"Growing your own food is like printing your own money"

Although spring has been elusive here in Wisconsin (it's mid-April and 37 degrees out with snow in the forecast), there are some signs of hope - the farmers market has finally opened! I spontaneously bought some seedlings from a farmer to plant outside in my little earth box (earth boxes by the way are awesome transportable garden beds good for people who live in apartments or have limited space). Here they are!

two types of lettuce, plus two Swiss chard

I've been meaning to get back into planting my own food for a year now, but all I've had the time and energy to do was sprout my own lentils. But now that spring is here, I can't wait to plant stuff. I was partially motivated by this TED Talk, by Ron Finley, who helps plant gardens in South Central LA. He says that where he lives (and I would argue lots of places in the U.S.), "drive thrus are killing more people than drive bys," so planting gardens is his effort towards combating obesity and food insecurity. So inspirational. My favorite quote is, of course, "Growing your own food is like printing your own money."

Inspiration for the weekend: Quiche, mental health, and amazing Olympians

one of the images posted on I.A.M.

I'm staying with my family this weekend, and my mom is making a quiche for dinner. I haven't had a quiche since I lived with one of my college roommates, who would make a version of this delicious potato-crust quiche!

This badass college student fought his insurance company, via Twitter, to pay for his cancer treatments, and he won.

I came across this project called Internal Acceptance Movement (I.A.M.), put together by a 20-year-old who struggled (and still struggles) with an eating disorder. She posts inspirational quotes, images, and stories for people who are struggling with their body image, depression, or other mental unhappiness.

The U.S. Women's Gymnastic Team member McKayla Maroney causes a judge's jaw to drop. You go girl.

Inspiration for the weekend

Why food waste matters, and how to prevent it in your kitchen.

Zucchini fritters recipe. Add some feta and they're so delicious!

Apparently, other countries are catching up to the U.S. when it comes to obesity and sedentary lifestyles. This tool call "Where are you on the global fat scale?" compares your BMI to people across the world. Pretty interesting.

It's finally tomato season! Here's a summer side salad recipe that I found in a random cookbook I was looking through at the store:

• 1 cups fresh pineapple chunks
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 T red wine vinegar
• 2 T fresh mint, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup scallions, finely chopped
• 1 t salt (or more if desired)
• pinch black pepper

Stir and enjoy! 

Inspiration for the weekend

Here are some things I came across this week that stuck with me...

How to simplify your life a bit.

More and more farms are being built on rooftops.

Reuse Tuesdays: Ideas for projects from recycle materials.

The meal I make basically once a week.

Why knowing the names of plants is less important than making time to play in the forest...

Reading helps us grow.

Why killing time isn't a sin

The author of Zen Habits, one of the blogs I read about simple living, has a pretty awesome policy that anyone can share or reprint his blog entries if they so choose. He calls it an "uncopyrighted" policy. So when I saw his post this morning about killing time, I decided to repost it since it really resonated with me. I realized that I am definitely the type of person that views killing time as a bad thing. I'm always thinking about how I can be more productive. If I'm watching a movie, I'll try to answer emails at the same time. If I'm in the car, I'll try to listen to podcasts so I can learn more. If I have an unexpected day off work, I think about all the things I can complete that day. Those tendencies aren't necessarily bad, but they can border on unhealthy when I realize that I can't relax when I have down time. Thus, as part of my quest to live a healthier life, I'm going to think more about making time to just relax. It's one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself.

Why Killing Time Isn't a Sin

Post written by Leo Babauta.

I recently read a travel tip from someone who reminds himself that “killing time is a sin”, and so makes the most use of every bit of downtime, even on an airplane: “read a good book, learn a new language with Rosetta Stone, write to my friends around the world who haven’t heard from me in too long”.

I have no objections to reading books, learning languages, or writing to friends. It’s the idea that downtime must be put to efficient use that I disagree with. While I used to agree with it completely, these days I take a completely different approach.

Life is for living, not productivity.

Make the Most of Every Minute

There is a tendency among productive people to try to make the best use of every single minute, from the minute they awake. I know because not too long ago I was one of these folks.

Got time on the train or plane? If you’re not doing work, maybe you can be enriching yourself by learning something.

Got time before a meeting starts? Organize your to-do list, send off some emails, write some notes on a project you’re working on.

Driving? Why not make some phone calls or tell Siri to add a bunch of stuff to your calendar? Why not listen to a self-help audiobook?

Watching TV with the family? You can also be answering emails, doing situps, stretching.

Having lunch with a friend? Maybe you can talk business to make it a productive meeting.

This is the mindset that we’re supposed to have. Every minute counts, because time’s a-wasting. The clock is ticking. The sands of the hourglass are spilling.

I used to feel this way, but now I see things a bit differently.

Is This What Life Is To Be?

It might seem smart and productive to not let a single minute go to waste (they’re precious, after all), but let’s take a step back to look at the big picture.

Is this what our lives are to be? A non-stop stream of productive tasks? A life-long work day? A computer program optimized for productivity and efficiency? A cog in a machine?

What about joy? What about the sensory pleasure of lying in the grass with the sun shining on our closed eyes? What about the beauty of a nap while on the train? How about reading a novel for the sheer exhilaration of it, not to better yourself? What about spending time with someone for the love of being with someone, of making a genuine human connection that is unencumbered by productive purpose, unburdened by goals.

What about freedom? Freedom from being tied to a job, from having to improve yourself every single minute, from the dreariness of neverending work?

An Alternative

Killing time isn’t a sin — it’s a misnomer. We’ve framed the question entirely wrong. It’s not a matter of “killing” time, but of enjoying it.

If we ask ourselves instead, “How can I best enjoy this moment?”, then the entire proposition is reframed.

Now we might spend this moment working if that work brings us joy. But we might also spend it relaxing, doing nothing, feeling the breeze on the nape of our neck, losing ourselves in conversation with a cherished friend, snuggling under the covers with a lover.

This is life. A life of joy, of wonderfulness.

Image credit

Quote of the moment

We don't need a law against McDonald's or a law against slaughterhouse abuse -- we ask for too much salvation by legislation. All we need to do is empower individuals with the right philosophy and the right information to opt out en masse.
- Joel Salatin (farmer, author, Polyface Farms)

 Source: Earth Eats

2012 Bike Challenge

Shortly after writing my recent post on biking in the U.S., I got an email from a friend who works for the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin about this year's Wisconsin Bike Challenge. The challenge asks you to form a team with your coworkers, or participate as an individual, and log the miles that you ride your bike from May 1 to August 31. You can log the miles online or on your smart phone. It's a really easy way to motivate yourself (and/or your colleagues) and to keep track of how well you do. I'm always more likely to do something if I know I am going to write it down and look at the results. My personal goal? To bike to work at least two days per week this spring. The place where I currently work is four miles away, so that should mean I log 16 miles per week! And the Bike Challenge also has prizes for participants - even more motivation.

The Bike Challenge was started by the Wisconsin group, but it's a national challenge now! So, no matter what state you live in, set a goal for yourself of biking to work, the grocery store, or anywhere that you normally drive to, and click here to sign up for the Bike Challenge!

Teaching your kids how to live a healthy life

This post is written by Ashley Smith, a totally inspirational mother of two that has been a friend of mine since middle school! Their family raises chickens, grows their own food, and has a farm share, all things they do to help their children live healthy lives.

I never pictured myself living out in the country, raising farm animals, or growing my own food. I grew up in the suburbs in a bubble, and didn’t picture life differently until I had my own kids. I have two daughters, ages one and two.  It’s important to me that my kids have experiences that help them appreciate what they have and an understanding of how this world works together. 

Don’t get me wrong: we go to the grocery store like anyone else. We treat ourselves to our favorite foods and have lazy days, but my girls know plunking down in front of the TV with a bag of chips is an occasional thing, not our everyday routine. Most of our free time is spent exploring outside, going for walks in the woods, tending to our animals, or simply strolling through the garden. I could argue there’s nothing my oldest daughter loves more than running through rows of corn!

The girls and I participate in a farm share, which is a great experience. Much of our produce from June-October comes from a farm five miles away if it’s not straight out of our garden. Every week we go pick up our box of all kinds of fruits and veggies and I have to hold back eager children who can’t wait to tear into it.  If you don’t have the time or the space to grow your own, this is a great way to get fresh quality (usually organic) produce for a good price!

  Just last year we took on the adventure of raising our own chickens for eggs. I have to say, it has been more fun than I imagined! Even at two years old, my daughter asks every day to go feed “her” chickens. She loves collecting the eggs and putting them in her basket. Our chickens are free range, with a hen house at night for predator protection, so they are frequently chased around the yard for hugs. This spring we even raised baby chicks, and now have a total of nine hens and two roosters (oops! The boys were supposed to be girls but we love them anyway). 

We are currently getting our garden ready for this season, planting seeds and looking for worms. There’s nothing like picking a handful of fresh strawberries out of your own backyard for an afternoon snack. There are sure to be many more adventures for us in the future, and I hope that I can raise happy, healthy, well rounded children in the process.

 

How I convince myself to go running

So, I love running. But I usually don't love running until I'm all done running for the day. Sometimes it can be really, really hard to make myself get out the door. I thought I would share a few things I do when I feel like any excuse will prevent me from going for a run...

1. Picturing how I feel when I return from a run. The feeling of exhaustion and accomplishment that I know I'll have when I come back is sometimes enough to get me moving.
2. Saving up good podcasts for my run. You could do this with podcasts, music, or books on tape. Pick something that you love to listen to, and only let yourself listen to it while you work out. It'll make exercise something you look forward to.
3. Making a checklist. I use one of the calendars from this website to write down how much I want to run during the upcoming week. After I complete the run for that day, I check it off. It's a little thing, but the satisfaction of having a full week of checks helps motivate me.
4. Picking two days of the week where I don't worry about exercise. Yes, I know, I should get 30 minutes of exercise every day. But my job is active enough that I don't have to sit down constantly. So I give myself two days a week where I don't worry about going for a run.

It also really helps to be working towards something like a half marathon or 10K. But I don't like to always worry about a training schedule. Instead, I just want to run for the sake of running. Some days this works, but other days I need a little more motivation.

Local highlight: food and garden education at the Allen Neighborhood Center

one of the greenhouse's customers

Lately I have been volunteering at an awesome place called the Allen Neighborhood Center on the east side of Lansing. They do a lot of amazing things to bring food access to this part of the city, including holding one of Lansing's few farmers markets, offering cooking and gardening workshops, and helping neighborhood residents get health care and food assistance. They also have a beautiful greenhouse in a nearby park, where staff and volunteers work to grow vegetables for a CSA.

CSAs are a great idea in general, because they offer fresh fruits and vegetables all spring and summer. But it's often hard for families to purchase one, since they require paying several hundred dollars at the beginning of the growing season. Allen Neighborhood Center's CSA attempts to eliminate that financial barrier, by offering several payment options, including monthly payments throughout the growing season, a reduction in price by volunteering in the greenhouse, and use of your Bridge card (aka food stamps).

And! My favorite part is the youth education that goes along with the growing of vegetables. The  center offers a free program twice a week after school, right in the greenhouse, called KidsTime. Neighborhood kids in grades K-5 can come, free of charge, to learn about healthy eating, exercise, and the food system. I've been going on Tuesdays to help out, and it's usually the highlight of my day. Last week their fabulous lead educator led the kids in a great activity - they split into groups to create their own smoothie recipe, then opened a "business" making and selling their unique smoothies to each other (using Monopoly money as currency). Afterwards, they reflected on why smoothies are a healthy snack, as well as the challenges of running a food business.

In past weeks kids have played vegetable Twister, made worm compost bins, and learned how to read nutrition labels. These activities are very similar to the ones I used to teach with Seven Generations Ahead, as well as in a class I taught in New York called "You Are What You Eat." As I've said before, food education is a vital part of getting kids to eat (and love) healthy food. These are the kinds of programs that need to be a regular part of classrooms across the country, not just in optional after-school classes. But until that's a reality, we need to continue to support wonderful initiatives like Allen Neighborhood Center's KidsTime. For more information on how to support them, see their website.

Photo source: Allen Neighborhood Center

What is the single best thing we can do for our health?

I came across this video a while ago called 23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health? It's a bit long (nine minutes) but it stuck with me. If you don't have time to watch it, the basic message is that thirty minutes of exercise a day will make a huge difference in your health. It's hard to find the time, particularly in the winter with days getting dark by 5:00. I'm so much less motivated to run after it starts getting dark. But this video was a good little push to help me realize it's worth it.

Fifty people answer: What's your favorite memory?

There are a lot of sad things going on in our country right now. Just this morning, in ten minutes of reading the news, I came across awful stories of bullying and teen suicides, tragic executions, simultaneous hunger and obesity. But then I came across this video, which made me feel better about life. Sometimes, learning to live a healthy life means (temporarily) forgetting all that's wrong in the world...and remembering that there are so many beautiful, happy, wonderful people out there. For a little cheering up, watch this sweet video of people sharing their favorite memory. Then try to recall your own.

Via feministing.com

Live an invigorating life

I came across some memorable advice from one of the websites I read (Zen to Fitness, an online magazine on health and fitness). The author of the article recommends four simple steps to take towards health. You can read the other three steps on your own. (The article is actually posted on a different and equally awesome blog.) But the section that resonated most with me was Step # 4: Live an invigorating life. While what the author recommends is obviously easier said than done, I think it's a great way of life to visualize and work towards:

Live an Invigorating Life. Last but not least – living an invigorating life is probably the most essential thing when it comes to health and fitness. This means living a life that we get strength or energy from – something that gives us a reason to be active and move.

Whether this energy comes from doing a job you love, being around people you have fun with, travelling or just doing stuff you love. We need something in our lives to gain strength from. Excitement and passion change things up and gives us the motivation to exercise, eat well and most importantly makes us feel good.

I would even go as far as saying one of the best ways to stay fit is just to live life – be active, play with your kids, play tennis, touch football or whatever sports you enjoy, do some bodyweight exercises in the morning, walk lots and eat lots of wholesome food. In all honesty that is how most of the healthiest people I know live.

More kid posts

One of our healthy eating activities,
discovering and graphing the number of
seeds in cherry tomatoes

Here are some more essays from the 4th/5th graders on how to live a healthy life. The first one is a letter from two doctors to a patient seeking health advice. I especially love the final tag-line.

Dear "troubled person,"

Hi! So, you may have a problem. If all other diets fail, and you want to help yourself, you've come to the right place. You should start by finding a workout schedule. Then start going outside more! (It gives you Vitamin D.) Then throw out all of your "junky stuff" and start counting calories. Then come to me and my assistant. You should ask us about proper vitamins and what foods give you what.

For instance, you should eat orange and yellow food because it has Vitamin A and makes your skin, hair, and eyes healthier. Red foods have Vitamin C. Blue foods have antioxidants. White foods have potassium. Green foods have iron, antioxidants, and fiber which makes you feel full and digests your food. So, make a rainbow salad!

Thank you for having service with us. Remember, lose that flab and trade it with ab.

This next essay is written by three 5th grade boys who describe how they stay healthy. It makes me wish I could list "climbing trees" as one of my health strategies!

The way we stay healthy is we do bike rides, chin ups, pushups and sit ups. Also on Wednesdays and Fridays we run about one mile. We try not to eat junk food. I am giving up ice cream and other fattening foods. Also we climb trees and other outside things. We eat fruits, vegetables, and meat for protein, and different vitamins.

Some of us get 8 hours of sleep and we don’t drink those sugary sports and soda drinks. We play sports and do jujitsu.

Students reflect on how to live healthy lives

Learning to make healthy snacks

For the next few days, I'll be posting short essays on how to live a healthy life written by 4th and 5th graders at Poughkeepsie Day School. In the class I teach called "You Are What You Eat," my students learn about all aspects of healthy eating, including the importance of eating a rainbow of colors (different colored foods give you different nutrients), how to make healthy snacks, and what foods to eat in moderation.


Some students wrote about what steps they take to live healthy lives. Others pretended to be doctors giving health advice to patients. Read on to hear their simple and inspirational advice.

Dear patient,

You can feel better if you eat fruits and veggies and get some more sleep. Also get more exercise. These things will help you feel a lot better than you did feel. Start doing these things as soon as you get this. And for snack, lay off those sweets. You can eat things like apples, blueberries, oranges, strawberries, pears, carrots, tomatoes, salad, bananas, and homemade soup. Put in your schedule to go to the gym every day. No slacking, not at all, you! There are a lot of things that can help. You should eat these things because they will help you grow and feel better.

I hope you feel better soon.

From,

your doctor

A sense of wonder

One of my personal heroes, Rachel Carson, wrote a fabulous book called A Sense of Wonder, in which she encourages parents and teachers to cultivate in their children a sense of wonder about the natural world. As I've written before, I believe that time outdoors in nature is an essential part of a healthy childhood. But I also believe that simply allowing kids to wonder about the marvels of the world will cultivate a healthy childhood. Far too often, we expect kids to passively digest information about the world through tv programs and computers, without encouraging them to become active and curious about the (non-digital) world around them. One of the teachers at my school, whose fourth- and fifth-grade students have their own blog, recently asked her students one simple question: What do you wonder?

Each student wrote a journal entry responding to this question, and their answers were so refreshing and interesting that I had to share them with others. 

How did the first living thing come to life?

What would the world be like without people?

What do I sound like?

Are there aliens, and if so, do they call their world THE world?

Why won't Muammar Qadafi leave so there can be peace again?

How long will the earth live?

Why do I like eating so much?

Why do people have a soft spot for things?

What does a cigarette taste like to the ones who are addicted?

What will my job be?

Will we have hovercrafts in the future?

I wnder wy I cant spl?

I wonder how they came up with Legos?

I wonder how the earth was created? 

Why do all people look different?

What is fire? 

 What happens when people die?

Who IS God?

Are dogs ticklish? 

Why is snow white?

I wonder will there be a WWWIII?

I wonder how they make glass.

I wonder who had the idea to make life-saving windshield wipers.

I wonder how the sun was made. 

How long will the earth live?

This is just a small selection of student wonders; you can read the entire list here. I hope this list of wonderings has inspired you as much as it has me. It has motivated me to get outside, explore more, run more, read more, learn more. As Rachel Carson so beautifully puts it,  "Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life."

A short-term option with a long-term consequence

This guest post is from Sandy Krupp, a technical support teacher at my school. He writes a brief but inspired bit of advice on maintaining healthy habits as we age.

I don’t think that anyone would argue with the fact that as we get older it becomes more challenging to maintain our bodies as we did in the prime of our youth. Being a middle-aged male and a member of the PDS staff, the cliché "use it or lose it" has never been more true. I know that it is difficult to find the time and energy to do something beneficial for our bodies, but on the other hand I know that if I don’t work out regularly that I will pay the price in many other ways. Just giving up and letting yourself go is a short-term option with a long-term consequence. Most of the time, just getting started is the hardest part. This is one issue that we are all in the same boat on, so I wish everyone good luck with your own personal challenge to a healthy body.

Friday Feature: Podcasts on health and nutrition

This week's Friday Feature focuses on podcasts that you can listen to while driving, riding the train, or exercising. I also like to listen to them while I'm cooking dinner. I try to choose carefully which podcasts I spend time listening to. There are hundreds of podcasts out there, so I try to limit my listening to programs that inspire me to live a healthier life. Here are a few of my favorites that focus on health, nutrition, and food:

Earth Eats: This podcast is usually less than ten minutes, and gives a healthy recipe using seasonal ingredients. A chef cooks the food and gives information on the process as he goes along. My favorite part is the first two minutes of the podcast, when they provide news on food politics and legislature.

Nutrition Diva: Another short podcast (from the Quick & Dirty Tips podcast series) that features one nutrition-related question each time. They're almost always questions that I'm interested in, like "Are organic vegetables healthier?" or "How much protein should you eat?" You can search the archives for topics that interest you.

NPR: Your Health: I am an NPR devotee so of course I listen to a lot of their news shows. This one is usually about a half hour, and gives multiple stories on the latest health news, everything from popular diet fads to new medical research. It's less motivational and more informative. NPR also has another program called NPR: Food, which combines weekly stories related to cooking and food politics.

Nutrition Tidbits: This is a new one for me, so I haven't incorporated it into my listening routine yet. But the topics I've downloaded all seem interesting: Are GM foods here to stay, Why do we overeat, Olive Oil 101. Along with eating advice, it also seems to feature interviews with food professionals, which are always fascinating.

Earth Eats photo taken from prx.org website.

A unique prescription for healthy living

Now that spring is finally emerging from an unusually winter-y winter here in New York, my feet are itching to be outdoors. It seems that each year, my beginning-of-the-year resolution to get more outdoor exercise isn't fully achieved until March, when the cold weather has finally passed. But as we know, most Americans spend too little time outdoors all year long. The average adult spends most of his/her day in front of a screen, and kids spend a shocking seven hours a day with electronic media, according to reports from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the National Wildlife Foundation. It goes without saying (but I'll say it) that so much sedentary time in front of a screen is not good for our health, increasing the risk of all sorts of problems, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, and asthma.

As a teacher, it's astonishing and more than a little depressing to realize that kids spend as much time in front of a screen as they do at school. But lately, I've been hearing about an innovative way to fight against the tide of sedentary lifestyles in children. Pediatricians in Las Vegas have begun giving prescriptions for nature to children. The National Environmental Education Foundation launched a program called the Children and Nature Initiative, which trains health care providers to recommend time in nature, rather than pills, as a prescription for health. (It's only when appropriate according to the child's needs, of course, but I think it's always appropriate to spend more time in nature). For kids suffering from obesity, diabetes, asthma, and certain mental health issues, the doctors are now recommending more time spent in national parks and local nature sites. Here is the story from a doctor participating in the movement.

I think this is fantastic. There is an endless list of benefits to spending more time in nature. It reduces levels of many afflictions affecting Americans, from ADHD and asthma to obesity and heart disease. Studies show that outdoor walking does more for mental health than indoor exercise, and that kids who move from urban environments to greener environments have increased levels of cognitive functioning. Plus, getting outdoors will help you get to know your environment, so that you can appreciate (and ultimately help conserve) the land around you. Another bonus.

So, even if your doctor doesn't write you a prescription for spending time outdoors, it's highly recommended. As the National Park Service chief of conservation Rick Potts puts it, "Science is validating what moms have known for generations: Being outside is good for your health." Spring is finally on its way, and the days are getting longer. Let's spend more of them outside.

Yoga as a teacher

Today's guest post is from Christine Agro, an inspirational teacher, metaphysical expert, and host of The Conscious Living Guide with Christine Agro which airs live on Sundays at 9pm ET.  You can find out more about Christine and listen to her show by visiting theconsciouslivingguide.com. She writes an inspiring story about the power of looking at yoga (or whatever strategy you use to live a healthy life) as a teacher.

When we hear about yoga it is often from the perspective of its ability to connect our body and our mind via our breath; or we hear about its tremendous health benefits of creating flexibility, strength and stamina. Rarely if ever do we hear yoga referred to as a teacher.

But it is. It is a powerful teacher, if we are conscious of all that it tells us, shares with us and shows us.

In 2001 I had been practicing yoga faithfully for years and I was teaching 11 classes a week.  I was in the best shape I’ve ever been in and completely in love with yoga. One day, I was working with a woman who had been a yoga teacher and due to an injury stopped practicing and could not get herself back into her practice.  I remember thinking, “How could anyone who taught yoga not be able to get back into their practice?”  Judgmental, yes, I know.

I am a big fan of saying "never 'never' the universe." I had a friend who said to me one day, “I’ll never date a man who has a child.” A month later she was dating a man who had a two-year old and my friend eventually married him.  The universe has a funny sense of humor.  Never it and it will prove you wrong every time.

So a few months after my thought about the woman and her yoga practice, I had a cyst rupture on my ovary and it knocked me out of commission for at least a year.  I tried to get back into my yoga practice but it was hard to have to start from scratch and rebuild my strength.  I found myself forever comparing myself to where I used to be.

I was keenly aware of my ego, the fact that I was seeing myself as I used to be and even coming to my practice from a time that was long since gone. Yoga, practiced with truth, requires that we show up honestly and if we don’t show up honestly, it asks us to come again another time.

I believe one day I will create a new practice, but for now yoga itself is one of my greatest teachers.

What is yoga teaching you these days?