Turn up the heat! And an excuse to eat goat cheese??

My hands and feet are always cold. I think this runs in my family, as we tend to have poor circulation in those two areas...at least that's what I tell myself so as to believe I'm not the only one who walks around with blocks of ice for limbs. But I do think the women in my family have this issue. Right now you're asking yourself why you just wasted half a minute reading that piece of useless information, aren't you? Good news, this is all leading to a point!

I recently found out that some yoga poses can actually help warm up your pigs and finners. Cold hands and feet are most often caused by poor circulation or stress. Inverted poses such as downward-facing dog, bridge (shown above), plow, and legs-up-the-wall (see iyogalife.com for video instruction if none of this sounds like English to you) simultaneously relax the body and improve circulation by dilating blood vessels, so blood can flow more easily to your extremities. To really feel the heat, take full, even breaths as you hold each pose for up to a minute. It sure beats feeling like the Icicle Queen!

So now that you're all warmed up, let's celebrate with a cheese tip! (Hey, why not?) When cooking a recipe that requires standard cow's-milk cheeses - use soft goat cheese instead. It has one third less fat. Plus it's delicious and goes well with most red wine. Now that's the kind of cooking tip this girl can put to use!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you have a happy and healthy week!