Grabbed a nice workout bra at only $38! Oh Joy! Perfect for jogging and rock climbing… ( until I lose another 5 kg…this will stay under my trusty racerback T )

Another major thing happening is that I have given up my membership at the local yoga studio ( getting commercialized and charging quite extorbitant prices… especially when the yoga classes I enjoyed were not as many as before… and no Anusara yoga! ARGGGGGHHHHH… talk about bias…. anyway I really hope that studio do not just focus on getting new members in and forgotten about loyal fiercely devoted practioners of yoga… this is one niche market that no one is really focusing on!!! Don’t they know that eventually, the massive numbers of beginners are going to get more advanced, more experienced and need better teachers?? Also moving into deeper practices that involve meditation, pranayama and more? )

Ah… the sad state of yoga in Singapore is as such.

Meanwhile, once my membership ends on 10 jan…. I will be "lost"… I’ll have to figure out and plan my own yoga practice. Perhaps this is a good thing! I am planning to add at least 2 jogging sessions per week for myself to keep fit ( hence the workout bra ) on top of daily mini yoga practices. Perhaps 2 days of Ashtanga Primary series on 2 weekdays. And a fab chance for me to turn my time table around from a night owl to a morning person!!!

PLUS I also hope to join Bo and Shirley in their anusara yoga classes when they are back from India ( I need you guys!!!! ). Please do visit their website and support them. They are wonderful teachers, kind ( almost too kind & nice that others often bully them… ) , giving, loyal, fearless, selfless, always forgiving,fun, beautiful yogis - their website : http://www.spandananda.com

Namaste!

2009 has been quite a year, full of ups and downs, lefts and rights. Even though it is eventful, I learnt a lot of things and it has been enlightening and most challenging.

To everyone : Happy New Year!!!

It was then that I thought about my life. All the people that have been in my life. Of course, my parents are my most treasured guardian angels that no one can take away! But there really are many others who are my guardian angels… some of which I did not realize that they are until now… the more I thought about my life, the more I realize that each every one of these guardian angels who may or may not know that the tremendous impact that they have on my life. It also sets me thinking, was I ever a guardian angel to anyone? I hope I was… or perhaps in the future I could be someone that brings the hot coal to someone’s house during cold winter ( as the chinese saying goes… )

To just being thankful is no longer sufficient for me. I have to do more. I believe I have to give back all the good that all my guardian angels have given me to others who are in need of help. My highest goal now is to touch and change someone’s life for the better in whatever way I can afford.

But first, one important point that no one should ignore or forget : you have to be YOUR OWN GUARDIAN ANGEL!

~Namaste!

This is the first time I have not done much reading up about the place before I go. The only research that I did was to source for the one night stay on my own on the first night in Kuta there as the rest of the people in the group are only joining me on the second day. For the rest of the trip, the planning was done by Felicia and Elene - not an easy task, considering they have to try to take care of all 10 of us in the group ( the more people, the more unexpected changes to handle… )

Seems like it was only yesterday that the world was shell shocked with the news of bombing in Bali back in 2005 and everyone avoided Bali. Not so now. When I reached Kuta, it was just like any busy tourists packed area with touters trying to get your attention. Even while checking the prices online for a night’s stay in Kuta is back to what it was before the bombing. Plus almost all the cheap accommodations are fully booked and it was quite a challenge to look for a budget and yet clean place to bunk for the night.

Kuta

I reached Bali late at about 9pm. It was really a rush for me and I almost did not make the flight from Singapore as I was the last one to have checked in at the counter. It was always the case when I go for holiday. There are always last minute jobs and things to clear and the mind start worrying about this and that. On top of that, there was the mad rush to call the various budget hotels to try to reserve a place to stay. ( note : most budget places cannot confirm if they have rooms or not 2 days beforehand, they asked me to call back on that day itself to check again… so it was really a mad rush. )

The little backpacker budget hotel that I finally managed to secure is called Ronta Bungalows. It is located in one of the mini lanes in between Poppies Lane 1 and 2. Apparently not even the taxi driver knows where it is… ( I paid 50,000 rupiahs for the taxi from airport to Kuta and the driver dropped me off at the wrong place, pointed me to the wrong direction - I walked for a massive 10 mins or so lugging my luggage before I finally realised that it was the total wrong direction - had to walk all the way back amidst heavy human traffic, scooter bikes honking…. ) When I finally found the hotel, it was already 10:45pm…

It is really a no frills bare basic hotel for one to bunk in - there is not even toilet paper in the attached bathroom! But at least it was clean although very run down. However, the people there are very helpful, friendly and kind. Hearing that I lost my way around, they were very concerned when I went out for my supper and they quickly passed me their namecard with the address and map on it.

 ( photos coming soon… )

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…

Think about it.

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The thing that every one does without fail that I am talking about is locking your house before you leave. Now don’t tell me you don’t lock your house!

So why do we lock our houses before we leave? You probably go "DUH… because we don’t want other people to enter the house! " Yes, indeed, we lock our houses before we go out to keep our precious and valuable things in the house safe.

In a similar way, locking our bandhas in our body is also a way to "lock" our precious energy in us and not let it "disperse" out of us. That’s what happened when you don’t lock your bandhas… your energy disperses and is gone before you know it. Hence the we are unable to "float" in arm balances, jump throughs and inversions.

I have so much more to learn about pranayama and bandhas. Seriously, these are very very important in the yoga practices if you want to take your practice a step further once you have the physical fundamentals covered.

Plus the attitude and mentality are also crucial and not to be dismissed. In fact the first few chapters of Patanjali’s yoga sutra talks about the importance placed on a person’s attitude towards life and society, beyond physical practices (Charat pointed these out today in class). Any wonder then why Anusara yoga practice emphasize so much on "Attitude"? =)

First, one must be friendly to everyone in your life, never be jealous or otherwise. Second, one must empathise with those with less or is going through hardship, pray for the person in need or do whatever you can for that person. Third, one must give blessings and help those who are on their path to divinity ( whatever path they choose ), be happy for them. Fourth, if one knows that a certain person is out to harm you, do not fight back. Instead choose to distance yourself from such person. If they confront you, just say "Namaste", smile and move away. Never fight or allow them to do harm to you.

( forgive me if my interpretation is not perfect of Patanjali’s book - download a copy and read it yourself and tell me what you think )

PS. Gosh… I have 27k spam comments… *rolls eyes*

This time, he wanted us to think of the variation in the yoga poses that we take as the action we take to make ourselves happy.

More often than not, people often think of variations of a pose as a lesser pose, in other words, "poorer" or "lesser". To many practitioners, if you do an easier variation, you are weaker and not so good. Don’t blame yourself if you do think that way. Many of us do that.

We think that if we do the easier variation, we are weaker, we are not as good as those who can do the super hard poses. And similarly many of us who can do the "advanced" poses, many times, we feel proud and with time, our egos grow as well. And so much so that our basic yoga poses tend to suffer as a result.

But looking from Charat’s angle, yoga variations are viewed differently. Yoga variations are now ways that we make ourselves happy, our body happy. Why struggle in the hard poses? Why scrunch our faces in torture in the hard poses? Take the variations that we are comfortable with and progress with that. Do yoga with ease, grace and happiness. Yoga when expressed with happiness and grace is truly beautiful and inspiring.

~Namaste

*PS. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can wake up early for Ashtanga class on Tuesday