At any sport, to win you have to work hard, play by the rules, and most important, stay in the game. I use these same rules for life. Often I see people in this game called life getting sad, mad or pouting, and dropping the ball and leaving at half time.

Like when you decide to eat super healthy and you start on your goal on Monday and then by Wednesday you are all ready eating the whole gallon of chocolate ice-cream. Or when you decide to be more organized and then you find yourself leaving your closet a mess after a rushy, crazy morning. Or when you decide to stop smoking and after a crazy day at work you find yourself smoking that last cigarette you found inside of the drawer of your desk by “accident”.

Relax, It’s fine! Like they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” 

Don’t get your ass too crazy on those things. Don’t forget your overall goal. It’s okay if on Wednesday you ate the whole cake, by Thursday you remember your overall goal and you choose a salad. No big deal. You eat it, you enjoy it, and now you move on!

Don’t doubt yourself. Be confident that you are on your way to whatever you want to accomplish. Everyday, every bad and good experience gets you closer to obtaining it. You learn from everything.

Often, I see people leaving their goal for a stupid mistake or a bad day. They judge themselves and let go of their dreams so quickly. Whatever your goal is don’t forget  to stay in the game. Stay strong, get your positive attitude on, don’t compare yourself with anybody and trust that you will win; you will accomplish it.

Just trust.

But I just started thinking about recent incidents and there is a common denominator happening; it’s like a disease. It’s spreading!!!

Its easier to be a party popper and be the bitch at the party. And with party I mean life. I see it all the time. The lady in front of me at the line in the grocery store screaming frantically because the line is too slow, or “friends” making rude and unnecessary comments, people talking poorly about others, or just people being dramatic.

Maybe it’s you.

You may not even notice yourself, maybe you are too used to it. But you may be the dark energy in the room. Think about it. Nobody is going to tell you. Here’s a tip: analyze yourself. Do people call you to invite you places all the time? Or do you have to call them? Do you have friends calling you or nocking on your door without any particular reason? Maybe and I am just saying maybe, you are the bitch in the room. And slowly but surely people around you are not willing to spend a minute of their time with you. Nobody wants to be around negative energy. It’s important to keep a low level on your bitchiness. Being a bitch is never OKAY. Stop the brat before you wreck yourself. Make the shift and be the lover!

If you are unsure if you are crossing the line ask family and close friends and be open to the response. LISTEN without objecting/refuting/refusing.

There you grow!

Peace.

Every Day for the last two weeks I had the same thing for breakfast and I love it because it’s super yummy and very filling. You are going to love it, too. It’s full of protein and fiber. So, this is what you need:

Two slices of Rudi’s bread—I get the double fiber but the white kind tastes amazing, too. It just doesn’t have much fiber or protein. It depends on what you are you looking for.

2 tablespoons of peanut butter from PB2.

1/2 cup raisins and unsalted sunflowers seeds mix (or whatever you have, fruit, dry fruit, more nuts, honey, etc.)

And about one table spoon of organic powdered cinnamon.

Well my sexy friends, if you have never tried PB2 you will be surprise when you see that this peanut butter is different because it comes as a powder. Don’t be scared about it’s texture. It’s super delicious and very healthy for you because it doesn’t have as much fat as the regular peanut butter. If you are like me and adore peanut butter this is a great alternative because you can eat a ton more without having to make sure you eat the right portion. I mean regular peanut butter has like 200 calories in two tablespoons, and it’s not like a ton of calories, but if you are like me and like to go crazy and live to eat peanut butter then totally go for the PB2. It’s your best option for natural flavor, and calorie content. I buy mine at Grass Roots Natural Market, because it’s the only place they have it in town.

I like to leave my sandwich open and I like it super crunchy, so I  toast the bread and then add peanut butter then I throw anything I can find on top of it, sometimes it’s fruit sometimes cashews, you can really add whatever for a POWPOW for your sandwich!

There you have it, a super easy and totally a glamourous breakfast!

Sankalpas are totally understimated, they are totally cool and super important. Your yoga practice goes to another level when you have a Sankalpa. It’s like you give wings to your yoga own practice.

I usually try to start my yoga classes with a Sankalpa. Sankalpa is a Sanskrit word and basically means Intention. So I encourage my students to set an Intention for each class; it can be anything they want it to be. I always share my personal Sankalpa with my class, to encourage them. Every class it’s usually something different, but for the first time I decided to have the same Sankalpa in every class I teach for the whole month of March.

I decided to make my Sankalpa Surrender – it is not from Diana Ross’s album. Which I like because it reminds me my childhood. Not as much as the Beatles though.

Anyway, surrender can mean so many things and it can apply to so many situations. The word screamed at me after an awesome yoga practice I had last week. My teacher made every movement dedicated to surrender and after that specific class I knew right then it was something I needed to work on.

Sankalpa’s are important to have before the class because it gives your yoga practice a more dense feeling, a purpose. Like you are not just practicing yoga to get super flexible and to show your man you can bring your legs over your head to the sky. Or to impress your friends at parties and say look, look I can do the car wheel and I had 5 shots of tequila in me. Seriously when you have a Sankalpa for your practice you are not just practicing yoga to get a sweat or de-stress your self. It’s bigger than that.

A Sankalpa can be about humanity, or other people, somebody that is sick, a friend that is depressed; maybe you dedicate your practice to somebody you don’t know yet, or it can also be totally about you. You choose what you want to dedicate your practice to.

Next time you are on your mat, bring your hands to your heart and let your heart speak to you. Hear the voice of your bright self, your higher self, God, Angels or whatever you want to call them and listen to what your Sankalpa needs to be.

At the beginning of this week I got to know a really cool chick here in town; she is also a yoga teacher and she does all kinds of fun things. She has a blog called Bottling Health, so she is really into juicing and she inspired me to do something with the spinach I had in my fridge. I got all creative, oh shit, and made spinach lemonade. So the way I made it is the lazy way, but obviously you can make it super healthy and from scratch.

• 1 cup of Lemonade all ready made, basically whatever your find in your store. Make sure you get a good one; you know avoid high-fructose corn syrup and from concentrate. Mine was made with organic cane sugar, and a cup equals 28grams of sugar, that is like 7 tbs. I personally really don’t mind the sugar because I am putting spinach so it evens up.
• A bunch of organic spinach
• Ice
• Blender

Put the spinach, the made lemonade and the ice inside the blender and blend. Seriously it’s the most yummiest drink since they invented your favorite drink. I let one of my little neighbors try it and he loved it. So it’s something cool to do for kids since it’s tasty and healthy. I can’t wait to make popsicles out of it this summer.

Disclaimer: I know the picture shows the ice cubes, but it’s better if you blend them with the rest of the ingredients.

There are a lot of things in life nobody teaches us how to deal with. In school we are taught how to do the technical stuff, but nobody teaches you things about relationships; how to be a husband or a wife, a friend, how to be a parent, or how to cope with our super mega busy life. I mean unless you are majoring in psychology, you are kind learning those things on your own at your own pace.

Some of us learn some of that stuff by making mistakes. But sometimes we don’t learn the lesson it all. And we keep making the same mistakes.

There is a stigma about asking for professional help.

For me the stigma of therapy wore off at a very young age. I was sixteen and I found out my parents didn’t have money and I was starting to take on some big responsibilities in my life. I was mad about it. I lived my entire life getting everything I wanted with out deserving it. Silly reason to go see a therapist I think now, but it helped me. I figured things out in like one visit. Seriously!

Ever since then, I’ve seen therapy as something that I can go back to whenever I need it. Not because I need to fix something but because therapy is how I grow, how I figure things out, how I learn about myself, and how I access all of the parts of myself that I need in order to become the person that I want to be.

There has been times I had to go to see somebody because I was truly suffering. And I healed. There is some truly awesome help to be found out there; no matter the nature of your distress.

It is okay not to know, but there are professional people out there that can help you figure things out. We are all complicated human beings and we are a combination of millions of layers. And it’s your responsibility to be the best you can be. Your kids, partner, and friends deserve it. An of course YOU deserve it, and basically you owe it to yourself to step up to the plate.

A couple weeks ago my blue-eyed man and I were browsing through the book store like we do almost every other day. I seriously think in an imaginary world we probably would actually live at book store. We love books! Anyway, the man found one of the best recipe books I have read in the last couple of years and you know how excited we get when we find recipe books with pictures. So we just had to buy Skinny Bitch, The Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. This book has me giggling and clapping in the kitchen. Kim Barnouin is the co-writer of the very famous book Skinny Bitch and last year she threw down an amazing cook book.

This book is for anybody; for people like me, a complete idiot in the kitch, or for the pros that have some mad skill abilities with the spatula and want to get inspired from another bad ass. So yeah run and get this book right now. You actually don’t have to run because you can just order online, but totally go for the run because I will be so proud of you. Actually I would be proud of you even if you don’t run.

Anyway, when I was reading some of her recipes I could totally sense she wrote the book thinking about all of us diagnosed with huge cooking-mental blockages. Every recipe is explained to the most minute detail and the ingredients are all things we are familiar with. My favorite part from every recipe is the break down of what each portion has; like the calories, fat, sat. fat, etc. I think that is pretty darn cool.

You got to love the first 69 pages of just pure fun information. I love facts. Give me some accurate facts and I would believe you, and then I would love you, because there is nothing sexier than a smart persona.

The first recipe we made was the Orange Scones, and then for breakfast The Man made Crepes with Raspberry Sauce. Both dishes are very easy to make and so delicious, so it’s a win-win. I will be making some more of her delicious food, so keep posted for more recipes or maybe just go get the book so we can try to make her dishes together.

I sometimes feel I am an experiment. Like some other dudes from another universe are experimenting with my life, and yours, too. I don’t think this all the time, just sometimes when I start thinking about why am I here on this planet. My mind goes to trippy thoughts. I sometimes think the planet Earth is like a lab and there are some “scientists” that we obviously can’t see, testing things on us just for fun. Like we do with rabbits and mice.

Every negative incident that I had in my life I think somebody is testing me. Some people call it God, maybe it is him or her. I don’t know yet.

Anyway, there is a lot of information out there about eating breakfast, so I decided to be my own scientist. There are a ton of benefits if you have a healthy breakfast every day. I usually have a small some-some but my biggest meal of the day is dinner. Traditionally it should be lunch because in Mexico the biggest meal is lunch. But I am totally copying the Americans and I am digging those french fries a couple hours before going to bed.

There is a saying eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.  But does it really work? I know I usually have breakfast like a pauper and dinner like a queen, but reading different articles all over the web may have me changed my mind.

Since there is a ton of information about the positives of having a big breakfast I decided to test myself and have the biggest breakfast ever for 3 days. I went super healthy, you know, my mind was thinking fiber, fiber and more fiber. And I was looking for any positives or negatives in my mood and my eating choices throughout the day.

First day: about a cup of brown rice, two cups of blueberries, two cup nuts and  1/2 of a cup of vanilla light soy milk (I wouldn’t usually use so many nuts, instead I would probably do half of a cup).

Second day: a mega sub from Winn-Dixie (like subway-but better) loaded with veggies, I think it was about 8 inches long (I will usually just eat the vegetables with out the bread).

Third day: a peanut butter sandwich with a smoothie made from one scoop of Vega protein powder and two cups of vanilla light Silk soy milk (I unusually will just have the smoothie).

So I had my big breakfast around 8am and for the 3 days I did not need any snacks between breakfast and lunch. I am usually eating lunch by 12 and this time I was eating lunch almost at 2!!!! WOW, I was just not hungry. For lunch I had a normal meal, but for dinner I was fine with just making a smoothie or a pb&j.

I think I like eating a big breakfast better because I didn’t feel as hungry through the day and when I was going to bed I felt light like a feather. Not really but I always wanted to say that.

So if you are not so sure about going big in the morning, just test your self for a couple of days to see if that would work for you. For me it definitely worked. I guess my grandma and my mom where right after all “a big breakfast will keep you smiling through the day” AMEN!!!!

Every year I deal with the combination of consumerism and guilt. Since Valentines day is not a real holiday, I mean it’s not Christmas or my birthday. Those two are the only ones I consider important. Oh yeah and of course our first kiss anniversary and don’t let me forget our wedding anniversary either. If I keep thinking I am going to end up realizing that Valentines Day is actually an important holiday and I may add it to my top 3 holidays.

Anyway, yeah, Valentines Day is another holiday probably created by a very smart marketer. I bet right now she is drinking martinis in her own private island laughing at the whole Cupid story. Actually that can’t be true, but somebody for sure is getting the benefits of all our red and pink buying .

Today I was not thinking about the ones that needed my money the most, I was selfish and I was just thinking about my man and making him feel special. He did the same for me. So when I got my presents. I didn’t feel guilty. It was okay. I keep convincing myself it’s okay.

I love today, I possibly will return some of my presents and donate the money to the Farm Sanctuary. That doesn’t matter right now, I just love I got to show the love to the rock star and the great conversations that I get to have with him. He gets me so inspired about possibilities that lie ahead for us.

I Love that we’re  Together. Happy Heart Day!

I get confused with the overload of nutritional information that’s available. Just this morning I was reading that popcorn was bad for you. WHAT?? This is terrible news. The NY times is stupid and probably deeply unhappy with themselves and because of that, now they want to make my movie experience shit. They are talking about movie popcorn, so now I am writing a letter to the the corporation in charge of the movie theaters asking them to make my delicious snack healthier. I guess I do have too much time on my hands. I hope they listen to me. I doubt it. For now NO more popcorn in movie theaters for me.

Nutrition in this country is extremely confusing. I am constantly hearing about new studies proclaiming the health benefits of certain food. One day they say that yogurt is good for you, the next day it’s bad. It is the same with coffee, wine, eating meat, dairy, salt and soy products. The information I get as a consumer depends in whoever pays for the study.

Lets add the fact that I come from another country so my confusion goes to the maximum level of confusions. The information can dramatically change from one country to another. And when I try to find the right information, I find myself frustrated.

I constantly want to punch the food industry with my imaginary pink boxing gloves because they clearly don’t care about the health of the American population, and all they care about is feeding their pockets with the greens.

They make our job as consumers pretty hard. There is constant questionnaire about what I eat: what is this made of? Can I eat high-fructose corn syrup? Why not? Why is it bad? Why did the FDA let them put it in a product to be sold to me? Why do they let candy be made with animal fat? Why does chocolate have pig fat? Why is organic more expensive? Why do healthier foods cost more?

We all deserve to eat organic, healthy, fresh food.

“Good nutrition is straightforward and simple, yet in America, public nutrition has been dictated by a corporate agenda to maximize profits. What did we end up with? Confusing dietary advice, a marketplace saturated with low-quality food and a population of sick, overweight people.”

We can do better. We must do better.

And to do so, we need to understand the fundamental relationship between poor nutrition and the lamentable state of the population’s health.“What we eat makes a enormous difference in our health; yet very few doctors, corporations or politicians stand for this truth.”

Prevention is the key to help the health crisis in America. And yeah my friends I sadly like to break the news to you: we are in a health crisis in America. We spend more money on Health Care and we are sicker than other countries and we don’t live as long either. Our grandparents, our parents, ourselves and our children are getting sicker and sicker and we have no other option than claim our right to health. It’s simple and it starts with choosing better food.

Here are some facts:

America spends more than $2.5 trillion a year on health care, so you would think we would be the shining example of health and happiness throughout the world. Yet, chronic diseases are the epidemic of our generation.

In 1980, less than 50% of Americans were overweight; today that number is more than 65% and growing.

80% of preventable disease risk factors are influenced by behaviors like smoking, over-eating, poor diet or lack of exercise.

One-third of all children today will eventually suffer from diabetes.

By 2020, it is estimated that half of all Americans will have a chronic disease.

Wellness and prevention, to me, is one of the true keys to changing the health paradigm in this country.

-First Lady Michelle Obama

*I grabed some of the facts and the quotes from http://www.integrativenutrition.com/