Water, Water Everywhere

I found this information on the Internet and wanted to share it. I hope it can help!


Incredible as it may seem, water is quite possibly the single most important catalyst in losing weight and keeping it off. Although most of us take it for granted, water may be the only true "magic potion" for permanent weight loss!

Water suppresses the appetite naturally and helps the body metabolize stored fat. Studies have shown that a decrease in water intake will cause fat deposits to increase, while an increase in water intake can actually reduce fat deposits.

Here's why: The kidneys can't function properly without enough water. When the kidneys don't work to capacity, some of their load is dumped onto the liver. One of the liver's primary functions is to metabolize stored fat into usable energy for the body. If the liver has to do some of the kidney's work, it can't operate at full throttle. As a result, it metabolizes less fat, more fat remains stored in the body, and weight loss stops.

Drinking enough water is the best treatment for fluid retention. When the body gets less water, it perceives this as a threat to survival and begins to hold on to every drop. Water is stored in extra cellular spaces (outside the cells). This shows up as swollen feet, legs and hands. Diuretics offer a temporary solution at best. They force out stored water along with some essential nutrients. Again, the body perceives a threat and will replace the lost water at the first opportunity. Thus, the condition quickly returns.

The best way to overcome the problem of water retention is to give the body what it needs. PLENTY OF WATER. Only then will the stored water be released.

If you have a constant problem with water retention, excess salt may be to blame. Your body will tolerate sodium only in a certain concentration. The more salt you eat, the more water your system retains to dilute it. But getting rid of un-needed salt is easy - just drink more water. As it's forced through the kidneys, it takes away excess sodium.

What's more, the overweight person needs more water than the thin one! Larger people have larger metabolic loads. Since we know that water is the key to fat metabolism, it follows that the overweight person needs more water.

Water helps maintain proper muscle tone by giving muscles their natural ability to contract and by preventing dehydration. It also helps to prevent the sagging skin that usually follows weight loss - shrinking cells are buoyed by water, which plumps the skin and leaves it clear, healthy, and resilient.

Water also helps rid the body of waste. During weight loss, the body has a lot more waste to get rid of - all the metabolized fat must be shed. Again, adequate water helps flush out the waste. It can even help relieve constipation. When the body gets too little water, it siphons what it needs from internal sources. The colon is one primary source. Result? Constipation. But, when a person gets enough water, normal bowel functions returns.

Basically, the body will not function properly without enough water and can't metabolize stored fat efficiently. Drinking water is essential to weight loss. But how much water is enough??

On the average, a person should drink eight 8-ounce glasses every day. That's about 2 quarts. However, the overweight person needs one additional glass for every 25 pounds of excess weight. The amount you drink also should be increased if you exercise briskly or if the weather is hot and dry. When the body gets the water it needs to function optimally, its fluids are perfectly balanced. Once this happens you have reached the "breakthrough point". What does this mean?

• Endocrine-gland function improves.
• Fluid retention is alleviated as stored water is lost.
• More fat is used as fuel because the liver is free to metabolize stored fat.
• Natural thirst returns.
• There is loss of hunger almost overnight.

If you stop drinking enough water, your body fluids will be thrown out of balance again, and you may experience fluid retention, unexplained weight gain and loss of thirst. To remedy the situation you have to increase your water intake again.

20 Tips For Getting Your 8 Glasses of Water Daily

Sometimes drinking our eight glasses of water a day can be a real challenge Here are 20 tips to help you accomplish that feat! It is said by many beauty experts that drinking your water is the cheapest, quickest way to look better! That should motivate us!

1. Make a bet with a co-worker to see who can drink more water in the course of a day.

2. Have a big glass of water at every transitional point of the day: when you first get up, just before leaving the house, when you sit down to work, etc.

3. Make it convenient - keep a big, plastic, insulated water bottle full on your desk and reach for it all day.

4. When you have juice (apple, grape, or orange) fill half the glass with water.

5. When you have a junk-food craving, down a glass of water immediately. You feel full quickly and avoid the calories, and it lets time pass till the craving fades.

6. Have one glass every hour on the hour while at work. When the work day is done your water quota is met.

7. Substitute a cup of hot water with a drop of honey for tea or coffee.

8. While at work, get a 20 ounce cup of ice and keep filling it up from the office water cooler. The key is drinking with a straw - you take bigger gulps and drink much more.

9. Freeze little bits of peeled lemons, limes, and oranges and use them in place of ice cubes - it's refreshing and helps get in a serving or two of fruit.

10. After each trip to the restroom, guzzle an eight-ounce glass to replenish your system.

11. Don't allow yourself a diet soda until you've had two to four glasses of water. You will find that you won't want the soda anymore or that just half a can is enough.

12. Let ounces of water double grams of fat: When eating something containing 10 grams of fat, I drink 20 ounces of water.

13. Drink two full glasses at each meal, one before and one after. Also, drink one glass before each snack so you don't eat as much.

14. Carry a small refillable water bottle at all times and drink during downtime; while waiting in a bank line, sitting on the train, etc.

15. Use a beautiful gold-rimmed glass and fill it with cold water from the tap.

16. Drink two glasses of water immediately after waking up.

17. Bring a two-liter bottle of water to work and try to drink it all before you leave work. If you don't finish, drink it in traffic on the way home - it's like a race.

18. Always keep a 24-ounce bottle of water handy while watching TV, doing laundry, making dinner, etc.

19. Add drinking two glasses of water to your daily skincare regimen. Drink, cleanse, moisturize, etc., then drink again.

20. Drink your water out of a big Pyrex measuring cup - it's a good way to keep track of how much water you are drinking.

Lessons in the Mountains

Issai Chozanshi was the pen name for Niwa Jurozaemon Tadaaki, a samurai who lived in Japan from 1659 -1741. Little is known of his life, but he left behind several insightful works on martial arts, the most well known of which is his Tengu Geijutsuron.

It is the story of a swordsman who happens upon a group of spirits in the mountains while they are discussing the Way of martial arts. He listens in on their discussion and learns about the importance of spontaneity, acting without acting, and mushin or flowing mind.

The spirits he encounters in the mountains are called Tengu. Tengu are a kind of Japanese folk spirit that were thought to live in the rocks and the trees and could take on the shapes of men and animals. They could be harbingers of good or bad luck, and would sometimes be blamed for small acts of mischief, but they could also be depicted as wise and powerful natural forces.

In Tengu Geijutsuron the spirits discuss the importance of both technique and principle, and the discussion often returns to the importance of keeping the mind free from intention. In Chapter Two the Tengu describe the benefits of these things to the martial artist,

"Swordsmanship is the technique of contention, and it is considered essential to cut through the root of confusion of life and death from the very beginning of your study. But it is difficult to do this abruptly. For this reason, you should use all the power of your mind to cut through the principle of life and death, to develop your ch'i, to test the techniques of physical confrontation, and make great efforts without any neglect throughout this time. When you have sacrificed your life for training, when you techniques are mature, when you ch'i is under control, when principle has penetrated your mind and you have no doubts, when you are no longer confused and your spirit meets no obstruction - then your thoughts will not move within you at all. And when your thoughts do no move, ch'i will follow spirit. It will move along with animation and will flow smoothly. When ch'i rides the mind, it will not stagnate, it will not be stopped, and it will control form with complete freedom and without obstruction.

Following the perception of the mind, the speed of practical application is like opening a door and the moonlight immediately shining in; or like striking something and having the immediate response of a sound. Victory and defeat are the traces of practical application. But if you don't have conceptualization form will not have aspect. Aspect is the shadow of concept, and is what manifests form. If there is no aspect to form, the opponent you are supposed to face will not exist. This is what is meant when we say that neither my opponent nor I exist. If I exist, my opponent exists. Because I do not exist, even the insignificant thought of good or evil, perversion or properness, by the man coming at me will be reflected as in a mirror. And this is not reflected from me. It is simply that he arrives and moves on. This is just like being unable to confront with your own wickedness someone who has attained virtue. It is a mystery of the Of-Itself-So. If I tried to divert it from myself, it would become a thought. And because this thought would obstruct me, my ch'i would stagnate, and practical application would not be completely free.

The person who comes and goes like a powerful spirit neither thinking about nor enacting the unfettered mysterious function - this is the swordsman who can be said to have attained enlightenment."

In the opinion of the Tengu, it is not enough to have the proper physical skills without the proper mental ones, nor vice versa. It was only with mind and body in harmony that the warrior is able to "control form with complete freedom and without obstruction."

Then, in Chapter Three the spirits discuss the "moon in the water,"

"...there are various meanings attached to this phrase according to different schools, but fundamentally 'the moon reflected in the water' is a metaphor for when you can move and respond with spontaneity and no mind. Among the poems of the Abdicated Emperor Sotoku while he was at the palace near Hirozawa Pond is the following:

                      Though there is a reflection,
                            The moon reflects itself
                       Without thought.
                             Without thought, too, the water:
                             Hirozawa Pond.

At the heart of this poem is an enlightened state of mind concerning action and response with no mind and spontaneity..."

The poem and the parable refer to a state of perfect emptiness, wherein our actions are instantaneous and without intention, and where the opponent is both present and not present in our minds.

The lessons of the Tengu are true today, over three hundred years since that day in the mountains. Practice with discipline. Internalize the lessons of the concepts and principals, perfect your execution of the physical techniques. And remember the moon in the water. It exists, without delay, or intention. It simply is.

Learn to fight like this, and you will understand what Chozanshi means by "Abiding in the midst of attack" and "Attacking in the midst of abidance."

Life Lessons from a Samurai

Kaibara Ekiken was over eighty years old when he wrote Yōjōkun. A doctor, philosopher, teacher, samurai, and scientist, Ekiken was responsible in many ways for introducing the concept of rational empiricism to feudal Japan. Much of the medicine he taught and practiced throughout the late seventeenth century is still being practiced today.

Yōjōkun was his final written work. When he was thirty-eight he married the daughter of a local samurai administrator. By all accounts Esaki Token was a match for the artistic and philosophical Ekiken. Schooled in music, calligraphy, and poetry already, she also knew enough of history and philosophy to keep him on his toes. She often accompanied him on his travels and is even suspected of having written one of his books herself, publishing it under his name to give the work a wider readership. When she passed away at the age of sixty-two, he finished his work on Yōjōkun, and passed away himself the following year.

Yōjōkun contains the collected wisdom of a man who spent more than sixty years treating the sick. Unlike other classic samurai works of the era which taught the warrior how to die with honor, Yōjōkun is a set of instructions on how to live. Kaibara Ekiken believed that living long and well was the truest way to show gratitude to our ancestors for gifting us with life, and the modern reader will instantly see the wisdom of his teachings.

The Way of Nurturing Life
Verse 27

"Different people have different vocations. They polish a vocation and add technique to their Way. For all vocations there are techniques in which you should become well versed. If you do not master the techniques, you will be unable to perform the tasks at hand. Even among the most trivial and humble accomplishments, if you do not have a command of the techniques, you will be incapable of the task. For example, making straw raincoats and papering umbrellas are extremely easy and humble vocations, but even there, if you do not study the techniques, you will be unable to do the job.

How much more so, then, for the Way of Nurturing Life in the human body of man, which is said to be one of the Three Powers, along with Heaven and Earth? In short, if you are intent on taking care of yourself and living a long life, you must learn the appropriate techniques.

The common practice for learning a technique, even for some trivial art, is to seek out a teacher without fail, receive the teacher's instructions, and learn the proper techniques. Even the extremely talented will learn nothing if they do not have access to the techniques, a teacher, and instruction.

The techniques for nurturing your health are a full-fledged Great Way, not some small art. If you do not study the techniques with resolution, you will not master the way. If you are able to study under a person who knows the techniques, do not trade that opportunity for a thousand pieces of gold.

When I look back on my youth in my hometown, there were many people who did not know the Way of Nurturing Life. They led dissipated and therefore short lives. Moreover, many of the old folks in my village, not knowing the Way, were often sick and in distress. Their health declined and they became doting old fools early on. In such cases, even if they lived to a hundred, their lives were without pleasure and full of aches and pains. A long life ill conceived is of no use. You may think that simply living long is a good thing, but longevity alone is not something for which you should be congratulated."

Seek out the Way of Nurturing Life. Learn its techniques and study them with resolution. Live a long and health life, filled with pleasure. That is how we can best show our gratitude.

20 Years Later... A Legacy... Your Legacy.

“I received a call from Ed Parker Jr. at 6am the morning after his father had his fatal heart attack. He said “I’m calling my father ‘s friends to let them know he passed away..."  (Lee Wedlake, Black Belt magazine)

20 years ago today, Ed Parker, the father of American martial arts and a pioneer of modern martial arts practice and principals would teach no more.  While today marks the 20th anniversary of our Grandmaster's death, his legacy continues to be carried on through the 21st century.  There are schools of American Kenpo on every continent.  His teachings have become embedded in over a thousand different styles.  Movie fight scenes often portray his work in films such as Blade, Borne Identity, and the original Pink Panther series (not to mention countless martial arts movies).  The lessons he left many of us with where not always about kicking and punching though, they also included philosophies and ideals for living.  Students of his have gone on to promote the physical, mental, and martial lessons that he taught while also working to create better community amongst mankind. 

It is important to note however, that while much has been done to promote his art, it is not his art.  Much like Bruce Lee's concept of martial arts as the art of expressing the human body, it is not his any more than it is mine, nor yours.  It is what it is, it is our own.  Your body, your mind, your character and spirit are your own, it is up to you to craft it.  If you do not, someone else will do it for you.  It is not hard nor is it easy.  It just is.  You are what you eat, you become what you focus on most, you are an average of the 5 people you hang out with most often; these are all ancient words of wisdom.  What work of art are you crafting?

We must take it upon ourselves to honor a man who has given so much of himself to the world and ultimately you, our students, and the best way we can do that is to leave a spectacular legacy of our own.  The best way to lead is by example.  You would not have your Kenpo if I had not chosen to pass it on to you.  I would not have it if it weren't for my many teachers and Mr. Parker.  Mr. Parker would have missed his same chance to make his mark if it weren't for Mr. Chow and his countless other teachers.  So on and so on it goes, for centuries.  It is up to each of us to chose a path and to pass on what we find best in ourselves and to continually work to better what we find worse.  Some will do this by passing on their Kenpo, some, through living by example, and some, will forget the lesson all together.  Become empowered.  Create the life you want.  Ask yourself what you want out of life and fight for it, work for it, relish the chance to take living into your own hands as our Great Grandmaster Edmund Kealoha Parker did.  I invite you all, students and non students alike, challenge yourselves to be your best and under no circumstances should you ever give up.  We may fall down nine times, but we'll always get up ten.

As the New Year approaches, as we strive to get through a recession, and as you consider the life you wish to craft, consider one of my favorite quotes:

"You only lose energy when life becomes dull in your mind. Your mind gets bored and therefore tired of doing nothing. Get interested in something! Get absolutely enthralled in something! Get out of yourself! Be somebody! Do something. The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have."

Norman Vincent Peale

Last living disciple of Jigoro Kano still teaches three days a week at age 97.

Here is an article about an amazing woman who has done many things with her life and in an effort to help women find their place in the martial arts.


(Excerpts taken from http://www.flyingcarp.net/2009/04/be-strong/ and wikipedia.)

"In a world dominated by men, a tiny 97 year-old living legend is the highest ranking woman in judo history. She is also the last living disciple of Jigoro Kano, judo’s founder." (Kano is also known to be the originator of the modern belt ranking system).

"In 1934 Keiko Fukuda was preparing for marriage, like most young women in Japan. Then she met Jigoro Kano and radically altered her life path. She gave up marriage, family, and her home-land to pursue her life destiny.  In 1966 she immigrated to the U.S., a single woman with an opportunity to make a living with her vocation, judo. Her move to the U.S. caught light of rank injustice within the Japanese judo system. With the help of American women’s rights activist, judo students, she began her struggle up the male dominant ladder of judo."

"Fukuda was born on April 12, 1913, in Tokyo, Japan.  As a youth, she learned the arts of calligraphy, flower arrangement, and the tea ceremony; typical pursuits for a woman in Japan at that time.  Fukuda's grandfather, Fukuda Hachinosuke, had been a samurai and master of Tenjin Shinyō-ryū jujutsu, and he had taught that art to Kanō Jigorō, founder of judo and head of the Kodokan.  Kanō had taught female students as early as 1893 (Sueko Ashiya).  He personally invited the young Fukuda to study judo—an unusual gesture for that time—as a mark of respect for her grandfather.  She began training in judo in 1935, as one of only 24 women training at the Kodokan.

Despite her conventional upbringing, Fukuda felt close to judo through memories of her grandfather, and one day went with her mother to watch a judo training session.  A few months later, she decided to begin training for herself.  Her mother and brother supported this decision, but her uncle was opposed to the idea.  Her mother and brother had thought that Fukuda would eventually marry one of the judo practitioners, but she ended up never marrying, instead becoming a judo expert herself."

Modern Self-Defense

Self-defense in modern times isn't always vs. the stereotypical aggressors we expect. Sure, tough guys, gang members, abusers, muggers, all these people are easy to identify in the movies or after a true altercation. However, modern self-defense needs to include much more than an education in blocks and strikes. What technique would you use on an attacker you never saw, who could inflict immense pain on both you and your family, and that never laid a hand on you? In our dojo, I want our students to be last on the list to be attacked, quick to appropriately defend when attacked, and capable of handling any attack. This includes attacks that are physical, psychological, financial, legal, or attacks on identity. Please take a moment to watch the link below, it teaches a technique that will help defend all 5 types of attack. It only takes 5 minutes and its a great reminder about keeping the unseen attacker
out of your life.
http://finance.yahoo.com/video/companyne....uments-23254523

Join the discussion or add your thoughts at: http://www.kenpoclass.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=56#ixzz174aOiwQf

The Bear's Hug

“Once the bear's hug has got you, it is apt to be for keeps.”

-Harold Macmillan

Bearhugs. They're more dangerous than you may realize. But there are some basic defensive tactics you can use to defend against them. And to understand these tactics, you have to understand the motivations behind this style of grappling attack and the context in which it might occur.

First it is important to understand exactly why an attacker would grab you in a bearhug. There are essentially three reasons why this might happen. First, to contain your arms and prevent you from attacking. Second, to hold you in place either for a second attacker or to prevent your escape. And third to change your position, either with a lift or a takedown.

Bearhugs can be from the front, rear, or either side. The defender can have either, neither, or both arms pinned inside the hold, and the attacker can be pressing, pulling, or holding a static position. Consideration of all of these parameters must be incorporated into the defense, but regardless of the exact nature of the attack, there are three basic defenses which can be universally applied.

The first and most important thing to do when inside a bearhug is to establish a base. The defender should widen their stance and press their weight down through the outside edges of their feet into the ground. This lowers the defender's center of gravity and makes it more difficult for the attacker to either lift them into the air or to manipulate their position. This is key. In order to fight back most effectively, the defender must be able to control their mobility and generate ground leverage, and in order to do that they must have a strong solid base.

The second thing to do is to control the attacker's arms. Once the attacker has the defender in the hold, he may try to adjust the bearhug into a choke or headlock. Grabbing and controlling the opponent's arms, even with only one hand, is an important part of preventing this.

Finally, if the attacker attempts to lift the defender into the air, the defender should wrap one of his legs around one of the attacker's legs, either from the inside or outside. This is a technique called "grapevining." When performing the defensive maneuver, the defender should always be sure to keep one leg free. If the attacker lifts the defender into the air and then releases him, the defender needs to have a free supporting leg or else he will fall to the ground with the attacker on top of him.

A handy mnemonic device for dealing with bearhugs is to think of the number three. Three reasons for the bearhug attack. Three directions it can come from. Three variations of arm positions. Three types of energy the opponent may be applying. And three basic bearhug defenses. Drop into a base. Pin the opponent's hands. Wrap your leg around theirs to defend the lift.

Drop. Pin. Wrap.

You'll learn a lot of kenpo techniques for bearhug defenses. You'll learn Escaping the Bear, and Subduing the Bear, and Crushing the Bear. But even within bearhugs, basic self defense concepts apply. If the opponent is behind you, you must change positions. If they try to drive you forward or back you must establish a strong line. Your relative positions determine targets and weapons. These concepts are universal. But the three tactics described above are bearhug specific.

Drop. Pin. Wrap.

Drills -
Beginner: Student A attacks Student B with static bearhugs from the front, side, and rear. Student B practices basic bearhug defense. Alternate.

Intermediate: Student A closes their eyes. Student B attacks with any bearhug without warning. As soon as Student A feels the attack, they open their eyes and defend with basic technique until they are able to reposition themselves to perform one of the kenpo bearhug self defense techniques they have learned. Alternate.

Advanced: Students A and B are sparring at long range. Student A looks for an opening and then suddenly advances into a front bearhug with the intention of either a lift or takedown. Student B defends against the attack and re-establishes long range by either escaping or pushing Student A away. Continue long range sparring with Students alternating bearhug attacks.