It is amazing how the mind-body connection works. I have repeatedly found the minute I take good care of my mind-body and spirit through healthy eating, movement, strength training, yoga and the simple act of conscious breathing the universe joins in. It does it’s magic of allowing the things I need most to find their way into my life. Creating good habits around our personal wellness is not a selfish act. In fact, as we prioritize our personal wellness we become more present in giving to our family, our work and those around us in general. As you evaluate your priorities for 2012 consider giving the gift of “creating space” to yourself. The mind-body-spirit connection begins with creating space. It could be as simple as following Thich Nhat Hanh’s advice he shared this year in Washington DC at the Warner Theatre …“Breathe in, Breathe Out” consciously to check in with your mind, body and spirit as you bring in the new year.

What will you create space for in 2012?

NEW LOCATION: Beloved Yoga’s Reston Studio
• Experience and discuss ways to infuse mindfulness into your daily life towards nourishing your mind (food), body (yoga) and spirit (meditation).
• Gain an overview of one of the most popular evidence-based complementary modalities, yoga, that takes the whole person into consideration to manage stress.
• Have an experience of coordinating your breath and movement in a Kundalini Kriya (set of yoga exercises) designed to heal and restore the parasympathetic nervous system.

I will be leading students in a class that allows you to experience your breath consciously and use yoga, mantra, relaxation and meditation to help you cultivate mindfulness in all you do.


Plus, we will be serving my Signature Ginger Chai Tea

Take a Sunday afternoon for your own self-care and nourishment!

* stimulate   *   strengthen   *   synchronize

Date: Sunday July 24th, 2011
TIME: 2:00 pm to 4 pm
Registration: $25.00 pre-registration and $35 at the door
Location: Reston Studio
To Register: Call 703-860-Yoga (9642) or RSVP to:  belovedyoga@yahoo.com

My grandmother was one of the first working moms in my family living in India. She was a principal of a school and got married late in life, 19-years-old was pretty late back then — because her father valued education. Although she was a professional, she still had her household duties. I remember when I was 4-years-old I asked her to repeat a story about how she would cook for the family when she got back home from school. She would come home and quickly throw off her sari to change into her daily salwar kameez and make fresh chappatis for all of her 7 children. The children would sit Indian-style, lined up on the kitchen floor as she served fresh chappatis to each of them. She would quickly spoon out portions of a fresh vegetable sabzi that was half-cooked to each child’s steel plate. To this day, my mom prefers her vegetables under-cooked because of her how her mother made vegetables.

I too love the smell of garlic and ginger sizzling on the stovetops and eating chappatis just as they are made. It reminds me of my childhood and my mom’s lamb curry and chickpeas. My mom made chappatis while we set the table and then sat with us while we said our daily prayer. More likely than not, she went back into the kitchen to finish making the chappatis as we started eating. At some point, I began to feel that a woman always keeping her eyes on the kitchen was anti-feminist. Fresh chappatis, that keep a woman apart from her family at dinner, just weren’t necessary. Though I stand on the shoulders of generations of women who brought food straight from the pan to the plate, I chose not to make fresh chappatis.

Instead, I hired women to make chappatis weekly and would freeze the extra ones. I stocked up on frozen chappatis from the Indian grocery store. Admittedly, my family has eaten their fair share of naans, made with white flour. We have asked my mom to make chappatis for us, and have happily taken them from anyone who recognized that my family’s plight of not getting enough chappatis in our meals (usually kind aunties).

But lightly buttered chappatis straight from the cast iron skillet has a way of bringing people to the table in a way that calling can’t. I fought tooth and nail to to draw my kitchen boundaries. But now, as I hear First Lady Michelle Obama say that she is a “mom first” in the White House, I wonder what being a mom means to me today. For months, I thought about buying the perfect rolling pin, a plastic mat and a better skillet. I hesitated at making chappatis because the consistency of the dough probably would not being right. I wondered would I roll my chappatis into some odd, bent-out triangular shape instead of a perfect circular chappati.

It took one evening, though, when I decided, “What the heck — let me just do it and see what happens.” So I pulled out my whole-wheat flour, tossed three cups into my Kitchen Aid mixer and added one cup of water. In minutes, I had home-made dough that was ready to be made into fresh chappatis. From that moment, I buried all the baggage of “Making Chappatis” and gave my family fresh bread. Thirty minutes later, while my family shook their heads in disbelieve and I myself marveled at how easy it was. It was just a matter of trying.

What Food Traditions are You Creating in Your Family?

An old college friend of mine in the San Francisco Bay Area made us lunch at home. I went into the kitchen to help her cook and she assigned me the banal task of making a salad. I would have just as soon picked one up at Panera Bread and watched the kids slurp their Gogurt while we reminisced about our college days. After all, this particular friend had once burned a dish I asked her to warm-up for a party. So I was surprised when she looked over my shoulder to see how I was doing, and then doubly surprised when she said that I was “doing it all wrong.”

“Anu, you are suppose to cut the cherry tomatoes to get the juices out. You want to tear the romaine lettuce delicately and keep it a fork-size bite. Dice the cucumbers smaller and evenly–it will taste better.” What was she talking about? Whatever transformed my friend –kids I believe–I now have a phenomenal and simple salad recipe to share that relies on the freshness that only the sun can bring. So find a local farmers market close to you. For those of you in Northern Virginia and DC Metropolitan area check out Home Farm Store in Middleburg, Virginia.

Jal’s Salad

Ingredients

1 head of fresh romaine lettuce or mixed greens of choice

1/2 pound cherry tomatoes, cut in half length-wise

1/2 fresh avocado peeled and diced

1 English cucumber diced, optionally with the peel

1 red pepper julienned, then cut in half for 1-inch sticks

¼ cup goat cheese, crumbled

¼ cup of fresh cilantro leaves, optional

¼ cup or less of walnuts (my suggestion to boost the omega-3s in your diet)

2 tablespoons olive oil (Try Trader Joe’s Sicilian Extra Virgin Olive Oil – it’s peppery and delicious)

1 freshly squeezed lime with seeds pitted

1 clove of fresh garlic, slivered into 8-10 paper-thin slices

Kosher sea salt to taste (a dash suggested)

Preparation

Tear romaine lettuce into bit size pieces or put mixed greens of choice in bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients, using the last four ingredients as dressing. Mix well and enjoy.

Anu’s Tip:  Remember to roll the lime with the palm of the hand to let the juices flow before cutting and squeezing.  When serving this salad to others I use a steel bowl in which I mix all the ingredients.  Then I transfer this refreshing salad into my favorite bowl for a clean presentation and on many days I just serve from the steel bowl.

What Simple Delicious Salads Do You Make?

From the symposium I realized there is a sea of change occurring in our society as we take control of our health and stress management. The medical field is beginning to integrate the best healing practices from many cultures. As I indulged in all the yoga books I could afford and inhaled the smells of paper and binding I met yoga teachers and researchers from all walks of life.

The conference blended intellectual discovery with a daily yoga practice, while leaving ample time for reflection in solitude or quiet groups. I shared a dormitory with ten other women where we did not speak after 10 p.m. to honor silence in the monastery tradition. I discovered nuggets of truth from lectures and conversations over fragrant vegetarian communal meals and fresh chai. The IAYT conference showed me that yoga offers the possibility of transforming each one of us.

Dr. Sat Bir Khalsa

The IAYT conference experience reflects the vision of Dr. Sat Bir Khalsa an international speaker, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Director of Research for the Kundalini Research Institute and Kripalu Center for Yoga. Join me for your own intellectual journey and experience of yoga on March 5, 2011 at The Science of Yoga seminar from 8 am to 12:30 pm in Arlington, Virginia as we welcome Dr. Khalsa to the Northern Virginia and Washington D,C, area.

Have your own yoga experience with the lovely Maryam in the morning and meet a yoga pioneer, Dr. Sat Bir Khalsa. Bring a friend, enjoy some tea and good food, do some yoga and learn how you can empower yourself. All levels welcome. Contact Anu to find out more information and register today.

Anu Kaur: What is yoga therapy? And what type of yoga therapy do you teach?

Dilip Sarkar, MD: Yoga therapy is a state of empowering an individual toward wellness and health by the application of the philosophy and practice of yoga. The philosophy we teach is “Yoga Sutra of Patanjali” and the practice is “Patanjali Ashtanga Yoga.”

AK: As an advocate of yoga, how do feel yoga changes a person physically, mentally and spiritually?

DS: Yoga by definition is the union of the mind-body-spirit. It cures a disease and maintains health through self-realization. You look inside yourself, atman darshan (introspection), and observe what is bothering you and hurting you. Yoga tradition believes that, you are the cause and cure of your disease. By doing yoga, you achieve overall wellness and protect yourself against the progression of disease.

AK: How should conventional medicine and integrative medicine play a role in people’s lives?

DS: Traditionally, chronic diseases are first diagnosed in the acute phase, and that is when we start our customary evidence-based medicine of tests and treatment. By also incorporating integrative medicine into evidence-based medicine, we can add personal lifestyle modification to the treatment of disease. In time, if that personal lifestyle modification helps, then your doctor can cut down or take off pharmaceutical medicines slowly.

AK: Given your 40 years of experience in conventional medicine and extensive knowledge of integrative medicine, where do you see society headed in this information-filled world?

DS: The evidence-based physician is looking for and finding more and more data and information about integrative medicine. I believe that conventional physicians are going to change their modalities, in particular in chronic disease, because we have failed in the treatment of chronic disease arena.

A beautiful example of the integration of Western and traditional medicine is this: In the 1920s, the Chinese government began to accept Western medicine and ignoring traditional Chinese medicine. In the 1950s, new political forces who were pushing for universal health care did not have enough Western-trained physicians in the country, so the government relied again on traditional Chinese practitioners, putting them back into practice. Both the systems became integrated, as is evidence today. For any acute health care issue in China today is treated with Western medicine, and chronic health care issues are treated with traditional Chinese medicine.

AK: Any last bit of advice to our readers?

DS: Lifestyle modification is more powerful than taking medication. Lifestyle modification is a strong but slow medicine, so people need to stick to it. Remember, body, mind and spirit are not protocol-driven. It is an individualized response that can take up to six weeks or up to six months, depending on what is happening for the individual.

What Type of Yoga Workshop Would You Like to Attend?

Savor the Moment

Are you so busy that you multi-task in all areas of your life, including your eating habits? Functioning at maximum level, how many of us have eaten lunch in front of the computer or in the car, skipped a meal or inhaled something that our taste buds did not even catch? Is your schedule packed with meetings, chores, deadlines and social obligations? Have you ever found yourself in front of the candy dish at work without even remembering walking to it? Maybe you actually do sit down and have a meal, but you’re so preoccupied while eating that you still don’t taste the food.

If that is the case, mindfulness can be a wonderful tool to begin using in your life. Mindfulness is the opposite of being on autopilot. In today’s busy, information-loaded world, multi-tasking has become the accepted norm and eating is no exception. However, mindless and unaware eating can have an effect on us, both psychologically and physically—and eventually takes a toll on our body and overall quality of life.

More and more research is showing that mindfulness can play a role in managing stress, depression, anxiety and medical conditions such as heart disease, obesity and disordered eating. The beauty of mindfulness is that it is simple and available to you at all times.

What is Mindful Eating?
As babies we eat instinctively—in other words, we eat when we’re hungry. Over time most of us train ourselves to eat in response to certain emotional or environmental cues, which have us reaching for food even if we’re not hungry. Mindful eating is about understanding why and how you eat, and it means approaching eating with patience, acceptance and trust.

To practice mindful eating, do a quick assessment of how hungry you are before you start to chow down on the food in front of you, whether it be a bag of Doritos or a gourmet meal. Remember to neutrally observe yourself as you eat and acknowledge how full you are when you are done eating. You always have a choice in how much you eat.

Tips for Mindful Eating*

1. Arrive. Come to your meal and eat in a specific place. Acknowledge that you are eating.

2. Check in. Ask the simple question: Am I hungry and if so, how hungry? This helps you learn to eat until you are full, rather than until the food is gone.

3. Slow down. Take the time to eat and appreciate the food. The entire experience can be completely different from when you’re eating quickly.

4. Be curious. Think about the food you eat and where it comes from. A healthy dose of gratitude for each grain of rice can affect us.

5. Savor. Take pleasure in eating. Food is not just about calories or restricting them. Rather, it is about pausing and soaking it all in.

*Reference:  The Center for Mindful Eating

Mindful hunger checks allow you to make choices with awareness. Notice the sensation of satiety or fullness. How does it feel to be overly full versus two-thirds full? When it comes to healthy eating, satiety cues, such as feeling a slight stretch to the stomach, feeling energetic and feeling satisfied, are just as important as hunger cues like hunger pain, irritability and poor concentration.

We all have unique triggers for mindless eating; acknowledging personal triggers (fatigue, boredom, watching TV) and coming up with an alternative can minimize mindless emotional eating.  To get more tips on Mindful Eating and learn how I used mindfulness in my own life read the full article as featured in ABCDlady Wellness Section.

The Power to Transform

Mindful eating helps uncover parts of ourselves that we usually bypass as we rush through our day focusing on either the past or the future. Mindfulness is about the present, and mindful eating is the opportunity to enjoy your eating experience at a new level.

Consider mindfulness as you start 2010 and see what personal discoveries come your way. I eventually realized I didn’t like sweets as much as I enjoy crunchy and light savories. Who knew? I discovered this preference once I gave myself permission to slow down.

Ultimately mindful eating is about your life attitude. Do you choose to be present in the moment and enjoy the food that nourishes you? The gift of mindful eating is to give you a richer experience. Over time, the practice of mindfulness seeps into the rest of your life. Enjoy this New Year’s gift and share your experience with us.

What Have You Mindfully Eaten?

Dilip Sarkar, MD

Dr. Dilip Sarkar is one of the healthiest vascular surgeons in Portsmouth, Virginia. He exercises, eats right and gets regular check-ups. He doesn’t smoke, have no traditional risk factors and doesn’t have a family history of heart disease.

While no one expects to have a heart attack, Sarkar was completely unprepared for the heart attack he suffered on his 52nd birthday. He narrates his experience and begins the story of how he transformed his life.

Dilip Sarkar: It was my operating day. I still remember it was a Wednesday. I had just completed 7 or 8 surgeries and had come home. I was not feeling well (unexplained fatigue) but I did not have any classic symptoms of a heart attack, such as chest pain or shortness of breath. When I shared my discomfort with my wife she said that I looked tired and that I “must be over worked.” A family friend came for my birthday dinner that evening and I could not eat properly during the meal. My friend also said, “You must be overworked.”

After my friend left, I checked my pulse and it was high. As a physician, I knew it was a cardiovascular issue. My wife told me to call a physician, which I did. My cardiologist friend was waiting for me at the hospital when I got there. He took my EKG and told me I was having a heart attack. He took me right in for a coronary angiogram, which showed triple vessel disease. The doctor recommended coronary artery bypass surgery, which was performed two days later.

From that moment, something changed inside me. I have always been a spiritual person. But at that moment after surgery I said to God, “Have it as you will.” I had to surrender to him. I had been one of the busiest surgeons in town, yet when I came back home after my operation I decided I was not going to go back to work part time, as suggested by my cardiologist.

This experience had me questioning, “Why me? What is next in my life?” My cardiologist had told me after the surgery that I did not possess any risk factors for a future heart attack, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc. Therefore, the remedy was not in medication (to control the risk factors), but rather in learning to control the mind and the stress of daily life. I wondered what else should I do since all of my life I had studied science and medicine.

New Life

So I decided to take a different approach and look to alternative and spiritual remedies for health and wellness. I met an Ayurvedic practitioner who told me, “We will use food as medicine.” So I had my dietetic consultation from this Ayurvedic practioner, which introduced me to the discipline of Ayurveda.

At the same time, my mother-in-law, a retired professor of history in India, shared her experience of yoga asana (postures) and pranayam (the science of breathing) with me. She herself had become a Swami Ram Dev certified teacher and was teaching to groups in India. She suggested that I also incorporate yoga asana and pranayam into my recovery, along with the medications and dietetic consultations.

I looked at yoga asana and pranayam video by Swami Ram Dev and I was sold. Immediately I started to practice yoga as therapy and began to study Ayurvedic nutrition and cooking. It took me six years to learn about these alternative and complementary therapies. In the meantime, I downsized my lifestyle. My wife and I moved out of a large family home and bought a condominium. I was not working, but my recovery was going fairly well. Eventually, this new lifestyle of integrating Ayurveda, yoga asana and pranayam resulted in improvement in my organ functions. My cardiac stress test was improving. My doctors took me off the beta-blockers and eventually, took me off most of my medications.

I have literally used food as my medicine and still do, by balancing my diet through Ayurvedic principles. I currently do not take any medicine. What I do instead is daily yoga asana and pranayam in the morning for about 1 ½ to 2 hours. I supplement this with weight training and treadmill activities every other day. However, more importantly, I live a yogic lifestyle. I have mind control and my body is relaxed. According to Ayurvedic thinking, if the body and mind are relaxed, then food is properly digested because digestion is a complex process of mind, body and spirit. If one is not relaxed in mind, body and spirit then food is not holistically digested and more toxins are produced, which becomes the root cause of disease.

Stay tuned for Part II and learn more about Dr. Sarkar’s new lifestyle.

As you enjoy the holidays and gear up for 2010…

How Do You Want to Relax Your Mind and Body?

It could have something to do with the how snug your jeans feel around your tummy. Or, it could be the fact that you are too tired to exercise after work, taking care of the kids, or any of the things for which you are now responsible as an adult. It could be your blood pressure rising as you get stressed out about the traffic, work deadlines or the many small annoyances that trigger stress. Perhaps it could be abnormal cholesterol levels of which you are unaware because you haven’t gone for your physical in a while. It could even be a family history of diabetes and your current lifestyle that makes you a bit more prone to heart disease.

All or any one of these risk factors are little red flags to remind us to check that our daily habits align with our desire to be healthy.

Daily eating, exercising and stress management habits determine how healthy our heart will be. Lifestyle is a powerful tool. Many of us with busy lives just do not prioritize food or exercise. It is the first thing to give if we have a lot to accomplish that day. Exercise helps you not only lose weight or maintain a healthy weight but also can improve cholesterol levels and arterial wall damage. The best part? Exercise is also a stress reliever.

So what does it take to live healthier while eating food you like? Acknowledging our personal pitfalls can be a great start.

Common Pitfalls

Yes, many people love to celebrate with food. The fact is we often associate socializing with “special occasion foods,” which in most cases are high in saturated fat.

The cost of food indulgence may eventually lead to cholesterol-lowering medications, symptoms such as fatigue and chest pain and really just not feeling well enough to do all the things you used to enjoy doing. It may not happen today or tomorrow but eventually it can catch up with you.

Many of also eat or exercise differently on the weekends and weekdays. Weekends are when the parties happen and our portions tend to expand. Unhealthy eating habits might not just be about what you are eating but how much and how often you are eating.

All or any one of these risk factors are little red flags to remind us to check that our daily habits align with our desire to be healthy.

Risk Factors for Heart Disease

- High Blood Pressure

- Smoking

- Physical Inactivity

- Dyslipidemia (abnormal cholesterol levels)

- Diabetes – Peripheral Insulin Insensitivity

- Increased Body Fat (Especially upper body waist obesity)

The secret to eating heart healthy is to make gradual changes and try adding more of your favorite fish, fruits and vegetables. Relinquish the “feast or famine” mentality and see how eating moderately at parties and on the weekend makes you feel. Heart healthy eating does not need to be all or nothing. Small steps can eventually lead to big results!

Visit ABCD Lady, an on-line magazine for the original full article and more tips for eating Heart Healthy Indian food.

What is Your Favorite South Asian Indian Dish?

I went on to buy freshly picked figs from the farm.  Do I do things like this usually?  No.  Would I like to buy straight from the farm more often? Absolutely. It felt like I was taking my first baby steps into the Slow Food Movement. I am starting to become more in touch with where my food comes from and how it is produced.

It felt so nice to see where a pumpkin — or any food for that matter — starts out and really appreciate the work that goes into the food we eat. To realize that it takes time for a vegetables to grow before you can harvest, and get food on a plate was a small moment of wonder.

I was so motivated by my experience with the pumpkins, that when I saw Brussels sprouts on a stalk, I decided to buy them even though I had to no idea how to cook them.  After two days of the stalk taking up a whole shelf in the refrigerator, my husband asked me gingerly if I was planning on cooking them any time soon. I decided to search for some recipes.

It took two minutes to snap all the Brussels sprouts off the vine, 5 minutes to steam and 5 minutes to sauté 1 pound of Brussels sprouts.   I was out of thyme so I substituted with McCormick’s Greek Seasoning and enjoyed my Brussels sprouts with a slice of Greek Z-Pizza. The next day, I tossed some chilled Brussels sprouts on my salad and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this new vegetable – and appreciated all it took to get to my plate.

Anu’s Brussels Sprouts Recipe

1 teaspoon olive oil

½ Tablespoon of Butter

2 cups trimmed and Steamed Brussels sprouts

½ teaspoon of McCormick Greek Seasoning or Thyme

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add Greek Seasoning or Thyme and steamed Brussels sprouts; sauté 5 minutes.  Add ¼ cup water, salt and pepper.  Cover for a two minutes or until tender.  Eat as a side or toss into a green salad and enjoy.

What Have You Bought Directly from the Farm?