Annie's Healthy Natural Weight and Eating Blog

New Discussion Forums on www.anniebkay.com

2007-03-08T14:36:00.001-05:00

Check out our brand-new discussion forum on the website. I am hoping that the forum becomes a lively resource for all of us looking for ideas and inspiration in our life journey, and in our journey to health and wholeness.

All the best,

Annie

Therapeutic Yoga's Organic Evolutions

2007-02-04T13:58:00.000-05:00

The first Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research (SYTAR), organized by the International Association of Yoga Therapy (IAYT), was held January 18-21 in Los Angeles. It was a gathering of yogis and yoginis, medical professionals, researchers, and those who develop and sell products to the aforementioned groups.

First off, by any measure, this conference was a great success. It sold out very quickly - I spoke to many yogis who'd wanted to go but hadn't acted quickly enough. I believe that many yoga teachers across the country are witnessing the therapeutic possibilities of yoga in their own clientele. So the topic is ripe for discussion. And, I believe the organizers of the conference approached the frankly impossible task of finding common ground between the scientific community (the quantifiers), and the yogic spiritual practitioners and teachers (the revelers in the unknowable).

I love yoga conferences. I love to be around dedicated yoga teacher-practitioners. They put out a great vibe - as one woman said to me in the bathroom "who ARE you people? - it feels so good to be around you!" (she was attending a community college meeting in the same hotel). I was moved and ticked to attend scientific sessions that were launched with the chanting of ohm. Somehow, that both made the information presented resonate, and reminded me not to take it too seriously.

Many of the presenters provided outlines of their talks, and some of these may be helpful to yoga practitioners who were not able to attend. You can find a range of download able pdf-outlines of sessions and of breakouts at the IAYT website. You can find additional information from some of the presenters websites - those I attended who's website info was helpful to me include Matthew Taylor PhD, PT, Amy Weintraub, Leslie Kaminoff who's an impressively active blogger and Larry Payne PhD. Another blog that would be of interest to those of you thinking about the integrative therapies like yoga is The Integrator, John Week's blog. I'll do more features on some of these and other excellent practitioners I met at SYTAR.

I've been back from the conference for a couple weeks now, and the initial impressions have ruminated a bit. There has also been some rumblings and feedback from other attendees of the conference. A feast for thought came out of this meeting. A natural topic for this group was the development of standards for yoga therapists, and moving toward reimbursement and licensure. There were a number of warnings from clinicians (Chiropractors, PTs, RNs) that moving in that way will definitely result in more oversight, less creativity and time per client, and probably a reduction in pay scale for the yoga provider. Even as a clinician myself (I'm a Registered Dietitian), I came away thinking that perhaps moving toward licensure and reimbursement was not a good idea for the yoga community.

Feedback from the conference which I found fascinating was Megan McDonough's observation that while most of the attendees were female, most of the presenters were male. The Kripalu Yoga Teacher's Association listserv had a richer discussion, but you can get the cliffnotes on eSutra. It was a very male-dominated meeting, which I at first thought was indicative of more linear scientific nature of the topic. But then I thought perhaps it was because of the clique of PdD male yoga teachers who seem to have dominated the conversation - there are definitely master level, PhD-level yoga teacher/researchers out there, so yep, this should change next year. And it seems that feedback has been received by the organizers too.

All in all, a great effort, a beautiful dialogue. I'll go to SYTAR next year.

Environmental Transitioning

2007-01-11T14:49:00.000-05:00

This isn't a nutrition post, or a health post really. Each winter, my husband and I are lucky enough to spend a few months on Kauai, HI. He's a surfer, so our lives at times (most of the time, really) mold to that.

What strikes me is how much easier it is to follow a healthy lifestyle here than on the East Coast. There's just so much more fresh organic produce. Daily life is just more physical here - opportunities to be active are just everywhere, and are more fun. On Nantucket, I have to drag myself to a class, run down the road, or do a cable-TV workout. Sorry to whine, but there's just less zing to those activities, and they seem more isolated there. Here, our eyes, for some reason, are opened a little wider. Anyway, coming here saves my life on an annual basis.

This year, my 79-on-Saturday mom is here. (It was us, our cat, our surfboards, and my mom flying out here - like modern-day Beverly Hillbillies.) It's been great and I cherish every day we get to spend with her - and she's having a ball.

But it has kept me from work, and writing much that you'd actually want to read on this blog. So, hang in there. She heads back to the snow (which there is, finally) on the 15th, and I'm off to LA a few days later. Will blog from there hopefully, or at least when I get back.

I'll never voluntarily give up coming here!

Happy travels. And, as my husband says, vacations are for those who take them.

Survive the Merriment with Body & Soul Intact

2006-12-15T07:37:00.000-05:00

Here it is. The holiday season. Party time, candy and cookie time, rich food time. Estimates for how much Americans gain during this season range from 5 to 15 pounds, depending on who's doing the reporting. I suspect that the weight gain phenomenon is more prevalent in New England and the northern climes, but I'd love to hear stories and strategies from those in warmer places as to their strategies for maintaining a healthy weight (and healthy habits) through this time.
Here are few survival tips:

Accept the fact that you won't be losing weight this month. Regardless if you are a party momma or a stay-at-homer, there is just more high-calorie food around. Just maintaining is a feat this time of year.

Keep on moving. Practice stress management. Tie them together. Keep physical activity top-of-mind this month, and squeeze in extra workouts, try some of the TV workouts on cable (if you have comcast on demand, check out the fitness TV - there are yoga, Pilate's, walking and many other workouts - that's what's kept me moving through the last month or two when the weather has been less reliable here on Nantucket). Physical activity is great stress management, so if you didn't get your packages in the mail on time, didn't get to cards this year, or whatever, move a little to release the emotion that sits in your body as a result of not being perfect.

Focus on the peeps, not the table. Food traditions this time of year carry deep resonance and a strong pull. For me, it's my mom's cookies, and anything resembling eggnog. It's not always easy to remember that the reason for the season is really love, hope and connectedness. I know that many family relationships can be challenging, and that can drive us to seek comfort from seasonal goodies in unhealthy quantities. There's a Buddhist practice that may be helpful in working with relationships this season. The Dali Lama describes a practice of bowing down to the difficult people in your life, and thanking them for the opportunity they have provided to help you to experience spiritual growth. Love and honor them! For me, this practice a) cracks me up a little, and b) opens me up to another way to seeing things beyond the way my conditioned judgemental mind does. Somehow, it makes it easier for me to step back and see the people who challenge me differently, and to forgive them for the pain they cause me.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely or difficult your life is, the world opens itself to you this season. My wish for you is to feel that magic. My wish for you is that someone does the Buddhist practice of loving you when you cause them pain. And I wish you peace.

Namaste
Annie

Peace, Please: New Reports Blame Obese Individuals for All that Ails Us (and what that says about us)

2006-12-05T13:05:00.000-05:00

The New York Times has been covering the social stigmatization of weight recently. Gina Kolata reported in an October Week in Review (their weekly OpEd section), that there is an ever- louder beat of the drum from researchers (and of course amplified by the media), blaming obese individuals for everything from higher gas prices to global warming. There was another piece more recently on the growth of fat-discrimination as a college study topic.

In essence, Kolata's piece notes that social stigmatization of overweight is at an all-time high. But, while the great tide of disapproval helped stem other unhealthy behaviors like smoking or drinking, unfortunately it doesn't work that way with our most ubiquitous coping mechanisms: comfort food and inactivity. All that self-loathing and fear of weight just makes us gain more.

Evidence mounts that it's the healthy behaviors (being physically active and following a healthy diet) that determine health to a greater extent than the number on the scale. Remember that CDC report that noted that people slightly overweight lived longer? So, a thin person who under eats or overexercises is less healthy than an overweight individual following a healthy lifestyle.

But does that help us to exhale around accepting our body size? No! Why?

I think that food and fashion industries have just been wildly successful at sending messages to shape the culture and ensure our insecurity. An unhappy person is a great consumer, after all. Want to see what I mean? take a look at some of the ads on www.about-face.org. To learn more about this topic and connect with others around it, check out the International Association of Size Acceptance. The have lots of downloads, reviews of the science around size acceptance, pod casts and links. Just tons of great information.

I think the way out of the hatred and stigmatization of weight is simple education. Kids now really need media literacy in order to become conscious of what they can do to live healthy lives today. And for adults, I think there is more support to renounce the unhealthy aspects of our culture - look at the popularity of yoga! Yoga, of course, is a wonderful way of doing the mental work around releasing some of the underlying issues that cause all the suffering around poor body image, and waking up to the truth that each and everyone of us is perfect, and is divine.

Slimming down with Steve

2006-11-13T11:37:00.000-05:00

This morning I checked out YouTube - I admit, I hadn't checked it and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

I did a search of nutrition, and one of the first clips I watched was Steve from The Office's video, "Slimming down with Steve".

Note that the same day I linked to this video on YouTube, it was taken off. This link goes to another place I saw the video. If the link stops working, you can probably google it...

If you want a lift and think Steve's funny, spend a five of your precious minues watching this.

Have a healthy week.

Annie

Therapeutic Yoga - An ancient idea whose time has come again

2006-10-27T19:25:00.000-04:00

It's been quite a ride, being a student and teacher of yoga through the last two decades. Like riding a tsunami. At this point, yoga has washed over the country, and nearly every single family in America has been touched. Who'd ever thought that so many of our moms, dads, aunts, and preschool counsins would be doing yoga.

So, it's really high time for the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) to hold their first Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research (SYTAR). A fascinating collection of clinical researchers, medical professionals, and yogis and yoginis will gather in LA in mid-January to discuss the state of this rapidly growing field.

When I first began teaching yoga, I was amazed at the quasi-health advisor role that many yoga teachers play with just a month or two of training (and those were the ones to took more comprehensive trainings). This after training for nearly twenty years to become a Registered Dietitian, qualified to skillfull counsel people on what they should eat, or how to determine therapeutic nutritional needs.

Well, things are getting better, as far as defined national certifications for yoga teachers (though many rightfully mourn what is lost with the quantification of yoga training, when it was traditionally a guru-teacher style training, and the guru followed his own track - the trackless track).

Coming back to therapeutics and the symposium, my abstract: Yoga and nutrition for weight management: a case study in program rationale and design was acception for inclusion in the program. Who-ho. I'll post the abstrack here after the conference, as I think I need to let the IAYT have first publication rights.

Yoga therapy is a gem for those with mind-body issues, include wieght and eating issues. Having all these yogis gathering to talk about 'what works best for this, what works best for that, and still keeping it the wonderful practice that it is'...will benefit us all.

Read more about the association and the conference at the website, www.IAYT.org.

An Update on Spinach, and the Root of the Problem

2006-10-20T07:59:00.000-04:00

Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals", wrote one of the better ingestions of the whole spinach problem in last weekend's NYTimes Magazine. You can read the article on his website.

In "The Vegetable-Industrial Complex", Pollen hits on the big problem - that, as poet-farmer (and underappreciated American treasure) Wendell Berry points out, when we took animals off farms and put them into feedlots, we had, in effect, taken one elegant solution - where crops feed animals and animals' waste feeds crops - and created two new problems: a fertility problem on the farm, and a pollution problem on the feedlot.

It's the American way to then address these problems with everymore technically complex solutions (Pollen says look for a call to irradiate all fruit and vegetables..), rather than waking up to the simple reality that, as far as food goes, the simple old way may be better.

You're worth the time and energy.

Our food supply is getting more centralized and more processed by the day. What can you do? Eat local and get to know the farmer that grows your food whenever you can. If it interests you, read about the issue in the growing number of books exploring food quality. A few fascinating reads to start with include Fast Food Nation, Food Politics, (look them up on Amazon) and Pollen's book.

Is Celebrity Fit Club the most improved lifestyle show, or did they just get lucky?

2006-10-04T09:28:00.000-04:00

When VH1's Celebrity Fit Club first aired a few years ago, I hated everything about it. Using only the number on the scale to determine a winner or loser, the berating that the participants got, how crummy they felt about themselves and how much that was reinforced by everything about the show...

hated it.

But I have to say, during my late-afternoon break, I've been tuning in, and liking what I've seen. I think they're actually reruns - the sessions with Carney Wilson (whom I love), and the guy from the love boat. And while they still focus on the number on the scales, the show is much better at putting it all in context (that the pounds are a result of lifestyle changes, and that even if someone misses a 'goal', they get much more positive reinforcement). It's not about berating, it's much more real.

It may be the celebrities they happened to have - they had a really positive, motivated group. But too, the judges were a great combination, and I thougth they were great.

Not too crazy about their website, but there is a BMI calculator on it, as well as diet and fitness inforomation from the MD on the show. You can check it out at www.vh1.com.

Eating Spinach

2006-09-20T12:50:00.000-04:00

What a sad state that organic spinach was the source of the latest break of e-coli. While we may never know the root cause of the outbreak, the government got decent grades for their quick response.

The USDA and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) both suggest that we refrain from eating fresh packaged spinach until the investigation has been completed. In the meantime, it's a great time to remember again to buy local, throughouly wash all produce, and peel it when you can, cook it when you can. Would these steps have prevented the outbreak? Cooking would have, but the others, its still hard to say.

To hear more about what CSPI has to say about the outbreak, check www.cspinet.org

How thin are the banned models?

2006-09-20T12:40:00.000-04:00

The big story out of fashion week in Milan was the banning of models with BMI of less than 18. A BMI of 18.5 is considered underweight. So just how thin are the too-thin models? For a 5'8" woman, a BMI of 18 would put you at 120#. If you are 5'4", weight 105# to make an 18, and if you are 5"2", you'll need to be 99# to have a BMI of 18.

Overall, I think this is great news for women everywhere. Other cities are considering following suit. Unhealthy just insn't beautiful. I hope this incident sparks a trend.

You can follow the headlines on this at:

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=13488541&src=rss/oddlyEnoughNews

Here comes Every Bite Is Divine

2006-09-11T10:30:00.000-04:00

For those of you who've known for years (and years and years) that I've been working on a book combining yoga and nutrition for weight management, hang tight because it's very very close to being available.

At this point, books will be available to ship in early November. The book cover is beautiful to look at (thanks for designer Peri Poloni-Gabriel of Knockout Books, www.knockoutbooks.com), and the whole package came together with the help of many many people, but Ellen Reid, (www.bookshep.com) really helped launch the project into the world. I'm eternally grateful to these women, and to many more folks whom helped me along the long road to beautiful-book-in-hand.

You can see some of the artwork and read the introduction on my website, www.anniekbay.com. And you can pre-order the book - we'll pick up the shipping and handling of books you order now, and you won't be charged until they actually ship. Please note that our site is soon to be up and running...as of this writing, it's not quite up...

Much more to come...

Annie

First Entry

2006-07-03T19:09:00.000-04:00

Hello all. The day before the 4th, here on Nantucket. July is a real glory month on the island - the water's warm, people are happy, lots of fresh produce...

Here are my wishes for this blog.

I wish this blog could be a coming-together place for women and men concerned about their weight where bloggers leave with a little more appreciative attitude toward themselves and their bodies.

I wish this blog would teach me what the heck a blog is.

I wish this blog could be a real coversation between real people.

Happy holiday, everyone. May you be free.

Annie