Journaling

If you are busy with your arms holding weights,   you might wonder how you are going to add another dimension of self-awareness to your efforts:     JOURNALING.     Well,   you would have to have a notebook setting over at the side somewhere,     and put your weights down,   to go write.     Or,   I guess that you could use a cassette recorder,    and capture your thoughts on tape.      Try a little of each,    and notice how it makes you feel.

Anytime that you are setting goals and using high-powered nutrients to help you reach those goals,    it would not hurt to add another layer of JOURNALING and self-awareness.

Maybe just a little writing before and after the session would be enough.

A good example of  JOURNALING is my web pages on "Self-Directed Learning".
http://www.snowcrest.net/soza/learnnow/whyselfd.htm

The concept is really quite simple.      It is like a course that the student learns at his own pace.     So,    for example,    if your goal is to lift 350 pounds,     and you are at 250 now,    it is going to take some work to get up to 350 pounds.     You might have to take some more amino acids to help build up your muscles before that is possible.
 
So,    each week,      set your goals for the week,     and stretch yourself a little farther than you imagine.

I have some information on Tony Robbins' goals-definition style,    on
http://www.snowcrest.net/soza/future/yourgolz.htm

I guess that could be applied to weight-lifting.

I am the worlds' best example of someone needing to get back into good physical condition after a long winter of inactivity.    I am probably not a very good example for you body-builders.      This year,     I invented a formula to try and help myself build up my muscles with as little exercise as possible.

I usually get my body in shape by working out in the garden.      One day,    I felt my arm muscles,   and they had shriveled up to almost nothing.      When the body is not getting enough protein,   it will rob the muscles for the glutamine in them.

So,   to get myself into shape again,    I put L-Glutamine,    Arginine Pyroglutamate:Lysine (1:1),    and   Citramax.     These nutrients help discourage the body from making fat,    and they encourage the body to make muscle mass.

A kind of a "couch potato"s formula.     My weights are little,      just enough to give the body a little boost.

I live out here,   in the "biodiversity" wilderness,      and we might all have to just move back into the city,      to let the grizzley bear roam free.          So,    I better re-inhabit my physical body,      renew its tissues and detoxify it,       and make it younger than it is,   in case I have to move.

The first month,    I added some Glucosamine Sulfate and  Chondroitin Sulfate,    that helps to renew the joints.       This month,    I don't have any.

So,   keeping a journal or diary of what I am taking,    and why,    or of what I am taking,   and how I feel,     gives me a record to look at,    a kind of medical chart.
Taking amino acids to promote Growth Hormone Release,     makes changes in my moods,   too.      Beyond a Century's online catalog    describes what it is believed that these amino acids do to the muscles.

I use a DayTimer Pocket Diary,    Two Pages Per Day.      I write down everything that I take into my mouth,    more or less.

I am taking two of my "couch potato" formula,     a DHEA,   and two capsules of Kava Kava.    I need to get some more of the joint compound ordered.     Can't seem to find the same company again.

In a little while,    I will get out my weights,    and work the main shoulder and arm and upper back muscles,   that I need to use to re-inhabit the yard.     According to my book on The DHEA Breakthrough,     the  DHEA stimulates production of  IGF-1,   and that in turn,   stimulates production of more muscle mass.

When you get to be over 50,   like I am,    the DHEA usually has to come in a pill.
But moderate exercise causes the body to produce more endorphins and enkephalins,  which in turn,   causes the body to produce more DHEA.

So,  the trick is to get myself going outside more frequently,     and just doing something:   bending,   stretching,   lifting,   carrying,     digging,     endlessly.      Once I get started,    I am thinking about the weeds or the plants that I am moving,   or something constructive like this.     I forget that this is exercise.     I call it  "garden yoga".

I take St Johns' Wort and that makes me enjoy my garden a lot more,    and it makes me want to stay out in the sun a lot more,    at the same time,   it makes me more vulnerable to sunburn.     My idea on that is to try Canthaxanthin,    the beta carotene that is supposed to help us tan.   I still need to order that.    My usual tactic is to wear a hat,   and stay inside in the middle of the day.

The evil weeds in my yard are grass,   that I try to pull out by the roots,    Bermuda grass that spreads sideways with runners,    Periwinkle,   an evergreen ground-cover that takes over and chokes out anything else,       and a new one,    that is sticky,   and I don't have a name yet for it.      I have a one-third acre lot,    and most of it is full of plants.      I had a fellow till up the yard one year,   with a Kubota lawn and garden tractor.    The next year,   there were all these baby Maple trees growing,   so I decided to not mow the lawn anymore,   and to let it all grow into flower beds and paths.

I now sell plant starts out of my flower beds,   so it is a hobby and a business.      The agriculture inspector was out here today,    checking my plants for diseases and pests.
What they are really worried about is snails and slugs.    Those must be the hardest to get rid of,   once they get established.

So,     it can get very complicated,    trying to learn how to take nutrients to help build up my muscles all over again.    Another workout aid is MCT oil,   medium chain triglycerides,   a fat used for energy,   but not stored.     And the Creatine Monohydrate is a new one for me,   that I have never tried.   It is supposed to keep the muscles working longer without getting tired out.
 
 I will be recording a new process of trying to get back into good muscular condition,      re-organize my lawns and gardens,     and of applying nutrition to this process.   I will have no shortage of flowerbeds and raised beds to re-organize.
 

Last night,    I took some Taurine and some GABA,   and some Kava Kava.   I woke up early,    feeling well-rested and more muscular.      These first two are amino acids,   and I study what they do,   in my book:    AMINO ACIDS IN THERAPY,    A Guide to the Therapeutic Application of Protein Constituents,   by Leon Chaitow.

When we are outside,   exposed to full spectrum sunlight,    the Taurine will accumulate in our pineal and pituitary glands.   At this point,    I am interested in any amino acid that will promote Growth Hormone Release.       My file on Taurine says that
Taurine PROMOTES GrowthHormoneRelease
And the the Beyond a Century paper catalog says that GABA has GH-releasing properties.    And it says the Taurine   "May aid muscle building thru cell volumizing."
That is what I wanted to read.
 
Arginine supplementation PROMOTES GrowthHormoneRelease,     and taking some Guar Gum helps to increase faecel nitrogen loss,   reducing the need for urinary nitrogen loss,     so taking Guar Gum should help my muscle-building without upsetting my Herpes Simplex populations.    Interesting.
 
 And maybe some Guarana for energy.      So,   the question is,    can I manage myself,   better,   to get myself motivated to go outside,   away from the computer,    earlier,     and get more dirt moved around,   more weeds pulled,    more plants started.    I am still drinking the coffee and Essiac tea.     I haven't gotten breakfast eaten yet.

If the weather is going to cooperate,   the least that I can do is try to use the dry sunny days for weeding.    I have a cultivator.   It isn't working right yet,  either.    It helps me stir up the raised bed dirt.    It might need the air filter cleaned,   or a new spark plug.
So,    let me try to imagine a new raised bed,    or imagine stirring up one of the ones that is overgrown with grass and weeds.     There is some manure in a pile outside the fence.    If I carry some in a bucket,   that would exercise my shoulder and arm muscles,  or if I use the wheelbarrow,   and a shovel,     that would get my muscles some exercise.

I have some peach trees that need transplanting.       These trees don't get too large.
I'll have to dig a big hole for each one,      then fill the hole with some good compost and some of the manure.      That is a good chore for muscle-building,   if I feel up to it.
I have to keep in mind the drainage of the yard,     and I need more French drains,  too.
Lots of good muscle chores.     And I bought white label sticks,   to label where all the bulbs are.

So,   you see fairly easily,    how I can build up my muscles with "garden yoga".
There is never an end to weeding,     and re-organizing the raised garden beds every year can be a lot of digging,   raking,    and  hoeing.       Exercise releases potassium from the heart muscle,   and that gives me more energy to get out there and tend the garden.      The "universe" or "The Lord" or whatever name you give it,    designed us to tend the garden.    Sometimes,   I go out to the garden,   and instead of getting tired,   I get more energy from the exercise.    Usually,    I do,   but the sunshine in mid-day makes me come in.