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"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
around 7:00 am, small snack around 10 am (or a small glass of coconut water if
I'm teaching that morning), a
great, big salad
around Noon'ish, a healthy
snack around 3:00 p.m., a dinner that consists of a lot of veggies with a
lean protein and some sort of pasta, typically 250-350 calories and possibly a
light snack around 8 pm. 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. I always have a dessert after
lunch and dinner, this usually is a few squares of dark chocolate or hot cocoa!
I love everything I eat and never feel deprived. I also drink a lot of water,
green and herbal tea.
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, volunteer work 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!
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 a brown rice blend for my protein source and I also take
calcium-magnesium-vitamin D supplements*
|
Item |
Approximate Calories |
1 C of liquid mixture - 1/4 cup almond milk, 1/4 cup water
and 1/2 cup coconut water
|
45 |
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1 C frozen fruit - 1/4 c each cherries, blueberries, raspberries,
strawberries |
85 |
|
1 T nut butter |
100 |
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2 T rice protein powder |
110 |
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1/3 banana |
35 |
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1/2 t cinnamon and 1 t cocoa |
10 |
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Total Calories |
385 |
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.
The fruit and veggies change with what is available
seasonally. Needless to say, I look forward to summer! I typically
add a little balsamic vinegar but don't use
any additional dressing because the flavor of all of the ingredients is so tasty and I get
plenty of good fat from the avocado.
|
Item |
Approximate Calories |
|
1 c Raw Spinach |
7 |
|
5 baby carrots |
20 |
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1/4 tomato or red bell pepper |
8 |
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1 to 2 celery stalks or 1/2 cucumber |
12 |
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1/2 ruby red grapefruit |
38 |
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6 cherries or 30 blueberries |
25 |
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4 fresh strawberries sliced |
8 |
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9 grapes |
18 |
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1 package of salmon |
70 |
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1 hard boiled egg - without yolk |
17 (white only) |
|
1/2 avocado |
144 |
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Total Calories |
367 |
Exercise Links

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Now that the kids are older, I am better able to fit
working out into my day. Most
days I am on the treadmill or walking outside for about 30+ minutes. Three times a week I do a total body weights workout
which takes about 30 minutes and every single day I
practice yoga. 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.
Another good resource for exercise ideas that is found more readily
is
Men's Health Magazine.
The website even has free video clips that demonstrate proper form of
individual exercises.
A book that I've found incredibly helpful is
"The New ME (Metabolic Effect) Diet: Eat More, Work Out Less, and Actually Lose
Weight While You Rest". It is excellent and really explains what type of
"burner" you are (sugar, muscle or mixed) through a quiz and then continues to
teach you how to eat accordingly. The authors basically recommend a high fiber,
high lean protein, healthy carbohydrate, low fat way of eating. What I love
about this book is that it in addition to the information about food, it also
gives you an easy to follow workout plan.
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.
|
Item |
Note |
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Almonds and other nuts |
Eat them with skins intact; not salted or smoked |
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Beans and other legumes |
Not refried or baked |
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Spinach and other green vegetables |
Without butter or cheese sauce! |
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Fat-free or low-fat dairy; milk yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese |
Not whole milk or frozen yogurt |
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Oatmeal |
Instant, unsweetened |
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Eggs; eggbeaters |
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Turkey and other lean meats and fish |
Imposters are anything breaded, fried, sausage, bacon, cured meats, ham,
fatty cuts of steak |
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Peanut Butter |
All natural & sugar free |
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Olive Oil |
Stay away from hydrogenated vegetable oils, trans fatty acids and margarine |
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Whole-Grain Breads and Cereals |
Including brown rice, whole wheat pasta & snacks. Whole grains contain
at least 2 grams of fiber per serving. Imposters are baked goods
labeled wheat instead of "whole wheat". |
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Raspberries and other berries & fruits |
Imposters are sugary jellies |
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Whey protein |
This is great for people who can digest dairy |
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