PenteKing’s BodyBlog

A friend sent this to me. It’s been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish, and all of this creating humans. She made and provided us with what we’d need before we were born. These are best & more powerful when eaten raw.  We’re such slow learners…

God left us great clues as to what foods help what part of our body!
God’s Pharmacy! Amazing!

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye… And YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.
A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All o f the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.
Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.
A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums.  Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.
Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.
Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.
Avocadoes, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today’s research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this?  It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).
Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.
Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.
Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries
 Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.
Onions look like the body’s cells. Today’s research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

Intelligent bodybuilders eat these foods in abundance. Bodybuilders are the fittest and healthiest people on earth. If this isn’t proof that bodybuilders are God’s chosen people, then I don’t know how else to convince you.

Mark Twain once said that the only thing a man could stand to do for eight hours a day is work. While on vacation, I would have argued with him, but now that I’ve once again pulled on the harness, I see that Mr. Twain was a very perceptive individual. On vacation, I did things in 2 hour stretches. After that, I’d start to get itchy, and begin looking around for something else to do. At work, however, I have absolutely no problem sitting down and losing myself in a research project for hours on end.

Why is this so? What is it about work that motivates and drives us so? Is it the sense of accomplishment we get from doing our jobs? Or is it something else; something deeper? I like to think that the same motivators that drive us at work are the things that drive us to become bodybuilders. When I’m in the gym, and start lifting, I enter a zone. I lose all sense of place and time. I even begin to gray out the other bodybuilders around me. There is only me and the weight. There is only my desire to perform that last rep with perfect form. There is only the desire to push my body to the limit - to squeeze out that last pushup, knowing - just knowing - that that is the exercise that will give you the pecs you’ve always dreamed of. Even your failures motivate you. I get pissed when I fail. It only fuels my desire to get back into the gym and show those weights who’s boss. I know that, sooner or later, I’m going to succeed. I know that I’m going to be able to do those reps; that I’m going to be able to lift that weight. And I also know that there will be another, heavier weight for me to conquer.

Excuse me, but I’ve got to go to work.

Cancun was heaven on earth. My friend, with whom I stayed, told me that prior to my arrival, the weather had been cold and damp. Not so when I deplaned. It was a balmy 78 degrees, with brilliant sunlight and high clouds, and it stayed that way for my entire 10 day stay. The water was aqua blue, crystal clear and just cool enough to be refreshing. I went snorkeling, climbed to the top of a 145 foot pyramid, bicycled along a path that wound along the Gulf of Mexico, and ate dinner on the beach under a canopy of stars that were stunning in their magnificence. And, I was lucky enough to have that dinner in the company of a beautiful, intelligent and conversationally witty woman. I thought, my friends, that I had died and gone to heaven.

Sadly, my vacation had to end. I returned home to chilly weather and an apartment in dire need of cleaning. In addition to that, the first of my three 100 mile bike rides is this Saturday. Holy hell, Batman. How did the date creep up on me so quickly? I’ve less than five days to get my lungs and legs in shape for what promises to be one of the more challenging bike rides of my life. Wish me luck, my friends. I have the feeling I’m going to need it.

It has been a long fourteen months since I have had a serious vacation. You know the kind I mean - the one where you don’t do much of anything except look at the sky, lay on the sand and contemplate the meaning of life. The kind of vacation where you read every book that’s been stacked by the side of your bed for the past six months. The kind of vacation where you lose all sense of time and place.

Beginning Wednesday, I am taking that kind of vacation. A friend of mine has invited me to spend a week at his place in Cancun. My only expense will be the airfare from San Diego and back. He has promised to feed me, let me raid his liquor cabinet (no worries - I’ve given up drinking, but the thought is nice), and has already arranged for me to have dinner one night in the company of a beautiful and highly intelligent woman. My minds reels thinking of the possibilities.

If you read between the lines, you can guess that I will be in communicado until Thursday, February 19 at the earliest. I’m turning off my phone, shutting down my computer, and hanging up my weight lifting gloves. For seven days, I am giving myself over to hedonism. If you never hear from me again, you’ll at least know the reason why.

Until that time, "Ciao, baby!"

1.  Just for today, I will live through this day only and not tackle all of my life’s problems at once.  I can do things for 12 hours that would scare me crapless if I had to keep them up for a lifetime.

2.  Just for today, I will be happy.  This assumes that what Abraham Lincoln said is true - that “most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”  Happiness is from within; it is not a matter of external things.

3.  Just for today, I will try to adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires.  I will take my family, my business, and my licks as they come and fit myself to them.

4.  Just for today, I will take care of my body.  I will exercise it, care for it, nourish it, not abuse it or neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my bidding.

5.  Just for today, I will strengthen my mind.  I will learn something useful.  I will not mentally loaf.  I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.

6.  Just for today, I will exercise my soul in three ways:  I will do somebody a good turn without letting them know about it. I will be kind to a person I normally find dull and offensive. I will do at least one thing I don’t want to do - especially if requested by a loved one.

7.  Just for today, I will be agreeable; I will look as well as I can. I will dress as becomingly as possible. I will talk in low tones; I will act courteously and I will be liberal with praise. I will not criticize at all, not find fault with anything and will not regulate or improve anyone.

8.  Just for today, I will have a plan.  I will write down what I expect to do hour by hour.  I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it.  It will eliminate two nagging pests - hurry and indecision.

9.  Just for today, I will have a quiet half hour all by myself and relax. During this half hour, I will thank God for all that I have in my life. I will reflect on my blessings and not on my tribulations. I will get a little more perspective to my life.

Boy, I just am not feeling it today. In fact, I drove all the way over to the gym, grabbed my bag from the car’s back seat, and then promptly did a U-turn and walked away. Just the thought of entering the gym filled me with a sense of oppression so heavy, I felt as though a thousand-pound yoke had been laid across my shoulders.

For some reason, it is a dark and dreary November in my soul. I find myself thinking black thoughts. My patience is worn as thin as a politician’s morals and my limbs feel heavy and lethargic. I am not feeling it today.

I notice that this malaise creeps up on me every now and again. It does not happen often, but when it does, it is a tsunami of ennui threatening to swamp my boat of life. Mayhap I am in need of a vacation. It has, after all, been thirteen months since I last took myself off to an exotic locale and immersed myself among the holli polli. Calendar year 2008 was not an auspicious year (for anyone, I am willing to bet) and I have been working rather hard of late. (Still, I have a job, and for this, I am deeply, deeply grateful.) Yet, even the most hardly bitten workaholic in the world needs a respite every so often. Maybe that is what I need.

Then, again, it could be something else entirely. I don’t want to turn a blind eye to other - just as plausible - possibilities. One of my friends on this site (who shall remain nameless) confessed that she is suffering from F.A.T. (which I had never heard of, but which, upon researching it, sounds like a truly nasty state of mind) and is suspending not only her activities here on Bodybuilding.com, but is also stepping away from the entire bodybuilding lifestyle. The news saddened me. While we do not converse at that frequently, I always make it a point to stop by her profile pages to see what she has been up to. Her dedication and enthusiasm never failed to inspire me. Learning that she, too, is subject to the emotional ups and downs that I myself struggle against was enough to knock me for a loop. I hope that she rights herself and gets her life back on track.

So, there you have it - the bleak outpouring of my soul. I know that I will soon pick myself up, dust off my jacket (metaphorically speaking) and turn my mind to more enlightening and uplifting thoughts. Tonight, however, I am going to allow myself to wallow in the trough of despair for a few hours longer. It is, after all, the first half of the twenty-first century blues.