This is a great recipe, you can use as many or as little of the ingredients you want, it’s perfect for a summer barbeque, for lunch time, or just a light dinner! Enjoy!

 Ingredients:

 2  boneless chicken breast 

1 cup of celery into strips

1  cup of peas

1 cup of red bell pepper strips

1 cup of corn

1 cup of pickles

1 cup of Heart of palms

2 cups of chopped onions

3 chopped apples

as needed for white seedless raisins

as needed chopped green onions 

Olive oil as needed

Salt as needed 

Red vinegar as needed 

Mayonnaise as needed 

 potato straw as needed

2 grated carrots 

How to Cook:

Chicken Salad is a post from: San Diego Massage Therapist & Yoga Therapy In San Diego

This is a very easy gluten free recipe for who that is always on the go, or for those that don’t like or are learning how to cook!

2 Cups Fettuccini (Gluten Free), or your favorite shapped pasta.
1 Garlic Clove
3/4 cup medium size shrimp
2 Cups Alfredo Sauce (Trader Joe’s), or 2 cups of goat cheese.
2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Boil Fettuccini until it’s soft.

Warm up Alfredo Sauce w/Chopped or Pressed Garlic, add shrimp at the last 3 min of heating. For a healthier version, you can sub the Alfredo Sauce for goat cheese, but then you add the shrimp first, and in the last minute, add the goat cheese.

Drop drained Fettuccini in Large Bowl with 2 Tbsp Olive Oil (let it sit for 2 min).

Drop Alfredo Sauce on Fettuccini (let it sit for 3 min).

Drop 3 Fresh Basil leaves on top and a dab of Oregano, and enjoy!

Garlic Shrimp Fettuccini (Gluten Free) is a post from: San Diego Massage Therapist & Yoga Therapy In San Diego

Watch Your Back
When it comes to back pain, this gentle approach is best.

By Hillari Dowdle

“Happy families are all alike,” Tolstoy wrote. “Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The same thing— or something quite similar—might be said of our backs.

As long as they’re “back” there doing their job, holding us up and keeping us mobile, we usually don’t give them too much thought; we can’t even see them. We take them for granted. They’re just backs—our posterior sides, the very definition of strength and silence.

But as soon as our backs go out, we all have stories to tell. Suddenly our lives—once so pain free—are limited and defined by our own personal brew of sports mishaps and mistimed sneezes, of sleepless nights and missed workdays, of social lives curtailed and family activities indefinitely altered. We each become unhappy in our own excruciating way the moment that lower back pain comes creeping into the picture. And eventually, it almost always does. (To find out why, see Garden-Variety Back Pain.)

For Terri Stoecker, 54, the moment came one day last year while she quietly worked in the garden at her summer home in Chestertown, New York. She was planting a row of hemlock trees when her lower back suddenly seized up. “I could barely move; my back was just completely locked,” she remembers. A neighbor helped her into the house, where she rested up enough to return to Florida and begin an odyssey of doctor’s visits, MRI scans, prescription refills, and physical therapy sessions.

As it so often does, back pain snuck up on Stoecker and took her by surprise. She couldn’t quite believe what was happening to her. “I was a marathon runner and a competitive tennis player—I was an active person,” says the former flight attendant, who worked a total of 28 years for TWA and American Airlines before recently retiring. “I thought I was strong, but it turns out that I wasn’t strong in the right places.” Plus, she says, “I was absolutely devastated. I couldn’t imagine what I would do if I couldn’t find a way to get my life back.”

Luckily, she did. By happenstance—or what Stoecker now sees as synchronicity—she found something that she believes truly healed her back: a Viniyoga class taught by a physical therapist named Emily Large, who bases her instruction on the work of Gary Kraftsow, author of the seminal Viniyoga book Yoga for Wellness. “After the first class, I knew this was for me,” Stoecker remembers. “Relief came quickly. The combination of physical movement, mental awareness, concentration, and breathing just worked.”

Yoga Works
You heard it here: Yoga works for back pain.Yogis have long known this, but it was headline news in the medical community in early 2006, following the publication of a groundbreaking study in the December 20, 2005, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. (We initially reported on the study in “Spine Savers,” in the June 2006 issue; here, we offer an asana sequence modified from the study’s protocol to add to your practice.)

The study found that patients with chronic lower back pain who participated in a 12-week series of yoga classes had less pain and more improved function than those in the study’s other groups. One group took conventional exercise classes (a combination of strength training, cardio, and stretching based on physical therapy techniques). The other group cared for themselves at home using a provided back-pain handbook.

What’s more, the benefits of yoga extended well beyond the scope of the classes. When researchers followed up with the participants after 26 weeks, they found continued improvement in function and pain relief. The patients also used less medication.

Karen Sherman designed the study, which was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health. She is an epidemiologist and a researcher for Group Health, an integrated health care system in Seattle with upward of 500,000 patients. Sherman’s idea was to test yoga as a treatment not for experienced yoga practitioners with specific injuries, but for the kinds of people that doctors were seeing in their offices every day. “To make these results the most relevant, we were looking for what most people have—general, nonspecific lower back pain. We weren’t looking for people who were into yoga,” she says. “We were looking for people who were into making their back pain better.”

She found 101 patients willing to participate in her study, and most of those who were in the yoga course experienced relief. But when Sherman discusses her work, she’s circumspect. “In my view, one study never proves anything,” she says. “But this does suggest that for people who have garden-variety lower back pain, it’s totally worthwhile to give yoga a try.”

Rich Panico is more enthusiastic about Sherman’s results. As founder of the Mind Body Institute at Georgia’s Athens Regional Medical Center and designer of the Back Care Yoga program there, he’s a physician in the business of communicating the power of yoga to other physicians. “This is big news,” he says. “It’s one of the first meaningful yoga studies. We live in the era of evidence-based medicine, [and] everybody’s looking for proof. Doctors can see that this study has the statistical power to draw meaningful conclusions: Yoga helps people with back pain, and it’s an enduring phenomenon.”

There have been other studies about yoga helping to relieve back pain that have been published in smaller medical journals, such as the International Journal of Yoga Therapy. But this study really gets doctors’ attention, Panico says. “It was methodologically rigorous, well constructed, and published in a prestigious peer-reviewed journal,” he explains. “It’s just good science. You can’t ignore it.”

Function over Form
If you’re reading this magazine, Panico’s efforts to sway the skeptical might seem, well, familiar. Chances are you already know all about yoga’s potential to heal. But maybe you, too, have experienced frustrating resistance from your cranky aching co-worker or incapacitated aunt—people in your life who you know could benefit from yoga but who still think of it as something too fringe or too difficult. This evidence is for them, too: Yoga does work.

Which is not to say that all yoga works for back pain. Before Sherman set up the study, she had to identify a form of yoga that would be accessible to a wide range of people. “It had to be something people could really do; I didn’t want anything overly difficult or esoteric,” she explains. “I also didn’t want any adverse events. I wanted something safe.”

Sherman began interviewing yoga teachers in the Seattle area, looking for the best fit. She found it in Robin Rothenberg, director of The Yoga Barn studios. Rothenberg was knowledgeable, experienced, and intelligent. Better yet, she was teaching a form of yoga that was perfect for the study: Viniyoga.

Yoga for Every Body
A gentle style, Viniyoga emphasizes the breath, simple and repetitive movements, careful sequencing, and the use of yoga as a therapeutic tool. Viniyoga has been popularized in the United States by Gary Kraftsow, whose main teacher was T.K.V. Desikachar, son of the great Indian yogi Krishnamacharya. Kraftsow, in turn, is Rothenberg’s teacher.

“Viniyoga is simple and accessible to everyone,” says Rothenberg, a certified Viniyoga therapist who’s also been a certified Iyengar teacher. “If you can move, if you can breathe, if you can get down on the floor or sit in a chair, you can do Viniyoga. Downward Dog is a complex pose; Triangle is a complex pose. But people can understand bringing their knees into their chests.”

Kraftsow worked with Rothenberg to develop asana sequences, which they based on Kraftsow’s yoga therapy and Rothenberg’s Iyengar background.

“Viniyoga is easy for people who aren’t so yoga oriented and tuned in to their bodies,” Rothenberg says. “During the course of the study, we had people who came to our classes and said they’d never considered doing yoga, but they were in so much pain. They were able to do it, and they got results. They felt better; they slept better. They were able to do things again, like hiking or gardening or playing tennis. They were getting their lives back.”

Exactly why Viniyoga works is a matter of some debate. The study itself did not draw any clear conclusions. Theorizing that the results were due to a combination of mental focus and physical movement, the study simply noted that more research was needed to identify “mechanisms of action.” (Another Sherman-led, NCCAM-funded, Viniyoga-focused study on this subject is currently under way.)

“The protocol Robin and I developed is about adapting the postures to reduce symptoms,” Kraftsow says. “It’s aimed at strengthening what’s weak, balancing what’s asymmetrical, releasing chronic contraction, and building proprioceptive awareness. It is not about mastering the forms of the postures.”

Still, Kraftsow says that caution is needed before one embraces the results of this study wholesale. “Viniyoga is a sophisticated science of sequencing,” says Kraftsow. “The right sequence can heal you; the wrong sequence can make things worse. The medical community should be aware that just because this study is evidence based doesn’t mean that all yoga will be good for back pain. Not even all Viniyoga will be good for back pain. Yoga that is adapted intelligently for the purpose of working with back pain, as our sequence was, will be good for back pain. Other yoga can send you to the hospital.”

In the world of yoga—even therapeutic yoga, unfortunately—it’s caveat emptor. Looking for a teacher whose name is followed by “C.Y.T.” (certified yoga therapist) is a good place to start, Kraftsow suggests. If that’s not possible in your area, look for a gentle form of yoga in which jumping or intense forward bending are not part of the class. Talk to your teachers beforehand to ascertain their level of experience, and make sure that individual needs can be accommodated. And, if possible, take a private lesson before you sign up for a class.

Back Off the Mat
Emily Large, Terri Stoecker’s yoga teacher, has her own theory about how and why yoga works so well. Large, who is a physical therapist and certified Viniyoga therapist practicing in West Palm Beach, Florida, as well as Atlanta, transformed her physical therapy practice when she started adding yoga into the mix. “Yoga provides people with a tool for self-discovery,” she says. “The postures, combined with the breathwork and meditative qualities of the movement, lead to self-awareness in the body. The repetitive movements that are unique in Viniyoga warm the body and increase circulation, which is important in healing. They also break poor movement patterns and introduce healthy ones.”

“Overall,” concludes Large, “it’s a more holistic approach to rehabilitation. It lets people heal themselves. When you learn healthy habits in yoga, it carries over into your daily life.”

Stoecker believes that the techniques she has learned in Large’s class have allowed her to return to her active lifestyle. “You can let your back control you and change your life into something sedentary and painful, or you can find something that can keep you healthy and get you back to 95 percent normal. I was told I would never run or garden again. Now I can do those things. I have to be careful, I have to take care of myself, but I live my life. Yoga has done that for me.”

This assessment makes Kraftsow a very happy man—it is the perfect realization of his intention. “It’s important to remember that the study of yoga is not about anything external to you,” he says. “It’s about studying yourself and learning tools to reduce the undesirable things in your life, like back pain, and increase the positive things, like happiness. It’s about refining yourself at all levels.”

“We’re not talking about fancy yoga or power yoga here,” he adds. “You don’t need an hour-long class or a special outfit or a fancy mat to do this. This practice is available to everybody. You can learn it easily and use it to feel better and really begin to manage your condition.” Try it for yourself.

Hillari Dowdle healed her own lower back pain with Viniyoga after an injury in 2002. Today she writes and practices (practically) pain free in Knoxville, Tennessee.

For “Watch Your Back Pose Sequence by Gary Kraftsow” click here.

Watch your back! is a post from: San Diego Massage Therapist & Yoga Therapy In San Diego

A.C.T Aware

Self defense

Adam Hutchins and Lee Whitwell have combined their 30 years of martial arts and self-defense experience to create A.C.T aware – a self defense program for all ages based on 3 core principles:

AWARENESS

CONFIDENCE

TRUST

FACTS:

1 in 3 women will be assaulted

Women are 10 times more likely to be assaulted than men

Every 2 minutes a sexual assault occurs in the United States

There is no general description of a victim or an attacker

Avoid Becoming a victim!

Learn how to protect yourself!

 Private seminars for your company, family or friends are also available. Book yours today!!

Attached is a flyer with a brief description of the curriculum that will be taught.  We look forward to hearing from you, and seeing you soon!

To book a self defense seminar

Please Call

(619) 206-6422

Or email

actaware@gmail.com

Self Awareness class is a post from: San Diego Massage Therapist & Yoga Therapy In San Diego

In the comfort of your house, One hour massage $75 

 Regular Rates:

 For SDAC Members:

60 Minute Massage $65 

90 Minute Massage $95

Series of 3 - 1 Hour Massages $180 

For Non-Member Clients:

60 Minute Massage $75 

90 Minute Massage $110

Series of 3 -1 Hour Massages $210

In the comfort of your house:

One Hour Massage $100

Anniversary Special is a post from: San Diego Massage Therapist & Yoga Therapy In San Diego

[ad#Google Adsense 336x280 Right]Gluten Free Lasagna Recipe

This is a very easy lasagna recipe, it is gluten free and noodles, pasta free lasagna. During a cleansing that I was doing, I couldn’t eat gluten, so I adapted a recipe for lasagna from Giada de Laurentis, it came out beautiful and delicious, next time I’ll take a picture to show off! 

Instead of using lasagna noodles, we are going to use vegetables! Yes, this is a delicious vegetable lasagna!  The ingredients include pancetta, but if you are a vegetarian, this will be a perfect recipe for vegetarian lasagna!

Ingredients

• 6 to 8 Mexican zucchini sliced (you also can use squash, zucchini or eggplant)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon, divided
• 2 (8.5-ounce) jars sun-dried tomatoes, drained
• 1 1/2 packed cups fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus 3/4 cup
• 1/4 pound pancetta, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 bunches asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups shredded whole milk mozzarella cheese
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions

In a food processor combine the sun-dried tomatoes and basil. Pulse until the mixture is combined. Transfer to a small bowl. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan. Set aside. (Some groceries stores have a sundried tomato pesto sauce already prepared!)

In a large skillet brown the pancetta until crisp. Remove from the pan using a slotted spoon. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, onion, and garlic and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Add asparagus and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Add the ricotta, salt, and pepper and stir to combine.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a 9 by 13-inch baking dish sprinkle some of the sun-dried tomato mixture on the bottom of the casserole dish. Place some of the sliced zucchini, then half asparagus mixture. Next sprinkle some mozzarella cheese and some of the remaining 3/4 cup Parmesan. Continue for 1 more layer. Top with sliced zucchini, some sun-dried tomato mixture, mozzarella, and Parmesan. Dot the top with butter. Bake until the ingredients are warm and the cheese is melted, about 25 minutes.

Gluten Free Lasagna Recipe is a post from: San Diego Massage Therapist & Yoga Therapy In San Diego

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Make Feijoada!

Feijoada is the most famous brazilian dish, here is a little bit of the feijoada history, and also a feijoada recipe. You will be able to make a whole feijoada, not a portuguese feijoada, an authentic Brazilian feijoada,  with all the infredients, including the side dishes. Unfortunatly, there  is no such thing as vegetarian feijoada, the only solution for that would be just eating the beans, the rice, the collard greens, and the oranges.

Feijoada History

Originally feijoada was made using every part of the pig, such as ears, tails, and nose floating among the beans. As this upsets tourists, a version of it is made especially with them in mind only using the fine meat parts of the pig.

The origin of the feijoada runs back to the sixteenth century with the introduction of slaves in Brazil. Slaves were used for many things, cotton production, cocoa production, rubber and with the gold rush boom for extraction of diamonds and mine digging.

The culinary culture of Africa was mixed with the European food traditions. The African slaves had the basic bean stew, the Portuguese added the linguiça (sausage), and the Indians added the farofa (toasted manioc flour). The result was a particularly “heavy” dish which lasted long and gave the workers the energy they needed, the feijoada!

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Today the feijoadas are widely famous in Brazil and most restaurants have a special day they serve this nutritious meal. Also outside of Brazil the different feijoadas are receiving word as delicious recipes! The problem can be to find the right ingredients outside of Brazil. This is usually solved by exchanging the missing products with something similar.

Because of the “heavy” consistence of the famous bean stew recipe, Brazilians believe that drinking some caipirinha helps reduce the unhealthy effects. Otherwise, the recommended activity after this culinary treat is a nap.

Feijoada Recipe (for 10-15 people):

Ingredients:

1 lb. black beans
1 lb. smoked ham hocks
1 of each: pork foot, ear, tail, tongue
(optional)
1 lb. Mexican “chorizo,” “pepperoni” or
Brazilian “linguica”
1/2 lb. Chunk of lean Canadian bacon or
Brazilian “carne seca”
1/2 lb. Smoked pork or beef ribs
3-4 strips of smoked bacon
1/2 lb. lean pork
1/2 lb. lean beef
1 large onion
4 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons of olive or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
salt to taste
black pepper
hot sauce (optional)

How to prepare feijoada:

Soak beans overnight in large container. Next morning, cook beans for 4-5 hours at low heat. Place ham hocks, chorizo, ribs and Canadian bacon in deep pan with plenty of water and bring to a boil. Change water and bring to a new boil, repeating the procedure at least three times to tenderize cured meats and remove excess fat.

In a large frying pan sauté‚ onion and garlic using either vegetable or olive oil (smoked bacon strips optional) for two or three minutes. Toss in cubed pork and beef. Sauté‚ an additional two-three minutes.

Mash 5-l0 tablespoons of beans and add to large pot. The resulting paste will thicken sauce. Add two tablespoons of olive oil, three garlic cloves all chopped-up or mashed, along with a tablespoon of white vinegar and a teaspoon of red-hot pepper. Stir, heat over medium fire for two-three minutes, and then transfer to contents of frying pan. (You may use two frying pans, if necessary)

Let simmer for l0-l5 minutes. Add contents of frying pan(s) to the beans and let boil at medium heat for 1-2 hours.

Serve over rice, with sautéed collard greens, and sliced oranges, and farofa on the side. You can buy the tradicional “farofa” in any Brazilian store.

Caipirinha Recipe

Caipirinha is the national drink of Brazil. The drink is tradicionally made with cachaça (pronounced – kuh-sha-suh), but if you don’t have it, you can substitute with vodka.

• 3 key limes
• 4 ounces cachaca (1/2 cup)
• 1/4 cup superfine sugar (to taste)
• 2 cups crushed ice

Directions

Trim the ends off the key limes and halve lengthwise. Cut each half into 4 slices.

In a cocktail shaker, using a wooden spoon or a pestle, muddle the key limes with the 1/4 cup of sugar until juicy and the sugar dissolves.

Add the cachaça and the crushed ice and shake for 10 seconds; taste and add more sugar if desired.

Pour (not strain) into an old-fashioned glass or tumbler ice and serve.

Make Feijoada! is a post from: San Diego Massage Therapist & Yoga Therapy In San Diego

Fazer Feijoada!

A feijoada é um dos pratos típicos da culinária brasileira. No Brasil, é feita da mistura de feijões pretos, vários tipos de carne de porco e de vaca, embutidos e acompanhada à mesa de farofa, arroz branco, couve refogada e laranja fatiada, entre outros ingredientes.

Como fazer feijoada? Nao e tao dificil como se pensa, aqui esta uma “receita de feijoada brasileira”,  e a feijoada tipica, pois hoje em dia encontramos varias outras receitas, como feijoada portuguesa, feijoada de marisco, feijoada do bolinha, feijoada do negao, feijoada mineira, entre outras; como se ve, feijoada e a receita mais representativa da cozinha brasileira, revista, ampliada e enriquecida, a feijoada deixou de ser exclusivamente um prato,  é uma refeição completa.

Feijoada brasileira completa

Ingredientes

• 1 kg de feijão preto;
• 1/2 kg de carne de porco salgada;
• 1/2 kg de carne-seca;
• 1 pé (chispe);
• 1 orelha;
• 1 focinho;
• 1 rabinho;
• 1/2 kg de carne bovina fresca (ponta de agulha ou braço);
• 1/2 kg de lingüiça calabresa;
• 1 osso de presunto;
• 1 paio;
• 100 gramas de toucinho fumeiro (bacon defumado);
• 1/2 kg de lombo de porco fresco (ou costeletas de porco);
• cebola;
• óleo;
• 5 folhas de louro;
• alho;
• cheiro-verde;
• couve;
• molho carioca;
• laranjas.

Preparo

1. Na véspera, colocar de molho a carne de porco salgada, a carne-seca, o pé, a orelha, o rabinho e o focinho de porco salgados.
2. No dia seguinte, de manhã, levar ao fogo o feijão preto em caldeirão com bastante água.
3. Em outra panela, ferver os ingredientes postos de molho.
4. Depois de cozer o feijão uma hora, juntar as carner fervidas, o louro e acrescentar a carne bovina, a linguiça, o osso de presunto, o paio, o toucinho (bacon), as costeletas de porco (ou o meio quilo de lombo de porco fresco).
5. Quando tudo já estiver cozido, juntar o refogado, feito à parte, com cebola picada, uma colher (sopa) de óleo, alho pisado e cheiro-verde. Provar o sal e deixar ferver, até bem cozido, em fogo brando, para não grudar no fundo do caldeirão.
6. Para servir, colocar os ingredientes numa travessa, arrumando com jeito (o feijão será levado à mesa numa sopeira ou grande tigela de barro).
7. Servir com o molho carioca* e laranjas doces, picadas e polvilhadas (ou não) de sal fino.
8. Servir com couve frita em alho e óleo, e arroz ou com farinha de mandioca, torresmo, mandioca frita. Pode ser condimentada com pimenta malagueta a gosto (à mesa, por cada comensal).

Ingrediente do molho carioca

• Duas colheres (sopa) bem cheias de pimenta cumari ou Pimenta malagueta, bem curtidas;
• Uma porção de salsa picada, bem fininha;
• Uma pitada de sal;
• Caldo de limão galego.

Preparo do molho carioca

1. Amasse bem as pimentas e junte a salsa e o sal.
2. Coloque numa molheira e cubra tudo com o caldo de limão galego.

Fazer Feijoada! is a post from: San Diego Massage Therapist & Yoga Therapy In San Diego

 “Viniyoga is a methodology for developing personal practice using āsana, prāņāyāma, meditation, ritual and prayer to protect and maintain our health, promote our ability to be productive in the world and inspire our quest for self-realization.” Gary Kraftsow

Viniyoga is a holistic healing approach to yoga.  It encourages self development. Viniyoga is taught to adapt to each individual’s needs, to assist in the following:

• Postural alignment
• Flexibility
• Strength
• Focus
• Breath development
• Connect with innate wisdom

The goal of private yoga classes is to teach a sequence respecting your own needs. With postures adapted for your particular body, breathing techniques to deepen the effects of the postures, so you can have a Yoga practice that is intended to encourage calm, and to promote strength, flexibility, healing and relaxation. Yoga is meant to serve you – to support your life and your endeavors.

A little bit about Viniyoga is a post from: San Diego Massage Therapist & Yoga Therapy In San Diego

Yoga is a holistic healing aproach that helps you to support your health.

Whether you just want to maintain or enhance your wellness, or if you need support for chronic conditions in any area, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.   

Support your physical body through asanas.

Support your energy and focus your mind through practice of specific breathing techniques.

Go inward through self-guided and meditation practice to be aware of your feelings, and learn how to express yourself functionally. 

Independent of age, gender, ability or beliefs, Viniyoga was created to fit the individual needs, so anybody can practice.    

Yoga as Therapy is a post from: San Diego Massage Therapist & Yoga Therapy In San Diego