Yoga Is Vegan

Kiko Ellsworth is an Emmy award winning actor, producer and director who took a hiatus from the entertainment industry to work on his spiritual path. He’s now a Kundalini Yoga teacher and men’s evolutionary life coach. Kiko is the founder of Ma’at University, an online learning platform that provides transformational learning for under-resourced communities, relationship empowerment and soul-success. His work is now largely dedicated to supporting men in becoming happy, healthy and whole men through his group and private coaching programs.

In this episode Yoga Is Vegan's Holly Skodis and Kiko Ellsworth discuss the following:


Balancing masculine and feminine energies
The Book of Life: Ascension and the Divine World Order

Kundalini Yoga
The programs at Ma'at University
Making the switch to a plant-based diet and meat consciousness


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Connect with Kiko:
Instagram: @kikoellsworth

Victoria Moran has been a Main Street Vegan® for 37 years and she held the title of Peta’s Sexiest Vegan Over 50, alongside the male winner, Joel Kahn, MD, in 2016/17. She is the bestselling author of thirteen books, including Creating a Charmed Life (in 30 languages around the world); the gentle weight loss classic, The Love-Powered Diet, reflecting the author’s own struggle with and recovery from compulsive eating; The Good Karma Diet, celebrating a high-green, high-raw, high-energy food style; the iconic Main Street Vegan; and her latest, The Main Street Vegan Academy Cookbook, coauthored with JL Fields. Victoria’s college thesis became Compassion the Ultimate Ethic: An Exploration of Veganism, originally published in 1985 and the first work on vegan philosophy and practice to come from a major publisher.

Victoria is also an inspirational speaker, corporate spokesperson, certified holistic health counselor (HHC, AADP), and founder and director of Main Street Vegan Academy, training and certifying vegan lifestyle coaches. A graduate of the T. Colin Campbell Foundation/eCornell program in plant-based nutrition and a certified Holistic Health Coach (HHC, AADP), she hosts the Main Street Vegan radio show/podcast, awarded the Outstanding Vegan Media Outlet award in 2015 and noted by Feedspot in January 2019 among #3 in the Top 25 Vegan Podcasts. If interested in our academy, click here to apply. And she is lead producer of Thomas Wade Jackson’s exquisite documentary, A Prayer for Compassion, to introduce vegan living to people of faith.

Cited by VegNews among the Top 10 Contemporary Vegetarian Authors, Victoria appeared twice on The Oprah Winfrey Show and her articles have appeared in Yoga Journal, Mothering, Natural Health, Woman’s Day, Martha Stewart’s Whole Living, VegNews, and Vegetarian Times. Her work has been noted in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, Self, Elle, Glamour, Allure, and O, the Oprah Magazine.

Moran lives with her husband, writer and musician, William Melton, in a LEED-certified green condominium in New York City’s thriving Harlem neighborhood. They’re co-humans to a rescue-dog, Forbes, and rescue pigeon, Thunder.

Chandra/Jo Sgammato is a certified Integral Yoga instructor and has served in a variety of capacities, including General Manager, Executive Director and Board Member at Integral Yoga Institute of New York for more than 20 years. A former book publishing executive and bestselling author, she is also the founder of Yoga At School, a program that brings Integral Yoga into schools throughout the five boroughs. She has produced numerous programs on the wide array of Yoga's gifts to the world.

In this episode Yoga Is Vegan's Holly Skodis, Victoria Moran and Chandra discuss the following:

Yoga Goes Vegan
The six branches of Integral Yoga; Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, & Japa Yoga
Listen to Victoria Moran's episode 16 on the yoga is vegan podcast
Bhakti Center NYC
Manu Dawson Yoga is Vegan Episode 11
Transcendental Meditation
Meat out Day - created by the founder of the Farm Animal Rights Movement Dr. Alex Hershaft
Swami Satchidananda
Dr. Dean Ornish
Yoga Goes Vegan: An All-Day Gathering and Retreat If you are financially in need, you can apply for a grant by emailing Chandra to request one.
Nutiva Organic Vegan Ghee
Join Holly Skodis and Co-host John Caldwell Saturdays 12pm EST in the Plantbased Club on Clubhouse. Download the Clubhouse app and reserve your handle. Once you are in follow @hollyskodis and @vegsurfer and click the bell in the bio for notifications.


Subscribe & Listen:

Listen & Subscribe on Spotify

Connect with Victoria:
Website: mainstreetvegan.net
Connect with Chandra:
Website: iyiny.org

Jess Gumkowski is a mindset coach, podcast host, Vegan Lifestyle Coach, and Educator, and co-founder of YogiTriathlete. She is a long-time endurance athlete, ultrarunner, and triathlete. In her essence, she is a yogi committed to living a life of ahimsa as she pursues mastery of the mind. She is the author of the YogiTriathlete Cookbook: High Vibe Recipes for the Athlete Appetite and High Vibe Pie: Pizza Night Finally Done Right. She has been featured in Triathlete Magazine, Men’s Journal, Elephant Journal, Massage Magazine, and TriZone, as well as many blogs and podcasts for her knowledge in living a holistic lifestyle.

In this episode Yoga is Vegan's Holly Skodis and Jess Gumkowski discuss the following:


Victoria Moran and the Main Street Vegan Academy
Joshua Katcher and his clothing line Brave GentleMan
Transitioning to a minimalist lifestyle
Endurance sports and it's relationship to the mind
Yoga Goes Vegan: An All-Day Gathering and Retreat, March 20th 2021
Connect with Jess Gumkowski:
Website: yogitriathlete.com
Instagram: @yogitriathlete and @jessgumkowski
Facebook: @yogitriathlete
Twitter: @yogitriathlete
Podcast: Awake Athlete and Yogitriathlete

John Caldwell manages the Beran Island Resort. He organizing retreats and plays the role of a surf guide around the various spots in the atoll (atalwl)in the Marshall Islands. He is has been vegan for 18 years and is passionate about using his technical skills to share veganism, yogic teachings, recovery and peace to all beings.

Siddha Yoga
Ashtanga and John's teacher Petra Gordon
Surfing in the martial islands
Animal Liberation Front
Direct action and veganism
What the Health
Catskill Animal Sanctuary
Catskill Animal Sanctuary
Earthlings
Dominion
Gail A. Eisnitz Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, And Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry
Meet Your Meat
V-Dog Kind Kibble
Honest Kitchen- Dehydrated Whole Gran Fruit & Veggie Base Mix
Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Connect with John:

Instagram: @vegsurfer
Clubhouse: @vegsurfer

Dr. Sumeet Bahl is an Interventional Radiologist at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn, NY. He completed his internship in General Surgery at Rutgers University-New Jersey Medical School and his Radiology residency and Vascular and Interventional Radiology fellowship at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. He performs minimally invasive image-guided procedures for uterine fibroids, venous disease, kidney failure, pulmonary embolism, and cancer.

Dr. Bahl has 20+ years of meditation experience, including clinical research at the Emory Mind-Body Program under the Emory-Tibet partnership. His greatest passion is sharing the science and practicality of a daily meditation practice. He has led meditations on social media, at Yelp, Doonya fitness studio, and New York City hospitals. He combines his love of health and music as the physician representative for NYC Hip Hop is Green, promoting health and wellness in hip hop culture and beyond via a plant-based lifestyle. Dr. Bahl resides in Brooklyn with his wife and 7-month-old son. Find him on Instagram @sumeetbahlmd.

In this episode YIV's Holly Skodis and Dr. Sumeet Bahl discuss the following:

Kriya Yoga & Kriya Yoga Meditation
Mindfulness and the aum technique
Isha Yoga
Paramahansa Yogananda and his book The Autobiography of a Yogi
Setting habits and Atomic Habits by James Clear
Dr. Gabriel Cousens (Yoga Is Vegan Episode 15)
What the Health Documentary
Covid and the Phizer and Moderna Covid Vaccines
Protein the work of Dr. Garth Davis. See his book Proteinaholic

Plantbased Clubhouse Room Yoga is Vegan! w/ Holly Skodis Sunday Feb 21, 1pm EST -

Yoga Goes Vegan All-Day Retreat Saturday March 20th. For tickets and info visit the Integral Yoga Institute

Connect with Dr. Sumeet Bahl:

Instagram:@sumeetbahlmd
Website: sumeethbahl.com

Andry Sophocleous is a 500hr Dharma Yoga teacher who teaches in her studio Dharma Yoga in Cyprus. Andry is also the founder of Jacinthe Natural Skincare an indie brand that strives for purity and transparency in natural skincare. She makes use of green biotechnology hence bringing science and plants together in all of her Jacinthe products.

In this episode Yoga Is Vegan's Holly Skodis and Andry Sophocleous discuss the following:

Sri Dharma Mittra and The Life of a Yogi Teacher Trainings. You can also hear Sri Dharma Mittra on Yoga Is Vegan Podcast Episode 28
The quality of ingredients in skin care
Why what you put into your body and on your skin effects your health
Glycation and it's role with skin and aging
Oxidation and packaging
Connect with Andry:
Website: Jacinthenaturals.com
Instagram: @jacinthe_naturals and @dharmayogacyp
Facebook:

Plantbased Clubhouse Room Yoga is Vegan! w/ Holly Skodis Saturday Feb 13 1pm EST -
https://www.joinclubhouse.com/event/xnaZ3jYz

Yoga Goes Vegan All-Day Retreat Saturday March 20th. For tickets and info https://iyiny.org/workshops-and-events/calendar/yoga-goes-vegan-12739/

Dr. Dipak Patel is a board certified family medicine physician and has practiced full spectrum family medicine, including pediatrics and women’s health. For the past 10 years, he has worked at the Community Health Center in Meriden as a family medicine physician and onsite medical director. Additionally, he is certified and experienced in addiction medicine and mental health conditions working as a hospital physician at the Midstate Medical Center.

In 2017, Dr. Patel earned his most precious board certification – from the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine.

Catherine O’Rourke has been a nurse since 2005,. She has extensive experience as an ICU nurse and in other acute care areas. As she’s worked with the acutely sick patient population, she realized the growing need and importance for prevention of disease. She has a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and has completed studies on Diet and Lifestyle Intervention from Wellness Forum Health

With the understanding that the vast majority of diseases that people suffer from can be prevented, treated or reversed with lifestyle medicine In 2019 Dr. Patel and Catherine O’Rourke along with their colleague and friend Dr. Anne Bingham, opened the doors at Connecticut Lifestyle Medicine. A practice dedicated to decreasing the amount of chronic disease and its effects in their community.

In this episode, Yoga Is Vegan's Holly Skodis, Dr. Dipak Patel and Catherine O'Rourke discuss the following:

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Plant-based Doctors
Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn
Dr. Dean Ornish
Dr. David L. Katz's LinkedIn article COVID, Vaccines, and The Nature of Engineering
Alcohol
Centenarians and the role of a whole food plant-based dominant diet
COVID 19 Vaccine
Connect with Connecticut Lifestyle Medicine:
Website: ctlifemed.com
Instagram: @ctlifemed
Facebook: @ctlifemed

Jeremy Gray, better known in the community as Mr. EYG for continuous service to elevate his community and those around him, is an African American politician, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
Rep. Gray is currently in the role of Alabama State Representative of the 83rd District, where he serves on the Commerce and Small Business, Health, and Public Safety and Homeland Security committees. He was voted in by his peers as the Democratic Minority Whip in the House of Representatives. He was also appointed to the Alabama Statewide Health Coordinating Council and Innovate Alabama Commission by Governor Kay Ivey.
Witty and innovative at heart, Rep. Gray is also the founder of Elevate Your Grind, Inc., a motivational and clothing brand as well The Curtis House, a nonprofit organization which serves as a resource hub in one of the most vulnerable neighborhoods in his hometown of Opelika, AL.
Rep. Gray has received numerous accolades for his community service and leadership. When asked what his ultimate goal is in life, he simply stated “to inspire and hire.”
In this episode Yoga Is Vegan's Holly Skodis and Jeremy Gray discuss the following:



Jeremy Gray's bill to over turn the ban on yoga in Alabama Public Schools
Helping individuals transition from poverty to productivity at his family's service facility, The Curtis House
Elevate Your Grind Jeremy's brand dedicated to empowerment, sports, yoga, cooking and enlightenment and apparel
Deepok Chopra Meditation App
Leading by example to inspire others to go vegan.
Connect with Rep. Jeremy Gray:

Facebook:@repjeremygray
Instagram: @repjeremygray

Whitney discovered yoga in 2008 while in nursing school. A lifelong athlete, she was looking for increased flexibility and strength to supplement her triathlon training. As her high-stress career as a cardiovascular RN developed, she learned to rely on her yoga practice as a way to process the experiences she had at work, keep her body healthy, and stay calm under pressure.

Throughout the years, Whitney’s yoga practice has helped her recover from eating disorders, sexual abuse, physically and emotionally abusive relationships, physical injuries, and addiction. This ultimately led her to become a yoga teacher and owner of the Indigo Yoga Studio, and embrace veganism.

She first stopped eating animals at the age of 16. A lifelong animal lover, she grew up with pets of all sorts, from snakes and rats to birds, horses, goats, and pigs... and of course cats and dogs. She connected deeply with horses, working with them from a young age. One year, her 4-H pig won a prize and was sold at auction. Very distressed at the thought of her friend being turned into bacon, that was it until age 18, when she started eating meat as a way to attempt to lose weight on a diet. Once she stopped drinking alcohol and deepened her yoga practice, she gravitated naturally towards a plant-based diet, and became vegan completely in 2019. The transition to veganism was natural and driven by deep shadow work and spiritual searching during a dark time in life, particularly sparked by the teachings of Sri Dharma Mittra and practice of Dharma and Kundalini Yoga.

She is an E-RYT® 200, YACEP® and practices/teaches a variety of styles of yoga, including Hot Yoga, Vinyasa, Yin, Ashtanga, Rocket, and is currently in the process of obtaining her Kundalini Yoga Level 1 certification. Her daily practice is Kundalini meditation and sometimes Kriya, and some sort of asana (mostly Ashtanga primary and rocket).

In August 2018, she was blessed with an unexpected opportunity to become owner/operator of Indigo Yoga, a beautiful little hot yoga studio in Las Cruces, NM. She currently continues to operate the studio while working in a COVID ICU in a rural hospital an hour away from her home in Las Cruces.

She is married to a man she’s loved since age 14, Sam. They live in Las Cruces with their companions Isis, an aging pitbull, and Elliot, a psychic teenage boy cat.

In this episode Whitney Pérez-Wright and Holly Skodis discuss the following:

Sri Dharma Mittra and his book Life of a Yogi
Patrick McCleaf & Sara Gruss
Recovering from food and alcohol addictions with yoga and veganism
Ram Dass
Wearing a masking times of Covid
Kundalini Aquarian Sadhana
Under Armor Mask
Switching towards a whole food plant-based diet
Join Whitney and Holly on @yogaisvegan Instagram Live, Saturday January 23, 4pm EST
Connect with Whitney
Instagram: @Whitney__stark
Instagram: @indigo__yoga
Website: indigolascruces.com

Katie Rose (formerly Manitsas) is an inspirational powerhouse, making ancient yogic and ayurvedic wisdom accessible for busy modern-day women. Her solid grounding in mindfulness and spirituality, along with her authentic ‘say it as it is’ approach and impressive business savvy has earnt her an enthusiastic following amongst yogis in Sydney and Australia.

As a published author, advanced level Jivamukti Yoga and Kundalini Yoga teacher, Ayurveda consultant and doula, women’s health and wellbeing are Katie’s specialty. She holds the highest possible accreditations with both Yoga Alliance and Yoga Australia and over 20 years, has trained hundreds of yoga teachers. She started her yogic career at age 19 as a volunteer cleaner at the prestigious TriYoga in London. By 24 Katie was managing the Primrose Hill TriYoga flagship location after which she moved to Australia in 2004 and founded her own yoga studio ‘Samadhi Yoga’ in Newtown. In 2007 Katie co-founded Jivamukti Yoga Sydney which at its peak was a four location Sydney based business and is still a community that continues to thrive today.

Her passion is in empowering women through yogic philosophy and bringing devotion and a sense of sacredness to everyday life. She has a deep compassion for animals and reverence for nature. Her most recent book (released by Rockpool Publishing in Australia, USA, and the UK), ‘Mindful Living’, was published in 2019 and the journal and inspiration cards to follow on its success will be available soon.

Current projects for Katie include writing (she is working on a new book ‘Mindful Healing’), a plant-medicine business Bhakti Botanicals (ayurvedic teas and oils), in-person teaching at various locations and the development of a substantial online offering including her signature trainings Ayurveda Goddess and Yoga of Birth.

Katie is the mother of four boys and lives in Sydney’s super-hip Inner West. Ranging in age from 4 to 13, they are a joyful, rambunctious, loving, and sometimes slightly crazy bunch. It is with a generous sprinkling of intention setting, affirmations and diligent, disciplined practice that Katie is attempting to practice what she teaches; creating a life that is focused, happy, elegant, and robustly sustainable.

In this episode YIV's Holly Skodis and Katie Rose discuss the following:

Journaling and self reflection

Social accountability

Redefining self care

The importance of selfless service in your yoga practice

Living Journal Sweepstakes: bhaktirose.com.au/yogaisvegan

Katie is a returning guest on the Yoga is Vegan podcast. Listen to her preview conversation on episode 68
Connect with Katie:

Website:bhaktirose.com.au
Instagram: @bhaktirose