Spring Cleanse: Day 3

- On rising: 1 cup Fenugreek water (see yesterday's post for explanation), followed by 1 cup lemon water and Triphala supplement.

- 7.30am: Breakfast smoothie

Ingredients:
Spinach
Apple
Parsley
Basil
Ginger
Turmeric (this stuff STAINS, so if you have a white blender, like me, wash it STAT)
Sprouted hemp seeds
Chia seeds
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Water - enough so the smoothie is your desired consistency.

*Because I had 1 glass less water this morning, I wasn't running to pee as much in today's workshop (Yup, was at Day 2 of Paul's pranayama and ashtanga workshop again today). 

- 2pm: Lunch while at this workshop and so no juicing... 
Cucumber slices
Carrot sticks
Pineapple chunks

...Followed by a wheatgrass shot from the deli round the corner. 

And then it pretty much all fell apart from here... coz I went to see Iron Man 3 after the workshop and then caught up with Paul over dinner. Funny enough he said "how many days cleanse are you on? 3 days only? Pffft... you're fine to break the juicing tonight". 

HAHAHAHA. That's why Paul Dallaghan is one of my fave yoga teachers. He's been through all the hardcore teachings and traditional ascetic practices, but now embraces a "No dogma" approach. 

I'm good with this. I wasn't going on a hardcore week-long fast this time anyway, just wanted a very gentle reset from all the sugar and coffee and craaaaaaap I'd been eating. So... We went for Vietnamese since this was pretty much "easier" for my "cleanse". 

7.30pm: Dinner. Veggie rice paper rolls. 

...and then it REALLY fell apart when I started picking at his mixed vegetables, white rice and fried noodles. And er... we ordered dessert to share (!!) HAHAHAHA. I had just a few spoonfuls of banana and coconut custard. My belly is confused now and feels heavy. But oh so satisfied... ;p 

Guys - Please. That dinner is a good example of what NOT to do when on a cleanse. And what not to do when just getting out of a cleanse. I should've just stuck with the rice paper rolls only and not gone further tonight. But... You only live once. Heh.   

- 11pm: Yogi Tea Detox Tea with Triphala supplement. 

Overall, I'm feeling good - not feeling particularly springy with energy as I have on previous detoxes, but neither am I feeling low on energy either. I think if I'd have kept this up for 5 or even 7 days, I probably would've felt the benefits more intensely. This is the shortest cleanse I've ever done, so I've got nothing else to compare it with. It's probably a good idea to keep this up every few months just to hit the reset button with the digestive system. 

I'm glad I did this... Gives me some ideas on how to formulate other DIY detoxes down the road too...! Hope it's helped you too in some way. :) 

Spring Cleanse: Day 2

- On rising: 1 large glass of water, followed by a cup of Fenugreek water. This is just Fenugreek seeds soaked overnight and you drink that water the next day. It's an Ayurvedic practice I picked up on a previous detox... it apparently lowers blood-sugar levels, but I really don't know enough about whether its got other cleansing properties. It didn't do any harm on the last detox I did, so I figured why not. 

Google says it's great for milk flow/ lactation. Great! Super handy right now. Bahahaha. But then Google also says it tastes like maple syrup. ?!? Bollocks. It's got a very herbal taste... Tastes like I walked into a Chinese medical hall. This is what it looks like soaking in water: 

And then I chugged another glass of hot water and lemon with a Triphala supplement after that. 

And voila!! "Elimination time"! Sorry, you don't need to hear about my bowel movements but I've got to reiterate how IMPORTANT it is to have a dump when you're on any kind of cleanse. Toxins leave your body 3 ways: through your skin, pee and poo. A large percentage of toxins gets dumped out in your large intestine, which is why it's CRUCIAL you have regular dumps, to get rid of those toxins before your body reabsorbs them again. Which would be a pointless detox. Apologies... It seems I can't talk about food without also talking about poo... But hey, the two go hand in hand! :p  

** Sidetrack: this is why it's important to drink loads of water too - to eliminate through your pee, and also to help keep stuff flowing in your gut. Another great thing to do is keep exercising or sit in the steam room so you get your pores open and sweating out all those toxins. And now back to regular programming **

- 8am: Breakfast green smoothie.

Ingredients: 

Spinach

Cucumber

Apple

Ginger

Sprouted hemp seeds

Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

The breakfast of Incredible-Hulk champions...

Then I went to Paul Dallaghan's Pranayama and Ashtanga workshop... and of course within the first hour, I was running to pee about 10 times, all throughout the quiet meditation introduction. Arrrggghhhhh!! And then the same thing happened in the second hour. I'm not joking... people must've thought I had the bladder of a squirrel... But... Did you see how much fluid I'd downed in the first hour on waking up?! 

On a side note, this is the gorgeous space we were practicing in today: 

So then of course I couldn't juice anything for lunch while on the workshop. But I went prepared with my little bag of tricks that contained:

Pineapple and cucumber slices (odd flavour combo, I wasn't thinking this morning!)

Raw cashews and almonds (nuts probably aren't so great on a cleanse, especially unsprouted, but I figured "screw it", I needed something convenient and there are worse things than nuts to snack on so these would do.) 

Chia seeds

Yogi Tea Detox Tea

Cayenne Pepper

Turmeric

...Turns out I only ate the pineapple and cucumber slices at lunch, along with some of the cashews. Even Paul commented "you're on a cleanse and you're eating nuts?!" Hehe. DEAL WITH IT.

- 5.30pm: Post-workshop late lunch smoothie. Also took a Vitamin B-complex supplement along with this coz... Oops, forgot to take it in the morning... 

Ingredients: 

Carrots

Celery

Parsley

Ginger

Chia seeds

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Turmeric

Cayenne Pepper (the amount on that teaspoon was waaaaaaay spicy, even though I can handle "Asian level" spiciness)   
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

- 8.30pm: Yogi Tea Detox Tea with a Triphala supplement. (should've done Triphala before bedtime. Dunno why I decided to do it now. Probably coz I read the label and it said "take before food". So I did. Hahaha.)

- 8.45pm: Dinner smoothie

Ingredients: 

Sprouted cashews (raw cashews soaked for 8-10hrs)

Virgin cold-pressed coconut oil

Cardamom

Cinnamon

Vanilla bean

Maple syrup (just a dash. It's still good without this but I couldn't help myself)
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

It's the same ingredients as last night's dinner smoothie, except I added Cardamom and ooooooweeeee, YES!!!! This one is so good I will make cashew milks with this recipe even when I'm not detoxing. It is soooooo good (can you hear me patting myself on my back now). 

- Nightcap: A glass of Fenugreek water. The same seeds from this morning can be re-used once, so that's what I used to re-soak again. 

How I feel today: Pretty normal. No mood swings. When I woke up, it felt like my tongue had a coating over it. And at the start of the workshop, it felt like I had the coating again over it... Maybe it's psychosomatic coz when I looked in the mirror, there was no white stuff or "ama" on my tongue at all. 

Otherwise, I'm feeling good! The funny thing on these cleanses is - I almost always end up feeling ultra-bloated anyway coz of all the fluid intake... Ugh. 

...Also, I might end up not juicing at all at my last meal tomorrow night as I'm going to catch up with Paul over dinner. How can I say "No" to a meal with one of my fave teachers? :) Let's see how we go though... Didn't think I'd manage to stay as raw and juiced as I have today, so never say never! 

Spring Cleanse: Day 1

- On rising: 1 large glass of water, followed by a cup of hot water and lemon. 

(this is my usual daily ritual anyway, usually I add chia seeds to my lemon-water, but not today as I'm planning on having some chia-lemon-water later in the day, if and when I start to get hungry). 

- 8am: Breakfast green smoothie. (I call this a smoothie only coz I use a blender and leave all the pulp in, adding as much water as I want so that it's not chunky/ gloopy but more like a pulpy juice. That's a smoothie to me. Bam.) 

Ingredients: 

Basil (growing by my window)

Cucumber

Celery

Sprouted hemp seeds (unhulled and soaked overnight. No idea if soaking unhulled hemp seeds actually has any real benefit, so gotta look into this a little more.) 

Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency
(All pre-chopped the night before so I'd have less to do in the AM). 

- 10.45am: Pineapple snack. Multi-vitamin and algae oil (for Omega-3, EPA+DHA) supplements. 

- Fresh mint tea (hot water with fresh mint leaves) and then more lemon-water. This combo is chugged throughout the day. 

- 1.30pm: Lunch smoothie. 

Ingredients:
Apple
Carrot
Ginger
Cayenne Pepper
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

I was sipping on this pretty much between 1.30-3.30pm and didn't finish it one go.

- 4.30pm: Hot lemon-water with 1 tablespoon of chia seeds as I was getting hungry. Chia's also good for more Omega-3 (ALA) essential fatty acids, while adding bulk to your gut! (If you're good with psyllium husk, you could do that instead. Me and psyllium just don't get along - gives me the massive bloat and even 1/2 a teaspoon makes my gut feel like it'll explode). 

- 5.30pm: Pineapple snack with a cup of Yogi Tea Detox Tea. Containing burdock, dandelion, juniper berry. 

- 8pm: Dinner smoothie. 

Ingredients: 
Sprouted cashews (raw cashews soaked when I left for work this morning)
Virgin cold-pressed coconut oil
Cinnamon
Vanilla bean
Maple syrup (just a small dash for flavour)
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

I'm a sucker for sweets and dessert, can you tell? Saved the best for last... Figured I'd have a slightly heavier smoothie to last me through the night. 

- 10pm: Night cap of Yogi Tea Detox Tea, with Triphala supplement (Ayurvedic supplement that aids digestive health, also acts as a very mild laxative to help keep things moving). I mean... c'mon. It's a detox. The majority of toxins are gonna get dumped in my colon from tomorrow onwards. And er... I usually have to "go" twice a day or I'd feel gross, so this is super important!! ;p

Of course all of the above was interspersed with lots of water, lemon-water, or fresh mint tea (or fresh mint-water, really) throughout the day... 

How do I feel today? ...Perfectly fine, normal, nothing out of the ordinary... until around 6.30pm at work when I started getting grouchy and irritable. Maybe it was the crappy conference call I was on that dragged on so I couldn't get to a yoga class, but I definitely got snappier at the people around me. Glad to be home and away from non-stop chatting of people. And now I'm properly tired. 

Forgot to mention that it's been non-stop partying from a week ago when we had a big office party, then Queens Day on Tuesday this week with an all-night dance-a-thon the night before, then I flew to Madrid on the same day to watch the UEFA semi-finals, and we continued dancing till 5am and flirting with hot Spanish boys, only to fly back the next day on 2 hours sleep. That was 2 days ago now, but I'm definitely still recovering from that and this cleanse is definitely part of the grounding I need! 

Oh well, tomorrow will be a new day. And a pranayama/ ashtanga workshop with Paul! ...haven't decided yet how I'll continue this cleanse while on the workshop, but there'll probably be less smoothies involved. 

Stay tuned! :) 

3-Day Spring Cleanse

Hola Guapas!

It has been a super looooooong time, innit. Loads of things have happened since my last post 1.5 years ago... Suffice it to say: I'm still in Amsterdam, I'm still loving life and my current job... On the love front, boys have come and gone, but I think my heart is still somewhat intact... I've taken breaks from asana, gone on more retreats involving Pranayama and detoxes and more Ashtanga yoga... And look, I'm still living to tell this tale (maybe not to you and not on this blog. Haha.) 

Life is actually pretty sweet right now. :)

In October last year, I also added one more thing on my list of "to do's" in life: I'm currently studying Naturopathic Nutrition part-time and hopefully in 3 years, I'll qualify as a Nutritional Therapist. And if I can hack it out for a 4th year, I'll be qualify as a Naturopath. Oh, this course is also in London, so I've also been spending more time in one of my favourite big cities. If you've followed this blog from ages ago, you're probably familiar with my interest in food and how I keep mixing things up and experimenting with what goes in (and er... what comes out. Heh.)

"Why are you doing this course?" is what my oh-so-very-Asian parents keep asking me, as I'm not even sure if I want to practice as a Nutritional Therapist eventually. Hahaha. I don't know. All I know is: I'm starting with an interest. I want to know more and in even greater detail than what I'm already reading up on my fave blogs and books about food, its healing properties, and how much one is a measure of "you are what you eat". So I figured if I'm gonna delve into this and spend the time reading up and studying more about this, I might as well do it through a good program where I'll get certified too. Yes, how over-achieving Asian of me. And yes, I believe that down the road, my path will eventually lead me more into the world of health and wellness, so this course is simply an extension of my interest and exploration into this world. Dipping my toes into it, so to speak. 

I started this post as I've been feeling like I need to do a Spring cleanse. Should've started one at the new moon 2 weeks ago, or maybe during the official start of Spring when everyone else was doing some kind of cleanse about a month ago... But... I guess life got in the way and with all the travel I've been doing, the only real down time I've got will be in the next 3 days. And since I'll be doing a Pranayama workshop all of this weekend with one of my all-time favourite Ashtanga and Pranayama teachers who'll be in town, Paul Dallaghan, I figured "Feck it. Now's as good a time as any other." 

So I'm making this mini-detox up as I'm going along... Basing it off some of the other cleanses I've done in the past... I figure my system just needs to hit the reset button, albeit in a gentle fashion. I'm going to do a mix of green smoothies, fruit and raw veggies. My shopping has landed me with a basket full of spinach, kale, celery, lemons, apples, pineapple, ginger and I'll add some sprouted hemp seeds and chia seeds into the various combos I'll make up. Think I need to run out and get some kale and chard too. Maybe at night I'll finish off with some sprouted cashew smoothies. I'll attempt to document each "meal" I'll have as I go along. 

And this is all probably because I couldn't find any iPhone app that would help me document some kind of detox journal... Then I remembered that once upon a time, I had a blog that helped me do that. So here I am. Hahaha. 

Warning: this might turn out to be a total failure as on days 2 and 3, I'll be at a yoga/ pranayama workshop. No idea how I'm going to juice anything, so I might just end up chugging a load of chia seeds and lemon water. And maybe just eating fruit and veggie sticks. Gulp. 

I've been more active on Facebook and Instagram, so follow my picture updates there, and I'll give the day's round up in pictures in summary on the blog here. How's that for total social media engagement. 

Wish me luck! 

Are You Stepping On My Toes?

I'm liking writing about my (almost) daily practice. I find it helps me process better when I write about it... um... because it forces me to think about it. Otherwise, I'd just be practising and going through the motions. (although I've had a teacher once tell me "Don't think, just DO! I can see you're over-thinking the pose!")

Don't ask me how he could tell. James is Super Yogi, he can read your thoughts (and no, he didn't wear his underpants over spandex tights).

But anyways, I guess my point is... yeah, I think this is really turning into a yoga blog, innit?

First half of today's practice was laborious and slow coz I didn't really want to be there. But it got better when it came to the seated postures. It always does. Somehow forward bends force me to concentrate a bit harder (also coz I love all the forward bends?) Plus, with drishti on my lavender pedicure, that also helps.

Dropbacks - I was hanging back at the Limbo-Rock point, when Teacher's Assistant came over. Today, she stood on my feet to prevent my Spatchcock Feet Syndrome (SFS). You know Spatchcock Chicken with its splayed out feet?

(Photo credit here. Yes, it's not a pornographic term at all, people!)

That's my SFS in dropbacks.

I'm fine in UD - I do 3x Urdvha Dhanurasana and consciously keep feet turned in and that's not a problem, but somehow after dropping back, when it comes to standing back up again, SFS occurs. Especially when standing up.

So she stood on my feet, I dropped back, and she hung onto my thighs at that last point when I hit the abyss. I can't believe I have to stand up on the very next inhale! I feel like I need to rest here to catch my breath first!

She's no longer offering assistance for me to stand up, since I've been standing up on my own after the 3rd UD.

It was just lots HARDER with her standing on my feet. I had to think of pulling my navel up to the ceiling in order to get the lift. Plus, the non-stop moving with each breath! No time to rest and catch my breath! It's so much easier to go down and come back up again when it's assisted, I am just getting my head around how much MORE energy it's taking me now.

When it came to the 3rd (or was it 5th? I still can't tell) dropback, I had no more strength to stand up, and had hurled myself halfway back to the Limbo-Rock point and was just hanging there for what seemed like forever. Somehow I couldn't find my way back up to standing again.

I was almost starting to panic when the voices in my head said "Don't Panic. Just use the inhale to come up and ground through your legs." And it worked. Bravo. For once, there's a good use for these voices in my head.

It was one of the weirdest backbend experiences I've ever had. Like... WHY AM I HANGING IN LIMBO-ROCK WITH NO CONCEPT OF HOW TO COME BACK UP AGAIN?!? It was like my brain and body were disconnected. Brain says "UP!" ...Body says "Say whaaat?" I guess when your body is tired it just goes on the fritz and does stupid things.

Wow, I've been dissecting this today. I guess coz it's part of the take-the-training-wheels-off stage in dropbacks and it's all still new and fascinating to me.

In other news, Kai linked to an old post of Arturo's where he spoke about Kino McGregor's talk on nutrition for yogis. It's making me re-think the way I eat (yet again).

I've gone vegan for about... 3.5 months now, and been trying to up the raw food intake too. But I've always done it the other way around - lighter salad for lunch, heavier meal for dinner. Makes more sense to do it the other way like Kino recommends. Er... although her idea of "heavy" is a salad for lunch. No, I need more than that! I'm Chinese, pass the rice! (only at lunchtime now though)

So let's see how a much lighter raw food dinner goes in the next few days or weeks. It's good to mix things up.

The Organic Rebellion Continues...

I really love my food. You can probably tell if you've been following me on this blog. And since I've been getting more interested in where my food comes from, I've also started getting really into Michael Pollan. I've been reading his book "The Omnivore's Dilemma".

It's a fascinating and pretty lengthy look into the source of your food (what's *really* in that Chicken McNugget)... taking you from the Iowa cornfields to food science labs, from feedlots and fast-food restaurants to organic farms and hunting grounds.

I like how there's a growing awareness with consumption - people are waking up and caring about where their food comes from, what they're actually putting into their bodies, and the impact it has on the environment.

So when I came across this Grocery Store Wars video, I had to laugh out loud. Organic Pop Culture rocks! (Chew-broccolli's my favourite. "RRrrrrr!")

PS. I know I've yet to update on my Osteopath visit, that's next on my To-Do list, but I've been flat-out busy at work. Will be flying to Auckland tomorrow on a shoot, so will try and see what I can post before I leave.x

Vegan Chocolate Exists

Oh yes, it does.

OK - all you pedants are gonna say "but... chocolate is vegan!" Sure it is, but most of the time those chocolate bars you buy from the store are almost always made with milk, or "milk solids" (what the heck is a milk "solid"?) ...and er, after reading up about what really constitutes "milk", it's just some form of white liquid (after pasteurizing, homogenizing... what's really left of the supposed "good stuff"?)

Oh, did I also mention that a certain percentage of pus is allowed in milk? PUS IN YOUR MILK?! SIC. Google it. It's from the poor cows who get mastitis - a mammary gland infection from constant milk-pumping. And it all leaks into your yummy glass of milk. (Healthy levels of somatic cell count in a healthy cow is 200,000 cells per ml, Australia allows up to 400,000 cells per ml. That's double the pus count. GROSS!)

Hang on, how did I digress so far into yet another gross post? I apologize.

But before I move on, that's just from a what-are-you-eating point-of-view, I'd mentioned the ethical treatment of the dairy cows (and other animals) in a previous post before so I won't get into that now.

So you see here folks, considering all of the above and how I love chocolate, I was trying to find something that didn't contain milk in it.

Enter Cocolo chocolate. Mmmmmmmmm...


I found them through Twitter, and their marketing people have confirmed that only their dark chocolate versions are vegan (although it's made on the same production line that makes their other milk chocolate varieties, hence there's a disclaimer on the pack that says "may contain traces of milk").

Other than being vegan-friendly, they're also Fair Trade, giving all the farmers along the way a fair deal. Why is this a big deal, you ask? Did you know that there's a strong link between chocolate and slavery?

Seriously, in this day & age, 43% of the chocolate consumed in this world is sourced from cocoa fields in the Ivory Coast in West Africa. In these fields, something like 12,000 children work as slaves (these are just the ones trafficked, kidnapped and forced to work... in total, you're talking about some 600,000 children working these fields).

So how come Nike gets all the bad press about child labour, and there's not enough on Nestle? (child SLAVERY is worse!)

Fair Trade basically gives the poor, disadvantaged farmers a fair deal, and also helps educate them in good/ fair business practices.


So apart from all this good karmic energy, here's more of the good stuff of what's actually in their 70% dark chocolate. Did I mention they use evaporated cane juice instead of sugar? While both sweeteners are made from sugar cane, evaporated cane juice does not undergo the same degree of processing that refined sugar does. So, unlike refined sugar, it retains more of the nutrients found in sugar cane.


With all of this good stuff in there, you'd expect this to be an absolute premium chocolate, only available in specialty health stores. Well, it is available in the usual-suspects-health-stores, but it's ALSO available in Coles supermarkets.

Yeah, good stuff for the masses too! At not a bad price - $4.50 a bar, slightly higher than your average slave-labour-Nestle, but I'd pay 50 cents more knowing my purchase goes towards the greater good.

The taste verdict? Absolutely velvety-smooth dark chocolate. Pure awesomeness. I always end up buying 2 bars at a time for "just in case", if that tells you anything (oh, and I won't share my bars with Kelly either).


Cocolo website in Australia here. And you can also follow them on Twitter @cocolochocolate

This was supposed to be a short-ish post, how did I get here (again)?! Call me long-winded, but I've got lots more to report on my yoga practice (handstands to dropover to backbend and stand up!) and the Xray report at the Osteopath (man, it's big news, and I'm still coming to terms with being a bit of a spinal freak. Still processing this)... so watch this space for those updates in the next week or so!

To-Meat (Sadie Nardini) or Not-To-Meat (Sharon Gannon)?

Ooh! Looks like the gloves are coming off on this great debate!

According to Elephant Beans, the two yogis will be debating the issue whether yoga & meat-eating are mutually-exclusive on live video on Huffington Post this Wednesday, August 19th.

UPDATE: Apparently this has been rescheduled to Sept. 1.

...But Maybe You're More Highly Evolved If You Eat Meat Without Guilt?

Here's another interesting article I've come across on the "To veg or not to veg" question I've been mulling over. See previous post on the animal industry.

I've had some interesting comments both privately and on this blog from people with widely differing views. Much like the discussion going on in the comments section on Sadie's Huffpost article (on being a meat-eating Superstar Yogi).

Here's another great article, which looks at it from another angle. Click on the picture, or on the link here. Still chewing the (veggie) fat on this one. Things that make you go hmm...

The Ethics of the Animal Industry

As I'd mentioned in an earlier post a couple weeks ago, I was going back into my "vegetarian phase". I have these on-again, off-again vegetarian phases, and these have always stemmed from a health/ detox perspective. I've just always felt lighter and with more energy whenever I've gone veggie.

A friend and I had gone on a 7-day fast & detox at a health spa in Koh Samui a few years ago, and I'd remained vegetarian for about 6 months after that. Early last year, I'd gone vegetarian again also for about another 6 months... that is, lacto-ovo vegetarian. No meat at all, with no seafood either. The only animal products I would touch were dairy (hence the term: lacto) and eggs (hence the term: ovo). However, my immune system crashed on me in a massive way - I fell ill about 3 times in those 6 months, and each time it would wipe me out for about a week at a time. I don't usually fall sick, and even if I do it wouldn't last more than a few days so something was definitely up with my diet at the time.

I'd put it down to pure vegetarianism not working with my body. After all, I had gone to a Kinesiologist who put me on a candida detox to clear out my intestines (no wheat, no sugar, no yeast) and she did mention that there was something to be said about the "eat right for your blood type" theory... and since I'm O+, I'm technically supposed to be a meat-eater.

Since then, I've kept to a largely veggie diet, but would eat some meat or fish a few times a week to "supplement" my diet. Having said this, every time I ate any meat, I would feel the effects - I'd feel a bit more sluggish and heavy, and chicken definitely got my sinuses going too.

A few weeks ago, I decided to go back to being vegetarian again as the more I thought about it, the more I reckon the reason why my immune system shut down on me the last time was probably coz I wasn't supplementing with vitamins. Oh. Duh. Yeah, seriously... I wasn't even taking a multi-vitamin or B12 or essential fatty acids supplements. DOH! Of course I was gonna get sick if I wasn't getting these anywhere else in my diet. (This time around, I'm supplementing and stocking up on those vitamins!)

Around about the same time I went back to vegetarianism, someone from my online yoga book club, Namaste Book Club (yes, I'm that much of a yoga nerd. I'm part of a yoga book club. An online one at that!) suggested I also read Sharon Gannon's "Yoga & Vegetarianism", which looks at it from a yogic point-of-view (based on the Yamas).


Now if you didn't already know, Sharon Gannon's the co-founder of a style of yoga known as Jivamukti Yoga. I have a copy of her book of the same name, written with the other co-founder, David Life. It's a beautifully written book on their yogic philosophy which their school is based on, and part of this philosophy is keeping to a vegan diet. There is a chapter in the book on "ahimsa", which translates as "non-harming" (especially to other beings). Hence their insistence on a completely vegan diet, free from any animal products and by-products.

When I first read the book, I pretty much skimmed this chapter. I found it to be a very polarizing, politicized view (yes, I'd conjured up images of PETA supporters splashing paint on people wearing fur, Sea Shepherd supporters strapping themselves to the front of whaling boats... and every conceivable extreme behaviour from animal rights activists). Perhaps I wasn't ready to listen to their message yet. Besides, my personal view of Ahimsa is also applicable to the self: if I'm harming myself by not eating what my body needs, and if I'm O+ and *need* to eat meat according to "Eat Right 4 Your Type"... then I'm not practising Ahimsa on myself! (exactly like what happened when the Dalai Lama's doctor ordered him to start eating meat!) ...well, yeah. It all made sense to me, since I'd always approached it from a health/ nutritional perspective.

For some reason, I was very intrigued by Gannon's ENTIRE book on "Yoga & Vegetarianism" (even though I couldn't get through ONE chapter on it from her previous book.) She tackles the subject based on the 5 Yamas - One of the Eight limbs of Yoga, taken from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. (The Yamas are basically guidelines to how you should interact with the world around you.) She summarizes the points in her book here, a link I'd seen on Elephant Journal. It's probably what got me intrigued.


I'm still halfway through the book, but she's already presented very clear and compelling arguments not only from an ethical perspective of how the meat & livestock industries treat the animals, but also from nutritional and environmental pollution points of view how we're just screwing everything up, ourselves included. It's making me think about it from a much larger perspective, beyond just ME.

And since I've felt the stirrings of shying away from meat from an ethical point-of-view, I've now come across yet another piece which has made me realize just how ignorant and how in denial I've been about how that juicy piece of "grain-fed steak" landed on the table in front of me (or even that grilled "free-range chicken breast", "naturally raised" smoked salmon... heck, while we're at it... that pair of Ugg boots, or that leather jacket came to be).

I guess eating meat and using animal products has been so much a part of my life, ingrained since childhood, that you just take it for granted - never questioning where it came from, assuming that every animal has its part to play in life and well... they're raised for food so it must be OK. And since those eggs I'm boiling are cage-free, free-range eggs, I'm doing my part to keep those animals "happy"... and since I buy mostly organic, I'm ingesting stuff that's got more "positive energy" surrounding it. And I was kept in my little bubble of denial - never-questioning, never-probing a little deeper than I have... until now.

Enter the documentary, Earthlings. Here's the trailer, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix:

WARNING: It is violent, brutal and very real.

You can watch the full documentary online here.

It is also deeply moving and a powerful kick up your butt to boot you out of your ignorance. For me, at least that's what it was. I'm still processing what it all means to me and how far I'll draw the line. I guess if you can still rest easy eating meat knowing where its come from and what's happened in the process of getting it neatly packed on your grocery shelf, then by all means, go ahead and continue eating it.

I can't.

In fact, I'm considering going vegan. As much as I love cheese, I'd blindly assumed dairy was fine since y'know... the cows don't get slaughtered or anything yucky like that... How bad could it be, right? But seeing them chained all day with a super-short lifespan, dying from exhaustion from producing milk... like ?!?!??? Yikes, do I really want to be contributing to THAT?

I think it's important to know where your food comes from - you are what you eat, after all. Which is why you should watch that documentary and make up your own mind about it. I am not preaching at all, I can only tell you what MY opinion is on the subject as it pertains to MY life and MY eating habits. I really believe that you consume things on an energetic level as well, which is why knowing what I know now, how can I continue supporting the meat & animal products industries?

It's probably going to be a pain in the ass and quite a mission to shift my dietary habits (oh dairy, how I love thee), but it's less of a pain in the ass than some of the things that go on in those slaughterhouses. Still processing where that line is for me. Watch this space for more mental farts on the subject.

Low-carb Vegetarianism

So I'm going through another phase again... trying to go back to a more vegetarian diet again, but I'm also trying to make it as wheat-free as possible and low-carb too.

AM I ASKING THE IMPOSSIBLE?

So many veggie recipes invariably are pasta dishes, and quite frankly, I'm also getting sick of eating tofu at practically every meal. ...And I'm not even going into the school of thought that believes phytoestrogens are carcinogenic, which rules out soy, coz I don't believe it! (coz that would rule out my main protein source too!)

So... apart from legumes that are the protein-substitute such as chick peas, lentils, beans, etc. Does anyone have any other recipe suggestions? I'm seriously uninspired at the moment and can't find anything good online.

(Photo credit here.)

Vegan Brownies

A colleague who's allergic to everything under the sun shared this vegan brownie recipe with me. Egg-free, wheat-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, yeast-free. And still pretty tasty!

I used Carob instead of cocoa, xylitol instead of sugar, and brown rice flour instead of all-purpose flour.

The final brownie loaf looked like this:



But then I thought I'd try and do another icing on the top - and found a recipe for vegan ganache. Warning: this ganache was CRAP. Maybe it's coz I couldn't find bittersweet chocolate and used Nestle's Milk Chocolate for Moulding & Baking (OK, this was the only thing in the brownie that's not sugar-free and vegan friendly, but it's only in the ganache!)


Boiling the soy milk for the ganache:


Firstly, the ganache was a really runny texture:


And secondly, it came out very runny and tasting kinda crap (but this could be because Nestle Moulding chocolate is probably crap quality.)
It also wouldn't harden again, even after cooling down:


It's a pretty tasty brownie block, but next time I'm gonna use 100% cocoa instead of carob. I'm sick of the taste of carob already.




VEGAN CHOCOLATE BROWNIES:
* 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used brown rice flour)
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar (I used 1 cup xylitol since carob powder is sweeter than cocoa)
* 1/2 cup + 1Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used 1 cup carob powder)
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/4 cup plain unsweetened almond milk or soy milk (I used 1/2 cup soy milk since I used more carob powder)
* 3/4 cup vegetable oil
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350F or 175C.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, pour in water, vegetable oil and vanilla. Mix dry & wet together until well blended.
4. Spread evenly in a 9x13 inch baking pan.
5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is no longer shiny. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into squares.
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CHOCOLATE GANACHE:
* 1/3 cup soymilk
* 4 oz (or 114gm) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
* 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Directions:
In a small sauce pan, bring the soy milk to a light boil.

Remove from heat and add the chocolate and syrup.

Mix with a rubber spatula, continue stirring until the chocolate is fully melted and the icing is smooth.