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Featured Pose
Full Locust
Poorna Salabhasana |
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Strengthens thorasic vertebra. Compresses and opens spine. Firms abdominal muscles, arms, hips and thighs.
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Food 4 Thought Healthy Eating Pyramid* |
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Following the U.S. government's Food Guide Pyramid, there is now a better alternative: the Healthy Eating Pyramid, built by the faculty in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Based on the latest science, and unaffected by businesses and organizations with a stake in its messages, the Healthy Eating Pyramid is a simple, trustworthy guide to choosing a healthy diet. It's foundation is daily exercise and weight control, since these two related elements strongly influence your chances of staying healthy. The Healthy Eating Pyramid builds from there, showing that you should eat more foods from the bottom part of the pyramid (vegetables, whole grains) and less from the top (red meat, refined grains). Learn more about the Healthy Eating Pyramid.
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Start with exercise.
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Focus on food, not grams. The Pyramid doesn't worry about specific servings or grams of food, so neither should you. It's a simple, general guide to how you should eat when you eat.
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Go with plants. Eating a plant-based diet is healthiest.
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Cut way back on American staples. Red meat, refined grains, potatoes, sugary drinks, and salty snacks are part of American culture, but they're also really unhealthy. If you eat meat, fish and poultry are the best choices.
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Take a multivitamin, and maybe have a drink.
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Last month, we suggested dedicating your February practice to improving your concentration and mindfulness. This month, try focusing specifically on your stillness in class. Concentrating and being mindful helps us still the mind -- including all the thoughts, emotions, worries, stresses, and responsibilities that keep our minds racing each day. When we learn to concentrate straight ahead on our eyes in the front mirror, solely on our breathing, or adjustments in each individual posture, we can let go of everything else.
Consider how good concentration and focus makes us more successful at school or work. Learning to still the mind in hot yoga class brings a new level of depth to the practice. In fact, it will bring ease to your class, and help you to keep your breath and heartrate calm throughout your most challenging postures. Allow yourself not to think ahead, anticipating the next posture or instructions, so you can be taught. Value the instruction, the opportunity to not think so much, and open yourself to hearing something new in class, that might dramatically change how you experience certain postures.
Namaste,
Jason, Stephanie, Lourdes, Lindsey, Nadia, Laura S., Tracey, Jordan M., Jordan S., Erica, Harmony, Sarah, Laura B., Melissa, Lisa and Christelle |
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Vote Today! |
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41 Complete the 30-Day Challenge! |
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Huntington Beach Hot Yoga's first 30-Day Challenge ended on February 3rd. Forty-one people completed the Challenge!
See the names those who completed the Challenge, photos, and testimonials about the experience on our Web site! Also, start planning ahead to participate in an upcoming 30-Day Challenge: April 20 - May 19, or September 28 - October 27! |
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Student of the Month |
Our March Student of the Month is Peter Phillips!
- When did you start practicing hot yoga?
Peter's first experiences practicing hot yoga were in Tokyo, before moving to Huntington Beach in 2001. Then, someone on his LA Marathon training team recommended Huntington Beach Hot Yoga... Peter took his first class in January 2005. He liked it so much that he quit running immediately, and took hot yoga class almost every day for 2 months straight! Now he's taken over 500 classes!
- How often do you practice?
Sometimes Peter practices hot yoga 5 or 6 days per week, and other times, only once a week -- depending on other activities and how he's feeling.
- Why do you practice? What are the primary benefits you experience?
When Peter first started at Huntington Beach Hot Yoga, he was a runner, and immediately realized that hot yoga made him very flexible and relaxed, which running impeded. "Hot yoga was really hard when I was so tight, but once I got more flexible, it made me want to come back more and more," Peter commented. "I sit in a cubicle all day at work. So stretching feels so good. I also feel really happy after class, because I know I worked out really hard for a full 90 minutes," Peter said. He's studied the individual postures outside of class, from books, and feels like hot yoga is both a physical, and healing art form. He appreciates the importance of the detailed adjustments in order to get the body into specific forms, angles, and symmetries. "During yoga, I don't think about anything else... concentration comes so much easier for me in class," Peter explained. He is very conscientious, thinking about all the details of the individual postures, checking his whole body for adjustments and things he's supposed to be doing. There's a lot to think about, which really helps keep Peter focused in class.
- How has your hot yoga practice impacted or changed your life?
"I have more energy," Peter replied immediately. He went on, "I am 37 now, but I feel and look a lot younger. I know that's directly from doing hot yoga. The rest of my life is stress, me doing things I want that aren't always healthy... but yoga balances all of that out." Peter also commented that hot yoga has taught him to be less competitive. He talked about learning from the relaxation and "effortless" side of the practice -- learning to not engage muscles or waste energy when it's not needed.
- What's your favorite posture?
"I like the final meditation the best. After working out so hard, it feels great" Peter said. He always stays in final savasana for at least 5 minutes, not thinking of anything at all. |
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