Monthly Archives: April, 2013

Quick & Easy Topping Ideas

Avocado Salmon Roe

Avocado

As seen in the our ad

1 Avocado slice
1 tablespoon Salmon Roe
2 tablespoons lite cream cheese with scallions, chives or dill spread evenly across crispbread

For a touch of sweet flavor spread with honey

Cucumber/Almond

As seen in the our ad

3 cucumber slices
1 teaspoon cucumber-dill spread with chinese chives centered on cucumber
Almond slices placed on top of spread
Micro greens if desired

For a touch of sweet flavor spread with honey

Big on Arms

We are in Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II) and the teacher is walking us through the pose nice and slow. She has us begin in Tadasana (Mountain pose) and then tells us to touch our fingertips together in front of our chest. As we jump our legs apart, our arms open up too (so they are parallel to the ground).

Next, the real instruction begins. She focuses on our feet, making sure they are spaced far enough apart and turned in the proper direction. She reminds us that our back heel should be aligned with our front heel.

She pauses as we breathe.

Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.

She moves onto our legs. She makes sure that our right knee is bent so that it’s directly over the right ankle. We need to press our thigh back so we can see our second toe. She keeps us focused on our lower body, giving us directions on our tailbone, butt, and – again – our thighs. She mentions that second toe again.

Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.

You can practically hear the thoughts of every student in the studio: My arms are tired. My arms are so tired! When will this pose be over so we can put our arms down? Are anyone else’s arms tired? Or am I just a wimp? How much longer do we have to hold our arms up?

Finally, the teacher says, “I know your arms are tired.”

Her acknowledgement is a relief even though she encourages us to keep those arms lifted. “Stretch them out even further, reeeaaaaching for the walls,” she says.

She moves onto our shoulder blades – are they scrunched up by our neck? Release them.

Lengthen our torsos.

Broaden our chests.

She knows exactly what we’re doing – allowing our minds to be consumed with thoughts about our arms.

“Your brain starts to panic first,” she says. “Your body is strong and your arms can handle this.”

That’s the extra motivation we need for the last few breaths until she finally has us step our feet back together and place our hands on our hips.

I’m working out in LA for a couple weeks – my old hometown – and it’s great to be back in my favorite teacher’s class. Now that I’m here, I remember she was always big on arms.

Tadalafil – Branded or Generic?

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is easily the worst woe that a man will ever encounter as he no longer has the capacity to please both himself and his partner.  Fortunately, ED medications are aplenty with tadalafil being the most popular amongst couples.  However, when it comes to buying ED medications, is it better to go for branded or generic?

If you are not familiar with generic drugs, the name that identifies a generic drug is usually the active ingredient that the treatment has.  For generic tadalafil, it means that tadalafil is the active ingredient of the drug.  Usually, generic drugs are derived from branded drugs, the likes that had spent a lot of money in the research and development of the medication.  Normally, they are given several years of rights as sole maker and distributor of the drug to make up for the cost of the drug’s R&D.  In the case of generic tadalafil, it is Eli Lilly that did research as well as manufacturing of the drug Cialis – the branded version of generic tadalafil.  Like all drugs though, no manufacturer has sole rights to the making and distribution of the medication for a very long time which is why the ingredients used in the making of the drug are released and generic drug manufacturers are able to copy them and resell the drug for their own, provided of course they pay royalty as well as sell the drug only as generic in name. Read more…

Drishti

“Find a point on the ground about a foot in front of your mat and softly fix your gaze on it.”

I’ve heard that instruction tons of times in various yoga classes (depending on the pose, the point of focus changes). It helps me with balance poses, like Tree pose. The other day in class, the teacher was giving that same instruction. Softly is the key word. It’s not an intense stare. “It’s almost like you’re looking behind your eyes,” she said. “It’s called Drishti.”

I never knew it had a name before.