Meditation for Beginners - Belly Breathing!

I've found that a number of people who come to my hikes or meet me in their physical therapy appt have trouble with breathing or meditation. As babies and dogs are easy to find their happy belly breathing, somehow we adults get challenged with stress and forget how to belly breathe. If it's hard for you to find your belly breath, check out this article from Daily Om.

If you have trouble finding it sitting up, try lying on your back, with your knees bent in "active rest" position, so that you can let gravity help you feel your belly rise on the inhale, and flatten as you exhale. When I first learned to sing in a choir in college, I had lots of trouble figuring out how to not shrug my shoulders on the inhale, and I spent time lying on the floor to find my belly breathing. So, if you get distracted and need to focus on something while looking for your belly breathing, you can pick your favorite slow happy song and that can help you out! My favorite song for this exercise is the chorus from ABBA's "Dancing Queen." It makes people chuckle and yes, when you laugh, you find your belly too! BONUS: The more you use your belly breath, the more you can help waken your abs and tone them. Belly breathing is the easiest way to start to manage your stress and get started on meditation!

New tasty healthy foods

Since I have figured out that I am sensitive to lactose, especially with uncooked milk (it makes my stomach blow up a few extra inches!), I've been looking for a solution to my yogurt cravings. If I'm going to have milk products, I should really be taking my digestive enzymes which have lactase to break down the lactose. I like to carry a travel pack of the digestive enzymes in my purse for protecting my stomach while eating out, for the times that I can't avoid the lactose.

For those who are lactose-sensitive, yogurt is less irritating, but why have any irritation? I have newly discovered this brand of yogurt that has lactase in it so that it becomes lactose-free AND it has a good collection of probiotics! Happy tummy!

On other snack foods, I'm sensitive to the varying levels of vinegar found in most olives. Olives are so good for you, but it's simply easier for me to get them into my diet if they are already mixed in with something like hummus. You can find these pre-made at your local grocery store like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. This is a great substitute for those of us who like cheese and want a healthier low-fat savory snack.

And to satisfy my sweet tooth, I'm defrosting a cup of frozen wild blueberries. The wild boreal blueberries are smaller and have so much more flavor than its conventional cousins. With frozen fruit at my disposal, I can have tasty fruit year-round conveniently at less than 1/2 the cost of the fresh kind. I would prefer fresh fruits, but sometimes it's helpful to be easy on the budget and my shopping schedule!

Ez, Tasty, Healthy Cooking Workshop

If you're busy and you need some easy, tasty, and healthy foods you can cook at home and use a on-the-go snacks, this is the cooking workshop for you! Want weight loss? Don't know how to eat more veggies in your week? I've got lots of ideas for you! The recipe for these turkey-veggie meatballs shown in the photo here got approved by an anti-veggie teen who is a picky eater.

Click on the event registration link quick so you can reserve your seat. It's a small class size so you can really learn. Tell your friends even if you can't make it, because this is a rare opportunity you get to see this foodie chef in action and teaching you how you can do it yourself!

How to Exercise in Winter

Winter cold or irregular weather or allergy-provoking winds can really discourage us from exercise. Some of us have a block against the word exercise or think of some high-level of exercise perfectionism. What counts is that you get started doing SOMETHING and are physically active--and once you get moving, you want to move more!

IDEAS on how to be more physical and even exercise!
* DANCE BREAK On the TV show 30 Rock, Tina Fey leads her writing team to break down for a "dance break" with her favorite rap music. If you work from home, this is the perfect computer break! Oxygenating your brain will help you think more clearly and productivity rises! OR take this to the next level--make it your cardio workout by dancing to your favorite music mix or videos. As a teen, I used to dance with MTV music videos with my friend--being goofy or having fun is one way to get over that perfectionism.
* WALK AT THE MALL It was raining badly one time I was visiting my friend in Ithaca and I had just got off a 5-hour bus ride. There was no way I could sit more at her house and I needed to walk so I could avoid back and hip pain. My motivator? Pain-prevention and body ache. I asked her to take me to the mall. We did walking, making laps around the aisles of Target while we caught up talking. Yes, you can leave your credit cards at home and safely do brisk walks at the mall if you can't be outside. Make a rule, that if you're going to be on a long phone call with a loved one who doesn't mind your cardio-breathing, you can make that a walk and talk appointment. Some people even have long-distance walking buddies--a great way to catch up with loved ones and encourage each other to get in those brisk walks. Also, join my hiking group for inspiration--we take the opportunity to be local tourists and check out new parks.
* HOME STRENGTH I had a student in New York City with the smallest apt AND we were in the middle of winter with his plan to quit cigarettes (exercise is a great way to help smokers find an alternative to the breathing they miss from smoking). Nothing was going to stop us with his strength and cardio routine. We did so many exercises with JUST his body weight, the floor and a chair. We did martial-arts-inspired lunges (in every direction--side lunges are really great!) and deep squats and if you do enough of them without stopping, these strength training exercises become a cardio workout! Incline push-ups with a chair, legs on a chair with push-up arms on the ground, dips, side planks. Lots of pilates mat exercises can be mixed up with a chair or ball for variety. And on the days we were brave to bundle up and go outside, the cold air was refreshing and when we had enough, we would run back inside.

Keep in mind WHY you care about your health--whether it be your family medical history, your goals for travel, or simply keeping your brain sharp. If you are a smarty who hasn't really been athletic, this bookworm has some science for you! Reasons to do something physical, is not only to protect your physical health, but also your mood and your brain (this is excerpted from a mind-body medicine blog):
* In elderly men with poor physical function, increasing general physical activity may potentially confer a protective effect or delay the onset for dementia. (Taaffe DRet al., J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci, 2008 and Ahlskog JE et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2011)
* According to an NIH study, regular aerobic exercise can modify the brain environment in such a way that the neurons are protected and may help prevent brain damage from diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease. (Harry GJ et al., Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 2011)
* Regular exercise increases mitochondrial numbers in brain cells, a potential cause for exercise’s beneficial mental effects. Mitochondria produce the power for our cells, and have a role in cell growth and death. (Steiner JL et al., American Journal of Physiology — Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology, 2011)

Get physical and stay smart!

Staying healthy for the year!

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year, and we want to be vibrant and in good health as spring blossoms. While it is sometimes rainy or cold during the winter season, we all need to take extra care for good immunity and possibly extra B-vitamins for energy. For my vegetarian and vegan friends, it's extra tough to get enough B-vitamins to have the energy to excel in our fast-paced busy lifestyle. Whether you celebrate the solar or lunar new year, it's never too late to re-commit yourself to staying healthy and being good to your body!

For a new year of better health and better energy:
Activated B-complex offer increased energy, and helps you handle stress and improve your mood. If you're working long days or around people who might be sick, you need this to help protect your health for better immunity. I keep this around for when I need an extra boost.

The basics: a good multivitamin and Omega-3 fatty acids

I say that I see people sometimes take better care of their cars than they do of their body. You would never drive your car with no gas, or bad motor oil. I think of a multivitamin as a good baseline nutrition, to provide a good baseline even if your day goes crazy and you don't eat healthy. The fatty acids serve as your motor oil to help lubricate and keep your brain and heart and joints moving.

A good multivitamin: For all my menstruating or pregnant women, you'll enjoy the benefits of this activated iron in this lemonade-tasting prenatal vitamin. It's just the best women's vitamin around. Being balanced with your iron and not being low on iron, helps keep your energy up and protect you from frequent burger cravings.

For the post-menopause women and guys: This is the best multivitamin, while labeled as a "children's multivitamin," just take 2 caps for adult dosage, and it is excellent for your health because it also has the activated B-complex.

Healthy Omega-3 supplement: You see all kinds of omega-3 being sold at the pharmacy or health-food store. Do you know if they are from small fish (sardines/anchovies) that are more free from exposure to heavy metals? Please stay away from salmon oil--we eat enough big fish and don't need extra exposure to heavy metals. The vegetarian versions of Omega-3 (like flaxseed oil) still require one more step from the body to convert into usable DHA. I recommend a high-quality fish oil, where I only have to take 2 gelcaps instead of 4 or 6 to get to my preferred daily dosage. If you really don't like pills or have kids, there's a great-tasting children's Omega 3 to help support their healthy growth too. You can read about the benefits on the weblink.

May your year be as vibrant and colorful as my Chinese New Year's flowers.

Quick Immune-Booster Soup

Time is precious and you want to eat the good stuff but don't know how to get it in?
My favorite is my "pumped-up miso soup." It's a great way to sneak in mushrooms, ginger, and other healthy immune-booster foods that I don't have time to squeeze into my nutrition elsewhere.

A lot of people don't know what to do with miso paste, and I say, it's just the same as a cube of chicken bouillon--just add to boiling water to your preferred taste. (Depends on the brand--read their instructions. I use 1 tbsp to start and add to possibly 1.5-2 tbsp depending on my taste). If you are still worried about "doing it right," let go of that worry and just get a dry instant miso soup packet (like from Trader Joe's--notice their brand has 2 servings in 1 packet if you're making for one person).


PUMPED-UP MISO SOUP (takes less than 15 minutes, mostly chopping time)
Ingredients
* 2 c water or broth base (depends on how much flavor you want or if you need to use up leftover chix or veggie broth!)
* miso soup base (from paste or instant packet)
* 1-2 slices of ginger, then sliced thinly into strips
* 2-3 dried shitake mushrooms thinly sliced like noodles
* other mushrooms like king oyster mushrooms (slice in rounds like poor man's scallop)
* 1 c chopped up bok choy (about 3 bunches of baby bok choy) or any other leafy greens like chard or chinese broccoli
* 1 c convenient protein (leftover cooked protein like rotisserie chicken (chopped) or wild salmon (heat in soup in tablespoon size chunks), frozen seafood like shrimp or scallops)

To garnish, after hot soup is served into bowl
* fresh ground black pepper
* a small dash of sesame oil (about 1/4 tsp)
* black sesame seeds (or white if you don't have black)
* thinly sliced green onions, cilantro (if you have them--green spices pack a lot of vitamin power!)
* spray of liquid amino acids (optional: to salt my food, instead of soy sauce or salt)

Directions:
Bring to boil about water (or broth) with ginger. If you have dried mushrooms and they needed to re-hydrate, it's ok to be lazy and toss them into the broth or water to hydrate. Cook dry mushrooms first until they look plump and edible. Then add free mushrooms. Heat or cook protein accordingly (depends on what you have). Add bok choy or leafy green veggies last (only cook for 45-60 secs), to cook briefly and keep the bright green colors. Garnish as desired. Make your own variations!

It's Fall! Time for Quick Soups!

Fall weather makes me want warm bowls of soup. And quick soups are a great way to squeeze in lots of veggies and nutrition into a meal, and they can keep in the fridge as easy leftovers for snacks or other meals. Eating Well magazine has a great list of 30-minute Soups, and as your resident foodie chef, I've chosen my favorites for your healthier living:
Sweet Potato Peanut (make sure you have fresh peanut butter, not loaded with preservatives or sweetneers)
Chicken and White Bean (beans have great fiber and we all need more of it!)
Salmon Chowder (wild salmon, yum!)
Vietnamese Beef Noodles (you can swap out the rice noodles and use mung bean noodles for better nutrition -- and they really taste the same to me)

With any of the veggie soups, pair up with a lean protein and you've got a full meal!
Whenever they suggest pairing up their soups with caesar salad (high-fat) or garlic bread (simple carbs), please know that those 2 items are *not* slim-body friendly foods and judge your portions wisely if you eat those items.