Look who's back!

Rin (AKA Rinny)

     It's our (actually Freedom Service Dogs') big goofball gorgeous adoptable dog, Rin.  She was so glad to see me.  She really hates being at the kennel with all the noise and uproar.  She was only there a day after her other foster family brought her back after the holidays, but that was still much too long for her. 
     First thing out the back door she treed a squirrel.  How will I ever get her to "leave it" with squirrels when they always run right under her nose.  So tempting.
     We got a nice walk done today because cold and snow return tonight and tomorrow.  She'll get a moderate walk, maybe, but that's it, in the snowstorm.  Tomorrow we'll see how it works hooking her out front on a long lead while I try scooping snow.  It could be entertaining in a Laurel and Hardy slapstick kind of way.

     I read an interesting health article in Medical News Today.  Research shows that regular exercise changes the workings and structure of our brains.  Physical exercise increases connections in grey matter and in the prefrontal cortex, and improves the brain's executive functions, which includes inhibitory control.  This helps us resist the many temptations found in a society where hypercaloric food is more and more omnipresent.  Exercise also makes the brain more sensitive to fullness.  In the short term, physical exercise affects metabolism, in the long term it affects behavior. 
     http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/238191.php
     I'll keep this in mind for the next holiday trip.  Maybe instead of planning to exercise once in 4 days, I will exercise every other day at a minimum.  The temptations were really getting to me by the time the holiday ended.
     This is actually really good news.  I am currently reading a book about weight and health that makes it sound hopeless.  I will write about it later after I complete it.  Maybe there will be an uplifting ending? 

Families are forever.

My family

     We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Thanks to our great hosts, Brad and Tracey, for all the healthy food and for sharing their home with our entire clan.  Your home is beautiful, as are all of your antiques.  Memories were made, as well as meals.
     I have 5 younger brothers.  All were there but one.  As the saying goes:
"I smile because you are my brothers...I laugh because there is nothing you can do about it."
     We do have a great clan. Three generations were gathered together, including 2 of Dean's and my 3 kids.

     Here's tae us
     There's nae like us
     Some's tried
     Their all dead.
               An old Scottish Toast

Some of Dean's family

     
     We did do a lot of driving over the 4 day weekend....1200 miles in all.
On the way home, you start waxing philosophical, or maybe just getting a little goofier than usual, after hours of seeing nothing but semis and other cars full of traveling families.  It seems like we are nothing but lazy ants being carried from anthill Lincoln to anthill Denver.  We can't even carry our own food for winter...we hire other ants to drive big rigs to do it for us. We all stream on the same ant highways.  I was starting to anticipate a passing giant accidentally stomping on a few of us. 
     Then about 75 miles east of Denver the Rocky Mountains came into view.  The ant imagery faded and was replaced by the beauty of anthill home.  

"And thank you for a house full of people I love,  Amen."
                                           Terri Guillemets

Being together is the best gift of all.

     Thanksgiving day/weekend approaches and I wish you much about which to be thankful.  I am trying to motivate myself to continue to be healthy during this time.  The holidays are always so difficult to maneuver as the available foods are yummy, plentiful, and always fattening. We lack sleep, then drink more caffeine and crave more food to try to get that energy boost to help with the tiredness, and then we are too tired to even exercise a little.  The vicious cycle begins, and we feel awful. Not this year.
     I am trying to remember a few rules for myself:
          A healthy lifestyle means being healthy ALL of the time.
          Eat vegetables and fruits first!
          Get more sleep.
          Try to exercise at least once over the 4 days.
          Remember how awful we feel when we eat junk, so try to come home
               feeling good.
          Most importantly, the point of Thanksgiving is being together with
               family.  Absolutely nothing else matters.
          And if I slip up, I can forgive myself and start over.   There is always
               the rest of my life to get it right; being healthy is a lifestyle; a journey,
               not a destination.

Safe travels everyone on all of your journeys.

(PS.  Our little foster dog Rin has another foster home for the holiday weekend.  We will get her back next week.)

Rabbits and squirrels and prairie dogs, Oh My!

     Rin, our foster dog, has spent a few weeks in the nice kennels at Freedom Service Dogs.  Prior to that she was at the Wyoming Prison for some dog training at their program.  I gather from that, that she is originally from Wyoming...maybe there are no trees and squirrels in Wyoming??  For the past several weeks, though, she has been behind bars or fences of one type or another.
     Fast forward to our house....we have no fence, so she gets lots and lots of walks and gets to experience nature up close, which she apparently hasn't before.  I mentioned previously that she is bonkers about squirrels.  I need to add to that.  She is also bonkers about rabbits, of course, typical of a labrador retriever.
      There are a huge buck and 2 does that live in our neighborhood and wander around eating grass, shrubbery, and crab apples from the ground.  They
have no fear of dogs or people.  When the breeze is from the right direction, Rin stops and scents them from a block away.  That is one scary big buck with big sharp antlers.  Rin is fascinated and really wants to get to them.
     Yesterday at the park she discovered prairie dogs....she probably considers them fat squirrels that bark and quiver and taunt her without running away.  She really wants them, too.
     On our walk last night a fox ran across the street in front of us and then just turned and sat there on a lawn, taunting Rin, daring her to even try to catch her.  Foxes do that.  And Rin really wanted to comply!
     On the one hand, it is nice Rin gets to be a dog and experience these things at last.  From a trainer's perspective, though, I hope she gets bored of them soon and learns to heel.  On the plus side I guess, I am developing a strong bicep in my left arm holding her back from nature's critters found in typical suburbia.

"A dog can never tell you what she knows from the smells of the world, but you know, watching her, that you know almost nothing."
                                                 Mary Oliver

Bonkers about squirrels...

     Sweet little Rin didn't get adopted this morning;  they adopted another cute little dog named Gunnar instead, so we get to keep her for another few days at least.  I hope she finds her perfect forever home soon.  So many wonderful dogs that need homes, so few people adopting right now!
     Have a great weekend.  We will.  We will be taking Rin on a jog at Clement Park, for one thing.  She is socializing very well, but goes absolutely bonkers about squirrels.

To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved. George MacDonald

     Our sweet little foster dog, Rin, has her first appointment with a potential adoptive family on Friday morning, so keep your fingers crossed for her.  She has been with us for 8 days now and is gaining confidence and settling in well.  She follows me from room to room and is my little shadow.  I just hope she transfers the trust she has formed for us to another family who will give her the chance to love them.  I will miss all the daily walking that she has prompted in us.

     Dr. Joel Fuhrman had a great blog yesterday on his Disease Proof Blog.  He wants us to all Get Healthy in 2012, starting now, and is issuing a holiday challenge.  Here are his starting guidelines, which we follow:
     *Eat at least one large salad each day.
     *Enjoy generous amounts of cooked green vegetables with mushrooms
       and onions.
     *Satisfy your sweet tooth with at least 3 fresh fruits each day.
     *Eat at least one-half cup of beans each day.
     *Remember the acronym GOMBBS.  Greens, onions, mushrooms, beans,
       berries, and seeds.  These are the most health-promoting foods.
     *Avoid completely these disease-promoting foods:  white flour, sugars,
       artificial sweeteners, oils, and factory-farmed animal products.  Unhealthy
       food is designed to be addictive--keep it out of your home.
     *Retrain your taste buds to prefer healthy foods.  Staying away from
       sugar and salt is the secret to a heightened sense of taste and enjoyment
       of natural flavors.

     You may have read that Congress has buckled under lobbying pressure from the food industry and is not going to pass the recommendations for school lunches made by the USDA.  Pizza will remain a vegetable.  There will be no limits on french fries or other "potato" products.  There will be no long term reduction in sodium, just further study.  There will be no requirement to use more whole grains, just the request that they be defined.  Congress clearly values the health of industry over the health of America's children. 

     "We are willing to tolerate this revolutionized food because it's easy and cheap.  But it comes at a high price...to our health.  We spend less on food today than at any other time or any other people in recorded history.  And the less we spend on food, the more we spend on healthcare.  When I was a kid in the '60s, the average household spent around 18% of their income on food and less than 8% on healthcare.  Now, we cook and eat less fresh food, we spend less than 9% of our income on food and close to 18% on healthcare.  Coincidence?"  Christina Pirello

Start now.  Get healthy in 2012.


 

Food for Thought.

     Today is World Diabetes Day, a day to raise International awareness of a disease that doesn't need to even exist, but is growing to epidemic proportions.
According to WHO, more than 346 million people worldwide have diabetes.

     There are also new recommendations just released by a government panel of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.  They recommend that every child be checked for high cholesterol between the ages of 9 and 11, and again between the ages of 17 and 21, as atherosclerosis begins very early in life. 
     The panel also suggests diabetes screening every 2 years starting as early as age 9 for kids who are overweight and have other risk factors, including family history.
     I don't believe anyone is recommending that kids with high cholesterols be started on statin drugs, but instead with early awareness of the problem, to begin to make lifestyle changes.  It is much easier to make changes at an early age.

"Heart disease is a food-bourne illness."  CNN, "The Last Heart Attack."


    

We do not stop exercising because we grow old--we grow old because we stop exercising. Dr. Kenneth Cooper, Cooper Institute

     The New York Times Health section had an interesting article this week titled:  "Aging Well Through Exercise."  Previous studies showed that after age 40 people lose 8% of their muscle mass per decade, which accelerates after age 70.  New studies done on athletes ages 40 to 80, however, show that is not the case.  Exercise mitigates those muscle losses.  What was previously thought to be muscle loss due to aging was actually muscle loss due to inactivity.
     More research needs to be done to determine the right types and amounts of exercise; how much strength training vs how much endurance training.  It is good to know, though, that aging can be under our own control, that we can avoid the decline to frailty if we want.

 http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/aging-well-through-exercise/?ref=health  

     Or my suggestion is that you walk your dog in an area full of squirrels, rabbits, and deer, and combine your endurance training, strength and balance training all at the same time.

"If you're going 'over the hill' anyway, bring a kite!" Dan Millman

     Yesterday I got to hear my nephew on KCSU radio station, Colorado State University's non-commercial, student-run, campus radio station licensed to Fort Collins, Colorado.  They have on-line streaming if you are interested in listening.  My nephew, DJ McFly, is scheduled for Mondays and Wednesdays from 3-4 pm MST.  He was great, in my unbiased opinion, plus I got to listen to a lot of good music.

     Foster-dog Rin is settling in well at our house.  We took a long walk today.  My thought was to wear her out, but it back-fired and wore me out instead.  This extra walking will be great for us.  Let's hope this beautiful weather lasts.

     From Runnersworld.com's daily quote of the day, the Daily Kick in the Butt:
"I'm just very lucky and blessed and do what I love.  I'm also a positive person, which helps.  Nothing gets me down.  I have to live up to my name." 
      Joy Johnson, 84 year-old marathoner.

    

You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. Paul Hawken

     We are fostering a dog who is up for adoption at http://www.freedomservicedogs.org/.  She is a wonderful little black lab mix who happens to be very shy at first when meeting strangers.  We are working to build her confidence.  Her name is Rin, and she is a real sweetheart.  She went jogging with me today...actually more of a jog/stop and sniff and roll-in-stuff kind of outing.  I had forgotten how much fun it is to have a doggy-running partner.  The time flew by, and now she is tired and napping nearby. 

Rin

     From the blog "Zen to Fitness" today I read about the five fitness tips we can learn from kids, written by Stacy Cavalari.  It was great advice.  I think it could also be called five fitness tips we can learn from dogs.
     *Exercise is more fun with a friend.
     *Don't be afraid to get dirty and look silly.
     *Laughing gives you abs. Laugh til you cry.
     *When you're tired, stop.
     *If it's not fun, don't do it.

     Here is another blog I want to pass on to all of you.  It is by Debbie Robins.  In it she exerpts the unforgettable Commencement Address 2009 by Paul Hawken.  Please read what he has to say.  It will give you hope;  "hope only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to be hopeful."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debbie-robins/7-questions-that-can-chan_b_1078673.html?ref-healthy-living

    
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."   Dilbert, by Scott Adams

  

"Fit is the new thin. Fit is the new black. Fit is the point." Mina Samuels, Run Like a Girl

     The ING New York marathon today was exciting.  I hope you were able to watch.  Firehiwot Dado of Ethiopia won the women's race in 2:23:15.  Geoffry Mutai of Kenya won the men's race in 2:05:06, breaking the course record. These are outstanding athletes.  Kathrine Switzer, the 1st women to run the Boston marathon although before women were allowed to run it officially, was a commentator and did a wonderful job.
     George Sheehan said that "the difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry blank", therefore I guess I am now a runner.  Some run/walkers we know were discussing next year's Kaiser Permanente Colfax Half marathon and marathon taking place on May 20, 2012 here in Denver.  They convinced me to enter the half.  My thinking is that if they can do it, and they are my age, then I can do it, plus it is 6 months away.  Who knows what can happen in 6 months, miracles do happen. 
     Also, I have previously mentioned my need for continual motivation, for a kedge to pull me forward.  According to Newton's first law of motion:  unless acted upon by a net external force, a body at rest will remain at rest and a body in motion will remain in motion. Hopefully this $55 entry blank is my external force and will propel me into staying in motion over the winter. Inertia is hard to overcome but fear of humiliation can be a great motivator.
     I realized today that I have 2 nephews graduating from high school in another state next May.  I am not sure when they will have their graduation parties, but I am now committed to this Half on May 20, 2012...I am doing this for me.
  

NYC Marathon

     Sunday,tomorrow, is the New York City Marathon.  If you are interested in watching there will be live streaming video starting at 9am Eastern time @
     http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/   or http://www.universalsports.com/

     I will be watching.  Meanwhile, today, we will be jogging or run/walking our usual 3 or 4 miles, but dreaming of being marathon runners.

    Standard time resumes tomorrow, so don't forget to set your clocks back when you go to bed tonight, and have a great weekend.

Medical news Wednesday

     More cold and snow in Denver...today's exercise will be scooping the driveway and sidewalks.  Oh, joy.  Meanwhile, it will be 83 degrees in Austin for our lucky family members who live there.
     Dean rode his bike to work yesterday for the last time this year.  Due to the time change this weekend, and the season, he can no longer count on having any daylight to ride by before and after work.

     Here is some of the medical information and research I found interesting this week:

     Dr Joel Fuhrman ("Eat to Live") in his Disease Proof blog talked about October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  He would prefer if they changed it to Breast Cancer Prevention Month. He offered a few simple suggestions for helping to prevent breast cancer, and probably most cancers:
     *Exercise
     *Stay slim
     *Eat lots of green vegetables, onions, and mushrooms daily
     *Do not eat mass factory farmed dairy, especially those given rBGH
     *Stay away from fast foods and insulin promoting refined foods such as
          white flour and sweets
     *Do not eat mass factory farmed meats given antibiotics and growth
          promoting hormones

     I also read an interview with mycologist Paul Stamets.  A mycologist is a biologist who studies fungi.  He said that "mushrooms are constellations of hundreds of thousands of constituents." Some of the benefits provided by mushrooms:
     *supporting and strengthening your immune system
     *providing anti-inflammatory properties
     *providing anti-oxidant properties
     *restricting blood vessel growth feeding tumors (anti-angiogenesis)
     *causing programmed cell death of cancer cells (apoptosis)
     *providing antiviral effects
     *restricting the growth of pathogenic bacteria
     *assisting conventional anti-cancer drugs to work more effectively at
          lower doses
This provides many reasons to eat mushrooms on a more frequent basis.  We don't actually eat them daily as Dr. Furman suggests, but we do eat them several times a week.  The interview with the mycologist can be found at:
     http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-patricia-fitzgerald/mushrooms-beat-cancer_b_1070744.html

     A  small new study on resveratrol supplementation in humans was reported in the journal "Cell Metabolism". It showed that resveratrol supplementation can mimic calorie restriction.  It influences mitochondrial function and energy metabolism.  It increased the energy metabolism in muscles, improved insulin sensitivity, decreased blood pressure, and enhanced fitness. Resveratrol has been shown to increase lifespan in lab animals.  It is an anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory.
     Now, this was a small early study, and isolated supplements don't have a great history of overall success, but it sure couldn't hurt to eat foods containing resveratrol on a daily basis.  Food sources include red and purple grapes (grape juice, raisins), peanuts (peanut butter), and to a lesser extent berries (cranberries, blueberries, and pomegranates). 

     The take away from all the above information is to eat a lot of varied plants on a daily basis remembering to add grapes, raisins, berries, peanuts, and mushrooms.
  

Life will be great in Texas.

In Missouri

In Norman, Oklahoma

     Our family members arrived in Austin okay and are getting settled in.  Monday was the first day of school and work, as well as being Halloween.  The kids will have met their new teachers and new classmates, and hopefully gotten in some Trick or Treating.  I guarantee they were the best Harry Potter and Ninja Austin has ever seen.
     Every day will get easier from now on.  It is sort of like learning a new sport....you feel like a fish out of water at first, but eventually you will be functioning swimmingly.  Soon you will all unknowingly pick up that Texas drawl, too.  Want to bet?