You are going to start raising your head up so that your chest is on your knees.

Another important point to remember when exercising is keep hydrated at all times. If you want to achieve even better results, exercise minimum 2 times per week. To prevent exercising from becoming tedious, call a friend to join you in your quest to get fit.

Can We Live 150 Years?

The picture is of a passage from a book titled “Can We Live 150 Years?” by Mikhail Tombak Ph.D. The passage is titled “The Art Of Staying Young” on page 142. After reading, go have some positive thoughts and emotions, you will longer and happier...so long as you don’t step in front of the bus :-).

Yesterday’s Post on Chef Mullen

Just a clarification on yesterday’s post.

The way I wrote the post, I did not mean to discount the value of exercising i.e. walking and jogging. Doing these activities are surely valuable to strengthening your cardiovascular system and building your muscular strength and so on. I just wanted to clarify that in and of themselves they are not going to lead to effective weight loss most people would like to achieve. But if you combine it with a nutritional plan designed to provide a balanced approach with good eating habits and healthy caloric intake that sees you burning more calories than you take in, it will inexorably lead to weight loss you will be happy with.

Anyway, as I suggested in the earlier post, please take time to educate yourself about nutrition through reading good books on the subject matter.

Cheers,

Chef and Restauranteur Seamus Mullen

“Never accept your situation - thats my big take away,” Mullen says. “I got it in my head for so long that sickness was just the hand I’d been dealt with in life. It’s amazing to realize the power was inside me all the time.” (Men’s Journal April 2014 vol. 23, no. 4 page 42)

This is a fellow who came to the conclusion that the way to heal from sickness was through the way you and what you eat. The article went about demonstrating how he did this. Very encouraging to read about a case study that reinforces what I have come to believe about my own personal situation and the health situation of those people around me.

I encourage you to start a concerted study and reading about nutrition and what it can actually do for the status of your health and well-being. Trying to lose weight just by going for a walk or jog is not going to do it in a sustainable way. You have to really examine the way you think about food and how you eat and what you eat is what will make the break through in your ability to gain good health and lose of weight. In other words you have to come to some admittance that you have a problem with eating (how you eat and what you eat) that is causing you to gain unhealthy weight and causing you to contract systemic inflammation that gives rise to cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and etc.

So get underway with a journey that will open up new worlds of opportunity to live life and love it to the full extent you are meant to.

Cheers,

I’m enclosing pictures of a beautiful country I recently visited.

These are Pictures of the Philippines where I went for the month of March 2014. I really fell in love with this country and its people. My heart remains there...

Tuesday April 14, 2014

I think I have finally been able to get adjusted to the time zone back here. It took over a week to do that. It was sort of getting tiring being up all night and getting drowsy and sleepy at 4 or 5 am and then sleeping all morning and getting up in the afternoon. Jet lag they call this state.

Anyway time zone wise I am fully back here but my heart remains back in the Philippines. I, most likely, will end up back there soon I think. I just miss the beautiful country side and the mountains and hills where I stayed for most of my time there. I  miss, most of all, the people I met there. Even though their life is very basic and straightforward, they are happy where they are and with what they have. They are ever so grateful when things come there way, they do not take these for granted at all.

As a pursuer of health and well-being I have to say that my spirit came to rest for the time I was there. I never fully realized just how much I never really rested on this side of the earth. I know now that what much of takes up our time and energy here is so contrived and so made up. All these could just fall away and we would still be alive, and in all likelihood, enjoy life more as we should, very much like the people I met on the other side of the world.

Unlike what I have observed over the years here is a total disconnect with concern for our spiritual health. There, it seemed it was a matter of fact thing, it was just something that was part of everyday life. If you saw Manny Pacquiao after his fight with Bradley a few days ago he was in his corner praying. I don’t believe he was praying for a win but he was just giving thanks to his God for the opportunity to have had what he experienced. This is the kind of spiritual connectedness the people have over there, a daily thing, a way of life and thinking...and not afraid to express it publicly. Here we have grown to wise and smart for our own good I think. If we are to be healthy and well, we need to be so in all aspects of it, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Anyway you all have a good day and don’t forget to read a good book on health and nutrition over the next few days....even think about picking up a book on spirituality to read why don’y you ;-)

New Energy and Vitality

Well, hello there. How has the New Year been so far? For me it has been quite awesome so far.

The above is a picture of two books which are very interesting to say the least. I had started reading the Younger Next Year book some time back and was able to finish it just recently. I had said it is a book about redefining what aging is all about, that one can stay young and healthy right up until they are in their 80’s or even 90’s. It lists our some rules to follow to be able to accomplish this in one’s life. The authors bring this information forward based on science and personal experience. At the end they say it is terribly important for a person to stay and keep engaged socially, otherwise you will just end up sitting in your rocking chair and begin to die very quickly. There is nothing more awful then to witness a life that does not engage, bitterness, loneliness, and sickness set in. So stay socially active and exercise and eat right…you will be a happy, healthy 80 year old.

The other book is a recent read. I got wind of it through a weight loss program which I started at Synergee, a fitness centre I go to here in Thunder Bay. Actually, it is much more than a weight loss program…it is a new way of life that is tailor made for you, because you are an individual whose eating habits are none like any other persons. The above describes this way of eating in detail and it should be on your reading list…like real soon because it may just save your life. I believe it is saving mine, saving it from the ravages of diabetes, a disease for which a doctor had told I had. This diabetes is no longer a factor in my life. I had arrested it about a year ago as you may have read in a previous post in this blog.

Going back to the book and the related weight loss program I am on, I am totally convinced that diabetes will become so insignificant in my life. The book describes the program of eating as something that brings the body back into some sort of balance which in turn helps it to heal itself of various things that go wrong with it e.g. diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney disease, etc.

A good part of this program I find is that it brings down the weight without so much effort and anxiety it seems. In addition, my energy level increased tremendously when I got underway with the program. Just a few days into it I was down one pant size and and I felt so much better all around. Presently, I feel like I am twenty years old again.

I encourage you to check the book out and read for yourself about the program I am speaking about. It truly works. I myself am in the best shape of my life and am just enjoying life as I should.

I will write some more about the program and the book later.

Cheers.

HIIT the Ground Running - 33 Min High Intensity Interval Training for En...

This workout will drive up your heart rate and make you sweat…you do this consistently and you will reach a level of fitness that will see you in top physical condition you haven’t been at for forever.

To Lose Weight

In my reading and research of the subject of losing weight I have come to understand that exercising alone is not going to help to lose weight quickly as you would like to. It will help in maintaining your weight and increasing your fitness levels in terms of your cardiovascular health but it will not get rid of the the weight you so much want to shed in the time frame you would like it to. Maybe it will over a long long period of time because exercise will help you to change your rate of food consumption and thereby create the calorie deficit that will lead to weight loss but not quickly for most of us.

What we need to do is look at our eating habits, mainly what we eat and how often, so that we can determine how to eat and what to eat so that we lose weight quicker. We should not be eating pop and chips but good whole foods i.e. vegetables and fruits with our meats that are the size of the palm of our hands. With our meals we should be drinking lots of water as well.

My general point in this post is to alert you to the importance of paying attention to nutrition as part of your health and fitness plans, especially if one of your goals is to lose weight in a period of 1 to 2 years.

Cheers.

Jacinto Bonilla, a 73-Year-Old CrossFitter

Here is another inspiring story of determination…inspite of set backs this guy kept moving forward with his program of good health and fitness. You to can do this…just get up off your couch and make a difference in your own personal life and as a result, you will inspire and make a difference in someones life.

Before you become a superman/superwoman like Jacinto, get to know yourself like I said once before in one of my previous posts. Understand yourself, see yourself the way you are now TODAY!!! If you don’t do this you will jump off your couch and go lift a few pounds and give up after a few days. So take a brand new notebook, title it “Who Is Joe” or whatever your name is, and start journaling every day. Put down everything that you do, everything, if you watch tv for 2 hours put that down. Write down every piece of food that goes into your mouth. If something gives you joy a particular day whether it was seeing a grandchild put that down. Do this for 30 days.

After you have done this for 30 days, review your entries. The exercise will give you a good picture of who and where you are currently. From this realization, sit down and begin to make a few destinations where you want your life to be in 5 years or 10 years, whether its to be like Jocinto or just to lose 20 lbs or eat better or to run and play with your grand child but put something down as goal or destination you would like to work on. After you have put down some goals and destinations begin to construct a road map of how you should get there. For example you want to lose 20 lbs so you look at your 30 day journal and see what there is in it that may not be helping you to lose that much weight and then begin a program of eating the foods that will help you to lose the weight. Maybe you want to play with your children without getting winded so you begin to do a program of walking everyday for 30 minutes so you build up your vascular health to enable you to run with them.

Before implementing your road map, see you doctor and he or she will help you to make sure you are safe to begin the journey following your road map.

Once you begin to do this you will be pleasantly surprised at your powers of self-discipline that you have. These can take you to almost anywhere you desire to be, as long as you you are consistent you your continued mastery of these powers.

One of the by-products of consistent practice of self-discipline is life never gets you down for very long. You will get up and move on with your journey. Look at Jacinto, he got cancer but it did not keep him down for very long. I understood him when he talked about this in his video. I understood his emotions and feelings. When I was told I had diabetes, I felt sorry for myself and just wanted to sit there and let the disease go its course of destroying me as it had many of my friends. I did sit down and cry, I think more from mourning the loss of good health. But after a while I determined this was not going to destroy me, I would stand up to it and so I did. I stopped diabetes and and it is no longer evident in my life (see post “standing up to diabetes”). And you can do the same thing…just be consistent in your practise of discipline in your life.

One more thing, we may not reach the age of Jacinto, 73, or even older. Things do happen after all. The point is that you will get to enjoy each and every day as it arrives on your doorstep when you have determination and self-discipline as part of your life.

I WISH ALL OF YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL OF THE BEST THE NEW YEAR, 2014, WILL HAVE…AND MY LOVE TO ALL OF YOU.

Lindy Barber | A Crossfit Story

This is such an amazing story of determination and effort to follow your passion…I just want to go out there and start lifting 200 lbs hahahaha…but that should be what life is all about, not giving up and living a mediocre life you are miserable in. Go and do what you need to do…NOW, get up off that couch...

4 on 1 with Dan Bailey

Im sure for many of you this would be no sweat at all…:-). Sorry for the bad music…would prefer Vivaldi or something like that.

CrossFit Full Body Workout

Here is another deep winter inside full body workout that will shape you up in no time.

CrossFit Tabata Workout: Squats and Push-Ups

If you really want to challenge your cardiovascular system try this. You will sweat and be in shape and fit in no time. Doing these sort of workouts in your home during the cold winter days will churn out those feel good chemicals in your body.

Total Body Workout

Here is a link to a video that shows the best total body exercise. You will huff and puff but after consistently doing it your cardiovascular health will be super.

http://bcove.me/gww256sv

Hot Yoga

Today I discovered hot yoga and Im liking it a lot, so much so that I will make it a regular part of my life. I came out of a one hour session feeling all pliable and flexible, not like the stiff board that I was when I went in. The lady who led us in that session was very good at what she does. As we did the various moves she also talked to us on breathing well and going within ourselves so that we could clear our minds of all unnecessary thoughts and images that had got stuck there over the day. The quiet soothing way she talked to us calmed my spirit to a steady hum it seemed. It was just great.

The heat in the room was very hot as we did the session, something like 35 celsius with lots of humidity. This is what probably made my stiff muscles to become soft and pliable. The backache I had just sort of disappeared. The experience of being in that very hot room doing those yoga moves reminded me so much of being in a sweat lodge. Both have a calming effect and loosens stiff muscles. But I still think being in a sweat lodge is so much hotter, at least from my experience (this is just being in a sweat lodge one time years ago with the late Josias Fiddler).

Anyway it was a super experience being in that hot yoga session this evening. You guys all have to try it out and confirm my positive experience. Email me at dsemple4@live.com if you have had this experience before and what your thoughts are or if you actually go out after my report and try it out, tell us about your experience.

To good health and well-being, have a good day or evening whatever the case may be...cheers.

Flu Season

I guess that time of the year in the northern parts of North America the flu season has arrived. I have been very sick with one since Monday. Being house bound as a result of it has been sort of hard because I miss the exercising and walks that I usually take. Not good at all. Anyway, I think I will go out and start walking again tomorrow. I had hoped to enter in the Run for the Cure event that is to be held here in Thunder Bay but I guess I won't be there. Run for the Cure is an event sponsored by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce here Canada. It basically is a fund raising effort targeted for cancer research, in particular breast cancer.

You all have a good day now...