The Yoga Diet

Photo: Whole Foods.com

I have seen many fad diets over the past 20 years, since picking up my first book on health, Fit for Life, at the age of 16.  Since then I have tried food combining, Eating for my blood type, and tried on even more labels, such as, Fruitatarian, Macrobiotic, Paleolithic, Raw Foodie, Vegan, Omnivore, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Gluten and Casein Free.  It may also come as no shocker, that within this constellation of food experiments, paired with unhealthy self-esteem, that an eating disorder erupted to further the complicate this already complicated relationship I was in, with Food.  There are as many different diets out there as there are religions, and in a way our diet is like a religion.  There is always a new list of commandments you don’t do to be HEALTHY which equals GOOD. The popular diets and beliefs take over the consumer market.  Gluten is the newest EVIL in the religion of health.  And companies catch on quickly to line the shelves with products catering to our newest set of beliefs. If we ingest Gluten we are BAD or at least feel bad, as I have told myself for the past 2 years, but if we eat super foods we are GOOD and will feel super human.  On a recent trip to whole foods I happened to be in the aisle with a woman that was new to gluten free.  There were 3 employees, opening different packages of gluten free cookies and letting us sample them. (I love whole foods) Of course I tried every one they offered, because it was FREE. I left the store with a sugar hangover, wondering if it was really a good idea to eat all of these sugar-filled, refined foods just because the gluten free industry has found a way to make them taste even better than the real deal, in some instances.  I started to wonder what it is I was being fed, and if the information was true to me.
Through my years of practicing yoga I began the study of Ayurveda, a sister science to Yoga, that teaches us how to live life. Ayurveda told me exactly what I wanted to hear in a moment the pendulum was swinging from, “There is only One Way to be radiantly healthy to I am no longer putting a label on myself when it comes to my relationship with food!”  I no longer believed and believe there could be just ONE way for the complexity of our human bodies.  Ayurveda told me that it was ok to eat meat if I needed some grounding, something that the sister science of Yoga and other philosophies have claimed to be bad. It explained why I craved eating raw during the summer months.  It told me that there is not going to be one diet for every body or even one way for your body your whole life or even every season.  Now I am consumer and practitioner of science of Ayurveda.  Still, it is my yoga practice that has given me the most insight into myself and the world, and has healed the struggles I had in my early twenties with an eating disorder. Yoga has taught me to not be a consumer of fads and ever changing diets and beliefs, rather to believe in myself.  Food is a way to experience the moment, sensations, and mostly nurturing my RELATIONSHIP with myself and the earth. Ayurveda has taught me to keep my body like a smooth running machine so that if I eat a little gluten or dairy, I still feel good. Yoga has taught me, if I eat too many cookies in the whole foods gluten free aisle, I don’t have to run 10 miles to burn them off.  Many times when I am seeing students for nutritional counseling we end up working on forgiveness, self-esteem, and savoring their life.  What we eat is only part of the puzzle, because we are multi-dimensional beings.  It takes more than the perfect meal to make us feel nourished.  How is your relationship with food?  What is happening on the mental and emotional level? Are you feeling integrated and deeply connected with yourself, and with nature?  This is The Yoga Diet Mantra… “I Know that I am FULL and Happy and am not looking for anything outside of myself.”  In the words of my teacher David Frawley, “The consumer is consumed.”

Soul Mate (inspired by Venus transit)

I Gaze into the reflection of the window
My eyes
Reflecting off the pane of glass
The separation that sends a shiver of pain
Through me; into me
The crevices, distortions, haze and imperfections within the glass
They obscure me from seeing clearly
I soften to gaze deeper
and Awake to the reflection of you
I feel your gaze upon me, within me
Our hands meet
Our lips press
Against the glass; Smooth and Cold
Until the the heat from your soul meets mine.
As it intersects in the space between; The space where we are one
Our heat shatters the pane between us.
Shards of glass fall like rain drops; to the earth beneath us.
We gaze into the reflection of each other
One Love

How to Raise Spiritually Balance Kids

Having opened a yoga school 3 years ago, working day and nice with fierce passion, finally finding what feels like my dharma, up to this point anyway….a few things have been neglected. For example, romantic vacations with the hubby where we lay in the sand half naked and drinking margaritas all day. now involve me teaching yoga in tropical places,  having discussions on dharma, artha, kama, and moksa, and entertaining a group of yogis all week long.  Great stuff but can take a little of the spark away! Family vacations have also fallen to the wayside, and my 6 year old was starting to question this, reminding me, that we promised we would go back to Disney when she was 6 and her sister was 3, three years ago. She was right on schedule, and I wanted to be truthful to her, because to me, the number one rule in parenting, is to follow through with your word.  I looked up from my computer and told her to pray about it because we didn’t have enough money right now, but if she prayed and believed it would most likely work out. 

Less than a month later we have our room booked and we are driving to Disney next week. Wow, powerful manifestor, these little ones are. I want to teach her to have faith and that she is a co creator, but how do I make sure I do not cross the lines into the spiritual materialism many of us have encountered over the past decade. 

Other comments I have heard this week are “Me and God did this.”-Cool she sees herself as a co-creator!! And then… “Mom, some kids don’t know Jesus…. Or Santa Claus..”

STRIKE. There is was, the confusion that I knew would kick in at some point coming from a family of Yogi/Philosophers who are more spiritual than religious, having an evangelical Christian grandmother, and an Atheist Grandfather who was mocking me in my head since I heard the statement comparing Jesus to Santa Claus.

I went from teaching her to have faith and being a co-creator, to teaching that God is like Santa Claus, oh and by the way you will find out once day that all adults are big LIARS.  Even though my #1 parenting advice is truthfulness.  All I could in that moment, surrounded by the image of my family (in my mind) laughing, shaking their heads in disapproval of what a lousey mother I was, was to look her deep in the eyes, lump in my throat, and say,” well honey they are not really the same thing.”  Thankfully the comments stopped there, for now. 

I have since decided that all I can teach her is to be strong in her relationships. Her relationships with Faith, with God, and with the Gifts we receive. 

I paid off my car last week and received an overpayment check of .02 Cents. My husband laughed, and almost threw it away. To me it was important to make the trip to the bank and deposit that check because it represents my relationship with receiving gifts and abundance in my life.  We shouldn’t reject the gifts that come into our lives, we should go to the source of the gift with Gratitude weather it is from Santa, the Bank, or the Divine.   It always goes back to the Divine. I will continue to teach my daughters the Truth, and that is, when we are Grateful and Faithful we just may discover our strength and feel a glimpse of just how much we are Loved. As for the Santa Myth, I will deal with that later.