Vegan Meal Plan

I have been a vegan for 17 years. I was vegetarian before being a vegan. I don't eat cheese or eat egg when I was a vegetarian. Being a vegan is not for dieting purpose it is a way of life. One of yoga student wanted to share my vegan meal plan with here. I decided to share it as well as on my blog. As a kid growing up, and travelling all part of world. I will happily chasing butterfly in the school premises as the teacher could not understand my passion for these creature on earth. I wanted to fly but more especially the color was so prettier. Then I moved on big animal such as dog and chicken. I often cried when a dog was killed by a car. Living here in america where you find any possible food anytime of year whether it is in season or not. Even going to India, I was in heaven because a lot Indians are vegetarian. There was a few problem. I don't eat a lot of refined sugar as well as ghee.I like my food to look and have vibrant flow of rainbow.

To answer the question of What I eat is. I tend to think I am what I eat. I love life especially being kind to animals on earth. Here is a sample of my vegan meal plan. Alot of my food is cooked in low heat or raw. I take my supplements for those things I can get from food especially b12. Consult your doctor before taking supplement.

Image via Wikipedia

Breakfast Options


Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You should never skip breakfast in respective of whether you have a board meeting. I try to eat early to give time before my morning workout. You should give yourself at least 1 hour time before any exercise. Here are the breakfast options:

• Oatmeal with soy milk or almond milk or rice milk plus fruit of choice usually Banana

• Granola with raisins or blueberry with any milk of choice plus fruit of choice. Mango will available during the summer time.
• Scrambled Tofu with whole wheat bread plus cantaloupe
• Soy Yogurt with blueberry/strawberry and add kasha (a brand of cereal)
• Beverage of choice: Green Tea with no sweetener or water.
Morning Snacks options

I usually will try to wait for 4 hours before eating again but I listen to my body. I don’t starve myself because I am not on a diet. Here are the options: a piece of fruit, or your own handful of almond or soy yogurt.

Afternoon options:

Lunch time usually starts 4 – 5 hours after your breakfast. You can a good lunch since our metabolic pathway is at its peak just like the sun is at its peak even in the winter months.

• Black Beans and sweet potato salad plus fruit of choice: Grapefruit

• Rice and Black beans with tomato sauce plus fruit: Pineapple

• Rice with assorted vegetable on the side plus fruit: Kiwi

• Customize your own Salad and Lentil Soup

• Veggie Burger with wheat wrap, add assorted vegetable of choice.

Image by dimitridf via Flickr

• Beverage of Choice: Refrain from Soda, I don’t care whether it is diet or not. The natural health food have better drink option or just stick with water or green tea or fresh squeeze lemonade

Afternoon Snack options

I usually will drink green tea. If I am still feeling hungry I have my own trail mix snack, or a handful almond, or a piece of dark chocolate, or hummus or some grains if available.

Dinner Options

As wind down from your day; you want to refrain from adding a lot of heavy food in your body before bedtime. It is true you want to eat your dinner 2 – 3 hours before bedtime. Eat light then you will sleep better. Give your digestive system a break just like you need to fresh for the next day.

• Cooked Quinoa and grilled vegetable plus fruit of choice

• Vegan chili

• Lentil Soup with brown rice

• Fresh Squeeze vegetable juice is my favorite

• Hummus with wheat bread or wheat cracker

• Wheat Pasta with no eggs, yes it is available with your own made marinara sauce no cheese. Add veggie to make your own marinara if it is bought.

Dinner Snack Options

Still feel Hungry, after your workout or after a long day of work. By all means, you can make some tea with a nice book to unwind. Occasionally, I have a glass of wine on the weekend or fresh fruit salad if you want something sweet. I also don’t eat late. I stop eating after 8pm to give my body, and mind the adequate rest.

Feel free to leave me a comment if you will like me to review what your are eating.
Namaste

Health Tip for Traveller

As we are all like to go visit our friends and family, travelling can be fun but there is some few exercise you can do while waiting for your flight. Having to pack only the thing you truly need for your trip to be relax and comfortable. Have you gone through the airport check in country lately dealing with checked baggage, the right amount of liquid to carry as a carry-on, TSA security check point for the right document? Make sure the right name matches on your travelling document and boarding pass? Where is the right boarding pass?  May you have your boarding pass on blackberry or paper ticket. May you are worried about  making your connection to dream vacation. May you missed your flight or your flight was delayed due nature. 

Make sure you are prepared for any of situation you find yourself. These are my favorite I like to bring with me:

• Bring your yoga mat because you can seat on the floor and practice yoga
• Bring health snacks such as carrots, nuts, cracker and cherry tomatoes
• Find a corner to mediate and relax your mind
• Be kind to others and smile
• Bring an interesting book or magazine
• Get a chair message at the airport
• Don't sweat the small stuff
• Wait Patiently

Of course the benefit is obvious, you will  less stress, relax your body, mind, and spirit. As always remember to have fun  at your destination and enjoy your trip. 

Essential Oil - Moptop Maven

I am so glad Nikole have shared this story in her blog. I personally take one tablespoon of wheat germ oil, which is rich in vitamin E every morning. You can find Wheat germ oil in your local healthfood store. Being a vegan, I can't take the Cod live oil.
Check her blog out:
Moptop Maven - Deliciously Opinionated Musings: Quick Tip: Two Tablespoons A Day To Healthy Skin, ...: "Before you feverishly hit the back button because you've spotted a nice big bottle of Cod Liver Oil, hear me out!! - What you put IN your b..."

Posture of the week

There are many thoughts processing in our head every second and every minute of the day. We are constantly standing on our feet. Have you ever thought of the benefits of doing inversion or headstand in your yoga class? One major benefit is to improve pituitary gland function, which is close to the sixth or seventh Chakra depending on your master and the school. This is the chakra of pure consciousness (Ajna Chakra).

Pituitary via Wikipedia

Yoga is full of different posture, and it also a journey to complete all the posture. One must take baby step in order to enjoy the subtle benefit. Even Laughing and falling off from a posture sometimes is very humbling, you have to look within. One pose can offer many variations, starting from crow posture to something as simple as standing on your head. How cool is that? Don't forget to breathe and have fun with doing this posture.



I welcome you this week to take simple steps to trust yourself to get into Tripod Headstand (Sanskrit Name: Salamba Sirshasana ) using the wall for support and hold this posture for a while.



Margaret practicing crow pose into Tripod Headstand.

Crow Posture

Tripod Headstand

Margret

Margret

Come to rest in child pose for a moment.

Video coming soon!

First Chakra

Ganesha is one of the deities best-known and most widely worshipped in the Hindu religion. His images are found all over India and Nepal. Ganesha is known by many other attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. As I walking into a health food for lunch in a small of town of Harford close to Utica, New York.

I saw a beautiful lady walking into the same store. I recognized the image right away; I asked her about her tattoo was Ganesha, we exchanged a brief conversation. She happens to be a yoga teacher. She understands the meaning of Ganesha. I was so thrilled to run into her, more especially reminding me of Ganesha and the story from my teacher, Shanthi 

From my studies and being trained in India with my Kundalini background, Ganesha resides in the first Chakra called Muladhara (mūlādhāra). Mula means "original, main"; adhara means "base, foundation". The mantra for the first charka is LAM. There are several asanas that helps to open the first chakra. The posture I have chosen is Bridge, in Sanskirt (Setu Bandhasana). It strengthens the abdomen and thighs while you practice the posture.

Beth
When the first chakra is imbalance, it means our foundation is not balance Obesity is one of the many symptoms. I can write a whole book with the imbalances of first chakra. Through the first chakra, we work to understand and heal our bodies. The challenge to us is to accept, feel, validate, and love yourself.

Eating is a first chakra activity. Joy, happiness, love, compassion, content are the emotions of first chakra. When we eat, we are nourished and our physical body is supported. Eating grounds us. Proteins are first chakra food.

A balance first chakra opens us to our power and stability and allows us to grow. We are grounded. First Chakra brings us rest, solidity and stillness.


How to get in Bridge posture:

1. Lay on your back with your arms at your sides, your palms facing downward. Bend your knees bring the soles of your feet close to your buttocks.

2. Press down on the soles of your feet. (Think of the root foundation of the body). You have a lot of strength there. Squeeze your buttocks and press your pubic bone upward, allow the pressing to lift your hips upward towards the heaven.

3. Integrate your three part yoga breath to the first chakra by channeling to the corresponding position in the body.

4. During all the lifting and lowering, you are contracting and squeezing the buttocks until it is resting on the floor.

5. Rise up into the full posture several times and stay up. Continue to squeeze the buttocks, chest expanded (opening the heart chakra) and find breathe is steady.

6. Bring your arms under and interlace your hands behind you to find openness in the shoulder.

7. When you are ready to release from the posture, release your hands and allow your vertebrae to roll down with control.



Benefits of this posture

• Stretches the chest, neck, and spine

• Calms the brain and helps alleviate stress and mild depression

• Stimulates abdominal organs, lungs, and thyroid

• Rejuvenates tired legs

• Improves digestion

• Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause

• Relieves menstrual discomfort when done supported

• Reduces anxiety, fatigue, backache, headache, and insomnia

• Therapeutic for asthma, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and sinusitis



Advanced Student

• Insert block in between the tight so that the knees are far away from each other.

• Release the block and go into another posture Wheel Posture

The interpretation of Ganesha symbolism:

Ganesha

http://tips4bsense.blogspot.com/2010/03/108-names-of-lord-ganesha-with-meanings.html

The image on Melanie's back is stunning. She said it was painful, but I am sure it was well worth. It cost approximately 300 in US dollars.

Melanie

Meditation

Unplug from the worldly things: turn off the tv, turn off the radio, tune the body to the mind, stop worry about where to go and what you need and what to do, where you need to go, how to get somewhere. Absolutely stop the thoughts, even thought it is easy said. Observe your breathe, if any thoughts comes during your meditation, acknowledge the thought, still focus on the breathe.

Observe stillness during this period and observe your own breathe.

Reengerize the mind, body and spirit. This is also yoga.

May be chanting Om at end of meditation.

To Master meditation, you have to continue to practice meditation.

Be mindful of your thoughts and words.

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• Doing Nothing: Lissa's Thoughts on Meditation, Martha Beck, Jack Kornfield, and Britney Spears (psychologytoday.com)

Namaste

Favorite Asana

Everyone has their favorite posture. I have numerous favorite asana (posture) depending on the season, and time of day. I tend to incorporate Triangle posture known as (Trikonasana in Sanskrit) every day.
The corresponding chakra is the second chakra which is located close the genital and the reproductive organs.An imbalance in this charka causes several problem in the body such as pre-menstral sydrome, irregular period, testicular, uterine fibroids, pre-menstrual syndrome, irregular periods, ovarian cysts, irritable bowel syndrome, endometriosis, low back pain and prostate disease.

When done properly, the benefits are vast among other asanas. The benefits are as follows:
• Helps to strengthen legs, knees, ankles, joints, hips, groin muscles, hamstrings, calves, shoulders, chest and spine abdominal, oblique, and back.
• Stimulates function of all the abdominal organs.
• Relieves stress, sciatica, backache and neck pain
• Improves digestion and constipations.
• Helps with symptoms of menopause, and
• Therapeutically for anxiety, and infertility

One the same note, sometimes we have an asana (posture) that we struggle with. We have to continue to practice because we practice we perfect the posture to a point we close our eye and hold the posture for a longer time. Is it fear or we forgot to incorporate the breath that we will fall out of the posture? Teachers do fall out of posture. We are human and we are constantly practice as well and uniting our body, mind and spirit.

This inspiring quote by Marianne Williamson is from her book, A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3 (Pg. 190-191).


“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”


I will like you to share your favorite and worst posture and why the asana you choose is your favorite or worst. Make sure you subscribe to the blog.