From Boot Camp to Boot Hill

Too many people believe cardio and other intense exercise programs such as Boot Camps are the answer to everything related to weight-loss, body toning, wellbeing and longevity. This is misleading and a lie.

Although cardio and strenuous exercise can be helpful (if properly done), they do nothing to slow the aging process and little to help one lose weight. Facts are they do just the opposite, they accelerate the process by generating inflammation which induces oxidative stress and reduces cellular antioxidant capacity.

Overproduced free radicals react with cell membrane fatty acids and proteins impairing their function permanently. In addition, free radicals can lead to mutation and DNA damage that can be a predisposing factor for cancer and age-related disorders.

Participating in long, frequent cardio and weight bearing sessions will break down muscle and increase the production of free radicals. These free radicals are nasty little things that damage the cells in your body and accelerate aging and, as mentioned above, may be causative in the cancer process. Frequent cardio also tends to thicken the heart walls making the heart less efficient and more likely to fail resulting in a heart attack.

But don’t be discouraged! There are ways to lose weight, grow and stay strong while increasing your years without the worry associated with the methods offered by the gyms and trainers most are using today.

Look below at this chart. How many are willing to even put in an hour and if you did what would be burned off? Not much for a lot of work. A dietary change is better advised and more effective. I often tell my patients "you cannot out exercise a poor diet.”

As a local or distance patient I will lead you to a path that will lengthen your life, add to your aesthetics and energize you so you’ll be capable of truly enjoying every moment of this blessed life.

With Care… gi 
x

Eating Right for Every Season of Your Life

Cycling...

This past year I returned to a strict Vegetarian, 60% raw diet. I lost 20 lbs in 6 months and was feeling good, but a few months ago with nothing else changing I began to injure my self doing things I could do forever, nothing big, just a lot of "little itis's." So I examined how I exercise: my form, reps, minutes, etc., did a mental review and remembered no abuse, nothing more that a few over zealous bike rides (I couldn't help myself).  Then I considered my diet might be the culprit.

The fats/oils I was receiving from it were not adequate to nourish (moisten) my body, specifically my tendons. So I gave it some thought and decided to cycle back to a diet containing raw dairy - raw cultured cow butter and raw goat milk and I am again feeling supple, no longer like a dry branch ready to snap. 

This change is a reflection of my willingness to be flexible with my diet, always eating high quality foods, but not stiff about what foods, for how long and how they are prepared.

Seasonally...



Looking back at the history of human beings on this earth offers us much information concerning the natural way of living. How in the not so distant past we ate seasonally, these seasonal foods seemed to offer what we needed when we needed it. This contrasts how we live today. 

Our ability to grow food around the world and have it available in quantity and out of season year round has caused many of us to eat not only a limited variety of foods, but to eat them year round. This habitual, rather than intuitive and seasonal eating, manifested in many issues we experience today. Things that were not so prevalent in the past are creating many internal imbalances.


Out of Season...

What do foods out of season do to and for us? Lets look at what’s grown, when, and how it works with what we are experiencing at that time of year.


In summer things coming from the earth are plentiful and most are quite cooling. In the past, watermelon (the coldest food on earth from a Chinese medical perspective) was eaten exclusively in the summer. We think of picnics, closing a meal with a big slice or adding chunks to a salad.  This makes total sense as we are hot, the weather is hot and so we eat cool/wet foods.  

In winter we would consume stored, preserved foods and meats that do not really have a season. These for the most part are cooked, nourish blood and warm the body. Again, exactly what is needed for that time of the year. Examples are ubiquitous so I’ll not offer them for now.  If you become my patient, we will investigate it all one-on-one.

Food Allergies...

The first reason we began to become “allergic” to foods few have ever had allergies to in the past is because of two factors; one being the food itself. Eating the same food everyday no matter how “good for us” overloads us with food constituents that would usually not be an issue, but because of what they are and the quantity and frequency they are consumed, reach a tipping point and create problems.



The second is the state of our digestive system. When it is unhealthy because of a flesh-based, fiberless diet, peristalsis slows or stops. We have too few complete bowel movements, our intestines weaken, stretch and become porous resulting in remnants of food entering our abdomen outside the digestive tract (Leaky Gut Syndrome). This food is then seen as "foreign material" which prompts the body to produce antibodies to attack the very food we ate for nourishment. This then manifests as allergies.

Being Wise = Being Practical...

Eating a large variety of foods at different times of the year or eating what your body calls for is always wise. You will have to educate yourself so you will be able to self evaluate. If this is not something you feel comfortable doing then find a physician who works from a natural perspective. An Acupuncturist/Herbalist, Ayurvedic Physician or Naturopath will be able to help you to understand your constitution and what foods will best help you obtain balance AND STAY THERE. 
 



All the Best...Gi

How Shall We Spend the Days of Our Life

Hello my friends... As a practicing Buddhist, yet one who is open to hearing from many sources. I am exposed to practitioners of all kinds. Some who seek knowledge via studying the dharma, the words of those who have perceived their own reality of things “as they are.” Others study little, instead perpetually dive off the springboard of the foundational truth of “space is information." They believe there is no need to learn what others know instead believe it is best to learn for oneself through communicating with space on one's pillow (in meditation).

Now it is said all is empty and everything is an illusion. That we live and swim in an impermanent soup of perception composed of a composite of all things manifest. A soup which has no reality in itself for it does not last, falls away the instant it is manifest, and as such is unreal. 

This is all good, but to what end is this information to be used, and how much of it is needed in order to live this life well and to do the work of a Buddha; an awake compassionate human being?

To think too much about something which has no fundamental reality (if you believe it is so) is a waste of our precious lives. Time might be better spent living the life of a bodhisattva (a compassionate being whose intentions and actions are aimed at relieving suffering, that of their own and others) for to know and not do has little worth, and to do without knowledge will bring little positive results. We need to find balance.

So who can answer this question of balance?  Well certainly not me for you. Instead we all have this responsibility to find balance between compassion and wisdom, doing and knowing and the quantity of time spent in these activities.  Our lives are short, our time precious, and the needs to be met great. We must generate wisdom in order to answer these question.

I encourage all who are “on their way” to use their minds, to not be like lemmings who jump to their death following what’s in front of their nose whether it be true or not because of their fear of not knowing or possibly “doing it wrong.”  

My friends once you have found your way to the silence while communing with space, trust in what arises before you, be fearless in your actions, and do good. 

Warm smiles...gi

The Words that Come Out of Your Mouth go into Your Ears and are The Ones you Most Believe

The words that come out of your mouth go into your ears and are the ones you most believe. 

If you are sick, especially attempting to return from a chronic or so-called terminal situation, know that everything you do, eat, think and say will contribute to either your healing or your disease.

My suggestion is to keep this mantra (affirmation) in mind, say it often. 

When you eat say "this is for my healing,” exercise "this is for my healing,” taking supplements "this is for my healing,” meditating, "this is for my healing”. In other words let your body/mind know what you’re doing and why. It worked for me, try it yourself.

Also know it took me years to achieve my healing. This is not something for those without a strong will and stick-to-itiveness. You must stay on the course, a day of backsliding will take you weeks backwards. So please carry on like your life depends on it, because it does.

Be Well, Much Love... gi 

Life is to be Eaten a Bite at a Time

Often our mind is like a television viewer who owns a DVR (digital video recorder) who while watching a program is constantly stopping, going back, and reviewing the past scenes, again stopping, wondering and checking ahead to see what will come next.  Such a person never finds and enjoys the true essence of the broadcast for they are never present with it for more than a moment.

Our minds are like a receiver.  The grey matter between our ears can also store and project, but know this; only the momentary arising’s, the live broadcast, is real... all the rest is either over or has yet to come.

Do not lose your now, stay there, eat it like a fine meal; don’t worry about the appetizer you have completed, don’t project yourself into the desert course, just in enjoy your “meal” one course at a time. I promise it will taste much better.


Be well…gi

The overall cancer rates are much lower in India than in the United States.

U.S. men get 23 times more prostate cancer than men in India. Americans get between 8 and 14 times the rate of melanoma, 10 to 11 times more colorectal cancer, 9 times more endometrial cancer, 7 to 17 times more lung cancer, 7 to 8 times more bladder cancer, 5 times more breast cancer, and 9 to 12 times more kidney cancer. This is not mere 5, 10, or 20 percent more, but 5, 10, or 20 times more. Hundreds of percent more breast cancer, thousands of percent more prostate cancer.

So why is this? Why in a country with less sanitation, less food regulation, less medical care, where most resident wash in the filthy Ganges and other nasty rivers, even drink their waters are far less apt to die from cancers that take the lives of so many millions of Americans?

It's their diet... much less or no meat, more grains, veggies like cauliflower, seeds and spices like turmeric. It is now known, yet ignored by most, meat is a killer, but it is not only abstaining from eating meat, but the addition of the grains, veggies, seeds and spices which manifest this difference.

One of these items has been attacked, books written against it's consumption, that being grains. I know there have been studies that might lead many to believe their results, yet I contend these results are based on GMO grains and that the negative effects come from these modified grains, not the untouched heirloom versions many of us boomers grew up and thrived on.

We also must consider the cauliflower (one of India's favorite veggies) is from the cruciferous family of plants found to be highly anti-inflammatory and as we now know inflammation is a major contributory factor in many pathologies including but not limited to cancer, arthritis and cardiovascular disease. 

Then we have turmeric, that lovely golden yellow herb that colors so much of Indian and Middle Eastern foods. Turmeric has been found useful in the treatment of arthritis, heartburn, stomach pain, diarrhea, intestinal gas, stomach bloating, loss of appetite, jaundice, liver problems and gallbladder disorders.

It has also been found effective in treating headaches, bronchitis, colds, lung infections, fibromyalgia,  fever, menstrual problems, and cancer.

Lastly we might, if your mind works this way, consider the spiritual component. How killing and eating the flesh of other sentient beings might generate karma that offers disease to those consumers.

As always I wish you well, please be wise.

I welcome myself back to my blog.

Welcome back Gabriel from a long journey into other modes of communication.  I've decided that I can today blog while sharing in social media and not have to lose one to do the other. So here I go...