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special event for mettlecraft month in november
Walk the Richmond Marathon with us on November 10th. SIGN UP here!
Mettle Maker #378
What’s the weekly mettle maker? Training tips and educational information in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? According the American Heritage Dictionary, mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Fitness — An entry level training plan for novices, seniors, rehabbers, and the seriously overweight. This week we got a new sign up to Heritage Self-Defense Distance Learning program who, although he used to complete triathlons, finds himself over 60 and seriously overweight. And we have another person in exactly the same boat who recently started coming out to the martial arts club here in Richmond. It’s really rather common. Work and life get in the way, the pounds go on, and then it’s hard to know where to start. You have no operating manual for the body you find yourself in — stiff, prone to tendonitis, injury, and cramps, lacking in explosiveness and endurance, slower to recover, etc. Older bodies have lower throughput and much lower fault tolerance than younger ones. If you an older person jumps in and start doing the stuff he or she used to do, injury is almost certain. Here’s a simple plan for most anybody looking for a place to start.
Entry Level Fitness Program for Novices, Seniors, Rehabbers, and the Seriously Overweight.
Note: Always see your doctor before starting a new fitness program.
1. Walk as often as you can, daily if possible. Walking is the safest form of exercise and the best way to shed pounds. By the mile, walking burns the same calories as running with far less stress on the body. Walking was the way old-time boxers made weight, and it still works. Start with a couple of blocks and work your way up slowly. Solidify your gains for 5 days — in other words, no more than one increase in time/speed/distance per 5 days.
2. Eat 3 square meals a day and one snack. Counting calories is tedious and unnecessary. Just eat 3 squares a day and a snack, each containing between 10 and 20 grams of fat (that’s 1 - 2 tbsp of butter, 2 tbsp mayo or salad dressing, etc.). Less than 10 and you'll be hungry in an hour, more than 20 is just extra calories. Eat reasonable portions. Breakfast might be a glass of 2% milk and a slice of whole wheat toast with a tbsp of butter. Lunch, might be a peanut butter sandwich and an apple. A reasonable dinner might be a piece of meat the size of your hand, a roll, two cups of veggies, and a small dessert (a square of Jell-O, a scoop of ice cream, etc.). You may drink one 8 oz. glass of 2% milk per day if desired, but other than that, drink calorie-free beverages only. For an evening snack, pick something that's bulky and low in calories. I prefer reduced fat microwave popcorn. I've eaten a bag per night for over 20 years! The only hard rule is 10 to 20 grams of fat per meal, which = 400 to 800 calories per day from fat (that’s 20% to 40% of your 2,000 calorie/day diet). Eat this way and the weight will fall off of you.
3. Begin keeping a handwritten training journal. Every time you exercise, record it in your journal. If desired, record your weight and/or measurements so that you can see your progress. If you track weight, only weigh once per week. Normal daily fluctuations are morale killers. Use a spiral notebook or, if you’re planning on signing up for our distance learning program, a 3-ring binder and looseleaf paper so that your log can be easily scanned and emailed for review.
4. If desired, do a few sessions a week of entry-level calisthenics. This is optional at this stage. Watch the video on the upper left and perform exercises 1 through 12 as often as you like, even daily if you think it’s fun. Add exercises 13, 14 & 15 if/when you think you’re ready. If and when you do so, increase your reps up to a max of 20, taking care to solidify your gains for 5 days — in other words, no more than one increase in rep count per exercise per 5 days.
Need a free fitness coach to help you build a program that suits your specific needs and goals? We’re a 501c3 charity! Click here to sign up for our distance learning fitness program!
Martial Arts - Sixth Annual Mettlecraft Month begins next week! Last year we the challenge was to complete the constitutional called “#86” in under 20 minutes. Maybe you missed last year, and you’d like to give it a try? If so, watch the video on the right. Anyway, this year’s challenge is a long walk. I’m going to try and walk the Richmond Marathon (see info at the top of this post if you started in the middle). But if that’s too much for you, see if you can do a half marathon, or maybe you just try to double what you normally do in a given day. If you want to engage with Mettlecraft Month 2023, you have all of November to see how long a walk you can complete. Just make sure that, whatever you do, listen to your body, stop as soon as you get any discomfort, don’t get hurt, and share your endeavors in the comments. What does walking have to do with martial arts? Well, as I said in the section above (and probably 3 times per month over the last year), walking was how old-time boxers made weight and increased their endurance. It works!
Interested in American Rough and Tumble martial arts? Join the martial arts club in Richmond, VA or click here to sign up for the Heritage self-defense distance learning program!
Wildwood Outdoor Skills — Fall is here. PIck up a leaf and sketch it in your training journal. PIck up a leaf you can’t identify. Get out a wild plant book, identify the leaf, and sketch in your training journal. Nothing will cement that leaf’s identity and structure into your mind better than drawing it! On the left are some of the sketches from my training journal. Looking for a comprehensive outdoor skills program? Click here to sign up for the Heritage Wildwood distance learning program!
Holy Communion is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 9AM EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy communion, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sunday 10/29/23 – Father Mitch
Readings: Ex 22:20-26, Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51, 1 Thes 1:5c-10, Mt 22:34-40
Matthew 22:34-40 World English Bible Catholic Edition
But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’* 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’* 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
“There are two paths, one of life and one of death, and the difference is great between the two paths. Now the path of life is this—first, thou shalt love the God who made thee, thy neighbour as thyself, and all things that thou wouldest not have done unto thee, do not thou unto another. And the doctrine of these maxims is as follows. Bless them that curse you, and pray for your enemies. Fast on behalf of those that persecute you; for what thank is there if ye love them that love you? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? But love them that hate you, and ye will not have an enemy. Abstain from fleshly and worldly lusts. If any one give thee a blow on thy right cheek, turn unto him the other also, and thou shalt be perfect; if any one compel thee to go a mile, go with him two; if a man take away thy cloak, give him thy coat also; if a man take from thee what is thine, ask not for it again, for neither art thou able to do so. Give to every one that asketh of thee, and ask not again, for the Father wishes that from his own gifts there should be given to all.
My child, fly from everything that is evil, and from everything that is like to it. Thou shalt not exalt thyself, neither shalt thou put boldness into thy soul. Thy soul shall not be joined unto the lofty, but thou shalt walk with the just and humble. Accept the things that happen to thee as good, knowing that without God nothing happens.
Seek out day by day the favor of the saints, that thou mayest rest in their words; thou shalt not desire schism, but shalt set at peace them that contend; thou shalt not abandon the commandments of the Lord, but shalt guard that which thou hast received, neither adding thereto nor taking therefrom; thou shalt confess thy transgressions in the church, and shalt not come unto prayer with an evil conscience. This is the path of life.
But the path of death is this. First of all, it is evil and full of cursing; there are found murders, adulteries, lusts, fornication, thefts, idolatries, soothsaying, sorceries, robberies, false witnessings, hypocrisies, double-mindedness, craft, pride, malice, self-will, covetousness, filthy talking, jealousy, audacity, arrogance; there are they who persecute the good—lovers of a lie, not knowing the reward of righteousness, not cleaving to the good nor to righteous judgment, watching not for the good but for the bad, from whom meekness and patience are afar off, loving things that are vain, following after recompense, having no compassion on the needy, nor laboring for him that is in trouble, not knowing him that made them, murderers of children, corrupters of the image of God, who turn away from him that is in need, who oppress him that is in trouble, unjust judges of the poor, erring in all things. From all these, children, may ye be delivered.”
Brothers and sisters, the words I have just shared with you are almost two thousand years old, and they are excerpted from a short book known as the Didache, which means “the teaching,” and was written in the first century after the Resurrection. It is considered the first book of Christian teaching. I hope you can see how it illustrates that, since the earliest days of the church, loving God and our neighbor has been the core of Christian teaching.
* 22:37 Deuteronomy 6:5