The Hemp Connection:
fitness

I'm pretty good at regular exercising. But I have to admit, I can get into ruts. I run because it's easy and convenient and efficient on a busy day. I use the elliptical if I'm near the gym while I'm out. And I love, love, love to swim! But even that is a little routine, focusing on the same muscle groups while ignoring others.

I was reminded the other day of why I might benefit from mixing it up a little bit. inCYSTer Ivonne Ward invited me to join her at a NIA dancing class. (More on NIA in a future post.) I remembered how much I loved dance when I studied it way back in high school, and how much I love to move to music. I also came home well aware of muscles I haven't been using despite my strenuous workouts, and muscles that were tight from being overly focused on. I felt sore, but wonderfully so!

I'm trying something new this year, trying to mix up my exercise so that no two sessions involve the same activity. Trying to mix it up a little bit more so that my fitness is more well-rounded.

Today, the weather is so beautiful, I'm going to get out the Rollerblades and spin around my neighborhood. I love the rhythm of skating, I find it calming and meditative. And I love how the blades use my legs in different ways than does running. And those boots are heavy enough that it's like a ton of weight lifting for the butt muscles--never a bad thing!

I've been communicating with a very nice woman in Santa Monica who is helping me to figure out how I can add tennis lessons to my work trips over there. I've always wanted to learn tennis, so why not this summer when I will surely have time in a place with great weather?

inCYSTer Dr. Gretchen has been talking about her surfing lessons with such enthusiasm that I am going to make time for some of those as well. I will definitely have to get over my shark phobia for this one, but it looks like so much fun!

Both of these activities will challenge my upper body more, which as I get older is definitely something I need to encourage a strong, healthy spine. Plus, I love having new things to learn. My tennis contact shared with me that something she loves about tennis is that every time you play, you're with a different person who challenges you differently, so it's never the same game. I think I'll like that. Sometimes the runs do get a little tedious.

I was also thinking during NIA yesterday that my dance training may come in handy in a sport requiring coordinated footwork, and vice versa. I will be more motivated to swim if I know it will help me to better enjoy my surfing time.

Tennis and surfing require mindfulness as well. Unlike running, and the other activities I do, where you can kind of zone out and be in another world, you have to be mentally PRESENT, aware of your place in space as well as your surroundings, in order to effectively participate.

It's why I hate the question about what the ultimate exercise is. There isn't really ONE, it's what you'll do most regularly. And I think you'll exercise most regularly if you're interested in what you're doing.

Maybe if you're bored with what you're doing, or only exercise for a few weeks before it drops off again, it's because you're not mixing it up enough. Exercise because it gets you away from the computer, stretches your back, allows you to be social, gets you in touch with nature, helps you sleep…and you are guaranteed to strengthen muscles and bones, and maybe lose weight.

Exercise just to lose weight and well…if that's what you've been doing, maybe that's why you've read this blog post all the way to the end.: )

I promised Ivonne I would post a recipe here, but my format will be a little bit nontraditional.

See, so many people have this perception that if you have a nutrition degree, or work in the fitness and counseling worlds, you are somehow this magic creator of 3 gourmet meals a day. They're all perfectly balanced, exactly the necessary number of calories with perfect ratios of carbohydrate, protein, fat, zinc, antioxidants, omega-3's, yadayadayada.

NOT.

I think sometimes these blogs and websites with all these people who'd like you to think it's perfect in foodieland are downright intimidating. I want you to HAVE FUN with food, and I want you to have the confidence to experiment.

So here's a look inside my kitchen and my head when I recently improvised on a popular recipe, Morning Glory Muffins.

Here is the original recipe as I found it on the Internet:

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut

3/4 cup Earthbound Farm Organic Raisins

1 large organic apple, peeled and grated

1 cup (8 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained

2 cups grated carrots

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts

3 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Now let's see what actually happened when I rolled up my sleeves and baked them.

1. "Where is the sugar? Dang! I forgot I was almost out and I only have half as much…OK, in food chem class we learned that while some sugar is necessary not all of it is. Maybe I can make do." Half the sugar is used.

2. Time to add the pineapple. "Hmmmm…I still have a dozen of those 400 oranges that I picked taking up space in the refrigerator…they're acidic, wonder what would happen if I replaced pineapple with chopped oranges?" Oranges are used in place of pineapple.

3. I used omega-3 eggs in place of regular eggs.

4. Now for the vegetable oil. "Wonder if I could use olive oil? That olive oil pastry I had on the cruise a few years ago was pretty good." So olive oil it is, and 2/3 of the recipe's original amount.

5. Home stretch…time for vanilla…"Oh, MAN! I could SWEAR I had vanilla!" Time for a little trick my mom taught me years ago…extracts are alcohol based, so you can exchange the vanilla for anything you might have that is a liqueur. "What's in my liquor cabinet? Banana liqueur, hazelnut liqueur…" Hazelnut wouldn't open (it was crystallized shut from disuse), so banana it was.

And there you have it. I would be a disaster on a cooking show, but my mad-science-hmmm-let's-see-if-this-works approach turned out some pretty darned good muffins.

Which, at this point, are no longer Morning Glory Muffins. Given the fact that I used local oranges and pecans, our local tree nut, they have been renamed Arizona Sunrise Muffins. Here's the recipe as it ended up:

Arizona Sunrise Muffins

5/8 cups sugar

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut

3/4 cup Earthbound Farm Organic Raisins (chopped dates would make it even more local)

1 large organic apple, peeled and grated

1 cup oranges or other citrus, peeled and chopped (probably need more sugar if you use grapefruit)

2 cups grated carrots

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

3 large omega-3 eggs

2/3 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon banana liqueur

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

Sift or whisk together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Add the coconut, raisins, apple, pineapple, carrots, and nuts, and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the oil and vanilla. Pour into the bowl with the dry ingredients and blend well.

Spoon the batter into muffin tins lined with muffin cups, filling each to the brim. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool muffins in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling.

I must add an important disclaimer here. Not all my experimenting succeeds. I have some serious flops. The thing that matters is that I learn from each experiment, I don't aim for perfection, and I have FUN.

That's what I encourage all of you to do, too, when you step into your kitchen.

For more information on calculating your target heart rate as I mention in the video, click here.

I was asked, in reference to my post on Sunday, what religion does not allow canola oil. To clarify, there is no religion I am aware of, that prohibits the use of canola oil.

What I meant in that post, is that people eat for a lot of reasons other than to obtain nutrients. Some people make food choices because of ethics--like vegans. Others choose to eat raw. Still others prefer paleo. These choices are equally as important, if not more important, than eating to be nutritionally complete.

Similarly, a lot of people in the business of giving nutrition and fitness advice, are health"evangelists". Their goal is to create a following for themselves, and most of the advice they are giving is about how you can be just like them. It may be good, it may not be good. Degrees and certifications do not separate out the good advice from the evangelists. I have seen some really horrible people with all kinds of degrees and certifications who I have felt did not deserve to be in business, and some of the best advice out there comes from people without all of the degrees.

When there are food choices in a person's lifestyle that do not have a scientific nutritional basis, dietitians often can jump to arguing about the validity of those beliefs. In the process, they alienate their clients before they have an opportunity to engage and help them.

I don't want to do that. I want to help you. The best way to do that is to empower you. If I know what your"food religion" is, I can live with that. All I care about is if you eat paleo, vegan, raw…that within the choices you make, you are getting enough vitamin A, protein, etc., and that the balance of all of the foods you eat, points you in an anti-inflammatory direction.

I mentioned canola and food religion in the same sentence because there are many people in the world who do not believe in eating canola oil. I respect that, and I can live with that. All I care about, is if you choose not to eat canola oil, that you know which oil alternatives are available to you to help reduce your overall omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. I did not want what I said to be interpreted by people who do not like canola oil, as a personal attack on their philosophy. The discussions that would have ensued would quite possibly have been counterproductive and I would have distracted them from learning some things about dietary fat that could have been beneficial within their world dietary view.

I have no need to have a tribe of people following me. I just share what I know and what I think, and for those who find it valuable, I am happy to have provided the service.

I hope that clarifies things!

At the same time I have been encouraging all of you to eat more protein, I have been working with a vegan protein source that grows right here in my backyard that could be part of your own plan to get more. That source is tepary beans. This bean is native to Arizona and has been cultured by our local natives for thousands of years. It thrives here in the desert because of its heat and drought tolerance. So much so that it is now being introduced to drought-ridden parts of Africa plagued with famine.

My favorite tepary fun fact is the origin of its name. It is the English spelling for the native"t'pawi", literally meaning,"it's a bean". So I am guessing some Spaniard cruising through Arizona a few hundred years ago stopped, looked and pointed at a plant, and got that response. (Kinda makes me think though, as silly a question as it must have sounded to the natives, if it really translates into,"well, duh…it's a bean!")

Back to hard science.

Tepary beans have been tested in the lab and have been found, when eaten in conjunction with exercise, to improve insulin resistance, lower blood lipids, and help with weight loss. Not bad for a humble little legume that, when it has its way, happily hides out in remote desert washes! It's actually thought that one of the reasons the rate of diabetes has soared so much in Native Americans is because they have strayed away from eating natives foods like the tepary.

They contain 24 grams of protein per 100 grams in their dry state, which is slightly higher than black beans. Which is why they are being profiled on Fitness Friday today!

We recently started sharing tepary beans in our share boxes at Chow Locally, and our customers have been making everything with them from veggie burgers to hummous. They have a slightly nutty flavor which people seem to like. Now that I've seen a group of people try them and enjoy them, I wanted to share them with you!



Add caption  We get our beans from Ramona Farms on the Gila River Indian Reservation, just south of Phoenix. Ramona Farms recently showcased their tepary beans at Natural Products West in Anaheim, and got a lot of attention from high-end chefs and natural foods experts looking for the next best super food. This is me with Ramona and Leslie, two members of the Akimel O'odham tribe. They're super nice and they want you to try their beans…me too!

Ramona Farms is in the process of setting up a web store; in the meantime you can order their beans by phone.
Give them a try and let me know what you think!

This past Friday I attended the Binge Eating Disorder Association's annual conference, which was right down the street in Scottdale. It was informative and inspiring! Lots of great information about research and programs with potential to help with PCOS.

For example, did you know that practicing mindfulness can actually help reduce postprandial (postmeal) glucose and reduce insulin resistance?

The proceedings from this conference are available on a USB stick that you can buy directly from BEDA. Here are the presentations and the names of the people who gave them. And here is the link if you wish to order this USB stick!

An Internal Family Systems Approach to Binge Eating Disorder
Mark Schwartz, ScD, Theresa Chestnut, LCSW, and Dick Schwartz, PhD

You Are The One You've Been Waiting For: Sharing Your Story for Social Change
Jess Weiner

Binge Eating Disorder: Current Status and Looking Ahead
B. Tim Walsh, MD

The Neurochemistry of a Binge: Linking Psychotherapy to the Biology of the Brain
Ralph E. Carson, PhD, BHS

Mindfulness in the Treatment of Binge Eating: Lessons from Research and Practice
Janna L. Fikkan, PhD, Ruth Q. Wolever, PhD
Sofia Rydin-Gray, PhD

Emotional Triggers That Exacerbate Binge Eating
Debra Weinberg, MS

Nutrition Counseling Interventions for Patients with BED and Type II Diabetes or Insulin Resistance
Reba Sloan, MPH, LRD, FAED

Health as a Value versus Size as a Goal: Re-framing the"Right Size/Wrong-Size Paradigm to Promote Healthy Body Image, Eating, Fitness and Weight in Children, Teens and Adults
Kathy Kater, LICSW

Out of the Darkness: Suicide and BED
Mary Bartlet, PhD
Nichole Siegfried, PhD

Intuitive Movement: Exploring Movement and Motivation
Melissa McLain, PhD
Amanda Mellowspring, MS, RD, LD/N

The Conscious Cafe Weekend Intensive: Restoring Hope Through A Mindfulness-Based Model
Alice J. Rosen, LMHC

I'm Still Hungry: Helping Children with Emotional Eating
Dena Cabrera, PsyD, CEDS

Obesity and Binge Eating Disorder: Diagnosing and Treating with an Integrative Approach
Carolyn Coker-Ross, MD, MPH

Big Bodies Move Beautifully
Rochelle Rice, MA

Six Spiritual Pathways to Recovery from Binge Eating Disorder
Michael E. Berret, Ph.D.

Art of Soothing Yourself Without Food
Susan Albers, PsyD

No More Silence, No More Stigma! How Telling Our Stories Can Help Others
Sunny Gold, Chenese Lewis, Bronwyn Marmo, Amy Pershing, Chevese Turner

From Darkness into Light: Discovering Hope and Effective Change Through Eating Disorders Advocacy
Kitty Westin, MA, LP, Jeanine Cogan, PhD, Kathleen MacDonald

Damage Control! Finding Common Pathways to Addrress Obesity Concerns while Preventing Eating Disorders and Weight Bias: A Guide for Clinicians and Advocates.
Wendy Oliver-Pyatt, MD, FAED

Eating Disorders, Weight Bias, Self-Esteen, Shaming, Bullying, and"The War on Obesity." Where Do We Go From Here/
Deb Burgard, PhD, Jeanine Cogan, PhD, Sunny Gold, Wendy Oliver-Pyatt, MD, FAED, Bronwyn Marmo

Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat
Michelle May, MD

An Untapped Resource in the Treatment of Binge Eating Disorder
Stacy Saindon, MA, LMFT, Michelle Trumpy, MPH, RD, LD

What About Me? How to Take Care of Yourself While Caring for a Loved One with BED and Associated Conditions
Esther Kane, MSW

Countertransference, Transference, and the Therapeutic Alliance: Essential Dynamic Tools for the Treatment of BED
Judith Banker, MA, LLP, FAED

Eating Disorder Mentoring vs the"War on Obesity": Idenntifying and Supporting the Unique Voice of the BED Sufferer Within the Greater Recovery Community
Shannon Cutts

Maximizing Success: Using Twelve Step Recovery Programs to Enhance Recovery from Abusive Eating Behaviors
H. Theresa Wright, MS, RD, LDN

The Spark in Eating Disorders Outreach: Student Power
Mardie Burckes-Miller, EdD

"Resistance to Change" in BED Treatment: Understanding Entrenched Behavior as a Sign of Strength
Amy Pershing, LCSW, ACSW

Diets to Donuts to Discernment: Stages of Recovery in BED Using HAES
Deb Burgard, PhD

The Mindful Therapist
Carolyn Costin, MA, MEd, MFT

Binge Eating Disorder and the Primary Care Setting
Ramona Seidel, MD

Hello everyone,

I want to take a moment to introduce you to our new sponsor, Green Mountain at Fox Run in Ludlow, Vermont, and explain how this partnership came to be.

Here is an introductory note from Robyn, Green Mountain's dietitian:

Women working to manage PCOS know first-hand that making lifestyle changes to promote better health is often easier said than done. To say nothing of the confusion about what's best to eat. At Green Mountain at Fox Run, you can begin to sort out the confusion and find what works best for you in terms of eating and physical activity with the help of professionals who understand the needs of women with PCOS, and who truly care about helping women take control of their health. Green Mountain offers a comprehensive program that allows women with PCOS to get a taste of how good they can feel while eating healthy and being active.

Here you'll practice healthy living that features foods you like and physical activity you enjoy. Our meals are comprised of high-quality choices such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, fish, legumes, lower fat dairy products, nuts & seeds, and healthy added fats such as flax seed, olive oil & canola oil. We also leave room for “fun” foods to illustrate how healthy eating can be flexible and delicious. Our chefs strive to create exciting meals out of whole foods, with most menu items made from scratch. We offer a conservative level of carbohydrate as part of our balanced meals & snacks for better management of blood sugar and insulin levels. Generous amounts of fun fitness classes offered throughout the day encourage better insulin sensitivity as well.

Our strong focus on education not only guides women in practicing healthy habits while with us, but prepares them to integrate these new habits into their routines back at home.

First of all, I want to tell you that I'm very, very picky about who inCYST partners with, and who it accepts sponsorships from. Companies with products and services to sell see women with PCOS as a very lucrative demographic. That includes fertility centers, diet centers, supplement companies…you name it. With one in ten women in this country having PCOS, that's an awful lot of dollar signs.

It could mean an awful lot of money for a well-visited blog like this, to accept advertising from all of these companies wanting your attention, but that's not how this business is operated. I actually discontinued Google Ads because no matter how hard I tried to filter, I kept getting ads on here that were counterproductive to the message I wanted to project. And more opportunities are declined than accepted.

I also am very selective about who inCYST promotes as a PCOS expert. It's not just anyone you see here, it's someone who has been willing to invest time and money into the inCYST training. A training that is as much about the facts of PCOS, as it is about understanding what it means to go through a health care system with the syndrome and be treated poorly by doctors, dietitians, etc., who give counterproductive advice.

I know I've probably offended a few colleagues who wanted to be included in what we do here, but didn't want to participate in the training as I've outlined it. But this program is about women with PCOS, first and foremost, not about the many entities that want to profit from them.

What that means to all of you is, that you can be assured that professionals listed here and on my website are of a different breed, and that sponsors I choose to include in the inCYST mission have quality services and products, delivered with integrity.

Which brings me to our newest sponsor, Green Mountain at Fox Run. I love them! I actually had an opportunity to spend a week at their Vermont resort a few years ago, and wish that all of you had an opportunity to spend time there. Alan Wayler and Marsha Hudnall, the owners of this fitness retreat, work hard to provide quality programming that incorporates the principles you regularly read about on this blog. Marsha actually took the time to come to one of our professional trainings a few years ago.

Sometimes it helps to just get out of your personal situation and have some time to experience what healthy living actually feels like. Eating well. Moving your body. Sleeping well. Lower stress level. I know there are many people coming to this blog with the search words,"pcos""program". For you and anyone else who simply didn't know this program even existed, I encourage you to check out their website. Their logo will be up on the right if you ever want to come back and click through for information.

Welcome, Green Mountain at Fox Run! I'm so excited that our readers get a chance to learn about your wonderful program!

I received this question after my last Fitness Friday chat about learning that insulin resistant individuals lose their body protein at twice the rate of other people as they age. I have always thought that women with PCOS needed more protein than other people, for a variety of reasons, and this simply served to confirm that sentiment.

I do like the"40-30-30" rule (carbohydrates, protein, fat), and here are the calculations for the grams of protein you would need at a variety of representative calorie levels if you're striving to have 30% of your diet's calories come from protein.

1200 calories 90 grams
1300 calories 97 grams
1400 calories 105 grams
1500 calories 113 grams
1600 calories 120 grams
1700 calories 127 grams
1800 calories 135 grams
1900 calories 143 grams
2000 calories 150 grams
2100 calories 158 grams
2200 calories 165 grams
2300 calories 173 grams
2400 calories 180 grams
2500 calories 188 grams

Most clients I work with are surprised to find that it takes a concerted effort to actually reach this, and that it can be challenging on a vegetarian diet. If you're having trouble, this is a great reason to make an appointment with one of our inCYSTers, trained to help you find ways to get the protein you need to maintain your muscle mass and fight that dreaded insulin resistance.

I recently had an animated discussion on our Facebook Fan Page with a woman about protein for vegans. Her argument is that women with PCOS simply need to eat less carbohydrate and that their protein intake is adequate.

I challenged her on that. First of all, if she is vegan, she has PCOS, and she is a member of our Facebook page, it suggests that maybe there is a piece she is missing. I am not telling anyone who is vegan with PCOS that it is wrong or impossible to have and do both…but if that is your choice, it is super important that you be informed and diligent in order that the choice not backfire on you.

Here is why I say that.

Women with PCOS are insulin resistant; most of them are going to be diabetic at some point in their lives. We know that insulin resistance makes it hard to maintain muscle mass. Diabetics as they age, in fact, lose their muscle mass twice as rapidly as people who are not diabetic.

Part of the way to maintain muscle, is to regularly exercise muscles. You all have a nice friend, your testosterone levels, that can help you out in that department…PROVIDED YOU DON'T OVERDO IT.

The other part you need, because all of the strength training in the world is pretty useless if you're not eating enough protein for your muscles to incorporate with those workouts, is protein.

If you are losing muscle mass at twice the rate of the average person, the amount of protein you need to eat in order to account for that accelerated loss has got to be higher. I'd love for us to study this someday when we've raised the funds to do so.

For now, assume that the recommendations made for vegans are made for healthy vegans, not vegans who are struggling with a complicated hormone balance.

I can tell you, from my experience, women who come for help with their PCOS are not eating enough protein. And the vegans I work with, as well-intended as they are, are often not eating in a way that accounts for the fact that most vegan protein sources are also high in carbohydrates. You really have to know what you are doing and look specifically at your own eating to see if the balance is good.

We have also noticed here at inCYST, that a pretty high percentage of women we work with, at some point in their lives, were vegan. There is clearly something about eating vegan that sets your hormones up to rebel. Don't let assumptions get in the way of making your vegan eating a component of your path to health.

If you're getting your vegan information from someone who doesn't work with PCOS, it may not be the right information.

You need more protein than you may be aware of. If you're not sure if you're getting it, let us work with you to figure it out.

Yup, you heard it here.
Nope, I’m not telling you to ditch the exercise.
I’m encouraging you to be sure you’re balancing exercise with rest, and not overtraining.
If you’re trying to lose weight, your focus is likely on losing fat. That’s a nice goal, and I’m guessing you’ll feel better about what you see when you look in the mirror if that results from your exercise, but it’s not really the main reason you’re exercising for PCOS.
You need to gain muscle. The more muscle mass you have, the harder it is to be insulin resistant. The act of exercise actually breaks muscle down. It rebuilds during periods of rest. It’s the balance of exercise and rest that matters, way more, than how many hours of exercise you’re actually doing.
It can be a vicious cycle to break out of, because insulin resistance itself actually breaks down muscle. So if it’s been awhile since you’ve actively exercised, and you’re not losing weight the way you’d hoped you would when you committed to the gym, consider that your ratio of muscle to fat is not high enough. Your priority, first and foremost, is to build and maintain that muscle.
Focusing too much on losing fat and overtraining in the process… will undermine your progress.
Exercising too late in the evening, getting up too early in the morning to get to the gym (it’s not uncommon to hear women say they’re up at 3 am to fit in the workout), or simply working out so much and so hard that you’re not sleeping well… are all easy ways to sabotage your success.
Things you need to keep in mind:
You need to eat enough protein so that your body builds muscle mass while you're not active.
2. You need to sleep enough so that you don’t promote insulin resistance.
3. You need to not push yourself so hard that you’ve stopped burning fat—monitor your heart rate!
4. You need to vary the workouts so all muscle groups are involved and have a chance to build up. Also, you need to develop the confidence to trust that PROACTIVE exercising, as opposed to REACTIVE exercising, is your path to success. Too often women with PCOS weigh themselves in the morning and if the weight is not what they want to see, react by doubling, even tripling their scheduled workout time in order to “get control” of the situation.
When you’re exercising with the goal of building muscles to reduce insulin resistance, you understand that overtraining is your enemy. You create an exercise plan that perhaps you even map out on your calendar, that you commit to regardless of how you’re feeling or what the scales says. For example, I just mapped out my spring training schedule. One of my friends and I have decided we’re going to take tennis lessons. We both own businesses, and committing to this ensure that we actually get out and move. I also love to swim, and it’s one way I can stay active as the weather in Arizona gets warm. And, I’ve been wanting to bump up my elliptical workouts and try spin classes. So, for the next three months, on my calendar, every fourth day, I’ve written “tennis”, every fourth day “spin”, every fourth day “swim”… and then I schedule a day off. It’s right there in my planner so when I start scheduling meetings and accepting social invitations, I only schedule in a way that does not take away from that commitment to myself. I varied the exercise to give my different muscle groups a rest, and to give me enough variety to not get bored.
And don’t get me wrong… I do relish the day off! We all need a little bit of laziness, sleeping in, and getting caught up. I find, personally, if I don’t have the day off, I have trouble sleeping and I have trouble keeping up with the appetite. I have designed this program to fit with the way I’ve learned my body works. If I like spin, I’ll keep it, or I may prioritize swimming during the heat of the summer. We’ll see. I kind of need to mix it up over time to stay interested.
The point of this post is, the reactive and self-punitive approach many of you have toward exercise, because of your focus on reducing body fat, is your absolute biggest enemy. Focus on building muscle, even though it may mean seeing your weight increase on occasion. It’s reflecting muscle, not fat, and it’s a good sign.
Muscle, muscle, muscle!

Wow! Our Austin inCYSTer Christine Marquette has had her nose to the grindstone! She's just released 3 e-books, all about PCOS!

E-book #1 The Quick Start Guide to PCOS

This guide is intended to teach basics to women newly diagnosed with PCOS, people who are supporting a loved one with PCOS, and anyone who has an interest in PCOS and does not know much about it. In it you will learn the definition of PCOS, signs and symptoms of PCOS, how PCOS is diagnosed, what causes PCOS, treatment of PCOS (including the importance of identifying your treatment team, useful laboratory values, medications, complementary and alternative medicine), and nutrition and exercise basics.

E-book #2 The Nutrition Guide to PCOS

This book is the second in a three part series of guidebooks intended to help women with PCOS manage their syndrome. In this book we will review the nutrition basics covered in The Quick Start Guide to PCOS. Next, we will move on to identifying appropriate portion sizes of fats/proteins/carbohydrates, how to count carbohydrates, how to read food labels, and how to plan meals and snacks. We'll wrap up with some sample menus, snack ideas, and recipes. In the resources section you will also find some blank food logs and menu planning worksheets.

E-book 3 The Supplement Guide to PCOS

This is the final book in a three part series of guidebooks intended to help women with PCOS manage their syndrome. It covers supplements in each of the following categories: vitamins, minerals, herbs, and other supplements. Each nutrient is explained along with the potential benefit for PCOS.

Rumor has it there's a fourth one in the making, about vegetarian eating and PCOS. You can keep up with Chris' work on her Facebook page, entitled Marquette Nutrition and Fitness.

Way to go Chris!

For ordering information please click on this link.

I was standing at the grocery check out line last night, and my eyes unavoidably wandered to the magazine rack as I waited my turn. The weight-loss headlines on all those health and fitness magazines seem to scream, competing for my attention!

“The only workout you’ll ever need!”

“5 easy steps to a flat belly!”

“Lose 10 pounds this week without giving up dessert!”

“Get back into those skinny jeans with these three easy moves!”
I can’t help but roll my eyes and wonder if anyone who writes these really cares what happens beyond the purchase of the magazine. Most of those types of articles tend to recommend crash diets disguised as sound nutrition plans, and play to readers’ desires of maximum return on minimum investment with regard to exercise. But none of these things will set you up for long-term success.

If I could rewrite some of those headlines, they might look more like this:

“Get back to basics to get back in shape!”

“Lose the ‘extras’ and shed the extra weight!”

“Move it to lose it!”

“Get SMART about your goals!”

Those are my go-to tips for realistic weight management. There is such a focus on the “losing” part, and not much talk about what happens afterward! It’s easy to forget the work isn’t done after you’ve lost the weight. The ultimate goal then, isn’t just to lose the weight, it’s to maintain your new, healthier weight and the habits that got you there.

Get back to basics. In the kitchen, that means get back to fresh food, things that don’t tend to come in boxes and bags or are delivered through a drive-thru window. In life, that means, go outside and take a walk. Or, step away from the computer once in a while and walk over to your coworker’s desk to talk (instead of emailing) about that project you’re working on.

Lose the extras, like soda, excessive alcohol and mindless snacks. Ask yourself: Do I really need to sip on Mountain Dew all day while I work? And do I have to get the cookie with that salad I ordered just because it’s free? One beer or one glass of wine to unwind or enjoy with dinner is nice… but do I really need more than that? And when I’m at the movies… seriously. Is it that hard to watch a whole movie without a vat of popcorn or a suitcase-sized box of M&Ms on my lap?

Move more! It doesn’t matter if the perfect conditions for a regular workout routine are not in place. That should eliminate excuses like “I have no time.” And “I can’t afford a gym membership.” Just do something – NOW. Just make the commitment to moving more than you currently do.
Not starting, or giving up simply because things aren’t going perfectly are the complete opposite of jump starting anything. I choose instead to aim for progress, not perfection.

Get SMART about your goals! SMART goals are specific and measureable, attainlable and realistic, with a time-sensitive deadline. One of my clients set great SMART goal this year: “I will train to complete the Pat Tillman Run on April 16th in under 40 minutes by running three times a week for the next three months, building up my endurance and distance until I can run 4.2 miles within my goal time.”

How about you? What have you found to work best, what real-world tips would you offer to someone who wants to get their health and their weight under control?

Source: Uploaded by user via Monika on Pinterest

If your PCOS has you struggling with weight, chances are, you have an ongoing battle with the scales. I encourage you to give up that battle.

First of all, when you are in good shape, chances are you are going to be able to carry more weight than a woman without PCOS and look leaner than someone without PCOS. As the photo here suggests, the only thing the scales tells you, at any given point in time, is how much you happen to be resisting gravity at the moment you measure yourself. It really is not an indication at all, of who you are as a person.

Secondly, if you haven't exercised much in awhile, because of your testosterone levels, when you start to exercise, you will put on muscle more easily than the average woman. This is going to work in your favor, over time, because muscle mass is your very best weapon against insulin resistance. If you freak out and stop exercising because you have gained weight early on…you have missed the point! If you have gained weight but lost inches, you are on the right track. Hang in there. It will all fall together, if you are consistently exercising.

Thirdly, something your body will do, as an adaptation to regular exercising, is start to store glycogen to fuel that exercise. Glycogen is a stored carbohydrate that your body becomes proficient at storing to help your blood sugar and energy levels stay stable during your runs/swims/spin classes. Every gram of glycogen that you store in your muscles and liver is stored with 3 grams of water. This water is important water, as it is released while you exercise and it helps keep you from becoming dehydrated while you're working out. A well-trained athlete can carry about 10 extra pounds of glycogen and water that simply is not there if you are not regularly training. But it is not fat, and it is not bad weight, and without it, you likely will feel miserable because you are not well fueled or hydrated.

If you have been restrictive with your diet, and you work out pretty hard…and then you go have a regular meal…of course the scale will jump! Your body is doing what it is supposed to do, start storing fuel and water for the next workout. The absolute worst possible thing you can do is try to control these fluctuations by cutting your calories.

Honestly, I can't even remember exactly when I last weighed myself…I think it was sometime last summer and I can't even tell you what the scales said when I did. I know my clothes fit pretty much the same as they usually do, and when they have been a little tight it's been right before my period and it resolves after about a week, and I know that is normal so I don't stress about it.

If you're not at that level of comfort with body yet, if you can't envision even being there, I'd like to ask you to do at least this:

-If you must weigh yourself, only compare Sundays to Sundays and only compare Sunday mornings to Sunday mornings.

- Once you have enough data points, only compare the Sunday after your period to another Sunday after your period.

The surest way to set off unnecessary exercising, or restrictive eating that is sure to set off a binge later, and to sabotage your overall progress in the long…is to weight yourself multiple times daily and assume that the numbers you see are 100% based on calories in and calories out. Anything you do in response to multiple daily weigh ins, is not based in proven exercise science or nutritional math. It is emotional and disordered.

The more you hear that from us, and the more you recognize that anything you do in response to disordered ideas about nutrition, calories, and exercise, the better chance you have at recognizing that these thoughts and feelings are based on anxiety. When you fight anxiety with responses that can help the anxiety, rather than behaviors that may actually DRIVE the anxiety cycle (think playing with the dog, participating in a hobby, reading a book that has absolutely nothing do do with self help, food, infertility, or hormones) that is when your weight actually starts to stabilize.

OK, let's see how you do!

Source: amazon.com via Jason on Pinterest

One of the most frequently asked questions we get at inCYST, is whether or not a specific food raises blood glucose. It is understandable, given the fact that women with PCOS are insulin resistant and highly likely to develop diabetes, that this would be a concern.

And in response to that concern, it is understandable that nutrition and wellness experts often quote a list of foods to avoid in order to maintain a low-glycemic diet.

Did you know, this"low glycemic" list is highly variable? That even though there are trends, certain foods may affect one person more than another? and that a food that has a tendency to be"high glycemic" on its own…may be perfectly fine when eaten with a mixed meal?

Those high glycemic lists floating around the Internet tend to report the response of your body to a food when it is eaten by itself. So all of those people telling you not to eat carrots or bananas are not telling you the entire story. We rarely eat that way. If you dip carrots in hummus, or eat a banana in a smoothie with Greek yogurt, for example, your body will respond completely differently to that nutrient mix than it would eating either of those foods by themselves.

So when you ask us if a food raises blood sugar and whether or not you should eat it, unless someone has measured YOUR blood sugar two hours after you have eaten it, any advice they give you is pure surmising and not based on relevant factual information.

You can do these tests yourself, you know. All you have to do, is buy a glucose meter at your nearest drug store and test your blood sugar a couple of hours after eating a meal. And before you conclude whether or not a food doesn't work for you, you need to try it alone, in a mixed meal, and at different times of day in order to determine how your body interacts with it.

My point here is, a nutrition, fitness, or wellness expert who is merely parroting information he or she has read on another website and is not customizing that advice to YOU is doing you a disservice. You may be cutting out perfectly healthy foods that you could eat in the right situation. You may be dealing with a food sensitivity that is not going to respond to a low glycemic diet.

Why waste time on information anyone can Google when you can tailor information to your own personal situation?

We love to do this kind of detective work at inCYST, and our network members have taken a lot of time to learn how to interpret that kind of data and make specific recommendations based on how YOUR body works.

Listen to someone who doesn't know you and who may be misguiding you, for free…or get evidence-based, customized information with personal relevance. It may cost you in the short term but save you a lot of trouble in the end.

This press release comes from Sasha Ottey of PCOS Challenge. inCYST is always pleased to collaborate with and support her compassion and energy she devotes to women everywhere with PCOS! Best of luck with this project, Sasha!

New Reality Series Provides Renewed Hope and Needed Resources for Women with PCOS

As part of its continuing mission to provide information and support resources for women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, PCOS Challenge, Inc. is producing a new 13-week reality series that focuses on improving the lives of women with PCOS with the help of health and medical experts. The goal of the PCOS Challenge™ television show is to educate, inspire and spread awareness about PCOS while helping women with the condition to live healthier and happier lives.

The women participating in the series will receive guidance from three main experts – a nutrition coach, fitness coach, and mental wellness coach. The women will also receive supplemental advice from other experts including a naturopathic physician, acupuncturist, and Reproductive Endocrinologist. As the participants compete in various fitness and healthy lifestyle challenges, they will have an opportunity to win cash and prizes.

“We are very excited to be launching the television show. It is a tremendous opportunity to help a lot of people. In the last year, the PCOS Challenge online and offline community has quickly grown to over 4,000 members, and this has been something that many people have been asking about for some time,” says Sasha Ottey, CEO of PCOS Challenge, Inc. “The television show is a natural extension of our popular PCOS Challenge Radio Show where we feature prominent PCOS experts. Now, through the television show, the audience will have an opportunity to see how to practically apply the information that they have learned in the face of daily life challenges and how to make sustainable healthy lifestyle choices.”

“Since its inception, PCOS Challenge, Inc. has been innovative in its programming and multimedia approach to spreading awareness and providing support for women with PCOS, which is one of the reasons the organization continues to gain traction so quickly and is able to keep people engaged,” says William R. Patterson, CEO of The Baron Solution Group and Executive Producer of the PCOS Challenge television show. “It is our aim to bring greater attention and resources to the PCOS community. With a condition that affects millions of lives and families worldwide, we feel the program will be an important vehicle to get more people involved.”

The PCOS Challenge television show is scheduled to begin shooting in mid-march and is currently casting for 6-10 women with PCOS in the DC metropolitan area to participate in the 13-week series. Participants will meet with the experts 1-2 times per week for the duration of the series and commit to changing their lifestyles to promote healthier living with PCOS. The PCOS Challenge television show will air on various local cable stations across the United States as well as stream online.

To become a participant, sponsor, or for more information about the PCOS Challenge television show, visit http://www.pcoschallenge.com/events/pcos-challenge.

About PCOS Challenge, Inc.

Sasha Ottey is Founder and CEO of PCOS Challenge, Inc. She is a Clinical and Research Microbiologist with a Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Laboratory Science from Howard University and a Master’s in Health Administration from the University of Phoenix. Her company, PCOS Challenge, Inc., is a nonprofit organization that provides support for women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) through the PCOS Challenge Support and Social Networking Website (PCOSChallenge.com); PCOS Challenge nonprofit website (PCOSChallenge.org); PCOS Challenge Expert Series Workshops (PCOSChallenge.net); PCOS Challenge Television Show; PCOS Challenge Radio Show; and local offline support groups.

Meet Robyn Priebe, RD, CD, registered dietitian and Director of Nutrition at Green Mountain at Fox Run in Ludlow, Vermont.

Robyn just completed the inCYST training, and she is on site full time as a resource for women with PCOS. Double the learning…double the fun!

I had a great time working with Robyn the first PCOS week and am really excited to team up with her to provide a great program for those of you who come join us.

There is still time to register, for more information, visit www.fitwoman.com.

In the meantime, get to know Robyn!

I am a registered dietitian working at an all-women’s health and fitness resort in Ludlow, VT, called Green Mountain at Fox Run. At Green Mountain, we focus on helping our participants make healthy changes in their lifestyle. Our philosophy is non-diet & permission-based. Our goal is to help our participants practice intuitive eating in order to get their bodies back in balance. We strongly believe that each individual has different nutrition needs and different obstacles to meeting those needs. We strive to guide our participants towards the changes in their eating and exercise habits that would meet their specific needs/goals.

Personal Interests:

Stained glass, glass fusing, playing piano, attending concerts, running, animal rescue, vegetarian cooking, sewing, painting, gardening/foraging

Source: uponafold.com.au via Kyoco on Pinterest

We love to hear how we're helping you, what you want more of, less of, etc.

I recently received this letter from someone who joined the inCYST Institute. Thanks, friend!

I remember very clearly which article was the one that opened my eyes. I'd been reading the blog for a while after I'd done a PCOS-related search. I think there were a few articles where you mentioned fish oil and I do remember reading them but I figured I'm already seeing a Naturopath and if she hasn't prescribed it to me then I must not need it.

And then you wrote this: http://www.incyst.com/2011/11/what-inflammation-means-to-your-brain.html. I remember reading it and it was like a hit in the face. I'm an Engineering student and for the last five years I've carried around a ton of guilt regarding my 'professional' success. I used to be more motivated in high school and I'd put in more effort and I'd get better results. Ever since I'd started my undergrad career those things had just gone more and more and more downhill. I couldn't concentrate and I just stopped caring after a while, I basically resumed to doing whatever I can to pass, and honestly I don't think I had it in me for much more than that.

Before reading that article, I blamed it all on myself, thinking I'd just become lazy and I'm not as smart as I think and I'm never gonna be as good as the other Eng students around me. I can't even tell you how much I thank you for that article, it was the biggest relief of my life to read it and think that maybe it wasn't all me. I've been taking fish oil ever since and things do seem to be getting better. So thank you, again. Thank you!

I very much enjoy reading articles like that because you explain in very common terms what it is that bad habits do to you and it kinda scares me into submission (I know it's a bad way to put it). I find that I have to constantly remind myself what could happen if I don't have healthy habits since I'm constantly being bombarded with images of unhealthy people who still look great (I'm referring to the mass media here). I also find it useful when you review products and/or actual food items, nutrients and vitamins, with the science behind of course as you always do. I'm really excited about Fitness Fridays and I think the first article was really useful (perhaps not for me personally right now since I can't afford a personal trainer anyway) for people who actually spend their money on working out with someone.

I won't lie, I rarely try recipes that you post even though I read them unless they're super raw. I'm way better at taking ingredients that I know I want to eat and somehow mix them up together to create a great meal rather than following instructions. I do use the recipes you post to guide my creative meal-making though. I also try to eat most of what I eat in the most natural form possible so I don't actually cook quite so often.

Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. I made the final decision to join when I read this on facebook:

inCYST Programs for Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
I am starting to get the feeling that one of the reasons many of you have so much trouble with food…is that you were not raised in environments that were in touch with food in healthy ways. So much of what suggest is too far removed from where you are in reality. Do you need some kind of boot camp or club that worked you through the basics of food and cooking? This would have to be a paid offering, as I am pretty tapped out with regards to offering help that does not pay my bills.

It's pretty sad that it had to come to that for me to decide but it did. I think I often forget that there's an actual person behind all of this and yeah, why not help if I can. I mean for 25 dollars, it's not the end of the world. I spend that much going to see a movie with my boyfriend. If I could I would encourage more people to support inCYST, but I know of no one else who actually benefits from it since I don't know any other women with PCOS in my non-online life. I think that people respond better when they realise what kind of impact they can have with just a little bit of help from each of us.

I had not put that on Facebook to garner sympathy, but rather to encourage people to consider investing in something they felt had value to them. An investment here has the potential to save you money on medications…and for some…assisted reproduction. We don't ask for much, but we hope you can help if we have helped you!

Source: bakersroyale.com via Lauren on Pinterest

The cheat day is extremely counterproductive for PCOS, and here just a few of the reasons why.

1. It creates the mentality that there are good foods, and bad foods. Of course, there are foods that are more supportive of lessening insulin resistance than others. But subscribing"good" and"bad" designations to foods can be counterproductive. I have found that the minute a food becomes something you limit to just one day a week…it can cause you to crave and obsess about the very food you are supposed to be limiting.

2. And that brings me to my next point. Binge eating is extremely strongly correlated with PCOS, and what happens on some of those cheat days…can be mind boggling. Women with PCOS are extremely sensitive to small changes in diet, and a binge episode can include salty foods that promote fluid retention. If your physician is monitoring your insulin function with a test called a hemoglobin A1c, it is a reading of your average blood glucose over the past weeks. Major binges that take you a few days to get over can throw that average off.

3. I have seen cases where overdoing the cheat day has been a major barrier to overcoming insulin resistance. It can be the thing that provokes your physician to increase your medication dose…a dose which may be too high on days when you are eating well. The very best way to reduce your dependence on medication, is to refrain from starving/bingeing cycles that make it hard for your physician to create a medication regimen that helps you.

4. Cheat days can interfere with weight loss. Let's say you are losing about a pound a week. Your calorie deficit is about 500 per day. All it takes is one fast food dinner, in addition to a normal breakfast and lunch, to offset your progress you have made the rest of the week.

5. A lot of foods people"cheat" on are processed and high in sodium. It can take a few days to flush the water this sodium is retaining. My experience is, if you are working with the mentality of cheating and not cheating, even if you give yourself permission to do so, there is guilt involved after the cheat. And that can drive you to weigh in the next day, look at the higher weight, assume it is fat you have gained…encouraging overexercising and over restricting food. Both of those choices impose stress on your insulin and cortisol systems and interfere with blood sugar control.

Our goal at inCYST is to create a lifestyle where the healthier foods are the ones you gravitate toward, not because they are good for you, but because you genuinely enjoy them. My experience is that when you are in a hormone-friendly groove, you actually LIKE to eat greens, fruits, and lean proteins. I know, for me, when I am taking care of myself, I can barely handle walking through a food court in the mall or airport without feeling nauseated from the smell. I don't really need cheat days because I don't have an appetite for the kind of foods cheat days are designed to allow.

When you are craving"bad" foods, it is a major sign that you are out of balance. Cheat days have a way of keeping you stuck In that imbalance, not helping you out of it.

Let us help you learn what life is like living life in balance, rather than constantly counteracting some kind of extreme with another extreme. That is what we excel at.

Moving along with our new Fitness Friday feature (pun completely intended, ha!)…

…one of the reasons I decided to prioritize bringing qualified exercise professionals into our network, is because over the years I have seen a lot of everything-but-best-practices in this industry. Women with PCOS are not, in general, treated very well by fitness professionals.

It is a bad combination in general. Women with PCOS often don't feel great about how they look. A lot of people working in the fitness industry, honestly, don't feel great about themselves, either, and they often focus on their physical appearance at an extreme level to compensate for that.

Of course, if you have PCOS, you may be living with the fantasy that if I could only look like THAT…I wouldn't feel so badly about myself…and you may be projecting the false assumption onto an apparently fit person that they have credibility to help you, that they may not have.

We are working on creating a training to increase the number of truly qualified fitness professionals out there, but until we have that available, I wanted to give you a list of things you can ask while interviewing potential trainers to see if they are a good fit.

1. What are their credentials? Have they taken the time to formally study their claimed area of expertise? Or have they just lived in a gym most of their lives? If they cannot name a credentialed fitness organization that they have taken the time to study with, they do not deserve your time or money. You wouldn't go to a doctor who was self-taught…you shouldn't lower that standard for your trainer.

2. What is their experience with PCOS? Have they formally studied the disease? Who is the physician they refer to? What physicians refer to them? No trainer is qualified to take on your case alone, without being part of a comprehensive healthcare team taking care of the other parts of the problem. If they cannot give you names of registered dietitians and endocrinologists with whom they have productive relationships, they are not qualified to work with you.

3. Can the trainer provide references? And by references, I mean other women with PCOS who enjoyed and benefited from the experience.

4. If the trainer is not a formally trained nutrition professional, are they willing to refrain from giving nutrition/diet advice and/or selling supplements? Are they willing to endorse whatever food choices your chosen nutrition professional is helping you to make, even if those choices are not the ones they would personally make for themselves?

5. Will there be some sort of initial benchmark evaluation to see where your program needs to start and from which progress made can be measured? Is your program being customized to accommodate your personal energy levels, blood glucose trends, medications, etc.?

6. Will your trainer listen to and accommodate any incidents of pain or discomfort? This is a tough one, as the most important job of a trainer is to push you out of your physical comfort zone. That being said, they need to be confident enough in their work to trust that letting up or modifying the workout in response to pain is sometimes the best choice. It is never right to push someone through pain that may be causing permanent damage, or creating a negative association with activity.

7. Does this trainer"get" the many phobias and anxieties you may have to overcome in order to be comfortable with exercise? I'm not just talking about the poor body image, the social anxiety, the fear of failure. A little discussed fact about exercise is that for women who have been sexually traumatized, physical exertion can retraumatize them. A trainer needs to be sensitive to this and be professional with language, body language, and how they touch their client in order for the experience to feel safe. If your nonverbal vibes are telling you there is a problem with someone, it is perfectly ok to listen to that and look for someone else.

8. Who is sponsoring this trainer's work--in other words--who subsidizes their lifestyle? How does that commercial relationship influence what they say to you? If your needs run counter to what that trainer is being paid to promote, who are his/her loyalties with?

The reality is, most trainers really don't make much money on training. They make money on endorsements. Endorsement deals often dictate what the person in that deal can say about nutrition and fitness. I know, because I have been offered several. I turned them down, because everyone that came my way, as quickly as it would have increased my standard of living, would have required me to alter the messages I give to all of you. I made the choice not to do business with any company that would require me to give them control of my freedom of speech.

Ironically, companies paying out endorsement deals do so because they believe that having a popular fitness professional promoting their product gives their product credibility. And the trainers live with the belief that they are more credible because they have landed an endorsement deal, when in many cases, they have simply made public the mentality that they are willing to alter their advice for the right price. I encourage you to ask your potential fitness coach who their commercial relationships are with, and whether or not they could give you advice that was best for you, even if that advice entailed not promoting their sponsor's product…or more importantly…a competitor's product. If they cannot…their priority is not your health, it is their personal financial income.

I am thinking of creating a letter that you all could download to give to a trainer that would summarize what you will need, kind of a contract between the two of you, that would allow inCYST to do most of the talking or negotiating for you. There are some trainers who are just bad news, but there are others who simply need awareness. If you think that letter would be helpful, please leave a comment here.

If you have had negative experiences with a fitness professional, I would love to hear from you. The list of questions above comes from my years of experience working with the fitness industry, but I know there are a lot of things I don't know about. I do know, when I have this conversation with women with PCOS, they always share experiences of inappropriate interactions that they had kept to themselves, mostly because they hadmfelt somehow that they deserved to be poorly treated because they were out of shape.

Remember, the fitness industry is quite competetive and there are far more aspiring trainers out there than there are people who need them. Trainers need YOU far more than you need THEM. You can ask for, and expect, professionalism, respect, genuine compassion, and a minimum level of accurate knowledge about the diagnosis you live with 24/7. You don't EVER have to tolerate disrespect because your current physical condition is a place you have chosen to improve.

This morning, I was a substitute for another yoga instructor at the yoga studio where I teach classes weekly. This was a 6:15 am class, which, needless to say, is earlier than I am used to getting out of bed, and I admit, it was a “I NEED two cups of coffee” kind of morning. Arriving early, I set-up for class and began chatting with the woman who works the front desk checking in students. She (we will call her Abby) told me that she began practicing yoga when she was forty years old and is currently eighty-three. I thought to myself “WOW! That’s some serious dedication and a beautiful example of a life practice.”
Soon thereafter, students began to arrive and it was a full house with thirteen students of all ages and levels (including another yoga instructor). It was a level 1-2 class, so I started with a gentle warm-up and then picked up the pace after I assessed the level of each student. Abby, to my surprise, was gracefully flowing through the sequences with obvious strength and ease. When we finally made it to the floor for our finishing poses, I offered variations of Hanumanasana (“Monkey Pose” or “Full Splits”). I attended my first yoga class when I was nineteen; I am now thirty-three. I became certified to teach two and a half years ago and I believe it will be years, or perhaps never (and I am okay with that too), before my hips are open enough to expand into the full expression of this pose. But, there was Abby, rockin’ the full expression of this pose! This particular pose is dedicated to the “monkey God,” Hanuman, who is a figure in Hindu mythology and “is worshiped as a symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion.” It was abundantly clear to me that Abby represented all of this and I left class that day with a new perspective… when you are ready, yoga will be there, waiting for you utilize it as a tool to balance and guide you through this crazy roller coaster called life!

Perhaps you have been contemplating integrating yoga into your life and I now ask you to consider this quote by Carl Sandburg, “The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.” Go ahead, take a “leap of faith,” perhaps finding inspiration in another and be brave enough to try something new (it doesn’t even have to be yoga!). It really is never too late. With that said, stay tuned, inCYST is excited to announce our newest program… online yoga classes with yours truly to support women with PCOS. About the author:
Sarah Jones started out as inCYST's very first intern, has completed the inCYST training, and is inCYST’s very first registered yoga teacher. She taught the yoga component of our workshop series at Metta Yoga. Sarah is currently completing her nutrition studies at Arizona State University and is graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Dietetics in December, 2012. If you'd like to practice yoga with Sarah, please visit Metta Yoga's website for her current schedule.
Pictures obtained from: www.nicefun.net and http://www.exoticindiaart.com/article/hanuman/