HOW COSTA RICE CHANGED MY LIFE - PT 2
If I could sum up with one word how I felt when I left Vida Asana back in May, it would be nourished. Every cell in my body felt as though it had been treated to everything that it had been craving for months. For calm, for joy, for laughter, consistent yoga and meditation, and most notably, sustenance. Throughout the entire week, as mentioned in my last post, we were treated to mostly vegetarian and absolutely delicious meals on a daily basis. It was amazing to me that a vegetarian diet could be that complete and that pleasing to the palate. I remember saying a number of times that I had no idea that vegetables could be that delicious.
On the coffee table in the common area was a copy of a collection of plant based, gluten free recipes that were used on a daily basis at the retreat. Sustenance: Feed the Body: Nourish the Soul by Heather R Hands was created by a chef that had worked at Vida Asana and included easy to follow recipes for some of our favourites, like Pico de Gallo, Coconut Carrot Soup, Ron Don (a classic Caribbean dish for which many households have their own recipe), and my favourite, Chia pudding.
Diving in to a completely vegetarian diet is a bit drastic. If you were to do this at home, it could take a great deal of effort to make everything from scratch and it can be easy to quit altogether if it gets to be too much. However, even small changes can have a dramatic effect on your health and well-being. Often, gradual changes are the ones that stick. In a book called The Gabriel Method by Jon Gabriel, he talks about simply adding nutrition to your diet in order to make positive change towards a healthy weight. The more nutrition you add and the more positive the activities in your daily life, the less your body will crave junk food. Whenever I notice that I've gotten off track and am craving chips and chocolate non-stop, I take a look at what I'm eating throughout the rest of the day. Normally, I will find that I have gotten off track with overall nutrition. Once I start adding nutrient dense foods, it gets easier to forego the treats (if cravings for them exist at all).
In Sustenance, Heather talks about food being "a vehicle to community, to connection to family and friends". Over the course of the week, meal time became my favourite part of the day. Not just for the flavourful food, but for the joy, laughter and sense of togetherness that gathered around the table. I felt more like myself than I had in years. My true self, the one that has been hiding at my very core for a number of years. We made jokes, we told stories, we celebrated one another's past and futures. I was inspired and uplifted by these people who had just days prior been "strangers".
When I returned home, I went to the grocery store and filled my cart with all of the ingredients that I needed to make the recipes that I mentioned above. Even at home, these meals are absolutely delightful and even my three little monkeys enjoyed them! Since then, I may have gotten off track a time or two (or three), but the important thing to remember is that today is always a new opportunity to choose again. To take that next right step towards great health.
If you're someone, like me, who is always on the hunt for new recipes for great tasting healthy food then I highly recommend this book which you can pick up on Amazon in the link below. Some of the ingredients were completely new to me (like those contained in Ron Don) but I did manage to find them in a local grocer. It's totally worth the extra bit of searching.
Have you ever travelled to another part of the world and brought a piece of the culture home with you? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.
Next week, I'll be sharing with you one of the other things that we did on this trip that added to the feeling of being utterly and completely nourished.
Until then my friends...
xo, Kat
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