January 2005 - Posts
These days, there's a drug or pill for every ailment. Have a headache - swallow this tablet. Depressed - take this. Erectile dysfunction -drink this. But the most effective medicine occurs naturally in the food we eat. And eating nutrient-dense foods daily is our best bet to prevent poor health in the first place. Here's a list of my favorite natural 'health' foods:
1. Banana - The perfect food. I remember in high school we broke down different kinds of food to detect the amounts of vitamins and minerals in each of them. Banana was the most all-around food, having the most variety and amount of nutrients. And best of all, it's very affordable and easy to bring with you to work. Eat two bananas daily.
2. Apple Cider Vinegar - You can buy this at your grocery or health store (The Bragg brand is good). I drink a mixture of around two tablespoons of the vinegar mixed with either water or orange juice. It promotes a healthy digestive system, fights sore throat and colds, and contains potassium and natural nutrients that your body needs. Read the book Folk Medicine by Dr. Jarvis to learn more about apple cider vinegar. You may not like the taste of it, but it's good for you so drink it.
3. Garlic - I like eating lots of it. I put a whole head of chopped garlic in my spaghetti sauce or soups. Make sure you crush or finely chop the cloves before you consume them to release the naturally occuring allicin antibiotic that has many health benefits of its own. When I have a sore throat or a cold, I chew some raw garlic cloves to kill the bacteria and germs in my throat. You may lose some friends due to garlic breath, but hey, that's a small price to pay for good health.
4. Green Tea - I believe this is the secret (other than miso soup) to the japanese people's longevity and long life expectancy. Green tea is loaded with natural antioxidants that fight disease and aging. It is also reputed to work well against the common cold. I also find it helps me to relax and concentrate. Drink a cup or two daily.
5. Carrots - I try to discipline myself to eat at least five servings of fruits and veggies a day. Sometimes it is difficult, especially when things are busy. So I always keep a package of ready-peeled baby carrots available so I can snack on them when I get home. Carrots contain beta-carotene which is a good source of antioxidants. I read that cooking it lightly makes the beta-carotene easier to absorb, so consider steaming or stir-frying them. One tip: when making spaghetti sauce, add a generous amount of finely chopped carrots.
Honorable mention: Onions, tomatoes, olive oil, ginger, spinach/cabbage/broccoli. I also recommend reading Dr. Weil's Spontaneous Healing book. It will change the way you look at your health.
I'm lazy so I always try to combine all the good foods into one dish or meal. My favorite concoction is a vegetable soup that has everything: Generous amounts of onions, garlic, carrots, olive oil, and tomato. Then add chopped celery, potato, jalapeno pepper. Plus a chicken bouillon cube, salt, pepper, and bay leaf for flavor. Tastes great and lasts me several days. What's more I can use the soup as a liquid for poaching different kinds of fish. Easy to make and contains everything your body needs.
I think I pulled a muscle last Sunday while doing situps. I can't pinpoint the exact location of the pain. It's somewhere in either my neck or upper back area. I just hope it's more of muscle soreness as a result of exercise, rather than an injury. Now I know what they mean when they say crunches, as opposed to situps, are safer for exercising the abdominals.
Work is going smoothly, we are wrapping up our project. I don't think there will be any more showstopper bugs coming anytime. Then we start the next batch of features. The cycle continues. It gets dull if you don't think of ways to amuse yourself.
The world sort of got to a bad start due to the tsunami disaster, huge death toll, landslides, weird weather, and everything. But people around the world reacted well by helping each other out, it showed we are more resilient as a human race than we give ourselves credit for. Because of this I predict a great year for everyone.
Ever had times when you didn't feel well? Perhaps you had a splitting migraine headache, or you felt too sick to go to work in the morning.
Let's say you're sick. Now imagine one minute later reading in the newspaper that you won a million dollars in the lottery. I bet that migraine headache or fever would disappear pretty fast. You'd forget about being sick. You'd be too busy thinking about the money. The adrenaline rush alone would make any sickness go away.
Because of this I am convinced that eighty percent of all physical ailments are psychosomatic. They are physical manifestations of our current mental and psychological state. The best cure, the most effective drug, can be manufactured by our own bodies.
Next time you're sick, remind yourself that it's all in the mind. Imagine that you just won a million dollars, or that Petra Nemcova is on the phone asking you for a date. If you can convince yourself of that, the results are the same as if you actually won the money. You would get that same million-dollar feeling and the physical sickness which may or may not be real, will go away. Put away those cold remedies, those prozac pills, those antibiotics. You don't need them. It's all in your mind.
"Carlos Boozer set a screen for me, I got the ball up top and tried to get to the bucket. That was pretty much it, it was like slow motion. After I missed the shot, I was still looking, and I saw Mehmet come out of nowhere and grab it and put it back in. It was great. I might take him out to a Turkish restaurant tonight if we can find one."
- Keith McLeod, after the Utah Jazz's 97-96 upset victory over the San Antonio Spurs
It took some time, but finally the Jazz snapped their 9-game losing streak last night. In doing so, they also broke out of a record 18 consecutive head-to-head losses to San Antonio.
It was tough, watching loss after loss after frustrating loss. It was like the team was jinxed, it had developed a loser's mentality. The players had forgotten how it felt to win. You can see it in their faces, the pain, the hunger. Now what the team has to do is take this victory and remember how it felt, remember what they did to win. Then just recreate it over and over.
All these players have multimillion dollar contracts. All of them no doubt are financially wealthy with all their needs taken care of. But there are some needs that cannot be satisfied with money. Eventually you reach a point where pride and the thirst for victory become more important than the weekly paycheck. It stops being a job and turns into a personal mission. I could see this in the faces of some of the players. The hunger, the killer instinct, they're back. Sooner or later you get tired of losing. You get sick and tired of being sick and tired. And this is what drives the fire to succeed.
By the way, I was amused as to how third-string point guard Keith Macleod has developed into the Jazz's most effective starting point guard. Macleod did not perform well in training camp, had no guaranteed contract, was almost cut from the team, and most of the experts thought he was not as good as first-rate guards Arroyo and Lopez. It's clear now though that he is the better defender, better penetrator, and best conductor of the offense. I know there's a lesson there somewhere. Everybody loves a happy ending. Let's make some of our own.
My body is still sore from the situps and pushups I did a couple of days ago. That's good because it means the exercise actually had an effect. Nothing special about my regimen, just do steady training until my body is conditioned to do sixty consecutive pushups in two minutes, and sixty consecutive situps in the same amount of time. Currently I can do thirty of each straight before failure. Now I just need to keep the conditioning to maintain it, and add more reps as I get stronger.
I also plan to eventually be in good enough shape to be able to run/jog two miles in twenty minutes. The running is a bit more challenging because of my weak ankle and the cold weather. So although I dislike indoor gyms, I have no choice but to use the elliptical trainer and treadmills to build up endurance until it is warm enough to run outside.
Diet-wise, I just need to stay disciplined and eat more of the healthy stuff: fruits and vegetables, unprocessed foods. Minimize the fast food and junk. I still like the occasional McDonald's on weekends where I can relax and read.
Pushups - this is one of the most balanced strength and body exercises you can do. Several days ago my abdominals muscles were sore from a workout. Then I thought this would not affect my pushup ability. But as it turned out, I felt the strain on the stomach muscles while doing the pushups. It proves that pushups affect a variety of muscle groups, chest, triceps, arms, including the abdominals. A good all-around exercise, no wonder the US army uses it to measure physical fitness of its recruits.
Situps - I used to do crunches after I read that situps are bad because they unnecessarily work the hip flexors instead of concentrating on the abdominals. But for some reason I could never get a good burn with crunches alone. Situps work very well. You can feel it a day after you do it.
I was definitely more fanatical about working out when I was younger. A lot of pickup basketball games with friends, jumprope to increase my vertical jump (probably one cause of the weak ankles I have now), a lot of running up and down stairs in the university buildings to stay in shape, and a lot of walking, that's how I stayed in shape. Then I deteriorated a bit, got complacent, got involved in a lot of stress at work.
Several days ago I celebrated my thirty-first birthday. As a kid I never imagined myself in the future as being thirty years old! I remember when I was four, and I learned my father's age was thirty-two. It seemed so old to me, so adult. And now I have become my parents, amazing. Now all I have to do is make sure I reach my prime physical form before thirty-two.
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