124: Running and Art: Turn Your Dreams into Plans

04/14/16 • 84 min

Artist Ann Rea, talks about her experiences with anxiety/depression and how running and art are therapeutic. Go-to, real-food dietitian, Serena Marie, RD, and Kari discuss the scale—how to interpret the scale’s reading, why to take body measurements to track your progress, and how to view and approach the scale healthfully. Kari also shares some of her experiences with being a former Weight Watchers facilitator and how to deal with the scale. Finally, Kari shares some information about San Francisco trail running.

Featured Guest and Runner of the Week: Ann Rea

Ann Rea first caught Kari’s attention when she was featured in an interview by Alex Blumberg (from This American Life and Planet Money) during a podcast class.

Ann shares how, why, and why she started running.
She suffered from severe anxiety, depression, and insomnia for ten or fifteen years. She took the traditional route of seeing a therapist, anti-anxiety medication, anti-depressants, sleeping pills, and every time she would go to her appointments, she was told about new medications.
She found she had no passion or interest in her occupations at the time (cubicle Hell).
Her psychiatrist said that based on her medical history, she would probably always suffer.
She asked for a protocol to wean herself off of her medications, but her doctor didn’t agree. She tried to wean herself off, but that didn’t go well (think Emergency Room).
At the time in Sacramento, CA, no one suggested exercise to help with her anxiety and depression, but she started walking anyway, hoping that would help.
One day as she was walking, she sprang into a run and started running.
When she moved to San Francisco to be a full-time artist and to build her business, she knew that she’d have to manage her stress if she was going to achieve her goals.
Ann started running even more consistently.
If she had had a psychiatrist, such as Dr. John Ratey, things might have turned out differently.
Ann talks about neurofeedback, and she’s become familiar with Dr. George Pratt, who is a noted performance psychologist whose latest book is Code to Joy: The Four-Step Solution to Unlocking Your Natural State of Happiness.
Kari says that medicine can be magical, but she also likes integrative medicine.
Ann runs every Sunday morning with her friend Felix, who is a renowned psychic medium in San Francisco.
Ann worked with disaster relief, and she had to find a way to balance the reality of having to react quickly and finish up cases per day. Listen to her “The Artist’s American Life” interview with NPR’s Alex Blumberg.
She had the opportunity to see an amazing cross section of the United States and a real perspective of what disaster is. The good news is that everybody can recover. Physical things don’t matter as much as your health.
To get herself out the door and start walking at first, she made small promises to herself. For example, when she was working full-time and selling her art on the side, she was often tired, so she’d get herself up on Saturday morning, get ready for a run, and get out the door. If she didn’t feel up to a run, she’d turn back around.
Jim Rohn said, “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with,” so Ann was very clear in “firing” certain friends and be her own best friend. The act of being your own best friend means that you don’t tolerate certain behaviors, and you look for people who build you up, and you do the same for them.
She improved her diet as well, and running became her meditation.
Ann talks about running in the middle of the day. It helps her shift from the left brain to the right brain.
She chats about the Making Art Making Money semester.She’s also launching a new website called com and has ArtistsWhoThrive.com.
Move things from the “dream” category to the “plan” category.
She took some a course on how to write a business plan at a small business development center to start her own art business. She was always very interested in marketing.
She talks about running in Golden Gate Park, along Land’s End, and the Presidio of San Francisco.
Her goal is to enjoy her runs, break a sweat, and clear the cobwebs in her head.
She paints contemporary landscapes and works in oil and charcoal...

Featured Guest and Runner of the Week: Ann Rea

Ann Rea first caught Kari’s attention when she was featured in an interview by Alex Blumberg (from This American Life and Planet Money) during a podcast class.

Ann shares how, why, and why she started running.
She suffered from severe anxiety, depression, and insomnia for ten or fifteen years. She took the traditional route of seeing a therapist, anti-anxiety medication, anti-depressants, sleeping pills, and every time she would go to her appointments, she was told about new medications.
She found she had no passion or interest in her occupations at the time (cubicle Hell).
Her psychiatrist said that based on her medical history, she would probably always suffer.
She asked for a protocol to wean herself off of her medications, but her doctor didn’t agree. She tried to wean herself off, but that didn’t go well (think Emergency Room).
At the time in Sacramento, CA, no one suggested exercise to help with her anxiety and depression, but she started walking anyway, hoping that would help.
One day as she was walking, she sprang into a run and started running.
When she moved to San Francisco to be a full-time artist and to build her business, she knew that she’d have to manage her stress if she was going to achieve her goals.
Ann started running even more consistently.
If she had had a psychiatrist, such as Dr. John Ratey, things might have turned out differently.
Ann talks about neurofeedback, and she’s become familiar with Dr. George Pratt, who is a noted performance psychologist whose latest book is Code to Joy: The Four-Step Solution to Unlocking Your Natural State of Happiness.
Kari says that medicine can be magical, but she also likes integrative medicine.
Ann runs every Sunday morning with her friend Felix, who is a renowned psychic medium in San Francisco.
Ann worked with disaster relief, and she had to find a way to balance the reality of having to react quickly and finish up cases per day. Listen to her “The Artist’s American Life” interview with NPR’s Alex Blumberg.
She had the opportunity to see an amazing cross section of the United States and a real perspective of what disaster is. The good news is that everybody can recover. Physical things don’t matter as much as your health.
To get herself out the door and start walking at first, she made small promises to herself. For example, when she was working full-time and selling her art on the side, she was often tired, so she’d get herself up on Saturday morning, get ready for a run, and get out the door. If she didn’t feel up to a run, she’d turn back around.
Jim Rohn said, “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with,” so Ann was very clear in “firing” certain friends and be her own best friend. The act of being your own best friend means that you don’t tolerate certain behaviors, and you look for people who build you up, and you do the same for them.
She improved her diet as well, and running became her meditation.
Ann talks about running in the middle of the day. It helps her shift from the left brain to the right brain.
She chats about the Making Art Making Money semester.She’s also launching a new website called com and has ArtistsWhoThrive.com.
Move things from the “dream” category to the “plan” category.
She took some a course on how to write a business plan at a small business development center to start her own art business. She was always very interested in marketing.
She talks about running in Golden Gate Park, along Land’s End, and the Presidio of San Francisco.
Her goal is to enjoy her runs, break a sweat, and clear the cobwebs in her head.
She paints contemporary landscapes and works in oil and charcoal...

Previous Episode

123: Seven Ways to Take Control of Your Health

Dr. John Ratey, expert on the correlation between brain activity and how it’s important for us to move our bodies, discusses seven ways to take control of your life, along with the link between depression and sugar, being responsible for our own well-being, and the benefits of exercise. Serena Marie, RD, talks about foods that are great for brain health.

Featured Guest: Dr. John Ratey

Harvard psychiatrist and foremost authority when it comes to the brain and exercise, Dr. John Ratey, discusses the correlation between sugar and depression/other diseases, being proponents for our own well-being, and the benefits of exercise. He has been on TRLS in such episodes as “John Ratey” (Episode 53), “Dr. John Ratey” (Episode 59), “Optimize Your Brain With Dr. John Ratey, Part 1” (Episode 74), and “Optimize Your Brain With Dr. John Ratey, Part 2” (Episode 75).

Companies work with people to find better ways to accommodate health in their lives, like startups working with the elderly to get them moving and to get them out into the community more.
We’re near a tipping point; people recognize that we have to be more responsible for ourselves and our own health. We’re empowered by Google medicine and also knowing how to be healthier and how to increase our well-being.
The biggest thing that Kari read recently is that our genes account for 5% of what can happen to us (from Super Genes: Unlock the Astonishing Power of Your DNA for Optimum Health and Well-Being by Deepak Chopra, MD, and Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD).
Our genetic inheritance can guide us to that wisdom that’s impacted in our genes—to be in the moment, to eat right, to get the proper amount of sleep, to connect with others, and so on.
He’s excited about two different Silicon Valley firms that he’s working with who recognize that small tribes are the way to promote a better sense of well-being.
He’ll be talking with an artificial intelligence group and another group that has proven that successful entrepreneurs have a passion for taking steps in helping the elderly try to improve their lives and getting them connected with others through exercise and the community.
If you have been following him on Facebook, you’ll know that he’s recently been interviewed by Larry King, and to his surprise a group in CA put together a song called “Ratey-O-Active” on YouTube (like “Radioactive”).
The “Super Seven” Commandments include eating right, being outside, being with your tribe, meditation, getting enough sleep, exercise, and mindset.
Question: Can you get the same tribe feeling from a Facebook group that you can from meeting in person? Answer: It can be a starting point, but it’s never going to be the same. But there are a lot of different mechanisms being developed and that are already in existence (like Meetup).
He talks about the November Project and walking or running up and down the stairs at Harvard Stadium.
The “dopamine squirt”—the surprise or novelty of an e-mail
Using our past history and our biometrics (blood pressure, pulse) as well as what we’ve felt and what we like in the past is called affective computing so that we can be guided to prompt ourselves to move—it increases your state of well-being.
You do not need sugar if you are burning fat. Dick Manning is a trail runner in Montana who has eliminated sugar for years from his diet. He’s lost weight and gotten out of depression. He is using fat as his fuel (via a ketogenic diet). High concentrations of sugar lead to inflammation and putting on weight/fat.
Ratey cautions jumping on the probiotics bandwagon (meaning purchasing probiotics in pill form rather than eating foods with probiotics) because we know very little about it. We’re on the cusp of learning. Serena Marie, RD, talked about probiotics on “The Hottest “Living A Running Lifestyle” Trends With Kalyn Rozanski” (Episode 118).
The first prescription for someone who has gastrointestinal problems is to eliminate sugar from his or her diet.
For an injured runner, try to avoid depression by doing things like upper-body aerobics (Conductorcise), boxing, kettlebells, use the elliptical, or some alternative to staying active. Exhaust yourself other ways; when you do tha...

Next Episode

125: Take Control of Your Lab Results: Why Marker Analytics Is Important

Ashley Reaver, RD, from Inside Tracker, talks about how endurance athletes monitor their biochemical and physical markers and how you can too. Go-to, real-food dietitian Serena Marie, RD, talks about blood sugar and a new product that can help monitor your blood sugar levels. She also discusses pre-prediabetes. Runner of the Week, Marla Lenox, talks about why she started running, and how her running has influenced others. She also provides a race recap of the Big Beach Marathon in Gulf Shores, AL.

Featured Guest: Ashley Reaver, RD

Ashley Reaver, RD, from Inside Tracker, works daily with endurance athletes to better their nutrition. The Inside Tracker “platform tracks and analyzes key biochemical and physiological markers and applies sophisticated algorithms and large scientific databases to determine personalized optimal zones for each marker,” according to the company’s web site.

Inside Tracker’s work with markers sets it apart from your normal clinician’s tests and results, since your primary physician is simply scanning for disease and to make sure you aren’t dangerously approaching a disease state.
Most of Inside Tracker’s clients are what Ashley calls “worried well”—which means generally healthy athletes who want to have more information on themselves.
The levels of biochemical markers that might keep you out of a diseased state aren’t necessarily the same levels of those markers that you would want for optimal performance.
- Example: Prediabetes starts at around 100 mg/dL, and your primary physician most likely won’t alert you that anything’s wrong until 99 or 100 mg/dL; when in fact you might be at 98 mg/dL and would have the opportunity to turn the situation around.
Ashley gives clients nutritional and supplement advice on how to optimize their health.
Kari had a test in February 2015 through Inside Tracker, and compared her results then with her results after running three marathons in six weeks to see if the results differed.
Kari’s glucose is a little higher than what Inside Tracker’s optimal range is, but this is typical for endurance athletes (but not to the prediabetic level).
This is because muscles’ primary/preferred source of fuel is glucose, and that’s what many athletes choose to fuel with.
Ashley suggests that the best time have a sugary fuel (sports drinks or gel, fruit) is right before, during, or after a workout, because your muscles are craving that fuel source.
After running three marathons, Kari’s glucose was 94 mg/dL.
Ashley’s glucose used to be around 96 mg/dL, but once she cut down on bananas after her own Inside Tracker test, it’s been in the 70s ever since. Her body doesn’t metabolise bananas well, and that’s something she found out after using Inside Tracker’s knowledge.
Iron is another vitamin that many endurance athletes are deficient in. The clinical level of deficiency is very low. Inside Tracker also tests a marker called ferritin, which is the storage form of iron. It is the biomarker that you want to have your finger on the most, because it’s the best indicator of iron status overall. Ferritin is something your primary doctor might miss.
Women under fifty years old lose more iron than men of the same age (and even more so women who are vegetarians or who don’t eat much red meat). They can include more leafy greens, shellfish, fortified cereals, and so on to help improve iron levels.
Ashley says that ferritin is like filling a swimming pool with a garden hose—it takes a long time for your body to feel comfortable storing iron away. The lower the ferritin marker, the longer you’re going to have to take a supplement in order for your body to start raising your iron level in subsequent tests.
Kari saw a nice spike in her iron levels, and she thinks it might be because she started using a cast iron skillet.
Hemoglobin levels can also play a factor in how much energy endurance athletes have. It’s a molecule on the red blood cells that help transport oxygen to our working muscles. You may have a low hemoglobin level if you feel like you can’t push yourself hard or complete the distance that you’d like because of fatigue. Hemoglobin is made from ferritin stores, so if you have a low hemoglobin level and low ferritin levels, that’s caused by a lack of adequate iron.
Vitamin D is another key player. For almost all athletes across the board, Ashley has found that most people are deficient in Vitamin D. Naturally occurring good sources of Vitamin D include fatty fish (salmon, halibut, trout, sardines) and fortified dairy products. The best way for a very clinically deprived athlete is to take a supplement.
Ashley likes to see a blood level set above 40 ng/mL for Vitamin D.
Another importan...