Hula hoop relays,moxibustion, and hip flasks.

 OK, I'm really hoping I won't get sued by one of my girls for posting these pictures, but I thought it was so fun I had to share the idea.  When I was teaching at BYU, I went into the equipment office to get the BOSU's for class, and was surprised by all of the equipment they had stored in that room. "There must be some fun ways to use that stuff" I thought.  They had cones, beanbags, a parachute (!), basketballs, hula hoops -wait HULA HOOPS!  They turned out to be great for relays.  I always do at least one plyometrics segment in my class, and a relay makes the jumping a little more fun.  When I started my class in Salem we had a bit fewer options equipment-wise (to say the least).  I have been known to make my class use the structural beams for pullups, the baseballs in the pitching machines for glute isolation exercises, and the chairs for all kinds of stuff.  With summer though, the dollar store got in dollar hula hoops.  Yay!  I have some partner two hoop options, but we get bogged down for space (maybe we'll go outside when it's warmer!), so I just have them take a single hoop, and jump in it and in front of it, swing it around in front again, and jump again.  Their partner waits doing toe touch jumps back at the start until their partner runs back and they're tagged. 

 So fun.  I've also used our family's collection of basketballs and soccer balls, used tennis balls, taped up the floor, and done lots of hopscotch type stuff.  If anyone reading this has new fun ideas for jumping, send them my way.

 I wanted to show you the moxibustion stuff remember? I had my first appointment this week and snuck some pictures for you all --tummy picture coming up below, so shield any eyes that need it :)  I've got to say up front, I got a Masters of Science in Zoology (--kind of like biology --in fact the departments have now combined at BYU : all the premed students were in my major as an undergrad), and I'm used to the scientific method.  Chinese Traditional Medicine does not usually follow the scientific method format. It's different -just -different.  I did a paper trying to compare Western medicine, and CTM in college, and it was really apples to oranges.  However, they've been doing the things they do with countless recorded successful anecdotes for thousands of years --way before Western medicine had the bright idea of using leeches to help people recover.  I've been dealing with this stupid Graves disease for 6 1/2 years, and have been following everything my Dr. has told me short of having my thyroid obliterated by radiation (because that makes no sense to me. It would make me hypothyroid and I'd still have to take medication -see this article ).  and I'm going up and down with my levels all of the time.  I heard that CTM has a procedure to treat the autoimmune side of the disease which makes more sense to me --whatever that procedure might be. 

 

Now, why burning stuff at certain points on my skin, or poking needles into other points works?  NO idea.  My CTM Dr. makes these little "cookies" (the dark brown things) out of one kind of herb, and then makes little cones (light brown) on top out of another kind of herb, and sets the top stuff on fire.  Really. She goes through 5 cones of herbs on each point, and that's it.  Sounds witch doctory, but hey -whatever. 

 Here they are burning. See the smoke?  I could smell it on my skin the rest of the day. Luckily I had the needles in me in other spots so I was all relaxed.  I also liked the sound the flame made as she lighted it -like a bird's wing. I'll let you know if it all works.  I do know a little about qui/chi, -- the energy channels through the body these things are supposed to affect, but not much.  Here's a page to go to that gives some basics.

 

Next story.  Does this bother anyone else?  We stopped in ICING --a teen -preteen accessory store right before our movie, and saw this display of flasks right by the register.

Sorry the pic is blurry --but the sign says they don't support underage drinking.  How does your sign make this OK I'm wondering?  Amazing.

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