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Personal Journal - Day 23: Increase your energy
10 years ago
So, I'm sure many of you have heard me complaining about my energy levels lately, huh? A lot of this is simply review for most of us, but it does have some interesting bits of information here. I hadn't been paying any attention to this and only now took notice of the old habits I had dropped (oops).
Increase your energy – The foundation of change
Anything in life that has any value, requires an investment of energy, and I mean ANYTHING. If we want to get good at art, we need to invest in it. That means we put emotional stock into our work.
Here’s the problem though: Most of us get burnt out. I mean, we work 8-9 hours a day, have time to come home, grab a bite to eat, maybe relax a bit and then go to bed…then wake back up and repeat. I’m sure MOST of us know what this is like.
So how does one increase energy levels? Well, by breathing (obviously) but doing this properly and efficiently. Ever notice how those with respiratory issues seem to have lower energy? Oxygen is required (I’m sure everyone knows this already, but maybe not quite it’s importance…) for anyone to survive. Lack of oxygen means lack of energy. Those who exercise know cardio causes the heart, lungs, and circulatory systems to work harder. Similar to strength training, if we push this, it also increases how efficient we are in processing the oxygen we’re taking in. The average person only extracts 3% of the oxygen inhaled…kind of low, isn’t it? Well, let’s say we increased that…
How? Breathing exercises: Done in most conditioning and almost any martial art. Why is that? Well, do it ten times, three times a day and watch your energy levels; for those of us who hate getting out of bed, maybe this is something we should be doing when we wake up, hmm? Yes, I’m talking to myself in particular…funny how one can know these things and simply not apply them or forget.
What else? Aerobics! “Air exercise” so to speak. SWIMMING! Seriously, I need to get back to this.
More tips…DIET! Eat foods that contain lots of water. Fresh fruit and vegetables, or juices, and sprouts. “when too little fluid is supplied, the blood maintains a higher specific gravity and the poisonous waste products of tissue or cell change are only cast off very imperfectly. The body is there for poisoned by its own excretions and it’s not too much to say that the chief reason of this is because a sufficient amount of fluid has not been supplied to carry off in solution the waste matter that cells manufacture.” ~Alexander Bryce (MD) This means, cells are dying and being replaced CONSTANTLY. Unless we have enough water to carry off that extra waste, we poison ourselves.
So here’s a little exercise for the next week. Keep a FOOD LOG. (I’ll start this Sunday, and post this on Saturday). LOOK at the list and mark off the water rich or “water content foods.” Beer, milk, alcohol, etc, don’t count. What percentage of our diet contains water content foods? If you were to ask a dietitian about your diet…what would they say? Likely: ”You’re killing yourself.” To most of us. 70% or more of our diet should contain water rich foods.
Take a look at the portioning suggestions when working with diabetics…notice the portioning? 75% of that plate is fruit and/or vegetables (FRESH).
Day 23 exercise: Next ten days, do those breathing exercises and change our diet. (Again, I’ll start this Sunday, and post results the following week).
Increase your energy – The foundation of change
Anything in life that has any value, requires an investment of energy, and I mean ANYTHING. If we want to get good at art, we need to invest in it. That means we put emotional stock into our work.
Here’s the problem though: Most of us get burnt out. I mean, we work 8-9 hours a day, have time to come home, grab a bite to eat, maybe relax a bit and then go to bed…then wake back up and repeat. I’m sure MOST of us know what this is like.
So how does one increase energy levels? Well, by breathing (obviously) but doing this properly and efficiently. Ever notice how those with respiratory issues seem to have lower energy? Oxygen is required (I’m sure everyone knows this already, but maybe not quite it’s importance…) for anyone to survive. Lack of oxygen means lack of energy. Those who exercise know cardio causes the heart, lungs, and circulatory systems to work harder. Similar to strength training, if we push this, it also increases how efficient we are in processing the oxygen we’re taking in. The average person only extracts 3% of the oxygen inhaled…kind of low, isn’t it? Well, let’s say we increased that…
How? Breathing exercises: Done in most conditioning and almost any martial art. Why is that? Well, do it ten times, three times a day and watch your energy levels; for those of us who hate getting out of bed, maybe this is something we should be doing when we wake up, hmm? Yes, I’m talking to myself in particular…funny how one can know these things and simply not apply them or forget.
What else? Aerobics! “Air exercise” so to speak. SWIMMING! Seriously, I need to get back to this.
More tips…DIET! Eat foods that contain lots of water. Fresh fruit and vegetables, or juices, and sprouts. “when too little fluid is supplied, the blood maintains a higher specific gravity and the poisonous waste products of tissue or cell change are only cast off very imperfectly. The body is there for poisoned by its own excretions and it’s not too much to say that the chief reason of this is because a sufficient amount of fluid has not been supplied to carry off in solution the waste matter that cells manufacture.” ~Alexander Bryce (MD) This means, cells are dying and being replaced CONSTANTLY. Unless we have enough water to carry off that extra waste, we poison ourselves.
So here’s a little exercise for the next week. Keep a FOOD LOG. (I’ll start this Sunday, and post this on Saturday). LOOK at the list and mark off the water rich or “water content foods.” Beer, milk, alcohol, etc, don’t count. What percentage of our diet contains water content foods? If you were to ask a dietitian about your diet…what would they say? Likely: ”You’re killing yourself.” To most of us. 70% or more of our diet should contain water rich foods.
Take a look at the portioning suggestions when working with diabetics…notice the portioning? 75% of that plate is fruit and/or vegetables (FRESH).
Day 23 exercise: Next ten days, do those breathing exercises and change our diet. (Again, I’ll start this Sunday, and post results the following week).
