Special time for Daughter & Daddy (aka turn on the waterworks)

Ever since my daughter was 4 months old, I have spent my Wednesday mornings out of my office and with her for the morning while my wife (who runs a psychotherapy practice from our house) saw clients. For a dad who loves his work, but hates leaving my kids every morning, these Wednesday mornings became the highlight of my week. Whether it was the Zoo, Science Center, The Museum, a farm tucked away in the city, or even walking around Costco on a rainy spring morning, this bonding time was critical for both me and my daughter as it filled the needs we each have in our wonderful daddy-daughter relationship.

Last week was her first day at camp (pre-school), and my first Wednesday without a trip to what would have undoubtedly been the zoo or farm
My emotions were mixed.
I was filled with intense pride over how amazing she was starting pre-school, and how well my wife and I had done in parenting and preparing her for this life-transition. Not to mention, I had some time to myself again! I hadn't had that on Wednesdays since she before she was born.

But I felt like I'd lost something special. Granted I go to work each day, and spend most of my time during the week away from my family, but this hurt extra.
I'd listened to my wife reflect on how difficult is was for her having Abby out of the house 3 mornings a week, with someone else caring for them. Now, it felt real to me too.

While I feel sadness over the loss of time with my daughter and reflection at how big she gets and the speed with which she grows up, an amazing new opportunity is going to present itself.
My son is turning 5 months old, and is starting to reach the age when I began my special time with my daughter. He too gets to experience these placing & things for the first time, and I get to watch the excitement that is created when looking at the world with a child's eyes.

Any parent expecting a second one wonders how they could give so much love to a second child. But as they grow and develop their own unique personality & distinctness, Dad's are blessed with the opportunity to build a special life-long and life-determining relationship with their children.

This is why I love being a dad.

1st setback

My calves hurt.
No, that doesn't really do this justice.
My calves hurt, like they've never hurt before. Like someone took a screwdriver, fixed a piano, and then dropped that piano on my calves.
Day 3 was lower body weights, which went really well. I had my new stopwatch (which also controls my ipod remotely- although it kind of reminds me of the 30 Rock episode where someone says that "The lenses on these glasses get darker as my ipod loses power"- regardless it's still super cool), and I moved quickly through it- 52 minutes.
However, this was my first real lower body workout it as long as I can remember. I've done leg exercises a few months ago as part of a routine, but never all leg muscles intensely like this.
And then on day four I got in the pool.
Ah, the pool.
20 minutes intensity interval training in a 50 metre pool was great! Really great. Front crawl & breast stroke. Had my watch on repeating 1-minute timer. Felt OK back at the office. Got a lower body massage from my RMT, and went home.
And that's when the crippling calf pain started.
I guess my legs aren't used to that yet, huh.
Setback= so tired, I didn't journal last night, and slept till 6:30 instead of my weekday goal of 5:30 AM wakeups.
So I'm journalling as soon as I get to the office, and getting back on track.
Today is upper body weights so I'm psyched to hit that for the second time.
1st setback.....

The Body for life challenge

Well I have to thank my patient Theresa for introducing me to the Body For Life Challenge.

Having gained more weight after the birth of child number 2, and putting myself last behind my family and all my practice members- the time came to make a change.

So far, there are 4 people in my office who are participating in this program, and I couldn't be more excited.
My goal is to lose 25 pounds of fat, and gain 10 pounds of muscle.
More importantly, I'm setting the goal of waking up at 5:30 in the morning, planning my days the night before, and re-writing and reviewing my goals everyday.

I'm going to keep track of my progress both here, and on the BFL forum- under the Movestrong BFL Challenge topic listing.

All those taking part, or interested in learning more, please feel free to comment on either spot.
We're here to help each other, so that we all succeed at the challenge and our goals.

Let's all build the habits of Eating strong, breathing strong and Moving strong!

Dr. Adam

Earth Hour and Bob Dylan

Bob dylan said that the way we treat the planet is a reflection of the way we treat ourselves, and it is with this paraphrased quote in mind that I reflect about Earth Hour on Saturday evening.
With great media hype, many of us turned our lights off for one hour (in my case from 8-9pm).
I took that opportunity, while rocking my infant son to sleep, to reflect on what the hour meant to me, and what I could do once the lights came back on at 9 o'clock.
In my city, apparently the power consumption fell by about 5 percent. Now this is clearly not a gigantic amount, especially compared to New Zealand who dropped by over 10%.
However, as the japanese principle of Kaizan says, the journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. And we must ask ourselves what the next simplest step is to saving the planet.
In my opinion, Earth hour served to start creating the habit of turing the electricity off, as well as showing us that we can mobilize together for a good reason to make a difference.
I created a principle called "3 minutes on the floor" to help people create the habit of doing something good for themselves. Many people tell me that they want to stretch, or meditate, or do yoga, or eat better, but they don't have time. My advice begins by getting them to make a commitment to spending 3 minutes every day lying on the ground. During that time they can do something active, reflect on life, or do nothing.
Why 3 minutes? Because everybody has 3 minutes. It's not about quantity, it's about building the habit of breaking yourself away from the TV, or computer, or kitchen, or desk and focussing on yourself.
People who do this consistently are so proud of themselves for sticking to something, even if it is only 3 minutes on the floor, and invariably end up increasing the time to 4, 5, or even 10 minutes.
I know that I felt good about myself for not turning the lights on, and not even listening to my iPod. I increased my level of awareness of how much I consume, thought about where I could cut back, and ways I'd like to be more environmentally conscious. But I also spend an hour in silence, clearing my own head without the hum of the TV. There's currently a miniseries on HBO about John Adams and the founding fathers, and I found myself wondering if they would have gotten as much accomplished if there had been 3 TVs in every house.
So doing something for the planet also meant doing something for me. I think often about Dylan's quote, and think that as more people become conscious of wellness and Naturally Savvy living, they invariably become more environmentally conscious. Bob's a pretty smart guy.
What can you do for yourself and the environment?

How do you think 3 days of "healthy food" made me feel?

Having spent the whole weekend at Lifefest, which is a wonderful show, I reflected on the vast amount of pseudo-green that was being sold to the 30,000 women in attendance.

When working a trade show like that for 3 days, the reality is that your breaks and snacks tend to be the samples that are being given out by the food vendors.
While the good people from Florida Grapefruit were there giving out actual food, the rest was all processed or packaged.
Despite a great number of dietitians in attendance and the "Health check symbol" that was touted by the heart and stroke association, so much of the food was still junky, and would still make you sick over time.

Michael Pollan in his tremendous new book "In Defense of Food" says that most of what we eat isn't food, but "Edible Food-like Substances". Right on Michael.
The Dietitians are touting health-check foods, because they fit in with Canada's food guide. Except just about everything on the food guide's rainbow is a whole or healthy food. Everything they were pushing was canned or boxed. They were even giving out canned soup (a serving of which has on average 700mg of sodium). It's ridiculous.

Dare cookies had a new product called "Simple Pleasures" that had the healthcheck symbol. When I asked what was healthy about it, they said that it had no trans fats. What Bullshit!!
It also has no plastic or poison in it too. It must be really healthy.
Now, there's no question that I had my fair share of samples over the weekend, but I understood that it was a cookie bar.
But don't piss in my ear and tell me it's raining.

I thought about the fact that after eating supposed healthy food all weekend, I felt (nutritionally) like crap by the end of it.
Isn't that ironic.
Shouldn't I have felt fantastic from eating all that healthy food?

Just because it's kosher

While food can be positive in one dietary sense, it isn't necessarily positive in the healthy way.

This weekend, we had a booth at the wonderful Lifefest show down at the Metro Convention Centre, here in Toronto.

One of the major sponsors of the show, Shoppers Drug Mart, had a new organic line of products called NATIVA. Their slogan was "Good for you, good for the environment".
So what products were they promoting?
Potato chips and button cookies.
Really???
Is that good for you? Organic junk is still junk.
Just because it's got organic ingredients, doesn't mean it's healthy. You can get organically fat and organic diabetes too.

Pseudo-green. It really makes me sick, because there are people who don't really understand the concept of organic, and think it is synonymous with health. people will buy those chips and cookies because they're organic and labelled as "good for you".
Shoppers Drug Mart should be ashamed of themselves. But then again, I've argued before that they sell food in the first half of the store that makes you need the drugs in the second half.

When I was a kid, we went to a store that sold only kosher food.
I remember seeing some candy, and telling my mom that they had kosher Kit Kat.
"Just because it's kosher, doesn't mean it's healthy".

Chiropractors for Obama

Like I needed a reason to like this guy anymore.

Now, not only can I count myself amongst "Deadheads for Obama", but I can also call myself a chiro for obama too!

My man Barack even has a policy regarding promotion of chiropractic as part of his health platform.

Below are selections from the Obama statement on chiropractic, released around the Iowa caucus. I've also bolded some parts that I find particularly important or powerful. Maybe I should make a video like wil.i.am. Maybe not.

Dear Friends:
Doctors of chiropractic now make up over 60,000 licensed professionals in all fifty states, and care for millions of Americans every year. Almost a quarter of Iowans receive quality chiropractic care every year. As you know, chiropractic care is low-cost, drugfree, noninvasive, and has been shown to have a positive impact on patients’ health. I believe steps should be taken to acknowledge the important care chiropractors provide,and knock down unreasonable barriers of access and discriminatory insurance coverage that stand between so many patients and the care they need.

I have a plan to support doctors of chiropractic. First, I support expanding the range of chiropractic services covered by Medicare. Medicare currently provides reimbursement only for chiropractic adjustments, even though doctors of chiropractic are trained and licensed in all fifty states to provide a range of other Medicare-covered services. I support reimbursement reform that will reward and reimburse those who deliver high quality care and whose patients achieve good health outcomes, without restrictions against chiropractors or other health care professionals licensed to provide such care.

Second, I recognize that neither the Department of Veterans Affairs nor the Department of Defense has achieved full integration of the services of doctors of chiropractic into their health systems despite direction from Congress. I support careful examination into the policy and practical barriers that restrict access to such services in order to remedy this problem.

My health plan also prioritizes preventive care, and chiropractors play a significant role in this effort. As we shift our health care delivery system towards a culture of wellness and disease prevention, I believe that chiropractors must play an integral role in expanding access to preventive care and strengthening our public health system.

I look forward to discussing these important issues with you over the course of the next several months.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama

I think this is totally awesome! How forward thinking!
Vote for this man!!
Now if only I was legally allowed to vote for this guy!

Peace in our time

Upon waking in the middle of the night, I found myself watching the Epic movie Ghandi.
While his story is well known, and I'd see this exceptional film before, I found myself struck profoundly by his ability to touch so many so deeply. Leadership, I've heard it said is the ability to inspire others, and Ghandi had a gift that has been seen rarely in time.

His ability to bring about an end to violence between Hindus and Muslims brought me to tears, and I wonder why it is that we cannot bring about such change today?

Men like Ghandi or King inspired millions to do what was right, because it was right.
Just because.
What do you think it take for that to happen again?