ACV, Tried and True

If nothing else, I am woman of my word (well most of the time) and I did promise a post on the amazing healing powers of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV). Before you go looking for your salad dressing, let me specify that it is not just any old vinegar I am talking about, but the raw, unfiltered, unpasteurized and "with the mother" old fashioned kind.

I have stated many times that I love LiveStrong for information on any topic, so I went to them to research the benefits of this stuff. The claims are amazing: helps regulate blood sugar, stimulates metabolism, helps arthritis sufferers and joint pain, helps digestion, it is an anti-inflammatory, lowers cholesterol, works as an antioxidant, can be used as a skin toner, is a weight loss aid, eliminates dandruff AND is a yeast infection remedy (see previous post)!

So why isn't everyone on a regimen of ACV? Maybe because you have to drink the stuff, or maybe you just don't know how amazing raw apple cider vinegar is. Let me make this easy for you to swallow with some hints as to how to use this miracle liquid.

First, don't drink the stuff straight! It will take the enamel right off your teeth. What is advised is to use it liberally on salads, vegetables or potatoes. Or you can add 2 Tablespoons to 32 ounces of water (with some sweetener) and drink some all day long. It is very refreshing this way! Tastes like tart apple cider. Or you can mix it with juice if you are timid.

For a skin bracer, add some to a cotton ball and smear all over. Use on your face as a toner. Rinse your hair with it to rid yourself of dandruff (leave in after conditioning). The only issue with this approach is that you will smell like an H. Salt Fish & Chips store, sans fish, for a while. You have been warned.

I have been drinking this fluid for almost two months now, which is how long it takes to start seeing benefits. I have noticed my stomach getting a bit smaller and my joints are not as stiff. Maybe I should have waited a few more months to report on this, but I am impatient and I really think this is an inexpensive way to do something good for my body -- on a daily basis. What have we got to lose?

A final word on ACV: make sure you get the UN-pasturized, raw, "with the mother" type listed on the label.  This type of ACV has a cloudy element to the bottom of the bottle, which is where the magic resides. The cloudy element contains minerals such as phosphorus, potassium and silicon and also powerful enzymes. Your everyday apple cider vinegar is pasteurized and contains none of these elements.

One brand to look for is Bragg's, it is on most grocery store shelves and the cost varies from $3.50-4.50 a bottle, which lasts me all month. Just one more element to a healthy lifestyle and happier body-system. Go get some! Then let me know what you think.

Yeast, It's Not In Just Bread

I don't know about the rest of you, but when the sun starts its summer pre-heat, my body turns into a sort of oven, especially in the bra area. There is burning and itching taking place and I am like a dog with too many fleas, scratching, sweating, moaning "how do I get relief?"

I have been told by my doctor that it is candida albicans, or a fungal infection, or a yeast infection. Let's be honest. Our Western diet's are filled with processed foods and sugar, which is part of the environment that the fungus thrives on. I consider myself Club Med for the critters: sweaty, big boobs, loads of sugar in my bloodstream. It's only May and I have had enough!

While doing research for another topic (raw apple cider vinegar and its incredible health benefits -- still to come [take note]) I found a more urgent -- to me -- topic, candida, a very serious condition that affects 70% of all people and considered a systemic epidemic.

It may present under my lace-y things but subcutaneously it is affecting all of my body systems as well. Some of the symptoms include:

• Fatigue and chronic fatigue
• Muscle aches, weakness or paralysis
• Insomnia
• Pain and/or swelling in joints
• Constipation or diarrhea
• Bloating, belching, intestinal gas and/or abdominal pain
• Poor memory, foggy thinking or feeling "spacey"
• Troublesome vaginal itching, burning or discharge 

Can you relate? While thinking this may be the answer to ALL my problems (then realizing it is never that simple), I embark on a quest to making my temple less hospitable to the invading hoards. How does one accomplish that Herculean task? Diet, diet, diet.

Isn't that always the answer.

Oxytocin Is the Enemy... Or Is It?

Ghetto Paradise

I have been taken on a ride with my own hormones for the last few months, and the culprit is oxytocin, or as it is more commonly known, the "love" hormone. And taken on a ride is the way to describe the miles I have clocked so far this year. And while I do have regrets, I wouldn't change a foot of the distance.

What am I talking about you ask yourself? Well I fell, and not off my Trikke either. I entered into a game whose rules I thought I could abide and found myself in the middle of a pool of my own drool. Do I sound angry? Well, only at myself. I could not handle the oxytocin overload on (only) my part.

What is this magical hormone you ask? I love the wiki definition of oxytocin as a mammalian neurohypophysial hormone (because, baby, while swimming in that pool I was reduced to pure mammalian -- for sure!). It is known as the bonding hormone that is released while in contact with loved ones and it acts as a brain modulator (duh!). Yet the relationship between oxytocin and human sexual response is unclear. It is just present when in grabbing distance of (insert your favorite body part here), or when you (insert your favorite naked activity here). Let's just say it is a pair bonding ingredient in the soup of love.

So while I have been spinning my (three) wheels, the blog has gone to seed. Are any of you still out there willing to again read the musings and meanderings of one slightly bruised and shaken Trikker Chick? After all, it is spring, a time of rebirth, regrowth and re-carving up a storm on the (bike) paths in LBC, my little bit of ghetto-paradise (see above)!

Still Into You... (Black Birdie)

Can count the years on one hand
that we've been together
I need the other one to hold you (UP)
Make you feel, make you feel better

It's not a walk in the park
to love each other
But when our fingers interlock, (ON THE GRIPS)
Can't deny, can't deny you're worth it
'Cause after all this time, I'm still into you

I should be over all the butterflies
But I'm into you (I'm into you)
And baby even on our worst nights (WINDY)
I'm into you (I'm into you)

Let 'em wonder how we got this far
'Cause I don't really need to wonder at all
Yeah after all this time I'm still into you...
                         PARAMORE (from Paramore lp)

Song For My Heart

Carvin' Monterey

This is what I have been up to lately. I "borrowed" this from a post in TrikkeWorld Magazine, thanks to Douglass Weymouth of Santa Cruz.

Muscle Spasms, Now What?

In a recent post in TrikkeWorld Magazine, I admitted to sticking my butt out when I carve. Because of that, and a few acrobatics between the sheets, I have a chronic spasm in my hip. I have taken pain medications, muscle relaxers, had massages, stretched, used ice as well as my tens unit and run the batteries dry in my vibrator. (What? I'm suppose to use it on my hip?!) What do I try next?

In my search for relief, it seems I've opened a treasure chest of reasons, products and remedies (pharmaceutical and homeopathic) for my pesky muscle. The only thing I really discovered is that the answer is not as simple as the question, never is.

After checking the calcium, magnesium and potassium levels in my multivitamin I find I receive -- daily -- only about 20% from my multi, so I must make up the rest in the foods I consume (can these nutrients be found in marshmallows?). Foods suggested for this purpose would be the cold water fishes, green leafy vegetables and raisins to name a few.

Is additional supplementation where my answer lays? Branched-chain amino acids and MSM aside, I may also have a buildup of lactic acid from not stretching, working too hard or overuse of my muscle(s). It's a rather fascinating chain of events that the body performs in increasing energy output and the reverse: protecting itself from injury due to overuse.

Lactic acid is the burn in your hard working Trikke-legs. It is not, however responsible for the pain felt the next day, say after an LSM. So how do I rid my body of lactic acid? Simple! Exercise regularly, cool down after exercise and do static stretching.

I think I've come full circle on this topic. It seems like healthy eating, common sense and moderation is the name of this game, advice that could be spread like Nutella, across all the crannies of my life!

Song For Black Birdie

My Heart Beats For You...

Stretching Out Your Kinks

It's all my fault. I did use kink in the headline, but I've got to attract attention somehow. And just to be clear, I am talking about muscles here not your personal preferences which by the way one should keep to oneself. I learned this the hard way. Back to stretching...

Any good search begins with a wiki reference, and so shall this one. Stretching is one of the forgotten aspects of fitness. Especially with me. It helps muscles by increasing flexibility, reducing risk of injury and also increasing performance. I'm all about increasing performance. So when should we stretch and how: bouncy or sustained pressure?

As far as "when" one should stretch, if you want to enhance your overall fitness -- before and after exercise. When done correctly, stretching strengthens your muscles and enhances your overall fitness. If done incorrectly, it can cause damage. There are four different ways to stretch. Depending on which muscles or tendons need to be stretched will determine the method one should employ. Stretching can become injurious and ineffectual, if done incorrectly (needed restating). That determination should probably be done by a professional, I certainly can't tell if my pain is caused from a tendon or muscle!

There are four types of stretching, which I mentioned earlier. They are ballistic, dynamic, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (heretofore known as PNF), and static stretching. Ballistic is the bouncing stretch, dynamic stretching is a walking or movement stretch, PNF is a type of stretch for a particular muscle and its specific job (note: professional) and static stretching is maintaining a gentle pull on the muscle and holding it for 30 seconds. The next paragraph is directly lifted from the wiki site, since I couldn't word it better than this:

The time frame that a person stretches during their workout is crucial to the well being of their muscles. Dynamic and ballistic stretching should be performed before a workout in order to increase blood flow, strength and power and to reduce tightness. PNF stretching should be performed during the workout to work on a specific muscle before it is put to use. Static stretching should be performed at the end of a workout in order to increase the flexibility and remove the lactic acid build up. Stretching properly and in the correct time frame of one's workout is vital for gaining all the benefits from these stretches.

One very important point I relearned is that exercise creates lactic acid in the muscles, and stretching after a workout allows the body to release this acid product which is one of the causes of the familiar aches and pains. Stretching also helps prevent hardening of the arteries. Stretching increases endurance, performance, and is more beneficial to those who stretch regularly than to those who do not.

So at this point, you must excuse me while I go try to touch my toes.

Retraining Issue #1, Muscle Spasms

Getting ready for the season

Ouch! Did you feel that? I have one in my back and every once in a while (several times a day) it likes to flex it's power and freeze me in some very odd pose while it has it's way with me. And not in a good way either...

It's a muscle spasm and it comes part and parcel with working out and not stretching, and not drinking enough water and a few other factors that I personally need to review here and now. Otherwise this Season of the Trikke (others know it as summer) will be a painful one.

Muscle spasms, or cramps, come mostly from overuse. If you have increased your ride too soon or continue to ride at your limit, you are on your way to cramp town. Of course there are other reasons like I mentioned in the previous paragraph but could bare repeating, such as not drinking enough water and losing electrolytes through profuse sweating (I know some of you personally and you go all out when you ride which causes some serious liquid loss -- see Real Women Sweat).

When you drink six-to-eight ounces of liquid ever hour as you ride, you need to replace the potassium that you lose through sweating. Carry a sports beverage on your ride, especially on hot days. Or supplement with a buffered salt tablet. One important note is that replacement of potassium takes longer than one day, so continue this regimen the next day as well.

This essential electrolyte comes in many flavors, like banana, green leafy vegetable, tomato and orange. Of course you know I mean the actual food, right? There are some very serious consequences to low potassium levels like irrational behavior (note to self: get potassium checked), confusion, muscle spasm, weakness, cardiac problems, nausea, swelling of the hands and feet and lethargy. Yikes!

Now that I've scared myself sufficiently, I'll move on to my personal reason for muscle cramps -- not stretching. This needs to be an article in itself and so it will be. Look forward to a post on stretching and other ways to treat spasms, in the next few days, cause I'm back, baby, and I'm ready to attack that which concerns us as Trikker Chicks. How's that for pulling you back in?

Regaining Fitness

It has finally happened. The heavens converged, the clouds parted and the wind stopped clearing its throat long enough for this week to be more like Southern California.

I have been on my Trikke for three sun-filled and warm days. The "gods" have smiled on me and I have resumed my usual path down the beach in my favorite Trikke-town (or Long Beach). I feel reborn to say the least.

One of my biggest surprises has been how quickly my strength has returned in the last three trips I have taken to Cherry Beach. There are a few slight inclines that when I am at my least-best are quite challenging. I churned those inclines into dust today. In only three trips. The number three will come up again later...

I had let my carving slip quite a bit since the weather turned inhospitable this past winter but I kept up with my walking. Except for the last three weeks. The walking helped maintain some of my cardio fitness, but what happens when one is sidelined by an injury or maybe couched with several maladies at once? How long does it take us to regain our fitness after time off?

It depends on the amount of time. First off, it depends on how long you have been working out AND how long you take off. If one has been working out for more than a year, that person will lose fitness more slowly than a less fit person. Since I have been carving for a few years now, I read specifically about that model of fitness.

According to the research, I really only lost a dozen percentage points of cardio strength in my three weeks off. It seems that the loss is negligible up to seven days. Then between days 10-14 you lose 6% of your VO2 max. Isn't that encouraging? So from day 14-30 you will lose 12% of your VO2 max (that's fancy pants for cardio fitness).

So how does one advance their VO2 max as quickly and efficiently as possible? The advice I found to accelerate training is to find a hill. Not on your Trikke though, on your feet (what?). Walking uphill at a fast pace three times a week for three minutes at a time (with three reps) for a few weeks should do it.

I'm planning to meet the masses at the beach tomorrow while the sun still warms the sand, before the next system moves through the area. Will I be seeing you out there, in more than spirit?

Addendum: Read TrikkeWorld Magazine for the second part of this article, Detraining's Effect on Muscle Strength.

Spring Cleaning Revisited

Well do I have egg on my face. Actually it's coffee grounds, but the saying stipulates egg, so lets go with that. Anyway, last night I decided to take my own advice and re-subscribe to my blog (yes I am one of the subscribers). It is at that moment that I learned one does not have to resubscribe, that the wonderful fairies inside my computer (or FeedBurner) took care of it. So to recap, you do not have to resubscribe to the blog, it was transferred to the new system automatically. OOPS!

I did warn you when I admitted to not knowing much about RSS feeds and such, and being technically challenged. I guess I could have checked this situation out before I posted, but I haven't been myself much lately.

The good news is I am back! I am on my Trikke, the sun is warming my section of the globe and all is well! I feel confident in saying that you can again look forward to me writing about that which I love, Black Birdie, my faithful Trikke and carving and associated topics like health, diet, fitness from the point of view of one typical Trikker Chick.

Thanks for hanging in there with me during what will forever be known as my dark ages, as it seems like ages since I was consistent with the blog. Or Carving. Or getting off the couch. Or not sleeping all day. Or eating junk food all night. Okay, enough. As a good friend would say, "Let's Ride!"