Yoga's hard?... What?!

     One of my best friend's, Sharnee (<-- Supposed to be an accent on the second "e"..), has been trying to get me to go do yoga with her for some time now; but I never get the time to go though. It's near Ann Arbor, MI, and I'm at least a good 45 minutes away; it's winter, and I don't want to risk my life; and it's on Sunday, which I have to get up early on Monday. This past weekend, Monday ended up being Martin Luther King day, so now was my chance!
     I get up at 7, meet Shar at 8:45, an we're off. I had a yoga mat, but I didn't have a towel, so she let me use her coral colored one.. I'm the luckiest guy, I know.. I sign in, and we sit down our mats and start stretching, or whatever routine anyone else has. I forgot to mention that this kind of yoga is called "Hot Yoga" and for good reason. they heat the room from 95-105 degrees.. and that's in winter, I can't imagine summer. Shar says it can be up to 120 degrees in summer.
     The instructor, Kellie, comes in and dims the lights, starts this calm music, and we start. By the way, this instructor has the best attitude about her, she's incredible. the first 10 minutes I'm starting to sweat. keep in mind, I never sweat during my workouts, my body recovers too quickly. Also, I've never done yoga before, so this was an intense start you could say.. I try and follow the poses of everyone else, and it's difficult because I've never done it before, but I get the hang of it a little. There are some people (like, my ridiculous friend) that look like they've been contortionists in their past life. I'm pretty sure I stooped what I was doing and just watched some people for a second. I'm over here struggling to just keep balance, and they're over there putting their heads behind their legs. Like. What.
     30 minutes in, my mat is not a mat anymore. It is now a 6 x 2 foot blue rag of sweat. I would step down, and the sweat would rise up from the mat. I would try and do a simple Warrior I pose, and even that was almost impossible because of my slip 'n' slide I was now fumbling on. I was sweating that bad. #thestrugglewasreal
     Then I hit a point where my muscles were shaking, my legs were barely holding me up, and I was fatigued beyond anything I could remember. The heat was finally hitting me to it's full extent. My head was a waterfall of sweat that was flowing into the ocean that was my body. It would get into my eyes and it would burn, so I had to keep pausing and wiping my eyes, to no avail.
     Now it was a hour in, and I wasn't worn out anymore - I was way past that. I felt like my body was slipping away from me; I was starting to get the funny feeling now - Passing out was beginning to be inevitable. Finally, Kellie says, "one more round", and I got the strength to hold on. My breathing was heavy and drawn out. At last, I could settle down and rest.
     The class was an hour and fifteen minutes long. 5 more and I would have passed out, I'm almost sure of it. We went into the beloved child's pose, and came back to our heart space. All of the people say some words in a different language, and then we all did the "stereotypical" ooohhhmmmmmm, and finish.
     All throughout the class, Kellie always kept people positive, and she spoke with a calm voice. She would come by and help people if they needed it, and if they were doing well, she let them know. She has a powerful personality, but not in the way people rule others, but in the way people stand by each other. She will pick you up if you fall, and she will give you that extra strength to hold on. The world needs more people like her, it surely would be a better place & a happier place. Even after the class was over, she came to me and told me I did very well for my first time, and offered me extra advice. She wasn't condescending or even sugar coating that I did bad - she was sincere about everything she said.

     I will most definitely do this again, once I get the time of course. Afterwards, we both went into Ann Arbor and got Gelato. It was magical, because we both have gone to Italy in the past year, and it tasted accurately to Italia. We both had a great time that day, and I can't wait to experience it all over again!

It's always good to try something new, even if it's your first and last time. Maybe it will better your health and understanding of the world, or give you a new perspective of the world around you. Always keep an open mind with what you do, and the reward will be always be happier in the end.

Sincerely,

A Dreaming Dietitian

Knowledge Is The Root, Happiness Is The Fruit

     I'm sorry I haven't posted in a few days now, I've been getting ready to go back to school, and working on my own Nutrition research. In honor of Academia and of the universities we all go to, I'm going to post about how incredible attaining knowledge is. The saying goes, 'Knowledge is Power'; and that couldn't be any closer to the truth. Think about it, how we're able to do anything that we can is because we know how to. If you want to get out of bed, walk around, or exercise, is all because you know how to do it. So many people nowadays take knowledge for granted! I mean, how ignorant can people be? You literally do anything you want if you know how to. But that's why our world is a mystery, now isn't it? Because we don't know everything, and it's human nature to find out everything we don't know, which results in a lifetime of mystery and exhaustion for attaining that knowledge.
     It's all the same with Nutrition. Nutrition has been important to people for thousands of years; because our body is only as good as what we put into it. Lately, however, laziness and self-loathing and greed has got in the way of all that. Which has resulted in epidemics and unhappiness. Everything we need is already on the planet on which we live, there's no need to 'make' anything new to help us have proper nutrition. We have 'superfoods', whole grains, water, fresh vegetables & fruits, lentils, nuts, & of course oxygen. We have everything already to live a happy, and healthy life. Best of all, it's one where we don't worry about health problems.
     The world is full of all the knowledge you need to ever do anything you want; especially, with the internet. We can read information on virtually anything we want, from anywhere in the world, in any language. That is so incredible. Everybody takes this all for granted, and doesn't put it to use! It makes me so freaking angry! This literally has virtually unlimited potential. Billions and billions, of pages, of information at our disposal - and most of it's even free. No matter what diet you wanted to look up, you could do it in seconds, and have full-scale review on it from a thousand different people. Or if you made up your own, and wanted to share it with others, you could make your own blog, of any sort, and share it with millions instantly - like I'm doing now.
     My favorite metaphor I came up with, is to think of knowledge being the root, and happiness ending up being your fruit. knowledge is the seed you plant, happiness is the fruit you pick.

I will be done ranting there, and in conclusion, I will share with you some of my recipes for smoothies and food.

4-Berry Smoothie

~ half the seeds of 1 Pomegranate

~ 2/3 of light vanilla yogurt (32oz)

~ Guessable sugar (3-5 Tbsp)

~ Cup of Milk (Guessable)

~ .83 lbs of Berry Explosion bag

Pumpkin Shake

~ 2 scoops vanilla icecream

~ 3 scoops Pumpkin Icecream

~ teaspoon of cinnamon

~ 1/2 tsp of nutmeg

~ cup of milk

~ 5 icecubes

Topped with:

~ 2 big & 1 small mint leaves

~ sprinkled cinnamon

Mediterranean Stir-Fry

~ Green bell peppers

~ Yellow bell peppers

~ Orange bell peppers

~ 1 sq Italian seasoning butter

~ Garlic Salt

~ Flax seed powder sprinkled

~ Tbsp Honey

~ Chicken Cubes

~ Green Onion scallions

~ 1 carrot

~ Potatoes

~ Extra Virgin Olive Oil

~ Tomatoes diced, add at end

Chicken & Baked Potato

~ 1 Chicken breast

Sauteed:

~ Green onion scallion

~ Snap peas

~ Green bell pepper

~ Extra virgin olive oil

~ Garlic salt

Potato wrapped in tin foil

Halved-open

~ Butter

~ Garlic Salt

~ Basil leaves or Parsley

Sprinkled with one lemon slice

All of these pictures correspond to each recipe. As you can see my two friends I made the stirfry for, really enjoyed it!

Remember, Knowledge is the seed you plant, happiness is the fruit you pick. Go out,and reap what you sow. Knowledge is absolutely everywhere, and not a bit of it will hurt you. Be educated in what you love and about the people around you, and you will be forever grateful for it.

Sincerely,

A Dreaming Dietitian

Mission: Recovery

  As I'm in the middle of recovering from the fun and eventful night last night, I will first say HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!! How exciting! Every New Year is like a fresh start, each time. You have yet another chance to do better things than the year before. Rather it be doing charity work, dressing more sophisticated, focusing on academics harder, or more importantly, eating healthier. This is a fresh and clean slate to be a better you! This, of course, is where 'New Year's Resolutions' come in; and the hardest part is sticking to them, but you can do it if you put your mind to it! Don't give up because you slip up once, just get right back on track! I have faith in all of you!
     Now since it's a little after 3:30pm, I got up an hour ago, and I feel beyond exhausted; like, I'm struggling to keep my eyes open.. I decided to make something about recovering from these wild nights you may have in the future. You know, so you don't have to feel like death the morning after. Sound helpful? Okay, lets go.

     I'll give you a little background about me first. I'm 20 years old, my birthday is August 31st, and up until the July right before my birthday, I never drank at all (besides our family traditions, twice a year of a shot). I saw what alcohol did to people, the decisions they made, and the bad situations (usually) that they would get themselves in; so, I said I don't want to do that. I still hung out with people that drank, and went to parties still, I just didn't drink myself. Once more, I'm in a fraternity too, so that made people even more baffled. Nevertheless, I stood my ground, and said no to people that offered me any - and they respected that. 

Now, from June 18th - July 15th, I studied abroad in Italy. It was a beyond amazing time! I could go on and on about it! But more crucially to this, I went on a Tuscany Wine Tour. We went to various wineries in Tuscany, tasted different cheeses, meats, and, yup you guessed it, wine. You see, in Italia, drinking isn't like it is here. It's much more calm, people can control themselves, and more importantly, they don't drink just because. They're drinking with their culture - it represents family time, exchanging stories, and social gathering. This opened up my eyes to the whole concept, and has hanged my ways about drinking thus.

NOW FOR THE RECOVERY

• Through my first times of drinking, I've found that I know when to stop, and I can control my alcohol intake. I've also found that my Nutrition instincts kick in very quickly when I get near my point - A.K.A PSR (Point of Safe Return). When that point gets near, I start drinking lots of water. The morning after, I wake up fine, no headaches, no tiredness (from the alcohol) - it's amazing! I predict that drinking water before going to bed circulates the fluids in your body, so the junk isn't just sitting still overnight. The water starts refreshing your body through the night, so you wake up much better than you would otherwise.
• From this point on, you're going to want to AVOID  junk foods at all costs. You don't want to add to your already existing aches and problems. Eat whole grains, fruits, vegetables - the nutrients in them will do wonders, and you'll start feeling better exponentially. There are antioxidants (yup, those again) that will take care of all the toxins you've absorbed, along with the protein that will help your body recover as well. Stay AWAY  from the processed foods - pizza, chips, etc. Again, adding to the problem
• Lets say you get absolutely plastered, like many Americans did last night, and you're dying this morning. If you didn't drink water the night before, start being responsible now, and drink some before you consume anything else; it will flush out what's been sitting in your body.
• Something you can keep in mind while drinking, is to keep an eye on how much you drink in an hour. Typically, a shot or one beer per hour is ideal. However, I know much better than this, and I'm well aware that people won't abide by this rule perfectly; I'm not naive nor foolish. I'm just saying to realize how much you're drinking, and realize to slow down if you need to. That's part of self-control, and being mature about what you're partaking in.
• Something that you can do to make your body feel better is taking a hot bath. Baths are probably the 8th wonder of the world. They are so good for everything! They relax your muscles, calm your mind, and helps you focus, among other things. You can add essential oils or herbs to your bath to have even more enriching effects.
• I've talked about Vitamin Waters before for colds.. well, I don't know this from experience, but more than one person has told me that they also work for hangovers. I hear the same two (XXX and Recovery) work the best.
• A smart choice also might be to just lay low for the day, and not do anything too strenuous. Your body is working on processing the alcohol and any other toxins you consumed, don't make it's job even harder. Extra work isn't going to be extra help.
• Drinking tea is going to give your body various nutrients that will help you recover that much faster. It has antioxidants, calming effects, and it's warm as well.

  I hope these quick tips helped you guys. Follow them, and your recovery will be that much faster. I'm currently fighting myself to not go to the gym today, since it was closed yesterday. It's going to be tough. I hope you all had a great ending to your year & an amazing to start to your new one - I wish you all the best in your New Year!

 

Sincerely,

A Dreaming Dietitian