This is where I find my center.

You may have seen those slackline kids around campus, teetering back and forth over their nylon (?) cables, doing fancy tricks while they wobble back and forth, defying gravity, being badasses. If you can’t tell, I’m always pretty impressed with those kids. Slacklines are pretty amazing, if you ask me. I heard you can do yoga on them and I’m dying to get into the whole thing. There’s something about balance that has been really compelling to me lately.

I’m not sure what it is, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot. I’m beginning to play with it in my yoga practice (yay for arm balances!), in my diet (every day doesn’t have to be a detox or retox day, no need to go from carnivore to vegan every other day), in my lifestyle (being a 26 year old party animal doesn’t work, neither does being a 26 year old monk), in finding yoga teaching jobs (part meeting people, part job search), in dating (uhh… still working on this one), in friendships and relationships (this one could also use a lot of work), and in my breath (inhale equals exhale equals amazing).

The first problem with balance isn’t in maintaining the weight on either side of the center. It’s really about finding the center. Finding your personal center is all a matter of perspective, and it can be challenging to locate. The thing about the center is, that it should feel good to live by. If it doesn’t, then you won’t stay there for very long, and you’ll just have to shift it once more.

When you’re searching for your center, things get tumultuous. You teeter back and forth, and you’ll inevitably fly from one extreme to the other, picking the things you like out of one side, discarding the things you don’t. But eventually, your extremes will get closer together. Your life will seemingly become much simpler.  When you find it, balance becomes a matter of maintaining, which is much less volitile than the searching phase.

But the searching phase is just as important as the latter state. It’s part of the journey and it’s completely necessary when you’re trying to live a balanced life.

How do you stay balanced? How do you find your center?

Picture via The Complete Cookbook (Even though I've made these three times, they've never made it long enough to be photographed)

Oh yes. All of those words totally go together.

I was going to call this the Super Easy Healthy Desert, but I thought better of it. Yes, it only has four ingredients. Yes, you don’t have to chop, dice or bake anything. Sure, you can do it all in a food processor. So why do I refuse to call this desert super easy? Because I’ve had some set backs in making this desert, and I’m not here to sugar coat things for you. I’m here to dust things in coconut flakes and serve them up at every single dinner party/pot luck that I’ve attended in the last few weeks.

The first time I made these little beauties they turned out soooo well. Like, creepishly well. Everyone was crazy impressed. They were all sorts of symmetrical. They were smooth and tasty. I’m going to go out on a limb here and pronounce that they were the best desert that I’ve ever made. They beat out the cake balls that I made when I was an administrative assistant for sure. Nay! They were best anything that I’ve ever made. They were pretty easy, especially considering that I only had a blender at my temporary pad. They took a little coaxing to mix, but it wasn’t a major endeavor.

So, word started circulating about my coco trufs (or chocolate truffles if you’re feeling pretentious). I mean, they’re raw, vegan, gluten free and crazy delicious. They started gaining quite a reputation on the yoga school scene, and I was asked to make them for our next pot luck. Since it would be at my place, I figured I could just whip up a batch when everyone was there. Epic. Fail. I doubled the recipe. It took forever. I finally just smooshed it into a pan and called them raw brownies (also works). People still LOVED them.

A friend of mine suggested that I soak the dates and that they’ll be easier to blend. So when I made them this time, I followed that suggestion. This turned everything into a chunky sludge. I recovered it by adding some more nuts (that helped) and even experimented by adding in a tiny amount of quinoa to try to dry it out (that didn’t). When I rolled them, they were super greasy and many of the nuts were super chunky. I thought I’d failed once again. Taste testers said, “NAY!”

So here are some balls that you just can’t mess up.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Dates

2 Cups Walnuts

3-4 t cocoa powder

1/2 cup coconut flakes

Method: 

Toss dates, walnuts and cocoa into a food processor and blend until it becomes one big ball of love. Roll into walnut sized balls and roll those balls in some coconut. Presto!

What’s your foolproof easy desert?

Hello wellness nerds! A few months ago, I talked about how I was going to do the Forrest Yoga teacher training in Denver this year. The time has come. Actually, the time came last week. Exactly a week ago today, I laid my head down after an exhausting and exhilarating first day, and I couldn’t have told you what exactly was running through my mind then. I was excited, but I knew that this was going to be something indescribable.

Now that I’m here, I can tell you what’s running through my mind right now. In this past week, it seemed like several months had passed. Part of me feels like it’s been forever, but when I look forward to the end of the month, I wonder if I’ll really be ready to be a yoga instructor by the end of it all. We do so much every day, that I wonder what will sink in and what is flying in one ear and out of the other.

We start every morning seated in a large circle at 6 a.m. Ana Forrest comes to the center, and leads us through a beautiful ceremony to set the intention for the day’s practice. The energy in the circle is usually electric, but there are some days when you can literally feel everyone’s exhaustion. During the intention, Ana calls to the four directions before we chant and meditate. It’s the best way to start your morning, so I would highly recommend starting a dorm room drum circle immediately.

After that, we do a two hour intensive practice. If you’ve ever done Forrest Yoga, you know how ridiculously challenging a two hour practice can be. Each practice is tailored to open up a specific area and the sequencing is always challenging, but the sequencing is brilliant and the pacing is perfect for moving stuff through. After the intensive, we get a lunch break and then return to the studio for class for six hours. After getting stuffed with yoga information, it’s back home to do homework and practice teach. Before you know it, the night has slipped by and you have to be up in a few hours. It’s not just the intense schedule that makes this so challenging. You emotionally process a lot every day. This teacher training is like therapy, yoga boot camp, spiritual guidance, and police officer training all at the same time. Doing all of that, while you’re doing twice as much yoga as you are sleeping, can make for a pretty exhausting cocktail.

Alas, it’s been the most beautiful experience so far, and I look forward to seeing what the next few weeks will bring. Aho!

Hello Wellness Nerds!

I’d like to take a minute to thank you for joining me today. You guys have been here for a lot of big health changes and discoveries over the past six months, and I just wanted to let you know that I think you’re just the awesomest people on the planet.

You’ve been with me as I’ve been slowly trying to shed my dependence on things like caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, sugar, etc… You also know that I’ve been trying to up my consumption of the good stuff like apple cider vinegar, herbs, vegan food, etc… But you might not know that I’ve also been incorporating some lifestyle changes into my routine periodically over the past few months. Sometimes it’s easy to reduce health to what you put into your body. But it’s equally as important to consider the things you do with/to your body to facilitate a healthier and happier life.

So this month, we’re going to be talking about simple lifestyle changes that you can make that will almost instantly boost your health and well being. The first thing on the list of good for you activities…

1.  Napping

Sure, you hear a lot about staying active in order to be healthy, but you also need to know how to rest. And what’s the most restorative form of rest? Sleep!

Even though sleep is critical in maintaining a healthy weight, promoting good digestion, boosting cognitive function and restoring muscle and joint health, most of us aren’t getting enough of it. There’s a social stigma attached to napping in America that can leave you believing that you’re a lazy bum if you nod off in the afternoon. But nay! Tis not the truth! Naps are not for losers. They actually make you healthier and more productive.

A study that examined the napping habits of 23,000 Greeks concluded that those who took three or more naps per week were %37 less likely to develop heart disease than their less snoozy counterparts. That’s a heart health tip you can take to the bank. So if your eyelids are getting heavy while you’re applying for some no essay scholarships, that means it’s about the perfect time to go get your nap on. Get to it!

Are you a fan of the nap?

I was reading the Ram Dass classic Be Here Now last night (when I was totally up past my self imposed bed time), when something he said hit me like a ton of bricks. He imparts a beautiful piece of wisdom that I’ve been thinking about all day:

You’ve got to go at the rate you can go. You wake up at the rate you wake up. You’re finished with your desires at the rate you finish with your desires. You can’t rip the skin off the snake. The snake must moult the skin. That’s the rate it happens.

This lesson hit me at the perfect time. Sometimes being healthy can feel like it’s less of a “being” or “becoming” thing and more of a “racing” and “chasing” thing. It can seem like there’s a healthy finish line, and we have to reach as soon as possible. But, looking back, that’s not how we really progress in life or in the journey to better health.

The huge diet changes that have really changed my life, took years to implement. I used to eat Monte Cristos like it was no body’s business. Now I consider homemade wedge fries and vegan chili junk food. That didn’t happen over night.

My active lifestyle took a long time to evolve as well. Five years ago, I was 40 lbs overweight and a once a month (maybe) exerciser. I got self-conscious and nervous every time I stepped into a gym. Now, I’m heading off to yoga teacher training. I’m going to be in front of a class guiding them in exercise.

If yoga should have taught me anything by now, it’s that you are where you are, and that growth doesn’t happen all at once. The series of small movements that you make to take control of your health are more valuable than any series of extreme promises that you’ll never do something ever again. Trying to dive right into extreme and jolting transformation seems to trigger the exact opposite response. If you’re thinking about a future of early bedtimes, missed cocktails, wasted smoke breaks and cakeless evenings all at once, you’re going to think that your present is somehow lacking without those things.

But last week, I had some beers, cake, fries, tea with caffeine, and I wasn’t getting enough sleep. So for several days, I beat myself up about it. I thought that I was regressing on an epic scale. I gave myself a good scolding that lasted for hours.

When I read this Ram Dass quote I realized that I was making several mistakes. First, I was trying to push myself into huge changes without letting my old habits naturally fall away. I was also beating myself up for not being able to stick to the radical changes. But, it’s true. You can’t peel the skin off a snake, as long as the intent is there and you can stay positive about growth, the transformation will come. Your old skin, falling away. Your new skin, stronger and brighter than ever.

When you’re first getting started on slowing down your eating process and fully chewing your food, there are a few simple things that you can do to help you get used to the change.

Even though chewing  your food is simple, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s easy. It’s actually something that you have to be committed to. We tend to think of eating as one of those things that we do automatically. In order to fully chew your food, it takes a bit of consciousness.

Here are some ways that you can make it easier to fully chew your food:

Eat In Silence

Turn off the TV and take those ear buds out. In our modern society, we like to multi-task. That means catching up with family, watching television and working, tend to combine with meal times. If you eat in silence, you’ll become more focused on the sense that you’re using, taste. So not only will your food seem to taste better, you’ll also become more focused on your intention to chew your food.

Just Eat

When you just focus on eating instead of checking Facebook , applying for high school scholarships, or texting your BFF, you’re more likely to chew your food fully. If you become distracted by another task, it’s easy for that meal to vanish and you might not even remember eating it, let alone chewing it.

Cut Your Food

This one is simple. The smaller you cut your food, the easier it will be to chew. Small bites and small food are one of the keys to unlocking the great chewing mystery. And on that note, here’s a great little “recipe” that you can make that is extremely easy to fully chew and is great for overall digestion. I call it a “recipe” because it’s mainly an amazing salad that’s chopped into tiny pieces. So I’ll just share the ingredients with you and you can infer the chopping part.

Digestion Friendly Lunch

Photo: Vegan Lunch via Willworkforfoodgirl.com

Ingredients:

• 1/2 mango
• 1/4 cup chopped cucumber
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• 1 roma tomato
• 1/2 avocado

Chop it up and pair it with a glass of warm lemon and ginger water to aid digestion. Whatever you do, make sure you chew.

Are you a chewer?

You and your dirty little mind had a second look at that title before you realized that I was talking about chewing, and not… well, that other thing. It’s okay. That other thing is completely normal and healthy. You shouldn’t feel guilty for reading that word incorrectly, or for doing that thing that I’m sure you do. It’s okay to touch yourself in… that way. God. When did I start sounding like a creepy version of your mother who blogs?

Perhaps I’ve always sounded like your mother. I have been telling you to stay in on thirsty Thursday and drink apple cider vinegar mocktails, for Pete’s sake. Man, I just said ‘for Pete’s sake’.

The results are in, I’m officially your internet mom. And as your official internet maternal figure, I’m here to tell you to chew your food. Wow. That all worked out perfectly.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never been a huge “food chewer” so to speak. I used to eat quickly, and practically choked my food down. Recently, I’ve been doing some research on mindful eating and chewing and have been incorporating a great deal of mastication (let’s not go down that road again) into my eating habits. Here the two major questions I had about chewing, and the answers I found:

Why should I?

Chewing your food slowly and fully will allow for the proper absorption of nutrients and vitamins into the body. It decreases the occurrence of gas, and stops acid reflux from occurring. It also will help you feel when your full, which can stop you from eating too much. Booyah! Unintentional weight loss!

How much do I need to chew?

You should chew each mouthful of food 35 times, until it’s liquid. This is super weird at first, when you’re not used to it. You can count when you first start doing it, but eventually you become aware of the texture of your food after 35 chomps. Then you can just chew until your food is fully digestible.

Next week, I’ll post an easy-to-chew-all-the-way vegan recipe and I’m sure that it will have an equally disturbing name and opening paragraph.

Do you chew?

In light of the aforementioned news about yours truly entering teacher training this March, I’ve committed to a daily yoga practice from this day forth. I’m also hanging out in the windy, but unseasonably warm, Chicago, Illinois. I’m staying in a great city, filled with great yoga and amazing teachers.

The world of yoga is at my fingertips at the moment (or if you’re craving something more literal, the yoga world is within walking distance). Plus, I’m going to be practicing every day, no matter what. Why not do it every day in as many studios around town as possible?

So that’s what I’ve set out to do. I’ve set out to spend every day doing yoga at a studio. I’ve had a home practice for most of my life as a yogi. While that’s great, it’s not nearly as committed and disciplined as an in-studio practice.

Aside from the motivation and the way time is more focused at a studio, there are a ton of other benefits. There’s something so educational about going to a studio that can take your practice out of plateau. These past few days in studios about town have taught me a ton.

Anywho, I’ve been going to a Bikram studio and a mixed yoga studio that have been wonderful. I’m studying a mix of crazy-a** hot yoga and super focused hatha, restorative and vinyasa yoga. So this month, I’d like to talk about those two different experiences and how they compare to a home practice.

In a month, I’ll be studying Forrest Yoga almost exclusively, in order to become a teacher. So this is my last opportunity to have the open mind of a student. This is why I chose to do Bikram, which is a practice I’ve poo-pooed for a long time (more about that in a few weeks). It’s also why I chose to do something more diverse at the mixed yoga studio. I’m all about freedom during this yoga month.

Have you ever taken a yoga month? How was it? 

Ana Forrest: Yoga Teacher Extraordinaire

Hello wellness nerds!

I have some very exciting news to share with you today! In case you can’t tell, I’m really really really excited! The only punctuation I know how to use right now is the exclamation point! Okay! I’m going to take a deep breath and calm the eff down so I can tell you all about this exciting shtuff!

Alright! I’m still extremely excited, but I think I’ve relaxed enough to tell you why. You’re looking at a future Forrest Yoga instructor! That’s right folks. I’m signed up for my 200 ryt teacher training in Denver this March. Which means I’m going to spend a month in the mountains, in the spring, getting all sorts of connected to my body and my inner purpose. I’m going to learn how to teach the best yoga tradition that I’ve ever had the opportunity to practice. And I’m going to learn how to do all of that from Ana Forrest herself. The Ana Forrest. Yoga nerd out!

Forrest yoga is a great holistic, healing and strengthening practice. I just stumbled upon when I went to a new years eve yoga event at Turbodog, a Forrest Yoga studio here in Chicago. It was the most challenging and rewarding practice that I’ve ever experienced.

From the very first practice, I began to find inner strength I never thought was there before. It was amazing. After every practice, I felt stronger, more alive and… sore as hell. In a few short weeks, I’ve learned more about my body and how to harness energy than I had in the past few years of yoga practice.

I’ll talk more about Forrest Yoga in the coming weeks. I’m sure it’s all I’ll be able to talk about for a little while. But I’d like to talk about a pose that I’ve been doing a lot more of now that I’m studying Forrest Yoga. It’s like down dog on crack. Enter the dolphin.

Dolphin Pose

Dolphin pose is great for those of us who work desk bound gigs. If you’re a virtual administrative assistant, customer service rep or HR director, this pose is for you. Dolphin pose strengthens your shoulders and arms and lengthens your torso and almost every muscle in the back of your legs. Here’s a step by step from Yoga Journal that will help you get in the pose.

Do you dolphin? Have you ever done Forrest Yoga? What do you think?

In the spirit of getting back on track, I’ve been working on eating better and being more active. Sure, it’s freezing and I just want to curl up in my jammies and eat a dozen warm cookies followed by a gallon of hot chocolate tonight, but am I going to do that? No. Well… No. Well… I should just stop thinking about it.

Instead of turning some sugar dreams into sugar crash nightmares, I’m going to make a salad that’s inspired by a nicoise salad that I had in Panama. Just thinking of that hot poolside sun and this salad makes me happier than a clam. Where does that phrase come from? Clams are like giant living boogers. I guess it makes me snottier than a clam as well… That was weird.

Well, now that we’ve talked about clams in their relationship to boogers, let’s talk about food! Since I’m on this health kick, I’m back on a mainly plant based diet, so I’m taking the tuna, eggs and anchovies out of this salad. Instead, we’ll use raw mufellata to replace the salty tang of the anchovies and avocados to replace the protein and fat from the tuna and eggs. That’s right, we’re making a salad healthier.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup Snap Peas
• 1/2 Red Pepper
• 1/2 Yellow Pepper
• 3 T Raw Mufalatta
• 1 Whole Avocado
• 1 T Spicy Gardinarre (optional)

Like some of you, I put on some wickity-wickity weight this holiday season. I wish I could have stuck to my guns more when I was in my dual with the desert table. Alas, I backed down and ate a crazy amount of pecan pie. A crazy amount. Crazy. I honestly thought it would serve me better to roll with the gluttony that the season calls for. I was at home for the first time in a long time so I didn’t want stress about it. I wanted to get into how fun it is to say yes to every cookie. I was trying to enjoy it and get in the holiday spirit with everyone else. To my family, like many other families, that means hella booze and food. It’s supposed to be festive. It’s supposed to be fun. And it kinda was.

It’s not so much fun now. I’m never really worried about gaining weight. When I have in the past, I just get back to doing what I was doing before. But I was a little shocked when the gingerbread smoke had cleared, to see how easily my behaviors had swung in the direction of complete lazy hedonism. Instead of reaching for fresh and colorful, I started reaching for sugary and beige (yikes). Instead of getting out and staying active, I started staying in and staring at my computer screen, even when I wasn’t working or applying for graduate school scholarships (yikes!). And instead of waking up early, I was staying in bed until 11 (yikes!!!!!).

This time, it’s a little harder to get back on track, but I’m slowly taking the time to do it. Here are three ways I’m working on it:

1. Get back on a schedule: I’m enforcing a bedtime and a wake up time. Neither of which can be denied. I’m also not eating after seven which will cut out all of my midnight snack calories. It’s working pretty well so far.
2. Eat the rainbow: I’m eating super colorful stuff like this again… So frickin’ delicious. I’ll post the raw, gluten free, vegan recipe next week. 
3. Every hour active: It’s just not good for me to sit for long periods of time. An hour of cardio every other day doesn’t cut it for me. I’m setting an alarm to be active for 5 minutes every hour. It can be 5 minutes of yoga, running in place, jumping jacks, dancing or whatever as long as it’s movement. I’d bet that it’s going to turn into an hourly 5 minute dance party. That’s the way it’s looking at this point.

It’s that time of year. Right about now you should be seeing all of the articles popping up telling you how to avoid holiday weight gain. But if you’ve had your fill of “don’t touch the cookie tray” advice, we’re going to offer up something a little different.

I’m not going to deny that weight is a contributing factor on your health. Of course it is. Quick weight gain is taxing on your system and is psychologically difficult to handle most of the time. But that shouldn’t be your focus. Your focus should be to keep your immune system up, your digestive system in optimal health and your mental space as bright as possible. Here are three health-wise tips to keep in mind over the holiday season:

1. Chew, chew chew: A major part of healthy digestion is how much you masticate (not the dirty word, the other one). When you feel guilty about eating a certain food, you’re a billion times more likely to eat it quickly and get rid of the evidence (totally a real statistic). Enjoy the guilty stuff and chew it super slowly. As a matter of fact, slow down your chewing no matter what you’re chowing. This will do wonders for nutrient absorption and indigestion.

2. Sleep your eyes out: Sleep is one of those things we tend to get less of during the holiday season. Holiday parties, finding the best online schools that you can transfer to, rowdy all nighters with family members and spending New Years Eve with a sexy stranger are all sleep stealing culprits. Sleep also is one of the biggest players in the game called Your Immune System… It works.

Make sure you’re getting as much snooze time as you possibly can, otherwise you’ll find yourself in a sicky mess in no time flat.

3. Catch some sol: It’s tempting to sit in your house and play Call of Black Ops or whatever the eff you kids are playing these days (I’m your 20 something year old gramma). Get out and grab at least 20 minutes of sun a day to absorb your necessary D. It’ll improve your mood and ward off those winter blues.