inhale.exhale.pull

Here's just a little something, stay tuned for a pasta recipe coming either later today or this weekend (at the latest)...yay for carbs!

Yoga is a huge part of my life, and anyone else who feels the same way will totally get this...

This is a photo taken by Jim Campbell of OmLight Photography in Colorado. He takes amazing pictures, so check him out on Facebook and at his website. He posted this to Facebook this morning and it was one of the first things I saw this morning on my mini feed.

The caption was "Inhale. Exhale. Pull."

Here's the part where you kind of have to be a yogi to get it, but I totally think that "inhale.exhale.pull" is a great life motto.

Yoga isn't always about feeling comfortable. More so, it's about finding your edge and knowing whether to back off or to take a big, full ujjayi inhale and a big ujjayi exhale, and then pulling yourself further into the experience.

See the connection to the bigger picture? 

Yoga teaches me to live life fully both on and off my mat, and those lessons don't always come when I'm upside down in a hot, sweaty room.

Here's to finding wisdom where you least expect it.

Namaste.

Eating with Awareness

Okay, so this is turning out to be easier/more addicting than I thought it was going to be. Should I be sleeping at 2:23 AM? Absolutely. Am I here writing instead? You bet. Oh well, what are random three-day weekends for anyway, right?

So tonight my boyfriend said to me, "What are we going to eat tonight?" Now if you don't know me, you maybe think that's the kind of question that might warrant an 'oh-so-you-just-expect-me-to-cook-for-you' glare, or at least an eyebrow raise. While I'm just as much a feminist as the next girl, my love knows me well enough to be entirely certain that at any given time I've got anywhere from seven to twenty-seven recipes that I can't wait to try and "What are we going to eat?" is like saying taking the leash off your dog and saying "Go get that squirrel!" Yes, I just compared myself to your dog, but dogs are people too, so I'm okay with it.

I said to him "What do you feel like eating?"
Normally this warrants the response: "I don't know...Whatever..." (So helpful, thanks for narrowing the field, babe.)
But today he said, "Something healthy. Something that's good for us."
"DEAL!" I said. That's right up my alley, and it actually gave me an idea for my blog!

Now, I'm going to admit that I'm addicted to sugar. I physically cannot stop myself from eating "just one more cookie," or pie for breakfast, or half a bag of Guittard chocolate chips on the way home from the grocery store even though they were supposed to go in the recipe (yeah that happened...whoops...). BUT I really do believe that nothing good comes from putting things in our bodies that don't serve a purpose. The more conscious we are about what food does for and to our bodies the more healthy we'll be, and the chances of eating with awareness instead of on auto-pilot are multiplied. This is why I've decided to add nutritional information to all of my new recipe posts! Not necessarily calorie counts, fat grams, sodium content and all of those things (which I will give you when I have it!), but just a little knowledge regarding why it's good to eat certain things and what benefits you'll gain from the ingredients in my recipes. I know there's a ton of information out there regarding nutrition, but I will make a solemn vow to you right here and now to always cite my sources and only use them if they are reputable and factual.

Happy eating! (And please give me the strength to not eat anymore blueberry coffee cake tonight!!)