If you are new to yoga or if you’re a yogi from way back that is craving a more intimate class experience, I know just the spot for you - Silver Lake Yoga. My favorite LA studio!

This laid-back neighborhood studio has been providing great classes to the Silver Lake community since 1995. Owned by a husband and wife pair, Jonathan Emerson and Juliette Kurth, Silver Lake Yoga provides a warm, inviting atmosphere, hip and knowledgeable instructors and lots of one-on-one attention to every student that wants it. This is not the type of studio to see and be seen at. There’s no ’scene’ about this place, just friendly yoga without pretension.

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In light of the last recall I have to say…I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! What is wrong with people these days?! The main reason for the recall was due to the torture of downed cows…making for questionable meat. The problem lies however, not so much in the publics lack of investing time and thought into a proper solution for a problem that has plagued us since the mad cow epidemic, in so much that an apparent ‘laziness’ is what is keeping us from protecting the very animals we depend on. We use animals for company, clothing, labor and the obvious…food and yet we have absolutely no respect for their importance and vital contribution to our lives.

As of today I have, along with my family and most of my friends decided to go vegetarian. I love meat mind you…but I love animals more. And because of that love, have spent hours researching the internet for meat alternatives to keep the body and mind healthy and sound. Aside from the obvious fish, tofu and vegetable alternatives, I came across a very interesting Peruvian dish EXTREMELY high in protein that actually tastes delicious!

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Nature Mart
2080 Hillhurst Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 660-0052

I have a secret weapon against my 7-11 addiction. I go to Nature Mart on Hillhurst instead. I know that I can walk in there and pick whatever snack my heart desires and it won’t be bad for me. The food at Nature Mart is organic and free of icky stuff like preservatives, white sugar and pesticides. I figure I’m doing my body a favor by choosing a Synergy kombucha drink and some dried ginger trail mix instead of a Big Gulp and Oreos. Actually, after re-reading that sentence, I realize it’s pretty much a no-brainer, my love for Big Gulps notwithstanding.

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Anyone living in a run-down rent-controlled beach city building will tell you the joys of apartment living: absentee landlords, peeling paint, permitted street parking. The current housing crisis may throw a few more foodies back into the apartment lifestyle – and for many of us, that backyard garden will have to remain a dream for the time being.

Books may tout the many benefits of container gardening, but with no patio or balcony to speak of and living in the shade of the neighboring apartment building, it’s not always a viable option. That’s where the AeroGarden steps in. An apartment-bound chef’s best friend, this little marvel puts fresh herbs, tomatoes and even jalapeños right in your 5’x 5’ hotbox of a kitchen.

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Five Reasons of Your Headache.

No, it’s not the traffic jam, which I would rate number one reason for my daily headache. However, as much as exhaustion and stress are the most typical explanations for our headache, there more and we might have not a clue about them. Smells, weather, food, what you wear on your head, and sex all effect how your head feels.

The question we all have, how should we get rid of this headache, besides consuming a daily dose of Advil?

PERFUME

Having a sharp sight – it’s an obvious plus, but what about a sharp sense? Most likely it is a minus. Apparently the “owners” of a sharp sense suffer a great deal from their sense “talent” – sharp senses of any kind, from perfume to dog’s poop lead to very strong headaches, even head-spinning and nausea. This can last anywhere from a few minutes to a day. The strong aromas activate the nervous cells of the nose that irritate the overall nervous system, and what’s worse, the most pleasurable scents act on the sensitivity the worst.

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Charity Flow for Animals

February 15th ~ 7:30-9:30 p.m.

$20 suggested donation

YogaWorks Main Street in Santa Monica

Looking for something fun and charitable to do tonight? Why not head on over to Yoga Works and take a flow class that benefits animals? Hey, you went out and partied last night for Valentine’s Day, right? So, tonight do something different! Your $20 suggestion donation will be given to Much Love Animal Rescue, a wonderful local organization that helps the dogs and cats of our city find homes. For a tad more than your usual class, you will help an animal in need, do something great for your body and be taught by some of the best yoga teachers in Los Angeles. Sounds like a win-win to me!

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One of the most daunting tasks a parent will ever face is finding an acceptable daycare for her children. Kidshealth.org advises parents to “ensure that [their] child is safe and happy in a child care environment that is fun, educational and nurturing.” Child development experts in both the public and private sector share this sentiment. Why, then, would a state-licensed daycare facility surround itself—or, more specifically, its play yards—in barbed wire?

The daycare in question is not in Fallujah or along the Gaza Strip. It lies in the heart of a middle-class black neighborhood here in Los Angeles, a neighborhood that Wikipedia describes as “one of the wealthiest majority-African American areas in the United States.” View Park is considered one of L.A.’s best-kept secrets. Lying 20 minutes away from almost everything (the beach, Downtown, Hollywood and the South Bay), View Park defies all of the stereotypes Los Angelenos hold about black neighborhoods. It experienced “white flight” in the early 1960’s. Interestingly enough, white homeowners are now returning, having realized the home prices there are more affordable than they are in more well known areas. View Park is a bona fide neighborhood; the folks at one end of a block probably know the names of the majority of the people on their street. Neighbors actually wave and speak to one another (which is more than can be said for many other neighborhoods in Los Angeles). A friend who grew up in, and still lives in, View Park once described it as “Mayberry”.

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I am so excHIKEted for this post!

K. Sticking the word hike in there didn’t look as cool as I thought. But that’s alright, because no one will care how cool you look, or how nice you’re dressed, when you go on a hike! Nature, clean air (well, relatively, compared to the Valley I suppose), dirt, the earth, and hiking, that’s all that matters. And in this case, the moon! And stars! Because if you go on a Twilight Hike through the Santa Monica mountains, you will, yes, be hiking in the twilight. How eerie and mystical!

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I’d like to share a funny story with you so that you don’t fall for the false information on the web, which happens more often that you’d think. Internet became a spider-web for the ones who know it little, and it became a golden mine for the ones who know it very well: from hikers to bloggers. Most of us, especially if we were born after 1970, have a pretty good idea about the Internet. We use it for work, school and personal entertainment. It’s an addiction, really. MySpace, Facebook – we all have accounts. In-person interaction has almost become obsolete – we order movie and airfare tickets online, we listen to radio and watch movies on the Internet, we read periodicals and even books online, we do banking and fresh food shopping online, we bargain on eBay and we read book reviews on Amazon and we even date online.

Not all of us hardly think, or double guess, if a source of information might be false and some of us fall into the trap of ordering weird things online and signing up for strange promotions. It happens to the best of us (there is no doubt.) I’ve just recently come across a very strange website with the information that shocked and disguised me. I was so nauseous from what I’ve seen and read that I immediately had to know the truth and called my dad who is a biologist.

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James Morrison
Center for Yoga
230 N. Larchmont Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90004
T: (323) 464-1276

The idea of lunchtime flow yoga appeals to me for several reasons. I don’t have to get up early, forgo breakfast or fight morning traffic. I get in, get sweaty and get out feeling good. I’ve discovered a good class that fits the bill. I suppose I’ll share with you but only because it would be un-yogi of me to withhold.

James Morrison teaches at Center for Yoga in the adorable Larchmont Village. Leave your shoes at the door and climb the stairs to a little haven above the street. The class is held in the largest of the three asana rooms, painted a lovely shade of purple. With the high ceilings and the over-sized statue of Buddha on the stage in front, it’s easy to imagine you are in an ashram in India instead of in the center of Los Angeles. Class is always packed but not too packed (you’re not going to maim your neighbor during your sun salutes), and the vibe is right. People are there to practice their asana, not socialize. Not that they’re unfriendly, just focused.

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If you’re in the mood to pamper yourself my advice is to take it all the way and make your body feel as catered to and the rest of your life. What I’m telling you is – get yourself a freakin’ good Thai massage; omit the happy ending.

I could never find a place satisfying enough (I like it hard and rough, otherwise I can do massage myself) nor could I find a place where I wouldn’t leave half of my weekly salary. A local friend of mine (she is my guru into LA food and beauty places) suggested I go to Chiang Mai Thai Massage on Hollywood Boulevard. I panicked, what good massage can be found on Hollywood Boulevard? Who goes to Hollywood Boulevard after you move to LA?

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Botox and alternatives to Botox just scream LA. In the city where it is rude to be old and not pretty, with saggy breasts and double chin, bad hair and naturally yellow teeth, everyone would feel inferior to pretty, skinny and young. LA is the place where plastic surgeons co-exists with Chinese take out and, spa and tanning salons. We spend our weekends at a bookstore not reading history and science books, but tabloids. We spend nights not watching CNN and PBS, but E! Entertainment and The Insider and we religiously seek out the gyms with a wide selection of elliptical machines and treadmills and diet alternatives at vitamin shops.

If you can’t afford gyms or feel intimidated by beautiful people next to you on a treadmill (yes, I remember my workouts at Equinox in New York, when I felt the only girl who weighted more than 90 pounds and had a flat, but no ripped stomach) there are still solutions. So don’t give up.

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