Food Snob

Lets face it, the commissary tries, it does, but it is lacking majorly in the "health food" department.  I'm always on the hunt for stores like this little gem, Green Leaf, that is chuck full of fabulous organic and natural food items from produce from local farmers, coffee, wine, and even organic chocolate.  We went a little food shopping crazy at this little store, but the items were hard to resist.  I loved the fresh produce and the lettuce was particularly good, as were the organic eggs, and fresh bread.  We made a fun organic dinner of salad, organic wine, pasta, sauce and even organic olive oil.  I will be frequenting this great little store often! 

Roll out the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer!

What have I been up to this summer?  A lot.

Yesterday and today a typhoon has been coming through so I finally have some time to catch you up.

I celebrated my 28th birthday on June 30.  Spent the day learning to paddle board and relaxing on a beautiful beach.  Went to my favorite organic and vegan restaurant for dinner and they even came out with a special birthday plate for me! 

The next weekend we went on a belated birthday outing and went out on a boat for the day to snorkel the Karama Islands.  I went out on this boat last year when my friend was in town and had a great day, so I was excited to go again.  Except this time there were at least triple the amount of people and I got horribly sunburned even with 70 on.  Oops.  And this was the day we sadly discovered that our underwater camera bit the dust, so I only have a couple of pictures thanks to the fabulous iPhone. So incredibly beautiful out there! 

I've been taking a really fun and intense kickboxing and self defense class.  I'm addicted.  It's feels great to surround myself with strong and empowered women 2ce a week.  I'm learning how to pack a serious punch and how to ram my elbow into an attackers face.  It is an amazing stress outlet and I always come away from the class super sweaty and feeling powerful!  And as an added bonus the academy is right on the beach and I have stunning views on my walk to and from class.  I'm still doing yoga and running.  I love my new hot pink running shoes! And yes, of course I have pink boxing gloves.

I got to spend a lot of time with my friend Madie and her baby Addison.  I love that adorable baby to pieces!

Work is going great.  Busy, but great.  We had one summer camp group already and are getting ready for the second camp to start this week once the typhoon passes.

Check out the picture slide show I made from our camp week:


Lessons are going strong.  Keeps be busy!  I've haven't had a ton of time to fit in my own riding, but when I do Makoto and I have great rides.  It's summer, so the beach rides have been abundant! 

And seeing all those amazing horses on the Olympics is a huge motivation!  I LOVE the Olympics.

And here is a quick hello from Jade and her friend Zoey (who's visiting again while her parents are on vacation).  They are so adorable I can't stand it sometimes! 

I hope your summer is sun and fun filled!

Hooked!

About 2 months ago one of my fabulous clients at the stable was getting her yoga instructor certification and needed to practice teaching someone and offered to teach me yoga.  I told her I'm super in-flexible and don't know anything, but she said that was perfect and that she needed to teach a beginner.  So, we started weekly private yoga classes and for the first time yoga was explained to me in a way that I could relate to and I loved the way my body felt afterwards.  I'm hooked.  I love it!  Last month at the barn we had an adult camp weekend and Jill came in and did a yoga class for us at the barn.  It was so fun! 

Now in addition to our weekly sessions, I practice at home and have tried going to some yoga classes on base.  I never knew yoga was such a workout!  She loaned me a book all about bio dynamics and which muscles are stretching and flexing in each pose and it is so interesting!  My yoga instructor, Jill, has made yoga feel accessible to me that I didn't need to be a "pretzel person" to benefit from yoga. 

She's at the end of her course now and asked me to answer a couple of questions:

1. What drew you to a yoga practice?

I was drawn to yoga because my doctor recommended I stretch more when I expressed my concerns that my father and grandmother have had double knee replacement surgeries.  I love running and she told me that when I was younger I may have gotten away with running without properly stretching, but as I get older stretching properly is very important to prevent injury.  I did not think yoga was for me, but Jill happened to be getting her yoga instructor certification and she offered to teach me yoga and it totally changed my mind.  I love that yoga is low impact and I can still get a great total body workout. She re-defined what I originally thought about yoga and explained things in a way that I could relate to.  I thought to be good Jill motivated me to expand my awareness, stretch, learn and pursue yoga. 

2. What do you expect to get out of it?

Through our practice together Jill has taught me to learn breathing, and correct postures and movement.  I love how yoga is a mind and body experience.  I would like to strengthen my body and bring attention to my mind and my thoughts through yoga practice.  I hope yoga helps me to gain more flexibility, especially in my hamstrings.

3. Do you feel yoga helps you "off the mat"?  How or why?

I am completely absorbed by yoga and very open to it's possibilities.  Yoga has helped me accept myself for the person I am and has helped me gain self confidence.  Yoga has helped me center myself in life, in my goals and in every day moments.  I find myself focusing on my breath and on my state of mind even off the mat.  Yoga has helped me to find joy in my bodies capabilities.

4. What would you like to learn more about in yoga?

I ride horses and I find that yoga is very similar in it's infinite possibilities.  I am open to as much knowledge as possible.  Jill has expanded my knowledge base considerably, helping me to understand biomechanics,  alignment and basic yoga principles.  Jill has also inspired me continue my self practice and grow as a person.  I will continue my yoga practice and gradually increase my strength and discipline.  I am fascinated by yoga, the principles and the fundamentals.  I will continue to learn and grow through mind, body and spirit. 

5. Where do you see your yoga practice one year from now?  5 years from now?

I hope that yoga helps be be healthy and strong in mind and body.  I believe yoga, in these 2 months, has helped me considerably in my day to day life and I love learning something new.  I can already feel my body getting stronger and less stiff.  I can only imagine, and look forward to, the positive effects of yoga over a span of a year or 5 years. I would like to gain more flexibility in my hamstrings and perhaps be able to do a handstand one day.  I've bought a mat that is supposed to last me a lifetime, so I am all set!

Can't wait till my Manduka stuff gets here!

Funky Feet

With all the running I've been doing, I decided to make an appointment at the Mizuno Shoe Measurement. I was hoping they would tell me if I was running in the correct type of shoe, if I needed a wide shoe and why my big toe on my right foot kills me after my long runs. So, when I heard mccs was doing a foot analysis at the gym at my base I jumped on the opportunity.

Saturday morning I got up bright and early and had my feet scanned to determine my foot type. Unfortunately I wasn't really told anything new. I was told I have "normal" feet with "perfect" heel and ball of the foot weight distribution and very, very high arches. There was a bit of a language barrier to get in depth with my toe problem. They had me try on a number of different Mizuno shoes, but nothing felt better then when I put my Asics on again to head home. I think an appointment with a doctor/podiatrist might have to happen to figure my foot problem. Cest la vie.

Organic Goodies

This past week I set out to find Tenbusu a natural and organic store. I'm always on the lookout for a Whole Foods substitute over here and this cute little store (while not quite a Whole Foods) was full of wonderful organic and macrobiotic options.

I came away with some wonderful local, organic eggs from down south on the island, some brown rice and flour bread, blueberry preserves, and some options from their yummy homemade prepared foods.

The eggs and bread with blueberry preserves have been a wonderful breakfast the past couple days!

Seriously Good Smelling Stuff

LUSH! Why have I never heard of them before? I've been missing out. When we were strolling around Roppongi in Tokyo we happened upon this handmade cosmetics store. The other girls knew about this, but I was a Lush neophyte. This Lush in Japan was pretty incredible, but everything was in Japanese so I only had my nose to guide me. There was a store lady there who spoke a bit of English, but for the most part we had to figure it out for ourselves.


They had a huge table covered with giant hunks of soap. These smelled incredible, but I fell in love with one in particular. I loved the smell. It turns out it was the Figs and Leaves soap. The website explains that figs are wonderfully nutritious and good for your body, and their little brown seeds exfoliate the skin and aloe vera extract has soothing properties. The scent is the best part: floral, orange blossom and ylang ylang "with an undertone of eastern exoticism." Lush claims this "soap is one of our sexiest." No wonder I loved the smell of it! I also love that this soap is vegan.

I also bought this Vanilla and Jasmine bath bomb. I haven't used it yet, but it smells incredible.

I bought a Gorilla Perfume stick that is like a push pop that you can rub on your skin. I love the smell, but I have no idea which sent I bought. Mine is a bit sweet like honey or vanilla. My girlfriend is a huge fan of Karma, with a fabulous spicy sent.

My friend also bought this amazing charcoal face stuff. It is supposed to brighten the skin and it leaves it silky smooth! I don't see this on the American Lush website. It may just be a Japanese thing. The Japanese ladies are really big on the skin lighteners and I know that they use charcoal soaps for that.

Reasons I love Lush: They make products from fresh, organic fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics. They make them fresh by hand using little or no preservatives or packaging, using only vegetarian ingredients, and they do not test on animals.

Outstanding Organics

Introducing my new favorite restaurant on Okinawa: Ukishima Garden!

Ukishima is 100% organic and vegetarian. All the veggies are locally grown and most dishes are macrobiotic. No meat, fish, eggs, or dairy are used in most of the dishes. And to top it off they have a great selection of organic wines!

Hope found a brochure for this restaurant while we were having bagels at Cactus Eatrip. We immediately called for a dinner reservation that night. We were so excited and weren't disappointed. We both knew we wanted to indulge in the organic wine, so we took a cab ride from Kinser and the poor cab driver had to all the restaurant twice to figure out where they were located (even though the location did not seem hard to find so close to Kokousai Street).

At the restaurant we completely indulged. We ordered a fresh, crisp salad that was picked from their very own garden out back. We also ordered an appetizer of Orion beer battered veggie fritters that were also so incredibly flavorful and yummy. We both got the amazing veggie pasta with a tomato cream sauce for our main dishes. We had pieces of sugar and dairy free hazelnut and chocolate cake for dessert. How they got that cake to be so incredibly good without butter and sugar is beyond me! To top it off we first ordered a bottle of sweet sparkling wine and lingered so long over our delish meal that we ended up splurging with a second bottle of Riesling. (Good thing we had already decided to take a cab!) It was an incredible meal and I will be going back for sure!!

Ukishima Garden is located in Naha near Kokousai Street. 1400 - 1800 cafe time. 1800 - 2400 dinner time. The address is 1-12-3 Matsuo Naha Okinawa 900-0014. Phone for directions or reservations: 098-943-2100.