Prime Time (with Bonus Content)
Page 33
For more intensity, you may gently press your right knee down.
Sit up tall while you do this, and keep breathing.
Hold the position for 20 seconds.
Repeat with the other leg.
Exercise 15 / SEATED NECK STRETCH
This stretches your neck and side.
Place your right hand under the seat of your chair.
Place your left hand on the right side of your head and tuck your chin toward your left armpit, near your collarbone—not straight forward!
Gently press your head down with your left hand, feeling a stretch in your neck and up your right side.
Continue to sit up tall as you do this. And breathe! Hold for 20 seconds and repeat on the other side.
Exercise 16 / SEATED SHOULDER STRETCH
This stretches the shoulder and the triceps.
Bring your right arm across your chest; keep it straight.
Bring your left arm under it and gently press on your elbow to get a deeper stretch in your right shoulder.
Don’t let that right shoulder pull forward or hunch up.
Hold for 20 seconds and repeat on the other side.
Exercise 17 / STANDING CALF AND HAMSTRING STRETCH
This stretches the back of the leg.
Holding on to the back of your chair, bring one foot forward so that the other stretches out in back with the heel pressed into the floor.
Adjust your position by moving the leg farther back so you feel the maximum stretch in that straight back leg.
If you slightly bend your back leg, you will feel the stretch more in your lower calf muscle.
Hold for 20 seconds and repeat with the other leg.
Exercise 18 / STANDING HAMSTRING STRETCH
This stretches the back of the thigh.
Again holding on to the back of your chair, move one foot forward, resting your heel on the floor and flexing that foot up, while keeping that leg straight.
Bend the other knee and press your buttocks back so that you feel the maximum stretch up the back of the straight leg.
Hold for 20 seconds and repeat with the other side.
APPENDIX III
Basic Exercise Prescription*
The recommendations below are for people not competing in high-level sports.
Minimum Activity for Disease Prevention
CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE
Accumulate 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity most days.
STRENGTH TRAINING
Include weight-bearing activity most days.
FLEXIBILITY
Maintain your body’s range of motion by bending and stretching during daily activities.
Basic Health Level
CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE
Engage in a large-muscle repetitive activity or sport for at least 20 minutes, at least 3 times a week.
STRENGTH TRAINING
Use Key 3 (see pp. 96–98) or an equivalent program, performing 1 or 2 sets, 2 times per week. Increase the number of sets as you get stronger.
FLEXIBILITY
Perform 2 to 4 large-muscle stretches after activity. Hold each stretch for 20 seconds.
Enhanced Fitness Level
CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE
Engage in an aerobic exercise or sport for 40 to 60 minutes, 4 to 6 times per week.
STRENGTH TRAINING
Use a whole-body machine or free-weight program, performing 2 or 3 sets for each body part, 3 times per week.
Use weights heavy enough to allow you to do 8 to 12 repetitions but no more.
FLEXIBILITY
Perform 6 to 10 whole-body stretches after activity. Hold each stretch for 20 seconds.
Key 3: Double-leg press or squat. Chest press. Lat pull-down or single-arm row.
APPENDIX IV
Tips for Healthy Eating
Don’t skip breakfast! Feed yourself regularly throughout the day. Ideally, you should have one-third of your daily calories in the morning, one-third at midday, and no more than one-third in the evening—so you don’t impulsively grab whatever is around.
Keep healthy snacks on hand for between meals—things such as fruit or low-fat cottage cheese or string cheese. Red grapes go well with cheese.
Don’t shop when you’re hungry. Eat an apple or another healthy snack prior to going to the grocery store.
Make a shopping list and stick to it so as to avoid impulse buying.
Keep a food diary for a while, writing down what you eat at each meal. You will be amazed to learn how much more we eat than we realize.
Make sure you’ve consumed a variety of colors before the day is over, especially the superstar foods high in antioxidants and phytonutrients: dark greens and blues/purples and yellows/oranges. (See this page–this page.)
Make sure that at least half of the food on your plate consists of fruits and/or veggies.
Eat slowly and chew well.
Eat sitting down.
Eat mindfully. Focus on what you are eating, and don’t read or watch TV while you eat.
Avoid empty calories, like those from sodas, candy, alcohol, and cakes.
Get in the habit of reading food labels before you buy.
Don’t diet! Studies have shown that the majority of people who go on diets gained back more weight afterward than they had lost.
Instead, try to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. If you have food addictions (bingeing, anorexia, bulimia), you may not be able to recognize when you are full—you eat to satisfy other needs. To help you identify those other needs, read Women, Food and God, by Geneen Roth.
HOW TO READ THE NUTRITION FACTS PANEL ON FOOD LABELS
1. How many calories per serving are shown? Bear in mind that you want to keep your total caloric intake to between 1,500 and 2,200 calories a day. That means your meals will be about 400 to 800 calories each. If you are on the small side, I recommend closer to 1,500 to 2,000 calories, with meals of 400 to 700 calories each, depending on your schedule, your snacks, and your preferences.
2. How much saturated fat is shown? It should be minimal, so that you’re not eating more than 10 to 20 grams per day. It will be higher in foods that contain fat (even healthy foods will have some), and may be zero in foods like fruits and vegetables.
3. Is trans fat listed? If so, perhaps this is a food you should forgo. Aim for zero trans fat in your diet.
4. Subtract the saturated (bad) fat and the trans (truly dangerous) fat from the total fat content on the label, and you have the amount of polyunsaturated or monounsaturated (good) fat.
5. How much fiber is shown? Remember, you are aiming for at least 25 to 30 grams of fiber daily. Fiber is highest in plant foods, such as whole grains, legumes, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.
6. How much sugar is shown? The list of ingredients might include corn syrup, dextrose, maltose, glucose, or invert sugar, but it’s all sugar, and there should be as little as possible per serving—certainly no more than 7 grams per serving. Your daily allotment of sugar should be less than 30 grams.
7. Sodium content should be as low as possible to keep your total daily sodium intake below 2,300 milligrams. If you have high blood pressure, limit your sodium to 1,700 milligrams per day.
8. Always check the list of ingredients. Ingredients are listed in order of predominance. Do you like what you see?
Calcium
Calcium experts recommend three to four servings of high-calcium milk products per day, each containing about 300 milligrams of calcium per serving. About 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of yogurt, or 1½ ounces of hard cheese are the best examples.
In addition, check with your doctor about supplementing with 500 milligrams per day, taken between meals and as calcium citrate.
THE HIGH-DAIRY CALCIUM GUIDE
FOOD AMOUNT CALORIES CALCIUM (IN GRAMS)
Buttermilk 8 oz. 91 264
Nonfat milk 8 oz. 86 301
Alpine Lace reduced-fat cheddar cheese 1.5 oz. 105 300
Brie cheese 1.5 oz. 142 78<
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Cheddar cheese 1.5 oz. 171 307
2% cottage cheese 1 cup 203 155
Hard Parmesan 1 oz. 111 336
Plain, nonfat yogurt 1 cup 127 451
Low-fat fruit yogurt 1 cup 225 313
OTHER TIPS:
• Check the Nutrition Facts Panel on your food label. A good source of calcium contains at least 30 percent of your daily requirement. Also, check the calories and saturated fat: How many calories or saturated fat grams does it take to get more calcium from the food? For people watching their health or weight, the more nutrient-dense, calorie-poor, and lower in saturated fat, the better.
• If you’re lactose intolerant, talk with your doctor: Some people do well on lactose-reduced products, and some are able to tolerate the relatively small amount of lactose in certain yogurts and cheeses.
APPENDIX V
Guide to Mindful Meditation
Someone once said, “Meditation is like riding a bike: You can’t and you can’t and then you can.”
What you will read here is excerpted (with a few minor additions) from Elizabeth Lesser’s wonderful book Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow.1 Elizabeth is a spiritual leader and cofounder of the Omega Institute, in Rhinebeck, New York, America’s largest adult-education center focusing on health, wellness, spirituality, and creativity.
As I said earlier in this book, it took me a long time to develop a meditation practice. But I just kept at it—quite regularly—and eventually found it easier to relax into mindfulness, learning to not identify with the thoughts that came to my overly busy mind. I am still very much a beginner in meditation practice, and there are weeks when I do not make time to meditate; but, as for many people I know, the practice has helped me expand as a person and heal where I was broken. I find it hard to put words to the ways in which this is so. I simply live how it is so.
While the benefits of meditation are usually talked about in abstract terms—the psyche, the soul, the mind—there are definite physical benefits to it as well. Claire Myers Owens, in “Meditation as a Solution to the Problems of Aging,” writes, “Scientific experiments conducted in various laboratories, using yogi and advanced Western meditators as subjects, reveal [that]…in the deep relaxation of meditation the heart rate decreases and apparently the muscles of the walls of the blood vessels relax. This allows blood to flow more abundantly to all organs including the brain.”2
Here, then, is Elizabeth Lesser’s guide to meditation. When you read “I,” this is Elizabeth talking. She begins with an overview of how to do it:
1. SEAT: It is best to sit on a firm pillow on the floor or on a firm-seated chair. If you use a chair, sit forward so that your back does not touch the back of the chair.
2. LEGS: If you sit on a pillow, cross your legs comfortably in front of you, with your knees resting on the floor if they can. Be sure your circulation is not cut off. If you sit in a chair, put your feet flat on the floor, knees and feet hip-width apart. Invite the groundedness of the earth into your body and mind. Let your whole body experience the strength of your stable connection with the earth. Relax into the firmness of this stability.
3. TORSO: Keep your back comfortably straight, your chest open, and your shoulders relaxed. Zen teacher Philip Kapleau writes, “If you are accustomed to letting the chest sink, it does require a conscious effort to keep it up in the beginning. When it becomes natural to walk and sit with the chest open, you begin to realize the many benefits of this ideal posture. The lungs are given additional space in which to expand, thus filling and stretching the air sacs. This in turn permits a greater intake of oxygen and washes the bloodstream, which carries away fatigue accumulated in the body.”
A straight back and soft shoulders is a natural position. It does not have to feel forced or painful. In fact, after time, meditation breeds a sense of overall comfort. But often when we start to meditate, assuming a straight back makes us suddenly aware of discomfort in the body. This is why many people who meditate also practice yoga, or another form of physical exercise that strengthens and stretches the body. One of the best ways to maintain a straight back and open chest in meditation is to repeat silently a phrase whenever you feel physical pain. For example, if you feel yourself tensing your shoulders as you hold your back straight during meditation, you can inwardly whisper to yourself, “soften, soften,” or “open, open.”
4. HANDS: Sometimes, when meditation gets very quiet, our concentration coagulates in the hands. It sounds strange, but you may experience this yourself. It’s not uncommon, as your exhalations dissolve outward, to feel as if all that is left of your body is your hands. Therefore, it is good to position your hands in a way that is both grounding and meaningful. You will notice in statues from a variety of religious traditions that the deities or saints hold their hands in intentional ways. These hand positions are called mudras in the Tantric Buddhist tradition—physical gestures that help evoke certain states of mind.
One frequently seen position is the forefinger lightly touching the thumb and the other three fingers flexed outward. Another common mudra is one hand resting in the palm of the other, thumbs touching. Many people like to meditate with their hands in the Christian prayer position of palms together, fingers pointing up. Some people meditate with their hands simply resting, palms down or upward, on their knees.
Each mudra evokes a specific quality that you can experience yourself merely by experimenting with them. For example, resting the palms upward on the knees indicates receptivity—openness to whatever comes your way. Hands placed downward on the knees produce a grounded feeling in the body, a sense of balance and strength. My personal favorite hand position is where the thumb and index finger touch and create a circle. There is something about the thumb touching the finger that reminds me to be on the spot in my concentration, yet delicately so. I gently extend the other three fingers and rest my hands on my knees. This position keeps me steady and balanced.…
It is a good idea to stick with one position for your hands per meditation session, so as not to get distracted by the switching-mudra game. It’s very easy to turn anything into yet another way not to do the simple work of meditation. At the end of a meditation session, many traditions suggest raising the hands palm to palm and bowing. This is a way to indicate respect and gratitude for having meditated. It is also a way to experience a sense of humility as we bow to the universal forces of wisdom and compassion.
5. EYES: Some meditation traditions recommend closing the eyes during meditation; others suggest keeping them open and directing the gaze downward, four to six feet in front of you, focusing on a point on the floor. Some suggest keeping a soft, unfocused gaze. I meditate with my eyes closed. You can experiment and see which way affords you the best relaxation and concentration. If you find that closing your eyes makes you sleepy, keep them open. If you find that keeping your eyes open is distracting, close them.
6. MOUTH: We hold a lot of tension in the jaw. Let your jaw drop right now. Open your mouth wide, stick your tongue out, and then close your mouth. Massage your jaw area from your ears to your chin. Now notice the difference. You can do this often during the day as a way to release tension. During meditation, it is not unusual for tension to gather in the jaw. The Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh recommends smiling slightly while you meditate, a great way to keep the jaw soft. I find that having a slight smile helps bring a subtle sense of openness and love into my being. Or you can drop your jaw and open your mouth several times during meditation.
Understand that the pain or tension you may feel in your body as you meditate is both physical and psychological. If you experience pain, constriction, restlessness, or all of the above, do not be alarmed, and do not take the attitude “no pain, no gain.” Adjust your position slowly and mindfully as many times as you want during a meditation session. The point of meditation is to be relaxed and awake. Therefore, make sure you are comfortable, and at same time sit in a way that keeps you alert.…
As you
sit down to meditate, approach the experience lightly so that your body relaxes, just as it would if you were about to slip into a bath or settle down before the television. Then choose your hand mudra, close your eyes, straighten your back, and at the same time soften your shoulders and expand your chest, so that your posture is also one of gentle openness.
Breath, posture, placement of hands, eyes open or shut: All of these techniques form the container for meditation practice. But none of them eradicates the absurd quantity and aggravating intensity of the thoughts that flood the mind when we sit down to meditate. Please expect this. Good thoughts, bad thoughts, pleasurable ones, disturbing ones—they will come and go as we sit in meditation, watching our breath, maintaining our posture. They are the weather of the mind. Our goal in meditation is not to get rid of thoughts. Rather, the goal is to abandon identifying with each thought as it comes and goes; to watch the thoughts as we would watch the weather from an observation tower.…
TEN-STEP MEDITATION PRACTICE
1. PLACE AND TIME: Find a private and relatively quiet place where you will not be disturbed by people, children, telephones, et cetera. Choose an amount of time you are going to meditate. Set a timer or keep a clock close by. Begin with ten minutes, and work your way up over a few weeks or months to a half hour or forty-five minutes.