Posts

Showing posts from May 27, 2020

I didn’t question it until my body rebelled

Image
⁠If you’ve got a sec, I have a little story to tell… ⁠⠀ It all started last fall when Orangetheory moved to our town. I was already a fan of the workouts, and the location was 6 minutes from our house. It was an EASY decision to join! ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I had always enjoyed a challenging, sweaty workout… the ones that leave your mind, body, and soul a little exhausted, so you just knew you got in a good workout? Well, OTF was that workout! ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Because this was a professionally run, science-backed program, I attributed the fatigue, occasional naps, and irritability I was experiencing to my age, stress, and just harder-than-usual workouts.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ When an InBody scan revealed I had “lost” weight on the scale, but GAINED body fat and LOST muscle mass, I realized something needed to change. I was overtraining and my body hated it. The workouts were too intense (for me), and I was doing them too frequently (for me).⁠⠀ I discovered that I had crushed my adrenals and my cortisol was through the

The Definitive Guide to Sun Exposure

Image
The ancients prayed to it. Farmers relied on it. The seasons depend on the earth’s tilt toward it. The sun is always up there, shining down, filling the world with light and heat, sending down powerful rays of energy that scatter across the surface, sneak through windows, penetrate otherwise dark caves. You can’t avoid it, unless you shut yourself inside, draw the blinds, and close your eyes. That’s what we’re supposed to do: avoid it. “Any amount of sun exposure is unsafe,” according to the experts, and will give us skin cancer. They tell us it’s a toxin. If we have to be outside, we’d better slather on the sunscreen, wear a hat that shields our entire body, and avoid the harsh midday sun at all costs. And yet, for hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution, we couldn’t avoid it all the time. We were exposed to the sun when we hunted, when we gathered. When we fished, dug, fought, climbed, and explored. The intensity of our sun exposure varied according to the climate, the l

Let The Good Times Roll On

Image
We’re just rolling on through the weeks. School is almost “out.” Does anyone else find phase 1 a little scarier than phase 0? We all want to feel normal SO BADLY but we also all want to be cautious and continue to do the minimum. We have a beach trip to Bald Head planned for mid-June. As of today, we’re planning to go. Phase 1 is also going to be hard because there is going to be a lot of judgement. On social media we are going to see people traveling, sitting outside in a restaurant, or otherwise not staying at home. (I’ve already seen all of these.) Nothing productive is going to come out of shaming people, so I hope everyone will make decisions for their own family and keep their opinions offline. Practicing wearing masks Trying out a playground Lest the judgement begin, we took B to a deserted playground. He had THE BEST time and went down the slide 100 times. (Mazen was bike riding / B was the only child.) Daily nature walk Curls were on point! Look at that hair!! B