A few simple steps...

Tired of problems without solutions? Do you want to help, but don't know what to do? Are you frustrated by everyone blaming problems on the government or corporations without proposing answers?

I want to try the opposite. I would like to propose some simple changes you can make in your life. Then I'll explain how these simple changes can improve you, your community, and your world. Changing the world is daunting and near impossible, but making small changes in our daily lives is quite manageable.

Do you want to fight the power, to stick it to the man? Do you hope to change politics and economics? Are you trying to rebel against corporations? Are you tired of being sick and sick of being tired? Do you want to really improve the world for your children? Starting, any or all of these, is simple. As simple as:

1. Buy local & organic...
2. Cook your food...
3. Find alternatives to driving...

The first step, buying local and organic food, probably means changing where you shop. For maximum effect, it means giving up the big-box retailers and switching to a smaller retailer or local market. Giving up the huge parking lot aught to be reason enough to change. Knowing your local grocers and farmers is fullfilling. It's a satisfying experience to feel like part of your community. And all the while you'll be avoiding industrial food. This means not giving your money to big corporations and not letting their chemicals make you sick. That in turn brings better health, both in the short and long terms. Obesity is far less an issue with real food as are problems from diabetes to depression and even cancer. Local & organic foods are good for the environment and reduce global warming and pollution. There's less oil used when you don't transport foods from around the world, and fewer chemicals get into our ground water, air, and into the food itself.

If you drink coffee then buying fair-trade organic coffee is the first place to start. Commercial coffee is one of the single most dangerous crops in the world. The pollution it causes, due to chemicals and treating, is staggering. Coffee is responsible for a lot of rainforest destruction and a lot of economic misery. The children of coffee farmers often die of malnutrition. Foreign corporations control how farmers farm, where planting just a few food crops, into the same precious soil, could save their families. Making different choices breaks the chain of corporate greed, hurts unjust governments, and improves the lives of farmers (and their children) around the world.

Cooking is a tradition most of us have lost. But thankfully not too long ago. There are probably still a few pots and pans hidden away in your kitchen. Learning to cook is easy and fun. It can bring families closer together, make meal times more social, and of course cooking all that wholesome locally grown organic food will make you healthier. What's the catch?

Sorry to say, for most of us, the catch to "cooking" means giving up fast food and canned drinks. This is harder for some than for others, but truly critical. Rainforest destruction, health issues with processed and frozen foods, corporate abuses, unfair marketing to children, constant cavities; all these can be avoided just by cooking your own food. And this will improve your happiness too. The preparation time, the family sharing, the connection it builds between you and your food, and the improved health that comes from eating real food; all these go into making you feel better and happier. And, the rebelious act of cooking your own food pulls control of your life out of the hands of others and gives it back to you. Cooking is so much more than changing food. It can change the world.

I grew up in a North American subburb where it felt like life didn't really begin until you could drive. Sure, as 15 year olds we would ride our bikes to the mall, but not as 17 year olds. As an adult, I recall leaving the office with coworkers to go for dinner, where 5 people got in 5 cars, drove across the road and parked. Clearly walking the short distance was preferable.

Your physical abilities are a "use it or loose it" proposition. Don't take little walks, and later you won't be able to. So start thinking of ways you can move your body. And start to bike, and use the bus. Chances are the buses in your locality go "downtown", to where the smaller (local) shops and business are. Take the bus to the farmers market and get to know the butcher, the baker, and the bus fare taker.

Use alternative transportation and you change the world. You change the need to import oil from war-torn regions far away. You change the controls that corporations and energy companies have over you. You pollute less, move your body more, spend some time outdoors and feel happier and healthier for these experiences. When you look at your daily routines, ask yourself which trips you could make better, but making them without the car.

Lower your stress, stop war, live longer, help children in poor countries, improve your heart and reduce your risk of cancer, reduce pollution to your drinking water and stop corporations from taking control of your life... the list goes on and on. There are lots and lots of problems in the world, and you can begin to fight many of them by making a few small changes at home. You benefit, I benefit, the whole world benefits when we all start working together.

So I invite you, I beg you, let's rebel. Let's start a new way of thinking and acting. Let us simply choose to eat better food, to cook what we eat, and to consider whether or not you need to drive. Once begun, these changes feedback on themselves. Feeling healthier makes you want better food and to move more. Eating better and moving more make you feel healthier. The cycle spreads outwards and helps others. And starting is as simple as: buy local and organic foods, cook them yourself, and find other ways to travel.

Micronutrient Malnutrition

Say "malnutrition" and thoughts go straight to starving children in Africa; drought victims relying on bags of UNICEF rice. Children and adults with seriously caloric-deficient diets will eventually die. This is starvation.

Say "micronutrient malnutrition" and thoughts go straight to... what? The image I want you to think of is an obese westerner. With micronutrient malnutrition there has been no lack of calories, but micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, enzymes and more) have been in short supply. Such diets are also fatal, but instead of starvation, the result is chronic illness. Nutrition studies are now linking a lack of micronutrients to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular illnesses, and cancer.

Food is much more than simply carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. In addition to these macronutrients, we require minerals and vitamins in our food. Necessary micro-minerals include at least iron, cobalt, chromium, copper, iodine, manganese, selenium, zinc and molybdenum.

Vitamins are organic compounds that are essential for life. They include at least 13 different substances including retinol, thiamine, ascorbic acid, calciferol, riboflavin, tocopherol, cobalamins, phylloquinone, pantothenic acid, biotin, pyridoxine, niacin, and folic acid.

But obesity, cancer and adult-onset diabetes are modern ailments. If early humans could find enough folic acid and cobalt what has changed such that we do not? I believe there are two primary causes: modern food processing and industrial farming.

Processed food is an obvious problem. Strip away the wheat germ and you loose the vitamin E, tocopherol. Sure you can spray a synthetic vitamin E back into the flour, but this is far less bio-available (less able to be used by your body) than the tocopheral in the wheat germ. Now repeat this process for every ingredient of every food you eat and voila, most of the micronutrients are missing.

Other problems with food processing include heat damage. Enzymes are often destroyed with heating, such as when milk is pasteurized or homogenized. Nutrients can be oxidized, as when oils are converted to trans-fats simply through the heat of an extraction process.

Most foods are now "built" rather than cooked. Proteins are taken out of wheat flour but then put back in from soy beans. Cheeses are no longer fermented but simply thickened with the protein taken out of the bread flour. Scientists build foods like children build with blocks. The foods we like are soft, smooth, fluffy, sweet, but completely devoid of nutrition.

The solution to over-processed foods is simply to switch to eating whole foods. Cook your own food from basic, single ingredients and you won't have to worry about soya in your bread or wheat in your cheese.

The consequences of industrial farming are far harder to see, at first. In the long-term, however, the image of industrial farming is that of a desert; sandstorms and drought. We are only just beginning to appreciate the complexity of something as ubiquitous as soil. Or more precisely, what makes soil different from dirt.

Soil is a living ecosystem. Made up of dirt plus a large array of biomass, healthy soil is a complex balance of many forms of life, from plants to insects to fungi, molds, microbes, bacterials and more. With each harvest, nutrients are removed from this ecosystem. In order to maintain a balance, they must be replaced.

Modern farming practices replace nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Some fertilizers include other elements, but none replace the complex organic compounds that left with the last harvest. And the next crops suffer the loss. Fertilized plants will grow, but if they are missing important elements they end up weaker. Weaker plants are easier for pests to eat, so fertilized crops are more prone to pest invasions. More chemicals are called into use, neurotoxins and such, to eliminate the pests. But these chemicals kill almost all the insects. So the insects that feed on fungus are also killed and suddenly the fields are overrun with a new threat. Fungicides are called in and sprayed liberally. But that promotes an imbalanced ecosystem where some plants can flourish faster than others. We call those plants weeds, and spray even more poison onto our food and soil to stop them.

When you stop regenerating your soil, and so aggressively attack the life of its ecosystem, you kill it. And dead soil is simply dirt. Plants don't grow well. Rain washes it away. And eventually, even the rain will stop and there is nothing left but desert.

But long before the fields turn to deserts and people starve from malnutrition, there is micronutrient malnutrition and sickness. The simple element iodine is a good example. Iodine is necessary in every human body and every plant cell. Every plant is a "good source" of iodine. Except, if the soil is iodine deficient, the plant will be too. Eat only nutritionally deficient plants and you will be iodine deficient also. So even if you skip the processed foods and go straight for the broccoli and lettuce, you can end up in trouble.

Would you believe that throughout North America the soils are chronically iodine deficient? The home of the Green Revolution (industrialized farming) has for decades added iodine to salt and bread products to replace what is known to be missing. We feed it to cattle to make up for what the crops didn't find in the soil. And iodine is just one example. Soils around the world are becoming deficient.

Thankfully, soil destruction has a simple solution. Organic, especially dynamic-organic, farming is the answer. Organic farming uses none of the chemicals that kill soil ecosystems. Pests are controlled through rotations of crop types which also strengthens the soil. A 30-year comparison of farming techniques was recently reported on. It concluded that organic techniques produce more food with more nutrition than industrial/chemical farming. This fact was largely due to the healthier organic soil supporting better yields in times of drought and pests.

Healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy people. Unhealthy soil, nutrient deficient plants, chronically sick people.

So far this is a pretty simple argument. Logical. So why is it new? Why haven't you already been told that obesity is a body is craving nutrition? There is a third contributing factor.

The average medical doctor spends 8-15 years studying medicine, and about 2.5 days studying nutrition. Nutrition, the science of it, isn't taught to doctors. So when they see obesity or diabetes they turn to their training. They prescribe a drug to treat symptoms, because they were never taught the root causes.

I believe our modern disease-care system (you can call it health care if you wish) has built an incredible momentum, in the wrong direction. Hippocrates, father of modern medical thinking, understood the connection between diet and exercise centuries ago. We can only hope that the findings of nutritional science will soon be brought back into medical science.

If these assertions are correct then the changes required to fix these problems are enormous. To convince medical science to give up the medicines and return to nutrition could take decades. Converting world-wide farming practices could take even longer. But the good news is you can make these changes for yourself, right now.

You and your family can choose healthy nutrition. It isn't simple, but once in the habit it is worth it. Health is an incredible reward. And if you remove a chronic illness at the same time, then you really will be amazed by how good you feel.

My hope is that, as more people discover the benefits of real food, our society will begin to accept micronutrient malnutirtion as a problem and will work to solve it. Meanwhile, I urge you to help yourself. For your own health.

Advice for those already at the gym:

Exercise information is easy to find but all too often, confusing. If you're a beginner, every men's or women's magazine offers routines of simple exercises to get you started. If you're a serious exercise enthusiast and looking to maximize your training there's plenty of info out there for you too. Indeed, I'm surprised by how many websites and magazine articles give advice that is only appropriate for well conditioned individuals. But what about the people in the middle?

Look around your local gym. Those are the people in the middle. They've made the move from time on the couch to time exercising. They've made improvements to how they look and feel, and understand the benefits of exercise. But chances are they've also hit a plateau, using the same exercises they were taught when they joined. What does a no-longer-a-beginner do before they're an athlete?

Two of my friends are in this position. Middle-aged, they're thinner and healthier than most. They exercise, but not routinely. Not couch potatoes, but not as fit as they desire either. With my friends in mind, I wondered what three exercise tips would I give to help them most?

As it turns out, the list of three was right at the front of my mind. And contrary to most exercise articles out there, only one of my exercise tips is actually about an exercise.

Squats and Deadlifts

Firstly, do squats. They don't show you this on your first gym visit. If you've never exercised, squats will hurt you. Don't do them. But once you've spent a few months on the machines, it's time to leave them behind for the real exercises.

Squats and deadlifts work the whole body. This is key. Working one part, then another, does NOT have the same effect as working the whole body.

Squats can be done with the bar on your back, or held infront. Deadlifts start with the bar on the floor and involve generally the same set of muscles. Either exercise can be built up to include a press, such as you might see in the olympics. Ultimately, that's the way to go. But work towards it slowly.

FYI, Smith machines, leg press machines and all the rest don't count. They don't put the same loads on your secondary muscles and supporting muscles. If you fear free weights, start with dumbbells instead of a barbell.

Drink Milk

Here's where my exercise advice stops being about exercise. This is because exercise (the actual activity at the gym) doesn't make you stronger. It is your body's reaction to the stress of exercise that makes your stronger (and leaner and healthier). So even more important than what exercises you do, is how you feed yourself. Start with milk.

I have lots to say on diet and health. But where to start? I would start with whole milk. Drinking a litre a day of whole (unskimmed) milk melts fat off my body. I've exerperienced it many times and in various ways. I've heard a ton of anecdotal stories. I can't explain it and won't try. The more milk you drink the slimmer you probably are; all other factors being equal.

(Conversely, the more diet colas you drink the fatter you likely are. Sorry, it's just my own experience and eyesight, but I believe it's true.)

And lastly...

Get Your Sleep!

I know when someone has moved from beginner to serious exerciser when they talk about sleep. Sleep is critical, even more so than food or exercise. Consider 9 hours to be the target.

The point of exercise is to stress your body, such that it then rebuilds itself, better than it was. This happens when you sleep. If you're going to the gym but not eating or sleeping properly then you're only doing your body harm.

Most anyone needs 8 hours of sleep a night. (I undertand few of us actually get that.) A little exercise and your sleep need quickly rises to 9 hours or more. If you spent an hour in the gym and an hour on your bike, consider going to bed early and getting 10 hours, guilt free.

And those are my exercise tips. Do full body exercises, eat well - starting with milk, and get your sleep. Try the three together and I bet you can get through any plateau. And I bet you feel better right away. Good luck.

Butter and Bread

I gave up butter so long ago I almost forget when. Almost. In truth it was about 10 years back when I made a lifestyle change including giving up bread, cola and more. Sick and tired in general, and disgusted with my ample computer-guy physique, I decided (realized) I had to make changes.

So much has changed. So much. And yet, surprisingly, today I'm looking forward to bread and butter. My belief in whole-foods has brought me full circle in terms of what I eat, and how.

For lunch I intend to cook an omelet with bread and butter. If you believe the pseudo-nutrition taught the past few decades that meal sounds like," Cholesterol, saturated fat, carbs, and more saturated fats." And yet somehow I'm eating this way, loosing weight and feeling wonderfully healthy. 5kg in the last 3 months or just under a pound a week.

What changed? The bike I ride regularly was bought in 1991. My oldest training logs go back to September 2000. (In five pages of YMCA 'Conditioning Program Cards' I only wrote the year once. Guess I wasn't expecting it to be so long term.) I took up karate about 17 months ago, when I quit smoking, and with it began regular stretching. But three months ago I made a choice (a realisation) and switched to unprocessed, whole foods.

The results have been amazing! My energy level is up. My exercise rate has doubled to tripled because swollen and painful joints are a thing of the past. I can eat throughout the day and yet feel completely in control of my weight and well being. And I can have organic grass-fed butter on whole-wheat bread and it explodes in my mouth like a candy factory might. Although I can't eat a candy factory.

The ironic part is that all this is unintended. I didn't make the switch for health reasons but instead for... political reasons, for lack of a better word. Food Inc. was my proverbial last straw. I realized I could vote with my money and express my ideas by supporting organic and avoiding factory-food. I changed because I was angry with socio-political-economic trends related to the sustainability of our food supply. But what I'm left with is not anger, but health and unexpected happiness.

And now, a very strong craving for those eggs and that butter! Care to join me?

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Author's note: Sorry folks, I realized only after that I had already written this post before. But each month I'm becoming more sure of the results, and their cause. To the cause!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, Season's Greetings, Prettige Kerstdagen, Feliz Natal!

It's been a bitter-sweet year. At times I feel I'm exactly where I was last year. So much hasn't changed; yet nearly everything feels different. For example, a year ago I was feeling old. Very old. I had just quit smoking and started karate and while I didn't have a lot of breath in my lungs my muscles and bones ached and screamed.

Now? Well, I've posted Fatboy Slim's "Old Pair of Jeans" because I'm happy to be wearing an old pair pulled from the very bottom of my wardrobe. I haven't even bothered trying them recently. But not only do they fit again, my belt is on a notch not seen in 2 years. All thanks to exercise, good food and new-found health.

I have too many thoughts about "the year" to cover right now. Suffice it to say that, unlike this time last year, there's a lot I'm hopeful for. Changes have been a long time in coming, but feel just around the corner.

May your New Year also bring positive changes. I wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best!

Food Meets Gym (or Food, Meats, Gym)

The movie Food, Inc. marks what was a turning point for me. The movie, while very good, wasn't shocking nor did it tell me anything new. Instead it was like the straw that finally broke the camel's back. It was the first drop that overflowed the cup. What is shocking to me is how much I like the resulting ring on life's coffee-table.

Since the movie I have changed some shopping habits. I'm simply buying more organic (biologisch) products and more whole foods and vegetables. And once home, I'm actually taking the time to cook proper meals with these great ingredients.

A few weeks ago I also added an "indoor bicycle trainer" to my sports equipment. It clamps the back wheel and allows me to ride my bike at home. At the end of the summer my outdoor riding stopped. By mid-November I had gained 2 kg and I wasn't pleased.

After three weeks I'm lighter by about 3 kg, and that's really nice. But there's much more going on than just weight loss!

The part that surprises me is that I'm exercising at a much higher intensity level than I thought I could do. Years of exercise have taught me my limits. For example, exercise the day after a karate class just isn't possible. Or is it? Indeed, I've been cycling every day while also attending karate regularly and weight lifting. And I suspect it is the food that is making it all possible.

Inflammation is normally the limiting factor, closely followed by pulled muscles. I've got some knee pain, some sore muscles, bad tendons; I'm not superman. But I know that I'm doing more than normal, and feeling less stress on my body.

Exercise is its own reward. This I know. But I'm learning that good eating is also. My motivations were largely principle-driven but the rewards are touching me in other ways. I honestly didn't expect to feel healthier. I didn't expect how much better my food tastes. And I certainly didn't expect to be able to exercise more while seeing both improvements and weight loss.

Is it partly mental, partly a placebo effect? Of course. That's the feedback mechanism. Small improvements in the body have big effects on health and happiness, which in turn motivates results and further small improvements.

What it means to me is that I'm about to hop on my bike for a while. For later, I'm considering hitting the weights then the grocery store. And while shopping, I'll be choosing whole foods and organic sources. Such a simple difference and yet the results are worth much more than I originally imagined.

Today is the day I will go to the gym

I can talk about fitness or bikes or karate for hours. Similarly minded friends and I can discuss subtle differences in the 4-5 different ways we know to do squat exercises. And when it comes to sharing what I've read, I can usually tell you the two or three "schools of thought" on a subject and which I found worked best for myself. But there's one bit of advice I've never figured out how to share. How do you help motivate another person to start a fitness program?

My final motivation was a nightmare level of stress. A close friend spent months trying to encourage me to go to the gym. I agreed that I needed to exercise. I was fat and always tired. I wanted a change. But day after day I just never went to the gym. It finally took trouble at work. One moring I got to work and within an hour I ended up turning around and going home. I took a few days off. But instead of sitting at home I went to the YMCA; five times that first week, six times the next week.

Is it like that for everyone? Does it take a trip to the bottom, a scare from above, or some other 'near miss' to get us going?

Once started, exercise brings its own rewards. Endoprhines are there immediately. Increased energy comes in just days. A feeling of pride at the results on the scale are there in just weeks. Even just that first night's sleep, post-exercise, can be reason enough to go back to the gym.

Once underway, exercise programs get more complex. That's where knowing about different exercises, nutrition plans and such can be useful. But before that first trip to the gym, all the details can only serve to confuse. Or maybe they can work as seeds? Seeds that spring to goals and then grow into accomplishments.

Are you tired of being tired? Do you know you should be exercising, but don't? Do you have things you look forward to but always feel your body is holding you back? If so then here is my advice... don't think of reps and sets, don't think of lifestyle choices, nutrition changes or any of it. Just think," Today is the day I will go to the gym."

The journey is long. But it begins with a single step. Just go to the gym.

It's Yellow!

Yellow can mean cowardly. Or snow that shouldn't be played in. But today yellow is a source of pride, as I sit here, staring at my new karate belt.

Eleven months of training and practice have brought me to a point where I can now begin my karate training. Anyone can get a white belt for just showing up. Yellow means you've been preparing and are ready to learn.

Heck, my first lesson hurt for two weeks. The sports injuries I received in my first few classes took most of the year to heal. Some remain. But I have no doubt I'm stronger and fitter than I was. I've discovered flexibility I thought hips couldn't provide and while I'm sure it will leave a bruise, I can block a punch with force.

And now? Am I ready? Well, not according to my own experience, nor the tennants of karate. But at this rate, in just seven to ten more years, I'm going to be good at this.

Happy Birthday Mom

Happy Birthday, Mom. Today you would be 67. That fact alone makes me cry.

I didn't know how to celebrate Mother's Day this year. I feel like I should be "doing something" for your birthday too. And so I am. I'm going bike riding.

Good or bad, you set an example that I learned from. And thanks to that, I hope to be riding on my 67th too.

He Doesn't Care

A few weeks ago I received my new punching bag. A floor standing "heavybag" intended for boxing and kickboxing practice. I use it to train the skills I'm learning in karate. It makes for excellect cardio excercise and builds strength too. But, it's 100kG weight sits on the floor and transmits much of the force of a punch or kick through to the apartment below me; or so I feared.

When I first got the bag I took multiple steps to mitigate noise problems. One was to add thick foam padding to the underside. Another step was to send a note to the neighbours. I figured that by anticipating the problem I would reduce the severity of noise complaints.

I met the downstairs neighbour yesterday, in the elevator. I introduced myself and asked about the noise.

"Huh? What? Oh, we never hear anything. And we're moving any way."

And we're moving any way?

"Oh, ok," I said," So the new neighbour won't have a noise problem? Good to know."

"Huh? Uhm, sure."

There was a look in his eyes. It said," Do you see these children I'm with? You could launch a nuclear strike and I wouldn't hear it over the noise these little demons make." He didn't say this out loud, since the little demons where right there at his feet. But I'm sure that's what the look said.

I expect that some day soon I'll neet the new downstairs neighbour. Thanks to the look from the old neighbour, I suspect it may well be regarding a noise complaint.

A week of workouts, a day of rest

I have to thank Betty. Not only have I enjoyed a number of trips with my new omafiets, but she's also inspired me to do some real riding. Indeed, the whole week has been fitness crazy.

My exercise log shows workouts (weight lifting) last Friday and again Wednesday. On Sunday I took my racing bike out for it's first ride of the season. It was a short 15km jaunt that got the blood flowing and the legs working. Tuesday it was a 30km ride. And yesterday I rode 50km in just a bit over 2 hours. Thursday was taken with karate. And I'm not including in the "exercise" the multiple times Betty and I have gone into town.

As well as the obvious increases in riding distances I've measured other improvements this week. Karate class always requires push-ups, which were done all at one go, for the first time. Wednesday I raised the weights by ~25% and still managed to knock out all the reps I intended. That's stunning!

And so with all that, I don't feel bad that my knees have decided to force a day off. Standing up from sitting on the couch requires both hands; only by taking the weight off my legs can I get my knees to bend with certainty. Once up, the feet ache and demand to move to relieve the pressure on them. This shuffling is supported by the back, which reminds me that I was bent over the bike yesterday afternoon and that I have not yet recovered. Stretching the back requires moving the arms which errupt in complaints from the shoulders to my fingers. If it moves, I've probably recently pulled, damaged, or over strained it.

It sounds bad, but every twitch is a mark of pride in a workout well done. No, I couldn't sit on my bike saddle today... not without a whimper or perhaps scream... but tomorrow I will. Or maybe I will exercise the (few) muscles which aren't currently hurting? Either way, I know that will be tomorrow.

Because today is my rest day. What ever it is that's getting done today, has probably already happened. Everything else, is for the future.

I think I'll name her Betty

It's here, it's here! My new granny bike (omafiets) arrived yesterday!


She arrived with a new (used) rear wheel rim and a bunch of fresh spokes in both wheels. The rust (an anti-theft approach) remains but the bike is quite smooth to ride. Bertus was even kind enough to help me adjust the seat position.

Last week I went out and bought a new chain lock and front and back lights. Yesterday afternoon I picked up a new rear-wheel lock and a bell. (This is Amsterdam where "anything goes", but the police have a zero tolerance policy regarding bikes without lights or bells.) As the sun was setting I finished adding all the accoutrements. It only took a few screws and four zip-ties, but it makes Betty feel like my bike.

And now? It's time to ride.

I think I bought a bike...

I love my mountain bike. It`s a Kona Kilauea and was the Bike of the Year when I bought it. I used it for racing for years and have not only kept it maintained, but flourished expensive upgrades on it. And in addition to being expensive, every part of the bike shares an important racing-bike property; they can all be quick-released from the bike in a second. The wheels, the suspension fork, the seat and post, the lights, computer, titanium bits... it is impossible to lock securely. And so here in the bike theft capital of the world, I don`t ride my bike much.

I have often explained to people that bikes aren`t purchased in Amsterdam, they are meerly rented for a limited period. Collectively we share a pool of bikes that slowly rotate owners through a dance usually performed in the wee hours of the morning.

And last night I got approached for a bike. But in a slightly different way that makes it all seem more legitimate than normal. I met a man I`ll call a bike-repair entrepreneur. He was riding his own bike down the street when he suddenly stopped, jumped off, and picked up another bike from the side of the road. Then he grabbed a lock off his bike and started to chain up the bike he`d just picked up.

I was walking past at the time and had to stop with curiousity. He explained he repairs abandonded bikes and sells them again. Abandonded? He pointed out the huge bend in the back wheel. It had been run over by a car, apparently. And instead of locked with the other bikes in the rack, it had been left unlocked and laying along the side of the road.

Some time today Bertus (the bike repairer) will return to that spot, unlock the bike, and he will walk it home. In the coming days it will get a new rear wheel, a few little fixes, and then one more city bike will be back in service. In my service!

In Dutch it`s called an omafiets, which means grandma-bicycle. No gears, no hand brakes, wide handlebars and an upright position; I`m going to feel so Dutch going through town. I can`t wait!

Perhaps I should send a message to Bertus, just to make sure he doesn`t forget, I`ve got first dibs on the new omafiets.

I've got nothing to say

This blog has always been, primarily, about writing. I take my ideas and practice conveying them with written words.

Today, however, I have no ideas. I want to write. I want to blog. But beyond," I'm okay," I don't have anything to convey. I've got nothing to say.

Perhaps I'm living too much inside. Not just inside my apartment, but inside my head.

I have been out. I've been dancing with the glitterarty. I've been social with my friends. I've even escorted a lovely woman through town for drinks and food. I've exercised and been to the dojo. I've kicked and been kicked. But the best description I can come up with is that it's largely been on "auto-pilot".

Not to say I'm ignoring my friends! In a conversation, one-to-one, I'm there. But the surroundings aren't. The area beyond my friend, or laptop, or book just disappears.

I'm looking for the words. Just the right way to express the feeling. It isn't numbness, it's not emptiness. It isn't loneliness or longing. It's not about sad or happy or busy or bored. Is there a word for "inside-ness"? Is there an english word for the feeling of being protected inside your head regardless of where your body is?

So I wanted to blog. I wanted to write. I wanted to open a small window to the inside-ness and reach tentatively outside. But I've got nothing to say. My mind, like this post, is full of words but without a point.

Including Moderation

"Everything in moderation, including moderation." It's an idea at the front of my mind lately. And I have a good example. The other day I went to McDonald's for a burger. It was my first trip there in 6 months.

I've been on a wonderful health kick for the past few months. I started karate with fitness goals. I now spend multiple days a week exercising and increasing my fitness, so that I can do better with the karate.

But the motivation included some ideas such as giving up McDonald's. In retrospect that's just silly! A trip every few months for a greasy burger will not affect my health. However continuously denying myself a tasty treat can serious affect my motivation.

As always, the idea is "balance". And so most days it's about home-cooking, veggies, vitamins and satiety. But other days, at 2am and in the rain, hunger will be satisfied via the most expediant method. If that's McDonald's then so be it.

Get on with it!

I took an hour today and read Johnny's Blog for the first time. A friend of many years and a blogger of many months, Johnny only sent the link to the "secret blog" last week.

I read through a few months of inspiring posts devoted to environmental responsibility and his current "career change". I'm now inspired to do more than read a blog post or two. I'm inspired to go out and improve something! To improve myself!

And really, right now, that's pretty freakin easy to do. Doing anything would be an improvement.

I still haven't been to karate. I feel so old and tired and weak that I can't motivate myself at 7pm to hop on the bus and go hurt myself. Well, it's time.

I haven't even been exercising properly at home. I should do that next. As in, right after typing this. I need to practice my kata for karate. And some stretches and exercises ought to improve the chances of going to the dojo tonight.

And when I'm done that I'm going to do a bit of reading. Starting with the mail. Open the envelopes, pay the bills, sort the rest. Then Pratchett. I've earned it and will devote an hour or more to finishing "Small Gods" before moving on to the remaining unread tomes.

Note, even when inspired to self-improvement I still don't plan time to look for work. I'm not there yet. The "moments of peace" have been few and far between. But I think I can litterally kick the blues away. The hope being that tomorrow I'll feel, better than this.

Old and New

I'm told that the tendancy to use the New Year to consider your life is a cultural one. Taken for granted in North America, people make resolutions for improvement. I think I've mentioned, even here, that I like to stop and consider things more routinely. But this tradition of contemplation and New Year's resolutions still makes for a great time to talk about such things.

Spend your year asking your friends for "the meaning of it all" or such and you'll be labelled as melancholy. Discussing resolutions, however, is more socially acceptable. Although even here, resolutions are often personal, and responses and comments need to be strictly limited.

Person1: "I'm planning to hit the gym more and get in better shape."
Person2: "Oh, I know a great gym in my neighbourhood and they are running a special right now."

This is socially acceptable.

Person1: "I'm planning to hit the gym more and get in better shape."
Person2: "So you're feeling fat, eh? Good, I didn't know how to mention what I'm stuck looking at."

This is not.

It's a shame, really, that we don't discuss more openly our motives behind things. Resolutions are proposed solutions to problems in our lives. We discuss those, but rarely the underlying motivating problem. Oh well.

In the coming weeks and months I resolve:

• To study my Dutch and attempt the tests to show I know it because there are things I want to do, but I need a passport to accomplish them.
  
• To go back to the gym, because my cardio fitness is lacking and I would like to loose some fat.
• To get a good job, because in a couple weeks I'll be unemployed and that's probably not good.
• To visit my mom, because her health is bad and I should be there for her.

There's more. Personal stuff. But that's the main part.

This really is a time of change for me. It isn't just due to the calendar or a holiday. It's actually kind of crazy, the total amount of change coming at once. But that reminds me of one more "resolution" I've choosen.

I resolve to keep smiling.

Happy New Year everyone! Don't stay up too late tonight. ;-)

Pain and Growth

Last night I was on the floor, in an odd position with my partner, telling her," That hurts, keep doing that." There might have been a "harder" in there somewhere too.

No, don't send the children out of the room. I'm speaking, of course, of the stretching exercises from karate class. It's frightening to stretch muscles that, if pulled, can end a baseballer's career. Especially when you're as inflexible (physically) as I am.

The stretching was tough, but the kicking hurt more. I learned all kinds of new things, such as, did you know that kicking hurts more than being kicked? I would never have guessed this, but as I limped home I discovered this truth. The thirty or fourty hard kicks to the mat on the wall left far more damage to myself than the few times a training partner tried to knock the wind out of me.

Hmmm. Wait, that's misleading. The training partner wasn't trying to hurt me. But the sensei actually separated us and had her practice alone. The goal of "kick forwards and place your foot at your partner's stomach" was instead practiced as "kick forwards". A foot suddenly flew past my nose. The next went towards a knee. A few went for the previously-mentioned difficult-to-stretch area.

I'm learning how to jump backwards very effectively!

This morning I'm relishing all the painful bits. They show me where I was weak but am now growing. A long-time exercise masichist, I take pleasure from this. So it caught my eye when Google presented a page where a person asked if they could learn karate without pain. Huh? Perhaps with a Wii. Like learning to drive in your living room or exploring the ocean from a book.

The little painful bits in our lives are all opportunities for growth. Be it muscular or mental, success could be defined as being able to see the good that follows each of life's pains. It's good practice and a good life skill because rarely are the worthwhile things found along the easy path.

So Much

A day? What a difference a month makes! And a busy month at that.

Logistically, it's been busy. Two week trips to Belgium to teach, a week of teaching in Holland, and a few days in Denmark for a trade show again. This week I work four days then I'm off to Canada for a week.

Spiritually and emotionally, it's been busy. That dinner date went well. I'm cooking for two a lot more often. Alas I'm also worried for my Mom's health. Thus the trip so soon back to Canada.

Physically, it's been busy. I spent two-weeks sick with only a half-day off work. Over the same time-period I've gotten back into nutritional and fitness and I'm happy with the progress. And even better than that, I'm quitting smoking!

I have no doubt it's all over TV advertisements in North America, but I hadn't ever heard of Champix (tm) before meeting last week with my doctor. "Take these pills, keep smoking a week, then take these stronger ones and stop smoking." It was pressented to me as that easy, and I think it might actually be!

At least the first week is easy. "Take these pills and keep smoking." Too easy. But each day I've noticed I'm smoking less and getting less out of each attempt. I say attempt, because for most of my life the craving for a cigarette has been immediately satisfied by, a cigarette. Champix blocks that. So cigarette breaks are becoming pointless. Thankfully at the same time this medication reduces the urge to smoke, leaving me happy with the idea of soon being smoke-free.

Smoke-free, back to exercise, eating well? Gosh, if I'm not careful I may soon find myself "healthy"!

I Do Feel Older...

I've had a lot of ideas passing through my head as the next potential blog post. There's so much! I wanted to describe the nazi rally in Germany (and the 10x bigger anti-nazi rally). I wanted to describe the trip to Germany (just for shopping... picture frames and a USB WiFi adaptor). I wanted to proclaim my enthusiasm for my upcoming (three days from now) trip to Canada, with Nancy!

And then I looked at my own blog. I read the title, and I knew the next. I do feel older! I remarked today that for the last few months "sitting" and "standing" again are painful activities. If I sit, I'll stay there a while, thank you. If I stand, I may as well stay standing for a bit.

I'm back on another exercise kick... hitting the weights as often as I can. "As often as I can" is a function (partly) of when the pain from the last session dies down. This time-frame is growing. A sure sign of age.

Does this mean I have to be more diligent about what I eat, and how I spend my free time? I think it does. I think it means I have to exercise better, sleep better, eat better.

I've never before actually considered the idea of being physically less capable than I previously was. But the little painful bits that I'm beginning to call "the day" are registering in my brain. Based on this new data, I humbly suggest a new variation of an old phrase...

"You're only as old as your knees feel."