If you were performing yoga prior to becoming pregnant, you will likely be able to continue your practice while carrying your child.

The catch is that you may not be able to perform all of your favorite asanas or exercises all the way to the end of the pregnancy. The further along you progress in the pregnancy, the more restrictions your doctor may place on your practice. It is important to let your doctor know that you are doing yoga and to listen to your body. If it doesn’t feel right, stop immediately.

If you are new to yoga or were not in active practice just before getting pregnant, it doesn’t mean yoga is off limits. Yoga for pregnant women can be completely safe and highly beneficial. You just need to make sure your doctor is aware of your intentions to start performing yoga so he or she can give you instructions on the types of movements that may not be healthy for your condition.

Benefits of Yoga during Pregnancy

Many of the benefits of yoga in general have heightened importance during pregnancy. This is why yoga is often encouraged for pregnant women not experiencing complications. The goal is to keep the pregnancy healthy through the benefits that naturally come from practicing yoga, including:

Stress relief: stress can cause complications during pregnancy. The deep breathing and stretching involved with yoga practice relaxes the mind and eases tension from the muscles and joints.

Increased energy: yoga increases oxygen to all areas of the body and brings a boost in energy. This is important for pregnant women, because hormonal fluctuations and the extra weight can lead to fatigue.

Toning and weight loss: this is one of the biggest benefits of yoga for pregnant women. Even very gentle forms of yoga can help maintain muscle tone and burn calories so weight gain is not excessive and it is easier to get back into shape after delivery.

Social interactions: expectant mothers who enroll in local prenatal yoga classes often meet other expectant mothers who will become new friends in motherhood. This is important, as many first time mothers find themselves in a different world from old friends who have not yet started having children.

Flexibility and balance: pregnant women often struggle with balance as they become more and more front-heavy. Yoga is a great way to improve flexibility and balance for reduced risk of injury in everyday movement.

Safe Yoga for Pregnant Women

Even though yoga is deemed safe for most pregnant women, it can become dangerous in certain circumstances. If you have any complications or are at high risk for any complications, you must listen to your doctor’s orders and eliminate all movements that could create a problem. Even if you are told not to perform yoga, you can take advantage of the deep breathing that naturally goes along with yoga. You can also use these deep breathing techniques if you develop Braxton Hicks contractions or even during labor and delivery.

Although most standing yoga poses are typically safe during pregnancy, you may need to be careful with any bending, twisting and lunging motions as your baby bump starts to grow. If you feel any pulling or pain, you should stop immediately and rest. If the pain does not go away or gets worse you should see a doctor right away. This becomes more and more important the further along your pregnancy goes. Some women use yoga routines to stimulate contractions and get a late delivery going, but you don’t want to do that too soon and risk your baby. Gentle is the word to remember.

When bending forward, make sure to lean forward so the motion comes from your hips rather than your stomach. Make sure the movement of a twist comes from turning your shoulders and the back, rather than stretching your stomach sideways. Do these motions very slowly and go only as far as you can without creating tension and pain.

In the second and third trimesters, standing poses will likely be the only poses you are cleared to do by your doctor. You won’t be able to do any movements lying on your back and you will have to be extremely careful with any poses that require you to get on all fours with your stomach hanging down. As your stomach grows you will also have to be extremely careful with asanas that require you to move between standing and sitting or kneeling positions, since you could lose your balance and fall very easily.

It is likely that you will be asked to stop all yoga practice somewhere in the third trimester. Listen to this advice. You can start back up after recovering from delivery.

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When I lived in the Midwest (USA), people in their 30s looked like they were in their 20s. When I lived in Southern California, people in their 30s looked like they were in their 40s.

Why? The sun. Too much of it ages you in a hurry.

But too little is much worse than a few wrinkles. I’m talking about vitamin D. It’s the secret craving behind songs like “California Dreaming” (great song, btw) and why it feels so good to lie in the sun.

I know there’s a hole in the ozone layer. And I know U.V. rays can cause cancer. But I also know that sun creams are some of the nastiest, toxic stuff you’ll ever put on your body, so I’m a big fan of short sun baths.

You simply lie in the sun for a short time (15-25 min) during non-peak sun hours. Depending on where you live, you might need longer or shorter (in Thailand I stay out for only about 10 minutes), but you’ll feel the energy in your body right away.

Vitamin D has been shown to:

• Reduce the risk of diabetes
• Reduce chronic pain
• Protect against osteoporosis
• Reduce the risk of cancer

So if you’re stuck in a gloomy, rainy place with no sunshine, you’d probably be wise to take some “D3″ active supplements in the form of cholecalciferol. 2000-4000 IU per day is a supplemental dose.

I don’t have a supplier I can recommend at the moment, so for now, check with your health care practitioner and stay tuned. I’m doing my research.

Stay bendy,

Lucas

YOGABODY Naturals

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I’d like to tell you about the first time I was silent for 10 days, but first an analogy.

Let’s say you’re sitting at a stoplight and the guy in the next lane has a ’65 Mustang. You’re in a Toyota Camry.

The Camry is about as loud as my external PC hard drive while that old Ford is revved up and rattling out explosive, metal belches.

Now forget the car and think about two people standing at that same stoplight: Michael Moore and Lance Armstrong.

Lance’s internal engine is screaming. Michael’s eyes are half open.

This is metabolism: how fast your body is moving energy, processing food, regenerating. To some extent it’s genetic, but you can also control it.

Here’s how: Eat smaller meals, more often, your metabolism spikes instantly. Skip breakfast, eat a granola bar for lunch and then spend two hours at the buffet at 8 p.m. after work and your metabolism drops down so low, a stick of gum will cause you to gain weight.

But that’s not the whole story. High metabolism is not always a good thing. Let me explain.

When I was 22, I signed up for my first 10-day meditation retreat. Two weeks before start date, I canceled. Dropped out. I’ve never dropped out of anything in my life, but that

Michael Moore

course scared me stupid.

A year later, the sky had fallen in more ways than one, and even though I was still scared, I also knew that I needed to get my life together. Someone I loved told me something I’ll never forget:

“If you can’t sit still, alone in a room, you’ll never get anywhere in life.”

I couldn’t sit still, and she was right. So I joined the course.

During these meditation courses, they feed you at 6 a.m. and at 12 noon. At 5 p.m. they serve apples and tea (for the newbies), but if you eat at that time, it’s implied that you’re not up for the challenge.

So I gave it my best.

I just ate at 6 a.m. and at noon, just veggie food. And I sat on my arse all day long and tried to be OK with myself in a cold room in New Jersey with a bunch of strangers, not knowing even one of their names.

I forgot my razor. I couldn’t talk or go to the store, so I grew a beard.

Stupid me, I forgot to bring a jacket, and it was a damn cold 2 weeks in May. But I couldn’t talk. So I just put on all my clothes and shivered and sat there and tried to be OK at this weird children’s camp-turned-meditation center cut off from the world.

And here’s where the metabolism thing comes in.

Lance Armstrong

Naturally, I run hot (my internal engine). I can break a sweat playing with snow. But there, at the retreat, eating so little, so rarely, my body and mind slowed way down.

I remember walking in the grassy field during a break and noticing each step, one at a time (admittedly, I was a bit loopy).

Within days, my metabolism had dropped so low it was 10 times easier for me to turn my focus inside. It was 10 times easier for me to sit still and observe my breath.

And for the first time in years, I saw that I had the potential to sit still in an empty room and be happy with myself. On top of that, with my metabolism slow as a slug, I dropped 10 pounds in 10 days. Go figure.

So what does this mean for you? It just puts metabolism in perspective. When I’m teaching a lot, when I’m hiking or exercising heavily, I want my metabolism cranked up and stomach empty.

So I eat light meals, often.

When I want to sit still, to focus, to find my center, I eat 2 healthy meals and a fruit/veg snack, always having my last meal a minimum of 5 hours before bed and my big meal around midday.

Here’s the takeaway: high metabolism doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be thin or healthy, and likewise, slow metabolism doesn’t mean you’ll be fat.

Need more physical energy? Eat less, more often. Need more mental focus? Eat more, less often, and try to eat nothing but water-based foods after 5 p.m.

Stay bendy,

Lucas

YOGABODY Naturals

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As a teenager, I worked in Starbucks back when there weren’t that many Starbucks, so the line was out the door from 5:30 a.m. until closing.

I’ve had 51 different jobs in my life, and to be fair, pouring coffee wasn’t a bad one.

But after 6 or 8-hours of grind, foam, cap-it, mop it, “get in line!” you can imagine I felt pretty fried. The fact that I was drinking Americanos the entire time didn’t help matters either.

And here’s the point of all this:

My boss back then, Barry, had this thing he called “The Scream Room.” The first time he took me down to the basement to see it, I freaked (but soon, I was hooked).

Here’s how the scream room worked:

1. If you’re feeling really stressed, overwhelmed, anxious, or ________ (add negative feeling here), you step into the walk-in fridge and close the door.

2. With the door closed, you then scream as loud as you can for a solid minute, until your throat hurts. Think about it, you probably haven’t really screamed full-out since you were a kid. It’s really intense.

3. Exit when you’re ready. Repeat as needed throughout the shift.

In general, I find that people get way too intellectual about coping strategies. Sure, there are lots of times when doing some yoga, taking a walk, or sitting quietly in a room is just what you need.

But let’s be honest. Sometimes, 3 hours of yoga can’t shake a stick at just 30 seconds locked in your closet screaming your head off.

Ever done it? I dare ya.

Stay bendy,

Lucas

YOGABODY Naturals

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Editor’s Note: If you love a good barbeque, you must read this article by my friend and Nutrition Specialist Mike Geary. It shows you some important info about carcinogenic compounds that are found in that grilled meat that we all love. But don’t worry, Mike also shows you the exact trick you need that eliminates these cancer-causing compounds while still enjoying your barbeque.

***

By Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist and
author of the best seller The Truth About Six Pack Abs

Most people aren’t aware that when you cook meat (whether it’s grilled, broiled, or seared) there are carcinogenic compounds that can form called HCA’s (heterocyclic amines). Now don’t panic, you ingest various carcinogens all the time, even with some vegetables. You can always protect yourself with more antioxidants.

Please Note: When you cook meat in a water base as opposed to grilling, broiling, or searing, you eliminate the harmful HCAs. So for example, meats cooked in a soup, or meats cooked in a crock pot will not have the problem of the carcinogenic HCAs and is a healthier way to cook meat.

But let’s face it, grilled meat tastes awesome, and there’s no way I’m giving up my grass-fed steak from the grill, or my grass-fed burgers!

That’s why it’s important to know that there’s a way you can use spices to both counteract, and also drastically reduce, the carcinogens formed when you grill meat.

Here’s the trick:

If you’re going to grill meats, marinating meats for at least several hours beforehand in liquid mixtures that contain rosemary and other herbs/spices, can dramatically help to reduce HCA’s, which are those carcinogenic compounds that can form when meats are grilled. It appears that the highly potent antioxidants in these herbs prevent HCA formation. So using rosemary, thyme, garlic, oregano and other spices in a meat marinade before grilling meats can drastically reduce any carcinogens that normally would form on grilled meat and give you a healthier meal that’s also very tasty!

The antioxidants in rosemary and thyme from a marinade were specifically cited in studies at being powerful inhibitors of HCA formation when grilling meats. But it was also noted that other spices such as garlic, oregano, and others can help to prevent HCA formation as well, so I suggest using a variety, which tastes great anyway!

One more important point about grilling meat:

Remember that the more well-done a meat is cooked, the higher concentration of carcinogenic HCA’s can form, so rare, medium-rare, or medium are healthier choices than well-done. I’ve never understood why anybody would want to ruin a good steak by burning it to oblivion anyway. But hey, if you’re one of those folks that likes your steaks well-done, just remember that you’re eating a lot more carcinogens than a steak that’s cooked less, so make sure to load up on your antioxidants (spices, teas, berries, etc.) to help combat those extra carcinogens.

Washing down your barbequed meal with a glass of unsweetened iced tea (rich in antioxidants) and also a good salad with lots of raw veggies can provide the antioxidants needed to counteract the effect of HCAs in your body from grilled meat.

By the way, even charring vegetables on the grill creates different carcinogens such as acrylamides, so don’t think that the negative effect of charring applies only to meats.

Hey, we all love a great barbeque, so no need to give that up just because of HCAs or acrylamides, but at least now you know how to counteract the effects of these in your body to protect yourself, and also how to use spices to drastically reduce the formation of HCAs on grilled meat!

Enjoy that next barbeque in a healthier way!

***

Editor’s note: If you liked Mike’s article, he has more for you here:

7 odd foods that flatten your stomach

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American Tour de France cyclist David Zabriskie is going the distance eating almost nothing but plant foods.

And he’s not the only athlete going green.

There’s a subculture of extreme endurance athletes who swear by plant-based foods as a way to stay light, fast and energized.

Ultra-marathoner Scott Jurek, for example. Triathlete Brendan Brazier.

Here’s the deal:

Certain foods lend themselves to certain physical attributes and levels of performance.

A body builder, for example, would really struggle to pack on unnatural levels of muscle mass without huge quantities of animal proteins.

An endurance athlete would really struggle to keep his weight up if his diet didn’t include tons of carbohydrates.

There’s no “one size fits all” with food, but if you stop and think about what you’re building your body with each day, as your cells regenerate and you redefine the building blocks that make up your brain, your musculature and even your bones, it’s pretty amazing how much food matters.

Stay bendy,

Lucas

YOGABODY Naturals

P.S. Just a disclaimer; from what I understand, Zabriskie eats a bit of salmon for iron and takes plant-based protein shakes. The protein shakes, I think, would be essential.

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Low back pain can take a healthy, active person who enjoys life and confine him or her miserably to the couch or bed literally overnight. This type of pain can be temporary, such as when you pull a muscle or suffer an accident that results in temporary damage. This pain can also be long lasting, and in some cases it can become a permanent part of life that must be accepted. In many cases, just lying around and not moving the back muscles can cause them to tighten up and intensify the pain.

Yoga exercises can be used to soothe your pain, but you have to get clearance from a medical professional first. Depending on the source of your back pain, you may be required to spend a period of time resting your muscles and in some cases exercise may not even be good for your back. In most cases, you will be encouraged to do gentle forms of stretching to loosen the muscles. This will help you control the pain, especially if your condition is long term or permanent. Yoga is the perfect solution.

Getting Started

You should not start out with vigorous yoga workouts or advanced poses. You should also avoid poses that require twisting and bending, since those poses could actually aggravate your back condition and make the pain worse. If you can find yoga workouts designed for those with low back pain, you should be safe to complete most of the movements included. You should still use your own discretion and modify movements that may not be good for your back.

If you ever feel any pain or uncomfortable tension in your back or other body parts, ease out of the pose immediately. You may need to end the workout or take a break to make sure you have not injured yourself further.

Always start off slow at the simplest form of a movement. If it feels good and you see benefit from that move, you may be able to push it a little further the next time. As your low back pain improves or you start to heal, you may be able to stretch into your poses deeper. Just make sure you do not push it too fast, or you could set your progress back unintentionally.

3 Yoga Exercises Safe for Most Backs

No matter what the source of your low back pain may be, the following three yoga exercises should help keep your muscles loose.

1. Corpse Pose

This is one of the simplest yoga poses, because you simply lie flat on your back. Start out lying on the floor on your back, with your arms and legs relaxed in a comfortable position. Turn your hands palm down. Close your eyes and focus on relaxing every muscle in your body.

If this is comfortable, try to bend your knees and bring the bottoms of your feet together. Keep the rest of your body flat on the ground with the arms in a comfortable position on the floor beside you. Relax your knees, so you are not tensing the back to hold them up. If this creates too much tension in the lower back, stretch your legs back out straight.

You can also bend your knees with the bottoms of your feet against the floor. If that is comfortable, try going into a wind relieving pose by gently pulling your bent knee up toward your chest. It may take you some time to work up to this pose.

2. Cat Pose

This pose is performed from a hands and knees position. Start with a straight back, and then gently round it up like a cat arching in fright. Gently bring the back to a flat position. You can stick with this movement or try to do the inverse by lifting the head up tall and allowing the back to stretch down. Do this gently, and come out of it immediately if you feel any discomfort.

3. Child’s Pose

This pose is often used between other poses in yoga sequences. Go to your knees, sit back on your feet, and slowly lean forward over your knees. Keep your arms at your sides and out to the back. You may not be able to go all the way down to the floor right away. Lean forward until you experience a stretch through the back that remains comfortable.

Note that these yoga exercises are more stretches than strengthening poses. They are not vigorous forms of exercise. Some people with low back pain may be able to handle more than this, but for most stretches like these efficient to help the back loosen and heal. Use these simple poses as a starting point to see how your back responds. You can then tailor your yoga program to your back condition.

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When people get frustrated with yoga, it’s usually because they’re trying to do something that just doesn’t fit with who they are.

Extroverted yoga students often struggle with trying to do yoga at home, while introverted students sometimes get bored or anxious in group classes at their local studio.

Quick Quiz

Q: When you’re really stressed out or burnt out, do you prefer to spend time alone or with others (when you know you need to recharge)?

Note: “Recharge” means to take care of yourself and get your head on straight again. Both intro and extroverts like distraction, but when you really want to get balance back, are you with loved ones or alone?

A: If you’re with others, you’re probably, mostly, an extrovert. If you go hide in a cave (metaphorically speaking), you’re probably an introvert.

Extroverts usually have a real battle with practicing yoga at home. Introverts will blow half a Saturday experimenting with new poses and stretching.

One way is not better than the other, but if you understand your tendencies better, you can save yourself a lot of grief and enjoy your yoga more.

For the right person, yoga at home is such a wonderful gift. For another person, the best option is to become a lifelong member at a local studio.

Simple enough, right? Sometimes we all forget.

Stay bendy,

Lucas

YOGABODY Naturals

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By Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer, and author of the best-seller, The Truth About Six Pack Abs

***

Mmm, coffee. Almost everybody drinks it; some people have 3-4 cups per day or more.

But most people don’t think of it as a “health drink.” And it’s certainly NOT healthy the way most people make it with loads of added sugar or artificial sweeteners and artificial creamers.

But I’ll give you my tips here on how I make a healthier cup of coffee and what to watch out for.

First, you may have seen debate in the past about how coffee has some compounds in it that could have negative health effects such as some tars or other possibly inflammatory compounds in brewed coffee. But, the good news is that coffee has such high concentrations of beneficial antioxidants, phenolic nutrients, chlorogenic acids, and other healthy compounds, that it more than counteracts any bad compounds.

In fact, coffee provides the biggest source of antioxidants for most Americans. Although a lot of that has to do with the fact that many Americans don’t get enough antioxidants from fruits and veggies, so coffee ends up being their biggest source. You should try to diversify your sources of antioxidants from fruits, veggies, spices, berries, beans, unsweetened organic cocoa, teas, and yes, even coffee if you like it.

So what’s the best way to make a healthy cup of coffee? Well, here’s my 3 most important tricks to maximize the benefits of coffee and minimize the negatives:

1. First of all, you need to AVOID adding any refined sugar or harmful artificial sweeteners. What I do instead is use either a very small touch of organic maple syrup or a half packet of natural stevia to just lightly sweeten my coffee. If you like your coffee black with no sweetener at all, that’s the healthiest way.

2. If you’re getting your coffee at a coffee shop, make sure to avoid all of those fancy specialty coffees (sweetened flavored lattes, frappuccinos, etc) as they are almost ALWAYS loaded with extra sugars or artificial sweeteners. Some of those fancy coffee drinks at Starbucks or other coffee shops can have 300-400 calories in just one coffee! Definitely not good for your body or your blood sugar or insulin levels.

A latte or cappuccino can be okay as long as you make sure to ask for it unsweetened, and then use your own stevia if you need a light sweet taste.

You also should try to AVOID at all costs any of those crappy artificial creamers (liquid or powder), which are usually made with corn syrup solids and hydrogenated oils (harmful trans fats). Instead, use a little bit of REAL full-fat cream (organic grass-fed if you can find it, as the CLA in grass-fed cream is very healthy).

Or, better yet, what I’ve been using for a while now is coconut milk/cream as one of the healthiest creamer alternatives. I get this by buying cans of organic coconut milk, and then after opening the can (shake the can well before opening), I store the coconut milk in the fridge in a container. Note that the cans of coconut milk are much creamier and better as a coffee creamer than those cartons of “coconut milk drink” that are just watered-down coconut milk.

The thick creamy coconut milk is the healthiest option for coffee creamer because it’s loaded with super healthy saturated fats called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), which are known to boost your immune system and your metabolism! Plus, coconut milk in coffee is just plain delicious! It’s the best healthy creamer option by far.

When people visit my house and we make a pot of coffee, I’ll have them try the coconut milk/cream in their coffee and almost everyone always comments how much they love it!

3. If you want to load your coffee up with more healthy antioxidants and good taste, consider trying some added cinnamon to your coffee (cinnamon can help control blood sugar and has many other health benefits). It’s also really tasty in coffee!

I also sometimes like to add a teaspoon of organic cocoa powder (non-sweetened) to my coffee to make my own sort of mocha coffee (but without the loads of sugar in a typical mocha you’d get at the coffee shop). The added cocoa powder also gives you great taste and a good dose of extra healthy antioxidants (and cocoa is also known for helping to lower blood pressure!)

I personally drink coffee only about 3-4 times per week, because I’m sensitive to caffeine and don’t want to get addicted to caffeine like some people are. I see people that drink 3-4 cups per day that get a massive headache if they don’t have their daily coffee due to caffeine withdrawal. I choose to avoid this addiction by only drinking it about 3-4 times a week, and I drink various teas such as green, oolong, black, and white teas most other days, which are much lower in caffeine.

But despite the caffeine content, there is loads of data that show the high antioxidant levels and health benefits of coffee.

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Neurologists and researchers estimate that we have somewhere between 15,000-50,000 thoughts per day.

And most of them are fear-based thoughts (how do I avoid __ conflict?); and maybe 80% of them are reruns, thoughts we’ve had before.

How can you really measure this? How can we really know? Well, we can’t. But just attempt to keep track of your mind for a few minutes and I bet you’ll find it to be true.

In yoga, they often call it the “monkey mind.” In the office, they call it “multi-tasking.” Whatever you call it, it’s really no fun and it’s a classic example of less is more.

Over the years, I’ve tried just about every method I could find to calm and focus the mind: meditation, pranayama (yogic breathing), alpha wave music, chanting, and prayer.

All those things work pretty well, but most people (myself included) use them as treatments for a crazy mind and aren’t addressing the fact that there’s simply too much data coming in.

No matter where you live, it’s really easy to cut the clutter coming into your brain each day and to be more selective about what you get to think about.

One of the simplest ways is to stop watching or reading the news. Personally, I unplug my phone and keep it in a dresser so it never rings. This is extreme, but as long as you don’t mind a little berating from friends and relatives (What? You don’t have a TV?!) it’s not too hard to cut your daily input in half.

And when you’re thinking about less stuff, when the monkey mind is tamed, it then becomes feasible that a large portion of your thoughts can be positive, productive, and pleasurable.

Stay bendy,

Lucas

YOGABODY Naturals

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