I claim to be an average man of less than average ability. . . . I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith. --Mahatma Gandhi This is remarkable coming … Continue reading Anything is Possible With the Right Effort →

No longer are we required to be the "aging athlete". From now on, we can choose to be the "master athlete"- Shane Eversfield This is from Shane's inspiring book Kaizen-durance. Kaizen (Japanese ) or Gai-shan (Chinese) is the concept of lifelong improvement. It is well known that in any athletic activity, we reach our peak … Continue reading Be A Master Athlete, Not An Aging Athlete →

As I mentioned in a recent post, I've been trying some nutritional steps to naturally lower blood pressure, with some success. But overall I'd say I'm disappointed. As I mentioned, I tried the suggestions in the book Thirty Days to Natural Blood Pressure Control: The “No Pressure” Solution . To be fair, I haven't given … Continue reading Blood Pressure, Nitric Oxide, and Nutrition →

Lush green meadow on lower slope of El Toro Today I went riding on the west side of Morgan Hill. I haven't been hiking much lately and want to get back into it, but my recovering piriformis still doesn't like downhill that much. So I stayed on the road but walked up the steep hills … Continue reading Biking and Walking on West Side of Town →

I just finished reading the fascinating book Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding by evolutionary biologist Dr. Daniel Lieberman. His main point is that humans evolved doing physical activity as part of their daily lives, hunter gatherers walking a lot, digging for tubers, climbing trees for fruit, or running … Continue reading Don’t Be “Exercised” About Exercise →

Regarding health, wouldn't it be better to build a fence at the top of a cliff than park an ambulance at the bottom? -Dr. Dennis Burkett [1] Modern (allopathic) medicine is an extraordinary use of applied science, that has produced many benefits in treating injury and disease. Coronary bypass surgery, for example, is a procedure … Continue reading Healthy Aging With a Preventive Medicine Specialist →

I worked pretty hard on my blood pressure since my bad reading at my new doctor's office last week. Measures I took included : cut back on exercise volume and intensity a bit (possible overtraining)stop taking phenylephrineremember to drink more water (being slightly dehydrated can drive up blood pressure)do a better job at quality of … Continue reading BP Follow-up- Improving But Not There Yet →

My new Doctor is very thorough with preventative screening, so she sent my off to the PT to get a gait evaluation. This is seems a like a bit of overkill since I'm so active, but it does provide a baseline to compare against in the future. Also I did have to get my rotator … Continue reading Passed My Gait Evaluation! →

"Of all that is wonderful in the human being, our most glorious asset is the capacityto change ourselves." - Eknath Easwaran Philosophers argue about whether we have free will. The thought that we might not is understandable because people often behave compulsively rather than rationally, and then "rationalize" poor decisions afterward. For me this has … Continue reading Changing For The Better →

Up until last week we were woefully short on rain, less than 3 inches so far this season (dating back to October). But we had a really good week of several storms in a row. Officially Morgan hill got 6 inches of rain last week, though my rain gauge read 7. This puts us close … Continue reading The Green Hills Are Back, and So is My Trek →