QUOTE OF THE MONTH: Five Contemplations at Mealtime
The Five Contemplations 1. This food is the gift of the whole universe -- the earth, the sky, and much hard work. 2. May we live in a way that makes us worthy to receive it. 3. May we transform our unskillful states of mind, especially our greed, and learn to eat in moderation. 4. May we take only foods that nourish us and prevent illness. 5. We accept this food so that we may realize the path of love, understanding and compassion. -- From the Vietnamese tradition, as taught in the West by Thich Nhat Hanh
SPRINGTIME EDITOR'S LETTER
Happy Spring! Today marks the first official day of spring, a wonderful time to rejuvenate your mind and body after the long winter. This month's article is by my yoga teacher, Dr. Jeff Migdow, and explains the important connections between diet and yoga. If you are interested in learning more about yoga or developing your practice further, please consider joining me at the Women's Wellness weekend in May (shown below), a great opportunity to pamper yourself in the name of spring! In health , Katherine
WEBSITES OF THE MONTH: Try some desk yoga
Clients often tell me that they don't have time to fit yoga exercises into their daily schedule. These websites provide basic information about incorporating daily desktop yoga exercises into your workday. Current evidence points to the fact that Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI) are largely preventable with regular stretching, but difficult to heal once they have progressed. The first website is one of my favorites, it's easy to follow and has computer-animated images of people doing the desktop yoga moves. http://www.mydailyyoga.com/yogaindex.html http://www.e-stretch.net http://www.easydesktopyoga.com
Holistic Activism Opportunity
A few years ago I was at a workshop given by Annemarie Colbin, head of The Natural Gourmet School in New York City (www.naturalgourmetschool.com) and she wondered aloud how Horizon Organic had managed to produce so much organic milk in so short a time. This issue is now coming to a head as the organic industry becomes more profitable and thus a bigger target for multi-national companies to mess with the high standards set by the USDA. The below dispatch was sent before the National Organic Standards Board at the beginning of March, but you can still visit the website at the end and sign the petition. If you read this newsletter, you know the importance of distinguishing between organic and conventionally grown foods. In the interest of preserving a legitimate organic industry in this country, please consider signing the petition. STOP FACTORY DAIRY FARMS FROM LABELING THEIR PRODUCTS AS ORGANIC The battle to safeguard organic standards is coming to a head next week (March 1-3) at the meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) in Washington, D.C. The board will be addressing the issue of livestock standards, specifically the controversy surrounding "factory dairy feedlots" marketing their products as "organic." Ignoring USDA organic standards that require regular access to natural pasture for cows, intensive confinement feedlots with thousands of cows in Idaho, Colorado, and California are currently labeling and selling their products as organic. Wisconsin's Cornucopia Institute has filed a formal complaint against several of these factory farm operations, including Horizon Organic, the largest organic dairy brand in the U.S. Horizon is owned by Dean Foods, the nation's largest dairy conglomerate. It is important that the NOSB hear from as many consumers as possible on this issue. Studies have shown that grass-fed cows are healthier, and that their meat and dairy products are nutritionally superior to grain-fed cows reared in feedlots. Take action here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/nosb.htm
HEALTHY COOKING AND YOGA AT THE BEACH 5/13-5/15
Spring Women’s Wellness- Weekend at a Waterfront Home in Lewes, Delaware A Woman’s Wellness Weekend
May 13 - May 15, 2005 Nourish your mind, body & soul with yoga, massage and time in nature, together with delicious organic food everyday! Walk away with a deeper knowledge around whole food cooking and nutrition and how it can benefit your life. Give yourself the gift of health! A wonderful Mother's Day gift for yourself or a Mother in your life! 2 or 3 night options available
Pick-ups will be available for those coming from New York City. DEPOSIT TO HOLD SPACE BY 3/28/05. Spaces Limited. Visit http://www.livingwholehealth.com for registration form. Comments from our Fall Wellness Weekend: “I really enjoyed the weekend - the professionalism of the hosts and the camaraderie of the guests. I found the time to be very collegial and rejuvenating. I would definitely come back for another round. I thought the weekend was totally successful. And I have told all my friends and relatives what a great time it was; I raved about the food; I expounded on the "ideal picture"; and I told them the yoga instructor was first rate”.
-- Barbara “I got what I wanted out of the weekend: quiet, relaxation, rest, reflection, and I left with a sense of renewed wellness. I learned how to do Ideal Scenes and am looking forward to incorporating those into my goals. And it also got me excited about yoga again and wanting to keep that up on a more regular basis. It was a great time to get away from the noise of daily life and just be. Thanks for everything.”
-- Kate Wellness To Go! Planning a girl’s weekend. family or corporate retreat? We will bring daily yoga and healthy delicious organic meals and more to your gathering, just give us a call to create your healthy gathering! Get together your group and leave the rest to us!! For more information contact Katherine at 1-877-509-3680 or Katherine@SimplyLivingWell.net or Cheryl at 703-360-8791
YOGIC RECIPE: Kachumbar
This raw vegetable dish, the Indian equivalent of a salad, is a nice springtime recipe especially as cucumbers come into season. Cucumbers contain over 90% water, more than any other food besides watermelon, which keeps its internal temperature several degrees cooler than the surrounding air, making it a very refreshing food. Cucumbers are a high source of silicon, which is necessary for calcium absorption and which is difficult to find in the American diet. Silicon helps reduce cholesterol, as well as strengthening nerve and heart tissue. Kachumbar
Ingredients: (serves 4) 1 cup cucumber, finely diced (peel if skin is bitter)
1 cup green bell pepper (or colored peppers), finely diced
1 cup fresh tomatoes, finely diced
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
3-5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
Peanuts, if desired Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combine all of the chopped vegetables, peanuts, cumin, pepper, salt and 3 teaspoons of lemon juice. Adjust flavors to your taste 2. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve Adapted from The Kripalu Cookbook by Atma Joann Levitt, Berkshire House Publishers, 1995
ARTICLE: Yoga and Diet
Ask the Doctor: Yoga and Diet
by Jeff Migdow MD Since the beginning of time, civilizations have considered what we eat and how we eat of utmost importance. In order to accomplish our physical labor, whether it's yoga, exercise or working in the fields, we need nutritious food in sufficient quantities to allow our cells to produce energy. When people overeat or are starving, when they don't eat what their bodies need, or, as in modern times, consume too much unhealthy refined and processed food, the cells age more quickly and have a harder time producing energy. Thus, eating a healthy, clean diet is an underpinning of the practice of yoga. In fact, in the yogic scriptures, eating is considered a sadhana, a reverent act, a union between that part of nature which is the eater and that part which is eaten. What's eaten actually transforms into the eater. If I eat a carrot, that carrot becomes a human being through my process of eating it. When we're eating, we should optimally be focused, present, all our attention in the mouth. Yogic philosophy says we should chew our solid food until it's liquefied and chew our liquids as if they were solids, so we absorb all the prana (life force energy) and nutrients. Most people find that when they start practicing yoga, they feel compelled to make dietary changes. When we become more sensitive through the practice of yoga to our bodies and the effects of what we put into our bodies, we tend to automatically make modifications in the amount we eat, what we eat and when we eat. Yoga can inspire you to become more aware of your body, the food you eat and how it affects you. Some foods cause an energetic, clear feeling (SATTVIC in yoga terminology), a hyped-up, speedy feeling (RAJASIC) or a dull, heavy feeling (TAMASIC). You can experiment with modifying your diet in order to experience more of that clear, satisfied pranic feeling. The yoga scriptures emphasize the importance of a sattvic diet to create purity in the mind and body as a vehicle for connecting more deeply with spirit. If you have a very dulling or stimulating diet, it's difficult to reach this peaceful state even if you're doing yoga postures. We all know that if we overeat at night, then practicing yoga the next morning is a less pleasant experience. We tend to oversleep and if we do get up to practice, our bodies feel heavy and dull. If you're hyped-up and stimulated with coffee, on the other hand, you might be going through the motions of your practice, but your mind won't be calm and stable. Yoga can be very helpful for people with eating disorders, diseases related to the emotional body. When people with anorexia or bulimia practice yoga, they become more sensitive and more connected to their bodies and thus less likely to deny themselves nourishment. The yoga also helps them release deeply-held tensions, especially those locked in the abdominal area, making them less likely to feel the need to process these emotions through food. I've also worked with many overweight clients, who tell me that once they start practicing yoga, it's much easier to eat less, chew more and eat healthier food. They're inspired, they say, by how much they enjoy their yoga practice. They want to be able to stretch more fully and deeply and know they can't do that as long as they're carrying extra weight. When they're overweight, they feel sluggish and numb and it's hard for them to experience what's happening in the postures. In addition, as they become more sensitive to their bodies, they feel the heaviness more intensely than before and are even more motivated to lose weight. For overweight students, those with eating disorders or simply the typical American who overeats and consumes unhealthy food, the key is not specific postures so much as frequent practice. Within a few months, a practice of eight to ten postures done at least every other day will create more sensitivity and openness in the body as well as a strong incentive to be able to stretch more deeply and experience the flow of prana more intensely. Adding kapalbhati breathing will aid in stimulating digestion and elimination, which will help you get more nutrition and energy out of your food. A balanced approach to the sadhana of eating allows for a much deeper, richer, spiritual experience, both on and off the mat.
By Jeff Migdow, MD, Director of Prana Yoga Teacher Training, and Holistic Physician in Lenox, MA. For information on Prana Yoga Teacher Training and other courses and classes, please contact www.opencenter.org, www.beyoga.com, and www.kripalu.org.
For infomation on his medical practice and other programs you can contact Jeff directly at 413-448-3456 This article reprinted from the Kripalu Yoga Teachers Association newsletter.
ABOUT KATHERINE JAMIESON, HOLISTIC HEALTH COUNSELOR AND WELLNESS TRAINER
Katherine was trained in Holistic Health Counseling through the Professional Training Program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York, and certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. She was certified to teach yoga in 2001 through the New York Open Center Prana Yoga Teacher Training, instructed by Dr. Jeffrey Migdow, MD. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from Wesleyan University. Before entering the Holistic Health field, Katherine was a Peace Corps volunteer for two years in Guyana, South America. Katherine is a Health and Wellness Trainer who specializes in conducting seminars on a variety of topics related to nutrition, life balance, stress reduction and wellness practices. She has been a speaker at the United Nations, UNICEF, UNDP, the United States Department of Agriculture, the New York City Department of Health, the Hospital for Joint Diseases, the Nuclear Energy Institute and the Embassy of Australia. Katherine also maintains a private practice which combines cutting-edge, holistic nutritional theory and yoga breathing and postures, to help people attain optimal health and well being in their lives. If you are interested in reading back issues of this newsletter, in publication since May 2003, please feel free to visit the web hosting site where you can find the full editions archived: http://casts.webvalence.com/sites/SimplyLivingWell/
STRANGE BUT TRUE...
FATKINS If you're a recovering Atkins Diet guinea pig, this website is for you. Beware a great deal of cursing and a squirrel with serious attitude (the site has a well-deserved Parental Warning on it), but the message is right on! http://www.illwillpress.com/fatkins.html
( this site not officially endorsed by Simply Living Well enterprises...) FRITO LAY FOOD PYRAMID Apparently Frito Lay created its own food pyramid, with Doritos, Fritos, and Lays forming the foundation of a "healthy diet". I couldn't find the link to the original image on the Frito Lay website (it must have been taken down after all the furor) but it is archived, along with the inspirational "nutritional" text on several websites, including this one below: http://www.calpundit.com/archives/003116.html THANK YOU FOR READING AND BE WELL!
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