Thanksgiving is just a few days away, and there is nothing better than helping yourself to a piece of festive pumpkin pie! This recipe is easy to make and a delicious dessert to top off your Thanksgiving feast! Enjoy!
Tag: lifestyle
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Posture Matters
There are a lot of healthcare professionals on social media discussing whether or not posture really matters. It’s kind of the hot button topic in the physical therapy and pain science world. These days, it’s en vogue and edgy to say that posture doesn’t matter. I’ve been in this business long enough now to watch fads come and go. I love to listen to both sides of every story and to be honest, most of the time the underlying message on each side is essentially the same. People are just too busy spewing out extreme messages to get more likes on their Instagram page rather than really listening to what others have to say. Since this is my platform to educate people about the body as best I know how, I want to tell our readers why I think posture matters…but it may not be in the way you’d expect.
When most people think of good posture, they think head up, shoulders back, don’t slouch, and suck in your stomach, perhaps like an Army PFC lined up for uniform inspection. Is that what we want? Is that how we should present at all times in order to avoid back or neck pain? No. But does that mean it doesn’t matter? Does that mean slouching with a forward head and neck, zero tension in the core, and a tilted pelvis is ok? Again, no. Posture matters in the sense that being aware of where your body is in space at all times matters. There is little to no solid evidence that having bad posture causes pain. In fact, there is a lot of evidence to the contrary…that poor posture does not cause pain. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t contribute or play a role. One study looked at thousands of people who experienced an episode of low back pain and found that being distracted while doing a specific task makes people 25x more likely to experience acute low back pain. It also found that being in an awkward posture also increased the likelihood, just not as much. The combination of the two, an awkward posture and being distracted, was the key.
There is also evidence that posture affects emotions. After all, you rarely see a superhero portrayed in a rounded, traditionally poor position of posture. People in positions of power often adopt a similar position for that same reason. Power begets power. A depressed posture has been shown to cause depression. Depressed people who adopt happy postures have been shown to feel better. There is also evidence that emotions affect pain sensitivity. Anxiety increases perceived pain responses. So it stands to reason that posture, emotions, and pain are related in some fashion and clearly influence one another.
It’s better to think of posture and movement patterns in terms of what puts the most amount of postural stress on the body. Younger people with more adaptable soft tissues and mobile joints may be able to maintain an awkward or poor posture for longer periods of time than an older person with less adaptable tissues because the postural stress on the body is less overall. Duration of stress matters as well. Bending over to examine something under your sink for five minutes is much less likely to cause injury as opposed to doing that for many hours a day as a plumber, for example. The duration of the stress is longer, but the posture is the same. Many postural stresses can be avoided…if you notice it’s a stressor…which unfortunately, many people don’t.
The best posture is a dynamic one. We weren’t created to be sedentary. Our bodies are meant to move in a variety of positions and to do so frequently. A sedentary lifestyle contributes significantly to the degeneration of postural reflexes, as discovered by NASA while studying the physiological effects of inactivity. We have the best length-tension relationship in our muscles in neutral, so it’s a great place to start. Once you’re able to identify neutral, your brain and your body become more aware of when you stray and it’s easier to respond as appropriate, for the position you find yourself in. You don’t and shouldn’t maintain erect Triple S posture throughout every movement. Find freedom and variety in your movements, with the ability to decrease the postural stress as needed for your body at that specific time. It’s a learning process that takes time and practice. And it matters.
Check out the link below to our Posture Series on LYT Daily. It’s also available for purchase if you aren’t a subscriber. In this series, Lara and I educate you, your brain, and your body on all things posture and movement, to decrease those postural stressors in your life! Until then, I’ll see you on the mat!
https://lytyoga.uscreen.io/programs/collection-9eqop9lxcpu
Xoxo,
Kristin
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Career vs job: following your passion
Hi! I’m Taisie Grant.
Growing up I always believed that in order to be ‘successful’ in life you had to follow the stereotype; the big corporate role, the highly admired job title, the big salary and a prestigious level of responsibility.
Otherwise – you would be classed as a failure – a nobody.In the same vein though, I felt this immense pressure on my shoulders that I had to live up to this preposterous expectation and that if I didn’t achieve all of the above then I would have indeed failed. Of course – writing this to the audience I know it is to be shared with, I’m sure a lot of you will understand where I am coming from but will also know that there is a lot more to life than the societal expectation surrounding success. Unfortunately, I do believe society has a huge amount to be held accountable for when it comes to people ending up in a groundhog day job rather than a career that they love and why a lot of people go through life in a ‘job’ that as every Monday morning rolls around, causes them to wake up shrouded in fear and anxiety. What I have also realised, however, is that in order to find a career that you love – you, first of all, have to know what you are passionate about. And that, after having spoken to a lot of people about this, can sometimes be where the first hurdle lies. I have heard more than once that people have no idea what they are passionate about. Unfortunately, life sometimes doesn’t give us time, or should I correct myself by saying sometimes we don’t make time, to step back from the daily grind to really look at ‘what we love’ and what really sets our soul on fire because we’ve spent so long in auto-pilot with the blinkers on.
Getting up, going to work, coming home, numbing out from our miserable day in the office, going to bed and then rinsing and repeating, over and over. Well, all of the above was me. 23 months ago. I had been in a world that I realise now was so far against every grain in my body – trying to fit, trying to make it work, trying to pretend I was a success and most of all trying to pretend I was loving it. Spending all of my time worrying about what everyone else was thinking about me and how I would be viewed, dare I say it validated, rather than worrying about what was important to me. Living in line with my values, standing firm and sticking to my beliefs. After a series of serendipitous events – I happened to, through recommendation, end up at a magical place on the East Coast of Kenya – and had signed myself up for a 200hr YTT having not ever done more than five yoga classes – perhaps a bold move? But I didn’t care. I was at breaking point, in a terribly bad mental black hole, and my mental and physical health was really suffering, horribly. During those three weeks away, as cliche as it might sound, they have gone on to become three weeks that absolutely changed my life.
I realised that I didn’t have to live constantly against my grain. And that I also didn’t need to live a life where I constantly felt like I had to compete with everyone in my peer group; experiencing that suffocating feeling of never being good enough and always feeling like I was failing compared to everyone else. Yoga has taught me one of the biggest lessons in my life. The practice of self-kindness and self-compassion and that lesson alone has opened my mind in more ways than I could ever have imagined.
It also has taught me about passion and purpose and given me a realisation as to what I was born to do. There now isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t feel fully aligned to myself and the value chain I stand for and live by.
I realise how incredibly jarring the many years before now that I have not been aligned to these have been. It has meant that I have learned to be more content with my present situation – rather than constantly berating myself for not being ‘enough’. Or what I deemed was enough.
The trouble with never thinking you are enough though however means that whenever you achieve something – you are still never satisfied because there will always be someone doing what you believe to be ‘better than you’, appearing to be more ‘successful’ than you – so you just constantly set yourself up for a life of unhappiness and an inability to ever find contentment. Through yoga and movement – I have finally realised what I was put on this earth to do. And despite there being times where I have felt completely hopeless and lost, wondering what on earth I had done giving up my good salary and all of the security which comes with having a job, I now truly have a career. A passion. A purpose.
And let me tell you, it is one of the most exciting and liberating things to happen to me in my 30 years. For all of the days where I have worried over where my next paycheck might be coming from, not once have I regretted my decision to quit my job and follow my passion.
I do not ever have to question my values – because I now am able to hold strong the values I put above everything else, and as a result, can choose to work with those who honour the same values. I often felt in my old jobs like my moral compass was at times highly compromised and challenged. Making a career from my passion has given me freedom in ways I didn’t think was possible. The freedom to work and travel knowing that I can still earn while I am away. The freedom to go to new places and then create my work from there. The freedom to explore avenues that really interest me. The freedom to meet like-minded people and not have to pretend to be what I need to be – I can just meet them as me.
I have also redefined my definition of ‘success’. So many of us are entrapped in the belief that we can only be successful if we adhere to the societal guidelines and expectations of how and what we’re supposed to achieve. This is one of the most suffocating things to hold yourself against. When you redefine success to what YOUR definition is, the world becomes hugely exciting! And you feel expectation melting away – as success becomes what YOU make of it and no one else. And it can be absolutely anything! Something as simple as that you are living in line with your truest self. And if you ask me, I’d take that any day over selling my soul to the devil to have someone else’s validation!
I cannot encourage you enough to do the same! To find and explore your passion if you have something that you are passionate about; or if you don’t, to go and find something.
My only word of caution to you would be to have the financial stability to allow you to do this, as at times this has been unsettling, but for me going back to the old life of a ‘job’ seems like something I couldn’t even begin to imagine doing. It seems alien and so far away from the life I have now created. Yes, there might be times where I have to work the coffee shop or wait on tables in these early days to keep me afloat. But that is a small price to pay for the opportunity to truly shape your own and, as a result, other people’s lives.
I don’t want to get to the end of my life and say – I wish I had done X. I want to write my story starting from now. No regrets. The only thing you need to do is believe in yourself. And believe that you can make it happen. There will always be people who try and dissuade you otherwise for all manner of reasons – fear, jealously, their own unhappiness – but as long as you are committed to the path that you know was meant for you, you are the only person who needs to believe in what you’re doing and in yourself. So go bravely, go boldly. Find your courage. Find your strength. And dare to jump into the unknown and let me know what happens!
In the wonderful words I’ve learnt from our yoga mama, Lara,
I’m pulling for you!
Taisie xxx -
Jana’s skincare story
Hi
I’m Jana Broeckx, a certified LYT teacher, computer scientist and cosmetics enthusiast. I’m gonna tell you a story of how my skincare routine led me to live a more balanced, integrated life.
I’ve had dry, easily bruised, sometimes painful skin my whole life. When I was a teenager my mother even took me to a dermatologist once because the skin on my head was ALWAYS painfully itchy. He told us some teenagers get acne, some – like me – can get symptoms like dry, itchy skin. He prescribed a certain shampoo we had to special-order from the local pharmacist as it wasn’t something they usually had in stock. It relieved some discomfort, but the itch came back quickly after washing.
The shampoo had a label on it that said “no parabens”. I read it a thousand times, but one day in 2013 I became curious enough to look up what it actually meant. I found all of this information about how so many of the ingredients that are very commonly found in generic skincare and make-up items can possibly have serious effects on our skin, our largest organ, or even overall health. Many items are filled with filler ingredients that do nothing but dilute the product so you need to repurchase quickly. On top of that – which was the worst part – many of these items are tested on animals. Something I had never thought about before, I just assumed it was a thing of the past. It isn’t!
For a while there it seemed like all common products you could find had ingredients in them that I didn’t want to use anymore for various reasons. Eventually I found the green beauty community. Products that are generally made with more natural ingredients, using mostly plant oils and extracts that are often safer to use and gentler to the skin. My skincare routine went from standard lotions and creams to one-ingredient oils and flower waters for a while. As a university student this was great. These items were cheaper than what I was using before and often lasted longer as they’re more concentrated.
One thing I struggled with was the make-up part. In mid-2013 there were a lot of bad products out there. Not in terms of ingredients, but performance. It took me years to find colour cosmetics that had ingredients I liked and performed the way I wanted. At the time it felt impossible to find items that would last a whole day. By the time it was noon, it either was gone or looked unappealing. It honestly took me years to find items that I liked.
I mentioned in the beginning how this changed how I lived my life, so let’s segue into that for a second. In my search for healthier, simpler beauty products, I found a lot of blogs and websites that would mention topics like sustainability, plant-based eating and animal welfare. Honestly, this was not something that I had looked into or thought about at all.
Then in early 2014, while I was enrolled in the first year of my master’s, our schedule was so intense and my grandparents were having serious health issues. I was so stressed out I started suffering from intense stomach pains to the point I had to go lay down on the floor in child’s pose and hope it would be over soon. My doctor prescribed a peppermint oil supplement. To my surprise my pain went away almost completely. This sparked curiosity in me once more. If a supplement had such a big effect, then what would the impact of our diet as a whole be? I remembered all those skincare blogs talking about a plant-based diet. So after a lot of research I became 95% plant-based and both my skin and digestion had never been better.
In January 2015 I ended up watching several documentaries that kept popping up on blogs that I used to find skincare or make-up reviews and vegan recipes. One documentary in particular, Earthlings, really shook something in me. The impact that we as humans have on the planet and all the non-human animals living around us is enormous. Why was this something I had never even considered in my life? And what was I doing with my life if I knew all this information and didn’t do anything with it? So I became vegan and a couple months later I joined a vegan activist group here in Belgium.
For the first time in my life I felt like I was part of something meaningful. I wasn’t just going through the motions of things I thought I should be doing. I started becoming a lot more aware of the impact of my choices and actions on the people, planet and beings around me. It was a big step towards connecting – maybe for the first time in my life – to my CORE.
OK… back to the skincare part of the post. I eventually found amazing, natural (colour) cosmetics. But I was ordering them on so many different websites as none grouped all the good brands together. I was spending quite a bit of money on shipping. So I decided to start Florissana – a vegan cosmetics webshop based in Belgium with all the goodies – (in the beginning at least) as a side business. I wanted it to be easy to find good, vegan items as I know many people in my life would never put in the amount of hours I had to find an alternative that was more sustainable and animal-friendly. I can test the products so you don’t have to.
This whole journey started as something so superficial, but ended up inviting me to go deeper within. Facing your inner demons and conditioning of course comes with its own difficulties. This eventually led me to start a vinyasa yoga practice. Maybe the details of that whole journey will be a story for another day. But it was someone in the vegan activist group I joined that pointed me in the direction of the right yoga training where I met Lara. As if it was all meant to happen. LYT Yoga truly helps me to keep living in an integrated, core-connected way, to continue to learn and grow for myself and others. And it all started with a bottle of shampoo.
Are you intrigued and want to start incorporating more natural products in your routine or are you looking for alternatives for specific items? Reach out to me on Instagram (@jnabrx) and I’ll point you in the right direction!
Oh… that itch on my scalp… it disappeared when I started using gentler, greener products. And my skin? It has never looked and felt better.
Jana
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Vegan Charcuterie Board
This impressive Charcuterie Board is the essence of easy entertaining! Piled high with fresh and colorful vegetables, beans, nuts, vegan meat and more, your guests will be wowed by this gorgeous and delicious spread. This is one of my favorite appetizers for a party, and since today is World Vegetarian Day, let’s give the classic meat and cheese charcuterie board a healthier makeover!
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Lemon Pepper Vegetable Kebab
Planning a Labor Day barbeque to give summer a proper send-off?
I love this recipe because it’s simple and fresh which is fabulous for warm summer days!
You can create colorful skewers by mixing the vegetables or skip the skewers all together and use a grilling sheet!
Serve the grilled vegetables and tofu with grilled pita, lettuce, tomato, Violife Feta, olives, and goddess dressing!
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Nicecream
During these (down) dog days of summer, a cold and refreshing snack is a great way to cool off!
Ever want ice-cream but dont have your favorite on hand? I love a good nice cream because a bag of frozen banana pieces always lives in my freezer for smoothies. With a few simple ingredients and my food processor, I can create a sweet treat out of ingredients I know and love.
Here are all of the ingredient you will need to get started:
4 medium ripe bananas, cut into slices and frozen
8 Oreo cookies
2 T peanut butter
1/4-1/2 c plant milk
Instructions
1) Cut bananas, lay on baking sheet in single layer and freeze for 12 hours
2) Place frozen bananas, peanut butter, three Oreo cookies, and 1/4 cup of plant milk in a powerful bender or food processor.
3) Puree till smooth, adding more milk if needed
4) Add three more Oreos and pulse for five seconds
5) Place nice cream in a cup and top with more Oreos, banana slices, or peanuts
6) If too soft, place in freezer for 15-20 minutes till firm
Adapted from Vegan Heaven
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Hip Labral Tears
Many of our LYT Prime regulars and certified LYT Yoga Teachers who’ve taken my Sequencing Lab Modules are well acquainted with my husband, Tim. He’s the 6’2” 210 lb super yogi who could always be found sweating his butt off next to me in Lara’s classes, heard grunting and panting off camera while I taught my 6:00 am T/Th class virtually, or seen practicing as my student in the Labs! Ever since I started teaching (and made him come with me to my first class so at least ONE person showed up), he fell head over heels in love with LYT Yoga and rarely missed class. Then roughly three years ago, we went to another studio while on vacation and the teacher took us into Lizard lunge in the first 10 minutes of class. I remember at the time thinking yikes, this is really early to be going into such a relatively deep pose. Tim felt and heard a pop in his right hip. Over the years, the pain has come and gone, and progressively gotten worse. He hasn’t been able to tolerate a class since February 2021 and a recent MRI revealed a tear of the anterior labrum and advanced arthritis.
Although previously thought to be a relatively uncommon injury, acetabular labral tears are being diagnosed with increased frequency due to improvements in diagnostic imaging. The prevalence of labral tears in people with anterior hip or groin pain is thought to be between 22-55%. The labrum is a rim of cartilage that outlines the socket of the hip joint, called the acetabulum. The thickness of the labrum varies between 2-3 mm thick. It is wider and thinner in the anterior portion and thicker posteriorly. It functions as a shock absorber, joint lubricator, and pressure distributor in the hip joint. It also provides stability to the hip by deepening the acetabulum by 21% and increasing the surface area of the acetabulum by 28%. This helps to distribute the load across the joint surfaces. Creating a seal for the joint, it helps keep the head of the femur (the ball of the joint) away from the acetabulum by maintaining the synovial joint fluid pressure within the joint. Not surprisingly, a compromise of the labrum has been associated with early joint degeneration. A study by McCarthy et al. found that 73% of patients with fraying or tearing of the acetabulum had damage to the joint cartilage and it was greater in those with the tears. They also found that in 94% of these patients, the joint damage was in the same area as the labral tear. They suggested that the risk of joint damage roughly doubles in the presence of a labral lesion.
More than 90% of people diagnosed with a hip labral tear complain of anterior hip or groin pain. Pain is also reported in the lateral region or deep in the posterior buttocks, albeit less often. People often describe a constant dull pain with intermittent episodes of sharp pain that worsens with activity. Walking, pivoting, bending over, prolonged sitting, and impact activities like running can aggravate symptoms. People often present with a limp, need a banister to climb stairs, and cannot walk long distances due to pain and weakness. Finally, the presence of clicking, locking, catching, or giving way is common as well.
The most consistently positive finding in people with a labral tear is a positive Anterior Hip-Impingement Test. This test is performed with the person on their back and the hip and knee flexed to 90 degrees. The hip is internally rotated and adducted. The test is considered positive if the pain is reproduced in the anterolateral hip or groin.
Although tears have been reported in all regions of the labrum, most tears found in the United States occurred in the anterior portion. Mintz et al. found 94% of the labral tears in their study were anterior. McCarthy et al. found 86% were anterior in theirs. Different reasons for the high prevalence of anterior tears have been suggested, including a relatively poor blood supply anteriorly as compared to the other regions and the fact that it’s thinner and therefore weaker. More than likely it’s also due to the fact that in Western civilization, this area is subjected to higher forces and greater stress during regular daily activities. Interestingly, in Japan the majority of tears occur in the posterior labrum, likely due to the frequent practice of squatting and sitting on the floor, which places more strain across the posterior region.
Whether labral tears have the potential for healing is controversial. Some articles report no potential and others report some potential for healing. In my clinical experience, improving joint capsular range of motion with manual therapy and limiting painful movement patterns that increase forces across the labrum, particularly the anterior labrum, have been beneficial. I’ve created a 4 video LYT Yoga Hip Pathology Series for LYTⓇ Daily which modifies our traditional practice to accommodate just this. I have been interviewing my husband and former patients and friends who’ve had hip joint issues including labral tears to determine just what bothers them and what seems to help. So if you suffer from hip joint pain/pathologies or know someone who does, go give it a try! Until then, I’ll see you on the mat!
Xoxo,
Kristin