My Dad or the Creature from the Black Lagoon

Is it my dad or the “Creature from the Black Lagoon. “ I couldn’t stop laughing. Maybe he needs it, maybe he doesn’t. I know I am a dinosaur, but, has it ever occurred to anyone to try daily deep breathing exercises before buying flimsy, clumsy, over priced equipment from a psychiatrist (very dangerous mofos in my book). I will review sleep apnea up-sells generated out of your local dentist’s office at a future date.

In my Blue Collar Zen philosophy, self-health management is a foundational pillar. I could be wrong but it seems we have become a little misdirected, confused and connived into stumbling around lost and unable to care for ourselves very efficiently. There is constant mantra through the media telling us we need a product for everything. We can’t eat without a nutritionist, diet to follow or medication. We need specialized equipment to train on, an ab belt to loose our gut, a personal trainer, and performance enhancement pharmaceuticals to “get in shape”. To sleep, we apparently need pharmaceuticals, a sleep specialist, and sleep apnea head gear to breath efficiently thus allowing higher quality sleep. It is an absolute fucking wonder we have evolved as a species as far as we have with just the land to live off of for most of our trek. Is it just me or has life become more complicated and the human form become more degenerated as the population swells and the more urbane we become.

Take It Easy, Baby

There is a gross misunderstanding in regard to the value of exercise and physical activity that is not strenuous. For many their is a belief that if it is not of a "sweat and blood" or 'no pain no gain" level of intensity the activity is of little value. There couldn't be too much more ignorant of a perspective one could possess they tried to support a stand for no physical activity at all. 5 - 10 minutes of integrated, controlled, full range movement complimented with full rhythmic breathing has many benefits and many places it can fit into our seemingly, time devoid, lives. Exercises that fit into this category take very little space and include, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, martial arts katas, some dance, calisthenics, and zen walking.

Done first thing in the morning a short bout of this type of exercise will wake the body and brain up and create a calm, focused, energized state, burn some calories, rev up your metabolism for extended metabolic rate as well as create a pliable, more balanced body.

Whether your work day is active or sedentary a short break every 2 hours will do wonders for waking up the brain and body as well and untangling some of the knots, contortions and postural deviations that occur during most of our days. It doesn't matter whether you are sitting or constantly bending and lifting objects, your body and mental focus will be reinvigorated with a little movement and getting the blood pumping.

Even you macho-athletic studs will benefit greatly from these type of exercises. There is not a better form of active recovery to help increase your rate of recovery from intense bouts of weight lifting or any type of team competition that leaves your joints and muscle fibers talking to you.

Here is a little example of one of the many moving-meditation exercises I use daily. This is a simple exercise that really gets the blood flowing and creates a great vertical decompression and stretch. I was showing off doing it on a rock that had a 20 foot drop behind it. It has nothing to do with the exercise and is not recommended. Your bedroom, office or backyard will suffice.

Body-Mind-Spirit Enhancement through Applied Physical Culture - Food & Water

Physical Culture: The philosophy, regimen, or lifestyle of seeking maximum physical performance ability through such means as fitness training, diet, aerobic activity, and mental discipline. Specific benefits include improvements in health, appearance, strength, endurance, flexibility, speed, and general fitness as well as greater proficiency in sport and physical related activities.

Our ability, accomplishment andquality of life will be impacted by our state of body-mind-spirit wellness. I list the order of body-mind-spirit with purpose as the state of each influence the enhancement of the next. Physical culture can significantly benefit us in reaching our human potential by enhancing the quality and quantity of our physical energy and capacity.
An integrated, healthy lifestyle base is needed whether one’s objective is specific-activity participation or general health and wellness. An integrated healthy lifestyle consists of a structured, focused, flexible application of a sound diet, daily exercise or physical activity, and adequate recuperation. It is paramount to see all these components linked synergistically as the failure of one will detract from the whole.

The first and most important step in optimizing one’s physical fitness is to reassess and make any adjustments needed to create a wholesome, sufficient diet and total hydration, which is balanced in volume to meet energy expenditure needs. Not enough food or water will rob you of your energy and recovery potential. Individual specifically portioned meals every 3 hours along with constant intake of measured levels of water are necessary to assure consistent energy supplies, regulated blood sugar levels, maintain hydration and help the body to recover.
Our bodies are designed for constant movement and have potential for incredible performance when properly prepared and fueled. In times of intense, prolonged effort it is key to maintain an intake to compensate for loss as it takes the body up to 24 hours to rebuild adequate stores of glycogen and hydration once depleted too low.

More Health Disinformation

Study: Most kids' fast-food meals have too many calories
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/08/04/kids.meals.ap/index.html?eref=rss_health

You think! Thank God the Associated Press released this information. Give me a break! I always thought it was just the polluted tap water that was ballooning our nations youth to a level that brought Fat Albert close to the norm. The next thing they will be telling us is that the lack of physical activity of our kids is making them ginourmous.

This article epitomizes the useless, never ending avalanche of information coming from organizations, like the Center for Service in the Public, making the obvious appear to be profound, yet offering only fear and no solution. Their report looked into the nutritional quality of kids' meals at 13 major restaurant (sic) chains. The center found 93 percent of 1,474 possible choices at the 13 chains exceed 430 calories — an amount that is one-third of what the National Institute of Medicine recommends that children ages 4 through 8 should consume in a day.

I would love to know what the cost of this report was. How does this qualify as a study? Find out how many kids offerings have more than 430 calories, using public displayed nutritional information. I am sure that took quite a team to uncover such a wealth of information.
The report gratuitously states there are some healthy choices on restaurant menus, though, “parents have to navigate a minefield of calories, fat and salt to find them." This is typical of what we get. The wording creates fear and infers and is meant to steer the reader into believing the task of “navigating that minefield” is beyond their capabilities. This is where our money is spent to educate us on health issues.
Here is a typical pompous, vacuous, finger pointing stand of power and legitimacy by this type of bureaucratic cluster *#@& operations: "Parents want to feed their children healthy meals, but America's chain restaurants are setting parents up to fail," CSPI nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan said in a statement. "McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, and other chains are conditioning kids to expect burgers, fried chicken, pizza, French fries, macaroni and cheese, and soda in various combination at almost every lunch and dinner." This ridiculous noxious blast hot air absolute verifies the value of Margo G. Wootan’s and the Center for Service in the Public’s position. The problem couldn’t have anything to do with absolutely zero applicable nutrition education in our education system and the miraculous addition of a dependence of processed food in our diet.
Joan Lowy, the journalist of this AP article, did add a little logic and intelligence to this piece to counter the obnoxious misinformation by the CSPI:

The National Restaurant Association, a business group of about 945,000 restaurants and food outlets, said the trend in the industry was to provide "more detailed nutritional information and choice in menu options for consumers."
But the group stressed that "exercising parental responsibility is key to childhood nutrition." The report, it said, "fails to acknowledge the essential role of nutrition education, physical activity and parental responsibility in childhood nutrition — good eating habits and healthy living must be established in the home
Touché
Think about it! Of course, this is only my opinion and I might be wrong.
You think! Thank God the Associated Press released this information. Give me a break! I always thought it was just the polluted tap water that was ballooning our nations youth to the level that Fat Albert is close to the norm. The next thing they will be telling us is that the lack of physical activity of our kids is making them ginourmous.

This article epitomizes the useless, never ending avalanche of information coming from organizations, like the Center for Service in the Public, making the obvious appear to be profound, yet offering only fear and no solution. Their report looked into the nutritional quality of kids' meals at 13 major restaurant (sic) chains. The center found 93 percent of 1,474 possible choices at the 13 chains exceed 430 calories — an amount that is one-third of what the National Institute of Medicine recommends that children ages 4 through 8 should consume in a day.

I would love to know what the cost of this report was. How does this qualify as a study? Find out how many kids offerings have more than 430 calories, using public displayed nutritional information. I am sure that took quite a team to uncover such a wealth of information.
The report gratuitously states there are some healthy choices on restaurant menus, though, “parents have to navigate a minefield of calories, fat and salt to find them." This is typical of what we get. The wording creates fear and infers and is meant to steer the reader into believing the task of “navigating that minefield” is beyond their capabilities. This is where our money is spent to educate us on health issues.
Here is a typical pompous, vacuous, finger pointing stand of power and legitimacy by this type of bureaucratic cluster *#@& operations: "Parents want to feed their children healthy meals, but America's chain restaurants are setting parents up to fail," CSPI nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan said in a statement. "McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, and other chains are conditioning kids to expect burgers, fried chicken, pizza, French fries, macaroni and cheese, and soda in various combination at almost every lunch and dinner." This ridiculous noxious blast hot air absolute verifies the value of Margo G. Wootan’s and the Center for Service in the Public’s position. The problem couldn’t have anything to do with absolutely zero applicable nutrition education in our education system and the miraculous addition of a dependence of processed food in our diet.
Joan Lowy, the journalist of this AP article, did add a little logic and intelligence to this piece to counter the obnoxious misinformation by the CSPI:

The National Restaurant Association, a business group of about 945,000 restaurants and food outlets, said the trend in the industry was to provide "more detailed nutritional information and choice in menu options for consumers."
But the group stressed that "exercising parental responsibility is key to childhood nutrition." The report, it said, "fails to acknowledge the essential role of nutrition education, physical activity and parental responsibility in childhood nutrition — good eating habits and healthy living must be established in the home
Touché
Think about it! Of course, this is only my opinion and I might be wrong.