Simply Salad

My daily staple. Salads are great as you can create a different one each day depending on what you feel like. I use spices like cayenne and chili pepper to add some heat. I make my salad dressing with olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. This one is my favourite. I add sprouts, nuts and seeds to add protein and avocado for healthy oils. For desserts lately I have been eating lots of fruit like banana, asian pear and apples dipped in almond butter. I still have some date nut torte in the fridge. I started to drink some green tea but no more than once every few weeks. I prefer ginger tea as it gently stimulates digestion and cleanses digestive organs.

Haven't done my weigh in lately so here it is:

Week 1-4: 124 pounds
Week 4-8: 124 pounds
Week 8-12: 124 pounds

Not much has changed but a baby bump is definitely there!

I met my friend Tamsin yesterday at Starbucks for tea. She is a beautiful soul, yoga teacher and an artist. We got very close after our Teacher Training. Tamsin created prayer beads for each one of us when we were studying yoga. They were all different depending on what you needed. The beads are all precious stones and crystals. My necklace was made of lapis lazuli and aventurine. Its beautiful. When I first visited Tamsin at her apartment I was welcomed by colorful, artist's space, lovely paintings everywhere, lots of antique furniture, plants, beads, and her cat Jimmy. I immediately felt that I wanted Tamsin to create a painting for my yoga room. And so she did. It was totally custom made and I was a part of every stage of the work. We did it together (of course I wasn't painting anything but asking for things and giving feedback lol) and I love it. Here it is:

So now Tamsin is creating another 3 smaller paintings also for my yoga room. They go together and have an ocean/tropical theme. I look at the progress of these 3 and love it. Needless to say Tamsin will create a painting for my baby's room as well :) That way the baby can have a painting to grow up with, something reflecting its energy and something they can take with them when they grow up.

Shanine is away for a week in Dominican Republic! Lucky her. I miss her already but I know she is just soaking in the sun, the ocean, the beach and recharging her batteries. She will come back and teach her classes from that space of tropical beauty and gentle wisdom.

Nesta my main yoga teacher, the owner of Yoga Center of Burlington, facilitator of Teacher Training and a wonderful friend is back from her vacations and teaching classes again. I took her morning class yesterday and wow was it ever intense. We did back bends, which means opening the heart space, moving energy up the spine to the heart and opening the thoracic spine. It also means releasing lots of emotions from the heart. Back bends create a unique state of being, openness, cleansing, increased energy and vitality. I felt so energized after the class, took Ronin to a doggy park and then I was teaching two classes. I needed that class as lots of that anxiety that I have been feeling has been released. Today morning I did my personal practice at home and I balanced yesterday's class with restorative, pranayama and supported forward bends. I just wanted the energy to settle in the heart. The energy was just bouncing around so it was good to calm it down a bit. Now this is only because I am pregnant. Before I could go for days with this energy moving and energizing me. Now I need to settle the energy and synchronize it with the baby, which means finding my center and peace. Pregnancy is all about feeling peace and quiet by creating calm energy inside.