Food Journaling Insights

Taking the time to stop and record my daily food intake has not only made me more mindful of what I am eating, but has also curbed my tendency to eat quickly between daily tasks. Sometimes I get so busy in my day that eating has felt like almost an inconvenience. What an irrational and backwards way of looking at food! How different would we feel physically and emotionally if we planned our day around one of the most vital aspects of our ability to thrive, instead of squeezing it in between everything else?

In my food journaling I have also noticed that my hurried relationship with food results in my hunger level always skyrocketing toward a 5 out of 5 just one or two hours after I've eaten. If I calm the excessive fire of my "go! go! go!" Pitta ways I won't burn through my fuel as quickly. Slowing down to eat and planning to sit calmly while I consume, allows me to fully absorb my food, leaving me better nourished, satiated, and satisfied.

L. H.
Submitted on day 14 of Yoga Challenge

Revelations From Keeping a Food Journal

What I have learned so far from keeping a food journal is that for me it's not what I do eat, but what I don't eat. It has brought mindfulness to my tendency to forgo feeding my Self. It's intriguing for me to explore the correlation between my physical intake of food and how I nurture, or forgo nurturing, my Self in other ways. The practice of yoga, and especially the 21 day challenge has brought new awareness to how I may change this childhood samskara (past impression recorded in mind and body).

I seem to be able to handle challenges, hardship, deprivation, with more ease than I handle softness, nurturing, vulnerability. I'm sure the hard core outer shell is related to my upbringing by parents who themselves were born and raised during the Great Depression. I remember food in my parent's house not so much as being nurturing as being something we put in our bodies for fuel. Very pragmatic.

I read something somewhere recently that said we wound others where we have been wounded. Very thought-provoking for me and caused me to pause and reflect on how I "fed" and continue to feed my own children (including my own inner child).

I also heard somewhere that we teach what we need to learn. That makes sense to me and why I believe I feel called to teach gentle yoga. Beginning where I am; with this new awareness, peeling back the layers one life-enhancing breath, one bite, one swallow, at a time; and gazing in awe at how the practice of yoga continues to open my mind, body and heart.

Namaste,
Donna

Food Focus: Sweet Vegetables

From our fearless food warrior and nutrition counselor, Samantha:

Cravings for sweets can be greatly reduced by adding sweet vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, yams, parsnips, beets, squash, turnips and rutabagas to your daily diet. Root vegetables elevate blood sugar gently rather than with the jolt delivered by simple refined carbohydrates, so there’s no energy crash after you eat them. At the same time, heartier vegetables, such as deeply rooted carrots and squashes, grow more abundantly in the wintertime, and are going to add to the warmth of the body. It’s good to maintain a balance of eating seasonally as well as locally, as much as possible, to stay in harmony with the natural order of things. When you eat seasonal, locally grown produce, the body is more able to maintain balance from the inside out.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredient List
Serves 6
Sweet Potato Topping

• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced (1/4 lb.)
• 1/4 cup fat-free milk or plain soymilk
• 1 Tbs. nonhydrogenated margarine or butter
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Filling

• 1 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped (1 cup)
• 1 leek, white part thinly sliced (1 cup)
• 2 turnips, diced (1 cup)
• 1 carrot, diced (1/2 cup)
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary, chopped (2 tsp.)
• 1/4 cup white wine or water
• 1 15-oz. can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
• 3 Tbs. shredded Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions
To make Sweet Potato Topping:
1. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Add sweet potato, cover, and boil 10 minutes, or until tender. Drain, and return to pot. Mash with milk, margarine, cinnamon, and nutmeg; season with salt and pepper, if desired. Set aside.
To make Filling:
2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and leek, and sauté 5 to 6 minutes, or until leek is soft. Add turnips, carrot, thyme, and rosemary; cook 2 to 3 minutes more, or until carrot begins to soften.
3. Add wine, and cook 30 seconds to deglaze pan. Stir in beans and broth. Cover, and simmer 10 minutes, or until carrots and turnips are soft. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.
4. Remove thyme sprigs from Filling, and discard. Pour Filling into 2- or 3-qt. casserole dish. Spread Sweet Potato Topping over Filling. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, if using.
5. Preheat oven to 375°F. Place casserole on baking pan. Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes, or until filling is bubbly and cheese has melted. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
6. Frozen cooking instructions: Preheat oven to 375°F. Cover casserole, and place on baking sheet. Bake 60 to 75 minutes, or until filling bubbles and top is golden. Remove foil during last 10 minutes of baking. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Nutritional Information
Per 1-cup serving: Calories: 129, Protein: 4g, Total fat: 3g, Saturated fat: <1g, Carbs: 20g, Cholesterol: <1mg, Sodium: 176mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugars: 5g

Feeling The Anger Rise

My journaling changed a lot once I became a blogger. Having an audience will do that to you. Blogging forces you to spell check and use a thesaurus and if you're smart, cite your sources while gathering facts. As much as blogging allows you to simply put your thoughts "out there" you don't want to influence people without backing up your opinions, so a little time spent researching goes a long way when you blog. This type of commitment takes time and because of that my daily journal entries all but stopped about 5 years ago when I birthed my blog.

Because of this I was excited to have a reason to pull out a leather bound journal and my favorite pen to explore my yoga practice more fully on paper. I thought the sentences would flow out of me, vinyasa style.

They haven't.

Instead my journal looks like this:

Day 1 / Jan 10th / Sol Yoga / 2-3 Class / 75 min / Hard. I'm sore.
Day 2 / Jan 11th / Sol Yoga / 1-2 Class / 75 min / Hard. I'm sore.
Day 3 / Jan 12th / Sol Yoga / 2-3 Class / 75 min / Damn. She kicked my ass.
Day 4 / Jan 13th / Sol Yoga / Gentle / 75 min / My body needed this. Why is my mind racing?
Day 4 / Jan 14th / Home / Meditation & Pranayma / 15 min / Did better than I expected.
Day 5 / Jan 15th / Hotel Room / Yoga & Meditation / 20 min / Crow Sucks. Fuck you crow.
Day 6 / Jan 16th / Sol Yoga / Flow n Go / 60 min / My balance sucks.

And no, my food journal isn't any better. Honestly it has pushed so many buttons, I'm actually afraid to keep one. But more about that in a future post.

It's as if there's a huge struggle right now between being in my head and being in my body. All this yoga is forcing me to be in my body, where as the journaling asks me to exit the body and return to my head to comment about my body and how the practice is affecting it. I'm feeling schizophrenic to say the least.

If I'm honest, it's making me angry. Or perhaps, I'm more in touch with an anger that's always there somewhere below the surface? Maybe that's a more accurate description. I can actually feel it rising and bubbling up with every heat building practice I attend. I'm not sure what this anger is or what it represents. Thus, it seems easier to simply document the yoga particulars of my day rather than spend too much time describing them.

Wait, that's not it. It seems safer. Or maybe smarter? Yes...smarter. Smarter to simply experience it, rather than talk about it because I'm not sure what "it" involves.

Because of this, for week two, I'm going to take my journal to class with me and experiment with jotting down words, ideas and thoughts during the practice, while I'm in my body. See if that makes a difference. See if that makes it easier to skim some of the emotions that are rising off the top. Maybe the studio is a safer space to explore these emotions?

The thing is - I know me too well. Anger is my "on ramp" to sadness. I need to be pissed off before I can weep. I tend to swear before I sob and bitch before I bawl. I think I know what's coming and that's what's keeping my pen from the page.

So if you see me at the back of class in balasana, weeping uncontrollably, just step over me. I'll be fine. It's all part of the process. This I know for sure.

My favorite quote comes from an intuitive I once met, named Joseph Aldo. He said, You'll know what you need to know when you need to know it. I literally live my life by this quote. I'll know what I need to know, when I need to know it - and not a moment before. Apparently I don't need to know right now. But if yoga has taught me anything it's that if I'm patient and I stay in the moment and take it one breath at a time - the big picture will reveal itself eventually.

Namaste,
Linda
**Ironically, picture taken from an article entitled, Diffusing Anger With Yoga.

Thoughts on Food

There is an art to preparing food. It includes a deep sense of joy as we nourish our families and as we share and celebrate with friends. I love finding different recipes and trying them out on friends. Of course, I'll have something tried and true too.

My husband was a chef years ago, and he has taught me not to skimp on ingredients or time. Treat yourself, your friends and family to the best you can offer. Eating doesn't have to be indulging...but should be an experience. I like what Sam said, when you take time to eat...it's more than bodily nourishment...no reading, no tv...mindfulness eating.

Maybe thinking of where this food started from...an orange tree from a seed...who grew it...who picked it, who delivered it to us...who stacked the shelves...etc. What an amazing process to have so much variety at our fingertips. A lot of people are a part of our lives, and we don't even know them. So I'd say, make eye contact, tell the grocer you appreciate them, make some good comment to any clerk...they all make our lives easier. Heck only 300 years ago...people had to do all this for themselves....there were no grocery stores...you grow it, or kill it, skin it and cook it

Love to all
I'm excited to read your notes
Kandi Austin

Yoga Thoughts On A Snowy Morning

So far the daily yoga does not feel like so much of a challenge. I welcome it. We'll see as time goes on if I still feel that way. My more interesting thoughts came around the food journal. I have noticed after just a few days that keeping track of what I eat is making me be more present, accountable & mindful of what I eat & more emotionally connected. It is very easy to eat mindlessly. So as in my yoga practice I am just observing, no judgment. And after all present moments are holy moments.

Blessings

Julie