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Back in the Saddle Again

6/30/2015

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Home Thoughts, From Abroad

Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England-now!

And after April, when May follows, 
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops-at the bent spray's edge-
That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
-Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Robert Browning (1812 - 1889)


I've returned from two weeks spent in the U.K. with my family and a group of high school students. We had a glorious visit filled with interesting trips to cultural landmarks: Chartwell (the home of Winston Churchill), the Tate Britain Museum (home to many J.M.W. Turner paintings), the British Museum (home to the Elgin Marbles which should be returned to Greece), The Bluebell Railway (site of historical scenes filmed for Downton Abbey), Kew Gardens (the oldest and largest horticultural research collection), and so on.  And we visited many pubs, some dating all the way back to the 14th century and still sporting their original fireplaces with huge, blackened sagging beams and low ceilings.  Trying to eat paleo in England--a disaster!  


Our days started with a breakfast provided in our lodging--very basic cereal, toast, and fruit/fruit juice. I supplemented with my chocolate protein shake mix that I'd brought with me.  Lunch, often provided by the school with which we were traveling, was a packaged chicken/bacon/mayo on whole wheat sandwich, crisps (potato chips), maybe a small apple, and a Cadbury "Chomp" bar (a small, gooey chocolate/caramel thing).  I always passed on the Cadbury bar.  Sometimes I was able to get  a protein/veggie dinner, but good luck with that in a pub.  The fare is not light and favors breaded foods, popovers, mashed potatoes, and fried potatoes--your "veggie" choices are usually peas, mushy peas or baked beans.  One night, desperate for something other than fried fish, I ordered a "gammon steak."  It was a thick, salty hunk of ham with a thick rind of fat.  Won't make that mistake again. Salads are usually not of the "tossed, green" variety, they are prepared salads, and vinaigrettes are unheard of in restaurants.  You'll find bottles of "salad cream" instead (a sort of Miracle Whip type product in a squeeze bottle).  This is the land of lots of cured meats, meat pies, potatoes, baked goods, and dairy.  (My daughter, who hates dairy, took Lactaid pills with her in anticipation of problems).  Thankfully, we did so much walking that I didn't gain weight and came back in loose clothes.  The experience left me grateful to have the availability of foods I have at home but it also has me thinking about how to do better as I continue to travel.  

One of the challenging issues with travel is not just the food culture you are visiting but the fact that you are in an artificial situation where you aren't in control of your kitchen and cooking.  Therefore, you are reliant on what is available at restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, airports and convenience stores.  This makes getting basic, fresh fare very difficult.  At the airports, I ate oatmeal, "taco" salads with veggies, salsas, and meat--no chips or cheese, and packages of nuts, fruit and yogurt.  It wasn't great but it worked.  On the plane I even had a bag of cashews in lieu of the late-night "dinner" meal. Looking at my husband's Chicken Teriyaki plate, I think I got the better end of the bargain.  I drank tea in England since the coffee there is universally awful.  There is still a great fondness for Nescafe instant and the use of thin, homogenized milk as lightener means the coffee always has that greyish tone and watery taste.  I actually appreciated regaining my love of tea enjoying many cups of English Breakfast or Early Grey.  Since returning, I'm drinking more tea than coffee and even starting the day with a couple of mugs of green jasmine (my drink of choice for many years when I was off of coffee). One of the fun things to do now that I'm back home, is to think about how I might incorporate some flavors or traditions of England into my world without taking on the less healthful aspects.  I'm sure that the English taste for sweets and baked goods is a response to the bitter tannins in tea (Sidney Mintz in his book, Sweetness and Power suggests this and also puts forward a fascinating thesis that tea and sugar enabled the industrial revolution by providing easy, warm and comforting calories to workers).  The emphasis on meat and dairy relates to the Isles' history of animal husbandry and the raising of livestock.  The potato was brought over from the so-called "New World" in the sixteenth-century and adopted because 30% more calories are provided by potatoes than any cereal crop on the same amount of land.  Tubers such as potatoes are also an easier staple food source as they require little in the way of processing (no chafing or milling). The cuisine also has been influenced by the imperial history of England and thus curry seasonings and chutneys abound as well.  So, I'm thinking about how I can capitalize on some of these traditions and flavors, working in my recent experience, but adapting it to the way I now want to eat.  

A few ideas, with dairy still being employed, but mindfully and with an emphasis on those forms easy to digest and known to be healthful:
  • Instead of scones, clotted cream, and raspberry jam (as pictured above), a bowl of fresh raspberries topped with coconut milk, a few golden raisins, and some chopped walnuts or almonds. Accompanied by a pot of tea.
  • Baked, not fried, fish served with parsnip fries and fresh-made tartar sauce.
  • Omelets with the veggies fried in coconut oil and curry powder
  • Mango Lassi: 1 cup. of buttermilk, 1/2 cup of water, a cup of fresh or frozen mango chunks, a half a frozen banana and a packet of stevia powdered sweetener, whirl in blender.
  • Roast beef with rutabaga mash (I'll save that for winter), with brussel sprouts and carrots
  • Coconut milk ice cream
  • "Trifles" made with greek yogurt and fresh fruit.

I'm happy to have been to England again, but also happy to be home and back in the "paleo" saddle. Our "New Age" offers us the privilege of travel to new countries and cultures.  It isn't healthy to go with an an attitude that you will hate everything or experience difficulty.  It's best to try, to embrace, to do a lot of sightseeing that involves walking, and then to come away with a newly found appreciation for what you learned about others and yourself.  That's the beauty of New Age Paleo.  A willingness to experiment and reinvent, honoring the past, present and future.

Happy Trails and Travels,
Lisabeth


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Standing Tall

6/8/2015

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Photo by Matthias Trautsch, Berlin from Wiki Commons
Today I came across an article on NPR about posture in modern "civilization" and how we have lost it. The article focused on the work of Esther Gokhale, a sufferer of back pain herself, who decided after one back surgery, and another one impending, to investigate posture in different areas of the world. She contended that indigenous cultures had members who were able to carry loads of goods or water on their heads, or work or sit on the ground, without terrible back issues.  Her hypothesis after doing her own field research was that members of tribal, indigenous cultures had a "J" shaped spine, not an "S" shaped one.  Furthermore, investigation into photographic evidence from the late 19th/early 20th centuries revealed that even in the West, this type of posture was commonly shown.  Thus, she concluded that in our modern 20th/21st century world, we have built in comfort--superficially--and our backs have changed and ached as a result.  

As a yoga teacher, I find the discussion of posture fascinating and critically important.  Indeed, so many Westerners have poor posture due to many lifestyle choices: inactivity, ill-designed chairs, too much weight,  and too much time spent not only sitting, but hunched over a keyboard or video game. The result can be "turtle backs" that curve at the top thus placing way too much stress on the thoracic area of the spine.  Try this exercise right now: sit up straight, now pull your biceps in toward one another so that your upper back curves, feel what this does to the middle of your back.  Now, pull the arms apart, roll your shoulders back and down, and open the chest in the heart region.  Feel how this frees the spine, particularly that whole middle portion.  This is how your back loves to feel.

Paleo people didn't have to worry about slouching in their chairs, or even about sitting too much. However, we in the modern world do.  Many of our jobs, especially office jobs, seem to require that we park our rumps for hours on end at our desks.  Paleo living isn't just about eating, it's about cultivating those human habits that honor our physiology.  So why not focus on posture?  So many people suffer terrible back pain that paying attention to this foundational part of your health is critical. Here are some things that can help you to pay more attention to your posture.  As one yoga teacher once said to our class "you're only as young as your back feels."
  1. Practice Mountain Pose: Stand with feet hips' width apart.  Now ground your feet into the floor, feeling all four corners.  Stack your ankles over your heels, your knees over your ankles, your hips over your knees, pull the belly up and in to give you "corset" strength.  Stack shoulders over hips, chin parallel to floor, crown of head reaching skyward.  This is standing tall.
  2. Stand more at work.  I never teach sitting down.  I feel that the energy I get from standing and moving brings more energy to my teaching.  I wear wedge sandals or heeled boots as I find they provide more support than flat shoes when standing for many hours.  If you have a desk job, think about what you might do standing.  Do you have to sit to make phone calls?  Probably not.  Is there a book case or cabinet or counter where you could stand and work instead of sitting?
  3. Get rid of your office chair.  Yes, you read that right.  Upon seeing a colleague using an exercise ball as a desk chair, I decided to do the same.  It's transformative.  Now I have to hold myself up straight and tall to work sitting.  My tummy is working while I'm working and it feels fantastic.  You can get a ball for about $40.  DO IT IMMEDIATELY.  I promise you'll never look back.
  4. Restorative Pose: Lie back on the floor, or even your bed, with a rolled up towel under your lumbar (lower back).  Close the eyes and relax the back into the support.  If it tenses up then you REALLY need this, work with it until it softens.  Do this every night.  ESSENTIAL for those suffering daily back pain.
  5. Meditate.  Buy a meditation cushion (also about $40).  Train yourself to sit upright with legs crossed, or lower legs bent under upper legs (Hero's pose).  Start with two minutes, then work up to five, then ten, then twenty.  Focus only on breath and opening the heart.  Every time you start to feel yourself slouching, open the chest, pull shoulder blades back toward each other and feel the spine straighten.
  6. Less television, more walking.  If you spend all day at work on your butt, then why spend your night there too?
  7. Go Paleo, Drop some weight.  Five to ten percent of your body weight is a big deal and so good for backs and knees.  Don't believe me?  Pick up a couple of ten pound weights, or five pound weights and walk around with them for a few minutes.

I just got back from South Dakota where prairie dogs, like the ones pictured above, sit straight up out of their holes.  The people spend too much time indoors (in trailers and houses) and too much time sitting due to the lack of employment opportunities.  A sedentary lifestyle is just one of many modern ills impacting the people of the Pine Ridge Reservation negatively, but it is an health problem so many of us suffer from due to a life filled with passivity.  The first step to better posture is awareness. Put a post-it on your computer to remind you to sit up tall.  Better yet, figure out more ways to stand up tall.  It's a primary step in feeling confident and strong and building a healthy lifestyle.  For your reference, I've included a link below to the article that inspired this blog.

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/06/08/412314701/lost-posture-why-indigenous-cultures-dont-have-back-pain

Standing tall--

Lisabeth
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    I'm Lisabeth.  Having tried just about every diet to be my best self, I'm realizing that quality protein, whole foods, and no starchy carbs really is the only thing that works for me.  Join me as I take us on a journey to discover how we can go paleo in a modern new age..

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    Article from NPR on eating breakfast:
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