Crunches – done regularly – are the easiest and best exercise for toning the abs. We all know it. We all get a little bored with crunches, though. So let’s try reverse crunches – an exercise that works the lower abs (a real problem area for women).

1. Lie on your back with your hands palms down just beneath your buttocks and your back pressed flat to the floor.
2. Bend your legs a little at the knees, cross your ankles, and lift your legs above you, feet to the ceiling.
3. Contract (squinch) your lower abs to pull your hips up off the floor a few inches and release. This movement is small and controlled. Don’t use momentum (rocking) to move your hips or legs, just tighten up those lower abs and your hips will lift. Exhale as you contract your abs and keep your knees bent at the same angle throughout.
4. Repeat two sets of 8-12 repetitions, resting for 15 seconds between sets.

In the spirit of the holiday week (Canada Day on July 1 and the Fourth of July in the USA), and all the picnics and cookouts and parties that summer holidays bring, we’re sharing an excellent recipe for non-dairy ice “cream.” You don’t even need an ice cream maker!

Member Kim in IN shared this recipe and its variations with us. She says, “It is really a ‘cool’ way to serve my family fruit during this hot and humid time of year. My son wanted to know if he could have some for breakfast. At first I said, ‘No. You can’t have ice cream for breakfast.’ Then I got to thinking about it. Why not? It is just fruit!”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Banana Ice “Cream”
Blue * Serves 2

2 bananas
a little almond milk

Peel, slice and freeze 2 bananas. When they’re frozen, place the bananas in a food processor with a very little almond milk and process. (Note: A blender does not work for this; use a food processor or VitaMix.)

A few minutes later: Pure banana ice cream!

Options:

• Put the banana ice cream in freezer pop molds and freeze until firm.
• Add 1/2 cup strawberries for strawberry-banana ice cream.
• Add 1/2 cup blueberries for blueberry-banana ice cream.
• Replace 1 banana with 1 mango, diced and frozen, for mango-banana ice cream.
• Replace 1 banana with 1 peach, diced and frozen, for peach-banana ice cream.
• Add 1 Tablespoon non-alkaline cocoa powder for chocolate-banana ice cream.
• If you don’t like bananas, you can use other fruit, but it’s the banana that gives it the right consistency.

It’s the celebration of Canada’s birth from two British colonies and a British province in 1867.

Fireworks, parades and community celebrations are in order – just as they will be over the weekend in the USA for the Fourth of July.

It all makes us think about identity and independence.

• Are you the person you want to be? Do you know who you want to be? Maybe write it in a journal, or make a vision board – articulate who you want to be. After all, it’s really hard to get there if you don’t know where “there” is.
• Are there habits you’d like to change? Of course we’re thinking about healthy habits – drinking water, daily exercise, eating veggies, flossing your teeth. How about walking away from gossip, confronting intolerance, or dropping the victim act? What about letting go of a grudge? Taking the first step in reconnecting with an old friend or a new neighbor?
• Are there things you want to try? This is the Bucket List question. Maybe this is the year you try skydiving, or swinging on the trapeze, or taking a dance class, or learning a new language, or a new hair color. Maybe this is the year you decide to forgive someone.
• How do you voice your independence? Maybe it’s in paying your way, literally. Maybe it’s in speaking up and speaking out. Are you wrapped up in someone else’s expectations for you – or are you making your own choices? Even if they’re not great choices, do you own them?

Find a way to celebrate your own identity and independence this week.

THE ROLE OF YOUR LIFE: ACTING HEALTHY!
July 2-5, 2010
Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Register now! Call 866-200-5203 and give yourself the gift of personal transformation.

Imagine the person you would most like to be—your idealized self—and spend a weekend setting about becoming that person, as if she or he were a character in a script, and you were the actor cast in the part.

Not an actor, you say? Don’t worry. We are all actors. Think of how you act peppy when you really want to take a nap. Acting is the ultimate art of transformation, and it comes about as a result of searching, observing, analyzing, discovering, and building your character from within.

Finding the fit and healthy person you are isn’t as easy as you might think. Your body is programmed with years of muscle memory. In order for change to be long-lasting, much of your negative muscle memory needs to be reprogrammed.

This workshop is your opportunity to start that reprogramming in a soul-searching transformation, a journey to find the person you are capable of being—not just for the next few days, but for the rest of your long, healthy, and productive life. In other words, come play!

Call 866-200-5203 to register.

Program cost: $325
A range of accommodations and meal plans are available.

Other activities are available at Kripalu, too – music, dancing, yoga, hiking, etc. Take advantage of this opportunity to attend a life-changing workshop with Marilu at a world-renowned retreat center. It may be the best gift you give yourself all year.