Welcome 2008!!!!

Hi my karma-free friends!!!!

I am back from my days off.  It’s funny, but for someone who enjoys cooking and eating so much and has this food-related blog, here I am coming back from a holiday of fasting.  Yes… you read right.  I spent the last 7 days of the year at a yoga spiritual retreat without eating solid food – only drinking water, lemon juice and honey. 

To me, this is the best way to spend the last few days of the year… it brings you closer to the real meaning of Xmas.   Celebrating our spiritual side of life and away from the commercialism that Xmas has turned to be.

Even though it may sound weird to you at first, it’s the best way to finish and start the new year.  We prepare 3 days prior to the start of the retreat…  we go from eating everything, to eating only salads, fruits and natural juices.  Then we go to fruits and juices, finally ending just with juices prior to the start of the retreat. Also, the night before the start, we do a big “cleansing” to clean out our digestive tract as much as possible… Some people do it by drinking pure pear juice, but I do it by drinking a gallon of coconut water and pure kiwi juice.  If you’re ever constipated, drink a 1/2 gallon of coconut water in one sitting… it works for me.

We spend the 7 days from Dec 25 until Dec 31 in “mauna”, or being silent, trying to eventually learn to actually silence the mind.  I have to be honest… my mind keeps cooking everyday, thinking of new recipe ideas, menus, etc.  You’ll be able to see and read the results of all my “cooking” ideas from the retreat.

We meditate for 9 hours everyday, in 2 hour intervals.  We get up at 3AM, start meditating from 4-6AM, rest 2 hours, meditate from 8AM-10AM, do hatha yoga, meditate again, and so on until we go to bed at 9PM.  And every-time we start a rest period we need to drink about 10-12oz of water with the juice of a 1/2 lemon and 2 tablespoons of honey.  This is a great way to rest, detoxify your system, because your body’s energy is not spent talking or digesting food… therefore it uses all its energy to cleanse, eliminating a lot of toxins accumulated during the year.

It sounds hard core, but it really is fun.  We then start talking and eating again when we say goodbye to the 2007 and hello to 2008.  Here’s a photo of some of us after welcoming the new year.  We are all at least 2 lbs thinner.

I belong to the Devanand Yoga Center and we have centers all over Latin America – our GuruJi runs the centers in Puerto Rico, New York and Miami.  Here I include the addresses information if you’re interested in seeking more information.

http://www.yogadevanand.com/

NEW YORK
QUEENS
USA Devanand Yoga Cultural Center, Inc.
P.O. Box 680090
Corona, NY 11368
Tel.: (718) 426-4643
Fax: (718) 426-6237

MIAMI, FL

Centro Cultural Yoga Devanand
115 B S.W. 107 Ave.

Miami, Florida 33174
Tel.: (305) 867.4755
Correo Electrónico: devanandyoga@bellsouth.net

PUERTO RICO
Centro Cultural Yoga Devanand
San Juan, Puerto Rico 00910
Tel.: (787) 273-0236