health – Page 2 – Christa Avampato

This Just In: Thank you for your prayers for my dog, Phineas

January 26, 2015 Christa Avampato

This picture of him is from last year when we were snowed into our apartment in NYC

Hi everyone. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all the love, good vibes, and prayers that so many of you are sending to sweet Phineas. They’re working!

I just came back from the animal hospital and got to see and hold Phin. He’s still in ICU, but miraculously he’s making very slow and steady progress on meds and bed rest. He is waddling very slowly, but is eating, drinking water, going outside when he needs to, and is alert and affectionate.

Best of all, his x-ray doesn’t show any breaks or fractures in his spine and he’s not paralyzed in his back legs. He could have swelling in his spinal cord or discs. We would only be able to see that swelling on an MRI which is a very serious procedure for a dog that they don’t do unless they have to.

We are going to re-evaluate tomorrow morning when I go back to visit him. If he continues to improve, we’ll keep him in the hospital and on meds and rest until he is well enough to come home on crate rest and oral meds. We may be able to completely avoid an MRI and surgery if he continues to get better.

THANK YOU again for sending him your thoughts and love. We’re sending you our love back! Thinking of all our friends and family up north. Stay safe!

books, food, health, yoga

YOGALEAN: Poses and Recipes to Promote Weight Loss and Vitality-for Life. A new book by Beth Shaw.

September 10, 2014September 10, 2014 Christa Avampato

I took my first yoga teacher training through Beth Shaw’s YogaFit program. At the time, her approach appealed to my desire to cultivate fitness and health without continuing to pound my body through competitive running and heavy gym workouts. Her program caused me to further investigate yoga as a physical, mental, and spiritual practice, and 14 years later, I’m still teaching.

Beth has a new book out this week, YOGALEAN: Poses and Recipes to Promote Weight Loss and Vitality-for Life. This book is perfect for people who want to integrate yoga and nutrition into a 360-degree program to lose weight and increase their energy levels. The book walks readers through cohesive plans for four distinct motivations: amp up energy, promote a leaner body, increase immunity, and promote youthfulness inside and out. Each motivation has a common set of components:

Yoga poses that promote a lean physique, strengthen your core, and increase energy
Cardio and weight-training workouts to complement your yoga, refine your physical strength, and ward off disease
Easy recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks that will help you burn fat more efficiently
Stress-reducing and clarity-enhancing daily meditations
Breathing exercises to calm your mind and sharpen your focus
A one-week jumpstart plan outlining precisely what to eat and how to exercise your body and mind

The book is now on sale in bookstores across the country and online. Congrats to Beth on the next evolution of her mission to bring health and wellness to all people everywhere!

blogging, communication, creative, creativity, design, health, innovation, media, product development, stress, technology, work, writer, writing

Inspired: Check out my magazines on Flipboard for travel, stress-busting, product design, and office design

July 30, 2014July 29, 2014 Christa Avampato

I’m now on Flipboard as @christanyc and created 4 magazines to curate content in travel, product design, workspace design, and stress reduction. I hope you’ll stop by and check them out:
Travel on Purpose – use your travels and vacations to build a better world

Insanely Cool New Products – the coolest new product innovations and the awesome people who make them

Crazy Creative Workspaces – interior design inspirations for the places where we work

Stress Sucks – the science of stress and how to bust it

exercise, health

Inspired: National Walking Day is April 2nd

April 2, 2014March 31, 2014 Christa Avampato

Today is National Walking Day and Mother Nature is cooperating in New York City with a gorgeous Spring day. I recently wrote a piece for Wise Bread about the 10 Most Surprising Benefits of a 10 Minute Walk. It does a body, and especially a heart, good. Get out there.

career, health, work

Inspired: You Don’t Need to Accept Bad Behavior at Work

March 29, 2014March 27, 2014 Christa Avampato

I spend a lot of time mentoring young people, especially those just starting their careers. Yesterday one of my mentees told me a horrific story about the behavior of her boss and co-workers toward her. The stress and abuse are affecting her health. I encouraged her to look for a new job. “I need this job. I left my last job because of an abusive boss after 6 months. I can’t leave this one so soon, too. It will look horrible on my resume.”

You know what would be really horrible? Developing a long-term health problem because of working for awful people who are rude, disrespectful, and unprofessional. Everyone deserves dignity; it’s a birthright. If you’re being treated badly, speak up and if your concerns are dismissed, leave. I’ve never been able to tolerate bad behavior and poor treatment, whether it was directed at me or others. I refuse to let it happen on my watch. I walked away many times without knowing what I would do next, and I always figured it out. Here’s the bottom line: you matter. If you don’t matter to the people you work for, then you need to move on. They don’t deserve you.

comedy, creativity, film, health, movie

Inspired: Bill Murray and Comedy Changed How I See Mental Illness

February 25, 2014February 23, 2014 Christa Avampato

This is the power of comedy: it opens up our minds by first making us laugh and then making us think long and hard about the truth underneath that laughter. Over the weekend, I made some additional edits to my play, Sing After Storms. There’s only one pop culture reference in the play and it refers to Bill Murray’s performance in the film What About Bob?. While we often think of What About Bob? as a comedy, and it certainly is, that movie had a different long-term effect on me that only rose into my consciousness as I was writing Sing After Storms. Clinical OCD (Bob’s illness) is a debilitating, terrifying condition. It keeps people confined and isolated by an intense fear of death. It deeply affected how I think about mental illness and it’s impact on an individual’s potential in a way that a dramatic film wouldn’t have done. If we can make people laugh, we can also move them to action. It’s a lesson I’m trying to bring into my writing and it’s perhaps the toughest artistic challenge I have today. Comedy isn’t easy but I’ve seen that its rewards are so rich.

health, hope, running, sports

Inspired: Don’t Just Remember the Boston Marathon. Honor Boston and Its Residents.

February 15, 2014February 11, 2014 Christa Avampato

In exactly two months the media will turn its attention to Boston to commemorate the one year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. My friend, Mary, a runner and proud Bostonian, is in the midst of some incredible work that I want to share with you.

Many of the Boston Marathon bombing survivors were treated at Spaulding Rehab Hospital. Mary ran the 2009 Boston Marathon for Spaulding Rehab as a mobility impaired runner and this year was at the Mandarin preparing to celebrate the Race for Rehab Team’s triumphant crossing of the finish line when the bombs went off.

As Boston and the world count down the days until the start of the 2014 Boston Marathon, Mary is honored and proud to co-host two phenomenal fun(d)raising events to benefit Karis Antokal and Greg Gordon who are running with Spaulding Rehab’s Race for Rehab Team in Boston 2014:

Karis’ Karaoke for a Kause happening on 2/20/14 from 8:00-10:00 pm at the Limelight Stage and Studios at 204 Tremont Street Boston. Suggested minimum donation is $20 and you receive a Take a Chance ticket to be entered to win an autographed Tom Brady Jersey. And don’t worry if you’re too shy to step up to the mic. They’ll have plenty of people singing strong. Cash bar and appetizers will be available. Read Karis’ story on her fundraising page. Silent auction items include autographed books by Bob and Lee Woodruff, a Cape Getaway Weekend, Celtics and Red Sox tickets, and gift certificates to Stapleton Floral Design and Marathon Sports.

An Evening of A Cappella to Benefit Spaulding Rehab will take place on April 4th at Boston University. Terpsichore, Boston University’s all-female a cappella group, will be your host from 7:00pm – 9:00 pm at Sleeper Auditorium located at 871 Commonwealth Avenue. The evening features performances by Terpsichore, the BU Dear Abbeys, BU’s In Achord and Bostonality, a post-collegiate a cappella group. Minimum suggested donation is $10. Make your donation to Greg Gordon’s fundraising page and in the comments section note that it is for the benefit concert.

No matter where we call home, let’s show Boston and the city’s residents the love they need to heal and get through this difficult milestone.

creativity, health, opportunity

Inspired: Opportunity in injury

January 22, 2014January 19, 2014 Christa Avampato

Over the Christmas holidays, I strained my hip. Now I’m on the mend thanks to my yoga practice, yoga teachers, and rest. I am rarely sick or injured so when it happens I first feel disappointed and then incredibly grateful. Disappointed that despite my desire to be super-human, I am indeed human and susceptible to injury. Grateful because an injury or illness fills me with so much empathy and compassion for those who manage physical pain on a daily basis. Injuries can get us down, and they can also be tremendous opportunities for growth, a source or strength, and proof of resilience. After all, if we were always well we would never experience the magic of healing.

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