This Girl Can!

This week's post focuses on improving fitness and healthy eating. These topics are very relevant at this time of year when many of us are looking towards creating a happy and healthy 2015.  I'm starting with a video which has the intention to motivate women of all ages, shapes and sizes to get moving. I usually put the inspiring videos I come across at the end of the blogpost but this one needs to be up front!

This Girl Can is a new campaign by Sport England to encourage women to take up a sport or physical activity.

Research revealed the reasons why women, in the UK in particular, don't participate in sporting activities as much as men. According to Jeannie Price, CEO of Sport England, "Some of the issues, like time and cost, were familiar but one of the strongest themes was fear of judgement. Worries about being judged for being the wrong size, not fit enough and not skilled enough came up time and again".

The campaign encourages women to get up and get moving, whatever their age, level of fitness or level of experience and to participate and have fun whether they are good at it or not. The only issue I have with it is the line "feeling like a fox" which implies that the aim is to be sexy. I feel that it would have been preferable to leave that out and focus soley on the physical and mental health benefits of doing more exercise. What do you think? I'd be interested to hear your views in the comments below.

Increasing your fitness will help your yoga practice too - you'll get stronger and have more stamina - and your yoga practice will help you in your chosen sport or activity - you'll get a great stretch for those hard-working muscles, and a chance to relax and and become quiet after all that moving about. The two will complement each other 

Take a look at the video here - I hope it inspires you to try something new whatever your level of fitness and, as Nike says, "Just Do It". 

Although your motivation was probably high at New Year, as January draws to a close you might find you need a little boost to help you stay focused on your resolutions. As I mentioned in last week's post, the number one New Year's resolution is to lose weight and the second most popular is to get in shape. Both of these goals are very broad and just too vague. It's helpful to narrow them down and get clearer about the reasons we let our good intentions fall away. This next article might explain one of the reasons why our goals to get fit often fail. It makes interesting reading...


The Real Reason We Don't Exercise...and why you should get your body out of its comfort zone.

by Sherry Pagoto, Ph.d via psychologytoday.com

A friend of mine came back from one of those crazy obstacle races and commented, “I’m finally used to walking around with my shoes, socks, and feet soaking wet and cold.” He said that when he first started exercising outside he had no tolerance for cold, wet shoes and socks but now that he’s had to run through swamps and mud puddles, it’s no big deal: He hardly notices. 

This got me to wondering if the real reason we don't exercise is our desire to avoid any experience of discomfort. People often say they don’t exercise because they have no time, but in the same breath talk about how much they want to get healthy, and how much they believe exercise is the path to better health. It's a puzzling contradiction—or is it?

Theories of human behavior have long shown that immediate experience often outweighs future rewards. What this means is that it is hard to do something uncomfortable even if it earns us something good later.

Exercise is uncomfortable—uncomfortable relative to our typical reality, that is. We live in a society where we keep the indoor temperature adjusted to perfection all year round, wrap ourselves in soft clothing, wear thick-soled shoes to protect our feet from harm, lay on cushy beds draped in poofy covers, and shower and scrub with warm water and soap every single day. Is all of this First-World pampering making us intolerant to even mild physical discomfort? Maybe exercise isn't too uncomfortable—maybe our everyday lives are a little too comfortable.

Here are many of the discomforts I have heard people (myself included!) blame on exercise:

• I hate sweating.
• I hate being too hot.
• I hate being too cold.
• I hate being out of breath.
• I hate when my hair gets messed up.
• I hate sore muscles.
• I hate blisters and calluses.
• I hate getting wet in the rain.
• I hate getting out of bed when it’s dark and cold.
• I hate going out at night when it’s dark and cold.
• I hate getting dirty.
• I hate working out in front of people at the gym.

Yes, all of these things are uncomfortable. But as my friend realized, what is uncomfortable today may hardly be noticeable later, after you've experienced that discomfort over and over again. I challenge you to challenge yourself to confront a discomfort that's prevented you from exercising.

Are you trying to eat more healthily as part of your New Year's resolutions? Here are 10 tips for maximising the nutrients in your meals that will boost your health and help keep your intention to eat healthier food on track.  The emphasis on adding things rather than taking things away is helpful, so that you don't have to think of changes to your diet as a punishment. Number 4 is my favourite way to add extra goodness and flavour to my meals. What's yours?

10 Tips To Boost The Nutrient Density Of Your Meals

By Dr. Shawna Darou via Mindbodygreen

In a world where we are constantly looking for tips and tricks to boost our energy, mood and productivity, we can't ignore nutrition. Rather than focusing on what to avoid in your diet, I like to shift the focus to increasing the nutrient density of your meals. This way you are adding much more healthy proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, and as a result, some of the less-healthy things easily fall away.

Here are my top 10 tips to boost the nutrient density of your diet:

1. Drop the filler foods.
I would consider bread, rice, pasta and crackers as some examples of filler foods that are taking up a significant caloric portion of your meals, but are not giving much back nutritionally. If you replace these servings with more vegetables or starchy vegetables like sweet potato, yam, squash, beets and carrots, you are greatly increasing the nutrients in your meal.

2. Eat more leafy greens.
Leafy greens are a powerhouse of nutrition. Include these in salads, stir-fries, sautéed greens with garlic, or even in green smoothies for convenience.

3. Add a veggie snack every day.
One of the goals with a nutrient dense diet is to increase your vegetable intake to at least 6 servings daily. Adding a vegetable snack every day will help you to reach this. Try vegetables with hummus, celery with almond butter, or simply a small bowl full of colourful raw veggies when you need a crunchy snack.

4. Top your meals with nuts and seeds.
Another easy tip to up the nutrient density of your meal is to top it off with mineral-rich nuts or seeds. Consider preparing your favourite blend of hemp hearts, chia seeds, sesame seeds, slivered almonds or others that can be sprinkled onto your meal.

5. Eat ½ plate of vegetables with each meal.
Change the way you build your plate to incorporate more vegetables. This way of eating is optimal for your weight and metabolism, and will also ensure that you meet all of your vitamin and mineral requirements each day.

6. Add more power foods to your breakfast.
Breakfasts can be far more creative than toast, bagels and cereal! Start your day off right with an energy boost by drinking a green smoothie, topping your porridge with hemp hearts, chia seeds, cinnamon and goji berries, or eating a vegetable packed frittata to start your day off right.

7. Focus on lots of color.
Just as we remind children to eat all the colours of the rainbow, the practice of eating colourful meals keeps us healthy too. Bring in the balance of different coloured vegetables and fruits into each of your meals to reach the full range of plant-based nutrients. Some of the most colourful foods have extremely high levels of antioxidants — turmeric, pomegranate, beets, watercress, spinach and sweet potatoes to name a few.

8. Eat protein with each meal.
Most people struggle with some degree of blood sugar regulation issues, ranging from hypoglycemia to insulin resistance to diabetes. One of the best ways to maintain stable blood sugar levels is to eat protein with each meal. Depending on your dietary preference this can be healthy versions of fish, meat, poultry and eggs, or vegetarian sources such as beans or lentils.

9. Include healthy fats.
Thank goodness we are finally over the low-fat diets! Including healthy fats is essential for your mood, hormone balance, cognitive function, skin health and more. Some of the top fats to add for a balanced meal are olive oil, coconut oil, nuts seeds or avocado.

10. Don't forget the fibre.
Fiber will naturally come with the addition of more vegetable and fruits, so don't be tricked into eating lots of whole grains to meet your daily fiber requirements! You can further top up your fiber with the addition of ground flax or chia seeds, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds. Whole foods naturally contain a good amount of fiber.

In conclusion, as you are making nutritional changes towards a nutrient dense diet, don't forget about the joy and pleasure of eating. I always encourage my patients who are taking on a new diet to look at it as a cooking adventure! Your attitude will make all the difference in changing the way you eat as a long-term lifestyle change, instead of just a new diet.

And finally, a great picture quote to remind you that it's up to you..... :-) 

New Beginnings

I've been writing this blog for a whole year now! I am quite thrilled that I've managed to do it. I'm pleased that I've had the discipline to do it even when it was hard to find the time, the words, or the information I wanted to share.

At the beginning of 2014, it was my intention to use the Thrive Yoga Lifestyle blog to share inspiring ways to live life in a creative, fun and intentional way.  I hope you feel that I've delivered and that you were motivated to visit somewhere new, try a new recipe, create something interesting and beautiful or make some minor adjustments in your life so that it flows a little more smoothly.

I have the intention to continue the blog in 2015 as there's still so much good stuff that I come across that I want to share in the hope that it enhances your life in some way. I'm going to change the format slightly, and remove the "Visiting", "Making" and "Growing" categories to allow me greater freedom to share whatever I feel might be interesting and helpful.

Thank you for reading. Please share this with friends and family so we can all be inspired to grow towards living lives we love that support and understand each other.

So, on to the first article of 2015 ...

The number one New Year's Resolution is, apparently, to lose weight, and January is the time when many people go on a diet. But diets can be unhelpful for long-term weight loss as the following article in this week's "Waitrose Weekend" (Waitrose's free weekly customer newspaper) explains:

For the Body : Ditch the Diet

Quick-fix diets are likely to cause those who follow them to shed the Christmas pounds, then end up heavier than when they started, experts claim.

Fad diets encourage bodies to become more efficient at storing calories, according to Azmina Govindji, of the British Dietetic Association, which means weight is piled back on - and more - once normal eating is resumed. 

The claim, which comes as hundreds of thousands of Brits embark upon New Year diets, is backed by research. A review of 31 different long-term studies by the University of California showed dieters may lose 5-10% of their weight but most put it back on plus more. 

Instead, people wanting to lose weight for good should ditch diets in favour of healthy eating and balanced meals that include fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, low-fat dairy and lean protein. 

"When you go on a low-calorie diet for a period of time, your body starts to think, "I'm not going to get much food" so it becomes really efficient at storing fat," Govindhi said. "It goes into what we might call starvation mode. So when you start eating more calories again, because you've become so efficient at storing them as fat, you pile weight on. It's a really false economy to go on a faddy, low-calorie diet." And it's not just reduced calorie consumption leading to rapid weight loss. Some diets cut out entire food groups, such as carbohydrates or dairy, leaving those following them at risk of not getting enough necessary nutrients and minerals. 

In a feature on healthy eating in this issue of Waitrose Weekend, alternative approaches include eating Mediterranean foods and swapping meat for pulses. 

Among the most popular diets for the New Year are the Paleo diet, which emulates the food intake of cavemen, the low-carb Dukan, and the 17-day diet, which restricts food consumption in 17-day phases.

"Short-term diets don't really teach you much. You're not really learning about portion control or mindful eating," added Govindhi. "It's important that we maintain our long-term health rather than simply monitoring calories in and calories out. This means eating a balance of nutrients and avoiding foods which are high in salt and saturated fats."

You can pick up a free copy of Waitrose Weekend, which features recipes, articles and money-off coupons, each week at your local branch. You can also download the Waitrose Weekend app here.

For Your Mind : New Year, New Brain - 11 Exercises To Sharpen Your Mind

by Lisa Wimberger via Mindbody Green

CrossFit might be the latest fitness craze sweeping the nation, but there's one area of your body that historically hasn't received a lot of attention, although that's starting to change. Apps and games that are supposed to help you "train your brain" are becoming increasingly trendy as users try to maintain (or exceed) their capacity to learn and remember.

Well, you don't need a special app, book or program to train your brain. Some basic understanding about how the brain works — and how it functions at its very highest capacity — is enough to help you keep those wits sharp. If you're pressed for time and need a quick pick-me-up, any of these tips should help get you back on track (and the more you can manage, the better!).

1. Eat right, every day.
Sugar might give you a short bump of energy, but it won't help you think any more clearly and you will crash and burn after that bump has passed. Protein and healthy fats are much more to your brain's liking than fueling predominantly on sugars, and there's no more important time to feed your brain than first thing in the morning. So serve up eggs, blueberries, avocado and other "brain foods" for breakfast.

2. Stay out of the stress-response cycle.
Your brain excels at detecting danger — after all, if that weren't the case your ancestors wouldn't have survived very long! But in today's world, our brains are too good at detecting danger that isn't actually there. It's not good for you to live in the stress-response cycle where your brain and body are constantly primed for whatever "danger" is lurking beyond the bend, because that "danger" isn't real. Keep those stress hormones out of your bloodstream by refusing to become engaged when the cycle starts up.

3. Engage in problem-solving puzzles.
These puzzles help engage the prefrontal cortex, the area of your brain involved in empathy, higher learning and, of course, problem-solving. Spending a little time every day on a puzzle that requires you to enter your prefrontal cortex, whether it's a Sudoku or a simple jump-the-peg board game, is great for brain health.

4. Learn a new skill or a hobby.
It's the perfect time of year to start taking on new things, and learning a new skill or a hobby is a brain exercise in and of itself. When you're learning something new, different areas of your brain are activated and those areas will keep you out of the stress-response cycle simply by virtue of being activated! You're never too old to learn to play the piano, practice your keyboarding or take up gardening; in fact, you'll keep your brain young by teaching it new tricks.

5. Listen to new and different music.
You might have music lurking in your library that you've never listened to before and now's the time to dig it out and dig in. The prefrontal cortex adores music, especially new and novel music that it can't easily predict. You'll find you're more alert and focused if you mix up your tunes.

6. Use your non-dominant hand for daily exercises.
Practice answering the phone, brushing your teeth or performing another task you do every day without thinking about it, but with your non-dominant hand. By practicing like this, you're triggering your prefrontal cortex and building neurons that appreciate the new and novel.

7. Move items around in your workspace.
There are things you use every day, whether you're a banker or a stay-at-home parent; you probably just have to think about them and your body begins to remember patterns. If you move some of these items around, each time you reach for them you'll will be forced to pause and re-assess for a brief moment. This brings activity to the front of the brain and is a form of cognitive exercise. A sense of novelty can do wonders for brain performance.

8. Breathe deep in your belly.
There's a reason why this one always shows up on lists: It's effective! Breathe deeply, counting your breaths. By the time you get to ten, any stress response you've triggered will likely be dissipated and you'll be back in the learning and empathetic area of your brain once again.

9. Journal.
Write out one to three pages in a notebook every morning when you wake up. It doesn't matter what the pages say, but there's something about a brain dump first thing in the morning that clears your plate and cleanses your palate for the rest of the day.

10. Speak in the "I can" rather than the "I can't."
When you find yourself thinking about your limitations, reframe them as possibilities. For example, instead of dwelling on how little money is in your bank account, focus on the aspects of the situation you can control: "I can start shopping once a week from a list and make more meals instead of eating out." "I can ask the person from work who lives in my neighborhood if they want to carpool." "I can negotiate a lower monthly student loan payment." If you can't think of anything to focus on, then simply practice on using a statement of possibility: "I wonder what this situation will bring into my life."

11. Shake to bring your central nervous system back to homeostasis.
If you do slip into the stress-response cycle, give yourself a shake after you realize what you're doing and stop yourself. Ever been in a car accident? There's a reason why you literally shake after a high-intensity moment like that — it's your body's way of ridding your muscles and brain cells of the stress hormones that have accumulated from your real (or imagined) brush with death. You can replicate that effect by shaking yourself!

When you take time to do just one or two of these mini brain boosters every day, you'll be surprised by how much sharper and more focused you feel. Add more than one, and your brain just might be in the best shape of its life!

For Your Spirit : The Landscape Photographer of the Year Exhibition

If you're waiting for a train at Waterloo Station and need uplifting to get you through your journey home, check out the Landscape Photographer of the Year Exhibition. For the first time, this wonderful exhibition is being displayed on the recently built mezzanine at the station until 31st January 2015. And it's free! 

And for body, mind and spirit combined, here's a great video for you... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egxmSl6g8Uc&feature=player_detailpage

It features the exploits of 70-something Steven Jepson who keeps himself healthy (and extremely agile) in body, mind and spirit by playing and having fun. It is inspirational! Right.... I'm off to the park!!


Finally, remember that Amaryllis that I planted back at the beginning of December? ...Well it grew. A lot. And flowered. A lot!! Here's a picture: