Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Coming to Terms with 30

Posted: December 11, 2012 in Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, facebook, Health, identity, Islam, Social Media
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serenityMaybe the crisis one feels at turning 30 is really rooted in the intense attachment to this worldly life and a lack of connection to the spiritual life.  At least that is the lesson I am beginning to piece together since my last post on the fear of turning thirty.  I thought I share my reflection since, 30, is just a month away.

One of the things I undertook immediately after posting those fears to the broader world was I stopped hanging around people my age.  There are lots of things that motivated me to that.  First, I felt anxiety from seeing where they stood in life as opposed to me.  Worse, the greater connectivity I had with folks in my peer group through social media drove home this internal self doubt about where I was in life and questioning whether I had done the right thing with my life.  Second, the younger friends only drove that home toward a bitterness because it seemed they were far younger then I was and were following some path that I had not read the guideposts about.  Finally, I realized that my decisions were a product of my choosing, my circumstances and my life experience and therefore they were unique.  I couldn’t, shouldn’t, compare the path that I took because it was a path not trodden by my peers, it was one that I was pioneering for others.

By hanging out with folks older then me they enabled me to put aside my fears of getting older.  I saw folks still struggling with the same things I am struggling with, who were ten, fifteen and even twenty years older then me.  Unemployment, start up businesses, academic endeavors, failing marriages and new relationships along with opportunities that they had not imagined.  I guess in a way I am significantly different from my peers because for me the “party” scene was intense and short lived, but the expectations of life and enduring to find some meaning in it isn’t something that fades away, it sticks around and people continue to deal with it at different levels and intervals in their life.

What I came to realize in my push to spend more time with older friends, mentors and seek out grandparent figures was that being able to understand growing old requires understanding our mortality.  In understanding mortality we need to grapple with death, because in essence our anxiety about aging is rooted in the sense of one’s own progression toward death.  Which for Muslims I find is a silly thing to fear given our very direct involvement with death- forced participation in funeral prayers, the handling and washing of the dead, the burying process is a communal one where the males carry the body and everyone is required to carry and pray for the deceased.

But its not that Muslims are immune to a disconnect from death, its that our culture (American) creates a static around our mortality by presenting it as something far off in distance even if we are engaged in the rituals around death.  So to make life meaningful, thereby lessening the anxiety I felt, I had to make death a greater reality or factor in my life not one of ritual.  I quickly told myself that a near death experience was not the way to learn this lesson.

What I conclude from my experience is that the path of spirituality, greater sense of oneness with creation and therefore God, allows that understanding of death to become relevant and not some far off experience.  When we become connected to God we loosen that strong connection to the worldly life and allow for us to transcend things like vanity (oh, look how I am looking), vitality (I can’t run like a 18 year old), feeling of dissertation (I am alone in this world), and accomplishment (I didn’t buy that house or save this much) connecting with the the afterlife, not just this mortal life.

Check out Dr. Zingbarg’s article “Sacred Anxiety: Anxiety as an emblem of Spirituality” in Psychology Today, where he discusses the possibility that a persons anxiety might be due to one’s spirituality or lack thereof.  For the meditation inclined, I stumbled on this Islamic Meditation website, you have to pay to get the six week course material, but I thought I share because of its quirkiness.

The Historical Development of Obesity as a National Pastime

Posted: December 5, 2012 in Activism, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, Democrat, diabetes, diet, Education, fitness, Green Deen, Health, health and fitness, heart disease, History, lifestyle, obesity, Organic Gardening, Politics, Progressive, Republican, technology
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What we eat creates the environment in our body that leads us to health problems in the future. We are, as they say, what we eat.

What we eat creates the environment in our body that leads us to health problems in the future. We are, as they say, what we eat.

The human biology by 10k years ago was finely tuned to live a hunter gatherer society. When we killed something we gorged on it because of food scarcity, we turned off the trigger in our head that told us that we were full because it simply was not the right thing to do in an environment were we didn’t have security in food supply the next day or down the week.  But the human population couldn’t take on that sort of life style in the long run because of our population growth.  That lead to the development of an agricultural society where villages and farming became central to survival.

Thats how society was up until the end of the 19th century.  The US was at a turning point in history where we had to start coming up with the means to deal with food scarcity, how will we ensure that there is a secure way to maintain the availability of food for the entire population?  Thats when the process being applied in the industrial revolution began to appear in agriculture, giving us industrial agriculture.

We go modern agriculture out of this industrial revolution.  We needed to be stronger militarily but we needed food security.  The government began subsidizing farmers, supporting research and scientific development.  We immediately saw this impact the per acre yield of farms, by nearly 20 times.  An acre that would once eek out 20 bushels was now giving up upwards of 200 bushels.  This abundance of grains results in a new problem- lots of extra grains that we don’t know what to do with.

So the government began selling it abroad and farmers were now involved in what developed as a commodity.  The grain was no longer staple food source, but rather the raw product that government scientist with added industry application had created from the raw grain ingredients.  The prices fluctuated and various government policies development until 1973 when the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Earl Butz, demanded that farmers either get big or get out.  With that a new stage in agriculture began, one that continues to this day: Big Agriculture and the demise of the family farm, that farm that is idealized or romanticized in our current food marketing environment.

Farmers kept producing an over abundance of subsidized grains that inundated the market to which the government and industry kept looking for new ways to use.  Because the grain was cheap and high in sugar it began to be used to feed livestock.  We wanted to keep food prices cheap and very stable.  We built a food economy around this idea of surplus.

While all of this was happening around the way we approached food, other technological advances were changing other parts of our lives.  Quite simply technology was all about connivence.  We now live in places where we are car dependent, which has cut off our ability to burn calories.  We don’t bike, we don’t walk we don’t do physical activity because we have engineered it out of our lives.  our work as adults has become sedentary.  We are an automated society that is eating food that is cheap and heavy in calories.

The food environment itself is now hostile to healthy eating because we are bombarded by queues through marketing that tell us to eat fast food, food that provides convenience, things that hurt us in the long run because we don’t have a lifestyle or a community living environment that is conducive to burning off all those sugars, fat and rich calorie foods.

Its not that there are evil corporations, incompetent government and an American population that is driven by a lack of self control.  The current reality we live in was rooted in a real human problem, has grown in the context of sociological challenge of providing food (at one point 45% of an American households expenditure) for cheap.  The government pays farmers $45 billion every five years to over produce soy, corn, dairy and wheat as commodity crops not as staple foods.  The foods that contain these products is cheaper because the government is paying you to buy it through the money that they pay Big Agriculture.

Good example is soft drinks and raw fruits.  In the past 20 years the price of Soda went up 20% whereas the price of raw fruits (healthy stuff) went up 117%.  Soda’s main ingredient is high fructose corn syrup, made from the overly abundantly corn grown in America.  Surprisingly enough, fruit and vegetable growers don’t get government subsidies.

These abundant and cheap ingredients have stimulated the growth of a food industry with a financial incentive to use corn and soy products (such as high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, modified corn starches, etc.) to produce a huge quantity and variety of highly processed foods and not vegetable and fruits.  The reason is that corn and soy have, over the century of industrializing agriculture, were found to be the product that lent itself best to the industrial process, not broccoli or squash or sweet peas.

Our farm policies are driving farmers to overproduce exactly the types of foods that are driving obesity in this country while our desire to have the greatest degree of convenience (i.e. freedom) in our lives especially the degree to which we can spend money on “other” items rather then on food.  In the end though, our indulgence in eating is producing obesity, but this national pastime has not developed outside of a historical context.

Drosophila: 4 Things That Attract Fruit Flies

Posted: December 4, 2012 in 70 day challenge, Affad Shaikh, composting, diet, Fruit Flies, Green Deen, Health, lifestyle, Organic Gardening, urban farming, worms
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http://rice.bio.indiana.edu:7082/images/Drosophilidae/Drosophila_melanogaster_m/Drosophila_melanogaster.jpg

My quest to grow food at home began with wanting to get healthy.  Getting healthy began with the hope of eating better and losing weight.  To get to the point of growing food at home, I set out to compost, in particular to compost with worms.  So by extension I knew I was going to learn more then I want to about worms.  However, I never thought I would also learn about fruit flies.

Currently I am dealing with an invasion of fruit flies in my compost bin.  I got rid of the big fat ugly ones, but there are gazillions of little red bodied nuisances that I discovered are fruit flies.  The drosophila aren’t new to me, in the lab we did all sorts of things to them, now, its like their descendants and relatives are back to take their vengeance on me.

The thing I couldn’t figure out was what was attracting them.  I had hoped the worms would eat up the food, but I guess with the onset of winter, their appetites are not as voracious so the kitchen scraps remains.

  1. Fruit flies go gaga for banana’s.  Its like crack in fruit fly physiology.
  2. Coffee grounds souring attracts these pesky fruit flies.
  3. Ripened or fermenting fruits and vegetables, in general, bring the fruit flies to your yard.
  4. The moist film associated with damp places, is perfect environment for them to stay and have sexy time.

Which brings me to something totally crazy, and probably you don’t care about at all: Fruit flies have one of the fastest life cycles out of all the living things on Earth.

Fruit flies lay their eggs near the surface of fermenting foods or other moist, organic materials. Upon emerging, the tiny larvae continue to feed near the surface of the fermenting mass. The entire lifecycle from egg to adult can be completed in about a week.  Which means that the potential to multiply is ENORMOUS and when given the opportunity for optimal conditions, a female Drosophila will lay about 500 eggs.

What the hell.  I am screwed.

Friday Roundup Week 10

Posted: November 30, 2012 in Activism, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, Asian American, Foreign Policy, general assembly, Green Deen, Health, Israel Palestine, Resolution, security council, United Nations
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Life in a sea of grey.

Picture, or rather, graphic of the week- Life in a sea of grey.

Friday Khutbah

I am always excited to listen to a khutbah Omar Jubran.  He’s just so emotionally engaging that its hard to not be personally invested in what he is sharing.  I feel khateebs that can bring that to their khutbah have an amazing tool.  Their willingness to be vulnerable, without being insincere about it, drives home the simple messages further then a person who locks themselves up and is dronish about the sermon.

Around the Blog

The blog posts started with facebook and the radunkulous statuses people were posting up about copyright, Batman face slapped Robin for that one.  I also posted up an excerpt on Sharia and its development from Dr. Sherman Jackson’s book Blackamerican Muslims and the Third Resurrection.

I also paid tribute to a Pakistani Canadian drama that featured a song from Pakistani Pop song pioneer Alamgir along with Korean soul singer Kristie Yung singing in Urdu, amazing is the song and entertaining is the drama Mangoes: A Slice of Life.  I look forward to a potential second season on youtube.com

The chronicle of my organic farming endeavors continues with the saga about “worms and flies“.  I also began to develop my food manifesto on my post “Let Food Be Thy Medicine“.

Other things

So I posted up this picture for the week which represents the current geographical boundary of what a potential state of Palestine would look like if it came into existence.

This week also was “historical” because the vast majority of the worlds nations voted to upgrade Palestine to a non-member state observer status.  This was cause for celebration.

I am of the shared opinion with the Israeli foreign minister that this vote does very little to change the lives of Palestinians when they wake up in the morning a week later from the time the vote took place.

However, I disagree wholeheartedly that this was a mistake or that this was doesn’t amount to anything because there is potential given the fact that Israeli’s continue to unilaterally build settlements, make Palestinian life even more miserable and refuse to work on a solution but rather continue to punitively punish Palestinians, especially in Gaza.

The Council on Foreign Relations does a great job to break down what this move at the UN means.  Further its rather telling that when Aljazeera correspondent interviewed Mark Regev, Israeli government spokesperson, his response to a question about settlement lawsuits at the International Court of Justice showed the underlying fear within Israeli establishment.  While he brushed it off as an incredulous or preposterous idea that the court would even allow a lawsuit, the fact is that the Israeli government is worried precisely about that possibility and all the others that will involve litigation and further transparency into how the Israeli government handles themselves in the Occupied Territory.  This is probably the worst aspect of this bid in that the Israeli’s stand to have their propaganda around the peace process collapse.

Also lets not assume that all Palestinians supported this bid or that this bid is seen as something significantly different to the status quo, here is Ali Abunimah from Electronic Intifada on Aljazeera.  I tend to agree with Ali Abunimah to an extent on this.

One thing I do agree with in assessing this vote is that with 9 countries opposing this resolution, the United States and Israel seemed to be lonely in their corner as much of Europe broke ranks and voted to support the resolution.  That in itself expresses the great urgency with which this issue needs to be brought to resolution as the United States image is continuously dragged into the mud on many other issues because of this one issue.

Let Food Be Thy Medicine

Posted: November 28, 2012 in 70 day challenge, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, CAIR, diabetes, diet, fitness, Health, health and fitness, heart disease, lifestyle, obesity, Politics, Progressive, Social
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let food be thy medicine

Sage advice from Hippocrates, the father of medicine who said “Let food be thy medicine”

This is not giving us a license to live to eat whatever we want, but rather the way I interpret the quote is about understanding how food is the frontline and the continuing anecdote to the health problems the human body is challenged with over time.

My journey has been an interesting one.  I started as an advocate for American Muslim civil rights, and I worked for CAIR, an organization described as the “bull dog” on these issues.  We fought back, we fought hard and we didn’t care if it meant being excluded form the table when we knew that the issues that affected the community was not even being discussed in an honest and sincere way by Federal, state or local agencies.

Somewhere during my six years of doing this fighting my body began to give out.  My body stopped while I tried to fight on.  The consequences of which were evident in that I suffered from severe insomnia, severe back pain, anxiety attacks, headaches and the simplest task of walking a block from one meeting to another resulted in loss of breath and complete sweat storm.  I had gained weight because my daily routine involved me sitting at my desk at work, to sitting in my car commuting, to sitting on my coach, to sitting and eating and then sleeping.  This was on repeat for six years, intermittently I would try to get out and do the activities I once loved but with greater and greater failure.

I got my act together because at the end of the day I believed that my health was my personal responsibility and Islamically its an amana, a trust between an individual and God that the individual is held responsible for.  But each time I got to working out I failed.  Sometimes the worst was me working out and rather then losing weight, gaining weight.

The realization I had, after a lot of lecturing from my mom and health conscience friends, boiled down to food consumption.

The bottom line was that the more conscience I became of what I put into my body, the more weight I loss, the less I felt fatigued and all the other things.  That realization over time was revolutionary for me because I now understood something that I couldn’t quite comprehend before this, there was something fundamentally wrong with the foods in restaurants, on the shelves of grocery stores especially those being advertised and promoted as “healthy” alternatives.  This food was not nutritious, it was not filling me up , I ate it and was hungry to eat more of it or stuff similar to it.  But why isn’t our food nutritious?  How am a an informed consumer when everything I eat is hurting me?

Here I am standing at the doorstep of another David-and-Golith advocacy struggle: our current policy on health, food and agriculture is not designed to benefit the citizens of America.

Which is an utterly sad trend across the board, whether its civil rights or on education or employee rights, it is easier in the United States to be a consumer rather then to be a citizen.

Today consumption of food is probably just as dangerous to your health as is joining the Army and going off to fight in Afghanistan.  While in the army one would be in the direct line of enemy fire, Americans at home have no idea that we are eating ourselves to a shorter life span.  What good was all the scientific and technological developments since WWII of decreasing child mortality, increasing life expectancy, lowering cost of living, when the foods we eat push us further and further along the path of medicated life and eventually death?  Death that could have been avoided altogether.

What stands in the way is our Government, Corporate interests and foolish people who believe in true American values and principles but only as much as it benefits them directly.

So Hippocrates was right and at the same time wrong in modern standards when he said “Let food be thy medicine.”  Today not all foods are equal, not all choice is free and none of this wrapped up in personal responsibility.  However, food can be our lifeline out of this when it isn’t packaged in plastic with a long list of ingredients the majority of which we can’t pronounce let alone clearly know where in nature it comes from.

Urban Farming- A Revolution or a Fad?

Posted: November 12, 2012 in Activism, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, composting, diet, Health, health and fitness, History, lifestyle, Organic Gardening, Progressive, urban farming, Urban homestead, Vermicomposting
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farming with skyscrapers

I am a loss as to what to call this.  The folks in the video call what they are doing an “urban homestead” and in other instances I have seen “urban farming” and just plane ol’gardens.  But calling it something is important especially if there are certain key characteristics that set it apart from the other terms.  But first you need to watch the video below.

That video is inspirational.  I can’t see, nor do I want too, myself going to the extremes the Darveas family has gone into their “Urban Homestead” lifestyle but I do feel I found an outlet for my outdoorsy disposition.  The following is what I find attractive:

1.  Utilizing land appropriately.

We have yards with lawns.  Lots of green grass that gets cut every week.  We pour abundant amounts of water from a limited, if not scarce, supply of water.  In fact, in Southern California our lawn lifestyle drains an entire natural environment, the Owns Valley, of its water leaving it a barren salt wasteland.

We pour in tons of chemicals to keep the lawns green, free of weeds and green.  The idea of keeping a lawn to me sounds completely idiotic.  Having spent years cutting and maintaining the lawn I value the life lessons its taught me- doing chores, yard work, manual labor.  However, its just not sustainable.  The question I ask myself is that if we were to ration the water supply, would the lawn get priority?

The answer is no, it wouldn’t.  Therefore, like Arizona, Californians need to come to terms with the reality of desert life.  If you can’t turn your lawn into a local-scape because the green is very attractive, then atleast consider turning it into something edible.

In that sense I think I like the idea of Urban Farming: taking vacant properties in urban areas to turn them into neighborhood farms.  I also like the Urban Homestead: converting available space on your plot of land into manageable growth areas for vegetable gardening.

2.  Growing Organic veggies.

Proposition 37 in California was all about knowing what is in your food.  We are informed about the fat, the ingredients, nutrient content; well I want to know if I am ingesting genetically modified food.  I should be able to make the choice based on my wallet, that way farmers and producers can decide how good for their wallet this product will be.

The fear for those supply side folks is that if I choose not to buy genetically modified foods their task of producing factory-like-products will be affected.  That genetically modified food is cheaper for them and therefore cheaper for me on the consumer end of the equation should be a good thing, however, there is one way to test this model- tell me what is genetically modified and what is not.  Let them sit side-by-side so I can choose to buy the foods I want to eat.

I believe that is the ultimate test, however, since I can’t do that I like the idea of growing my own food stuff.  The basics sound good right now- tomatoes especially.

3.  Sustainable living- seasonal, local and fresh.

I talked about the idea of meat consumption in my previous posts.  I am beginning to realize that a similar morphing has happened with the availability of vegetables throughout the year.  We basically have lost sense of whats in season.  This has driven us to live a life of entitlement and disregard to how our choices affect not only others but also the environment.

That takes me to the second issue: buy local.  I stopped buying from Walmart ages ago.  I would only go into a Walmart if my parents take me there.  Similarly, I when I travel I like to find local places to eat, I refuse to be a patron at chain restaurants.  The purpose of chain restaurants was to standardize the your food intake.  When going place to place you knew that eating at one of these chain restaurants you could get your meal the way you got it at home.  All of that is changed now, I don’t want to eat the same meals, and even more importantly, I dont want to eat the fat injected, carb-loaded beasts sold at these restaurants.  I want to buy local.  Local grocery, eat at a local mom & pop restaurant, buy from small sellers on Amazon or Etsy, get my clothes from sellers that are unique and most likely won’t be on the backs of every other person I meet.

Finally, the idea of eating fresh just sounds good.  Imagine picking up a fresh egg.  Cutting off some fresh tomatoes.  The idea of eating food that isn’t or hasn’t packaged and transported and stored for a length of time seems romantic indeed.

In the end I think for me its about preserving a slower, nature connected, environmentally conscious intentional modern lifestyle that values the art of gardening, cooking and being human.

4.  Returning to the land.

I guess the idea itself is a romanticization of the “goo’ole days.”  Up until the mid-1960′s we were still living a consumption lifestyle that was grounded on seasonal eating.  While I appreciate refrigeration and the science behind transporting all the wonderful produce we eat in the country it is something else to be able to grow your own food.

Part of “returning to the land” mentality I have also stems from the whole “end of civilization” thought process.  If our civilization were to end, how do we survive?   Besides scavenging and survival of the fittest it comes down to having some basic level of skills such as hunting and farming.

I am not delusional, doomsday-prepper-I am-not; though its probably not a bad idea- I do think its good to be able to grow your own food.  If not for that skill set, then at least for the ability to impart simple science to my kids; “hey, Fatima, look this is your chicken Molly, ‘whaaack’, now Molly is going to be our tandoori chicken dinner.”

5.  Alternative to the the consumption driven farming policies.

There is a lot to say about this.  Sufficient for now is that I don’t like our current farming policies and I wish to opt-out.  While I can’t completely opt-out, I can begin to make certain lifestyle choices that free my conscience of this crazy farming-complex.  Watch these really informative, unbiased, PBS documentaries on farming (long), transportation (long), energy production (long) and the edible backyard (short, 4 mins).

I don’t know if its a “revolution” or its just a passing “fad.”  What I do know is that growing things in your backyard that isnt just purdy-and-green has been a long established tradition here in America.  A plot of land signified independence.  During the WWII there were plantings of victory gardens.  To that end, I, This American Muslim, have taken it upon myself to start taking steps to beginning a organic vegetable garden.  Homesteader-urban-farmer I am not, but backyard garden I shall have.  Will post up on my first step toward an organic garden shortly: its gonna be a wormy experience!

Watch this incredible 20 minute video on Victory Gardening by the USDOD!  AMAZING!

Things I fear about turning 30

Posted: November 11, 2012 in Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, lifestyle
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happy birthday“That “when” I once spoke of, that mythical “when” I previously couldn’t comprehend ever actually arriving, is right now.”  Shit, thats sort of how I feel right now.  Quoted from here.

I narrowed it down to five, five things I fear about turning the BIG Three-Zero.  But these five stem from the idea of me moving up the age bracket.  No longer grouped with the 20-29 year olds, but rather at the lower rung of the 30-45 year old age bracket.  It might seem comical, but my fears are rational and they are my fears.  Do not mock my fears for they are the sum of my experiences and in this lonely journey called life, my experiences are all I have to go on.  Its as intimate as anything will be, my thoughts and experiences.

List of my five fears:

1.  Getting all stuffy and conservative

I feel as I get older I will get conservative with my views on so many things.  I already feel when I see kids in high school all I want to do is shake my head and tell them to stop looking like such idiots.  The hair some of these guys have- the Jersey shore DJ dude look.  See I dont know who the guy is even.  I guess thats also the problem, no longer being “in” with pop culture.  Those references will be so lost on me if it werent for, well, frankly I dont even know how I will keep up with those things.  But then again I don’t think I care. However, that is the problem too.  Not caring so that I slowly become an old curmudgeon.

2. I might actually have to start acting like an actual grown up.

I might be loosing sight of what’s “in” but I haven’t lost my inner child.  But it does become taxing some times having to shift gears given the context.  Lately its just been easier to be serious an grown up all the time.

3.  Those little aches and pains will be so much more .

The answer to the question “How do you feel?” will have less to do with my emotional feelings and more to do with my physical ailments and symptoms.  The fact is I am five years away from having my first prostrate exam.  Prostrate Cancer.  That screams of old age, though, I know better than that.  Cancer in any form strikes anyone at anytime.  (Griffith)

4.  I wont be happy with what i am since i’m all grown up.

There is no “upcoming star” or “rising employee” no matter where I go at this point its all relative, there will always be some kid younger then me trying to jockey for whatever position I am in.  That whole designation is for the kids in their 20′s, not the near-40-over-the-hill sort like me.  There is no “maybe five years from now” because that shit was easier to frame in the future when I was living pleasantly in the present, its now that future and there seems to be little time to talk about wanting to do something and needing to have it done, like yesterday.

5.  Routines, settling into them

While I realize that I have absolutely no choice but to embrace my getting older, I still have a choice to process and purge my feelings about that prospect.  For some its easy to kick the 20′s and move on, but I feel like I’ve always been a late bloomer when it came to life experiences and I just was getting comfortable with living my life in my 20′s, so yes, I feel like I am being dragged kicking and screaming into my thirty’s.  One thing I’m not as fearful about is that ticking clock, God it feels good to be a guy on days like these.

We’re all too familiar with the thirtieth-birthday cliché [for women]: The semi-tragic single lady has a meltdown about how she’s old and she’llneverhavekidsandshe’sgoingtodiealone!  Kate Hudson put it this way in Something Borrowed: “You’re 30—you can’t afford to be picky.” Lily Allen sings it thus: “She’s nearly 30 now and…society says her life is already over.”

Read more on women’s perspective on turning 30 here.

San Francisco Trip- Muir Woods and Nike+ Sports Watch Review

Posted: November 7, 2012 in 70 day challenge, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, fitness, Health, health and fitness, lifestyle, San Francisco, Travel
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As someone trying to get healthy and back into shape and a techy, I found a new play thing that is trifecta: the Nike+Sport Watch GPS.  Retailing around $150, I think I have squeezed every single penny worth and sweated ten times that much.  The watch has a built in GPS and makes me appreciate this military developed product.

The ingenious aspect of the product is that it is a two piece system- the watch and this little quarter sized disc that you can place in your shoe.  The disc thingie is actually the Nike+Apple iPod sport kit product, but here it syncs with the watch.  The overall point of this watch and disc is that it tracks your progress on a run/hike and then it integrates it with the Nikeplus.com website where it keeps track of your runs.  The website is also a social media platform.  On a map where you can see your run progress with pace and elevation, you can also see other runners using the Nike+ watch as well as plot runs and find “hot” running places where lots of folks are running.

shot off of amazon.com showing the nikeplus.com website view.

The set up is quite straight forward, there is aUSB plug built into the watches strap click mechanism.  The software is easy to setup and the website is easy to use.  User friendly is awesome because when I am sweating like crazy and tired all I want to do is see how well I did and what I need to improve the next time I run.  For the uber social media aficionado’s there is a way to link up your Facebook and Twitter accounts so you can automatically update your completed run and make your friends cringe at the fact their lazy arses are watching the Honey Boo Boo while your chasing after sweetness.

Dipsea trail

This is a view from the top of the Dipsea Trail that branches off of the Muir Woods main trail. Altogether the hike we did was 6 miles.

I have used it now for a good four months and love it.  I run on the treadmill largely and its been great being able to keep my information digitally in one place.  Recently I used it on a hike I did at Muir Woods National Historic Park in San Francisco.  I was impressed at its ability to track my route on the various hikes I went on as well as leave a pretty cool digital imprint on a awesome trip I had the opportunity to go on.  I am beginning to see it as a great digital souvenir.  Plot my runs and hikes on the digital map as a way to show I have been there and done that not just “checked in”.

I would recommend this to a person who enjoys running, uses social media and wants to keep motivated to stay healthy becuase they got a little bit of competitive spirit.

  • Here is where I stayed in San Francisco, if anyone is interested in reading the review- Hotel Vertigo.
  • For the full Muir Woods Experience read here.

 

Interesting Intersections- Muir Woods, United Nations and San Francisco

Posted: November 2, 2012 in Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, Asian American, Foreign Policy, Health, Hiking, History, Muir Woods, National Park, Outdoor Activities, San Francisco, Social Media, Travel, United Nations
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So part of my trip took place close to the 72nd anniversary of the United Nations charter being approved. Interstingly enough that auspicious interntational meeting took place in San Francisco and the city has an entire plaza dedicated to it.

The plaza is part of the Civic Center in downtown, at its center is a wonderful fountain that is a sunken pit with water raging in to it and from what I hear it has become a bathing pool for the city’s homeless.  In fact the entire area is a bit run down with trash and piles of “stuff” that belongs to homeless folks.

But the history of the place is not lost on me, nor is its connection to Star Trek.  Star Fleet Academy is located in San Francisco as well, however, its not necessarily where the UN Plaza is located but more to the northwest by the Presidio, near the South end of the Golden Gate bridge, and Fort Baker/Horseshoe Bay on the north end of the bridge in Marin county (yeh, I am a bit of a Treky, not crazy, but have enough tid-bit info).  Which is where my first adventure of the City trip begins in Marin County.

Muir Woods a place of serenity until you say it out loud

  John Muir, the naturalist, the father of modern day conservationist movement, environmentalists and of coarse, lets not forget, our AMAZING National Parks!  I take pride in having visited his namesake national monument in Marin County  just north of the City on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I admit some would call Muir a crazy person that rambled along in the woods, but he was a crazy person who’s ideas illuminated the future and have left an impact on our society.  Unlike so many other crazy people, he was actually crazy enough to get a following and mainstream his ideas.

I have to also admit at this point that one of my first National Park experiences was at Sequoia National Forest and Kings Canyon National Park.  That is where I first heard the name John Muir and where I also fell in love with the outdoors.  It was suiting then that when I went off to UCSD I chose John Muir College as my first choice because the college promoted Muirs ideals on nature, and also, it had the least amount or most flexible general education requirements out of all the other colleges that made up the undergraduate system at UCSD.

muir woods national historic monument

Me running away from John Muir carving after being told that he might have been a crazy man who had bouts of random insanity that resulted in his aimless wandering in the hinterlands of California.

Muir Woods

Signs telling us to be seen not heard, which I had a hard time with…I dont apply my indoor voice partly because I don’t ever use it.

Back to my problem of not being quite.  The John Muir National Historic Site has an interesting history, you all should check it out on wikipedia.  The trail itself is between 1-2 miles and literally is like walking on a boardwalk in Atlantic City (God help those Americans as they suffer through Hurricane Sandy) but through a forest.

There was a debate between my brother and I as to whether the forest could be considered “enchanted” or “magical” which got heated because his definition for the two were flipped around.  Therefore, I was constantly reminded that I should be seen, not heard.

While wandering on the main trail we came upon Cathedral Grove.  What I learned was just a crazy interesting intersection of things that interest me- our national parks, Muir woods, San Francisco and the United Nations.

In 1995 the UN turned 50 years old.  They held a special commemorative ceremony in tribute of this anniversary at Cathedral Grove.  Originally in 1945, shortly after the death of President Franklin Roosevelt a commemorative ceremony was held in the same Cathedral Grove location to mark the passing of one of the founders of the UN.  All 50 signatories of the UN Charter hiked their way up to Muir Woods to take part in the ceremony.  There is a plaque there an everything for you to read up on it when you go.

It was actually a really great experience to visit not just the UN Plaza in San Francisco but then to have stumbled upon another piece of UN history at Muir Woods.

muir woods

 

Here is where I stayed in San Francisco, if anyone is interested in reading the review- Hotel Vertigo.

Taking White Parents Advice- Bad Idea for Immigrant Kids

Posted: October 1, 2012 in Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, diet, fitness, Health, health and fitness, identity, lifestyle, obesity, Social
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Taking the advice of White Parents to deal with your immigrant parents is a bad idea.  Its similar to getting advice from your White friends about how to do things.  (See Russell Peters video below)  I learned real quick that while I might be living in America, there is no way that my White friends behavior will fly at home.  My parents would stamp that reality to smithereens.  The way my parents raised me was the way they were raised, and while it may be in the context of my American upbringing, they put very little effort toward utilizing the American parenting style, if anything they spent more time laughing at some of its most basic assumptions found there.  Concepts of grounding, taking away privileges, or positive reinforcement through assignment of chores and getting a weekly allowance- these gave more power to the kids in my parents eyes.  That was contrary to everything that my parents believed about of what good parenting meant.

So don’t laugh at me when I say that as an adult, my relationship with my parents is still one of that between a child-parent, to a certain degree, not completely.  While I may have inclinations to change my own parenting style when I have kids, my relationship with my parents is still governed by a respectable mix of fear-awe-severe deference to their opinion.  Thats why when I read Huffington Posts article “6 thing you shouldnt say to your adult child” I couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of how my parents would respond if I presented this advice to them. Their voice could be heard retorting to each claim made by Linda Bernstein.  The following is what an amalgam of immigrant parents say, based on my observations of various friends parents, about her parenting advice for adult children.

1. Have you gained [lost] weight?

Bernstein advices that parents shouldn’t focus on their adult child’s weight no matter how glaringly obvious, instead be glad they came to visit and that parents should state how they missed them.  An immigrant mother (South Asian, Desi, Pakistani in particular) would say:

Aaaaah, they look fat. There it is, its obvious, I look at my child, I see how fat they are. Seeing is believing.  What they eat is my concern, I cooked and fed them for 20+ years, I am not going to just stop now.  If they eat like a fat person, they will get fat, that is a fact.  

If they don’t change they will not get married, because no one wants to marry a fat person.  If I don’t tell my child they are fat, who else is going to tell them, let alone encourage them to make better life choices.  Parents are meant for this, I am only fulfilling my role.  Life is not a joke and you can not just cruise by, I must act.  

They sit around and eat garbage.  They start their day by sitting in the car, they get to work and sit in front of a computer,  they go to a restaurant to sit and stuff their face for an hour so that they can return to their desk and sit some more, then go home and sit on the coach while they eat more nonsense and then they sleep.  They do this on repeat, no wonder they are getting fat.  I am the positive force that breaks a cycle, that is my role.  I am telling you, until they get married and settle down, there is no fat business.

2. What’s that on your face?

Berstein advises that parents shouldn’t point out physical blemishes like zits.  I think this one made me laugh the most.  A immigrant mother would say:

That thing on their face, its not normal.  They are adults not little kids running around in high school.  Go to a doctor, get medication.  See a specialist.  Do something!  How will they get married?  Who will want to marry my child if they look like that! (Immediately proceeds to pop the pimple or touch in some weird way all while shaking her head.)  Often times this would happen out in public not just in the privacy of your home.

3. How come you hardly ever call (or text) these days?

Berstein advises parents should have a mantra they repeat about how if the child doesn’t call today, its going to be alright.  I guess in a way White parents are trying to exude selflessness, but a immigrant mother, she’s all self.  Her response:

Its my child’s duty to call.  They are responsible to tell me what is happening in their life.  (God forbid a child tells their parent to make the call instead…)  I put food in their mouth, I put up with their crying, I lived through 9 months of carrying them, I drove them to soccer practice.  I gave and I gave, having them call me every single day at 430PM on the dot is not asking to much.  Busy, what the hell are they busy with?  They aren’t some CEO or President, they don’t have a life until they are married.  Until then they are responsible to their mother and father only.

4. It’s all for the best; [So-and-so] was a jerk anyway.

Berstein’s relationship advice is probably up their on laughable immigrant parental advice from a white parent.  She says parents should instead focus on how the child feels and let them know that they are there for them to talk, even if its not about the broken relationship.  No, you see relationships, the marriage ceremony and marriage are the ultimate point of concern for immigrant parents, especially Desi ones:

They are just being picky.  My husband and I were introduced three times maybe, what is this business of talking and getting to know each other, that happens after the marriage.  Look at our marriage, we are happy after 30+ years.  You dont see us doing what these white people do, get old and feel like its time to find someone new because of some crisis about our age.  No, the tradition is best.  They need to lower their standards and be realistic, if I dont help them how will they get married?  If I let them have their way I will be dead and they will be on their deathbeds single and alone.  All this talk about feelings, feelings wont get them married.

5. How can you live like this?

Okay, these have been funny, but I dont think I even need to write an immigrant parents response to this.  Remember going off to college, living in a dorm, how all the white kids parents dumped their stuff and then went out to eat, while you and your parents moved in the mini-fridge, the rice cooker, the 50 different sheets for the bed, ironed all your clothes, went over the laundry procedures while Dad set up the computer and got all your books and school supplies…yeh, you think immigrant parents wont have an opinion about how you live as a adult.  All I will say is that two weeks prior to my parents visiting my apartment, when I lived alone, I would start super deep cleaning and when they visited they would still spend a few hours “cleaning” things up.  Silly Bernstein, I don’t know how you survive giving all this advice.

6. What do you expect me to do?

So this one is probably the only piece of advice where there would be no disagreement between an immigrant parent and Bernstein’s advice.  So I guess there are points of similarities.

To get a sense of where I am coming from, if you can’t relate, watch comedian Russell Peters do his thing.

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