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.

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

A culture of health in America

Amsterdam, where travel by bike is easy

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be American. Now, I don't want to get too deep into it. I don't want to talk about patriotism and freedom and democracy and all that. Basically, I'm considering how being an American relates to living a healthy life. This particular train of thought was inspired by several insightful blog posts I've read lately, as well as discussions with family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday. We have two close friends from Spain who have lived here for the past year. In a recent conversation we asked them to tell us some stereotypes of America that they'd heard before they moved here. I should note that, after answering, they pointed out that stereotypes are often inaccurate (as an example, they informed us that everyone in Spain doesn't fight bulls and wear red).

After "don't know anything about other countries," they said another stereotype is that Americans are fat and eat unhealthy diets. How sad, I thought! Besides ignorance, we are known around the world as being the unhealthy country. Indeed, the obesity rate is pushing 33% of all Americans. One in three people are overweight or dangerously overweight. Indeed, we subsidize the growing of corn and soy instead of healthier fruits and vegetables. And indeed, we eat a lot of fast food.

But, I said to myself, I eat healthy. My friends and family eat healthy. I don't have any close friends that are particularly overweight. But I realize that this fact is largely based on where I live and my income level. Where you live and how much money you have really makes a difference in your health in this country. For example, in this insightful article from Feministing's community blog, the author describes where she lives:

As for me, I live in Washington, DC, where wealth and means converge. Exercise is trendy, as is eating healthily. Grocery stores, co-ops, and farmer’s market, all devoted to providing high quality food products are everywhere. An affluent population is willing and able to pay more for the privilege.

Although I don't live in DC, the same set of circumstances was true in Chicago, Madison, and various other places I've lived. It was easy for me eat healthy. I was lucky enough to be taught how to cook by my family and friends. The importance of exercise has been instilled in me, and I could walk or take the bus almost everywhere. Additionally, the city was full of people who ran, biked, and played sports. You couldn't drive through the north side of Chicago without seeing dozens of runners and several yoga studios. But that's not the case in other places. As the author goes on to say,

Are these same options present in Alabama, especially in the rural areas or the inner city? Not so much. Does a tradition and corresponding cultural expectation of these sorts of beneficial practices exist? Not really. Cities are concentrations of wealth and the highly educated. There is no financial incentive for either of them to leave and spread elsewhere. Quality food is rarely found in areas of poverty. Most often, only cheaper, lower quality food is affordable and available.

In addition to quality food, there are other aspects of health that are only accessible to the wealthy: health insurance, gym memberships, time to cook meals from scratch, reduced exposure to fast food ads, the privilege of living in a safe neighborhood.

I don't have a solution for this issue that our country faces, in which where you live and how much money you have has a disproportionate effect on your health. I wish that healthy food was cheaper and available everywhere. I wish there were bike lanes and bus routes in all areas, including surburban and rural towns. I wish we were taught in school how to cook, maintain a healthy diet, and build exercise into our schedules. I wish minimum wage was higher, so people could work less and spend more time cooking. I wish kids were given more time for recess and had greener cities.

I wish that health was an expectation our country, just part of our general culture, instead of a privilege. I don't think that individuals can be blamed for their obesity or heart disease or poor eating habits, at least not entirely. Right now, living in our country makes it harder to be a healthy person, instead of easier. I hope someday that will change. I hope, however naively, that someday when people think of Americans, they will think of healthy people.

Photo credit

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.

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 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.

Friends matter

Here is a post from Chris, a construction supervisor in Milwaukee. He has a healthy dose of sense of humor when it comes to living a healthy life. He also recognizes the importance of surrounding yourself with others who have similar goals. He has a great support system, and recognizes how much this affects his healthy lifestyle.

I have friends who like being active, I have [my fiance] who likes being active, I have a supportive family, and I know that if I were to start doing things that were very unhealthy, people would try and help me to reverse those decisions and turn my life in the right direction.

This has been shown time after time, that friends help us live longer, or, conversely, influence our levels  of obesity. So one strategy for living a healthy life is to look at the people with whom you surround yourself. While we certainly can't change everyone we see each day, we can make a conscious effort to notice our habits when we are with others. Around some people, we may tend to eat out more, drive more, or indulge more. Alternatively, others may inspire us to eat healthier or walk more. And best of all, certain friends or family members may motivate us to stick to our goals. Try to find someone who has the same health goals as you, and hold each other accountable. If you can't find anyone, I'm always looking for someone to motivate me!

But remember not to be too hard on yourself when you slip up. We're all human, we all make mistakes. Chris also points out that living a healthy life is about balance, not about perfection. As he says,

I know that I'm able to go out for a couple beers after work, because I worked hard during the day.  And yes - the beers aren't super healthy for me, per se... but life is about balance.  There are people who do everything that is perfectly healthy and nothing that isn't.  That life isn't for me.  I work out so I can enjoy life, not so I can become a super model (even though my dashing good looks already make me look like one).  I work hard so I can spend a couple snow day mornings watching Netflix on my sweet new HDTV.  I bike to work so I can have a few beers after work.  Am I in perfect health?  Absolutely not.  Do I eat crap sometimes?  Oh yeah.  I love me a Big Mac every now and again.  But I notice that after eating junk, I don't feel as good as after I eat a great healthy meal.  That motivates me to keep going and continue as healthy a lifestyle as I can.

P.S. One inspirational study mentioned in the NY Times article linked above: Thirty-four students wearing heavy backpacks were taken to a hill and asked to estimate how steep it was. Those that were standing next to friends estimated that the hill was less steep than those that were standing alone. The hill was the same in both cases; for some reason, it appeared less steep to those that were standing next to friends. Pretty awesome.