Diet as Practice – The Sustainable Body

It’s been a month since I wrote here. While I was unable to finish the online class, I continue to practice. For me, yogic practice is about yoga and meditation, but it is also about diet. While many yogis practice an Ayurvedic diet, I wanted to make sure my diet would be something easy for me here on this mountain.

Two trusted people have started a work called The Sustainable Body. You can read more about it at the CreatetheLeap Facebook page. This week they had a 5 Day Challenge and I am fortunate enough to be part of the challenge. The challenge has been testing for me for many reasons, the number one reason has been lack of self-discipline.

For example, today’s challenge was to prepare a meal using organically grown food.  This week I’ve been sick with a cold as well as iced in.  Because of that, I had to think of what I had on hand to fit the bill. Ravioli from a can sounded good. That didn’t meet the group’s criteria however.

Instead, I took half a sweet potato from the 2nd day of the challenge, one cup of Basmati rice, a chicken breast,  and rescued a local apple near forgotten in the refrigerator. I have Thyme Leaf Tea there because it had been recommended as a healthy choice by a different friend. Personally, I feel like I’m drinking spaghetti sauce, so it’s not a favorite. But if it will help me get rid of the cold, I’m game. I put a jar of tahini out in case I wanted it in the rice, but it was imported, so it didn’t really fit the criteria either.

I wanted to try my new CopperChef pan recommended by Chef Jen *.  Decided I would cook the chicken some way in the pan rather than using the microwave. One of the things we’ve been doing in this class is listening to our body. What is our body telling us we need? In particular, what is MY body saying it needs? This has been hard for me because I want to do whatever is fastest and less messy. My body decided it wanted to go with everything but the tahini. I wasn’t sure what I would put on my rice (besides butter), but knew I would figure out something.

My final decision was to cut the apple up and put it in butter along with the chicken. My former mother-in-law would put apple in her chicken salad and I was surprised at how the tastes complemented one another.  I let the apples and chicken cook on a medium-low heat until the chicken was done.

The chicken was cooking slower than the rice, so I decided to eat my potato and rice together. I had hoped for a cool picture, but I was hungry and don’t like eating cold food. Still the colors in this look pretty.

 

 

In previous writing, I’ve mentioned the need to cut excessive sugar out of my diet. As a result, I did not put any sugar on the apples or on the sweet potato. That doesn’t happen for me and I usually eat both the apples and sweet potato as a desert.

I was surprised when the sweet potato and rice went so well together as a duet of taste. It was good enough that I was concerned that the apple was going to clash with the flavors.

Birdie hoped that there would be some chicken for the dog. This is her politely sitting in the kitchen. She also helps with clean up. Anything that is dropped on the floor she will take care of. Birdie eats a good diet on her own. All of her food is organic, and she never overeats (the show off). I was glad when the chicken was ready.

The chicken wasn’t tough because of the apples and had a light apple flavor.  A fork of chicken, apple, rice, and sweet potato was delicious! I didn’t take a picture of that because I was too busy eating it!

The preparation of the meal, the thought put into it (no stress), and taking time to sit down at the bar (instead of the couch), made my meal relaxing and filling spiritually and physically. Thanks to Ashley and Randi for the challenge. Because the chicken breast was so large, I even have leftovers! Yay! Here’s to more sustainable eating and a more sustainable body!

 

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*Chef Jen is also Jennifer Lynn, the artist who designed my book cover. Check out her art at The Jennifer Lynn Gallery. Tell her Robin sent you!

Yoga Anyway

Birdie in the frost

After the last post, I did go to the mat even though I didn’t want to do that. I had contacted my yoga instructor saying I didn’t want to do anything since the class was canceled. She reminded me (like any good teacher) that even a little practice was better than none.

It reminds me of the messages given by my music teachers throughout the years. They said it was better to practice for 10-15 minutes every day than to do it in one big chunk. What I didn’t understand as a youth was that what those few minutes of practice did was to train muscle memory. It is only through years of playing guitar that I began to understand muscle memory.

Thinking on yoga, we are working with different muscles, but like in the practice of an instrument, we are teaching our body (and mind and spirit) muscle memory. In most instances (for me anyway), the muscle memory that is being learned is that of relaxing muscles. This relaxing into downward dog or keeping the shoulders down in another position is one that empowers us to let stress go from the body.

Tuesday was the day that I didn’t want to practice anything. I was so focused on my grief all I could do was cry. Then, after the teacher said to practice a few minutes, I went to the mat. Doing yoga can be quite challenging with a pet. This time, instead of a cat in my face or a dog licking my face, Birdie decided it was time to play with her yellow tennis ball.

Downward dog looked like play pose to her. She was happy I wanted to play. The beauty in this is that she made me laugh. As I moved to warrior, she thought my propped up knee was for her to stand on and offer me her ball. As I moved to a new position, I did pause to throw the ball. It gave me a chance to move without a little black dog underfoot.

Should Stretch into Cat/Cow

As I stretched out in child’s pose, a tennis ball was dropped between my hands. The sweetness of it melted me into the pose more. I moved into the Box (Cakravākāsana) pose that stretches my shoulders tossing the ball as I changed positions. While stretching, Birdie tried to drop the gift of her ball into my open hand. Again, I laughed and relaxed.

The yoga I practiced may have been more than 15 minutes, but I doubt it. I started out merely going through the motions. Then, the yoga remembered itself in my body. Because of the yoga and the silly dog, the dark mood that had haunted me all day lifted.