Candice the Rolfing massage therapist, peace of mind, more raw food
Posted in ashtanga yoga, raw food on 06/08/2008 12:50 pm by karenThe place where Delia the Monroe-sporting massage therapist worked was consolidated into the massage therapy chain and closed down. Delia moved to a new site up north. So I’ve been checking out new therapists.
Last week was the massage therapist who smelled of fried eggs, chewed orange hard candy while she worked, and who was rather rotund. Honestly, I found it a little disturbing that her boobs kinda rested on the back of my head when she stood at the head of the table and massaged my back. I realize other people might consider that a plus.
Today I saw Candice. Right from the get-go, the whole thing felt promising. She looked at me and said it’d be good to release my upper pecs and do some work on my rhomboids. Yes! Yes, exactly!
But first, Candice zeroed in on the tensions in my neck: ongoing tight spot in the right trap? Check. The place where the neck meets the bottom of the skull? Yup. Dig fingers in under there, as if pulling my skull off? Yes!
Lovely.
Fold my arm up behind my back like a chicken wing and dig in under the shoulderblade? Indeed. Oh, and the upper pecs/collarbone work? I thought I was going to dissolve or hallucinate. The pain was actually rather intense, but in a good way. I realize there is NO way to explain that; either you get it or you don’t.
At the end of the hour, I felt completely limp. Yay! I’ve been really hyped up and tense lately, and struggling to let go of it. Finally, finally, some peace of mind.
***
Contributing to the peace of mind was this morning’s practice. On a whim, I put on some chants that Volleyball Guy used to play — it seems like YEARS ago. And, amusingly, it seems very dreamlike: my memories of Mysore practice at his house are very fuzzy — no doubt because of the time of day and the sheer repetitiveness.
As soon as I heard the chants, I was thrown into a huge wave of nostalgia and the strongest feelings of devotion. Oh, I can keep my practice rolling along quite merrily on my own, but there is an aspect of the devotional that only Volleyball Guy can bring.
Don’t know if it was the chanting, or the swell of devotional feelings, but the whole practice felt really strong and light and fulfilling. Which, of course, only serves to contrast with how practices have been lately: consumed by thoughts of work and daily life. Gah! Must put that stuff down! At least for the time it takes to practice.
Seriously.
I also have to quote Susananda, who wrote something really helpful on her blog today:
I think that’s the name of the game in Intermediate, not how well you can do each asana, but can you stick with the program and get through without stopping a lot, gasping for breath, hyperventilating, palpitations, desperation, fear of death… a steady flow, balance of energy and calm. Nerve cleansing… yeah.
I mean, I think I knew this — but it helps immensely to hear it from someone who is working third series and who has some perspective from the “other side” of second.
And, of course, the fact that it’s funny is also a plus.
Just as an aside, during the chest muscle Rolfing pressure-from-hell work of Candice this morning, it occurred to me that the emotion I keep in my upper front body muscles is largely about mortality. Death and oblivion. Alrighty, then. Digging into the poses of intermediate can only be fun. 
***
The raw food experiment goes along nicely. I downloaded the CRON-o-Meter, just to check out the nutritional situation as I go along. I’m kinda wondering about the deal with fat, what with the heavy reliance on nuts for protein.
Yes, I’ve been having some raw hemp protein powder (Vanilla Chai flavor! Cinnamony! Sweet! Gritty!). This is an interesting puzzle to solve. Back in the day, I solved the protein question with “and a huge slab of meat,” and more recently with “and soyburgers washed down with soymilk.”
Anyone want to comment on current thoughts re: macronutrient ratios?
06/08/2008 at 3:57 pm
Like Linda, I consume quite a bit of fat. But for me it’s not a lot of dairy–dairy fat doesn’t seem right in my system though it IS right in Linda’s. For me the fat sources are: nuts, seeds, olive and flax oil, coconut.
The hemp protein, brewers yeast, sprouted quinoa, hempseed plus the nuts are definitely enough protein for me to do the long practice most of the time. If I didn’t have the long practice, I’m pretty sure that would be more than enough.
But now that I’m assimilating these arm balances, sometimes the body does crave protein. The raw people say it’s not necessary, but they’re OCD and I eat what I like. Thus some non-raw things I like: the omlette-eating I did a couple of times a week in March-April. These days, I have tempeh or edamame or tofu, all of which seem beneficial. In the two years previous, I’d supplement with whey protein and while it did really help, I kind of think whey protein is not food. I’d rather eat eggs on occasion and enjoy them than ingest whey just to answer the protein craving.
Sometimes I don’t get all the calories I need in a day, because I don’t want to eat a WHOLE lot of nuts and vegetables and fruits just don’t add up much. So it’s more a matter of practicality that leads me to eat brown rice and sprouted breads. Also, over time I’ve found that straightup carbs from grains make my writing life better. And that’s what I’m really eating for… much more than for yoga.
Of course they also say alcoholism improves your writing…
But clearly given the novels I’ve been writing on people’s blogs today, maybe my writers’ muscles are way overnourished. Oops.
06/08/2008 at 4:35 pm
That sounds like a fantastic massage. I have found a new massage therapist who is really helping my upper back. It’s heaven.
06/08/2008 at 8:42 pm
“her boobs kinda rested on the back of my head when she stood at the head of the table and massaged my back. I realize other people might consider that a plus.”
Thanks for giving me a morning laugh!
06/09/2008 at 11:10 am
This protein conundrum is interesting. I like nuts but not enough to want to eat as many as I’d need to so that I could get lots of protein from them. I’ve never really liked soy that much, either, so I never adopted edamame or soy milk or soy protein powder or tofu or any of that. When I read that soy is not so beneficial for healthy men that kind of closed that deal.
Quinoa has fine protein characteristics and probably would taste good raw, though it would have to be ground. I’ve heard that both vegan and raw-ist bodybuilders eat lots of kale for its proteins. I have yet to try it myself.
One of the ladies that cuts my hair has giant breasts and often she rests them against my shoulder or arm. I don’t think she knows she does it. They’re so enormous that she probably props them against anything that’ll give her a moment of rest. Her body is small-to-average in size and she stands most of the day so her back must need a respite now and then.
06/09/2008 at 12:27 pm
I’m eating a kale salad (with sunflower seeds for extra protein) as I read this comment. Raw kale is very tasty & the texture is nice. Usually with regular salads, I don’t put the dressing on until it’s time to eat — but kale is good if you marinate it in the dressing for a while. Softens it up a bit.
So far, I am coming in close to my target of 46 grams of protein per day (the CRON-o-meter is a handy tracking device). Coming up WAY short (unsurprisingly) for vitamin D and calcium.
It’s kind of interesting, because I wonder how many decades I have devoted to attention to protein, while never paying much mind to vitamins and minerals…
06/09/2008 at 1:00 pm
Hi Karen
The boob thing during massage is very funny. I also thought Susananda’s succint sentence was very true and well said. So I guess even the experienced yogis go through those emotions while trying to keep the pace of 2nd series.
You’re a woman, so soy as a base for protein is OK. For men, excess of soy leads to demantia in old age. I consume rice protein isolate and whey isolate. I realize whey comes from dairy and I don’t know if you’re also trying to avoid dairy. I’m being a bit cautious about the amount of nuts I consume. They are a souce of good, unsaturated fat that is heart protective. However, they will show the level of fat higher when you check it out with Cron-o-meter.
Cheers,
Arturo
06/10/2008 at 2:35 pm
Hi! Thanks for linking to me. I think second series is getting easier, but now it only takes a few poses of third to completely knock the stuffing out of me…