JOY!

There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with goodwill for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow. To live continually in thoughts of illwill, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self made prison-hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all-such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring you abounding peace.

There are very few things that can take you out faster than a crummy attitude. I know, we all have bad days, but lamenting and dreading and feeling bad about whatever, will drag you down and lock you up! There are a thousand saying referring to this, "never go to bed angry", "don't let the sun go down on your anger", "positivity attracts positivity" and the list goes on. They are all true. Not every day goes your way for sure, but we can't let that carry over between days, or even between hours if we can help it! I know it sounds too good to be true, but you can help prevent injury, keep yourself healthier, live longer, and have a better quality of life just by cutting the life of bad day's short, and extending the length of time you feel good. Here's why.

Your body is equipped with a countless number of little warehouses, each one full of every kind of chemical / endorphin / enzyme / protein / hormone / and amino acid that you can possibly think of. Each different substance itself capable of any number of miraculous things!! Just as an example, let's look at this one tiny little pea-sized structure at the base of your brain called the anterior pituitary gland. What does this tiny little collection of cells do? It makes something called HGH, which is responsible for muscle growth, bone growth, all of our development during childhood and puberty, our bodies ability to heal itself rapidly, and a host of other things! When HGH level's go down, we get more tired, our skin looses elasticity, and our immune system loses some effectiveness. HGH is actually nicknamed the 'fountain of youth'! and it's only one of a zillion different tools your body has!! So, how do all these chemicals decide when to go free and when to stay locked up? Your Brain! That's right, believe it or not, it's all controlled by the same command center as breathing and heart beat, your amazing, incredible, mind. It's all in your head, believe it! Your probably starting to get the idea here, but there are some things we can do to influence they way's and quantities and timing of all these little switches and dials our brain has to run this miraculous machine we call our body. Here's a few tips!

Laughing is one of the most valuable things God gave us. Joy is seriously one of my most favorite things! Let's try a little experiment in the power of words and thoughts shall we? I want you to say the word "JOY". say it out loud, not in your head. Just saying it makes you feel it. The louder you say it the better you feel! Just to prove it to you, I want you to yell the word "JOY!". I realize that very few of my readers will have the courage to really try this, but you've gotta give it a go before you judge! Stop what you are doing, stop reading, go outside and yell JOY and just try not to smile! It's impossible!!! Amazing!! This is the power of words and thoughts!

Seriously, if you laugh, pretty much everything get's better. Laughter really is the best medicine! It's a good idea to keep in your mental tool belt a few things that make you belly laugh hard. Like the word JOY. A few things that make you do the kind of laughing you cannot possibly do while running or biking without wiping out. Even more than that, keep in your mind the positive things people have said to you that have made you feel the best! Keep these kinds of things at the ready at all times, so that when your up against the wall during a workout, you'll have something to draw on that is more powerful than a power bar, more effective than any gel! You'll be able to tell your army of little warehouses of power house proteins and miracle substances to give you a little boost! Try out the word JOY a few times during your next run and watch what happens! I will talk more about why the word JOY and the activity of using your will to be thankful and happy is so powerful later, but for now, try out JOY, and watch some funny animal video's!

Here's one i think of sometimes about a sleepwalking dog, seriously!

This is the all time best collection! go at it, have a good laugh and make other people wonder what the heck you just finished smoking!

Laugh! And be Joyful!!

Recovery

Recovery is probably the most important thing in your training plan.  I mean it.  And I am not just talking about the IronMan.  I am talking about everything.  If all you do is go go go, eventually your going to burn out.  It is inevitable.  This is true whether your talking about working at your job 12 hours a day, or training for an IronMan.  In fact, in the area of physical training, you can actually totally take yourself out if you don't allow for proper recovery.  For example, you can actually run yourself so hard that when you finally do rest, your legs end up being dead for weeks!  Your body is trained and conditioned to overcome amazing odds and keep running in the most harsh environments and through the most difficult circumstances, all in the interest of keeping you alive.  However, although these bodily functions are amazing, and are very handy on a short time line (say, like running from a LION) they are not designed, nor are they healthy, for long time frames.

Over time, if you keep running yourself ragged, adrenaline levels cause cellular damage and hormones and chemicals build up in the body and cause damage.  Stress is one of the biggest contributors!  I watched this documentary on stress on the discovery channel the other day and wow!  Being stressed, actually releases different hormones in your body than a normal health person.  These hormones actually lead to heart disease, obesity, and a host of other health problems!  It seems strange that the body would poison itself but that is actually what happens!  Apparently it happens in dogs, monkeys, meerkats, and all over the mammalian animal landscape!  The more stressed out you are, the more health problems you have too!  It sounds like a bad joke but it's true.  Your stress level also really depends on the framework from which you define yourself.  Say you go to a job every day and your the low man on the totem-pole and your boss hates you and yells at you everyday.  Well if you define yourself from the framework of your job, then you'll be very stressed out, since that situation sucks and you may be tempted to feel like a loser.  Now let's say you are  also is the short stop in your companies softball league and everybody looks to you for softball leadership and coaching.  Well if you chooses to define yourself from THAT framework, then the job isn't so unbearable, you are the alpha the second you walk onto that softball field (alpha does NOT equal jerk FYI).

Success in your goals depends on your ability to NOT get taken out by circumstances, both the ones that come with the territory for what your trying to accomplish, and the external ones that will surely rear their ugly heads and get in your face the second you start to accomplish something great.  Success greatly depends on your ability to manage all the craziness of life with an even temper and a steady keel.  So you've got to find the thing that gives you back your balance, and put that in your calendar FIRST!  Round two is knowing that your going to have to defend that time because it's going to be assaulted by the world and your circumstances.

Having said all that, I think i'm going to go spend some quality time with my calendar, make sure there is enough room in there for my muscles to recover, my mind to recover, and my soul to recover.  See the awesome photo of a meerkat family below.  They rock.

Photo:  Meerkats are awesome.

NCMEC

Swimming in lake Ontario while the sun comes up over the water might just be one of the best experiences you can have.  Furthermore the swimming at Braddock bay is second to none!  The water is clean and crisp, and never too deep.  It is the perfect spot for swimmers of all levels; whether your a super IronMan Kona Island contender, or a total novice like myself you will not be disappointed.  However, as much as I would love to talk all day about how fantastic swimming is and why it is the perfect way to start your day, I have something else in mind that I think deserves special attention.

If your going to do something awesome, like an IronMan for example, you will need a good reason why.  You will save yourself a lot of mental anguish if your reason for doing it is bigger than the problems you'll face along the way.  If your reason for doing it is smaller than the problems, then the problems might just take you out.  On top of that, if your going to do something way outside the norm, like walk across Niagara falls on a tightrope or jump off the Eiffel tower or something, you might as well raise some money for a charity while your at it!  It is really really easy to raise money for a charity when your doing something that is off the beaten path.  So pick a cause that is dear to you, and make a phone call.  While I am training for this IM I am raising money for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  Why?  Because children are AWESOME!  Trust me, i have two of the best kids on the planet myself and I, like most parents out there, would give my life to keep them safe!  I know this entry is a little more serious than most but this is something I think about as a father almost every day!  The figures are mind blowing, despite the amazing advances we have made in law enforcement and investigation in recent years.

According to the National Center, a staggering 800,000 children are reported missing each year!  There is no typo there, not an extra zero.  Eight-hundred-thousand children each year!!  If you do the math that's more than 2,000 each and every day.  An estimated 1 in 5 girls, and 1 in 10 boys will be sexually victimized before age 18!  Yet, only 1 in 3 will tell anybody about it.  These numbers seriously leave me speechless.  It breaks my heart to hear about just one story on the news of a child being taken from their family.  The numbers are just too much to take in.

The center itself is up to some incredible things to help eliminate the problem.  They offer training for local law enforcement on how to handle these situations, offer fun events for children and parenst to attend across the nation that serve to train and instruct kids and parents on how to avoid abduction, and do tons of events to raise awareness on a national level about the issues.  They offer resources for everybody from parents and guardians, law enforcement, attorneys, and even the media!  Check out their history and resources for yourself at their webpage.  Also, we have set up a donation page that i will be putting on my website and social media pages, including this blog, so that you can donate to their cause.

About the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Resources for Parents and Guardians

Click here to donate.

Please consider donating or participating in one of their events.  In the words of Mr T "I pity the foo that would lose or exploit my kids!!"

Seriously though, together we really can make a dent in those totally unacceptable numbers.