Transcription of Light #6
Speaker 1: You’re listening to the Dr. Lisa radio hour and Podcast recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine in Portland, Maine and broadcast on 1310 AM Portland streaming live each week at 11 AM on WLOBradio.com and available via podcast on doctorlisa.org. Thank you for joining us. Here are some highlights from today’s program.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa radio hour and pod cast is made possible by the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine Magazine, Tom Shepard of Herzey, Gardener, Shepard and Eaton. Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of Remax Heritage, Robin Hodgskin at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedics Specialists of Portland Maine, Whole Foods Market, and Akari.
Dr. Lisa: Hello, this Dr. Lisa Belisle. Welcome to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast airing on October 23rd, 2011. This week’s theme is light. We will be speaking with Steven Anderson from the Body Architect, David Hering from Maine Huts and Trails, and Scott Manthorne from the Ski Boot and Stiletto challenge.
When I think about the theme of light, I think about a lightness of being. Last week we spoke about glow and sunrise and setting a spark of fire that we see externally that lights us up from within. When we have this inner light we do have a sense that we’re one with the world. It’s joyful, it’s freeing. It’s like watching children play. There is that lightness of body that we can all experience. This time of year we experience the lightness of body by looking around us and seeing the golden glow of the leaves and the trees that are set afire by the sunlight.
We can bring this lightness into our lives by experiencing things like Qigong as described by Steven Anderson or going from skiing from hut to hut as described by David Herring. Or we can do something light and fun like participating in the ski boot and stiletto challenge as Scott Manthorne will describe. We can also engage in playing. Playing with our food, playing with our bodies, exercising and just really bringing the joy into our lives that lights us up from within.
We hope you enjoy our show.
Thank you for listening. Each week on the Dr. Lisa radio hour and pod cast we have a segment we call Food and Sustenance. We were calling it food and nourishment. Our co-cost Genevieve Morgan who is sitting here with me, she doesn’t really like the idea of nourishment. I’m not sure why.
Genevieve: It’s not that I don’t like the idea. Just somehow the word seems so normal. Food would nourishing instead of just eating.
Dr. Lisa: Right. Well this is perfect because we’re going to talk about why you don’t have to be formal with food. Why you can be playful. Our theme of the show today is about light. The lightness of being and the ability to play with your life a little bit. We get very serious about what we need to do, what we should do, we should exercise, we should eat right. But really when we get so serious, it detracts from our ability to find joy in our lives. That’s kind of not that point. Life is very short. We should enjoy what we can whenever we can.
Genevieve: Absolutely.
Dr. Lisa: Speaking of joy, you and I were meeting yesterday. Getting ready for the radio show and I love having these conversations with you. We got into a scheduling thing. I was working with my patients and I got into this “Oh my gosh I’m feeling kind of tired and overwhelmed.” I thought “Maybe I’ll go get some caffeine.” But instead I drove home, and I took out all this food that I had gotten from Whole Foods and they’re our sponsor for this segment and I started playing with it. I love playing with food. You said to me after our segment last week you went home and you did some playing with food as well.
Genevieve: I did, I did. You inspired me to go home and see what I could make with what was in my refrigerator and it was really fun and like you said, I didn’t need that cup of coffee because it was invigorating.
Dr. Lisa: Right. When I first started teaching myself how to cook, this is when the Bountiful Blog began I think in 2008. I did a lot of research and I read the macrobiotic books and I read the vegetable books. I still have a lot of really great resources. Overtime, after I kept playing with my food over and over again, I just knew what things went together, I started experimenting with things. Now the great thing is, I go to whole foods and I see what’s locally grown and I start just seeing what happens. It doesn’t always turn out very well.
Genevieve: I’m sure that’s not true Lisa, I’m sure it’s always delicious.
Dr. Lisa: Well sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Some people will always give me feedback. We gave you and John, our audio guru, we gave you some of the bean and corn salad last week. John’s giving the double thumbs up, you liked it, so that worked out well. Even when it doesn’t work out, it’s just food.
Genevieve: I think Julia Child said something like that. “Don’t be afraid of your food.”
Dr. Lisa: Right. You can always put it in the compost pile and the crows can come eat it or whatever, it can go back. Back to the earth. Speaking of our foray to Whole Foods this week we’re still just overflowing with food. I can’t even believe what the local farms are still bringing in for us. You still got apples from Ricker Hill and apple cider, we now have cranberries that are local, which is-
Genevieve: Oh I saw that! There’s a big crate, big scoop. So pretty.
Dr. Lisa: So I’m thinking thanksgiving already. We have gourds. I came back with this enormous bag full of gourds and squashes and pumpkins. I’m looking forward to making some soup next week.
Genevieve: You really are going to have to talk me through that because gourds, they end up sitting on my counter for months.
Dr. Lisa: Well stay tuned, because we’re going to talk about that.
Genevieve: I’m going to keep you to that.
Dr. Lisa: OK we’ll definitely go back to that. I bought some root ginger, which is interesting. A lot of people think of powdered ginger. You get a spice and you get it out of your cabinet but ginger’s a root and it’s a very healthy root. Last week we talked about cooking up some eggplant and some Daikon radish and the pungency of that and the ginger and some garlic and onions.
This week I chopped up my root ginger and I put in some red baby bok choy from Rippling Water’s farm in Standish. I added some baby bok choy just like the broccoli that I added, is a cruciferous vegetable. Cruciferous vegetables, I don’t remember if we talked about this or not but those are very good for-
Genevieve: We did. We talked a little bit about broccoli and cancer fighting qualities of cruciferous vegetables but let’s talk more.
Dr. Lisa: Basically that is what we know, cruciferous vegetables, those tend to be the ones that keep your bodies nice and cleaned out. They’re good for preventing all kinds of cancer, specifically breast cancer. Of course we just came out of breast cancer awareness month and we talk over and over and over again on WLOB on the segments I’ve done with their radio show for the past 2 years about cruciferous vegetables. Bok choy is one, kale is one-
Genevieve: Is cauliflower?
Dr. Lisa: Cauliflower is one, yeah. What I know is that some people will smell these things cooking and they get a little bit of reaction.
Genevieve: Oh, brussels sprouts.
Dr. Lisa: Yes Brussels sprouts is another one, right. These are all cruciferous vegetables. This is what I was putting together in my ginger. This time instead of using unions I used garlic and a leek and some chopped up ginger. I used some baby boc choy. I threw in a little bit of arugula at the end, we talked about arugula last week. I steamed up some broccoli, I put that in there. One of the root vegetables, which was not actually local, was mushrooms. Mushrooms are a very healing food in Chinese medicine and actually they’ve been used in cancer treatment nutrition as well.
Genevieve: What are the nutritional qualities of mushrooms?
Dr. Lisa: They’re known to be an immune booster. There’s a lot of research being done in western medicine now to back up the thousands of years of traditional Chinese medicine that talks about the immune boosting properties of mushrooms. This was a package of sliced up baby bellas shitake. Shitake is specifically good for immune boosting. This was sort of the core of my baby bok choy recipe that I put together this week. It was fun to play with that.
I was also thinking, when I was thinking about mushrooms I was thinking about boosting the immune system. We talked about wired and tired and the need to stay healthy. We talked about the upcoming cold season.
Genevieve: Yes, yes. I know a lot of people who are sick right now.
Dr. Lisa: In Chinese medicine this is the season of the lung. This is the autumn season. Every season has an organ system associated with it. I think we talked about in the past, kidney is associated with the winter. We talked about the spring is associated with the liver. This is the season of the lung. This time of year a lot of people are starting to get sick. They’re starting to get head colds and wheeziness, and asthma.
Genevieve: A lot of sinus infections.
Dr. Lisa: A lot of sinus infections. If you remember we talked about Daikon radish being very good for clearing that out. When people come into my practice, they want to throw some Sudafed at it, or throw some prescription medication at their colds.
Genevieve: Right, get rid of the symptoms.
Dr. Lisa: Right, but that doesn’t always work very well. On our website, and I’ll link back to this, we actually gave some tips for fighting the colds and boosting your immune system. These include things like cold season tea, which you can buy in the local grocery store. I think it’s put out by Yogi teas and it has this special blend of Ayurvedic and Chinese medicinal herbs. I don’t love the smell of it, but it’s not so bad. It’s not a bad way-
Genevieve: At least it’s better than getting the flu for 3 weeks.
Dr. Lisa: Yes, that’s right. There’s a lot of other things that people can do that are non-medicinal that I will point people to the website to read up on in addition to-
Genevieve: But what else can you eat?
Dr. Lisa: Ginger we’ve talked about. Cayenne pepper. Cayenne pepper is very good for this sort of thing. In fact, lemonade with cayenne pepper strangely is a very good warming up and it’s got that sort of astringent-
Genevieve: So hot lemonade?
Dr. Lisa: Yes, well I’d say warm. Don’t want to burn your tongue. You also want to add in, if you’re trying to fight off a cold, I have some patients who have cancer and I’m trying to get them to boost up their immunity. I try to get them to eat brown rice on a regular basis, other whole grains. I try to get them to cut down on the dairy products that are in their diets and increase their antioxidant and vitamin rich foods which is usually fruits and vegetables.
Genevieve: What effect do the dairy products have on respiratory and sinus?
Dr. Lisa: It’s kind of unproven in western medicine. First of all there’s a lot of people who have an allergy.
Genevieve: I know that I feel it. If I have a lot of dairy I feel phlegmy .
Dr. Lisa: Phlegmy and congested, yeah. We know in Chinese medicine these are cold and damping foods. If you are prone to having allergies or asthma or you’re getting a cold. We know that before you sing, because I sing, before you sing you’re not supposed to have dairy because it just kind of coats things. There’s nothing inherently wrong with dairy per-say, it’s just something to be thinking about. If you have a cold coming on, try to maybe go towards your clear broths, your lemonade with your cayenne, your cold season tea-
Genevieve: The more astringent.
Dr. Lisa: Yeah more astringent, more pungent as we’ve talked about. Also kind of interesting, a lot of people have used Vick’s vapor rub. There’s an old-fashioned, old-timey recipe. Put a little Vick’s on your chest. There is some method to that madness. Your grandma might have been right. I don’t love specifically the Vick’s vapor rub. I like Tom’s of Maine because they’re more of a natural product, they’re not petroleum based but you can put a little bit of that on your chest.
Another old-fashioned remedy is to put some on your feet and wear some socks, especially if you have a cough. I don’t know if it works or not. It’s worth trying, why not? It’s not going to hurt you.
Genevieve: What about horse radish?
Dr. Lisa: Again, that’s very pungent and that can bring things to the surface. That would probably work as well. The season of the lung in Chinese medicine, in fact I was just teaching Dragon’s Way class last night which is Qigong-based and Chinese medicine based class and we were talking about the spicy thing. If you’re getting a cold and you go to a place like Zapoteca here in Portland or you go to El Rayo and you have some Mexican food.
Genevieve: Load up on the hot.
Dr. Lisa: Exactly. Get things moving in you. I think that’s really a fun way to deal with this bogged down phlegmy feeling. It’s a way to bring lightness back into yourself. Again, we’re talking about light this week.
Genevieve: It’s true, that is probably one of the most significant feelings you get when you have a cold or winter’s coming and you’re starting to feel that chilly cold season. You just feel bogged down, things are moving slowly.
Dr. Lisa: Doing things that are fun and remembering that there is light for many hours of the day still. Whether you’re going to learn something like Qigong that Steven Anderson will talk about, or maybe you’re going to go out on the Hudson trails, or maybe you’re going to be doing Ski Boot and Stiletto challenge, any of these things add lightness.
Another thing that we can do, is we can eat Dr. Johns Brainola Cereal. I just wanted to bring this up. I know it’s a little random. Dr. John Herzog is our newest sponsor for the Dr. Lisa radio hour. He’s a very funny guy to talk to. He’s from Falmouth, he’s an orthopedic guy. He has an interesting view on medicine. He’s going to come in and talk to us actually. Not because he’s a sponsor but because he’s really interesting. He’s funny.
Genevieve: He makes granola.
Dr. Lisa: Well, yeah. Except he calls Brainola. He’s all about the plant based diet. His slogan is feed your mind, not your behind.
Genevieve: That is true because granola has quite a bit of a calorie punch.
Dr. Lisa: Yes. He doesn’t want that. He wants you to continue to be light. We welcome Dr. John-
Genevieve: On the scale.
Dr. Lisa: On the scale, exactly. We welcome John as one of our sponsors. We love our sponsors as we’ve talked about many times. We welcome the people that are coming in this week to talk to us about various ways of bringing lightness into our lives. Thanks again for being here with us Gen.
Genevieve: Oh I’m so pleased. Thank you for having me Lisa.
Speaker 1: This portion of the Dr. Lisa radio hour and pod cast has been brought to you by Whole Foods market of Portland, Maine. For more information on our hosts, production team, Maine Magazine, or any of the guests featured here today, visit us online at doctorlisa.org.
Dr. Lisa: This morning on the Dr. Lisa radio hour and Podcast we have with us a special guest Steven Anderson from the body architect up on Munjoy Hill. Steven has a BS in physical education in health, and an MS/CAS in pyscho-physical movement. A unique discipline that combines psychology and exercise science from Springfield college. Steven was athletic director, department head of physical education, department head of health, and coach at Fisher Island School New York. In Portland, he worked as the city’s wellness coordinator for several years.
In 1992 he founded the Body Architect personal training followed by the Body Architect fitness studio in 1997. In 2004 expanded to the Body Architect fitness center at it’s current location at 34 Romasco Lane in Portland’s east end. Steven Anderson’s training technique, psychophysical movement, will gradually establish self correction and self regulation of body mechanics, improve posture and mind body interactions, release muscular tensions and more. The routines developed by Steven draw upon a variety of techniques including Pilates, yoga, and Qigong. Good morning Steven.
Steven: Good morning Lisa, How are you?
Dr. Lisa: I’m great. We have with us, I believe your old friend Genevieve Morgan.
Steven: Yes she is.
Genevieve: Hi Steven.
Steven: Good morning Genevieve.
Dr. Lisa: Steven I’m so fascinated by the work that you do because you and I’ve had conversations before, you know the type of work that I do in my medical practice has to do with Chinese medicine and Qigong. Today we’re talking about light. That’s the focus of our show. There’s a huge relationship between light and Qigong We were talking about that before we came on air. Give me some thoughts.
Steven: The thing I like about light in reference to Qigong is taking in these gentle movements. When you take in light and you take in warmth, that expresses out to others as well. When you start moving gracefully and your presence lifts the boats of everyone else around you. I like that. As people start moving more gracefully they hang on to their energy and they spend it wisely.
Dr. Lisa: I’ve been to your studio. Genevieve and I were talking about this. It’s beautiful. There’s windows everywhere. There’s a sense of airiness and yet solidity. It looks out not only to Portland’s Back Bay but also towards the water. Did you do this on purpose?
Steven: We did. When we first saw the space, we thought it would be a perfect healing environment. There is windows on 4 sides. We’re mirrored a lot of the surfaces to bring the outside in. Our intent was when people stepped off the elevator was to do something healthy. Whether that was through exercise or sitting on the couch reading the paper. We just wanted to create a healthy environment where they would feel good when they came in.
Dr. Lisa: I think it’s really interesting that both of you look at exercise from a healing perspective because most people look at exercise as just a way to get fit and build muscle. You have a very different idea about that.
Steven: I do. The most important thing for me is, for people to feel good, their breath, their posture, and their alignment essentially. If they’re focusing on those things, and we’ve talked about mindful movement. If they’re in the moment exercising doing the correct body mechanics, I try to teach those mechanics that are interrelated and not isolated so it mimics the way the body naturally moves on the outside. Those people just pick up the side benefits of strength and flexibility and cardiovascular. If they focus on the feeling good aspect at first, to me that’s perfect.
Dr. Lisa: Which is what I noticed about my running. I’m a runner, I go out every morning. People will, they’ll say “Oh my gosh, you work so hard, it’s so hard, it’s so hard.” And I’ll say “But that’s not really why I do it. I wake up, I see the sunrise, I run around and look at the ocean.” I think that is the thing. It’s playing. You really want your body to be able to play.
Steven: Truly. If you do things that trade happiness for you, that often times can offset any physiological detriment. If you do it with joy and don’t do it out of a sense of laborious movement, the outcomes are going to be so much better. A really clear body and mind.
Dr. Lisa: Is that why people like sports so much? Playing games?
Steven: I think they do. There’s a couple of things. They have that camaraderie of being with others. There’s personal performance but that’s woven in with everybody else. It takes collectively everyone to do their best so the whole can accomplish. That’s a nice analogy for exercise as well.
Dr. Lisa: Do you see that when you help people align physically it enables them to align emotionally, spiritually, and come back to where they need to be in their lives?
Steven: Most definitely, that’s a perfect question. Often times when I’m sitting down and speaking with people, before we start a lot of these issues come up. We’re about holistic and looking at the entire person. You really can’t fragment or segment the person. I call it exercise in the moment. There are so many issues that people may want to work on. If we start with the physical part I often times see that the other health aspects tend to fall into place.
It really is physical therapy. I’m almost like a health counselor when I’m out there. I think my background in psychology and counseling helps as well. When they’re doing that and they’re in the moment, they’re not worrying about preparation of their next meal or paying their bills, they’re really there for them. Healing really takes place.
Dr. Lisa: Which certainly is a very eastern idea. Mindfulness and being present. It’s something that in this country sometimes we have difficulty with. As we’re very distracted by so many different things. Do you find that if you are able to at least give them 20 minutes of in the moment at your gym and they cane leave and do this on an ongoing basis of their lives?
Steven: Yes because we have many business professionals and we really have to weave this into their lifestyle. It doesn’t need to go by certain numbers or time essentially. I tell people it’s all about the quality of the movement. If you’re given your particular amount of time, I just fill that time up with the best movements for that individual. Everything counts essentially. Then they take that information and there’s residual.
I want to make sure that anything we do behind those doors is usable on the outside. That’s why the term functional training is such a buzzword now. Truly to be function, when you step out so that you can use it in your every day situation. To me that’s the ultimate program.
Dr. Lisa: Steven when you watch children playing, not necessarily in a competitive sports arena, but just playing tag. They have such a lightness and agility in their body. I know that’s something that I strive for in my yoga practice. This sense of lightness in your body. It’s something that you really teach in your fitness center. Can you speak to that?
Steven: That’s a very good point. Often I will use children, sometimes babies as examples of perfect movement. They’re doing functional training in their play. It’s very fluid. They’re very happy. I think we take it a little too serious and really don’t have to. We can lighten up in terms of our attitude towards exercise and be more playful when we’re doing that, then our bodies like that. That inner child really comes out. I think it’s very important that we take lessons from our children as well.
When we’re moving lightly like I’ve been speaking about, we really hold onto our energy we don’t really waste it because with the demands on life there’s so many things to put your energy on. You want to make sure you do that wisely. Fortunately in my generation, never thought I’d be saying those words, we didn’t have all the videos games and all the other distractions. All we had were movements outdoors. When we would come home from school, we just playing sports all the time. That got me in a certain direction.
There’s also an interesting story about that. Growing up in northern Maine, my family they were big hunters. My father was a Maine woodsmen. That didn’t really align with me, shooting animals but I didn’t want to disappoint him. I have 2 other brothers and they followed that same course. I was trying to figure out, how do I not go hunting?
It came to me that if I decided to play sports in school, there was practice every day after school and there was always a sport every season. By doing that it was my way of not having to do hunting and shooting things. I got very good at that because I didn’t want to go the other way. I just participated in sports. I was athlete of the year my senior year. I was good at that so I stayed that route.
Speaker 1: We’ll return to our interview after acknowledging the following generous sponsors. Akari Salon, an urban sanctuary of beauty, wellness, and style. Located on Middle Street in Portland, Maine’s old port. Follow them on Facebook or go to akaribeauty.com. To learn more about their new boutique and Medispa.
And by Robin Hodgskin, senior vice president and financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Portland Maine. For all your investment needs, call Robin Hodgkin at 207-771-0888. Investments and services are offered through Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC member SIPC.
And by Dr. John Herzog of orthopedic specialists of Falmouth Maine, maker of Dr. John’s Brainola cereal. Find them on the web at orthopedicspecialistsme.com.
For more information on our hosts, production team, Maine Magazine, or any of the guests featured here today, be sure to visit us online at doctorlisa.org.
Dr. Lisa: One of the things we wanted to touch on is this idea of bringing the light indoors. We know the light, the number of hours is decreasing. We’ve passed through the Autumnal equinox, we’re not quite at the winter solstice. People are starting to get, it’s 6:30, it’s dark, I’m not really motivated to exercise. Do you have suggestions for people who are struggling with that?
Steven: The best thing, a lot of people if they can start their exercise fairly early in the day, or earlier in the day if it fits their schedule, they get that piece done. I also like to always impress upon them that everything really counts. That’s why we have a lot of different classes at different hours in the day so if they came in for a Qigong class at 6 o’clock in the evening, even though it’s dark they have something to look forward to that really connotates light. They’re more attracted to coming in and participate.
I think our facility being so welcoming, and we have such wonderful people there that you’re surrounded by this collective energy, you just feel good just going in. I think that draws people in because they also are aware of that. They want to make sure they’re getting light even though the day’s getting shorter.
Dr. Lisa: What do you have in addition to Qigong classes?
Steven: We have yoga, we have several styles of boot camp for a little higher level of intensity. Again, if you’ve seen our studio it’s sort of like a glorified physical therapy. There’s a lot of wonderful toys to play with. No matter what class, people are getting that same sort of philosophy. Then we have Qigong. I think that’s it.
Dr. Lisa: You have a nutritionist that comes in, is that true or am I making that up?
Steven: We don’t. We would like to add that to our itinerary as well. I do nutritional awareness with people. I make it very clear with people that I’m not a registered dietitian but I give them information if they choose essentially. In terms of being aware of the fuel that they’re putting in their body for the performance that they’re looking for. Water is huge for us as a general statement. I like to have people get at least half their body weight in ounces of water. I find that a lot of people have dehydration issues. We really try to look at that as a base of the pyramid and then go up from there with whole foods essentially.
Dr. Lisa: I also know Steven that you are excellent at helping people recover from injury. Can you speak to that a little bit because that’s a very specialized thing that you do?
Steven: Yes. A lot of people when they come to see me, they have muscular imbalance. We just try to get the body back into that balanced state. When I talk about posture, we want to exercise from a state of a good posture every time. We set people up, we talk about how they should move from the center outward essentially. If we can place people in an adequate environment the body will take over and will help to heal.
Breath is so important, often times I’ll say “During the course of this session you may take a couple of hundred deep breaths.” That in and of itself is tremendous. Then just going through proper body alignment and getting the right muscular strength essentially. If a muscular system is off, it can pull on the skeletal system. It has this chain effect. If we can go back to the root of the problem and get the body responding the way it was designed originally, then it tends to take care of itself.
Dr. Lisa: In past shows we’ve talked about the idea of a kidney chi deficiency, this underlying Marcelle Pick came on and she wrote the book called Are You Tired and Wired? Exercise does tend to be a little draining. The kidney chi is so important, the kidney energy, that really basic energy. How can you help people when they’re completely drained by the stresses in their lives but also need to exercise? What are your recommendations?
Steven: Often times I see a lot of people, they over train. Health and fitness are 2 different categories. Often times people will sacrifice their health for their fitness. They really have to go hand and hand or complement one another. I tell people, you have this bank account of energy. You want to spend it wisely. If you spend it too much, you’ll have nothing left at the end of the day.
By moving correctly with that alignment, they’re really saving their energy. Then by throwing in some specific Qigong exercises designed to get the energy flowing to certain body parts essentially, that’s really helpful. Everything is also linked to an emotion. If I can get them feeling good, they will make better choices in their life no matter what that is, whether it’s eating or relationship with their loved ones. That also has a great healing effect.
Dr. Lisa: You mentioned yourself, you do yoga once a week.
Steven: I do, yes.
Dr. Lisa: You talked about how you got very, very strong and Dr. May said “OK you’re a little bit too strong. You’re not quite flexible enough.” Is this a problem that’s more male than female do you think?
Steven: I think it is. In our society we’ve been taught especially in the fitness world that more is better and that’s not necessarily the case. Smarter is better. Knowing where you are and knowing your strength. Again, as we continue to age we do have to be a little bit smarter. We can maintain our strength well into our older years as well. We just have to be a little smarter about it. We have to be OK with where we are, and then build on that.
I do see a lot of men just working too hard. It’s really not as necessary. I try to put that across.
Dr. Lisa: Do you have any differences in the way that you approach male and female training or is it really just very person based?
Steven: It’s very individual. The information in terms of how the body aligns and how it moves can be very similar. I just basically try to get them back in their original intention, then move correctly from there.
Dr. Lisa: Original intention, what does that mean to you? What does that word mean?
Steven: Original intention is the way the body was designed to move properly through space and have the energy flowing through it. Through living, we tend to contort our body slightly. The body only works on hierarchy, just really wants to survive. It lets you get away with so much improper movement but eventually there’s a price to be paid. The sooner that we can uncover that and get back into original intention, the way the body was designed. When you’re in that original intention, energy courses through your body, you’re feeling good, you’re moving fluidly and life feels pretty good.
Dr. Lisa: And light.
Steven: And very light as well, yeah.
Dr. Lisa: Steven how can people learn more about the work that you’re doing and the Body Architect?
Steven: Probably the best way is to look us up on our website, thebodyarchitect.com. It gives a virtual tour. It will go over a lot of our different philosophies and the features and the classes that we offer. Then we just welcome people to come on up and take a tour. We’re a no pressure club. They just walk around, if it fits for them it’s great.
Dr. Lisa: I think we’ve learned a lot today. We’re leaving, all of us, feeling a little bit lighter for the conversation with you Steven. Thank you so much for coming in today.
Steven: Thank you for having me.
Dr. Lisa: We wish you all the best. You’re doing great work at the Body Architect, you and Antonia. I think there are a lot of lessons that people could be learning for the type of work that you’re doing. I hope people take a chance to look at your website, maybe go visit you and see what you have to offer up there.
Steven: Thank you so much.
Dr. Lisa: Now we have our Maine Magazine minutes hosted by Genevieve Morgan of Maine Magazine.
Genevieve: Thanks Lisa. I’m really excited today because we are welcoming in to the studio David Hearing from Maine Huts and Trails. He is the executive director, the first executive director of Maine Huts and Trails and has served in that capacity since 2005. Over the last 5 years, Maine Huts and Trails has built and opened 3 back country lodges and more than 50 miles of non-motorized trails for free year round use by the public here in our beloved state.
Nearly 10,000 people have visited the huts and trails since the first hut Poplar Stream Falls opened in 2008 including our very own Sandy Lang who skied hut to hut last winter and wrote about it in our upcoming issue which will be coming out at the end of this month. Welcome David, it’s so nice to have you here.
David: Thank you, it’s great to be here.
Genevieve: I wanted to start off by asking you, what was the inspiration for building huts in Maine?
David: Well it’s kind of a long story. To boil it down, I think the concept was to create anature-based tourism destination in western Maine so we could bring economic development to the region, create jobs, but also draw upon the strengths of the region being it’s natural resources. Our founder Larry Warren who has been involved in lots of activities, economic development and otherwise in western Maine and in particular in the Sugarloaf area started talking this idea around of a hut to hut system decades ago honestly. Started to generate excitement amongst friends and business people in the area.
Over the last 5 or so years it’s really taken off with the hiring of staff and building of huts and trails and attracting people and all that.
Genevieve: You have 3 am I correct?
David: Correct. Our vision is for up to 10 or 12 and 180 miles of trails with huts along the way, but we currently have 3.
Genevieve: How far apart are they?
David: They are about a days hike or ski apart, which typically means about 10-12 miles between them. It’s important to note that they’re really accessible in that each hut essentially has it’s own trail head, which is typically 2-2 1/2 miles from that hut. You can do just into the hut from the trail head in a nice short trip, or you can do hut to hut if you want longer trips.
Genevieve: This is really exciting, don’t you think Lisa because we are talking about light in our show today. One of the ways that people can get exercise in winter is to go out and actually enjoy the outdoors, which you make much more accessible. Sandy’s article was all about cross country skiing hut to hut, but I know there are many other sports you can do and many other ways you can get to the huts.
David: Yeah the unique thing about our system here in Maine is that it’s multi-season and multi-sport. You can use it in all seasons and use it using many different means of access to get there. In the winter primarily people are cross country skiing and snow shoeing, but also hiking on groomed and ungroomed trails. In the summer and fall people are hiking, they’re mountain biking, they’re paddling, those are the primary uses that people are using the system.
February and March, they are our busiest months. When you talk about getting out and being active in the winter, that’s when most people are using the system.
Genevieve: We actually have more sunny days in the winter than we do in the summer which is something that a lot of people in Maine don’t know. Lisa is shivering here beside me thinking “Oh that sounds so cold.”
Dr. Lisa: As I told you, I used to race in high school, I was on the high school ski team. I run every morning in the winter, yet I still think “Oh my gosh, snow shoeing from hut to hut, that seems really cold.” But you told me that’s not really true, it’s really more comfortable than that. Is that so?
David: Yeah it’s all about preparing for the conditions. If you wear the proper clothing and layers and you’re being active and traveling hut to hut, whether you’re snow shoeing or skiing, you’re going to stay warm. The beauty of the huts is that at the end of the long day you can take off your sweaty clothes and put them in a drying room and put on something cozy and sit in front of the fire and have a glass wine or tea or beer and just relax and enjoy a heated lodge.
Dr. Lisa: Oh it’s getting better by the minute as you’re describing this. OK.
David: It’s important to know too, they’re really more like lodges than huts. People are sometimes confused by the word hut. It can mean a variety of different things to a variety of different people depending on your perspective and experience. They’re really comfortable lodges.
Genevieve: And they’re staffed.
David: They are. We have 2 primary seasons, our summer season which runs from June through the end of October and the we have our winter season which runs from mid December through the end of March. Those 2 seasons are our full service seasons. We have a staff of 4 at each of the huts who cook meals and welcome guests. They’re essentially running their own little inns in the woods in western Maine.
Genevieve: Tell me what it’s like to sleep in the hut. Are you in bunk beds with a bunch of strangers, what’s it like?
David: Not quite that exciting.
Dr. Lisa: It actually just got worse again there. But you’re going to make it better. Sell me on this one David.
David: When we designed the system and designed the huts, we looked at a variety of different systems around the world. In Europe if you go to huts, in the Alps or whatever, a lot of times you’ll find large bunk rooms with lots of bunks and very social, kind of hostel experience. We Americans like our privacy a little bit more than others around the world. We’ve designed the huts to have several rooms at each hut.
You can have private accommodations if you want them, or you can do shared accommodations and meet people and be social, just kind of depends on what you’re looking for. The rooms themselves have bunks, some of them double, some of them single. We have mattresses and fleece blankets and pillows and they’re heated. People just need to bring a pillow case and either sheets or a light sleeping bag. The rooms are heated to 60 degrees.
It’s not like you need to bring a 30 degree down sleeping bag, but sometimes people in the winter they sleep cold and they want that, that’s fine too. It makes it feel more like a back country experience, which it is. It’s also comfortable and sheets would do fine.
Genevieve: How far in advance do you need to make reservations?
David: That’s actually an important question now Genevieve because a couple of years when we opened, people could call the day of, or 2 days before and there was always space but word has gotten out about Maine Huts and Trails and that’s certainly what we’ve been working on overtime. We actually have more than 500 reservations already for this coming winter and there are many Saturdays where people could not find a space that they maybe would be looking for.
It’s imperative now that people start to plan their hut trips in advance. The 2-4 week thing is really like 2-4 months if you’re looking for that prime space, Saturdays and holidays and vacation periods. Mid-week you’re likely still to be able to find a space that you’re looking for. It’s important to plan ahead.
Genevieve: Does that apply to day trippers coming up from Sugarloaf for lunch?
David: It does not, no. You can come up on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we have lunch from 11-2 and you don’t need reservations. If you wanted to come up during the week, we don’t offer daily lunch service Monday-Thursday unless we know you’re coming. It’s important that we knew somebody was coming. Even if you showed up, we’d still be able to fix you some soup or some warm brownies or something.
Genevieve: In addition to Sandy’s article coming out in the upcoming issue of Maine Magazine, what other exciting things are happening at Maine Huts and Trails?
David: We’re waiting with baited breath to find out when we’re going to be covered in the New York Times travel section because we had a writer and a photographer come out last winter, I think around the same time that Sandy did. As excited as we are about this feature in Maine Magazine, we’re also quite excited to see ourselves covered in the New York Times travel section.
Genevieve: That is exciting, but you’re not going to forget about us homies are you?
David: No way, not a chance.
Genevieve: Sandy Lang who is a writer at Maine Magazine makes it sound like the most fun thing one can possibly do on cross country skis. I’m wondering for those of us who are less experience how accessible is it to get to the huts? Can you bring your kids?
David: Definitely it’s very accessible. That’s kind of a big part of why we designed the system the way we did. We wanted to try and create outdoor experiences for everybody but especially for the general recreationists. For people who maybe haven’t done big back country ski trips in Colorado or wherever, it’s accessible. You can rent skis at a local shop or the Sugarloaf outdoor center and head to the trail head and in a couple of miles you’d be at a hut. Especially at Flagstaff lake hut, it’s a little bit less than 2 miles from the trail head. There’s very little elevation gain. There’s really nice views.
I have a young child, and lots of my friends have young children. We found that’s a great place to bring young kids and it’s a great introductory to the hut system and to being outside in the winter because even if you run into some challenges with the kids and meltdown on the way into the hut, it’s only 2 miles. You’re going to be there before long and it’s all going to be good once you settle into the hut and get some hot chocolate rolling and sit in front of the fire and relax. It’s important that kids have those kinds of experiences early on in their lives that are positive with the outdoors to create the connection that will want them coming back and get them coming back outdoors.
Genevieve: Which we actually talked about in a somewhat different way with Steven Anderson. He was talking about the importance of play and exercise and letting children feel this lightness in their body. He was connecting it specifically to sports but you’re talking about this with regard to the outdoors as well.
David: Definitely. One of the really cool things that you’ll see at the huts, I had this experience this summer with a niece and a nephew of mine. We went up there and their parents stayed at home with some other family members and I took them up there. Over the course of a couple hours, the adults were hanging out in the dock or inside reading or whatever, and the kids were having unstructured play time.
It was incredible to watch them running around outside and just taking part in unstructured playtime outside and having a great time making up games. I just think there’s less and less of that going on these days and we think it’s crazy important for kids to have those experiences. I think the system really creates those opportunities for people because it’s successful, because there’s people out there, and because we have the huts there.
Genevieve: Important for kids and adults.
Lisa: David, I’m a little scared, are there wild animals out there?
David: Well, yes but you don’t need to be scared. More often than not people may not realize this but the wild animals are much more afraid of us than we are of them. That being said, you will have an opportunity potentially to see moose. People often times see moose along the shore of the lake or in foggy areas. There are black bears as there are all over Maine. There’s also beavers and eagles and loons, and all sorts of things. Lots of birding.
Genevieve: Not many people know that Maine Huts and Trails is actually a nonprofit organization and that you do rely on donations and volunteers as well as your paid staff and reservations. How can people, if they want to get involved or if they want to do something for Maine Huts and Trails?
David: You can start by going online, just like any nonprofit business these days we’ve got a good website I think. There’s lots of opportunities for people to get involved. There’s volunteer days almost monthly, we’ll have something going on. In fact this month we’ve got 2 volunteer days coming up on the weekends. They’re wood stacking days. The old New England proverb is that wood warms us 3 times, when we stack it, when we split it, and when we heat it or use it. People will have the opportunity to take part in those first 2 ways this couple weekends coming up.
There’s volunteer days, there’s volunteer days in the summer to work on the trails or in the huts. There’s membership, you can become a member. There’s lots of great benefits of becoming a member. You get free use of canoes and kayaks at Flagstaff during the summer, you get discounts on lodging, invites to our free barbecue in October, lots of great ways to be part of an active outdoor community who cares about what we’re doing.
Of course you can consider Maine Huts and Trails in your philanthropic giving if that’s something you’re inclined to do and have the means to do, you can certainly do that. We’ve got a trails appeal going on right now through the end of the year. We’re almost half the way to our goal. You can go online and take a look at that and see what you can help us create.
Genevieve: Every dollar builds another hut right?
David: Yeah kind of. Every dollar times a certain number.
Genevieve: David what’s the easiest way to make a reservation?
David: You can do it 2 ways. You can do it online at Mainehuts.org. All the information is on there. If you’d rather speak to somebody about Maine Huts you can certainly call our reservation line. We’ve got a staff person there ready to answer your questions and help customize your trip and talk you through where to go and where to start and how to prepare and all that kind of stuff. We want to make it really easy so online or over the phone.
Genevieve: It sounds like a great way to add a little lightness to those dark winter months.
David: We think so.
Genevieve: I’m going to get Lisa out there on snow shoes just you wait.
Dr. Lisa: Listen I’ve been out on snow shoes. I’ve lived in Maine most of my life, I know what this is all about. I’ll go I promise. Especially since you were talking about brownies. Thank you so much for coming in David.
David: Thank you.
Speaker 9: For more on Maine Huts and Trails, read Sandy Langs article “Cross Country Carrabassett” in the November/December 2011 issue of Maine Magazine or visit us at Mainemag.com.
Dr. Lisa: Each week on the Dr. Lisa radio hour and pod cast we read a quote from our daily tread. Our daily tread was created in 2008 in honor of my late Bowdoin College classmate Hanley Denning who founded the organization Safe Passage which educates children whose families are living outside of the Guatemala city dump. This is the organization that my son Campbell is spending the year volunteering at. This is the organization that I will visit over the week of thanksgiving and learn more about.
For those who are interested, you can go to islandportpress.com and purchase a copy of Our Daily Tread. All proceeds from this book continue to benefit Safe Passage.
This week’s quote comes from Sidney J. Harris. “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” This goes well with our theme of light and the idea of reflection of light and the mirrors that send the light back to us and the windows that bring in the light.
This week, we’re talking with Scott Manthorne from the Ski Boat and Stiletto challenge. He will describe his event which is all about light, and the lightness involved in doing something for a good cause and raising awareness even in the face of potential tragedy.
Speaker 1: This segment of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible by the support of generous donors such as the follow. Thomas Shepard of Herzy, Gardener, Shepard, and Eaton at Ameriprise Platinum Financial Services practice in Yarmouth, Maine. Dreams can come true when you take the time to invest in yourself. Learn more at Ameriprizeadvisors.com.
And by Mike Lepage and Beth Franklin of Remax Heritage Yarmouth, Maine. Honesty and integrity can take you home. With Remax Heritage it’s your move. Learn more at rheritage.com.
For more importation on our hosts, production team, Maine Magazine or any of the guests featured here today, please be sure to visit us online at doctorlisa.org.
Dr. Lisa: Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast we have a segment we call give back, because we recognize there is a correlation between individual health, community health, family health, and the health of the world around us. Today we have Scott Manthorn who is the creator of the Ski Boot and Stiletto challenge. This unique fund-raiser has become an annual event. Each year they choose local charities to benefit. Their goal is to promote each, bring the community closer, and have fun in doing so.
Scott, thank you so much for coming in today.
Scott: Thank you for having me.
Dr. Lisa: I’m fascinated by this. This ski boot, stiletto. I run in a lot of races, I have never worn stilettos. Today I’m wearing heels but I wouldn’t run in them. Wouldn’t necessarily run in any sort of ski boots. Gen Morgan who’s sitting next to me here-
Genevieve: I would definitely not run in ski boots or stilettos.
Dr. Lisa: Exactly so what’s the deal? What was the brain child here? Who was coming up with this?
Scott: I don’t think any idea’s original, but I was surfing the internet looking for something fun to do in Maine to raise money, and came across a stiletto race being held in Washington D.C. and I thought how fun that would be to do up here in Maine.
Dr. Lisa: Scott tell me about the organization’s that are being benefited by the Ski Boot and Stiletto challenge.
Scott: We have 3 organizations, 2 local 1 national. The national is Lift Up Foundation based in Charlotte, North Carolina. That’s a organization that helps to support families of children that have pediatric cancer. The second one is stepping stones which is a subset of Maps worldwide. That’s a local organization that helps support families in need. The 3rd is PLGA which is an organization that helps support pediatric cancer, research, more specific in the brain area for children.
Dr. Lisa: For you one of these has a personal link.
Scott: Lift Up foundation is an organization that was created by a friend of mine named Andy Potfin down in Charlotte. Her daughter Ellie was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2008. She battled for 2 years and lost the battle, passed away last June. I’ve had a personal connection with them and this is why I picked them as 1 of the 3 charities for the event.
Dr. Lisa: Ellie’s the same age as your daughter Alexandria.
Scott: Yeah Ellie and her twin sister Grace were born October 31st, they’ve got a tough date to deal with here in another 2 weeks. That was one of the reasons I think why I had that personal connection between her and myself.
Genevieve: Really impressed at how you’ve brought so much lightness and joy to a very somber topic. Really my heart goes out to that family in Charlotte.
Scott: As does mine.
Dr. Lisa: Scott, you eluded to your daughter Alexandria and of course you’ve been coaching my daughter Sophie along with Alexandria for the last few years, they’re both 10. You also talked about the importance of understanding what’s real and what’s important in the world and children. Our theme this week is light. We talk about playfulness. Tell me how this Ski Boot and Stiletto Challenge, tell me what this is going to look like and how this is going to embody this theme of lightness.
Scott: Well I think everyone will be laughing for one. There’s some light for you. The event is going to be 100 yard dashes in your choice of Ski Boots or Stilettos. It’ll go by pretty quick. We’ll try and utilize that 1 hour window to raise a little bit more awareness and funds for these 3 foundations and then go and party afterwards.
I think over the last 6 months or so that I’ve been advertising it, it’s one of these events that is going to provide continuous momentum and interest. Not only in what we’re doing but in these other entities so we get to talk about them the whole time, before during and after. I think that’s probably as important as the event itself.
Dr. Lisa: It’s the raising of awareness, it’s not just the raising money.
Scott: Yeah money can be raised in a lot of different ways. The awareness is a piece that I think a lot of charities and a lot of endeavors have a hard time dealing with. If we can use this as a shameless platform to bring those to light, then we’re going to do that.
Dr. Lisa: I think it’s especially important in a situation where you’re talking about childhood cancer. That’s not a very light topic.
Scott: It’s not. We come from a town that’s had a few tragedies. Another one of Sophie and Alexandria’s soccer teammates had their mom pass away 2 years ago to cancer. It’s rampant around us. It’s the silent killer that I don’t think anyone likes to talk about but everyone is touched by it in some way, shape, or form.
Dr. Lisa: It is interesting as Scott’s talking about this, I’ve lived in Yarmouth a good portion of my life and we seem to have had more than our fair share of not only childhood cancers but very young parent cancers. It’s very challenging as a parent to try and have this conversation with your children and yet not scare them. It’s interesting that you’re bringing together this lightness of event to raise awareness and money for something that’s not quite so light.
Genevieve: Scott if you don’t want to race, are there other ways people can get involved?
Scott: Absolutely. This is an open event, anyone can come and watch. We will be soliciting donations at the event. One of the raffles that we’ll do will be for 8 tickets that were donated by SaddleBack, 8 lift tickets early season. Anyone who does register will also get a lift ticket. We’ve had over 200 donated by SaddleBack.
You can also go online, portsportsmaine.com or you can visit us on Facebook at the Ski Boat and Stiletto challenge.
Dr. Lisa: Scott it’s been really great to talk to you. We’ve appreciated your coming in. What your doing is so important building awareness, raising some funds. I love the idea you’re also doing this as a means of building a community around yourself and Alexandria. We wish you all the best.
Scott: Thank you very much.
Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. On previous weeks, I have discussed my Bountiful blog. I began the Bountiful blog in 2008 as a way to learn about food and nourishing myself, feeding myself, cooking for myself, playing with food. It was all about a very physical way of nourishment. It was become over time more about spiritual nourishment and community nourishment and well being.
This week’s Bountiful blog post is about autumn light. This was the post from October 17th, 2011.
One day last week, the leaves came alive or at least that is how it seemed. Driving through the back roads of Maine it was as if the countryside had suddenly lit up. Sun sparkled, danced through the tree branches, strands of burnt amber wove around and across the maroons and golds adorning the horizon line. Autumn, previously herolded by date, had manifested truly. Pumpkins sprung out from under now dedicated vines. Corn Stalks stood near mailboxes in proud bunches. Apples departed the orchards in the hands of school children. After several days of rain, the world was once again bright.
Light was all around us, under and over pulling forth the light that shines within each of us, the light of joy, of a sense of belonging to the world. The light of autumn, sumptuous and ripe.
Read this blog post and other blog posts on bountiful-blog.com. This week on the Dr. Lisa radio hour and pod cast co-hosted by Genevieve Morgan we had 3 guests who helped us explore the theme of light.
It began with Steven Anderson from the Body Architect who discussed the importance of finding the inner light through physicality, through spiritual means of knowing ones self. We discussed the lightness that one experiences in the great outdoors with David Herring from Maine’s Huts and Trails. We also had a conversation with Scott Manthorne of the Ski Boot and Stiletto challenge in which we had a little fun with raising money and awareness for 3 important organizations.
It’s all about inner light. Finding what makes us light, within our own lives, within the community at large, and knowing that life is about joy and playfulness and being truly present. Life is about the light in autumn. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. Thank you for being apart of our world. May you have a bountiful life.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa radio hour and pod cast is made by possible of the following generous sponsers. Maine Magazine, Tom Shepard of Herzey, Gardener, Shepard, and Eaton. Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of Remax Heritage, Robin Hodgskin at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopaedic specialists of Portland, Maine, Whole Foods Market, and Akari.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is recorded in downtown Portland at the offices of Maine Magazine on 75 Market Street.
It is produced by Kevin Thomas and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Editorial content produced by Chris Cast and Genevieve Morgan. Audio production and original music by John McCain. For more information on our hosts, production team, Maine Magazine, or any of the guests featured here today, visit us at drlisa.org. Tune in every Sunday at 11AM for the Dr. Lisa radio hour on WLOB Portland Maine 1310 AM or streaming wlobradio.com. Pod casts are available at drlisa.org.