Survive the Holidays

The holidays are great because I love spending time with my family and friends. There’s nothing like hearing the laughter of my cousins and catching up with my aunts and uncles.  Let’s not forget the delicious foods that show up on the Thanksgiving dinner table – candied yams, roasted root vegetables, and my all-time favorite – stuffing.

While all of these foods are often pleasurable to our tastebuds, they can often send our digestive system into a sluggish state.  With all the different types of food groups and beverages that we consume over the holidays — often all at once — our bodies often feel tired and off-track after such a big meal because all the body is using a large chink of energy to metabolize all that yummy.  Here are some ways to enjoy all the deliciousness of Thanksgiving while preserving your energy and feeling great afterwards:

1)    Drink Water. Try to only drink water during these huge holiday dinners. Water keeps the body naturally energized and helps to flush all impurities out.  It also keeps all our vital organs lubricated and therefore operating properly.

2)    Chew Food Thoroughly. Digestion starts in the mouth, so if you are swallowing whole pieces of food, you may find yourself feeling bloated and with stomach-aches after stuffing your face. Chewing your food thoroughly aids in digesting the food in the initial stages.  This is also a good habit, as it will help you listen to your body and not overeat.

3)    Take a Walk or Stretch. Try to take a walk or do some stretching in between servings of food or after dinner.  Both of these activities help to get blood circulating throughout your body and therefore keeping you from feeling sluggish.  Stretching helps to detox and awaken the internal organs.

4)    Load up on Vegetables. The more colorful your plate looks, the BETTER. Load up on the vegetables.  If your family is not big vegetable eaters, then volunteer to make something.  Vegetables will provide fiber to help flush your system naturally.  Colorful vegetables like beets, butternut squash, tomatoes also provide healthy antioxidants.

5)    Wait 15 minutes before you decide to get seconds. Hanging out and letting the body digest its food will allow your body time to see if it really does want more food.  You may be surprised that after 15 minutes you feel completely satisfied and decide to pass on another serving.

These tips should help you get past holiday season with little problem. You can apply these tips for your everyday living because they are simple and easy and can make a huge difference in how you feel and keeping your body healthy.

The Lardass Hogan Barfarama -”Stand By Me” (1986).

Cycling Oasis Inside the Loop

Often Houstonians, upon seeing a strange two-wheeled, pedal-powered machine and its apparently human rider, ask themselves, “why bike?” Why subject yourself to the hotter-than-Hades, muggy, when it-rains-it-pours, car-happy labyrinth of narrow death gauntlets that is this city? Even walking to your destination is often scoffed at with the similar disbelief or misconstrued scorn as cycling.

Certainly transportation outside of personal automobiles is reserved as a lower-tiered necessity of the destitute and poor, right? Should we not continue running from building, to automobile, to traffic, like hermit crabs chanced upon a shiny new shell? Or rather, is there something to hardening that soft body by peddling against the current?

Well, in proper Houston fashion, this city’s answer to cycling is just as bifurcated and motley as the no-zoning urban design. One can find bums on old cruisers laden with prized clothes and bedding, possible immigrant workers on three-speed mountain bikes headed to the proverbial job site, or the typical avid road biker covered in the latest, multicolored polycarbonate and spandex powering through on a shiny thousand-dollar mount. Communities vary widely in Houston, as do the strength and organization of the cyclists and the individual riders themselves. Surely this bi-wheel-diversity is caused by the isolation of communities circumscribed by roads and highways.

Most local riders who have braved the humid pothole-pocked streets agree on one thing: Houston has potential. Despite the rush hour of hummer-encased, angry commuters that never ends, there is a space and desire for change. One finds a definite need for a healthy system of bike lanes, paths and bike friendly neighborhoods, and a greater awareness of existing bike laws that are common in other places. Vibrant, people-friendly, urban landscapes such as Boulder, Colo. or Portland, Ore. are shining examples of what could be.

The inner loop has the inadequate METRORail that only connects downtown to the medical district. There are plans to expand the rail system, but only barely. Bikes are allowed on the METRORail but at the metro driver’s discretion and bikes are not allowed during rush hour. The rail is certainly nice for the communities connected by it. However, it’s simply a patch job where a whole new style of dress is needed.

Alternatively, a decent rail and bus system could pulse at the city’s center supplemented by bike friendly streets. At least, the bus system did have bike racks installed very recently after the racks apparently sat in a warehouse for years. However, the bus system is notoriously slow and inefficient and has been known “to take an hour and half to go one mile,” according to Russ Wirtjes, a local bike mechanic at Blue Line Bike Labs.

However, there are exceptions to the anti-alternative transport trend of Houston. Russ’s boss, a local enthusiast and shop owner, Fred Zapalac believes the Houston Heights is such a place. A hardened, avid cyclist, tattoos up his arm, Fred owns and operates Blue Line with his brother, David Zapalac. Both of them have been avid riders for years and grew up in the area. Fred is quick to say that he hasn’t lived in Houston his whole life although he was born and raised here. He’s familiar with the terrain of the Texas hill country and Northern California.

As the first bike shop in the Heights, Blue Line is basic and well equipped, but covered in style such as a snazzy mural and design on the outside walls. Fred Zapalac and his team seem to understand what bikers of all treads need. From lazy Dutch cruisers to fiery downhill set ups, bikes line the far wall in four rows; sections of the space offer tires, seats, and all the accessories and parts one could desire.

A couple of blocks down, Heights Boulevard has the premiere, if not only, example of proper bike lanes in Houston that line a well planned jogging trail set to a backdrop of beautiful trees.

“The Heights really draws young professionals from outside of the Houston area because it reminds them of cool places in California, or New Orleans, or the Northeast,” said Fred Zapalac. “The architecture and the artisan style draws people in with a little bit more progressive ideas than many Houston locals.”

Cycling awareness and recognition is on the rise in Houston. Bike events stand out, especially the MS 150, a 13,000 cyclist strong multiple sclerosis benefit race.

“It’s the largest in the nation and that’s huge,” explains Fred Zapalac. “It is very likely that if you don’t ride in the race, your sister does, or somebody at work does. So, all of a sudden it’s made cyclists into real people instead of some crazy nuts.”

True to his trade, Fred Zapalac has followed the road, or forest path, to which his calling adheres. He doesn’t see the world like a normal commuter, but rather, he sees bikes and bikeways. What is a perfect byway for cars is a “dangerous place for riders, like Shepherd or Waugh,” he laments. “The number one thing that could help Houston and the Heights is building a pedestrian/cycling bridge that spans Memorial and Allen Parkway so that there is a safe way to get from the North side of the city to the South Side.”

Such a project might resemble the old rail bridge over White Oak Bayou, once a graffitied relic of the Heights’ industrial rail era, now being converted into a walking and biking bridge.

“That thing was supposed to be finished months ago, but at least it’s happening,” says Fred Zapalac. Houston does often come up with too little too late in these areas. But in the end, one is inclined to see it as this optimistic tattooed rider does. “It’s getting better all the time, ya know what I mean?” he declares with a sly smile.

Photo Credit: Jamie Lockard

So Hot You’re Better Off in Your Birthday Suit

Dena Ladner, Farah Jumshyd and Janine Abmayr are the brain children of the organic body and bath health store, Naked Body and Bath, located in the Village on 2516 Times Blvd. The shop is a leader of the movement for healthier living in Houston.

“My introduction to organic foods and green products goes back a long way,” Ladner says. “My mother belonged to food co-ops and we frequently shopped at a health food market off of Alabama.”

Parabens, Sodium Laureth Sulfate and Phthalates may sound like harmful organisms found in marshy swamps, but these chemicals are in fact harmful and found in most skin and beauty products on the market. Studies have shown the latter chemicals being linked to breast cancer (paraben), skin irritants (SLS), and problematic fetal development (Phthalates).

All three women became closer after working the corporate America circuit at Shell Oil in product development. “Women in corporate America are not a great fit,” Ladner says. The business opportunity and a need for change is what brought us together.”

Thank goodness for the monotony of corporate America because Naked, theblvdmag.com’s new refuge for spending money on inexpensive products, is a great spot to refresh your body from the outside. Frankincense, lavender, basil, sandlewood, and almond are just a few of over 100 fragrance oils to mix with bodywash, shea butter lotions, candles, and salt scrubs. All products are 100 percent natural and manufactured by women.

If you’re ever in the Village, stop by Naked Body and Bath, not only will your skin feel better, but you will help in donating soaps and body cleansers to the local Women’s Center.

nakedbodyandbath.com

Gardening Aint Like Bingo!

With this cool spin on “Going Green”, will gardening be a trend in youth culture?”Going Green” is the buzzword of the moment, and with good reason. With the economy still in the toilet, families are taking alternative routes to achieve healthy living. Stroll down any Whole Foods or drive to the nearest Farmer’s Market and take note of the “organic movement”. Buying organic is a great way to support local and independent farmers and teaches the importance of cooking fresh foods.

I’ve always had a ken of gardening, its been a secret hobby for years. My grandmother was an avid gardener in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and would force my brother, my little cousins, and I to pick green beans, tomatoes, collard greens, and okra in her huge garden during the entire summer. My brother and cousins cried and whined, as we shuffled manure into the soil. We all hated that shitty part, but I listened to my granny lecture on the importance of fresh vegetables and I guess it stuck.

Gardening does require proper techniques to produce plentiful crops, so I will save gardening tips for a later date. If it’s not too much for you busy city folk, visit the Bayou City Farmers Market located on 3000 Richmond Ave., in Houston, Texas and get a taste of what is real and fresh. The farmer’s market is open on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to -12 p.m.

Julia Trainer, the farmer’s market coordinator for Urban Harvest, is reminding the youth to “Get involved and find a community or donation garden,” or at least volunteer with a community-based organization with a positive outcome. Check out their website at urbanharvest.org for future classes on gardening and community based programs.

So yeah I said it. I love to Garden!  Thanks to the whole “Green Movement”, I don’t feel shamed of my geriatric hobby….it’s kinda peaceful!

A Life of Bliss