Breathe In, Breathe Out

Once upon a time, many years ago, I was a fanatical runner, going out every day, whether it was hot, cold, snowing or pouring down rain, clocking miles and hours and arranging my life around my runs. And then I stopped. At least my body did – my mind kept going. Long after I gave up the sport, I’d have running dreams and, of course, I never forgot the lay of the land – I could tell where every dip and hill was in Central Park as well as how the road curved and where the purple forsythia bloomed, and I still can.

Now, every Monday I decide that I am going to start running again, or at least walking. (And, like everyone else in the world, I also decide that I’m going to start a diet.) Well, last week, I actually did start running and stretching and doing a couple of little crunchy things for the belly and yoga, too. And, I did it all because my friend Helene said, when you come to Paris, maybe you’d like to go to the park with me and my new coach, Meir. What we call a trainer, the French call a coach, but it’s all meaningless to Meir, since he’s Israeli!

Working out in my apartment with Meir this week made me realize how much I love moving and how much I’ve missed it. Can I continue to do it without him around when I fly back to New York today? We’ll see. To help, yesterday I took 85 pictures of Meir in various stages of pretzelness and calm.

I hope I can keep this up. What I know I’ll be keeping up is the “tea” I’ve been making after every session. It’s not really a recipe, but I’ve written it below. For now, I say " OM".

Ginger-Orange Infusion – more a rough idea than a recipe

1 orange or tangerine

Hunk of gingerroot

Honey, optional

Peel the orange – don’t worry about leaving some of the pith attached – and cut it into wide strips. Toss it into a pot of cold water, bring the water to the boil, drain the peel and rinse it under running water.

Peel a piece of the ginger and cut it into very thin slices. I toss a strip or two of orange and slice or two of ginger into a big mug and pour in boiling water. Sometimes I add honey and other times I don’t. I’ve been leaving the zest and ginger in the mug and pouring boiling water over them as I empty the cup. The first cup is really strong and spicy and then it gets milder and milder – and so do I.

Comments

[Dorie]

Thanks for the suggestion, Brilynn. I'm feeling very pleased with myself because I did a 45-minute session this morning all by myself (getting up super early and having time to do things like this is one of the joys of jet-lag). The dvds could be a good thing for me, especially if every once in a while the instructor could jump out of the disc and help me with my form, give me some encouragement and then hand me some tea. That's not too much to ask in this 21st century, is it?

[Brilynn]

I broke up with running after tearing both achilles tendons. I'm trying to get back into it, but it's hard. Yoga has been really good though. I have a hard time getting to the gym, so I started using some Yoga Zone dvds. I got a 6 pack box set, each dvd has 2, 20 minute sessions and I've really enjoyed them. They're worth giving a try.