yoga with weights

i went to my family's summer house in Michigan at the end of August for an end-of-summer vacation. I rallied the whole gang (husband DC, Mom + Dad) to a yoga with weights class at Union/Yoga in Lake Leelanau. It's a great studio, has been there for many years, and the director Sandra taught the class. I thought a yoga with weights class would be a power yoga session, accelerating strength building and toning. However, this class focused on building bone density, through slow and meditative movements, and was relaxing. I loved it, as did my whole yoga posse. It really opened my eyes to even another approach and interpretation of yoga.

summer veggie reading, part 2

A book that got even deeper under my skin was MAD COWBOY: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat by Howard F. Lyman and Glen Merzer. Howard Lyman was a fourth-generation cattle rancher, who took over his family's farm in the 1970s when the scope of ranching and farming was changing with the introduction of chemicals, hormones, and feedlots. The book is full of first-person accounts and facts of where our beef comes from, and it's very disturbing and powerful. Lyman's own deteriorating health led him to question the cattle-for-food industry, and ultimately leave that world behind. He's a full fledged vegetarian. Lyman was on the Oprah show in the late 90's where she questioned the beef industry's practices when Mad Cow Disease was on the rise. The book covers not just the beef industry but also the dairy industry.


When you look at a meat-eating diet from the perspective of 1. killing other living beings for food and 2. prior to killing the animals, pumping them full of chemicals and hormones to speed their growth and kill the diseases they get from being penned in unhealthy environments, which remains in the cellular makeup of the food, well, those are pretty compelling arguments for avoiding the beef altogether.


Last summer, I read Skinny Bitch, which i felt was more sensationalist, and it was the first-person account of a "Mad Cowboy" that really made the most powerful argument for going fully veggie.

summer veggie reading, part one

first, i read Yoga and Vegetarianism: The Path to Greater Health and Happiness, by Sharon Gannon, the founder of the Jivamukti style of yoga. In addition to developing Jivamukti yoga, Ms. Gannon is also an animal-rights activist. She presents many impassioned arguments for vegetarianism, many based on the yogic practice of ahimsa, non-harming, but the quote that resonated the most with me also encapsulates santosha, or contentment:

"Yoga teaches us that we can have whatever we want in life if we are willing to provide it for others first. In fact, whatever we are experiencing in our lives is a direct result of how we have treated others in the past. The way we treat others will determine how others treat us. After all, they are only acting as agents of our own karmas. How others treat us will influence how we see ourselves. How we see ourselves will greatly determine who we are, and who we are will be revealed in our actions."

yoga + mindful eating = healthy weight

Regular yoga practice is associated with mindful eating, and people who eat mindfully are less likely to be obese, according to a study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The study was prompted by initial findings reported four years ago by Alan Kristal, Dr.P.H., and colleagues, who found that regular yoga practice may help prevent middle-age spread in normal-weight people and may promote weight loss in those who are overweight. At the time, the researchers suspected that the weight-loss effect had more to do with increased body awareness, specifically a sensitivity to hunger and satiety than the physical activity of yoga practice itself.

The follow-up study, published in the August issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, confirms their initial hunch.

"In our earlier study, we found that middle-age people who practice yoga gained less weight over a 10-year period than those who did not. This was independent of physical activity and dietary patterns. We hypothesized that mindfulness - a skill learned either directly or indirectly through yoga -could affect eating behavior," said Kristal, associate head of the Cancer Prevention Program in the Public Health Sciences Division at the Hutchinson Center.

The researchers found that people who ate mindfully - those were aware of why they ate and stopped eating when full - weighed less than those who ate mindlessly, who ate when not hungry or in response to anxiety or depression. The researchers also found a strong association between yoga practice and mindful eating but found no association between other types of physical activity, such as walking or running, and mindful eating.

Read more...

adventures in green living: the victory garden

So, i joined the 20 million plus Americans who decided to grow their own food this summer, saving money while still eating healthy and organic. I have grown flowers and herbs in the past, but this is my first experiment with organic veggies. Living in metro atlanta, my outdoor space is tiny, but we have a container garden going full blast. This spring I started two tomato plants, one heirloom and one "fast-growing" variety, an orange bell pepper, carrots, thai basil, and mint. Also sugar snap peas, which unfortunately, got too much sun and sizzled up after only producing about 6 (delicious) peapods. So far we have harvested a few tomatoes and 2 peppers, but we have 4 peppers ripening on the vine now, and the tomato plants are flowering and starting to produce more. I love checking on the progress every day,although I wish it was happening more quickly! Can't wait to see how the carrots turn out. Our neighbor has more outdoor space and has a giant garden going, and across the way are the stables for the downtown horse carriages, so occasionally you hear horse hooves clacking down the street. Also the stables have a rogue rooster, on their grounds who is crowing all the time. So although we are totally urban down here, there's also a whole lot of country going on. :)

Anyway, we are watering our crop with runoff water from our air conditioning unit, it's all collected in a big bucket that I dip the sprinkling can into for watering. I haven't used the hose at all, which is great. Lately I've been dreaming up a self-watering system for next summer, and running hose from the water collection bucket to the veggie containers, through osmosis or something. I've got to do a little more research on that.

The other day I decided to buy some plant food to keep the veggies growing strong, and I was happy to find Terracycle Plant Food at Home Depot. I read an article on the company several years ago, about how they make organic fertilizer from worm poop. The plant food mix is bottled in recycled soda bottles, so it's a very sustainable, eco-conscious company, which I love. You use it 1X a week, pouring directly into the soil. Should be interesting to see how it works.

lotus cleanse

I just wanted to pass the word on - there's an upcoming Lotus Cleanse, April 13 - 18th. I have participated twice and both were wonderful experiences. It's a raw food to juice fast, all the foods and juices are prepared for you and very delicious. Rutu Chaudhari leads the Cleanse, and she is an excellent guide and yoga teacher who will lead restorative yoga classes, very mellow and relaxing. I found the fasting to be incredibly energizing. You'll find inner strength and vitality of spirit you didn't even know you had.

Here I'm forwarding on the info:

It's time to Cleanse! Give your body, mind, and spirit a good cleaning. There are chemicals, preservatives and pesticides in our food, environment, and even our water.
The overwhelming demands of the modern polluted world require a proactive approach to detoxification.


Benefits of the Lotus Cleanse
* Release toxins from your body
* Energy levels shoot through the roof
* Skin is glowing
* Clears and strengthens your mind
* Purifies liver, blood, & kidneys
* Increases absorption of nutrients, alleviates heartburn, bloating
& gas, regulates bowl movements.
* Breathing improves
*& for an added bonus lose 5 - 9 lbs


What's Included In The Price? $375
* 3 days of organic whole raw foods
* 3 days of organic juices and cleansing teas
* 3 yoga workshops(2 1/2 hour each)
* Ingredients for 3 baths specialized for serious detox
* Knowledge & Awareness

Schedule:
April 13th Monday: 8:00p - 9:00p meet for Raw Foods pickup and Introduction
April 15th Thursday: 8:00p meet for Juice pickup
April 17th Friday: Yoga Workshop & Juice Pickup
April 18th Saturday: Yoga Workshop & Juice Pickup
April 19th Sunday: Yoga Workshop & Juice Pickup

At Yoga Samadhi
27 Wadell St. Suite A
Atlanta, GA 30307

For more information email LotusCleanse@gmail.com

wolf vs. wolf

An old Navajo Indian is telling his grandson about the fight that is going on inside him.

He said it was a war between two wolves:

one was evil
(anger, greed, arrogance, regret, guilt, superiority and bitterness).

and the other was good
(joy, peace, serenity, humility, kindness, ease and empathy).

The grandson asked: "Grandpa, which wolf wins?"

Grandpa's reply: "The one I feed."

which wolf inside you is winning today?

ps. don't you love Indian legends?