2009 To Your Health

to your ‘09 healh

2 to your HEALTH 2009

Santa Monica Daily Press

© MAYA MYERS

Busting a move

BY TAYLOR VAN ARSDALE SPECIAL TO THE DAILY PRESS

f you want to get in shape, have fun, or just simply “get your groove on” there’s no better place to do so then Lisa Kellogg’s Santa Monica hip hop classes.

Kellogg brings 25 years of dance expertise and choreography to an eclectic mix of students aged 16 to 30, teaching extremely affordable intro, beginning and intermediate hip hop lessons.

Each class kicks off with a 15-minute rhythmical warm up; incorporating basic dance moves, followed by stretching and isolation exercises. After which, your muscles will be warm and ready.

Then Kellogg goes into the routine — there’s a new one each week — which, if you’re attending on a regular basis, gives you a chance to really lock in and learn the moves.

Kellogg breaks down the steps into a series of eight counts, making them manageable to replicate and easy to understand. She’s also one of the few instructors to demonstrate arm and leg movements separately … and then together.

This helps to put the exact moves in context. Even if you’ve never danced a day in your life, you’ll be flying through the routine in no time.

Bursting with enthusiasm, Kellogg’s bright demeanor, luminous smile, and sense of humor are infectious. She flits and bounces around the room in a playful manner, her fierce mane of blonde hair tumbling around her, as she puts the novice at ease while promoting group interaction

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— yes, you will be asked to count off the beats of the routine, aloud — but it will be in a supportive, nurturing atmosphere. Kellogg loves to dance and loves to teach and her joyful exuberance is evident.

“The class is not so rigorous that you’re wiped out in a painful way,” Kellogg said, “but you will get an intense cardio workout.”

These are not classes where you’ll be spinning on your knees or dropping to the floor, thrashing your back or “kicking it old school” with headstands or complicated break dancing moves.

“The idea is that dancing is for longevity,” she said.

“Taking care of your body is crucial if you want to dance well into your 40s, 50s and 60s.

Kellogg, a Los Angeles native, who has lived in Santa Monica for 10 years, was introduced to dance in her 20s.

“Most dancers begin at five or six years old, but I studied gymnastics in high school,” so I already had the flexibility,” said Kellogg who learned by “going to clubs because they didn’t have hip hop classes when I first started dancing,” and later combined her street instruction with official courses in ballet and jazz at Santa Monica College.

In 1985, as break-dancing was on the rise, Kellogg took to hanging out in the campus courtyard with all the guys who were practicing. The “popping” and “locking” moves associated with breaking came naturally to the former gymnast.

“I appreciate ballet and jazz, but something about break

dancing is more energetic, more aggressive. It has more personality,” Kellogg added.

Her performance career has included dancing with Michael Jackson in the “Smooth Criminal” video, as well as Young MC and Donna Summer.

Her students seem be addicted to her routines.

“I love her. She’s crazy. Her personality and choreography are great,” said Ryoji Kure, who claims not to be a serious dancer.

“A lot of people don’t find fun in exercise and fitness — it’s a chore and once something becomes a chore, you don’t look forward to doing it and so you don’t do it,” clarified Kellogg. “Dance is an art form, but it’s also a physical expression as well. People use dance as an exercise because it’s pleasurable and physical. Dance keeps you alert, keeps your brain fresh.”

“Fun” is the operative word. Nathaniel Mina, a paralegal, keeps coming back.

“It’s like going to a club six days a week without the bar tab,” he said.

The studio, located at 2901 Ocean Park Blvd., also has convenient parking.

In addition to her classes at the Santa Monica Hip Hop Dance studio, Kellogg teaches at Crossroads School and is available for private instruction. For more info check out: www.hiphopdancer.com or call (310) 636-8088.

Taylor Van Arsdale is a writer/producer and movie reviewer for the Daily Press. She can be reached at Tailfish@roadrunner.com

2009 to your HEALTH 3

Santa Monica Daily Press

West Dressed Mariel Howsepian

Send comments to editor@smdp.com

The RED carpet workout thought I was Demi Moore, but I’m not and I’m a little disappointed about it.

Turns out, I’m Madonna. I took the quiz in celebrity fitness trainer Rob Parr’s book “Star Quality,” and it said so.

See, Parr says a woman is one of three celebrity body types. We’re all a bunch of Demis, Madonnas, and Naomi Wattses.

Naomis are built like dancers, Demis are built like movie stars, and Madonnas are built like athletes.

I have always believed I was an endomorph, a Demi, and now, according to Parr, I’m not. It’s devastating. Had I known I was a Madonna, I surely would have gone out for team sports in high school. I wouldn’t have done all I could to get out of PE; think of how much better I would be at square dancing, badminton, and ultimate Frisbee.

I bought “Star Quality” because, instead of actually exercising, I would rather read about exercising. (Come to think of it, the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in my living room are lined with books about things I would rather read about instead of actually doing. Take, for example, the book that tells me how to build my own banjo.)

But the time has come to put down the

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book and pick up the neoprene-coated dumbbells. My main concern in all of this isn’t health. I just want to look good in my clothes. A person can get away with wearing almost anything as long as the body underneath the clothes is fit.

Parr’s plan takes 90 days — a realistic time frame to reshape one’s body. It involves old school exercises like the basic crunch, bicep curls, push-ups, tricep dips, squats, lunges, glute raises, and pelvic thrusts. The rub is, of course, that one actually has to do the exercises and not just look at the demonstration photos. I would almost rather build my own banjo.

The recipe section looks fun, though.

How about some Mediterranean chicken pasta with sambuca reduction, or broiled sole with Brussels sprouts and fingerling potatoes? I don’t even like Brussels sprouts, but if you told me that I had to eat them or do lunges, I would most definitely go for the sprouts.

While Parr’s advice can be pared down to the cliché “Eat less and move more,” his book is a whole lot cheaper than a gym membership.

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in shame. This year, my New Year’s resolution was to cancel my gym membership. I went twice last year. That isn’t the reason for my shame. The reason: Last year, I paid my gym $480. That’s $240 per visit. Yikes.

I really should get over there, but the last time I tried to cancel, the salesmen suckered me into, not canceling, but freezing my account. (Freezing one’s account is “only” half the price of the monthly fee.)

They assured me that this was the more prudent idea, considering that if I canceled and ever wanted to come back, I would have to pay all of the upfront costs again.

So, I froze my account for six months. And then it thawed out.

I want to firm up, but clearly, I don’t want to do it badly enough. I bought “Star Quality” for a little encouragement, a cliché repackaged with celebrities and trendy (but icky) ingredients like goji berries. Parr’s book was a one-time cost of $24.95, and when it starts to give me a guilt trip from its place on the shelf, I can hide it in a cabinet.

Mariel Howsepian digs black coffee, fairy tales and a man in coveralls. She lives in Santa Monica and can be reached at Mariel_Rodriguez@antiochla.edu.

Quick tips For a red carpet upper body, a pair of 5 lb. dumbbells is a must have. You can use these to do: • Bench presses • Dumbbell flies • Bicep curls • Tricep kickbacks

4 to your HEALTH 2009

Santa Monica Daily Press

Preventing colds may be as easy as

vitamin

BY CARLA K. JOHNSON ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER luff up the pillows and pull up the covers. Preventing the common cold may be as easy as getting more sleep.

Researchers paid healthy adults $800 to have cold viruses sprayed up their noses, then wait five days in a hotel to see if they got sick. Habitual eight-hour sleepers were much less likely to get sick than those who slept less than seven hours or slept fitfully.

“The longer you sleep, the better off you are, the less susceptible you are to colds,” said lead author Sheldon Cohen, who studies the effects of stress on health at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University.

Prior research has suggested that sleep boosts the immune system at the cell level.

This is the first study to show small sleep disturbances increasing the risk of getting sick, said Dr. Michael Irwin, who researches immune response at the University of California, Los Angeles, and was not involved in the study.

“The message is to maintain regular sleep habits because those are really critical for health,” Irwin said.

During cold season, staying out of range of sneezing relatives and co-workers may be impossible. The study, appearing Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, mimicked

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those conditions by exposing participants to a common cold virus — rhinovirus — and most became infected with it.

But not everyone suffered cold symptoms.

The people who slept less than seven hours a night in the weeks before they were exposed to the virus were three times more likely to catch a cold than those who slept eight hours or more.

To find willing cold victims, researchers placed ads and recruited 78 men and 75 women, all healthy and willing to go one-onone against the virus. They ranged in age from 21 to 55.

First, their sleep habits were recorded for two weeks. Every evening, researchers interviewed them by phone about their sleep the night before. Subjects were asked what time they went to bed, what time they got up, how much time they spent awake during the night and if they felt rested in the morning.

Then they checked into a hotel where the virus was squirted up their noses. After five days, the virus had done its work, infecting 135 of the 153 volunteers. But only 54 people got sick.

Researchers measured their runny noses by weighing their used tissues. They tested for congestion by squirting dye in the subjects’ noses to see how long it took to get to the back of their throats.

Santa Monica Daily Press

2009

Looking the athletic

part

BY MARIEL HOWSEPIAN SPECIAL TO THE DAILY PRESS hy buy clothes for the gym when you could just throw on an old Tshirt and a pair of sweat pants?

The reason is this: Sticking to a fitness plan is all about staying motivated. While you’re on the elliptical, the Stairmaster, the treadmill, or the bike, you want to be able to look in the mirror and see a person who is in shape. Big tees and sweats will hide your body and prevent you from getting a realistic — and more positive — perspective on how you look.

In purchasing athletic wear, you want to consider a few factors. Where do you plan to work out? What time of day? What exercises do you plan to do?

For example, if you plan to work out in the early morning, and your gym is not heated, you want to dress so that you’re focus won’t be how cold you are. If you plan to go jogging after you get off work, you might want to consider clothing with reflective logos.

Lucy on Montana Avenue offers active wear for women.

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Chefs give

“The difference between Lucy and other active wear retailers,” said one Lucy employee, “is that our clothes last a lot longer. And, they’re are a cross between casual wear and active wear, so it’s all about comfort.”

The store offers everything from tank tops and cargo pants to yoga pants and bamboo underwear. Clothes are made with trademarked fabrics, which have features such as compression, moisture wicking, odor inhibiting, quick drying, and ultrasoftness. They also carry the brands Omgirl (a Los Angeles company), Splendid, and Pink Lotus.

Over on Santa Monica Boulevard, Lululemon has yoga-inspired athletic wear for both men and women in a fun selection of colors.

Why not work out in Mac n’ Cheese, Fruity Tootie, or Toothpaste?

For the widest range of choices, caddycorner to Lululemon is REI. In addition to athletic wear, REI carries running shoes.

They also have, by far, the best selection of sports bras in Santa Monica. news@smdp.com

Obama

food for thought

BY MARY CLARE JALONICK ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER isiting one of his favorite Chicago restaurants in November, Barack Obama was asked by an excited waitress if he wanted the restaurant’s special margarita made with the finest ingredients, straight up and shaken at the table.

“You know that’s the way I roll,” Obama replied jokingly.

Rick Bayless, the chef of that restaurant, Topolobampo, says Obama’s comfortable demeanor at the table — slumped contentedly in his chair, clearly there to enjoy himself — bodes well for the nation’s food policy. While former President George W. Bush rarely visited restaurants and didn’t often talk about what he ate, Obama dines out frequently and enjoys exploring different foods.

“He’s the kind of diner who wants to taste all sorts of things,” Bayless says.

“What I’m hoping is that he’s going to recognize that we need to do what we can in our country to encourage real food for everyone.”

Phrases like “real food” and “farm-totable” may sound like elitist jargon tossed around at upscale restaurants. But the

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country’s top chefs, several of whom traveled to Washington for Obama’s inauguration this week, hope that Obama’s flair for good food will encourage people to expand their horizons when it comes to what they eat.

These chefs tout locally grown, environmentally friendly and — most importantly — nutritious food. They urge diners, even those who may never be able to afford to eat at their restaurants, to grow their own vegetables, shop at farmer’s markets and pay attention to where their food comes from.

Dan Barber, chef at New York’s popular Blue Hill restaurant and a frequent critic of the country’s food policy, says a few small gestures from the president and first lady Michelle Obama could accomplish what many of the chefs have been working toward for years.

“I recognize that I’m an elitist guy,” says Barber, who cooked a $500-a-plate meal for incoming Obama aides and other guests at a small charity fundraiser the night before the inauguration. “Increasingly raise awareness, but don’t do it through chefs like me. ... My advice would be more of a symbolic nature, and to not underestimate what can be done through the White House.”

to your HEALTH 5

6 to your HEALTH 2009

Santa Monica Daily Press

Nutrition for

BY JIM ROMANOFF FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS imes may be tough, but are they tough enough to tempt you with roasted veal’s head?

It may seem small consolation in these rough economic times, but our country has been through this before. And each time, food writers and cooks have offered up their wisdom for keeping food affordable.

To see how many of those lessons still apply today, we peeked at some famous — and not so — budget cookbooks from years past for timeless tips on how to stretch a dollar.

You can thank the great food writer MFK Fisher for the veal’s head idea. In her 1942 book, “How to Cook a Wolf,” she navigated the tricky culinary territory that marked the end of the Great Depression and the start of World War II. At a time when rationing was de rigueur, Fisher suggested creative economizing. To save energy and time, she suggested cooking twice the amount of rice or pasta needed. The energy cost of cooking a double batch is about the same as a single, plus you have leftovers on hand for easy

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meals later.

She even suggests saving the starchy water leftover from cooking pasta. Simmer it with onions and stock to make a “nutritious broth that would shame nobody,” she says.

Fisher’s recipes use cheap, available ingredients, yet still have a culinary dignity to them. She reminds us of the value of slowly savoring what she calls simple, honest foods, such as her Parisian Onion Soup and Chinese Consomme.

Many of us, however, probably would skip the chance to savor her two ways with veal head (simmered with carrots, celery, onion and lemon or cooked with lemon and white wine, then formed into a loaf).

Food legend James Beard and his friend, Sam Aaron, filled their 1953 book, “How to Eat Better for Less Money,” with practical tips for eating well without spending a lot.

And much of the advice holds today.

Buy in bulk, but only if you’ll actually use everything you buy. Put your competitive side to work and do plenty of comparison shopping. And buy store brands whenever possible.

The two also praise what then was still a novel concept at home — the freezer. They called it a “food bank” for making creative

meals from leftovers, saving money by cooking in large batches, and saving time by cooking in advance.

Not all their advice was quite so timeless. Thankfully, we no longer need to wonder whether grocers will butcher chickens for us (buying them whole is cheaper). And their view that frozen produce is pricey and of poor quality is dated.

And since the book dates to the days of women mostly staying at home, some of the recipes tend to be a bit more involved than we are used to tackling on a weeknight, such as Oiseaux Sans Tetes, a mock stuffed bird made with inexpensive chuck rolled with a pork stuffing.

But most cooks today would find the sections on making gourmet hamburgers and “instant meals,” such as quick tamale pie with canned chili, beans, olives, a box of corn bread mix, an egg and some tomato juice, entirely approachable.

Beard and Aaron also are fans of a costsaving technique that really should come back in vogue — using whole birds.

They have a guide for stretching a 16pound turkey into six meals, including scalloped turkey, curried turkey wings, turkey divan and turkey Reuben sandwiches.

The economic slowdown of the early 1960s gave us Sylvia Vaughn Thompson’s “Economy Gastronomy” and Ann Rogers’ “A Cookbook for Poor Poets and Others.”

In this case, the poets fare better than the gastronomes.

Thompson, the daughter of a screenwriter and actress, grew up in Hollywood and had a privileged sense of what it means to economize. According to the jacket copy, she uses “wit, flair and enthusiasm” instead of costly cuts of meat.

Entertaining, perhaps, but probably not particularly filling.

But she does include an economical recipe for pot-roasted brisket from her friend Groucho Marx, and has lots of good advice for dressing up humble food with simple garnishes, such as using pimientos, capers, citrus slices and jellies.

Which brings back that old adage that we eat as much with our eyes as our mouths. A little effort spent gussying up a plate can go a long way to making affordable food feel like an indulgence.

Rogers focuses on creating elegant, satisfying meals from inexpensive foods, while always striving to keep enough of the budget left over for good bread and wine.

Santa Monica Daily Press

Baby

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BY MIA LAUCHLI SPECIAL TO THE DAILY PRESS

S P E

f you’re like many of us, you’ve recently made a resolution to look after your health and wellness this year, whether that resolution was weight loss or eating better. Right about now, your resolve might be flagging a little.

While achieving mythic body types for most of us is a difficult, lofty goal, making healthy changes to your lifestyle can be easy. The good thing is the easier the steps are, the more likely you’re going to stick with them.

Even if you just make a few small changes, together, over time, they can have a lasting positive influence on your health.

I’m not a nutritionist or a dietitian but these are a few things that I’m doing to help me on the road to health. I’ve broken it down into baby steps and more advanced moves for when you’ve conquered the basics.

BABY STEP NO. 1 Start including more whole grains into your diet.

BABY STEP NO. 2 Add more fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet. Again not cutting edge science

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to your HEALTH 7

to wellness

This is advice that just about everyone is touting right now but this can actually work to your advantage since whole grains are even easier to find and there are great resources out there to learn how to prepare them.

However, don’t be fooled by clever packaging, just because something says it includes whole grains doesn’t mean it’s OK for you to eat the whole package (I’m looking at you, Oprah) or that it’s made of 100 percent whole grains. Make sure you check the nutritional label and while you’re there check to make sure it’s not loaded with sugar and fat.

More advanced move: Buy and cook some unprocessed whole grains. If you don’t know what these are, visit the bulk foods section of the Co-op. Whole grains can sometime take a while to cook. Try cooking up enough to last you about a week and use it as the base for your meals.

This will help you save time and money along with improving your health.

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2009

(didn’t your Mom always tell you eat your veggies) but there are so many easy ways to accomplish this.

For example: Replace your mid-afternoon crash snack with an organic fruit or veggie; if you’ve got the late night TV noshies wash and cut up some crunchy veggies, don’t just stick with the basic carrots and celery, try raw green beans, broccoli, bell peppers, the possibilities are endless; serve up a fruit salad for dessert; keep produce washed and accessible and you’ll reach for it more often.

More advanced move: try eating mostly local produce, this will benefit not only the environment and the small farmers around you, but you’ll be eating fresher. Picked at its peak, produce is bursting with delicious flavor and vitamins.

Bonus advanced move: Try going vegetarian one day a week, there are plenty of meat free ways to get protein. Taking the meat out once a week is good for working extra veggies in and also has the added benefit of being better for the environment BABY STEP NO. 3 Get moving. It’s too easy to get into the

routine of sitting all day at work and then sitting on the couch at home at night. If you don’t have a regular exercise routine, then today is the day to start.

Don’t let the gym intimidate you.

There are plenty of ways to get your heart rate up without setting a foot in a gym.

Get a few office mates together and go for a brisk walk over your lunch hour.

Not only will it get your blood pumping but you’ll get back to your work energized and refreshed.

You could also crank up the music at home and have a dance party for one! If you haven’t worked out in a while make sure you take it easy at first.

More advanced move: Go for a hike or a bike on the weekends, go to www.thishikingtrail.com or www.lamountains.com to find a multitude of trails and invite friends along to make it a party.

The most important thing to remember is to have fun incorporating healthy changes into your life.

MIA LAUCHLI is the marketing director for CoOpportunity, which is located at 1525 Broadway.

8 to your HEALTH 2009

Santa Monica Daily Press

© MAYA MYERS

on the

YOGA cheap

BY TAYLOR VAN ARSDALE SPECIAL TO THE DAILY PRESS rying to figure out a way to get in shape and feel better without breaking your wallet? Or perhaps you’re looking for an affordable alternative to the high monthly fees associated with a gym membership? You might want to check out Ally Hamilton’s yoga classes at Bryan Kest’s Santa Monica Power Yoga Studio.

Kest, who opened his studio in June of 2004, has an unusual and innovative system in place. Classes are by donation only. A wooden box sits by the door with a suggested donation of $12, and students are left to decide what they feel a class is worth or more to the point, what they feel they can afford.

It’s one of the elements that makes Kest’s studio unique and one reason why Hamilton won’t teach anywhere else.

“Kest has really given the yoga community an incredible gift. Most classes around town, if you don’t have a monthly-unlimited pass, are $20, which is prohibitively expensive for people, especially in this economy,” Hamilton said. “Ideally, if you’re serious about yoga, you’re practicing

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six days a week. How can anyone afford $20 six days a week? Yoga is not supposed to be just for rich people.”

The soft-spoken transplanted New Yorker is gregarious and amiable, so it’s no surprise that her all-level classes are packed with well over 50 students. This means there are folks who are practicing yoga for the first time situated next to people who have been at it for years.

“I really do my best to make it approachable for people who have never done it before and challenging for those who have been doing it for a long time,” Hamilton said.

Class begins with breathing. Hamilton tries to draw her students into the moment, into what they’re feeling and experiencing.

She then begins a “core series” or abdominal exercises that combine and reinforce breathing techniques rooted in the yoga tradition. These exercises support and protect the lower-back which make the balancing poses (which come later) safer and more accessible.

Next is a variation of Series A and Series B moves to build heat — these include traditional poses such as Warrior 1 and 2, Parsvokonasana, Triangle Pose, Ardha

Chandrasana, balancing poses and inversions and are connected through movements called “vinyasas.” The vinyasas also follow a pattern: plank pose to Chaturanga Dandasana to cobra (or updog) to downward facing dog. If these terms seem confusing, they’re actually easier to attempt physically then to pronounce.

And the operative word here is “attempt.” Yoga is not a competitive sport.

“One of the main components of the practice is not to force,” Hamilton said.

“You breathe the body open. Make it about breathing deeply and being good to yourself; try not to compare or feel intimidated.”

The vinyasas are followed by a series on the floor, which is about using all the heat the student has built during the previous poses to open the body (hamstring, hip and heart-openers) further.

The finishing poses include the plow and shoulder stand and end with the resting pose “savasana.”

Hamilton discovered yoga when she stumbled into an advanced class while in her senior year at Columbia University. She had the impression that “yoga was stretching on the floor. I really didn’t get it.”

The challenge of the practice and the

“moments of clarity” she reached appealed to her and thus she embarked on a physical and spiritual journey which she continues each day.

“The internal journey of yoga will eventually lead you back to your connection with everyone and everything else,” she said.

Hamilton’s more than a yogi, she’s a force of positive energy, a spiritual and physical guide. She walks the room, sometimes providing words of encouragement and at others posing questions to the group collective, questions designed to keep the student in the moment.

“She’s got a great energy and perspective and it’s a tremendous workout … so you get the benefits of both,” said student Peter Grossman, who travels from Manhattan Beach for her classes.

In addition to her classes at Bryan Kest’s Power Yoga at 1410 Second St. in Santa Monica, Hamilton leads retreats and workshops and is available for private instruction. For more info, check visit www.allyhamilton.com Taylor Van Arsdale is a writer/producer and movie reviewer for the Daily Press. She can be reached at Tailfish@roadrunner.com