Fast Fitness - Your Own Reality Valentine's Day Cooking Show
Friday, February 12, 2010
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Make Valentine's weekend fit, classy, and serene in the kitchen.
Instead of yelling, insults, and impatience that generates stress chemicals that damage heart and blood vessels, then serving that to yourself or family, serve health for brain, body, mind, and spirit:
Try the idea that meals are the process of making something nice, together or alone. Don't miss this healthy time. Meals don't only begin when you finish stressing it onto a plate.
It's not cool to bicker. Can you relate to someone without small talk and one-upmanship? Try real conversation. Or quiet and smiles.
Instead of focus on the product - rushing to serve polluted food and atmosphere - the preparing itself is a time for healthy body positioning, breathing as you cut and wash food, standing straight at the counter. Then you don't need extra time for meditation; your life is meditative.
Make your reality show for your meals the way life really can be. It takes the same time to stand well and smile as slouch. Cutting and washing goes more easily without tight shoulders and repeated unhappy thoughts. No stress-filled yelling, slouching, tightening your neck and shoulders to do the washing, cutting, and preparing. Alone or with loved ones, have a fun joke telling, singing, time of breathing and standing well, enjoying that you have food to prepare and a roof over your head to prepare it.
The Winter Olympic Torch lights today! See Wednesday's article, Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2010 or click the label Olympics for all Olympic posts.
For those who feel there are no coincidences, Happy Olympic, Valentine's, Fast Fitness, Lunar New Year.
--- Read success stories and send your own. See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, andIndex. Subscribe free via e-mail or RSS, upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Racers eat all sorts of things hoping to extend endurance. A long history of drugs and supplements have been used from illegal to unhealthy to useless to good common sense nutrition.
Some racers load on unhealthful simple sugars hoping that will maximize needed carbohydrate stores called glycogen in the muscles. Others shun carbohydrates, even healthy needed nutrition in fruit and vegetables because they want to lose weight. A main effect of low carbohydrate diets is loss of muscle glycogen, quickly reducing size and water weight, giving the illusion of weight loss, and reducing exercise ability.
Another factor was identified in a study at Oxford University looking at using a high-fat diet. They found "stark reduction in physical endurance and a decline in cognitive ability after just nine days." Researcher found increased levels of a protein called the 'uncoupling protein' in the muscle and heart cells of rats on the high-fat diet. This protein 'uncouples' the process of burning food stuffs for energy in the cells, reducing the efficiency of the heart and muscles.
The study used rats, which have different nutritional needs than people. Previous rat nutrition studies led to higher than needed protein estimations, still believed by body builders hoping to build muscle through eating. This rat study seems to be in line with longitudinal dietary studies of human athletes who could not run as long on a treadmill or navigate as well through a maze. Dr Andrew Murray led the work at Oxford University. He stated, "We found that rats, when switched to a high-fat diet from their standard low-fat feed, showed a surprisingly quick reduction in their physical performance."
Primary Source: 'Deterioration of physical performance and cognitive function in rats with short-term high-fat feeding' by Andrew J Murray and colleagues. The FASEB Journal, 2009; DOI: 10.1096/fj.09-139691. Copy of the paper: http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/rapidpdf/fj.09-139691v1.pdf
What they called a high fat diet was 55 per cent of the calories from fat. This may be less total fat than what I observe many people eating with fast food and junk food. Patients come to me proudly showing a food diary that they think is balanced because it lowers the total fat percentage of a recipe with lard by adding sugar. That is still the same high fat amount. Reduce your total fat, and keep your head not to avoid vegetables because they have a high percentage of carbohydrate. The percentage is high, not the total. If you have a one-dollar bill in your pocket and that's all, your pocket has 100% dollar bills, but not a lot of them.
In American Samoa, 93.5% of the people are estimated to be overweight since changing traditional complex carbohydrate low fat meals to Western imports of fatty food, junk sugar, and processed meat like Spam. In the Republic of Kiribati, another tropical island nation of the central Pacific, 81.5% are estimated overweight for the same reasons. Egypt began an increase of obesity when they began importing fast food. In the United States, over 65% of the people are considered overweight, related to considerable fat and high simple sugar from processed food with corn oil and high fructose corn syrup.
If your body chemistry, your temperament, medications you take, or economic situation pushes you to gain body fat from eating too much unhealthful food, eating less of it is still key to reducing overweight. I am not a nutrient biochemistry specialist, just a physiologist. For health and sports success over the long term, a working generality is to stop eating the fat and refined sugar of junk food, fast, food, and processed food, and many so-called "health-foods" which are expensive candy or over-processed products. Try an apple or favorite fruit and some walnuts for healthy exercise and endurance.
There are many components of health covered in the hundreds of Fitness Fixer articles already here, including how to fix injuries, stop pain, and improve sports and life abilities without expensive unhealthful sports food or drugs and medicines that reduce overall health.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels, links in posts, archives, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, click "updates via e-mail" upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification,DrBookspan.com/Academy. Get more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Here is Friday Fast Fitness for the New Year- Knowing What Is Fitness.
Being fit of body and mind is not doing a bunch of artificial rituals in a gym.
True fitness is how you live your life. How you treat yourself and others. How you walk, bend and lift outside the gym. How you stand breathe smile and take pleasure in the rhythm of cooking and cleaning as a life meditation. How you work together by seeing that it doesn't matter if someone cuts in front of you in line:
No matter how fancy and expensive the car you drive, do you use it to take food to the hungry, or an old person where they need to go?
It doesn't matter how expensive your house, but if you welcome friends to come in out of the cold, and make it a place of peace and health for yourself and family.
It doesn't matter how expensive your cosmetics and manicures and hairstyles, and clothes, but if you use your hands, your voice, and yourself to speak well, act with honor and make the world a garden.
--- Read success stories and send your own. See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, andIndex. Subscribe free - "updates via e-mail" upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Get more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
In the first act of Macbeth, Shakespeare wrote, "Your face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters."
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - Your face shows how you lead your life. In other words, "Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician." How can you improve your face?
Healthy exercise and hard work doing good deeds, benefits your face more than the same time and money spent on artificial makeup.
Stop eating sugar and processed flour. Your skin will improve. Stop fried food and soda. Simple healthy nutrition improves your face and skin more than all the money spent on fast food, expensive "health food," engineered supplements, and skin drugs.
The woman hoeing a field in India doesn't use indulgent face peels. Her dignity and honest work polish her face. Genuine laughter does more than corny face exercises and laugh yoga. The life you live of integrity, thinking of others, and lack of self-absorption, shows more on your face than all the facial exercise gizmos and programs.
Actress Lauren Bacall said, "I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that." Instead of spending on externals, save the money or give it to the poor. Decide how you want your life to look, then go make a face.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - custom portable fitness tea, quick and inexpensive, no need for hot water:
Put clean (or filtered) water in your own healthy bottle.
Poke a teabag in the bottle. The tea will brew on its own in a short time, no need for hot water.
Choose your favorite tea or experiment to find your favorite. Mix several together to make your custom brew - for example mint and lemon (all non-caffeine), or ginger plus green (half and half), or green and black tea together (extra interest). Or a whole bunch of flavors.
This makes a fresh drink, no preservatives or coloring, no hype or purchased throw-away bottles. It easily transports with you to work, school, gym, exercise, and biking.
Add water to make more throughout the day. At the end of your day, remove the bags and wash the bottle for another custom tea tomorrow.
Future posts will cover making your own teabags from loose tea and preparing herbal teas from flowers.
--- I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Image by Akibubblet via Flickr. No derivative works.
Fast Fitness - Better Than Ice Cream, Quick Homemade Healthy Treat
Friday, August 28, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - one of my own favorites - good for a pre-game meal, exercise recovery food, desert, and quick snack. It tastes like chocolate ice cream, sweet and creamy, but made of healthy food, no sugar or dairy, good amounts of vitamins, minerals, fiber, anti-oxidants, and the health benefits of cocoa without the chemicals and sugar of commercial chocolate, quick, inexpensive, and easy to prepare:
Peel and freeze bananas.
In a food processor or bowl, mix plain unsweetened, undutched cocoa with enough water to make a smooth paste. (Boxes of Hershey's powdered cocoa is available in most supermarkets.)
Beat in one frozen banana until creamy smooth (or two bananas and more cocoa).
Don't use unfrozen or partially frozen bananas or it won't be sweet and creamy. Crush in walnuts or pecans for crunchy nut taste. If you can't eat tree nuts, try flax seeds. For extra taste, crush in a slice of fresh ginger root.
If you don't like chocolate, leave out the cocoa. It will still taste like ice cream. Experiment with healthy additions of mint, ginger, real vanilla bean, and spices.
--- I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Reposting - Physician Told Her Give Up, Fitness Fixer Made Her Able
Monday, August 24, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Last week, several Fitness Fixer posts did not become viewable after writing and posting them. One reappears here (hopefully) with the rest to follow this week. Photos will not load at all, so I have included links to view them at another page. May all life's troubles continue to be this small :-) enjoy the posts:
Another reader named Lisa wrote in with a success story. This Lisa had not been active for many years. Her doctor had told her the way to stop injuries from running was to give up running. She is now successfully doing marathons, changing to healthy movement, and working as a professional photographer.
Lisa P writes:
"I had done some running in college and wound up with a stress fracture on the ball of one of my feet. I remember the doctor telling me to stay away from running in the future.
"I have enjoyed visiting your site for many months (more than a year for sure) and find your practical, everyday life approaches to body movement and exercise right on. The idea of walking a marathon was a "no-brainer" once I found out that walking was allowed.
"As someone who grew up in a home where shoes were always worn, I never got the chance to let my feet walk around barefoot for any extended periods (or distances). My feet couldn't handle "feeling" everything as they had been encased for so long in any number of supportive shoes.
"I remember reading a post of yours about hiking in flip flops and tried to imagine myself doing anything in flip flops or another simple shoe without a lot of cushy padding and support in "all the correct places." I am using my muscles to adjust to uneven surfaces while walking barefoot or with minimal padding between my feet and the ground. I think this has improved my body mechanics. Doing it myself helps in a way that wearing special shoes to do it for me does not. Time will tell of course.
Walking may take more time than running, but I've become a faster walker with training and will surely realize my goal of completing a marathon in under 6 hours this fall.
"I've made an effort to reduce and or eliminate certain things from my diet such as refined sugars, hydrogenated oils, and processed foods. This most certainly has contributed to the results I get in training. As I near the actual marathon, I will be walking upwards of 30 miles a week. It is amazing how my stamina improves as the miles add up.
"Attached is a photo of me at mile 25 of The Nike Women's Marathon, the first marathon I completed.
"Oh, one other thing that I have you to thank for is my regular routine of push ups. After every training walk, I do push ups and am currently doing 36. Won't be long before I get to 40!
Going barefoot by itself, or wearing special shoes will not automatically put your foot in healthy position or increase balance skills. You can walk in healthy or unhealthy ways when barefoot, and in healthy or unhealthy ways even in an expensive corrective shoe. You can easily change how you move to healthy ways without needing devices, and save time and money. You can change to healthier eating and reduce a grocery bill greatly, by no longer buying unhealthful food. Click the labels under this post for all Fitness Fixer articles with ideas on each topic.
--- I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Physician Told Her Give Up, Fitness Fixer Made Her Able
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Another reader named Lisa wrote in with a success story. This Lisa had not been active for many years. Her doctor had told her the way to stop injuries from running was to give up running. She is now successfully doing marathons, changing to healthy movement, and working as a professional photographer. Lisa P writes:
"I had done some running in college and wound up with a stress fracture on the ball of one of my feet. I remember the doctor telling me to stay away from running in the future.
"I have enjoyed visiting your site for many months (more than a year for sure) and find your practical, everyday life approaches to body movement and exercise right on. The idea of walking a marathon was a "no-brainer" once I found out that walking was allowed.
"As someone who grew up in a home where shoes were always worn, I never got the chance to let my feet walk around barefoot for any extended periods (or distances). My feet couldn't handle "feeling" everything as they had been encased for so long in any number of supportive shoes.
"I remember reading a post of yours about hiking in flip flops and tried to imagine myself doing anything in flip flops or another simple shoe without a lot of cushy padding and support in "all the correct places." I am using my muscles to adjust to uneven surfaces while walking barefoot or with minimal padding between my feet and the ground. I think this has improved my body mechanics. Doing it myself helps in a way that wearing special shoes to do it for me does not. Time will tell of course.
Walking may take more time than running, but I've become a faster walker with training and will surely realize my goal of completing a marathon in under 6 hours this fall.
"I've made an effort to reduce and or eliminate certain things from my diet such as refined sugars, hydrogenated oils, and processed foods. This most certainly has contributed to the results I get in training. As I near the actual marathon, I will be walking upwards of 30 miles a week. It is amazing how my stamina improves as the miles add up.
"Attached is a photo of me at mile 25 of The Nike Women's Marathon, the first marathon I completed.
"Oh, one other thing that I have you to thank for is my regular routine of push ups. After every training walk, I do push ups and am currently doing 36. Won't be long before I get to 40!
Going barefoot by itself, or wearing special shoes will not automatically put your foot in healthy position or increase balance skills. You can walk in healthy or unhealthy ways when barefoot, and in healthy or unhealthy ways even in an expensive corrective shoe. You can easily change how you move to healthy ways without needing devices, and save time and money. You can change to healthier eating and reduce a grocery bill greatly, by no longer buying unhealthful food. Click the labels under this post for all Fitness Fixer articles with ideas on each topic.
I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
For weightlifters who enjoy Olympic lifts, rows, cable cross-overs, curls, and all the other good stuff with endless heavy weight, you may like growing vegetables.
We have been tilling a vegetable garden from a rocky field at my Mom's. Seems her home was built on landfill. We had to sledge-hammer and pry concrete slabs - prodigious squatting, levering, clean-and-jerking, and hundred pound medicine ball throws over the just-built garden fence into a pile. Then lifting and hauling away the pile.
Carrying sand, earth, rocks, weed bales, tree branches as heavy as you can lift, over uneven rocky hilly earth back and forth from the truck, the field, and the new compost pile a hundred feet away for hours is functional weightlifting. Hours of repetition-maximum (RM) hoeing gives a harder abdominal, arm, and gluteal workout than it looks.
Healthline software still isn't uploading my own photos. At left above, a photo of a statue with too much lumbar curve/hyperlordosis to be healthy, but in general doing functional weightlifting. Use your muscles to prevent overarching like this when you swing a sledge, a kettlebell, or other weight. For Fitness Fixer posts on neutral spine and hyperlordosis, click the photo or here.
Over the winter while visiting home in Asia, my husband Paul and I went to a workman's shop. The store-keeps remembered us and smiled. The first time we went there years ago, they were so sure we were lost tourists, they took our shoulder and gestured at a restaurant. In the best Thai I could manage, I explained that Paul is a carpenter, has done forge metal work, and loves old-world tools, strong bamboo handles, and hand-hammered metal. They smile each year we return. In the US, we live in a crowded urban area with minimal bricked exterior in deep shade from surrounding buildings. Vegetable gardens don't grow. Paul wanted to plant my Mother's field - a brambled overgrown area.
In the Thai tool store, I explained with the words I knew that Paul was looking for a specific Thai tool, shaped like a backward shovel, that you use in overhead action, like a mattock (flat bladed pick).
Quickly, excitedly, word went from the store-keep, to her friend in the next shop, to the next, and next:
"Man who good to Mother of wife!"
The coconut telegraph was happy. We bought two heavy tools, called "job" in Thai. Both had thick lovely bamboo handles. One was giant sized for Paul, the other for me. Fun getting them through flights and US customs.
Mom had asked a local man what it would take to clear her field, and he told her a blowtorch, a machine plow, three men, and a week. Paul and I cleared it in one day in early April with a digging stick and the Thai hoe-shovels. The ground was half frozen. Six, or so hours massive exertion - first clearing brush and tall grasses, then hours of half-squats to seize handfuls of stalks, standing back up to pull them with grip strength. Then excavating slabs of concrete and discarded materials with a pry bar, the Thai digging tools, and bare armed weight lifting.
The packs of seeds we had scattered in assorted flowerpots, pans, shoeboxes, and containers sprouted over just a week into tiny plants - broccoli, cabbage, pea, hot and sweet peppers, strawberries, eggplants, and assorted spices. We have been learning about complementary planting - plants, just like people, who are better and healthier with specific other kinds of plants so that chemical fertilizer isn't needed. We are learning about plants that repel pests, instead of using insecticides.
We got a rain barrel to reduce water bills. We attached an old broken hose. The holes made it a natural soaker hose. We poked more holes and arranged it around the garden for drip irrigation. We don't know the water quality of either the rain or from the tap. We will send six dollars and a soil sample to an agricultural university for testing. Maybe other toxic things are in that landfill that we don't want the vegetables absorbing. Maybe commercial food factories have the same problem. Many things to learn.
Weeks pass squatting and sitting well to plant seedlings, still hitting buried rubble. More lifting and hauling. Each night we are too tired to worry or think anything bad. We are barely were able to lift hands and feet. I consider what people for thousands of years have been doing just for subsistence farming, day after day, year after year. I thought of Fitness Fixer success story Ivy and her story - Farm Work, Lifestyle Exercise, and Preventing Overuse Pain.
We thought we planted everything, then found a half pack of pea seeds left. Paul mentioned we didn't have one more container for them. I laughed, "we didn't have a pot to pea in."
Ideas:
If you're a tough vital strong person, or want to be, dig a garden.
If you don't have anywhere to dig one, hook up with some nice elder who wants one, a community group, Habitat for Humanity, or someone who doesn't want to exercise like this but still wants a garden.
Contact your community to see about organizing parents and children out in sunshine for functional exercise doing good for all.
If you only want one hour a day of hard total body fat burning muscle building exercise, only plant a small vegetable garden.
No need to buy fancy tools, use what's handy.
If you don't want to exercise so hard, try a single pack of seeds in some potting soil in almost any container on a sunny windowsill. A chance to get the vegetables you like.
Fancy individual peat pots and seed starters aren't essential; a simple pack of seeds can get you a pan full of fragrant oregano, said to be very healthful. It gives a gasp of wonder (to me) when seedlings actually sprout.
Before the 2008 election, a video appeared by Roger Doiron (I don't know him, just liked the video). He asked the next President to grow a garden. It did come true. Here is his viewpoint of getting your own garden started, showing various bending, occasionally good:
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - Bend right and pull one of the highest nutrition garden items, free, even if you have not planted a garden:
Find dandelions. You can tell them by their jagged leaves. The leaves gave them their name, from the French for 'dents de lion' (tooth of the lion).
Use good bending, with squat or lunge, to pull free nutritious food. Many people will let you have theirs free.
You can eat the green, the flowers, even the roots. USDA Bulletin #8, "Composition of Foods" (Haytowitz & Matthews 1984) ranks dandelions in the top 4 green vegetables in overall nutritional value.
Dandelion has long been known as a top nutritional food and even medicine. The official name, Taraxacum officinal, comes from the Greek, 'taraxos' meaning 'disorder' and 'akos' meaning 'remedy.'
Dandelion flowers are pretty in salads and on vegetables, or use them to make wine (to be covered in posts to come). Dandelion root contains inulin, a soluble fiber which does not raise blood sugar or triglycerides, making it helpful to people with diabetes. Dig roots in early spring or fall. You can eat them as is, or soak them in a jar of brandy or vodka for four weeks (or more) to make a tincture.
Now you can stop using poisonous and expensive chemicals on your lawn too. Better not to add these substances to the water system, or to yours.
The good news? Even when you pull them to eat, they come back to make more free nutritious garden without work.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Here is the latest fun update from Robert Davis on losing fat and increasing strength and flexibility. He has been sending success after success using Fitness Fixer techniques:
"I have noticed a big improvement since I started in my flexibility. I noticed this the other day when I realized just how much farther I can stretch now. I could not lower completely into a sitting squat without tipping before. Now I can and it sure as heck makes working in really low areas for a longer time very easy without resorting to bending (bad weighted flexed) which I refuse to do at all now.
"I have seen increases in all areas of stretching. I see that it just takes time and consistency.
"Since I am a musician, I carry a guitar bag everywhere. I decided to make a "portable" gym. Got a pull-up bar that goes in doors (removes and mounts quickly) and my guitar bag. That is all I need. I fill the bag with random objects to add weight and strap it on (like a backpack) and do everything from the books with increased weight and also pull-ups of all kinds of grips/variations for more challenge. You mentioned the wall handstand pushups and this reminded me of that. I strap my weighted bag to my back and do those now too. No need to go to the gym =P
"PS my friends think the wall stand pushups are "nuts" and can barely hold themselves up in position when they try. Who needs the military press? I actually found this to be much harder because of all the stabilization. Unlike a machine or barbell, it feels like a lot more muscles are coming into play a bit more when doing them like that. Seems so with almost all the body weight exercises. No wonder aside from cosmetics, weight training has no functional use outside of the gym. Takes a bonehead like me to realize this!
"Oddly, since I had changed my diet from meats and animal to Vegan (inspired by the body builders you have shown on the Fitness fixer) I have had people comment that I seem to be getting bigger! This is kinda funny because I actually lost some mass and it is mostly body fat from the weightlifting diet (now changed to vegan) and doing these exercises in place of weight training. They often do not believe me when I say I have not touched the bench in 3 months or so now. =0"
Watch for Fast Fitness this Friday to see what Robert Davis will show you next.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from cool ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. Become certified through the Academy - Dr.Bookspan.com/Academy BrowseDr. Jolie Bookspan's books on her website.
Healthful Real Food Tastes Good - No Commercial Health Food Needed
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Ivy of New Zealand sends me frequent updates of her continuing improvements. She is a great-grandmother and still getting stronger, healthier, more mobile, and having more fun while she does all this. Ivy writes,
"Around 7.30 yesterday morning, my daughter's partner arrived - he was in the area so thought he would surprise me with a visit. I was about to make breakfast. He laughed and asked if I was about to cook some steak.
"I dished up buck wheat, molasses (he commented that it was horse food) banana, feijoas followed by ground flaxseed, sunflower and sesame seeds. I ground the seeds so he would not comment that I was feeding him bird seed. Smile, smile.
"Surprise, surprise, he could not get over as to how delicious it was. I pointed out that it was "whole food" and it would stick to his ribs, therefore no junk food required mid morning."
Hugs Ivy
Many Fitness Fixer readers send inspiring stories. Some continue to send updates, with improved fun, strength, mobility, and good thinking each time. Ivy's Successes have inspired many readers, all ages and abilities. Here are some of Ivy's gems:
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
Health Homework Becomes AntiObesity Chronic Disease Reality Check
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Jeff & Sabrina sent me an e-mail that their 7th grade son was given a school assignment about the "proper amount of calories to have a normal weight" but with junk foods listed in the menus.
They made a video of the events, explaining,
"Could it be that our schools are actually Suspect Number One in fostering obesity and chronic illness?"
This is not a surprise. I have taught at medical schools and attended medical conferences that serve unhealthy foods. I was on a national committee to determine nutrition consensus statements where the box lunches served had cookies, sodas, processed bread, cured meat and cheese sandwiches, "sports bars" which are candy in an expensive wrapper, and gloppy fatty dressing. I have received many letters from doctors and fitness instructors that they can't be expected to eat right, or even exercise enough given their busy schedules. This is not fitness. Fitness is not appearances, or being unhealthy while giving medical advice to others, or taking stimulant drugs to stay awake to work extra jobs to support a spending habit, or doing repetitions of artificial exercises 10 times, then returning to slouching and bad bending to pick up your gym bag. Fitness is how you think, move, act, and help the world be better.
We need some role models. Click the arrow to watch the video.
If the video does not appear on your screen, click their link
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
Fixed Injuries, Got Strong, With Functional Exercise - Real Life
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
This fun note and great story came in from Robert Davis:
" I have tried to find a way to contact you for a while now!
"I have a story I thought I would share and I am so glad I had found your books and website.
" I had injured myself via weight lifting in late October. I had felt the warning signs before this, however I ignored them and continued to train full out. The result was I had hurt my lower back very badly. The pain was unbearable.
" Sitting hurt. Getting up and walking hurt. To top all this off, I was so adamant that one's "back" health is determined by how well you can stretch forward bending! So this became a discouraging struggle as the more I tested that, the worse I hurt! I had many bad habits besides that and will go into that in a moment.
" I kept training "thru" the pain and bad movement thru to about November 24th. I kept aggravating the area thru bad habits (while doing these exercises. Arched back, rounding etc). I finally went to the doctor and he just made me do some simple movements and the typical straight leg lift. He had decided for now that it was not something all that bad and said that we would do a MRI (or was it CAT scan?) if it did not get better.
I struggled for the next few weeks as I was told to simply rest. I realize the fallacy in this because "just taking it easy" had lead to muscle weakness. It was now a double edged sword by Christmas. I hurt in my back, but when I tried to exercise it it was so weak it hurt more.
I finally ran across your website just after Christmas and before the new year. I started to play around with the ideas at first. I was still stuck though on "better" meant no more pain bending forward. So for a week or two more I played back and forth with these ideas.
" Finally around the 15th or so after the new year I decided "what the heck" I will order some of your books. They seemed more promising then anything I had looked at and I realized in an "aha" moment that it was a form of exercise, which I so very much craved at the time as I simply love to exercise. This "resting" was driving me nuts..
I was watching a show on TV one night on beaches and shell collecting of all things and the biggest "aha" came to me in the form of a little girl. I watched adults picking things up and they bend right over without thought. This went on for a while. Then I saw a child pick up shells. She squatted every time! I said to myself "jeez these books are absolutely right, I am basing everything on bad habits!"..
" I immediately started becoming aware of everything I did during and after exercise. I took your book "fix your own pain" and have almost memorized every chapter and decided if I am going to do this I am going to balance my whole body.
" So after weeks of this (trial and error). I slowly got better. Things I learned along the way are this.. Bending over to pick stuff up is not healthy nor is it natural (that child in the show!).. I learned even after doing weight training for 2 years that my legs were still not as strong as I thought. I learned I had developed bad leg positions from unhealthy squatting (on the knee joints instead of behind). I had further learned that I was holding my feet outward and I think this had come from doing leg pressed with feet slightly out to try to target certain areas.
" I learned to strengthen my core much more effectively and better thru the ab revolution and fix your own pain. I was a 500 crunch type person. I am no longer doing sit ups crunches or whatnot. The stuff in your ab revolution is much more difficult to do and healthier.
I learned to strengthen my body thru its own weight, destroying the myth that you need "weights" for gains as I found these exercises to be just as challenging, if not more in some cases because of the added balance and flexibility required.
" I am now sitting here writing this and I tell you that compared to the initial injury and repeated re-injury (doing the same exercises with bad habits) to now, I am close to 100 percent.
" The funny thing is, I no longer have the desire to go back to weight training, which is odd because that was my life! I have discovered a whole new world of fitness with body weight alone. I am trying more challenging things by the day and I have realized that this is actually more fun the weight training for health and I am getting the same, and often better results (since I am not a body builder, just love exercise and looking fit). I had gone and bought a few things like pull up bars and planche devices and am currently working on mastering some very difficult moves that require body strength alone, but at the same time a mindful awareness of how I am doing it by using your techniques (keeping the back straight with slight tilt etc, no arching).
" It is fun working up to one arm pull-ups in good form. Jeez, to think you could bench press close to 300 a few months ago but doing a few of these exercises in your book were hard! I was surprised I could not do very many pull ups or hold these planks and whatnot.. I am set on a new adventure and I love it because it feels so "free" and balancing. I don't have to spend a huge fee to go to the gym. My gym is my body and functional movement.
" Thank you for your knowledge. Having my back back (sorry for that funny saying!) is great. I intend to keep it healthy now and have begun the correction process of all my body, all the way to my feet!
" I don't look at my injury as a mistake anymore. I look at it as a life changing experience and a chance to explore more functional and fun ways of living. I have passed this site and your books on (not my personal copies!) to a lot of friends into fitness. Some are already reporting healing knees and what not and even re-considering how they live and workout!
" PS I have also changed to a Vegan diet just to see what happens. I was very intrigued by the 72 year old body builder who is vegan.
"You are a godsend. Robert Davis"
Great work Mr. Davis! Robert has been sending me many insightful updates with photos, to be posted with his ongoing success stories. His next story starts here: Cardiovascular Cleanup.
Junk food can be vegan and vegetarian with unhealthful additives, dyes, refined processed sugar and flour. Click the label "Nutrition" under this post for all posts on how to get healthy fun sports food and Healthier Fitness by clicking the label "Green Fitness."
Weightlifting and Weightbearing With Lower Spine Overarching (Sticking out too much in back) Compresses Vertebral Facet Joints:
Read success stories of these methods and send in your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
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Here is Fast Friday Fitness - practice patience and peel pomegranates for hand dexterity, and the antioxidants and fiber you can't get from juice.
It's pomegranate season. For the next few months, look for red, round fruit with edible seeds, called arils, prized for health benefits:
Cut each end off thinly, enough to reach white pulp without cutting into the arils
Score the peel into quarter cuts with a knife, enough to reach white pulp without cutting into the arils. The idea is to make it easy to break open into four quarters.
Finger the arils from the cut sections into a bowl. Discard the whitish sectional pulp into a bowl or compost heap.
Photos still not loading. Please use imagination exercise.
It may take as much as 5 minutes to patiently tease out the arils. Good for practicing breathing, and good posture while standing over a counter.
Eat the sweet, slightly tart arils with a spoon. They are crunchy and juicy.
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones.See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, andIndex. Read success stories and send your own.
Subscribe free - updates via e-mail or RSS, upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
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Photos of Paul Peeling Pomegranates scheduled, but not loaded by the blogger
Do you have to spend money to be healthy? A look around typical food market carts shows much spent on unhealthy food and products (photo, right). This post is the start of a new Fitness Fixer feature of Fast Finance Fixes - saving money while being healthier. We need a good brand name so send in your votes. Until then, we'll call it Fiscal Fitness.
Reader Ivy writes:
"How often does one hear that eating healthy is too expensive? Yesterday on my return from shopping at my favourite shop, a friend asked me as to what I had bought. I showed her the organic brazil nuts, sunflower and sesame seeds as well as the green, red and brown lentils. She remarked that organic products are far too expensive. Later in the day, I decided to phone two friends who are in a similar age group, live alone and are also on a low income. We discussed living costs so with their permission, I did a little exercise.
"I choose to be a vegetarian, my friends are not - I do not eat dairy, cakes, cookies or junk food of any kind, plus I do not drink coffee or alcohol. My friends both eat out on a regular basis, I choose not to. I do not buy cleaning products, instead, I use baking soda and white vinegar. I also use a phosphate free laundry liquid which I buy in a 5 litre container through a friend who kindly gives me a 20% discount. I do not have a mobile phone I also turn off my hot water during the day - this can save me about $10 a month in electricity charges.
"I was the only one of us three who exercised on a regular basis. I found it interesting that I was the only one who seldom visited a doctor, also, unlike the others, I did not get a cold or 'flu this past winter.
"The result of this exercise being that our costs were approximately the same within a few dollars. We three respect each others difference - each of us making personal choices. Afterall, isn't that what life is all about.
"You, my dear Dr Jolie, have been a huge influence on my life in more ways than you realise - again I thank you. Your lovely little reminders re life are also an inspiration. Thank you for your support." Ivy
Ivy first found The Fitness Fixer a few years ago when looking for information to fix severe sciatica and drop foot. Click Inspirational Ivy to see how she quickly stopped sciatica, got rid of her cane, and how her neighbor took the photos for the post. Each post links to updates Ivy has been sending since then. Reader Sylvia has since been fixing her own drop foot with Ivy's help in post comments. Sylvia's success story is on the way.
Save plenty - don't buy things that are not healthy anyway. You don't need to be vegetarian or give up coffee and alcohol. With all the money you don't spend on junk food, commercial sports food and drink, and unnecessary fitness fad products, you can give to the poor and still have enough for good food and a vacation.
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Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) "updates via e-mail" - upper right column.
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