Food

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Sandi LoConti

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan

That’s pretty much what it comes down to but somehow life gets in the way. Enter a little fireball named June with a quick wit and a way of pausing before giving you the answer to some questions you never even knew you had and you start to put things in perspective. Because yes that’s another thing it comes down to. What is it? One’s relationship with food of course. Because it’s never about the food and yet it’s always about the food… How the hell to get around that lovely paradox.

Agatha Christie once said “when engaged in eating, the brain should be the servant of the stomach.” For me it was not about the eating but about the hunger recognition which led to a scene out of a Snickers commercial. I can go until I’m shaky, sweaty and hangry so consider yourself forewarned. The number one way to start dissecting the paradox is to reset the barometer by listening to your needs, what a concept.

There is a hunger scale that starts at you’re so hungry you’ll eat anything and goes through to you’re painfully full and may even feel sick. Throughout our weekend at Green Mountain at Fox Run we were privy to the pendulum effect. There is a balance to everything they give you but a recognition that you’re probably not operating in that balance. The hunger scale is a perfect example, balance begins at you feel you’re getting hungry and it’s time to think about what to eat and ends at totally satisfied; hunger is gone and you won’t be hungry for hours.

What they provide are delicious meals, snacks, a hunger hutch, amazing well water from the tap, coffee, tea and condiments. What they don’t provide is a list of what you should and shouldn’t eat. People come looking to be told what to eat, to be controlled in what they think is an uncontrollable situation. But at GMFR they are not the boss of you…you can be trusted, you know yourself better than they do, you are in charge of your own possibilities.

What they also provide is the science you need to understand your gut, your relationship with food and the food itself. Michael Pollan also said, you are what what you eat eats. Do you know what you’re eating eats? Cheetos never ate anything…see what they’re saying. A fabulous Vermont Cheddar on the other hand…

I am a foodie and a fabulous cook. I have never been one for Cheetos or any really highly processed foods. My sister lovingly…refers to me as Sister Nuts and Berries but even with real food you can get to that point of overeating because you’ve starved yourself albeit unknowingly. And speaking of starving yourself, do you know what your body does when it doesn’t know when it’s going to get its next meal? It SAVES EVERYTHING….can a sista win?

Yes, a sista can win through mindful eating:

Tune into your hunger and appetite.
Focus on the food and how you feel as you eat.
Be aware of the aroma and appearance of the food. If you don’t like it stop eating it.
Eat slowly and savor each bite chewing thoroughly and concentrate on taste, temperature and texture.
Check your level of fullness and degree of satiety. Check for the pause, if you put your fork down check in.
Enjoy the eating experience.

Think it’s going to happen overnight? Ruth Reichl said in Delicious, “I am telling you that if things can change for the worse, the opposite is also true. But only if you open yourself to the possibilities.”

I am at a definite advantage in that I live alone with no others to accommodate, I love to cook so I know exactly what’s going in my food and I’m a pain in the ass if I don’t like something I simply don’t eat it. Not everyone has that advantage.

It would be impossible to relay all the info we received on food and its benefits here in this post. If you walk away with anything it is the balance and the pause you should be concentrating on, not the missteps. Reichl also said in Delicious, “Change works both ways. You must accept those moments, experience them, and let them go. Because if you allow yourself to get stuck in that minute, nothing will ever change.”

Three weeks later I continue to process all the glorious information we received and put it to use as well as I can. I balance my carbs and my proteins and eat a ton more plants. Friday is still pizza night with homemade dough and organic marinara and plain ol mozzarella. I still use butter and a touch of cream in certain things and yes I still enjoy my pinot noir each night. But the shift has come in the timing, the amounts and the complete enjoyment.

“Life itself is the proper binge.” – Julia Child

Movement

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Sandi LoConti

Once upon a time a long time ago when I lived in a third floor walkup with only on street parking, played racquetball at lunch and danced all night I was incredibly fit, shocking I know. The importance of movement at that time was irrelevant, I was having a blast.

Fast forward several decades, I leave it to you to figure out just how many decades, I am round. No doubt you’ve noticed. Through complacency, tumultuous times, yo-yo dieting and a lack of motivation I have become…round. I go back and forth between how the hell did this happen and it is what it is. No it’s not…and I know exactly how this happened. Now what to do?

Enter the best kept secret in Vermont, I’m pretty sure they really don’t want to be the best kept secret so look here, and life as I know it is changed forever. Not overnight, not in the gym, not in boot camp, but in real life, my life. I am beginning where I am, what a concept.

LynnAnn Covel is the dynamo leading the fitness department. She is trained in several areas of expertise and has been at Green Mountain at Fox Run for the last 26 years, well here you read it:

An energetic and inspirational leader, she heads up our fitness department, lending her own special touch and motivational skills to help women learn to love physical activity. Through her personal training and L.I.F.E. (Lifestyle Integration for Empowerment) program, LynnAnn provides personalized fitness programs and strategies needed to facilitate changes that make all the difference in “taking it home and making it work.”

Here’s the thing about LynnAnn, you would never know that she’s been at this for the last 26 years. She brings a freshness to each day, she has an amazing sense of humor that goes right to the crux of what you think you want to use as an excuse and her pragmatism leaves you thinking, well shit of course I can do this…

Add to that the now famous LynnAnnisms and you’re pretty much set:

Your pace is THE pace.

Something is better than nothing.

I’m doing this for me and no one can take it away.

I’ve been playing around with functional fitness as a way to incorporate movement into some of the many things I do all day. Things like walking the dog, really walking the dog. She’s not that happy about it especially on the weekends when we continue up the hill instead of making the right. Things like stretching when we get back using the porch steps, she sits on the step above where I’m stretching and gets a cookie at the end. She’s beginning to like that part.

I found myself watching my Nutriblast whirring around for the minute it takes and thought I’ll do pushups against the sink while I’m waiting. I do squats to get the clothes out of the washer and dryer (front loaders).

I took my first yoga class at GMFR and loved it. Imagine looking out a huge cathedral window at Okemo as the sun sets and the candles scattered around the room come into their own as your first class. I mean really is that a tough act to follow or what? Best I can do is sun salutation right out of bed. But hey, something is better than nothing, am I right LynnAnn?

She stresses finding something that will work for you on a personal level, something you enjoy, some way to make it work. We had a bit of a mindfulness walk one morning and I couldn’t help equating that to my photo walks. When I’m behind my camera I’m so busy looking around that I lose track of time. God knows how many steps later I feel like I got my fitness in without even noticing.

We practiced ti chi one morning which I thoroughly enjoyed. I took a ti chi class several years ago and really enjoyed it then too but didn’t quite know where to take it after that. I could never remember the sequences so it fell by the wayside. Fast forward, lot of that going on, through the magic of Amazon Prime I’ve downloaded several ti chi classes through TIVO. It’s all just magical this universe I’m living in.

Growing older is inevitable but aging is optional said someone recently, damned if I can remember who, but that resonated with me. That along with something LynnAnn said about saving for your physical future needs to go hand in hand with saving for your financial future. After struggling to recover my financial future I can certainly see the benefit of recovering my physical future as well. My gratitude runs deep…

On our final day in Vermont we took a walk in the woods, it was the only time I felt it appropriate to bring out my camera so enjoy some of these wonderful last moments spent in Okemo State Forrest.

Hope Among the Birch

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Sandi LoConti

They say that following the last Ice Age the robust and weather-hardy birch would have been among the first to re-colonize ice ravaged landscape. In botanical terms, it’s known as a pioneer species. This fact alone makes it perfectly fitting that I found myself among the birch at Green Mountain at Fox Run in view of fabulous Okemo in Ludlow Vermont.

I agreed to accompany my sister but it was increasingly clear the more I read of GMFR the more I couldn’t wait to get there myself. I’m no stranger to issues with weight and I’ve spent the better part of the last seven years developing life strategies but the weight…remained. From their website:

…Over the past four decades, Green Mountain at Fox Run has helped thousands of women end weight loss struggles with eating, exercise and body image, make long-term healthy lifestyle changes and lose weight permanently…

We were part of a four day “intensive science based program” centered around food, movement and mindfulness. Our group was a dozen and a half women of varying backgrounds, sizes and stages of life. I refer to them as the most phenomenal group of love and mess I’ve ever met. They completely filled my heart for so many reasons and though we’ve vowed to keep in touch even if I never hear from them again they will remain in my heart.

I’ve spent the entire past week trying to process my experience last weekend and it has been extremely difficult. The amount of knowledge was staggering, the ah ha moments just kept coming, the movement was diverse and fun and yes you could actually walk the next day, the thought provoking, look inside and discover what serves you and what doesn’t moments were like streaming video. And the food was incredible and delish.

I thought for a split second that I might be able to do “a post” on the experience but it’s impossible to boil it down to just one post. There is just too much to share that is legacy related.

I have to start with the staff. How the hell do you interview for kindness? These are experts in their field with the highest levels of education but at the core they are women helping women. They will fly their hand to their heart in a minute at someone’s tiniest success. They will engage at yet another moment’s notice with anyone showing the slightest bit of courage. They will pop out of their office at the slightest hint of someone in need, whether they are a mother or not they all have that “mother hearing”. Hell they will jump up and send a hug your way if that’s what it’s going to take to cement your first ah ha moment (my sister can attest). As I watched the weekend unfold I came to realize that these were also women with their own stories turned into incredible legacies. They know like they know of what they speak. And so you can’t help but trust the integrity of their word, THAT cannot be contrived. They define living life the way you want your story told. Brava.

Oddly, one of the biggest things I took from this weekend was one of the tiniest things you can do each day, pause. I learned about the natural pauses that occur in almost everything you do. Thousands of times a day you breathe in, breathe out. There is the tiniest pause at the top of the inhale and the bottom of the exhale. If you’ve never considered this you should for it can stop you from any number of things. Not that I remembered to pause this morning as my mother told the same damn story about the time himself brought the dog to her apartment and she (the dog) pooped in the living room….agghhhh. Let it go already… both of us clearly have work to do I laughed on the way home.

Another important natural pause occurs when you’re eating. It is physically impossible to keep at a breakneck pace without pausing, even if you’re starving. Not that I’ve ever been accused of breakneck speed when eating, you didn’t think I heard your eyes roll….did you? Many times you will actually put your fork down and then pick it up again without taking advantage of the pause. What I can be accused of is not paying attention until I’m at shaky, sweaty, hangry, gotta eat or someone will get hurt. You knew it was coming, you’ve seen it.

There is irony in my not being fully aware of the pauses in my life as most of these posts are categorized as pause points. Yes I’m paying attention now.

Suffice to say that over the next few weeks I hope to further process and share what happened on that mountain, as my sister would say, so that you can understand that I am not the same person for having gone to explore what might have been a new “diet” (no such thing, don’t let’em tell you otherwise) and come back validated in my work of the last seven years with hope for an incredibly bright and creative future.