Firsts

I cannot believe all the things I have accomplished in the last two days.  I officially started my teacher training and there have been so many firsts for me.

I had my first double yoga class today, taught in the beautiful oca which faces the ocean.  You have not done yoga until your focal point has been the ocean.  The energy of 60 plus people is also amazing to share.

Yesterday I meditated for the first time.  I am SO happy I brought a meditation pillow! I have tight hips and one of the main posture tips is to have your knees lower than your hips. (as well as sit upright to keep the natural curvature of your spine). So sitting still isn't as painful as I thought it would be.

I kept focused on my breath for about 12 minutes before I got fidgety.  I figured if I counted 10 slow breaths 10 times that would get me really close to my 15 minute meditation limit. 

I also had a weird experience when I did this one activity.  We were to get a partner and cup their skull in our hands.  Then my focusing and breathing deeply we were to feel the bones in their skull.  Well, I felt poor Amber's brain waves (or something like that) it felt like electricity coursing through my fingertips and my fingers were tingling for about a hour after that. (her right side was really active)

I also had my first experience teaching today.  We partnered up and I partnered with a fellow yogi named Robbie.  I have to say that I wasn't as nerve wracked as I thought I would be but I really have to work on articulating my thoughts and knowing the postures....I've got some homework but I know I can do it now which is a relief.

Today I also scooted my first cockroach out of our cabin.  Our "penthouse suite" has no windows so we get all sorts of goodies in here!!

First Day

So, I haven't idea why...but I have been a little on the emotional side today. I am not someone who will break down and cry so when my voice started to crack when I was speaking I was a little startled and I laughed at myself a little....like, wtf Heather?!? Today I felt scared, sad, insecure and unsure...hopefully I can come to terms with what makes me feel that way.

My iPad makes for bad blog formatting so I apologize if this is in one giant paragraph like last post...I will see if I can format in some HTML.

It was our first asana today, taught by Ted and it was a great class!! It's almost surreal to be looking out at the ocean and while being instructed by the creator of Moksha...it was an amazing class for me and my body needed it after 35 hours of being uprooted in travel.

The food at Piracanga has been amazing!! I don't even miss meat or dairy with food this fresh and fantastic! Thought maybe I'd lose weight due to starvation...but now I'm not so sure! Lmao!

I think I am gonna call it a night soon, retire to my lovely room...6am comes early!

And so my journey begins....

I am sitting in our Winnipeg airport waiting for our flight which leaves in half an hour and I thought I would share a close call I had. I had gone to staples to photocopy my ID and then went to the airport. (my mom dropped me off) As soon as I walked in I noticed that the zipper had completely broke on one of my bags....aah! But ok, I will just buy a new one. So I found a new one, went to pay aaaand.....crap! No credit card!! I left it in the photocopier!! So I quickly called my mom and she made her way over to Staples...in the meantime the nice lady at the store let me pack everything into the new bag that I was hoping to buy. Mom came with the card (luckily it was still there), I bought my bag (already packed) and away I went. Moral of my little tale? - everything happens for a reason...if my bag had not broke I would have not noticed my card missing until it was too late!! - give your ample time at the airport to that you can recoup from mental mistakes. :-) And away I go!

Tealicious Teas

Having been inspired by the abundance of beets sitting in my kitchen...I wanted to make some home made blends of 'beety' teas to take with me to my Moksha Yoga Training in Brazil.

I first had to dehydrate my beets:

If you do NOT have a dehydrator (like me) Preheat your oven to the lowest setting (Mine goes to 170)

2. Thinly slice precooked beets (either boiled or baked) and place on a baking sheet.

3. Put in oven and for about 8 hours, flip them over every 45 mins.  When beets can be easily crumbled or crushed then remove baking sheet from oven and let cool.

4. Once cool, place in a ziplock bag and beat with a rolling pin/wooden spoon/bottom of shoe until beets are in smaller pieces.

5. Use beets in either one of the two blends that I created. :)

Heather's Fruity Beet Rooibos:

1 cup red rooibos
1/2 cup dried beets
1/2 cup dried apple
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 craisins
1/3 cup dried goji berries
1/3 cup dried coconut chunks (or you can use shredded)
 1/3 cup dried dates


You can buy rooibos and gogi berries at a health food store.  I bought mine at Vita Health in Winnipeg.  The apple can be dried the same way at the beets (but have to be left in the oven for a longer time, around 10 hours)  I buy dates and then dice them and dry them out in the oven a little as well.

To toast walnuts: Place on baking sheet, put oven on broil and place sheet in the oven for about 3 mins, making SURE to keep an eye so that they do not burn!

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

Heather's Minty Beet Blend:

1 cup green rooibos
1 cup mint
1/2 cup dried beets
1/2 cup green yerba mate
1/2 cup lemon balm
1/4 cup dried ginger (I cut ginger into thin slices and dry in my oven)

You can buy green rooibos and yerba mate at a health food store (like Vita Health).  I grow my own herbs so this was a perfect time to use my dried mint and lemon balm that I harvested in the fall.

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

Beet It Smoothie

If you are a little worried about putting beets into something sweet I have come up with a beet smoothie that goes down....well.....smoothly.

Beginner's Beet It Smoothie:

8oz Organic Apple Juice
4oz Vanilla Flavored Almond Milk (I use almond breeze unsweetened)
1/2 large banana
1/2 cup beets (sliced)

Put all into blender and blend until smooth.  I froze the bananas and beets ahead of time so that my smoothie has that frosty consistency.  If you are using fresh ingredients, add a few ice cubes before blending.

Using Spark People's nutrition counter (www.sparkpeople.com)  I calculated my nutritional facts for this smoothie:

				Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein
Beets, .5 cup				37	8	0	1
Banana, .5 Large				63	16	0	1
Apple Juice, unsweetened 8 oz				117	29	0	0
Almond Breeze, vanilla unsweetened 4 oz				20	1	2	1
TOTAL:				237	54	2	3

The sweetness of the apple juice offsets the earthy flavor of the beets and plays up their sweet side instead.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Just Beet It

I know what you're all thinking...... who wants to start off the year talking about beets? Well, I ordered a bag of beets through Sysco thinking it would be a nice 5lb bag....... and what came in with my order was a rather large 25lb bag!   So when life gives you beets, you do a mass beet preparation and blog while you're waiting for them to cook. :)

Beets and I have a pretty solid love affair. Being and growing up Ukrainian, to not eat that magnificent magenta borcht at family dinners would get you some pretty big looks of disapproval from Baba. And then there was all the beet products:  pickled beets, beet horseradish, beet relish and beet leaf holopchi... 

So as my diet changed and I have started to educate myself about what is healthy to eat, I was PLEASED to find out that beets are pretty darn fantastic for me!  Not only do they have very high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties but eating them helps your body remove toxins from your system. So as you start your New Year trying to recuperate from all of those holiday sugars...throw some beets in that rice bowl!

I have a little rule for cooking beets...when I am preparing them for my borcht, I bake them...that way I can add all the drippings to the soup stock and not loose any of the flavor. When I am preparing them for rice bowls, salads, or smoothies I boil them like I would a potato so that the beets do not dry out like they might in the oven. I also always to prepare them with the skin on because it keeps in nutrients as well as makes removing the skin MUCH easier than trying to do so when they are raw.

So go grab a few pounds of beets this January and stay tuned for some great recipes!

My homemade borcht, this one I used a beef stock but it can be made with a vegetable stock for all my vegan buddies out there.

My 25 pound bag of beets....I will prep all of them!