Food Log, The Final Day

Breakfast
- 1 small white bread
- A cup of black coffee

Lunch
- Humus
- Maltese Beans Dip
- Maltese Water Cracker

Dinner
- Vegan Sausage
- Zucchini
- Sweet Potate
- Banana
Vege BBQ was fantastic!

- Water
- Green stuff

By the way, I am missing two days somewhere... how could it happen???
Anyway, what I had in those days would be pretty much the same as previous days...

Food Log, Day 19

My Shoulders are Still Evolving! 

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 white bread
- A cup of black coffee

Lunch
- Humus
- Maltese Beans Dip
- Greek Salad (Keppers, Onion, Tomato, Oregano, Olive oil, salt)
- Two Pieces of Maltese Bread
- Rooibos Tea

Dinner (@ Hotel)
- Humus

- Maltese Beans Dip

- Green beans, mixed seeds

- Petite Tomate

- Gallette (Maltese Water Cracker)

Snack
- Mixed Berries Smoothie
- A cup of black coffee with Soya Milk

and 
Water
Green Stuff

Food Log, Day 18

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 white bread
- A cup of black coffee

Lunch
- Humus
- Maltese Beans Dip- Greek Salad (Keppers, Onion, Tomato, Oregano, Olive oil, salt)
- Rooibos Tea

Dinner (@ Hotel)
- Whole Weet Pasta with Broccoli and Cauliflower

Snack
- Banana & Kiwi
- A cup of black coffee

and 
Water
Green Stuff

Food Log, Day 17

I should stop taking Carbs...

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 white bread
- A cup of decaf black coffee
Lunch
- Humus
- Maltese Beans Dip
- White beans
- Greek Salad (Keppers, Onion, Tomato, Oregano, Olive oil, salt)
- Rooibos/Mint Tea 

Dinner (@ Hotel)
- Vege Risotto

Snack
- 2 pieces of brown Maltese Bread
- Rooibos Tea
- Decaf Black Coffee
and 
Water

Food Log, Day 16

I am doing my best to learn & memorize everything that I've learned but it is almost impossible... I am spending 24hours - (minus) 7hours = 17 hours per day for the study but everything is slipping out. if I let go, I am sure I will not be able to write anything on a paper during the exam.
Anyway, here is the list.

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 white bread
- A cup of black coffee

Lunch
- Tofu & Mushroom Sautee

Dinner (@ Hotel)
- Whole Wheat Past with Pest Sauce (Basil, Olive oil, Garlic)

Snack
- Banana & Kiwi
- Rooibos Tea

and 
Water

Food Log, Day 15

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 white bread
- A cup of black coffee

Lunch
- Humus
- Maltese Beans Dip
- White beans
- Greek Salad (Keppers, Onion, Tomato, Oregano, Olive oil, salt)
- Rooibos Tea

Dinner (@ Hotel)
- Tofu & Mushroom Sautee

Snack
- Banana & Kiwi
- A cup of black coffee

and 
Water

Food Log, Day 14

Good thing about being in Malta is that I have an easy access to nice Mediterranean cuisines influenced by Greek, Italy and Turkey in supermarkets and they are, in general, taste very good!
I know already that I will miss all these food that I have been eating for lunch & dinner...

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 white bread
- A cup of black coffee

Lunch
- Humus
- Maltese Beans Dip
- White beans
- Dorma
- Greek Salad (Keppers, Onion, Tomato, Oregano, Olive oil, salt)
- Japanese Houji-Cha (Tea)

Dinner (@ Hotel)
- Whole Wheat Past with Pesto Sauce (Organic. No Parmigiano!)
- Humus- Galletti

Snack
- Sesame Crackers

and 
Water

Food Log, Day 13

We have only 9 days to go... I am already sad and a bit worried about going back to Luxembourg...

Breakfast (@ Hotel, own food)
- Tofu, mushroom & broccoli salad

Lunch
- Humus
- Broccoli and Mushroom with Tofu (lightly sautéed with salt) 
- White beans
- Greek Salad (Red, Yellow peppers, Onion, Tomato, Oregano, Olive oil, salt)
- Rooibos Tea

Dinner (@ Hotel, own food)

- Humus
- Broccoli and Mushroom with Tofu (lightly sautéed with salt) 
- White beans
- Greek Salad (Red, Yellow peppers, Onion, Tomato, Oregano, Olive oil, salt)
- Rooibos Tea


Snack
- A cup of Miso Soup
- Maltese Galleti (vegetarian)
- Humus
- A cup of black coffee

and 
Water.

Food Log, Day 12

After a storm early in the morning, Malta's sky became super clear!
I just had to go to the sea to absorb the great energy from nature :)
OK, here is the list for today's "What I had"

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 2 slices of nice bread (These were much better than usual breads!)
- A cup of black coffee

Lunch
- Humus
- Broccoli and Mushroom with Tofu (lightly sautéed with salt) 
- White beans
- Greek Salad (Red, Yellow peppers, Onion, Tomato, Oregano, Olive oil, salt)
- Rooibos Tea

Dinner (@ Gochi)
- Japanese vegetarian UDON noodle 
- Vegetarian Maki (Avocado) 
- Iced Green Tea

Snack
- A cup of Miso Soup

and 
Water.

Food Log, Day 11

Looking forward to going back to my original diet as guests have left!


Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- A small portion of white bread
- A cup of black coffee

Lunch
- Humus
- Marinated Artichoke- Martese Aubergine dip
- White beans
- Herbal Tea

Dinner (@ Valletta, Maltese restaurant...)
- Humus
- Marinated Artichoke- Martese Aubergine dip- Water

Food Log, Day 10

Having guests and eating out with them during the teacher training is quite challenging. But what can I say? I will do anything to achieve what I want! (this case, it's not about food... it's about yoga teacher training :))

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- A small portion of white bread
- A cup of black coffee

Lunch
- Humus
- Dorma
- Aubergine, Artichoke (marinated with extra vergine olive oli & vinegar)
- Kiwi & Banana

Dinner (@ Valletta, Maltese restaurant...)
- Dorma
- Dried Tomato
- Tasty home-made bread (a lot... as I could not eat anything else...)
- Extra Vergine Olive Oil with Salt & Pepper for dipping
- Water

Food Log, Day 9

While my guests were guzzling whatever they want to eat, I had followings:

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- A small portion of white bread
- A glass of orange juice
- A cup of black coffee

Lunch
- Marinated fresh vegetables (artichoke, Aubergine)
- Humus
- Dorma
- Kiwi & Banana

Dinner (@ Gochi)
- Vegetarian Sushi
- Vegetarian Udon (noodle made of flour & water, soup made out of vegetables  stock & soya sauce)
- Water

I am extremely happy that I could have the very tasty Japanese Udon! (not easy to find the real taste in Europe!) I just cannot live healthy without "UMAMI" (DASHI) too long... Now I am already thinking about the Udon again...

UMAMI:
http://www.umamiinfo.com/2011/03/the-umami-boom.php

Food Log, Day 8

I am lucky to have a nice classmate who informed me the day-light saving starting tonight! I forgot about it... So I will have 1h less sleep tonight :(...
But I've been having a very good quality of sleep since I arrived Malta and I should be fine with a short sleep for now.
Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- A small portion of white bread
- A glass of orange juice
- A cup of black coffee

Lunch
- Marinated fresh vegetables (olive, onion, tomato, green pepper,herbs, olive oil, vinegar, garlic, artichoke)
- Maltese Red Beans Paste
- Kiwi, Banana & Apple cocktail

Snack
- ca. 1.5cm x 1.5cm raw chocolate
- Black coffee
- Rooibos Tea

Dinner
- Vegetarian Rissotto
- Stuffed Mushroom for vegetarian
(The restaurant was very flexible not to put any cheese, milk and other products that I am not taking at this moment.)
- Water
- Lemon Sorbet

I have a breakout on my face, near lips... I wonder what this means. I know it is a sign from my body... Maybe I've been eating more than 80% of my apetite...

My teacher, Fred Busch, gave us a very valuable food talk today at our training studio. I am glad that I receive new information regarding what we eat/drink.
Here is the Food Talk video which was recorded in 2012.
http://vimeo.com/38287026

Food Log, Day 7

Already 7 days has passed... :(...

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 white bread 
- A cups of black
- A glass of orange juice

Lunch (@ Training)
- Broccoli
- Carciofi (Marinated in Garlic & Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
- Maltese fresh vegetables (olive, tomato, onion, peppers, garlic and keepers marinated in vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt)
- Maltese red beans humus 
- Rooibos Tea

Snack- A cup of Decaf-Black Coffee
- Maltese crackers (vegetarian)
- Fruits cocktail (Apple & Banana)
- Water
Dinner (@ Restaurant)
- Vege Pizza
- Water

Note: No Chocolate No Wine :)

I am hungry again...

Food Log, Day 6

Good evening... Whoops,I almost forgot to update the food log. It's not because of laziness! I had many tasks to handle before everyone starts the long weekend.


Breakfast (@ Hotel)- 2 white bread - A cups of black- A glass of orange juice

Lunch (@ Training)- Tofu, Green peppers, Mushroom (lightly stair fried, salt)- Fruits cocktail (Peer & Banana) *It's not a cocktail with alcohol!
- Herbal Tea
Snack- A cup of Decaf-Black Coffee- Fruits cocktail (Peer & Banana)

Dinner (@ Hotel - bought at a deli)- Broccoli - Carciofi (Marinated in Garlic & Extra Virgin Olive Oil)- Maltese fresh vegetables (olive, tomato, onion, peppers, garlic and keepers marinated in vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt)
- Maltese crackers (vegetarian)
- Maltese red beans humus 

Note: No Chocolate No Wine :)

Thanks to my mother, who does not like meat at all, I grew up with almost no-meat diet at home. Schools provided various range of school lunch menus - most of them tasted very good as they cooked from scratch in-house! Fish? I remember I used to steal my grand father's Sashimi (especially high-quality Tuna)while I was carrying his plate to him!
But I preferred to have more vegetable than meat/fish - it was my natural choice since when I was little - we had no idea (and still many people back home have no clue...) about vegetarian and vegans. 

I was raised in the culture that "Eat everything that you have on the table, meals which have been served for you! Don't even think about leaving a piece of rice in your plate/rice ball!"
It means that we should not waste the precious source of living that we have been given by nature, and show respects (by eating up) to all works/efforts of farmers/fishermen/cooks and whoever prepared the meal for you.

But... we also say
"you eat (fill up) up to 80% of your stomach (= apetite)"It means "do not overfeed yourself". 

Naturally, the amount of food to be prepared will be carefully considered - I think this concept is reflected on "Shojin Ryori" or "Kaiseki Ryori" - each plat holds small amount of food (seasonal ingredients) - but serve in numbers (sometime 7-10 different plats).
Ancestors were so wise :) 

Food Log, Day 5

I update the list earlier than usual as I am working on a manuscript of a power yoga sequence.

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 white bread
- A cups of coffee without milk

- A glass of orange juice

Lunch (@ Training)
- Dorma (Grape leaves with rice, sesame, lemon juice cooked in olive oil/water)
- Fruits cocktail (Kiwi, Orange, Banana) 

- Rooibos Tea

Snack

- A piece of white bread

Dinner (@ Hotel - cooked myself)
- A cup of Miso Soup

- Dorma

- Lightly stir fried green pepper, mushrooms, zucchini and silky TOFU
- A glass of French Organic Grown Grapes red wine (Finito, finito! The beautiful French organic red wine is finished... thank you to the wine shop owner!)
- Rooibos Tea

Note: No Chocolate

Extra Note:

I realized that I have (to some extent) different ideas toward food. I am pretty sure this is something to do with the culture where I am from. The culture & customs back in home have deep roots in Shintoism, Animism, Buddhism - we mix them in our daily life to appreciate what we are given. (this is the ideal part of my culture)
The bottom line for us (I am not talking about Monks here...) is that we are part of nature and we may consume other living things but we follow rules of nature, not to over consume, not to abuse the given nature only for our egos etc.

We "used to" respect the whole living nature... that is why we have those two words to mention before & after meals.
I put my gratitude in those words when I have meals.

Itadakimasu (I humbly receive. "Before meals, itadakimasu is said as a thanks to the plants and animals that gave their lives for the meal you’re about to consume. It also thanks all those involved, ranging from the hunter/farmer to the preparer of the meal.")

Gochisosama deshita
(Thank you for the meal, thank you for all plants, animals that scarified their lives, all those involved to prepare the meal. I enjoyed the meal and appreciate the love in the meal.)

Food Log, Day 4

It's time for the list:

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 white bread
- A cups of coffee without milk
- A glass of orange juice

Lunch (@ Training)
- Whole wheat past with stair fried Zucchini and flat beans
- Fruits cocktail (Apple, Orange, Banana) 

- Rooibos Tea

Snack
- Rice ball (Sicilian style, bought at a shop)

- 2 blocks of dark chocolate with pistacchio

Dinner (@ Hotel - cooked myself)
- Whole wheat past with stair fried Zucchini and flat beans 
- A glass of French Organic Grown Grapes red wine (one more glass then the bottle will be empty! I cannot waste the precious wine as I know the effort behind to produce good organic wines.)
- Rooibos Tea

Limited access to the kitchen utensils and ingredients make things slightly difficult to follow the rule but I am trying my best.

What I really miss now is good South Indian/Sri Lankan food...

Food Log, Day 3

It's 21:00 and time to keep my diet record on this blog!

Here is the list what I ate:

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 white bread
- A cups of coffee without milk
- A glass of orange juice

Lunch (@ Training)
- Stair fried Zucchini and flat beans 
- Fruits cocktail (Kiwi, Orange, Banana) 

- English Tea 

Snack
- A half of white bred
- 2 blocks of dark chocolate with pistacchio

Dinner (@ Hotel - cooked myself)
- Whole wheat past with organic pest sauce
- A glass of French Organic Grown Grapes red wine
- Rooibos Tea

- 2 blocks of dark chocolate with pistacchio

And tomorrow's list will be pretty much the same.

Food Log, Day 2

Here is the list of my Day 2:

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 (industrial) Chocolate croissant
- A cups of coffee without milk
- A glass of orange juice

Lunch (@ Training)
- Stair fried Zucchini and flat beans
- Hanuta (Haselnuts chocolate wafer)
- Hōjicha (Houjicha) 

Snack
- A white bread with sesame
- Hanuta
- A banana 
- A few pieces of dark chocolate with pistacchio

Dinner (@ Hotel - cooked myself)
- Whole wheat past with organic pest sauce
- A glass of French Organic Grown Grapes red wine
- Rooibos Tea

Food Log, Day 1

Today was my first day at Power Yoga Teacher Training.
My teacher, Fred, gave us several assignments to work on during the training period (and the rest of our life!). One of assignments was to keep a "Food Log" every single day, every single things that we eat/drink. There is a reason why we do this, of course. I will eventually share the background on this blog.

I could keep this "food log" as a personal record but why don't I post my diet record on this blog? It won't hurt anybody by sharing what I eat... I guess.

Here is "What I ate" for the Day 1.

Breakfast (@ Hotel)
- 1 (industrial) Chocolate croissant
- 1 White bread with sesame with berry jam & butter
- 2 cups of coffee with milk
- A glass of orange juice

Lunch (@ Training)
- Stair fried Zucchini with lemon sardine (a canned, from France)
- 2/3 of Apple (peeled and cut)
- 1 White bread with sesame (from hotel)
- A scoop of Home-made Hummus from the youngest student in the course

Dinner (@ Hotel)
- A bowl of creamy mushroom soup (I am pretty sure it was made from an industrial packet)
- Salad (mushroom, olive, tomato, lettace, balsamic vinegar, olive oil)
- Crumbled white fish (I could tell it was frozen pieces...) with lemon juice
- Fresh fruits (Melon, Kiwi, Strawberries)
- A glass of French Organic Grown Grapes red wine

Cheers!

No, I am not flexible.

"Do you want to join me a yoga lesson?"
"No thanks, I am not flexible."

I want to share one thing with you. Yoga is not only about flexibility... it is a path to balance your body and mind. It is a way to appreciate what you are and what your body can do for you. I could figure out how to maintain my good condition; minimising the existing lower back pain by practicing yoga.

Other thing that I learned:
"Without continuous practice, you won't get flexibility."


「ヨガのレッスンに一緒に来ない？」
「ううん、やめとくよ。だって私、柔らかくないし。」

そんな会話を何度聞いたことやら…。ヨガは体の柔軟さだけを求めるものではなく、呼吸を整えること、自分の体に耳を傾けてあげることで、体と心のバランスを整える過程を教えてくれます。そして少しずつ自分の体を尊重することを学んでいくでしょう。
その１つとして、私は今持っている腰痛をヨガをとおして、いかにして小さくし、腰痛から広がりうるマイナスな影響をいかに無くしていくか…ということに挑戦しています。

それから、体の柔軟性は１日にして出来るものではありません。
毎日の積み重ねで柔軟さを取り戻すことができる（生まれた時は皆柔軟だよね。）…ということもお忘れなく。

ヨガジャーナル日本語版
オンライン購入：
ｙｏｇａ　ＪＯＵＲＮＡＬ（ヨガジャーナル）日本版
 

Yoga Wear

I have been practicing yoga at a sports club in a little tiny country (and a city). As the size of the market is considerably smaller than any other cosmopolitan cities, it is not easy to find a dedicated shop for sports. (there are some, but I have to admit that the selections are very limited.)

Very often my yoga mates ask me where I got all my clothing as well as gadgets for yoga.

Well... my secret is "be creative".

I am happy to share little tips - stay tuned.

2013 - Start with smiles in your face

Lotus Work wishes you a peaceful and joyful year to you all.