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!

Office hazard that is the office..

This post couldn't have come at a better time, and yes, I know, it's about time.

Today kicked off the Take Back Your Lunch movement, conceived by [the folks at] The Energy Project [TEP] and which will actively run throughout the summer every Wednesday in NYC's Madison Square Park and public parks nationwide. The idea is based on the fact that too many of us don't take the time to actually take a break from work during lunch— whether it be due to time constraints and/or workload— and, as a result, actually counters our efforts to be efficient.

TEP states:

'Human beings aren’t meant to operate like computers, at high speeds, continuously, running multiple programs at the same time. Rather we’re meant to pulse — alternating between spending and intermittently renewing our four key sources of energy'— physical (sustainability), emotional (security), mental (self-expression) and spiritual (significance).

So, it is their mission to help organizations maximize their energy, or, as they say in physics, their 'capacity to do work', and thus be more productive [not to mention profitable].

As of recent, I've been heavily plagued by this exact issue. It's been quite some time since I've participated in the traditional practice of eight-hour desk and, admittedly, I'm still trying to both get used to it and find its workaround.

I almost couldn't agree more with TEP. I proclaim, sans research [gasp!], that we are not meant to sit for so long. One, two, maybe three hours absolute max, at a time, about the length of a movie. I'm telling you, the entertainment industry's got it..

One way to think about it is, is in terms of the blame that's placed on weight gain as we age. People always attest to a slowing metabolism but I can only partially agree. Logic, or mine anyway: We're more active when we're younger, hence, burn more and have more lean muscle mass, which increases metabolism. Vice versa is also true: we're less active when we're older and, hence, we just don't burn as much, making it seem like age itself is what causes a slowing metabolism, when, in fact, we're just idly weaker. That's what is known as a confounding factor, in case you were wondering.

As such, I think office life should somehow re-emulate high school. That is, 45-50 minute bouts of work; mandatory five-minute walks between; and at least one, though ideally two, periods of physical activity; all included. I'm actually ok with eating lunch while working, I mean, you're sitting anyway and it would also help compensate for the 'ideally two' activity sessions. Perhaps weekly luncheons with the co-workers, though, would be nice— as we all know the school cafeteria was a great opportunity to strengthen social bonds.. kidding, about the latter, not the former.

Additionally, I think offices should become more 'floor-friendly'— this, in part, goes even further back by re-emulating elementary school.

In elementary school there were desks but there was also 'The Rug' and plenty of other places where they made you sit on the floor. Getting up and down from the floor and sitting on it helps maintain some form of body awareness, agility, and even flexibility. The idea comes from doing yoga and work on the mat, as well as observing the difficulties heavier-set folks have when it comes to dealing with the floor, whether it be sitting on it or reaching for something etc. Sitting down and getting up in a chair, on the other hand, is pretty easy, too easy, and limits use of your body; sitting itself, in a chair, also limits movement and isolates weight to just one area— sucking the juicy out of your juicy. That's not to oust the desk completely but just expand and maximally utilize resources. or something.

An additional bonus $uggestion is the invention and implementation of the stationary cycling desk— with practice, pedaling doesn't take any extra thought, and over time, it'll leave you feeling, and actually, juicily fit.

So that's my schpeel and what I've come up with so far to improve occupational hazard that is the office. Have better ideas? Click Comments.


Happy Healthy Juicy at the Office!