Spinach and Yoga

Interview With Dr. Lissa Rankin

Last week I shared my experience of writing my own prescription. It was a great reminder that my body know what it needs to feel vibrant and healthy. If you want to learn to write your own prescription, order Lissa’s Rankin new book Mind Over Medicine.

While you are waiting for your book to arrive, I have a very special interview with Lissa to keep you learning and inspired! Enjoy!

You’ve become quite the advocate for mind-body medicine. Was there a major turning point that left you questioning the conventional approach to medicine?

When I was working with sick patients from the inner city of Chicago, it made sense that they weren’t healthy. They ate poorly, smoked, drank, and never exercised. But then I took a job at an integrative medicine practice in posh Marin County, where my patients religiously followed organic, vegan diets, worked out with personal trainers, got 8 hours of sleep every night, took their vitamins, and spent a fortune on the best health care money can buy – and they were still sick. It got me wondering, what if there’s more to health than what they taught me in medical school?

Around that time, I became fascinated with case studies in the medical literature of spontaneous remissions from seemingly “incurable” illnesses – stage 4 cancers that disappeared, an HIV positive patient who became HIV negative, people whose heart disease vanished. I got curious whether there was any scientific validity to what some New Age gurus teach – that you can heal yourself.  I wondered whether we might have control over whether we’re blessed with spontaneous remission from illness – or whether we stay sick. (Spoiler alert – you can influence the outcome!) Mind Over Medicine is a compilation of the mind-blowing data I compiled from the scientific literature regarding these inquiries.

What do you mean when you say “you can heal yourself?”

The medical establishment has been proving that the body can heal itself for over 50 years. We call it “the placebo effect,” and we’ve been trying to outsmart it for decades.  We know that in clinical trials, patients being treated with sugar pills, saline injections, and even fake surgeries get better anywhere from 18-80% of the time!

The placebo effect is a thorn in the side of modern medicine. It’s an inconvenient truth that gets in the way of proving that new treatments are more effective than letting nature take its course.

But the placebo effect is nothing to be avoided. It’s something to embrace, because it provides concrete evidence that the body is equipped with innate self-repair mechanisms that have the power to cure.  When you cut yourself, your body knows how to mend the cut. When your bone breaks, the bone knows how to stitch itself back together again. We all make cancer cells every day – and the body disposes of them. Infectious invaders, foreign bodies, broken proteins – the body can handle it, assuming those self-repair mechanisms are functioning properly.

So that’s what I mean when I say “you can heal yourself,” that the body has natural self-repair mechanisms that can be flipped on or off based on thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that originate in the mind.

What do you mean when you say you can flip your self-repair mechanisms on or off? If the body knows how to repair itself, why would we ever want to turn them off?

This was one of the most shocking things I discovered. The nervous system has two modes of operation – the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is dominant during what Walter Cannon at Harvard termed “the stress response,” also known as “fight-or-flight.” The parasympathetic nervous system is in charge during what Herbert Benson at Harvard called “the relaxation response,” which is the opposite of the stress response.

Only when the relaxation response is in effect do the body’s natural self-repair mechanisms function properly! It makes sense. When your body is preparing to fight or flee, it needn’t worry about preventive maintenance.  Why bother eating up cancer cells or repairing broken proteins when you’re about to get eaten by a cave bear?

The stress response exists to protect you. It’s meant to get you out of harm’s way when your life is in danger. But these days, the average person has 50 stress responses per day. It’s no wonder chronic illnesses are at epidemic levels. Every time you have a stressful thought, belief, or feeling, your brain spits out harmful, disease-inducing stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine that shut off your body’s self-repair mechanisms. On the other hand, every time you have positive thoughts, beliefs, or feelings, you release healing hormones like oxytocin, nitric oxide, dopamine, and endorphins that shift you to the relaxation response, where your body can get to work repairing what’s broken.

So should we just ditch modern medicine? If the body knows how to repair itself, why bother going to the doctor?

To say that you can heal yourself is sort of a misnomer because the scientific evidence concludes that the role of the healer is essential.  When a doctor, nurse, or alternative health care provider tends and nurtures you, believes in your capacity to heal yourself, and promises you that you won’t have to navigate your healing journey alone, your relaxation responses are activated, and self-repair becomes more likely.

But even so, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take advantage of the miracles of modern medicine.  Yes – there are documented cases of people who have experienced spontaneous remissions from cancer, coronary artery disease, stroke, even a gunshot wound to the head left untreated. But I don’t recommend tempting fate.  By all means, get treatment for your cancer. Go to the ER when you’re having a heart attack or stroke. Call 911 if you’re injured in a car accident.

My husband cut two fingers off his hand with a table saw. No amount of mind-body medicine would have reattached those fingers, so God bless Dr. Jones, the microsurgeon who reattached all those bones, nerves, arteries and muscles! Medical care, especially emergency medical care, saves lives, and we should take advantage of it.

What I’m saying is that we shouldn’t depend on it exclusively. It’s important to get to the root cause of why you might be sick or injured in the first place. What predisposed that cancer to grow? Why were you susceptible to that infection, when there were probably many others who were exposed to it but didn’t contract an illness? What in your life might be causing that chronic pain?

When you can identify – and rectify – issues in your life that make you susceptible to illness, you’re more likely to experience full, lasting cure.

So are you suggesting that if someone is still sick, in spite of medical treatment, it’s his or her fault?

There’s no place for blame, shame, or guilt on anyone’s healing journey. Those kinds of pointless emotions only trigger stress responses that make it harder to heal.

No, I’m not suggesting that illness is anyone’s fault. What I am saying is that your body is your business, and you can take active measures to influence whether you get – and stay – optimally well.  Too many patients just hand their bodies over to doctors the way they hand their cars over to mechanics. But unlike cars, our bodies do know how to heal themselves, at least a percentage of the time, and we can make changes in our lives to reduce stress responses and increase relaxation responses, thereby making our bodies ripe for miracles.

That’s the real ticket. It’s all about changing the ratio of stress responses and relaxation responses in the body. You can do this by either reducing stress responses or increasing relaxation responses – or ideally both!

So how do you reduce stress responses? How do you increase relaxation responses?

In Mind Over Medicine, I teach the 6 Steps To Healing Yourself, which teaches you exactly how to diagnose the root causes of your illness and write The Prescription for yourself. But in short, you have to tap into the part of you I call your “Inner Pilot Light”, the part that knows what’s true for you and can act as your inner doctor. (To get more in touch with your Inner Pilot Light, sign up for the Daily Flame here. Your Inner Pilot Light will help you assess what in your life is triggering your stress responses. Is it your toxic marriage? Your soul-sucking job? Your two hour commute? Your nagging mother-in-law? Your chaotic living environment? Your anxiety or depression? Your pessimistic way of viewing the world?

Once you’ve identified what is triggering your stress responses, it’s time to think about how you might increase relaxation responses in your body. Which scientifically-proven techniques for activating relaxation responses will work for you? Meditation? Creative expression? Playing with animals? Laughter? Yoga? Massage? Engaging in work you love? Getting a hug? Being with friends? Sex? Seeing an alternative medicine practitioner?  Exercise?

Once you’re clear on how you can reduce stress responses and increase relaxation responses, it’s time for the fun part – writing The Prescription for yourself. But this isn’t like any prescription you’ve likely ever gotten from a doctor. Perhaps part of your overall Prescription will include drugs or surgery, but The Prescription you’ll write for yourself is a series of action steps you’ll be taking to reduce stress responses and increase relaxation responses.

Then comes the brave part – putting your personal treatment plan into action! When you do, you make your body ripe for miracles. Anything – including spontaneous remission – is possible.

You’re on a mission to heal our broken health care system. How do you plan to do that?

If everyone involved in the health care system – patients and health care providers alike – expanded how they view health in the way I teach in Mind Over Medicine, our entire health care system would start to shift. I believe our health care system is badly broken because we’ve lost respect for the body’s ability to heal itself. As health care providers, we’ve gotten arrogant about our power to control disease, and we’ve forgotten the healing power of love. Somewhere along the way, we’ve decided that a patient who heals himself is threatening. Even if we know, as physicians, that the body has natural self-repair mechanisms, we cling to believing that we’ve achieved a level of mastery over nature. Spontaneous remissions prove that, sometimes, we just haven’t. This is a narcissistic wound for physicians, but it’s something we simply must get over if we want to heal health care.

But the responsibility for healing health care lies not just with doctors, but with patients. If, instead of mindlessly handing our bodies over to doctors, we viewed illness as an opportunity to bring our lives back into alignment with our truth, illness would become a compass leading directly to our true north. As a patient, you must trust that you have within you natural self repair mechanisms that are under the control of your mind.

It’s going to require a quantum shift on the part of both patients and health care providers in order to rescue our broken health care system. But I believe it’s possible. It’s going to take a grass roots effort. It requires healing the doctor-patient relationships and reclaiming the heart of medicine. I know it seems hopeless to think that health care can reclaim its heart, but just like I believe there are no incurable illnesses, I also believe there are no incurable systems.

In the documentary I Am, filmmaker Tom Shadyac shared that when animals decide to switch watering holes, it all starts with a shift of consciousness. They drink out of one watering hole until 51% of the animals decide to drink from a new watering hole, and then the rest of the animals all jump.

I think we’re getting close to that 51%.

You can help! Join the revolution to Heal Health Care Now. And buy Mind Over Medicine here, not just for yourself, but for your family, your doctor, and anyone else who might help heal care. Be the love you wish to see in health care, and miracles really are possible.

Lissa Rankin, M.D. is an integrative medicine physician, author, speaker, artist, and founder of  the popular online health and wellness communities LissaRankin.com and OwningPink.com. Her research led her to discover that patients have self-healing powers beyond our wildest imaginings, which we can effectively manipulate with the mind. She is on a mission to heal health care, help patients play a more active role in healing themselves, and encourage the health-care industry to embrace and facilitate, rather than resist, such miracles. Lissa is recognized on the Huffington Post’s Top 16 Health Experts to Follow On Twitter, Top Ten U.S. Twitter Doctors, and Forbes.com 20 Inspiring Women To Follow On Twitter lists.

Fighting Off Spring Kapha

There are days, especially in the Spring when you can barely wake up, feel sluggish and puffy, stomach looks bloated and expanded, and your mind is foggy. Heavy, slow, dull Kapha dosha is reigning the weather and our bodies until it gets warm and toasty.

Changes in the nature always lead to the changes in our bodies. Heavy, wet, and cold by its nature Kapha reigns our world from Feb to May (depending on the weather and your location). It influences everything in our daily existence from energy levels to sleep quality, from body weight to mood.

When balanced Kapha creates a sense of security, stability, and internal peace. It makes you feel as if you were under a warm soft blanket with a cup of cocoa even during the most challenging times. It improves your intuition and encourages compassion. But not everything is perfect about Kapha. Once you step off the thin edge of a balanced healthy Kapha, you end up in a depressed moody tired state. Life looses its bright colors, early morning doesn’t inspire you, and a chronic cold seems to follow. Physically, Kapha can show up as frequent colds, allergies, and weight gain. With increased kapha there is a tendency for toxins to gather and be held onto in our tissues.

On days like Kapha is overflowing all you want is to stay at home and feel sorry for yourself. But I know that you are not one of the folks who would want to waste a day on feeling down. You have important and fun things to get done so you need a quick remedy to shake off this grogginess.

I will tell you what to do on a day like this but before let me tell you know not to do for sure:

• Don’t stay in bed all day (the earlier you get up, the better you will feel)
• Don’t eat heavy, creamy, cold things (no avocado, dairy, or nuts on sluggish days)
• Don’t spend your entire day at the tv or computer (that is, get outside!)
• Don’t drink iced drinks

Instead, try these to shake off excess Kapha:

• Keep it moving. Exercise is especially important during Kapha season when all you want is to stay on the couch and eat chips. Do yoga, jump on a trampoline, run, bike, jump, skip and play as much as you can and don’t let slow Kapha get a hold of you.
• Stay dry and warm. Say yes to scarves, hats, and gloves in bright colors such as red, yellow, and orange. Besides keeping you warm, bright colors will prevent the onset of the gloomy depression on the days when the sun is not shining. If you get a chance go to a dry heat sauna; it feels amazing when it’s still chilly outside.
• Keep it fresh and exciting. If you are feeling stuck in a rut, mentally slow, heavy and more tired than usual, now is the time to vary your daily routine, start something new, or go someplace exciting. Seek for adventure, new friends, fun experiences, and set new challenging goals for this Spring. This is the time to take your first Salsa lesson that you were thinking about for the last year, get a new hair style, and go out dancing with your old friends!
• Use a quick lymphatic oil massage or dry brush your entire body to improve lymphatic drainage and circulation
• Take hot/cold shower (alternate between hot and cold water T)
• Eat light and warm foods. I prefer having lots of warm light soups, beans, and roasted veggies while avoiding heavy, cold, and creamy stuff. Sip hot water frequently throughout the day. It is the frequency rather than volume that counts. Try adding spices for more flavor.  Ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves are all great!
• For a light breakfast, eat a stewed apple with cloves, nutmeg, fresh ginger, mint, cardamon and grapefruit

“Wake Me Up” Stewed Apple with Spices and Mint

Ingredients:

• 1 apple
• 1/4 grapefruit or more if you like its slightly bitter flavor
• 1 inch fresh ginger
• 6 mint leaves
• 3 cardamon cloves
• cloves 2 pieces
• nutmeg pinch

• Boil water with sliced ginger.
• When it is boiling add sliced apple and cut up grapefruit pieces and all the spices.
• Cover and let it lightly boil for 5 min
• Pour everything in a pretty bowl.
• Sprinkle with chopped mint leaves.
• Make sure to drink the warm spicy water! It’s the best part! Enjoy!

If you want to learn how to cook balancing ayurvedic meals for yourself and your family, check out Seasonal Ayurvedic Cooking classes with Divya at Bhagavat Life. She is a true magician when it comes to creating the most balancing meals that taste amazing! I am beyond grateful to have met her and enjoy her cooking!

What is your favorite light Spring-inspired meal? Let me know and I’ll choose one recipe to make it more Ayurvedic:) Maybe I’ll ask Divya to help me along on this one!

PS: Don’t forget to register for the upcoming FREE online class on 10 self-care rituals that can help jump start that self-care routine that your body needs to be healthy and vibrant. You can register here

We will talk about 10 self-care rituals that every woman must know about and ways to fit those practices into your day. If you can’t make it to the class live, you will be able to watch the recording any time after.

Simplicity is key to many effective concepts. Digestion is not different.

For a long time I have been noticing that not everything that I eat makes me feel equally well. The more I pay attention to my stomach before and after food, the more information my body provides. While I am still learning to decipher my body’s feedback, one finding keeps emerging more often than others: THE SIMPLER THE DISH, THE LESS ENERGY IT REQUIRES TO DIGEST. Which means, I have more energy left to do other things like write, think, teach, do yoga, and just enjoy my life.

Hard to digest food combinations: disease of overabundance

You may eat a vegan diet and still get gas, or feel bloated after a raw dessert tasting. Food allergies aside, improper food combining can be one of the major reasons behind belly troubles. Someone who voluntarily eliminates certain food groups from their diet (for example, no dairy, no gluten, no flesh, no eggs) is less likely to confuse digestion with improper food combinations. Those strong-willed people have fewer food groups to combine in their meal. They have less choice. It makes their diet more simple and therefore more digestion friendly.

However, you don’t have to eliminate entire food groups to keep your belly happy. Also going gluten free or vegan doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have to look into food combining, especially if you want to increase your energy levels.

If you think about it, our ancestors were not very likely to combine multiple food groups in one meal. If they found berries, they ate berries. If they were lucky to hunt something down, they had a feast of meat. But I can’t imagine ancient people cooking side dishes, dressings, and desserts in a cave kitchen. Our many times over grand-fathers and grand-mothers probably ate mostly simple mono meals consisting of 2-4 ingredients at a time.

Food combining can be applied to any diet to reduce postmeal digestive un-ease, improve elimination, resolve skin issues, and to increase energy levels. Before we dive into some of the main food combining rules, let me explain the energy and food connection.

Energy and Digestion Connection

We have a finite amount of energy for any given day. There are several major things that go into the energy equation: sleep, emotions, movement, mental activity, and of course food.

• Sleep gives us energy.
• Movement can be energizing due to increase in blood circulation and oxygen but in the end it requires energy. Different types of exercise can also be broken down into depleting and nourishing.
• Emotions have a very strong connection to energy levels. Positive emotions like joy are energizing while negative emotions can deplete energy reserves.
• Mental activity requires quite a bit of energy. Clarity and creativity are not very common mental states in exhausted people.
• Food is a double-edged sword. Easy-to-digest food will provide energy. Hard to digest or nutrient poor food will require more energy to break down. Some food combinations will even have a negative net gain of energy. A white bagel with cream cheese requires a lot of energy to digest, probably way more than it will provide to the body. Berries on the other hand is a certain quick energy gain.

One of the ways to make sure that you get a positive net gain of energy from food is to eat nutrient-dense foods. Another way is to make sure that those nutrients can be easily absorbed into your body by keeping food combinations simple.

Food combination theories can be quite complicated to understand, and almost impossible to remember right away. However, there is one key rule that will save you a lot of memorizing: Simplicity. The fewer ingredients the less different enzymes you need to digest food and the less likely the food will get stuck in our body fermenting. Simple meals are easier because they require less resources to break down and turn into nutrients.

In general there are 3 BIG food combining rules:

• Dairy should not be combined with pretty much anything besides greens and non starchy vegetables. Baked goat cheese on veggies or salads is okay but no pizza, cream-based pasta sauces, dairy-based chowders are not recommended. When it comes to yogurt, add vanilla bean, honey but no jams or fruits.
• Fruit should not be combined with anything because it digests a lot faster than most other things. Best to be eaten at least 20 mins before anything else. Grains with fruit, fruit and eggs, fruit and nuts, fruit after a meal are among the infamous no-no’s. The only exception is dates in milk or dried fruit boiled together with grains such as in oatmeal.
• Have one concentrated protein per meal. This one is pretty simple: no fish and chicken, meat and shrimp, eggs and milk, cheese and beans on one plate.

Another rule is keeping portions manageable. If you know that you will be eating a complicated meal consisting of hard-to-digest products, keep the amount small. It is easier to deal with a small problem than a large one.

The strictness level with which you choose to follow food combing rules depends on your current health, physical activity, stress level, the efficiency of your digestive system, and most of all, your goals.

Sticking to easy-to-digest food combinations is done primarily to reduce digestive un-ease and to reduce the energy consumption on digestion processes and therefore increase the energy resources of the body left to do other things besides dealing with a grumbling tummy. When you need energy to heal and recover, food combining is more important than during the times when you feel rested and healthy.

Have you tried food combining? What was your experience? Share in the comments below!

I would like to introduce you to an amazing woman who shares her inspiration wellness transformation story today! I can relate to so many aspects of Rita’s story. I hope it inspires you as much as me!

Personal Transformation Story

For the last couple of years I have been struggling with emotional eating disorders. I had a completely negative body image of myself. Thinking about it now, I guess I completely hated myself. I had a low self-confidence and self-esteem. Although there were times when things would slightly improve, either because my professional and emotional life was stable, as soon as something felled out of place, I would return to the black hole I had put myself in long ago.

I knew I wanted to get out of it, but I did not know how. I tried dieting, I became vegetarian, I exercised endless hours in the gym, I had psychiatric treatment, been under heavy antidepressants, but the problems would always surface, with binge eating, vomiting, use of laxatives, etc. I would always panic if I gained one pound and I hated myself for that. It was a vicious cycle that lasted for years.

It all started to change when I found Ashtanga Yoga. I was forced to pay attention to my body, start listening to its signals and be patient with it. And somehow something inside me started to change.

I suddenly became more interested in understanding the root of my problem, why I felt the way I did about myself and why I sought refuge in food and extreme exercise.

I started reading books on yoga philosophy, and had a strong desire to go to India. Luckily enough, my yoga teacher was organizing a trip to India with some of her students and I decided to join. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I completely fell in love with the country, its culture and its people. I felt a sense of belonging, like I was at home. More so because of my looks, everyone thought I was in fact Indian!

I knew I had begun a journey to discover myself.

While in India I went to a Vedic astrologist who told me that my life had began to change on the very same day I landed in Mysore (he did not know that, though! he only told me the date!) and that those changes would be greatest in May 2012, when I would have the possibility to choose a different path.

He was in fact quite right! In May 2012 I was living in New York, by myself, with no family or friends, and it was when all doors suddenly opened and I realized that life had so much more to it than I had ever imagined.

I became aware of how changes in diet, lifestyle and way of thinking could bring huge benefits and lead to a full transformation. I started reading a lot about nutrition, meditation, mindfulness and Ayurveda. During my research I found a workshop entitled ’40 Day Journey to Bliss’, which promised to provide the tools necessary to make positive changes in one’s life. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to do it.

That was how I met Nadya and May and a group of wonderful women, all struggling with same issues. During those 40 days I learned a lot about food, digestion, nutrition, body image, mindfulness, meditation and Ayurveda. I learned how to create a wellness vision to myself, and set goals to achieve it. And more importantly, by changing my diet and my way of thinking, by being mindful, along with the practice of yoga and meditation, I started to see changes in my body and in my mind.

I started to feel happier and to accept things as they are, living in the present moment. I learned to love my body and be gentle with it, and I started a new relationship with food! I even got rid of the strong migraines that haunted me for years!
Everything I was learning and applying to myself was transforming me in a whole new person!

Suddenly, I realized that I would like to help other people achieve what I was achieving. That I would like to raise awareness to how a healthy diet and life style has huge benefits and can change us. It can cure emotional and even physical problems. As I returned to my home city, Lisbon, I started writing a blog, My Wellness Revolution to share advice and tips on wellness, nutrition, yoga and Ayurveda, and started studying these subjects in detail on my spare time! In the near future I hope to become an Ayurveda life counselor and a wellness coach!

A new path was in deed presented to me, and I thank the Universe for it every single day!

If you are interested in starting your own Wellness Revolution, I would be happy to guide you in your journey. You can learn more about how I can help you here.

My Mom And The Story Of Her Heart

My mom, my sisters, and me in Moscow

My mom had a heart surgery when she was 7 years old. I still remember that the story of her heart being stopped and her being supported by the machines for hours scared me to death when I was a kid. I imagined a Soviet times hospital with green walls, doctors all wearing white and my mom, a little girl then, bravely going under the knife to fix her heart.

Later, I was proud of my mom’s courage to go against doctors orders and to have kids. Doctors told her that being pregnant and giving birth would put too much strain on her heart and she better not do it. She chose to have us anyways. She gave birth to 3 girls.

She made me believe that what doctors say is not always true and that we always have control over our own health.

She was my inspiration and my teacher. I started learning about using herbs to strengthen immune system, steam baths to cure colds, massage to calm down nerves from her. I grew up with 2 natural healers who always used plants, energy work, and natural foods to make my sister and I into adults that we are.

Unfortunately, as many natural healers and doctors taking care of other people, my mom, never took as well of a care for herself as she did about us. She gave her energy to us but didn’t leave much for herself.

Years later her body is starting to show signs of being worn down. Her heart is starting to give in again… It can’t handle her weight well, it can’t pump the blood to her extremities properly, and as a result she feels exhausted, she gets swollen legs, and horrible headaches.

It makes me sad and sick to my stomach. The thought of her not being able to enjoy every day as much as I can, makes my breath short and throat tight. I wish with all my heart that I could fix it. But I can’t. Nobody besides her can. Only she can.

She knows that she needs to lose weight, to move more, to eat healthier, and to stay positive.

The good thing is that she knows what needs to be done. The bad thing is that she doesn’t do it.

The cravings are too strong, walking is not as interesting as watching TV, bread tastes better than kale, and it’s way easier to complain and get angry than to find the strength to be grateful and motivated.

I want her to remember that she is strong and beautiful, that her life story is inspiring, and that she deserves to be healthy and to enjoy life. Most of all I want her to be well.

Being far away I can’t make meals or juice for her but I can do a few things to motivate, inspire and support her.

Here is what I will do for the next few weeks, months, or as long as she needs it:

• I will call her as often as I can to check in and encourage her
• I will suggest her to keep a food journal for at least 2 weeks
• I will help her create a wellness vision and smart goals to achieve it
• I will help her create a meal plan that she likes
• I will find youtube videos for her to start exercising
• I will encourage my dad to help my mom be positive, to walk together, and encourage her to eat healthy and snack less.

This is the first time I am doing something like this with a close family member. I’ve done it multiple times for friends and many of my clients but somehow it feels different when I’m with my mom. I don’t have as much authority, I have a lot more emotions involved and a lot more at stake.

I hope it works out.

Here Is How You Can Help

If you ever were in a situation when you helped a close person get better, please share your tips and lessons. Both my mom and I can use all the help that we can get!

If you are a mom who puts all attention and energy to taking care about others and has no energy to take care about yourself, let me know what you would want from your loved ones to help you get back on a healthy track.

I know that you are busy but your advice can inspire and motivate someone to get healthier so bring it on! Comment below the post!

Thank you for listening and sharing your thoughts!

Share Yours!

There is so much information available to us nowadays! To avoid information overload but at the same time make sure that you don’t miss out on valuable knowledge, I wanted to share my favorite go-to wellness and health websites.

Please share yours in the comments, too! I would love to check them out! There is always so much to learn

The Best of Ayurveda on The Web

If you are looking to learn about ayurveda but feel overwhelmed by the abundance of the material online, this list of the best ayurvedic websites will come in handy.

• Joyfulbelly - An ayurvedic website founded by John Immel, one of the brightest ayurveda personalities out there. Combining his technological skills and his ayurveda knowledge John created a wonderful go-to resource for anyone interested in the ancient science of life. His website Joyful Belly has everything from dosha tests, to dosha appropriate foods and recipes. John also offers home-made ayurvedic teas and formulas. There are regular tele-seminars and workshops that everyone can sign up for or you can opt for a more personalized skype session with John.
• Fran’s House of Ayurveda – a masterpiece of ayurvedic cooking. A unique feature about the Fran’s website  is that she offers variations to make the dish suitable for each dosha and explains why certain ingredients are better for a specific dosha. Fran also shares some tips of dosha specific yoga poses, meditation, and personal experience with ayurveda.
• Ayurvedic Institute in NM, the home of Dr Vasant Lad
• Vixi - a virtual ashram full of health and inspiration from Ashley Pitman
• Monica Bloom
• Holistic Online This website offers great dosha tests and ayurvedic diet guidelines
• Life Spa website of John Douillard on ayurveda and general health
• Yoga Chicago – a great yoga, ayurveda, and spirituality resource
• Robert Svoboda
• David Frawley
• Ayurvedic Healers

My Favorite Health, Wellness, and Cooking Websites

• Choosing raw
• Pure2Raw Twins
• One Arab Vegan
• Ohsheglows
• Crazysexylife
• Mindbodygreen One of my favorite resources and websites to write for!
• ModernHippieMag
• Frederic Patenaude
• BexLife
• The Alkaline Diet
• Natural News

Inspiration

Sometimes life gets busy, difficult, and even sad. The good thing that there is always light at the end of the tunnel! I love reading inspirational books, thoughts, and life stories. Happy beautiful images can do the trick, too. If you are an inspiration junkie, check out these websites:

• Crazy Sexy Life
• The Wellness Warrior
• The Kind Life
• Tiny Buddha

Favorite Yoga Websites

• Yogajournal
• International Yoga mag
• Integral Yoga Magazine
• Doyogawithme
• Yoga Online
• Yogaglo
• Yogacitynyc.com
• Strala
• Union Backcare

What are your favorite health and wellness websites?

You Have a Secret Yoga Master Living In Your House!

It seems, lately, that everyone is into yoga! Celebrities including Madonna, Sting, Jessica Biel, Reese Witherspoon, and even Colin Farrell – are doing yoga.

You might have already heard that yoga can make you into a more tuned-in, calmer, happier human being. It is an amazing ancient technique that comes very handy in our stressful modern times.

But have you ever wondered where yogis learned yoga to begin with? Who taught them in the first place?

I have a theory that I want to share with you and it might change your perception of yoga.

Ancient yogis were very wise. They learned from the best. Surprisingly, if you are a pet owner, you have access to those teachers, too!

The best yoga teachers are not the ones who can twist themselves into a pretzel. True yogis are people who are comfortable and healthy in their body, whose movement is graceful and comes with ease. They are also happy, at peace, and relaxed.

Look around, pay attention to the most peaceful and happy creature in your house. Most likely it is your pet! Have you ever noticed how happy and peaceful dogs and cats seem to be, compared to most people? Of course they have fewer responsibilities than we do, but even in the most challenging situations, pets don’t seem to give in to stress as much as we do.

A healthy puppy is a perfect example of a content, compassionate, loving creature. While we do teach our dogs to bring a ball and bark on command, we actually have quite a few things to learn from them, too! They can teach us how to slow down in the most hectic moments, how to reduce anxiety, and feel less stressed on a daily basis.

Here what we can learn from the pets to lead a healthier happier life:

• Stretch. First thing in the morning cats and dogs stretch and you should, too. Five minutes of yummy gentle stretching can go a long way in keeping joints flexible, muscles supple, and the movement a lot easier
• Poop before you eat. Sorry to be so direct but unless your follow this simple rule you are packing up some serious toxins in your body. Digestion is a cornerstone of health. Sip a glass of warm water with lemon as soon as you wake up and sit quietly for 5 minutes observing your breath. Focus on letting your belly expand with every inhale and press it into your spine with an exhale. This simple exercise will increase blood circulation to the digestive and elimination systems and stimulate a healthy morning bowel movement.
• Keep your meals simple. The simpler the meal, the easier it is on your body. Whole foods are full of nutrients and are easier to digest. You wouldn’t feed your dog chocolate and cookies everyday, would you?
• Eat when hungry, don’t eat when sick. Most animals follow this simple rule to provide energy for their body to deal with disease. Digestion, surprisingly, takes up a lot of energy resources that your body might need to recruit when trying to fight an infection. If fasting sounds too intense, then try keeping your food really light when you are sick. Stick to warm soups, soft grains, and steamed veggies. Your body will recover a lot faster and you will need fewer pills!
• Relax. Very few of us are as good at kicking back and relaxing as our pets. Relaxing is necessary to restore and recharge your nervous system. Relax along with your pet!
• Play. Yes, you do need to play and move to be happy and healthy. Endorphins or happiness hormones are released during cardio and intense stretching. If a treadmill doesn’t sound too attractive, go for a fast walk with your pet. It’ll keep both of you in shape and happy.
• Share the love. Your dog happily jumps at you, licks you, looks at you like you carry the key to the universal happiness every time she sees you, even if you were gone for just 5 minutes. Doesn’t it make you happy? For me ruby’s show of love makes me want to hug and kiss her back. It gives me a boost of new energy. Same thing works with people. I am not saying that the next time you see your friend you should start licking them from head to toe but an extra smile and an honest compliment will certainly be appreciated. Smiles have an amazing effect even on strangers!
• Say ‘hi’ to a stranger. Dogs love to meet people and say hi to strangers. Can you imagine how many great people you would meet?
• Be happy ‘just because’. Dogs are happy to see you no matter what. They are grateful for every bit of food that you give them and for every time you pat them. Being grateful for what you have instead of focusing on things that you don’t have is scientifically proven to be the fastest way to happiness. It doesn’t mean that you don’t set goals that you want to achieve. It means that you are moving towards those those but appreciate what you presently have, too.

Have you learned anything from your pet?

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Dealing With Information Overload and Attention Scarcity

There are lots of health and fitness related articles out there. If our grandparents and parents had to put in effort to find health-related resources, we have to put in the effort to protect ourselves from the health-related information overload.

You would think that having so much information at hand would turn us into the healthiest nation ever but it is far from it! Quite the opposite: we are fatter than ever and suffering from chronic disease and autoimmune malfunction.

The reason behind this strange trend is that it doesn’t matter what you know. What matters is what you do, day in, day out!

The ‘more is better‘ approach that is ruling our day to day choices doesn’t always work when it comes to health and wellness information. “The more is better” things rarely works at all. We get caught up and think that more information is better, more superfoods is better, the more articles the better, the more exercise the better…

Do you notice the trends: we over-do things: we over-eat, we over-browse, we over-research, and it leads to over-weight and over-stressed society.

Interestingly, the wealth of information leads to scarcity of attention and the lack of action.

Overwhelming amount of information on health and wellness can lead to anxiety and lack of motivation to follow on any of the often conflicting advice. How are you supposed to choose which advice to follow if you want to increase your energy?  Someone is telling you to go raw, another expert is banning the sugar and coffee, someone else offers energy-boosting exercise, but you also read that some exercise depletes energy and that our body needs sugars and that raw foods are harder to digest… It can get pretty confusing, to say the least!

Just as eating in a rush without chewing would lead to indigestion and a bloated belly, skimming through a ton of articles without taking time to process and absorb information will lead to misunderstanding and a bloated head.

A Cure for an Overwhelmed Health-Seeking Warrior

Here are a few guidelines that might help to navigate over-abundance of health and wellness information and to start your own health transformation without over-stressing:

Remember: You already know more than you realize! Trust your inner expert!

You don't want your brain to feel like this!

• Before google, ask yourself. A good chance is that you already know the answer to your question. For example if you are wondering how to reduce bloating or increase energy. What has worked for you in the past? Close your eyes and ask the question to your body. Listen to what your body has to say. An answer to increasing energy might be very simple like: dude, put me to sleep! Or let’s go for a walk. Or I would really appreciate some stretches now. Ask yourself first! If there is no good answer, google:)
• What would you tell a friend with a similar question? Often we give amazing advice to other people. We show up as kind, considerate, and resourceful advisers when it comes to solving others’ problems. What if you step back and look at your situation from a 3rd person perspective. What would you advise a friend in your situation?
• Limit research to 2-3 articles and give yourself time to digest and assimilate information. You know that you can’t rush digestion in your belly without creating indigestion, so why would you want to rush digestion in your brain? You skim through the articles without pausing to think and to see how this information applies to your life. Let it sink in, simmer, become a part of you, and then when it is fully assimilated, you can use it to build up to desired outcomes.
• Choose just 1 thing to change at a time. Experiments are effective when you keep variables to a minimum and observe the true ’cause and effect’ in action. Don’t try to revamp your entire lifestyle in one week. Slow down and enjoy the ride. Listen to body’s feedback and allow time and space for constant evolution
• Talk it through with a friend or with a coach. Write or talk about the benefits and disadvantages of changing your habits. Find out what worked for your friends and why. Get a perspective from a human being not just internet. Brainstorm and play with new ideas.

Avoid information pollution and be picky about what you let in. Put on your information spam filter

Do you ever feel that your attention is too spread out and you are not sure where to focus your efforts in terms of creating consistent change in health and wellness? How do you manage that?

To receive more health tips, ayurvedically-inspired recipes and to just stay in touch subscribe to Spinach and Yoga!

Please Like Spinach and Yoga on Facebook and follow health and yoga tips on twitter @realyoganyc.

If you are would like some help getting started on your health and wellness journey, take a look at how I can help you. It is easier when you are not alone!

Who Matters More: Your Boss or Your Stomach?

Every morning you spend a significant chunk of your time looking in the mirror and putting together an outfit for the day. You take into consideration your appointments, the weather, activity level, and your personal preferences to create a perfect well-suited ensemble.

Unless you are working in the entertainment industry and looking to compete with Lady Gaga or maybe get a job as a clown, you are not very likely to walk out of the door in red pants, green boots, feather hat, and a polka dot skirt. It might be a great Halloween outfit but probably not something that your boss would appreciate during the investor meeting.

Surprisingly, in our backwards society we care a lot more about upsetting our boss and getting weird glances on the street rather than upsetting our own stomach. Many of us spend more time coordinating pants and shirts than planning a well-balanced nutritious meals. Isn’t it a paradox?!

Food combining is similar to a good fashion sense: a skill, an intuitive understanding of how to mix and match things to create a beautiful well-suited to the occasion ensemble both on the plate and in the wardrobe. Some people are born with this sense and some people have to develop it by learning the underlying rules.

If we don’t learn the basic fashion rules, we might end up on a worst-dressed list. If we don’t learn basic food combining rules our body will start getting sick and tired.

Fortunately, there is one rule that works wonderfully both in fashion and in food combining – SIMPLICITY. Simple never fails. Simple is beautiful. A white t-shirt and blue jeans with a black blazer looks great almost on all occasions. Green veggies and high-protein grains with a home-made dressing is an easy-to-make nutritious dish that would work for any body type.

On the other hand an over-filled buffet type plate is similar to going to the client meeting in a clown outfit (not on a Halloween night) – it might not end well.

A few days ago, I wrote for Mind Body Green on 10 Common Food Combinations that Wreak Havoc on Your Health.

Modern Hippie Mag also has my article of 10 American Breakfast Items and Food Combining.

If you are looking to learn more about food combining, check out How to Eliminate the Need for Digestive Supplements with Proper Food Combining and take a look at some food combination rules that I chose to follow in my daily life.

What do you think of food combining? When was the last time when you planned out your daily menu based on the weather, your activity levels, and schedule?

Have a healthy and a happy weekend!

Nadya

Related articles

• 10 Interesting Facts About Food Combining (spinachandyoga.com)

Plus a recipe for Sugar and Gluten Free Chocolate Pumpkin Macaroons!

Wellness goals are what helps you to get from the present state to your ideal wellness state. Goals rarely fail because of a lack of commitment or enthusiasm. They die for lack of a compelling vision with a plan designed to achieve it. With a vision, you imagine an outcome that you then make come to life through the goals you set. A goal that is not tied to some kind of vision will often just “float out there” with a vague sense of importance. To create a clear picture of your ideal self do an exercise described below and think about the following questions (these apply only to the body, which is an important piece of wellness but not the only one!):

Describe an ideal version of your physical body. What does it look like? How does it feel to be inside it? How does it move? What do you feel when you see this body in a mirror? How do you keep this body healthy? What do you feed this body and how does it eat? What is your energy level like? What do you love about this new version of yourself? How much physical contact do you make with others? How would it feel to go through your day in this new body? What activities would you like to try in the new body?

Once you know where you would like to move, it’s time to create smart goals.

We are not all made the same, so of course no one diet is going to work for everyone! Throughout my wellness coaching I am learning to guide people (you and myself) through the confusion to find the food and lifestyle choices that would best support our unique bodies.

One of the most important steps of wellness coaching is setting goals in a way that is empowering and exciting. These goals should be based on where you want to be in the future, on your best ideal self that you are thriving to become.

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Timely. Studies have shown that people who use SMART goals are more likely to succeed in their quest for better health, ideal weight, and a sense of joy and fulfillment in daily life. By crafting SMART goals, you will obtain clear, concise feedback regarding your progress. Here are some examples of turning a genral goal in a SMART goal:

General goal: Be healthy and get into a better shape.

Turning the goals SMART:

• Specific—Saying that you want to be healthy is great, but not very specific. Instead decide what exactly you would like to do. For example: stop eating junk food or do yoga and run regularly to get into a better shape. The more specific the better!
• Measurable—Let’s say you want to stop eating junk food, so you can make “5 days out of 7 with no junk food as your goal”. If you goal was to do yoga and run on a regular basis to get into a better shape, then a measurable goal would sound like this: “I will do yoga 3 times a week and run 3 times a week with 1 day of rest”.
• Action-Oriented — The goals should be based on behaviors that result in change. Our goal of doing yoga and running 3 times a week each fits well. However, the 2nd goal where we are planning to stay away from junk food 5 days out of 7 is not actionable. It does not specify what you are going to eat! So to make it actionable, it would be better to state it this way: I will eat unprocessed whole meals with grains, vegetables, and healthy proteins 5 days a week.
• Realistic—Many people fail to reach their goals because they set their standards too high. A healthy challenge is motivating, unrealistic goals are de-motivating. Don’t set yourself up for a failure! Setting a goal of 5 days a week of whole meals is more realistic than aiming for 7 from the very start. Same goes for the exercise. You don’t want to aim 2 hours workouts 7 days a week unless you are trying to tire your body out.
• Time-bound —Having a deadline will move you ahead more rapidly, so set some up for each goal. Include both short and long-term goals. Reevaluate your goals on a weekly basis to assess what has worked or what interventions you need to help yourself along. Remember, it takes three to six months for new habits to become permanent and to begin to see noticeable changes.

Final SMART goals: I will eat wholesome fresh meals with vegetables, grains, and healthy proteins 5 days out of 7 for 3 weeks before re-evaluating my goal. I will do yoga and run 3 times a week (each) for 3 weeks and then re-evaluate my fitness goals.

And when you complete a specific, action step within the realistic time frame you have allotted, celebrate with some Chocolate Pumpkin Macaroons, Below is the recipe that I promised to share:

Chocolate Pumpkin Macaroons

• 2 cups coconut flakes (soaked in coconut milk) or raw coconut meat
• 1 cup baked pumpkin or pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup  cacao powder
• 3/4 cup coconut butter or raw nutella ( i used raw mint nutella)
  raisins
• 1 tsp stevia or 3 tbsp coconut crystals or any other sweetener
• 3 tbs ground flax seeds
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• vanilla
• cinnamon

Blend everything together. With wet hands make small round balls. Enjoy and store the rest in the freezer!

Sign up on the top right to receive recipes, tips, and fun ideas straight to your inbox. Next we will talk about the best ways to create the most actionable strategies to achieve your wellness goals.

Be Well!

Nadya

Related articles

• Pumpkin Chia Pudding (spinachandyoga.com)
• You Are A Health Expert! (spinachandyoga.com)