How To Get Sick

1. Stay out of the sun- In addition to the benefits of Vitamin D production, we also tend to be happier or less depressed.
2. Go to bed after midnight- 1 hour of sleep before midnight = 4 hours after midnight according to Elmer Josephson. It has also been proven that we can die from lack of sleep before lack of water or food.
3. Never let them see you sweat- Could talk forever about this but I’ll sum it up with benefits of exercise and detoxification.
4. Take Mega Vitamins- the angle here is the cheap synthetic vitamins and excessive quantities. Think quality not quantity.
5. Use fluoride toothpaste and mouthwash and drink fluoridated water. Do a web search on fluoride or type in fluoride on mercola.com, the history of how fluoride and human consumption is disturbing.
6. Use artificial sweeteners and avoid sugars - Backing off on sugars is a good idea but there is a reason why we need to consume carbohydrates (sugars). Another blog on artificial sugars is the works. One tidbit would be that artificial sugars are classified as neurotoxins. Ah I don’t know if I want to knowingly and willingly put neurotoxins in my body.
7. Shower every day, but don’t take a bath - Depletes hair oils, alters body pH and the shower head aerates the chlorine in tap water causing inhalation of chlorine in small frequent doses.
8. Swim in chlorinated pools.
9. Don’t breastfeed your baby.
10. Get tattoos.
11. Get all of your immunization shots - The preservatives they contain have been linked to autism and Crohn’s disease.
12. Travel in airplane often - The cabins recirculation of air also recirculates all those little cold and flu bugs as well as disturb inner ear pressure regulation.
13. Expose yourself to electromagnetic energy. Power lines, large generators, frequent talking on cell phone directly to ear have all been shown to increase free radicals (the stuff antioxidants clean up).
14. Use a lot of skin care products, cosmetics, hair care products, nail care products, shampoos, soaps, perfumes, shaving cream, suntan lotion, and antibacterial soaps

• Brown and black hair products increase: hodgkins lymphoma (20% of all cases), mult. myeloma -Tea tree and DEA are carcinogenic.
  
• Toluene is associated with asthma which is found in every fragrance since 1991.
  
• Shampoos break down to formaldehyde.
  
• Antibacterial products have triclosan - absorbed through skin and pose a liver threat.

15. Take lots of medications - antibiotics, oral contraceptives and corticosteroids may cause major problems with GI tract, damage the immune system, cause liver problems and alter enzyme function.
16. Get your cavities filled with mercury (silver amalgam, silver fillings, amalgam fillings) - vapor releases continuously and is linked to neurological and psychiatric problems.
17. Do excessive aerobic exercise - lower immune system, creates more oxidation stress, chronic ligament and joint problems with repetitive motion. Dr. Al Sears has an interesting perspective on how we should exercise.
18. Wear contact lenses and receive implants of other foreign objects - risk to immune system.
19. Live in a toxic home - toxic paint, new carpet, mold, paraffin candles, etc.
20. Wear synthetic fabrics
21. Breathe with shallow breaths - infants are instinctively belly breathers. You can actually increase your metabolism just by breathing in more air by belly breathing.
22. Swallow your food without chewing well (or at all)

• Chewing produces saliva
  
• Saliva breaks down carbohydrates
  
• Chewing action stimulates parotid gland behind the ears which signals thymus gland to produce T cells in case food contains toxins or pathogens.
  
• Best to deliver food to stomach in a near liquid state.
  
• Optimally chew food 35-50 times.
  
• Proposed that simply chewing your food can prevent Crohn’s disease and Addison’s.

8 Perfect Fitness Foods

The following is an article presented by David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding

I found this on Yahoo. It is a good article but I felt the need to make a few comments which will follow each topic in Italics.

It's true: Spinach is muscle fuel. But not because it instantly turns you lean and sexy. Researchers from Rutgers University found that a compound in the leafy green increases protein synthesis by 120 percent, helping your muscle tissue to repair itself faster after you work out. The problem, however, is that you’d have to eat Popeye-sized quantities to experiences dramatic results (we’re talking almost 2 pounds of the iron-packed veggies a day). The good news is that spinach isn’t the only food that can help you to look and feel better than ever--even when you're not exercising.

The right fitness foods help burn fat, build muscle, and even boost your cardiovascular health. Ready to eat your way to better results? These 8 great foods and drinks are guaranteed to make any type of exercise you do more effective—long after you’ve broken a sweat.

EAT THIS!

PINEAPPLE AND PAPAYA
Good for: Muscle recovery
Both of these tropical fruits are loaded with bromelain and papain, enzymes that not only help break down proteins for digestion but also have anti-inflammatory properties to speed up your post-workout recovery.

Remember to avoid the cocktail type drinks, otherwise yes great source. My mother use to always get pineapple juice for us as kids to speed up our recovery from illnesses.

SALMON
Good for: Cardiovascular fitness
Australian researchers found that cyclists who took fish oil for 8 weeks had lower heart rates and consumed less oxygen during intense bicycling than a control group did. The fatty acids in fish oil need to become incorporated into muscle and heart cells to have an effect, and that takes weeks of consumption—so either take fish oil pills each day, or try to eat fish rich in fatty acids multiple times a week to see similar results.

One of the main reasons I keep telling people that fat is not our enemy nor does all fats make us fat. Basically only the man-made one is killing us (trans fat from hydrogenation to improve shelf life).

PB&J or PASTA WITH MEAT SAUCE
Good for: Muscle building and repair
The perfect post-weight training repast has about 400 calories, with 20 to 30 grams of protein (to build new muscle) and 50 to 65 grams of carbohydrates (to repair old muscle). Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or a small bowl of pasta with meat sauce fits that formula.

If the ingredients in your peanut butter extend beyond peanuts and salt you just bought the crappy peanut butter.

PORK TENDERLOIN
Good for: Waist-trimming
Lean meats are a great low-calorie source of protein, and scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, found that eating more protein may reduce the fat around your midsection. People who ate 20 more grams of protein every day than the group average had 6 percent lower waist-to-hip ratios.

The food source for a pig is disgusting to me, I rarely eat pork because I think of what they ate and put in their bodies before I ate them. It’s a well educated food chain thing. Try Chicken or Turkey instead. Even the fats in beef helps lower body fat.

DRINK THAT!

8 OUNCES OF CHOCOLATE MILK
Good for: Hydration
The best sports drink may come from a cow. British researchers found that milk does a better job than water or sports drinks at rehydrating the body after exercise. Why? To begin with, milk has more electrolytes and potassium. The addition of chocolate gives milk the perfect balance of carbs, protein, and fat for speedy muscle recovery.

I am a 100% believer in this. I actually drink raw or fresh milk for that healthy aspect that pasteurization cannot provide. Pasteurization is meant for shelf life and 1800’s mentality in cleanliness.

COFFEE
Good for: Pain relief
University of Georgia scientists revealed that taking a caffeine supplement (equal to two cups of coffee) after exercise reduces muscle soreness more than pain relievers can. Caffeine blocks a chemical that activates pain receptors.

Coffee is a double edged sword that requires an educated decision in whether you would want to put it in your body.

COLD WATER
Good for: Endurance
Drinking cold water before and during exercise can help improve your endurance. In a British study, cyclists who drank about 30 ounces of a chilled drink in the half hour before riding in a hot, humid environment—and smaller amounts as they rode—were able to bike 23 percent longer than riders who downed lukewarm liquids. Drinking cold water may be the most direct way to reduce core body temperature, so it takes you longer to heat up and slow down.

For the majority of us water temp is going to be a personal preference because it will be rare that we would be exercising in such extremes. There are many conflicting studies on water temp.

GREEN TEA
Good for: Muscle recovery
Brazilian scientists found that participants who consumed three cups of green tea every day for a week had fewer markers of the cell damage caused by resistance exercise. So drinking a few cups every day may help your muscles recover faster after an intense workout.

Use caution here, green tea is a stimulant and may disrupt your sleep pattern. When it comes to teas the less expensive ones tend to be the best ones for you. The leaves are less processed.

E = mv²

Not having enough energy to workout or simply stay active simply won’t suffice as an excuse once I break this dilemma down, scientifically. I’m going to revert to Einstein’s famed equation by substituting the speed of light (which does not apply to us) with “work in general” which would give us mv².

Ok so, our energy or lack thereof at times can be related to how much work we are performing.

The Derivation:
E How much energy we put out or have
m Mass meaning the resistance, weight lifted or moved, or simply our own bodies
v Velocity or to set in motion

v² Acceleration or increasing rate at which we move ourselves or “things” in… well think
a faster and faster analogy.

For those interested in this physics stuff, see http://www.lyratek.com/emc2.htm for a more detailed story.

As anyone who exercises can tell you, we actually feel more energized after a good hard workout and we’ve given ourselves a little time to recover.

Here’s why. When we either move stuff that is heavy or quickly as in lifting weights or running- that falls on the right side of the equation- there is a “more value” over there. And because it is an equation meaning equal on both sides, we get more ENERGY out of it. Sure it takes energy to workout. But the more intense the workout the more energy you will get back.

So lift heavier, swim-bike-run faster, throw the weights harder (if using Cormax, or a safe alternative), jump higher and farther and get more out of your workouts. Experience your own increase in energy, by your own doing.

Or in the animal world, move like a sloth be like a sloth, move like a cheetah and be lean, strong and quick like a cheetah.

The Formula for Failure & Success

This week I've chosen a motivational feature by Jim Rohn, whose wisdom is timeless. His words are a good reminder that it is our individual responsibility to make choices that serve us well today as well as lay a foundation to build a solid future.

The Formula for Failure and Success by Jim Rohn
Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day? The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters.

On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape from any immediate consequences of our deeds.

If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it matters!

Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after year... because it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices - choices that didn't seem to matter.

Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don't seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.

But we must become better educated than that!

If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated again. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner despite his parents' warnings, we would have had an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment.

Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware that each error really does matter.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day.

Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in the formula for success? The answer is by making the future an important part of our current philosophy.

Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don't more people take time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it doesn't seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow.

But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the road? We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining
ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old.

One of the exciting things about the formula for success - a few simple disciplines practiced every day - is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.

The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to start today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence – not once we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

"Goals. There's no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there's no telling what will happen when you act upon them." Jim Rohn

Eating to Make Your Workouts Better and Body to Look Fantastic: Part II

What I’m about to share with you is not new ground-breaking knowledge. Rather it’s the simple truth behind nutrient timing.

Post-Workout
Consume a drink containing carbohydrate and protein in a 2:1 ratio within 15 to 45 minutes after exercise.

Most carbohydrate ingested during and immediately after exercise will either be used for fuel or sent to the muscle and liver to replenish stores. The post exercise period is marked by a dramatic increase in fat metabolism, it should be clear that even a whopping carbohydrate and protein drink will not directly lead to fat gain. Just be sure to account for this increase in carbohydrate intake by decreasing your carbohydrate intake during other times of the day (if you are trying to lose weight).

Rest of the Day
Before bed 18oz water
Wake up 18oz of water

Breakfast

• To lose weight: More protein (60%) and fats (30%) minimal carbs (10%).
  
• To gain weight: Even out the proportions to protein (40%), fats (30%) and carbs (30%)
  
• All other meals and snacks: protein (50%), fats (30%) and carbs (20%)—to lose weight.
  
• However to gain weight try: protein (40%), fats (30%) and carbs (30%).
  
• And of course to gain weight eat more and to lose weight eat less, simple math here involving calories eaten vs, calories burned.

From this discussion it should be clear that, using the principles of nutrient timing, one can load up on carbs during and after the workout while reducing them for the remainder of the day.

It’s important to continue to feed some carbohydrate and protein but definitely begin to reduce the total amount of carbohydrates ingested per meal while increasing the amount of protein ingested per meal, a ratio closer to 1:1 might be optimal now.

Also, you're going to start chewing real food rather than slurping down drinks. If we assume you'll be drinking a post-exercise drink immediately after training and you train in the morning or early evening, you'll have time for about two food meals consisting of slower digesting proteins (meats, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc) and low glycemic carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, beans, ancient grains like quinoa, etc).

Since the Rest of the Day is marked by normal physiology, the food you eat during this phase should be adapted to what you know about your tolerance to carbohydrates and fats in the diet. For example, some of you may have relatively poor carbohydrate tolerance and insulin sensitivity. As a result, you should be eating mostly protein and a blend of fats during the Rest of the Day. Others of you might do better on a higher carbohydrate diet. As a result, you should be eating more protein and carbohydrates during the Rest of the Day (as long as you don't neglect getting your dietary fat, especially your essential fats).

“Paying attention to what you eat or drink and just following a good basic diet and supplementing at the right time may not sound all that exciting, but solid scientific research says it works and yields increases in muscle mass, strength and endurance, break through plateaus and suffer less soreness and stiffness after workouts. It can even protect your immune system and keep you from getting as many colds and upper respiratory ailments,” says Dr. Ivy who is an author on the subject of nutrient timing.

The Seven Habits to Follow for Nutrient Timing Success:

1. Eat every 2-3 hours, no matter what. You should eat between 5-8 meals per day.
   
2. Eat complete (containing all the essential amino acids), lean protein with each meal.
   
3. Eat fruits and/or vegetables with each food meal.
   
4. Ensure that your carbohydrate intake comes from fruits and vegetables. Exception: workout and post-workout drinks and meals.
   
5. Ensure that 25-35% of your energy intake comes from fat, with your fat intake split equally between saturates (e.g. animal fat), monounsaturates (e.g., olive oil), and polyunsaturates (e.g. flax oil, salmon oil).
   
6. Drink only non-calorie containing beverages, the best choices being water and green tea.
   
7. Eat mostly whole foods (except workout and post-workout drinks).
   

Note: Artificial sugars or “sugar free” products have no place in your lifestyle. Look for more on this topic in another discussion.