Cooking’s Like Training: Know Your Oven, Know Your Body!

FitOldDog’s Dance and Continuum Teacher, and Plantar Fasciitis Treatment Roadmap Co-Author.

You have to know your body to get your diet and training on track.

The successful application of a training recipe (plan), as with a food recipe, requires adjustment for actual conditions.

I love the smell of home-baked bread. I made this vegan loaf using whole wheat, coconut and flax flours. Really good. Even teenagers would eat it. Photo by FitOldDog.

No two ovens, or human bodies, are the same. When following a recipe that involves baking or roasting in an oven, you’ll need to adjust the temperature setting for your oven.

I learned to cook, by trial and error. As I love cooking, I achieved a reasonable level of skill. Especially when it comes to bread-making. I’m not a gourmet, cook, but my food is almost always edible.

Recently I’ve learned to eat less meat.

Having embraced a vegan diet. Boy! I’m learning lots of new vegan recipes, and having fun.

I quickly learned that some ovens run hotter, some cooler, than indicated by the temperature setting.

Ironman training was more difficult. Involving a continuous string of injuries. UNTIL I studied body awareness, through the application of Feldenkrais and Continuum. When it comes to exercise, it is critical to know your body.

Some bodies are stronger, some weaker, than the indicated the age setting.

Get to know your body to avoid injuries.

FitOldDog’s body-awareness instructors: Karen (left – Feldenkrais), Mr Bones (deep thought), Rebecca (Continuum), and Tara (Gyrokinesis and Sports Massage). Photo by FitOldDog.

Learn to listen. After training, or eating for that matter. You can save yourself a lot of pain.

If you listen, you will reduce injury risk. Don’t just hear to the bad stuff your body is telling you. Aches and pains. There’s lots of good stuff, too. Those lovely, alive, warm feelings. They are more subtle, but just as important.

This is particularly critical, when attempting to fix injuries. Such as plantar fasciitis. My co-author, on the FitOldDog Plantar Fasciitis Treatment Roadmap, Rebecca, is a professional dance teacher and body movement expert. Without Rebecca’s insights, I doubt I’d still be moving and training as well as I am today.

I did a great job of hurting myself. Rebecca, Karen, Tara and and other skilled instructors, taught me how to listen.

Still Ironman training in my 70s! Speaks for itself.

Wishing you happy feet and happy trails!