Stephanie's Studio

I'm afraid I've been remiss about working out, but alas, the promise of spring got me motivated. I started a cycling program last week and added Yoga for Weight-Loss this week. I don't like to start working out as a New Year's Resolution, on or around the first of January because it seems as though that time period doesn't work for most, me included. Yoga for Weight-Loss is always interesting. I think - it's yoga, I won't be taxed too heavily but then low and behold the sweating begins. I particularly like the program I found on Amazon Prime because her format reminds me of my books in a certain kind of way. She asks you to ask questions of yourself, and to do stuff. You are an active participant. So, a part of the 30 day challenge, the very first part, is to tell someone. I figured I'd tell you, gentle reader. I also ask you to join me or if you're already working out or planning to start, share about it here. Will check in again soon!  ...

Regulars here know of my weight loss journey. If you're new, here's some brief background. I decided to lose weight, using spirituality and calorie counting on My Fitness Pal about a year and a half ago. I lost 50 pounds. I felt great, gave away my big clothes to charity, celebrated and still planned to lose 40 more. I also embarked on writing the book "Mama Earth's Spiritual Guide to Weight-loss." Then life stepped in, in a big way. I got distracted. I started cooking my own food less, eating out more. Staying within the calorie limits I'd set (higher mind you), I reached for some "healthy" packaged foods. Low and behold, weight started to creep back on, slowly but surely. It came a pound here and a pound there--until I'd gained 5 pounds back. Recently I went back to the source. Back to Mother Nature for guidance and nourishment. I'd mentioned in a previous post how I'm eating more vegan and raw foods. That's a part of my mov...

My husband said a brilliant thing the other day. In his light bulb moment, he said, with vegetarianism and its food, there is always the feeling that the recipes are trying to replace something. Then he went on to say that in veganism too, when people talk about it that aren't vegan, often they talk about what you can't eat, rather than all the wonderful things you can. I've been involved with the vegetarian lifestyle since my teens. I've also eaten pescatarian for many years. Recently though, I've become excited about raw foods and veganism. I'm seeing past the rhetoric of what you can't eat and enjoying all the magickal goodies from the plant kingdom that you can. Seeing how he, a dedicated carnivore, saw all the potentiality in veganism, I decided to add some vegan dishes to our Father's Day feast. I made spinach/portabella burgers and Asian sweet potato salad. Hubby made a vegan roasted eggplant salad. Then we had a number of other dishes, for th...