As part of my yoga teacher training, one of the subjects I’m studying is restorative yoga. Designed to help you de-stress and recharge, restorative yoga utilizes props to support the body through a series of relaxing poses. My “textbook” for this subject is Judith Lasater’s Relax and Renew, which details sequences for insomnia, jet-lag, pregnancy, menopause and more. She also offers the following tips on removing stress from daily life, which I think are pretty cool:

• Eat breakfast every day.
• Take a nap each Saturday.
• Take a walk in the park in the middle of the week. Do not wear your watch.
• Buy flowers for yourself once a week.
• Leave for your appointment 10 minutes earlier than usual and enjoy the trip.
• Take a walk with a young child. Walk at her pace. Stop whenever she wants to stop, for as long as she wants. Notice if you feel impatient. Let her teach you how to slow down.
• Do not take a working vacation, and be sure to use your vacation time in the year you have accrued it.
• Agree to meet someone between two times, for example, between 1:00 and 1:30 P.M., instead of at an exact time. Give yourself some leeway.
• Read a book not related to your work and which is not about self-improvement or any project.
• Take your lunch break away from your desk. There is always more to be done; don’t sacrifice nourishing yourself.
• Plan a “pajama day,” when you stay home in your pajamas and do whatever you want. You could spend time reading, soaking in the tub, or listening to music. Be sure to let your answering machine take your telephone calls.
• Write a letter to someone you miss. Use special paper and pen. Take your time.
• Lie on the couch for several minutes. Do not listen to music, read, talk on the phone or sleep. Just be there.
• Take a five-minute stretch break at work. Remember to breathe.
• Decide on one task that you would like to accomplish by a certain date. Write it down in your datebook. Make a realistic plan of how to meet your deadline and then stop nagging yourself about it.

Want more info on Judith and her techniques? Visit her site.

As I continue on my journey toward better holistic health and wellness, I have been implementing small changes. Here are some of the recent steps I have taken:

• Quitting my high-stress job: I just resigned from a job that was making me miserable. It’s scary to quit a job in this economy, but the minimal pay and benefits paired with the intense workload were just too much. I’m now on the hunt for a low-stress part-time job that will leave me enough free time to pursue my real interests and passions, so that I can really live my life instead of just working through it.
• Working toward becoming a certified yoga instructor: I have an appointment next week with a studio that offers Yoga Alliance certified teacher training. Once I have the part-time job to pay the bills, I can use the spare time to pursue my dream of becoming a yoga instructor. Most studios have very regimented schedules for teacher training, so I’m grateful to have found one that is both flexible and offers a lot of one-on-one training.
• New vitamins: In addition to the doctor recommended Vitamin D supplement that I take, I have also started taking two new vitamins. Both are from Garden of Life’s Vitamin Code Line; one is a multivitamin for women, and the other is a B-12 supplement. I like this particular line because it is vegan, raw(!), and gluten-free. I just started taking them, so it will probably be a few months before I can tell how well they work.
• No prescription medication: After several years, I am finally off all prescription medications. This means that there are no antibiotics or hormones messing with my system. I’m all-natural!
• Rebounding: I finally invested in my One Lucky Duck rebounder! Rebounding is one of the most fun forms of exercise, and it elevates your heart rate really quickly. It’s also good for you on a cellular level. According to One Lucky Duck, “By combining the forces of acceleration and deceleration, body cells are tricked into believing they are being subjected to increased gravity, which challenges your body’s cells to strengthen.”
• Meditation: Meditation has never come easily to me, but it’s my goal to develop a twice daily meditation routine. Ideally I would like to do it first thing in the morning and right before bed at night. In order to facilitate this, I’ve requested a couple of meditation CDs from the library; I’m hoping to use these guided meditations as a jumping off point to self practice.
• Reading: As I prepare to have more free time on my hands, I’m stocking up on a variety of health books. Right now I’m working on Kathy Freston’s Quantum Wellness and Quantum Wellness Cleanse, as well as Alejandro Junger’s Clean.
• Saving up for detox processes: I don’t have a lot of disposable income at the moment, but I’m hoping that once I start working again I’ll be able to set aside some money each month for massages and colonics, both of which are useful detox tools. Massages always make me feel great, and are a nice way to release toxins. Colonics usually make me feel pretty crummy, which is a sign that a lot of toxicity has been released. I don’t enjoy feeling bad, but I do enjoy the idea that I’m cleansing myself on a deep, internal level.

As I’m sure you know, I’m a fan of natural body care. The skin is the body’s biggest organ, so whatever you put on your outside eventually gets absorbed inside. With that in mind, I try to avoid coating myself in chemicals: parabens, glycols, sulfates, etc. On the flip side, I love the spa-like feeling you get from body lotions and oils, bubble baths, face masks and more. So I’m always on the hunt for organic, natural products. Here are three that I’m into right now.

1. RMS Beauty Lip and Skin balm. I just purchased this in the vanilla flavor, and so far I really like it. It hydrates and smoothes, and can help erase fine lines when used on the skin. It also smells and tastes yummy.
2. RMS Beauty Living Luminizer. I haven’t tried this yet (it’s been sold out!), but I like the description: “Instantly ads life to the face, a must have product. This formula is the ultimate illuminator to create a healthy, sheer, glowing look to the skin. Best of all, it enhances the skins natural youthfulness without being sticky, greasy or glittery.” It’s definitely on my must-try list.
3. Frangipani Organic Bronze Shimmering Oil. Delicious tropical scent? Check. Hydrating oil that gives you a sexy, bronze glow? Check. On sale? Check. Count me in.

I’ve mentioned Natalia Rose before, and now she’s back with a new book. There are a lot of detoxes and cleanses out there, and for every alternative healer who thinks detoxing is crucial, there is a doctor who says detoxing is bunk, and that our bodies are designed to detox themselves. I think I actually agree with both opinions. On one hand, our bodies are designed with several elimination organs: the liver, the kidneys, the skin and of course the intestines/colon. The body is designed to remove waste and hang on to nutrients. And in the past, I’m sure that’s exactly what it did. The body is also designed to eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and some grains. It was not designed to eat Big Macs, french fries, Krispy Kreme donuts, Doritos, triple-cheese pizzas, bacon bits and garlic bread. But that’s what most people (at least most Americans, anyway) eat. And when the food you consume is so different from what your body needs and expects, then I don’t think it’s so far-reaching to think that it might need a little help eliminating all the crap we constantly shove into it.

However, a lot of cleanses out there are scary or intimidating. The Master Cleanse might help you lose weight, but I keep reading about people who got sick on it. Juice feasting sounds wonderful, but it takes work, dedication, money and a LOT of produce to make and drink a gallon of fresh green juice every day.

This is one of the things I like about Natalia’s Detox for Women method. For most people, it seems very do-able. Natalia’s main point is to take 4 weeks to starve off the yeast and bacteria that form in the bloodstream so that you are working with a fresh slate, and then only eat clean, healthy, natural foods. Although I tend to associate Natalia with raw foods, her plan is neither raw nor vegetarian. For four weeks, participants can eat all raw vegetables (and juices), baked starchy vegetables, organic fish, raw goat cheese, millet and quinoa. Once the bloodstream is detoxed, you can begin to add fruits and some nuts back in. Natalia really recommends avoiding (pretty much permanently) other grains, sugar, red meats and more. Her book is filled with helpful tips, brand suggestions, and testimonials from women who have completed the program, as well as ways to speed up the detox, including skin brushing, colonics, epsom baths and more.  I’m not quite ready to give up fruit, but if I ever decide to detox, this is probably the plan I will choose.

I’ve been feeling yucky for years: exhausted, zero metabolism, unexplained weight gain, thinning hair, sensitivity to cold–you get the idea. All of these are symptoms of hypothyroidism, a condition that runs in my family. So every year, I have my thyroid levels tested, and every year they come back normal. But my symptoms never change. So this year, I finally did something different: I went to an endocrinologist. After discussing my previous lab work and running some additional tests, he came back with a surprising diagnosis. My thyroid is normal, but I tested on the low end for Vitamin D. Apparently I have a mild deficiency, and I’m now taking a 1000 I.U. supplement daily. It’s interesting that this happened, because I read an article about Vitamin D deficiency just a few months ago, and was interested at how many of the described symptoms sounded familiar. But I assumed I was eating enough fortified foods and getting enough sunshine to meet my needs. Evidently not. Here is the article that got my attention:

D Is for Defense: Why Vitamin D Is the Ultimate Super Vitamin

New research shows that vitamin D can protect against cancer, diabetes, depression, and heart disease — and can make you live longer. Here’s how you can get more vitamin D.

By Richard Laliberte

New Research on Vitamin D

Billie Jo Coomer, 31, couldn’t figure out what the heck was wrong with her. For more than six years she had suffered from headaches and pain in her stomach, back, arms, and legs. “I hurt constantly and couldn’t sleep at night,” says Billie Jo, an administrator in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. She saw more than a dozen doctors, but all they did was prescribe painkillers and antidepressants.

She dragged through each day, suffering constantly from colds and bouts of pneumonia. Finally, in 2006, she was referred to a physician who made a startling diagnosis: Billie Jo was deficient in vitamin D. She started taking supplements in December, and “by February, I was off antidepressants,” she says. Her pain gradually eased, she was able to sleep at night and her stamina returned. She even lost 29 pounds in three months. “I’m a completely different person than I was two years ago,” she says. “I can’t believe the fix was so easy.”

Groundbreaking new research shows that D not only relieves health conditions like Billie Jo’s but is also crucial for protecting against cancer, diabetes, depression, and heart disease. It also helps prolong our lives. A study published last summer found that people with the highest levels of D in their blood are 21 percent less likely to die of any cause than people with the lowest. While other nutrients, like vitamin E, have proved disappointing in similar large studies, “there really seems to be something super-protective about D,” says study coauthor Michal Melamed, MD, an assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

But the scary thing is, as many as 78 percent of Americans don’t have the amount of vitamin D necessary for good health, according to the Office of Dietary Supplements in Washington, D.C. One-third of the population — mostly women — fail to meet even the current minimum. As many as half of young adults are low in D, putting them at risk for developing a rare bone disorder called osteomalacia. Unlike osteoporosis, which is characterized by bone loss, the condition causes the skeleton to soften from a lack of calcium, resulting in aches and pains throughout the body. “Some patients have bones that look almost clear on x-rays,” says Michael F. Holick, MD, PhD, director of the Bone Health Care Clinic at Boston University School of Medicine.

Vitamin D deficiency is so widespread that it has become a serious health problem for women and men of all ages, experts say. Yet most of us have no idea we’re at risk.

How Vitamin D Works

To bone up on D, it helps to know how the vitamin works. We get small amounts of it from food, especially fortified dairy products, but the nutrient is mainly produced from ultraviolet B radiation in sunshine. Those rays penetrate our skin and transform cholesterol-like molecules there into a preliminary form of D that circulates in the blood. It then travels to receptors in the liver and the kidney, where it becomes mobilized to do its number-one job of regulating calcium and storing it in our bones. “Once that’s done, D begins to have other benefits,” Dr. Holick says. For one thing, it triggers the genes in our bodies that inhibit cell growth, which may prevent cancer cells from forming. In fact, women who spend more time outdoors in the sun and drink 10 or more glasses of milk a week when they’re in their teens and 20s have lower rates of breast cancer than women who don’t, according to one recent study. Other research suggests that getting too little D can increase the risk of colon, ovarian, and breast cancers. The vitamin also regulates the activity of the immune system’s cells, helping to ward off infections and protect against such auto-immune diseases as lupus, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

And that’s not all. D helps prevent inflammation in the body, which has been linked to heart disease, and it regulates blood pressure. Azzie Young, PhD, president and CEO of Mattapan Community Health Center in Boston, discovered this for herself three years ago. Young started taking megadoses of the vitamin once a week for two months as prescribed by her doctor after she was diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency. As a result, her blood pressure dropped, and she now sleeps better, is more energized, and has fewer aches and pains. “I was blown away that something so simple, safe, and inexpensive could make that big a difference,” Young says. She has since started a vitamin D-awareness initiative to help spread the word about this powerful pill.

Get More Sunshine

The sun is key to D production, and it doesn’t take much: Research suggests that 5 to 30 minutes of unprotected exposure between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. at least twice a week will give you most of the D you need. To guard against skin cancer, “I recommend always wearing sunscreen on your face but not putting it on your arms or legs if you’re going to be outside for only 10 or 15 minutes,” Dr. Holick says.

For the sun to create vitamin D, however, conditions have to be just right. Overcast skies reduce ultraviolet energy, and thus D production, by half; standing in the shade, even if it’s caused by smog, lowers it by 60 percent. Even more critical is the position of the sun. When its rays are at an angle, they must pass through more of the atmosphere, which absorbs energy needed to trigger D formation. “People may think, ‘I’m out in the sun at 8 a.m., so I’m making vitamin D,’ but they aren’t,” Dr. Holick says. “The sun needs to be almost directly overhead.”

The prime D-forming hours occur when most of us are indoors at work. And if you live above 42 degrees latitude, which runs roughly from Boston to northern California, your body won’t produce the vitamin at all from November to February. Researchers now speculate that a lack of D is why we’re more prone to flu in winter and the reason people are more likely to survive serious illnesses like cancer if they’re diagnosed in summer, when vitamin D levels are higher.

How to Get More Vitamin D

To find out if you’re low in this super supplement, ask your doctor for a simple vitamin D blood test, called 25-Hydroxyvitamin D. (It costs $50 to $200 and is typically covered by insurance.) Current guidelines say you’re deficient if your level is below 20 nanograms per milliliter, the amount needed to prevent rickets, a bone disorder. “But if you bring blood levels above 30, your body absorbs more than twice as much calcium,” Dr. Holick explains. This is the point at which vitamin D, finished with its bone-strengthening duties, is free to work its magic on the rest of the body. James Dowd, MD, an associate clinical professor of medicine at Michigan State University and author of The Vitamin D Cure, goes even further: “I consider 45 to 65 to be the sweet spot to maintain health and prevent disease,” he says.

Because most of us can’t get enough D from the sun, experts recommend taking a supplement daily. But don’t think your multivitamin or a calcium-vitamin D combo has you covered. These typically supply the RDA of 200 to 400 international units (IU), which the latest research indicates is far too low. So how much is enough? Studies indicate that 1,700 IU of D a day nudges blood levels to 32. A growing number of experts even recommend at least 2,000 IU a day — which, according to the Institute of Medicine, is the highest amount that’s deemed safe to take.

Billie Jo Coomer used sunshine and daily supplements to boost her level of vitamin D from 11 to 52 nanograms per milliliter, and the results have been dramatic. “My life has totally turned around,” Billie Jo says. “I have the energy to get together with friends again, and I can climb the three flights of stairs to my apartment without feeling out of breath.” She adds, “The difference vitamin D has made is astonishing. I recommend it to everybody.”