Bag lunches, scraping your knees, baseball caps and a Popsicle at the end of the week remind most people of the good old days of summer. Takoma SportsCamps likes to pride itself on providing the same type of old fashioned summer fun that kids get so rarely these days.
It is the inevitable dinnertime battle. The child has perfectly executed the evasive maneuvers. The fork has dragged, scraped and rearranged every item on the plate. Just when victory seems certain, an observant adult utters the most dreaded phrase of childhood: “Eat your vegetables.”
Getting a child to eat healthily can require coaxing, threats or bribery. This summer, professional chef Monica Corrado and musician Rachel Cross have a different approach. The two friends have partnered to create an interactive culinary camp that teaches kids to both cook and enjoy nutritious foods.
Kettlebells take strength training back to the basics
story and photos by Eric Bond
Michael Belan stands with his feet at shoulder width. He folds himself back into a squat and leans forward to grasp a handle attached to a 53 lb. cast iron ball. He swiftly “hikes” the weight between his legs and lets it swing forward as he snaps up. Then drops back into a squat and repeats the motion ten times, with the efficiency of a machine.
“That’s 60 percent of your fitness,” says Belan after he has placed the kettlebell back in front of himself.
Protecting J.J., the 4-month-old son of Shawna Bader-Blau, is time-consuming, what with checking labels, reading safety information, buying chemical-free baby wipes and finding phthalate-free baby bottles.
“There are so many recalls, they just make you scared of everything,” said Bader-Blau.
On March 12, the Silver Spring mom attended the release of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics’ report on children’s bath products to see if she has anything new to worry about. The group’s report showed that 61 percent of baby products tested were contaminated with the cancer-causing chemicals formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane.
Shawna Bader-Blau of Silver Spring, and her 4-month-old son, J.J., came to the release of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics report to learn about children’s bath product safety.
When a police officer asked her what she was doing behind a van in the park, Pamela Hughes told him the honest truth.
“I said I was smoking a cannabis cigarette,” she said.
She presented the stunned policeman with a written recommendation from her doctor and a copy of Maryland’s “Compassionate Use Act,” which reduces the penalties for possession of medical marijuana.
“I honestly thought that I wasn’t breaking the law,” Hughes said.
Rather than take her word for it, the officer called for backup that included a canine unit, she said.
One of my favorite things to do in the early spring is walking about in my small garden and wishing the early plant arrivals welcome and I do it almost every day. The snowdrops make a very early entrance, generally by the end of February soon to be followed by the crocuses, daffodils and more. On the culinary front, by the end of March the chives are coming up and the nettle is leafing out. In fact if the temperature didn’t drop too low in the winter, the nettle would grow all year, low to the ground, but grow.
On September 28, at the Rock Creek Sports Club in Silver Spring, many gym patrons were breaking a sweat not just to benefit their health, but also for the love of a 16- month-old boy named Demitrius Behram-Farley, and his mother, Jillian.
Kirsten Shippy (left) of Kirsten’s Cafe and the Red Dog Cafe donated refreshments to The Work Out for Demitry, and Rachel Posell (right) is the local trainer who organized the event.
The season for growing and harvesting is coming to a close, but there are still a few things to be had in the wild or in your garden that can be used for food, such as Day Lily tubers, violets, lambs quarters, elderberries, oak nuts, hickory nuts, mushrooms.
While many will be trying to avoid the heat this summer, yoga students at the new Bikram Yoga studio at 7324 Carroll Avenue in Takoma Junction will be embracing it. Under the direction of instructor Stephen Pleasant, students will learn the 26 Bikram yoga poses while the room is heated to a temperature approaching 105 degrees.
It’s an all too familiar scenario these days. Your child needs a school physical by Monday in order to play sports and surprise, they tell you about it today. Perhaps you need to get your blood pressure or cholesterol levels checked regularly, but it’s not always convenient to see your physician during her scheduled office hours.
Potomac Athletic Club teaches teamwork through rugby
by Michael Frost
Rugby usually brings to mind rough-and-tumble alpha-males sporting the occasional cauliflower ear, so it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that it’s becoming a popular sport for boys and girls as young as 5. At the Potomac Athletic Club Youth Rugby Program of Silver Spring, however, it has clearly become just that.
My interest in wild edible plants was rekindled a number of years ago. As an herbalist, I had for years grown my own herbs but not seriously thought about weeds as food. I had, however, fond memories of going with my parents in the fall when they collected large quantities of mushrooms and wild berries, most to be prepared for winter use. These were free for the picking in the extensive State forests outside Oslo, Norway. What wonderful outings they were.
Roda movement studio brings Latino energy to Takoma Park
by Adriane Watson
When Roberto Tapia began thinking about opening a dance studio, he went back to his roots for inspiration. He grew up immersed in the cultures of Mexico and Chile, and discovered capoeira when he traveled to Brazil at 18. He began studying it in 1996 and received his professor status in 2006, just one year after moving to the United States.
Roberto Tapia grew up listening and moving to Latin rhthyms and began studying capoeira more than 10 years ago. His new Takoma Park studio, Roda, offers classes in Brazilian-Latino movement.
A “Biking Beltway” connecting Sligo, Anacostia, and Crescent trails will offer a healthy alternative for commuting and recreation
by Jim Connolly
Just imagine stepping outside your home on a sunny morning in spring, summer, or fall, and heading south on our lovely Sligo Creek bike/hiker trail and joining the Anacostia trail. Picture riding all the way down to the National Mall, hooking up to the Crescent Trail along the Potomac, and eventually — 40 miles and several glorious hours later — arriving back home.
Takoma Park and Silver Spring residents have a wonderful water recreation resource just a 30-45 minute bike ride away. The Bladensburg Waterfront Park and Marina is a recently revitalized river park along the Anacostia, just south of where the Northeast and Northwest branches converge.
Planning is underway for a trail linking Anacostia Tributary Trail Bladensburg Waterfront Park (above) and Sligo Creek Park, providing a seamless bicycle route between Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and the National Mall.
Ahhh, springtime is here…we can feel it in the air! Around Takoma Park and Silver Spring, you can even see it in the air—the pollen, that is! The change in seasons from winter to spring brings with it rising temperatures, new buds on trees, chirping birds, and longer days. Ironically, as these longer days call us to get outside and enjoy the turn of seasons, the daylight and warmth also bring some of us overwhelming levels of pollen that can put our immune systems into overdrive and leave us teary-eyed, itching, and sneezing.
At a time when studies show there’s a definitive link between belly fat and early onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s, maybe a walk in the woods would start us on the way to a healthier lifestyle – and clear the mind!
I committed myself to a three-day, 40-mile hike with my 25-year-old son Ben, along the Appalachian Trail.
Summiting Everest? No, my son and I set off on the Appalachian Trail at High Rock, Quirauk Mountain—a jumping off place for hang gliders. We mistakenly headed north after this shot (instead of south) and then had to climb back up and go south.
Shannon Feaster makes Silver Spring her home court
by Lauren Williams
Ever since Shannon Feaster was six and able to hold a racquet, she has been engulfed in the game of racquetball. Even when she was younger she would accompany her father, Kenneth, to the local gym in her Louisiana hometown and sit in the corner, fascinated, while he practiced.
It’s the time of year when the pills and powders, gyms, shopping channels and infomercials are promising that for just a few easy payments, they can deliver a “Happy New You.”
But, whether your goal is to drop a few (or a lot of) pounds, or just to create a fitness routine and eating habits that you can succeed with, health and fitness professionals agree that stitching together one small change after another is better than diving headlong into the diet of the year or leaping into an intense exercise program all at once.
Local author shines a light on movement to transform eldercare
By Bruce Johansen
List the ten things in your home that you value most, then cross out each item you’d be forced to part with if you were moving to a traditional nursing home.
Longtime Takoma Park resident Beth Baker was introduced to this powerful exercise while doing research for her new book, “Old Age in a New Age: The Promise of Transformative Nursing Homes.” The freelance journalist found herself crossing off all ten items on her list. “The last one was my dog Ella, and I got all choked up.”
