Trying Korean Fried Chicken

One thing we have noticed is that you love our food vlogs. You love it when we go to bakeries and you love to talk about food! So we thought we would bring you more food this year in our vlog.

Starting out in 2018, we thought we would try out 2 new restaurants in Victoria BC. Both are Korean Fried Chicken Restaurants:

Chimac Korean Pub and Fried Chicken

Chicken 649 Victoria

Tim and I have never tried Korean fried chicken before, so we didn´t know what we were getting ourselves into.

We tried to order comparable items from the menu for takeout. We had sweet honey from chicken 659 and Spicy Chili chicken from Chimac Korean Pub and Fried Chicken. They were quite different from each other in fact, sorry, we are not experts!

Anyway, Chimac Korean Pub and Fried Chicken is much more of a pub environment where you would go to have a beer and wings with a bunch of friends after work. It is right downtown, close to the water and the heart of the tourist district as well. Great location.

Chicken 649 is a bit of a ways out of the downtown vicinity on Quadra and more difficult to find. It is much more of a family environment and was doing a booming take out business on Friday night when we arrived.

Both places were excellent, however side by side we preferred the chicken from chicken 649. I thought the meat was better quality, less gristle and less bone.

We do not eat out that often and this is not what we would normally choose when we eat out. We would love to enjoy more vegetables with our meals normally, although vegetables are often quite absent when you eat out at many restaurants. It was incredibly tasty and I have been finding myself thinking about it ever since, so who knows, I may go back!

If you made it all the way to the end of the video, be sure to put, ¨I feel like chicken tonight.¨ in the comments. Thanks so much for watching the vlogs and let us know if you would like to see more food vlogs in 2018 as well.

Namaste, Melissa

Morning Yoga?

Today I am super excited to show you what yoga you should do in the morning. This is such a great question because there are certainly poses that are important to do in the morning and today I am going to share with you my favourites.

Apanasana or Knee to Chest Pose

This pose will help you eliminate waste from your colon and clear your bowels for the morning.

Sphinx Pose

This is one of my favourite yin yoga postures because it tonifies your kidneys and it will give you the energy the you need for the day. Make sure to hold this pose for 5 minutes and then come out and feel the rebound.

Cat/Cow

After a full night´s sleep and being relatively immobile for eight hours, your body will be somewhat stiff. You can release your spine and move it in all 4 directions from cat pose (flexion/extension, side and rotation)

Donward Facing Dog

This is a nice gentle inversion to get your day going, plus it is a whole-body pose that will lengthen the backs of your legs and your entire spine. It will also build strength in your upper body.

Breath of Joy

This breath is incredibly, uplifting and invigorating, it will clear away any of the remaining sleepy cobwebs in your mind and help you to go into your day energized. This breath encourages you to breathe into all parts of your body, deep into your lower diaphragm to begin, then into your thoracic lungs, and finally up into your clavicle area. The full exhalation encourages you to release any toxins from your lungs. This breath improves your mood and releases depression.

If you are a member of my online community we have more than 10 specific short yoga classes for you to start your day, so that you can get off to work or get the kids off to school.

If you are not already a member here is the link to sign up

If you made it all the way to the end of this video, put the word joy in the comments. Thank you so much for watching. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow when we will talk about what yoga to do in the morning. See you then. Namaste, Melissa

How yoga helps with anxiety

If this sounds like something that interests you then subscribe and press that little bell so you do not miss a single video in our 30 day challenge this month.

Today we are talking about how to do yoga in the morning. So this is maybe a two part question, how to actually get up and get going to do that yoga in the morning and then once you are up what yoga you should be doing. So tomorrow we will be answering the what yoga you should be doing in the morning, today we will be answering the, how can you actually do yoga in the morning.

#1 Go to bed early. Make sure you get a good night´s sleep so that it is easy for you to get up in the morning. This actually probably means having a bit of an evening routine as well. If you watch disturbing media with that blue light feeding your pituitary gland until late at night, then you probably will not get a very restful sleep. Try to dim the lights, turn off your screens, take a warm bath, and avoid anything mentally strenuous in the evenings. All of this will contribute to a good night´s sleep.

#2 Make sure you are ready for the morning. Have all your props together, lay out your yoga clothes the night before and choose your yoga class on YouTube. This way you will not waste any time fumbling around for these things in the morning.

#3 Do not check your phone or any social media in the morning. This takes you down a rabbit hole that you do not want to go down in the mornings.

#4 Make the morning special. Prepare a special drink to get you going. I like to start my morning with a warm lemon water to help detoxify with Botanica Ashwagandha Tincture to support my adrenals and Harmonic Arts Liver Tonic for my liver. Or if I am feeling like something really special to start my day I might make a Do Matcha Matcha Latte to kick start my time on my mat. These small observances make my morning rituals more special and ceremonial.

If you are a member of my online community we have more than 10 specific short yoga classes for you to start your day, so that you can get off to work or get the kids off to school.

If you are not already a member here is the link to sign up

If you made it all the way to the end of this video, put morning ritual in the comments.

Thank you so much for watching. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow when we will talk about what yoga to do in the morning.

See you then. Namaste, Melissa

 

When Should I Practice Yoga

If this sounds like something that interests you then subscribe and press that little bell so you do not miss a single video in our 30 day challenge this month.

One of the most asked questions I get is when should I practice yoga? What time of day is the best time of day to practice yoga?

And the answer is, it depends. It depends on you. Are you a morning person?

I am a morning person. I love to go to bed early and get up before the sun. So for me, practicing my yoga first thing in the wee early hours of the morning is a great fit. For my husband and my daughter, they are not morning people and it would make no sense for them to drag themselves out of bed in the morning to practice yoga. They both come alive at night. In fact, whenever my husband and I roll out our mats together, it is usually at night. So if you usually come alive at night, then practice your yoga at night.

Another part of the ¨it depends¨ answer, needs to consider the type of yoga you are going to practice. Yin yoga for example works best first thing in the morning when your connective tissues are cold. If your connective tissues are warmed up, then you will stay up at the superficial level of muscles and not get into the deeper levels of connective tissues, ligaments and bones. That being said, yin yoga is also a wonderful style of practice at the yin time of day, in the evening when the world is becoming quiet and dark again and embodying those yin qualities of being: stillness, slow, reflecting on the day.

We can look to traditional chinese medicine for our answers as well. Traditional Chinese Medicine would probably say morning. Between 9 and 11 am our spleen organ system, which controls our muscles and our four limbs in our body is most active, so this is a great time for more active forms of yoga such as hatha yoga, vinyasa flow yoga, power yoga and ashtanga yoga.

If you are practicing restorative yoga, the answer again would be it depends. I have often woken up in the morning after a terrible night´s sleep and turned to restorative yoga first thing in the morning. Restorative yoga can also be a wonderful practice right before bed to prepare your body for sleep. It might not be the best practice mid-day when your energy and the energy of the day is the highest.

If you have that 4 pm energy slump, yoga nidra or sleep yoga can be the perfect way to pull through the afternoon. Yoga nidra can also be a wonderful bedtime yoga practice to prepare for sleep and I have also used it plenty of nights when I need yoga for insomnia and want to do yoga in bed.

If you would like my 7 days to better sleep with yoga and I will send you 1 video a day for 7 days with the best of yoga, ayurveda, self massage and pranayama (or breath practices) to help you get the best night’s sleep. https://www.melissawest.com/sleep/

Thank you so much for watching today. If you made it all the way to the end put the words bedtime yoga in the comments. I will see you tomorrow for day 6 of our 30 day New Year yoga challenge.

Namaste, Melissa

So how can you do yoga at home?

I would suggest it starts the day before.

#1 Figure out what time of day is going to be best for your yoga practice. It might be first thing in the morning before you go to work, but if you have to be at work early, that might not be feasible for you, in which case I have several students who have a consistent evening yoga practice. Maybe it is easiest for you to close your office door at lunch and do a 45 minute yoga practice then. Make it work for you and your life and commit the time to yourself, even put it in your calendar.

#2 I find part of the commitment is to get everything together in one space, including my yoga clothes. So that means I have all my yoga props and everything I need for my yoga practice where I am going to practice my yoga. I practice first thing in the morning, bright and early. I used to roll out of bed and practice in my pajamas. However, for the past few months I have been laying out my yoga clothes the night before and putting them on in the morning. It makes my yoga practice more special and something I observe with more reverence when I show up in clothes rather than pajamas.

#3 Plan ahead what you are going to practice. If you do not have an at home yoga practice going yet, I would suggest planning what you are going to do ahead of time so that you do not waste any of your precious time on your yoga mat scrolling through the millions of possibilities online. If you go to my YouTube channel you will see I have tones of playlists to choose from. You can choose from many playlists on my channel from hatha yoga classes, restorative yoga classes, yin yoga classes, yoga for back pain, hip opening classes, yoga for emotions, transforming your inner critic, beginner yoga videos, and chakra yoga, to name a few

Link to Playlists

(when you click on the link make sure you click on the + 30 more for some reason YouTube only shows you a few)

#4 Show up and practice. One of my fellow sangha members at a recent meditation retreat gave the best piece of advice I have ever heard about sticking with her daily meditation practice. I think it applies well to practicing yoga at home too. It was genuinely simple. She said, ¨I do not go to bed until I have practiced.¨ I think this is exceptional advice. She said she would notice her willingness to watch an hour of tv or YouTube or to read a novel and say to herself, if I can do that, then I can meditate, but I am not going to let myself go to bed until I have done my practice.

Thank you so much for practicing today. Put the word home in the comments if you watched all the way to the end. I will see you tomorrow.

How to Start Yoga

For the third day of our 30 day yoga challenge for the new year we are talking about starting yoga at home if are a beginner yoga student. If you are brand new to yoga, I will take you step by step through how to start yoga at home for beginners. We will begin by going through the different styles of yoga from power yoga, vinyasana yoga, ashtanga yoga, kundalini yoga, hatha yoga, restorative yoga, yin yoga, and yoga nidra. From there I will address common issues like creating a yoga space, getting your props together and choosing a time of day to practice. I will also recommend some YouTube videos to practice yoga at home so you can do yoga for beginners when you are just starting out.

So you are new to yoga and you want to know how to start yoga at home.

Choose Your Style

The first thing would be to choose the style of yoga that is going to best suite you. There are lots of different styles of yoga and you can choose the style that is going to best suit your personality. I am going to stick with the styles that you will find online since you will be practicing at home.

Ashtanga Yoga, Vinyasa flow and Power yoga are an athletic and active exercise style of yoga that move through a series of postures with movement and breath. You will get a cardiovascular workout with these kinds of classes.

Kundalini Yoga is a style of yoga that combines breathwork, vigorous movements and chanting in sets of exercises called kriyas. It is quite a powerful devotional style of yoga designed to raise the energy from the base of the spine up to the crown.

Hatha Yoga is a style of yoga that I teach. It combines standing postures with ground postures. Ha stands for sun and tha stands for moon. It is quite a balancing style of yoga which focuses on bringing harmony between the stimulating and active energies in our bodies with the quiet, nurturing, restorative energy of our bodies.

Restorative yoga is another style that I teach. This style of yoga is deeply rejuvenating and wonderful for stress and anxiety. It uses a lot of props though such as bolsters, blankets and blocks, so if you are new to yoga this may be an obstacle, however, you can usually make your own props using pillows and blankets that you have around your house.

I also teach yin yoga. This is another deeply nourishing and restorative style of yoga that holds the postures for about 5 minutes to affect the deeper connective tissues, joints and bones of the body. This style of yoga focuses on the traditional chinese meridians as well as mindfulness as a central part of its practice. It is a deeply meditative style of yoga.

Another style that I will be teaching a lot more of in 2018 is yoga nidra. It is a style of yoga that puts you into a conscious sleep that is more restful than sleep itself. It is a powerful meditation technique is incredibly rejuvenating for your physical, mental and emotional body. If you are exhausted and I know many of you are, then this is a style of yoga that you do not want to ignore. Think of it as the most powerful power nap you can take.

If you are just starting out I would recommend my 31 day beginner yoga challenge. It is made up of mostly hatha yoga. I have laid out that practice from complete beginner classes, to the stages of a class, the beginner yoga poses and it will take you sequentially through 31 days.

31 Day Beginner Yoga Challenge: Click Here

I have a beginner restorative yoga class

5 Beginner Yin Yoga Classes:

If you are looking for Vinyasa Flow, Power or Ashtanga I would recommend my friends and fellow online yoga instructors Christina of Chriska Yoga, Anita Goa of Goa Flow, Maris Aylward of Yoga Upload,

So, Why does yoga work?

Well it may be difficult to answer the question, why does yoga work, there are more and more case studies being done showing that yoga does work.

A 2017 study in the Asian Journal of Medical and Biological Research found significant gains in flexibility and balance in the yoga group compared to the non-yoga group in measuring a group of athletes in their experiment.

My Yoga for Flexibility for Beginners Class: Click here

I have a fabulous yin yoga for sleep video for you: Click Here

Yoga has been shown to reduce stress. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Research did a study to see if yoga would help first year college students reduce stress and improve their physical and mental health. The study was reported as promising as they found that the yoga had a positive impact on their social lives, stress levels, as well as physical health.

My Yoga for Stress Video: Click Here

In July 0f 2017, The American Journal of Occupational Therapy reported that in 13 studies of yoga with older adults, yoga decreased risks of falls and helped to improve their quality of sleep.

I have a fabulous yin yoga for sleep video for you: Click Here

And of course a whole series on balance for you: Click Here

When we are talking about the benefits of yoga for women, there was a 2017 study on yoga and menstrual cramps. The study showed that yoga significantly reduced the menstrual cramps for the women participating.

Please enjoy my restorative yoga class for menstrual cramps: Click Here

A study in the Journal of American College of Cardiology on restorative yoga found that restorative yoga was much more effective than relaxation and stretching at reducing heart rate and blood pressure even twenty four hours after the restorative yoga classes. Through this study cardiologists saw the potential of restorative yoga as a therapeutic option for patients with high blood pressure.

For my restorative yoga classes: Click Here

Yin Yoga, which is known for its focus on mindfulness has been shown to decrease stress and worry. The International Journal of Anxiety, Stress, and Coping published a 2017 article on a 10 week yin yoga and mindfulness study that showed a decrease in stress and worry that was still present after a five week follow up.

For my yin yoga classes: Click Here

A May 2017 article published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary medicine found that yoga nidra reduces stress levels, muscle fatigue, muscle tension and improves self-care. The study involved nurses who participated in weekly sessions of yoga nidra in order to promote their own wellness and build resilience to help them manage their patients within a hurried and stressful healthcare system.

What Can Yoga Do for You

If you are wondering what yoga can do for you, in other words the benefits of yoga, then this short 5 minute video is for you. To start off our new year 31 day yoga challenge we will explore what yoga is good for, the advantages of yoga. I will talk about the health benefits of yoga for you, the benefits of yoga for specifically for women and the benefits of yoga specifically for men. There are many different types of yoga and I will speak specifically to the types of yoga that I teach: hatha yoga benefits, restorative yoga benefits, yin yoga benefits, yoga nidra benefits and meditation benefits. There are many other types of yoga that have lots of benefit as well, but I will stick to the focus of my channel.

We will discuss what yoga poses are good for your health. How  yoga asanas or yoga positions and yoga moves affect your body, but also much deeper than that, how they affect your mind, your emotions, your thoughts, your energy and your spirit. This video will motivate, inspire and encourage you to participate in our New Year 31 Day Yoga Challenge. Leave two hearts in the comments if you are excited about the next 31 days together.

If you are new here be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications. In the month of January of 2018 I am putting out a brand new video like this everyday for our New Year 30 Day Yoga Challenge.

Tuesday January 2, 2018

Why does yoga work?

Wednesday January 3, 2018

How to Start Yoga at Home for Beginners

Thursday January 4, 2018

How to do Yoga at Home

If you are excited about the challenge press that like button and put 2 hearts in the comments.

So where to start? What are the benefits of hatha yoga?

Let´s start with your physical body. When you practice yoga you will get more flexible, stronger, and you will improve your balance. If you practice forms of yoga that have long holds you will improve your endurance. There are even some forms of yoga, like vinyasa flow or ashtanga where you can improve your cardiovascular fitness.

More specifically yoga has many health benefits. There are lots of yoga poses that will help if you have back pain. Yoga can help with osteoporosis by building bone density, lead to a decrease in heart attacks and strokes by improving blood circulation, and improve your immunity by draining lymph. Yoga is much better at lowering blood pressure than lying on the couch which will also reduce your risk of a stroke.

The health benefits of yoga for women specifically lie in them being able to meet with our cyclical needs throughout the month and during specific times in our lives. Because women menstruate, yoga can be particularly helpful for dealing with PMS, turning inward, relieving menstrual cramps and regulating their menstrual cycle overall. For women preparing for childbirth, prenatal yoga is an excellent way to prepare for labour. Postnatal yoga is a wonderful way to come back to your body and recovery from childbirth. For women in the menopausal years, yoga is a wonderful way to navigate that transition as well. There are even specific yoga poses that are beneficial for women´s breast health.

I realize we are all motivated by pain and pleasure so for the health benefits of yoga for men specifically, probably the number one reason why men will want to practice yoga is that it will improve their sex life. A 2010 study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine showed that yoga improves all sexual functions in men, including desire, performance, erection, and ejaculation control.

Not only that, but, In India, women took part in a 12-week yoga study reported improvements in several areas of sexuality, including desire, orgasm, and overall satisfaction.

Salt Spring Island

This Christmas decided to take a holiday on Salt Spring Island. It was the perfect getaway.

We spent most of our time resting in front of a fire in our cabin, but we did get out and about on the island a bit too.

One of our favourite outings everytime we go to Salt Spring is the Salt Spring Cheese Company.

It is fun to visit the goats and the chickens and of course get some yummy goats cheese.

Ruckles Provincial Park is a beautiful provincial park with a combination of trails in the forest and walks along the ocean.

This time on the island we visitted all three ¨towns.” In the past we have only gone into Ganges, but this time we made it a point to visit Fulford Harbour and Vesuvius Village as well.

Ganges is definitely the heart of the island, but I am glad we visitted the other towns as well.

Vesuvius Village on Salt Spring Island has a cute general store where you can buy basic necessities as well as tea, coffee, baked goods, sandwiches etc.

We enjoyed some short trails down to the water in Fulford Harbour, but will have to spend more time exploring the town next time.

What I love best about Salt Spring is how quiet it is. It is the perfect getaway from Victoria in my humble opinion.

Not too far, but just far enough to get away from it all.

Thanks for watching, remember to put moo in the comments if you made it all the way to the end.

Tim, Melissa and Trinity

Here are a couple of previous videos I made on Salt Spring :)

https://youtu.be/n4H-3KykM2k

https://youtu.be/l_NMXmM-bNQ

New Year 30 Day Yoga Challenge

In this video I will give you an overview about our New Year 30 Day challenge and some of the most frequently asked questions that we get about the challenge. I will share with you how we will be incorporating yoga into your daily life with our short five minute daily yoga videos in January of 2018 on my Yoga Lifestyle channel.

This 30 day challenge will include yoga videos about the benefits of yoga, when to practice yoga, how yoga works, how to yoga videos for stress, relaxation, back pain, how to use your yoga props, how to do certain yoga poses, incorporating yoga into your daily life, yoga breathing, and how yoga can improve everything from your height to your eyesight. If you are looking forward to the challenge put: I am excited in the comments :)

Other Yoga Challenge: 31 Day Beginner Yoga Challenge: Click Here

8 days of back pain help with yoga and I will send you 1 video a day for 8 days with the best of yoga, ayurveda, self massage and pranayama (or breath practices) to help your back.

7 days to better sleep with yoga and I will send you 1 video a day for 7 days with the best of yoga, ayurveda, self massage and pranayama (or breath practices) to help you get the best night’s sleep.

7 days of yoga to relieve anxiety