Smart On Health

1pose1day1year July-August 2020

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My 1day1pose1year tadasana practice took a hit this summer. My mountain pose yoga stood still (hah! see what I did there?). My practice has continued randomly during July-August.

I’m keeping at it though. I continue to work on my toes and the soles of my feet.

I had a lengthier practice yesterday. I decided to record myself reading Iyengar-based instructions rather than continue reciting only some of them in my head. I want to be inside my body rather than my head. I want to quit worrying about guiding myself to correct posture due to fear of injury. I can simply relax into the strong balanced stillness. I’m sure I will listen to it so much that I will absorb them and the audio can fade to none.

Meanwhile It’s been a long hot interesting summer. I gave myself a vacation from social media to keep myself more centered in working with my coaching clients and looking positively forward. I continue to manage stress by not having strict posting schedule but posting when I get the urge.

Precision Nutrition free exercise library

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Recently I’ve been singing the praises of the DAREBEE fitness programs. There’s another amazing FREE resource available from Precision Nutrition (full disclosure, my nutrition coach certification is from Precision Nutrition and I am an unabashed fan of the organization*).

Precision Nutrition Certified Coach 1
Precision Nutrition Certified Coach 1

Precision Nutrition has made a free exercise video library available.  The main web page contains links to shared docs on a Google Drive, which you may copy to your own Google Drive (as long as you have a Google account and are signed in).

The general instructions and a basic 14 day workout are in pdf format. The “library” is available in spreadsheet form (Google sheets). It starts with a table of contents and ends with an index (alphabetized list)of all the exercises. In between are tabs with links to tutorial and FAQ videos, modifications and regressions (*the* most important thing, IMHO), and exercises grouped by category for both genders.

Each exercise in the spreadsheet has brief instruction notes and a link to a Vimeo video demo. Their exercises can easily be done at home – many are body weight – with only a little amount of equipment (exercise bands, dumbbells).

I’ve done some of these exercises when I took part in their coaching program as a client. The instructions are easy to follow and the modifications help those of us with chronic injuries.

Unfortunately for me, my chronic injuries require professional attention from licensed physical therapists so I’m not at a point where I can use PN’s library myself. I am confident that I will be able to use it once I have become pain-free by practicing my corrective exercises consistently.

Once I do, you can be sure that I’ll provide a review with my biases stated up front.

 

*There are many reasons that I am such a fan of Precision Nutrition

  • They are purpose driven. Their mission is “to help clients all over the world discover the joys of living a fit, healthy life and help thousands of professionals deliver this purpose to their own clients.” It’s not about making money but helping people (the money, being necessary to make a living and provide jobs).
  • They are bona fide qualified to give instruction and advice on nutrition and exercise and habit change. The founder, John Beradi, PhD has his doctorate in nutritional biochemistry and exercise science. His executive team also have advanced degrees and decades of experience food science, dietetics, molecular biology, physiology, biochemistry, exercise science, health promotion, health & exercise psychology, epidemiology, biostatistics, and communications. In sum – they are experts you can absolutely trust who write clearly and know adult instructional methods and habit change.
  • They base all of their recommendations on SCIENCE. i.e. proven methods to for achieving your goals.
  • They believe in incremental progress. It’s not an all or nothing thing. They take you from the basics and build you up as you gain skill. They’re cognizant that people can be starting from the very beginning.
  • They are not proponents of any diet. Because science. Weight and body composition are very much tied to calories in and calories out. The diet that works is the diet you stick with. Health is predicated on eating all of the food groups but in appropriate portions for your size and gender.
  • They make many many resources available for free.

I made the choice to get my nutrition certification from Precision Nutrition because it was the most science based and comprehensive training program one can get without going back to school to become a registered nutritionist. In addition, it’s not a one and done type of deal. One must get re-certified every two years. It’s critical that coaches constantly continue to educate themselves and stay on top of the latest research.

1pose1day1year June 2020

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mountain sun cloudAnother month of doing my daily tadasana. I haven’t built up beyond doing one minute. Instead, I have been focusing on how the pose feels.

I do a toes to shoulders meditation. Telling myself, “weight evenly distributed on my feet, soft knee, solid knee (lift quad) without hyper-extending, pelvic tilt, full belly breath, expand lungs, shoulders back and relaxed down, head tucked neck neutral.”

I have a lot of problem spots that need a talking to, obviously. Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror to check my form. Sometimes I close my eyes and catch how I sway slightly because my weight doesn’t stay evenly distributed on my feet. I bring myself back to the pose, always back to the pose, back to my breath.

If I’m in the mood I’ll add some tree pose and ankle strengthening exercises. I’m very weak in my ankles after breaking and spraining them multiple times in my life. Balance is critical as one ages to avoid falls and broken bones.

I’d say I’m doing well with the challenge. I need to think about how I’ll focus my yoga practice during July. I think it may be time to go longer or do additional pranayama.

Recipe: Fix it fast riced cauliflower protein smoothie faux-chino style

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Sneaky faux frappacino riced cauliflower protein smoothie
Serves 1

Ingredients
12 fl oz “milk” (dairy or non) or liquid of choice (I like cashew with some leftover coffee for a mocha!)
1 handful of frozen riced cauliflower
1 serving of your favorite flavored protein powder (I like chocolate when I make mocha. I vary. I might also use berry or vanilla. I will have a good list of flavor variations in the “Fix it fast” ebook I’m writing.
ice (optional)

Instructions:

Blend the heck out of it. Enjoy!

Notes:

This recipe really only works with frozen riced cauliflower due to the goal of making it a cold frothy special drink. Pre-riced fresh cauliflower tastes a little stronger. It can work but you need to adjust your ultimate texture expectations and manage the stronger cauliflower taste by including add ins like stevia, spices, extracts, etc.

Here’s a recipe to use riced cauliflower in a icy cold creamy drink (call it a smoothie, call it a fake frappuccino, call it whatever suits). Riced cauliflower is my biggest tip for getting extra vegetables into your diet, especially if you hate vegetables. It has a mild, nearly neutral, taste. It blends well. And there are a few different ways to riced cauliflower lends itself to being prepared with a different

I love riced cauliflower, especially the frozen kind. I’ve been a fan since I became a raw vegan chef back in the aughts. It got popular and there were fans fighting each other for the supply of pre-riced veg. Now I see it everywhere in fresh and frozen forms. Yay. Easier cheesier peasier.

It’s easy to rice your own cauliflower at home but pre-riced is the way to go. Ricing your own is messy, takes time. It is one of my key foods to have on hand that I recommend in the “Fix it fast” series. I will be posting more sneak-in-the-veg recipes to the blog which use riced cauliflower.