The sacred self

"The body is a sacred garment," according to Martha Graham. "It's your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor". In the Garden of Eden, eating was modeled as one of life's most pleasurable experiences. But then Eve took a bite out of that apple and ever since then men and women have been at war with food.

But I don't think weight problems are God's way of punishing humankind. Perhaps your weight issues are really a symptom of something else - boredom, depression, regret, or rejection maybe. At the root of many issues is our self-loathing at worst, our self-indifference at best.

Food is not the enemy. We are. Break the cycle of dieting and replace it with loving yourself enough to make good choices about your diet. Examine your eating habits this week. Are you honoring your body with your food choices? How can you love yourself back to a healthy relationship with eating? One way is to use Emotional Freedom Techniques. Take steps now towards defeating the natural compulsion or craving that might take you down a path of regretful eating.

Failure for growth

In strength training and fitness, progression is the name of the game. However, as you continually test your limits of accomplishment, whether that's reaching a new level of leanness, increasing your muscle mass or obtaining a new strength maximum, you can fall prey to the belief that you must push yourself to the point of complete 'failure'.

Failure is in fact promoted by many bodybuilders as part of a training strategy. This is the point where you reach a level of fatigue and exhaustion that causes your muscles to literally give out and you can't complete another rep.

One of the biggest problems with training to failure is that the more fatigued you become, the more your form begins to break down. Strict form helps keep you from injury. When your form breaks down, that is when injuries are most likely to occur.

When performing your exercises, always be conscious about form, especially as you begin to get tired toward the end of a set. You could terminate your set at or before the point where you notice that your form breaks in the slightest, and that is usually a couple of repetitions before reaching muscular failure. A training partner is very useful to keep an eye on your form as you go to failure and to keep you safe. Also, don't go to failure on every exercise in every workout. Remember, your muscles like variety.

But you can continue to improve your workouts and thereby your physique and performance without ever training to failure. Try increasing repetitions and or resistance or even density instead. The simple advice of slowing down the tempo and focusing on form will increase results and help keep the doctor away.

Instant gratification

We live in an age of instant gratification don’t we? We want success instantly. We want to change things instantly (even though we generally resist change that puts us out of our comfort zone). Well here is a humorous story for the case for changing more gradually.

A 45 year old woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital.
While on the operating table she had a near death experience. Seeing God
she asked, "Is my time up?"

God said, "No, you have another 43 years, 2 months and 8 days to live."
Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a
face-lift, liposuction, breast implants and a tummy tuck. She even had
someone come in and change her hair color and brighten her teeth! Since
she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well make
the most of it. After her last operation, she was released from the
hospital. While crossing the street on her way home, she was killed by
an ambulance.

Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I thought you said I had
another 43 years? Why didn't you pull me from out of the path of the
ambulance?"

God replied: "I didn't recognize you."

Cereal time

For years I've enjoyed cereal as an evening snack, much to the amusement of others at times. Well now I could be vindicated.

Scientists at Wayne State University had a sample of 58 overweight nighttime snackers where half of them ate a 150 cal bowl of cereal and low fat milk 90 minutes after dinner and the others ate as usual.

This worked out an average of 140 fewer calories than they usually ate after dinner. They lost on average around 2 pounds.

Bear in mind the study was funded by the Kellogg Company. I'm sure if the results came out any other way they wouldn't have even reported it.

They do say the cereal type doesn't matter. It's obvious to me that what does matter is the caloric intake, regardless of the food (though calorie for calorie, natural, fresh, unprocessed foods are always better than refined foods due to the higher nutrient value).

So whatever you snack on, remember, overdo your calorie needs and you're setting yourself up to overdo your waistline!

Wildlife warrior

My brother Len is a real wildlife warrior. For the past 20 years he has selflessly devoted his time and money to the caring of injured and orphaned birds of all types.

He started BIRO (Birds Injured Rehabilitated Orphaned Association) many years a go and found a band of loyal helpers to assist him in his quest.

He nurses about 800 birds a year and happily shares his knowledge with whoever will listen.

Congratulations go to him for being nominated for The Courier Mail and The Sunday Mail's Pride of Australia medal.

He deserves it as over the years he has put every spare dollar he's had into looking after our wildlife, even to the extent that he lets go the maintainence on his own home so he can better provide for these poor birds. Though he is greatly respected by those who also care about animals and many support his efforts if they can, few people really know how much Len sacrifices in order to do what he does. He's a real credit to the world and I'm proud of him.

Five simple rules to be happy

Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.
Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.
Live simply and appreciate what you have.
Expect abundance without attachment.
Give more.

NOW...
Enough of that wisdom...
Remember the story of the donkey a couple of days ago? (When life tries to bury you)

Well here's a new ending to it.

The donkey later came back, and bit the farmer who had tried to bury him.
The gash from the bite got infected and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.

MORAL FROM THE LESSON:
When you do something wrong, and try to cover your ass, it always comes back to bite you.

One wish

A man was riding his Harley along a California beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and in a booming voice, the Lord said; 'Because you have TRIED to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish.'

The biker pulled over and said, 'Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over anytime I want.'

The Lord said; 'Your request is materialistic, think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking, the supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take! It will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind.'

The biker thought hard about it for a long time. Finally, he said; 'Lord, I wish that I and all men could understand our wives. I want to know how she feels inside, what she's thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing's wrong, and how I can make a woman truly happy?

The Lord replied; 'You want two lanes or four on that bridge?'

When life tries to bury you

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well.

The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; It just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey. So he invited all his neighbours over to help him.

They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw.

With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing.
He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed, as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt.

The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up!

Shake it off and take a step up.

Flavor without fat

Today I have a bit more on fat for you.

Fat and sugar laden foods today have changed our tastes. It’s what we’re used to now. But in the obesity battle we’ve got to change our habits.

Search for lite or reduced-fat versions of condiments, like dressings and sauces. One serving of lite mayo has fewer than half the calories (85) of regular mayo (200), but is almost identical in taste and texture.

Skimp on butters, dressings, and creams, using just enough for taste. Flavor with salsa rather than butter, and forgo the "secret sauce" on your burgers.

Use fresh or dried herbs to add flavor to foods without excess calories and fat. An added bonus from herbs is that studies show that spicy foods, flavored with red peppers or chilli peppers, may boost metabolism and help you to stop eating sooner.

Hold the fat

Here's another quick tip on improving your diet.

When cooking, limit the amount of oil you use by using a non-stick pan. You can also use sprayable oils (avoid substitutes and go for the real olive and canola oil sprays) to coat your pans with virtually zero calories.

Instead of commercial aerosols, you could even get a pump action mist sprayer, available in department stores, to evenly distribute 1/2 teaspoon of oil or salad dressing, compared to the 2-3 teaspoons that you would usually pour on for the same purpose - a saving of 100 calories.

You could also blot the fat from greasy foods like pizza or burgers. One could easily soak up a teaspoon of grease, 5 grams of fat, and 40 calories from two slices of pizza alone. Keep doing these things until they are automatic habits. Stay well.

Don't cut all fat

It's important to remember that not all fats are bad. Certain oils (olive, canola), and nuts are nutritious and healthy to eat. However, fat does have more than twice the calories per gram than carbohydrates and protein (9, 4, and 4, respectively).

Generally, people consume too much fat (and too much food overall) and the wrong kinds of fats, which means excessive calories.

With all the processed foods of today and the availability of fast food and packaged food, fat is the easiest part of our diet to fill. Unfortunately most of it is bad fat. So focus on cutting them and reducing overall calorie consumption. Stay feeling full on water and low calorie natural complex carb whole foods.

How to make Law of Attraction work

The Law of Attraction is a big issue at the moment. You've probably heard the hype about "The Secret". They all make it sound so easy to achieve your dreams in only weeks...

Well it could happen and maybe for some it does, but it's probably not going to happen for most people as quickly as the gurus promise it will.

Why?

Well, what most people are teaching about the Law of Attraction is incomplete.

See, the Law of Attraction dictates that you won't attract positive things into your life if you're holding on to negative beliefs about yourself; and you won't attract success if you're holding onto negative emotions, like anger, fear, guilt and jealousy.

Unfortunately few people really how to effectively let go of those negative beliefs and emotions.

In my capacity as a counselor and performance coach I use the most powerful, life-changing technique on the planet for neutralizing those emotions. It allows you to immediately let go of anything that's holding you back from achieving what you desire. It's actually based on ancient Chinese medicine that's been used for thousands of years.

Pick up a copy of my latest book "Eliminate Your Fear" and find out all about it.

Mind power

I'm always on about the power of the mind and how thoughts are real. Well in June 2004 a completely paralyzed man underwent surgery to implant a small sensor in his brain that enables him to play video games, write email, change TV channels and open his curtains - using only his thoughts!

Richard Normann, professor of bioengineering at the University of Utah, invented a tiny sensor that detects neural activity in the brain. This lead to the development of the Brain Gate Neural Interface System. At present three external computers on a cart are needed to process the signals from the sensor into signals like a computer mouse. Eventually these processors will be small enough to fit inside the patients body and be wireless.

So see. Thoughts really are real. With our technology we can detect them and now even harness them, albeit in small ways, to control devices. Amazing to think what the future holds.

Replacing calories

When cutting out high-fat and high-calorie foods, replace them with fruits and vegetables. These essentials are low in calories, but high in volume, fiber and nutrients, so they give a feeling of fullness. They make great snacks and are easy to pack.

Stick to whole foods as much as possible. A potato is a better option than an order of fries, just as an apple is healthier than a slice of apple pie. Make your choices foods you enjoy eating and give yourself plenty of variety so you stick with the good habit.

Weight loss and health really is pretty simple! Maybe not easy... but simple!