Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

Sunday morning, oatmeal before Nia class. Had lots of energy for class, but my voice seemed tired. After class, I made a vegetable cinnamon curry with sliced carrots, diced cauliflower and wilted spinach and the rest of the sliced flank steak. When I was about to leave for the matinee, I knew I was going to need more food, so I made a snack of walnuts, cucumbers and dulse.  During the show, of course, I had those three or four peanuts and a glass of grape juice posing as wine. Immediately after the show I drank a glass of chia seed gel so that my stomach wouldn’t be full, but I’d have energy for the upcoming workout. While I was doing my workout, My goal was consciously going as fast I could without losing control or neglecting my conscious alignment. I was working hard yesterday on getting all the moves ergonomically correct, and today was about blasting them out.  It turned out that, my focus on keeping my neck aligned and my upper back relaxed was really taking a lot of the...

I woke up this morning and my body was pretty achy.  I’m performing in a show called Dancing Fools, which requires me to do some pretty physical stuff.  I think the show has a lot to do with the resurgence of my latent shoulder problems. As I mentioned, I’ve been seeing my mentor, Body Tuner Shmuel Tatz for a couple of treatments so far and the experience has been quite enlightening.  I’ve blogged about it here. I started off my Cheat day with a cherry scone from Amy’s Bread.  That and my morning coffee were all I used as fuel for my workout. I was scheduled for a ten am work out, and I didn’t want to cancel, or be late, because my friend was expecting me at that time.  Making the appointment was a great idea, too, because once Saturday morning rolled around, I wasn’t in the mood to work out. I kept my appointment and dragged myself to his house. When I got there, I started by rolling out my neck and upper back with my Therapy Balls .  This was such a rel...

Today I had a session with Shmuel Tatz.  I’ve been observing him tuning bodies for about four months now, and I finally get a turn. My shoulder had begun bothering me again, for the first time since I originally recovered from the January 2009 injury.  I was in pain for a good six to eight months and then, by late 2009 I finally found the pain was gone and I was ready to start rebuilding my strength.  It has been going very well, and I’m getting my strength back in the right side of my torso.  But here we are, two years later, and I suddenly felt like my body needed more tuning. Once I got on the table, it didn’t take Dr Tatz long to find the locations in my shoulder that were most painful.  I’m quite sure that he simply puts his hands on a body and listens.  Then the body will tell him exactly what it wants.  He worked a bit on the back of my right shoulder before he passed me off to one of his assistants.  Viktor is a big strong Russian massage ...

This morning, all I had for breakfast was a bowl of oatmeal with a handful of goji berries. But this clearly wasn’t enough because by noon I was famished.  Usually I don’t feel hungry again for another hour or so.  Mental note: Bigger Breakfast is Better. So I made myself a pork chop with roasted carrots and fennel on a bed of raw baby spinach drizzled with olive oil and salt.  About an hour later, I felt like I needed a little something more so I grabbed two handfuls of trail mix with raw nuts and seeds, dried apples, dates and raisins.  Around four pm I did an extended Flow with a focus on postural restructuring, and I heated up some of my chicken breast in peanut curry and served it on a bed of olive oil drizzled baby spinach. I had a tuna nicoise salad around 7pm. This was on Romaine lettuce with hard boiled egg, tomato, red bell peppers, olives and, of course, tuna.  With a vinaigrette dressing. Then, as always on night that I’m performing, I had a few pean...

For breakfast this morning, I cut up half a cantaloupe and had it with a bowl of oatmeal with goji berries and two slices of nitrate and preservative free, uncured turkey bacon from Applegate Organics. This is much healthier alternative to standard bacon which is heavily salted and cured with chemicals and a hefty dose of preservatives. This kept me satisfied all day, until I got home and had lunch around two pm. I had an apple with peanut butter on it, and a handful of almonds and a chicken breast leftover from the other night.  For dinner, I made a big flank steak which I had a few slices of with a half of a steamed butternut squash and sliced avocado. Then, later, after my show, I had a bowl of Navy Bean soup and a stalk of celery with some avocado/spinach dip. And a bowl of yogurt and a handful of almonds. My shoulder is still on the mend. I did my yoga flow today and I’ll do it again tomorrow. I’ll do a bit of a longer flow and amp the intensity up just slightly.  Then, ...

Last night I saw The King’s Speech and was struck by how methods of the speech therapist, Lionel, was so much like Body Tuning.  Even some of the movements he had Bertie do were reminiscent of what might go on in a Body Tuning session. Now, if you haven’t seen The King’s Speech, this is a spoiler alert. I might be saying some things here that are revealed later on in the film for dramatic effect, and you may want to wait and see the film before reading this. That being said, I was especially struck when Lionel was going to be fired because it was discovered that he didn’t have a PhD. He had never represented himself as a doctor, and yet he was the only one who had been able to help the Duke.  But despite his successful track record, he was about to be fired due to lack of ‘credentials.’ It’s such a shame that people value institutional learning so blindly that they are unable to see that the man knew what he was doing. They refused to work with him because he wasn’t part of “t...

Even though my shoulder feels MUCH better this morning, I’m still going to skip my intense workout today. I’m sort of glad this happened.  In a way.  I mean, it would have been much better if this didn’t happen, of course. But the reason I’m saying I’m glad it did is so that I have the opportunity to demonstrate, by example, an important concept that I see my clients struggle with all the time and that is something I call “Not Being a Hero.”  Or in other words, not exercising when they’re not feeling right. If I were to exercise today, I may do something to my shoulder that could put me out of commission for months!  So, why would I risk ONE day of exercise for six months of rehab?  It’s a no brainer.  I’ll just take two rest days in a row, the days that should have been my Intense day (today) and my rest day (tomorrow). And I’ll have Shmuel look at my shoulder.  By the time I go around again, I should be back to normal. So, I also have a little confes...

Hi.  Today I'm going to post a blog written by Alya Z.  She is a health and fitness afficionado from Russia that I met over the New Years Holiday, and I've asked her to write a little something so that my readers don't always have to read what I have to say.  She and I agree on a great many things so I thought it would be interesting to see what she had to say.  Here is her post: "Winter is a great season. The nights are longer and humans used to hibernate during the winter, same as animals. The longer the nights the more time you have to sleep, and of course to dream. Right now a lot of food is being grown in warmer climates and brought here. I prefer to eat things grown locally, and in season. All the root vegetables and things like cabbage, onion, squash, pumpkin and so on can store over the winter, as well as nuts, honey, seaweed, certain types of fruit and grains.  I love nature. It has such a calming effect. Nature is never the same. Russians...

This morning I woke up with a strange desire to get my workout over with. So I seized that opportunity to respond to what my body wanted and instead of sitting around answering my emails, writing in my blog and sipping my coffee, I did my moderate workout.  I was having a bit of an issue with my shoulder, or my neck or my back, or something.  It wasn’t huge, but everything felt a bit different today. I took it easy and took this as an opportunity to really spend the time paying attention to my body’s specific needs. I worked slower and with more attention to customizing the movements and making them more sophisticated and specific.  Then I showered quickly, ate a bowl of oatmeal with a handful each of walnuts and goji berries.  Notice that I’m not eliminating nuts altogether, I’m just being aware of my tendency to snack on them too much in the evenings. I also had a glass of kefir with my oatmeal. When I got home from the Body Tuning studio, I made myself a pork chop...

I started out today by making this video.  I’ve been looking forward to this because I’ve been seeing my body change and I was anxious to document just how much it has been changing. The weird thing is that the video doesn’t show the changes as dramatically as you can see them in person.  And I’m also aware of the possibility that most people may not have developed the type of eye to see the change in my body from three weeks ago to today, because they are subtle and may require the expertise and experience of making assessments like these for a living. But still, with a discerning eye you can probably detect how my body is changing. I’m getting stronger and regaining my muscle tone and, at the same time, losing the fat gradually--as expected.   I made a pot of garbanzo beans today and had made a batch of quinoa last night.  So, for breakfast this morning, I had a bowl of quinoa and chick peas with olive oil.   Then, a few hours later, I made a light lunch of t...

This morning I woke up to some bad news. I learned that my childhood idol, Jack LaLanne finally shuffled off this mortal coil.  He died at the ripe old age of 96.  And at 96 he was still going strong and more fit than many people half his age.  His words of encouragement have helped form me into who I am today. I want to share some clips from his old TV show.  I used to get up early and watch this show before school.  I don’t know how many of my friends, or how many third grade kids at all, were doing this kind of thing, but as you undoubtedly know by now, I’m really into this kind of stuff. So here are a few clips from his show.    REST IN PEACE, JACK.  You were one of a kind. I’m sure you made a significant difference in many people’s lives and I’m proud to be carrying the torch from here. Here is a link to Jack's website ...

Today was a rest day, although I did have a Nia class to teach in the morning. I ate an apple and a glass of chia seed gel beforehand and I had tons of energy for class. I got home at around 11:30 and after showering, I ate breakfast. I roasted sweet potatoes in coconut oil in the oven while I sizzled up some healthy turkey bacon and cubed zucchini. Then I put them all together like a hash and served it with two sunny-side up eggs on top. Then, I did my show.  By the way, I haven’t mentioned this, but during the course of my show, while on stage, I always eat a few peanuts and drink a glass of grape juice. But I don’t believe that calories consumed on stage actually count, do they?  :) For dinner I made a New York Strip steak and created a cilantro/cashew topping for it and served it with butternut squash, sauteed green bell pepper with pico de gallo and quinoa with a pat of butter.  And tonight I had a glass of red wine with dinner. Later, while watching Harry Potter and...

Today got off to a bad start because the guy who was going to have me over to work out, had to cancel on me.  I was going to meet him uptown and crank out my intense workout and then come back and have my breakfast, all before noon.  But when he cancelled, I didn’t have a place to go. And I didn’t want to do it at home, so I had to scramble to find a different place.  Since it was about 15 degrees out and the ground was covered with ice, it had to be an indoor location. Otherwise I’d just have gone to the park, which I love to do.  But instead, I started to contact all of my friends who are supportive of my ‘lifestyle’ and finally found someone who was around and willing to let me come over and do my workout at their place. All of this took more time than I had planned, so it sort of screwed up my eating schedule. I hadn’t eaten anything but one glass of chia seed gel before my intense workout.  And my stomach was growling a bit, but I knew it would be much bett...

I woke up early today because I was expecting a grocery delivery. Fresh Direct said they’d be there between 6:30 and 8:00 am. But they didn’t arrive until 8:15, which cut into my workout time. But I still did my moderate workout as planned. Even though I had to take a quick shower and leave immediately for the Body Tuning Studio, I still did my full relaxing corpse pose for two minutes at the end. It's so important to me. I love the feeling of being refreshed after a vigorous workout. If I don't do the corpse pose, I don't tend to feel as refreshed afterwards. I had a glass of chia seed gel before my shower. And then afterwards, I ate an apple and an egg and a handful of almonds. In Shmuel Tatz’ Body Tuning Studio today, I helped Dr Tatz tune up Marlo Thomas fresh from her trip to Barbados and not happy at all to be in this cold.  When I was done Body Tuning for the day, I went into Whole Foods and partook of their healthy salad bar. This time I had beets and apples, quino...

I woke up this morning sore from yesterday’s workout and famished. So I had a bowl of oatmeal, to which I added a bit of coconut oil, cinnamon and salt. I won’t work out today, since it’s my rest/recovery day. At 12:30 I had lunch: a pan seared pork chop on a bed of romaine lettuce and radicchio with black beans and yogurt on the side. I didn’t get a chance to eat again until dinnertime, which is unusual.  And I taught a Nia class at six.  So, when I came home, I was really hungry.  I liked what I had for lunch so much that I decided to have it again.  (That, and the fact that I needed to eat up anything that was perishable until I could get refrigeration again.) So for dinner, I had another pork chop, but this time, I mixed the yogurt with walnuts and beets.  I like making that. The beets turn the yogurt a bright fuchsia color and makes this easily the gayest dish I make.   I had the pork chop on a bed of lettuce and radicchio and covered it with black bea...

I started today out by finishing up the rest of the chicken I had roasted last night.   This was about 8:30am.   Since I was without refrigeration, I knew I had to eat that bird as soon as possible. We ate both of the leg/thigh/back sections last night at dinner, so this morning, I had a full breast to eat.  Luckily it was a very small bird and it wasn’t too much food. I don’t know if it was related to eating nothing but chicken for breakfast, but I started to feel a bit sleepy around 11 am.   It didn’t last, though.  By 12:15, I felt fine again.   Then at 1:30, I heated up some black beans and had them with a sweet potato, cinnamon, salt and olive oil.  Really yummy. I did my intense workout about two and a half hours after, so I was sure not to have any food in my stomach. It went really well. I’m becoming much more masterful in the movements and able to move them more quickly and with more speed and control. And my breathing during the exe...

Today I woke up and started with a handful of cashews. I didn’t have my breakfast right away, which is something I like to do.  I feel like since I haven’t eaten since the night before that getting food in me is a priority. unless I’m going to work out first thing in the morning, in which case, I’ll probably just have a small snack or a glass of chia seed gel. But finally, when I did make my breakfast, I made two fried eggs a large helping of mixed kale and beet greens sauteed with olive oil and cayenne pepper and half an avocado. Then I started my weekly “Creating The Healthy Kitchen” ritual like I demonstrated in the video from Day 9 . But today, I baked three sweet potatoes, boiled two bunches of beets, cooked up a pot of black beans, and roasted a whole chicken. So, by three this afternoon, my refrigerator was stocked with food that’s quick and healthy and delicious.   But then, I lost it.  Yes, my refrigerator died. So, change of plans. haha I quickly had to put all ...