Nine days and done!

I ended my cleanse early at nine days.  After battling my cold throughout this whole cleanse and having a social event, I decided that I was ready to come off my cleanse.  It didn't go exactly how I had planned, but that is life. Sometimes you have to just roll with it!  I do feel like it has been a reflective time for me.  I am more conscious of what I am feeding myself and feel a bit more calm & content.  It is a step by step journey to being healthy and living the life I want to.  I am reading Deepak Chopra's "Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga" right now.  I feel something swirling around inside me...my passion for yoga always growing...on the brink of something wonderful here!!!  In life we sometimes have to take a step back so that we can then take two steps forward.  Believe in yourself and trust where you are going!

Week One Down

Week one of my cleanse is complete!  I am still not over my cold, which has been a real drag.  So although I have been eating healthy, I still have not managed to do the early morning wake ups yet.  I am trying to be gentle with myself and realize that it is ok to just rest right now.  I have been drinking a lot of tea and enjoying soup quite a bit!  It is nice to reconnect with what you are eating.  The habit of starting my day with a hot bowl of oatmeal & fruit has been very comforting.  I can feel a shift in my thought process about what to eat and it makes me happy.  We are always evolving and growing...it is a beautiful thing! 

End of Day Two

I am wrapping up day two of my cleanse.  Unfortunately I have come down with a cold!  So now I am adding an herbal immunity blend to the mix.  Hopefully that will help, I don't usually get colds but this is now the second cold this fall for me!  I have been great with my food & drink for the cleanse...but the meditation not so much.  I have been trying to sleep in to fight this cold off, so cross my fingers the extra hour of sleep this weekend will do me good too.  I had a headache yesterday, but that may have been because of my cold.  Today I feel good (besides the cold part) and haven't even missed coffee.  Have been drinking a bunch of herbal tea and having one green tea at work during the day.  For breakfast I have been having either oat bran or oatmeal with some fruit, a dash of cinnamon and maybe a splash of coconut milk.  Soups are great! Tonight I made a veggie soup with sweet potato, red bliss potato, celery, onion, garlic, peas and spinach simmered in water with some curry powder and a slice on lemon to finish it off.  Warming and delightful!  Snacking on almonds, organic wild rice cakes, fresh fruit & veggies through out the day.  Went to Whole Foods tonight and splurged on these raw food snack bars that I like.  I also picked up some delicious coconut based "ice cream" for when I am finished on my cleanse and ready for a healthy sweet treat.   It's amazing how much energy you get from nourishing yourself with healthy food! 

Preparing to Cleanse

The time has come to do another cleanse!  Henry and I had attempted to do one together at the start of fall, but it wasn't very successful.  Cleansing is personal for me I guess and I do better if I focus on just my own cleanse instead of worrying about my husband too haha!

Why cleanse?  Many great reasons to cleanse!  Everyday we are constantly around toxins.  Cleansing gives the body a chance to get rid of toxins and re-energize itself.  Cleansing helps aid in liver and kidney function.  Eliminating processed foods and certain foods that are harder for your body to break down, your system has a chance to rest and feel nourished.  The skin also benefits from a cleanse as well, becoming more radiant.  The body can return to a balanced state.  After a cleanse it is easier to maintain healthy habits.

Creating a sense of ritual & relaxation through cleansing helps soothe the soul.  This time while cleansing I will focus on a whole mind body purification.  Starting the day with seated meditation, light yoga and warm water with lemon & honey.  Treating myself to dry skin brushing to help with circulation and detoxification.  Doing self massage after the shower with body oil.  Sometimes cleansing is not just about what we drink and eat, but also looking at our lives and realizing where else can we do a little clean up.  Maybe reading more, spending less time online.  I will of course update my blog, but I plan to try my best to limit my time sitting in front of the screen.

My cleanse will begin on November 1st and will be a 2 week long cleanse.  I will be using the Whole Foods 14 day cleanse kit again (same one I did in the spring) which has a fiber pill, laxative pill and liver detox pill.  I ordered some organic roasted dandelion root tea to enjoy along with some other teas I have on hand, as I will not be drinking coffee.  No processed food, sugar, dairy, alcohol...super clean eating here I come!!! 

Holiday Feasts and What to Eat

Ah the holiday time is quickly approaching!  I love getting together with family and friends to enjoy a wonderful meal and be thankful for all we have.  The past few years I have been making some side dishes to bring along.  I like to take a twist on fresh cranberry sauce adding in another fruit to lighten up the sugar needed.  Last year I decided we need a sweet potato dish, so I added caramelized sweet potatoes alongside our standard mashed squash.  I also put my adorable corn cob cast iron molds to good use making little corn bread sticks.  This year I am planning on adding some delicious vegetarian main dishes to the table.  I have been looking at stuffed squash recipes.  Leaning towards making a squash stuffed with wild rice and cranberries & pecans!  Martha Stewart.com has some good looking recipes on her Everything Thanksgiving: Meatless Thanksgiving Recipes.  People ask me all the time how can I be a vegetarian and what do I eat....well there's so much to eat!  I love fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, grains!  After being vegetarian during high school and even dabbling in being vegan when I lived in NYC, I then fell of the wagon in my mid twenties.  I battled with my need to control my weight from my high school days of dancing into my early twenties when I always felt the pressure to look a certain way.  NYC amplified that for me and it became a bit of a problem, but that could be a whole other blog...so anyway, after I moved away from the city I sort of gave all that up and it became a free for all!  Of course I gained weight and felt more sluggish.  Then came the time to realize things and come back to the person I wanted to be.  One filled with compassion for animals and focused on healthy living.  Personally I can no longer enjoy eating meat and feel better living my life as a vegetarian.  My journey deeper into yoga and deciding to train to be a yoga teacher guided me back to my veggie self.  Something just clicked, and while it is not easy to say no to some of the things I used to enjoy, it is harder to get over the thought of eating an animal.  This blog is by no means to be taken the wrong way, it is everyone's personal choice whether or not to eat meat.  I'm just sharing with you my choice of not eating animals and some insight of why I chose not to and what I enjoy eating instead.  Thanksgiving for me will be filled with stuffed squash, green beans, corn bread, potatoes & vegetarian mushroom gravy, cranberry sauce, and maybe a piping hot serving of leek bread pudding thanks to Martha Stewart!  And don't forget apple & pumpkin pie are vegetarian too!!!  With much love and gratitude to all beings, wishing everyone a joyful holiday season!!!

Glowing Practices

Why black light yoga you ask???  Isn't everything better when you glow?!  That's what I think!

Doing yoga with the soft glow from black lights is not only fun but also opens up your practice to a new dimension.  You can let go of judgement, instead all you see is the beautiful glow from everyone's white or neon clothes!  Something magical happens when you put music, movement and the "glow" all together during a yoga practice.  You can reach a more meditative feeling by flowing through some continuous Sun Salutations.  A black light practice can also create a fun atmosphere, wearing glow bracelets and tapping into our child-like spirits.  Finding laughter as we challenge our balance in the dark.  Maybe even bouncing a little in downward dog to the music!  Get your glow on!!!

Finding My Way

Been home now for about 3 months, but feels like longer!  Came back to a busy schedule at the salon.  Then my husband and I moved into a new place.  Through all that it became hard to keep that yoga high going!  I came home from Costa Rica in March so pumped up and then felt like I deflated by April.  It hasn't been easy "breaking" into the yoga world here.  I started teaching Monday nights this month and am slowly trying to build that up.  I think when I got home I just assumed the transition would just happen, and I would just gracefully begin teaching yoga.  But it's funny how things happen for a reason.  A client at the salon asked me if I would be interested in teaching yoga at the high school.  Figuring that I had nothing to lose, we swapped emails and she got me emailing with the high school gym/wellness teacher.  I thought it would be fun to go in and teach the tenth grade students some yoga, and the teacher was thrilled to have me come in!  But as the end of May came around and it was time for me to teach my three days in school, I grew more and more nervous.  What were the kids going to be like?  Were they going to listen to me?  Would they ask silly questions?  The day arrived and as my husband pulled up to the high school to drop me off I had to remind myself to "just breathe" and that this would be ok!  Once I got in there and began my first class I felt energized and happy to share yoga with these young minds.  Over those three days I felt my passion being reignited and I remembered why I was doing what I was doing. Teaching these bright eyed, somewhat skeptical even, teens was such an experience for me!  They infused me with energy again.  Hopefully next year I will be invited in to teach again, and maybe even all grades too!  Finding my inner teacher with the help of these high school students will be something I will forever be grateful for.  I hope that they got as much as I got out of that time on the yoga mat!