Dr. Andrew Weil and Boris's Liver

About 11 years ago, just by a complete stroke of luck, I happened upon Andrew Weil's book, "8 Weeks To Optimum Health". Boris was struggling with a team of doctors who, for 15 years, had been mystified over his increasingly problematic liver. The docs were at the point of putting him on a highly toxic drug (Prednisone) with little hope that it would actually fix his problem and simultaneously putting him on a list for a liver transplant! In desperation, I went to the bookstore and looked for anything I could find about liver function and liver health (this was before we had internet). I found several great books, but Dr. Weil's book, as well as another book of his called "Natural Health, Natural Medicine", turned out to have most of my answers. Within 6 weeks, a 15-year long health saga was completely over and Boris now lives with his own liver that Thor or Tarzan or even Zeus himself would envy (yeah!). Since that time, I've read everything I could find that Dr. Weil has written as well as works he's recommended from other doctors and scientists. It was the beginning of a brand new path of thinking for me.

The thing about Dr. Weil that is so great is that he's just so incredibly intelligent, curious, and open-minded. He's not interested in following any one particular line of thinking, or in simply enhancing his own image. He just wants to find out what works. So he researches Eastern, Western, whatever kind of medicine, looks for the sound science behind it, and makes his recommendations. He's one of the great thinkers of our time. His website is amazing in its helpfulness and accessibility.

Dr. Weil attended both college and medical school at Harvard University. He is the founder and Program Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (formerly the Program in Integrative Medicine), which he started in 1994 at the University of Arizona.

Four people you should know about

I got hooked on learning about mind/body issues back when I was competing in bodybuilding (1984-1989) and have only gotten more and more interested in this passion of mind through the years. As anyone well knows, there are many experts on the subject whose work I've read who have great things to say, but, at this time, four people's work stand out in my mind as Super Supreme, and they are Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Steven Gurgevich, Dr. John Sarno, and Dr. Candace Pert. I'm going to write a separate post for each one of them so that I can tell you why I feel so strongly about their work.
In the meantime, I think we should build a new Mt. Rushmore of Health and Fitness and have these four people's images carved into a mountainside!

Create your perfect breakfast

I think the two most important things to consider in deciding how to design your breakfast are:

1. Make sure you're having some of each of the following:
protein (Ezekiel cereal or toast, eggs, lowfat or nonfat milk or other dairy products, or tofu are good choices),
complex carbohydrates (note the word complex! That means nothing made with sugar or white flour or any other refined grains),
fiber (whole grain, fruit, vegetable),
some healthy fat (as from nuts or eggs),
and some "water food" (juicy fruit or vegetable)
as well as some water (tea or coffee).

2. What kind of mood are you in? Are you feeling slow and want to pick yourself up? In that case, a good choice might be some eggs and a piece of fruit or steamed vegetables. Good beverage choices would be tea or coffee or even a nice glass of cool (not cold) water.
Are you feeling like you need to be soothed? Try some cooked Irish oatmeal or other whole grain hot cereal with fruit on top. Have some tea with cinnamon or other warm spices.
Are you already tranquil and balanced and want to stay that way? I'd have our usual breakfast cereal mix.
It's important to check in with your emotional state so that you can make any adjustments that are necessary. Your choice of breakfast music is also important for setting your speed for the morning. For some reason, when it's first thing in the morning, I only like instrumental music. Songs with words make me nervous in the morning. Go figure!

Some things that are a bad idea for every day are bagels (too densely packed with carbohydrates), muffins and pastries, fatty meats (sausage, bacon, etc.), butter, syrup, jams and jellies made with sugar, and cereals made with refined flour or sugar. I don't recommend imitation meats like soy sausage, etc., if they contain the ingredient Soy Protein Isolate. It's a too-refined ingredient that takes a good thing (soy) and turns it into an artificial food that's really not good for you. Plus, fake meats usually have way too much sodium. Toast is great as long as you are sure that the bread is of really good quality whole grains. My favorite is Ezekiel bread--it's such a great complete food. Put some almond or peanut butter (or sliced avocado with tomato!) on your toast instead of butter.

Another factor to consider is how much time you have in the morning to make and eat breakfast. This should never be an excuse to limit your nutrition because you can always prepare something the night before or get up 10 minutes earlier.

Inspired To Go For A Run

Boris and I shot a bunch of pictures of horses for upcoming paintings at a nearby stable the other day and, once we were at home looking at our pictures on the computer, seeing this one made me feel compelled to drop everything, put on my running shoes, and go flying down the street. When we were shooting these pictures, you could see how much this horse loved the feeling of running. He would trot for a bit and then just take off. Inspiring for sure!

Are you at Comic Con?

If you are one of the 120,000 people (give or take a few) attending Comic Con, you're going to eventually get hungry and I HOPE you're not just going to grab a hot dog or something equally full of chemicals/devoid of nutrients!

Eating well while traveling is always a bit of a trick, but the best place to find food is at a grocery store. Not only will you save money, but you can actually find real food that will keep your energy up (something you need for sure at Comic Con!). Some good suggestions are trail mix (not granola, which is full of sugar), rice cakes with hummus or small pieces of good quality cheese, and fresh fruit (of course!). If you're lucky enough to find a supermarket with a salad bar, you've hit the jackpot. Just stay away from the salad dressing--most pre-made dressings are just more chemicals, fat, salt, and sugar. A little olive oil and some vinegar are not only tasty, but actually beneficial to your health. Vinegar boosts your fat-burning metabolism and also increases the good bacteria in your system (this does great things for your immune system!) and olive oil contributes to the healthy fats you need to break down nutrients.

Be sure to drink lots of water while you're traveling. I know it makes for more trips to the bathroom, but that's really healthier than temporarily shutting down your filtration/hydration system. Besides, every trip to the bathroom is more exercise! Yay for exercise!

Have fun, you lucky Comic Conners! Sorry we're not there--we miss you all!

Rebecca Guay

By now, you all know about the Illustration Master Class that Boris and I taught at a few weeks ago. And you're probably also familiar with the beautiful lady who is the driving force behind bringing the Master Class to reality, Rebecca Guay. I've always admired her art as well as her strong, graceful form and her background in classical ballet (not to mention that she's a sweetheart!), so I've asked her to answer a few questions to share with all of you!










Me: How does your background in ballet affect your paintings?
Rebecca: One of the things that dance really gave my was an attention to detail and an awareness of the small things that make a pose beautiful when things are done well or awkward if they are not.
There is such scrutiny to detail in dance- the perfection of the line, the gesture of the body that leads the viewer out into the visual space surrounding the dancer. My training is in ballet, and although my anatomy is is totally wrong to have ever been a dancer in any real way myself, I did get the opportunity during years of classes to pack my visual memory with the beautiful forms and lines of truly gifted people. If I cannot have that "line" myself in life, I can have it in my art.

Me: How does your background in ballet affect your fitness routine?
Rebecca: I think I have a really good sense of body awareness from ballet that helps immensely in doing weights and cardio- as well as really good balance and core strength for things like kickboxing, which I love.

Me: Is it difficult to keep your fitness/nutrition routine consistent when you're under the pressureof deadlines?
Rebecca: Yeah- I'm bad with sugar, especially under stress- it's a problem. I try to use TRUVIA ( a derivative of stevia)- but I fall off the wagon.
If I keep a lot of fruit around I'm better, the summer is better overall.

Me: I heard you had a cool fitness breakthrough recently (pullup). Can you
tell us how great that was and how ecstatic you were?
Rebecca: I've been doing a rotating weights/cardio/ weights/yoga/weights/cardio routine in the last three months that includes a lot of pull up and chin ups ( assisted mostly with a chair).
I've always had lean looking arms, but not strong arms, now I can actually do a pull up un-assisted- which seems like diddley squat to most people but makes me totally giddy!

Thanks Rebecca!

Back and Chest Poem

After doing a 35-minute cardio session on the StairMaster (which emphasizes a strength move for legs), I did an interesting back/chest workout today. It went like this: (one set each exercise)

Lateral cable pulldowns, 15 reps (back)
Seated cable rows, 15 reps (back)
Then,
Bench press, 15 reps (chest)
Flat dumbbell chest press, 15 reps (chest)

Then I increased the weights and dropped my reps down to 10 for each set.

Bent over rows with a barbell, 10 reps (back)
Bent over rows with a dumbbell, 10 reps (back)
Then,
Bench press, 10 reps (chest)
Incline dumbbell press, 10 reps (chest)

Then I increased the weights a little more and dropped the reps down to 8 for each
set.

Lateral pulldowns on a machine, 8 reps (back)
Seated rows on a machine, 8 reps (back)
Then,
Bench press, 8 reps (chest)
Incline dumbbell press, 8 reps (chest)

Hey, this workout is structured like a poem!

So, you see, the point here was to do 2 exercises for back, then immediately do 2 for chest, back and forth 3 times, increasing the poundage and decreasing the repetitions.
I finished with a bunch of regular old pushups and 4 sets of leg raises for abs (15-20 reps each set).