Eating My Words and Their Health Benefits

For the past couple of years our community streets have seen a rising infestation of runners. These people in their funny little reflective jackets and water bottle-belts. They are EVERYWHERE! I blame The Running Room. That store has been encouraging people to go out and walk/jog/run all over town. The thing that really chaps my ass is that every Wednesday night they take over this one particular street that I drive down when taking my kids to their weekly visit at my dad's house. They run up the hill and down the hill. Sometimes 20+ people. They flank out side by side because it's more social that way. They feel their run is sooo important that they don't have to look both ways or even pause before crossing the street. Cars lose their traffic rights. Stupid Runners!

Next thing you know, I am finding out that most of my new friends run. (thanks nursery school moms!) They show up looking all energized in their little yoga pants and ponytails. I (big and pregnant at the time) just shook my head. They told me how much fun it is. (Whatever.) They get quiet time to themselves when they run. (Hide in the bathroom like normal people.) Look at how their butts are shrinking.(Get a life.)  Stupid Runners.

So along came winter. No more pregnant belly. Tired with 3 beautiful genius children (sort of). Pants that don't fit. Blahs beating me down. Sigh. I did it. I reached out to my friends who run, the ones I mocked openly, and asked for instructions.

Today I am finishing week five of my nine-week running program. I have snazzy new shoes, an arm band to hold my phone, reflective arm bands for running at night and a cute little hand-held water bottle thingy. I like to run alone but will occasionally enjoy the company of my peppy, athletic little sister. For the record, we do not run on Wednesday nights and if we are on 'that street' or, any other street, we slide into single file. Smart Runners!

I love the running. I am amazed that my body is holding up to the challenge. I am getting stronger, faster and my endurance is improving every week. I feel energetic, less stressed and happy. The post-run high beats booze, hands down!  If anyone is interested in starting up, I highly recommend the Run Double app. The C25K program takes couch potatoes from nothing to running 5km in 9 weeks. There is a free two week trial that you can download and then a big investment of $1.60 for the complete program. It is a gentle and gradual progression. You can play music while you run. The nice lady's voice tells me when it is time to speed up to a comfortable jog and when to slow down to a brisk walk. She even tells me how fast and how far I have gone after each interval. The GPS  gives me a colour coded map of my route and I can see my stats at the end. The competitor in me really likes statistics that I can try to beat each time out.


PS: the nice people at the Running Room were very nice and helpful when I picked up my reflective bands and stick of body glide. That glide is good stuff!

Experiment: How to be a human Tiki Torch! (..or ear candling)

I have been sitting on the results of this experiment for at least a month now. Finally writing it up.
Ear candling. What is it? Basically, you stick a special hollow candle in your ear and light the sucker on fire! Why would you want to do that? It is supposed to be beneficial for removing excess ear wax and other impurities from the ear and sinuses. I have read that it is supposed to be good for: drying up water in the ear, vertigo, improving hearing, general ear pluggyness and something about bacteria. Seemed exciting so I had to give it a go.

I was volunteering at the Kanata Wellness Expo and there was a booth there by Naturally You. They were offering a free trial where they would do one ear. I found the process to be very relaxing. Their staff were friendly and very informative.

The controversy.... I did some reading about ear candling and found that there were many claims that it was a hoax. That it did not actually remove any ear wax. Lucky for me right beside Naturally You happened to be an audiologist. She had a camera that viewed into the ear and showed the image on a tv screen. It was gross to see that one of my ears had a blackish wall of wax blocking the view to the back of my ear. EWWWW! Anyways, the proof is in the pudding or the candle tube in this case. After the 15 minute session as a human tiki, I went back to the audiologist's chair and we saw that the black wall of gross was gone. So there you go, it does in fact remove ear wax. There is a bunch of white powder residue left in the candle as well. I was told that it was impurities removed from my sinuses. I have not found any information to prove or disprove that statement.

My husband kept a close eye to make sure I didn't catch fire. Actually, I had to convince him that I would be safe holding the candle long enough for him to take a photo.
( We like to do hot things on our weekly date nights. hahaha! )

Being a curious experimental type of lady, I purchased a pack of candles over the internet so that I could try it out on myself again and on a couple of other people. What I learned: Fire is dangerous! Cover hair with a towel to protect it from rare but possible stray ashes. You also want to do this with someone you trust with your life. Seriously, you are in a vulnerable position as a candle holder.

My conclusion: Relaxing because of the warmth and laying still for a full 15-20 minutes per ear. Cool to see what kind of junk gets sucked out of your ear. I didn't feel much of a difference in my ear as far as feeling plugged up or hearing ability went. Fun because I like experiments and fire. There is so much controversy over this procedure. Safety concerns around fire and things possible dripping back into the ear, effectiveness of the procedure, quality of wax and candle. On the other side, we want to use less drugs/pharmaceuticals and help our bodies heal naturally, as they are designed to do.

I will probably do it again but won't make a habit of it.

I love to get new ideas for fun things to try and learn about. Please feel welcome to send me any suggestions.

These are our candles cut open afterwards to reveal ear wax and the mystery powder.
It was interesting to see how each ear on each person was different. 

 Alternate titles for this post: "Common baby light my fire", "Wanna see my earwax", "An inside look at ear candling" and last but not least, "You want to stick what in my ear?"