Recently in Health Category
Today's blog entry is somewhat of a rant and has little to do with Madrid or with Spain - I hope.
DISCLAIMER: The following is not intended to generalize about all health clubs in Madrid or the exercise professionals working in them. It's only my personal experience with one gym in Madrid.
I like to go to the gym. Well, I don't LIKE to go but I know that if I don't I'll have more difficulty living daily life in the present AND in the future. I do it not because I love the pain, the heavy breathing, the constant sweating, the hot and humid locker rooms, the frequently empty toilet paper dispensers, and certainly not to look like many of the 20-somethings I see around me with their "fit and trim and hardly exercise to get that way".
I do it also to avoid - or to stave off - becoming overweight, which is a greater challenge with every passing year. I do like having visible muscles and a flat stomach but haven't had the latter for quite awhile now even though I only eat two meals a day. That is to say, I have bran cereal for breakfast, a big lunch, and only fruits and vegetables for dinner - and almost no snacks. So how is it possible that I DON'T have a flat stomach with this kind of diet and this amount of exercise?? Could it be genetics? Age? Or maybe the fact that apart form the gym I have a sedentary lifestyle, sitting most of the day in front of a computer. Well, I suppose all these things are factors in how we are. And it's funny - or not - that as my shoulders get broader, my chest wider, my arms and thighs bigger - but little of the fat is reduced. We all know that muscle weighs more than fat so..... instead of losing weight, I'm GAINING weight and my pants get tighter and tighter. It's not at all fair.
"The Population" at the gym is varied. You have your small, thin, petite girls. You have your 0% fat guys and lean muscles. You have your seriously overweight and desperate men and women. You have your older folks whom seem to spend more time talking and reading the sports newspaper than actually exercising. And you have your gym trainers.
Ahhh... the trainers. Of course, the trainers are there to help with your exercise form, help with the use of XYZ machines, and of course, to be personal, paid trainers for those who want personal assistance. I've been exercising all my life, off and on, and I'm amazed to watch some of the gym-goers exercising using such incredibly poor form - right in front of these supposed exercise professionals. The "clients" are going to fast or have their arms or seat in the wrong position and all the while the trainer is chit-chatting with the client about what they're going to do that upcoming weekend. I have only seen a few trainers actually stop at an exercise station and correct a person's form. There are few particular trainers whom always seem to be training the prettiest girls, never the old or the overweight, ONLY the pretty girls. And boy do these trainers take interest in them. They're all the while rubbing their shoulders, smiling, being charming, and doing very little "training". And the girls seem to like it too! No matter that the client is doing all the exercise in a nearly dangerous and harmful manner. And other trainers are like real gigolos - or so they believe themselves to be. When girls enter the gym the trainers always walk along side them, smiling, taking their arm or stroking their backs, doing things which would certainly get you arrested as sexual harassment in the United States. But again, the girls seem to like it. Or maybe they're afraid to say anything. Who knows.
When I exercise I do a kind of circuit training routine. For example, I will do one set of an upper-body exercise on MACHINE A, upon completion of that one set I get up and go to MACHINE B where I'll do one set of lower-body exercise, then immediately back to MACHINE A. I do this back and fourth, completing 4 sets on each machine - WITHOUT STOPPING. It's good upper and lower body exercise but also good aerobic exercise. After completing MACHINES A & B I'll take a very short 2 minute break to take a drink and wipe off the sweat from my face and then go to MACHINES C & D and do the same. This way I get double the exercise in the same amount of time and plus it's even better exercise. I leave the gym exhausted but feeling good.
The morning hours, until about 11am, is very very busy and all the machines are in use, causing long waits between machines. From 11am to 2pm it's not busy at all. But regardless of the hour, it's nearly inevitable that I have to wait for the machine to which I'm going to use because people see me leave MACHINE A and assume, correctly, that it's not in use. I snooze, I lose. But it never fails. While waiting to return to MACHINE A, I wait and wait and wait because the user is an older person who's in no hurry to finish with his/her exercises. Sometimes I think they just want to sit there and relax because there are no chairs in the gym. And you know you're in trouble when the person at the machine brings along a newspaper. WHO READS A NEWSPAPER WHILE EXERCISING???!! Answer: People not very serious about exercising. So there I am, standing behind the occupied machine while the person sitting there reads through an article about the latest Real Madrid soccer match, sometimes 5 to 7 minutes pass until they go back to their exercising. I know I'm within my rights to ask them if I can take a turn while they're waiting, and sometimes I do, but the answer is sometimes a gruff reply, upset I've disturbed their "resting station" while they "possess" this machine until they choose to leave it. So usually I don't ask and just wait. It's at these times when I fully understand why rock and movie stars have their own personal in-home gyms. ¡OJALA! But you can usually tell when a person will be more cheerful and more than willing to offer up the machine in between their sets. These people are usually more serious about their exercise and more mindful of others around them whom are "cooling down".
Do you ever get on a treadmill next to someone and 10-seconds later you think to yourself, "Man, this guy stinks!" and feel ashamed to immediately change to a treadmill further away because he'll somehow know?
I've even seen a few women with breast implants, but not too many. And when I say "breast implants" I don't mean these enormous pornstar-style breast implants (not that I've ever seen any, of course), but rather "average size" implants. One of these particular woman is one which proudly sunbathes topless in warmer weather. This same woman must have forgotten her gym shoes so she was doing all her exercise wearing high-heeled boots. It looked more funny than sexy as she strutted from one machine to another. I've never seen this particular woman crack a smile, she never talks to anyone and no one talks to her, she's very serious about her exercise.
(saving...writing more... about topless sunbathing, breast implants, and girls in the men's locker room - all the usual gym anecdotes, right?)
DISCLAIMER: The following is not intended to generalize about all health clubs in Madrid or the exercise professionals working in them. It's only my personal experience with one gym in Madrid.
I like to go to the gym. Well, I don't LIKE to go but I know that if I don't I'll have more difficulty living daily life in the present AND in the future. I do it not because I love the pain, the heavy breathing, the constant sweating, the hot and humid locker rooms, the frequently empty toilet paper dispensers, and certainly not to look like many of the 20-somethings I see around me with their "fit and trim and hardly exercise to get that way".
I do it also to avoid - or to stave off - becoming overweight, which is a greater challenge with every passing year. I do like having visible muscles and a flat stomach but haven't had the latter for quite awhile now even though I only eat two meals a day. That is to say, I have bran cereal for breakfast, a big lunch, and only fruits and vegetables for dinner - and almost no snacks. So how is it possible that I DON'T have a flat stomach with this kind of diet and this amount of exercise?? Could it be genetics? Age? Or maybe the fact that apart form the gym I have a sedentary lifestyle, sitting most of the day in front of a computer. Well, I suppose all these things are factors in how we are. And it's funny - or not - that as my shoulders get broader, my chest wider, my arms and thighs bigger - but little of the fat is reduced. We all know that muscle weighs more than fat so..... instead of losing weight, I'm GAINING weight and my pants get tighter and tighter. It's not at all fair.
"The Population" at the gym is varied. You have your small, thin, petite girls. You have your 0% fat guys and lean muscles. You have your seriously overweight and desperate men and women. You have your older folks whom seem to spend more time talking and reading the sports newspaper than actually exercising. And you have your gym trainers.
Ahhh... the trainers. Of course, the trainers are there to help with your exercise form, help with the use of XYZ machines, and of course, to be personal, paid trainers for those who want personal assistance. I've been exercising all my life, off and on, and I'm amazed to watch some of the gym-goers exercising using such incredibly poor form - right in front of these supposed exercise professionals. The "clients" are going to fast or have their arms or seat in the wrong position and all the while the trainer is chit-chatting with the client about what they're going to do that upcoming weekend. I have only seen a few trainers actually stop at an exercise station and correct a person's form. There are few particular trainers whom always seem to be training the prettiest girls, never the old or the overweight, ONLY the pretty girls. And boy do these trainers take interest in them. They're all the while rubbing their shoulders, smiling, being charming, and doing very little "training". And the girls seem to like it too! No matter that the client is doing all the exercise in a nearly dangerous and harmful manner. And other trainers are like real gigolos - or so they believe themselves to be. When girls enter the gym the trainers always walk along side them, smiling, taking their arm or stroking their backs, doing things which would certainly get you arrested as sexual harassment in the United States. But again, the girls seem to like it. Or maybe they're afraid to say anything. Who knows.
When I exercise I do a kind of circuit training routine. For example, I will do one set of an upper-body exercise on MACHINE A, upon completion of that one set I get up and go to MACHINE B where I'll do one set of lower-body exercise, then immediately back to MACHINE A. I do this back and fourth, completing 4 sets on each machine - WITHOUT STOPPING. It's good upper and lower body exercise but also good aerobic exercise. After completing MACHINES A & B I'll take a very short 2 minute break to take a drink and wipe off the sweat from my face and then go to MACHINES C & D and do the same. This way I get double the exercise in the same amount of time and plus it's even better exercise. I leave the gym exhausted but feeling good.
The morning hours, until about 11am, is very very busy and all the machines are in use, causing long waits between machines. From 11am to 2pm it's not busy at all. But regardless of the hour, it's nearly inevitable that I have to wait for the machine to which I'm going to use because people see me leave MACHINE A and assume, correctly, that it's not in use. I snooze, I lose. But it never fails. While waiting to return to MACHINE A, I wait and wait and wait because the user is an older person who's in no hurry to finish with his/her exercises. Sometimes I think they just want to sit there and relax because there are no chairs in the gym. And you know you're in trouble when the person at the machine brings along a newspaper. WHO READS A NEWSPAPER WHILE EXERCISING???!! Answer: People not very serious about exercising. So there I am, standing behind the occupied machine while the person sitting there reads through an article about the latest Real Madrid soccer match, sometimes 5 to 7 minutes pass until they go back to their exercising. I know I'm within my rights to ask them if I can take a turn while they're waiting, and sometimes I do, but the answer is sometimes a gruff reply, upset I've disturbed their "resting station" while they "possess" this machine until they choose to leave it. So usually I don't ask and just wait. It's at these times when I fully understand why rock and movie stars have their own personal in-home gyms. ¡OJALA! But you can usually tell when a person will be more cheerful and more than willing to offer up the machine in between their sets. These people are usually more serious about their exercise and more mindful of others around them whom are "cooling down".
Do you ever get on a treadmill next to someone and 10-seconds later you think to yourself, "Man, this guy stinks!" and feel ashamed to immediately change to a treadmill further away because he'll somehow know?
I've even seen a few women with breast implants, but not too many. And when I say "breast implants" I don't mean these enormous pornstar-style breast implants (not that I've ever seen any, of course), but rather "average size" implants. One of these particular woman is one which proudly sunbathes topless in warmer weather. This same woman must have forgotten her gym shoes so she was doing all her exercise wearing high-heeled boots. It looked more funny than sexy as she strutted from one machine to another. I've never seen this particular woman crack a smile, she never talks to anyone and no one talks to her, she's very serious about her exercise.
(saving...writing more... about topless sunbathing, breast implants, and girls in the men's locker room - all the usual gym anecdotes, right?)
To say I'm a FAN of olives and olive oil would be a gross understatement.
Olives and olive oil are part of a Mediterranean diet - and certainly are part of my daily diet. It's rare if I pass one day here in Spain without eating olives and often have a dish of them with my dinner or lunch or just for an afternoon or evening snack with a can of beer. Being offered a small plate of green olives in bars is always a very welcome free tapa.
Here at home I frequently make pasta or rice dishes and one of the most important ingredients is green olives. For these dishes I'll buy the small, sealed plastic bags of green manzanilla olives "Sin Hueso" - without pitts. These olives are always from the Seville area.
I also always keep a good supply of canned green olives stuffed with anchovies. What?! ANCHOVIES? That's disgusting, right?! RIGHT! They were disgusting the first, second, and even third time I tried them. After that, I was hooked. And I don't even like anchovies! In Spanish, they're called "Aceitunas Rellenas de Anchoa". Mmmmm.... SO delicious. And I can't think of a healthier snack!
Growing up in north central Ohio we usually had cans of California black/ripe olives in the cupboard and jars of green Spanish olives in the refrigerator. The latter were always stuffed with red pimento. Pimento? Yes, it's a kind of sweet red pepper cut, folded, and stuffed into the olive. But why were they always refrigerated after opening? Like so many food items in the USA, I guess, it carried the labeling, "REFRIGERATE AFTER OPENING". And like the green olives, the black olives were usually only eaten when added to salads or just on a relish tray for "picking".
Olive Oil. Now I put olive oil into everything including soup broth, pastas and rices, and use it when frying anything like eggs, meats, and broiling chicken and pork steaks. It's always applied to salads along with vinegar - the ONLY way make salad dressing in Spain.
We almost never had olive oil back home in Ohio. We always used vegetable oil for cooking and frying eggs and bottles of Thousand Island or Ranch dressing for our salads. I think we started having olive oil in the cupboard when I was in high school but it was used sparingly as it was so expensive.
It was after my first visit to Spain in 1995 when I began taking on a more Mediterranean Diet. And WHAT are the staples of a good Mediterranean Diet? That's easy. Olives and Olive Oil.
I first started buying olive oil in those little 12 ounce bottles at my local Kroger grocery store in Columbus, Ohio. I remember it was expensive and they only had two brands - and ALL of the brands were of ITALIAN olive oil. The was a default - and still is in the American Olive Oil Market. I guess it doesn't matter to anyone that 60+% of the "Italian" Olive Oil comes from SPANISH olives and then blended with local olive oil in order to put the "ITALIAN" on the label. THAT'S marketable. Imagine if they put bottles of SPANISH olive oil on the shelf next to the ITALIAN olive oil in your local supermarket. NO ONE would buy the Spanish one. Or would they?? Quick answer is NO. Read on, MacDuff!
It's my understanding that one of the reasons why the Spanish olive oil industry doesn't market its olive oil abroad is because of the long-term agreements they have with the Italian olive oil industry. The Italian industry is set throughout the world and, possibly, the Spanish olive oil industry find they make more money in selling directly to the Italians than the possibility/probability of losing money in marketing, unsold olive oil, and the like.
After a few visits to Spain and as I was in my self-prescribed-process of Spanish-izing myself for my hoped-for move to Spain, I found the local Latino Products supermarket was carrying Spanish Olive Oil AND Spanish Olives - both of the GOYA brand. They were expensive but I was just happy to be able to consume products from Spain. The delicious and popular anchovy-stuffed olives were a whopping $2,99 per can. OUCH! I'd buy 4 at a time and save them for a special evening when I'd have my weekly "Spanish Tapas at Home" dinner which usually consisted of cheese, the olives, a poorly made tortilla de patatas, some chorizo, baguette bread, and Spanish wine. I would even make flan for dessert.
Final thoughts: A number of NON-Europeans choose NOT to use olives or olive oil in their diets because they're high in fat. That's totally true. But don't forget that olives and olive oil has healing properties as well!
FYI: Right now I'm eating anchovy-stuffed green olives to inspire me for this blog entry. Mmm...
Olives and olive oil are part of a Mediterranean diet - and certainly are part of my daily diet. It's rare if I pass one day here in Spain without eating olives and often have a dish of them with my dinner or lunch or just for an afternoon or evening snack with a can of beer. Being offered a small plate of green olives in bars is always a very welcome free tapa.
Here at home I frequently make pasta or rice dishes and one of the most important ingredients is green olives. For these dishes I'll buy the small, sealed plastic bags of green manzanilla olives "Sin Hueso" - without pitts. These olives are always from the Seville area.
I also always keep a good supply of canned green olives stuffed with anchovies. What?! ANCHOVIES? That's disgusting, right?! RIGHT! They were disgusting the first, second, and even third time I tried them. After that, I was hooked. And I don't even like anchovies! In Spanish, they're called "Aceitunas Rellenas de Anchoa". Mmmmm.... SO delicious. And I can't think of a healthier snack!
Growing up in north central Ohio we usually had cans of California black/ripe olives in the cupboard and jars of green Spanish olives in the refrigerator. The latter were always stuffed with red pimento. Pimento? Yes, it's a kind of sweet red pepper cut, folded, and stuffed into the olive. But why were they always refrigerated after opening? Like so many food items in the USA, I guess, it carried the labeling, "REFRIGERATE AFTER OPENING". And like the green olives, the black olives were usually only eaten when added to salads or just on a relish tray for "picking".
Olive Oil. Now I put olive oil into everything including soup broth, pastas and rices, and use it when frying anything like eggs, meats, and broiling chicken and pork steaks. It's always applied to salads along with vinegar - the ONLY way make salad dressing in Spain.
We almost never had olive oil back home in Ohio. We always used vegetable oil for cooking and frying eggs and bottles of Thousand Island or Ranch dressing for our salads. I think we started having olive oil in the cupboard when I was in high school but it was used sparingly as it was so expensive.
It was after my first visit to Spain in 1995 when I began taking on a more Mediterranean Diet. And WHAT are the staples of a good Mediterranean Diet? That's easy. Olives and Olive Oil.
I first started buying olive oil in those little 12 ounce bottles at my local Kroger grocery store in Columbus, Ohio. I remember it was expensive and they only had two brands - and ALL of the brands were of ITALIAN olive oil. The was a default - and still is in the American Olive Oil Market. I guess it doesn't matter to anyone that 60+% of the "Italian" Olive Oil comes from SPANISH olives and then blended with local olive oil in order to put the "ITALIAN" on the label. THAT'S marketable. Imagine if they put bottles of SPANISH olive oil on the shelf next to the ITALIAN olive oil in your local supermarket. NO ONE would buy the Spanish one. Or would they?? Quick answer is NO. Read on, MacDuff!
It's my understanding that one of the reasons why the Spanish olive oil industry doesn't market its olive oil abroad is because of the long-term agreements they have with the Italian olive oil industry. The Italian industry is set throughout the world and, possibly, the Spanish olive oil industry find they make more money in selling directly to the Italians than the possibility/probability of losing money in marketing, unsold olive oil, and the like.
While Italy enjoys a reputation as the bottler of the world's best olive oils, too few Americans take note of the products' origins, said Jeffrey Shaw, marketing director of Foods From Spain. "Spain is the No. 1 world producer of olive oil ... And Italy is our best customer," Shaw said. About 60 percent of Spanish olive oil is exported to Italy, and much of it is used by Italian brands, he said. (2004 source)Since the Italian olive oil was the only and cheapest olive oil available - and STILL very expensive - and because I was using it in greater and greater quantities I started buying the large CANS of olive oil. It was cheaper to buy it in larger containers, maybe $30 per can, and still Italian. I'd always have to ask one of the clerks to take down one of the cans from on top of the display racks because NO ONE bought those. In my last few years before moving to Spain, my local Kroger supermarket started carrying olive oil from Spain and, unfortunately, the local latino market stopped carrying the Spanish olives. Oh well. Soon was I was to be IN Spain anyway.
After a few visits to Spain and as I was in my self-prescribed-process of Spanish-izing myself for my hoped-for move to Spain, I found the local Latino Products supermarket was carrying Spanish Olive Oil AND Spanish Olives - both of the GOYA brand. They were expensive but I was just happy to be able to consume products from Spain. The delicious and popular anchovy-stuffed olives were a whopping $2,99 per can. OUCH! I'd buy 4 at a time and save them for a special evening when I'd have my weekly "Spanish Tapas at Home" dinner which usually consisted of cheese, the olives, a poorly made tortilla de patatas, some chorizo, baguette bread, and Spanish wine. I would even make flan for dessert.
Final thoughts: A number of NON-Europeans choose NOT to use olives or olive oil in their diets because they're high in fat. That's totally true. But don't forget that olives and olive oil has healing properties as well!
The beneficial health effects of olive oil are due to both its high content of monounsaturated fatty acids and its high content of antioxidative substances. Studies have shown that olive oil offers protection against heart disease by controlling LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels while raising HDL (the "good" cholesterol) levels. (1-3) No other naturally produced oil has as large an amount of monounsaturated as olive oil -mainly oleic acid.
Olive oil is very well tolerated by the stomach. In fact, olive oil's protective function has a beneficial effect on ulcers and gastritis. Olive oil activates the secretion of bile and pancreatic hormones much more naturally than prescribed drugs. Consequently, it lowers the incidence of gallstone formation. (source: HealingDaily.com)
FYI: Right now I'm eating anchovy-stuffed green olives to inspire me for this blog entry. Mmm...
The last several days I've been a pain in the neck - to myself!
Sunday night, a few hours after returning from Porto, Portugal I was washing up for bed, tilted my head back, and POW! A shooting pain went through my neck. It was as if I'd been stabbed with an icepick.
That night I didn't sleep much as you can imagine, every change in position made me moan in agonizing pain. Man, that was bad. Day by day it got a little better but still decided to keep a Wednesday noon appointment at the local physical therapy center. It was worth a try. I went, paid my 33€ for the hour-long painless massage, and left feeling exactly as I did when I arrived. The therapist offered no suggestion or recommendation as to the possible problem; a pinched nerve, a muscle strain, or a mental condition. hehehe...
Now, Thursday afternoon, I feel a little better but haven't had the "ganas" to go back to the gym - although I could - and should. Maybe tomorrow morning if I feel just a little bit better. At least now I can almost turn my head to the points of my shoulders before feeling any pain. Someone suggested I go instead of a chiropractor but the whole concept scares me. I thought a neck massage was going to be painful but it wasn't. I can almost guarantee a torturous experience at a chiropractor! But maybe that's what I need.
My my subconscious was hoping to ease my neck pain a bit because I stopped in 3 neighborhood bars for a caña and free tapa before lunch on my way home. One of these three bars gave me TWO free tapas; one plate of olives and a 2 croquetas. The second bar gave two peel-and-eat shrimps. And the third bar gave two potato halves covered in bravas sauce. Mmmm... Each of the three bars charged just 1.10€ for the glass of beer. A good price. Two of these three bars were new to me and I'd always wanted to stop in and see how they were from inside. As expected, they were typically old fashioned (1970s style). Few people were inside due to the lunch hour and thought I'd take the opportunity. So to pass the time I sat at the bar with my beer and tapa and grabbed the nearby AS or MARCA sports newspapers - but they're mainly soccer newspapers - which are always lying around in these bars. You rarely get a daily news newspaper, just sports.
Afterwards, back home, already feeling sleepy, and make a light lunch and lay down on the sofa for a short siesta. Nice. This is the life.
Sunday night, a few hours after returning from Porto, Portugal I was washing up for bed, tilted my head back, and POW! A shooting pain went through my neck. It was as if I'd been stabbed with an icepick.
That night I didn't sleep much as you can imagine, every change in position made me moan in agonizing pain. Man, that was bad. Day by day it got a little better but still decided to keep a Wednesday noon appointment at the local physical therapy center. It was worth a try. I went, paid my 33€ for the hour-long painless massage, and left feeling exactly as I did when I arrived. The therapist offered no suggestion or recommendation as to the possible problem; a pinched nerve, a muscle strain, or a mental condition. hehehe...
Now, Thursday afternoon, I feel a little better but haven't had the "ganas" to go back to the gym - although I could - and should. Maybe tomorrow morning if I feel just a little bit better. At least now I can almost turn my head to the points of my shoulders before feeling any pain. Someone suggested I go instead of a chiropractor but the whole concept scares me. I thought a neck massage was going to be painful but it wasn't. I can almost guarantee a torturous experience at a chiropractor! But maybe that's what I need.
My my subconscious was hoping to ease my neck pain a bit because I stopped in 3 neighborhood bars for a caña and free tapa before lunch on my way home. One of these three bars gave me TWO free tapas; one plate of olives and a 2 croquetas. The second bar gave two peel-and-eat shrimps. And the third bar gave two potato halves covered in bravas sauce. Mmmm... Each of the three bars charged just 1.10€ for the glass of beer. A good price. Two of these three bars were new to me and I'd always wanted to stop in and see how they were from inside. As expected, they were typically old fashioned (1970s style). Few people were inside due to the lunch hour and thought I'd take the opportunity. So to pass the time I sat at the bar with my beer and tapa and grabbed the nearby AS or MARCA sports newspapers - but they're mainly soccer newspapers - which are always lying around in these bars. You rarely get a daily news newspaper, just sports.
Afterwards, back home, already feeling sleepy, and make a light lunch and lay down on the sofa for a short siesta. Nice. This is the life.
Statement made.
Self-indulgent title, I know. But I can dream, can't I?? Let me explain...
I'm NOT a "hot body" as in "I have Brad-Pitt-Abs-Of-Steele", GQ cover model material, or even MUSCLE MAGAZINE material. FAR FROM IT! (but I'm working on that too - why do you think I go to the gym everyday? Sometimes I ask myself that same question. If it weren't for the view .... But I digress)
By "hot body" I mean I have an unusually high skin-surface temperature. First, I hate summertime temperatures because I sweat like crazy, like no other human I've seen - with a few rare, sad exceptions. Shorts and sandals are my summer friends, making the temps bearable. At least it's a dry heat, right? Hmph. Yes, that helps but I still have sweat dripping off my nose in August when going up 4-flights of stairs, carrying 6 bags of groceries.
When late September, early October comes I'm in an uncomfortable state. Here we are now, Autumn, and some days are still hot. BUT IT'S AUTUMN! It's no longer socially acceptable to wear shorts. And some people on the bus and metro are wearing winter coats, scarves, and nary a shine on their foreheads. How do they do it?? It's like they turn the page on the calendar and change not only their wardrobes but also their body chemistry!!
Yesterday was a pleasant day in Madrid - for standing still. Perfect temperature and rained in the morning and later in the evening. Once active, my body temperature goes into hyperdrive. Walk a block and I sweat. Go up a flight of stairs and I sweat. I know. I know. "Why is he admitting to all this stuff?"
I was on the hot metro, standing. Seated next to me was a 20-something woman who'd obviously just gotten back from the airport, pulling luggage with an Air France tag, she was wearing a buttoned WOOL coat, scarf, long pants, and I couldn't help but notice her skin was perfectly dry. There must be something special about the Spanish biology which I'd love to be able to adopt, adapt, take as my own. But I can't. I was there in my jeans, SHORT sleeve shirt, shoes, and sweating like no one else on the metro. I'm sure the other riders were looking at me thinking, "Look at that guy dressed in "summer clothes", no jacket, and sweating! He must be on drugs!!" Yeah. Right. Me, on drugs. That'll be the day.
At least when I go to/from the gym I'm carrying my gym bag so I can at least pass for someone going to/from the gym!!! But still, when I leave the house wearing my shorts, going to the gym, I still get odd looks from the cold-weather-wearing pedestrians.
My blessed discovery this past less-than-usual hot summer was a pair of LINEN pants which I'd bought at El Corte Inglés. Wow. Those things were fresh! Light, airy, and almost better than wearing shorts when going out to dinner, flamenco shows, or meeting friends for nighttime tapas. Okay, often if the occasion was casual I'd still wear my shorts, but sometimes we'd go into a bar and I'd feel very self-conscious. But at least I was comfortable, right? Those linen pants were life savers. No wonder so many Spaniards wear them in summer.
Late autumn and winter are my best friends here in Spain. I love the cooler temperatures. But even with that I'm often seen wearing short sleeves and light jackets. Nothing worse than wearing long sleeves, sweaters, and all that winterwear and going into a hot restaurant and not being able to strip down - and start sweating. For goodnesss sakes! It's winter! HOW can you be sweating. Must be a law against that. Arrest me. I'm off to jail. Taken away for sweating without a license. Never to be paroled until the world freezes over. And they say Madrid will likely be 5ºC WARMER in 50 years. Ugh. Great. I can't wait. Maybe streaking will be legal by then.
Self-indulgent title, I know. But I can dream, can't I?? Let me explain...
I'm NOT a "hot body" as in "I have Brad-Pitt-Abs-Of-Steele", GQ cover model material, or even MUSCLE MAGAZINE material. FAR FROM IT! (but I'm working on that too - why do you think I go to the gym everyday? Sometimes I ask myself that same question. If it weren't for the view .... But I digress)
By "hot body" I mean I have an unusually high skin-surface temperature. First, I hate summertime temperatures because I sweat like crazy, like no other human I've seen - with a few rare, sad exceptions. Shorts and sandals are my summer friends, making the temps bearable. At least it's a dry heat, right? Hmph. Yes, that helps but I still have sweat dripping off my nose in August when going up 4-flights of stairs, carrying 6 bags of groceries.
When late September, early October comes I'm in an uncomfortable state. Here we are now, Autumn, and some days are still hot. BUT IT'S AUTUMN! It's no longer socially acceptable to wear shorts. And some people on the bus and metro are wearing winter coats, scarves, and nary a shine on their foreheads. How do they do it?? It's like they turn the page on the calendar and change not only their wardrobes but also their body chemistry!!
Yesterday was a pleasant day in Madrid - for standing still. Perfect temperature and rained in the morning and later in the evening. Once active, my body temperature goes into hyperdrive. Walk a block and I sweat. Go up a flight of stairs and I sweat. I know. I know. "Why is he admitting to all this stuff?"
I was on the hot metro, standing. Seated next to me was a 20-something woman who'd obviously just gotten back from the airport, pulling luggage with an Air France tag, she was wearing a buttoned WOOL coat, scarf, long pants, and I couldn't help but notice her skin was perfectly dry. There must be something special about the Spanish biology which I'd love to be able to adopt, adapt, take as my own. But I can't. I was there in my jeans, SHORT sleeve shirt, shoes, and sweating like no one else on the metro. I'm sure the other riders were looking at me thinking, "Look at that guy dressed in "summer clothes", no jacket, and sweating! He must be on drugs!!" Yeah. Right. Me, on drugs. That'll be the day.
At least when I go to/from the gym I'm carrying my gym bag so I can at least pass for someone going to/from the gym!!! But still, when I leave the house wearing my shorts, going to the gym, I still get odd looks from the cold-weather-wearing pedestrians.
My blessed discovery this past less-than-usual hot summer was a pair of LINEN pants which I'd bought at El Corte Inglés. Wow. Those things were fresh! Light, airy, and almost better than wearing shorts when going out to dinner, flamenco shows, or meeting friends for nighttime tapas. Okay, often if the occasion was casual I'd still wear my shorts, but sometimes we'd go into a bar and I'd feel very self-conscious. But at least I was comfortable, right? Those linen pants were life savers. No wonder so many Spaniards wear them in summer.
Late autumn and winter are my best friends here in Spain. I love the cooler temperatures. But even with that I'm often seen wearing short sleeves and light jackets. Nothing worse than wearing long sleeves, sweaters, and all that winterwear and going into a hot restaurant and not being able to strip down - and start sweating. For goodnesss sakes! It's winter! HOW can you be sweating. Must be a law against that. Arrest me. I'm off to jail. Taken away for sweating without a license. Never to be paroled until the world freezes over. And they say Madrid will likely be 5ºC WARMER in 50 years. Ugh. Great. I can't wait. Maybe streaking will be legal by then.
For customer service, Spanish pharmacies are near the top!
Unlike in the USA, when you want to buy something like Alka-Seltzer, diarrhea medicine, ASPIRIN, or condoms, you MUST go to the pharmacy. For Spaniards, this is a common fact of life. For Americans, we say, "WHAT?! I have to ask a pharmacist for CONDOMS?!" or "WHAT?! I have to admit to the pharmacist that I have diarrhea?!" or "WHAT?! I have to pay 4 Euros for a pack of 20 aspirins??????!!!"
All these things for Americans is, to say the least, unusual and uncomfortable. We can semi-secretly put boxes of condoms and diarrhea medicine under our arms and face the teenager cashier at any grocery store, convenient start, or drug-store-super-store and we don't have to ask anyone to buy them. Walk up, take it off the hook, and carry it directly to the cash register.
We're also NOT accustomed to paying such prices for aspirin! This, for me, is the most shocking thing. We in the USA (can) pay about $1.50 for a bottle of 100+ aspirin! This is something so common! And store-brand Alka-Seltzer can cost $.200 for a box of 50. So what do I do, I stock up on all these things when I go to the USA and bring them back to Spain with me so I don't have to pay such prices or face such embarrassment at the pharmacies here in Spain.
All that said, wow, I'm beyond impressed with the professionalism of the pharmacies here. These people not only know their stuff (as any self-respecting pharmacist would), but they also take their take to understand your problem. They really tend to treat you like family, always very friendly, always very helpful.
And while the aspirin might be expensive the prescription drugs are DIRT-CHEAP!! WOW! There is one prescription I had filled for the last 10 years in the USA - nothing REALLY necessary but helpful - which cost me $20-per-unit. Here, it costs me 2.40€!!!! This fact reminds me of a number of scenes in the Michael Moore movie SICKO where he goes to Canada, England, and France and asks the people how much they pay for their prescription drugs - and the answer is always the same - IT'S CHEAP compared to the USA.
Don't get me started on the US Healthcare System but let me say this, when I go to the doctor I first ask for an appointment. When I show up for my appointment the doctor calls out 5 people's name for my particular time-slot and we take turns depending on the order of the names called. I've never waited more than 20 minutes for my name to be called and the care has always been professional.
Back to pharmacies: they do observe siesta-hours. But there is always a 24-hour pharmacy available in nearly every neighborhood for emergencies. And I've never walked away from a pharmacy without them giving me some kind of little freebie like a box of sugar-free throat lozenges, a pack of facial tissues, or something like that. What a nice detail which costs them little and strengthens the pharmacist-patient bond. Children always get sugar-free suckers too.
I've gone to a couple different pharmacies here in the neighborhood and so they know me by my face and my nationality. As I've said before, I'm CLEARLY the only United Statesen in THIS neighborhood. They always treat me so nicely, very friendly, asking about me and when I've visited home last, telling about how their daughter is now studying English or recently visited England or Boston.
I think Pharmacies are very similar across Europe so I doubt someone from Sweden would be surprised about what I'm writing because "that's the way it is". But for an American it's a true experience.
By the way, I'd imagine one could also buy condoms in a Sex Shop in Madrid, for example, but... I don't think I'm ready for that - YET.
Saludos, MadridMan
Unlike in the USA, when you want to buy something like Alka-Seltzer, diarrhea medicine, ASPIRIN, or condoms, you MUST go to the pharmacy. For Spaniards, this is a common fact of life. For Americans, we say, "WHAT?! I have to ask a pharmacist for CONDOMS?!" or "WHAT?! I have to admit to the pharmacist that I have diarrhea?!" or "WHAT?! I have to pay 4 Euros for a pack of 20 aspirins??????!!!"
All these things for Americans is, to say the least, unusual and uncomfortable. We can semi-secretly put boxes of condoms and diarrhea medicine under our arms and face the teenager cashier at any grocery store, convenient start, or drug-store-super-store and we don't have to ask anyone to buy them. Walk up, take it off the hook, and carry it directly to the cash register.
We're also NOT accustomed to paying such prices for aspirin! This, for me, is the most shocking thing. We in the USA (can) pay about $1.50 for a bottle of 100+ aspirin! This is something so common! And store-brand Alka-Seltzer can cost $.200 for a box of 50. So what do I do, I stock up on all these things when I go to the USA and bring them back to Spain with me so I don't have to pay such prices or face such embarrassment at the pharmacies here in Spain.
All that said, wow, I'm beyond impressed with the professionalism of the pharmacies here. These people not only know their stuff (as any self-respecting pharmacist would), but they also take their take to understand your problem. They really tend to treat you like family, always very friendly, always very helpful.
And while the aspirin might be expensive the prescription drugs are DIRT-CHEAP!! WOW! There is one prescription I had filled for the last 10 years in the USA - nothing REALLY necessary but helpful - which cost me $20-per-unit. Here, it costs me 2.40€!!!! This fact reminds me of a number of scenes in the Michael Moore movie SICKO where he goes to Canada, England, and France and asks the people how much they pay for their prescription drugs - and the answer is always the same - IT'S CHEAP compared to the USA.
Don't get me started on the US Healthcare System but let me say this, when I go to the doctor I first ask for an appointment. When I show up for my appointment the doctor calls out 5 people's name for my particular time-slot and we take turns depending on the order of the names called. I've never waited more than 20 minutes for my name to be called and the care has always been professional.
Back to pharmacies: they do observe siesta-hours. But there is always a 24-hour pharmacy available in nearly every neighborhood for emergencies. And I've never walked away from a pharmacy without them giving me some kind of little freebie like a box of sugar-free throat lozenges, a pack of facial tissues, or something like that. What a nice detail which costs them little and strengthens the pharmacist-patient bond. Children always get sugar-free suckers too.
I've gone to a couple different pharmacies here in the neighborhood and so they know me by my face and my nationality. As I've said before, I'm CLEARLY the only United Statesen in THIS neighborhood. They always treat me so nicely, very friendly, asking about me and when I've visited home last, telling about how their daughter is now studying English or recently visited England or Boston.
I think Pharmacies are very similar across Europe so I doubt someone from Sweden would be surprised about what I'm writing because "that's the way it is". But for an American it's a true experience.
By the way, I'd imagine one could also buy condoms in a Sex Shop in Madrid, for example, but... I don't think I'm ready for that - YET.
Saludos, MadridMan
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