September/October 2001 Newsletter

You've all heard and read more than enough about the September 11 tragedy in New York, I just need to leave a little note: lets put some energy and thoughts towards all the people who lost their lives and their loved ones over there in New York... God Bless all!

Another double summer issue of the newsletter is here. I know that many of you have been impatient, bombarding me with questions if I forgot or what? I must admit, that my time has been flowing incredibly fast and before I knew, the end of the month was here, and suddenly another one. I have no excuses, maybe just too much sunshine and nice hot weather. I hope you too had a great summer and are ready for the coming fall. I can see it in the mornings when I have to get up for my early clients and it's dark and wet outside. My dog is all overheated under the cover and doesn't even think about getting her red nose outside... What a life! The dog life is just perfect, eat, sleep, walk and sniff some cats, eat again, rest more... play... Scratch my butt... Hmmm, I'd like that! Back to the summer theme. We got some incredible hot days here in Venice, one of the best days of all summer. I can feed my tan more. I've been doing excellent job with that. Visiting my "private spa" in the mountains in Vegas every other weekend and relaxing by the pool. All the pictures spread out in this newsletter are taken there.  For the reason of the Best Glutes contest in Planet Muscle magazine. I submitted a few of them, so lets see if my booty wins some price  :-)

Talking about magazines, if you pick up the November issue of Muscle Mag International, you'll find a photo with a nice write up on me. Page 261.

My training and eating has been very organized the last few months. I am continuing my little project with the Eastern medicine and the acupuncture and it works very nicely, with combination with my training and eating. I get needles stuck in me every week, lately mostly for regulating my energy flow and keeping everything balanced... because all my organs and organ system seems very balanced and it shows also in my body. I am not dieting really hard and I am not doing too much cardio. And still leaning out. In my diet, I eat fruits, dried fruits, nuts, peanut butter, grains, rice (besides veggies and protein) and some of these are supposed to be "forbidden" diet foods. My cardio - I walk Peanut every morning, swiftly without sniffing, for about 45 minutes. I do hardly any night cardio at the gym, and I added two sessions (1.5 hours) of Bikram's yoga in my schedule. If you never tried Bikram's yoga, it's time to do it. I am so impressed. I don't need to go to the  chiropractor anymore and all my small aches and pains (don't forget that I am old!  :-)  ) are gone... The yoga is more like 2 hours stretching with mental relaxation. They heat up the room to 100 degrees, you sweat A LOT and the muscles relax well. 26 poses, standing, balancing, and laying and you repeat each pose twice. Always the same... always great. The first class was an eye opener for me, I thought I am fairly flexible doing my splits and stuff, but the yoga showed me different... wow! I had a great goal and challenge ahead me. Now, 2-3 months later, I am getting good at this. So, if you have a chance, try it too!

If you remember, in my last newsletter I was describing my chase for the new car. I almost bought one, all paper works were done, my name was printed out, just sign it... I did not, the dealer got so pissed. He spent 7 hours tiring me out, and I got tired (!), but he was still ripping me off and I left. Eventually, I decided to keep my cute quick little Honda for a while. It has maybe another 100000 miles to go....

The video...

Thank you all for your purchase and wonderful comments of the video! I am glad that you are enjoying it as much as I did shooting it. And you who hasn't bought any yet and forgot what it was about, here read more about the booty video...
 

What is Life about...
(Based on "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss)

Perception Perception is not a fact, but a reflection of the beliefs of the perceiver.

Beliefs "If I hadn't believed it, I never would have seen it"

Love "Love is not a feeling, it's a decision"

Mind Dynamics  "A wish is a declaration of the mouth that the mind knows is a lie"

Learning "You don't learn anything from what you see or read or hear"

Truth "Your life is governed by what is truth (whether you believe it or not) but your experience of life is governed by what you believe (whether it is true or not)."

Romance Success is determined not by what you can get from, but by what you can give to a relationship.

Prosperity & Riches "There are three essential elements in making and keeping a lot of money in this world....."

Healing A certain amount of pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.

Forgiveness "That forgiveness is healing cannot be over-emphasized."
 

Perception is not a fact, but a reflection of the beliefs of the perceiver.

Choose any object and understand that of itself it has no meaning (or purpose) other than the meaning that you give to it. If you have a book in your hands, its meaning (or purpose) will be determined only by you. On a very simple level, you may use it as a door stop or to help start a fire, and that then becomes its purpose for you. In a larger sense, you may feel that the concepts are divinely inspired or the work of the devil, and you will see in it only those parts which support your belief. You literally choose the meaning or purpose of everything and every event in your life, and it becomes that for you.

"If I hadn't believed it, I never would have seen it"

Your premise is the total of all you believe about life, yourself, and your relationship to everything. This system of beliefs will also be referred to as ego. The best way to define ego is this: it's "What I think I am." It is not the reality of what you are, but everything you have come to believe is true about you. Here are some important aspects of your premise or ego.

1. It is not Truth. If it were, it would remain constant, and would be the same for everyone.

2. You made it up, and it changes every moment of every day, so it is like a fantasy or an illusion.

3. Because you made it, you love it, and you must defend it at all costs.

What are the beliefs that you have made up, and are therefore proud of, and must defend? Obviously, there are thousands. Ironically many of them contradict others, which explains your occasional indecisiveness and confusion. When you have mixed feelings about something, it must divide your allegiance, your effort and your effectiveness, and in the extreme it will immobilize you.

"Love is not a feeling, it's a decision"

One very clever way the world keeps its story safe is to include love as part of its story, but give it different meanings. For example, it tries to say love manipulates with phrases like, "If you loved me, you would do this or wouldn't do that."  What it is really teaching is guilt, and the phrase should read, "If you don't want to feel guilty, you should do this or shouldn't do that." The world has taught you that love is painful. When you become infatuated with someone and want to own them. You call it falling in love. The desire to own someone comes from the world's teaching that you can only have what you get. That you can get love and can only have it if you hold onto it tightly. Attempts to own someone can result in a lot of pain. THE WORLD'S BELIEF SYSTEM PROVIDES ONLY SUBSTITUTES FOR LOVE.

"A wish is a declaration of the mouth that the mind knows is a lie"

Your beliefs have a profound effect on how you perceive what's happening, because they act like filters. They let some things through and block out others, based on how compatible the information is with what is already there. It works much like the filter on a camera, designed to give you the picture you want rather than the picture that is. Similarly, the subconscious mind that receives the perception is much like the film. It accepts completely, without question, everything it receives as true, and spits out your fabricated picture of life in all its glory, just as if it were real. And then it uses that as the basis for judging the reality of the next perception. THE SOLE PURPOSE OF THE RATIONAL MIND IS SURVIVAL OF WHAT IT THINKS IS SO (YOUR PREMISE).
"You don't learn anything from what you see or read or hear"

When you read a book, you become "aware" of an idea, but you haven't learned it. By watching someone ride a bicycle, you haven't learned how. You teach yourself by doing it. By forgiving, you teach yourself forgiveness and learn that you are forgiven. Establish clearly in your mind what it is that you want to learn and teach it, express it, extend it. Only the vision of wholeness within you can guide you how to teach love. AND THERE IS NO RELATIONSHIP IN WHICH YOU CANNOT TEACH LOVE!

"Beliefs are a substitute for truth"

Most concepts that you hold dear are precious to you, not because they are true, but because you wished they were true. If while reading this you feel these beliefs are being threatened, then you must reject anything in this article that contradicts them and say, "I just can't believe that's true." Not because it violates the truth, but because it violates your belief. "Your life is governed by what is true (whether you believe it or not) but your experience of life is governed by what you believe (whether it is true or not)."

"Romance is a substitute for love"

ROMANCE CAN QUICKLY TURN TO HATRED WHEN IT IS BASED ON A "GIVE TO GET" RELATIONSHIP. Change the purpose of the relationship from one in which you try to find your wholeness in the other to one in which you share your wholeness with the other. Now you will think in terms of what you can give to the relationship, and if you're thinking about what a great body you have to give,forget it! Relationships are not of the body, they are of the mind. The amount of wholeness or happiness that you can get from another is very limited (if any at all); you can only "give" wholeness in a relationship.

"Riches are a substitute for prosperity"

There is an absolute difference between prosperity and, worldly riches, yet because they are also related, it's not easy for most people to see a clear distinction. For the same reason, some folks couple together love and romance or belief and truth. The world helps you find romance and steers you away from love. The world fills you with beliefs and hides the truth from you in a place where you would never think to look: within. The world makes riches easy to attain and lose while blatantly denying you prosperity.

A certain amount of pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.

The purpose of this manual is not to prevent the occurrence of pain, but to provide tools that can free you of your suffering.
When you are totally committed to healing, you will teach only love. And the key to love is forgiveness.

There are only two loving expressions of life: gratitude and forgiveness!

When an encounter triggers a warm, comfortable feeling, this other (your mirror) is reflecting something you like about yourself. The appropriate and very important expression is gratitude. Every positive encounter reflects the beauty within you waiting to be expressed, and gratitude is the releasing mechanism. Gratitude is essential to reinforce your awareness of your reality as love. The flip side of that coin should start to become painfully apparent. When an encounter triggers fear in some form (anger, guilt, frustration, disappointment, annoyance,etc.) this other (your mirror) is reflecting something you don't like about yourself. Now the appropriate and very important expression is forgiveness. Forgiveness does not mean to forget that something happened, but to allow your voice within to guide you to a different way of seeing what happened to free you of your grievance. FORGIVENESS IS THE ONLY THING THAT CAN HEAL A SICK RELATIONSHIP.

Stay balanced and get lean.

What do you do when you decide to get rid of the extra blubber around your waist line or your bootie? Do you start doing cardio like a maniac twice a day? Do drop your calories so low that you are almost fainting from hunger? Sure, you get pretty lean, but you also look somehow stringy and sick. You've lost so much of your hard worked muscle mass. The muscles you've got left are not full, and your shape is somehow flat. That's not so good, don't you think? There's must be something better to do. To keep your weight almost stable and just change the quality of your mass, somehow like a magician, turn the fat into a muscle... It is possible.

I've experimenting with my nutrition and training. I am not stressing about any deadline for a competition or a photo shoot. I am leaning out without hurry and having fun at the same time. I know that we sometimes have these deadlines, but we can apply the same "rules", because something here is obviously working.

The last 6 months or so I've been playing with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and applying its nutritional extremes (too low protein, not too much training) into our body building world, an another extreme with lots of protein and lots of training. I've been losing fat very slowly, but I've been keeping (or even gaining) my muscle at the same time. My weight dropped the worst blubber, about 20 lbs and now the weight remains the same, around 185 lbs, but I am still getting leaner.

So what am I doing? The main point is to stay balanced, in my training, eating and working. If I notice that I am overdoing any of it, I back off and balance myself. I try to keep my physical body and all its inner organs as balanced as possible, because I believe that then the fat burning will work very efficiently. I've changed my eating a lot and my training a little bit.

Eating. Of course, the same "basic" rules apply: no junk food and sugary or processed foods. But my menu is still very "open", besides all the protein I eat fruits, nuts, all kinds of grains, rice, vegetables, and I even add some dried fruits in my meals. Instead of decreasing my calories, I found a comfortable level and stuck with it for a while. I am not counting my calories. I know approximately how much protein and carbs and fat I eat. If I feel hungry I eat more. If I am not, I eat less. I don't force myself to eat my 6 meals. If I am full before finishing my meal, I stop eating... Before, I used to think "oh my, my, I HAVE to eat my 50 grams protein each meal or I lose my precious muscle!"  Now, I think it's worse by stressing about not getting enough than not getting enough itself. I believe that my body asks for what it needs, but we have to distinguish between the physical needs and emotional needs. Sometimes I eat just 3 meals a day. I notice it's often after my "hungry" day. My hungry day is often the leg day, or the day after and I can eat tons of food. You who know me, you know that I am a nut-maniac and these days I ingest lots of cashews and other nuts! I vary my foods at each meal to support my digestive enzymes. As a part of my experiment, I stopped eating oatmeal. I found that it always makes my bloated and holding water (damp condition in the TCM, the digestion is overloaded and the oatmeal worsens the condition). Instead, I eat barley or rye flakes and cook them just as my oatmeal. You can hardly tell the difference. The main change in my diet is that I started to eat white rice, at least at one meal a day. Before I used to be too conscious about its high glycemic index and too many carbs. From TCM's point, the rice is very neutral and healing for the digestion and that's what  I (and lost of bodybuilders) need. We eat a lot of protein which is tough to digest, so we must take care of our digestive system.

Be nice to your digestive system! Drink your fluids warm temperature, not ice cold. Take your time when you eat. Sit down and eat slowly and CHEW your food well. The more you chew the easier it's going to be to digest it. Don't eat if you feel stressed out, upset, bored,  emotional or have a business to talk. When you eat, focus on your food. Chew! Listen to your body. If you are full, it means that the body got what it wants. Stop eating. Learn how to recognize the physical hunger. Sometimes we want to eat when are too anxious, or we don't feel well for any reason. Work on recognizing these signs and eat just to feed our physical hunger.

Another part of taking care of my digestion was a regular weekly visit to Dr. Brady Chin, my excellent acupuncturist. He sticks some needles into me (and I complain like a big cry-baby!)  to regulate whatever is needed in my body, to obtain the perfect balance. In the beginning, it was lots of work for my spleen (digestion) and stomach. It used to be overloaded, but recently, it's been in a nice balance because of my changed eating habits.

I also got rid of all fat burners, caffein/effedrine, MaHuang... name all these pills. Not because they don't work. They do, and we all know that. But they were counter-productive in my goal of obtaining a perfect balance in my body. The adrenal glands got exhausted with these fat burners and then the body needs to get the energy to balance them from somewhere else, maybe from the digestion system, or spleen or kidneys... something else got out of balance. So I got rid of the fat burners. It took me about 3 weeks to feel "normal". I've been off for almost 7 months and yes, I am still losing fat and leaning out. And I cut down my cardio tremendously!

Training. The weight training has remained the same, 5 days a week about one hour. I never miss my weight training. I've changed my cardio sessions a lot. I still walk my dog Peanut every morning for about 45 minutes, fast and swiftly and no sniffing... The cardio that I used to do at the gym at night, almost every night, I cut down to maybe 1 session a week. Sometimes I do the cardio outdoors on rollerblades. I added 2 sessions of Bikram's yoga each week. Two hours of torture in the room heated to 100 degree. I must say that it helped my body tremendously. I thought I was pretty flexible doing my splits and stretch every day, but the class opened my eyes and helped my to find these other small tight muscles that I suspected that I have somewhere but couldn't find them. Now, I don't need any chiropractor treatments any more and my body recovers from the training much better. Not talking about the mental and spiritual part of it.

Last, but not the least, I am taking care of my mind. Know that you cannot reach what you don't believe. So whatever you goal is, believe that you will reach it, sooner or later. Stay focused and persistent. Don't be discouraged by mistakes that you've made. See them as learning opportunities in your progress on the way to your ultimate goal. Learn from the past, and leave it behind. Release it, set it free and stay focused on the moment. Be in a present, prepare yourself intellectually for the future. The present is full of wonder and interesting opportunities. Every day, when you wake up, remember that THIS is the happiest day, the most successful day, the healthiest day of your life.
 

Dehydration facts

75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.

Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?
 
 

Facts about diet & exercise Fitness Q & A

Q: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?

A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it, don't piss them away on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?

A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable slop.

Q: Is beer or wine bad for me?

A: Look, it goes to the earlier point about fruits and vegetables. As all know, scientists divide everything in the world into three categories: animal, mineral, and vegetable. We all know that beer and wine are not animal, and they are not on the periodic table of elements, so that only leaves one thing, right? My advice: Have a burger and a beer and enjoy your
liquid vegetables.

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?

A: Well, if you have a body, and you have body fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?

A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain - Good.

Q: If I stop smoking, will I live longer?

A: Nope. Smoking is a sign of individual statement and peace of mind. If you stop, you'll probably stress yourself to death in record time.

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?

A: You're not listening. Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q: What's the secret to healthy eating?

A: Thicker gravy.

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?

A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.
 
 

Uncensored Humor!!!
Don't read if you are of a sensitive nature...   :-)
 

Penis' Request For a Raise:

I, the penis, hereby request a raise in salary for the following reasons:

1. I do physical labor
2. I work at great depths
3. I plunge head first into everything I do
4. I do not get weekends off or public holidays
5. I work in a damp environment
6. I don't get paid overtime
7. I work in a dark workplace that has poor ventilation
8. I work in high temperatures
9. My work exposes me to contagious diseases

Management Response to Request:

Dear Penis,

After assessing your request, and considering the arguments you have raised, the administration rejects your request for the following reasons:

1. You do not work 8 hours straight
2. You fall asleep on the job after brief work periods
3. You do not always follow the orders of the management team
4. You do not stay in your allocated position, and often visit other areas
5. You do not take initiative - you need to be pressured and stimulated in order to start working
6. You leave the workplace rather messy at the end of your shift
7. You don't always observe necessary safety regulations, such as wearing the correct protective clothing
8. You'll retire well before reaching 65
9. You're unable to work double shifts
10. You sometimes leave your allocated position before you have completed the day's work
11. And if that were not all, you have been seen constantly entering and leaving the workplace carrying 2 suspicious-looking bags.

Sincerely, The Management