Yoga Teacher Training – Weekend One

I can’t believe my first weekend of yoga teacher training is here and gone.  It was honestly an amazing weekend full of smiles, making new friends, and “aha” moments.  It fed my soul and I left on Sunday knowing I made the right choice to go on this journey.

photo 1 (4)The loft we practice in.

Yes, there are still questions and curiosities of wow will I actually be able to teach this to others?  Is there really that much that goes into the simple standing pose of tadasana?  But I have to believe that this is a process and trust this process.

I am writing this post because I know when I was researching Yoga Teacher Trainings for myself, I wanted as much information as possible. What do you learn, what does the day to day look like, etc.  So I present to you Yoga Teacher Training – Weekend One.

Saturday

Introductions: We all went around and introduced ourselves and said what we were most excited for.  I’m awful when it comes to this type of thing.  I said I am most excited to deepen my practice and learn how to teach that to others (duh Kelsey that’s what the entire training is intended to do).

Manual: We also received our manuals which are awesome.  Mitchell and Tracey (our amazing teachers) created this 150+ manual over the years but told us this year it is by far the most detailed and elaborate.  It has pictures of every yoga pose we are going to learn – so cool!

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Practice: We started with an hour long practice to get our bodies warm and moving.

Alignment:  We learned about the spine, the different parts to it, and the natural curve that we are always trying to maintain through yoga practice.  Mitchell and Tracy broke down tadasana, urdvha hastasana, uttanasana (the beginning of Sun A) and demonstrated correct alignment (and also incorrect alignment).  It’s crazy how much goes into correctly standing in this pose – there are four pages of it in the manual!

Discussion: What is Yoga?  We had a great discussion about the history of Yoga and what is has transformed in to today and even how that can be different for everyone.  I am excited to learn where Yoga originated from and how it’s evolved.  I feel like there is SO much to learn.  Did you know that Yoga is 3500 years old, but the physical hatha practice didn’t come to be until about 600 years ago?

Pranayama:  Pranayama is the practice of consciously breathing.  Many yogi’s know the one most popular pranayama, the ujjayi breath.  Ujjayi is when you breathe in and out of your nose, narrowing the back of the throat.  You’ve probably heard Yoga instructors refer to this breath as if you are fogging a mirror.  We practiced this towards the end of our Saturday.

Sunday

Meditation: Tracy led us through a meditation.  At the end she told us it was 15 minutes!  It definitely didn’t feel that long.  I hope every time we practice mediation it feels that way!  I know I’ve heard stories of people really finding meditation challenging.  So far so good!

Practice:  We had an awesome 90 minute practice to start our Sunday.  It felt awesome.

Sun Salutation Alignment:  This was one of my favorite learning parts of the weekend.  Mitchell and Tracy broke down caturanga, upward dog, cobra, down dog, and all of the transitions in between.  Learning the correct alignment of all of these poses has been so eye opening. You realize that you can easily do poses incorrectly for years.  Until I started coming to this studio I was basically doing caturanga wrong. Sometimes you really have to un-learn bad habits!

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Mythical Interpretation:  We learned the story of Ganesha, one of the Hindu Gods.  This was a part of the weekend that I probably wasn’t expecting but really enjoyed.  Mitchel told us two different stories.  They’re playful and entertaining stories that he translates and completely relates back to life, even modern every day life.

Reflection

This first weekend and introduction into Yoga Teacher Training was amazing.  It’s so refreshing to learn familiar things, unfamiliar things, and put yourself in a position to be open to it all.  It’s hard to put in to words how excited I am for the next five months but I look forward to sharing the journey!

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Chorizo and Eggs with Heirloom Tomato Salsa

I don’t think I am a very self observant person…if that’s a thing.  I’m very observant of things around me, but not of myself.  In simple terms….I’m on day nine of the 21 Day Sugar Detox and I’m not sure what differences I see.

I was pretty tired the first week, and just trying to get used to cutting out dairy, some sugar, and alcohol.  Now that I’m on week 2 I’m feeling fine with my new eating habits just don’t think I see much changes.  I still have annoying breakouts on my chin and have been a little bit moody from time to time.  Maybe it’s just the time of the month 🙂

Anyways, what I do know is that this detox has made me cook some great new recipes!  Most of them have been from Diane’s 21 Day Sugar Detox book but I came up with this one all on my own!  It’s simple and has made a great dinner for the past few nights.  I think I need recipe naming tips though…Chorizo and Eggs with Heirloom Tomato Salsa…needs work.

Chorizo and Eggs with Heirloom Tomato Salsa 

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  • 1 lb Ground Chorizo
  • 2 Eggs
  • Organic Mini Heirloom Tomatoes
  • 1/2 Lime
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Garlic
  • Cilantro

First prepare your heirloom tomato salsa.  Cut the tomatoes into fourths and throw in a bowl.  Once they are all cut up squeeze your lime over them.  Cut up your cilantro and add along with salt, pepper, and garlic to taste.

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Now take your chorizo and put it in a pan over medium heat.  Cook for 7-10 minutes or until brown and cooked through.  Make two spots for your eggs and crack them into the pan.  I got this idea from Juli at PaleOMG.  Cook the eggs over easy.  Once the eggs are done scoop a serving of chorizo onto a plate with your eggs on top.  Add your salsa on top of the eggs.  I also added some avocado!

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It may not look pretty, but it tastes very pretty!

Are you doing any type of detox or diet right now?  Are you seeing differences?

A Weekend in The Life of the 21 Day Sugar Detox

Alright, I know it’s Monday which means this past weekend is already been there, done that…but I really wanted to write about my first weekend on the 21 Day Sugar Detox.  

You see for me the weekend is usually my time to let go and indulge a bit.  This can look like having some sweet potato fries at my favorite barbecue restaurant with a few craft beers and even having a bite of the corn bread. Or going to my favorite tapas restaurant and enjoying a glass bottle of wine and devouring a whole cheese board.

So when Friday rolled around and my stressful day at work came to an end I was really, really looking forward to a nice dinner and some wine.  But then I remembered…21 Day Sugar Detox Kelsey! No wine, no cheese, no ketchup, no fries!  I got a little anxious as I drove to Andy’s and wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to hold out.  I even thought about……cheating.

BUT I am very proud to say that I did good the entire weekend!  Even being around lots of alcohol and bad food and I stayed on track!  We can do this people!  Here is how my weekend went:

Friday

We went to whole foods and picked  up dinner. Shrimp as an appetizer.  I forgot I couldn’t have cocktail sauce so decided to try it with lemon.  To my surprise I loved it!

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For dinner we had short rib steaks with some roasted broccoli.  Thank goodness we had a great rub for the steak so I didn’t miss the ketchup too much.

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Saturday

I started my morning with a nice sweaty vinyasa class.  It was so foggy on my drive home I had to snap a picture.  This weather was making me feel a little down in the dumps all day.

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I cheered up a little bit when I got back to Andy’s and we made some yummy omelets.  I love this sign I got Andy for Christmas.  I told him I know it was his favorite gift!

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Then we headed out to do some shopping.  This is when things got REALLY good.  I figured out that I could use my $200 Athleta gift card at Old Navy.  What this means is that instead of getting one pair of yoga pants and two tank tops at Athleta I got FIFTEEN pieces of clothing from Old Navy!! While I love Athleta, Old Navy has great yoga / workout clothes, so how could I go wrong?

I bought 4 pairs of pants, 6 tank tops, 3 sports bras, and one long sleeve zip up.  Yoga Teacher Training here I come!

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After my shopping spree it was football time….boo.  I’m not a huge football fan, and Andy….well he is.  Since he dealt with my moodiness up until Saturday I thought I should probably be nice and go watch the games with him and some friends.

Eating and drinking at a sports bar while on the 21 Day Sugar Detox.

I wish I took pictures because it was pretty funny.  Over the course of about 5 hours I had the following:

  • 3 or 4 club sodas with lime
  • 3 buffalo wings (no blue cheese)
  • celery sticks dipped in guacamole
  • burger with bacon, mushrooms, and onions (no bun or ketchup)

Sunday

Sunday was a pretty lazy day but we did do something super exciting.  We made homemade beef jerky!  I followed the recipe from the 21 Day Sugar Detox book and they came out awesome!  It made for a great snack at work today.

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I also tried Kombucha for the first time this weekend.  I had no idea what it was before this detox.  To my surprise, I really liked it.  Actually, that’s a lie.  I like pretty much everything.  This was ginger flavored.  I wasn’t expecting it to be fizzy but loved it!

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We left the house for a few hours to go see Lone Survivor.  It was a great movie, but of course a tear jerker.  I’ve been SO emotional at movies lately…to the point that I am crying for 5 minutes after we leave the theatre.  Is that normal?

We ended our weekend with an awesome dinner.  Introducing Bacon Wrapped Mini Meatloaves.  This is a really simple recipe. photo 2 (3)

  • 1.5 – 2 lbs grass fed beef
  • 1 egg
  • spice to your liking

Mix your beef together and form meatballs.  Take a muffin pan and line each muffin with a half slice of bacon.  Place the meatballs in the muffin pans and bake on 375 for 25 – 30 minutes.

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All in all it was a great weekend and I feel great!  I think I’m starting to get the hang of this 21 Day Sugar Detox thing.  How do you handle going out and not drinking or eating bad?

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