Time Flies When...

OK, I am aware of the irony. I am writing a post entitled "Time Flies When..." on the first day after we set the clocks ahead one hour (well, at least in most of America) thanks to daylight savings time. However, as it has been several months since I last updated this blog (7 months to the day) the concept of time flying just seems to be a fitting title. (Song: "Time" - Pink Floyd)

As of the last post, I was producing two internet radio shows. Well, due to several factors, I am no longer.

As well, I was working as an intern for one of Hartford's radio stations, The Rock 106.9 WCCC. Well, I am still with WCCC, but in a different capacity. I am now officially employed! I am only part time (about 10-15 hours per week), but part of my duties include being the board operator on Friday mornings from 6-10 am during the 'Imus in the Morning' show. I have to coordinate the satellite feed with the local commercial spots as well as read the news, weather, and traffic on WCCC's AM station, WCCC AM 1290 Beethoven Radio.

Also in the last post, I mentioned that we were in pre-production of ConnecTV, the first television show produced entirely by graduates of the Connecticut School of Broadcasting. We now have four shows completed and airing on a regular basis over several cable access outlets across Connecticut. The show can also be seen on the internet at our Vimeo channel.

Time definitely flies...

Today, I renewed my commitment to The Maker's Diet. While I have been mostly following the guidelines of the diet, I haven't always been terribly strict. Well, I went back to phase one. I was really happy with the results of my first attempt to follow the Maker's Diet and I am hoping to to further improve  my health by returning to the basics.

My day started with a push ups workout. I have been following the program detailed on hundredpushups.com for the last couple of weeks. I have been pretty happy with the results so far.
I followed the workout with my daily dose of VIDACELL. This would be the only food that, while truly natural, might not truly qualify for the Maker's Diet guidelines. The benefits far outweigh what might be consequences for breaking the 'rules.'
Breakfast consisted of a 3 egg omelet made with free range eggs, raw cheese, and organic salsa. I also supplemented with Vitamin D.
After suitable time for digestion, I used a free pass to go to the YMCA and get another workout. This time, I spent 35 minutes on the elliptical machine. According to the calorie counter, I burned almost 400 calories. I also spent some time doing some resistance exercise - mostly to complement the push ups, I concentrated on back exercises.
Upon returning home, my wife and daughters were just leaving for a walk in the amazing weather, so I put the leash on Ginger and joined them!
The rest of my daily food consumption consisted of plain yogurt and a homemade lentil soup with lots of veggies.

A-Z Challenge - 'W'

Today's topic for the A-Z challenge is 'walking.' Since the onset of my symptoms, something as simple as walking has often been a struggle for me - though considerably less of an issue now than even one year ago.

I was admitted to the hospital in September of 2006 when I attempted to walk a short distance from the courthouse in Middletown to Russell Library - a grand total of 0.2 miles, though with a slight incline. I experienced an extreme shortness of breath and barely made it. Prior to that, walking in a straight line without some sort of support was an issue.
In the hospital, I was immediately put on a corticosteroid similar to prednisone and issued a pair of red socks - the steroid was used to reduce swelling and the socks indicated that I was not allowed to walk without assistance (they were afraid that I would fall and hurt myself).
The prednisone-like steroid caused me to gain a lot of weight over the almost 5 months that I was taking it. While steroid helped me in one aspect, it hurt me in other aspects. After coming off of it, I had odd issues - super-sensitive teeth, no appetite at all (just the smell of food made me sick) - in addition to the problems that go along with obesity.

Prior to October 2008 (you may recall from previous posts that this is when I started taking VIDACELL), my walking was limited to flat surfaces with hand rails for support and then only for short periods. Grocery shopping with a shopping cart to lean on was a decent option. After October 2008, walking became a regular part of my journey to wellness.

Walking for fitness and walking for mobility are two different entities yet very similar. The first is something that we all should do more often yet it seems like a chore for many of us. The second is something that we easily take for granted.

Take It To The Limit

One thing about recovery, whether it be from an accident, surgery, or disease, is that you need to constantly - but within reason - push the limits of your abilities.  Really, you have two paths that you can choose to follow.  On one side, you have the path of least resistance.  Following this path means that you accept your limitations and essentially give up the fight.  On the other side, you have the path to recovery.  This path is much more tiring to follow.  It entails physical activity - using your body in a way that will take it to the limit of your endurance (and, of course, the title of this post refers to the song from the Eagles, Take It To The Limit).

This week has been a relatively busy one, but today I pretty much ran into a brick wall.  Let me recap a bit...

• Last Wednesday, I took Ginger for a fairly substantial walk.  I already talked about that in my last post, so I won't repeat myself here except to mention it as the beginning of this recent flurry of activity.
• Thursday morning marked the first of ten weekly sessions at the YMCA for myself and the girls.  We have a group of homeschooling families that have secured one hour of pool time at the Y.  I didn't swim last week but I went with the girls to let them have some fun in the pool.  I will be swimming with them tomorrow, though!
• On Friday, we hopped in the car and drove to New Jersey - just over the NY border.  We stayed the night in a hotel so we could be up and out to a Renaissance fair on Saturday.  After we arrived at our hotel, we unpacked, unwound, and hopped back into the car to head to the Palisades Center Mall.  This mall is huge at four stories tall.  Normally, we would visit the food court for a meal, but this year we packed food, so this was merely a shopping/walking visit.  We spent about 2 hours walking the mall until finally heading back to the hotel.
• Saturday was spent at the NY Renaissance Faire.  This meant a lot more walking for me.  I fortunately had the insight to buy a pair of gel insoles for my boots!  I have a really nice pair of Minnetonka moccasin boots that I wear as part of my ren faire garb.  The only down side is that, even though these have a harder sole than your average moccasin, I still feel every little rock that I step on.  For my feet with the constant pins and needles I feel, it can be unbearable.  The insoles made all the difference!
• Sunday really was a day of rest!  I was beat!  Even with the insoles, my feet were protesting any sort of real activity.  We did, however, go grocery shopping.  So I still got some walking in.
• Monday found us with Ginger at the dog park in the neighboring town to let her get some quality, outdoor, off-leash time.  The park is set back in the woods.  It isn't much of a walk to get to, but it still takes a little effort.  There were several dogs and their people at the park and Ginger had a blast!  As well, we took a trip to Lyman's Orchards to pick some more apples.  We came home with about 10 pounds of apples - gala, empire, and Cortland.  We were just going to buy some apples at the grocery store, but would have only gotten about 10 apples for $11.00!  We go through at least 12 apples per week, so that wasn't working for us.  At Lyman's we saved $0.59 per pound off of the grocery store price and we got to pick them ourselves.  On top of that, the individual apples are smaller so portion control is a lot better.
• Tuesday was another relatively uneventful day.  Phew!

Today, the girls are all off at the homeschool co-op, so I once again have the day to myself.  I didn't sleep well last night, so the morning found me dozing off quite a bit after they left.  Around noon, I decided that it was time to do something!
We have a small garden out back that has been rather unfruitful this year.  The soil is just awful - mostly a rocky clay - but we have had varying degrees of success.  Tomato plants usually do quite well but even they struggled this year.  I was able to harvest my two whole peppers, though, so that's at least something.
My goal for today was to prepare a small, raised bed for next year's planting.  I had made three frames a couple of years ago for the same purpose, but we didn't implement it well and decided not to use them this year.  As a result, I have been using one of the frames to contain my compost pile - which is doing quite nicely.  I read up on using raised beds for vegetable gardens, and I really wanted to give it another shot.  So...out I went with shovel and cultivator in hand to prepare a raised bed.
I started loosening up the soil and clearing it of weeds and rocks.  Somehow, no matter how well you clear out the rocks, they always seem to work their way back in to the garden!  After clearing a sufficient space for the frame - about 2' by 3' - I started to dig down about 6 inches, moving the soil into a pile.  I continued to encounter some really big rocks!  After placing the frame around my newly dug hole, I needed to level do a little more excavation so that the hole was as big as the frame.  I then lined the bottom of the hole with a weed barrier.  Raised bed farming is not supposed to require a weed barrier due to the fact that the plants are placed in such a way as to limit weed growth.  I figured that it couldn't hurt, though.  We had purchased a weed barrier made from recycled materials and is even eco-friendly.  Next came the refilling of the hole.  Along with the frames, I had also built a sifting frame.  This is simply a frame of 2x4's with a screen attached to sift smaller rocks out of the soil.  Setting the frame in the hole, I scooped a couple of shovels of dirt into it and sifted the soil right into the hole.  This meant a lot of bending and lifting for me and it is where I reached my limit of physical activity.  After about 8 or 10 rounds of shoveling and sifting, I was about done.  I began feeling a bit dizzy and nauseous after each round - each 'round' consisting of: shoveling dirt into the frame, bending to lift the frame but keeping it close to the ground, shaking the frame to sift the soil, and finally standing and dumping the rocks out.  I continued to sift more soil until the weed barrier was completely covered but not even close to filling the hole back up.  It didn't matter, though...I had nothing left.  One more round of sifting probably would have done me in.

I plan to revisit my currently-sunken raised bed within the next couple of days.  I really want to get the dirt that I removed from the hole sifted and returned to it soon.  I also need to establish a second compost pile so I can let the current one finish decomposing so that I can add the compost to the planting bed.  If I keep adding to it, it will never be ready for use.  I will eventually add more soil and compost to fill the hole and the frame thus creating the 'raised' bed.  This will result in depth of about 12 inches of sifted soil/compost for the plants to grow in.  Hopefully that will give them adequate space for the roots and will result in a much better harvest than we had this year.

Time Is On My Side

Yes it is!  Time Is On My Side - Rolling Stones.  Well, I was down to my last packet of VidaCell this morning.  I thought I had more than enough so that I wouldn't run out before getting my next order.  As such, I decided to give a couple packets to a friend to see if she might be interested in using it.  As well, I started adding a little bit to my dog's food every morning - not a full packet, but about 1/4 of one.  As such, I ended up going through my supply quite a bit faster.  My regular auto-ship order processes on the 5th of the month - which happened to be Labor Day this month.  I was not expecting to get my order for another couple of days due to the holiday.  To my surprise, it arrived today!  Not that I would have trouble missing a day or two, but it is really nice that I don't have to.

Recently, another article was published regarding an athlete and VidaCell.  I wanted to reprint that article for you here.  Similar to Clint Musser, Nick Marinos is a MMA fighter.  VidaCell has become a regular part of his daily regimen.  Here is that article:

“Tricky” Nick Marinos is Ready to Rumble

Nick Marinos

The name “Tricky Nick” may not inspire fear in the average person – that is until they get an eyeful of Nick Marinos as he enters the ring to the sound of a deafening cheering crowd. Make no mistake about it, this Canadian-born MMA fighter is all about bringing his opponent down. With a masterful combination of unexpected kicks, strikes and good old fashioned freestyle slams, Marinos has proven time and again that he can live up to his nickname.
With GreatLife International as one of Nick’s sponsors, victories by KO are now the “modus operandi” for this 36-year old Battlefield MMA fighter. “Training daily at Vancouver’s elite Raw Academy gives Nick a great advantage over his opponents,” said Mike Hammoud, Marinos’ manager. “And, the ability to recover overnight and then train again the next day is a direct result of the phenomenal benefits of VIDACELL!
This ‘super powder’ enables him to train longer and harder than any of his competitors.” October 2nd marks the date for Nick’s next fight where he’ll enter the cage at the Pinnacle Hotel in North Vancouver for his toughest challenge yet. With a current 3-1 record, he’s working hard to make it 4-1 in front of his hometown fans.
GreatLife International is proud to sponsor such a talented young athlete as Nick Marinos and to have VIDACELL as part of his daily training regimen. Our congratulations on his wins!
We look forward to watching his MMA career as he fights again in October.

 I have only watched a couple of MMA events that happened to be on aired on NBC.  My neighbor is actually a trained MMA fighter - though he has had some health issues due to his being hit by a car.  I think, though, that with Clint Musser and Nick Marinos being sponsored by GreatLife International I just may try to catch some more events.

The 'Boxer'

So, it might be a stretch, but I don't know any songs that are about Mixed Martial Arts.  As a result, I chose to relate this post to Simon and Garfunkel's 'The Boxer.'  I suppose that I could have chosen Carl Douglas' 'Kung Fu Fighting' but it doesn't quite fit, either.
Anyway, for a change of pace, I wanted to post a recent article about an athlete that uses VidaCell. While I already know from first-hand experience that VidaCell is beneficial in fighting disease, here is some evidence that it is also a great for athletes. In other words, it is not just for the sick and aging but for healthy people, too!

July 1, 2010

Taking ‘em to the mat with VIDACELL

If you were to meet Clint Musser on the street, you would never imagine that he’s one of the country’s best Ultimate Fighters. Barefoot on a wrestling mat, he stands a stocky five-foot-seven and weighs in at just 155 pounds. Don’t be fooled by his size, however. Behind his affable smile is one of the most decorated and accomplished wrestlers in the history of Ohio wrestling with a physique that could have been “ripped” from the cover of “Ultimate MMA” magazine. Three times Ohio State Champion Wrestler and two times NCAA All-American at Penn State is just the beginning of his long list of winning accomplishments.
Clint’s move earlier this year into the MMA* (Mixed Martial Arts or Ultimate Fighting) gave him the career boost that he had been planning for some time. Ultimate fighting is one of the hottest sports in the world today and promises to give Clint the exposure needed to advance his career to a new level.
At age thirty-four, he was also searching for a natural energy boost and performance enhancement that would give him both the fastest muscle recovery time and an advantage over the younger more agile fighters. With the help of a GreatLife independent distributor, he found both in VIDACELL. “It’s worked so well for me that I just had to have GreatLife as one of my sponsors,” said Musser. “I must have wasted thousands of dollars on protein powders and creatine that only made me bloated and more fatigued. With VIDACELL, I’m able to maximize my training time and endurance level which gives me that extra advantage in the ring.”
Extremely strong for his weight, the hard punching Musser has two big wins this year and appears to be ready to move on to the next stage of his game plan. The next six months will be very important for Clint as he sets out to win the National Lightweight Title Belt. Congratulations Clint, for your tremendous success in the ring and with VIDACELL!


* With its roots in the ancient Olympic Games dating back to 776 BC, Mixed Martial Arts has grown from a violent curiosity into an exciting combative sport that now transcends many world cultures. Its popularity throughout the world gives promise for MMA becoming part of the modern Olympic Games creating a new goal for Clint’s fighting career.


PHOTOS:  Top - Clint Musser is declared the winner against Mike “Irish Hatred” McDonald after putting him into a Guillotine Choke hold at NAAFS Midwest Combat Challenge 11.


Bottom - Musser displays his solid striking skills, however, he’s most known for his Guillotine Choke prowess. Clint tends to win his bouts by stoppage via submission, something that he’s quite proud of.

You may or may not know that I am a distributor of VIDACELL.  I have started another blog for the purpose of talking about the business opportunity behind the product.  While it would fit in to my original plan with this blog - my journey to physical, spiritual, and financial wellness - I don't want to muddy this blog with recruiting messages and such.  So, if you are interested in reading more about GreatLife International and the VidaCell business opportunity, please visit my other blog.  I will continue to post my personal health progress along with articles similar to the one above on this blog.