health

‘what’s not wrong?’ and other ways to start your day

For a long time, it was our habit to jump out of bed and start working: reading blogs, news, emails, writing. We were, literally, swept away each day by the virtual world we love to wander around in; there were no real breaks and downtime, no time to turn inward, quiet. Every morning, we simply jumped in.

Then a friend told us that he made a practice of always reading something uplifting or illuminating first thing in the morning – NOT firing up the computer and NOT reading the news, but rather taking the time to read a bit of poetry or a philosophy, something that was more about ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’. We decided to try it, turning to books that we valued but hadn’t looked at for years – Wherever You Go, There You Are… Neruda’s Garden: An Anthology of Odes… reading as we drank a cup of tea in the quiet of the morning. It changed everything; the books we read have the effect of centering us for much of the day, while teaching us a new perspective.

A piece that we return to frequently, and that we find reverberating mightily in our thinking, is by Vietmamese Zen master, poet and peace advocate Thich Nhat Hanh. It’s called “What’s Not Wrong”, from his book Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life: read more…

10.10.11 | comments (11) | in gifts, health, inspiration books + zines, paths + processes, people, resources, rules for living, signs |

french fries made easy (recipe)

oven French fries Sally Schneider The Improvisational Cook

photo: maria robledo

My fondness for French fries is ruled by an idiosyncratic logic that, for a while, made them mostly off-limits. It goes something like this: perfectly-fried French fries are rare even in restaurants. At home they are daunting: hours of fry-o-lator air lingering in the apartment, and a quart or two of hot fat to discard. Because they are deep-fried and fattening, they must be really superb to be worth eating….

Those constraints sent me on a mission to find a way to achieve the divine effect and flavor of REAL French fries without either the mess, ‘fry’-ladened air, or the dietary wallop. Even if they weren’t more healthful, I’d take my fries, made in the oven, over most of the fries I find in restaurants any day.

It took me a while to figure out just how to push my oven fries beyond just-okay, half-too-crisp, half-limp ersatz fries that many recipes yield. The secret: Roast them in a hot oven for most of the time, then turn the oven down to dry the interiors out just enough to be truly fry-like. Use the right potato. And the right fat. That’ll give you a truly fry-like fry, perfect alongside a roast chicken or steak, or to dunk in a soft-cooked egg for breakfast.

Here’s the thinking behind, and a recipe for, crisp, deeply satisfying oven fries with lots of opportunities for improvising: read more…

09.23.11 | comments (9) | in food, health, kids, recipes |

hula hoop dreams (exercise as play)

A post in Zen Habits echoed what we’ve been thinking lately:

I don’t do boring exercise. If I hate doing something, I stop doing it. I don’t have enough life left to waste doing stuff I hate.

A big part of blogging is sitting on your ass, surfing thrillingly, but virtually; we don’t get enough exercise because we hate the gym thing and we don’t have much time these days, nor the $$ to pay a trainer to make us work out. We need exercise that we can do easily, that’ll get our heart rates up and really work some muscles and be fun, and that we’ll be self-motivated to do.

According to Zen Habits, PLAYING is the key: read more…

07.25.11 | comments | in cheap + great, health, how-to, projects + play, resources, stores, strategies, video |

hula-hooping as life-changing exercise

A while ago, we noticed a woman walking down the street with two brightly-colored hula hoops balanced on her shoulder. We ran after her to find out what she was doing with them, and where she was heading. She told us she was going to practice hula hooping, to which she was devoted. She called herself Suzi Hoops and she said she LOVES hula hooping because “Whatever is wrong and bothering you in your life disappears.”

Suzi came to hula hooping couple of years ago when she saw a sign for a free hula hoop class being offered at Groove Hoops, a hula hoop performance troop. She went to the class and got hooked right away, finding hula hooping to be the perfect exercise and a great way to meet cool people (“who are always have a smile”). “Hula hooping is hopeful.” she said. We asked her if she’d spin her hoops for us and she did (we’re sorry we didn’t shoot video)… read more…

06.17.11 | comments (2) | in health, outside, paths + processes, people, projects + play, sightings, tools, video |

“get up off that thing”: improv exercise for home or work

New Yorker cartoon improv exercise

We’ve gotten a little lazy of late, since we dislike going to the gym (yellow walls with black floors under florescent lights) and we spend so many long hours at our desks. We could get stymied by our slide into laziness by comparing ourselves to all those buff self-disciplined people that faithfully climb onto the treadmill at the crack of dawn. Instead, we took a cue from this New Yorker cartoon, and decided to improvise a workout for ourselves at home, to just START with something simple, and work up: a bit every day. We figure doing something is better than doing nothing. And who says we have to work out a gym: the right way is what’s right for us.

A trainer we know has been showing us exercises we can do at home, with no special equipment, using chairs, walls, floor, steps. (We’re planning to write a post about it, once we know more.) We’re amazed at what we can do at home IF we just get off our butts and start.

Which we did, today…doing a few reps of light weights, some squats and some wall push-ups, after we’ve warmed up with skipping-rope-without-a-rope. We’re going to try to build working out INTO our workday, read more…

05.23.11 | comments | in d-i-y, health, how-to, music, paths + processes, projects + play, resources blogs + sites, strategies, video |

insta-perspective (the scale of the universe)

Every once in a while, when we need a little perspective, we check into the Scale of the Universe website, created by Cary and Michael Huang.  Move the slider from left to right and back to be reminded where you stand in the scheme of things, and of just what mysteries are out/in here. Here it is in flash.

04.20.11 | comments | in health, identity, inside, inspiration blogs + sites, nature, outside, resources |

what would happen if you took a dance break?

What would your day be like if you did a little freeform dancing in the middle of it?

(We need to do this MORE!)

via Constant Siege

04.05.11 | comments | in copy this!, health, paths + processes, projects + play, sightings, video |

makeshift hand splint/sculpture

Charles McFarlane

Our friend Charles McFarlane, who attends highschool in New York City, sent us this astonishing photo in an email… “Recently my friend hurt her wrist. Our teacher, whose father is a hand surgeon, rigged this up for my friend until she could get to the doctor.”

Stainless steel ruler + rubber gloves (or are they balloons?) = an ingenious splint, and to our eye, a strangely fabulous sculpture.

(BTW, we invite you to share your own in-the-moment improvs and brilliant ideas on our Facebook page. And check out other finds we post there. To participate, you have to be able to sign in to Facebook.)

Thanks, Charles!

03.04.11 | comments | in health, inspiration, kids, materials, resources, road warrior |

 
 
newer posts >