Yoga, it's what's for lunch.

In the past few days, I've been working my way through this month's issue of Shape magazine— recycling my neighbor's recyclables. Who knew it doubled as both a health magazine and comic book??

'Feeling pudgy is no way to kick off summer! This plan makes quick work of the jiggly spots so you can be slim and sleek in no time.'

'It's officially swimsuit season— that time when the trouble spots you've concealed all year are on full display. But don't panic. If you've been following our Bikini Body Countdown, you're just about ready for your big reveal. (Procrastinators, dive in now and see results in 30 days.).. The trick: plenty of total-body, high-intensity moves that keep your heart rate up, so you blast calories while you sculpt sexy muscles. Start today and in four weeks you'll be ready and happy to bare it all— at the beach, your local pool, and even the bedroom.'
- Shape Magazine, June 2010


Hilarious. My only comments about this intro is that every sentence is seriously in need of an exclamation point.. or two.

Who reads this stuff? I mean, obviously people do, otherwise it wouldn't be the national publication it is, so more precisely, how is this material being used? In efforts to find ways to effectively mass educate the public about ways to be healthy, while I can appreciate the benefits of publications like this, nonetheless, I continue to seek improvements.

From this reading alone, I'm reminded of the effectiveness of personal stories and that whether readers follow the plan or not, just reading it alone serves not only as potential motivation and educational how-to but also simply as a reminder, valuable in and of itself, of keeping fit, eating right, and maintaining health. How they go about doing that is really not as important.

Staying fit is not complicated nor should it be very specific, like do XXX and you're set. Like diet, 'activity' [as I like to call it] just has to fit your likes— enough so that you won't hate it and never do anything ever again. That's why, typically, having a few active options is always good, as is making it enjoyable— avoid boredom, it's the worst.

And so in followup of the last post, I share with you this: I've recently decided [to try, at least] to pick up yoga again. I go through periods of doing it and not. Winter was on, spring was off, I guess my body's asking for it back again.

It admittedly took a few tries for me to 'discover', or fall in love with, yoga many years back, so beware not to dismiss it too hastily if you tried it before and left you with a bad taste in your mind. My personal flavor of choice is Power Vinyasa á la Baptiste. Power refers to doing it in a heated room, in my experience, that's about 90degF; vinyasa means flow, so the poses are sequenced flowing from one to the next, like a dance vs. rubber-necking traffic. Garnished with music, like most other activities, is a plus, but optional.

The benefits of yoga are all over the place.. for your body. Increased heart rate, strength training, stretching, balancing, sweating— it's got it all. Temps today reached above 90degF, so incorporating the power element was a cinch. As for the practice itself, I 'took back my lunch' from my 3-hour idle morning floor/desk-sit.

Recipe suggestion for a yoga dish, doable in about 40 min. goes as follows..
 - 3 sun salutations
 - 2 warrior twos
 - 2 side planks
 - 2 prayers
 - 2 crows, 1 gorilla in between
 - 2 eagles
 - 2 standing leg raise, airplane, lunge stretch, twisting triangle
 - 2 dancers
 - 2 trees
 - abwork: boat, bicycle, crunches etc.


..sure to leave you drippingly HealthyButJuicy.



Happy Healthy Juicy Yoga!