Sake Bombs or Kale? Vacation Review

At the risk of sounding insufferable, I have to share some thoughts on two side-by-side vacations.

 
Let me preface our discussion with two disclosures:  I have adrenal dysregulation and two young kids. While I'm in adrenal "recovery," as many of you know who are on this path with me -- recovery takes a long, long time.

Vacation #1: Bolinas. We rented a small house on the mesa in late December. We slept a lot and watched deer (here's a YouTube of watching deer as meditation). We ate incredibly food that was picked that day from the local Gospel Hills farm stand, which operates on the honor system. You can see some of the chard and kale in the foreground of the photo I took (above). We did some serious chillaxin'. We hung out. We walked. We did lots of sleeping. We came home after 5 days, tanks full.

 

I kid you not about the honor system. Here's where you put your mula - at $2 for organic dino kale, life is good.

Vacation #2: Tahoe. We rented a tiny condo in Northstar Village but double the cost of the Bolinas house. We tried to gather used gear for the kids to ski but could only find weird bits and pieces so we spent 3 evenings before we left spending about $500 to outfit the kids fully. We were worried about taking our little Prius on big mountain passes so we rented an SUV for another $400. We left early because we were worried about traffic (my last trip took 9 hours in traffic on a Friday afternoon from Berkeley). We got up early to haul our semi-reluctant kids to ski school. We stayed out late drinking too much with friends. Sake bombs, anyone? I learned they can ruin a good liver in record time.

I think you know where this is heading.

I was thinking about a sweet 4-mile hike in Bear Valley with our kids versus the cold, exhaustingly agro-ness of hustling around Tahoe. But it is awfully pretty to be in the mountains.

Let me add that I was super fun to be around while in Tahoe: donning my one organic wool sweater and leggings for 4 days straight and scouring every menu in Northstar for something I could eat that aligns with both my organic experiment and the Gottfried Cleanse I began last Wednesday. Been around folks who are detoxing? One word: I - R - R - I - T - A - B - L - E .

While body weight is an arguable criterion for ranking vacation, it's a great proxy for cortisol: I lost 5 pounds in Bolinas, maintained it for 3 weeks, then gained it all back in Tahoe.

More worry  = high cortisol = more sugar cravings = weight gain + muffin tops. More on that this Sunday at our Stress Resilience workshop.

At the end of the day, I only have two compelling reasons to go to Tahoe: I love to cross-country ski, and I'd love for my kids to be proficient at skiing (or snow-boarding) down a mountain. It's one of those nice sports that adds to your social card and it's a fun way to burn calories.

But I found it also burns out adrenals, at least my adrenals. Yours?

Keepin' It Real: Bolinas for Holiday

Signing off for a week of reading, doodling, strolling, yoga, meditating, cooking, writing, and, oh yeah, hanging out with my kids and DH.

Guess where I am?

Thinking I need more honor system in my life, like this Gospel Farm stand. Let's develop that idea....

Back in a week or two. Officially off duty as a doctor. Back to that January 3, 2011 on the organic channel. Push the button.

Vacation: Rejuvenation Station

In my work as a hormone guide, I find the adrenals are the hardest to nurture and tonify. Our lives are so hectic, particularly in the Bay Area. But nothing nurtures and tonifies as much as a fabulous vacation.

In Ayurveda, they say that illness develops when you move to fast, when your body cannot catch up with your Being. This happens with trips that require airplanes or long car-rides. Solution? Bolinas!

I'm blessed to own my integrative medicine practice and to set up at the outset that I will be unavailable (the doctor is "out") for the month of August and for a month mid-December to mid-January. My adrenals demand it. It allows me to connect to my true Self, to reconnect to what is important, and to develop new ideas about to help you even more deeply and efficiently.

Here are some highlights of what was particularly helpful and healing on my August vacation.

First, one word: Bolinas. Ah, I just love to say it: Bolinas, Bolinas, Bolinas. We stayed in the house above for three days. It was so deeply relaxing, it felt like three weeks. Why? Soulful space.

We, as a family, did yoga daily, meditated, ate amazing local food from the Bolinas' People's Co-op, drank tea, had Big Thoughts, Big Conversations, Lingering Dialogues.

And then there was the Japanese soaking tub. OMG. Fantastic. I'm sitting there, chillin', or perhaps more accurately, sweatin', and in hops a little frog.

Hello, Sweet Frog. He hopped away before I could kiss him.

Darling Husband, David Gottfried, loved Bolinas because we were off the grid. He loves that in a vacation destination.

I just love getting re-energized about my path. Spent the month thinking about how aligned I am with my dharma or purpose. How can I make adrenal buoyancy more a daily part of my life for both me and my patients. Ideas? I'm reviewing Ayurveda and the wisdom it offers to us householders and forest dwellers. Stay tuned! Vacation ends Monday, August 30.

A+ Vacation: How to Recharge the Batteries

My husband and I just returned from Vancouver where we had four blessed days, sans kids. David was there to give his “New World of Green” speech – and if you don’t know the man, here’s his claim to fame: he’s done more than any individual to reverse climate change over the past 15 years through his visionary leadership and founding the world’s fastest-growing nonprofit, the USGBC, and the World GBC.

Here’s what we found in Vancouver: the best battery recharge ever. We arrived Friday to extraordinary weather, and a gorgeous hotel room overlooking the water and Stanley Park.

We dined Friday at Radha and ate scrumptious, lovingly prepared raw and cooked vegan food. Radha is a revolutionary spot that has manifested my long-held vision of combining yoga with extraordinary food and community. Add some integrative physicians and you have my vision.

I’ve noticed recently that vegan and raw food both deepen my meditation experience profoundly – I don’t fidget, I don’t get distracted, I stay on task.

Saturday, after researching every yoga teacher within a 10-mile radius, I settled on Christine Price Clark at YYoga in Yaletown. She is an Anusara teacher, and the class was for intermediate-advanced folk.

I walked into a densely filled, sweaty room tense with the anticipation of students devoted to their teacher. In walks guru Christine, singing “Business Time” by Flight of the Conchords. When I did my teacher training in 2002, we were taught to set carefully a healing container at the beginning of class, a vessel to hold the energy and emotion of our students during class. Christine claimed her container as loving, playful, irreverent and totally original.

Class was intense. She set an intention of us all getting connected to our Grand Vision. She told a story of her family member’s lukewarm enthusiasm for her own Grand Vision to step away from an unsatisfying job and into the flow of yoga teaching.

Class was outstanding. Intense, meaningful, the right mix of artful language and creative sequencing. I walked home to the hotel, inspired and connected to my Grand Vision – you know, the one about being a High Priestess of Energy and Libido, helping women connect to their inner priestess and deep well of vibrant energy and vitality. I found David finishing up the refinements to his speech, and we walked together in the sunshine to the Vancouver Art Gallery to learn about Emily Carr and be transported by her vivid charcoals of the British Columbia forests.

I won't give you all the details, but suffice it to say I went to every class Christine taught, bought some gold lame hot pants, and we arrived home yesterday flush with energy, love and vitality. The formula for this vacation worked.