Hacking Yoga: Can Yoga help me lose weight?

This is a great question and the answer is: yes it can! (surprised?)

Yoga can affect your weight in a number of ways:

1. Yoga increases your metabolism
2. Use yoga to prevent injury from other exercises
3. Learning to calm the mind with yoga allows you to recognize unhealthy eating patterns

Also keep in mind that weight loss is not the best measure for health. As you start working out you will build muscle which weighs more than fat and you may see some weight gain. Do not be discouraged. Think about how you feel. Are you stronger and more comfortable during the day? How about your energy levels? Consider that Western Science may not have all the answers.

If weight loss is your biggest concern exercise will only get you so far. The biggest factor here will be your diet. Focus on eating more vegetables and fruits while reducing overall consumption especially of Corn Syrup.

What do you think? Has Yoga helped you lose weight? What have I missed?

Edited: November 10th, 2009

My post @elephantJournal: Being Vegan is Easy

I ran into Waylon of Elephant Journal about 7 weeks ago at the Yoga Journal Conference in Estes Park. We talked about a number of things and exchanged some different ideas about the Internets, Yoga, and being Vegan. He explained that he would be a vegan if it weren’t so difficult to do so when going out on the town.

I thought that this was a valid issue and started to explain how I coped with the issue. This resulted in my writing a little post that was published there about Being Vegan is Easy. I have been encouraged by the comments and effects it has had on a number of people.

In the end remember to do your best to eat with a conscious mind, always being aware of what you are consuming. Being vegan doesn’t require a snobbish or religious attitude. It just requires that you care about what you are putting in your body and what it takes to get that food to your plate.

Edited: November 10th, 2009

Miso Hungry, Oh, Miso Hungry, Me eat Miso long time!

After today’s marathon cycling session I didn’t feel like putting too much effort into much of anything. This is when the Miso Soup recipe from the Vegan Planet book comes in handy. It takes all of 20 minutes to make, most of which is waiting for the water to boil, and is delicious and nutritious.

Are you ready for the Vegan Potluck or what? Let me know and I will host, figure having about 10 people over would be rocking!

Edited: September 7th, 2009

Trick or Treat? I ain’t got no tricks but here’s a Black Bean with Butternut Squash Chili, boo!

Rounding out my late afternoon of kitchen slavery labor of love, I put together a nice little chili to go with my cookies and potato salad. This recipe came from Vegan Planet as well which has like 400 recipes and I do my best to make them all but am nowhere close to halfway on that. I think I need to start doing some Pot Lucks as an excuse to make more of them. Who is interested in this? Let me know!
Anyway this recipe is very straight forward. I got hung up on the black beans because I went with doing the pressure cooker action with dry beans, at first I only did 3 minutes once the clicker got going, then I had to go back for another 3. Lesson learned: 1.5 cups of dry black beans take 6 minutes to cook in pressure cooker. Moving on!

After that the challenge was the Butternut Squash. Peeling these awkward vegetables is a PITA but its totally worth the hassle. I am very happy with this recipe and give it 5 stars out of 5.

Edited: September 6th, 2009

Almost like Mom’s Potato Salad – Except this one is twisted and Vegan! Savage!

When I cook at home I always have to do at least 3 recipes and they usually have to be the first time I have made them. In fact hardly ever make the same thing more than once, this is something I need to work on, maybe tomorrow…

Today I decided to try a new cookie recipe which you can read about here. I am not unhappy with the results, but I am also not jumping up and down about it either.

I also decided to try two recipes from Vegan Planet (Blog) that I haven’t done: Black Bean with Butternut Squash Chili and a Potato salad. I have made some of the other potato salads from VP in the past and enjoyed them. This one uses Soy Mayo and is delicious as well. VP also has a recipe for making your own Soy Mayo and its so easy I always do that too. So I actually made 4 dishes today but I will stop rubbing your face in it, maybe tomorrow…

Edited: September 6th, 2009

YAVCCC – Yet Another Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie

Got a new cookbook today from @changinghands today: The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes. It was pointing right at me as I walked through the store and I flipped through a few of the recipes and was impressed. the layout is easy to understand, the ingredients do not require exotic expensive trips to Whole Paycheck, and the intro had some great pointers about vegan baking that I was unclear about. At $12 it was a no brainer.

“But Roger”, you may ask (and if you don’t I just went and did for you anyway sucka) “if the book is so good then why are you making Yet Another Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie? Don’t you have 3 recipes already?” Well you caught me but the answer is simple, my sister asked me to make her Chocolate Chip Cookies, and when it comes down to it I prefer to cook for someone else anytime, anyday.

This recipe diverges from my usual recipe from Vegan Planet, mainly because it uses Margarine instead of Oil. Other differences are that it does not use Agave or Flaxseeds. My overall impression is that the cookies are good, but a little too surgery, meaning that the sugar crystals are very predominate. They also drop a bit more than I like but maybe that was my fault by over mixing. In the end I give them 3 stars out of 5. I will be making a lot more stuff from this book so be ready!

Oh and the author Kris Holecheck has a great blog(nom! nom! nom! blog) and facebook page for the book.

Edited: September 6th, 2009

I Pity the Pita, that crosses my plate – Lunch with @skinnyjeans

Made it to @gangplank for Katie Charlands Brown Bag on Social Media and Non-Profits, which absolutely rocked the house. I put up a number of posts about it and asked a few questions. Anyway got a message from Kammie to say hey to Stephanie and introduce her to Phoenix. It turns out Stephanie is a serious foodie and has a blog network:

• Noshtopia
• Back in Skinny Jeans(retired but still awesome)
• The Everyday Blogger
• Jeans for Good
• @skinnyjeans
• @noshtopia

Being new to Phoenix I suggested lunch at Pita Jungle since its healthy and was close. Her post on our lunch is titled: Relishing One Thousand Beans on Pita and gives an excellent bit of background on yours truly and how I came to being Vegan. Great food and good conversation is the only way to roll in my book.

Welcome to Phoenix Stephanie!

Edited: September 3rd, 2009

#Vegan dish: We gonna Pate like its 1999! Mushroom Pate goes thermo nuclear!

This one has been on my hitlist for a few months now: Vegan Mushroom Pate. It’s one of those recipies that you read and go “damn that’s gonna be a pain in the a**.”. So you just put it off. Until you get hit over the head with the rediculous notion that it will be a cake walk.

The biggest pain of this recipie is really just the buying of all the mushrooms. White and Cremini are pretty widely available but Shitake and Porcini require a trip to whole paycheck which I dot best to limit exposure. Mainly cause it’s laid out like a candy store and I always end up buying 4 things I didn’t really need.

Anyway once the ingredients are procured it’s a pretty straight forward operation: soak the Porcinis for 20 min and sautee up some onion and garlic. Add all the mushrooms, wine, thyme, salt, and cayenne and let it reduce. Grind up some pecans in a processor add flour and parsley and then all the cooked stuff. Process till a little texture remains and then put in a bread pan and cook for 45 min at 350. Let cool and voilà!

I added a miraculous melon salad and citrus pasta salad to the mix and that’s lunch folks! Vegan doesn’t suck.

Edited: August 31st, 2009

Merry Melon Medley breakfast

Went a little crazy at Sprouts last night and just started grabbing various melons: Papaya, cantaloupe, kiwi, and another one whose name fails me at the moment (it tastes like honeydew but looks like an alien egg from alpha centauri). So I chopped em up sprinkled a bit of salt and lemon juice on em and have enough for a couple days eating.

Gets better as they sit and stew in their juices.

Edited: August 26th, 2009

Chocolate chip Yoga cookies – gluten free and #vegan

Second to final batch of yoga treats for my fellow yoga teacher trainers. It’s been a wonderful summer and I have enjoyed every bit of it!

This batch was a modification of another recipie. 2 cups garbonzo flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt mixed in one bowl. In second bowl 1 cup packed brn sugar , 1/4 cup agave syrup, 1/2 cup canola oil, 2 tablespoons flax seeds mixed with 6 tablespoons water, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix. Add 1 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts and mix.

Bake for 9 minutes at 350 degrees and enjoy!

Edited: August 22nd, 2009