It never fails to disappoint. It's awesome to see improvement every week. It's only been like, 6 weeks since joining the new studio and I've seen so much improvement already. I've been having some trouble with my knee so it was easy to modify poses so that I didn't stress out my joints too much. It's surprising though, to see how yoga has become a lifestyle, and that the people I am surrounded by in the studio are just so calm and at peace. They are MINDFUL. That mentality is what has been missing for so many years throughout my training as a researcher. Being able to meditate on your problems and to step back and observe the bigger picture, to be able to remove yourself is a good thing. Academics can seriously benefit from practicing yoga. I wish more people would be open to trying it and entering the practice without bias and insecurity. Yes, it's difficult, and yes, it's scary but it just takes practice, patience with yourself, and an open mind and dedication just like any other thing in life.
It amazes me when people hold so many assumptions about yoga-- especially about personal injury and the dangers of it. This article in the new york times came out last year: how yoga can wreck your body (click to go to article). I can see how yoga can wreck your body, but that is a problem of the ego. It shouldn't be a problem of the practice. One thing that practicing yoga has helped me to better understand was to more closely listen to my body. To practice without ego and to hear what your body is telling you is so important. The best way to injure yourself is to force your body into a pose when you aren't ready physically or mentally, to ignore the sharp shooting pain or to ignore your breath and your muscles. You injure when you practice carelessly and when you push beyond your abilities. But that's the case for anything. Running- you injure yourself when you push faster than your body can handle (i am guilty of this), without proper training and form you can injure your knees, ankles, hip, back. Cycling- low impact, but again, you can injure yourself when you push faster than your body can handle. your knees are so sensitive to repetitive motion, impact, and use and to abuse them because of an ego just seems silly and unnecessary. Any sport. Swimming, gymnastics, soccer, wrestling, you're prone to injury. Hell. you're prone to injuring yourself when you're walking down the stairs, getting in your car, walking down the hallway, wearing heels, sitting in chairs too long, working at a keyboard.
But anyway, lets be mindful. lets practice with with an open heart and lets be happy and content with life and all its intricacies.
cupcakes
Showing posts with label yoga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yoga. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Day 27 of 30- Almond Crusted Salmon
IT'S ASHTANGA TUESDAY! It was in the 60s today in JANUARY..... wtf global warming?? Never the less, it was kind of a grumpy Tuesday. They've been working on the building I work in and today was exceptionally terrible. Jackhammering and banging and drilling on the roof just above our desks. Since we work on the top floor, there's little to buffer us from the loud noises. It was like some terrible conditioning experiment. Everyone in the lab was so grumpy and irritable. But of course, there was relief come the lunch hour and then again at 5. Thank goodness for the predictability of union workers...... i guess.
To distance myself from the stressors of every day living, of course it was yoga time. Today we did our sun As and Bs largely unguided, making us really pay attention to our breath, even inhales, even exhales, matching breath with motion. inhale, exhale, practicing our ujjayi breath. I would say that I have seen significant improvement since my first class. And it's so awesome to see that work put in = results out. There are so few things in research that actually improve the more you work on it. It sucks that so much of it is chance, luck, and the stars aligning as pigs fly.
I noticed that I really struggle with some of the poses that involve stretching the quads. My knees just don't bend that way and my muscle groups just get in the way. Pulling gastroc out of the way to make room for my hamstrings just isn't enough. All that running has made my long leg muscles super tight. And while I may have some strength and stability, I definitely lack the length of muscle and flexibility. THAT is something I would very much love to improve on. I can already tell that over the past weeks, my hamstrings are less tight and my shoulders and torso are also more limber. I found myself getting into binds that I couldn't do last week, and it felt like i had just passed a level onto the next. so fun. I'm really digging this new lifestyle.
Recently, I feel like I have been consuming WAY too much meat in the past week. I think it was because my meals were very red meat heavy and for the life of me, I STILL do not and cannot enjoy beef unless it's doused in some ridiculously delicious sauce or deep fried and still doused in some ridiculously delicious sauce. I don't like the texture. I don't like the taste. I really don't like steaks, but for some reason i endured it. Gosh, no wonder i just stopped eating red meat all those years ago. Today was mostly a non warm blooded animal kind of day and I was grateful. I feel much lighter after eating a meat free lunch and enjoying a hearty salmon for dinner. I'm definitely cutting back down on the meat consumption after this challenge is over. It's too hard to spend all that effort digesting animal proteins. This recipe i'm putting up will be modified from what I actually made. I attempted to make almond milk over the weekend which means you just blend a ton of almonds and squeeze out all that is delicious then you're just left with the fibrous remains of what used to be delicious almonds. I tried to dry the crushed almond remains and convert that to vanilla bean flavored almond butter but failed miserably. It tasted great, but it was just missing all that lovely white flesh. I decided to use this semi fibrous gritty almond mashed paste thing to coat my salmon and it turned out fantastic.
Almond Crusted Salmon
Ingredients
Salmon filet
handful of crushed almonds, ideally lightly salted and toasted
salt
pepper
oil
1. Rub the salmon with oil and sprinke lightly with salt and pepper
2. Press the salmon into the crushed toasted almond mix unti you get a wonderful coating of nuts. I would probably try to put on as many almonds as possible. In my case, i just scooped a ton of the weird paste and caked it on the salmon.
3. Bake at 425 for 15 min, making sure that the almonds don't burn
4. Quickly broil the fish to get the nuts nice and toasted (i had to broil mine a lot to get the paste to be toasty and crispy)
5. Serve with generous helping of veggies
I had my salmon with cubed sweet potatoes that i cooked up in my skillet with some brussels sprouts and fennel with a handful of grape tomatoes. Loved the colors. Loved the flavors. Loved the textures. And it was super filling and delicious. I love food and all the flavors of it.
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!
To distance myself from the stressors of every day living, of course it was yoga time. Today we did our sun As and Bs largely unguided, making us really pay attention to our breath, even inhales, even exhales, matching breath with motion. inhale, exhale, practicing our ujjayi breath. I would say that I have seen significant improvement since my first class. And it's so awesome to see that work put in = results out. There are so few things in research that actually improve the more you work on it. It sucks that so much of it is chance, luck, and the stars aligning as pigs fly.
I noticed that I really struggle with some of the poses that involve stretching the quads. My knees just don't bend that way and my muscle groups just get in the way. Pulling gastroc out of the way to make room for my hamstrings just isn't enough. All that running has made my long leg muscles super tight. And while I may have some strength and stability, I definitely lack the length of muscle and flexibility. THAT is something I would very much love to improve on. I can already tell that over the past weeks, my hamstrings are less tight and my shoulders and torso are also more limber. I found myself getting into binds that I couldn't do last week, and it felt like i had just passed a level onto the next. so fun. I'm really digging this new lifestyle.
Recently, I feel like I have been consuming WAY too much meat in the past week. I think it was because my meals were very red meat heavy and for the life of me, I STILL do not and cannot enjoy beef unless it's doused in some ridiculously delicious sauce or deep fried and still doused in some ridiculously delicious sauce. I don't like the texture. I don't like the taste. I really don't like steaks, but for some reason i endured it. Gosh, no wonder i just stopped eating red meat all those years ago. Today was mostly a non warm blooded animal kind of day and I was grateful. I feel much lighter after eating a meat free lunch and enjoying a hearty salmon for dinner. I'm definitely cutting back down on the meat consumption after this challenge is over. It's too hard to spend all that effort digesting animal proteins. This recipe i'm putting up will be modified from what I actually made. I attempted to make almond milk over the weekend which means you just blend a ton of almonds and squeeze out all that is delicious then you're just left with the fibrous remains of what used to be delicious almonds. I tried to dry the crushed almond remains and convert that to vanilla bean flavored almond butter but failed miserably. It tasted great, but it was just missing all that lovely white flesh. I decided to use this semi fibrous gritty almond mashed paste thing to coat my salmon and it turned out fantastic.
Almond Crusted Salmon
Ingredients
Salmon filet
handful of crushed almonds, ideally lightly salted and toasted
salt
pepper
oil
1. Rub the salmon with oil and sprinke lightly with salt and pepper
2. Press the salmon into the crushed toasted almond mix unti you get a wonderful coating of nuts. I would probably try to put on as many almonds as possible. In my case, i just scooped a ton of the weird paste and caked it on the salmon.
3. Bake at 425 for 15 min, making sure that the almonds don't burn
4. Quickly broil the fish to get the nuts nice and toasted (i had to broil mine a lot to get the paste to be toasty and crispy)
5. Serve with generous helping of veggies
 |
| looks uggo, but so delicious!! |
I had my salmon with cubed sweet potatoes that i cooked up in my skillet with some brussels sprouts and fennel with a handful of grape tomatoes. Loved the colors. Loved the flavors. Loved the textures. And it was super filling and delicious. I love food and all the flavors of it.
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!
Monday, January 28, 2013
Day 26 of 30 - Squash and Crab Bisque
Today was an indulgent day of eating. I guess I still can't help myself when there's such delicious food in front of me. I had leftover shepherd's pie and I made this fabulous Squash and Crab Bisque..... definitely went for seconds with the soup. definitely didn't need that second bowl. but...... definitely worth it.
I neglected yoga all weekend because of unforseen circumstances. This week threatened to prevent me from going to class, but after some coaxing and finagling, I am having my cake and eating it too. Today was hatha monday. I'm not used to hatha so i was really nervous. It was challenging to hold poses for longer than i was used to, not to mention i haven't quite broken in the new mat yet so it's still a little slippery. Makes the jump ups a *little* tricky with the looming threat of slipping. I got a fantastic workout just trying to maintain good form in downward facing dog. Today's class was based on concentration. Concentration in your practice, focus in your practice. We did a lot of balances, focusing on a single point, used that focus to drive our bodies to practice something a little different in our transitions.
One thing that really struck me was the way your body has preferences. The way you cross your arms-- is it right arm on top or left arm over? The way you cross your legs, the way you clasp your hands, flexibility in your shoulders, open-ness of your hips. The instructor asked us to cross our legs the opposite way to have equal opening, practicing with our legs crossed one way and making sure to do the same with our legs crossed the other way, the same for the clasping of our hands. It brought a lot of attention to the way certain things felt so unnatural one way, and natural the other way, and it really made me think about the asymmetry in our bodies. I appreciated the balance in the practice, between theory, learning, and movement as well as the way we tried to concentrate on our bodies and it's symmetry or asymmetry.
I've been at this new studio for less than a month, and it already feels like I've found such a great new home. I love the people there, and it's been so warm and welcoming. And of course, warm and welcoming was the theme of today's dinner. It was a warm and balmy mid 50's today. 96% humidity = relatively dense fog. i LOVE fog. it is so romantic. and beautiful. and leaves you alone with your emotions and thoughts. just you, your heart, your mind, and the fog. I think the humidity really got to me though, because despite the high temperatures, I was still chilled to the bone. Hence, the soup.
Squash and Crab Bisque
Ingredients
8oz crab meat
1 largeish acorn squash (any delicious squash here will do, actually)
1 med onion
3 stalks celery
1-1 1/2 c chopped carrots
3-4 c vegetable broth (or chicken broth or home made broth)
1 c coconut milk
1 1/2 T ghee
salt
pepper
water
1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Cut squash in half and place in a baking dish with 1/2 inch of water, cut side down and place in the oven. Bake until the squash is tender to fork.
2. While the squash is baking, chop the onion, celery and carrots and sautee in ghee until the onions are translucent
3. When the vegetables are fully cooked, add the broth and simmer for ~15 min then take off the heat.
4. When the squash is done cooking, scoop the flesh out from the skin and place in soup.
5. Blend the soup in batches until it reaches a consistency that you like
6. Add cocnut milk and crab chunks and simmer briefly. Salt and pepper to taste
I'm really excited about this soup. It's really simple but it'll be easy to jazz up with any spices or to have with a salad or cauliflower rice. This pot comfortably made about 6 servings. I think I probably had 2 of those 6 servings today. oh well. :-)
til next time, eat well and be well.
I neglected yoga all weekend because of unforseen circumstances. This week threatened to prevent me from going to class, but after some coaxing and finagling, I am having my cake and eating it too. Today was hatha monday. I'm not used to hatha so i was really nervous. It was challenging to hold poses for longer than i was used to, not to mention i haven't quite broken in the new mat yet so it's still a little slippery. Makes the jump ups a *little* tricky with the looming threat of slipping. I got a fantastic workout just trying to maintain good form in downward facing dog. Today's class was based on concentration. Concentration in your practice, focus in your practice. We did a lot of balances, focusing on a single point, used that focus to drive our bodies to practice something a little different in our transitions.
One thing that really struck me was the way your body has preferences. The way you cross your arms-- is it right arm on top or left arm over? The way you cross your legs, the way you clasp your hands, flexibility in your shoulders, open-ness of your hips. The instructor asked us to cross our legs the opposite way to have equal opening, practicing with our legs crossed one way and making sure to do the same with our legs crossed the other way, the same for the clasping of our hands. It brought a lot of attention to the way certain things felt so unnatural one way, and natural the other way, and it really made me think about the asymmetry in our bodies. I appreciated the balance in the practice, between theory, learning, and movement as well as the way we tried to concentrate on our bodies and it's symmetry or asymmetry.
.JPG) |
| foggy ride home |
I've been at this new studio for less than a month, and it already feels like I've found such a great new home. I love the people there, and it's been so warm and welcoming. And of course, warm and welcoming was the theme of today's dinner. It was a warm and balmy mid 50's today. 96% humidity = relatively dense fog. i LOVE fog. it is so romantic. and beautiful. and leaves you alone with your emotions and thoughts. just you, your heart, your mind, and the fog. I think the humidity really got to me though, because despite the high temperatures, I was still chilled to the bone. Hence, the soup.
Squash and Crab Bisque
Ingredients
8oz crab meat
1 largeish acorn squash (any delicious squash here will do, actually)
1 med onion
3 stalks celery
1-1 1/2 c chopped carrots
3-4 c vegetable broth (or chicken broth or home made broth)
1 c coconut milk
1 1/2 T ghee
salt
pepper
water
1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Cut squash in half and place in a baking dish with 1/2 inch of water, cut side down and place in the oven. Bake until the squash is tender to fork.
2. While the squash is baking, chop the onion, celery and carrots and sautee in ghee until the onions are translucent
3. When the vegetables are fully cooked, add the broth and simmer for ~15 min then take off the heat.
4. When the squash is done cooking, scoop the flesh out from the skin and place in soup.
5. Blend the soup in batches until it reaches a consistency that you like
6. Add cocnut milk and crab chunks and simmer briefly. Salt and pepper to taste
.JPG) |
| so delicious! |
I'm really excited about this soup. It's really simple but it'll be easy to jazz up with any spices or to have with a salad or cauliflower rice. This pot comfortably made about 6 servings. I think I probably had 2 of those 6 servings today. oh well. :-)
til next time, eat well and be well.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Day 22, 23 and 24 of 30- Garlic and lemon aioli
Less than a week to go. On Feb 2, I will be free to reintroduce foods into my diet again. Exciting!
It's been a couple days since my last post-- it's been kind of a crazy couple days mostly because it was my birthday :-) and I had too much fun celebrating and being surrounded by amazing people. I was so impressed by the thoughtfulness of people. awesomely notable gifts would be the orchids my parents sent me, many thanks to D for picking them up from the flower shop!!! and the secret package my dad sent (a super cute HOT pink wallet, with a nostalgic and embarrassing photo of me haha) and this awesome yoga anatomy book from D. It was truly a trifecta of awesome: Yoga, Anatomy, and BOOKs! It's so cool to know what muscles are involved in each pose, the way you can engage certain groups, and with my basic anatomy knowledge, seriously, best idea ever! I'll know my poses inside and out :-) Lastly, I can't even express the kind of joy that washed over me when this last gift was handed to me.
I had been eyeing this awesomely cute new Manduka yoga mat. It was a beautiful light blue/turquoise, and it called out to me almost every day. Who knows how many times I'd look at the bin before and after class to make sure it was there and silently and not silently telling myself that as a gift to myself, I'd get myself a new mat. I was SO EXCITED to buy it. But before i could get to it, my amazing yogi friend Kat had gotten her hands on it first. She reached behind the counter and pulled out a monster pink tissue paper wrapped gift and was like, happy birthday! I was so overwhlemed when I saw that she got me the mat!!!!!!!! So much so i nearly cried. I'm such a baby sometimes. Apparently there had been a whole plan to get me to notice that the mat was missing from the bin and they wanted me to be sad about someone buying it and then i would have been presented with the mat. I was planning on looking for it and buying it after class, but this surprise was so awesome. And from afar, I got a cute little bag from two very very amazing people M and J. It's like the perfect size to fit my camera + lenses and I'm so excited to take it around with me. I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many thoughtful and caring people, it really made my day. I'm excited to grow inside and out and I really hope that this year brings a lot of great things.
I hope that I can return all the thanks and gratitude in more ways than one, and make everyone's day a little brighter just as everyone makes mine a little brighter!
I haven't been cooking as many exciting and involved dishes, they mostly have been quick stir frys and salads. But this week, I am going on a culinary adventure: making almond milk, shepherd's pie, and beet salads.
D and I went out for a birthday dinner to one of the local restaurants. They focus heavily on locally grown and organic goods, and we found that their menu was very amenable to our challenge. One thing they also did fantastically well was help us realize that O.M.G...... there are OTHER WAYS to cook and eat our food! Some inspiring things were fried Brussels sprouts with a white truffle and lemon aioli, beet salad, root vegetable mash (since mashed white potatoes are a no go, i think roasted root vegetables are AOK), and just getting even more creative with how we eat and present our foods. Of course this isn't the best time saving method, but I am sure that once in a while, cooking fancy and trying new things is fun.
So here's to new tastes, trials, and tribulations in the kitchen.
Dinner today was awesomely fantastic: shepherd's pie, beet and fennel salad with garlic and lemon aioli. The co-op carried some beets, and I grabbed a bunch of normal red ones and then a mystery beet. When i cut it open, it was just such a beautiful work of art! I don't even know what kind of beet this is, but it was such a decadent treat for my eyes :-)
Garlic and lemon aioli
2 cloves garlic
1 large egg yolk (warmed to room temp)
1T fresh lemon juice (about all the juice from half a lemon is good)
1/4 c olive oil
3T vegetable oil
1t whole seed mustard
1. Chop and crush garlic with a sprinkle of salt
2. Whisked the egg yolk with mustard and lemon juice until it becomes a thick consistency
3. slowly drizzle in the oil, not letting it separate
4. When completely whisked and a nice thick consistency, add the garlic. Add salt and lemon to taste
We wanted ours to be more lemony, so we ended up adding a LOT more lemon juice, and a dash more salt. I had truffle salt laying around so i was sure to use that the entire time.
It was FANTASTIC. like, BETTER than what we had at dinner on thursday. I just wish we had some brussels sprouts to fry up and eat with it! There's so much i want to write about, but i'll have to save it for another day :-)
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!!!
It's been a couple days since my last post-- it's been kind of a crazy couple days mostly because it was my birthday :-) and I had too much fun celebrating and being surrounded by amazing people. I was so impressed by the thoughtfulness of people. awesomely notable gifts would be the orchids my parents sent me, many thanks to D for picking them up from the flower shop!!! and the secret package my dad sent (a super cute HOT pink wallet, with a nostalgic and embarrassing photo of me haha) and this awesome yoga anatomy book from D. It was truly a trifecta of awesome: Yoga, Anatomy, and BOOKs! It's so cool to know what muscles are involved in each pose, the way you can engage certain groups, and with my basic anatomy knowledge, seriously, best idea ever! I'll know my poses inside and out :-) Lastly, I can't even express the kind of joy that washed over me when this last gift was handed to me.
I had been eyeing this awesomely cute new Manduka yoga mat. It was a beautiful light blue/turquoise, and it called out to me almost every day. Who knows how many times I'd look at the bin before and after class to make sure it was there and silently and not silently telling myself that as a gift to myself, I'd get myself a new mat. I was SO EXCITED to buy it. But before i could get to it, my amazing yogi friend Kat had gotten her hands on it first. She reached behind the counter and pulled out a monster pink tissue paper wrapped gift and was like, happy birthday! I was so overwhlemed when I saw that she got me the mat!!!!!!!! So much so i nearly cried. I'm such a baby sometimes. Apparently there had been a whole plan to get me to notice that the mat was missing from the bin and they wanted me to be sad about someone buying it and then i would have been presented with the mat. I was planning on looking for it and buying it after class, but this surprise was so awesome. And from afar, I got a cute little bag from two very very amazing people M and J. It's like the perfect size to fit my camera + lenses and I'm so excited to take it around with me. I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many thoughtful and caring people, it really made my day. I'm excited to grow inside and out and I really hope that this year brings a lot of great things.
 |
| my new baby :-) |
I haven't been cooking as many exciting and involved dishes, they mostly have been quick stir frys and salads. But this week, I am going on a culinary adventure: making almond milk, shepherd's pie, and beet salads.
D and I went out for a birthday dinner to one of the local restaurants. They focus heavily on locally grown and organic goods, and we found that their menu was very amenable to our challenge. One thing they also did fantastically well was help us realize that O.M.G...... there are OTHER WAYS to cook and eat our food! Some inspiring things were fried Brussels sprouts with a white truffle and lemon aioli, beet salad, root vegetable mash (since mashed white potatoes are a no go, i think roasted root vegetables are AOK), and just getting even more creative with how we eat and present our foods. Of course this isn't the best time saving method, but I am sure that once in a while, cooking fancy and trying new things is fun.
So here's to new tastes, trials, and tribulations in the kitchen.
Dinner today was awesomely fantastic: shepherd's pie, beet and fennel salad with garlic and lemon aioli. The co-op carried some beets, and I grabbed a bunch of normal red ones and then a mystery beet. When i cut it open, it was just such a beautiful work of art! I don't even know what kind of beet this is, but it was such a decadent treat for my eyes :-)
 |
| Beautiful Beets! |
 |
| Beets with fennel! |
Garlic and lemon aioli
2 cloves garlic
1 large egg yolk (warmed to room temp)
1T fresh lemon juice (about all the juice from half a lemon is good)
1/4 c olive oil
3T vegetable oil
1t whole seed mustard
1. Chop and crush garlic with a sprinkle of salt
2. Whisked the egg yolk with mustard and lemon juice until it becomes a thick consistency
3. slowly drizzle in the oil, not letting it separate
4. When completely whisked and a nice thick consistency, add the garlic. Add salt and lemon to taste
 |
| delicious aioli! |
We wanted ours to be more lemony, so we ended up adding a LOT more lemon juice, and a dash more salt. I had truffle salt laying around so i was sure to use that the entire time.
It was FANTASTIC. like, BETTER than what we had at dinner on thursday. I just wish we had some brussels sprouts to fry up and eat with it! There's so much i want to write about, but i'll have to save it for another day :-)
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!!!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Day 17 and 18 of 30- Chorizo boats
so two things for this weekend's post: 1.WORMS! I got a split of worms today! Vermicomposting begins..... TODAY! and 2. INVERSION WORKSHOP!!!! awesomeeeee!
so remember back in early January, I wrote about my resolutions? vermicomposting was one of them. I am terrified of worms, but I felt a great desire to become a hippie this year, pursuing things such as yoga and composting. but not just composting, vermicomposting! so yeah. worms are gross. But my friend Kat (click to see her blog) had a fantastically ready to split bin of worms. we sorted through her super rich bin of digested materials and picked out some worms and partially composted materials and i scored a great handful of worms to start my own bucket.
It was amazing how rich and beautiful the dirt was. You would also think that since it was just a ton of cardboard egg cartons, coffee grounds, fruit and veggie peels and egg shells, that it would smell really gross, but actually there was no smell at all. if anything, you just got a really nice rich and mildly peaty smell coming from the pile of dirt on the ground. As for the worms, armed with two plastic bags covering my arms, i managed to sort through clumps and handle the worms with relative ease. Mind you, i have been mentally preparing for like, months. haha. anyway, I finally FINALLY drilled holes into the giant bin i bought and threw in all that organic waste i was saving and tossed in my little army of red wrigglers. I feel like a new proud parents. I can't wait for my worms to get comfy. since tomorrow and the day after threaten to be like, 10F, i decided to keep them indoors so they can generate enough heat to move to the garage when it warms up on Wednesday. I hope they survive the night. *fingers crossed*
Second thing: Inversions workshop! SO much fun! Inversions have been difficult for me because of a huge mental block. I am not confident in my body's ability to support my weight using my arms, and I am not comfortable being upside down. Breathing becomes difficult, blood rushes to your head, and your mind just scares itself. But it's strange. Headstands are ok. and I've been working on my forearm stand, but handstands were terrifying. We talked about a lot of things, but bottom line was:
You just do it. You do the best you can, and you just do it. So we did. And we all somehow found ourselves upside down. balancing on these small surfaces of our hands and forearms, legs stretched up above our bodies, trying to reach the sky. It was difficult. I really struggle with some shoulder flexibility in my right arm due to some minor rotator cuff injuries in high school, so getting my shoulders, arms, and back stretched adequately was quite a challenge. We worked doing some partner yoga, working on ways to support the inverted yogi, and also worked on helping each other feel the way our shoulder blades were supposed to make room for our neck and the way our arms were supposed to spiral. It was a LOT of fun-- mentally challenging, physically challenging, and emotionally uplifiting, but honestly, it's just practice and getting over the ego and the fear. so I'm glad i went and i'm excited to keep finding places in my practice to work on inversions.
but anyway, it was a really fun weekend of surprise parties, tutorials, research, yoga, grocery shopping, and eating, I feel like the weekend flew by without me having a chance to really even think about what i should put up today. Today, during one of the tutorials, a student said to us, "these tutorials are the best things ever. I LOVE them. thank you so much." and it made my day. I am really glad that we have a group of dedicated students already. It's so fantastic to see familiar faces and to see that what we do gets them excited about medicine. It's helping me learn so much too. I hope that it really helps me next year and into the future.
Chorizo boat with baked egg in an avocado
Ingredients
chorizo (man, i honestly love this stuff from the local farmer.... it is fantastic)
chard
onions
carrots
garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 avocado pit removed (with a little extra flesh removed to make an egg fit)
1 egg
1. Preheat the oven to 425F. In a small round cast iron serving bowl, press the chorizo into the sides to make a bowl.
2. Sautee the chard, onions, carrots and garlic lightly, adding a sprinkle of salt and pepper and place into the chorizo bowl
3. Scoop out the avocado from the skin and place into the sauteed vegetables, making sure the vegetables also come up around the side. It might help to put the avocado in first then fill in the gaps with vegetables, but you get more veggies if you put some veggies in first
4. crack an egg into the hollow of the avocado
5. Bake until the egg is firm and the chorizo shell is cooked.
Some changes i would make to this would be to cook the vegetables less and also change the way i cook the chorizo. I would heat the cast iron on the stove before popping it in the oven and then broil it so that the egg and avocado don't dry out too much. It was amazingly delicious and the avocado was so creamy. I wished the egg was more over easy or over medium in terms of cookedness, but i will have to work on that a little next time. At least i was able to enjoy a delicious breakfast. Look at those colors! I love food.
This coming week, I'm trying a new thing. Rather than do a variation of CHICKEN! with A GLAMMED UP SALAD! I'm venturing on trying to cook bulk food items and do meal trades with D. Just so we can jazz up our week of food. A sneak peek: chicken casserole, squash (and maybe crab) bisque, and crispy carnitas are coming up soon :-)
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!!
so remember back in early January, I wrote about my resolutions? vermicomposting was one of them. I am terrified of worms, but I felt a great desire to become a hippie this year, pursuing things such as yoga and composting. but not just composting, vermicomposting! so yeah. worms are gross. But my friend Kat (click to see her blog) had a fantastically ready to split bin of worms. we sorted through her super rich bin of digested materials and picked out some worms and partially composted materials and i scored a great handful of worms to start my own bucket.
It was amazing how rich and beautiful the dirt was. You would also think that since it was just a ton of cardboard egg cartons, coffee grounds, fruit and veggie peels and egg shells, that it would smell really gross, but actually there was no smell at all. if anything, you just got a really nice rich and mildly peaty smell coming from the pile of dirt on the ground. As for the worms, armed with two plastic bags covering my arms, i managed to sort through clumps and handle the worms with relative ease. Mind you, i have been mentally preparing for like, months. haha. anyway, I finally FINALLY drilled holes into the giant bin i bought and threw in all that organic waste i was saving and tossed in my little army of red wrigglers. I feel like a new proud parents. I can't wait for my worms to get comfy. since tomorrow and the day after threaten to be like, 10F, i decided to keep them indoors so they can generate enough heat to move to the garage when it warms up on Wednesday. I hope they survive the night. *fingers crossed*
Second thing: Inversions workshop! SO much fun! Inversions have been difficult for me because of a huge mental block. I am not confident in my body's ability to support my weight using my arms, and I am not comfortable being upside down. Breathing becomes difficult, blood rushes to your head, and your mind just scares itself. But it's strange. Headstands are ok. and I've been working on my forearm stand, but handstands were terrifying. We talked about a lot of things, but bottom line was:
"NO FEAR. YOU DO"
You just do it. You do the best you can, and you just do it. So we did. And we all somehow found ourselves upside down. balancing on these small surfaces of our hands and forearms, legs stretched up above our bodies, trying to reach the sky. It was difficult. I really struggle with some shoulder flexibility in my right arm due to some minor rotator cuff injuries in high school, so getting my shoulders, arms, and back stretched adequately was quite a challenge. We worked doing some partner yoga, working on ways to support the inverted yogi, and also worked on helping each other feel the way our shoulder blades were supposed to make room for our neck and the way our arms were supposed to spiral. It was a LOT of fun-- mentally challenging, physically challenging, and emotionally uplifiting, but honestly, it's just practice and getting over the ego and the fear. so I'm glad i went and i'm excited to keep finding places in my practice to work on inversions.
but anyway, it was a really fun weekend of surprise parties, tutorials, research, yoga, grocery shopping, and eating, I feel like the weekend flew by without me having a chance to really even think about what i should put up today. Today, during one of the tutorials, a student said to us, "these tutorials are the best things ever. I LOVE them. thank you so much." and it made my day. I am really glad that we have a group of dedicated students already. It's so fantastic to see familiar faces and to see that what we do gets them excited about medicine. It's helping me learn so much too. I hope that it really helps me next year and into the future.
Chorizo boat with baked egg in an avocado
Ingredients
chorizo (man, i honestly love this stuff from the local farmer.... it is fantastic)
chard
onions
carrots
garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 avocado pit removed (with a little extra flesh removed to make an egg fit)
1 egg
1. Preheat the oven to 425F. In a small round cast iron serving bowl, press the chorizo into the sides to make a bowl.
2. Sautee the chard, onions, carrots and garlic lightly, adding a sprinkle of salt and pepper and place into the chorizo bowl
3. Scoop out the avocado from the skin and place into the sauteed vegetables, making sure the vegetables also come up around the side. It might help to put the avocado in first then fill in the gaps with vegetables, but you get more veggies if you put some veggies in first
4. crack an egg into the hollow of the avocado
 |
| Before the oven |
Some changes i would make to this would be to cook the vegetables less and also change the way i cook the chorizo. I would heat the cast iron on the stove before popping it in the oven and then broil it so that the egg and avocado don't dry out too much. It was amazingly delicious and the avocado was so creamy. I wished the egg was more over easy or over medium in terms of cookedness, but i will have to work on that a little next time. At least i was able to enjoy a delicious breakfast. Look at those colors! I love food.
 |
| Don't forget your veggies |
 |
| Avocado boat, deconstructed |
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!!
Friday, January 18, 2013
Day 16 of 30- Coconut ginger curry chicken
We are now past the half way point. I am really proud of myself and my partner in crime D for making it this far. We caught mistakes early and fixed them, changed the way we ate, the way we lived, and the way we approached the challenge. I think after two and a half weeks of doing this, it is a lifestyle that suits all walks of life. It takes effort, and a lot of discipline, but like i said at the start of the challenge, it's only 30 days. what you do after the 30 days is up to you. but I'm glad I gave it a shot.
Tomorrow is going to be an inversion workshop at the yoga studio. I'm really excited. Inversions are basically any time your legs are above your heart. headstands, handstands, legs up the wall. you name it. Maybe i'll walk away comfortable enough to try this:
It's different being upside down. the world is strange and your breath is strange, and all the blood rushes to your head and your brain feels strange. But the fear is just in my head. Here's to tomorrow.
Something that I recently realized was that i haven't been utilizing is the awesomeness of making my own salad dressings. I've been too lazy to make any dressing besides splashing some oil and vinegar on my salad. But i decided to make a whole seed mustard mayo dressing with some apricot vinegar and it is fantastic over a bed of lettuces, egg, tomatoes, SPROUTS (my new favorite salad addition!!!), grapes, you name it. throw it in your salad, drizzle some of this creamier dressing on it, and man. you'll never miss ranch again.
Tonight's recipe is kind of a fun one. Today I was largely meat free, enjoying a small piece of chicken today for dinner. Every so often, my body gets tired of these meats so a day without meat is a very welcome treat.
Coconut Ginger curry chicken
Ingredients
Chicken (leftover curry marinated chicken worked fantastically)
1T ginger, chopped
2 cloves garlic
carrots sliced into coins
mushrooms (i used dried shiitake mushrooms)
coconut milk
1. Cook the chicken or warm up a precooked chicken in a skillet. If you are cooking the chicken in the skillet, make sure the chicken is pretty much finished cooking before you add the other ingredients.
2. Pour in some coconut milk and a splash of broth if you have it, water is fine if you don't, and throw in the garlic, ginger, and carrots. Let simmer in coconut milk, addingmore water ifyou want it to be a little more runny
3. When the carrots are just undercooked, throw in a handful of the dried mushrooms and continue cooking until they are rehydrated and softened.
I served this up with some sauteed green beans using some of the fat that came off the chicken, ends trimmed, tossed with ginger. I really miss the flavors of sesame oil and soy sauce because the salt i added to the beans weren't quite exactly the same. either way, it was fantastically delicious. The mushrooms just soaked up the sweet coconutty flavor and the chicken was tender and delicious. I don't generally like cooked carrots, but hey, I tricked myself into eating ALL of my carrots! wooo!
So yummy. Tomorrow for breakfast, I decided to try making chorizo and chard boats with avocado, baking an egg in the middle of the avocado. yum? or yuck? we shall find out soon! I'm really excited to be using my new mini round cast iron servers!
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!!
Tomorrow is going to be an inversion workshop at the yoga studio. I'm really excited. Inversions are basically any time your legs are above your heart. headstands, handstands, legs up the wall. you name it. Maybe i'll walk away comfortable enough to try this:
 |
| yeah right. i wish. haha |
Something that I recently realized was that i haven't been utilizing is the awesomeness of making my own salad dressings. I've been too lazy to make any dressing besides splashing some oil and vinegar on my salad. But i decided to make a whole seed mustard mayo dressing with some apricot vinegar and it is fantastic over a bed of lettuces, egg, tomatoes, SPROUTS (my new favorite salad addition!!!), grapes, you name it. throw it in your salad, drizzle some of this creamier dressing on it, and man. you'll never miss ranch again.
Tonight's recipe is kind of a fun one. Today I was largely meat free, enjoying a small piece of chicken today for dinner. Every so often, my body gets tired of these meats so a day without meat is a very welcome treat.
Coconut Ginger curry chicken
Ingredients
Chicken (leftover curry marinated chicken worked fantastically)
1T ginger, chopped
2 cloves garlic
carrots sliced into coins
mushrooms (i used dried shiitake mushrooms)
coconut milk
1. Cook the chicken or warm up a precooked chicken in a skillet. If you are cooking the chicken in the skillet, make sure the chicken is pretty much finished cooking before you add the other ingredients.
2. Pour in some coconut milk and a splash of broth if you have it, water is fine if you don't, and throw in the garlic, ginger, and carrots. Let simmer in coconut milk, addingmore water ifyou want it to be a little more runny
3. When the carrots are just undercooked, throw in a handful of the dried mushrooms and continue cooking until they are rehydrated and softened.
I served this up with some sauteed green beans using some of the fat that came off the chicken, ends trimmed, tossed with ginger. I really miss the flavors of sesame oil and soy sauce because the salt i added to the beans weren't quite exactly the same. either way, it was fantastically delicious. The mushrooms just soaked up the sweet coconutty flavor and the chicken was tender and delicious. I don't generally like cooked carrots, but hey, I tricked myself into eating ALL of my carrots! wooo!
 |
| the weird mass on the bottom right is the chicken. |
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!!
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Day 13 of 30- Apple cider vinegar chicken with Califlower rice
Ashtanga Tuesday. There's a joyous ring to that. The Ashtanga primary series is pretty intense. Here's a link to a video led by K. Pattabhi Jois and his students. It is supposed to be a cleansing practice, where you align your breath with movement, clearing your mind and also bringing attention to the muscles in your body and how it works with your breath. It's almost painful to watch and as a beginner to the primary series, I've found that it's just a little tricky to tie yourself up into a little pretzel and balance on the point of your butt and somersault backwards back into chaturanga. Uh..... definitely got stuck the first time i tried. But overall, it's a challenge that I am very excited to face.
This class however, was my second go at the full primary series, and I realized that today was markedly less difficult, more familiar, and also more challenging than last week. Because I spent less time trying to figure out how to position myself and spent more time focusing on all the alignment and breathing, I got more out of this practice than last week. I also found myself able to bind in ways that were unavailable to me last week, and perhaps it is due to the rigorous regiment of yoga class attendance these past couple weeks! My muscles have been aching, my body twisted and turned, pulled and stretched in so many ways, it's remarkable how good I feel! Mind and body together, I would say we are going on an exciting and new journey. Maybe this will help me think less about the exact date that the PhD will magically land in my pocket, and think more about the ways I can make the most of my time in research before moving on to clinical obligations.
Stock photos of yoga are always a person's silhouette with a sunset in the backdrop, balancing on some object on one leg..... It always looks so serene. the opposite of what today was. haha
But less about yoga, more about food! One thing I have missed terribly since starting this challenge, has been RICE. I LOVE RICE. like, LOVE. LOVE. LOVE it. It's been a staple grain of my diet since before I was born. Finding recipes that are delicious to eat without rice has been a little tough, BUT-- I randomly came across this recipe where they used caluiflower to mimic rice. I decided to give it a whril (haha in my food processorrrrr!!!!) and see how it would taste, and goodness gracious, it is AWESOME! I enjoy eating raw cauliflower, but man, cooking it up really brings out a delicious sweet flavor, and it seriously has the consistency of short grain white rice. I may be in love again. It was so simple to whip up and dangerously easy to get a generous serving of vegetables without even feeling like you ate vegetables.
Also, chicken is great because you can spend 5 minutes preparing the raw chicken in a delicious marinade/sauce and it'll feed you for days.
Apple cider vinegar chicken and Cauliflower Rice
Ingredients
For the cider chicken
Chicken thighs, de fatted
Apple cider vinegar (~1/4-1/3 c?)
2 tsp whole seed mustard
lime juice
paprika
salt
pepper
1. Marinate the chicken in the vinegar and mustard with all the spices and lime juice. I put it in a bag and tried to squeeze the air out so that all the juices will co mingle with the chicken. Let marinate for......... i dunno. 30 min? I threw it in the fridge because I made it the night before, so that's ok too.
2. Preheat the oven to 425F, warm up your cast iron (if you don't have a skillet, a baking dish/pan/whatever is totally fine too), and a non stick frying pan.
3. When the frying pan is hot, sear the chicken thigh, skin side up for about 3 min, and then flip to sear the skin side for about 3 min. Transfer the chicken to the skillet, skin side down and throw into the preheated oven. Bake for 20 min or so, until the chicken is fully cooked.
Usually, while I have incubations like this, I like to whip things up really quickly. During the chicken bake, prepare your RICE!
Cauliflower rice
1/2 head of cauliflower (this will make 2 generous servings)
garlic (or garlic olive oil-- just a drizzle)
shiitake mushrooms
1. Cut up the cauliflower into smallish pieces and put in the food processor. Pulse until the pieces are about the size of short grain rice.
2. Cut up the mushrooms. If the mushrooms are dried, reconstitute them in some hot water for about 5 minutes and they will soften up nicely.
3. Sautee the cauliflower crumbles, drizzle lightly with garlic olive oil or toss in the chopped garlic, and add the mushrooms. Sautee for about 5 or so minutes, until the crumbles are soft and tender and sweet. Salt to taste (I don't generally salt my food much, but just a dash here really brought out the sweetness of the cauliflower).
These two piled up on top of each other were seriously a filling and delicious meal. (sorry about the crappy photo, I couldn't wait to run and grab my real camera so my iPod was the closest thing i had at hand. All the cauliflower is piled up underneath the chicken and on the side. Sweet, savory, and satisfying!
Til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!
This class however, was my second go at the full primary series, and I realized that today was markedly less difficult, more familiar, and also more challenging than last week. Because I spent less time trying to figure out how to position myself and spent more time focusing on all the alignment and breathing, I got more out of this practice than last week. I also found myself able to bind in ways that were unavailable to me last week, and perhaps it is due to the rigorous regiment of yoga class attendance these past couple weeks! My muscles have been aching, my body twisted and turned, pulled and stretched in so many ways, it's remarkable how good I feel! Mind and body together, I would say we are going on an exciting and new journey. Maybe this will help me think less about the exact date that the PhD will magically land in my pocket, and think more about the ways I can make the most of my time in research before moving on to clinical obligations.
Stock photos of yoga are always a person's silhouette with a sunset in the backdrop, balancing on some object on one leg..... It always looks so serene. the opposite of what today was. haha
 |
| If only practicing was like this every day. |
But less about yoga, more about food! One thing I have missed terribly since starting this challenge, has been RICE. I LOVE RICE. like, LOVE. LOVE. LOVE it. It's been a staple grain of my diet since before I was born. Finding recipes that are delicious to eat without rice has been a little tough, BUT-- I randomly came across this recipe where they used caluiflower to mimic rice. I decided to give it a whril (haha in my food processorrrrr!!!!) and see how it would taste, and goodness gracious, it is AWESOME! I enjoy eating raw cauliflower, but man, cooking it up really brings out a delicious sweet flavor, and it seriously has the consistency of short grain white rice. I may be in love again. It was so simple to whip up and dangerously easy to get a generous serving of vegetables without even feeling like you ate vegetables.
Also, chicken is great because you can spend 5 minutes preparing the raw chicken in a delicious marinade/sauce and it'll feed you for days.
Apple cider vinegar chicken and Cauliflower Rice
Ingredients
For the cider chicken
Chicken thighs, de fatted
Apple cider vinegar (~1/4-1/3 c?)
2 tsp whole seed mustard
lime juice
paprika
salt
pepper
1. Marinate the chicken in the vinegar and mustard with all the spices and lime juice. I put it in a bag and tried to squeeze the air out so that all the juices will co mingle with the chicken. Let marinate for......... i dunno. 30 min? I threw it in the fridge because I made it the night before, so that's ok too.
2. Preheat the oven to 425F, warm up your cast iron (if you don't have a skillet, a baking dish/pan/whatever is totally fine too), and a non stick frying pan.
3. When the frying pan is hot, sear the chicken thigh, skin side up for about 3 min, and then flip to sear the skin side for about 3 min. Transfer the chicken to the skillet, skin side down and throw into the preheated oven. Bake for 20 min or so, until the chicken is fully cooked.
Usually, while I have incubations like this, I like to whip things up really quickly. During the chicken bake, prepare your RICE!
Cauliflower rice
1/2 head of cauliflower (this will make 2 generous servings)
garlic (or garlic olive oil-- just a drizzle)
shiitake mushrooms
1. Cut up the cauliflower into smallish pieces and put in the food processor. Pulse until the pieces are about the size of short grain rice.
2. Cut up the mushrooms. If the mushrooms are dried, reconstitute them in some hot water for about 5 minutes and they will soften up nicely.
3. Sautee the cauliflower crumbles, drizzle lightly with garlic olive oil or toss in the chopped garlic, and add the mushrooms. Sautee for about 5 or so minutes, until the crumbles are soft and tender and sweet. Salt to taste (I don't generally salt my food much, but just a dash here really brought out the sweetness of the cauliflower).
.JPG) |
| RICE! made of cauliflower with perfectly seared and baked chicken |
These two piled up on top of each other were seriously a filling and delicious meal. (sorry about the crappy photo, I couldn't wait to run and grab my real camera so my iPod was the closest thing i had at hand. All the cauliflower is piled up underneath the chicken and on the side. Sweet, savory, and satisfying!
Til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!
Monday, January 14, 2013
Day 12 of 30- Salmon salad
This past weekend I made the commitment to join a yoga studio. After the 20 dollar unlimited week, I decided that the people there were awesome. The studio is great and the atmosphere is fantastic. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it felt like a huge commitment and a huge step forward in one of my resolutions. Tomorrow is Ashtanga Tuesday, so we'll see if there's any improvement since last week :-) I'm pretty excited. I feel like this is a lifestyle that's been waiting to be embraced, and I hope that I can improve myself and let that improvement help others around me.
In addition to the yoga studio, I feel like my colleagues and I have accomplished an incredible feat this weekend and into today. We began our surgery interest group tutorials this past weekend, and it was such an amazing experience. Talk about curriculum development, preparation, and execution-- I think we managed to nail it. We were able to integrate functional anatomy with embryonic development, gut rotation, physiology, nutrition, radiographs, clinical correlates, and demystify inguinal hernias. The students loved it and really truly appreciated all the neat clinical cases and presentations related to their anatomy class. Honestly, it is such a rewarding experience for those who participate-- the students and the peer educators both. I hope it continues to go on as a successful venture and will also cross over into future years. It's been a challenge trying not to step on toes, cross lines, and keep things under the radar, but in the end, we are students helping students help students... and nobody should try to stop that.
Meals today were pretty interesting. And it was a fanatasically whipped up delicious treat, especially after a really long day. Many thanks to D! Just look at all those beautiful colors!
Today's is a variation of the crab salad recipe..... but made with SALMON! and much tastier :-)
Salmon salad
Ingredients
1 can salmon (remove bones etc. removing skin gives you a prettier colored salmon salad)
1 lemon's juice
celery, chopped
green onion, chopped
dill
curry powder
2 hard boiled eggs
MAYO.
1. Hard boil eggs. Remove bones and all things ugly from the canned salmon.
2. Break up salmon and eggs into small pieces and mix with lemon juice, mayo, green onion, and spices. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. EAT.
This salmon salad is deliciously simple and very tasty. The tang from the lemon, crunch from the celery, flavor from the curry and dill. it is perfection. Serve a dollop over greens and make it a satisfying salad! like I've said before, don't be afraid to be creative! explore flavors! textures! colors! As much as I complain about wishing I could eat that snickers bar or munch on some salt and vinegar chips..... this challenge has really forced me to TASTE my food and MAKE IT TASTY (not that it wasn't tasty before ;-D)
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!!!!!!
In addition to the yoga studio, I feel like my colleagues and I have accomplished an incredible feat this weekend and into today. We began our surgery interest group tutorials this past weekend, and it was such an amazing experience. Talk about curriculum development, preparation, and execution-- I think we managed to nail it. We were able to integrate functional anatomy with embryonic development, gut rotation, physiology, nutrition, radiographs, clinical correlates, and demystify inguinal hernias. The students loved it and really truly appreciated all the neat clinical cases and presentations related to their anatomy class. Honestly, it is such a rewarding experience for those who participate-- the students and the peer educators both. I hope it continues to go on as a successful venture and will also cross over into future years. It's been a challenge trying not to step on toes, cross lines, and keep things under the radar, but in the end, we are students helping students help students... and nobody should try to stop that.
Meals today were pretty interesting. And it was a fanatasically whipped up delicious treat, especially after a really long day. Many thanks to D! Just look at all those beautiful colors!
.JPG) |
| Salmon Salad over a bed of lettuce with sliced carrots |
.JPG) |
| Oven baked chicken coated in mustard and spices on lettuce with baked yams, oil and vinegar dressing |
Salmon salad
Ingredients
1 can salmon (remove bones etc. removing skin gives you a prettier colored salmon salad)
1 lemon's juice
celery, chopped
green onion, chopped
dill
curry powder
2 hard boiled eggs
MAYO.
1. Hard boil eggs. Remove bones and all things ugly from the canned salmon.
2. Break up salmon and eggs into small pieces and mix with lemon juice, mayo, green onion, and spices. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. EAT.
This salmon salad is deliciously simple and very tasty. The tang from the lemon, crunch from the celery, flavor from the curry and dill. it is perfection. Serve a dollop over greens and make it a satisfying salad! like I've said before, don't be afraid to be creative! explore flavors! textures! colors! As much as I complain about wishing I could eat that snickers bar or munch on some salt and vinegar chips..... this challenge has really forced me to TASTE my food and MAKE IT TASTY (not that it wasn't tasty before ;-D)
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!!!!!!
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Day 6 of 30- Tuna salad with avocado
Today is day 6 of the challenge, and i must say, today has definitely been challenging. It started with the refrigerator- it was not cold this morning. it was cool, but not cold. so of course, I, being the food monger than I am, spent a good 20-30 min trying to move the fridge, checking it up and down and moved food to the garage instead of eating breakfast, making my coffee, and packing a lunch. luckily, i moved all the important things to the garage and managed to throw something together really quickly. thank goodness for leftovers. The rest of the day seemed to progress in a similar fashion: one thing beginning with chaos, ending in a relative state of OK..... leading to another thing that began with chaos and ended OK...... ending with the ultimate test of fat metabolism to kick in.
I recently signed up for a week of unlimited yoga to test out a new studio. Today, I dared to challenge myself to back to back classes: slow flow, and the Ashtanga primary series. together, these classes are about 3 hours of yoga-- bending, folding, breathing, stretching, balancing, sweating, and finding myself within my mind. This is a great idea to me, however it fell at a critical time in my day! DINNER TIME! what is a yogi to do??? I decided to brave the classes without eating, and probably for the better. I have no idea how i would have completed the primary series (link to the craziness HERE .... srsly it's cray) if I had eaten before class. so of course, it meant that dinner would not happen til after class.
By the time I grabbed some groceries and got home, it was after 9, almot 9:30 and it had been...... 7.5 hours since i completed my lunch. can you believe that???? 7.5 hours. WTF. that blows my mind. how did it happen? I HAVE NO CLUE! but it did. and strangely enough, I was fairly OK after biking back home after 3 hours of yoga. In an act of desperation, I poured myself some almond milk from the new container i bought and one thing really struck me-- why was this milk so sweet? the brand was the same. the box was the same so i thought maybe they had changed something and surely enough, one of the ingredients was evaporated cane sugar. seriously, after not consuming any artificial sweetener and not adding ANY extra sugar and only relying on the sugars of my food, that extra added cane sugar was a punch in the taste buds. I was so torn. Do I pretend like the cane sugar doesn't exist in that milk? or do i go and buy another almond milk? I caved and bought another one. I realized that there's an "unsweetened" version that the first store didn't carry. so that sweet delicious carton of almond milk will have to wait. All in all, I am feeling less hungry between meals. The habit of wanting to snack is still hanging in there, looming over my head, and I guess I do have more energy.....
Anyway, here's the dinner I shamelessly whipped up while in starvation mode:
Tuna salad with avocado (like, literally)
3 ingredients: canned tuna, mayo, and avocado.
mash it all together. eat. haha. mayo is A-OK to eat because it's just whipped up egg whites and oil, so that was a life saver for me. (no picture..... i ate it way too fast... oops)
Inspired by the rediscovery of mayo, i decided to prepare lunch for tomorrow: a broccoli salad
Broccoli salad
Broccoli (lots of it), orange bell pepper, sundried tomatoes, raisins, carrots. Fried up some bacon and crumbled it in there to add some salt. and MAYO!!!! my life saver for the day. I'm not too sure what the deal is with bacon. if it's OK or not for the challenge. so to deal with that, i only put in a little and will have to research more tomorrow.
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!!
I recently signed up for a week of unlimited yoga to test out a new studio. Today, I dared to challenge myself to back to back classes: slow flow, and the Ashtanga primary series. together, these classes are about 3 hours of yoga-- bending, folding, breathing, stretching, balancing, sweating, and finding myself within my mind. This is a great idea to me, however it fell at a critical time in my day! DINNER TIME! what is a yogi to do??? I decided to brave the classes without eating, and probably for the better. I have no idea how i would have completed the primary series (link to the craziness HERE .... srsly it's cray) if I had eaten before class. so of course, it meant that dinner would not happen til after class.
By the time I grabbed some groceries and got home, it was after 9, almot 9:30 and it had been...... 7.5 hours since i completed my lunch. can you believe that???? 7.5 hours. WTF. that blows my mind. how did it happen? I HAVE NO CLUE! but it did. and strangely enough, I was fairly OK after biking back home after 3 hours of yoga. In an act of desperation, I poured myself some almond milk from the new container i bought and one thing really struck me-- why was this milk so sweet? the brand was the same. the box was the same so i thought maybe they had changed something and surely enough, one of the ingredients was evaporated cane sugar. seriously, after not consuming any artificial sweetener and not adding ANY extra sugar and only relying on the sugars of my food, that extra added cane sugar was a punch in the taste buds. I was so torn. Do I pretend like the cane sugar doesn't exist in that milk? or do i go and buy another almond milk? I caved and bought another one. I realized that there's an "unsweetened" version that the first store didn't carry. so that sweet delicious carton of almond milk will have to wait. All in all, I am feeling less hungry between meals. The habit of wanting to snack is still hanging in there, looming over my head, and I guess I do have more energy.....
Anyway, here's the dinner I shamelessly whipped up while in starvation mode:
Tuna salad with avocado (like, literally)
3 ingredients: canned tuna, mayo, and avocado.
mash it all together. eat. haha. mayo is A-OK to eat because it's just whipped up egg whites and oil, so that was a life saver for me. (no picture..... i ate it way too fast... oops)
Inspired by the rediscovery of mayo, i decided to prepare lunch for tomorrow: a broccoli salad
Broccoli salad
Broccoli (lots of it), orange bell pepper, sundried tomatoes, raisins, carrots. Fried up some bacon and crumbled it in there to add some salt. and MAYO!!!! my life saver for the day. I'm not too sure what the deal is with bacon. if it's OK or not for the challenge. so to deal with that, i only put in a little and will have to research more tomorrow.
til next time, EAT WELL and BE WELL!!!
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