by Jasmine | Dec 30, 2015 | Yoga Health
Practicing Yoga with the Dog
practicing yoga with the dog
When I first got my dog, she was about 12 months old, still a puppy. She would chase her tail around in circles, be so zippy at the thought of going outside and was a furry spitball of energy and enthusiasm. When I first started doing yoga at home with some of my favorite yoga DVDs like Shiva Rea, Rodney Yee, Beth Shaw YogaFit or Desiree Rumbaugh she thought it was playtime and would be barking and yipping at me. At first I locked her in the basement but that didn’t work so well since she kept screaming and yelling. (It’s not easy to be in shivasana when you hear BARK BARK WHINE WHINE BARK BARK WHINE WHINE WHINE …..
So then I let her be in the room with me again. She loved to be on my mat while I was practicing on it. Did you ever try to jump around a pile of breathing fur when you are doing sun salutations?
After a few dozen times of attempting to be calm and yogic when dealing with her (being compassionate, patient, detached) one day I yelled at her at the top of my lungs “ GET THE F—K OUT you F—HEAD”! Just so you know, most people that know me well would not say I have a temper, I’m fairly even keeled and not prone to angry outbursts. After I yelled at her like that, the furry crackhead never tried to distract me when I was on my mat again.
I kind of missed the interaction in a way though so we negotiated a compromise. She had to stay away from me when I was in the standing and seated postures. When I am in shivasana or in a long restorative pose, she can lay on my lap. It’s kind of soothing…she is almost like an extra yoga prop and helps me get more relaxed when I am ready to drop down into the final relaxation.
Granted it’s not much exercise for your fleabag. A few goods way to let them get some exercise and is quite stimulating as well for dogs (that are hound breeds especially). Is to have the dog hide (put them in a closet or basement) Then take a small treat, hide it somewhere in the house and let the dog out and say “Go Get It!” Your dog might not get it the first few times but they will get it by the 10th time if not sooner.
You can also play hide and seek with your dog. If you have small kids they will love to join in this too.
You could also just play some music and grab your dog front legs and just start to dance with them. My dog doesn’t love this but she does tolerate it.
What about you and your dog or cat? Do you do yoga, exercise or dance with them?
by Jasmine | Nov 29, 2015 | vitality health, Weight loss, Yoga For Weight Loss
Do you feel frenetic about getting things done in your life?
Are you working crazy hours?
Do you feel rested when you get up in the morning?
Sleep is a time of intense cellular renewal. If you are not getting the rest you need, then your internal organs are depleted.
What can you do to improve the amount and quality of your rest?
Does that mean not letting the ping of your cell phone wake you up?
Does it mean going to bed an hour earlier?
Does it mean no coffee late in the day so you can get to sleep earlier?
Sleep is more important than we actually think, it can really change the way you look….and not just by getting rid of those baggy eyes! By getting enough sleep we can actually lose a higher percentage of body fat than if we didn’t sleep that much.
A recent study looked at people who slept 8-8.5 hours a night vs people who slept for about 5 hours a night. The participants had the exact same diet, calories, carbs, protein, and fats. The participants were studied for 3 months and the results were staggering! During the study ALL participants lost 6.6lbs!
Out of the 6.6lbs lost the group who slept 8 hours a night lost 50% fat and 50% lean mass (body fat weight from total body weight) the participants who slept 5 hours a night lost 20% fat and 80% lean mass!
Let me break this down for you, the group who didn’t sleep as long lost 80% lean mass which means they lost the majority of their weight muscle tissue!
When we lose muscle we in turn lower our metabolism, that’s NOT a good thing! The more muscle we have the higher our metabolism will be and the higher percentage of fat we are able to burn and utilize as energy!
Now with any study we need to take this with a grain of salt, you can still lose “good” weight by not sleeping 8 hours a night, and you can also gain weight by sleeping a lot.
Smiles, Jasmine
by Jasmine | Nov 24, 2015 | snack, vitality health
Old wisdom tells us that snacking between meals is a good way to get plump. But new wisdom tells us that snacking is a good way to keep your metabolism in gear and to prevent you from overdoing it at meal time. Who’s right?
The truth is somewhere in the middle. Snacking can be a great way to rev up your metabolism and keep you energized and satisfied. But if you are not snacking on the right things, then your mid-day noshes could be destroying your diet.
Here are snack foods for a lean, mean body and tons of energy.
1) Hard boiled eggs:. Always keep hard boiled eggs at hand. Make half a dozen at the beginning of the week and then store them in the office fridge. You can top them with tumeric to make them more exciting.
2) Roasted chickpeas. Roasted chickpeas are a crunchy and satisfying treat, especially if you are craving something salty You can buy them pre-made or make a batch easily at home. Add spices like cumin and chili powder to up the flavor without adding calories.
3) Protein shake. Nothing kills an ice-cream craving like a cold, frothy protein shake and it is wonderful for muscle recovery after a hard workout.
4) Homemade granola bars. Make your own granola bars using sugar substitutes like agave nectar. Use your favorite fruits and nuts and get creative.
5) Snack clean with a dried fruit concoction. “Here’s my favorite snack right now: I take a sliced dried apple and I top it with almond butter. Then I toss some coconut shavings and cinnamon on top. Easy, breezy…and best of all, it’s great for your body!”
6) Raw, unsalted almonds. Ideal if you can soak them in water for a few hours before-hand since that makes them easier for your body to break down.
Have you noticed that all of these things have some kind of protein in it? Protein digests slowly so it’s an ideal thing to tide you over for a few hours.
So what about NOT to eat?
Anything that comes from a vending machine is likely to be filled with all kinds of chemicals and franken-foods to keep them shelf-stable for long periods of time.
Most “Energy Bars” are likely to be filled with all kinds of sweeteners that make your thighs chubby so unless you are certain the ingredients are pure and clean then I would actually avoid most of them. Food companies can make all kinds of claim such as “light” “natural” but there is no legal basis for these terms. They can even put pictures of wholesome ingredients on them.
Most of the things at Starbux, especially the coffee drinks are LOADED with all kinds of fattening and sugary stuff ( I like to think of the Starbux drinks as coffee-flavored ice-cream sundaes)…. it’s ok to do occasionally…. but as a daily habit if you really want to trim down it’s a No-No. Please note, I’m not talking about regular black coffee but talking about the coffee with a bunch of whipped cream, frothy milk, syrups and chocolate shavings on top. These drinks are pretty pricey anyway… $4 for one of these? If you have one of these every day ( which MANY of us do) that is about $1500 a YEAR? What could you do with an extra $1500 a year. I’m not saying don’t drink coffee if you need your fix, but just make it at home which will end up being much healthier anyway.
Most things that you get in the middle section of the grocery store are not ideal snacks….. most of the things come in packages, crackers, potato chips, packaged sweets etc. I usually stay away from all the middle aisles which have all the highly processed foods and drinks.
“Power drinks”. Again, just because it says in big letter that it is “Vitamin Water” and there are pictures of beautiful fruits and vegetables on them does not mean that is is actually healthy…. even remotely. Read the actual ingredients…. especially the sugar content and your eyeballs will pop out to see how much sugar was added to these things.
by Jasmine | Nov 20, 2015 | healthy eating
I have a bad sweet tooth… it’s actually a whole mouth of sweet teeth. The sugar demon visits me every afternoon around 3 pm. Cakes, cookies, and chocolate chips are my frenemies – I love them but they don’t love me back.
I’ve done LOTS of experimenting with less fattening, less refined sugar treats. I’ve made brownies with pasture raised eggs, stevia and organic butter but that ends up being so PRICEY!
How can I reconcile my need for sweet with the desire to not have a major sugar crash.
Enter bananas.
I’m not particularly a banana-freak. I like them but wouldn’t say that I crave them.
I like bananas as a sweet base or sugar substitute for things in desserts, ice-creams and smoothies to make it sweet with the damage of refined white sugar or expense of stevia or erythiterol – a natural sugar substitute.
One of my favorite “ice-creams” is to peel bananas, freeze them and then cuisanart them. No need to mess with other ingredients, no need to mess with an ice-cream maker and it does satisfy that sweet craving.
You can add other things in there which I did today such as strawberries or nuts…. today I added chocolate chips.
This is probably the cheapest and healthiest way to eat ice cream… you can serve it to people and they would never know how simple and not refined sugar-laden it was.
With my 12 month old baby, I want to expand his palate, always giving him new tastes and textures for him so banana ice cream is one way for him to experience frozen and creamy without having the toxic effects of sugar.
by Jasmine | Nov 15, 2015 | green smoothies, Yoga Health
No, silly…. I’m not talking about a shot of vodka as you wake up …… I’m also not talking about anything with caffeine in it.
I used to have a protein powder shake with concentrated dried vegetables and some ground chia and flax seeds. The past few days I decided to change it up. I was feeling a bit “bulgy” so wondered if I started to incorporate more green… especially at the start of my day, what the impact would be.
I blend spinach and lime juice….. although you can mix it up with lemon, maybe some cucumber and today I added a bit of squeezed orange juice. I don’t like to have too much fruit in the morning since that is still sugar… it’s not refined but there is a crash even if it’s from a natural source.
Drink To Energize – My usual breakfast routine with my green smoothie.
Having my green smoothie really does zip me up in more ways than one. I get over that dragginess in the morning pretty quickly….
A lot of health-conscious folks will show you all kinds of ways to make the smoothie… maybe adding almond milk, a banana, soy milk, regular milk or just a bunch of fruit.
I consider myself the “Smoothie Queen”…. I’ve probably made thousands of smoothies in my life with all kinds of variations.
If you make it with some kind of milk, it’s usually refined and de-nourished since the production process of something like almond and soy milk usually ends up robbing it of it’s essential natural nutrients. Naturally soy and almonds are some of the most nutrient dense things you could eat. With Monsanto genetically modifying soy and most of the seeds in the industrialized farm world, you end up getting soy that is not ideal from a nutrition perspective.
( If you make your own almond or soy milk then you are getting a ton of nutrients but not sure who would be willing to do this).
A bit of fruit in the smoothie is ok but I wouldn’t load it up with a ton of it since the natural sugars in fruit end up resulting in a sugar crash. Technically lemons, limes and avocado and tomatoes are fruit but they are low sugar-fruits. I wouldn’t event consider getting any kind of packaged juice and adding much of it to your green smoothie since these are filled with all kinds of refined sugars…. sometimes high fructose corn syrup.
I actually seem to think more clearly in the morning when I have my green smoothie…. I’m not usually that hungry in the am so this actually does tide me over till noon or so. If for some reason I get hungry and can’t get to lunch then a few handfuls of sesame seeds or raw almonds does tide me over for awhile.
Having the same thing for breakfast every morning might seem monotonous for some but mornings are such a hectic time with getting things ready for the baby, my hubby going off to work and the dog so when there are less decisions about what I am going to eat, that just frees up my brain for other things.
I’ve also noticed some of my bulges have gone missing… YAY! I’m just starting to incorporate more green into every meal. If I have some kind of chicken, lentil dish then I can just heat that up over spinach……..
Spinach is definitely my veggie of choice. It has a slightly sweet taste and it never overpowers the other flavors. It cooks up very fast ( like 2 minutes). I actually don’t even bother to cook it a lot… if I heat up a dish like chicken or lentils and just put it over some spinach, then the greens will just wilt…. voila…. less cooking, less dishes. It doesn’t have the bitter taste that a lot of other greens have so it is much more palatable than most of the other ones. It’s also easy to get at any kind of supermarket and it’s pre-washed usually so it’s easy to prepare.
