It's Official :: I Need a Permit

For mah guns.

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Polygonum multiflorum

or "Fo Ti" is a root/herb of Chinese origin. I've been taking it for years as a supplement. I think back in college I read somewhere that it was good for "male vitality" (ahem). I've never had a problem with my "vitality" but I figured hell, it can only help, right?

Anyways, back to Fo Ti -- it's also known as Chinese Knotweed (heh heh) or he shou wu (何首乌), named after the first man known to have ingested it. Who lived to be 132 years old. (And also had his his gray hair turn back to black, apparently.) I looked further into this alleged "elixir of life" and discovered that it is known for benefits other then the aforementioned.."vitality". The stuff is even better then I originally thought. [from Drug Digest]

• In animal studies, unprocessed fo-ti has showed some ability to improve memory, affect immune function, and protect the liver from toxins. All these effects are probably due to antioxidant properties of unprocessed fo-ti.

• ...processed fo-ti contains protein-sugar complexes known as lectins. Because they attach to specific arrangements of carbohydrates on cells in the body, lectins act like antibodies, but they do not cause allergy symptoms like most antibodies do. The lectins in processed fo-ti may affect fat levels in the blood, helping to prevent or delay heart disease by blocking the formation of plaques in blood vessels. Plaques are accumulations of fat and other cells that restrict the size of blood vessels and limit the flexibility of their walls. In animal studies, processed fo-ti also reduced the amount of fat that deposited in the liver. It may also protect the liver from damage by toxins such as dry cleaning fluid. Processed fo-ti may also have immune system effects.

and here's the fine print:

• However, both unprocessed fo-ti and processed fo-ti have some similar effects. Both have been shown in animal and human studies to lower blood levels of “bad” low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and raise the levels of “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Antioxidant effects are believed to be involved, in addition to lectin’s activity. Although early results look promising, more studies are needed to prove the cholesterol-lowering effects of fo-ti.

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My Brain's Gonna Splode :: Wii, Orb, Haircut, NY

Begin bulleted list

• [I'd like to file this under 'early adopter'] So I got myself a Wii. It happened somewhat quickly and very nerdily. It's set up in my living room with the output projected on the wall in a nice 3x4 ft window. I already have tennis elbow (no joke) and have successfully sent some Miis over to my buddy who has one (and gets credit for turning me onto it).
  I've been sehr diligent in my training and am already close to pro status in tennis. It gets better though -- after installing Orb on my media PC, I can access all files, pictures, videos, mp3s, and documents from my Wii. I now sit on my couch in the evenings and surf YouTube instead of watching TV. Welcome to the future.
• Orb is a little program that acts sort of like a streaming server.. From any other machine you hit a website, log in, and have access to your host. It's very sweet, if not a bit buggy on my Vista laptop [grrr].
  
• Got shorn today. I'm moving back towards a 'hican [or is it mullethawk?]. Once I sort out exactly how its going to be documentation in the form of pictures will be posted.
• I'm going to New York next week to visit my family -- especially my ailing grandmother. I am very excited to be able to see her, but am simultaneously sad about what I expect to encounter when I get there. She fell very ill on Easter and her status is still somewhat unclear.

And in the same vein -- I share this delectable video morsel with you

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*Finally* Some Significant Good News

Liver regeneration: Simpler than thought [UPI]
...Harvard Medical School researchers said their findings could significantly affect the way physicians make livers regrow in patients who have liver diseases such as cirrhosis, hepatitis or cancer.

Yay science!

THE COMMUNIST PARTY

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Whew!

This morning at 7am I had a PT session. Luckily, there were not (m)any plyometric exercises involved. We focused on the usual strength-exhaustion routine:

Warm up: elliptical 5 mins

• Bent-over row using a long barbell

• Squat to a leaning in overhead press using long barbell
• Barbell curls
• push ups
• Medicine Ball Squat (arms outstretched, touching ball to floor in squat, lifting out and over head as standing)
• 

Dumbbell lunges (walking) with curls into Arnold press

• Medicine ball alternating side twists
• ball crunches (feet up on wall) with weight held out arms length
• passing fitness ball hands-feet v-ups
• Treadmill 12 minutes, last 3 running up max incline

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Spartan Workout

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I, Jellyfish

Well I had a session with a personal trainer this morning. It was supposed to be last Friday, but he slept through it. (I can't say I blame him, since the session was gratis.) In any case, trainer and I both made it today for our 8am meeting.

I am disgusted. Apparently it's miraculous that I have the strength to even lift myself out of bed in the mornings. It seems that my muscles (if indeed there are any) in my butt and lower back are so useless, that I compensate for their pathetic-osity by thrusting my shoulders forward and doing all sorts of weird stuff with my foot angles. Oh and that myth about isolating a muscle when working it as being 'good form' is bullshit too. I need to do more "combination exercises".

In other words, this is what I resemble on a musculo-skeletal level:
I'm bummed out. Oh and to add insult to injury, at the end of the consultation/session we went through the song-and-dance about booking a package of sessions, etc.. It was at this point that the reality of my situation slapped me hard in the face: I. Am. Broke.

Let's see:
Out of shape: check
Weak: check
Poor Form: check
Financially wrecked: check

Thanks, Monday.

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