How Fatty Foods Curb Hunger:

Fatty foods may not be the healthiest diet choice, but those rich in unsaturated fats - such as avocados, nuts and olive oil - have been found to play a pivotal role in sending this important message to your brain: stop eating, you’re full.

The broad point is probably known to you, but read the whole press release, as there’s more biochemical detail….

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I’m going to devote the next few posts to something very important — your questions. Thanks to the Skribit technology on the left hand column of the blog, I’m able to take reader suggestions for post topics. You’ve asked, and now I want to answer.

The first topic I’m going to tackle is wrist pain — how to deal with it and how to modify your yoga practice around it. I don’t like to offer one-size-fits-all yoga routines, as each person is unique and has different things going on in the body, so I’m offering up guidelines instead. Of course modifications should be made for each individual case. Here goes…

I’ve worked with a lot of folks who suffer from wrist pain. Since many of us log hours at the computer each day, our wrists take a beating. I love my ergonomic keyboard especially for this reason. Still, I do have a few exercises that I regularly practice to keep my wrists limber and pain-free.

• My favorite exercise, and the one I do most often, is what I call Namaste Stretch. Simply put your hands in Prayer Pose and stretch your hands from one side to the other (for example, the left hand pushes gently down on the right hand until the right hand is at a 45 degree angle from it’s original upright position.). Hold the stretch for a beat or two before stretching in the other direction. 
• Reverse Prayer: Put your hands together in Prayer pose but having your fingers pointing down instead of up. Do this one with your arms behind your back.
• Wrist/Forearm Stretch: Get on all fours in Table pose. Turn your hands so that your fingers are pointing towards you (forearms facing front) and gently lean back. This can be an intense stretch, so lean back slowly (and stop when you feel like going further would be painful).
• Wrist Realigner: I have small wrists, but if you have larger ones, this exercise may be a bit more difficult — Circle your wrist (above the wrist bone, in the crease of the wrist) with your middle finger and thumb and squeeze the fingers together, applying a pleasant pressure.
• Joint Lubricator: I suggest doing wrist circles (both clockwise and counter-clockwise), clenching and releasing your fingers (clench fingers into fists and release by straightening and spreading fingers as wide as you can), and gentle flexion and extension of the wrists (making a “stop” sign with your hand, fingers facing up, palm facing out then moving in the opposite direction with the fingers pointing down towards the ground)

Now that you have some exercises to practice throughout the day and to prepare your wrists for practice, the next question is how you modify your practice to accommodate your wrists.

When I work with folks with wrist pain, I often have them stay off their wrists and come up onto fists instead. This can be done in Down Dog, Plank, Table, and any other pose that puts pressure on the wrists. If your wrists are too sore to use fists, then I suggest other modifications:

1. One prop in particular is excellent in Down Dog to take the weight off the wrist — the Three Minute Egg. I recently wrote a post about the eggs and their advantages over standard yoga blocks. Because of the eggs’ rounded design, they support the forearm without putting much weight on the wrist.
2. Stay off your wrists altogether. Most often people think that wrist pain equals no asana. Not true. Rather than practice Down Dog, try Dolphin (that’s when you bend at the elbows, resting your forearms on the ground). Did you know that you can practice Sun Salutations against a wall? You can also do a floor version of the Sun Salutation that minimizes pressure on weak and/or painful wrists.

Sun Salutations against a wall: Stand about 2-3 feet from a wall. Inhale your arms out in front of you and up alongside your ears. Exhale and fold forward. Inhale and step one foot right up to the wall and bend the knee. Brace your hands on the wall for support. On an exhale, bring the other foot up to meet the one at the wall, keeping your hands braced on the wall for support. On an inhale, lean into the wall and arch your back stretching your chin up towards the sky. On an exhale come back to standing position. Take 2-3 steps back from the wall. Repeat.

Sun Salutations on the floor (this is called Flying Cow in the Kripalu tradition): Sit on your heels to start. Inhale and stand up on your knees while raising your arms up in front of you to come alongside your ears (let your back arch). Exhale and come down, bending your elbows, resting your palms and forehead on the floor. Inhale and come onto all fours (you can come onto your fists here to relieve pressure or you can come onto your forearms instead), raising your tail and head up. From here you can either exhale into Dolphin or you can simply exhale back into the crouched position with your arms bent at the elbows, palms resting on the ground. Inhale back up to standing on knees. Exhale back to sitting on your heels. Repeat.

There you have it — a small sample bag of tricks to help if you’re suffering from wrist pain. The next few posts, I’ll discuss other asked-about topics like yoga for those with sinus and migraine headaches, Internet addiction, and books that should be on every aspiring yogi’s bookshelf.

Namaste!

P.S. If you have a question that you’d like to have addressed in a blog post, use that nifty little Skribit box in the left hand column.

I’m going to devote the next few posts to something very important — your questions. Thanks to the Skribit technology on the left hand column of the blog, I’m able to take reader suggestions for post topics. You’ve asked, and now I want to answer.

The first topic I’m going to tackle is wrist pain — how to deal with it and how to modify your yoga practice around it. I don’t like to offer one-size-fits-all yoga routines, as each person is unique and has different things going on in the body, so I’m offering up guidelines instead. Of course modifications should be made for each individual case. Here goes…

I’ve worked with a lot of folks who suffer from wrist pain. Since many of us log hours at the computer each day, our wrists take a beating. I love my ergonomic keyboard especially for this reason. Still, I do have a few exercises that I regularly practice to keep my wrists limber and pain-free.

• My favorite exercise, and the one I do most often, is what I call Namaste Stretch. Simply put your hands in Prayer Pose and stretch your hands from one side to the other (for example, the left hand pushes gently down on the right hand until the right hand is at a 45 degree angle from it’s original upright position.). Hold the stretch for a beat or two before stretching in the other direction. 
• Reverse Prayer: Put your hands together in Prayer pose but having your fingers pointing down instead of up. Do this one with your arms behind your back.
• Wrist/Forearm Stretch: Get on all fours in Table pose. Turn your hands so that your fingers are pointing towards you (forearms facing front) and gently lean back. This can be an intense stretch, so lean back slowly (and stop when you feel like going further would be painful).
• Wrist Realigner: I have small wrists, but if you have larger ones, this exercise may be a bit more difficult — Circle your wrist (above the wrist bone, in the crease of the wrist) with your middle finger and thumb and squeeze the fingers together, applying a pleasant pressure.
• Joint Lubricator: I suggest doing wrist circles (both clockwise and counter-clockwise), clenching and releasing your fingers (clench fingers into fists and release by straightening and spreading fingers as wide as you can), and gentle flexion and extension of the wrists (making a “stop” sign with your hand, fingers facing up, palm facing out then moving in the opposite direction with the fingers pointing down towards the ground)

Now that you have some exercises to practice throughout the day and to prepare your wrists for practice, the next question is how you modify your practice to accommodate your wrists.

When I work with folks with wrist pain, I often have them stay off their wrists and come up onto fists instead. This can be done in Down Dog, Plank, Table, and any other pose that puts pressure on the wrists. If your wrists are too sore to use fists, then I suggest other modifications:

1. One prop in particular is excellent in Down Dog to take the weight off the wrist — the Three Minute Egg. I recently wrote a post about the eggs and their advantages over standard yoga blocks. Because of the eggs’ rounded design, they support the forearm without putting much weight on the wrist.
2. Stay off your wrists altogether. Most often people think that wrist pain equals no asana. Not true. Rather than practice Down Dog, try Dolphin (that’s when you bend at the elbows, resting your forearms on the ground). Did you know that you can practice Sun Salutations against a wall? You can also do a floor version of the Sun Salutation that minimizes pressure on weak and/or painful wrists.

Sun Salutations against a wall: Stand about 2-3 feet from a wall. Inhale your arms out in front of you and up alongside your ears. Exhale and fold forward. Inhale and step one foot right up to the wall and bend the knee. Brace your hands on the wall for support. On an exhale, bring the other foot up to meet the one at the wall, keeping your hands braced on the wall for support. On an inhale, lean into the wall and arch your back stretching your chin up towards the sky. On an exhale come back to standing position. Take 2-3 steps back from the wall. Repeat.

Sun Salutations on the floor (this is called Flying Cow in the Kripalu tradition): Sit on your heels to start. Inhale and stand up on your knees while raising your arms up in front of you to come alongside your ears (let your back arch). Exhale and come down, bending your elbows, resting your palms and forehead on the floor. Inhale and come onto all fours (you can come onto your fists here to relieve pressure or you can come onto your forearms instead), raising your tail and head up. From here you can either exhale into Dolphin or you can simply exhale back into the crouched position with your arms bent at the elbows, palms resting on the ground. Inhale back up to standing on knees. Exhale back to sitting on your heels. Repeat.

There you have it — a small sample bag of tricks to help if you’re suffering from wrist pain. The next few posts, I’ll discuss other asked-about topics like yoga for those with sinus and migraine headaches, Internet addiction, and books that should be on every aspiring yogi’s bookshelf.

Namaste!

P.S. If you have a question that you’d like to have addressed in a blog post, use that nifty little Skribit box in the left hand column.

I recently learned of the MSNBC Going Green network, which I’d never heard of. Sounds like an interesting possibility to access “content” plus gain some extra visibility for the blogging I do through this web site. I want to first take a look at the service as there is an interesting question here irregardless of whether this blog joins their ‘network’ or not. There is a need for people to have access to good quality news and information about “green” issues and sustainability, so does MSNBC or MSN have a good quality service?

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There are twin crises looming in our immediate future .. ones which threaten our society with its very survival. Our society has reached a great and beautiful place, in many ways, but the core foundation our society rests on is cheap oil. We are coming to the end of the age of cheap oil and it seems almost nobody knows about the problem. Further complicating the problem is one more people know about, climate change, where the environmental conditions we humans have enjoyed for eons are spiraling into an extremely hot period.

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I’ve written quite a bit about diabetes here and at my old blog, and I’ve explained to you how controlling blood pressure and cholesterol in diabetics prevents macrovascular disease, such as heart attack and stroke. I’ve also explained how controlling blood sugar prevents microvascular disease such as kidney failure and blindness. In type II diabetics, controlling blood sugar prevents disability and sometimes death. In type I diabetics, controlling diabetes with insulin is the only way to prevent a swift and painful death. Most non-diabetics, however, don’t know the details of how we control blood sugar.

Let’s take an example. A typical type I diabetic, who is completely dependent on insulin, will take a long acting (basal) insulin to keep glucose levels down between meals, and will also take a short acting insulin at meals to account for the extra glucose load. In order to know how much short-acting insulin to take, a diabetic has to insert a test strip into their glucometer, prick their finger with a small needle, and touch the drop of blood to the test strip. This is usually done (at least) on waking, before every meal, and at bedtime—at least four times per day. Thankfully, blood glucose monitors are quite inexpensive and last a long time. Test strips, however, are expensive and disposable. How expensive? Depending on the brand of meter being used, and how many times you need to test, $30-$200 per month. These strips are usually not covered by insurance.

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There are 9 new articles in PLoS ONE today (as well as another 3 articles published last night). As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:

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When I first began practicing yoga, I was all about asana. I didn’t care to study the lineage from which my asana came nor did I care to hear stories about Hindu Gods/Goddesses. Nope — I was straight up asana girl. As time went by my interest in the culture from where my beloved yoga came from began to grow. And I started to read. And learn.

Did you know that tonight officially concludes the Hindu Goddess festival? Navaratri is a nine night festival that celebrates the power of the Goddess. Interested in reading more? Click here.

Did you know that a few weeks from now one of the biggest festivals of Hindus — Diwali — will be celebrated by the glow of thousands of candles and the explosion of fireworks? You can learn more about the traditions behind this celebration here.

The Indian culture is rife with tradition and fascinating stories. It’s rare that you’d learn about these traditions or stories in a yoga class. Some folks are put-off by learning about the culture because it seems as though yoga is linked to religion. Not so. It’s simply learning more about the culture that gave us yoga. If you have a hankering to learn more about symbolism and the epics in Indian culture, you might want to check out the mega volume that includes the majority of Hindu texts, The Puranic Encyclopaedia. For a preview of the depth you’ll find in this tome, click here.

I know. I know. You might be wondering, who cares? I had a similar feeling years ago. Now I delight when learning about yoga concepts and teachings through myth and story. After all, that’s how they teach in India — through stories.

If learning more about Indian culture isn’t your thing, how about diving deeper into asana and the hidden language behind the poses? One of my favorite books is Swami Sivananda Radha’s Hatha Yoga: The Hidden Language, Symbols, Secrets & Metaphors. This book is simple yet powerful, with full explanations of postures as symbolic gestures that create a specific effect on the mind, the psyche and the spiritual self. It covers 22 of the most common asanas and guides the practitioner to uncover their meaning. While the book does cover the physical benefits of each posture, the deeper examination of the emotional and spiritual effects that each posture has is the gold in this book. Radha divides the postures up into unique categories: Structures; Tools; Plants; Fish, Reptiles, Insects; Bird; Animals; Shavasana.

Why make a study out of going deeper into the world of yoga? Radha puts it best in the introduction to her book:

The symbolic meaning of the name from the myths and traditions of different countries helps to bring an understanding of the universality of the symbol and, by exploring less familiar interpretations, it is possible to broaden the limits of our own understanding.

The next time you shy away from learning more about the culture behind yoga, remember these words. A little reading and investigation into the culture, the myths, and the history from whence yoga came can deepen your practice and your yoga experience.

Namaste!

When I first began practicing yoga, I was all about asana. I didn’t care to study the lineage from which my asana came nor did I care to hear stories about Hindu Gods/Goddesses. Nope — I was straight up asana girl. As time went by my interest in the culture from where my beloved yoga came from began to grow. And I started to read. And learn.

Did you know that tonight officially concludes the Hindu Goddess festival? Navaratri is a nine night festival that celebrates the power of the Goddess. Interested in reading more? Click here.

Did you know that a few weeks from now one of the biggest festivals of Hindus — Diwali — will be celebrated by the glow of thousands of candles and the explosion of fireworks? You can learn more about the traditions behind this celebration here.

The Indian culture is rife with tradition and fascinating stories. It’s rare that you’d learn about these traditions or stories in a yoga class. Some folks are put-off by learning about the culture because it seems as though yoga is linked to religion. Not so. It’s simply learning more about the culture that gave us yoga. If you have a hankering to learn more about symbolism and the epics in Indian culture, you might want to check out the mega volume that includes the majority of Hindu texts, The Puranic Encyclopaedia. For a preview of the depth you’ll find in this tome, click here.

I know. I know. You might be wondering, who cares? I had a similar feeling years ago. Now I delight when learning about yoga concepts and teachings through myth and story. After all, that’s how they teach in India — through stories.

If learning more about Indian culture isn’t your thing, how about diving deeper into asana and the hidden language behind the poses? One of my favorite books is Swami Sivananda Radha’s Hatha Yoga: The Hidden Language, Symbols, Secrets & Metaphors. This book is simple yet powerful, with full explanations of postures as symbolic gestures that create a specific effect on the mind, the psyche and the spiritual self. It covers 22 of the most common asanas and guides the practitioner to uncover their meaning. While the book does cover the physical benefits of each posture, the deeper examination of the emotional and spiritual effects that each posture has is the gold in this book. Radha divides the postures up into unique categories: Structures; Tools; Plants; Fish, Reptiles, Insects; Bird; Animals; Shavasana.

Why make a study out of going deeper into the world of yoga? Radha puts it best in the introduction to her book:

The symbolic meaning of the name from the myths and traditions of different countries helps to bring an understanding of the universality of the symbol and, by exploring less familiar interpretations, it is possible to broaden the limits of our own understanding.

The next time you shy away from learning more about the culture behind yoga, remember these words. A little reading and investigation into the culture, the myths, and the history from whence yoga came can deepen your practice and your yoga experience.

Namaste!

At 2am this morning, four Greenpeace activists boarded the Windsor Adventure, a coal cargo ship importing coal from Colombia into Spain. Activist painted “Quit Coal” on the side of the ship as it entered Gijon, one of the biggest coal harbours in Spain.     Full Story…