“Speaking about the States, we’re going to be pretty strict with the brown rice, and all the other stuff I’ll be eating. I’ll be getting more salads, and making more smoothies, with more veg. Last time I was there I was all out with my working out (strength/cardio), but I was still actually shoveling down sugar, now that I remember. There was the protein shakes, and the fruit that went with it – that’s gonna have to change. It’ll definitely be the same regardless of where I am – whether with Kip or Pep and their families, the healthy eating and the working out stays. I’m gonna be jogging, running, and working out more. For sure.”
Well… I’m eating my words now. I’m in sunny Virginia, and while the scenery is great, the family is wonderful, the body… well, the body is actually in need of a check.
Being in the USA means having access to Unicity USA products, and while I am here, and while I do have these updated supplements, I’ve taken a dive regarding my eating. Reason? Well, it’s simple: Being a guest in people’s houses gives me a choice: To adjust to their dietary preferences, or to influence their choices, with your own. Considering where I was a couple months ago, the latter would be my obvious choice, right?
Right. I said that while thinking about the tres leches cake given to my sister-in-law for my niece’s birthday. My word, in terms of sugar, that was powdered diamonds, I swear. Absolutely delicious.
“It’ll definitely be the same regardless of where I am – whether with Kip or Pep and their families, the healthy eating and the working out stays. I’m gonna be jogging, running, and working out more. For sure.”
See, this is why I’m happy to be writing all this down. It’s really all for me (and you, whoever you are) to keep tabs on what I say. I do have a personal journal, but placing this here just keeps me accountable. I love it.
I AM glad to write this today, though. Take note, I was only thinking about that tres leches cake, but so far today, in actuality, I’ve had a chicken thigh, some walnuts, and cherries for breakfast. This was taken with GNLD supplements and Alpha Brain (which is doing its part in keeping me focused), washed down with (proper) Bulletproof coffee.
This was all after a good mile-and-a-half run, by the way. Also today, in between work tasks, I’ve taken a Unicity boost smoothie (Matcha Focus, Unimate, and Bios Life E blended with an apple, half an orange, water, and ice), and I’ve done a couple sets of alternating arm kettlebell squats / single arm planks. While I’m typing this to post, I’ve already posted something to stay updated on Instagram.
Pretty good way to start Monday… let’s keep this going. Really, note to self here: these are the sorts of days that should happen 6x a week, with one day being the reset and not the other way around.
So though this may sound like a report for 2/3 through this year, I’m going to wait till this Friday to make that official update. Let’s see how this week plays.
UPDATE 09012018
Well hello, September. And yeah, I was supposed to give an update yesterday.
Thoughts throughout the week? Well, for one, I’m learning that while we do have the freedom to live and enjoy the triumphs and failures of life knowing that we will always have Jesus Christ, as He has us… The word ‘Constraint’ has been showing up in uncommon frequency, especially during the mid-parts and less productive times of the week. I’m learning the mind apparently doesn’t appreciate being too ‘free’ in the sense that we have lots of options on what to do… And I remember that this does jive with at least one of Bill Watterson’s strips, where Calvin’s Dad points out how we are not set free, but actually bound by how we can choose from smooth, chunky, and/or low-fat peanut butter (I don’t have the strip in front of me right now so he could have been complaining about another product).
Now that I think about it I also remember Jim Caviezel that one time we listened to his words live at the Rock Church, some 10 years ago – now, he may not have said this first, but I heard it from him first: ‘Freedom exists not for us to do what we want, but what we ought.’
When we do what we should be doing, we’re setting ourselves free from the burden of wondering what resource should go where giving our immediate thoughts and actions freedom to work on what really matters. Case in point: I found that I could listen to my podcasts when I started going out to run a couple kilometers every day, starting this week. This set me free of the stress of wondering when I can listen to this backlog of knowledge that has been just sitting on the shelf.
Freedom exists for us to do what we ought, and what we ought to do is to recognize that our perspective of freedom itself is constantly redefined. Everything that has breath constantly changes from glory to glory, and we are free from trying to keep things ‘as they were’ when they worked for us in the past. We are free from ‘bringing back the good old days’ because we know that the best days are here and now, unto forever.
And this week has been an exercise in that freedom. I’ve been taking baby steps in constraining myself from doing what my body wants to do immediately, taking into consideration what I can do for me to reap maximum benefits further down the road, perhaps 5-10 years down the road.
Between Monday and yesterday, I’ve been looking at porn, Facebook, and the random Youtube videos (sorry, Crazy Russian Hacker) less, not because ‘it’s baaaaad’, but simply because I enjoy the focus I have without it much more. I’ve been running more – and see, it’s more the mentality behind what I do and don’t do that’s changing because I’ve been running more, not because I want to burn the calories, but because I want my heart, muscles, and mind to stay challenged and in optimal form.
Speaking of form, I’ve finally broken out the rings here in VA, and I’ve resumed my working out with them, placing more focus on isometric movement (or lack thereof) to develop not just muscle but balance and flexibility, so the fundamentals are strengthened and sharpened ever so further.
At first, it was about constraint, but this morning, I’m learning that it’s also about really wanting to do something, appreciating what we gain out of it versus what we lose. Dr. Eric Berg hit it precisely when he said that our eating and exercise habits should be birthed out of gain versus loss, and long story short, from a positive position of enjoying what we do, WANTING to do versus HAVING to do.
And so I write this update. Well, I admit it was all about me updating WordPress to make it look nicer, but it’s good that happened because I saw I needed to do this updated. And here I am, wanting to do it.
This gives me a more energetic perspective on the daily routine, and on any projects that I have on the longer term. Yes, we are free to do what we ought – but the pleasure and adventure in all this is reconciling what we want to do, and what we ought to do.
It is, therefore, a pleasure for us to recognize that wherever we are in this reconciliation, it is birthed out of the reconciliation that mattered most – seen and literally with us in the form of Christ, Emmanuel, God with us.
Onward, and upward.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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