Hormesis, Gettingstronger.org and The Deconditioning Diet

Hormesis, ever heard of it?  Probably not.  I'd never heard of it until I listened to the latest podcast at robbwolf.com.  For those who don't know, Robb Wolf is the renouned author of The Paleo Solution.

The guest of this podcast talked about a website called gettingstronger.org and it's philosophy of "hormesis".  Hormesis, as far as I understand it, is the idea that increasing one's exposuer to stressor's slowly over time, can in fact re-wire pathways in the brain and rest of the body to make us stronger.  Ironically enough, if you have read my last blog post, I was working on not being so reactive towards one of my bosses.  This website has the potential to provide me with a way to do that through applying the pricipals of hormesis.

This brings me to my next topic. gettingstronger.org's "Deconditioning Diet".  This diet is designed to help eliminate or control cravings and put a stop to so-called "emotional eating"- something I've learned I still do from time to time, usually during periods of high stress.  And yes, even after doing Primal Blueprint for as long as I have, I still get cravings.  What I crave has shifted from largely sweets to things like hard-boiled eggs or prime ribe, but that intense "need" for some sort of food is still there and I do not wish to be controlled by this.

So, as of today, I am doing a deconditioning diet.  Bye-bye cookies, fudge, and all the other crap foods from the holidays; welcome, wholsome real foods and freedom from cravings (at least I hope).

The first "phase" of the diet is involves just following a low-carb diet iwth three scheduled meals and no snacking for at least a week.  This is were I'll be starting since I did fall off the Primal wagon this weekend.  Even though, I'll be following Primal Blueprint again, I will be leaving out more foods than usual.  Eggs will be one of these food.  I know I've loved the eggs I make for breakfast, but the lictins in them may still be causing me digestive problems.

The last part of phase one is making a craving log where you note all your cravings: the time and date. nature of the craving (general hunger or a specific food) and speculate what could have caused the craving.  I've already used mine twice today.

That being said, let's get down to business!  Updates to come in the future.

Sayonara!

More Tweaking

I've been doing some tweaking with my diet as of late.  After doing some further research, I decided to add more "safe starches", as The Perfect Health Diet calls them.  Their blog/website has some really good resources and PHD is very similiar to the Primal Blueprint/Paleo way of eating, but with more starches.  These include, white potatoes (without the skin), sweet potatoes (for now), white rice, tapioca, and others that I can't remember at the moment.

One blog post of theirs talked the body's immune response to fungal infections being dependant on glucose levels, and how very-low or low carb dieters can be prone to them.  Having read this blog and that white potatoes digest into only glucose, while sweet potatoes digest into a combination of glucose and fructose (something we want to limit our consumption of), I decided to try adding one white potato a day to my meal plans to help fight the fungal infection on my legs.  I've also started putting coconut oil on the effected area twice a day as I've read coconut is a natural anti-fungal.  It seems to be helping, abate, at a slow pace.  The effected areas have not got worse or spread, but not getting better as quickly as I'd hoped. 

Now, this could be the safe starch I'm using.  Potatoes are also nightshades, plants that need shade to grow and have low levels of neurotoxins in them.  I've notices red spots on my right arm recently and am wondering if they might be a delayed allergic reaction to the increase in potato consumption.  I only have three left, so I will finish those off and switch to white rice for 30 days to see if the spots go away,

On another note, I've discovered that dark chocolate may be causing me indigestion.  I ate only half a bar of Trader Joes 72% Cocoa Dark Chocolate bar yesterday morning around 9:00 am,  A half an hour later, yep you guessed it- indigestion.  Looks like I'm going to have to cut out dark chocolate for awhile.  So much for that Pound Plus 72% Cocoa bar I bought!  Oh well, it's not that big a deal.  I needed to cut down on bother the amount and how often I eat it anyways.

That means I need to find other ways to manage my stress levels, particular the stress coming from one of my jobs and dark chocolate has become a bit of a "comfort" food for me since going Primal.  The owner of the store and I just don't quite see eye to eye and he seems to be one of those people who is always right and everyone else is wrong.  I know he's the owner and there's really nothing I can do about it, yet he always seems to get some sort of reaction out of me.

I'm working on not being so reactive to his craziness and finding another job.  One where I get the money I earn on time, a schedule more than a day or two in advance, and isn't nearly as stressful.  The stress from this job will often add to the temptation to eat thing that are not good for me or eat more than I need to or when I'm not even hungry.  This usually results in weight gain or stalled weight loss and feeling like shit/lower energy levels for the next day or two.  Not something I want since I've not reached my goal weight (I've got 20ish more lbs to loose) and I want to feel healthy with lots of energy to get through each day.

I hope to get through the holidays without consuming too much food.  We shall see how I do.

Sayonara

Notes to Self

Wow.  My first "relationship" if you can call it that with a woman (I don't even know if I'd call her that because quite frankly, I now realize she acted very much like a teenage girl with several issues she's too afraid to admit to), did not end well.  I can not believe I allowed myself to be manipulated like that.  Our relationship was never solid to begin with and my aunt was right about one thing- there were several red flags I chose to ignore because I was too wrapped up in having my first girlfriend and too nice to call them on not wanting to grow up and better themselves until after they ended it.  If you don't want to grow up and change and admit you might just need professional help because your previous relationships haven't worked out either, than I guess your not worth my pity, which is what I really felt towards this person. 

Red flag number one:  Making it a requirement of the relationship to have it posted on Facebook.  Now, don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with posting your relationship status on Facebook, but to make it a requirement of your partner is just wrong.  Relationships are about respecting your partners wishes, and don't make up some excuse about "oh, I don't want to have to hide it."  That's fine then don't, but if your partner doesn't want it on Facebook respect their wishes.  It's the right thing to do.

Red flag number two:  Lives at home with parents/parent, doesn't have a job and doesn't really see that if your over 18, you are a guest in your parents home.  Now, if this is just a transition between jobs or between places that's fine.  So long as you give the owners of the home common courtesy of following their rules (it is their home after all) and asking if it's OK if people come over before you talk to the people you want to bring over.  It doesn't matter if your parent/parents will be OK with it,  the polite thing to do is ask and get premission beforehand.

Red flag number three:  You really don't have much in common with them and there's lots of miscommunication right off the bat.  Sure, we were both writers and misfits in high school, but that was where our commonalities ended.  Also, they started asking me questions about my possible future relationships, after the relationship had ended, which at this point, is none of their business.

All this being said, this still doesn't change my attraction toward woman and I've learned a lot about what I want out of a partner and what I don't want and I do know, that I need to be single for awhile to sort all of this sh*t out and purge myself of this negative influence. 

I really don't need an immature girl too afraid to admit they might just be the reason their previous relationships haven't worked out, who just turns around and calls me judgemental when I decide I don't even want to even be friends with them. 

Besides, it was them who thought we'd be better friends in the first place.  Yes, I did agree at the time because I hadn't begun to fully process what was going on and how I really felt towards them.  But, just because I've figured out I don't need their negative influence in my life anymore and that they really aren't worth my pity, doesn't give them the right to say "you'll never get a girlfriend if you treat people this way", "you're stuck up and judgemental,", etc.  Seriously?  What kind of naive fantasy are you living in?  Certainly not one I want to be a part of.  All just because multiple people most likely called on some issues you have.   If that's not a sign of someone whose got issues, I don't know what is and someone who wants to change and is mature, will take a look at themselves and say "you know what, maybe they're right, lets see what an objective third party has to say."

Sorry for the long rant.  I just really need to get this out of my system.

Sayonara

Leptin Reset: Update

Hi all,

I decided to stop the Leptin Reset RX via Dr. Jack Kruse because I just can't eat 50g of protein in one sitting.  I can eat about 30g before I start getting reflux. Also, I've realized I just can't do 50g of carbs or less for very long anymore.  After about a week or two I wasn't feeling very good and didn't really have as much energy as I thought I should have.  It helped me get out of a weight loss plateau and get my carbs back under 100g a day, but it isn't very good for me long term.  I just need some more healthy carbs.

I also started reading his Facebook posts and didn't really agree with some of them.  And, if you think it's ok to drop your pants in a department store just to show your weight loss, than sorry but I'm going to start questioning what you say.  So, yeah, Dr. Jack Kruse is out.  Even unfriended him on Facebook.

I'm going back to just plan ol' Primal Blueprint like before.

Sayonara!

Leptin Reset Program: Heading into week 3

Long time no write, but this post's not about writing as you might have been able to tell by it's title.  A while back, I noticed I wasn't sleeping as well as I should be and I knew I shouldn't be craving prime rib at 9 pm!  Something was not right.  Now, it might have been I wasn't getting enough iron, but more importantly, my carbs where possibly going over 100 grams a day.

I had heard about Jack Kruse's Leptin reset prescription through the Mark's Daily Apple forums, but had never really looked at it until recently.  Kruse's blog can be found here:  http://jackkruse.com/my-leptin-prescription/  I won't go into the details since I provided the link, but there are three basic rules:

1. Strict Paleo/Primal diet as described by Rob Wolf or Mark Sisson

2. 3 meals a day, no snacking, ever.

3. Only 50 grams of Cabohyrdates a day

I'd hit a funk and had starting gaining weight again.  That meant my metabolism was going south again.  I'm trying Kruse's Leptin reset, to help keep my metabolism from doing that and it's working.  The weight is coming off effortlessly again.

Sayonara

Conflicted Characters

While reading the first volume of Nura: The Rise of the Yokai Clan, I noticed I'm drawn to characters with conflicted natures.  The main character Nura, Rikuo is three quarters human, one quarter yokai or demon and the story is about how is comes to terms with his demon blood, using it to help humans instead of torment them.  I haven't read much of the story so far, so I don't know much other than this.

Another example of a character at odds within himself, is Lian Hearn's Otori, Takeo. In the beginning of the series Takeo is called Tomasu, raised among a secret sect of religious believers called The Hidden.  As a member of the Hidden, Tomasu is taught, never to take a life, whether that of one's own or someone else.  At the age of twelve, Tomasu's village is burned and he is rescued by Otori, Shigeru, the heir of a predominant samurai clan.  We later discover that Takeo, as Shigeru had renamed him, is not only Shigeru's adopted son, but his nephew.   On top of this, Takeo's father, Imasu, was a member of the Tribe, a secret society of people with special abilities-what ninjas were thought to be.  So Takeo has three different natures waring inside him and I love the way Hearn writes this.

However, as much as I love Takeo, there are characters I wish she'd explored more and I do wish Hearn had stuck with first person throughout the series.  It would have been awesome to really get inside Maruyama Naomi  or even Otori, Shigeko's head because than I could have had lots of examples how to write powerful women in Japanese culture.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Tales of the Otori series, otherwise I would not still be reading, but there are places where I feel Hearn could have expanded and developed several female characters more.  I would have liked to see how Lady Maruyama ran the west back in her day.  We only get glimpses.

The reason I'm saying this is because I'm looking for someone to base my own Hogoshiro Chronicles characters on.  I can't help but feel somewhat disappointed when Hearn switches from first person narrative for Takeo, and third person for everyone else.

Yes, I have got a better grasp on traditional Japanese culture in a fantasy setting by reading this series and the idea of women as rulers is a very interesting addition, but I think I was expecting Hearn to elaborate more on the idea and from a first person point of view of the women involved.

I really am at the point in my writting proces where I need to get a better grasp on who my character are, what their individual quirks are, and on the story itself. 

I know that I want Hibiki to be conflicted, torn between her Oshiro and Shikibu natures and that her journey in the story is to figure out how to resolve that conflict, as several members of the two clans do not get along very well.  Have to keep the bloodlines pure now don't we;) ?  Hibiki is more of a scientist, like her father, Akihito Shikibu, but also has the legacy of the Oshiro kaikimushi with which she was born and her mother, Misaki's bull-headedness, plus her father's impatience.  After her mother commits ritual suicide, the telepathy she inherited from her father activates.  Hibiki will be the Takeo of my story.

I know that Rin, the main kitsune in my story, has a weird fasination (for a kitsune that is) with human technology and that she has more of a girly-girly personality to Hibiki tomboyish one.  Rin is more playful than Hibiki.  She is a fox shapeshifter afterall.  She will be Hibiki's conpanion and one of her lovers in the story.  And yes, Rin will get at least one more tail before the story is finished as she helps rescue her brother (yet to be named) from the clutches of the evil Dr. Takahashi and avoids getting sold as a slave on the black market.

Kakashi Shikibu, one of my human to creature telepaths is Hibiki's mentor and uncle.  He helps take care of and study all the creatures and humans in the Mt. Kumotori hogoshiro.  He is the main scientist at the Mt. Kumotori hogoshiro.  I liken Kakashi to Shigeru in personality.  He is very calm and knowledgable.  I haven't quite figured out quite what some of his quirks are yet, but I'm sure as time goes by and dwell on it more, they will come.

Shikibu, Akihito is Hibiki's father and Kakashi's older brother will be the most Western influenced of all my characters.  At first we will only get to "meet" him through Kakashi's flashbacks and Hibiki's reading of his journal.  He won't physically enter the picture until after Hibiki's telepathy awakens.  Of course, everyone except Rin, Misaki and the Oshiro elders think he is dead.  He has entrusted Rin to keep his fake death a secret from both Kakashi and Hibiki until the time is right (Misaki's suicide).  He is a bit of an "open canon" if you will.  More carefree but high strung than his younger brother; he has had some anger management issues in the past and can be impatient at times.  However, he is capable of being serious when he needs to be.

My fifth core character will be Nakamora, Hideo.  He is a healer with eyes that can detect "chi" or living energy.  This is his clan's special ability.  Knowledgable in many healing arts, including accupuncture, he could just as easily be an assassin.  He is one of the characters I don't know as well and need to develope more.

Another character I need to get to know better is Oshiro, Miki, Hibiki's grandmother.  She's strong and set in her beliefs, yet compassionate and caring.  Firm, but loving.  I feel I don't really have a good example of her to work from yet and don't know how to write her as a result.  There's a scene that I still haven't written coming up between Miki and Hibiki in reguards to preparing for Misaki's funeral where I really have a chance to develope the relationship between grandmother and granddaughter, but I don't have a good enough grasp on Miki yet to write it.

And then, there's the supporting characters and the feel of the hogoshiro itself that needs more developement.  Your readers need to get a good idea of what life is like at Mt. Kumotori before the major characters loose that life to really empathize with them.  I believe I have a opening scene worked out that will do this better, but of course I won't really know until it's written.


Any suggestions are always welcome.
Sayonara!

Strange Dreams

I had the strangest dream, I've had in awhile last night. I was somewhere near the Dane County Coliseum  in Madison, Wisconsin and there was this disease that made almost everyone turn into humanoid pig monsters, except several people who made it to the Coliseum. That didn't last long though, as the infected people started to make their way to the Coliseum.

I met a woman there (also unaffected) and I'm sure we talked, I just don't remember what she or I said.  She gave me a ride to my childhood neighborhood in Fitchburg, Wisconsin near the house I grew up in.  The house we entered was nothing like anything I remember.  It had a dark hardwood floor and a table in what I can only assume is the living room, with a bouquet of flowers on it.  That's all I saw of the house before waking up briefly.

I then fell back into the dream only to have the lady hit me in the back of the neck, knocking me out.

I woke up (in the dream) in a lab with a man standing over me, dazed and confused. I would later come to find out this confusion had resulted in my kitsune genes activating.  I was half kitsune (yes, as in the mythical Japanese fox shape-shifters). Apparently, my subconscious thinks my real father is a male kitsune. I found this odd because in Japanese myth kitsune, when in human form, always take on the appearance of a human female who ends up seducing a human male.  Not the other way around.

The dream ended before I could figure out if I was genetically engineered or not, but it was bizarre nonetheless.  I may however, use something similar in my novel, The Hogoshiro Chronicles.

Sayonara!

Stress Management

It has begun to consciously drawn on me, how stress can affect one's diet.  It was in the back of my mind, but hasn't really come to the surface until a week ago.  I had been 3 months into eating based on Mark Sisson's The Primal Blueprint, when I started to slip.  Gluten and refined sugar started to re-enter my diet.  Granted, I was choosing options that had the least amount of carbs in them (funny isn't?), but that's really not the point.  It has been little things so far: a packet of Little Debbie doughnut gems, a raised doughnut(or two), or a cream cheese croissant a day.  Not too bad considering I'm still losing weight. 

However, I'm going to quit this annoying little habit beginning to re-develope.  As of today, I'm cutting the grains and refined sugar out (again).  I've started making my own food again and bringing enough with me in case I need a snack etc.  All foods I've made today are primal (no grains, no refined sugar).  I'm re-setting my goals reguarding my eating habits.  Grains, sayonara!  Refined sugar, sayonara too!  Out of here.  Gone.

Another thing I need to work on is make sure I eat what I buy.  There are times where I'll buy something thinking I'm going to use it and then it just sits there in my frig, roiting away.  If I would just eat the damn thing, I'd waste so much less money.  And, I'd feel so much better if I just continued to eat primal foods.

Kinda of a bit off topic form the pervious entries, but you will all just have to deal with it.

Sayonara

Across a Nightingale Floor

At writer's group this week, we were discussing possible 5th Teusday writing challanges and one person suggested writing from an object's point of view, instead of a character's (usually a human or animal).  There were other suggestions, but I think I like this one the best.  I already have an idea for it!  Having learned about nightengale floors or uguisubari from reading Lian Hearn's Across the Nightingale Floor I have been researching them to use in my own novel The Hogoshiro Chronicles. There's a character named Dr. Takahashi who I think would be paranoid enough to have an uguisubari. 

Uguisubari will usually sing when walked on.  The nails rub against a clamp causing the floor to make chirping sounds.  Kinda cool, isn't?  No one would be able to kill you, if they couldn't get across your uguisubari without making it sing, thus altering you to their pressence.  This was the main reason the Japanese invented uguisubari in the first place; to protect their royals from assassination.

Now, would it not be cool to have a piece of flash finction about someone, say Dr. Takahashi strolling across his uguisubari, but from the floor's point of view?  Maybe it's just me, but I think so.  How would the floor feel about being walked on, if it had any feelings at all?  Guilty over protecting such a cruel man who happens to sell innocent kitsune on the black market or happy to serve it's master?  If someone figured out how to creep across undetected, would uguisubari notice, even if it said nothing?  Would it be able to differentiate the people by their tread?

I hope to answer these questions whether this challange gets chosen or not at some point.  I think it would be a fun challange and a way to force myself to make the landscape come alive.

Sayonara

Collections of quotes from Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori - Part 1

Right now, I'm going through and reading all the books from Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori series.  So far, I've read Across the Nightengale Floor, the first book of the series and the prequel, Heaven's Net is Wide  Both books are excellent examples of how to write in a Japanese cultural setting using the English language, which is exactly why I'm working my way through the whole series.

I don't think you can expect to write in a foreign culture without having read examples of how to do so beforehand.  Well, I suppose you could, but your editors and/or readers might have a field day with you and I'm pretty sure I don't want that.  Hence, why research is so important and why I've started to take notes on how Hearn describes various situations.  For example, in Heaven's Net is Wide there are at least three exquisite passages when she illustrates Otori, Shigeru (pronouced Oh-tow-ree, She-geh-roo) crying.  Note, the Japanese put the surname first followed by the given name.  Therefore, Hearn does the same when the character is first introduced or in using formal language.

p.275:  "The smoke stung his eyes and he let them water, the moisture running unchecked down his cheeks . .  ."  Here Shigeru has just been humiliated at the hands of Iida, Sadamu in the fierce Battle of Yaegahara.  Shigeru's supposed allies the Noguchi have betrayed him and he clan, the Otori, have now lost most of their land to the Iida.  What I like most about this passage is how Hearn shows that men, especially of the samarai class, don't "cry" perse.  They let their eyes water. 

In another paassage, twenty pages later, Hearn again shows the differences between how men and women "cry"

p.295:  "he crashed his fist down down on it as though he could split the stone, and tears spurted from his eyes like fountains."  Again, the language Hearn uses implies that Shigeru's only crying because he lost control.  He didn't will the tears to come, they just came.  This quote also shows how physical activity usually accompanies grief with men.

I'm sure there were more examples such as these and will be more to come in the other books, but I will leave it at that for now.  There is however, one last quote from Heaven's Net is Wide, I would like to share with you.  It's a description of a memorial service for one of the dead from Yaegahara.  I figured since, I will have a memorial service (funeral/wake) for one of my own characters in The Hogoshiro Chronicles, I might as well make note of it for future reference.

P. 400-401: "The service was held in the small shrine in the garden and tables with the names of the dead man and his sons were placed before the altar . . . smoke from incense rose straight upward in the still air, mingling with the sharp scents of autumn."

Sayonara

Learning Japanese

Learning Japanese is not easy and I'm learning it doesn't help to when you don't have your own computer.  Why am I learning Japanese?  For several reasons, but the main one right now is beause I wish to better understand the culture I am trying to place my first novel The Hogoshiro Chornicles in.  You guessed it!  Japan.

A writer friend of mind suggested I read Lian Hearn's Across the Nightingale Floor because my story reminded her of the book.  I recently finished the book and I have to agree.  The time period is incorrect (I wish to set THC in modern Japan, while AtNF is set an alternate feudal Japan, but Hearn's book shares many things with the ideas I have for THC.

Anyways, back on topic.  I was looking through Hearn's website lianhearn.com, and read her post on writing in different cultures.  She strongly suggested you learn the language of the culture you are trying to write in.  In both our cases:  Japanese.  If you learn and understand the language, you can than read works from said culture in its own native language.  Nothing can get "lost in translation" if you will.  Since, reading is such an important part of becoming a good writer, I figured it would be important to take the time to learn Japanese.

I've tried looking for continuing education classes at all the local colleges here in Madison, but can't find any that are in my price range. MATC has one for $72.76, but I wouldn't be able to get aid for it.  Besides, there are other free resources out there such as tofugu.com and textfugu.com.  Okay, so textfugu is only partly free (the first 6 lessons of "season 1"), but I'm finding them to be pretty damn good lessons.  Textfugu also has a list of other resources for studying Japanese, most of them with at least some free parts.

Being interested in modern (and ancient) Japanese culture helps as well.  Watching anime with English subtitles is another way to supplement your studies.  It's not a great way to learn by itself, but it can help.  If you're actively paying attention, meaning you stop the video and repeat things or read phrases of Hiragana or Katakana, instead of just passively listening.

I've wondered which writing system is best to learn first, Hiragana or Katakana?  Kanji, the system of characters the Japanese "borrowed" from the Chinese, is the most difficult to learn, so I'm not even bothering with those- yet at least.  Several people say that Hiragana is the one you should study first.  Not only because this is the writing system the Japanese first learn themselves, but it will save you time in the long run.  That, and learning Romanji is a waste of time since you already know it.

Sayonara.