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Stories of Transformation – David

Stories of Transformation – David

 

easy payday loan

This is a blog post dedicated to the Ultimate Yogis. A lot of the people who appear on the Ultimate Yogi DVD series actually went through the 108 day program. The program was truly transformational and these blogs will attest to that.

When David Ezekial started the 108 day program he was working a corporate job in the finance industry. Although he was being paid very well, he felt that there was  a little more to life than what he was experiencing. His love of yoga was apparent and he also had a calling towards protecting the environment. Starting the program gave him the perfect opportunity to start a new life, so he left the comfort and security of a steady paycheck, and took a risk to pursue a career teaching yoga. 

David also started the Yoga Conservation Alliance which is a non-profit joining yoga’s awareness, preservation and heart to wildlife conservation efforts. He regularly teaches classes and events that donate all the proceeds to the Alliance. He is also hosting a retreat in Catalina Island which aims to combine his love of yoga with the conservations vision. What makes this Alliance special is how different the outlook is from everything else David has done in previously. He was in the finance industry, and the main goal of that is to amass and collect money . The Yoga Conservation Alliance is all about sharing and conserving and helping other people enjoy the bounties of the earth. 

 

July 10, 2012 TRUE STORIES 287

Spinach Soup

This is another great treat designed by chef Adam A Graham.You can enjoy this spinach soup on your raw food cleanse. You might be surprised at how good this tastes and even make it on other days.

Ingredients

  • 2 Cups fresh spinach leaves firmly packed
  • 1 and 1/2 cup water
  • 1 Avocado , halved seeded, and scooped
  • 1 TB. olive oil
  • 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels divided
  • 1 medium tomato, diced
  • 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, minced

Directions

1 Combine spinach water lemon juice, avacodo, olive oil, and 1/4 cup corn in a blender and puree until smooth.

2 Float 1/4 cup corn, tomato, and basil just before serving

 

Adam A Graham is the author of The complete Idiots guide to Raw Food Detox. He runs a retreat centre in Michigan called Rawnora.

July 9, 2012 RECIPES 153

Red Onion and Broccoli Quinoa Salad

Red Onion and Broccoli Quinoa Salad

Last week was just a complete and total loss. With the holiday, a couple of BBQs, and one or two late night Soy Delicious sundae splurges, by the time yesterday morning rolled around, I was longing for some green juice and a whole foods dinner.

I threw together the quinoa salad below last night and dined on a heaping bowl. I feel a little less stuffed this morning (my fingers no longer resemble sausages), but I’m very much looking forward to a week full of long runs and cleansing yoga.

Red Onion and Broccoli Quinoa Salad
Serves 8

Red Onion and Broccoli Quinoa Salad- Ingredients

2 cups whole grain quinoa
4 cups water 1/4 cup olive oil2 cups red onion, chopped
2 cups broccoli, chopped
3/4 cup almonds, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon sea salt
Fresh ground pepper

Red Onion and Broccoli Quinoa Salad-Directions

In a medium saucepan, bring the 2 cups quinoa and 4 cups water to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and cover. Let cook for about 12 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

While quinoa is cooking, put the olive oil and red onion in a pan and simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes just to slightly soften and bring out the sweetness of the onion.

In a large bowl, combine quinoa, onion mixture, broccoli, almonds, cilantro, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

Serve at room temperature or allow to chill in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

 

This Red Onion and Broccoli Quinoa Salad was
posted by our contributing plant-based cook, Megan Huylo.

Megan is a plant-based health and wellness blogger, avid runner, and yoga practitioner. After surviving cancer as a kid, she emerged permanently passionate about health and fitness and hopes to inspire the same passion within others. She focuses on a plant-based diet, compassionate lifestyle, and hopes to show how easy it is to practice both without sacrificing taste and style. For those of you not familiar with the concept of Ahimsa – the direct translation is doing no harm. During the Ultimate Yogi program we  introduce a vegan diet. Although its not an entirely vegan program we try and inspire you to add a few vegan dishes into your daily regime. We also encourage you to do a three day vegan cleanse which might be a shock to the system at first but if you follow the recipes on our website you might actually want to introduce them into your daily diet.

~Red Onion and Broccoli Quinoa Salad~

 

July 9, 2012 RECIPES 139

Vegan Pasta Alla Norma

 

Sometimes, in my efforts to lay off the carbs, I forget to eat any all together. Then, I find myself out pounding the pavement wondering why I feel so tired and worn out.

Today was one of those days, unfortunately. So, I suffered through my run and returned home, determined to load up on carbs and throw together a huge helping of Pasta Alla Norma. I love the chunks of juicy eggplant and the kick from the red pepper flakes. I brought it all together with a sprinkling of creamy vegan mozzarella cheese (in this case, it’s Daiya, of course) over a heaping bed of whole grain penne. I feel better already and I’m sure I’ll be good as new for a re-try tomorrow morning

 

 

Quick and Easy Vegan Pasta Alla Norma

 

 

Pasta Alla Norma
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 medium eggplant, chopped into 1-inch cubes
1 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup veggie broth
1 16oz. jar marinara sauce (I used Rao’s Tomato Basil)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1 13oz. box whole grain penne pasta
1/4 cup shredded Daiya Mozzarella cheese

Directions
In a large pan, saute onion and garlic until soft, about 4 minutes. Add eggplant and veggie broth, allowing the eggplant to cook down and soften, about 10 minutes. Add the marinara, red pepper flakes, basil, parsley, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until eggplant begins to breakdown into the sauce, another ten minutes. While eggplant is cooking, prepare the pasta, cooking about 8-9 minutes until al dente.

Once pasta is finished, spoon into bowls and cover in sauce. Sprinkle with Daiya mozzarella cheese and serve.

 

This is a new post by our contributing plant-based cook, Megan Huylo. Megan is a plant-based health and wellness blogger, avid runner, and yoga practitioner. After surviving cancer as a kid, she emerged permanently passionate about health and fitness and hopes to inspire the same passion within others. She focuses on a plant-based diet, compassionate lifestyle, and hopes to show how easy it is to practice both without sacrificing taste and style. For those of you not familiar with the concept of Ahimsa – the direct translation is doing no harm. During the Ultimate Yogi program we  introduce a vegan diet. Although its not an entirely vegan program we try and inspire you to add a few vegan dishes into your daily regime. We also encourage you to do a three day vegan cleanse which might be a shock to the system at first but if you follow the recipes on our website you might actually want to introduce them into your daily diet. Check out Haute Ahimsa for these and other great recipes

 

July 6, 2012 RECIPES 127

Yoga for High School Students

Yoga in High School

I believe many high school students do not have the ability or techniques to focus and concentrate well in school. It seems when they do struggle, instead of their parents, teachers, or medical professionals giving them new techniques to use to learn how to focus and concentrate, they are given medication.

Physical Education

I was a volleyball coach at Thousand Oaks high school for seven years. During this time I taught an off season volleyball class. This class only consisted of the players on my team and they were given PE credits for this class. Needless to say, these student athletes were motivated to exercise. The rest of the students in school had to take a regular PE class. Through my observations, it seemed most of these students had no interest in Physical Education and only took the class because it was mandatory by state laws. In addition, some the PE teachers did a poor job of motivating these students to enjoy exercise.

 Integration

Valerie Stillwell is a PE teacher at Thousand Oaks High School and we have been friends for nearly 10 years. Not only is she a credentialed PE teacher, she is a certified Athletic Trainer and Physical Therapy Assistant. She has always wanted students to be excited about their health and fitness. We have talked many times how she would like to get students excited about exercise, but had not found anything that worked well with all of her students. So, when I approached her recently with the idea of teaching the Ultimate Yogi program at the high school level she jumped all over it. Yoga for high school students was always an idea we agreed on and discussed but never had a way to present it to the students, so this was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

Summer School

Valerie agreed to present her summer school class with a condensed form of the Ultimate Yogi program and also institute the entire program to one of her classes in the fall of 2012. Initially, her summer school students met the class with a little trepidation, but by day three and four they were actually looking forward to their daily dose of yoga.

Results

At the end of the first semester of summer school many of the students responded positively to the Ultimate Yogi program. In three short weeks the students reported weight loss, improved muscle tone, and an overall sense of calm which included an increased ability to focus and concentrate. Some even claimed that they were actually happier. Imagine what 108 days of Yoga would do….

 

 

Importance

 

The importance of the Ultimate Yogi is simple. If high school students can improve their focus and concentration, two attributes that the Ultimate Yogi addresses, then they will see dramatic improvements in their lives. Our goal is that PE will become a personal journey of growth, both physically and mentally, rather than a mandatory hour of something they dislike.

July 6, 2012 TRUE STORIES 269

Going for the Raw Diet

raw dietThe Raw Diet

If you’ve even met a raw diet foodie you might have the inclination to swat them away, as they go on and on about glowing skin, weight loss, and increased energy. Resist, they are on to something. The irritation you feel is probably due to their weight loss, glowing skin, and their increased energy affronting your lethargy and turgid complexion. Perhaps I have made a a few leaping assumptions here but there are a lot of benefits to going to a raw diet.

Weight loss and Raw Diet

It just takes more energy to digest a raw food diet. You system has to work harder and, in turn, burns more calories. Also when you are eating raw you are avoiding a lot of the fats used to cook food with. Even if you cook at home and count every calorie you still manage to sneak in some form of oil or fats into your diet.  Raw food also contains a lot of live enzymes which aid digestion and increase your metabolic rate.

Glowing Skin from a Raw Diethealthy benefits of a raw diet

Raw food usually contains less toxins. There have been recent cases of spinach and other greens containing impurities but in general, food that comes from the garden is a lot cleaner than the food from the slaughter house. It contains less chemicals, anitbiotics, and various other chemicals that are mixed into processed foods. You are naturally ingesting less toxins on the whole which will improve your complexion.

Increased Energy

With a lighter load on your system you can direct your efforts elsewhere. Most of us have experienced  ”food coma”, and  are fully aware that stuffing ourselves makes us less inclined to move. Cooking also increases the sugar content of foods which induces a glycemic spike. You experience energy surges  that leave you tired. When eating a raw diet your digestive system breaks the food down into sugars at a steady pace. You provide yourself the appropriate doses of energy throughout the day.

Whats right for you

In the Ultimate Yogi program we introduce the diet by giving you a three day (pardon the pun) taste. The aim is to show you that you can eat and survive on a entirely raw diet, which will prepare you for the day you forget to pay your utility bills. However a lot of people don’t respond well to a sudden changes in their diets. The most common side effect is gas, which is alarming and often the cause of reverting back to your digestive habits. “Going raw” requires commitment, deliberation, and a limited amount of restaurant choices. Cooking aids digestion, as heat breaks down the molecular bonds of food. Your system might be a little delicate at times and you might require some cooked food.

Try before you buy

My personal recommendation is before you fully commit yourself to an entirely raw regime, try a meal a day for a week. Find a creative alternative to the food you eat, and see if you can replace it with a raw option. If you feel like you need the protein, try sprouting some lentils or chickpeas in water for a few days. In doing so you are breaking down the molecules in the same way as cooking does. If you do commit yourself and find success, please be mindful of the rest of us plodding around using all of our available energy to digest. We probably wont respond as enthusiastically as you might want us to.

Here is a source for more information on the raw diet.

July 6, 2012 HOW-TO 135

Strawberry Shortcake

 

 

What’s more American than an old-fashion Fourth of July BBQ? I’m drawing a blank. What isn’t American (yet, at least)? Plant-based diets. So, you can imagine my brain-racking over what dessert to bring to a friend’s Fourth of July BBQ.

I ended up deciding on strawberry shortcake. Second to a backyard BBQ, you can’t get much more American than that. I added a bit of a twist, though — rosemary. This one is made with vegan rosemary shortbread, vegan strawberry preserves, and Soy Delicious vegan ice cream. The rosemary paired really well with the lemony-sweetness of the strawberry preserves and since the shortbread was the slightest bit savory, everything balanced out to make one ridiculously amazing strawberry shortcake. You just can’t go wrong with this.

Rosemary Strawberry Shortcake
Serves 12

Ingredients
For the shortcakes (Adapted from Shape Magazine):
3 cups whole wheat flour
5 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
3/4 cup Earth Balance Butter Substitute
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup agave nectar

For the strawberry preserves:
16 oz. fresh strawberries, cleaned and coarsely chopped
Zest of one lemon
Juice of three lemons
1-1/3 cups sugar
2 Tablespoons water

2 pints Soy Delicious Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add rosemary and stir to distribute. Cut in Earth Balance and mix well until mixture resembles cornmeal. Whisk together soy milk and agave nectar in a separate bowl and pour into flour mixture. Stir to combine. Shape into 12 biscuits about 1-1/4 inch thick and place on greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 16-18 minutes. Set aside and let cool.

In a saucepan, combine sugar, lemon zest, juice of 1-2 lemons, and water. Over low to medium low heat, stir until sugar dissolves, about 10 minutes. Add strawberries and allow toe lowly come to a boil. Stirring often, allow the moisture to cook off and the strawberries to breakdown. The mixture will become syrupy, about 15-20 minutes. Set aside and let cool. Once cool, add remaining lemon juice.

Slice the biscuits in half horizontally and place two scoops of Soy Delicious Vanilla Ice Cream on bottom half. Drizzle with 2-3 tablespoons strawberry preserves and place the second half on top. Serve immediately.

**It’s important to note that agave nectar browns more quickly than sugar, so the biscuits will appear browned well before the 16-18 minutes are up, but they aren’t cooked thoroughly. I let mine stay in the oven closer to 18 minutes.

 

 

This is a new post by our contributing plant-based cook, Megan Huylo. Megan is a plant-based health and wellness blogger, avid runner, and yoga practitioner. After surviving cancer as a kid, she emerged permanently passionate about health and fitness and hopes to inspire the same passion within others. She focuses on a plant-based diet, compassionate lifestyle, and hopes to show how easy it is to practice both without sacrificing taste and style. For those of you not familiar with the concept of Ahimsa – the direct translation is doing no harm. During the Ultimate Yogi program we ask you to cut out processed foods and sugars, but we don’t believe that you should cut out desserts all together. This is a perfect 108 friendly dessert.

 

July 5, 2012 RECIPES 102

Yoga and Cross Training

Cross Training

Yoga has proven itself as a great cross training tool for all forms of athletics. Recently I read in LA Yoga magazine that the olympic womens water polo team are doing yoga as part of their training regimine. I began to wonder how it would benefit all other sports.

Yoga, being more of an individual pursuit, is usually done by athletes who are either injured, or and want to extend their career. In terms of cross training yoga provides the following elements:

Focus

According to Annika Dries of the US water polo team “Yoga helps calm the mind, and helps us let certain things go, which is great in the pool because then you’re able to do what your body wants to do. Being able to clear your mind and body at the same time is my favorite part of yoga.”

Cross Training

Traditionally solo athletes have practiced yoga more so than athletes participating in team sports. Perhaps its the funky spiritual side of yoga that coaches don’t respond well to or perhaps its the misconception that yoga makes you hyper-flexible and increases the risk of injury. Solo athletes have known the truth for years;  yoga is great cross training.

paddle cross training Balance

Surfing is the sport that most akin to yoga. The ocean is probably the most spiritual place on earth and surfers are in tune with nature more so than any other athlete. These days there has been a yoga on paddle board movement that is sweeping the beaches. Yoga and Surfing rely on balance, grace, and coordination.

yoga cross training Strength

Like surfing, rock climbing  is deeply attuned to the needs of nature. Its yoga on a mountain as you are constantly finding creative poses and using your body in a variety of planes. Yoga and Rock climbing rely on strength, balance, and flexibility. The main point of departure is the concept of “letting go”

yoga cross training Cardio

Cycling is an endurance sport, it requires strength, stamina, and breath control. Although there are some forms of yoga that do not enphasise the strength and  stamina as much – all of them focus on breath control. Power Yoga or Vinyassa yoga are ideal companions to any endurance based sport as they focus on the stamina aspects much more so than Hatha or Kundalini.

Focus

Tennis is another solo endevour that yoga aligns well with. In Timothy Gallaways “inner game of tennis” he relies heavily on yogic philosophy to explain what goes on within the brains of atheltes as they compete. He descibes the self 1 that is the doer and the self 2 that is the judger. In Yoga you are encourage to quiten down the Self 2 that judjes

Cooperation

So what is it thats holding back the team sports from jumping in on the bandwagon. Physical therapists and Orthopedic surgeons would disagree here but yoga has been proven to decrease injury, maintain flexibility, and improve posture. Three elements that any athlete would affirm are paramount to their success. It would be interesting to see which teams in the upcoming olympic games have adopted yoga as part of their cross training regime. As our own Ultimate Yogi Tess says “Go for it..what have you got to loose”

 

July 4, 2012 YOGA 184

Yoga and your Ego – a guide to safety within your practice

Yoga and your Ego

Yoga can be incredibly healing if practiced with respect. Our good friend Sarah Ezrin wrote this blog a while back and I thought that I would share it. Its great information and will ensure you stay safe within your practice. If you liked this please visit her website.

How Ego Can Wreck Your Yoga

As one of the fastest growing industries, yoga finds itself in a new pose, the spotlight.

Whether caught virtually with no underwear on in the exposing New York Times Magazine article, “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” or given grief for only wearing underwear with Equinox Fitness’ provocative viral yoga video, “The Contortionist,” people are talking about yoga.

For a field whose purpose is meant to be unifying (the word yoga literally meaning to yoke or bind), all this controversy feels antithetical and sensationalistic. Yoga is meant to heal and center, not wound and divide.

The latest controversy to grace the yoga world is the New York Times article, “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” by William J. Broad. Right from the title, yoga is convicted. And what’s more, Broad’s article seems to indict the whole of yoga, which begs the question, what is yoga?

Yes, injuries can happen when the wrong person practices a particular pose, but last time I checked, yoga was about stilling one’s mind, not standing on one’s head.

Asana, the physical postures of yoga, are just a tiny portion of the practice, yet we continually forget in the West that yoga is not a workout. The physical poses by themselves are empty. Yoga is our approach to the poses.

Having had many injuries from my physical practice, most recently tearing both my hamstrings, I can say without question that yoga did not wreck my body, I did.

Had I truly been practicing my yoga, I would have been more present with what I was doing. Instead, like most people, I let my ego get the best of me and pushed my body beyond its limitations. To vilify the whole of yoga for injuries most people inflict upon themselves in asana is preposterous. Yoga does not harm, our egos do.

Broad notes a few scary cases, yet most of the incidents and research cited in the article are from the mid 1970’s. The 70’s were only the beginning of the information age. Like technology, the physical alignment of yoga postures has evolved over time.

 

Tony Roberts

Looking back at old copies of B.K.S Iyengar’s “Light on Yoga,” modern yoga teachers cringe when they look at the alignment. And Iyengar Yoga is best known for safe and detailed alignment.

As the years go on and we learn more about the science of yoga, the postures continually change to become safer and more accessible to differing body types. Broad discusses a case of a gentleman having his cervical spine crushed in shoulder stand, because he was practicing it on a bare floor “just as Iyengar instructed.”

Today, Iyengar teachers insist that shoulder stand be practiced on blankets, which heightens the cervical curve. Or if a student is unable to support themselves in the center of the room, practice on a chair or against the wall.

There was no mention of the advancements yoga has made throughout the past 40 years. Perhaps, because touting yoga as a medieval form of fitness sells more magazines.

And unless the author was trying to rack up more evidence, those “Godspell” actors in the article pictures should not be turning their heads in shoulder stand, even for an instant!

The reality is that anything done to an extreme can be harmful. Chocolate and wine in small doses provide antioxidants linked to cancer prevention. Yet when consumed in excess, they can lead to tighter jeans and one hell of a hangover.

 

whatnot

Yoga can and is often overdone. Hot Yoga, Intense Yoga, Intense Hot Yoga — the Western world has turned a practice of stillness into an extreme sport. Classes are getting increasingly harder. Class levels on yoga studio schedules are becoming obsolete with Level 2 classes looking more like Level 5. As a result, the asana classes available these days are well beyond most people’s physical ability.

It is now equally the responsibility of the teacher to teach to the bodies in the room and feel confident in telling someone they should not do a particular pose, as much as it is the student’s responsibility to know when not try something.

While there are risky aspects to yoga and a few fluke cases, to assail the entire industry with such a blanketing and harsh statement as “how yoga can wreck your body” is melodramatic. This article was intended to sell papers and being a six billion-dollar grossing industry proves that yoga indeed sells.

Let us be clear on what is reality versus gossip or a means to grab headlines. It is not yoga that wrecks the body, but the approach of the people practicing the yoga.

 

 

Sarah Ezrin is a Los Angeles-based yoga instructor at YogaWorks and Equinox Fitness. Sarah is an ambassador for numerous mindful fitness companies and nonprofits such as Lululemon Athletica, Manduka, Yoga Earth, Yoga Gives Back, and the U.K.-based fitness line, Sweaty Betty. Through her teaching Sarah hopes to make yoga universally accessible and fun. Sarah’s joyous but challenging flow classes explore breath-linked movement within detailed alignment, intelligent sequencing, and a lot of laughter. For more information on Sarah please visit here.

July 1, 2012 YOGA 186

Four things you need to develop your home practice

Yoga DVD

You’ve just purchased a brand new yoga dvd set and are on your way to becoming the Ultimate Yogi. Now what?

To get the most out of this or any other yoga dvd series you have to develop a good home practice. Here are the basics you will need to get you going.

Time

We all wish we had time in our day. With the pace we keep and the ever increasing demands of our life, its tough to find the time to give back to yourself. Although its so important to do so, we tend to give everything else precedence and its only when the proverbial sh#$ hits the fan, that we wish we had the time to duck. So make a promise to yourself; give yourself an hour  each day, and keep it sacred.

Space

This one could be even tougher especially if we tend to co-habitate. Kids running amock, grandma falling down the stairs, your spouse bursts in on you in the middle of a challenging pose and you just wish that everyone would clear the you know what out.  A little foresight and little communication will secure the space you need. Find a spot, stick your flag in, it and claim it.

Gear

Clothing is optional especially if you’ve done a good job marking out time and space. If you do chose to wear them, make sure they are loose, comfortable, and stay where you put them. To be perfectly honest you don’t even need a yoga dvd or even a mat to practice yoga, but they do help, especially if you are just beginning your journey. A block and a strap are also useful. Many people shy away from these props because of some ego driven image that we don’t need the assistance. In truth, the block and strap keep your alignment in tact and actually aid your practice.

Grace

Advice from the Ultimate Yogi

Far more subtle but far more important is grace. You’ve fought hard to find the time, you’ve battled to win the real estate you need, you’ve purchased the yoga dvd set of your dreams and have secured the top of the line mat. Day one and you are ready to go. Third pose in you’ve pulled your hamstring. This is why grace is an important quality  - be gentle with yourself. There is not one relationship in the world that responds positively to violence, especially the one you have with yourself. The practice should accompany you throughout your life- its meant to help you age gracefully, not prematurely.

June 30, 2012 HOW-TO 153