All entries tagged with “health”
My 50-Sense Worth on being Fit and Fabulous
I remember turning 20 and lamenting the fact that I would never again, be a teenager. Had I done everything I could with those teen-age years? Had I been reprimanded enough, grounded enough, humiliated enough, mischievous enough, daring enough, and learned enough, mostly through trial and error, how to responsibly approach my 20’s and move on into legitimate adulthood? Hence, the I-phone self-portrait at 50, in a hot pink bikini, serves as my answer to these questions.
A fit and fabulous mind is shaped by good thoughts. Every day that I get to wake up, as waking up is no longer something I take for granted, I recognize there’s a purpose and plan for me to be here. Before stepping out of bed, I set an intention to make the most out of the next 24 hours. There is a sense at 50, that everything I am, is not all about me. I’m a part of a bigger scheme. Participate in your life’s schematic. Endeavor to discover more about you, in all that you do. At 50 I have discovered it’s all about what I CAN do, as opposed to what I can’t. And, with the things I can't do anything about, I CAN still apply faith. One of my favorite quotes sits framed on my desk – “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can. – John Wesley. A fit and fabulous mind leads to a fit and fabulous body. Our bodies need care and maintenance. The concept of longevity makes sense now, more than ever, at 50. My response to my younger clients who ask how I stay in great shape is this - I’ve had a longer time to work on the equipment to look like this, but I’ve also maintained over the decades, a lifestyle of moderation in all things. We will wear our history in and on our bodies. Our health will become a display of what we’ve taken in and how we’ve taken care of our divine machines over time. It’s never too late to start a better maintenance regime. Fuel your best equipment with the best possible energy sources. No one would think of putting leaded gas in their car’s fuel tank these days, right? Likewise, treat your body to the best options. Think, one-ingredient-foods, and your body will respond with a sleeker, healthier appearance. Again, I've learned at 50, that it's is all about what we CAN do, and feeding ourselves appropriately is not denying ourselves of anything we “can’t” eat. It’s not about restrictions, it’s about proper consumption. Jonny Bowden’s “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth” is a favorite one-ingredient "recipe book" of mine. From beets and spinach to oatmeal and brown rice, to apricots and avocados, to free-range poultry, grass-fed beef, wild salmon, tuna, and eggs, 150 options to fuel your body are listed with all the healthy benefits you can gain. Turn your pantry from a laboratory science project into a farmer’s market! Create a bountiful storehouse with foods containing only ingredients found in nature for a strong, vital body. If there’s a "food" item with a shelf life, that shelf you're adding to yourself, for life! When you can’t pronounce any of the words on an ingredient list, don’t eat it! Laboratory creations should not be considered "food" for your body. Being fit and feeling fabulous means eating right and staying active. Move your arms and legs. Breathe deeply as often and as much as you can. Walk, run, lift weights, do crunches, bend and stretch. We were made for mobility with over 600 muscles and over 200 bones and joints in our bodies. Move to use all of your equipment, and keep yourself in good working order. Do everything you CAN to stay mobile and in motion. My 50 sense-worth is once you stop, game over. You’ve just gotten good at being old! Don't ever take yourself out of the adventure of the game of life! Keep passing GO! For half of a century, I can appreciate all that my spine has endured throughout my life just holding me upright and still, let alone the extending, bending and bowing it’s done for me throughout the decades. So, at 50, appreciation for my back and recognzing the need to keep my spine supple is so important. It's also even more important now to get your head below your heart and your feet above your head as often as you can. Not only will this bend and stretch your spine, but this moves your lymphatic fluids around helping to remove toxins from your bloodstream. Your lymphatic fluids do not have a pump to keep moving through your body. Your body movements are the pumping force. The more you move and upend yourself, the more you will detoxify your body. The older we get, the more we need to move. Again, it’s all about what we can do. In any physical activity you participate in, work it to the point of challenge within your body, vary your movements to include inversions, and you will continue to regenerate your muscles and bones and revitalize your body. Fit and fabulous is an attitude and lifestyle choice. Foster a spirit of gratitude so that even moving and breathing becomes something you’re thankful for each day. Have an adventurous spirit, and an open mind to try new things. Your spirit conveys your attitude toward life. Participate in your life! Don’t let it pass you by. Take your body out. Stimulate your mind with new ideas to create color in the gray matter between your ears. Stay interested and become interesting. Enjoy living! We don’t know how many days or years we have in our lives, but we can put a lot of life into every day and year we’re given. Put yourself out there. Before you know it, half of a century has passed. Smile today at yourself and say, “I’m all about discovering all I can be!” For me, staying fit and fabulous in mind, body and spirit way beyond 50 is what it’s all about. It’s my 50-sense-worth that life just keeps getting hot-pink better, on the other side. Be happy. Live healthy. Fifty is the new thirty. Karen Cutrona Underwood, Owner, instructor/trainer at Blue Moon Yoga and Fitness, Ormond Beach, FL.
Live Balanced. Life is Edgy.
Change Creates Balance.
Find balance through change. Reinvent yourself. Do something new. Stand on one foot while brushing your teeth, combing your hair, talking on the phone. Stretch out your arms. Move your hips. Bend forward. Get your head below your heart. Reverse the blood flow and revitalize your brain. Mix it up. In our car-driven, quick-fix, technologically-oriented society, we have endangered the mobility and muscularity of the human species. To avoid stagnation, building balance into your life is necessary. When you move in unconventional ways, your body understands balance better. When you work-out and become “weak” from the challenge, your muscles and endurance grow stronger. Without temporary break-down, there is no build-up. Without movement, atrophy occurs. Without motivation, achievement wanes. Without inspiration, spirits drop. Without challenge, there can be no change. Without change, imbalances exist. Move it, stimulate it, challenge it or lose it. This is true of our lung tissue, our ability to balance our bodies, our flexibility, muscle strength, brain function, heart health and emotional equanimity. In order to be well, we must provoke and arouse all of these areas with activity. If given the choice, would you choose diminished lung function or full capacity of the wind bags you’ve been given? Every day this choice is ours to make. Underutilizing our lung capacity by not fully inflating and deflating our lungs on a regular basis causes atrophy in our lung tissues. BREATHE people! We are fully equipped to revitalize our bodies simply by taking some time to breathe, with awareness, deeply into our lungs by expanding and contracting our ribcages, like fireplace billows. By doing so, we ignite the internal flame of revitalization within us. This is one way to create balance in our lives. Breathing deeply calms our minds, as well as rejuvenates our bodies with greater oxygenated blood flow. We all understand the idea of “balance” to be necessary to live stable lives. Do we practice this? Balance doesn’t just happen. Our bodies seek equilibrium physically, mentally, and spiritually. One area may be satisfied at the expense of another until we find it. I propose by building balance physically into your body one foot at a time, you will create balance, energetically, in your life as well. The physical practice of building balance into your body keeps your central nervous system stimulated, and maintains clear lines of communication between the tendons and ligaments regarding muscle tension and joint position to your brain. Stand on one foot, and produce color in the gray matter between your ears! I daresay, get smarter, calmer, and become more focused by lifting one foot off the ground! Let your body calibrate and generate balance by the communication of your spinal column to your brain. Then calmly, deeply breathe. Standing on one foot, focusing on one point, known as a drishte in yoga, for a minute or so, neurologically creates a baseline for your center of balance. This evokes a parasympathetic relaxation response - meeting challenge with ease in your body, It strengthens your core, creates equanimity in your spirit and acuity in your mind. Build balance into your body. Gain stability in your life. All of creation, both in nature and in the human body, shows us that balance is a force to be reckoned with. Change disrupts balance, but change creates the quest for it as well. Sometimes we integrate something into our lives by managing its opposite. We become better at maintaing balance for having fallen over and over again. Balance is achieved though constant challenge, that produces change, that allows for calibration and recalibration to become centered. Life is dynamic. Life is edgy. Balance is our sure-footed response to it. Live a balanced life, and take yours to the edge. Be happy. Live healthy - one foot at a time. Karen Cutrona Underwood, Owner of Blue Moon Yoga and Fitness, Inc. Studio and Training Center, Ormond Beach, FL
Keep it Simple. Get the Prana-Body you Want.
Prana is a Sanskrit word meaning life force, or vital energy, particularly referring to the breath. Pranayama is the act of practicing or extending this vital energy – as in breathing deeply in and out to fan or fuel the force of life within the body. We all have this vital force within us. With lungs that can expand, when fully inflated, from our collar bones to our hip bones, and with upwards of 600 voluntary muscles in our bodies, the prana potential in each of us is divinely woven right into the fabric of our beings! We were made for movement, and active movement requires fuel. We all know we can’t drive our cars on “empty.” We are careful to check the gas tank before a journey to avoid running out of gas. Our bodies, the most precious equipment we own, should be thought of in the same way. Since I’m using an automobile analogy for the body, with the cost of gas these days, it’s nice to know a good portion of our body’s fuel is absolutely free! Don’t stick with Regular gas (common sit-at-your-desk breathing) don’t always settle for the Mid-grade (you walked the dog today,) but fill up with the Premium stuff (I worked myself into a great sweat today,) as much as possible! Think about it. If you had your choice at the pump - it’s all free, would you choose Regular or Premium gas for your most prized machine? Premium fuel comes out of the same pump as the Regular stuff, simply by adding movement. The more active the movement, the higher quality gas becomes automatically available. Awesome machines we own! The quality of our breathing will directly correlate to the quality of our life! You want to gain vitality? Breathe effectively and efficiently. What makes us breathe this way? Our movement and activity. The more muscles we engage in our movement and activity, the more fuel is required, the more our metabolic rate raises, the more calories are burned, the more toning and control you gain over the muscle groups, and on and on go the benefits. Stay mobile. Stay active. Inadvertently “exercise” or “work-out,” in the process! Prana also applies to a way of eating. And so, again, pranayama is the act of extending life force through fueling our bodies with vital energy. Food is another source of energy for our bodies. Simply, put, whatever is alive, not preserved, will serve to raise your level of vitality and give you the proper fuel to achieve a higher level of fitness. Apples, skin and all, have more life than applesauce made of apples that have been peeled, cooked and often sugared. Spinach that’s fresh and uncooked has more life than spinach in a can or a frozen block of spinach in the freezer. Think a bit deeper into this prana concept and the apple from the tree, for example, allows you to also take in the vital force from the sun, the rain, and the earth that created the fruit. We, just as the ancients’ thought of it, ingest the forces of creation. Now, that’s lively eating! The fewer ingredients a food has, the better it is for you. Your body is alive, feed it life! To cook it, when it comes to fruits and vegetables, is to kill it. These foods are far more efficiently burned and utilized in the body than items with an expiration date beyond a few days. Most canned and dry goods have a shelf life of 1 - 2 years with a scientifically engineered extended “freshness” date. Think about how long it sits within you, therefore, as well! “Best if used by…” Beware! Many times it’s already over being at its “best” long before that date. Oats, raw nuts, buckwheat, and some other dry goods in their single, pure form are excluded. Keep your energy source simple in your refrigerator and your pantry and thereby, set up your meals and snack attacks for success, and you’ll see the benefits in your shape and fitness level. Keep it simple and get the body you want. By changing our way of thinking, we can change our way of being. I’m 49. I’ve had four children. That’s me in the pink and orange bikini – picture taken last week from my Iphone. Get your prana-body. The simple concept of prana can bring the body you want to life. Be well. Live well. By Karen Cutrona-Underood, E-RYT, Owner, Blue Moon Yoga and Fitness, Inc.
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The 20’s brought college graduation, marriage, and by 30, four children into my life. As the 30’s and 40’s brought life changes and various career opportunities, I can say, at 50, I have some sense of what life’s all about. It’s a balancing act between the mind, body and spirit. It’s a practice of shaking it up, sorting it out, and finding balance, only to shake it up all over again. Every day becomes a new balancing act, and that’s what keeps my world rockin’ and keeps me feeling fit and fabulous.
It’s time to change the way we think about fitness, diet and exercise. The words often imply “work” or “restriction” of some sort to many. Let’s consider movement, fuel, and activity as replacement words – ok, euphemisms, for these concepts. Let your blogging yogi here introduce you to an ancient word/concept that encompasses the very idea of being alive, let alone, fit. It’s called prana. Four thousand years ago or more, when the practice of yoga was invented, it was created around the ancients’ awareness of movement and activity that produced life force.
