Full Day, Full Log, Full Plant-Based Living: Death & Dying, Spooky Music, PT Approved Exercises, and Zero-Waste Tips
There’s a repetition of love and movement over here: create something artistic every day, craft foods that will nourish the body/mind of the ones I love, soak up time with those souls, learn something new, keep the body active for best health, and appreciate the present.
Not only are these lifestyle medicine pillars important for personal health, they are imperative to model for Q so that when we’re gone he has a framework for how to be his kindest, healthiest self. Kiddos see all and absorb all that we do, and a “do as I say, not as I do” mindset is harmful for all involved. Meditating on that last nugget is part of what propels me forward each day: I’m fully aware that Q has wide-eyes to absorb how we treat each other, how we nourish our bodies, how we keep those bodies moving, how we use our brains for growth/creativity, and how we embrace the precious resource of time/life.
That last part is big theme in this house. We are the sort of parents who unpack everything we can, and we are firmly committed to never lying to him (this is why this household doesn’t participate in the Santa myth), because Q is the sort of kiddo who appreciates scientific explanation. As such, he’s understood life cycles for longer than I can remember (he’s 5) and this helps with explaining any reproductive questions that come our way, helpful for explaining why we need to eat well and keep active, and it is also super handy for anything surrounding death. He has a clear head for the fact that time is finite, everything eventually dies, and you need to embrace what is present while you can. That mindset helped him dearly when our 15yr old cat Malaprop grew sick enough that she needed to be euthanized. Q insisted on being present, “because when we leave our bodies, we should be with the people we love and know how much we meant to them. I love Malaprop and she loves me, so I should be there for her when she dies so she can feel that love.”
I illuminate this background, because his macabre bent may seem off-putting and dark (like yesterday’s ghost drawings) if you don’t know what’s going on in that Bear’s brain. He comes by his love for all things spooky naturally (his father revels in this genre and spends his evenings writing a gothic horror novel), but his appreciation for where that realm falls within reality is a carefully cultivated mindset. :-)
Continue reading if you want some illumination on: love & spook-filled art (and the music that inspires it), a family thriving on growth & lifestyle medicine, how a limited screen-time house still incorporates love of cinema, a day’s worth of plant-based whole-food family feasting, ways to cook as zero waste as possible, a family working on the first stumbling steps of incorporating daily fitness (with a video of a Physical Therapist explaining/showing some safe core workouts), and the simplicity of making zero-waste/plant-based/whole-food popcorn on the stove.
Ian discovered Dead Man’s Bones and brought it into our musical brain space in 2009. It’s Ryan Gosling (yep, that Ryan Gosling) and Zach Shields. Musically, this duo would fall somewhere in the realm of rock, but the background is a children’s choir, and their one-and-only concept album is super macabre: it’s about ghosts, it sounds like you’re in a haunted house dance party, and there’s a song titled “Dead Man’s Bones” with a lyric like:
You should know,
What's really going down, below.
Dressed in their best clothes,
There are rows & rows & rows,
Of dead man's bones!
I'm talkin' 'bout dead man's bones!
Wherever you go,
Take a look at your feet,
& Down six feet deep
There's dead man's bones!
Bones! Bones! Bones, bones, bones, bones!
The album is a spooky, fun delight and it has been a favorite of Quill’s since he entered the scene. You’d think the uptempo ones like “Pa Pa Power”, “Dead Man’s Bones”, or “Lose Your Soul” would be the kiddo fave, but his dearest is “In the Room Where You Sleep”. He loves it enough to request it out of the blue and says, “It gives me shivers, but in a good way.”
With a lyrics like these, I can understand why!
I saw something
Sitting on your bed
I saw something
Touching your head
In the room
Where you sleep
So, inspired by that song and his love of tentacles, he got a ghost octopus lovingly sweeping back his hair. The received beam and “THANK YOU, MAMA!” was good for the heart. <3
Cleaned up, started a family movie while moving around to digest the food, and then headed upstairs for a family workout.
I’ve mentioned in the last few posts that we’re setting apart time to work out together as a family, and after doing some research into the stomach-ridge/bulge I wanted to fix, I discovered I had a very common condition named Diastasis Recti, and now I’m focusing on PT-approved exercises (ie NOT crunches) in a hope to heal the damage. This isn’t for vanity, but for the sake of fixing separation and sparing myself a hernia.
In my research, I discovered Dr. Jared Beckstrand and dowloaded some of his free guides and exercises, and will now be following a 21 plan. See below, if you’re interested in free illumination/guidance.
The day ended with learning, and clocked in at 13 hours and 20 minutes of busybody legwork, 40 minutes of accumulated cardio, and 60 scattered minutes of Diastasis Recti Exercises.
What goal was accomplished?
I intended to focus more time on research and application of core exercises, and was able to dedicate a full hour to these quick exercises through the day.
I wanted to get some sunlight with Q and Ian. It was spitting snow and cloudy, but we got some family time together outside while cleaning up our ivy patch.
Even though we had a long and active day, we still factored in some cardio family-time. (Q was able to work his weights while moving his feet for the duration of Fischerspooner’s 5+ min “Emerge”, and this was a big goal for him as he’s struggled to maintain weights for the length of a whole song. <3 )
Despite getting to bed later than usual, I still devoted time to reading/learning at the end of the day.
Path of personal growth for today:
continue with PT approved diastasis recti exercises
some sunlight time with Q and Ian
more reading
in-home Date Night
Below is another informational snippet from Undo It by Dr. Dean Ornish and Anne Ornish.
Want the energy to plow through a day? Want the sort of mindset that is full of all the purposeful things to do and not standstill lamenting? Want to reverse the damage we’re inflicting upon the global environment before it turns into runaway climate change? Want to save yourself from a increased risk of death, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes?
Step away from those animal products and start living your best life.
Live kindly, feast kindly, grow forward.