Seasonal

Back when I did my fitness nutrition specialization, I concluded two things:  it is always good to drink water, and we all should eat more vegetables and fruits.  To help with that second thing, I checked out what is in season in October.  Here’s the list:

• mushrooms

• leafy greens (chard, chicory, beet greens, endive, lettuce, arugula, radicchio, spinach

• cabbages and cauliflower

• peas and beans

• potatoes, turnips, radishes, celeriac, and Jerusalem artichokes

• onions, leeks, and celery

• pumpkin (natch!)

• figs

• persimmons

• chestnuts

• apples

• pomegranates

• plums

• grapes

Pretty yummy, right?

I happen to have a fig tree and my Best Lunch Ever is two slices of whole grain toast with goat cheese and figs roasted with balsamic vinegar.  It also looks pretty darn fancy.

Rule Three Is Nonnegotiable

Several careers ago, I worked with college students in a residential setting.  Over time, I developed two rules to help make that community work, and later a third one was added because there seemed to be some confusion.  The rules are:

1.     Be kind.  (This is my daughter-in-law’s positive reframing of the original, which was “don’t be a jerk.”  I like Sam’s version better.)

2.     Use your good judgment.

3.     No sangria ever, under any circumstances.

(That third rule became necessary after a party resulted in a bathroom situation that looked like the scene of a mass murder.  Sangria apparently is antithetical to rules one and two and prevents a person from abiding by them.  Just don’t go there.  It will be all right.)

I thought of these rules recently as I went to do my heavy lifting workout.  I got the Olympic bar all set up in the power rack with my warm-up weight for squats and then when I put the bar on my back, my shoulder did a thing.  It wasn’t a catastrophic thing.  It was a twingy sort of thing caused by the position.  I could have pushed through it, but I would have ended up in violation of rules one and two.  It would not have been kind to myself and it is bad judgment to do stuff that is likely to cause something twingy to get worse.  (I really never worry about violating rule three, especially at 8 in the morning on Saturday.)

It is surprisingly hard sometimes to stop working out.  We like to achieve stuff.  We like to be tough and powerful.  We are trained to admire sports professionals who play through injury.  I am not suggesting that we all turn into delicate flowers who refuse to do anything lest we break a nail.  I am saying that it is also important to be smart.

Working out our brains is also useful.

Not the same

Exercise and activity are not the same thing.  (Yes, this is why we have different words for them!)  We need both of them.  Activity covers the stuff we do when we’re moving around casually, walking the dog, weeding the garden, cleaning house, playing with the kids.  Exercise is the more extreme cousin of exercise where we get breathless and sweaty.

We do exercise, among other reasons, to make activity more fun.  When we get in those cardio minutes and build those muscles, we improve our ability to play Marco Polo or sharks and minnows, we don’t ache so much after trimming back the trees and vines in our personal jungles, and the dog is more tired than we are after the longer walk.

Fitness is not something that exists outside of life.  It is supposed to be something that makes the rest of our lives richer and happier.

Go work and then go play.