Project "Pick One Thing"

Gustation. Good.

2011-03-24T14:22:00.009-05:00

Gustation rhymes with crustacean.
Crabs and lobsters are crustaceans.
Crabs and lobsters taste good.
Taste is more formally called gustation.
O, let us celebrate gustation with jubilation!
(Gustation. Good. My Poetry. Bad.)

I love food. And drink. In current lingo, I'm a notorious foodie. People tend to question me, "Hey, how do you stay so slim and in good shape if you like to eat and drink so much?" The thing is, I tell them, it's not the eating that I love, it's the tasting. There is a huge distinction. As a weight management coach especially, I need to be clear about it. I have a theory: tasting--assessing, considering, judging, savoring--food could well be what is missing or deficient in the lives of many people who regularly eat too much or eat a poor quality diet. A Fast Food Nation cannot really be one in the same as a Gustation Nation, can it? Because if you taste a lot of different foods prepared in different ways, you won't choose to end up on the side of just eating the same few things wrapped in the same few packages, over and over again, right? It's like, the mountains are beautiful. But look over there, it's the beach. So now that you've seen all that, what, you won't bother looking at a sunset? Don't settle for a rut. You're missing out.

Even more important, I believe that if you actually taste your food with awareness and intent, there's no way you can come up on the side of wanting to eat a bunch of processed food instead of real food. At least, not if the comparisons are fair. Sure, in most cases deep fried hash brown patties from the drive-though will win over unseasoned lima beans at home. But shred your own potato and add some scallion and toast it up in a pan with good olive oil and some fresh cracked pepper, and see which one wins then.

Oh. Wait. You don't know how. You don't have time. Doing that costs more than the Value Browns.

It's true, if you go out to eat at a GOOD place, and order a side of hash browns with carmelized onions, they probably charge you two or three bucks for the pleasure. But you can take that three bucks and buy a couple pounds of red potatoes and a bunch of green onions and make enough hash browns for a crowd, or for the week. Yes you have to stock the olive oil but shut up. You WANT that oil. That oil is the ticket. It'll last you a long time and you'll be much healthier for it, and guess what else?

It tastes better. "Slow" food mostly does.

I do think it's a shame to call the opposite of fast food, slow food, because slow food is usually quite fast indeed, when at it's best. Remember, you had to drive to the fast food place to get the Value Browns. That took time. You had to wait for your turn and get out your money and then pull up to the next window, too. Okay, maybe that didn't take much time unless you went right before they stopped serving breakfast on the weekends. But you did need gas in your car to get there, and that took some time as well as cost some money to get. No different than the time you took to buy the potatoes at the store, right? Plus you were going to the store anyway, at some point, for laundry detergent or a gallon of milk or whatever, so it didn't really take any extra time to get the potatoes after all.

Also, if you had made them at home you could have made extra, for tomorrow and the next day, in no extra time. How much faster then, when you wake up tomorrow and want the Browns, but now you don't have to settle for that drive-through Value crap? AND you don't have to get over there before they stop serving breakfast. Because look at you, Mr. Gustation, you have some much better potatoes already in your fridge that you can crisp up in about two minutes.

I further theorize that it's much harder to be overweight or malnourished when you eat a variety of real wholesome foods you also happen to enjoy. Of course it's possible and it happens, but I say it's more difficult. When you eat a variety of real wholesome foods you enjoy, not only are you more continually satisfied by the contents of your diet, you are also cumulatively benefitting from nourishment and taste -- you're not just eating to eat, or eating to feel better about yourself, or eating whatever you pass by on your way home. You are well-nourished, and taste reminds you. Tasting food also reminds you that your tenth cookie tastes the same as the first, second and third one did. And if you love to dine out and let other people prepare foods for you, like I do, you should set the standard that you want it to be real. Eat well, especially when you're spending that kind of money and time on going out for meals you could do for yourself.

Since there's not all that much you can do to take care of your tongue and lips, other than trying not to burn them or bite them, plus brushing your tongue, and avoiding tobacco, I've decided we should Pick your Sense of Taste, instead of your Mouth.

Go for the Gustation.
It's easy to honor: simply don't shortchange it.

As a fitness professional I must remind you, food is fuel. It's true. But the rest of the truth is, that's not all. Food is also culture. Food is memories, tradition, comfort, ritual. Food is art. Food is luxury. Wanna know what food is for real? Go dig out a picture of you or your child at about 11 months old, with food. In this way we know, food is hair product and face cream and finger paint and mmmmmm. Little bird mouths open every second because here comes the airplane, say uuummmm. To the contrary, find another picture, and we see food can also be wall spackle, spittoon juice, dog communion, or an aversion so volatile it is instantly transformed into projectile weapon against any oppressors who would even dream of suggesting it be consumed.

When you're a baby, you know what you like.

When you get older, you don't know again for a while, because you're busy with other stuff. Like, maybe salmon is a pretty Crayola color but hellno you ain't eatin' any salmon when you're 9 years old. You'd sooner eat the crayon.

When you get older still, if all went well, you were requested to taste a few things before you refused them. You were encouraged to assess, consider, and judge by taste before you declared what you hated. Eventually, you were eating at a friend's house when, out of the blue, turkey tetrazzini appealed to you. You tasted and you loved it, even though it had mushrooms. Even after your mother had left you sitting at the table with a cold hard blob of it untouched on your plate, at least a dozen times.

Suddenly, screw the children's menu with the 99 cent corn dog, cuz that bacon-wrapped filet sounds good. What's bernaise? It has butter? Okay I'll try that too.

Finally, when you're all the way grown up, maybe you get a little confused again. It's too bad, because food is part of your daily life, and it shouldn't be very hard. But, for instance, you might be on a really tight budget. Yet you forget how cheap brown rice is and how great it tastes with also cheap cabbage and bean sprouts, and a couple of satisfying eggs scrambled in with a dab of chili paste for punch. Or, you might be really short on time, with school and work and all, and so you lose sight of how fast and easy it is to make crepe batter. You might never have taken out the crock pot since your bridal shower, so you don't realize pork shoulder goes in it with a bit of beer and onion and turned to low while you're gone all day, so you come back and you didn't do anything but you have fabulous pulled pork you can serve up with some slaw for a tasty end to a busy day.

You store the rest, wash the pot, and make a mental note. Next time you do happen to go out for Chinese or a pulled pork sandwich, you know what you're looking for. Like an 11-month old, you know what you like. And that pork, by the way, will go really well in the leftover crepes, which will store in the fridge for a week or so, to provide you with a couple more fabulous, affordable Fast (Slow) Food lunches.

Terrestrials Bone Home

2011-03-14T12:35:00.008-05:00

The blog bone connected to the memory bone,
the memory bone connected to the song bone...
here, have a listen:
Dry Bones ('Dem bones, dem bones, dem skeleton bones)

I like to quote that song to my clients every once in a while, when they ask questions like, "Why does my foot/knee/back hurt now that I injured my hip?" or other such connection questions. Just like everything else in the universe, we really are all connected. Our bones provide a basis for everything else that makes us to come together and gather 'round as a body. In other words, if you ain't got bones as you move across this earth, you ain't one of us. You rattle chains and say boo! and stuff. We, on the other hand, have a strong internal foundation connecting us, down to the very end, to the land we walk on.

We can be sure that having bones is one of the most important things about our earthly bodies when we acknowledge that we can't get much deeper. Sure we can get smaller, with cells and molecules and all. And we can get just as important, with nerves and oxygen and all. But mostly, when you consider the human body, bones are at the base and bones are also what lasts the longest after the rest of us goes. When skin and senses and blood and guts are all gone, there's still a pile of bones left to feed the earth. Now, for that kind of fortitude, we owe them a little something don't you think?

How often did you even think of taking good care of your bones? Unless they break or shift painfully in a socket, people tend to go a very long time between bone health meditations and interventions. We shouldn't, really. Not when the care and keeping of our bones is so simply addressed. Without further adieu,

You've Got Over 200 Bones to Pick with Yourself

Fortunately, a bone is not alone when it comes to what it likes. Perhaps bones are never lonely because they're very straightforward and so easy to get along with. For the rest of your life, you can pick your bones without hardly any extra effort at all. That is because:

Skin and bones like the same things. Vitamin A, for example. We just talked about all that in the last post.

What's good for your blood and good for your guts is also good for your bones. Vitamin K, for example, which is made in a healthy gut, and is also readily found in dark leafy greens like spinach and collards and kale. Eat plenty of those greens and keep your intestinal health on track, and your bones will be happy, too. Because Vitamin K helps fortify bone and contributes to calcium metabolism. Also, there's Vitamin D, a friend to bones and blood....oh, and calcium. Calcium is a mineral that is stored in your bones and teeth--and it plays a critical roll in bone health and can be a key to effective management of hypertension.

Remember, we can get quite a picture of your health status via your blood, right? Bones keep close company with healthy blood. You know high blood pressure is unhealthy, which is a result of inflammation. Well, go figure, Vitamin A helps in the blood pressure management. Finally, blood clotting is a necessary mechanism in the body, but many people are on blood thinners, which in turn disable some of the body's clotting ability. Before that happens, Vitamins D and K are involved in promoting a healthy system.

Any friend of your muscles is a friend of your bones. Want strong muscles? Work out for strength. Want strong bones? Work out for strength. Impact will work too--walking, running and the like. Stretching, also good. Unlike muscles at rest, moving, stretching, flexing muscles pull on bones, and that stimulates processes that make more muscles and more bones. Now, some say bicycling and swimming are maybe not so much help as lifting weights or dancing. Others say, just move, and your whole body with thank you. I agree with all of it.

With the majority of Project: Pick One Thing written at this point (only 11 more entries to go), it becomes ever more apparent how interconnected and related each aspect of our mental, emotional and physical health really are. You're a wonder and a miracle, a special package deserving all this particular attention...and by now, I hope you can feel that in your bones.

Here's the SKIN-ny

2011-03-01T14:05:00.004-06:00

The care and keeping of your skin is a health, fitness and lifestyle concern--and beauty, while it is skin deep in some ways, also goes deeper than we tend to remember.

Skin care products and beauty advice are multi-billion dollar industries world wide, and there's no shortage on tips for us, of every race, age and other demographic you can think of. They cover everything so well, there is even something called combination skin to prevent you from having to use a combination of products for different areas of your skin. Yet most of the basics of skin care and skin beauty are quite universal. So, summarizing the insides and outs of a sensible skin care regime is pretty quick and easy.

(Don't) Pick One Thing: Your Skin

Because you might scar. Other fast facts on what not to pick include: your nose, your toes and the loser. However, close to the act of picking, in the sense that skin cells are removed, is the process of exfoliation, which you should do. It's one of the most-mentioned bits of advice by both dermatologists and beauty editors. One comment I came across in my research said men's skin may retain more of a youthful look overall because they exfoliate daily with a razor. Retinoids are a class of topical products that can be prescribed to you here in the United States to slough off old skin and encourage new collagen production (that is exfoliating) quite well. Retinoids work for anti-aging, acne and other skin conditions.

Dairy foods with Vitamin A are a real boon to skin health. Actually, dietary Vitamin A is considered essential. Oh, and guess what vitamin A is actually called? Retinol. Sound familiar? (see above) Since everything is connected in my world, we should also keep in mind that brightly-colored fruits and vegetables, like berries and carrots and spinach and sweet potatoes, supply beta-carotene which is converted into Vitamin A in the body. In this same class of vibrant veggies and fruits we also find many antioxidants, all central to healthy, attractive skin. Once again we see how important a nourishing and natural diet is to our whole self. That's why we say it's wholesome. And by the way, you don't need supplements or pills for these things in most cases. You can get too much that way.

Since what you put on your plate seems to be as important to your skin as what you put on your skin, we should also reiterate about the essential fatty acids we spoke of last time. Foods like salmon and olive oil help your cells, and thus your skin cells. Other good stuff for skin seems to be green tea, which has anti-inflammatory properties. Deja vu again? We've talked about inflammation before. In a nutshell, Inflammation = Bad. It shows up deep inside as your blood pressure and your physical pain, but it shows on the surface, too, in ruddiness and eczema and blood vessels and such.

Ooh, and don't forget water! Good clean water cures many an ill, and your skin really appreciates your proper hydration. So does your smile, which you know if you've ever had those dry, cracked lips that make it hard for you to smile. No matter what's happening with the occasional pimple, rash or wrinkle, your skin never looks better than when it's decorated with a wide smile. Or your favorite aunt's magenta lipstick prints.

Speaking of lipstick, for more fun girly-type skin tips like how to spritz on your moisture and sponge on your sunscreen, look here for the 50 Best Skin Care Tips of All Time at InStyle.

Finally, don't smoke and don't drink too much booze (I know we've all heard this before...it's the free radicals that do the damage and carrying on like a party animal appears to release your radicals quite a lot). And remember to wear your sunscreen. It's THE number one mantra given by all the smartest sources--protect your skin from the sun. I personally haven't done a great job of that over the years, what with all the baby oil and aluminum foil sun reflecting devices we used to use when I was a teen. But these days, it's so easy, there's no excuse not to take a little extra precaution. Sunscreen comes in a moisturizer and cute hats shade your face. Getting older and showing the lines of my life doesn't bother me all that much, but it's nice to know I can hold off some of the effects of aging, plus keep my skin a little safer from the free radicals I release while searching for my lost shaker of salt on occasion.

Jack Sprat and his Mrs. Got It All Wrong

2011-02-03T15:29:00.005-06:00

Fats are perhaps the most misunderstood of the macronutrients. Just like Raymond, Everybody Loves Carbs. And Proteins are the Prom Kings and Queens of Lean Central. But Fat, what's up with that? Fat is funny. It's globby and gooey and chubby and chewy, greasy and bad for you.

NOT.
Fat is really good for you! It helps in the very human processes of things like emotional regulation, the smart connecting of synapses in the brain, and the formation of breast milk. Fat in the diet is often overlooked as essential, but indeed, it is. You can't live in the long term without some Essential Fatty Acids, and often people can benefit from more fat than you might be giving yourself in what you think is your healthy diet. Again, individual bodies have their own preferences and needs to help them decide how to burn, store and use fat. So this is not personalized information. But overall, it's safe to say you should have healthy fats each day--plant sources are super, plus nuts and some seeds, also dairy and animal fats are quite helpful in various diets.

Fish oil is a great fat--it's the presence of those cool Omega fats we hear so much about that give this fat is good reputation. And what about eggs (and what about cholesterol)? Well, we're learning more and more that in the average diet without extenuating health factors, the fat and cholesterol in egg yolks is not such a grave concern for either weight gain, blood serum cholesterol or heart/artery problems. Turns out they were kinda wrong on that one. Almost all the vitamins are in the yolk along with the fat that transports them, so don't count out eggs if you like them. They are good food.

Pick One Thing: The Fats Track

So here's the skinny (heh!). Heed these few main warnings about fats in your diet:

~ Don't eat a lot of junk food and fast food and processed food with fats and refined carbs combined (donuts, drive-throughs and the likes, those fats have a lot of Omega 6s and we don't need more of that kind in our diets).
~ Don't eat a lot of foods that are high-heat fried in vegetable oils like sunflower and safflower and canola (or just don't eat a lot of fried foods to make it simpler). Avoid trans fats in this way, too.
~ Don't eat too much, period. Fats are very calorie dense, more than twice the amount per gram than that of protein or carbohydrate. So they add up fast. If your fats occur naturally in your foods (as in the egg example above or the avocado example below) and are moderated as occasional condiments (like mayo with tuna which has those Omega 3 fatty acids that are also very good for you), you'll be on the right track.

All this talk about my favorite food group (FAT...yes! Cheese is a favorite sub-group, as is butter, mayonaisse, and a host of other yummy creamy time fats...) has inspired me to write a poem.

Let Us Have a Chat About Fat

Butter your buns and pull up a chair
while I tell you the tail of long shiny hair, and
how brains grow, how skin glows,
how nutrients fly
through your bloodstream
to your body's cells
in two blinks of an eye...
How your enzymes ride on fat waves
and bring joy to your being,
delivering hormones that make babies,
and storing energy for the freeing.
Yes you love it, and you need it--
there's a reason for all that--
Your body is mammalian:
it thrives upon fat.
Oh, fatty acids
Oh, Omega 3s
Oh, unsaturated oils;
bless you olives,
salmon, tuna,
avocados...we are loyals.

Now, I know that poetic treatment leaves a little art to be desired, but it's still a more positive and sensible approach that the ole' Jack Sprat nursery rhyme.
Jack Sprat could eat no fat
his wife could eat no lean
and so betwixt them both
they licked the platter clean...

Terrible advice, there! Always eat some of both; never make the mistake of eliminating an entire nutritional ingredient list. You can have your four and twenty blackbirds, and your curds and whey, and be a pumpkin eater too.

Don't Kick All Your Carbs to the Curb

2011-01-20T14:49:00.004-06:00

Ahhh, carbohydrates. The much discussed, much beloved, much overdone, often cut, macronutrient. There is so much information out there on carbs, the good, the bad and the ugly and the ridiculous, that it’s hard to Pick this One Thing and imagine advising on it in just a short post. But that’s what I’m going to attempt to do. After having a proper lunch that featured sufficient protein and fat to keep me full and satisfied, I feel my metabolism is adequately stoked, so I’m going to burn off the bit of brain energy being provided by the carbohydrates in my lunch and tell you as little essential information as I can without holding back value. Then I'll get to my housecleaning to burn through the rest.

See the toasty gold words above to follow the carb facts. Not necessarily in that order.

Macronutrient: Fancy term for protein, carbohydrate or fat. Last entry we talked about protein. It tends to be king of the macros for many health and fitness types. But not all (read on).

Carbohydrate: Carbohydrates, or carbs, are important to our bodies, no question. They are the primary energy source for our functioning. They are also known as sugars, because carbs break down into simple sugars, and then glucose, of which a certain amount is used as fuel. Sugars not used right away as fuel must be further processed and then stored as triglycerides in fatty tissues.

Fat: Fat is the third of the macros, and much like carbohydrate, it tends to get a bad rap even though it is a valuable part of our diet. We’ll Pick Fat (eww) for our next entry.

Brain Energy: Up to 70% of the glucose that our bodies make out of carbs is used by the brain. This is because glucose is used to make ATP, which is in a nutshell, what gives the cells of your body the energy transfer they need to keep everything running.

Essential Information: Your body needs a certain amount of energy. That means you need to eat a certain amount, and that will be individual to you. If you’re at an ideal body weight with a healthy composition (enough muscle, not too much fat, etc), then you tend to require a certain base amount of energy input (calories) to stay that way. If you have too many, regularly, for too long, you gain weight. If you have too few, regularly, you lose weight and/or you steal from your own bodies tissues for the energy needed. Food which provides calories, and therefore energy, to live, is not your enemy. It is fuel. Fuel which translates into 4 calories per gram of protein, and per gram of carbohydrate; and 9 calories per gram of fat.

Metabolism: The mechanics of all those processes—your metabolism is what's "under the hood" doing everything from digesting food to growing muscles, healing wounds to going for a run, breathing to making blood. The kind of lifestyle you live, along with health and genetic factors; along with your size, gender and age; matters to how much energy you require to be in a fit, healthy body. You need to split those calories between protein, carbohydrate and fat. Again, there are variances that work for different people. However, in the Western World, especially in the United States, a large number of people consume too many carbohydrates in relation to the other macronutrients. Many others also consume a high fat diet. This is where the quantity and quality really matter.

Proper: What is the proper quantity and quality, then? If you’re eating too much, chances are it’s going to be the carbs and fats where you’re excess calories are coming from. And if you’re eating poor quality foods—empty calories from things like candy bars, sugary soft drinks, baked goods (all these are big carbohydrate sources with little to no nutritional value, also known as empty calories)—your body can’t do much with them except quickly convert them. It’s quick for your body in the sense that these kinds of foods are already are refined and pre-processed. If the sugars in your food were more complex, with more fiber and less processing, your body would have to do more of the processing work. That work is part of your metabolism, which uses energy. So the complex sugars are handled more favorably overall than the man-made kind. There are other health costs to regular consumption of man-made sugars over nature-made. Your hormones and immune system can be stressed, even messed up, by too many empty carb calories. There are four grams of carbs in a cup of raw broccoli, and four grams of carbs in a teaspoon of white table sugar. You can imagine how much harder it is to overdo it on the carbs if you're travelling more on the broccoli train than the sugar train.

Beloved, Overdone, Cut, Full and Satisfied: Proper, then, is rare/occasional for most people when it comes to man-made, refined, junk food, sweet treat sugars. Birthday cake on birthdays, Christmas cookies on Christmas, soft drinks and cotton candy at the circus, margaritas on Cinco de Mayo, and a couple fun-sized chocolate bars on Halloween. For the rest of your carbohydrate intake, if it’s mostly from natural and whole grain sources (vegetables, fruits, legumes, and starchy foods like oatmeal, potatoes and brown rice), you’re likely to do well in a range of 35 – 45%. 45 – 55% carbs is for endurance athletes and young slim folks in long sessions of training. Olympic swimmer extraordinaire Michael Phelps eats a lot of carbs within his 8000 – 12000 calorie per day diet. He’s not the rest of us.

Pick One Thing: Your Carbohydrates
There are numerous free online food diary and nutritional data calculators available now. A quick search will lead you to sites such as LIVESTRONG.com and fitday.com for food journal applications. Aside from counting up and observing the amount of carbs in your diet, try looking at packages of the food you buy. Hopefully, though, you’ll be buying more and more food that is not in a package. To learn those macronutrient breakdowns and find out how many calories come from carbs in regular foods like an apple or walnuts from the bulk bin, check out nutrition data.com. The bottom line is keep the carbs—in the right context and right dosage.

Big, Strong, Powerful and Well-Connected

2011-01-05T13:42:00.003-06:00

No wonder protein gets so much action, (was seeking a transition in topic from last post, Your Sexuality) it's pretty much the golden child of the human body's macronutrients.

That is to say, when you consider all that protein is and does, it starts to be like...what if Johnny Depp's looks and interesting taste in characters was mashed up with Oprah Winfrey's ubiquitousness and money, and married to Martha Stewart's resourcefulness, combined with the physical strength of Hercules. Plus there's the Kevin Bacon aspect of protein--it's in practically everything.

If all that is true, it seems odd that this Project should suggest you honor and care for your Proteins. They seem so strong and capable all on their own. But, even though some aspects of protein are produced and managed inside the body, it turns out many bodies need more or better quality proteins to work with than they are getting. You might find out that your own body could be much better off with this week's big shot:

Pick One Thing: Your Proteins

Here's a list of reasons why you care about Protein:

1. Your body is about 45% protein. It is in every cell and in most of the body's fluids.
2. It is the building material of the body. It repairs damaged tissues and builds muscles.
3. It is the strong man of the body. It forms fibers and polymers to keep certain body parts tough.
4. It is the catalyst of the body. It connects molecules, transfers messages, starts processes.
5. Stuff happens because protein says so. Like, muscles contract so your heart and lungs work.

There's more, but that should be enough to pique your interest in tending to your body's protein needs. There are 20 amino acids that combine in different chains and combinations to form proteins in your body for all these incredible functions. Many of them are produced in the body, but a few key amino acids must be consumed. There are nine which are essential to healthy human adult life; a tenth is required in childhood but adults can manufacture it. The balance of them is pretty important, too. Each day, the body is happiest if sufficient proteins comprised by the full range of amino acids are available. If not, the body has to break down other tissues, such as muscle, to get out what it needs for functioning.

Regularly getting enough protein and variety of sources is a good goal. There are is a range of estimates for the proper amount of protein grams for adults daily diet, and the final answer also depends on other factors such as sporting participation, body composition, health and age. However, a range generally considered safe and adequate is .5 - .75 gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. If you weight 200 lbs. but you need to lose 50, your ideal weight then is 150 and you should be getting 75 or more grams of protein. On the higher side if you have more muscle. 1 gram per lean pound of body weight is another common rule of thumb for body builders. Many nutritionists would tell the average person to get at least 15% of their daily calories from protein. Others consider that to be a bit too low. Popular diets include up to 30% protein. For a 1500 calorie per day diet, 20% protein equals 300 calories of protein, which is 75 grams. That works for a lot of people.

You can check out qualities and quantities of protein found in various foods, here:
Harvard School of Public Health: Protein

As important as it is, it might surprise you to know that protein doesn't have a storehouse on its own ready for use as needed (like fat does). Extra protein has to be broken down, and eventually processed by the kidneys and liver, which can tax those organs. There are a few other health warnings to those getting too much protein or eating too much red meat. It's not easy for the average person to do, but if you have any risk of kidney, liver, colon or hypertension, make sure you're on board with the medical professionals when it comes to your individual protein needs. If you are very obese and consume large amounts of red meat, you should also pay attention to the variety and quality proteins you eat. Egg whites, quinoa, walnuts and tuna have protein too, and provide other health benefits.

Your hair, nails, muscles, and skin (collagen, for those of you trying to stay youthful looking) thrive on you getting enough protein. For this One Thing, consider reading packages or doing a little internet searching to learn how many grams of protein you're eating on a regular basis. If it's less than 60 grams a week, try upping that several grams per week (you might need to cut back on fats or carbs to do so). When you're up around 75, you might just notice a nice trend. Capture that power, enjoy those connections. When you're stronger, you tend to be leaner. Plus you'll be in a much better balance of nutrients, so you'll likely feel better, too.

Go salmon, go yogurt, go you!

Sexual Health and Sensual Wellness

2010-12-15T12:45:00.004-06:00

The title of today's article is more straightforward than usual, and that is an intentional nod to the need for people to be straightforward in considering and caring for their own sexuality. Honor yourself as a sexual being of some sort. I'm not about to try to define or limit what that is for you.

As individuals, we are each of us a unique set of desires and wishes, fantasies and motivations. Your gender identity, your sexual contacts, your sensual expressions notwithstanding, there is also a little matter of what smokes your shorts, what turns you off, what's safe and what's available, what's not at all worth it and what now looking back was a mistake.... All this makes it seem, and perhaps rightly so, that human sexuality is a many splendored and highly complex topic. However that shouldn't stop anyone from owning and enjoying their own. And speaking of it in the matter of fact tone it deserves as an integral component of you being a person.

So, whether your currently express your sensual side by sleeping on silk sheets all by your lonesome, or whether you are madly hot for your wife and can hardly hold yourself back, or whether you are a porn star or a contentious abstainer, fine fine fine... just know your own self and apply appropriate guidelines and boundaries according to your own heart and soul. And if you're not experienced or confident enough to do that, will you at least take care of your own sexuality by reading up on it a little?

Here are some leads to help you educate yourself instinctively and intellectually on the deep topic of booty and gettin' some. Or not. Same thing with babies, sexually transmitted diseases, and boyfriends. Some things will work better for you than others.

Pick One Thing: Sexuality

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)offers a host of topics on their website under the heading "Sexual Health." I like that. They provide a definition based on one adopted several years ago by the World Health Organization:

Sexual health is a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well being in relation to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity. Sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.

I like that too. Covers all manner of makin' whoopie, from the consenting, adult perspective. If you Pick One Thing to focus on regarding you sexual health, I would use this definition to do an honest assessment of this part of your being. I know, I, for one, have not always experienced optimum sexual health. Not because of disease or dysfunction, but because of poor choices or disregard for my real feelings. I was younger than then now, of course, but for many people, life stages bring all sorts of challenges and new information to consider when it comes to sexuality.

The World Health Organization (WHO) offers a global view with research studies and publications to help broaden your view of all the things that might affect you, or be important to you or someone you know, concerning sexual AND reproductive health.

Reproduction is a whole other element of sexual health that many people I know have worked very hard on. We can see, the medical field and researchers are clearly on it. Healthcare understands that people want healthy pregnancies and babies. If this is your current quest, you probably already know as much as many of the doctors advising you. It can be almost all-consuming to some folks. But it's important. So, I share with all of you, this website, which I hope you'll find of interest or pass it on: WHO Sexual and Reproductive Health

And finally, there's Sensuality. For some of us, this will be easier. For others, clues will be required. That's alright, there's no one kind of sensuality. Look at the word. The root word is sense. You've got senses; you know what smells great to you, what tastes divine, what feels like heaven and looks like a dream. Whatever makes you feel fabulous, that's your sensuality right there, and that's why each person's is unique. You scratch my back, I'll tickle your feet...that sort of thing, there's something for everyone. It's nice when you're aware of your own.

Sensuality is an extension of the senses we all have, but as an outpost, it can sometimes be diminished, overlooked, neglected or forgotten about all too easily. Go out there this week and visit with yours, okay? Red pumps or red lips or a redhead; or a big bowl of romance topped with red sauce and meatballs.

Don't limit your view or label your expectations. Sensuality isn't as difficult as many people make it: whatever it is to you, it's already in there. Here's a terrific read on the topic on the Beautiful Women blog. (Men will get something out of it, too.) I've always said, "We choose to be inspired." I could add, "We choose to be aroused." Wellness includes all your senses. Enjoy yourself.

Treasure Pleasure

2010-12-01T13:58:00.005-06:00

When it comes to enjoying yourself, there's no time like the present. Pleasures are essential ingredients in every day life. In the midst of suffering as much as in the midst of reverie. You cannot go another day without making sure you extract some pleasure out of it if you are to benefit at all from Project Pick One Thing. Pick Pleasure, now, today, I mean it. It's that important.

Not feeling very inspired toward pleasure-picking? I understand. Sometimes we get into such a rut that it's tough to see up and outta there, into the zone where things are sweet or fun or luxurious or resplendent or humorous. If illness or money worries or bad weather or the bogey man has got you down, let me help you with a few simple tips for creating a pleasing moment.

There's a little fat book called, 14,000 Things To Be Happy About. If you can't think of a way to take pleasure in each day, try looking at that book. Surely 14,000 things is enough to get you started on a list of your own.
Actually, there are many notable books on pleasure. Do an online search or scope out the topic at the library. Beyond the emotional and biological, there is the social aspect of pleasure, too. There are entire cultures who practice pleasure, on purpose, as a life principal. Forget the psychoanalysts on this one. Look for books on island culture, or hedonism, or Costa Rica or Denmark. The latter two countries are mentioned because they've been found to be the happiest people, by their own measure and admission. Here's an article to point you in the right direction: The Happiest People
Sense pleasure. Taste something delicious, smell something wonderful, feel something soothing, look at something beautiful, listen to something that rocks. Most of us have a pleasure around every corner in our homes, just waiting to be enjoyed--a cold crisp tart apple, a fresh pot of coffee, a bit of art or photo album, an old recording, a buried pair of pajama bottoms so well-worn your knee marks show through them. ahhhh.
Name names. Call an old friend who makes you laugh. Read your favorite author, again. Watch your favorite movie star. Cook a recipe from your favorite chef. Write a letter to your grandchild. Thank the grocery bagger by name. You can always take pleasure in people.
Don't set limits or expectations. YOU decide what pleases you. It doesn't have to be big, small, fancy or humble. It need not take long nor do you have to cram it in fast. Pleasure is whatever works to make you smile, breathe, take it in, sigh, relax, or let it out. What you enjoy is a big part of what makes your life worth living.

"What we have once enjoyed, we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us." --Helen Keller

This is why, as you Pick One Thing, you must pick Pleasure. It is how you come to own your life. We must master the art of creating, finding, and claiming pleasurable experiences for ourselves, every day. If we don't, our day can only range from benign and mediocre to miserable and distressed. What kind of person would knowingly choose that, when pleasure is always possible, always ripe for the picking?

A very displeased one. Don't evereverever let that be you. Pick one bit of something you love, every day. It makes you better, and in turn, you make the world a better place, when you enjoy. When you are taking care of pleasing yourself, it's nice for the rest of us to not have you walking around cranky, bitter, exhausted, sad or worse.

(P.S. Save the wink winking and ooh la las about sexy pleasuring till next time, when we'll be Picking your Sexuality for the next post.)

You Can Do What You Want, Simple As That

2010-11-17T16:30:00.003-06:00

This might be the absolute easiest One Thing I could write about for you to Pick. If you’re going to honor and take care of something about yourself, what could be a simpler project than choosing what you do? It’s harder to pick your job, your home, and your friends, than it is to pick your activities. It’s much harder still to pick your family or your economic status or your looks, given how much of those things are (at least partially) outside of your control. But how to occupy your time? Other than your favorite moral and legal obligations, that’s pretty much up to you.

Your Activities
So let’s keep this project simple. Answer some basic questions and we’ll have a laundry list of activities that are worth your consideration. Don’t dwell too long or think too deep--just answer off the cuff, from the heart. You’re not committing to anything at this point, don’t worry. You can say the same answer more than once, or not. You can not have an answer, or you can have several. It’s you, talking about you. No wrong responses.

1. What do you like to do?
2. What have you always enjoyed, since childhood?
3. If you weren’t limited by time pressures, what would you like to do, or do more of?
4. What have you always wanted to try?
5. What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
6. What would you do if you only had the talent (or body or money) for it?
7. If you had a whole day to spend on only your own desires, with no restrictions and no one needing you for any reason, what would you do with that day?
8. If you had to pick one thing to do today that was completely enjoyable for you, that you don’t have on your itinerary already, what would it be?
9. What’s on your “bucket list?”
10. If you sensed your time on the planet was increasingly limited, what would you want to be doing with it?

That should be enough investigation for us. If you’re like me, at this point, your list is far too long to be entirely practical in the immediate future. I’m interested in almost everything, it seems. But when I look a little closer, I see some repeating themes.

If nothing else, I can narrow down my list by focusing on questions 7 and 8. When we view our desires through the lens of one day, or one activity that strikes us as doable in the present, then we’re on to something. Case in point: I’ve been bemoaning my lack of reading for pleasure for years now. Years and years. I love reading and have high aspirations for all the reading I’m going to do at some point or want to be doing right now. Yet I don’t make the time for some reason. Many reasons. It’s a great example. Here is an activity that is contained in my answers to 7 of the above 10 questions!

What’s stopping me? Nothing. Literally nothing, on most days, except my lack of effort. My non-choosing. I believe in the idea that, if you show me what you spend your money and time on, I’ll show you your priorities. For me, this activity I love and aspire to, which is so readily available to me, it not a priority.

Now I ask you this: other than unplanned urgent matters, who selects my priorities for me?

So there we go. Nothing is simpler than this concept. It’s life-changing. What do you want to do? And really, what’s stopping you? Got a 20-year project requiring a million dollars you don’t have? Well, if you want to, you can do it. It’s a project. You pick it. Get on the fundraising shtick and start the 20 most purposeful years of your life, then.

On the other hand, make sure you’re actually listening to your heart’s desires; not just assuming what you think you want is what you really want. I know we sometimes feel we’re supposed to want to do things, maybe we’re even good at something so it seems ripe for the picking… but mmmm, nope, if we’re honest, it’s not a real want, it’s a fabricated one.

Therein is the very crux of procrastination as well as all those abandoned unfinished projects. Like how I keep thinking I want to crochet some nice gifts with all the yarn I’m storing. But today I realized, no, I don’t want to. I think I should want to, however “crochet nice gifts” or “use up my yarn” is not on my bucket list, and it’s not what I would wish to spend one whole unencumbered day doing, nor is it something I really want to fit in more of as my time on this planet is increasingly limited.

I believe we allow a small undercurrent of tragedy to exist in so many of our lives, especially caretakers’ lives, which are often the lives of women: we don’t choose to do what we want, even though it is our choice. We don’t agree that what we desire is in us for a reason. We are supposed to do what we desire, though. We need to, in order to be whole and satisfied and purposeful, right? Do we actually accept that we are NOT supposed to do what we wish to do? That we are supposed to live our lives toiling away without any reward in activities that we choose, for ourselves, based on our own wants?

I hope we can make a new agreement with ourselves in this particular project: let’s agree that our life is filled with our actions, and our actions are our choice.

I’d love to hear your comments on this topic….but not until you’ve made a commitment to your own activities, and prioritized them accordingly. According to what you want. And then do them. Don’t forget that part. As for me, now I’m going to read a few pages of the book I started a couple months ago and I’m going to keep doing that, for the rest of my life.

Enviro-Mental Considerations

2010-11-01T13:47:00.009-05:00

We've finished Picking our Minds over the last several posts, and now I'd like to move us into a new mental space. Consider your environment. Your environment is anywhere you do anything. It's not only the place, it's the people and things, too. It's your home, and your belongings, and your family, and your pets. It's your neighborhood, and your town, and your country and your climate. It's your place of employment, and your co-workers, and your boss, and your desk.

That's not just one Thing to Pick, now is it? Environment is huge. Plus, you likely have several. Each day. I'll have to concede, we could do an entire year-long series of Project Pick One Thing: Your Environment, just to cover the breadth of this topic. So for now, we'll specialize--we're picking Your Fitness Environment. (Next time, your nutritional environment.) And that's it. Because we can't pick everything....

"Behind You!"
If you ever worked in a restaurant you know this phrase. Without it, collisions are likely. People might get hurt, or heaven forbid, food might be lost on it's way out to the table. When you're in an environment where everyone is focused on similar, but not exactly the same, goals, it's important you feel supported but also know you're accountable for your own results. Good restaurants are like that, and so are good work environments. Actually, households work well in this way, too. And so do places of fitness.

Unfortunately, a great many people find the wrong environments for their own goals when they're seeking a place of fitness. Big gyms are an exciting playground for some, an affordable family activity for others, and a giant scary house of mirrors for others still. Small gyms with a focus on heavy lifting might be filled with a certain intensity that isn't right for a yogi just trying to get on a cardio machine once in a while. Home workout areas complete with dvds and stretchy bands can be far too underwhelming and lonely to motivate some people to regular workouts. For others, home is the absolute best health haven.

So, who's behind you? Who has your back? Tennis clubs are an environment. So are running clubs, fight clubs and country clubs. A quiet backyard where only the breeze and the windchimes are behind you, that's an environment, too. You have a lot of choices when it comes to the places, tools and people you'll choose for your fitness environment. Be thoughtful about your choices. Experiment, keep an open mind, trust your instincts, and believe anything is worth trying for a bit. When you find the environment(s) you like best, it should feel like your effort is paying off each time you're there. It should be a part of your lifestyle, not something you dread, nor an itchy uncomfortable fit.

Then again, you never know, not until you try. Big pro male athletes must be brave to enter the Pilates studio and give it a try, but when they do, they often learn it's a great environment for them to finesse and balance out all their other physical endeavors. Slim young girls must be brave to step up to the heavy plates and learn to hoist them above their heads while standing next to big pro male athletes, but when they do, they often learn it's a great environment to grow their own abilities in ways no one had really suggested before.

Proof in point: the following two videos for you to watch. Take the 15 minutes to get through both. It will help you start to form ideas about the type of environment(s) you want to place yourself in, to be fit, feel good and have fun.

In the Laura Plumey Crossfit video below, you'll witness a girl who competes with herself first and foremost, and it's incredible what she can and will do. I don't know Laura, and I don't do Crossfit, but I can spot an amazing competitor when I see one... You can view plenty of them, via the Crossfit program, but I'm sharing this video with you so you can focus on this one person working, in an environment that is both comfortable and motivating for her. The support and instructions she receives are a blessing. But even more than that I think the energy she's able to draw from this room of likeminded people really does the trick. When you're feeling at home/in a zone within the right environment, like this shot above featuring the women of Crossfit Portland, it can offer an emotional and mental boost that's hard to beat. Watch how Laura shines in this room, it's really inspiring: Crossfit Challenge: Laura Plumey

Now to contrast the first video, but also compare it, I'm sharing this lovely collection of scenes from an open gym Pilates class with 80-something Romana Kryzanowska, former ballerina and the first person given the blessing to teach Joe Pilates' method, after Joe and Clara Pilates themselves. At first glance, it seems that here is an entirely different environment for those working out. In many ways it is. But hang in there, and the similarities will start to hit you. The support and guidance of Romana, the independent pursuits of the students who are working on and with themselves first and foremost. When you get to minute 7 or so, you'll really start to see how nuts some Pilates practitioners are on that equipment, and how strong. Because they love it, it inspires them, they applaud when finished. The sharing of energy is also key: Elaine's Pilates Blog: Beautiful Pilates Video

So, there are just two of infinity, when it comes to places where, things with, and people with whom, you might spend your fitness time. If it's effective, and you're not hurting yourself, and it makes you feel good, you're on the right track. But if you're mentally fatigued by, or emotionally drained because of, or as excited as a dead fish when it comes time to go to your fitness place, then please, tweak it. Consideration number 1: YOU. You are ALWAYS the central component of ANY of your environments.

Just as this day cannot exist without you in it, your environment is nothing more than what you perceive it to be. Make it a great one.

Mind over Chatter

2010-10-21T17:26:00.006-05:00

As a fitness instructor, I am made distinctly aware of the inner dialogue of dozens of people I meet with each week. At my studio, we’re in an environment where people tend to feel comfortable (we’re all in this together), but also tend to feel self-focused (I’m really trying to work on myself). It’s a second family of sorts, but better in some ways, as we’re all just distant enough not to have to carry our entire existence in through the doors with us each time we come to work out. We get to choose what to share for the most part.

Of course, we don’t always make a conscious choice. We often reveal our inner beliefs via our internal self-chat without even realizing it. And that’s where my distinct awareness comes in. In my job as a trainer, I’m there to notice stuff about people. So I do pick up on the clues sent out by their bodies and their minds. And their mouths.

~ Oh I hate those, I stink at those.
~ Something’s wrong with me, I still can’t do this right.
~ No matter how hard I try, I’m just not meant to (fill in the blank).
~ If I could only get rid of this gut, maybe I could do it, but we know that’s not happening.
~ haha I’m uncoordinated; heehee too bad I’m just like my mother; ugh I'm so stupid

Don’t get me wrong, inspiration still very much exists and so does self-confidence. We share plenty of all that too. Mostly I’m there to encourage all the positive actions people take on behalf of themselves. Positive actions tend to originate in positive thoughts, which come from positive beliefs. For this reason, positive people like me do well in our industry—success breeds enthusiasm and so getting people to recognize their successes from the inside out is a hallmark of my work. Let's say I'm the Prop in Propaganda.

Negative self-talk, which exists in its own little world that many people create in an icky small corners of their mind, is a very serious threat to the spreading of my shiny happy sunshine love of health, fitness and self. So, an important part of my job is pointing out to people when it seems like they might be telling us something based on a story they made up about themselves, though not necessarily true, and then they started to believe it, but like we said, it’s not true.

NO ONE IS JUST LIKE THEIR MOTHER. That knowledge alone should help millions.

To Overcome Whatever’s the Matter,
Pick Your Mind over Your Chatter
Sometimes we’re working out and we’re very much able to focus on the matter at hand. The matter. The kind of matter that exists, physically. The matter that is the body, the exercise, the muscle, the breath, the heavy spring or the wall we’re pressing against. Our mind is able to teach us how much more we can do, how much longer we can go. It is also able to simmer us down; it'll raise red flags when we’re out of our zone, losing touch with the reality of the matter.

All good. Thank you higher mind, for keeping us connected with concepts greater than our contained, physics-bound bodies can sometimes process. Notions like, “Hey, are you sure you want to keep trying to beat that kid whose half your age, cuz it seems like your legs are giving out and I think you’re gonna throw up.”

Then again, no thank you higher-mind-in-disguise (lower mind?), because you are less about the matter and more about the chatter: “You know, you do have to go to work tomorrow. That sucks. And you’re not a huge fan of push-ups either. They’re really not doing you much good anyway, look at you. You can barely….” STOP.

Literally. I have this theory and it’s been working pretty well so far—I’m actually able to cure many of my own personality dysfunctions when I just shut up about myself already. I can really elevate my functioning when take the focus off all my own opinions about me, and my opinions of your opinions about me, and instead, I just do my best and accept the results as they come. Make additional plans as needed.

This week, this month, hopefully the rest of your life, whenever you feel stuck or catch yourself being a jerk to yourself, you can Pick your Mind, instead. Your Mind is above all the harsh nagging and self-criticism. I mean, listen to yourself sometimes. How rude would some of that stuff be to say about someone else, if it wasn't you? You can do better by yourself. You can be honest with yourself. Be real. There really isn’t anything holding you back besides the stories you believe about yourself, now is there?

The higher mind has your back. The lower mind—the thoughtless chatterbox in your head--has your rug and likes to pull it out from under you. However, the higher mind has the quieter voice, and a matter-of-fact approach that must compete with the vibrant storytelling and constant attention-getting of your inner dialogue. So you need to put forth some effort not to let all that chatter distract you from the matter at hand.

The matter at hand is simple: determine what’s true, and what can be done about it, now.

Then just do that.

k?

Great. Okeedokee then, back to work.

So. It Really IS What It Is.

2010-10-09T13:39:00.005-05:00

Mind your manners. Do you mind? Put your mind to it! Who is minding the store? I have a lot on my mind.

The mind can mean many things to many people. A most useful aspect of the mind is how it is able to be applied. You can keep important things and people and events in mind. You can have a mind for math. So the mind is versatile, and also highly directable. We can give much credit to the focused mind for our accomplishments.

But there are other aspects the mind that are perhaps even more beneficial than its ability to be applied: the mind’s ability to be open, and also to be present. This is what we can call “mindfulness.” It’s almost the opposite of putting your mind to it, in that it’s taking a load off your mind. Taking a load off your mind on a regular basis sounds good, doesn’t it? It is good. Cultivating mindfulness can truly change our lives. Because it changes our minds. From doing to experiencing. From questioning to observing. From not now to right now. From unknown to known. From seeking to having. Mindfulness delivers.

Mindfulness allows for discovery. Stargazers become Copernicus. At the moment he realizes the earth is not the center of the universe, Copernicus isn’t thinking about how the church is going to freak out when he tells them. (Even though they sort of do freak out, had he not been mindful of the movements of the heavens and open to observing whatever they might show him, he might have gotten caught up in the that’s-not-what-everybody-else-think-s or the what’s-gonna-happen-next-s. He might have missed his discovery altogether. He wasn’t seeking THE answer, either. He was looking, noticing and recognizing. As a result, his mindfulness brought the modern view of the solar system to all of mankind. Copernicus was paying attention.

Mindfulness also allows for connection. Bringing awareness to an experience literally joins the experiencer to the event. A mother bonds with her child at birth. These days the daddy does too, because he gets to be right there, not waiting elsewhere. Their child is born, and they aren’t hearing a crying baby or remembering back five minutes to those horrible labor pains or seeing a bunch of blood…they are instead mindful of the miracle of their child, who is now born. They are now one in that event, in an utterly unique and valuable way.

When it comes to taking care of yourself, and honoring yourself inside and out, there’s no doubt that mindfulness is a worthy practice. Think about it, you don’t see a lot of agitated, frustrated monks. Mindfulness elevates the business of being human. It does the work and doesn’t complain and doesn’t diminish. Mindfulness helps you deal with stress, and make no mistake, stress kills...people, yes, but it also kills good times and opportunities. But mindfulness can be elusive, because it’s more about what it’s not, than what it is. It’s not religious and it’s not athletic and it’s not academic and it’s not even creative. It just is. And that’s all. Don’t add anything to it.

I must admit, I do find it kind of hard. But I shouldn’t. Calling it hard is actually the exact opposite of mindfulness in relation to me trying to be mindful about it.

Pick One Thing: Your Mind(fulness)

An excerpt from Sylvia Boorstein’s writing on mindfulness that tells me how simple it really is: “Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated that that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.”

Sylvia Boorstein should know; she’s written a few books on the subject and one of them is titled just for me: It’s Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness. Accepting the present experience as it is means you have to allow your mind to be open to whatever is happening, without judgment.

Sample: I am eating a meal that took me a long time to prepare and no one else at the table seems to appreciate it, even though I thought specifically of them while selecting a dish I thought they would enjoy. My emotions want to go anywhere from feelings of rejection to labeling others as ungrateful, and I don’t even realize it. I’m too busy getting a little bent out of shape. My immediate actions could range from sarcastic comments bordering on martyrdom (“Well I guess I won’t bother slaving away in a hot kitchen with expensive ingredients anymore since you’re all more interested in arguing about what’s on television tonight…”) to eating in silence while sulking and feeling bad about my wasted effort. Or bad about myself, because really who cares and why do I need credit?

Mindfulness practice: I am eating a meal which I selected with care and prepared with my own two hands. It tastes like the garden, with rustic spices and a comforting sauciness. I am surrounded by my family while we all eat this meal. They are conversing and bantering about what might be important to them at this moment. My kitchen is filled with voices and scents of a lovingly prepared meal.

When I am mindful, what stands out in the experience is naturally what means the most to me. I get to choose what I’m paying attention to, right? I’m the experiencer and I’m open to the event in the present and that allows for discovery and connects me with the event (and the people who are joined by it). I don’t feel like telling my family to shove the vegetable lasagna down their that-show-sucks/no-it-doesn’t pie holes anymore. It’s not idyllic but it’s not resentful either. What is it? It’s food. It’s us. I do bring up a new subject for us to converse about. And I mention that I really enjoy the lasagna, I’m glad I tried making it this way. Whatever their responses are, I accept them as their tastes and their opinion of the recipe (not of ME).

The Buddha (big mindfulness guy) said, “Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.” Ain’t that the truth… If you’re not mindful, you’re likely to think all sorts of stuff that has nothing to do with what’s really happening. It’s not about optimism, it’s not about ignorance--it’s about what it is about.

Cultivate some for yourself today. Pick a moment to live. Don’t react, just experience. Ahhh. It’s just that simple. If we all would make a new daily habit of mindfulness, I think we might change the world.

Free (then Apply) Your Mind

2010-09-22T15:24:00.005-05:00

They say the mind is a terrible thing to waste. I know why. It’s a huge part of what makes you, you. Your brain can calculate for you, but imagining new solutions is up to your mind. So is asking questions. Your brain can send and receive signals for you, but interpretation is up to your mind. So is personal expression. A life consumed by calculations and factual communications could hardly have the depth and expanse as a life of envisioning possibilities, curiosities, considerations and…song. Or dance, or art. All of which of course require brains at some point, but it is minds that pursue storytelling and seek new constructs.

And that is why I think a higher mind is perhaps the greatest thing about being human. Minds are the icing on the brain cake. Eww. Let’s try again. Minds are not the map, and not the directions, but the tour guide through the landscape. Our minds connect knowledge with desire, ability with possibility.

I’ve heard this put in a couple of different ways that really resonate: “You might be able to teach a monkey or a parrot to say words or even type words, but they can’t sit down and write you a poem.” (I don’t know who said that but I remember thinking, wow, that’s what’s so cool about being human.) Also, Albert Einstein, one of the greatest brains and minds ever, said it this way: “The human mind has first to construct forms, independently, before we can find them in things.” (Double wow. Ponder that for a moment. A mind has to construct a form, say, for invisible waves that sound (or data!) can travel on, before we can find…radio. Television. Guided missiles. Garage door openers. Wireless internet.)

I’m not a scientist nor a spiritualist so I’ll stop short of defining the brain versus the mind, or a thought versus an inspiration, any further than this. I’m merely a writer who hopes to motivate and inform people who want to grow and evolve in body and mind.

Pick One Thing: Your Mind

So if your mind is a huge part of what makes you you, it stands to reason that it’s not just “in” your brain. Indeed, I read more every year about the mind-body connection, and how intricate the dance is between every cell in your physical existence and your thoughts. Your nervous system is actually the physical system that connects your brain with your body, and your vascular system connects your heart with your body. The mystery about how your mind connects thoughts with your body (and your life) is yet to be fully explained, but we do have plentiful clues from strong minds in research.

Here is a list of pilot studies proposed by Johns Hopkins’ Center for Mind Body Research. With subjects of study such as the effects of depression and hopelessness on heart attack survivors, and the psychophysiologic effects of yoga on chronic arthritis, well… we see there are fine minds at work with constructing forms and finding new information all the time. If you need convincing that your mind is likely to be working for (or against) your body, your health, and your experience, looking at a list like this will help---little drum roll please--change your mind. Johns Hopkins Mind-Body Research

I pulled this next tidbit off a developing website for a gallery of mind-body research studies and investigations associated with Washington College in St. Louis and its School of Medicine. When I read it, I nodded. They are probably on to something here.

BIOLOGICAL BASES OF HEALTH-RELATED BEHAVIORS

We employ theories of behavioral endocrinology and behavior genetics to investigate possible biological underpinnings of health-related behaviors. The hope is to increase understanding of constitutional differences in threat responsiveness and perceived vulnerability that may influence everyday health-related behaviors among individuals as well as between the sexes.

Isn’t going to be great, when thanks to investigations like the above, we’ve increased understanding about how we behave in relation to how vulnerable we feel, or how we respond to threats? This understanding is going to help a lot of people accept what I already sense: thoughts cause life experience.

Sure there’s going to be some hormonal releases and DNA behavior markers in between; that’s the whole point of view when you’re trying to make a case for mind/body: it’s all related.

In some cases we can refer to tens, or hundreds, or thousands of years of anecdotal and cultural evidence. Meditation, mindfulness, positive thinking, the power of attraction, acting only in love, detaching from outcomes, refraining from judgment, and so on. It’s all out there--some of us work with all these practices and tools and they in turn work for us, others of us just go with our gut, or our God, or our good looks.

One thing is for sure, what ever you choose or don’t choose, if you made a decision about it or if you shared it with others; if you’ve discussed it, defended it, rejoiced in it or experienced it as more than a computer would, more than a robot, more than a monkey or a parrot; then you’ve put your mind to it.

And that just goes to show, if you put your mind to it, it comes to be. It's what you do. It makes you, you.

Everything you’ve done or had or learned has been interpreted by your mind right into its state of existence today. Including your body. This is evidenced by a review of 100 years of research on psychological literature on disease, stress, and behavioral medicine conducted by Oakley Ray, PhD, at Vanderbilt University, and published in 2004 in American Psychologist. So many studies for us to appreciate, and to use in our personal lives and our approach to healthcare. “Understanding how the mind, the endocrine system, the nervous system and immune system all interact (better known as 'psychoendoneuroimmunology' (PENI) is crucial in helping people conquer the stress in their lives and stay healthy," said Ray.

Let’s all giggle at PENI now, at least those of us with naughty minds. Okay, back to topic.

I am including this one example of a research finding from the American Psychological Association to cement the importance of this aspect of the care and keeping of you; of honoring the power and beauty of your mind:

“There is also evidence that an individual's belief system can influence the course of a major illness, such as cancer. According to a study of women with breast cancer who had mastectomies, it was their state of mind ("I am going to beat this") that kept them alive not the severity of their illness. At the five-, ten- and 15-year follow-up, the best predictor of death or recurrence of cancer was the psychological response of each woman three months after the initial surgery. The mental attitude after the surgery better predicted the likelihood of dying or having a recurrence than did the size of the tumor, the tumor's histologic grade or patient's age (Greer, 1991).”

Maybe you don’t have cancer, but there’s probably some other problem you’re dealing with. Let’s ask, then—what are you putting your mind on? How are you wrapping your mind around your problem? What do you want to change in your life (your health, your outcomes, your body, your stress level?) and can you change your mind about it to help make that happen? Mindfulness is our next entry. It seems like it changes everything.

Show of Hands

2010-08-31T15:40:00.005-05:00

Turning attention to your hands will bring you both cosmetic and health benefits. From the lofty perspective, hands ands are a symbol of social and intimate relations, spiritual connection, work, progress and protection. Contemplating all that hands can represent, we can say they are truly a universal metaphor. There’s like a good neighbor, I wanna hold your hand, let’s shake on it, lend me a hand, raise your hand, greasing his palms, blood on her hands, a clenched fist, a gentle caress, stop in the name of love, peek a boo, applause applause, high fives, pointing fingers, all hands in a cheer of team unity. Do we agree? Let’s have a show of hands.

Pick Two Things (& Ten Things): Your Hands (& Fingers)
Hands are one of the most used parts of your body for active everyday living, so the way they feel and the way they look is likely to vary depending on what you do with them. Over time, hands will have seen a lot of sun on top of a lot of action. So they do tend to reveal our age, along with our habits and activities. There are some things you might want to do to help your hands out in the cosmetic department. Then again, not all hands are meant to be models.

Guitar players have beloved calluses on their fingers, for example, and if they play Spanish guitar, they have long nails on the string-plucking hand and short nails on the other. Carpenters and outdoorsmen tend to have rough hands, with calluses on the palms. You can tell the difference when you shake a rock climbers hand versus a pianists hand. People without a lot of body fat might have rather veiny hands, especially as they get older and their skin thins; while people with extra body fat might have plump hands with hardly any lines at all. All that falls in the range of good and fine, but for those who want to go a bit further, I do have a couple of ideas that can help anyone along with the appearance of their hands.

Handy Suggestions
~My sister in law donned those big yellow gloves for washing dishes and other harsher household chores for years. We’re the same age, but her hands look way better than mine.

~ My friend swears by cuticle oil. In fact, she is addicted to it. It became a self-care ritual for her to use cuticle oil to soften and push back her cuticles, and then to moisturize and give gleam to her nails. Gotta admit, she has nice looking, handsomely groomed nails that even a truck driver could benefit from.

~ If you put lotion with sunscreen on your face each day as prevention, why not rub it on your hands, too? If you have a nighttime anti-aging routine for your face, you could use that on your hands as well.

~ Quit biting your nails and biting your skin. One great way to break the habit is to start taking care of your hands. With the soft skin and cuticle oil and lotion tricks mentioned above, you’ll find that it’s nice to look down and see good hands, instead stubby ragged ones. I used a mental tricks to help me quit. First, every time I caught myself biting my nails or skin, I stopped, rested my hands in my lap and thought, “hands, be still, be cool.”

That was what I wanted to feel and how I wanted to look, so it worked to remind me of what my intentions were. I kept thinking how bad it looked if I were caught gnawing away at my hands, say… in a waiting room for a job interview, or by a cute guy from across the room (I was young and single then). It really worked.

The Hand You’re Dealt
Can you improve your hands in any way besides cosmetically? Sure you can, at least a little.

~ You can strengthen your grip and squeeze strength. Functional movements will do this to a certain extent, as in tennis players and roofers tend to have strong hands. But simple gripping and squeezing exercises will work for those wanting something extra. Say, you want to register your hands as lethal weapons. Or you want to rip a deck of cards in half. Check out a training forum specifically for strong hands (and forearms, because those are related): http://www.bccorefitness.com/seriouslystronghands.html

~ You can increase the agility and quickness of your hands, too. Again, practice makes perfect. Take up guitar or piano or a woodwind instrument like clarinet or flute. You’ll get better at it the better your hands get at moving about quickly in a relatively small span of space and time.

~ Artsy endeavors beyond music will also help you with your hands. Hair braiding can encourage hand finesse, as can crocheting and knitting, paper crafting, oil painting, and calligraphy.

~ How about court reporters and data entry personnel? Them are fast hands. Learning to type and typing often helps keep your finger joints fluid.

On the other hand, there’s that darn repetitive motion syndrome to consider. And good ole arthritis. Joint pain, swelling, numbness, vascular constriction—all of these are the unfortunate symptoms of the dark side of having skilled and active hands.

Helping Hands
~ I started taking a couple of triple strength glucosamine and chondroitin tablets, once a day, a few years ago, and my hands are VERY much better off for it. I had early onset (in my 40s) of arthritis pain, stiffness and swelling in my knuckles and thumb joints, to the point where waking up some mornings I looked like I had been the product of a human/lobster mating. The glucosamine might not have tons of university research proving its effectiveness in humans, but it definitely works for dogs, and for me, so if you (or your dogs) suffer, maybe give it a try.

~ I also recently began supplementing with daily digestive enzymes. For digestion aid, mostly, but in particular I wanted to be more efficient in digesting proteins. And now, I’m certain I am. The addition of bromelein and papain further relieved my joint and hand pain (and my wrists, and knees and neck feel better too, by the way) to the point of I hardly remember that I have this arthritis to deal with. (Except I still stink at tennis.)

I now recover from my workouts better and feel better in my tummy when I eat extra protein. All good. I can’t vouch for these things medically, as I’m not a doctor, but I can tell you they help me. Enough to make me want to learn more about how and why and what else we can do with natural enzymes at our fingertips.

Here’s a book that leads to a list of others that I’ll be checking out in the next year: http://www.amazon.com/Enzymes-Digestive-Health-Nutritional-Wealth/dp/0972591869

In the meantime, put your hands in your own good hands. Pamper them a little, or pump them up, or both. They help you hold on to all good things in your life.

You're In The Arms-ies Now

2010-08-17T20:03:00.012-05:00

I love when people start to get into their arms, because it’s easy for me to help them make a plan and help them see results. Plus, I like arms. I like guys’ forearms enough to have apparently steered my younger dating life toward only guitar players. Married one, too. (I didn’t marry Keith Urban, I’m just sayin’ he’s got nice forearms. Like my husband.)

In girls, I really dig shoulders, but who can resist a strong-armed woman ala
“Yes We Can”? Arms and a working bandana?

Sign me up.

Everyone can answer the call to arms with relative ease. Although, please note that not everyone gets dealt the cards for wonderfully-defined arms. You have no control over the insertion points of your muscles, so if your biceps are an inch longer than the guy next to you, you can do the same workouts and drink the same shakes all you like, but his muscles might still be shorter/rounder, and thus have more bulge.

Same is true if you carry extra body fat in the arms—ladies, this point is for you. Some women will never have the defined triceps they have long admired in Madonna,

or their yoga instructor,

or boxer Laila Ali (yep, that Ali).

Not because their arms can’t make it past Olive Oyl,but because in the end, the shapes of our bodies do depend on several factors, not the least of which is special locations of fat cell storage and body type and muscle fiber type distribution and on and on.
Now, never mind all that. There is PLENTY you can do with your arms to help them be all that they can be. And you should do plenty, because the results always show and they look so good. I’ve polled a bunch of fitness-minded friends and found out what they like about arms, how they prefer to take care of their arm strengthening and shaping, and I’ve added a few of my own favorite approaches as well.

If you Pick One Thing and that Thing is Your Arms…

I suggest you select simple, accessible mix of exercises that you can repeat a few times a week. Get real good at them. Take a couple of “before” pictures, flexing, from different angles, too. Get some shadows on those arms. When you see the difference, oh, say as soon as six or eight weeks from now, you’ll realize it, clear as anything: Your arms are hot. So here’s a laundry list of ideas for the care and keeping of your arms, and why that might be important to you. Take those flexy pics and go.

“I've been having fun with ropes workouts lately … been doing a little something at least once a week … great for the arms, and really seem to do a number on the wrists & forearms which I've always had a hard time figuring out a way to work….Right now I'm focused on whole body compound movements for the most part, but I still like to tack on a little extra arm work at the end. The usual 'Guy Stuff' like curls, dips, tri kickbacks etc. Pull ups and chin ups too, all different grips to hit different parts equally.”

“I'm a sucker for pushups. I like doing them, I like being able to do them, and I like my arms (and chest) from them. I like them with my feet elevated, with just one arm elevated on a medicine ball... I also like my slosh tube and inverted shoulder presses.

“Triceps dips, skull crushers, hammer curls and pull ups are some of my favorites...really anything that gives me the results I am looking for I have a thing for great arms and shoulders…it is usually the first thing I notice when I look at someone”

“My favorites: rows, deadlifts and chest presses. These three have helped me build stronger and leaner arms. Compound movements…My favorite part of my arms on me is my forearms. I have popping veins in them now.” (that's girl talk, by the way)

“Lateral shoulder raises, military shoulder press, and triceps dips (whether for dip bars or bench [weighted on a bench though]. I got to play on TRX ropes today, and the dips from those were amazing. I think hammer curls are fun vanity exercises, for what it's worth.”

“My favorite arm exercises are hammer curls and one arm triceps extensions (on a cable machine) and bench presses, which also mess with the triceps. My (and my wife’s) favorite arm parts are my forearms. Though the hammer curls and other curling exercises aid my forearms, a continued diet of regular and reverse wrist curls (both of which are my least favorite arm exercise) are what keeps them the way they are.”

“I do military press & deadlift but it's not until I do about 150 - 200 push ups every other day that I start noticing how much firmer and defined my triceps & biceps are. Think the best workouts for me (body weight - no equipment) are Intense Push Ups and Chin Ups or Pull Ups. With equipment: Push Press or Military Presses, and Bench Press (although since I do Push Ups, I don't do this anymore).”

“I like Push ups, Dips, Plank Ups, Dive Bomber Push ups and Pike Presses...do 'em every day...in some form or another.”

“It took my trainer months, maybe a year, to make me forget about my arms and just do compound movements. She promised me my arms would not get smaller. A couple years later after mostly compound movements, my arms are a lot stronger. I can't say they bulked up or anything. But I just recently decided to try arm exercises again and I'm way ahead of where I left off a couple years ago on arm exercises. So I am a huge proponent of compound, functional lifts in place of isolation exercises. Arms, legs, shoulders - doesn't matter. I like compound best.”

“Here is one isolation exercise I can vouch for. It is a rotational exercise for the forearms. So many forearm exercises are curls. These are not curls. I discovered this while doing rehab work for bicep tendonitis. It happened to do very good things to my forearms. This is a movement that doesn't get much work in compound exercises. It also does a lot to strengthen the muscles that are attached to the tendons leading to the biceps.”

“Weighted tricep dips, military press, tricep pushups (ouch). Also yoga. Dolphin = amazing. And, I never use a supermarket trolley: take a basket every time, carry it round the store, carry your groceries to the car, etc. Your arms will love you for it!”

From Faith: Add to the above shopping basket tip—carrying around babies does some great things to baby-mama arms, that’s for sure.

And, although I don’t do it, I admire rowing as a sport and wish I had those skills. And arms. One thing that I always think of high rows and low rows--I do a lot on the TRX straps and those row movements (along with tri presses) are so killer with body weight hanging out there like that. However, I was just thinking of a rowing machine as well. Don’t have access to one, but functionally, people who row…well, they have such great bodies, and their arms are beautiful.

These pics are from the World Rowing Network site and US Olympic site...now let's get to work.

May the Sun Shine on Your Shoulders

2010-07-27T14:35:00.008-05:00

May the burdens of the day rest lightly upon you.

When it comes to the care and keeping of your shoulders, I’d like to suggest you consider them as beautiful, inside and out. I feel that way about all of you, of course. There’s so much more to a person than the sum of their body parts. But with shoulders, I feel the need to more strongly make that point. Shoulders can look so broad, but still be so frail. They can form a united front with brothers, but also freeze. They can be stood on, rested on, and cried on, but they can also carry around an ugly chip that gets in the way. Hair tumbles down over them or they are bare; either way, they are sexy. And they say so much about us. Curved forward is different than held back at attention; shrugging is different than shimmying.

Yep, there’s a lot more to shoulders than meets the eye. Take their location, midway between your brain and your heart. Right there in the middle of all those nerves, all that breath and blood! The shoulder joint is pretty miraculous, a lot like the miracle of opposing thumbs. Because of our shoulders we don’t need giraffe necks or elephant trunks or alligator tails. Our homosapien shoulder joint works for us.

But its possibilities, arising from all that range of motion and flexibility, also lead to its potential demise—as a major joint, it seems like maybe it coulda shoulda been built a bit stronger, considering all it does. Ask a major league pitcher. Or a volleyball player. Shoulder injuries hurt. Bad. Then again, too much sinew might take away from some of the shoulder’s glorious freedoms. It’s the most flexible joint with the biggest range of motion. So, like a lot of great things, shoulders must be strong and liberated to be at their best. Atlas holds the world, after all, on his shoulders.

How about you? How much weight do you tend to carry on your shoulders, and how well do you seem to manage it? Please think about this question both literally and viscerally. With shoulders being so valuable on so many levels, it's about time we picked them. Let’s look at some of the small tweaks and bigger fixes you can make to honor your beautiful shoulders, inside and out.

“God gave burdens; also shoulders.” –Yiddish Proverb

I love this saying. Regardless of any spiritual bent, or not, and whatever your proclaimed faith might be, or not, doesn’t that quote just ring true to the core? Buddhists say life is suffering but enlightenment is the path out of suffering and into peace. Taoists tell us to let nature take its course and ask us to be strong enough not to control everything. Personal trainers want us to know that strong shoulder muscles help protect us from injury. The bottom line: there will always be work for you to do, obstacles for you to overcome, and people you need to help, including yourself. And you will. And you’ll be better for it. Build your shoulder up and offer it to ease the burdens of others, but don’t forget…

“He who lets the goat be laid on his shoulders is soon after forced to carry the cow.” –Italian Proverb

If you take everything upon yourself, your shoulders will eventually weaken. But people won’t know it because you keep taking everything on, and so in their ignorance they will try to put more on there than you can reasonably be expected to handle. That is unhealthy for you. It’s quite healthy and acceptable seek the shoulder of another when your burdens have been weighing you down. Think about someone you’ve never helped out or lent a hand or an ear to, never sympathized with, or did a favor, or forgave. How close do you feel to that person? Giving and receiving help is what bonds us in a very real way.

“From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free.” –Jacques Cousteau

Outstanding advice from the guru of the sea. Water is a most wonderful workout for shoulders. Actually, many of our nasty joints (hips, low backs, knees) respond beautifully to water, for the very reason Jacques has stated here. It unbolts you, frees you from gravity, both supports you and sets you in motion. When you are set in motion, you tend to heal yourself. If you have a bad shoulder, get in the water as soon as the doctor clears you, it's therapy for life.

“I like a woman with a head on her shoulders. I hate necks.” –Steve Martin

Well, that one is mostly for fun. Laugh–it relieves tension! Tension relief is invaluable to the whole of you, but your shoulders and neck especially. The trapezius muscle is ginormous, connecting the base of your skull to the backs of your shoulders to the upper and middle parts of your ribs. When the upper trapezius gets tense, your neck and shoulders mess up. When your neck and shoulders are messed up, certain areas of the upper trapezius (“traps”) will get tense. Headaches may happen. Range of motion diminishes. You’re not in good shape if you can’t lower your head, turn your neck or lift your arm, right?

Massage works wonders. Roll out tight spots with a tennis ball or rolling pin. If you’re painting a room or moving stuff onto shelves or climbing rocks or wearing football or hockey pads all day, your traps need relief even before your shoulders and neck start screaming at you the next day. If you’re up for it, a bit of chiropractic care will often cure what ails you in this region. And quit it with the huge heavy purse or phone being held in one ear. Please stretch the traps regularly and don’t over work them. Start attending to this now, then maintain it. You’ll avoid much misery, I promise.

This Little Piggy Went Wee Wee Wee

2010-07-19T15:04:00.009-05:00

Poor ole' feet.

They're at the bottom. All that impact, every day...all that upright energy draining down into them...just look at the noble way they carry you across this earth your whole lifetime, and still, hardly anyone seems to truly appreciate the beautiful, complex structure of their feet.

Your feet are like the high-pressured iron core beneath the molten rock and magma of your body, far below the crust at the surface with all it's pretty landscape and wonderous resources. They were made for the job, and sadly, might be pretty beaten down by the job. So lowly and underrated. What about the proper care and keeping of your feet?

It's no wonder so many people like pampered footsie things like rubs and pedicures. Think about that: pedi = of the feet and cure = fix or heal. It's no surprise Jesus fell for the lady who bathed his feet and visa versa. Of course business girls in short skirts and long jackets like to kick off those pumps at the end of the day and have someone bring them a nice foot pillow and some peppermint oil.

You've got 20 muscles in just one foot! 1/4 of ALL the bones in your entire body are in your feet! Yet, I find that most people will walk around with a certain amount of foot pain and/or podiatric problems their entire adult life, as if it's normal, and never even think seriously about doing something to correct it, until it's practically debilitating. Why is this?

I dunno. Probably because your feet might keep functioning even under extreme duress. If you're losing your eyesight, eventually you can't read or drive so you have to go get your eyes checked and you have to get your vision corrected. With feet, not so dire, maybe. People have really curly toes and overlapping ones, too, bones that stick out and rub against their shoes, nerves that are compressed and send zinging pain up from between the toe bone...and they kinda just live with that. Corns and calluses are self-treated and regularly messed up--but, in comparison to the eyesight analogy, I guess you can only squint for so long? So the feet lose out. No wonder that little piggy cried all the way home. Your feet deserve more.

Pick Your Piggies
There really is a trickle up effect when it comes to toes, ankles, gait, knees, hips and posture, and they all affect balance and physical performance. (Not to mention, quality of life!) But a lot of people are so very quick to dismiss the idea of doing foot exercises, or seeing a foot specialist, or even using a foot spa. It all seems so indulgent. You'll put conditioner in your hair everyday and go get it trimmed, even colored, several times a year (hair which feels no pain in its disrepair), but won't bother to bend over and pumice those heels, or perhaps have those fallen arches checked out by a foot doctor at least once this year.

Now this isn't meant to be a lecture to make you look down at your feet and feel bad for overlooking them. (Although, you might, because maybe you've been ignoring the amazing feats of the feet and spending way more time on body parts closer to your field of vision.) Instead, this is meant to remind you (and me! I'm not big on foot care myself) that we can easily get into the habit of acknowledging how our feet handle all the pavement they've covered for us. A little extra massage here and there, put your feet up once in a while, and how about investing a couple of shoe inserts if you need them?

YOUR SHOES. Rid your life of all toxic footwear. We shall NOT wear uncomfortable shoes! Period. If you use fitness shoes for anything from running to tennis to Zumba, get good ones that feel supportive, but not like cement. If you work out regularly, you'll probably need a pair at least every year, every 6 months if you're putting a lot of miles on.

Also, if you're not actively stretching and strengthening your feet doing things like walking around barefoot and tippy-toeing and flexing them back once in a while, why not start now? Foot therapy is simple and it can happen when you're sitting down doing other things like watching TV or getting out of bed slowly on Sunday or taking a nice warm bath.

So there you go. It's time to pick your feet. But don't pick your toenails because you might get an ingrown one and those really hurt. They get infected easily and you should really have a professional deal with them. Also don't pick your feet as a nervous habit at, like, a barbecue. It's gross. This Little Piggy had Roast Beef is just a figure of speech.

Non-Fat Half Calf, Please

2010-06-06T07:59:00.004-05:00

While thighs are such a thunderous concern for some, the lower level leg love is really lacking for others. The bottom line is this: there's only so much you can do if you're going to focus on your calves. Go ahead, pick calves as your one thing, though. Because mostly, after the basics, you're going to need to learn to appreciate them for all that they are.

For example, they are almost always on duty. They are built that way, to hold you up all day long. Your calves are the direct conduit for whatever ideas your feet have about travelling you around. But, like Popeye, they are what they are and that's all what they are. You've inherited most of your calf qualities already. Yes, you can affect them with diet and exercise. A little. But if you want to wear the tall black boot and can't get the dang zipper up past your soleus no matter how hard you try, I gotta tell ya', you may have to just rock the pumps and strappy sandals in this life instead.

Here's an article overview that answers the calf reduction (or calf-building, if you turn the info. around) question in a pretty straightforward way. It's on eHow, written by me.

Calf Reduction

Thigh Me to the Moon

2010-05-17T14:03:00.008-05:00

It was the core, or center of the body, that received the nickname "powerhouse" from good ole’ Joseph Pilates, guru of the gut. I’ve often thought if the abs, back and butt are the powerhouse, then we should recognize the thighs as the workhorse of the body, and give them their proper respect.

Women often hate their thighs. Especially women with bigger thighs. Even women with lovely average-sized thighs will tend to find something lacking in their legs—they wish they were longer, thinner, more defined, tanner, smoother, etc.

Men often love women’s thighs. In my experience they aren’t nearly as picky about them as most women are. Many men like a meatier thigh shape, a thigh with curving lines. Some men love “legs up to here” and other men just like legs, period, for their function--all those places they can reach, move and wrap.

Men seem to be somewhat attached to the appearance of their own thighs, often wishing they weren’t skinny (if they are). But it’s not nearly as profound of a thigh-rant as many women go on. Women also seem to be fond of men’s thighs, ranking them as a very appealing body part when well-developed. We might find even more women envying a man's thighs when they are on a beautiful drag show Cher or Tina. “Look at those legs. Those are perfect thighs. It’s not fair!”

Well, it might not be fair but it is what it is. Thighs of every shape and size all around you, and as for yours, with all they do for you, you really should love them up a little more.

Pick One Thing: Your Thighs

Thighs are the home for the two largest, strongest, heaviest bones in your body, your right and left femur. Femurs are the connection between your lower and upper halves, so you figure, they better be made to last. If you don’t have a femur then you don’t have use of a leg. Think of it this way: a replacement leg is now made of titanium, the space age metal with the highest weight-to-strength ratio of any metal. Now that’s an important limb. Proud. Precious.

The muscles of your thighs are a rail system of propulsion for you. Which way would you like to go? You’ve got more than a dozen muscles in your upper leg to help you get anywhere you’d like. Some of them are rope-like long extenders, some of them thicker braids of stony strength. Forward, backward, to the outside, to the inside. Bend, reach, jump, land, kick, squat, lunge, get up from a chair or into a car, jitterbug or pirouette, ski, skate or do the splits….there’s gonna be some thigh in there somewhere.

Want to know the best way to take care of your thighs? Exercise them and feed them. Attend to both muscles and bones. You need some light impact from things as simple as walking or doing step aerobics. Make sure you’re consuming enough bone-building minerals like calcium and magnesium. Strength will come from doing many of the movements I listed in the previous paragraph. If you can’t squat big, that’s okay, do some knee bends. Dig a garden and keep it free of weeds. If you can’t ski, that’s okay, hike. Walk up the stairs sideways.

If you happen to lift weights, your thighs have it made in the shade. They have a chance to really respond. If you’re a skinny-legged soul trying to build more size, work that barbell with low reps and heavy weights. Ask the best-looking legs at the gym what the routine is and you’ll usually find out that it’s tough work, but pretty simple. For power, add some plyometrics, which are jumping/explosive movements. If you’re a mighty-thighed wonder wishing to be a bit more willowy, try dancing. Dancing moves you on various planes at various speeds with gravity as your resistance, and of course your own body weight. Plyometrics are built right in, and stretching too. All good for thighs.

If you’re currently losing body fat, give your thighs some time to catch up if they need it. They tend to be one of those stubborn areas that like to be their own deciders. They might be last in line when it comes to letting go of stored energy. After all, your thighs were made to move you. They might feel it’s still their duty to keep some energy at the ready should you really need to run. You know, like you used to, from the saber tooth or the charging rival tribe or the avalanche or whatever.

Whatever the size and shape your thighs, it is useful to remember their value to the survival of our species above all else. Without the heritage of thigh genetics that has been passed on to you, your ancestors wouldn’t have been able to escape the dangers presented them, or move on to the making of more ancestors, which became successful generation after generation of the very thighs that have miraculously led to yours. Don’t hate on your thighs. Thank them. In fact, if you can, call someone over on to your lap right now, to pay homage.

Kick One Thing

2010-04-26T12:39:00.007-05:00

I realize this is a little different concept than Pick One Thing. If you've read anything I've ever written about NOT making New Year Resolutions, then you might even say this is contradictory to my previously touted philosophy. I've been saying for years we should evolve instead of resolve each year. We should become a better/happier/more knowledgeable/more capable version of ourselves instead of setting ourselves up for what often ends up being failure. I feel that way because a resolution isn't fluid, it tends to exist outside of you, it doesn't necessarily grow you. Instead of resolving to do this or that, or to stop doing this or that, you can make a goal of growth or revision or refinement. That helps you evolve.

So, kicking a habit seems a lot like a resolution. It can be, but in this case, it's not. Remember, we're talking about ridding one's lifestyle from a dominant vice. When we were last reviewing the subject, we learned that a major vice hurts you or takes away from your other priorities. Biting your nails is a habit you might like to kick. If you aspire to be a hand model, then it's probably an Alpha Vice.

If we're going to oust our Alpha Vice, it does involve kicking a habit, yes--but it's more than that. When you kick a habit, the process is usually one that requires awareness and dedication to the cause; the consequences are usually some sort of withdrawal, plus feelings of loss or even fear of change. When you challenge and replace your Alpha Vice, the process demands you stand up for yourself and fight for your best interests. The consequences mean you'll think, act and live differently. Your consequences will all end up tremendous and positive, though. Because the coup returns so much to you, including power you gave to your Alpha Vice.

Whether it's sugar or fast food or chocolate or junk food...smokes or booze or some other drug you feel you can chase out of town without professional intervention...shopping or cheating or tanning or plastic surgery or insecurities or perfectionism or sitting on your butt too much of each day...whatever it is, if you want it gone, it might not easy, but here are some excellent methods to help you overthrow the choices you have made that have overstayed their welcome or overstepped your originally intended boundaries.

1. Find the emotion in your reason for doing this, now. It won't work unless you believe it's worth it--not just in your head but in your heart. Human behavior tends to boil down to two motivators: avoiding pain and gaining pleasure. What is the pain today, and/or what will it be as time goes on, in your Alpha Vice behavior? What pleasure will be yours when it changes? What will you gain that could literally choke you up? More years with your children? Money to enjoy a special activity you once loved but had to give up?

What pain will you remove? The stigma attached to your vice and thus to you? The sickness of hiding something away from those you love? Hours of wasted time each week?

2. Don't do it alone. So many people don't tell others when they embark on a personal journey to leave something behind. I recommend you tell EVERYONE. Don't be sorry, just be true. Family first, including kids and spouse and siblings and even your parents. Everyone at work, at school, at church, and the neighbors, too. Invest a little bit of every single one of your interactions and relationships into your quest. Bring everyone with you--not just for support and not just for watchdog accountability, but also for true lifestyle change.

People in your environment are a big part of your environment. All around you, you should see, hear and feel your new version of yourself (sans Alpha Vice) reflected. You'll also get help. Possibly even annoyed. Oh well. It won't be annoying anymore once you get to a certain new stage. The one where the former vice has faded and simply isn't all that much of a hot topic.

3. Add desirable new behaviors to replace the old. And if a new Alpha rises to power, it should not be a vice. It should be a grace. When you add to your graces and charms, it makes the things you did before that weren't good for you seem so much less appealing now.

4. Identify and address triggers. What sets you off? Avoiding triggers isn't always possible, but expecting them and knowing what works for you at those times is very helpful. A journal can be useful in the identification process. Practice may be needed to learn what works for you when presented with a wooing from your Alpha Vice. If you do succumb to a trigger, you need to remember that it only means you learned something: what not to do. Good for you. Now carry on. Recover and shine.

5. Impose conflicting new behaviors on yourself to compete with your former controlling vice. This can be anything from going for a quick jog to see your friend instead of smoking, to eating a pickle instead of the daily donut at work, or brushing your teeth instead of lecturing your kid.

6. Reward yourself and make it good. Ousting the Alpha Vice is hard work. You'll reap plenty from what you sow, but an extra nudge along the way can work wonders. Each week you keep the vice at bay could buy you a new book or CD, or take you out to breakfast with the kids on the weekend, or earn you a hot bath with no interruptions. Each month, make it bigger. At the end of 3 months, boy oh boy, you deserve sumthin' real good. Spa day? New tree for the yard? New outfit, with accessories to match? It's up to you.

7. Know when you need more help. This is important. If you struggle with addiction, or have been self-sabotaging for the long term, or are dealing with psychological or personality disorder, or anything that you just can't get rid of on your own (so far) please get professional help! How do you know that's what you need? No reward seems great enough, nothing seems strong enough to combat your attachment and attraction, triggers are everywhere and you can't escape them, no new behavior can compete with the ruling power, or you have no support and no accountability and no one you feel you can tell.

You choose your life. If your life can move forward without some big vice that's holding you back, imagine how freeing that is. Imagine how your relationships--with yourself and others--can deepen and grow. Imagine how much pain you'll avoid and how much pleasure you'll gain. Imagine how great you will feel and how refreshing that will be. If you go ahead and give up One Thing, the very best thing you have to Kick from now on, is simply your own butt.

Take Me to Your Leader

2010-04-14T17:01:00.007-05:00

Is there anything that you do, with unusual passion or with irresistible habitual regularity, that is bad for you? If so, then I believe we can call this thing a vice. A vice has different definitions, some of them referring to what is moral or legal, but for our purposes, we will define vice as something you do despite the fact that you know it is bad for you. It hurts you in some way, or takes something away from some other priority of yours.

Say you shop for expensive shoes and bags. That is not necessarily a vice. It is a preference, a hobby or even an obsession for some people. But if your shoe/bag/shopping habit makes you late with your rent or forces you to only afford .99 cent meals at the fast food window for a month, well, now it’s a vice. A potentially stylish habit gone ugly.

If this thing you do with unusual passion or irresistible habitual regularity detracts from your life--or your health, your goals and desires, your daily happiness or your relationships--and is so powerful of an attraction that all your other preferences, desires and obsessions pale in comparison, then we can call it your Alpha Vice.

The One Thing you can’t resist. The One Thing, which, if were you to rid yourself of it, would make the biggest difference once it was gone.

Not everyone has one of these, by the way. You could drink wine every day like I do and not experience any (known or suspected) negative effects on the rest of your life. You could smoke cigarettes and gamble away a thousand dollars once a year on New Year’s Eve, which is not great for you, but if it causes you no ongoing harm, it’s just a minor vice. On January 2nd you are tired as you do your new annual savings budget, and then you move on. If that’s really all you’ve got, don’t sweat it, those are small vice potatoes. We all have a few quirky obsessions. And fun treats on occasion should kept in our lives unless our aim is to live in Dullsville.

On the other hand, something like (the ever popular) sugar is a vice that often becomes more intrusive and derailing than the examples above. It feels more serious. It’s different--and you know it. I’ll use sweets as our main example in the section below.

Pick One Thing: Your Alpha Vice

Most of us have heard about the Alpha Male. In the animal kingdom he’s the wolf that leads the pack. He is king. He has earned his spot among his peers, and he is also “elected” in a way, to continue to hold this position. He will be challenged occasionally, and eventually there will be a successor who is stronger, with more stamina, more skills or more savvy. No matter what, though, Alpha Male, like Alpha Vice, rules. Until he is ousted or otherwise gone.

We should note, however, that Alpha Male is generally good for the pack, and Alpha Vice, as we’ve learned, is decidedly not. Your Alpha Vice has earned its spot by appealing to you above and beyond all reason, and then, is continually re-elected by you. But not out of respect: you allow your Alpha Vice into power out of weakness. That’s a rough position, because you’re the very one that has to put forth the challenge to oust your Vice. It’s hard to replace the Alpha. It takes strength, stamina, skills, savvy.

For some people, a prime example of an Alpha Vice is sugar. For example, perhaps there is sugar in your every day, in the form of sweets and colas, and then several times a day, and then in place of other healthier things you would also enjoy eating or drinking. Then it becomes sugar that you actively seek out when you have none available, as in rushing to a gas station get to a candy bar before picking someone up, or spending extra money you didn’t have at the bakery but it looked so good…then weight gain, or dental issues, or the jitters and the crashes, or heartburn…you do sugar in the face of the rising diabetes epidemic or even knowing that you are at higher risk due to your family history….

…until the frustrating realization that you have, indeed, appointed Sugar to be Leader among your eating Habits. If sugar (or convenience food or smoking or gossiping or the internet or porn or booze or an eating disorder or laziness or shopping or yelling at people, or a house filled with 18 cats, etc.) RULES, then you have yourself an Alpha Vice.

Time for a Coup
So, what will it bring you, to oust your Alpha Vice?

Vices can take over some of your better judgment, so you get that back. You get the satisfaction of knowing you are using your better judgment every time you do. Don’t underestimate what you get out of achieving something you set out to accomplish, or of being wise with your own choices. It feels good--and it will be more powerful than your weak choice on the side of the vice, for sure.

Alpha Vices hurt you, and not just once in a while. You get to stop doing things that make you feel worse, or that you know will be a problem when they catch up with you. You get to quit doing something that makes you feel bad about yourself, or that stops you from being your best self.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall and the more space they leave. You get to completely change your perspective and regular way of life just by giving up your Alpha Vice, because by the very nature of an Alpha Vice, you're being led into a certain way of being and a certain set of actions. Now you are in charge of filling in your To-Do and Way-to-Be Lists.

Everything good needs replacing. (That's Dave Matthews Band, in case it sounds familiar.) You get to replace your Alpha Vice with deliberate choices from a world of infinite possibilities! What will you do instead? How will that add to your life instead of take away from it?

Your mission at this point is to imagine the coup. Start some secret plans to oust your Alpha Vice and visualize how cool it’s going to be without it. Whether you’ll be saving calories or sugar grams or chemical additives or money or time or whatever, One Thing for sure is that you’ll be saving yourself the trouble of dealing with your Bad Leader.

Next time we talk, it will be about how to Kick One Thing… until then, prepare to fight!

You and Your Gene Genie (don't let yourself go!)

2010-03-25T13:33:00.014-05:00

Preface: This isn't the first time I have referred to David Bowie lyrics in this collection One Things you can Pick. And it may not be the last. Just making sure you know I know. Oh, and if you want background music as you read: Bowie Video circa 1972

In the quest to be true to yourself and become all you can, to evolve and manifest the best in you and so on, you're bound to have run into a certain pack of stubborn dudes from inner space known to hang out in your cells' nuclei. I'm talkin' about the notorious DNA gang. You know--fancy threads, secret codes you can't crack, hardly any sense of humor....

Also known as your genes. Here at blog time we have word on up to about 20,000 of them and counting*, each responsible for different little bits of you, able to be mixed and matched in seemingly endless combinations. Many experts won't even estimate how many human traits might be owed to genetics, but some estimate at least 60% of everything you are is nature over nurture.

But nurture does have one significant power that can trump nature in a variety of ways. Unlike DNA, nurture is not predetermined. You are NOT a done deal. When it comes to your genes, you can't really change what they say and usually you can't change what they do. But you can change how they show up in your life, and where, and when, and how much if at all. You are a work in progress. Indeed, you have a magical genie inside of you that will hear your wishes and grant many of them (within reason) if only you will work at the wishes in the right way.
Let's try it.

Oh, Genie of the Genes. Hear my wish. I want smaller feet.

Okay, so there's a good example of a wish that is not within reason. Some of the notorious DNA just has to be lived with and worked around. Foot size is one of them. I know, Japanese girls endured foot binding to try to keep their feet small way back when. But that was not working with Gene Genie's power; that was manipulating and deforming for no good reason.

Let's revise. Your wishes must be within reason, and for good reason.

For example, you can't change the genes that determine the color, texture and thickness of your hair. But you can change your hair. Nurture it, so to speak, with a box of hair dye, a flat iron or perm, and voila, you've gone up against the DNA gang and won this round. This wish was within reason. (Lyric connection alert: he says he's a beautician...)

You also can't change the genes, if you have them (and about 33% of you do**), that come from European ancestors, which carry a predisposition to certain aspects of obesity. Something to do with how your body stores stuff as fat and certain chemical processes that tell these fat burners or storers to switch on or off. But can you rub your partly European tummy and make a wish?

Oh, Gene Genie, I wish not to fall victim to obesity even though I have the genetics that encourage that sort of thing.
POOF! You are now Amish.

See, Amish people have that gene a lot of the time, and they have had it for a long time, because Amish people have historically married other Amish people. There's a lot of strong genetics as a result. But guess what? For good reason, Amish people are way less obese with fewer health risks overall than the non-Amish locals in town. This is because the Gene Genie responds very well to the regular physical labor and clean diets of the typical Amish lifestyle. (Lyric alert expanded: he says he's a beautician and he sells you nutrition...)

We all were born with gifts and challenges. When you run into a stubborn showing of the notorious DNA gang, go Amish on its butt. Say, your've got a body type you don't like, or a health condition or a slower metabolism than you'd prefer; what you need is to call upon your inner genie. Get the Gene Genie's attention! Pick One Thing: within reason, for good reason. And do the work while you make your wish know. Don't let DNA bully you. Be a rebel, rebel. (See Preface)

* You can learn more about those crazy smart molecular biologist types and all they have to say about your DNA as part of the human genome project via the the NCBI via the National Institutes of Health...and you can also see a really basic map of the genomes themselves, which I must admit is really underwhelming at first, here:
Human Genome Map and More

** You can read a Time magazine article on the study that showed how the old-fashioned lifestyle of the Amish indicates that behavior can trump genetics, here: Amish People Overrule Some Prevalent Genes

And if you're still interested in proving to yourself that you do indeed have a Gene Genie, consider this study, the results of which are not yet published. Same heritage of Indian tribes, similar genetics, but different lifestyles, looks like Westernized living is losing again...

Put On Your Red Shoes

2010-03-12T18:17:00.009-06:00

I've been mesmerized by this photo, searching for it repeatedly, and posting it here without express permission but with the utmost respect and admiration for its owner, the Pennsylvania Ballet. This shot is from the Ballet's website for the 2009/10 season. Just look at it, ahhh....And then look again--yes, those are both male and female bodies on that stage in those skirts.

As I gawk at the sight of these dancers from behind, I remember the phrase "ballerina back" (closely related to ballerina butt, but higher up). The backs of dancers are traditionally so well-developed and defined. In bodybuilder terms we might call them "cut". So what's the deal with dancers' workouts that helps them achieve these enviable backs?

For male dancers, it's a little more obvious. Pro ballet men regular lift weights-- heavy weights actually--in the form of human bodies (their female partners). But for a woman, and for the corps of men who don't get much pas de deux (steps of two) work, those ballet backs still stand out as remarkable.

This is the answer, then, as far as I can figure it:

1. They hold their arms up a lot. Every day. Their arms, plus gravity, equal enough weight to stimulate muscle development of the shoulders and back.
2. They do some cardio via their dancing, but it's in intervals of varying intensity. Dancers are interval trainers. They go slow, then very fast... they alternate body weight exercise with powerful jumps and leaps... they work hard, and get sweaty and tired and sore. They are fine work horses, and it shows.
3. They don't have a lot of body fat, and especially no back fat, as a result of numbers 1. and 2. And they take care of their bodies with proper athlete nutrition. Or at least, it looks that way. If they ate too little, they'd be skinny. If they ate too much or ate a lot of junk, they wouldn't be able to do what they do for long enough to make it on to this level of stage posing.

Can we imitate? In some ways, sure we can. But if we have a sedentary or lightly active job, versus a physical one that requires lifting and arms up and sweating and intense intervals of various type of exercises, then we probably can't expect to be quite where these ballerina backs are at. Plus they're probably all between the ages of 20 and mid-thirties, tops. They make doing what it takes to be in this sort of shape the main focus of their lives, too.

But all that aside, we can imitate to a certain degree. If you like good back, lift more, and use your arms out in front, out at your sides and up over head more. Eat well and eat enough. Train in intervals of intense cardio, full body power moves, and body weight strength moves.

Orrrrrr.... you could sign up for some ballet classes, maybe? Whatever you choose, if you Pick One Thing and that Thing is Your Back, make sure you take some time to check it out from behind once in a while. We spend so much time looking at the fronts of ourselves, it's nice to focus on the beauty from rear sometimes.

Enjoy the view!

We Like Good Butts and We Cannot Lie

2010-01-18T14:21:00.018-06:00

The gluteus muscles are beauteus muscles, don't you agree?

Not just attractive, but of such powerful function. The big ones, gluteus maximus and medius, form the basic shape of your backside. We'll come back to these darlings of the derriere in just a moment.

A smaller, deeper layer of muscles is set underneath, which I like to call the piriformus gang. I consider these muscles to be a gang because they're really closely knit, placed in dangerous area, like to stay relatively hidden until they decide to make their presence known, and as such are notorious trouble makers. Piriformus, the sideways pear-shaped fellow who is their leader, deals out a fair amount of functional pain in the form of reoccurring syndromes of the sciatic nature. I believe the term "pain in the butt" might have originated from this very place.

The maximus and medius, though, these are the muscles that literally propel you forward in life. Walking, running, leaping, lunging...just about anything that involves moving you around with your lower limbs needs some glutes to do it right. More glutes helps you do it with joy.

Now, many of don't have the rear ends we could and should have, because many of us spend a fair amount of time on our bums in this modern era. Much more than people did in days past. As evidenced by how in days past, more butts seemed to look more like this:

This is Perseus. He has recently donned winged sandals to go get the Gorgon Medusa who turned everyone who looked at her into stone. Good job Perseus, but you're going to need to take those flying shoes off soon and get back on your feet if you want to keep that tushy tight.

The Journal of Orthopaedic Sports & Physical Therapy tested for the most effective exercises for activating and recruiting from gluteal muscles. These experts point out that there is a bunch of evidence showing how weak fannies are likely involved in all sorts of other physical problems and pains. Knee pain and hip pain associated with IT band problems, ACL sprains, chronic ankle instability, and more.

So, we best heed their advice and work our butts up, right? Not off, up. That's a much better goal in my opinion! Which exercises work best? These 3, with links to videos which do a good job demonstrating them.

Pick One Thing: Your Glutes

(^What are we going to do when we get to Your Nose?)

The Conclusion, in the July 2009 issue of the above- mentioned journal: "The best exercise for the gluteus medius was side-lying hip abduction, while the single-limb squat and single-limb deadlift exercises led to the greatest activation of the gluteus maximus."

1. This video shows a good Pilates approach to hip abduction exercise using body weight only. She shows it two ways, with a more traditional version being her second demonstration, and the first being more specifically included in Pilates matwork as one of the Side Leg series of exercises. Pilates people: when you're dying at the end of said series and your leg feels like a hundred pounds, that's the gluteus medius hollering at you. Side Leg/Hip Abduction

2. This video shows a gal doing single leg squats starting with a nice modified version on a tall box (or bench), moving through to more challenging versions of the same. Not for the weak of knees or new exercisers. If you know you've got good form and can manage a decent set of squats on two legs, then try single leg with caution. When the knee angle goes past 90 degrees, it can cause problems for some people, so handle yourself with care. Single Leg Squats

3. This video shows a Single Leg Deadlift (with an intro that demonstrates a regular deadlift with dumbells). Watch out for that standing leg, you don't want to hyperextend your knee. You might also reach your back leg back a bit more to help keep your low back from curving too much. Go slow. It's a hinge at the hip, and stand up with your glutes, not your head.

Stretching and muscle release in this area is also important for all of us, especially athletes. Heavy lifters, skaters, dancers and sprinters need to take the time to roll out their gluteals on a foam roller tube, or tennis ball even, quite regularly if you don't get massage or physical therapy to help. If you have access to a personal trainer, make sure you understand how to stretch on your own. Check out this simple .pdf for a simple at-home stretch you can do. And here's some pictures of one of my favorites, "the #4 stretch" as I call it, because you form the number four with your legs. If you take a yoga class, you'll also recognize the Pigeon pose.

From now on, add your glutes to your care and keeping list. Keep your glutes cute. Avoid the squooshy tooshy. Work that butt up.

Letting the Experts Take Weight Off My Back

2010-01-11T15:23:00.004-06:00

Backing up some of my common advice on backs and spines, enter the Chiropractors:
A Laid Back Approach to Spine Care

What could be better than a quick link to a simple document published by experts in the exact field of care I am trying to encourage people to give to themselves this week?

Well, there are some things that could be better like a day at the beach and a rest under a cool pine canopy in the Rockies and sauteed spinach with garlic and pecorino romano. But not much better, when it comes to a writer like me who appreciates succinct, helpful writing done by others.

So I'm letting the docs take the lead on how you can Pick Your Spine this week, to care for, keep well and honor. Please click on the link above to visit the site that explains a host of special, EASY tips. I capitalize easy because in comparison to to alternative, which is lousy posture, back pain or injury, these tips will cause very little disruption to your current lifestyle. Incorporate one each day and keep them with your for the rest of your life. There is no overestimating the benefits of a healthy, pain-free spine.

You've got your own back now, and I've got mine, and so back-to-back, we've got the rear view covered....
almost.

Next, enter the glutes. We'll work on avoiding the squooshy tooshy. Until then, stand tall. With an equally distributed stance. :-)

Who's Got Your Back?

2010-01-04T15:00:00.006-06:00

In the middle of your back is an incredible conduit of information and direction known as your spinal column. Your spine is a fine, fine piece of technology. Aside from its straightforward job of keeping your head attached to your body, your back bone houses a communications network that rivals the awesomeness of any sci-fi creation.

If you do nothing else for your torso, ever, in your life, please do yourself this one favor: take care of your spine. Protect it from harm by avoiding unhealthy levels of impact which can lead to fracture and disability, as well as unhealthy levels of strain, which can lead to pain, stress, surgery and limited mobility.

Your spine is so darn important, no wonder it so often tries to get your attention. Here's a way to say hello to it and make sure it's doing okay. You can be near your screen, but make a bit of room to stand and reach:

1. Stand up now and bend over slowly to reach down to your toes. Hold those abs while you straighten up again from bottom to top. Make sure your breathing in and out, deeply. Do that five times.

2. Now split your legs to be shoulder-width apart, reach your hands back around you to support your low back and bottom, then arch your chest and face gently up to the sky. Return to standing with squared shoulders and hands hanging at your side, then slowly roll your head from one side to the other as if you are listening to the ceiling with left and right ear. Do that sequence five times.

3. Finally, while standing with your feet a little wider still, reach your arms out straight to your sides and exhale. Then inhale deeply while you bend sideways, lowering one arm down the side of your leg, the other arm reaching over your head. Support your bended body with your lower arm on your leg, but don't press hard into the knee, and don't shrug your shoulders. Exhale and inhale, sinking into the side bend. Then slowly rise up, returning to the starting stance, and ready to go the other way. Do this three times on each side.

I'm not assigning you with a fourth twisting motion, because who knows what shape your back is in. We'd need to meet in person to decide on that. But you should have a little bit better idea about your back now that you've done this simple stretching sequence. It's just basic standing therapy for the spine, and it can tell you a lot about your tight spots and crooked parts.

Did you get stuck halfway down when you reached for your toes? That's a tight low back and hamstrings--very common condition and a very common cause of lower back pain, and worse. If you leave your low back (lumbar spine) unattended for too long, stuff starts to bulge and slip and wedge. Especially if you do things that compress it, like walk, jump, run, lift heavy weights over your head, or even just sit a lot. If your lumbar spine is messed up, it often stops you from performing your normal activities. Why not keep that low back loose and the muscles that support it strong? You can avoid what is the most common complaint brought to orthopedic doctors--low back pain.

Did you get stuck trying to look up at the ceiling or rolling your head side to side? That could be trouble with the cervical spine--your neck--or maybe the upper thoracic spine which is related to movements in the shoulder carriage and chest. Pretty much everyone knows what happens if you break your neck, right? Paralysis of some sort is likely to ensue. That should give us a clue to the value of keeping our upper spines top of mind. Those motor signals coming right down frin command central in your brain need a clear connected pathway in your neck to reach the lower extremities. If you fell off your bike, were in a car accident, or had a skiing mishap, you'd want your neck and upper back to escape serious injury. You can help that protective factor along by keeping your upper back and neck aligned and tending to them when they get rigid. Stiff necks are a painful reminder of how much you really do depend on that part of your body!

Did you get stuck moving sideways? The muscles of your torso are more than just the glamour muscles featured on the covers of body building magazines. There are deep stabilizers in there, which connect your top to your bottom and your front to your back. The largest geographic areas of muscles expanse are located in your back and up to your neck. Your abs are there to help your spine move, and thus should be honored as they can protect your back from damage. In Pilates, we call all this, plus the gluteus muscles, the "Powerhouse." I like that term. It makes sense. All your power is located right here. And it's your spine that provides the mode of transportation for every movement in most of your body.

Pick One Thing: Your Spine
Keep your spine fluid and your spinal fluid moving and uncompromised. Have some back bone. No one can take care of your back better than you, and no one feels it more when you don't!

There are so many great yet simple things you can do in the care and keeping of your spine, we need a second installment to get into more detail. So let's meet again to give all 33 of your vertebra a voice.

Thick Elastic Bands, Carabineers and Girdles

2009-12-16T16:28:00.006-06:00

Sometimes, especially in times of extra stress or heavy loads, we might wonder, what is holding me together here?

When it comes to our mental health, that answer is probably going to be a nice set of coping tools such as support of family or friends, a higher purpose, a good counselor, much to be grateful for, and/or a clear plan with attainable goals.

When it comes to our bodies, the answer we’re going to Pick today is Connective Tissue.

Bet some folks never thought about needing to care for connective tissue. (But it's literally holding you together!) Until they started having pain in their knee, elbow, hip or ankle.

Tendonitis is what happens to us when we expect too much from our tendons, and it tends to rear its head in joints where muscles repeatedly pull on bones. Because tendons attach muscle to bone. So you’ve got your Achilles tendonitis, your tennis elbow and your tender back-of-the-knee pain, all the result of inflamed tendons. Maybe they were tight and you kept yanking on them--flexing that muscle, grasping that handle, pounding that pavement with those feet and calves.

And then you’ve got your ol’ ligament troubles, too. I say ol' because it’s more polite than old. Really, ligaments do age and sometimes they get too loose and kinda saggy when you’ve overstretched them past their original plan (dancers, gymnasts, cheerleaders, fast ball pitchers as my witnesses). They get worn down too, holding your bones together your whole life. Because that’s what ligaments do: attach bones to other bones.

You know how underwear elastic just eventually isn’t going to give anymore? That happens to ligaments in a way. Though thankfully ligament wear and tear doesn’t make your legs fall right off your bottom like your old underwear does. What it does instead is cause instability in the examples given above, or tight joints at the opposite end. Ligaments don’t have much natural give to begin with, so they do need your help. Don’t ignore them, and try not to over-pretzelize yourself either, if it's not required by your job.

There's also fascia. You have a sheath of tissue that sort of holds your muscles and guts and stuff inside you, under your layers of skin. It’s interesting to consider honoring your fascia, because its job is so utilitarian. But I have found a way for you to do so.

Pick One Thing: Your Connective Tissue

Tendons are like a thicker version of the elastic bands or cords that are used when someone bungee jumps or at the ends of a hammock where it attaches to the base or a tree. The idea is your muscle tissue ends up as tendonous tissue so it can provide a strong attachment to bones. Which are harder and more solid still. So muscle is juicy and it can flex and grow and pull, but tendon is not so much, so it can hold on to something solid when the juicy part is putting a strain on the whole set up.

If you don’t warm up your tissues before activities, or maintain a regular gentle stretching program, the muscles you use most will aggravate the heck out of the tendons trying to hold on for them.

Ligaments are like steel carabineers that attach hanging things to other long things but allow for movement between then. Examples are rock climbers’ harnesses to the rocks up above them, or pulley systems that might lift a heavy platform with a piano on it. The idea is that you’ve got two strong things that must be attached without being fused solid to each other. Like, your thigh and your calf.

ACL, MCL, PCL… sports fans and athletes themselves have likely heard these terms before, when someone went down and was out for the season. The L stands for ligament. Think of your knee ligaments, then imagine a snapped carabineer. Stuff will dangle.

If you don’t warm up your tissues before activities, or maintain a regular gentle stretching program, the joints you use the most can cause a sudden and unmanageable strain on the ligaments trying to hold your bones together. Some things bear repeating.

Fascia is like an inner girdle of sorts. A sheath is such a good way to think about it. In certain places in your body it holds pretty darn tight, for reasons it thinks are good ones. For example, around your calves and around your pelvic area. Because your calves and your pelvic area have such tough jobs which put a lot of strain on the muscles there. Fascia support to the rescue.

But say you want your calves to grow more muscle? That fascia might hold you back a tad. Body builders might be able to get a little extra edge by stretching the fascia that surrounds their muscles, leaving extra room for development. At least, Arnold Schwarzenegger swore by it. He says that by doing an a chest fly series after his upper body workouts, he was able to build the biggest chest muscles ever, because his blood had already pumped up the muscles, then the stretching maximized the room the tissue had to respond as it repaired.

Massage is another way to release fascia. If you ever hear the term self myofascial release, that means self massage. It usually is called for over large muscles and their attachments. You can use things like a rolling pin or a foam roller tube to work out some pretty tight and tender areas, help you reduce the risk of injury, recover faster from the strain of your workouts, heal muscle fibers in more organized pattern to keep it from tugging weirdly on your bones…and overall, just feel better in the end.

Gentle stretching and proper warm-ups are also a must for long term achievements in fluid movement and agility without pain and popping. All of the above are very useful to offset risks of repetitive motion injuries, from carpal tunnel syndrome to runner’s knee.

Some trainers like to think that there’s no point in stretching past the resting length of a muscle. But many of us like to disagree, especially if we know someone who might, say, want to kick a ball really far… or join a middle age softball league… or slip on the ice.

You never know when you’re going to need to count on a little more give from your connective tissue. So I say, give it a little more love. It’s a habit you should start now, and keep for life, so you can maintain that graceful edge when you’re 90 and competing for the dance queen contest at the senior center. Or when you’re running for public office and want people to remember those pecs.

The Muscle, The Mohawk and You

2009-12-10T17:13:00.006-06:00

When I think about someone who is the epitome of “the muscle” of the operation, the first one that comes to mind is Mr. T. I pity the fool who doesn’t recognize the value that beast added to his team. Yes, yes, the operation needs the brains behind it and the beauty to distract the others. But it’s the muscle who has to move out in front to get the job done.

Great groups have that muscle. The tank and the cannon. The football lineman. Bad cop, to back up good cop. Peppermint Patty.

The same holds true for the team consisting of all your body parts. Without the muscle, you’re simply not going anywhere. Physically, that is. The muscles of your body move your bones. Without them, you literally would be Jell-O heap of skin, bones and guts.

Fortunately, it’s relatively simple to honor and take care of your muscles. But before I give you a concise two-part checklist of tactics for doing so, I need to sidetrack just a little bit to talk about disabilities that compromise muscle usage.

All people are born with muscles, but muscles don’t work the same for all people. Muscle function depends on the signaling of the nervous system, which depends on the conducting of those signals between the brain and the body via the spine. Injuries to the spinal cord, brain or nerves can cause muscle dysfunction and failure. Examples range from Christopher Reeve’s spinal injury which left him severely paralyzed and contributed to his premature death, to a stroke victim’s facial paralysis. One the result of a violent impact, the other the results of a microscopic blood vessel bursting.

This is all to point out the delicate balance and dependant relationship of all the systems and functions of our body parts. As I go on to talk about muscles in a moment, I’m doing so within the context of teaching able-bodied people simple ways of maintaining their muscles for health and wellness in everyday life. I didn’t want to move on with the writing without taking a moment to pay homage to all the other parts of some people which can and do step in to compensate when muscles just aren’t available to get a job done. The brains, the beauty, the heart, the spirit, the communication, the experiences and the lessons brought to others.

Muscle, when you’ve got good control of it, should be most appreciated. When you don’t have muscles to call in, you rely on your other team members. The sharp shooters and quarterbacks and detectives all matter. And Linus. He mattered a lot.

Pick One Thing: Your Muscles

~~ Feed them well. They like protein. Most people should aim for an average of .8 grams of protein per pound of body weight, per day. People with a lot of muscle or who use a lot of muscle need even more. Many bodybuilders eat three times that amount. Choose clean and natural proteins. Animal meats are fine, eggs and dairy are fine, and nuts too, but a mix of foods in moderation is always a great idea.

~~ Move them in big ways, often. Modern man sits a lot. Evolutionary physiologists are warning us that this could be a big problem. Our bodies evolved over tens of thousands of years in situations that required frequent, vigorous, continued movement. Now we sit in our cars, in our offices, on our sofas, and at our computers, most of most days. We need muscle to be healthy but we’re not going to get much by sitting around on our glutes and telling ourselves that 60 minutes at the gym three times a week should do the job.

Life. It should move you. Every day.

Stand, walk, run, bend, lift, skip, pick things up, carry things around, ride a bike, dig a garden. Get up right now and do something. If the glutes are resisting, channel your inner mohawk and get the job done.

"The insulin's connected to the glucagon, the glucagon's connected to the cortisol..."

2009-12-02T17:33:00.004-06:00

So, I'm singing my title this week.

It's been a month since I last posted, and to remind you, I promised I would be writing about hormones this time. Well, that has turned out to be a big promise to fulfill. I'm sort of going to half-ditch it, because there is just no way to cover all the things that are happening in you right now on a cellular level when it comes to hormone production, secretion, triggering, timing, receptors, balancing, etc. That's why I started out singing, to distract you in case you're disappointed that I won't be giving you the full rush of hormones you distracted.

Maybe it will be difficult to find out exactly what you can do about the care and keeping of your hormonal health, too. Sure, try to stay healthy, get regular check ups, and report any unusual body system changes you experience to your doctor. Because if your endocrine system is compromised, it’s not good news, you should catch it and take care of it asap. But beyond that, I'm not sure. Research is happening as I write. Along with the song-singing.

Pick One Thing: Your Hormones
Go ahead and try. If you can pick just one, let me know. They are so all intricately involved. It's quite beautiful if you can get past all the science-talk you find when you try to research them. Miraculous, really, to learn the sympony of processes taking place this very second within every cell in your body, as you just sit there and read my blog and hum along.

I think the easiest way to approach this topic is to identify those processes that you can have the most influence over, as well as those hormones that produce effects you can easily identify, and hopefully balance or control. Like insulin, for example. Insulin and its partner in all things blood sugar, glucagon, have a lot to do with your daily wellness and your overall health.

Diabetes is a disease in which blood sugar levels are not well-controlled. And many fitness aficionados know that glucagon has to do with glucose (sugar) and then glycogen, which is used as energy by your body during exercise. If insulin and glucagon are not in good balance, you can not only become ill, you can burn energy inefficiently to the point where your body is fueling itself with its own muscle.

Ewww. Nobody wants that. But how to avoid it? If it’s not Type I Diabetes, which is a genetic condition that usually appears in childhood, then it’s Type II Diabetes, and that’s the one you can try to do something about. Stay in a healthy body weight. Eat a balanced diet rich in vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and avoid all simple carbohydrates such as things made with white flour and sugar. Exercise. That seems sensible enough.

If you get regular physicals, your doctor is likely to spot onset of Diabetes symptoms via your blood work and your consult. Do what your doctor says as soon as your doctor says it, especially if it involves advice on how you can often avoid taking medications by managing Diabetes naturally with lifestyle changes.

Here’s another hormone worth noting: adrenalin. You know it as the fight or flight, prepare you for an emergency, hormone. It courses through your body as a result of threat or stress. Good, to a certain degree. Bad, to another. A constant low level of stress is found in many a modern life. This can mess up the body’s ability to regulate and process all the changes the hormone triggers. Things like increased pulse, heavy breathing, muscle tension, blood flow… sometimes you really do need to relax.

Your body has trouble dealing with all that speed you’re manufacturing but not fully working out (let’s face it, you won't go running from your desk at work the way your ancestors had to go running from the big tiger). Some other chemical/gland wizardry takes place on a cellular level and stressors end up turning into cortisol.

Cortisol is another chemical bad guy from the health, wellness and fitness perspective. It’s produced at the end of the process above, and is stored in fat cells, most commonly, in your belly. This is the reason why the belly measurement in contrast to your hips is such an important one. You might not think you have an issue with stress, cortisol, and waist-to-hip ratio, but if you carry excess fat in your midsection, you’re certainly at risk for more health problems as you age. Some people are shaped in this way, owing to DNA. If that is you, you need to work harder than your pear-shaped neighbor at balancing your stress, diet, exercise and outlook on life, to reduce your belly fat storage.

Once again, the solutions to so many of our potential problems can be found in prevention. So many of the things that are good for your heart are good for your brain, and then we learn they are good for your digestive system, and immune system, and now look here, they are good for your endocrine system, too.

Can you avoid most sweets, especially sugary drinks, pastries and cakes? Can you take at least 30 minutes for yourself every single day, to work off stress and help your body burn fat, not muscle? How about an hour then, three days a week? Lift things, move that body, hold those abs. Stretch and release muscle tension. Get fresh air, let your thoughts go.

Sleep.
Eat wholesome food.
Keep supportive people close in your life.
Enjoy recreation and hard work with equal vigor.

That kind of healthfulness doesn’t sound so bad for this week, now does it?

I’m quite happy now, that even from the complexity of hormones; we can still derive a basic, doable approach to the care and keeping of you. Because just like hormones, we all function best when we work together in balance... I do believe we're connected, through information, in our wellness and in this world.

I'm Sensing There's Chemistry Here

2009-10-28T14:45:00.006-05:00

Okay. I say hormones. You say: ________________

What's the first thing that comes to mind? I'm curious. Comment below, please.

In the meantime, I'll tell you what I thought. I thought I was pretty smart in rattling off a list that included estrogen, testosterone, insulin, adrenalin, and wait what else... oh yeah, I'm a migraine girl, so I know about serotonin. And there's the happy chocolate hormone, dopamine! Ooh, and the one that makes you go to sleep. The Thanksgiving turkey stimulates it. Whatsitsname.

Well, well. Turns out what's really brilliant about me is not my knowledge of hormones, but the fact that I have so many that go about their business with hardly a flutter to gain my attention unless something is amiss on the inside. And the business of hormones is complex and beautiful.

I have a whole new respect for endocrinologists, now that I've counted the list of over 50 different hormones in our bodies. Look at this chart for cryin' out loud: Human Hormones

It's a challenge to Pick One in this instance. So many functions, so many connections, all the signals and gate keeping involved...hormones are hard! I've decided to go with my first response, which I bet will be the first response of many, because of this little gem's notorious nature.

Pick One Thing: Your Hormones, starting with Estrogen

Men. Don't leave the room. This matters to you. And if you leave the room I might cry.

Estrogen, or as the biology site I'm using for reference says, estrogenS, presents a topic that matters to both genders. Mostly because everyone has a mother, and/or possibly likes female breasts and pubic hair. (several men deciding to stay just a little longer)

Anyway, it's interesting that estrogen is really a plural. There's a cocktail of all sorts of female ingredients related to estrogen, including sexy stuff like the aforementioned breast and pubic hair development, along with the beloved increasing of adipose (fatty) tissue also known as the "I used to have a better body" syndrome of middle age. To a certain degree, you can go ahead and blame the estrogen, ladies.

The roommate of the estrogens is progesterone. A bunch of regulating and timing functions going along with fertility, pregnancy and birth, that's what you get with that one.

You can read all about this stuff, here: Check out the difference between Female and Male!

Indeed, the human species turns out to be utterly dependant on estrogen and its good friend progesterone. Seems people just can't get themselves conceived and born without some.

Bone density--estrogen. Blood clotting--estrogen.

And on and on. It's no wonder that medical science has been somewhat confused by what to do about estrogen. And we all tend to get confused by all the bad things that tend to happen as estrogen decreases, sometimes cruelly and not at all rapidly, in women between the ages of 40 and 52. Oh, and don't forget the part when it's all coming together in that magical brew known as puberty, followed by further adjustments to the recipe in adolescence and then every 28 days or so thereafter...and after giving birth and what about going off the pill, and remember, there are hormones in some of the meat and dairy products you eat now, too, so.....

So. Let's get to picking this one thing to care for. Poor estrogen gets such a bad rap.

1. Accept it. It's part of life, LITERALLY, and the whole world has to put up with estrogen. S.

2. Eat a healthy balanced diet with a bit of extra protein, calcium, whole grains, plenty of fruits and veggies, and get those good omega 3 fatty acids in there. All of these things keep the whole chemical set in better balance and harmony. Estrogen likes balance and harmony.

3. Exercise. When you do, other hormones get to jump in and calm the darn estrogens down.

This is the same (good) ole' advice over and over. But it comes to the rescue again, as best it can. No matter what, it does seem like female hormones get the best of everyone sometimes.

Side Note: Did you know MEN have estrogen receptors? hmmmm, that means they need estrogen. I'll look into that further for the next installment of Hormones. Because it's going to take another time or two of picking this One Thing to do it justice.

Teaser: Next time we'll get to the feel good drugs, like oxytocin. Really nice stuff.

But before we do get there, I'll be taking a short hiatus from the Project. A couple of weeks, probably. I've got some stress hormones that tell me they need my attention at this time. As soon as I'm back in the blogsaddle, I'll be bringing you Hormones, Part II--Focus on Your Feelings.

(okay, so there go the rest of the men. ;-) ...I tease the men, really.)

Fuel Up and Fire Up

2009-10-21T13:21:00.004-05:00

For the average person, a detailed metabolic rate analysis and the related discussions about increasing metabolism are much ado about nothing. I’m sorry to report that metabolism, which is your body’s system for using energy, isn’t highly controllable.

It’s important if you have metabolic malfunctions due to hypo- or hyper thyroidism, that you get them leveled out with your doctor. Your endocrine system may be compromised for reasons such as disease or other health conditions. They have ways to bring you back to the normal range. Usually, through medication.

Other than that, we have genetics to thank for our basic metabolic potential. Some people’s engines do run faster than others, it’s true. And you can, through nutrition, eating style and exercise, manipulate your metabolic rate a little bit. But you might be surprised at how little. A few percentage points really, that’s about all you can increase it.

Now, you can slow your metabolism pretty effectively, because that is a survival mechanism for our species. You can last a surprisingly long time being malnourished--starving even--because your body adjusts to help you slow down on fuel burning. Food is fuel, so if you’re not getting enough, your metabolism decreases to protect you from…well…starving to death.

This is the reason why very low calorie diets or super-restricted eating habits don’t do people any good in the long run. If you’re going to start eating normally again, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do to your body, which has gone to some trouble and recalibrated itself for less intake, and therefore less energy burning. It doesn’t get all excited about adjusting back up again, especially over several rounds of this during a lifetime.

Working for efficiency, your body begins to recognize this pattern, and then expects you might need it to slow down again, so it adapts. It doesn’t get your rate up quite as high, maybe. When you do gain weight back, it keeps a little extra padding, to (again) protect you for the next era in which you won’t be having enough to eat. Yo-Yo dieters will recognize this as the “Egad, now I weigh even more than I did before I started the diet!” effect.

So, like I said, for the average person, most time spent on metabolic issues (other than medical ones) is more trouble than it’s worth. Why complicate things? Keep your metabolism in check with a simple approach using an engine analogy.

Pick One Thing: Your Metabolism

Fuel up. Food is fuel, in the form of calories. Calories are units of energy. They come in a few different formulas and levels of quality, though. If you use high quality fuel most of the time, you’ll be able to keep your engine running at peak performance. Oh, and do start your day ready. Eat a wholesome, light breakfast within an hour of waking. Every day.

Start her up. You’ve got the gas, go for a ride. An active lifestyle (that’s more than many Americans lead, just to warn you) is enough to burn the right amount of quality fuel in most bodies. In other words, if you eat right, and you move a lot, your body will be happy and find a healthy weight to set itself at.

Fire up. Back to active lifestyle: If you drive most places, sit or stand at your job most of the time, and don’t exercise for about an hour almost every day…you don’t lead an active lifestyle. That’s a sedentary lifestyle. So fire up and get moving to help your metabolism find its way to right where it should be. You should sweat and/or feel your heart pumping for at least a half hour, 3 – 4 times per week. Or that engine will gunk up. Get a little muscle, too. It helps.

Keep your tank half full. Just like your vehicle, it’s bad to run out of gas or to even be low on gas in certain conditions. Although, overfilling your tank doesn’t do any good, now does it? But while gas from the pump would spill out on the ground, overfilling your body presents another problem…see, you have extra storage inside you, in the form of adipose tissue (fatty, and ready for more). Eating something healthy every 3 – 4 hours will usually do the trick.

Don’t forget the lube job. Hydrate with fluids to keep your body running smooth. No need to be overbearing with water consumption if it doesn’t suit you. Milk, tea, juice, and even fruits and vegetables, all count toward your fluid intake. Mix it up if you like, but keep a third eye on the calories. Remember, food is energy in the form of calories. You are going to use a certain amount up. The rest of the calories will be stored….because that’s the beauty of the system!

On Choosing Fuel
Do you need to count calories? Maybe just for understanding, but probably not for long. However it does benefit everyone to do a service check every once in a while. For example, your body might be perfectly balanced and at the right body weight, but a closer look could reveal many of your calories are coming with a lot of cholesterol…or salt….or sugar attached. Not the best fuel choices for everyday eating for the long term.

You can take a peek inside your energy system, by using this nice program for free over at LIVESTRONG.com. It’s called The Daily Plate. Track your foods in an online food journal, make up meals with thousands of ingredients to choose from, and enter your activities to determine if you’ve got the right fuel-to-burn ratio.

Others, who want a more immeidate view of what they are burning, can simply choose to wear a good quality heart rate monitor watch that has a calories burned feature.

Anything more than that is like driving down the wrong alley. You thought metabolism was a short cut, but really, staying on the main road (Eatwell Stayactive Ave.) will get you there safe and sound in no time.

Energy Synergy: The Goldilocks Theory

2009-10-14T15:16:00.006-05:00

I've decided to theorize this week, after some intense reading on the technical medical sciencey topic of energy systems in the body. Go ahead, google it if you like. You'll see. A host of charts and formulas, definitions with one familiar word (aerobic--hey I know that one!) out of one hundred, plus letters. ATP, LA, CP, MHR and more. I shouldn't judge. You might find it fascinating.

I do not, so I've decided to Pick One Thing without picking it apart this week. Because that kind of thing can drain you.

Your Energy: What Really Matters

What really matters (according to me and my theory) is that you have enough energy to lead an active life at a pace that fulfills you, a frequency that sustains you and a level that inspires you. Whether you are built for endurance or speed, intensity or tranquility, power or flow, I want you have the right balance of fuel-burning and healthy reserves in your life.

Sometimes it's a fine thing to work till your bones ache and then settle into a warm bed and sleep sleep sleep, knowing you done good and it was worth it. But to work like that without the "it was worth it" feeling later on, can be a different, not so good thing after all. My theory involves me telling you, as you compare the amount of energy you put into any of your activities: "It's what you get out of it that counts."

How do you feel, after all? Ready for more again today, or preparing to build up for more someday? Are you there and all set when people need you...are you there when YOU need you? What if you had to run for your life today? Did you save some juice, just in case?

Sometimes it's a fine thing to rest--sloth, even--till your bones ache in another way. A heavy way. Maybe then you pop up in a flash and get out in that fresh air and plant a tree, walk to church, sweat up a storm, howl at the moon. It's especially good if what you get out of it is something like, "Rest, good. Action, good. Balance, best."

Things have to fit. Fit your needs, fit your timing, fit your body.

Sometimes it's a horrible thing if you want to move more but don't trust yourself enough to meet your own desires. Sometimes you might try to find energy but it's. Just. Not. There.

Or so you think. See, it's somewhere, even when you can't find it. Is it in the foods you didn't eat or the water you didn't drink? Is it in the days you didn't take a break when you needed it or is it in the cushion of the couch where you left your backside for far too many wasted hours?

Did your boss or your baby steal some away, and now you need some alone time to fill yourself back up? Does the doctor have it but you don't have the time to go? Did you just not recognize it, or not know where to look?

Energy systems in your body have a lot to do with what goes in and what gets done with it. The proper nutrition combined with the right activity level (for you, personally) is the simplest way to find what's really important (according to me): wellness. Being well pretty much demands that you start here, with doing whatever works to support you in feeling good and having fun.

Not everyone wants to or needs to run a marathon or have seven children or do twenty push-ups or ski on one foot. Not everyone (much to my disappointment) wants to learn Pilates or jump around to Latin music. But EVERYONE, needs to do something, every day, that contributes to the proper mechanics of their energy systems, IF they want to be at their best.

One chair is too big, one chair is too small, but the one in the middle is juuuuusssst right.

Food (not too much, not too little)
Exercise (not too long, not too short)
Activity & Rest (not too crazy, not too lazy)
Oxygen (just get plenty, because it mixes with all the above and makes you whole in a way that is what really, really matters, leading us to....)

Synergy. Your wholeness is more than a sum of your efforts, and you move through life with grace and assuredness. That's how we will know when you are an energy systems rock star. You will be all like, "What? I was just resting after a nice meal, and now I have enough energy to go for a fast run," when the bears come home.

You Could Be Another Lincoln

2009-10-07T07:11:00.005-05:00

Since we picked our brains last week (hah! hidden pun caught me by surprise!) I've managed to honor the needs of mine, in spite of the huge bite of life I have been chewin' on. How about you?

I've been taking my fish oil, eating nuts and using olive oil aplenty, challenging my brain with new research and unearthing my old copywriting chops. I've given the ol' noggin a rest here and there, too. Watching Ken Burns' documentary, The National Parks, on the DVR has had a wonderful calming PLUS inspiring effect. In fact, the subtitle to that film is "America's Best Idea" and it got me to thinkin'...

(flashback to lead up to the connection)
The landscape was already there, but the thought that the country could own the land for public enjoyment as parks, and preserve its wildness for the future, turned out to be genius. The idea wasn't without opposition, and its execution wasn't simple or easy. But in the end, the National Parks system of the United States is a treasure not just for our nation, but also for our planet. The idea is gem. The parks showcase the evolution of Earth and return us to our roots as a species. It's pretty incredible. Thank goodness someone followed through on this.

All that from an idea, which blossomed and grew and was shared and accepted. And now due to Burns' documentary, is hopefully more appreciated by masses. Good idea for Burns, too.

But ideas like these don't come along every day, to just anybody, right? Wrong. It's the exact opposite. Ideas do come along every day, more than every day, and they come along to you. They come through your brain, which is responsible for making you figure out and do the actions that bring your ideas to life. Actually, most of the thoughts you have in general could be called ideas. Unless you only think in facts.

Like, say you're going to make lasagna for dinner this weekend. Knowing how to make lasagna step by step, or digging out the recipe and getting the list of ingredients together are tasks for your fact based brain. But the original thought you had wasn't a fact. It's not as if lasagna is a must, or a legal issue, or a deadline. It's simply an option.

So why are you making it? Is it because you've had such a taste for it but never tried making it yourself? Because you thought you mightbe comforted by a hearty family recipe on a cold autumn Sunday? Because it's someone's birthday and you want surprise them? See, these thoughts are ideas: they turn making lasagna into more than a task--now it's an occasion! A tradition or a desire met or an experiment.

Ideas are the stuff of a rich, rewarding, evolving life. Just like the idea to create national parks as treasures for all time, the idea to create lasagna this weekend is a gem. It might not change the future of our nation, but it will change the rest of your week, maybe the rest of your life, depending on why you had the idea in the first place and what you do with it after. (Tip: eat plenty of olive oil on your salad and bread to offset the saturated fat in the cheese, and add some spinach to the ricotta.)

You know, you could win a woman's heart if you make her a lasagna on her birthday. You could finally heal some secret part of you when you learn that you can cook like your grandma after all. If you thought of it, and you did something about it, then it matters. It's part of your life now!

Some of us are very action oriented and energetic. Some of us are logical and pragmatic. Some of us are wistful and laid back. But all of us could use a little lasagna and a nice view of a pine forest once in a while.

Let your ideas through. Let them blossom and shine. Believe in them. Your brain isn't only filled with facts and blood vessels. It's your thoughts-as-ideas that make your life unique. They make you, you, because they are how you decide to do things and view things. This week, recognize the personal side of your brain for all its worth, beyond the stuff it knows and beyond its role in your anatomy.

Give your personal brain the recognition it needs, to realize what it has had, all along.

Scarecrow:
I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain.
And my head I'd be scratchin' while my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.
I'd unravel every riddle for any individ'le, in trouble or in pain.
Dorothy:
With the thoughts you'll be thinkin' you could be another Lincoln
If you only had a brain.
Scarecrow: Oh, I could tell you why the ocean's near the shore.
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I'd sit, and think some more.
I would not be just a nothin' my head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding-a-derry,
If I only had a brain.

Be Your Brain's Best Buddy

2009-09-30T16:35:00.006-05:00

I picked this week's One Thing well in advance. I had it since last week, at least. But I have not gotten around to bloggin' about your noggin until mid-week. And I have a rushed post at that. I'm behind on thinking about and executing this project for the very reason I am writing it: I need to care for and honor my brain this week, in order to have some brain left to write in my blog about.

In other words, I haven't been practicing what I am about to be preaching. I don't know why not, it's so simple, really. In fact, I'm KEEPING it simple, for my brains's sake. What is it? What is the first cardinal rule I wan to share about the care and keeping of good brains? To help me remember it (a little brain trick here) I made it into a cheer/chant of sorts:

Give your brain a break!
Don't drain your brain!
Let it rest once in a while, won't you please?

Background for minds that want to know:
I've got a new gig writing health and fitness articles on the side. I picked a bunch of topics that are doing the OTHER thing for my brain that will keep it young and sharp--they are challenging it. I'm learning new stuff. I'm expanding my repertoire, and as I love doing that, I have taken on a bit more than I should have.

Now I am teetering on burnout, within just one week. And I'm behind on my other projects, some of which (like my blog) I also love. That's not a great feeling, and I have deadlines to meet as we speak. I'm furrowing my brow, possibly getting a headache, maybe even writer's block.

I find myself searching for a strategy or a word and then I get up for some tofu instead and wonder what the heck have I done? I'm supposed to be my brain's best friend this week, not its ruthless master. I trip over my sock, and it occurs to me that I have done is gone all out of balance.

One thing a brain really needs is someone to keep it balanced. It's a complex, highly valued organism, right? It needs a careful proprietor. Someone to keep it balanced by offering it stimulation and new ideas, and also down time and mindlessness. Oh, and....

...mindfulness. Ah ha! Eureka, my brain has done it for me again. It's calling out for me to be mindful. So, I am minding my time, minding my goals, and minding my brain, starting now. Won't you join me? Already my brain is happier. I have stopped rushing it and started listening to it.

Pick One Thing: Your Brain

We've got the brain's physical health covered in all the past discussion we've shared when we picked our Blood and our Heart. Conveniently, all the same stuff is great for the brain, because it's fueled by the same blood supply. In fact, you could say the brain is the king of all the body's messengers, sending and receiving and reading all the incoming news from your nerve endings, then interpreting and filing them, too. That's a lot of pathways. Keep them gleaming and open with regular habits that tend to your arteries, aortas and the whole circulation gang.

We might devote extra focus this week (and forever) on getting more fatty fish like salmon or tuna in our lives, or at least mercury-free fish oil (don't freak out, I found a great one that tastes okay, so if you want to know, just ask me). Choose more of the other Omega 3 sources, too--plant sources like soy, nuts and flaxseed are tasty and quick. That'll keep our brains lubed and oiled.

But there are two other primary aspects of caring for your brain that I want to really reinforce now. First, your brain will age like the other parts of you, so it does need exercise, like the other parts of you. Oxygen, good, however I mostly mean brain exercise of the thinking sort. Learning something new. Doing a puzzle. Trying stuff with your non-dominant hand. Go ahead. Write your name with your left hand, righties. You'll be adding to your brain's life. Plus it's fun.

According to experts, you should vary your activities and challenges throughout life to keep all the functions of your brain in tip-top shape. This is why people who have more fun learning new things all their life enter into their golden years with such vibrant brains. Alzheimer's is genetically predisposed, but there's a pile of ways to stave off its onset. Starting with fish and sticking with fun, feed and expand that brain.

Second, there are plenty of other experts who recommend a little of the opposite, as well. What happens to the brain of people who regularly meditate, for example? I'll tell you what--good things. They tend to be sharper and last longer. It seems the "checking out" is as important as the challenge. So take some time off with your brain. Show it around the woods or take in a silly movie with it. Put it down on a pillow, close your eyes, and dream of quiet stars and clouds for a few minutes.

Gaze at a sleeping baby. mmmmmm. (You know, that baby's brain is busy growing neurons like mad while those sweet fat cheeks turn rosy on the sheets. Your brain should be growing nothing but heartstrings and admiration. There's nothing you need to think of, at all, when you watch a baby sleep. like I said, mmmmmm.)

If your brain really were your best friend, what would you hope that it could do, on a regular basis? I bet your answer is something like: have fun, grow strong, enjoy beauty, find peace, be prepared, and accept and share lots of love.

Well, there you go. And here I go. The rest of the week is about balance for my buddy, my brain. It knows, as all best friends do, that it is never, ever too late to encourage me to make a change that sincerely benefits me.

Glorify Your Guts, Part III

2009-09-21T12:32:00.001-05:00

Here we are, honoring what sits in the middle of us for one last installment. As promised a couple of weeks ago, we're going to spend a little time this week considering our non-physical "guts" and bringing awareness to the power of what they symbolize.

Let's begin with having guts, or being gutsy. Think about the importance of peoples' courage, their boldness, nerve. The willingness to try new things and take risks has to be integral to our beings; it determined survival and thriving from the earliest days of man.

If you Pick One Thing in this category, you will be honoring a characteristic which brings action to your ideas and will literally be an instrument of change in your own life. As most of us know, change is often beset with difficulty. Change is not easy, and so change is easy to fear.

Which isn't all bad, either. The fact is, some risks should not be taken, and not all acts of daring turn out for the best. That's why we really do need the other aspect of our non-physical guts. We need to listen to our gut and pay attention to our gut feelings.

Intuition can help us make safer choices when we're supposed to, and offers us self-protection from our courage when it becomes mere bravado. There is a great deal to be said for showing up for tough tasks and big opportunities, but there's no need to show off.

In picking One Thing this week, I started by taking a look at what others have said on this subject. I collect quotes, and boy, I sure have a lot of them related to having guts and gut feelings! Makes sense, though--I've sought inspiration on moving forward, improving my self through personal change, and following my own intuitive path, numerous times in my life.

So, since I've saved hundreds of words of wisdom on how glorify my guts, I feel it's exactly the right time to share some with others. In doing so, I'm wishing you the perfect balance offered by a touch of courage, a risk rewarded, a inner voice heeded, and the peace of mind that comes when you are confident in being true to yourself and becoming all you desire to be. As someone once said, "To change is difficult. Not to change is fatal."

Pick One Thing: Having Guts

"First you have to figure out what you want. Second, you have to decide that you deserve it. Third, you have to believe you can get it. And fourth, you have to have the guts to ask for it."
--Barbara de Angelis

"Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced."
--James Arthur Baldwin

"No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path."
--Buddha

"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."
--Dale Carnegie

"We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world."
Helen Keller

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
--Anais Nin

...and one by possibly the exact opposite of Anais Nin *wink*, a quote from Robert Schuller:

"It takes guts to get out of the ruts."

Pick One Thing: Trust Your Gut

"Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data."
--John Naisbitt

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
--Albert Einstein

"...the mind works in possibilities, the intuitions work in actualities, and what you intuitively desire, that is possible to you. ...hitch your wagon to a star or you will just stay where you are."
--D.H. Lawrence

"I may have been lucky with some sort of intuition, but I believe in training a great deal."
--David Selby

We dance round in a ring and suppose,

But the secret sits in the middle and knows.

--Robert Frost

And speaking of secrets, I stumbled on this one in the 3rd grade, and it still holds honey:

"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
--Christopher Robin to Pooh

Glorify Your Guts, Part II

2009-09-14T16:17:00.001-05:00

After I started working out with the Pilates method, it didn’t take me long to realize that lot of people do NOT like to work their midsection. Many say that ab work is the one part of their exercise routine that they will gladly skip most often. And they do.

Now, seeing as how I sort of force people all day long to work their abs, I’ve looked for ways to raise awareness about the goodness of a regular core workout. So this week’s Pick One Thing was the easiest pick ever. It belongs under the larger heading of Guts started last week. I give you: the Muscles of the Human Abdomen. (< click there and take a peek. I could spell them out, but really there’s only 5 or 6 of them to get to know. Simple and specified. Gotta love ‘em.)

So why do folks have trouble motivating themselves to give their abdomen the level of attention they afford their other parts? The first reason is probably the most obvious—it’s hard work and it feels strenuous. It’s a tough love thing. We’ll get to that later.

Another reason people don’t feel motivated to work on their abs is because they aren’t consciously relying on them to perform physical actions in their daily lives. You build your bicep and you see it bulge a little every time you pick something up. But you work your abs and…well…what do they do for you, really?

Umm…they only help you breathe, stand, and move, for goodness sake! Your abdominal muscles have two basic purposes in your body. the first, breathing, is quite necessary, yes. The other purpose is to support your spine and its movements. As important as that is (I’ll admit that this information, like many ab workouts, can seem boring.

So that boring thing is yet another reason people hate on ab work: What to do? What’s fun? You’re sick of crunches--okay, wait. All this complaining is not good for your stomach. Let’s move on to the benefits now.

Health & Performance: A huge motivator for some people is the desire to relieve pain. And another is to build total body strength-- core strength is directly related to physical function and physical achievement. And that matters to quality of life. Carry a baby, hit a baseball, straighten out your golf drive, garden--all with the help of better abs.

You need your core to help you be less injury-prone. If you sit at the computer or drive a truck all day, you need inner strength to support your back. Pregnant or post-partum? Core work can help with much of what you’re worried about.

Here’s some good news: there is no need for you to do any sort of workout that causes you pain or bores you. Period. You can do effective, efficient work that is still gentle. Just ask a professional. We can handle the basics rather quick-like and economically, as you’ll read below. But just in case you’re not convinced, consider one more potential benefit.

Hotness: Your abs include a a lot of muscle tissue that is close to the skin. Surface muscles are the muscles we see. They matter for appearance: trimmer waistlines and flatter bellies for women; V-shaped torsos and six-packs for men. Just as it was with the ancient Greeks, these qualities are high on the list of desirable physical traits in many cultures.

NOW DON'T WORRY. Happily, both genders look for nice eyes, faces or smiles first. And brains, kindness and a sense of humor rule over ALL the physical traits. (Those are all other One Things to look forward to!)

For the aesthetically-minded, I have a tip for creating more self-motivation to keep your abs top of mind. Take a picture of the midsection in question and place it in regular view. Then take a few more shots as the weeks go by, while continuing your best efforts at exercise and reducing body fat. Guess what? You will see a difference in yourself that you will like. It’s a wonderful result when your too-tight pants are looser and you stand taller. Go ahead, turn to the side. Your success over time will breed enthusiasm, trust me.

Okay, Let’s Get this Over With

I’m assuming you’re convinced now. Youll pick your abs. If you’re a client of mine or someone like me, you’ve already got your main points covered. Everyone else, use this simple advice to help you become one with your gut!

1. Focus on your posture. Zipper up your abs. Relieve all that tension from your puffed up chest, craned neck and hunched shoulders. Stand tall, and imagine dropping an anchor your tailbone. If you live life with your abdominals engaged like this, it won’t be long before your awareness becomes practice. People I know have lost 2” in their waistline simply by holding them in and standing tall while performing daily activities. Correct your posture and tighten your tummy all day long for a month or so. It's addicting.
2. Visit with a personal trainer just once, with specific goals stated: you want safe, effective core work that you can perform on your own, a couple times a week to get started. No big commitment there. People like me can help a newbie with a start-up routine in a 1-hour appointment.
3. Get The Pilates Body by Brooke Siler. It’s my favorite book for beginners. It’s never ideal if you haven’t experienced live instruction, but it’s way better than nothing. A bit of a chick book, but the models show inspiring form.
4. Invest in a stability ball, also known as a Swiss or Pilates ball. There’s a nice little book called Get On The Ball that features some great visuals to help you get started. Pick five exercises and do them three times a week. Add in some cardio, too! (Burn more fat and reveal more abs.)
5. If you have a short attention span, and especially if you’re a guy, check out this book by Kurt Brungardt: Essential Abs, An Intense Six-Week Program. He is often quoted in Men’s Health magazine. He also produced "3-Minute Abs". I like his approach because it promises to be doable, which makes a difference in the average day.

Finally,
6. Laugh a lot. Laughing is good work for your abs. Never mind the jolly stereotype. Enjoy your week, and learn to enjoy those abs!

Glorify Your Guts

2009-09-09T14:56:00.002-05:00

If we’re going to pick our Guts as our One Thing, we'll have to divide up the topic to do it justice. Oh, where to begin?!

I, of course, want to start with the abdominal region in general, as I have a thing about abs. Being a Pilates instructor, I could launch right into discussion on the sturdy container that is center of your torso. How it is so cleverly designed with its strong sheaths of fascia and muscle and the bones of the ribs, to serve as a fortress for the abdominal cavity which houses so many of the body’s most important organs.

Ooh, yes—and then there are those organs to consider. They fit together like pieces of a puzzle, all of them interdependent, yet each with a clear role. And the digestive system! The physical processing factory of all that goes in and stays in or is kicked back out of the body. The area so populated by multiple bacteria so necessary to balanced health.

It’s all fascinating physical stuff. However, equally interesting is the spirit of these guts. If you’ve ever felt bold or been called plucky, then you know the bit of proud courage that accompanies the state of being gutsy.

When it takes guts to do something, and you go for it, you can feel both the anticipation and the loftiness, right there in your tummy. Scientific studies have actually shown gut feelings to be trustworthy tools for human beings. Conclusions have been published in medical journals and newsstand magazines like Psychology Today. Trust your gut, they say, because it’s correct more often than not.

One German scientist of human cognition, Gerd Gigerenzer, calls it the Intelligence of the Unconscious. He tells us there’s an underlying rationale to gut feelings, which come into play during the course of everything from picking stocks to hitting a baseball.

How to Pick One Thing when Guts give us so much to glorify?

Well, if your gut tells you I’m going to say to myself, just pick one already!, then you are correct. I’m picking the deepest part of the guts first, and working my way out from there. From microscopic bacteria to the elimination of toxins, you’re sure to absorb something valuable out this week’s One Thing:

The Guts of the Digestive System

Here is an aspect of you which is truly miraculous, comprises a good portion of your center, and really matters to the larger aim of living a Wellness Lifestyle.

A quick overview of how it all works should convince you.
Bonus: it starts with food!

Mouth. Okay, while not technically part of your guts, your mouth begins digestion. It’s where chewing and salivating take place, to make it so what you consume can get on down to where the action really is.
Esophagus. Big downward pushing tube. Strong muscle contractions push your stuff down. You can even swallow while standing on your head. Though it is not recommended for folks to try at home. But still, that’s how strong.
Stomach. Break it down for us, tummy tum. The stomach is expandable and filled with acids and enzymes which can hold between 1 and 1.5 liters of stuff. So here is a real key to your digestive guts. It all has to be broken down into usable form.
Small Intestine. 22 feet or so of flexible muscular piping which takes in whatever the stomach puts out, mixes it with enzymes and bile from pancreas and liver, then extracts goodness from that brew and delivers nutrients to the rest of us.
Pancreas and Liver. Excellent guts, these two are. Plenty goes wrong with our bodies when they’re not working well. Insulin is processed by the pancreas along with other enzymes we need to get the good stuff out of what we eat and drink. Nutrients and toxins are processed by the liver. Many “drugs” are dispersed by the liver, and other chemicals are absorbed and detoxified. Basically it's the chemical pharmacy of the body.
Gallbladder. Makes bile, which helps absorb fat, but it’s typically not one of of our favorite organs. Painful when malfunctioning!
Large Intestine (colon): 6 feet of tubing, lined with hundreds of types of bacteria and the rest is what’s left of what’s been consumed. Everything is then turned into stool for the sake of elimination. Without a healthy process of elimination, you can become very ill!
Rectum and Anus. They are the final gatekeepers at the end of the digestive tract. We probably don’t appreciate these body parts as much as we should. They do come in handy, though, and in my business, we’re particularly concerned with the surrounding muscles, otherwise known as the pelvic floor.
Side Trip down the Urinary Tract. Kidneys, like the liver, perform invaluable housecleaning and waste management operations within the body’s digestive process. But the kidney handles the liquid portions, especially focusing on filtering products from the blood. Kidneys also keep the body's waters in balance, regulating and absorbing electrolytes. The urethra is the end point of the system, through which urine is eliminated as waste.
Gut Flora. Your inner bacteria farm is located largely in the abdomen. It’s estimated that anywhere between 500 and 1000 types of bacteria live in your guts, most of them good. There are just as many on your skin, but the ones on the inside of you have a number of special jobs vital to your health, such as vitamin synthesis and carbohydrate fermentation, as well as disease fighting and immune system protection.

For those of you with tummy troubles, replenishing bacteria can make a world of difference. So go for those probiotics, especially after a round of antibiotics, to help you fight off re-infection.

I told you it would be hard to pick only one thing, but we did it!

Check my tweets this week for quick tips on connecting with and taking good care of your digestion. (check out the 5 most recent under Quickies in the left column) In the meantime, go grab a bit of Greek yogurt to help your friendly flora flourish, and send me a comment about how you glorify your guts this week!

Flow With Your River of Life

2009-09-01T12:25:00.001-05:00

Outlining this piece today has made me realize something. Most of us react one way or the other when it comes to the topic of Blood. One way is that it's not a real popular topic: sorta creepy, possibly phobia-inducing. The other way is that blood is cool: sorta creepy, rather fascinating.

I'm going for a compromise. I'll say blood is cool, for sure, but its most fascinating qualities (for our purposes) aren't the creepy kind. This week's topic is place where the interests of Twilight fans and Red Cross volunteers alike can flow together. Let's connect with and rediscover blood for all its worth, including its vital role in our bodies and its incredible powers of movement and balance.

What's Cool and Hot about Blood

Writing this piece today has made me realize something else. Blood offers up a lot of figures of speech, classical references, and bad puns. Could be trouble for me, I do love a bad pun, so let me get a few of them out of the way right now, before I give you the beautiful River of Life analogy.

I'm thinking blood gets a bad rap, mostly. Hot blooded leans toward angry, cold blooded leans toward killer. Blood sucking is everything from icky insects to greedy criminals. Blood lines and mixed blood and first blood and so on: these concepts and connotations rarely end up in cozy places. And they say bloody is a very bad word in England.

But there are some nicer references as well. First, we're all warm blooded (us mammals). That means we need to eat a fair amount of food because we convert the food we eat into energy. Due to this, warm blooded animals are often multi-talented and active creatures with well-defined needs for fuel, which we gather or grow or hunt. (Except nowadays we mostly just buy it in the store, and that has caused some undesirable results. See other blog post on shortening the food chain: The Cheese Stands Alone)

Also, when something is in your blood, it usually means that you've got a innate knack for it, an undeniable passion, or are driven by legacy. That's how I feel about some of my own favorite things to do in this life--dancing, gardening, reading, writing, cooking....they are in my blood.

Your Body's River of Life

It's easy to understand why most of us don't give a lot of thought to the health and well-being of our blood. Until we're threatened with injury or disease, blood remains hidden in the body. But blood, much like your heart, is one of your body's grand essentials. In fact, blood is your heart's best friend. With the help of the lungs, blood regenerates and cleanses itself inside healthy people, to keep them healthy, with astounding proficiency.

Blood supplies nutrients to all the cells in your body! Your heart needs oxygen to survive, so blood supplies it, bringing it in from the lungs. And while blood carries beloved oxygen from your heart to all your outposts--from your brain to your toes--it also delivers a cornucopia of necessities, including hormones, proteins, vitamins and antibodies. Imagine the scourge of planetary infections without those blood borne immunities. And you can't build bones or muscles without proteins or vitamins. Plus what happens to reproduction without the hormones?

Blood. It's the stuff of a life, really.

Conveniently, what you do for the care and keeping of your heart goes a long way toward the care of your blood. Keeping it clear of too many saturated fats, triglycerides and cholesterol, and avoiding high levels of blood pressure, are the first steps to deeply honoring your circulatory system.

Also, make sure your blood is well-stocked and rich in essentials like electrolytes (proper hydration/salt balance, please!) and iron (anemia symptoms affect your heart and blood!). To keep the world's supply of blood well-stocked, perhaps you can be a blood donor.

Nourish your blood, vessels, and heart with plenty of wholesome, lean, natural foods. And be careful with your stress levels. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is terribly hard on your health.

Give the good things that are "in your blood" plenty of attention, too. Your whole self becomes more at ease when you align your life with the ebb and flow of your energy, thoughts, intuitions, talents and desires. If they're in your blood, then they're not only in your heart, but throughout all of you. From your brain down to your toes. Your pulse is a drum, your circulatory system is a dance which is choreographed on your blood, behind the veil of your skin, created in your bones.

Your blood deserves your attention. When you connect with it, remember: Go with the flow.

Take Your Heart to Heart

2009-08-24T13:26:00.003-05:00

Prologue: At this point I've declared Pick One Thing to be my new campaign. I'm approaching it as an overall personal wellness project, which I hope to share with others over the course of a year. I've moved the related posts from my Be Well Weekly blog to here, giving them a focused place of their own. My related tweets as TheAbWhisper on Twitter have also been set up with their own identity now, www.twitter.com/pick1thing.

I've Picked this One Thing thing for a couple of excellent reasons. 1. It works. And that's what I say: we should do whatever works. 2. It has infinite possibilities. And that's what I believe in: infinite possibilities.

I started with just thinking about picking one thing, then I tried it, then I noticed good things came after, then I wrote about it, here: Pick One Thing

After that, I picked something more specifically general. Changing Attitude. It was something I could address for more than a day. Something big that really mattered. Then I wrote about it.

Then I had a setback of sorts. Actually, a valuable lesson. (cuz that's what setbacks are usually designed to deliver...) I overshot my attitude and smacked someone upside the head with my cheerleadery-chin-up-life-is-good-opinionatedness. It was an accident, but it bothered my friend. I needed to remember I'm not in charge of convincing anyone to change their attitude to the way I think it should be. For anything to evolve, especially a life perspective, it can take some time.

So I picked Reclaiming Your Time as the next Pick One Thing thing. Many people I know, especially women, need to pick this theme for themselves more often. We have time anxiety, and are impatient. I came up with some pretty good tips for myself, and shared them here.

At the same time I was interested in producing shorter, more-to-the-point reminders and ideas. Enter Twitter. pick1thing is a perfect way to concentrate (and center!) my thoughts with fewer words. If you don't feeling like reading the long blog version one week, you can just check the cute little sister version on the left, under Quickies. Please follow me--click on the link there that says so!

Finally, I arrived at today. I began writing this brief history of Pick One Thing in order to explain how I'm really following my heart on this one. I feel it. It's got a nice rhythm. It can offer a bit of order to the whole of something, or serve as a steady background base drum to keep me moving forward. It can be open or focused. Physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, all the above. I love it.

So, Pick One Thing brings us to Your Heart (and mine).

How important it is to consider, connect with, take care of, and honor your heart! I mean,
A) Your heart equals life
B) Your heart equals love
C) Your heart equals compassion...feelings...an intuitive guide to your most heartfelt notions

When you're heart gains health, your whole body gains health! It's right in the center of all the action. Grand Central, in and out, all that oxygen, that blood, those arteries and valves...

It pumps you up! It tells you when you're moving too fast, and when you're skippin' down the cobble stones feelin' groovy. When you're worried, afraid, anxious. When you're fluttery, blushing, enchanted. When you're lonely. When you're sure of yourself. When you have eaten too much of a bad thing.

Don't just listen to your heart. Learn your heart. Sure, it's a big thing to pick. But we all have only one of 'em, so really, few things are more worth picking than your heart. I was going to give you more details, about chambers and cholesterol and life spans and stress... but my heart tells me you probably already know a good amount and I don't want to repeat the obvious.

So instead, I'm going to give you some general project guidelines for the week. One day, look up information on the American Heart Association's website. It's a plethora of facts and fyis.

Another day, when you go to the grocery store, buy at least 5 items that are known to good for your heart health. Google "top five foods for your heart" and you'll get results to lead you. Then pull out or search for recipes that feature them, and cook yourself something yummy.

If you smoke, then quit for a day. One day challenge of sheer will. If you get through that day, plan another day that you can get through the same way. If you can get through two of those, you are ready to plan for a life without cigarettes. SO PLAN IT. If you do nothing else for wellness this year, quitting smoking will still be the single best decision you could ever make for your heart (AND all the other parts of you). Your doctor can even help with meds to ease your cravings.

Finally, be sure to open your heart this week. It's never difficult to find some one who needs your care and concern, or a warm smile, or a nod. And remember, YOU need your care and concern, so open your heart to yourself, too. Every time I make a conscious decision to show my love to someone, genuinely, I am always rewarded tenfold. The same will be true for you.

Put your hand there, right now, and make a pledge to it. Say "I heart my heart."

Okay you don't really have to say that, but you should think it. Wait, no--make that, you should feel it. Deep down inside. At the very center of your human condition. How beautiful is that?!

I HEART YOUR HEART. And mine. XOXO

Be Real About Time

2009-08-18T17:01:00.001-05:00

Reclaim your time...your sense of time as your own time to spend. It's your life. Your life is made up of moments. You can really only be in one moment at a time. So what you're doing, in this present moment, in a very straightforward way, IS your life. Because this moment is all we really have for sure, all we can really experience, all we can really use, all we can really live in.

Pick One Thing: Time
Is it too simplistic, or idealistic, to say live in the now; be in the present? It brings a little greeting card verse to mind, doesn't it? Something along the lines of the past being gone and the future being uncertain, so we should appreciate the present...that's why they call it a gift.

What about plan for tomorrow as though you'll live a very long time, live for today as though it's your last? Oh, c'mon! I mean, that's impossible. Who suggests such things?

These are all cliche thoughts, I suppose, and that won't do because I'm trying to get at the truthful, juicy nugget inside this One Thing, Time. I want to be able to see time as something useful to my sense of owning my life and of feeling good about it. Not time as something too fluid to ever grab hold of, and too momentary to ever mold into something long term and worthwhile.

So I ponder (for a moment).
I want to be IN my time. I want to BE in my time. I want to be in MY time.

And it occurs to me. I am in. I can be. It is mine.

Here's how. I (egads, it's true!) take this moment as a gift. Anytime I want to. And I open it up to what I wish to do with it, how I want to feel about it, who I want to be in it... I become:

MASTER OF MY TIME

If I want to use this time to plan for the future, fine. As long as I feel good about it.
If I want to do some general thinking and writing about my time, terrific. Good idea. Do it.
If I want to finish my bookkeeping to-do list but this particular piece of time doesn't offer me enough leeway to do that job the way I know I need it to be done, well, it's okay. I use this moment to schedule that job for Friday, and I write my blog instead.

Ooh. I feel the power surge already. Some reading I've been doing about the idea of time shifting--consciously changing my attitudes and habits regarding my time--is really sinking in now. I notice I'm writing in present tense, even. I like it. I pat myself on the back about it.

I review the quote by the author of the book I plan on reading before the end of the year (it's on my list but there's still two ahead of it...one book at a time, Faith). Time Shifting author Stephan Rechtschaffen has my typical time anxiety pegged: "Most of the stress that people feel in any area of their lives is rooted in the feeling of not having enough time."

Dwelling in the present, I see there is always plenty of time....because I'm always here, ready to do my bidding! I accept the fear that I won't get everything I feel I need to get done. What the heck else is new? But I suddenly see, I always have that same potential. I always have a list--I'm alive, for petessake, there's going to be stuff to do!

But the rhythms of my moments, the patterns of how I string them all together, their richness and their shine, their freedom...all up to me.

Ahhhh. It becomes clear. Most of what I have to do, in most moments, is not urgent, despite my assumptions to the contrary. I need to learn to shift gears, really. I can back up from the future into the now and/or move away from the past into the now, and really reclaim my time.

How I spend my day, my hour, my my Time, better be thoughtful, or enjoyable, or productive--somehow it ought to be Important to me. Because I'm trading the moments of my life for whatever I do with them.

Be The Change

2009-08-10T16:04:00.001-05:00

This seems to be a very popular notion these days, as I'm seeing the quote being used in a lot of different places: "Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Mahatma Gandhi

For many people, Gandhi's name is synonymous with peace and non-violence. It makes sense that one of his credos would be along these lines. If you want a peaceful world, than be peaceful. So simple. He's suggesting we put our money where our mouths are, so to speak. More direct still, we should put our beings where our wishes are.

It's a popular notion but I wonder, as I presently contemplate the idea of being every bit whole, does it work? Does it make everyday, rational sense to people? Gandhi, a giant star among notable human beings, can get away with telling people they should put their existence where their dreams are. But I don't quite have his credentials nor his skills. So I have wrestled with the thought that my impetus to cover the extremely broad topic of, well, connecting one's whole entire self, might be too vague to do any real good.

hmmm. I put on my old copywriter's hat. What is actionable in all this? What problem am I helping to solve? Why would anyone want to read this stuff and keep reading it? What do I want people to do with this information, all these ideas on taking care of each part of our selves.

I want this to make a difference in people's lives.

That's the honest answer. And also make a difference in my life, because hey, I'm people, too.

So it occurs to me. My writing has to be the change I wish to see. It needs to enable. It has to tell you some things you need to know. Deliver some calls to action to you. Like,

PICK ONE THING. You are your own perfect project, bit by bit. Build your own existence, improve your outlook, and be the change. And me, too!

You can absolutely pick alsomething truly meaningful to you, all on your own right now, but just in case you'd like an outline and a partner, I'm happy to be your guide. After all, wellness is my business (I own an alternative fitness studio, consult with people on their healthy lifestyles and focus on mind body work...plus have a background in medical writing). Wellness is also my aim.

So, if you want to ride along with me, please, let me know! I'd love your comments and hope to hear about the Things you Pick. Over the next year, week by week, you'll consider how to reclaim your time (next week's topic), love your heart, build your core, pamper your feet, form new habits and renew your energy, and so much more.

Now, none of these directives will do much good if you, personally, wish to see a different sort of change in your world. Maybe you want to be thin, or rich, or skilled at flower arranging. You get to be any change you wish to see, and you get to wish for any change you want. It's all about you feeling whole and balanced, able-bodied and -minded. All the time. Because you decide to.

Pick Specifically!
Here's the play-by-play of how I'm using "Pick One Thing" to specifically drive me to "be the change" and change my attitude to change my days:

1. First, I was honest with myself. What change am I wishing for that I'm not seeing happen? It took some introspection, and I disallowed myself from making any excuses or admonishments in the process. I just identified what I really wanted.
2. I figured out what I really wanted was: "a sense of real personal pleasure as a relished element of my every day".
3. So I picked ^that^ as my One Thing. It happened on vacation easy enough. I read three books without a hitch. But what about now, at home, back to work, with family, hustle and hassle?
4. Well, what about now? I mean, nothing, really. It's the same! I still wish to see this change so I am "being" it. I'm quite simply finding personal pleasures available to me, to relish as elements of my every day.

I made coffee and read a book in the quiet every morning on vacation.
I can do that here, in my home.
I kept the agenda simple, meals & clothing & clean-up simple, while at the condo.
I can do that here in my every day.
I avoided starting up argumentative talk and opted to table the subject when communication was off-kilter, because it's not fun to fight on vacation.
It's not fun most of the time, actually, so I can let things drop and make peacefulness and added pleasure in my every day.
I decided there was something fun about staying active and something fun about kicking back.
That's a decision I'm sticking with.

I can hardly believe how much inner space I'm creating, how much lighter my heart and mind are, since picking this one thing for myself. It's the kind of existence I've dreamed of, and I'm learning I can live it. Today. Now. Whenever.

So, watch out world, this be this Pick One Thing approach is powerful stuff! At least one thing's for sure. It works for me. And as I always say, do whatever works. BE whatever works. Pick One Thing and work it!

Let the choices begin.

Pick One Thing

2009-07-27T15:33:00.003-05:00

Want to lower your blood pressure? Be better about keeping your desk clear? Raise your savings account balance this month? Decrease your low back pain? Tell your boss the truth about your wishes for the future? Learn a new word every day? Figure out why your hip hurts? Have your teeth whitened? Teach your kid to go on the potty? Draft a will?

Go ahead.

Pick one thing. If it's a big thing, then you might have to pick one thing about that one thing, but still, you only need one at a time. Like if you need to pick the right side of your desk today and the left side tomorrow and the future stacking filing system the next day.... well, that's one thing. Honor that one thing (remember, you picked it!) until it is discovered in and connected to you, as an important part of your true self. Not just something you want or wish or think or dream.

The key is, pick ONE.

You have 100% of yourself to give, right? You can't give 100% of yourself to your family and 100% to looking good and 100% to your job and 100% to your home. And so on. This means you have to pick and choose how to divvy up your efforts. When all your most important stuff is accounted for, and you've only got 10% of yourself left to get organized, or catch up with old friends, or find out why your feet hurt so much, well then--pick one thing, and give it what it's due, until it's done.

When you're finished with it, you'll know. Because you'll feel really good about it. So much of life is always in process, as it should be. When you're evolving, you can't always just do it today. But you can do one thing today. This week. This year. Or from now on.

On the other hand, there are plenty of things which are matters of action that can be completed, voila. By you. Rather quickly. Like what you want to finish, or learn, or fix.

Also, some parts of you, which you hardly know because you haven't focused on them, can be renewed and enhanced if you pick them. Making you all the more, all the better.

And please note that even some of the really big things, like be a calmer parent or become a great singer, which might seem like they should take a long time and a lot of effort, are still only a sum of these "one things" that you can pick to do. You can be more patient today with that unreasonable child. You can go do your vocal exercises now, and record your progress.

Pick One Thing!

It's golden. A revolution in the making. It changed my day, and I'm telling you I think it's going to change my life. Because I'm picking "pick one thing" as my One Thing. I'm going to master focusing my attention and efforts, and make conscious decisions to direct myself toward my desires. What I intend to be.

Not sure what to pick?
Watch this space for ideas each week. We're going to work from the inside out with no serious order, other than reconnection and discovery. Use this blog as your guide, or not. Whatever you pick, be true to yourself and do right by it. If you mess up, or forget, pick it again. Remember, each thing you pick is a part of you. And that makes it beautiful. Honor that.
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I will be on vacation and not blogging for a couple of weeks. I've Picked "Catch up on my Reading" (at least 3 books) as my One Thing for my vacation downtime. I'm so excited, the books are already stacked and ready to pack.

Until then, be well. One choice at a time.