Gotta Love It

A little theme music.

And so to the point.

Jon Stewart is yet again

My hero!

Some of you may have heard about the 10 year old kid that decided not to say the pledge of allegiance until there actually was "liberty and justice for all". Well, as you can imagine, he has been getting hassled quite a bit at school for taking such a stand. (not to mention being raked over the coals by so called conservatives, who only believe in liberty and justice for themselves)

Well, Stewart has the solution!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Gaywatch - Peter Vadala & William Phillips
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

(Huzzah Mick Foley!!)

Born to Run Barefoot?

An interview with Chris McDougall, Author of "Born To Run"

Done by ABC News.

Ya never know, there just may be something to this barefoot stuff. There certainly is to running.

Born to Run Barefoot?

Gimme that ol' time religion

Since Religion seems to be a subject that's up a lot these days,

what with the Catholic church flexing its political muscle, Fred Phelps and his nut jobs standing around with their signs, all the hate coming from all quarters, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, and all (I even heard of a Jain that sharpens the bristles of the broom he uses to sweep insects from his path) I thought some inspirational church music might be in order. (Warning: Not Safe For Work)

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Fun Music

With a fun name

Meet Pomplamoose, an Indi Group from the Bay Area. I just discovered them last night, and I have to say I find them quite charming and engaging. (If it weren't for YouTube I'd be so far behind the times....)

The group consists of Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte, two very talented musicians. Ms. Dawn sings (with a very sweet voice, a little reminiscent of Feist, but with her own character) and plays the bass guitar. Mr. Conte plays everything but the kitchen sink (and I wouldn't be surprised to see him work that in on some tune or another) and does backup vocals.

They are using a medium that I was not familiar with called a "VideoSong". They describe it (from their YouTube site) as:

A VideoSong is a new Medium with two rules:

1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).

This turns out to be a pretty fun format, and it puts music videos back in the hands of musicians, even if they don't have million dollar budgets.

I really got a kick out of their music. They cover a lot of songs, and do their own material. They even manage to make a tune from a TV commercial sound good.

I am a little envious of my friends in SF. The next time I'm out that way I will be hoping they will be playing live somewhere near.

I am going to exert what little influence I have with WYCE (one of the world's best stations) to see if I can't get their music a little air time. With any luck they might just get really popular here in West Michigan and end up playing here one day.

Here are a couple of videos by Pomplamoose for your enjoyment. You can find a lot more on their YouTube Channel. You can also find their music on itunes.

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Applying the Brakes

Without busting the shins.

I have been noticing this interesting thing when I watch people run.

Someone will be moving along with near perfect form, feet landing directly under center mass, proper heel flick, good turnover, the whole nine yards. Then the go to stop. The throw their body back. dorsiflex the lead foot, lock their lead leg at the knee and heel strike to stop themselves.

¿Cómo se dice ‘OUCH’ en español?

Then they wonder why they are still getting shin splints, sore knee and hip joints and other such pains.

Slamming the weight and momentum of your body into a rigid lead leg with all the force focused on the heel bone, to decelerate from 8 to 0 mph in one or two steps, is not what I would think of as a long term survival strategy.

This is one of those areas where barefoot training can be a real help. The only reason a person can repeatedly perform this maneuver is because the padding in modern running shoes will keep you from feeling the immediate pain of impact (while doing nothing to lessen the shock of the landing).

You can test this (though I DON'T recommend that you do) by taking off your shoes and running a few yards, then stopping in this manner.

A saner way to come to a halt, or a walk, is to land on the forefoot and allow the knee and hip joints to absorb the forward motion by converting it into downward motion. This gives your stride a little dip for a step or two, but it does not put unneeded impact on the leg. With a little practice you can go from a run to a walk in one step, without slapping your foot on the ground or striking your heel into the path.

Here is a video clip of a field hockey player with a good stride, but bad breaking. You will notice that with the slow motion shot, you can see the shock-wave going up his shin from the heel strikes.

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Autumn Leaves as a Training Tool

Or, "How to run better and play like a kid at the same time"

I was out working with a client today. This of course means different things with different people. In this case we were working on his running.

It was a fine autumn day here in West Michigan with the parks and most of the streets and sidewalks covered in leaves. As it happens, a leaf covered running trail is a wonderful thing for improving one's stride. All you have to do is run through them and listen. You will be able to hear if you are dragging your feet, or any number of things that will mess with good stride.

Then all you have to do is try to run more quietly. The quietest stride will be the one where you pick up your feet and land them directly under your center of mass. So when you are running (or walking for that matter) with just the light crunching sound of compressing directly down on the leaves without any of the scuffing sounds, your stride will be very good.

Also, it's just fun to run through autumn leaves.

Give it a try next time you're out.

Here's a little running music, "The Hunt" from Azam Ali and Niyaz.

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A Paleolithic Athletic Drink

And all around great food that most people have never heard of.

There is a food that at one time was prized from central California to Texas, from Colorado to Central Mexico. It was a staple of the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe from the Palos Verdes area of southern California, The Chumash collected it as far north as San Louis Obispo County. The Hopi and Zuni used it as a travel food, the Apache collected it wherever they found it.

Amongst the Native peoples of Mexico it was considered so valuable that the Aztecs paid their taxes with it.

The Gabrielinos called it "Pashi", the Chumash knew it as "Ilepesh", I'm told the Mayan name for the plant meant "that which gives strength", the Aztecs adopted it as "Chian" which meant "oily". The Latin names for the plant are Salvia columbariae and Salvia Hispanica.

Until recently we knew of this plant only through late night commercials and the jokes about them. I am of course talking about the Chia Plant and chia seeds, the original Native American super food.

When I started doing research on foods that supported healthy blood sugar levels I found many references to it as as one of the most promising, and I was reminded of having had it as a treat when I was a child.

Until the book "Born to Run" was published, it was likely that most people didn't even know the chia seed was edible, let alone good for you unless they were close to South Western Native or Mexican cultures.

As it turns out, the humble chia seed can help normalize your blood sugar, lower your cholesterol and blood pressure, help prevent heart disease, as well as help you lose significant weight. It will also most likely make you smarter. The seed is very high in Omega-3 fatty acids especially alpha-Linolenic acid. It is also quite high in antioxidants as well, and has complete protein.

Here is a breakdown of chia as a nutrient. This is calculated for one ounce of chia seeds, which is about two tablespoons worth.




An ounce of chia has a glycemic load of "1" and is mildly anti-inflammatory.

You can get a pretty in depth nutritional analysis here. This is a good article on chia seed for diabetics.

Back in the day, Apache warriors would keep a bag of chia seeds on their belt when on the trail. This was preferred over any other food because it was light, compact, and could be eaten right out of the bag with no cooking at all. It doesn't taste like much, but chia and water can keep you going for weeks if need be.

There are many ways to use chia as a food, and I will go over a few of them here.

First though, for those people who have sisters who like to drink pancake batter-like substances when they run, we have Chia Fresca.

Chia Fresca is my answer to Gatorade and all the other so called "energy drinks" out there. (All of which are not fit for human consumption as far as I am concerned).

Here is my recipe.

In a one liter bottle:

fill half way with good water

add three tablespoons of dry chia seeds and stir (or shake, with the lid on of course) until the seeds are mixed well with the water.

Add the fresh juice of two limes, (with the pulpy bits from making the juice).

Add one packet of Alacer Electro-Mix.

Add one level teaspoon of MSM powder.

fill the bottle the rest of the way with water.

Sweeten to taste.

Put the lid and and shake like crazy, then let it sit in the fridge for a half hour or so.

When I make this and I know I'm having a light workout day I use stevia as a sweetener. If I will be working out hard enough to need serious calorie replacement I will sweeten the mix with agave syrup. (very low glycemic index for a sweetener)

The MSM helps support joint health and also seems to convince your body's cells to be a bit more permeable (and thus fight insulin resistance).

The chia seeds will absorb about nine times their weight in water as they sit in the bottle. After a half hour or so the will form a gel around themselves and you will have what looks a bit like a liter bottle full of frog's eggs in swamp water.

This stuff will rehydrate you very quickly and give you calories from real food rather than from "high fructose corn syrup", and it won't spike your blood sugar. I have found nothing better for long runs or bike rides. (it also tastes good and is fun to drink)

Now that athletes have found out about chia fresca you can find all manner of articles on the web about how great it is.

Here's another recipe that uses chia.

Ilaká'its'éé Sélt'sé (Apache Sunflower Cakes)

2 cups of raw, shelled sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon of salt
1 rounded tablespoon of chia seeds
4 tablespoons of blue corn meal (or other heritage corn)
1/2 cup of water
a little cooking oil

Stir the chia seeds into 1/2 cup of water and set aside for about a half hour so that the seeds form a gel.

Place the sunflower seeds in a pan with the teaspoon of salt and just cover with water. Cook at a low boil for six minutes then take the pan off the stove and let it cool.

Place the seeds along with any water left from the cooking in a good blender or food processor and grind them into a paste.

Place the paste in a bowl and add the corn meal, stir well. Now add the chia gel and mix it into the batter. Chia gel will bind ingredients as well as gluten or egg, so it is a great substitute for anyone who is vegetarian and wheat intolerant.

Bring a lightly oiled cast iron skillet to a medium heat.

Scoop out a rounded tablespoon of the batter, form it into a patty and place it on the skillet, use your spatula to flatten the patty a bit more. Repeat until your skillet it full.

Cook until both sides are golden brown.

Serve warm or cool.

If people have an interest I'll post some other recipes that involve chia as time allows.

Meatless Pemmican

Making your own trail/workout food

One of the problems I have run into as an "endurance" athlete is that most of what is used to fuel oneself on the trail might as well be poison for what it does to my blood glucose.

The modern gels, goos and power bars are designed to dump a lot of calories into your system VERY quickly. This is hard enough on your metabolism if it is "normal" but for a diabetic, It's way too much.

So I have taken to making my own trail/running foods and drinks and testing them to make sure that I get sustained calories that are released at a sane pace and real nutrients to boot.

One of my favorite running foods is "meatless pemmican". Pemmican is a traditional Native American food that contains fat, protein, and carbohydrates. It has been used since forever as a travel ration and as a food that can be easily stored for months. As a ration it can keep you going for weeks. Along with a little pinole and beans, people have walked from one side of America to the other with pemmican as their main food source.

Traditionally, the protein in pemmican comes from dried meat, and the fat is rendered from bone marrow. Being as the quality of commercial meat is more than a little dubious, and I am not set up to properly dry the wild meat I get, I have developed this recipe that is vegetarian, (vegan even)

You will need

Piñones (pine nuts) 1/2 cup
Pepitas (pumpkin seeds, hulled) 1/2 cup
Almonds 1/2 cup
Pecans 1/4 cup
Dried Cherry 1/2 cup
Dried Blueberry 1/4 cup
Dried Apricot 1/2 cup
Dried Apple 1/2 cup
Salt 1 tsp
Coconut Oil 1 tsp

Note: the best pine nuts are from the "Pinus Edulis" (Colorado Pinion Pine) and are harvested mostly in New Mexico. A quick Google search will turn up several sources. Any of the other pine nuts will do in a pinch though. CostCo sells a large bag for a very good price.

The first thing you will need to do is dry roast the Piñones and Pepitas. I use a wok, but a cast iron frying pan works as well, or an oven for that matter, though it is a bit harder to get the right roast in my experience.



I roast the seeds very lightly, just enough to improve the flavor. If you want an all raw food you can eliminate this step, But I don't think it tastes as good.

At the end of the roasting, when the seeds have taken on a light golden color, I add one rounded teaspoon of coconut oil to the pan and stir it until the seeds are covered in the oil.


Next, add the seeds, as well as any other nuts you are using (almonds etc) and the salt to a food processor.. (one of the great inventions of the 20th century)

And grind them into a fine meal.

Then add your dried fruit.
Note on dried fruit: Be sure to read the labels when you get your dried fruit. Much of the commercial stuff has sugar added, which is really unnecessary (and potentially harmful). I get my fruit from the local healthfood store which sells certified organic with no sugar added.

Grind everything together. You may need to stop and use a spoon to get the mis off the side of the processor as it tends to be a bit sticky at this point.

Cut sheets of wax paper into appropriate size take a couple of spoons of the mix and shape it into a bar.

Wrap the bar tightly. When you have enough, seal them in an air tight bag or other container. If you keep them in a freezer they will stay fresh like this pretty much forever.

You can experiment with different seeds and nuts to develop a flavor that pleases you. I will sometimes add sunflower seeds, chia seeds or ground flax seed to the mix with good result.

Note: If you are diabetic avoid using dates. Date sugar has a higher glycemic index than glucose (date sugar is 103 to 106, glucose is 100) Dates will always spike my blood sugar.

There you have it, a trail food that will keep you going all day, that tastes good and that most children think is great.

If you try this do let me know what you think.