#015 | Pastry crawl of San Francisco, garden-gazing, & quality of life contemplation
A little extra muscle mass never hurt nobody.
If you’re in San Francisco : Mazama Wellness provides an all-in-one personal training and nutrition concierge service backed by science and focused on longevity – coached by Dustin Millhollen, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with a Master’s Degree in Nutrition.
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If you read the last Substack (linked above), you know how important muscle mass is for health and longevity. Remember, muscle doesn’t just help you look fit, but it improves your quality of life, cognitive function, and metabolic health.
Let’s dive a little deeper:
Quality of Life
“The age-associated loss of skeletal muscle quantity and function are critical determinants of independent physical functioning in later life.”1
Having more muscle mass means you're more physically capable now and much more likely to remain mobile and active in later life. Not only is it important to be able to do the activities you love, like playing tennis or going camping, but also to remain independent as you age. A decline in mobility or fear of falling in later life can not only impair your ability to participate in hobbies, but will also affect your ability to take care of everyday tasks like grocery shopping, cooking for yourself, and putting your socks on.
Improving muscle mass means looking fit, but also feeling strong and ready to take life head-on. Nobody wants to feel weak and frail, no matter their age, and having some extra muscle will help you look and feel your best no matter what stage of life you’re in.
Cognitive Function
Muscle mass is neuroprotective, has a positive effect on cognition, and helps attenuate cognitive decline. One theory is that this is due to a variety of proteins and peptides (called myokines) that are produced during muscle contraction and elicit a multitude of effects, from reducing systemic inflammation to improving metabolism and mitochondrial function. This in turn has a positive effect on the health of brain cells. So more myokines means better brain health and cognition. It would therefore stand to reason that having more muscle tissue and contracting that muscle tissue would increase myokine production, thereby improving cognitive function.
Whatever the mechanism, it’s well documented that those individuals with more muscle mass suffer less cognitive decline, score higher on cognitive assessments, and deal with less neurodegenerative issues.
Metabolic Health
Metabolism is the cellular process of turning food into energy. Muscle cells are metabolically active and use a substantial amount of energy even in a resting state. The more muscle mass you have, the more efficient your body is at burning energy and the more calories are needed to maintain that muscle. This is why those with more muscle tend to have less instances of obesity, insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. The more muscle mass, the more of an energy burning machine your body becomes.
Metabolic syndrome is a global health problem, as it is closely associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and mortality. The loss of skeletal muscle and the accumulation of intramuscular fat, which induce contractile impairment and metabolic abnormalities, may be associated with metabolic syndrome via a complex set of factors including proinflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, insulin resistance, and lack of physical activity.2 Several studies have established links between sarcopenia and metabolic syndrome.
More muscle means less likelihood of dealing with metabolic syndrome and a higher chance of staying metabolically healthy.
Takeaways
If looking fit and performing well wasn’t enough of a reason to put on some extra muscle, then the reasons listed above should convince you. Whether it’s to improve your quality of life, perform better cognitively, or optimize your metabolic health - increasing muscle mass is an important outcome to strive for. This means that any good exercise program should include a fair amount of hypertrophy training in order to achieve this.
If you’ve been keeping up, you know that at Mazama Wellness, we like to enjoy food and don’t look at eating simply in terms of calories or grams of protein. Food should be exciting and there is definitely room for enjoyment in a health-centered nutrition plan.
We often like to get pastries on Sunday morning. This outing usually consists of a long walk to a bakery and enjoying some of the great products that San Francisco has to offer, much in the same way that we would when we were living in Lisbon, Portugal. I love a walkable city.
Here are some of the most notable pastries we’ve tried in the last few months:
Arsicault
This one had been on our list for a while. They just opened their third location in Mission Bay, which was very welcome since the location in the Richmond neighborhood always has an enormous line and I typically try to avoid Civic Center. The go-to here is some variation of a croissant - which is what they’re known for. We got the ham and cheese croissant, a kouign-amann, and a palmier. The ham and cheese croissant was amazing. It was probably the flakiest croissant I’ve ever had (quite the mess) and the cheese was a little stinky, which made it that much more unique. I always get either a kouign-amann or pain au chocolat at any bakery I go to as a barometer of quality and this kouign-amann was solid.
Tartine
The old standby - never disappointing. We buy bread from Tartine weekly and every few weeks get morning buns. Crunchy and sweet on the outside, soft and doughy in the middle. Not much else to say except you pretty much can’t go wrong here. Also, if you need a quick birthday celebration treat, grab some of their brownies and a pint of Straus vanilla ice cream, throw a candle in it, and call it good.
Neighbor Bakehouse
This spot has a ginger pull-apart that is an exceptional breakfast treat. Threads of real ginger and little pillows of dough that somehow get caramelized almost entirely throughout so you can pull them apart and it’s like you have a bunch of little sticky buns smooshed together into one regular sized pastry. I’m sure the process is a matter of lots of butter, some sugar, and the right amount of heat. Whatever it is, it’s something to try.
Jane the Bakery
Also a solid kouign-amann, but one of the treats that really stands out from here is the cardamom lattice bun. This thing looks like a baseball and is filled with cardamom cream, which was unexpected. I’m a huge fan of cardamom and this really hit the spot. Definitely not light fare and I personally would rather eat this as an after lunch dessert than as a breakfast food. Either way, it’s outta sight.
On a side note: If you really want to be nerdy about your consumption of sweets, get in an hour Zone 2 cardio workout before you indulge. I’m not a fan of trading exercise for food, but the Zone 2 cardio will blunt the insulin response and you might find that you’re less affected by the sugar rush and associated feelings.
Sutro Baths Ice Skating Rink?
This might not make sense upon first reading. Most of us have heard of Sutro Baths. Many of us have probably been there and seen the remnants of this once glorious house of swimming pools. If you’ve seen old pictures, you know how big and impressive it was. It was fed by the ocean and contained a multitude of pools along with slides and rope swings and was surrounded by stadium seating. I saw one picture that claimed to be taken on a day that over 1900 people were there swimming and lounging. Must’ve been a hot day because I'm sure on most days throughout the year, it wasn’t nearly so popular owing to the cool SF weather.
This is old news, though. But did you know that after closing the baths, they were turned into an ice skating rink? After the waning popularity of the baths they decided to try an ice rink, which makes more sense for San Francisco than a cold ocean water swimming pool. However, this only lasted a few years before it was shut down and shortly after the whole thing burned.
You can see the ice rink in all its glory in the movie The Line Up from 1958. A great movie to experience San Francisco in that time period, but the scene in the Sutro Baths ice rink is pretty amazing not only for the history, but also for the role it plays in the movie. Definitely worth a watch if you’re into history or film noir.
So next time you’re out at Lands End, you’ll see the Sutro Bath ruins with a new appreciation and you can impress your friends with a few fun facts.
Hihi from your resident Spring baby and her fervent floral fixation.
Today I’d like to corrupt and awe with a curious constellation of flowery discoveries.
And so it goes…
Flowers for your butt
When they say find your niche, this is what they mean. Name another custom toilet seat artist - I dare you.
Shop other (equally weird) styles here.
Flowers for your walls
I’m really having a hard time describing how this practice of collaging pressed flowers makes me feel. Such meticulousness. So mesmerizing – both the process and the final product. Imagine this as cu$tom wallpaper! I’m dazzled!
Flowers for your inner child
It will never cease to amaze me how versatile Legos are. AND NOW THEY DO BOUQUETS!? Your special person wants a bouquet they don’t have to clean up after, I promise. And you can build it together over a couple of fun beverages for some low-key quality time. NOW KISS!
Flowers for your soul’s tether to nature
Have you ever asked the internet “Where is the most floral town on earth?”? Well I did, and of the indecisive answers I received, I picked a place that definitely is made up and not a real place. I know this because each photo of said place (even the half-cocked blurry tourist shots paired with Google Reviews) feels like a hallucination. Ok ok. It IS real, and about an hour outside of Amsterdam.
Lisse, Netherlands
More specifically, Keukenhof Gardens - known as “The Garden of Europe”.
What the heck!? If heaven exists, it’s a Dutch garden. 🌷
I’m emotional.
Also, on their website, there is a “flower report” that seems to be updated almost daily with images to tell you what is in bloom.
And if you happen to be going to Japan instead of Netherlands, you’re in luck!
Kamiyubetsu Tulip Park in Hokkaido, Japan has a little slice of Holland. The below image stunned me. It made me feel like I could live the rest of my life inside of a world built by Studio Ghibli and have 0 regrets - as long as Dustin is there too. <3
Honorable Mention
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again.
Garden Chronicles on Max is the most soothing content you will consume. Screen time-worthy 10 minute episodes, immersing you into specific gardens around the world. Imagine Chef’s Table on Netflix, but the ingredients are soil, sun, water, and love.
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Trombetti A, Reid KF, Hars M, et al. Age-associated declines in muscle mass, strength, power, and physical performance: impact on fear of falling and quality of life. Osteoporos Int. 2016;27(2):463-471. doi:10.1007/s00198-015-3236-5
Kim G, Kim JH. Impact of Skeletal Muscle Mass on Metabolic Health. Endocrinol Metab (Seoul). 2020;35(1):1-6. doi:10.3803/EnM.2020.35.1.1
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These flowers are gorgeous! I want to go!