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Medicinal Marinade with Shiitake and Burdock Root

February 8, 2010

Beautiful, earthy burdock root! Photo courtesy of csa.com.

Hey Guys,
Hope you had a great Superbowl weekend and were able to find some (or brought some!) decently healthy choices during the game yesterday. But even if you slipped a little bit, it is now time to start a new, wonderful week.  :)

This special marinade is something that can be added in small quantities as a side to regular salads. If you are unfamiliar with these ingredients, especially the burdock root, be sure to test small amounts to be sure it agrees with you. Both of these special ingredients have definite medicinal properties!

For a while now, I’ve been interested in burdock root, and ways to incorporate it into the diet. I didn’t want to have to juice it- I wanted to find a way to use the whole entire root. I was excited to find it quite soft, slightly sweet, and gummy to the feel- meaning it could be eaten as a whole and could absorb liquid if soaked in a marinade!

Burdock root has especially been used by traditional Chinese, Indian and Japanese healers. It has often been used to purify the blood by removing toxins that can build up in blood- helping with skin conditions such as acne, eczema, and psoriasis. In India it has been cited to have anti-cancer properties, though there are probably no organized or documented studies on this.

Burdock’s active ingredients are arcigen, calcium, chlorogenic acid, essential oil, flavonoids, iron, inulin, lactone, mucilage, polyacetylenes, potassium, resin, tannin, and taraxosterol. The seeds of the plant contain beneficial fatty acids. The oil from the seeds can be used as a diaphoretic, which leads to increased perspiration, which is essential in cleansing the body of toxins or harmful elements. According to traditional healers, diaphoretics are integral to treating influenza, gallbladder or liver disorders, and to aid the kidneys which purify the blood. Burdock root has slightly laxative qualities, as well as being antibacterial and antifungal.

Burdock root has Para-Amino Benzoic Acid (PABA), which is uncommon to find in a food source. This type of PABA is great for maintaining and reviving hair color and firmness of skin, producing folic acid, and aids in the metabolism of blood and protein formation.

Shiitake mushrooms. Photo courtesy of nancyvancenc.com.

Shiitake mushrooms are healing, strengthening and restorative foods. They have been used medicinally by the Chinese for more than 6,000 years.

Shiitake mushrooms contain an active compound called lentinan. Among lentinan’s healing benefits is its ability to power up the immune system, strengthening its ability to fight infection and disease.

Lentinan, which is technically classified as a polysaccharide and referred to as a branched beta-glucan, has also been shown to have anti-cancer activity. When lentinan was given for human gastric cancer, reticular fibers developed in tumor sites. Reticular cells, which are spread throughout the body in various tissues, are immune cells that have the ability to ingest (phagocytose) bacteria, particulate matter, and worn out or cancerous cells. When lentinan was administered, not only was there a proliferation of reticular cells in gastric tumor sites, but many T lymphocytes (another type of immune defender) were drawn to these cancer sites, and the cancer cell nests were destroyed.

Another active component in shiitake mushrooms is something called eritadenine, which lowers cholesterol levels. It also contains L-ergothioneine, which is a very powerful antioxidant.

Medicine Marinade

-    4 stalks of burdock root, sliced into pieces about a 1/4 inch thick
-    2 large shiitake mushrooms, cut into small strips
-    4 Tbs. low-sodium, gluten-free Tamari
-    1 Tbs. raw apple cider vinegar
-    1/8 tsp. Celtic sea salt
-    4 drops Liquid Stevia
-    2 Tbs. sesame seeds, ground

Mix all ingredients in a bowl large enough to mix the marinade together well. Marinate in fridge for at least 3 hours, stirring occasionally. The apple cider vinegar will help “cook” the shiitake mushrooms and burdock root, without really cooking them. :)

Makes about 4 servings, and will keep in the fridge covered for 2-3 days.

Serve as a small side to a large salad or the rest of your meal. Chew well, and relish in being able to enjoy potent, authentic medicine from nature that will cleanse and heal your body in a natural way.

Enjoy opening your repertoire to these new and exciting ingredients! :-)

Love,

Kimberly

Posted in Diet/Health, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

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The Hunger-Killer Combo

February 5, 2010

Photo courtesy of gourmetgirlmagazine.com

Hey Guys!

I am actually posting this online from my flight right now to LA. Isn’t that amazing you can do that these days!!

I had a rather harrowing morning. I got stuck with a taxi driver that did not know how to get to JFK airport via the highway (I mean really???). So we took Queens Blvd, full of stoplights every few feet. I wasn’t paying attention until I was like – “What?? How come instead of going 80 mph down the highway I’m seeing strip malls and condo complexes in Queens??” I told him about 5 times I was going to JFK, when I got suspicious of his route, but he still took me to Laguardia!!! It was only THEN that he decided to pull over on the side of the highway and pull out his GPS, which he had the whole time! Unbelievable. Once I knew we were actually going to the right airport, I decided to tune it out and not let it annoy me (Yogi Puifier Breath!!). To make up for it, there were no lines checking in or getting through security though. :)

Anyways…I’m actually eating my Hunger-Killer Combo on this plane, which I started eating often when I started traveling often. It goes like this: 3 (give or take) clementines, or an apple and an orange, or any similar fruit combination, chased by a whole avocado. You can but you don’t have to worry about waiting 20 minutes after the fruit to follow with the fatty fruit of the avo, since that combines pretty well (esp. if you are starving). The fruit acts like the quick water to put out the hunger fire, as you can gobble it up immediatey, then the avocado acts like the anchor. All the healthy, creamy fat and fiber really settle you down, and signal your brain that you just ate something very satisfying. On this flight, they did not have knifes, so I peeled the avocado like an orange and ate it like an apple! :) Of course, napkins are a must!!

Sometimes people are scared that avos have a lot of fat and calories. But we have to understand that this type of raw fat digests very easily by the body, and much easier than even raw nuts or raw, healthy oils. It still contains water, and is not as concentrated as the first two. However,  I wouldn’t recommend eating lots of nuts and avocado at the same time- that is a combination for weight gain. But not the Hunger-Killer Combo!!

This is so much better than any alternative you can find on a plane. The Hunger-Killer Combo is full of minerals, vitamins, and beauty fat. You won’t screw up your diet so when you are in a bind, such as on a plane or stuck at the office and resort to less than ideal alternatives, you already feel heavy, crappy and fat.

Incidentally, you can also use the avocado to chase your Green Smoothie, if you get hungry afterwards. That would be a good, easily digestible combo to get you to lunch without snacking.

Have a great start to your weekend!!

Lots of love, Kimberly

The anchor! The amazing avocado. Photo courtesy of calhountribune.files.wordpress.com

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Press Release: Kimberly Snyder Leaves Envision Beauty :)

February 4, 2010

This is how I feel right about now! :)

Hey Guys! Just wanted to share some very exciting news with you. :)   Please take a moment and read the press release below. Some of you might not even know I was once involved with the company- but either way it doesn’t matter any more! Also, going forward please always contact me at kimberly@kimberlysnyder.net, as I no longer have access to my prior email account.

Stay tuned for news about some really exciting projects I am working on!

Lots of love,
Kimberly

Posted in Press, Random Musings | Tagged , , , | 23 Comments »

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Easy Yoga Tips: Warrior (Virabhadrasana) Poses

February 2, 2010

Hey Guys! Hope you are having a great week so far. Here are a few quick yoga tips for the very important Warrior poses. Hope these help you in your practice!

Shanti and Love, Kimberly

Posted in Videos, Yoga | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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Handmade Craft Pieces to Support Haiti

February 1, 2010

Hey Guys!

If you happen to like handmade crafts, check out these ones! They are made by one of my blog readers, who makes them all by hand. She is donating 100% of her sales to Haiti via Partners in Health until Feb. 4th (extended from 1/31).

Check them out! Since I have 2 turtles and am very partial to turtles, the top one is definitely my fav! You’ll have a  new adorable little friend AND be supporting our friends who need us so much right now in Haiti.

LadyRayCello.etsy.com

See you back here soon!

Love, Kimberly

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How our Feet Affect Our Health and Our Beauty!

January 31, 2010

Happy Feet! Photo courtesy of www.gallery.hd.org.

Hey Guys,
Hope you are having a great weekend! I usually post later on in the day, but I woke up thinking about this topic. Sometimes that happens.  :)

I’ve been thinking about feet because mine in particular have been a little achy. I have an interesting “foot life” as I do teach and practice yoga a lot, where I get to be barefoot, but I also do live in New York City, and have lots of business meetings and social events, so I wear my fair share of high heels also!

Did you know that 25% of our body’s bones are in our feet? Our feet are delicate entities that support our whole body, and have thousands of nerves at the bottom that correspond to every organ and every part of our body. If we aren’t standing correctly on our feet, it can have a negative impact on our organs and our posture. For instance, Dr. Norman Walker stated that if women consistently wear heels that are over 2 inches, our digestive system can be thrown out of alignment and it can contribute to constipation and the holding of toxicity in our bodies.

Photo courtesy of www.healthgoods.com.

We actually weaken our feet be wearing shoes, as encasing them this way weakens their natural strength. We were meant to walk on varying natural terrain and for our feet to be more flexible- nowadays we all walk on artificial surfaces and most always with shoes.

Be sure when you are walking that your feet point straight forward. To test this, you can find straight lines along the floor or sidewalk and see how closely your feet stick to the line. Most people walk with their toes slightly turned out. This interferes with the proper use of muscles and ligament in the feet, as well as with our knees and hips, and over time can cause damage. At first it might seem funny, but if you stay conscious of it and adapt to it, it will soon feel natural.

I know from yoga that if our posture is not good, then we don’t take in enough oxygen as we should, for our lungs are compromised in some way. We need as much oxygen as possible to nourish our blood, and we can actually have more cravings and feel more hungry when we are not breathing correctly (see my blog “A Simple But Little Discussed Weight Loss Tip”). If we tuck our pelvises under (which most people do) it also weakens our abdominal muscles! I have some yoga clients that are very interested in toning their belly. While we work on that in our private sessions, I always remind them that if their posture was correct, they would be working out their belly, without even thinking about it, all of the time! Push weight into the back of your heels so you feel rooted down and can stand up straight and strong. I always tell my students to think of the four corners of your feet (thinking of your foot as a rectangle) and distributing weight through the four corners equally. The best way to know if you are doing this correctly is to see if you can actually lift all ten toes (!), then place them down firmly into the floor.

Photo courtesy of www.ikastikos.blogspot.com.

Here are some easy ways to start taking better care of your feet:

1. Walk barefoot as much as possible. I don’t let anyone wear shoes in my apt., and if you don’t already have a “take your shoes off as soon as you enter” policy, it is a great idea to start now! The more you are barefoot the better. Okay we all know (including me!) that high heels are bad and we shouldn’t wear them every day. Can you wear comfy shoes to work and swap out right before? Can you let your feet rest under your desk where no one can see? I’ve also read that those new workout shoes like the “FitFlops” are terrible. The shape of the sole creates and an unnatural gait pattern that can harm the feet, knees, hips and spine.

2. Spread and stretch your feet (just like other parts of your body), and lift your toes! Our feet need lovin’ too! I often have my students sit back with their heels, but tuck their toes under and gently open up the feet. I try to do this once a day to let my feet open up.

Run your foot repeatedly over a tennis ball – you can do this while you are in a seated position (even under your work desk!) and then slowly stand, increasing the weight on your foot.

Get some toe spacers! They are available at a lot of nail salons and drug stores. They fit between your feet and spread them out. They seem weird, at first they might scare your husband or your boyfriend a little bit! ☺ But if you get used to putting them on while reading or watching TV, they help your toes relearn their normal spreading motion.

3. Professional or at-home reflexology. I have been getting some treatments lately, which I’m a huge fan of, and I always feel great afterwards. But that is not always feasible. But EVERY night in bed I do put coconut oil all over my feet, and take at least 2 minutes to massage every part of the bottom of my feet, massaging every single nerve. You can get yourself a reflexology foot chart, similar to the one that I have posted, if you want to work on specific areas. For instance, the middle of your left foot is your liver spot. Might want to give that spot an extra squeeze! ☺

Happy feet and happy walking to you loves!
xx Kimberly

A happy foot is a bare one!

Posted in Diet/Health | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments »

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One Possible Cause For Your Sugar Cravings

January 28, 2010

Photo courtesy of introtogoprofiles.wordpress.com.

Hi Guys, Hope all is well! I was thinking about this topic, because it has come up lately with soooo many of my clients.

Many of us, especially us women, are all too familiar with sugar cravings. We want our sweets, and we want them NOW! When we want the sugar, whoa, you better look out. Nothing short of a lion separated from her cub is quite like us going way our of way to get that chocolate cookie, or even half-consciously rushing through dinner while we excitedly wait for the dessert course to come!

There are many numerous reasons we might have sugar cravings, which could point to different kinds of imbalances. One such imbalance has to do with salt. Yes, salt.

Photo courtes of todaysseniorsnetwork.com.

Think of salt as being on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from sugar. Salt is the most contracting food, meaning that it has a very retracting energy in the body, and causes the cellular fluids in the body to contract and pull in. We all know that when we ingest too much salt we can become dehydrated and thirsty. Excess salt can also pull hydration out of the skin.  Contracting foods are what Chinese practitioners would call “Yang” foods.

Sugar, on the opposite end, is the most expanding of foods. When we eat foods with sugar in them, we tend to feel more relaxed and open. Sugar causes the body to expand and open up. Expanding foods are considered in Chinese philosophy to be “Yin” foods.

Thus, it makes sense that when we eat too much salt, or too many foods containing salt, we can feel very contracted. Red meat, eggs, fish, dairy, salted cheese, and condiments such as soy sauce all inherently contain a lot of salt.  We ingest a lot of salt from eating these foods even if we don’t add additional salt on top of our food. There is also a ton of salt (sodium) in preserved, microwaved and canned foods, and we may be ingesting more than we realize from eating these foods. When we eat a great deal of salt we start to feel extremely contracted, and we unconsciously start to crave more expanding foods, ie the sugar, to create balance in the body.

Yikes! Trouble! Photo courtesy of eskimo.com.

If we want to cut back on sugar cravings, we need to create overall balance. One such way would therefore to be sure we are not overdoing the salt. This would especially mean table salt, or sodium chloride, which is man-made and can cause the leaching of fluids and minerals from our body. On the other hand, Celtic and Himalayan sea salt are both natural, raw salts that contain about 70 trace minerals, and have been dried naturally by the sun, rather than in a kiln.

Our specific salt needs are up for debate, and depend on our lifestyle and how active we are, the season we are in, our size, etc. The RDA allowance is 2,400 milligrams of sodium per day, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Institution of Medicine recommends between 1,500-2,400 milligrams a day. This is just around one teaspoon. The best way to regulate your salt intake is to switch to Celtic and Himalayan sea salts immediately (throwing out regular table salt), do not add additional salt to your food once it has been prepared, and avoid packaged and processed foods.

As we balance our salt intake, we might just help balance some of our sugar cravings. We will create more of a perfect yin-yang balance in our bodies, minds and spirits.

All my very best,
Kimberly

Playa Samara, Costa Rica. After a long day of surfing!

Posted in Diet/Health | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments »

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Why Bringing Lunch is Awesome for your Diet Plan, and What to Bring!

January 26, 2010

Who wants to use a brown bag? These super cool lunchbags are better for the environment and super cool. Designed by a woman who is an architect-young mom. Check them out for $28.00 http://www.etsy.com/shop/IsoldeGrande

Hey Loves,

So I was thinking about the topic of lunch today while I had some nutritional consultations with a few clients. For these clients, lunch is the most routine (and therefore controllable) meal of the day. It is dinner that can get a little haywire.
At dinnertime, we also have to make food for other family members (some with picky tastes!), or we are out socializing with friends, eating out at restaurants, or simply tired from the day and do not want to make something too extravagant.

The same is true for most of us. Lunch is something we can usually control. For many of us, we might be at some kind of office or desk job. It is a really great idea to bring lunch for the following reasons:

1.    We control the ingredients closely. Know any delis selling millet or sprouted bread? Or have raw goat’s cheese? Or Earth Balance vegan butter? I didn’t think so! So then we are stuck with subpar ingredients, and who wants to settle for subpar?


2.    We can eat healthy alternatives of what we feel we need in the middle of the day. For instance, if you are really in the mood for something crunchy and carby, if you threw some Mary’s Gone Crackers gluten-free quinoa crackers in a plastic bag, you are saved! The alternative is some crappy, flour-filled fat-free pretzels. If you are in the mood for something sweet, you brought along a few squares of your 72% dark chocolate from Trader Joe’s, and won’t get sucked into getting “just a small” bag of M & M’s from the vending machine. These changes add up HUGELY!

3.    You will save lots of $$$$. It is one thing to splurge on a nice meal with your friends and go out to dinner, at a place you really like. But at lunch you are usually in somewhat of a time crunch, and are not usually eating the exact food you would eat if you had the chance to eat anywhere. Who wants to spend $10+ a day on that?

All this is sooooo important to us achieving our health goals. If we are slightly off at lunch every day, think about how that sets you back when you add it up 30 days a month. Dinner is the social meal where we can bend more, lunch should be more closely monitored. Plus we know we have something to look forward to at the end of the day.

Lunch foods depend on what you have eaten for breakfast and your individual health state and goals (if you have questions on this, you can inquire on a personalized health consultation with yours truly. ☺ Email me at Kimberly@kimberlysnyder.net).

Lunch should always be eaten AWAY from your desk when possible! Do not try to work and eat at the same time, as this leads to poor digestion. Your work will not be as good as if you focused solely on it, and your food should be enjoyed and appreciated as a completely solo task.

Isolde Grande's amazing lunch bags for sale at only $28. Check them out http://www.etsy.com/shop/IsoldeGrande

To make bringing lunch more fun, and way more cool, I have included some lunch bags that are sold by this amazing woman named Isolde Grande. Isolde is an architect by trade and an interior designer, and worked on some major projects, such as picking the interior of Trump hotels. Now, as a young mom, she decided to design some cool lunch bags! Her architectural skill came into play as the bags are very well designed and functional. They are so bright and happy. My faves are the ones in rust and light blue. Here is the LINK to purchase. Only $28!

In Malin Akerman's (The Watchmen, Couple's Retreat) trailer. I have to think about what to transport as well when bringing food to actors on set.

Oh, but back to some general lunch ideas:

-    Fresh, seasonal and organic fruit. The easiest would be to throw in peeled fruit you could throw in your lunch bag, such as oranges or clementines, or apples. Be sure to eat the fruit part of your lunch first, and at least 20 minutes before other foods. So it is more of the appetizer of your lunch. You could eat the fruit before leaving for lunch, or eat the fruit, chat with your buds and eat the rest of lunch a little while later.

-    An avocado sandwich. This is my favorite traveling food. Sprouted millet bread would be the best if you could find it. You could also use a sprouted wrap as another choice. These sprouted bread products are usually available in the freezer section of Wholefoods and other health stores, by the way.

-    A salad, with the dressing packed separately. This is my fav! Sometimes I even take kale salad I made from the night before, and pack that. It does not get soggy overnight the way other kinds of salads do.

-    A tomato and an avocado. Okay it sounds weird, but all you have to do is pack a little container, a knife and fork. You can literally cut both up, sprinkle with dulse (see my last blog), and you have an amazing little lunch salad made in 30 seconds! I call this my “poor man’s salad” b/c when I’m in a pinch for food, I get both at the 24 hour deli across from where I live in the city. ☺

-    Celery sticks, carrot sticks dipped in fresh salsa or guac (also packed in a separate little container).

-    I already mentioned it, but the Mary’s gluten-free crackers and a few squares of dark, dairy-free chocolate for dessert. I like a little sweet for dessert occasionally after a long morning myself!

I hope these help you. If you have some other great ideas for us, please share.

I love you guys so much.
Please visit me again soon!

xx Kimberly

Posted in Diet/Health, Health | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 25 Comments »

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Keeping Our Thyroid Healthy

January 24, 2010

Photo courtesy of www.gavesdisease.com

Hi Guys, I hope you had a fabulous weekend!

So I wanted to talk today about our thyroids.  A healthy thyroid is important to our health, as our thyroid controls many of our bodily functions, including maintaining our energy levels, sleep, and balancing our metabolism.

Thyroid issues are on the rise in the United States and worldwide, and millions of us literally have impaired or improperly functioning thyroids. We must take action!

In order to function optimally, we need to nurture our thyroid with the right nutrients. One of the most important nutrients to build thyroid hormones and keep our thyroid healthy is iodine. Unfortunately, many of us are deficient in iodine.

Zinc, iron, copper and selenium are also essential to producing thyroid hormones. We also need the antioxidants of A, C and E to neutralize physical oxidative stress, a condition which often occurs along with poor thyroid function.

One of the best and easiest ways to get these nutrients into our diet (especially iodine) is by adding sea vegetables! “Sea vegetables?” you might say- “What the heck? It does NOT fit my lifestyle to have to go to an Asian restaurant and chow down on seaweed every day of my life.” Don’t worry! It is a whole lot easier than that, I promise. :)

Here are my top 3 favorite Sea Vegetables, along with some ideas on how to incorporate them into your life, so you can start benefiting ASAP!

1.   Dulse: This is the sea vegetable I personally use more than any other. I buy dulse in the form of flakes from Wholefoods or a health food store, and shake about 1 Tbs. on my dinner salad almost every night. What could be easier than that? I love the taste, and to me it almost makes for a “bacon bits” ingredient replacement! (Is that weird? Does anyone else who eats dulse know what I mean?).

Hijiki. Photo courtesy of thegreenbakery.blogspot.com.

1. Hijiki. Black seaweed that looks like cut up, shredded pieces of black angle hair pasta. Soak for ½- 1 hour, until it softens. Great on salads, and especially yummy when tossed with broccoli, along with some Liquid Braggs (unfermented soy beans, so use sparingly) or Nama Shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce, also use sparingly as it contains some gluten) and lemon. Can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for several days.

3. Nori wrappers: Me love nori wrappers!! Also sold in health stores and Wholefoods. Opt for the raw kind rather than the

Nori wrappers! Photo courtesy of upload.wikimedia.org.

toasted variety, when available. You can stuff sprouts, avocados, nut pates and other vegetables in them for quick wraps.

Another GREAT thing about sea vegetables is that since that ones mentioned above are purchased already dried, so they won’t go bad. You can keep them stocked in your pantry for use as needed. It is a good idea to keep your Dulse near where you keep your cayenne pepper or other salad spices, so when you go to make your salads you won’t forget to add some in!

Have an awesome start to your week! Take care of yourself, and be sure to give yourself some “me” time, so you can work on the improvements and New Year’s resolutions that are important to you.

All my love,
Kimberly

Posted in Health | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 25 Comments »

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How Food and Everything Else In Our Lives Are Truly Connected

January 21, 2010

Hey Guys, tomorrow is already the end of the week. Doesn’t time go by so fast sometimes? I hope you had a great week, and can relax and regenerate this weekend. :)

So I was thinking about something my teacher Dharma said to me during my yoga teacher training years ago. He said that you aren’t really a yoga teacher if you don’t talk to your students about food and their diet. (Dharma by the way, is one of the people who have had a profound influence on my food philosophy). One incident lately made me realize that I haven’t really been doing that. At one of my group classes this week, one of my longtime students who I’ll call Susan, came in with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend got up and left twice during class. I was a bit worried he was tired and was leaving because he was embarrassed to rest during the series, or that he had hurt something. After class I went over to chat with them, and I found out that he had to run to the bathroom a few times because they had eaten so much before class! I was like, “Um, well what did you eat before class?” After all, that class was only at noon. Susan said, “Eggs and stuff. But what really did it was that last pancake we had right before we walked out the door!” Wow. At first I was a bit shocked that they would eat before yoga class— but then I really started to ask myself, “Do they even know that they shouldn’t be eating before class? Have I discussed food with them enough so they have guidelines to know what they should and should not be eating?”

Sri Dhamra Mittra. www.dharmayogacenter.com

What is funny is that most of my yoga students don’t know that I am a nutritionist, or that I have this blog. :)   Sure, they notice I travel every few weeks to LA and that I’m gone a fair amount, but I never felt comfortable pushing anything on them. But now I realize that in holding back other parts of what I’m doing and what I’m all about, I may have been inadvertently not benefiting them as much as I could.

After all, as Dharma said, you must talk to your students about food. Food is energy, just as yoga is energy and promotes the flow of energy throughout the body. They are intrinsically connected, and how we eat is part of our practice. In a larger extent, all parts of our life are completely connected in the same way. If we work out all the time, but don’t give our body the most nutritious food, for instance, there is a disconnect. And if we practice yoga and eat well, but don’t treat other people with love and kindness, there is a disconnect. And if we eat good food, but work in a toxic work environment in a job we find vastly unfulfilling, there is a disconnect as well. When I work with people in my nutritional counseling sessions, I often see that when there is an imbalance with obsessing over food or there is a major issues in some way- there are imbalances in other parts of their life. These could include self esteem issues, work stress, trying to be perfect in everything, deep sadness or loneliness. The point is that the food issue can be the symptom, and the way the issue is expressing itself, but if we don’t balance other parts of our life the food issue(s) will never fully get fixed either.

So tonight at the end of my large group class, I did what I have been taught by Dharma to do to fulfill my duties as a yoga teacher- I talked to them about their diet. I explained that how they eat has a direct affect on how they feel, and their practice. I told them it was really important that they did not eat for at least 2 hours before yoga class, as their food would still be digesting, and they would not feel their best. I talked about eating fresh produce and living, supporting foods, and even told them about my blog (!).

I must say that I feel good about doing that. I want to give my students all that I can give them, and why was I holding back about the info we have here on our blog community, that might benefit them, or at least some of them? It is sort of like how soon I’ll have a yoga video to offer to you guys that are interested in yoga, that has a beginner and intermediate series, as those that are benefiting from the food tips we talk about here might also like the yoga I practice. :)

So I encourage you to look to see where there are some disconnects in your own life. If we take a deep look, we might find some places that are a bit contradictory, or where we hold one part away from another. The more alignment we have in our lives, the more in harmony we are and the stronger we get towards achieving our goals. And the more we grow and progress, which is really what the journey of life is all about!

I feel like a student every day myself. I am so grateful for all my yoga students, and for all of YOU In our blog community, that continue to support me and help me learn every single day! Thank you so much.
See you back here soon here.
Lots and lots of love,
Kimberly

” Treat every other being exactly the same, with absolutely no discrimination. Treat everyone with love and kindness.”

- Sri Dharma Mittra

Posted in Diet/Health, Yoga | Tagged , , , , , , , | 24 Comments »

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