Speedos, Foraging, and Board Games

Summer Grab Bag

Hi learners, thanks for bearing with me during these last silent summer weeks. Onto the medley:

🏋️‍♀️ The world of exercise

Recently I’ve been learning more about natural movement as a way of exercising. This methodology doesn’t focus on bulking up muscles or losing weight but rather on making your body useful. Two early pioneers were Edwin Checkly, a UK-expat to Philadelphia who was a doctor, long-distance bike rider, and machinist who wrote A Natural Method of Physical Training: Making Muscle and Reducing Flesh Without Dieting or Apparatus, and Georges Hèbert, a French naval officer who developed la méthode naturelle and is considered the father of Parkour. Both men came to prominence in the early 1900s and took issue the modern ideals of exercise including expensive indoor health clubs, specialized tools like barbells, and dieting of any kind. Instead of cramped, smelly gyms and expensive gear, they believed that the outdoors and your own body weight was enough to gain world class fitness.

Edwin Checkley around age 45.

For a few years now I’ve been experimenting with various systems of staying in shape including rec sports leagues, weight training in my garage gym, and cardio-based routines with Anna. All have their benefits but I want to incorporate more of this natural movement methodology and see what works. I especially love Hèbert’s personal motto: Être fort pour être utile ("Be strong to be helpful"). Refreshing in the face of the hyper-individualistic fitness machine that we see on Instagram today.

🥕 The world of nutrition

The book Natural Born Heroes highlights the unlikely story of a ragtag band of freedom fighters on the island of Crete during WWII. Much of their success came from living off the land in the unforgiving mountainous countryside where food was scarce. The Cretan mountain-men were able to live off grid for long periods of time thanks to their ability to forage wild greens which turned out to be incredibly nutrient rich. Only now is science catching up to what many cultures have known for millennia: wild foods are usually more dense in nutrients than their cultivated counterparts. Because most of our food is selected for hardiness and size instead of nutritional value, over time a gap is formed. The book recommends starting by eating something you can’t stand because like weeds or nettles. Generally these are packed with goodness and readily available.

🎲 The world of games

I’ve always wanted to make a board game so this week the kids and I started designing one. The idea came from a drawing game we used to play as kids where two people create imaginary creatures and pit them against each other in battle. We came up with a card-based version where two players mix-and-match heads, arms, and legs together to make their monster. It was fun to work together and see their hilarious ideas (June made a giant banana man) come to life. Someday we hope to make this idea into something even more real!

Just one of the zany creature combinations

Each kid came up with their own ideas

Indi working hard on some feet

Curiosity about what Indi is working on.

That’s it for now and as always thanks for reading. Blessings to you and your family!