but it helps calm and focus their minds before a show. All those hours sitting in the van are a killer on your body. Yoga helps combat that damage. Heartwood often offers their
musicians healthier food options than is the norm. Sometimes they have catering from a local healthy restaurant, or they’ll have hummus and veggies, fruit, and pita chips. Some of the musicians are vegetar- ian or vegan. Some bring their own food on the road with them. I’ve talked to several who were aware of better health habits and nutrition. That’s very encouraging. It makes my job easier if I can catch
musicians when they’re young, more open to change and have had the benefit of growing up with healthier choices readily available and more health awareness in mainstream culture. But, it’s not too late for anyone to get healthier! I don’t care if you’re the old rocker with worn out knees, Hep C, COPD, etc. YOU can make changes that will make you feel bet- ter and will give you a longer, happier life. We are going to work on that together. Homework time. If nothing else, do
this one thing until we meet again. Start look- ing at your diet. Use a notepad, paper or a phone app, or download and print out a food diary to keep track. It’s really easy to lose track along the way, if you can’t see it in one place. Seeing something written down for a period of time has a way of showing us what is really going on in our lives. How much of your diet is carbs? How much sugar do you consume? Start reading the labels and nutri- tional content on your foods and drinks. Soda is horrible! Sugar and carbs hide in our diets. You will probably be unpleasantly surprised. Use this sugar conversion. Take the
carb grams and subtract any fiber grams. If you have 27 grams of carbs and 2 of fiber, you get 25 grams of carbs. Divide the carb grams
by 5. You get 5 teaspoons of sugar. Divide the sugar grams by 4. If there are 24 grams of sugar, you get 6 teaspoons of sugar. Add those together. That food you’re considering eating has what your body will turn into a whopping 11 teaspoons of sugar! Now, meas- ure out 11 teaspoons of sugar into a container. Would you eat that? Please don’t! Try to keep track of this for every pack-
aged food you eat, at least. Write it on your note pad or journal. If you really want to get detailed, you can look up whole foods online for sugar and carb content, as well. I did a search for sugar and carb content for a baked potato. The first response was from “SFGATE Healthy Eating.” They stated “The amount of total carbohydrates includes all of the sugar, starch and fiber found in a potato. The total carbohydrates in a medium-sized potato range from 27 grams in red and white pota- toes to 34 grams in sweet potatoes and 36.5 grams in russet potatoes.” Using the sugar conversion method above, we know there are about 7.3 teaspoons of what your body will turn into sugar in a medium sized baked po- tato. The butter and sour cream you might add are healthier than the sugars. We desper- ately need good fats! And you might be sur- prised by what those are. We’ll get into that
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