My weekend

Hey, what's up buttercup??  Just a post to check-in...

My weekend was pretty low-key. On Friday, I just went to the spring pow-wow at U of Wpg.  It was some last-minute plans.  It was a great night with Nay-Nay and Princess P. Got home around 10-ish...and I was soooooo tired...especially considering that I wokeup at 5am that day. 

Saturday:  I really, really tried to sleep in! honest! But I ended up waking up at 6-freaking-30! UGH. I guess that's what happens when I don't have wine the night before, lol - KIDDING. So since I was up, I figured that I'd go to the 8:30 hot yoga class. It was nice. Major laundry accomplished today too.  It was also my sister's birthday ...so I called her to wish here a happy birthday.  It was great to talk to her...I love my little sis!  During the afternoon, I went to the play Where the Blood Mixes.  It was EXCELLENT! OMG, I was blown away.  It was funny and extremely moving.  (I cried a couple of times, haha) Afterward, I walked around Portage Place for a bit and tried to look for some tunics to wear with leggings.  I admit that I've been late to jump on the leggings-bandwagon, but I love wearing them all the time now!  I took a bus home and I literally felt emotionally-drained from the play!! It really got to me. So Saturday night, I just chilled at home by myself and listened to old-school songs and went to bed earlish (for a Saturday anyway) at 11:30.

Sunday: I love DIM SUM!!! My Boo and I went to Dim Sum Garden in Chinatown for brunch. They have 'happy hour' from 11-2 on Sundays (2-4 on all other days). We got there around 11:15 and was surprised to find that there was NO lineup. I think the time change had something to do with it because when we left about an hour later, there was a big lineup to get in.  This place is one of my 2 favourite places for dim sum in the city, with the other being Kum Koon Garden.  I was proud of myself for not getting any deep-fried items! Yaay, go me! I usually like to get the spring rolls, but didn't need them this time around. Picked up some movies on the way home: Precious, Hurrican Season and Boondock Saints II. I loved Precious! I'm going to buy the blu-ray version.

Monday:  Hot yoga class at 9:30 am. I took some time off from work to make it to the class. I was too tired to wake up for the 6am class! It was good. For lunch, I swung by Tall Grass Bakery for some lunch. I tried these 2 mushroom turnovers...they were AMAZING!! You should try them!  Then I went to Organic Planet and picked up a sandwich and an avocado. It sounds like lots of food, but it was my breakfast and lunch, LOL! I had 1/2 the sandwich but the avocado wasn't quite ripe, so Ijust left it on my desk to have later this week. 

So I got into this last-minute cooking class:
Thai Delight - Explore the unique and flavourful tastes of Thai food. Learn to make pad thai, tom yam soup, chicken satays with peanut sauce, mango chicken and crisp and refreshing lettuce wraps. Glass of wine is included.
Date: Tuesday,May 11th, 2010
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Fee: $37.95
Instructor: Cheryl B.D’Souza
Location: Centro Caboto Kitchen

So that's where I'm headed now...toodles!!
JoJo
xoxo

Camel Pose

Well, helloooo there...

I had the best Camel Pose today! Seriously, this is already my favourite bikram pose but it felt really different this time. I 'relaxed' my head and neck...and here I thought they were already relaxed.  I could even see the rug behind me!  It felt amazing.  This is camel pose (but not me, of course):

Breakfast was 2 (count 'em TWO) large smoothies! I have these containers that I carry the smoothies in to work, they are around 600 ml.  Anyhoo, I had 2 of them for breakie...I was soo hungry.  I had a headache after this morning's 6am bikram class. Not sure if the headache was from detoxing or from being hungry/low blood sugar, maybe a bit of both. The smoothie had: Kale (1/2 bunch), handful of spinach, 1 banana, 1 apple, blueberries, 2 small radishes, 2 lemons, tbsp flax oil, stevia and water.  It was DELISH!

For lunch, I went to Mondragon and ordered the pupusas.  They were very, very good.

I also ordered the hummus platter...but that will be for later. I knew that I would be full, but sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach.  I'm glad I order it though, now I have some snackies/dinner for later. The platter had hummus (obvs!), pita bread, corn chips, red pepper slices, tomato slices, banana peppers (doesn't usually come with these, but I asked for them) and red onion.

So as far as my challenge goes, I'm feeling pretty good. The challenge is on weekdays only...so since Monday, I've gone to 7 hot yoga (bikram) classes!! I did "doubles" on Wednesday and Thursday.  It was exhausting but amazing. This morning's macrobiotic 'remedy' was Lotus Root Tea.  I liked it better today than the first time I had it earlier this week. Not sure what the difference was, but it tasted more flavourful.  I could really taste the ginger in it too.  Mmmmm...but I forgot to note what the benefits are! Doh! I think it had to do with "strengthening immunity".  Ahh well, next time I'll have to make sure and write it down (or take a picture, which is what I usually do).

Well...adios amigos!!
JoJo
xoxo

Horoscopes and stuff

Loving my horoscope today:

"There is a fine balance between seeing the beauty in others, and at the same time, seeing what is great about not having someone in your life who has served their purpose. You are changing an alliance. It is not about being cold, it is about honoring yourself."

These sentences really resonated with me. I've been getting rid of things, habits and people in my life that no longer have a good purpose. I have to remember not to feel guilty or angry, when one of these "things" happens to be a person.

Today's class (6am)
Whoa! I was soooo tired thing morning. I didn't wake up in class until the 2nd pose at least. And last night, I had the 'sweats'. (gross, haha) I woke up in the middle of the night soooo hot and I even had the fan on me. Amanda (my yoga instructor) says it's a part of the detox….hmm, I wonder what I'm detoxing out when that happens. I did make a spicy Thai Red Curry dish last night. I wonder if I put too much spice in it.

*** I am going to make an effort to put more entries in this space. I've been struggling to get the motivation to write here. Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to write about….like, who wants to read "I ate this today. I did this today…boring, blah, boring". (haha) But I've been taking some shots of my meals (the ones worth noting) and I'll put those up soon.

Until next time,
JoJo
xoxo

Day 2 & 3

Freezer finds

Last night I cleaned out my freezer (the stand-alone kind) and I found all of these chicken patties that I bought from Costco awhile back. I didn't even know that I still had them! In an effort to use up all the stuff from my freezer, I am going to be eating a bunch of these this week. I also found a frozen ball of pizza dough that I sometimes buy from Deluca's on Portage Avenue. I like making pizza with this dough and I think I might save it for Sunday evening and make a veggie pizza for Oscar night.

Day 2 (Tuesday)
Yesterday I was sooooo tired that I almost fell asleep in yoga! Seriously, I went away to another land for a bit in the savasana. After the class we had a Carrot-Daikon beverage. The benefits of this beverage are: Relieves tension & tightness in organs from too much dairy, meat & salt, Removes peripheral and recent fats, Lowers cholesterol, Helpful for kidney stones, swollen ankles and feet.

Beverage review: Needs to be eaten with a spoon to scoop up the carrot and daikon. Tastes pretty mild in comparison with the 1st day's drink. It's supposed to contain a tiny bit of green tee (ie: caffeine) - which I obviously really needed!

Meals:
Breakfast - whole wheat tortilla with hummus, about 2 cups of the Carrot-Apple "juice" that I made on Monday night

Lunch - the Carrot-Daikon beverage, Carrot-Ginger-Cashew soup that I made (yum! I forgot how much I love this soup), 6 brazil nuts

Supper - Roasted red pepper soup with lots of croutons in it (didn't like this soup, bleh! The croutons saved it) and a plain chicken patty from Costco, with salsa and vegannaise as dipping sauces.

*Hmmmm I just realized that I ate lots of carrots today, unintentional but good*

Then off to bed at 9:30.. Have to admit that it was hard to stay up this late (lol), but I didn't want to go to sleep too early in case I woke up at 4 or something like that.

Day 3 (Wednesday)

I managed to go to an early (6:00am) hot yoga class...yaay, go me! The class was nice AND HOT for me today. I love these classes... when your towel gets drenched and you feel like a wet noodle at the end of the class!! When I go to early classes like this, I have to take the bus to work because my Boo and I car-pool to work normally. It isn't that bad usually. I can still get to work around 8:30-9:00, but this morning it was especially cold! My toes froze waiting for the bus. So when I picked up the car from B's work, I stopped by Starbucks for a 1/2 hot-chocolate and 1/2 coffee...even though I have Kombucha-green tea at work... I wanted a hot beverage that was already ready. (I'm such a baby sometimes, haha and I know that I need to get winter boots!)

It was so frosty and pretty on my walk to work this morning.

Meals
Breakfast: The best-smoothie-ever! In it, I put about 2-3 cups of mixed greens, water, about a 1/2-1 cup of frozen blueberries, 2 pears, 1 apple, 2 lemons, 1 scoop of Vega, dulse, flax oil and stevia. I don't know why exactly this smoothie turned out so yummy, maybe because I used 2 lemons and extra sweetener...lemons really help to cut out that "green" taste from the mixed greens. It's very filling and could only drink about 1/2 of it. I'll probably finish it throughout the day.
Lunch: a chicken sandwich (the Costco ones) with hummus, vegannaise, mustard and mixed greens.
Supper - not sure but I am just going to try and stay on track.

I'm writing this during my lunch break and I am now off to Superstore and EatIt to get some fresh produce.

Adios Amigos and Amigas!!
JoJo
xoxo

JoJo's "Juice"

Whoa, 2 posts in my 1st day??  Somebody stop me!!! ha


JoJo's Juice
This is a 'juice' that I make from time to time, usually weekly.  It contains 4 small-medium carrots, 3 small celery stalks, 1 lemon (I use the whole lemon, including the pith but not the peel or seeds), 3 apples.  This time I used agave syrup to sweeten it up, but sometimes I use Stevia.

I blend everything in my much-beloved Vitamix blender, with lots of water:

And voila! Here is the finished product.  I will usually put it in one of these types of containers, and leave it in the fridge...then whenever we want something sweet (like a juice), it's available in the fridge:

I know that it's not technically a juice, because I blend the fruits and veggies with water, rather than juicing it with a juicer. I call it that because I make it kinda thin like a thick juice or a really thin smoothie. (and I can call it whatever I want to!)

Supper
So for my supper tonight, I'm having toast with hummus and some "semo".  Semo is a grain dish from West Africa and we eat it with 'hot sauce' - which is tomatoes, onion, cayenne and salt all blended up.

I admit my supper is a bit on carb-heavy today, but that's ok....I will make up for it tomorrow.

Well, it's almost time for to go to my cooking class...toodles!!!
JoJo
xoxo

Day 1: Macrobiotic & Hot Yoga detox

Hi! This is the first post of my first blog....exciting stuff for me! haha


My purpose of this blog is to journal my 20-day macrobiotic cleanse and hot yoga challenge. One of the suggestions of the challenge is the use of journalling.

The Challenge itself:
The challenge is being ran by Stafford Street Hot Yoga.  It is A 26-day challenge to do hot yoga in the MORNINGS, followed by a macrobiotic remedy. Here is a picture of the poster:

Anyhoo, so how did my first day go? It went well and had an pretty easy class today. After the class, there was a choice of 3 macrobiotic beverages. I chose the Ume-Sho-Bancha-Kuzu 'tea'. It tasted more like a soup or a broth rather than a tea. It was a big salty and kind of thick. There were these pieces of the Ume in it that you have to chew. It will take a bit of getting used to.

Some of the benefits of the Ume-Sho tea are: Alklalizes acidic blood, regulates digestion, soothes stomach, stimulates circulation & heart rate, relieves nausea and anxiety. I forgot to take a picture of the tea, so you could see the little floaty things in it.

For lunch, I'm having a brown & wild rice pilaf, with onion, garlic, ginger, celery, red peppers, chickpeas and a bit of Bragg's liquid aminos. Oh ya, I garnished it with a bit of cilantro....I loooove cilantro. (I forgot to take a picture of my lunch too, darnit...lol...I will get better at this blogging thing soon enough!)

Tonight I am taking a cooking class with Kathy Mann, from the City of Winnipeg leisure guide.  The class is called "Simple-Y" and we will be learning to make Chicken a La King, Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs and Shrimp Egg Foo Young.  I had intended to eat as many vegan meals as possible during this month, but hey, I'm already signed up for the class and her recipes are always so yummy!

Oh! I just took a Certified Food Handlers Training course on Saturday. It was very interesting. I just have to wait for my certificate to come in the mail. I just took the course for my own interest.

As for this blog, I'm not sure if I am going to journal everyday...we'll see how it goes. I'll just try and do what feels right, I guess.

Until next time...Namaste! :)