A Wandering Yoga Girl

I post a lot of recipes on my blog and I also follow a lot of food blogs along with yoga blogs. Food is such an important aspect of every human being's life. On average, I come across about 30 new recipe posts every week. Everybody wants to share their food love through blogs and photos. **thumbs up** As much as food and variety of ingredients are important to our diet, I have to say that the attitude towards eating does concern me. The primary focus has always been on what you should and should not eat. Sadly, nobody seem to emphasize on how you should eat. Let me tell you, your mood, surroundings and mental state does affect how your body utilize the food that you eat. Probably you may feel I am repeating what you have been thought when you were young, but forgetfulness is in our genes. 1. Like Mama said, Chew Your Food. As I always say, digestion begins at your mouth. I cannot emphasize this enough. The starch present in your food are initially broken down in the mouth...

Ahh finally!! I'm posting my first asana pictorial. Part 3 of the Pawanmuktasana, also known as the shakthi bandha group of asanas. This group of asanas are concerned with improving the energy flow within the body. They eliminate energy blockages in the spine, activate the lungs and heart, and improve endocrine function. These asanas are useful for those with reduced vitality and a stiff back and specially useful for women suffering with menstrual problems due to its toning effect on the pelvic organs and muscles. It can be practised after pregnancy for retoning flaccid muscles. The shakti bandha series may be started straight away if good health and fitness prevail. However, if there are any serious ailments, a yoga therapist or an experienced yoga instructor should be consulted. Difficulty Level : Beginners      1. Raju Karshanasana (Pulling the Rope)           Instructions: 1.        Sit comfortab...

I love coconut. Period. I love drinking coconut water, I love eating young coconut flesh, and I love anything made out of shredded coconut. Being an Indian girl, I grew up with coconut in all my food. It's a staple at home. It's such a versatile ingredient. Perfectly blends with either savory or sweet dishes. The idea for this cocoa and coconut energy balls actually came to me while I was reading a recipe on how to make coconut laddoos. It's a traditional Indian sweet snack prepared during Indian festivals. Addition of cocoa powder is my personal twist to the recipe or let's say I modernized the recipe. A girl's gotta satisfy her cocoa cravings. While the traditional coconut balls are just sweet, my version has a bitter sweet kick to it. Also an excellent portable snack. Let's jump into the recipe, shall we? INGREDIENTS..... Desiccated coconut - 2 cups Milk - 1 & 1/2 cups Light brown sugar - 1 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder -  3 tablespoons Ghee(c...

I HAVE A CONFESSION. I am guilty of not breathing the right way until I started practicing yoga. I think it's a common theory that the chest moves up and down during breathing. I was so WRONG! When we breathe this way, we fail to maximize the use of a vital piece of muscle called the diaphragm. The "RIGHT" way of breathing is actually to allow the chest and stomach/abdominal/rib cage region to expand and contract as we breathe. This way we can increase the lung capacity to hold more air and utilize every single muscle between the rib cage (intercostal muscles) which I can't even pronounce. Not forgetting the 'mighty' diaphragm which is completely put to work during abdominal breathing. Good! Now you have learnt how to breathe the RIGHT way. But how do you know if you are  breathing RIGHT all the time? For most of us, our mind and body is familiar with chest breathing and it is going to take a little bit of practise to bring the body back to abdominal breat...

I know I have been missing in action for the past 2 weeks. It wasn't a pre-planned blogging hiatus. Hmm....since I am already sitting down to write a post, I should probably be honest. I had a big loss in my life. Not that kind of loss. A devastating break up, actually. If you have been reading my blog posts for some time, I have mentioned Mystery Man here and there. He was the man I was in a serious relationship with for over a year. I'm glad I kept him anonymous and I choose to not get into too much details. After a month and a half of battling with emotions and nursing my broken heart, I came back to my senses. I have actually planned to publish more posts for this month, but things don't always go as planned. I thought it would be impossible to pick myself up after the horrific incident but I kept reminding myself why I started this journey in the first place. That is why I can boldly write about it in a post today. I realized I cannot change people, instead I cho...

If you've read my post on forgotten super foods , I mentioned barley as one of the least used grains. Oddly, barley has always made it through my diet since I was young. My mother always made this yummy barley drink which I could not resist. Since summer is around the corner and the heat waves will be catching up with us soon, I had to share this recipe with all of you. Barley is known for its hydrating and cooling properties. It helps with lowering body heat during summer time. Barley is also high in fiber and very gentle in your digestive tract. As I'm typing this post, I'm getting inspirations to create more recipes with barley grains. Barley bread, breakfast barley porridge......looks like I have more experiments coming up in the kitchen. I know many people just boil the barley grains with some sugar and consume it as barley water. But I have made some tweaks to the basic barley water recipe. Actually, I learnt it from my mother and I just repeated what I have...

I am aware my brothers and sisters on the west coast are embracing their Spring May. I am also aware how much they love this time of the year for the sunshine, beach parties, pretty flowers and colorful outfits. Need I say more about spring cleaning? Spring cleaning itself seems like a party. OHH JUICE CLEANSE!!! I'm amazed by the number of juice and smoothie ideas that pops up in my notification every day. I feel great to see people taking effort to share a recipe or two just to help everyone out there. People worldwide seem to love the summer time. I am glad that people are focusing on cleaning their body and not just their homes. Well my spring cleaning began way earlier, January to exact. Read more on it here . Time for an update on what really happened after my cleansing. Hmmm, how do I begin this. I FELT ill! Yes, right after the detox. It felt like I was having a high fever, sore throat, cold and all that exciting things without actually being sick. I don't know if yo...

Greetings! First day of the month of May. I know majority of the world is on leave today. Personally, I celebrate a lot of significant events on this very day. If you have known me long enough, I have a habit of makings lists. So obviously I am including a list to share with you all the things I am celebrating today. 1. I have successfully completed 2 months of my blogging journey. I have learnt so much, still learning and don't see a sign of stopping anytime soon. Stepping into the third month and hoping to get better everyday.  2. I have officially joined the workers's community . Believe it or not, this is my very first May Day as an employee. Happy International Workers's Day to everyone out there and myself. 3. Technically, I was supposed to be off from work today. But, I woke up at 5 am today and spent my entire day helping out my friend  at the detox day. It's so different to be behind the scenes compared to being a participant.  4. I am celebratin...