Nourishing your soul

My daughter Emily sent me this today - HA!!

Hi Folks,

Today I'm having a shoulder "manipulation" at 2:45. The frozen shoulder I developed after my gym injury is not improving (in terms of range of motion and pain) and my awesome physical therapist and orthopedic doc have recommended this procedure. While under anesthesia he will put my arm through a full range of motion in many directions. The goal is to unfreeze the areas that are stuck. From the surgical center my daughter will take me directly to PT. Yikes! Then every day for 2 weeks I'll go to PT.

I, of course, you tubed the procedure. It's grueling. If you're interested - take a look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtEq2EVlM_w

Our blog today is going to be a fun one. We have a guest appearance by Frannie, a new friend of mine who I just met last year on our birthday. We share the same birthday. Frannie is a Food Scientist. I can not tell you how much fun it was to cook with her. Not only because she is the best cook I personally know but also because she is fun and likest to laugh.


First I'd like to talk a little bit about my personal experience on the yoga journey. 

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In recent months the potential for injury while practicing yoga has been highlighted in the media. My mother-in-law, Maggie, religiously reads the newspaper and watches the news. She emailed last week and asked me what I get out of yoga. She's a very hip person and really wanted to know. This is how I responded -

What do I get from Yoga?

I've been practicing for 18 years, teaching yoga for 8.

I was first brought to the practice because I had run distances for many years, never did one stretch and had become very tight. When I bent over, I could touch my knees! Over the  years yoga has brought a wonderful balance to my muscles in terms of flexibility. And each day I am more flexible still. 

Yoga has also made me much more physically stronger and has increased my endurance- the standing poses are especially strengthening.

The various breathing techniques that are done with this kind of practice are not only wonderful for your tissues and for your lung capacity, they can be relaxing or energizing depending on the type of breathing done. There are many breathing techniques.

The yoga sutras (sort of scriptures) that have been passed down for over 2,000 years are inspiring and speak about compassion for others and for yourself and speak about many other things too. 

I also meditate every day for about 15 minutes. Meditation is wonderful for blood pressure and focusing the mind and feeling emotionally balanced.

When I first started practicing yoga, savasana (corpse pose - lying on your back) was THE most difficult pose for me to do. After 30 seconds I would begin to fidget around. Now it's my favorite. 

Yoga is fun to teach - to help people realize their potential physically and even more importantly to provide 60-90 minutes of clearing the mind.

I think the biggest benefit for me is that it is very mind clearing and allows me to see things in life more clearly. It allows me to see me more clearly.

I like to ask my students what brings them to yoga. More and more people are drawn to yoga because of the relaxation it provides. In this crazy world of cell phones and two income homes, etc. - it helps to balance out that fast energy with something that is the opposite.

Just like any other physical activity we need to be careful when practicing yoga. A yoga student should tell her/his teacher about injuries, should not do moves that aren't healthy, should take the beginners class and build their practice from there. He/she should find the style of yoga that speaks to them.

A criticism I have of some of the news programs I've seen and some of the articles - they speak only about the asanas (yoga poses) and not about the wonderful benefits of breathing and relaxing.

This is day 6 of our Fitness Program.  We're going to do 8 very simple yoga movements. Be sure to breath, breath, breath. Take a nice, long deep exhalation and a nice long, deep inhalation. These movements are dynamic - keep moving. 

 1-  Standing Forward Bend - Repeat 8 times. Be sure to bend over from your groin, not your waist. Keep a little bend in your knees, as you see in the first figure, if you aren't flexible there. When you come up, pull your belly in and slowly come up with a rounded back. Only go forward to your comfort level.

2- Cobra - Repeat 6 times. Push your pubic bone done into the mat and lift your chest up. RELAX your low back. Move slowly.

3- Head to Knee Pose - Repeat 4 times to each side. Again, bend from your groin, not your waist.

4- Side Twist - Try to keep both shoulders down on the floor as you twist. When your knees are to the right, turn your head toward the left, etc. Twist from your waist. 


5- Child's Pose - Soooo relaxing. When you are in this pose your big toes should be touching and heels and knees apart. Relax your brain down to the floor.


6- Bridge Pose - Press into your heels and big toe as you come up.


7- Knee to chest pose - Really good for digestion and back health


8- Corpse Pose - Ideally corpse pose should be held for 7 minutes but any amount of time is beneficial. 


This is a nice little practice that will take vey little time. It is a balanced practice -  
1- *standing forward bend
2- *back bend
3- *seated forward bend
4- *twist
5- *relaxing forward bend
6- *simple inversion 
7- *relaxation pose
8- *relaxation pose

Hatha Yoga is based on the

principle that - changes in 

consciousness can be brought about

by setting in motion currents of

certain kinds of subtler forces in

the physical body.

I. K. Taimni

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Yesterday was a wonderful day. I could have been sitting around thinking about "Snap, crackle, pop"  - what I call the shoulder manipulation but instead..... I was practicing qi gong with Frannie

Me and Frannie - Food Guru Extraordinaire 

                                    We did one of my teacher training qi gong DVD's together

Then we went to the kitchen to prepare the beautiful veggies we had just bought.

Yummmm. Did you know that anything canned is cooked in the can? You learn lots of thing when you cook with a Food Scientist. I normally make my own beans but today we used canned. It's OK.


See the beautiful cilantro and big old lemon (Frannie likes the thin skinned lemons better but this one will do), lovely limes and frozen edemame and frozen green chickpeas (neither one of us had ever seen those - they taste like a cross between a pea and asparagus).

Edemame, green chick peas, black beans and traditional chick peas

We didn't cook the frozen chick peas or edemame. 

We used artichoke bottoms because they mush together better when making the veggie burgers. Any time I've ever made veggie burgers they have always fallen apart. At this point I can hardly wait to see how Frannie's recipe prevents this from happening. Here Frannie is teaching me how to properly hold a knife. It really does feel different. Over 40 dang years I've been holding my knife wrong. HA!

Ready to mix

So much more fun to use your hands while mixing

Juicing the limes and lemon

           

Chopped up cilantro

We divided the mixture into two bowls, one for salad and one for veggie burgers.

VEGGIE BURGERS

Aren't these wonderful? A friend of Frannie's supplies her with cage free/organic eggs  from her own home. Isn't it cool how different the eggs are.

Added oats and eggs

Mixed in Vita Mix on a low speed and not toooo much.

We then divided the burger mix into two portions because we wanted to create two flavors for our burgers.


THIS IS THE BEST PART -

We added the spices and pine nuts and proceed to prepare to cook -

Little oil spray on pan and then scooped some out and smashed them down a little 

We even made corn bread - here it is cooking away

This is how we prepared to freeze the now cooked and delicious burgers

TAAAAAA-DAAAAAAAAAHERE ARE THE RECIPES
(please note, remember we divided the original bean salad mixture before we added the cilantro, citrus, and seasoning for the salad)


Frannie's Transporting Bean Salad and Veggie Burger Recipe

Bean Salad:

1 Can artichoke bottoms drained and chopped

1 Can Black Beans drained and rinsed

1 Can Chick Peas drained and rinsed

1 pkg Edamami, thawed

1 pkg Green Chick Peas


To make salad add:

Juice from 2 limes

Juice of 1 Lemon

2 T Olive oil

2 T chopped Cilantro

Salt (optional), Smoked Paprika, red pepper, roasted cumin to taste (shake it on the top

Toss. It is better if it sits over night.

Other ideas add fresh basil rather than cilantro

Veggie Burgers

Ingredients

• 4 whole eggs

   ½ cup pine nuts

• 1 cup rolled oats 

• 1 tsp salt, or less or optional

• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

   Dill weed to taste

Instructions

1. Put all veggies (beans and artichoke bottoms) in food processor

2. Blend

3. Beat eggs and stir this all together with bean mixture and oats and seasonings 

Cook like a hamburger on the stove top or bake in oven 350. They freeze and reheat in the microwave.


This recipe is full of protein and great nutrients. It nourishes your body and man, it also nourishes your soul. 


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I'm so grateful to Frannie for taking the time to cook with me. As I'm writing this I can have nothing to eat and my mouth is watering remembering how delicious this food is. It will be a great treat to pull the salad and veggie burger and corn bread out of the fridge tonight!!


Much love,
Donna Rae