Summer is coming and this week I would like to invite you to put your focus on water. Whether that water is on the inside or outside of your body — it’s going to do you tons of good. Drinking enough water when starting a new exercise program actually helps you burn more fat, and if that wasn’t enough — it also makes us less bloated. When the water balance is right in the body, it doesn’t have to hold on to water so bloating and water retention diminishes. A good rule of thumb is to drink half of your body weight in ounces. I squeeze some lemon juice in my water to make it more attractive to my senses.

It’s time to also think about water aerobics and swimming. Water takes the pressure off of joints and ligaments so if you are overweight, have knee or other joint issues, or if you are pregnant, swimming is something you can always do safely. Also, since you are moving your whole body while swimming you’re doing one of the best fat burning cardio exercises there is. It’s also something that can be a meditative workout. The repetitive motion while doing the breaststroke, cutting through the water, which is caressing the body, breath after breath, can help you release the tension and clear the mind from thoughts of worry and information. And knowing how important it is to take in enough oxygen, swimming trains your lungs to work more efficiently, which makes the whole experience a well rounded, highly effective workout for you on every level.

This week I would like you to challenge yourself with making it to a pool, inside or outside, and swim a few laps. Enjoy the experience with all of your senses, trusting that it is one of the best workouts you will have this week. Is it something you like? How does being in the water make you feel? Is this the workout you have been waiting to find for a truly joyful experience?

Let me know how it goes and Live Life Loud!

 Tanja

Ecotourism is one of those emergent buzzwords that’s slippery in terms of definitions.  Usually understood as a sustainable approach to travel that both respects and protects natural environments, ecotourism is also associated with preserving local cultures – and it’s in that vein that I send this post from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, one of the world’s greatest celebrations of roots music, regional food and unique traditions.

Jazz Fest celebrates its 39th anniversary this year, morphing from an early ‘70s city celebration in Congo Square to an internationally hailed 7-day party that draws hundreds of thousands to the New Orleans Fairgrounds on the last weekend of April and the first weekend of May.  The fact that the festival has continued since Hurricane Katrina drowned this city in 2005 and drove out so many of its native musicians is no small miracle, and a tribute to the tenacity and passion of those who make and love New Orleans music.

For the cost of a $35 ticket I spent eight sun-soaked hours making the rounds of the Fest’s 12 stages, with a few thundershowers tossed in to mud up the infield for a sticky two-step in front of the Fais Do-Do stage.  I grooved to jazz crooners Bobby McFerrin and Diana Krall, gave a standing-O to rising blues chanteuse and guitar scorcher Ruthie Foster, and mellowed out to Jimmy Buffett’s margarita melodies at the end of the day.  While the national acts are a great bargain, despite steady ticket-price hikes in recent years (especially post-Katrina), it’s the homegrown musicians that are the true treasure here. 

This is my fifth Jazz Fest, and I’ve become as avid as Louisianians are about Snooks Eaglin and Sonny Landreth, the Radiators and the Dixie Cups, families Neville and Marsalis, brass bands and Mardi Gras Indians, 17-year-old fiddler phenom Amanda Shaw and 60-something soul queen Irma Thomas, Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr. and the Zydeco Twisters, and Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas. 

Yes, Jazz Fest is so much more than just the best jazz in the world.  Swirled together in a spicy musical gumbo are Dixieland, blues, funk, gospel, Cajun and swamp pop that owe homage to this indomitable city that’s birthed or nurtured them all.  No city in the world can match New Orleans’ fervor for music, or its legacy of local talent.  Or for that matter, its food.  Jazz Fest fare is renowned, with vendors serving up take-away portions of every conceivable culinary concoction from bay and bayou. 

As with the too-rich slate of simultaneous musical offerings, it’s sweet torment to choose among the Cajun and Creole favorites that don’t eschew butter or the frying pan:  Catfish with pecan sauce or trout meuniere?  Crab jambalaya or alligator sausage gumbo?  Shrimp or oyster po-boy– or combo?  Crawfish puff, crawfish purse, crawfish pie, crawfish boudin, or Crawfish Monica?  Oh, and will it be white chocolate bread pudding, pecan pie, or beignets and café au lait?  My only regret is that I don’t have the stomach capacity to try them all.

Jazz Fest embodies all that is unique and fabulous about New Orleans.  And New Orleans is, above all, an emanation of the human spirit. New Orleans captures our capacity for creativity, for community, for pleasure and for pain.  Even if the levees are repaired to withstand another Katrina or worse, New Orleans’ fate is dicey at best.  Global climate change promises bigger storms and higher seas.  New Orleans sits in a sinking bowl.  As a rational person, I wouldn’t bet on the French Quarter balconies cresting the waves in another century.  But as a hopeful, emotional, spiritual person, I can’t imagine a world without New Orleans.  I hope I’m here to see you at the 89th Jazz and Heritage Festival, when I’m just shy of the century mark myself. 

Our son is turning 18 this summer, which qualifies him to vote in the upcoming presidential election. When I turned 18, the draft had just been disbanded. I’ve heard my oldest brother talk about his brush with the draft, his near induction. Even though my dad was a military man, us five kids were all vehemently opposed to serving in the military. Like my wife Colleen’s mom and dad, Colleen and I would be the first to pack our bags to immigrate if any of our children were drafted. The thought of sending an 18- to 25-year-young person to war is completely incomprehensible to us.

In my college years, I was studying philosophy and physical therapy. In those years, physical therapy was just being implemented throughout the nation in health care facilities. Much of the boon to the physical therapy profession can be attributed to the Vietnam War. Many times, being a witness to a disabled vet on street corner, I have realized the importance of yoga with its practice for the mind, body, and spirit. With all the maimed minds and bodies from the present Iraqi war, I realize how important it is to teach yoga techniques. I truly believe that yoga will be an irreplaceable lifeline that alleviates much of the unbearable suffering of these soldiers.

Every week we highlight the best articles, blogs, news, videos and interesting Web tidbits to help you live green, be healthy, and connect with your sense of spirituality. Read our roundup for info that just helps you live better.

The Ozone Hole Auctioned on eBay

For the first time in history The Ozone Hole is up for sale on eBay! Everyone has heard of The Ozone Hole! This your opportunity to own a truly “one of a kind collectible”! (eBay)

50 Ways To Help The Earth

Are you at a loss when it comes to finding ways to lead a more eco-friendly lifestyle? No worries! This awesome chart has 50 great ideas for low-impact living that you can use. Try a different one each day, and you’ll be green in no time.

The Spiritual Lessons of the Environmental Crises

Not only are we connected in the most physical sense, but we are connected in many other ways. Let’s think for a moment. What would it be like if we made choices that reflected the concept that everything is connected? What might be different in our lives if we really knew that what we thought, felt and did affected others? (The LOHASian)

Happy Feet

Give your feet just a little attention, and your whole body will feel better. They hold us up all day long, they get us everywhere we need to go, and they connect our bodies to the earth. Some yoga teachers even call the feet the “roots” of the body. (YogaJournal)

Judge Orders Federal Government to Decide Polar Bear Listing

Siding with conservation groups, a federal judge has rejected a government request for further delays and ordered it to decide by May 15 whether polar bears should be listed as a threatened species because of global warming. You can sign a petition to ensure that polar bears receive protection on the WeCanSolveIt site. (Associated Press / Yahoo News)

Tree-Lined Streets ‘Cut Asthma’

Children who live in tree-lined streets have lower rates of asthma, a New York-based study suggests. Columbia University researchers found that asthma rates among children aged four and five fell by 25% for every extra 343 trees per square kilometre. (BBC)

Kid Friendly Recipes: Organic Tofu Vegetarian Pot Pie

This recipe is a great way to pack a bunch of veggies into your child, and it is perfect in all seasons. In the winter, we enjoy its warming qualities, and in the summer we pack it full of garden veggies. (Eco Child’s Play)

Swap Out Your Lawn’s Grass for Moss

It’s all about the moss. Instead of ripping it up or spraying it with killer chemicals, more homeowners are growing it, and that’s very good news for the environment. Why? It grows fast and prevents erosion. It also grows thick and repels weeds, so you aren’t tempted to buy weedkillers. Deer don’t bother it, and it doesn’t need fertilizer or much water. (The Daily Green)

VIDEO: Eating Chocolate With Good Intentions

Fans of the film What The Bleep Do We Know!? will know all about Japanese scientist Dr. Masaru Emoto’s work with well intentioned water, which is further explored in the new film Water (and comes conveniently pre-packaged by our friends at H2Om). Now it seems that chocolate can benefit in a similar way from good vibrations. (Daily Mantra)

Sign Up For the GaiamLife Weekly Newsletter and Win $250!

We’re giving away a $250 Gaiam.com Shopping Spree every month until August. All you have to do for a chance to win is sign up for our newsletter, which features tips for maximizing your health, lightening your footprint and expanding your mind. A new winner is announced every month!

Its time to hit the weights and get into some serious resistance training and stretching! These two go together like peanut butter and jelly (organic natural peanut butter and sugar free jelly, of course). 

A few days ago, a dear friend of mine, and an amazing nutrition coach who works with my personal training clients, called me up with a worried voice. She told me that since she started weight training with her trainer six weeks ago, she was actually feeling bigger and had experienced no significant weight loss. “Am I doing the right thing, why is this not working?”

In the beginning of an aggressive resistance program, the muscle fibers break (the tiny little sheeth which surrounds the muscle fibers) and that is one of the reasons why we get sore. In order for the body to build up again, we of course have to take in the right nutrition (which was week 2 of the challenge!) and another thing that happens is water retention since the body is in a state of healing. A “feeling” of being bloated is present for a while, and then with proper hydration, rest and stretching, the muscles slowly heal, and the body gets used to the added force, and there we are, tadaaaaa: results! That experience of a period of  bloating and weight gain is something I hear from most women I train with, and we all know how that can confuse our minds, and invite Criticism and Judgement over for dinner.

But the fact is that combined right, and implemented slowly, resistance training for muscle endurance and mass is the MOST effective investment in your healthy body! Building a dense muscle, will make your body into a calorie burning machine, and soon you will reap the benefits of strength, metabolism, and having a body you can go outside and experience adventures with. I am recommending a slow start with the resistance: begin with getting my Total Body Cross Trainer or Balance Ball Core DVDS, implement it twice per week, and rotate with a Yoga for Athletes by Rodney Yee. When you feel that you have gained strength and endurance, within about 4-8 weeks, change your workout up, and really reap the benefits of your new body.

Many new sensations are going to find their way into your world, or as another new client exclaimed to me the other day: “I cannot believe I waited so long to start moving! Not only do I feel like I have endless energy, but my husband sends his love and says thank you!” 

Please let me know how it goes and Live Life Loud!

Tanja