Your Well Being Tip of the Day

Next time you feel like you're about to lose it, turn off your computer monitor and take a look out the window. New research shows it might be just that simple. Looking at a landscape in the middle of a stressful situation helps calm your heart rate.



Healthy & Delicious Food!

Pasta Shells and Broccoli

Good pasta hardly gets any simpler than this. This one is full of flavor (and is on the healthier side of pasta options to boot)! Serves 2.

• 7 oz pasta shells
• 1 1/2 lbs broccoli
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup kalamata olives
• 3/4 cup fresh plum tomatoes, cut into chunks
• 1 tsp fresh oregano
• 1 tsp chili flakes
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 tbsp basil pesto (see recipe below OR buy pre-made and freeze leftover pesto)
• 2 tbsp butter
• Freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Cook pasta shells in a large pot of boiling salted water and set aside. Trim and lightly cook (or steam) the broccoli until crunchy tender and set aside. Heat the oil in a large saucepan then add the garlic, olives, tomatoes, oregano, chili flakes and finally the broccoli and basil pesto. Mix thoroughly. Add the wine and then turn the heat to high and boil for 2 minutes. Add the pasta and butter; mix thoroughly and serve with freshly grated parmesan.

 

Freshly Made Basil Pesto

• 1/2 Cup pine nuts
• 3 lbs fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 cup chopped garlic cloves
• 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp sea salt
• 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Heat a cast-iron saucepan and roast the pine nuts until they are golden brown. Wash and dry the basil thoroughly then place in a food processor along with the garlic and pine nuts. Turn food processor on and slowly add olive oil until you get a thick, creamy sauce. Add the salt and pepper and blend again. Incorporate the parmesan with a spoon (do not blend anymore).

Leftover basil pesto can be frozen. (Note: *never cook fresh basil as it will turn black & bitter).

*Recipes taken from Chef’s Healthy Pasta by Alive Books (Vancouver, Canada).

 

Two Healthy Food Tips

1. That yummy, spicy Indian food may protect your brain! Turmeric, the popular Indian spice that gives curry its yellow color and characteristic flavour, is widely recognized as a potent anti-inflammatory and has been used medicinally in India through the ages. India has the lowest rate of Alzheimer's in the world, and it may be because of all that fabulous turmeric. ... Dr. Andrew Weil
    
2. Typical whole wheat bread is not a whole grain. Go for the whole grain and you’ll get more nutrients AND more colon cleansing fibre. Any bread that you can squish into the size of a pea (after removing the crusts) is made from partial/processed grain, not whole grain.

How to make work-life balance work by Nigel Marsh

This is an excellent TED talk (and short at 10 min). Nigel Marsh took a year off work to study work-life balance and says "all I learned about work-life balance from that year was that I found it quite easy to balance work and life when I didn't have any work!". Seven years later, he shares four key observations in this fascinating TED talk.



Vancouver I Can Do It 2012!

Vancouver is on the 2012 I Can Do It tour! Louise Hay brought her traveling group of visionaries to Vancouver for the first time last year and the event was such a success that it’s here again. The dates are May 5 & 6 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Featured speakers include Louise Hay, Marianne Williamson, Wayne Dyer, Caroline Myss, Bruce Lipton, Robert Holden, Doreen Virtue, and Cheryl Richardson ... a stellar line-up!

I’d love to see you there! ... Lee

 

Timeless Principles of Recreation – Excellent Advice for Today!

The other day I was searching online and discovered a blog entry entitled “19 Principles of Recreation”; these were developed by Howard Braucher, Secretary of the US National Recreation Association in the mid-1930s. As I read these statements of belief, I could feel myself say “timeless and true” over and over. Of course, today, we would substitute his use of the word “man” for “human”.

I hope you enjoy this small sample I’ve taken from the Full List of 19 Principles! These principles provide a joyful reminder of the essential nature of recreation and parks when it comes to building health, happiness and social connections for us all.

Sample Principles:

Every child needs to be exposed to the growth-giving activities that have brought satisfaction through the ages -- to climbing, chasing, tumbling; to tramping, swimming, dancing, skating, ball games; to singing, playing musical instruments, dramatizing; to making things with his hands, to working with sticks and stones and sand and water, to building and modeling; to caring for pets; to gardening, to nature; to trying simple scientific experiments; to learning team play, group activity and adventure, comradeship in doing things with others.

Every child needs to discover which activities give him personal satisfaction. In these activities he should be helped to develop the essential skills. Several of these activities should be of such a nature that he can keep them up in adult life.

Every man should have certain forms of recreation which require little space and which can be fitted into small fragments of time.

Every man needs to know well a certain limited number of indoor and outdoor games which he himself likes so that there will never be an occasion when he cannot think of anything to do.

Every man should be helped to form habits of being active, of breathing deeply in the sunlit outdoor air. Man thrives best in the sunlight. Since living, not business, is the end of life, our cities should be planned for living as well as for business and industry. Sunlight, air, open spaces, parks, playgrounds, in abundant measure are essentials to any living that is to give permanent satisfaction.

Those recreation activities are most important which most completely command the individual so that he loses himself in them and gives all that he has and is to them.

That children and men and women may be more likely to live this kind of life, experience shows there is need for community action:

• Every community needs playgrounds, parks, and recreation centers just as every city and town needs streets and sewers.
   
• Community recreation programs should allow for a broad range of tastes and interests and varying degrees of mental and physical energy.
   
• Every community needs persons trained to lead in recreation just as much as it needs persons trained in education.
   
• Satisfying recreation, whether for the individual or for the community, involves careful planning.

Coaches Corner

What stood out for you as you perused the newsletter today? What tugged at your heart? What is your inner wellness guru wanting you to do (or stop doing)? What would that give you? What is needed to make it happen?

If you feel inspired to take action on any of the ideas, tips or themes in this newsletter, a good way to begin is to ask yourself "What is one small step I could take today? Will I commit to this?"

Congratulations for asking! You're on your way.
Coach Lee