Episode 68: How Did You Move in 2016?
2016 is D-O- N-E and we’re moving on to 2017! So, how did you move in 2016? What steps did you take to improve your health and your life, and how will you create health in 2017? Get out your list from last year and play along with Katy and Dani as they take you through the annual year-end recap. Rabbit, rabbit!
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(Music intro with chatter and laughter)
KATY: Welcome to the Katy Says podcast, where Dani Hemmat and Katy Bowman talk about movement; the tiny details, the larger issues and why Movement Matters. I’m Katy B, biomechanist and author of Move Your DNA.
DANI: And I’m Dani Hemmat. The chron… I don’t have a, it’s not cool. Like if I go Dani H it’s not as cool as Katy B.
KATY: No. No.
DANI: Maybe it should be D.H. Just D.H.
KATY: Boys to Men, ABC …. (singing)
DANI: Wickety wickety wack
KATY: Mm-hmm.
DANI: And I am a chronically curious movement teacher and it is time once again for the end of the year health recap.
KATY: Mm-hmm.
DANI: Waaaaa
KATY: I love this!
DANI: Yes. It’s pretty fun! Where we reflect on what we did to move toward better health and a better life in 2016 and then we kind of look forward to our hopes and plans for 2017. So, I am hoping that people that did this last year, you just kind of can follow along with us down with your list and feel free to shout out your own answers, listeners.
KATY: Exactly.
DANI: And we’ll take those into account. So how do you want to do this this year? Do you want to ask questions like every other question?
KATY: How about I’ll ask all the 2016 and you can ask all the 2017.
DANI: Excellent. That is very organized.
KATY: Are you ready?
DANI: Time saving. Go.
KATY: Dani H. Your biggest health triumph in 2016?
DANI: I lost 20 pounds and healed my digestion. What about you?
KATY: What????
DANI: Well, mine seems trite. I did that big long, you know, 38-mile walk on my birthday.
DANI: That’s not trite. What are you talking about? That’s gigantic!
KATY: You’re like, “I healed my digestion.” And I’m like, “I took a walk.”
DANI: (laughs)
KATY: “I took a walk, really long walk. One day.” Mmmm…. you win. You win.
DANI: Ok.
KATY: You win. I love it. Congratulations by the way.
DANI: Thank you. And to you.
KATY: If I were to ask you to give one resource that helped you do that, what would it be?
DANI: Ayurveda
KATY: Oh interesting. Was there a website?
DANI: No. I went to a clinic here in Boulder.
KATY: Oh.
DANI: And he’s actually an authored… Dr. Douillard.
KATY: All right.
DANI: Writes a lot of stuff.
KATY: That helps. Someone’s like, “interesting”.
DANI: Yeah. He just wrote a book about wheat, eating wheat and stuff and I’d highly recommend that one for gut health.
KATY: Mmm. All right.
DANI: Ok
KATY: Smartest health decision you made in 2016?
DANI: That’s going to be so boring. I bought myself a packet of visits to an ayurvedic practitioner. That’s how it started.
KATY: I see a theme.
DANI: Yep. How about you?
KATY: I… adding cold training.
DANI: Mmm.
KATY: Cold training changed my world.
DANI: Excellent.
KATY: Yeah. Cold plunges. It’s been fantastic for our whole family.
DANI: Awesome.
KATY: One word! One word that best sums up and describes your 2016 health experience?
DANI: Mmm. Progress. How about you
KATY: Ah. Such a great word. Outdoors for me.
DANI: Cool.
KATY: It was just all out… my health experience was all outside. Greatest lesson about health you learned in 2016?
DANI: Oh, first of all, you need to chew your food. Like really chew your food.
KATY: Oh yes.
DANI: I was always kind of a food gulper.
KATY: Mm-hmm
DANI: Because I came from a family of fast eaters. And you really need to chew your food until it’s liquid. And I also learned that, for me personally, maybe this goes for everybody but, three meals a day is plenty. Like the whole, “you need to snack to keep your energy up during the day” I learned I did not need that and it was actually holding me back from some better health.
KATY: Mm.
DANI: So for me
KATY: Yeah
DANI: that was a big, big lesson. How about you?
KATY: Well. (laughs) I’m sorry. I was, like, thinking about…thinking about that. I’m going, someone was just saying that two meals a day was their lesson, right. Anyway.
DANI: Yeah well I mean it’s just good to let yourself clear out is what it is.
KATY: Exactly. Well yeah.
DANI: It’s yeah.
KATY: It’s interesting. I’m not really a meal eater. I am a more kind of a grazer – early day grazer and not a late eater. So interesting. I love health. For me, I just… I threw my back out a couple days ago.
DANI: Really?
KATY: And so, yeah, it happens about once a year usually in particularly stressful, non-moving times in my life. Usually, if there’s a crisis or a situation where movement isn’t an option, which doesn’t happen very often.
DANI: Mm-hmm
KATY: But the greatest health lesson which is what I learn every single year which is, you can’t fake it.
DANI: Oh yeah. No kidding.
KATY: Oh, I just, you can’t… it doesn’t bank. It’s just, it’s a daily, it’s a multiple times a day, it’s a hundred times a day investment that you choose to make. You can’t bank it.
DANI: Yeah.
KATY: Um. You ready?
DANI: Yeah.
KATY: The most, the most loving service that you performed in 2016.
DANI: Oh, this. I’m so psyched about. I took up meditation, like, back in January.
KATY: Mm.
DANI: And finally after all these years and doing it is definitely an act of loving.
KATY: Loving to yourself? Loving to the world?
DANI: To everyone, yeah. It makes you better for everything around you.
KATY: Oh.
DANI: It’s not just navel gazing. It definitely makes you better for everyone else. How about you?
KATY: You’re supposed to be gazing at your navel?
DANI: (laughs)
KATY: I’ve been doing it wrong this whole time.
DANI: You’ve been doing it wrong!
KATY: I’ve been doing it wrong. Most loving service was taking care of a friend with an illness that was the most…that … I’ve never been in that space before. And I’m like, “oh this is love. I can feel that.” So yeah. That was the most loving service. Unfinished healthy business in 2016?
DANI: Oh my gosh. Ok, I’m just coming out with it. It’s that pull-up.
KATY: (laughs)
DANI: That damn pull up. I just, it’s not there. It’s not there.
KATY: Oh.
DANI: I’m halfway there but I’m not there and that – it’s not done. What is your most unfinished health business?
KATY: Well, I’m not, it’s not like supposed to be a trick – not supposed to be a trick answer but it is that extra book. That extra book that I wrote was, it is the representation of unfinished health business. It was the time that I took in 2016 to not do all of the steps toward health that I wanted to do. So.
DANI: Well…
KATY: Do you know what I mean, like
DANI: I know.
KATY: Like it’s holding space. So it’s like that is the book that I see. I’m like, “Oh, that book right there?” That was the unfinished health business in 2016.
DANI: Oh my gosh. You’re a crazy woman. Are you still taking good care of your skin, though?
KATY: My skin is amazing.
DANI: That was your loving service from last year – was like you learned to start taking care of your skin and every time I see a picture of you I’m like, “Holy cow! Wow!”
KATY: Yeah it’s real. And I keep doing more things. I think the cold plunging is also part of that.
DANI: That’s huge.
KATY: Yeah I mean it’s, it is really amazing to be almost 41 and to have kind of what I would say a more youthful glow than when I was 25 just because of where I’m choosing to spend my time. So that’s right. My skin care regime is just, it’s become, it IS the most loving kind of meditative self-serving thing I do every day without fail.
DANI: Awesome.
KATY: Shout out to Feather Eagle Sky.
DANI: Whoohoo!
KATY: So that was unfinished.
DANI: That was unfinished.
KATY: I think that’s good. We lead with the unfinished. I wonder what it was from last year.
DANI: Oh, for you? Meditation.
KATY: Oh yeah. I didn’t get after that this year.
DANI: Yeah, you were gonna meditate … you were not looking at your navel enough. So.
KATY: No. I did a lot of deep reflection.
DANI: That’s good.
KATY: I would say that this year was very much, a very reflective aware year for me. A very mindful year. Um, but I didn’t use meditation as a tool to do it. I was just kind of doing it all the time while I was writing books. And then for you? What is your unfinished from last year?
DANI: It was the pull-up!
KATY: All right. Ok.
DANI: Two years running.
KATY: I see a theme. All right.
DANI: Maybe I should just lower the bar. I don’t know.
KATY: You’re like, “How ’bout I just hang? How about a flexed arm hang.” You should need to be like the presidential guidelines and give yourself a range.
DANI: Just like the grip strength. We’ll just change what the bar is.
KATY: Just lower the bar. All right, so, what most happy about completing in 2016.
DANI: Ok. This is kind of not like it’s not a huge, physical thing but I think for my health is was good. I stopped coloring my hair.
KATY: Oh! Mm-hmm.
DANI: Because I went gray, I started getting gray hairs when I was like 25, 24. Just pretty young. So I just started coloring them out and then something just clicked in my… really clicked in my brain and I just wanted to stop and that was it. And somebody was like, “Oh well you should dye your hair gray so there won’t be an ugly transition.” And I thought, “No”, I’m like going through this whole experience and just watching it come out and it’s just been super super cool. Like I wish I would have done this 20 years ago.
KATY: Let’s transition away from ugly transition. Like, it’s not ugly.
DANI: It’s not.
KATY: There’s just no word.
DANI: It’s just one less thing. Yeah.
KATY: Yeah. To watch your hair grow. It’s amazing.
DANI: And so many people are like, “Are you gonna cut…” And I’m like “No, I’m totally digging this process.” I can’t explain why. It’s just so fun.
KATY: It’s like a living timeline. You have a living timeline on your head.
DANI: I do
KATY: Like, I just think that’s amazing. It’s great.
DANI: I do and one of my friends said, “it’s kind of magical because silver strands are coming out of your head. How magical is that?”
KATY: Exactly. Exactly.
DANI: So I have a great attitude about it.
KATY: You’re like Rumplestiltskin. You’re just like weaving silver on your head at night when no one is looking.
DANI: Yes. Yes. Except I’m not angry about it. I love it.
KATY: Small, small gnome in your corner. You’re like a child’s book.
DANI: (laughs) What about your health are you most happy with completing?
KATY: Completing Movement Matters. I’m like very literal. Like the best thing about my health that got completed was the writing of this book so I could have a long hunk of – to get it… it’s like a birth. I got it.
DANI: uh-huh.
KATY: I feel on the other side. I feel that happy, that long labor has complete. So I feel healthier just having it out there.
DANI: Oh that’s awesome. I feel healthier that it’s out there too.
KATY: Oh good.
DANI: I love it.
KATY: I’m so glad to have done that for your health.
DANI: (laughs)
KATY: Three people with the greatest impact on your health in 2016? Your health life, so it could be your life too.
DANI: Ok. For me, I think it was health life, definitely, it was Wim Hof.
KATY: Mmm
DANI: Because I started doing the cold training. And there’s this guy that does headspace, his name is Andy and he’s a monk, he’s like a former monk. And he created the Headspace app and so that’s how I do my meditation practice. And I just like that he did that. Like I feel connected that he helped me finally become a meditator.
KATY: Mm-hmm.
DANI: And then an author named Vishen Lakhiani wrote a book that just made me reframe my mental and physical health a lot. Those are the three people.
KATY: That’s three.
DANI: People I’ve never even met. Isn’t that weird?
KATY: You don’t have to meet them.
DANI: Because last year it was people I’d met. And I don’t. You’re just like a sidebar. You’re a given. If I could list you – I could list you every year and people would be like, “Oh, she’s a butt kisser”. But you know, you’re always influencing my health.
KATY: And vice versa.
DANI: Thank you. How…
KATY: Three people in my life?
DANI: Yes, who were they?
KATY: I’ll just ask myself the question.
DANI: I don’t even need to be here. I’m gonna go get a cup of tea and I’ll be back in about a half an hour. You can finish this up on your own.
KATY: Exactly. I’ll just fill in your answers. The director of our local nature school, I would say that she really impacted my health in that she creates a space, a safe healthy space for my kids every day. A safe, healthy, educational space for my kids. Which then supports me physically. Like it’s, it’s like a mind-body piece that comes from the work that she does. Her name’s Sarah Salazar-Tipton. So I would make her number one. My husband always is that; he is just a constant impactor of my health in a good way. He’s just constantly raising the bar. The jerk. Like, “Seriously, that’s where the bar is now?”
DANI: Could you maybe send him over to my house and have him lower my bar for my pull-up.
KATY: He can do that too.
DANI: While he’s moving bars around.
KATY: He can do that too. Then he’ll say something to you like, “roomie”. And you’re like “what”. He’s like “Sure the bar can be that low. That just means that your feet have to go up there now and you have to go find the donkey that lives up there.”
DANI: Oh.
KATY: And you’re like, “Woah. That’s profound.” There’s a lot of that going on in my house. Oh, um, Martin Prechtel.
DANI: Who is that?
KATY: Martin Prechtel is an author who wrote this book, An Unlikely Piece. I’m gonna mess it up – let me see if I have a copy of the book around here. It’s “An Unlikely Peace” and then there is a Mayan word. We can type it out in the show notes, but if you just look up Martin Prechtel. His book transformed me. I’ve been working a lot in, I don’t want to tell you this section right now because the section I want to talk about, I sent you a little gift. And if I talk about it now…
DANI: Ok, don’t talk about it.
KATY: Sorry everyone out there who doesn’t know what I’m talking about but I’ve been working…do you know that “South is Up” map that I have?
DANI: Yes.
KATY: Ok. There is a map…so we are, the way that we think it heavily influenced by the way everyone before us thought to organize stuff. Right? It’s not how it is. It’s how someone else has chosen to organize it.
DANI: Right.
KATY: And the morals and the values and the culture of the people who organized things for us pass on their morals and their culture simply by their choice in organization.
DANI: Yes.
KATY: That was a mind-opener for me to go “Oh, I get it.” That part of what’s reinforcing my cultural point of view is because I only consume things organized by people who had a particular value system that frankly I don’t subscribe to. But I don’t realize the impact of organization. And time is one of the things that have been – it’s been organized. As well as that map. So the map, “The South is Up” is an entire world map where it would be, you would say it’s flipped upside down …
DANI: Sure.
KATY: … because right side up to you in the way you’ve seen it. But it’s just a globe floating in the sky. There’s no up or down. It’s just the way a map is shown to us. So I’ve been playing with other cultures’ way of organizing time.
DANI: Oh my gosh. This is so exciting to me.
KATY: It is. And so when I, so that has ripped off a whole other level of “oh I get why this is so challenging” so that’s what I’ve done… and his work has been – was as crucial as Robin Well Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass was to understanding the plants. And how they and humans work together. So it’s, that’s…
DANI: This cultural stuff is my favorite part of all this.
KATY: Sure. Sure.
DANI: Oh, I cannot wait to talk to you more about this.
KATY: Nope. We’re not talking about it anymore. That was it. Sorry.
DANI: Sorry. Well …. eh… ok.
KATY: Ok, next question. Biggest health risk in 2016.
DANI: I just took a Movnat workshop back in March.
KATY: Oh, I’m so proud of you.
DANI: A weekend thing. And I was, it was really scary to sign up for and I just did it without even thinking and I didn’t bag out on it. And I went through the whole thing and it was really hard and I was the second oldest person there and I just, I don’t know. I’m glad I did it. And, you’re right. Anybody can do it.
KATY: Yeah.
DANI: Like I was thinking I’m not going to be able to accomplish this and finish it. But it’s just, you work from where you’re at.
KATY: Totally.
DANI: Just like anything else.
KATY: And now they have an Elements workshop, like,
DANI: I saw that, yeah.
KATY: if you’re like “I’m too afraid”. The Elements are like the super intro steps. And it’s not like you’re just, I mean that’s the one thing I love about movement and like the joyful support of others. You know, it’s not like, “oh you can’t do this as good as me.” It’s not like that. It’s just like, “Wow, you did that! It’s so cool. And let’s do it together.” And it’s just very supportive. I left this blank. Is that weird? Does that mean I took no risks?
DANI: Your biggest health risk?
KATY: I don’t think I took any health risks. Maybe…
DANI: Well I think that birthday walk was big. And then you got lost and stuff or…
KATY: Just ill prepared.
DANI: That’s
KATY: Yeah. Maybe. I say for me, if I had to pick one, what I felt was risky was I did go on a retreat by myself. Oh. I know what it was. Yeah. Sorry, I can’t say it out loud. But I did something outside of my box that left me, again, healthier. Yeah.
DANI: Did you get a lower back tattoo?
KATY: I did.
DANI: Ok. I figured.
KATY: I did.
DANI: I read you like a book.
KATY: (laughs) Biggest health surprise is…
DANI: Is a secret. So the biggest health risk is a secret, everybody.
KATY: It wasn’t even a risk. It was a perceived risk for me and it was worth it. Next question. In fact, all of these are secret from now on going on.
DANI: Excellent. Oh my gosh. Ok.
KATY: Just kidding. Just kidding. Only secret. Ok. Biggest health surprise in 2016?
DANI: That was a tough one for me because I didn’t really have any that I haven’t talked about already.
KATY: Ok.
DANI: So I guess for me every year I feel better than I did the year before. And that’s contrary to what we’re conditioned to believe.
KATY: Yeah. Exactly.
DANI: You know. We’re supposed to think you deteriorate and you get worse and worse but I seem to be getting better and better and it dawned on me like three months ago that, holy cow, I keep feeling better. And I’m gonna name that the new norm. Like you can always be getting better and better instead of becoming decrepit. It’s not really a surprise but it was kind of like a realization that
KATY: Mm-hmm.
DANI: that I’m better now at 45 than I was 20 years ago.
KATY: Yeah.
DANI: How about you?
KATY: I’ll actually say something similar. Like it just keeps getting easier. That is a, it’s just a surprise to me every time. It’s a surprise to me that there are these major cultural blocks to health.
DANI: Mm-hmm.
KATY: That when you flick them off like a scab, things click into place even more.
DANI: And just that perception too.
KATY: Yeah.
DANI: Like if you start to feel bad and you can tell somebody and they say “well, yep, yeah welcome to getting older.”
KATY: Right.
DANI: Or you can look at it like “Oh if I got rid of blank or did this…” yeah the cultural stuff is huge.
KATY: What health relationship improved the most in 2016?
DANI: Yeah. That one I didn’t know what to put. I guess just because it’s … mmm.. probably the one between my digestion and myself.
KATY: There you go. Yeah. That can be a relationship between yourself.
DANI: Yeah.
KATY: For me, I think it was community. Like our relationship improved with our community. Like we engaged and cultivated community more intently than we have ever before and that health relationship is significantly improved. And it’s constantly growing. We’re constantly adding more to our community.
DANI: Mm-hmm.
KATY: So that was one. Compliment you would have like to receive but didn’t?
DANI: Can you guess?
KATY: Uh. No.
DANI: “Nice pull-up!”
KATY: Oh. Perfect. Yeah.
DANI: What compliment would you have liked to receive but didn’t?
KATY: Uh. “I appreciate how much you’re prioritizing your self-care, Mom.” I didn’t get that one.
DANI: (laughs) Yeah. You won’t.
KATY: I figure. Feel free listeners to go ahead and co-op that one.
DANI: I’ll just call you up periodically and say it in a cute little voice and make you feel better.
KATY: Exactly. What compliment would you have liked to have given but didn’t?
DANI: Oh, man. I didn’t. Hmm… I don’t have one for that. Am I thrown off the show now?
KATY: No.
DANI: Really?
KATY: No.
DANI: Yeah, that one I just, I was, I tried to be really good all year.
KATY: How about, “That was a really great answer. That was a really great answer to question 13, Dani.”
DANI: I just tried to be conscious of being kinder and on the spot telling people that they’re awesome.
KATY: Exactly.
DANI: I don’t think I left anything unfinished on that one.
KATY: Well, what I found was interesting was that I wrote 13 after writing 12, “Which was you’re a really great mom, mom.” You know. Like I didn’t give my mom that many compliments on her parenting. And actually, now that I wrote that, I will actually give that compliment. And not just on the show. So I was like, “Oh, that’s interesting,” that my what’s funny or sarcastic is how little our kids do that and it’s like I don’t do that so.
DANI: Right, totally.
KATY: So I’m gonna go be the change.
DANI: Yeah.
KATY: What else do you need to do or say to be complete with 2016, Ms. Hemmat?
DANI: Aloha.
KATY: Oh, you dirty dog.
DANI: Laughs. How about you?
KATY: For me. Goodnight. Like, I think I could go to bed right now to the end of 2016 and I would be complete with 2016. Now, am I gonna say it? No.
DANI: No.
KATY: But that’s the thing I would need to say. All right.
DANI: Awesome. Now we’re into the creating health 2017. My turn to ask the questions. What would you like to be your biggest health triumph in 2017?
KATY: Are you ready?
DANI: I am totally ready.
KATY: Six-month social media break.
DANI: Love it.
KATY: Maybe even a year. I’m working up logistics. But yeah. A true embodiment of, not like, and I’m just gonna have someone else do my thing for me while I’m gone. I’m like, no, I’m going – so yeah, that’s what I’m working on now.
DANI: That’s a lot of work just to get ready for that.
KATY: It is because I … it’s like a pair of shoes that I wear.
DANI: Mm-hmm.
KATY: I’m adapted to it so I have to do a lot of work to change to something else.
DANI: Yeah.
KATY: What about you?
DANI: Pull up. I’m gonna get that pull-up.
KATY: I love it. I’m so coming over. Like when I came to your house didn’t I, like, make you do some pull ups? I was like, “I’ll spot you.”
DANI: You lifted me up (laughs).
KATY: That’s all right.
DANI: It was a start.
KATY: sings
DANI: And then you did, like, three right there in front of me. Oh yeah, no problem.
KATY: That was for motivation. That was my sidebar.
DANI: Like you’re Mark Wahlberg or something. Please. C’mon.
KATY: That was my sidebar. All right.
DANI: Katy Walhburg. What health advice would you like to give yourself in 2017?
KATY: It can wait.
DANI: Oh. I love love that.
KATY: That’s my mantra. It can wait. How about you?
DANI: Excellent. “Shoulds” … and I’m doing quotes here … “Shoulds never help.” You know.
KATY: Oh. Yeah. Don’t should on someone. Don’t should on someone is what someone told me because I get to the point where I’m like, “Was I should or could or would, which one was I not supposed to use?” And then that whole “don’t should on someone” by eliminating should, and for readers of my books, you’ll see that that book has … I’ve edited that word out.
DANI: Cool.
KATY: Yeah. It’s, like, crazy when you do that, right?
DANI: And we do that to ourselves constantly.
KATY: Sure.
DANI: And it’s just part of that cultural message.
KATY: Yeah.
DANI: “I should feel this way” and “I should do this” if you could just remove all those because they’re not helpful
KATY: Right.
DANI: Like never. All right. What major – wait – yeah I asked you, never mind.
KATY: Yeah, you’re good.
DANI: What major effort are you planning to improve your health results in 2017?
KATY: A major decrease in screen time. Notic… like big time. Not like a one day, like a big time reduction in screen time. You?
DANI: All screen time.
KATY: All screen time.
DANI: I’m just throwing this out there – I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it but I’d like to walk 2017 miles.
KATY: Oh, super cool. I love stuff like that. Are you gonna do a blog about it again?
DANI: I don’t know. I might. It takes a lot of time and I’m, I’m, like you, I’m trying to extract myself from that. I took a month break from social media this last summer and it was one of the best things I ever did for myself every. I’m kind of trying to remove myself. But blogging is fun.
KATY: Mm-hmm. Well, I mean, Instagram is a good way of going, “I’m gonna do 2017 miles Instagram which is only a minute of my time.
DANI: Oh that’s a good idea.
KATY: In that you’re just saying, “my only social media to be able to do this is I had to give up other time so I’m not blogging, follow me here for quick insights” and then there you go.
DANI: Oh, smarty pants. I’m gonna take that idea. Thank you. Thank you for that.
KATY: Do it. You’re welcome. Welcome.
DANI: What would you be most happy about completing in 2017? And if you say a book
KATY: No.
DANI: two books…
KATY: No. Did you hear what I just said? Reduction in screen time. I’m not going to be typing it out on a typewriter. Shorthand! A month of camping.
DANI: Mmm. Straight?
KATY: Straight.
DANI: Sounds fun!
KATY: You?
DANI: I would like to finish the 10 week Wim Hof course because I keep getting stuck on certain weeks.
KATY: All right.
DANI: It gets more and more challenging.
KATY: Yeah. All right.
DANI: What major health indulgence are you willing to experience in 2017?
KATY: Uh, camping in Iceland. Some wilderness…like super wilderness hot springs with the fam. That’s gonna be my indulgent thing this year.
DANI: That would be awesome. Iceland looks so cool.
KATY: It is cool. I really love it there.
DANI: See what I did there (bell). For me, I’ll just ask myself…
KATY: Do it.
DANI: I would like to take some bushcraft classes.
KATY: Mm-hmm.
DANI: There’s somebody I’ve been following here and they give great classes and they’re a little bit pricey but I think I deserve it.
KATY: Sure.
DANI: Yep. What would you most like to change about your health in 2017?
KATY: I’d like to stop drinking coffee is my goal. Coffee and chocolate.
DANI: You don’t really drink that much coffee, though.
KATY: No, I drink a cup but given the Movement Matters and the sourcing of coffee and chocolate, I’m like, those are things I don’t need. I just, I have a cultural preference for them. A personal preference. So doing the physical work to adapt away from those, that’s on my list.
DANI: Oh ok. That’s admirable.
KATY: You?
DANI: Yeah. I want to (laughs) I’d like to learn more bushcraft experience. More skills.
KATY: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
DANI: Because that’s kind of critical to my health I feel like.
KATY: Did I just ask you that question? Oh, wait a minute. Oh no, that was what would you like to change…
DANI: Well see that’s what I want to indulge in and that’s what I’d like to change to be able to be more self-sufficient in that regard.
KATY: Got it.
DANI: What are you looking forward to learning about health in 2017?
KATY: More about plant medicine. That’s like my big interest. You?
DANI: Mine is almost that same thing. More foraging and identification of plants. And also I would like to start studying Reiki because I think that’s kind of interesting stuff too. What do you think your biggest health risk will be in 2017? That’s a crazy question but I like it.
KATY: I put podcasting. (laughs)
DANI: (laughs) Really? Is this dangerous? What are you talking about?
KATY: I put book writing and podcasting. To my health it is. Like I just – it’s the stuff that I do for work is the thing at this point that poses the biggest risk for my health. So I always have to keep going “ok, how can I still work but in a way that’s reducing elements of it.” Right? I’m just constantly trying to stack my work.
DANI: Yeah.
KATY: That’s the puzzle that I’m working on now. Can I still do what I want to do but find a different way of doing it in a way where it’s getting me more of what I need but I’m still being authentic. Then I’m a producer – this is what I do for a living.
DANI: Right. Totally. For me my biggest health risk is I would like to – do you know what a fourteener is? Have you ever heard that term?
KATY: No. No.
DANI: Ok in Colorado has a lot of mountains. Depending on which source you look at either 53 or 58 peaks over 14,000 feet. That’s a lot and I would like to start climbing them and I would like to complete one this summer.
KATY: Holy cow. Wow.
DANI: So. And there’s one not too far from where I live so I’m going to start working on that one.
KATY: That’s so cool.
DANI: Yeah. Because I finally got adapted to the altitude. That was my thing from last year, “It’s so high here” but.
KATY: Mm-hmm. Rocky Mountain high.
DANI: Yep. Totally.
KATY: That’s, like, the motto.
DANI: What about your health are you most committed to changing and improving in 2017?
KATY: Patience with myself. I’m really patient with other people but I’m not very patient with myself so that’s part of that whole urgency of time. I don’t give myself very… I don’t give myself a wide open space always to do the things that I need to do. What about you?
DANI: I’d like to just work on my flexibility.
KATY: Mmm.
DANI: Do more yoga. I’ve kind of been out of it for several years now. So.
KATY: Would you be doing some sort of flexibility and yoga that would parlay into doing a pull-up.
DANI: (laughs) Yes absolutely. It’s all connected. It’s all connected.
KATY: (sings) It’s all connected.
DANI: Because I’m flexible in all the stuff I’ve been working on, you know, like upper body but then I’ve kind of neglected some other stuff.
KATY: Whatever. That’s the whole point.
DANI: Yeah, whatever. Let’s see. What is – I can’t wait to hear this – what is one, as yet, undeveloped talent you are willing to explore in 2017?
KATY: What…what do you think it is going to be?
DANI: I have no idea. With you, it could be anything.
KATY: What I am not good at is not producing. And it seems like a weird thing to say but I don’t have the ability to not be producing things constantly. That, like to just go like, what am I gonna do… and it’s not to say that I want to do nothing, it’s just that producing new things constantly is a habit I’m not able to break. And so, not producing is what’s on the schedule for 2017. Is that what you expected me to say?
DANI: It is not. It is not.
KATY: It’s a skill I don’t have. I feel like people would say
DANI: It makes mine
KATY: you know like, “what are you talking about” you know like, “I’m trying to finish …” that’s not a skill set. We have all different skill sets and I don’t have the ability to not produce and it’s not good for my health.
DANI: No, no. I get that.
KATY: You?
DANI: Well that makes mine sound goofy. I want to learn to juggle. (laughs).
KATY: I don’t think it is! Like, I think, they’re exactly, they’re different tasks but it’s the same thing. It’s a part of you that you recognize if you could do it your life would be better for you and you want to do it. It’s the same exact thing. Different path.
DANI: Hilarious. You know what you had last year? You’re like… hunt. I’m gonna hunt.
KATY: I got a little closer to that.
DANI: You were gonna like throttle a deer…
KATY: Yeah, no I didn’t get that close but I definitely, I’ve … there’s steps closer but not there.
DANI: I thought of you about a month ago I was watching a movie called “Captain Fantastic”. Have you seen that?
KATY: I haven’t seen it yet but a lot of people have told me about it.
DANI: Oh, just you guys gotta watch it.
KATY: Really?
DANI: This kid in the opening scene just grabs a deer from behind and slits its throat and I was like, “Hey, that’s what Katy is working toward.” It was pretty awesome. But you’ll love the movie, trust me.
KATY: Well I guess we got crabs.
DANI: You got crabs – sneak up behind a … yeah…
KATY: I mean that’s a weird statement. No one tweet that and then with a link. “I got crabs” by Katy Bowman.
DANI: Yeah. If someone says, “I guess we got crabs.” Who is “we”? Don’t put me in there.
KATY: Exactly. Dani and I got crabs. Tell me what your thing was for last year.
DANI: From last year? Not nearly as cool. It was finishing a book.
KATY: Did you finish it?
DANI: No. The damn pull up and the book.
KATY: Like writing it not reading it.
DANI: I read too many books. I should write more books. It was writing a book. Yeah.
KATY: Did you do it?
DANI: Finishing a book I’ve been writing. I’ve made progress on it but I didn’t finish it.
KATY: All right. What else?
DANI: Uh, what brings you joy in health and how are you gonna have more of that in 2017?
KATY: Oh, I didn’t see the how part, I just said are you gonna have more … wilderness backpacking and I put yes.
DANI: Yes.
KATY: But how am I going to have it? By doing all these other things.
DANI: That’s clear.
KATY: Just reducing my productivity of that type – of a particular type. And being online. That’s my plan to do the things that bring me more joy in health. You?
DANI: Hiking and camping.
KATY: Yeah. I feel like we’re gonna do a lot of this together. I feel like there’s something for us together. So.
DANI: And we’ve got crabs.
KATY: Too bad we won’t be on social media to share with anybody. And exactly!
DANI: Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving in 2017?
KATY: This is a different answer for me. It’s my lady friends. It’s my… it’s the women in my life. Which include you – many other women. Like I feel that’s a level of community. Like definitely I’m engaging with my kids and other parents of the kids that are in our lives but specifically going, like, “what do some of the other women in my life need that I can do that’s not just generically like taking their kids”. So that’s my…
DANI: That’s cool.
KATY: … that’s where I’m putting my awareness this year. So look for… I might be showing up on your doorstep and like, “I’m going backpacking and I’m gonna rub your shoulders.” I don’t know.
DANI: Yeah. And I brought some crabs. It’s gonna be great.
KATY: Let the crabs go.
DANI: That’s cool. It’s taking it to another level.
KATY: How about you? Who are you gonna serve?
DANI: Mine is the same as last year because it turns out so well I figure I might as well keep on keeping on and it’s everyone.
KATY: Oh. That’s so good.
DANI: Just being better about serving and loving everyone.
KATY: Mm-hmm
DANI: Because it felt really good and I’m gonna try and keep on doing that.
KATY: All right.
DANI: All right, well last one. What one word would you like to have as your health theme in 2017?
KATY: Oh. What was my one from last year?
DANI: Um, let me see, I’m looking through our notes and we yammer and go on … oh, you had… I had “forward” and you had “wilderness”.
KATY: I would say that that. That was nicely done. I did a lot of wilderness. More so than ever before. So 2017, my word is “low-tech”.
DANI: Mmm.
KATY: Is that hyphen – does a hyphenated word count?
DANI: I think it is and yes it does count.
KATY: All right. “Low-Tech”. How about you?
DANI: Excellent. Uh, just “dynamic”. Just keep moving in the different directions.
KATY: Forward – dynamic
DANI: Yep.
KATY: All right. Keeping it moving. That’s good.
DANI: I don’t know. Looking through last years it was kind of cool and I hope if you are doing this at home, you know, listeners, that you look back at last year because you probably will feel pretty accomplished. I mean, I did. I was kind of – except for that pull-up and that book really – everything that I set out to do, I did and I think saying it and writing it is huge.
KATY: yeah. yeah.
DANI: It’s huge. I hope that you do it again for this next year.
KATY: Me too.
DANI: And in this, we’re doing something a little bit different. We’re – we had just started the question of the week and now I’m gonna take it away because we just asked a lot of questions. But we wanted to share a laugh with you before we headed off to 2017. Your books, Katy’s books, most, ..
KATY: Yes.
DANI: … all of them or most of them, are available on Audible?
KATY: Move your DNA, Whole Body Barefoot and then Movement Matters coming up. So three.
DANI: Ok.
KATY: Also on Itunes and on Amazon. You don’t have to go to Audible.
DANI: Oh cool. So as far as an audiobook.
KATY: They’re audiobooks.
DANI: Ok. And I read your books but I also listen to them because it’s something I can do while I’m working and moving around. And if you’ve never had one of Katy’s audio books before you should know that you’re missing out on some of the most ridiculous and hilarious blooper reels I have ever heard…
KATY: Is that – do other books have blooper reels? I just thought…
DANI: I have never heard one. And it’s so great because, you know, you’re listening to the whole book and you’re like, “Wow, she’s genius. She’s really smart!” And then you get to the bloopers and you’re like, “Oh my gosh – what happened to her brain.” It’s so funny when you can’t say words and I don’t mean to make fun of you…
KATY: Oh, bring it.
DANI: … but I was in tears.
KATY: Yeah.
DANI: I mean tears and tears and then I called my kids in and I’m like, you have to listen to this and they cocked their little heads and they’re like, “Is that Katy?” (laughs).
KATY: Well I sent it to you on a google drive, the bloopers
DANI: (cracking up)
KATY: I sent you two. Every book has it’s own blooper reel so one of the ones that you got is the blooper reel for Movement Matters but the other one is an extra blooper reel for this show and to kind of go here’s what’s awaiting… this is the treasure trove that is included on every audio book. And I, yeah, a verbal moron would be a very gentle.
DANI: Yeah, you really are… I mean it’s just so black and white it’s so different.
KATY: You’re in a box for 50 hours.
DANI: Yeah. I don’t know.
KATY: 50 hours of time to make a 4 or 5-hour audio book.
DANI: But the one word, incalculable.
KATY: Incalculable.
DANI: And you just, I’ve never seen anybody struggle over a hurdle so much to get over that word in my life.
KATY: You just – when you read that many… I mean you’re reading 4 to 5 hours at a time. Your throat – you can’t – reading aloud is different than writing and is differently than reading. I’m a speed reader so to have to say every word. And the way that I pronounce words in my head is not the way that it turns out that they’re actually said. So yeah, it’s a struggle. So are you gonna play, you’re gonna play one of the blooper reels? The one – the bonus blooper reel, that’s not on any book.
DANI: Yeah the one that has incalculable. Is that the one that you sent me? All right. You gotta check out her books and here is a sample of some of the goofiness that comes out of her mouth. Her verbal … was it mor…
KATY: Moronoship.
DANI: (laughs)
KATY: It’s like you don’t know anything.
DANI: Well she’s trying to read your own work. That’s what I like. It’s your own work. That’s the best part.
KATY: Exactly. I was like “Oh, this is a great word. Who put this in?”
DANI: Oh my gosh.
KATY: Yeah. I know. Classic Katy.
FROM BLOOPER AUDIO: (Noises of her tap dancing?) Ok ready? Ok ready? Oh man. Oh man. In light of this incalcu… incalculul…incalcuab… incalculable. In light of this incalclulable. Heh – calculale. Seems like a incalculul… c’mon really? Incal… (deep breath). Incal… In Cal cu la bly. Incacl… incalculby. Incal… can you say it? (Male voice: Incalculably) You say it so well, incaculab… incalculably… incalulably… ok. I need to drop my lips, incalculably. (deep breath). In light of this incalculable number, cross training as we do it, adding some yoga to your regular running routine or swapping a dance class for a cycling class, sounds like an incalcul… damn it. On one memrble…go back… memrble. You don’t even have to open up your mouth for that word. Our family enjoys an occasio… wah go back… walnut, weasel, willow, and wren. According to an official… I wonder if anyone else has recorded an audio book where it’s just a list of unrelated words (laughs). Who would like my next book to be just me reading the dictionary. According to an official statement from Oxtar… go back … Oxnard California now has a University press and they’re releasing dictionaries. Yay Ventura County! If I wanted to be even more accurate… go back … if I wanted… accerate…that was so ironic. Do you want me to be more accerate? Trees are shaped by the wind. But here’s the thing. The Thing. Go back. Out of all the nutrients we… go back… we wequire… argh. Ok, go back. Bone mineral was thought to be closely related to this substance called… oh come on… hy-droxy-appetite… Hydroxi…hydroxyapatite. That can’t be appetite. (Male voice; Let me look it up real quick). Is there a chemistry nomenclature enunciation site? (male voice – ok, got it. Here you go) (computer voice: Hydroxyapatite) Breathy-hydroxyapatite. Why is she so breathless. She just came the chemistry lab: hydroxyapatite. I’m the only person who becomes more educated reading their own audio book. I was like, what is that word mean. Oh, it’s in my book. Oh. And that has somewhat limited our pro… sorry, I’m trying to, to look around the microphone. Hold on. I’m like, I was like a boxer. I was like bob and weave, bob and weave. And so hunimal… so huni..huminal. We’re huminals. Let us out of the cage. As well as a colorfully printed plastic. (male voice: as well as colorfully). Oh, thank you. I’m like, why does that seem weird. Because you’re reading it wrong. My biomecanic…go back go back. My biomac…ugh go back. brrrr… deep breath…brrr brr… (lips and clapping) I thought, it sounded like rain just all of a sudden was on a tin roof that was only over my head. I think it’s great that I have never gotten a paper cut.
DANI: (laughs)
KATY: Well that was just my little…that was just my holiday gift for everyone.
DANI: Oh
KATY: That the end of the abdominal advent, right? Just a little bit of belly laughs.
DANI: Oh my gosh.
KATY: Although if you want more …
DANI: I don’t even know.
KATY: … if you want more bloopers you can just listen to this pod…all the podcasts.
DANI: I guess so but I love that sometimes it’s like somebody wrote it and you’re trying to figure it out and read it but it’s yours and that
KATY: I know
DANI: It’s precious and priceless.
KATY: And there’s a lot of foreign words that I use in my books and people’s names and you’re like,” oh that’s fine” until you read it out loud and you have no idea how to say it and then how you think you say it is not. So every one of those stumbling blocks ends up being like a 15-minute research session online where you’re trying to find a YouTube where the person is announcing themselves or someone else is introducing them.
DANI: (laughs)
KATY: I mean it’s a big deal. Audiobooks are a ton of work. But anyway.
DANI: I can imagine
KATY: I hope you enjoy it.
DANI: Well you do a bang up job of it. Thank you…
KATY: Thank you.
DANI: …for your work.
KATY: Well you’re welcome. Thanks everyone for listening. For more information, books, online exercise classes you can find me at NutritiousMovement.com and you can find more from Dani Hemmat at MoveYourBodyBetter.com
DANI: Thanks, everybody.
KATY: Thanks.
DANI: Bye-bye.
KATY: See you later.
Music
VOICE OVER: Hopefully you find the general information in this podcast informative and helpful. But it is not intended to replace medical advice and should not be used as such.
Music fade.