Free Yoga during National Yoga Month

Throughout the month of September, people across the country will have access to an entire week of free yoga classes by visiting www.yogamonth.org. The offer is part of the National Yoga Month campaign which is designed to educate, inspire and generate awareness of the positive impact of yoga on health.

During National Yoga Month, one of a select few national health observances, millions will come together for free events and activities. Festivities will take place across the U.S., with hundreds of studios, teachers, individuals and organizers taking part in their own hometowns. The events are all designed to educate people about the mind and body benefits of yoga practice.

“We are all looking for ways to take an active role in managing our health. There are readily available solutions that don’t necessarily require insurance or even a doctor,” said Johannes Fisslinger, co-founder of National Yoga Month. “Preventative wellness can be accessed by simply unrolling a yoga mat!”

As part of its mission to provide actionable guidance and tools, National Yoga Month is providing people with an opportunity to try yoga for free. Whether you are attempting it for the very first time or are an experienced yogi looking to deepen your practice, participating is simple:

1. Visit www.yogamonth.org.
2. Pick a participating yoga studio
3. Print your Yoga Month Card (One Week Free Yoga)
4. Visit the studio and enjoy!
5. Invite your friends to participate by visiting http://www.yogamonth.org/fwfiles/2009_inviteyourfriends.php

About National Yoga Month

In 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services designated September as National Yoga Month, one of a select number of national health observances. That same year, thousands of yoga and health enthusiasts participated in a 10 City Yoga Health Festival Tour featuring yoga classes, lectures, music, entertainment, exhibits. Since then, the initiative has taken root as a global awareness campaign, educating, inspiring and motivating people to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

The Yoga Month campaign is administered by the Yoga Health Foundation, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization registered in the State of California. All funds benefit the national awareness campaign and yoga health education for at-risk kids in schools.

Yoga Myths

Apparently, I’m on a fitness myth-busting mission recently. Make sure you check out my previous myth versus reality articles, Exercise Myths and Common Diet and Nutrition Myths. Today we separate fact from fiction regarding one of my favorite subjects: Yoga.

The word probably conjures images of skinny women in fashionable yoga pants twisting their bodies into a variety of pretzel shapes. Don’t let that image deter you. Yoga is a 5,000 year-old practice. Certainly for it to have thrived for so many years there must be something to all of that meditation and funky poses.

Modern research is finally starting to catch up with what centuries of yoga practitioners have known. Yoga is GOOD FOR YOU. Yoga has a whole list of proven health benefits, including increased flexibility, lower blood pressure, and decreased cholesterol levels. Also, yoga relieves the symptoms of asthma, back pain, and arthritis.

In spite of all the evidence, people still hesitate to walk into the yoga class at their local gym. Never fear! Wo40 is here to bust through the common yoga myths and misperceptions.

Myth: You have to be flexible to practice yoga.

Reality: Yoga does have a lot to do with flexibility, but that doesn’t mean that if you aren’t flexible you can’t practice yoga -- or that if you are flexible it will be easy. Yoga is an individual practice. Everyone is at a different place and while some postures may come easier for others, there is no competition with yourself or anyone else. Besides, if you think you are too inflexible to try a yoga class, how will your flexibility ever improve if you don’t try something? Yoga is an effective way to get started with improving your body’s flexibility.

Myth: Yoga is a religion.

Reality: While some people approach their yoga practice from a spiritual perspective, yoga in and of itself is not a religion. Yoga has no deity to worship. It has no creed or statement of faith. Yoga has no ordained clergy or priesthood, and there is no system of temples or churches.

The meditative aspect of yoga, may cause some people to think of yoga as a religion. Meditation through Yoga should be looked at as a time to quiet the mind and connect with your breath. It is not meant to be a time to connect with the Divine, unless that is how you wish to approach it.

Myth: Yoga isn’t a “real workout”.

Reality: Yoga is an effective way to strengthen and tone the muscles of your entire body, as well as burn calories. If you think yoga isn’t tiring and challenging, you’ve probably never attended a yoga class. There are also many forms of yoga out there, some are more focused on meditation and breathing, while others are more physically taxing. Besides, have you ever seen Madonna’s arms? Yowza!

Vanity Sizing and Lowering the Bar

Have you heard of this little thing called vanity sizing? Vanity sizing, or size inflation, is basically putting smaller numbers on bigger clothes. Over the years, standard clothing sizes have changed in order to make people feel better about the size they wear, and therefore feel better about themselves.

It’s really all about money. Clothing manufacturers realize that spending money is quite often an emotional decision. Women will spend more money for a smaller size, because it makes them feel thinner, prettier, more attractive, more acceptable. As American waistlines have gotten progressively larger, the sizes on women’s clothing labels have gotten progressively smaller.

For example, the famed symbol of beauty and feminine sexuality, Marilyn Monroe wore a size 14. Now before you go tooting your horn about large voluptuous women, you have to realize that Ms. Monroe wore a 1950s size 14. By today’s sizing, Marilyn would be squeezing into a size 8. While it’s true that she was much more curvy than today’s pencil-thin models, Marilyn Monroe was definitely no chunky cow.

Maybe vanity sizing is just one more symptom of how we’ve lowered the bar of acceptable. Slowly we’ve made overweight normal. 66% of American adults are overweight. 32% of American adults are obese. Those statistics should scream at you. It’s true that overweight IS normal if more than half of us walking around in this country fall into that category, but it certainly doesn’t have to be acceptable.

I’ve heard the cries from fat people on daytime talk shows. They want to be accepted for who they are. “We should love ourselves regardless of how we look.” “We focus too much on looks.”

It’s perfectly true. We do focus too much on looks. It’s NOT about what you look like. What’s important is what’s on the inside.

But shouldn’t those insides be healthy and strong and functioning properly to keep the you - the real you, that fabulous personality inside your body - living and functioning and well, being you?

It may not be about looks, but it should be about how healthy you are. Your health affects every other aspect of your life, your energy levels, your interpersonal relationships, how you are able to spend your free time, even how you spend your money. Are you spending your money on doctor visits and prescription medications, or are you spending it on fun vacations with your family and building memories with your loved ones? Are your closest relationships strained because of low self-esteem, or are you confident and comfortable with yourself? Do you struggle through each day tired and sluggish, or are you energized to tackle the next challenge that presents itself?

Just because you should be loving yourself just as you are, doesn’t mean you can’t be striving to make yourself better. Love yourself through the process. But don’t lower the bar just to make loving yourself easier.

Top 10 Foods to Buy Organic

Organic foods are one of the fastest growing categories of food products available to consumers. You can buy everything from apples to zucchini and plenty of products in between. Some people may buy organic foods because of the environmental friendliness of their production, but more do so to reduce the amount of pesticides and other chemicals they consume. Numerous studies show that the presence of toxic chemicals in the foods we eat is more prevalent than we once thought, but we can reduce our exposure to them by eating organic foods.

Some shoppers may find it difficult to afford buying food grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticide. According to Consumer Reports, you may consumers may find themselves paying anywhere from 50 percent to 100 percent more for organic foods at their local grocery store. The average consumer probably cannot afford to switch everything on their grocery list to organic products. So in deciding between the organic milk and the organic asparagus, which one should take priority? Here’s a list of the top 10 organic foods at your local grocery store.

1. Meat

You may not think of pesticides when considering which cut of beef to cook at your next outdoor barbecue, but maybe you should. You may want to also consider that conventionally raised meat is also likely to contain hormones to speed up growth, antibiotics to resist disease, and pesticides to grow the grain fed to the animals. And according to The Environmental Protection Agency, those same hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides pose significant risks to both humans and wildlife when they enter the environment. Any meat labeled as organic, according to the USDA, must come from animals fed organic feed and raised without hormones or antibiotics.

2. Milk

Like the standards for organic meat production, certified organic dairies must raise their cows without antibiotics or growth hormones, and feed them an organic diet. While pesticides and other chemicals have been found in dairy products, contaminants have usually been in low concentration levels. The big concern with milk and other dairy products, is the amount consumed by most children. Even low concentration levels can add up over time, especially when children are at such an important age of growth and brain development.

3. Peaches

These sweet fruits top the Environmental Working Group’s list of pesticide prone fruits. Because of their soft skin, peaches are more likely to have pesticide residue under the skin, making washing unsuccessful for removing all of the chemical residue.

4. Strawberries

Also making the EWG’s “Dirty Dozen”, a crop of strawberries may receive up to 500 pounds of pesticide per acre. Strawberries purchased out-of-season are probably imported from other countries with even less stringent pesticide regulation than the United States.

5. Apples (and apple juice)

One a day may keep the doctor away, but make sure it’s organic. Conventionally grown apples ranked second on the EWG’s list for organophosphate pesticide residue. Since scrubbing doesn’t remove all residue and neither does peeling, which also takes away large amounts of beneficial nutrients, organic is a much wiser choice.

6. Celery

Celery has no protective skin at all, making it impossible to wash away all of the many pesticides sprayed on conventional celery.

7. Grapes

Thin skin makes it possible for pesticides to permeate the grape. Grapes are also sprayed with several different pesticides during different periods of growth. Imported grapes may have higher amounts of toxic chemicals than domestically grown grapes.

8. Sweet Bell Peppers

Once again, it’s their thin skins that make it impossible to wash away all pesticide residue from sweet bell peppers.

9. Lettuces (all varieties)

Leafy greens of all types are often sprayed with some of the most potent pesticides allowed on food crops.

10. Coffee

Most of our coffee is imported from countries that may not even regulate the use of pesticides on food crops. Look for coffee labeled as Fair Trade Certified Organic. Not only will you rest easy knowing that your coffee was grown without the use of toxic chemicals, but that fair prices were paid for the trade of the coffee and that farm laborers were treated fairly. Call it coffee that’s easy on the conscience.

Diet and Nutrition Myths

Everyone from your best girlfriend to your Great Aunt Muriel has advice about losing weight. Sometimes it’s hard to know which information is sound and which is just plain fiction. Never fear! Wo40 is here to help.

Here are some common diet myths along with a good dose of reality.

Myth: Low-fat diets make you lose weight.

Reality: Just because a food is labeled “low fat” or “fat free” doesn’t mean it’s low calorie or calorie free. Often low-fat products have added ingredients such as flour or sugar to help improve taste and texture. These added ingredients are low in nutritional value and often higher in calories.

Myth: Restricting calories is the best way to lose weight.

Reality: Both cutting back on calories and exercising more will help you lose weight and maintain the lean muscle mass needed to boost metabolism. Starvation diets just don’t work. A drastic reduction in calories will leave your body without the fuel it needs to maintain normal functioning and may therefore slow metabolism. A starving body enters “crisis mode” and will slow down in order to conserve what little energy a severely restricted calorie diet provides. Don’t starve yourself. Chances are you won’t be able to stick with a drastic change in diet long term.

Myth: As long as I’m eating healthy foods, I can eat whatever I want.

Reality: A calorie is still a calorie. Oatmeal may be a healthier breakfast than your usual doughnut, but that doesn’t mean you can eat 5 cups of it. You still need to be mindful of your portion sizes, even if you are eating whole grains and lean meat.

Myth: Eating late at night will make me gain weight.

Reality: There is no magic hour to turn off eating. This myth probably formed because of the high-calorie junk foods usually consumed after dinner. Deserts and snack foods can be really calorie-dense. Spreading your calories evenly through the day helps prevent late-night binge eating. A healthy snack before bed isn’t going to go straight to your thighs.

Myth: If I’m exercising daily, I can eat whatever I want.

Reality: Even if you are exercising regularly, you should still keep track of what and how much you are eating. It’s easy to reward yourself with cupcakes and fried chicken when you’ve been consistent with your workouts, but it’s probably not the smartest way to treat yourself. It’s common for people to over-estimate the amount of physical activity they engage in, and under-estimate the amount of calories they consume. For example, the average cupcake has about 250 calories. A fried chicken breast has about 360 calories. Since I burn just over 200 calories on my normal 2 mile jaunt, it’s not justifying the cupcake or the chicken. The bottom line is exercise and sensible nutrition go hand in hand for weight loss and general fitness.

Myth: Eating a high-protein diet will make me gain muscle.

Reality: Only strength training and exercise lead to muscle changes. Eating protein may help in the repair of torn muscle fibers that occur after strength training, but protein itself does not grow muscle. High protein diets can actually be detrimental to your health since they increase the risk of kidney stones and osteoporosis.

Check out the article Eating For Fat Reduction to help with developing a good sound nutrition plan.