Conquering Towers of Pain

How does my favorite regulatory reformer/mountaineer do it?

Shoshana Weissmann is both a serious regulatory reform advocate and one of the funniest follows on Twitter, er, X or whatever.  But that’s not why I’m excited to have her thoughts on this edition of Vale Tudo.  Over the past few years she’s transformed herself from a Washington think tank fellow into a world traveling mountaineer while working her full-time job and corralling governors into doing her bidding on licensing reform.  Oh and without complaint, she’s climbed mountains few people could despite a number of autoimmune diseases that would have utterly incapacitated anyone else. 

How does someone with autoimmune diseases and an important full-time job conquer the Torres Del Paine “Towers of Pain” and countless big mountains at home and abroad?  As I plan for my own upcoming expeditions, I’m trying to dial in every aspect of health and fitness that will help me survive and thrive at elevation and in all conditions so I’m eager to get actionable ideas from people who are able to take on big fitness challenges.  To that end, here is policy wonk, sloth fan, and mountaineering badass Sen. Shoshana:

Introducing

What’s the deeper purpose for being fit? Imagine you achieve everything you’re working towards in your health and fitness efforts. Then what?

First it was the recognition that without exercise, I'd be extremely weak. There's really no choice for me. With fibromyalgia, if I don't exercise, I can't walk up very small hills without pausing for calf pain. Note, too, that is with a high pain tolerance. Hiking used to be a secondary reason—just making sure I could do the Acadia National Park trails I grew up hiking. 

But a few years ago, I went out West for the first time and fell in love with the Wasatch Range. I'd never seen such sharp, looming peaks dusted in snow. And obviously the hardest trails in Acadia are only a fraction as challenging as most in the Wasatch, so I had to train harder and added the stair climber into my routine. 

If I manage my dream—being able to handily climb 6,000’ at altitude on a trail—then I want more! Some people I follow on Instagram can do as much as 9,000’! But the better I perform, the more of nature I get to see. 

Reflecting

It's very unpopular in part because it doesn't work for most people, but I avoid eating anything until 3 pm. That sometimes means I do a full, big hike or an entire workout before I eat anything. It's probably not healthy for most people, but it works incredibly well for me. With insulin resistance and whatever the hell else my body does, I get morning sickness if I eat before 10 am. 11-1 pm start time is better but runs down my energy. 1-2 is alright. But if I can hold out until 4 or 5 pm, I have all this energy, better sleep, feel better, lose bloat. I eat the same amount, just in that time.

Training

Hiking is my everything and my favorite thing. I wish I could just hike and didn't have to train for hiking but by hiking. I love-hate the vertical climber. It's a beast and sucks sometimes but I know it gets me closer to my goal so it's worthwhile.

Right now I'm getting into running too. I'm not very good at it, but I do want to be more nimble, faster, and more balanced. I'd love to just be able to run 5 miles whenever I choose. I've avoided it because fibromyalgia has my joints on edge and easily bothered and I also have floating kneecaps. But I want to see if I can make it work.

Fueling

One of my favorites is homemade quick poke: Brown rice, cucumbers, tofu, eggs, scallion, pickled red onion, peanut sauce (still trying to work out the right sauce recipe), seaweed, shiitake, crunchy onion and garlic. SO good and really hits the spot.

I really love tofu. Like I could eat deep-fried tofu forever and it has the extra benefit of settling my stomach!

I'm also obsessed with ube—Filipino purple yam. It's the best: healthy, nutrient-packed, PURPLE, and tastes like red velvet. It works in sweet and savory and makes everything better. I'll buy 10 lbs. of it, cook it, freeze it, and use it in recipes.

Supplementing

I just think people need to see what works for them because everyone's body is different. I take a hell of a ton of supplements and have tested or am currently testing their effectiveness. Gelatin is a weird one that makes a big difference for my joints. A lot of people are low in vitamin D and don't know it. A big one for anyone with known inflammatory issues is serrapeptase. I was shocked how good it made my body feel.

But you have to be careful, ALWAYS check interactions with everything. I use drugs.com and have a spreadsheet too. Don't count on your doctor or pharmacist alone—my pharmacist once chewed me out for asking about interactions between drugs after I did research myself, and then admitted yeah there can be major interactions I need to watch for. I tried Omega 6 and it made my skin amazing but put 15 lbs. on me which sucked. It's important to monitor how you feel on each, weird side effects, etc. 

Measuring

My progress is how fast I climb 6,000’ while wearing resistance band leggings and a 25 lb. vest on my vertical climber. My record I think is 86 minutes, but my norm is closer to 105. The faster I do it, and the more often I can do it, the better I know I'm doing. I once climbed 42,000 or so feet on it in a week. That was insane but really amazing to do. 

I don't measure my food at all. My body is very vibes-based and tells me what I need, and if it doesn't get it, I can't sleep. I weigh myself but it's kind of unreliable. I've always been a dense person, even when I was very thin as a kid. So it's more waist measurements for me.

I just don't know that there's anything universal in fitness. People are all different and you have to know how your body works. Like, if I have cauliflower or chickpeas, I inflame. Seriously, I can feel my whole body swell. For everyone else, those foods are healthy! 

I remember when I was in the hell of endometriosis that was untreated as a teenager and literally could not walk a block without massive pain, bloating, nausea, etc. Now, my record is about 20 miles and 5,000’ gain in a day to summit a 14er. It's been years of small workouts building up towards bigger ones, setbacks from meds and supplements that made things worse, doctors informing me I have ~another~ disease, etc. But it really is a one day at a time thing and "let's see what my body can do" thing. And turns out it can do more than most ever do!

Balancing work and fitness is easy because I don't rest. I'm only kind of joking. I rest on Shabbat and rarely otherwise which I probably need to stop doing. But I love my work and I love working out and don't want to cut back on either right now. I'm sure that will change one day. I also work from home and lift weights on calls which helps cut down on time.

I'll never really be a 10 (0 worse you’ve ever felt - 10 your best possible version of yourself). My stomach always nags at me from the Crohn's and my body struggles to lose weight, but I'm still a lot healthier than most people without diseases, which is wild to me. I'm grateful for being able to do everything I do, and I try to encourage other sick people to push their limits and see how it goes. Maybe they can't do all they want to do, but maybe they can.

Recovering

Nothing like a scalding bath with Coach Soak. I bring it with me on hiking trips. I use that, yoga, acupressure mats, and a neck massager. When I'm at my best I only need the soak and yoga. The others tend to be more necessary when I'm upping my game. I also use creatine to help me work out better. And CBD cream! Taking CBD orally does nothing for me. But the cream helps sore muscles like nothing else.

Connecting

Well I cannot recommend Coach Soak enough.  This neck massager saved my neck and back many times over.  Here’s my hiking gear list.  I have a list of all the supplements and medicine I take and all the ones that didn't work, but I need to update it. I've switched things up quite a bit.  SenatorShoshana or senatorshoshana will also get you a discount for Viome and Sweetflexx. The former doesn't give me any benefit if I recall correctly, but Viome really helped me identify which foods were making me sick. And Sweetflexx makes resistance band leggings and they are the only leggings I'll train in. It's another layer of difficulty without piling more weight on my back. Also, if you want to see my hikes and my random occasional DIY projects, follow me on Insta here.

Mentoring

My body is like none other in mostly bad and weirdly good ways, so no advice has really helped that much. Tips here and there have helped. But the best was probably my dad forcing me to work out as a teenager after my endometriosis surgery. Starting the gym at 14 put me in a good workout mindset. 

Closing

Thank you, Senator.  I hope Vale Tudo readers are as inspired by you as I am.  If anyone has any legislative needs that the Senator from the great state of E. Virginia can help with, just ask ($20,000 is customary and cash is always appreciated). In closing 2 Truths and a Lie (guesses welcome in comments below):

• I ran into a giant grizzly 40 feet from me while solo hiking.

• A baby mountain goat came up to me in Colorado and I got to pet it because its mom wasn't around.

• On Humphreys Peak the weather was so bad I was scared shitless, praying, and had to crawl to the top.