Fitness Friday: Yoga & Essential Oils

So this past Tuesday I went to my first essential oils yoga class. The class was a combination of a seminar on essential oils and yoga class incorporating essential oils. It was held at a local church, where they hold their regular Doterra classes but they had a special guest speaker who was a certified yoga teacher come in and teach the yoga part of the class.

The seminar was informative as usual but I especially loved the yoga portion. The class was a "kundalini" inspired yoga class which is completely new to me. Traditionally,  Kundalini Yoga incorporates movement, dynamic breathing techniques, meditation, and chanting. This class didn't really incorporate chanting but it did have a lot of movement, longer poses and mediation. Overall, I found this class challenging yet quite enjoyable. I am a bit intimidated to try Kundalini yoga class at an actual studio because I am not confident in my poses yet. 

As far as the essential oil portion went, they added lemon to your water, they added peppermint to your hands for you to inhale, they put Roman Chamomile on your 3rd eye and the back of your neck prior to starting yoga, they put an oil (forget which one) to your forearm in the middle of the class and then they put lavender on the back of your neck towards the end of class (right before the meditation portion of the class). They were also difussing an oil during the whole class but again I forgot which one. 

I found the peppermint to be energizing and I always find lavender to be relaxing so I particularly enjoyed those two oils. At the end of class I asked the teacher how I can incorporate the oils into a regular yoga class. She suggested applying an oil like Roman Chamomile prior to class and then bringing an oil like lavender to the class to apply right before meditation. She also said you might run the risk of a teacher not allowing oils in the class depending on the studio's specific policies. If this was the case, I would just apply the oil prior to class and then bring water with oils already in it. 

However, I have found at least one class in the city that already incorporates essential oils into the class. Iron North Studio in Hintonburg offers a Yogaroma class on Saturdays. I plan to check it out in the next couple weeks and I can let you know how they incorporate the oils. I feel like as more people find out about the benifits of essential oils, more and more studios will offer these type of classes! 

I plan to get Doterra's Balance oil this month which is a "grounding blend" so I think it would be the perfect oil to incorporate into your yoga practice. 

If you would like to learn more about the benefits of incorporating essential oils into your yoga practice or just about essential oils in general, check out my Doterra page: www.mydoterra.com/essentialwellnessottawa

Living Simple Part 4: Setting Goals and the 80/20 Rule

So my next tip to living simple and creating a stress free life is the 80/20 rule. I have heard of many people applying this rule to diets but I tend to apply it to all parts of my life. I apply to it diet, cleaning, work, and doing family activities. 

The 80/20 rule is quite simple. You stick to your regimen 80% of the time and let loose 20% of the time. I find our world loves to promote mediocrity these days. We love to build each other up without any substance to back it up. While I don't agree with being mean for no reason or bullying at all, I also don't agree with holding people to such low standards, they fail to meet their potential. I feel it is important to tell people when they are doing something wrong and encourage them to do better, work harder, practice, aim higher! This is especially true for kids. While I realize their self-esteem is fragile, telling people they are doing "amazing" when they aren't, only inflates egos. When times get tough, these people get too overwhelmed to overcome obstacles. They aren't prepared for real life. I think this is especially true for so many millenials. 

Point is...You really need to work hard that 80% of the time to get results. You need to have big dreams and big goals and know what it takes to get there. You also need to have people be honest with you and most importantly be honest with yourself. Don't pat yourself on the back when you honestly know that you only put 50% effort into it. This is even true if you are better than most people you know. If your goal is to work out 4 times per week and you only worked out two, don't pat yourself on the back because you know people that didn't workout at all. This attitude will not serve you well in the long run. While it might be true, it still won't help you reach your goals.  

When following this 80/20 rule, I find it easier to carve out specific times to work hard and specific times to let loose. For example, you eat healthy all week and allow yourself treats on Saturday, or you stick to your cleaning schedule all week and allow yourself a day off to rest on the weekend. If you allow yourself a cheat day whenever, I find it is a recipe to get off track. Often enough, if you cheat on Tuesday, you will be tired again Thursday and want to cheat again and then you will get off track REALLY FAST. 

I also find by carving out specific "cheat time" I feel more gratification because I can feel like I earned it. I also find it motivating to stick to my plan come Thursday because I worked hard all week. Once you start a plan and stick to it, it is easier to keep going. 

I also find following this 80/20 rule makes it way easier to carve out my "relaxing time". By following this method, I actually carve out ME time into my weekly routine. I either book a massage, take time to catch up on my favorite Youtube channels or blogs, or just take time to have fun with my family. How you spend that 20% of downtime is really up to you!

In the end, this 80/20 rule makes my day to day life a lot simpler because it creates a structured routine yet I still have time built in to my schedule to relax. WIN WIN!

Fitness Friday: Vegetarian Sources of Protein

So if you know me personally or have followed this blog for a while you know that my family is vegetarian and have been for a couple of years. We tend to eat vegan a lot of the time but we don't consider ourselves vegan at this point. 

The NUMBER 1 question I got when we first decided to become vegetarian is definitely "How are you going to get your protein?".  Well for those of you who are wondering the same thing, there are TONS of vegetarian sources of protein! You definitely don't need to eat animals to get protein! Our favorite vegetarian sources of protein are probably beans and legumes. We really like black beans and chick peas. I make a lot of rice dishes, mexican food, and soups with beans and chick peas. We also add them to salads and make stuff like hummus. 

As far as Cooper goes...he loves beans and chick peas as well but he has grown to love hard boiled eggs and tofu recently. Cooper also eats some dairy, like cheese. 

Protein is definitely important but we never follow a high protein diet. We actually eat a high carb diet. We don't eat refined sugars but we eat a ton of fruit and also a lot of wild rice. On the surface, I can understand how people lose weight eating a high protein diet but it doesn't mean it is healthy. Especially if you are eating high amounts of animal protein. Protein is so hard on your body to digest and it strains your kidneys if you eat in excess. 

I would never recommend high amounts of refined sugars but your body needs carbs to maintain so many body functions. The role of carbohydrates is to provide energy, as they are the body's main source of fuel, needed for physical activity, brain function and operation of the organs. All the cells and tissues in your body need carbs, and they are also important for intestinal health and waste elimination. 

Back to Protein...If you are looking to switch to a vegetarian diet and need help finding meatless protein sources here are our favorites:

• beans
• chick peas
• eggs
• brown rice
• pea protein powder
• spirulina
• Ezekiel Bread (or other bread made from sprouted grains)
• Spelt ( we love spelt pasta) 
• nut butters (we are peanut butter lovers)
• Hemp seeds (we add them to smoothies)

On the plus side, a lot of vegetarian protein sources, like beans and legumes, are also high in fiber.

P.S. if you are cooking or preparing beans or legumes, make sure they are well rinsed. It will do wonders to prevent gassy tummies!

Living Simple Part 3: To Do Lists & Planners

So you just decluttered your living space and you want to keep it clean and organized...MAKE LISTS!

I tend to make lists for everything! I make daily to-do lists, shopping lists, lists for my goals, lists of places to travel to, lists for races I would like to do etc. I really think if we make lists and take the time to think of these things beforehand, we avoid buying stuff we don't need and we avoid wasting time in the day. 

I have been making lists/schedules since I can remember. My sister and I used to make a calendar for all of our back to school outfits since we were in middle school. It really saved us a lot of time in the morning and we really thought of ways to mix and match the stuff we already had. 

Fast forward 20 years...I make to-do lists at work each day ( for the next day) before I leave work . This way when I come into work in the morning, I know what time any upcoming meetings are and I don't waste time trying to remember what file I should be working on first. This to-do list is in addition to my calender I have in Outlook. I rely on both daily. Usually, I just put meetings/appointments in my Outlook calender and my to-do lists are just written by hand on a post-it notes and I stick them to my desk. Nothing fancy. Just really simple. I prefer writing my lists by hand because I really think when you write stuff down by hand, you tend to remember it.

At home and in my personal life, I use my planner. I love my current Bando planner. I think it looks super cute and it is really functional. It has a monthly calender (at the beginning of each month) and also a weekly/daily area where you have lots of room to fill in your daily tasks. I love having both because I like to look at my whole month and get an idea of my busy weeks/weekends before planning more events and obviously the weekly areas have a lot more room to fill in so having both options is great. The planner I have is quite large so I don't carry it in my purse often. Next year, I might get the smaller version so I can carry it in my purse with ease. I like to fill out my planner each week (on Sunday) with all the major plans for the week and then I update it during the week as more events come up. 

I also use my planner to track other stuff such as workouts/weight goals, meals (I forgot to write those in lately) and even stuff like upcoming blog posts. I think a lot of people these days have various apps for stuff like this but I prefer to keep it in my planner. This way it is all in one place and as I mentioned before, I prefer to write stuff down by hand. 

I am no expert when it comes to planning but I have started watching some planner videos on youtube. My favorite planner videos are by Pretty Neat Living I have linked her Youtube channel in case you want to check out her planner videos for yourself. 

I really think if you are trying to live simply, you should start making lists. It makes it a lot easier to accomplish your goals each day and stay organized. There is also a big part of me that gets so energized and motivated when I check things off my To-do List! 

Happy Monday!

Fitness Friday: The Jacobs Ladder

So like I mentioned last week, I have been in a bit of a fitness funk lately so I decided to take my own advice and change up part of my fitness routine. 

My fitness interests have changed a lot over the last few of years. Before Cooper was born, I was really into long distance running. I really liked running 10k and 1/2 marathon distances. Then after Cooper was first born I couldn't run those distances for a couple of reasons. First, I was healing from a c-section so my body was not in good physical shape to run that far and I also didn't have the time. 

This is when I found yoga. My sister was really into yoga at the time and yoga was great to get my body (especially my back and core) heathy and strong again. I also loved that I could take yoga at the gym I went to, which had child care. This made it very convenient when you had a young infant. 

While I still really like yoga, I feel like cardio workouts is what helps me feel my best. I always feel strongest and the most energized when I am incorporating a good amount of cardio. Since I have a lot less time now, I tend to incorporate workouts that are fast and efficient. This is why I have really grown to like the Jacobs Ladder. The Jacobs ladder is found at a lot of bigger gyms and they have it at Movati where I workout. 

The Jacobs ladder is like a ladder and a treadmill combined in one. It is a ladder that you climb, as it rotates like a treadmill. It is a whole body workout and for some reason, it always kicks my butt. I am pretty tired even after only 5 minutes on the Jacobs ladder. I prefer to use the Jacobs Ladder as part of a fitness circuit. In this case, I will only go on it for about 3 minutes at a time and then continue with another exercise in the circuit. Here is an example of a quick HIIT workout that I do when I use the Jacobs Ladder:

Jacobs ladder 3 min

15 pushups

1 min wall sit

15 situps

15 squats

45 second plank

REPEAT 3X

Next time you are at the gym and you walk past the Jacobs ladder, give it a try. I am sure you will be impressed with how effective it is. 

Living Simple Part 2: Declutter You Living Space

Spring is in the air, so it is the perfect time to declutter your living space! I am no Marie Kondo but I do belive that a clutter free living space really reduces my overall stress levels. I really think the key to living simple is to live with as few material objects as possible and to focus on experiences. If you are just starting out on your minimalism journey and have been accumalating a lot of "stuff" over the years, then you will most definitely need to declutter your living space. 

There are several different techniques that people use to declutter and I will discuss a few of them below:

• 1 room technique: This technique involves you decluttering 1 room at a time. You can pick a certain time in the day or week to tackle 1 room and then move on to the next room. You can pick nap time each day if you are a SAHM or a certain time on the weekend that you have free and tackle 1 room at a time. This is the technique that I used most often. I started with the guestroom (now nursery) and moved on from there. As I declutter, I take the time to organize and sanitize the area. I usually make a pile for garbage, donations, and stuff to sell. 
• Box technique: This technique involves putting everything you own in a box for a specified period of time (i.e. a month)...absolutely everything! As you need the stuff, you take it out and put it back in place. At the end of the month, all the stuff you didn't use and that is still in the box, you either donate, sell or throw out. I have never tried this technique but I know of a few people who swear by this technique because it really takes out the guess work. It really illustrates how little we actually use on a regular basis. 
• Friend/Family - this technique involves you getting a friend or family member to help you sort through all your items. Obviously this method would be beneficial if you are trying to tackle a large area in a small amount of time (whole house before a move) but it also helps if you are the type of person that has trouble letting go of material objects. A friend or family member can be more objective. I know of people who put all of their trust in the other person and actually have them sort through everything because they really hate getting rid of stuff. There are even companies you can hire to help you declutter such as Abode Staging 
• 1 item per day: This technique is simple enough. Get rid of 1 item per day. At the end of the year, that is 365 less items in your house. These can be large items or small items such as old magazines. It takes no time at all on a daily basis but it really adds up over time. This is the perfect technique for a busy person. 

As you can see, there are several different ways you can approach decluttering but it does take commitment. Personally, I find that having 1 area that is clean and organized really motivates me to tackle the larger areas and it has a "snowball" effect. After you have decluttered your living space, you really need to make an effort to limit the amount of junk you bring back into your house.

The 2 rules I follow before making a purchase is:

1. Is there a spot - if there isn't a spot for this item in my house, I don't buy it. I actually think BEFORE I buy it, where it would go and make sure that I have room for it. If there is no room, I get rid of an item BEFORE I buy it. 
2. Is there a purpose/function - does this item actually have a useful purpose or function? Do I need it? If it is just another pair of jeans or black shirt (and I already have 5) I don't need it. I usually think if I already have something similar or if I have something that could fill its function at home. If I do, I don't buy it. 

By taking the time to think of these things at the store, BEFORE you make a purchase, you avoid buying extra stuff that you don't need. 

Ready, Set, Go Declutter! 

Fitness Friday: A Fitness Funk

So I think we have all been there...in a fitness funk. After a week of feeling sick plus a very full schedule, I missed a few workouts and got into a bit of a fitness funk. I went to the gym and weighed myself this morning and I was feeling pretty confident that I lost my weekly 1lb goal (I want to lose 6lbs by the May long weekend) but instead I gained 0.4 lbs. I know to many this may not seem like much of a difference but when you think you have been eating pretty healthy, it's definitely not what you want to see. I definitely attribute this small setback to missing almost an entire week of workouts. Diet is key but you really need BOTH diet and regular exercise!

At times like this, I get into a bit of a funk and loose motivation. I usually take a bit of time and make a couple of tweeks to my routine. Some of my tips for tweaking a fitness routine and getting out of a plateau:

• adding 5-10 lbs of weight to one of your exercises
• adding 5-10 minutes of cardio
• cut down your rest-time in between sets (it can get your heart rate up a bit more and burn extra calories)
• use a kettlebell for one of your exercises (uses more stabilizer muscles)
• change up the type of cardio you are doing (use the bike instead of running - it uses different muscle groups)

Ever since I had Cooper I had a little pouch in the lower tummy area. My stomach got a lot flatter once I cut meat out of my diet but a lot of people said the pouch was due to my c-section and was almost impossible to get rid of completely. However, it is just about gone! If you are looking to get rid of extra belly bloat my BEST trick is to add essential oils to your water. Certain oils prevent you from retaining extra water weight and flushes out extra toxins from your body. My personal favorite essential oils to add to my water are Doterra's Lemon and Grapefruit. Lately I have been adding grapefruit oil to my water everyday and I definitely notice a difference. I have less bloat and a lot more energy. If you are interested in trying it for yourself, you can email me at: valeriebonsall@hotmail.com

Living Simple: An Introduction to Minimalism and How to Simplify Your Life

I am introducing my new blog series on "living simple". These blog posts will cover different ways you can simplify your life and the benefits I have found to slowing down and trying to "live simple". These posts will be posted every Monday and I will continue with my Fitness Friday posts every Friday. 

I am choosing to do this "living simple" blog series because it is something that I accidentally fell into 3 years ago but has become very important to me. Living simple or "minimalism" which it is often referred to, can mean different things to different people but in general it means living with a minimal amount of material goods, consuming a minimal amount, destressing, lowering your carbon footprint and focusing on relationships and living in the moment (at least this is the way I view it).

For me, my minimalism journey began slowly about 3 years ago when I was pregnant with Cooper. It really started when I was cleaing out our spare bedroom to make a nursery. This spare bedroom was rarely used by guests and was mainly just an extra storage room for my and Mitch's childhood stuff, wedding materials, old clothes, old books and a bunch of other garbage. After that room was organized, I began to go through the rest of the house and found we had so much stuff that we didn't use. I donated bags and bags to goodwill. After we organized the house and got rid of a lot of junk, I realized how much easier it was to keep the house clean and find the stuff we needed. This whole process started me out on this minimalism journey and it grew from there. 

Below are the key steps you can take to simplify your life and I will talk about each one in more detail in the upcoming weeks:

• Declutter / Downsize your living space
• Make to-do lists/use a planner
• Power Clean
• 80/20 lifestyle
• Act like a kid
• Exercise
• Simple natural cleaners
• Simple meals

I hope you guys find this blog series interesting and helpful! Next week I will discuss the steps I took to declutter my house and how you can even make extra money by decluttering your house!

Fitness Friday: Smoothies

So far so good at keeping up with my blog schedule...I am back to doing "Fitness Friday"! 

Today I am going to share the easiest way I have found to get in at least 1 raw meal a day and that is having a smoothie for breakfast! I have never been a raw vegan but I like to eat at least 1 raw meal per day and I definitely found that it is easiest (and most beneficial) to have this meal in the morning at breakfast. 

First, it is the most beneficial because your body absorbs the nutrients from the raw food (like fruits and veggies) better on an empty stomach. Secondly, I find it way easier to have my raw meal in the morning because I tend to eat less when I first wake up compare to other meals. 

My Raw smoothie recipe:

• fresh unpasturized juice (I like orange)
• spinach
• pineapple
• strawberries
• blueberries
• banana

All you have to do is blend all the ingredients together in a blender (or in the nutribullet) and you have a fresh, raw breakfast that is kid friendly too!

If you want to change it up, you can add:

• coconut milk
• vegan protein
• flaxseeds

However, please keep in mind that if you add some of these extras, the smoothie would no longer be considered "Raw vegan" but it still would be "vegan". 

Try having a smoothie each day and see how fast your energy levels increase. I also find that smoothies are great for reducing bloat!