The Immediate Next Step

Monday, April 30th, 2012 Posted by Rachel. Published under Holistic Care, National Parks, Personal Stories. 3 Comments.

I feel like crap.  You’d think that 8 months of travel, 6 of that on a bicycle would have made me feel better than any other time in my life.  But I can’t seem to wake up, sleep long enough or think clearly.  I’m irritable and easily frustrated and can barely cobble enough effort to coordinate our final journey to Yosemite National Park or our return trip to Madison, WI.  I could barely enjoy San Francisco, driven mad by their public transportation system, the cost and how tiring the hills were.

I have determined that my exhaustion (and Jessica’s too, she’s wiped out as well) is our nutrition.  We’ve asked our bodies to do so much this year.  Climbing and pedaling and early mornings and harsh weather have tasked our cells with major strain.  And we struggled to feed ourselves as well as we had in Boston.  We’re really healthy eaters for the most part, especially when we have a kitchen to ourselves, but eating healthy is a huge feat, at least to us.

The American South, where we spent the majority of our trip, is not known for vast amounts of vegetables on the table.  Our diet consisted mostly of animal protein (in the form of beef brisket, seafood, beef jerky, cream cheese) and simple carbs (in the form of bread, bagels, tortillas, rice, noodles, snickers, granola bars).  We did try to get as much fruit and vegetables as possible, but they just don’t keep, so it was left to occasional salads, a few green beans or spinach and dried fruit, usually berries.

As you sit here wondering what this has to do with what we’ll be doing next, I simply have to say, we’ll be taking care of ourselves for a little while.  We need to recover before we can venture out again.  We need to do this fast because we only have the month of May to do this before we’re back to traveling, moving and re-establishing ourselves in society.

Our plan for this will initially take the form of a juice fast, and end in a stricter diet of as close to vegan when cooking at home as possible.  We need to strip our bodies of the toxins we’ve accumulated while not eating well.  We need to give our bodies as many vitamins and minerals as it will absorb.  I’ve been doing some reading and we’ve watched a few documentaries that promote a plant based diet and using juices as highly efficient cleansing and nutrition delivery system.  (If you’re curious, I’m reading The China Study.  It documents a comprehensive study in which the scientists were able to turn on and off cancer growth by varying the amount of animal protein consumed.   The evidence is very compelling and makes me believe that almost any disease could be controlled with nutrition.  The film that convinced us to fast/cleanse was Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  In it two men fast on juice for 60 days each and undergo a remarkable transformation not only in their waistlines but in mental capacity, skin clarity and the need for medications.)

We’ll keep you posted as to how we feel and whether it works and how we feel.  But we have to do something because I just can’t keep feeling this rotten after doing something this extraordinary!

The Injury

Monday, April 9th, 2012 Posted by Rachel. Published under Holistic Care, National Parks, Personal Stories. No Comments.

As many of you may know already from Facebook, we went to the Grand Canyon a little over a week ago. While it was one of the most extraordinary places I have ever seen, and Jessica says its her favorite for the whole trip now, it was also a place of a bit of sadness.

We had woken up before the sunrise on our first day there, and I got my first glimpse of the canyon as the sun rose. We then puttered around the visitor center and decided to walk the whole length of the South Rim trail that day, saving any inner canyon hikes for the following days. We rode the two busses over an hour out to the end of the rim trail and began to disembark. It was then that I managed to step on Jessica’s heel and crunch.

I fell to the ground knowing I could not place weight on it. Jessica turned around and saw my face. She says now that she was sure I’d broken it from the look I had. I think the look really was saying, “It’s over.  This little car rental trip to the Granf Canyon is over. No more hiking, and maybe even no more biking.”

I hobbled off the bus (already putting weight on it, good sign) because the driver was a bit annoying. We pulled my sock off and saw that getting me to a doctor was imperative. It was already swollen up to the size of a tennis ball.  So back on the bus we went for the over an hour ride back to our car and drove to the on site clinic.

The nurses and doctor were very friendly and had me get xrays.  Since thus trip really would have been over and done with if I had broken something, we didn’t argue. Thankfully, she didnt see any fracture or bone chips. So a brace and a cane later and I wad on my way out the door. Which incidentally on the way out the door, I spotted a coyote crossing the parking lot, so that was cool.

Also, side note… I just have to rant and praise Massachusetts and what is now being dubbed “Romneycare” for a second. Jessica and I are both covered by this plan while on the road and it was a great relief to know that the state is doing a little to cover us while on the road. I didnt have to pay a cent for the care I received in the clinic and am grateful for it. We both lok forward to returning to MA and working and paying taxes so that we can pay it forward for someone else who needs health care. If you don’t think a system like that could or should be nationwide, then you can leave now. We cannot sing its praises enough, and will never believe anything else.  Rant over.

It has been over a week and I have tried to stay off of my ankle as much as possible while also still enjoying Albuquerque and now a little bit of California in the two days we have been here, nut it is still pretty sore. I am not going to worry about it until it hasn’t healed a month from now. Patience on this matter, I think, is prudent. The swelling and bruising is clearing up well, so I do think it is on the mend, just not as fast as I had hoped. I will keep you posted as to how it is progessing. We are staying in Central CA for probably a week, so hopefully that will be long enough for it!

PS- I am giving my droid wordpress app a test as to how easy it is to post, so forgive any typos!

Is it significant that we’re two women planning this trip? (Part 2)

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Pet Projects. 6 Comments.

In the coming days after this “friend” propositioned me, I lost it. His words stung more than the actual assault did. Who was he to assume I would sleep with him? I had a breakdown and am even getting pretty emotional recounting it for you right now. I asked my parents for help finding a therapist and I started to work things out. My therapist was wonderful. She asked the questions I couldn’t ask myself. But it wasn’t until the following spring, laying in bed watching a re-run of that day’s Oprah (god knows why I chose to watch it that day since I’ve seen like 3 episodes ever). At the moment I tuned in, the singer P!nk was on and they were discussing her new song, Stupid Girls:

Can you answer the question P!nk posed to Oprah and the audience?

- Name five good role models for young women in the the public sphere right now? -
*Hint: P!nk isn’t really one of them despite her song Stupid Girls because of this.*

Later on in the episode, Oprah interviewed the author of the book Female Chauvinist Pigs. I picked up a copy in the following days and read the whole thing faster than I read most books (with the exception of the speed I read Harry Potter). It all began to click. Lightbulbs were continually floating above my head. I am not on this planet to pleasure men. I did not deserve to be treated with the disrespect those two men had treated me the previous summer. I needed to venture out and discover what I wanted from the world instead of what I could give. And discover I did.

I’m coming out today as a woman who has been the victim of the culture of misogyny. Just as the late, great Harvey Milk said that coming out as LGBT was the single most important move an LGBT person can make to help achieve true equality for all LGBT people, coming out as a woman who has been assaulted is, I believe, the single most important move any woman can make to gain true equality for women.

All of this also points to the significance of our being two women on the brink of a cross-country bike tour. Of all the people we follow on Twitter or Facebook, all of the people commenting on our site who have already (or soon will be) going on a bike tour of their own tend to either be male or have at least one male in their party. I’m not pointing this out to say this is a bad thing. Men should have adventures too! It’s just that our society praises men who venture out on their own, who make waves and are the lone ranger. Women who trail blaze are cold, heartless, bad mothers – or if they happen to break down publicly like Clinton did in New Hampshire, they are weak.

We all know better (or should). I’m certain we all see strong women in our own lives, women like my mother. We see men respecting women, men like my dad. But that doesn’t change the fact that in general, as a society, we do not support women in the same way we support men. Jessica and I are doing our tiny part to change this. We’re adding just a little bit of new feminism into the ether. No one can take this away from us. Even if we aren’t the only women out there launching a bike tour alone**, I would feel very, very proud to know we’re a part of something rare and empowering.

I am woman, hear me roar.

**We’ve only found a few examples so far. Loretta seems to be the leader in this. Bike Shop Girl seems to maybe leaning in that direction…

Is it significant that we’re two women planning this trip? (Part 1)

Monday, April 4th, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Pet Projects. No Comments.

I’m a pretty reflective person, always thinking about myself, my relationships and how I could be a better person.  This trait will likely make for some great documentary drama (see About Our Project for details).  It will hopefully mean I’ll become a better writer by sharing these feelings with you, our cyber readers.

These feelings were also vital when I needed to face some seriously heavy issues during college that have led me to the woman I am today.  But let’s start a little bit earlier in the personal history of Rachel Wiederhoeft.  I had the amazing benefit of being brought into the world by two amazing people.  While I don’t know everything about my mother’s life in high school and college and less about my dad’s (Yes, men can be feminists), it is crystal clear that they are both first wave feminists from that glorious era of the 1960s & 70s.  While my sister and I hated that our mom worked many evenings during our childhood leaving us to dad’s less than great dinners (sorry Dad), I know she wasn’t doing it because she wasn’t a good mother.  On the contrary, she set an example for us that proclaims, “I can have a family and a career and neither is more important.”  So basically, I have a proper foundation for being inclined towards women’s rights.

But then again, I grew up in a “post-feminist” era.  Something I’m sure every well-educated woman groans at, and after reading this article posted by an old high school friend on Facebook last week, is pretty clear we aren’t any closer to being post-feminist than we are being post-racist in America.  Only thing is, while most people can understand the absurdity of the post-racist argument, not many understand the silliness of a post-feminist one.  “It’s striking how little awareness people have of both the frequency of sexist discrimination against women, and also of the severity and sheer contempt for women that often come with it,” the author writes in the article.

Take for instance, Rebecca Traister’s book talk about Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign:

I forget at what minute Traister tells the viewer about how Clinton’s win in New Hampshire was the first time any women had ever won a national presidential primary. Did you know that?  I didn’t and felt like crap for not knowing it.  But I shouldn’t have felt like crap because I’m pretty well informed.  No journalist ever told me that fact.  No historian’s sound-byte stated this fact.  All the the media told anyone was about how Clinton had a public “breakdown.”

What I’m getting at here is that while I had a great example at home of a strong woman and a strong man who loved and supported said strong woman, I wasn’t being trained by the media to behave like a feminist.  My teachers weren’t teaching me anything about what it means to be a woman, and nor were all those magazines.  I know, I know, that’s the line used by everyone.  But it wasn’t until the summer between my second and third years in college (and then well into my third year) that I started to understand what all those images were saying to me, what all those romantic comedies were preaching, and that just because I wouldn’t let a guy hit me didn’t mean I was a strong woman.

In the summer that year I went to a guy’s place to watch a movie, and what started out as consensual play ended in assault.  Nothing violent, nothing physically painful but he never talked to me again (we were interning together) because I “didn’t give him what he wanted.”  I put this to the back of my mind.  I was strong enough to ignore this, right?  It wasn’t serious, not like some women who are beaten to a pulp and then raped, right?  Wrong.  I had been forced to join legions of women who had been subjected to the misogyny and violence of our culture. I just didn’t know it yet. Then, later on in the summer, another “friend” and I were walking home from a party.  He invited me over explicitly for sex and when I declined, he indignantly said, “Don’t you do that sort of thing?”

Stay tuned for part two later in the week…

I swear this is my LAST POST about vinegar!!!

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 Posted by Jessica. Published under DIY Sustainable Living, Holistic Care. No Comments.

Alright faithful readers, you’re probably really sick of hearing me blabber on about vinegar.  I’ve already written a post about how I use it as the best deodorant ever and I’ve written another post about some of the other awesome things you can do with vinegar.  But this next entry beats them all.  Why?  Because after over a decade of chronic sinus infections that lead me to depend on antibiotics, I’ve finally found a solution: apple cider vinegar.

There are now two ways in which I consume this health elixir. The first is at the first sign of a sinus infection. You know the symptoms: first you get a benign cold or just regular allergies.  Then your nose gets runny or stuffy or both, your ears feel swollen, and you have sinus pressure. When I start to feel this way, I immediately pour about a shot glass worth of apple cider vinegar in a giant glass of cold water and drink. It doesn’t taste very good, but it literally knocks all the sinus infection out of my body at a rate much faster than the most potent Mucinex.

The second is if the sinus infection has already started, I add the teensiest bit of apple cider vinegar to my sinus rinse solution (I’m talking like 1/8 of a teaspoon) and rinse twice a day with salt and warm water (read my post about how amazing sinus rinsing is here). My nose has never EVER felt more clear.

Doing these two steps has prevented me from going to the doctor for antibiotics on two separate occasions– they literally cured my sinus infection and relieved my symptoms much faster than antibiotics or over-the-counter cold/allergy medicine. How does it work? According to numerous web results, apple cider vinegar thins the body’s mucus immediately. This means it’s easier to get the infection out of your body.  Knowing what I already know about vinegar and its powerful antibacterial properties, it’s a no-brainer that flushing your germy, infected sinuses with it would help to kill much of the sinus infection bacteria ailing you.

Why apple cider vinegar and not just regular white vinegar?  To me, I think it’s because apple cider vinegar tastes a fair bit better than regular white vinegar.  However, according to this article, “the combination of fermented apples and vinegar creates the healthful properties of [apple cider vinegar]. Its acetic acid and ion-futynic lactic and propionic acid promotes a healthy immune system, which allows for quick recovery from colds and infections and can help prevent illnesses…Apple cider vinegar contains B complex, A, C, and E vitamins as well as, but not limited to, potassium, magnesium and calcium.”  So there you go.  Drink up.

Lessons of this year: Activists must stand united

Thursday, February 24th, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Pet Projects. 1 Comment.

In the past twelve months, I have become an active member both with JTIMA and more recently with my labor union at WGBH in Boston.  Every single day that I work with the members on both, seemingly separate, missions, I learn important lessons both about myself and about running grassroots campaigns.  The number one lesson, though, has been that both causes, LGBT equality and fair contracts for employees, really come down to one issue – the role of democracy and of the united voice.

The union, AEEF, under whom I work at WGBH, has had a fair and reasonable contract with management for nearly 40 years.  This past year, however, the upper management team decided to wipe away all that history, rewriting the contract from cover to cover.  Their first proposal took away all of our bargaining rights, which I didn’t understand the meaning of at first, but quickly learned really just meant the “employee voice.”

As a life-long LGBT activist, this tugged at my heartstrings.  Who were these few (quite well paid) people to say that we employees should trust in their judgment, hand over the keys to our benefits, and not question it?  My reaction was similar when Proposition 8 took away the rights of California citizens to marry a same-sex partner.  Who were those voters to say who LGBT citizens could or couldn’t marry?  In each case, it feels like the “superior” entity dictating to the “inferior” all terms and conditions under which life can and will be lived.

It has become abundantly clear to me, a person who wasn’t always so fervently pro-union, that the fight of LGBT citizens is not separate from any other fight and, in fact, should be supportive of each and every cause; be it union, immigration, education, etc.  I have come to this conclusion after newly defining, for myself, what the word democracy means.  Together we stand, united we fall (or as I learned at a labor rally today, “United we bargain, divided we beg”).  Each citizen has a voice and that voice must be heard.  The powerful, be they members of the conservative party who attempt to limit equal rights or managers striping away decades worth of hard earned job protections and benefits, will always attempt to grab more power; they will always attempt to stifle that voice.  United we must stand to keep the balance equal, to raise that voice decibels louder than it would be alone.

Finally, I have also learned that no right, fought for by our grandparents (for labor) or being fought by us today (for LGBT and now labor again), can be taken for granted.  In addition, if one group of citizens is stripped of their rights, how can we expect that our rights won’t be next?  How can we ask to them to stand with us if we did not stand with them?  Our adversaries also often are the same people.  Gov. Scott Walker is attempting to not only strip public labor unions of their bargaining rights, but also to strip LGBT protections from job security clauses.  This is a fight for us all.  We will find friends in our union brothers and sisters (or our immigration, education, etc brothers and sisters).

Announcing a new partnership: Against the Grind with College NewsNet International

Thursday, February 17th, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Pet Projects, Website Profiles. No Comments.

We are proud to announce today that Against the Grind is going to be partnering with College Newsnet International!  College Newsnet International (CNI) is a collaborative effort led by Jessica’s mentors, documentary filmmaker, journalist and educator, Mary Cardaras, and Dr. Robyn Goodman her journalism Professor at Alfred, meant to encourage student journalism that promotes the “freshest, purest voice  today in news.”

This partnership is something that Against the Grind (ATG) is proud to be a part of for many reasons.  Just as we all recently saw from our couches and desk chairs, revolutions have been drastically accelerated because of access to the internet, connectivity and the passion of the young.  Sixty-percent of Egyptians are under the age of 30, and history tells us that it is students who make the best leaders when change is demanded; from the students who integrated schools in the American South to the German students who rose up and faced the history of the Holocaust that their family members, political leaders and teachers had participated in.  The list goes on.

It is student voices which CNI will lift up through their new media newsroom, a website-based collection of excellent work from student journalists from around the globe.  It is a project free from corporate media or government-controlled media.  It is a new media platform “[promoting] excellence in journalism internationally by building [a] unique network” of reporting.

This cuts straight to the bone of the mission at ATG as well.  The Egyptians were no longer willing to let others dictate their lives, to be told their place, and to determine their destiny.  ATG believes that there is life outside of societal norms, outside of the expectations often placed on each of us at birth.  By teaming up with CNI, we will be promoting a space outside of mainstream media, integrating education and thorough, credible reporting of current issues and events; in essence, a life lived against the (daily) grind.

Jessica has the written skills and I have the video skills, making us a great team.  In addition, it’s been one of my goals to be a professor/teacher, especially on a topic I feel very passionately about.  We’ll be able to promote elements of our mission and the mission of CNI at the same time!

Finally, we would also like to announce that CNI, a non-profit, will be a sponsor.  Eventually it will have a 501(c)3 status, which means your donations will be tax deductible, and will support two exciting projects at once.

If you are a student and are interested in being a content contributor, signing up is easy!  If you would like to support the mission, donating is easy too!  And finally, please join the CNI Facebook page to support great student journalism!

Changes to the blog

Monday, February 7th, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Pet Projects. No Comments.

Dearest readers!  After some discussion this weekend, Jessica and I have decided to change how much we post each week.  When we began this project, we couldn’t have even remotely predicted how far and how successful it would be within the first six months.  Thank you for helping in that process.  In addition, blogging nearly every day gave us a lot of motivation and keyed us into what we needed to do in so many ways.

However, as we continue to grow Against the Grind, we are finding less and less time to blog.  As a result, we have decided to pull our blogging back to three days a week.  There is so much work to do – learning how to web design, expanding our social media presence, marketing our project(s), developing our film project and budget, grant writing, and physical training!

There are also more and more emotions to face as we prepare, suffer losses and experience joys.  These are the topics we will be writing about more and more.  We’ll still highlight gear and products we use, good or bad.  We’ll still highlight websites we enjoy and are learning from.  We’ll still talk about our preparations too.  And also usually near to the original days we have been writing on these topics, so tune in on those days of the week for your favorites.

We, of course, still want to hear from you as much as possible though!  We’re just changing our priorities to better use our time.  We’re still here and will be for the long run, we just need to concentrate on the larger project.

Happy Monday!

Finding inspiration in book talks

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Pet Projects. No Comments.

It’s just not happening today, folks, sorry.  I could write long sentences of musings over the emotions I’m feeling tonight, but there’s a meloncholy feeling in me today. (Maybe it’s the 4th impending snowstorm in 2 weeks…) However, I just don’t see the use in it tonight. I need a bit more positive fair to beat my winter blues. As a result, I’m just going to embed a few of my favorite lectures from my job at the Forum Network.  They inspire me to be a better person, a more engaged citizen and so I hope you enjoy.

Richard Wolffe tells some great stories and has some predictions about the future of the Obama Administration. Very entertaining!

Rebecca M. Jordan discusses her very interesting book about gender, sex and genetics.

Let’s not forget about the soldiers still fighting. And Junger’s film just got an Oscar nod for Best Documentary.

Website Profile: VegWeb.com

Monday, January 24th, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Recipes, Website Profiles. No Comments.

I have to admit, I’m a bit distracted whilst writing this sorry!  I’m assuming you’ve figured out, we write these the night before, and right now I’m riding on the Packers’ victory that got them into the Superbowl this year.

Anyway, what better than to write about a food/ recipe site?  Time to plan healthy Superbowl snacks!

Over the past year and a half, I’ve been getting acquainted with VegWeb.com.  I’ve mentioned them before on Against the Grind, in my seitan recipe.  This past 18 months has brought me many a good dinner when cooking based on their recipes.  While I’m not a vegan, I appreciate that most of their recipes are vegan because I don’t often keep meat or dairy in the house, making it much easier to make recipes quickly and without much planning ahead.

Their weekly emails highlight excellent recipes based around a theme, so if you’re looking to have suggestions come to you, sign up!

I’m also certain that since it’s clearly foodies who submit the recipes, that every strange type of food can be found in the database.  The only item I remember being disappointed with my search was kiwis, and that was really because I just didn’t want to come up with a drink.  I quickly discovered kiwi should not be put in anything except drinks though, so it was really my fault.

If I had to find one beef, it would be the simplicity of the site and how “non-food-porn” like it is.  But hey, if it keeps the site free and chock full of great recipes, then really, who am I to complain?

Happy eating!