Katie's Wholesome Delicious Granola Recipe

Granola:

3c old fashioned oats
3/4c flour (wheat or white will do)
1/4c wheat germ and/or flax meal
1c chopped nuts of your choice ( I like walnuts and almonds)
1/4c brown sugar (light or dark, or omit if you want less sweetened granola)
1/2c maple syrup (or honey)
1/2c coconut oil

Mix dry ingredients well. Whisk together oil and syrup. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well with hands. Bake on a cookie sheet in a ~1/2in layer in an oven set at 250F, for 1 hour (stirring about half way through). Take out and let sit for about 5min, mix in dried fruits after baking (optional).  Store in an airtight container on the counter. Eat, drink and be merry!

The Body's Guide to Functioning Efficiently and Achieving Fitness Goals

A bonfire burns most efficiently if its structural integrity is intact~KBS

Two keys here: surface area, and airflow. To catch a flame (and especially a spark) you need as much surface area as possible for your flame to catch (which is why newspaper works so well.) But you also need air to be able to circulate and get to where the flame is. If you need a reason, look up oxidation. In a fire, cool air has to come in from the bottom to replace the hot air escaping from the top. Keep that in mind when building any fire.

Thank you berZirker for your Instructables and insight on how to build a bonfire

Over the course of my Masters work and as I began to understand more about human movement science and exercise science, I immediately started brainstorming ideas on how I could bring that knowledge to my community to help people move better, move pain free and reach their fitness goals in a healthy sustainable way. I'm a firm believer in doing things right the first time, even if that means taking the longer path. Usually the longer paths are well established and are strengthened by the interconnecting routes, building strong established paths take time! There are no quick fixes that are made to stand the test of time after all.

What is it about a bonfire that will help you achieve your fitness goals? The bonfire is an analogy I came up whilst out on a run, pondering ways to present this at an upcoming wellness workshop at Empowered Wellness. After a season of building fall afternoon bonfires in the backyard, I thought of how a bonfire is constructed and how it burns, why if you build it right it takes off in a blaze of glory and if you don't pay attention to details you'll easily end up with a bonfire that smolders and peters out.

So here's the analogy, consider these two scenarios

1) You throw a heap of wood into your fire pit and light a match to it. What happens? It does nothing, maybe the few of the outer splinters ignite then quickly die off. You decide to stuff some newspaper into the mix, the paper ignites the smolders and goes out. You bring out the big guns-the jug of gasoline (what I like to think of as fad diets and quick fix synthetic miracle fat burning, muscle building, energy boosting powders, pills, bars etc). What happens? It lights off like a rocket, you see results, you get excited until it too eventually smolders and dies out.

2) You crumple up a ball of newspaper, gather up your tinder (twigs, shaved wood, dried leaves, paper, bark, grass, dried pine needles, broken up pine cones etc), then your small kindling (small dry sticks) and medium kindling (wrist sized sticks) and logs (your fuel source). With the tinder in the center, teepee the small and medium kindling around the tinder and longs on top for a larger teepee with enough airflow and surface area to oxygenate the fire. Light the match and watch your masterpiece blaze! How does this relate to your body's ability to function and burn fuel? 

Consider a body who's spinal alignment is out of whack from injury, overuse movements, prolonged sitting in front of a computer monitor...the list goes on. The malalignment of the spine is symbolic of the heap of logs thrown into the fire pit. When the spine is out of alignment, the muscles that support and move the spinal column become imbalanced (weak in areas where they are not being used or are being compensated for creating overactive/tight muscles). This is often combined with a weakened intrinsic core stabilization system (not talking the 6 pack abs, I'm talking the small muscles that stiffen your spine protecting the nervous system while the larger mobilizers work to move your trunk and limbs-think transverse abdominis, multifidus, transversospinalis, internal oblique and pelvic floor muscle). 

Without the structural integrity of the spinal column intact, the nervous system becomes inefficient. With decreased neural stimulation to the muscles, muscles become inhibited, weakened, prone to injury susceptible to altered force-coupled relationships between muscles that work synergistically to produce movement (ie, weak muscles become weak, and their supporting and/or opposing muscles pick up for the slack and become overactive) thus fueling the muscle imbalance and malalignment. 

Why is this important? Whether your fitness goal is to move without pain, lose that spare tire around your waist, run a marathon or increase your overall strength, if you're neuromuscular system isn't functioning efficiently (those nerves aren't efficiently and effectively reaching those muscles) your efforts may be hindered. For instance, more neural input to muscles, means more muscle fibers recruited, means more energy required to fuel those muscles (fuel means more calories), more calories burned means improved metabolic function resulting in decreased fat mass. 

Let your hard work and efforts mean more, get those imbalances in check (pay a visit to an NASM CPT and CES for Personal Training with a focus on corrective exercise), strengthen your core, work on realigning your spine through strength, stretching, breathing and posture, perhaps visit a chiropractor. Fuel YOUR fire, ACHIEVE your goals, LIVE your dreams!

Thick and Creamy Homemade Yogurt

Ingredients:

1qt milk (this recipe works well with 1%, 2% or whole milk)

1/2c powdered milk

2T plain yogurt (with live cultures)

Directions:

Pour a quart of milk and 1/2c powdered milk into a heavy bottom saucepan. Lately, I've had lots of success with my cast iron dutch oven. I can do everything all in one pot, less to clean up afterward.

Heat milk over medium-low heat until it reaches 180 F degrees, stirring constantly to avoid burning the milk on the bottom of your pan. Remove from heat and cool to 110-115 F degrees 

Scoop out about 1/2 cup of the warmed milk and in a Pyrex or bowl and add 2T room temp plain yogurt (any plain yogurt will do, Greek yogurt makes for a wonderful yogurt. Make sure your yogurt culture has plenty of active live cultures in it for optimal results). Whisk together, add the yogurt milk mixture to the warmed milk in the saucepan and whisk thoroughly. 

Pour mixture into a quart sized Mason jar, cover tightly then place the jar in a warmed crock (I let mine heat up on low for about 30min, then unplugged it). The crock will have to be sealed to keep the heat in, so if you have a shorter crock, you may have to lay your mason jar horizontally.

Wrap the crock with a thick towel and a fleece blanket to keep it warm OR if you are heating your milk in a cast iron dutch oven, you can mix everything in the dutch oven, wrap it and leave it to culture OR if you have a large enough food dehydrator you could place your mason jar directly into the dehydrator and set the temperature at around 105 F.  Let yogurt sit bundled up in blankets overnight (or for 8-10hrs, the longer it sits the more tart it is, I've made it in as little as 7hrs and it's very mild but still thick).Unbundle your yogurt after it's done culturing, store in the fridge.

 Add sweeteners, flavors, jams (strawberry rhubarb jam swirled in is wonderful), granola upon eating! Bon Appetit!

Using Your Breath to Improve Your Posture

We've all heard the old adage, take nice deep breaths especially in the face of stress. It's easier said than done though a pattern of shallow breathing can alters your breathing patterns thus directly impacting how your muscles, bones and nerves work together to create movement. 

With negative stress, our breathing becomes shallow causing our bodies to use "secondary respiratory muscles ( parasternal, scalenes, sternocleidomastoid, trapexius and pectoralis muscles) instead of "primary respiratory muscles" (diaphragm). http://www.dukechironyc.com/images/posture_back_6.jpg 

Over-activity and use of secondary respiratory muscles can cause muscle imbalances (muscle tightness in over-active muscles and weakening of under-active muscles), leading to headaches, dizziness, light-headedness and poor posture. Shallow breathing also limits your body's ability to take in adequate amounts of oxygen or rid itself of carbon dioxide leading to inefficient muscle function, decreased energy, muscle stiffness, anxiety, fatigue, poor circulation and poor sleep patterns. 

Remember to take some time to focus on your breath

Foot Fitness and Barefoot Training

Barefoot: Strength From Your Foundation Up

• Structures of: bones, ligaments, tendons, muscles and innervation

o The structures of the foot each work harmoniously to produce movement, decelerate movement, absorb shock, create a system of checks and balances by sending messages to the brain to aid in balance and serve as the foundation of the kinetic chain.

• Kinetic Chain and Arthrokinetics
o The “head bone’s connected to the neck bone, the neck bone’s connected to the shoulder bone….” All bones are connected and their articulations and movement influence the movement one another.

o What is the kinetic chain?
- Kinetic chain pertains to the body’s systems involved in producing movement (nervous, muscular and skeletal systems). If one of the components of the kinetic chain isn’t functioning properly, it will affect the other components and ultimately affect movement.

- Nerve endings (sensory receptors sense pain, pressure, movement to the brain causing an appropriate message to be sent to the muscles to dictate a physical response via movement. Increased use of those pathways, promotes efficiency and healthy function of the neuro-muscular systems. Barefoot allows the receptors to freely receive feedback, provide input to the brain and allow the body to respond in a way that produces safe and efficient movement.

- Nerves and proprioception. Proprioception is the sensing of your limbs during movement, important in keeping your spatially oriented, balanced, protected from faulty movement etc. The more sensory nerves you have exposed to the elements, the more messages are sent to the brain telling it what is going on with your limbs and the brain influencing the right movement at the right time. These neural pathways are important in adjusting gait to adapt to uneven ground, respond to a harmful stimulus (heat, pressure, tension etc).

- Blocking the sensory receptors can lead to delayed neural response, decreased neuro-muscular efficiency, decreased proprioception and decreased balance. The more your foot feels the more information is sent to your brain, the quicker it can send the right message to produce the right movement.

o How can weakness in the foot create low back pain?
- The muscles that support the feet and ankles are connected to and support knee movement, when there is weakness in the muscles of the lower leg, muscles of the upper leg also become imbalanced which can further contribute to faulty movement patterns and increased muscle imbalances of the knee, hip and ultimately spine.

o Raised heels and back pain

-When the heel is raised, the foot is put in a position of plantar flexion forcing the body forward at the ankle. In order to maintain eye level along the horizon and to avoid falling forward, the upper body is brought back into upright position at the hip, anteriorly tilting the pelvis and putting the lumbar spine in a position of hyper-extension which can ultimately lead to low back pain. Muscle imbalances ensue leading to more faulty and painful movement.

So, Why Barefoot?:
-Ankle, knee and hip stabilization
-Increased neuromuscular efficiency and balance
-Proper spinal alignment
-Increased body awareness
-Decreased impact and ground collision force
-It's fun
-It's empowering
-It's inexpensive
-It's natural

Exercises you can do to strengthen your feet and ankles (a count of 8 for each exercise is a sufficient start)

-Point (plantarfex) and flex (dorsiflex): while sitting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_7V4hxLiHU

-Alternate touching your big toe to the floor (eversion) to your pinkie toe (inversion) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia1LXBbgCF4

-Toe raises: with your foot flat on the floor, lifting only your toes (keeping the lateral arch or "ball" of your foot on the floor)

-Splaying your toes, while sitting work on spreading your toes apart slowly with each day you'll find that the distance between each toe increases. Work on both feet

-Foot fold: while standing, bring your heel high up off the floor coming up onto your lateral arch. Raise and lower your heel dynamically one foot at a time.

- Toe challenge! While standing, aim to touch only your big toe and pinkie toe to the floor while lifting the middle 3 toes

-Toe curls: while standing, lay a paper towel or small thin rag on the floor, while curling your toes scrunch the towel under your foot. Then pick it up with your toes. Have fun with it!

-Walking around barefoot on different surfaces is also great stimulation for the feet and ankles.

Start slowly and ease your way in, eventually you'll have strong solid feet and ankles.