The softest, bestest fluffy kitties I have personally seen

Okay, this isn't about anything fluffy or feline. It's about the amount of information on CBC.ca about fitness, diet, sleep and, indeed anything health related. The timing of these news items is interesting in that many of us are thick into our new year's resolutions and so these news items will be well read.

Canadians, it seems, are hungry for information. According to one of the CBC.ca articles, about 41% of Canadians are turning to the Internet for medical and health information. Experts are referring to this trend of trusting Internet medical advice as consulting "Dr. Google". Now, I have no problems whatsoever in doing medical research. I research health issues myself and have learned a lot about MS, diet, exercise and a whole host of other matters. However, I don't take any information I find online as gospel. Internet medical information is not a substitute for consulting an actual, genuine, carbon-based human medical doctor, I feel.

Another disturbing statistic circulating around CBC.ca these days is that a mere 12% of children are getting the recommended 90 minutes of daily exercise. Twelve percent! But then, look at the role models. According to this same news item, most adults are only getting about 2 hours per week of exercise; nowhere near the recommended 60 minutes per day. So, to address this alarming situation, the national guidelines for fitness are being - uh - changed (read: reduced). Now, kids will be encouraged to get a mere 60 minutes per day with the role model adults being equally encouraged to get 150 minutes per week. Per week. Presumably, lowering the bar will - somehow - encourage people to get more exercise. Maybe a lot of people felt that the current guidelines were too stringent and made everyone feel like failures. Personally, I have never met any fitness standards. I do what I can do as do we all...but a healthy goal is just that, a goal and no one will expel you from the human race because you only got 140 minutes of exercise last week. Lowering the standards will only result in more people doing less because there is less to achieve. Think about it in this way - would you feel comfortable visiting a doctor who got 51% in Biology? Sure, she or he would have met the standards but are those standards good enough?

The good news (of course there is good news) lies in this article. Here we see an article describing what to look for when studying the nutritional assay of food items which we all do to some degree. Specifically, we are given set amounts of nutrients and chemicals to look for and in what amounts. What the article does not seem to mention, however, is serving size. One of the commenters does mention the need to consider serving sizes and I think that is a very wise point. Susan Powter, author of the book Stop the Insanity, well known nutrition and fitness guru from the 1990s had emphasized the issue of portion sizes. If, for instance, you want to eat a slice of ham which has 18 calories in it and only 1 gram of fat that translates to 9 calories or 50% of the total calorie count coming from fat. "PER SLICE", she would shout and she was right. Portion control has been a lost cause since 7-11 came up with a drink called the "Big Gulp". Anyone else remember that one? Either you and twelve of your closest friends could have your thirst quenched (and share cold sores if you wanted to) or else you could only drink the whole thing if you had a bladder the size of a soccer ball.

So, here we are, January 2011 and armed with lots of nutritional and health information. What do we do about it? Personally, I think we should do with this information what we do with all information - take it with a grain of salt. If I eat a balanced diet and a variety of foods from the food groups; if I drink water (and not a Big Gulp's worth either) and stay hydrated; if I make it a point to balance rest/sleep with a good walk as often as I can then I don't have to concern myself with fitness guidelines or worry about whether I'm getting enough sleep at night.

Finally, it's important to keep in mind that guidelines are just that - they're guidelines not hard-lines which, if not met, will spell your imminent doom before breakfast tomorrow. Lowering guidelines won't fool anyone into getting more exercise; you can't bribe, cajole or otherwise guilt anyone into getting more or even any exercise. The key here, is to take small steps and make small adjustments. Good work takes time so let's just give ourselves that time.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the title. I had mentioned to Adam that I was going to write another blog post. He asked what the subject was this time and I said it would be about health, fitness and nutrition (or something along those lines). I then reassured him that it would be topical and that it wouldn't be about something irrelevant like 'fluffy kitties I have liked'. So, in the spirit of humour, I gave this blog post a totally irrelevant name but kept to my promised topic. However, I have also included a picture of our late cat, Zuby. She was a long haired and very fluffy cat with a nasty snarling disposition...but she was still really fluffy anyway!

A few words on health and lifestyle

It was inevitable, I suppose. People everywhere, inspired by the connotations of a new year, embark on improving their health. Lots of people promise to join gyms to shed all those unwanted kilos and improve their fitness levels. Equally do these same people vow to eat better, to take up healthier hobbies, to quit smoking and to take better care of their sleeping habits. The research on these issues is both plentiful and conclusive: taking good care of your bodies will go far in staving off a lot of diseases. This is all good, of course, and for those who have chosen to embrace better health, indeed your lives will improve, you'll feel better, fitter, less stressed and will probably sleep a little better too.

So, why is it that we're not a much healthier nation overall? According to a recently published news item, roughly two thirds of the Canadian population is overweight. This was stated by Dr. Arya Sharma of the University of Alberta and after having examined information from Statistics Canada. I won't delve too deeply into the news item itself; you can click on the link and read it yourself if you haven't already. For me, what's both important about this issue and what appears to be lacking somewhat in the news item is the psychology of this problem and, yes, it is a problem.

I have my own thoughts and opinions on the matter and they're mostly related to how our society doesn't value health nearly as much as it purports.

Specifically, ours is a world in which we value results in the shortest time. We want it all and we want it now, as personified in the stereotypical boss who wants it yesterday. Thus, vigour and unquestioning devotion to results is praised. You can call it competition and it is - those who turn in results the soonest get the prize. However, that perpetual mindset can easily backfire when it comes to health. Witness the level of vigour and unquestioning devotion to the gym membership one has recently acquired. Newly made uber-athletes set out goals which, frankly, are often unattainable. It's because we want results instantly, or even yesterday. We completely fail to understand that overweight and obesity don't happen overnight so it's equally silly to assume (let alone expect) that one can shed excess weight in so short a time. That's not to say we shouldn't set the attainment and maintenance of a healthy weight as a goal but it is to say that those goals should be reasonable and we should not generally expect to reach any lasting weight loss goals in three weeks.

Another factor to consider, imho, is a certain sense of shame that many overweight and obese people feel about their condition. While the standards of feminine beauty are changing, they still tend to reflect a certain unreality. True, the buxom beauties of women like Marilyn Monroe or Jane Mansfield are no longer de rigueur and the stick figures of Twiggy and Calista Flockhart are now parodied. However, there is still the pervasive notion that whatever you look like isn't good enough...for...what... We are still stuck on the idea of merely looking good and not of being healthy.

We like the idea of progress. I think we've become addicted to speed and convenience. We want our computers to run faster and faster, we want our line-up to move the quickest and we want our food ready to eat this instant. We're prepared to pay the price for that desire; faster computers cost more and I'm sure grocery stores have to jack up their prices to pay, in part, for the convenience of being open 24/7 or for having that express check out lane. Collectively, we see this as social progress and as some kind of human birthright.

But I have to admit that with the data before us - and we've all seen it - it gets pretty tough to believe that discounts on gym memberships and gyms themselves that are open 24/7 will be seen as more convenient than the new pizza place that just opened up the street. We're creatures of convenience and so with gym attendance getting easier, that itself is set against the fact that it's even easier to just zip out to that nearby convenience store and get that extra ginormous bag of chips, get home and plunk ourselves onto the sofa to watch a re-run of that show we missed.

It all adds up. Tied together, we have a fat, unwell society with rising obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer rates. I often wonder if medical advances to increase our lifespans are being outstripped by the trips to fast food outlets we make in our SUVs because three blocks is just too far to walk.

I'm not being judgemental here either. How many of us have been inundated with ads for restaurants that are now "open in 6 new locations near you" or open 24 hours with free delivery and in locations that have huge parking lots "for your convenience". It is now possible for many of us to zip out at 0 dark hundred hours to the nearest grocery store and buy a box of Corn Flakes...or a table top sized chocolate bar...thus depriving ourselves of precious sleep so that we are too tired to go to the gym. Of course, this is what a lot of people come to expect, isn't it? There seems to be this idea of 'quick to commit, quick to fail' and that only makes things worse, I feel. So, now we have the person who is gung ho to lose excess weight, eat better and otherwise take better care of himself only to lapse into old habits some three months later. How tired and defeated that person would feel.

I'm not blaming anyone either. It's not about blame. It's about setting sensible goals, taking small but steady steps towards improving one's health and running counter to that social norm that demands instant results.

Small steps made frequently bring big results.

New Year resolutions

When the new year begins is arbitrary - where's the start point of a circle? However, our society selects January 1st as the first day of the new year and, with that, comes a few traditions. Some people start to take down the Christmas lights and even put their Christmas trees at the end of their driveways for recycling. There is also the tradition of making new year's resolutions and I'm far from being exempt from that habit.
Every new year I set out goals for myself, from dietary to fitness to spiritual to the more practical. So, for 2011, my dietary and fitness goals revolve around reducing the amount of bodily inflammation I have. I don't mean such sundry things as scraped knees though I'd like to avoid that, too. By bodily inflammation, I am referring to a more chronic, low grade bodily systemic inflammation.
In their book Ultraprevention Drs. Mark Liponis and Mark Hyman offer sensible advice and well researched information on many of the health problems facing western civilization today. Liponis and Hyman, both medical doctors, address the connection between lifestyle and the development of health problems. There is something intuitive about the idea of mind-body connection but now the research seems to bear this out. As I have MS and as MS involves an inflammatory response to the activation of my already overactive immune system, the issue of strategies was of particular interest to me. Liponis and Hyman state, "...Unfortunately, this protective mechanism of our immune system also has dangerous secondary effects on our bodies. The result of this inflammatory response by the immune system is unfortunately damage to many different organs in our bodies, as well as our circulatory system itself, because our immune system is an integral part of each and every organ in our body as well as being in the bloodstream itself..."(1)Also, "...In the case of chronic inflammation, a safer strategy may be to employ anti-inflammatory nutritional and lifestyle changes that can help to reduce inflammation..." Always one for these kinds of challenges and as January 1st approaches, I thought it best to resolve to include more anti inflammatory foods into my already cautious diet. In fact, I'm currently enjoying a nice cuppa mint green tea (green tea alone is, to me, undrinkable).
As I like to set fitness goals, I resolve this winter season to get 100 kilometres of skiing done. I've already got 19 kilometres so far and I'd be out there right now but for the lack of snow. Oh, and the windchill is a bone numbing 2000watts/m^2, aka TOO BLASTED COLD IN THE WIND. However, the season is still young so I'm not worried...yet. My other fitness goal for 2011 is to trike 100 kilometres in one outing. I did 80 this year and lived to tell the tale.
The role of exercise in keeping chronic inflammation down has been very well researched. Specifically, "...that improvements in glucose metabolism were associated with decreases in cytokine concentrations during weight loss programs..." (3) This conclusion was made from having studied overweight and obese post menopausal women and while I am none of the above need to be just as careful. My new year also promises to be spritually enriching for me as I will be more involved with the Ottawa Buddhist Society. I have found the OBS in particular and Buddhism in general to be so helpful to me, especially when I'm convinced that I will be forever 10 kilometres from home and I'm exhausted and hungry and need to go pee... Buddhism has helped me to put things into perspective a little more easily and you can't go wrong there! Thus, in '11, I resolve to immerse myself into a deeper spirituality; the environment is so supportive and caring that it can only be good for everyone involved.
Finally, even though I'm looking at the crusty layer of snow and ice covering my back yard, I have already got plans for my little garden. Try as we might (and we did), we just cannot grow vegetables in the back yard. The work and care put into the venture just seem to outstrip the fruits of our labours - literally and figuratively. I grew tomatoes last year and, despite the healthy lush green stalks, only got about 10 tomatoes from two plants. I planted two packets of sugar snap peas last year and got mediocre results...
...however, the herbs I grew last year were incredible. We had a really good crop of sweet basil, thyme, marjoram, Egyptian parsley, oregano and chives. So, we will be growing only herbs in '11. What we harvested from '10, we dried and will continue to use in soups and stews. So my practical resolution in '11 is to grow some healthy herbs. I've already got the back yard plotted out and know what is going to go where. We only need for the spring to eventually come.
In the meantime, I am enjoying the day, grateful to be living it and hoping we get some more snow soon. I've only gone skiing three times this season, I'm up for more...May you all have a good new year's holiday and an awesome 2011!

(1) (2)
http://www.ultraprevention.com/prevention/heat.htm

(3)
http://www.wwu.edu/depts/healthyliving/PE511info/infection/exercise.html

Opportunities - it's what you see in 'em.

Well, today is the winter solstice here in Canada - and, indeed, anywhere north of the equator. Last night was also the December Esbat (full moon) and, lo, a total lunar eclipse. Astrologers and even the media made it a point to let us know just how odd it is to have a total lunar eclipse right up against the solstice...as though those two events coinciding actually means anything significant.

For me and Adam, the eclipse meant an opportunity. He set up the digital camera and the tripod so that at the time of maximum totality, we would be ready to take as many pictures as we comfortably could. Snapping pictures of an eclipsed moon would involve opening the window which, in December, would not have been a cozy prospect. Still, it was an opportunity not to be missed.

We missed it.

It isn't that we couldn't drag our sorry behinds out of bed at 03:something-ghastly in the morning but that the low clouds we had noted before going to bed were still hanging in there. Now, at 07:01, I have the time to consider that our having missed last night's total lunar eclipse wasn't so much a lost opportunity to see this wonderful event but an opportunity to sleep all through the night. This has major implications for me as a both x-c skiier and cyclist.

I have had it expressed to me in the past that my having MS must make it easy for me to get a lot of sleep. MS is an incredibly fatiguing illness and if I had to pick just one symptom that negatively affects me the most I'd have to say it's the fatigue. However, fatigue doesn't necessarily mean sleepy and many are the nights where I toss and turn and wake regularly so getting a good night's sleep is both a gift and quite rare.

For me to be at my best, physically, I need to be well rested just like everyone else does. Think about how you feel when you're not well rested; cranky, muddy-headed, impatient, pain-more-easily-felt, et cetera. If I haven't been able to sleep properly, no matter why that is, then the chances of me being able to cycle, ski or even read a book where I understand it are similarly reduced.

So, while I am certainly disappointed for having missed the opportunity to see last night's total lunar eclipse, even if it was due to the overcast skies, I at least took the opportunity to get that much more rest. Now, today, I can head out on foot and get some exercise. We still don't have much in the way of snow though there is some in the forecast (for now), but at least the skiing conditions haven't deteriorated as far as I can tell. If I can ski, I can stay fit for the trike season. For me, it's a matter of seeing the chance when it shows itself and taking the opportunity to just do it!

complementary activities in a winter funderland...

The weather outside is...

...snowy, which is awesome. Indeed, the EC radar for here is showing what looks like a snowy streamer making a beeline for Ottawa. It's not like the mountains of snow they're getting in the UK but any amount for our purposes is good.

I'm writing this over a breakfast of rice, my just emptied cup of coffee still sending light waves of hazelnut vanilla through the air. The type of snow that's falling right now is the really lovely kind, too. Great big fluffy potato chip flakes are tumbling through the silence of Sunday morning.

We went cross country skiing yesterday. We gathered our skis and poles and sauntered over to our beloved Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetlands. Ever since the city both expanded the trail network and improved what was there already, I had been chomping at the bit to find out how the skiing would be. Ever since we became aware of this very-close-to-home gem, we had always made it a point to go there as regularly as possible and that included for skiing. Last winter, I only managed to get out twice and that was before Christmas. Afterwards, the weather just wasn't good for skiing. Adam managed to go there a few more times by himself but even he admitted the conditions just weren't the best.

So, we went out yesterday afternoon and did some trail setting as no one else had been there recently. Oh, we did see tire tracks and footprints - some of which weren't human - but as far as we knew, we were the only ones on skis. We wound up skiing from the southern entrance to the SCCW all the way up to the Walkley transit station and back - 5 kilometres. This morning our plan is to do that trip twice. Given the amount of preparation necessary, such as waxing one's skis and the elaborate ritual of layering clothes for the trek, it's really best to do as many kilometres as possible. That's the plan anyway.

Soo...what does this have to do with catriking? Well, I really don't like not being physically active in at least some manner. I get such a big kick out of my catrike that I really prefer to be in as good a physical condition for the season as possible. Since we don't catrike in the winter, neither of us wants to get out of shape for spring. So, we make it a point to have two utterly perfectly complementary activities so that we always stay in a good shape. I use the long catriking season to prepare for the cross-country ski season and the cross-country ski season to prepare for the catriking season.

It's still snowing and I still like it. When I hit the trails again today, I will thoroughly enjoy them knowing that I am in training for catriking season '11.

**********Later, as in, after a good lunch**********

Well, we did 7 kilometres and not the 10 I had originally said. Lots of reasons, mostly to do with me getting tired from the extra duty upper body workout. This is what happens when one waxes too cold!

In the catriking world, there really isn't much of an analogy. If the tires are pumped up properly and one isn't riding on several centimetres of mashed potatoes then conditions shouldn't be too - uh - challenging. Cross country skiing is different...but at least we got good exercise. Gotta keep those arms and legs in good shape for cycling, right?

When they build it...

...we will be there.

The triking season is certainly done for the year. We have a few centimetres of dry snow that have been whipped about by the really high winds we have had as of late. We have some more snow in the forecast and so my thoughts are now mostly on the hoped for cross country ski conditions.

We do the vast majority of our cross country skiing in the nearby Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetlands, a simple series of pathways located about 400 metres from our house. We often go for walks there throughout the year as well as ski there so it's a useful facility for us year-round. Indeed, this past summer, the City of Ottawa extended the pathways so that users can easily get to the Walkley transit station. That's good news for us as it gives us more places to trike, walk and, at this time of year,

ski. However, the pathway system at the SCCW is still a closed loop. It doesn't allow for easy access from any nearby neighbourhoods...until now, that is.

The Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetlands are located where Hunt Club Road meets with Airport Parkway. It's kind of wedged in between Airport Parkway, a busy road leading into the city from the airport - hence the name - and the South Keys shopping centre. As it's a wetland, bird species like red winged blackbirds, the ubiquitous gulls and a few graceful looking herons are common there. However, it's also a recreational area for joggers, dog walkers and cyclists...and the city is moving to expand its use.

Enter, the bridge. We learned of the city's plan to construct a bridge to join the Hunt Club Community to South Keys and then learned of the public information session held last night - December 7th. City engineers and planners came out to the Hunt Club-Riverside Community Centre, set up a series of information panels in a medium sized gymnasium and were available to answer any questions members of the public may have had.

The information panels consisted, in large part, of descriptions of the project. Such descriptions must have been written by marketing people as promises were made that users of the bridge would feel nothing less than "delighted". Mostly, I just wanted to see what this bridge would look like, who would use it and how it would open the community to cyclists and pedestrians.

The bridge, as yet unnamed, is supposed to start around Cahill West, rise and cross Airport Parkway only to settle back onto the SCCW pathway. Hypothetically, it should both connect residents in the Hunt Club West community to the South Keys shopping centre and provide users a way to get to the shopping centre and transit stations there without having to negotiate the rather busy Hunt Club Road. It should also allow people who live in South Keys and points east (I'm thinking Greenboro) to cycle to Hog's Back for the ever-welcome Alcatel/Lucent Sunday bike days, again, without having to negotiate busy roads like Hunt Club. The bridge won't replace the use of such roads for cyclists but it will provide an alternative, and that's its job.

The bridge should also make it easier for pedestrians and cyclists alike to access the South Keys transit station. The plans include the building of a shiny new tunnel connecting the wetlands to the transitway station's lower level pedestrian underpass. This also means the dismantling of the old, crumbling tunnel that is currently there. Two doors at the west end of the transit station will allow entry of both cycles and wheelchairs. As well, a ramp of no more than 5 degrees and hugging the South Keys station will allow people to gain access to the transit platform itself. The gentle slope will make this both cycle and wheelchair accessible. This is put in place to accommodate the difference in elevation between the South Keys transit station and the wetlands. Right now, hardy walkers need to first hop over a railing, negotiate a fairly steep drop from the transit station to the wetlands, as strewn with rocks, bushes and the odd tree root just to make the whole process interesting. Oh, did I mention the "Keep Out - this means YOU" sign that is both present and thoroughly ignored? Currently, it is not possible to bring a bike through and the new tunnel promises to fix that.

The bridge won't really do much for us. It's just as easy for us to ride the short distance (and it is short) along Hunt Club to reach places like Hog's Back or Colonel By Drive. It will provide an easier way for us to access the Hunt Club community's roads like Cahill West, Plante and McCarthy. Mostly, it'll just be one more cycle friendly route for us and others to explore.

I know the title of this blog entry is a play on the oft-used phrase "If you build it, they will come!" but, according to the city councillor for the area, Maria McRae, it isn't a matter of "if" but "that". The bridge's construction costs (estimated at around $5 million dollars) have been accounted for in the city's budget and the bridge itself is scheduled for completion around this time next year. Unfortunately, that means that we won't be able to try it out for the 2011 cycle season but it should be wide open to the public for the 2012 season.

The local paper, Ottawa This Week, has a write-up.

Segregated lanes?

Well, here I sit sipping a cup of coffee and watching the closest thing to lake-effect snow squalls that Ottawa gets. Actually, if the wind and moisture profile is just right, Ottawa can get some pretty good snow squalls though I readily concede that they're nothing like the kind places like Barrie or Trenton get. If you drive up the 400 from Toronto to Barrie you will pass a number of big yellow road signs warning of potential sudden white out conditions due to lake effect snow squalls.

It isn't called the snow belt for no reason!

We have had a couple of little snowfalls over the past few weeks or so and we now have a good 2 or 3 centimetres draped on everything. With the prospect of a few more snow squalls drifting through here it would seem that ski season is not too far off - but it also means that the triking season is done.

So that leaves us the prospective good winter's worth of x-c skiing, likely at the Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetlands whose trail system the city had expanded earlier this year (yay!). It also leaves me to watch for news items about cycling. With the city of Ottawa having just elected a new mayor, one who is purportedly extremely pro-cycling, Adam and I were more than pleased to learn of a proposed dedicated bike lane on Laurier Avenue. Of course, the article in question seems to be just as focused on how the BIA feels about a segregated bike lane on Laurier. It seems to me, though, that the BIA feel as though they own Laurier Avenue and that anything even remotely different from what they, personally, want is tantamount to a declaration of war.

Come on, what kind of garbage is that? Since when does making business easier to get to by cyclists cause serious problems? I would think that business could be boosted by a comparatively slow moving cyclist who could then take the time to actually look at a business rather than zooming past in a faster travelling car or truck.

In my mind, this amounts to nothing more than mere NIMBYism. The proposed plan addresses the concerns of business owners as far as such matters as access is concerned but the real issue here is how the city of Ottawa can improve accessibility for ALL people, not just motor vehicle drivers. Page 4 of the plan (it's a .pdf so keep that in mind if you click on the link) clearly states that,

"Emergency vehicle access, access to off-street loading zones, and access to building entrances and parkades are all maintained." (italics mine)

Unfortunately, this kind of having-to-justify-improved-access-to-businesses is exactly what's wrong with a lot of cycling and car problems. The fact is that bicycles of any description and cars do not mix well on roads and a large part of the reason for that is simply to do with visibility. My own experience has been that car drivers don't so much loathe having to share the road with cycles as that they simply do not see us on the road and that when they do see us they cannot know what we are going to do. In that respect, I can't blame car drivers for, what would you think if you saw a cyclist beat on down the road, hop onto a sidewalk, zip into a parking lot using the exit lane, run stop signs, sail through red lights and travel the wrong way on roads? My own thoughts on this are that the building and designating of segregated bike lanes can and will do so much to solve a lot of those problems. I'm not saying such a resource will stop any and all dumb shit some cyclists do but it will significantly reduce the occurrences. It would also reduce or even eliminate the reason for doing dumb things in the first place. Ask cyclists who are riding on the sidewalk why they do that and a lot will tell you that it's too dangerous to be on the road (which is BS, by the way, as evidenced by the large numbers of cyclists who do use the road and live to tell the tale) or that it's a lot more convenient. If the city builds a whole, connected system of roads with segregated bike lanes, this problem goes away.

But it requires a shift in behaviour on the part of cyclists and, more tellingly from the article on Laurier Avenue, a serious shift in understanding the realities of higher fuel prices, the fact that some people are choosing to give up their cars and do everything on bike and the fact that at least a few people are choosing to improve their own health by cycling instead of driving. I'm looking at you, BIA, so don't pretend I'm talking to someone else.

As for me, well, my trike is, for all intents and purposes, parked for the winter. I won't take it out again until next spring and only after a good rain washes away all the salt that this city likes to dump on everything. I will continue to write about cycling issues, including a few goodies like maybe some trail mix recipes or just some musings about prospective triking trips while slogging away trying to break a new trail in the wetlands after a good dumping of snow.

-Peace