Juice Cleanse

I've really been into juice lately, so I decided to try a 2-day juice cleanse. The benefits seemed reasonable: giving the digestive system a break, zapping your body with extra vitamins and minerals, detoxing the liver, and being a little more mindful about consumption for a couple of days.

So I got my juice from my favorite juicery here in in Oregon: 

 12 juices, 6 per day...no big deal, right?

Wrong.

Things started out fine:

I was enjoying the juices that I had chosen, taking selfies, and feeling like a real champ. Then, around 4:00 things changed. My head began to hurt and my vision was blurring. All I could think about was all the amazing foods that I wanted to eat: cheeseburgers, Chinese food, egg sandwiches, burritos, and coffee. 

Then, my mind began to play tricks on me. I saw turkey sandwiches dangling from trees and kettle chips scattered all over the ground. I even thought about trying the dog food. Was this shoddy willpower on my part or the symptoms of malnutrition setting in?

I decided to drown my doubts with another juice and a little internet googling sesh. This resulted in me falling down a rabbit hole of articles about juice cleanses. What I found was that juice cleanses may or may not be good for you. Juice may or may not detox your system. Juice may or may not flood your system with an overload of sugar without enough fiber to digest it, causing your body to produce too much insulin and send it into diabetic shock.

I felt like shit. And these articles weren't helping. By 9:00 that night I was forcing down my last juice and ready to call it a day, literally and figuratively. Why do this to myself? Maybe I would feel better after the day 1 one toxin hangover (this is what pro-juice cleanse people call the shitty feeling that you feel, but I think it's just hunger), maybe I have no will power, maybe I need a lesson in self-determination. Or maybe I'm just really smart and know that my body needs balance. Juice cleanse, I quit.

So, here's what I learned from my 2-day 1-day juice cleanse:

1) Juice is good, but food is better
2) Trying to restrict something from your diet (like food) is stupid and psychologically unhealthy
3) You're not exactly cleansing, if you feel like total shit while you're doing it
4) Too much juice is just as bad as too much of anything else
5) Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. (thanks to Michael Pollan for this one)

Looking back...

I discovered this thing where I can look at the old pictures from my blog. They are saved all together in an invisible file in the sky somewhere and what fun it is to look back at them and reminisce. Here are a few of my favorites:

Practicing yoga at 6:30 am in our little Hillsborough house. Viktor joins.

Hula hooping in our Hillsborough yard with my hoop from Jason. What ever happened to my hula hoop?

Strawberry picking in Hillsborough. Skipping down the aisle. 

Hammock water happy place

Alex! Boat!

My favorite meal ever...20$ Whole Foods salad

Passed out in Bryce's jeep after a day at Carolina Beach with Jessica and Bryce...circa 2011?
Was it too many Miller Lites or too many Britt's Donuts?

Another lake goodie. I like the look on my face to Jason in this picture.
Love and Funniness. 

Reading a story to kids at camp the day Viktor came to CFS. 

Book club! Man, I miss those ladies.

Edie pooping at the South Dakota KOA campground "pet walk", which was actually more of a dirty field.

Campfire chillin' with Marissa at the New River Gorge this past September.

The New River. I do love to sit on rocks by the water.

This guy. 

A slightly more superficial goal for 2015

Yes, I want to be more present, appreciative of the moment, thankful, and content. These are all important things that I will strive for in years to come. 

However, I do think it's also important for us to set measurable goals for ourselves at this goal-setting, resolution-making time of year...like losing that last 10 pounds, quitting smoking, running a marathon, reading everyday, or eating more vegetables. Setting goals like this for ourselves has a direct impact on the deeper, dare I say more spiritual, goals. The two go hand in hand.

So, for my 2015 slightly superficial yet very important to me and definitely measurable goal is to get up into a handstand with out the support of a person or a wall and hold it for more than 10 seconds. 

It will look better than this (me, last year attempting to come away from the wall...I think I held it for a micro second):

Teacher Training Anniversary

Today is the official 1 year anniversary of the first day of my Bikram Yoga Teacher Training.  I lived, studied, and practiced in the LAX Radisson (which, hilariously, is now closed down!) with 315 crazy Bikram yogis (pictured below) for 9 weeks:

315 "would be Bikram Yoga teachers", as they called us

I can't believe it's been a year. I've taught 188 classes since November 20 when I taught my first. I've learned so much! The 9 week stay at teacher training was only the beginning. The life of an actual teaching teacher is the true training. Working with so many amazing teachers and students is the true training. Maintaining and growing in my practice is the true training. The training is a lifelong training, wherein we are all constantly learning and growing. We "continuously keep kicking".

Thank you, Bikram. You might be a nut, but you are a yoga genius too. Thank you.

"You are not proving how good you are. You are giving them something. You have to be compassionate. Then, you put nails in their ass" -Bikram (9/17/13)

Coming Back

After a very long hiatus and a very crazy summer, I am attempting to get my blog up and running again. I've actually had some inspirational thoughts and experiences that some might consider "blog-worthy", but feared the return to blogging because it had been so long (113 days to be precise).  But enough with the fear, here I go!

There's no possible way to recount the events of the past three and a half months without writing a novella. So to spare you and myself, I will say this:

-Emotionally and spiritually trying
-Moving and more moving
-360s and 180s
-Leaving jobs, taking new jobs, leaving new jobs, finding other jobs, leaving those
-Reflections on self, love, trust, faith, ego, homes, friendship, and happiness
-Deep thought about true meaning of Santosha (contentment)
-Growth

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.” -Anais Nin