Stay Fit (video)

In my last post, I rode the New York Times yoga wave, which is now drowned out by opposing sides duking it out. Of course, I'm not anti-yoga. As my kids can attest to when we were skiing a few weeks ago, I'm just a lot more cautious with my body as I get older.

Did you know I won a Nastar ski race the year I turned 50? It was my first (and only) official wind in your face, slippery, downhill ski race. At the time, I was in pretty good physical shape. I won a gold medal and never had to don any spandex. Yay!

Fessing up...a friend told me there were no women over 50 that had entered the race that day and I would get a huge handicap if I signed up. I've never been so scared in my life. But I did finish the race (without falling and killing myself), and I cherish my little gold pin.

I thought I would never be in racing shape (ha!) again until I saw this video on the Lines Of Beauty blog. The video of a 95 year old ballet dancer, shot on Fire Island, captures the secret and beauty of staying fit.

My friend Maia from julia warr on Vimeo.

Photo: Vintage Ski Poster

Why I Don’t Do Yoga Anymore (video)

I used to love yoga. Did it all the time…almost everyday. Now I do bodywork, cialis and believe me, view my body needs it. Why? Because I used to do yoga.

Bad Back

A few years ago, I developed a twinge in my back. The twinge turned into a sharp pain deep in my left side that radiated down my left leg. It felt like I had a basketball with a knife blade lodged into it sitting next to my hipbone. Then my left foot went numb. I knew this was a bad sign. I went to my gynecologist thinking I was a goner. My gyno, Dean is a friend, and I always go to him first if I think I’m dying. I wouldn’t want a stranger delivering the bad news. Anyway, Dean sent me straight to the hospital for a whole shebang of tests (MRI’s, CAT scans, blood tests etc.) I wasn’t going to die. Whew. Instead, I was going to be in the worst pain of my life. I had a herniated disk sitting on a nerve in my back…!@#$}(%^&*){

I could not walk, lie down, sleep or live. But I was determined not to have back surgery. I heard too many horror stories about back surgeries gone wrong. Nightmarish dreams invaded the little sleep I managed to get. So, I downed the drugs the doc prescribed. I don’t like drugs and these were bad drugs. Really bad drugs. Finally, the only thing that helped was a spinal injection that alleviated the inflammation. I know, TMI. But I wanted to give you a context of why I don’t do yoga anymore.

Yoga Done Wrong

I was reminded of this dreadful health experience when I read the New York Times article last week, How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body. Like the Times author, William J. Broad, I believed, “yoga was a source only of healing and never harm.” The yoga teacher Broad interviewed for the article, Glenn Black claims that “the vast majority of people should give up yoga altogether. It’s simply too likely to cause harm.”

According to Black, those of us who sit in chairs all day strain ourselves when we try to be like the yoga Indian practitioners who typically squat and sit cross-legged in their daily lives. The yoga poses, or asanas, are an outgrowth of these types of sitting postures. Not the sitting in chairs in front of the computer type of postures.

When yoga teachers come to Black for bodywork after suffering major traumas, he tells them, “Don’t do yoga.”

The article is truly fascinating. It includes supporting medical evidence and bad, bad stories like mine.

Yoga Done Right

This was just my little story of why I don’t take yoga classes anymore. I do a few yoga postures with the guidance of a highly trained bodywork teacher.

So, let me be clear, I’m not advocating not doing yoga if it makes your body and heart sing, especially if you can do this…

http://youtu.be/loszrEZvS_k

Credits: Thank you, Liza Donnelly for the cartoon from When Do They Serve The Wine?, Elaine Colandrea for Moving For Health, and Jordyn Cormier for the video inspiration.

Bike Right: 3 Reasons (video)

Ride a bike...

1. Because our children know what's best for their future.

Greenhouse gases emitted by cars causes climate change, which will affect our children's and their children's future.

2. Because car commuting costs an arm and a leg.

The typical American family spends almost $8000 a year to own and operate a car. A decent bike can be had for a few hundred dollars, last for years, and cost almost nothing to operate.

3. Because this is your life.

Pollution from cars causes lung cancer, respiratory problems, smog, and acid rain.

http://youtu.be/QDmt_t6umoY

Photo: Paul Newman via Rides A Bike

Fixing Food On A Starving Planet

How we farm and how we eat may prove to be one of the largest issues of our time. There seems to be a lot of deep thinking around this topic, viagra buy and I believe the multi-dimensional problem of climate change reaches into the core of why we need a realignment of the inequalities in our food system – both locally and globally.

How do we fix food on a warming planet? Can we find a solution that will not cause worse damage and more starvation?

Planet Food

In regards to climate change, sick agriculture is a double-edge sword. It’s a sector of our society that is adversely affected by environmental changes. Yet our global food system is one of the greatest contributors to climate change.

“Climate change, price in turn, is contributing to rising rates of hunger and food insecurity. As much as 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions come from the food system.” ~ Slow Food

Pollutants such as pesticides (insecticides and herbicides) sprayed on our food, and injected into the soil, are landing on our plates. We have fumigants in our strawberries, growth inhibitors sprayed on our potatoes, hazardous chemicals like mercury swimming in our fish, and antibiotics pumped into our livestock. Even chocolate and peanut butter are threatened by global warming.

Agriculture has the ability to pollute the environment and make us sick. It also poses potential solutions as we create smarter food alternatives for our families. Growing chemical-free food, and shopping locally can help push back against a broken food system.

But, what about our global community? How can we worry about eating organic spinach when people are dying of malnutrion?

Starving Planet

Changes in climate have exasperated the problem of famine. 

"Higher temperatures and changes in precipitation result in pressure on yields from important crops in much of the world…Biological impacts on crop yields work through the economic system resulting in reduced production, higher crop and meat prices, and a reduction in cereal consumption. This reduction means reduced calorie intake and increased childhood malnutrition." ~ Scientific American

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject, as I’ve just scratched the surface of the issue of food. To create a cleaner plate, the fix won’t just happen organically. As our planet grows warmer, we are going to need to do something. I believe we’ll need to start voting with our stomachs, and healing with our hearts.

Here’s one way to start...

9/11: The Sound of Silence