I wonder why we always overeat when we are overseas. Perhaps it is really the only time when we have a legit excuse ( or is there such a thing as a legit excuse? ) to binge out and be happy and absolutely guilt-free…. while at least until we come back home. That’s what I always say… ” Eat first… later go back then we exercise!”

When you touch down to home, the guilt slowly sets in… at first you get excited about the gifts you got for everyone. Then you get almost deliriously happy over the great bargains you snagged at the local markets ( scheming & plotting ways to gain the upper hand in the bargain battle )… and then wham!

You look in the mirror. Bam!

Yup, looks like some “extra” gifts followed me back on my body…. time for weight loss action!

Now that I am back, I have reverted back to my more vegetables & less meat diet a.k.a. healthy diet ( does not help when you have to attend gatherings with friends at restaurants/BBQ though… ) Plus I will try to avoid any sweet stuff, even not taking sugar with coffee. And of course, try to do more yoga!

My #1 way is to eat my healthy Vegetable soup for most of my meals. Not only is it nutritional but it is oil free!

Yummy Vegetable Soup
=================
Soup base like chicken cube or fish cube ( personally I use Red Miso Paste & japanese fish soup base )
Carrots
White carrots
Celery
Onion
Potato
Corn
In fact, any vegetables! Bean sprouts, spinach, any leafy greens…

Boil water. Cube the root vegetables. Add soup base into boiling water. Add in all the hardy root vegetables like carrots, potato, corn, onion etc. I’ll add the celery in at this point probably at the point when the carrot just about become tender cos I like them soft. Leave the leafy green vegetables later. Boil & simmer until the vegetables is tender. Then add in the leafy vegetables to cook and then serve.

Add the following for a more hearty soup :
Tofu
Mushrooms
Dumplings
Udon

You can add a bit of healthy olive oil or seasame seed oil just before serving. ( oils are important in our diet too! )

I think this is a very good awakening for one to realize that the reason why we eat so much junk food is not because our body needs it. It is all in the mind. It is the mind that craves for salty potato chips, starbucks coffee etc. During the 10 days master cleanse, I was surprised that I was not as hungry as I thought I will get. Drinking the maple syrup water was sufficient to keep my tummy satisfied.

After the 10 days, my body felt very good. Thereafter, I have a new mindset that my body is cleansed and I should not put junk food into the body. Since then I have been sticking to a strict no coffee, mostly vegetarian diet ( with occasional fish ). In fact, I have not touch my favourite food like beef or potato chips yet! Furthermore I have finally lost an additional 2 kg. I was also very lucky to have attended the Anthony Robbins’ Unleash Your Power Within the following week. He also teaches very good lifestyle habits like drinking alot of water ( with lemon juice ), eating 70% water based food ( veggies ), breathing exercises as well as physical exercises. I have also taken out milk, sugar and flour from my diet.

However, there have been lapses in my commitment. I did indulge in a piece or two of bread, and also some unhealthy food like instant noodles. But I did try to compensate for this indulgent by eating more veggies. I think my biggest test will be during my upcoming Bali trip! Wish me luck!

~Namaste!

This master cleansing diet does sound pretty tough to anyone who heard about it. I realized this when half of the yoga class folks learnt about this msater cleansing that I am going through. Most of the people looked shocked and totally cannot believe that one can do this diet ( I love watching their amazement and their reaction, it’s really interesting… heee )

For me, the hardest part was the salt cleansing in the morning where you have to drink one whole litre of salt water. It got abit easier on the fourth day onwards… but still I dread that part. The weird part is that I do not really feel hungry in the morning but only after 8pm especially when I stayed up until 2am.

One thing that really helped was to use sugarcane juice in replacement of the maple syrup. If you are from Singapore or Asian country, it will be far easier to get sugar cane juice. ( In Singapore, they offer sugarcane almost everywhere in the hawker centers and it cost only S$1.50 for a big bag of 500ml ) Sugarcane juice tastes so much better than the maple syrup! And it is so easy to make, just add the lemon juice and cayenne pepper.

Meanwhile I still continued my regular yoga practice ( still went to all my tough classes ).

Difference?

Well, I see that there is not much weight loss ( maybe good or bad ) but I feel much lighter. And probably the best part is that I can balance in my inversions like Pincha Mayusara much longer. Also I feel that I can feel my body more… as in more connected, in fact, I feel that I am able to feel the engagement of the muscles more. Last time I checked, my tummy is still there… But there is a loss in strength. I cannot seem to hold longer in many of the poses and my arms kinda wobbled in some of the arm balancing poses like side plank. Otherwise I feel pretty much ok.

But someone did mention that I looked very tired… hmmm

Warning !

Try to avoid eating with other normal people especially those people who eat alot! I was put to test on my fourth day when I had to meet up with my business partners. And they were like gorging on sinful food like deep fried chicken, rojak ( chinese fruit salad with lots of peanut powder… ), ngoh hiang, sandwiches and more… Also try to avoid topics on delicious food too! Such talk will only get your tummy growling…

ONLY 5 MORE DAYS TO GO!

If you are interested to go on this master cleanse diet, you can check out this book that gives you plenty of information on how to go about starting this diet, what to do or not to do etc :

Master Cleanse Secrets 10 Day Diet

1 litre of lukewarm water

2 teaspoon of sea salt

And drink the entire litre on your empty stomach after you wake up. It was a harrowing experience… now i know how the prisoners of war during the Japanese occupation feels when you drink a whole litre of water. Pukey! The last 100 ml was the worst…. an hour later with a noisy tummy, I started to get the runs. Not a good sight… or feel… in short, at first the poo came, then the mushy poo and finally the last remaining water came gushing down… yikes!

Then to calm the tummy, I had my first bottle of lemon detox mixture and i might say it was good. Stomach immediately responded to "food" and for a while it was ok.

For the rest of the day, I did not feel much hunger as I drank the mixture the moment I felt hunger. There was no headache for me, joint pains or anything else that I have read that others have experienced. However, I felt very sleepy and had to climb back to sleep after my runs and the first intake of the mixture. For the rest of the day, it was pretty tiring but I pushed on and even went for an evening class. The cool thing was that today I seemed to be able to balance much longer in my forearm balance as well as the handstand… i wonder why?

Anyway the hunger finally took over me after the class ended. I struggled against it by drinking more of the mixture… by the time I reached home, I was very tired but I still have some things that I needed to do… so the inevitable happened… I cheated and took an egg. Hopefully this does not upset the diet too much….:P

I think the detox diet is probably not a suitable to be done when you are working or needed energy to do more things. I probably can do this lemon detox diet in full entirety if I don’t have to work much and in fact, great if I am on vacation and wanted to just rest and do nothing.

Tomorrow…. another new day… another salt cleansing… urgh.

Lemon Detox Diet

2 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice ( no canned or fake lemons plz... I bought 6 lemons - should have gotten more! If you are lazy, I can tell you now that half lemon is approx. 2 tablespoons. )

2 tablespoon of maple syrup ( organic if possible; note that maple syrup is not a common item to be found in Singapore but I managed to get a 100% pure maple syrup from Canada at an affordable S$6.90 at the local grocery store )

1/10 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

250ml of water at room temperature

I have just mixed the entire mixture in my bottle. Ok, I admit, my measurement was not exact for the cayenne pepper… in fact, i did not even measure… I just sprinkled a fair amount of it into the bottle.

Boy, the whole mixture was pretty hot….still bearable -> I can feel the pepper burning at the back of my throat… perhaps I have added too much? ( I did put in 5 dashes of cayenne pepper in – the cayenne pepper came in a sprinkley top bottle meant for cooks to sprinkle the red fiery pepper to dishes like seafood and meat… )

The mixture does not taste all that bad and I reduced the maple syrup to just half the amount in the recipe ( if you want to lose weight, you can cut down the syrup )…. but as Shirley says, after a few days, I might not think that any more….

The tummy went a bit queasy and a burning throat so far.

Tomorrow morning, I will be doing the internal salt cleansing too when I wake up…

During our menstrual cycle, it is advised that we rest! DUH… however, I have noticed that many women ( including me… guilty as charged sometimes ) are still going for tough yoga classes. However, I do notice that doing some easy yoga like restorative yoga and certain light hatha yoga is very helpful in keeping those cramps at bay as well as helping me feel less uneasy on the tummy.

However, there are some poses that you should avoid ( especially during your heavy flow ) :
1. Any inversions.
Headstand – OUT
Handstand – OUT
Shoulderstand – OUT
Forearm Balance – OUT
….
Generally any pose that has the pelvic area below above the head is not to be performed.

2. Any pose that require strong twisting on the stomach area.

3. Kapalbhati or any breathing exercises that require you to contract stomach muscles are to be avoided as well.

If you have menstrual cramps, heavy bleeding, pelvic discomfort, do try out some of these poses :
1. Reclined Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana)

2. Supported Open Angle Pose (Salamba Upavistha Konasana)

3. Child’s Pose (Balasana)

4. Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)

5. Lying Knee to Chest Twist ( light twist )

You can use blankets and bolsters to support yourself on your lower back to relax and gently open the lower belly and pelvic floor and womb area when resting.

The best pose? Just rest….

More leg cramps ahead!

But just thinking about the final ascent to the top of the mountain and the final view of the mountain, I think it’ll all be worth it… cramps, leeches, centipedes or what! But first, really need to start training more! Here’s a start, by starting to jog/walk/sprint to my yoga classes…heheh…

I just received some amazing photos of some kids doing yoga… on a pole! Believe me, my jaws dropped… first thing that came to mind? “But doesn’t it hurt? BAD?”

Now that’s what I call a REAL pigeon perching on a pole… hiak!

Here’s some gal power! Beautiful lotus…now that’s REAL floating!

Seriously, erm… this MUST hurt… I can’t even sit long on a real hard floor…

First thing first, how do I know I am heaty? One symptom is that I can feel the body is hotter and my breath is also hot. That is a strong indication that there is much heatiness built up in the body.

So, the logical step is to reduce the heatiness… by taking food that are cooling in nature according to Chinese medicine. One of the few common things are tea ( chinese tea is very cooling ), fruits and vegetables that are full of water ( like chestnut, chinese pears, pineapple etc most of these are cooling ), some chinese herbs and of course, plain water.

I drank chestnut water ( double boiled with sugar cane – very cooling ) and chinese tea which I felt helped only a little. Next I decided to make myself a nice cup of warm honey lemon drink. Using 1 lemon and 2 teaspoon of honey mixed with warm water, the drink was very calming and refreshing. Once I finished that I felt so much better and more energy.

Must be the lemon!

It was amazingly effective… I should have taken it in the morning and that would have done the trick!

Anyway, I am now hooked on to lemons. I just made my very first Banana Lemon Milkshake. Fresh refreshing and tangy – perfect for a snack in the afternoon :

My easy Banana lemon milkshake for the busy yogis
1 banana ( del montes are nice – and please, choose the ripe ones! )
1 cup of fresh milk ( i prefer full cream, though you can opt for low fat – fresh milk pls… no melamine tainted ones!! )
half a lemon ( adjust to taste; I am greedy, I love the taste of lemons )
1 teaspoon of condensed milk or honey ( I suspect honey will be a healthier choice )
some ice cudes ( around 5 pieces if you want to count )

Dump all into a blender. Blend until creamy.

Enjoy!

Here’s the result of the quiz that I took :

I'm a Hippie Yogi!

A Hippie Yogi When you're not doing yoga or marching in protests, you divide your time between hugging trees and flashing peace signs at people you don't know. You truly care about the world around you and take action to make it a better place for everyone to enjoy--including your furry friends. You're warm, welcoming, and a lot of fun. Be careful, however, not to let your dedication to your cause alone determine your actions--take time for yourself every now and then, too. Everything in moderation will make you more balanced in your yoga practice and in your life.

Take the Yoga Journal Yoga Snob Quiz!

How about you?

Let me know how you have scored!

OM~

Ok, I admit it. I took a little meat here and there. Had another piece of fish cake. And a fish burger. The day before, I ate chicken rice. But I also resisted 6 pieces of tempting chicken nuggets. Sometimes when you are outside, it is very hard not to eat meat at food stalls and fast food joints. Like yesterday, I was staring at the McDonald‘s menu. I think there is no full meal that is vegetarian. Sure you can eat the fries, the side salad, desserts ( apple pie, ice cream, apple dips ) but why no veggie burger? Burger King is no better either. Maybe you can eat the onion rings.

The only fast food joint that offer a vegetarian burger is probably MOS Burger. At least they have veggie burger ( potato patty ). Plus a few more choices of salad, big chunky chips, curry crouqette ( potato ).

As far as the yoga practice is concerned, I do not feel any difference. But I feel more sleepy… I am guessing is the intake of more carbohydrates like bread, noodles and rice. Anyway, figuring out what to eat for lunch is really a big headache. But I am currently in the vegetable miso soup phase. Really yummy and filling and it’s not heavy. No oil used! Miso is a soybean based paste that originates from Japan. It is often used in Japanese cooking and it is good for the body!

Here is my Hearty Veggie Miso Soup recipe :

miso ( large grain types… which is not too salty plus it gives the soup a nice body )
a quarter of tofu – this is the protein in the meal
some mushrooms – I use straw mushrooms but you can use any type you want
vegetarian meat – you need to get this from the shops, I got the “mutton” balls
half a carrot – cut into thin slices ( to cook through fast )
a few leaves of cabbage – chopped into strips ( gives the soup a sweetness… )
spring onions – chopped
Optional – pieces of crackers

Boil water in the sauce pan. Dissolve the miso ( taste the saltiness to make sure you do not add too much miso ) in the boiling water. Add the carrots. Cook until carrot softens. Then add in the cabbage. Also cook until the cabbage softens. Then add in the rest of the ingredients like tofu, mushrooms and vegetarian meat. Put to full boil.

Serve in a bowl with the spring onions sprinkled on top.

Goes great with a piece of buttered toast too…

But I do find that it is getting easier. It was much like 6 years ago when I gone off pork. Since then I have not taken pork consciously and have not missed it at all… ( ok I lied… I do miss bacon… but it is a good loss… helped me shaved off a whopping 5 kg ). I was talking to a yoga friend who made a suggestion that made sense to me – allow one or two meals a week to take meat.

What do you think?

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