Why I'm not really eating grains anymore, sorry for the inconvenience

I apologize in advance to anyone who's used to ordering pizza or feeding me spaghetti when I come around.  : )

So on and off over the past year, I've been experimenting with going grain free.  This year I'm planning to ramp up my effort even more.  I don't know if people are wondering why, but here I'll put it out there anyway in case you're interested.

The whole thing started with trying to lose weight in '08 to '09...  I started using The Daily Plate and calorie counting.  It worked for me for quite a while.  It had a handy graph that showed weight v. calorie intake.  I first noticed that if I ate veggies, I could get a lot more food for my calorie expenditure than if I ate breads, so I made a substitution. Then I noticed that after the initial weight loss, I'd go through plateaus and the periods where I'd drop weight again.  I also could track that the plateaus would be when I was eating grains and the drop periods with veg instead of grains (both were the same number of calories consumed & expended).  I love data! 

OK, fast forward to July/August of 2009 and I go to the MovNat seminar, they feed me "paleo" all week, I come home, get pizza & a beer & have fish & chips the next day for lunch.  Subsequently, I broke out in a rash around my torso and forearms.  I went to the doctor & the doctor wrote it off as being woods related eventhough it was a breakout pattern that is related to Celiac stuff.  At some point I requested the full test for both markers of Celiac & came back negative.

Starting with that MovNat experience, I experimented over the next year with on again/off again paleo/primal, and have done a lot of reading and personal research into human body metabolism and health and nutrition and all that jazz.  If you know me well, I've probably irritated the shit out of you this year with all of this.

There's been a lot of press this past year about Gluten Free diets & products and there's been some info about it and a bunch of articles about it being a fad and people are just jumping on the bandwagon.  "All these people are claiming to be 'gluten intolerant' and they're not celiacs so they're just making a fuss to be special & it's stupid" etc...

Here are two things:
1) Article on Celiac Diagnosis - summary: you're only celiac and get a celiac diagnosis once the villi in your intestine gets destroyed.  THEN you get the immuno response markers in your blood stream that they test for. The destroying happens over time.  Some people will get to this point, some people won't but that doesn't mean there's not damage going on because you can find the same markers in the stool of people who have a problem with it and who don't show up on the blood tests.  End result: lots of people can have issues and body responses without knowing this is the cause.
2) Article on digesstion of grains, comparing Europeans and Africans - summary: european children couldn't break down proteins in grains well while african children could because the african children have bacteria in their guts (coincidentally also found in the stomachs of termites) which breaks down the grain constituents for them.

After a while of experimenting on my own, here are a few of my own personal findings which are leading me to give up the grains for real (I don't mean to be a pain for meal planning, but it's a quality of life issue at this point):

When I go grain free:

• my winter eczema (which has been getting progressively worse every year) is non-existent
• my seasonal allergies are almost non-existent (used to be non-stop from March to November)
• a lot of my low-grade aches & pains go away**
• I don't get PMS bitchiness or cramps
• my intestines normalize & I don't fart as much and become more "regular"
• my mood swings disappear
• when I don't get fed on time, I just get hungry, instead of turning into a raging psychotic bitch
• I feel like I have more energy & my ability to move is improved.
• I also *seem * to get sick a lot less

 ** I starred this one because to be honest, I didn't realize I was achy until I STOPPED eating grains & felt different.  You don't realize how shitty you feel until you feel good?

Anyway, I've at this point been so many time through the cycle of  grains/no grains that I can see definite patterns at this point and reasonably make these conclusions.  During allergy season, if I go on a weekend grain bender (this may be just eating like a normal person), my nose immediately starts running & clears up in a day or two when I go back to no grains.  Same with the eczema.  I currently have a little red crusty patch on my right calf and I've been partaking in the holiday splendor.  I went semi-clean again yesterday (today back to full clean) and it's a little better than it was. I expect it to be gone by tomorrow or the next day.

Anyway, to sum up:  once again, I'm not choosing this lifestyle to be difficult on other people; while the physical ailments are motiv, it's more the psychological effects that motivate me.  I don't like feeling like a raving lunatic - especially now that I can no longer blame it on being female or having PMS.  Now that I know I can control it by what I eat (or don't), I feel like anything else is being unfair to myself and my friends and family.

Also, not to get preachy, but seriously...  if you are reading this & have any sort of chronic pains, moodiness, really bad PMS, skin problems, allergies, or anything that classifies as an "inflammatory condition", try 30 days no grains.  Just try it.  If nothing changes, then so be it.  If something does change, then it may be helpful!

p.s.  some may be tempted to argue "how can so many people have issues with grains?  we've been eating them for thousands of years & some cultures still live almost exclusively on them!"  Well, true.  people have been eating them for a long time, but we've also stopped eating dirt and termites.  that could, ultimately, be what's making the difference.  I don't know.  All i know is that since I can't take a termite supplement, I'll just stick to not eating grains as much as possible.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness... such a simple word. So little meaning if you look at it and so much meaning if you think about it.

More and more I am drawn to a quote attributed to Buddha: "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and our own common sense."


Mindfulness is changing my life.

Though I can maybe argue that I've been practicing mindfulness all my life (and that brings to question some nature v. nurture questions), I was never really "mindful" of mindfulness until last summer.

I was first introduced (or rather, first noticed the word and its usage) to mindfulness last summer at the MovNat Seminar with Erwan LeCorre. He introduced me to the idea of mindfulness in movement - the difference between long jumping and long jumping with a purpose... don't just jump. think about why you're jumping (give it a purpose) and how it feels and if you failed, why you failed - was it lack of ability or mental interference? Also, don't just jump, and don't just move, but be mindful of your environment and your senses... what works for a dry area or a man-made area may not work for an unprdictable environment of change. Really, it all relates to awareness.

Next I ran into it through my work with Exuberant Animal. First, I interacted with Kwame M. Brown and then at the East Coast Jam, I met Frank Forencich, the founder. I can't remember specific quotes, but I remember recognizing the term 'mindfulness' and that is really the basis behind Exuberant Animal. It is play-based fitness, but it also specifically to combine the mind and body and community by performing purposeful,mindful movements that are fun because you interact with other people.

About a month ago, I ran across a post by Greg Carver, who I met at MovNat. He's posted once before on mindfulness of movement but this post was referring to introducing mindfulness in eating as well. It makes sense to me.

Greg Carver:
Mindful Movement, Mindful Eating - "it seems logical to me that we can also be mindful about food and eating."

Two nights ago I attended a lecture on Barefoot Running by the authors of a book by the same name, Michael Sandler and Jessica Lee. At some point, I think when discussing the issue of glass on the road (people always ask, well, what about glass?!? you're going to hurt yourself), he said you end up being more mindful about where you're putting your feet.


Today, I ran across this video, which is cool in and of itself, but here again mindfulness pops up.


Mad Viking:
http://vimeo.com/12459183 - "I take kids up here and get them to turn off their cell phones, which is step one of mindfulness training, and just sit for ten minutes and listen to the birds that are around here..."

So, noticing "mindfulness" in the Mad Viking video was the key that clicked the lightbulb on. I don't know why, but the repetition and connection hit today and I started pondering... I think I've always practiced some degree or another of mindfulness - whether it's from my mother asking me to think about why I did this or that, or if it's something as simple as being hypervigilant with being aware of my surroundings, which has kept me safe several times.

As a teen/adult, I've always tried to be mindful of how I interact with other people and the things around me. I realized I was unhappy in shoes where I couldn't feel the bumps on the ground. I discovered that I enjoy running, but only barefoot and only when I can "go inside" my body and feel the ground and feel how my muscles and joints are reacting. I also have found that I LIKE "working out" if I have a purpose. I've started to find that being Mindful of what I'm eating , as Greg suggested, is wonderful. I'm having more luck optimizing my health by being mindful of how my body feels after eating various things and that being mindful about my eating habits can really change what and how I eat... I relly enjoy cooking most of the time now because I've changed it froma chore into a creative process. I had a problem with preparing a whole chicken for grilling until I stopped tossing it around on the counter and started treating it with respect and being gentle with my preparation. Small changes are becoming big changes and it's really interesting to sit back and look at.

Maybe I live by mindfulness. Maybe it's the essence of my being and happiness and I just never had a word for it. The more I'm realizing that isolating myself from my environment and nature makes me unhappy, the more I am finding ways to make myself happy. I think being mindful about things help one be more open minded. When you can separate yourself, even temporarily, from your feelings and view things with a clear mind... a blank slate... interesting things happen. I like stepping back and watching people as if I were not a person... like Jane Goodall watching chimps. I don't think it's harsh, I just think it's being mindful of the fact that I'm an animal too - that we all are - and that some things people do make as little sense when you take yourself out of context as watching some of the things animals do that we don't understand.

I've also been finding that it's not a natural reaction for most people. It seems hard to convey to my Exuberant Animal classes how to be mindful of their movements or even that they should. I think it's something that can be learned. Maybe most people don't understand any importance of it or might understand why some people would find it important, but see no personal value in it.

Ah well, I've rambled into some other realm here.

All I know is that I really believe the overall concept of mindfulness is important to me, though I may avoid using the word, and I really hope it isn't a word or concept that gets picked up as a "thing" that people get behind and strip of all it's importance or meaning by overuse. I worry when people corporatize good concepts.

Here: I'll leave you with something to be mindful over... : )

Just a Thought....

Just a thought...

What IF:

• by making play safe for kids, we're actually setting them up to get hurt more...
• by making sure our children have most of what they need and want, they are developing less ingenuity and fewer abilities...
• by giving children more opportunities, we're actually narrowing their horizons...
• by keeping things clean and sanitary for kids, we're actually compromising their health...

These are literally just thoughts that are popping into my head, but if I am ever considering procreating and/or going back to teaching, these are thoughts that must be considered and addressed so as to form my own opinion. I hope you all, whoever you are, will think about them and go out and form your own educated opinions as well. I know others have discussed these things further, but let me delve into why I started thinking about this. I'm going to ramble, but I'll highlight what I see to be the key points in case you want the abridged version.

I sat down at a pre-interview at a martial arts studio... it was a free "self defense" session and they wanted to get a picture of my movement background first. I got to the part about how I started going back to playgrounds last year and the guy said, "Oh, you mean like with Monkey Bars & Merry-Go-Rounds?" Me: "Yeah, but you can't really find Merry-Go-Rounds anymore at all." "Really?" "Yeah, it's generally a liability thing. They're 'too dangerous' to keep around." Guy's co-worker pipes in: "Yeah, actually, just a month or so ago a kid in my neighborhood fell off the Monkey Bars & is now paralysed!"

I don't know if any of you have been to playgrounds recently, but if you haven't, I suggest you go out and take a look around. More and more of the playgrounds are becoming less and less challenging. The vast majority appear to be formatted like castles and tree houses with elevated platforms, stairs, ladders, and slides. That's fun. But you'll be hard pressed to find slides that are more than 4 ft. high and made of anything other than than stupid plastic that gives you ridiculous static cling and lets the speed top out at, oh... the pace of a caterpillar. Here is what you WILL NOT see, unless you've found a relict from the dinosaur era: 6-8 ft high metal slides, a merry-go-round, and teeter-totters. While I am sad those are largely gone, this is where I have a real issue... these things are HARD to find: Monkey bars, rings, fireman's poles, balance beams, parallel bars and pull-up type bars.

Stairs, small ladders, small slides and platforms are great for make believe and safe play, but it's the hard-to-find items that are really responsible for helping kids build strength (through PLAY) and helping them learn more about how their body moves (subconsciously through PLAY).

When I jumped into movement & fitness with gusto two years ago, it was just to help find myself, help center myself emotionally, and "get in better shape." After trying more conventional approaches, (i.e. gyms, running, etc...) I wanted to get stronger and have more fun. I thought about how I got strongish as a kid and remembered climbing on things a lot, playing on the swing set (I still love swings), using the monkey bars, etc.... so I got a friend and went to the playground. The next day, my arms and thighs hurt from using the swings for 40 minutes. Long story short, I went back & kept playing on the playground, found MovNat, found Exuberant Animal, and started really going beyond fitness and just decided to explore movement and see what my body is capable of doing. I'm now trying to find my limits and push them instead of going for set goals like strength. Strength is a side product of what I can do - it's actually circular. The more I try, the stronger I get, the stronger I get, the more I can try.

Along the way I discovered this: I don't know how to move. I'm learning. I'm 30 and I'm learning how to move. I understand momentum and weight transference to some extent. But you tell me to do a pull-up & I try to contract my biceps & expect that will do it. I tried to push myself up & hold myself up on a pair of gymnastics rings and I fell right off because I was trying to use my triceps. I stopped. I tried again. I listened to what parts of my body were affected when my attempt failed. I felt it in my laterals, my pectorals, my shoulders and back. I was ignoring the function of a whole slew of things that needed to work together. Next time, I tried to push up & used those shoulder/chest/back muscles and guess what.... it worked! It makes me feel really stupid. It makes me realize how much I don't know and how much more I need to learn.

So back to the topic at hand.... From my own experience, I understand some basic movements and got some building of strength from playing on this "dangerous" equipment as a kid. If, as an adult, I still don't feel like I know enough about how to move and use my body (can be helpful if you need to save yourself or get out of physical trouble), how are younger generations going to learn & how will they turn out? Yes, there's more prevalence of organized sports, but those result in specialized movements and skills, not general awareness. And what about kids in underprivileged areas where they might not have access to leagues and only have access to "safe," unchallenging playspace. Will this relegate them to a weaker body and lifestyle in the end? I don't know. It's something I'm thinking about. Maybe others should too?

P.S. I've been very lax about the Veg of the Week, but this week I tried Carrot Tops (the greens). Interesting... like a combo of parsley & arugula. It had quite a strong flavor.

Trails, Trials and a new Recipe

Right, so on September 5, I ran in the Arlington Pentagon 9/11 Memorial 5K. I signed up for it with my friend Adi - I told him I would last year. It sounded fun because you finish the early evening race and get a medal, beer & pizza. For two weeks before the race, I went out 2 or 3 times a week to get "back in shape." Two days before the race, I ran a full 3.1 mi. route in a reasonable time and was very happy. It was easy. I showed up at the race, I had a light lunch/ afternoon snack of almonds and carrots and tomato and red peppers and cucumbers and yellow squash... all the good stuff. Lined up, feeling good.... after the first 1.5 mi, I was feeling lousey.... not physically, but mentally. I hated the fool who was standing 60 feet past the starting line telling me we were "almost there, almost done" - I don't care that he was doing it as a joke. I hated the people around me, I hated the route, it was hot (80 degrees, 54% humidity) and sticky... ugh. Then we turned into the last 1.25 mi. It was through a parking lot. With no moving air. Facing into the setting sun. My brain gave out. I walked for 20 feet. jogged some more, walked for 20 feet, jogged, walked & stripped down to my running bra, jogged and finished it out with a ginormous grimace and the feeling that I wanted to throttle someone. I lumbered off grumbling for some pizza and leftover veggies.

Not a triumphant moment. Then I started thinking about it. whether I keep going or not is all mental. I know at this point that I prefer woods running to urban running. After that race, I decided to set my sights on distance running and working my way up to trails. The following Friday I went and decided to try running the Loop around Lake Accotink. It's 3.8 mi round trip, mostly through trees, with a smooth, clean, gravel/dirt trail. This plan was inherently a bad idea. I had spent the day running around in platform knee boots with a 3.25 inch heel. If you've worn heels, you can do the math... if you haven't... well, by the end of the day your foot muscles have partially atrophied and frozen into the shape of the shoe, it's hard to put your heel down flat because your Achilles is all tight, and probably you've partially bruised the ball of your foot from the abuse of the shoes. So I get home from work, kick my boots off, change, hop into my Fivefingers and drive to the lake. Anyone not familiar with barefooting should be told that to do it properly, you need to have your whole foot relaxed to flex with the terrain and absorb the rocks & bumps properly. Uh... yeah... I take off... the trail's rougher than the normal asphalt, about 1.25 mi in, I'm feeling good, except the balls of my feet are tender. I step wrong on a large stone on my left foot and add a good beating to my already tender left foot. Ow. I keep going, but now I'm favoring that foot. after the turn around at 1.5 (the sun's going down so I nix the idea of doing a full loop), the favoring of the left foot has been throwing off my mechanics, so a stabilizing tendon in my left knee is starting to get angry with me. Also, my stomach is cramping for some odd reason, and I'm getting overheated - argh! In a race this would make me stop. In the woods, I was still smiling and having a helluva lotta fun and kept going, albeit being more careful how I planted my left foot. I finished a full 3 miles back to the car, it felt like I had only been out for 15 minutes, and I was singing with the radio on the way home. That's it. I'm only going to do trail running from now on.

Today I went out to Accotink again and did the whole 3.8... finished it in 39:15. It certainly didn't feel like 40 minutes. I didn't feel done when I stopped. J was doing the south-west half of the lake only, so I passed him on my way around. He hadn't come out of the woods yet, so I ran back to find him, then ran back with him & did a cool down walk. totalled out at 4.25 miles and felt like I probably could have gone farther if I didn't have other things to do. : ) I'm pretty happy. I need to find a bigger loop to work on and soon I need to start making little forays off the groomed trail onto some of the hiking trails that shoot off to the sides... I need to get some of my ankle muscles stronger - the ones that control lateral stability. They're just a little sore at the moment. I recognize this from when I first started running.... they're not used to being used quite that much. They're a lot stronger than they were two years ago, though, that's for sure! So yeah, apparently trails and woods make me happy & I'll just have to stick to that. I always come out of there feeling like I could take on the world. Accotink also looked like it had good opportunities to practice some of my MovNat stuff if I get off the beaten path, so I can't wait to try it. Whee!

Also, yesterday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day! I hope you all participated... I spent most of the day running around trying to find a good pirate hat.
AAAAaaaarrrrrr! to ye!

As promised, here's a new recipe for a side dish that I made up while trying to finish most of the leftover veggies in the fridge:

Eggplant Side

3 mini-eggplant thinly sliced (~1/4 thick, tops), or equivalent large EP
1 stalk heart of palm sliced like EP
~2 Tbsp. minced garlic
~2 Tbsp coconut oil
Copious amounts of cinnamon reasonable dusting across whole pan twice
~1 Tbsp lemongrass herb paste (may be able to sub lemon juice)
~ sauteing eggplant, heart of palm, garlic, cinnamon & lemon grass paste in coconut oil ( in lieu of CO, maybe just butter and then add a bit of shredded coconut for flavor), after a few minutes, added a bit of water & covered the frying pan to add some steaming... cooked until eggplant melted in your mouth (15-20 mins). Taste. Add more cinnamon if necessary, add in maple syrup, stir, & add a bit of spinach at the very end - cooked just long enough to wilt. This served two.

By mini-eggplant, I used these:

MovNat Seminar Recap

So, I've been getting a lot of questions (and rightly so) about what is this "Mov- NAT" thingie that I went to. If you'd like the official stuff about it, feel free to go visit the MovNat website. Make sure to watch the Erwan Le Corre video on YouTube also. It's cool.



So, if you want the really short, bare-bones answer, here's what I learned: barefoot movement & conditioning, running, jumping, landing, crawling, rolling, balancing, accuracy, agility, breathing, hanging, climbing, swimming, holding of breath, throwing sticks, throwing rocks, lifting, carrying, using gravity to one's advantage and overall efficiency of movement, some morsels of diet - paleo in specific, sparring, punching, self defense and that I'm a scary, scary woman if threatened. Really if I break most of those down into the subcategories of movement that I haven't named specifically, it's mind-boggling that the seminar was only over 5 days, more like 4 days when two of those were half-days... Really, I'm not quite sure how it all happened because it felt like we only did 2 or 3 things a day (this, said through rose colored glasses, since I can remember spending some days where I was just wishing for it to end).



For more of a detailed description of the experience, read on... and on... and on... (I don't see how it can end up short & concise).



Background

I have to admit that I don't fully follow all the "zoo human" philosophy on the website, or maybe I do, but phrased in a different manner. What I do know is that I feel people in general are dealing with a nature defficiency (myself especially - I go nuts if I don't get enough exposure to rocks & trees & water & stuff), and I feel like our modern western lifestyle is not conducive to health, wellness & mobility over our ever-increasing lifetimes. By talking biomechanics with my chiropractor & others and by reading & researching, I've been becoming fascinated with how our body works and have begun developing a theory, that I'd love to work with some day, that our life-long mobility and ability is determined by the movements we use in our everyday lives. The western world is suffering from some chronic pain issues and mobility issues that are not seen in some other cultures at later stages in life. Keep in mind that I'm not discounting the lack of elasticity in tendons and ligaments that come with age as well as breakdown of cartilage, wear of joints, etc.... BUT a number of mobility problems appear to be preventable either due to avoiding misalignments caused by imbalances caused by lack of use of muscles or by avoiding injury by using proper techniques and keeping critical joints strong and flexible. This is merely a quickie aside...



How it came about

Anyway, so let's start at the beginning of how I impulsively signed up for this thing. Please see the statement above about the mobility mind-set that I'm in at the moment. So for the past two years I've been mildly intrigued by Methode Naturelle and Parkour. Additionally, I've been trying to broaden my exercise regimen to strengthen and expand my abilities (both because I'm all dooms-day-ish and believe that I could get stuck in some catastrophic situation sometime, and because I'd like to still be able to get up off the floor when I'm 80 - "help, I've fallen and I can't get up" should not enter my vocabulary unless to make a joke or in an instance where both legs are broken). In June or July, I try to find something to use my HTO gift-card on and come out of the store with a FREE copy of Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine and read this article about the Natural Fitness with an "annoyingly fit" man. It's a great article. So I googled MovNat. I watched the YouTube Video. Then I watched it again. And again. And AGAIN. It turned into one of those obsessive things I do such that I was researching or going to the MovNat page everytime I needed an ADHD break at work (i.e. every 10 minutes). Lastly I saw that they were going to be offering seminars in West Virginia in August & September. Then I got more & more distracted. At some point, the irrational part of my brain went AWOL & said "if you don't sign up for this & try it, you'll always be wondering & regret it." This led to an "are there still any available spaces left?" email, with the expectation of the answer "no". I got the answer: "there's one spot left and we've pencilled your name in if you want it." EGADS! What have I gotten myself into. It's one of those weird things that seemed to be 'fate.' We discussed it at home, I paid, it was all set, I was very excited. Then the "you're crazy" part of my brain kicked in & I started fretting about the cost & what a Paleo Diet was (raw meat?) and vacation time and holding the rest of the class back and killing myself and.... If there's one thing I'm an expert at, it's fretting - especially about the various possible ways for me to meet my demise. Well, anyway, that's how I got signed up for it and there was no turning back after hitting the "pay" button. * sigh *



And so it begins...

Tuesday, August 18, sees me departing a little after 7 AM on my drive to West Virginia. After a 5.5 hour car ride in which I stock up on doritos & a rootbeer (I will be eating Paleo for the next five days! augh!), I arrive at the campsite and find a collection of tents and one or two other people there. Tents -> Ozark Trail, first thought -> "egads, I wish I brought my own tent, this sucker's gonna leak". I spend some time talking to my first co-conspirator, James, a "kid" who's in college and is studying Physics - suddenly I don't feel like I'll be totally out of my element. After a bit of chatting, we decide to go see if Jeff, the assistant, needs any help with lunch. This is when I meet co-conspirator #2, Chris, the first of two Canadians and who drove down from Montreal the night before. I'm betting that was longer than 5.5 hours. Part way through chopping red peppers, we were joined by the other Canadian, Greg, an ex-air force instructor, Jason, and the man himself, Erwan Le Corre. In response to me saying "Oh, you're THE man!", he replied: "What were you expecting, a Zeus?" My reaction was not because he was very average looking, but because I had not been able to ascertain via the website, really what he looked like. A little bit later, we were joined by the last participant, a woman named Liz. It was a cozy little group. I had been expecting something different. The listing had said there would be 12 participants and we ended up with only 6. I had been expecting most everyone else to be fitness professionals and we numbered as a physics student, a patent examiner, a freelance journalist, a mediator, a finance guy, and a program manger. Hmm.... we each had a different level of fitness and abilities too, as was determined over the next couple of days. The first meal was a phenomenal salad of greens, peppers, nuts, oils & vinegar and I think some meat & fruit. Our first lesson was conditioning for barefoot movement - i.e. finding the sharpest gravel on the campsite road and purposely standing on it... "It's like a Chinese massage," says Erwan. Hmmm... Then we went to a local park with playgrounds & pavilions to see that MovNat can be practiced anywhere. I'd say we spend about 4 hours learning some basics, like balancing, jumping off picnic tables, walking on all fours, barefoot running and some warm-up moves. Part of it, I suspect, was for evaluating each of our ability levels. I successfully demonstrated that my Klutz Factor is abysmally high as I was 'balancing' across the wooden backstop to a horseshoe pit and managed to simultaneously fall off of AND onto the 'balance beam', leaving a gash in my leg that will be my souvenir! : )

I should have gotten a prize for "first blood." That night finished with a leisure swim in Summersville Lake, an amazing Paleo Dinner of more salad, veggies, steaks, and a dessert of coconut milk-banana-blueberry-bliss - I could get used to that. Did I mention that Erwan is originally French and oversaw all the meal prep? You can do the math on that one... Mmmm...

Day two involved a warm-up on a steep grassy slope of the campground, just below a couple of RV pads. We spent a significant amount of time learning about stretching and warming up by using practical movements that exercise full range of motion instead of just one piece at a time. Emphasis was put on the difference between motion in context (actually going over or under something), and without context (just going through a motion) and how each action without context can be given context in your mind to give it more meaning. We did a good bit of rolling around in the grass and crawling and then some stretches that were motions one would use if one were trying to hide in grass from predators or prey. The people staying in the RVs seemed to be highly amused by all this. I like to think that when we were practicing looking around furtively and hiding that the RV campers got nervous about an impending attack, because they left shortly thereafter. They also left us a large watermelon as a peace offering. After warming up, we went off into the forest and carried some long logs to our workout site. It was at this time that I re-discovered my 'true nature' of being completely distracted by the things around me... "look! a red mushroom! Look at that flower! Look! That part of the tree looks like a face! We just squashed a blue fungus of some sort..." Either way, I followed along balancing on logs, doing standing long-jumps, jumping off of logs, learning how to properly dead-lift stones above our heads and throw them. About mid-day, the assistant, Jeff, showed up with lunch - a bag of walnuts, a bag of almonds, some bananas and grapes, and a 9x13 Tupperware of chopped zucchini, carrots, peppers, and tomatoes. That was it. I was skeptical, but I followed the suggestion of "just eat what you want, your body will tell you what it needs." I've never tasted almonds so good. The rest of the day, was some more practice of skills and combining skills into a "combo circuit" that was repeated over and over for 15 minutes. Things I learned from combo: I need to have a goal or purpose and then I can enjoy repetitive things. My goal was throwing a rock, chasing it, picking it up, throwing it, and chasing it again. I wonder why I'm so "play" based... the 15 minutes felt like 5.

Day three was spent on the Gauley River and it was, by far, the most fantastic day of the seminar. It was the only truly sunny day we had all week for one thing. Thankfully I started the morning by explaining to Erwan that if I look like I'm not paying any attention whatsoever, I really am and don't mind me - I used to drive my teachers nuts with that. Secondly, though a river setting, there was a variety of terrains, from beach to dirty, to boulders to large flatrocks to rocky flat terrain. I was in heaven. It's a landscape that I've kind of grown up with and love dearly. The first lesson of the day was to walk barefoot across rocky terrain without really looking where you're going. Quite hard, really. I'm apparently way too stiff & have to relax my shoulders. We stopped for a swim, swam onto some rocks in the middle of the river, practiced breathing and holding of breath. Then we played cooperative 'games' of toss the rock & toss the stick and toss the stick while running around obstacles and toss the stick while balancing on a log. Next we stopped for lunch on a large flatrock complex and then practiced jumping up ledges and down ledges and across gaping chasms. We found a funky tree to balance on and that was fun, then we found a rather good Bouldering problem and scaled it. I scaled it 4 or 5 times just because. It was my first real, outdoor climbing!!! Yay! We finished with another swim and practice pushing a log across the river while swimming. I dripped dry while doing another climb. It was a great day.

Day three is also the only day I have pictures of essentially.

Day four is when I finally fell apart. I was not having the issues that some other people had - some of the guys were light sleepers and/or not used to being in the woods and hadn't been sleeping much at all. I come from a breed that A) grew up camping and B) have a family history of being able to sleep through train derailments. Sleep was NOT an issue for me. Except that night it rained a goodly bit and 1/3 of my air mattress and bedding got wet. Additionally, they started the day off by saying "OK, now today is going to be pretty intense!" That is the LAST thing I ever want to hear. We went back to the playground/park and warmed up with some out of context stretching and brief bursts of high intensity motion. Then we started learning self-defense and sparring techniques. This is where I discovered that I could cause damage if threatened. We were to practice protecting our heads. With the technique we learned, one could not only parry blows, but also fight back a bit with one's elbows. So we paired up and Chris was put in a position of 'attacking' while I was to defend myself. well, after a a few minutes i had to call a time out because my mind was getting into it and all of a sudden he was not my friend anymore, but a real attacker and I was about to leap & try to rip his head off... I kinda knew I had this in me, I felt it coming on, so I called a time-out. This combined with the 'rage' I exhibited when I was instructed to "hate the target" while Greg was holding it, resulted in me being labelled both 'scary' and 'dangerous' by the guys later. The latter half of the day, as promised, was filled with a smattering of intensity workouts.... series of intense bursts of conditioning, some fast combos and etc. In the midst of all this, it poured buckets on us on and off and when it wasn't raining on us, we were rolling around in soaked, muddy grass. The best part was when we were walking back from the restrooms to the playground. We passed a ginormous puddle on the sidewalk that was 2-3 inches deep. We stopped, we stomped, we kicked water on each other as if none of us were over the age of 15. It was great!!! Then there was another combo set up... theoretically it was nothing to be worried about... balance on a railroad tie for about 30-40 feet, go up a ladder, slide down a slide, run across the playground, duck under a bar, do 5 jump-pull-ups, jump off the steps 3 times and repeat. For some reason, before we started, I started feeling ill. I recognized the feeling from the one and only swim meet that I ever participated in. I hated the pressure & competition. I don't know why I felt that way on the combo, but whatever. The last thing we did was a longer combo... run to a tree, run to the bathrooms, do a small combo from earlier, run to the swings, run back to the bathroom, run to the playground, do the big combo, and then run back to the tree. The end. I started, I did half of it, between the swings & the bathroom I started having trouble breathing... It got worse! A freakin' anxiety/asthma attack! I got soooooo mad! It made it worse. I had to stop, I calmed down by the time I got to the top of the slide. By the bottom of the slide, I was OK, but I ended up being the last one to finish the route. I was sooo mad and pissed. There was no reason for it except a mental breakdown or will. ugh.

Day Five was the final day and it was a half-day only. We lost one of the participants in the morning at breakfast because she had a plane to catch. This is the last picture of us all before we parted:

We took a whitewater style raft across Summersville Lake to an island or peninsula which had a good collection of rocks. On the way, we worked on swimming and swimming under things while holding breath. We worked on accuracy of rock tossing. We also worked on various high-intensity series of lifting & pushups & etc. It was hard, but I knew it wasn't going to last long. The last thing before paddling back was a series of balancing along a wet log, jumping into the water, swimming under it, running back to the other end & repeat. One thing I liked very much about Erwan's instruction was that he got a good sense of each person and knew when to push you... literally. My first circuit, I got onto the log & froze.... Erwan pushed me off into the water. The next time around I went across the wet log with no problem. I don't know if I needed the push as a challenge or to show me that no harm would come by falling off... or maybe both, but I needed to be pushed off. Lastly, we rowed back while Jason & Jeff swam across the lake and finished up with lunch & said goodbye.

The Aftermath...

There were a couple of surprising results after all was said & done. For one thing, by being "Paleo" for a week has given me a particular aversion to "food products" (i.e. processed foods) - this I can only see as being a good thing. I've been doing some research on Coconut oil because, at least at first glance, it appears to potentially be a miracle food. I've also paid more attention to the things I buy.... the fewer ingredients the better.... whole raw nuts, sun dried raisins, no sugar or sulfates or salt added. I'm seeking more fruits & vegetables (again) and less grain products. The grains - breads, & etc - I'm noticing making me feel even more sluggish and uncomfortable than ever before. Actually, right after getting back and going back to a "normal" diet, I got a weird rash on my lower back and both my elbows. A lot of other weird things were going on too, like my leg swelling due to the wound getting infected, but the rash is making me think perchance I should look into Celiacs.... I'm not really sure I'd want to know though. Can you really enjoy a piece of cake with the knowledge that it could kill you?

In addition to diet changes, I was shocked to find that I DIDN'T come away from the experience sore & immobile. Just goes to show you that your body can adapt rather quickly. Also, I found I was able to do a goodly bit more than I had expected. I got kudos points for at least trying stuff even if I couldn't do it. I was known as having a "fighting spirit" by the end and that made me feel good. I also learned a lot about myself - how I work mentally. Competition, big surprise, is my downfall. I am best motivated when I want to do it for myself. I found that I had to fight an urge the first day to "prove myself" to the guys. They never said anything other than encouraging things. There were no disparaging remarks, no talking down, nothing but brotherly encouragement, yet I still felt like I had to prove-down the stereotype of "weak woman" and I found that this was mostly in my head, not theirs. I ended up coming up with a new personal motto, "I can't right now, but I can certainly try"... Huh? Meaning that I know my limits, but that won't stop me from trying until I can, whether it takes me hours, days or months, because I know that I can do most anything if I work on it. I also learned that when threatened or pushed, something else kicks in. I'm by no means going to throw caution to the wind and subject myself to danger, but I got reassurance that if I ever had to protect myself, I could either do a good job of it, or take someone else down with me.

Well, I guess that's all for right now... I think I'm on the verge of having bleeding stumps for fingers from typing so much. I'll write more later if I think of more.

Odd aside for the day: Spellcheck on here doesn't like 'egads'.... Tee-Hee!