Focusing on Health and Harmony this Holiday Season and Beyond

“Aren’t the holidays so stressful? You have to make a concentrated effort to take time for yourself,” says Mariel Hemingway, actress, writer, Yogi and mother.

Wellness caught up with her by telephone on the set of the independent film Chatham shot in New England. The year is 1905 and Mariel plays a widow turned housekeeper to old sea captains, Bruce Dern and David Carradine. Our conversation turned from seafaring romance to balancing fitness and inner peace through chaotic times. Something she’s very familiar with.

As for the upcoming holidays, Hemingway says, “Each year, we go up to Sun Valley, Idaho and have a traditional Christmas morning. I used to bake Rice Krispies Treats® and cinnamon buns to indulge. Now I make my new healthy Blissquits cookies made with whey and a natural sweetener Xylitol and Sweet Leaf Stevia. My daughters love them.” She laughs recalling her daughters’ periods of eating badly when they were young teens. “I’m proud of their healthy habits these days,” says Hemingway of daughters, Dree, 19 and Langley, 18. “You just have to be flexible.”

With a tumultuous childhood, living in the spotlight as granddaughter of novelist, Ernest Hemingway, the actress received her own acclaim with an Academy Award nomination at 18 for her breakout performance in Woody Allen’s, Manhattan. Throughout her book, Mariel Hemingway’s Healthy Living from the Inside Out (Harper Collins, New York) she is candid about the legacy of suicide and the Hemingway “run with the bulls” all or nothing philosophy on life. Her mother died of cancer and sister model/actress Margaux of suicide. Mariel is ever a survivor and anchor of the family.

Always athletic, she manifested that obsessive/compulsive tendency into sometimes overly rigorous exercise regimes. Stating that even when she was older, “there were times early in our marriage where my husband would come home and I would be jumping rope mindlessly for over an hour straight.” Over the years she’s tempered her tendencies, adapting a holistic approach by incorporating her deep spiritual belief in Eastern philosophy and interest in whole foods.

Hemingway’s inspiration for her book surfaced while her husband Stephen was terminally ill with melanoma that metastasized to his colon and liver. “He has completely changed. Stephen used to eat horribly,” Hemingway says. “I would try to make him eat whole wheat pizza with vegetables on it and he hated that.” Through her guidance in adapting healthier living habits and some surgeries, Stephen is cancer-free today.

Elements of Healthy Living

In her book, Hemingway covers four basic elements that contribute to healthy living: food, exercise, silence and home.

1. Noisy Foods - From Thanksgiving right on through the New Year try to stay away from overloading on what Hemingway describes as “noisy foods.” These are foods that literally have you buzzing one minute and lethargic an hour later. “Food is really a drug, that once eaten, enters the bloodstream causing surging mood swings and energy levels.” Three noisy polluters are sugar, chemicals and caffeine. Sugar includes corn syrup, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, cornstarch, dextrose and maltodextrin. When we turn down the noisy foods like coffee, candy bars, breads or highly processed foods filled with preservatives, Hemingway says, we are able to hear what our bodies are truly craving. Hemingway’s pantry musts are: natural sweeteners: sweet leaf stevia and xylitol—made from red birch bark, whey protein powder, organic coconut oil, flaxseed powder, fish oil and raw nuts. In her book, she shares such recipes as easy-to-make smoothies, like her “Morning Shake” made of vanilla whey protein powder, flaxseed powder, blueberries and a little Stevia to sweeten.

2. Exercise - Hemingway is an accomplished Yogi who teaches Yoga, conducts retreats and speaks widely on radio and public forums about healthy living. She has developed a series of DVDs with Yogi Rodney Yee. Her advice:

Hemingway describes the proper techniques of various Yoga poses like: Mountain Pose, Volcano Pose, ownward- Facing Dog, Sun Salutation, Chair pose, Tree Pose to ending with the Relaxation pose all keeping breathing techniques in mind. Her first book, Finding my Balance, (Simon & Schuster, 2003) is a candid memoir utilizing Yoga moves.

3. Silence - During a particularly stressful holiday one year, Hemingway tells a story of walking out to her parked car and sitting still embracing the silence and doing simple breathing techniques.“You literally change your physiology by focusing on your breath and going within to find some inner peace.” Turning inward towards silence, while rushing around shopping and wrapping, helps you find calm down to see things clearer.

4. Home - Your home should be warm, comfortable and provide serenity. “Stand in each room and see how you really feel,” Hemingway suggests. If your home is cluttered, furniture is not arranged comfortably, it’s actually draining your energy. “Chronic clutter often reflects fear and low-self worth. Piles of stuff provide a false comfort and can lead to shame, not wanting to invite others in to share it. A great feeling of empowerment is to get rid of chaos by clearing out the excess and creating a sacred space in the house just for you.” Go to that sacred space at least once a day and know that soon the craziness of the holidays do pass with new memories. Before returning to the set of movie-making magic, recreating a century-old fisherman’s wharf during a much simpler time, Hemingway commented on her modern day mission:

Excerpted from Mariel Hemingway’s Healthy Living from the Inside Out (Harper Collins, New York)

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