living cont’d
Geology
Exercise
Fitness Transform is located at 1213 State Street, Suite K. See fitnesstransform.com.
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cynthia c arbone ward
bout halfway into a 28-day fitness and nutrition program headed up by Mikki Reilly at Fitness Transform, I experienced a sustained upswing in energy as I went about my typical weekend. I had woken up 30 minutes earlier than usual and, unvisited by my normal grogginess, dispatched household chores — raking leaves, emptying trashes, unloading armloads of family beach gear from my pickup — with renewed strength and nary a mumbled complaint. As I paused for a glass of water and a handful of raw almonds, I 28 DAYS OF HEALTH: Mikki Reilly took the author through noticed that my internal mechaa monthlong regime at her Fitness Transform studio. nisms produced a steady buzz (apart from the one lit by two mugs of dark roast). My middle-aged dad bod, as it turned out, was tapping stored fat as its primary fuel source. I felt great. Back in Reilly’s downtown studio the following Monday, she smiled knowingly as I described my weekend power surge. Over the years, she had explored dozens of health and fitness plans — including macrobiotic, Zone, Atkins, and seven years of vegetarianism— before discovering the paleo diet while working on her Exercise & Sports Studies ism degree at UCSB. Its omega-3-fatty-acid- and protein-heavy intake is designed to mimic that of our Stone Age ancestors. She later wrote a book about it, Your Primal Body, published in 2012. “Most important for me was that a low-carb, high-protein diet with healthy fats was the best way to eat for health and permanent weight loss,” said Reilly, a certified trainer since 1992.“It’s the ancestral diet we evolved on and therefore is perfectly congruent with our human genome.” Starting out, Reilly suggested I consume 105-130 grams of protein daily, restrict carbs to 50, and eat more healthy fats. I kept a detailed food journal, an accounting that proved semi-tedious until, after four or five days, I had developed meal plans that included grass-fed beef, butter-fried eggs, avocados, nuts and seeds, and lots of vegetables. While journaling was a daily task, my accompanying fitness strategy— strategy also designed to mimic Early Man movement patterns — only occupied three one-hour sessions each week at Reilly’s studio, plus some optional cardiovascular work, such as sprinting stadium stairs at City College, which I politely declined. At first, my planks sank and my kettlebell-laden squats showcased an amateur hour of stiff-jointed struggling, but about two weeks in, my technique found good form. Reilly also trained our small group to smooth out muscle tension with foam rollers and to build core strength by using stability balls to transform a standard plank into a tricky balancing act. But I remained convinced I’d instantly drop my workout habits and start repacking my midsection as soon as the program ended. Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case. It’s been two months since my final session, and the number on my bathroom scale remains a sign of success as I eat mindfully and still exercise three days a week on average. Overall, I gained a pound of muscle and shed nine pounds of fat, pretty good results in just 28 days. I do allow myself a day or two each weekend, usually at a restaurant or kids’ party, to eat bread, sugary fruit, or ice cream. But my body now seems to prefer a fat-burning paleo state, so it’s easy to get back into that groove of our middle-of-the-food-chain forebears. “The environment they encountered built strong muscles and lean bodies for survival,” Reilly said. “And when you exercise and eat similar to the earliest humans, you gain a host of advantages that were honed over millennia to keep you in top condition. It works. Fitness fads come and go, but this approach is here to stay.” —Keith Hamm
he unusual rock, a mixture of metallic and matte material yellowish in hue, was found in the barren arctic tundra of northeastern Russia and stored for decades in a geology museum in Florence. In 2008, an Italian mineralogist named Luca Bindi was sufficiently intrigued by it to ship the specimen to Paul Steinhardt, the director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, who called upon his colleague Lincoln Hollister to help analyze it. A renowned expert on the origin and forma- Lincoln Hollister tion of rocks, the initially skeptical Hollister determined that this one had an extraordinary geochemistry, hinting of extreme and hitherto unknown processes occurring in the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. The International Mineralogical Association has recently christened the mineral “hollisterite” in Lincoln’s honor, and a fitting honor it is. Like its namesake, it is unique, formed naturally, and helps expand the frontiers of knowledge. The Hollister name is a familiar one in Santa Barbara. Lincoln is a great-grandson of Colonel W.W. Hollister, the rancher and entrepreneur who in partnership with the Dibblees bought up several land grants in Santa Barbara County in the 1850s. These include what are now the San Julian and Hollister ranches, where a rural way of life endures to this day. Lincoln, now 78, spent much of his boyhood as a “free-range” kid in the backcountry, and the freedom to explore sparked his curiosity and shaped his sensibilities. His interest in geology started with his uncle, geologist Joseph Steffens Hollister, who was instrumental in locating water on the ranch. “I would ride around with him in the jeep and get the feel for geology and discovery, just basic discovery,” recalled Lincoln. “And that’s what I’ve done all my life. I’ve been on some kind of pathway to discovery.”
At the age of 12, Lincoln decided to do a solo camping trip with his dog, supplies, and a sleeping bag. It rained hard, and he took shelter in a cave, happily walking back the next day, unaware that the whole ranch had been mobilized to find him. “I never felt so alone as I did in that cave at the headwaters,” he said, “but I was forever afterward confident I could manage on my own, anywhere.” At 16, he was recruited to help stop traffic and assist firefighters during the 1955 Refugio Fire, running through the grass with a stick and a flare attached while flames billowed behind him. As a student at the Thacher School, he and a friend went on horseback from Ojai to the ranch for a break, and back again afterward, a threeday journey each way through mountains, brush, and an occasional backyard. “As kids, we were let loose,” said Lincoln. “My father had confidence in us being able to cope, and because you’re there and on your own, what you have feels like an unlimited space; to go from that to the earth to the moon to the cosmos is a natural progression.” His comfort in the outdoors served Lincoln well in his fieldwork in the wilds of British Columbia, the Peruvian Andes, and southeast Alaska. From 1966 until his retirement in 2011, he was a professor of geology, first at UCLA and then at Princeton. Post-retirement, he works on research projects and outreach teaching, but the analysis of hollisterite is a crowning achievement. The conditions that formed the rock could reveal new theories about deep time, deep space … The Beginning. Those who crave more in-depth discussion can find it in the scientific journals, but the general takeaway is a sense of wonder. “It all started from the ranch in Gaviota,” Lincoln has said. “The exploring. The discovery. I realized there was a lot to discover right there … and it just goes on and on and on.” —Cynthia Carbone Ward
courtesy
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paul wellman
ister: Fitness transForm F , LincoLnA HoLLister: Form Man and His Rock indeed
OUTDOOR LOVE: Here is photograph from 1954 showing a young Lincoln Hollister and his future wife, Sarah, with their beloved dog, King, at the machine shed in the Bulito barn area of the ranch. independent.com
August 3, 2016
tHE INDEPENDENt
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