choose love

I'm often asked about the positive, open attitude that I carry in life.

"Have you always been this way?" someone recently inquired.

And the answer is pretty much yes.

Growing up, I was a happy, bubbly, open child. It was something that my mum recognized at a very young age and as a result hoped that I would be someone she could confide in later on in life. "[Ashley] is such an open child and I feel very close to her, maybe she'll be the one I open my whole heart to. Time will tell".

Following my mother's death, I made a conscious effort to maintain my positive outlook. Her death was a tragedy, but I didn't care to wallow in my grief. It wasn't easy, but I knew that my mother would have wanted me to continue to fully live, learn from my experiences and embrace all that life has to offer.

“I believe that every single event in life that happens is an opportunity to choose love over fear.” ~Oprah Winfrey

During savasana in a yoga class over the weekend, I found myself thinking "in with love, out with fear" and I was overcome with a wave of calm and acceptance. I've realized that my positive attitude and my perspective on life comes from my decision to choose love. 

Over the last two weeks I've had to make some big decisions. I've had moments of being overwhelmed by the choices at hand and how they would impact my life. While maybe a little frightening at times, making a conscious shift to positivity and love has had a profound impact. My decision to choose love over fear has allowed me to feel excited and rejuvenated by these choices, trust my intuition and recognize the abundance of awesomeness and potential in my life.

When we choose love instead of fear, doors open, serendipitous opportunities present themselves and we are empowered to live the life of our dreams. Isn't that what we're all striving for?

Today (and every day) I encourage you to choose love.

Looking for more? Check out my sweet friend Meghan's creed and Gabrielle Bernstein's May Cause Miracles.

In With Love, Out With Fear

“We stop breathing when we think things are too hard”

Oh shit. I’m totally not breathing.

I found myself in a really crowded yoga class last night and I just couldn’t get out of my head no matter how hard I tried. It’s been a busy week at work with my new boss starting (she’s pretty awesome) and a million other things going on. I’m still recovering from Vegas (more on that soon) and a bunch of silly little things were getting the best of me. The tears started within the first five minutes of class and I found myself wishing that I was back in St. Lucia, staring at the ceiling of the barn where we had our yoga and meditation practice every morning.

While thankful I was in a yoga class at all, 1,000 thoughts continued to swirl through my head and I definitely was not breathing, maybe because I was trying not to cry too much. I think it was all the stress and worry just flowing out of me. And then I was reminded of my familiar mantra “in with love, out with fear” and took a step back to really reflect on that.

The uneasiness and worry and unnecessary little stresses will pass, I know that.

Goodbye fear.

I have so much love and so many amazing things to be thankful for… wonderful people, great news on Tuesday(!!), a stellar weekend planned, a bunch of auditions… the list goes on.

We all have cranky days and yesterday I had one. I’m not quite sure why. But today I’m focusing on all the love and awesome stuff and leaving the silly, crummy, negative crankiness behind.

And when all else fails, I’ll just imagine that I’m back in St. Lucia.

The End of the 52 Days til Summer

I feel like it was just yesterday that I started this little challenge and it’s been a lot of fun to coordinate and check in with ya’ll as we go through it together. Can you believe summer is already upon us?

Rather than issue a challenge for the week, I think it’s time for a little self reflection... Here’s what I’ve learned in the past 52 days:

·The scale truly is nothing but a number. Feeling good comes from the inside
· If you’re not feeling good, don’t just sit there – do something about it
· A little bit of green juice goes a long way
· I will say yes to pretty much anything at least once (sometimes thanks to Groupon and peer pressure and guarantees of giggles)
· When something small is bothering me, my inclination is to eat. When something really big is bothering me, I don’t want to eat anything. Interesting measurement of how I feel, but neither are a good idea
· I can work out in the morning and feel great all day
· I make better choices during the day when I work out in the morning
· Sometimes spin instructors say things to be motivating, but they really sound inappropriate... especially when you’re with your BFF at 7am in the morning
· Community support is integral to my success (which is why Weight Watchers worked so well for me in the first place)
· Being able to take a compliment is an important skill. Even when they’re from naked people

(And if some of these learnings seem a little bit random... follow me on Twitter and it will all come together...)

To celebrate the end of the challenge, I’m hosting outdoor yoga and a pot luck on Sunday June 26. You can check out the event invitation for details. It would be so lovely to see you there! So far there are 7 of us doing the class and potlucking afterward.

Yesterday my little sister and I enjoyed a belated birthday celebration and congratulated ourselves for all our morning workouts of late with a date at Body Blitz spa. Ladies, if you’ve never been, I suggest you get on that. ASAP. You’ll leave feeling blessed out and zen and you’ll probably have an amazing time with your gal pals. Such a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

This morning I started summer off with a bang with a 7am Attack class. Not for the faint at heart, but I was definitely still smiling when it was over.

I'm excited for the summer and to continue all the good stuff I've been doing over the last 52 days: listening to my body, positive self talk, eating well, exercising and smiling. I've also got a lot to look forward to Toronto Fringe right around the corner (with tickets for Cellar Hotel on sale now), Into the Woods coming up in August. I'm also heading back to NYC August 25-29 (I promise there's a blog post or two about my trip in the works) and heading back to Ashley's cottage for the August long weekend.

And then it'll be fall.

Thank you to those of you who participated in the challenge. I would love to hear about your learnings and what you're going to take forward into the summer. And if you haven't already, you should go check out my Nourishtea giveaway which ends on Thursday night!!

Lotsa Fun In May, Looking Forward to Being Busy in June

A few things I discovered (or remembered) this month… I’m addicted to quinoa flakes (with cocoa powder, sliced banana, cinnamon & Barney Butter all the way from Florida…)

On the subject of breakfast…protein in the morning helps keep me full (scrambled tofu with spinach, onion and mushrooms)Raw vegan brownies make me very happyI’ve been performing and auditioning a lot more lately including an 80’s themed show last Sunday, "Cabaret for a Cause" with the lovely Lindsay coming up on Friday and a Fringe show(!!) in July – (see the Facebook page for more details until it’s up on the Fringe site).  I’m going to be writing a blog post later in the week about how my pie of life has changed drastically as of late with all this performing… and how ridiculously happy I am as a result.

One last thing that makes me happy? People named Ashley (other than me!) and dressing up.  Top hats and corsets should always be required in life. Speaking of Ashley…  We’re planning a yoga class on Sunday (12:00 - east end Toronto location - $10 suggested donation) in support of the Heel’n’Wheel-a-thon!Digestive health is vital to our health and well being. Approximately 70% of our nervous system is attached to our stomach, small intestines and colon, so when our GI tract is not functioning at optimal level, we are out of balance. Inspired by the theme of The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, we will explore the balance of our bodies inside and out, with a 1 hour yoga class open to all levels. It will focus on, you guessed it...our tummies! Through the practice of yoga, we can learn to not only strengthen and tone our mid-sections, but through breathing techniques and a series of specific postures, we can help to calm the nervous system and promote proper digestion and detoxification! You will radiate from the inside out!

Ashley Overholt is a student of Holistic Nutrition and a certified Ashtanga Yoga Instructor. She has studied with Diane Bruni and Ron Reid of Downward Dog, as well as Danny Paradise and Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty.

Please send me an email (wwleaderashley@gmail.com) if you are interested in attending. Can’t attend, but would still like to donate? Check out my Heel’n’Wheel-a-thon donation page. The event is now less than two weeks away and I couldn’t be more excited!!

October Activity Accountability

Where did summer go? It blows my mind that September is nearly behind us!

How have you been doing for activity in September? (Please feel free to send pictures of your activity chart with your recap to me by the end of this week!) I have to say that my biggest victories for September came last week when I got up early not once, but TWICE to go the gym before work!



It's cold and dark at 6:30am these days! (hence the really happy face on the subway...)
I surprised myself by doing it two days in a row, but after feeling incredibly energized after doing BodyFlow and a 15 minute run on Thursday morning, I decided to do another class with Jess on Friday. I'm excited to keep rolling with this momentum for the end of September heading into October!

My October plans include:

• Getting to the gym at least twice in the morning each week
• Zumba at least once a week
• Bellydancing once a week + practicing at home
• Riding my bike whenever possible
• Strengthening my core through yoga, pilates, dance and planks!
• Aiming for at least 24 stickers on my chart by the end of the month!

What are your goals for the month? Do you have any plans for Halloween?

Yoga, goals and other goodness

On Sunday I went to Yoga Meltdown, which was part of the Festival of India.

The event was originally supposed to take place on the island, but due to the city's (seemingly never-ending) garbage strike, it was relocated to Queen's Quay.

The events of the festival included a free Indian feast, various vendors, cooking demonstrations, plus a schedule of performances including beautiful music, dance and drama.

I attended the 2:00 yoga class, facilitated by Vani Devi of Jivamukti Yoga. It was incredible to be in a kind of unfamiliar part of Toronto, with a view of the lake surrounded by people with a passion for yoga.

The class was lovely and challenging and I really appreciated a lot of what Vani Devi was talking about. At one point she said "flexibility and strength are not goals" and went on to say that you need to look further than that and dream bigger, and that those two things are steps in achieving bigger goals. I love that! It really aligned with the goal talk I had given on Saturday. Wishy washy goals get you nowhere. Your goals need to be positive, specific, juicy and a good fit for your life.

Here are some goals that I'm currently working on:

• I would like to move to intermediate bellydance by the end of the year. I would also like to perform in another show (either gala or hafla). I will work to accomplish this by attending my weekly classes, practicing at home and keeping notes in my bellydance journal. Getting to the next level will feel amazing!! It will be the first time I will have been in ANY sort of intermediate dance class, which will feel INCREDIBLE!!
• I want to attend nutrition school in September 2010! I have already started to put aside money from each pay cheque to cover my tuition and in the meantime I will continue to network and absorb as much as I possibly can.
• I want to win the Booty Camp "New You" Challenge. I have been working hard at boot camp, doing my DVD on the weekends, doing a variety of classes outside of boot camp and eating well. I will continue to work hard over the next two weeks, write a kick ass essay and submit my pictures within the deadline. (Whether I win or not, I am going to be so proud of myself for sticking with it and making some amazing changes in my physical activity routine. I look forward to continuing with this "new me" long after booty camp is over)

I was given a free pass to check out the Jivamukti Yoga studio and I plan to do so in the coming weeks. On the pamphlet I was given it describes Jivamukti Yoga as "a method where the student is constantly reminded that their True Self is none other than happiness and Love itself".

Yoga is an incredible gift. I'm so happy that this year I have practiced more regularly. I really need to do it more often because when I do I feel light, refreshed, energized and filled with passion.

Events like Yoga Meltdown make me incredibly thankful to live in such an amazing, diverse (albeit smelly) city. The summer brings so many festivals, events and parties to Toronto and I was very happy that I attended this one. I look forward to the event's third annual event next year! Hopefully it will only get bigger and better from here. Until then I will just have to enjoy things like the Canadian National Exhibition and Taste of the Danforth.

How do you feel when you do yoga? I know that a lot of you have been thinking about goals this week (as a result of my meetings and/or Amy's 15 week challenge) - what are you currently working towards?

Making love in the kitchen Part 1

Yoga + delicious food + great company = one amazing night.

After work I headed to an AMAZING yoga class at Yoga Queen. If you are ever in the West end, you should definitely check out this studio. Heather was so wonderful and there were only 6 people in the class. It was challenging but revitalizing and I'm definitely feeling it (in a good way) in my muscles today.

After yoga I headed to my first cooking class with (my new hero) Meghan Telpner. I discovered Meghan's blog a few months ago and have been corresponding with her through email ever since. You can read Meghan's story, but to sum it up she was diagnosed with Crohn's, told she was going to have to go on a whole lotta meds, have surgery and basically just enjoy life and deal with her illness. Instead of going along with these recommendations she decided to move to California, change her eating, and receive acupuncture treatments and has now been symptom free for three years. Upon her return to Canada, she enrolled in nutrition school and is now a nutritionist and lifestyle consultant.

Meghan offers cooking classes each month and I treated myself to a 4-week session as a birthday gift to myself. The classes are small - 6-7 people max. and each week has a theme. Meghan discusses the week's focus and its benefits and then we get cookin'! Over the next four weeks I'm going to document the class and post pictures of all the yummy food we create. I told the other participants about my blog and that I'll be taking pictures of all the food and stuff going on in the class and they were perfectly happy to comply! (hi guys!)

Last night's class was all about the benefits of whole foods and the glycemic index. Meghan discussed some of the benefits of eating whole foods and foods from all colours on the rainbow and also reviewed the glycemic index. She gave us handouts with all the recipes were were going to make as well with a shopping list as more information about the evening's theme. Love it!

Our menu:

• Sunflower seed pate on cucumber slices
• Lemon & lentil vegetable soup
• CranApple salad with honey apple dressing
• Sweet potato kugel
• Veggie rice paper wraps with almond dipping sauce
• Coconut ice cream
• Almond honey crisp

Are ya drooling yet?

We started with a demo of the rice paper wraps and each made one. 

Aren't they pretty? Colourful food is wonderful. 

They were super easy and I got the package so I can find them on my own. Rice paper wraps are gluten free (yay!) and have only 45 calories, (0 fat & fiber) making them a great vehicle for other things.

We each chose a recipe to make. I was partnered with Mark to make the sweet potato kugel. 

It was really easy (once we figured out the food processor) and this would be a great side dish for company or as a side for your lunch. It felt like dessert, but it wasn't and I enjoyed some leftovers for lunch today. So delicious!!! 

Everyone who attended the party was really nice and we all chatted about the food, our jobs, and various other topics (including Biggest Loser, Meghan's friend's book, macrobiotic cooking, and how they make the green coleslaw at KFC)

Everything turned out amazing! Check it out:

I was so excited to have discovered Meghan's blog and then signed up for her classes and now that I've got one under my belt I'm so excited for the rest!! I love Meghan's philosophy about food and it really aligns with the way my own eating has been going lately. I'm self taught when it comes to cooking and nutrition so learning new things is a definite plus and it's a really wonderful experience to spend an evening with lovely people preparing amazing food!! It has also been great to connect with someone who has taken such a holistic approach to their Crohn's. I recognize that everyone is different and what worked for Meghan, won't necessarily work for me, but it's just nice to have someone to relate to! I'm totally looking forward to next week's class and will be posting more recaps over the next few weeks. 

Active in April + last month's results

I'm really ready for spring - can you tell?! Here is an activity chart for April:

As promised, here is what mine looks like for the month of March.

I'm really proud of all the activity I did this month! Special thanks for Tina for inspiring me with the 31 Day Yoga Challenge. I practiced yoga nearly every day this month - I only missed 5 days. I plan to continue this practice every month because it really made me realize how much I enjoy yoga. I've decided that doing yoga every day is a great way to take care of myself. Some days I practiced for 20 minutes, other days 90 minutes - all of it made me feel really good and I started to see some improvements and progress within my practics. I also attended my belly dancing classes and walked when the weather was nice. Here's to another good month filled with activity!! 

What are your activity goals for April?

Right now, in this moment you are everything you need to be

I decided this weekend to participate in the 31 Days of Yoga Challenge over at Carrots n Cake and I have to say that this was one of the smartest things I've done in awhile. 

Yoga has always been something I've done "when I have time". In my life, that time doesn't come often and I've never made it a priority. Inspired by the challenge, I downloaded some free 20 minute classes over at yogadownload.com . They have been wonderful! So far I've done the detox class, morning flow and lunar flow. Tonight I did the lunar flow following my belly dancing class and it really reminded me that yoga is not just an exercise of the body, but also of the mind. 

A few years back when I was a member of a gym, I used to take yoga almost weekly. There were two instructors I really liked. There was one class I really enjoyed because the teacher was lovely and I always felt great physically coming out of her class. The other class I enjoyed because of the way I felt emotionally, especially during savasana. At the end of every class she would tell us "right now, in this moment, you are everything you need to be". She would repeat it a few times and more often than not I would cry (quietly and silently of course) Tonight's practice really reminded me that yoga makes me feel connected to my body and my emotions in a way that running or exercising can't. 

As human beings we are so hard on ourselves and we are constantly pushing and striving to be the best that we can be. This principle is especially applicable in our weight loss journeys. We work so hard to only see a .2 loss on the scale or even worse, a gain. Sometimes it is really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We often feel that we cannot succeed, which is not true. You are capable of so much. You have within you the power to reach your goals and do amazing things. I believe in you. I would like all of you to take a moment right now and think of all the things you've accomplished today. 

Right now, in this moment, you are everything you need to be. 

This moment you're in right now is a beautiful one, so enjoy it. 

Feelin' hot hot HOT

Today I decided it would be a good idea to head to hot yoga. For those of you who have never done it, it's basically yoga in a sauna. It is HOT! Like we're talking sweat dripping off your body, while you go through a series of yoga poses.

It's been awhile since I've gone to a class, but I decided that I wanted to get back at it. I went to a 90 minutes class this morning at 10:00am and it was such a challenge! I have fainted before (never in a yoga class), so I'm incredibly cognizant of the signals my body sends me when it's not feeling so good. During yoga of any kind, but especially hot yoga, it's really important that you go at your own pace, and do only what feels good for you! Instructors are always good about giving variations, and it's important that you listen to them and do what is best for you.

I enjoyed the section of the poses that took place on the floor the most. The great part about hot yoga, is that the heat aids your body in stretching, and often allows you to go further than you would in a regular temperature. I think when I go back, I will take the 60 minute class, to let my body re-adjust to the temperature and ensure that I don't feel sick or faint.

For more information on hot yoga, check out Moksha Yoga

Going to my class today was also very exciting because I added my very first star to my activity chart courtesy of the WW Chick! I'm aiming for 750 activity minutes in September. I can do it!!

Geri Yoga & Geri Body Yoga

Like many girls my age, I loved the Spice Girls and I'm proud to say that I attended their Reunion tour earlier this year. Ginger Spice was always my favourite, probably because as a grade 8 student I too had red hair (dyed), big boobs and a loud personality. I followed her career beyond her tenure with the Spice Girls, purchasing both of her books (If Only and Geri: Just for the Record) as well as a few of her Cd's from her solo career. With this minor obsession well underway it seemed like a no-brainer to purchase her yoga DVDs.

Geri Yoga and Geribody Yoga are both great yoga DVDs. Geri works with Kay Appleton to provide yoga students with a practice for all levels and stages. Geri provides students with more advanced options and Katy gives the students opportunities to modify the poses to suit their ability. Geri's candid comments about her yoga practice make me laugh out loud while Katy is a lovely, thorough and calm instructor. I find both DVDs useful in my practice, although at times I find them a little bit slow with Katy providing a lot of explanation at the beginning. The pace gets better as you go through the DVD and after awhile you can use the DVD as a guide and continue with your own practice.

Overall I really like this DVD, as a fan of both yoga and Geri!