Cheez-it® · 25 June 2008
Last friday I walked into the living room and I smelled Nabisco. What?
He wouldn’t do this. Not Nabisco, flagship of American obesity and mindless addiction? Not this level of anti-wellbeing and all-out trash in our home?
I opened a few cupboards and file drawers, looked behind the sofa. The smell of deep-fried salty cardboard, refined flour, congealed corn syrup burnt into dessicated brown bubbles and marketed as “food” was unmistakeable. I tipped over the guitar amp behind the chair and there it was: a large box of Cheez-it® crackers.
A "food" with a registered trademark. A "food" comprising 26 ingredients, among them partially hydrogenated soybean oil and something identified as TBHQ. A substance brought into my house for the purposes of ingestion.
Ok then. It’s either me or him.
Sometimes this contrarian imp comes out—the imp that’s curious just how much shit the practice can neutralize. The imp who’s angry at parents (not mine, bless them thank god) and a culture that teach children to find comfort in “food” with trademarks, and who wants with spite-tainted curiosity to take it on myself. The imp who thinks she can neutralize all shit.
I reached in and took a monkey-fist full, sat down on the floor like a primate and crunched. Cheez-it, for all that oil and salt, tasted exactly like cardboard. Did nothing for me, not even an insulin rush (thanks to the spinach and cauliflower on which it landed). Tasting and feeling nothing, I took several more monkey-fistfuls before returning the Cheez-it® to its hiding place, knowing I’d soon be in more trouble with the Editor than he was with me. Can’t I leave anything a secret? Can’t even the space inside his guitar amp be free from my ideas about clean living?
The next morning the solstice hit and I made 108 sun salutations in the most peaceful quiet home studio in Venice. As I raised my arms for number 20, a severe wave of nausea drew me down.
Gawd. I have to do 88 more of these? Maybe I can get through one more before my first trip to the bathroom. Nice of them to install this beautiful bathroom right off their studio, though. I really hope I don’t throw up.
On salutation 21, a bead of sweat formed on my brow. And all I noticed for the next two salutations was the droplet gaining volume and momentum as it ran up and down my nose. On the 24th, I waited in ardha uttanasana while it rolled to the tip of my nose and flicked it like a frog, rose up quickly, and checked in with the nausea. Gone.
Did I neutralize Cheez-it®? Conquer and assimilate?
Would the anti-human evil of Cheez-it® in my body have even been observable were it not for the practice?
I will write more about food in the next post, about what I actually eat even though I sense that this is not even useful or interesting to anyone because eating is as much play as it is science. Or, at least, should be.
For now here is one idea that might useful across the board.
If you want to begin to hear your body correctly, put the screws to your workout.
If you are having trouble tapping in to good intuitions about how to eat, honestly: ramp it the hell up.
From what I have seen, straight cardio won’t do it. From what I have seen, in order to clarify the messages, and increase their urgency, you want to start making your body build finetuned strength, balance and nervous-system endurance. If you tell it that it has to build smart muscles, excellent proprioception, all kinds of new balance and movement skills: under those conditions, the body will demand what it needs to do that efficiently. It will respond to the trauma of a dramatic increase in exercise by getting smarter.
I say this because, time and again, I see new practitioners realize that they have been doing something wrong with their diet. Of course they are: they live in a Nabisco world. Astanga is the most they have ever asked of their bodies, so it’s no wonder new practitioners try every kind of new eating regime in response to all the new feelings.
You always have the option of making an intellectual decision to nourish yourself “right,” based on nutritionists’ research. But this shortcuts old habits while putting the new ones up to a higher authority.
Posted by (0v0)
Categories: astanga yoga
, evolution
, having a body
, self-deception
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So you are saying that if I ramp up the intensity of my practice, my body will start demanding what’s right for me instead of the chocolate croissant + crappucino I ingest every morning?
Interesting idea. My initial reaction is to not believe it, but it would be a good experiment to do. Might try it next week!
Posted by: V · Jun 26, 12:14 AM · #
It’s my theory. But not just ramping up in terms of force… asking more of the fine motor skills, breath control, stuff like that.
I could be mistaken, but I think that this is the underlying mechanism of new-ashtangi diet changes.
It might not always work but that could be a different conondrum….
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 26, 04:36 AM · #
This is precisely the how and why of why meat and I went different ways, almost entirely. Meat in belly meant jump-back harder. No meat in belly? Jump-back easier.
Climbing is also a really good demonstration of this mechanism, although climbing made me crave beer like no freakin’ tomorrow, which wasn’t always brilliant for later climbing.
Posted by: patrick · Jun 26, 05:49 AM · #
Vanessa, I think it works this way. For me, riding my bicycle up and down hills made dietary issues immediately apparent. My intense rides helped me eliminate a lot of defeating foods from my diet long before I started yoga.
I don’t quite feel like I have the flexibility and upper body strength I’d need to kick my yoga practice up that intensely yet. I do feel nutritional deficiencies during yoga but they don’t hit me as hard as they would if I were to hammer my way up a big hill though.
Posted by: Carl · Jun 26, 09:02 AM · #
Beer is very good for some workouts! When I ran the hash the year I lived in Nicaragua, there was a huge amount of beer involved in the workout recovery process. Mudhoney (who I say is way more hardcore than me, though she says it’s the other way around) might have some insight on this.
Ashtanga + Beer: time and again the research confirms, this absolutely does not work. Alas. Dissenters?
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 26, 09:04 AM · #
Carl, so bike riding makes you want raw vegetables more than ashtanga makes you want them?
I wonder if ashtanga will become more nutritionally demanding as the flexibility and upper body strength increase, and thus enable more intense practice…
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 26, 09:06 AM · #
Cycling causes me to want energy-rich unprocessed foods. If I eat processed and overly heavy foods then hearty activities cause me to want to lie down on the pavement or floor or whatever and not move. Raw veggies have always been my love and I prefer them no matter what.
I expect that as I progress in my own yoga, and I graduate from my focus on lower body flexibility and begin striving for universal strength, flexibility and endurance, I’ll have to fine-tune my diet much more. I sense an upcoming date with kale.
Posted by: Carl · Jun 26, 11:03 AM · #
Ashtanga causes me to prefer energy-rich unprocessed foods that evacuate quickly.
Posted by: Carl · Jun 26, 11:04 AM · #
Mmmmm, cheezits. I knew I liked the Editor.
Posted by: LI Ashtangini · Jun 26, 11:20 AM · #
Ha!
He was kind of mad about this post.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 26, 11:26 AM · #
Another hypothesis: the make-you-vegetarian mechanism of yoga is what Carl and Patrick illuminate: meat takes a huge amount of energy and time to digest, and generates a great deal of acid in the meantime. When you’re on the edge of mastering a flexibility or subtle strength maneuv, the difference becomes visible.
For me, backbending is where I notice processed food, and might notice meat if ate it. It’s not about flexibility so much as the quality of energy. Backbending either gives me a sustained, clear high or leaves me drained.
If I’ve eaten crap the day before, I’m exhausted after practice. Maybe because I’ve just done so much detoxing. Otherwise, no problem.
Its higher energetic demands aside, there are reasons meat is efficient for practitioners’ bodies, depending on constitution, climate, and other sports or physical work.
And there’s um…. the cosmetic reason.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 26, 11:45 AM · #
The cosmetic reason?
As if you ever eat crap!!!!!
Posted by: LI Ashtangini · Jun 26, 12:01 PM · #
Rock solid abs.
I do too! Promise!!!
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 26, 12:36 PM · #
Funny. I am not the best eater. Cheez-Its do get in there on occasion. But backbending is my specialty.
Then again, rock solid abs are NOT. :)
Hi, owl! It’s been so long since I said hi!!!! Missed you.
Posted by: katie · Jun 26, 01:14 PM · #
I just wish I could enjoy Cheez-It®, as long as I’m going to be sneaking some on occasion. Smuggled tortilla chips… now those I can savor.
Katie, do you notice a difference after backbends, like I describe? As in: if you’ve been eating a lot of Cheez-it, do you feel more out of it after practice.
It’s interesting that for some bodies, the flexibility is there regardless of what one eats.
I’ve missed you since you went private. When are you coming to visit again? Soon…?
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 26, 01:23 PM · #
Owl, It’s curious that you use the Cheez-It name as a noun but not in plural form. Is this an idiom peculiar to Big Sky country? I looked at the Cheez-It homepage and found that Nabisco’s usage suggests the Cheez-It brand should be used as an adjective applied to a product-specific noun, such as the word “cracker.” I believe the colloquial usage is to speak of the crackers as Cheez-Its in the sense that the product name itself indicates a discrete noun — i.e., “Gimme a handful o’ Cheez-Its.”
Or do you just like to speak product names parodyingly?
Posted by: Carl · Jun 26, 01:47 PM · #
Oops. Cheez-It is a Sunshine brand name, not Nabisco.
Posted by: Carl · Jun 26, 01:49 PM · #
Ha! I didn’t realize. Good research, Carl.
But I suppose “Sunshine” and “Nabisco” are just other names for “Monsanto.” They should change the “Safeway” sign to “Monsanto.”
The Editor, even though he is indeed a language perfectionist, has his own domestic argot. (You already know about the Owl House pun problem.)
For some reason that remains unclear even after a decade, he likes to switch plurals and singulars when referring to household objects. Cheez-it®, in fact, is not only a singular and plural noun, but probably also a verb both transitive and intransitive.
I have probably given away one too many of his secrets today. Now he’s really going to be mad at me.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 26, 01:58 PM · #
aaah..a subject I can sink my teeth into! (no offense to mr. neetz-chee)
We currently have a box of kung-fu panda cheez-its in the cupboard. delicious, cheese-flavored cardboard.
I will submit that one pint of stout at night has no negative affect on the next morn’s practice, but it will ruin any attempt at a sitting practice that night. more than one will have a negative affect, though.
tell the editor that we’ll have beer, cheez-its and the delicious chilean sandwich known only as the “chacarero” waiting for him in boston!
Posted by: cody · Jun 26, 02:43 PM · #
I kind of like cheese its, but more than that, the little cheese fish crackers… They go good with martinis.
I’ve wanted to believe, many times, that eating vegetarian would make me feel more open and be more flexible, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. Granted I don’t have the circumstances where I can cook and I’m not going to be ordering $20/$30 of vegan food delivery twice a day, but what always has happened to me trying not to eat meat is that in the lack of enough calories in “good stuff” that fall within my budget, I just end up losing weight and muscle tone. AND I don’t get any more flexible.
Maybe I’ll try again in Goa next winter. Don’t know.
I also really agree with the concept of vegetarianism and ahimsa. I think that I am too weak to do it though.
Posted by: boodiba · Jun 26, 04:11 PM · #
Perhaps its as simple as becoming tuned to your body by learning to focus with it? I think I am beginning to learn that a bit. If I deadlift 100lbs and I’m on the 5th rep of the 3rd set – this I have found to be THE ‘opening’ situation, I HAVE to bring ATTENTION to the contractions, the breath, the posture, the grip, the equality of unity of the lifting muscles, the unity of everything, the form, otherwise I give in a little and twinge my back. But staying with it I become attentive to my bodies conversation… and now I hear things, and it seems to talk more because I am listening.
But cheezy cardboard in your guys amp. Specifically hidden in your guys amp. Away from little owls! Owl, I am disheartened, where is the love, the trust, the allowance, the room for a little cheez.
I think you should watch the English Patient all the way through for that.
Posted by: Gregor · Jun 26, 06:08 PM · #
amused
Peter Greenaway, in a visit to Bloomington, where he was around for a showing of The Pillow Book, once asked, “And this film you have made, which has earned all these awards…the English Patient? Can you POSSIBLY IMAGINE anything more BORING????”
I’ve always loved that.
Posted by: patrick · Jun 26, 06:42 PM · #
Hi (0v0)
I wanted to say something useful, since nutrition is a big interest. Well, you’re really in tune with which food are gakky. The cheez-it probably are. The ironic thing is what you found out, that you needed the energy of carbs for the sun salutations. I imagine that some fresh bread from that French bakery near the shala would have given you the same result and more nutrition. In moderation (which I think you observed), though, snacks such as those once in a while are not altogether bad.
hugs
Arturo
Posted by: arturo · Jun 26, 07:29 PM · #
There you have it, everyone. Arturo says Cheez-it® is ok. Thank you, Arturo!
I agree with Boodiba that it actually can be difficult to get enough calories doing this practice (not a problem for most Americans, I grant), and maybe one of the most efficient things is just to find a way of getting nutrient-dense foods.
I do deserve The English Patient. The amp is our equivalent of the basement recording studio or the pool room. It’s the only place Cheez-it® could live without my impishly eating it up and then getting mad they were brought into the house, and I went ahead and found it out.
We can blame second series. Makes your sense of smell super sharp.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 26, 07:54 PM · #
I keep trying to work beer in, because when I was climbing a LOT, it was the most delicious and sustaining drink in the world. Now, with practice, I feel like I ought to get the same charge out of beer, but, as you note, it doesn’t seem to work. Sadness.
On the other hand, I am getting significant mileage out of avocados and medjool dates.
Posted by: karen · Jun 26, 08:31 PM · #
Ha, Owl, sniffing out the cheez-its. What’s intruiging for me is that you could smell them when you walked through the door! I too am a super-smeller and it is only getting worse. The ‘cleaner’ I eat, the better I can detect whatever P ate for his last meal. So on and so on. One problem for me, though I’ve always been sensitive to this, my stomach is turning at the smell of unwashed hair or a twice-worn teeshirt when people are walking by me in the street. Everyone else swears the odor is slight-to-non-existant, but I can smell an every-other-day showerer coming at me from some distance.
Posted by: joy · Jun 27, 03:24 AM · #
There’s a blog post coming about yoga/climbing: Karen’s spot-on about beer in this respect.
(do i surrender my climbing practice to focus on my yoga practice? i think we all know my answer to this.)
Posted by: patrick · Jun 27, 05:06 AM · #
Owl, if you want a somewhat healthy cheezit experience, eat the Kashi version. They are ‘less bad’ and I honestly think they taste the same. BF would probably argue that point…..I should seriously buy stock in Kashi, my house is usually filled with the stuff.
Posted by: LI Ashtangini · Jun 27, 05:50 AM · #
no cooked food!
Posted by: Karen · Jun 27, 10:01 AM · #
Somehow, getting enough calories is not a problem that I have.
Cheez-its! My grandfather loves them. We buy them for him all the time and they always kind of smell like home?
I do have to say, I prefer the goldfish if I’m going to eat processed garbage.
Posted by: Anna · Jun 27, 11:31 AM · #
Goldfish are ok. At least they are baked and not fried. I like to get the ‘organic’ version, Late July or Annie’s. Or Kashi.
And Owl, your idea of ‘eating crap’ and my idea of ‘eating crap’......waaaaaay different. I’m just guessin’.
Posted by: LI Ashtangini · Jun 27, 11:52 AM · #
there must be some awesome balance point for a yoga/climbing practice. The thing about going balls out and how that guides food choice falls in here. I can’t imagine reconciling them, but perhaps you can, Patrick. I ate LOTS of food — processed and not — when climbing, and burned through it all. Wiry but muscular as hell. The food and drink hearty to pad my psyche from the fact that we really were courting death every weekend. Yoga food much “cleaner” and lighter — to support transformation. No need to shore up against possibility of sudden death.
Posted by: Karen · Jun 27, 12:20 PM · #
Joy, The ashtanga spray bottle gets mold in it and I can smell it from across the room. STRONGLY. Nobody else notices until they open it up and take a whiff. A weird reality check that people go through life with different sense experiences.
Lia, but we do agree on the chocolate-hazelnut spread at Le P-Q.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 27, 12:37 PM · #
Karen, that’s more than an elegant metaphor.
It makes sense. Really nice.
The diet that best supports a flexibility-based practice is very light. In substance and amount. That aspect of LETTING GO—of the sense that you “need” more, and of the feeling of fullness in the belly at the end of the day, is something I witness in many practitioners over time.
That said, ashtanga is not all about flexibility and lightness. I was pretty amused to hear my body asking for some animal product this winter. There is a season for rabbit food, but also in my experience a (short!) season for heavier eating.
I am not sure there is a season for Cheez-It®.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 27, 12:44 PM · #
There is a season for Gelato!
Posted by: Gregor · Jun 27, 05:23 PM · #
Sorry but these are for naughty day. Which I have at least twice a month.
Posted by: Gregor · Jun 27, 06:01 PM · #
That site you linked contains so many heinous puns!
Loaf to Admit Failure?
Pudding it Simply?
Nooooooooooooooo!
That is SO, SO WRONG! NIMBCT. Or should I say NOMB? Cheez-it® is one thing; outright food punning is quite another!
English outPatient therapy for you, Gregor!
Someone rescue this comment thread before it totally deteoriorates!
Karen? Can you rice to the occasion?
Help!
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 27, 06:20 PM · #
yes, mold! Me too. I moved out of an apartment in Aix after one week because I could smell mold in the lobby of the place, in the old stones. And everything else. Scalp oil, absence of soapy after-smell when people walk by me (just after having used a public bathroom—I wish I didn’t know when people don’t wash their hands—I wish I didn’t notice…) ham-eaters’ sweat is very particular and unpleasant… It’s getting worse and worse for me. Aargh.
Posted by: joy · Jun 28, 12:29 AM · #
Wow.
I don’t really notice how specific foods affect my practice. What seems to affect it is how many consecutive practice days have gone beforehand, amount of sleep (more = stiffness, less = no energy), timing of evening meal, and the old monthly hormonal rollercoaster. I had a thought though, that I must monitor my gut during mayurasana, and check the previous day’s diet on the days it feels pukey.
I do keep track of what I eat AND keep practice notes. Maybe I am just insensitive here? But in most areas I’m hyper-sensitive.
Lightness is important, but meat doesn’t make me feel heavy, on the contrary I don’t hear a peep out of my gut if I eat it and feel quite slim, which always amazes me. Meanwhile carbs and dairy cause all kinds of bloating and gurgling. The problems with meat are elimination time, and the nastiness of what I can only think of as the death industry. Which doesn’t stop me indulging occasionally.
Fish is a good compromise, and I consume it often, but worry about the mercury and general foulness of the water my food spends its life soaking in.
Veggies and whole grains I love; the problem is that if I prepare healthy foods myself, I end up eating way too much. Quantity seems to be the all-important factor for me, what makes me feel worst and for longest is stuffing myself. And I do love my own super-healthy concoctions and end up eating twice as much as I need.
With a few exceptions, I don’t eat ‘non-food’, at least not very often.
I have NO problems getting enough calories. And beer I can do and it doesn’t spoil my practice at all :)
Thanks for the discussion and reading my long comment..
Posted by: susananda · Jun 28, 06:37 AM · #
Aaah, but in many ways the hyper-olfactory is good. I try to appreciate peoples’ smells… teaching Mysore would be scary otherwise. Joy, do you have one sense that’s particularly weak? My eyes are pretty dull, and I don’t do anything to make them sharper. I’m just not a very visual person.
Susan, I’m delighted that both beer and meat work for you! You have a strong, long established practice, so that says a lot.
Just because it is way too boring to post, I’ll now write a comment about my own eating tendencies.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 28, 02:31 PM · #
On animal products: For some reason, milk is not ok. I’d rather eat blood sausage (which I did once, on accident). My mom will say this is why I’m smaller than the rest of the family because I wouldn’t drink my milk. Clearly, I’m not on the SKPJ model. Ghee does not thrill me either. I stopped eating meat before I knew anything about how its production affected the environment—I can’t pretend I’m vegetarian as a result of a considered ethical decision. It has been 13 or 14 years since I had beef, I think almost six since there was poultry… but I would still rather down a burger than a glass of milk. I ate small servings of salmon four times last winter and felt great about it “ethically” even though the first time my system did not compute it. When my body was getting used to the arm balances this spring, I had this weird desire to eat eggs a couple of times a week. So I did. It was great. Then, pretty soon, I stopped again. The past couple of weeks I’ve been experiencing a string cheese habit and that is working out fine, though usually when I steal the Editor’s cheese (unless it’s Jarlsberg or feta) I am annoyed later because saturated dairy fat feels gross in my belly. I used to eat a little plain yogurt, but now that I indulge in a kombucha a couple of times a month I don’t feel the need—seems like probiotics are a great idea, but it doesn’t take much. Also, I keep a jar of cod liver oil in my office at school and now and then take a swig. Since I don’t have a bottle of whiskey in the drawer and all.
Otherwise, my favorite foods are kale, almonds and apples. I eat those every day. Consistency is important! I like hemp protein in various forms. Giant salads make me happy. Fruit is great and I eat it all the time, but is best after other foods (sorry, Fit for Life people) or with nuts. I need a little bit of grain to write at all decently—brown rice or sprouted breads are very good brain foods even though they sit in my gut and make me feel a little bloated. Sugar in all forms is extremely stupid in my system. I have maybe one or two decaf espressos a month and that’s a good buzz. I drink wine sometimes, but not as much as I should. I pay attention to food combining, prefer not to eat dinner, and make a point of having high quality fat and protein within an hour of finishing practice.
When someone makes me dinner, I partake and enjoy it, regardless of time of day or (within reason) content. I love making food for others, but am not good at it. Cooking is not a skill because I was initially taught that “my place” in life was in “the home” and spent a lot of energy blocking out domestic skills that were systematically given me. Getting a life depended on not being a viable domestic servant (seriously, in the tradition of my youth, women are described as men’s servants or “help-mates”). Over time, now that I’m over the fears of being locked away as a servant and find domesticity wonderful if impossible on my present schedule, I’ll find some art in cooking. For now, I just chop a lot of vegetables.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 28, 02:32 PM · #
Coincidental, or something, that I too posted a fairly boring food entry today. We meet on nuts and greens; we substantially differ on a bunch of other things. That’s good, tho, keeps us from being the same person (hah!).
Posted by: patrick · Jun 28, 02:56 PM · #