Ok - this post will be a little disjointed as I am staring it in the morning so as not to miss the flavor (get it? flavor?) of my day. They just brought me my first juice which is the real start of re-feeding. Room service - I'm still in bed at 8:40 in the morning. Beautiful pink juice, 12 ounces with a straw. I took a sip. Thought I would gag. Don't get me wrong, it is really delicious, but my taste buds haven't had anything for more than a week. I know it has celery juice in it - I can taste that and really like it. But maybe it is mixed with strawberries or watermelon (yes, I love those, too) and it is so so so so sweet that I'm not sure I can choke it down. But as I drank it, it became more and more palatable till I started to enjoy it. Can't wait until I can chew something! Yesterday I saw a huge box of gorgeous tomatoes in the kitchen and fantasized about sticking my face in it and gorging. Better than fantasizing about Cheeze-its! (my downfall)
Went to a cooking demo by Cathy Fisher this morning. Some of you may follow her online. She is delightful. Still can't taste the food but I can maybe learn something. She made Pizza Pasta and a to-die-for cabbage salad with chickpeas. Again, one of these days I will post the recipes I got here. They serve almost no pasta here at True North - it is a rare treat. I haven't eaten pasta in forever. Here they used a gluten free ancient grains pasta. Cathy makes the food look beautiful with seemingly no effort. I am so bummed that I won't be here long enough for another cooking demo so I can taste her food. :(
Second juice of the day - celery and apple. SO. DAMN. GOOD!!!! Heaven. And so sad when I finish each one. Wonder what time I get my next one...
Later... I've been out all afternoon and MISSED my 3 pm juice! Found it when I got back to my room, and moments later they brought me my 5 pm juice. I'll try not to guzzle.
Went to a fitness lecture by Dr. Isabeau which was interesting. Skip the recap below if you aren't into that kind of thing.
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Dr. Isabeau
Exercise - if you have an old injury, if exercise isn't being used as a first line of action, you are not getting what the science tells us is the right kind of care. Additional things may be needed, but exercise is felt to be one of the most potent tools for chronic injuries. Different from acute (new) problems. We call something chronic when you have had it for a couple of months. Acute is within a few days.
Doctors prescribe things they believe that will turn out to be wrong over time. The understanding through science keeps changing. Doctors have to be willing to change their advice as they learn more.
Exercise is really good medicine. There is an overall mix of activities that we should do each week (but this list is not customized - it's an overview of what we should aim for.)
Exercise while fasting - none. You can stroll around but nothing that feels demanding, that makes you out of breath, that makes you dizzy, that makes you work muscles hard. You can stretch on the floor, but no elliptical and no weights. With up to a 3 day fast, it's okay to exercise, but probably tone it down. Short/intermittent fasts combined with exercise can be very beneficial. As soon as you are eating solid food, you should do some exercise every day of varied kinds. Very strong argument to exercise in most cases. Yoga, taking a 30 minute walk, lifting weight, riding your bike.
Sometimes our ability to exercise is related to what we did yesterday.
It will take about the length of the duration of the fast to get back to normal. So I fasted for 8 days, and I should expect that it will take me about 8 days to get back to normal.
New topics in exercise - Interesting issues in sequences in exercise. Not just aerobic, not just stretching, we need a mix of it all. So in what order? Most applies to going to the gym. Interesting studies on this. Answer is that it doesn't matter that much, however there is a best practice. At a gym, people usually do cardio and strength training. Select first the one you feel you are the most deficient in, the one you aren't as good at, the one you don't like the most. You won't have much time or motivation to do the harder things if we do the stuff we really like first. When people are good at everything, it doesn't matter on the order unless you are a performance athlete. You can also mix it up. Don't have to do the same thing, same order, each time you workout.
In the course of a typical week, all of the elements need to be part of your life. You get to play with those ingredients throughout the week. You need some kind of exercise daily to get in your minimal dose. If you want to build muscle, don't do strength training on consecutive days for the same muscles. Work for 2-3 sessions a week. Benefits of exercise only develop during the recovery period.
Running over walking? The more vigorous our exercise, the more benefit you get. Running or brisk walking are better than strolling. There is benefit to window shopping. But we can't think that window shopping makes us adequately fit.
Exercise and aging? We think and studies are strongly saying that exercise is great brain medicine. Best brain fertilizer. What we do or don't do acts as brain fertilizers or pruners. We want fertilization, not pruning. Brains get thicker and bigger or smaller with holes. We want dense, thick, heavy brains. In brain scans doctors can see the impact of all kinds of things on the brain. With exercise, you can see more connections and pathways in the brain. You also see new brain cells grow in a portion of the brain, tied into emotion, executive function, appetite!!! This is different from what we used to think.
Two forms of exercise that seem to be the most potent brain fertilizers, although everything helps. Number one - high intensity aerobic activity that gets you out of breath - that makes you gassed. This is for a short period at intervals. Sudden and marked increase of these growth inducing chemicals in the brain. They are formed outside the brain (BDNF). Really developed in the muscles - it can cross the brain barrier - not many chemicals can do that. Low intensity is also good, but not as effective.
I should do this on my rebounder every couple of days!!!
Other activities are things we find challenging to our balance and patterns. Examples would be learning a new dance step, new aerobic workout, weight lifting with heavy loads. Other examples are walking or running on rough terrain.
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Let's see - other thrilling things. Had lovely, intellectual, two-sided interesting conversations with some folks today. Probably because I have some new glucose in my system I was up for it. Very nice people here - I will be sorry to leave them.
Did at least 20 laps around the courtyard today - maybe more. Very nice to be moving again. Thinking of taking a shower - you know you ought to when you can smell yourself! (TMI???)
Lastly, I didn't sleep well last night but I kept coming up with curriculum ideas and tweaks, so as soon as I got up this morning I wrote them all down. I worked for at 4 hours today. Someone said my creativity was helped along by the fast - I'll take that explanation.
Wish we could all give AJ a huge hug - not sure it would really help, but isn't it awful that we all feel so helpless to comfort her???? Hope everyone had a good lefty day!
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