Waking up on Friday morning was so much better than it’s been! I actually didn’t sleep too well because of the heat here in Los Angeles. I couldn’t really get comfortable, too hot, or too cold, (with the air conditioner), and woke up throughout the night. Now even given the lack of sleep I felt pretty good in the morning. My cravings were no longer strong, especially for my morning routine and the juice that I had for breakfast tasted really good! My body was also much much better. My muscles weren’t having such a hard time with my bike and I was actually very surprised at the clarity that I experienced in the morning. Often I have from about 9-11am to take care of business in my apartment, chores, emails, phonecalls, showers, stuff like that, for I don’t return back home usually until after 6pm, and often I feel that I don’t have enough time. I usually leave in a rush barely making it out the door. Yesterday, I got so much of the same stuff done, even prepping to stay overnight at my parent’s house with plenty of time to spare, plus, much more relaxed. I didn’t bike to class yesterday as I was going straight to my parent’s house after I taught all my classes. Yet, that doesn’t mean that I won’t be exerting energy as some of you know (maybe many don’t) I don’t own a car and get around in L.A. completely by public transpo, walking, or biking. So, when I left the house I left with my little pulley bag, and my purse, plus, all my juices and water, as I knew that I would find none of this at my folks’. Walking and pulling luggage, even though small, becomes tiring in the heat. I’m thankful always to be centraly located so that usually I have to walk about .5 miles to get to the farthest bus stop from my house. The bus ride was pleasant, and got to my class with plenty of time. I felt good. No lethargy, not lack of energy, a bit of grumbling of the belly, though not too bad. I got a chance in between classes to eat a bit of my pureed veggie soup and some juice, plus continued to drink water throughout both classes. I’ve noticed that my teaching these few days has become a bit more economic, and more grounded for me. I’m often very energetic, (not even by choice I just get overly excited while I teach), in these past few days I have been very economic about when I exert a lot of energy and I have felt heavier in myself, more earthbound.
Both of my classes went well. What’s been more challenging in teaching than my cleanse has been the heat. The 2:30 class with almost 30 people was very warm. Doing any kind of physical activity when it’s sooooo hot sucks. I could tell, especially since I have a lot of beginners that many were overheating so I decided to finish the class with about 30 min of restorative twists and forward bends, just to cool the people off. I’m not sure if I would have wanted to practice in a room that hot either to be honest. It’s just so easy to burn yourself out!
I was very happy to be done with class! I was very excited to go see my Dad, (my Mom just flew to El Salvador on Thursday night,) so he was all alone, and I love to hang out with him. So, I was fired up about my public transportation trek toward my Dad, and I personally was feeling really good. I dragged my little pulley bag and began, waiting at the corner of Beverly Blvd and Larchmont headed toward Larchmont and Beverly, where I take the train straight to Union Station. The bus, which was only going to take me about 2 miles or so, didn’t show up for 30 min, and when it did, it was soooooo packed with people that it could not let the 10+ people who were waiting for the bus in! Aghhhh! My mood began to falter! I just wanted to get on with it! Thank god for podcasts, man, it just makes such a difference now, just to listen to people expressing themselves and being creative. I caught up on Verge of the Fringe, as there are a lot of podcasts that I have downloaded to my ipod that I often don’t get a chance to listen to and get really backed up. Anyway, I had to drink some of my green juice as I knew that dinner would be a long way away and my belly was fighting me now. Finally the bus came, and then it was all smooth sailing. The Metro Red Line train came really fast, and my transition at Union Station to the Metro Gold Line was seamless, both the train rides were great. It took me 40 min to get from Larchmont and Vermont in Los Angeles to Sierra Madre in Pasadena! Not too bad! My Dad was waiting for me in the parking lot at the Sierra Madre Station, and from there it’s another 20 min drive to La Verne, which is where my parents’ live.
And guess what I was thinking about the whole time? Food. Yep. I knew that #1, Daddy needed to have dinner, #2 I need to have something! So I got my Dad to take me to the Whole Foods that is really close to the station. I knew that I could have a very simple salad, and of course Whole Foods would have it, and Daddy could get something also! Poor Daddy in Whole Foods, of course at 7pm, it was packed, and he wanted a pizza, which they had of course, but the line was ginormous! So he ended up getting a chicken breast, tofu somosas (which he had never ever had before,) and artichokes with parsley. Please don’t ask me where this concoction came from, he seemed a bit overwhelmed by the amount of food….It was pretty cute! We finally came home and had dinner. I thought that I was going to save 1/2 of the salad for today, and only have a bit, but the overwhelming amount of food that I had seen at the market and all the cookies and chips and things that were at my parents house was too ovewhelming for my eyes! Aghhhhh! 🙁 I inhaled my salad. Yep, not enough chewing, just thrust the food in mouth. Not so good. Yet the company was great. My belly was not too happy with me. It hadn’t recieved that much food in a few days, especially half chewed, which was the key. Must remember to slow down and CHEW MY FOOD! Went to bed pretty early and had a great night!
Today, great morning. Not tired. The first thing I did was drank my juice, I wanted something cool! Man it’s hot! I guess today is going to be one of the hottest days yet! Not sooooo good, but the juice was great. We had to take Louie, the schnauzer of the house, to get groomed at 8 am. Mom and Dad usually have breakfast out on Saturday morning, obviously she was not here, so I knew we were going to breakfast after dropping Louie off at the groomers. There is really nowhere in La Verne that remotely resembles any healthy alternative for breakfast, as it’s more of a suburb and well, IHOP, Denny’s, and Coco’s are our choices. This is when I am deeply thankfull to where I live and the many choices I have all around! Well, he wanted to go to Coco’s and he said “I don’t think that there is anything there for you,” and I told him that I would find something, they had to have some veggies right? Wrong. There literally was nothing green on the menu! Mind you they didn’t offer Lunch at all, as it was 8am, and therefor, not one veggie. There were some veggies in one of their ‘healthy’ choices for omellets, but I didn’t want to make it more difficult for the server and ask him to only bring me the veggies in an omellet, plus, who knows what it would be cooked in, so I ended up getting a little plate of fruit (although I hadn’t had any fruit all this time) and a mint tea. This time I took my time and chewed a lot, as I knew it may be hard on the belly, especially because the choice of fruit was so very weird: cantalope, watermelon, and pinapple. Hard for the digestion. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. Now remember I hadn’t gotten up and eaten anything solid now for 5 days, so, the belly recieved the food as you could imagine. If I would have had a bit of foresight I might have not had my green juice in the morning, had only water and then had only the fruit, but the mixture of fruit, veggies, green power foods, and herbs, within such a short amount of time was not the best thing.
It’s so hard to be doing something like I’m doing while the world goes on. Of course I wouldn’t have gone to Coco’s if it were up to me, but what my Dad wanted was much more important, and spending time together without making a big deal is of the essence. As much as we strive to make the healthiest choices when it comes to food, there are other things that are a lot more important for our health. The love and the relationship between a father and a daughter and the nurturing of that relationship is the purest food that one can have, deeply cleansing and detoxifying 🙂
