Wholistic Fitness

NEW FOR MARCH:

“DAILY MEDITATIONS; Actually Become DAILY MEDITATIONS….

that’s right;

my goal for March; update DIRECT LINES EVERY DAY!

today is a long and glorious entry based upon actual counsel to New Student Ludgate,

but in the month ahead?

might not be but a few words…

so make it at point of YOUR PRACTICE

to visit this forum every day for all sorts of body/mind teachings…

here is the first entry for this month;

my coaching dialouge with New Online Student Ludgate.

enjoy the Teachings and thank YOU, New Student Ludgate

for sharing our Work two-gether for the benefit of our Sangha!

New Student Ludgate!

RE: Halfway through cycle 1 seems a good time to let you know how things are

going.

� actually, it is optimal for my ability to facilitate your Practice if you contact me EVERY week…or even EVERY DAY with questions as they Arise

instead of waiting for longer periods…it is best for me to answer one or two questions from students each day than waiting for a longer multi-leveled communication from you.

does that make sense?

ask me questions/comments

as they arise…don’t store them up

thank you!

RE:

Doing the work is its own reward: The greatest achievement these two

weeks has been completing all of my assignments and workouts.

� ALL OF THEM!??!?!

damn!

even 50% provides a significant training effect….

i might have a WF Lama on my hands!

Lama Ludgate!

RE: A lot of

distractions were thrown my way the past couple of weeks, from having

house guests to traveling to Maine to visit Mom to madness at work to

dealing with the vagaries of New York real estate. Through it all, I got

my butt out of bed and did the work, something I’d have been unlikely to

do in the past.

� okay, this is fantastic,

but i don’t want you to get overzealous right off the start

“There are none so righteous as the newly converted.”

pace yourself for an ultra marathon in this Path,

not a sprint

you and i will be traveling the Realms together

for a long time,

so pace yourself!

RE:

Ironman watch – my new best friend: A couple of months ago REI had a sale

on Timex Ironman watches – I picked one up with a heart monitor. It has

been great for this work!

� i have Students offer to make WF Watches complete with timers specific for our ST, Cardio, and Lifestyle assignments…

one Student even said he could integrate my voice into the watch so i could alert you to things like your Breath and Posture!

RE: I use the chrono for timing my workouts (and

limiting recovery to 30 seconds!), the timer for my 1 minute ab sets and

meditation, and the heart monitor for cardio. Great tool.

Allan, meet the dragon. Dragon, this is Allan: At the end of week 1, my

body has threatening to go on strike. I did Lower body on Thursday, then

drove to Maine on Friday, which caused my legs and lower back to tighten

up. My calves also started to burn. On Saturday, I was extremely sore,

� okay STOP

in WF

we don’t say “sore”

we say we are feeling “well trained”

this is a more productive and conducive Word Choice

to interpenetrate your subconsciousness.

thank you.

RE:

but did 60 minutes of Minutes are Forever on the back roads by Mom’s

house. My legs opened up during the run, but when I got home and

showered, they started to hurt like hell. For the rest of Saturday, I

could barely walk.

� welcome to our Temple,

New Student Ludgate!

“He who limps

is still walking.”

besides,

studying WF will keep you humble

and off the streets!

(and Mom’s meals will taste EVEN more precious!)

RE: Sunday was a little better,

� STOP

don’t judge days as “better” or “worse”

instead tell me the non dualistic version such as,

“by Sunday, my legs were feeling more recovered.”

do you Feel the difference, vibrationally, in what i am asking from you?

RE: but after the EE-GAD

workout things started tightening up again. To top it off, on Monday, my

“off day”, I shoveled snow for my Mom for 2 hours and then drove back to

New York. By the time I got home, I was a wreck.

� i would imagine so!

ahhhh…New Student trials and tribulations!

i love it!

RE: However, further

evidence that the body is an amazing thing: did the same cycle in Week 2

(minus the shoveling) and felt nothing more than a little “good” soreness

� see my above counsel combined:

not good, not bad

not sore, just well trained

RE:

(i.e. could tell I worked hard and well, but that’s all). I assume this

is normal lactic acid build up and to be expected. Is there anything I

can do to speed recovery if this happens again?

� keep Practicing

recovery capacities increase

with steadfast training

recovery capacities increase

with steadfast training

recovery capacities increase

with steadfast training

hang in there!

RE:

Cardio: Big learning here came from my heart monitor. When I did my

interval run, I quickly found that my “recovery” pace was too fast (I

thought of you talking about people going too hard when they should go

easy, and too easy when they should go hard). When I backed off a bit, I

was able to get real change between my Zone 1/2 pace and my Zone 3/4 pace.

� superb learning!

well done!

RE:

Strength training: Starting to feel a good rhythm and groove here, as I

get the choreography and flow down and my level of focus up. The Ku

bottom technique on V pulldowns was, shall we say, illuminating. And

everything I have read on Direct Lines about jump squats has been verified

– they’re a bitch.

� i’ll pretend you said that Jump Squats are the Goddess of WF Strength Training

and that you are enjoying your courtship with Her Highness.

just wait till i prescribe you 1:00 Gunther Hops after a 10 x 20 Back Squats!

WF is NO JOKE!

are you SURE you want to study this Path?!

RE:

Meditation: Enjoying my zazen sessions very much,

� oh geez,

i must have mis-coached you if you “enjoying” your first Zazen studies!

RE: although the mind does

tend to wander (in particular, after I reverse leg position, it is hard

for me to quiet back down and stay in my breath).

� i know,

but in WF overall balance

is most important in our Work

not lopsided hips from addiction to sitting only one way

RE: Beeper guru has been

just fine (thanks to activating the hourly beep on my Ironman watch).

� you should write Timex for a sponsorship contract….you are doing great dropping their name!

RE:

3X30, interestingly, has been the most difficult piece of the whole

program. Despite my efforts to keep it front of mind as I prepare my

food, I almost invariably forget to do it when I sit down to eat. Either

I forget completely, or I get half way through, remember I forgot, and say

!@@$$%%#@. I take this as a message about awareness. I am invariably

doing something else when I eat – talking to my wife, playing with my son,

catching up on reading, etc. I need to eat when I eat, and stay present

to what I am doing (reminds me of the zen parable on your stream entry

tape about the monk who couldn’t remember where he put his umbrella).

� 3 x 30 is a tough Nutrition/Meditation assignment…

i feel sincerity in your words

and this is what matters most…

RE:

Yoga: I’ve been taking it easy here, either doing Medium Flexibility (on

the strength training days) or a few rounds of sun salutations. Lots of

room still for opening.

� a lifetime

or more!

RE:

Nutrition: I have been faithful in my herb intake, with one caveat. For

household budget reasons, my Ilg Supreme is missing Quinary and VitaFruit.

� absolutely fine! Vitashake and Fortune Delight are your two main go-to SR herbs throughout the day.

RE:

I am not so concerned about VitaFruit – I eat lots of fresh fruit, which

I assume is giving me what I need.

� good, yes, no pressing need for VitaFruit in that case

RE: Would like to add Quinary, but need to

get some other bills out of the way first.

� i hear you

RE: There is a steady stream of

VitaShake, Sunny Dew and Fortune Delight going into (and out of) my body.

� THAT is PERFECT! keep it up!

RE:

On the three restrictions (caffeine / dairy / meat),

� i LIKE that, New Student Ludgate –

– The Three Restrictions of WF Nutrition; dairy, meat, and caffeine!

very, very nice ring to it…

damn, the things a “Master” can learn from his New Students!

thank you!

RE: I’m dong

� wow…your FIRST

WF Spelling Guru (WFSG)

finally caught up with you…

you have been VERY Mindful about your spelling up until now!

RE: well on two

out of three. The only caffeine I have had the past two weeks was borne

of desperation – I was driving to Maine, it was late at night and I was

tired, and I was afraid it was either caffeine or wrap my car around a

tree.

� WHOLISTIC FITNESS VARIATION:

you crack and eat

David & Son’s

SUNFLOWER SEEDS

next time you are driving when feeling tired

it’s an old professional rock climbing (a.k.a; good for nothing bum

driving trick i used back in the day…

always keep a package in the glove compartment for this reason

RE: While I miss the flavor and the ritual of coffee, this has not been

that hard. On the dairy front, I have had no dairy by design, but have

found cheese tough to avoid when ordering out.

� that is okay…you are doing great…don’t force too much change at once

RE: Finally, my carnivore days

are not yet behind me. I have cut way back (out with the sausages for

breakfast and the chicken wraps at launch),

� WFSG

RE: but still have meat for dinner

~5 days a week. Changing this one is going to be a long and slow process,

both because of my own desires and attachments and because of how

ingrained it is in my family life (my wife, my parents, and my in-laws are

all enthusiastic meat eaters).

� me too.

don’t worry.

just do this:

1) take your SR herbs during the day

then,

2) just keep bringing Awareness

to the quality of the FEEL of the corpses upon which you feed.

3) trace the decaying flesh energy throughout your internal body until the flesh of the corpse has been eliminated.

4) smell and feel the texture of your eliminations from flesh eating

5) compare #’s 2-4 above to the feeling of the SUNRIDER (SR) herb energy.

(you will find this Assignment very hard,

flesh foods ‘cement’ themselves onto vesicular tissues and don’t get eliminated adequately…this is why most American’s have so much bacterial filth throughout their intestines causing all sorts of dis-ease.)

doing this Assignment

will help move you Higher

Happier

Lighter

and

more

Vibrant!

RE: That is all (enough) for now. No real questions about the workouts – the

wisdom of the design shines through. This does seem an appropriate time

to ask what I need to do and when I need to do it to get my first program

update.

� did i email you a Cycle Summation yet? if not, let me know.

this is a Test to see if you are

truly ON the Path…

RE: Finally, I have been thinking a lot about something you wrote in Direct

Lines last week: “when I go, WF goes”. I do not agree. To me, WF is

three things: a teacher, a sangha, and dharma. Of these, (no offense),

the teacher is most replaceable. As you have noted several times, WF has

become a sangha, with the message radiating out like ripples from a stone

from you to your teachers to your on-line students to your yogis to anyone

who clicks on the site or reads your books. This sangha was always

there, searching for something they couldn’t find. What you did was help

them (us) open the door of the temple. That community should be strong

enough to survive the loss of any one member, even if it is the stone in

the middle. Finally, WF is dharma. As you have said, “there is plenty of

Ilg out there”. In this digital age, that will continue to be true. As

long as the dharma is accessible, the sangha will find it. I guess what I

am saying is that in a post-Ilg world, WF would continue to morph and

change (no venerating stone tablets here), but as long as it stays true to

the core of mind/body fitness, it should continue to grow.

� well,

i hate to pop your intellectual bubble regarding WF futurity,

but…

for WF to actually “grow”

it would require someone to navigate the “body” or “physical” terrain

in which WF was borne;

i.e., compete in 5 World Championships in 4 physiologically diverse sports

this is my Base Level body/mind fitness that i attained through WF and from which my teachings were born..

pretty rarefied air

( i won�t bring up the fact of my fractured spine and healing it without drugs or surgery)

the Buddha only needed 6 years of fierce asceticism (tapas)

and seven days of meditation

to become Awakened….

shit,

it took me 10 years just to qualify for my FIRST World Championship

and to even start LINKING my physical effort with spirituality!

if the Buddha were an athlete

which type of athlete would He have been?

or Jesus?

or Ramakrishna?

endurance?

strength?

agility?

or…

would He have been a MULTI-SPORT Athlete

across a continuum of physiologically diverse sports?

hmmmmmm….

how come no one has asked this Question?

all major Traditions agree;

one cannot master the Mind or certainly the Spirit

without

first

mastering the lowly Body!

so,

of all the Masters…

who has the most control of the Body?

interesting stuff to reflect on

for a New Student of WF….

don’t be so quick to predict

WF’s ability �to grow�

too flippantly until my same terrain has been negotiated by at least someone else in the world…

which has yet to happen!

the body/mind fitness that i attained

will be

required

if WF – in its original sense –

is to actually

“grow”

without this Base Level of Body/Mind Fitness Attainment

WF teachings will not “grow”

but will rather just become ‘dispensed’ and ‘stylized’

throughout my Certified Teachers and Students

because,

you See,

New Student Ludgate,

WF

– for it to be True –

is rooted with the mastery of the body

through the mind.

there are NO shortcuts around the body

don’t over intellectualize or predict the fate of

my LifeWork

until you

or someone else has attained what i’ve done

at the Physical Level…

okay?

thank you,

just want to clarify

the very GROUNDED NATURE

of

WF…

we are not New Agey flakey types…

we are Warrior Athletes

devoted to staying grounded

and using the Body as a Vehicle.

good luck…

and Godspeed in your WF Studies…

love,

coach ilg