health | - Part 3

December 29, 2012

Reconciling Health Practice and Real Life

DaoistHealth — Link to Article on www.wudanggongfu.com

I am back! I have been back in Maryland enjoying the comforts of home for about a week and a half. As with every time I come home, I have been dealing with the challenge of balancing two conflicting urges. One urge is the desire to maintain the healthy lifestyle I have in Wudang. The other impulse it to abandon myself to the rhythm of life here at home.

It is always amazing to me just how difficult this balance is to achieve. Life at home generally means eating too much of the wrong foods, drinking too much, and staying up too late at night. But it is REALLY hard to relax and enjoy friends and family while remaining aloof from the unhealthy behaviors.

In this way, I think I am much in the same boat we all are in during the holidays: we want to indulge because that is the tradition of celebration, but we know that at some point soon we will have to do something to correct the holiday excess.

This is the frame of mind I was in when I read an article my Master wrote last month. He explained to my class his thoughts when writing it. Shifu believes strongly in Daoist methods and their ability to improve people’s lives. But he was concerned because only a few people, like myself, were able or willing to come to Wudang for a long time and learn the techniques. So he wanted to distill the most fundamental part of our health practice and provide it in a more accessible curriculum.

That is how this article and the associated course came to be. Reading it myself, a lot of the “why” information was new to me, but the benefits and methods themselves were familiar: this is how Shifu has taught us to live while we are training. I have been learning this by living it for the last few years. But this article is meant to reach out from traditional Daoist methods and appeal to the more analytical western mind. As a bridge, it may seem a little strange to those standing on either shore, but take a look.

I hope people will consider Shifu’s ideas carefully. Even if you can’t picture yourself hopping on an airplane bound for China in April, I think the article contains insights into healthy living that people in our crazy world need to have.

Link to Shifu’s Article: http://www.wudanggongfu.com/kungfu/2013.html

November 14, 2012

The Fruit of Three Years

As of September this year, I have been training intensively in Wudang for three years. Full time training is such a luxury in one sense and such a burden in another. The opportunity to devote myself entirely to getting stronger mentally, physically, and spiritually is very rare and precious. However, everyday training quickly becomes like anything else — commonplace. It is easy to forget how lucky I am to be here doing what I am doing, and think only about the things I have given up in my devotion to this lifestyle. There are times when it seems I have given three years of my life, lost time with my family, spent all my money, and put normal growing up on hold for so long, all in exchange for just one thing to which it is much harder to assign value.

This past week has been a blessing in that respect. My master and many of my classmates went to Huangshan to the Fifth International Traditional Wushu Competition. I could not afford to go, so I had a week of much lighter training here at the school. It was a wonderful break after the past month plus, which has been filled with other performances and competitions. These are stressful because if there is a value in studying traditional martial arts, gold medals and looking good on a stage are not it. But in addition to a rest, my quiet week has reminded me of the treasures training has brought me.

For one thing, though the progress has been excruciating, I am indeed physically stronger than I was. And I have learned the value and the nature of hard work. For many years of my martial training, I watched those better than me with envy and despair. They made things look so easy. But three years of grinding repetition has made some things easy for me now. And I understand what it will take to reach the goals still before me; more work, sweat, grinding repetition, and above all, time.

Also, for much of the three years, Master has been pushing us to take more responsibility for our health. For years this frustrated me. It seemed like common sense to me that if I was exposed to a strain of cold virus to which my body had not developed immunity, I would get sick. Nothing I could do — just science, cause, and effect. Basic microbiology. How could I take responsibility for something like that? But this week I got a cold, and I knew even before I showed any symptom that I had slipped up and with my behavior undermined my own immune system. And I realized that for a long time now I have been using sensitivity I have learned here to monitor my body and do what I needed to do to stay strong and not get sick. And it had been a long, long time since the last time I was.

These are just what I’ve been thinking about this week, hard work and responsibility. I am sure there are other things I have also learned. S0, my three years in Wudang have not been entirely fruitless 🙂

June 15, 2012

Fathers Day Message: Check Your Blood Pressure

Fathers Day is this weekend – and the question I have for all the fathers in our community is, “How is your health?” Let’s start with a simple measure of health and that is your blood pressure. Did you know that 1 in 3 adults has high blood pressure and does not know it? It may not be obvious at first that your blood pressure is raised above what is considered healthy, but left untreated the damage can be very serious.

77 % of Americans treated for a first stroke have blood pressure over 140/90
69% of Americans who have a first heart attack have blood pressure over 140/90
74% of Americans with congestive heart failure have blood pressure over 140/90

High blood pressure can lead to many other health issues too and no one is too young to be checking on their blood pressure, as some very simple changes can make a difference.

Dad’s on this weekend when your children and your spouses are praising you for all you do – do something for them and yourself – Get Your Blood Pressure Checked. You can do it at the drugstore or your doctors office – just do it. If it is over 120/80 then you are in at the very least a prehypertension category and need to take action NOW, for the sake of you and your family.

Want to learn more? Check out this link to the American Heart Association

January 24, 2012

Fast Food: Should We or Our Children EVER Eat This?

This photo and comment is from a friend of mine that I believe says a great deal about what we eat and allow our children to eat.

What does this picture tell you? My doctor has had this “processed food” on her counter ever since 2010 and 2011 respectively. I asked her why she had it out, she stated “to show people what they are putting into their bodies”. This is man-made “processed food”, not real food. Over time real food will decay, grow mold and produce a decomposing odor. This “processed food” has not done any of that, matter of fact it has kept it’s original size, shape and texture. Your body has to work harder to breakdown and digest this stuff over real food. Since I’ve seen this, I have not had any fast food.

Will you promote good health and stop eating fast food, processed food or anything that is not good for your health?

January 23, 2012

Eating Healthy in the New Year

Teaching Children Life Skills — Teaching character and life skills to students

Want to eat more healthy? Try some of these suggestions of things to eliminate from your diet or at least severely reduce to almost never eating.

1. Soda – yes that includes “diet” soda too. Too much sugar and chemicals. Artificial sweeteners are chemicals too that still fakes your body into releasing insulin and store fat.

2. Bread / gluten – your digestive system does not process these foods in an efficient manner, they easily pile on the calories without much nutritional value. (slow down on the pasta, white rice etc..)

3. Sugar – It is addictive and the more you eat the more you want.

4. Alcohol – ill effects on your liver, sugar content is high, and beer high in gluten. Then there is the toxic nature of alcohol in general.

5. Dairy – Unless you are under the age of 2 your body does not have the tools to process the lactose.

6. Meat – Reduce or eliminate will help your digestive system.

Bottom line: The way most Americans eat is 60% processed foods, 30% meat, 5% potatoes/rice and 5% vegetables. Think about going a different route. How about 60-70% vegetables, 20-30% meat and 10% fats (nuts, seeds avocados etc..) Or even better reduce meat to 0% and focus on water based / plant based foods.

We have noted previously that our body is 70% water and so we need to eat foods that replace that water naturally. Want to be more healthy, lose weight and have much more energy – EAT HEALTHY.

January 17, 2012

Life Skills: Health – Why We Should Avoid Processed Meats

Pancreatic cancer affects roughly 1 in 65 men and women. Luciano Pavaraotti, Patrick Swayze, Chief Justice Ruth Ginsburg, and Steve Jobs all lost their life from pancreatic cancer. In the last week it was reported by the “respected” Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, as saying that eating 1.8 ounces of processed meat every day — the equivalent to one sausage or two rashers of bacon — increases the risk by 19 percent, and the risk goes up if a person eats more.

In regard to the risks for pancreatic cancer smoking is one of the worst, increasing the chance of this deadly disease by 74 percent. But even eating 100g a day of processed meat ( a small burger) increases the risk by 38% while 150g a day raises it by 57 percent.

Looking at what we eat is important for our health. We have just completed the holiday season when many of us do not eat in our normal fashion. But now is a good time to revisit our eating habits and make adjustments to better our health, short term and long term.