Starting January I`m back teaching again although now 1 class a week and not 17….
The class will be at Altromondo yoga studio which is run by Jennie. Fridays 17.00 -18.15 a perfect after work class or a nice treat before the weekend.
Me and Jennie are also organising a yoga/food retreat to the amazing Villa Lena in Tuscany in May.
With artist staying at the Villa to take workshops from, me using Villa Lenas own products to make food, while doing yoga, wine tastings or just chilling this is one retreat I would do if I wasn´t working on it.
Go the Jennies web for more info on classes here in town and to find out more about the May retreat.
For Yogaakademins retreat I made simple raw dishes like lasagne, pizza, cauliflower risotto, curry pumpkin sauces, the yoga girl taco, shaved salads, sprouts and rice paper rolls.
To ground us I made warm curried rice with nigella seeds, sweet potatoes in the oven, sun flower pate and warm soups.
Simple salads with seasonal veggies and loads of fresh herbs. I picked nettles, dandelion, blackberries and rose hip from the grounds around us.
I fell in love with the lemon balm, the great ginger and fresh turmeric root form the local market making tea and infused waters with.
Goats cheeses and for the last dinner I grilled dorado and makrill with shaved lemons and limes. Stuffed with lemon balm and salad onions.
So not totally raw that´s the way I like it. I wanted to show how plant food can be part of any persons diet when added in smal portions. Keep it simple and make fun. Less diet and rules, it´s just another way to prepare food.
Better to add to your regular menu and see if that dish suits you. Use your own favourite spices and find recipes as inspiration.
Give it some time. The flavours and textures will feel a bit new in the beginning.
But with time your taste buds will become sharper and you will need less artificial additives and less of everything.
The reaction in the different yoga groups where that after a day or two the vegetables and fruits own flavours became more apparent. Sweetners and salts where not needed to the same extent.
I used olive oil, sesame oil, coconut oil, tamari, miso paste, sea weeds, nut butters, turmeric, acai, spirulina, sun dried tomatos, dates, raisins, cold pressed apple cider vinegar, lemon zest, chili, fenugreek, nigella seeds, black mustard seeds. I pickled onions and beets.
Pimped everything with zucchini blossoms, sun and burdock flowers.
We went to the market without an agenda saw what was in that day and just went wild.
Endive and sunflower seed pate
Raw pate
One of many raw lasangas
Coconut cauliflower rice
Cauliflower rice and peaches
Lunch time
Raw taco
Tacos
Boosters and sweets
Simply perfect
Curry lentil sprout rice
Sunny
Celery root and apples topped with seaweed cashew cream
I was totally worn out and sick when I boarded the plane to Biarritz. At home I wake up 45 minutes earlier to do my practice.
Peoples reaction to this is why?
I can´t see how I could not. Daily practice has been part of my life for the past 16 years in one form or another.
It´s a thermometer of my physical, mental and emotional state. It gets me through the days and mirrors where I am.
Of course the physical aspect is a big part of it, even more so when not working as a yoga teacher.
My body is active the whole day and stress is the key ingredient in my life at the moment.
Ideally it would´t be like this but life is seldom ideal. I´m working with and thru whats around me. Trying to not get sucked into the dramas at work and in my personal life.
Of course this is impossible but with the practice it becomes very apparent what I can change and what I can´t. This makes it easier to focus on transforming a shitty situation into something productive.
I have not succeed with this the weeks prior to my trip.
So even though not part of the yoga retreat as a student and with work to be done both there and else where.
The nature, silence, people, making food the way I love to, local organic markets, and with time to really practice every day made me feel a little bit less fragmented than when I left.
And we’ve laughed a lot. Josefin, Peter, Isabel, Gonzalo, Jessica and Shay where a great crew.
Yogaakademin and Surfakademin are run by Peter, Jens and Josefin. They are travel agencies for yogis and surfers looking to deepen or learn to practice yoga and surf in different parts of the world.
Vera learnt how to surf with Surfakademin who took her to the beaches along the coast of France and Spain to find just the right waves.
New friends where made and I remembered a part of me that has been neglected for far to long.