CathyM Weight Loss & Health Blog

There’s a new law in California – state mandated calorie counts for restaurant chains with more than 20 stores. Many diners will ignore the information but some will look at it. But what wasn’t anticipated is that the affected chains are adding more healthful items to their menu. Romano’s Macaroni Grill has managed to squeeze 880 calories out of one salad. Wow. Reference at the Sacromento Bee.

Being more aware of what we eat, whether it’s calorie counts, or freshness or overall health benefits is a good thing!

It was bliss! An energetic and feel good two days. I wish we could have stayed all three days. It rained on the drive from Los Angeles but by the time we arrived – no more rain. The sun played with us all day, in and out of the clouds.

The first session at noon was yoga with Megan Cannon from the Big Island. She has studied with BKS Iyengar as well as Geeta and Prashant. She taught a wonderful basic Iyengar class focusing on warriors, triangles, and twists with alignment.

The opening ceremonies were next with Samantha Sweetwater, Dreaming Bear and their group. The sign on the stage read, “The Grandest Raw Vegan Eco Peace Celebration in Creation.” The music was fantastic and Samantha facilitated some great interaction within the crowd and her specialty, dancing freedom. I met a friend from Brazil – there was definitely an international crowd at the festival. During the ceremony, an incredible ring formed around the sun, looking like a circular rainbow. Quite spectacular.

Time for lunch, a delicious Mediterranean plate that was enough to feed two of us. I wish I remembered the vendor’s name, I’ll come back and plug it in if I can find it. It was very good and I went back later in the day for a yummy fruit salad and more.

More yoga, yea! Next is Elemental Flow Yoga with Ninaya from Santa Barbara. I loved the way she incorporated the fluid body with sufi rolls and warrior poses. Ninaya is a beautiful young women expecting her second child and with her young toddler close by.

A short break and then it is time for Kirtan with Eostar and her group. Eostar is from Eugene, Oregon and lives in the house that my daughter and her boyfriend had looked to join. Small world. The kirtan was magnificant. Eostar has written her own music and incorporates both vedic chanting and English. I could have stayed all night.

We spend some time walking about the vendors and then to the small doctors tent which has become a dance pavilion. Later, we move back to the main stage for singing and dancing and music from Fantuzzi, Singing Bear, and The Luminaries. We wished we were camping so that we could stay all night but we had to head to our hotel for some sleep.

Saturday is a new day. I start with yoga with Nandhi. I forgot to mention that all of the yoga was in the Sacred Exercise tent. A large purple open air tent. So nice to be outside with the cool Santa Barbara breezes. Nandhi starts by taking us outside of the tent to appreciate the sun and the earth. As we do our yoga, we explore our left Mother side and right Father side and give gratitude to both. Nandhi has a beautiful way of incorporating chanting with yoga in a traditional way. Nandhi is from India and promises a beautiful ceremony tonight for the full moon, too bad I can’t stay. I do go by and pick up both cds for some chanting and meditation at home.

Next on the schedule is Drew Rouse with Bikram Yoga. He introduces himself and explains that his style is command driven yoga. He seems aware that some don’t like that style. I wouldn’t want to hear it all the time but did enjoy his class and felt good that I could do most of it.

Time for lunch, another Mediteranean style meal, this time from Lydia’s Lovin Foods. It was good and I also picked up some crackers to take home.

Samantha Sweetwater from the opening ceremonies now provides an hour of dancing freedom taking us through the elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether. She is a wonderful facilitator.

A break to explore the yoga swing, didgeridoo sound healing and other parts of the festival with Lucy and Zach.

The last yoga class for me is with Ardas Wright. She leads a Kundalini Yoga class. Ardas has taught at Golden Bridge and I do recognize her style. It has been several years but I have taken a couple of classes with Gurmukh at Golden Bridge.

After all the yoga, I am a bit tired and head over to the massage healing tables. I am approached by Sya Warfield of urban oasis. Sya lists several massage specialties including Swedish, deep tissue, thai massage, cranio sacral, and reiki. I say that I want something relaxing and healing for my shoulder and she suggests cranio sacral with reiki. It is quite relaxing and my shoulder does feel good afterwards. I would definitely do it again and have her card in case I get a chance to look her up in San Francisco.

The day is over for us. Lucy and Zach are tired and ready to head home. I would have liked to stay longer but it would have made driving at night difficult and so it was best that we head back to Torrance. With little traffic, we make it home in just over 2 hours.

Hope to go back in 2010!

I am totally looking forward to attending the Raw Spirit Festival tomorrow in Santa Barbara. My daughter, her fiance, and myself will drive up Friday morning for a noon start. If all goes as planned, we will arrive in time for the opening yoga session followed by the opening ceremony at 1pm. The rest of Friday there will be opportunities for a couple more yoga sessions, kirtan, music, dance, and of course raw food demonstrations. My daughter and fiance are both vegetarians. I am not but I do love healthy, fresh food. We will also spend a full day there on Saturday with even more opportunities for yoga, meditation, music and food! It is sure to be bliss! I plan to report back with some of the highlights as will my daughter at Living Foods Life.

Ever since visiting New Zealand earlier this year, I have been particularly interested in grass fed beef and free range animals. New Zealand is fortunate, they have lots of land with few people. The tour books all mention that there are more sheep than people in New Zealand. The food there is excellent, not just the meat, the seafood, and the produce is great and mostly organic.

California has Proposition 2 on the ballot which is about confined animals, allowing them more space to move around in their cages (if it passes) by 2015. However, it is not about free range or grass fed, so although initially interested in this measure I think I will vote against it. Instead I intend to vote with my pocket book, I have started to purchase free range and grass fed meat and I will continue to do so.

Free range meat products tend to be very expensive. I have started to look for deals. Ralphs has some ground Buffalo meat that is excellent. Marukai has free range chicken. There is a vendor at the Torrance Farmer’s Market on Saturdays with free range chicken meat and eggs (I’ll get the vendor’s name next time I’m there). Trader Joes has New Zealand lamb. Whole Foods has grass fed beef. The prime cuts are expensive but the stew meat is ok in price. All of the grass fed meats tend to be lean which is of course more healthy. Besides that, I want food products without pesticides and antibiotics. Will my family live longer because of it? No one knows for sure but I think so.

After researching the local stores, I am also looking for options to purchase online. I think to make sense I need to purchase in large quantities to minimize the shipping costs. I have a large freezer so have space to store some meat. We actually only eat beef and chicken and pork 2 – 3 nights a week so it’s not a huge part of the budget. We eat seafood often and sometimes vegetarian meals.

The first online merchant I am trying is La Cense Beef. They are based in Montana and have Black Angus beef, all grass fed. No grain, no pesticides, no antibiotics, no hormones. The benefits they say are less fat and caleries, higher in Omega 3’s and more antioxidants. I knew about the less fat but surprised to hear about the Omega-3s and antioxidants. Here’s what they say about it, “Grass-fed beef gleans many of its health benefits from the nutrients in the grass. The grass at the La Cense Ranch is high in Omega-3 fatty acids because they act as a natural plant anti-freeze. These Omega-3s are then present in the meat and dairy products of grass-fed beef. ”

The prices at La Cense Beef seemed pretty good until I noticed that in some cases it was not per pound but per 7-8 ounces. Sirloin steak is $9.49 for 7 oz. A pot roast is $18.99 for 3 pounds. I found a deal for free shipping and will try that.
The website mentions standard shipping 6 – 10 days, that can’t be. Then expeditied and overnight. I guess I have to go through the order process to see if my “free shipping” is expedited or overnight. Looking forward to trying this meat.

Update, the free shipping is 6 – 10 days. No way. I’ll go with $25 off. Be sure not to click on free shipping links on the site, or you’ll lose the $25 off.