Maybe you can’t survive without your Thursday evening yoga class. It calms you down, it gets your heart rate going, it stretches out tight muscles, and it makes you feel like you just gained about 3 inches in height and in self-esteem. So if yoga does this for you, think about what it might do for your child who has to deal with his or her own set of stresses?

In typical yoga for kids classes, the same postures that you breathe and sweat through, are taught to your little ones, but in a more creative, playful and fun manner. Here are three reasons why having your child learn how to down-dog is so important to their health and yours.

Enhanced flexibility: Keeping kids flexible is so important, especially since their day-to-day lives seem to become more  stressful and sedentary as they clock hours at school and in front of the computer. Stiff muscles can lead to injuries later on, particularly in the lower back since hips and hamstrings tug on the lower back to compensate for their immobility. Kids tend to be a lot more limber and daring than most of adults. So balancing on one foot and being able to twist their bodies into some pretzel-like positions comes much easier to them than to us. But we used to be that limber!

Years of walking, sitting on chairs, engaging in Western exercise like running and cycling or years of not exercising at all, has stiffened us up. Take a quick jaunt back down on memory lane and remember how you could swing from limb to limb on a tree, legs and arms outstretched. Or remember how you could sit in a cross-legged position for hours as you colored for hour in your coloring book? For adults, even though that kind of flexibility may no longer seem like it’s available to you, it is. But just as it took your hips and hamstrings decades to get to the stiff-place they are in now, it will similarly take you some time to soften those taut muscles and joints and get them moving again like when you were a kid.

Greater focus and attention: I’ve often wondered what would happen if we took a group of rambunctious kids and had them go through a 20-minute yoga class filled with closed-eye breathing and gentle postures. Could continuous and thorough yoga classes be a replacement or a therapeutic compliment to  many of the pharmaceuticals being dispensed to children all in an effort to quiet them down? I don’t know but a test experiment might me worth trying. It can’t hurt.

Fosters self-esteem and body awareness in a non-competitive way: By drawing awareness on how their young bodies feel and the power and strength in their muscles, kids yoga improves self-esteem and helps children connect how what they do to their body affects how they feel. This same kind of awareness can spill over from the yoga mat into the kitchen:   Kids can learn to make better food choices by realizing how what they put into their mouths affects how they feel. With childhood obesity and diabetes rates at record levels, having children become aware of what they are eating, why they are eating and how much they are eating is indispensable knowledge that can keep them feeling and staying healthy for years to come.

Creates a connection to Mother Nature: Today, so many children are so removed from nature and its surroundings. Whether they live in an urban area or whether their activity schedule leaves them little time to play outdoors, many of the children today don’t feel a connection to nature. When yoga postures were devised thousands of years ago, the Indian sages developed postures by mimicking the animals and plants that they lived in tandem with. Postures like tree pose, lion’s pose, cobra pose and turtle pose all get their names and appearance from the creatures in nature. This provides a powerful connection to nature for children who don’t enjoy such access to the natural world.

If you’re curious about yoga for kids classes, inquire with your local yoga centers and look for a teacher who either has a certification from a yoga for kids training program like YogaKids. There are also tons of DVDs for kids yoga. To make it more fun, do the DVD with them or invite some of your childrens’ friends over for a yoga party.

Have fun!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of going to a local lavender festival where every vendor, baked good, sandwich, and craft heralded the beauty of this multi-purposed purple-hued herb.

Over the course of the afternoon, I learned about all the different uses of lavender. Lavender is much more than an aromatic scent that is added to shampoos and soaps. In fact, it has been long used for medicinal purposes as well as a kitchen staple.

Here is a list of just a few of the things you can do with lavender:

Relieve stress: If you’ve ever taken a deep breath of fresh lavender, your senses are immediately swept away by its soothing fragrance and its almost instant ability to caste a wave of peacefulness over you. It should come as no surprise then that many aromatherapists use lavender essential oil as a way to calm nervous conditions like anxiety or stress.  But you don’t have to make an aromatherapy appointment to reap the calming effects of lavender. Burn a lavender candle or add a few drops of lavender essential oil into a carrier oil like olive oil and apply a fingerprint-sized drop onto your wrists or on your clavicle. Take a deep breath and relax.

Bake with it: The next time you are baking a batch of cookies or shortbread, add a tablespoon of dried lavender leaves to your batter. Your cookies specked with soft purple leaves will not only look extra beautiful, but everyone will be begging you for the secret ingredient that turned your basic sugar cookies into an aromatic culinary delight.

Ease skin ailments: If you suffer from eczema or acne, research shows that lavender oil has antiseptic and antifungal properties making it a favorite natural treatment option for skin disorders, scars, cuts, sunburns and psoriasis.

Treat hair loss: In one study, people with alopecia areata, a kind of disease that is characterized by patchy hair loss, those who massaged their scalps with lavender oil  had significant hair re-growth in comparison to those who didn’t use any oil.

Catch some ZZZs: Getting a good night’s rest is a privilege that far too many of us don’t enjoy. Rather than relying on over-the-counter sleeping aids, studies have shown that having a massage with lavender essential oil may improve sleep quality, lift spirits and contribute to a solid’s night rest.

Bug Off!: With summer in full swing, mosquitoes and other pesky insects can ruin an evening’s barbeque or a star-gazing night. To naturally protect your skin, add a few drops of lavender oil to one teaspoon of carrier oil and apply to your skin. The insect-fighting magic bullet in lavender comes from the compound, geraniol, which helps to ward off biting bugs. But since lavender does increase skin’s photosensitivity, make sure you stay in the shade.

Relax sore muscles: Whether you pushed yourself too hard at the gym or pulled up too many weeds in your garden, rather than popping a few over-the-counter pain relievers, try massaging lavender oil onto your achy joints to ease pain. Just the smell of the lavender oil alone, will help to take your mind off of your tired muscles.

Here’s one last tidbit before you go out and purchase lavender: “Lavender” comes from the Latin word, “lavare,” which means to wash. The Romans first used lavender to scent bath water and they believed that this ancient herb was also able to replenish the skin.

Do a bit of research around your own town. Lavender festivals are popping up more and more during the summer months in part due to the beauty and many uses of this cherished purple herb.

I’ve addressed the issue of the “walkability” of our cities, and how modern urban design has helped make us fatter. That made WalkScore an interesting website to stumble upon. WalkScore.com ranks 2,508 neighborhoods in the U.S. for how walkable they are. The top four U.S. cities, according to WalkScore, are:
1. San Francisco
2. New York City
3. Boston
4. Chicago

Are you thinking about a move? Maybe this can influence your plans.

More news on the effort to put a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in a section of Los Angeles that already has 400 in a 32-square-mile radius. (See my original post explaining this story.)

A Los Angeles city council planning committee unanimously approved a one-year ban, which could be extended for a another year, on new fast food outlets. The measure will go to the full council for a vote next month. It will be interesting to see if there is any long-term good that will come of this. One key is to replace prospective fast food establishments with healthier options. The plan is to encourage that. How, I’m not sure.

I’ve always been amazed that healthy fast food businesses haven’t spread like wildfire in recent years. It seems that given a fast healthy option, people would go for it. Here in Roseville, California there’s a UFood Grill, which has locations in several states across the country.

If you have healthy fast food businesses in your hometown, share them with us- because it just seems like a huge niche waiting to be filled. I don’t know if it just hasn’t been handled by the right business minds, or if the costs of fresh and healthy foods don’t match the dynamics of fast drive-thru service. It seems there has to be a good reason why they haven’t started to flourish.

We welcome Hillary from ChewOnThat Blog to our guest blog series today. Hillary Marshak is one of the primary writers for Chew on That blog, a blog about recipes, restaurant reviews, disasters in the kitchen and more! She is also the editor for Recipe4Living and loves to share new recipes and learn about different cuisines around the world!

Boy have I got a recipe for you! It’s so easy, simple, beautiful and delicious and it comes all the way from a little town I visited recently called Buenos Aires (ok maybe it’s not so little!). I ordered it for an appetizer and was pleasantly surprised when a heaping plate of freshly cut tomatoes, avocados and hearts of palm was just waiting for me to dig in. I thought to myself ‘how simple’ and decided I’d track down a recipe for the dressing so I can make this work of art at home.

Well, I did just that and realized I couldn’t keep the recipe to myself! I had to share it with my own readers on Chew on That blog, and now I’m here to share it with you! Feel free to use low fat mayonnaise in the dressing or tweak it any way you like. Just make sure to use fresh tomatoes and avocados and you’re on the road to deliciousness.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Here is the recipe:

Tomato, Avocado and Hearts of Palm Salad
I had this fresh and delicious salad for the first time in Buenos Aires. I thought it would be too simple but these ingredients turned out to be a wonderful combination!

Ingredients
2 fresh tomatoes, sliced
2 fresh avocados, sliced
8 pieces fresh hearts of palm, chopped diagonally (or 1-2 cans since fresh might be hard to find)
1 C. mayonnaise
1/4 C. ketchup
1 Tbs. white sugar
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 tsp. paprika
1 pinch ground black pepper
olive oil
sun-dried tomatoes for garnish (optional)

Directions
In a small bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, ketchup, white sugar, lemon juice, paprika and pepper together.

Slice tomatoes and avocados to desired thickness and arrange around your serving plate. Sprinkle avocado with lemon juice to keep fresh. Chop hearts of palm diagonally and arrange on plate with tomatoes and avocados. Pour dressing into a small serving bowl (for dipping sauce) and drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with sun dried tomaroes if desired, and serve!

Hint: You may make the dressing ahead of time, but I wouldn’t slice the vegetables until just before serving, to keep them fresh.