PiYoGo!! ??? & Sunday Community class and some thoughts on Intentions

PiYoGo!  What the heck is this?  Well it’s a fusion of Pilates & Yoga to get you GOing.  6 week series starts Monday, October 31st at 6 am.  What a better way to start your week out!!  The series works like the back to basic series on Mondays and Wednesdays.  6 weeks, 6 classes, $49.  All levels are welcome. Liz will make you smile, make you sweat and you will go happily on your way, ready to start your week.

Also coming this week, Sunday afternoon Yoga, starting this Sunday, October 30th.  4:00-5:15 pm, Community Class which means it’s an $8 drop in.  Instructors will rotate each week, so join them as they take you on a different journey each week into your yoga practice.

I have an app on my phone called, The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer (who happens to be one of my favorite people).  Each day I read the quote and see how I can incorporate it into my life.  Today’s quote is making me reflect on my actions and behaviors.

“There’s no actual stress or anxiety in the world; it’s your thoughts that create these false beliefs”

If we live by the law of attraction that thoughts become things then this makes total sense. On the other hand how can we go through an entire day unless we are living in a monastery or at a Vipassana 10 day meditation where we don’t hear, see, feel stress in the world?  I have turned off the news and started listening to music more in my car.  Can we shift our thoughts to peace?  The third agreement in Don Miguel Ruiz‘s The Four Agreements states, “Don’t make assumptions” probably the hardest one for me to follow.  So if the intention today is to have peaceful thoughts in order to not create false beliefs and not make assumptions, where do we start?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.  Please reply to this post. I look forward to hearing from you and exploring this together.   As for today, I am getting ready to teach a yoga class and will breathe deep, relax any stressful thoughts and fill them with loving peaceful thoughts and see how that goes.

 

 

 

Movie & Juice Feast Prep!

Saturday, October 29th at 7:00 pm we will be having an encore showing of the movie, “FAT, Sick and Nearly Dead” in preparation for the upcoming 10 day Juice Feast challenge. After the movie we will have hand outs for recipes, support systems of people to call when you get cranky and or think you can no longer feast!  And lots of pointers and motivation to keep you going.

You can come to the movie even if you are not able to do the juice feast starting on November 1st.  Come and be inspired by Joe’s message and see what happens.

 

Get Ready! Juice Feast 2 ~ coming your way

We are embarking on another juice “feast” the first 10 days of November.  This time we are inviting everyone to join us.  If you saw the movie, “Sick, Fat, and Nearly Dead” and it inspired you, or if you haven’t yet seen it and want to be inspired let us know. We have the movie and we can all watch it together before the feasting begins on November 1st.

We will have recipes, support systems, what to do when you want to chew.  We will also have follow up classes with great topics to keep you motivated and healthy!

Post Juice Feast!

Can I just say that during the 10 days of juicing, I would day dream of avocados and chewing actual food.  Now that we have been eating and chewing for the past three weeks I am ready to go back to juicing for a week.  A couple of things I noticed during our 10 day feast, one being (as I stated numerous times) I just felt better, no tummy aches after eating, no heartburn and the other was new energy.  Having given up caffeine in June I don’t feel the need for the stimulant.  I feel a natural energy that keeps flowing through me.

So during the juice feast I was in the middle of teaching a Psychology class and the last night of class we were having a potluck.  My students knew a little of what I was doing and one asked if I could make a raw, vegan pizza.  My first response was, “Sure I can do that” then as I was driving home I wondered how I was going to make that happen since I had never made veggie pizza bread before. Luckily I had Cafe Gratitude’s cookbook.  Took out the dehydrator, got the ingredients, and made a batch.  To my surprise it tasted amazingly yummy.  Giovanni and Mom like it.  So I made a second batch for my students.  I needed the pizza toppings so I put together a chopped tomato with herbs and onions, sliced avocados with mango and pepper and some raw hummus.

Two things could happen when I got to school, either everyone would hate it or they would love it.  Now the rest of the potluck was mostly meats and an amazing cheesecake, which of course I had some of, it was so yummy I could not resist even if I tried.  Much to my surprise everyone loved the pizza and they all wanted the recipe.  Having people try new culinary discoveries that are healthy and not hard to make is so rewarding.  I love it when people like my food.  Eating involves all of our senses and so texture, smell, taste and what it looks like all play such an important part.

My next venture into the healthy culinary arena is at Fig Garden Swim and Racquet Club where I teach yoga and swim.  The cafe is wonderful and used to have some veggie options but not so much anymore.  I asked Deb, the cafe manager if I could bring her some healthy options to put on the menu.  The first one I brought was vegan tacos with tons of veggies, salsa, cabbage on an organic corn tortilla.  Yea, they loved them!!  The next item was a veggie wrap, not vegan because I used cream cheese, you can substitute hummus or vegan cream cheese.  Using the lavash wraps makes it simple.  Another big hit!  This is something you can make in the morning and put in your lunch bag and take to work and have a  nourishing and healthy.  You can use the big tortilla wraps also.  Use the veggies you have in the fridge, carrots, cucumbers, zucchinis, tomatoes, avocados, lettuce, tofu, sprouts, add in an apple for a little sweetness or throw in some grapes.  Get creative, it’s fun!!!

This week I’ll be making some gluton free dishes and some raw dishes.

Stay tuned for more easy recipes and adventures in the kitchen!

Juice Feast ~ Day 10!!!!!!

All in all these past 10 days have been the best experience, the most inspiring and thought provoking.  My body has never felt better, my energy level has never been higher and I lost 5 pounds!  WooHoo!!  And I know some of you want to know and some have asked, (okay, I can’t find an easy way to say it) did your juicing give you the runs?  NO!  My digestion was happy and everything else was normal!  There were challenges along the way and I am grateful I was able to overcome them as well as I did.  We learned to work well together in the kitchen, something we have always done, but it was special this time as we washed, chopped and juiced.  We discovered new recipes and were delighted when the combination of veggies and fruits we juiced actually tasted good, then we were so caught up in the fun of juicing we forgot to write down the recipe!  We would get grumpy when we were really hungry (who doesn’t?), we couldn’t just grab something to take the hunger away and because we knew we had to prepare our meal and it would take time.  Then during the preparation we became calm and relaxed and enjoyed the journey to the meal. We had such excitement by going to our garden, picking the vegetables, coming home, juicing and enjoying the fruits of our labor.  This is the most fulfilling experience, knowing where your food comes from and the fact that we planted it ourselves made the experience even sweeter. We learned that by eating this way for 10 days we used no pots and pans, the stove didn’t get turned on,  no plates, no silverware and the pulp went into the compost bin, now that’s sustainable!  We learned that we are going to incorporate juice into our daily life and maybe once a quarter do a 10 day juice feast.

We did eat food today on the 10th day, we weighed in and Giovanni had lost weight (something he doesn’t need to do) so we took ourselves to Revive Cafe for our first meal.  The specials were a raw lasagna made with zucchini and sweet sushi with a side of rice, all vegan all raw and all wonderful.  It was the perfect first meal.  I have to say the whole chewing thing was a bit foreign to us.  We took our time, focused on the food and enjoyed each and every bite.

Please join us this Saturday night, August 13th at 7:00 pm for movie night at PB Yoga!  The movie is “A Beautiful Truth”, This documentary follows the journey of Garrett Kroschel, an animal-loving teenager raised in Alaska who, after reading a book by Dr. Max Gerson, is inspired to investigate its premise that diet can cure cancer and other diseases. Garrett travels across the country, visiting with physicians, scientists and cancer survivors to discuss Gerson Therapy — and Gerson’s claim that the medical industry has suppressed natural cancer cures for years. The movie talks about the importance of juicing, so we thought it was the perfect movie to kick off our movie nights with.

Still Feasting! Day 8 & 9

Image via Wikipedia

After picking all the fresh veggies from our garden in Madera, we came home with an abundance of tomatoes, beets, greens, cucumbers, squash (haven’t figured out how to juice those yet) and some cute little carrots, they aren’t quite ready yet. We made almost 5 quarts of juice.  Giovanni and I have become quite a production team in the kitchen.  One washes, then one cuts the veggies, we switch off on the juicing and the cleaning for our juicer is so simple it doesn’t matter who gets the job.  Seriously, having the quart jars makes drinking juice fun and I think quite fashionable!

As we were cutting and going through all the juicing, Giovanni said, “This much fruit and veggies if we were eating them would last us a week or two but because we are juicing, it’s lasting us a day or two.  When you think of how many fruits and veggies you consume on a daily basis, honestly, not as many as we need.  This way you get all 9 servings in one quart. And it is all the nutrients that your body needs and because it is juiced, it is being absorbed into your system and gives you the fuel and the energy to sustain your day and all the activities.

Monday morning started out with juice before swimming and then in between swimming and yoga.  Felt really good, my energy is still rising. I was a busy bee Sunday night, cleaning, organizing, getting ready for the week and then plopped into bed pretty pooped around 11:30.  Woke up at 5:15 am with great energy and went through the day until 10 pm last night feeling wonderful, even after teaching a 4 hour psychology class, 2 yoga classes, and hour swim and an hour pilates.

Morning juice:

lemon, ginger, tomatoes, kale, cucumbers, lettuce, (red leaf and romaine), apples, celery and beets.

Afternoon juice:

apples, carrots, lemon, ginger and oranges.

I took out the dehydrator and washed 2 bunches of kale and 2 red bell peppers and cut them up and put them in for 12 hours.  I am making my own kale crunch. Going to mix Nutritional yeast, sea salt, red peppers and cashews as the topping and mix it up and it becomes a wonderful snack.

This morning I awoke at 5:15 am and went to spin class.  Hadn’t been in a week and my legs felt it.  Then wonderful morning juice and just finished teaching a yoga class.  Still have pilates and 4 hours of teaching this evening, but the way I am feeling now, it is all easy to do.

My mind is different about food now, changing your mind is the only way to change your eating habits.  I look at food so different now, and I appreciate the time and effort it takes to prepare my food.  I make it with love and drink it with love.  With that being said, I am sure there will still be pizza in my future, just a healthy version of it.

People keep asking about juicing and we are putting together a juicing class at the studio, so stay tuned for more details.

Today and tomorrow and that makes DAY 10!!!  Can’t believe we are almost there, this has been not only a physical challenge but a mental and spiritual cleansing.

 

Still Feasting ~ Day 7

So yesterday I left off when I was going to attend my niece’s baby shower.  And as promised my sister outdid herself with an amazing array of Mexican Food and her fabulous 7 layer dip with my favorite junk food, Fritos (the big ones that are good for dipping).  Thank goodness mom and I stopped at Jamba Juice before leaving Fresno so I was pretty full when I got there.  Did I mention that Janice makes the MOST amazing chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes? They weren’t as tempting as the Fritos and 7 layer dip.  So my sweet sister Tracy had a hip replacement a few weeks ago and isn’t able to move so well and asks me to get her (you guessed it) 7 layer dip and fritos.  I held my breath, walked in the kitchen and made her a plate and got myself a glass of water and I was fine.

I realized since becoming vegan I can’t eat the 7 layer dip anyway because it has cheese.  Janice was so sweet and said to me “look I made your favorite and you can eat it”, she didn’t realize I am vegan and that I am on the Juice fast.  No worries.

The weakness came when I went in the kitchen for another glass of water and saw the huge bowl of guacamole and was trying to figure out how I could juice it!  Am I losing it?  Maybe this is what happens half way through, not really sure.  It was short lived, I know avocados are in my future.

I do know that I am no longer dreaming of the pesto gnocci at Cafe Bocce in San Francisco, I am dreaming of having lunch with my friend Iris Duarte at Revive Cafe downtown Fresno.  A shorter drive and fabulous raw food.

Today’s lunch ~ celery, cabbage, tomatoes, parsley, red lettuce, cucumber, lemon, ginger, and garlic plus a dash of salt! It was so YUMMY I had to share a photo.  And you know how you have just that perfect coffee or tea cup that makes it taste better.  We bought Bell quart jars and the juice is just as yummy, but now it looks better.   Enjoy!