A time to write

I have just recently had a number of events take over my life. From enrolling in University to a great couple i know getting married and well just plain reading. I have missed out on posting for almost two months but it has not been a deliberately perpetrated absence from writing. A mere concession that one needs to live life a little and then document it, is my excuse.
So i will be studying social science this year and enrolling in a matter of days into the course.  I will begin my journey into a new academic realm.  I have been reading copiously.  From Ayn Rand’s, The Romantic Manifesto to Cormac Mcarthy’s, Guns, Germs and Steel. I have also looked at the Bhagavad Gita and the Hagakure. I will intend to create a review list and  also continue my reviews where i left off.

I will return in a few days with some more discussion on life soon.

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The 4hr Work Week By Tim Ferris Pt 1

5-12-12

So i have taken a few weeks to soak in my STAT University Entry Results which i am happy with. I have spent most of the weekend finalising my uni preferences and then i remembered i had neglected do a review of Tim Ferris 4 hr work week. I had listened to the audiobook about 3 weeks ago now and i think i have applied a few of his tenets but i need to listen again and evaluate my views of them before delving further in. So among the hundreds of great tips, concepts and theories from Mr Ferris’ book the 4 hour work week i have applied a few of his basic concepts.

I first heard about him on the TED website doing a speech about his winning a Argentinian Tango championship and how he did it. I then heard him on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast and i had to check out his book. He spoke about how he has created away to live in this society by creating an income and a lifestyle that enables him to live like a millionaire. Not be a millionaire but live like one. My goal is different yet has a similar premise so i tightened my eardrums and soaked his ideas up.

One of the first things i am trying do is to create a goal of living off grid. Ultimately this will involve finding a property and applying many, many concepts. To do this though i will need to also create a lifestyle that for the moment will be what i want to do for the rest of my life. I found that in researching my study and i have created a pathway for myself to achieve this. In Ferris’ book he discusses in a very detailed way how to extricate ones-self from the daily grind.

I wish to do this in a different way as he speaks of many ways to use your office to your advantage. I don’t work in an office as a delivery driver but i have my perks too. This alone is a great principle and i have a plan work wise to be moved on in about 15 months. In the mean time i can listen to pod casts, audiobooks and potentially write and blog while on the road (not while driving but in my breaks etc). As i wish to study philosophy and anthropology i can dictate and listen to books, lectures etc. So i will need to get a small notebook and use that. I can maintain my nutritional plan and fitness regime also.

So a few great things he also talked about were goal setting and achieving. One of his great ides is to write down two things you have to achieve that day and do them first in the morning. After a work week you will have completed 10 tasks. It doesn’t matter what they are as long as they are realistic pathways to your larger goals.

Beyond that his concepts become interlinked into a process that would enable a desk bound executive to escape the office and are very  circumstantial. His story is very inspirational if you hear his two podcasts with Joe Rogan and see his TED Talks you will get the idea.  I guess it is difficult to review the book in great detail as all the ideas and habits he promotes are positive and beyond that if they fit your circumstances try them.

I really like the book as autodidacts are a rare commodity and to hear them show their path is a great thing.

I will delve a little deeper in Part 2

End of part 1

Honor and my new goals, Miyamato Musashi’s Book of Five Rings.

1-12-12

I haven’t posted a lot this week due to me be obsessed with a book i have just recently devoured via Audio Book.

Miyamato Musashi’s Book of Five Rings.

I have been pondering how i will extricate myself from my current lifestyle and i have begun with my diet and looking to study as my first two goals to achieve. I have started the bio hacking process and i am confident i have built a great foundation on that front.

I have also, applied for University, completed the STAT test a fortnight or so ago and now finalised my course preferences. That too is now is a matter of waiting till i receive my course offers in January. I have been reading over the last month about meditation, Buddhism, Taoism, Bushido and i decided to Delve into the Go Rin No Sho.

The Book of five rings consists of 5 books, all relating to the role of a samurai in ancient Japan. I’m not entirely sure about the author’s actual state when he wrote the piece but it is believed by many that he wrote it in his later years as a memoir of all his (Miyamato Musashi’s)  ideals on the way one should live their life. He is perceived by many to be one of the greatest swordsman to have lived in Japan and won many, many battles in many, many ways and was never defeated.

On checking Wikipedia, amazon reviews and surfing the inter webs on the book – there are many assumptions that have been made on the validity of the claims surrounding his existence but this speculation doesn’t concern me and obviously the book itself is the focus here.

I have listened to the Audio Book dozens of times now and Read it a couple of times. It is an astounding piece of literature. The encompassing Blog i could create summarizing it would be too difficult to write and in a way would serve little but to spoil the efficiency and beauty of it.  Suffice to say is now one of my favorites and i think i will try to carry it and its ever evolving meaning with me always.

I will however say this. If you are searching for meaning to this chaos of existence and and perhaps an ethos to begin with – read it.  Then read it again and again and again. It is profound – a couple of parts have been incredibly helpful in self realizing what a human should be. I think the book promotes a simple notion – be open to all and focused on more than one thing. Strategy encompasses us all.

A week on, food wise…

1-12-12

Well it has been a little over a week. I have made some progress in my nutritional changes by adding some various vitamin and supplements to my regime. To begin with…

My lifestyle now consists of a paleo breakfast of 1 rasher of bacon, 2 eggs gently cooked with no oil. Fresh herbs are added for a change if i feel that way. I am now also having a shake every day which consists pf about 750ml of Kale, Maca, Hemp Protein, banana, Strawberries, (from an actual)Fresh Coconut – the water and Pulp , Almond Milk, Celery, Cucumber, apple and pineapple.

I have been on the Bulletproof Coffee for about 8 weeks now which is – A single source high Altitude coffee from either: Peru, East Timor, Nicaragua or Ethiopia blended with a large Tablespoon of Coconut Oil. i sip about a litre from 7am till 2pm.

I eat a random fruit or two if i am peckish and some leftover steamed/sauteed vegetables from the previous nights meal for lunch.
Before 8pm i am now having Kangaroo, Lamb or Grass fed beef cooked in a little water and a medley of random vegetables sometimes in a tomato passata with no preservatives or with white wine vinegar, salt cayenne pepper and random fresh herbs.

I have started to add , magnesium, Vitamin C, Krill Oil and Vitamin D in varying amounts also. I will try do an Epsom Salts bath once a week too.

Combining this diet with a form of fasting where i replace Coconut oil in the coffee with grass fed butter and i fast from 9pm till about 12pm the next day  – then i crank my shake and eat fruit if i need it.

On the days i work out i also add extra Sweet potato to the vegetable medley to up my Carbohydrates without eating bread or alike.

if you are reading this you may have noticed i am not cooking any oil and eating no grains. To many this is maybe a bad thing but i have noticed a major effect in not eating any grains and cooked oil. I notice the difference within 12- 24 hours dramatically on my well being, energy levels and demeanor.

So for the moment i intend to make these changes with an open mind. So to continue my path towards living a great life i will discuss what i am achieving by publishing my thoughts.

My First Step

22-11-12

About 4 or 5 months ago I began to re listen to all the Joe Rogan Pod casts, Kevin Smith Gets Old, Nerdist, the Football Ramble and more. all of them appealed to me in various ways and then i realized i was a headphone fiend. With my brother on a health kick we both decided to join a gym and use a diet program to control our intake of food. This was great at first. Before i started the lifestyle change i weighed 102kg. I am 5ft 31/2 inches tall and i have broad shoulders so i was chubby. After a month i was below 97kgs and feeling better. I had a couple of personal training sessions and by 2 months the diet program was obsolete and i was around 93-4kgs and not really losing any more weight. I then heard in quick succession, Mike Dolce and Rob Wolfe speak about nutrition on the Joe Rogan Podcast. it was all over – i looked into the Dolce Diet and alot of his principles were interesting. His insights into UFC nutrition made me realise i was way off. Then within a few weeks i heard Rob Wolfe speak about Paleo and many other things. It is an amazing podcast when you hear him talk about sleep being one of the most critical factors for muscle and body regeneration as well as mental well being. Then a few more weeks later i saw another Rogan Podcast with Dave Asprey. Astounding, tremendous and epic. It shifted me into a completely different view. I have been adapting to the Bulletproof Coffee for about 6 weeks now and it is brilliant. I have also taken on a Kale shake and the Upgraded Paleo diet. i now weigh 86kg and i am steadily building strength every day. i implore anyone to hear Asprey talk about Calories, grass fed meat, corn, grain and coconut oil. quite possibly one of the most influential pod casts in history. Now with such a paradigm shift occurring i then applied to sit the Stat Test and completed it Last Sunday. It went well but the point is i made some decisions after affecting myself with some truly positive ones.