ME. Mistake-riddled ME…. But I am happy being IMPERFECTLY PERFECT, just as Jesus Christ was. His life was a great example of what FAILURE was. Not an easy path to follow …. But I will. Because I BELIEVE in JESUS and what he stood for. Just like GOD intended.
… too numerous to list here.
I have made many mistakes. I will try to express it in words like this.
When I should have let my unusually strong 💪 stubborn-ness to dig deep;
But instead, succumbed to a feeling of weakness and gave up hope …
And ….
On … and … on … and … on ….
One thing is certain –
There’s still more mistakes to come
Life goes on
One thing that I have learned from making tonnes and tonnes of mistakes … of having experienced so many fuck ups …. Of failing multiple times is …
That I am more COMFORTABLE at tolerating the UNCOMFORTABLE FEELINGS of making a mistake … or fucking up … of failing … of failing …. Of failing. …..
I don’t see mistakes as mistakes anymore … but instead as OPPORTUNITIES to find solutions …. To stretch boundaries …. To DESIGN NEW RULES …. To CREATE something DIFFERENT …. To START ANEW.
I’m unsure of the future …
But I am not concerned;
I will rely on those closest to ME …
And I will share their burdens … as they share mine;
I WILL continue to ..
LIVE & LOVE 💕.. & LEARN … with the understanding that I am IMPERFECTLY PERFECT and …
Until my physical form on earth reaches its finite end and my spiritual self continues into INFINITY…
Because …
I BELIEVE that GOD is ALWAYS WITH ME …
And that makes me FEEL INVINCIBLE.. as I AM GOD … I AM INFINITE.
A collage of CHAOTIC LINES …. somewhat organised into some kind of ORDER… to CREATE an IMAGE.
The “DOT”.
Aahh … I just love lines …
Let me ask you a question: what’s a drawing/sketch ?
Yep, a series of lines!
And here’s another question:
“What’s a line?”, I ask my kids …
yep, a series of dots!
“What’s a dot?” … the beginning, middle & end of a line. Right?
Well, one could argue that a “DOT” has no beginning, no end… it gives us a taste of INFINITY. If you can’t comprehend this idea, maybe in the 3rd dimension, that’s alright… it is definitely INFINITE in the 4th dimension.
I love drawing ✍️ and managing the fusion of ALL kinds of lines, mostly, to get lost … to become one with … to allow the love 💕 you have WITHIN … just waiting to be expressed…
… in an image that would hopefully be able to be understood and appreciated.
Life: Connections upon connections. A continuous pathway to … nowhere.
Line Drawing – My Life: in frames
Your task: draw your life in frames.
To LISTEN a little BETTER.
You see, after over 4 decades of practising the ART OF FINE-LINE Drawing ✍️, I have found that –
~ it allows me☝️ to LISTEN a little BETTER to my INNER voice … and ACCEPT my CREATIVE EXPRESSION … as I realise that LISTENING 👂…. TRUE LISTENING is a ….. FORM OF ACCEPTANCE
~ it allows me to …. NOT THINK 🤔 SOMETHING UP (some untraceable goal … I’m the clouds ☁️ somewhere up there ….) but instead encourages me to …. GETTING SOMETHING DOWN … GIVING SOMETHING
~ it reminds me that I am NOT DOING…. I AM GETTING…. I AM GIVING (hopefully, to an appreciative audience)
~ it reminds me that I AM ENGAGED IN “LISTENING “ … & that I have (still) much to learn and …. MASTER
~ it reinforces that I am not the CREATOR… I AM THE CONDUIT through which this Energy force .. this ESSENCE OF LIFE… this endless love 💕 … is TRANSMUTED.. into what eventually becomes an IMAGE… that hopefully RESONATES with the audience
Here’s are a number of picture of dots, lines and shades chaotically fused together into a somewhat orderly structure.
What do you see?
SIMPLICITY enfolds COMPLEXITY
One positive result of my fine-line work is that I CREATE or BRING TO LIFE … images that hopefully RESONATE with the heart is at least one viewer.
Many times, I don’t know what I will produce …. As I fuse and bring ORDER to the CHAOTIC lines …. The Art or image I produce is given life … and emerges on to the pages and fundamentally comes about because drawling lines allows me to TUNE IN to what is already there
Feeling the movement of my hand as I caress the ink pen to draw lines in the page …. gives me the strong belief of the POSSIBILITY that the UNIVERSE is helping me with what I am doing (always) … as I become a WILLING SON of GOD and accept his offer of help and guidance in all that I do.
Drawing ✍️ lines HUMBLES ME as it reminds me that GOD is the GREAT ARTIST 👩🎨… the GREATEST DESIGNER
You will see that for some drawings …. There is a lot of uncertainty. For example, In certain parts of the pages I began with chaos (scribbling lines & dots) & moved towards order & in other parts I started with order & transitioned to chaos (randomness).
It appears simple…
.. but Simplicity in this case, enfolds complexity (the picture communicates – symbolically, various aspects of life).
What can you see? (In my art)
Maybe life is just a sequence of layers of energy that reveals itself to us based on the level of consciousness we attain. Just like the many layers you see here in my line-art.
Does looking at my picture in portrait reveal something different to you? What about landscape? Upside down? What images get reflected in to your conscience?
In many of my drawings ✍️, randomness is interweaved with order.
My pictures/fine-like Art, are ultimately a fusion of chaos (random lines & “many mistakes”) & layers of unbalanced order) to produce (hopefully something that is visually stimulating & pleasing).
When does a drawing have enough lines? When is it one line too much?
My question to you is: When is enough, enough (could apply with most things in life)?
Thank you for your Attention.
Keep safe. Keep punching.
Until next time,
A fusion of chaotic lines managed into some kind of order.
White & Black Lies should be minimised in families.
Withholding Truth
G’day & Bula & good morning/evening to YOU wherever YOU are in this beautiful planet 🌏!
I was thinking 🤔 about life, as I usually do & the concept of “truth” in particular and lies as well as they seem to be two sides of the same coin.
Lying 🤥, we all do it and have done it over the course of our lives so far.
We lie to others & we lie to ourselves. I guess we could split lies up in to two main types:
1. White lies
2. Black lies.
The 💝alentine tribe (minus our dog 🐶 – Mr Fuzzy/Fussy cuddles. As parents we try to be as truthful to our children.
White Lies & Black Lies.
A black Lie, as I see it, could be defined as a statement we make we know is false. A white lie is a statement that we make that is not in itself false but that leaves out a significant part of the truth.
I think white lies can often be more destructive than black-lying. Think 💭 about it, we all do it almost every single day of our lives , as we consider white-lying more socially acceptable in many of our relationships because we “don’t want to hurt people’s feelings.”
Yet, people complain that their social relationships are generally superficial. Is this the right thing to teach our kids – that, as parents, part of being loving is feeding them heaps of white lies?
Is it right and truly beneficial for the children to not be told the cold truths about matters of life? Should parents continue (& I see this happening every day and have witnessed in many families over the last 3 decades of keen interest) “white-lying?”
So, parents tell each other everything but feed their children white lies. For example, that they fought with each other the night before about their relationship, or that their dad resents their grandparents for their manipulativeness & lack of caring over the years or that mum has a medical problem.
Rational behind white lies is – a loving desire to protect & shield their children from unnecessary worries.
This is a hard one ☝️ as love 💗 is just too large, too deep even, in my opinion, to be truly understood or measured or limited within a framework of words.
The bible tries to explain what love is but I don’t think 🤔 or at least I haven’t come across a truly satisfactory definition of love.
I know what love is not!
Contrary to what we’ve been told , love is not a feeling.(I will elaborate on what l mean another time)
I think love comes down to the desire to nurture one’s own or another’s spiritual growth. And this takes discipline, lots of discipline.
Discipline that needs to be constantly disciplined.
If that is what they see as ‘weird’ and is also part of why they each love me … for being … no one else but me, then so be it – I am weird, and proud of it. If being weird is a crime, then, I guess I am the biggest criminal in this world.
Beautiful art with my favourite colours
Weird to me is …
I was asked a question by a group of thinkers I’m a part of –
I typed my response as I sat down and thought … I”m a very fast typer, so I typed as I think … weird to me is ..
Weird is being comfortable within yourself. With YOU.
Weird is closer to learning your truth, your beauty in life. Weird is heightened awareness that your truth lies within you.
Weird is being less self-conscious and not using that energy worrying about what other people think,
Weird is picking yourself up and trying again, no matter how many times you fall/fail or stink;
Weird is having abnormal strength, not from the gym but from all the times you’ve picked yourself up
Weird is never, ever, ever … giving up, simply because you’re ‘tough’;
Weird is loving the Journey song – “Don’t Stop Believin!” and use it as a mantra when you fail,
Weird is being courageous at just being YOU, in a world where everyone else is trying to be ‘like someone else’, following one another’s tail;
Weird is loving YOU, unconditionally and others you value, too
Weird is loving others enough to enlighten them with your truth and take time to admire the sky, so blue;
Weird is being open and prepared to listen to their truth,
Weird is allowing yourself to be vulnerable even at the expense of ridicule and shunned
Weird is speaking out against injustice when the majority won’t, without the use of a gun;
Weird is not accepting the ‘status quo’ and always seeking a new and better way of doing something,
Weird is always questioning the wisdom passed down from our forefathers … even two plus two equalling four and why do bees sting;
Weird is being self-less, about reaching out to connect through communication,
Weird is communicating with more than words … it is a communication from the soul & using your vibration;
Weird is respect, responsibility and peace, personified into every thought,
Weird is wisdom and strength disguised as UN-Normal, for all battles fought,
Weird is spiritual discipline revealing hidden treasures from one’s infinite creative source within and sharing with love
Weird is acceptance, freedom and contentment disguised in your physical form, taking you places by a dove;
Weird is courage, humility and integrity to oneself and others,
Weird is giving .. hope and gratitude as a daily habit, similar to that existing with lovers;
Weird is offering a hug or shoulder for someone to cry on when no one else will,
Weird is accepting you don’t know anything and your curiosity and energy keeps your search beating down new paths of knowledge trying to get your fill;
Weird treads the fine line that many fear to walk …
Weird is the precarious fine line between insanity and … genius, but for those who don’t understand, all they do is – talk;
Being weird was seen and treated with distaste and branded ‘abnormal’ in our history of mankind. But that was history, this is the present.
We’re living through unprecedented change in our current history, the present. A gift. We’re creating our new history, beginning now … I pronounce that –
Find your truth, create your beauty. Be the light you want to see in the world
Weird is the New Normal …
Let’s be Normal, together … with all our other weird friends and … help imagine … and make this world a little better than how we have found it.
What do you reckon?!
Who’s with me?!!!
Do you believe this?
Cheers from Sydney, Australia
Paul e Valentine
**Vitality, Health & Lifestyle Coach/Entrepreneur**
Be the person that YOU are.
Be YOU. As YOU are. Accept the uniqueness … and weirdness that you know you are. Embrace YOU. Never imitate.
Well, I have a few questions: Are you a man with a “masculine sexual essence?“. Just another way to say – ‘are you a REAL MAN?”
Any man that is a REAL MAN, with a masculine sexual essence (we all have this) will almost inevitably DESIRE SEXUAL VARIETY. You have had thoughts, many thoughts of having sex with other women.
Am I right?
Even if you love your intimate partner (your wife or girlfriend). Even if you are completely committed to her, you will have thoughts…. and naturally want sexual occasions with other women. Now, we’ve heard that when a man is promiscuous, apparently it reveals that he is lacking intimacy at home. This, is absolutely, not true.
Your desire for other women is simply a reflection of your nature as a red-blooded Real Man.
Self-discipline is the one key characteristic of a winner that really makes habit changes happen.
Discrimination is good
This is where I believe discrimination is good. Helps us make choices.
You need to discriminate against these desires that has deep sources from childhood. You need to discriminate so that you know when to discipline yourself and say ‘no’.
There is only one of two choices that you need to make when faced with the decision to have sex or not have sex with another woman. Your choice will fundamentally, depend on your philosophy of life.
If you see having sex with as many women as you can as part of your purpose in your life, then, you’ll most likely pursue this route.
A ‘coaching conversation’ with Brad, while taking a rest break between exercise sets. Helping Brad, help himself, achieve something he cares about and become more of who he wants to be. Through belief, hope and effort + hear, within a tailored program, one can find ‘balance & symmetry’ that is vital to overall Peak Performance and being the Man You Can BE. Self-discipline is key to any sustainable change.
Positive Self-discipline
Deciding not to have sex with other women but the woman you’re with requires discipline. Positive self-discipline does not mean self-suppression. No. Far from it.
Self-discipline is simply – practice!
Self-discipline ‘puts your money where your mouth is.”
Self-discipline begins where ‘lip service’ ends.
All other qualities such as positive self-awareness; positive self-esteem; positive self-control; positive self-motivation; positive self-image and so forth are absolutely worthless without self-discipline.
Self-discipline should not be seen as ‘doing without’ but instead should be viewed as “doing within’, because it is a mental practise. A mental practise based on repetition.
Explaining some of the finer points of training to Vicky during my ‘coaching conversations’ with my students. Better athletes train smarter.
Seeing without seeing through simulation
I use a lot of ‘seeing with images’ and quite easily simulate. I’ve been doing this for many years and it is truly amazing how these images manifest itself in to my perception and ultimately, my reality.
The art of ‘seeing’ without seeing is an underrated skill and one you should apply to your life. Everything begins with your thought, so disciplining your thoughts of having sex with other women should be practised.
Why practise?
Because to develop your mental strength, you need to think like a winner, and strive to learn the art of simulation. A skill that champions and winners in all fields have mastered.
Practise does not make perfect. Perfect practise makes perfect.
Let’s keep it simple – remember, the simple format for learning a skill or habit (in this case, choosing to not have sex with another woman):
Desire
Information
Assimilation
Repetition
So, there you have it. Work on your self-discipline, beginning with your philosophy on life.
Nothing else but self-discipline can make or break a habit. Self-discipline, alone can make a permanent change in you.
Self-discipline is your key to controlling your desire to sleep with other women.
Enjoy the beauty and radiance of the other women that cross your path and discipline yourself to not act on your thoughts of sleeping with the woman. But, if that is part of your purpose in life, then go right ahead.
The former decision will surely not adversely affect you, your relationship with your wife, kids and family
Choose well, my friend.
Cheer & Ahoy!
The old Captain Viking Pirate … & saying no to thoughts of sleeping with other women with the tool of self-discipline.
Photo op with a local resident and her dog. Lovely.
A variation of the ‘back single biceps” pose … on the beach. The combination of chaos + order = Life. Find your balance. Find your beauty. Find your truth.
Education through a perception of the truth. Increasing your awareness, taking sufficient and appropriate actions and adapting accordingly is key towards self-improvement. All done in my programs. I love 💓 helping people who strive to help themselves by increasing their awareness… of the power & ❤️Itality within themselves. It’s never too late to learn and UN-learn bad gym (& lifestyle ) training habits learned in different phases of life. Photo: Former pupil – ex Australian Rugby Union Wallaby Captain – Phil Waugh embracing new knowledge. Having a Growth mindset. Vv
I have been very fortunate that in over twenty three years of training in the gym I have not been seriously hurt in any way. I am very proud to say that in that time I have not seen a physiotherapist or chiropractor for any training-related injury.
I have always been a stickler for form and ideal exercise execution. Always. Accelerated increased awareness from the guidance from some of the best coaches in various fields such as martial arts, power-lifting, boxing, athletics, squash, soccer, hockey, rugby and resistance-training has also contributed heavily to me staying injury-free.
Mastering the basics in any physical endeavour is paramount to you excelling in and enjoying the experience while doing it. Everyone that I have ever helped over the years get educated in applying the basics of training all the time – not some of the time! This loosely applies to most worthwhile goals in life.
Getting injured is a pain. Apart from the physical pain, one has to endure days, weeks or even months of re-habilitation. It can drain one of mental and emotional energy too and be quite costly if the injury is very serious.
Hey, there are many professions that thrive on you getting injured – physiotherapist & chiropractors are two. So, if you’re stubborn in your old habits … just keep doing what you’re doing … & “open your wallets” to them.
Over the years, I have adopted certain routines with deliberate practise (habits) that I believe decreases my chances of getting injured while training in the gym.
Below are 5.5 key tips to help you lower your risk of injury:
My whole goal from the very first time I lifted weights was to build a more balanced and symmetrical physique. I believe this is one of the main key factors in me staying injury-free all these years. This is despite me lifting relatively heavy weights for most of this time (especially the two years when I trained for the World Championships in New York).
For example, a lot of people train the ‘mirror muscles’ more than they do the muscle in their posterior chain (muscles you don’t see in the mirror). This leads to asymmetry and muscle group imbalances.
Not a wise thing to do.
Focusing say, on your chest and shoulders and biceps (the ‘show-me-your muscles muscles) and neglecting your upper back muscles like the traps and rear delts and middle back can spell disaster. The most common gym-related injury for young men world-wide are shoulder injuries primarily because of this.
Muscle imbalances lead to increased risk of injury in the respective joints and muscles.
Besides, why do you want to be the strongest or biggest guy when you can build the most balanced and symmetrical physique for your frame. This is more aesthetic and more pleasing to the eye.
So, leave your ego at the door and work towards a better shape – a more balanced and symmetrical physique. If you don’t, you may regret it later.
Results with care. Here, Brad is ‘feeling the essence’ of the exercise and inching closer to his best self. He is in total control and ‘feels’ the muscle being worked. Vv
Tip #2: Be aware of your breathing technique.
I believe incorrect breathing technique is one of the main contributors to getting injured when training in the gym. Keep this in mind – for:
Pushing motions (bench press; shoulder press) – exhale at the point of contraction (when your arms are furthest away from you)
Pulling motions (lat pulldowns; biceps curls) – inhale when your arms are furthest from your torso.
Breathing also helps you with the next tip.
Ex-Australian Wallaby Captain – Phil Waugh performing a set of squats. Using good exercise technique(which includes proper breathing) is paramount to success.
Tip # 3: Focus!
Concentrating on your breathing and what you are going to do with the weight for those 15 to 45 seconds (a set) is critical to lowering your risk of injury.
Every fibre and cell in your body needs to 100% fully-focused! Don’t get side-tracked by other conversations and mentally block out all distractions. Focusing certainly aids you putting on good lean muscle. Period!
A slight loss of concentration could lead to less than ideal execution of exercise leading to increased levels of risk of injury.
I have developed quite a few formulas relating to peak performance over the years and one of the most important ones is:
“Focus = Results” (a shortened version of my formula).
Tip # 4: Always assess exercise execution with ‘risk:benefit’ ratio mind-set.
Exercise choice and safety – a particular exercise that may be safe for someone may not be for another.
High-risk lifting – improper execution of certain exercises can increase levels of risk for very small increments in benefit. The range of motion of exercises need to be tied in to the ‘risk:benefit” ratio of the exercise and the trainee’s goals
Always avoid “high-risk’ lifting. This relates to variables such as excessive weights; excessive number of repetitions; excessive range-of-motion and so forth.
Tip # 5.5: Apply correct training principles.
I’ve always believed that building muscle is like LIFE. It relies on two principles:
There are many principles to building and keeping muscle and after 23 plus years in the gym I have concluded that the two above and this next two principles – 3) control and 4) feel are key towards lowering your risk of injury.
All beginners and intermediate trainees or less experienced gym enthusiasts should master these before ‘going heavy’.
When you keep it simple and focus on the full range of motion of the exercise with continuous tension, you increase your ability to build good, quality muscle.
Because you are 100% focused and are using the right weight for you to correctly execute the exercise, you have better control and feel. This allows you to ‘work the muscle, not the joint’.
If you can’t control and feel the muscle being worked, you’re not building muscle, only ego.
A lot of people still aspire to the ‘No pain, no gain’ maxim but I think you should not follow this. Listen to your body: never do anything that hurts and don’t train if you hurt yourself or suffer from an existing injury.
results. Vv. “> Chris enjoying a well-deserved rest between sets. A ‘set’ as I define it is: a continuous progression of 15 to 45 sec ‘focused moments’. Focus + heart + visualization ===> results. Vv.
Most injuries happen over time, through cumulative effect of muscular discomfort and micro-scopic tares and inflammation of tendons and ligaments around the joints. Most injuries are the result of an imposed force exceeding the structural strength of the involved body-part.
Don’t copy the super-stars and genetic elite who look and train the way they train because most of the time you don’t know their full story and so this may give you a false sense of direction and could lead to injuries.
Those who don’t do away with the maxim ‘no pain, no gain’ and try to train like the super-stars usually regret it, sooner or later. A better maxim to adopt is ‘No brain, no gain”.
Strive to Train SMART. What I mean by this is that I have always promoted a more conservative approachto training. My own experience and what I have learned from observing countless other trainees – has taught me that a more conservative way to training is not only the most effective but also the safest way to train not only in the short-term but more importantly for your long-term health.
Strive to stay injury-free. You’re in the gym to work on making that person you see in the mirror (you!) – better. Not for ego.
You want to still be doing this activity and off-setting the on-set of ageing (by building muscle) well in to your 80s and 90s if you live that long. It will certainly add quality to your life. Like I have said before, Muscle is the potion of youth!
All the best in your training this year.
Embrace my Triple A to self-improvement: be more aware; take appropriate actions and adapt accordingly to reach your goals in life.
Cheers and Happy January to you!
Until next time,
Just like friendship, genuine muscle requires a lot of time and hard work to be built and sustained. You do this by adopting an ‘adaptive strategy’ of self-tuning. Vv.
Learning how to properly execute an exercise with good form throughout the full range of motion is vital to muscle building and longevity. Vv
I was asked by a host of a function I attended recently about what grip was best to get the most out of your barbell bench presses?
Over the last two decades I have seen many variations of grips. I believe it is a matter of individual preference and your level of experience of training in the gym. If you’re a beginning gym enthusiast, it would be best if you used the ‘thumb grip’, meaning your thumb goes around the bar in the opposite direction to your other fingers, forming a secure grip.
If, however, you are more experienced and advanced, then using the ‘thumbless grip’ may be something for you. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term ‘thumbless grip’, it simply means that you move your thumb to the same side of the bar as your fingers.
If you had to assess the risk of the two types of grips, the ‘thumbless grip’ is a much higher risk to you and possibly others close to your training station. I know of a man who injured his sternum doing a bench press using this grip. The bar slipped off his hands during a set of bench pressing and fell on his chest. Very painful, not recommended.
However, this risk is lowered if the bench press is performed using a “Smith Machine” or similar. The thumb grip is safer.
It can also be argued that it is more productive to NOT use a thumbless grip when performing an exercise like the bench press. However, how productive you are depends on many other variables and in the list of key variables influencing your productivity during your workouts, the grip you use would have to be quite far down that list.
So, to sum up, if you’re a beginner, DO NOT use a thumbless grip, especially if you do bench presses with free weights. Period! The seasoned campaigner can give it a try if you are using a smith machine to mitigate the risk of the bar falling on you or have a good training partner.
But, if you are in it for the long haul, the use of a ‘thumbless grip’ isn’t going to give you much more weight doing your presses. I think your focus should be on more important things like ‘feel’ and ‘control’.
Two principles of building muscle: 1) Simplicity and 2} Continuity. Here, Ex-Australian Rugby legend Phil Waugh using a ‘thumbless grip’ in a Smith Machine to do Bench Presses. Become aware; Apply action: Adapt accordingly.
I tell everyone that if you’re not feeling the muscle and not in control of weight, then you’re not building muscle, you’re just building ego. Learn to leave your ego at the door if you’re serious about building good quality muscle and re-shaping the body you see in the mirror towards the one you imagine yourself to be.
Focus on doing each repetition of each exercise properly. Do this repeatedly as best as you can. This includes doing the last rep as good as your first. Not some of the time, – all of the time!
Feel the ‘essence’ of the exercise ( … and it ain’t vanilla!).
When you feel you’ve mastered this and the BASICS, then, and only then, should you worry about what grip to use when you train.
Tip # 4: Take your Nuts with you, wherever you go!
Total estimated time taken out of your day = approx. 10 minutes (as detailed in my previous blogs) –
Represented by:
Time to perform Tip # 1= 5 min
Time to perform Tip # 2 = 3 min
Time to perform Tip # 3 = 2 min
So, hopefully you are trying to incorporate the first 3 tips I have shared with you in my previous blogs. Also, hopefully, you are slowly being convinced about my subject heading.
With this tip (#4), adding nuts to your day is a fantastic ‘snack’ option. Like I have mentioned in a previous blog, ‘snack’ does not need to be a euphemism for junk food. Snacking can be healthy too and should be encouraged for many good reasons.
What do you need to do?
Eat nuts but don’t go nuts on it!
All you need is a handful. Actually, we all have different size hands so I will be more specific – eat less than or equal to 30g of nuts. Some good nuts to choose from include: walnuts, almonds, cashews, peanuts and macadamias.
Quick snacks on the run should still ideally provide high-quality protein with a controlled amount of carbohydrate. This handful roughly provides between 4g and 7g of Protein and Carbohydrates and vary from nut to nut.
Time taken to perform this Tip # 4 in the mornings is approximately 1 minute. Yep, only 60 seconds. So, the running total for the 4 tips so far is approximately equal to 11 minutes. Eleven minutes out of your busy day!
Just to eat right.
A good snack. Berries are a wonderfully tasteful treat.
Good Fats.
My aim is to show you how my Top Ten Tips to eating right should take you less than 30 minutes of your day. Why is this eating tip worth your time and of great value to your body, you may ask?
Well, it provides ‘good fats’ to your body. Yep, not all fats are ‘bad’, but you know that. Your body needs fats to survive and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. There are some vital minerals and vitamins that are fat soluble only.
For example, vitamins A, D, E and K are some such vitamins. So, these essential vitamins are only assimilated in to your body as nutrients in the presence of fat.
Even for those of you reading this blog that have started or are planning to commence your ‘get fit for summer’ training program, understand that losing fat is assisted when you provide the body with fat. Good fats, that is.
That’s correct – you need fat to burn fat!
Good fats provide many benefits such as omega – 3 fatty acids that elevates good cholesterol or High Density lipo-proteins (HDL). Why is this important? Well, this lowers your risk of heart disease as blood is more malleable, that is, blood is made thinner, hence flows better to keep you alive.
Good fats from nuts also provide joint protection. This is vital for those of you who work out in the gym with weights – like me. Having nuts in your diet allows better recuperation for inflamed joints, stiffness and swelling. You’ve got to be nuts not to include them in your diet after reading this.
It should also be noted that these good fats are found in cold water fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel and plant-based foods such as flaxseeds and soyabeans. Reach out and grab them and add these sources to your diet.
To dig deep, you have to dig deep.
Nuts come in many sizes.
The average person does not eat adequate daily amounts of these good fats, probably less than 1g per day. Carrying around two or three servings of nuts with you in your busy day does not take much time to consider and provides great value to your body, mind and vitality.
Nuts come in many sizes but are essentially small and convenient enough to eat ‘on the run’. Here’s an old Uni riddle: What do you call nuts on a wall? Yep, walnuts. So go for walnuts. There’s no excuse!
We’re on track to prove that Eating right actually takes less time than you think. So far, a grand total of 11 minutes out of your day to apply my Top Four of my Top Ten Tips to get you in Tip-Top Shape this summer.
You’re now Aware. Apply Action. Adapt accordingly.
My Triple A philosophy to self-development.
Thank you for reading.
Until next time,
Do you strive to better yourself in every way? Are you a Leader?
In my experience, eating right can actually save you time. Save you, life.
It is winter in this part of the world (I’m live in the beautiful city of Sydney, Australia). Stop, project less than 12 weeks from now, when the next season arrives – ahhh, Spring. Picture this: people are getting out their spring/summer clothes from the cupboards and are feeling a little down because they can’t squeeze in to them like they remembered they did last year. It can be quite de-motivating for some.
Maybe , you’re in that spot of bother right now?
In this first blog of an 8.5 Reasons why Eating RIGHT should not take too much of your time.
My Tip # 1: Never Skip Breakfast!
In one of my earlier blogs, I state that imagination is key to the achievement of any worthwhile goal or goal you place value on . So, if achieving a more sculptured (tonned body) is what you desire you need to learn to use your imagination.
Yes, use your imagination to visualize (now) how you would like to look by summer. This is a very important step – ‘seeing’ yourself as you imagine yourself to be. Having a clear understanding of your destination (refer to earlier blog: “Don’t be a rudderless ship”).
The more vivid the picture of your destination is in your mind and the more it connects with your heart, the more drive and focus you will muster.
Champions practise a lot of visualisation and simulation. To create magic, you need to fuse the worlds of sanity (where you are) with insanity (where you dream/imagine you are, before you are). That is difficult. That is one of the key keys. Don’t stop. Trying. Believing. Keep on … keeping on. You’ll get there. Everyone always does. Especially, if you do it with your heart. and …. with LOVE.
And, with the help of “Coach Mo” (incidentally, that little voice on your shoulder, we can call Coach “Mo”) to start your steam train again …. Hoot … hoot … slowly towards your goal). Just like a steam-train, getting started in your body transformation goals, getting those wheels cranking at the beginning of the journey is the difficult part.
But when you pick up [Mo]mentum (Coach Mo), you, just like that steam train can smash through whatever obstacles that lay in your path. To smithereens! Because you have Big Mo (momentum) on your side.
Here we go again.
Its easy to put off things, to procrastinate. Don’t. Don’t leave it for September, it will be too late. That’s when the majority of people start panicking and joining gyms. Start now. Find your plan (or get help from the relevant professional) and work your plan. You don’t want Spring and then Summer time and Christmas to roll around and you not feel happy about the way you look in you clothes, now, do you? Or you can just buy bigger clothes to hide it all.
Up to you.
You’re the Captain of your ship through the seas of Life. Set you goal towards being your BEST and put a quality plan in place (includes your health & overall well-being) and set sail … Towards your destination.
Making better use of the 86,400 seconds given to us every day
I have said this before: no matter what your exercise goals are, eating healthy (well-compositioned meals), can help you achieve them faster.
And right now, time is ticking and time is your friend as we have just started Winter and have a little under 10 weeks to Spring. But, the question you’re probably thinking is how are you supposed to spend time preparing healthier meals. You barely have enough time to hit the weights, how are you realistically supposed to find time to watch what hits your plate? Right, I hear you …. that is why I wrote this blog to convince you to help you, help yourself more effectively.
Eating right is actually easier than you think.
How so?
Well, in my more than two decades in the health and fitness industry and helping hundreds of people around the world. It is one truth I have discovered. They have learned that, too. You can save more of your life. Here’s how …
I believe that spending a few minutes a day making the right decisions about your nutrition could save you from spending twice the time in the gym or four times as much time on the treadmill or aerobics. How so, Paul, you may be asking? I don’t have the time, you may say!
I argue that it typically takes less time to prepare a healthier meal than it does to work off the extra calories you would eat if you didn’t spend time watching your diet.Makes sense? Yes, it does!
Think about it.
You have 86,400 seconds of your life everyday to live, the way you choose to. But, my question is why would you spend more of those seconds sweating and exercising (and for many enthusiasts doing group classes – smelling intense body odour in small bacteria-infested rooms).
I pity these folks and their poor, poor nostrils. If you do like it, God bless you. Applying my tips could mean you spend less time doing those classes. Smelling those arm-pits. That would be good for you and your nostrils, wouldn’t it? Also, I see so many people lining up outside cafes and stressing about what they are going to have for lunch. How about I say, we take that wastage of time and thought pattern with my tip here?
Achieving a well-balanced physique should be understood for what it is: a masterful fusion of art and science. One should improve once’s “BODY Smart”knowledge. this takes time and deliberate practise.
Your daily eating habits
Ok, it isn’t always easy predicting how much time you’re going to have each day to pay attention to your nutritional habits. It isn’t easy. I realise that. Still, there is a smarter way you can make sure you’re getting the most from what ever number of seconds you can use each day.
What if I told you that there are ways to change your daily eating habits without making major sacrifices in your diet. What are you thinking now? For many people, they have tried everything, and ‘nothing works’ is a common frustration. What if I told you that these changes are very real and can be implemented in to your “all-day” eating routine. And the great thing is that you could implement these changes anytime you wanted to?
In the next series of blogs, I will be sharing with you my top 8.5 tips to successfully making changes to your daily eating habits with sustainability in mind. Changes that you can sustain forever. These Valentine Top 8.5 Tipsonly takes a few hundred seconds (a few minutes) to master, but I believe, when implemented, they can take months of unnecessary hard work off your schedule, provided you follow them each day.
This is the real challenge for you:Unlearning old habits that are not aligned with your new, ‘imagined self’ and learning these new habits, my Top 10 tips. Successful change is and can only be brought about through improvement in your self-regulatory behaviour . This is heavily dependent on the power of your imagination.
Changing habits – releasing bad eating habits and adopting some good ones is like facing an internal Predator. You need to ‘face the Lion’ within you. Having a conversation with a lion.
Spring/Summer/Christmas?New Year, here you come – You, only better!
How much time do you have a day to apply these tips?
How much time can you spare? Can you spare 30 minutes in your day or 1800 seconds of your 86,400 seconds? We will do a little maths exercise and count the amount of time each of these tips will take out of your day, starting with Tip # 1 in this blog. Doing all 8.5 of my tips would take less than 30 minutes tops each day. Yet they can give you everything you need to maintain a balanced diet. That’s not much time, is it?
Can you allocate that time to YOU? Simply because your life is important and you would like to do everything you can to not only add years to your life but more importantly, add Life in to your years.
It’s going to save you spending your valuable life, your valuable seconds, thinking and exercising unnecessarily to undo what you unknowingly – did in the first place!
How good is that?!
These tips are not meant to create more stress in your life, it is meant to help make your life a bit more manageable, a little less stressful, when it comes to eating a balanced diet with sustainability in mind. It is about making the best of whatever time you have. Allow me to show you how.
My Top 8.5 Tips will cover all main meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks in-between. We will begin with the first meal of the day – breakfast. So, I will go through your day, from sunrise to sun-set and piece together a sustainable, efficient and effective schedule for melting off fat, building muscle and having increased daily energy towards reshaping your body, not tomorrow or next week.
Right now.
Spring/Summer/Christmas/New Year’s here you come. You – only better!
Sunrise – you rise.
Education through a perception of the truth. Increasing your awareness, taking sufficient and appropriate actions and adapting accordingly is key towards self-improvement. Funny thing is that the process also applies to relationships and response. In the photo, Former Australian Wallaby Captain listening intently to learn key principles of my philosophy in to being your BEST, ALL the time, not some of the time. Great student. Great Champion. Great friend. Vv
Tip #1: DO NOT Skip Breakfast.
It should consist of a mix of the 3 basic macro-nutrients: carbohydrates (oats), protein (eggs – 3 eggs/1 yolk) and a little fat (avocado, peanut butter, almonds).
Estimated time spent: < 5 minutes.
Why not skip Breakfast, you may be thinking?
It is one of the best advice our parents and grandparents have given us when we were children. Missing this very important meal creates more hunger later on and increases your risk of ‘bingeing’ and taking in more calories than you truly need in later meals. With no food in your stomach, your body’s response is to take in whatever calories you ate the night before – and whatever you eat later on and … bingeing at lunch and like many reading this – at dinner. Just before bed.
Result? Guess what? All these ‘extras’ TURNS INTO UNWANTED BODY FAT!
Yes, around the gut ( as some call a ‘spare tyre’) for most men out there after they turn 30 and deposits around the butt and legs for the ladies. Very de-motivating indeed. Not exactly what you want, is it?
So, I insist, make this first tip if you’re skipping breakfast a part of you life. Make it your first habit to master: take 4 minutes when you wake up and eat a meal for breakfast but make sure that it combines all macro-nutrients. You will get sustainable energy all day long and lower your desire for extra calories from other food to provide energy later.
This is a very good rule of thumb you should apply for every meal during your day. Ask yourself – do I have a good mix of carbs, protein and a little fat.
Use what I’ve told all my past customers – my “eyeball method” or ‘I see with my two eyes’ method. Look at your plate, ensure the macro-nutrients take up space on the plate in this ratio:
P:C:F = 0.4:0.5: 0.10. ( where P = Protein; C = Carbohydrates; F = Fats)
Steve Reeves was a Master Poser. He imagined and built the Best Built & Aesthetically beautiful body in the world through synergistic awareness. He understood that optimum health of body & mind required the fusion of art and science. Become a scientific artist of YOU … of your life.
Homework: Lets keep adding the time needed to apply each tip I share in successive blogs and see if it requires you to spend less than half an hour of your day.
Let me prove to you using numbers (minutes spent) that Eating right actually takes less time than you think over the next month or so. Let you in on a secret: I love Physics and Mathematics. They were my first majors in my first University Degree almost 30 years ago now.
Let me show you how these little but significant 8.5 Tips can and will encourage an optimum environment that is a fusion of art and science, allowing for Synergy. This synergism is KEY: it is in the combining of the elements that creates a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Repeat. Make it habit. Make this one change. Repeatedly, with enhanced self-regulatory behavioural change. Repeat.
Believe.
My triple A approach to the development of Self.
Ahoy & all the very BEST… allow me to guide you through my Top 8.5 Tips over the next few weeks.
Cheers & ahoy!
The old Captain Viking Pirate …. & Life Tips
SYNERGISM: The Critical Mind-set to success. Understanding that it is in the combination of key elements to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Create the BEST you firstly, through 1) Education and then 2) motivation.
Changing lives. Empowering people. One life at a time. 
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