The only time you twist in life might be when you’re backing out your car. And maybe then you just use your neck (or only your rearview mirror like my dad does). But your back can, and should, twist, too.

If you’re lacking this movement in your life, you should supplement a twisting motion periodically throughout the day.

A great way to do it is, while sitting, to lock your feet on your chair to stabilize your hips. Then grab the chair and twist. Hold it for 15 to 30 seconds. You can do this a few times throughout the day—even once per day is good.

It looks like this.

That’s it. Just do it a few times a day. It complements the face the wall squat nicely.

Eating plays a huge role in our culture. What we eat and how we eat is so habituated that trying to change is hard. But if you’re getting sick, getting fat, getting tired, etc. the first place to look is your diet.

Ever since reading John Tilden’s books on food and toxemia, I’ve been even more conscious of what I put into my mouth.

Before, I had fallen into a rut. I’d eat everyday at 11 a.m. I worked a desk job. I’d have a large lunch. Sometimes I’d eat a burger, fries, and baked potato soup. Then I’d sit at my desk and eat while reading the news.

I pulled that burger routine about once per week. What was I thinking?

Things have changed since reading Tilden. Now I watch my food combinations and I try to eat when I’m actually hungry.

Distinguishing Appetite From Hunger

I was eating on auto-pilot before. At 11 a.m., I’d start eating my food. I’d programmed myself to eat at a particular time, irrespective of actual hunger.

Something was wrong. I was digesting my food, but I wasn’t assimilating all of it. I was forcing my body to work extra hard because I’d rush food into my stomach, not pay attention to the eating (I was reading the news), and at the end of the meal I’d feel stuffed and sometimes be gassy.

I was forcing more food into my body than it could use. I was eating fast and not chewing thoroughly. I wasn’t enjoying my food—I was devouring it!

My body then had to process and eliminate that food. It was wasteful and it took a toll on my health.

Applying Tilden’s Rules

Tilden has four rules of eating. I’ve been doing my best to follow them. It’s not easy.

John Tilden Eating Rule #1

Never eat unless comfortable in mind and body from the previous meal or meal time.

John Tilden Eating Rule #2

Never eat without desire and keen relish for the plainest, simple food; and not even then if to do so would break the first rule.

John Tilden Eating Rule #3

Avoid overeating. The best way to do this is by following the fourth rule.

John Tilden Eating Rule #4

Thoroughly masticate and insalivate, especially starchy foods.

I’ve known for a while that digestion takes energy, but Tilden made it so abundantly clear that I decided to do something about it. Eat less and assimilate more—make honest use of the power of digestion.

Food Combinations

I had only been sick once last year until November. Then I got sick three times, basically back-to-back-to-back.

What changed? Was it the weather? Was I exercising too hard? I think it was the combination of oatmeal, peanut butter, and banana that I had been eating. I’d been eating that combination 3-5 times per week for breakfast.

Tilden says you should eat fewer food combinations. Meat with vegetables. Fruit by itself or with dairy. Bread by itself. Simple.

Try to follow Tilden’s rules of eating. Try to distinguish hunger from appetite. Remember, if you’re getting sick, you’re doing something wrong. If you do get sick, try to figure out where you transgressed. There’s no point in being sick if you can avoid it.

If you’re looking for more Tilden, you get his book on food and you can download Toxemia for free from soilandhealth.com.

Hey, I’ve wrestled with addiction. That’s why I can spot addiction a mile away. Let me tell you a secret:

Many people are addicted to exercise.

Just like someone might be addicted to drinking, many people have to get in their exercise fix, or else.

For these people I’ve reserved a special term: exorcise.

Exorcise frequently occurs in people who are looking for a way to drive out personal demons. Many exorcisers don’t have any goals, just that they better get their ass in the gym.

Instead of eating too much food to gratify themselves, exorcisers exercise—only they do it obsessively. Some exorcisers look negatively at overweight people, forgetting that the overeating is a coping mechanism, just like an exorcise program can be.

As a recovering exorciser, I feel it is my duty to at least point out the phenomenon.

You Might Be an Exercisor If

• You feel guilty if you don’t workout.
• You’ll find a way to get in a workout come hell or high water!
• You think you need to workout everyday.
• On days when you don’t workout, you’re constantly thinking about it.
• You preach fitness, but you find yourself feeling run down a lot. On these days, you sometimes still force yourself to get to the gym.
• When you slow down, you get sick.
• When you’re sick, you still workout.

What to Do If You Recognize the Signs in Yourself

• Relax!
• Train yourself to think of exercise in terms of health.
• Pay attention to how you feel.
• If you’re feeling run down, allow yourself to rest without feeling guilty.
• Measure and track your morning pulse–if it’s elevated 4 beats or more above the usual, rest.
• Practically anything can be addictive. When addictions and compulsions rule your behavior, you lose control of yourself. Even if something that should be healthy, like exercise, can be destructive if it becomes addictive.
• Besides, the point of exercise is to feel better. If you’re exorcising, it’s going to make you feel worse.

New to Working Man Fitness? This website is all about taking control of our minds, eliminating addictions, and living a healthy and fit lifestyle—so you can end up like Jacque . Check out the Getting Started with Exercise Guide and the Overcoming Addictions Guide—two great places to get started.

Jacque Fresco. The guy is almost 96 years old. He’s a self-educated structural designer, philosopher of science, concept artist, educator, and futurist. Jacque—wow!—what a successful ager!

Nowadays he’s known for the Venus Project. I first learned of this project from watching the Zeitgeist movies.

He presents an alternative narrative to our current narrative. Here are some selected quotes:

• We’re programmed, he asserts. “Every word we use, all our facial expressions are learned from movies, books, role models, television, radio, soap operas. All of that shapes our values.”
• “People are not concerned with one another and with other nations. We are concerned with the future of humanity. The Venus Project is to build a better life for everyone–not just a few.”
• “Very few people are really individuals. Although they think they are–they believe they’re individuals–but they always reflect their culture.”
• “We’re moving technically, but not socially. Computers are getting better / faster, but our social system has poverty, hunger, unemployment, all that is not necessary.”

In the video embedded below, he’s “ruthlessly honest” and “talk[s] about things the way they are” which is refreshing. Given that he has 95 years of life experience, listening to him is worth your while.

By the way, Jacque doesn’t just point out the problems—he presents solutions. Though he admits that “People do not move unless conditions force them to move.”

A few months ago, I interviewed a man by the name of Mike DiCerbo.

It’s likely you haven’t heard of him, until now.

I met Mike in 2007 when I joined the Scottsdalian Toastmasters club. He immediately impressed me as someone with an iron will and a sure sense of who he was.

I interviewed Mike because he is what I call a successful ager. He’s 88 years old. He’s self-reliant, self-sufficient, healthy, and vital. The kind of guy you say, “Wow, I want that when I’m his age.”

Mike doesn’t exercise. This might come as a shock. Healthy, vital, and he doesn’t exercise? Exercise isn’t what you think it is—listen up.

Mike doesn’t exercise, but he stays active. He walks, outside or on a treadmill. He does all his own gardening, trims trees, climbs up on the roof.

Some weeks, he works 40 hours. He volunteers with kids teaching them Toastmasters speaking principles.

What does Mike say about activity?

“I’ve always tried to stay active, even while working. I got involved in things, volunteered for whatever was coming up outside my job.”

What about Mike’s habits?

• He quit smoking in the 1970′s. He’d been smoking since he was 16 years old (he’s 88 now, you do the math!). He quit cold turkey.
• One day he looked at his coffee mug. He’d been drinking close to three pots of coffee per day. The mug was stained. He wondered, “What is that doing to my body?” So he quit. Cold turkey. Now he drinks two cups of tea at breakfast.
• He eats two vegetables at every meal. At lunch he eats light. Once a week he has some ice cream—two scoops. He has dark chocolate once per day, a portion that’s a bit bigger than a Hershey Kiss.

Notice a trend here? Sensible. Simple. Self-discipline pouring through.

I’m a big believer in exercise. I think our modern life makes us soft, fat, and weak if we don’t intentionally do something to stay active. It doesn’t have to be exercising, though. Too many people get caught up thinking they have to exercise. For some people, it’s perfectly acceptable to just be like Mike.

“It is necessary that we release all thoughts—as well as things—that clutter up our lives.”

- Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

My wife used to drive me nuts with always putting things away. She didn’t like the clutter, she said. It drove her nuts. TV remotes, coasters, keys, wallets, movies, everything has its spot.

And you know what? Now I like it. Now part of my evening routine is making sure stuff is put away where it belongs. There’s gotta be something feng shui about it.

Things of course are easy. We can see them. We have a small number of them. Thoughts, on the other hand, wow. Talk about tough!

Sit down to meditate and you’ll see how quickly your mind acts up and starts thinking about things it has to do. Or, just try to observe your thoughts about going to work or in the morning. Does a particular person elicit a particular sequence of thought?

Perhaps you’re familiar with the sequence: thought -> word -> deed. So, the Science of Mind quote is appropriate. Remove the clutter in your thoughts and you’ll remove the clutter in your life.

The other day I was browsing Netflix movies and one by the name of Ip Man caught my eye. I guessed correctly that Ip Man was referring to a person who I had always known as Yip Man—Bruce Lee’s martial arts instructor.

Full disclosure: I’ve never studied Yip Man’s life. Knowing full well that biographical movies are often loosely based on actual events, I have to take many of the events with a grain of salt.

Whether or not all the events and stories are true, I found Ip Man’s character extremely inspiring.

Here’s what I liked:

• He defeats a well-known local master in his town of Foshan and agrees to keep it quiet. He doesn’t brag about victory or make a big scene like we so often see in today’s athletes.
• When the Japanese invade his town, he accepts his new, lesser conditions admirably—going from being independently wealthy to poor and hungry overnight. (As an aside, here is one of my favorite Chinese quotes about accepting your circumstances and being grateful, “I complained about not having shoes until I saw a man with no feet.”)
• He exuded calmness, serenity, and composure. One of my favorite scenes in Enter the Dragon is where Bruce Lee is challenged on the boat that’s heading towards Han’s Island. In an interview, Bruce Lee commented on the scene saying that if you’re secure within yourself, challenges won’t bother you. That’s the kind of composure Ip Man displayed in the movie. It’s the kind of composure that you develop from being true to yourself, over and over again.

As far as the film is concerned, it kept me engrossed the entire time. The movie follows Ip Man’s life from Foshan, through the Japanese invasion, to his leaving to go to Hong Kong. Throughout, Ip Man exudes the kind of calm and composure that always inspires me.

If you want to check it out, both Ip Man and Ip Man 2 are still on Netflix.

Went to restaurants under glass tonight at the Mitchell Park domes (a local Milwaukee, Wisconsin event). There was a large crowd of people and long lines and I was hungry.

I’ve overcome alcohol addiction and have subsequently been working on other addictions as I’m becoming aware of them. Now I’m really seeing how I’m addicted food—the kind, the amount, and the combinations of it.

Alcohol, I can turn down left and right. I can have it in the house without issues. Even coffee I’m capable of turning down and not falling into the daily habit. But food. Wow!

Just try to change the way you eat. Maybe I’m taking on too much at once. But the pull of food is incredible. I wasn’t “myself” tonight until I had some food to calm the beast inside. And not just some food, but enough of a quantity of food to make me believe that I had at least gotten enough—not that I was ready to stop there.

Lest you think I pigged out completely, I didn’t. I just had more than necessary and couldn’t control my thoughts about it while I was eating it. I tried to chew slowly, but another part of me kept trying to speed up. Eventually I settled down, and then I realized I had another ticket for food, and I couldn’t waste that dollar ticket—no way!—so I got another small portion of food from one of the food vendors.

I overate.

I’ve expanded the time per day where I feel peace of mind. Where I’m in control of my actions and not being dragged around by my addictions and compulsions and runaway thoughts. This only serves to make me increasingly aware of the times when the peace of mind is destroyed by out of control thoughts and emotions.

I eat very well the majority of the time, but now I’ve learned more about food combinations and how certain combinations of food can lead to stagnation. Being aware of this, my ego wants to continue with its old ways while my higher self wants to make improvements. The battle plays out at events where food choice is prevalent and my ego is accustomed to having its own way.

Awareness is the first step.

In a New York times article several years ago, I read about a parking structure that collapsed during construction. The reporter interviewed the workers and one of the memorable quotes was, “Everything about this job was rush, rush, rush.”

The man they interviewed went on to explain that the concrete was too green, and they didn’t allow it time to settle in before going on to the next floor.

It is a cultural tendency to rush progress. We know where we are, we want to be somewhere else, and we want to skip steps along the way to get where we want to be as quickly as possible.

You might be rushing progress in your exercise if you’ve ever experienced any of the following:

• Overuse injuries
• Traumatic injuries
• Overtraining
• Sickness
• Excessive fatigue
• Pain
• Swelling

In our rush to get where we want to be, we fail to establish a solid framework to support our future aspirations. We want to learn to play tennis so badly, we keep practicing until we get tennis elbow, and then keep practicing trying to work through it, and then our form suffers and we’re building a poor quality skill.

What can be done to curb our incessant drive for improvement at an unsustainable rate?

• Measure and track your morning pulse. Three beats or higher than your weekly average indicates a stressed state—you should take it easy.
• Be anal about your form. Occasionally video tape yourself performing exercises, or have your form analyzed by a professional, to make sure you’re not allowing sloppiness to creep in.
• Use a metronome or other device to measure your rep speed on occasion.
• Track your workouts and record your progress—keep a detailed training log.
• Pay attention to how you feel, and don’t allow pain that meets or exceeds a “four” on a scale of 10.

It takes self control to progress at sustainable rates. It takes self deception to plow forward and attain fake progress at the expense of quality and skill.