Rant , Rock My World , Sexy Life , Super Hero
to win, you have to work hard, play by the rules, and most important, stay in the game
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.
I always have new students coming to my yoga classes and I love it. My secret plan is to rock their world and show them something new and get them to go crazy about it so they keep doing it.
You know, I want to brake all the myths about yoga and pass on to them my deep love for it. Specially for the ones that have never ever done yoga and are experiencing their very first class with ME.
I must confess I get a little bit nervous when they tell me, my class is their FIRST.
NO PRESSURE right?
I want the newbies to fall in love with yoga and really appreciate it. There are so many types of yoga and it’s hard to know the student’s expectations. But I sure try very hard to put my heart on the mat for them so they like it so much they come back for more endorphins. Sometimes they do and they commit to it, and sometimes they don’t. Maybe it was not the right time for them.
I believe that no matter what everybody is going to end up doing some type of yoga in their life as regular practice especially if their goal is to live a healthy and dignified life.
I am especially concerned with the new students doing their first yoga class because I want to fulfill their expectations. I want to teach them what makes yoga so special in one single class. But maybe I don’t succeed. Maybe the magic doesn’t happen in 60 minutes.
There are so many types of yoga, and every single person teaches their class differently. It’s hard for the teacher to be all for every student. I know a lot of yoga teachers feel the same way. We get concerned about not teaching what every single student is looking for.
We, teachers, forget to remind ourselves that we really don’t have to “do” anything to make yoga amazing. Yoga is all ready amazing. Yoga is simple and it comes down to really not “teaching” and just paying attention to our breath, to fit your body into the shapes, and basically yoga teaches you itself.
If you are the student that hasn’t found your own yoga. I just say to you: don’t give up. There is a type of yoga just for you. Just know, that like me, there is a teacher waiting just for YOU.
I have to give a big shout out for a ton of stuff that has happened in my life and the things I have around me, but this week I specifically want to give a big time shout out to Grassroots Natural Market. I am so lucky because I can literally walk to such a cool place. It’s a local store here in Jacksonville and they got their stuff together. They have two locations, and I personally like both locations. But I go to the one closer to my house. DUH!!!!
It’s a small store full of great quality healthy products. The staff is super nice and literally every time I go they just seem happy and willing to help. And I am a pain in the but as a customer so if they’re still nice to me that only means they rock! They also sell some pretty bad-ass smoothies with all organic fruit. Oh yeah, momma is happy!
Oh,oh and if they don’t have what you need, they will order for you. Just like that. I got special protein powder and some awesome organic fresh cranberries. If you ever get to come to Jacksonville, don’t hesitate to stop at Grassroots!
Well you know I am not very religious or good with remembering dates, so obviously I forgot about Ash Wednesday. I truly don’t care but if you do that is totally awesome. I used to always look forward to Ash Wednesday because I remember as a child I would eat Capirotada the following Friday.
In Mexico we have Capirotada just during lent. And it’s usually on Friday and we eat it for dinner or supper. At least that is my mom’s tradition. She would buy all the ingredients and divide them into the number of Fridays in Lent (there are 5 or 6). So my whole life I would literally wait the whole year for this time because Capirotada is my favorite thing to eat in the entire world.
I used to belive that my mom was making this special dish for my birthday but to my surprise years later my brother broke the bad news and told me that it was not about me and it was about Lent.
I love big brothers. Always sweet.
Anyway, this is the recipe:
Capirotada Mi Mama Style
Ingredients:
1/2 loaf French bread cut into 1 inch slices
14 ounces raw brown sugar or piloncillo (you can find it at any Mexican store)
4 cups of water
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
1/2 cup of sliced pecans
1/2 cup of peanuts, with no salt, peeled
1/2 cup of raisins
1/2 cup of grated coconut
1/2 cup of small sprinkles (the ones you use for cookies)
1/2 cup of Queso Menonita (good luck finding this one)
Directions:
Toast the bread slices until crispy and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, bring the water to boil.
At boiling point, add the brown sugar or piloncillo, cinnamon, and cloves.
Set over medium heat and bring to a gentle boil until the mixture thickens into a syrup –like texture. Allow to cool then strain.
To assemble the Mexican bread pudding, use any deep big pan, whatever you use for soups. You are going to be layering the bread and in between each layer there is going to be the syrup, peanuts, pecans, raisins, coconut, small candies, and cheese until you reach the top, then cover and let it cook in medium heat. Be very careful and make sure you add enough syrup because it can burn very quickly. Cook until done (according to my mom you should just know when it’s done).
My mom never used the oven, she used the stove and a pan. But, you can use the oven. Just turn the oven to 350° F and use a 9 x 9 inch baking pan in order to make 2 layers of bread, syrup, peanuts, pecans, raisins, coconut, small candies, and cheese. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake in the preheated 350° F oven for about 40 minutes.
Now, the Capirotada recipe is ready to enjoy with a glass of fresh milk.
Badass , Brilliant , Hot , Rock My World , Sexy Life , Super Hero , Yoga
I Feel Like In This Post I Wrote The Word -Sankalpa- Like Twenty Million Times, And Of Course I Am Just Exaggerating Because I Just Wrote It Like 9 or 10 Times.
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.
Fresh , Obsessed , Recipes , Rock My World , Sexy Life , Shocking , Super Hero , Vegan , Wicked
Spinach Lemonade
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.
Badass , Brilliant , Fresh , Hot , Insane , Rock My World , Sexy Life , Shocking , Super Hero
Therapy Is For Crazy People
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.
Have you ever done yoga? You know that high, loud breathing that everybody is doing? That is called pranayama and if you are not doing it when everybody is doing it, it can be distracting and annoying. Pranayama can be done in different ways, it depends on one’s technique. Breathing that loud is obviously not normal. So you better not be doing it unless you are in yoga or meditation room or at your house. Seriously, don’t try it at the grocery store, or at school, or at work, and for sure never ever at the library. You will be kicked out, quick.
In yoga, pranayama is so hard to do, because like I said, it doesn’t come natural. It takes practice to acquire that wonderful habit. I believe my number one constant challenge in my classes is to teach my students to breathe while they are moving through the poses (asanas) in their yoga practice. I can teach them how to get to any pose, but it seems yoga-breath gets forgotten while they are trying to get their head under their legs. My students seem to be more focused on getting the pose right than the breath.
For my classes, I try to put a lot of emphasis on the breathing because I know for a fact it has tremendous benefits. When I do my personal practice I am focusing on my breathing, not on the pose. I don’t care if I have the perfect pose. As competitive as I am, when I am on my mat it doesn’t matter if I get to stand on my hands, or how much I sweat. I let go of the accomplishment of the movement to focus on my breathing. I know eventually I will get there. My body will get to where it is supposed to be.
When I get to my mat I know I am there for A REASON BIGGER THAN ME and to find out the reason I have to still my mind to be able to hear it. Deep breathing people, deep breathing!
Our normal breathing is too shallow and too quick, so we are not taking sufficient oxygen and we are not eliminating sufficient carbon dioxide (I can’t say dioxide with out it sounding funny). So obviously our cells are like anorexics starving for some oxygen and our lungs are like depressed people and just being lazy because they are not working to their full potential. So we end up losing some of our v i t a l i t y. That means we are getting older sooner and as we get older, we are letting some of our body parts become inept.
“With our ‘normal’ sedentary way of living, we only use about one tenth of our total lung capacity. This is sufficient to survive and just tick over, but not sufficient for a high vitality level, long life and high resistance to disease.”
Additionally, deep breathing is also good for your mental health. Which if you know me, you know I have some serious breathing to do. I get tired of my mind. Like sometimes I want a break from all the thoughts running around. I am completely serious, my mind has a life of it’s own. It’s like I have constant clips from different movies made from personal and outsider’s experiences and perceptions running all day long. So annoying. But can you imagine no thoughts running around in your head? Just present in the moment doing yoga, putting your energy towards the breathing, NO thoughts and then at the end the gift for pausing your internal loco-motora; a sense of peace and love.
I must get some of our politicians to practice some yoga.
Badass , Brilliant , Fresh , Hot , Rock My World , Sexy Life , Super Hero , Vegan
For The Ultimate Bitch-Totally Inappropriate To Write Bitch* In a Title
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.
Brilliant , Fresh , Hot , Obsessed , Recipes , Rock My World , Sexy Life , Vegan
The New Los Douglas Obsession
My personal cook and lover made some amazing Crepes with Raspberry Sauce for breakfast on Sunday morning. He got inspired from the Skinny Bitch The Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. The recipe is very similar to Kim’s but he used less sugar and a bit more almond milk to thin the batter. This recipe is great for anytime. Seriously, we have made them even for a snack before bed.
Ingredients:
For the Raspberry Sauce:
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries, obviously you can use whatever you have; strawberries, bananas, etc.
1/4 cup water
1/4 sugar
Blend all the ingredients. I recommend to do the sauce first.
For the Crepes:
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons evaporated can sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whisk the milk and the vanilla extract until smooth. In a separate large bowl combine all the dry ingredients and then when everything is all well mix add your liquid mix. Heat up the skillet and spray it with one of those non-stick sprays and then coat the bottom of the skillet as evenly as possible with the batter. Cook until the edges are lightly browned and then then turn them gently until you see a color you like, we liked them a bit brown. Fold them and keep cooking the rest of the batter. Then pour the raspberry sauce over the crapes and EAT all of them.
Fantastic things will happen in your mouth, I promise!
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