Pictures from Argentina (and Uruguay!)

Yoga Poses for Hikers

from "Outdoor Yoga: Poses for Hikers"

Have you ever twisted an ankle toward the end of a long hike, as I have? This cool article from Athleta demonstrates yoga poses that are ideal on the hiking trail: they open up tight muscles and replenish core strength.

It's well-timed with the beginning of fall, a perfect season for hiking.  Enjoy!

Book Review: Shawn Johnson, "Winning Balance"

A beautiful book by an Olympic gold medalist whose wisdom, joy, and inner light are every bit as awe-inspiring as her athleticism.

 A real highlight is the section on her floor routine in Beijing: after glimpsing Nastia's score and calculating that the gold was no longer within her own reach, she went on to give the performance of her life, winning the all-around "in the way that meant the most to [her]." Afterward, a reporter had the gall to ask how it felt to lose. She replied, "I didn't lose. I wont the silver medal." Another later asked, "What was the worst moment of the Games for you?" She answered, "I didn't have a worst moment--it's the Olympics, after all! I gave my heart and soul out there."

At the end of each chapter, she includes a lesson, such as "Learn to find pride in your own success, even if your accomplishment isn't recognized by others. Your worth isn't determined by the color of the ribbon around your neck or anything else someone might give you. God created you in his image; that is where your worth comes from."  

She went on to win the gold in beam but still views that silver medal as "the most meaningful thing [she] took away from the Games" and "wouldn't trade it for anything."

Shawn, you're a 10 out of 10.

Reflection Number 50

"Your only responsibility in life is to try, not to succeed. Don't be ashamed of failure, and don't give up!"

~ Rabbi Adam Jacobs, 128 Reflections

Three Chocolatey Health Bars I Love

I'm making a swift post-surgery recovery, aided in part by...you guessed it...chocolate!

Cooking wasn't much of an option with my hand out of commission, and handling money for the Chinese food delivery boy wasn't much easier. But I was able to scissor open some delicious and nutritious chocolately snack bars. Here are my new favorites:

tastes way too delicious to be healthy, but it is

contains quinoa, chia, and millet

my favorite...exquisite combo of salty & sweet, with just a few ingredients. 7g fiber, 6g protein, and only 5g sugar.

Enjoy! :-)

Surgery

Dear Everyone,

I wanted to let you know I might be out of commission for a week given this unsightly obstruction to typing and all things manual:

(helps prop up my hand above my heart)

I had a small procedure on my wrist this morning and am fortunate to be doing great now, recovering just fine. My boyfriend was very sweet in taking care of me, and the surgeon just called to see how I'm feeling. I'm feeling very lucky to have received such good care!

But enough left-handed typing...on to some epicurean and guilt-free self care!

Thumbs-up,

(they let me keep my nail polish on! a good  day.)

Marisa

Blood type, Genotype, and SWAMI: a journey of self-discovery

The Center for Personalized Nutrition,
courtesy of natural awakenings

Perhaps the most fascinating thing to befall me this year was a trip to the D'Adamo Center for Personalized Nutrition, located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I had been perusing the Center's main website, Eat Right for Your Type, upon recommendation from my friend Genevieve, who's been thriving on the blood type/genotype diet for over a year. And I had gotten my blood tested to find out my type (O+) and "secretor status." Genevieve had warned me, "If you find out you're a 'non-secretor,' run, don't walk, to the D'Adamo clinic."  I ran.

I arrived at the Brooklyn office sweaty and excited. Dr. David Levi greeted me warmly and gave me a brief tour of the center and its mind-boggling array of enervating supplements, customized for each blood type. I could barely contain my excitement as he logged into SWAMI, the software program designed by Dr. D'Adamo to help "type" an individual using biometric and physiological data and family history. SWAMI assigns a genotype (Hunter, Gatherer, Explorer, Warrior, Nomad, or Teacher) and provides a customized set of dietary and lifestyle recommendations after aggregating information about an individual's blood type, genotype, and other relevant information.

Dr. Levi examined my fingerprints, measured my leg and torso lengths, checked for the presence of a certain cusp on my teeth, gave me a tasting strip with a bitter flavor that not everyone is genetically programmed to taste (I tasted it--yuck!), and helped me through a long questionnaire about physical and mental proclivities and symptoms as well as family history. He input my blood type and secretor status into SWAMI, and we held our breaths as the software deliberated...

Explorer! I knew it!  I'd skimmed Change Your Genetic Destiny and narrowed it down to Gatherer, Hunter, or Explorer. Explorer always felt the most like me; Explorers frequently present as "medical enigmas," are very sensitive to caffeine, are typically mesomorphic to meso-ectomorphic with a large amount of muscle mass, are often non-secretors, and are more prone to migraine than other types, among many other characteristics. The line that tickles me most from the Explorer description is "A properly balanced Explorer will expostulate and complain constantly of their day-to-day health issues, all the while being in constant demand to provide funeral eulogies for their less long-lived friends and relatives."

My SWAMI report includes a generous supply of information on Dr. D'Adamo's theory of healthful eating based on one's individual genetic makeup; the Explorer type; and a long list of foods, broken down by food group, that are either particularly healthy/healing foods for me, harmful "avoids," or "neutrals." Dr. Levi also gave me a second folder containing recipes that emphasize my "superfoods" and omit avoids.

I returned home with a sense of triumph and delight, ready to toast over champagne with Genevieve (another Explorer!), even though some of the dietary recommendations for my type are pretty onerous, such as eliminating wheat from my diet. (Yikes!  That's, like, impossible! I live for Italian food!)

I'm not sure whether I'll ever have the courage to fully realize this dietary change. But I think I'm already on the road to better health, emphasizing my "superfoods" and minimizing "avoids," and reveling in my unique genetic profile, making what I hope to be better choices every day to support my health and well-being.

To foods that heal,

Marisa