Whodunit?

What's your best guess on the animal that crawled out of the snow to eat a few nuts?  

The three black lines are pine needles, not hairs from the animal.  The photo was taken on February 23, 2014 in southern Vermont when the temperature was above freezing. . . not far from a brook. . . 

New Food Labels in Two Years

The Food and Drug Administration is proposing a new design for food labels.  Here's the skinny from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/health/new-fda-nutrition-labels-would-make-serving-sizes-reflect-actual-servings.html

I think it's funny that the head of the FDA is a woman named Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg. Later on in the article the Times quotes a professor of  nutrition, food studies, and public health from New York University whose name is Marion Nestle.

In a recent episode of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" Jerry Seinfeld says that comedy is more personal than food. . . 

Baby Needs Snowshoes

Snowshoes.  Who knew they can bring out the kid in you?    Late-afternoon weather ideal.   A couple of feet of snow on the ground.  Sunny skies, 35 degrees, light wind, high, thin clouds.   Both the ditz and the geek wore Fitbits.   

Earlier in the day the geek had  purchased a shiny new pair of Tubbs Xpedition snowshoes http://tubbssnowshoes.com/snowshoes/xpedition-mm at Sam's Outfitters in Brattleboro, VT. http://www.samsoutfitters.com/index.asp  The knowledgable salesman gave us a brief overview of what to expect in backcountry snowshoeing.    We're in the southern  Green Mountains of Vermont, so not exactly wilderness, but within minutes we can be in deep woods,  on historic logging roads with fairly steep terrain. 

First obstacle:  the giant snow pile at the end of the road created by the town plow.  The ditz, who proceeds with trepidation when large objects  are attached to her feet, chose to put her snowshoes on after the snow pile.  

Obstacle Number One

                                                                                                            

This proved a slight miscalculation on her part, as snow fell into her boots.  On his snowshoes, the geek "floated" high on the surface of the snow, the inside of his boots snowless.  Once on level ground, and deep in snow, naturally, the ditz strapped on the snowshoes.  She had owned them for five years but had never used them.   In fact, the product tags had only shortly before been removed. The ditz's snowshoes, Winter Walkers from L. L. Bean http://www.llbean.com/, are "ideal for fitness walks and family adventures."  They are no longer available, but similar ones are.

The bindings are easy enough to figure out, so we were soon snowshoeing. The snow was deep, soft, untouched. Lift one foot, set it down, and sink about six inches.  Lift the next foot, now with the added resistance of some soft snow that clings to the shoe, and put it down.   The ditz led for a while until she grew tired of breaking trail, then the geek, until he grew tired. The snow-filled forest  of hemlock and pine and hardwoods and rock and fern (The ferns are buried, but we know they are there because we can feel them collapse  under the snow.) soothed our New York City-jangled nerves, on this, our first day of vacation.

Suddenly we heard a great "whumpfing" sound as the snow beneath us shifted.  The sensation was similar to being on a frozen pond and hearing the ice crack.  Once we actually  saw the snow shifting its layers around us in addition to hearing a great "whumpf."    We were in no danger of an avalanche, but we remained vigilant, as should you.

If you are ambulatory, you can snowshoe.  It's the cheapest outdoor  winter sport after pond skating. Sturdy winter boots you already have in your closet  will work in the simple  bindings. Poles are a nice addition, especially if you are going to be climbing some steeper areas.  Already own downhill ski poles?   Use them for snowshoeing, as we do.  Snowshoeing requires balance, so expect a good workout of your abdominal core,  your vestibular system (That's in your ears!),  and your proprioceptors.  We encountered some fallen trees that we had to step over and one fallen tree we had to step under.  We tried to limbo.  Maybe next time.  

The cardio benefits are off the charts.  A study  published in 2002 in "The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research" found that snowshoeing required  50 percent more calories than previously thought.  Clearly, the people who thought snowshoeing was the same as regular walking had never tried it.   Runners who run with snowshoes in the winter can significantly improve their V02 Max, according to a study performed at the University of Vermont. http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/content/content.jsp?contentId=300158 

On her second day out the Ditz wore her  Garmin  http://www.garmin.com/en-US GPS and heart rate monitor for a 1.5 hour snowshoe. Forty-eight percent of the time  she was in the endurance range;  45 percent of the time she worked at tempo;  and 2 percent of the workout she was at threshold level.  For you math people, yes, there were a few minutes in the recovery zone too.  There was an elevation gain of 800 feet.  We were  breaking new trail for part of the time, which takes more energy.   We climbed some pretty steep terrain,  to our minds anyway.  Coming down requires more vestibular work, which triggers the quadriceps and the calf muscles to work harder on the descents, to keep you from free-falling.  The core will work hard on the descents too, to stay upright.   

The Fitbits recorded 2500 steps and 30 floors.  With practice and varying conditions, the Ditz could develop a great cardio fitness routine on snowshoes.  Perhaps what she likes as much as anything is the chance to be outdoors and commune with Mother Nature during the "quiet" season.    

Trail after two passes by two people

 Send me photos of your snowshoeing adventures and I'll post them here.  

More Mindfulness

Here's a link http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22 to eight wonderful  meditations put together by folks at the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA.

These free introductory mindfulness meditations will get you started if you have never meditated before.  They range in length from 3 to 19 minutes.  The subject matter includes mind-body awareness, loving kindness,  sleep issues, and that good ole catch all "difficulties."  Mindfulness is not meant to change you--just to help you be more present with what "IS."  It you already meditate, you will appreciate these well-conceived meditations.

It's always tempting to want to change  what we find offensive or irritating.  But what if we just learned to accept things as they are, without judgment?  Would our lives be a little better?

The  folks at MARC  have  published longer podcast meditations on  different topics.   http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=107  They have been publishing these for a couple of years, so there is a large resource at your fingertips.

Here's a particularly nice one featuring Michael Perricone playing Tibetan singing bowls http://marc.ucla.edu/mpeg/Hammer101013.mp3.  This one lasts about 25 minutes.

I was once in a store trying out different singing bowls.  I had difficulty getting a particular bowl to sing.  The store owner told me the sound was "coming from far away."

Let me know if you try any of these and whether you enjoy them. 

Food for Thought-- A Mindful Eating Experiment

Are you guilty, as am I, of multitasking while you eat?    Do you read a magazine or newspaper and gobble down a bowl of oatmeal at the same time?  Or watch tv and chow down chips?  How about the computer? Do you surf and scarf?  This is mindless eating.  

Do you consciously prepare and eat your food?  Do you say grace?  Do you eat slowly and enjoy the flavors of the food?  This  is mindful eating.

Try this experiment.  You will need about half an hour of quiet time to fully experience this. Do this at a time when you will be hungry but not starving.

Choose a  very small portion of any whole, flavorful food.    Perhaps it will be a piece of fresh or dried fruit, a raw or cooked vegetable,  a few tablespoons of yogurt, or a small number of nuts or seeds.  Whatever you choose, make sure it is something that you will enjoy. I have done this experiment with three raisins, but you can use any food you like.  The point is to slow down, taste your food, and chew it throughly.

Take some time to carefully prepare your food.  Arrange your food attractively on a attractive plate and set it on the table in front of you.

Sit down and look at the food for a minute or two.  Examine its color and its shape. What is your food made of?  What is its essence?   Will it be juicy?  Dense?    Fleshy?  Crunchy or soft?  Can you see and identify the energy in your food?

Reflect for a moment on where the food came from.  A tree?  Was it pulled from the earth?  A plant? Who might have grown the food and where?  Who harvested it?  Did it have a long journey to get to your plate?  Was your food processed some how?

Inhale a deep breath and exhale completely.  Look at your food again and thank it for offering itself to you.  Thank the universe for bringing this food to you.  Breathe in and out consciously again.

Does the food have an aroma?  Can you identify it?

Take one bite and savor the taste.  Sweet?  Salty?  Sour?  Pungent?  Bitter?  Astringent?  Note the sensation of the food in your mouth.  What part of the mouth do you experience the food?  On the tip of the tongue?  In the back of the throat?  On the roof of the mouth?

Upper left to right,  sweet potato, sour yogurt, salty pistachios,
pungent garlic and onion, bitter olives, astringent dried apricot

You're probably finished with that first bite now.  Go ahead and take another.  Remain present and consciously chew the food.  The more thoroughly you chew food,  the more nutrients you will receive from it. You may also reach a point of "fullness," or satiety,  earlier than if you swallow mindlessly without chewing. The recommended number of chews per bite is 35.  Did you come close to 35 chews?  

When you finish your portion, reflect on your experience.  How do you feel?  What did you enjoy about the food?  Did the food trigger any memories?  If you were to eat a large portion of this food, what effect would it have on you?  Could you eat a meal-- or maybe start with a snack--mindfully at least once a day or once a week?

Share your experience of this mindfulness experiment with me.

A Sad Day for Inwood

Walking down Broadway this afternoon, I discovered that the antique fire alarm that stood on the corner of Isham Street and Broadway since around 1910 had been knocked down.  My guess is that a city plow got the best of it.  

This must weigh a ton.  I imagine it is cast iron. It was featured in an article by the folks at Forgotten New York last year.  http://forgotten-ny.com/2013/02/broadway-and-isham-streets-inwood/

Will this relic be saved?  Perhaps reinstalled?  Let me know if you have any information about this landmark.  

Julia and Isham?

We wanted to log steps on the Fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/store this morning, so we walked north to Muscotta Marsh and Spuyten Duyvil.   On our way home I saw a gentleman stopped on the sidewalk craning his neck to gaze up into a tree. Thinking he might have spotted a  bird of prey,  I looked up and saw not just one, but a pair of red-tailed hawks! 

Male and female red-tail hawks

The male is lower down the branch.  From where we were standing we could see the coppery red of his tail.  The female was fluffing her feathers to stay warm.   A hawk nest and a pair with at least one fledgling had been spotted in Inwood Hill Park in the woods near the soccer field last year.   We were on the corner of Indian Hill Road and Seaman Avenue. Are these two that pair or another?  

We didn't see the birds mating, but you can see they weren't far apart.  They were courting (first sign of spring!), technically speaking,  in a tree in Isham Park, as opposed to Inwood Hill Park, on property given to the city of New York by Julia Isham Taylor and Flora Isham.  The two women,  were pioneer philanthropists.  They were the first to give land, specifically for the benefit of all of its citizens for use as parkland,  to the City of New York.  Millions of New Yorkers have benefited from their generosity. The first gift of Isham land was made in 1912.  At some point over the course of the century since the gift was made the section west of Seaman Avenue  was incorporated into Inwood Hill Park.  

Have you read  Red Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park by Marie Winn? http://www.amazon.com/Red-Tails-Love-Wildlife-Central-Departures/dp/0679758461 You won't be able to put it down, as Marie's style is delightful and  the story of raptors versus celebrities and city bureaucrats is packed with drama.  Marie maintains a website with the current comings and goings of her favorite Fifth Avenue denizens here: http://mariewinnnaturenews.blogspot.com/.  

If I am so lucky as to see these birds again, I shall call the female Julia, after Mrs. Julia Isham Taylor,  and the male Isham, in honor of William Isham, who was Julia's uncle and the owner of the estate that is now Isham Park. 

Are you intrigued by birds of prey?  Do you have any good urban raptor stories or photos?

A Poem by Mary Oliver

Count the Roses

Count the roses, red and fluttering.

Count the roses, wrinkled and salt.

Each with its yellow lint at the center. 

Each with its honey pooled and ready.

Do you have a question that can't be answered?

Do the stairs frighten you by their heaviness

  and their endless number?

Does it bother you, that mercy is so difficult to understand?

For some souls it's easy;  they lie down on the sand

and soon are asleep.

For others, the mind shivers in its glacial palace, and won't come.

Yes, the mind takes a long time, is otherwise occupied 

than by happiness, and deep breathing.

Now, in the distance, some bird is singing.

And now I have gathered six or seven deep red,

half-opened cups of petals between my hands,

and now I have put my face against them

and now I am moving my face back and forth, slowly,

against them.

The body is not much more than two feet and a tongue.

Come to me, says the blue sky, and say the word.

And finally even the mind comes running, like a wild thing, 

and lies down in the sand.

Eternity is not later, or in any unfindable place.

Roses, roses, roses, roses.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cross-country Skiing!!!

My Fitbit had a field day when I went cross-country skiing last weekend in Vermont at Wild Wings Ski & Yoga http://wildwingsski.com/.  The snow was plentiful, the weather just right for stomping around on skis with skies clear, sun plentiful,  with little wind.

And stomp around is just what I did.  Last year I moved from Minneapolis, MN, where I used to ski on a city lake that was groomed.  Yup, you read that right.  The City of Minneapolis grooms cross-country ski trails in the heart of the city.  That's partly why the city and the state rank so high in health studies.  

But now I live in New York and vacation as much as possible in Vermont.  In the Green Mountains. Wild Wings is anything but flat once you get off  the green beginner trails.  The intermediate trails at Wild Wings are designed for a good cardio workout with lots of climbing.  In years past I had rented skis from Wild Wings and had thoroughly enjoyed myself on those climbs.  Wanting to save a few bucks, I tried my Minnesota skis.

I have been skiing for 20 years, but, in fact, I am a novice.  I feel like I have sticks attached to my feet.  People who have skied since they were kids think nothing of having sticks on their feet.   I still can't get over it.

I fell climbing the first hill as soon as I had to use a technique called herringbone, duck walk,  or V-1.  It looks like this when done by a competent skier:

It was face plant time in between my skis. I picked myself up and trudged onward.  Step, slide backwards, fall.  Repeat.    I learned that by taking smaller steps than I might have with rental skis, I could survive and sort of hang with the group I provided they went slower.  When I hit a really steep patch I often had to revert to side-stepping, a slower technique,  up the hill. 

I finally got the hang of how to cope, somewhat, and began to enjoy myself.  Who wouldn't, with scenery like this and the woods to ourselves? 

                                                                                                     Loon Trail, Wild Wings Ski & Yoga

We skied 5.1 kilometers.  I was completely bushed.  I had used my arms much more than normal, which I could tell from my achy biceps and triceps the next day. My abductors were burning from the herringbone, which requires you to walk knock kneed.  Through some miracle I did not get hurt.  

Back at the warming hut built from lumber harvested on the property, we chowed down some delicious vegetarian chili that Mama Wild Wings made.   I spoke with Papa Wild Wings, a cross country ski expert, about my skis.  He put them back-to-back and squeezed them with his strong hands. They were like pancakes. Then he did the same with a pair of his rental skis. They had a nice little bounce in them.  It was obvious that my skis were much stiffer, less flexible, and harder to squeeze.   He told me that I would have to put lots of pressure on my skis to stay upright. In other words, I had to stomp. I know only a poor carpenter blames his tools, but, What a relief!   

I was delighted by the number of steps (8000, give or take) and the number of stairs (111, a record for me!) that Fitbit registered. All of those baby steps on skis paid off! For some strange reason, given my perceived exertion and the accumulated sweat on my long underwear,   only 6 minutes were "very active minutes."  I had skied for 90 minutes and yet only 6 of them met the Fitbit standard.  They were probably the minutes I spent getting up off the ground. . . 

I'm going to ski again and see whether I can improve my "very active minutes" score.  

Focus, Focus, Focus

I have had a frustrating few days with regards to my fitness. It's easy for me to take a minor setback and turn  against myself, an unhealthy habit.  Then I got to thinking about Olympic athletes and what remarkable focus they possess.  

Clearly Olympic athletes are incredibly motivated individuals.  They can do and have done the same thing over and over and over and over again so that their bodies move exactly how they want them to. They have mastered their sports to the extent that they can visualize the outcomes that they want so that they win.  Sure, they have physical gifts that I don't have.  But more important, probably, is that they have focus.

Today, after a bike workout where my Garmin power meter didn't work properly, I knew I just had to clear my head, to shift my focus.  I was judging myself for not working hard enough on the bike. The temptation to sit on the couch and feel sorry for myself was great. Despite good efforts with regard to my dietary intake, yesterday the number on the scale was, shall we say, not the one I had been expecting.  

Rather than continue to  indulge in a destructive behavior, I decided to practice a self-acceptance meditation. An internet search prompted me to try this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUHTVikjM7k. I settled into a cross legged position on the couch, closed my eyes, and began to focus awareness on my breath, as the guide instructed. I inhaled for a count of four, held the breath for a count of three, and exhaled for a count of six. After several rounds of focused breathing, I shifted my awareness to a feeling of well-being.  I affirmed that I am healthy and fit 60-year old woman with many blessings.  I affirmed that I am eating a healthy diet of whole, nutritious foods.  I affirmed that I am capable of any changes that I want to make in my life.  I went back to watching the breath for a few more minutes and felt the grip of judgment melting away.  

The YouTube meditation was created by Wendy Wallace, a woman who writes a blog for people who, like her, have 100+ pounds to lose.  Wendy, you are doing a great service with your blog and with your self-affirming meditation.  Thank you, Wendy, for successfully shifting my focus! You can read Wendy here:  http://eatsleepmove.com/about/

Meditation is a valuable tool for shifting your focus as you face life's constant challenges.  There are more free meditations of all kinds available on the internet than I can count.  Do you meditate? Do you have a favorite? What do you do when you feel yourself losing focus?  

Valentine To Myself: Rest Day!

After four very active days filled with walking, downhill, and cross-country skiing, today is a rest day.   I am not just talking about sleep, which is vital.  I am talking about deep rest--physical and mental rest--which I believe is essential to a healthy, rewarding life.

The more I stress my body, the higher my cortisol levels rise.  My body expects me to work hard and stress it again today.  I know it is time for some rest because I didn't sleep well or long enough last night despite lots of physical activity.  Poor sleep is an indication that my body has been overstimulated and exhausted. 

Today I will practice an hour of restorative yoga.  Restorative yoga stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, the "rest and digest" part of the nervous system.  All of the exercise I have been doing has been stimulating my sympathetic nervous system, the "fight or flight" system.   Contrary to the messages I've been sending to my body, I am not being chased by a saber-toothed tiger. I need to send messages to my body that I am back in the cave, surrounded by friends and family, all danger passed.   

I have had the great good fortune of studying restorative yoga with Judith Hanson Lasater, author of the book on restorative yoga,  Relax and Renew http://www.amazon.com/Relax-Renew-Restful-Stressful-Times/dp/1930485298. I recommend you buy it and work with a trained yoga teacher if you want to practice restorative yoga.  

As practiced by Judith Lasater, restorative yoga benefits the body in several ways:  

• Lowers blood pressure and heart rate
• Reduces muscle tension and fatigue
• Lowers serum triglycerides and blood sugar levels
• Reduces cortisol and boosts immunity

By moving my spine in all directions over the course of an hour of so,  the large muscles in my body and my organs will be gently opened, rather than stretched.  Using an assortment of props, I will practice a forward bend, a backward bend, and a twist.  I will also practice a safe, gentle inversion--where my head will be lower than my heart and my feet higher than my heart and digestive organs-- to reduce the effects of gravity on my body.  The inversion will reverse the flow of blood and lymph that has pooled in my lower body, counteracting the skiing, walking, and sitting that I have been doing.    My body will then be ready to relax into my favorite pose: Savasana, for twenty minutes.  

Roger Cole, Ph.D., a yoga teacher and scientist,  has studied the physiological effects of restorative yoga, relaxation, and posture.  He published this wonderful graphic, complete with stick figure images of the different yoga postures on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RogerColeYoga 

One of Roger's students wore a heart rate monitor during Roger's restorative yoga class in Del Mar, CA.  Over the course of the class, the student's heart rate slowed continuously until it reached a low of 28 beats per minute  (bpm) during a supported supta baddha konasana (supported bound angle). You can see from the chart above that the student's heart rate would fall as he settled into the series of postures and then rise whenever he would release out of a pose and set up the next one.  

Notice how long each of those postures was held.  The student practiced a standing forward fold with his head on a block for a few minutes, bringing blood to the head.  Then the chest and was elevated and opened in a supported bridge variation for what looks to be about 5 minutes. Heart rate rose while the student transitioned into a   15-minute supported bridge, where the heart rate fell below 40 bpm.  An 8- or 9-minute supported forward fold quieted the body further.  I'm guessing that the student turned his head from one side to another during this forward fold, because you can see that the heart elevated slightly in the middle of that section.  A suppported spinal twist was practiced on each side of the body;  again you can see where the heart rate elevated when the student switched sides.

   

During his sixth posture, supported baddha konasana, or cobbler's pose,  the student reached the low of 28 bpm.  The decline in heart rate is similar to what happened in the supported bridge, but the student gets deeper and deeper into a resting, restful state.  Then he transitioned into his final posture, a very gentle Savasana with his legs elevated on a chair.  Compare the resting heart rate between the first posture and the last posture and draw your own conclusion.  Do you think the student felt rested when he finished?  Was his mood changed?  Did he sleep well that night?

I can rest my body deeply when I set up the right environment for a good restorative session: support myself properly so that I can be still and open rather than stretching the body;  close the eyes and cover them with an eyebag; practice in a room without music;  cover my body with  a blanket to keep the body warm.  In a sense, I have to recreate that cave I mentioned before.  Judith recommends at a bare minimum a 20-minute Savasana every day. http://www.judithlasater.com/

If I were more of a geek, I could show you a printout of my heart rate during a restorative session at home.  Alas, I have to leave that to others. I await Fitbit introducing an affordable gizmo that could measure the quality of my restorative yoga sessions. . . 

Try a restorative yoga class at a study near you!  Knowing how to rest is a skill you can rely on as you face challenges--both physical and emotional-- in your life.  

More Analytics: My Fitness Pal

Fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/ has a built-in food diary, but because I eat non-processed food i.e., whole foods,  as much as possible (NB: If Grandmother didn't eat it, neither should I.) it is a waste of my time to use Fitbit's food diary.

After exploring the Fitbit community, however, experienced users turned me on to a free app called My Fitness Pal https://www.myfitnesspal.com that syncs to Fitbit.

I have only been using My Fitness Pal (MFP) for a few days, but so far it is outperforming Fitbit's food diary by about 20 percent.  It is very easy to use, but I have opinions on how to make it better.  

                               Tailor portions to exactly what is eaten
                               Improve the recipe software


MFP uses a drop down menu for portion sizes, with  two or three options per entry.  This morning's breakfast was Breadshop's Honey Gone Nuts http://www.arrowheadmills.com/product/honey-gone-nuts.   I ate 1/3 cup, but MFP only lets me enter 1/2 cup.  There's a big caloric difference between the two, especially when added up over the course of a week. Less granola in the bowl means less skim milk too. Again, I poured in 1/3 cup of skim milk, not 1/2. I ate 1/2 banana  instead of the whole banana that MFP entered into my diary.

MFP figures I ate a 405 calorie breakfast.  I don't know how much less it was, but it had to be under 400. The 1/2 banana alone is a saving of 42 calories. If I am going to go through the exercise of entering all of this data, I want accuracy. My weight loss goal is 5 pounds.  I might reach my goal faster if I had accurate data.  And if I had a much bigger weight loss goal ahead of me, I would be totally discouraged by MFP's inaccuracies.

Then there's the "homemade" issue. Am I the only woman in America who cooks at home?  I think not.   I used a recipe from Deborah Madison's Greens  http://www.amazon.com/The-Greens-Cookbook-Extraordinary-Vegetarian/dp/0553051954/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391784421&sr=8-1&keywords=deborah+madison+greens called Buckwheat Linguine with French Lentils, Carrots, and Chard.  It was yummy, perfect for a cold, snowy night. Well worth the effort.  I laboriously entered all of the ingredients into the nutrition calculator. MFP wanted me to enter it all over again, for a reason I have yet to ascertain, so that I could "share" it with everyone else, which I can't do as I don't own it.   I recommend you go out and buy the cookbook.  It will change how you think about vegetables!  

To add insult to injury,  for lunch I had--you guessed it--leftover Buckwheat Linguine with French Lentils, Carrots, and Chard.  I dutifully entered that into the app.  My wonderful lunch came up on my diary without any caloric information.  No calories, no carbs, no fats, no protein, no sodium, no sugar, no nothing!  MFP probably did that the day before, too, but I hadn't noticed it.

Losing those 5 pounds might took longer than I had thought.  I had better go find some more stairs to climb.

Fort Tryon Park Snow Day

Today the park screamed:  get outside and walk!  From the stoop I knew it was going to be a beautiful walk.

Mare's tails and contrails 

Walking down one hill to climb another, with my Fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/store?gclid=CLCLw6mxurwCFU7xOgodDQ0A4Q securely fastened,  my goal was to do some serious walking and climbing. I chose to explore Fort Tryon Park. https://www.forttryonparktrust.org/ Unlike Central Park, which is a landscape created by man, Fort Tryon is a "natural" park.  Fort Tryon Park  was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead Jr.,  (son of the man who created Central Park) in the 1920s and built by workers during the Works Progress Administration.  The park contains 67 acres, much of it with breathtaking views of the Hudson River and the Palisades in New Jersey.  

Carriage road to the Cloisters built during the WPA.  Icy Hudson River on the right.

Fitbit clocked 14 floors climbing the hill to The Cloisters, a medieval museum that is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and that sits on a bluff overlooking the Hudson. Housing a collection of some 2,000 pieces of medieval art, the Cloisters http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters is a mélange of sacred and secular buildings from France and Spain, predominantly, that only some rich Americans, among them John D. Rockefeller, Jr.,  could have collected and glued together in an melting-pot way 75 years ago.         

12th-century apse from Spain reconstructed in NYC

South entrance of The Cloisters

Deeper in the Park lies the Heather Garden, the largest collection of heaths and heathers on the East Coast. The many plants in this three-acre site with stunning views of the Hudson and the Cloisters were blanketed in snow, disturbed only by a lonely jogger.

Heather Garden in Winter

Onward I walked, out of the Park,   south to West 181st Street, where I stopped in at a Russian grocery store to eye the caviar and other exotic foods.  Without a purchase, I turned 'round and headed back home via the city streets.  

By the end of the day I had taken 12,600 steps for 5.37 miles, had climbed 46 flights, and  burned 2050 calories.  Plus I got some much-needed Vitamin D with my time in the sunshine.  Yay, Fitbit! 

Kudos, CVS!

CVS gives up tobacco: http://info.cvscaremark.com/cvs-insights/cvs-quits  CVS will phase out tobacco product sales by October, 2014.  They will also start to phase-in a smoking cessation program.

Makes sense, doesn't it?  The CDC reports that tobacco is responsible for roughly 1 in 5 deaths in America.   CVS is in the health care business with 7600 retail locations.  They have 800 Minute Clinic locations staffed with nurse practitioners and pharmacists. Presumably they plan to expand that part of their service.  Minute Clinics http://www.minuteclinic.com/about/ will service a much healthier clientele without tobacco users in their midst.

CVS will give up $2 billion in tobacco sales annually.  This is a brave move.  Support CVS, so that other retailers--are you listening Walgreens, Walmart,  et al?--get off the butts too.

Still a smoker?  Check out Can't Quit? Bullsh*t:  You Can Stop Smoking by Dr. Richard Brunswick.  http://www.quitsmokingmessageboard1.com/cant-quit-bullsht-you-can-stop-smoking One technique Dr. Brunswick recommends for quitting is to reward yourself with a treat with the money you save when you quit smoking. A FitbitOne http://www.fitbit.com/one might be a great reward.  What could be a better healthy lifestyle choice than to quit smoking and to start measuring your steps?

Full disclosure, I smoked a pack of cigs a day between the ages of 18 and 24.  My mother suffered a long, slow end-of-life with emphysema.  One of my older brothers has COPD.

Am I Now a Cyborg?

I got an email today from Fitbit that read:

Congratulations, FitDitz!

As the result of your involvement within the community, you have earned a new rank. Your new rank is Keeping Pace.

We appreciate your efforts and hope you will continue to be an active member of the community.

Thanks!

The Fitbit Community Team

Also, on my dashboard I got a new badge for "Trainer" which indicated that I burned 173 Activity Calories (definition unknown).  I think this has to do with signing up for a free week of "premium" so that I can get hooked on another badge, but I'm not sure.  

Does using Self-analytics turn us into cyborgs--creatures who are enhanced by computers?  To avoid turning into a cyborg do I resist "improving" my scores as much as possible?  Or embrace it?

How does Skiing Measure up on the Fitbit?

Stratton Mountain Stratton.com was the scene for two days of skiing  with friends this weekend. Temperatures were in the high teens and twenties, with minimal wind.  Over a 48-hour period we experienced the typical Southern Vermont weather mix  of sun-cloud-gray-airyness-damp-snow-and-blinding-blizzard-with-fog-on-the-summit.  "Airyness" is courtesy of the bulletin board at the Ursa lift on Saturday. We had lots of fun.

So how many steps did the Fitbit record on a typical downhill skiing day?    The first day on-the-mountain total was 4500 steps.   I climbed 10 floors.  The second day I skied an hour less.  I logged 3775 steps and 10 floors, with no active minutes.  According to Fitbit I had two "light activity" days, but I was tired.

Don't let the step count fool you into thinking I was a slug for two weekend days.  Skiing has more going for it than steps. Besides, a flight of stairs in ski boots has got to be worth more than one in Birkenstocks, but the self-analytics devices aren't smart enough to factor that in.  Yet.

Skiing is an all-body weight-bearing exercise.  When not on the lift,  I was strengthening my entire skeleton and warding off osteoporosis.   I was strengthening muscles, especially the gluteus, quadriceps, and the abdominal core.  Hundreds of proprioceptive adjustments are required to maintain balance.  Add to that the endorphin rush, the breathtaking views of the Green Mountains, and the socializing with old and new friends, and skiing is time well spent.

Skiing is such all-encompassing sport that it's one of the few times I indulge and share an order of french fries with lunch. . .

Active Lives are Longer Lives, No Matter Your Age, Or When You Start

A new public health study from Britain indicates that moderate exercise leads to healthier lives and to longevity.  http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/48/3/239.abstract  The study involved over 3400 men and women between the ages of 63 and 71 and followed them for eight years. Folks who live "healthier lives"  exercise moderately or vigorously at least once a week and remain free of chronic disease, depression, and cognitive and physical impairment.

Perhaps the best news is that no matter when we start exercising we can benefit from it. Nor do we need to run marathons or compete in master classes.  We simply need to be moderate and consistent.

A Fitbit can be a great tool for people who want to start a new walking exercise program.  Start at your own pace  and build up slowly over the weeks and months.  No doubt some of the 3400 folks who participated in the study had their own ups and downs over the eight year period--and yet, the results prove that even moderate exercise wards off the effects of aging.

Shake off that Chicken Fat!

Do you remember President Kennedy's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports?  That initiative, along with the passage of Title IX in 1972, had a major impact on our country. President Kennedy published an important essay, "The Soft American" in Sports Illustrated http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1134750/2/index.htm in 1960.  He wrote, "Thus, in a very real and immediate sense, our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security."  Italics are mine.  He believed that our physical vigor was one of our country's resources. 

To fight the Cold War we needed to be physically fit.  The fittest of the fit, the Mercury astronauts, the fellas with the "Right Stuff," are well known to us all.   Role models for girls weren't as common. It wasn't until Title IX was passed in 1972 that women's fitness was slowly brought to parity.

As part of President Kennedy's initiative, Meredith Wilson, the composer of "The Music Man," wrote a  song to exercise with, "The Chicken Fat Song" that featured Robert Preston, star of the Broadway show and movie.   Thousands of records were sent to schools across the country. School children exercised to this silly song and learned that moving made you feel better.

Get up off the couch, touch your toes, and work those crunches and push ups.
Click here: https://soundcloud.com/pcradio/robert-preston-chicken-fat to hear the song and shake the fat.