Blocket is my new best friend.
Move over Robin and Richy, move over Chip and Matt, www.blocket.se has taken over the best friend position. I’m moving in a month, I need to furnish a whole apartment, I don’t have a ton of money, I don’t have a huge desire for a dormish home. Solution: buy used. I feel slightly rediculous having lived my whole life with my nose so far up in the air that I never realized how much I could better my standard of living simply by re-using instead of insisting on always having new things. Of course, I’ve been recycling forever but my pride and desire to impress my peers has always kept me from buying the big stuff used. Not anymore! I love this idea, I really do. I’m going to see if I can furnish basically my whole place with used stuff-even some of the decorations. When you buy used you can get a much higher quality piece of whatever it is you are buying than if you were to buy new, the only catch being that you have to inspect it to make sure it is still what you want-but in this case with furniture, we’re not even talking about something mechanical, it basically just has to look nice and be able support whatever it is is going to be sitting on it. Nice! I’m pumped about this. I’m buying a very nice table on sunday, assuming it’s in good working order. Looking for a bed now. Since I’m looking for higher end stuff, I pretty much skip over all the cheapest stuff and go right to the expensive, but the cool part about the expensive is that it’s still not that expensive. If it’s expensive used, that means it was reall expensive new and if it’s still in good shape, that means it’s a great buy for someone like me. Maybe you too?
In that same vein, my good buddy Todd found a great website the other month: www.thestoryofstuff.com -check it out, very eye opening, very good message.
I guess the theme of this blog is going to be ’back to basics’ only now I’m going to pull a fast switch on you and turn things over to training and health. The constant step forward step backward approach I’ve been taking with my body is getting a bit tiresome-meaning, trying to get the back in working order, and the shoulders in working order, and the knees in working order, and the calf in working order all the while trying to achieve a better physique is not working as basically anyone might have guessed. Well, it’s working, but not at a rate at which I can accept. Like I said last time around, my program resembles a push/pull split right now and I might even knock that down to a very simple bring up lagging muscle groups split-teres major, infraspinatus, lateral gastroc, multifidi, erector spinae, transverse abdominus. Given that I haven’t been all that attracted to bbing the last few years I think it’s time I did this for myself-put the other on the back burner and take care of some long overdue business.
I might also take this time to get my digestive system in order. This candida issue is a bit annoying, although not more than that. My heart really goes out to all the people out there having a nightmare of a time with it; I just wish I could convince everyone to go raw, get their carb intake in order, and slip all that. I’ve been experimenting quite a bit with my own probiotics lately and having some success. The key is volume. Store bought probiotics seem all but totally useless to me as their quantities are so low-even 30billion live units per serving(capsule, most often) is a drop in the hat in regards to gut flora-I actually wonder if it makes any significant difference whatsoever. Another key is type(s) of bacteria used; if you want to re-populate a specific area of the body with flora, you’ll want to find out what type of flora naturally exist in that specific area.
I’m going to go ahead and make a prediction here: probiotics are the new antibiotics. The idea in the future is going to be helping the body help itself. Excessive antibiotic use over the years, especially my teenage years has left me with a challenge to deal with in my adulthood; hopefully I can come up with something to help myself as well as my peers experiencing the same thing-one of my desires though is that my peers actually realize that what they are experiencing is the same thing.
I’m going to use that as a segway into my next topic, results. Results are supposed to be fast and noticeable from session to session, especially when it comes to fat loss. Were talking about energy consumption. Energy is something that is in constant flux; it’s a matter of consistantly putting out more than you put in. If you are having trouble putting out more than you put in but find that you are working out a lot and not putting all that much in, then it’s likely you are having an issue mobilizing the fat that is currently on your body. This is the biggest issue, I’ve found. People aren’t stupid, they’re doing their workouts, they’re doing their diets…the fat’s still not coming off. The problem is mobilization. The problem is insulin sensitivity, the problem is subtle hypothyroidism, the problem is nutrient sparse bio-unavailable ’food.’ The answer is changing to something that works in the immediate short term and consistantly over the long term. This is always the answer, and the people that have found the answer are very obvious about it; in fact, they stick out like sore thumbs. If you ran into them you’d know it right away. If they are still getting colds and flus, they’re not their yet. If they are getting skin outbreaks, they’re not there yet. If they’re tired all the time and have bags under their eyes, they’re not there yet. If they have dandruff, foul smelling gas and body odor, they’re just not their yet. I’m not there yet either, but I’ve managed to knock out quite a few uncomfortable things that I thought were a normal part of being a human being-and I’m definitely not the only one.
None of those things are in the game plan but they’ve all snuck up on us very steathfully by way of mass attack…that sounds weird but if everyone is experiencing the same thing then it’s the ‘way we’re made.’ But everyone’s not experiencing the same thing and now we have a greater ability than ever to hear what they have to say, we just have to search the slightest little bit.
The point, the ideal, imo, is to be constantly bouncing back and force between loving and learning. Sometimes learning requires discomfort but then when we learn we bounce right back into love. The things we love are malleable, the things we enjoy physically are malleable. Try not to get stuck on the things but rather get stuck on seeking the love and lesson. The love is the enjoyment, the lesson is the result of our pursuit in life. When the pizza stops doing it’s thing for you, move on. When the wine stops doing it’s thing for you, move on. When everything stops serving it’s purpose, time to move on. When something stops being good for you in the short term and the long term, when it starts taking you away from love and enlightenment…or keeps you from moving towards them, then that thing has served it’s purpose and it’s time to move on. In the end, we have to do what works, what get’s us closer to love and enlightenment as constant states of being. Food is great and makes us feel good, but what we want is to feel good…let’s not get stuck on the particular food item. We all want to enjoy eating and living the lives we live-the point is to enjoy, not to get stuck enjoying this one thing or this type of thing. If it brings us closer to love and enlightenment, we can enjoy it, relish in it.
