This just brings me back to the fact that for all our efforts, mankind’s ability to circumvent the way our body responds to nature is still limited in many ways. This news comes nearly 75 years after the invention of sunscreen in 1936. It would be interesting to read the news 75 years from today to see what things that we think are good for us today actually turn out to be bad for us.

Of course, the world doesn’t come crashing down with this news. Indeed, it’s just a reminder that we all need perspective in life, so we may effectively discern what is genuinely important. Otherwise, we may end up not getting what we want out of life, or not living at all.

And just to show I’m not just a harbinger of bad news, my mom actually sent me this other link. I’m not sure what’s funnier, the post itself, or the fact that my mom actually sends me stuff like this.

Tags: sunscreen, cancer, bad news, yoga, being drunk

As I was thumbing through this book, I was quite taken aback by the amount of information that was there: when foods are in season, the nutritional values, how to pick and prepare them for maximum nutritional value, and some quick and easy recipes with ingredients.

What I found most beneficial was the shopping list at the end. There is a one-page shopping list broken down into different categories: fruits, vegetables, protein, and spices. I found this pretty helpful because it kept me from buying any unnecessary or unhealthy foods.

Granted this book is text-book size and text-book heavy. But the amount of information contained within the pages is definitely worth the $40 I spent on it. I haven’t read the book cover to cover yet, but I think it is a good reference for when I want simple, quick and healthy dishes!

Tags: being healthy, healthy foods, The World’s Healthiest Foods, George Mateljan, eating healthy food

We were lucky enough to gain sponsorship from Nuun – makers of U hydration tablets – for our “Yoga, Health, and Happiness” conference last month. I got a chance to sample these effervescent vitamin and electrolyte tablets over the past few days, and I really like them. One thing I really like is that it is sweetened with Stevia Leaf extract – a natural low calorie sweetener…but that’s another blog post altogether.

Here are some of the vitamins in the U hydration tablets:
Vitamin A, C, B-6, B12, Riboflavin, Magnesium, Zinc, Potassium – and a few more.

If anyone is looking to kick up their water with a little flavor and electrolytes, U tablets are convenient and 100% natural!

Tags: nuun, u hydration, vitamin tablets, vitamin, hydration, U tablets

Monday was an interesting day. I woke up not in the best of moods. My energy level wasn’t normal, although I was able to function sufficiently enough. Occasionally during the “cycle,” you have those days where you just don’t feel like doing anything, but you have to push yourself to do things. So I managed to get to work, but didn’t feel like doing yoga. Okay, no problem. I will get a head start on what I need to do on this Monday morning.

I had my breakfast and started to work. About two hours later, I started to have shivers. I was walking up the stairs (maybe about ten steps) and when I reached the top of the stairs, I had to sit down. I had no energy after walking up the short flight of stairs. Furthermore, cramping started to get worse (before it had been manageable, but now it was bad).

Intolerable pain started seeping all over my body and I felt mentally and physically drained, even though all I was doing was just sitting there. Eventually, I started to break out into a cold sweat. Oh, no. This is definitely not good. I walked over to Christina’s office (I felt bad that she was on the phone and I had to interrupt her but hey, I wasn’t feeling well) and told her that I needed to lie down. In the short distance that I had traveled from the top of the stairs to her office, I was already sweating profusely. Drips of sweat were coming down my forehead as I told her that I needed to lie down.

So I went into another room and lay down, trying to focus on relieving my pain, which I found rather difficult because I was sweating so much (literally it felt like someone had poured a bucket of water over me). My clothes were completely soaked and I was cold. Focus on your breathing. Focus on your breathing. I kept repeating to myself.

The cramping was so bad that I wanted to curl into the fetal position (as it was most comfortable for me) but Christina insisted that I needed to stretch that area out, so she had me lie on my back. There were about two blankets on top of me as I was getting really cold.

A couple of hours later, after some homeopathic medicine and a good vomit, I felt much better. The sweat and pain subsided and I felt somewhat functional again and able to resume work. Albeit, I was still cold, so I had a blanket on me for the rest of the day. The weather didn’t help either, as it was raining.

When I got home, I took a nice, long, hot shower to try and warm up and was able to get a little bit warmer. And as I hopped into my bed to go to sleep, I had to have three more blankets on top of me just so I would feel “comfortable.”

This was definitely an interesting experience. As I recall in my younger days, I used to have these symptoms, but nothing as severe as this. I’m trying to figure out what could have caused such a bodily response, but I still can’t figure it out. Was it due to stress? Or was it something I ate? Could it possibly be the change in weather? I know I exercise daily and eat pretty well. I talked with Christina after this whole incident and she told me not to even try and logically understand it. Okay, don’t think about it. But what can I do to prevent something like this from happening again?

Needless to say, this whole incident was rather confusing and one that I would not like to repeat again.

Tags: monday, feeling sick, female issue, pms, sweating, being healthy

Once I got off from work on New Year’s Eve, I had a wonderful time focusing on my personal life and business during my three daysoff. However, having returned to work on Monday, I’ve already started being bombarded with things that I have to take care of, both for my regular work and my personal business. . I start working at 9 am, go home after 6 pm, and start taking care of my acting jobs until 2~3 in the morning every day. As everyone is aware, everything is on computer nowadays, so I recently calculated how long I’ve been using computer a day. It’s come out to 17 hours (!?) – minus probably one hour overall for eating lunch and taking a shower. I have even been skipping dinner every night during my crazy working hours.

I feel so bombarded even though I try not to. I try to take it easy. I’m surprisingly fine physically and emotionally at some level, though. But what is not cool is that my eyes have been burnt. It’s been very difficult to keep my eyes open and I sometimes get teary while looking at the computer. Every night I put cold eye pads on my eyes before going to sleep, but they didn’t work anymore. That’s how exhausted my eyes were. It’s hard to concentrate on anything when my eyes are like this. So last night I put warm towels on my eyes and went bed earlier, although it was still past midnight. .

It worked!! My eyes are less stressed this morning. I was so glad I’d listened to my body, which told me that my eyes didn’t need cold pads but hot towels.

I know from the bottom of my heart that I shouldn’t torture myself like this, but I still need to keep moving on until my body tells me to stop. I shall be very careful to open my heart and keep listening to what my body is telling me so that I can avoid being told  “it’s too late.”

Tags: bombarded, busy schedule, taking care of eyes, looking at computer, how to take care of eyes, instinct, listen to body

Since I grew up in the snow town of Sapporo in Japan, I knew what I had to watch out for to prevent myself from catching a cold. The first and most obvious thing was that it would be very cold (in some nights, it went to below 32°). Secondly, the small town of Prescott is located high in the mountains. Going from one location to another, especially to a high mountain, I knew that my body wouldn’t be able to adjust so quickly. Lastly – but what I was most afraid of – was the dryness. Many people believe that they catch a cold because of the cold weather but actually we catch a cold because of the dryness in the cold weather.

So I was smart enough to bring a neti pot!! Luckily, there was a big bathtub in my room, so I took a long hot bath every night, followed by my neti pot cleansing.

Since coming back from the short trip, I’ve been using the neti post almost every night because 1) at first, I was afraid that I would be again be affected by the changing of the location from the high mountain to the bottom, 2) I’ve been consuming a lot of sweets during the holidays, and 3) it’s still cold and dry in Los Angeles.

Thanks to the neti pot, I have not caught a cold but have actually felt so great. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve had this feeling during the wintertime! (I was always bothered by dry coughs every year… but not this time!!)

Please do take care of yourself and a Happy New Year!!!
Much love…

Tags: neti pot, neti pot cleansing, neti pot during the trip, film festival, red machine

In celebration of my recovery, I hit the gym for the first time in a couple of weeks, and it was tough, though not as tough as I thought it would be.

Part of it might be the fact that I’ve actually dropped a lot of weight in the last six months. I managed to part with 13 pounds, according to my doctor’s visit last week. This has happened without sacrificing much in the way of strength or muscle tone, at least if my last trip to the gym is any indication. This means my diet worked, and I’m ready to ramp up the calories again. Just in time for all the holiday feasts! Of course, I can’t be totally indulgent lest I undo all my recent hard work.

Also, now is the time to start brainstorming about possible New Year’s Resolutions. There can’t be too many. Otherwise, I will just fail at all of them. I’m thinking maybe punctuality, resuming my martial arts training, or something else…. The first two are probably a package deal. Doing the second without the first is a no bueno situation.

Presents are another holiday detail. Does anyone know where to get good chocolates or fruit basket type stuff? All ideas are welcome!

I thought it was important to bring this up because the cold season is upon us and you may come across this spray while perusing the cold remedy isle in your local drugstore. While the debate rages on about whether or not Zicam is directly responsible for a reported 130 cases of anosmia (loss of smell), I’ll take a pass on Zicam and stick to some Echinacea tea.

Tags: zicam, echinacea tea, loss of smell, anosmia, zinc, gluconate, nasal spray, fda

• Shortness of breath (dyspnea)
• Dry cough, runny nose or stuffy nose, scratchy throat and head congestion
• Chills
• Body aches (myalgia)
• Headache
• Fatigue or tiredness
• Sometimes diarrhea and vomiting

Well, that’s confusing because the above are all also the symptoms of the ‘Common Flu.’ It turns out the more serious symptoms of H1N1 are:

• Difficulty in breathing or shortness of breath
• Pain or pressure in the abdomen or chest
• Severe or persistent vomiting
• Confusion
• Sudden dizziness

The bottom line is that I don’t think the best thing to do is to rush to the emergency room screaming SWINE FLU at the top of my lungs. I’m sure that the docs are working overtime treating mild cases of influenza anyway. Oh well, my hot cup of apple cider vinegar and honey will have to suffice.

Tags: H1N1, swine flu, emergency room, common flu, feeling sick

When I got there, there was a ton of paperwork that I had to fill out first. When that was finally done and I saw him, he started asking more questions based on what I’d filled out so that he could understand more about the issues I’d been having. We mainly talked about the neck issue that I’ve been having, as well as my jaw, which I’ve been recently feeling uncomfortable with. Each time he filled out more paperwork and, eventually, after asking even more questions, he told me he had to consult his supervisor.

The whole process took almost two hours, including the time spent answering a bunch of questions and filling out the paperwork.

Then we finally went to an examination room so that he could do a physical check of my body. He kindly explained what was causing the pain in my neck and the uncomfortable feelings I had in other areas of my body. However, he also told me that I was very healthy. My posture was not as bad as I thought it was. When he heard that I practice yoga regularly, he told me that yoga definitely helped me out in some way. I agree. Whenever I become lazy and avoid yoga practice (like now), my body definitely feels itchy and  my neck feels uncomfortable.

I know in my head and heart that I should do yoga regularly but I’ve been making all sorts of excuses not to find time for my yoga practice. Isn’t it strange? Taking yoga classes is much cheaper than going to see a chiropractor. So what am I hesitating for?

Tags: neck issue, chiropractor, acupuncture, chiropractic school, yoga classes, yoga exercise, posture