Yoga And Healthy Eats

This morning I woke up with an urge to do some serious yoga.  To be honest, I've been a bit of a slacker lately with my yoga. It usually consists of 30-40min after my run. I really should take advantage of being able to take free yoga classes at the studio where I teach, but it all comes down to convenience. I can do yoga easily by myself and I can do whatever posture I feel like doing. If I go to a class on the other hand, I'm at the mercy of the teacher and what he/she wants to teach. I'm usually never disappointed when I take a class though.

Today I needed to get out of my head and have someone tell me what to do so I took a yogalates class. Yogalates is a fusion of yoga and pilates. The two really go well together and the teacher teaches this fabulous routine. First we warm up with some Astanga Sun Salutations, followed by a few standing forward bends, and warriors etc. Then we spent a good amount of time doing some serious core work laying down. We then finish up with more standard Astanga poses; seated forward bends, shoulder stand, back bending, and all the while were told to focus on our core and engage it.
Its a physically oriented class, but it was very therapeutic for me. For that 1.5 hrs I was able to forget about my issues in life (we all have then don't we?!) and after the class I felt relaxed and rejuvenated.

Yoga is SO healing! I love it!

Other things I love are yummy foods. I can't end a post without some food related thing can I! Recently, I've been keeping it really simple in the kitchen. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a lot of produce to use before they go bad. Yesterday I did a pretty good job of making a dent in the fridge. The variety of vegetables and fruits I had yesterday made me proud :)

•  spinach
•  kale
• sugar snap peas
• green pepper
• carrot
• cucumber
• apples
• pear
• banana
• tangerine
• lemon
• tomato

 Some simple things I enjoyed today.

Pear & apple w/flaxseed topping

 

Roughly pureed tomato and avocado topped on a rice cake - mmmm ,this was SO good! 

 

My current favorite nut is pecan! Raw pecans and raisins. 

 

I'm SO excited its Friday! I've got a full sporty weekend planned. A long run with girlfriends tomorrow and a hike with Motozo on Sunday. I hope the weather continues to be as beautiful as it is now. Crisp cold air and clear blue skies. 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and if you're feeling some sort of stress....never underestimate the power of yoga and healthy food :-)