YogaEarth sent me their 3 flavors of Keen-Wah Decadence bars to review. These organic, vegan, gluten-free protein bars come in Coconut Almond, Cayenne Cinnamon and Chocolate Chia.
I will admit that I am an extremely picky eater and don't typically eat protein bars. I wasn't sure whether I would like any of these bars, so I decided to share each with others so that I would have multiple opinions.
Coconut Almond - I tried this bar first. I'm not the biggest coconut fan, so I wasn't sure what I'd think. I liked it! It had an almost cookie-type taste and texture to it. I didn't find the coconut overwhelming at all, and mostly tasted almonds and chocolate. As a protein bar, I felt this was top notch. As a cookie (which I ate the rest as a substitute for), it was a passable dessert. I shared this one with my mom and she thought it was fine but she would have liked more of a coconut flavor.
Cayenne Cinnamon - I love cayenne and cinnamon in my hot chocolate, so I was excited to try this. However, it just wasn't the right bar for me. The cinnamon was prominent, but so was the cayenne. I think, in the end, the cayenne bite was a bit too much for me. I shared this with two co-workers as a mid-afternoon snack. They both liked it. One said that the cayenne was what made this bar for her.
Chocolate Chia - My favorite bar! I loved this one. I thought it tasted more candy bar-ish and had a better dark chocolate type flavor (in the filling). I also shared this with my co-workers. The two that had tried the Cayenne Cinnamon both said it was fine but they definitely preferred the Cayenne Cinnamon.
One common theme with everyone I shared with: they thought it was milk chocolate, not dark chocolate, on the outside of the bar. It was more melty and less bitter than usual dark chocolate; I assume this is due to a higher cocoa butter content. However, since those people (and myself) are generally dark chocolate lovers, we would have prefered something a little harder and bitter.
The bars were definitely a winner in my books.
Just a note that I will be taking a break from blogging until Sat July 7. See you then!
I am a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 200) teaching group classes outside. If you want to be notified by email or text of class times, use the Contact Me page to let me know.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Week 25 Challenge - Past, Present or Future?
This year I decided to challenge myself to reflect on various Yoga and
Buddhist aspects throughout the year. The challenges come from a variety of
places including readings in Deborah Adele's Yamas
and Niyamas and Thich Nhat Hanh's Heart of the Buddha's Teaching
and Happiness.
This week, I challenged myself to observe how much time I spend in the past or future, as opposed to the present moment. I knew it would be a lot but I surprised myself with some discoveries.
The past? I found I spend time in the past in one of two ways. I relive a discussion but take an alternate route. Sort of like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books I read when I was young. I redo a conversation with a different outcome. Definitely not a productive use of my time.
The other way I spend time in the past is actually both past and future. I envision a conversation in the future where I'm telling someone about a story in my past. Do you follow that convoluted path? Well entrenched in both the future and the past, but definitely not the present.
The future? I definitely spend more time there, certainly in both the instances noted above but also just imagining different scenarios and conversations. And a lot of it is work-related (office work, not Yoga work).
So what do I do about it? Well, I've found this week that when I'm off on a work tangent, I ask myself the simple question "are you at work now"? Since the answer is inevitably "no", I let the work thoughts go. It's been helpful, but I think it will take a lot of practice to let go of that habit.
I also had an interesting discovery. I spend a fair amount of time reading fiction each day. I always thought of it as an escape from the present moment. However, what I've realized is that it is instead an escape from the thoughts in my head. And much of the time that means letting go of being stuck in the past or future. Therefore, even though the book really brings me into a different world, I've felt it to be an improvement over where my head was generally before I started reading.
Next week is the half-way mark for the year (Week 26). However, I'm also taking a break from blogging for about 1.5 weeks after my upcoming Tuesday post. Therefore, I won't blog my 26th week of the challenge. But I will be evaluating the challenge, what my original direction was, where it's gone and any shifts I want to make in the challenge for the last half of the year.
This week, I challenged myself to observe how much time I spend in the past or future, as opposed to the present moment. I knew it would be a lot but I surprised myself with some discoveries.
The past? I found I spend time in the past in one of two ways. I relive a discussion but take an alternate route. Sort of like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books I read when I was young. I redo a conversation with a different outcome. Definitely not a productive use of my time.
The other way I spend time in the past is actually both past and future. I envision a conversation in the future where I'm telling someone about a story in my past. Do you follow that convoluted path? Well entrenched in both the future and the past, but definitely not the present.
The future? I definitely spend more time there, certainly in both the instances noted above but also just imagining different scenarios and conversations. And a lot of it is work-related (office work, not Yoga work).
So what do I do about it? Well, I've found this week that when I'm off on a work tangent, I ask myself the simple question "are you at work now"? Since the answer is inevitably "no", I let the work thoughts go. It's been helpful, but I think it will take a lot of practice to let go of that habit.
I also had an interesting discovery. I spend a fair amount of time reading fiction each day. I always thought of it as an escape from the present moment. However, what I've realized is that it is instead an escape from the thoughts in my head. And much of the time that means letting go of being stuck in the past or future. Therefore, even though the book really brings me into a different world, I've felt it to be an improvement over where my head was generally before I started reading.
Next week is the half-way mark for the year (Week 26). However, I'm also taking a break from blogging for about 1.5 weeks after my upcoming Tuesday post. Therefore, I won't blog my 26th week of the challenge. But I will be evaluating the challenge, what my original direction was, where it's gone and any shifts I want to make in the challenge for the last half of the year.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
July Newsletter - Important Class Information
I've posted my July newsletter early to highlight some changes coming up: click here.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Not Perfect, Don't Want To Be
I wanted to share this great post from Everything Yoga: Practice Far From Perfect
I love this perspective. Because I know I'm far from perfect. A student and I were having a conversation about awareness, and how it is sort of painful. There is a period when you become aware of your thoughts and actions, but haven't actually made the steps to get them in line with your beliefs. It's an uncomfortable period where two parts of yourself just aren't lining up.
That's what the Far From Perfect post reminds me of. There are definitely parts of me that don't yet line up. Some get resolved relatively quickly, some take years. Some might not happen in this lifetime.
But that's what it's about, isn't it? The journey. The learning. And keeping things light and in perspective while I travel on life's path.
I love this perspective. Because I know I'm far from perfect. A student and I were having a conversation about awareness, and how it is sort of painful. There is a period when you become aware of your thoughts and actions, but haven't actually made the steps to get them in line with your beliefs. It's an uncomfortable period where two parts of yourself just aren't lining up.
That's what the Far From Perfect post reminds me of. There are definitely parts of me that don't yet line up. Some get resolved relatively quickly, some take years. Some might not happen in this lifetime.
But that's what it's about, isn't it? The journey. The learning. And keeping things light and in perspective while I travel on life's path.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Week 24 Challenge - Just Observing
This year I decided to challenge myself to reflect on various Yoga and
Buddhist aspects throughout the year. The challenges come from a variety of
places including readings in Deborah Adele's Yamas
and Niyamas and Thich Nhat Hanh's Heart of the Buddha's Teaching
and Happiness.
My challenge for this week was to just observe myself, to take the role of the witness. Observation without judgement.
This was a good challenge for me. It is easy for me to slip into one of 2 roles with myself. Either judge, jury and you know where that one goes. Or purposefully turned in the other direction, so that I don't have to observe.
It was (and still is) a challenge for me to observe in the moment. I do tend to unconsciously hit the "off" switch on observing and then do observations later, at the end of the day, in the safety and comfort of my room.
This week I worked at observing more in the moment. Just opening the door a bit and showing myself that there is nothing scary about observing. I'm not asking myself to change in the moment, simply to observe my actions and my feelings.
Yesterday I read a quote attributed to Stephen Batchelor: "I aspire to awaken, I appreciate its value, and I am convinced it is possible." When I read that quote, I was contemplating it in terms of enlightenment, as that is what the passage I was reading was about. However, as I write this, I realize that quote is very applicable for me in terms of awakening to the moment. Definitely more contemplation and practice on this one to come.
My challenge for this week was to just observe myself, to take the role of the witness. Observation without judgement.
This was a good challenge for me. It is easy for me to slip into one of 2 roles with myself. Either judge, jury and you know where that one goes. Or purposefully turned in the other direction, so that I don't have to observe.
It was (and still is) a challenge for me to observe in the moment. I do tend to unconsciously hit the "off" switch on observing and then do observations later, at the end of the day, in the safety and comfort of my room.
This week I worked at observing more in the moment. Just opening the door a bit and showing myself that there is nothing scary about observing. I'm not asking myself to change in the moment, simply to observe my actions and my feelings.
Yesterday I read a quote attributed to Stephen Batchelor: "I aspire to awaken, I appreciate its value, and I am convinced it is possible." When I read that quote, I was contemplating it in terms of enlightenment, as that is what the passage I was reading was about. However, as I write this, I realize that quote is very applicable for me in terms of awakening to the moment. Definitely more contemplation and practice on this one to come.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
June Love List
20 things I'm loving right now:
- Vacation coming up in less than 2 weeks.
- My new lunch container.
- The exciting changes happening in the office I work in.
- Tim Horton's raspberry lemonade.
- Getting back into taking the bus.
- Yoga / meditation breaks at work.
- Extra time in the mornings (getting up a little earlier, starting work a little later).
- Figuring out my summer teaching schedule.
- "New" clothes (new to me).
- Farmer's market goodies.
- The steps my mom is building in the backyard.
- Getting a haircut Friday!
- Strawberries from our garden.
- Waking up with my cat.
- Meditating with my students.
- Juicing.
- My new laptop.
- Short visits with friends (better than no visits).
- The inner calm when things don't go the way I expect.
- A good book on a sunny day.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Friendly vs Friends
I was reading an interesting post on professionalism. It got me thinking about friendly vs. friends and what has happened to the word "friend" in our social media-centric society.
How many friends do you have on Facebook? Now how many of them are actually friends? I left Facebook earlier this year, but I certainly know that my contacts were full of co-workers, students, family members, acquaintances and a small handful of actual friends.
Maybe friend is a word we throw around a little too easily (sort of like "love"). Who is a friend in my world? Someone that I can call / email / text just to check in. Someone I go out of my way to visit. Someone I would call if something really good or really bad happened in my life.
And that list is a small one. A couple people from university that I'm still in touch with. A handful of people I met at work. Someone I met in an organization I used to run. And some of my family members (but definitely not all).
And that's it. So who is everyone else? They are family, co-workers, students, acquaintances. And I'm happy to be friendly with them; but at the end of the day neither of us is going to call the other in the middle of the night (and that's probably a good thing).
How many friends do you have on Facebook? Now how many of them are actually friends? I left Facebook earlier this year, but I certainly know that my contacts were full of co-workers, students, family members, acquaintances and a small handful of actual friends.
Maybe friend is a word we throw around a little too easily (sort of like "love"). Who is a friend in my world? Someone that I can call / email / text just to check in. Someone I go out of my way to visit. Someone I would call if something really good or really bad happened in my life.
And that list is a small one. A couple people from university that I'm still in touch with. A handful of people I met at work. Someone I met in an organization I used to run. And some of my family members (but definitely not all).
And that's it. So who is everyone else? They are family, co-workers, students, acquaintances. And I'm happy to be friendly with them; but at the end of the day neither of us is going to call the other in the middle of the night (and that's probably a good thing).
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Week 23 Challenge - Purification (Take 2)
This year I decided to challenge myself to reflect on various Yoga and
Buddhist aspects throughout the year. The challenges come from a variety of
places including readings in Deborah Adele's Yamas
and Niyamas and Thich Nhat Hanh's Heart of the Buddha's Teaching
and Happiness.
In Week 20, I did a challenge on purification. It dealt with small items in my day, but I knew I wanted to tackle the same challenge in regards to food. I do believe purifying my body on the inside is really important (since I tend to take in a lot of toxins in my food).
This week, I tried juicing as a challenge in purification. I decided to start each morning that way without intentionally changing anything else and see what I thought.
Taste? Yum! I made a variety of juices throughout the week, but all with the same theme. 1 green (romaine or spinach), 1 base fruit (apple or grapes) and 1 accent fruit (strawberries, nectarine, kiwi). I'd say the Kiwi/Grape/Romaine was my favorite, but the nectarine mixes were really good and they were all tasty.
Easy? Relatively. I bought some fruit at the beginning of the week. I bought organic as much as possible. Some of the fruit wasn't ideal for eating, but it was still great for juicing (resulting in less waste). I used greens from our garden. It didn't take long to make juice each morning and the clean-up was pretty simple.
Effects? I feel like I made some healthier choices in the rest of my day that might have been affected by the juice in the morning. With my breakfast, I tended to have 1 cup of coffee instead of 2. I craved salads a bit more throughout the week. I also craved juice later in the day as well.
I definitely think the juicing is a keeper. I plan to experiment with veggie juices as well at some point.
In Week 20, I did a challenge on purification. It dealt with small items in my day, but I knew I wanted to tackle the same challenge in regards to food. I do believe purifying my body on the inside is really important (since I tend to take in a lot of toxins in my food).
This week, I tried juicing as a challenge in purification. I decided to start each morning that way without intentionally changing anything else and see what I thought.
Taste? Yum! I made a variety of juices throughout the week, but all with the same theme. 1 green (romaine or spinach), 1 base fruit (apple or grapes) and 1 accent fruit (strawberries, nectarine, kiwi). I'd say the Kiwi/Grape/Romaine was my favorite, but the nectarine mixes were really good and they were all tasty.
Easy? Relatively. I bought some fruit at the beginning of the week. I bought organic as much as possible. Some of the fruit wasn't ideal for eating, but it was still great for juicing (resulting in less waste). I used greens from our garden. It didn't take long to make juice each morning and the clean-up was pretty simple.
Effects? I feel like I made some healthier choices in the rest of my day that might have been affected by the juice in the morning. With my breakfast, I tended to have 1 cup of coffee instead of 2. I craved salads a bit more throughout the week. I also craved juice later in the day as well.
I definitely think the juicing is a keeper. I plan to experiment with veggie juices as well at some point.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
What's in the bottle?
What is in your beauty or skin care products? If you want to see what some of the common elements are: click here. Some people are aware of the nasties in their bottles, some aren't, many don't care. That's entirely up to you. My clean regime is far from bulletproof but here it is:
- Facial cleanser: Burt's Bees Soap Bark & Chamomile - A lot of ingredients and Burt's Bees is owned by Clorox. But when I work my way through the ingredient list, I'm happy with it and will likely continue to use it.
- Body cleanser: Naturally Upper Canada Hand & Body Wash - I don't like seeing Parfum / Fragrance in any ingredient list and I mistakenly bought this before I realized the label doesn't indicate it wasn't tested on animals, so I won't buy again.
- Facial moisturizer: Alba Jasmine & Vitamin E Moisture Cream - I'm pretty happy with the list with the exception of Fragrance. When I'm out I'll look for an option without the synthetic fragrance.
- Body moisturizer: Arbonne FC5 Conditioning Body Moisture - This is a high end brand, but I don't love the ingredient list. Way too many things and a lot that I can't pronounce. I won't buy it again.
- Toothpaste: Colgate Total....argh, definitely contains SLS. I used to use a natural toothpaste and will likely wander that way again. I was drawn back to the commercial toothpastes because I thought they might strengthen my enamel better.
- Mouthwash: Jason Cinnamon Clove - I love this mouthwash and the ingredient list!
- Shampoo: Baking Soda
- Conditioner: Apple Cider Vinegar
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Change is Good
Today's post was inspired by this post from Everything Yoga. It is good to change things up, question the routines. What am I questioning these days:
What is the best way for me to eat? That's a huge, rather dominating question in my life. But with a history of digestive problems competing with a love of rich food, it's something I continue to work on.
What are the important things I want to fit into my life? That was the idea behind my Big Rocks exercise last month.
And the big one that's coming up right now: What is important to me in teaching? I will be reducing my teaching hours in the next couple of months. I want to ensure that I still carry forward the messages I want to carry. With less time to do that, I want to spend some time thinking about exactly what those messages are, how I reach the most students and how I serve my current students with the changes happening.
What is the best way for me to eat? That's a huge, rather dominating question in my life. But with a history of digestive problems competing with a love of rich food, it's something I continue to work on.
What are the important things I want to fit into my life? That was the idea behind my Big Rocks exercise last month.
And the big one that's coming up right now: What is important to me in teaching? I will be reducing my teaching hours in the next couple of months. I want to ensure that I still carry forward the messages I want to carry. With less time to do that, I want to spend some time thinking about exactly what those messages are, how I reach the most students and how I serve my current students with the changes happening.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Week 22 Challenge - Mindfulness
This year I decided to challenge myself to reflect on various Yoga and
Buddhist aspects throughout the year. The challenges come from a variety of
places including readings in Deborah Adele's Yamas
and Niyamas and Thich Nhat Hanh's Heart of the Buddha's Teaching
and Happiness.
This week's challenge was to practice mindfulness meditation in a new way. I decided to spread my mindfulness practice throughout the day. Instead of sitting down once or twice, I created mindfulness breaks.
I started my day with 5 Tibetan Rites and ended it with journaling. Then I added 6 breaks in between (every 2 hrs). When that time came I would spend 10 minutes doing Yin or Restorative Yoga and mindfulness meditation.
Was it challenging? Yes. 2 hours goes by very fast and sometimes (especially at the office) it was hard to make the time to fit them in. And sometimes I needed to shuffle times around to make it work because of commitments. But in some ways it was easier because I only needed to fit in 10 minutes.
What did I think? I loved it! It brought a peace and focus to my day. At the office it helped me get off the hamster wheel in my mind for a short bit and I found work much easier after my breaks. At home it helped to give me focus towards my intention, my priorities.
I think I'll keep the mindfulness moments going. In addition to helping my mind, the consistent Yin and Restorative practice is leaving my body feeling much happier as well.
This week's challenge was to practice mindfulness meditation in a new way. I decided to spread my mindfulness practice throughout the day. Instead of sitting down once or twice, I created mindfulness breaks.
I started my day with 5 Tibetan Rites and ended it with journaling. Then I added 6 breaks in between (every 2 hrs). When that time came I would spend 10 minutes doing Yin or Restorative Yoga and mindfulness meditation.
Was it challenging? Yes. 2 hours goes by very fast and sometimes (especially at the office) it was hard to make the time to fit them in. And sometimes I needed to shuffle times around to make it work because of commitments. But in some ways it was easier because I only needed to fit in 10 minutes.
What did I think? I loved it! It brought a peace and focus to my day. At the office it helped me get off the hamster wheel in my mind for a short bit and I found work much easier after my breaks. At home it helped to give me focus towards my intention, my priorities.
I think I'll keep the mindfulness moments going. In addition to helping my mind, the consistent Yin and Restorative practice is leaving my body feeling much happier as well.
Friday, June 1, 2012
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