Sunday Story...Eat Your Veggies

Sunday Story…Eat Your Veggies

OK, I have to admit that I am just a little bit ticked off. Wait, that isn’t quite right…I am way pissed. I am tired of beating my head against a wall of popular, conventional wisdom and misinformation. I am sick of people telling me myth and legends as truth. Folks, the science is in. You can keep living in a world where the world is flat and the earth revolves around the sun if you want but I, for one, am tired of listening to it. And I am not going to do it anymore.

What am I ranting about? What has me so hot under the collar? Food. Nutrition. The lies we have been told about nutrition. The lies we continue to tell ourselves about nutrition and the lies we foist upon our un-suspecting children.

The standard American Diet (SAD) is crap---Calorie Rich and Pathetic. How many different colored vegetables did you or will you eat today? How many processed edible non-food products have you thrown in the hopper? How come if everyone knows so much about food and how to eat and how to eat right are there 100 million people who are overweight, diabetic, or pre-diabetic? Why is 65% of the population overweight? Do you think our standard diet and those facts are related?

Today a friend was relating what happened at a meeting of educators. The people who will be teaching our children lots of things but most of all they will be teaching by example. Children will watch and absorb the hidden messages…the ones that we send energetically without knowing it…much more readily than the ones we stand up in front of the class room and spew. While sitting in a workshop what does she find on the table first thing in the morning? A bowl of candy. The beverage of choice? Coffee. Later the chex mix comes out closely followed by chocolate cookies. Those that aren’t drinking coffee are drinking soda. This is the example our children are getting? How can you think clearly when you brain is loaded up on sugar and caffeine. How can you sustain your energy throughout the day? More sugar and more caffeine?

On Friday my camp kids and I were talking about school starting on Monday and the topic of lunch came up. They hate the lunch served at school. Now these are kids who still like fast food and other components of the SAD (I haven’t completely corrupted/converted them yet!) and they all said how bad the food was. They often don’t eat lunch because the food is so bad. What!! I mean could it really be worse than fast food? Apparently so. As a matter of fact last year while at one of the school assemblies I walked in during lunch. And some of my students were there eating. I asked if they had eaten any green vegetables. And the lunch lady looked at me and said, “are you kidding, this is school lunch!”

People, this is bad and it appears to be getting worse. The most popular vegetable in North America is the white potato---a high glycemic, starchy vegetable that when cooked at high temperature creates an acid know to be a carcinogen. And the most popular fruit? The banana---another high glycemic and starchy food. The average North American eats 7 different vegetables, most of which are barely vegetables (corn, beans, potatoes and peas). Way back when we were hunters and gatherers our diets were highly varied…up to 75 different plant varieties. And we are not even talking about the effects of factory farming.

I am sure you have heard about the recent recall of eggs…something along the lines of 500 million eggs have been recalled. The tainted eggs all came from a plant in Iowa. Eggs don’t come from a plant. Eggs come from chickens, the last time I checked. We are ruining our health with our food. We are the most over fed people in history and the most under nourished.

Today the camp kids picked 5 different vegetables that they helped grow…they planted, weeded, watered, harvested, cleaned, chopped, cooked and ate. The bounty included onion, eggplant, summer squash, corn, broccoli, tomatoes, and basil. We created a healthy and filling lunch in less than 45 minutes from harvest to table. There was no processed food, no added sugars, and no edible non-food products. All the macro nutrients were there…protein (we used organic local eggs), carbohydrates (from vegetables) and fat (olive oil) as well as many micro nutrients…the vitamins and minerals that nature provided in the food itself. And we enjoyed our meal slowly with friends. This is the way we are meant to eat, to nurture our bodies and our spirits. Not with fast food not with added flavorings, added sugars, added vitamins and minerals.

Eating right is not rocket science. It really is simple. About 70% of your diet should be derived from plants. Plants that come from the ground. Not plants that make stuff. There is no triscuit tree, no bagel bush. 70%. Think about what you ate yesterday…how much from plant sources? How much from a box, a can, or a foil packet?

Your aging process is dependent upon what you put in your body. And we are all aging. We are, from the moment of our birth, getting older. If you put C.R.A.P. into your body your experience of that process is going to be exactly that…crap.

You only get one body folks and you better take care of it. None of you have a spare body in the closet. No amount of technology will ever be better that what you were put here with. Taking care of it honors your maker, honors your loved ones and sets an example for the rest of the world.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...What you Really Really Want

Sunday Story…What You Really Really want

Everybody wants something. Else. More. Something. You, me, them…something. Might be more health, wealth, happiness, good looks, or a better body. If you really look deeply there is something you want.

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that you can get anything you want if you can do just a couple things.
First, you must know what it is that you want.
Second, you must believe that you deserve it.
Third, you must take action to get it.

I have gone to coaching classes, read books, talked to people who are more successful than me, and generally been on the hunt for whatever “it” is that I am looking for. And I have come to the conclusion that step one is actually the most difficult.

So I have done all the things that I was told to do. Write affirmations. Create a vision board. Be a positive thinker. Spend money I didn’t have on things I thought I wanted and then figure out how to pay for them doing the job I wanted to be more successful at. Go shopping for all the things on the board. There are so many strategies for the implementation and I did all of them I could find. Yet “it” still seemed to elude me.

I thought I knew what I wanted. Success as defined by our culture. Money, acknowledgement, house, car, blah, blah, blah. I believed I deserved all those things. I worked hard, really hard. I studied more, read more, and consulted more. I was in action all the time. Yet, I never really felt that I achieved my goals. That I just set them too high or that I just wasn’t good enough, or organized enough or something enough.

On Saturday I had an epiphany. I never really wanted those things. Not really. I thought I wanted them, I thought if I got them I would be happier, more fulfilled, and more successful. Because I didn’t really want them I never got them. And when I say want I mean really want. Down deep in your belly want. Want like you want your next breath want. The kind of want that burns a hole in your soul until you get whatever it is that you want. I didn’t have that. I thought I did but I didn’t. Not really.

Further I would postulate to you that what most people want is not money, power or other “things”. No, what most people want is the thing that gets them the other things. Did Bill Gates set out to be a billionaire or did he set out to create an operating system for computers? His fortune is a byproduct of being really good at what he set out to do. If I earn a million dollars a year is that the mission? If I get to drive a new BMW is that the mission? Maybe for someone else it may be the mission. But honestly that does not burn my soul in a way that has me hop out of bed in the middle of the night and work on a new and wild idea. Now, that isn’t to say I won’t cash the check or park the car in the garage. I will. But that just is not the thing that will run my motor into the red line.

So to return to the very first thing…knowing what it is that you want. That statement is just not quite correct. You must know, and when I say know, I mean you must know like you know your own name…that deeply and that intimately…what it is that fuels your passion. What it is that has you wake up in the middle of the night sweating and trembling because you have not achieved it yet. Or you have not begun to go down the path toward achieving it. Because hopefully it is a mission so big and so vast you will need a lifetime to fulfill it.

And when you figure out what that “it” is then you can fill in the blanks with the rest of the “stuff”. The trappings and the gravy that will make life easier or more fun. Because if I can be on the mission then the world, the universe will move and shift to help me get it done.

There is nothing more powerful than the human mind. And when that power is brought to bear in a single minded, laser beam sharp pursuit…Watch out! Things are going to get done.

As many of you know it is my mission to teach focus and inspire transformation. And it is working. But it is not big enough. It is not a goal that is big enough to truly inspire me to shift and transform my life again. And frankly that scares me. A lot.

There is something that is eating at the back of my brain. I am not quite sure what it is yet but it is there. I can feel it trying to get out, trying to worm its way up to the surface of my consciousness. Something that is going to require me to rip asunder all that I know and all that I am. And when I figure it out, then I will be, truly, a man on a mission.

I once heard it said that it is not a quest unless you might lose your life. Are there quests of this nature left in the world? There are but they are not the quests of yore. No, these modern quests will require us to discard and kill our consciousness we have been so comfortable with these years. And then we will construct anew from the ashes of the old.

Stay tuned. I am excited. How about you? Up for the quest for the Holy Grail? The grail that is everything that you should and could be. The grail that is your highest and your best?

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...A Walk on the Wild Side

Sunday Story…A walk on the wild side
A good friend and teacher of mine, Tom Callos, inspired today’s story with a recent post on Self Defense. Spending time in nature is self defense. It touches us spiritually, physically and mentally. Being balanced and aware is just good self defense as well as keeping us in touch with our own humanity.

When I was growing up we pretty much got kicked out of the house and spent most of the day outside playing and inventing and just doing stuff. We learned how to play with each other, sometimes nicely and other times not so nicely. We learned about ourselves, we learned about others and we learned about the world around us. We had to draw conclusions and draw up plans.

We learned which tomatoes made the biggest mess when they hit the target and which ones hurt the most. Dirt clod wars happened, forts got built, trees climbed, and, most of the time, no one got hurt (too badly). We came home when called and left after the chores got done.

Almost everyone grew something in their backyards. Gardens and small farm animals kept us in touch with the “cycle of life.” Things grew, got eaten, had to be fed and watered, cared for and then died. They did not come back after death. There was no re-set button. Maybe next year we would re-plant or get some more lambs (most of which died before the end of the week) so we could repeat the process. It was the way life worked.

Actually it is the way life still works. We are just further away from the process. As many of you know, I am in the 2nd year of a community garden project. This project is a two pronged project for me.
On one hand we grow and produce produce for the community. Some of it goes to the families here at the studio and other people we know. But most of the produce gets donated to the community food pantry. Last year we produced approximately 500 pounds of food. This year we are little behind and have produced a little over 100 pounds---mainly because the squash is a little slow and no cucumbers!
The other hand is the really exciting part. In my work with children of all ages and types I have noticed that they really are disconnected to nature. What Richard Louv calls “Nature-Deficit Disorder”. So in the spring my after school martial arts kids come to the garden to clean up and ready the beds for planting. We have a bon fire sometimes for the excess old material and turn the ash into the soil. We move the humus out of the compost bin and into the beds, set up the water system and plant when the time is right. All summer long the summer camp martial artists weed, water, plant more and harvest. And yes eat off the vines for tomatoes, peas and beans. Many of these children did not know you could pick and eat things. Most Friday afternoons we harvest and prepare a meal using the bounty we just reaped. In the fall the harvest will continue along with the gradual death of the garden and the after school martial artists will be there for that as well.

This activity puts everyone into the cycle of life. The seasonality and the rhythm of life goes on and on and on. Last week the children found a frog in the garden. Lady bugs and praying mantises reside as well along with spiders and lots of creepy crawlies. The bee hive is continually droning with activity. No longer do we feel the need to smash every bug and swat at bees and wasps. These creatures work in our ecosystem in this mini-world. We understand how the process of composting puts nutrition back into the soil just like good food puts nutrition back into our bodies.

When I saw this video (thanks Tom):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ3J0szCGqk&feature=player_embedded

I was amazed at how little time people are spending outdoors. Part of spending time in the garden or the park or the forest is realizing with wonder the world around us. And a large part of that realization is our connection to the divine source that resides within us all. The further we get from nature the farther we travel from our original face.

When we get so far away from nature we become afraid; afraid of wet and cold, dry and hot, afraid of creatures we don’t understand, afraid of trying something outside our comfort zone, afraid of stepping out of our little box and into the unknown. Remember the stories of the ancient sea-farers afraid of falling off the edge of the earth? Now we are afraid of stepping into the garden with all the terrors that await us. Our food is sanitized and homogenized and pasteurized and sterilized. It has lost all connection with the source that created it. The dirt is depleted and in some cases we are radiating the food to make is last longer and to remove any connection it may have to the earth. Folks this is just plain wrong. This is the ultimate kick in the teeth to the divine. This over reliance on technology and science to produce more, faster, and “safer” disconnects us from the world around us, from the life and death struggle that is happening each and every moment in the world, in your life and even in your body.

There is nothing quite like picking a red ripe tomato off the vine. One that you planted yourself nurtured and saw to fruition. Plucking it and biting into the tensile skin, your teeth breaking into the hidden summer sun within. And the slightly acidic bite hitting your tongue, the sweetness that follows as a bit of red juice runs down your chin. This is divinity and you are part of the process of bringing divinity down into the everyday world to be experienced on a most visceral level.

Why would anyone want to deny you of that experience? Why would we want to eliminate that amazing knowledge from our children’s understanding? Are we that afraid? And what are we afraid of? A bee sting? A spider bite? Warts from a frog? Really? All of these things have been going on for a very long time. And I hope they will continue for a very long time in the future. We cannot and should not allow corporate food and corporate TV and corporate production to take over our lives. The corporation is not nature.

Rocks move. Leaves sing. Bees drone. Plants grow, produce and die. We get to participate in the process if we choose. It isn’t scary, it isn’t strange or weird. It is wondrous and amazing and, if we let it, it will nourish our bodies and souls. Today my summer camp martial artists are at the Stillwater Wildlife Refuge learning even more about eco-systems and playing in the dirt and the mud and chasing lizards and fingerlings and just experiencing the natural wonder of the world. How about you?

And speaking of fresh tomatoes:
Harvest some fresh tomatoes and cut in to chunks
Harvest some fresh basil and chop.
Put both into a bowl, sprinkle a small amount of good olive oil and toss.
Then sprinkle with a bit more balsamic vinegar.
Salt and pepper (if you must) to taste.
Divine…

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Inane, Insane and Profane

Sunday Story…Inane, Insane and Profane
Inane
The trivial stupid stuff that passes for important today
Insane
The amount of space given to the extremes of any group
Profane
The proliferation of amazingly unacceptable material that we allow into our homes and our brains

All of these things take away from being our highest and best. Are you doing your highest and best work? Have you given your very best effort? Are you moving toward the highest reaches of your goals? Do you even know what your highest and best would be? Think about it.

Inane, Insane, and Profane…these things make it OK for us to stop being in the arena and getting things done. It is much too easy today to be a self-styled “expert” on anything. I can watch a few videos try out some ideas and BOOM I am the expert in the field. We often call this the green belt syndrome…when someone knows just enough to say they know something but nowhere near enough to really know anything. This is a dangerous place to live, a place where it is easy to get hurt, easy to hurt others without knowing why. Yet for many people this is their perpetual dwelling, this is where they permanently reside.

Inane, Insane, and Profane…all too often I see people quit or go away from something rather than getting in the middle of it and participating. Often times they don’t even complain about it…they just quit. When what they should be doing is digging and figuring it out and then trying to contribute and make it better. If you are complaining without suggestions for improvement all you are doing is whining. STOP IT. STOP WHINING.

Inane, Insane, and Profane…then there is the twisting of things to shape and mold them into your own little reality. A reality, which, by the way, is based simply upon what you want to see. It has no objective place in the world. Just like an infant whose entire world is made of 1 or 2 people and 3 or 4 bodily functions. That is all you can recognize and all you want to deal with…when in fact there are billions of people and billions of things going on moment to moment.

Inane, Insane, and Profane…the time we spend on the truly trivial. The day to day things that no one will ever remember tomorrow or often even 10 minutes after we have done them.

Inane, Insane, and Profane…where we allow our brains to reside all too often.

Your Highest and Best.

Think on that for just a moment. What would your life look like if you could spend it in pursuit of your highest and best in every arena?

If every workout, every physical pursuit, every golf game, every race, every kick, every punch was reaching toward the highest and best. And at the end of any one you could say “Today I have done my highest and best”? What would your physical condition be? How good could you be?

If every sales call, every letter every contact you made today was made in the highest and best way you could make it? What would your career trajectory look like?

If every time you talked to someone, every contact you made in a grocery market or convenience store or on the street you gave your highest and best to that person in that moment. What would your life look like?

If every time you communed with the divine source you could say with conviction:”Today I gave my highest and best in every endeavor to every person I came into contact with.” What would your soul say to that?

We all know we should be giving our highest and best. Yet we spend so much time in the Inane, Insane, and Profane places. They are easier, not so demanding, and normal places to be. Most of our friends are there. If we are going to be in the highest and best mode we will need to make some new ones. Not everyone wants to go here. It is hard work.

It is hard to dig in and contribute rather than whine and complain.
It is hard to be constantly vigilant against terminal mediocrity.
It is hard to change. And this is the bottom line. We, as humans, are resistant to change. We would rather put up with a very bad status quo than change. If you don’t believe me just take a look around at all the people who keep doing things to hurt their health. Smoking comes to mind. This is a bad habit…pretty much a recognized fact. It is hard to change...you have to want to, you have to be willing to endure some pain, and you have to shift your thinking. And for many people it is just too hard. And it is better to continue what I am doing the venture out into the unknown, even if I know that the unknown has to be better than what I am doing.

But you can’t get to the highest and best without shifting and changing and moving into a new gear. The old track can’t take you to this destination. You will need to forge a new trail. But…what if (go read last weeks’ story!)…The fact of the matter is it is better to fall short of reaching for your highest and best then never pick yourself up out of the swamp of the Inane, Insane, and Profane.

You know you really want to and I know you are really scared to try. Look the Inane, Insane, and Profane will always be there waiting for you, you can go back. But I suspect that once you attempt shooting for the stars you will never again be content aiming into the dirt.

This week’s recipe:
A classic!
Shrimp Scampi
I like this for its simplicity and ease of preparation.
Get a pound of fresh shrimp…big ones not the bay shrimp and not the ones already cooked. Clean and devein them or ask the fish monger to do it.
Use 1tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil in the pan and heat on med til melted. Yes real butter. It tastes better and isn’t related to petrochemicals in any way.
Chop 2 cloves of garlic and 4 scallions (green onions).
Throw into the hot oil for about 1 minute and add the shrimp.
Stir it is done when the shrimp is a nice white color instead of translucent…maybe 5 minutes
If you want to add a little cayenne pepper…go ahead. Serve it with a nice fresh green salad, maybe garlic bread, and a crisp white wine.
Enjoy with people you like!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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