Neither Snow, Rain nor Dark of Night...

Friday, December 10, 2010

My private practice appts. lately have been spreading between Weds., Thurs. and Fri. so I've been working in an hour of Nordic Walking on each of those days by leaving my car parked at my day job and pulling out the poles to walk to my office and afterward back. Save a smidgen of gas and get my cardio wedged in on those busy days!

Yesterday presented a nippy challenge as it was around 17 or so degrees, but after 10-15 mins. I'm pretty warmed up, although my legs still felt the chill some. And THEN after getting back to my car to drop off the poles I needed to get BACK downtown for the Celtic Thunder concert and catch up with DW. I *knew* parking would be tough and probably a waste of time, ending up parking almost as far away as I already was. So...off I go again!

No poles this time, but jogging instead, keeping a nice 4-5 mph pace down those nearly-deserted streets.

Tonight the challenge was the lightly falling snow which made the sidewalks slippery...couldn't "grab" with my poles' rubber tips so I didn't get the benefit of the poles as much...just lightly pushing as they would slide along. EXCEPT on my return trip I spotted a side street that was just wet, no snow...light enough with only an occasional car so I stayed on the street where I could "dig in" with the poles...yes!

But back on the main street again I dealt with the slippery snow cover by deciding that "someone" was trying to tell me to give up on the poles and just jog along, which I did for the last 1/2 of the trip.

The jogging felt good. Not *great*, but at least it was good!

Been picking a lotta brains (aka: fellow cycling club members...lol!) on possible cross country skiing venues and came up with a couple up north a little way, which means the odds of them having more and lasting snow would be greater this winter.

For the benefit of those in / around upstate New York here they are:

Lime Hollow Nature Center (near Cortland, NY):
www.limehollow.org/

Highland Forest Park (near Syracuse, NY)
onondagacountyparks.com/highland

Another unexpected treat came out of the blue tonight and an online friend sent me two Paul Winter albums. These are two from back around 1968-69 that I once owned in vinyl but lost to a flood in our basement ages ago:

allmusic.com/album/winter-consort-r8
3804
allmusic.com/album/something-in-the-
wind-r152824

I have looked EVERYWHERE for these long out-of-print albums! Christmas arrives early! Woo hoo!

These were very formative albums of his which led to Winter's later success in pulling together what would be one of the most unique and expressive music and musicians known as Oregon:

www.oregonband.com/oregonbio.html

I had the pleasure of seeing them on the cheap (FREE: as I was an usher for our university jazz club...YES!) performing 3 times back in 1976-78 while attending Michigan State University...also around the time Magic Johnson / Gregory Kelser led the Spartans to win the championship and the town was literally torn up with bar chairs set afire in the median strip of Grand Avenue! Ah memories...lol!

If your musical tastes lean toward New Age, World music with an unorthodox, highly unique spin of its own I cannot recommend either the Paul Winter Consort or Oregon highly enough...truly magical, inspired music for the body and soul!

Nite all!

Don

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Striving for Balance

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

I've come across a very thought-provoking article written by a formerly obese person who dubs herself as "The Thinnest Fat Woman in the World." She was once a proponent of the Fat Acceptance movement and although she has made radical shifts away from this, she offers some insights which she has taken from this experience:

Caught Between Fat and Thin: The Pounds Come Off, But the Label Stays

www.alternet.org/story/149089/

The level of acceptance and balance she has achieved I think offers an important angle for those looking to make their new, healthy and well lifestyle a permanent change.

I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts, reactions!

Also, another article along the "Buy Nothing - Value Everything" thinking:

Downsize Nation: Welcome to the New, Smaller American Dream

www.alternet.org/story/149077/

Have a great day everyone!

Don

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Junking Junk Food

Friday, November 26, 2010

Here is a great article which touches on a topic I feel SO STRONGLY about!

Junking Junk Food:

www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/magazine/
28FOB-wwln-t.html

On Black Friday, one of the most commercial days of the year, I'm feeling very anti-establishment. I've discovered that folks in Vancouver, BC started dubbing this as Buy Nothing Day! Love it! Great motto: Buy Nothing --- Value Everything!

So: along these lines regarding the choices we make when it comes to food, we are swimming against a tidal wave of advertising dollars which promote unhealthy food choices. And it's working, It's effective. Look at our similar tidal wave of skyrocketing obesity rates!

Here's an earlier rant of mine:

Fighting Corporate Control of Our Bodies!
www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=1353895

On this most commercial of days I would just encourage everyone to think twice not only of course about food choices, but about all expenditure choices. Do we REALLY NEED that (fill in the blank) ...? Are there more meaningful ways we could be spending our time and money...? Do we really want to show corporations that their advertising dollars are going to pay off and influence our choices?

My wallet is staying in my pocket today and I'm spending my time with my family.

How about you?

Have a SPARKIN' Day everyone!

Don

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Beware the numbers game!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Beware the numbers game!

YES, the numbers can be our best ally as we watch calories and bump up our workouts and watch the scale...

BUT: these ARE only numbers and we have to not lose sight of the forest for the trees.

We're all here working on building a new & healthy LIFESTYLE! Don't forget to stop and smell those new roses we've all been growing for ourselves as we pursue better and better "numbers."

After all, think about this:

When one reaches your goal what numbers will you be watching then? One of the difficult aspects of maintenance once you've reached your goals is that the "numbers" on the scale don't keep dropping. The "numbers" on the tape measure don't keep dropping. The "numbers" on our blood pressure readings, triglycerides & cholesterol...they'll stop dropping too! The "numbers" on the weights we lift or the reps we do don't keep increasing...at least not by the leaps and bounds to which we've grown accustomed. How will you measure your progress and satisfaction then?

I think that illness and injury can help us in preparing for those days by forcing us to take stock of our accomplishments and to savor the SPARKED way of life that we've created for ourselves. With rare exceptions, we all will bounce back from such hurdles. And if we don't quite bounce back to the level we might have previously enjoyed? We can appreciate how our healthy lifestyle has helped us to avoid even MORE serious repercussions and value the skills and abilities we have.

Most of us are giving our workouts the best we can. And just as we tell our children, we need to tell ourselves as well: our best is MORE than good enough!

Don

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Dorky Shorts Rides Again! :-)

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Put on the ol' dorky shorts (yep, those padded spandex things are under my regular shorts...lol ) and headed out with a few bike club members for WONDERFUL 42 mile ride from Binghamton to Owego and back today.

It had been too, too long since I'd been out on my bike...guesstimating about a month...! Riding that single-speed beach cruiser in Savannah had me SO appreciating the kind of bonding one develops with one's bike...knowing how it will respond to my pedaling, gear-shifting, etc. Similar to the bond one develops with a musical instrument. I can play any guitar, but it's different when it's MY guitar! I imagine the bond between a horse and rider must be even tighter!

As gloriously sunny as it was I don't believe it ever hit 60. The warmest temp I saw during the ride was 56 and by the time we returned around 4:15 it had already dropped to 49.

So I wondered what to wear...for a teensy bit and then I just said, "Heck you KNOW you're just gonna shed anything that you wear beyond your standard shorts and T-shirt...!" So that's what I wore. And it was just FINE! A little brisk, but I tell ya, those first miles were so sweet and SO pumped up! I zoomed way ahead of the others. Free at last! Woo hoo! Any chill that was noticeable at first was just vaporized!

Felt a little weird shoving this orange-sized (formerly grapefruit-sized) hematoma on my hip into my dorky shorts, but I think it helped to stabilize it...at least for a while. Later it had this irritating tendency to kinda slosh or flop around as I peddled. But it didn't hurt, nor did my right ankle / shin where the cellulitis is. Now as I sit here typing the ankle is saying "okay let's put me up for the night already!"

Owego is a very pleasant little artsy village and today it was just BUZZING with people up & down the street window shopping and soaking up the sunshine. Across the street were some high school band students playing Christmas songs. While I STILL feel this is rushing the season a bit, it was a nice touch:



We walked about town and courtesy of another bike club member I discovered the lovely RiverWalk that had been built a few years ago along the backside of the downtown buildings:



These are the kind of improvements to our cities and villages that inspires people to get out of their homes and walk, jog, bike, skateboard, whatever and enjoy the company of others doing the same. People are more connected to nature, others and themselves! In my opinion there just can't be ENOUGH of these kind of projects!

A few other pics:





All in all it was a perfect day for a ride that was the perfect distance, terrain and company!

Flying HIGH AGAIN! Woo Hoo!

I wish RUNNING could make me feel this good...! Lol!

Everybody enjoy the rest of your weekend, rest, recharge and SPARK anew!

Don

ps...earlier in my cycling resurgence I was bemoaning the need for cycling shorts as I'd never needed them before...well a fellow member gave a good-humored poke by referring to a Dilbert comic where cycling shorts were referred to as "dorky shorts"...to which I heartily agreed! Still do, sorta, but necessary nonetheless...lol!

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