Is it good for you?

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I see this time and again and everyone and I mean everyone has opinions about what is good for someone and not good. All things in moderation including excess.

America is a different place. The mix of cultures, people and food makes for a melting pot that’s never existed. In cultures 300 years ago you just ate whatever was around. It was all local, all organic and no one had ever heard of a treadmill. All of your exercise came from what you did, bricklayer, carpenter, farmer etc.

Now, in America we have choices, choices so vast that we have to decide what we want to eat, what we want to do and what we want to consume in many forms. The most fundamental question is what is the good? Let’s ponder that, because I’ve not decided that for the rest of my life. I have decided it for an evening, for a day and maybe for a week. The answers have included salad, ice cream, a soda, yoga, laying on the couch and taking a walk. Each is good in its own way. People get annoyed when I announce that scotch is a part of a healthy diet. Such is life.

Everyone and every body is different. I’m unlikely to make completely blanket statements but my life experience does factor into my decisions and thinking. I think the master cleanse is good. I’ve done it and had nothing but positive experiences. People will bring up doctors who say it’s no good, any google reference and link imagineable to prove some point but my experience says otherwise.

Same for Bikram yoga. I’ve had folks tell me it’s not safe, complain of Bikram’s business practices and I just shrug my shoulders. I’ve been doing it for 6 years and I’m healthier than most people I know. Your mileage as with all things may vary. Is Thai massage in Austin good for you? I think it is. I prefer it to swedish and deep tissue but I’ve had lots of bodywork and it’s my preference. I prefer you do what you like and what works best. I’ll stick to doing yoga here at my home studio in Round Rock. The goal of Thai massage is healing and empowerment. I think that’s really good for you.

It’s your life. Make your own decisions. Going with your gut and how your body feels seems the best thing to me. My yoga practice, the master cleanse and my diet help me tune into my body and its sensations day to day with closer acuity. Using that focus I work with it. My body changes with time in various ways and I honor the fact that post dinner ice cream seems like a healing balm and medicine in the right amount.

Anyone who lords over you telling you what to do comes close to setting themselves up into some position of guru that makes me uncomfortable. I love teaching but I remind my students that I just lead them through their own experience. It’s their yoga, not mine. I choose who I submit to in a Bikram or any other yoga class. I can make recommendations based on my experience for all sorts of things relating to health but in the end it’s your life, your choice and anything I can do to help you tune into your bodies responses helps you in the long run.

I’ve my own pet peeves, particularly relating to diet. Vegans and strict vegetarians irk me some I admit but really purists of any sort get so close to notions of purity that they start to sound like the third reich to me. White flour! White flour! Let us all salute. I do eat meals that are vegan and many that are vegetarian but limiting myself to that seems to cut out the cultural component of food and living in central Texas. If you can’t eat barbecue with neighbors you cut off some of your contact with them. Maybe that’s not your way, and that works fine for me. Just don’t judge my beef ribs.

So America. Choices. Nearly unlimited choices. I say make them consciously. Continue exploring all aspects of your body, all aspects of health and pleasure. Health and pleasure are linked. This may come as a surprise in a judeo-christian puritanically leaning culture but it’s the case. What feels good, usually is good in moderation. A few thai massages over the months here at the studio. A yoga class here and there in Austin or at my studio in Round Rock is provided to help you be embodied. When you’re present you can more adequately receive pleasure.

Of course at some point someone will chime in, “but it feels good to overeat. Junkies get high because it feels good.” These things are true but how good does it feel to waddle away from the table? What about when the drugs run out? One must look beyond the momentary into the whole of your life. If you’ve spent it all chasing after the next fix you’ll miss your family, friends and parts of your life. If you’ve drowned yourself in food enough to become extremely overweight and push people away from your body with extra padding did you really get the comfort and reassurance you’d been looking for?

There’s no judgement. I can be a stern and harsh task master in ways but as I age I think I’m beginning to soften. I see people struggle and accept that their issues are just that, theirs. I can’t make someone change, make someone crave healing. That’s all for you, all on your own. It’s up to you to decide what’s good for you. I’m just here as an assistant, a teacher. I can only give you what I’ve got. Occasionally that’s BLTs with homegrown tomatos but hey, everyones medicine looks a little different.

Neti pot

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A neti pot is a small teapot like tool you use to clean out your nose and lower sinuses. I was introduced to it years ago after reading about their use in yoga for breathing exercises. You fill the neti with a mix of water, sea salt and a little baking soda to soften the mixture. After turning your head to the side you pour the water through one nostril, it glides out the other and then you reverse.

The first time I did this then blew my nose I inhaled through nostrils that felt clean for the first time in years. I doubt I produce more mucus than the next person but mucus membrane, if left uncleaned, feels a bit like you’ve not brushed your teeth in a few days. When people tell me they’ve never used a neti it now feels like they’re telling me they’ve never brushed their teeth.

It’s difficult to explain a sensation if no one else has experienced it but lets just say I could really Breathe. All of the small nuances of air flowing through my nose could be felt all the way down into my lungs instead of having that light sensation muffled by dried, well..snot.

The neti is important for anyone who practices yoga and works with their breathing but in addition I recommend them to people with allergies. It won’t get rid of the allergies but it does give your body less to fight. It doesn’t counteract any medications and if used multiple times a day when you have a flare at least you’re able to clean part of your sinuses out.

Most don’t consider their breathing at all but there are other reasons to have a neti around. Anytime you’re feeling congested it can be used and lo and behold after a heavy night of nausea I found I could use the neti to rinse out, well, you get the picture.

I prefer using a plastic neti and I make my own mix of 50% uniodized sea salt and 50% baking soda. The plastic seems to last longer as most people I know eventually drop the ceramic ones and they break on the bathroom floor. I can even run it through the dishwaser to clean it semiregularly.

another article

If you practice yoga and pranayama or the breathing exercises associated with yoga I can’t recommend this highly enough. It helps fine tune the mouthpiece of your instrument so to speak and no one plays Coltrane on a unclean instrument.

There are more advanced uses of the neti which include taking water through the nose then spitting it out through the mouth and vice versa but the basic use is the first one to tackle. I recommend just letting the water pour through one nostril while breathing through the mouth then doing the same on the opposite side. Blow your nose as usual and this expels any excess water. Quick, simple and no matter how many times I say it an amazing difference in the feeling in your head.

The neti is a small addition to your overall life and health regimen that I can’t recommend highly enough. Here’s a link to the one I use and they can be purchased at Walgreens pharmacy.

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Sleep and naps

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I rarely get a full weekend off anymore. In the past year I can remember maybe 2 weekends that I had off with no clients and no major work to be taken care of. Working saturdays at the chiropractors office means that saturdays are a full day with clients and a yoga class. Every saturday for years has been like this and like most people I adapt to whatever my schedule is.

Over time I’ve noticed that my sleep needs are higher than many people. I think this is due to several factors. One is that my normal inclination is just to sleep more than what most consider the average of 8 hours. Another is the fact that my job is manual in nature and I burn more calories moving around. It’s not digging a trench in the sun but it’s still working and manual labor that takes more energy. The last is that even with the manual component it’s also energetically and mentally draining. The focus and continued nurturing care that goes along with bodywork takes a toll.

I slept 12 hours the other night. My wife asked me if I wanted her to wake me in the morning and as I had the sunday off I told her no, just let me sleep till I wake naturally. I woke at 2pm. Years ago there would be a small amount of concern at allowing myself to sleep so much. There are things to do, you could have woken earlier and taken advantage of the cooler temps outside to do yard work. The list goes on but let’s say there is still some puritan work ethic rumbling around.

While thinking about the issue I find it funny that when I do wake up I feel better, my joints ache less and I’m more mentally alert. When I do get up and get to work, which is always the case, I do it better and with less mistakes or brain fog. My wife often comments that I’m moving while I’m sitting still, I never stop. Even on a yoga mat I’m moving, stretching, breathing and it’s the time where I’m most still.

Even now as I type this I’m playing poker online and watching a comedy show on dvd. Usually this is just how my life is. I run at a higher rpm and need more sleep when I do finally run down. Learning to accept our own biorhythms and nature seems to me the way that we get the most of our bodies while we have them. Start where you are. For me this means allowing myself to get more sleep. It also means being able to allow myself to take less clients per day for massage and allow myself down time.

Setting limits and boundaries around our energy levels seems only fitting. Asking for help when we need it and our reserves are dwindling allows us to recharge and use communal resources for the same recharging benefit. This afternoon I just up and decided it was time for a 45 minute nap and it was taken. I felt refreshed and awake, my alertness made yoga class easier and my body just functions better.

In the absence of sleep I’m told everyone will eventually go crazy. Let’s not allow that to happen. Summer is upon us and in higher temperatures in the afternoon it’s time to siesta. Wake up refreshed and then you can fiesta.

healing quickly

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Healing and working with your body takes time. Once you’ve been injured the time it takes depends on a large number of variables from nature to nurture. In a popular yoga book I read it recommended that someone with severe low back pain work on it maybe for 12 years. Upon reading that I found it ironic that most would just give up if told they could repair an injury but it might take that long. In a culture that holds up youth, speed and instant gratification in the highest esteem it’s hard to put bodywork or yoga in perspective.

When a client is in pain my heart goes out to them. I’ve been in pain physically and otherwise more often than I care to recount but I’ve always come through and made it out on the other side. The value in ongoing bodywork or yoga isn’t that you’ll be pain free but that the pain you have you’ll work on for yourself and you’ll have a helping hand in the form of a massage therapist.

If you go to a medical doctor with pain you’ll get a variety of treatments from pain medication, physical therapy or surgery. All of those work with bodywork and yoga. The prime difference in my mind is that you go to the doctor once you’ve gotten sick, you go to the massage therapist and yoga instructor to stay well and hopefully not get sick to begin with. Everyone gets sick enough to see a doctor eventually, I didn’t go to a yoga class when I needed a root canal after all.

For years I’ve had issues with my neck and upper back due to the whiplash that led me into massage therapy to begin with. Now I do have what feels like the beginning of arthritis in the facet joints in that area but I developed low back pain several years ago. It comes and goes periodically and instead of being angry that I was aging or in this pain, I relished the opportunity to explore a new area of my body with a certain learned zeal. I don’t like pain, I like learning and exploration.

So, I work with and on my own body and those of clients. When clients comment that I always seem to know where to press or where the pain is coming from they don’t often realize it’s because I’ve pressed, kneaded, pulled, stretched, contorted and breathed into every area of my body. I know where it’s at because I’ve felt it. After all, if you cannot heal yourself, how can you work to help heal others?

Continually we must remind ourselves to keep working against all perceived obstacles. Those after all are where all of the learning comes from. In yoga or bodywork you press or stretch gently at first and find what your limits are. While sitting on the edge you breathe. As you continue it slowly allows the body to change and your nervous system wakes up. This isn’t a doctor speaking, just a yoga teacher trying to use english to explain the union of lumbar to hip that happens in triangle pose.

Your yoga, your bodywork will be different than mine because your being, your self is different than mine. Your timetable for healing isn’t mine either. I always hope for a quick, pain free recovery but that just isn’t always the case. I can tell you the speed of your recovery from most injuries is proportional to the amount of time you spend working on it. More inputs lead to more outputs.

Practicing yoga regularly you learn to sit, to meditate, sometimes in discomfort. All yoga poses are not easy after all. You learn to recognize the difference between pain and discomfort. Practicing I often find myself in a pose that’s not quite comfortable but rarely do I ever have to stop all together due to pain. Pain says stop. Intensity says pay attention, paying attention is exactly what allows your nervous system to focus on your lumbar spine and give it the structural integration and healing it needs.

Healing may not come quickly but it’s worth any price. Fortunately part of it comes for regular $10 yoga classes and Thai Yoga Massage for $70 a session. I think it’s a small price to pay for education and a gateway to work with your own healing. I can never promise a time table on healing, there are too many variables to work out and life happens to us as much as we create it in the moment. I do know that the more you focus on getting better with laser like precision, the more rapidly it will occur and the longer it will stay when it does. It’s not always easy, it may be one of the most difficult challenges in your life, but the amount of pain you experience is proportional to the amount of wisdom you’ll have once you’ve conquered that obstacle.

making change

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A client asked me recently to write an article about how to make health changes that will stick. The two main areas this involves usually include diet and exercise.

Most of the clients I see wind up discussing their exercise regimens and lifestyles with me. People have a wide range of physical aptitude and activity level so it’s good to get to know them some so you have an idea where they’re at and where they want to go. My job in addition to bodywork or yoga is to assist them getting there.

As I get older I notice more friends becoming sedentary, lethargic and having increasing health issues related to nurture more than nature. This includes my love handles of course but bodies do change as we age and it’s important to keep impermanence in mind whether we’re Buddhist or not. My body at 20 isn’t the body I will have at 40. As we age it’s then even more important that we engage in regular maintence, good dietary decisions and choices that help us reach whatever goals we have.

I learned long ago when working as a massage therapist if I wanted people’s blood pressure to go up, if I wanted to make them stressed, just discuss diet and exercise with them while they’re on the table. It took me some time to figure out why this was such a loaded topic then it dawned on me that most clients feel that discussing diet means eating things they don’t want to eat and exercise means doing things they don’t want to do. My feelings on the issues couldn’t be further from this.

I consider creme brulee part of a healthy diet. It’s not recommended every day but I don’t consider it unhealthy either. Sitting around and being social with friends while having a glass of wine is also good for you, as it probably lowers blood pressure and the laughter you’ll have during the episode will just help you live longer. We are social creatures after all.

So I run contrary to some popular opinions. I once got into an argument with a woman about cookies being part of a healthy diet and I still hold a grudge about it. Telling women they can’t have dessert is tantamount to treason. When it comes to food here is a fundamental idea I’d like to get across. Caloric restriction doesn’t work. Diets don’t work. That’s why there’s a new one every two weeks making the circuit. If you’re sitting around trying to figure out how to eat less, I’ve a suggestion. Stop. Go take a walk, then come home and eat a little of whatever it is you wanted, mindfully.

At issue is the fact that we’ve bodies that evolved to make good use of calories which were all too rare. As hunter gatherers we ate less frequently and what calories we did get were more likely to be feast then famine. How does one then adapt to 24 hour stores with aisles of food? Fast food around the clock and food commercials? Usually we just get fat. Especially as we get older and stop growing, though issues of childhood obesity and diabetes are increasing each year.

So again, I think caloric restriction doesn’t work. I recommend instead of avoiding food people actually dive in, not so much with their bellies and gluttony but by learning more about where food comes from and most importantly learning to cook. I feel the blood pressure rising as you read this but relax, hear me out. I learned to cook years ago first because I wanted to be a vegetarian, which I no longer am by the way, and then because I was sick and needed to heal myself.

One of the things that I noticed was that I would sometimes spend hours making an extravagant meal and then sit down to eat a small portion, usually smaller than those around me. Over time I realized it was because I got to nibble, smell and taste all of the food as I was making it. I’d been eating for hours at that point and was already nearly full. This to me, is one of the secrets.

The other is that because I’m not denying myself I’m not as easily going to go on a binge and eat excessively. Caloric restriction and diets have no place in a healthy lifestyle. There, I said it. I know it’s difficult to hear and deal with but I think it’s true personally. When I hear someone is on a diet I cringe. I love food and eating too much. I eat what I want, when I want. It includes things like donuts, ice cream, cake, fried chicken, foie grois, spaghetti and meatballs, meatloaf and even the occasional stir fry. I just don’t think of food as the enemy.

Part of that reason is that I exercise. I’m active. I garden and move about a lot in addition to doing bikram yoga regularly. Doing yoga in a 105F degree room means I’m more than aware of what’s going on internally. I don’t eat heavily those days and make sure to hydrate well. I’ve had a class after a morning of coffee, bacon and eggs and it didn’t go too well. You burn calories as you exercise and when you build muscle you burn more calories with ease. The additional cardiovascular exercise helps burn calories and keep my heart healthy. Cardio is surely my weakest link, I just never got into running.

Exercise is using a shovel, moving leaves and compost around, turning the compost pile with a picthfork and moving enough wood mulch around yards to cover what seems like a city block. Everyone’s diet and exercise will vary. Diet is what you eat, exercise is what you do. Nothing more, nothing less. I can’t ask clients to take on my lifestyle as it’s just that, mine. I’ve found and continue to find what works for me. I eat what I want in moderation and exercise regularly while reminding myself to stay active.

Here’s a small list of things I think are beneficial when it comes to food:
learn to cook
watch Good Eats with Alton Brown
join a CSA to get fresh produce Johnson’s Backyard Garden
visit local farmers and talk to them
buy meats fresh locally and invest in a deep freezer
avoid fast food whenever possible (learning to cook and well, will aid this)
start a garden at home

When it comes to exercise here’s a list:
Be active
Do what you like
If you hate jogging, don’t.
Find what you like to do that gets you moving. Could be gardening, swimming, biking, diving, rock climbing, dancing or walking. It should be enjoyable and preferably you don’t even think of it as exercise.
Have more sex. It burns calories, helps you bond with your loved ones and we live in a puritanical culture that barely approves of sex between married people. Good sex can last hours. Doesn’t have to but if you’re healthy and in shape enough why not spend time having pleasure?
Try new things. If you’ve never kayaked, try it out. You might find a few things you like that help keep weight off and keep you active.

So how do these things stick? When it comes to cooking you can’t unlearn something. The more you learn about food, where it comes from and how it’s prepared you’ll eat better and for less money. When you’ve had homeade, homegrown, fresh and local produce you’ll not want to eat KFC as often. Trust me on this one. Making diet and exercise part of your regular life means making it more pleasureable than fast food and sitting on a couch. It’s that simple. People steer towards feeling good and pleasure, we should honor those as part of health and well being.

I can’t say it’s always an easy choice. After all, when I’m hungry and I don’t have anything in the fridge the temptation is to run off to buy fast food. If I cook regularly though, and keep a well stocked pantry I save not only money on food but have things around to eat at a whim that are usually far more nutritious. I don’t think people eat Whataburger because it’s the best hamburger they’ve ever had. I think they eat it because it’s convenient. Convenience is what runs fast food. If we had grass fed burgers on every corner with olive oil fried french fries and organic buns and lettuce we’d buy that just as much.It’s just not as available. Quick and easy is the American way. According to heart disease and diabetes rates we’ve made quick and easy our lifestyle.

Instead of focusing on what we shouldn’t eat, focus more on what you should. Nothing has made quite the impact on my food choices like going to Johnsons’s Backyard Garden and working on the farm for the day. I spend 5 hours or so picking, cleaning and boxing vegetables. I get sun, friendly conversation with other volunteers, a chance to learn about our local food system and at the end of the day…a free box of produce. I got exercise and good food at the same time.

I dislike absolute dogmatism. What works for you, works. No one including me can tell you exactly what you should do because your body, your being, is different than mine. Embrace what you like. If you like some junk food, start making it yourself. Ask my wife’s kids about corndogs and see how they respond. Ever had a homeade from scratch corndog? Aha! Those little things make life worth living.

Keeping up a healthy pattern means you make it as easy as possible to follow. Surround yourself with people who wish to be healthy as well. Make good choices easy to make. Healthy food tastes good and includes fat, calories and carbohydrates. Healthy exercise is fun, it’s something you enjoy. It makes you feel better, not just sore. Take the dog for a walk. Join a community garden. If you run, go swimming. If you swim, go running. Mix it up and don’t become sedentary. Try new things. If you’re a single older woman chase younger men.

Modern American life is what we’re often fighting. We spend most of our time staring at glowing rectangles, hint, you’re staring at one now. We don’t have to run, stoop, crawl and hunt for food or get behind the oxen to plow. We simply drive to the store and charge it on a credit card. I say simplify, not only because it’s the good life but because it’s the only life worth living. He who has the most toys just has the most stuff he’s got to dust.

Spend time thinking about what it really is that you want and create the life that gives you that. Keeping up with the Jones’ isn’t the way to live. Live your life in such a way that others wish to be as free, unencumbered and joyous as you are. If you don’t know any of those people get some new friends. If you want health, create, maintain and nourish healthy habits. Do things not because they have a long term health goal but because they make you feel good in the moment.

This is how you create a lifestyle that sticks. Again, just my opinion. Your mileage may vary. I welcome comments.