The FitFoody Journal
Mindful movement, food, and the practice of being present.
Years of essays on yoga, mindful eating, breath, and living well, from Laura Sachs, the Whisper of the Breath Diva.
About Laura →In this Moment Where All Things are Possible!
On perception, attention, and the gap between an event and our response, drawing on Jack Canfield, Isaac Lidsky, and Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Why Worry: You Have a Creative Spirit
A scientifically grounded argument against worrying, turning worry around into positive visualization, from Martin Rossman to David Steindl-Rast on gratitude.
Mindfulness: the New Buzz Word!
Mindfulness is the little sister of meditation. Why successful practice is not about stopping the mind, but about letting each thought go and returning.
Body Rhythms: Everything in the Universe Moves in Waves
How in sync is our lifestyle with our natural rhythms? From Irving Dardik's wave theory and heart rate variability to Rushkoff's neurotransmitter cycles.
Does Yoga Give You Firm Buttocks or Self-Realization?
The objective of yoga is Self-Realization, not firm buttocks. On focus, attention, and mindfulness as steppingstones to knowing yourself.
What Is Your Body Type?
From Joseph Pilates to the Ayurvedic doshas, understanding your body type helps you work in harmony with your gifts and challenges.
Have You Ever Participated in a Tea Ceremony?
Long before mindfulness became a buzzword, the tea ceremony was practiced. What if we brought that same ritual to the way we eat?
Self-Care in this Time of Sheltering in Place
A call to mindfulness hidden inside a familiar phrase, with breathing techniques, guided meditation, shaking, and dry brushing to steady the body and mind.
FitFoody's Kitchen Antidotes: Making the Ingredients Last
A weekly cooking rhythm born of Shelter-In, where one roast chicken becomes three meals, ending with a Tuscan vegetable soup with farro and kale.
What is Your Somatotype?
How your body type shapes your workout style and yoga preferences, from the Sheldon somatotypes to the Ayurvedic doshas.
Why Do We Practice Yoga? Flat Belly!
Firm buttocks or self-realization? Yes to both. Five asanas that gently squeeze, release, and streamline the middle of the body.
Mindfulness is Developed Many Ways
A demanding Hot Pilates class becomes a lesson in mindfulness, and how the same focus we corral during hard exercise can be brought to a walk to the car.
Ready for Valentine's Day?
An invitation to consider not just a significant other but everyone we love, through the lens of Gary Chapman's Five Love Languages.
There is No Such Thing as Wasted Time in the Kitchen
\"That is where we go to recover lost time.\" Laura Esquivel. On cooking as a therapeutic process, with an Ahi, a red cabbage salad, a tahini wrap, and a blood orange quinoa.
Do the Math
What we can measure, we can manage. On step counts, pedometers, and mapping a road to your fitness goals, 10,000 steps at a time.
Our Love Affair with Kale
Everyone is raving about kale salad. Why cruciferous vegetables earn the name "super-veggies," plus three favorite kale salad recipes.
What Are You Planning for 2013? Changes, Adventures, Status Quo?
Resolutions and the science of change, from the five stages of change to habit loops, cues and rewards, and the quiet power of self-efficacy.
What Makes You Feel at Home in the World?
A Thanksgiving meditation on gratitude and the question of where we truly live, prompted by Rob Brezsny's invitation to list the ways life delights us.
Plentiful
The Mediterranean diet may protect the aging brain. A raw zucchini salad and a pesto from an Italian cooking class at Cavallo Point, plus a nudge to move.
Wine is Alive, Just Like People
A barrel tasting in Dry Creek yields a lesson in balance from a winemaker, plus questions for balancing the rest of your life, and an Ahi recipe.
The Core: Still Have Questions?
Beyond crunches. Meet the Power House, the three muscles of the core, and a standing weighted routine to strengthen your trunk in real movement.
New Moon and Summer
The solstice and a waxing moon as an invitation to new beginnings, five simple weekly practices, and a seated guided meditation to feed on the elements.
Youth Enhancing Moments
How breath awareness, active imagination, and positive self-talk create small youth-enhancing moments that bathe our cells in good hormones.
Meditation or Guided Meditation?
Which do you prefer? How meditation restructures the brain, and why a guided practice like Yoga Nidra can lead us to the unchanging awareness beneath our experience.
Nutrition: I Have a Good Diet, I Eat Pretty Well
What does "eating well" really mean? The six tastes of the Ayurvedic system, the discovery of umami, and why a well-rounded diet keeps changing its flavors.
Einstein Said, Insanity is Doing the Same Thing...
Altering your routine can open new vistas. Small ways to do something different this week in your workouts and your food, plus a colorful roasted pepper recipe.
Routes into Relaxation
Your breath is a built-in mechanism to relax. Three routes into the Relaxation Response, breath awareness, introspection, and active imagination, with guided scripts.
What Motivates You to Exercise?
A client story about working out smart instead of hard, finding your sustainable heart rate "sweet spot," and why it is not as simple as calories in, calories out.
Do Fitness and Relaxation Go Together?
You bet. Why fitness is the ability to respond rather than react, the science of stress hardiness, and Herbert Benson's Relaxation Response.
Let's Talk Food
Three questions about food, how much, how often, and of what quality, and the three eating styles she sees in her clients.
Now on to the Fitness Level of Activity
Any activity during which you breathe faster and more fully is a fitness activity. Understanding aerobic exercise and the five heart rate training zones.
FitFoody Introduces Herself
The very first post. A mind-body fitness professional shares her plan to blog on movement, food, and "Whispers of the Breath Diva," starting with why we were designed to move.