Day 5- Repression or Realizing My Dreams?

As I'm focusing on finding the most healthy eating plan for my body, I'm surprised that it's settling deeper, reaching further than I expected already. For instance, I naturally started reducing my portions, knowing that healthy digestion can only happen with a bit of extra room in the belly. When we overstuff, toxins can accumulate, making us feel heavy, lethargic, weak, low in energy, and even depressed. According to Deepak Chopra in Perfect Weight, "This cellular debris is thought to interfere with the correct functioning of DNA and is thus implicated in the etiology of cancer and the aging process."

Even though I've known this for quite some time, the willpower to actually stop eating was always an issue for me, even when I felt full.

The more I seek this balance, the more I realize it is not the concept I originally set out to "solve." It's much larger. When I started this blog, I was thinking in terms of more of a work/life balance, holding my balance in a yoga pose, being present, balancing between "me time" and time with others. But it's settling much more deeply now.

I've been reading Meditations from the Mat by Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison. I love these daily thoughts that bring yoga into real life, but over the last few weeks I had missed my daily reading. Reminding me that everything happens for a reason, the reading I landed on early this week seemed to be speaking straight to my heart:

"Most of us associate moderation with repression...Despite the staggering amount of evidence that excess destroys our dreams, there appears to be a human blind spot when it comes to the possibility that our most passionate existence might actually be accessed through balance and moderation."

I'm thoroughly embarrassed to admit that this was completely a foreign concept to me. But perhaps it's in this book because there are others who have been in the dark like me? I started thinking about how I had been feeling stressed, tired, and unhappy before the cleanse.

Gates continues,

 "We see that the chaos of immoderation brings us pain and anguish-and that the calm, clear energy released by moderation actually affords us the opportunity to realize all our dreams."

I spent a couple of days tossing the idea around that moderation might not actually be out to steal all my fun.

Then yesterday, B.K.S. Iyengar was ready to drive it home as I read Light on Life,

"Sometimes happiness may bring stagnation, but if freedom comes from disciplined happiness, there is the possibility of true liberation."

Umm... "Disciplined happiness?" What could this be? Iyengar goes on to say,

"None can deny that there is more to life than mere physical pleasure and pain. If we abandon or indulge our bodies, sickness comes, and attachment to it increases. Your body no longer can serve as the vehicle for the inward journey and weighs like a millstone around your neck on the right royal road to the soul."

Eeek! A millstone

Oh goodness. How did he know? A millstone sounded heavy, like my body had been feeling, but I decided to look it up in the old Webster's: "A problem or responsibility that does not go away and that makes it difficult or impossible to do or achieve something." Ah HA. Yep, that makes sense.

So the reason I'm writing about moderation at a time of repression (the cleanse) is that every time I complete this cleanse, I show myself my power. I know that I can pass on dessert, can watch other people eat bread without caving, can even stare down the chocolate without shoving it into my mouth. Now that I know I can and I know that it will “afford the opportunity to realize all [my] dreams,” creating joy rather than crushing it, I may be ready to welcome Ms. Moderation into my life.

Last week, I blogged about how people can't even say the word "moderation" if I'm in the room. Then this week, both of these books find me at this exact space and time while I am practicing discipline through this cleanse. Years ago, I earnestly set out to seek balance. Through revelations like this one, I think it's also seeking me!

Below is a recipe from Vegetarian Times magazine. It's a raw breakfast recipe created by an Ayurvedic lifestyle counselor. That means that it balances all six tastes, which in Ayurveda is how you know you are getting everything your body needs.

Note: It was much tastier when I cooked it on the stove. If you like it raw or know you have a busy morning the next day and prefer to make it overnight, the cold recipe is decent. But when you warm it, it's really incredible. I could eat it every day!

Overnight Chai Steel-Cut Oats

1 cup steel-cut oats
1 cup almond milk (or soy, hemp, any non-dairy milk)
2 TB chia seeds
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground ginger or 1 TB crystallized ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
1 pinch black pepper
1 TB maple syrup
1 TB shredded coconut, optional (but delicious!)
1 TB chopped pistachios, optional (delicious!)

1. Combine oats, almond milk, chia seeds, cardamom, vanilla, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper, and maple syrup in a glass jar with lid.  Stir, close lid, and refrigerate overnight.

2. Open lid, stir, and sprinkle with coconut and pistachios, if using.

I made this a couple of days ago and it's very portable. I took my jar with me today. It stretched to 3 breakfasts for me.