So, I was back in Pensacola for a few days this week, just hanging out with my family. I didn’t really make any plans for the trip, save for one: I wanted to go to yoga class. My yoga teacher, Nancy LaNasa, opened the Abhaya Yoga Center there a while ago and this was my first opportunity to check it out. So cool!! While Nancy herself wasn’t there (boo) I did get to take two classes with Stacey Vann, one of the other instructors, and co-founder of Universal Spirit Yoga. Stacey is great. Her classes are totally laid back and fun, and she even let me attend (with my mom) a class for students over age 50! I had such a great time, and I hate that I can’t go to regular classes there.

Also, I’m not the only one who loves it. This year is the second in a row that the center has won best yoga in the Pensacola Independent News Best of the Coast Competition. Nice! Anyway, if you live in the Pensacola area, please check out Abhaya. It can change your life…in fact, I’m hoping to one day get my own teaching certification, to use in conjunction with my Health Counselor certification from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

So, I’ve had a total change of educational plans. Instead of moving to Texas to get a degree in Kinesiology, I’ve enrolled for the Fall 2008 session at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Basically, I’ll fly to NYC one weekend a month for 10 months, and at the end I’ll be a certified Health Counselor. I can even get an additional certification from Columbia University. Sweet!

Yahoo had an interesting article the other day about how yoga can actually reduce wrinkles. According to Annelise Hagen, doing facial yoga poses can help strengthen and tone the face, thereby keeping it firm and younger looking. Interesting. For the article, click here. For more info, check out Hagen’s book, The Yoga Face: Eliminate Wrinkles with the Ultimate Natural Facelift.

In my continuing quest to learn more about raw food eating, I checked out Natalia Rose’s Raw Food Life Force Energy. It was meant to be interim reading while I waited for the other Carol Alt book, but I found it to be really captivating. Basically, Rose says that we are all made of Life Force Energy and to operate at our best (healthiest, most energetic, happiest) we must eat foods high in Life Force Energy, and avoid processed, low energy foods that drag us down. Yes, a lot of it comes off as very New Age-y, and she suggests things that are the opposite of conventional health wisdom: don’t count calories or fat, eat your heaviest meal at the end of the day, get your colon cleaned on a monthly basis, etc.

But, on the other hand, she recommends a primarily raw, vegetarian diet (there are exceptions to both) that is heavy on the fruits and veggies and limits snacking. She is also big on food combining. According to Rose, waste equals weight, and the standard American diet (the acronym is SAD, as she points out) heavily taxes the digestive tract. She recommends “quick-exit” meals that leave your stomach fairly quickly, and she cautions against eating again until those foods have cleared through. She is big on elimination, explaining how and when to do it properly, and she also recommends full-body dry brushing, massages, and soaks in Epsom salts for further detoxification. She is a big proponent of getting the body clean, so that it becomes light and balanced, which in turn brings about great joy.

It is a very compelling read. I admit, I had my skeptical moments, since a lot of what she says is very unconventional. Then again, I exercise regularly and eat a healthy, balanced diet, and I am still plagued with excess weight and low energy. I feel as though I have nothing to lose by trying her method, and I may have health and happiness to gain. The book outlines a 21-day plan, which includes recommended meals, breathing techniques, detoxifying applications, Life Force Energy exercises and journaling activities. It is a comprehensive, holistic plan, and I can’t wait to see how I feel in three weeks.

I’m trying to convince my husband that as a Health Education student and a future Health and Fitness professional, I need this shoe for my career. I wonder if it would count as a tax write-off, because this is a seriously hot shoe. I’m supposed to be saving money for our rapidly impending move, but I REALLY WANT THIS SHOE.