Two guests today: Podcast available here

You can listen to Alive & Well Radio on AM1220 in SoCal or listen live online at http://hometownstation.com

1. Dan Holtz of the Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center on bio-identical hormones, and
2. Bernie Nelson, founder of the Pilates Round Table, on choosing health. It’s worth fighting for.

A quick synopsis for you…

Dan, super-interesting guy…  At 38 years old, he owned a construction company and was a fitness fanatic when he noticed that he couldn’t build muscle as easily anymore; he was gaining fat around his middle; his joints ached…  Yes, it sounded to me too like he was just simply aging. But, instead of accepting his body’s changes as normal, he chose to have doctors run tests and see what exactly was going on inside his body.  After years of research and dedication he was teamed up with physicians to help all of us understand the changes in our own bodies and using bio-identical hormones to help us be the best we can. No more weight gain, low libido, hair loss, depression, memory loss or insomnia.

Bernie joined us at the end of the show to share his insight in the world of fitness.  A former college athlete (football), Bernie has struggled with the aches and pains of the choices of his youth but has found a way to stay active and keep the weight off.  Listen to Bernie’s discussion about the importance of addressing obesity in our population as well as taking the step towards choosing health. You have to want to fight for it!

Podcast is available here

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I think 2010 could be called the Year of the Return of the Common Sense Committee.  I think possibly it is a residual effect of the lovely economy as people are not just leery of being duped by the financial system again but it has also made us look at all aspects of our lives. Who are we listening to and why? Is the product or advice we are buying into great advice or just great marketing?

Our most popular shows will change the way you think about health:

1. May 26. T. Colin Campbell, PhD, author of The China Study. He speaks about cancer prevention with food choices.  Did you know that correct food choices can lower your risk of cancer 35%.  And that percentage is extremely conservative!
2. September 8. Susan Brown, PhD, author of Better Bones, fills us in on osteoporosis: The Calcium Myth; Do you really need medication to increase your bone density; The Exercise that can reduce your fracture risk 300%
3. October 20. Lissa Rankin, M.D., author of What’s Up Down There, answers all your questions about the vagina but you were too embarrassed to ask!
4. November 3. Karena Thek Lineback (me!) and my co-host Crystal Lacy Edwards speak about medical exercise.  The best exercise for back pain, incontinence and better S-E-X!

Happy New Year Everyone!  Looking forward to working with you in 2011!

There are reasons I do Pilates and hike the basset hound 2-5 miles every day.  The first is because I just feel much better, beginning with my mood. The 2nd reason is dessert. I exercise so I can eat dessert and not look at (or care about) the calories in the recipe. This recipe is posted at @GyroGirl2’s request. Enjoy!

Makes 24

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2T raw sugar
• 2 T cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 4 pitted prunes (TRUST me)
• 4 T canola oil
• 4 T Rice milk (use soy or whatever else you have and like)
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 t vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Sift together the first six ingredients. Stir in the nuts and chocolate.

Pour 1/2 cup boiling water over the prunes (they should probably be in a bowl and not just on the counter). The prunes should soak for 5 minutes. Drain.

Place the prunes, canola oil, milk, maple syrup, and vanilla in a blender. Blend well and then stir into the chocolate mixture to form a dough. At this point, the biscotti almost didn’t make it to the oven.  I almost took the dough to the patio and had myself a party.  REALLY yummy.

Sprinkle some of the raw sugar on the parchment. Roll the dough into two long rolls.  Flatten a little so they are about 2″ wide. Sprinkle with more raw sugar.  Bake for 30 minutes, or firm to touch.  Cool on the counter for 10 minutes and then in the fridge for 2 hours.

After cool, bring it back out.  Cut into thin, biscotti-sized, slices and place back on a clean piece of parchment and into a 250 degree oven.  The slices should be lying flat.  Bake for 5-7 minutes on each side.  cool and store where you can keep moisture away from them. They should keep for 2 weeks. If they get a little soft, you can throw them back into a 250 degree oven.

Confessions of a non-cook.  This recipe was adapted from a super-gourmet cookbook that intimidates me to just open it. The book is The Artful Vegan by Millenium restaurant in the amazing San Francisco.  So here’s what I left out:  I used more bittersweet chocolate than I was supposed to because it was easier to find. What the recipe called for was about half of that chocolate along with about 5 teaspoons of cacoa nibs.  Never heard of ‘em and too introverted today to ask at the grocery store if they had ever heard of them.  The other ingredient that went by the wayside was whiskey. 4 tablespoons of it.  I didn’t substitute anything for that so the biscotti was probably drier than it should have/could have been. But really, this non-cook, didn’t notice anything missing. This was a really great biscotti recipe. Nice chunks of chocolate and walnuts.

It’s in the oven and it smells really, really good.  Before I finish writing, I’ll also let you know how it tastes. And because pilates instructor extraordinaire on Twitter, @PiLALAtes, asked for the recipe… here it is.  And because CIA Chef and Stomach Engineer, @Mike_Neylan, asked for the pic… then you get that too!

Filling:

• 2 cups Lentils
• 6 cups Water
• 1T grated ginger
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon each of ground coriander, cinnamon, cumin and sea salt

Bottom Layer:

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup polenta
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Top Layer:

• 6 yams, baked ’til mashable
• 2 teaspoons sea salt

Here’s what you do:

1. Filling: Combine the lentils and water, boil and then add the rest of the filling ingredients.  Simmer until the lentils are soft. You can also add garlic if you like.  I omitted because I breathe on people for a living.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Bottom layer: Boil the water and then add olive oil and salt. Drizzle in the polenta, stirring constantly until it thickens. Pour it into the bottom of a casserole dish to let cool and set.
4. Top layer: Peel the yams. Mash the yams. Add salt.
5. Assemble: Pour the cooked lentils over the set polenta.  Spread the yams on top.
6. Bake for 15 minutes or until heated through.

Confessions of a non-cook: I’ve never eaten let alone cooked polenta.  I saw it came in a tube at the grocery store and I went with that.  Also, I knew I would not stand and stir CONSTANTLY until that porridge thickened.  I would do stand, stir, walkaway and then smell burning polenta. Let’s see what else…. oh, the yams (isn’t this SWEET POTATO pie? confused…) took turns getting popped in the microwave while the lentils were cooking. And I forgot to pre-heat the oven. Okay, really, I didn’t forget, I just don’t understand the point.  So the dish went into a cold oven and now we get to eat it!!

The verdict?  I’d definitely make it again!!

**Need to send a nod to ‘The Accidental Vegan’. A cookbook that makes vegan cooking easy.  I made some changes but the base recipe is theirs.

I had a new client start recently: a professional ballet dancer complaining of pain on the inside of her right knee that was worse with jumping. She said that her doctor had diagnosed patellofemoral syndrome.  Okay, so, as a Pilates Instructor what do I do with that information?  Well, I can look it up and read about it but then after that I do what I do with all of my clients who come to me looking for exercises that can alleviate pain: I look for imbalances and muscle weaknesses. Pretty simple stuff.

So here is what we found:

1. The right hip did not rotate as much as the left hip.  In fact, I would guess that if she had not been dancing for years that her right knee would be knocked (valgus).
2. Since that right hip is so good at internally rotating, it is tough to keep the hip (and therefore the knee) in a neutral position during stabilizing activities (think standing on the right leg while moving the left leg).
3. Because of the internal rotation at the right hip, the vastus medialis (the bubble of muscle just above the and to the inside of the knee) muscle on the right knee is also pretty weak.
4. The hamstrings: We tested the hamstrings in three directions: neutral, externally and internally rotated. It was the hamstring responsible for flexing the knee from an internally rotated position that was weak on the right knee.

Those were the primary imbalances and here is what we have been doing about it:

1. Strengthening the vastus medialis with seated right knee flexion/extension from a seated position  with the hip externally rotated. Focus on making the vastus muscles activate.
2. Strengthening the external rotators with side-lying leg work with rotation (think Jane Fonda and all of those crazy leg exercises she used to do while lying on her side.
3. And the most important: Working on training the right leg to stabilize in a neutral position.

We stabilized the knee in various exercises but in all exercises we are maintaining a neutral right leg in a parallel position. I am not allowing her to hyper-extend or internally rotate.  Initially, she performed these exercises with my hands on her knee (see pic) where I could continually coax the knee back into position if it left. At the dance studio she performs all these same exercises (they have a Pilates reformer at the studio) and she has made incredibly fast progress in the ability of that leg to maintain neutral.  The more the leg maintains stability the more strength she obtains.

It is astonishing how fast pain can be alleviated with proper bio-mechanics and some corrective strengthening. After one month this young dancer is pain free.  BUT she does her homework!!