Last November, before the pandemic and before staying at home was the new norm, I had the amazing experience of traveling to Bali. I attended a Soulrocker Yoga Retreat at the beautiful Soulshine Boutique Resort inUbud, Bali. One of my favorite singer/songwriters is Michael Franti and he owns the resort. Each year he and his wife Sara host a yoga retreat there. You have the unique opportunity to spend a week practicing yoga, dining, singing, dancing, swimming and exploring Bali with Michael, his wife and the guest yoga instructor (this year it was Gina Caputo, who was so amazing and she was an absolute highlight of the retreat!) The retreats sell out almost immediately so I was very lucky to have reserved two spots. Well, let me mention that I booked it on a whim the day it opened up and explained to my husband AFTER I signed up that I was going to Bali. If life had been a bit less crazy last year for our family, my husband would have gone too, but he encouraged me (as always) to see the world and report back on how it's going and to let him know what he needs to see next. He and my daughter each have had opportunities to travel to Asia so I figured I needed to travel to that part of the world as well, at least that’s what I decided. Truly a beautiful and enlightening experience. The Balinese people are some of the warmest, kindest and gentlest people I have ever met.
In the time I spent in Bali on retreat, I was introduced to clean eating. The resort specializes in plant based meals that I absolutely found to be delicious. I noticed by the end of the week how different I felt. The food was such an amazing compliment to the daily yoga practices, poolside relaxing, fabulous massages, fun dancing, singing, white water rafting and exploring that we did as a group. I lost weight and slept better then ever. I honestly cannot wait to go back...with my husband.
Fast foward to May when our daughter returned home from college with a book called "Clean". She's talking about “organic this and organic that“ and basically let the rest of the family know that we do not eat well. We truly thought we were pretty healthy eaters too! We teased her at first about this new lifestyle, until she began cooking for us. The food took me right back to Bali! It was lighter, full of flavor and again, I could tell a difference after just a week.
It is, in some ways, a complete lifestyle change, at least it is for us. I have been a whole milk, hard boiled eggs, white sugar eating kinda girl my whole life. 52 years in and I learned that replacing dairy products and switching to coconut sugar could be life changing. We had to get serious about re-stocking the pantry and commit to learning about the idea of whole foods and how our modern food supply really needs to be re-examined. Organic does make more sense to me now that I’ve learned the difference. There is more thought and preparation that goes into each meal and weekly grocery planning, but once you get into a routine, it certainly becomes much easier and natural (and Hello, instacart...my favorite thing to come out of the pandemic!)
Our habits are never easy to change and it takes complete honesty, clarity and, let‘s face it, courage to ”open our apeture” and see ourselves and patterns clearly. To really take inventory and notice what is working and what isn't. In yoga, there are two terms, Asteya (non-harming) and Satya (truth), that come to mind when going through this process. When we set out to "do no harm" to our bodies and minds, it takes truthfulness regarding our current habits and patterns and the lifestyles we’ve created (and often time unhealthy addictions too) to really see what is working and what isn't. When it comes to our eating, it seems to me that we might be on auto-pilot most days. Eating what we’ve always eaten, maybe even for generations. So after a few weeks of "clean" eating, I can say that I feel better when I eat clean, whole foods, eliminate white sugar, eggs and dairy. Now, if I’m being honest, there were fish tacos (on flour tortillas, which is really the difference), a time or two, and they might have been accompanied by an orange crush, an Ocean City, MD summer original, but on those occasions, I definitely noticed the difference in how I felt afterwards. The point is, learning to listen to our bodies is key.
The book my daughter introduced to us is: Clean, by Dr. Alejandro Junger. I invite you to try it. What do you have to lose...except maybe the late night cravings and possibly a bit of inflammation.
Om, Namaste, Michelle
Comments