So many of us yogis believe that yoga is all the exercise we need. Is it true? Yes and no. First of all, it depends on the style of yoga you're practicing. If you are exclusive to yin yoga for example, you will need to certainly add some cardio, balance, and strength training of some sort to your schedule. But since yin yoga is only one kind of yoga, and a bit on the extreme end of the relaxing and stretching part of the spectrum of yoga styles, it's not the best example. Most styles of yoga that have you at some point in your practice standing on one foot, doing standing asanas, and also some asanas that you are bearing weight on your arms (e.g. chattaranga, downward facing dog) are excellent for strength training and balance. Styles that have sun saluations or even 'vinyasas' are good for your cardiovascular health too.
That said, unless you are going to do multiple consecutive surya namaskara vigorously for 30 minutes 5x/week, you are not getting enough aerobic exercise. So no, for your body at least, yoga is NOT enough. The good news is that yoga is amazing for you in so many other ways--please, in my professional opinion DO NOT DROP YOUR PRACTICE!
You might consider adding another activity to your regular routine. It doesn't matter what it is, it can be free or join a class. Walk, hike, run, bike, swim, run up and down the stairs, play an aerobic Wii game, Zumba, whatever just get your heart rate up. My personal favorite? Turning on the music and dancing around my house like a lunatic. Whatever your thing is, make sure your intensity is appropriate. You can figure it out by self monitoring and checking in periodically.
The recommendation is to get your heart rate up within the target range for 30 minutes 5x/week. It involves taking your pulse and knowing where your target heart rate is. You can learn about your target heart rate and how to measure it from the American Heart Association.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Baking Season
Winter is defined by spending time indoors and keeping warm. I can't think of a better way to spend these months than baking. I don't bake much year-round. But cold weather has me craving a proper dessert. December is all about baking and sharing your favorite Christmas cookies...but this month I'm baking other treats.
For New Year's dinner I baked a delicious blueberry pie from the frozen blueberries in the freezer. It's easy to bake with frozen berries. The trick is to NOT thaw them. Just 'pretend' that they're fresh and expect that the baking time is going to be significant longer...which you won't mind because the oven will keep you toasty.
Today I found myself with some extra free time after being sent home from work. I decided to make a dessert for dinner--apple crisp!
I wanted to do something special with the Mountain Rose apples from the CSA. This variety is pink on the inside and they say that the color holds with cooking.
I made the crisp in a clear dish so you could see the pink. I didn't have quite enough apples, so I added some other white-fleshed varieties, but primarily it was the Mountain Roses. I don't peel my apples. They are organic and the peels will add a little extra fiber to make the dessert "healthier".
I add a splash of apple brandy, a little sugar, and some cinnamon to the apples.
A good tip is whenever you make a crisp topping, make a double batch. Freeze half of it in a quart size ziploc. I was lucky this time and had a bag in the freezer, which I could just throw on top.
Dessert will be served after a lovely dinner of beet salad, sauteed greens and butternut squash soup tonight.
Crisp topping recipe:
1 2/3 cup oats
1/4 cup flour
6 T brown sugar
1 1/2 T white sugar
1/4 t salt
1/4 t cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks butter, cut into pieces
Mix the dry ingredients well. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until mixture comes together and is crumbly. Frozen will last ~2 months.
This recipe will work with any fruit. Add a little sugar to all and about a tablespoon of flour to juicy fruits before topping. Bake at 375 until golden brown and bubbling ~50 minutes.
For New Year's dinner I baked a delicious blueberry pie from the frozen blueberries in the freezer. It's easy to bake with frozen berries. The trick is to NOT thaw them. Just 'pretend' that they're fresh and expect that the baking time is going to be significant longer...which you won't mind because the oven will keep you toasty.
I wanted to do something special with the Mountain Rose apples from the CSA. This variety is pink on the inside and they say that the color holds with cooking.
I made the crisp in a clear dish so you could see the pink. I didn't have quite enough apples, so I added some other white-fleshed varieties, but primarily it was the Mountain Roses. I don't peel my apples. They are organic and the peels will add a little extra fiber to make the dessert "healthier".
A good tip is whenever you make a crisp topping, make a double batch. Freeze half of it in a quart size ziploc. I was lucky this time and had a bag in the freezer, which I could just throw on top.
1 2/3 cup oats
1/4 cup flour
6 T brown sugar
1 1/2 T white sugar
1/4 t salt
1/4 t cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks butter, cut into pieces
Mix the dry ingredients well. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until mixture comes together and is crumbly. Frozen will last ~2 months.
This recipe will work with any fruit. Add a little sugar to all and about a tablespoon of flour to juicy fruits before topping. Bake at 375 until golden brown and bubbling ~50 minutes.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Coming soon...2013
I am going to be much better about blogging now that school is finished. I also got a new phone with a decent camera, so hoping to post some pictures on here. My old phone went kaput years ago, so not many images made it to the blog for the past few years. Expect some yummy local food goodies to come. Starting here this year.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Which kind of doctor is the hardest to earn?
In the academic world there is often the question of which is harder-becoming a doctor of healthcare, or a Ph.D. Now, I don't have a Ph.D., but I did do a year of graduate work in ecology for a Master's degree-which was exactly the same kind of year my equals in the ecology Ph.D. program had. They had more years than I did, and their projects needed to be more unique and impactful. But I had a taste of that life, I spent my days with those people.
This weekend I graduated with my D.C., an education comparable in every way to that of an M.D. So being a (yet unlicensed) doctor myself, I definitely understand what that is like.
Here is the verdict as I see it. The Ph.D. wins. Both programs involved a lot of learning and some late night and weekend sacrifice, they are equal in that regard. However, a Ph.D. involves that element of originality and the need for your research to be of some impact to your field. If you can't bring that to the table--too bad.
As a doctor of healthcare, it's pretty much a step up from undergrad in the beginning, you have more classes, and none are cute gen eds like pottery and literature. They are all science of some sort. Later on you need to treat patients under supervision. There are certain requirements; but treat 265 patients, get observed treating so many of them, write so many reports on them, and manage so many "complex" cases, pass a few more tests...and you're guaranteed to graduate. You can do it just the same as everyone else, and you don't need to teach your superiors in the field anything.
Introverts may be better suited for Ph.D.-ship because you spend a lot of time alone with that research...with any healthcare field you spend a lot of time with humans. So that fact alone may be swaying my opinion as an outgoing person.
Even though the Ph.D.'s may have the more difficult degree, I don't want to trade ANY of you out there. I love treating patients, getting my hands on people's pain and fixing it is pretty great. That's something I didn't get from the diatoms, no matter how pretty or important they may be.
We all have a great place in this world, so go to work to day and make this world a better place whether you're a doctor or not.
This weekend I graduated with my D.C., an education comparable in every way to that of an M.D. So being a (yet unlicensed) doctor myself, I definitely understand what that is like.
Here is the verdict as I see it. The Ph.D. wins. Both programs involved a lot of learning and some late night and weekend sacrifice, they are equal in that regard. However, a Ph.D. involves that element of originality and the need for your research to be of some impact to your field. If you can't bring that to the table--too bad.
As a doctor of healthcare, it's pretty much a step up from undergrad in the beginning, you have more classes, and none are cute gen eds like pottery and literature. They are all science of some sort. Later on you need to treat patients under supervision. There are certain requirements; but treat 265 patients, get observed treating so many of them, write so many reports on them, and manage so many "complex" cases, pass a few more tests...and you're guaranteed to graduate. You can do it just the same as everyone else, and you don't need to teach your superiors in the field anything.
Introverts may be better suited for Ph.D.-ship because you spend a lot of time alone with that research...with any healthcare field you spend a lot of time with humans. So that fact alone may be swaying my opinion as an outgoing person.
Even though the Ph.D.'s may have the more difficult degree, I don't want to trade ANY of you out there. I love treating patients, getting my hands on people's pain and fixing it is pretty great. That's something I didn't get from the diatoms, no matter how pretty or important they may be.
We all have a great place in this world, so go to work to day and make this world a better place whether you're a doctor or not.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Spring Cleaning tips
I am taking advantage of the rainy days off this spring break to do a much needed spring clean of my house. Today I ran out of glass cleaner. Since it is easier and quicker to google than run to the store I tried a homemade glass cleaner recipe that I found on a few sites.
Glass Cleaner
Mix the following in a spray bottle, mine was 32 oz.
1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2 cups warm water
You need to shake the bottle before using to re-suspend the cornstarch.
The glass cleaner did a great job. After I made it I looked at the ingredients of my non-toxic glass cleaner bottle...to find that it is pretty much the same stuff!
Try it.
Another spring-cleaning thing I'm doing is committing to practice every morning and getting more veggies in my diet. I have found that having some homemade juice at breakfast is a great way to do this. Most days I am juicing with a piece of peanut butter toast. My favorite juice blend is below.
1 beet
2 handfuls kale
2 carrots
1 pear
Some days I have a parsnip instead of a beet and once in a while I am adding an apple or a peeled orange. When I have it I throw in a chunk of ginger. Any juice suggestions?
Glass Cleaner
Mix the following in a spray bottle, mine was 32 oz.
1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2 cups warm water
You need to shake the bottle before using to re-suspend the cornstarch.
The glass cleaner did a great job. After I made it I looked at the ingredients of my non-toxic glass cleaner bottle...to find that it is pretty much the same stuff!
Try it.
Another spring-cleaning thing I'm doing is committing to practice every morning and getting more veggies in my diet. I have found that having some homemade juice at breakfast is a great way to do this. Most days I am juicing with a piece of peanut butter toast. My favorite juice blend is below.
1 beet
2 handfuls kale
2 carrots
1 pear
Some days I have a parsnip instead of a beet and once in a while I am adding an apple or a peeled orange. When I have it I throw in a chunk of ginger. Any juice suggestions?
Yoga for health
Many people think you need to be flexible, have good balance, be 'zen' or some other thing to do yoga. As you know if you have a practice, this is not true. I started practicing yoga because my doctor suggested it might be a good idea. I had had two summers that I spent in a hospital in my early twenties. At a follow-up appointment she brought in two very thick charts. She said, "one of these charts is for an 80 year old patient, one is yours. Guess which is yours." Surprizingly the two were indistinguishable. She told me that I needed to do something to do something to improve my immune system. My average diet and daily aerobics were just not cutting it. She said to try yoga, she had heard that it pushes your lymph around.
In order to push my lymph around I bought two yoga DVDs and started practicing them daily. I haven't been admitted to the hospital since, and although my practice is certainly not as frequent as I would like through chiropractic school, I still practice. I plan to continue to practice throughout life.
At school we have a free clinic on West Burnside street. Many homeless patients are treated there. A friend of mine had a shift there and told me a patient's story that I will relate to you here:
An elderly man came in and mentioned that his foot was bothering him. The intern helped him with his shoes and socks to examine the foot. What she found was toenails that had grown far too long. They had curled around his toes and were coming up between the toes. The toes all being cut by the edges of the toenails. When the intern asked how this had happened, the man answered that he just couldn't bend that way to cut his toenails anymore. Living on the street, he had no one that would do it for him.
For me, yoga started as a way to spend my summers in the sun instead of the hospital.
For this man, yoga could have saved him much pain and suffering, and allowed him the ability to cut his own nails.
Yoga is not about putting your leg behind your head or standing on your head for that matter. It is a method to stay present in the world, and that includes staying healthy and able.
In order to push my lymph around I bought two yoga DVDs and started practicing them daily. I haven't been admitted to the hospital since, and although my practice is certainly not as frequent as I would like through chiropractic school, I still practice. I plan to continue to practice throughout life.
At school we have a free clinic on West Burnside street. Many homeless patients are treated there. A friend of mine had a shift there and told me a patient's story that I will relate to you here:
An elderly man came in and mentioned that his foot was bothering him. The intern helped him with his shoes and socks to examine the foot. What she found was toenails that had grown far too long. They had curled around his toes and were coming up between the toes. The toes all being cut by the edges of the toenails. When the intern asked how this had happened, the man answered that he just couldn't bend that way to cut his toenails anymore. Living on the street, he had no one that would do it for him.
For me, yoga started as a way to spend my summers in the sun instead of the hospital.
For this man, yoga could have saved him much pain and suffering, and allowed him the ability to cut his own nails.
Yoga is not about putting your leg behind your head or standing on your head for that matter. It is a method to stay present in the world, and that includes staying healthy and able.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Spring Break
Finally after much hard work, spring break is in full swing!
I think after many years of chiropractic school I may have forgotten how to relax. I have dropped my yin practice, not by choice, but rather out of a lack of time. When I do practice, it is Mysore...and I'm not nearly practicing as much as I should. I am optimistic that as the class schedule relaxes a bit, my practice will be able to slowly return to the six practice a week schedule I had going pre-chiro school.
Today I went to the Yoga Space for their Sunday afternoon restorative class. Trying to be still is hard. I could feel the different places my body stores all the tension from school and life in general. Perhaps I will pick my yin practice back up as a balance to the rest of my life. I encourage everyone to find some practice to balance your life.
I think after many years of chiropractic school I may have forgotten how to relax. I have dropped my yin practice, not by choice, but rather out of a lack of time. When I do practice, it is Mysore...and I'm not nearly practicing as much as I should. I am optimistic that as the class schedule relaxes a bit, my practice will be able to slowly return to the six practice a week schedule I had going pre-chiro school.
Today I went to the Yoga Space for their Sunday afternoon restorative class. Trying to be still is hard. I could feel the different places my body stores all the tension from school and life in general. Perhaps I will pick my yin practice back up as a balance to the rest of my life. I encourage everyone to find some practice to balance your life.
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