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Kids ReThink New Orleans – in healthier and more efficient ways than the grown-ups did.

You may or may not have heard of a group of New Orleans school kids called “Kids ReThink New Orleans.” This diverse group of forward-thinking students has been ReThinking how to make New Orleans schools healthier since Hurricane Katrina.

“Give us fresh, tasty food,” explained ReThinker Daizha Sanders in a 2008 Press Conference.

“We want as little highly processed food as possible.  High processed food is bad for us and it makes us sick. Keep preservatives, chemicals and highly sweetened food to a minimum.”

Read the blog post: Thou Shalt Not Spork behind the video on Center For Ecoliteracy

And they’ve been nationally recognized by media outlets such as Nick News and Rachael Ray.

“We just got back from a speaking engagement at the Georgia Organics Conference – four Rethinkers gave presentations on their work making school food more healthy, local and delicious,” said Mallory Falk, who is part of the ReThink staff.

“On the mental health side, we’re exploring the concept of restorative justice.  We believe that holding circles where the community can come together and discuss a conflict is a much healthier, more healing process than many traditional forms of discipline,” she explained.

With a Nationwide Obesity Epidemic; we owe it to this amazing group of kids to help them out because they are doing something to not only help themselves but create positive chance in New Orleans.

Rethink Benefit at Dante’s Kitchen

What: Benefit to support the great work that Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools

When: Tuesday, March 2^nd

Time: 6 pm to 8:30 pm

Where: Dante’s Kitchen 736 Dante Street, New Orleans, LA 70118

For details and to reserve a ticket, please visit http://www.therethinkers.com/food-benefit/ or contact Jane at jane@therethinkers.org.

Be Fit Nola will continue to follow and blog about the work of this remarkable group of kids.

You can read more about the ReThinkers projects, including their 12 Recommendations for Public School Cafeterias on their website

My decision to live a healthier lifestyle very naturally led to me reading more about yoga. What sets yoga apart from some other forms of fitness is that it is not only a physical but also a mental and spiritual health practice.

The beginning of my yoga journey was a consultation with LIFE Yoga Director, Nathalie Croix. This is something that anyone who is considering doing yoga can schedule. We talked about what my personal goals were, different types of yoga and class series that I could start with.

The main thing that I am understanding is that everyone’s yoga journey is different and that it is a constant learning experience.

I was really excited to get the chance to interview Nathalie, who is now my instructor, about her experiences as well as some general questions that I had; and I’m really excited to share this with all of you:

M:How long have you been practicing yoga and what made you decide to start?

Nathalie Croix: I have been practicing yoga regularly for the past eleven years and before that I had tried yoga a few times, but I was only experimenting. I had been a dancer since I was a child, on my late teens I was already performing professionally and one of our dance teachers was really into yoga practice so he introduced me to asana practice which is the physical practice of yoga. However I began studying meditation and yoga philosophy when I was very young. My aunt was a devotee of Gurumayi and my first visit to an ashram I was nine years old. I grew up frequently visiting the Hare Krishna Temples to learn more about Indian culture and philosophy. So I guess the whole process was very organic for me.

Although I continuously study and have a profound respect for ancient yoga traditions, culture and philosophy, my teachings are very non-dogmatic.

M:What are some physical, mental and spiritual benefits of yoga that many people may not be aware of?

Nathalie Croix:Yoga works on you on a very subtle and deep level. It changes you to your deep core. It is not something however that will happen over night. It is an organic process. You have to stick to the practice for a while, so in the beginning the practitioner need lot’s of effort and patience, but if you do that than it transforms your life, your way of thinking and therefore it certainly changes you physically and mentally. After the change happens than it becomes easy to be a yoga practitioner, at this point it’s actually hard not to practice yoga because it’s a life style, a part of who you are. Honestly it’s hard for me to talk about yoga because it’s one of those phenomenons you need to experience in order to fully understand. On a most obvious plane yoga releases stress, improves health, fastens your metabolism, helps you stay focused, increases flexibility, strength and balance. These are only a few of the many benefits. On a deeper level I believe it improves your relationships with people around you because you become more aware. It helps you calm the mind and move into the inner essence of being. This is a very powerful practice and you can take it as light or as deep as you want, that’s the beauty of it.

Yoga is about peace. Peace with others, peace in the world and peace within yourself.

M:I know that there are many different types of yoga – can you tell us about three in particular that Life Yoga offers?

Nathalie Croix: There are so many different types of yoga out there. Even though they are all taught in different methods they all lead to the same ends results because it’s all just yoga but there are different ways to get there and a person should practice whatever style resonates with you better. At Life Yoga we have many different styles, some are Ashtanga Yoga, Vinyasa Flow, Jivamukti Yoga, Kundalini Yoga and Anusara Yoga. Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is a traditional yoga practice which began in a city called Mysore in South India. Ashtanga is a dynamic vinyasa practice it links movement to breath in a constant flow creating body heat. The postures and sequence are always the same. You use your breath and your gaze (dristi) to steady the mind and the practice eventually becomes a moving meditation. Vinyasa Flow has it’s roots in Ashtanga Yoga, but does not use the six series of postures specific to the Mysore Ashtanga Yoga as taught by Sri K Pattabhi Jois. A difference from Vinyasa Flow to Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is, that the “asanas” (yoga postures) can be arranged into different sequences that can meet the practitioner’s need or mood.

There is also Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali, Yoga Sutras, this is the core teachings of all yogas, the essence of yoga philosophy and there are eight limbs; Yamas(your attitude towards others and the world around you), Niyamas(how you treat yourself or your attitude towards yourself), Asana (physical poses), Pranayama (breathing exercises), Pratyahara (withdrawal of senses), Dharana (concentration/focus), Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (enlightenment).

I do not teach the other styles of yoga so my knowledge is limited. Is best if I don’t attempt to explain.

M:How do I know which yoga is right for me; is there any particular discovery process that you suggest?

Nathalie Croix: This is a very good question. The best thing to do is to first research, read about the many different styles out there. Second, find local studios in your area. Try many different styles, experiment and see what feels right for you. Once you find classes, try and read teachers bios it is always very interesting to find out the yoga journey each teacher has taken. But don’t fool yourself with fancy bios either. Ultimately you will know if you like the style/teacher once you attend the yoga class. Listen to yourself, are you enjoying the experience? how does it feel? Be patient. It is important to find a good teacher so he or she can guide you in this process. After you’ve tried different classes and you know what works for you than stick to it. Stay on that path for a while and you will see beautiful transformation, relax and have fun in the process.

M:How has yoga changed your life?

Nathalie Croix: It has changed my life in so many ways and it continues to do so every day because we are always growing, it never stops, and yoga makes this really clear. Through yoga I found contentment. It’s a wonderful thing to accept who you are on any given day and be okay with it whether things are going extremely well or very bad. Yoga helps you remain steady. I guess I could say I don’t react to things as much as I did years ago. It helps me practice the laws of equanimity. It helps me stay centered and present in the moment.

It helps me accept things the way they are and make the best out of it.

Each person has their own path of self discovery so I believe it can be different for everyone, but remember you don’t always get what you want, but you might just get what you need.

Namaste!

You may or may not have already read my previous post: “Some Things are Worth Quitting: Like Smoking,” which talked about how I quit and some of the things that I found particularly helpful.

What I didn’t explain in that post was why I made the decision to quit smoking. Naturally, most smokers say they want to quit or even try to quit several times. I had “tried” to quit multiple times before, but it was never a conscious decision until 2009 – after five years of being a smoker.

I got the swine (H1N1) flu in April 2009 – which left me barely able to move, vomiting out of control and extremely short of breath for seven days. The difficulty breathing was the worst part. I was miserable for 24 hours a day during those seven days. At one point, during a moment of consciousness, I realized that to the shortness of breath I was experiencing was probably comparable to that of someone who had been smoking for 20 or 30 years and had developed lung problems because of it. I stopped smoking for 2 weeks after I finally got better, but as soon as I felt completely better, and out with friends, I forgot about how I had felt and thought about…my old habits prevailed. Still, in the back of my mind I WANTED to quit; I just hadn’t yet DECIDED to quit.

The turning point was when I met a woman through a business project, who (for anonymity’s sake) I’ll call “Sandy.” I swore she was nearing 60, only to find out after talking to her; she was only in her 40’s. She had yellow teeth, dry, wrinkled skin and she would do that awful smoker’s cough thing pretty frequently. She told me that she had been smoking since college – which is when I started. Call me vain, but Sandy was my big epiphany. I could not keep on hurting my body like this. I needed to start taking better care of myself; I did NOT want to end up like Sandy. I decided I wanted to live as long and as comfortable of a life, as is in my control – and hey, I want to look good, too!

I’m happy to report that several months later, (I’ve already lost count), I am officially a non-smoker! Not only that, but this success has led to me making several other positive, healthy lifestyle changes, including eating fresher, local produce, jogging for 15 minutes three times a week (baby steps!) and YOGA! I’ll tell you more about my newfound love of yoga and why I’m doing it next post.

Have you quit smoking? What finally made you decide to quit?  Would love to hear about it.

If on the other hand, you are in the process of quitting or making the decision to quit smoking and want a cheerleader, feel free to email me at mhargroder@gmail.com or message me on twitter @heyitsmegan.

Telling people they need to quit smoking is pointless.  The questions is: Do you really want to quit smoking? If you can answer “yes” without hesitation, then congratulations – you’re already on your way to being a healthier, happier you with some extra money in your pocket!

I smoked for five years and was nearly at a pack a day. But believe it or not, for me, personally, cold turkey was the way to go. One day, I had my last cigarette and that was it. Not even a “puff.” I’m not going to sugar coat this; the first three weeks were pretty awful. I was very moody and short tempered. To make matters worse…I already deal with an anxiety disorder so when I just up and quit smoking; my panic attacks started happening every day for a couple of weeks. Note: someone without an anxiety disorder does not experience this volume of anxiety. However, I think that these side effects really worked to my advantage in the long run. Every time I’m in a bar and think it would be nice to have a cigarette, I think about how hard it was to quit and how I never ever want to go through that again.

The key to your journey to quit smoking is willpower.  Your willpower to resist and to say no is number one in overcoming a nicotine addiction. There are several different programs that can assist you in quitting, such as nicotine patches which allow you to gradually decrease your nicotine intake, nicotine gum that can help calm cravings or prescriptions such as Chantix. I think that no one road is right for everyone and it never hurts to consult a physician – especially if you’ve been smoking for over 10 years.

There’s even a website dedicated to helping you quit smoking

Here are some tips that worked for me:

Things that help with oral fixation/needing something to do with your hands:

* Chewing Gum
* Holding Chopsticks (sounds weird, but takes concentration and really works!)
* Chewing on/holding straws (if you’re in a bar) or pens (if you’re at work)

Find something productive/healthy to do with your former smoke breaks

* Call your parents or significant other and let them know you are thinking about them
* Find a quiet place to just stand and take a few deep breaths of CLEAN AIR!
* Have a healthy snack break:apples, nuts or loose granola

My advice to anyone who’s serious about quitting: BE STRONG – second to your willpower is your determination. How determine are you to kick this nasty habit and save your life??  Only you can decide to quit and actually go through with it.

Another important thing to know; one moment of weakness will lead to another – the only way to quit is to quit completely. This means no “occasional cigarette when I’m drinking,” no “I’ll only take a drag here and there.” You’re either a smoker or you’re not.

Need a cheerleader? Email me at mhargroder@gmail.com or message me on twitter @heyitsmegan