Fresh and juicy conversations on making yoga a part of your daily life
Valerie Love explores the connections between the food we eat, the energy centres of the body, and the practice of yoga.
by columnist Valerie Love, Yoga on a Plate Have you ever wondered why some people can eat heaps and stay slender, while others can eat less and still gain weight? Why in the same room, some people will feel cold and others complain of heat? Why some people respond to a difficult situation with anger or fear, while others stay calm and collected? Ayurveda can help answer these questions. “Ayurveda” is Sanskrit for “knowledge (or science) of life,” and provides a framework for … [Read more...]
by columnist Valerie Love, Yoga on a Plate For most transplants to New Zealand, the first words they learn in Maori are "Kia ora” (hello) or “Haere mai” (welcome). But for me, it was “puku", which means belly or abdomen. Although I’m originally from the United States, my partner is from Wellington. And from the very start of our relationship, she's always asked me, “How’s puku?” as a way of checking in on how I’m doing as a whole. And it’s an important … [Read more...]
by regular columnist Valerie Love, Yoga on a Plate Six years ago, I went to visit a friend from college who was teaching English in Kyoto, Japan. A day or so after I arrived, she took me to an outdoor market in the city. Wandering together through stalls of artwork, antiques, handicrafts and food, I was drawn to a table where a woman was selling daifuku, sweet rice cakes filled with red bean paste. As my friend spoke Japanese and I did not, she kindly did the work of ordering one for … [Read more...]
by new regular columnist Valerie Love, Yoga on a Plate If you asked me to name the things—people not included—that make me happiest, yoga and good food would be at the top of the list. So writing a column that combined my passions for both of those things seemed like a no-brainer. Except that the more I began to sit down and think about it, the more challenging and the more daunting it became. Many of us, whether yogis or not, have complicated relationships with food at some point in … [Read more...]
