THE PINCH--Omega 3 Unpacked

Pinch finally clears up the OMEGA-3 Mystery.

UPEM ATEM

The Cylon admires the Gnarly Goat for many of his attributes. One of his best: he is the kind of guy whose feet hit the boards early every morning. The Goat does not spend his morning in the pen. This AM (real early), the Goat provided The Cylon with the following Virtue Extoller on Giddyup from a Troublesome Priest named P. Lejeune. 

PROMPTNESS IN RISING by Msgr. P. Lejeune

I shall discuss in this chapter a very practical subject, a subject demanding serious consideration.  I refer to promptness in rising.

I have just informed you that this subject is very practical.  I must add that it is very important.  The truly spiritual life is absolutely impossible for her who is irregular in rising.  If you say that you do not exert yourselves overmuch to be exact on this point, I know what to think of your exercises of piety.  You probably omit them often for want of time, or perform them languidly and mechanically.  But surely, my daughters, you all rise at an early hour, you are not given over to a habit of laziness.  Moreover, instead of insisting on exactness and promptness in rising, I believe it is far more useful to state a few practical rules to which you should conform.

First of all rise at a fixed hour.  Decide on the time, and examine well into the effect your early rising will have on your general health and temperament.  But once this hour is fixed, make no exceptions to it, save only when sickness or extraordinary circumstances render them necessary.

How many hours of sleep are necessary?  Physicians advise seven hours for a robust person; but among religious communities generally eight hours are allowed.  You may adopt this rule, but do not exceed eight hours.  You would be yielding to weakness and sensuality.  A prolonged sleep will not deliver you from an indisposition, which very often is more imaginary than real.  You complain of feeling ill at awakening, and it seems that to raise your head from the pillow is a sacrifice beyond your strength.  Pay no attention to this temptation!  Give the enemy no quarter!  Rise up at once, and you will feel that your complaint was imaginary. The ancients were wont to say that life consists in movement.  You will experience the truth of these words, and you will learn how to mount to a degree of activity which you thought impossible.

Rise early!  This slogan holds the secret of a complete and perfect life.  By rising early the best hours of the day will be yours; hours when the mind is clear, hours well suited for meditation.  If, on the contrary, you defer your rising, an irremediable disorganization will continue throughout the day from this first fault.  The intellectual and moral life of a person who rises late, Pére Olivant was wont to say, is seized by an impotency like to that of the Romans at Capua.  Hence the words of Holy Scripture:  "My son, love not sleep, lest poverty overtake thee."  Poverty?  Yes, but not so much in the sense of material goods, as of the mind and heart. How much I desire to picture to your minds, types of those stolid Christians of the early days, with their habits of virility and courage.  It was not to religious, but to the simple faithful of Milan that Saint Ambrose

addressed these words:  "You should be ashamed to have the first rays of the sun find you in bed.  These early rays reproach you for the time you have lost for merit and the oblation of spiritual sacrifices.  Precede the dawn, so that when the day breaks it will find you ready to take up your duties."

Would you care to know what were the habits of Christians in the sixteenth century, even of those who mingled in the highest class of society?  Listen to the words of the great magistrate, Henri de Mesmes:  "I was sent with my teacher to Toulouse to prepare for the profession of law.  We arose at four o'clock every morning, and having prayed to God, we set out at five, our books under our arms, and our inkstands and candlesticks in

our hands." Mothers of families, are you not ashamed to lie in bed and to miss a Mass said at seven or eight o'clock, when your servant has cut short her sleep so that she might assist at an earlier Mass?

You who deem it too onerous or too common to rise at six o'clock, are you aware that in certain religious communities, it is the custom to rise at two, and often earlier, to sing matins?  Let me tell you that these religious generally live to a ripe old age, and never suffer from those headaches and other indispositions of which you complain at your late rising.

Pére Lacordaire, in his writings, after having branded this weakness for late rising, and pointed out its dangers, indicates the remedy for it:  "To rise early, retire early."

"The man," he writes, "who prolongs his sleep beyond the early morning, because he has prolonged his retiring beyond a just limit, finds the noise and bustle of worldly affairs in his head, when he wakes.  He is seized by a tumultuous uproar, and vainly does he seek from God those hours lost through his own dissipation.

Today, by a common aberration, by a too frequent reversing of the order of nature, the night is made the day, and the day, night.  But nature takes revenge for this insupportable burden imposed on her, by an idiocy which saddens the imagination--an evil that was not known to antiquity.  They are right, then, who say that the world belongs to those who rise early, and that those who have attained eminence during their earthly career, have succeeded only on this condition."

When we advise any one to assist at Mass or to make a quarter of an hour's meditation in the morning, the usual response is:  "I have no time."  Why?  "Because as soon as I arise I must set about my work."  But could you not rise earlier?  "No, I go to bed at such a late hour."  But who compels you to retire so late?  "No one; it is just a habit."  Ah! how deplorable is this habit.  To say nothing of its ill effects on health, it tends to the ruin of piety, and paralyzes all effort towards the truly supernatural life. What is the remedy, you ask.  Retire one hour earlier at night, and the next morning you may rise one hour earlier.  Physicians will tell you that hygiene unites with religion in giving you this advice.

In fine, rise promptly.  What do you gain by lying in bed and indulging in questionable reveries?  More than one virtue has foundered in these moments wherein it is impossible for the will to guide and to guard the mind. To rise at an early hour will be irksome.  However, this sacrifice will be a very sweet act of love to our Lord.  Oh! how happy that day is in which our first actions are stamped with the sail of sacrifice.  Be assured, my daughters, that such a day will be replete with good works.  It will be a day in which the heart will overflow with peace.

GOALS

Goals


"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies with in us." 
  --  Ralph Waldo Emerson 


We all have that "something" that lies within us.  Often times we don't know what that something is, how to find it or how to unleash it.  Throughout my life I've found that setting goals forces me to search deep down, find out what truly inspires me and, most importantly allows me to uncover how far I'm willing to push myself to achieve them.


Set goals for yourself!  The Spartan Race is coming in three weeks and the Mud Run will come just three short weeks after that...so set goals during your training and attack them!  If you're a 7:30/miler then try to knock five to 10 seconds off your pace.  If you're a 40 push ups in a row warrior, try to crank that number up to 50 or more.  Focus on these goals at the daily downPainment of your choosing and attack them with a fury.  


Seek out the Pax, there is no better way to push toward your goals then by surrounding yourself with like minded souls and testing your limits.  If you need to improve your running then set a goal of trying to keep up with fastest men in the group, or at a minimum someone faster than you.   If you need to improve your strength then set a goal of staying right with the strongest men in the group, or someone better than you.  If you are truly committed to your goals it may even require extra work on your own...but you'll never know unless you give maximum effort and push yourself.


Set goals, attack them....with the right attitude anything is possible and ultimately you will find "what lies within you."

Hustlers, Sad-Clowns and You

The Cylon spends a bit of time at the Art of Manliness website because he likes to read other guys writing what he's thinking but is not talented enough to express himself. Not surprisingly then, he found there a perfect description of his basic breakdown of the two types of men who populate the world: Hustlers and Sad-Clowns.

     According to The AOM, Hustlers Own The World for the simple reason that they are the ones who don't wait around for something to happen. They make it happen. Take a look at this piece and you'll see a good chunk of the Warrior Jack philosophy about hard work and the point of doing it well for its own damned sake.

     Sad-Clowns (the majority, and on the disturbing increase) wait around like a bunch of house cats hoping to get scratched behind their ears before they take a long afternoon nap. Unlike Hustlers, they spend their lives in their bedroom slippers with the slogan Personal Comfort Is My Watchword emblazoned emotionally on their foreheads.They see the world as full of Hustler-bullies and hoping they find a benevolent one to protect them from the Libertarian model. They are always whining about moderation and life-balance. They accomplish nothing and then demand some kind of recognition for that. They are King-Hell recyclers--of EVERYTHING, even the foil from the daily Ring Ding their wives (I know, it's crazy, they marry) let them have.

     How do you know if you are a Hustler or Sad-Clown? That was a Cylon-trick. If that question put you in Ponder-Mode for more than a split second, you're a Sad-Clown. Hustlers already know what they are.

Snacks

We often think of "snacks" as all the unhealthy, prepackaged, processed foods that are scattered throughout the local grocery store.  Typically, the easier and/or quicker it is to eat and the more fancy the packaging is the more unhealthy and damaging to our bodies.  Given our busy schedules and desire to live a healthy lifestyle we all need to find a balance, hopefully one that will be heavily skewed toward the healthy side.

One of my favorite snacks is anything mixed with egg whites.  You name it, various types of vegetables, with spinach, tomato and brocolli being my favorites or throw in some extra protein (ie, meat) to add flavor, my favorites being turkey, chicken, lean ground beef or turkey sausage.  Mix in a little cayenne pepper or other flavorings you may prefer and you have all the ingredients you need for a quick, protein-filled snack.

I bring this up because today I was really feeling hungry after an afternoon at the ball field with my little league team.  Once I got home I grabbed many of the ingredients above, cracked open eight eggs (using two yokes for a little flavor), sauteed some sliced turkey and vegetables and then added the egg whites.  All told, from beginning of preparation to the time I sat down to enjoy my snack it took less than 10 minutes...and I got 45+ grams of lean protein, some great vitamins/minerals from the veggies and something that I really thought tasted great.

The Truth

     How did the The Cylon become the first Disciple of The #downPAINment? It wasn't after years of careful study and meditation. It wasn't the sudden rush, push and a shove of a workout/diet epiphany. Nope, what began The Cylon's Discipleship was something far simpler. He just admitted the Truth to himself.

     To understand The Truth, it's probably easier to start with the series of Lies that are its antithesis, and which formed the bars of the cage in which The Cylon lived--before he became The Cylon that is. Here they are:

1. There is a Place Called "In-Shape". The Cylon used to believe in this magical place. Even though he was never really there, he believed that with enough physical training he could get to In-Shape and live there forever. He believed that he had been in the neighborhood many times, maybe even at the front gate one a few special occasions with his meaty claw poised to ring the buzzer, but something always happened to push him away. And, once pushed away, The Cylon would find himself led astray to a place very far away from In-Shape, a place called Disgracefully Fat, where he would have to start the whole journey back to In-Shape again. What kept The Cylon constantly searching for In-Shape formed the basis of Lie Number Two . . 
2. Once In-Shape, the Struggle Ended. Yeah, that's what kept The Cylon dreaming. All the hard work he would do to get to In-Shape would stop once he was passed through the golden doors. As if this magical place would cast a spell over his metabolism and make it stop vacuuming pizza crumbs up out of his gourd and dumping them in his love handles. Oh, ye weary dreamer.
3. Physical Training Can Trump a Bad Diet. The Cylon knows that Lie Number Three doesn't really match up with the first two Lies, but that's the nature of self-delusion isn't it? The Cylon used to believe in the Holy Grail of a PT program so intense that he could eat ANYTHING he wanted. That's right, and it's simple. He thought that he cold burn so many KCals in a day that it did not matter how many he consumed and in what form they came. It's a lovely dream, but it's a lie. 
4. The Body Cannot Handle Daily Intense Workouts (on the same parts). This Lie comes from the world of Gym Ratting in which The Cylon dwelled for far too long. It's what forms the concept of the most stultifying workout in history, the two-day split: chest/tris on Monday and Thursday, bis/back on Tuesday and Friday, rest on Wednesday--that's all a body can handle. Putting aside The Cylon's complete rejection of Gym Ratting for another post and day and focusing for a second on why all this recovery jazz is boooyah: TRUE, the body needs to recover, but it CAN handle a daily workout on the same parts. The Cylon read this Truth first in Younger Next Year and then tested it for himself. It's true. The body can not only take a hard daily workout, but needs it. 

      These cherished Lies are what kept The Cylon from The Truth for many years. As a result, he was on a constant fitness yo-yo where the bottom of the string was a bad neck jerk and the top wasn't all that high or good. The Cylon got to The Truth by giving up The Lies out of desperation and a willingness to try something else. That something else ultimately formed the #downPAINment, The Truth of which is this:

1. The Plateau is a MYTH--you are either climbing up to Stronger or sliding down to Weaker. 
2. The Struggle NEVER ENDS (while you are upright). 
3. Diet is King, Exercise is Queen--Diet Discipline is not only necessary, it's more important than exercise discipline, and harder to do.
4. You have to make the #downPAINment every day. The first day you don't is the first day you begin to lose it. 

     The Cylon's acceptance of The Truth by rejection of The Lies is what started him as a Disciple of The #downPAINment. As with discipleship in anything, it isn't easy or magical. It's hard. But it's also worth it. And while he has lots of self-discipline, The Cylon cannot really do it alone. He needs other disciples to keep him accountable, which is kind of the point of writing all this. The #downPAINment is a group gig. That's the final Truth. We are made as men to do the #downPAINment thing together. Let's do it.

Slicing Up Eyeballs

     The Cylon believes in THE HERD. He does NOT like to work out alone. But sometimes circumstances drive him to it. Given the choice between solo workout and no workout, well that's easy. So, The Cylon launched on a 7 mile run this morning by himself. About halfway through a young Girl Coyote got ahead of him in the Gloom. Just at the moment, Debaser started running through The Cylon's phones and it gave him the motivation he needed to reel that Coyote in.