Getting Healthy

Hello!

Thank you so much for the warm welcome to GH. I am really happy to be here with you all. I’ve already received some great email questions and if I haven’t gotten back to you yet, it’s because I’m still researching your answer, so please be patient with me

I’ll post my answers to your wonderful questions here, but I thought it’d be a good idea to get a base idea of what yoga is and is not.

via 57M

Yoga, or योग in Sanskrit, literally means “to yoke” or “to unite.” Yoga is about bringing together, or yoking, your mind, body and spirit. It’s not simply a physical exercise, but one of mindfulness and that brings you closer to your spiritual self as you use your physical body. From there is gets more personal. There are several different schools of thought on how to do yoga, some focus on alignment, some focus on energy channels, some on chakras, etc. One of the fun parts is trying out different studios or classes and finding which one resonates with you.

Though I teach a few different styles, I practice Ashtanga yoga, which is based on an eight limbed path that includes precepts as non-stealing, cleanliness, meditation, and breath. Of those eight, only one is asana, or the actual poses we think of when we think yoga. It is a lifestyle based on non-attachment to things, and a focus on non-reaction. Yoga is not a religion, but it can be used to heighten your own religion, as the practice of meditation and controlling your mind are useful whether you’re a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Wiccan or an atheist. Yoga is not about touching your toes, though it can help you get there, and beyond.

Personally, yoga means strength, flexibility and stillness in the physical, mental, and spiritual self. It is only truly met when you meet yourself as you are, right now, and not how you want to be or were. To meet each new day with joy and desire to practice, and to practice when joy and desire are absent. To make time to listen inwardly in vapasana meditation, and to listen to what the body and soul are trying to say, while silencing the mind.

Anyone can do yoga, and for whatever reason you’re drawn to it, pursue that. You may want to just have a restorative time for yourself, but over time find your strength and flexibility have increased, or your may be looking for physical change, and find your mind quieted and calmed. The most important thing is to know that you’re good enough. There is a yoga mantra I love that goes, “I have enough. I do enough. I am enough.” Once we realize that our desire for change is out of a contentment with ourselves, and not a lack, whole worlds of possibility open up.

What does yoga mean to you?

Sorry I’m a bit late on this, folks, but I was up in New York for Fashion Week and had some Internet connection issues.

But, my travels have inspired this post, so maybe it’s okay, right?

When you are switching to a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle it helps to get into a routine.  You learn what your favorite products are, where you can pick up almond milk on the way home and what bread doesn’t have eggs in it.  Everything is going along smoothly because you have your comfort zone around you.

But then you have to go out of town!  Aaack!

Travelling can mess up any one’s routine but when you have a dietary preference or restriction (such as eating vegetarian or having food allergies or medical-based no-no’s) it can seem a bit more daunting.  But from a vegan/vegetarian standpoint, it isn’t as hard as you would think.  Especially since eating vegan/vegetarian is a well established and often revered way of life in many countries.

More and more hotels, airplanes, airports and restaurants are becoming sensitive to the varied needs of their clients. They offer non-animal based foods and have no problem working within your requests.  That said, it’s best to do a little bit of planning and thinking ahead to ensure you will be as happy and comfortable as possible.    Here are a few tips to help make that trip go smoothly.

1. Always bring snacks! – As every good parent knows, you should always keep a few snacks around to stave off a tantrum.  Well, make sure you think of yourself as well.  I personally pack a few Clif Nectar bars in my carry-on and then pick up a bottle of water or apple juice along the way.

2. Let them know – From politely yet firmly letting your server know specifically what you do not want to making sure you get your vegan plate on the plane, speaking up for yourself is the best way to ensure a happy trip.  Servers and transportation companies are not always trained to be proactive about this, so it means you have to be.

3. Talk to the chef – Indirectly, anyways.  If you are going out to eat with a group and know you don’t get to choose the restaurant, it’s helpful to look at the menu before hand and even give the restaurant a call the night before or day of.  Let them know you are coming in with a group and you wanted to see if they could accommodate you.  I’ve found I’ve had some of the best meals because the chef got inventive and created a plate just for me.

4. Get inventive – But travel usually means spontaneity.  You can’t always plan ahead so what do you do when you find a restaurant on the fly you want to try?  If a “non-American” type of food you are probably going to do fine.  Most cuisines have a ton of non-animal based options already.  But even so, don’t be afraid to mix and match using the ingredients and side dishes from all over the menu.  A side of asparagus here, a risotto there and you have a custom meal.

5. Go shopping – Nothing is more fun that checking out the local grocery stores, bakeries and farmers markets.  You can get fresh food, cheaper prices and regional favorites and then have a picnic in the park or snack in your hotel room.  I like to stock up as soon as I get to my destination so I can nosh on the go.  Local all the way!

I’ve travelled all over and have been so surprised with the the minimum of issues I’ve had.  From vegan meals on the plane to vegetarian afternoon teas in Ireland, you can eat healthfully and happily no matter where you roam.

Enjoy!

Luv

Poochie

Hello everyone, Poochie here!

I’m here to be your vegetarian/vegan “expert”.  I was so excited when the Getting Healthy program wanted to add in folks passionate about a new range of topics.  And food is definitely something I’m passionate about!

Just a bit about me personally.  My husband and I switched to a plant-based lifestyle about 18 months ago.  So, while I still remember making the jump from eating meat, dairy and eggs, I’ve also had the time to do a lot of research, try a good number of new foods and recipes and experience life the in the South and traveling while eating according to my beliefs.

But let’s take a quick step back.  What exactly is this vegan plant-based lifestyle all about?  Well, on the most basic level, it means you don’t eat or use or wear anything that came from an animal.  Many vegans fall all along the spectrum of what this means.  For us, it means we don’t eat anything animal-based, we’re using up our honey but not buying more and we’re reducing or have stopped buying products with feathers, down or leather.

That seems like a huge hurdle or restriction.  And in some ways it is… but only because these ingredients and elements are everywhere… even in places they don’t need to be. But as people become more aware of the negatives associated with factory farming, food production and health implications, this is going to change.  And you can see the shift happening already from Ellen’s huge vegan initiative, to Alicia Silverstone’s Kind Diet, to vegetarian/vegan holiday dinner articles in Martha Stewart and Bon Appétit and more.

People come looking to make this change for many reasons.  The catalyst for us was when our rooster Napoleon was attacked.  It suddenly seemed so strange to us that we had so much love for him; all our other pets and animals but then still ate animals just like them.  Other people come to it because of their health concerns, or the negative environmental impacts associated with the “production” of the 10 billion land animals killed each year in the US alone.

What I hope to do here is answer your questions, share my experiences, discuss these topics in greater detail, and dish out our favorite food discoveries and even some recipes.  I hope you’ll stop back by and let me know what you think and what you want to hear about.  For me the goal is not to be perfect but to be joyful.  And this choice, surprisingly, has brought us so much joy and peace that we were not expecting it’s amazing.

To borrow a quote: Don’t do nothing because you can’t do everything. Do something, anything.  It will benefit you, the animals and the world.

See you soon!

Poochie

Hello and namaste,

I’m Freya, your new Yoga Expert on GH. I’m so excited to be sharing my love for yoga and its lifestyle with you all!

Before we start, I love the honesty of everyone here sharing their healthy journeys, so I thought I would share a little about my own: I used to work in the corporate world in a cube for 50 hours a week in a suburb for an employer that basically told us to rip off freelancers. I went from running around on the subway in a city to sitting in traffic on the freeway for an hour each way. I started snacking off the vending machines to numb my boredom and ate whenever and whatever was available to me. Needless to say, my work life was fairly miserable. I gained 20 lbs in about six months. Desperate for a change in my life, I started taking a yoga class.

I almost quit after that first class. It was hard. It was physically as well as mentally demanding. I learned I had almost no balance or strength, two things I thought very necessary in yoga. But that night after I came home, I felt wonderful. My muscles ached, but in a way that said “please try this again sometime.” My mind felt less cluttered, and my busy-nature felt delightfully slowed. I was hooked.

Fast forward two years and I was practicing more regularly, had lost 10 of those gained pounds  but still in my same rut job. For various reasons, the mister and I picked up our lives and moved from the frigid Midwest to warmer climes and sweeter iced tea, Nashville, TN. Once here, I started to seriously consider teaching yoga. I felt I had learned so much, and really want to pay forward all the benefits I’d received. I became a certified yoga instructor in November 2009 after a grueling and gorgeous four month training period of 5am wake up calls, two hour practices followed by one hour meditation sits.

So here we are. I currently teach beginners yoga and stress relief meditation here in Nashville. My teaching style is compassionate and based on breathing, not touching your toes. I’m here to share what I’ve learned so far on my journey, and to share what I’m continuing to learn in my own practice and my teaching. I have some things in mind, but please email me or comment if you have questions or specific topics you’d like me to discuss.

Shanti,

Freya

Firstly, thank you to everyone who took the survey we administered last week. It’s still open if you haven’t taken it, so go on over if you haven’t!

Just like last chapter, now that CH.II has ended, we’re making another round of changes to make Getting Healthy easier not only for the participants, but for the readers. Here’s how:

We’re cutting weight. Not that any of the GH Girls are “extra weight” – we’ve just been hearing (for months now) that a roster of 12 girls is just too much information to process, and more importantly relate to. We’re hereby downsizing from 12… to 4-7. This is a big change – we know! I know what you’re asking… Who’s staying?

Well, that brings us to number two:

We are opening the doors to you! That’s right, we’ve had an “Application” tab up on the top of the page for about a week now – some of you have already noticed and sent in your applications, thank you! We’re currently looking for applicants for two GH-related opportunities! (Two? Tell us!) Alright!

• GH Girls: Obviously, we are still looking for GH girls to post once per week about their journey towards physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual health – or a combination of all! You can read more about it on the GH Girl Application page.
• Experts: This is the big change for CH.III! We’re asking for folks who are “experts” in health-related fields (a list of prospective expert topics can be found on the Get Involved page) who will post once every two weeks about one, semi-small aspect of their field. For instance, former-GH-girl Gauri, will be our Naturopathy expert starting for CH.III! See more on the Expert Application page.

So, feel free to run about and get involved in Getting Healthy! Whether you’re a GH girl, Expert, reader, commentator, or just an admirer from a distance – thank you.

Please don’t hesitate to email us with any questions about the changes!

The holidays sure threw a wrench in my tires with seeing as many people as I could while in Michigan and then flying all over the country, and now here I am with my last post for Chapter 2…thank you to everyone for your support and encouragement!

Looking back over this chapter I started around 180-181 on the scale and currently am at around 176. I am pretty happy with this since I didn’t do much exercise wise over the holidays and I definitely can tell I am toning up and getting stronger thanks to my new gym routine. Speaking of the gym, I have already gone up on weights and resistance for all of the exercises I am doing, my balance is improving, I can see a little more definition in my legs, arms and back and can do twice as much core stuff than I could before I started. I am feeling pretty good about all of that.

I didn’t try any of the sugar free diets or anything I was thinking about, but I am okay with that. I just can’t do “diets”…I hate to deny myself anything I want. I am having success with moderation right now and it’s a routine that is really easy to stick with because I don’t feel I am depriving myself anything. Also, it’s great motivation when I’m on the bike or treadmill to see how long it takes me to burn calories…really makes me think twice when looking at the chocolate in the grocery checkout line.

As for things I am putting into my belly, I have continued to cut back on fast food to where I almost never have it (though being home, I fell into some old habits…curse you Tim Horton’s!). I also drank considerably less this chapter which is a great routine to keep up…I met up with a friend last night for a chat and only had one delicious beer over the 3 hours we sat there. Since returning to Washington I have also been trying to make an effort to continue exploring the city and the surrounding areas. I spent last Saturday evening dancing the night away with my friend Rachel, Sunday snowboarding with my buddy Jason and have been trying to find a new place to go hiking or snowshoeing this weekend. In a little over a week I head back up to Whistler for more boarding. So I am staying busy while trying to figure out exactly what I want to go to school for and getting that ball rolling. Things are probably going to get busy for me pretty quick.

Overall I just feel really fantastic. I have so much energy, I can run further, my calves aren’t bothering me as much, I sleep better and it’s not too shabby actually drawing some attention from the fellas when I am out and about *wink*. I am really looking forward to keeping up with all of this, I feel like I have formed habits that ARE easy to stick with and I don’t really have any excuse NOT to keep it up. I am happy I was able to get this all figured out now so that it will be easy to carry through into the next stage of my life, whatever that may be.

Doing my own thing since 1984!

So thank you again for those who followed along via comments here, Facebook and Twitter…I really appreciate it!

There was a lot of confusion on my part about when we were ending this Chapter of Getting Healthy.

My last post wasn’t actually my LAST post, I guess.

I just wanted to update you all really quick on a few things.

I’ve been doing fairly well with my meals. I’ve been having atleast one every single day, and I’ve even been picking up some snacking here and there.

I’ve almost completely weened myself from the laxatives. It’s been really, really rough with this in particular. As soon as food hits my stomach, I want to get it out of my system. But I’ve been trying very hard to be patient and to let it all happen naturally. It has not been easy, by any means.

There was one night that I ended up taking them, because I felt so disgusting about myself. I spent the next morning throwing them back up. My system, though used to large amounts of laxatives before, has started to become… un-used to them I guess. It was incredibly unpleasant, and definitely kept my thoughts away from using them any time soon.

My husband has been amazingly helpful the past few weeks. Encouraging me to eat, especially when I’m getting moody or he can tell I’m hungry. When I can’t find something to eat, he usually pushes until I break down and get something. Even the smallest snack, just aslong as I’m not starving myself.

I think the biggest trophy I get to walk away from all this with, is my confidence. I have grown, leaps and bounds, since first starting. When I look in the mirror, I’m not entirely grossed out anymore by what I see. Am I still unhappy? Of course. But there are times when I feel sexy and confident, and I never thought that was possible. I firmly believe that the more okay I become with my body, the more okay I will become with feeding myself and being nourished.

What has also really helped, is my stress level. It has gone down so much, and my anxiety has really let up lately. Which allows me more sleep, and more time for myself. I’m not constantly trying to control everything, and freaking out when something isn’t perfect. I’m letting go of my OCD tendencies, and just letting things simply “be”. Which has been quite relaxing, and has done a wondeful number on my peace of mind.

I even bought my first dress in years!

Lastly.

I want to thank all of you who have helped, so much for all your support and input. It has meant more to me than you could ever imagine. Knowing that there are people who understand/have been where I am… having people who care and want me to get better… the love and support I’ve received, it has all been amazing. And way more than I could have ever asked for.

Maybe I’ll be seeing you soon?

<3

(You can find me on facebook, livejournal, twitter, and myspace. You also all have my email!)

So this week I got a big wake-up call. Right now I’m prepping to audition for my college’s final Reperatory shows, and the role I read for in one play was that of a morbidly obese woman. While I know I am nowhere near morbidly obese, I am probably the biggest girl in my program. Had this been two or three years ago, I wouldn’t have been. I miss that girl. She wasn’t just thinner, she loved herself a lot more. I’m finally starting to find her again.

That’s why I’m here, that’s why I’m doing this. It’s no secret that I’ve been obviously disconnected these past few weeks. I’ve been trying and I’ve been working, and I’m back to being me, but it’s been strange. I haven’t felt like myself. Sure I’ve been making progress, but now I’ve realised WHY. I’m making progress and growing as a young woman because I have finally, for the first time in my life and however unconsciously, realised how much I am worth and how much my happiness is worth.

I deserve to be happy in my own skin. I deserve to feel as beautiful as I KNOW I am. I deserve to be loved and to give love. This is new for me, to say these things and MEAN them. But I do. For the first time in years, I really do.

My best friends are beautiful, BEAUTIFUL girls. I just got home from watching Glee with them ALL day. We got through the entire first season(thus far) and sang and danced the whole time. Being with them today made me realise that the way I see them, gorgeous and amazing inside and out, is the way they see me as well. That’s insane. In the best possible way. I never really thought about how they see me, only how I see them. It amazes me that such wonderful and incredible women, like the girls here as well as my bffs, can see me that way, when for the longest time I haven’t been able to break through and see myself, the real me, the right way.

I want to thank you guys for taking this journey with me, for putting up with me being SO disconnected recently. For supporting me and for helping me get to this point.

I am confident that without this project, it would have been months before I saw any of this. This has truly changed the way I see myself. And for that, I don’t think you will ever know how grateful I truly, truly am.

In the words of one of my absolute favourite body role models, Pink, “Let’s get this party started.” I’m confident this is only the beginning of my journey. It’ll be amazing, and I’m looking forward to it more then you’ll ever know.

<3 <3 <3
Georgia

It’s that time again – Chapter Two has come to a (near!) close, and we want to pick your brains about the last 6-ish weeks of Getting Healthy!

So we’ve come up with a new survey that we’d love if you spent maybe 3 minutes (only 180 seconds!) filling out for us.

We’re constantly impressed by the cognitive abilities of our readers, and we value your feedback like bricks of pure gold – so please help us out!

Here is the link to the survey. Thank you so much for your continued support!

Much adoration,

Jen & Elle

Image via WeHeartIt

Pssst… Interested in participating in the next Chapter?
Check out the new Application tab at the top of the page!