Life Lately

It feels like my life has been on repeat lately.
Good thing is I only have exams until Wednesday and then I can become a real person with a real life again.

Life lately: Yoga, studying, sleeping, yoga, studying, sleeping, yoga, studying, sleeping….

and I went for a run for a couple of times.
Oh yeah, and of course there was food too!

Breakfast lately:

I haven’t touched oatmeal in 3 weeks now, I haven’t gobbled down smoothies as breakfast for a while, instead I’m sticking with yoghurt bowls.
Light and fun.
And very versatile: most of the time there are strawberries involved and some kind of grains.

My favourites thus far:
Yoghurt bowl with strawberries, melon, crushed macademians, all bran flakes and a generous splash of rice milk and the bowl with banana, almond butter and dark chocolate chips.

The yoghurt obsession probably has something to do with discovering a new kind of soy yoghurt which is much creamier and has a milder taste than the one I usually have.

Snack lately:

All kind of mini veggies: mini bell peppers, mini chicory, cherry tomatoes, mini carrots…

Apples are back in my life!

Obsessions lately:

Papaya

Macadamian nuts, just looking at that photograph makes me drool a bit.

I really credit yoga for keeping me sane and making me feel like I’m alive in the midst of this chaos of exames, papers and new movingplans.
I’ve been hitting the mat almost every day, either doing an ashtanga mysore practise or doing some yin yoga, mostly focusing on easing the muscles in my hips and lower back a bit.

Hope you are all doing well!
Love, M.

Yoga Lesson: Let go of Resistance

Due to this being at home these past few weeks to study I haven’t been able to take a yoga class in a studio for a while, but I have been hitting the mat frequently myself in order to ease the tension in my back, working up some sweat and staying sane mentally.

So I was very excited to have scheduled a ‘real’ class at a studio for last night. It was a class at a studio I’ve never been to but taught by my favourite teacher from Leuven, so everything was sunny in Mixxedtape land.

That was until I consulted the site of the studio a couple of hours before the class and found out that the schedule had changed. I was planning to attend an ashtanga short form which had suddenly changed into a mysore class.

And my reaction to that was mentally changing into a nagging 6-year-old.
You see, I have followed mysore classes, but only the preparation ones, that were actually still led classes. I’ve never ever done the primary series on my own with no one talking me through it. Trust me, I’ve tried it at home and it didn’t work out that great: the standing poses are just fine but when I’ve gotten to the sitting poses I’m always sick of it and out of focus and NO, I do not want to do another vinyasa in between those two postures.

How mature of me 😉

Yet, I decided to just suck it up and go for it anyway, I was full of resistance, feeling really awkward and uncomfortable (especially when I was the only one there to start and other people came walking in after a few minutes while I was busy doing sun salutations).
I was struggling and out of focus, looking at other people, not really knowing what I was doing and things just felt all wrong, but I gradually let go of it, relaxed a bit more, gained some focus and then it got wonderful.

I’ve learned quite a bit about myself yesterday and the adjustments were spot on so I think this will really help me overcome these mental barriers that are holding me back when I’m doing the ashtanga series on my own.

You see, yoga is not just about the asanas, it’s about this too: overcoming mental barriers and letting go of resistance, not just on the mat but in every day life situations as well.

Namaste, M.

Mockery and Compensations

In the theme of either you do it right or you don’t do it at all, I made up for my absence from my yoga mat this week by doing two classes in timespan of of 12 hours. Last night I went to a wonderful vinyasa class, which was extra special because we practised in the beautiful yard of our yoga studio for the first time. I’d recommend everyone to do a yoga practise outside when it’s nice out, you will learn many different things about yourself and your focus.

This morning I attended the mysore ashtangha class at 6.30.
I will repeat that in case you don’t grasp the earliness of the concept: 6.30 a.m.
I’m always pleasantly surprised when I take this class cause I leave it with so much energy and the feeling like I’m on top of the world, and it’s not even 8 yet!

Breakfast get designed in the theme of take away breakfasts.

Overnight oats in an almost empty yoghurt container:

These oats got inspired by Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

I love Ben & Jerry’s! I’m not normally an ice cream fan but I like Ben & Jerry’s from time to time because it’s so much more than just ice cream.
All the flavours, add ins and different textures… it amazes me every single time.

In the container went 8 T of oatmeal, 2 T of grated coconut, splashes of soy milk, flax seeds, strawberries and smoked almonds. Store in fridge overnight and topped  with some melted peanut butter in the morning.

And an iced coffee on the side:

Yep, I am the creep that stores the container and some spare ice cubes of an iced latte from a café in her tiny freezer in order to be able to use the container again. In my defence , it’s the only way I can make sure I have ice cubes at hand and I will throw the container away after I finish this drink.

Love, M.

It’s a Pancake kinda Day

I’ve been thinking about pancakes since yesterday evening’s ashtanga class.
I know yoga should be about letting go and focusing on the postures and stuff, but I couldn’t help it, pancakes were on my mind!

I probably dreamed about pancakes too… and I woke up super early, glad to see it was a pancake kind of day: I bit gloomy, a bit grey, perfect Pancake weather!

‘Coconut Oat Pancakes’
makes 4 big or 8 to 10 small ones

• 5 T of oats
• 2 T of unsweetened coconut
• 3 T of yoghurt
• a generous amount of coconut milk
• one egg
• optional: 1 t of sweetener of choice, cinnamon

Toppings: melted peanut butter, half a banana, granola with chocolate chips and smoked almonds.

Mix together the oats and the coconut, add the yoghurt, egg and milk and whisk together until everything is combined. Fry in a skillet on high in some olive oil.

I wanted to make a couple of big pancakes first ( about 5 T of dough per pancake), but things started to get messy when I tried to flip those so I went with tiny pancakes instead (1 a 2 T per pancake).

Bonus points for those cause they are easier to stack.

Love, M.

Yoga Marathon

So as announced before, I participated in a yoga marathon to raise money for enbloc4cancer yesterday and it was an amazing experience.

We had four classes and a 15 minute break between each class to get something to drink or go to the bathroom. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this before here, but I have a really small bladder (people who know me and are reading this will definitely snort now and say that that’s an understatement)  and I think I took 5 bathrooms breaks during that marathon, blame it on the yummy tea that got served!

First class was an easy flow class and we did take it very easy so it was a nice and relaxing way to get into it and warm up those muscles.
The easy flow class was followed by a vinyasa power class which was followed by an ashtanga short form class, and those were very challenging. I did enjoy them very much though, the temperature was just right (25°C, it was not a hot yoga class, I would die if I had to do 4 of those!).
Last class was a yin yoga class, I have to say I thought that class was the most challenging. Yin yoga is always a huge mental challenge for me, but I’ve never  experienced real discomfort in yin yoga before. Let me tell you, if you take 3 other yoga classes before taking a yin yoga class and you are having a full bladder you will feel discomfort.. and a lot of it!

I learned a lot about fuel before and during yoga as well.
For breakfast I had a bowl of oatmeal with cottage cheese and peanut butter about 2 hours before the first class. I had a carton of rice milk after my second class and a some strawberries and a handful of nuts after my third class and those did not bother me at all. I’ve heard from other people that a banana is a great way to refuel in between classes as well, the cake on the other hand (it was actually there for after the classes, but who can resist cake?) was not such a great idea.

Post yoga meal: Bulgur, cherry tomatoes, lentils, baby carrots, avocado and falafel (x3). Plus a dessert with cottage cheese and peanut butter, I had to eat that for some extra protein to restore my muscles not because I am in love with it or anything ;).

Namasta, M.

Mondays and Radical Self Love

I’m usually not such a Monday person, but this Monday has been great!
* Warning: an extremely random post will appear when you scroll down *

I started of the day with a breakfast date with my dad and the sis.
I was a bit  disappointed cause I really wanted to go to Le Pain Quotidien but it was too crowded. We went to some other place and while the food was not great I did really enjoy their company. Such a nice way to start a new week.

Lunch:

Cause all the cool kids have their lunch in coffee cups!
Smoothie with soy milk, half a banana, a couple of strawberries, lamb’s lettuce and avocado. Topped with flax seeds.

You can also see the things I spent the rest of my afternoon with in the background: photographs and a photo album!

I’m making an album for my godchild Floris, with all the photographs I took of his mum while she was pregnant, family photographs and pics of places I’d like to go see with him.

I also spent some time journalling: pasting in photographs, writing lyrics and inspirational quotes. I decided to make May the month of Radical Self Love, as seen by Gala Darling. More about my Radical Self Love challenge will follow in a later post but in the meantime you guys really should check out Gala’s site, I discovered it a while ago and she’s been such an inspiration.

On a total random note, I don’t know whether you guys can read it but my scrapbook is composed in some kind of gibberish language combining English, Dutch and sometimes even French. That’s just how my head works, I even find I do all my internal thinking and debating in English, so weird as my native tongue is Dutch.

Back to food: this, my dear friends, is my newest food combination obsession: banana with peanut butter and cottage cheese, I could eat only this for the rest of my days and be perfectly happy with it!

And here’s an exciting note to end on: tomorrow my yoga studio’s hosting a yoga marathon!

They will teach 4 yoga classes, marathon style, the money they make from these classes will be donated to support Cancer research. So I’ll be yogaing away all afternoon tomorrow! To help me through these hours I bought some liquid fuel in the form rice milk and a berry smoothie.

Love, M.

Challenge: Stop making Excuses

Or, as Nike would say: Just do it!

I am the best at making excuses not to do things, you should hear the arguments I get into with myself sometimes. The lazy me almost always wins and I almost always regret afterwards. So this week I decided to block out that voice and tell it to just do it already. Or as I wrote it down in my scrap-book:

Dear Self,

I don’t care if you are cold, sad, sick, stress, lazy… just get out there and do it already.
No more self-sabotage, the only reasons not to go to yoga/out for a run/out to some social thing you don’t feel up to are: a) when you are (half-)dead
b) when there’s a hurricane raging
c) when you have to finish a task for school before midnight that same day

I’m only saying this for your own good!

So every time I even started to think about skipping a yoga class, I just thought about this entry and about how I was not helping myself making up various excuses why I shouldn’t go, instead I just sucked it up and got it over with.
And I was proud.

I also applied this theory to my procrastination habit when it comes to school work. Result: I went to two yoga classes before it was even Wednesday morning and I’m planning on doing some practise at home as well tomorrow, I went for a run and I finished off some school work I was really delaying.

Moral of the story: sometimes you just need a kick in the butt and sometimes you are the only person who can give that kick!

Challenge: Stop making excuses and get out there already. Give yourself a kick in the butt when you need one.

Love, M.

Running on Pink

I’ve been having the most productive week ever!
And it’s only Wednesday, so things can only get better.

So far I’ve been:

• catching up on courses I’ve been neglecting
• writing papers like my life depends on it (one of which on the development of dummy from the 16th century to now, such fun)
• rode on a bike in the city for the first time  (which was fun and scary at the same time)
• took 2 yoga classes in 2 days (vinyasa power and ashtanga)
• working on my gift for Floris (more about that later!)

My mind is on full speed, even though my body has not been really cooperating, I’ve been sporting a throat ache that is not really something serious yet but serious enough to bug the living hell out of me at night, which translates into some severe sleep deprivation.

But apparently you do not need sleep to be productive, as long as you have enough caffeine and strawberries at you disposal.

Overnight oats with coconut and strawberries to start the day of on the right foot.

Smoothie with banana, strawberries and some ice cubes to sooth the troubled throat.

Spring salad: Lamb’s lettuce with cherry tomatoes, radishes, asparagus and strawberries of course.

Today’s lunch on the go: quinoa and strawberries with an apple and cherry tomatoes on the side.

PS: there won’t be any photographs of Floris until the weekend as I’m stuck in Leuven for the week!

Love, M.

What’s Cooking

I’ve been super busy and super stressed this week, all this work: papers, classes I neglected, an Old English translation exam… and trying to keep practising yoga, to run from time to time and not to neglect my social life too much.

I spent most of my time in class rooms or the library and ate lots of strawberries and soup.

Some highlights this week:

1. Lunch at Le Pain Quotidien.

2. Visiting Ghent, falling in love with it and seeing the musical our class mates organized, Socrates Superstar was amazing, especially if you’re into ‘Classical’ jokes!

3.  Being able to justify reading the Hunger Games again as I’m doing my human animal paper on the series

4. My first real Ashtanga class, including the chanting (never did that before) 

5. Eating pizza, drinking port and singing nostalgic songs

6. Food:

Okra!! Why aren’t you available in my local shop??
I had to drive to the Netherlands to get some okra, and it was all worth it.

I tried bulghur for the first time in my life.

The new love of my life: whole grain granola with no added sugar!

Soy milk with macchiato flavour

Pumpkin bread with cottage cheese and cinnamon.

That’s about as random as it can get!

Love,M.

The 10 “Take Care of Yourself” Commandments and Cookies

Time for me to go back to all these things I preached but stopped practising:

1. Thou shall think positive thoughts
2. Thou shall pick up meditation again
2. Thou shall be mindful, especially when eating
3. Thou shall practise yoga at least twice a week
4.Thou shall treat your body right and not load it with crap
5. Thou shall eat when hungry and stop eating when satisfied
6. Thou shall not deprive yourself from anything
7. Thou shall drink shitloads of water and tea to stay hydrated
8. Thou shall be kind and patient with yourself and other people
9. Thou shall do exciting things and live without regrets
10. Thou shall love yourself !

And on that note I present you a recipe for some amazing cookies.

I decided that I will not tell myself I can’t have cookies or treats any more cause I know that will just lead  to eating loads and loads of sugary,processed food I don’t even feel much for .

So from now on, when I want cake or cookies, I will have it on the condition that I really crave them, not because I’m bored or sad. I will make them myself so I know what’s in there and savour them.

‘Salty Chocolate Cookies’
makes 8 cookies

• 10 walnuts
• 1 T of peanut butter
• 1 T of maple syrup
• 3 T of vegetable oil
• 2 T of soy milk
• 8 T of oats
• 10 to 20 gr of dark,bitter chocolate, in chips
• sea salt, to taste

Chop up the walnuts and the dark chocolate. Preheat the oven to 180°C (360F).
Melt the peanut butter and combine it in a bowl with the maple syrup,vegetable oil and milk. Add the oats, nuts and chocolate chips, stir to combine and add a generous amount of sea salt.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and sprinkle some oil on the paper. Place dollops of dough on the  cookie sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Love, M.