If you’re looking for a chocolate fix that will appease your carb cravings without sacrificing your waistline, try this recipe. It’s a fairly guilt-free indulgence — the angel food cake is low in calories and fat and the dark chocolate is high in flavonoids and antioxidants. This cake is satisfying without any type of icing or chocolate sauce, but if you want to add something to it, try some fresh berries. Yum!

Ingredients:
   Angel Food Cake Mix
   Instant coffee or espresso powder
   4 Tbsps - unsweetened cocoa powder
   1 Cup - semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Prepare the cake mix as directed replacing water with strong instant coffee/espresso.  Add cocoa and chocolate chips. Continue as directed on the cake mix.

Nutritional information per slice (12 slices per cake)
Calories: 197
Fat: 4.5 g
   Saturated fat:  2.6 g
   Monounsaturated fat: 1.5 g
Sodium: 256 mg
Potassium: 146 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 39 g
   Dietary Fiber:  1.5 g
   Sugars: 23 g
Protein: 3 g

I love yoga.  I’m not very adept at it — I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to do a handstand or the wheel, but I love the way I feel after a practice. My muscles are fatigued, yet I feel limber and strong.   I know I’ve worked every part of my body. But sometimes I want something more relaxing … more soothing, so this morning after my workout and before my shower, I took a few moments to try a restorative yoga pose called Simple Supported Back-bend.

The purpose of this particular asana is to open your shoulders and chest, stretch the lower back, relieve stress, relax your body and renew your energy. You lay with a bolster under the middle of your back, a small towel under your neck and an eye pillow over your eyes.  And then you just sink into the floor and breathe. Mmmmm … simply wonderful.

Restorative Yoga

Restorative yoga is a gentle, therapeutic style of yoga. Props such as pillows, blankets, blocks and sandbags, are used to support the body to deepen the benefits of the poses. It’s a nurturing practice that promotes the effects of conscious relaxation. Judith Lassater, restorative yoga teacher and author of Relax and Renew, writes  “by supporting the body with props, we alternately stimulate and relax the body to move toward balance. Some poses have an overall benefit. Others target an individual part, such as the lungs or heart. All create specific, physiological responses which are beneficial to health and can reduce the effect of stress-related disease.”

Restorative yoga classes are popping up all over the world as its popularity increases.  We’re searching for ways to cope with the stresses and worries of our daily lives. And if that isn’t enough, the media bombards us with news that keeps us in a constant state of fear:  the recession, unemployment, healthcare, terrorism, wars, the energy crisis, global warming and the list goes on.  

Our bodies aren’t built to handle stress for lengthy periods. Stress is the body’s defense mechanism – it’s a physiological response to a life-threatening situation. When we perceive danger, adrenaline is released into our systems — heart rate, blood pressure, mental alertness and muscle tension are increased, while other systems temporarily shut down. When the situation is resolved, the body returns to normal.

In a chronically-stressed state, the body is continuously agitated. Its capacity to heal itself is jeopardized, preventing recovery from an existing illness or injury, or creating a new one, like high blood pressure, ulcers, chronic pain, immune dysfunction, reproductive problems, sleep disorders and depression. In the United States alone, depression affects nearly 1 in 4 people each year, 74.5 million people have high blood pressure and 26.6 million have been diagnosed with heart disease .

Health Benefits

Recent research has proven the many health benefits of practicing restorative yoga.  A study published in Psycho-Oncology showed that ovarian and breast cancer patients who participated in a 10-week program reported a significant reduction in depression and anxiety levels and a marked increase in energy.

A 2007 study of postmenopausal women published in Maturitas Journal found a 30-percent decrease in hot flashes after eight 90-minute restorative yoga classes.

Dr. Herbert Benson, founding President of the Mind Body Medical Institute and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School is the pioneer of mind body medicine. His research has found that relaxation techniques, like meditation, yoga and tai chi, actually change the physiologic and genetic substance of the body. The practice of conscious relaxation breaks the panic-like train of thought that stress induces, causing the brain to change, breathing and heart rate to slow and blood pressure to drop. Any condition of the body that is affected by stress, benefits from these changes.

David Spiegel, M.D., author of Living Beyond Limits, reports “In medicine, we are learning that physical problems, such as high blood pressure and heart disease, can be influenced by psychological interventions, such as relaxation training. Indeed, the Food and Drug Administration issued a report recommending these non-drug approaches as the treatment of choice for milder forms of hypertension. Mind and body are connected and must work together, and this should be a powerful asset in treating medical illness.”

For more information about Restorative Yoga, read Relax and Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times, by Judith Lasater, Ph.D.,P.T. To find a class  near you, visit her website:  http://www.restorativeyogateachers.com/

If you’re like a lot of people, you may have considered meditating but don’t feel you have the time. Or maybe you’ve tried meditating but you can’t seem to get it right … your mind wonders, you can’t sit still or you fall asleep. You just can’t do it! But meditating for short spurts of time can still have benefits.  If you have a minute, you can meditate. It can take just 45 seconds to de-stress and calm your mind.

Before you begin, try this little experiment.  Breathe through your mouth. Note the expansion of your chest and stomach and the speed of the breath.  Now breathe through your nose and notice the difference. As you breathe through your nose, the lungs and diaphragm expand, pulling the air to the bottom of your lungs. By breathing through your nose, the lungs fill more slowly and have more time to extract the oxygen from the air you pull in, so more oxygen is delivered into your bloodstream and into your brain.

Three Deep Breaths

Close your eyes and take three slow, deep breaths, pausing after the inhale and after the exhale. Be sure to exhale completely, but don’t force the breath. Let your diaphragm relax as you breathe in and gently contract as you breathe out. Think only of your breath.

Now open your eyes. Notice how your thoughts have slowed, your mind is calmer and your body, relaxed.

This is so easy and you can do it anywhere at anytime. If you find yourself in a situation that causes stress, pause for three deep breaths — when you’re standing in a long checkout line, or you’re on a deadline at work, or stuck in a traffic jam, (you can do this with your eyes open), or trying to get the kids off to school in the morning … any situation that causes your blood to boil!  Or try practicing Three Deep Breaths once every hour to keep you calm and focused throughout the day.

Of course, this isn’t going to take you into a deep meditative state. But it will give you a clearer, calmer mind. You may find that, as you discover the advantages of this brief mindful practice, you’ll want more! The benefits of meditation are many: improved concentration, deeper levels of relaxation, reduced anxiety, decreased muscle tension and headaches, reduced pre-menstrual syndrome, pain management and an enhanced immune system.

Why not try it right now?