Fourteen Days of Yoga

Fourteen is my favorite number.

It's the day I was born. 

But it's also just ME. 

I know you know what I mean. Don't you have a song that sounds like you? A color that feels like you? A sweater, a movie, an animal - that is just so YOU?

Grackle Fine Art

Fourteen is me.

I made the decision to embark on fourteen consecutive days of yoga, because...

1. I was stressed out.


2. I was broken-hearted and depressed and feeling crappy about myself.


3. I was drinking alcohol every night.


4. I was smoking cigarettes for the first time in ten years.


5. I wanted to.

After embarking on my embarking, I discovered...

1. I am not physically fit enough to do yoga every single day.

2. I like running sometimes.

3. I like drinking too.

In yoga, when we can't make it through an asana or a flow, what do we do?

We modify.

Here's how I modified...

1. I did yoga as much as physically possible.

2. If my arms were tired, I did a flow that worked my legs.

3. If my legs were tired, I did a flow that worked my arms.

4. When I wanted to run, I ran.

5. When I wanted to drink, I drank.

 Yonder window... what I focus on while I yoga... with spider

The tally? 

In the last thirteen days, I've done yoga eight of them.

I got drunk once... 

Okay, maaaaayyyyybe twice.

But still.

Compared to where I was at a month ago?

Two months ago?

I call that a fucking success.

My notes!!!

What's better?

Every day I'm closer and closer to happy.

Me on the piano at my pal's house on Hawk Mountain

BTW...

Have you checked out Iris' July Self Care Retreat?

I'm not officially a part of the blogger circle who's doing this. However, Iris posted about this right around the time I was thinking that I needed to make time for some serious self care. It's neat - and not at all surprising. Iris and I always seem to have our heads and tummies in the same places, even if they are physically three-thousand miles from each other.


Anyway - follow along with her! Learn fun tricks! And if you are so inclined, indulge in your own self care.

Toots

What do you do to take care of yourself?

What fun thing would you like to do for fourteen days?

Pickle Lady Farm

Jalapeno Vino

pepperfestival.com

Every September, the next town over has a chili pepper festival.

Because I have IBS-C, this has become one of my favorite things ever.

Last year, the chili pepper fest made an impression on me for two reasons.

First - There were so many bees!!! As friends and I walked from hot sauce vendor to hot sauce vendor, bees COVERED every table and sample jar. I've never seen so many bees in my life. I knew I was going to get stung. And I did. Right above my bum. Just like a tramp stamp.

I went on to have a panic attack. This is because when I was a child, doctors told me that I was allergic to bees. However, no precautions had ever been given or taken for this. So I couldn't quite remember if this allergy was factual or if I'd made it up.

Five minutes went by. I didn't go into shock. So I knew for sure: NOT ALLERGIC TO BEES!




The second memorable event of that day was this: I tried a new kind of vino that I'd never had before.

JALAPENO VINO!!!!

Wine and spice are BFFs to the IBS-C gut. Taken as an aspertif post-meal, jalapeno vino cuts through the food. It's like: "Oh, you want me to digest this for you? No problem. I GOTS THIS."





It's also DELICIOUS.

Growing up in a house of Ellios pizza, cereal, and Easy Mac - I never knew real flavors. So when I first tried spicy food, it tasted spicy. Only recently, as I've stuck to raw unprocessed foods, have I begun to detect flavors underneath the heat.

Jalapeno is hot. It's also really cool. It has a green summery fragrance to it, like cucumber. It can cut through any heavy meal. But it don't wanna hurt ya. Jalapeno is to digestion as a push is to a toddler on the swing. It gives you a little lift.

Cardinal Hollow makes jalapeno vino the for real way.



There are tons of recipes online explaining how to be legit with it.

As a wannabe-herbalist, I'm more into infusions... like infusing lavender in wine or olive oil... I did that back in '08 and lost the pretty pink after photo. But this is a good one too.

http://straightfromthefarm.net

For the jalapeno vino, I did the same damn thing.

Jalapeno Vino

Ingredients

1 fresh jalapeno chopped

16 ounces of pinot grigio




Instructions

Put on gloves to protect your fingers.

Chop jalapeno. 

Drop jalapeno pieces into a 16 ounce jar of pinot grigio.

Let the jalapeno pieces and vino sit in the fridge for 5 days.

After five days, drain the vino into a new jar.

Do whatever you want to with the jalapeno.

Drink the vino.

Next? 

I'm thinking cayenne and shiraz.

Any suggestions???

Finally, a ginormous thank you to AMBER for nominating me for the Food Stories Award.

Amber is majorly awesome, someone who I think I would've been BFFs with if we had gone to high school together. I'm so flattered that such a good writer and brilliant foodie thought of me for this. Also - I really do try to tell stories. I spent 60 thousand bucks and countless hours of my life on learning how to be a published fiction writer. Gotta make something out of that!


Now! It's MY turn to nominate.

I'm nominating Sarena from The Non-Dairy Queen.

Oh Sarena! Where do I begin? She's the wife of an illustrator, the mother to two incredibly cute sons, and reading their blog, I swear - the four of them seem to have so much fun together. She has a crazy bad ass work ethic, busting her butt around the clock. And she still finds time to work out every day and cook amazing allergy free food for her men.

 

monkey bread

Sarena's recipes are super simple and super delicious. I've been using her pancake one for two years and have not looked back.

From my perspective - she seems to have the coolest life, full of everyday adventures. I love reading about it.

If you're so inclined:

Here’s how it works:

1. The nominee should visit the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/food-stories-award/) and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way our judges will know who is being considered for the monthly award).
2. The Nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting on their own blog & including a link to their blog.
3. The Nominee should include a courtesy link back to the official award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/food-stories-award/) in their blog post.
4. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.
5. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their stories and nominate them for the award. Include these nominees in your blog post. Many people indicate that they wish they could nominate more so please feel free to nominate all your favorites.
6. Notify your  nominees by leaving a comment on their blog, including a link to the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/food-stories-award/).

Food Stories has put together a phenomenal team of judges to review all nominees and to select a Food Stories Award Winner for each month.

IMPORTANT … In order to be considered for the monthly award, you must fulfill each of the listed steps above. After your site is reviewed and all the steps have been followed then the site will be added to the “official” nominee page for entry into the monthly giveaway. Please feel free to comment below or email if you have any questions/comments.

Addicted to Yoga?

In the middle of yoga this morning, I had this thought.

Can I become addicted to yoga?

I mean - over the past year - I did a pretty good job addicting myself to UNHEALTHY things.

Alcohol and cigarettes

It wasn't easy. Two summers ago, I started dating a guy who had to DRAG my ass out to the bar. He liked to go every night. I liked to go twice a week. But because I loved him, and wanted to spend time with him, I went.

I felt sick a lot. I also felt down on myself. Fast forward to fifteen months later - I've been going to the bar more than him.

What about yoga?

Why can't I do yoga every day?

Usually I do yoga on a fairly regular basis - twice a week. But this has diminished over the last year. I've opted out for running or ellipticals instead. Despite my ability to keep up with running - I have been getting paunchy.

Ask anyone who's done it.

There's no other exercise that does to the body what yoga does.

Right now, as Pennsylvania is in the midst of a summer-long heatwave, yoga is IDEAL. Running in this heat causes heatstroke. But hot yoga? It's the shit. And my bedroom heats up enough to drip anyone with glorious detoxifying sweatings.
 

Also yoga is GREAT for IBS. All of those twists?! Nevermind that every single asana requires lots of focus on the gut in order to be done right.

I've gone into classes with horrible IBS. By the time I left? GONE.


When I'm alone - Yoga makes me fart.

This is a good thing. The poses are not only relaxing. They wring out the guts. They tone the guts too. They get our blood circulating. They get the acid flowing in our bellies and our tummies primed for digestion.

The book "Light on Yoga" by B. K. S. Iyengar lists specific asanas for indigestion and gas.

I'd tell you what they are, but you should probably buy the book! Think twisting asanas. That's basically it - with a couple random ones thrown in there that you'd never even guess.

Part of this inspiration to more yoga is my sister. My lovely Mose is currently in the middle of high-octane yoga teacher training in New York City. In a month or two, she will be certified.

(Mose knows what's up. She bought me the "Light on Yoga" book, said it's the best. I agree.)




As she's becoming a teacher, I think it would be cool to perfect my own practice. Ya' know. SIMULTANEOUSLY. Maybe we can tap into our inner strengths together. Ya' know. Through the simultaenousness.

There's also this dude. If you haven't seen this video, please watch it. It's super cheesy, but it makes me cry every time!

The biggest problem to doing yoga every day is this: I get bored.

Here's what I plan to do to fight boredom:

1. Mix and match my workouts. Do lots of different yoga download classes. Then do the yoga session that I compiled from past classes and put to music for myself. Then take classes again.

2. Remember that I don't have to kick my own ass every day. Hatha yoga is just as important as Vinyasa. Thirty minutes is just as worthwhile as sixty.

3. Draw my curtains. Light candles. Burn nagchampas. Play music that makes me feel all dreamy and spiritual.

4. Do a LONG meditation at the end. Use techniques I've learned from Ariel. Combine spiritual work with yoga.

Tomorrow is a new moon. It's a good day to start a new things.

Toots

Do you do yoga?

Does it help your tum?

What's your favorite asana?

How do you keep your workouts fresh?

1, 2, 3 - Caring is Not for Me

I'm so not into cooking right now. I'm not into nutrition. I'm not into IBS.








I am into making myself feel happy...



And this...

the breakfast of my dreams...

 

... the Larabar of my dreams

 

 the beer of my dreams...

 

 Summer deodorants...

 

 ... that I don't have to make myself!

... discovering that I'm not missing out on that much

 The kind of accidents that seem so not a big deal...

 

WARNING: Some mildly gross pics ahead.

... that later make me grateful for antibiotics and tetanus shots....

to learn what a staph infection looks and feels like...

 hint: the pink skin is how far the infection spread in my leg!

 and the ability to walk up stairs without shedding tears...

 still painful (and hairy)... but mobile

... herbal anti-inflammatories that really work!!!

... anything that will help me feel happy and purposeful again...

 ... after discovering that I'm suffering from something that's so real

... and discovering this was all in my head.

I don't know who I am anymore.

That's all I got.

I'm sorry.

NOOCH

Why YES.

That IS a picture of yours truly...

the FG

the word "YEAST" crowning her head.

Not bad for my first time in the newspaper. 


(Well, first time as the FG...)

It was a quick burst of good fortune that I desperately needed. More about that in an upcoming post. But for now, can we talk NOOCH?

Kale chips encrusted with red pepper and nooch!

The article is about nooch - nutritional yeast. The writer, Courtney, asked me so many questions about the stuff. It really got me thinking: Why do I eat nutritional yeast so much? How does it help in an IBS diet?

Here's what I came up with:

1. Nooch is digestible.

 IBS is - in my opinion - a digestive disorder. Nooch is easily digested in the guts. I mean, looking at the stuff, it's obvious! It's powdery and flaky. It's low in fat. There's nothing to it.

Noochy pesto. Tastes like the real thang. No lie.

2. Nooch is a complete protein, full of B-vitamins, selenium, and zinc.

IBSsers have to cut trigger foods. Sometimes these trigger foods are necessary for health. What if you are allergic to dairy or can't eat meat? Where do you get your protein? What if you are allergic to nuts? How do you get your selenium?

Answer: Nooch.

Nooch sprinkled all over eggys, spinach, peppers, and onions.

 

3. Nooch tastes like cheese.

Granted - it doesn't taste EXACTLY like cheese. Nooch definitely has its own flavor. When cooking, I like to mix it with different seasonings to create different cheese-like experiences. Thyme and almond butter with nooch makes for a neat rich cheese to put on pasta or rice. Cashew, lemon, garlic, and nooch makes for a good cheesy veggie dip.

Dairy is a huge common trigger food for many IBSsers. Nooch is a way of still getting to enjoy the taste of dairy, without the farts.

Tangy pizza cheese made with cashews, nooch, lemon, garlic and yogurt

Last year's birthday pizza

4. Nooch got fiber.

I am a pro-fiber IBSser. For me, the more fiber I eat, the more I go #2, and the less IBS I have. Every little bit helps. One tablespoon has four grams of fiber. Two tablespoons makes up a third of the dietary allowance of fiber in one day. Score.

When driving with kale chips, nooch will steer you straight.

The article links to a list of recipes that I submitted to the paper. My personal favorite nooch recipe? The twins' cheeze sauce. So easy. So delicious. So low in fat and IBS friendly.

Pure2Raw twins' cheese is that electric yellow stuff! So tasty!

Toots

Do you eat nooch?

If so - What's your favorite way to eat it?

How does it make your tum feel?