Today is the last day of February’s Health Challenge- 10 day cleanse, and tomorrow starts another challenge this one the entire month of March, 31 days. Yes, that would be 31 days of yoga in a row.
Is your head spinning? Yeah, I know mine is too. The good part is I won’t be alone I have a handful of other crazy yogis ready to participate (you can sign up here if you are crazy enough to join us.)
As excited as I am for this challenge I am far from ready. I was hoping to have more time to prepare and get myself back into yoga mode but when you have a baby, a husband, a house and a new city to explore somethings fall to the wayside so I guess I’ll be jumping right into this challenge.
My hope is that a month of yoga will get me back on the mat regularly, help improve my running and flexibility and destress my mind and body. Why are you participating or Why do you practice yoga?
I practice yoga to calm my mind.
I practice yoga to relax my body.
I practice yoga to strengthen my body.
I practice yoga for community.
For those participating you will find an email in your inbox tomorrow with more details.
Can you believe it’s almost March? That means that my February Healthy Challenge is just about over and the March Healthy Challenge is about ready to start. However before we finally move on to March I want to make sure you have a go to week of post-cleanse friendly recipes to try. These recipes will reintroduce some fermented soy products and gluten if you would like to.
At this point you can enjoy a glass of wine or a mug of coffee, if you so choose, but I have a feeling you might be more interested in green juice than black coffee. Speaking of coffee I had my first 10 ounce regular coffee today, after a rough baby night, and I have to say it was terrible. I was so wired it made me uncomfortable and I was shaky. I have to say I’m a decaf convert.
I love pizza. I mean really what American person doesn’t have at least a small love for pizza? I couldn’t eat it every day but once a week and I’d be a happy girl. Neil is a pizza crust making (wannabe) master so he often is cooking us up some delicious pizzas but it takes a lot of time to make your own crust so it’s always a planning process.
Most of the time when I want pizza it’s more of an I want it right now kind of desire so I’m happy to have found Rustic Crust handcrafted crusts that have no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives and free of trans fats, hydrogenated oils, GMOs, or added sugar. Additionally, Rustic Crusts have gluten-free, whole-grain and organic varieties.
I have been loving the personalized sized Gluten Free Napoli Herb pizza crusts. They are the perfect size for me to top and enjoy for lunch. I have been topping them with Rustic Crust 100% all-natural pizza sauce and my favorite toppings.
Rustic Crust Gluten Free Napoli Herb topped with Rustic Crust Pizza Sauce, mushrooms, onions, vegan sausage and spicy peppers
Rustic Crust Gluten Free Napoli Herb topped with Rustic Crust Pizza Sauce, wild mushrooms, and caramelized onions
In addition to enjoying Rustic Crust Neil and I have been enjoying American Flatbread frozen pizzas which hold a special place in our hearts. When I was pregnant with Edith we would go to American Flatbread in Burlington, VT after every midwife appointment. It was a favorite spot of ours and now that we are on the West Coast we are able to find American Flatbread in local supermarkets, health, and gourmet stores nationwide and enjoy them from the comfort of our own home.
Just like at their restaurants all American Flatbread frozen pizzas are made with a 100% organically grown wheat crust and topped with fresh herbs, vegetables and the finest of cheeses (or vegan cheese). They’re all-natural, with no preservatives, artificial colors or flavors, and handcrafted from scratch, hand-formed, and par-baked in wood-fired ovens.
We recently were able to try one of American Flatbread‘s new flavors, which is vegan, the Farmers Tomato Pie – A dairy-free pizza with tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, red wine, balsamic vinegar and a dash of maple syrup. We also enjoyed the Vegan Harvest which is a vegan cheese pizza that is topped with fresh tomato sauce, garlic, herbs and Dayia dairy-free cheese. Although both of these pizzas are tasty I’m so glad that American Flatbread came out of a vegan cheese free pie because I’m not always in the mood for vegan cheese but I’m usually always in the mood for pizza.
You can download the following Rustic Crust & American Flatbread coupons -American Flatbread $2 off coupon link http://bit.ly/WU7Hr3 ; Rustic Crust $1 off coupon link http://bit.ly/139bmAC
Rustic Crust & American Flatbread compensated me for this Campaign. All opinions are my own.
1. KIND Bars– Can you believe I am just trying these for the first time this week? They aren’t as chewy as I had expected but still tasty.
2.Chili Sweet Potato Fries Salad– so easy! I started with Alexia sweet potato fries as the base, topped that with veggie chili, then topped that with shredded cabbage, thinly sliced avocado, tahini dressing (tahini, lemon juice, chickpea miso, nutritional yeast and water to thin) and thinly sliced scallions. A ranch dressing would also be good.
3. Wild Mushrooms in this case with soba noodles and asparagus. We found a stand at the market that sells yummy wild mushrooms and I am addicted.
4. Lemon Raspberry Mineral Water– I bought this yesterday when I really wanted coffee and now I may have a new habit. Oh why do we live so close to Whole Foods.
5. Nuttzo– I received this as a sample a few weeks ago and it went as fast. My husband is addicted to it and wants me to buy him a life time supply for his birthday.
Follow me on instagram @runwithtongs to see more insta-food and daily adventures.
Yoga and I have had an on and off again relationship. I tend to practice consistently for months and then for one reason or another I stop for a period of time and then take it back up. I am not sure why this is because I always feel amazing once I start back up, so I should probably just stick with it, eh?
After a short break from it in the Fall of 2011 I feel back in love with it and started to attend a weekly prenatal class through my entire pregnancy. It was just what I needed physically and emotionally during my pregnancy and extremely helpful during my labor and childbirth. However, once Edith arrived I fell out of my routine, since I needed to heal and all, and then I stopped carving out time all together.
Now here we are almost 8 months later and I am finally ready to recommit to my practice. I know I won’t be able to get out to as many classes as I would like to but I am making time, even if it’s just 15 minutes, to do yoga everyday for the entire month of May. My hopes that it will help increase my flexibility, reduce my stress and help me improve my running.
I am also inviting you to take on this month long yoga challenge with me for my March #RWTHealthyChallenge.
I know an entire month of yoga seems like a lot to commit to but I want to set things up for all of us to succeed. That being said you are only required to do a minimum of 15 minutes of yoga per day. That isn’t so hard, right? I know from experience that just a short practice can make all the difference and if you are able to try to make this practice happen first thing in the morning to get your body ready for the day.
Are you ready to take on the challenge? Fill out the form below.
Bonus: For those who complete the challenge and submit their time sheet to me you will be entered to win a yoga prize pack! Submissions must be sent via email to me by April 3rd.
For the past five years Neil and I have gone on an annual long weekend getaway in January for his birthday. This year we had to postpone our trip since we were in the midst of moving and since we were on opposite sides of the country on Neil’s birthday weekend. Once we finally reunited in our new home we decided that we would take a little weekend trip in February and we finally did this past weekend to Eugene, Oregon.
Let me start off by saying I had an entirely different idea of Eugene and I have no idea where it came from. My knowledge of Eugene was that there was as huge university there and that it was somewhat eclectic. Well both things proved to be true however I also imagined it to be quite a bit nicer and have a central downtown area that we could walk around.
When Neil and I drove into town I was shocked to see that it wasn’t the nice little area that I had imagined and while there were a number of good vegan friendly restaurants and fun looking shops they were not very walkable to each other and with a baby that makes things difficult. Don’t worry though we ended up making the best of things but overall it wasn’t the magical getaway that I had envisioned.
Our plan was to get dinner before heading to our hotel but since it hadn’t taken us as long to get to Eugene as we expected we decided to first stop into Ninkasi Brewery for a tasting. Although located in a very industrial part of Eugene (who am I kidding the whole place is super industrial) it had a beautiful tasting room and outdoor patio with rotating food trucks. We got a sampler board of four of their brews and really enjoyed them all.
After our tasting we headed to Cornbread Cafe, a vegan comfort food restaurant, where we ordered up some yummy plates of Southern inspired food. We ordered two plates to share one with the “fried fish”, cabbage slaw, mashed potatoes with gravy and a biscuit and the other with chicken fried tempeh, greens, mac and cheeze and cornbread. I enjoyed the “fried fish”, cabbage slaw, mac and cheeze and cornbread the most, but overall everything was good. After dinner we headed to the hotel and slipped into our bathing suits and took Edith for her first swim in the pool before heading to bed
Saturday morning came and we had hopped to take advantage of all of the running trails in Eugene (one of the best things about Eugene) but the weather was not cooperating so instead we headed to breakfast at Studio One. We both ordered up the tempeh hash plate sans bread (not vegan) and ordered a fruit cup for Edith to enjoy. Since we had dinner on the early side the night before we were both super hungry and devoured our large plates of food. The food was good but the coffee was lacking so since it was still early we decided to head to Wandering Goat for a coffee where Neil had an amazing Americano and I had a really delicious hazelnut milk latte.
After our breakfast and coffee we decided to brave the rain and headed to the Raptors Center to see the birds. The Raptor Center is a hospital for raptors that have been injured and they care for a number of birds who have been so injured that they are unable to be released back into the wild. This was really the highlight of our trip and made the entire trip worth it. We all had an amazing time seeing the beautiful birds and enjoying the outdoors together even if it was raining.
After our trip to see the raptors we headed back into town and went to Morning Glory Cafe, a restaurant suggested my friend Kim. Kim certainly did not steer us wrong because this place was delicious. We had the white bean burger with a giant side salad and a veggie scramble wrapped in a hashbrown with the most delicious vegan sour cream on top. Edith enjoyed some steamed veggies and shared our carrot juice with us.
After lunch we were stuffed so we decided to walk over to a few shops we had seen near the cafe and did a little shopping. We also took Edith to a toy store that had those mechanical animals and boats that cost 50 cents to ride and had her try out a few, she was in heaven. After our little shopping excursion we made one last stop at Oakshire Brewery before calling it a day. We arrived to a very busy brewery where we sampled a few brews and enjoyed the sun that finally came out.The day ended with Cafe Yumm and bed.
While we had a nice time it wasn’t our dream getaway and since we came in under budget we are thinking of doing another weekend away in April if you have any suggestions please leave a note in the comments!
What was your best weekend getaway or what is your dream weekend getaway?
Can you believe that February is almost over? For those of you participating in my February Healthy Challenge we are at the last session. This is also my last cleanse specific menu, next week I will be posting the final menu that will focus on a gentle transition back to gluten and soy (if you so chose).
