Category Archives: Health

Data

February 26, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Gadgets. Yes. I like them. My latest is my birthday present, a Basis watch. The basis keeps track of my steps (not so many in these winter days), calories burned (not so accurately for reasons I’ll make clear) and, most interestingly my sleep.

Not quite sure how the sleep sensors work, but each time I nap or sleep at night the Basis records my sleep with several different variables: time in deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep. It also records turns and turnovers and what it calls, interruptions. At 67 you can imagine what my interruptions are. These are done up in a neat graph that wouldn’t copy, but the overall data stream for last night is below.* (above is from their website)

But that’s not all. Overtime the Basis learns your patterns and gives you a sleep score based on length of sleep and all those other data points. It also measures, helpfully, heart rate during the day, in particular resting heart rate which is a good measure of fitness.

I initially thought it would record my heart rate during exercise and give me feedback about my workouts, but it doesn’t do that. I wanted to be able to upload my exercise data to the computer and save it, track my progress over time.

Though I’ve always exercised with a heart rate monitor (or at least I’ve done it so long I don’t recall when I started), the technology I had was only good for in the moment readings. That was good, but I wanted better data. When I found the Basis wouldn’t do what I wanted (I was not the only one who made this mistake as the forum on the Basis website demonstrated), I went to Polartech.

They make a great, inexpensive watch and chest band (transmits heart rate to the watch) which, when coupled with a data synch plate, transfers a great deal of relevant data from the watch to the Polartech personal trainer website. BTW: I have the FT7 which the link displays and explains, but I got it for $73, not $119.00.

This means I don’t wear my Basis during exercise. It didn’t do much helpful then anyhow. That means its calories burned per day reading is not accurate because it doesn’t reflect my workouts. Still, it’s sleep monitoring and throughout the day heart monitoring give it a place, too. Oh, and it tells time and the date, too.

Now I can monitor my sleep accurately, my resting heart rate and the intensity of my workouts. With the workouts I see calories burned, maximum, minimum and average heart rate, training load (call it intensity), time in various training zones and I get graphs over time plus a calendar/diary that records each workout in a calendar format. I like it.

*91%

Sleep Score

19 times

Toss & Turn

1 time

Interruptions

REM 25%

1 hr 48 min

Light 54%

3 hr 56 min

Deep 21%

1 hr 33 min

Health

Owee

February 22, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Back on the treadmill. No, I haven’t started going off to work again. I mean, I’m back on the treadmill. In what I consider an ironic situation my right pectoral is so painful I can’t do the P90X workouts. Why ironic? Because in the fall that injured it, I landed on my back. Must have really torqued that left arm, which I’m pretty sure hit first and absorbed most of the fall. Why didn’t that hurt my left pectoral? I have no idea.

Sent a note to my doc telling her that this is two weeks past the event and the pain interferes with my workouts and general getting around. Maybe I’ll head back to Dave, the bicycling Lancastershire man who helped me get past my shoulder pain last fall. I’m going to let Corrie decide.

I don’t mind the treadmill since I watch movies and TV while I’m doing it, but about a year ago I decided I wanted a more robust workout, one that included resistance work, too. I developed my own, which seemed to plateau.

Then Kate saw an article for P90X and I did the fitness test for it. And passed. Barely. It’s fun and I was just beginning to learn the moves of the various workouts, showing some progress, when I fell off the door jamb.

Family, Garden, Great Work, Health, Our Land and Home

A Letter To Saudi Arabia

February 22, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Brother Mark, within a hundred miles of the Rub al Kahli, the empty quarter, asked me about the winter and the garden. Here’s my reply:

It has been our most severe winter since 1978-79, which was only 8 years after I moved up here. We just got 10 inches of snow and the temperatures are headed back down. It’s 2 right now and we have -15 for a low forecast this Thursday. Snow in our front yard is as high as my hip. The raised beds in the vegetable garden have disappeared.

All the dogs are good right now. Gertie gets around much better since she had the surgical crimp removed from her left rear knee.

Kate’s away at quilting retreat with her sister Anne. Just me, the dogs and lots of snow.

Last year I began using products from International Ag Labs and they increased our production even though I used them for only part of the season. The broadcast fertilizer went down fall and this spring I add nitrogen. There’s also a transplant formula to use when planting. These products improved the microbial life in the soil and add minerals found missing through soil tests. I tested the vegetable garden and the orchard last fall.

International Ag labs moves gardens and farms toward sustainable agriculture by creating healthy soil. This has always made sense to me and I’m pleased to have found them. Bill Schmidt found them.

Over this weekend I plan to place my seed and plant orders. Once I’ve done that I can order nitrogen in forms specific for specific plants. This means I will no longer have to rotate my crops because I’m building soils designed optimally for each plant type.

Tomatoes, beets, cucumbers, melons, bush beans, sugar snap peas, leeks, greens, herbs and peppers. The garlic’s already in the ground. This fall I’ll plant scallions at the same time I plant garlic.

The orchard is part of the program this year. That means I’ll be spraying the trees as well as the vegetables. These are foliar feedings, not insecticides. That’s a weekly, sometimes twice-weekly job. There, are, too soil drenches every other week.

Aren’t you glad you asked?

Garden, Great Work, Health, Latin, Politics, Sierra Club, Translating Metamorphoses, Weather +Climate, Writing

The Week Ahead

February 17, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Weather has warmed up over 40 degrees from the last few weeks and it’s still cold. That’s about where we live. No volcanoes erupting to interfere with our lives though.

Today or tomorrow I’ll finish reviewing the edits made by Bob Klein to Missing. Then it’s off to the agents. I’ve probably taken more time getting to this point than a novel of this type warrants, but I’ve wanted to produce as good a book as I can. The first two or three books sold can determine success over all (that is, being allowed to continue publishing) and I want to present clean, focused stories.

Also tomorrow I’m going to resume my P90X workouts. I’ve taken a week + off to allow my chest to heal and it seems mostly calmed down now. Dave Scott, the handy-man I mentioned a bit ago, has installed the new pull-up bar, the Stud Bar (Tm). It will not pull out of the ceiling studs (aka Stud Bar) and I will not drop unceremoniously onto the concrete anymore. This last makes me happy.

When Kate and I discussed my attendance at an Ira Progoff workshop, I initially wanted to go to an event in early May. It was in Asheville, N.C. and the thought of contemplative work in the Blue Ridge mountains appealed to me. But, she rightly observed, this was soon after our Colorado trip for Gabe’s birthday and at the beginning of the growing season. Other dates and places I liked were either in the middle of the growing season or at the time of the honey harvest. That’s how we chose the end of March. No planting, no bees. And I can make Denver on the way home, wishing an early birthday to granddaughter Ruth.

Another way of saying Tucson was not on the top of my list for places to go.

The polishing begins on the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha this week. Back to the beginning with careful attention to commentaries, dictionaries and other English translations. The goal: as well spoken a translation as I can muster plus commentary notes.

(st. jerome, patron saint of translators. and yet another great beard model)

It’s also week 7 of the Climate Change course. This course has proved as influential for me as a weekend Kate and I spent in Iowa City with PSR, Physicians for Social Responsibility, a conference on climate change. That one propelled me into my work with the Sierra Club. Just where I’m headed now is not yet clear to me, but I’m for sure going to increase my activity level on adaptation.

Dreams, Faith and Spirituality, Health, Humanities, Myth and Story, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Third Phase, Writing

Oh. Yeah. I Remember That.

February 16, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

A few days back I wrote this post. In it I admitted my yearning for the mystical, the mysterious, the contemplative; but, the metaphysical superstructure for them had been stripped away. (by me. and for the most part happily so.) Those impulses, partly stirred by the long, cold winter and its isolation, welcome, but draining at the same time, have been niggling away at me for some time.

(Progoff)

Then, I remembered. I know how to get those elements back in my life. The Ira Progoff Journal Workshops. I’ve done two of these, the three part series. I’ve included some introductory material on them below. Progoff was a Jungian analyst who worked over his career to develop a means of self-work rooted in Jungian method. His efforts produced the Intensive Journal ,Process Meditation and these workshops.

Here’s what I like. The work is yours, for you and reviewed by no one. It’s a method, which I’ve used off and on, for many years. As some of you know, I was in Jungian analysis, also off and on, for many years. That means the worldview behind Progoff’s method reaches into deep work I’ve already done.

There are no guru’s here, no dogma, no path other than the ancientrail of self-wisdom. There’s no follow up, no encouraging you to do more. Yet, there is a deep passion for the work individuals do on their own through Progoff’s methods. It fits me and I’m glad I remembered it.

In fact, I’m headed off to Tucson, Arizona in late March for a six-day retreat to do all three workshops. There will be, too, side trips to Carlsbad Caverns, Chaco Canyon and grandaughter Ruth just before her 8th–no longer required to ride in the car seat–birthday. Ah.

Introduction to the Intensive Journal Program

Experience a life-changing process to give your life greater direction, vitality and purpose. Developed in 1966 by Dr. Ira Progoff, our nationally-recognized program has helped 175,000 people lead more fulfilling lives. Discover resources and possibilities you could not have imagined. The Intensive Journal method can be your honest friend in the creative process of shaping your life.

Article 1:	The Intensive Journal Process: A Path to Self-Discovery by Kathy Juline
Article 2:	The Write to Fulfilling Life: An Interview with Ira Progoff by The New Times
Article 3:	The Way of the Journal

How can you benefit from this method?

By using an integrated system of writing exercises. It’s much more than a diary.
Gain insights about many different areas including personal relationships, career and special interests, body and health, dreams and imagery, and meaning in life.
Apply fresh approaches to access your creative capacities and untapped possibilities.
Work in total privacy. Neither you nor anyone else will judge or analyze your life.
Use a method that is without dogma. The Intensive Journal method is a process that can be used by people of all different backgrounds, interests and faiths.
Attend workshops at leading centers for reasonable prices.
You do not have to like to write or be a good writer. You are the only one who reads what you write.

Part I: Life Context (LC) Workshop: Gaining a Perspective on Life

Develop an inner perspective on the movement of your unfolding life process. Gain greater awareness of the continuity and direction of your life as it reveals what it is trying to become.

Generate insights about major areas of your life, including personal relationships, career and special interests, and body and health. The dialogue process provides a unique way to gain feedback and momentum as you deepen your understanding of these areas.

Part II: Depth Contact (DC) Workshop: Symbolic Images and Meaning in Life

Deepen your experience as you focus on the exercises in the second half of the Intensive Journal workbook. Learn how to use Progoff’s unique non-analytical method to draw forth messages from you inner symbolic experiences which can provide important leads in your unfolding life process.

Using Process Meditation™ techniques provides specific ways of developing your spiritual process in the context of your entire life. Explore experiences of connection that had significant meaning, gain insights about your ultimate concerns, and explore major themes in your life. Progoff’s advanced meditation techniques provide an avenue for greater reflection.

Part III: Life Integration (LI) Workshop/Journal Feedback™ Process: Integrating the Life Process

Progoff said the Journal Feedback process is the “essence of the Intensive Journal method and one of my main contributions.”

Experience the cumulative dynamic process created from working with material in one workbook section and how it can lead to entries in other related areas. This progressively deepening process generates an inner momentum and energy as you apply Progoff’s non-analytical Journal Feedback techniques. Your workbook becomes an active instrument as you approach situations from different perspectives.

New awareness and growth become possible as you realize connections between diverse areas. You are drawing your unfolding life process forward as you move toward greater wholeness and integration.

Health, Our Land and Home, Third Phase

Handy, Man

February 13, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Looks like we’ve found a good handyman. Dave Scott’s going to do several things: fix a cabinet door busted out by fighting dogs, rejigger the doors on two others, fix a lock on our sliding doors to the back, remount some curtains with a new oak fixture and, most germane for me, install my Studbar pullup bar. I know, Studbar.

While researching this piece of equipment, I found a review of it on the Walmart website. The reviewer, a guy, referred readers of his review to the company’s website: www.studbar.com. Imagine my surprise, and probably everyone else’s who used the link, in finding this leads to The Studbar, a Montreal bar for men who love men. The correct link is www.studbarpullup.com.

As long we’re on the subject of masculinity, we may as well talk about my initial uneasiness with hiring a handyman. A totally irrational uneasiness. That being, gee, I should be able to do these things and if I can’t I’m not a man. Irrational, maybe, but there nonetheless. It’s irrational because if I followed out this logic nothing would ever get fixed since, as I’ve often said, I learned all my father knew about fix-it matters. Nothing.

(see, I found this image of the four primal male archetypes. the handyman is not on there. So, I’m a lumberjack and I’m ok.)

This sort of failure cum shame hit me pretty hard the first time Dave came over to fix a door Kate and I could not get back on its hinges. I didn’t expect it, like many unpleasant things it just showed up and took over. So, yesterday when he came, I made sure I met him and walked through the tasks with Kate and him.

A nice guy. A dog lover. A mechanical engineer and a contractor in addition to handyman work. He’s here working today and I feel fine. Progress.

I know. Studbar. Geez.

Cinema and Television, Health, Third Phase

A Plan

February 12, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Put together a plan. I’m going to rest until the pain subsides and while it subsides I’m going to take nsaids and do some gentle exercises. With a plan I don’t feel creaky; I feel proactive. Knocking back the pain reduces the aversive conditioning, resting helps the injury heal as do the anti-inflammatories. The gentle exercises keep the stiffness down and promote flexibility. There.

So many deaths recently. Shirley Temple. Sid Caesar. Seymour Hoffman. Maximilian Schell. Which of course is a nonsense statement. So many deaths always. What it means is so many deaths of people of whom I had awareness. I remember Shirley Temple as Heidi, but I remember not her specifically from that film but her grandfather. Sid Caesar I remember from television’s live black and white days, another generational divide I’d not realized I belonged on one side of. Seymour Hoffman I remember in so many roles, always in the complexity of the character, often a character of ambiguous morality. Maximilian Schell, not for any movie, but for a square jawed Teutonic presence.

These are the generation ahead of me, with the exception of Hoffman, and as such are, in a sense, my parent’s generation though they’re younger than my parents would have been. What I mean is that I can still distance myself from them by saying, oh, was he still alive? But that gambit won’t work much longer. Soon, I’ll say. Oh, yes. Of my generation.

Just noticed the segue here. Probably not coincidental.

Aging, Health, Third Phase

Injured

February 12, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Been feeling like a creaky old man. The fall I took last Saturday produced a first class large bruise on my inner left elbow which I believe took, for a moment, all of my weight. The resulting motion wrenched my left arm away from my body, tearing or pulling something where muscles insert to my sternum. I mention this not to be gruesome, but to explain why I’ve been feeling creaky.

It matters. I don’t mind being an old man, not one bit. Older is what I am. What I am is ok. Except. My chest hurts, up high around the sternum. Each time I lift anything aversive conditioning sets in. The pain itself is not such a big deal, definitely manageable as pain. But the pain, and this is why I’m writing this, erodes my sense of myself as a healthy, fit old man. That makes me anxious. I wonder, what else is wrong?

This is not a conscious process. It took a couple of conversations with Kate to get it. The pain changes my self-image and that changed image chips away at my self-confidence. Yes, sure, in time I’d get used to this, if it were permanent. I’d compensate, as I imagine many of you have had to do at one point or another.

This post is about getting it out in plain sight, claiming what I’m doing and telling myself that, as Kate said, I’m injured and injuries heal. True that.

I already feel better psychically, just from realizing what I was doing as I reacted to the pain. Now I want to shed the anxiety and let it be.

Old man, yes. Injured old man, yes. Creaky old man? Not right now. Not yet.

Health, Third Phase

Do No Harm

February 8, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

The first rule of fight club is don’t talk about fight club. The first rule of working out at home is don’t hurt yourself. Applying the sensible Hippocratic oath to yourself. Oops. Twice this week I’ve broken the first rule of working out at home.

First, I pulled a muscle in my right arm. Owwee. But ice and rest and heat have pretty much brought it back. Not fully, but on the road. Then, this evening, I went for my first pull-up, two exercises into the P90X leg and back workout. Ready to get started I reached up, pulled hard and the next thing I knew I was on my back, the back of my head (fortunately, the really hard part) had bounced off the concrete basement floor and I had road rash on my elbows.

Sorta backward when you hurt yourself when you’re working out to improve your fitness.

This required a concierge physician’s examination. She shined a flashlight in my eyes, palpated my head and rib cage (it hurt for some reason). She said nothing made her nervous. But. If anything tingles, or I’m confused or if I see lights when I turn my neck, wake her up. Fortunately, she sleeps right next to me. That’s not a problem.

So, I’m taking two days off and I’ll get back at it Monday. But. I’m buying, in fact I just ordered, a stud mounted pull up bar. The one I have now attaches to the door jamb. Or, should I say, was supposed to attach to the door jamb.

Health, Writing

Now In Its Tenth Year

February 7, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Bit of a setback with P90X. I pulled a muscle in my right forearm. Have to go slower, avoid things that stress it. But I’ve had injuries before and will again. Time and ice.

Though I can’t get back into to the 2005 archives right now I think it was the 5th of February or so when I began this blog. That would make this the early days of ancientrails’ 10th year. Though you couldn’t know this from your vantage point, I have shelves of notebooks that I kept before these blogs.

Ancientrails does represent a continuation of that work, if not a direct one. At one point I had a spiritual journal, a journal much like this blog and an art history journal. Ancientrails contains traces of all three with a twist in midair to account for the public nature of the blog.

Writing seems to be a necessary part of my life, not really an outlet, but a moment of creating something new. I like Yeats on this: creativity is the social act of a solitary person. That’s the way ancientrails feels to me. The Great Wheel blog is a different matter. It wants to be the voice of a mythologist and an activist. I’ll let it be what it wants.

Here we’ll have the usual mish-mash of things, stuff I’m interested in, stuff that frustrates me, stuff I’m learning, stuff I hope for, the lives of folks I know. Now in its tenth year. How about that?