Dinner Idea: Artichoke with a vegan coconut curry Dip

I made this last night and it was delish!
The dip was made to of organic sprouted tofu, coconut milk, curry or thai seasoning mix, half a blood orange, black pepper, ginger, lemon, onion, garlic, chipotle, hot sauce. (sorry no exact measures) I would have loved lemongrass in it but had to deal without since I ran out of lemongrass.

NAMASTE

Flexibility and Diet

Can we affect our flexibility with diet and herbs?
We are what we eat. Our nourishment saturates, transforms, builds and re-wires our cells, nerves, DNA, tissues, muscles, mind... even our soul. No wonder the term "soul food" is so popular. Or the series of books "(Veggie) Chicken soup for the soul" resonate with so many people. Because food can affect every layer of our being all the way up into the soul spheres. 
My core belief is that food and herbs are what builds and maintains our body and health. And that's the reason why I am not just a passionate herbalist, actually I am crazy about herbs :). And I apply herbs into every aspect of my life. Herbology is also my way of paying respects and admiring Mother Nature in her vast profound intelligence.
And to be clear herbs are food, they are just an extremely potent, concentrated form of food.
OK now let's get to the theme of this blog.
If you google flexibility and herbs there is the same information regurgitated over and over. And it seems like there is very little authored unique content and a few quite misleading articles. I don't know about you but I would like to learn from people's direct experiences...

I have had my own personal journey into flexibility and my own ways and techniques of developing it, supporting it and deepening it. Things that have worked for me:

1. Alkaline plant based diet- that's a given. An acidic body is inflamed, stiff, injury prone and most of all CONTRACTED! (contraction as the opposite of expansion) Add a lot of melons, berries, citrus and bananas, coconuts (potassium, electrolytes in general) to your diet. Eat fruit on empty stomach away from grains and proteins. Eat lots of greens and veggies. Make fruits and veggies the main bulk of your diet and eat small amounts of the more concentrated or animal foods. 

2. A low sodium diet can help- again sodium is a contracting substance and tends to pull our QI/ energy in and draw it down, it has an inward and downward motion, which is needed in small quantities.(chinese medicine food energetics concept) Salt is especially helpful in winter when we need to contract and ground and go in.

3. HYDRATION - this is another obvious one. Keeping our cells hydrated, flushing the kidneys and cleansing the body with water is key in maintaining a clean and functioning digestive system.  It's great to drink plenty of pure water, tea and even green juices. Adding water rich fruits and vegetables can support our detox, nourishment, alkaline state of body and of course our fitness.

4. Specific herbs for muscular and joint flexibility- slippery elm, licorice, saffron, astragalus, ashwagandha, horsetail, agar agar (a favorite of mine and a vegan jello), seaweed, flax seed, celery, cayenne (improves circulation), ginseng, okra (slimy like cartilage), burdock. (if you notice the theme is slimy brews, roots that bend, plants that have natural flexibility in them, adaptogenic herbs, anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic herbs), cat's claw (a flexible vine), turmeric & ginger & galangal (they look like arthritic joints),  yucca root (contains specific saponins known to reduce inflammation, stiffness, arthritis, pain and swelling of the joints), flowering quince fruit (anti-rheumatic), and the list goes on and on.
I am also using the principle of similarities - foods that look like organs, or plants that grow in conditions that require certain adaptation skills or plants that remind us of qualities in humans. If you are not getting this concept thats perfectly fine! My wish for this article is to open more questions than give answers so we can go deeper,  learn more from personal experience, inquire more, study more, experiment more, realize more, experience more  and overall grow and expand exponentially :)

5. THINGS TO AVOID! A diet high in meat, dairy, eggs, and concentrated cooked foods, coked fats, a diet high in fats, processed foods, old, canned foods. Avoid a diet high in protein -it makes the body stiff, more solid, tight, acidic and it's very damaging for the kidneys. Stay away from mucus forming foods (dairy, grains), acidic foods (most grains, meats, old food)

All in all if you are familiar with AYURVEDA avoid too much 
Tamasic Foods -  foods that dull the mind, the body and the senses.  This would include old, stale foods, heavy meats, cheeses, rancid foods, processed foods, low quality foods. 
Instead Opt for food that lifts you up & calms you down,  food that invigorates your mind and senses, stimulates you intellectually and 
food that gives you joyous energy :)

6. Not a diet tip- but keep learning how to breathe. We are here to  continuously deepen our breath and thus deepen our connection to source! (I will write more on the subject of breathing soon) Breathing techniques have been one of the main tools I have used in deepening my own personal flexibility. 

7. Mental attitude- try not to get stuck in a mental rut, avoid being self-righteous, avoid dogma,  stay away from teachings that give you strict inflexible rules, you get the picture :)


LOVE AND BLESSINGS TO ALL
AND LETS EMBRACE FLEXIBILITY, FREEDOM  AND OPENNESS ON ALL LEVELS

Ali Kamenova

INTERVAL YOGA and WEIGHT LOSS

 INTERVAL YOGA and WEIGHT LOSS

If you need some help and inspiration for your New Year's Resolution this may give you the boost to start a practice or be persistent with your yoga practice in the coming year! 

One of the questions I get a few times a day is "Is yoga going to help me with weight loss?" "Do I need to add cardio to my yoga routine?" 
Now most of the yogis crazy about yoga have come to yoga not for the weight loss benefits but because of the divine feeling of connection with spirit it gives us. The flexibility and the toning of the body and the weight loss effects are an added bonus. 
Yet even though yoga's main focus is yoking the spiritual and the physical yoga is actually extremely effective for weight loss. 
Here is how and why in just a few bullet points. 
1. Yoga has a calming effect on the nervous system thus it can be effective for emotional, stress eating. 
2.  Some poses in yoga can stimulate digestion and assimilation thus helping with appetite, satiety and therefore weight loss (indirectly and directly)
3. Doing yoga burns calories!!!!
4. Doing (my) POWER YOGA burns a lot of calories. :)
5. Doing my Interval Yoga is a well rounded routine in which you are doing cardio, stretching, toning, strengthening and awareness meditation in one. Therefore you DO NOT need to add cardio or running to an Interval Yoga class. But you do need to add some cardio or interval training to a traditional Vinyasa or Hatha Yoga class. 
6. To be precise Interval Yoga is much more effective for weight loss than Cardio is because I incorporate Interval Training into the class- which is in essence Intervals of Intensity. They are proven to be much more effective for weight loss than running or spinning alone.

Actually just 10 minutes of Interval Training can give you the same weight loss results as a 50 minute cardio session can give you. Better yet Interval Training can be amazing for post exercise calorie burn.  In fact you can burn an additional 200 calories throughout the day after a short interval training session. 200 calories on top of the calories burnt during the exercise itself.  And your metabolism is much higher for the rest of the day. 
A study (PDF) from the University of New South Wales followed the fitness and body composition changes in 45 overweight women in a 15-week period. The women were divided into two groups and assigned interval or continuous cycling routines. The interval “sprint” cycling group performed twenty minutes of exercise, which repeated eight seconds of “all out” cycling and then twelve seconds of light exercise. The continuous group exercised for 40 minutes at a consistent rate. At the end of the study, the women in the interval group had lost three times the body fat as the women in the continuous exercise group. (An interesting note: the interval group’s loss in body fat came mostly from the legs and buttocks area.)
7. Interval Yoga will increase your endurance and cardiovascular capacity just the way cardio does. Interval training has been proven to achieve the same results in a quarter or a fifth of the time required for a cardio workout. In other words you can Do yoga and intervals and in just 30 minutes you can work on your flexibility and strength while incorporating cardio elements into your yoga and this way you are going to improve your cardiovascular endurance and achieve weight loss results.

8. IF YOU ARE DOING MY VINYASA OR BEGINNER CLASSES AND STRIVING TO LOSE WEIGHT. THEN YES! YOU CAN ADD A CARDIO ROUTINE TO YOUR YOGA PRACTICE.  I recommend my 10 minute short Interval workouts but if you are a runner you can do intervals of running or spinning etc. Just make sure you stretch after running :D 
9. Yoga can stimulate or balance your glands- adrenal, thyroid, pituitary, etc and thus help you with hormonal balance and address hormonal weight gain. 
10. The twisting poses in yoga are extremely effective for mid section weight loss. The media have been saying for years that you can't spot reduce when losing weight. Lately this myth has been proven wrong. In fact you can trim down certain areas of your body with an effective and mindful exercise and diet approach.
I have done that myself many times and I know for a fact that a mindful approach to movement and fitness can sculpt and shape your body. 
11. This is an indirect benefit - but yoga can prevent future injuries thus keeping you active throughout your entire life. Yoga can help you achieve structural balance which is key in any long term weight loss or fitness plan. 

In order to keep this short I am gonna wrap it up here. If you have any questions or requests for future posts please let me know.

LOVE AND BLESSINGS TO ALL
And 
HAPPY HOLIDAYS 

FLAT STOMACH Q & A

Q: Hey Ali!  I was wondering how you keep your stomach so flat! I know your yoga practice obviously has alot to do with it but I was just curious if you do anything else, because I\'m pretty fit and petite but alot of the times my belly is super bloated idk why! Its not anything I eat because I have it when i wake up as well. If you have any clue what can be causing this, or what I can do to help it that would be wonderful! Thank you for your time !

A: Hi K., I am just offering my personal approach and what works for me. 
Yeah I do have a few tips on how I  get or keep my stomach flat. These lifestyle choses work for me almost all of the time.

My rule # 1: Drinking water on empty stomach or 30 minutes before meals. I do not drink water with food or after meals. I aim for a few liters a day. I don't measure it but I drink a lot of water and a lot of herbal teas. For example this morning I had an unusual tea : Lovage Tea. it's slightly salty and reminiscent of celery juice! Delicious, detoxing, flushes the kidneys.

#2:  Keeping my diet high in carbs from whole fruits and veggies and low in fats. Somewhere between 5-15% calories from fat. This also gives me a lot of energy. (high fat diets tend to cause candida issues and therefore bloating. The yeasts ferment and make you bloated, plus they can keep your blood sugar high even if the diet is lower in carbs) 

#3: Practice Ujaii Breath - with mula bandha- root chakra lock. A yogic technique that is pretty simple and effective. 

#4: Of course practice yoga- core strengthening poses, twists, interval exercise sets.

#5: My biggest vice is coffee - unfortunately whenever I have it i notice that it causes some bloating. It's too acidic and irritating for the gut. 

#6: Good digestion is key but that goes with all the previous rules :)

This are the first few most important things that come to mind. If you guys have anything else to add to the list please leave it in the comments bellow. 

Love and Blessings 

The moment of enlightenment! Becoming a really free human being!

“I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can 
get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple 
witness of your thought processes. 

It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. 
Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you 
judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this 
is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process. 

It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once 
the gap is there, you are in for a great suprise, that you are not the mind, that 
you are the witness, A watcher. 

And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as 
you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start 
disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.

That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for 
the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.” 
― Osho

UPPER LOWER BACK VINYASA YOGA CLASS

A CLASS DEDICATED TO STRENGTHENING THE BACK MUSCLES WHILE STILL WORKING ON CORE, UPPER BODY STRENGTHENING AND LEGS STRENGTHING.
After the strength building sequence for the back I am including backbends which is a natural progression  after strengthening the back.

After I was done with the class I did feel a slight soreness in the upper back muscles which means it was gently strengthening.

In order to do proper backbends its always great to strengthen both the lower and upper back so that we can perform them while maintaining proper alignment.



Most of us have back pain and back muscle weakness combined with stiffness. Building a strong back is directly related to having a strong core. A lot of women have weakness in the upper back which can lead to poor posture and back and shoulder and neck pain.
So  it's a great idea to focus on stabilizing and strengthening and stretching the back.




 One of the exercises included is chair pose back flies:
Feet hip width apart. Knees pushing back. Hips back.
Starting position: chair pose. Forearms together in front of chest.
Natural curve in the lower back.

 Ending position: open the arms out at aligning the forearm with the torso. Keeping a 90˚ angle between the upper arm and forearm. Tucking the shoulder bladed into the upper back.

EXERCISE TWO:

STARTING POSITION: arms ahead of us. Palms of the hands down. Back wide. Shoulder blades down. Shoulders down.

Finishing position: Bringing the elbows bent at 90 degrees in the same plane with your body.  Tucking the shoulder blades into the back.  shoulders down. At the top of the rep flex your upper back muscles.
NAMASTE

Intention for the next Advanced Vinyasa Class - THE SECRET

In this very breath that we take now lies the secret that all great teachers try to tell us.
Peter Matthiessen

VINYASA INTERVAL FLOW FOCUSING ON BACKBENDS, HEAVY PLANK SEQUENCE, ARM BALANCES, DEEP DEEP DEEP HIP FLEXOR STRETCHING, HIP OPENERS AND INVERSIONS.
SCHEDULED TIME FOR THE CLASS TO BE UPLOADED ON http://www.youtube.com/user/YogaIntervals19 - THURSDAY JUL 18th, 2013

The class was very challenging yet brief- a lot of core and leg work, very deep stretching throughout the class. After the class I actually felt as if I just got a deep tissue massage and a lot of toxins were released specifically from hips, hip flexor area. A lot of areas in the hip regions opened deeper for me. 
Looking forward to hear your experience with it after Thursday.  :)

Namaste