February/March 2001 Newsletter

It's been a while ago since my last newsletter. As you guys and girls noticed, the February newsletter never came out. I could blame it on the short number of days in the February month, or the raining season in California, or too much food in my stomach during my off-season. The truth is, that I had a lot of fun travelling back and forth to Las Vegas, where I was spending 3-4 days long weekends. Doing nothing in Las Vegas, just eating a lot of yummy foods, sitting in the jacuzzi or the steam room and living the night life style, going to shows... but no gambling!!! So when I came back to Venice, I was exhausted, and I had to work all my clients and train all my workouts in 4 days. Which made me pretty tired as well. I gained 4 lbs on weekends, working off the weight on weekdays. So, with other words,  I did not have time to spend on my computer. I sincerely appologize and do my best not to repeat it in the future...  Also, now the situation is different. I bought myself a laptop... Gee, after many many years (all my life) having a Macintosh (on the side of a SUN Sparc, but it's a different category) I switched to a PC. I can only say "Oh my, my!!!" It takes a lot of time and effort to get adjusted, but I like the performance of my little Sony thing. I can carry it with me to Vegas and stay connected... and write my newsletters on time, sitting by the swimming pool, in the Sunrise Mountain... The house in the picture is my weekend get-away location. Who wouldn't like that place? And who would bother writing newsletters???  :-) And maybe, eventually, my weekend location becomes my home. I am looking into doing some interesting new things there in Vegas, maybe to be a part of the Crazy Girls Show in one of the casinos on The Strip, and do my act dancing on rollerskates. I think I would love to do that. We'll see what the future brings.

So, now back to training. I am still off season. I was thinking of competing in May, in NPC California Championship. It's the only contest I haven't done, here on the West Coast. It would mean to start my diet in early February and I sort of pre-started before Christmas. But then a lot of interesting things in my life started to happen and all the trips to Vegas, and I am realizing it would be just impossible to stay 100% focused on my diet and training for the contest. So I decided to postpone my competing maybe after the summer. I still train heavy and do cardio like if I would compete, but without the stress. My weight is still around 200 lbs (varies from 199 lbs before the Vegas trip, to 203 lbs after the trip), and just under 14% body fat. My arms have grown... Yeah, my babies have grown from 14 inches last October to 15 1/4 now. That makes me happy, so now I even look forward to working out my arms. My booty has grown too, but that's nothing unexpected, huh? That thing is growing with a minimal stimulus. My personal record in Snatch (Olympic lifting) is 200 lbs (very, very close to 205 lbs), after almost a year of plateau on 195 lbs. That makes me excited, too.

If you missed the April 2001 issues of MuscleMag International, where on the page 226 was a little picture of me, from the Anniversary Gold's gym party, drinking wine and eating all the brownies and other sweets. It made my face smiling... Bellow is the picture.
 

The Best Time Of Day To Workout

We all ask the same question... what is the best time during the day for our workouts. And as you know, we get many answers... I would tell you that at noon it's perfect, somebody else loves it at night, and some of us the earlier the better. So who is right? Everybody is right. Any time that you can fit the workout in and do it with energy and enthusiasm, is a good time. Your body will tell you when it feels best. You'll know when your energy levels are highest and it is at these times that you should train, if your schedule permits it.

Now talking about the schedule... Have you ever planned a training session only to have it interrupted by unexpected circumstances? Or, perhaps you train first thing in the morning, and when you awaken one morning, you're extremely tired, unmotivated and just cannot get going. Or, maybe you've scheduled a workout during lunchtime and just as you're getting ready to leave for the company gym, your boss pops in with an emergency. Your workout gets pushed off towards the end of the day. At the end of the day, you're exhausted, you go home, and you just don't feel like training. Ever have one of those days? If you haven't had one already, you're going to experience it sometime.

The key to being successful in any training program is staying flexible. Just because you miss an early morning workout doesn't mean you can't make it up later that evening. And, just because you get stuck at the office with a 16 hour day doesn't mean you can't get that vital workout in first thing the next morning. You can make it happen, if you want. If you truly want.

The important thing is progress, not perfection. Occasionally, life throws us obstacles to climb over. There will be times that we just don't feel well. The important thing to realize is that you are not a failure and you merely have to pick up where you left off. That's the key to long term success and success in getting into, and staying in, great shape.

And talking about the best time of the day to train, how about the meals? The timing of our meals is as important (if not more) as the workout itself. For many of us, the energy levels are best an hour to an hour and a half after eating a solid meal of foods rich in protein and complex carbohydrates. So try to schedule your meals and your workout accordingly. If you wait longer than that, the energy levels might start to decline. At two and a half to three hours after a meal, it's time for another meal. So, if you have planned a workout during lunchtime and something unexpected comes up, simply eat lunch instead and then an hour and a half later begin training. If something comes up and you have to postpone the workout again, wait an hour again, eat, then an hour and a half later train. Stay flexible. Just be careful that you don't push your workout back into your schedule so much that you end up blowing it off!

Water vs. Coke

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, 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?

COKE No wonder coke tastes soooo good:

1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two  gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and .......Let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, Remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a umptuous brown gravy.
8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, And run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

FYI:
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its Ph is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.
2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.
3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!
 

Rules for a great life

1. No one can ruin your day without YOUR permission.
2. Most people will be about as happy, as they decide to be.
3. Others can stop you temporarily, but only you can do it permanently.
4. Whatever you are willing to put up with, is exactly what you will have.
5. Success stops when you do.
6. When your ship comes in.... make sure you are willing to unload it.
7. You will never "have it all together."
8. Life is a journey...not a destination. Enjoy the trip!
9. The biggest lie on the planet: "When I get what I want, I will be happy."
10. The best way to escape your problem is to solve it.
11. I've learned that ultimately, 'takers' lose and 'givers' win.
12. Life's precious moments don't have value, unless they are shared.
13. If you don't start, it's certain you won't arrive.
14. We often fear the thing we want the most.
15. He or she who laughs......lasts.
16. Yesterday was the deadline for all complaints.
17. Look for opportunities...not guarantees.
18. Life is what's coming....not what was.
19. Success is getting up one more time.
20. Now is the most interesting time of all.
21. When things go wrong.....don't go with them.

Postworkout meal

Many of us, weight training and bodybuilding people, want to put on as much muscle as possible. We train hard and we eat right. But sometimes, we don't think about the importance of timing of our meals. We might be too busy or too lazy to eat a nutritional meal every 3-4 hours. I cannot stress more how important the nutrition is in your training goals. And especially one meal, that is the post workout meal. You've heard it probably before: most "experts" say, "as long as you take a meal containing carbohydrates and protein within 90 minutes after your workout you'll be using this "window of opportunity" for muscle growth." But why do you want to wait so long? The sooner, the better. The "muscle eating" hormone cortisol is rapidly rising right after the workout and if you don't do something to put a stop to it, it's going to eat away at your muscle gains. To stop cortisol from rising you should take your post workout shake immediately after your workout. You can make it ready at home and bring it with you, if you don't have a possibility to mix it at the gym. Your shake should be high glycemic carbohydrates and protein. We often hear that we need to avoid high glycemic foods, so why do I push it now? Actually there are two reasons: the first is, scientists have figured out insulin and cortisol are antagonistic, meaning when your insulin levels are high, cortisol is driven out of your body. This tilts your testosterone to cortisol ratio in favor of testosterone. And that's what we want, right? And the second is glycogen depletion after a workout. If you've properly done a hard enough workout, your muscles will be depleted of carbohydrates, because you used them up during your workout. Your muscles are literally screaming for some more carbohydrates right after the workout. They will quickly absorb the carbohydrates, so it is important to get them into your body as soon as possible. While your body is in this quick uptake mode, you can use the carbohydrates to shuttle other "anabolic" nutrients into your body (vitamins, minerals, glutamine, creatine...) So remember, you need to become a post workout fanatic and take it in as soon as you can.

Benefits of High Impact Activities

Many well meaning fitness professionals have been teaching us about how the high impact activities are harmful to our joints. A recent report in the British Medical Journal observes that osteoporosis, arthritis, spinal deterioration and other types of joint demise are very common among  sedentary folk who spend minimal time in impact activities or any other types of physical activity, for that matter. So lets look at the high impact activities in more detail...

High Impact Activity Protects against Future Fractures

High impact physical exercise is far more effective than moderate or low impact activities at protecting people of both sexes from hip fracture in later life, according to a study in this week's British Medical Journal. Dr Nicholas Wareham and colleagues from the Institute of Public Health in  Cambridge identified 2,296 men and 2,914 women who had had a heel ultrasound measurement taken (a method used to predict their risk of hip fracture) as part of the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer. Both men and women who reported participating in high impact physical  activity - including jogging, tennis, badminton, and step aerobics - had a significantly higher ultrasound measurement than those who reported no activity of this type, the researchers found. This finding, they say, could be translated into a 33 per cent reduction in risk of hip fracture in men and a 12 per cent reduction in women.

Should All Impact Loading Training be Avoided???

These are most interesting remarks from Dr Mark Swanepoel. They are highly relevant, not only to the use of many endurance training machines, but also to the entire popular fitness philosophy of avoiding all ballistic or impulsive exercise. "I am suspicious of exercise machines that control both displacement and load simultaneously. They must be physiologically appropriate for a very small sector of the population, if anyone. Unless performances on various exercise machines become recognized competitive events, machines that do not offer the athlete some freedom in the speed of muscle usage and contraction versus displacement, cannot possibly be a good way to prepare the body for competition.

Dr Seedhom of Leeds University and his postgraduate students such as Dr Tony Swann and Nelson Chen have investigated joint usage and degradation. Their work, taken as a whole together with that of such workers as Dr Bullough and Goodfellow of Oxford, and Kempson, demonstrates conclusively that joints subjected to 'heavy impacts', such as the ankle, are relatively free from osteoarthrosis in old age, and those that are subjected to much lower loading experience a greater incidence of cartilage fibrillation and osteoarthrosis. In fact, as one progresses up the lower limb, from the ankle, to the knee, on to the hip, and then to the lumbar apophyseal joints, so the extent of fibrillation increases at any given age. The reason appears to be that the cartilage of joints subjected to regular 'peaky' loading with relatively high joint contact stresses, is much  stiffer and better able to endure the odd exceptional load, than softer cartilage that is lowly loaded. There are now many new exercise machines on the market that are advertised as being 'low' or even 'zero' impact machines, including one horrific device that subjects the lower limbs to a centripetal acceleration about a fixed horizontal axis through the hips, with the knees locked straight. The problem is that joint cartilage and muscles subjected to such activities will certainly not adapt appropriately for normal walking, running and stair climbing, and that people using such unphysiological exercise devices may be letting themselves in for serious joint trouble later in life. The catch is that because the market for such devices is relatively modern, we have no studies of the long-term effects of using them. Should biomechanists be setting up some sort of body that investigates exercise machines, and award their 'mark of approval' to decent ones, while withholding their blessing from the bad? Should biomechanists not try to establish the long term effects of various exercise machines using experimental and control groups?  Healthy cartilage is cartilage that is subjected to repetitive, physiological loading regularly, and this includes full proper joint motion during exercise. Of course, impact loading should be built up  gradually, but there is nothing bad about impact loading per se - cartilage 'loves' to be loaded properly, and it is the cartilage of the ankle that is least subject to fibrillation. Zero impact machines that hold joints immobile while subjecting them to compression, and variations on this theme - are bound to be very bad for the health of chondrocytes and cartilage metabolism. Soft, irregularly loaded cartilage, is cartilage that eventually deteriorates. Walking and running are healthy exercises for joints, provided that footwear is not worn and a suitable running surface is present, or that footwear is very carefully chosen so as not to alter the natural loading of the foot  significantly."
 

40 WAYS to DETERMINE YOUR LEVEL of INNER FREEDOM
written by Guy Finley

Want to know how free you really are? Good! You're about to be presented with a unique opportunity to learn all about your individual level of inner liberty. As you review each of the inner liberties on the list, just note mentally whether or not that particular freedom belongs to you. Our intention is simply to learn what's true about ourselves, not to prove anything about ourselves. Allow these forty freedoms to awaken and stir that secret part of you that knows living in any kind of bondage is a lie. Then follow your own natural sensing all the way to the free life.
 
 
 

You're Well Along Freedom's Path When:

1. You have no desire to change places in life with anyone else.
2. You step over setbacks without stopping or looking back.
3. You accept and appreciate praise, but never take it to heart.
4. You don't overeat or feel driven to diet.
5. You don't think about your sex life.
6. You meet and do what's true without fear of the consequences.
7. You really don't want anything from anyone.
8. You stop thinking about how much money you may or may not have.
9. You don't carry any upset from the last moment into the present one.
10.You have no interest in old resentments.
11. You start spending more time alone and enjoying it more.
12. You stop dreaming of the perfect vacation.
13. You're neither frightened nor shocked by the evening news.
14. You stop making deals with yourself.
15. You dress for comfort, not for compliments.
16. You lose all interest in trying to win mental arguments.
17. You don't blame anyone else for the way you feel.
18. You forget what it was you didn't like about someone.
19. You're awake to and spontaneously considerate of the needs of others.
20. You see beauty in life where you never could see it before.
21. Your life gets progressively simpler.
22. You see where you're wrong sooner than later, and stop defending yourself faster.
23. You do what you need to do (but don't want to do) and you do it with a lighter spirit.
24. You're not afraid of having nothing to say or do, if that's your true condition.
25. You can take criticism without cringing away from the truth it may hold.
26. You have no concern for what others may think of you.
27. You stop trying to make others see life in your way.
28. You enjoy the sound of silence as much or more than the sound of your own voice.
29. You see the same unpleasant traits within yourself that have made you shun others.
30. You say what you want, and not what you think others may want to hear you say.
31. You actually enjoy hearing about the good fortune of someone else.
32. You see more and more just how unfree you and others really are.
33. You're moods are fewer, lighter, and move on much quicker.
34. You see that society is destroying itself and that the only solution is self change.
35. You can listen to others without the need to tell them what you know.
36. You don't find a thrill in any kind of fear.
37. You know that forgiveness of others is the kindest thing you can do for yourself.
38. You realize that the world is the way it is because you are the way you are.
39. You'd rather not think about yourself.
40. You can't come up with one good reason why you should ever be anxious or frightened.

There's one more important point to bring to our attention: never be discouraged over your present location! Discouragement is a negative emotion with more than one trick up its dark sleeve. It tricks you into mentally or emotionally dwelling in the very place you want to leave. Drop all such sorrow permanently by daring to see through this deception of the unconscious mind. Who you really are, your True Nature, is no more tied to the kind of person you've been than the wind is tied to the skies through which it moves. Your past is just that, the past, a place within your psyche with no more reality to it that the picture of a castle on a postcard is made from stone. You have a destination far beyond where you find yourself standing today.

It may not seem so at first, but your new findings are a great start. Now keep going. Use this list and your new discoveries to help you ignite your wish to be free. Then step back and welcome the spiritual firestorm. Watch as it burns away the ties that bind. This is what it means to let the Light fight for you.

(Excerpted from Freedom From the Ties That Bind by Guy Finley 1999 Llewellyn Publications)

Somebody's California Diary...

*2000*

January - Moved to Silicon Valley for a job at a .com. My salary is 30% higher, I have stock options, the temperature outside  is 65. California is the best place on Earth!

February - Still looking for an apartment. Still love California

March - Rented a 1bedroom place for $1900. California is more  expensive than I thought

April - Gas hit $2.29/gallon. Somebody sucked the gas from my tank. This sucks

May - A small earthquake. And this is what my mother was so worrying about?  Almost didn't feel it...

June - A forest fire and a mud slide near LA. Who cares? This is far away  from me.

July - A big earthquake...Spent four hours in my bathtub. Boy, that was scary. We did not have no stinking earthquakes where I  am from...

August - Drought. They turn on water once a day. This sucks big time. Somebody stole the water from my car's radiator. Why did I  come to California again?

September - Decided to buy a house. Found a great 2 bedroom one for  $2.5 million. I hope to pay it off with my stock options.

October - My startup fired 90% of its workforce, including me. The stock lost 98% of its value.

December - Problems with electricity are starting. They turn  electricity off several times a day. "Rolling blackout"  my ass... Who the fuck stole my car battery, and what do  I do now?

*2001*

January - I'm typing this stuck in an elevator, in complete darkness. The battery of my laptop is dying. Silicon Valley is no more. Angry hordes of former dot-commers are looting  in the dark whatever has not been looted before. It was fun  while it lasted.

Fuck California!

(SixFtLion's note: at least, in California on the sunny beaches, everywhere, you can see the babes in bikini, ... check the new 2001 Calendar)