Filed under: A New Site, Blogroll, Breathing, Essential Reading, Food Preparation & Recipes, Full Books, Further Exploration, Grains, Health, Injuries & Recovery, Lifestyle, News and Announcements, Nutritious Nutrition, Rhabdomyolysis, The Library, The Lumber, aging, bodyweight, fitness, gymnastics, scientific papers, sleep, training/workout examples
Well, it’s official. I am now going to fully stop posting here and will solely update the new site. Visit me at www.distincthealth.com! I am still finalizing everything, but the site itself works, looks good and has all of the functionality as this one. More to come!
I found an incredibly entertaining read on sleep today by A. Roger Ekirch and thought I’d share it with you all.
During the first days of autumn in 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, at age twenty-seven, spent twelve days trudging through the Cévennes, France’s southern highlands, despite having suffered from frail health during much of his youth. His sole companion was a donkey named Modestine. With Treasure Island and literary fame five years off, Stevenson’s trek bore scant resemblance to the grand tours of young Victorian gentlemen. Midway through the journey, having scaled one of the highest ranges, he encamped at a small clearing shrouded by pine trees. Fortified for a night’s hibernation by a supper of bread and sausage, chocolate, water, and brandy, he reclined within his “sleeping sack,” with a cap over his eyes, just as the sun had run its course. But rather than resting until dawn, Stevenson awoke shortly past midnight. Only after lazily smoking a cigarette and enjoying an hour’s contemplation did he fall back to sleep. “There is one stirring hour,” he later recorded in his journal, “unknown to those who dwell in houses, when a wakeful influence goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere, and all the outdoor world are on their feet,” men and beasts alike. Never before had Stevenson savored a “more perfect hour”—free, he delighted, from the “bastille of civilization.” “It seemed to me as if life had begun again afresh, and I knew no one in all the universe but the almighty maker.”
Aside from spending the night outdoors, no explanation sufficed for the wistful hour of consciousness that Stevenson experienced in the early morning darkness. “At what inaudible summons,” he wondered, “are all these sleepers thus recalled in the same hour to life?” Were the stars responsible or some “thrill of mother earth below our resting bodies? Even shepherds and old country-folk, who are the deepest read in these arcana,” he marveled, “have not a guess as to the means or purpose of this nightly resurrection. Towards two in the morning they declare the thing takes place; and neither know or inquire further.” Unknown to Stevenson, his experience that fall evening was remarkably reminiscent of a form of sleep that was once commonplace. Until the modern era, up to an hour or more of quiet wakefulness midway through the night interrupted the rest of most Western Europeans, not just napping shepherds and slumbering woodsmen. Families rose from their beds to urinate, smoke tobacco, and even visit close neighbors. Remaining abed, many persons also made love, prayed, and, most important, reflected on the dreams that typically preceded waking from their “first sleep.” Not only were these visions unusually vivid, but their images would have intruded far less on conscious thought had sleepers not stirred until dawn. The historical implications of this traditional mode of repose are enormous, especially in light of the significance European households once attached to dreams for their explanatory and predictive powers. In addition to suggesting that consolidated sleep, such as we today experience, is unnatural, segmented slumber afforded the unconscious an expanded avenue to the waking world that has remained closed for most of the Industrial Age.
Read the rest of this article here!
A few updates:
First of all, everything’s going great and I’m adapting really well. I feel more alive and alert all day, and am getting more stuff done than usual and it’s not just because of the extra waking time. I’m going to begin phasing out the alarm clock permanently soon, and will do a ‘test run’ during tonight’s 4.5 hour sleep block to see how that works out.
Also, I found another interesting article on sleep which might interest some of you.
Well, I’ve started my experiment in biphasic sleeping and even though it’s been two days I’ve had just as much energy and what not as usual. I thought the intial week would be hell, but it’s proving to be just mildly annoying. I say this because I still haven’t “reprogrammed” myself fully yet and so my body keeps on showing signs of not being aware of what the heck is going on. It’s adapting though, and I feel better today than yesterday, and expect to feel even better tomorrow…
What I am basically doing is going to bed around midnight and getting up at 5 (for a total of three 90-minute sleep cycles and an allowance of 30 minutes to fall asleep and/or get up if need be). My body wakes me up earlier if it finishes those cycles before five, and I’ve already experienced the joys of waking up a few minutes before the alarm. I then take a 90 minute nap around 1 or 2 PM. After the first week I wont need the alarm at all, but feel more comfortable using it while I’m getting used to the new scenario.
Well, I am surely pleased with my current diet and especially with my exercise. The pic below is a progress pic from September 9th to November 9th. I started doing my current exercise routine in late August, so it’s a pretty good ‘before/after’ comparison. I may still be ’skinny lookin’ to some of you, but I am very impressed with my progress and especially my strength (although not with my crappy posing)… I’ve never before in my life been able to do more than 1 or 2 chin-ups with my palms facing away from me, and now I can do over 20. Shit, soon I’ll be doing muscle-ups as easily as a Marine does pushups!!
Having stumbled across a thread on a forum I frequent on polyphasic sleep, I decided to look into it. What I’ve stumbled upon sounds rather interesting, and for more reasons than I care to get into right now (ironically, I’m tired).
I will soon post information on what exactly polyphasic sleep is, as well as the details of my own little experiment for all of you to enjoy. To put it briefly, you are just breaking sleep up into many chunks rather than one solid block. There are MANY theories from sleeping 20 minutes every hour to breaking your sleep down into two phases. This biphasic sleep is what I will be trying. I will also try to convert myself to become an early riser. My desired shedule will be to fall asleep around 12:30, rise at 5 AM and then take a 90 minute nap at 1:30 PM (perhaps earlier, depending on how I feel and how things evolve.) I got these numbers from the theory that the average sleep cycle is 90 minutes. I will probably end up taking a nap and timing the length of it to attempt to figure out what my personal cycle actually is. To make things more interesting, it appears they change over time.
Anyways, look foward to next week when I’ll throw some links up here and detail my plans.
Here is a quote from Glen Rhodes‘ site in which he desrcibes his method, from which I derived mine:
“Studies show that the length of sleep is not what causes us to be refreshed upon waking. The key factor is the number of complete sleep cycles we enjoy. Each sleep cycle contains five distinct phases, which exhibit different brain- wave patterns. For our purposes, it suffices to say that one sleep cycle lasts an average of 90 minutes: 65 minutes of normal, or non-REM (rapid eye movement), sleep; 20 minutes of REM sleep (in which we dream); and a final 5 minutes of non-REM sleep. The REM sleep phases are shorter during earlier cycles (less than 20 minutes) and longer during later ones (more than 20 minutes). If we were to sleep completely naturally, with no alarm clocks or other sleep disturbances, we would wake up, on the average, after a multiple of 90 minutes–for example, after 4 1/2 hours, 6 hours, 7 1/2 hours, or 9 hours, but not after 7 or 8 hours, which are not multiples of 90 minutes. In the period between cycles we are not actually sleeping: it is a sort of twilight zone from which, if we are not disturbed (by light, cold, a full bladder, noise), we move into another 90-minute cycle. A person who sleeps only four cycles (6 hours) will feel more rested than someone who has slept for 8 to 10 hours but who has not been allowed to complete any one cycle because of being awakened before it was completed… ”
1) Free range chicken breast (the damn thing was almost 2 inches thick in the middle!)
2) Steamed carrots
3) Cottage Cheese (whole milk)
4) Raw broccoli
5) A giant ‘cage-free’ egg (yeah, I like em barely cooked or raw…)
6) Some jalapenos
7) and the best part: Fresh whole-wheat sourdough! I normally don’t eat bread/grains/that many carbs at night but hey, it was done baking during dinner time so I put off dinner until it was done. That bread literally came straight out of my oven and onto the cutting board, where I proceeded to spread a sane amount of raw butter onto it; although it looks like a soaked it in butter in the freakin picture… the bread is made out of nothing but whole-wheat flower, starter (made from whole wheat flour and water), water and salt… oh, and I added some rolled oats to this loaf!
I make dinner look nice every night. I find that in doing so, it’s much more enjoyable and probably does something to improve your mood and make your overall health better.
Excuse the nasty grammar as I’m in a hurry to go read and relax. Sometimes you just need to chill without the damn computer!
Filed under: Food Preparation & Recipes, Health, Lifestyle, Nutritious Nutrition
Here’s another interesting tidbit from the Weston Price foundation, I suggest you read the contents of the link provided as it gives a much fuller picture.
Myths and Truths About Nutrition
Myth: Heart disease in America is caused by consumption of cholesterol and saturated fat from animal products.
Truth: During the period of rapid increase in heart disease (1920-1960), American consumption of animal fats declined but consumption of hydrogenated and industrially processed vegetable fats increased dramatically. (USDA-HNI)Myth: Saturated fat clogs arteries.
Truth: The fatty acids found in artery clogs are mostly unsaturated (74%) of which 41% are polyunsaturated. (Lancet 1994 344:1195)Myth: Vegetarianism is healthy.
Truth: The annual all-cause death rate of vegetarian men is slightly more than that of non-vegetarian men (.93% vs .89%); the annual death rate of vegetarian women is significantly more than that of non-vegetarian women (.86% vs .54%) (Am J Clin Nutr 1982 36:873)Myth: Vitamin B12 can be obtained from certain plant sources such as blue-green algae and soy products.
Truth: Vitamin B12 is not absorbed from plant sources. Modern soy products increase the body’s need for B12. (Soybeans: Chemistry & Technology Vol 1 1972)Myth: For good health, serum cholesterol should be less than 180 mg/dl.
Truth: The all-cause death rate is higher in individuals with cholesterol levels lower than 180 mg/dl. (Circulation 1992 86:3:1026-1029)Myth: Animal fats cause cancer and heart disease.
Truth: Animal fats contain many nutrients that protect against cancer and heart disease; elevated rates of cancer and heart disease are associated with consumption of large amounts of vegetable oils. (Fed Proc July 1978 37:2215)Myth: Children benefit from a low-fat diet.
Truth: Children on low-fat diets suffer from growth problems, failure to thrive & learning disabilities. (Food Chem News 10/3/94)Myth: A low-fat diet will make you “feel better . . . and increase your joy of living.”
Truth: Low-fat diets are associated with increased rates of depression, psychological problems, fatigue, violence and suicide. (Lancet 3/21/92 v339)Myth: To avoid heart disease, we should use margarine instead of butter.
Truth: Margarine eaters have twice the rate of heart disease as butter eaters. (Nutrition Week 3/22/91 21:12)Myth: Americans do not consume enough essential fatty acids.
Truth: Americans consume far too much of one kind of EFA (omega-6 EFAs found in most polyunsaturated vegetable oils) but not enough of another kind of EFA (omega-3 EFAs found in fish, fish oils, eggs from properly fed chickens, dark green vegetables and herbs, and oils from certain seeds such as flax and chia, nuts such as walnuts and in small amounts in all whole grains.) (Am J Clin Nutr 1991 54:438-63)Myth: A vegetarian diet will protect you against atherosclerosis.
Truth: The International Atherosclerosis Project found that vegetarians had just as much atherosclerosis as meat eaters. (Lab Invest 1968 18:498)Myth: Low-fat diets prevent breast cancer.
Truth: A recent study found that women on very low-fat diets (less than 20%) had the same rate of breast cancer as women who consumed large amounts of fat. (NEJM 2/8/96)Myth: The “cave man diet” was low in fat.
Truth: Throughout the world, primitive peoples sought out and consumed fat from fish and shellfish, water fowl, sea mammals, land birds, insects, reptiles, rodents, bears, dogs, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, game, eggs, nuts and milk products. (Abrams, Food & Evolution 1987)Myth: Coconut oil causes heart disease.
Truth: When coconut oil was fed as 7% of energy to patients recovering from heart attacks, the patients had greater improvement compared to untreated controls, and no difference compared to patents treated with corn or safflower oils. Populations that consume coconut oil have low rates of heart disease. Coconut oil may also be one of the most useful oils to prevent heart disease because of its antiviral and antimicrobial characteristics. (JAMA 1967 202:1119-1123; Am J Clin Nutr 1981 34:1552)Myth: Saturated fats inhibit production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins.
Truth: Saturated fats actually improve the production of all prostaglandins by facilitating the conversion of essential fatty acids. (Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Journal 20:3)Myth: Arachidonic acid in foods like liver, butter and egg yolks causes production of “bad” inflammatory prostaglandins.
Truth: Series 2 prostaglandins that the body makes from arachidonic acid both encourage and inhibit inflammation under appropriate circumstances. Arachidonic acid is vital for the function of the brain and nervous system. (Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Journal 20:3)Myth: Beef causes colon cancer
Truth: Argentina, with higher beef consumption, has lower rates of colon cancer than the US. Mormons have lower rates of colon cancer than vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists (Cancer Res 35:3513 1975)
Filed under: Essential Reading, Full Books, Health, Lifestyle, Nutritious Nutrition
I have reproduced the full text of Nutrition & Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston A. Price
A very interesting and recommended read! Aside from the link provided above, you may find it in the “library” category at left. As I add more e-books to the library, I shall move this category to it’s own catalog page. Enjoy!
Today’s workout was:
21-15-9 reps of:
handstand push-ups
dips
elevated push-ups
Then to finish it all off (almost finished me off!) I added five 400m sprints on the trainer.
I feel awesome, full of energy, and I’m not sore (though I will be tomorrow, most definately). That’s good for today, because I have a lot of outdoor stuff to do such as stacking wood, painting a window on my house and enjoying a lunch of the bread I made last night with some raw vermont cheddar down by this small peaceful river which runs through our woods, something Thoreau would have definately enjoyed.
I found this great site on cheese making, and I’m going to try making yogurt and possibly cottage cheese soon. I’ll add the link to the sidebar and keep you updated on my luck with it all. In the meantime, I’m working on a few articles of various subjects.
