Before and After

     These are photos of Jaden (my Son) and I taken a couple of years apart. The first photo was taken in 2005 when I weighed 215 lbs.  Jaden is standing on a stool in the first photo and has just started to grow his hair long. The 'after' photo was taken in the summer of 2007. I weigh 165 lbs and my energy level is back to what was when I was 20 years old.

Back to health

Exercise is just as important as diet. Nowadays I jog about 12 miles a week, usually a 4 mile jog.  The thing I like about jogging is it gets my heart rate up to about 150 bpm.  Also!! jogging outdoors gets some much needed sun on that bald head of mine!!

The endorphins kick in at about 'mile 2' and all the little aches and pains go away and it seems like you could jog forever...just like the 'Ultimate Taoist'...Forrest Gump!

Be careful though!! because any extreme exercise creates a lot of free radicals and burns up your metabolic enzyme supplies.  Enzymes keep the body clean of cancers...For example we always hear about some top athletes getting cancers...Lance Armstrong comes to mind...I believe the body can't keep up with the enzyme demands and the pancreas can't keep up with production.  If you exercise moderately to heavy make sure you are constantly replenishing your body with live enzymes!

January 1st 2008, I started training for my first marathon.  It was 4 months of brutal training...running in the freezing rain or on the roads because there was too much snow on the sidewalks...I had never run a marathon before and the training can be just as hard...if not harder than the race...you work yourself up to doing a long slow run once a week.  Three months into the training I can remember heading out my door...looking at my watch...and saying to myself as I started to run..."Ok...I'll be back home in 3 hours!!"

Anyway...I trained to run the marathon in 4 hours, but ended up sick and on antibiotics 3 weeks before.  I couldn't finish my training but no way was I going to surrender and not run the May 4th 2008 Vancouver Marathon.  Well, it was very tough but I was able to complete it in 4:32.55! What a feeling...I was all teared up crossing the finishline!