Mountain Views News          Saturday, November 8, 2014

9

HEALTHY LIFESTYLES

Mountain Views-News Saturday, November 8, 2014


THE JOY OF YOGA

DON’T MISS SAVASANA! 



I can say that 
I long for 
Savasana at the 
very beginning 
of class! When 
do I ever get a 
chance to rest and lay completely still? Unless I’m 
sleeping, almost never. Savasana, or corpse pose, is 
almost always the final pose of a group yoga class. 
It’s one of the most important poses we can do. 
If Savasana is not part of the class you attend, 
find a different class! The benefits of it are 
immense. It’s where we absorb and assimilate 
all the benefits of the practice. It’s incredibly 
refreshing and soothing to the body and mind to 
rest completely without effort. All the great benefits 
seep in: peace, calm, acceptance and confidence. 
In this all important pose, we lay down on 
our backs and allow the legs to stretch out. 
Our arms stay along our sides with the palms 
facing up.We let go of any effort with the 
breath and keep our eyes closed. As we feel the 
support of the floor beneath us, we relax any 
remaining areas where we might be “holding.” 
If we need extra comfort in Savasana, place a 
bolster underneath the knees to assist with lower 
back pain or a thin blanket under the head. We 
need to make sure we’re warm enough too. 
Savasana can be particularly hard to complete 
in our home practice. We might feel there’s not 
time to just lay down and do nothing. Set a timer, if 
even just for 3 minutes, so you don’t have to worry 
about the time. This easy pose is so essential; 
it’s like hitting the reset button on the body and 
mind. Refreshed, calm, and ready to do the day. 
See you in class, 


Keely Totten

Yoga Madre

GIVE YOUR HEALTH A BOOST 

WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH

Butternut squash is a 
variety of winter squash. 
However, winter squash 
is grown in the summer 
and harvested in the 
fall so how come it is 
called winter squash? 
That’s because winter 
squashes have a hard 
thick skin making 
them ideal to be stored 
for several months and 
eaten during the winter 
season. Butternut 
squash, called butternut 
pumpkin in Australia, is 
a great vegetable to add 
to your diet this time of year because it is in season. 
If it’s in season then it’s going to be fresher, tastier 
and less expensive than any other times of the year. 
Butternut squash is full of potassium and vitamin 
A. It is also fat free, low in calories and high in 
fiber. A big push in my practice is to get my clients 
eating more plant foods like butternut squash 
because vegetables are associated with decreasing 
the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and 
overall mortality. You get all of those benefits from 
increasing your intake of high fiber vegetables plus 
a healthy complexion, increased energy, and overall 
lower weight.

 Butternut squash has a naturally sweet, nutty 
taste but as it ripens, it increasingly turns a deeper 
orange and becomes sweeter and richer. It provides 
significant amounts of potassium, important for 
bone health. It is also high in vitamin B6, essential 
for the proper function of both the nervous and 
immune systems. 

 Hopefully you have heard that you should eat 
a rainbow of colorful foods. That is because there 
are benefits to all the different colors. In the case 
of butternut squash, its orange color provides an 
abundance of the powerhouse nutrients known as 
carotenoids, shown to protect against heart disease. 
In particular, it has high levels of beta-carotene, 
which your body automatically converts to vitamin 
A. The vitamin A derived from butternut squash 
helps to produce sebum which helps keep your hair 
moist. 

 So if you have never bought a butternut squash 
you are missing out. Try it baked, roasted or 
mashed with cinnamon, maple syrup or balsamic 
vinegar …it’s all good!

Dr. Tina is a traditional 
naturopath and nutritionist 
at Vibrant Living 
Wellness Center


A Word From The Editor: I’m proud to introduce a new voice to our Mountain View News team!

AMANDA ROGERS is a published author, life coach, somatic experiencing practitioner and professional 
speaker. She is a resident of Arcadia and member of our Sierra Madre community where she a runs her Life 
Coaching practice. In addition to her private sessions she leads a variety of adult workshops and has toured 
High Schools motivating young people through her various seminars which include; The Art of Decision 
Making, Healthy Boundaries, Personal Values and Compare/Despair (bringing social comparison theory 
to light.) Amanda is an award-winning playwright best known for her comedic interpretations of life’s more 
dramatic questions. Her column with The Mountain View News will explore, expose and even challenge 
what we think of life’s infinite quandaries as well as its day-to-day conundrums. Look for her article today 
in the Healthy Lifestyles section. You will find her column here the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month. 
You can also read more about her at her website amandarogerscoaching.com. Welcome aboard, Amanda!

FROM CHEESE TO CHANGE by Amanda Rogers

Mmm…Velveeta cheese. The color, texture, taste – the packaging! It was like finely aged Camembert 
to my six year old taste buds. Today, you couldn’t pay me enough money to ingest that neon block 
of rubbery cheese food. So what happened? Did my taste buds develop? Mature? Or could it be that 
they simply…changed? 

What is change? If my pallet can change, does that mean the rest of me is capable of change? You 
know, the other parts…the quirks, the neuroses, the way I deal with random Lego pieces left all over 
the living room rug. No doubt we’ve all been motivated a time or two or twenty by an enlightening 
book, or inspiring sermon or maybe our child’s Karate Master with the soulful eyes. But what happens 
to that inspiration? Does it ever last? Or are we simply inspired for a brief period of time to “slip into” 
or “try on” a newer, fresher attitude, quality or philosophy? At the end of the day, like the designer 
clothes we package ourselves in, do these new skins fall to the ground as we climb back into our 
comfy, old, not always redeeming but certainly familiar, flannels? 

For those who can pull off the transformation, how long do they have to wear this new skin before we 
are convinced of their metamorphosis? Does the celebrity at the center of the newest scandal need 
to spend the next month, year or decade living a life of integrity (enjoying French cheese, if you will) 
before the public is satisfied that he or she has changed? At what point will we stop digging through 
his or her trash in search of empty boxes of Velveeta? 

Can people’s morals, behaviors, fundamental natures change like their sense of taste? Whose 
demonstration of change can we really trust? I believe the answer is…our own. The only way to trust 
that people can make profound and lasting changes is to start with ourselves. In my own life I have 
set forth on a mission to change a quality that does not serve me. A tweak, if you will, on the original 
design. Nothing too enormous but the change could have enormous positive results. 

Give it a try. We should all take a lesson from our taste buds… some things just don’t taste so good 
anymore. 

Amandarogerscoaching.com 

CALIFORNIA CITY BECOMES FIRST IN THE 
NATION TO PASS SUGARY DRINK TAX MEASURE


LOS ANGELES, Nov. 5, 2014 – California made 
history yesterday – continuing its role as a public 
health leader. From clean indoor air to happy 
meal incentive ordinances, California has led the 
way. The voters of Berkeley delivered a big win for 
not only the health of their children, but children 
across the country by demonstrating that cities 
have the power to initiate positive change.

 “We commend Berkeley for rejecting the false 
arguments of ‘Big Soda’ and standing up for 
what is right for their community,” said Alistair 
Phillips, MD, Board Member of the American 
Heart Association Los Angeles Division and Co-
Director of the Congenital Heart Program at 
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “Families declared 
no to nutritionally void products and proclaimed 
yes to a heart healthier generation of kids.”

 Evidence shows adults should not consume 
more than 36 ounces, or 450 calories, each week 
yet the average 8-year-old boy consumes eight 
servings, or 64 ounces, each week. These statistics 
are even higher for our children of color and those 
who live in communities with limited access to 
healthy food and beverages. 

 The American Heart Association is proud 
to stand with the residents of Berkeley as they 
become the first city in our nation to deliver a 
victory against big soda. Berkeley’s Measure D 
raised more than $325,000 in cash – including 
$23,000 from the American Heart Association – 
and nearly $412,000 in in-kind contributions. In 
all, the beverage industry spent about $10 million 
to defeat Measure D and Proposition E in San 
Francisco.

 “The American Heart Association is proud of 
Berkeley’s game-changing passage of Measure D 
and thank the more than 50% of San Francisco 
voters who cast a “yes” vote for children’s health,” 
said Kathy Rogers, Executive Vice President of 
the American Heart Association Western States 
Affiliate. “Multiple solutions are needed to address 
the obesity epidemic and this is a first step in our 
efforts to build healthier environments and reduce 
poor health outcomes especially within our at-risk 
communities.” 

About the American Heart Association 

 The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke – America’s 
No. 1 and No. 4 killers. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger 
public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The 
Dallas-based association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart 
disease and stroke. To learn more or join us, call 1-800-AHA-USA1 or any of our offices around the country, 
or visit heart.org.


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com