Monthly Archives: October 2016

Relieving forward head posture: full body myofascial release (aka Deep Massage)

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This is the fourth post in a series about Cate and me partnering in bodywork to relieve her forward head posture. Click here to read the first post, here for the second, here for the third, and here for a special post about the Still Point Inducer.

by Cate Radebaugh

Since I was in Austin for several days early this week, I opted to go to MaryAnn’s on Wednesday instead of Friday. She told me that it was time for a full body myofascial massage and gave me the familiar intake paper with four sketches of a human body — front, back, and both sides — and instructions to circle where I feel discomfort, pain, tension, etc.

It’s always the same for me: neck and shoulders, lower back, and feet — so that’s where I made my circles.

Then MaryAnn went out while I undressed, got on the table, and under the sheets. I’ve had massages before, so I knew about putting my face in the little face holder, but she also had a special pillow with holes in it that I could put my breasts in, and that was wonderful, because typically, they get smooshed between me and the table, which is not so great. With my breasts in a safe space, I felt completely comfortable for the first time ever laying prone on a massage table.

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Cate uses the Still Point Inducer

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This “in-between-isode” in our series of posts about working together to release her forward head posture is Cate’s review of the Still Point Inducer, which I lent her to try at home for a week. Read the first post here and follow the links to read the series.

by Cate Radebaugh

Last Friday — September 30 — MaryAnn lent me a red rubber thingy called a Still Point Inducer, which I put in my purse and promptly forgot about until Sunday, when I set about exploring its properties. It is one piece, neither hard nor soft, flat on one side and shaped like two little boobs on the other.

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It didn’t have any instructions with it, but I figured, since Mary Ann had been messing around with the back of my head, it would probably fit back there. After some fidgeting and fussing, I got the bumps settled at the base of my skull with the flat part on the mattress. All I had to do was move my head up or down to shift the position of the bumps, which shifted the feeling I got, which is kind of like big thumbs pressing into my head. Continue reading →

Relieving forward head posture: integrating bodywork techniques, plus, a still point

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This is the third post in a series about my bodywork sessions with Cate to relieve forward head posture. Go here for the first post, here for the second.

by Cate Radebaugh

This session on September 30 is hard to write about because it was so fluid. I’d like to start, though, with something I left out of my last post, which is, I have a hard time figuring out where I am on the table. I’m supposed to lay centered on it, but I’m either too far to the left or right at my shoulders and too far the other direction at my hips, and sometimes, the direction I think I’m going in is not the direction I’m actually going in. This is an issue with proprioception*, and probably explains why I bump into things a lot. I don’t know where my body is in space or where my parts are relative to each other.

Anyway, our first task every session is getting me aligned on that table. I keep waiting for MaryAnn to say “goodgodamighty, get straight, Cate,” but so far she hasn’t even sighed.

I don’t know what modalities MaryAnn used in the session*, and I couldn’t recall the sequence of things after I left because the session felt so fluid. One discrete experience flowed into another, except for the first one, which was me on my back while MA held my heels in her hands and pulled on both my legs at the same time. It really does feel like my legs get longer as she pulls on them. Continue reading →

Fermenting more stuff: I made natto at home!

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UPDATE: The post below was written in October 2016. Much has changed since then! I have been making natto in my Instant Pot! I once again got frozen natto as a starter at Asahi Imports — very inexpensive, 3 servings, and you only need about a teaspoon to start a batch. I followed instructions on a YouTube video on Instant Pot natto, and it turned out great — slimy, stringy, sticky, and tasty (well, it may be an acquired taste for some people).

Still need to try the natto breakfast taco. I envision kim chi in place of salsa, some avocado, and sprouts.

You need a glass bowl that fits inside your Instant Pot. I cooked way too many soybeans to fit in that size bowl, so I froze the excess and have since thawed some, added inoculant, and made another batch of natto. 

I’ve been eating a small serving most days with tamari and green onions, or with kim chi (which I’m fixin’ to make a big batch of). Fermentation freak that I am, I also made kvass — two batches, with yellow beets and red beets, and fizzy kombucha flavored with pomegranate juice. Along with sprouting seeds for salad garnish and sprouting a purple sweet potato to plant in my garden, my kitchen is a lively place! 

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A day after attending the Austin Fermentation Festival, where I sampled various kombuchas, krauts, a beet kvass, pickled veggies, mead, cider, raw milk cheese, and more, and thoroughly provided my gut with a wide array of probiotics, I am eating homemade natto for breakfast.

No one was selling or giving away samples of natto at the festival, which is a shame. Maybe that’s because, as one natto fan describes it, it’s like a vegan stinky cheese. I’ve heard some Japanese restaurants in the U.S. even seat natto eaters in a separate section! But I believe this crowd would have loved the opportunity to sample it and make up their own minds about it.

I got interested in making natto, a Japanese dish made of fermented soybeans, after learning it’s the highest known food source of Vitamin K2.You can also get K2 from Gouda and Brie cheeses, liver, egg yolks, butter/milk/meat from livestock eating green grass grown on good soil, fish eggs, and other sources.

Natto is apparently the only plant source. You can Google ”health benefits natto“ for more recent information than the links below.

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