The Post-Thanksgiving Cleanse

Happy Thanksgiving friends! Now that you are all full of turkey, cranberries, french beans, stuffing, gravy, cakes, mac 'n cheese, pies, wine, rolls, ham, potatoes and whatever else you could stuff into your stomachs (a 12 inch long and 6 inch wide sac that can hold about 1 qt. of food at a time in most adults) I would like to share this SUPER CUTE animated video on digestion. Its a story about Bill, Ted, Jack, Peggy Sue, and their friend the lemur, who get shrunken and eaten by a hoboman...


I hope you enjoyed that, now lets talk about giving our tummies a rest and cleansing! Many of you have asked for suggestions on detoxification, there are a couple routes you can go down:

• For those of you that are die hard and willing to go all the way, try a 3-7 day juice fast (drinking only fresh fruit and vegetable juices and water).
  

• If you are new at this and would like to ease your way in, here is a 7-day cleanse I put together, you can extend it to 14 days for maximum results.
  

Eliminate all processed foods, including soy (most is processed), caffeine ( if you MUST have green tea instead of soda/coffee), no nightshade vegetables (potatoes, eggplant, peppers), sugar and dairy.


Upon Rising: Glass of room temperature lemon water & a probiotic ( wait 30 minutes after taking to eat) *Both lemon and water help flush out toxins in your system. Although lemons are acidic, they are alkalizing in your body.

Breakfast: (Choose one)

1. Blueberry (use any fruit that is in season) & Almond Smoothie:
1 scoop of a complete nutritional, whey protein fortified powder (not soy protein) 1/2 cup of blueberries
1 1/2 cup of almond, rice or coconut milk
1 scoop of green powder ( you can find at the health food store)

2. Oatmeal w fruit, flax seeds & almond, rice or coconut milk

3. Fresh juice of your choice from your favorite juice bar or your personal juicer

4. Organic apple with almond butter spread

Lunch & Dinner: (Choose one for each meal)

1. Brown rice and organically grown fresh fruits and vegetables. Pile a few, or all of the following detoxifying veggies on top: Beets, radishes, artichokes, cabbage, broccoli, and seaweed

2. A home-made soup made with vegetable stock and your choice of vegetables

3. Quinoa, amaranth, millet or buckwheat served with split yellow and green peas or lentils These are the easiest to prepare & require the least amount of soaking time. Add a side salad or steamed leafy greens

4. Organic steamed salmon, grains and leafy greens

Snacks:

• Unsalted nuts or seeds include; flaxseed, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews and walnuts
  
• Carrots and celery sticks
  
• Avocado slices
• Fruit
  
• Miso soup
  

Oils:

Extra-virgin olive oil

Supplements:

• Vitamin C: Increases glutathione production, a liver compound that drives away toxins.
• Probiotics
• Fiber
• Herbs such as dandelion root, burdock and milk thistle help cleanse & protect the liver.
• Spirulina, wheat grass or blue/green algae

Other tips:

• Drink at least 2 quarts of water
• Take a few minutes a day to meditate & take deep breaths to allow oxygen to move completely through your system
• Sit in a sauna to help eliminate toxins
• Exercise!
• Take a couple of spoonfuls of extra virgin olive oil at night to help stimulate your liver to eliminate bile
• If bowel movements become sluggish, take a mild herbal laxative, drink aloe vera juice or detox tea
• Eat all organic whole foods if possible

Good luck, let me know if you have any questions. Also, feel free to post your progress in the comments section!

Breathe in. Breathe out.

A Fundamental Act of Life That is So Easily Taken For Granted: Breathing!

It has been proven that the average person uses about a third of your natural lung capacity.

Going back to the pre industrial era, diaphragmatic breathing occurred naturally when individuals were much more active performing manual labor on farms and hunting for food.

Modern life has challenged the average person to use the full capacity of the breath: poor posture, bad habits such as smoking, restrictive clothing, lack of exercise, diets that lead to high blood pressure, increasingly rapid and emotionally stressful lives, polluted environments, slouching in front of computers are among the few things that contradict the ability to breath efficiently.

Diaphragmatic Breathing?

This is the most natural and healthy way of breathing that we tend to forget over time; our breathing becomes shallow or irregular or both.

The primary muscle for breathing is the Diaphragm. It is the dome shaped muscle situated underneath the frame of the ribcage and separates the lungs from the stomach. It is a very thin, wide muscle that inflates and deflates much like a parachute. During inhalation the diaphragm descends downwardly in the torso increasing the volume of the lungs to take in oxygen. On exhalation the diaphragm floats back up the torso expelling the carbon dioxide from the lungs.

Stress Remedy!

Taking 10 minutes a day to simply breath deeply will undoubtedly help to reduce anxiety and/or stress. It is important to know that Deep Breathing means to inhale and exhale long and slowly. The best way to breath deeply is to build up little by little. The lung's capacity starts to expand, and as a result your mind becomes calmer, more balanced, and you will be able to concentrate more fully. If you are able to breathe anywhere from 1 to 4 times per minute you can reach a distinct, calm meditative state.

Reaching this state by simply focusing on the breath serves as what I see as sort of a mental and emotional reset button. We can definitely all take a little break from the madness!

In Pilates How Do I Keep My Belly Flat and Still Achieve a Full Breath?

In relation to movement and pilates there is an emphasis on maintaining a flat belly while performing exercises. A huge misconception, I have found, with pilates is always holding and stiffening to pull in your abdominals. In actuality the key is striking a fine balance between letting everything hang out and clenching your body. I like to call this: active abdominals.

Breathing in 3D allows full breath to occur while keeping your abs connected. The most profound cue I have used and learned in teaching is to 'breath into your back'. To encourage posterior breathing is the most effective way to help my clients keep a flat belly while performing exercises and still achieve a full breath.

This will also allow you to wail at the top of your lungs and run around on stage during your performance! Im pretty sure Gwen is hip to posterior breathing ;)

Breathing to Move!

It is very common that people hold their breath while performing exercises. In order to for the best results in your workout you must keep the breath flowing.

According to Kelly Kane of the Kane School of Core Integration, using the full capacity of the lungs is paramount to creating movement in the thorax as well as the whole body. Unfortunately many of us do not use the fully capacity of our lungs in three dimensions. The three dimensions being superiorly to the first rib collar, laterally to the side seam of the body and toward the heart, posteriorly to all aspects of the ribs and inferiorly toward the abdomen.

This statement has totally illuminated the importance of mobilizing the breath in all aspects of your body so that you can move to your ultimate ability. So keep the breath moving!

Any questions!? Just ask ;)

What is Pilates??

The answer is: Pilates is more than exercises!

Born in 1883 Joseph Hubertus Pilates was a German citizen that emigrated to NYC around 1926.

In short, his life began with a childhood plagued by illnesses and experiences of being bullied at school. He overcame his adversities to become an avid gymnast, boxer, performer, and trainer. He also spent time in a beer brewery in his hometown near Dusseldorf. Talk about Jack of all trades! His story is truly inspiring.

Contrology is the original name of what we refer to as 'Pilates'. It is inspired by eastern disciplines such as yoga and martial arts blended with western influences of body building, boxing, gymnastics and recreational sports. It was Pilates' belief that true health could not be attained without the union of the mind, body and spirit. He created a method of physical and mental wellness that integrates the mind and the body to achieve complete health.

There are Pilates machines??

In addition to the mat work that most people correlate with Pilates there is also a level of Pilates choreography using various different apparatuses. As with any great inventor's story comes a history lesson!

Right before World War I, Joe was working in England as a self defense trainer for the Scotland Yard. At the onset of the war he was forced into internment being a German national. During this time he was able refine his exercises by rigging springs to hospital beds enabling bedridden patients to exercise against resistance. These innovations later developed into the designs of the current machines called the Reformer, Cadillac & Wunda Chair.

The efficacy of his exercise regimen was further validated to Pilates when his trainees were among the only groups that survived the influenza epidemic in England of 1918. Thanks to the core Pilates principle of Diaphragmatic Breathing of course!

Myth: Pilates began as an exercise for dancers.

Pilates' association with dancers began when he opened a studio on the same block as the New York City Ballet on 8th Ave. The lengthening and toning results that the technique provides was complimentary to the silhouettes desired by dancers. As popularity grew among dancers and performers, Pilates experienced an explosion into celebrity interest, thanks Madonna! This coupled with the phenomena of the baby boomer population seeking alternative methods of exercise, that by the 90s Pilates came to the forefront of mainstream health and fitness.

Joseph Pilates knew his ideas would catch on: "my work is 50 years ahead of my time". His experiences taught him to believe that the modern life-style, bad posture, and inefficient breathing were the roots of poor health.

His answer to these problems was to design a unique series of life enhancing physical exercises to help correct muscular imbalances and improve posture, coordination, balance, strength and flexibility as well as to increase breathing capacity and organ function.

I am continually inspired by this history and legacy of an individual that was dedicated to helping people feel healthy. Hopefully you have a new appreciation for Pilates too ;)

Does the change in weather make us sick?

The weather this past weekend showed signs that fall is on its way. It's a beautiful time in NYC, but the change in weather usually means sick days for a lot of people.

Why does this happen? How can we prevent it?

The change in temperature tends to put an added stress on our bodies, this obviously weakens the immune system & gives the opportunistic germs a chance to take advantage of you, poor thing!:( The key to staying well and strong this winter (I've heard its going to be a brutal one!) is to support your immune system before the germs attack.

Some suggestions:
- Echinacea two or three times a day for two or three weeks before cold season starts. Start now. This herb is PREVENTATIVE, a lot of people tend to take it when they get sick. Vitamin C is also a good one to add. 1,000 mg/day.

- Eat a lot of fruits & veggies! Below is a link to what's in season:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/301858/Fruits-and-Vegetables-in-Season

- Reduce your sugar intake: White blood cells ability to engulf bacteria is weakened when high levels of sugar are introduced into the blood stream. The pancreas has to produce a ton of insulin when the concentration of sugar is high, the digestive tract is also watching your back because it has to make sure all the sugar you just consumed does not enter the bloodstream at the same time.

- Reduce caffeine intake :-( Trust me, this is very hard to type...I LUV my coffee baby! Too much of it depletes your body of vitamins, nutrients & minerals. It can also exhaust your adrenal glands, I have DEFINITELY been a victim of this!

- Reduce alcohol intake: I think we all know what too much booze can do to you so I wont even get into it.

- Sleep! : Our bodies needs rest from the stress and strain of daily life to get recharged. Rest restores our bodies and refreshes our minds. We release potent immune-enhancing substances that strengthen our immune function during deep sleep.

- Agua! I just finished a biochemistry class & learned that everything within our body needs water to function. I know this sounds obvious, but you would be surprised with the amount of people out there that never drink water or think that drinking a Snapple counts as water. In 154 lbs man of average build, about 63% of the body weight is water. In a woman of the same weight, typically only about 54% is water. Our kidneys and liver process and eliminate toxins from the blood & could use a little help from our friend H2O. It also helps keep mucous membranes moist enough to combat the viruses they encounter. And it helps with weight loss in several ways, drinking water helps curb your sugar or snacking cravings which sometimes could be a sign of dehydration. Try a big glass of water the next time you are craving sugar, then wait a few minutes and see if the need for the sugar is really still there.

- Exercise!: Working out 3 times a week REALLY helps the immune system stay strong.

- Quiet time: I'm talking to myself when I say this, take 10 minutes out of your day and just sit there. Close your eyes, focus on your breath, meditate on a word, play some relaxing music, or just sit in silence and try to thinking about nothing! Yea right, I know..it takes a lot of patience & practice :)
The link below can help you find a mantra!
http://www.meditationiseasy.com/mCorner/techniques/Some_mantras_to_dwell_upon.htm




Be well & please let me know if this was helpful.

Welcome!

Hello dear friends,

Hadis here :) Kristen & I decided to finally get our acts together and start our LUV YRSELF blog. Our goal is to motivate happiness by promoting good health through music, fitness, nutrition and spirituality (and anything else that inspires us!)

Hadis's mini bio: Presently I am working on becoming a Registered Dietitian and have been interning in an apothecary for the past 2 years. My main focus is to empower others and myself through knowledge of wellness & nutrition. Nutrition is a young science and there is so much going on. Everyday there seems to be a new hot topic in the press. We should do this, not that..take these, not those..We need to be proactive & educate ourselves on what makes us healthy so that we can take our health into our own hands. My belief is that nutrition is the medicine of the future. Through this blog I hope to keep you inspired, informed and healthy!

2500 years ago, Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine", said to his students, "Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food".

Kristen's mini bio: Recently certified in Pilates instruction through the Kane School of Core Integration in NYC, I am committed to helping others achieve physical health through movement. As a result I am increasingly motivated to know more about the body. There is so much within the universe of our own anatomy that is easily taken for granted, especially in the way we exercise! Learning to move efficiently can prevent injuries, tone your body and make you feel good. Intelligent movement also creates a better flow of energy in the body that increases the consciousness of our selves. The world of medicine today has evolved into an entity governed largely by motivations other than the well being of people. Therefore we have to rely on our own ability to perceive our bodies. As I work with new clients everyday in the studio I hope to keep you updated on new ways to find this level of body awareness through Pilates, anatomy & any other form of inspiration that develops!

"In the matter of treatment, the big mistake of physicians in our time is to separate the soul from the body" –Plato (360 BC)

Please feel free to comment, ask questions or make suggestions to posts.

Thank you & be well!