Yes, ok. So the blog has been a bit downbeat for the last few weeks. The good news is that I’m starting to pick up and cheer up (aided by many long hot soaks in the bath and some excellent easy detective reading, like Kate Atkinson. The even better news is that I’ve seen some cracking stuff on the internet recently which I’ve pulled together into two links posts, one for this week and one for next week.
Cracking means fantastic, for those who speak a different brand of English to me. I don’t know if I picked that up watching American films and soaps, living in the South of England or if I’ve learned it since I moved up to the Midlands. Midlands English is quite different to the English I knew before and it still sometimes leaves Chris and I speaking at cross purposes over dinner when words from his Midlands childhood come out mid-sentence and I mistranslate them (or more often just look completely blankly at him).
- Before I forget to tell you all, I know this won’t give you much notice but there is a female grapple contest this weekend – on Saturday in fact. For those of you who live anywhere within a fighting distance of Toronto and have either failed to meet the marvellous Mistress Krista before and/or fancy meeting like-minded souls then I’m afraid you’re too late to register (registrations closed at midnight yesterday) but you could still go along to watch and meet some great people at the same time.
- I had a bit of a minor rant on Wednesday’s post about not being able to get hold of paleo food very easily when on the go (certainly not at reasonable prices). It seems that any restriction from the standard makes life difficult. I was interested to see that trying to eat local produce (and let’s face it, eating British while in Britain isn’t that local) is proving to be a big challenge for this Guardian blogger.
- The word is out that the chicken really did come before the egg. But where did the chicken come from then?
- Chris has been doing a lot of studying of functional anatomy lately and our house is littered with strength anatomy and functional anatomy textbooks. Some of it is rubbing off on me. I have no idea what half the muscles are called but I’m at least learning where they are and what they connect to. This focus on functional anatomy meant that Tony Gentilcore made us both giggle (ok, Chris doesn’t giggle, it’s a girly thing to do). Humourous anecdotes aside (I think the idea of Eric Cressey being the Mr Robocop of functional anatomy is forever branded on my memory now) the serious message is one to take away here – always keep learning in order to improve.
- If I tell you the headline of this article I don’t think I’ll need to say any more. Ovulation makes women choose ‘sexy’ clothes. That’ll be the bit just before I want to curl up in a big armchair wearing my biggest and oldest jumper and clutching a big bar of 100% dark chocolate then.
- How cute is this picture?
- If you want someone else’s views on Vibram Fivefingers, Chris also wrote about our new purchase on his blog. The only point I’d note is that I did have a feel around in them and there seems to be a knot in the stitching of the embroidery “Vibram” which will be what is causing the rubbing. I don’t seem to have the same knot (mine is all smooth behind the logo) so if you get a pair and find this problem then you may want to try sending them back as a manufacture error, unless you aren’t too bothered about the logo, in which case just neatly (and carefully) unpick the embroidery.
- I may be female but mechanics still fascinate me. Unfortunately being fascinated by them doesn’t necessarily mean that I know how they work. Is it any wonder that after the umpteenth long walk with Chris where he found himself trying to draw pictures in the air while explaining how some engine type worked (I think it was a diesel engine) he sent me this graphic and helpfully animated guide to complex mechanisms.
- I saw this fascinating commentary concerned with whether we are programmed while in the womb – specifically with regards to our cortisol levels but questioning whether this means other hormone levels are also given a setpoint during the pregnancy. If it’s true then that puts a lot of responsibility on the mother to not only eat and exercise well but also to keep the stress down and the hormones where they want them.
- To cheer up the pregnant ladies out there who just read that, here’s a lovely piece from the BBC about the heartbeats of the foetus and mother synchronising when the mother breathes rhythmically.
- I love Good Mornings. Not the time of the day (actually, that’s a lie since I find the morning the best bit of the day and generally bound out of bed within seconds or minutes of the alarm going off unless I’m in a slightly depressive cycle) but the exercise. They are great for building up back strength and as such are a superb assistance exercise for the deadlift. If you want to learn how to do them then an excellent start would be this “How-to” from Gubernatrix.
- Let’s celebrate! The news about protein at breakfast time being critical is going mainstream. Well “mainstream” depends on how many people you think read Time magazine. However, it’s a good start. Now we just need to sit back eating steak, fish and eggs for breakfast until all the food manufacturers find ways to incorporate “Added Protein” into breakfast cereals and I’ll know that the world has gone mad.
This week’s video is chosen to get us all thinking a bit. It’s an extract from an episode of a TV series “Tribe” and features a tribe hunting and living in their native territory.
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