Yoga - Savasana or "Corpse Pose"

On Saturday mornings, I frequently go to an 8:00 a.m. yoga class at the gym. It's a good class and there's not usually many poses that are too difficult for me to figure out. Nothing too "pretzel-y."

I'm starting my actual description of yoga classes at the end. Maybe some time I'll mention some of the other poses that are in the middle. A few weeks ago, the yoga instructor said that she didn't mind if people left the class early, but that if we are already at Savasana or "corpse pose," she would prefer that you just wait until the class is over. Savasana is always the last pose of the class before the end. Yesterday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, there were probably 6 people that left during Savasana, and for an already small class, that's pretty distracting. By the end of the class, there was the yoga instructor, the bald guy, and me.

There was an article in the Yoga Journal all about Savasana that I read a few months ago, called "Heavenly Rest" by John Hanc. The article starts out describing how his instructor, Maria, noted his improvement in Savasana, and his response was, "So, I'm getting better at lying on the floor?"

But here is why Savasana is important:

Maria sighed and looked at me reproachfully. "Savasana is a lot more than just lying on the floor."

Now don't get me wrong: I enjoy that delicious rest at the end of class. But until I gave it serious consideration, I thought of Savasana as a yogic chill pill, built into the end of practice to calm yuppies and soccer moms before they climb back into their SUVs and start texting their way to the nearest Starbucks.

Later in the article, there is a concise definition of what Savasana is about:

"How often in life do we give ourselves permission to lie still, relax, and just breathe?" asks Christina Geithner, a yoga teacher and professor of human physiology at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. The benefits of Savasana, says Geithner, who is also a spokeswoman for the American College of Sports Medicine, include reduced muscle tension throughout the body and engagement of the relaxation response in a quiet place without distractions. Plus, you let go of the concerns of the day.

If you are planning to take a yoga class, take the whole yoga class. That includes Savasana.

Day 2 of work this week

Tuesday was my second day of work this week, and when I got there, I was really tired after a tough workout. I'm not as far ahead on the meeting as I probably would have liked to have been, but I don't think it would have made any difference if I had gone to work today.

My workout with my trainer today was as tough as the Tuesday workout, so Thursday and Friday are rest days, and yoga on Saturday, and rest day on Sunday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Day 1 of work this week

I woke up this morning and went to the gym. Yay! I hardly ever drag myself out of bed on Monday morning to go to the gym because Sunday seems to be my hardest night to get myself to fall asleep. I got up and ran for 25 continuous minutes and that was a first.

I got nothing done at work today because I was answering the phone all day and having to reformat and resend things. Bleh.

My morning workout was completely negated by a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house. The potatoes were awesome...and the chicken...and the salad...and the green beans...and the carrot cake.

Better luck tomorrow.

2 Days

Even though I'm only going to be at work for 2 days this week, I still made lunches for several days. I figure that will help me be prepared for Thanksgiving and after Thanksgiving. I'm making a salad and Butternut Squash, Apple, and Cranberry Bake. I think I'll make a salad that is heart healthy to offset the other thing I'm making.

Good luck with your Thanksgiving meal planning and preparations.

11/17 Weigh in

This weigh in wasn't great. A slight gain, but that's not uncommon after a big loss.

Next week will be good.

HDL

Cholesterol levels are an interesting thing. I don't know my exact numbers right now. (I will know them in a few weeks.) Recently, my total cholesterol has not been bad. My LDL (lousy cholesterol) has been dropping. My HDL (healthy cholesterol) has been steady: a little low, and not rising. So here is what I learned today about cholesterol.

"Our research strongly suggests, in fact, that lower than "normal" HDL levels are not worrisome as long as total cholesterol is well within the safe range - under 150 mg/dL - a finding that has been discussed by other researchers, as well." (Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, Esselstyn, p. 49)

Learning something new every day.

Shoulders, Part 2

The follow-up massage appointment wasn't bad. Not as painful as last time since there weren't as many knots.

My running program today wasn't fantastic. Better luck later in the week.

Shoulders

Chin-ups and dips are not the easiest thing in the world, even when you are using a weight machine that offsets some of the weight. I did chin-ups and dips on Saturday morning and my shoulders have been a little tense since then. Normally this wouldn't be anything that I thought too much about. but I have my rescheduled appointment with a massage therapist tomorrow evening. Special focus: shoulders. Should be fun since my shoulders will have extra knots.

Maybe my timing on the chin-ups wasn't great. Actually, not maybe. Bad timing for sure.

11/10 Weigh In

Today's weigh in was awesome and how awesome was totally unexpected. I lost 4.2 pounds this week. No idea how that happened since I thought 2 pounds would have been lucky. I'll take a 4 pound weight loss for the week.

19.8 pounds to go!

Pizza

I made this pizza last week when I was doing pretty well at being plant-strong. I took the leftover pizza to work the next day, and there were 2 co-workers standing next to me near the microwaves. One asked me if I made the pizza and how I made it. My other co-worker said, "That's the best looking lunch I've seen all day."

So you can make pizza without cheese and still be the envy of your co-workers. Just in case you were wondering.

Monday, Monday...again

The time change got me to think that it was about to rain outside just before 5, when really, it was just getting dark. So I wrapped up my work for the day and got out of the office just after 5 (rarely happens). So then I went to the metro and there was a delay on the orange line, so I grabbed something to eat at Potbelly. Then went back to the metro and they weren't even letting people onto the platform, so then I went for a 35 minute walk around DC. Seemed as good a way to kill time as any, and that's one unusual way to get my workout in for the day.

In other news, running on Saturday was pretty awesome. The next phase of my running program was a 5-minute warm-up walk, then running for 20 minutes. Started out fine, lowered my speed from 5.1 to 4.9 a little more than half way through the run, then had only 5 minutes left and still feeling fine. Then finished the 20 minute run. First time ever in life that I have run for 20 minutes with no stops.

More running later this week.

Decision and the Next Day

My grocery list was taking longer to put together than usual. All week I've really been missing my Chobani yogurts and my hard-boiled egg since I started following the Engine 2 diet. See, I had my Monday through Friday breakfast down to a science: Toast and Peanut Butter before my workout, hard-boiled egg after my workout, Chobani yogurt and a banana while checking the e-mail and taking care of the early morning things at work. I tried to find good replacements, but it just wasn't working for me. So I added an egg and Chobani yogurts back into my routine. My lunch and dinner are still completely plant-strong this week. The last thing I want to do is get stressed out about what food I'm eating.

I forgot to mention my weigh in yesterday. I lost the weight I gained last week, plus a couple ounces, so I have exactly 24 pounds to go. :)

Ponderous

I have been studying how to lower my blood pressure and maintain a normal blood pressure since late May of this year. Or you could say early December last year, but actively studying and researching since late May. I've read everything about heart health by Dr. Andrew Saul (the guy sitting in the brown chair in Food Matters) on doctoryourself.com. I've watched Forks Over Knives and Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, and reread portions of The China Study. For the last 2 weeks I've been reading and somewhat following the diet recommendations from 2 books: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., and The Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn. There are other books and heart health advocates out there, I just haven't read or watched all of them yet.

And all of my research comes down to this: If you want to have better heart health, you must eat a plant-based diet.

Just in the first 2-3 days of following the diets from the books by the father and son team of the Esselstyns, I could tell a difference in my health and energy. And I could see from monitoring my own blood pressure that this diet would definitely help efficiently control my blood pressure. I currently take 2 blood pressure meds to control my blood pressure. Normal is 120/80. My blood pressure a week ago Thursday was 109/62 (before I started focusing on changing my diet). My blood pressure 2 days ago on Tuesday was 92/63. Yesterday it was 101/66.

This evening I needed a break from studying heart health and plant-based diets, so I went to Five Guys. Why? I figured I would eat something completely off-limits because I needed to make a decision: back to normal and counting my calories which would possibly get me a lower medication doseage, or plant-based and get rid of those blood pressure meds for good? I've made a lot of changes this year, so I figure I might as well go ahead and make one more. Back to plant-based tomorrow.

I read somewhere that Rip Esselstyn's diet was "plant-strong" while his dad's diet was "plant-perfect." I follow Rip Esselstyn's diet: he allows walnuts, pureed cashews in spaghetti, and the use of Pam cooking spray for stir-fry meals. Otherwise, there is no oil at all. I never knew how many things there were that contained oil. And no dairy.

Here are my new 4 Food Groups:
Vegetables
Legumes
Whole Grains
Fruit

Dr. Joel Fuhrman's program is very similar, but he allows fish twice a week and poultry once a week. So maybe that's what I'll try for when I go out to eat.

I'm trying for 90% on the Engine 2 diet. I eat peanut butter and toast before my morning workouts and peanut butter without added oil is just awful. I'll stick with my Skippy Natural. And if I'm making my own vegan pizza, and I can't find a pizza crust without oil, I'm still buying the pizza crust. I figure that gets me to 90% following the Engine 2 diet.

If you haven't tried Haagen-Daz Strawberry Sorbet, I recommend it. And it's totally Engine 2 Diet approved.

Food for Thought

The following quote is from "A Revolution to Restore America's Health Crisis: The Scientific View," by Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D and T. Colin Cambell, PHD.

"...studies now show us how rampant cardiovascular disease has become. By age twelve school children develop thickening of their carotid arteries to the brain. Fully 80% of twenty-year old soldiers, dying in combat, are found to have coronary artery heart disease. That figure is now raised to 100% in a more recent study of those men and women between the ages of 16 to 34 years who have died of accidents, homicides and suicides."

"Dr. Lewis Kuller, professor of public health at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as a result of his decade long cardiovascular health study made the following statement: 'All males who are 65 years of age and all females who are 70 years who have been exposed to the typical western diet have cardiovascular disease and should be treated as such.'"

Walking Outside

The day was still somewhat light when I got home from work today, so for my evening workout, I walked outside. I figure there are about 3 days left that I can walk outside after work and today seemed like the day it would be most feasible. It was a good, cold, fast walk around the neighborhood.

I can't believe it's already November.