Rhythm : Circadian

The good news: ALL my hormones are in normal working order. Every single one of them. Also, after two years of dairy being a very rare indulgence in my diet, my calcium and vitamin D levels are perfect. I've changed up my routine this month and have not been rising before the sun more than twice per week. I've also ceased taking several performance enhancing supplements. My workouts for the last two weeks have been 5 out of 7 days. Guess what? I'm awake. No more of the skull crushing fatigue.

I've been reading up a lot on Circadian rhythm. Sounds pretty sexy right? I've always been a dork for biology, and not in the "hey baby, it's just biology" way, but the "worlds within worlds" way. Cells and their insides have piqued my interest since I was a young thing. When I was in 10th grade I made a 20" tall replica of a DNA helix with sculpey and wire. I had base pairs and chemical bonds, the whole she-bang. It was beautiful. Anyway. Back to our sexy-sounding biological rhythm.

A circadian rhythm is a roughly 24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological, or behavioral processes of living entities.

The rhythm is affected by environmental and internal factors. Jet lag is a common circadian rhythm disorder, for example. It controls everything, right down to your bowels and lots of things can throw it off which creates a domino effect of unhappy things. Bipolor disorder, weight gain, fatigue, all this stuff can be traced back to an upset in the rhythm. With this recent development of...

Holy shit I'm actually awake....

I've looked at the way I've rearranged my food, my schedule, and my supplements. Whatever I'm doing right now, it's working like a champion.

I'll save you from the details of my self diagnosis. The point is that sometimes, you don't need more help, more tests, more searching. All that needs to be done is shifting your routine around a bit, allowing for extra time here and there, and you may find yourself smack in the middle of the solution you so wanted to find.

Food.

I've been accused of being a liberal, and depending on the topic, I won't argue that. Two topics where my bleeding heart comes out to play are food stamps and the accessibility of fresh food, because eating healthy involves a lot of things we, in the more financially stable socioeconomic brackets, take for granted:

Grocery Stores
It's true. There are cities in this country which lack the corner stone of eating well: Grocery Stores. When I visited Michigan last year I was floored by the scarcity of grocery stores in the inner cities. There were fast food joints, liquor stores, and convenience stores a plenty, but a grocery store was hard to find. Sure, if you had a car or access to public transportation you could get to one. This bring me to.....

Transportation
I've lived in Chicago and Oakland without owning a car. Going to the grocery store was an ordeal. In Chicago it was what I could carry and in Oakland it was what I could attach to my bicycle. In Chicago during severe weather (read: sub zero temps and blizzards) I opted to shop for food at the Walgreen's across the street. That's right, Walgreen's. There are no fresh vegetables in Walgreen's. If I had to get to the store, I could take the train and choose a station below ground to stay out of the cold. In Michigan, not so lucky. They have buses. If you are hungry, you head to the corner store for whatever they have that is edible, or you hang out and wait for an underfunded public bus to pick you up. In the warmer temps it's not so bad, but in the winter, forget about it. Riding a bike loaded with groceries isn't so terrible, but personal transportation in the comfort of your own car is hard to beat. Cars and transportation for a family can be quite expensive, which brings me to.....

Money
Melicious sent me this article about eating well on food stamps and it's a sobering reminder that food equals money. I hate to admit it. I'd love so much for the heads of cabbage and greens I eat to be cheaper than a box of Hamburger Helper, but unfortunately that's not the reality. Much of the bad food on the tables of low income families isn't because they don't care, it's a mixture of just not knowing how to make it work and not being able to afford it. This is an article breezing over the reasons why there is such a financial disparity between the good food and the bad food. Yep. Politics. Suh-prise Suh-prise.

There are individuals out there working hard to get fresh produce into communities with limited access, but this is often an uphill battle. Hopefully with enough exposure, more communities can gain access to good food. Eating healthier food is the first step in preventing disease, and in my opinion should be the starting point of healthcare reform. Contrary to popular belief, healthcare reform is everyone's responsibility, and we don't have to wait for politicians to figure it out. Instead of barking about it in the comfort of your own home, get out there and sponsor a family, volunteer to teach a cooking/budget class at your church/community center, or offer to take someone to a grocery store that would otherwise have no means to get there. It took a long time to get to this place, and it will take a long time, plus a concerted effort from all, to get out of it.

If anyone knows of specific programs in the Austin area, please post them to the comments. I'll research and post what I find....

Nothing but a Number

I am fortunate enough to have been surrounded by people who achieved goals well past their prime. They never paid much attention to whether or not they were too old, they stepped out there and accomplished, even if they were the most weathered body in the bunch. I have never been much afraid of growing old and I hope I can perpetuate that courage into my mid life. It's hard though. With so much emphasis placed on looking and being young, it's difficult to not feel like life slips away as the years tick on. In reality, it's just the opposite. Life gets bigger and it gets better.

MentalFloss has a list of people who launched careers past the age of 55. I'm especially inspired by Grandma Moses who refused to let an age related disability silence her creativity.

There are no rules, there are no time limits. Don't confine yourself to silly boxes and outlines. Just because you never have doesn't mean that you never will!

Please also see the story of Win.

Just a few things....

This morning MSNBC has an article up linking pesticides and ADHD. While a firm connection between the two hasn't been established just yet, it's another reason to avoid conventionally grown produce....or wash the ever luvin' hell out of it. This includes frozen foods! Make sure that fruit for your smoothie is organic!

Also, please consider ridding your home of cheap plastic containers. Pyrex makes a great 14-piece set which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. I can put hot stuff right in without worrying that chemicals are leeching into my food. The President's Cancer Panel recommends that eating organic, filtering your water and avoiding plastic containers as your number one defense! Read more HERE. Plastic...plastic....oil....

My mind can't stay off the tragedy unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. I don't think that any of us can really wrap our heads around what the future will be, but we should prepare for the worst. Reports of what is below the surface of the water are being downplayed, in my opinion, because they cast a very bleak outlook on recovery. BP (and others..) has failed tremendously on all fronts, and we should all expect to find ourselves eyeballs deep in gas prices again, because I am doubtful they will survive this. The only thing that is going to get people off the teat of oil is being shoved off economically. We've arrived, it's happening, and there won't be a gentle transition. An acquaintance of mine, Angeliska wrote a poignant post on the subject, I encourage you to read it. Hopefully the oysters, and the fisherman, won't die forever.

Ode to Mr. Gibran

When I was 16 years old my grandmother gave me a copy of The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. The binding is gone and I keep it in a zip lock bag to contain the pages. When I was 16 I underlined most of the book and it's comforting to know that what was truest to me then, is still accurate to me today. Not that I'm advocating remaining the same, but it's another reminder (in addition to a lovely photo a friend sent to me this week) that the true intention of the heart never changes.

Here are a few, in no particular order:

-Much of your pain is self-chosen.
-You delight in laying down laws, Yet you delight more in breaking them.
-For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live.
-No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
-If he is indeed wise he does not big you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
-The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.
-Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

If you haven't yet read any of Gibran's work, I encourage you to do so. Beyond the really solid statements, they are a terrific read.

Stress Crushing Smile

This morning I had to call a customer service line which routes me half a world away to a call center in India. I don't share the resentment that a lot of Americans have for being transferred to someone in India, or where ever. My issue was unrelated to outsourcing and politics and restricted to my very small, intense world. I realized mid-conversation that I was taking it out on "Jenny" who was earnestly trying to help me find a solution to my problem. It wasn't the piece of mail missing from my mailbox, or the archaic system such a large corporation continues to employ that was driving me to harsh tones. It was other things, a combination of things unrelated to Jenny, which was the hot poker at my side. Jenny represented one part of the whole, and she didn't need to take on the totality of that mess.

So I stopped talking and I smiled (a crooked, forced and awkward smile) and said I'd like to start the conversation over again if she didn't mind. She obliged and I restated my problem, minus the nasty tone and said that I needed a solution because it was in fact an emergency. Jenny put me on hold and came back with a solution. A real and perfect solution. Problem solved, I can move forward.

But that forced smile of mine, the one that I needed to push out past the stress to save a conversation being consumed by my bullshit, was REALLY awkward. It felt forced. It took a few, very long seconds for it to even feel like it was attached to my face. I'm prepping for the next few weeks to be extremely intense, and if you see me out and about looking like I've just stuck my face in a batch of rotten egss...

I haven't. I'm smiling. To. Crush. The. Stress.

Optimism.

Small things can take on big problems.

May = Skill Month

The other night I had a dream I was doing Pistols. They were effortless and fun and I'm adding them to the list of skills to hone in the month of May. Since I'm separated from the safety net of my Crossfit gym for the majority of this month, I need to keep organized and focused which is proving to be much less work than I had imagined. Apparently workouts are now "livelihood" and not "chore" which is what I sorely needed to prove to myself.

So far we have four beauties:

-Hand Stand Push Ups


-Rapid Box Jumps


-Pistols


-Triangle Push Ups


Practice makes perfect....

Lesson for today.

Don't back away from intimidating situations because the outcome may surprise you.

Contracts Executed

That feels really good to say.

We are officially on track to close on a house, on or before June 11th! I've shared pics with some of you, but I'm still feeling a bit superstitious, so forgive me if I withhold a little more just for a little longer. I want to make sure this is really, truly happening, and no dark horses are lurking to make a mess of my little Xanadu.

And it could be a Xanadu (think Khan not John). Yes indeed. I could even have a pet goat. I shit you not.

Suffice to say the house is amazing, has the potential to be my dream home and is so worth the trouble of losing the first house. It's a project home through and through, but thankfully I am surrounded by incredible friends and family who are willing to dive in with me to make this possible. I have incredible peeps, did you know? The sweat equity will be intense, and I'm going to put all my skills as the daughter of a carpenter and a resourceful planner to the test.

Things on my mind lately:
White tile, lots of it
Homemade light fixtures
I GET A REAL STUDIO. NOT ANOTHER DINKY LITTLE ROOM.
Gray paint
Concrete stain

Updates to come.

Ludo

Shambra this one's for you

Miss Georgia Nixon reminded me that one of the fulfilling aspects of working out is recapturing that element of play that is often lost somewhere between the vicious attack of puberty and the complacency of adulthood. Workouts are fun, they are supposed to be rewarding. My world is filled with chores (aren't all of ours?), and lately the gym and the workouts have become a chore, as evidenced by my oversleeping. My subconscious was not having it. So, in light of this the month of May is devoted to one day a week at the gym and the rest of my workouts will be outside, with friends. Playing around. My life is full of "have to's" and somewhere my gym fun time got caught up in that net, and it hasn't brought me joy at all. I don't like that, so this bus is being turned around.

Circling by Four Tet, one of my faves of the faves: