April Foos + Still Cleansing...now its Gluten!

3 people posted that it was their birthday on FB today as an April Fools joke. I figured that out about 2 people...not knowing it was April 1st, but because I am just good at remembering bdays. HA! Yes, I did start this blog post with my side note.

I am super glad I am giving up gluten this week as I follow the community cleanse at Jai Yoga Arts. Gluten it is. Its exactly what I need this week. Eating cheese again has made me go buck wild with bread. So the way I am going about this diet is just simply gluten and not things with "traces of gluten" since I don't have celiac. Though I will probably learn that I digest better without the gluten.

Meat-free

I'm coming to an end of my meat-free week. Things I've learned being meat-free and post-dairy free.

1. I need to learn how to eat healthy without meat.
2. I eat meat far too often!
3. Meat is important but not necessary as much as I eat it
4. I eat shrimp far too often!
5. When I eat cheese I eat unhealthy carbs -white bread, bread in general
6. I need to adopt a fish 2x a week, other seafood once in a while, meat 1x a week and red meat 1x a month routine. That might be too weird of a routine to keep to!
7. I need to do a juice cleanse
8. I really need to eat more straight up vegetables
9. I also really need to cook my own food. :)
10. Duck is something you eat only on special occasions.

In conclusion...going meat free sucks but I seriously need to cut down on all these unnecessary calories!

Day 1 of being meatless

Today starts the first day of going meatless on our community wide cleanse at Jai Yoga Arts. I am not giving up eggs but I will give up seafood! But again...having cheese again. Still trying not to have so much cheese since now that I started eating it again I am tempted to want it in every meal. So byebye suckling pig. Its only a week. I shall see you again soon! :)

In other news, I got my level 1 Reiki Certification yesterday. We will be running another one soon at Jai. Check the website for updates!

I know this is not very Yoga-like of me but hey...

Spring Cleansing! Part 2 update

OK so I was supposed to blog all about it right? We ended up giving up dairy for 2 weeks! I started eating cheese again last night. I gave up eggs for only 3 days...couldn't keep that going since its almost 1/3 of my diet! Yes I eat a lot of hard boiled eggs...they're so convenient and portable!

Anyways...I read labels and for the most part stayed dairy free unless the label said "may contain traces". Pretty good, yeah? I even drank black iced coffee cause one of the places I use as a study spot doesn't have soy milk. I don't necessarily feel that different. Forgoing chocolate was probably the hardest part mentally. What I did notice was how much cheese I eat normally! Because I had to rethink each meal making sure there was no dairy involved...I noticed how much I would have normally had cheese -every day at lunch! What?! I also did notice when I had cheese again last night...not just how AMAZING it is but how salty it is. Cutting cheese out really cut down my salt intake too...which was the added bonus part. Starting Sunday I'm going to be giving up Meat -I will not include eggs but I will include seafood. That should go fine as long as I don't encounter Luke's Lobster truck!

Are you S.A.D.?

Suffering from Season Affective Disorder? Having trouble getting up in the mornings? When you do are you still groggy and tired? Feeling generally tired and low energy? Or just kind of depressed for no reason? Tendency to over sleep and overeat, craving the carbs! OK maybe you're not full on depressed but maybe you are sniffling through some lifetime movies, hell maybe you are watching lifetime movies in general. I always start to feel like my energy levels are depleted during the winter time. I live for the sunlight during the summer, so once my amount of sun is shortened, it affects me.

So here are some tips if you're feeling a little winter blues:
1. Get more vitamin D! OK maybe you're stuck in the office for those few hours of sun. Some vitamin D rich foods: fish, orange juice, milk, oatmeal, eggs, mushrooms and most cereals. Or maybe take some vitamin D supplements.

2. Get more iron in your diet. P.S. I am not a vegetarian nor a vegan Yogi. So #1 Iron rich food for me is...red meat! Look I am not a big red meat eater but I know when I need it in my diet. A small lean piece of rare/medium rare beef will do. Don't cringe yogi's but liver! YUP...chicken, pork, beef. You get it. Its a good one. And for the veggies: beans, molasses, spinach, asparagus, kale, seafood, broccoli and whole grains.

3. Get enough sleep and don't lie in bed unless its bed time. Yeah I tend to do this bc I want to hibernate in the winter time. It tends to make me sleepier and also prone to bouts of insomnia.

4. Cut down on sugars and bad carbs. When your levels spike you crash and feel extra tired! Craving cookies? Try grapes or an apple.

5. Yoga and Cardio.Instead of sleeping in just get to that Yoga class, your body will thank you. Don't have an hour or 90min to spend on a Yoga class? Run for 20min.

Obviously if you're suffering from something more serious than low energy levels you should go consult a physician. 

Black Sesame

So as I've mentioned in previous posts, I have Hypothyroidism. Its not that uncommon but it does suck. Its a constant struggle to maintain normal thyroid levels and I have to get blood tests, A LOT. Also there is so much conflicting information out there about diet and nutrition when it comes to hypothyroidism. The biggest problem I have with it is, hair loss. It just falls out all over the place! So my acupuncturist suggested to me recently among other things, black sesame. Which is kind of cool because there are lots of yummy black sesame snacks out there. So here are 3 black sesame products I like.

This candy is chewy and kind of peanutty tasting. Very yummy!

The powder form is good to mix with hot water and some milk. OR can be sprinkled in oatmeal or cereal.

And my favorite. These come in a back of tiny little cracker type candies.

Janet Jackson loves my fav Vegan spot. Red Bamboo, W. 4th St.

http://vegetarianstar.com/2010/11/02/janet-jackson-gives-jay-leno-favorite-non-demonic-vegan-foods-video/

Follow up on Yoga for Thyroid

So I posted about this workshop concerning balancing the Thyroid and 5th Chakra. I went to the workshop and disappointingly found it to be not as informative as I wanted it to be. I feel there is so much conflicting information out there and this further confused me! Also, because we ran out of time there was little info on diet and nutrition. So in this post I will go over my own findings and reinforce ideas that I did not find conflicting information on.

Great Yoga poses for balancing the Thyroid hormones. This applies to different thyroid conditions as it is a balancing effect. Shoulderstand, fish pose, camel pose and plow pose.

Now the rest of this is for Hypothyroidism -that's what I have. Slower metabolism -basically. So what sucks is, I gain weight easily. I find that Yoga is great for it. I felt the most balanced during the months in which I did teacher training. That was about 4 months of practicing Yoga 5-8 times a week. Also, it created balance in my appetite. I felt it was the most manageable and also more realistic. Doing any type of weight training makes me ravenously hungry. So overall -more Yin type of exercises -anaerobic, slower paced was helpful. However my personal wants are to do more Yang type activities like Martial Arts, so its a balancing act. I just stay away from weight training. I had to give up kettlebell training a year ago.

As for diet I found all the conflicting info. So the best I can say is, stay away from processed foods. This is hard! But I try to eat lots of raw fruits and veggies. I try to go organic for certain staples like eggs and milk. Also being that I have to take thyroid medications every morning I have to be sure not to take any supplements or soy products until about 4 hours after the medication because they affect the absorption of the meds into the body.

Dr. Michael Greger's Nutrition of 2010 in Review!

Michael Greger, M.D., is a physician, author, and internationally recognized professional speaker on a number of important public health issues. Dr. Greger has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the International Bird Flu Summit, among countless other symposia and institutions, and was invited as an expert witness in defense of Oprah Winfrey at the infamous "meat defamation" trial. Currently Dr. Greger proudly serves as the Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States.

Come see and hear him speak Pine Tree Spa

101 W 17th Street 2nd Floor (17th & 6th Ave)

New York, NY

When: Mon, Nov 1. 7-9pm
Suggested Donation: $10

More about Dr. Michael Greger:

Dr. Greger's recent scientific publications in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, Critical Reviews in Microbiology, Family & Community Health, and the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition, and Public Health explore the public health implications of industrialized animal agriculture.

Dr. Greger is also licensed as a general practitioner specializing in clinical nutrition and was a founding member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. He was featured on the Healthy Living Channel promoting his latest nutrition DVDs and honored to teach part of Dr. T. Colin Campbell's esteemed nutrition course at Cornell University.

Dr. Greger's books include Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, Carbophobia: The Scary Truth Behind America's Low Carb Craze, and Heart Failure: Diary of a Third Year Medical Student. Dr. Greger is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine.