(to download right click on link and select save as)

http://www.patrick-warren.com/Round-and-Round-We-Go.mp3

(to download right click on link and select save as)

http://www.patrick-warren.com/you-were-there-for-me.mp3

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It’s important to eat foods that keep your body’s PH from becoming overly acidic.   High alkaline foods are best like garlic, limes, raw spinach, and olive oil.  The worst are beer, soft drinks, processed sugar, and white flour.

A food’s acid or alkaline forming tendency in the body has nothing to do with the actual pH of the food itself. For example, lemons are very acidic, however the end products they produce after digestion and assimilation are very alkaline so, lemons are alkaline forming in the body. Likewise, meat will test alkaline before digestion, but it leaves very acidic residue in the body so, like nearly all animal products, meat is very acid forming.

Click here and scroll down the page for a great chart of foods that are best for your health

Breathing Deeply to Increase Oxygen Levels and Decrease Carbon Dioxide Levels

In a 2005 review and analysis of several studies, Richard Brown, MD and Patricia Gerbarg, MD reported that yogic deep-breathing techniques were extremely effective in handling depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders. These techniques can serve as an excellent adjunct to conventional medical treatment — or in some cases as a suitable substitute — in treating myriad psychological disorders, as well as eating disorders and obesity.

Simple breathing exercise:  Sit in a comfortable position with your hands on your knees. Relax your shoulders. On your next exhalation, breathe out slowly through your nose, counting to five. Tense your abdominal muscles, drawing in your diaphragm to help your lungs deflate. At the bottom of your breath, pause for two counts, then inhale slowly to the count of five. Expand your belly as you breathe in. Now close your eyes and repeat 5–10 times. Think of your diaphragm as the pump and your breath as the power.

For more great info click here to see an in-depth explanation of breathing and breathing exercises you can do

The Healing Power of Music

Music can have a profound effect on the body and psyche.  It has been found to help cancer patients, children with ADD, and even hospitals are starting to use music and music therapy to help with pain management, to help ward off depression, to promote movement, to calm patients, to ease muscle tension, and for many other benefits.

Music with a strong beat can stimulate brain waves, while slower tempo music can promote a calm, meditative state, activating the body’s relaxation response to counteract the damaging effects of chronic stress.  It can increase levels of optimism, lower blood pressure levels, ease muscle tension, and more.

More about music’s effect on health

Great health is within your reach.

Cannabis, the scientific name for marijuana,  is first and foremost, a plant.

As a plant, it grows in the ground, is  completely natural, unaltered, and was put here or got here on the Earth before  mankind did, and no matter what your beliefs in religion or evolution, it’s the  truth either way.

This plant is like other plants.  It has roots, stems,  leaves, and produces flowers.  The flowers are called buds.  The buds are what  people usually smoke.

The stems and the stalk of the plant can be made  into paper and clothing.

The leaves and flowers may be eaten as well as  the seeds.

The cannabis plant is 100% non-toxic.  There is no lethal dose  of cannabis, it cannot kill you.  Alcohol, on the other hand, can kill someone  by drinking too much.  Alcohol dehydrates the body and puts excess strain on the  blood stream, heart, and liver.

Cannabis has been shown to have  effective pain-killing properties and is not addictive.

It grows faster  than trees and is a better resource for making paper while conserving or  expanding existing forests.

Cannabis has healing properties.

The  human brain has cannibinoid receptors, which means we are biologically designed  to receive cannabis.

The current War on Drugs is not only a failure, but  it is a giant evil which, because cannabis is illegal but the demand for  cannabis has not decreased, creates an environment where only the criminal  element will take the risks to supply it.  There is a lot of money to be made in  drug trafficking and violent criminal gangs spring up and run the drug trade.   If cannabis were legal, there would be no criminal element.  The same thing  happened when alcohol was made illegal during the period known as Prohibition,  where gangsters took up producing, moving, and selling alcohol.

Cannabis  is enjoyed the world over by good, decent people.

Cannabis could provide  a new source of revenue for the American economy and a new source of tax revenue  for local and state governments which are running out of money from the  recession.  The burden on police would decrease as well, and they could focus on  serious and violent crimes.

Making cannabis legal would increase  freedom.  Who doesn’t want more freedom?  Where there is freedom people have the  increased ability to pursue happiness.

Finally cannabis should be made  legal because it’s awesome.

It’s no surprise that unemployment is so high considering we’ve shipped our jobs overseas and given Wall Street banks a free license to steal from the taxpayer at will.  Now that banks have their bail-out, they don’t have to release money into the economy in the form of loans to stimulate domestic business and job growth.  American politicians are lobbied by major corporations unceasingly and funded by them for their political campaigns, no shocker then when they legislate against the common good of the American people.

Many Americans are out of jobs and the economy continues to lose substantially more jobs than it creates.  The unemployment rate is at 9.5% but the actual unemployment figure is said to be around 20%.  The “recovery” is now being called a “jobless recovery”, which is in reality, impossible.  This means that a rising stock market benefiting the remaining shareholders and investors may show signs of recovery, but this neglects all the Americans out of work or those who have invested their savings and liquidated their investments just so they can live, foregoing any hopes of retirement.

I make an effort to take time to be grateful for what I have and work to stay positive.  The best things in life are free.

These aren’t easy times, but we’re all in this together.

-Studying Political Science in college with no job prospects for that degree

-Freshly fired from work, investing my life savings in the Swine Flu vaccine

-any ass kicking I’ve ever received in a fight

-pulling up to a cop and letting him know that he wasn’t doing his job, and it subsequently landing me in jail

-investing all my money into making this CD

-running barefoot 3 miles and then barely being able to walk for a few days

-3 out of 4 of my tattoos (not bad!)

-Running for Congress

-driving 85 mph on the beach

-getting fired from several bullshit jobs

-sticking with the ultimate plan

My songs tend to have multiple meanings and I like to talk about things that actually happened which are also a metaphor for life on a bigger scale, the economy, institutions, the country, etc.  (The first verse is a freestyle, i.e. I made it up in the moment)

(to download right click on the link and select save as)

Patrick Warren: First Blues Song

I hope you enjoy it!

-Sprints

There’s a reason why you’ve never seen a fat sprinter. When you all-out sprint and run as fast as you can, you are putting a tremendous load on your body and its systems to convert stored energy into forward motion. On top of this, sprinting is a full-body exercise, not just for the legs. It takes balance, coordination, grace, and flexibility. Also, it’s a lot of fun. I prefer doing shuttle run sprints, running back and forth between a 30 yard distance, 3 times up and back full-speed counts as one set, and I do 5 sets with a 2:00 to 2:30 break in between. My favorite workout by far.

-Jump rope

Work out anywhere.

Jumping rope can burn up to 1000 calories per hour, making it one of the most efficient workouts possible. It tones muscles in the entire body, developing long, lean muscles in all major muscle groups, both upper and lower. Jumping rope optimizes cardiovascular conditioning and maximizes athletic skills by combining agility, coordination, timing, and endurance. A jump rope will cost you around $10 for a good one and it’s a great investment.

-Jogging and Running

Jogging is great for building bone density and increasing cardio vascular health. Ideally you would run on a dirt path and avoid concrete which can cause some joint pain and potential problems. However if you are an athlete or have athletic ambitions, long-distance jogging or running is probably not going to make you much faster or agile. Explosive speed comes from sprinting and weights. Still, jogging is good for fat burning and improving your health. Jogging makes the heart stronger. It increases the capacity of the blood circulation and of the respiratory system. Also it’s a great and enjoyable experience to be out in nature working out. Very peaceful.

Pullups and Pushups

Find a park with pull-up bars or get creative and find somewhere, anywhere, that you can safely do them. Do three sets of pullups and three sets of pushups, then throw in some abs and you’ve got a nice little workout. Also these days kettlebells offer a lot of value for a one-time fairly low price and there are numerous guides with great ideas for various exercises to do. Also an ab-wheel if fairly cheap and is a great way to target the abdominals.

-Yoga or Pilates

You don’t have to get a membership to a club that does this activity. You could get a DVD to follow along to or take a few classes and then practice these activities whenever and where ever you want. Yoga is good for increasing flexibility, increasing lubrication of the joints, ligaments, and tendons, it detoxifies the body, tones the muscles, and massages body organs. Pilates is like a form of European yoga and offers many of the same benefits, it offers relief from back pain and joint stress, corrects over-training of muscle groups which can lead to stress and injury, enhances mobility, agility and stamina, compliments sports training and develop functional fitness for daily life activity, and improves the way your body looks and feels.

There you have it, some budget-friendly workout ideas. To maximize the fitness benefits, challenge yourself by timing your rest periods and pushing past your limits one step at a time. Good luck and stick with it.

What I’ve noticed is that when I’m getting plenty of fiber in my diet through whole grain bread and raw greens, various fruits, carrots, and even peanut butter, I feel much more energetic, quicker, more flexible and relaxed. There have been times when I went 2 or 3 days without getting much fiber and I started to notice decreased motivation, more rigidity in my body, and less energy.

Fiber is a special type of carbohydrate that passes through the human digestive system virtually unchanged, without being broken down into nutrients. When we’re getting enough fiber, it’s like we’re sending a brush through our digestive organs which scrubs off the particles hanging around or moving slowly through our bodies. Just as we brush our teeth, fiber brushes our insides. I can feel an immediate difference when I’m getting enough fiber.

Getting enough fiber can prevent constipation, decrease the likelihood of serious illness and disease, increase energy and motivation, and help you regulate your weight.

Facts about fiber

•Fiber keeps stool soft and keeps the contents of the intestines moving.

•Americans consume only about 10% of the fiber that they did 100 years ago.

•A good diet should contain approximately 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day. The average American eats less than half of that.

•The change in the way wheat was processed into flour at the turn of the century-from a crushing to a finer rolling process – accounts substantially for the depletion in dietary fiber.

•Bran has the highest fiber content – about 25% to 45%.

Sources of fiber:

•All-natural cereals

•Whole-grain breads

•Beans

•Fruits

•Vegetables

•Nuts

One of the easiest high-fiber snacks you can eat is raw carrots and celery dipped in peanut butter. Make it a point to increase your fiber intake and notice how much better you feel and how much easier it is to regulate your appetite.

Thanks to eHealthMD for their valuable resources on fiber and weight loss.