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?'