travel
Change is good. It’s a mirror, giving us the opportunity to see that we are that strong, that smart, that powerful, that fortunate.
So why do we resist it?
I really, really did not want to move. I didn’t want to pack, or leave friends, or deal with setting up the cable all over again. Most of all, I didn’t want to be uncomfortable. And I’m pregnant, dammit! *Insert whine here*
But oh man, it all sounds like a lesson I learned in yoga. When you’re uncomfortable, growth happens. Comfort zone = stagnation. Pain = too much, too soon. But feeling uncomfortable? That’s the sweet spot where good things can unravel.
So stop being such a baby! Change is a big ol’ invitation for life to get better, even if it doesn’t seem that way at first.
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December 7th, 2010 | happiness, recipe, travel, try new things, Washington D.C., yoga | 16 Comments »
It’s some odd hour of the day, stomach growling, and only fast food joints in sight. We’ve all been there, right?
What do you do?
Wanting to eat real food is like wanting to breathe real oxygen – not too much to ask if you ask me. But it can be a ridiculous request in the middle of a food court. I gotta tell you, it really pisses me off! Real food is as basic as it gets yet we have a culture built around consuming products from an industry thriving on serving refined, polished, bleached, chemically altered, cheap, nutritionally-void food.
But there you are, eyes are crossing from hunger and well, life happened and you are nowhere near a kitchen or a lovingly prepared brown bag lunch. Not really the time to get on your high horse about nutrition. What do you do?
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January 27th, 2010 | public health, quick and easy, restaurant, travel | 18 Comments »
Alright kids, I’m blogging from Hawaii today. What can I say, I miss you guys!
It’s totally amazing here. It’s warm and breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful and quiet (we’re on the Big Island) and I love every second. Today I did yoga on the beach and we’re going to go snorkeling and to see the volcano and…
Moving on. We must! This isn’t a travel blog!
Traveling makes eating healthy harder, I think. Don’t you? When I’m confronted with restaurant menus meal after meal my stomach starts rebelling big time. So when I travel, I’m pretty hard core about finding food that’s going to make me feel good. Sometimes that means driving to a natural food store and stocking my room with fresh fruit, Ezekial cereal and Lara Bars or whatever I can find.
Sometimes, it means tapping into my inner menu when the waitress comes by.
Because I don’t want to eat another hamburger! And I can’t stand the thought of a Cobb Salad covered in cheese right now. A hummus plate sounds good but those white flour pitas won’t do me any favors.
It’s a blessing to be reminded of why I choose to eat the way I do. One day of white bread and meat at every meal is a big reminder that my body (though perhaps not yours) does better with fewer animal products and more whole grains and leafy greens.
So it’s lunch. I look at the menu and put it down. Look again, put it down. Finally I ask the server for some hummus…with brown rice and steamed broccoli. Is that possible I ask? She seems relieved I didn’t ask for Kobe beef or truffle oil or something like that. Brown rice? Broccoli? Simple enough. Sure.
Ahhhh. I feel better already. Real, simple, whole food. Now I can enjoy myself on vacation without painful stomachaches or low energy.
Do you know what foods make you feel your best? How do you handle traveling and eating out?
On this vacation I’ve also enjoyed shrimp tempura, king crab legs and plenty of dessert. So I’m no purist. Just gotta get back to basics every 2 or 3 meals to keep myself functioning properly.
Aloha!
** PSSSSST have you entered to win a free DVD from Gaiam? Get to it! Click here to enter.
** ONLY 6 SPOTS LEFT in my small group health counseling program! Sign up quick – we start soon. Details here, or email me!
January 14th, 2010 | restaurant, travel, whole grains | 16 Comments »
Imagine that your life’s purpose was to help others. Imagine in your work you brought skills and hope to otherwise unemployed people. And imagine that it all involved…cookies!
As many of you know, I have a weakness for cookies. So when Khaya offered to send me some of their all natural cookies, I had to say yes. And when they offered to give away some cookies to a lucky winner of this blog, I again had to say yes!
Wait, you say, what about the sugar? I thought sugar was bad. Michelle, you are some kind of hypocrite aren’t you? Hmmmfph.
Well, it’s true. These cookies have sugar. And refined grains. So all I can say is, I care a lot about nutrition but I’m not a purist. And all in all, the ingredient lists on Khaya’s cookies are very, very clean. No preservatives. No chemically-sounding things. Just flour, sugar, the basics. Compare THAT to Oreos.
Here’s what I noticed about Khaya cookies: The packages are pretty small. So if you’re like me, once you start working your way through a box of cookies, you really don’t stop until it’s empty. Oopsie! It was VERY good news for me that each box of Khaya cookies was on the smaller side. Share with a friend and it makes a nice treat. Eat several boxes in one sitting and I’ll have to refer you to my next Sugar Smackdown teleseminar!
My favorites were the shortbread cookies, but they have 5 flavors to choose from. Pictured here is one of the Krunchi varieties.
But the main reason I agreed to Khaya’s offer is because of the company’s commitment to their community. From the Khaya website:
Khaya (Kī-ya) is the Xhosa word for home. Our home is deep in the winelands of South Africa. That’s where we source the best of everything that goes into our cookies. From the farmers who grow the organic fruits we swirl into our cookie batter to the artisan bakers who meticulously blend each small batch, our purpose is to make irresistibly great cookies while supporting and creating sustainable opportunities for the local community.
Pretty cool huh. They train and create jobs for in South Africa where the cookies are made, and in Philadelphia, PA where the US distribution center is located. This philanthropic approach is why I can stand behind Khaya cookies. After all, aren’t we all looking for our life’s purpose? A way to make this world a better place? What if we could all create such a admirable business model for our ventures?
While you meditate on your business plans, let me offer you two ways to win with Khaya!
1. Quest for Cape Town Promotion
Khaya is currently offering a chance to win a 10-day trip for two to South Africa. Want to enter the drawing? Just order a box online and check out all the details here.
2. Free Cookies – Blog Reader Giveaway
How ’bout some free cookies? To enter to win, go to Khaya’s Quest for Capetown website and tell me in the comments which part of the trip sounds the most awesome to you. No entry in the Cape Town contest is required to win the cookie giveaway. There will be one winner and the contest closes July 15, 2009. US residents only, sorry!
Earn extra entries into the cookie giveaway by doing the following – and let me know in the comments which you did!
-Signing up for my RSS feed
-Subscribing to my newsletter
-Follow me on Twitter @MPfennighaus
-Retweet this contest by copying and pasting:
“Good karma Khaya Cookies giveaway – enter to win! http://tinyurl.com/ox5fqw RT @MPfennighaus”
So, what part of the trip to South Africa sounds cool to you?
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June 24th, 2009 | happiness, travel, try new things, Uncategorized | 46 Comments »
I’ve had some really terrible experiences traveling due to illness. And not major illness, but minor things like headaches, dizzy spells, lethargy. I mean, I flew all the way to Brazil a few years ago, and ended up sleeping in the hotel for a huge portion of the week.
Is this my version of the travel bug? There has never been a real sickness, just an overall sense of being wiped out from the effort and stress of traveling, combined with an icky-feeling belly filled with foreign and not-terribly-healthy food. I think my system is just very, very sensitive and gets knocked off balance. What fun.
Needless to say, I was nervous that our trip to Puerto Rico would be more of the same. Since I really, really didn’t want that to happen, Max helped me with some measures that kept my sanity intact and belly calm. It worked! We had a great week. Not once did I feel dizzy or lethargic, and we did all sorts of things like snorkeling, kayaking at night in the luminescent bay, and hiking in the rainforest. Plus, I was able to enjoy and not utterly regret some amazing local food! Pictured above is a Mofongo con pulpo (Fried mashed plantains with octopus). Sorry for the bad photo, it was taken on my phone!
I’m wondering if any of you have had similar experiences with your health while traveling? Here are some of the ways I kept myself in balance during our trip:
1. Eat a familiar, healthy breakfast
I couldn’t boil whole oats in our hotel room, but I did buy a box of Ezekial sprouted grain cereal, soymilk and fresh fruit. This way I’d get some fresh fruit and fiber to start my day, and that at least one meal wouldn’t include animal products or sugar, since both tend to slow me down.
2. Keep hydrated
Why is it that on vacation it’s hard to get enough water? Is it just me? In many cases I don’t want to drink the tap water, so it’s important to stock up on bottled water. Sounds obvious but so often we’ll spend the day in the sun, have dinner with wine, and then get a few drinks afterwards…by the next morning I’m dying of thirst. In my experience, restaurants outside the US don’t bring water to the table unless you ask, and even then the glasses are tiny. So, I gotta make hydration a priority!
3. Breathe. Breathe.
My nerves have all sorts of reason to act up on vacation – catching flights and hoping the luggage isn’t lost, finding our way around on new roads and getting lost, dealing with language barriers, etc. I took time this vaca to stop and breathe slow, deep breaths any time I started to feel stressed. Just like when I’m home and at yoga, breathing techniques work on a deep level to bring me back to center.
4. Balancing Vata
According to Ayurvedic medicine, traveling puts Vata out of balance. Since I’m already a Vata type traveling during the Vata time of year, it was important for me to bring oil for massage during the trip. The practice of abhyanga (self oil massage) is a great way to care for yourself and bring Vata back into balance. I’m planning a blog post about abhyanga coming up shortly to talk more about it! And if all this sounds crazy, well, it kind of is but it’s also pretty awesome.
5. Getting rid off expectations
Sometimes we try to do too much, in life and on vacation. I tried this time around to keep my expectations to a minimum. Maybe we find our way to the rainforest, maybe we’ll get lost and find a neat place to eat instead. Maybe we’ll love snorkeling off the catamaran, maybe we’ll get seasick, but either way it will be an experience. I found it helped to lose the expectation of perfectly executed plans.
How were your holiday travels? Even traveling short distances can knock me off balance, so I’m interested in how you dealt with driving to grandma’s or flying to wherever home is. And if your traveling is done, welcome home and happy new year!
January 5th, 2009 | travel, try new things | No Comments »
