Treading Towards a New Horizon

2006-11-06T19:46:00.000-08:00

“Back to the Basics”

Disclaimer: Serious-minded readers of the male persuasion may want to skip this week’s entry, but my female readers will no doubt be able to relate.

There it was in front of me, staring me in the face.

The calendar, that is. Set squarely on November 1.

It had been almost six months since I began this blog, and even a cursory glance in the mirror revealed that no real progress had been made. It was, in the words of a popular Beatles song, time to “Get Back.” Back to the basics.

So I took inventory of both my physical flaws, which I’d been ignoring to a large extent, and the “Tools of the Trade” necessary to combat them. Some tools were already in my possession; others had to be bought. It was here that I again came face to face with the truth that not only is it necessary to suffer for beauty, it is also frequently necessary to have deep pockets – unless you can land yourself on television’s “Extreme Makeover,” for which I did not really care to audition.

I began assembling my arsenal. First, I took the box of still-unopened tooth whitening strips out of my bureau drawer. Then came the still-unopened bottle of Sally Hansen “Hard as Nails” clear polish, recommended as a low-budget but highly effective remedy for skin tags. For those of you not blessed with the latter, they are warty little growths that hang off you like the price tag on Minnie Pearl’s hat. Duct tape has also been touted as a cheap, non-medical remedy, but I personally find nail polish easier to use, especially since it does double duty as a pantyhose-run mender.

Living as I do in a southern climate, sandals are a normal part of my wardrobe. Aside from keeping my toenails at a respectable length, I hadn’t been paying much attention to the condition of my feet, until my heels started getting so rough I felt them snag my sheets one night. Note to self: Take that still-unopened tube of Neat Feet Moisturizing Foot Lotion out of your bureau drawer, too.

I next looked at my fingernails. Never mind that in my youth I was the envy of many a girl for my long, hard nails that needed no aid such as gelatin (the effectiveness of which has long since been disproved) to grow. How long had it been since I buffed and shined them? (Men, if you’re still reading, women do actually buy things to make their nails shine without the benefit of polish.) Of course, the people who sell nail buffers claim their products promote healthy nail growth, as well as remove ridges, but frankly, I’ve never heard a woman yet say to another, “My, what naturally shiny nails you have!” Nevertheless, I went back to the Bureau Drawer of Unused Beauty Products for my largely unused buffers, where I attempted to locate the directions telling me in what order I was supposed to use the black side, the gray side, the white side, or the pink side.

The occasions on which I envy men are rare, but there is one facet of life in which they hold a definite advantage, and that is facial hair. It is socially acceptable for a man to grow a mustache, unless he’s Amish. It is not acceptable for a woman to do so, although I have heard of or known personally some women who have no objection to such a thing, with a former boss falling into the latter category. I did not really become aware of mine as a potential problem until a female relative amusedly pointed out, some years ago, that I should start taking a pair of tweezers to mine, as I had apparently inherited my great-grandmother’s. Plucking my eyebrows is painful enough. I opted for a plastic disposable razor instead.

Until, that is, I began being annoyed by those little dark hairs that seemed impossible to remove with a razor. This time the bureau drawer was no help. It was time for a trip to my local drugstore, where I purchased a tube of facial hair removal cream, along with another box of tooth whitening strips. The first box of the latter was only good for seven days, after all, and I’m pretty sure that won’t be enough to combat more than four decades of drinking iced tea.

And speaking of tweezers....Men are at still another distinct advantage when it comes to facial hair. While I have on rare occasion come across men whose eyebrows looked like they needed the aid of a lawnmower, I have never yet heard of one who actually plucks theirs, although I suppose Hollywood actors may do so. (And then there’s Michael Jackson.) Women’s eyebrows, on the other hand, are a different story. Witness the transition they have made over the years, from the 1920’s flapper’s pencil line to the 1980’s Brooke Shields. My grandmother and her sister plucked theirs to the point of near-extinction in their own flapper days, with the result that they had to use eyebrow pencils the rest of their lives to avoid a permanently surprised look. After years of wrestling with mine, and buying various kinds of tweezers, I think my grandmother came out ahead. The purchase of facial hair removal cream was also designed to cope with this problem.

Several major minefields on the path to beauty, or, at the very least, social acceptance, remained: cellulite, acne rosacea, and Big Bertha, with her close counterpart, Big Beatrice. (See blog entry dated May 29, 2006.)

Unfortunately, neither of the first two conditions is presently considered curable, although they are treatable. While the thought of liposuction has tempted me, seeing it performed on TV was rather horrific, and I’m not talking about just what’s extracted. Plus, there’s the expense and recovery time. What story would I tell my coworkers?

Women the world over have tried many things for “cottage cheese thighs,” but perhaps the most curious one I’ve yet come across involves a rolling pin, plastic wrap, and warm coffee grounds. Apparently this is a method that models use. Heat up some coffee grounds, slather them on your trouble spots, and cover them with plastic wrap. Then take a rolling pin – you know, the kind that people who bake their own Christmas cookies use – and, as Jim Morrison sang, “Let it roll, baby, roll!” (Men, if you're STILL reading, this goes to show that even supermodels are human.) I thought of trying this method, in spite of the fact that I am not a coffee drinker. In fact, I believe I even bought a package of coffee. For all I know now, it’s sitting, unopened, in the aforementioned bureau drawer.

Then last week a friend gave me a tube of cellulite scrub and another of contouring cream. Upon learning this, my mother remarked, “You know those things don’t work.” I said that might be true, but I wasn’t averse to trying something when it was a free gift, as this was. The only problem is that I will most likely run out of my initial supply before any results start to show, á la the tooth whitening strips. I can’t help but think that manufacturers design things this way.

My problem complexion is as tricky an issue as that pesky cellulite, and one I can’t even blame on heredity. At least I can cover the latter with Capri pants in warm weather, which millions of women know are God’s gift to those saddled with dimpled thighs. It appears that the best solution for the former is laser surgery on my broken capillaries, but I took the advice of my dermatologist to try less dramatic therapies first. So out came the expensive cleanser and the expensive lotion and the anti-redness gel (by now I shouldn’t have to tell you where they were located). Not satisfied with the previous results of this regime, I took the additional step of researching makeup formulas suited for the condition, and ordered a foundation for “moderate to major” disguise with an accompanying powder. (I will not bother to mention that the two of them cost more than I have ever spent on any brand of makeup, but at least the foundation is supposed to last a good while.) It doesn’t stop there, however. There is also the doctor-prescribed vitamin supplement, since rosacea sufferers not infrequently have a deficiency in certain substances, to be followed by the doctor-prescribed pills.

I still wasn’t finished with skin problems! While examining my fingernails and their not-so-shiny condition, I was naturally compelled to notice my sun spots. (I am trying to learn to use this term in place of the less flattering, and now no doubt politically incorrect, “age spots.”) My dermatologist had a solution for that, too, a skin-bleaching lotion. You can once more guess that (a) this was not cheap, and (b) from where I had to dig it out.

Last but certainly not least, there were still Big Bertha and Big Beatrice to contend with. So I resumed walking in the evenings and dusted off Eddie Baran’s “Body Sculpting Bodyweight Exercises for Women.” My original intention was to do one exercise per day from each of the three major sections – core, upper body, and lower body. The only problem was that I can’t yet manage the vast majority of them, so my options were quite limited, especially when it came to the upper body – nearly every exercise featured is a form of handstand! Oh, well. I said I was going back to basics. The whole point of “treading,” I continually have to remind myself, is to do what you can, as you can. So I found a couple I could do from the first two sections and started with them, slowly.

* * * * *

Will all these things work, or will the Bureau Drawer of Unused Beauty Products eventually become known as the Land of False Hopes? Only the future will tell! In the meantime, ladies, I would love to hear your side. Men have their war stories, and we have ours. I’ll even promise not to share yours with my male readers, if you wish. Let me hear from you! And until we meet again…may you all Keep on Treading!

2006-10-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

Stop, You’re Breathing All Wrong!

All right, I admit that’s a bit of an overstatement. You must be doing something right in the oxygen department, or you wouldn’t be reading this.

However, thanks to Matt Furey, I’ve learned a method of taking this automatic, necessary action and making it more effective.

I’d been feeling guilty again lately, for neglecting both Matt and Claude Bristol. (Remember him? The author of The Magic of Believing?) Well, Bristol is long dead, so I really don’t need to feel any guilt over him, but there’s just something about Matt – call it his intimidating exterior – that makes you feel guilty about neglecting his teachings, whether you want to or not. Curiously, on the programs I’ve listened to or watched to date, he has a far more soft-spoken manner than one might expect. (I know I was expecting the voice and manner of a Marine drill sergeant when I plugged in my first Fure-Cat CD.) That manner is particularly effective on Matt’s DVD titled “Dynamic Deep Breathing.”

Matt has more than once quoted his idol, world champion wrestler Martin “Farmer” Burns (1861-1937), as saying that “Deep breathing alone has made many a weak man strong, and many a sick man well.” Well, I thought, that is a strong statement! Just what is it about deep breathing that makes it so beneficial to the human body?

One Web article notes that it can increase our vitality and promote relaxation. “When our breathing is full and deep,” says author and Healing Tao instructor Dennis Lewis, “the diaphragm moves through its entire range downward to massage the liver, stomach, and other organs and tissues below it, and upward to massage the heart.” Sounds good. When done properly, he adds, the diaphragm’s upward and downward movements, combined with the inward/outward movements of our belly, ribcage and lower back, “help to massage and detoxify our inner organs, promote blood flow…and pump the lymph more efficiently through our lymphatic system.”

On another level, Farmer Burns promoted the use of deep breathing techniques as an aid to reducing abdominal fat and improving digestion. There’s more to be said on the subject, but in the interest of space I’ll direct you to some useful Web sites at the end of this entry. In the meantime, let’s take a look at Matt Furey’s “Dynamic Deep Breathing,” which he combines with goal visualization for added effectiveness.

To start, Matt and I stood with our feet shoulder-width apart, our hands at our sides, looking straight ahead, but with a soft focus. Then he instructed me to lower my body slightly, with pelvis tucked in and shoulders dropped. Got that? Comfortable? Okay. Now. Inhale and exhale deeply. As you inhale, imagine that you are sucking in a white cloud of energy all the way down to your feet. Then exhale a “dark cloud of negative energy.” As you inhale, repeat to yourself, “Power. Power.” I was too busy breathing along with Matt to actually count the repetitions, but I believe there were probably about ten. If you, like me, experience a little dizziness at first from the unaccustomed oxygen rush, just do however many you’re comfortable with.

Step Two – On your next inhalation/exhalation, imagine “a big yellow sun” in your solar plexus (for all us non-medical types, that’s the pit of your stomach). As you do this round, keep repeating “Power” to yourself while picturing that sun radiating its warmth throughout your body as “positive healing energy.” Personally, I plan to do this before my next job interview!

On to Step Three! Lift your hands to chest level, palms facing out. Again, inhale a cloud of white positive energy, and exhale negative energy, in whatever form it takes within your life. As you exhale, push your hands away from you in a gesture of rejecting negativity. As you inhale, pull your hands back in.

How do you feel? I confess that by this time, with my initial dizziness past, I was starting to experience quite a pleasant sense of overall well-being!

But we’re not done yet. For your next round, imagine that you’re pushing two strong pillars away from you on the exhalation. What do those pillars represent to you? (This is Treader Lucie asking, not Matt.) Anger? Resentment? Bitterness? Push ’em away! You don’t need them!

Step Five – Now visualize those pillars as boulders over your head. What do you do with them? Push them up towards the heavens as you exhale. (Treader Lucie says: Those who are religious might like to imagine that they are releasing their burdens to God.) Next, bring your arms up to chest level, palms facing the floor. Down on the exhale, up on the inhale. You say those burdens are trying to rise up from the floor to overwhelm you? Push ’em back down like balloons.

Step Seven – Stretch your arms out with your palms up. Lift your arms on the inhale, crossing your palms overhead, then bring your arms down on the exhale. Feel like a windmill? Good! So do I!

Still with me? Not dizzy, are you? If so, take a breather (if you’ll pardon the pun). I had to hit the pause button once or twice myself. You don’t know you’re a shallow breather until you focus on not being one!

Okay, back to Step Eight. This time, raise your arms to chest level, about a foot apart, as if you’re holding a basketball. Since Matt instructed me to then imagine that I was “separating heaven from earth,” I found it helpful to picture a globe in my hands. As you inhale, lift one arm up with the palm facing outward, and let the other arm drop, with the palm facing downward. Repeat and switch the direction of your arms on each repetition. Visualize energy being pushed from your palms.

Step Nine – Imagine that you’re embracing a giant cauldron (Harry Potter fans will no doubt find this easy), or hugging a giant oak tree (environmentalists will like this). “Inhale into the little finger of one hand, then into the little finger of the other hand.” (Focus and imagination are definitely an asset here!)

Hang in there, we’re almost to the finish line! Now it’s time to practice your “inner smile.” I have to confess that although I've always been possessed of an active imagination, this one was a bit of a challenge. At any rate, here we go. Imagine a smiley face in your eyeballs. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Smile into the point between your brows, then into each part of your face. Smile into your neck and throat, your heart and solar plexus, your navel, your sexual center (no jokes, please), your arms and legs, your shoulders and back.

How do you feel now? Warm? Positive? Peaceful? Energized? A little bit of all the above? Or are you wondering when we’re going to get around to the goal visualization? Wonder no further, because here it is. Ready? Okay. Visualize a goal you’d like to achieve in front of you. “Inhale into that goal” instead of into your body. (Yep, it was a little tricky for me, too.) Now exhale into it. All your energy is now flowing into that imagined image. As you breathe, repeat the goal to yourself. Focus, focus! Good work!

Step 12. “Smile into the goal so that the energy exchanged between yourself and your vision is one of happiness and harmony.” That may sound a little out there, but hey, Matt does it and it works for him, so give it a try. Add a shot of enthusiasm and desire to your breathing – as Matt likes to quote, courtesy of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” And aren’t your goals worthy of being called great? Well, they’re great to you, aren’t they? Feel the excitement that you’ll experience when you’ve achieved them.

Now let’s wrap up with Step 13. Inhale and bring your hands to your navel, right over left. As you inhale, gather all the energy you’ve created into a small egg or marble. Matt doesn’t add this, but I chose to then move my hands to my heart, picturing myself depositing the egg of my dreams there, safe and sound. Exhale...and you’re done!

Well, not quite. Now is a good time to sit down with your goals in front of you in written form, as you’ll find yourself more inspired to tackle them. Keep this up on a regular basis, Matt says, and you won’t be the same person. While these breathing exercises can be done at any time – perhaps you might want to do a few at work, as you’re able, if you’re experiencing a stressful day and need to regroup – I agree with Matt that they’re a good preparation for the day ahead if done first thing in the morning, and that they’ll help your goals sink into your subconscious, where they can be worked on while you sleep, if done before retiring.

* * * * *

Want to learn more about the benefits of deep breathing, not to mention tips for how to really do it correctly? Check out these Web sites:

http://www.authentic-breathing.com/
http://www.deepsloweasy.com/
http://www.tbfinc.com/breathing_exercise.htm

And until we meet again…breathe deeply as you Keep on Treading!

2006-10-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

Color My World

Readers who are fans of the music group Chicago, or who are, like me, “of a certain age,” will no doubt remember the popular romantic ballad “Color My World.” Maybe you slow-danced to it at your high school prom while singer-guitarist Terry Kath warbled in his throaty baritone, “Color my world with hope…of loving you.”

If Mr. Kath was alive today, he might be singing a different tune – or at least a different lyric: “Color my world…with hope…of losing my acne.”

Or: “Of increasing my energy.”

Or how about this: “Of losing weight.”

Say that again?

It’s all part of the world of color therapy, also known as chromatherapy – a practice that has existed for thousands of years. I was first exposed to the idea a couple of years ago when I attended a book group meeting at an acquaintance’s house. Another, more sharp-eyed attendee noticed that the hostess – we’ll call her Susan – had a small red dot on a corner wall in her living room. I didn’t hear most of the resulting conversation, but picked up just enough to learn that Susan had had someone come in and place strategically colored dots in both her house and her office, to draw such forces as energy, etc.

I was frankly skeptical, although Susan claimed that she could see benefits in her office, where she’d had a dot placed to attract calm, since she had a stressful job. I didn’t dispute the result so much as attribute it to the power of belief.

About a year later, I got another look at color therapy when I received a newsletter advertisement from Dr. Susan Lark, a specialist in clinical nutrition and preventive medicine. One of the featured therapies was blue light treatment for acne. As someone who has struggled with complexion problems for more years than anyone should, my attention was immediately caught. It turned out that blue light allegedly kills the bacteria that causes acne. And even some dermatologists approve of the practice. Well! I thought. I wonder if light therapy can do anything for my rosacea? I eventually discovered that green light was supposed to be effective for that particular condition. After doing some cursory research, I decided against purchasing a special light and giving it a try, although the expense was not outrageous, largely due to the fact that I still had a healthy dose of skepticism on the entire subject of color therapy, intriguing as it was. In fact, I had pretty much forgotten all about it until I wrote last week’s entry on caloric retention.

What does one have to do with the other? Not a blessed thing, except for the fact that I was interested in looking at other non-traditional ways of losing weight after researching CR. Then the word “color” in a magazine article seemed to stand out in bold, and suddenly I had a strong hunch that someone, somewhere, had probably connected the dots, so to speak…especially in our get-fit-quick-and-painlessly society.

I was right. Readers, meet The Blue Light Diet.

Actually, this program isn’t as simple as it might at first sound, but is “designed to be used in conjunction with any nutrition program, exercise program, or virtually any method you might find for weight loss.” So how does it work?

It’s simple. Just install a Blue DietLight in your refrigerator. According to DietLight.com, research has shown that blue light suppresses the appetite, and that blue is the only shade in the color spectrum with such an effect. As if that wasn’t enough, they claim the Harvard Business School discovered that blue light promotes positive decision making and strengthens resolve.

Well, I can see how those two things could help with weight loss. But is it really possible to “turn off your hunger pains every time you open the refrigerator”? Seems to me you’d have to keep the fridge open for a while to get much effect. And what about the times you reach for food in the pantry? Or at the local fast food drive-through? Or even the freezer?

Turns out that the Blue DietLight is accompanied by a Weight Loss Hypnosis CD. According to the products’ producers:

“By using the Blue DietLight in conjunction with the Hypnosis program, every time you open your refrigerator you will be reinforcing your determination to follow through with your weight loss program. Your appetite will be suppressed, your weight loss goals will be brought up by your unconscious mind, along with the image of you being at your perfect weight, to aid you in your quest to lose weight and feel great!”

And you can get both for only $30.

But there’s more. For presumably faster and better results, you can also purchase Red Solarized Water, a “vibrational medicine” that will stimulate your metabolism. (For the record, I have no idea what vibrational medicine means, nor do I know why anyone would want to pour this water into their eyes. Apparently the latter is a possibility, however, since a warning is issued to not do so, as this will stimulate the appetite.) Then there are the Yellow Color Therapy Glasses, which will allegedly improve your focus and stimulate your elimination system. I’m all for improving my focus, but I can’t help wondering how my future coworkers, not to mention my supervisor, would react to my wearing them in the office. Finally, you’ll want to have a Color, Food and Weight Loss Book on hand as well. And the price isn’t bad – for only $50, you can buy the whole package with a Solarized Water Chart thrown in. (The Web site doesn’t explain what those last two products actually are, for some reason.)

I learned one interesting tidbit from DietLight.com – the origin of the term “blue plate special”:

“Weight loss plans suggest putting your food on a BLUE plate to assist in suppressing your appetite. Remember the old BLUE plate specials (when they came on BLUE plates), they had smaller portions, were less expensive, and the customer left feeling satisfied, all thanks to the color BLUE.”

Oh. And now I know why I get those Big Mac cravings every once in a while:

“… [D]o not look at red, orange or yellow as they are natural appetite stimulants, only blue is an appetite suppressant. Now you know why MacDonald's is painted in these colors, they stimulate your appetite, and also cause you to eat and run, great turn over for a fast food.”

Does this mean that if I drink the Red Solarized Water, I should close my eyes while swallowing it?

You may be wondering by now if I’m going to plunk down my $50 for the complete package, or $80 for a more deluxe model that would include blue glasses as well. Not so fast! I won’t deny that I find the idea of color therapy intriguing – and there’s a great deal more to it than I have room to cover in one week – but skeptics aren’t converted at the click of a computer mouse. The fact that the makers recommend their products as tools to accompany nutrition and exercise is encouraging, but I was not overly impressed with their Web site, on which I would have liked to see more hard facts backed by research. I also couldn’t help wondering that even if I used the glasses, drank the water, installed the light, etc., while exercising and eating more sensibly, how much of any weight loss credit would be due to the last two factors and how much could be attributed to the former – especially since I believe the majority of people who have made significant changes in their bodies have done so without the use of blue light or red water.

But I keep an open mind, folks. So if any of you have ever used the power of color to help you achieve any goal you may have – whether it’s for more peace of mind, energy, a better complexion or a slimmer body – write me and let me know. I would love to hear about it. In the meantime, my jury’s still out until I do more thorough research. And if you’d like to do the same, visit http://www.dietlight.com/ or http://www.colorvibration.com/. Tell 'em Treader Lucie sent you.

* * * * *

Readers Write! Last week I had the pleasure of hearing from Matthew Lake, a practitioner of calorie restriction, who lives in Cardiff, Wales. He's been doing CR for about a year and a half and found that his allergies completely disappeared within only two weeks of starting, along with other health benefits. You can find out more about Matthew and his diet at http://www.matthewlake.plus.com/results.htm. Check it out!

And until we meet again…May your path be filled with color as you Keep On Treading!

2006-10-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

Starving for Longevity

Several years back I heard about a newish trend in weight loss, which had to do with reducing calories, in some cases rather drastically, in order to extend one’s lifespan. I don’t recall the source now, but I do remember seeing a photo of one man who looked to my eyes unhealthily thin, but who was planning – or at least attempting – to live to 100 or beyond.

Frankly, I couldn’t help wondering if I really wanted to live that long, if it meant reducing my caloric intake that much. That was a long time to go without my favorite foods, which I was sure I would have to sacrifice.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, when one of the major TV news channels ran a spot on low-cal devotees. I only caught the end of it, but the newscaster was commenting on how adherents were cranky because they were hungry, had to watch how they sat, due to a lack of posterior padding, and how they were frequently cold, due to a lack of overall padding. I guessed that he must be referring to those folks I’d heard about years before, and sure enough, they had their own organization: The Calorie Restriction Society.

(I have said on more than one occasion that there is a society for just about anything in this country, and here again is proof.)

A Calorie Restriction Society? I don’t deny that there’s strength in numbers when it comes to cutting calories, but I suspected this group of being a little over the top. However, my interest was piqued, so I clicked over to the CRS Web site, where I found that the Society, which was formally launched in December 1994, was indeed born out of an interest in life extension, claiming that “the only valid life-extension method that has any proven scientific backing behind it at all is ‘Calorie Restriction.’ ”

I’m not a scientist and have never done any research on the subject of life extension, so that sounded like a mighty big claim. How many calories would I have to reduce, I wondered, if I wanted to live to 100 or beyond?

“Calorie Restriction,” I learned, isn’t just about eating low-fat, low-sugar, low-sodium, and occasionally low-taste frozen meals, or bagged salad mixes, instead of the Big Mac I might be craving. Specifically, it’s “the consumption of a diet with adequate quantities of all essential nutrients, except that the energy content of the diet (caloric intake) is safely reduced (by as much as 10-40%) below the amount of energy (calories) that the body would tend to naturally desire, absent any special dietary measures.”

Ten percent didn’t sound that bad. But forty percent? And that was considered safe?!

Interestingly, my initial Web search for the Society landed me on their “Risks” page, which warned that “calorie restriction may result in a range of negative side effects.” I can imagine, I thought – such as that practitioners might end up looking like cadavers while living to be 100 or more. I stuffed my sarcastic skepticism in my pocket, however, and read on.

CR-induced weight loss can affect the appearance of those who pursue it. No surprise there! Reduced bone mass is another possibility, since that often accompanies weight loss. CR practitioners can suffer from cold sensitivity due to reduced body fat. “This may put you at greater risk in case of unexpected, prolonged cold exposure – such as after a car failure on the highway in winter,” says the Society. Frankly, I would hope that anyone who drives in cold climates in the winter would prepare for this ahead of time by carrying blankets in the car, regardless of their body fat percentage.

“Loss of cushioning” – discomfort sitting on hard surfaces, etc. – is another potential result. While I have occasionally lamented the size of Big Beatrice (see blog entry dated 5/29/06), I couldn’t help thinking about how tired she gets from sitting too long on a comfortable sofa, much less a hard chair, at my current weight. Menstrual irregularity can occur in women with dramatic weight loss. Speaking strictly for myself, this is hardly something I would categorize as a problem, but it certainly would be for women who are attempting to conceive.

As for males, CR can result in decreased testosterone. (Did I just hear the retreating shuffle of masculine feet?) My favorite, however, was the mention of “reduced energy reserves” due to the reduction in body fat: “(B)eing unexpectedly (emphasis in the original) stuck on a boat, locked in a room or lost in a wilderness are all scenarios where energy reserves may be important.” How often does the average person fall into that type of scenario?

And let’s not forget hunger. “Thoughts about food sometimes increase while practicing CR.” I’m not being sarcastic when I say that this must have been about as hard to figure out as determining that the sun is hot.

As any dieter knows, food is frequently associated with social events, potentially leading to more temptation and slip-ups (especially during the holiday season!). CR recognizes this, saying, among other things, that “CR diets may not be suitable for all family members.” How many of you have ever cooked meals for your family containing foods you couldn’t eat yourself because you were dieting?

Finally, the most serious risk of all – that a dramatic change in diet such as CR represents can attract “people attracted to the extreme,” possibly leading to behaviors such as anorexia or bingeing.

So much for the bad news. Now what’s the good news about CR, according to its proponents?

First, the goal of calorie restriction is slower aging and an extended lifespan, with weight loss considered merely a side effect. A safe CR weight is generally considered to be your weight during your late teens or early twenties, providing you were not obese or anorexic at that time. Proponents also advise against shedding pounds too quickly, as it will “flush lots of toxic chemicals into our bloodstream – too fast for our bodies to effectively eliminate,” and that CR should be implemented over a span of at least one to two years.

Second, the Society claims that scientific research conducted since the 1930’s has shown that calorie-restricted diets have improved the health and extended the life spans of every species tested, from worms and spiders to cows and monkeys, and members believe that those benefits are likely to be experienced by humans as well. (By the way, if you’re wondering exactly how one measures the health improvement of a worm, you’re not alone.) One study has even shown that calorie restriction may reverse early-stage Parkinson’s.

Third, some doctors promote CR as a disease preventative. As Dr. John Holloszy, an authority on enhanced athletic performance and disease state management, told CBS News, “There’s no chance of them [practitioners] getting Type 2 diabetes, they have very low blood pressure, and the risk of them getting cancer is markedly decreased.”

But it was the following statement that really grabbed my attention – that exercise is “not an option,” as “CR dieters simply don’t have the calories for it.”

“The calorie restriction protects them from the same diseases that exercise protects against, and more potently actually than exercise,” said Dr. Holloszy. (God bless you, Doc.)

So what do CR practitioners eat? Well, as one Joseph Cordell described it, his goal is to squeeze the most nutrition out of the lowest number of calories. His diet includes blueberries, nuts and apple peel (most of the fruit’s nutrition is stored there), as well as salmon, broccoli and asparagus. And he’s obviously doing something right, since his doctors say he has the blood pressure of a child, the cholesterol of a teen, and a nearly zero risk of heart disease. In addition, he has a body fat ratio of only seven percent, while the average man of his age (late 40's) has a body fat measurement of 23 to 25 percent.

But Cordell is still a realist. “Americans, many Americans, are not good at deferred gratification,” he says. (Amen, brother. You’re looking at one.) In the end, for Cordell and others like him, the potential payoff is worth the restrictions.

How about you? Would you be willing to reduce your daily calories by up to forty percent in order to reap long-term health benefits? It sounds like an easy question, but I’m certain that for the majority of us it would not be an easy practice. In fact, although CR is not really about “Starving for Longevity,” I don’t doubt that, for me at least, there would be days when it sure felt like I was starving myself!

Calorie restriction involves various long-term ramifications, and even the CRS admits that it’s “relatively uncharted territory.” As a proper understanding of the subject requires more time and research than this blog entry allows, I suggest the following resources as an introduction if you think you’d like to give it a try:

The Calorie Restriction Society (http://www.calorierestriction.org/)
"The Longevity Diet" by Brian M. Delaney and Lisa Walford (CRS founders)
The Longevity Meme (www.longevitymeme.org)

* * * * *

I’ll leave you with a recipe from the CRS Web site, which sounds good enough that I’ll probably make it myself in the near future. In light of the recent food scare involving spinach, I had a momentary hesitation about featuring this particular recipe, but since the day will undoubtedly come when we can all eat spinach again without fear, here’s to your calorically-reduced health, and until we meet again…Keep on Treading!

Spinach Omelet (recipe courtesy of CRS member Robert Cavanaugh)

12 ounces raw spinach
Two medium onions, chopped
Two medium tomatoes, chopped
One large red bell pepper, chopped
Six large eggs
One 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
One tablespoon oil

Wilt spinach in covered saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and allow to drain in colander until needed. Heat oil in large skillet and add onions and pepper, cooking until tender. Add tomatoes and continue cooking until moisture is reduced. Preheat oven to 350°. In a large casserole dish, beat eggs. (Add preferred spices here; Cavanaugh likes a half-teaspoon of nutmeg.) Add the tomato mixture and spinach to the eggs and mix well. Top with the chickpeas. Place over low heat for about 15 minutes to firm the bottom. Cover with foil and cut slits to allow moisture to escape. Bake for about 45 minutes. Omelet should be firm; if not, continue baking as necessary. For a golden top, remove cover. Yields eight servings. Suggested serving size: One-eighth pie. Calories per serving: 170.

2006-10-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

The Human Aspect

Seems like I keep getting distracted from returning to Claude Bristol’s “The Magic of Believing” by meeting up with people in interesting or unusual situations, whether it’s on television or in person. Such was the case last week, when I attended a businesswomen’s networking dinner and had the privilege of sitting at the same table with a woman named Carmen Velazquez. Carmen is the President and CEO of a company called Biohazard Response, Inc.

My initial introduction to Carmen and her company came when our table went through a round of one-minute introductions. I was astonished when she described her job, which consists of cleaning up the scene of a suicide or homicide, houses where there has been a death involving infectious body fluids, or residences where there are dead animals and bird or rodent droppings. It wasn’t that I had never heard of such workers before, but I’d never given them much thought, either, having fortunately never been faced with a need for their services. And I suppose part of my surprise was that the mention of such a job seemed almost like a loaded grenade thrown into this atmosphere of happy, positive, well-dressed women.

I quickly went from being startled to intrigued, and made a mental note to speak further with Carmen at the close of the evening. I had to know what had attracted her to such a career. Was she a nurse, perhaps?

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to catch all of what Carmen said, due to the noise level in the room as people were getting ready to leave, but I was struck by her first statement, that she’d had a lot of experience with victims of domestic violence, which led me to wonder if some of those experiences had ended in death. I later learned from her Web site that she had worked for many years with the government on issues of domestic violence, and it was seeing the aftermath of some of those experiences that led her to found BRI. But the one thing she said which resounded with me so strongly that I felt moved to write about her was that her company attempts to bring “the human aspect” to the dirty aftermath of traumatic events.

I learned some important things from BRI’s brochure – such as that police, fire department, EMTs and medical examiner personnel do not clean up after traumas such as those I mentioned above. What surprised me in particular was that most of them are actually forbidden to give referrals to a trauma scene cleanup specialist. Nor had I ever considered that strict federal regulations might apply to such cleanup and disposal (understandably, in the age of HIV/AIDS, they do).

You might be wondering by now what all this has to do with the overall concept of fitness featured in this blog. So glad you asked.

Too often we think of that word as applying only to the shape of our physical bodies, don’t we? Yet we are spiritual beings as well, and our minds and spirits can get out of shape just as easily as our bodies. I believe it’s a form of spiritual fitness that BRI address in three words which appear in their brochure: “Protect and Care.” To quote them directly:

“At Biohazard Response, Inc., these two words define our mission. The Care we take in our approach in serving our clients, while striving to Protect them from the psychological shock and physical dangers. Many people are shocked at the burden of cleaning up, when left to deal with a traumatic episode, alone.”

Carmen, her husband and their certified Bio-Technicians bring “the human aspect” to difficult, messy, odorous and onerous work. As she pointed out, trauma cleanup workers frequently, maybe even characteristically, display gallows humor or macho attitudes about their jobs – and I don’t think any of us could completely fault them for it. I imagine it’s their way of coping with the unpleasantness, much as physicians learn to do to emotionally distance themselves from their patients. But, as Carmen told me, her company is attempting to change that stereotype.

* * * * *

Throughout the evening I had been struck by the theme of community that resounded in the meeting room. Women helping women to connect on a business level was the main focus, but underlying all was the necessity for connection on a human level at the same time. I was moved by an old rabbinical story told by the meeting’s director, which goes like this:

There was a saint who had a vision of life in Heaven and Hell. In Hell he saw a huge table laden with food in the center. Surrounding the table were starving people who all had very long forks attached to the ends of their arms. They could stab the food, but the forks were too long for them to put the food in their mouths. They were screaming in frustration as they tried to eat the food they longed for. In Heaven, the saint saw the exact same table laden with food, and people with long forks at the ends of their arms. However, here the people were all smiling & enjoying the food: They were stabbing the food & putting it into EACH OTHER's mouths!

In my opinion, people like Carmen and her “compassionate company that will put your peace of mind first” are feeding the community in a special way with their focus on “the human aspect” of tragedy. I felt privileged to have crossed paths with her, and that’s why Biohazard Response, Inc. is featured here as Web Site of the Week. Folks, I sincerely hope you never need their services, but in the event that you or someone you know eventually does, I’m glad to be able to recommend them. You can find out more about BRI at http://www.biohazardresponse.com/. If nothing else, drop them an email and give them a well-deserved thanks for the caring they bring to their services.

And until we meet again...Keep on Treading!

2006-09-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

There’s Power in the Pom of Your Hand

No, that’s not a typo above. It’s a pun, and admittedly a rather bad one. But I have to get my readers’ attention somehow.

The “Pom” I was referring to isn’t a cheerleader’s pom, either. (Is there such a thing as a “pom,” by the way? I’ve never seen those articles referred to in the singular form. Former cheerleaders, help me out.) Nope, I was actually referring to the homely looking edible that I like to think of as the piñata of fruits, since you have to give it a good whack to get to the treasures inside: the pomegranate.

Several years back, I had something like pity for the pomegranate. It seemed to be a rather neglected fruit, at least in this country. (Never mind that I hadn’t eaten one myself for a considerable time.) And so it was with delighted enthusiasm that I embraced its healthful properties when I was working for a beverage company and looking for a new product idea for my department’s annual innovation fair.

My own introduction to the pomegranate was with some mild bewilderment over exactly how to eat one. I don’t recall now if someone told me or I simply figured it out after slicing one open, but it was an enjoyable experience – crunching on tart-sweet seeds encased in juice-filled sacs that looked like little rubies. My only regret was that there wasn’t much payoff for the work involved. (It’s not for nothing that one wit has referred to the pomegranate as “the perfect diet food.”)

Neither do I recall exactly what gave me the idea to feature the pomegranate in my beverage theme much later, but as far as innovation went, I was pretty sure no one else in my group was going to be using it. After all, while the “piñata fruit” was popular in the Middle East, its juice sold by sidewalk vendors, I didn’t see much evidence that it had caught on in America. I briefly allowed myself grandiose visions of changing that with a couple of beverages I named “Pom-Pow,” for straight pomegranate juice, and “Peach-Pom,” or something of that nature, for a juice flavored with just a bit of peach nectar. (Okay, readers, these were working titles.)

My attempts didn’t set the health beverage world, or even my department, on fire, but I learned enough to gain a new respect for this culinary rough diamond. First, I was intrigued to learn that Iranians believe the pomegranate was the fruit that Eve fed to Adam in the Garden of Eden, rather than the traditional apple, although personally, I had a bit of trouble picturing that, since she would have needed something to cut it open with. On the other hand, the Good Book says that the pair tended the Garden, so they must have possessed some kind of tools. Well, as I’ve said before, this is not a religion blog and I’m no Biblical scholar, so you’ll have to consult your local theologian on that one. Other cultures have their own pomegranate traditions: the Chinese, for example, eat a sugared version of the seeds on a couple’s wedding day, to bless the newlyweds, while Greeks break open the fruit at weddings as a symbol of fertility.

Today we know that what a BBC News article described as “the fruity panacea” is loaded with vitamins A, C, E and iron, and that its antioxidant properties outweigh even red wine and green tea. (Antioxidants are naturally occurring substances in plants which protect our bodies from free radicals, or “bad chemicals” in our blood.) When I was putting together marketing concepts for my own beverage ideas, I was particularly fascinated to discover that scientists in the U.K. were looking into using a pomegranate-derived substance in the development of an AIDS vaccine, although I don’t know now what became of that study. But our ancestors didn’t need fancy studies or modern laboratories to figure out that the pomegranate, in spite of its slightly inaccessible nature, was a health “super food.” For many years healers in the Middle East, Iran and India have used all parts of the fruit to cure conditions ranging from conjunctivitis to hemorrhoids. It is even said that a paste of the leaves, massaged into the scalp, can apparently reverse baldness. Now that’s not something I’ve ever had a problem with, but take note, Hair Club for Men customers! What really tickled me was culinary historian Margaret Shaida’s statement that when she lived in Iran, she was given a bowl of pomegranates to help her recover from “Tehran Tummy” – a condition I’d never heard of before, but which I strongly suspect bears a resemblance to “Montezuma’s Revenge.”

About a year ago, I was in the bagged salad aisle of my local grocery store when I happened upon a product called “Pom Wonderful.” Holy cow, I thought – someone stole my idea! No, not really. But I was intrigued to find the line of both “straight” and flavored pomegranate-based beverages available in both juices and tea, in an American grocery store. Somebody had finally caught on, I thought.

That somebody was a California-headquartered company called POM Wonderful LLC. According to noted nutritionist Andrew Weil (www.drweil.com), the company pays researchers to study the health benefits of pomegranate juice, gives doctors information on studies, and, naturally, sells pomegranate products. And some of those products sound pretty cool – like the Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea or the Pomegranate Peach Passion White Tea. (Hmmm...were some of this company’s researchers at that innovation fair I mentioned earlier?) If juice is more in your line, you can try flavor combinations of pomegranate with blueberry, cherry, mango and tangerine. For more information, just click on over to www.pomwonderful.com, or check out the produce aisle of your grocery store. Tell ’em Treader Lucie sent you.

The homely pomegranate is indeed a culinary asset, and America is indeed “catching on.” According to a company that tracks new products, 215 new foods and beverages containing pomegranate were introduced to the U.S. market this year, while as many as 258 pomegranate products were added in 2005. So check it out. Not only will you be doing something good for your health while you eat one, but you can impress your friends and family with your knowledge of its benefits and colorful history. Who knows – maybe you’ll spark a local trend.

* * * * *

Of course I couldn’t talk about pomegranates without giving you at least one recipe including same. Enjoy! (Disclaimer: I haven’t actually tried it myself yet – I was too busy writing this entry.) This recipe originally appeared in Sunset magazine.

Fresh Pomegranate Chutney

1/2 cup red currant jelly

1/3 cup finely chopped green onions, including tops

1 cup pomegranate seeds (from a 1-pound pomegranate; see note below)

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

1 tablespoon minced fresh jalapeno chili

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Put currant jelly in a 2-cup glass measure. Heat in a microwave oven at full power (100%) until softened, about 20 seconds.

Stir in green onions, pomegranate seeds, ginger, chili, coriander, and lemon juice; add salt and pepper to taste. Let stand about 15 minutes before serving.

Yield: about 1-1/4 cups

Note: Remove pomegranate seeds up to one day ahead; chill seeds airtight.

* * * * *

Let me know how you enjoy those edible little rubies. And until we meet again - Keep on Treading!

2006-09-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

The Era of Our Discontent, Part II: When Knowledge is a Double-Edged Sword

“…For I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need." – The Apostle Paul, Philippians 4:11-12.

I have to admit that every time I heard or read the above verse, I secretly thought – even if I never would have dared to admit it out loud – that Paul was, in essence, wimping out. After all, if you’re content in any situation, why would you ever reach for something more? It seemed a stagnant way of living.

Last week, however, when I was thinking about contentment and the seeming lack of it in our society, it finally dawned on me that not only was such a thought disrespectful to a great man, but I was most likely misunderstanding what he’d written all those centuries ago. I believe now that what Paul meant by contentment was not satisfaction, as I’d always interpreted the word, but peace of mind.

And what circumstances did he have to challenge his peace of mind! The above verse, after all, was written while he was jailed under appalling conditions. Just thinking about it makes me feel a bit guilty about that box of tooth-whitening strips in my bureau drawer – which box was purchased, of course, in a moment marked by lack of contentment.

Thinking about Paul brought to mind yet another of his sayings that always gave me a twinge:

“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.”

Well! I used to say to myself. Paul was a man, and a single one, at that. He didn’t know how women think, or how most of them instinctively long to be found attractive by the opposite sex.

Yet light seemed to dawn again as this verse came back to me. What I had once simplistically viewed as a condemnation of female adornment now sounded more like an instruction to put our priorities in order…that beauty of character should be our primary concern.

I don’t know if my interpretation is correct, and this is not a religious blog. But for a moment it intrigued me to think of what the apostle might say if confronted with today’s mania for plastic surgery, natural “enhancement” products, and the like. And amusingly, what set off my remembering the verse that has probably caused countless women to secretly cringe was reading about hair: specifically, that of singer Beyoncé Knowles.

What does Beyoncé have to do with St. Paul? Not a thing, really. But there I was, fresh off TV programs about plastic surgery and male enhancement products the night before, just powered on to my PC and connected to the Internet, when I was confronted with the following advisories from AOL:

“Copy Kate Hudson’s Look for Less!” “Get Beyoncé’s Skin and Hair Secrets!”

Since I probably weigh about 100 pounds more than Kate Hudson, I didn’t think there was any hope of my looking like her no matter what I wore. As for Ms. Knowles, we are of different races and she is 21 years my junior. Nevertheless, I couldn’t resist a peek at her “secrets.” I suppose I was inwardly hoping that she might have some previously unheard of weapon that would aid my own occasionally troublesome complexion.

The “secrets” turned out to be a slideshow of different hairstyles the singer has worn during the past eight years. I had expected some advice on how she kept her locks healthy and shining. Instead, I learned from her hairstylist that she “likes the feeling of it being big, long and free-flowing,” while her makeup artist informed the reader that the singer has two sides, one of which is “the natural side, which is about her being real and not wearing much makeup. Then there’s her adventurous side, where I can put strong green shadows on her eyes and fuchsia or orange on her lips.”

Honey, I thought, if you put those colors on me, I’d look like a clown, not Beyoncé! And I suspect the same would be true of many a gal.

But after I had a bit of a laugh at myself, I couldn’t help wondering if a number of young black women were viewing the same slideshow and trying to copy the singer’s look – only to discover that what worked on her didn’t necessarily work on them? That they were still themselves?

By an interesting coincidence, this same week I had been reading a book set in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. At one point, after pondering the seemingly endless choices for lightening my teeth, reducing my weight, vanishing my cellulite, fading my age spots, and so on, I found myself momentarily wishing that I had been raised Amish, where everyone dressed alike and wore their hair alike and didn’t diet or wear makeup or contact lenses or pluck their gray hairs or get braces…but still managed to date and get married.

Hold on. I might be more content, but I would look awful.

And speaking of the Plain folk…

Channel-flipping once more, I came across an interesting story about a Mennonite man who had raised some eyebrows in his community when he opted to have a “body lift.” In my view, he had a valid reason: he had lost about 100 pounds or so and been left with a good deal of sagging skin. Yet this was not his only plastic surgery procedure, and apparently some of his fellow Mennonites viewed his decisions as evidence of vanity.

That got me thinking about knowledge, and when “a little” becomes “dangerous.” It was good for this Mennonite man’s self-esteem to know that such a procedure as a body lift is available. But was it good for his relationship with a community that puts such emphasis on conformity and self-denial? And at an average cost of $13,000, was it good for his finances – especially when it was not his only cosmetic procedure?

The woman I talked about last week, who elected for cosmetic surgery of a sexual nature, agreed with her husband that it had improved their romantic life as well as her self-esteem. In her case a little prior knowledge was evidently a good thing. But what about the woman who cannot afford to have such a procedure done, or the man who buys a “male enhancement” product to find that it doesn’t deliver the desired results? What about the person who buys a tooth whitener that says it will lighten teeth “up to six shades” but feels they’ve only gone up four shades? I found myself wondering if we were heading slowly but steadily into an era of “sexual eugenics,” in which only the most taut/pearly-white/cellulite-free/surgically enhanced would be considered contestants in the romance race.

Perhaps you think I’m being overly dramatic. Frankly, I would not be sorry if that was the case. After all, whenever I look at the people around me, whether in my own family, among my friends, or at the local shopping mall, I see bodies ranging the gamut from obese to Paris Hilton-thin. I see crooked teeth and bald spots and age spots. And I’m encouraged to see how many of these average-looking folks are accompanied by a significant other, although they would seem to be the dream target of many marketers. But then I recall the article describing how some men find themselves concerned about their growing inability to relate to “real” women after a surfeit of airbrushed images, or the statistics about the rapid increase in cosmetic procedures among teenage girls. I remember a former coworker who, when describing a potential date, said nothing of his character but noted that his teeth were straight and white, and another coworker who could not have been more than a size six yet habitually wore a blue denim Oxford shirt over her clothing at work, because she felt she had “a multitude of sins to cover.” And I’m left with more questions than answers.

One possible answer came to me, however, in the form of a fantasy…a dream of a world free of advertising. Would we find our ideas of beauty, our desires and “needs,” changing if we were not surrounded by diets and creams and pills and strips? Of cars and houses with more gadgets? Unless we all join the Amish, I doubt we’ll ever know. But for a moment, folks, it was fun to picture.

In these last two entries I’ve focused on contentment based on physical appearance. Obviously there are other aspects to this issue, but the subject could fill a book. How about you? How does contentment play a role in your life? If you’re willing to share, I’d love to hear from you.

* * * * *

For the first time since I began writing this blog, I have no idea what I’ll be talking about next week. But whatever it is, I hope to see you there. So until we meet again...Keep on Treading!

2006-09-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

The Era of Our Discontent, Part I: False Hope and Discontent

Last week I had planned to continue blogging on Claude Bristol’s “The Magic of Believing,” an important book which I think can be truly life-changing if read with care and applied to daily life. However, a chance encounter with a couple of television programs over the weekend pointed me in a different direction (sorry, Claude), so Chapter Three will have to wait a little while.

Years ago I heard someone who was laid up at home with an illness describe daytime television as “a vast wasteland.” Following surgery in September 2000, I was in full agreement. Following this past weekend, I would have to amend his statement to include some parts of “late night TV” in that description, not just for the cheesy sets, stilted dialogue and highly dubious claims (I could devote an entire entry to the latter alone), but for what’s being sold along with the featured products – false hope and discontent.

The evening was proceeding normally enough when, comfortably ensconced on the family room couch, I channel-flipped over to The Discovery Channel and lit on “Strictly Sex with Dr. Drew.” Dr. Drew is Drew Pinsky, a physician and addiction medicine specialist who teaches at USC’s Keck School of Medicine and hosts the nationally syndicated radio show “Loveline.” Having seen him on TV before and finding it interesting, I stopped clicking the remote to learn about people who undergo various surgeries in order to improve their romantic lives.

I expected to be surprised, startled, bewildered and occasionally downright amused at some of the stories I heard, and I wasn’t disappointed. But it wasn’t until after the show had ended that my mental wheels really began to churn.

This was because of one woman’s testimony, or, more specifically, one woman’s comment. In an attempt to keep this blog at least PG-rated, I’ll say only that the body part on which she had surgery is peculiar to the feminine anatomy and not one that is normally displayed except for under intimate circumstances. And if she wanted to “enhance” it in some form, that was strictly between her and her husband, or so it should have been, in my old-fashioned opinion. What struck me was not just the nature of the procedure – one that I’m guessing many women haven’t even heard of – but her reason for having it done, in spite of her husband’s persistent denials on the show that there were no sexual problems in the marriage: “I didn’t look like the women in magazines.”

Almost immediately I wondered, “What magazines?” The only ones in which I’m familiar with the applicable body part being shown are medical journals or hard-core pornography, and I strongly doubt, as a woman, that women in general are drawn to seeking out these types of images for comparison. That left the possibility that the husband had brought things into the home that were making his wife feel physically inferior. If so, that matter is also strictly between the two of them. In the meantime, while feeling like something of a voyeur, I was riveted much as people are by train wrecks. The show continued from a male point of view, with another guest admitting to his search for physical enhancement. Finally, Dr. Drew’s last guest appeared, a plastic surgeon named Jan Adams (male, in spite of the first name). I was astonished to hear of further procedures that are either being researched or currently used, in particular, one of which involved the injection of collagen into another region that is normally accessible only under the most intimate of circumstances, if it even exists (that being a controversial matter in itself). The program ended with Dr. Adams’ somewhat laughing assertion that, no matter what problem assailed us, "there would always be someone out there to work on it."

That statement stopped me in my tracks.

Fast forward a few minutes to another channel – and no, it wasn’t the Playboy channel – where a man and woman were co-hosting a program dedicated to the wonders of a “natural male enhancement” product. While admittedly feeling more voyeuristic than ever, I was amused by the fact that the body part which one would guess is said to benefit from this product was never actually named. After several instances of this, it finally dawned on me that this was a classic advertising trick designed to avoid lawsuits from something that likely doesn’t work, as if the small print advisories that “Results may vary,” etc., and the repeated use of can rather than will statements were not sufficient alerts. I didn’t stick around to hear all the testimonials, but went to bed, where I found myself unable to sleep, largely due to the avalanche of thoughts and memories that these programs had unleashed.

Perhaps you’re wondering what a person’s choice to have sexually-based surgery has to do with this blog’s overall theme of fitness. What it really has to do with is the concept of contentment, or the lack thereof – something that can certainly interfere with our mental, physical and financial fitness.

I should know. While it’s tempting to point a derisively amused finger at the television set during programs like the ones I’ve mentioned, I’ve plunked down my money on products that promised I could have abs so flat they were almost concave, or upper arms like Linda Hamilton’s in “The Terminator” – just like the models on the cover. And I’ve done it in spite of the “Results may vary” or “Results not typical” disclaimers, if I even spotted them.

Why? Because of two things: discontent, and hope. Discontent with the present, hope for the future. A nearly universal condition, I suspect – one that is essentially at the root of all advertising. Unfortunately, the discontentment didn’t vanish when a product made me jittery, or gave me an upset stomach, or when I discovered that the cover model on one product was a model indeed – of the fashion variety – leading me to suspect that she probably looked that good before she started the fitness program in question…the one I could barely perform.

But does that mean that discontentment is always a bad thing? Surely we should want to be our best, and if a product or products can help us achieve that goal, then is any financial cost too great?

That’s where it started to get interesting…and too involved to cover in just one entry. So I’ll be talking about contentment, or the lack of it, again next week – along with what conservative Mennonites who opt for plastic surgery despite the raised eyebrows of their congregation, and the “hair and makeup secrets” of Beyoncé Knowles, have to do with the subject. I don’t profess to have all the answers, or even very many of them, but I’ll have some thoughts, and I would love to hear yours as well.

* * * * *

Web Site of the Week. Last night I tried a crock pot recipe that I’d like to share with you, courtesy of Internet health guru Chet Day. For those of you who’ve never heard of Chet, he has a vastly informative home on the Web called “Chet Day’s Health and Beyond” at www.chetday.com. While you’re there you can check out his personal blog, his “Recommended Natural Health Tools,” health articles, skin care products, recipes, and weight loss tools. You can also sign up to receive his twice-weekly “Chet’s Crock” newsletters, each of which features a low-fat crock pot recipe, quotation, and health article. The following recipe came from a reader named Joan Elder.

Pineapple Salsa Chicken

3-6 skinless chicken breasts
One can of tidbit pineapple, drained
One can of black beans, undrained
One 32-ounce jar of mild to medium chunky style salsa

Place chicken breasts in the crock pot and add the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for six to eight hours. Serve with warm tortillas and some rice.

Note: I used rice only, serving the mixture over it, but you can also pile it into a tortilla for a nice chicken burrito. Also, as the mixture turned out to be soupier than I had expected, I’d experiment with decreasing the amount of salsa, as well as increasing the amount of pineapple for flavor.

As always, if you find a web site you’d like to share or see featured here, please write and let me know.

Hope to see you again next week for "The Era of Our Discontent, Part 2: When Knowledge is a Double-Edged Sword." Until then...Keep on Treading!

2006-09-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

Guilt – The Great Motivator

It has been said that fear is a great motivator. I submit to you that guilt is at least as effective.

I have been blogging for nearly four months now, and the theme of this blog was supposed to be personal transformation. Well, it still is. There was just one problem, one that has plagued me for most of my life: I was good at dispensing advice, I just wasn’t that good at following it.

Fortunately for all concerned, I was endowed at birth with that pesky little thing known as a conscience, and it had been giving me pricks for some time. Those pricks got a little sharper when an anonymous reader recently asked:

“How much have you lost so far? How are you really feeling since you started this journey? Healthier? Has your pant size gone down? Are you feeling firmer? How about your energy level? You've passed along lots of wise information but left out how Lucie is really doing. What's working for you and how? Tell us about your results.”

I was not completely satisfied with the quality of my answer, and I don’t imagine that Anonymous was either. In fact, looking back at the past few months, I was appalled at the extent to which I’d “backslidden,” as the Baptists would say. And it was so easy to do! Let me give you a few examples.

It’s time for lunch. Oops! Forgot those “Slim” and “Carb Right” supplements I was supposed to take 30 minutes ago. Never mind, I’ll get them in before dinner. Dinnertime arrives. Darn, forgot ‘em again. Never mind, there’s always tomorrow.

Evening walk time. Oops, looks like rain. Later, it’s still overcast but hasn’t rained a drop. Never mind, there’s always tomorrow.

Darn, it’s 4:00 p.m. and I just realized I forgot to read my daily Mem-Card (see blog entry of July 10, 2006) this morning. Never mind, there’s always tomorrow.

As the preacher likes to say: “Can I get a witness?”

Perhaps the sharpest thorn in my conscience, however, came after my recent job loss. I had once wished, half in jest, that I didn’t have to work so I could devote more time to all my motivational and health/fitness materials. Well, all of a sudden I had almost all the leisure time I could wish for. Then why were most of the aforesaid “helpers” collecting dust?

I can answer for the first couple of weeks. Not having taken a vacation in just over a year, I decided to take some much-needed time off for simply “vegging.” Week Three was scheduled for resuming a schedule.

Didn’t happen. Never mind, there’s always next week. Week Four was now scheduled for resuming a schedule.

Didn’t happen. Never mind, there’s always next week.

And that brings me to here and now and today. Thanks to the gentle prodding of Anonymous, Week Five became the week in which I am attempting to put myself back on track. After all, how can I tell other people about ways to improve their lives if I’m not really improving my own? That not only lets my readers down, but myself. So this morning it was back to…

Fifty morning and 50 evening repetitions of Matt Furey’s suggested mantra, “I can and will be what I choose to be,” as well as several morning rounds of “I feel lucky” in the mirror.

A meditation on Matt’s Mem-Card¹ for the day.

The resumption of daily vitamins² (even though they leave a somewhat fishy aftertaste in my throat), Carb Right², Slim², and a tablespoon of flax seed with at least one and preferably two meals per day.

Putting aside drinks such as non-diet lemonade and even my favorite hot tea for more water.

Setting aside hourly increments for writing and motivational reading.

The resumption of cold showers (I shudder at the thought, but I’m keeping it real, folks, and they really are invigorating – once you get past the initial bowling over).

And, of course, daily exercise!

I’m starting yet another new program this week (I see you out there, rolling your eyes) – “Eight Minutes in the Morning” by Jorge Cruise. By this time I shouldn’t need to tell you what attracted me to THAT product. (Hint: it’s in the title, and it sure isn’t “morning.” I hate mornings; they start too early in the day for me.) I’ll tell you more about it next week. I’ll also be returning to Claude Bristol’s “The Magic of Believing” very soon as well. Do yourself a favor, fellow treaders, and add this book to your library. It packs a lot of powerful information into a slim volume for a reasonable price and could very well change your life.

* * * * *

Do you like to eat out? I do, and not just because I don't really like cooking and don’t have to do the dishes afterwards. To me dining out is a special treat, a break from low-fat frozen dinners and pre-packaged salad mixes. Because of that, I admit that I don’t usually count calories or eschew dessert if I have room for it when visiting a restaurant. But many people who are carefully monitoring their calories, carbohydrates and sugars want to enjoy the dining out experience without sacrificing their hard work at other times, and if you’re one of them, I’ve got good news: there’s a Web site that can help you make informed choices. The National Restaurant Association has created http://www.healthydiningfinder.com/, which is collecting nutritional information on the four to ten healthiest dishes at restaurants in a community. Users can enter their town or zip code to search for eateries by food type or price range. The site’s formal launch, which will feature over 10,000 listings, is scheduled for January 2007, but check it out now for a preview.

* * * * *

That’s all for this week, folks. I’ll be back next week with an update on how my return to a more structured schedule is working, a look at “Eight Minutes in the Morning,” and a few more words about the magic of belief. Till then…Keep on Treading!

¹See www.mem-cards.com.
2 See www.amerisciences.com

2006-08-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

Penny for Your Thoughts…

”Mind-Stuff Experiments.” That’s the title of Chapter Two of Claude Bristol’s “The Magic of Believing.” Mind-stuff, indeed! Couldn’t he have come up with a more technical term? I wondered with a smile.

Well, that really doesn’t matter. What does matter is the importance of thought. Centuries ago, Buddha said: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” Ponder that for a minute. What a responsibility it lays on us! Continues Bristol: “Your dominant thoughts determine your character, your career, your everyday life.” I ask you – and pardon the convoluted sound of this question – how many of us really think about what we THINK?

It’s not just our own thoughts that need to be guarded, but those of others, with respect to how they influence us. Bristol points out that “men of powerful dynamic thought have always swayed people by appealing to their minds – whether sometimes to lead them into freedom or into slavery.” (Adolf Hitler came immediately to my mind – how about yours?) Bristol continues by noting that we are bombarded daily by what we hear in conversation, on TV, on the radio and in movies, as well as what we read in books, newspapers and magazines, and, of course, on the Internet, which had not been invented in his day, but through the miracle of which you’re reading this blog. Some of these influences, he says, can lead us to better things, but too many are “upsetting or weakening.”

I have to agree, and I’m sure you can think of an example in your own life as well. Perhaps it’s watching too much hurricane coverage on TV, or reading about one too many murder cases in the newspaper. In particular, I recalled the words of Bethany Torode, a young and highly articulate Christian author, on the Boundless web site several years ago, when she was addressing responses to her recent article about why she and her husband had chosen not to own a TV:

"One of my friends who doesn’t own a TV commented that everyone she talked to on Sept. 11 who had watched the events on television was frightened, depressed, shaken and irrational. Those who hadn’t — who had simply heard about it from others — were much more calm, thoughtful, and sober."

Neither Bethany nor I advocate hiding our heads in the sand when it comes to being aware of current events, but her point, especially when taken in the larger context of the complete article (see http://www.boundless.org/2001/departments/your_turn/a0000624.html), should be clear. Sometimes we could use a fast from the media, or at least a diet!

Bristol then makes another provocative statement: that hard work alone will not bring success. Most Americans are familiar with the term “Puritan work ethic” (also known as the “Protestant work ethic”) that supposedly defines our cultural heritage. How many times have we said of someone, “He worked hard for what he got”? And certainly, in most cases “he” or “she” did. But, says Bristol, something else was required: “[C]reative thinking and firm belief in your ability to execute your ideas.” Successful people in history, he says, “have succeeded through their thinking. Their hands were merely helpers to their brains.” (I love that image!)

As I read on, I began to hear echoes of previous blog entries on that precious commodity I continue to struggle with – desire. Bristol states, as have others, that our desire must be “all-obsessing,” that our energy must be concentrated and applied without letup, to achieve success – in whatever way we define that term. To achieve our objective, we must be willing to make it “the burning desire of [our] life.”

By this time I found myself mentally saying to the long-deceased author, “Amen! Preach it, brother!” But I wasn’t saying it with the enthusiasm of a congregation answering back to the minister. Rather, it was with a sense of chagrin as I recognized myself in these words:

“Most people have a general desire to succeed, but beyond that, everything is indefinite. They merely go along from day to day, figuring that if they have a job today, they will have it tomorrow – and that somehow, they will be looked after in their old age. They are like corks floating aimlessly on the water, drawn this way and that by various currents, either washing up on shore or becoming water-logged and eventually sinking.”

Ee-yowww. Amen, brother, indeed! That one hit a little too close to home.

But let’s get back to the power of thought. For centuries, some have claimed that humans can actually shape events and control matter through their minds alone. Many flatly deny such a possibility; others, me included, are skeptical but still open-minded. After all, as Bristol points out, if radio waves can pass through such solid objects as wood and steel, why can’t thought waves, “if tuned to even higher oscillations,” affect the molecules of solid objects?

Okay, Claude, I thought, you’ve got my attention. I won’t deny the possibility – especially when he goes on to cite various experiments that bear him out, which I won’t go into here in the interest of space. What really struck me was his personal theory – “that [thoughts] create only according to their pitch, intensity, emotional quality, depth of feeling, or vibratory plane. In other words, thoughts have a creative or controlling force in the exact ratio of their constancy, intensity, and power – comparable to the wavelength and wattage of a broadcasting station.”

Wow! If true, doesn’t that give you a sense of power? As well as responsibility?

I again had a recollection, as I read those words. I can’t recall the source now, but the speaker or author claimed to have had a vision of prayer requests on their ascent to heaven. Intriguingly, those petitions accompanied by a strong faith “shot straight up” to the throne of God, while those sent with less belief were weak and wobbly and took longer to reach their destination. Bristol, who does not appear to have been a religious man, seems to echo this when he says, “After studying the so-called mystic teachings, the various mental sciences, and the regular church teachings, I am convinced that they all work in varying degrees, but only to the extent that their followers believe. So it is with prayer, whether it be part of a church service or the purely spontaneous and personal supplication of the individual.”

* * * * *

Where does that leave us? We now have some sense of the sheer power of thoughts – not just our own, but those of others. We’ve been told how important an asset belief is to those thoughts. So now it’s time…to believe.

What do you need to believe for? More money, a better body, better health? As I mentioned briefly last week, my most immediate need is for a new job. And I know now that I have to guard my negative thoughts regarding past “failures” more closely than ever – as the old Johnny Mercer tune says, I have to “Accentuate the positive.” That means focusing on my strengths rather than my weaknesses (although those must never be ignored), and taking time to visualize – with faith! – positive outcomes to my search, rather than letting myself get bogged down by financial fears or wondering if I’ll experience another layoff. So that’s what I’ll be focusing on this week. And I’ll keep you posted as to the results!

* * * * *

Readers Write! I’ve had two interesting responses to last week's post from Anonymous treaders this week. Anonymous #1 writes:

“…[R]eceiving will be undermined by self-destructive sabotaging somewhere soon after if we don't really deep down believe with all our being that we deserve to receive--to be loved--to be healthy and thin--to be all we were born to be.”

Can’t argue with that, A. Believe and receive! He or she goes on to ask:

“How much have you lost so far? How are you really feeling since you started this journey? Healthier? Has your pant size gone down? Are you feeling firmer? How about your energy level? You've passed along lots of wise information but left out how Lucie is really doing. What's working for you and how? Tell us about your results."

You asked for it, you got it, A. The truth is that while Big Bertha (see post of May 29, 2006) seems slightly less poofy since I left my job and consequently (if surprisingly) am eating a little less, especially of fast food, and while my jeans were a little less hard to fasten this week, I haven’t started a new exercise program since I finished The Shaolin Workout described in three recent posts. Sometimes I walk in the evening, sometimes I don’t. Some days I’m good about drinking a lot of water, sometimes I prefer tea or diet Coke. My energy level still varies from day to day, largely depending on my mood, which, of course, largely depends on my thoughts! But this week I’m going back to basics with one of my previously listed “Tools of the Trade” – Alan Gordon’s “Get Fit: Flexibility.” While I have great respect for the routines put out by such fitness gurus as Matt Furey and Ed Baran, both of whose products I own, the fact is that at the moment much of the exercises are too advanced for me, which leads naturally to frustration and discouragement. I’m hoping that Gordon’s book will help me develop some much-needed flexibility with its positions that look to be more my speed. I’ll let you know next week. I’m also studying Maxwell Maltz’s “Psycho-Cybernetics: Zero Resistance Living,” as well as, obviously, Claude Bristol’s “The Magic of Believing,” so while I may be hardly any less overweight, I am feeling mentally stronger! And increased mental strength will hopefully lead to increased physical strength down the road. Thanks for asking, A. – it helps me remember to stay accountable – and please keep reading and responding!

Anonymous #2 had this to say:

“I've been so on the edge of committing to really doing it [shedding weight] myself. I'm a well read person – lots of expert info stored in this noggin. Waiting for what? The right day? The right magic formula? I really think I just need to do it – not in my head but in a way that holds me accountable. I've always been very competitive, so is anyone out there up for the challenge? I weigh in at an all time high of 212 and a half pounds – there, I said it! Today is the day. I will check in regularly with my progress!”

A2, thank you for your thoughts and also for your courage in sharing something so personal…something I haven’t been able to bring myself to do yet after about three months of blogging! Please do keep us apprised of your progress so we can cheer you on. And it sounds like you’re throwing down a gauntlet. Does anyone out there want to pick it up?

* * * * *

I don’t have a decadent recipe to share with you this week, but a movie plug. Yesterday I went to see Oliver Stone’s new film, “World Trade Center,” and highly recommend it. While a couple of friends have told me they’re not sure they’re ready to relive that terrible event, and I’ll admit that there were a few moments at the beginning that had me cringing as well, I appreciated Stone’s subtlety in handling such a tender subject, and his lack of political axe-grinding in favor of focusing on individual stories. The acting is excellent and the overall effect deeply moving. Check it out – you won’t be sorry.

I’ll be back next week – hope you will too! In the meantime…Keep on Treading!

2006-08-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

Professor Harold Hill Was on to Something

Last week I talked about how Professor Harold Hill, the fast-talking salesman of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man,” relied on something called “The Think System” to get the boys of River City, Iowa to produce the Minuet in G on their brand-new instruments…without the benefit of any prior musical training. But the Think System was only a Hollywood invention, of course. Or was it? For the sake of the movie, it was. Yet I think the River City Boys Band had a little extra magic going for them – something that Claude M. Bristol called “The Magic of Believing.”

You may recall how in a previous entry on the importance of desire in effecting change, I described that commodity as being the fuel that drives the car, so to speak. Well, if desire is the gas, then belief is the vehicle. One without the other doesn’t accomplish much. The importance of belief was something that kept cropping up in various motivational materials I acquired, so it was with interest and anticipation that I picked up “The Magic of Believing,” a bestselling classic originally published in 1948 that has never gone out of print, and which is subtitled “The Science of Setting Your Goal and Then Reaching It.”

Claude Myron Bristol (1891-1951) was a journalist and businessman who got his start as a police reporter. As he says in Chapter One, “police reporters are trained to get facts and take nothing for granted.” He was also born with a perhaps above-average capacity for curiosity, an “insatiable yearning to seek answers and explanations” that led him to read thousands of books on such subjects as modern psychology, metaphysics, ancient magic, voodoo, yoga, theosophy, Christian Science, and many others that dealt with what he calls “Mind Stuff” (yes, you read that correctly!). Some of these books were nonsense. Some were strange. Still others were profound. All had one common thread through their teachings, a thread that made them work for those who accepted and applied them. That thread was belief.

Bristol’s own experience with “the magic of believing” began in 1918, when he was a soldier in France. While the exact details of his experience are a bit sketchy, the outline goes like this: Frustrated by his lack of spending money, Bristol made up his mind that when he returned to civilian life, he would have a lot of it. His Army classification card listed him as a newspaper man, yet he found himself “pushing wheelbarrows and lugging heavy shells and other ammunition” until he was suddenly transferred to the First Army Headquarters and placed in charge of a daily progress bulletin. During the next months he “frequently thought about the commission to which I was entitled.” Then, again quite suddenly, he received orders transferring him to the Army newspaper, the staff of which he had long wished to join, although he had done nothing about that ambition. In August of 1919 he returned home, eager to begin building the fortune he’d envisioned. The morning after his arrival, he received a phone call from the president of a club in which he’d been active. This man instructed him to call another, “a prominent man in the investment banking business who had read about my return and had expressed a wish to see me before I returned to newspaper work.” Bristol made the call, and two days later began a lengthy career as an investment banker, which later led to the vice-presidency of a well-known Pacific Coast firm.

Now here, readers, I had to stop for a second. What’s going on, I thought? A man with no prior experience whatsoever gets called out of the blue to join an investment banking firm? Up till now, Bristol has never mentioned an interest in that field. Sounds like sheer beginner’s luck to me. I read on.

Bristol’s salary was apparently satisfactory at the start, but he realized that there were many opportunities to make money in his new field. Exactly how he was to make it was not then clear, but, he says, “During those years I had constantly before me a mental picture of wealth.”

Constantly. Mental picture. Those words stood out to me as if highlighted. They sounded familiar. I read on.

Bristol describes how many people doodle while they’re distracted or talking on the telephone. I certainly do – primarily faces, though I have no idea why. Bristol’s doodling took the form of dollar signs, on every piece of paper that crossed his desk. “I want my readers to remember this detail,” he says, “because it suggests the mechanics to be used in applying this magic which I’ll explain in detail later.” (Hint: it’s not in Chapter One.)

Bristol next describes his unusual-sounding luck while en route to Asia on the Empress of Japan. In his previous travels he’d developed a fondness for Trappist cheese, made by the Trappist monks of Quebec. Failing to find it on the ship’s menu, he made a laughing complaint to the chief steward, who told him that there was none aboard. That didn’t stop Bristol from thinking about it, and increasingly wanting it. One night, after a ship’s party, he returned to his cabin after midnight and found a table with the largest cheese he’d ever seen on it. You guessed it – Trappist cheese! When Bristol again questioned the chief steward, he was told that since he’d seemed so set on having some, the steward had searched all the ship’s stores until a cheese turned up in the emergency storeroom in the bottom of the hold.

But the author’s seagoing luck wasn’t confined to a certain brand of cheese. On a second, homeward-bound voyage, he often thought about how nice it would be to receive the “VIP” attention he’d experienced on the Empress. As he started up the gangplank of the second ship, he said to himself, “They treated you as a king on the Empress of Japan. The least you can do here is to sit at the captain’s table. Sure, you’ll sit at the captain’s table.” You can guess what happened next! Later, Bristol got a letter from the captain to substantiate his story, which he included in his lectures. The captain said that as Bristol came aboard, “something” told him to seat Bristol at his table. He could not give any further explanation.

Not surprisingly, Bristol notes that many who heard this story declared it to be coincidence. He is positive that it was not. “It’s the belief or the basic confidence within you that brings outward material results,” he says.

Chapter One cites other instances of belief bringing results, ranging from the curing of warts to the doubling, trebling and even quadrupling of personal income. In one particularly notable instance, Bristol describes how his firm was “going on the rocks” during the Depression, “not because of the threatening outside happenings and events, but because of the mental attitude of our employees. We were all succumbing to mass-fear thoughts….With our own thoughts of ruin, we were attracting the disaster to ourselves.”

What did Bristol do? As he says, to save his firm and begin fighting the Depression itself, “all I needed to do was reverse the thinking of every person connected with our organization.” ALL, indeed! Yet apparently he was successful, because, according to the man who wrote the introduction for Bristol’s first book, this insight was followed by “the most remarkable transformation of individuals and organization as well.”

No doubt you’re wondering, “Well, what’s the secret? How did he do it?” Patience, readers! I’ve only just finished Chapter One!

Actually, that’s not quite true. I had made it about halfway through the book on my first reading a few months ago, but the going isn’t light, and the material should definitely be studied more than once for full absorption. However, in my own case, I had a particular motivation for restarting the book: a couple of weeks ago, I once again (involuntarily) joined the ranks of the unemployed. In the weeks ahead, as I consider studying a new career path, and in the meantime finding a new job that will pay for my training in that path, should I choose to pursue it, I’m going to have a far greater need for the power that comes with believing than I did before.

How about you, readers? Is there a need or lack in your own life for which you need the power of belief? Have you ever read, or are you currently reading, “The Magic of Believing”? If so, how have you applied it and what have you learned? I would love to hear about your experiences.

* * * * *

There’s no “magic” involved in the recipe I’m featuring this week as a thank you to my readers for hanging out with me these past few months…just a whole lot of good taste and decadent calories. (Disclaimer: I refuse to be held responsible for any extra exercise that may be necessitated by your indulgence in it.) This simple peanut butter pie – and I can personally testify as to its deliciousness – came to me courtesy of a former coworker. You can, of course, make it a little less decadent by using low-fat versions of the ingredients.

Treader Lucie’s “Thanks for Reading!” Peanut Butter Pie Recipe

Mix together one cup of Cool Whip, one cup of peanut butter, one cup of powdered sugar, and one block of softened cream cheese. Place in eight-inch graham cracker piecrust shell and chill for several hours. Eat and enjoy!

* * * * *

I’ll be continuing with Claude Bristol’s “The Magic of Believing” next week. Hope to see you then! In the meantime, as always…Keep on Treading!

2006-08-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

Training the Way of the Warrior, Part III: Does It Really Work?

In the interest of not boring my readers, I’m condensing the last two parts of Sifu Shi Yan Ming’s “The Shaolin Workout” into this final part III of my analysis. As you’ll recall, Sifu’s routine encompasses only 28 days, but it's not as simple as it at first appears. In parts three and four, the kicks and crouches and one-legged stands increase. He even adds a few hops. I followed along as best I could, but didn’t really meet my Waterloo until I came to the Crossed Seated Stance. One look at the illustration was as much as I needed, but my conscience wouldn’t let me describe it here without at least trying it. If you’d like to give it a shot yourself, here are the slightly paraphrased instructions:

“Stand straight and relaxed, feet planted firmly, slightly farther apart than shoulder width. Turn your body to the left, pivoting on both feet, without lifting your feet or taking a step. When you’ve turned 180°, so that you’re now facing the opposite direction of where you started, go down slowly into a cross-legged crouch. Go down gently until you’re sitting on the ground, with your legs crossed, the left leg over the right thigh. Be mindful of keeping your body fully extended, back straight, head and chin up.”

I can crouch, but I can’t get myself down to the floor in this position without landing on Big Beatrice in a most un-Shaolin-like heap. (Stop laughing out there! I see you!) But wait – it gets worse! Sifu actually expects me to rise back to my original position!

“To return to your original standing position, simply ‘unwind’ yourself. As you begin to rise from the ground, turn your body to the right, pivoting on both feet. Keep turning and pivoting until you’re standing in your original position. Remember not to lift your feet or take a step. Just pivot in one spot.”

Don’t lift your feet? Don’t take a step? I have four words for you, Sifu: Bring on the crane.

"The Shaolin Workout" comes to a close soon after, with a photo of Sifu blowing a kiss to his readers. It’s a sweet gesture, but I’m feeling less than appreciative at the moment. However, that’s not his fault.

* * * * *

You’ve heard my thoughts on Sifu’s routine – what do others have to say? Amazon.com reviewers gave it an average of four out of five stars. Here’s a pro and con sampling of their comments.

“As a how-to, it’s limited because all martial arts and especially the more subtle ones have to be shown and taught in person….Some of the daily meditations are a little over the top, but the enthusiasm is catchy….Why does a stay-at-home mom need to learn Kung-Fu? Why not? Part of transforming your body and soul is just being open-minded. We all need to do things for ourselves occasionally, even if it is a simple stretch….It’s the only workout I’ve ever really enjoyed that didn’t involve a competitive sport….After just a few days I could feel myself standing taller and walking with better posture….No normal person would actually do this workout on their own for very long; it is just too strenuous to endure without encouragement from an instructor….To perform the techniques as he [Sifu] does takes relentless hours of practice, so the 28-days mantra is deceptive at best….There is ample reason to read this book even if you do not train physically because the life philosophy applies to all.”

And that brings me to the next part of "The Shaolin Workout" that I wanted to spotlight – the daily meditations. These bear repeated study even if you've ceased to do the workout. One of my favorites was “Dripping water bores a hole in the rock.” The persistence of dripping water is indeed what many of us need to achieve mastery over Sifu’s routine or whatever workout we choose, especially when we start from Ground Zero, as I did (see blog entry of May 22, 2006). As Sifu says (and how contrary this is to the typical American way of life!): “Your improvement may be so gradual that you don’t even notice, but don’t give up. Be as patient as the rain and the ice.”

Another one I particularly liked was “Beautiful birds always land on the top of the tree. Brilliant people always express their ideas up higher.” Sifu asks if we’ve ever seen a lazy bird. The answer is no, because there is no such thing. Birds are constantly active, constantly expressing their lives in their songs, their bright feathers (think of the peacock), and their soaring flight overhead. Sifu advises his readers to watch the birds arching and zipping across the sky – and then observe where they land – at the top of the tree. “In your life, you should be reaching for the top as well,” he says. “Don’t be like water running downhill.”

Is "The Shaolin Workout" a worthy purchase? I would say that really depends on the individual’s goals and interest in the martial arts. While I didn’t personally find the movements enjoyable, I rarely rank any exercise in that category, so don’t give that too much importance. On a scale of one to ten I would rate the overall sweat factor as about a seven, if you do the entire routine at once. The real benefit that I took away from the book is, as I have previously mentioned, an increased appreciation of the beauty and grace that comes from a fit and flexible body, as well as a renewed appreciation of the body itself. In attempting even the “for me impossible” moves, I learned to really listen to my muscles (and not just their shrieks of protest!). The photography is excellent and the layout well-executed. So if I’ve piqued your interest, crouch, leap and kick your way over to http://www.amazon.com/ or your local bookstore, and check it out for yourself. And if you decide to embark on your own course of warrior training, write me and let me know how it works for you!

* * * * *

Reader Joyce – who, by the way, has a wonderfully informative and beautifully photographed blog of her and her husband’s new “work camping” life in Rockport, Maine over at www.joyceandwiley.blogspot.com – alerted me to another interesting blog titled “The Fanatic Cook,” written by a female nutritionist. FC (I don’t know her real name) features detailed research, excellent illustrations, and recipes. For her analysis of the alleged benefits of bottled water, book and article recommendations, or just a mouth-watering recipe for lemon chiffon pie, “get thee on over” (as the inimitable Matt Furey would say) to http://www.fanaticcook.blogspot.com/. This is one website definitely worth checking out. Thanks for the tip, Joyce! And speaking of tips…if you find a blog of note related in some way to the theme of this one, please write and let me know. I’ll be pleased to feature it in an upcoming entry.

* * * * *

Have you ever seen Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man”? If so, you’ll likely remember that Professor Harold Hill, the suave, fast-talking traveling salesman of the production’s title, relied on something called “The Think System” to get his ragtag boys’ band to produce the “Minuet in G.” No practice was involved – in fact, the boys weren’t even allowed to attempt a note on their shiny new instruments! No, Professor Hill insisted they do nothing more than think the piece. Of course, Harold Hill was a charlatan who planned on being well out of town before his “Think System” could be exposed for the fraud it was…but this was Hollywood, not reality, and at the show’s finale, the River City Boys Band, with no prior musical ability or rehearsal, managed to stammer out a highly unprofessional, yet recognizable, “Minuet in G.” Was it just the magic of Hollywood at work? Or was there another type of magic involved – the magic of belief? Didn’t the boys have to believe they could play the minuet in the first place? I think they did. And not long ago I found myself wondering if Meredith Willson hadn’t read an intriguing book by Claude M. Bristol titled “The Magic of Believing” when he dreamed up that fictional boy’s band. For a look at that magic, stop by here again next week for “Professor Harold Hill Was On to Something.”

Until then...Keep on Treading!

2006-08-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

Training the Way of the Warrior, Part II: "How the Heck Does He Do That?"

Last week I described how I was attracted to a new book called "The Shaolin Workout: 28 Days to Transforming Your Body and Soul the Warrior's Way." You may recall how I didn't find most of the first part too challenging. Well, I can safely say that those days were over when it came to Part Two!

Sifu ("Master" or "Teacher") and I began with a hip stretch that, in its complete phase, made me feel something like a human pretzel. Suffice it to say that I felt "stretched" indeed. Then it was on to the Pu Bu Stretch, a continuation of the former excercise. A continuation, that is, if you can even remotely get into the position that Sifu's illustrations demonstrate! I made it, oh, roughly a third of the way. How long did it take this man to achieve such flexibility?

Next was the Hip Rotation. This one made me giggle just looking at the illlustrations. Attempting it, I felt like a hula dancer! But where things really got interesting was when I moved to the Knee Rotation. Frankly, I'm darned if I can figure out the purpose of this one. Nor was I too good at performing it. You try it: Stand straight and relaxed, legs closed, feet together and pointed forward. Then reach down, grab your knees, which you should relax and bend, and, keeping your legs together and feet on the ground, rotate your knees in a circle. It's not as simple as it may sound. With all due respect to Sifu, I feel pretty silly!

I'll pass over the next two stretches, as they are impossible for me to fully achieve at this point, except to say that by the time Sifu instructed me to (from a lotus position, no less) lean my upper body in one direction and "Kiss your knee and toes while you're there, to show them your appreciation," I was not only thinking, "Appreciation for WHAT?" but was strongly tempted to retort, "Kiss THIS, Sifu!" I resisted the temptation, as that really would have been rude and unappreciative.

Next we came to the Pushing Palm Strike and Fist Punch. Now those feel like kung fu moves! I can do these. Only problem is, I have a bit of a problem getting the right-left rhythm down. Oh, I know the difference between the two. It's just that, as I've said before, I'm not the most coordinated person in the world. Definitely need some practice there.

The Bow Stance was another balance challenge for balance-challenged me. I'm okay with the Gong Bu strike pose, but getting one leg up and bent makes me wobble. Sorry, Sifu!

Of course, this is nothing compared to the Front Slap Kick. After kicking your right leg "straight up in front of you," you are to "reach for enlightenment with the top of your head." Loosely translated, that means "attempt to touch the top of your head with your foot." Sifu, needless to say, has this mastered. I, on the other hand, can't even get one leg out in a straight line with my hip. I'm not sure that any amount of practice is going to make that perfect, either!

The Horse Stance involves "two side fist punches executed simulataneously." As I punch my fists out, I am to move my head so that my arms and head finish the move at the same time. After all, I need to see whom I'm punching. That makes sense, but I'm not sure I could knock out Ronald McDonald. The Horse Stance (and what in the world, by the way, does this move have to do with a horse?) is continued in a squatting position. Okay, Sifu, I have to ask: are you trying to hit your opponent in the chest instead of the jaw with this one, or deck a very short person?

I know it sounds like I'm being sarcastic, but I'm really not. It's just that when I attempt these moves for the first time, it's hard not to laugh at the picture I must be creating. The truth is that the further I go with Sifu's workout, the more respect I have for his strength and flexibility. And needless to say, the man doesn't appear to have an ounce of superfluous fat on his body. I wonder if that's a prerequisite to mastering this routine.

* * * * *

Two parts to go! Are you still with me? If so, stick around for next week's look at "Warrior Transformation," in which I'll describe my efforts to perform such moves as a "front slap kick with arm rotation" and "front flex kick." I'll also take a closer look at the daily meditations that accompany the physical routines, as these are full of wisdom and I will probably be coming back to some of them in future entries.

But right now...I'm stretched and kicked out. Time to do a routine I can perform with relative ease and confidence - my evening walk!

Till we meet again, Keep on Treading!

2006-07-31T18:37:00.000-07:00

Training the Way of the Warrior, Part I: "Funny, I Don’t FEEL Like a Warrior…”

It has been said that Americans are enamored of the quick fix, and I, for one, am no exception. Whether it’s “Thin Thighs in Thirty Days,” “Sixty-Second Abs,” or “Eight Minutes in the Morning,” I’ve probably plunked down my money for it at some point.

That’s how I came to purchase “The Shaolin Workout” a couple of months ago when I was spending a quiet Sunday afternoon at Borders Bookstore. I was browsing idly through the newly published section when a highly intense stare from a bald Asian man known as Sifu (“Master”) Shi Yan Ming caught my eye. (“Shi” is pronounced to rhyme with “Sir,” by the way.) The book advertised itself as “28 Days to Transforming Your Body and Soul the Warrior’s Way.” Twenty-eight days! Less than a full month! I could manage that. Nevertheless, I was skeptical. I put the book down, wandered the store some more, considered the matter, picked the book back up for another examination, meandered through the store still further, and finally grabbed the book a third time (hoping in the back of my mind that no one was watching this performance). I found a quiet spot in a corner where I could peruse the volume in detail to see if it looked like it would really deliver. It was, after all, $29.95. Not a bad price for total transformation, but that was also a lot to promise. (I’m not sure if it occurred to me then to wonder just how a soul is transformed by a physical workout.) I finally decided that it was worth the $30 price tag, and took it home that day.

Sifu Ming is, according to the book’s opening chapter, a 34th-generation warrior monk from China. I don’t know exactly what a “warrior monk” is (readers, can you help me out?), but the accompanying photos clearly indicate that this man is on a par with martial arts action star Jet Li when it comes to flying leaps and twisting the body into seemingly unachievable angles. He has been featured many times on national and international TV and in countless newspapers and magazines. His book is “yet another way to introduce people to the life transformation they may achieve through kung fu training.” While I didn’t have much (if any) hope that I could ever emulate some of his poses, I was willing to give the exercises, which were grouped into daily routines, a try. I also liked the look of the daily philosophical meditations. Here’s a breakdown of how things went in Part I.

Session 1 – Wrist and Ankle Rotations. I still don’t know if I’m doing the wrist part correctly. The written description seems to indicate one thing, and the photos another. And what is the purpose of it? At least the ankle rotation is easy to figure out – until you start doing it in conjunction with the wrist rotation. If you’re a fairly well-coordinated person, you’ll have no difficulty with this. If you’re somewhat uncoordinated, like me, it will prove a slight challenge at first - something like rubbing the top of your head and patting your stomach at the same time.

Session 2 – Neck and Eyes. The neck stretches cause a slight cracking. Not too much of a surprise. I roll my head to the left and right, forward and back. Not bad. But it’s the eye focus exercise that really puzzles me. This consists of snapping one’s head rapidly to the left, and then to the right, ten times in each direction. Sifu instructs his students to “see as far as Iceland and its polar bears in one direction, and as far as Miami and its dolphins in the other,” and to “fully extend your sight.” Frankly, I cannot figure out how to “extend my sight” to save my life, and all I can see are my bedroom walls.

Session 3 – Shoulders, Arms and Chest. I’m not sure I’m “windmilling” correctly – my arms seem to fly out more to the sides than in back of me, á la Sifu, but I keep at it regardless. Practice makes…well, if not perfect, at least better.

Session 4 – Waist and Stomach. Now, I think, we’re getting somewhere! These areas are, after all, my nemesis. The waist stretch is something I’ve done in Matt Furey’s “Magnificent Seven” workout. Matt calls it the “Tai Chi Waist Turner”; I call it “The Human Washing Machine.”

Session 5 – Legs. One look at the photos demonstrating the positions for this section and I know I’m about to be challenged. Suffice it to say that I can’t picture ever being able to touch my head to my toes. It’s all I can do to touch my fingers to my toes. Actually, I’m not entirely positive I can do THAT yet.

Session 6 – Upper Body and Lower Back. A few side bends here. Shades of Matt's Magnificent Seven again. No problem here. Then some forward stretches that make me feel as if I'm about to breast stroke across a pool, until I get to the rotation part, which makes me feel a lot like a human screwdriver. Next is another “impossible” move – getting my head on my crossed arms, which arms, by the way, are to rest flat on the floor. (See closing comment in Session 5 above.) This is followed by the ankle grip. How about we make that "the calf grip," Sifu?

Finally, review time! And then Part II, which I’ll cover next week.

* * * * *

With all due respect to the master, I am not feeling a bit transformed. What I AM feeling is middle-aged, overweight, inflexible, and, at times (when doing the wrist rotations, for example) rather silly. I also feel distinctly American. We in the West have such a different way of approaching fitness than those in the East. I’m used to thinking of working out as something that involves sweat, weights, machines, soreness, and a lot of grunting (at least from men in the gym). This seems too…easy. (That is, until I try those human pretzel positions.) But I am beginning to understand that part of Sifu’s process involves achieving a deeper awareness of my body. Normally I regard it as something unwieldy and unattractive and cumbersome – even an enemy of sorts. And I suspect that many Americans do the same. However, as I am trying to stretch just a tiny bit further (“Get those fingers to the ground, girl!”), I am beginning to sense muscles instead of merely rolls or cellulite, to feel my body instead of just lugging it around. I may not feel transformed – but then again, perhaps my viewpoint is becoming so, albeit quite gradually.

Sifu and I are from different hemispheres and different religions – different worlds altogether, but I think he has something to teach this middle-aged, out of shape American gal. So check back in next week for The Shaolin Workout, Part II.

2006-07-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

“Desire Revisited”

I had some thought-provoking comments on my recent post titled “The Object of My Desire.” One of them, from an anonymous reader, particularly hit home:

"The magic key? Just do it. Whatever your desire, the leap from motivation to reality requires an act of will we as humans find so hard to put into gear."

I agree with Anonymous on this one. Desire, like the emotional side of love, can be a flickering flame simply because it is a feeling, and feelings are transient. When our longings for betterment are at a low ebb, sometimes that old Nike slogan (“Just do it”) is all that will keep us putting one walking-shoe-clad foot in front of the other. Anonymous said further:

"We create a voice in our heads called the coach—who tells us to stop whining and do it, do it, just do it."

Again, I agree. It sounds like A. has had some personal experience with this sort of thing, which I for one would enjoy hearing. It would be helpful if he or she responded further and tells exactly how this coach is created, as well.

"The day we finally decide we really want some action is when we have a plan, put it on paper, make everybody in the house sign it and put it on the fridge."

I found this especially interesting, as it reminded me of something that motivational author/speaker Tony Robbins included in his “The Body You Deserve” program. Tony challenges program users to complete a contract similar to the one described by Anonymous above, and to send it out to friends who can be trusted to hold one accountable. I’ll confess in the spirit of honesty in which this blog is written that I waffled a good bit over this one. I was willing to sign it at the time, or so I recall, but when it came to sending it out to friends…ah, that was another matter! In the end, I caved…to myself, not Tony. (And, obviously, I still do not have the "body that I deserve!")

Anonymous has further useful advice, such as giving ourselves a “free day” once a week, or, as some call it, a “cheat day.” As my mother commented years ago – although speaking in a much different context – you should always have something to look forward to. For some of us, knowing we have the freedom to indulge in a future “Big Mac Attack” or something similar is enough to keep us going even if we end up not indulging after all! And speaking of indulging…Joyce writes:

"For me, dieting success came only when I decided to allow myself at least a taste of whatever I really wanted, so long as I could first identify very specifically what it was I really wanted (usually chocolate). A couple of bites of really good chocolate when I'm craving it keeps me from eating bits of this and that in a search to satisfy an unidentified hunger."

Sound advice, I think, for the majority of people, although there may be some for whom this would only serve as a trigger.Thank you, Anonymous and Joyce, for the practicality of your responses. In closing, I only want to say that when I first read A.’s response, it occurred to me that perhaps the importance of desire was being downplayed too much. Matt Furey addressed this concept in his own blog last week when he talked about hunger, and not the physical kind. Matt describes the excitement of the Chinese people when it was announced that Beijing would host the 2008 Olympic Games, and why he believes they’ll take first place in gold medals two years from now:

"In one sense the Chinese have more reasons to win. They're hungrier. And youshould always be concerned about someone who is hungry. Theyfight harder than those who are well fed. And they fight longer."*

He continues with an obvious yet so often overlooked insight:

"America, sadly, has become a nation of people who are overfed – and this has led to a lack of desire or hunger for MORE. We've become too comfortable - and too much comfort is NOT a good thing as it interferes with expansion of your talents."*

Amen, brother. In the future I’ll be looking at this subject yet again, as I believe it is a vitally important one. While sheer will is sometimes a necessity, desire is the gas that fuels the car. As I review techniques on increasing desire, both in Matt’s programs and in others such as the great Maxwell Maltz’s “Psycho-Cybernetics,” I’ll be sharing them with you, so stay tuned.

* * * * *

A while back I introduced you to a young man named Sean Perkey, who has embarked on a remarkable quest to lose half his body weight. As it’s been several weeks since I checked in on him, I thought it was time to see what he’s been up to. His July 23 entry – “Mommy…I’m Scared of the Spandex Monster…” is alone worth the price of admission (which is actually free, by the way). Sean has faced his fear of the gym head-on, and his description of his experiences there are alternately hilarious and insightful. Actually, that could be said of all his posts. So click on over to http://www.watchmyloss.com/ and cheer this guy on. And while you’re there, why not make a donation, if even of a few bucks, to the American Diabetes Association. Sean – and many others – will thank you!

* * * * *

Before I get to this week’s “Tool of the Trade,” I want to thank reader "HaggardMom" for pointing out a caveat about flax seed, which was featured in my July 3rd post. She has read that whole seeds are hard to digest, so it's probably better to grind them up. I'll be sure to look into this, and I hope to hear from you again, HM!

This week the spotlight shines on yet another product of the inimitable Matt Furey. “Kick Ass – Take Names: Confessions of a Fitness and Fighting Guru” is the title of a collection of his blog entries, which address everything from the best time of day for training, to a cough remedy you’ll find right in your kitchen, to “Five Key Secrets to Superior Health,” all written in Matt’s customary shoot-from-the-hip style. Also included are demonstrations of various exercises and Matt’s letter to his young son, Frank, written just before the latter turned three years old, not to mention photos of Frank imitating his old man - at the ripe age of 18 months! You can get more information at www.mattfurey.com.

* * * * *

As I mentioned last week, I started doing a beginner Shaolin monk workout this month. While I haven’t yet finished the routine, I can honestly say it’s been an interesting – and sometimes downright humorous – experience. If you want to hear more, check back next week for “Funny…I Don’t Feel Like a Warrior.”Until then, keep on treading!

* http://www.mattfurey.com/mattfurey_uncensored/

2006-07-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

“Shower-Shocking Your Way to Better Health, or – How to Decrease Water Consumption in One Easy Lesson”

Years ago a friend told me that she took such hot showers, she had to turn her air conditioner up to Warp Factor One to keep the bathroom wallpaper from peeling.

As the incomparable Paris Hilton would say, “That’s hot.”

I myself have always been partial to warm showers, at the least. That’s why I live in the 21st century, with indoor plumbing and hot water on the tap anytime I want it. It’s an entitlement of the age.

However, cold water baths and showers have had their share of advocates for centuries. The first exposure I had to the idea of their benefits came when I was reading a biography of Louisa May Alcott, whose father, Bronson, was a follower of the teachings of health reformer Sylvester Graham (inventor of the modern graham cracker). Graham advocated not only cold baths, but hard mattresses, vegetarianism, chastity (including among the married), open bedroom windows, loose clothing, and exercise. Well, I thought, those all sounded fairly sensible, with the exception of married chastity, but considering that in Graham’s time hot baths were managed by heating water over a fire, which was both time-consuming and inconvenient, perhaps his promotion of cold water dousing wasn’t so surprising.

Years later, I was exposed to the cold shower benefit theory again through Matt Furey, whom I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this blog (see http://www.mattfurey.com/). Matt promotes it as developing mental toughness, as well as increasing energy and warding off sickness. In fact, when he feels a cold or something similar coming on, he takes cold showers until he’s as right as rain again. If memory serves me correctly, Matt also suggested exercising outside, and then dousing afterwards. While I live in a hot climate and saw this method as working up a good sweat, so that the icy bath afterwards would come as more of a relief than torture, I decided against trying it in spite of the fact that my backyard has a high fence. Even if a neighbor didn’t see me, a family member might, and I would have the devil’s own time explaining how I came to be caught outside in what is politely referred to as “a state of nature” while standing under a garden hose.

The most interesting proponent of the cold water treatment that I’ve come across so far is http://www.earthclinic.com/. According to their “Remedies” section on the subject, cold showers are “excellent for clearing electrical static from your energy field that can accumulate from cell phones, airport and courthouse x-ray machines, and powerful electrical lights in museums and electronic stores.”

Wow. I haven’t the faintest idea how that works, but I hardly ever use my cell phone, haven’t been near an airport or a courthouse in years, and only visit a museum about once a year, if that much, and electronic stores even less, so I guess I don’t have too much to worry about. However, the user testimonials are quite interesting, so check them out when you have a minute or two.

Armed with centuries of advocacy, it was time to try it for myself. I had, after all, used several of Matt’s teachings – exercise routines, weekly fasts, and deep breathing exercises – but this was one I’d been putting off for several months out of sheer wimpiness. It was time to bite the bullet – or the “C” tap, if you will.

As I mentioned, I live in a hot climate. However, I also live in a house with air conditioning, so I prepared myself by opening my bedroom window wide and doing Matt’s Magnificent Seven routine (which I haven’t done for many weeks, to my shame) to work up a little sweat. Then I was ready for the icy fury.

And you know what? It wasn’t that bad! Of course, my shower doesn’t get icy even at its coldest, but it sure as heck wasn’t warm, either. Yes, it was a shock. Yes, I did invent a new song, one that went, “It’s cold, it’s cold, it’s so freaking, FREAKING COLD!” Yes, I used far less water than I'm accustomed to using. And while I can’t say that I felt much more mentally tough afterwards, I did have a sense of well-being. But what really surprised me was that, in spite of the shock, the entire experience was actually rather exhilarating…so much so that I repeated it this morning and plan to do so all this week. So much for torture!

How about you – are you willing to take the Cold Water Challenge? Or are you already a convert? Either way, write me and let me know how it works for you.

* * * * *

This week’s “Tool of the Trade” is the pedometer, that wonderfully handy little instrument that tells you how many miles you’ve walked. A while back I read that current wisdom recommends 10,000 steps (which amounts to approximately five miles) per day for health and weight loss. I don’t know about you, but even if I walked a couple of miles after work, it still wouldn’t amount to that many steps, as my job is largely a sedentary one. I’ve also learned that this figure, which was originally popularized in Japan, did not seem to come out of actual medical research. Nevertheless, there’s no denying that walking is good exercise, and to get an idea of how much I was doing on an average day, I wore my pedometer to work one day last week. I was rather disappointed to see that even with an evening walk (shorter than I usually take), I’d clocked only 1.108 miles and 3,902 steps, and worst of all, burned only 153.6 calories throughout the day!

Well, it was still enlightening. Wearing a pedometer makes me more conscious of taking steps, to reach that elusive goal, so I find myself walking a little more…and that’s a good thing. You can find a decent unit at many department stores, but the one I currently use, and like the best of other models I’ve used, is the SportBrain, which I purchased through ediets.com. This model touts itself as “the first and only to offer automated data upload for review and tracking of your progress.” I never actually uploaded my data, simply because I couldn’t figure out how to do so, but what was important to me was the fact that it records my steps and calories burned, as well as mileage. You can see a sample, and/or place an order, on www.bodytronics.com.

* * * * *

Next week I’ll be taking a moment to step back and look at some of the comments I’ve received from readers lately, on everything from flax seed to the importance of desire in effecting lasting change. I’ll also be checking in again with Sean Perkey, who’s on a quest to lose half his body weight and to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. Plus, this will give me an additional week to work towards completion of my beginner Shaolin monk workout, which I’ll be reporting on two weeks from today. So stay tuned, and keep those comments coming!

2006-07-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Object of My Desire

“Out of need springs desire, and out of desire springs the energy and the will to win.” – Dennis Waitley, motivational author and speaker.

How does one keep desire alive? Couples ask it about romance; dieters, about their new eating habits. That may at first seem like a humorous comparison, and I won’t blame you if you laugh, but I’ve come to see that the desire to change one’s life for the better, in whatever form, is akin, in the beginning, to the spark between two people brought together by whatever mysterious mix of pheromones, similarities, physical attraction, etc. constitutes love or infatuation. Dieting women can be as infatuated by the image of a “perfect” female body as any man. And men, increasingly these days, lust for the perfect male body with sharply-defined muscles and “six-pack” abs. Yet a puzzle remains: If desire fuels the quest for a solution, and so many alleged solutions surround us, shouted from our computer screens to our televisions to our local store’s magazine racks, why are we, as a nation, still so overweight and so under-satisfied?

Clearly, desire must not be so simple a matter.

Now you’re probably thinking, “It isn’t just desire that’s necessary. It’s commitment.” And you’re right. But when our commitment waxes and wanes with our desire, is it simply because we’re lazy, or selfish, or immature?

When trying to answer this question in my own life – why, after so many starts, have I made so many detours, week after week, even with the accountability presented by this blog – I had to take a serious look at what was sabotaging my own aspirations. In the past I’ve been accused more than once of lacking the prized quality of persistence, and I’ve generally accepted that the reason for that is simply laziness and immaturity on my part. It is only in the past few years that I’ve come to recognize more clearly what I, and I believe many others, are up against, and that thing is fear.

In an insightful email I received this week from a friend who’s going through his own personal changes, in the area of spirituality, was this statement: “…as we are called to something new, we must turn away from something else; in other words, we have to give something up.” Many times I’ve neglected to adopt more healthful habits simply because I didn’t want to give up a certain amount of leisure time for exercise, or a food that I love. Almost everyone can relate to that. But how many of us don’t want to adopt healthier habits because of an unhealthy fear, that the good we obtain will be offset by discomfort?

Let me give you an example. Over the years I’ve run across more than one story of a woman who gained weight, even subconsciously, to deflect unwanted male attention. In some cases this was due to a history of sexual abuse; in others, simply a fear of not being able to adequately relate to the opposite sex or to deal with the inherent responsibilities of a romantic relationship. For the former women, a healthy and fit body represented a more sexual body, and sexuality raised an understandable alarm.

In my own life, as I began a study of wealth-building this month, and repeatedly came across the importance of “desire” in the attainment of such, I had to face my own curious fear – that if I succeeded in increasing my income to a level that would provide me with the security I want, I would have to deal with the complications of increased taxes, and I find such matters to be about as comprehensible as the algebra I flunked out of in high school! In another example, I had to admit that one of the things holding me back from working towards my desired weight was the likelihood that even if I reached it, at my age and with my history (both genetic and otherwise), my body would never resemble the models in those ubiquitous fitness ads. There is no cure for cellulite, no such thing as “spot reducing.” So why, went my almost subconscious reasoning, should I really try in the first place? It would only lead to eventual disillusionment.

And I feared that disillusionment.

These fears seem somewhat silly when held up to the spotlight of close scrutiny, yet I suspect that similar feelings lurk in hundreds of thousands the world over…and they’re like a dash of cold water to the hot flame of desire.

How about you? What desires do you have that may have been damped, and how did you fan them into life again – or did you? Since I’m not sure of the answers myself, I would be interested to hear your thoughts. Write me and I’ll include your responses in a future entry.

* * * * *

Let’s lighten things up now with the latest “Tool of the Trade.” This one comes to us courtesy of http://www.mem-cards.com/. “Mem-Cards” are, as you probably already guessed, memory cards, similar to children’s flash cards, that contain “impactful ideas and important insights from the world’s best personal and professional development books.” They’re currently available in seven different subjects: Business, Health & Fitness, Religion, Sales & Marketing, Self-Improvement, Spirituality, and Wealth-Building and come in convenient pocket-sized packs that are smaller than a deck of cards. I learned about them through Matt Furey, whom I’ve referenced in earlier entries, when he included two packs in one of his programs that I purchased. Each card in the pack I’m currently using contains an insightful quotation by sources ranging from Mark Twain to three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser. I like to read one before I even start getting ready for work in the morning, then tuck it into my bedroom mirror and meditate on it for that day. On the opposite sides of the cards are exercises from Matt’s various books, complete with a black and white photo of the exercise being performed. I haven’t been as faithful about memorizing the cards as I originally meant to be, but the quotes are so “bite-sized” that anyone should be able to commit a fair amount of them to memory over time, where they can serve as an instant inspiration whenever you need it. For ordering information or to see what various experts have said about these little gems, click on over to http://www.mem-cards.com/ and tell them Treader Lucie sent you.

* * * * *

Here in America, we like our hot showers, which, thanks to modern technology, we can enjoy almost any time. Yet health sages over the years have touted the benefits of cold water, and I’m not talking about the drinking kind, either. I’ll be taking a look at this next week in “Shower-Shocking Your Way to Better Health.”

See you then!

2006-07-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

“Standing on the Promises”

Take a look around. You won’t have to look very far. It’s on your computer screen when you boot up. It’s on the magazine rack as you stand in line at the grocery store. It’s in your newspaper. It’s on the bumper sticker tacked to a telephone pole.

“It” is a weight-loss promise.

According to Merriam-Webster, a promise is a declaration that one will do something specified, even a “legally binding” declaration. Wow. I take that pretty seriously, don’t you?

Unfortunately, a lot of advertisers don’t. In fact, as Federal Trade Commission chairman Timothy Muris once said, “We have known for some time now that there is a serious problem with weight-loss product advertising.”

Personally, I think reaching this conclusion must have been about as difficult as deducing that the sun is hot, but it’s always nice to have official recognition of a fact. The FTC went on to say that “Over half of the advertisements made either false statements or statements that were very likely to be false, including the suggestion that weight could be shed without cutting calories and increasing physical activity.”

Would that it stopped there. But the FTC wasn’t just talking about the pills and creams and powders that you can swab and swallow, or the various food combinations-restrictions-additions that are almost as numerous as the number of people on the planet. They must surely have had in mind as well the gadgets to “increase physical activity” that don’t always get you where you want to go. I should know! I’ve plunked down my money for enough “ab machines” which eventually ended up in the corner of my bedroom or in my garage before being consigned to the charity giveaway pile.

In a nutshell, I’ve rocked my roll, but my roll still doesn’t rock.

Is that completely my fault? After all, those machines couldn’t do me much good if all I used them for was dust collectors.

While I won’t deny that lack of persistence is probably the number one reason people fail to reach their fitness goals, it apparently isn’t the only one. According to the real experts – and they aren’t the advertising copy writers, folks – “spot reduction” isn’t even physiologically possible. Worse yet, says former wrestler and nationally respected fitness guru Kurt Brungardt, regular use of machines or other types of gadgets (such as those that actually deliver electric shocks) may tighten your muscles, but “unless you’re as thin as a super model, the results will be hidden beneath a layer of fat.”

Ouch.

Now in the interest of fairness, I should add that some of these machines provide support that may reduce neck and back pain. And simply putting down your hard-earned money for them will cause you to think more about those muscles you want to improve and, hopefully, use the machine in an effort to get your money’s worth. A few of them really do deliver some results. Just don’t expect miracles from them.

The first verse of a gospel ditty I learned years ago has come back to me several times as I thought about this entry in the past week:

“Don’t build your house on a sandy land,
Don’t build it too near the shore!
Might look kinda nice, but you’ll have to build it twice,
Oh, you’ll have to build your house once more.”

I’ve built my flat-stomach house of hope on more than one sandy-shore promise in the past, and it didn’t stand under my weight. I’m betting some of you out there have done the same.

But is there a promise we actually can stand on? I think so. And, for me at least, it’s a two-parter, consisting of Work and Acceptance.

Part One is that the only real way to achieve a fitness goal is to work on putting only good things into my body by way of eating and drinking; to work on moving instead of sitting, to work on recognizing what I really desire and why, to work on analyzing my “triggers.” To work instead of expect an easy fix for what took years to create.

Part Two is to accept that genetics play at least a partial role in my shape; to accept that my value does not lie in my society’s current standard; to accept that the God who made me didn’t make junk, and that I am still a diamond, just one that needs some polishing.

Put them both together, and they spell out a promise that I – and you! – can one day make peace with our flawed yet “fearfully and wonderfully made” bodies.

What kind of promises have you been standing on lately? Are they a rock or a sandy shore? Write me and let me know.

* * * * *

Once again I’ve rambled lengthily, but I can’t close without looking at this week’s “Tool of the Trade.” It’s another simple one – flax seed! This ancient product has become, in the words of one nutritionist, “our modern miracle food.” Many studies have found it to be helpful in reducing “bad” cholesterol and lowering blood pressure. It may also reduce the risk of heart attack by keeping blood platelets from sticking together, and, besides being a source of fiber, has proved to be beneficial to those suffering from such intestinal conditions as Crohn’s disease and colitis, as it seems to be able to heal the inner lining of inflamed intestines. Some doctors recommend it in acne treatments, as well as for women who suffer from severe menstrual discomfort. As if all that wasn’t enough, my coworker swears that it makes his wife’s “wiry-brush hair” silky! Flax is easy to take – it has little flavor and you probably won’t even notice it’s there. Just sprinkle some ground or whole seeds on your breakfast cereal or a salad, or substitute flax oil for your regular cooking oil. A couple of tablespoons per day should be sufficient. Your body will thank you. For further information on the benefits and proper uses of flax, see http://www.umm.edu/altmed/ConsSupplements/FlaxseedOilcs.html.

* * * * *

This week I’ve begun studying financial prosperity. One theme that recurs with noticeable regularity is something I hadn’t much associated with the subject - the importance of desire. It seems that only recently have I begun to realize the importance of that six-letter word, and how complex it can be. I’ll be talking about that next week in “The Object of My Desire.”

So stay tuned!

-Treader Lucie-

2006-06-26T07:02:00.000-07:00

“Nifty by Fifty”

This past week has been a slow one – not in terms of time passing, but in terms of motivation – a continuation of “Tortoise on Ambien” progress. I exercised only a couple of days, and not my former full routine at that. I didn’t have a single day when I got down all 64 ounces of water I would set myself to drink, nor did I repeat all my affirmations. Plus, I gave in to “self-medicating” food cravings of Burger King and chocolate two days in a row. Nevertheless, as the immortal Scarlett O’Hara used to say, “Tomorrow is another day.” And this week is another week.

Simplistic words indeed, and yet, what would we do without tomorrow?

* * * * *

The late Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, used to say that “a lady who will tell her age will tell anything.” Well, I’m not sensitive about my age – why should I be? It’s not like I’ve done anything wrong by approaching the half-century mark! And it’s primarily the shadow of that milestone that set me on my new path, no matter how many detours I make along the way.

In a word, I’ll be fifty in four years. Fifty! It doesn’t seem possible. Mentally I feel about 21. Fifty doesn’t scare me, but it is sobering, when one hasn’t achieved what they feel they should have by that age. But I have four years, and a person can accomplish a good deal in that time, “detours” notwithstanding. My goals, stated here for the first time, are relatively simple:

- Financial security
- Home ownership
- Maximum weight of 145 (my doctor’s goal) or 130-135 (my desired weight)
- One novel published
- Three books of poetry published

As you can see, I’m not out to become president of the United States or achieve world peace. And frankly, considering the number of tools I’ve amassed so far to help me along the way, it will take me four years just to get through them all!

Remember the saying “Fabulous at forty?” Well, how about “Nifty by fifty?” Of course, once I reach those goals –and that milestone age – I’ll have to figure out what to do with the years still ahead.

But that will be the subject of another blog.

* * * * *

I promised last week to introduce you to two people I’ve come across in my Internet wanderings who also have something to say about fitness. The first is Jamaican-born Misha Newman, who published a wonderful article titled “This Body That I Wear” in the Christian online magazine Relevant. I haven’t yet received permission from the editors to reprint quotes from Misha, but I encourage you to stop by www.relevantmagazine.com and search the site for her article title. Misha talks about how she no longer has the “ideal,” male-attracting body that she did as a teenager, partly due to medication she must take for bipolar disorder. Yet she sees beyond the surface of stretching skin to the life within her body, the experiences that have been expressed and continue to be mapped by the circumstances of everyday living. It’s a thoughtful and well expressed view, and I hope you’ll be blessed by it as I was. Misha also blogs at www.barefootandreal.blogspot.com. Drop by and tell her hello!

Spotlight Number Two shines on California resident Sean Perkey, who has taken on a remarkable quest to lose nearly half his body weight. You read that right – almost half! And he’s sharing his journey with the world on his blog, “Watch My Loss.” Sean has changed his eating habits and begun an exercise routine in his effort to go from “Fat to Fit; from Huge to Healthy.” As if that wasn’t enough, he’s also attempting to raise $50,000 for the American Diabetes Association. Personally, I think he’s going to make it on both counts, and if you read his blog, I’m betting you will, too. You can find him at www.watchmyloss.blogspot.com. These are two people with an attitude, folks, and I’m proud of both of them, even though we’ve never met. They encourage me, and so I want to encourage them, partly by sharing their stories with others whom I hope will do the same.

* * * * *

Once again it’s “Tool of the Trade” time. This week’s focus is on the simplest tool of them all – my 70-ounce bright pink plastic water jug. “Pinky” and I are regular companions at work and sometimes on the weekends, although I don’t give her nearly the attention she deserves. She takes a lot of abuse, too, from being ignored to being frozen overnight and strained almost beyond her limits. But she’s hung in there, so I continue to cart her around and swig from her when I think about it…which isn’t often enough, most days. Let’s face it – water may be good for you and a necessity of life, but getting down 64 or more ounces a day can be a sheer pain in the patootie, even if you flavor it with lemon or lime juice or what have you. So I came up with the “five on five” rule to try and help me meet that goal – that is, five sips every five minutes. That’s something of an annoyance as well – all those interruptions – but it does help to make the level go down. Give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

* * * * *

Promises, promises…they’re in the air and everywhere. On magazine racks, in our newspapers, on our televisions and computers. But when it comes to fitness, how many of them are what Mary Poppins called a “piecrust promise” – easily made, easily broken?

I’ll take a look at that next week in “Standing on the Promises.” See you then!

-Treader Lucie-

2006-06-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

“Forgetting What Lies Behind”

This last week has been one of some retrospection, which I suppose I should have expected following my last entry about the power of words and their occasional “constipating” effects. Remembering my own list of harmful comments for an ediets exercise took me back in time to a place I’ve concluded I don’t need to revisit, although on more than one occasion there’s been an odd kind of satisfaction in doing so – like picking at a scab, I suppose.

I also concluded that there was something more I wanted to say on last week’s subject: That no matter what your weight, you are not a number! You are a human being, marvelously, almost unimaginably complex. Why, then, do you and I allow our perception of ourselves to be reduced to mere phrases uttered by someone else?

Can we agree that we’ll work towards not allowing ourselves to do it again?

This past weekend I bought a new book called The Shaolin Workout. The book’s author likes to say that “Everyone is handsome. Everyone is beautiful.” My immediate reaction to this kind of statement is normally to dismiss it as gooey hooey, yet after a moment or two I realized he wasn’t talking about popular culture’s version of beauty, but the fact that people possess beauty simply because God made them. As the old saying goes, “God don’t make junk.” And if He doesn’t – well, I guess that means we’re all diamonds, even if we need a little polishing!

My homily is almost over, but I want to add that part of a saying of St. Paul has been repeating itself in my head these last several days – “forgetting that which lies behind.” I don’t think the apostle really meant we should forget the past entirely – after all, it’s made us what we are, and sometimes we need to look back – but rather that we shouldn’t carry it with us like a heavy parcel on our back as we move into the future. So I know what I’m going to tape to the bottom of my walking shoes this week – just two words, on two pieces of tape. On my left shoe will be one word: “The.” On my right shoe will be another word: “Past.” And my feet will know exactly which parts of it I’m talking about.

* * * * *

Last week I promised to “get down to the nitty-gritty.” What that means is admitting that when it comes to weight loss – one of the key factors that inspired this blog – my progress in the past six weeks could be likened to a tortoise on Ambien. Part of this is due to the fact that my desire to lose weight fluctuates like a seesaw, notwithstanding health concerns, and part of it is due to the fact that I’ve been busy blogging about other things and got sidetracked.

But the fact is that of today I’m about 61 pounds away from my doctor’s goal weight and 76 pounds from my own…when I actually care about reducing. I don’t know if I’ll make it to that higher number – some say it’s unrealistic at my age. I don’t know if I’ll really be happier if I make it there. One thing I’m finally learning is that peace with my body involves more than a scale number.

“Getting down to the nitty gritty” also means that from now on I’ll be open about how steady my steps have been – from whether I’ve drunk my minimum 64 ounces of water each day, or exercised, or voiced my affirmations, or eaten sensibly, or done any of the other things that are part of my walk, to whether I’m even motivated to do those things. I’ll do this not to brag or give anyone else a chance to feel superior, but to remind myself that I set out to be an example, and leaders of any kind, no matter how small, have to be accountable. Besides, I said at the beginning of this journey that I would share my progress with you – so I’d better start making some!

* * * * *

Time now for this week’s Tool of the Trade. The spotlight today is on another AmeriSciences product called “Carb Right.” This supplement was also recommended by my doctor when I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic late last year, and is something he uses when he wants to be “adventurous” at mealtime. Carb Right, according to AmeriSciences, “Aids your body’s ability to regulate carbohydrate, sugar and starch absorption to help you lose weight and stimulates the cell’s sugar-burning capabilities and reduces food cravings with a unique blend of Banaba Extract, Chromium and Gymnema Sylvestre Extract.” A 30-day supply – that’s one pill 30 minutes before each meal – costs $65. For further information, click on over to www.amerisciences.com.

* * * * *

Seems like there’s always more to say than space to say it, but I don’t want to lose my readers by talking them to death. Next week I’ll introduce you to a couple of people I’ve come across recently in my Internet ramblings who also have something to say about “this fitness gig,” and whom I’ll hope you’ll visit at their respective homes on the Web when you have a minute or two.

Who are they? Tune in next week for “Nifty by Fifty” to find out.

-Treader Lucie-

2006-06-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

Mental Ex-Lax

"You can tame arything, son, exceptin' the human tongue." - Penny Baxter in "The Yearling"

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue..." Proverbs 18:21

"A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day." - Emily Dickinson

* * * * *

Do you ever wish you could take a mental laxative to rid your brain of negative thoughts and feelings that bring you down and "stop you up" - mentally, at least? Sometimes those thoughts constipate us physically, as well. They can keep us from trying new things or achieving new levels. But where do they come from? There are many sources, but the one I believe is probably the most prevalent is the human tongue.

As I mentioned in a previous post, several years ago I was on a program called ediets (for information, see http://www.ediets.com/). Ediets looks at the issue of weight loss from a mental as well as a physical angle, and I will never forget one exercise I did while a member - one which may, in fact, have been the inspiration for something I'm going to share with you later on in this post. Participants were asked to make a written list of all the hurtful things others had said to them about their weight, and then submit them to a message board designed especially for that purpose. Folks, I was shocked at the level of cruelty some of those comments displayed - and I don't shock easily! It struck me yet again that while being overweight may be a taboo in our society (and yet, was ever a societal taboo so frequently broken!), criticism of the overweight is certainly not. Reading others lists actually brought me to tears at several points. Perhaps the worst of it, at least to me, was the fact that family members seemed to be the greatest offenders. Yet the purpose of making these lists was not to indulge in a mass self-pity fest - or even to give us an excuse to go after somebody with a gun that might stand up in court on the grounds of "temporary insanity." Far from it! It was to cleanse ourselves of these destructive comments by getting them out in the open before they were collected in one mass pile and burned.

Have you ever thought about what prompts these types of remarks in the first place? It may be low self-esteem - a need to bring someone else down in order to feel superior. In many cases, I believe it's simple thoughtlessness, a lack of imagination that would permit us to feel how our comments will make others feel. At other times, it's societal bias. In my own case, a close relative whom I'll identify within this blog simply as "M." insisted that it was concern for my health - even though not one of the comments I collected for my own list held the slightest reference to that subject!

What's really important are the aftereffects. Without repeating specifics, I have been offered money to lose weight (a dollar per pound. What do you think - a good deal?); been told, in essence, that my weight rendered me undateable; and had it strongly suggested that my excess pounds denoted "a lazy lifestyle" and might keep me from getting a job I wanted (this has never proved the case, by the way). When I rebutted that my friends told me I looked fine to them, I was told that there must be something wrong with them. Later, when a blind date never called me afterwards, it was because "most men are really turned off by fat."

Who was right? Am I correct in believing, years later, that the above opinions expressed far more about the speaker than myself?

Ultimately, we are the only ones who can answer such questions. But getting back to that ediets exercise, while I can't speak for the others who participated, I can tell you that I felt a definite sense of relief afterwards. And yet, I guess I'm just not that good at letting go, because sometimes phrases from my own list come back to me with twinges of the pain they once caused. It's times like those that made me think of the phrase "Mental Ex-Lax." Unfortunately, outside the realm of science fiction, I'm not aware of any pill that can actually perform a mental purging. But several weeks ago, while I was out for my evening walk, an idea occurred to me that fit right in with my "treading" theme, and I'd like to share it with you.

Are you ready? Good. Now, I want you to get out your walking shoes, some masking tape, and a pen. If you don't have any masking tape, just use any kind you can write on. Put a strip or two on the bottom of each shoe. Now write across that tape any destructive comments or thoughts that are mentally constipating you, whether they have to do with weight or some other topic. Use shorthand or other symbols or abbreviations if you have to in the interest of space. Then put on your shoes and go for a walk. That's right, WALK. And with every step you take, remember that you're treading on those hurful words, and that if you walk long and hard enough, you'll eventually rub them out. Put those words in their rightful place - under your feet! TREAD on them, STOMP on them; heck, DANCE on them. Do it as often as you need to. You'll kill two birds with one stone by getting more fit mentally as well as physically!

Hey - I'll do it if you will. Don't forget to let me know if it helps. I believe that, given enough time, it will.

* * * * *

Time now to take a look at this week's "Tool of the Trade" from the list in my last post. This week's feature is a supplement called Slim, made by AmeriSciences. I was introduced to it by my doctor, who took it himself, along with his staff. Slim contains Serotain™, which, according to the AmeriSciences website, "provides 5HTP to help elevate mood, which in turn decreases appetite," and green tea, which "contains potent antioxidant compounds which improve the efficiency with which we burn fat." I have no idea what 5HTP is, and more than half the time I can't recall what an antioxidant is, either, but I can tell you that it works. The normal dosage is one tablet 30 minutes before each meal.

Slim is rather pricey - one bottle contains 90 capsules, which means a 30-day supply will cost you $75, which amounts to $900 per year. (I did the math so you wouldn't have to.) You might not need or want to take it for that long. Or you might feel that's not an unreasonable amount spread over a year's time, if it helps you with your weight loss goals. Whatever the case, I can honestly say that I have found it helpful, and you may, too. If so, just mosey on over to www.amerisciences.com.

* * * * *

In closing, I've been blogging for five weeks now and some of you may be wondering, just how is she doing at this fitness gig? I haven't posted any stats yet, such as beginning weight, pounds lost or, heaven forbid, gained, decreasing measurements, etc. And frankly, it's easy to get sidetracked with product reviews, recommendations, quotations and stories. But the time comes when you have to ask, even if no one else has lately, "How am I really doing?" That's what I call getting down to the nitty gritty, folks. And it's what I'll be doing next week. So stay tuned!

-Treader Lucie-

http://www.addurlblog.com/

2006-06-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Tools of the Trade

In any profession, from building houses to designing computer programs, a worker uses tools of his or her trade to get a job done. While gaining fitness, in any sense of the word, may not seem like a "profession," it also requires tools. Following is a list of those that I'm currently using or will be using in the future on my journey. Some of them may already be familiar to you; those that are not, I'm happy to share with you for the first time.

Books

Body Sculpting Boydweight Exercises for Women by Eddie Baran
Combat Abs by Matt Furey
Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey
Flexibility by Alan Gordon ("Get Fit" Series)
Getting in the Gap: Making Conscious Contact with God Through Meditation by Wayne W. Dyer
Kick Ass - Take Names: Confessions of a Fitness & Fighting Guru by Matt Furey
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
The Magic of Believing by Claude M. Bristol
The Power of Intention by Wayne W. Dyer
Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles
Workouts for Dummies by Tamilee Webb
Zero-Resistance Living by Maxwell Maltz

Cassette Tapes

30 Days to Personal Power by Anthony Robbins

Compact Discs

Combat Cardio Teleseminar by Matt Furey (2-Disc)
Furey Fat Loss Teleseminar by Matt Furey (2-Disc)
Magnetic Mind Power by Matt Furey (2 CDs, 2 DVDs plus pamphlet)
Psycho-Cybernetics: Subliminal Programming for Health & Success by Maxwell Maltz
Secrets of the Power of Intention by Wayne W. Dyer

DVDs

China Underground Sports Rejuvenation Secrets by Matt Furey
The Chinese Long-Life System by Matt Furey (3-Disc)
Combat Stretching: How to Double Your Flexibility in One Evening by Matt Furey (3-Disc)
Dynamic Deep Breathing by Matt Furey

Miscellaneous

Combat Conditioning and Kick Ass - Take Names Memory Cards
Pedometer
70-ounce pink plastic water jug (color optional)
10-pound dumbbells
Walking shoes

Supplements

Carb-Right by Amerisciences
Slim by Amerisciences
Women's Master-Multi by Amerisciences
Organic Flax Seed by Arrowhead Mills

Whew! That's a lot of stuff, isn't it? As much as I would like to have unlimited time to explore all these resources, I don't, so I have to use them at intervals - which, I'm sure, is just as well. In this and future entries I'll be focusing on one at a time, much as I do in real life.

Although it's now June, I'll start with my May focus - Matt Furey's "Magnetic Mind Power." After all, every great work, as well as every ordinary endeavor, begins in the mind, with a thought - and that includes a fitness tread.

"Magnetic Mind Power" is a course consisting of two DVDs that feature Matt talking to you from his home living room, two CDs, and a pamphlet. While its full title is actually "Magnetic Mind Power for Peak Athletic Performance," due to the fact that Matt is a former world champion wrestler as well as a current personal trainer, its principles can be used by anyone and applied to any endeavor. As he says in the introduction, "Success is truly up for grabs. Whoever thinks about it the most and wants it the most - gets it." The purpose of MMP is to give its users the "how to" information that goes hand in hand with thought and desire in the pursuit of success.

In easy to understand terms, Matt describes the goal setting and focusing techniques he's learned and used over the years that have led him to his own current level of success - visualization, speaking aloud, writing, and "picture books" or collages. None of these methods are new, and you may well have heard of them or used them already. Nevertheless, listening to Matt tell about how he incorporated them into his own life, and the results he experienced, is entertaining as well as informative, as he puts his own personal flavor on them, including what I call an "Asian spin" - his wife is Chinese and Matt has practiced various martial arts. Hearing of other high achievers' methods is also interesting - did you know, for example, that the creators of the wildly popular "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book series cut out bestseller lists from such publications as the New York Times, pasted them on their walls where they would see them daily, and inserted their own names and prospective book titles in the "#1" slot? Or that author, businesswoman and speaker Glenna Salsbury, following a divorce and job loss, bought a number of magazines, cut out pictures of everything she wanted manifested in her life - from the types of flowers she liked to receive to the vacation spots she wanted to vist, all the way to the type of man she wanted to attract - pasted them in a book, put the book away for a while as she went on about restructuring her life - and eventually acquired every one of those things? What was her secret? A simple formula: "I + V = R - Imagination plus Vividness Equals Reality."

Matt also describes a "mirror technique" featured in the Dale Carnegie course, in which one looks into their mirror every day, and says with as much force as they can possibly muster, "I'm going to win! You want to know why? I'll tell you why! Because I have faith, courage, and enthUsiASM!" Now it may feel a little strange at first, and it may take a while to work up a full head of steam, but try it for at least 30 days and see if you don't notice that it helps get your day - and your attitude - off to a better start.

With Magnetic Mind Power you'll learn not only these techniques but the importance of asking the right questions - how to ask them, and of whom to ask them - as well as "27 Universal Laws for Turning Goals Into Reality." There's even more, but I don't want to steal Matt's thunder - partly because he put a lot of work into this product, and partly because, if you've ever seen a picture of Matt, you will understand why I don't want him coming after me! So if I've piqued your interest sufficiently, mosey on over to www.mattfurey.com and check it out.

Finally, perhaps one of the most important tools you'll take away from MMP is simply the power of words. Like all tools, they can be misused and cause harm if not properly taken care of and applied. In fact, words can even cause constipation!

What's that, you say? Word constipation? Better believe it. Tune in next week to find out what I mean.

-Treader Lucie-

2006-05-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

Lucie Meets the Fure-Cat

He popped up on the Internet at the oddest times - a broad-shouldered, bald man with a strong resemblance to the "Mr. Clean" icon (minus the thick white eyebrows) and abs that could have served as a Merriam-Webster entry under "six pack" - always bare-chested, the better to display his highly trained physique, and always in an advertisement for something called "Combat Abs" or "Combat Conditioning."

Military man, I thought. Must be. He keeps using the word "combat."

I decided that he was, at the least, a master of marketing, because his ads seemed to follow me. Then again, perhaps it was coincidence. Perhaps it was even fate. After all, I was lugging around a gut I call "Big Bertha"* and the word "abs" can usually get my attention faster than almost anything except a piece of chocolate.

Finally, out of sheer curiosity, I clicked on one of his ads. There he was, wearing what looked like a Speedo and crouching in a position I'd not only never seen before, but knew perfectly well I was incapable of reaching except in the realm of fantasy. It was called a Hindu Squat, and his name was Matt Furey.

If you've seen the movie "Jerry Maguire," you'll recall that Tom Cruise had Renee Zellweger at hello. Well, I had never heard of a Hindu Squat or Matt Furey, and furthermore, I didn't particularly care for men who were bald or wore Speedos, but Furey had me at the line "Five Second Abs Burn Fat From Your Waistline" that appeared on one of his ads.

I read. I was intrigued. I bought. Big Bertha would shortly be on her way to the history pile, I decided.

My copy of "Combat Abs" arrived quickly and I sat down to study it. I read the introduction and the opening comments, but I didn't actually start the exercises until the upcoming Monday, because, as I've previously noted, I always start a new diet or exercise program on a Monday. That way I can have the weekend, as well as any remaining days in the week, to have a good time. Last meal of the condemned man, you might say. I'm sure some of you have also done this. Don't worry, you don't have to admit it here. That's my job.

At any rate, "Combat Abs" begins with a set of exercises called "The Magnificent Seven." I looked them over and decided, yes, I can do those with little problem. If anything, they seemed almost too simplistic to work on something as challenging as Big Bertha. But what came afterwards? I started leafing through the book.

Yikes.

Even some of the "Basic Exercises" looked pretty challenging. I wasn't sure I could get into a few of those positions. I put the book down and tried.

I was right.

I kept leafing. There were several moves that I'd seen or done before in years past, and I was fairly sure I could still manage them, even in my present condition. But what in the heck was this thing called a "bridge"? It looked like a back bend. I had been able to do back bends when I was in grade school. Granted, that was a long time ago and I had lost a good deal of flexibility since then, but surely I could still manage one.

HA!

There was no other word for it. The first time I tried what is called a gymnastic bridge, using the technique that Matt himself described, I managed to lift my upper body perhaps two inches off the floor. Originally I thought it was about four inches, but I have since come to the conclusion that I was being generous. The attempt was such a dismal failure that I actually had to laugh out loud.

Okay, I thought. Let's just start with the Magnificent Seven.

So I did. I started getting up earlier in the morning just to do them, no little sacrifice since I have never been "a morning person" by any stretch of the imagination. And I discovered that those seemingly simple exercises were a bit of a challenge for someone like me, because they all involved something I wasn't used to - deep breathing.

I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that Americans in general, or perhaps people in the West, tend to breathe more shallowly than their counterparts in the East. It was certainly true of me. All that deep breathing made me...dizzy! I'd have to pause for a moment. Do a couple more repetitions. Holy cow, was that nausea? What was that about? Why did my ears seem to close up when I did the "Trunk Rotators"? And why the heck did my forearms itch so much when I tried to do those "Hands Overhead Side Bends"?

I still don't have an explanation for the latter, which continues (to a milder extent) to this day, but the dizziness was not entirely unexpected. I knew I was a shallow breather, and now I was sucking in oxygen as far as I could suck it. My poor brain just wasn't used to that. Over time, it got better, as did the nausea, and the itch. It wasn't long at all before I could do the required number of repetitions without pausing. But Big Bertha, and her counterpart, Big Beatrice* (my protruding posterior) were both still a Big Challenge. After about a month I thought I could see some reduction in both, but it was clear that I had a long way to go. As Matt himself said, "Rome wasn't built in a day...but it was built."

And as it turned out, the Fure-Cat had a few more things to show me.

Next week: Tools of the Trade.

-Treader Lucie-

*No offense whatsoever is intended to any readers named Bertha or Beatrice.

2006-05-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

Starting at Ground Zero!

I didn't think losing weight would be an easy process. I've tried it too many times, in too many different ways. I've tried the Weight Watchers plan (twice), Slender Now (I'm dating myself!), the Weight Loss Clinic, and ediets. The latter is the only one with which I stuck for any length of time - about five and a half months - and I managed to drop 25 pounds, the most I have ever managed to lose, in that period. But as with every other program, once I quit, I gained back the weight - on this occasion, in half the time it took me to lose it.

Can I get a witness?

What does it take to find a program that works for one, and stick with it, either until a specific goal is reached, or for a lifetime? Until fairly recently, if you had asked me this question I probably would have answered with one word: willpower. Now I am beginning to realize more fully than ever that the answer is deeper and more complex. But that will have to wait until a future entry. Right now, I want to give you a little background on myself and the very beginning of how I came to be writing this blog.

If someone had asked me only a few months ago to assess my physical fitness level, I would have said something like, "Oh, moderately fit." Moderately. A safe word, smack in the middle of the fence between gymnast and couch potato. Yes, moderately sounded good: I could do a few pushups if I absolutely had to; I could walk a few miles; I could do some crunches...you know. So what if I couldn't touch my toes? A lot of people couldn't. At least I could still see them. So what if even a couple of flights of stairs put me out of breath? I could still climb stairs. I walked in the evenings...occasionally. Yep, I was, at least, moderately fit.

And even as I would have said this, I would have been mentally crossing my fingers behind my back.

I would, however, most likely have continued on this path indefinitely, in spite of my dislike of my body's appearance, had it not been for a visit to my family physician. Almost all my life I had been aware of a ticking time bomb that lodged in the maternal side of my family tree - diabetes. It had reared its ugly head yet again, this time in a relative whom no one had expected to be diagnosed. For the past several years I had made a habit of having my blood sugar checked in a laboratory at least once a year. And each time the results came back as acceptable, I breathed a sigh of relief. Now, for the first time, I was truly worried, for not only was this relative the last one anyone would have expected - as they frequently said! - but he was not a sweets addict like me. Wasn't excessive sugar intake, after all, what caused diabetes?

It was not. For the first time I began to learn of the connection between diabetes and weight. Between diabetes and age. Between diabetes and a sedentary life style. Between diabetes and excessive carbohydrate consumption. I began ticking off warning points on a checklist - too many of them. I began to worry... and I went to the local laboratory to give blood.

That was in October, 2005. I was fortunate then - the diagnosis I had dreaded was "only" pre-diabetes, but it was enough to scare me straight - at least for a while. For a few months I monitored my blood sugar daily. Watched what I ate, exercised at least semi-regularly. And then I learned from a call to the American Diabetes Association that the readings on the monitor didn't tell me whether or not I had crossed the line into the actual disease, but how well I was managing if I had the disease.

Well!

I am not proud to say this, but for someone like me, that was enough of an "excuse" to gradually slip back into my old habits. The unhealthy eating patterns, once chastened, came crawling back and the exercise all but vanished. Both friends and family were concerned that I was heading straight down the hill to the land of diabetics. In the back of my mind I knew they were right. I was puffy, flabby, and too often stiff. I had reached my heaviest weight ever, at least as far as I knew, since I didn't weigh myself on a regular basis - I really didn't want to know! Something had to be done. I had to start over. I just didn't realize exactly what "starting over" meant until I met Matt Furey.

Who is Matt Furey? Tune in next week to find out.

-Treader Lucie-

2006-05-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Put On Your Walking Shoes!

Tread: To step or walk on or over, to walk along. To beat or press with the feet, to subdue or repress as if by trampling.

Greetings! On this 15th day of May, 2006, I welcome any readers who may find this tiny corner of the Internet, by direct invitation or by "accident," to "Treading Towards a New Horizon." If there had been room for a subtitle, it would have been this: "One Woman's Journey to Physical, Mental and Financial Fitness." When this blog was still a mere idea, I envisioned it as being a year-long journey. Then as I began to write today, I realized - what nonsense, if not arrogance!

It's true that I hope to accomplish a good deal by May 15, 2007. But true fitness, especially in three categories at once, is more likely to be a lifelong journey, isn't it?

Some of you may wonder why I chose May 15 as my "start date," rather than the more common January 1. Like most of you, I've made - and broken - my share of New Year's resolutions. A few years ago I stopped making them entirely, refusing to fool myself into believing that I'd really keep them. (Does anyone?) Actually, there is nothing particularly special about May 15. It just happens to be a Monday, and I always start a diet and/or fitness program on a Monday. That, after all, gives you leeway to do whatever you want for a weekend, at least! And this is at least the third time I've begun this latest journey. I hope it will be the last for a long while.

But why blog about it? I have to admit that I approached this new venture with trepidation. After all, blogging would make me more accountable! People would be reading my entries - hopefully - and would know when I cheated as well as succeeded! Being a sometimes painfully honest person, I would be revealing some things about my current physical state, such as my beginning weight, that are embarrassing!

I had other concerns, too. What if I ran out of things to say? I'm not normally a very talkative person, nor an extraordinarily deep thinker. So much has been written already. Would the people I wanted to reach find me?

Because, you see, there are specific people I want to reach...people who, like me, have spent much of their lives sedentary and when they set out to change their physical state, discover that the joints and muscles don't move as smoothly as they expected, that the shouted claims of advertisments are too often false, that pounds and inches don't vanish as quickly as they hoped, that the scale is both a kind friend and a harsh enemy, depending on a variety of factors, some of which are unseen and unguessed at. People like me who are dissatisfied, at least sometimes, with their current level of mental and financial, as well as physical, fitness. People who wonder if it's too late for change, or at least the amount of change they would like to see.

If this describes you - especially if you're in middle life, as I am, when fitness at all levels is more challenging - it's my hope that the personal experiences, thoughts, observations, quotations, and questions I post here will be of help to you. And I hope that you will have many things to teach me! Along the way I'll be sharing the practical tools I use, as well as how well they work (or don't work) for me. I'll share my failures and temptations as well as my successes, and I hope you'll share yours as well.

To tread is to "walk," but it also means "to subdue or repress." What a fitting meaning for this blog, because there are things I'll be trying to "subdue or repress," from a mid-life identity that fights change with a sharp sword, to cravings for food that stem more from self-medication than hunger, to simple but deeply ingrained habits. If you'd like to tread with me, then put on your walking shoes and...

Come along.

-Treader Lucie-