Resolution

Too many cookies! (not really but that is how I feel)

I’ve decided this year to make my New Years’ resolution public. That way, I am completely accountable if I slack off. I hesitate to say “fail”, because we are always works in progress. I personally think that you should set a goal that seems a little unattainable, as it gives you something to work for.  If you set a goal that is a little beyond your reach and you “fail”, you might feel like a loser and lose your momentum, spiral into self doubt and recriminations, wondering why you even tried in the first place. Those emotions aren’t particularly useful, so let’s take away the idea that you can attain your goal and instead think that you are reaching toward it. That way any motion in the right direction is good and “failure” isn’t in the picture.

As many of you may know, my struggle since I’ve had my baby, and quite possible my entire dance career, has been my weight. Last year, I read a book called Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Furhman, so perhaps I should begin there. One year after I had my baby, I realized my baby weight had yet to shed. I tried hard not to worry about my weight her first year, as I was breastfeeding and wanted to be a healthy, strong mommy for her. I figured some pudge must be good for milk production so I didn’t stress too hard, despite the fact that I got married under those circumstances. It was very difficult not to slip into full blown “brideorexia”. Luckily, I have a very loving husband, who I was pretty sure loved me despite my extra weight. Having a baby helps you be pretty sure of that. Now, was I obese? Certainly not. But I gained a solid forty pounds during pregnancy and only lost about fifteen of that after I had her. I was SURE breastfeeding would melt the weight right off, everyone told me it would, but that was NOT the case for me. Breastfeeding seemed to tell my body, “no, no! I need that weight, I’m feeding a baby here!” and I simply couldn’t convince it that it didn’t need ALL of it. I carried that 25lbs around until last January, when I simply decided enough was enough. I didn’t feel like myself with the extra weight. I felt like a shadow, with less energy, less vivacity, less spring in my step, literally weighed down.

Now to top all that off, I was also dealing with pretty debilitating back pain. See my very first blog post for info on that. I just wanted to feel like myself again. So I read Dr. Furhman’s book and started down a path toward veganism. Not on principal, but for health purposes. For six weeks, I cut out all dairy, all meat, all animal by-products. Did I cheat? You bet. But for those six weeks I bet I only cheated three or four times. And what I really liked about this diet was it really that it opened my mind to foods I never would have tried. I became a huge fan of kale, a delicious super food. The same is true of beans, which I LOVE now. I prefer them to meat. They make me feel more full than meat. And at this point if I eat more than 3oz or so or meat I start to get grossed out by it (unless its chicken fingers, not sure why). But Dr. Furhman goes on to recommend that 90% of your total caloric intake should be from vegetables or fruit. Just pause and think about that for a second. That is a LOT of vegetables. He cautions you to use refined sugar, and flour with caution. That means noddles and bread should not be the bulk of your meal.

Following this faithfully, I lost all 25 pounds and a little more. I can’t tell you how much I liked that little more. But I also think its important to note, I didn’t feel like me again. I felt new and better, vivacious again, but like pre-baby me? No. For one thing, I was still in a lot of back pain. For another, weight had shifted on my body into new places and left others.

Like most people, I was pretty smug about my weight loss and as social pressures weighed on me I gradually slipped out of my healthy life style. My salad lunches were replaced by pasta, I added desserts back in, liquor, eggs for breakfast and before I knew it, I was making french toast for my little one every Saturday and having a slice of cake everyday. After this past Christmas I returned from my mother’s cookie-filled house five pounds heavier than when I set out for it, and that was on top of the eight pounds that slowly crept up on me over the year.

So here I am one year later, determined to reclaim that CLEAN feeling my body had when I was eating well. I would like to lose at least fifteen pounds (remember those goals should always be a little further than you think you can get) but mostly I’d like to be able to move without pain, fit in my jeans and bounce around vitally whenever I choose. I don’t want to feel like a shadow of myself. So my New Years’ resolution is to reclaim me!

Pilates and the Pursuit of Happiness

Lately, I have begun reading Joseph Pilates’ last book, Return to Life. I’m not sure why its taken me so long to get to the point where I read his own words myself, but I’ve been content thus far to have them interpreted by others. Very wise, very practiced others. But I am at the point in my life and in my Pilates career that I want to get deeper into his thoughts and feelings on movement, life and Pilates.

Though ostensibly a book about Joe’s mat work, the most fascinating part of the book is the first chapter, what I think of as Joe’s foreward. In it, Mr. Pilates lays out the fundamentals of why you should practice his movement method. 80% of the book is Joe’s exercises, which almost no certified, intelligent Pilates teacher would send a new client home with, and tell them to do with no supervision. Today, we have a knowledge of exercise science that Joe didn’t have access to. Joe’s first exercise is a brilliantly executed “Hundred”; legs two inches off the floor and back firmly pressed to the mat. Joe’s remarkable 60-year-old form reproduces the exercise with ease, simply floating his legs straight from the floor. Now, no Pilates instructor would start a novice here. Legs are long and heavy, and low backs are weak and injury prone. That lever of straight legs two inches off the floor is simply too long and heavy for a weak low backs and the strongest of us are lucky to get our legs two inches off the floor on a great day. Yet Joe proposes that you master this exercise before moving onto the next. Most teachers no longer recommend the flattening of the lumbar spine during abdominal work anymore either knowing as we do now that those curves are necessary for shock absorption. So we begin novice student in a flattened spine to protect the back and when they show aqueduct pelvic stability, we move them to a “neutral spine” one that honors the lumbar curve.

But I don’t want to criticize Joe’s life work. The man was a genius and far beyond his time. But, he expected a great deal of people and wanted even more for them. His series of exercises perfectly align and uniformly strengthen the body. Joe lays out a persuasive argument for his system in his first chapter.

Joe begins with the sentence “Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness”(p. 15) Let’s just think about that sentence for a minute. Let’s read what it doesn’t say. It does not say “being skinny is the first requisite to physical fitness” though I think most magazines give that impression. He goes on to say “Our interpretation of physical fitness is the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind and mind fully capable of naturally, easily, and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure” (p.15) Joe’s argument for physical fitness isn’t about how your body looks, but how it moves, how it lives. Physical fitness is a requisite to happiness in Joe’s mind because it’s the vessel you experience the world through. How dulled is that experience when you live in a body constantly wracked with pain or too weak to zestfully complete your daily tasks? Or a body simply not capable of living up to what your life style demands of it?

“Physical fitness can neither be acquired by wishful thinking nor by outright purchase” (p.15 ) And Joe is right. You can’t buy yourself into a healthy body, though lets not kid our selves, money makes it easier. While you can pay a personal trainer or Pilates teacher, they cannot do the work for you to your benefit. And I think it’s pretty self explanatory that you can’t sit on the couch and think about running on the treadmill and get winded from it. Believe me, I’ve tried. This quote is about personal responsibility. Your workout is yours and no one else’s. Your choices are yours and no one else’s. Your body is yours and no one else’s and you are responsible for it. You must take care of this body and love it and care for it because it is the only one you will ever have, and you are responsible for it.

In the next paragraph on the first page of Return to Life, Joe talks about why we have to spend so much time working on our bodies when our forefathers never had to. Joe talks about cavemen, and the harsh physical obstacles that daily life life put them through. Even in 1945, when Joe wrote this book he recognized that we had developed a sedentary, in-door lifestyle. The fact of the matter is that we don’t have exercise built into our day. And since we don’t, we have to put it there ourselves. But Joe is careful in his suggestion of how. Again even in 1945 he notes that people have a tendency to focus on the “development of a particular set of pet muscles” (p. 17 ) I always say to my clients that triceps are in many ways a vanity muscle. It certainly has function. But the value we place upon a well developed tricep is disproportionate to its daily function. Joe advocates that we develop all our muscles not just the pretty ones.

“Contrology is the complete coordination of body, mind and spirit.” (p. 18) Joe saw Contrology, now known simply by his last name Pilates, as a sort of holy trinity. The unification of body, mind and spirit. Most Pilates professionals emphasize the first two and cut off the last. I have to wonder why? Is spirituality simply to synonymous with religion? Is there something taboo about spirit? Or is it simply too reminiscent of yoga? We know that Joe had early run-ins with yoga and kept some yoga books. We aren’t exactly sure of the time line for Joe and yoga, nor the extent of his exposure. But in my mind, how could you pursue happiness without the spirit? And for me in so many ways, my pursuit of Pilates reflects my pursuit of happiness.

So my challenge and question for my blog this week is: How does physical fitness factor into your personal happiness? How do you align your physical being with your mental self? Do you have a spiritual self? And do you find as I do, that happiness comes from the graceful union of all three?

Myofascial Release by the Poolside

Today, I write Poolside. I’m waiting on a frosty daiquiri, virgin because I still feel dehydrated from flying and the desert. I’m in bathing suit defying what Palm Springs is calling a cold snap. Ridiculous. Any time you can comfortably wear a bikini can never be qualified as a cold snap. It’s also important to note I’m hiding in the shade because I’m a fish bellied Bostonian and quite frankly the sun here scares me. I think my feet are burning as I write. So in the shade I’m comfortable in a bathing suit. Ha. I laugh at your cold snap Palm springs.

This morning I had the privileged of taking a seminar from Dr. Carol Davis on sustained myofascial release. This quite complicated name really has a pretty simple concept. Our bodies as we know are made up of bones and muscle, all housed within the bag of the skin. Or at least that’s how we have been taught to think of them. But your body doesn’t house bones and muscle the way a purse carries your wallet and your cellphone. Instead the body is one superbly connected mass. So what connects the muscle to the skin? Fascia. Once dismissed as filler tissues, its importance is rapidly gaining recognition. Seen at a microscopic level this fascia appears like a living spiderweb, but a spider web where connections can shift, like some strange substance half liquid, half solid. This connective tissue is alive and peppered with nerves and blood vessels. With unbalanced repetitive motion the fascia can bunch, thickening in injured areas. This thickening can compress vital nerves and blood vessels, even pulling bone out of alinement.

Myofascial release addresses the thickening of the fascia. Heat and pressure can help release these blockages. Massage can address these knots, but according to the principals of sustained myofascial release, fail to properly affect the collagen and ground substance that make up the fascia and only effect the elastin component of fascia. By holding the heat and pressure against the thickened fascia a minute and half to three minutes Dr. Davis surmises that the collagen and ground substance have sufficient time and pressure to release.

That means all those knots you find along your IT band when you roll on a foam roller, all those sensitive painful places need to be held and softened into, breathed through, embraced and released. Most people simply roll up and down the foam roller in a quick and cursory fashion skipping along or brushing past those sensitive trigger points. So next time you find your self on the foam roller, first breathe, pause, then sink into the tender point and relax. Breathe with it and stay with it until you move through it. And really isn’t that a metaphor we should use for all the tough, tender, trigger points we have in our lives?

Rebecca Garrison

Chipotle Chili and Guacamole. Warm food for cool months.

So this week, in the spirit of yummy warm things, I thought I’d blog about my chili. My chili is amazing. Seriously. It’s all beans and veggies and flavor. Last week, I blogged about my black bean brownies. They are good, but not everyone loves them. Everyone loves my chili. It is adapted from a recipe in Slow Cooker: The Best Cook Book Ever by Diane Phillips. I highly recommend this cook book for tasty recipes. Healthy? Not so much, but this recipe is tasty and healthy! Its warm, filing, flavorful, healthy and it will help keep you regular. What is not to love?

Becca’s Hot Chipotle Chili:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions (I like sweet onions) coarsely chopped

1 spoonful of minced garlic or 2 fresh cloves minced

2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely chopped

4 chipotle chilis

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

3-4 Bell peppers seeded and coarsely chopped. Go for color!

2 cans black beans rinsed

2 cans kidney beans rinsed

2 cans chickpeas rinsed

1 can tomato purée

1 cup chicken or veggie broth

1 16 oz package of Frozen corn

Finely mince jalapeños and chipotle chilies. Chipotle chilies are smoked jalapeños. They come canned in adobo sauce and add more flavor than heat. I like to mince my jalpeños and chipotle chilies in my food processor. If you get jalapeño on your hands, it will BURN when you take your contacts out no matter how many times you wash your hands. I learned that the hard way. So handle with care.

In a skillet heat up olive oil over low to medium heat. Add onions, minced chilies, garlic, spices and saute until onions are translucent. Sometimes I add a dash of water to help soak the spices in.

Add all the ingredients to a crock pot and cook on low for 4 hours or 2 hours on high.

Sometimes I add other things. Sweet potatoes taste amazing in this recipe. Potatoes would also be good. Some people add mushroom, I don’t because I hate their texture. You could also make this recipe with fresh beans. You’d need to cook it longer and add more chicken broth. You could also take the heat out of the recipe by removing the jalapeños. Go crazy!

I like to eat my chili over brown rice in a whole wheat wrap with my husband’s guacamole.

Josh’s Guac

Three avocados, halve, peel, seed, toss into mixing bowl

Add one-half raw red onion, chopped fine
Add a few splashes of lime juice, or one whole lime juiced
Add a generous amount of cilantro, chopped fine
Salt n Pepper
Crush everything with a masher while mixing

Consistency should be between chunky and smooth

This chili and guacamole make a delicious hearty meal. It will warm up your stomach in the cool months ahead.

-Rebecca Garrison

Brownies!

So I have resolved each week to write a blog about my Pilates experiences. I don’t always have something Pilates related and relevant to say and this is one of those weeks. But I do have a semi-Pilates-related-because-its-related-to-overall-general-health thing to share.

As some of my clients know, I had to change my diet pretty drastically to loose my baby weight. Most of this weight loss was driven purely by vanity, but I also had quite a bit of back pain and extra weight is hard on your joints. So I cut out all meat, dairy, eggs, soda, and refined sugar. I went Vegan. I didn’t go Vegan on principals but for weight loss and general health reasons. I read a book called “Eat to Live” by Dr. Furhman who is a proponent of a “nutritarian” diet. Basically, the stuff that you know isn’t good for you, he reminds you you should not eat but he takes it a step further by suggesting that Americans eat too much filler food. Filler foods (that’s my term not his) are your pastas, breads, and tofu. In my mind pasta is the meal. Dr. Furhman suggests that our veggies should be the main meal. They are packed full of nutrients that are good for your body, so you should be eating mostly them because they are the foods that are best for you. So it isn’t that pasta is bad for you, its that when you eat it, its taking up a lot of room in your stomach that should be full of vegetables. And those vegetables have a much more favorable nutrient to calorie ratio. He supports a 90/10 split. Yes, folks, that is 90% of your diet being vegetables. The first week of this was tough but I lost weight quickly and I felt great.

In the months following, I have gradually let a little meat, dairy and sugar into my diet. But I’m so grateful for my foray into full veganism. It forced me to open my palette to foods I had never liked. Most notably, beans. I’m a firm believer you cannot have enough beans in your diet now. They are great for you, super filling, cheap, easy to cook, packed full of nutrients and help you poop. And they are so versatile! So I plan to begin sharing some of my favorite recipes not only for beans but other yummy, healthy, filling foods. Here is a bean one! Please note you need a high powered food processor for it. I leave out the nuts and add a few semi sweet chocolate chips on top. Also, don’t go in expecting these to taste like a white sugar, egg, white flour and chocolate brownie. Because it will disappoint. Do let it be its own thing. That is how I taught my lactose intolerant husband to like soy milk. I simply explained to him one day that he should not prepare his mouth for cow milk when it was about to drink a plant. Low and behold, my household all drinks soy milk now and loves it. Do the same with these bean brownies.

-Rebecca Garrison

Black Bean Brownies

Serves: 10

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Cocoa

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 can black beans

2 tablespoons ground flax seed

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 cups pitted dates

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup walnuts (optional)

Instructions:
Place first 6 ingredients in a food processor. Start the food processor, then add the dates one at a time until finished. Add the flour until evenly blended. Shut off the food processor and stir in the nuts. Spread into a 13 x 9-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. Tastes best chilled in the refrigerator.

Above recipe borrowed from www.drfuhrman.com

  My daughter helps me clean the spatula.

We have a sub?!

In elementary school, when there is substitute teacher, many children will push to see just how much they can get away with. A “How can we pull the wool over the sub eyes?” sort of attitude. You think of the stereotypical scene in a movie where the boys throw spits balls and the everyone lies to the teacher about whether or not there was home work given. Almost always, the substitute teacher’s presence shakes thing up.

I had the honor of subbing today for one of my most talented senior instructors. She leads a rigorous and honest work out. This morning on my drive in I thought to myself, what can I possibly tell these clients that will be of use to them? How can I make sure they are challenged, safe and satisfied at the end of their session?

It turns out that I needn’t have worried as I forgot one of the most important things that happens in Pilates. When you see the same instructor week after week, and as instructors we see the same clients day after day, a sort of status quo get formed. Clients get used to hearing the words and cueing of their instructors begin to hear the cues but not really listen to the cues. It isn’t intentional or even lazy. It just is. Think of driving your car to work everyday. How often do you get there and not remember how?

Clients begin to get attached to certain exercises or form distaste for others. It is important to remember one of our most important tools as teachers is keep our clients happy. We truly want you to enjoy your workout. Plus it can sometimes be difficult to tell if a client simply has an aversion to an exercise or if it truly feels terrible for their body. So over time we give in to the “Lets do Reformer” or “ugh I HATE that exercise.”

Enter the substitute. Unlike children, adults are on their best behavior around a sub. (usually) You want this new person leading your work out to know that you love Pilates and that you get it. Also, and most importantly, there is a new voice in the studio. Literally their voice sounds different, so clients listen more closely to what the substitute says. Often it is what your normal teacher says, but offered with a new voice it can sound like a revelation.

So the question is: “Why? Why would a new voice change what you already know?” It doesn’t. A new voice simply forces you back into your Mind/Body connection. Its snaps you out of auto pilot, like a car slamming on the brakes in front of you might. A new voice says: “PAY ATTENTION! Stay with me” and your body listens.

Last week, as I was teaching one of my own clients, and trying to get her to scoop and articulate more through her roll up, Laura walked by as I was teaching. She offered my client a cue that always works for her. And though it had been the same thing I was telling my client, suddenly my client understood. I don’t know why what Laura said worked for my client but I’m glad that it made her listen. I laughed and said “But that what I was saying!” She and I finished the session and I continue to use that cue for her.

Does this mean we need to have a different instructor all the time? NO. Unequivocally no. Your instructor knows your body. The little ins and outs of the things that work and don’t work for you and your body. Working with a client week to week lets your instructor see the little changes in their body or celebrate the little triumphs. And in Pilates as in life, you have GOT to celebrate those little victories or life is long and hard.

But it does mean that next time you find yourself on autopilot pause. Notice. Because you can not change something your are not aware of. Pull your self back into your Mind/Body connection. Ask yourself “Am I REALLY doing what my instructor asked to the best of my ability?” As a teacher I ask myself all the time “is that REALLY what I mean to say?” or “is that the best way I know how to say that?” and the answer is NOT always yes. But I try to notice when it isn’t and work on it the next time around.

Also the next time your teacher says “I’m on vacation next week, would you like sub?” say YES! And enjoy hearing that new voice. Take your newly rejuvenated Mind/Body connection and bring it back with you next week!

-Rebecca Garrison

Miraculous Feet

Recently, I went to a Seminar with Lolita San Miguel. As heady as it was to be in the same room with a woman who actually met and studied with Joseph Pilates himself, we were there to discuss a serious matter. Feet, those two sacks of bones that bear all our weight during the day and propel you from place to place.

As a dancer, I have always been aware of the importance of feet. In ballet when you begin warm up you start from your feet up. Piles are followed by tendu and you slowly work your way up the leg. As a small child preparing for Pointe shoes, we did exercises to strengthen our arches and toes. Over the years I’ve given these exercises to my clients when I’ve noticed that they have a foot issue. But as a Pilates teacher I’ve always felt that I’m some how going out side the bounds of Pilates and I’m offering something contraband to my clients. As an over all body worker and body owner myself, some deeper wisdom told me that these Pilates transgressions were necessary, and deeply beneficial for my clients.

Still, it was nice to have this feeling validated by one of the longest practicing Pilates mavens alive. Not only does Lolita San Miguel shape her knowledge base with 53 years of Pilates, but an entire lifetime of professional dance. And she articulated verbally what I’ve always known. Your feet hold you up! They are your base of support as you move through this world. We all know that if there is a crack in the foundation of your house it can spell serious issues for the house itself. The same is true with your feet. Look down. How are your feet shaped? Does your big toe wing into your second toe balanced out by a large bunion? That bunion could be causing you more issues than you know. Bunions can cause pain that you shift away from, changing the entire weight bearing system of your body. This can cause pain in the knees, hips, and back as the bones of the body spread force in different, possibly detrimental, ways.

There are other issues that can happen with the feet as well. Musculature that isn’t maintained appropriately can’t support bones the way they should and arches necessary for shock absorption can fall. It has always been my observation that my clients with weak, tight feet tend to get cramps more in their arches and toes. This can be annoying and painful.

So what should you do? Well don’t panic because that never helps anyone. But next time your husband or wife offers you a foot massage take them up on it! Think of your pedicure as maintenance rather than as a luxury. Too lazy to bend over to pick up the pencil you need on the floor? Pick it up with your toes! Articulate through your feet as much as possible. And most of all, love and appreciate your feet whenever you can, because they are the only set you will ever get.

Babies Change your Body. No Seriously. Babies CHANGE your body.

Did you know that, while pregnant, you quite literally have the DNA of your unborn baby swirling around in your blood stream?

Since having my baby, my already-complicated relationship with my body has changed. In most ways, I’m incredibly impressed with it. I made a baby. I made a BABY. A whole other person. And she’s awesome.

But in other ways, 20 months later, I’m still having trouble adjusting. The aches and pains ever present before pregnancy were amplified. My low back, my nemesis before I made that amazing baby, decided that it had done enough work for this lifetime. It was taking early retirement. My new baby had other ideas and needed a mom with a functioning back.

Enter Pilates; my body savior since college. I decided my abs were just weak. And flabby! Surely this was the cause of my geriatric spine issues?! So I diligently began working myself out three times a week, but mostly managed to irritate my already angry lumbar spine.

So I lost weight. I figured that in addition to ditching the extra flab on my stomach that this might help my back. No dice. Though I must admit that over the year of weight loss, my back did get marginally better. But I couldn’t reconcile my past body with my new one. For starters, I’d never had to WORK at losing weight before. This time I went Vegan. Second, I’d had periods of very intense back pain in my past, but never with such consistency. Every single time I bent over, when I reached my waist bending, I fell until my hips were able to take over. And every single time I rolled up from bending, I had to climb or cry my way back up. Third, I’d always been more active. I’d always danced on top of my Pilates. Taking care of a baby, while exhausting, was not the same as dancing four hours or more a day. A new level of body displeasure began to settle on my shoulders.

So I began taking Pilates regularly with someone who wasn’t me teaching me. Slowly, ever so slowly, my body began to accept exercises it used to love. I realized that I had been asking my post-baby body to function just like my pre-baby body. And that isn’t fair. I was trying to run before I could even crawl. I tried to do advanced system before I could even roll up. I saw a chiropractor whose work got me out of 75% of my pain. But that last 25% was standing in the way of my fitness. And I wanted it back. Pilates, slower and more modified than I teach most of my clients, followed.

I grew stronger, little by little. My compassion for clients who are having trouble connecting to their Powerhouse grew stronger too. My understanding of the roadblocks people can face with their Pilates work was broader. I relearned Pilates with a new body, the amazing beautiful baby making body that I have now. So in a way I’m glad that it was so hard to climb out of the pit that pregnancy left me in. It has made me a better teacher.