A look at a few terrors to avoid in one’s diet

August 17th, 2008 Ken Jensen Posted in Actionable Steps, Nutrition and Bipolar, change | 6 Comments »

Hi everyone! Lots and lots developing on my end. I am having a blast, although working hard, and I’d like for those of you still in pain to know that this is possible for you too. It’s half the point to what I’m all about.

I initially began my journey with the intention of just gaining some relief. But it became clear over time that the wrangling of my symptoms was allowing me to grow in ways I never saw coming. I hadn’t had any lofty plans for my system as I formed it. Cripes. I didn’t even know I HAD a system once it had been formed! I had to be convinced. I was too busy living it and feeling grateful that my life was finally working again to see that the thing even existed.

So one of the areas of high importance that I addressed was what NOT to put down my gullet as I attempted to get well. I discovered that food played a huge part in both my illness and the recovery from it. The list of things to avoid in one’s meal planning is unfortunately lengthy. I say unfortunately because many people have a very hard time eating right, regardless of mental health standings. From there, it is not always convenient or even possible to eat a really healthy meal at all times. I know this. I understand this so today’s video just touches on a few key items that really should go, no matter what. Use the text link if the video window does not appear on your end.

Click here to see my latest video

I changed my mind. I’m beat. So here’s what to take away from this:
1. Cut sugar WAY down
2. Look for it on the nutrition labels on all foods
3. Cut ALL artificial sweeteners out of your life RIGHT NOW. Don’t wait on this one. Switch to regular soda and put on pounds if you absolutely have to have soda. It’s still better than the outright toxic assault the artificial sweeteners have on your mind.
3a. Then refer back to list item #1.
4. Chips, cookies, cake, pies, crackers, and as much bread as posiible, out the window. They’re just heaps of sugar and usually partially-hydrogenated oils (Trans-fatty acids.) Nasty little buggers these things. Right up there with the artificial sweeteners.

Start with that as for many of you, the list might already be too painfully long. But as I said, pick at it. Wean yourself gradually and a treat once a week or so is fine. You’ll start to be able to tell, over time, when your body reacts to something you should not have eaten. Take heart in the fact that as you identify these foods, you know your symptoms can be avoided by simply not eating those things. You are in control. A sweet thing for any bipolar person.

On a side note, a few other developments have happened that I need to mention and I’ll be posting in the middle of the week, something I haven’t normally been doing. Keep an eye out for this post.

Lastly, go look at LifeInPerpetualBeta.net and www.BigLife.ws and say hi to my new friends at these two places. This is the movie I will be in and the people I’m working with behind the scenes to help so many others. On www.BigLife.ws take part in the offer or go to the link at the bottom and enter the site. Please click on the group for “Meet your coach here.” The picture is on the right and shows a guy holding a red key in one hand and a blue key in the other. You’ll see my cigar profile pic and you can go to my page and watch my new video there too!

Take care!

Ken

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Nosh your way to mental stability

August 10th, 2008 Ken Jensen Posted in Actionable Steps, Books, Current (Kenny) Events, Exercise and your mind, Nutrition and Bipolar | 2 Comments »

I do so love Yiddish! OK. Noshing is not exactly quite right but it has an entertaining ring to it. What you eat as you battle your bipolar, matters. I made a video to discuss this step of my system and I also shared some current events pertinent to me. The video is below and for my non-compliant sites, the link to see the video elsewhere is just below that:

Click here to be taken to my new video post.

As promised, here is the link to the man who can give you a clearcut, easy map of what to eat, graded by importance level:  Tom Venuto’s website

Here is where you can find my new best friend, Victory Darwin, and see the largest social networking site for life coaches in the world: Click here to see BigLife

And the really fascinating development is here: Click here to see the trailer for Life In Perpetual Beta

And finally, I will now share my breakfast drink that I eat every day no matter what. If you are someone who actually prefers a liquid (not booze LOL) diet over a solid-foods breakfast, then this will please you.

Ken’s morning ritual shake for muscle growth, mind healing, joint repairing, digestive tract rebuilding, and BIPOLAR defeating wellness:

1. In a blender, dump any frozen fruit you desire to the halfway mark.
2. Pour in orange juice (fresh, not concentrate) to just over the fruit.
3. Fill to the 2/3 mark with water.
4. Dump in 20 - 30 grams of whey protein Get a cheap but quality source of protein here.
5. Pour in 5 grams of glucosamine sulfate Click here for an extremely cheap source of glucosamine sulfate.
6. Dump in 5 to 10 grams of glutamine Click here for an extremely cheap source of glutamine.
*7. If you lift, throw in some creatine which can be found here at Nutrabio or here at ProteinFactory.

Blend slow for a couple seconds then high for about 12 and consume. Takes about half an hour to drink, Faster if you use warmer water to warm up the frozen fruit some (no brain freeze.) I drink this every morning and on gym days, I drink the same powders but with nothing but CranGrape (about a quart) immediately after lifting. I’ll share why in a later post.)

I also take my morning doses of truehope caps and omegabrite caps at this time and on lift days, again with the after lift shake.

Some tips on the supplements:

1.  All creatine in the U.S. comes from something like 5 possible manufacturers. Marketing departments then advertise methylated, ester-based, fizzy, pre-digested, blah, blah, blah, ad nauseum. The many varieties matter little as far as performance. Pick creatine monohydrate (Basic and cheapest) and call it a day. Honest. On a side note, creatine cannot hurt you and you do NOT need a loading phase.

2. Glutamine is nature’s wonder component. It fixes just about everything inside you. It’s particularly beneficial to the digestive tract and the intestinal walls most of all. That is a key fact. If your digestive tract isn’t functioning well, the best supplements on earth simply pass straight through. Fix your tubes and watch how well your body responds. ALSO - the bulk of your natural opiates are produced in your digestive tract and then shipped to the brain and body. You LITERALLY will be happier if you can improve your digestive tract health. Click here to read the doctor’s book that proves it. Dr. Candace Pert DISOVERED the body’s opiate receptor sites back in the 70s, and later discovered they are not only in our minds but throughout our entire bodies! Then she later discovered the mother lode for production was in the intestines!

3. Glucosamine Sulfate: You don’t need chondroitin on top of it. Chondroitin is a precursor to glucosamine, meaning, after you eat it, your body transforms it to glucosamine. Save your money and just get glucosamine. (This is for healthy joints.)

4. Whey protein heals muscles and injuries but also binds to any meds in your bloodstream to form molecules too large to pass through the blood/brain barrier. Then you excrete them. ***That’s a life-saver of a gem I just handed you there.***

If you’re a woman, smaller person, or non-athlete, then just use 20 grams of protein, same amounts on the others, but cut down the amount of juice and fruit to be able to drink it all.

Sorry. Another huge post. I don’t know about you guys but I’m spent.

Take care and be well!

Ken

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Make exercise your friend: This post is packed with honest resources

August 3rd, 2008 Ken Jensen Posted in Actionable Steps, Exercise and your mind, Nutrition and Bipolar | 6 Comments »

Hi everyone! You’re gonna want to bookmark this baby and refer back to it often.

I’ve made a video for you and put it right in this post. I’m polishing off my exercise info and I wanted a few points to be clear. What better way to do that than in person? So, enjoy the 7-minute video (with a pause button if you’d like to chunk out the viewing process) and be sure to check out the links below the video.

And for the sites this blog posts to that don’t allow the video on the same page as the blog, please click on this link: Click for my video

Now here are the people who help me get big and lean (which cements my good mental health in the process) without killing myself OR my wallet:

https://proteinfactory.com/shop/home.php  Take your time with this site. Take days to go through it, slowly, and see what they offer. Fantastic prices with high quality and if you are a serious athlete, you can design your own powder mixes by percentages of total mix per jar and you can even order one jar at a time.

http://www.nutrabio.com/index.html I get my glucosamine sulfate and glutamine from these folks. I NEVER shop retail. You’ll get hosed at the Mall. The prices here are phenomenal and the quality is great. Do not think because you pay so much less that you’re getting substandard stuff. The thing to remember is the outlet stores overprice their goods at such a ridiculous level that you’re not aware of how cheap most supplements are to make. You’re bypassing the greedy profit margin by shopping online and with NutraBio in particular.

These next PDF reports are very special. They lead you to Will Brink. Will has been in the lifting game for decades and is famous for three things: honesty, exposing the truths about the supplement industry, and helping you get the results you want in the gym in the smartest, most efficient way possible. Will Brink, as a resource, is one of my biggest gifts to you. Save all his pdfs to read at your leisure and look into him further. He has info for people at every level of fitness and his main site has a forum staffed by pros whose expertise is INVALUABLE to your learning process:

Free Creatine Report

Fat Loss Tips

How to do a Perfect Rep When Weightlifting

Free Recipes to Stay Full and Lean

Get the Real Behind the Scenes Scoop on the Supplement Industry’s Dirty Secrets

And this next gentleman is also beyond reproach when it comes to learning how to get and stay lean, naturally. Tom Venuto is to be trusted and you can learn much from him. Check him out: Click here to go to Tom’s site  And don’t be worried or concerned that looking like Tom is impossible or too hard. That is not why I sent you to him. His techniques will improve your health and help defeat your bipolar disorder. What he teaches goes hand in hand with what I teach. You decide to what degree you want to pursue his methods. But doing anything he says will result in a better life for you.

Lastly, if you live in Ulster Couny, New York or are near Kingston, NY on business or vacation, please stop in to The MAC Gym and say hi to the owner, Lyle Schuler. Be sure to tell him how you found him. Lyle is another businessman beyond reproach when it comes to his sincere desire to help the rest of us get fit.

He helped me redesign my training program (for free!) when my injuries had me thinking I’d never lift again. I had shown up to cancel my membership but once I told Lyle the problem, he gave me a solution that effectively turned my life around. I have been grateful for his help ever since. I assumed I was done and had no options. My depression over the thought of never training again was deep. This proves you are never too old to learn new tactics.

And we’re done! Please - bookmark this post and keep picking through all its parts. I have given you gold today!

Be well

Ken

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Wellness is crafty prey. It is to be stalked and lured into existence

July 27th, 2008 Ken Jensen Posted in Actionable Steps, Exercise and your mind | 2 Comments »

As you’ve been noticing in these last posts, there are many fronts to be addressed in your pursuit of a bipolar-free life. I’ve shared the top three and I’m getting into the steps that shore up their effectiveness.

That brings us to the two most important steps that effect everyone’s lives, not just bipolar or depressed people’s lives.  Exercise and eating right.

Let’s start with exercise and see if we can’t demolish some misconceptions at the same time.

Star with something simple!

Exercise means get moving and do whatever it is that feels best to you with whatever tools you have access to. The key is to get movin’! Part of our symptomotology comes from sedentary lifestyles. Part, OK? You have to take into account all I do for wellness but this is a crucial part.

I happen to love the iron pile. I live to push myself to my utmost and endure as much pain as possible (endurance pain, not hospital pain) to break through to the next level. I feel lousy as a human being if I am away from the gym for too long. But that’s just me! And here’s where the biggest misconception is at.

You do not need to pursue Olympic levels of conditioning to accomplish what we’re after here. Not even with weight lifting. You can do whatever it is you like best: Walking, swimming, hiking, biking, team sports, yoga, aerobics, jogging, dancing, speed-walking, step classes, spin classes, rowing, badmitton, croquet, shuttleboard, tai chi, martial arts, ballet, etc. It doesn’t matter! Just get MOVING!

As your body upgrades and your mind calms/clears you will probably feel an urge to both continue exercising and also want to take it a little further, explore new areas of using your new fitness abilities. You will not want to lose what you have worked so hard to gain. Your self image will improve and that is critical to anyone’s good mental health. This can feed itself if handled properly and you don’t bite off more than you can chew in the beginning. Pace yourself. Make it impossible to fail. Baby step it until you’re back in fighting form. No one’s grading you. And don’t you grade yourself too harshly. This takes time and patience as does anything worth having.

By moving, you are helping to rid your body of toxins, namely the psychotropics you may have stored within you, or the residue from any self-medicating you might have done, and definitely the biological buildups that come from holding still too much in a lifetime, and so on.

But be careful if you really do want to go “whole hog” intensity into weight lifting or some other rigorous sport. If you do have any meds still stored in you, the exercise can cause them to break free and enter your bloodstream. They attach to muscle and organ tissue. Just be aware of it. Truehope recommends that no one exercise too vigorously EVER but I couldn’t rein myself in and I’m ok but keep reading.

I experienced these wonderful bouts of instantaneous overmedication and they’re not pleasant. I simply learned to talk my way through them same as when I’d fight panic attacks as I healed. Bad as they get, I learned I stay in control. They are becoming fewer and farther between (I rarely feel them anymore) so I don’t worry about them at all.

But even if that situation never happens to you there’s still the following: when you have years of holding still, lying in bed, stuck on the couch, zombified in front of your computer, trapped in a hospital lockdown ward, lounging while smoking, etc., you have sludge within you that needs kicking free. Your cells of your body and mind can’t get the oxygen and fuel they need and they can’t get rid of waste properly. Nothing good is getting in and nothing bad is getting out. You are riddled with microscopic garbage dumps inside. Your cells are dying. It’s part of the reason why people with mental illnesses live about 25 years less on average than the “normal” folk. Your physical health suffers, which brings your mental health right along with it. You can’t have a healthy mind without a healthy body and vice-versa.

Remember, this is just one aspect to your path to wellness and there is no need to break records of any sort in your attempt to restart or begin for the first time, your exercise plan. Just get it underway. If you are able, hire a personal trainer or pay a few bucks to join a group of people doing the activity your prefer most. Whatever it takes. But make it a higher priority than you have up ’til now. If you invest in it in some fashion, you will feel compelled to make good on your investment. It makes you acountable to yourself and/or others. Most people avoid exercise regardless of mental state, so don’t feel bad if you’re fighting it. But you my bipolar friends, do not have a choice. Start mulling this over every day. Start thinking it into reality. You will be rewarded with peace of mind. That’s worth it, right?

Rhetorical question.

Take care everyone and comment away! We’ll hit “eating right” next week.

Ken

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Just a little off the top, please

July 21st, 2008 Ken Jensen Posted in Actionable Steps, change | 7 Comments »

Hello everyone!

I’d like to take a moment to ask you, “Just how much BS are you currently working with in your day?”  It’s my opinion that most bipolar folks have any number of piles stacking up at any one time thanks to their out of control symptoms list. I’m talking about stress. There’s plenty to go around. No need to be piggish and accept more than your fair share. (Bulls, pigs -  not sure where this barnyard animal motif sprang from.)

Just a little off the top!

But seriously, aren’t you about full up to your ears with the problems spewing out of your ears? If your head is anything like mine was, then you could probably do for a mental haircut. To give your head the break it needs to possibly heal, you need to cut down on all the negative sensory material it now manages. Clip some loose ends. Neaten up your shaggy mane of a bipolar hairdo.

This step of my system TORQUE BACK can be one of the hardest to pull off. It involves the ability to take a tough, honest look at your life in an objective (logical) fashion, not a subjective (emotional) one. You need to admit to yourself that maybe some things, or people, in your life are doing you more harm than good.

The very act of implementing this step can lead to hurt feelings, if it’s people that have to go, and a misguided sense of loss, if it’s things that have to go.

Depending on who knows what, this trimming of the fat can be painful, regardless of what’s getting cut. Or you may be surprised and feel a sense of release or catharsis, as you give yourself permission to let go of something you’ve known all along had to go. 

The tricky part can be if your symptoms have really robbed you of enough rational thought to do this correctly. So for the beginning, let’s just aim this at those of us who CLEARLY have a situation that needs changing. Don’t carve everything out of your life in a fit of soul-cleansing. You may toss out more than you should.

For me, when I was my sickest, I had to split from my wife and kids. My illness made me barely able, hell, unable to care for myself and to keep the really ugly side of me from lashing out at all times. I had a beast in me that I hardly could control and it fed ravenously on my symptoms. I was not someone you kept near much of anyone, let alone kids and a wife I couldn’t relate to anymore.

The stress of the looming breakup was crushing both of us right to death but it was driving me insane, and that’s not hyperbole. I could barely contain the rage within me, or the anguish, or the bizarre thoughts, and my family did not need that in their day. The stress of trying to maintain the family was akin to a rabbit trying to balance a dump truck on his head. I was outclassed for the job. So we split, and they left.

I felt relief. Tons! But it only lasted a few days as the understanding of how I had failed my family stomped my heart into the ground. I had failed, true, but that failure HAD to take place for the regrowth to happen. Many times, our losses are really wins. But you can’t see that until the dust settles and your emotions stabilize. That takes time.

So there’s how something like that can play out and the many levels of garbage that lace through it from all sides. They had to go but it involved me losing everything that mattered. But the illness would never be controlled with them present and had they stayed, I’d have done something terrible in some fashion. I hadn’t planned anything, I’m just saying I knew myself. To dump the stress, I would have done something horrendously stupid.

Now that years have passed, I have healed, my wife and I are great friends, and I am a fantastic father to my son. I could never have obtained any of that had they stayed. I needed a chance to regroup.

Another example: I had a very close friend with whom I used to party. He was very dear to me. Still is, actually. But he had to go. As I was trying to get my act together, he was calling me from afar to share with me his ongoing, bizarre tales of party wonderment and scenes from a slow motion train wreck that he called his life. This stuff used to be highly entertaining to me and I usually would match his tales with tales of my own misadventures, equal to his in far-out drug consumption and resulting activities. Now, it just stressed me to no end. He was committing slow suicide and calling it “partying” and I knew he was lost.

I loved him then and still love him now but he had to go. I cut him free during our last phone conversation as he shared with me his latest crushed diet pill snorting/waking up naked in an alley story. I was scared for him and I realized very little separated him from me and I was horrified at my own past behavior. That’s the best I can describe it. I couldn’t believe I used to be this guy and listening to him made me realize how much of my life I had thrown away operating under the exact same mindset that he still had. The stress of this realization actually caused me to go into panic as he spoke. He’s still out there, still doing it all, and I wish him the best but the outlook is bleak. I believe the pain of his unavoidable OD, before it ever happens, was hurting me already. I let him go.

Decisions like these are hard. I shared a small pile of people I loved most in the world, whom I had to shut out in order to get well again. But it was worth it. I more or less got my family back and I made peace within myself about the friend I lost, with whom I had had some of the best times of my life.

You may have to make similar calls. Is there someone in your world who means well, or you think they mean well, but whenever they are involved in your day, bring some amount of chaos or disorder? Maybe not and if so, good for you. You are blessed. But many bipolar people bring in or hang on to people they shouldn’t, for any number of reasons. Usually, friends and family who are not sick, can see how these people are hurting you but you can’t. So all I’m saying is cut free what you may know deep down you should, and try to listen less critically to those who are trying to protect you when they tell you someone in your life must go. Just keep an open mind if you can.

Things that need cutting? Well, that applies across many boards. Your bad habits, which I addressed in earlier posts, need to go, obviously. Anything that you may use to cope with life, instead of fix life, needs to go. Or at least start whittling it down. Are you rotting in front of the computer on video sites or games? Does a PlayStation own your soul? The mere act of engaging in distraction, even a healthy distraction, keeps you in stress because you are not getting busy with the fixing of your problems. You’re ignoring them and renaming it as “healthy activity.” This can apply to reading, movies, weight lifting, running, painting, talking to friends on the phone, any of that. It all is causing you indirect stress if the doing of it is keeping you from the more inportant work at hand. The substandard life level it will keep you at, will stress you more down the road, when you finally wake up to the time that has passed and can’t be retrieved, and the opportunities you squandered.

If you’re very sick, as I was, maybe your pets need to be cared for by someone else until you’re back on your feet. That’s an extreme example, as for many of us, our pets are the only things good in our day. But for the truly sick, you’re just being cruel to the animal if you’re keeping it around but not caring for it. Myabe you’re a pet collector and can’t really keep up with all that maintenance. Or maybe the animal has the run of the house and you pay it no mind due to depression. You can’t be bothered to clean up. Now your health is suffering from what’s building up inside your house.

Maybe you’re hanging on to a job that is killing you out of complacency. You’re in pain but not enough to change jobs. I understand many of us have been or are in jobs we can’t leave due to location, vestment, or what have you. But many DO have options, they just won’t act on them. If you have the chance, cut that bad job out, and do something closer to your heart’s wants. Or start a college course at night until you have tools to leave that job. Something. Just admitting the change needs to happen and keeping your eyes open will help bring the change you need. I’m saying, don’t complain endlessly then do nothing.

I’m trying to hit on a handful of areas just so you get the idea. If something or someone in your life has to change so you can heal, you already know what it is or those that love you most are trying constantly to tell you. Consider these things, then make necessary changes. Change hurts and can be scary. But the result is worth the effort.

As you make these changes, do your best to solidly incorporate into your conscious mind why it is a good thing they changed. Learn from your evolvement and you’ll see even more ways to improve.

Now please. I can foresee a hundred ways someone can attack this post and show why different parts of it can’t be achieved or show me a point I missed. Cripes. Anything I write can have that said of it. I’m only trying to get your mental juices flowing. We’re all different. But the foundational stuff holds true. You know if something needs to go. You already know.

Take care everyone,

Ken

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Only take another drink if you really enjoy your bipolar

July 14th, 2008 Ken Jensen Posted in Actionable Steps, Addiction | 4 Comments »

Hello everyone!

Hope you’re benefiting from the free look at my system. Rest assured, I will share it all. The last three items I discussed all cost money. That can’t be avoided. They’re also the three most effective steps. But now we can get into the “freebie” zone. However, don’t get too relaxed. There will be costs to pay, but not in the form of cash.

I’ve shared www.truehope.com, www.omegabrite.com, and www.centerpointe.com. Employ the tools in these three companies and most of your troubles will evaporate for good.

Now I’d like to discuss the fourth most important step in my system “TORQUE BACK.” This step involves you taking care of the Temple. Your body. This actually breaks down into a few steps but this part of it is the simplest to do, though not the easiest.

You have to come clean. No booze, no beer, no smokes, no weed, no pain pills, no cough syrup, no trippin’, no dippin’, no cigars, no favorite pipe, and I’d think “no street drugs” would be obvious.

This may not even involve you. Maybe in your battle with your bipolar and/or depression, you are already living as clean as can be. Maybe you’re death afraid to add any more crap to the mix. Good for you. Stick with that. But I find many people who are disturbed in any way, tend to self-medicate in one fashion or another. Cripes, I know I did. Everything I could get my hands on.

And let me add, if you believe in nothing I say and plan on sticking with your meds, well, it is even more critical that you folks behave. You’re mixing toxins to create new and wondrous chemically-mutated compounds and pouring them onto an already unstable mind. You’re simply asking for trouble but you have the shuttle pass in your hand. You’ll get there a whole lot faster than the rest of us.

I picked drinking first because it’s one of the most common, legal self-medications but packs the most kick for self-destruction.  When my mind felt like this:Stormy

 

 

And all I really wanted was this:

Calm Skies

 

 

 

 I would have myself 30 or 40 drinks like this:On my way to HappyLand

 

 

And I’d end up getting a free courtesy ride to a place that looked pretty much like this:

Chez Prison

 

Now, not everyone who drinks or is bipolar, ends up in jail. I happened to end up there drunk and crazy an awful lot. Getting hammered and thrown in the can is not such a rare thing in itself, but my situation always involved hellish visions, plots only I could understand, dark forces I had to fight, secret villains only I was aware of, and the desire to want everyone around me to believe in whatever insane mission I was on that night. Or, I might simply have wanted to kill everyone within reach with my bare hands. Those nights always were 50/50 with me.  ;-)

I took a long way to say, alcohol messes with your mind as it is. Add it to the bipolar mind and you’re just begging for pain and disaster.

That’s just booze. Cigarettes will jack you so far out of shape it isn’t funny. You may think they’re innocuous but c’mon! Anyone over the age of 9 knows those things are stuffed full of all the goodness RJ Reynolds could fit in the stick. They are crammed full of chemicals. Hundreds of them. Many of which are usually found coming out of your car’s exhaust or the smoke stacks of your finer manufacturing plants worldwide.

Please understand. I’m not preaching or so damn proud of myself that I was able to walk away from it all. I’m not proud. Just relieved and grateful for my sanity. It wasn’t easy for me to go straight. There was a list of items I had to say goodbye to. Going clean was one of the hardest projects I’ve ever undertaken in my life and it took years to complete. But you must stay pure to stay sane. Sorry to break it to you if you thought otherwise. The bipolar mind is about a thousand times more sensitive to changes in its environment. Our gray matter is delicate, people. Has to be cared for just so.

Let’s hit on weed a moment. I so loved my pot smoking. I truly did. For a while that is. But towards the end, when it actually caused my first ginormous panic attack, it was getting old. Like when you get drunk but you’re not happy or you have a cigarette but your nerves are still on edge. Weed’s no different. I would get extremely high but be bored and pissed. It loses its luster over the years. You’re just too high to notice you’re not enjoying it for a bit.

I’ve talked to people who swear it makes them feel better, calmer, and helps them with their bipolar. Depending on where in the timeline of lifelong smoking they are, this might be true (for the moment). But even if that were the case, it won’t last. I guarantee you that. Guarantee it!

Nothing I say will dissuade these people. At the same time, they’re coming to me because their life is in a shambles. Their symptoms are still stronger than they’d like. They defend why their pot is not the reason, or a reason. All I can tell you is what my very first psychiatrist told me when I was trying to learn where my new, strange, and painful feelings were coming from:

Psyc: “You smoke a lot of weed?”
Me: “Yeah. About a shitload.”
Psych: “You do it to relieve stress?”
Me: “Yeah, my whole universe is stress.”
Psych: “Well, you’re gonna love this. The weed is causing your symptoms. THC is one of the worst exacerbators of bipolar there is. Want your symptoms and panic to stop? Let go of the weed.”

And he was right. Of course, that was not all that was causing my bipolar symptoms but I found that when I added weed back in, I got spanked hard by the Gods of Panic. So maybe now you know something you didn’t a moment ago. Weed does not belong in the bipolar or depressed person’s day. Even if it feels like a benefit in every possible way, you are only kidding yourself and delaying the huge fall that is coming your way. I say this with compassion.

Take care of your body and your mind will benefit. Take care of your body and feel the satisfaction that is born from a proactive mindset. Feel good about yourself in knowing that you are doing every single thing you can to repair your machine. Take care of your temple and your temple will return the favor. You will be calmer, happier, saner.

See ya guys,

Ken

 

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Straight from the horse’ mouth

July 6th, 2008 Ken Jensen Posted in Actionable Steps, Enjoy Life Again | 2 Comments »

Hi everyone!

I’m continuing with my “journey through the mind” posts. But like the omegas and everything else I do, there is too much to share in one gulp. Or two, even. So to simplify and give you all a better idea of why you should implement Centerpointe’s program “Holosync” into your day, I pulled a message out of “Thresholds of the Mind” by Bill Harris, director of Centerpointe.  This post will end my Centerpointe discussion, for the moment, as I move through the rest of my system in the upcoming weeks.

This message will explain what it really means to be “conscious.” See, most of us go through our days in automatic fashion. But seeming how most of us wish our days went better (especially if you’re bipolar or depressed) you need to change your ways. You need to become conscious of how you handle yourself and then formulate new habits from there. I’ll let Bill explain:

———-

How Can You Become More Conscious?

  “Part of what you can do to hasten the process of becoming more conscious is make a catalog of all the non-resourceful and painful things you believe about yourself, about other people, and about the world. Many of these beliefs may be outside awareness and impossible to verbalize, but they’ll tend to come out in your self-talk - especially when you’re feeling bad about yourself. By watching that self-talk, you can uncover these beliefs. When something bad happens, you may, for instance, say to yourself, “No one cares what happens to me.” This represents a belief about yourself. As I’ve said, your beliefs tend to create your life and your circumstances. No wonder you’re angry, anxious, fearful, or depressed! Change them and the circumstances of your life will change, too. The problem is that, it’s not easy because a part of us wants to hang on to these old beliefs because they seem to be true, and what’s more, we often associate them with our safety.
  Once you’ve uncovered these beliefs (an on-going process), you must convince yourself that they’re not worth having, even though, as a result of your upbringing and history, they seem to be true. In fact, whether they’re true or false is not really the most useful distinction to make about them, especially since these beliefs are actually meanings that have been superimposed on a neutral reality. The most helpful distinction to make about these beliefs is whether or not they’re resourceful, whether they contribute to happiness and peace, or to suffering and unhappiness. Then, from a more conscious perspective, knowing that you’re placing a new meaning on what is, you can decide what a more resourceful belief would be in each case, and then begin inculcating your mind with that belief. This time, however, you know that you’re consciously choosing this new belief not because it’s true, but simply because it’s more resourceful and will lead to greater peace and happiness.
  Is this difficult to do? It can be, but as you move through the Centerpointe program and become increasingly conscious and aware, it becomes easier and easier. In fact, as you master the ability to be the Witness, it begins to happen automatically.”

———-

OK. Ken here. The Witness is the part of you that watches the rest of you as you go through your day. You can watch yourself as you do or say anything, without judging or trying to change, and later, review what you saw and decide if how you did or said something was useful or not. You can either reinforce your actions, alter them, or drop them entirely in exchange for new ones that will handle future similar experiences in a better fashion.

The really interesting and exciting thing here is, once you’ve identified a habit, belief, or response you normally use, as being useless or harmful, you can’t ignore it and continue using it! You now know that it is no good and you’ll simply let it fall away or take solid steps to change it. Your mind will not allow you to keep using that response in that situation. It can’t! If you tried, you’d see it now makes you uncomfortable because you know better! So then, you change for the better and you enjoy your life a little more as a result.

Like Bill says, you work at this at first, but over time it just kicks in without your trying, like most everything else you do. It’s like driving. You don’t stay aware of all the actions you do as you drive: scanning your field of vision, shifting, braking, steering, reading signs, judging distances and momentum, etc. You just drive! Same thing.

This is really one tiny piece of all that Centerpoints offers but in my fight to destroy my bipolar disorder I definitely experienced more relief when I began using it. That continues to this day and I have about four and a half more years to go before I complete the program. And don’t be afraid of that number. It’s only one hour of sitting still with headphones on each night. That’s the program as far as action steps. Compare that to traditional meditation and you’ll see the power this holds. And whatever changes you make as you go are permanent! You never lose them, never revert to however you were before you began meditating. You keep your gains for life.

But the bonus, as far as I’m concerned, is how Bill helps you change your thinking so as to help you get what you want out of this life. He explains everything in depth, leaving no stone unturned. If you have a question about any of this, he’s got an answer waiting for you. The sweet part of this is his help center. As a member, you have free access to counselors who do nothing but talk people through any hardships or confusions they have regarding the sytem and life itself. They are a great bunch of people and very easy to speak to, very knowledgable.

Be aware that this has nothing to do with any one belief system. It only involves maximizing your mind’s performance. You can run with that in whatever direction makes you happy from there.  But you’ll probably find, as I have, that some of your wants have changed as new doors open for you. You have it in you, right now, to help yourself, you just need focus.

You can peruse Bill’s site, sign up for his incredible blog, and even try out a sample of the meditation by going to this link: please click for peace of mind

And remember, I only share what both worked for me and what I still use to stay sane. You can get well again but it has to be maintained. My job, outside of helping all of you, is to stay on top of what keeps me healthy. I never take a vacation from caring for myself but it’s not hard. You’ll see as you implement my steps.

Take care everyone!

Ken

 

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

To some extent, you thought your way into this mess

June 29th, 2008 Ken Jensen Posted in Actionable Steps | 4 Comments »

Hi everyone!

Not trying to be overtly offensive there but it’s true. We can all agree that as adults, we are responsible for our own actions, right? Just shy of prison, no one’s forcing us to do anything in day to day life.

Now, I understand more than most, that good thinkin’ and proper life perspective are not the key reasons why our illnesses are here. In my opinion, you’re out of luck until the nutritional deficiencies we all face, no matter how well we eat, are addressed and corrected.

But the way you think should be the very next item on your repair list. When I began piecing together my system via trial and error and self-experimentation, I did land some victories. But order of business became an important factor.Solid Anti_Bipolar Foundation 

I tried to do many “proper thinking” programs as a first step in easing my bipolar symptoms. I played around with a handful of spiritual programs as well. (This was before I realized my meds were utterly useless.) I figured that with proper medication, I could “shore up” the foundations of my wellness attack and get even better than I already was, which was not that well at all.

 

I found that none of these things worked even as I agreed with much of what many of these programs were saying.

Now, this is the interesting part: I knew my intuition and original rationalization in thinking I needed some sort of program like one of these in my life, were correct. I knew my head being messed up was more than just a broken tool sort of thing. I knew a lot of why my life didn’t work was because I didn’t think right about things. I was constructing a crap universe and I didn’t need to be told that.

So I went back to nutrition first, and later returned to my software issues of the mind. 

Bright Idea Smart move on Kenny’s part.

Once I’d settled my mind enough to focus using nutritional approaches, I discovered the next saving grace step in my system. My best psychiatrist told me once to try meditation. But at the time I was frequently so manic that to sit still for as long as that required was unthinkable. Beyond that, the thought of meditation bugged me. Based on what I knew, which was very little, I wasn’t interested in even trying.

But my want and need for improvement in my life and the inner knowledge that I required more fixing, led me to Centerpointe.

I had read enough and listened to enough people smarter than I, or at least further ahead in life than I, to know I needed a new sense of direction. Centerpointe gave it to me. To attempt to lay out all that they do would be a Herculean ordeal. So here’s the short and sweet: Your mind is split in two halves. These two halves should be communicating an equal amount to each other at all times. But they don’t. One is usually hollering and the other is relatively silent. This unevenness causes chaos in your life. Sort of like having half the pistons in your car working and the rest just along for the ride.

On top of that, we ALL are going about our days with a set of rules hammered into us as children. They don’t serve us well or at all but we hang on to them, unconsciously. We never seem to get things right and we can’t tell why. Or worse, we blame some source outside of ourselves. Wrong. You are in control of your every action and reaction. 100%. Nothing is being done to you. Stuff happens but how you respond is totally in your control and makes up your very life experience.

And that’s the other layer to that last paragraph. You are unconscious of so much, if not all of life. Life is bigger and better than you realize. If you don’t think so now, just know that in time, you can make your life the way you want it. You’ll have to trust me on this if it’s too much right now. It’s already been proven true to me and I have a long way to go, which excites me!

Blowin' yer top!

Another issue is trauma and stress experienced earlier in life causing you to have a lower threshold, a lower tolerance for yet more trauma and stress. It takes less for you to pop off than the next guy. Things irritate you or cause you anxiety that don’t merit any notice from better adapted folks. This can be fixed.

If you go to Centerpointe’s website, you will see a great amount of information awaiting your review. I suggest you go there and begin studying with an open mind. You don’t have to commit to anything. You may not be able to afford it yet. No worries from my end. I’m just saying, begin helping yourself by looking into new areas without judgement. Centerpointe is one of them.

Almost immediately I noticed change for the better. Loads! And the process felt good. And it’s easy to do. You listen to a CD with headphones on. You do your best to hold still with your eyes closed. Done. You are getting better. It’s that easy. You don’t have to chant. No need to focus. No need to do anything but listen. Doesn’t matter what you may still be thinking as you meditate. You don’t even have to try and turn that off. You can’t do this wrong!

Bill also has a blog that is free. You might want to sign up and get a taste for the man as a way of researching his company. But I’ll tell you this: he’s the only guy I know who’s been invited to the United Nations to give a talk on how entire countries can get along better. He was just down in Manhattan doing that last Spring.

OK. That’s enough for now. There is so much more I’d like to share about Bill Harris and what he does but it can hold ’til next post.

Take care!

Ken

.

 

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Open wide! One more bite!

June 23rd, 2008 Ken Jensen Posted in Actionable Steps, Associated Distresses, Books, Nutrition and Bipolar | 4 Comments »

I don’t want to beat the topic of fish oil right to death, so this will be the final post regarding omega-3s.

I wrapped up “The Omega Connection” today. Very in-depth book with its fair share of minutae regarding omega-3 and its component pieces, DHA and EPA. You need to be aware of why those last two matter. DHA is already in a lot of foods we eat and even more so in the bad foods some of us eat. The EPA is harder to come by.

On top of that, it appears that we need very little DHA and also hold on to it very well. No need to keep shoveling it in. EPA is used up by the body at a vastly higher rate and we hardly hang on to it at all. This, we should be shoveling in.  We should be using a large shovel, much like the one below, Take a big bitegetting a lot in. A few grams is great but a truly bipolar or depressed person may need closer to 10 grams a day.  The doctor who wrote the book states that the Inuit Eskimos get around 19 grams per day so if you stay below 10, you should be fine. As far as that goes, no adverse reactions to omega-3 supplementation had been noted at the time of the writing and I imagine that still holds true. But, as always, check with your medical doctor to be safe.

Back to the particulars. O-3 is in high demand within your eyes. Your sight depends on it. You brain uses it to get anything and everything done. Men…big component of your sperm, whatever that may be worth to you.

It is critical for the development of newborns, too. Seems most of the other free countries make sure to put it in their baby formula but the US doesn’t. Maybe this has changed since the book was written. I don’t know but when it comes to caring for the body, the US is always lagging way behind Europe. Sometimes this lag is measured in decades. But I digress. Deprive your baby of omega-3s and you’ll have a less-than smart baby who develops slower in every area of life; mental, physical, and social. If you breast feed, you’re ok.  Mother’s milk is packed with it. But if the mom never had enough to begin with, her baby gets the lion’s share. She herself, may become deficient and this can play a part in post partum depression. Something to think about new moms.

Your blood will not clot as easily IF you have a problem with that. The normal route of treatment for this (sticky blood) is usually aspirin before beginning blood thinners. I don’t have this problem myself but I was told often to start aspirin as a necessary diet additive. I believe it was to help keep my arteries clear. I disagreed and later found the info in this book that verified my intuition. Yet another time I’m glad I listened to “the little voice.” I’m not saying to ignore your doctor’s advice. I’m just saying I have frequently disagreed with mine over the years only to learn later, I was correct. Not in every case but almost. Ever the anti-establishment figure am I.

The problem with aspirin in this case is that its action lasts for the lifetime of the platelet. It’s an “all or nothing” move. The omega-3 just does its job for the moment and backs off, naturally. Should you actually get a bad cut while full of aspirin, you’re going to bleed a lot. The same cannot be said of omega-3. It can be present in your blood but you will clot naturally, if cut.

There is a slew of data backing the protection O-3s provide for the heart. Too much to recount. So if you have heart issues or don’t want any, start consuming omega-3s. That’s just good news so be aware of it.

This oil even helps regulate blolod sugar to some degree. Anti-diabetes food! The explanation is a bit long so if you want the whole thing, get a copy of the book: The Omega-3 Connection: The Groundbreaking Antidepression Diet and Brain Program

Inflammatory illnesses get a helping hand from this, too: Crohn’s Disease, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, ASTHMA, and Rheumatoid Arthritis all can benefit by adding omega-3 to the diet. Does it cure all of this? No. But it helps ease the symptoms and doesn’t seem to interfere with any medications at all. This can possibly lead to less medication, always a good thing.

There is much, much more but I think you’re starting to see how great this food is for you overall health. Let me bring it back to bipolar and how it helped me. Honestly? I tried using Omegabrite caps first and separately as a way to save money and still fight my bipolar. No luck and I tried for a couple of months. I had to use EMPower Plus from Truehope before I felt any relief. There was no way around that simple fact. But I knew that this did not negate their value to my health.

Here’s how they directly helped me in a way I could feel: I suffered major panic. MAJOR!!! I knew fear on levels that boggled the mind. Over time, as I began fighting my bipolar, my way, I gained a sense of safety and peace of mind in knowing that I was doing absolutely every possible good health thing I could think of to get better. Just knowing these powerful nutrients were inside me would be enough to help me self-talk my way down out of a growing panic attack. I’d tell myself, “Calm down. We all know I’m doing all I can and good stuff is in there to protect my heart and my head. Give it time. Cool out.” I frequently worried about my heart in the panic days.

If you’re a panic type, how valuable do you think that same mind frame would be to you? Exactly. Priceless. And I eventually overcame my panic. A big part of it was taking solace in the fact that I was systematically beating my illness down with all the tools at my disposal. This is why I share these things with you, the world. Not to force you to spend more money. But because it works!

You don’t have a choice. If you’re not getting better and you’ve done everything any doctor’s told you to do, well, how about you open up a little and try my way. For a change. A beautiful change. One part of the puzzle is here: www.omegabrite.com

Take care everyone,

Ken

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Let’s talk fish

June 18th, 2008 Ken Jensen Posted in Actionable Steps, Nutrition and Bipolar | 9 Comments »

Hope that grabbed your eye! Today marks the beginning of my new batch of detailed info posts giving you more help for your fight against bipolar and depression.  You may already be aware of my resounding success with www.truehope.com but I also endorse www.omegabrite.com as a necessary nutritional adjunct in the fight against bipolar and depression. This is where we bring in the fish.  Fish is your friend

But not just any fish will do. Most fish is good food but we need the oily kind. Salmon is one of the best and most common but any oily fish will work.

Now, maybe you don’t like eating fish or it’s just impractical for some other reason. That’s a problem that works in your favor in this particular situation.

It’s not so much the fish we’re after but the omega-3 fats within the fish. There are so much data on the benefits of omega-3s to the entire body as to be ridiculous to put in one post or even a string of posts. It is a highly studied nutrient. The thing you want to be concerned with is why I’m sharing the omega-3 story.  This stuff helps to repair what’s wrong in the bipolar or depressed mind. It is a major building block in all cells throughout the body but in high concentrations in the brain and nerve cells. It has the potential to help diminish your symptoms all by its lonesome! I feel that for most people, it would not be enough, as bipolar and depression have many root causes that need addressing. But omega-3 is a biggie not to be skipped in your pursuit of wellness.

Easier to swallow than a fish

 It’s very easy to get your omega-3s by eating them in capsule form. www.omegabrite.com has them waiting for you. They even have a cream version for kids (or adults who don’t like capsules) that tastes good and is easy to swallow.

What we Americans in particular, and most of the rest of the world is up against, is a deficit of these nutrients in our diet. They belong in us but our bodies can’t produce them. We have to get them from our food. This is why they’re also called “Essential Fatty Acids.”  We used to eat them frequently, as a matter of course. Today’s modern diet has removed them from most prepared foods or we don’t eat much of what naturally contains them. The story worsens from here.

The omega-3s counterparts are the omega-6s. They have an important role to play inside us but we get too much of them in our diet. For optimal health we should get a 1:1 ratio of 6s to 3s. Our modern diet puts it closer to 20:1 in favor of the 6s. This is disastrous for our health, both mental and physical. The 6s are responsible for inflammations. They burn us up if allowed to run free. The 3s conterbalance them, IF the ratio is right. So, one way or the other, we all need a steady supply of extra omega-3s in our day.

There is much more to share about these wonderful nutrients but I’ll space it out.  Do yourself a great service by investigating www.omegabrite.com and consider becoming a customer. I’ve been a loyal customer for about three years now. I won’t be caught without these capsules on hand. 

If you want to really dig into the specifics (which is how I did it when first designing my program to save myself) then you’d do well to get a copy of this book:

The Omega-3 Connection: The Groundbreaking Antidepression Diet and Brain Program
 
Fight the good fight everyone!

Ken

 

 

AddThis Social Bookmark Button