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...

Darlene Blaney

I recently had the privilege of sitting through a workshop presented by the above noted lady. The information she presented was very interesting and confirmed some of the thoughts I had already had about nutrition being key to making a difference in the state of one's health and wellbeing. Most of what she is about and what she does can be found on her website at the following address: http://www.totalhealthschoolofnutrition.com/about-us.html

Psalm 139:13, 14

"For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in the mothers womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvellous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well"

The above is the text of the Bible verses referenced in the title of this post, "for I am fearfully and wonderfully made". For me, this means that our bodies are incredible organisms that are capable of maintaining our state of health and well-being. Unfortunately, it can only do so much before it wears out with the continuous assault we subject it to on a continuous basis. We just sit around and do nothing when we should be doing physical activity as we were designed to do. We ingest refined food products which are very bad for our bodies. When our bodies become sick and start to fall apart we rush off to the hospital or doctor's office and they give is a "pill" that deals with the symptoms of what goes on in our bodies. That's all these highly trained and expensive health experts do, give us a pill to mask the symptoms, they do not get at the root cause of what is happening with us. Wouldn't it be refreshing if these resource people, in addition to giving us pills, told us that we are too fat and that we need to do something about our lack of exercise and bad eating habits. I think there would be a revolutionary adjustment of our national health statistics if this were to take place.

Just saying...

September 6, 2013 A Wonderful Day

Thank you God for your wonderful mercies which were new this morning as they are every morning.

The other day when I was exercising I pulled my hamstring on my left leg. That is a painful experience I tell you, needless to say I laid off doing anything for two days to rest and let my leg heal. Today I went back at it again and I seem to be ok now. Two more weeks and the half-marathon I will be walking will take place. I am sort of looking forward to the challenge.

The other thing I did today was visit a local pharmacy to do an A1C test. Thats the test that measures your blood sugar levels over a certain number of months. He happily said it was still at a good number 5.5 which is well below the normal of 6 to 7. He said that in adopting a new lifestyle of exercising and good nutrition I have basically reversed my diabetes. I am no longer diabetic. Which is what I had heard from my doctor a few months back but its good to know that I have maintained that good health status.

In the course of our discussion, the pharmacist asked if I was taking over the counter meds. One of the thinks I told I was taking was green coffee bean extract because the ads for it said it helped in managing blood sugar levels. He didn't dispute this but he said it may contribute to sleep difficulties and overly active need to urinate. I did tell him that I had noticed these happening to me so with that those will no longer be in my cocktail of supplements I take.

Anyway, you all have a wonderful day...or night which ever the case may be. Remember to set a determination to change your health status first by getting to know yourself and walking at least 20 minutes a day as a start.

Core and Leg Work

I have been working with Andre at Synergee Fitness to strengthen my legs for my half marathon walk which is slated for September 22, 2013 here in Thunder Bay. I apologize to Andre for naming him Jason in my earlier post. Anyway he put me through a brutal workout this morning. I was just sweating buckets as he had pulling a sled of weights back and forth. My legs are just tired now. I figure by the time I get to the walk it will be an easy thing to do, a lot easier than the workouts Andre is having me do anyway.

I noticed a lot is happening across this world. Especially more so in the middle east at the moment. There is talk of armed conflict in the scale of violence that we have never seen to date. Sometimes I wonder if what we hear constitutes the total sum of the story. It would be interesting to hear an analysis from a different perspective other than what ABC, CNN, or ABC News provides us on this side of the world. In any event I will pray for the safety of the nation of Israel for that is what my Bible tells me to do. I will also pray for the Arab nations that they may get justice for the unjust actions that may have been taken against them by the Western Nations, particularly by the big resource development corporations that come from the Western Nations. I pray that they will get this justice without any resort to violence.

Be as it may be, for the day, for the moment, there is no war yet. I will keep my mind calm and at peace in the midst of this turmoil, my health and well-being depends on me doing this.

Respond

As you read these posts I would appreciate some of your thoughts that I may have influenced to come to the fore of your minds. If you have similar blogs or writings, maybe you can guest write on my blog. Im sure it would be appreciated. I know I would be glad to learn from you. Thank you.

Yesterday's Walk

Yesterday I walked 20.3 kms in 1 hour and 32 minutes. I hadn't planned on doing that, I was just going to put in 5 kms but I just kept on walking. I was enjoying being out on the bush road and seeing all that was there.

Anyway, it didn't hurt so much after, not like it did the first time I did that. My ankles had hurt so bad back then but the trainer told me that it was because I was walking with my feet pointing outward rather than point straight. By walking with my feet pointing outward I was putting a lot of stress on my ankles he said. The other thing he told me was that in order to walk the long distance my core and my back strength have to be good. So I have been working on those and lo and behold yesterday's walk proved out what he was saying. My back didn't bother me after the walk.

Jason, the trainer

 These are some of the pictures of the place I go to exercise at, Synergee Fitness

My Walking

I walk most days for 6 or 7 kms as part of my commitment to living a healthy lifestyle. At least once a week I go for 17 to 20 kms. I had some analyze the way I walked and they told me that I have to straighten out my feet as they were pointing outwards when I walked. He said that this is why my ankles hurt after awhile because a lot of my weight is being put on them. So thats what I started doing and lo and behold my feet don't get achy so much any more after my walks.

The Ontario Expenditure on Health Care

It is said that for every dollar of the Ontario Government's budget 46 cents is made up of health care spending. That is a lot of money. Of this amount of expenditure 44% of it is on caring for the elderly who are sick and unhealthy, and it is known this population figure is increasing as each year passes. I guess this translates into a lot of acute care and long term care programming and related facilities. Can you imagine if public policy shifted and more expenditure was made in area of prevention and maintenance of individual healthy lifestyles. I bet there wouldn't be so much need for acute care hospital facilities and the percentage of unhealthy elderly people wouldn't be so high as it is now. I'm not sure what the public policy picture would look like to enable this but maybe private companies and public workplaces could be subsidized to provide education to their workers on healthy habits and nutrition, having exercise as part of the work day, maybe even having young people required to have military training for a period of time, but lots could be done to try radical public policy to encourage good health high up into the old ages.

This is just late night wonderings...

HARRY'S RULES

Remember that doctor from Younger Next Year, Henry S Lodge, one of the authors of book I have been talking about? Well he has a set of rules (maybe a prescription) that he sets out that will give you a long healthy life. Here is a picture of them.

Rules 2 and 3 is a breakdown of the six days of exercise mentioned in rule #1.

Start keeping these rules and you will start to be healthy and more positive with your relationships as a result.

Cheers