GUEST BLOGGER - Winter Wellness, Russian Style

Hi.  Today I'm going to post a blog written by Alya Z.  She is a health and fitness afficionado from Russia that I met over the New Years Holiday, and I've asked her to write a little something so that my readers don't always have to read what I have to say.  She and I agree on a great many things so I thought it would be interesting to see what she had to say.  Here is her post:

"Winter is a great season. The nights are longer and humans used to hibernate during the winter, same as animals. The longer the nights the more time you have to sleep, and of course to dream. Right now a lot of food is being grown in warmer climates and brought here. I prefer to eat things grown locally, and in season. All the root vegetables and things like cabbage, onion, squash, pumpkin and so on can store over the winter, as well as nuts, honey, seaweed, certain types of fruit and grains. 

I love nature. It has such a calming effect. Nature is never the same. Russians prefer to heal themselves with natural remedies, instead of harsh chemicals or even operations. All those plants you consider weeds, are actually herbs that can be used to heal.

I noticed that there are a lot of stressors in the US. I like to take hot baths at the end of the day, to let go of mine. For better effect Valerian root can be boiled and added to the hot water, or just regular sea salt which you can get at Whole Foods, or any crafts store, which sells it quite cheap. Another way to do it is to eat 8 ounces of walnuts, 8 ounces of raisins, and 5 ounces of soft yellow cheese like provolone or the like, with high content of fat. That calms down the nervous system as well. And of course we all know the wonders that Yoga can do. But only if practiced mindfully, knowing one's limits."

Thank you, Alya.  These are great tips and I couldn't agree more.

Everyone have a healthy and happy Winter 2011!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nude Stretching

Image
I never thought I’d do something like this. But over the years many people have suggested that I make a Nude Stretching Video.  I guess the fact that I’m comfortable with nudity and with my body and that I’m a fitness pro with a passion for helping people made it seem like a no-brainer that I create something like this.  But I’ve been resistant to doing it for a long time; for fear (I guess) of what the more conservative people might think.  Now, finally, I’ve succumbed to the requests and put something together.  You conservative people will just have to look the other way. :) Now, I haven’t made an X-rated video here; I'm just nude and I'm stretching.  It's completely natural. This video blends a smart, educational stretching session with  “Warhol-like” video interludes accentuating an eroticized appreciation of the male form.  My intention was that it could be enjoyed on two levels. The free-style, hand-held segments demonstrate the positions from all angles and create a
Read more

Routines From the Vault

Image
I’ve been teaching Nia for 16 years now. And most of those years, I’ve gotten four new routines from Nia. That comes out to over 60 routines over the years. I’ve also created quite a few of my own routines. And along the way, certain routines have fallen out of favor for one reason or another.  For example, a great routine called Commitments, which uses the music from the soundtrack to the movie of the same name, is one of my first ones. I learned that routine so long ago that I have the music on cassette tape and I watched the routine on VHS. It has been retired “To the Vault” for many years. Ditto for routines called Genesis, Roots and Adagio. Some routines have been taken apart and used to build other routines. For example I took all of the Angelique Kidjo songs from the classic, Agolo, and put together a routine using only songs from her album, Aye (which means "LIFE" and is the name of the routine as well.)  I split up the songs from the repetitive routine Fi
Read more

Food Purist

Image
I tell people I’m a food purist. And I say I’m gastronomically conservative.  Sometimes these terms are misunderstood. These terms that, as far as I know, I’ve made up; I don’t see them commonly used this way, but I could easily have picked them up subconsciously and adopted them. When something is so universally true, as I think food purism is, you often see the same or similar permutations of the concept showing up in different places. Anyway, being a food purist doesn’t mean that I only eat the foods that offer the best nutrition per calorie, or the foods with the highest antioxidant levels or the most enzymes or the least fat or the lowest glycemic index, etc. etc. That’s all popular science and I don’t get bogged down in it. All of that is changing constantly, anyway: One day eggs are good for you, the next day, you can only have whites, then they’re good for you again, then you find out they’re bad for you. Not that I’m saying anything about eggs right now, but this is
Read more