Thursday Book Report: Sweetness and Power

Sidney W. Mintz’s book Sweetness and Power: the Place of Sugar in Modern History is not, at first glance, anything to do with fitness.  That said, I can find fitness principles almost everywhere and it is easier than usual in a book about the evolution of our society around a food.

Anyone with interest in history, anthropology, or food can find something fascinating in the book.  There are questions of social justice inherent in the historical consumption of sugar and other “drug foods”—tea, coffee, chocolate, and rum as well as in our current consumption.

The book traces how the convenience and cheapness of sugar transformed meals by emphasizing convenience and quick calories.  The stimulant properties of sugar, especially combined with tea and/or coffee, kept the emerging proletarians working.  The once-exclusive luxury became the opiate of the people, so to speak.

It does not take a lot of imagination to apply the history of sugar to all the other convenient, mass-produced foods that surround us.  The place of sugar in our diets exists because of concerted effort to make it so.  We have the opportunity to question whether we want all those processed foods, to subvert the dominant paradigm, to return to fresh whole foods and the process of cooking, to create social meaning through eating together.

If we are what we eat, perhaps we should choose wisely and with the perspective of history.

Easy Peasy

We all know we are supposed to exercise, but what the heck are we supposed to do?  We can go look at what other people at the gym are doing, we can ask the internet, we can replicate those hazy memories from back when we were on the football team.  Ideas are all around us.  Some of them are better than others, but it isn’t that hard.

We all need three kinds of exercise:  cardio, weights, and flexibility.  Cardio works the heart and lungs, improves mood, burns calories, and increases endurance.  Walk, run, bike, dance, swim, roller skate, etc.

Weights make us stronger.  They change our body composition, fire up our metabolism, empower us, and make our butts look cute.  Lift stuff.  Maybe even yourself!

Flexibility keeps us mobile.  It may help prevent injury.  It also, many times, ties in with mindfulness practice.  Stretch.  Go to yoga.  Do some Pilates.  Spend a few minutes on the foam roller.

Go play.

I love you three sets of twenty

A lot of the rhetoric around exercise is about suffering and compulsion.  No pain, no gain.  Trainers are drill sergeants, torturers, dominatrixes, punishers.  Gym time is penance for the sins of the table.

Nope.

At base, exercise is about love.  It is about life and wanting to be around for it.  It’s about growth and victory and power.  We exercise because we matter.  That special thing that we are, that crazy, wonderful human who wants to climb trees or solve world hunger or balance the checkbook just once is worth preserving and cherishing.  That is why we run and lift and sweat and stretch.

Love yourself today and maybe take a walk.

Just Right

News flash:  we are all different.  What this means is that it is difficult to say how much exercise we each need.  Our government suggests we get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days a week.  That is not a bad place to start, but most of us could use more.

This does not mean that we should spend more time at the gym than, say, sleeping.  People who are not into endurance sports, who are not professional athletes, who hold actual jobs don’t need to spend hours and hours a day working out.  Do some cardio.  Lift some weights.  Stretch.  Find the amount of exercise (more than zero!) that makes you feel best.

Friday Exercise: Femur Arcs

The Amazing Stickie works her lower abdominals by doing femur arcs.  The movement is simple, but a few form details make all the difference.

She begins lying in tabletop position, which is on her back with her thighs pointing toward the ceiling and her shins parallel to the floor.  For those of us who remember geometry, we recognize that the two segments of her legs make a 90 degree angle.  This angle is important because she needs to maintain it throughout the exercise.

Stickie inhales as she lowers one leg toward the ground using ONLY her hip.  It is extremely tempting to touch the foot to the ground by bending the knee, but that is much, much easier and does not give the abdominals the challenge they need and want.  As she exhales, she brings the leg back up to meet the other leg.  As she moves, she works to keep her abdominals flat; they will want to poof up, but that just trains them to stick out, which is not our goal.  She alternates legs until she has completed a set of ten.  After a rest, she does a couple more sets.

Thursday Book Report: Maniac Magee

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli is the inaugural selection for kids from Andrew Luck’s book club.  If all his selections are this good, we all need to join his club.

While there are sports in the book, they are not the focus.  Maniac has incredible athletic talent.  It does not even come close to his talent for living under extremely difficult circumstances.  One way he copes with those circumstances is by running. 

Fitness is not an end in itself.  This book acknowledges the importance of sports for character development while pointing out that we develop character to do things with our lives.

The writing is spectacular, funny and touching.  What is not to like about a book with an incidental mention of a tricycle gang of little kids called Heck’s Angels?

Read it, share it, give it to a kid or grown-up you know who needs to be inspired.

It's simple, except when it isn't

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "For the simplicity that lies this side of complexity, I would not give a fig, but for the simplicity that lies on the other side of complexity, I would give my life."

This quote was mentioned in something I was reading recently.  I have always liked it because it neatly sums up a very messy process:  change.  So many times, as we think about changing, we decide all we need to do is simple: do it.  Then reality sets in and we have to deal with obstacles ranging from uncomfortable shoes to unwilling family members to poor nights’ sleep.  If we persevere, we eventually find that new habit becomes simple again.

Embrace the mess and we can make it to the simplicity beyond.