It’s a new year, and what better time to make a few changes, and be open to a new and improved you! Sometimes the simplest tips or suggestions can make the biggest difference in someone’s life.  Not in any particular order but all good to know.

My first, which some of you may not like, is tossing your diet books and just eating a little healthier. Eating lots of multicolored foods that were recently alive like vegetables or fruits is a good start. So good for you, with many long term benefits.

Love your teeth? If so then you’ll want to rinse your mouth out after drinking a soda. This will help wash the enamel-eroding acids off your teeth.  If you don’t floss, try using an electric toothbrush to get into the hard to reach crannies and fight gum disease.

I love olive oil, I really do, but since I am obsessed with making sure I get enough fatty acids in my diet I also use canola oil as often as I can. Canola oil has less saturated fat and a lot more omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to do everything from lift your mood to help fight heart disease.

Eat less salt… That’s a tough one for me. I usually sneak into the kitchen when my boyfriend isn’t looking and add more. You may think oh please what’s a little salt going to do, but did you know that many women over the age of 45 have high blood pressure, and a lot is due to high sodium in their diet. Can’t have that:-)

Having trouble sleeping? It may be that TV you have on, or the reading light that’s disrupting your sleeping cycle. Keeping things dark will keep your melatonin production happy and make for a better nights sleep.

Try a yoga class and make a new friend. Hot yoga, or as it’s called in the yogi world, Bikram is my favorite and addicting too. If you can’t handle the heat, Hatha yoga is excellent as well. In just a few weeks you will begin to notice your body getting toned and your skin looking fabulous.

Need a quick work out? Take the steps instead of the elevator or escalator. Any activity helps your heart and waistline, and who doesn’t want that:)

Always take time for yourself. Sometimes we put our own needs last forgetting that even the littlest things like sneaking away and reading a book, taking a long hot bath, or just listening to a great song can set the tone for your day and make all the difference in how you feel.

Be good to your skin. Just putting on a bit of moisturizer can take your skin from dull to dazzling. Try a shimmer creme instead of foundation and tap over your cheekbones for a beautiful sheen. One of my favorite looks when I have only seconds to do my face.

And my last tip for staying healthy in 2009…love yourself! I mean really love yourself. Wake up in the morning, get in front of that mirror and say “good morning beautiful!” It may feel funny at first, but It’s a great way to start your day, and your mind and body will thank you.

Hugs,

Beth

Post from: Aging Fabulous

I was equally thrilled when I saw this recent article on Yahoo! from HealthDay News:

Yoga’s postures, controlled breathing and meditation may work together to help ease brains plagued by anxiety or depression, a new study shows.

Brain scans of yoga practitioners showed a healthy boost in levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) immediately after a one-hour yoga session. Low brain levels of GABA are associated with anxiety and depression, the researchers said.

“I am quite sure that this is the first study that’s shown that there’s a real, measurable change in a major neurotransmitter with a behavioral intervention such as yoga,” said lead researcher Dr. Chris Streeter, assistant professor of psychiatry and neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine.

She believes yoga could prove a useful tool to help people battling depression and anxiety disorders. “We’re not advocating that they chuck their medication, but I would advise that they could use it as an adjunct and see how they are doing,” Streeter said.

Her team published its findings in the May issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

In the study, the Boston researchers used high-tech magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging to gauge levels of GABA in the brains of eight long-time yoga practitioners and 11 non-practitioners. The participants were healthy, and none was diagnosed with a major psychiatric condition.

Brain scans were taken before the beginning of the experiment. Then, the yoga group was asked to engage in the meditative practice for 60 minutes, while the non-yoga group simply read. The researchers then re-scanned each participant’s brain, looking specifically at GABA levels.

“We showed a 27 percent increase in the brain GABA levels of those doing yoga — a really significant increase,” Streeter said. No such change was noted in the non-practitioners who had just read.

She said the style or school of yoga practiced didn’t seem to matter. “We had hatha, ashtanga, bikram, vinyasa, and kripalu” practitioners included in the yoga group, Streeter said, “and many had been trained in several different schools.”

According to Streeter, “this all gives us one of the mechanisms by which yoga may be having a beneficial effect. There could be other mechanisms.”

But another expert pointed to what he considered flaws in the research.

Zindel Segal, chairman of psychotherapy and a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Toronto, has for years studied the use of behavioral interventions to alleviate psychological woes.

He said the Boston researchers were to be commended for using brain scan imaging technologies to investigate the effectiveness of these techniques. But he questioned why the yoga group was simply compared to a sedentary reading group and not to another movement-based group.

“Exercise itself may have some effects on GABA, so I think in this study, you’d really want that comparison,” he said. Including such a control group would make it clear that it was yoga and not just an hour of physical exertion that was responsible for the brain changes.

He also pointed out that all of the people in the study were mentally healthy, and clinical depression and anxiety disorders involve more than the “daily fluctuations in stress and tension” that healthy individuals are prone to.

“We know that yoga can have a profound effect” on smoothing out life’s daily ups and downs, Segal said. “But so does working out on a Stairmaster for an hour.”

Segal also questioned the role of GABA in depression. While it may play a role in anxiety disorders, “GABA is not one of the main neurotransmitters that seems to be a part of the depression story,” he said. Other neurochemicals — most notably serotonin — play much bigger roles in the disorder, he said.

None of this means that the study’s findings are without merit, Segal said. “In fact,” he said, “we have a program called ‘mindfulness-based cognitive therapy,’ where we do use yoga, as well as mindfulness meditation,” as therapeutic tools. Streeter’s findings “suggest the need for more study of these practices,” he said.

Streeter agreed that her study is probably just a beginning.

“I think what’s important about this study is that it shows that by using really cutting-edge neuroimaging technology, we can measure real changes in the brain with behavioral interventions — changes that are similar to those that we see with pharmacologic treatments,” she said.

I am hoping that Yoga relaxes my mind while it strengthens my body. And if it helps ease a bit of anxiety – that would be a great benefit too!

Post from: Aging Fabulous

Not necessarily. With a few changes in routine, we can keep the spring in our step and maintain a pain-free vitality we have come to expect and enjoy. UCLA physical therapist Ziya Altug offers an anti-aging program designed to turn back the hands of time. In The Anti-Aging Fitness Prescription, Altug outlines an exercise and stress reduction program in maintaining flexibility and strength of both body and mind; simple skin and hair tips to regain a youthful look; recipes, meal plans and nutrition diary to make the most of our efforts.

While no one is telling us we will eliminate all the aches and pains of aging, there are proactive steps we can take to greatly minimize the annoying pain that creeps into our muscles and joints when we were not paying attention to the calendar. Foremost, is managing weight gain. Carrying around extra weight is hard on the joints. Basically, losing weight results from portion control in eating less — and in eating the right foods.

The more our body hurts, the less we move — the less we move, the more our body hurts. The less we move the more weight we are likely to gain.

Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, walking, swimming, biking, dancing, low-impact sports and exercising with weights are some of the ways to incorporate the kind of exercise that will make a difference as the candles on the cake continue to increase in number.

Stretching exercises add flexibility, weight-bearing exercise add strength. After that, Altug recommends chondroitin and glucosamine supplements, aspirin and/or ibuprofen to manage and control the aches and pains of aging.

Bottom line though, we should not accept the pain that slows us down as a fact of life as we age.

Post from: Aging Fabulous

Use the video to learn what is involved, but don’t go over-doing it. When you join the class, the instructor can take over, explaining what you should and shouldn’t be doing!

AM/PM Yoga for Beginners

Post from: Aging Fabulous