November 30, 2002
Namaste Noble Fitness Warriors!
JUST A REMINDER: NO YOGA CLASSES TOMORROW (SUNDAY, 11/31) AT POWERHOUSE GYM! ENJOY YOUR THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY! I hope to see you Monday night for class as usual!
and now, more from Santa Fe (see Direct Lines at www.wholisticfitness.com for earlier entries):
�Art, at it�s best, is the representation of your very own soul, a reminder of who and what you truly are and therefore can become.�
- Ken Wilber
A discrete shaft of sunset light has just spilled phosphorescent fire across a rooftop spire of The Museum of Fine Arts, just off Palace Street in the old plaza of Santa Fe,New Mexico. I wiggle my digital camera to and fro, attempting to freeze the clash of enflamed adobe against a shockingly cobalt sky. The best things in life are not �things�. They are moments. Moments like this one, where the twilight of the real becomes something intangible and evokes intimacy from our inner dimension. It�s moments like this one which i think everyone - from tree hugging dirt worshippers to pious preachers - seek. A new encounter. A broadened version of our habituated self. A Higher vision to our judgmental mind. After prancing about to get just the right photographic angle, the final flickers of sun have left the rooftop to the cold oncoming of night. A passerby nods at my effort saying, �Nice job!� I too, am pleased with my photograph and eager to upload it onto my computer.
I am playing tour guide today for my beautiful wife and mother in law. No better, no more charming place in the Universe to take loved ones than this, �City Different�. There are definite reasons why artists have flocked to this pinyon studded mesa beneath the Sangre de Christos for several centuries. This ancient town, the oldest incorporated capital city in the United States, lies within an energetic vortex of earth energy. Her vibration can be measured in scientific ways. More importantly, it can be felt by all that travel here.
Leaving the ladies at the Georgia O�Keefe museum (no offense to the great painter, but i�ve been there many times), i choose to saunter. Having lived here for years, i know full well not to let intellectuality step in too much when here. I find it best just to wander about her adobe galleries, miracle churches, Native American peddlers, and burro cart sized streets without agenda. �All who wander are not lost,� wrote Neruda. He knew well what Santa Fe offers...a close liaison with the Tao.
In my ambling, i reflect on my morning�s workout...a chilly bike ride through the old townships of Corrales and Algodonnes. The paved roads are new, the spirit remains old. The character of rural New Mexico arose as visibly as did my breath as I cranked along the Rio Grande bosque. Sandhill Cranes, dozens of them, flanked the narrow road as i pedaled �Alphie� my Trek road bike, past San Ysidro church. A little further along, an enormous peacock swaggers a kaleidoscope of iridescence so beautifully, i nearly ran into him. Only in New Mexico have i come not to question why the hell is a huge peacock strutting down the road.
At the Gallery of Southwest Contemporary Art, i�m shocked from my reverie. Several paintings by Roseta Santiago have literally floored me. I am stunned by the power of her paintings and dangle in an expanded moment afforded to me by their velocity of resolution. I stare at her painting titled, �Witness� as if slapped across the face by the Infinite. I drop even lower into a yoga squat as if attempting to ground my heady transport into Santiago�s realm. �Witness� showcases an enormous buffalo skull with eye sockets aglow with straw colored intensity looming forward against a field of raven black paint. Well delineated sutures criss-cross the skull giving focal rise to the top of the skull - Sahasrara chakra in yogic terms - where the white bone disperses into glow...nearly halo-like. Mesmerized, i stumble about the rest of the gallery. A striking woman glides past me with purposed gait. The vortex has fashioned another High encounter. For some reason, i simply know that she is the artist.
�Excuse me,� I question her, �but have you any information on Roseta Santiago?�
�I am her,� she smiles, affirming my psychic yoke. �Hold on, and i�ll get you some printed information.�
�I�ll just take a hug instead,� I reply and she obliges warmly. In our embrace, i whisper, �Hugs are better than printed information anyway.� She laughs as I go on, �I just wanted to thank you for being brave enough to be a artist.�
My comment inspires her to turn our hug into a most delightful twenty minutes of discussing matters of art and spirit until some potential customers are steered her way by the gallery owner. Roseta is doing an opening at this very gallery tomorrow night. In her parting words i find more inspiration, �What I really love about Santa Fe is the same thing that I love about painting; it�s something invisible. You can feel it, but you don�t see it.�
You can feel it, but you don�t see it.
That�s exactly what I treasure most about daily fitness workouts. It�s the invisible energy generated from exercise that ultimately seems to matter most.
Enjoy your Practice and may you find true art within your workout.
I bow to you,
coach ilg
November 27, 2002
Namaste Noble Warriors!
Life is very rich. There is much to be thankful for this holiday. Our health, first and foremost! Personal fitness constantly unfolds us...if we let it. Being thankful is a great way to unfold our deeper, Higher self.
Kathy and i vacated the venomous air of LA yesterday to celebrate Thanksgiving with family in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. It did not take long for me to snap back into my familiar mountain yogi groove. By 4:30 this morning, i was soaring through predawn light toward Santa Fe to go skiing. To secure the favor of the Mountain Gods, i climbed the 1,500 vertical feet of the ski area before it opened. In a little under an hour I stood against howling winds atop 12,000+� Tesuque Peak. I did this as pilgrimage ...to earn my rides up the chairlift! It�s a Wholistic Fitness Warrior thing. You see, many skiers spend their entire lives skiing without ever once climbing up the slopes they so easily slide down. That to me, is not whole and smacks of spiritual ignorance. Being addicted to chairlifts is just as harmful to mastery as any addiction. One must labor with the mountain directly. Feel her snowy sheath crunch beneath frozen toes. Watch your heaving breath materialize into icy vapor. There are metaphysical reasons behind why so many skiers break bones... bones represent spiritual energy.
Don�t ever forget, yogi: One must always do the Work. There are no shortcuts. Devote yourself to difficulty to be freed from it.
Snow Yoga
I had a few precious telemark ski turns (which is like doing a deep lunge/split jump) out of the hundreds i did today where i really found my yoga. I found it in those moments when i was no longer a �skier�. Instead, i was but the crackle of cold air dancing. I was the truth of my ski edge biting the canvas of steep snow. I was my breath, inhaling and exhaling into the repeated deep lunges down the mountain face. I skied every double diamond run i could find. Did not fall once. My legs felt as strong and agile as a cougars. My lungs breathed easily in unison with my linked turns. Rarely have i felt as powerful and fluid on my skis first time out in a season. High Performance Yoga! ...i didn�t call it that for nothing! Today i cashed in on all those �scuba deep� chair poses !
The outdoors has been the central call of my life and lies at the heart of my spiritual Practice. Training for and doing outdoor sports can become spiritual intention. They have for me. Winter sports especially are fundamental to my being. Ice climbing, skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, and winter mountaineering make up the core of what is meaningful to me. My best yoga is far removed from the yoga studio. My best yoga arises from testing my skill, strength, intensity, and endurance within the cathedral of Nature. The largest proportion of my spiritual work has been making myself feel comfortable in the vastness of nature. I want to feel as comfortable skiing down a colouir or climbing unroped up a frozen waterfall as i am sitting on a meditation cushion or sharing Calli tea with Kathy at night.
Sukha Sense
Let me clarify this notion of getting comfortable (sukha) within difficulty. Many of us began doing yoga to find more comfort in our body. Perhaps physical pain grew so great we knew we had to do something or be condemned to living in a body wracked by chronic pains and limited movement. That�s how i got into yoga.
As our yoga practice matured, we gradually learned how to relax into the intense stiffness that plagued our muscles. As our muscles began to �let go�, we happened upon a most fascinating insight...it was our mind that was limiting our ability to �let go� and surrender into a more comfortable state of being! �The body follows the mind�, as i say in my High Performance Yoga video. We learn through steadfast yoga practice (abhyasa) that within the restricted, hidden parts of ourselves lies our greatest joy! Don�t ignore that tight hamstring! Dive into it! For if we do that, new energy is released from those buried places within us in the way acorns spring into trees. By becoming comfortable with circumstances we tend to resist, our spiritual victory is scored! Just moving and breathing comfortably within our bodies is a constant state of joy. Nothing else is needed! The same is true in outdoor sports performance; relax the mind into the moment and the power of the Universe will sing through you.
So it is, on this Thanksgiving holiday, Kathy and i wish you the Highest of all yoga and the Highest of all your own personal summits! May the ecstasy of your workouts bring fierce exaltation to your desire to Rise Above! May some ancient memory of silence stir you into a sincere moment of true Thanks for all that you already have.
May you lay bare, without ego, and wonder at the fragile mystery and beauty of the most simple things...the firelight of sun, the constant kiss of wind, and acts of kindness and compassion.
I bow to you from the glimmering, snowy heights of New Mexico...Happy Thanksgiving!
coach ilg
November 26, 2002
Namaste Noble Fitness Warriors!
November 24th was Kathy and my FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!!!
We woke late thanks to a fantastic dinner party the evening prior here with Teacher Q, Ingrid, Karen, and Chris.
By 11:00 am however, Lovey (Kathy) cranked off a nice run, while I did intervals on our indoor SPINNING cycle. We are, without a doubt, a fitness couple. After our cardio workouts, we did a spot of HP yoga together as the wind tossed tawny colored leaves about our front porch. i surprise my newly wed wife of one year with a card and a way cool, hi-tech sweater. i don�t know how it came about, but both of us fell into a spontaneous zen cleaning mode...perfect! a calm productivity enters our afternoon like a long awaited sigh. by two thirty, i take Kathy to Paramahansa Yogananda�s Lake Shrine Temple...an internationally famous temple of All Religions located just about 20 miles away from us where Sunset Boulevard meets with the Pacific Coast Highway. It�s her first time. We meditate in the temple and beside the peaceful lake. Swan. Waterfall. Slanting evening sun splashing across the lake, filling the riparian foliage like etheral fire. The chi is strong here; Gandhi�s ashes are beside us and Paramahansa�s dharma houseboat floats nearby...a bobbing re-minder of a beautiful Bhakti Master. � Afterward, Kathy suprises me with several gifts as we change into dinner clothes on a bluff overlooking the ocean. she is sooooo cute! i love her! we are such the newlyweds! can�t get enough of each other! � then i take her to the CHARTHOUSE Restaurant where we enjoy an INCREDIBLY ROMANTIC sunset lulling itself to sleep into the folds of a purple ocean. i present my �Paper Gift� to her...a poem whose lines are helped along a bit by a very nice Pinot Noir, Blue Nose Sea Bass and fantastic Seared Ahi. � after the poetry, presents, meal, and the complimentary Mud Pie dessert, we enjoy the drive home, crusing like James Dean up the coast. We linger over Topanga Canyon as if in our procastination, the moment could expand. � at home, we pack for New Mexico where we will spend the next seven days. there, i will immerse myself into my much missed mountain yogi stuff; skiing, snowshoeing, and hanging as much as possible with the cold weather gods. Lovey will accompany me for some of these outings but mostly she will be enjoying the presence of family, hers and mine in the warm Thanksgiving comfort of my parent�s casa in Rio Rancho. I am more than looking forward to this sacred southwest pause. autumn is especially hard on me since leaving the Rocky Mountains. i miss so much the sound of softly falling, early winter snow among changing aspens...i am in desperate need of New Mexico�s dimensions and her rarified high desert air.
Thank you for reading...expect updates from New Mexico...here are some quick ones.
May your Practice be strong and grace-full. Live fully, let go lightly. Love deeply...
coach ilg
wholisticfitness.com
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Hi Steve-
Keep up the GREAT work!! I know that, even after all these years, I haven't gotten completely on board, herb-wise, but I can attest to the fact that if one sticks to it, the yoga and meditations not only work to help keep one feeling good and "balanced" but they can help get through some difficult times by refocussing outside, or maybe more inside, oneself. Your teachings are definitely from a different plane & having a personal trainer
in the family, I can speak first hand!
I figure that at 52 if I can put my palms on the floor with my knees straight I'm doing ok.
stretching is my friend!!!!!!!!!
Be well,
Dell
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Coach -
just finished a session of HP Yoga. today i stopped doing yoga and became yoga. in fact, today i'm not doing my practice, i'm being my practice. i'm not doing my work, i'm being my work. i'm not doing anything, i'm being everything.
- Teacher in Training, Roche
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EL Coache,
excellent SR Update!!! just amazing CHI baba!
WF always seems to go deeper and deeper. like true spiritual teachings, many times one has to go around and around the self a few times to see IT. and each time with WF....she changes. yet she remains the same. better to crank IT than to wallow in IT. i fall in love with WF/HP yoga over and over again.
i love you,
- TQ
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Dear Coach -
it's 3am. going to have some warm fortune delight sitting under the moon and see if i can see the meteor show. loved the WF dharma. talk; i enjoy direct lines so much.
- Student Dean
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Light switch Yoga
Now that you have significant hours of barefooted yoga classes behind you, don�t you think it is time to start going barefoot at home? Barefootin� it stimulates nerves laced throughout the soles of the feet similar to reflexology points. So, bring your yoga out of the studio and into your home. Go barefoot around the house. In fact, take out the trash barefoot. Try turning on and off light switches with your bare feet instead of your hands (that�s so... predictable!). This exercise increases not only functional fitness, but an awareness that our yoga is everywhere.
���
WEBSITE OF THE WEEK:
(Submitted by Ron Jones of High Performance Health;) http://www.llangley.com/yoga/wisdom/rightnow%5b2%5d.htm
�
Hey Coach
Your words in the daily meditations on SUNRIDER are true, I feel them working in me everyday. The price can be a bit much but the price of not using them was higher, I'll pay with a smile.
stay cool and have a good week.
warrior Todd
Aumsville, OR
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My Dear Coach -
I cranked that Reseda hike again! chopped off a full 8 minutes since the first time. it was lovely. there is something so primitive, so root chakra about hiking. i thought of the beauty of this work. there are no pretenses to WF. it is so freakin real.
and i thought of how beautiful you were yesterday at your Yoga Workshop. how brave to speak the dharma with such courage and integrity. and i thought of how wonderful all those souls there....doing there best to grasp what this wildman was cooking;-) i would look around and see all their sweet faces. some blank with a "i don't know what da fuck he is talking about, but i'm diggin it anyway;-)" i know they loved it. i sure did. it felt as though you were answering THE question i was needing about creating a program for the NOW.
i thought of how many times in my life i was happy and didn't realize it till it was gone. always looking to the past or wanting more in the now. today...today....in this moment i AM happy.
see you in the Grotto...
Q
���
�
Dear Coach -
I can do head stands all day long--well, at least until I pass out from the blood rushing to my
noggin'. It's the HAND stand that I can't do right now. I figured I'd train myself up using the wall for support, but that's even a reach at
this point.
- Hak
Beautiful Hak -
to get Handstand first get it's Sanskrit name: Adho Mukha Vrksasana or Downward Facing Tree Pose. thus, a tree needs roots. your roots for this pose must come through the hands and into Mother Earth. the trunk of this tree is your spine. your legs are but the branches, your feet become the leaves. everything becomes lighter as you move up the tree.
in HP Yoga, we don't use walls or props to grow a tree. this weakens the roots and the spiritual (inner) learning is sacrificed in favor of mere gymnastics.
thus:
to develop the roots: learn to master 'crane pose' (bakasana) first. then, eka pada bakasana (one -legged crane pose). key: improve relationship between armpit and knee, not triceps and knees.
to develop the trunk of the tree: wheel pose (urdhva dhanurasana). key: keep elbows and knees moving in toward midline, and legs strongly working toward extension.
to blossom your tree: bring mula bhanda (root lock) while simultaneously raising the legs upward from Crane Pose and finding Wheel Pose during their ascent. this is going to effectively shift your C.O.G (center of gravity) over your hips and the press up will be easy.
i have never seen a tree 'jump into' it's beautiful maturity. it grows into it. thus, i do not teach Handstand using walls or props but only patience, strength, and balance. the very qualities needed in the life of a spiritual warrior.
PAGE REFERENCE: Light on Yoga, by BKS Iyengar...
bakasana: 315
eka pada bakasana: 336
urdhva dhanurasana:357
May Your Practice Be Strong & Sincere,
coach ilg
www.wholisticfitness.com
visit:
DIRECT LINES: Daily Meditations from Coach Ilg
November 21, 2002
Namaste Noble Warriors!
Wednesday's herbal talk in DIRECT LINES inspired some questions and commments from you. i've included one from Student Jim below. it got me thinking of just how precious feeling go(o)d is...i reflect below on just how grateful i am have found the wisdom of eating...especially the SUNRIDER herbs...they have helped me unconditionally to move and live here in this big, dirty City as every fiber in me cries for softly falling snow in the pure, rocky heights of the Four Corners...
�
"Sometime you will have to leave,
to return to the world outside these hushed heavens.
Sometime you will have to leave,
but the spirit will never leave you."
- unknown
i plasted that on the dash of my Budget Rent-A-Truck when i left my beloved Rocky Mountains for LA six years ago.
autumn is hard on me...i miss so much the sound of softly falling, early winter snow among the changing aspens...
thanks for caring enough to read...
�
a Q & A from one Wholistic Fitness online student, Jim, in my mail this morning you might find helpful...
Q -
I was reading through Coach Ilg's Sunrider thing and noticed that he was
ordering a lot of the VitaShake stuff and not that much Quinary (which is
expensive). I have been using the VitaShake in the ILG supreme's which is a
1:1 ratio with quinary. Are you guys drinking the VitaShake separate from
the quinary? I am curious because you suggested more than one ILG Supreme a
day in the current cycle which I am not sure if I can accomplish.
A: i always encourage a 1:1 ratio with Vitashake and Quinary. REMEMBER: Vitashake is your COMPLETE FOOD: vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, amino acids...the MORE you eat the BETTER you feed your body and so, the BETTER you feel.
the QUINARY contains over 50 herbs that SUPPORT YOUR FIVE ORGAN SYSTEMS. this is the stuff that makes your immune system freakin' bulletproof. i moved here to LA from pure, 6,000' rural New Mexico 6 years ago. that is about the most toxic transitition a person like me could ever place on my body, mind, and spirit. number of times i've been ill in the past 6 years: zero.
so really, it just depends on how damn good you want to feel! when in doubt, take more Vitashake, because it is:
1) more complete nutrition
and
2) less expensive
than is Quinary.
but Quinary is the jet fuel that gives your Spirit the ride of it's human life because it keeps your Body Temple so strong and empowered.
Q:
I am fairly pleased with Sunrider and don't view an ILG Supreme as all
that expensive of a proposition. Unbelievably, I have pretty much stopped
drinking beer (still hard to avoid the occasional beer) and coffee. The
savings on these expenditures (think one Starbucks) more than offsets the
cost of the Sunrider.
A: It looks like you are feeling what really good nutrition does; it deletes poor and misguided attractions and addictions while increasing the desire for healthy and whole nutrition that lifts your Vibrational fitness!
Good job, Student Jim!
in breath, posture, and herbs,
coach ilg
wholisticfitness.com
November 19, 2002
Namaste Noble Herb Eaters!
A SUNRIDER UPDATE
SUNRIDER HERBS...The Official Nutrition for Wholistic Fitness Warriors!
"An average individual believes in refinement, in becoming finer and finer. He is like an artist who wants to improve the quality of his life and to be better than he is."
- Iyengar
many who come to my humble, but powerful, Path of self transformation through fitness, wonder why i suggest "getting on the herbs"...which means, becoming a member of SUNRIDER and eating daily dosages of powerful, regenerative whole food herbal formulas. new comers to this Path, will at first shirk from the 'expense' of the herbs, saying things like, "geez, my vitamin powder only costs a third of SUNRIDER's Vitashake!" okay. i don't force. all in good time.
SUNRIDER products reflect the other components of Wholistic Fitness...intensely effective. those of you who are familiar with my Work of Wholistic Fitness in any way, know this very well, as doing even ONE of my gym workouts, or HIGH PERFORMANCE YOGA classes, or an Interval Session will attest. Why is Wholistic Fitness so amazingly rich and profound when compared to the typical fitness programs available?
Basically, it is because i never train the person or athlete in front of me. i have never, not once, even trained myself and i know myself.
i train the Higher Self in both my students and within myself. when i launched Wholistic Fitness in 1982 to serve as a spiritual path using personal fitness as the vehicle...i coached, taught and authored my books and articles all from the Higher Self perspective. i competed at a World level as a yogi, not a sport specific athlete. to this day, in fact, more now than ever... I trust in peoples innate ability to RISE TO THE LEVEL of a Higher Vibration if you can teach from such a Place. the stinker is in order to teach from a Higher place, you've got to inhabit such a place...this is why most conventional fitness trainers can't even come close to matching the authenticity of WF. they'd rather talk about meditation than to actually sit for twenty years.
I base my coaching and teaching skills with faith in what Iyengar says, "An average individual believes in refinement, in becoming finer and finer. He is like an artist who wants to improve the quality of his life and to be better than he is."
That is why WF Work receives such applaud and such fear from the common man. Some people still shudder at taking even one of my yoga classes or having me supervise a workout for them! it's not me, they are frightened of. it's the effort involved in rising to their Higher Self within.
I ask all my Students to Rise to their Higher Self...through fitness and through diet. This is where the herbs come in. SUNRIDER herbs carry the same potency as do my other teachings in the other fitness disciplines of strength, cardio, yoga, and meditation. if my Students are on SUNRIDER herbs...eating an ILG SUPREME every day...i KNOW that their long term cellular regeneration is on track. it decreases my stress in worrying about them. it's the Students who aren't on the herbs that stress me out because inevitably, they are not 'getting it'...their physical training suffers and their spiritual insight suffers because their Vibratory fitness is not functioning as well as it could.
So it is, heading into the Holiday season...that i thank you so much for your devotion to creating and maintaining your cellular health through wise eating instead of waiting for dis-ease to come along! Dis-ease is an offensive force. Inner energy is a defensive force. In aging, defense weakens while offense increases. Eating SUNRIDER HERBS each day, doing yoga, doing Wholistic Fitness workouts maintains the defense...
Because of your embrace of all this...i humbly bow to your devotion to Higher Fitness!
i hope you do ALL your holiday shopping at SUNRIDER.COM...give the gift that truly can SHIFT people Higher! the website has all sorts of very affordable and cool herbal and skin care packages..and, if you are a member? money back, baby! can't get that at Macys or wherever! Just be sure to ORDER EARLY...like TODAY!!!!
Here are a couple of things below of interest, but most of all i just wanted to say...thank you for being brave enough to See and Act from a Higher Place. the Place of of Wholistic Fitness and SUNRIDER herbs!
Eat An Herb and keep your Practice strong!
Coach Ilg
www.wholisticfitness.com
���
Like many of you, i will be visiting home for Thanksgiving. the FIRST thing i do after making a plane reservation? log on to SUNRIDER.COM and have a shipment of herbs sent to where I am going. Here is what my actual order often looks like...just the basics. So when everybody is eating too much, i have my herbs to keep me eating joyfully and appropriately through the holiday cheer:
100145 Calli� Night 10/2.5 g Bags
101035 Fortune Delight� Cinnamon 10/3 g Packs
103011 SunnyDew� 1 fl. oz.
155020 VitaShake� Strawberry 40/25 g Packs
190505 Quinary� 10/5 g Packs Powder
SV 96.40 Amount 115.70
�����
Dear Coach Ilg -
what's the best sunrider
thing to do for curbing a sugar habit ??
- Shel
Dear Shel -
one of the most amazing products of SUNRIDER is Vitataste...i don't speak often about it because most of my Work is with fitness oriented people and athletes whom have not a challenge with sugar habits...but i should because nearly 60% of our population is now obese and most of it because of a sugar addiction. SUNRIDER has a tremendously effective product that deletes compulsive sugar attraction....here is the info direct from SUNRIDER.COM
try it...it can't hurt since Dr. Chen only uses healthy, whole-food herbs, not funky medicinal herbs...i've personally used this product to help many people make the Shift to appropriate eating:
- coach ilg
VitaTaste�
VitaTaste� is an all-natural herbal concentrate and dietary supplement that helps inhibit the taste of sugar.* It is an ideal product to use during demonstrations to show the effectiveness and immediate results of Sunrider's herbal concentrates. There is virtually nothing on the marketplace that can compare with this product, an excellent example of owner expertise, unique and exclusive formulation. When you do the comparisons, you can honestly say Sunrider is so advanced that there is nothing out there to compare with VitaTaste�.
* This statement has not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any diseases. Benefits
* VitaTaste� promotes proper eating habits.* When you cannot taste sugar, the craving for sugar filled foods and beverages decreases. When you begin to eliminate sugary items from your diet, you cut out many empty calories from the diet, a healthy step towards effective weight management.
* VitaTaste� does not contain sugar, chemical additives or preservatives.
* Highly concentrated, just one capsule is all you need before each meal.
Recommendation: One capsule with or without its vegetable capsule before or with meals.
Proprietary Blend: Lycii fruit; wuxue teng (polygonum multiflorum); coix fruit; lotus seed; lotus root; waterlily bulb (lilium brownii); imperate root; fox nut.
VitaTaste�
Product Code Product Description Price SV Qty
#196501 100 Capsules/Bottle 25.80� 21.50
Namaste Noble Herb Eaters!
A SUNRIDER UPDATE
SUNRIDER HERBS...The Official Nutrition for Wholistic Fitness Warriors!
"An average individual believes in refinement, in becoming finer and finer. He is like an artist who wants to improve the quality of his life and to be better than he is."
- Iyengar
many who come to my humble, but powerful, Path of self transformation through fitness, wonder why i suggest "getting on the herbs"...which means, becoming a member of SUNRIDER and eating daily dosages of powerful, regenerative whole food herbal formulas. new comers to this Path, will at first shirk from the 'expense' of the herbs, saying things like, "geez, my vitamin powder only costs a third of SUNRIDER's Vitashake!" okay. i don't force. all in good time.
SUNRIDER products reflect the other components of Wholistic Fitness...intensely effective. those of you who are familiar with my Work of Wholistic Fitness in any way, know this very well, as doing even ONE of my gym workouts, or HIGH PERFORMANCE YOGA classes, or an Interval Session will attest. Why is Wholistic Fitness so amazingly rich and profound when compared to the typical fitness programs available?
Basically, it is because i never train the person or athlete in front of me. i have never, not once, even trained myself and i know myself.
i train the Higher Self in both my students and within myself. when i launched Wholistic Fitness in 1982 to serve as a spiritual path using personal fitness as the vehicle...i coached, taught and authored my books and articles all from the Higher Self perspective. i competed at a World level as a yogi, not a sport specific athlete. to this day, in fact, more now than ever... I trust in peoples innate ability to RISE TO THE LEVEL of a Higher Vibration if you can teach from such a Place. the stinker is in order to teach from a Higher place, you've got to inhabit such a place...this is why most conventional fitness trainers can't even come close to matching the authenticity of WF. they'd rather talk about meditation than to actually sit for twenty years.
I base my coaching and teaching skills with faith in what Iyengar says, "An average individual believes in refinement, in becoming finer and finer. He is like an artist who wants to improve the quality of his life and to be better than he is."
That is why WF Work receives such applaud and such fear from the common man. Some people still shudder at taking even one of my yoga classes or having me supervise a workout for them! it's not me, they are frightened of. it's the effort involved in rising to their Higher Self within.
I ask all my Students to Rise to their Higher Self...through fitness and through diet. This is where the herbs come in. SUNRIDER herbs carry the same potency as do my other teachings in the other fitness disciplines of strength, cardio, yoga, and meditation. if my Students are on SUNRIDER herbs...eating an ILG SUPREME every day...i KNOW that their long term cellular regeneration is on track. it decreases my stress in worrying about them. it's the Students who aren't on the herbs that stress me out because inevitably, they are not 'getting it'...their physical training suffers and their spiritual insight suffers because their Vibratory fitness is not functioning as well as it could.
So it is, heading into the Holiday season...that i thank you so much for your devotion to creating and maintaining your cellular health through wise eating instead of waiting for dis-ease to come along! Dis-ease is an offensive force. Inner energy is a defensive force. In aging, defense weakens while offense increases. Eating SUNRIDER HERBS each day, doing yoga, doing Wholistic Fitness workouts maintains the defense...
Because of your embrace of all this...i humbly bow to your devotion to Higher Fitness!
i hope you do ALL your holiday shopping at SUNRIDER.COM...give the gift that truly can SHIFT people Higher! the website has all sorts of very affordable and cool herbal and skin care packages..and, if you are a member? money back, baby! can't get that at Macys or wherever! Just be sure to ORDER EARLY...like TODAY!!!!
Here are a couple of things below of interest, but most of all i just wanted to say...thank you for being brave enough to See and Act from a Higher Place. the Place of of Wholistic Fitness and SUNRIDER herbs!
Eat An Herb and keep your Practice strong!
Coach Ilg
www.wholisticfitness.com
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Like many of you, i will be visiting home for Thanksgiving. the FIRST thing i do after making a plane reservation? log on to SUNRIDER.COM and have a shipment of herbs sent to where I am going. Here is what my actual order often looks like...just the basics. So when everybody is eating too much, i have my herbs to keep me eating joyfully and appropriately through the holiday cheer:
100145 Calli� Night 10/2.5 g Bags
101035 Fortune Delight� Cinnamon 10/3 g Packs
103011 SunnyDew� 1 fl. oz.
155020 VitaShake� Strawberry 40/25 g Packs
190505 Quinary� 10/5 g Packs Powder
SV 96.40 Amount 115.70
�����
Dear Coach Ilg -
what's the best sunrider
thing to do for curbing a sugar habit ??
- Shel
Dear Shel -
one of the most amazing products of SUNRIDER is Vitataste...i don't speak often about it because most of my Work is with fitness oriented people and athletes whom have not a challenge with sugar habits...but i should because nearly 60% of our population is now obese and most of it because of a sugar addiction. SUNRIDER has a tremendously effective product that deletes compulsive sugar attraction....here is the info direct from SUNRIDER.COM
try it...it can't hurt since Dr. Chen only uses healthy, whole-food herbs, not funky medicinal herbs...i've personally used this product to help many people make the Shift to appropriate eating:
- coach ilg
VitaTaste�
VitaTaste� is an all-natural herbal concentrate and dietary supplement that helps inhibit the taste of sugar.* It is an ideal product to use during demonstrations to show the effectiveness and immediate results of Sunrider's herbal concentrates. There is virtually nothing on the marketplace that can compare with this product, an excellent example of owner expertise, unique and exclusive formulation. When you do the comparisons, you can honestly say Sunrider is so advanced that there is nothing out there to compare with VitaTaste�.
* This statement has not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any diseases. Benefits
* VitaTaste� promotes proper eating habits.* When you cannot taste sugar, the craving for sugar filled foods and beverages decreases. When you begin to eliminate sugary items from your diet, you cut out many empty calories from the diet, a healthy step towards effective weight management.
* VitaTaste� does not contain sugar, chemical additives or preservatives.
* Highly concentrated, just one capsule is all you need before each meal.
Recommendation: One capsule with or without its vegetable capsule before or with meals.
Proprietary Blend: Lycii fruit; wuxue teng (polygonum multiflorum); coix fruit; lotus seed; lotus root; waterlily bulb (lilium brownii); imperate root; fox nut.
VitaTaste�
Product Code Product Description Price SV Qty
#196501 100 Capsules/Bottle 25.80� 21.50
� Check Out �Continue�Shopping � Add to Basket
November 15, 2002
Namaste Noble Warriors!
It was wonderful teaching again at MARK BLANCHARDS newly renovated studio in Studio City! What a gorgeous 'makeover'! If you have not taken a class there recently, I encourage to go check it out. Schedules are available at:
www.markblanchardspoweryoga.com
Just a reminder...for those of you in LA, don�t forget, tomorrow is my HP Yoga workshop:
DEEPENING YOUR PRACTICE
with Steve Ilg
Saturday, November 16
11:30 am to 1:30 pm
PowerHouse Gym Sports Complex
20914 Nordhoff
Chatsworth, CA 91311
818 775 0300
$20 Workshop Fee
During the workshop I will be going over what i feel are the most valuable things to deepen the benefits and joy of a yoga practice. I'll be covering material that i have found to be personally and professionally the most effective for yoga sessions. I'll start with the practical and move into the more esoteric...informative handouts will given to all participants...
1) Discuss the Origins of Yoga
to attain a certain familiarity with the terms and concept of yoga.
2) Demonstrate ways to wisely Integrate Yoga into Personal Fitness
to make sure you get the most benefits from your workouts.
3) Specify the fundamental Healing Powers of Asana
to understand there is a very ancient and precise science of self healing that accounts for that powerful sense of well being that you get from yoga!
4) Outline the 3 Key Internal Locks
so that, with enough quality practice, you just might, one day, lead you to Enlightenment!
I hope to see you (and a friend!) there!
i bow to your devoted Practice,
coach ilg
www.wholisticfitness.com
{steve ilg is a licensed coach and top selling book author who used yoga to overcome serious spinal damage to compete in 5 World Championships in 4 different sports! he is the founder of Wholistic Fitness and High Performance Yoga. if you'd enjoy having Steve present this workshop at a studio near you, contact us at ilgtrain@aol.com}
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WHOLISTIC FITNESS DHARMA...
online students continue to beam their inner Light!
Teacher Sheader,
Great news to report. I was sitting in a staff meeting at my job this
morning. Several disrupting topics were being discussed. I began to call on the energy of prana and incorporated filling breaths. I was present, but focused on my breath. At lunch, a co-therapist who suffers from Parkinson's, out of the blue, tells me that she felt like she was sitting next to a calm, tranquil pool of water! It works! She also stated that during this time period her tremors subsided and
she felt peaceful. Very cool! Talk with you soon, running to the store to
get the new Yoga Journal featuring Coach Ilg.
Namaste,
Student Scott Adams
{WF Certified Teacher Sheader still has a few openings for new online students...check out his bio under the TEACHERS link and sign up today as a formal Student of Wholistic Fitness like Scott Adams. And, by the way, it wasn�t a feature, but an advertisement for High Performance Yoga about which Scot referenced in Yoga Journal. }
�
Dear Coach Ilg,
i have discovered through my practice of Wholistic Fitness and HP Yoga, the source and depth of much of my suffering -- a lifetime(s) of being told "you can't do that...you're no good...it's OK to fail here because we know you can't do it..." sometimes it was subtle (passive aggressive), sometimes it was abusive. It came from family, teachers, coaches, clergy -- and it all just reinforced what i felt -- "you suck and you are a BAD person, if people really knew you they would really hate you." So that's how i lived much of my life, as a "bad" person -- chemical addictions, quitting everything i started, toxic relationships, and so on.
It was not until VERY recently that i was turned on to what it all came down to -- SHAME (fear). Such a powerful force. A force, as Teacher Heikosan so poignantly stated, that is passed down through generations. To me this IS reincarnation, this IS hell.
Fortunately this awakening included what i consider a true experience of God. For the first time i FELT Gods Grace. i've known about Grace, but only at the level of the head. FEELING God's Grace, was feeling Her Love and complete acceptance of who and what i am -- in the "eyes" of the Divine, i'm perfect. So what anyone else thinks REALLY doesn't mean SHIT - not my family, loved ones, children, students, even you (this too i knew at the level of the head -- i used it as a cop out). Since feeling this Love and Grace, i too have become more gracious towards others, less petty, less judgmental, more loving, and more connected. If i, being the worm that i am, am worthy of God's Grace, so is EVERYONE around me. i realize that it's not about performance -- it's not about what i can or cannot do. it's about BEING. In the end, by letting go, i've been able to surrender into the Divine Grace, i found what i was looking SO damn hard for.
Often you have talked to me about getting free -- i feel SO free, i feel everything and every thing feels me. If this isn't what WF is all about, nothing is.
Thanks for all you have done to facilitate my journey (especially the stuff i never knew about).
Much Love.
Namaste,
Teacher in Training Roche
{Student Roche, another good and faithful online Student of WF, has recently signed up for our Wholistic Fitness Teacher Training Course! I know that Student Roche will grow into a most beautiful Teacher of our humble, but powerful Path!}
�
WF Tribal Brother Ron Jones has put together a very cool piece on Jack La Lannes well deserved...Star-On-Hollywood-Boulevard
check it out: http://www.ronjones.org/Personal/CurrentComments/Blackboard/November2002.html
�
welcome, Susie Stockholm of Woodlands Hills, CA who is privately studying High Performance Yoga with Kathy Ilg. May you enjoy your Journey!
�
COMING IN DIRECT LINES:
Knowing the Difference; Wants & Needs
November 12, 2002
Namaste Noble Warriors!
oh my gosh...always sooooo much that is seen and felt from my helm...
i struggle to convey to you the magic, the spiritual upliftment that streams daily from the thousands of mind/body fitness warriors that study WF and/or HP yoga...
all i can do in this forum is give you a sense of just how powerful it is when ONE PERSON chooses to be free of conventional thinking and start cultivating bravery to be beautiful.
���
�The first gift of love is to listen.�
���
Listen, Warrior, to YOUR body
sit in meditation
feel YOUR mind
be brave enough to be
silent, kind, and strong!
�
tell your friends:
you can find steve ilg
or
High Performance Yoga at:
yogafinder.com
or...
page 188 of the current issue of
Yoga Journal, December 2002
�
� I'm three weeks into the Green Tara program. Wow.
That's deep stuff. I feel more powerful than I've
EVER felt in my career.
- Bradley Saul, professional cyclist
11/5/02
�
WHOLISTIC FITNESS DHARMATALK:
WF Certified Teacher Jomanji
and his online WF Student Bryan...
RE: Dear Coach, Never in my life have my legs buckled so much. Oh my. Today I faced a dragon, and like the story you sent me months ago, it turned out to be very small. Those 25 ujjayi breaths while in the ai imawa foundation {a Taoist yoga pose used in WF formal study} on top of leg extensives turned out to be a learning experience,
for sure. And insteads of backing off as my muscles quivered and shook I went deeper in the foundation and breathed more slowly and continued the leg extension movement with loving kindness and a slow mind.
WF TEACHER JOMANJI replies:
This is go(o)d work. The common tendency is to fight, aka resist the burn, the pain...or avoid it. Instead the key is to let go of it as such, observe, and breath thru it. This is what you are learning. There is nothing to be afraid of...the other reactions are fear based.
���
Dear Steve,
"i loved your class last evening. i can see very clearly how well the yoga
has helped me! i can go beyond the edge and certainly deeper. i have
more energy, i'm truly amazed! i hope you and Kathy continue working in the Valley. No one has ever taken the Valley athletes and Yogis under their wings. you and Kathy need to be commended on your true devotion to Yoga. As you said last night in bow pose,"have a goal" you truly have a goal. to make Yoga and fitness available to everyone, even children.
I bow to you and Kathy.
Namaste.
Lenore"
�
WHY DO MY KNEE�S HURT?
Student BH:
So question on CV: Why would my knees ache Saturday when i do easy cardio work and not Sunday when i do my intervals?
WF Teacher Sheader:
Biomechanics...think of a horse trotting with you on top....bang bang
bang...now think of the horse galloping....feel the difference? This is why joggers get hurt more than runners. Of course at faster speeds the muscles and connective tissue can suffer if you are not training right....good thing you got me.
���
common questions to coach ilg:
how come you always take off your shirt while you teach yoga?
common answer from coach ilg:
because i�m not allowed to take off my pants!
i�ve never really liked the whole �clothes thing� anyway.
i�ve always chosen professions in which �play clothes� are mandatory; rock climbing, yoga, outdoor sport coaching, online training, etc.
i�ve only worn a �suit� twice: once on my high school prom, and then on my wedding day. in fact, i think if everybody went naked... more people would probably want to workout to improve their bodies! i know many �powerful people� in the �industry� who would be scared stiff to take their shirt off in front of a group of people. what kind of self-assurance does that speak of?
we came from a tribe of hunters and gatherers...
have we lost our common sense of being naked and feeling alive?
���
keep it real
and
try turning off your next light switch with your foot instead of being predictable and using your hand!
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Wholistic Fitness Because Your Workout Is Everywhere!
November 08, 2002
Namaste Noble Warriors!
it is raining in LA. finally.
a deep, saturating moistness blankets the city like an ujjayi exhale. yin covers the yang. thunder and rain roll over coastal mountains like a tongue�s first lick of an ice cream cone. slick freeways become swollen with throbbing traffic. with the maturity of eons, autumn spills herself across the scape of peopled pavement in a sacred wetness. in this Divine gift from Father Sky, i feel young...like the juvenile scrub jay outside my window. though his dampened feathers shout glorious blue, he seems quietly entranced by the natural chant of raindrops. so too, am i. there is no false appearance of Divinity today...She is wet and windy and everwhere! today evokes inner withdraw. a fine day to sip Calli tea, meditate, and do yoga.
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A HIGH PERFORMANCE YOGA WORKSHOP...
DEEPENING YOUR PRACTICE
with Steve Ilg
Saturday, November 16th
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
� Healing Powers of Asana
� The 3 Key Internal Locks
� Vedic Energy: Chakras, Nadis, & Kundala
� Starting Your Own Personal Practice
$20
wear loose fitting clothes, bring a sitting cushion or blanket
in �The Grotto� at PowerHouse Gym, Chatsworth, CA
contact: ilgtrain@aol.com for more info or directions
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FROM COACH�S MAILBOX...
New Online WF Student Michael �Rediscovers� the Love of the Gym...and Discovers the Power of Meditation in Daily Life...
�Dear Coaches Ilg and Sheader,
It is nice to hear from you as it makes it clear you're paying attention. As I have told Coach Sheader, what I find very helpful about
WF is the sense of belonging and purpose. Notes like this and words of encouragement provide a great deal of energy, so thank you. To expand on what I wrote, I will say that I'm becoming more focused on meeting my own needs for spirituality and fitness. Feeling more comfortable in the gym is an outcome of acknowledging that this is an appropriate place for me to be. You may have noticed in my first writing to you that I wondered if there was room for an overweight businessman in WF. Of course, this was an attempt to reach out for encouragement and acceptance, but what I was really searching for was acceptance from within. And I've found that rather rapidly. Getting back to (and comfortable in) the gym is a returning to the athlete that I once was, and my body has been responding accordingly. More importantly, my energy and spirit have followed. I love my time in the gym!
For several years I have been moving back toward being more of who I am and who I was meant to be. Sometimes in life, relationships and owning a business push you toward walking a path that others want you to be on. Moving back to your own path, however, can upset the energies of people who have cast you in a certain role, and it takes balance to walk your path while maintaining these relationships. In my business world, as well, I have many interruptions throughout the day that I need to be patient with. I also need to work with people who maybe don't try hard enough to meet our client's needs, or they don't give their best performance every day, and this can be frustrating.
In all of this, I need to remain true to my path, listen carefully, not become attached to the negativity or anger that I sometimes face during the day, and remain calm and focused in the face of a busy schedule. This is where I rely on meditation. Meditation early in the day clears my mind of attachments and false expectations. It helps me live in the present. And meditation during the day (often just cleansing and filling breaths before a meeting or a phone call), helps me listen, be in the moment, and speak from the heart and not the ego. It brings me that inner smile.
These are all important lessons for someone who trained to study plants
and animals but finds himself managing budgets, people, and demanding clients. Learning to use and rely on meditation is helping me do all that, while returning to what I perceive to be a path with heart.
Thanks, again...
Michael
�
Michael is a formal online Student of Wholistic Fitness taking his training under WF Certified Teacher, Joseph Sheader. If YOUR personal fitness training is not connecting with your efforts in spiritual/personal growth, isn�t it about time for YOU to become a Student of Wholistic Fitness? Our humble but powerful temple of transpersonal fitness awaits for you with open arms...and a sweat towel! Contact Coach Ilg for a Training Application today!
November 06, 2002
Namaste Noble Warriors!
�Don�t workout to live,
live to workout!�
-coach ilg
Here is the latest High Performance Yoga update...
Due to your input, please note the following changes/items:
�
SATURDAY MORNING HP YOGA Level 2 with Kathy
will begin @ 10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
beginning November 9th!
�
KIDS YOGA with Kathy is a SMASH!
you should hear the cute stories Kathy brings home after class! the kids LOVE it! a new generation of HP YOGIS...the Seed we�ve planted has just sprouted new roots! bring your child!
4:30 - 5:00 on Mondays for 4-7 year olds
�
NEW SHIPMENT ARRIVED
two of our top selling HP Yoga clothing:
HP Yoga Unisex Pants
+
Men's Ribbed Tanks (black and white)
GREAT HOLIDAY GIFTS!
order today through
www.wholisticfitness.com
�
STEVE'S ADJUSTED SCHEDULE
due to growing demands on my online training business and other projects, i had to regrettably stop teaching in Westwood at Mark Blanchard's Power Yoga. more details on DIRECT LINES soon. don't worry though, Mark and i are discussing a couple of VERY FUN projects that i know you will all enjoy. i hope to teach again for Mark in the new year...
as always, my current teaching schedule is posted at www.wholisticfitness.com
�
SPRING SESSION: HIGH PERFORMANCE YOGA TEACHER TRAINING!
It is with great dharmic pleasure that Kathy and I announce
our Spring Session of High Performance� Yoga Teacher
Training (Level One) ! The training occurs over 4 weekends;
March 15 - April 6, 2003. Class limit: 12. Click here for
details! =
http://www.wholisticfitness.com/yoga_training.html
�
"I REALLY enjoyed class tonight!"
- maggie
�
CONGRATULATIONS to Student �Billito� who won the UMA SIBLEY; Soul of the Beloved CD from MELODICAMUSIC.COM
Bill won the CD as my �Warrior Award� on Monday night for consistently having the deepest, steadiest Ujjayi breathing coupled with the most steadfast concentration throughout class...well done! Fun and focus, that�s what HP Yoga is all about! check out www.melodicamusic.com for all sorts of great meditation and yoga music.
�
�Hi Steve,
Just wanted to thank you again for being there for us (we do miss you when you are gone) and for honoring me with that wonderful CD from Monday's class. I told my Dad about it and he was really proud. I dedicated last nights yoga to my friends new baby, Isabella, and for sure sent her powerful Chi!!!! With your help and guidance I look forward to new challenges and
lots of fun in the future classes!!!!
Billito El Payaso ; - )
�
Steve,
I have never been in a class so explanatory and peaceful !! It took me into a whole new appreciation and liking of Yoga. Your passion truly flows thru you and into your students! The energy you felt was yours thru us. Ill be back and cant wait until my next class with you.
Thanks for the enlightenment,
Carolyn
�
The following quote comes from WF Teacher In Training: Chris Roche who is a CPFT in Indiana and has been training a stable of his students in Wholistic Fitness and HP Yoga style...he writes:
Dear Coach Ilg,
Here are some post race comments from Shawna, one of my students, who just completed her first Iceman MTB race on saturday. Another of my students came home with a 6th place finish in his category (out of a field of well over 100!!) - was riding 4th when he lost his chain near the finish.
**************************************************************************************************
Chris,
I DID IT!!!!
30 Degree weather, snow flurries, very windy, lots of sand, & I did it!
I hit a mental wall at about mile 16 (2 hours into it) and I really thought about getting on the bus to take me back to the finish line, but then something clicked and I just went for it.
Mile 19 I started to really feel great (HP concentration set in) and I
really pounded it out and attacked the hills until about Mile 24...I just kept going for it. I just kept riding and finished strong at the end. I didn't have anything left.
I am happy with actually finishing. My time was 4:20 (Now I have something to measure against and set a better goal for next year)!!!
Namaste,
Shawna
�
Coming up in DIRECT LINES...for your daily hit of CHI!....
�my ultra racing bro, Ron Jones gets off on one of his patented CHI RANTS!
� the HP Yoga video spreads among the professional cycling peleton like wildfire!
� a wolfish chi hit, your student input, training hints, and much more!
November 05, 2002
Namaste Noble Warriors!
i have been feeling very American recently. this is because in the past 48 hours i have 1) gone to the Dentist and 2) voted. 1&2 are very American things. as American as apple pie. i cannot eat apple pie. too many calories and the texture is not very dependable; sometimes it is great and sometimes it just sucks. i can�t live like that. as an athlete and yogic warrior, i need a treat i can count on. but i can count on going to the Dentist regularly and voting which are only slightly less important than eating inconsistently textured apple pie. i can eat banana cream pie however. and sometimes i do. but only if i earn it...say, like riding my bicycle extremely long distances such as from here to the little Greek township of Farenzafiratopolis and back. you may have heard of this place. it is not very American (for one thing it is an island) but they have wonderful banana cream pie.
anyway back to #1 as mentioned above. i went to the dentist to �get my teeth cleaned�. everybody in this great nation of ours should do this regularly. on or before November 5th if possible. otherwise, you run the real risk of ending up like the Anasazi (aka; the �Ancient Ones�) of the American (not Greek) southwest which, as some of you know, is where i come from. these poor, drought stricken, patina pecking, pre-historic souls did not have their �teeth cleaned� regularly by a Dentist and ended up drilling holes into their skulls to relieve the splitting pain of toothaches. i am not making this up. you yourself can book a flight through www.southwest.com (aka;southwest.com) and go to places like Chaco Canyon and see Anasazi skulls with the actual holes still visible in the bone. i find this excruciatingly fascinating because, personally, i would never do such a thing to myself. a toothache, i can live with. but to drill into your own skull? geez, you gotta have a hole in your head to want to do that. hec, i would not even have a friend, such as my wife or my cat, do it to me either. drill into my skull, i mean. not even with modern-day Dentist�s instruments such as the new Black n�Decker Model 234Bc8-3. which, by the way, i might get my dad for the upcoming holiday (even though my dad is not a Dentist) (he is not even, shhhh....Greek!). (He is however, quickly becoming an Ancient One.)
instead of worrying about killing ourselves because of toothache, Modern Science has evolved in Dentistry so the only things we need to really worry about are two demonic creatures, Plaque and Tartar, (named after the two famous demonic creatures of Greek mythology, Plaque and Tartar). This terrible twosome will, if left unchecked, gleefully turn your once beautiful mouth into a hellish internal cavern where many terrible Things occur and then, what is worse, multiply. you should listen closely to all this because i am a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer (aka; CPFT) and have spent countless hours studying about such Things that can and will invade your body to hamper your health (as well as your understanding of Greek mythology - which by the way, comes from a Greek word meaning, �Greek mythology�).
if it weren�t for CPFT�s like myself, you might not even know the difference between Plaque and Tartar. which, by the way, i do. it was on one of the quizzes i had to pass to become certified as a Personal Fitness Trainer (aka; PFT). in fact, the only thing that separates a CPFT and a Dentist (aka; DMD) is a slight deviation between our incisors and second bicuspids. This deviation results, astonishingly enough, in the number of cute, perky assistants we are each permitted to have. boy, the things you don�t know about the professional fitness business, eh? that is exactly why i created DIRECT LINES (aka; DL)...to tap you into the insider scoop within the fitness world. but as i was saying, the main difference between Plaque and Tartar is that one is soft and one is hard. now, i don�t want to get any more technical than that or you might get confused. but, i will let you know however that Tartar (aka; tar-tar) can also be used very nicely as a side accompaniment to scallops (which in Greek are called, scallions (aka; shallots)).
now that i have cleared all that up for you, i want to talk about the really important stuff to your long term personal fitness... banana cream pie (aka; voting). voting is very important because it means you must 1) Find and, 2) Fight your way toward something called a Personal Polling Place (aka; PP Place). these �PP Places� are strategically situated by the Federal Government (aka; The Feds) so that no person with any measure of common sense would ever want to go near them. SIDEBAR: interestingly, The Feds do not allow us to vote via the Internet (formerly known as �The Web� but that term is now officially �so nineties�) because 1)that would be way too convenient for anything Federal, and 2) lead to all sorts of illegal voting which has never occured 1) in our nation�s history or 2) in any state such as, say, Florida, for example). most �PP Places� can be found, however, with enough sustained effort. The Feds know this. they also know that it is your very effort to go vote that continually gives this great country its �moral fiber�. fiber, you may recall from my earlier columns, is good for you. in fact, studies now show that most Anasazi would not have killed themselves so often if 1) they ate more fiber and 2) used banana cream pie as �skull hole caulk�. this is another one of those fascinating health statistics that i find so fascinating and keeps me glued to my profession like a teenager to TV.
however, since - by Federal law - no parking space will ever be allowed within 5 miles of a �PP Place�, most car driving Americans (which, we all know, are the only kind still remaining) will use their well polished common sense and drive right back to McDonalds where they originated their search for their �PP Place� and have another serving of apple pie. this scenario, which occurs every November 5th with Greek like accuracy, accomplishes three things critical to the infrastructure of our great nation; 1) it ensures that only people with absolutely no common sense whatsoever actually vote and, 2) helps most of us meet or exceed our FDA requirement for fiber, and 3) limits the heretofore unprecedented �black market marketing funds� which have fueled underground political efforts to make Farenzafiratopolis the permanent home of the summer Olympics.
It is a good thing therefore, i think, for us fitness warriors to 1) go to the Dentist and 2) vote. i only say this because, as you can tell, my yoga practice has provided for me 1) firmer teeth, and 2) a deep understanding of engaged national and global politics than has say, your average hole-in-the-brain Anasazi.
anyway, if this column inspires you to do anything on this great Election Day, i hope it makes you feel good about 1) being an American and 2) doing what we do best; eating banana cream pie.
i bow to you,
coach ilg
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