Go-To List

Hi guys!

I hope you all are having a great week. One thing I get asked a lot about is what to eat in between meals, how I feel about gluten and what do I eat on a regular basis. Well, I will just say that wellness, diet, exercise, etc. is all an experiment. What works for your friend, might not work for you and vice versa. I don't believe in one diet fits all. We have a different chemical make up and we need to honor our bodies and its needs, without being in our heads or egos about what is "yogic," "healthy" or "unhealthy," because it's different for everyone.

Here are some of my go-to tips:

1. Eat fat. Yep. Think good fats: omegas, fatty acids. Your body needs fat, it's good for your skin and essential to a healthy brain and nervous system. I love walnuts, brazil nuts, almonds, avocados and Udo's oil introduced to me by Betina Henschell. :)

2. Water. Water. Water. At least two liters

3. Let's talk about bread for a minute. Currently, I would love a bread maker to make my own, but since I can't have one right now, I stick to pretty much gluten-free options. My FAVORITE is Canyon Bakehouse Bread that offer a variety. Check it out here: http://canyonglutenfree.com/. I also like Rudi's. The main thing with bread is to look at the ingredients. As they say, you want to be able to pronounce them.

4. Almond Butter

5. Cook a warm meal

6. Sip warm water with lemon. It's great for digestion.

7. Fresh fruit

8. Fresh veggies. I like to eat a lot of baby carrots, radishes, broccoli with hummus.

9. Dark Chocolate. I eat it every day.

10. Enjoy everything you eat, if you don't enjoy it, don't eat it.

Through the years, I have gone in many stages and phases of trying to figure out what I think "healthy" means. I found that a lot of these years were spent using my head instead of really being "in" and connected to my body. The thing I've learned is to listen to my body and nourish it. I think as a society our relationship with food has become very distorted. We love it. We hate it. We restrict it. We eat too much of it. We don't know what to do with it. I listened to a lecture through the Integrative Institute for Nutrition about how our relationship with food reflects our relationship to life. There is a really good book for any of you ladies out there interested written by Geneen Roth. Here is a link: https://geneenroth.com/books/
For you guys out there, it's imperative for you too to take care of yourselves. Another great video is from Brene Brown, Listening to Shame.

As a collective, we are here to support each other and the practice of yoga is to nourish you. Don't skimp on nourishing yourselves. You deserve your love and support.

Nourish yourselves. 

Wellness Week

The most vital thing that we have in our life is our wellness. Our wellness presides over everything including relationship, career, health, vitality, energy, etc. This week at Maitri we are focusing on wellness specifically in the areas of self-care. It is easy to get busy, to get swept up in stress and activity,  this week is about balance, finding and creating balance within your life to benefit you.

Starting with these simple things:
1. Eat More Veggies
2. Drink Plenty of Water
3. Sleep
4. Move/Exercise
5. Connect (this can be taking time to do yoga, be with friends/family, church group, social group, running group, book club, volunteer, etc.)

The way we nourish ourselves, ultimately reflects how we value ourselves. This week take time to value you; your time, energy, gifts are all a part of you. Living well is a balance, to find balance we have to take time to notice what we need and what we don't need.

Use this week to reenergize, recharge and get grounded. 

Oatmeal Cake Recipe

At Maitri we love to get together while sharing food, drink, and conversation and every time we do Sunshine brings this one oatmeal cake and let’s just say that it’s everything that an oatmeal cake should be. Moist, with plenty of cinnamon flavor, and a delicious coconut and nut topping. We’ve begged for the recipe but she hasn’t been willing to share. That changes today! So here you go Sunshine’s Oatmeal Cake Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 & 1/2 cups boiling water

1 cup 1 minute oatmeal

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of shortening

2 eggs, beaten

1 & 1/2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Combine the boiling water and the oatmeal in a bowl and then set aside to cool. While the oatmeal mixture is cooling combine brown sugar, sugar, shortening and eggs in a bowl and beat until fluffy. Then add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt beating until combined. Finally add the cooled oatmeal stirring or beating to combine. Pour into a 9X13 inch pan and prepare the topping. 

Dreamy Brown Sugar Coconut Pecan Topping

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons of butter

1/2 cup of packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 cup of shredded, sweetened coconut

1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Place the butter in a skillet to melt over low heat on the stovetop. When the butter is melted (or just about melted) stir in the remaining ingredients. It can be helpful to prep the topping ingredients before starting to melt the butter (just put everything in a bowl next to your stove so it’s easy to throw in). 

Then spoon the topping evenly over the cake leaving a bit of space around the edges (because the topping is heavy it can’t be spread over the top of the unbaked cake so just get it as even as you can). Bake the cake in a 350 degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. 

A Practice for Greater Compassion

A Practice for Greater Compassion

From the wonderful, Sunshine Steelman

So we are all not just living on our mats and then retreating to our homes to meditate and prepare meals of the freshest most organic ingredients we are actually living in the real world. And sometimes in the real world you may find yourself coming into contact with people who might frustrate or anger you. Imagine that instead of going home to lovingly prepare a fresh pressed juice to drink, you’re in a hurry and running through the nearest fast food drive thru (I know you would never do this ;-) and the person in front of you is taking a really long time to order and then can’t seem to find his or her wallet to pay and in the meantime you are getting more and more annoyed. Huffing and thinking to yourself how inconsiderate the person in front of you is,  how self-involved, and what a generally terrible person they are. Stop. Think about yourself and the times when you haven’t been sure what you wanted to eat, the time that your wallet slid down between your seats and you both panicked because you thought you lost it and the relief you felt when you finally found it. Now apply those thoughts to the person in front of you:  Oh he must not be certain what he’s hungry for just like me. She must have misplaced her wallet. I’ve done that and it feels awful. 

This can apply to any situation where you start to feel frustrated because when that happens our tendency is to make the other person (the object of our anger and our frustration) into something fundamentally different from ourselves but if we can stop, and think, we can dwell on our similarities rather than our separateness. 

Steps for greater compassion:

1. Stop
2. Breathe
3. Find places of commonality with the other person. (He does X just like I sometimes do X)