Monday, June 28, 2010

Buying Organic Where It Matters Most


The importance of eating organic foods is not exactly a revelation. I know it’s important. I’ve always known it’s important. But ever since watching the documentary Food Inc. I have a renewed sense of importance. That movie sure does have a way of convincing you to spend the extra money on organically grown and raised food. It’s always a struggle in the supermarket when you have the organic food in one hand and the non-organic food (costing half the price) in the other hand . . .

So when I stumbled across an article in Natural Health magazine that discussed “Buying the Organics That Matter” it really caught my eye. It explains that if you only buy some organic produce, to use the following guide to get the most bang for your buck. This list is known as the “Dirty Dozen.” The most important items that you should strive to go for the organic products include the ones that are most heavily sprayed with pesticides. These include:

peaches
apples bell peppers
celery
nectarines
strawberries
cherries
kale
lettuce
imported grapes
carrots
pears

The items that are the least likely to be contaminated include:

onions
avocados
frozen sweet corn
pineapples
mangoes
asparagus
frozen sweet peas
kiwis
cabbages
eggplants
papayas
watermelons
broccoli
tomatoes
sweet potatoes

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Yoga While Cycling


I’ve read lots and lots of articles about Yoga and Cycling, but never anything about yoga while cycling. Maybe that is because it’s darn difficult to do. But today I had a great experience from stretching while cycling. And before I go any further I just want to say that I am not in any way recommending that anyone who may be reading this attempts to ride their bicycles without holding the handlebars. If you are not a cyclist that regularly sits back and rides ‘hands free’ than perhaps you shouldn’t read any further. But if you’re like me and are accustomed to riding hands free, or maybe you’re a unicyclist, than by all means, read on.

For the past two days I’ve been suffering from (what I think is) a pinched nerve in my upper right back. When I move in certain ways I get strange unexplained shooting pains. Sometimes it feels as though a creature with extremely sharp teeth has a hold of me and won’t let go. Or perhaps this is what it feels like to get shot and have the bullet still lodged in you. Bottom line, it’s no picnic and I’ve been miserable in pain. But, of course, that doesn’t stop me from hiking, biking, kayaking, or doing yoga. I must beat this thing!

So this morning I started my day with my favorite 30 minute yoga routine. By 20 minutes into the routine I was convinced that yoga is going to cure me. I was feeling great. Every down dog and side plank gave me more and more relief and I was thrilled. Until I got to the chair pose. For whatever reason putting my arms out in front of me and slightly lifted is a recipe for disaster. The shooting pains started again and I barely got through the rest of the routine. My spirits were breaking and I knew I needed a bike ride.

Fortunately, the riding position on my road bike was favorable to my pinched nerve and most of the ride was pain-free. But when I deviated from my standard riding position (by standing up, moving my hand position on the bars, or going over rough gravel roads) the pain started again. I remembered a tip I recently learned from a yoga and pilates instructor . . . she showed me a great back stretch that involved hunching up your shoulders, rolling them all the way back and then dropping them as far down as you can. That move completely opens your chest. From that point you bring your arms almost to a ‘namaste’ position in front of your chest, only instead of having your palms facing each other you point one palm to the ground, the other to the sky and clasp your fingers together while pulling one hand firmly with the other. The more tension you use to pull on your fingers, the better stretch you get along your back. It’s pure magic and I performed this little number several times while riding my bike today. I’m pretty sure it’s what got me through the otherwise painful ride. I am going to continue to practice yoga while riding, pinched nerve or not. It was great!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

YogaDudes Wholesale Program


It's been a long and slow process of rebuilding the YogaDudes website and shopping cart. Not something that I want to do again anytime soon. There are still some glitches that we are working out and we are hoping to take the wholesale program for a test drive. We are looking for studios that are interested in purchasing (or at least viewing) the YogaDudes wholesale prices. If you are interested and are willing to help us beta test this aspect of our shopping cart, please either leave a comment on this blog or email us at info@yogadudes.com. There is no commitment. We just want to add some 'wholesale users' to the program and get some feedback on your user experience. If you ever want to buy wholesale products from us in the future you should be all set up to do so.

Please help us out and give it a whirl . . .

Monday, June 14, 2010

Introducing Yoga Graffiti

What is Yoga Graffiti you ask? It's a creative and fun photo contest put on by a fellow yogi blogger. For the month of June, she is holding a Yoga Graffiti Photo Challenge to support her teacher Baron Baptise and the Africa Yoga Project to raise $50K in order to deliver a yoga immersion to 300 people in East Africa.

Here's how to participate: Tag yourself (aka strike a yoga pose) in the most fun, creative, and least expected place to do yoga. Be creative. The more fun, creative, or least expected place to strike a yoga pose will get more brownie points. (i.e. a beautiful dancer’s pose on a beautiful beach, although beautiful will probably not get much attention than say holding crow pose in a shopping cart in front of Costco — those carts are big).

Entering the challenge scores you a chance to win a $200 lululemon athletica gift card. All you have to do is submit your photo and donate a minimum of $5 per photo to enter the challenge. All proceeds will benefit Africa Yoga Project.

Please click here for complete details.

Friday, June 04, 2010

Free June Desktop Calendar

I swear I had this done before June 1st. First month ever that I was actually early. But then I went on vacation and now I'm late again. sigh. If you would like to make this image your desktop calendar, just click on the image above to bring up the larger image. Then right-click and "save as desktop."

And a special thanks to Nadia Nasiri of www.getoffthemat.com for supplying the photograph.