Mass Production

A few weeks ago in Miami a woman I met said something that stuck in my mind, even after two glasses of wine. She said that ‘healing could not be mass produced.’ She went on saying how quality gets compromised and specific needs get overlooked by generalizing for the masses. I couldn’t agree more. But when you think about it mass production in almost any genre lacks quality. You can’t compare the fit and quality of clothing from a boutique to that of sweat shop brands. Neighborhoods of cookie cutter houses pop up in what seems like three days. There is even a mass production of baby making trends thanks to Octo-mom and other shows celebrating their over fertilized ovaries. Mass production is everywhere, but where is the quality? I’m a believer in healing through foods, but it is defeating the purpose when food is tainted with preservatives and chemicals to do mother natures’ job. Fruits and veggies get sprayed to be told when to ripen for the long journey. Most of the stuff sold at grocery stores isn’t really food, its just there to fill the shelves to achieve SUPER market status. Bigger is better…right? Next time you go pick up random packaged items and notice a common ingredient…corn. It probably wont be labeled as corn but somewhere before its processed journey it originated in a corn field. Why corn? Its way too easy and cheap to mass produce and works as a great filler for products. So after you polish off the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in your cornflakes, chow on the corn chips washed down with the crystalline fructose (corn) in your soda, and finish off the day with a corn fed burger in a bun of HFCS and don’t forget the ketchup with HFCS, also. That’s without dessert! You will have consumed enough corn to feed a small heffer. Which reminds me…cows eat grass not corn! Oh ya, corns cheaper and makes cows fatter quicker. So what does that do to us? Hmmmm…. Then there is the antibiotics they get fed because they stand their entire lives sardined in their feces. I hate taking antibiotics from a doctor, think I’m all set with it being in the food. It’s all a full circle. Over producing affects you, your health and the environment. Life flows a lot smoother when it is kept nice and simple, same with food.

Push Yourself

Some of you already pegged my next subject, but can ya blame me? It makes my husband smile to talk about so I'm going to milk it. I finally ran a marathon. I say finally because Ive been all talk for a while. If any of you know me from high school track, running was not really in the mix. I high jumped to be able to run the least possible, well that and I was good at it. So the thought of running a marathon...well actually there was never a thought and I figured marathons were for freak athletes. Then I decided to become a freak athlete. I love to physically push myself, but I never pushed myself so hard it became a mental battle too. I ran through a gamut of emotions from loving life and running to hating Baltimore for being too damn hilly, back to loving it all. It didn't help that the biggest hill I trained on was the size of an ant hill. I felt super good till about 19 and there was yet another hill and then little mental tantrums starting creeping in. My goal time was slipping away and that was aggrivating. I said just finishing for my first would be ok but sometimes I dont take my ginko and forget Im not an elite runner and probably shouldnt expect elite times. Funny how that works. But I did it. I did something I thought could or would never do. Im not sure what I was more excited about; running 26.2 or acutally completing something I started 3 months earlier. I was reminded for the next 3 days how far it actually is as everything like sitting on the toilet took strategic planning. For sure it pushed my physical threshold way further, but it was more the mental marathon I conquered and knowing I did something I always thought was reserved for those freak athletes. I was with a friend recently who was hestitant on setting goals because she was aftraid of failure. One way to be sure to fail is to not try. We are so wrapped up in the thought of being judge or not good enough, that the idea of not succeding is mortifying. Sometimes failure is a good way to learn about yourself. Anytime you push yourself you get something out of it, good or bad, but whatever it is you learn. This year has been a big year for me testing new areas of confidences and interests. Even doing this blog is a big step as Im not a big sharer of emotions and inner stuff, but its cool to hear positive feedback Im getting from those of you who can relate or find it interesting. Dont be afraid to push yourself to go after a goal, whether its to loose weight, change jobs or whatever. Its only you holding yourself back.

Eating Manuals

I got a little fired up the other day at the local grocery store in Maryland. I saw a mother teaching her preteen girl how to follow a chart guiding her to buy fat free cookies so she would loose weight. I took the short cut through the chemically processed aisle of packaged goods, or not so good actually, and was forced to pretend to scour the shelves as I listened to the dilemma of her choosing sugar free, fat free or added fiber. I do give her credit for trying and realizing that food matters, but where did human instinct take a U-turn and head toward eating charts and fake foods? If I would have passed her in the produce section teaching her real food I would get it and would not be inspired to write. The problem of her telling her kid about loosing weight and being skinny, when she was not near fat, is a good intro into a life time of body image issues, on top of just being food confused.
The crazy thing is we have to mush together charts, points, fat grams and calories in a secret equation that will catapult us into a lifetime of blissful skinniness or at least that is the grand scheme. I barely made it through math in school let alone keeping tabs on a numeric value of every morsel that goes into my body. Whats wrong with the idea of fresh, unprocessed, not made in a laboratory, from the Earth food? There is no reinventing the diet wheel with nature. The reason mother nature provided us with fruits, veggies, nuts etc, is because every different one has its own built in scientific equation designed to stave off illness, obesity and a grocery list of prescription pills. These are the real designer foods that do not require calculations, test tubes or constant frustration. Companies capitalize on you by choosing what they think you should eat while sitting around the board room table. Every time you shop you vote for that particular product, which in turn becomes more popular. Reconsider what you are voting for. No company is sitting around suggesting carrots and broccoli simply because they are not subsidized or massed produced such as corn and soy. Don't be fooled by fancy advertising and glamorous diet claims. Mother nature does not need all this sugar coating as instead of causing cancer and disease it fights it without us making one calculation.

Be in the Moment

A really good friend of mine told me a long time ago that I needed to enjoy the moment. But because I'm usually good at knowing it all, I didn't really listen to her words. When I decided to finally surrender to someone else's observations, I realized I don't really take advantage of the moment. I am usually concerned with what's next and not with what's now. I rarely took full advantage of being in some obscure place because I was afraid to miss out on the next job. Dragging my dog through the vet doors with all fours rooted to the ground was like me going to get my nails done! Total torture to sit there for an hour and do absolutly nothing and I wont even mention how I felt getting my hair done. The apple didn't fall far from the tree on that one, as I know exactly who blessed me with those genes! This might be a little extreme for you or maybe not even close, but I'm not convinced life was meant to be lived so fast. We're sorta programed from the start to work, work, work and dont waste time and I'm all for throwing in a little bit of elbow grease, but there also needs to be a balance of down time. Stress is a huge health factor and usually gets douced with a pill that kills the symptom (and a laundry list of other things) and not the cause. I usually write about nutrition and food, but in essence day to day life involving issues or happiness or whatever you encounter feed and nourish just the same. A wound up life style can have as much damage to your heart as a nasty Big Mac, imagine the two combined! As much as I believe in whole foods and eating right, living right is just as important. That's why I use the name "Train de Vie" or "way of life" because it is about everything working together. I still catch myself being obsessive about nothing but I see now when to step back. Sometimes it's even a struggle with the marathon training and being gone for 2 hours or so knowing I have a list at home waiting to be checked off. It's much nicer to enjoy where you are at or who you are with and let the world go around you instead of you racing against the world. Thanks P! :)

Reevaluate

Im starting my marathon training this coming Monday for the Baltimore race in October. I lost the lottery to the NY so it was my second choice. It will be my first full marathon but second time registering. I bombed my last training. For some reason I thought I was going out for the Olympics (small aspiration of mine, Im still looking for a way into 2012) and picked an elite running schedule that landing me in the hospital with IVs. I have an -I can do it all attitude-, which you might think is good but I didn’t respect the race’s integrity. It ain’t easy! I laugh about it now but it was a good lesson to learn for both my body and my periodic loss of sanity (I get a little excited sometimes). As I chose my new training schedule I kept in mind my errors and also know where I need to tweak my foods and hydration. With the strenuous program I was trying to uphold I was sabotaging myself by not adjusting my diet. Your body is a pretty cool machine that knows when something isn’t right and it’ll let you know. Whether it’s cravings, sickness or even pulling depleted nutrients from within itself your body makes arrangements so you can keep on trucking. This is not only reserved for athletes, but your body is also effected emotionally. Stress, relationships and any kind of craziness can put a toll on your body. You might be effected by emotional eating, depression or even not eating at all. What ever your symptom may be your body is telling you something. It’s become unusual to step back and listen to the signals, as our lives just keep getting busier and busier. Whether your an athlete or not, take a step back to listen and see what’s really going down. It’s not normal to live with chronic exhaustion or daily headaches. Like the marathon; life is a long haul and taking the time for readjustments will only make for a smoother journey.

Less is More

After an unmotivating winter filled with forecasts of wintry mixes and gale force winds, I did my first half marathon of the year a few weekends ago. I thought for sure I would be the one the clean up crew was following trying to wrap up the race, as I had not nearly put in the training time as I did last fall. I was pleasantly surprised as I neared the finish with the clock under my best time of last year. I shaved a minute off and could not have been happier. As I was sipping on my congratulatory beer (it is imparitive that you replenish your carbs!), I realized that maybe I was setting myself up for failure. I pushed myself so hard that most of the time it left me drained. I had read about the over training and even ignored my husband when he mentioned it, but because Im too stubborn to do it any other way than my own (is there any other way?) I continued pushing. Even though I didnt run as often, the quality of my work outs were what made the difference. I actually kicked up the yoga again to replace some of the maintenance runs. Less is more. Now dont think you can leave with out me tying this into food and nutrition! For starters, most restaurant portion sizes are bigger than the stomach capasity of a table of four put together. If that rib eye you ordered is hanging off the side of the plate that should tell ya something. The amount of hidden fats and oils in restaurant foods can make you readjust your belt loops in no time, not good for bikini season! Keep it simple. The closer to nature you eat the less chance your eating from the chemistry lab. Less is more. We all get a little stumped in the coffee line trying to decide between a venti skinny frappe latte or grande double mocha whip with a collassal sticky bun or the iced doughnuts. You can order a 20 oz. coffee for $2 or a 2 oz. espresso for the same price. Who wouldnt want more bang for their buck! Logically, the 20 oz big gulp seems like the best deal. While you might be saving the bank account your putting your liver and adrenal glands in debt as the constant caffiene stimulation sucks your natural hormones dry leading you to drink more and more. Less is more. I am by no means a fully balanced human being, as I too have my pit falls (hard to believe I know!), but the more I want to push myself harder the more I realize I need to do what is best for my body and mind and that is when things seem to flow. Less is more....

Hidden Calories

I recently saw a commercial on TV that showed a man offering a popsicle to his girlfriend and she refused because it had high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in it. He went on to explain that its all natural because it comes from corn so she ate it. Of course, at the bottom of the screen was 'Paid for by the corn farmers of America.' Its extremely cheap and profitable so the more places they can cram it in things the better for the bank. The problem is just that: it's in everything from breads, ice creams, soups and everything else that comes in packages. The average grocery store has up to 45,000 items and corn is in about a quarter of those, often in the form of HFCS. The average person consumes up to 12 teaspoons of it a day and teenagers and others can reach up to 80% more than that. This leads to Type 2 diabetes, forms of cancers and many other cronic, unnecessary illnesses. The drug industries make a fortune off these diseases. They also try to disguise the name HFCS with terms such as crystalized fructose, which is what it says: crystalized corn syrup. Also added to HFCS is arsnic, heavy metals, lead and chloride. Apetizing right? Think twice next time you go for that soft drink or worse yet a diet version. I wont even get into that one today! Be aware of what your putting into your body and read the labels. If you can't pronounce the ingredients or they are longer than the series of 'Harry Potter,' then chances are its not real food but a cocktail of a processed chemicals.