Because I was a child who grew up in the 80’s, I’m a fan of the music and movies from that generation. One of my favorites is and will always be, The Karate Kid.  Not only was a it a feelgood type of movie, but there were also some important lessons taught. I remember walking out of the theater feeling empowered and also enlightened.

Remember this scene?

I remember watching Mr. Miyagi’s zen-like focus as he concentrated on catching those flies with his chopsticks. Even as Daniel walked in and was pestering him about what he was doing, Mr. Miyagi kept his eyes and mind on the task at hand.  Albeit Daniel caught the fly within the first few tries while Mr. Miyagi relentlessly tried over and over, it amazed me that a person could have so much dedication and concentration to attempt to catch something as small as a fly mid-air, with something as delicate as a pair of chopsticks.  I still actually wish I had that focus.

When I’m practicing yoga, there are constantly a million distractions taking place.  Whether it be distractions in my head or distractions in the studio, they are always hard for me to ignore.  I wish I was able to simply block out the internal and external ‘noise’, but for me, it’s just never that easy.  For example, there is this lovely woman who I see in class pretty regularly.  We’ve chatted with one another on more than one occasion and are even on a first name basis.  However, when she’s practicing next to me, I can’t help but be distracted by her.  To say the least, she’s quite fidgety.  She’s constantly fixing her hair, wiping the sweat from her face, getting in and out of poses, sighing from frustration and has even tapped her fingers against the bamboo floor during savasana.  And when she’s fidgeting, the only thing that I can think about is why she’s acting this way.  I try not to watch her; I try to only focus on myself and my breathing.  However, she then starts moving around restlessly again.  My thoughts then come racing back as to why she can’t just stop moving, why she just doesn’t seem to understand that what she’s doing isn’t helping her practice and how if she just relaxed, things would fall into place.  I kept analyzing her in my head and wondering why she was so unfocused.  But as I’m asking myself all these questions about this woman, my practice begins changing and all of the sudden, I’m the one fidgeting.  I’m now doing the exact same thing that this woman is doing.  The only difference is her anxiousness is manifesting itself on a physical level versus mine is happening mentally.  Either way, we both weren’t focusing on the one thing we needed – our breath.

Image Credit – Oprah.com

Why was I so consumed by these thoughts? Why was I so concerned about what this woman was doing? Why did I care that she had all this nervous energy?  How was this something that I needed to be worried about?  Sometimes I think we take on the stress of others when we don’t necessarily have to.  We force ourselves to be weighed down by thinking about what others are doing in their lives versus concentrating on what is going on in our own.  My teacher told us in class one day that we need to stop carrying around other people’s baggage.  Our own baggage is heavy enough; we don’t need the burden of someone else’s.  These words of wisdom rang so true for me.  I have the tendency to worry about other people and to be consumed by what is occurring in their lives to the point where it starts affecting my own.  It’s not healthy and it’s definitely not necessary.  If we can only use the energy we burn on others and the insignificant distractions that happen in our lives and turn that energy onto ourselves and the things that mean the most to us, I think we would be much happier and not feel as ‘heavy’.

Image Credit – scrapetv.com

During today’s practice, I remembered what my teacher had told us in class that day and tried not to listen to my distractions.  Obviously, the distractions were there and I was aware of them.  But this time, I made a choice.  Did I want to let my thoughts get the best of me or did I want to have the best practice that I could have?  Did I want to carry around all this unnecessary weight or did I want to be set free? As soon as I made the choice to focus on me and to put emphasis on what was going on in my practice, the distractions seemed to stop.  All of the sudden the noise had been silenced and there was no more fidgeting.  By letting go of my own baggage, I had the capacity to go deeper in my mind and thus, I had the ability to shut off the clatter.  It wasn’t a difficult thing to do, I just had to try and allow myself to do it.  And it’s probably much easier than using chopsticks to catch flies.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?  How do you deal with distractions, mental or physical?

***Have you joined Project Feed Me yet?  If not, there’s still time to be a part of this great cause.  You can register here.  Just buying a couple of food items a week can help so much.  And, it’s so easy!  Check out this week’s recommended food item.***

Namasté,
Nicole

I’m a sucker for a sale.  And this is especially the case if that sale is happening at the grocery store.  It’s like the stores know I am coming and know what to advertise or promote in order for me to buy (it’s not like it’s that difficult).  I walk in and immediately, I’m tempted by their ‘buy one, get one free’ or their ‘10 for $10′. I try to hide my eyes, but I just can’t deny it.  I want in on that sale!

A couple of weeks ago, because it was a day that ended in the letter ‘Y’, I was at the grocery store.  As I was breezing through the produce aisle (I was actually in a rush that afternoon and had only a few minutes to grab a few items), I saw one of my favorite snack foods, baby carrots.  And of course, those crunchy little orange delights had to be on sale and naturally, I had a 85% full bag just sitting in my fridge.  Immediately, I was caught in a big conundrum.  Should I buy the carrots?  If I buy one bag, I obviously have to get another since it’s free.  But then again, I know I won’t be able to eat that many baby carrots before they start getting all slimy slimerson (you know what I mean) and smelling less than good.  But then again, it’s such a good buy, how could I pass it up?  Then all of the sudden, a light bulb went off (it doesn’t happen too often, kiddies, but when it does, look out!).  I realized I could buy the carrots and keep them both in the freezer until I needed them.  I could get my great bargain and I could escape the slime factor.  Problem solved.

Image Credits – WiseGeek.com

Not so fast.  When I finally finished the 85% full bag of baby carrots that was sitting in my fridge, I dove into the freezer to find my frozen babies and then quickly tossed them into the fridge to defrost.  I’m not quite sure what I thought the carrots would be like once they thawed.  I guess I assumed (you know what that means) that they would be like the snappy mini veggies I normally bought and dipped into hummus.  To my disbelief, the usual crisp and hard baby carrots had now been reduced to a limp and lifeless mess (I’m not even going to say it…).  What was I going to do? Not only did I have one bag of orange mush, but I had two.  Not good.

Then, another light bulb went off.  Can you believe it? If I wasn’t going to eat the thawed baby carrots in their mushy state, then why not enjoy them in a ‘mushy-er’ state?  Why not mash them up so much that they no longer resemble carrots and no longer remind me of the silly goof-up I made?  That said, I salvaged my purchase and turned it into what I consider a stroke of luck.

Carrot Ginger Potato Soup
Adapted from AndreasRecipes.com
Serves 6

• 1 1/2 TBSP Smart Balance Light (feel free to use butter or your choice of buttery substitute)
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup peeled grated fresh ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (I used a heaping tablespoon of minced jarred garlic)
• 4 cups chicken stock (I used Trader Joe’s Organic Low Sodium Chicken Stock – you could use vegetable stock)
• 1/2 chicken bouillon cube (I only had one carton of TJ’s chicken stock on hand, I probably needed 2 more cups)
• 1 cup cooking wine (I used Goya Dry White Cooking Wine)
• 2 cups of water
• 1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (mine were mushy, but feel free to use non-mushy)
• 3 small white potatoes, cubed
• 1 TSP cornstarch
• 2 TBSP of honey
• dashes of curry powder
• dashes of cinnamon
• dashes of nutmeg
• dashes of dried parsley
• juice of half a lemon juice
• s&p
• chopped chives for garnish (optional)
• Greek yogurt for garnish (optional, but highly recommended)

1) In a large pot, melt the Smart Balance Light on medium heat.  Once warmed, add the onion, ginger and garlic and cook until the onion starts getting translucent and your kitchen smells unbelievable (about 5 minutes).

2) Then add the chicken stock, wine, carrots and potatoes to the pot.  Turn up the heat to high and bring to a boil.  Stir.  Add the bouillon cube.  Stir again.

3) Reduce the heat back down to medium and simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes or until the vegetables are very tender and can be easily broken up with a spoon.

4) If you are lucky enough to have an immersion blender (I am not), this is the time to purée the mixture in your pot.  If you are using a regular blender, be sure to let the mixture cool down a bit first before dumping the mixture in batches into the blender (you don’t want to overfill your blender).  Blending hot items can be dangerous; take precaution! I blended my cooled down mixture in three different batches.

5) Once all of the mixture has been puréed, add it back to the pot.  Turn the heat back on to medium/medium-high and let the mixture get hot.  In a small cup, mix the corn starch in a tablespoon of warm water until well dissolved.  Add the corn starch mixture to the pot.  Stir the mixture.

6) Add the curry powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, parsley, salt and pepper to the pot and season to taste.  Give it a good stir.  Then add your honey and lemon juice and give your soup a thorough stirring as it heats up.

7) Once hot, ladle the soup into bowls and garnish (if you wish) with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of dried parsley or chives.   Voilà!  Soup’s on!

Not only did my kitchen smell heavenly with the scent of warmed onion, ginger and garlic, but my belly was pretty much on cloud nine, too.  Not only is this quite the hefty soup (it’s actually more like babyfood consistency), but the curry, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon warmed me from the inside out.  And while a cup of a regular broth-like soup would not normally fill up Healthy Chow, this one kept me from raiding the kitchen cupboards for at least three hours.  The Greek yogurt may have also helped to fill the usual insatiable hole that is my stomach.  I also like being able to swirl the yogurt into my soup.  The color of the stark white Greekness against the vibrant orange of the carrot was like having art in my bowl.  And the sprinkling of the green parsley just made me want to take pictures (hey wait, I always take pictures of my food ).

I was so pleased with this recipe.  It was easy to make, I pretty much had all the ingredients on hand and I managed to save my carrots on clearance from going into the trash.  Ahhh, what’s there to complain about?  When life hands you lemons, you need to make lemonade.  And when your weakness for produce bargains hands you mushy carrots, make carrot soup!

Are you a sucker like me for bargains?  What’s your favorite thing to stockpile?

Namasté,
Nicole

***Awesome Giveaway Alert! – Shannon at Tri to Cook is celebrating her blogiversary by giving away a Cuisinart ice cream maker!  If you’re interested, go to Shannon’s blog for further details…***

***It’s week two of Project Feed Me!  Please go to Natalie’s blog to see what to buy for this week.  And if you haven’t signed-up yet, you can still do so by going here.  And if you want to see how photogenic canned chili can be, please go here.***