Message from the Director - Mary McCluskey - 4/16/08

We welcomed the new day class students a couple of weeks ago and they are doing very well!  Here they are on their first day of class working with bowls of water over the massage table.  We spend time getting our massage legs so the concept of moving from the feet for every stroke begins to feel normal.

Today they were working nicely through the relaxation massage progressions.  I saw excellent body mechanics from them and very happy recipients on their tables!  Great job everybody!

Now for a book review.  I recently read Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food.  Wow, what an incredible paradigm shift (again) about eating.  My poor husband says to me frequently, "Oh no, you're reading another book, we'll be eating all different again, huh?"  Actually we won't be changing that much.  Michael's ideas are simple:  "Eat food" (real food.)  This means nothing your great-grandma wouldn't recognize as food which includes imitation food which looks like the real thing but has almost none of the real ingredients.  Like bread which can look like real bread, but look at the ingredients list (bread is actually just flour, water, yeast, and salt!) 

Then he says, "Not too much."  I like this one which is the big change for me, eating until you are about 80% full.  And the last one, "Mostly plants."  In the book he explains actually that by this he means mostly leaves, stems, and roots!  This does not include seeds which is a lot of what we eat; think corn, wheat, rice:  crackers, bread, cookies, cake, chips, tortillas, etc.  I was fascinated by the realization that this plant part is designed to hold energy for the developing baby plant (fat) and that's partly why these foods can tend to pack the pounds onto us!

This book reminds me of Real Food by Nina Planck, but written very clearly.  Nina's book is more of a story of her relationship with food and how it has changed over the years.  Both books, though, suggest the same ideas, of getting back to eating simple food, spending time cooking so you know what you're eating, and enjoying the good health from this way of living.

If you want to be inspired this spring to get back to basics in the food department in order to regain good health and get off the commercialized food treadmill pick up either or both of these books.  They are both easy to read and very motivating!