A Wandering Yoga Girl

HIGHLIGHTS..... 1. I was consistent with my blog post. *phew* 2. A fun night out with my girlfriends every Thursday. 3. I had more encounters with squirrels this months. To be precise, 3 squirrels on the same day.  4. I am more at peace with myself and slowly learning to let go things which used to bother me. 5. Completed my Intermediate Yoga Instructor Course. Woohoo!!! That was a well spent 150 hours. 6. Created more healthy breakfast/snack ideas for my blog. Improving everyday to be a better cook. 7. Prioritize, prioritize and prioritize! Avoid overwhelming myself with too much to do. 8. Peaceful sleep every night.  9. Surrounding myself with wonderful friends. Souls who truly appreciate my presence in their lives.  LOWLIGHTS.....  1. Some tough decisions had to be made in my personal life. Truth be told, it was no longer under my control. 2. Adapting to changes is always difficult. 3. I learnt to prioritize the hard w

Wherever we go in this world, it's like an internationally agreed tradition to serve a glass of water/beverage with food. Be it at restaurants, parties or family dinners. Even I was brought up with this tradition. We are taught to offer a glass of drink to guests and we do the same when we visited others. Recently, I was told that it's not advisable to drink water 30 minutes before a meal, during a meal and at least 30 minutes to 1 hour after a meal. I have seen people who follow this religiously and people who claim it as a nonsense. I love to break traditions and being the curious girl, of course I had to do my research on this topic. First of all, I just thought about it with the basic science and yoga knowledge that I already had. These are some of the points that I can think of According to yogic science, digestion is associated with fire element. So can you imagine putting out the fire with the water that you drink while eating. Digestion starts at the mouth due to

Time for another breakfast/snack idea. I think I did a good job by sticking to fruit based recipe ideas this entire month. Woohoo! So the last fruit to join the bandwagon this month are juicy oranges. I think apples and oranges are a staple at every home. I always have oranges lying around my fruit basket at home. So I grabbed 2 medium sized oranges and whipped up this easy yet yummy vegan muffins. No butter, no eggs and no refined sugar. Sounds good?  Ingredients..... All purpose flour 2 cups Brown sugar 2/3 cup Vegetable oil ½ cup Baking powder 1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda 1/8 teaspoon Freshly squeezed orange juice 2 medium sized oranges Orange zest 1 orange Vanilla extract ½ teaspoon Salt A pinch *Yields 15 medium sized muffins. Let's begin..... Zest a medium sized orange. Squeeze two medium sized oranges in order to get 1 cup of juice.

I am sitting in a shopping mall as I write this post, Midvalley Megamall to be exact. Mystery Man is wandering somewhere. It's a Saturday. Need I say more. There are people EVERYWHERE. Everyone seems to be so engrossed in conversations, shopping, socializing, eating, dating and everything else you could possibly do in a shopping mall. Truth be told, it does feel a little odd to be here after 2 months. So much has changed and everything is happening at lightning speed. Alright, I'm dizzy now! Even the people around me are passing  by like wind. Am I too slow to process all these or people around me are ridiculously fast?   'Breathe M, breathe!' Aahh, much better! My head is clear now and let me get to the point. I'm sure everyone around here has pre-planned their Saturday before setting their foot here and had a rough idea of what they wanted to accomplish while being in the mall. So the pre-planning is a past and their agendas are the future expectations. What ab

I wasn't a big fan of bananas when I was younger. It made me want to gag every time I was offered a banana. After all those years of having a restrained relationship with bananas, I tried them out again last year. NOTHING HAPPENED TO ME. Then I realized all these years it was in my head. I was mentally rejecting bananas when they did no harm to me, actually. In my quest to create a healthy breakfast that can be prepared ahead of time, I had an idea to make a homemade bread. Not just any bread but banana bread. It only takes about 10 to 15 minutes to combine all the ingredients and after 40 minutes in the oven, you've made your own bread. Most of the ingredients are kitchen essentials. Whenever you have some bananas lying around, whip up this easy banana bread and you don't have to fuss about breakfast for a week. Okay? Okay. Ingredients..... Bananas 4 (ripe, medium sized) Flour 1 ½ cups Oil 2/3 of a cup

Guess what?? Today is Earth day! I didn't know it existed until today. So I visited the website dedicated to celebrate Earth Day . This really caught my interest because I love nature and I support any efforts to create a cleaner environment. It's a day celebrated to appreciate everything Mother Earth has offered to us. Water, air, soil, wind and fire. All five elements present on Earth which helps us to survive from birth to death. This organization not only preaches to bring awareness but they have achieved 1 billion acts of green to commit citizens around the world to help make the Earth a better home for all of us. Check out their campaigns here  and sign a pledge or two and do your part to save our Earth. Here's a list of projects that you will be supporting when you sign a pledge on Act Of Green . Green School Campaign The Canopy Project  Women and the Green Economy Protect the Asian Elephants Recycle Your E-Waste Please love our Earth. ~M~

1. SWEET POTATOES 2. CHIA SEEDS 3. PERSIMMONS  4. BLACK EYED PEAS 5. RED CABBAGES  6. ROLLED OATS 7. BRUSSEL SPROUTS 8. BEETS AND BEET LEAVES 9. FIGS  10. BARLEY

I had a packet of wonton wrappers lying in my fridge for about a month. I wondered what I could do with just the wonton skin. I wasn't in the mood to go through the hassle of making vegetarian wonton dumplings. Wonton wrappers are super versatile. They can be fried, steamed, boiled and baked. To make life easier, I thought of baking it. I had some granny smith apples lying around the kitchen as well, so why not make a quick apple pie with wonton wrapper crust. Technically, it's not an apple pie because there is no pie crust but I think taste wise, it qualifies to be termed as an apple pie. I have to say, these apple bites takes no time at all compared to making an apple pie from scratch. It's crispy, petite and sweet enough to satisfy your cravings. The perfect finger food. Mind you, they may fly off from your kitchen as soon as they are out of the oven. Well, who can resist the delicious aroma of apple pies. Yum! Ingredients..... Small granny smith/ gala ap

'Bee Closeup on Peach Blossoms' by Tammy Puntti If you have read my post dedicated for Women's Day titled Embracing Womanhood , I did a brief overview on a breathing technique called brahmari or humming bee breath. I thought I should do a follow up by discussing further on the correct technique and benefits. In Sanskrit terms, the word brahmari itself means bee. The vibration from the sound produced during this practise also imitates the sound of bees. BRAHMARI Difficulty level: Beginners. Who should do it? ANYONE except people suffering from severe ear/ENT(ear,nose,throat) infection. When to do it? The best time to practise is late at night or early in the morning before sunrise because there are fewer external noises. Practising at these times awakens your psychic sensitivity. However, bramari may be practised at any time of the day to relieve mental tension. For beginners who are starting out this practise, 5 to 10  rounds are sufficient. I

Birth and Death Extra Time True Friends  A peaceful home  A good night's sleep  Tomorrow  The ability to forget and to remember  A good laugh  Perfect health  Something free

If you're guilty of skipping breakfast every morning, you're in for a treat today. I have also had those mornings and I know, it's not fun! Unfortunately, time is just not on our side on some days. For many years, I had to depend on store bought "stuff" as I would like to call it, shove it into my huge bag and munch on it while I drive. It's a pathetic situation and we just have to roll with it. I know many people can relate to this scenario because we just get busier by the day. I no longer sacrifice my quality time with breakfast because my schedule is way more flexible now. But for those of you who are still battling with breakfast, I came up with something to cheer you up. Well you know what they say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Let's learn to make this easy on-the-go energy bars a.k.a GRANOLA BARS. You may have seen these in the supermarkets and whenever I try to grab one, my eyes just pop out of my socket. It's unreasona

I add them to my water. This is a fairly new trick that I learnt earlier this year. About 2 months ago, I was watching a cookery show and saw this couple serving glasses filled with water and lemon wedges. It certainly looked interesting. If you still haven't noticed, I like to experiment all the time. So, I immediately bought a lemon the next day to give this 'lemon water' a go. I sliced my lemon into 2 to 3 disks, lightly squeezed them and dropped it into my water bottle. I removed the seed while slicing and left the rind on. You can cut them into wedges if you prefer, there's no right or wrong in this. My lemon slices were left in my bottle from morning till night. I drank this citrus potion throughout the day. As I am typing these, I wonder if you can do the same with oranges. I know you can use lime instead of lemons, but haven't heard of oranges. Orange water?? I don't know if it exists, but I did think of it myself. Let me play with those one day

I hope everyone survived April Fools' Day. I know I did. Last Friday, I got to know that today is the World Autism Awareness Day. I don't know much about autism. I've read about it but I will still claim I don't know much about it. Autistic or not, I love children and today is the day to celebrate these special children. Every child is a valuable gift and let's cherish their presence on this special day. Anyone who has a child, a sibling or a friend who is autistic, try your best to spread the awareness to the people you know. Treat these kids equally as you treat others. If they are nurtured and given proper attention, they will be great kids. Try not to resent or give up on these children, instead be the better person, be patient and loving towards them. Unconditional love and patience can never go wrong with kids. Be kind to one another.  ~M~  To read more on World Autism Awareness Day, visit  http://www.autismspeaks.org/