This lack of energy is something I’ve wanted to reverse for some time.  If I can jump out of bed each morning and get going and stop experiencing energy lags in the afternoon that would be a great thing and I know I could achieve quite a bit more each day.

Kaizen is a Japanese word that means continuous and never-ending improvement.  It also means starting with 

realistic targets and gradually striving for better to end up with results that may seem impossible right now.

Instead of setting impossible targets of radical overnight change I decided to buy a juicer.  Something I have wanted to buy for some time and finally did it.

The theory is that the human system is designed for a diet of mostly raw vegetables with some fruit.  No additives, chemicals or cooked meats which are very difficult for your body to digest.  However to eat enough veg to get the required number of nutrients and calories you’d be eating salads all day.  The juicer reduces large volumes of veg to a single glass that is very easy to digest.  As your body is spending less energy digesting that energy is available to you to use as you wish.

I do feel that for the past week I have mostly had more energy.  I plan to continue adding small subtle changes and developing new health habits so my energy levels continue to increase.  I’ve also got a sprouter to grow wheatgrass so when that is ready in the next 5 days that will be my next small step.

I would recommend pH Miracle by Dr Robert O. Young

This is a very good entry level juicer which is easy to clearn Matstone 6 in 1 Juicer

This science sheds light on some of the most common questions man has and really calls to question some of the fundamental flaws in human thinking that even our greatest minds have not identified.  That is until now.  With your help we can spread this science throughout the world so that it is taught in schools and no longer will people have to suffer with unanswered questions or often, and more dangerously, incorrectly answered questions to the problems of life.

For example, What is the opposite of a table knife?  Well many people say a fork as a fork is most often found opposite the knife on a dinner table.  People have accepted this answer for centuries, perhaps even the dawn of time itself.  How foolish has the human race been to just accept the fork as the answer to this question. Well not anymore!  The age of enlightenment is upon us.

The knife is by design created to cut food and other things in pieces.  The opposite of a knife therefore can only be something that is designed to stick things together, glue is a perfect example and therefore is the generally accepted Oppositology opposite of a knife.

A hammer is designed to bang nails into wood.  The opposite function of this is to remove nails from wood, something that is also achievable with a hammer.  We therefore coin the concept for the first time of a ‘Prime Opposite’, something which is an opposite of itself.

As the science of Oppositology is still in its infancy new ground-breaking discoveries are being made literally every time oppositologists meet at the pub.  Oppositology has a heritage dating back about 6 months to an episode of Genius with Dave Gorman and Frank Skinner and was originally invented by two blokes.

Related Youtube Video

Its a lot like a Sony Reader.

Whether you think e-readers are a good idea or prefer paper books… there is a big issue with lots of books being offered for free in the US that are at least $2-4 more in the UK and elsewhere.

This also means lots of old classics (and even a few brand new books) that are $0 on the US site are at least $2 everywhere else in the UK.

So how do you get them free, and get them without spending $250-499 on a kindle…

Firstly if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, get the app, if not get the software for your PC (Mac software coming soon).

Then go to Amazon.com from a US server.  If you are in the US then don’t do anything extra, otherwise go to www.proxybrowsing.com and go to Amazon.com via there.  Create a new account and make up or look up a US shipping address.  You don’t need any credit card details unless you want to pay for Kindle books to take advantage of the lower prices in the US.  Test it out first, then at that point if you can set an overseas billing address, but continue to use the site via Proxy Browsing you will be able to get books at US prices.

Look at the Kindle Bestsellers list and you will see a whole variety of classics, Alice in Wonderland, Time Machine, the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, History of Rome… I would highly recommend “The Art of Money Getting”.

Then open the new app or software on your PC, enter the same account details you registered with on Amazon.com and the books will start to download automagically.

If I find myself reading a lot of these books and don’t mind reading it on my small iPhone screen then I may buy some books like the new expanded Four Hour Work Week.

I welcome your feedback and let me know of any good books you find!

He used a very simple tracking system to see if he was living by his virtues.  His autobiography listed 13 virtues.  He didn’t try to live up to all 13 every single day, but focued on a few at a time.  Gradually over time he improved in all areas though consistent conscious effort, monitoring and the formation of habits.

The 13 he listed were:

1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

There is a very good website Joe’s Goals where you can track your virtues or goals online.  You can add and amend them over time if they change, assign positive goals where you get points for doing them each day or negative goals which remove points.  Each goal can also be assigned different weightings if you feel some are more important than others.

Its not really for scoring yourself against your friends, but to see how well you do over time.  Are you achieving more of your goals each day, less goals or achieving some and not others…

I added a link in the side-bar last week tracking mine.

Its a great site and I urge you to check it out!

But even with a bit more sleep and without being ill I very much doubt I could have broken 5 hours.  My average heart rate was 176 for the entire 5 and a half hours.  I physically couldn’t have gone much faster.

I am extremely pleased I finished.  I did think seriously about pulling out between about 14-18 miles.

The boys in blue (left of the photo), Neil, Neill and Me.  I kept up with them until mile 12.  It is so much better running with friends if you can (and if you can keep up).

I wonder if my training focused to much on long runs and not enough on actually running faster.

I’ve been running twice since the marathon (35-40 minutes) and I am consciously trying to run very slowly to keep my heart around 160.  I must gradually run faster while keeping my heart rate in that zone so eventually I when at full race effort I will be able to run much faster than before at the same level of effort.

I have set my sights on a 45 minute 10k and then a 4 hour marathon.  With the advantage of training through the summer this is really achievable and realistic!

Whatever didn’t go great on the day, things like that will sometimes happen at inconvenient times, but fundamentally the reason for my poor performance was insufficient training.  It was a fantastic day and a great challenge and I’m looking forward to the next opportunity I get to put things right and achieve the time I am capable of.

For the record I ran the Brighton Marathon on the 18th April 2010, not the London Marathon on 25th April.

This certainly makes sense.  If you all of a sudden try and fit 4 new things into every day you might really struggle to find the time and as soon as you say to yourself, “I’ve ran out of time to do that today, I’ll to do tomorrow.”  There is a good chance you’ll put it off again tomorrow and all of a sudden its no longer a habit.

Recently however after listening to Tony Robbins Personal Power II.  I have decided to completely transform my life.  No point in waiting and doing things little by little.

I have listened to this program before, but I have reached a point in my life where I’ve decided I no longer want to waste a single second.  While I am reading I can be listening to background music with subliminal messages.  When I am out running or walking I can be listening to audio programs.  When I am on the train I can be reading.

Just because I will be trying to leverage every second of my time doesn’t meant I won’t stop to smell the roses or take time to be grateful for all the amazing things in my life.  On the contrary, I am doing this to get even more out of my life and I find the challenge and achievement along the way just makes life even better.

When I wake up instead of watching the news I will be exercising, learning Hindi or some other constructive pursuit.

Now Leo Babauta has achieved considerably more than me, his system also works, I’m not questioning that, what I do question is whether I can get more results faster.

So every morning I will be waking up and reading a list of my goals as well as values, beliefs or traits that I want to instil in my subconscious.  I will also be reading my to-do list specific to that day (prepared the night before).

While many of my new habits are targeted for first thing in the morning it is true I am aided by my current work situation that is allowing me a bit more free time than normal.  The other result of trying to do so much is to prevent me from becoming complacent, lazy and out of the habit of doing things.  

When I find new employment and find myself working longer hours, I should have good habits established and some of my goals (learning Hindi, NLP etc…) are either finite (once I speak fluent Hindi I don’t need to devote specific time to it any longer) or in the case of running may be easier to maintain a level of fitness than achieve that level.  It should involve starting a new job with a better more motivated character with better fitness, people skills and life experiences and allow me to continue with my goals, even if at a slower pace.

I’ve written this post on Tuesday 27th April and have so far been successful on this new program for 2 days.  However, I’ve scheduled this to be posted a week later, Tuesday 4th May, as added pressure to ensure I keep up with the program.  Let’s see if this peer pressure helps!  Once I’ve kept it up for 30 days the habit and momentum should keep me going.

An investment property (if it has been well researched) will be paid for entirely by the tenant(s) and even if on rare occasions a boiler needs replacing or there are other large expenses, this should be paid from saving your rental profits in a separate account (not spending it) or adequate insurance.

If you invest £20,000 into a property and assume an average rate of growth of 2% per year (over the long term that is extremely low, its nearer 5%). You would need a return of at least 8.4% in the stock market to beat that over a 25 year period. Over such a long time period the average stock market growth is 7% and is a lot less consistent than the property market.

If your rent is enough for a capital repayment mortgage and you assume a modest 3% growth in the property market, you would need to achieve a 13% return in the stock market over the same time period to match that growth.

The reason property can grow so slowly yet outperform the stock market is leverage. Call it debt, borrowing or whatever you want, it can help the property investor. Despite banks becoming much stricter in the past few years meaning it is much harder to get a mortgage, try asking your bank to borrow £180,000 to invest in shares and you’ll just get laughed at.

If you invest £20k in shares, you only get growth on that £20k. Invest £20k in property and borrow £180k then you get the benefit of growth on the full £200k. Whilst you can expect dividend growth on your shares, you can expect rental growth on your property investments. In time your rental profits increase so you can pay off the mortgage faster or invest in new properties.

Now some people have pointed the last 2 years out to me and said this means I can’t expect prices to keep on rising, it just won’t happen. I agree that growth is never guaranteed and don’t advocate short term speculation or buying in certain areas in anticipation of above average rises. What I am counting on is inflation. As the value of money falls, the price of things will rise, property included.

Inflation means if you buy a 2 bedroom house near a train station, in 25 years’ time even if the price of the property quadrupled, the value would still be the same as a comparable 2 bedroom house near a train station. Ignore that you may have paid off your mortgage, you might thing you ‘invested’ all that money in your mortgage yet you can’t move to a bigger house without spending or borrowing more money.

Whilst my investments have suffered from a reduction in value, over the long term property is a very good investment and provided the properties are in desirable areas and well maintained property investments should continue to produce consistent rents.

Property will not make you rich overnight and the first few years can be very tough but if you are prepared to put in the hard work and keep at it, it is one of the surest and safest ways to a prosperous future.

I DO NOT KNOW YOUR PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES AND THIS IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE, THIS IS MY OPINION ONLY AND BASED ON MY OWN EXPERIENCE.

But

Despite all this, there are also positive sides of the games, which we are not seeing or not being reported fairly in the media.……………… 

If you want to kill a tree, don’t cut it, just curse it! The same seems to be happening with CWG.

Friends, successful completion of CWG is a must for INDIA’s image….there has been so much negative publicity about it….let’s support the games now, and for sure it doesn’t mean that we support the corruption involved with it!!!!

Lets spread positive vibes about CWG..let’s spread this message!

Run a four hour marathon.

Be able to watch and understand a Hindi movie without subtitles.

Create additional passive income.

If your drill down into these in more detail there is a lot of work involved.

Getting a good marathon time involves consistently eating right day after day, as well as resisting the temptation to sleep and spending early mornings in the gym or out running.

Learning a whole new language is clearly something that takes a lot of work, given how long the average child takes grasp one languages.

With a healthy interest in property and slowly building up an investment portfolio of shares and commodities (mostly gold), my retirement in 40 years should be comfortable if I continue to invest wisely. To accelerate this, however, I need another income. A part time business that I can reinvest the profits from. My goal is £500 per month by the end of 2011.

Location:London,United Kingdom

Saturday 5th Feb

2.34 miles in 25 minutes. On the face of it, that isn’t great. But I was testing interval training. I ran 7 intervals of 320m with 3 mins rest. This is uploaded and verified on my Garmin account.

Monday 7th Feb

Ran 2.6miles after doing 5 sets of 400m (14-15kph) repeats with 3 minutes rest between each.

Followed by 4 minutes Tabata workout on an exercise bike. Tabata is 20 seconds ultra high intensity followed by 10 seconds rest, repeated 8 times.

This was followed in the evening by 7 rounds of 15 sit-ups, 30 squats and 12 press-ups on a continuous circuit with no rest.

Thursday 10th Feb

After 2 days rest, today was back to the gym with 10 bench presses of 40kg, 15 squats of 120kg and 8 pull-ups on a machine reducing my bodyweight by 35kg. This was repeated 3 times and ended with 10 dips (also on 35kg).

Following this was 800m sprints (well 12.5 kph) with 3 minutes rest and repeated 4 times for a total of nearly 5k in 40 minutes.

The goal of these intervals is to increase my natural running speed. I can currently run a 10k in just under and hour but cannot maintain that speed for much longer than 10k. Trying new systems from the book by Tim Ferriss – 4 Hour Body, I am optimistic my running speed will increase for a 45 minute 10k and my new marathon pace will be closer to my current 10k pace.

Food Diary

Getting serious I will now be photographing what I eat, as encouragement to maximise good food and minimise the bad.

 I forgot to photograph the porridge… but mine did look pretty much the same.

Location:London,United Kingdom