What’s green and black and white all over? #365yoga Day 10, baby!
10 Jan 2011 2 Comments
in 365, diet, PDA Tags: #365yoga, Beverages, Cooking, fun, green, Grocery store, Home, Recipe, Smoothie, snow storm, Spinach, yoga
10 days in already, wow! How are you feeling, Yogadorks?
I decided it is finally time for me to do a little extra something for my insides. I eat fairly well, but know that I am not always getting the most vitamins as I could possibly be getting. I prefer to get my vitamins and minerals from food rather than a pill, and sometimes that gets a little complicated. So many yogis and yoginis I know are almost always talking about drinking green juice or green smoothies. I like juice! I like smoothies! But, um….. do I like drinking my spinach? I had no idea.
As I mentioned yesterday, I fought the insane pre-snowstorm grocery store and stocked my house. I made sure to get a lot of organic green veggies and some fruits and vowed that this morning would be my green juice debut. I got out my tired old blender, spoke sweet words of encouragement to her, and then packed her full of spinach, Granny Smith apples, a few blueberries, a strawberry or two, some ice, and a bit of water. I took a breath and hit liquify. I poured it into a glass and, admittedly, it didn’t exactly look like juice and it didn’t exactly look green, either. I should have let it blend longer and used more apple and less blueberry, but regardless, it was a smoothie made mostly from spinach. It was what it was …and what it was was DELICIOUS! I drank it down and honestly wanted to make another immediately. What can I say, moderation has never been my strong point. I resisted, but let me tell you, I’m certainly looking forward to breakfast!
Not long after I finished my green drink, it started snowing. It’s been snowing now for about 6 hours and isn’t due to stop until tomorrow some time. We cancelled class at Yoga Sol, opting for safety and warmth and yoga at home. Well, scratch the warmth for me, I guess, because I decided to practice SNOWGA! Yes, yes, I did go out with my kids and my dog and did some yoga in a snowstorm. I cannot help myself! I also cannot help but bribe my kids to take pictures of me doing yoga in strange places (they got rewarded with massive mugs of hot chocolate) and I have found that nothing looks better than snow pictures in black and white.
Tomorrow will be more, I’m sure. It’s fun, TRUST ME on this. Since much of the US is getting hit with the white stuff, why don’t you go out there and find out for yourself? Be a kid again! PLAY! Go upside down! Fall down! Roll around! Practice in the snow – it’ll warm you from the heart out. It doesn’t get much more yogic than that!
Namaste
Food for the Soul (White Lotus part 7)
05 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in diet, the process, White Lotus Tags: beatrix rohlsen, Cooking, diet, Food, Fruit, mindfulness, Tofu, Veganism, Vegetarian, White Lotus
Special thanks to my brothers and sisters born on the mountain – I snagged some of your pics for this post.
Breakfast
Every time someone goes on vacation, they are asked a lot of questions upon their return. Invariably, “How was the food?” is one of the questions most often asked. Of course folks want to know about food – who doesn’t love food? It’s part of our heritage, our experience, our connection to the universe… it’s amazing. The food at White Lotus was incredible and worthy of it’s very own blog post.
I mentioned that I would be on a vegan diet for 16 days while at The Lotus, but as it turns out, it wasn’t all vegan. Yes, there were entire vegan meals and always vegan options, but there were also days when some meals had a little cheese on them, milk was served with almost every breakfast (of course, so was rice, soy, and almond milk,) butter was there for bread, and there were times when hard boiled eggs were available for breakfast. There was no meat, however, of any kind. So, vegan no, vegetarian absolutely.
Beautiful Bountiful Beatrix
Beatrix Rohlsen made 3 incredible meals for us each and every day. The food never ended. There was a huge serving area and it was filled with beautiful platters containing gorgeous foods for us to eat in abundance at each meal. We had fresh fruit, rice cakes, crackers, almond and peanut butters, and at least 4 different jams available for snacks through out the day. In the afternoons, we’d see Beatrix walk in, often with Skye, Nina, or Cricket (her assistants,) with her arms laden with fresh greens, vegetables, fruits, breads, and unbelievable other yumminess. Every meal became a mystery and we couldn’t wait to figure out what we would be eating next. Beatrix runs a tight ship – there is a right way to do everything and any variation on that way is mindblowingly wrong – and the rewards of such discipline were reaped each time we grabbed our plate and bowl and stood in line for an amazing meal. We each had to do 2 shifts of Kitchen Karma: helping set out the meal and cleaning up after. Each person washed his or her own dishes after each meal, drink, and snack. It was a community, but Beatrix was in charge.
Lunch
As I have said before, the amazing staff at White Lotus knew exactly what we needed when we needed it. One day, we all seemed to be brain-dead. We had absorbed all we could absorb, given all we could give, and there just wasn’t much left. On that day, right before our afternoon session, a vision of beauty and inspiration appeared right before our eyes: HOME MADE CHOCOLATES. I would have taken a picture of them, but a) they didn’t stick around all that long, and b) I’m not sure the image could have been captured, kind of like the face of Jesus in a potato chip: you know it’s there, but you cannot really convince anyone else…
What I CAN show you is the tofu cheesecake. Now, let me just say that I’ve not ever been a fan of tofu. I have loved the tofu salad at Main Squeeze for as long as I could remember, but that’s about it. 16 days at White Lotus, however, changed my mind. Beatrix did things with tofu that made me wonder if I had been slipped some sort of drug – it was everywhere and nowhere at the same time! She used it in soups and entrees and desserts and most of the time you had no idea it was there. Case in point, look at this:
And yes, I ate every last little morsel. She made a berry and almond cream something or other with tofu that was like soup, but served off a plate and eaten with a spoon that made me weep with gratitude. TOFU, I’m saying…. who knew?
There was Seitan, lentils, tofu, Quinoa, beans, rice, tempeh, polenta, granola, and oatmeal, apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, grapefruits, papaya, pineapple, strawberries, and melons, salad and bread and muffins and soups soups soups and more soups. There was more food than I have ever seen … and it allllll got eaten. There was no waste – what didn’t get eaten the first time was repurposed and made into something else for another meal. There’s a lesson in that….
What was even more incredible than how the food looked and tasted, however, was how it made me feel. There was virtually no harm in any of that food. It was real, fresh, healthy, and harmless. I slept better, I had more energy, I felt happier, I felt whole. Food was fuel, not sludge. I felt balanced and pure and alive and awake and aware… and full. Very very full – and not just in my belly, either. My soul was full. My heart was full. My mind was full. And it still is.
I have been home nearly a week and I still haven’t eaten meat. I don’t know that I plan on it any time soon, although I’m not ruling it out. I do know this – I don’t think I will ever eat without truly thinking of the consequences again. We spent a good deal of time talking about the physical, social, socioeconomic, environmental, karmic, political, and economic impact of how we eat, and we watched a film or two about the impact. There are some things you cannot unsee or unlearn. There are choices to be made each and every time we feed ourselves. I am here to tell you that it can be done without hurting anyone or anything. If you choose to eat meat, you can make wise choices: eat organic, eat grass fed, eat lower on the food chain, eat sparingly, eat local, eat mindfully. It’s possible -and it’s not all that difficult, either.
It is not my place to judge anyone – NO ONE has that right – but you can make a difference in your life and making a difference in your life makes a difference in the world. We’re all on this planet together. The Butterfly Effect is real. What we do has an impact on everyone and everything. We matter. It’s not a scary thing, it’s a glorious thing. We are connected, for sure.
Beatrix has a cookbook out that contains many of her recipes. Check out her website above to order. ALSO, you can find many of her recipes on the White Lotus website.
So, pull up a cushion on the floor, cross your legs under the table, and join me for a meal. I promise, you’ll leave with a happy belly and a happy soul.
Om shanti!
You are what you eat. Kinda. Sorta. Definitely. Or maybe not at all…
29 Jul 2010 4 Comments
in diet, the process
DISCLAIMER: I was asked to write about this topic. I think it’s an excellent topic, so I’m doing it. What I am NOT doing is trying to convert anyone to my way of thinking. I respect everyone’s right to believe as they will and I request the same respect from my readers. Feel free to disagree with me, but know that any preachy or disrespectful comments will be deleted. I grew up a preacher’s daughter and have had more than enough sermons for this and future lifetimes. ~SK
This past weekend was one of the best weekends of my life. I belong to a by-invitation-only online mom’s group who have been together for 12 years. It is small and intimate and we share EVERYTHING. Once or twice a year, we try to get together in real life to have fun, catch up, and laugh until we pee. I had the extreme pleasure of spending Friday night through Monday afternoon with 5 of these amazing women. There was laughter and kisses and hugs and wine and margaritas and beer and hilarity and gravity defying feats involving a statue of a moose. There was also greasy cheeseburgers, more wine, biscuits and gravy, more tequila, vegan and vegetarian meals, and a pizza with enough flesh on it to clog arteries 6 states away. I indulged in it all.
My town isn’t tiny, but it’s certainly not a metropolis. When I go out and about, I’m recognized quite often – not just as a yoga teacher, but I was also a doula for many years and see countless of my birth families out and about every day. This sometimes puts pressure on me because people will look at me as though I have three heads for eating a cheeseburger or daring to drink more than one beer in public. Or at least it has seemed to me as though they were looking at me that way. Kind of like the look I got that very clearly said, “A preacher’s kid isn’t supposed to say ‘FUCK!’ ” (See, I warned you in the ABOUT page that there will be profanity…) People have some sort of misconception about what a yogi or yogini is supposed to eat or drink or do.
REALLY? Aren’t we all human? Aren’t we all doing the best we can?
Mark Twain said, “All things in moderation, including moderation!”
Word.
I lived my life as a vegetarian for many years. I spent more than 10 years avoiding flesh and hearing, “Oh you can eat that pizza, just pick the sausage off,” or “That turkey gravy is vegetarian, it came from a packet!” While fending off statements like that, I managed to avoid eating the flesh of animals for a full decade that ended when I was pregnant with my first child who clearly was screaming, “I WANT A CHEESEBURGER AND WILL NOT STOP KICKING YOU IN THE ESOPHAGUS UNTIL YOU PROVIDE ONE, SO CHOP CHOP MAMA!” It was a very difficult decision, a painful one even, to give in. But when I did give in, I felt like the heavens opened and I slept all night without vomiting for the first time in 7 months (I’m a lucky mama that way – my morning sickness never ended until the cord was cut.)
It has been said that bacon is a gateway meat and I second that motion. God bless the pig.
The whole reason that yoga is associated with vegetarianism and / or veganism is that part of the First Limb of Yoga in Patanjali’s Sutras is Ahimsa: Non-Violence. Also, yoga is often associated with Buddhism which is dedicated to the elimination of suffering. Animals are killed, many (okay, maybe most) suffer in order for us to eat if we choose to eat flesh. I get it. I have seen all the documentaries , read the books, cried over the slaughter, got all up in arms over the politics, swore off evil chain foods, etc. I wear a “Stop Factory Farms” tshirt often. I donate money. I vote with my dollars. I GET IT.
And still, there are times when I feel off, when I feel weak, when I feel sick, when I have muscle cramps, when I have no energy, and I’ll be honest, there are times when I am just damn hungry. In those moments, there is almost nothing like a bacon cheeseburger.
I pause here to let my dear vegan friends shake their heads and shame me. I understand. And I still love you.
So what is a hungry yogini to do?
How about being MINDFUL, yet another limb of yoga!! What about choosing when and where to get the flesh we choose to eat, should we choose to eat it? Free range, organic meats and vegetables and eggs and dairy sold by LOCAL farmers who work hard day and night to bring you fresh healthy produce and food goods at your local farmer’s market! Foods that are NOT processed, NOT full of chemicals and nitrates and political bribes. How about going to a clear, clean, local stream and catching your own fish? How about talking to your local dairy farmers who still milk their free range, grass fed cows by hand? I promise you, they are out there.
I haven’t eaten flesh in 3 days. I am not missing it. I have contemplated going back to a vegetarian diet and I do feel myself leaning in that direction, but NOT because I feel pressured or guilt or shame. I am contemplating doing it because I do feel better, healthier, and more connected to the universal spirit. That said, should I start to feel compromised, I’ll change it because only I can control myself, only I can do what I feel is right, and ultimately the only person I have to answer to is me (in this lifetime, at least.) In October, I will be spending 3 weeks on a strictly vegan diet. I don’t know how that will work for me. It might change me so completely that I vow to never eat animal or animal products again. It might also find me eating a $27 steak in the airport on the way home. I DON’T KNOW. What I do know is that I am doing the best I can to be as mindful as I can and I know that every choice I make has consequences. The trick is to act according to what consequences I am willing to accept.
Do I feel that I am a substandard yogi if I eat a filet? No. Do I feel that I am a substandard yogi if I eat a filet without knowing it’s origins? Yes.
Moderation. In ALL things.
And that’s a little nugget I can sink my teeth into.
