I live with a cat
Not very much like the other cat
But rather
Like a dog, in her way of
playing fetch
with elastic hair ties she retrieves
She’s not very much
a cat in that way
Month: January 2020
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Playing Nice With the Vital Organs
You are what you eat. Simple, right? It is until you see the assortment of treats laid out during the holidays. Or the rows of donuts calling your name when you buy a coffee. Saying no to empty calories is challenging, saying yes to healthy calories shouldn’t be. I think the easiest way to remove empty calories from the diet is to remove the temptation in the first place. Saying no at the market makes the rest of the week less torturous at home.
I’ve mentioned before my concern about brain health, with people in my life struggling with dementia that was hammered home during the holidays. So doubling down on brain food makes a lot of sense. But it’s not just for the long term, eating the right foods now also enhances your mood and overall fitness. I’d call that a triple play worth betting on.
A search on food that is good for your brain health nets you many results, but the following are common across most lists:
Broccoli, walnuts. dark chocolate, blueberries, turmeric, pumpkin seeds, avocado, beets, sage, tomato, green tea, eggs, coconut oil
A similar search on food that enhances your mood offers the following results:
Salmon, eggs, dark chocolate, almonds, avocados, bananas, lentils, blueberries, green leafy vegetables, coffee, green tea, oysters, quinoa, cottage cheese, broccoli, grapes, bell peppers
So the takeaway is that I’ve been eating most of these foods already (maybe that’s why I’m usually in a good mood?), but doubling down on the ones that appear on both lists is logical. But wait! There’s more! Another bonus; most of the same foods appear on the list of heart healthy foods too. Knowing how much Omega-3 and phytonutrients, magnesium, fiber and assorted vitamins to add to your diet is cumbersome for me. I only have so much room at the mindfulness inn to invite guests like that on a daily basis. But eating grilled salmon instead of steak? Easy. Coffee and dark chocolate? Are you kidding me? I think I’ve got that one covered. Just about the only one that I’m not consuming regularly is turmeric, and that can be solved with adding it to a smoothy or a cup of tea in the morning.
The flip side is also important. What will you say no to more often? And the obvious answers are red meat, fried food, beer, cheese, sugar and bread… Damn. Nothing I don’t know already, but a couple of those are regulars on my dietary stage. Cheese and crackers and a handful of M & M’s have been dancing in my stomach since Halloween. Which directly correlates to the scale flatlining since I’ve increased my daily exercise. The accepted trick is to make these things an occasional treat. Having a cheat day when you can eat all of the junk you’ve been saying no too, but also some of the delicious foods you love that don’t play nice with the vital organs, is important. If nothing else it keeps you sane. And what’s the point of having good brain health if your diet makes you crazy?
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Playing Parts
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts”
– William Shakespeare, from As You Like ItIf New Year’s Day is the day of hope and dreams and resolutions for the future, then January 2nd is the day when the rubber hits the road. It’s the day after that first day at the gym, that first day of not eating carbs or that first day of writing in earnest. On the journey of becoming more, it’s when you feel the pull of gravity from the pile of distractions. And sure enough here I am on the day after the New Day, working through my morning routine, slightly modified for location, with a look at the clock and the tasks ahead. The sky is dark and the glow from the laptop shines a spotlight on the actor, still unsure of his lines but chipping away at it nonetheless.
This morning I am still on Cape Cod, with the sky brightening and the jetty calling. The writing incomplete, the day job tapping me on the shoulder saying “get going” but that jetty calling, so I bundled up and went out anyway, task list be damned. It was one of those mornings where the cold breeze cuts deep through your layers, mocking your attempts to control Mother Nature. I walked all the way out and watched the clouds turn from gray to blue to pink. The pink is viral, starting in the east and spreading across the sky, deepening to a rose as it moves, and then almost as quickly it begins to fade as the light grows. Such are the sunrises. You have to embrace the moment at hand before it all fades away to the waking world.
There’s always something to distract you here. But I’m grateful that this visit has shaken me loose from the cobwebs of routine. Really, that’s why I come here. Today is a back-to-work day, and I confess I’ve already checked the numbers, scanned the email and taken note of people to call. The day job waits impatiently for the actor to return to the stage to read his lines. As with all of us, I’m one man in his time playing many parts, and it’s time to turn into that other character for the next act. Now what was that first line again?
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Get To It
Standing out on the jetty thirty feet out in Buzzards Bay earlier this morning looking for that familiar glimmer of sunrise, I realized that the show was going to be too far into the trees over land. It seems Earth’s obliquity, or axial tilt, is so far along that the sunrise is 30 degrees past where I’m used to seeing it. According to timeanddate.com, we’re at 23.43668° or 23°26’12.0″ today. Numbers really, until you see how far over the sunrise is or how short the days are. And let’s face it, the days are short in the Northern Hemisphere on January 1.
All of this axial tilt stuff aside, it’s a new day, a new year, and a new decade. What will we make of it? Improvement seems to be the objective. Better choices in how we spend our time. What we eat, how much we move, where we go and what we produce. In short, who we become. That makes this morning like every other morning in the question that comes to mind, the question Mary Oliver asked so eloquently:
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?”
We think of New Year’s Day as a beginning, but it’s really a continuation of our journey. A bit like that crest on the trail where you pause for a rest and some water, to take a look around and a glance at the map to see where you are and where you’re going next. So where are you? Where are you going next? There’s no telling the future, really, but we can get back up and start climbing again. And that’s my plan. To get back at it working on the person I want to become, one step at a time on this journey; this one wild and precious life. So let’s get to it.
