"A life of purpose reveals the purpose of life."  Deepak Chopra

Healthy Living Mission:

Enjoy the journey of life

Live with a purpose each day

Learn something new every day

Perfection is not the goal; continual improvement is what we strive for

Balance physical, emotional, and spiritual needs

Take time for yourself and those you love

Accept and enjoy your quirks!

Accept and enjoy the quirks of others!

    As a yoga teacher, I am frequently asked about healthy living; students often wonder about food, other forms of exercise, vitamins, etc.  I wanted to share with you some things that I have found helpful in my personal pursuit of healthy living (including a couple of my favorite recipes).  I am not a nutritionist nor a doctor.  I have simply found some methods that help me to enjoy a healthy lifestyle that suit my personality.  So, please keep that in mind and let me know if you have any other resources that you have found helpful!

Healthy Eating | Exercise | Smoothie Recipe | Salad Recipe | Power Foods

My Lifestyle:

Just to give you an accurate portrayal of my life, I would like to add that I rarely cook and have no interest in cooking!  It is something that I'm often teased about in my family!  The kids are thankfully fast learners and have figured out how to make many things on their own that they find very satisfying!  I love, love, love fruits and vegetables and have made them a main staple of my own diet.  Of course, the kids do not find them to be the "end all be all" and they choose to enjoy lots of pasta, chicken nuggets and corn dogs much to my chagrin!  I want meal time to be a pleasurable event so we are moving towards compromises and me having a lot of patience!

My Diet:

Food for me is pleasurable but I don't really think about it until I am hungry, I just want it to be healthy, tasty and fast.  This is most easily attained with a plan; hence, I don't have a lot of variety in what I eat!  My daily pattern of eating is a fruit smoothie for breakfast, a great, big salad for lunch, a healthy snack around 3:00 p.m. and a dinner that consists of a lot of veggies with a lean protein and some sort of pasta, typically 250-350 calories.  Dinner can be something we (or more frequently my husband!) make or it is often a frozen dinner pulled out of the freezer, but what it consists of is basically the same.  Breakfast and dinner are lighter meals because of my teaching schedule.  I always have a dessert after lunch and dinner, this usually is something in the dark chocolate variety!  I love everything I eat and never feel deprived.   Please know that this is a "maintenance" lifestyle and would most likely be too many calories for weight loss.

Balance:                                       

Not a day goes by that I don't think about or use the word balance in some way or another!  I talk about balance in the physical postures in yoga class.  I constantly think about balancing my time in all the many roles of wife, mom, yoga instructor, etc.  Balance also becomes a theme between energy and appetite.  Because of my active lifestyle, I can quickly go from hungry to famished to light headed.  I have had to become very careful of timing when and how often I teach and figuring out how much and when to eat.  I constantly have to work to balance my enthusiasm for teaching with common sense that feeling light headed is not healthy!

On the flip side, my father used to share with me about how when he was younger he used to be much more active.  He still felt an enormous amount of energy that often would go unspent due to long work days or lack of interest.  If his excess energy did not have a healthy expression through activity or exercise, it would fester and express itself in negative ways such as mood swings, lethargy, etc.  Knowing this outcome sometimes would be enough motivation to get moving, but changing habits or finding the time was not easy and became a day-to-day choice or struggle.

Healthy Eating Links
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On the rare event that I will actually feel compelled to prepare/cook anything different than what I normally eat, these are the sites that I go to or have signed up for free newsletters!

www.eatingwell.com	www.foodfit.com	www.whfoods.org
www.thecaloriecounter.com	www.mypyramid.gov	www.dietdetective.com

My Fruit Smoothie Recipe!
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Once a week, I prepare 7 bags of mixed fruit into baggies (that I reuse!), measure the protein powder and supplements into small containers that go into the cabinet. So, in the morning all of the ingredients are thrown into the blender with banana slices and the liquid ingredients. 

*I am allergic to dairy so I use soy for my protein source and I also take calcium-magnesium-vitamin D supplements*

My Great Big Salad Recipe!
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In one more attempt to save time, every other day I make two days worth of salads placed in individual containers (I tried to make 3-days worth at a time once but when I got to the 3rd day it was not appetizing to say the least!).  It may seem that it would get boring to eat the same breakfast and lunch every day but I can't even tell you how much I look forward and enjoy them each and every day!  So, once again you just have to find the pattern that suits your personality.  Normally, I tend to stay away from recipes that have many ingredients but in this case, all of the stuff is in one place and I'm in the habit of putting it together.  This is my biggest meal of the day and it takes me about an hour to eat it all!

The fruit and veggies change with what is available seasonally.  Needless to say, I look forward to summer!  I don't use any dressing because the flavor of all of the ingredients is so tasty and I get plenty of good fat from the avocado.

Exercise Links                       
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Now that the kids are older, I am better able to fit working out into my day.  Since I am getting older as well (and trying to lower my LDL cholesterol) I am more motivated to work out my heart.  Most days I am on the treadmill for about 30 minutes or do zumba or some variation of cardio activity.  Three times a week I do a total body weights workout and every single day I practice yoga, pranayama and meditation.  A wonderful resource for cardio and weights is On Fitness Magazine.  It is geared towards personal trainers.  The information is always accurate, up-to-date and interesting.  It has more "meat" in it than most of the other magazines available on that topic without feeling too much like an academic journal.  Those journals are great but hard to get information quickly.  In my experience, this magazine was only easily available by subscription.

Other good resources for exercise ideas that are found more readily are Women's Health Magazine & Men's Health Magazine.  They have free video clips on their website that demonstrate proper form of individual exercises. 

Power Foods
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This is a list of foods that I found in Men's Health Magazine that I really support and incorporate into my own lifestyle.  Please note serving sizes on packages before eating.