This Valentine’s Day, say it with raw chocolate

We interrupt Fertility Week to bring you this important Valentine’s Day announcement…

Sorry Godiva. So long Jacques Torres. Au revoir Vosges. You’ve been replaced by a new choc on the block. Raw chocolate.

New Yorker and lifelong chocolate lover Vanessa Barg started Gnosis Chocolate from her mother’s kitchen in Harlem in 2008. The 25-year-old, who loves the outdoors and practices bellydancing and yoga in her free time, has an unusual pedigree for the premium chocolate aisle. After getting a degree in holistic health counseling from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, she attended a lecture given by Naked Chocolate author David Wolfe. Barg remembers the life-changing evening: “He explained how the cacao bean is a superfood because of its high levels of potent vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.” Barg figured if chocolate wasn’t the bad guy, it must be the stuff added to the traditional candybar that is. And so she went the raw route.

Gnosis Chocolate founder, Vanessa Barg

Unlike the buck or so you’ll pay for Hershey, a two-ounce bar of Gnosis will set you back about $9. But the sourcing and labor-intensive production justifies the gold bar pricing. And we should mention, it’s delicious—slightly more bitter than conventional chocolate, it has a rich, robust taste that is more satisfying than its sugar-packed, diluted-with-dairy cousins.

To make the bars, first Barg selects cacao beans from Bali, Peru, and Ecuador for nutritional quality, flavor, and raw integrity. She then carefully monitors every step of production, ensuring that the cacao pods and beans are never heated over 118 degrees Fahrenheit because this preserves its nutritional value, she says. To this raw chocolate she adds only sustainable, better-for-you sweeteners like palm or agave nectar.

Barg puts love into the chocolate-making process

Another reason the bars are healthier? Barg sneaks in some mineral-dense green-blue algae. To some bars she adds camu camu, which is jam-packed with vitamin C, or burdock root, which may help lower blood-sugar levels. “There are so many amazing herbs and ingredients that have been used in Ayurvedic medicine and in indigenous cultures for thousands of years that people don’t know about,” says Barg. She eschews milk, so the chocolates are vegan-friendly. “Even people with diabetes have told me that they can enjoy the chocolate without negative impact,” she adds.

Barg's Three Flavor Passion Truffles made for Valentine's Day; one contains horny goat weed

Like Dan Barber or Mary Cleaver of The Cleaver Co., Barg doesn’t just want to feed you, she wants to  shape the sourcing and production standards of the burgeoning raw-chocolate industry with RawIntegrityProject.com, a non-profit. “In order for us to know if the chocolate we’re eating is truly raw, we have to monitor all the steps back to the tree,” says Barg. She also donates 10 percent of all proceeds to the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation. This Thursday night you’ll find the philanthropically inclined chocolatier at V-Day chocolate and wine tasting to benefit the Global Giving Circle. Just another way Barg makes good chocolate.

Gnosis Chocolate’s Valentine’s Day Three-Flavor Passion Truffle sets start at $10.49 at www.gnosischocolate.com


Would you like to send Well+Good some Gnosis Chocolate? (Melisse likes hers with fleur de sel; Alexia prefers the goji berry bars.) Tell us, here!

Pre-natal gazing: Using restorative yoga for fertility

Yoga teachers (and moms) Barrie Raffel and Karen Safire founded Receptive Nest five years ago with the idea that specific yoga poses could enhance fertility. (Think happy baby as a result, not a pose.) “Creating a life takes a lot of energy,” says Safire. “And you need energy in your bank to help sustain and take care of that life.”

With regular workshops at Om and Virayoga in Manhattan, Receptive Nest fills a notable void in the otherwise full-spectrum yoga marketplace. While there are scads of prenatal classes, there aren’t any pre-prenatal classes dedicated to strengthening the pelvic floor and increasing circulation to the reproductive organs, the chief claims of this approach.

Unlike a fast-paced vinyasa class, Receptive Nest workshops focus on restorative poses to “elicit the relaxation response in the body,” say the founders, who were both modern dancers before discovering yoga. “These help balance the hormones and promote an optimum environment for creating a new life.” Also key? Doing lots of supported inversions, like legs up the wall, to help increase circulation and space in the pelvis (instead of a six pack). “Bringing fresh oxygenated blood to the reproductive organs is the key for optimal functioning and health,” they say.

Receptive Nest founders, Barrie and Karen

The duo encourages workshop participants to initiate a daily, customized pre-pregnancy practice. They also provide modifications to standard yoga poses for seasoned yoga students to use in their regular classes, recommending they perform Ardha Chandrasana (half moon pose) at the wall, for example, so there’s no strain while balancing.

The most important practice for women who want to get pregnant? Connecting the breath to the pelvis in each pose and keeping the abdominal muscles soft and relaxed, says Raffel, who is not a fan of crunches for those trying to conceive. By keeping the abs soft while you strengthen, she says, “you keep space in the pelvis and avoid adding tension to the area around the reproductive organs.” Shortening your stance in standing poses, avoiding deep twisting, and staying away from Kapalabhati breathing, all help keep the belly relaxed while strengthening the surrounding muscles.

Super-supported poses are a common prescription at pre-pre-natal Receptive Nest workshops

The approach is admittedly a bit more hippy than hip. Those looking to strengthen the pelvic floor more vigorously, using Pilates or Core Vinyasa, won’t find that offered here. But it’s a philosophical fit for Receptive Next, which prizes slowing down to an almost Savasana pace.

While regular restorative classes may do similar poses, the dialogue and teaching cues at Receptive Nest workshops are probably the biggest difference. Discussion centers around increased blood flow to the ovaries and how each pose benefits the reproductive system. “Since our participants share a strong common goal,” says Raffel, “talk about ‘visualizing the space in your uterus’ is pretty commonplace in our classes.”

Receptive Nest’s next NYC workshop is at Bend and Bloom Yoga, Brooklyn, May 1st from 1-3:30 pm. Learn more at www.receptivenest.com or call (212) 898-0414. Private sessions are also available.

Did you modify your yoga practice while trying to conceive? Tell us, here!

Fertility-enhancing acupuncture: NYC’s leading practitioner explains her approach

Today Well+Good kicks off Fertility Week. We’ll present four well-being perspectives on fertility—acupuncture, yoga, massage, and nutrition—since these reflect the latest ear-to-the-ground, feet-in-the-air approaches in NYC for enhancing fertility and making babies.

When it comes to getting pregnant, NYC women may have special challenges. (And not just because we tend to wait until our 30s and 40s.) “We are evolutionarily programmed to be less fertile during war and famine. And in New York, thanks to our unbalanced go-go lifestyles, we fake war and famine very well,” says Jill Blakeway, LAc, who’s the city’s leading acupuncture-fertility specialist.

What Blakeway means is that the body doesn’t know the difference between a state of stress due to brutal deadlines, high-pressure business transactions, and the constant firing of Blackberries and a real battlefield. “Women hear that stress is bad for them and that they just need to relax to get pregnant. But it’s quite ingrained in our lifestyle as well as our body chemistry,” says the Harlem resident and mother of one.

More and more medical studies support acupuncture’s role as fertility-enhancer and as an IVF-supporter (by 42.5% according to Fertility and Sterility, a peer-reviewed journal). Patients who visit Blakeway’s YinOva Center in Union Square often go on a three-month fertility-enhancing bootcamp that’s part needlework and part (gentle) lifestyle changes. The goal is balance, says Blakeway, who oversees a team of specialist acupuncturists.

Fertility goddess, Jill Blakeway

Patients get a thorough health intake with gynecological history and are given a fertility type—tired, dry, stuck, pale, and waterlogged, which correspond loosely to the five Chinese medicine types. These help guide the course of treatment. (Blakeway goes into these revealing lifestyle types in her new book Making Babies: A Proven 3-Month Program for Maximum Fertility.) But generally speaking, acupuncture reduces inflammation, a boon for those with endometriosis; increases blood flow to the uterus, which “nourishes the follicles and creates a smooth, healthy endometrium;” and Blakeway and Nicole Kruck, LMT, a specialized practitioner at YinOva, assess for blockages caused by the position of the uterus. (Look for our story on Thursday on the solid theory behind the woo-woo–sounding Maya Abdominal Massage.)

Blakeway may also use hormone-balancing Chinese herbs to help improve the regularity of short or long periods. “I speak ‘doctor,’ so I can confer with my patients’ traditional Western fertility specialists about exactly what I am prescribing and why, and point them to certifying organizations, if they wish. The acupuncturists who can’t or won’t confer with Western docs just further their mistrust of Chinese Medicine,” says Blakeway.

Acupuncture helps regulate menstrual cycles and well as the stress hormones that tell your body it's not time for a baby

Her success rate is high, about 75 percent, though Blakeway doesn’t toss that number around, since it includes women who “come to get in optimal reproductive shape and would probably get pregnant in time with or without my help, as well as those using conventional medicine interventions,” so she’s careful not to take all the credit. But her stats also include women that have blocked fallopian tubes or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, like Marisa, a Brooklyn teacher, who was told she had less than a 1 percent chance of conceiving by several doctors and now has two children.

While Blakeway encourages women to “keep things loose” during the treatment process, for many this can feel like a tall order. Some women who have been trying for a very long time come to YinOva with strict, prohibitive ‘pregnancy diets,” says Blakeway. “I had to promise one patient that eating spinach of all things would not compromise her ability to conceive. She’d read an article about iron toxicity in pregnant women, so she’d cut the beneficial greens right out.” Admittedly it’s hard to stay flexible when working hard to get pregnant, but that’s the mindset Blakeway’s going for.

One big reason? Stress isn’t just a feeling. It’s also coursing through our veins. “The elevated stress hormones like prolactin and cortisol give the body the impression that it’s just too under-resourced for reproduction right now; that this is not the time nor place to have a baby,” explains Blakeway.  “It’s quite primitive.” In other words, your body’s not at its serene baby-making best when it’s under fire.

Changing your stripes and your body chemistry takes time—not just a strong will or weekly yoga classes. Some women find benefit from support groups, hypnotherapy, or fertility coaches, services which Blakeway helps facilitate. But a handful of die-hard workaholics find it hard to swap their Blackberries for silence, even during acupuncture—a must, says Blakeway. “Shutting off your Blackberry for 20 minutes of acupuncture is part of learning to make space in your life for a baby.”

Have you ever tried acupuncture for fertility? If so, please share your experience, here!

Well+Good’s wussy vegan Super Bowl feast

“Super Bowl Sunday is synonymous with super bowel Mondays,” quips Quintessence maestro Raw Chef Dan. He has a point: The footballer version of Thanksgiving is a heartburn special and a calorific motherlode: nachos, Buffalo wings, pizza, and greasy chili. And this menu translates into a post-game party in your bathroom. So, with a few modifications courtesy of Candle Café and Quintessence, two of our favorite NYC vegan restaurants, you can serve healthy versions of the food your guests will be expecting. An extra benefit, besides feeling light as a colt Monday morning? Knowing your feast has left a small footprint. “A vegan Super Bowl party won’t cure your hangover. But it will clear your conscience,” says chef and nutritional consultant Joy Pierson, co-author of the Candle Cafe Cookbook. So go ahead–dig into these three courses. You’ll eat like a saint, and feel like a sinner.

THEY EXPECT:
Velveeta Cheese Queso Dip

YOU SERVE:
Candle Café Guacamole with Cayenne-Corn Tortilla Chips
(serves 4-6)
Candle Café uses ripe avocados, not firm ones, in this appetizer. Although avocados are high in unsaturated fat, they’re not fattening and they contain a good amount of vitamin C and riboflavin.

The architectural version of Candle Cafe's guacamole.

2 ripe avocados, halved and pitted
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped red pepper
1 1/2 tbsp chopped jalapeño pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1.  Scoop the avocados and lemon juice into a bowl and mash coarsely with a spoon.
2.  Gently mix in the onions, red pepper, and jalapeño. Add the salt and cilantro. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if necessary. Serve with Cayenne-Corn Tortilla Chips within an hour or two at room temperature.

Candle Café Cayenne-Corn Tortilla Chips (makes about 3 dozen chips)
These chips are much lighter and richer in flavor than commercial corn chips.
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp paprika
Pinch cayenne
4 large corn tortillas

1.  Preheat the oven to 325°F.
2  Place the olive oil, salt, paprika and cayenne in a large bowl and mix together well.
3.  Cut each tortilla into 8 small wedges, then add them to the oil and spice mixture. Toss well to coat.

Place the pieces on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until crisp. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding a bit more salt or cayenne, if desired.

THEY EXPECT:
Pigs in a Blanket

YOU SERVE:
Candle Café Charcoal Grilled Seitan Skewers with Citrus-Herb Sauce
Serves 6; makes about 12 skewers
Candle Café has shipped these popular appetizers to addicted customers on the West Coast. Tip: Warm-up the fire-escape grill (or the George Foreman), this seitan is best well-charred. The skewers also freeze well, so you can make them ahead of time.

Marinade:
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 1/2 pounds seitan, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

1.  To prepare the marinade, put the lemon juice, olive oil garlic, agave nectar, salt, parsley and cilantro in a blender. Blend on high speed until well combined.
2.  Put 4 pieces of seitan on each metal skewer, making 12 skewers total. Place them in a large non-reactive bowl or baking dish, pour the marinade over them and let sit for at least one hour or overnight.
3.  Prepare a charcoal, gas, or stovetop grill. Grill the skewers over medium-high heat until well-browned, about 5-7 minutes per side. Serve immediately with the Citrus-Herb Sauce or let cool and freeze. Be sure to allow at least an two hours to thaw.

THEY EXPECT:
A calorie-loaded, meat-packed, bean-filled chili

YOU SERVE:
Quintessence Mexican Chili Stew
(serves four)
You may miss the beans, which are a good protein, but you won’t miss the gas—or the prep time. This stew takes 20 minutes, minus marinating time.

To serve:
In a large soup bowl, place ¼ cup marinated veggies then fill to the top with the broth. You can use the veggies at room temp and broth warmer. Garnish with herbs like parsley, cilantro or basil, or diced avocado, if you have it.

For the broth:
Blend completely:
4 cups of water
¼ cup soaked sun-dried tomatoes
1 medium tomato
¼ cup olive oil
2 tbsp chopped white onion
2 tbsp chopped ginger
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 med clove of garlic
Optional:
1/2 soaked chipotle pepper
3 tbsp raw cocoa powder
Marinated Veggies:
Toss the following lightly in olive oil, sea salt, chili powder, and cumin: slices of zucchini, yellow squash, bell pepper, and onions.
 Let marinate about 3 hours or until soft. Note: Thinner slices become soft faster.

Are you serving anything from the vegan playbook for the Super Bowl? Tell us, here!

How to find a life coach, not a quack

Is your coach worth the cash?

When I realized that I had a case of procrastination so tenacious that even admitting it took forever, I decided try a life coach instead of returning to my psychotherapist’s too-cozy couch. I’d talked about action long enough. I just needed to act.

Loosely defined, a life coach helps you structure a process to meet your goals. As life coaching quickly gains both credibility and popularity, it’s creating a thriving market. Anyone—former CEOs, HR execs, actors, self-help-book mavens, even disgraced journalist Jayson Blair—can call themselves one. Even although most people report positive experiences, you still need to be wary of quacks and hacks.

The recession is only making coaching more popular. “In the last year, I’ve seen more and more people still out of work, frustrated, and fearful,” says Bernie Siegel, an executive coach and president of the NYC chapter of International Coach Federation (ICF), the leading certifying body in the field. “Yet they’re finding some money to invest in themselves through coaching.” And the service is no bargain: an average life-coaching client spends 13 months and $3,700, according to a recent ICF survey.

So how do you find a coach that’s worth the cash? We canvassed a number of NYC coaches and clients to bring you these tips:

• Ask around. Almost half of clients find their coach through word of mouth, according to the ICF. If a coach helped somebody you trust, start there.

• Do a background check. “Find out their training,” recommends NYC coach and consultant Rachel Ciporen. “For life coaching, you’ll want one with a background in psychology, organizational development, or another foundation in how people learn and change.”

• Seek a certified coach. A good bet is to find a coach whose training has been certified by ICF or another reputable entity, such as Columbia University Teacher’s College’s new Coaching Certification Program, where Ciporen and my coach, Anibal Cerda, got their creds.

• Be specific. Since time is money, be clear on why you’re there. “To have a productive conversation, you and your coach need to agree on what you want to accomplish,” says Ciporen.

• Not all problems are coach-appropriate. Depression, anxiety, deep-seated family issues—these are the realm of psychotherapists. A reputable coach will tell you to seek other options if your needs fall out of the scope of their training.

Despite the potential quack factor, most clients we spoke with felt that they had found a great coach and made real progress—including me. After several months of guided discussion, a weekly action plan, and a process to catch counterproductive behavior and test assumptions, I’m staying on track with my goals—and putting off procrastination for another day.

Ever done life-coaching? Tell us about your experience, here!

Bend, don’t break: How to stay injury-free in yoga

Almost every yogi gets an injury at some point. Doug Swenson, who’s been practicing since 1963, has had his fair share of them. The yoga polymath (and older brother of top Ashtanga teacher David Swenson) recently gave a NYC workshop on injury prevention based upon his 47 years of doing down dog (mostly the right way). Here’s what we learned:

Swenson divides injuries into two categories: impact injuries and cumulative injuries. Impact injuries happen quickly and often dramatically: falling out of a pose or stretching too deeply when cold. Cumulative injuries happen over time and are caused by imbalances in your poses and your practice. That is, doing too much of one thing without enough of the counter to balance. To try to prevent these injuries, Swenson had a few tips on how to structure your practice.

1. Stretch and strengthen. Often yoga emphasizes the openings or the stretch, but we can damage joints by overstretching without strengthening the surrounding muscles. Swenson recommends isometrically (meaning using your own body as resistance) strengthening in and out of an opening pose in class. For example, after a series of back-bending poses, do core or ab-strengthening work for balance. Similarly, heavy-duty arm balances and endless chaturangas call for some strength-promoting pulls to counter all the pushes (and probably some simple circles and stretches to protect against jammed wrists).

Injury prevention tip: Don't try Swenson's cliffside lotus crow pose unless you're a yoga pro

2. Consider cross-training. Early in his practice, Swenson developed knee problems from lots of time in lotus pose. But he discovered that his knees felt much better after he went for a hike, because he had strengthened the muscles surrounding them and brought more stability to the knee joint. Now, he plans lotus and hiking or biking within a few days of each other.

3. How are you approaching your poses? Like a lion or a lamb? It’s important to respect your body and its limitations—and to try not to compare yourself to the yogi on the next mat—and use props if you need to. Instead of giving your ego a stroking, you’ll be giving your body what it needs.

4. Be aware of your body type and how that might change alignment cues for you. For example, if your hamstrings are tight, lift and separate your sit bones to create more space when doing forward bends. However, if your hamstrings tend to be very open, pull your sit bones down and together to protect the connective tissue in your upper thigh and seat.

And if you do get injured, Swenson recommends the age-old sports medicine remedy of alternating hot and cold: take a hot bath with Epsom salt, tea tree oil, and arnica, followed by a cold compress on the affected area. (And of course, see your acupuncturist or MD if you need to.)

Swenson’s upcoming East Coast workshops: Toms River, NJ, on Feb. 4 and Cape May, NJ, Feb. 5–7. Details at www.sadhanayogachi.com

Got any injury-prevention or recovery tips to share? Tell us, here!

Meditation made easy with Tibet House superstar Sharon Salzberg

PSA: the subway needs more meditators

When I finally get quiet time, I don’t usually want 200 other people there. But that’s the irony of meditation, which I’ve been trying to learn (again). It’s an inner-life practice that for some reason works really well in groups. Even groups of depressive, subway-seat–grabbing, ambitious New Yorkers, whom, when I open my eyes just a bit, are being still, silent, and calm, at least for one goddamn minute. It’s miracle on 34th Street. Well, 15th.

We’re all here at the Tibet House learning to meditate with Sharon Salzberg, one of the country’s leading Buddhist teachers. The author of Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness has been leading drop-in classes on almost every Tuesday night this winter—and there are nine more left. Even more excellent: it’s donation-only ($10).

By the looks of things, New Yorkers are desperately appreciative. When I arrived just before 7:00, I was able to grab one of the several dozen (wobbly) folding chairs. By the end of class at 8:30, a couple hundred Manhattanites in search of inner peace occupied every one—and every square inch of the floor.

Buddhist teacher, Sharon Salzberg

Salzberg, an affable redhead with a Jewish grandmother vibe, starts class with a lecture, then leads the group in a 20-minute guided meditation. The class is intended for beginners, though experienced meditators also turn out for a mantra reboot. Next, Salzberg fields questions, parsing for us what went on in our heads—so the next meditation, a silent one, is easier.

Maybe Salzberg is like other professional Buddhists in that she doesn’t teach Buddhism. Instead she relays it through personal stories and anecdotes, and she’s a charmer. There was nothing inaccessible or strictly philosophical about how she came to meditation—“I went to India at 18 in a lot of emotional pain, instinctually knowing it would help.” And she drew sympathetic laughs from the crowd describing how she quickly became disappointed with the method when it was revealed to her: “I came all the way to goddamn India to learn how to watch myself breathe??”

You could spend a lifetime on the two practical steps of meditation: practice concentrating on the object (the breath, or a mantra, for example) and coming back to it when your mind wanders, says Salzberg. “The mind will always wander, so it’s about what you do then.” Although some people get totally blissed out. Even so, Salzberg says they too have to come back to the breath.

I don’t know about my fellow meditators, but I left last week’s class with a break-through trick from Salzberg for swatting away distractions. I’m going back tonight for some alone time to practice it. See you there?

Sharon Salzberg teaches at the Tibet House, 22 W. 15th, btwn 6th and 7th Aves., tonight at 7:00 ($10 donation), and for several Tuesdays through spring, www.sharonsalzberg.com

Got any meditation tips or experience? Tell us, here!

Body by Fela: the city’s best West African dance classes

Broadway’s most buzzed about show is Fela!, a musical directed by legendary choreographer Bill T. Jones depicting the life of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a Nigerian political activist and the inventor of Afrobeat. The dancers in the show stomp, wriggle, flex, and fly for two straight hours. And, man, these ladies are ripped. Not surprisingly, Fela! is drawing wanna-be dancers to African classes, just as a generation ago Fame inspired New Yorkers to take modern classes. Sorry Leroy, there’s a new show in town.

Both the Djoniba Dance and Drum Center and The Ailey Extension offer beginner West African dance classes featuring live drummers. Bare-footed dancers wear tank tops, yoga pants, and sometimes a sarong or hip scarf, which doubles as something to mop your brow with.

Beginner Basic class at Djoniba Dance and Drum Center
At Djoniba the warm-ups are super tough and a bit 80s style—loads of push-ups, ab work, and exaggerated stretches that resemble the dance moves to come. Next, Djoniba Mouflet, the studio’s winsome founder, and some of his top students (that could be you in a year!) teach the group step by step—forward and backward ribcage thrusts and jumps, stomps, and twists—then you go across the floor testing what you learned two at a time. The last ten minutes is performance time, followed by a few freestyling minutes with the drummers, who join in mid-class. (Advanced classes get live percussion for most of the hour.) The center has moved to a new location; instead of its old studio, with its worn wooden floors and walls of old pictures, they are renting space within a brand new dance center just south of Union Square. While it’s newer and cleaner, it lacks the character and community hang-out vibe of the old space.
Djoniba Drum and Dance Center, 126 E. 13th St., 212-477-3464, www.djoniba.com.

Beginning West African class at The Ailey Extension
Over at the often hectic (be prepared to navigate your way though kids in leotards) Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, the beginner class is just as approachable as Djoniba’s, with one notable difference. Instructor KAMATE Yah’Ya’s class jumps right into choreography, without the fitness class preamble. That means the drumming and the fast, furious dancing lasts for a full hour. The dance moves, however, pull from the same repertoire. Just as at Djoniba, this style of dance has more to do with the energy and spirit behind the move, than about technical proficiency. The choreographically challenged can rejoice.
The Ailey Extension, 405 W. 55th Street, 212-405-9000, www.alvinailey.org.

Have you tried one of these West African dance classes? Tell us about your experience, here!

Desperately seeking sauna: tips for a superior sweat

Yesterday morning snow blanketed the city. Today icy wind is whistling from the Hudson to the East River. Why are we bringing you this weather report? It’s the time of year when you should sauna. Take advantage of your gym’s, or the out-size River Rock beauty at Great Jones Spa (you free get access with an hour-long treatment), or pay $25 for one of the city’s scorching hot Russian baths.

The process is pretty straightforward: Go into hot room, sweat, leave—and repeat. But behind the practice of lolling about half nude (or completely nude if it’s a single-sex sauna) is a deeply held philosophy of detoxification—that our bodies eliminate “environmental and lifestyle toxins” when we heat up. To get more from a simple sauna experience than sweat, we sought out the expertise of Birgit Krome, a dynamo of the downtown cleansing world.

Master cleanser and raw foodist: Birgit Krome

Krome bases her cleansing practice out of Nolita’s Great Jones Spa because of its killer sauna and cold plunge area set under soaring ceilings and skylights. Her popular detox services surround the dry sauna—and colonics (but that’s another post). “I have taught literally thousands of people to sauna,” says Krome, who studied cleansing methods with Ann Wigmore to Hanna Kroeger, North American detox pioneers.

So print this, laminate it, and take it to a sauna near you.

SAUNA BASICS

1. Find a comfortable place to spread out your towel and lie down in the sauna. Think day at the beach, minus the SPF. If you’re a beginner, find your perch on the lowest bench. Stay for 10-15 minutes, or until your heart starts to beat quickly.

2. Hoof it to the cold plunge. If your gym doesn’t have one, jump in a cold shower. If you really can’t take the cold, do it Kneipp-style and just plunge your extremities into the cold. “The key is to heat up then contract the blood vessels. In that process, the blood starts to circulate better and pump through the hair-fine little capillaries that normally going don’t get enough nutrient-rich blood,” says Krome.

3. Lie down and rest for at least 20 minutes. Replenish with lots of water or juice. Your heartbeat will slow and your lymph system kicks into detox mode. You will start to feel your head clearing. Oxygen goes to the brain, says Krome, and people who get “brain fog” will start to feel it lift.

Repeat the sauna cycle three times. That’s the German tradition, says Krome. “It’s pretty intense and you’ll feel like you got enough. I sometimes do four rounds. You detox deeper through the skin with each round.”

ADVANCED SAUNA SKILLS

Dry brushing
Take a soft, dry body brush and brush your skin up from your feet toward your heart. “Dry brushing is great to do before a sauna or in between sauna cycles. It activates the lymph system, and its waste-disposal mechanisms, so you detox more,” explains Krome.

Castor oil application
Rub some super-gooey castor oil on your stomach just before you go into the sauna. (Wear one of Great Jones’ disposable swimsuits or a two-piece you don’t care about because castor oil stains.) As you sit in the sauna, the heat ferries the oil to the liver and colon, promoting a deeper cleanse, says Krome. (Maybe save this for off-peak time.)

Do you detox? Tell us about your practices, here!

Not as fresh, but definitely direct: meet your building’s newest amenity

Dinner within reach: Fresh Direct's new vending machine

Proving yet again that New Yorkers don’t want to turn on the stove, Fresh Direct, which usually delivers, is now moving in. The popular grocer has unleashed a brigade of residential-bound refrigerated vending machines, loaded with its popular 4-Minute Meals. Its sights? The empty space next your building’s mailboxes or laundry room.

What’s in them? Chicken enchiladas from Rosa Mexicano, Parmesan risotto from Terrance Brennan, as well as healthy options from FD’s in-house Smart & Simple line, and vegetarian dishes courtesy of EatingWell magazine’s recipe archive. (These promise to top out at 500 calories.) Fresh Direct already sells up to 31,000 of these meals a week from its Long Island City based kitchen, so this marks a new era of on-demand dining.

This Tuesday night at the Solaire, a full-service rental building in Battery Park City, scores of residents mingled in the lobby during a Fresh Direct tasting event. Samples of the 15 meals currently available in the vending machine (the selection changes every 4-6 weeks), were passed by caterers, and wine and cheese platters were also offered. With the exception of the bland vegetarian pasta dish, everything else was surprisingly delicious, which is a tad disconcerting given that it’s scooped from a container reminiscent of Maison du Delta Airlines. What felt like a fundraiser cocktail party was a welcome-to-the-building party for the vending machine. “The Solaire and the Westport near Columbus Circle are part of our pilot program,” explained Abraham Ghelman, a retail location manager with Fresh Direct. “How quickly we expand into other residential buildings will depend on our success here.” The vending machines are already in 40 corporate buildings, starting with Goldman Sachs, proving that, despite popular belief, the bankers don’t dine daily on filet mignon.

Garlic Chili Wild Alaskan Halibut with Coconut Rice

But is dinner from a vending machine the death of the civilized family meal or is it a realistic solution for time-pressed New Yorkers? The portion-controlled meals—each contain 4-6 ounces of protein—represent a healthier option than many types of take-out. (Nutritional info sheets are on the machine and online.) And at $6-10 per entrée, FD meals end up being cheaper than take-out once you factor in tax and tip. The vending-machine meals are cooked just shy of completion and sealed with BPA-free polypropylene, and your four-minute microwave zap completes the cooking process.

But just how fresh are the meals? The chefs, headed up by Nobu Next Door alum Tina Bourbeau, prepare them the evening before delivery. So when they arrive in vending machines they are 12-15 hours old. From there, most have an expiration date of 2-4 days, so, worst case, your meal is five days old. From a food safety standpoint it’s safe, but to be this direct, the food’s definitely less fresh.

Part of Fresh Direct’s pitch is that the meals are “nutritionist-approved,” though we wonder if this includes the Presto Italiano four-cheese ravioli. “With our corporate accounts, the healthier options are the least popular,” says Ghelman. “Especially on the late shift when people want something filling and heavy that will take care of them for hours.” So, do people eat differently at home? Early findings give hope: The whole-wheat spaghetti with vegetarian meatballs is already the second most popular entrée at the Solaire, according to Ghelman. The halibut, which proved delicious at the tasting event, ranked 12 out of 15, and the salads placed last. With the fish options there are multiple hurdles to overcome, acknowledges Ghelman, “It’s a vending machine, it’s microwavable, it’s fish out of a vending machine.”

Would you buy dinner from a vending machine? Tell us, here?