Spring Walk to the Cloisters

My Fitbit inspired me to walk up to The Cloisters for another look on March 23, a beautiful, sunny day with a chilly north wind.  I wanted to visit the Herb Garden, which contains more than 250 species of herbs cultivated during the Middle Ages.  I was curious to see what, if anything, would be peaking up out of the ground. 

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art website (The Cloisters is part of The Met.),  the "Bonnefont" Cloister is pieced together from a destroyed monastery in Tarbes, France, in the high Pyrenees.  "Bonnefont", technically, is a misnomer. In any case, the Herb Garden within the cloister bears all of the hallmarks of a medieval monastic garden:   raised beds, a central wellhead, and wattle fences.  Medieval monasteries   preserved herbal knowledge that had been accumulated for centuries. Hidden from the world,  the monks grew the herbs in "physic" gardens, pounded them into medicines, and published the herbals that a few centuries later became the basis for botany and pharmacology.   The monasteries were factories unto themselves.

Bonnefont Cloister and Herb Garden;
the wellhead remains covered for now.

Helleborus in foreground,
gallanthus, in background

Sheltered by wattle in raised beds, a few herbs showed off their ability to shoot off  green, purple, and white while it's still cold outside:  

Perovskia, most likely

Primula, perhaps

Medicinally, Helleoborus, or Lenten rose, was used to treat gout and insanity during the Middle Ages.  Gallanthus, which we call snow drops, is an antidote to poison.  Today researchers are experimenting with Gallanthus to treat Alzheimer's disease.    Perovskia, commonly called Russian Sage, is used to reduce fever.  Primula, or primrose,   was used to cure rheumatism and gout. Primula is a sedative and is used today to ward off headaches.  All of these plants are commonly found in contemporary gardens.

This espaliered pear appearing in two photographs below was planted at the Cloisters in the 1940s and is a treasure of the collection. Espalier--training trees  in a flat plane--was first undertaken by the Romans and developed into a high art in France in the Middle Ages.  The plant is pruned extensively twice a year and is also tied to a wall to retain its shape.  

Pear tree, late March 2014

Cloisters pear tree  © 2004 Matthew Trump
Notice ten years' growth compared to the tree in the left photo?

A  second espalier pear tree--I don't know when it was planted--is starting to send off new growth, which, presumably, will be pruned when spring really arrives. This tree is in a more protected spot than the older one.   

For five years The Met  published a wonderful blog, The Medieval Garden Enclosed  http://blog.metmuseum.org/cloistersgardens/2013/12/,  but no posts have been entered since December, 2013.  Its main creator,  a woman named Deirdre, left the Cloisters and New York   City in 2013.   

Step It Up!

Temperatures are warming, crocuses are blooming, and days are growing longer.   I am going to:

I am increasing my daily step goal on Fitbit from 10,000 to 12,500 steps. In addition to increasing my step count, I am going to increase my "floors" count.  For the past month I have averaged 35 flights per day.  I'm going to try to average 40 flights a day. I've got lots of stairs in my future. . . By the way, Fitbit records a "floor" when it records an elevation change of 10 feet. 

I live in New York City and ride the subway.  I never take an escalator when stairs are available. If I must take an escalator, I keep climbing or descending on it, if it is not crowded. Why? Because stair climbing and walking build bone strength.  Osteoporosis effects an estimated 10 million Americans, eighty-percent of whom are women.  No matter your age, if you are female, you should be thinking about your bone health and making intelligent choices about your diet, exercise, and lifestyle.  

Stair climbing  burns more calories than level walking. I don't advocate running  up a set of stairs like the one below, unless you are a young, fit, athlete, or your nickname is "Rocky." Merely taking your time and climbing stairs at a comfortable pace will improve your heart, build bone density, strengthen your core, and tone the muscles of your lower body.  If you feel more comfortable doing so, hold the railing. 

Start off slowly, practice good posture, and over time you will reap significant rewards. Even descending a set of stairs like those in the photo above is good for your body;  the caloric burn isn't as high while descending, but different leg muscles must contract, creating muscular balance. If you experience pain in the knees or hips, or shortness of breath, consult your doctor.    

Let's face it, climbing stairs is a life skill that we don't want to lose as we age.   Move it, and use it!  Move it, or lose it!  Step it up!  

10,000 Steps: The Art of Manpo-kei

When I first started using Fitbit, in January,  I wasn't hip to the idea that walking 10,000 steps a day was a fitness metric.  It took me a few days to figure out that the community of Fitbit defaulted to 10,000 steps as a daily goal. I  don't get an exploding happy face on my step count unless I reach it.  10,000 seemed like a nice round number to me, though I am just as interested in the number of floors I climb and how many of my minutes are "very active." 

Today I learned that a Japanese watch manufacturer, a man named Yamasa Tokei, invented the pedometer in 1965.  He relied on research from that time by Dr. Yoshiro Hatano to set the 10,000 steps metric. Dr. Hatano  observed that Japanese were walking, on average, between 3500 and 5000 steps a day and were becoming obese.  Tokei's pedometers became popular among Japanese, and before long walking clubs sprang up. Everyone in Japan has a pedometer, apparently, as each household owns more than 3! The Japanese word for the device Tokei invented is called "Manpo-kei,"  which translates into "10,000 steps meter."

Somehow or another--probably when Tokei started selling the pedometers in the US market--the metric stuck.  Here's a Google translation of the company's history of the pedometer from their website:  

1965

"Total number of steps" of Japan's first consumer goods  Released "paces meter" the No. 1 ※ 100 steps a graduated in mechanical analog. Price 2,200 yen each. Walking is reviewed (it was not cheap never starting salary of university graduates at the time because the era of 2-30000 yen) to eliminate the lack of exercise at the time, organizations that recommends exercise, etc. "10,000 steps a day" is positive It became the hit, along with the flow of society as a whole to promote activities such as automatically.  Read the ads and news articles at the time of the release

So is the 10,000-step goal  merely a marketing gimmick? No, it's a baseline.   As it turns out, the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends 10,000 steps a day--as a long-term goal--for good health and to ward off diseases like cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.  According to the AHA website, seven out of ten Americans does not get  "enough" exercise.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doesn't use a step count, but recommends 5 hours a week of brisk walking plus 2 major muscle groups strength-training workouts.  CDC figures that "brisk walking" results in a 15-minute mile, or four miles an hour, or roughly 7500 steps.  Mind you, that's 7500 brisk steps, not steps between the couch and the refrigerator.  .  .   All of these metrics vary with age, so check for yourself.  Kids should move a whole lot more than adults.  

Since January I've been averaging 10,000 steps--or Manpo-kei-- a day.  In addition, I've been skiing and snowshoeing, taking yoga classes regularly, and riding my bicycle indoors on a trainer.  I am pretty darn active, I am careful about what I eat, and yet, I haven't lost a pound.   Catrine Tudor-Locke, an authority on step counting and fitness and the author of Manpo-Kei: The Art and Science of Step Counting:  How to be Naturally Active and Lose Weight http://books.google.com/books?id=EQ3OxfuICAMC&dq=translate+manpo-kei&source=gbs_navlinks_s recommends a "More than Before" approach.  She encourages establishing a baseline first.   For me, that baseline is now Manpo-kei. To lose the five pounds I would like to shed, I'm going to aim for an average of 12,500 steps per day for the next four weeks and re-analyze at that time.  Let me know if you can  say that  in Japanese. . . 

What about you?  Are you doing what our bodies were created to do and love to do--moving?  And good luck with your Manpo-kei practice!

250 Miles Under My Feet, or Not?

Yesterday I got an email from Fitbit congratulating me on having walked 250 miles since January 9 of this year, when I first started to monitor my steps.  I patted myself on the back and danced a jig, but now it seems that not all steps--or step trackers--are created equal.

Maybe I have only walked  200 miles--or, perhaps, as many as 300!  

Here's a revealing graphic from ABC News about the great disparity of "steps" counted by three different self-analytic devices:  Fitbit, Jawbone, and Nike:

The reporter wore five different devices on different parts of the body and measured steps, calories consumed, calories burned, and hours of sleep.  Take a look at the box on the left labeled "Steps per Day."   The Fitbit bar is in blue, the Jawbone in grey, and the Nike device is represented by the orange bar.   I don't have the actual step count data, but it looks like there is a discrepancy of around 10,000 steps between Jawbone and Nike  devices over the course of three days, with Fitbit falling in the middle.   Ten thousand steps just happens to be my daily goal.  Am I wrong, or is that a  lot of discrepancy?

I am glad I have the Fitbit, which  racked up the median number of steps between the Jawbone and the Nike devices.  Too little,  too much, or just right?  Which brings me to thinking about porridge. I wish I could take a look at the differing data from the caloric burn.  Does Fitbit fall in the middle on that score too?   And what about the hours slept?

I won't go into the caloric intake numbers as I have yet to find a food tracker that easily and accurately measures non-processed, healthy, organic, unsweetened foods--like porridge. I have signed up for Lose It!, which the ABC News reporter used also.  At first glance it looks like the Lose It! data entry program might be superior to My Fitness Pal and the Fitbit food logs in that Lose It! allows me to enter amounts as small as 1/8 of a cup.  We'll see what happens when I have to enter quinoa salad into their program. . .  

Spring Forthwith

Are you dazed and confused, having missed an hour of sleep? It's daylight savings time! March 9, let's face it, is way too early for daylight savings.  How about just regular daylight?  The snow is melting, and there are signs that spring is afoot but not quite sprung. 

A recent tour of Fort Tryon Park on March 7 revealed salty sidewalks and snow on the hillsides. Will the winter of 2014 ever end?

A Portal from Winter into Spring

Blooming heath was a pleasant surprise.  

Pink Erica in the Heather Garden

Yellow Erica

Spring can't be far away when four NYC Parks workers trim one rose bush. Two of them were   pruning the rose and two of them were staring at the one small tarp that had been laid down on the sidewalk  for the thorny stems yet to come. 

On the more westerly side of the Heather Garden one of the surest harbingers of spring--witch hazel--showed off its pretty orange petals against the snow.  Native Americans taught the colonists how to use the leaves and barks of this multi-stemmed shrub to create an astringent for skin sores. It was an all-purpose liniment found in everyone's medicine chest a mere 50 years ago.  

Witch Hazel

Andromeda's Red Blooms

With March still in its lion phase, the Heather Garden had two additional 

spring beauties to share, Andromeda and Magnolia.

Magnolia Buds

Perhaps on my next walk I shall see the March lamb. . . 

Snoozing My Way to Good Health

When I first started using Fitbit in January I was completely taken with it as an activity tracker. I remain addicted to its great graphics, its rewards program (I liked gold stars in grade school too.), its "very active minutes" tracking, its caloric counter.  I am a One user.  I was slightly turned off by the sleep wristband.  So I didn't use it for the first month.

Meh, eh?

But seeing that empty Sleep block in between the number of floors I had climbed and my 15,000 steps badge  on the computer screen made me  reconsider.  Good sleep is essential to good health.  I am all about health.  So, for the past month I have been religious about either wearing the One to bed or, at the very least, recording my sleep manually.  I can read my sleep efficiency each day if I remember to wear the One to bed. Better yet, each week Fitbit sends me a recap of my sleep data, with totals and averages.  

For the month of February I averaged 7.5 hours of sleep per night.  It takes me between 7 and 10 minutes to fall asleep at night, which puts me right on the borderline of being sleep deprived.  Did you know that falling asleep immediately on hitting the pillow is a sign of sleep deprivation? If it takes you 10  minutes to fall asleep, you're getting enough sleep.  Less than 10 minutes and you are sleep deprived.  

On average I wake up 10 times per night.  However, I had one night where I was awakened 20 times. That was a night when I was processing a family issue that has now been resolved. The next night I slept like a baby. Restlessness can be triggered  by my bed partner having a poor night's sleep, by drinking coffee too late in the day (Espresso with dinner?  Who, me?), by loud noises (I live in New York City.), consuming too much alcohol, or by the full moon.  The good news is that when I look at the sleep graph on the Fitbit log, they have set the data up for folks to awake 50 times during the course of one night! So 20 times per night once in a while is probably not an indication of a sleep disorder. . .  On average my sleep efficiency is at 92 percent.  Silver star?

I have had a few issues with the sleep mode.  Sometimes I go through the effort to put the One in the pouch  and the band on the wrist but forget to turn it on to sleep mode.  Or I get up in the morning and forget to turn it off from sleep mode.  User errors, both.  Once or twice I have found that the wristband has slipped off.  I do not use the Fitbit  alarm or any alarm. 

If you have chronic sleep issues, you might find this Traditional Chinese Medicine website intriguing.  http://www.astrodreamadvisor.com/Qi-Cycle.html  Take note of the time when you wake up at night.  You probably know that already if it's a chronic problem.   Click on the appropriate time on the chart to see which of your organs, in the Traditional Chinese Medicine system, is out of balance.  Maybe a new approach--or just a new insight into your life--will help you get a better night's sleep.  That and laying off the booze, the coffee, the computer, and getting enough but not too much exercise.

I would like to see Fitbit develop an affordable device that monitored REM sleep and NREM sleep (transitional sleep, light sleep, and deep sleep).  It's in the latter phases of sleep--the NREM stages-- where the body repairs itself and where the immune system recovers.  Sleep is a critical part of our lives, so snooze it or lose it.    

It will be interesting to see how my sleep patterns are affected by the upcoming change with daylight savings time. . . Enjoy your shut eye.  And share your sleep experiences with me.

Sit up Straight! New Postural Self-analytic Device May Replace Mom

Move over, Fitbit, there's  more competition coming in the self-analytics market.  Lumo Bodytech Inc. http://www.lumobodytech.com/lumolift/ has  created Lumo Lift,  a small gizmo that you can clip onto your clothes on your upper body.  If and when you slouch (Who doesn't?) the device will vibrate, triggering  you to sit  up or stand up straight.  Like Fitbit, Lumo Lift will also measure the number of steps you take and  your caloric  burn.  

Last year Lumo Bodytech  released Lumo Back, for people with lower back problems. Most reviewers of that product found it annoying owing to its cumbersome design and the necessity of wearing it on the lower back.  The  new Lift isn't even on the market yet but if you are an early adopter, you can order one now for $69.   Perhaps they have worked out some of the kinks for this one.

If you round your shoulders and want to improve your upper back posture,  you might find Lumo Lift helpful.  Caveat emptor: the device itself isn't going to improve your posture.  The device is only going to alert you when you have slumped into your customary position.  To improve your posture you have to stretch the tight parts of your front body and strengthen the weak parts in your back body. Without a strategy  to make postural change, I can imagine that  Lumo Lift might quickly begin to terrorize.  I round  my shoulders.   I am intrigued.  I may just order one.  

In the meantime, if you have a pear shaped body, (That is, your lower body is wider than your upper body), there's a good chance you need to strengthen your shoulders and arms more than someone with an apple, hourglass, or  rectangular shaped body.  Here is a fabulous sequence by yoga teacher Sarah Guglielmi that will help you counteract rounded shoulders.

http://yogainternational.com/article/view/asana-anatomy-trapezius-and-serratus-anterior

Practicing  dolphin  and dolphin pushup is another way to strengthen your shoulders.  Get  on the floor on your hands and knees on your yoga mat.  Wrap each of your hands around the opposite elbow to be sure your elbows are squarely under your shoulders.    Then bring your hands together and interlace your fingers,  palms together. Press your the pinky side edge of your hands, wrists, elbows,  and forearms into the floor and turn your toes under. 

Inhale deeply, then exhale as you lift your buttocks up while you straighten yours legs. Breathe consciously here for several rounds.  The crown of your held will lengthen toward the floor between your arms. Engage your core.  Draw your scapulae toward your spine while you broaden your collarbones.  Observe your breath as you continue to push the floor with your hands, wrists, forearms, and elbows.  When you are tired, or, when you have lost sight of your breath, rest in child's pose. This version of dolphin prepares you for headstand.

If you wish, repeat dolphin, increasing the length of the hold yet still remaining aware of the breath. Interlace your fingers the awkward way the second time you do the pose.   Notice how and where the body has to adjust to  just that slight difference.  You can also play with moving your feet further apart, which should make the pose easier.   Now try  moving your feet closer and then further from your elbows.  How do the various stances change the intensity of the posture for you?

Adding movement by practicing dolphin pushup increases the challenge. Go back up into dolphin, being sure to engage the core and the scapulae and to press the arms and hands into the floor. With an exhalation, shift your body and its weight forward, so that your chin will come just over your fingers and your body will be  parallel to the floor. With the inhale, lift the hips high up again. The more fluidly you move, the more fun this will be.  It might help you to think of yourself as a dolphin moving through water.  Exhale forward, inhale on the buttocks upward movement.  Do 8 or fewer repetitions.  Rest in child's pose.  Do another set if you like, again changing how you interlace the fingers.

Never overdo if you are new to any physical activity.  The body takes time to adjust.  If you are patient and practice with care and awareness, the body will respond to the new love you are showing to it.

Let me know what you experience.