Local Eco-Adventure to Two if by sea

Despite having a terrible head cold, Andrew and I decided to take an adventure this afternoon. A few ideas were thrown around, but Andrew had never been on the Ferry to Dartmouth nor to Dartmouth's pride and joy, 'Two if by Sea' Café. 

Public transit, walking and local businesses? Perfect eco-adventure. So we (ok I) bundled up and off we went. 

 This is across the street from the new Nova Scotia Power building (in their parking lot). It's a charger for the Nissan Leaf that they're piloting (during the week a car is parked here). Unfortunately, Nova Scotia's energy is for the most part coal generated, but hopefully this is a step in the right direction!

 A 'new' (ish) chocolaterie that opened- the service was fabulous and the chocolates are devine!

 We arrived early at the Ferry terminal, so we decided to check out the new Two if by sea- Halifax kiosk (right next to Hart & Thistle). The owner, Zane, was there and was kind enough to let me take a picture and gifted us with free small coffee to tide us over until we got to the Dartmouth café! 

 TIBS always has the best signs. 

 All bundled up on the ferry! It was a bit windy... but then it's always windy in Halifax.

 TIBS original Dartmouth sign 'Roses are red, violets are blue, cookies taste good, so do croissants' lol.

 They serve HUGE cookies and croissants. This cookie was the size of my face and about two inches thick.... We couldn't eat it all. TIBS also has extremely interesting croissants of the week like 'Cherry Bomb' with cream cheese and cherries. 
Beyond fair trade (and direct trade) organic coffee, they regularly have 'family dinners' where tickets are coveted and hard to come by. For around 50$ a seat you get a surprise local menu of fabulous food in a community environment. The Dartmouth café has fantastic atmosphere and is a must see if you're visiting the city!

 The Ferry Dartmouth side. You can see the fake 'hibou's. I'm fairly certain they don't actually scare away sea gulls (as I see them circling around the warf every day). Metro transit may go on strike this week, so my walk-ferry ride to work may go on pause for a little while and it'll be back to driving. 

Weirdly, one of my favourite parts of this city is the stonework on buildings and walls. 

Now... after all that walking it's time for a nap!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

How to Eco-Clean a Large Yoga Mat

I have a large yoga mat. It's a bit silly, but I love it.

One problem though- it's a pain in the butt to clean.

Now we've chatted before about how you really don't need to pay money for a fancy yoga mat cleaner or "disinfectant wipes". Vinegar and water (and maybe a bit of essential oils for smell) work perfectly well. Don't let anyone dupe you!

My previous strategy for cleaning my yoga mat was to dunk it in the tub, spray some vinegar and water solution (I stopped with the tea tree oil, it really wasn't doing anything except making me break out and swell up) and rinse away. I'd then hang up my mat on the shower curtain rod over night and I was good to go. Environmentally friendly and minimal germs.

Enter the extra wide yoga mat (Francesca). She just doesn't fit in the bathtub well, she's big boned (she'd kick bum at football). She's also extremely heavy. So even though I might be able to awkwardly squish her into place, lifting and switching to the underside results in me puffing like I've climbed 100 stairs.

Then there's the drying issue. Francesca would cause the entire shower curtain rod to collapse.

What I've been doing is spraying LIBERALLY my 50-50 water-vinegar mixture (with a few drops of lavender essential oil for prettier smells), wiping with an old cloth and draping it over our chair to dry overnight (or over the course of about two days).

 Atreyu had to supervise to make sure all went according to his master plan.

Sadly, this never makes me feel like I'm really rinsing the germs away. So... I've decided to give the tub a try. As you can see, it truly didn't fit in our tub- it was more like a lining which makes it difficult to clean as well as the end was rolled up and over. After turning on the taps for a few seconds with a plugged drain I was able to use less than a bowl of water to rinse away the vinegar spray leaving behind a scuzzy brownish green hue.

Dragging it out of the tub was a whole other matter. Francesca has now become a mat of lead. I had to towel her off in the bathroom, drag her to the living room and heavy lifting grunts and all draped her over the chair. Hopefully a) the cats don't claw her up and b) she actually dries out in a few days. I definitely will keep this deep cleaning to once every six months with regular spray-wipe downs in between.

If you try this at home on a rubber mat you may notice that after one day of drying your mat is a little slippery. Don't worry, rubber mats take a bit longer to dry out. My mat needs at least two days or more before my practice feels back to it's sticky self.

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Is Silicone Really Safe?

Yesterday Andrew and I almost poisoned ourselves trying to bake homemade flatbread pizza. Sound dramatic? It was.

I was SO hungry, I kinda demanded that he start helping with dough preparations the minute he walked through the door. Yoga previous to this hadn't chilled me out- nope made me MORE hungry. As I'm kneading the oily flatbread dough I keep thinking: this is gonna make an awesome blog post!

Then we realized we were out of parchment paper- an essential component.

It's ok though, I had bought Andrew a fancy silicone baking mat last Yulemas (as in 13 months ago) and we had never tried it. Perfect opportunity! The box said it was good up to 480F and the pizza was a 450F job. Good to go.

Within two minutes of baking Andrew looks at me: "Do you smell that?" We lean in towards the oven, he opens the door and a cloud of chemical filled smoke wafts up and outward. So bad that we both start coughing immediately and the fire alarm actually goes off. Note that our fire alarm is about 14 feet high and has NEVER gone off (even though we've burned plenty things while cooking).

The smell was so bad that both our eyes watered, I got dizzy and despite a fan and three open windows it took a full day for the chemical scent to disappear.

Ummm.... who said that silicone was food safe?? We ended up opening the oven to let the chemicals dissipate and we made nachos instead. They tasted a bit weird, but we were so hungry we pretended we didn't notice.

So is silicone really safe? Silicone is typically made up of polymers that include silicon (a chemical element found in sand and dust particles), carbon, hydrogen and oxygen it's a synthetic product. Although previous articles have deemed it Food Safe, recent articles are popping up revealing that the actual safety research is scanty at best (Ecoholic Home 2009 p.63, Ask Umbra December 2011). Umbra points out that experts are indicating that the compounds in silicone bioaccumulate and can present health hazards. Health Canada also doesn't recommend baking with silicone above 220 Celcius (428F) or it will start to melt. Ahhh- that explains the 450F issue.

Would you really like to be the living guinea pig for toxins leaching into your food at high heat? Pas moi, especially after smelling that nasty disgusting-ness first hand.

Parchment paper: Unfortunately, many parchment papers are coated with silicone as well. Including If You Care's "environmentally friendly" version. Ugh.

Spray Greasing Agent (like Pam): Anything that has an exploding symbol on the can (and that comes in a can) isn't on my list of top uses. Typically cooking spray has oil and a propellant such as alcohol, nitrous oxide, propane or carbon dioxide (wtf?).

As I've never been a fan of silicone muffin or bread moulds or oven mitts anyway, I don't think we're going to miss silicone in our lives. We generally use butter or olive oil to grease everything (mmm). As for the flatbread pizza, I guess we'll just have to see what happens if we place it directly on the pizza stone or a buttered pan.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Yoga and "Thinspiration": How Natural are "Natural" Weight Loss Supplements

Despite our uber cynical and critical selves, pressure to fit a certain "body ideal" thrives... especially in the cognitive dissonance that is Western Yoga. We may pay lip service to how yoga is for "every body" and many of us are fighting the good fight, but mainstream perception as well as what gets often (incorrectly if you ask me) tagged as "art" always includes one of the 5th percentile: skinny female form, scantily clad and achieving all the physical that is often touted as "secondary" to the yoga practice.
For 95% of us, this is the physically impossible ideal we're encouraged to strive towards.

This stuff is insidious, unconscious but most certainly present. A billion dollar advertising industry isn't wrong when they assume that the 300+ ads we as a population see a day isn't influencing our spending, how we feel about our bodies and our selves. Disordered eating has been directly linked to advertising and social/cultural body ideal pressures... and 95% of all people who suffer form disordered eating are women. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all mental health issues (Nedic for more information)

When a yoga instructor has pages after pages of pinterest boards with "thin ideal porn" of thin yoga bodies and degrading negative self comments- something is wrong. Previously to social media like facebook, twitter and pinterest there were such sites called "pro-ana" websites. Where women would post and peruse photos and "motivational" posts of extremely thin women. These websites are unhealthy eating, harmful tips on losing weight and perpetuate the unrealistic body type ideal. A quick search on pinterest of "thinspiration+yoga" reveals some pretty disturbing photos. Taking it a few steps further and you'll see entire pins filled with thin bodies (typically without heads) and non-realistic board statements such as: "Do you think she got this skinny by sitting on her ass and eating crap?..." (actually, healthy eating and great exercise can't change bone structure- part of that is genetics- hence the unrealistic ideal).

Many of these pin boards feature thin yoginis in acrobatic asanas.

We know that diet pills are bad, that dieting is unhealthy (and unsuccessful, resulting in higher weight gain)... but what about when we attach words like "eco, organic, natural" or even "ayurvedic" to a program/product? Of all the greenwashing- this stuff irks me the most.

For example: "natural weight loss herbs" and "slimming supplements". A fantastic article co-written by my husband Andrew here on EcoYogini a few years ago delves more deeply into the sociological fallacies of the supplement industry. What's interesting is the historical significance of how we've been quietly shepherded into accepting that taking supplements in lieu of whole foods (such as calcium instead of drinking milk) has allowed the supplement industry to create acceptance of a pill as a true food healthy alternative.

The true definition of what we're looking for to be "natural" would be something that is the least modified. Powdered and pill supplements are far from this definition.

Self-proclaimed "natural" weight loss supplements are even more sketchy in nature as they often have poor safety trials and extremely loose regulations. For example, in 2009 Health Canada recalled 68 brands of "natural" weight loss supplements because they contained undeclared prescription only ingredients, some of which had serious health side effects. (Adria Vasil, Ecoholic January 5th 2012). Also reported by Ecoholic, some supplements have been found by ConsumerLab.com to have hexavalent chromium (that cancer agent on Erin Brockovich) and a quick stroll through the warning archives reveals an unending stream of recalls and violations.

We shouldn't forget herbs that appear straightforward as well. Such as Hoodia which is now an endangered species in Africa. Environment Canada has had to stop thousands of illegal shipments of diet pills containing Hoodia. It's so important to consider how those third world country herbs were collected and processed, it's not like they magically appeared in pill form someone had to input labour.

Staying healthy is important. If becoming healthy is part of your plan this year, instead of thinking "weight loss" try thinking "health-gain". Honestly, natural supplements aren't healthy, and many aren't actually environmentally friendly (or safe).

If someone encourages you in your yoga practice to take supplements, try a purge or makes your feel like there's an end-point body ideal: they're not practicing yoga. 

**NB: as an astute commenter pointed out (Thanks Nicole!)- supplements prescribed by an accredited Naturapathic doctor are a different kettle of fish. At the same time, even then you should try to do what you feel comfortable.
article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Giving up Kraft Dinner+Nominated for WeBlog Award!

Andrew and I are at our two week "no boxed, no pre-made meals" life change! Go check out our progress and the tasty recipe I'm sharing at my post on the Green Phone Booth!!

I also want to quickly say a big THANK YOU to the lovely reader who nominated me for a Canadian WeBlog Award! Imagine my surprise when Roseanne from It's All Yoga, Baby mentioned on twitter that I had made the shortlist of the top 5 nominees! I'm so honoured to be mentioned next to four other fabulous blogs in the "Best WeBlog About Ecology and Social Justice/Écologie et justice sociale" (one other being from Halifax!).

Check out the other fantastic nominees:
Adventures in Local Food (Ecology Action Centre in Halifax)
Eco Logic
Eco Mama
SEWNatural

Again, Merci!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

How to be an Eco-Shaving Yogi(ni): Overshare

Woman-confession!
Have you ever wished that you were hairless? No seriously, I'm sure that I can't be the only one. Keeping oneself hair-free is not only annoying but can become chemically and energy expensive. That said, I could never go completely "au naturel" and prefer to keep my legs (and armpits) shaved. Especially as a yogini, nothing is more awkward than getting an assist in shoulderstand when you have furry legs. Whereas typically in the wintertime I would wait longer between shaving my legs and armpits, my hair-removal strategies are now dictated by my yoga schedule.

Now, I know many of you enjoy the wonders of waxing and the epilady. I have tried both and have discovered that I am a huge wimp. I barely got through an inch of my leg in a two hour time span with the epilady, and waxing would be painful as well as too expensive. So razors it is.

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I've always hated shaving my legs in the shower. I usually get goose bumps, or slip and nick a knee... it's just annoying. As well, it takes me on average an extra 10 minutes to shave my legs (what? I'm methodical). Every minute I spend in the shower I use between 15-30 litres of water (Ecoholic 2006). That's 150-300 extra litres of water when for the most part I try to keep the water OFF my legs.

So, for the longest time (ok until last year) I would take a bath to shave my legs. Although an average bathtub holds 80 litres (less than what that extra shower time would use) it still seems pretty wasteful to use 80 litres just to shave my legs.

Finally, about a year ago, I finally changed my shaving habits to be as ecological as I can make them. Wanna know something? I actually prefer this method!

How to be an Eco-Shaving Yogi(ni)

1. Ditch the shaving cream. Shaving cream/gel is filled with synthetic ingredients and nasty chemicals, many derived from petroleum, all mixed in with skin penetration enhancers so your body can absorb them easier.
Instead: Try some locally made, moisturizing soap. Seriously, you'll be shocked that your skin doesn't erupt in a crazy, burning rash like those shaving cream ads would have you believe. I adore BirchBark Soap's Bay Rum scented shaving soap (all her soap is made without synthetic scents or palm oil!).

2. Try recycled plastic razors... however I gave them a go and was very disappointed. Personally I found that they gave a terrible shave. But... if they work for you that would be best! I try to use my blades a few times before replacing them- not so much as to risk infection, but more than once.

3. Use the bathroom sink to shave your legs. Place a towel on the floor. Taking care to use your amazing yogi balancing skills, ground in one foot and balance the other on the counter near the sink. Using soap, lather your leg and shave. Periodically turning on and off the tap to rinse out the hair. (DO NOT leave the tap running!!). Using a handful of water, rinse the soap off and use the towel to dry your leg. Repeat on the other side.

This strategy actually works more quickly, especially if I realize 15min before I have to leave for a yoga class that I need to shave my legs! It also results in the least amount of water used!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

The Eco-Sacrifices we made for our Cats

Emergency trip to the vet. Yep, the majority of my Friday was spent consoling and soothing our cognitively impaired cat, Atreyu as I discovered from a 3 hour emergency visit that he also has crystals. 

(Atreyu saying HI!) 

Weirdly, we call our cats "pooper" or "kitten" or some variation. Our friends now refer to them as such as well, our Peruvian friend calling them "Poopina and Poopino". 

(Asteya in her favourite place, an old box that delivered Andrew's WoW headphones... she LOVES that box. Also, the Medical Food made her gain weight, so she now has a tummy...)

Sigh. Although Atreyu is recovering well from what appears to be a potentially fatal blockage, both Andrew and I are disappointed. Crystals mean no more nutrient-rich, grain-free environmentally friendly food. We'd prided ourselves in buying Canadian made, grain free foods that would help keep him healthy (ahem, fail) and his coat shiny. Due to the presence of crystals in his urine, formations caused by insufficient water uptake and can cause sceptis and death within hours, we will have to feed him grain-filled Medi-Cal Urinary SO for the rest of his life.

When I voiced my concern regarding the presence of grain to the vet, however, she wasn't very sympathetic. "There is no harm in feeding grain to a cat, corn isn't bad". Unless you care about the planet, the monoculture crops and pesticides taking over our soil and air. Sure grain isn't "bad" for your cat, but it's a filler- minimal nutrients. Like eating white bread. Or MacDonalds. 

We also had to cave and purchase another cat fountain. I was so happy to unplug and give our previous plastic monstrosity away. Our cats were drinking enough from the twice daily changed water bowls we left them, why have something use up extra electricity? Except they obviously weren't (since they BOTH have crystals now).

Saturday was spent purchasing a new, stainless steel and easier to clean, cat fountain. They adore it, but the energy leeching away irks me. At least our friend yoga sessions will now be graced with the peaceful sound of trickling water.

(Atreyu is often confused by things... like water, flames, generally anything at all. Since he doesn't have object permanence, every time he sees it, it's like the first time all over again!)

Our two cats remain eco-friendly in a few ways though....

• We still have grain-free food left, so it will be a 80(Medical)-20 mixture until it's gone.
• We use chemical-free pine litter
• They were both rescued cats (SPCA). An entire section of Alan Weisman's The World Without Us is dedicated to how cats are becoming a huge problem to birds. If you want a kitten, instead of adding one to the billions already present, rescue one and get it fixed.
• They're indoor cats. 
• The fountain at least is stainless steel and not plastic.
  

Despite their eco-rating rapidly slipping away with the ridiculous water fountain and expensive grain-filled stinky food, we love our cats. Even Mr. Atreyu, who as a premature kitten kept in an incubator became our special needs cat (I could write an entire blog post on his "moments", but then I'd REALLY be a cat lady...lol). Plus, my favourite is a purring mass of fur love while I'm in downward dog. 

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Yoga as a Health Profession: Some Thoughts

I'm sure I've mentioned before, but I'm not just a yoga practicing, tree-hugging gal... most of my life is actually centered around something I don't blog about that much: Speech-Language Pathology. Human communication. That is my schtick really. All things about how we communicate fascinates me and if you add multiple languages and you've got me hooked. I love me a fantabulous accent, grammatical differences, allophones of the same phoneme stuff.

(ahem, boring stuff for most!)

Unfortunately, this amazing profession of helping children connect, communicate and achieve love through language has also embedded itself into my every waking thought. I analyze sounds, notice dialectical aberrations (sadly "I seen" just isn't correct, even if I might say it myself sometimes-BAD SLP) and geek out over interesting multiple language interactions. The yoga instructor has an accent? I spend most of the class puzzling together what sort of vowel changes she's doing.

I've simply accepted it as work place hazard.

All this to introduce how the past five years of my life have taught me quite a bit about the helping professions- what can help and what can hinder.

Traditional health professionals can be pretty darn snobby about alternative therapies... but as Yoga increases in popularity and supporting medical research continues to support Yoga as a valuable member in the wholistic interprofessional team, we need to make a decision. Often I read doubt, cynism or complete distrust to embrace a change toward yoga fitting in the rubric of "health profession". I understand where this is coming from. I do.

That said, what disappoints me are those who refuse to see how Yoga could find it's own unique place.

A few of the benefits of a health professional:

• Having a national organization (CASLPA) that supports and advocates for SLPs (and Audiologists) helps me have a valid say in how my profession changes and grows. 
• Requiring certification (5 hour exam) that is the same across the country assures that those SLPs who are also certified meet a certain standard. 
• This standard then feeds back to the master's programs nationally. The exam reflects what should be taught in master's programs assuring that there are no programs that pump out substandard SLPs, which in turn results decreased percentage of "poor caliber" SLPs to tarnish the profession.
• National certification also assures that SLPs maintain continued education of a certain standard. This encourages evidence based knowledge sharing and giving.
• Although Nova Scotia is one of the last provinces to do this, our legislative body (crossing fingers will happen soon!) assures that you can't practice in Nova Scotia, call yourself a "Speech-Language Pathologist" without meeting certain standards (i.e. CASLPA certification).
• This protects other SLPs, the integrity of our profession as well as the client. If you're seeking out an SLP in the province you can be assured of a certain standard.
• Client satisfaction and safety can actually become an issue in Speech Pathology. SLPs work with individuals with swallowing problems (lung infection, choking, quality of life), laryngectomies, head and neck cancer, strokes along with Autism, Down Syndrome, Seizure disorders to name just a few populations. Having a poorly trained SLP could truly impact the client for the rest of their lives.
• Interprofessional work is easier- other professionals can expect a certain level of knowledge, skill and credibility. This is essential when working as a team- trust.

I hope you can see the connection between these benefits and the recent issues and concerns being raised with the growing Yoga Instructor Profession. Bemoaning the lack of training, the lack of rigidity, the inconsistencies between training programs while in the same breath railing against any attempt at certification or standardisation seems counterintuitive. I get that change is scary, difficult and challenging with so many disparate paths to becoming an Instructor. I also understand that some may be nervous about losing their ability to teach. Physiotherapy wasn't always a master's degree... what happened to those who didn't have a master's degree? They were "grand-mothered" in.

I most certainly do not have the answers. This is a complex question. As someone who (gasp!) works within the western medicine cube, I just see so much potential for Yoga to influence and shape health professions around the world. I do believe there is space within the confines of what constitutes a health professional for a Yoga Instructor. I also believe that should this work be undertaken BOTH Yoga Instructors and students will benefit greatly from this new path.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

One Big Eco-Change 2012: No More Zoodles

Choosing a big eco-change was difficult for many reasons.

One is the initial rationale behind my reticence in making New Year's Resolutions: often the "all or nothing", binge-type behaviours end in disaster. We burn ourselves out, pick unrealistic long term expectations and crash into oblivion. (This is also the reason why I am not a fan of bootcamps or 30 days of yoga or cleansing type activities).

Another was that Andrew and I actually already have changed a lot of things about our lifestyles. What is left are mostly things we can't change, like heating (we have no control over in our apartment), selling the car (we need it for my job), buying only organic and local (we don't have the financial means to do this 100%, but we try where we can), getting our electricity from sustainable means (we live in an apartment...).

Over our weekly fancy coffee (Direct Trade Organic at Smiling Goat- best coffee in town!), we made a daunting decision:

We are only going to have one boxed/pre-made/in-a-can supper a week. 

You might think- whaaa? Super easy!

Except. I am a fussy eater. Always have been. I have food restrictions due to my IBS on top of that. A lot of "easy" and quick meals include things like tomato (anything), onions, sauces (I generally don't like them)... You see where this is going? 

 Also, both Andrew and I work/ go to school full time and Andrew gets home pretty late (6:45pm usually). I come from a family who eats supper at 4:30-5pm and I've submitted my childhood habits on Andrew. Since I'm so fussy and uncreative with regards to meals, by the time he gets home, I'm embarrassed to admit that we often have KD, zoodles, or frozen pizza. And we LIKE it. 

On top of all that it has taken Andrew 5 years to be ok with eating left overs. Yep, his childhood family habits have resulted in his intense distrust in anything frozen or left in the fridge for a day. His mother throws stuff out when the expiration date is two full days away.

So, this decision was not taken lightly and is a BIG DEAL. 

(THE list on our fridge. Thursday is blank because I have my LLLI course I'm teaching that night. Also, you may notice that we have a Pirate themed word magnets...lol)

It's daunting because we've tried meal-planning before. And failed miserably. I'm not exactly sure why (I think work exploded and I became frustrated with the lack of inspiration for meals), but it definitely makes me nervous about the weeks to come.

Ways to stop a FAIL:

• More ideas for meals. Although he annoys the crap out of me, we have "Chef at Home", Chef Michael Smith's cookbook... and it ROCKS. Therefore, we're going to purchase his new book (and check his website). 
• Sundays are now planning/shopping/cooking days. 
• Andrew and I have had an honest chat about sharing this burden. Including my fears regarding my limitations with food and lack of creativity and his limitations regarding a general sense of laissez-faire. We are both committed this time.
• I now know a really awesome and quick recipe for flatbread so we can make a quick flatbread pizza.
• I don't really like zoodles, I like to pretend that when I eat it the heat changes the "tomato" sauce to something "un-tomato". So it shouldn't be too hard to give up. (yep, this tomato phobia is all in my head, but it's deeply rooted from my childhood. You should SEE my brother eat ketchup. Barf).

In any case, we have planned our first week and tomorrow after yoga (while Andrew is at his night class) I'm off to pick up what we need for the week. I'm really hopeful this change will result in new habits and a new portion to our life that we'll stop thinking about, like getting rid of paper towel, or walking to work. 

Anyone else go through this process and have any tips/suggestions?

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com 

Why I'm "Eco"- Friday at the Green Phone Booth

Why I do the Eco-Things that I do: Bonjour! post over at the Booth! (My Introductory post!)

Happy Friday!

A Niggling, Wiggling Unfurling to a New Path in 2012

2012 is the year of being 30. ACK. THIRTY. Trente. Shu dans mes trentaines. I don't feeeel thirty (perhaps it's the fact that I work with preschoolers?).

As I've written, New Year's resolutions are not for me. That said, I definitely have a little niggling, wiggling thing. A bud. A something in the center of my chest. Metaphorically, but it's weirdly manifesting as a physical sensation. This niggling thing feels like it's waiting for a momentous *thing* to happen this year. Some event that will allow it to flourish, open up and stretch out.

Weird, I know.

Therefore, although I'm not going to have "resolutions" per se, I think a few comments on a more Authentic Path (inspired from Simply Authentic hehe- thank you!) would be a lovely exercise.

Firstly, to move forward I need a quick peak back to 2011:

The new snow last January 2011

Word of the year: WORK, work and more work. 2011 was the year of my job. I traveled to Ottawa, Montreal (twice!) and all over the province for work. I gave presentations to countless groups of parents, early childhood educators, teachers, SLP colleagues, principals and began the huge Hanen program LLLI. All in French. I was interviewed three times by the radio, wrote a few articles that got published, implemented bilingual standards of care for the entire province, co-taught the SLP master's pediatric dysphagia class, helped plan a provincial Expo, took evening French language classes... sigh I was busy and am very proud of all that I accomplished that year.

Our trip to PEI six months ago

That said, I feel like everything else has taken a back seat. I didn't write as much music and my yoga practice in the studio disappeared into oblivion. My first year of marriage and really it's work that stands out.

My eco Halloween as the Paper Bag Princess costume

Also, my environmental journey hasn't really made any huge steps.
Some notable changes:
- We successfully made and preserved jam (yum!)
- I now wash my face with honey
- I started sewing more
- We rode our bicycles in the summer (but not nearly enough)
- We went to the farmer's market a lot more
- I started drinking loose tea
- I stopped dying my hair (no more highlights!)
- we tried rooftop gardening and failed miserably
- we started drinking whole milk from local cows
- we got a dishwasher

Wow... not that impressive huh?

Ok. So. I'm thinking, 2012- the year of 30. Needs to be a little more artsy, more guitar-ing, more singing, more writing, more yoga-ing, more ART-ing.

Some ideas to make this happen:
Writing-Guitar-ing-ART-ing: last year this "resolve" dissolved (haha). It's time to do what worked when I was in university; go to a coffee shop and write over yummy coffee. We live in the city and have fabulous coffee shops nearby. It's time to take an evening every week for a little coffee/writing jaunt.
Also, using the once a week that Andrew is in an evening class to practice and create songs instead of reading a book or watching tv would be a good goal.

Yoga: I'd like to actually make an effort to attend karma classes this year. I'm making plans with my friend yoga crew to crash some local studios en masse.

Work: No more taking extra, after work language courses, agreeing to co-teach the master's pediatric dysphagia course, checking emails from home...

Blog: Announcement!! I was so surprised and honoured to be invited to write for the FABULOUS Green Phone Booth!! As of this month, every two Fridays I'll be writing over at the Booth... yay Eco Superheroine!

Environment: on that line of thought, I'd really like to make ONE (only one) other large life change in decreasing my impact on the planet. This is going to take some thought, because if I go too big it just won't work. I'll keep y'all posted on this one :)

NEXT: Tomorrow evening I'll be taking key words from the above Paths and will be ART-ing all over a page. This page will be put up in the kitchen for daily viewing, reminding and smiling.

anyone else for the niggling, wiggling feelings?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Eco Winter Coat for Yulemas!

I did it Eco-Yogis. The ridiculous, beautiful Eco-Lovely Winter Coat that Captain Planet would be proud to wear is now in my possession. The Hemp Hoodlamb Long Coat.

A wonderful contribution for Yulemas from my mom (who sighed and said, "Well, why buy you stuff that you don't need if I can help you get something that you do need?") allowed me to take the plunge where I'd otherwise have never afforded to. Although the outer portion was reused packaging, sadly the box itself doesn't seem to be made from recycled cardboard and the coat was in a plastic bag (INSIDE the box. Really??).

That said the coat is gorgeous, insanely warm and heavy! Just a quick recap on it's amazing eco-qualities:
55% Hemp, 45% organic cotton outer shell
20% Hemp, 35% recycled PET Satifur lining
Hemp organic cellulose water and wind resistent treated
Fake fur lined outside pockets

 (it fits perfectly! That monster-tree in the background is our organic Yulemas tree Bob who is half dressed.... lol)

 Making silly faces cuz I'm so excited about the new coat!

Currently in Halifax, the latest "it" coat is the Canada-Goose coat, made from chemically petrochemical derived treated outer shells, goose down feather filled and coyote fur hood lined... ick.

The patented "paper dispenser" pocket. And yes, every inch of the inside is lined with the recycled PET "fur". Warm and cuddly!

There are also about a zillion secret pockets and a little "paper dispenser" that I'm going to put my yogAttitude inspirational words inside (Canada may be a bit more lax in it's culture around weed than the States, but it's just not really my thing... lol).

We had a few zippy days here in Halifax over the holidays so I was able to test it out. It ROCKED.

One small downside: a quick peek at the tag and I quickly saw the whole "designed in Amsterdam, made in China" crap. Le Sigh.

Tomorrow is my day back to work after a luxurious vacation and my walking to the ferry will start again!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com