This past weekend marked the first, of hopefully many, yoga retreats. Myself and another teacher planned out four classes for the participants (a wonderful group of women).
A few years ago for my bachlorette my girlfriends knowing my obsession for yoga found a cottage only 45 minutes out of the city with a full yoga studio in the basement. The studio has big bright windows and more importantly heated floors!
The weekend started off with a powerful pre-dinner yoga session to wake us all up from our Fridays in the office and to get everyone pumped for the rest of the weekend. After yoga we all enjoyed a bean filled light version of chili and a variety of other snacks. Seeing how I am currently doing 100 days of clean eating I used my treat for the month to be able to sit back and have some wine with the other ladies. We stayed up and chatted until we realized we would be getting up for more yoga the following morning and called it a night.
Saturday morning I was up bright and early practicing out my restorative class. I generally tend towards the more flow like powerful classes, but after just doing a powerful class and having some wine I thought it would be a nice treat to do something more rejuvenating. And aside from a spider scare I believe the class went pretty smoothly.
Saturday afternoon Angela (our second teacher) was finally able to get away from the office and join us. After settling in having some of the delicious salads, veggies and fruits that we had for lunch it was time for everyone to start getting ready for our evening class.
Saturday evening I cooked up one of my favorite meals of scallops, pesto chickpeas and a mix of steamed and roasted veggies. It was so nice to be with a group of women who were open to eating delicious clean meals all weekend so I wouldn’t have to use my next four months of treat days while on my 100 day challenge. After supper we all settled in for more chatting in front of the fire before packing it in for the day.
Sunday was our last morning at the cottage and we wrapped it up with a pregnancy friendly power class. Due to my current back issues I wasn’t able to participate in the class but that just meant that breakfast would be ready for everyone once they were done their morning practice.
Then it was time to head back into the city and start getting ready for the week. I was lucky enough to get some down time while at the retreat to study for my first test since going back to school so I didn’t have to do any crash studying Sunday evening when I got home. Instead I spent my time soaking in an Epsom salt bath doing what I could to show my back a little love before getting a healthy supper ready for my husband and myself.
So far the clean eating challenging has been going well, I am already starting to see my eczema fading away and my skin clearing up. It is always encouraging when you see the positive benefits to cutting out the junk from your daily diet. One of the best parts of my challenge is that I also just started getting organic food deliveries to help me not only stick to my plan but also to encourage me to eat a variety of fruits and veggies that I might not buy on a regular basis.
I you are all having wonderful Mondays!
gingersneezes 