Well-being; Being-well. Random musings about life in August.

I'm fascinated by the control I have over my feeling of well-being. If I eat crappy foods, skip exercise, skimp on my personal practice of yoga and don't get enough sleep, I wake up feeling HORRIBLE - like my body is too big for my skin, my muscles are frozen like big blocks of ice and it's an effort to even move, more or less stretch. It takes me forever (and a lot of coffee) to feel remotely human. But when I make a point to flood my system with healthy, nutritious foods, get enough exercise and go to bed before midnight I wake up feeling light, alert and HAPPY. I'm a pleasure-seeker - a comfort-craver - and so I am pretty motivated when it comes to doing things that make me FEEL good.

After a few weeks of seeking pleasure and comfort in all the wrong places I decided to give my whole system a reset with another detox. But this one is completely different than the four day Ayurvedic cleanse I attempted in March. I found it via Tiffany Cruikshank, who is Nike's in-house yoga and holistic health guru. She's the newest teacher on YogaGlo, and I've found her classes very intense, challenging, and athletic. Her 7-day detox is actually not restrictive or scary (let's face it, drinking ghee is scary, and there is no ghee-drinking involved in this one!) - it's essentially seven days of a fruits, veggies, nuts and protein powder. It's incredibly nutritious and I've actually not been hungry at all. Granted, I already eat relatively healthy on a regular basis - I very rarely eat processed foods and stick mainly to fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean proteins, good fats, etc. So the biggest exclusion in this plan for me is not eating quinoa and other grains and not having any meat or dairy. Half an avocado with raw almonds is already my go-to snack of choice. But I've been having a BLAST with the smoothies at breakfast and dinner and I'm blown away by how much kale and collard greens I can get into my blender (and then my body) and what a relatively small amount of fruit it takes to completely disguise the flavor. The best part is that after one full day I already could tell a difference in how I felt. And after two full days I feel lighter, more alert, more comfortable in my skin. And I feel oddly motivated to get other stuff done that I've put off - like cleaning the bathroom or organizing my desk. That's a bonus, I guess!

Saturday was the full moon, and it was GORGEOUS. I took this picture on Sunday, so it was still pretty full. I've really been enjoying incorporating the cycles of the moon into both my own practice and my teaching. I taught three or four different moon-flow classes on the days leading up to and after the full moon, and it was really nice. I think my students enjoy it as well - I got a lot of positive feedback about the classes.

I combined a snack and a lunch today, generally following Tiffany's detox guidelines, and this was the result. DELICIOUS. I didn't realize you could get rice cakes made from organic brown rice, but now that I know, I'm in love. I mashed half and avocado with some sea salt and lemon, spread it on the rice cakes, and topped it with cucumber slices. SO TASTY. I'm a big fan of bagels with cream cheese and cucumber, and this was reminiscent of that, but almost better because the rice cake is so light it allows the flavor of the avocado to dominate. And I just love the flavor and lightness of cucumbers.

Last but not least, my current favorite human being - my niece, Lily. She is heading right into my very favorite baby age - two! I know they call them the terrible-twos, and I'm sure it must be for good reason, but most of the kids I've been around seem to get even more annoying when they are three, so who knows. I love this age so much - Lily is getting better at actually communicating with me - she's funny and witty and charming and resilient - and I just adore her. Here she is reminding me (and you!) to be creative and embrace your inner-artist. =)





Shanti!