Hard Curves

Overtraining, Tendonitis, and the Importance of Variety in Movement

2012-01-23T19:02:00.003-05:00

Whether you’re painting, lifting weights, running, walking your dog, or clicking a mouse, if you do the same thing day after day without fail, you will very likely end up either with an injury or with a muscular imbalance that feels just like an injury. The difference is important, and often only a physician can help you determine what your course of treatment should be.

But there are some typical signs to look out for to let you know when you’re in the state known as “overtrained”:

First and foremost, you have a pain, dull or sharp, that just won’t get better and, mostly, it would be located near one of your joints. Also, it actually feels better with movement (like when you do the same exercise that seemingly caused the pain), but it is stiff and painful when you haven’t moved for a while (like first thing in the morning). If this sounds like you, you probably have tendonitis. Tendonitis is simply inflammation of a tendon (the tissue that connects muscle to bone) and it happens when your muscles are out of balance with each other. You may be very strong, but if one of your muscles lags behind surrounding or supporting muscles, it becomes the weak link that causes tendonitis. It feels horrible because your body wants you to pay attention to it and change what you’re doing so that it can get well! Often, if the problem hasn't gone too far, you can work it out yourself with yoga or Pilates (unless that's what you've been overdoing) or even just by changing up your routine (yay for Zumba!). For more serious cases, though, physical therapy might be the ticket. It usually works like magic to heal tendonitis, and often the physical therapy will be proper resistance exercises that strengthen the entire muscle group at the location of the problem.

Some other signs of overtraining are general fatigue, accelerated heart rate first thing in the morning, loss of appetite, loss of libido, depression, insomnia, and irritability. Whenever you notice that you’re just “not yourself”, it’s time to check in with whoever you are and figure it out!

The point of this discussion is that it is important to understand that our bodies work best when we incorporate a wide variety of movements into our lives. Just like we need a wide variety of foods to be healthy, our skeletomuscular system craves change. Rest is important, but even too much resting is going to cause a problem. Balance is the key, but it’s also the hardest thing to achieve. Why? Because once you have it, it changes again. And again. And again! Forever, as long as we live.

The Easy Way To Give Up Sugar Or Salt Cravings

2011-01-06T19:03:00.009-05:00

I just learned something that is so cool and amazing that it prompted me to immediately jump up and post this and Boris' painting, Kiss My Hand, is the perfect illustration for it!

Here it is: You know how when you are trying to clean up your diet and eat foods with less salt, sugar, etc. that you might experience the cleaner food as too tasteless? Well, help is on the way. It turns out that "your tastebuds are made up of 50 to 150 receptor cells that live for only 1 to 2 weeks and then are replaced by new receptors. So after eating a cleaner diet for 2 weeks, you'll not only begin to taste and enjoy more subtle (cleaner and more natural!) flavors, you'll also have less of a craving for salt" and sugar. (Adapted from "The Salt Solution" by Heather K. Jones, RD)

This has always been my experience with my post-holiday splurging adjustments, but now I know why. It helps to know that there is a very definite scientific reason why after a week or so I finally give up my cravings for the sugar or salt that I've become addicted to. Two weeks is nothing!

The best cardio-training method!

2010-09-12T15:07:00.004-04:00

About 6 weeks ago, Boris and I decided to adopt a beautiful little doggie from a Humane Society shelter. Her name is Izze and she's about 2 years old, American Eskimo mixed with Shetland Sheepdog. She runs SUPER FAST and loves to go everywhere with us. I haven't had a dog since I was a kid and I hadn't realized how really healthy it is to have one. All the daily walking outside is such a great exercise and stress reliever.

Pyramid Power!

2010-08-18T14:27:00.003-04:00

Aztec Serpent, copyright Boris Vallejo, 1983

Recently, someone asked me what is the best and fastest way to build muscle. During the late 80's when I was competing in lots of bodybuilding contests, this was my primary fitness goal and I made it my business to find out everything I could about it. Of course, since that time, there has been a ton of updated information to check out, but, based on my own experimentation with my own body, I still think the basic premise that I worked with in the 80's remains true--lift heavy weights, use basic exercises, and get enough volume of repetitions and sets to get your muscles as pumped up as they can get. One way that I accomplished this at the time was through the use of pyramid sets. I brought up this subject back in a February post, but here's a more thorough explanation.

Most often, I worked the Pyramid principle with 5 sets. You can do it with more sets (sometimes I would do 10 sets in my pyramid) or with less (maybe 3), but working with 5 demonstrates the concept best. Let's say you're doing
one of my favorite exercises, the basic bench press.

Set 1: Start with a very light weight, maybe even just the bar, and do 15 repetitions (reps).

Set 2: Add a little more weight and still do 15 reps.

Set 3: Add more weight and do 10 reps.

Set 4: Add your heaviest weight and do 6 to 8 reps.

Set 5: Go back to the weights you used in set 2 and do 20 reps.

I don't like to rest too long between sets so that my heart keeps going and I get a better overall conditioning effect, but if you rest a minute or more, you'll be able to handle heavier weights (assuming that's your goal).

If you're working out with the intention of really building strength and size of muscle isn't so important, you can even go heavier and do 2 to 4 reps in your heaviest set. I never recommend going so heavy that you can only lift the weight one time because if you do this regularly, seriously, it's only a matter of time before something you value (like your joints and tendons) give out!
The idea is to work up in poundage to close to your maximum weight and lift very few reps, then immediately decrease the weight and crank out a bunch of reps to flood the muscle with lots of blood.

At this point, I'm just about to turn 52 years old and my goal is no longer to build muscle with bodybuilding competition in mind. Instead, it's to be strong, flexible, and healthy for the rest of my life. I'm so glad that I built all the good quality, natural muscle (no steroids or growth enhancement craziness) that I did when I was younger. It's pretty easy to maintain naturally built muscle once you've put it on, and the more active muscle tissue you have, the better your metabolism and blood sugar regulation works. It's never too late at any age to add some muscle, so pick up something heavy and go for it!

Tri-Stretch Device

2010-06-27T11:26:00.007-04:00

I got this stretching device from Perform Better and, even though it's just a chunk of red plastic, I'm finding it to be very useful. For one thing, just owning it and seeing it sitting on the floor looking at me reminds me to actually do the stretches that I need so badly. It's easy to just feel like stretching is "extra" and put it off until later, then forget all about it. But the truth is that since I've had this great little chunk of red plastic, my back, knees, and hips have felt better than they have in years! Also, it's made to rock a little from side to side while you stretch, so you end up stretching muscles that usually don't get any action. It's true that you could just as well do these stretches using a block of wood or a rock or curb of the street, but the red plastic is just so appealing, right? Seriously, it actually is more effective with the Tri-Stretch.

The two main ways I use it are for my calf/ankle area and for my hamstring area. I'm insanely tight in these two areas and this leads to multiple problems in the knee, hip, and lower back areas. I start with the large gastrocnemius muscle in my calf by keeping my knees straight and leaning against a wall or car, whatever, with the non-stretching foot placed a little ahead of the stretching foot and pressing my heel of the stretching foot into the tri-stretch device. Turning the toes slightly in and stretching, then slightly out and stretching will hit all sides of your calf muscles in a great way.
Then I work into the soleus muscle, which includes the achilles tendon and ankle, by bending the knee of the stretching leg and continuing to press the heel into the tri-stretch device. Once again, turning the toes inward and stretching, then outward and stretching completes the stretch.

Moving on to hamstrings, just shift your stance so that the foot of the non-stretching leg is now a little behind the foot of the stretching leg. With knees unlocked but kind of straight, bend from the hips forward and stretch your hamstring. To deepen the stretch, reach down and hold the tri-stretch or your foot or ankle and let your head drop towards your knee. This opens up the back muscles and gives you a good stretch from your head all the way to your foot. As with the calf stretch, you can turn the toes inward and outward to hit many more areas of your hamstrings than you may be used to.

Stretching Your Lower Legs and Ankles

2010-06-25T21:16:00.003-04:00

It's important to remember that stretching your lower legs involves more than just the main large calf muscle (gastrocnemius), in the back of the lower leg just under the knee. The soleus muscle, located in the lower half of your lower leg, is between the large gastrocnemius and your achilles tendon at the ankle. The only way to reach the soleus muscle is by bending your knee while you stretch your calves. When you stretch them with straight knees, you'll be primarily stretching the gastrocnemius. Keeping the soleus muscle as well as your achilles tendon strong and flexible is important if you want to keep running or even walking! Think of your lower leg and ankle as your first line of shock absorbers when you run or walk. Keeping this area healthy takes a huge load off your knees, hips, and back.

In this stretch, the standing leg has a softly bent knee, thus stretching that soleus. The extended leg is getting a little stretch action in the hamstrings as well as gastrocnemius and achilles tendon. Just pull up on your toes and push your heel forward on that extended leg while pushing down into the ground with the standing leg. The more you can keep your lower back from rounding, the more you can get a hamstring stretch out of this, too!

Triangle Pose

2010-06-24T06:00:00.001-04:00

This classic yoga pose is great for a stretch after any kind of exercise. It stretches the huge fascia connection that runs throughout the body and usually gets constricted in the midsection.

Step your feet a little wider than shoulder width (or wider if you prefer), arms outstretched to the sides. You can start with either side, but, for the sake of blog-writing purposes, let's start with the left side. Extend your left hand and arm as far straight out over your left foot as you can while also shifting and stretching your upper body to the left BEFORE reaching down for your ankle. Once you've stretched everything from the waist up as far to the left as possible, THEN carefully reach down for your ankle, shin, foot, the ground, or wherever you can with your level of flexibility. Now stretch your right arm straight up to the sky and look up at your right hand. Push your chest forward and get as much upward rotation in your upper body as you can.
To push the stretch a little further, take the right arm over your head, keeping your arm by your right ear. Keep extending your chest upward and outward.

The explanation is a bit wordy, but the stretch is so great!

Stretching Hammies

2010-06-23T06:00:00.001-04:00

Hammies are hamstrings and hamstrings are the long muscles in the back of your thigh, also known as leg biceps, which are really biceps femoris. So, there you go, hammies are biceps femoris.

Now that we've gotten that straight, the stretch is simple. Stand with your feet wider than shoulder width apart and turn your upper body to one side. Now, keeping your back softly straight, bend out over the leg you are facing and touch the ground. After you've gotten somewhat comfortable there, fold your arms behind your back, resting them on your butt, and push your chest forward while raising your head and straightening your back into a bit of an arch. To deepen it further, you can now lower your head towards your knee and soften the arch in your back.

Repeat on the other side. Don't forget to breathe! Always!
Still more stretches to come.

Next Runner's Stretch

2010-06-22T09:50:00.002-04:00

This stretch series is great to do just after the King of Stretches I told you about in the last post. It continues to stretch the hip area and includes the quadriceps in the front of the thigh as well as the knees. Speaking of knees, if you have something soft (sweatshirt, towel, etc.) to put under the supporting knee in Views B and C, it can be kind of nice to save you from roughing up the skin on your knees.

Start in View A and try to lift your chest, keep your head up, and keep the back leg straight and tight. Sink as low as you can, feeling your hips and quadriceps stretch and start to unwind. Make sure you breathe evenly and deeply throughout the stretch.

Now, for View B, move your hands so that they're both on the inside of the front leg and lower the back knee to the ground. Keeping aware of your even breathing, deepen the stretch in both the hips and quadriceps. You're still keeping your chest and head up at this point.

View C deepens the stretch a little further in the hips by bending the front elbow and lowering the chest and head towards the ground. Those of you who are very flexible will be able to have your head on the ground and your forearm flat.

More stretches next time!

The Best Post-run Stretch I Know!

2010-06-20T11:32:00.004-04:00

This stretch is, in my opinion, The King. The reason I hold this opinion so strongly is that it stretches areas that I tend to have tightness in, especially if I've been running a lot. I think that all of the years doing heavy squats and deadlifts in my bodybuilding/powerlifting competition days created some shortened muscles in my hips and lower back. Oh well, live and learn, right? Always!

Anyway, to get specific about this stretch, what you're doing is squatting down as low as you can to mostly sit on your heels. Then, with your hands on the ground in front of you and your elbows between your knees, start pressing a little outward with your elbows and experimenting with pressing your upper body forward. Sometimes I even stretch my upper body so forward that I put the top of my head either on the ground or on a wall in front of me. For those of you who do yoga, you'll feel like you're in the beginning stages of the Crow Pose, but I actually get way more out of this pose than the full crow pose because of the awesome stretch on my lower back muscles. It's not the most graceful-feeling pose, but it sure is effective!

I'll be posting some more post-run stretches in the coming few days.

Vitamin Cute!

2010-06-02T19:41:00.006-04:00

photo by Anthony Palumbo and Winona Nelson

His name is Diego and he, along with other pets that are good and behave themselves, is known to lower stress in the people who love him and take care of him. It's true!
And you can surely imagine the benefits of lowered stress--lower blood pressure, better immune function, better heart health, better everything! Diego brings Vitamin Cute and lots of fun to the studio of Anthony Palumbo and Winona Nelson every day.

Anti-angiogenesis Inspired Dinner

2010-05-21T17:51:00.010-04:00

Now that you've had a chance to watch William Li's TED Talk about angiogenesis (that I saw on boingboing and featured in my May 18 blog post) and you're feeling all fired up to try it out, I have just the thing to get you started! I wrote down the list of foods that his team is testing (shown at minute 12:55) and I made a meal with only those ingredients. I did notice that at the end of the list was "Others", but I decided that my challenge was to skip "Others" and only create the recipes with what he actually had on the list. In case you missed it, here is the list:
The meal I made consisted of Tomato Maitake Soup, Citrus Tuna Steaks, Anti-Angiogenesis Greens, and, for dessert, Chocolate Cinnamon Fruit Compote. How cool is that?! It's very cool, because Boris and I just ate it all and it was fantastic!

Note: all the recipes are for 2 to 4 people.

Tomato Maitake Soup

Finely mince 2 cloves of garlic and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes (increases potency of beneficial chemicals!) Also, in a bowl, soak one dried maitake mushroom in about 1 1/4 cup of water for about 10 minutes. Chop pieces when they are soft and save the soaking water. You should have about a cup of mushroom pieces and a cup of soaking water.
Saute the garlic in 1 Tablespoon olive oil.
Add 1 teaspoon turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Stir over the heat for a few seconds, then add the mushroom pieces. Add 1 28 ounce can of ground tomatoes, 1/2 can of water, the mushroom soaking water, and 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder (not instant cocoa, just cocoa powder!) Cover and simmer for about 1/2 hour or so.

Citrus Tuna Steaks

Start with 2 tuna steaks, about 6 ounces each, sliced 1/2 inch thin.
Mince 1 clove garlic, let it rest 5 minutes, and saute in 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Add the tuna steaks when the garlic is starting to turn light brown. Sear on both sides to desired degree of doneness (anywhere from a minute or two for rare to 8 minutes for medium well and cooked through). Set tuna steaks aside on a plate. Squeeze juice from 1 lemon into the pan. Add 1/4-1/2 cup orange-pineapple juice and one sliced red apple. Cover and saute about 10 minutes until the apples are just turning soft. Add the tuna back into the pan and, uncovered, saute for another minute to mix the flavors.

Anti-Angiogenesis Greens

In a saucepan with a lid, saute 1 minced clove of garlic in 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add 3 cups washed and chopped kale (I like Lacinato kale), 1/2 to 1 cup shelled edamame (Mukimame), and 1/2 cup brewed green tea. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes until the greens are tender.

Chocolate Cinnamon Fruit Compote

Peel a pink grapefruit, leaving most of the white part on, and chop it into bite-sized chunks. Put it in your serving bowl and add about a cup of sweet red cherries, pitted and halved, 1 cup sliced strawberries, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder. Mix it all together and refrigerate about 1/2 hour or more.

TED Talk: Eating To Starve Cancer

2010-05-18T21:47:00.005-04:00

I just ran across this TED Talk by William Li on Boingboing.net and was hoping that you will all take a 20 minutes and 2 second break to listen to it. It's a beautiful explanation of one of the fundamental reasons that cancer can become deadly and how you can prevent it from happening.

Fitness Right In Your Own Studio

2010-05-15T13:20:00.011-04:00

When I'm painting, I have a tendency to get so lost in my painting world that I forget I have a body that needs to stretch. Sometimes hours go by and I'm still holding the same position, often one that leads to cramped back and shoulder muscles. Well, here is the solution! Sitting on an exercise ball will remind you to take care of the position of your lower back. You should start out only using it for about 10 minutes at a time and build up to switching your usual chair for it. If you jump in too soon and use it for your whole day of painting, you'll probably get a pretty sore lower back. So be smart and take it slowly. It keeps your core toned as a great bonus!

These are some of my favorite stretches that I can do right in front of my easel.

STRETCH ONE
Get yourself a stretchy band or stretchy tubing (used in physical therapy, as well as Pilates and yoga classes) and hold it over head, pulling outwards until it's stretched kind of tight. Now, keeping your arms straight, lower them behind you and stretch out your shoulders and the entire front of your upper body.

STRETCH TWO
Keeping the stretchy band tight above your head and your arms straight, lean to one side and then the other, stretching your ribcage and lats.

STRETCH THREE
Sitting up straight with the band held tight and in front of you, twist from one side to the other, pulling back with the back arm and front with the front arm. This gives a good rotation to the entire spine and eases tension in your upper back muscles.

Doing these types of stretches at least once an hour while you are working will make you able to do MORE PAINTINGS and you can be like Charles Schultz and create until the very end!

The Leftover Challenge

2010-05-03T20:45:00.006-04:00

We recently had a little get-together with a few friends and I bought way too much hummus (for snackin'!), and now I'm stuck with all this leftover hummus. So I thought it would be a good ingredient to use for my Leftover Challenge. The Leftover Challenge is what I do when I have some odd ingredient and I want to think of a way to use it that is new and unexpected. I thought that it would be interesting to make a variation on Shepherd's Pie, using hummus mixed with eggs instead of mashed potatoes. It was fantastic! The hummus topping came out with a texture similar to cheesecake. You could use any combination of whatever vegetables you've got on hand for the filling, but here's what I did:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Saute a mixture of chopped onions, minced garlic, and sliced mushrooms until they're pretty tender. Add a few cups of chopped fresh collard greens and about 1/4 to 1/2 cup water, cover and cook until the greens are tender (about 5-8 minutes). Add a can of kidney beans that has been drained and rinsed.

Place this mixture in a casserole dish. In a mixing bowl, combine about 2 cups of hummus with 3 eggs. Using a whisk, mix it until it's evenly mixed and liquidy. Pour hummus mixture over cooked vegetables and bake, uncovered until the topping is firm and golden brown.

Wolves!

2010-05-01T21:07:00.002-04:00

Yes, this is off-topic from health and fitness, but so what! Yesterday, Boris and I went to the Lakota Wolf Preserve in Columbia, NJ and took a whole bunch of photos of wolves for future paintings. I just love these wolves so much that I had to share this photo with all of you!

Agave AGAIN!

2010-05-01T13:09:00.003-04:00

As many of you probably know, I like to regularly keep up with what Dr. Andrew Weil has to say about various health-related issues (why? because he's just so unbelievably smart AND flexible-minded, that's all!), and I've just read what he has to say about agave nectar (which we were discussing right here a couple of posts ago). Basically, while he may still have some reservations about it, he's not sold on the idea that it's as disastrously dangerous as Dr. Joseph Mercola writes about. If you use agave nectar or products containing it, please read both of their opinions and decide what seems right for you!

Most Effective Weight Loss Idea I Know Of

2010-04-20T20:13:00.003-04:00

And you don't have to "Obey!" if you don't want to. Ha! Anyway, aside from the obvious (eat fewer calories than you use), the most effective tool I know of is
a pen and paper. If you just write down everything you eat and drink every day for a week or two, you'll most likely lose weight just from doing that. You'll immediately become much more conscious of exactly what you're eating and start to think about portion size without even trying. And if you want to make sure you're drinking enough water, just write down a mark on your paper every time you have a glass of water throughout the day. So simple and super effective!

Exercise Classes Part 2

2010-04-18T09:12:00.005-04:00

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned the subject of exercise classes as a change-up in my regular routine. I'd been using heavier weights and higher intensity cardio for a few months and it left me feeling a little "overcooked" with a need to balance it all out a bit.
At this point, I've tried 4 different exercise classes--Pilates, high-intensity aerobics class, Zumba, and Les Mills Body Pump. Each of these classes hits a different fitness target, so it's a pretty good mix. Of course, the particular teacher of each of these classes would determine exactly how it's taught and that could make a huge difference, but I'll give you my take on my experience at my gym.

The Pilates class is such a pleasure. The emphasis here is on controlling, lengthening, and strengthening the body, much in the way that a ballet dancer would. It's got some similarities to yoga in that controlled, synchronized breathing is an important factor. The stretching is probably safer in Pilates than in some yoga classes I've attended because there seems to be a lot less emphasis on gymnastics and super-flexibility in Pilates. I love yoga, but I think Pilates leaves me feeling even better, and without as much soreness the next day.

The high-intensity aerobics class is actually called "Butts 'N' Guts". The teacher kicks so much ass--I have truly serious admiration for that woman. There wasn't much of a surprise here in terms of content, but I really didn't know my lungs and heart could go that kind of distance. It was awesome. I was surprised, though, that I really liked having someone push me to keep the intensity up for the whole hour (rather than slowing down the way I might if I was just by myself). I'm someone who hates being told what to do, but I'll definitely be back for more Butts 'N' Guts.

Zumba was also an amazing cardio experience with the added benefit of insane fun. It's a mixture of dancing and cardio--lots of emphasis on Salsa type stuff. I'm not AT ALL familiar with how to do this kind of dancing, so I looked REALLY BAD at it, but I had to notice that everybody else in the room was kind of bad too, except the teacher (who was fantastic), so I felt okay about it. In fact, I was SO BAD, that I was laughing out loud at myself the entire class, which added to the cardio effect and left me feeling intensely happy the rest of the day. This class would be wonderful for someone who needs to perk up their mood.

Les Mills was more interesting than actual fun, but I'll definitely do it again. It's based on traditional weight training exercises with barbells and dumbbells (very light) and high repetitions of each exercise. To do that many reps, you do need someone pushing you through it. This is a great class if you have been lifting too heavy (like I was) and find yourself a little overtrained--since you're doing the same movements you normally do in the weight room, you'll keep your muscles stimulated, but with the lighter weights, you'll be hitting different muscle fibers and heal up faster. Also, if you're not familiar with weight training and would like to learn lots of good exercises, this class teaches you the basic moves. You probably won't put on any serious muscle doing this type of work (like a bodybuilder would want), but it's terrific for overall fitness and general strength (like most people would want!). Also, you're doing the movements to the beat of music and the pace is fast, so this gives a good cardio benefit and increases the fun factor.

Agave Nectar = Not So Good, Maybe Very Bad

2010-04-16T20:51:00.004-04:00

I just read this article by Dr. Joseph Mercola about agave nectar and felt that I MUST share it with all of you! I always felt that agave nectar seemed to be a little too good to be true and I've noticed that Dr. Andrew Weil (who's writings I always keep up-to-date on) has always had his reservations about it. Now I know why. It's just another super-refined, bad-for-you sweetener with fantastic marketing!

Dr. Mercola's article also includes a cool chart that tells you approximately how much fructose is in common fruits, etc. Keep in mind that the fructose in actual fruit is going to be made less harmful because of the fact that it's bound up with fiber and other nutrients. Just another bit of evidence that real food in its whole, natural, unrefined state is where it's at (as far as your body's health is concerned, at least).

Exercise Classes

2010-04-13T10:13:00.003-04:00

I've decided to give a complete change-up to my usual workout approach. The gym I go to (Gold's) has a huge variety of classes and, in the past, I've had a mostly...well...er...snobby attitude about a lot of these classes. It's hard to admit, but I trust you guys not to shame me for it. Well, even if you do, I'll have to get over it I guess. Previously, I was under the mistaken impression that most of these classes were for...well...er...wimps. Maybe not exactly wimps, but people who just didn't train as hard as I did. You know what I mean.

Well, as I said recently in answering a previous post's comments, if your body is talking to you and you don't listen, it will just talk louder, shout, then scream, and, finally, wipe the dirt with you. I'm glad to say that I didn't have to get to the dirt wiping point in the battle with my body, just maybe the shouting point. I've just been training a little too hard for the past few months and I need to balance it all out.

So I'll keep you posted about these new experiences!

2010-04-06T18:55:00.009-04:00

Boris, Tony, Nonie, and me. Eggs make you crazy, but they won't kill you!

Forget about all that stuff you heard that eggs are bad for you and they'll kill you with cholesterol! Yay! The nutrition scientists have taken it back and now say that eggs are good for you. An egg a day is fine and gives you vitamins A, D, E, K, the highest quality protein, and that miraculous stuff we all keep hearing about, Omega 3. Especially eggs from organic free-range chickens. The fact that these chickens eat little bugs and things off the ground outside make their eggs a ton more nutritious as well as extra tasty.

So, a couple of days ago on Easter Sunday, Nonie (pictured above)--also known as the adorable Winona Nelson(the same Winona Nelson that does all those kick-butt character designs for video games)--came here with her really sweet boyfriend, our son, Tony Palumbo, to join us for dinner and she suggested we dye some eggs with food coloring. Actually, she and Tony did all the egg coloring, Boris and I just watched. But it was so fun and from now on, I'm going to color eggs every week. I'll just make a bunch of them and have instant high-quality, high-protein snack food waiting for me in the refrigerator. What a great plan!

Avocados

2010-04-03T09:19:00.005-04:00

I've been going crazy for avocados lately. I'm not sure exactly why, except for the fact that they taste fantastic and are extremely good for you. Yes, they're high in fat, (but it is very good fat that keeps your body sane and balanced), so you wouldn't want to overdo it and put on unwanted pounds. But, I find that if I keep my entire diet clean and consisting of whole foods, having fats that come from things like avocados and nuts don't cause a weight gain problem. I think one reason is that when you're not having lots of junky refined foods, your body is way better at communicating with itself and with you, so you end up eating only what and when you need to and not eating when you're not really hungry or in need of nutrients. Thinking about how smart my body actually is (as long as I'm willing to listen to it!) just makes me so happy. It's lots smarter than I am, for sure!

Anyway, back to avocados. They are anti-inflammatory to your system, contain lots of good vitamin E, B vitamins, and magnesium, and even help balance out your hormones. I like them a little on the firmer side of ripe, about like a perfect pear. You'll have to experiment and decide for yourself how ripe you like them.

When thinking of avocado recipes, most people think of guacamole first, so I'll tell you how I make it. I keep it VERY simple so that I can taste the rich avocado taste above anything else:

Place peeled avocado pieces from 2 avocados in a bowl. Sprinkle the juice of 1/2 a lemon or 1 whole lime over it, and give a few shakes of garlic powder or garlic salt. Chop it up a little with a pastry blender (or two knives). Don't attempt to blend it to a puree, just mash it up a little and leave lots of chunks of the avocado. It's ready!

Another way to enjoy avocados is to cut up 1/4 to 1/2 an avocado per person in a serving bowl and combine with chopped chunks of pink grapefruit. This is a bright and amazing flavor combination.

And, my favorite salad (which I have almost every day for lunch) is:
1/4 avocado, cut into chunks,
a handful of washed and chopped dandelion greens,
3 raw asparagus spears, chopped,
a medium-sized raw carrot, sliced
Combine all these in a bowl and give it a dash of apple cider vinegar. Mix it up and go for it.

(Almost) Barefoot

2010-03-18T21:03:00.006-04:00

I'm one of those people who can't stand to wear shoes when I absolutely don't have to--they just make me claustrophobic. For instance, I feel really uncomfortable and uptight if I have to wear shoes while I paint. I don't know why, I've just always been this way. So when I heard about the "barefoot running movement", I was naturally intrigued. The word in running magazines, etc. is that barefoot running will help you avoid foot, knee, and back problems because your feet, sensing the ground, will send signals to your body to cushion the shock of running by working your joints in a more useful way to protect you. Apparently, wearing heavily padded running shoes causes us to slam into the ground with too much force and not the best form (often heel first, which is bad).

Boris made me promise that I wouldn't just go out and run barefoot in the street (might get some glass, etc.), so I've been investigating "barefoot" running shoes. I just bought a pair made by Terra Plana (called Evo) that I LOVE. They're not the five-finger ones that you may have seen that separate your toes (that really doesn't appeal to me at all), they're just like a combination ballet slipper and running sneaker. They have laces and are totally flexible, but the sole is just thick enough to protect your feet from getting cut by rocks, glass, etc. that might be on the street you're running on. The makers of the shoe tell you to start slowly and gradually work up to your normal running times. So the first day I just ran around the block and it felt great. Being who I am, I decided that now it was okay to just do what I normally do, so I did and I ran my usual 3.5 mile run. Well, it was fantastic. After the first couple of minutes, my feet actually just naturally took themselves into a whole different way of running and it was much more graceful and "floaty" than the usual. The muscles in my feet and lower legs are a little sore, but nothing outrageous. I'm guessing that I spend so much time barefoot that I didn't need as much of an adjustment period as most people might. So you can count me in as a new advocate for barefoot running!

Winter Advice

2010-02-27T10:57:00.018-05:00

Double dose of snowmageddon and snowpocalypse got you down? Or is it the snowacane? Or maybe it's just AccuWeather trying to scare the bejeebes out of us all! Whatever, I'm pretty sick of it. I'm not sick of winter or even snow, I'm sick of one doomsday snowstorm report after another. There's an old saying, "We'll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not."
I mean, yeah, there's snow and, yeah, it's deep, but compared to the REAL catastrophes that have taken place recently (like earthquakes, for instance), we're pretty fortunate.

Since it is winter here in the Northern Hemisphere (Pennsylvania) and every winter we people of the more northern latitudes do have things like cold, snow, ice, wind, etc., the best thing to do is accept that fact graciously and take responsibility for maintaining your own happiness.

There are several things that I know of that are very effective in dealing with cabin fever and the winter blues:

Get as much daylight as you can, especially in the morning. This is known to regulate your body's production of chemicals and hormones that contribute to a positive state of mind, as well as helping you sleep well at night. Even if it's overcast outside, the light is still going to help you. Also, I think that feeling trapped inside your house gives you a feeling of powerlessness, which is sucky. Take back the outdoors and tell the weather report to stick it where the sun don't shine (Ha ha! That was a good one).

Exercise. You've heard it a thousand times before, I'm sure, and it's still true! It really does work, even if it's just a little exercise.

Listen to music that grabs you by the butt and makes you move. You know best what music you like. I'd say that the middle of winter (as in NOW) is the perfect time to invest in a few new CD's or downloads. It's waaay cheaper than antidepressants and doesn't have the nasty side effects.

Eat clean. Too much sugar (especially high fructose corn syrup, also known as "evil itself"), refined carbohydrates, and artificial ingredients will make your body sad and confused. Come on, the holidays are over and it's time to clean up your system. Drink lots of clean water and green tea, and eat whole foods that nourish you.

Minimize your exposure to outrageous weather reports. It's good to know what's going on (if you're planning to drive somewhere and a snowstorm is on its way, for instance), but dwelling on doomsday scenarios and the kind of emotionally charged language that weather and news reporters are now using is just contributing to people's anxiety, sadness and a feeling of helplessness. Don't fall for it!

Don't forget that you really are the one who's in charge of how you feel and how you experience each day. Take good care of yourself!

Ben Stiller

2010-02-05T16:29:00.007-05:00

I was recently inspired by Ben Stiller's arms in the movie, "Tropic Thunder" to up my weights at the gym. If you haven't seen it, it's a really fun movie and Ben Stiller is in great shape. In fact, even if you have seen it, watch it again! It never hurts to see a terrific movie, right?
Anyway, I've been doing weight-training workouts in a more fitness-oriented way (rather than traditional bodybuilding) for a while now and it's time for a few changes. What I've been doing is based on Giant Sets of six or more exercises that work the whole body, using light weights and high reps (20). It went something like this:

Do 20 reps of each exercise with no more than 30 seconds rest in between. Then
repeat the entire sequence 2 or 3 times:

Lateral pulldowns (for upper back)
Squats (legs and core)
Dumbbell chest press (chest, shoulders)
Lunges (legs)
Dumbbell shoulder press (shoulders)
Crunches (abs)
Bicep curl (biceps)
Dips (triceps, chests)

This is great for general fitness and cardio work. It also gets you out of the gym faster than a more traditional bodybuilding workout because you're jumping from one exercise to another that uses entirely different muscle groups. Your heart and lungs are going like crazy the whole time, but your muscles still get a chance to recover.
Great for getting leaner, but if you want to increase your muscle size and look like Ben Stiller, you'll want to do less repetitions with heavier weights.
So I've decided that for a while, I'm going to go a little heavier, but still keep my reps no less than 8 (I am a 51 year old lady, after all, and the days of lifting super heavy are soooo over), which means that my poundage can't be super high, just higher than it was when I was doing 20 repetitions of each exercise. I'm also going to bring back the "pyramid system" that I used in my bodybuilding days. Here is an example of how it works. You can do this with most exercises:

Set 1, use a weight that you can comfortably do 15 reps with.
Set 2, increase the weight and do 12 reps.
Set 3, increase again and do 10 reps.
Set 4, increase again and do 8.
Set 5, decrease back to the weight you used in Set 2 and do 15 reps.

And, voila! Your lats are all pumped up!

For now, I'm sticking with the Giant Set arrangement that works the whole body because it's just such a great time-saver. But if I really wanted to grow new muscle, I'd arrange it like this:

Day 1, pushing exercises (those that work chest, shoulders, and triceps)
Day 2, pulling exercises (those that work back and biceps)
Day 3, legs
Each day would also have 3 sets of ab work at the end of the other training.
Day 4, rest

Poor old bodybuilders! It's a rough game and people can take it too far. But it's good to use some of their exercise philosophy where it's helpful. The best thing is to mix it all up and not do the same routine year after year.

Food For a Cold Night

2010-01-30T19:08:00.011-05:00

It's freezing cold here tonight (around 14 degrees Farenheit) and we didn't feel like going out for new ingredients to make dinner, so I decided we should have an adventure with whatever I could find in the kitchen. It was SOOOOOO good that I had to tell you guys about it! Here it is:

End of January Dinner

Heat in a skillet:
1 Tablespoon of olive oil

Saute in the oil:
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium sized onion, chopped

When the garlic and onions are soft and lightly colored, add:
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1 lb. bag of frozen chopped spinach (still frozen is fine)
1 cup cherry tomatoes cut in half
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup or so of water

Cover the skillet with a lid and cook about 10 minutes until the spinach is all thawed and the tomatoes have begun to cook down a little. If you need to add any water to keep it all moist, feel free to do so, but not so much that it turns to soup.

Add juice of 1 lemon, squeezed

In a small bowl, beat two eggs with a fork, then add slowly to the spinach/bean mixture, constantly stirring everything so that the eggs cook evenly into the mixture. It should only take a couple of minutes for the eggs to cook.

Serve over hot brown rice (preferably brown jasmine rice!) and top with
fresh avocado slices.

2010 Motivation

2010-01-22T16:46:00.006-05:00

So here I am at that point in the middle of winter where my hibernation tendencies may have peaked and I'm realizing I need to freshen up my motivation engine. We always have a big crush of deadlines right at the end of the year, coinciding with the holidays, and it throws getting to the gym regularly a little out of whack.

Anyway, as I was ellipsing on the elliptical machine at the gym today, I was thinking about how the biggest hurdle to fitness is, in fact, motivation. Not just like a one time "shot-in-the-arm" motivation, but steady, consistent motivation. The truth is that ANY motivation will lose its effect after some time and needs to be recharged. I think the trick is to recognize that this WILL happen and plan for it.

Here are a few ideas that come to mind:
Subscribe to fitness magazines. My favorite is Men's Health, second favorite is Women's Health (both published by Rodale). The thing about subscribing rather than just picking the magazine up at the store is that it will appear in your mailbox at regular intervals. These two magazines always inspire me to try out a new workout routine or new exercise that I hadn't thought of before and I subscribe to both of them.

Join a gym where there are lots of people exercising. Or do your walking or jogging in a place where other people are doing the same. Being around people who are active always makes me want to get up and exercise. In fact, as I was ellipsing on the elliptical machine today, I purposely chose a machine that faced the people who were lifting weights so that I would be eager to attack the dumbbells once I'd finished.
Of course, it is possible to keep yourself motivated without an external push. When I first started lifting weights (1984), I trained at home by myself. In fact, I entered the first three bodybuilding contests I was in after only training at home. I won one of those contests (Cleveland Novice) and did pretty well in the other two, but once I joined a gym, I could see how much more I could put into my workouts. I learned so much from the other lifters and always felt happy to be there.

Join a gym that you pay for. Someone once told me that Sigmund Freud said that paying for psychotherapy was a vital element in the success of the treatment. I don't know if he really said that, but it does make sense. We tend to want to get our money's worth when we've actually paid for something, so we'll be more likely to use the gym we join (hopefully!). Along that same line of thinking would be:

Sign up for classes that you pay for. They're regularly scheduled, social, AND you've paid for them! Perfect!

More ideas later.

Posture Lesson From Miss Chicken Goode

2009-12-14T22:28:00.007-05:00

I'm not sure where she picked up the name, but she's been one of our regular models for about the last 15 years or so. She's made of plastic and lives in our basement, and because I'm working on a painting of her at the moment, she was in my mind today when I was warming up on the treadmill at the gym. I realized that her great posture is the result of the hook attached to the top of her head. While I was walking, I started imagining being suspended the way she is with her bones all loose and dangly like a set of windchimes and immediately I felt my posture improve. My shoulders became more relaxed (I hadn't realized they were tight!) and I just moved with more ease. I found that it worked best if the hook I was imagining was located a little towards the back of the crown of my head rather than the front (notice where the hook is located in the photo above), with my chin in a neutral position--not lifted or pushed down too far. This had the effect of elongating and relaxing the back of my neck. So give it a try and see if it doesn't make you feel lighter on your feet with less back and neck strain at the end of the day!

I've Got A Cold

2009-12-09T21:47:00.008-05:00

I have now officially joined the zillions of people out there who have a cold and it suuuucks! So what to do now? A few things that come to mind are:

Stay warm! Wear a warm hat when you go outside, wear warm socks, etc.
Drink tons of tea. I make a spicy tea (recipe below) with cinnamon and ginger.
Rest and sleep as much as you can, but, unless you have a fever, it's good to get a little exercise like walking to stimulate your immune system.
Eat more cooked vegetables and whole grains, less heavy protein and fat.
Avoid dairy products and sugar.

That said, I also favor the idea of calling it an official vacation and babying the heck out of yourself. I know it goes against the "no dairy" rule stated above, but when I was a kid, my Mom would give me soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and I would curl up in bed with a pile of comic books. Wow, that really sounds pretty nice about now. Boris said his mother would give him angel hair pasta with mashed potatoes on it. That sounds freakin' amazing. If any of you have any great comfort food ideas for a cold, I'd love to hear about it!

Spicy Tea

1 quart water
1 inch peeled and sliced ginger
2 cinnamon sticks
sprinkle black pepper
2 tea bags (I like Tulsi tea for this, but you can use any kind of tea you like--green, black, white, oolong, rooibos, anything).

Bring the water to a boil in a pot and add the ginger, cinnamon, and black pepper. Cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the tea bags. Let steep for about 5 minutes. Pour and drink it up!

Architect Warrior

2009-12-07T14:19:00.005-05:00

Here's a little kick-ass baditude to inspire you with today. I just came back from Texas where I was hanging out with my father, Milton Bell, who has been a huge source of strength and inspiration for me. He just turned 80 this year and he still kicks butt wherever he goes.

2009-12-03T07:01:00.001-05:00

This drawing that I did when I was in school back in 1977 (yes! The Year Of Star Wars!) is not a drawing of Robert Sapolsky, but of a friend of mind named James Kenney. But I thought that James looks kind of like Sapolsky, so here it is!

Lately while painting in our studio, Boris and I have been listening to lectures on youtube by Robert Sapolsky. Not only does he present information that is 500% fascinating, but he's just such a great speaker. So entertaining and fun to listen to! Anyway, one of the things he talked about was that the act of anticipating getting something you want is going to give you a higher endorphin blast than actually getting the thing. The reason I'm bringing this up is that it explains so many things--he used the example of gambling addiction or compulsive shopping, for instance. I could never understand how these things work as an actual addiction (although the fact that they do is obviously true!), but Sapolsky explains that the feeling of knowing you might get the reward you seek is like a powerful shot of an addictive drug.

Boris and I have always had a related experience with our painting. When working on a painting, we actually often enjoy the act of climbing towards the goal of doing the painting even more than when we finally finish it. The moment the goal has been realized, the feeling changes into a good kind of satisfaction, but it doesn't have that intense excitement that climbing does. I had always thought that this was because when the painting is still being formed, it contains all kinds of unknown possibilities and then, when it's finished, it's kind of nailed down into one spot. I do think that's part of the difference in feelings, but also knowing a change of chemistry is taking place, and not a letdown, makes you accept that it's just the way the system works. So then you can start getting excited about the next goal and the next one after that! I love it! Keep painting!

Balancing Food Cravings

2009-11-30T13:59:00.010-05:00

To avoid pesky cravings, these two ladies should probably think about having less chrome and more vegetables in their diet.

We've discussed before that eating late at night isn't such a great idea (unless you're trying to gain weight), and I've just read some new information to add to the timing of what you eat. The information comes from a book called "Eat Your Way To Happiness" by Elizabeth Somer, who is a registered dietician. The book is mostly about how to maintain a positive mood and sustained energy throughout the day, but something that I found cool to think about is how what you eat for breakfast influences your choices at lunch and what you eat for lunch influences your choices at dinner. I read about this in Dr. Weil's December 2009 newsletter, which I subscribe to (you should too!).

When you've been sleeping for the past 8 or so hours, your brain releases a chemical called Neuropeptide Y. This chemical causes you to crave glucose. Glucose is the simple sugar that feeds your brain so that you can think and function. The primary way you get glucose is through eating carbohydrates which break down into glucose in your digestive system. So if your brain is craving glucose, it seems like you'd want something sugary like marshmallow Peeps on top of Froot Loops or something, right? Please don't. You'll get an initial rush of serotonin (which, yes, feels great), but you'll pay for it with a yucky, sluggish, even depressed feeling later on. This would probably make you want to reach for another quick boost of sugar for lunch, and so on, and so on. Up and down all day is not a good way to function. I've described what we eat for breakfast here, but just make sure you have good whole foods that include high-fiber carbohydrates, a small amount of good protein (an egg is pretty perfect), and a couple of servings of fruit or vegetables. This will keep your energy balanced up until lunch.

Then, by lunchtime, a different brain chemical called galanin comes into play and makes you want to eat fat. You should have some healthy fat with your lunch (along with a serving of protein and some more complex carbohydrates and, of course, fruits and vegetables), but don't overdo it with the fat, even if it's healthy fat. You'll overproduce galanin and it will make you crave more food than you need at night.

So at dinnertime, having a simple dinner of a lean protein, lots of vegetables, and a medium-small serving of complex carbohydrates (my favorite: brown rice and hulled barley mixed together) will be best. Too much carbohydrate will make you sleepy right after dinner (and we discussed why you shouldn't lay down to sleep right after eating in the last post, but too much protein will block your brain's ability to absorb serotonin (a necessary brain chemical that helps you to relax as well as keep a positive mood) and make it harder to sleep at bedtime.

Sheesh! There's so much to remember! Being a healthy human does take some effort and planning, but you can do it. And it sure beats the alternative!

Go For A Walk

2009-11-26T07:01:00.001-05:00

Here's Boris, my amazing walking partner, going around with that beautiful silver hair. I think the wind is in love with him too!

If you're one of the fortunate people who has had the privilege of stuffing yourself with Thanksgiving goodies, do yourself a favor and take a nice, long walk afterwards. It's tempting to flop down on the couch and go to sleep after a big meal, but taking a walk or doing any kind of exercise will help keep your arteries healthy.
Research from 2005 that was reported in The European Journal of Applied Physiology shows that during a four to six hour period after eating a high-fat meal, our arteries look "just like the arteries of a person who has heart disease", states Janet P. Wallace, professor in Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Kinesiology and co-author of the study. That's pretty gross! But if you exercise after that meal, the arteries don't look sick anymore. Of course, the real problem isn't what happens after just one high-fat meal or two, but if this is a regular pattern for you, that's when cholesterol starts to build up, oxidize, and cause serious problems.
Walking is a good choice of exercise after eating because it's so comfortable. It also helps your digestion and just keeps you from feeling the sluggishness that comes with a high-carbohydrate, high-fat meal.
So just get up and do it. Come on, put your shoes on, take the first couple of steps. See how much better you feel?

Thanksgiving Recipe 4: Apple Grape Pie

2009-11-23T14:09:00.004-05:00

Here is Dena Obaza (aka Dina Colada) looking so fine in her Thanksgiving mask. Will she remove the mask to eat her Thanksgiving dinner? Heck no! (Today is her birthday--Happy Birthday, Dena!)
The mask was made by Beth Zyglowicz--an artist we met at Illuxcon. What's that? You don't have a Thanksgiving mask? You'll have to get one from Beth!

Apple Grape Pie
Makes one 9 inch pie

Crust:
1 cup spelt or whole wheat flour
½ cup oat flour
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup canola oil
A little less than ¼ cup cold water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9 inch pie plate with Pam or other spray oil. In a mixing bowl, combine flours and sea salt. Add oil and stir with a fork. Mix until the mixture resembles corn meal. Add water a little at a time and stop just when the dough has enough water to form a ball. If you've accidentally added to much water, you can add a little of the oat flour. However, if you need more water, just add some! It should be a nice Play-Doh consistency. If you didn't play with Play-Doh when you were a kid, you need to get some now because it's pretty fun stuff.
Don’t knead the dough after this point, but let it rest for about 10 minutes.

Take about 1/3 of the dough and flatten it into the pie plate, pressing some up at the edges. Poke the bottom with a fork a few times. Set the rest of the dough aside for now.

Filling:

3 apples (I like Gala or Fuji for this recipe, but any apples will do), cored, but not peeled, and sliced
About 1 ½ cups washed, halved grapes
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ cup brown rice syrup

Mix all the filling ingredients in a large bowl until it looks pretty evenly mixed with the cinnamon and brown rice syrup. Pour into the pie plate that has the dough pressed into it.

On a wooden cutting board, sprinkle about a Tablespoon of oat flour, then put the rest of the dough on it and roll it around a little. Now roll it out with a rolling pin to a circle about 6-8 inches in diameter. Pick it up and put it on the apples that are in the pie plate. It might fall into about a million pieces, but don’t worry about it, just put the pieces together like a puzzle with spaces between them.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.

Thanksgiving Recipe 3: Vegetables!

2009-11-23T07:01:00.006-05:00

Okay, what? Tony Palumbo has always loved spaghetti and meatballs, so this is his vision of a perfect Thanksgiving meal. It's true, meatballs aren't vegetables. But I'll post a recipe soon (after a little kitchen testing) for a vegan version.

I always say that if I had to only pick two vegetables to have on a desert island (assuming there was an oven to cook with), I'd pick sweet potatoes and broccoli. They're just two of the best Superfoods in terms of nutrition as well as taste. And they're in the list of the Clean 15 that don't require as much pesticide to grow, so even if you don't get organic ones, you're okay.
And salad! Well, you can't beat salad because anything goes! Having some crunchy raw vegetables with your meal is not only refreshing and balancing, but it helps your digestion along. Also, as everybody knows, it keeps you from eating too many total calories in your meal because of the high fiber and water content.
You just can't go wrong with vegetables!

Sweet Potatoes
People often want to know what’s the best kind of sweet potato. I say any kind of sweet potato is the best kind! I love the garnet yams, jewel yams, yellow ones, orange ones, all of them
The simplest way to have them is to just wash them and bake them in their skins, uncut, at about 425 degrees for about an hour to an hour and a half, or until they’re soft. How long it takes really depends on how big they are. Once they’re baked, they’re so delicious hot, cold, or anywhere in between.
But, if you’d like to get a little fancier with them, here’s a good recipe:

Fancy Sweet Potatoes
2 – 4 medium sized sweet potatoes or yams
Wash and cut into chunks an inch or so big. Don’t peel them.
Toss with:
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons Mirin or other cooking wine
1 Tablespoon olive oil

Spray a baking dish with Pam or other spray oil and add the sweet potatoes along with all of the other ingredients. Bake at 425 degrees, turning them every so often with a spatula, for about an hour or until tender.

Simple But Delicious Broccoli
Serves 2-4
The trick here is to clean the broccoli properly. Just cut off the end of the stem, then
peel off the skin with your knife all the way up to where the branches start coming out
at the top of the broccoli. Now chop the stem into 1 inch pieces, then take apart the crown
into serving size pieces.

Mince 1 clove garlic and let it sit for a few minutes. In a cooking pot with a lid, place 1 Tablespoon olive oil with the minced garlic. Heat until the garlic just starts to brown a little. Add the broccoli pieces, 1/3 cup of water, and a sprinkle of sea salt. Cover and cook just until the broccoli is a little tender (about 8 minutes or so). If you find that the water has evaporated before the broccoli is cooked through, add a
little more water. At the end of the cooking time, you can remove the lid and let the water cook away for a few minutes.
Serve!

Salad Extravaganza
Wash salad greens. My favorite mix is arugula, baby spinach, and chopped dandelion greens, but feel free to make it your own and use romaine, boston, whatever you like.
Slice a couple of carrots into coins and add those.
Add 6 pieces of fresh asparagus, uncooked, cut into 1 inch chunks.
Add any other chopped pieces of vegetables that you enjoy eating raw (could be cherry tomatoes,
sugar snap peas, green beans cut really small, broccoli, gobo root, lotus pods, mushrooms, etc.)

In your serving bowl, put 1-2 Tablespoons olive oil, 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and 1 Tablespoon brown mustard.
Add a handful of chopped raw walnuts and a handful of raw pumpkin seeds.

Now add the salad greens and vegetables. Mix it all up and serve.

PS This is also good with chopped apple or any other fruit added to the mix!

Thanksgiving Recipe 2: Lemon Thyme Polenta with Mushrooms

2009-11-22T19:31:00.001-05:00

Yep, that's chicken and waffles, not lemon thyme polenta. I asked David Palumbo what he'd like for Thanksgiving and this is what he drew.

You could easily substitute any kind of mushrooms for the dried ones I've used here, but shiitake and maitake mushrooms are so extremely good for your system that I like to include them in recipes anywhere I can. A good place to get them for a great price is Mountain Rose Herbs. You can get the Lemon Thyme from there as well. It's a great source and they have the best prices.

Lemon Thyme Polenta with Mushrooms

Preheat oven to 400.
Lightly oil an 8x8 inch glass baking dish with olive oil and set aside.

Soak 1 large dried maitake mushroom,
3 dried shiitake mushrooms in
2 cups boiling water for 20 minutes.

Remove mushrooms, reserve broth. Let the mushrooms cool on a cutting board, then chop them up.

Add the chopped mushrooms back into the broth and bring the broth to a boil again.
Add ¾ cup polenta and
½ teaspoon salt.

Stir and cook until thick and soft (about 15 minutes). If it becomes too thick to stir, add water just
a little at a time. Add
½ teaspoon garlic powder and
½ teaspoon dried or 1 teaspoon fresh lemon thyme. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a bowl, beat
3 eggs, add
1 to 2 ounces of grated cheddar cheese.

While stirring the polenta mixture, slowly pour in the egg and cheese mixture (it’s easiest if you have a
helper here). Pour the whole mixture into the baking dish. Bake at 400 until it puffs up a little in the center.

Thanksgiving Recipe 1: Broiled Salmon with Miso Tahini Sauce

2009-11-22T07:31:00.001-05:00

Boris had originally thought he'd draw a salmon eating a little person's head, but when he started drawing the face, he changed his mind. So now the salmon's eating a little round cake of mochi ice cream.

As many of you know by now, Boris and I don't eat meat from creatures that have legs or wings. This includes turkeys (as well as gryphons, centaurs, and minotaurs), so it makes you wonder "what to do for Thanksgiving?". Well, we do eat some creatures with scales (including some flying dragons, but not ones with wings, only the serpenty-ones with those crazy big eyes and fins that fly from magic powers rather than wing power), but dragons are pretty hard to catch because they're so smart, so we usually have salmon for festive dinners. Okay, enough silly stuff. Sorry! I could go on like that all day.

I'm not so crazy about the fake meats made from soy (especially since they have ISP--isolated soy protein--as a main ingredient) or "turkeys" made from tofu (although I love tofu and eat it often, I just don't like the way the taste or texture of tofu turkeys), so we just decided to ditch the whole idea of turkeys and have fish instead.

Broiled Salmon with Miso Tahini sauce
Serves 2-4
One pound fresh salmon fillet, preferably wild salmon
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
Black pepper
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 rounded Tablespoon sweet white miso (favorite brand, South River)
1 rounded Tablespoon tahini sauce
2 scallions, with both green and white parts chopped
hot water

Rinse and pat dry salmon fillet. Leave the skin on.
Cut the salmon into serving-sized pieces. These could be either one
larger piece for each diner or cut into smaller pieces (maybe 1 ½ to 2 inches or
whatever size you’d like to have).
In a glass bowl, put the olive oil, minced garlic, chopped ginger, black pepper, and
soy sauce. Coat the salmon pieces in the marinade and let it soak, covered, in the
refrigerator for anywhere from ½ hour to several hours.

Heat broiler and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with
Pam or other spray oil, add the salmon pieces with the skin side down. Place them
a bit apart from each other. Broil until firm (depending upon the size of the salmon pieces, this could be anywhere from a few minutes to 10-12 minutes). Turn the pieces over and, if you’d like to remove the skin, now is a good time to do that. The brownish part between the skin and the meat is where lots of omega 3 oil is located, so it’s best to leave that part alone. If you slip a spatula between the skin and the brownish part, the skin will usually slip right off
once the fish is firm. Now broil the other side until it’s a little more cooked.

In a bowl that’s large enough to hold all of the salmon, combine the miso and tahini. Add enough hot water to make a spreadable paste. Add the chopped scallions. Add the salmon, folding it into the sauce carefully so that you don’t break up the pieces too much. If you have pieces that are very large,
you can just do this step on a serving plate.

Countdown to Thanksgiving

2009-11-21T13:37:00.009-05:00

This painting was done by Winona Nelson (aka Nonie) while we were at Illuxcon! We're pretty sure the turkey is just stunned (see below).

In the next few days, I'll be posting a series of recipes that are healthy suggestions for a festive dinner. The emphasis is on healthy, a little fancy but simple, not too much trouble to make, and not super expensive.

I thought I'd make a menu that looks like this:

Miso Salmon
Lemon Thyme Polenta with Mushrooms
Salad Extravaganza
Sweet Potatoes
Broccoli with Garlic
Apple Grape Pie

You could add a couple of these dishes to your menu along side your traditional family favorites. And, remember, if you have kids, the foods you serve them at holidays are the ones they'll think of when they're grown as the kinds of comfort foods that make a holiday special. See? He's okay. Now he's telling her some jokes to take her mind off eating. And I know he was successful, because we just saw him out playing miniature golf with some ducks.

Asian Pear

2009-11-20T10:01:00.000-05:00

What can I say about an Asian Pear that even comes close to the effect it has when you take a bite out of it? It's a little like taking a bite out of a crunchy rain cloud (without the lightning) that has been flavored with the perfect mix of sweet and tangy--a little like honey and lemon. Super clean, juicy and crunchy. Better than anything ANY pastry chef ANYWHERE in this world or any other world could ever come up with!

Your Liver: Part 2

2009-11-17T10:01:00.000-05:00

Milk thistle is definitely right up there at the top of my Favorite Herbs list. Living in the society we have today with all the pollution and environmental toxins around, and especially if you work with artist's materials such as oil paints (like we do), we need all the help we can get to keep our livers healthy.

First, you have to understand something about your liver--it's a freaking amazing organ. It can regenerate damaged liver tissue faster than The Lizard character from SpiderMan. Seriously, you can remove a huge portion of a liver and it will just grow right back! (Probably not a good idea to try this at home, though.)

Listen to this: "The human liver is one of the few organs in the body that can regenerate from as little as 25 percent of its tissue." says Seth Karp, assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, Boston. Wait...25% from 100%...carry the 3...minus pi--that means 75% of your liver can be taken away and it will grow back!!! Weird!

And according to Dr. Andrew Weil in his fantastic book, "Natural Health, Natural Medicine", milk thistle (Silybum marianum) "is nontoxic, and European research shows that it stimulates regeneration of liver cells and protects them from toxic injury."
So you can take it regularly without side effects or toxic buildup.

But please don't think that you can take milk thistle and then chug beer and eat tubes of cadmium orange. While I realize that those activities can be crazy appealing, your liver will only forgive you for so much mistreatment before an unknown, crucial breaking point is reached and cirrhosis (basically, massive scarring of the liver) sets in and then it's...well, bad stuff. Really bad. Like death and stuff like that. And something that's coming to light now with the obesity epidemic is that Fatty Liver Disease, which comes from fat deposits and inflammation in the liver can cause cirrhosis. And, get this, you don't really have to be obese to get Fatty Liver Disease. It can also come from foods that cause general inflammation (mostly trans fats, saturated fats, refined foods, and artificial ingredients). So, yep, you can get cirrhosis from eating too much junk food even if you're not technically obese.

Of course, the best approach is to just baby that liver. Milk thistle is a great thing to take herb-wise. But mainly, clean living with whole, unrefined foods, clean water and green tea, exercise, and clean air are the best way to keep your liver dancing the happy dance.

Jumping Rope

2009-11-14T10:01:00.000-05:00

I just got a new jump rope and I'm having so much fun with it. It's made by Bodyfit/Sports Authority and it has a little meter on the handle that keeps time, counts jumps, and calculates calories. All that for $20! And that was the most expensive jump rope they had at the store! The regular ones cost only about $6. Not bad for a serious kick-your-butt piece of exercise equipment and all around bringer-of-fun.
Can you remember when you were a kid and you actually jumped rope just for fun? Well, even if you were too busy playing Super Mario Brothers and didn't jump rope for fun, you should give it a try now. It's not just good for blasting calories to smithereens and cardiovascular fitness, it's great for brain fitness, too. The coordination required will stimulate all kinds of new synapses and dendrites, stuff like that, to form in your brain. All brains love new dendrites. Make yours happy today!

Addiction!

2009-11-10T09:45:00.000-05:00

As if you didn't already know this, but did you know that junk food is literally addictive in precisely the same way that cocaine and heroin are addictive? Now we have solid, positive proof, thanks to researchers at Scripps Research Institute in Florida and their team of brave (now obese) little lab rats. The rats were given unlimited access to all kinds of high-fat, calorie-dense food that is commonly available in convenience stores. The rats because compulsive overeaters when pleasure pathways in their brains became less and less sensitive, causing them to gorge themselves more and more to get the same high. Even when they were subjected to a mild shock in order to have access to the junk food, they still went for it.
Then, according to Paul Kenny, an associate professor of molecular therapeutics at Scripps, "after 40 days of becoming more and more addicted (and obese), the rats were switched to a nutritious food pellet, they refused to eat anything at all, even though they were clearly starving."
The act of refining the food is what makes it so addictive. Our bodies evolved with whole foods that needed to be broken down through digestive processes before the foods' nutrients and sugars could be released. Cocaine is only addictive because of this refining process, too. The leaves, when chewed by natives, supposedly give a high similar to coffee. But, when refined, the same chemical becomes a life-consuming addiction. Same with heroin or alcohol, same with sugar, same with any refined product.
When you think about it, this principle applies just as well to experiences. Anything, really, that gives you a good feeling. Painting, music, conversation with someone you love, love itself, nature, anything.
So choose your addictions wisely! They're just another fact of life. Healthy addictions can be cultivated to your benefit and enhance your well-being.

I Can Read Your Mind!

2009-11-08T09:01:00.000-05:00

It's true! This just occurred to me today while I was doing my cardio workout. I can read your mind, right here in this blog. "Okay," you say, "so what am I thinking?" Well, my mind reading only works IN THE FUTURE! And after you read this, my mind-reading tells me that you'll be thinking, "Ha! She can't really read my mind at all." What a great trick!

So what does this have to do with fitness? Well, you can entertain yourself with your own mind like this too whenever you do your cardio exercises. Some people think doing cardio exercises at the gym (like running on the treadmill, stationary biking, or using an elliptical machine) is boring, but I often have trouble trying to look halfway sane at the gym because I'm laughing so hard. It all depends on what you're thinking! IPods help, too. And, if you combine cardio exercises with music you enjoy or something positive going on in your mind, you'll literally flood your system with happy chemistry that will make your whole day so much fun!

Carl Sagan Day

2009-11-07T10:01:00.000-05:00

Happy Carl Sagan Day! Today is the first annual celebration of the life and work of an amazing man who really knew how to get into crazy little corners of your mind and expand it into directions that you never knew existed.
If you haven't at least read his book, Cosmos, or seen the TV series, Cosmos, well, you're just really missing an experience that everyone should have. When I first read his essays on biology, especially the parts about our mitochondria, the information really had me so intrigued that it set off a whole new passion of discovery for me. If you're a fellow human being on Planet Earth like I am (and you probably are!), you need to know this information!

Astragalus Root

2009-11-04T13:23:00.000-05:00

I thought it would be a good time to mention one of my favorite herbs, astragalus root. With all the talk about colds and the flu, it's helpful to know of an herb that enhances your immune system without any side effects and is a relatively inexpensive herb as well. I first read about astragalus in Dr. Andrew Weil's book, "Natural Health, Natural Medicine". It's great for use when you think you may be catching something, but since it's non-toxic, you can just use it regularly to keep your immune system strong. We use the powdered herb in capsule form and follow the directions on the bottle, but tincture or tablets are fine. If we think we're getting a cold or something, we increase the dosage temporarily to give ourselves an extra boost. You can also find astragalus root in Chinese grocery stores and some health food stores as dried, sliced root that you can simmer as tea or in soup.
Still, of course, the best thing to help you prevent getting sick is hand-washing and avoiding touching your face (especially eyes and nose). Don't you think that shaking hands should be put on temporary hold until after flu season? We can just show our palms to each other to say that we're not carrying any weapons. Maybe make a peace sign or a Vulcan sign or something.

Breathing!

2009-10-26T15:18:00.000-04:00

It was recently suggested by Jennifer Oliver that I write something about breathing exercises and I thought it was such a good idea. One of the quickest and most effective ways I know of to either calm down or perk up is through breathing technique.

First, here's my favorite stress-release breath that I learned from reading Dr. Andrew Weil's work. It's perfect for times when you've been pushing through a deadline and you've stopped for a break. Standing, sitting, or lying down, gently straighten your back so that your entire breathing system, from your nose to the bottom of your belly, has plenty of room. Now inhale through your nose to a count of 4, hold your breath without tightening your throat (this is important!) for a count of 7, then softly exhale through your mouth for a count of 8. Wait a second or two and repeat 3 times. The length of time that passes for each count isn't important, it's the ratio of 4:7:8 that makes this breath work.
When you're doing the breath-holding part, be sure you're not creating a lot of tension or increasing your blood pressure too much by holding in too much air or by clamping your throat shut.
This is good when you're stuck in traffic or waiting in a line somewhere that's trying your patience.

Next, a calming/balancing breath that employs a cool visualization. Again, from whatever position you're in, gently straighten your back, then inhale through your nose. Imagine that the breath slowly floats down a line that goes from your heart to the bottom of your pelvis (called Sushumna). Imagine that the base of your pelvis is a trampoline that, on the exhale,slowly sends the breath back up the same line it came down to "fan" your heart from the bottom up.
Do this for at least 5 or 10 breaths. If you have time, you can do this for as long as you like. It's a good breath to use while you're doing stretching exercises that you hold for longer times because it relaxes your body into the stretch in a very natural way. I love using this breath. I'm convinced that it's one of the fastest ways to get a nice dose of happy chemicals from your brain whenever you want it.

The perking-up breath is sort of like a dog panting, except it's just in and out of your nose. But the idea is to breath in and out very quickly with short little breaths. You'll be using your stomach muscles to accomplish this. It can take a little time to get those muscles to be coordinated enough to do this smoothly for more than a few breaths. So start with just a few of these panting breaths and end with a deep exhale. Build up slowly to do 10, 20, or 30 of these quick panting breaths before the deep exhale.

Thanks for the inspiration, Jennifer!

Coconut Lentils

2009-10-15T19:28:00.000-04:00

Marc Scheff, one of the participants in our recent artists' retreat,
not only took this crazy photograph, titled "Exquisite Boris", but also
made a huge (really huge) pot of Coconut lentils for everybody. The aroma
of fresh garlic, ginger, and jalapeno peppers was magically delicious.

COCO LENTILS by Marc Scheff
A goopy lentil dish made with coconut milk

I don't measure much, so most of this is approximate. Adjust ingredients for more/less lentils, and more/less spice. It's quite simple to make, despite my verbose directions.

If I were to guess at amounts I'd say

* 1 package lentils (I think they're 8oz)
* 2 ears corn, or 1 can
* 2 zucchinis
* 1 bag spinach
* 4 carrots
* 1-2 jalapenos (to your own levels of bravery)
* 1 onion
* 4 heads of garlic or more (I use as many as 8, I love it!)
* 1-3 inches of ginger

1. Soak lentils for ~8 hours (if you're making this for dinner, put them in a bowl in the morning with a few extra inches of water)
2. Drain lentils and place in a fresh pot of water
3. Bring to Boil, simmer for maybe 10 minutes

4. While waiting for lentils, chop up whatever veggies you want
I use carrots, zucchini, corn, onion, garlic, ginger, jalapeno, and a green like spinach or kale at the end
Experiment with other veggies like mushrooms, or peppers if you like
5. Take a pan with some oil and bring to high heat
6. Turn heat down and drop diced/sliced carrots in (carrots take longest to cook, so they get extra time)
7. Heat until carrots are getting crisped and a little soft

8. Drop in as much garlic/ginger/diced jalapeno as you like, and the diced veggies
This is where I add stuff like zucchini and onion that needs a little, but not a lot, of cooking time
9. Give a few squirts of Bragg's Amino
10. Cook until veggies are mostly crispy and/or cooked

11. Drop in corn and lentils. Add lentils slowly and stop when you have the right veggie/lentil balance for you.
12. Add 1 can of coconut milk and a dash more Bragg's to taste

13. When the dish tastes right and is cooked, add spinash or kale
14. Stir until kale/spinach is cooked

15. If you need it to be goopier, add more coconut milk and Bragg's

16. Serve and enjoy!

Barn Fitness

2009-10-11T18:37:00.000-04:00

Every year in the fall (for the last four years), we go to a beautiful place in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts where we spend a week with a group of our artist friends painting, laughing, eating s'mores, stuff like that. Aside from the s'mores (which are terrible for you on the physical plane, but the absolute peak of health food on the fun plane), we keep it pretty healthy. It's good to get away from your usual fitness routine here and there and give your body a break. Too much of the same exercise for too long without a change tends to create tendon soreness that just sort of lingers on and on. So here are some exercises if you ever find yourself with only an old New England barn and a bunch of friends as your equipment.

Pull Ups are a good exercise to start with. They mostly work your upper back, biceps, and rear deltoids. Keeping these muscle groups strong and toned is important in holding up good posture as well as creating an athletic V-shape to the upper body. Any exercise that requires you to pull weights (rows, bicep curls, etc.) fits into this category.

Demonstrating Pull Ups, left to right: Anthony Palumbo, Justin Gerard, Marc Scheff, David Palumbo, and Winona Nelson. Standing by are Dave Seeley, Dena Obeza, and Arkady Roytman.

Next is Push Ups. Push Ups are the perfect "opposite" exercise for Pull Ups. They work chest, tricep, and front deltoid muscles. Any exercise that requires you to push against weight (bench press, shoulder press, etc.) fits into this category.
Boris is demonstrating Push Ups for us here. He didn't have any s'mores while he was at the barn, preferring to save himself for his favorite snack, Suzy's Flatbreads.

Moving on to a great leg exercise, we have Jumping Lunges. Start in a lunging position and jump straight up, switching the position of your legs. At the top of the jump, tighten your knees and quadriceps. This exercise is great for overall strengthening and toning of the legs as well as working on your balance. If you do this exercise with respect for your knees and don't lunge too low, you'll strengthen your knees and keep them healthy.
Justin Gerard is demonstraging Jumping Lunges for us. He was thinking of the Silver Surfer when he was doing this.

And when it's time to wind down, pick a partner and make some swords out of tin foil. Exercise is so fun!
Anthony Palumbo and Winona Nelson are demonstrating their fencing skills here.

Cholesterol

2009-09-20T13:37:00.000-04:00

I just HAD to put a link to this article by Dr. Mark Hyman MD for anyone out there with any kind of cholesterol concern. He talks about the real causes of high cholesterol, as well as whether it is actually something to be concerned about or not. One thing that I found worth pointing out is that the dangerous kind of high cholesterol comes from eating sugar, refined foods like white bread, and especially from high-fructose corn syrup, rather than fat. Not a surprise, really, when you realize that the worst damage comes from inflammation in your system--practically a certainty if you're regularly having high-fructose corn syrup, the highly-refined sweetener found in soda, most sweet drinks, and most processed foods.

Since many well-meaning but overworked doctors get much of their latest information from pharmaceutical representatives (who obviously have a product to sell!), they can sometimes come to conclusions that aren't always in your best interest. If you or anyone you know and care about are having cholesterol concerns or are taking cholesterol medication, please read this article!

Jennifer Oliver

2009-09-15T21:45:00.000-04:00

This beautiful, lush painting that you are looking at was done by Jennifer Oliver at last year's Illustration Master Class. Since Jennifer sat next to me during most of the week's painting time, I was fortunate enough to see its development from the earliest stages as well as make a new friend. It's like the friendship and the painting were born at the same time!
And now she has sent me a recipe from her friend, Rhett Wickham, that I wanted to share with all of you. She had plans to try it with a sprinkling of cinnamon to push the exotic factor even further, but I don't know yet how that went. I suspect it was fantastic!

Rhett's easy goat cheese and pear pizza:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Fresh pizza dough
One large white or Vidalia onion, sliced and caramelized
Two pears, thinly sliced
Sliced goat cheese or feta cheese, crumbled
Basil Pesto
Raw Walnuts
Coat rolled out pizza dough with pesto, cover with the onions, goat cheese
and pear slices. Sprinkle with ground pepper, sea salt and chopped walnuts
to taste. If using feta cheese, omit the sea salt. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes for a thin crust, 20-25 minutes for a thicker crust, or until golden. Yum!

Late night eating

2009-09-11T13:30:00.000-04:00

I just read this on Dr. Andrew Weil's website:

"Want to Lose Weight? Don’t Eat Late

The timing of your meals may influence your weight, at least if you're a mouse. A new study from Northwestern University suggests that late-night snacks or eating when you should be asleep can pile on pounds. The researchers were investigating why shift workers who are on the job at irregular hours tend to be overweight. So they fed mice a high fat diet during normal mouse sleeping time and fed the same diet to a control group of mice during the hours when the animals are naturally awake. All the mice gained, but the ones fed when they should have been asleep increased their weight by 48 percent compared to the others whose weight went up only 20 percent. All the mice ate the same number of calories and performed equal amounts of exercise. This suggests that the timing of meals matters to weight control. Earlier research found that our circadian clock regulates energy use, which implies that when we eat may affect the balance between calories consumed and the number of calories burned daily. The study was published online Sept. 3, 2009 by the journal Obesity."

If you're like lots of artists I know and love, you like to work late at night--and maybe even have snacks to keep you company (along with NPR, of course!).
Anyway, I just thought it's a really good thing to keep in mind. Maybe a cup of unsweetened tea would be a good companion!

Tomato Pie

2009-08-26T18:10:00.000-04:00

The tomatoes in this picture, photographed by The Magnificent Boris, were grown in my own yard from seeds that I planted. One of my neighbors told me "they'll never grow", but I really proved her wrong.
A different neighbor made a tomato pie from her homegrown tomatoes and it made our mouths freak out with happiness, so I had to share her recipe with you!

RACHEL’S TOMATO PIE

Filling:
2 or 3 large ripe tomatoes or 2 cups of cherry tomatoes, sliced
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
Handful of basil leaves, chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
¼ teaspoon salt

Pie crust:
½ cup brown rice flour
½ cup spelt flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Approximately ¼ cup cold water

Topping:
2 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
2 ounces grated parmesan cheese

Combine sliced tomatoes and all other filling ingredients into a bowl. Cover and let
marinate at room temperature for about 6 hours or so.
Spray a 9 inch pie plate with spray oil.
For the pie crust, mix flours and salt, add olive oil and stir with a fork until mixture
resembles corn meal. Add water, just a little at a time while stirring with the fork, until the very moment it holds together in
a ball. Flour a wooden cutting board with spelt flour and roll out the dough into a circle with a rolling
pin. Transfer to the oiled pie plate.
Sprinkle about ½ of the cheeses onto the crust, add the marinated tomatoes, top with
the remaining cheeses.
Bake at 425 until crust is browned, about 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature before
serving.

Tanning Beds--Don't Do It!

2009-08-18T20:13:00.000-04:00

This is a deadly serious subject and one that I'm qualified to rag on about because about 10 years ago, I had a mole on my leg that started changing a little. When I went to get it looked at by a dermatologist, he tried to act pretty calm, but I could see that he was alarmed by it. By the way, it wasn't even very big or scary-looking, but it had a light colored ring around it and it was slightly raised. So he cut it off and sent it in to the lab. A couple of days later (he rushed it through to get a quick answer), I got a call from his assistant saying that I had a malignant melanoma and had to have more skin removed from around the original site immediately.

It really wasn't a big deal and I was lucky that it was removed early before it had a chance to spread (it's cured 100%), but now, of course, I'm leery of every mole and freckle because people actually die from melanoma. Bob Marley died from melanoma! Almost 69,000 people are expected to be diagnosed with melanoma and over 8,500 people are expected to die from it in 2009. Of course, I'm sure Bob Marley never used a tanning bed and there are certainly other ways that skin cancer begins to grow besides tanning beds, but doesn't the fact that so many more (50% increase since 1980) skin cancer cases are in young women tell you something? Young men don't use tanning beds as much as young women and they haven't shown the same rise in melanoma incidence.

I have no doubt that the skin cancer I had was caused by the use of tanning beds when I was in my bodybuilding competition days. Truthfully, it's pretty dumb to tan for a contest because everybody uses a really dark skin dye on the day they compete anyway--even those with naturally dark skin such as African Americans, so it's a complete waste of effort.

Anyway, I hope you've all read by now that international cancer experts are confirming in an announcement published in the medical journal Lancet Oncology that tanning beds and the ultraviolet radiation they put out are as poisonous as arsenic. They literally described it as poison and said that they are at about the same level of cancer-causing danger as cigarettes. Personally, I think tanning beds are much worse than cigarettes and I really hate cigarettes. Also, they've said that people who use tanning beds before age 30 increase their risk of skin cancer by 75%.

So, can't we all just learn to love natural skin color whatever color it happens to be?

One more time...

2009-08-15T18:53:00.000-04:00

So now, in the last four posts I've given you four important sources to learn great things about yourself and how to take the best advantage of your body/mind's potential.

Andrew Weil, Big Daddy of Medicine (my title for him), one of the most brilliant thinkers of our time, can help you find answers to just about any health question or concern as well as give you a good direction to follow for health maintenance.

Steven Gurgevich, a great brain coupled with a gentle spirit and an uncanny talent for teaching you to speak to your own subconscious mind, will encourage you to encourage yourself (yay for self-empowerment!).

John Sarno, a revolutionary doc who knows what really works to treat chronic conditions, will educate you in how to make use of your body's own nervous systems so you can heal yourself in a real and lasting way.

and
Candace Pert, a fearless supernova of energy and enthusiasm who researched it all, will show you the science behind Dr. Sarno's and Dr. Gurgevich's methods to take you even further into the empowerment that comes with knowledge.

The point of all this is to give you some serious resources to learn about a new paradigm of thinking about your own body. The work of all four of these very special people has helped Boris and me in so many ways that I feel compelled to share it with you. So read the posts below, think for yourself, and decide what's for you!

Dr. Candace Pert

2009-08-15T09:58:00.000-04:00

I was reading Dr. John Sarno's book, "The Divided Mind", and he mentions that anyone interested in the subject of the biochemistry of emotions (that would be me!) should read a book called, "Molecules of Emotion" by a neuroscientist named Dr. Candace Pert. I jumped up (yes, actually jumped) and ordered myself a copy from Amazon.com and, besides being a lively and entertaining read, it was yet another introduction to a new doorway of thinking for me. Reading this material was like being introduced to my own body's systems for the first time. Learning about how your cells communicate with each other, directing their action, keeping you healthy (or making you sick) is now one of my passions.

Dr. Pert, who once came within inches of winning a Nobel Prize, has centered her work around chemicals called peptides that are what create the communication system in your body. At the present time, she's devoted herself to using this premise to find a cure for AIDS. This communication system in our bodies is so elegant and sophisticated that it makes the internet look like a telegraph, or maybe like paper cups and a string--no offense to the internet, I love it.

It's just too bad that all this isn't common knowledge that we were taught from the time we're little kids, maybe the way we were taught basics about our bodily functions like having a cardiovascular system, for instance. Or a brain, or a liver. It's that basic to our existence and we just never knew about it! And once you get the general idea of how it works, you can use your new understanding to enhance your own health and well-being in ways you never dreamed of.

Dr. Pert is currently Chief Scientific Officer of RAPID Laboratories in Rockville, Maryland which is developing a drug treatment and vaccine against HIV, the virus which causes AIDS.

Dr. John Sarno

2009-08-13T19:24:00.000-04:00

I was going to talk about Candace Pert next, but I realized that it was Dr. Sarno who led me to Dr. Pert, so it makes sense to talk about him first.
I just love this cartoon! It was drawn by Boris to illustrate Dr. Sarno's point to our son, David.

I first heard of Dr. Sarno's work through Andrew Weil's recommendation. Dr. Weil had been saying forEVER that most any kind of back problem could be helped without drugs or surgery and that Dr. Sarno's book, "MindBody Prescription" was a good place to learn about his theory. I didn't pay much attention until I had a really yucky time with back, knee, and hip pain that just wouldn't go away. I went to all kinds of doctors, got all kinds of tests including blood tests to see if I had some weird rheumatoid problem. To make my long, painful story short and painless, I took Dr. Weil's recommendation and read Dr. Sarno's book and (FOR REAL!)within 2 weeks after finishing the book, I was perfectly pain-free and back to running, weight lifting, and yoga.

Dr. Sarno has put himself out on a limb by spelling out a treatment that really consists of education. No drugs, surgery, or special exercises, just a new understanding of how the body's systems of creating pain works. And it was this new understanding that opened my mind to a completely different approach to thinking about the entire subject of health. The beauty of this education is that once you understand it, the back-and-forth communication between your mind and your body becomes a source of knowledge for you that you didn't know you already possessed!

John E. Sarno is Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, and attending physician at the Howard A. Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University Medical Center. He graduated from The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1950. In 1965 he became the Director of the Outpatient Department at the Rusk Institute.

Dr. Steven Gurgevich

2009-08-12T13:52:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure where to start in talking about Dr. Gurgevich's work. Body? Mind? Art? Yep, these three areas of my life have been boosted into new dimensions through listening to his self-hypnosis CDs. It's probably the most painless and effortless way to reach into your unconscious mind and make whatever adjustments you choose to your life. What I've learned from his work that's so valuable to me is how to actually communicate in an effective way with my own mind and body.

Most artists, being such visual people, have a particularly successful time with self hypnosis and visualization. We're used to imagining things in vivid realism, complete with multi-sensory detail. One CD in particular that has helped me with my art in an unexpected and kind of cool way is "Musical Performance Success". It was made for musical performers so that they'll have more confidence when they play in public. I decided to get it because I could just mentally switch out the word "musical" for "artistic" and just see what would happen! (I seriously LOVE experimenting with drug-free--and only drug-free!-- altered states of consciousness!) Not only have I experienced unexplainable easy confidence when I'm painting in front of a crowd (such as at the Illustration Master Class), but it's given me more confidence in my art all together. Artists of all kinds need confidence like life needs water, and all of Dr. Gurgevich's work transmits a sense of calm and confidence to the listener.

The first time I heard about him was through the recommendation of Dr. Weil. At the time, I was having trouble getting a solid night's sleep, so I got some of his CDs and listened to them as I fell asleep at night (so you can see, they obviously worked!). I just got more and more interested in the possibilities I saw with this and now I've really learned how to work it myself. That's the coolest thing about this is that he teaches you how it works so that you can do it yourself according to your own needs.

He also seems to be a dyed-in-the-wool great person. He has an incredibly soothing voice that gently but clearly transmits his peaceful energy. His wife, Joy, also a real sweetheart, shares a section of their website that has some great nutritional advice. Through Dr. Gurgevich's work, I've realized in a very tangible way the unlimited potential that we all have to make use of our amazing unconscious mind.

Steven Gurgevich, PhD is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the
Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine

Dr. Andrew Weil and Boris's Liver

2009-08-12T11:36:00.000-04:00

About 11 years ago, just by a complete stroke of luck, I happened upon Andrew Weil's book, "8 Weeks To Optimum Health". Boris was struggling with a team of doctors who, for 15 years, had been mystified over his increasingly problematic liver. The docs were at the point of putting him on a highly toxic drug (Prednisone) with little hope that it would actually fix his problem and simultaneously putting him on a list for a liver transplant! In desperation, I went to the bookstore and looked for anything I could find about liver function and liver health (this was before we had internet). I found several great books, but Dr. Weil's book, as well as another book of his called "Natural Health, Natural Medicine", turned out to have most of my answers. Within 6 weeks, a 15-year long health saga was completely over and Boris now lives with his own liver that Thor or Tarzan or even Zeus himself would envy (yeah!). Since that time, I've read everything I could find that Dr. Weil has written as well as works he's recommended from other doctors and scientists. It was the beginning of a brand new path of thinking for me.

The thing about Dr. Weil that is so great is that he's just so incredibly intelligent, curious, and open-minded. He's not interested in following any one particular line of thinking, or in simply enhancing his own image. He just wants to find out what works. So he researches Eastern, Western, whatever kind of medicine, looks for the sound science behind it, and makes his recommendations. He's one of the great thinkers of our time. His website is amazing in its helpfulness and accessibility.

Dr. Weil attended both college and medical school at Harvard University. He is the founder and Program Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (formerly the Program in Integrative Medicine), which he started in 1994 at the University of Arizona.

Four people you should know about

2009-08-11T18:26:00.000-04:00

I got hooked on learning about mind/body issues back when I was competing in bodybuilding (1984-1989) and have only gotten more and more interested in this passion of mind through the years. As anyone well knows, there are many experts on the subject whose work I've read who have great things to say, but, at this time, four people's work stand out in my mind as Super Supreme, and they are Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Steven Gurgevich, Dr. John Sarno, and Dr. Candace Pert. I'm going to write a separate post for each one of them so that I can tell you why I feel so strongly about their work.
In the meantime, I think we should build a new Mt. Rushmore of Health and Fitness and have these four people's images carved into a mountainside!

Create your perfect breakfast

2009-08-06T13:32:00.000-04:00

I think the two most important things to consider in deciding how to design your breakfast are:

1. Make sure you're having some of each of the following:
protein (Ezekiel cereal or toast, eggs, lowfat or nonfat milk or other dairy products, or tofu are good choices),
complex carbohydrates (note the word complex! That means nothing made with sugar or white flour or any other refined grains),
fiber (whole grain, fruit, vegetable),
some healthy fat (as from nuts or eggs),
and some "water food" (juicy fruit or vegetable)
as well as some water (tea or coffee).

2. What kind of mood are you in? Are you feeling slow and want to pick yourself up? In that case, a good choice might be some eggs and a piece of fruit or steamed vegetables. Good beverage choices would be tea or coffee or even a nice glass of cool (not cold) water.
Are you feeling like you need to be soothed? Try some cooked Irish oatmeal or other whole grain hot cereal with fruit on top. Have some tea with cinnamon or other warm spices.
Are you already tranquil and balanced and want to stay that way? I'd have our usual breakfast cereal mix.
It's important to check in with your emotional state so that you can make any adjustments that are necessary. Your choice of breakfast music is also important for setting your speed for the morning. For some reason, when it's first thing in the morning, I only like instrumental music. Songs with words make me nervous in the morning. Go figure!

Some things that are a bad idea for every day are bagels (too densely packed with carbohydrates), muffins and pastries, fatty meats (sausage, bacon, etc.), butter, syrup, jams and jellies made with sugar, and cereals made with refined flour or sugar. I don't recommend imitation meats like soy sausage, etc., if they contain the ingredient Soy Protein Isolate. It's a too-refined ingredient that takes a good thing (soy) and turns it into an artificial food that's really not good for you. Plus, fake meats usually have way too much sodium. Toast is great as long as you are sure that the bread is of really good quality whole grains. My favorite is Ezekiel bread--it's such a great complete food. Put some almond or peanut butter (or sliced avocado with tomato!) on your toast instead of butter.

Another factor to consider is how much time you have in the morning to make and eat breakfast. This should never be an excuse to limit your nutrition because you can always prepare something the night before or get up 10 minutes earlier.

Inspired To Go For A Run

2009-07-25T15:34:00.000-04:00

Boris and I shot a bunch of pictures of horses for upcoming paintings at a nearby stable the other day and, once we were at home looking at our pictures on the computer, seeing this one made me feel compelled to drop everything, put on my running shoes, and go flying down the street. When we were shooting these pictures, you could see how much this horse loved the feeling of running. He would trot for a bit and then just take off. Inspiring for sure!

Are you at Comic Con?

2009-07-22T14:41:00.001-04:00

If you are one of the 120,000 people (give or take a few) attending Comic Con, you're going to eventually get hungry and I HOPE you're not just going to grab a hot dog or something equally full of chemicals/devoid of nutrients!

Eating well while traveling is always a bit of a trick, but the best place to find food is at a grocery store. Not only will you save money, but you can actually find real food that will keep your energy up (something you need for sure at Comic Con!). Some good suggestions are trail mix (not granola, which is full of sugar), rice cakes with hummus or small pieces of good quality cheese, and fresh fruit (of course!). If you're lucky enough to find a supermarket with a salad bar, you've hit the jackpot. Just stay away from the salad dressing--most pre-made dressings are just more chemicals, fat, salt, and sugar. A little olive oil and some vinegar are not only tasty, but actually beneficial to your health. Vinegar boosts your fat-burning metabolism and also increases the good bacteria in your system (this does great things for your immune system!) and olive oil contributes to the healthy fats you need to break down nutrients.

Be sure to drink lots of water while you're traveling. I know it makes for more trips to the bathroom, but that's really healthier than temporarily shutting down your filtration/hydration system. Besides, every trip to the bathroom is more exercise! Yay for exercise!

Have fun, you lucky Comic Conners! Sorry we're not there--we miss you all!

Rebecca Guay

2009-07-07T15:02:00.000-04:00

By now, you all know about the Illustration Master Class that Boris and I taught at a few weeks ago. And you're probably also familiar with the beautiful lady who is the driving force behind bringing the Master Class to reality, Rebecca Guay. I've always admired her art as well as her strong, graceful form and her background in classical ballet (not to mention that she's a sweetheart!), so I've asked her to answer a few questions to share with all of you!

Me: How does your background in ballet affect your paintings?
Rebecca: One of the things that dance really gave my was an attention to detail and an awareness of the small things that make a pose beautiful when things are done well or awkward if they are not.
There is such scrutiny to detail in dance- the perfection of the line, the gesture of the body that leads the viewer out into the visual space surrounding the dancer. My training is in ballet, and although my anatomy is is totally wrong to have ever been a dancer in any real way myself, I did get the opportunity during years of classes to pack my visual memory with the beautiful forms and lines of truly gifted people. If I cannot have that "line" myself in life, I can have it in my art.

Me: How does your background in ballet affect your fitness routine?
Rebecca: I think I have a really good sense of body awareness from ballet that helps immensely in doing weights and cardio- as well as really good balance and core strength for things like kickboxing, which I love.

Me: Is it difficult to keep your fitness/nutrition routine consistent when you're under the pressureof deadlines?
Rebecca: Yeah- I'm bad with sugar, especially under stress- it's a problem. I try to use TRUVIA ( a derivative of stevia)- but I fall off the wagon.
If I keep a lot of fruit around I'm better, the summer is better overall.

Me: I heard you had a cool fitness breakthrough recently (pullup). Can you
tell us how great that was and how ecstatic you were?
Rebecca: I've been doing a rotating weights/cardio/ weights/yoga/weights/cardio routine in the last three months that includes a lot of pull up and chin ups ( assisted mostly with a chair).
I've always had lean looking arms, but not strong arms, now I can actually do a pull up un-assisted- which seems like diddley squat to most people but makes me totally giddy!

Thanks Rebecca!

Back and Chest Poem

2009-07-01T16:58:00.000-04:00

After doing a 35-minute cardio session on the StairMaster (which emphasizes a strength move for legs), I did an interesting back/chest workout today. It went like this: (one set each exercise)

Lateral cable pulldowns, 15 reps (back)
Seated cable rows, 15 reps (back)
Then,
Bench press, 15 reps (chest)
Flat dumbbell chest press, 15 reps (chest)

Then I increased the weights and dropped my reps down to 10 for each set.

Bent over rows with a barbell, 10 reps (back)
Bent over rows with a dumbbell, 10 reps (back)
Then,
Bench press, 10 reps (chest)
Incline dumbbell press, 10 reps (chest)

Then I increased the weights a little more and dropped the reps down to 8 for each
set.

Lateral pulldowns on a machine, 8 reps (back)
Seated rows on a machine, 8 reps (back)
Then,
Bench press, 8 reps (chest)
Incline dumbbell press, 8 reps (chest)

Hey, this workout is structured like a poem!

So, you see, the point here was to do 2 exercises for back, then immediately do 2 for chest, back and forth 3 times, increasing the poundage and decreasing the repetitions.
I finished with a bunch of regular old pushups and 4 sets of leg raises for abs (15-20 reps each set).

Cardio and music

2009-06-28T21:31:00.000-04:00

The gym schedule that we mostly stick to goes like this:
35 minutes of cardio, then weight-lifting -- day 1
just 35 minutes of cardio -- day 2
day off from the gym -- day 3
repeat

So that means that today is a "just cardio" day. I'm opting for running on the treadmill today because my sister, Suzanne, is visiting and I can run on the treadmill next to hers. Once again, I was planning to take it a little easy today because my legs are kind of sore from weight-lifting yesterday, but as soon as my music in my ipod takes over, I'm swept away and running like a maniac. Did I look a little bit like a crazy person? I'm pretty sure I might have, but I'm not going to worry about it. Suzanne was inspired to run with me and that was really cool!

Which brings me to the point of this post--music. I don't know of any better "energy booster" (more like rocket fuel!) than my ipod. I've seen study after study that shows that people listening to upbeat music while exercising experience less discomfort/boredom, burn way more calories, create more endorphins, and experience a faster passage of time during their exercise session. I only listen with earbuds or headphones while I'm doing cardio at the gym because, like any sane person, I would never use headphones while running on the street or trail. This is a rule that I hope you'll follow too!

Leg Day!

2009-06-27T09:53:00.000-04:00

Today is leg day at the gym. When I was competing in bodybuilding and lifting really heavy, those words would strike terror into my heart, but now I look forward to it.
As usual, I started with my 35-minute cardio session. Today I decided to run on the treadmill with a fairly fast pace and only low hills. Then, after a few good post-run stretches, it went like this:
Start by going through a giant set one time, 15 reps each exercise:

Leg extensions
Deadlifts with two 25-lb. dumbbells
Front squats on the Smith Machine
Lunges with two 15-lb. dumbbells
Hyperextensions with 25-lb. plate

Now you can either repeat this giant set or you can focus on one or two of the
exercises. I chose to do a smaller giant set with the leg extensions, deadlifts, and lunges. I went through this sequence 3 times. In the second and third sets, I increased the weights on the deadlifts and lunges.
After that, I went back and forth between weighted hyperextensions and ab work (cable crunches, sets of 20), doing these two back to back three times.

That's it! The whole thing took me about 30 minutes and it was just perfect for me.
PS As I mentioned before, for anyone who isn't familiar with these exercises, I'm going to come back later and show pictures of them with explanations of how to do them.

Changing Gears

2009-06-26T10:24:00.000-04:00

A great question has been brought up by a couple of you and that is how to change gears between doing creative work, doing business errands, and exercise/fitness. This is something that, years ago, I had a real problem with. I know that the human brain is infinitely flexible and adaptable and I was determined to do all the things I wanted to do.
I realized that the most efficient way to make this happen was to use my powers of visualization ahead of time so that my brain would already be there once I was doing the new activity. For instance, the time spent while you're doing your cardio session is an ideal time to think about whatever creative work you're going to be doing later on. In fact, exercising increases dopamine (a brain chemical that makes you feel happy and makes you smarter and more creative!), so take advantage of your exercise time to figure out your next creative move.
Then, while you're painting, take note of what time you think you should stop so that you can do your exercise, errands, whatever, then start mentally preparing yourself while you're working and visualize yourself doing the new activity.
Abruptly ripping your mind away from an activity can be mentally exhausting, but you'll surprise yourself at how painless it can be if you use this visualization technique to ease the transition.

Shoulders

2009-06-25T09:21:00.000-04:00

I start off the day the same as usual with 15 minutes of yoga before breakfast. I'm going to write a more detailed post at some point in the near future about the morning yoga I do, but for now, I'll just say that it's very instinctive and based on how I'm feeling on any particular day. Yoga is all about connecting mind and body and I don't think applying a rigid standard is respectful to the constant fluctuations of mind and body.

At the gym, I decided to do my cardio session on the Stair Master today. It's the kind that has moving stairs so that it's like climbing actual stairs (as opposed to pedals that you push). I did it for 35 minutes and climbed 206 flights of stairs. I did a few speed intervals, but not too extreme. And, yes, it did kick my butt!

We have a lunch appointment that's going to take most of the afternoon, so I'm saving my free-weight shoulder workout for tonight at home.

About 8:30 pm I did a free-weight shoulder workout that was composed of giant sets, each exercise done for 12 reps, the whole routine repeated 3 times.
It went like this:
Front raises with 10 lb. dumbbells
Lateral raises, 10 lbs.
Bent over lateral raises (for rear deltoids), 10 lbs.
Overhead shoulder presses with 15 lb. dumbbells
Upright rows, 15 lbs.

When I repeated the giant set for the second time, I replaced the 10 lb. dumbbells with 12.5 lbs. and the 15 lb. dumbbells were replaced with 17.5 lbs.
For the third giant set, I changed the 12.5 for a 15 lb. dumbbell and switched the 17.5 for a 25 lb dumbbell.

I then did 4 pilates type exercises for abs and core (more on that later), with about 25 reps each set.

That's it for today! That workout only took me about 20 minutes, so it is something that can easily be worked into the day.

Day two

2009-06-24T11:09:00.000-04:00

After doing a light weight-training session yesterday as well as a medium-light cardio session, today I'm going even easier so that tomorrow I can start to pick up the pace a little.
I started the morning with my usual 10-15 minute yoga session before breakfast (this is something we do every day).
We went for a 2 mile walk after breakfast, and we painted all day (gotta do that, too!).
We had an early dinner and then a couple of hours later, I did a light one hour session of ashtanga-based yoga. If you've got the great fortune to have access to Steve Ross's fantastic yoga show, "Inhale", you must try it! He makes it so fun and not so serious, but you still get all the benefits.
Now, off to a good night's sleep because there's more to do tomorrow!

Easing back into regular life after the IMC

2009-06-22T22:15:00.000-04:00

Boris and I are back from being two of the faculty members of the 2009 Illustration Master Class, a week-long intense illustration workshop put together by fellow artist and fitness enthusiast, Rebecca Guay. The IMC is a first class Happening. We all gather at Amherst College and spend a full week of 12-plus hour days (starting at 10am and going on until at least 10 pm--most people stayed until about 1 am every night, some even later), drawing, painting, critiquing, listening to lectures from top professionals in the field. It is intense and emotional and everyone who participates seems to love it!
The intensity of the experience is physically draining and it would be true craziness to just jump back into my regular exercise/fitness routine without easing back in slowly and thoughtfully, in a way that wouldn't leave me too sore to continue my workouts later in the week.
Rebecca thought it would be a good idea if I wrote a log of my daily fitness habits,
so here's what I'm doing fitness-wise today:

First thing upon getting out of bed is a short 15-minute yoga session, especially focusing on stretching the muscles along my spine. The mindful breathing that defines yoga is perfect for starting the day with a balanced state of mind, connecting body with mind.

Breakfast is next, then a short walk around the neighborhood (about a mile) just to get some daylight, fresh air, and blood flowing. Just connecting with the day.

After a cup of tea and a few e-mails, we're off to the gym. First today, we do 30 minutes of cardio exercise. Boris likes the stationary bikes and elliptical machines today, I choose a nice, easy run on the treadmill. I start off with a minute or two of walking, then get to an easy pace. But after turning on my ipod, I start to go a little faster and, before I know it, I'm kind of flying along with The Clash. Oh well, so much for easing in. Whatever! It was a great run and I got rid of the cobwebs in my muscles.

After cardio, we do weight-lifting. On a day like this, I just want to hit every muscle group lightly and keep moving constantly. Fortunately, the gym is pretty empty today, so I can pick whatever I want to do. It went like this (one set each exercise, all sets are for 15 reps, light to medium weight, no more than 30 seconds rest in between sets):
Leg extensions (quads)
Lateral pulldowns (lats, biceps)
Seated rows (lats, biceps, and full back)
Deadlifts with dumbbells (full body, emphasis on legs)
Lunges with resting leg on the exercise ball (legs, balance, core)
Shoulder presses with dumbbells (shoulders)
Upright rows (shoulders, biceps)
Hyperextensions (lower back, core, butt)
Bench press (chest, shoulders)
Bicep curls (biceps)
Kneeling crunches with weight (core)
Regular lunges (legs, butt)
Pushups (chest, core, quads)

So the idea here is to make the blood jump from upper body to lower body, back and forth, sideways, all over the place. Move fast, thinking of what you're going to do next while you're in the middle of an exercise. If someone takes the machine or station you had your eye on, forget it and immediately pick something else. This is a good idea if you're new to weights or, as in my case, coming back from a week or more of rest from the gym. You won't build a lot of muscle if you do this consistently, but if you're just looking for general fitness and conditioning, it's a great way to go.

Around 3pm I do a 15 minute meditation, focusing on my breath, just keeping my head screwed on--not too tight and not too loose!

After dinner, we go for another walk, this time about 2 miles. This keeps your metabolism up while letting your stress from the day out.

That's about it for today. Good night!

Cool Mind Trick From Another Dimension

2009-06-05T14:11:00.001-04:00

The next time you find yourself in a situation that you feel is less than your favorite thing (let’s say, doing any kind of paperwork, a boring meeting, waiting in slow traffic, things like that), pretend that you are an alien being who exists in some other dimension where your reality is entirely different from ours here on Earth. So now, you, the alien, are in your own dimension and you’ve gone to an amusement park where one of the rides is that you get to pop into the body of some random person on Earth and experience whatever situation they are in for 15 minutes. And here you are! Suddenly, you become aware of your new living, human body (in the other dimension, you only exist as a bunch of electrons or something) and all the cool things it can do. All the things around you would be so amazing and new. Even filling out tax forms would be such a thrill! I know you’re probably thinking, “It would have been better to pop into a different person for my 15 minutes”, but you wouldn’t think that way because you wouldn’t be comparing it to another experience.

This is something I like to do just for fun sometimes when I want to taste a different reality, but I was reminded of it the other day when Boris and I visited with our friend and fellow illustrator, Dan Dos Santos, his wife Cristina, and their two sons, Uno and Kai. Uno is about 2 and a half, and he got the most amazing happiness from helping Dan measure cups of water to make rice. For him, this was a great adventure, filled with risk and reward. That’s the kind of other-dimensional thinking that can make a person’s life so much more fun! It’s not the task you have to do, it’s how you’re thinking about it.

Whatever is going on, just think of how rare it is that you would have a chance at this very moment!

Stevia Experiments

2009-05-26T22:15:00.001-04:00

Stevia is a South American herb with a sweetness that’s 300 times greater than sugar. Since Boris is from South America, it was no surprise to me that stevia comes from his homeland—being the sweet guy that he is and all! He’s waaay more than 300 times sugar’s sweetness! Anyway, I’ve been intrigued by stevia for some time now because I’ve read that it’s actually good for you. As hard as it is to believe, stevia actually helps stabilize blood sugar levels. This is amazing considering the terrible things sugar does to our blood sugar balance. So I tried a few products (mostly protein powders and drink powders) that were sweetened with stevia and didn’t like the taste. The best way I could describe it was like electric licorice. But, since I don’t give up easily, I thought I’d get my own stevia and see if I could make it work for me.
I bought a bottle of pure stevia extract called SweetLeaf Stevia Extract made by Wisdom Brands, about .9 oz for about $10. After realizing how little you use in recipes, I figure it will last me a couple of years.
There was another brand that looked like it had way more in the bottle (about 4 oz.) and cost about the same, but after looking closer at the ingredients (Boris’ suggestion), I realized that they had used a filler to pump it up. I thought that if I want to investigate this stuff, I need it to be pure.
After a couple of quick experiments, I came to realize that the trick to using it is not to try for an end product that is super sweet. Just use enough to bring out a sweet taste that balances with the other flavors. The usual substitution with sugar is 1 cup of sugar equals 1 teaspoon of stevia, but I would recommend that you use maybe 1/3 or ½ of a teaspoon of stevia per cup of sugar instead. That means that if you’re putting it in your tea or coffee, you would just put the slightest dusting on a spoon.I made a small batch of oatmeal cookies and some coconut tofu pudding and they were great! I tried another thing that was really crazy that I won’t tell you all the details about, but it involved frozen celery and a blender and it was horrible (although Boris claims he liked it)! So here are the two good recipes I’ve made so far:

Sugar Free Oatmeal Cookies 10 cookies
¼ cup brown rice flour
¼ cup barley flour
1 cup rolled oats
Pinch salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup walnuts
1 ½ Tablespoons flax seeds, ground
¼ teaspoon stevia extract
Optional: ½ cup chocolate chips
2 Tablespoons canola oil
½ cup vanilla almond, soy, or rice milk
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with Pam or other spray oil.
Mix all ingredients except oil and milk. Stir in oil and milk. Spoon onto oiled
cookie sheet. Bake 15 to 18 minutes until lightly browned around edges.

Coconut Tofu Pudding Serves 4
12.3 oz. box Mori-Nu Silken Tofu, Firm
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
¾ cup unsweetened vanilla almond, soy, or rice milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 teaspoon stevia extract

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Use more or less
almond, soy, or rice milk to get it to the thickness you want. Adjust stevia amount to your
taste. Refrigerate for a few hours before serving. It will thicken a little more in the
refrigerator and the flavors will blend and mellow.
This is great spooned over bananas or other fruit.

Sweetness!

2009-05-18T13:58:00.000-04:00

I seriously love sweets but, unfortunately, I get addicted to them very easily. If I have dessert with sugar more than a couple of days in a row, I’m hooked. It only takes me a couple of days without it to unhook again, but during those days, I’m totally fixated on Kentucky Derby Pie and Raspberry Linzer Tarts. I don’t use the word “addicted” lightly because that’s exactly what happens. The fact that table sugar is so refined makes it into an actual drug that brings a response to a person’s brain chemistry similar to an opiate drug.
Speaking of refined, two other sweeteners come to mind that should be discussed. Splenda (or sucralose) is a non-caloric sweetener that is derived from sugar—they’ve replaced 3 hydrogen-oxygen molecules in the sugar with 3 chlorine molecules. According to a Duke University study, using sucralose causes the beneficial bacteria in our intestines to be diminished greatly, which is a very bad thing. Our intestinal bacteria is an extremely important part of our immune system, protecting us from all kinds of infections as well as cancer. It’s understandable that Whole Foods is refusing to carry products that contain sucralose. Good one, Whole Foods!
Another sweetener that goes on the Really Bad List is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). This is possibly one of the most destructive “foods” introduced into the system and is likely the main cause of our current obesity epidemic. When you ingest this crazy stuff, it goes directly to your liver and immediately turns into fat. For real. It also increases ghrelin (a hormone your body produces that creates feelings of hunger) and decreases leptin (a hormone that your body produces when you eat food that makes you feel satisfied). That’s insane! It’s like taking a drug where its sole purpose is to keep you addicted. To top it off, recent studies show that samples taken of foods with HFCS have mercury in them! Ewww! Mercury! That’s truly bad stuff.
Some sweeteners that are safe to use (they won’t cause huge spikes in blood sugar levels and they are natural) are brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup, and an herb called stevia. The best thing, though, is fruit—not juice, not fruit rollups, definitely not Froot Loops, just real fruit.

Here’s something for when you want a sweet/slightly salty/crunchy dessert:

Crunchy Snack

1 corn tortilla (much better for you than flour tortilla)
1 tablespoon natural, unsweetened peanut or almond butter
2 big, fat fresh strawberries, sliced

Toast the tortilla just until it’s crunchy (not brown) in a toaster oven. Let it cool until you can handle it, then spread the peanut or almond butter on top. Top with the strawberries. Please eat this over a plate or you’ll be decorating the floor with it.

Mental Programs

2009-05-13T11:42:00.000-04:00

Wow! Amazing news about cells! I’ve been reading Candace Pert’s book, “Molecules of Emotion” and I’m starting a revolution in my mind! Did you know that each one of your cells is like a little brain that stores memories and communicates with all the other cells in your body through an intricate system of chemistry that makes the Internet look as primitive as smoke signals?

You can put this system to work for you just by knowing this—because once you know this, you’ll be communicating that knowledge to all the cells as well! That is, once you involve your conscious brain, you can think thoughts and make decisions that will affect not just your mood and energy levels, but things like chronic pain, blood pressure level, your immune system, and your overall health and well-being.

This is a huge topic with an infinite number of ways to put it to good use, but let’s start with using it to help you stay motivated to stick with a healthy lifestyle. The choices you make every minute of the day that determine what you would call your “lifestyle” have been put in place by you because of the chemicals in your brain that make you happy, your endorphins. Your response to seeing a pile of French fries vs. a clean, green salad is similar to the way the filing system in your computer works. You make associations with foods, experiences, etc. that you’ve had before and every time you have that experience and think the same thoughts, you reinforce a “default” response.

Often when people start a new fitness program or diet, unbeknownst to them, the deepest part of their mind thinks that it’s going to be a temporary situation. They haven’t yet created a new “default” response to their new choices. So how do you reprogram these default settings? First you have to very gently and very seriously ask yourself about what kind of pleasure you may be getting from your previous habits. This isn’t just the obvious stuff like, “Well, French fries are just superdelicious!” Because if you know that they’re bad for your health (and they really are!) but you continue to choose them anyway, you’re going against goals you’ve set for yourself and you’re going to end up feeling bad about that choice later. So you’ve got to really get into the deeper parts of your mind and ask why you’re not taking your new goal seriously.

Then, of course, you’ll need to create positive mental associations with the things you’ve chosen to be your new habits. For instance, while you’re eating something healthy or sticking with your plan to exercise, make a point of thinking about how happy you are to be doing something so good for yourself. Over time, the association will be automatic.

By approaching your system this way, you will develop a clear communication with your body and your subconscious mind that will become easier and easier to make use of.

Dinnertime!

2009-05-05T18:39:00.001-04:00

No, these wolves aren't having dinner! I just took a break from working on painting these wolves to make this dinner for Boris and me.

Baked Tofu Dinner

This mixture of tastes and textures hits the perfect balance. When you eat it, you'll feel balanced, too!

1/2 cup short grain brown rice
1/2 cup hulled barley (with the bran intact)
Sprinkle of salt
1 1/2 cups water (if you're using a pressure cooker) or
2 cups water (if you're cooking grain by traditional method)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 dried shiitake mushrooms soaked in 1/2 cup hot water for about 15 minutes, sliced (save the
water you used for soaking)
1 cup fresh asparagus, cut up
1 cup fresh dark greens such as kale or collards, chopped
Sprinkle of salt and pepper
8 oz. package teriyaki or other flavor baked tofu
1/2 ripe avocado, sliced
10 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

Rinse rice/barley mixture and drain. Bring salted water to a boil, cook grain according to your preferred method.
In a skillet with a lid, saute garlic in the olive oil on medium high heat until it just starts to brown at the edges. Add vegetables and water from shiitake mushrooms. Cover skillet and let vegetables cook until tender for about 8 to 12 minutes, adding more water as necessary.
While vegetables cook, place tofu on pan sprayed with Pam or other cooking spray oil and broil until lightly browned.
Put the cooked grain on your plate, with your vegetables and tofu arranged around the sides, top with avocado and tomatoes.

Now you can eat your dinner and get back to work. Yay!

Favorite exercise

2009-05-03T11:22:00.000-04:00

When it comes to leg exercises, most people first think of squats (there's an expression that "squats are king"), but I've personally come to appreciate the deadlift as a much better choice. It's been shown that putting the bar on the back of the shoulders (as is done with squats) puts the knees in a position to receive more stress than keeping the weight in the front of the body. Also, resting the bar on the shoulders can have a bad effect on your neck and upper spine over the years. I know because I had both knee problems and neck problems that seemed to come from excessive squatting. By switching to deadlifts, I don't have those problems anymore. Deadlifts just seem more natural anyway--I mean, when you're just doing things in real life and you need to lift something heavy, do you think you'd put it on your back or just pick it up?
The deadlift is, in my opinion, the most basic weight training exercise and it works your entire body in one exercise. You can do this with a barbell, with dumbbells (as shown in these pictures), cables, heavy objects, or even with no weight at all. However, this movement must be performed correctly with strict attention to keeping the spine in a safe position.
There are several different ways to do this exercise, but here's a good way to start. Start, as in figure A with your weights on the floor in front of you. First, stand straight, keep your core tight with your chest out and your butt slightly sticking out, feet a little wider than shoulder width. This keeps the muscles along your spine flexed throughout the movement and protects your lower back. Now squat down, maintaining the "butt out" position (NEVER round your back, as shown in the third photo). Keeping the weights close to your body, pick up the weights, grip tightly, keep your shoulders back and head up, and then stand up. When you're standing with the weights, keep everything tight. Then, keeping your back in that tightened position, squat back down almost to the floor, then stand up again. Do 2 or 3 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions, resting about a minute between sets. It's super important that you don't let your back round (this puts the muscles in your back in a vulnerable position). You can do this with your feet closer together or farther apart. Closer together will work more of your quadriceps, farther apart will work more butt and hamstring muscles.

Your Metabolism vs. Artificial Ingredients

2009-04-26T21:05:00.000-04:00

As if you needed another reason to eat only natural foods and stay away from artificial ingredients, here’s a good one!

You know how when you put a program into your computer, it reads the codes of the program and then knows what to do with it? Well, whenever you eat or drink (or inhale) anything, the substance you’re eating, drinking, or inhaling also has a code. The cells of your body read the code and then, like your computer, set about following their programmed instructions to put it to (hopefully) good use. When you consume something that has artificial ingredients (like artificial sweeteners, artificial food dyes and flavorings, or even high fructose corn syrup), your body’s cells are confronted with a code that they most likely can’t read properly. What happens next is, in essence, similar to what happens when your computer can’t read a program properly—it can freeze up or slow down, or just refuse to deal with it. The end result is that your metabolism (which is your body breaking down foods into nutrients, then sending the nutrients to the proper places to be used for energy and health) slows down, you feel tired, nervous, or out of sorts, and the artificial substances then get sent to the liver to be tossed out . This makes your liver cranky because it has to spend time and resources figuring out what to do with this weird chemical instead of working on its favorite obsession, your health and well-being.

When you eat healthy, clean, natural foods, your metabolism just zips along, reading those codes, sending the nutrients right out to be used, and your liver has less work to do so it can run much more efficiently and keep your system cleaner. Even if you have a genetic predisposition to a slow metabolism, no, especially if you have a genetic predisposition to a slow metabolism, this is important to you. Eating clean is like if Mary Poppins herself was in charge of running your metabolism--efficient, making the best out of what’s at hand--you know, spit spot, practically perfect!

Joe Jusko

2009-04-23T10:01:00.000-04:00

As well as being one of the top fantasy illustrators around, Joe Jusko is also a devoted fitness enthusiast (and a great guy!). I thought it would be fun to ask him a few questions to post here.

Me: Boris and I have always been interested in the human physique, first through our own experience with bodybuilding, then in fantasy art physiques, but we know of artists for whom it was the other way around. What came first for you--bodybuilding or paintings of highly cultured physiques?

Joe: I read comics and drew from a very early age, so I was always intrigued by larger than life physiques. I started lifting in junior year of high school after I bought an issue of Iron Man or Muscular Development with Mr America Kalman Szkalak on the cover. I was amazed by him and wanted to look like that. Unfortunately I discovered that not everyone could attain that type of condition without the proper genetics (or lots of, ummmmm........"help"). LOL

Me: After spending a long time at the easel, do you feel more like you want to get up and exercise or do you feel more lethargic?

Joe: I prefer using training as a relief from work. I normally stop about 3PM and work out. I put in a Parabody smith machine, treadmill and a set of Powerblock dumbbells to make the transition easier. I loathe going to an actual gym. Too much prep and travel time, wasted time waiting for equipment, etc. I much prefer working out in my own space and at my own pace. I find I'm stronger and more focused later in the day, also.

Me: When we have tight deadlines looming, it's easy to feel like skipping the gym, but we usually push each other to stick with our exercise plans. Do deadlines interfere with your exercise program?

Joe: I'm a bit of a compulsive personality in that if I'm cramming on a job I don't like to stop. If I do, I get distracted 180% in the opposite direction. I do tend to forego the gym if I'm pressing at work. That, in turn affects my diet as I mentally tie them both together. I find it very difficult to keep a healthy diet when not exercising for a period of time as I think one feeds the other. That mentality has made my overall condition fluctuate back and forth over the years. I'm back in training mode now and hope to stay there. You two are lucky in that you have each other to spur yourselves on. It's not always easy if your partner doesn't share the interest.

4. What's your favorite snack?

Favorite snack or junk food? I like mixing up two scoops of chocolate whey protein powder into 8oz of plain, non fat yogurt. It tastes almost like chocolate pudding and you can really have it whenever your sweet tooth acts up with no guilt. My cheat/junk food fix is PIZZA. If I could eat it all day, every day I would. LOL Unfortunately I can't as I'm cursed with a really slow, slavic metabolism and put weight on by just looking at pizza. As you know we have incredibly sedentary jobs, also and if I didn't work out I'd be 500 pounds! Even so, I'll be 50 in September and find it increasingly difficult to drop weight when I put it on. What used to take a few weeks takes considerably longer today.

Joe at 23 dressed as Captain America

Thanks, Joe! And I'm seriously jealous of your Powerblock dumbbells. Have to check into that!

Fish Tacolafels

2009-04-19T20:36:00.000-04:00

This is my sister, Suzanne, and the monster-sized fish she caught in 1991.

Get it? Taco…falafel…tacolafel! I just made that up! Whatever, these tacolafels are sooo good and the protein from the fish is great for days when you've taxed your muscles with a good weight workout. Served with steamed vegetables on the side, this healthy recipe is just about the right amount for 2 people.

8 oz firm fish filet such as salmon, mahi mahi, or sea bass, cut into pieces approximately ½ x2 inches
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon salt
4 soft corn tortillas or 2 whole wheat pita breads
4 tablespoons of hummus
2 leaves of romaine lettuce, chopped
4 grape or cherry tomatoes, chopped
½ avocado, sliced

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. When it’s beginning to get hot, put the fish pieces in so that they are not touching each other. Sprinkle with the chili powder, garlic powder, and salt. Cook until they start to brown on the bottom. With a spatula, scrape from the bottom and turn the fish pieces. They may start to come apart, but that’s okay, just keep scraping them from the bottom of the pan and turning the pieces until they’re all lightly browned (about 5 minutes). Remove the fish from the pan and set them aside on paper towels. In a clean pan (preferably an iron skillet), heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat. If you're using the corn tortillas instead of the pita breads, place one tortilla in the pan to heat it on both sides. You’re not really going to brown it, but it should be hotter and much more flexible than when you put it in, maybe just a bit more cooked. If you're using the pita bread, warm it in a toaster oven. On the tortilla put 1 tablespoon of the hummus, ¼ of the fish pieces, ¼ of the avocado, some romaine, and one of the little tomatoes. If using pita, on the pita put 1/2 of the hummus, 1/2 of the fish, 1/2 of the avocado, romaine, and tomatoes.
Fold your tortilla or pita in half. Repeat with the other tortillas until you have 4 beautiful tacolafels. Give two to your dinner companion, keep two for yourself, and have a great meal!

Intervals for Cardio Fitness

2009-04-15T17:09:00.000-04:00

My favorite way to approach cardio exercises these days is through Interval Training. I love it and I can’t say enough good things about it. I use this same principle with running, stationary bike, elliptical machine, and (by far the most challenging) the StairMaster.

So here’s the basic idea of what I do for a 35 minute session of cardio:

Start with a few minutes (3-5) at a reasonably slow warm-up speed.
Do 30 seconds at a fairly fast pace, followed by 1 minute at a comfortable slower speed.
Repeat the 30 seconds fast, 1 minute slow pattern for 25 minutes. You can lengthen the fast part of the interval to 1 minute, but if you do, increase the slow part also to about a minute and a half or even two minutes if you need to. The length of your fast and slow intervals will depend on how intense your fast periods are as well as whether your slow periods are slow enough to let you recover properly.
Follow by a 5 minute cool down, gradually decreasing your speed.

I find that the first few intervals aren’t too difficult and I start to wonder if I’m even going to sweat. But after about 3 or 4, it catches up to me and it’s amazing!
One thing I really like about it is that it’s high intensity and, at the same time, the slower resting periods allow my muscles and joints to recover so that I don’t seem to get overuse injuries like tendonitis anymore. Also, it seems like it’s by far more effective at increasing cardio fitness and burning calories.
Plus, I NEVER get bored with this approach. It seemingly activates enough good brain chemistry to give me a really nice soaring-through-the-clouds-on-the-back-of-a-flying-tiger feeling that lasts for hours after I’ve finished.
I don’t do this for each and every cardio session. In fact, I never do it two days in a row (to allow time for muscle recovery). On the days I don’t use intervals, I just do the usual steady speed cardio with 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down.

Spring is Burger Time!

2009-04-13T10:25:00.000-04:00

So, yeah, I've always been a big fan of Jughead. Something about the way he looked at his hamburgers always made burgers seem extra tasty.
But since Boris and I don't eat meat (except for fish), I had to create a new kind of burger. The burger of the future! Here's the recipe:

Basic Tempeh Burgers

Tempeh is a soybean product that has been shaped into a cake. It is a remarkable source of protein as well as iron and folic acid. Because it has been fermented, it’s much easier for most people to digest than other soy foods or beans. Its superior nutritional value as well as its versatility makes it one of my favorite protein sources.

1 8oz. block of tempeh, crumbled
1 onion, white, yellow, or red, chopped
½ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
½ cup chopped parsley (optional)
2 eggs
¼ cup whole grain flour (I like to use barley flour, but wheat or oat flour are fine, too)
2 Tablespoons vegan mayonnaise (I like Nasoya)
2 oz. grated cheddar cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 425. Lightly oil a cookie sheet. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix
thoroughly. On the oiled cookie sheet, form 6 large or 8 medium-sized patties with the mixture.
It’s not going to be too firm at this point, but don’t worry, when you bake them, they’ll hold
together just fine. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until your burgers are golden brown and cooked through.

Additions to Basic Tempeh Burgers

You can do all kinds of creative things with this basic mix. Add some canned tuna or salmon.
Add some curry spices or Italian herbs. Add some leftover rice, chopped cooked vegetables, or, for that matter, just about any kind of leftovers can make interesting burgers!

Goal Setting vs. Identity Changing

2009-04-08T11:36:00.000-04:00

A few months ago a friend wanted to get in shape after the long winter (which is still not over around here, by the way!). She asked me for some general fitness and nutrition advice and it soon became clear that one of her major problems was to keep the motivation to stick with her program once she had started it. This is probably the biggest hurdle to overcome and it’s not to be taken lightly.
I see a lot of good advice in blogs and magazines about how to stick to your fitness goals, but as artists, we have a slight advantage in that our powers of imagination and visualization can be used to help us in a big way. And since the human brain is designed for the capability to have imagination, anyone can use this principle to their advantage, whether they call themselves artists or not.
Often when people feel they’d like to get in better shape, it’s basically conceived of as a goal. The problem with a goal is that it’s really a temporary thing. Like getting to a certain point and then you’re finished! Then it’s back to the usual. I was discussing this with Boris and he said, “When you finish a painting, you’re not finished with art. It’s just On To The Next Painting! That’s because you think of yourself as an artist—it’s your identity, not just a painting.”
If you want to make a commitment to yourself to live a healthier lifestyle and get the most out of your amazing brain (to produce more amazing art!), you have to think of yourself as an active, healthy person. I’m not talking about just repeating words like “I’m strong! Yeah, I’m a badass!” or something equally poetic, but really creating a feeling in your mind that it’s who you are. Think of how it is when you’re working on a piece of art, you allow yourself to be so absorbed into the world of your subject that it becomes reality in your mind. Do the same thing with the image of yourself as a healthy, athletic person and you’ll send clear messages to all of the cells in your body to act accordingly. If you remember to think this way consistently for a long enough time, your body will basically “re-wire” itself and these thoughts will be there as your brain’s default setting. It’s the first step and, though it may seem too simple, it can make all the difference down the road.

Hi everybody!

2009-04-01T20:36:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Hard Curves. If you're familiar with my work as a fantasy artist, you may have seen the blog that I share with my husband and artistic partner, Boris Vallejo, Paint and Brush, where we open up our studio to you to give you a bit of what's going on behind our easels and in our lives.
This blog is dedicated to another side of who I am.
As a 50-year-old former nationally-ranked competitive bodybuilder who has also studied yoga, gymnastics, ballet and modern dance, I've spent countless hours of my life thinking and learning about exercise, fitness, and nutrition.
As an artist, my way of mentally processing all of this information takes a turn into a different dimension. My mind works in a very visual, non-linear way and this has really helped me with fitness--not only with creative approaches to technique, but also just to keep it interesting.
Fitness, bodybuilding, and the human physique play a very important part in my paintings as well, so it all comes full circle. I'll be exploring these ideas and a bunch more in this blog.
I want to share with you how much fun it is to keep health and fitness in your life!

The Breakfast of Artists (at least, the ones at my house)

2009-04-01T17:54:00.000-04:00

It seemed fitting that my first real post here would be about breakfast (as a good start to the day!), so I thought I'd tell you about the breakfast that Boris and I have.

Back in 1998, Boris was diagnosed with some crazy liver problem that had him one step away from putting his name on a list for a liver transplant. This had been progressing for approximately 15 years and had reached a point where the doctors were panicking. I decided to do my best to help him keep his own liver by reading everything I could find on the subject of liver health and finally came up with a nutrition and fitness plan that actually set him straight after only 6 weeks. I'll elaborate more on the process in later posts, but for now, here is the breakfast that I came up with that was one very important part of the plan. Although it was originally conceived of as a healing food that was intended to clean out an unhappy liver, it's got everything that makes up a delicious, healthy breakfast and we're still enjoying it every morning up until this very day. It gives a rock-steady energy that keeps us going for hours.

We have a cold cereal that's made with the following mix: (one serving)

1/3 cup organic rolled oats (uncooked) (has good fats and fiber, lowers cholesterol)
1/4 cup Ezekiel cereal (this complete protein cereal is a miracle of convenience foods)
1 rounded tablespoon rice bran (one of the best foods available for lowering cholesterol)
1 rounded tablespoon lecithin (a fat emulsifier that's great for your liver)
9 or 10 chopped almonds
1 tablespoon or so of raisins
topped with:
1/2 pear or apple
1/2 cup blueberries or other berries

Mix it all up in your cereal bowl and top with some fruit of your choice--we usually have a pear that we split between us and some blueberries. You can have this with nonfat milk, soy, rice, or almond milk or you can have it the way we eat it, with water. I know the water part sounds weird, but try it, you'll be surprised. Cold or hot water (we prefer hot), it doesn't matter. It's clean and refreshing (and it's free!) and you won't miss the milk you usually have on cereal. It's nice in the summer if you use frozen berries and cold water, but in the winter, you'll probably enjoy it more with hot water.
We always have green tea with this. The caffeine jolt from coffee is just too harsh and green tea is so soothing. I think a soothing start to the day is nice. In addition, the green tea was included because of its cholesterol-lowering properties. But if you need some extra voltage in the morning, go ahead and have your coffee. You'll still be getting lots of good antioxidants!
I'll be talking more about other breakfast options later and about important things to consider in designing your own healthy breakfast, tailored to your specific needs.