The Yogitree claimed to be a cafe cum bistro CUM boutique was located at The Garden Mid Valley.  Take the escalator up to the first floor and you won’t miss them cos they are right in front of you when you embark from the  escalator. For health freak people, this is the place you must visit.

The furniture does not blend out nicely as there are some rattan chairs, green pastel furnishing, padded chairs, etc. But I must say, I really like the blackboard on top of the counter even though the writing is a bit ‘unfriendly’ for me.   But one thing that make the patronage came back for more.  The FOOD!

The shop concept is to serve everything that is organic and pure.  The following food review is solely based on my personal taste bud and may varied for others.

The Husband is not the type who had the patience to go thru the whole list of menu.  He just picked out something that is most familiar with, the Ayam Percik.  I was so wrong to think that this is one ordinary malay food.  The sambal chicken taste so good!  Just go thru the ingredients in the menu and you know for sure what you ate are healthy food.  No kidding!

Since Hubby did not favour raw vegetables, I was more than happy to polish off the plate.  The ulam goes so well with the sambal.  Or rather, the sambal goes so well with the ulam.   Ok, whatever it is, this is a thumbs up from me.  Highly recommended.

Oh, and not forgetting, this dish came with a piece of turmeric fish.  By just writing down all this, I am starting to drool again. *wipe salivar from keyboard*

They have Yogikids menu to choose between a fish or chicken nuggets.  None of the kiddos like them.  So I ordered chicken sausage.  Was told that the portion is quite large.  But I didn’t know it was SO LARGE!

I mean… look at that sausage.  I bet they are a meter long if you unswirl it.  Not to my liking as they are too salty for my tastebud but the gravy goes well with the mashed potatoes.  You can tell they are from real potatoes cos the texture is not smooth like the one in KFC (fyi, KFC used powder potatoe + mixed with water into paste).

For myself, I didn’t want to stuff myself silly with food so that I still have some room for dessert.  This is what I’ve ordered – Seafood Fillo Parcel consist of mushroom, fish, cheese baked till crispy in fillo sheet.

This is not bad actually but once you have tried the earlier Ayam Percik, nothing could beat it.

The kiddos had smoothie mango.  Initially we thought they have mixed up our order for a banana smoothie but only to be told that all smoothies came with a base of banana, yoghurt and honey added into it for.  Too bad the banana overpowered the taste of the mango and none of the kids like them.  Sorry, no picture for that.

We ordered another round of  Very Berry cos they are vely belly good!  Consist of “strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cranberry and carrot, they contained huge amount of Vitamin C, carotenoids – a powerful antioxidant which protect against heart disease”. I just copied this whole sentence from their menu *sweat*

For dessert, this strawberry tart was supposed to be mine and I have yet to take a picture of it!  The kiddos can’t wait to digged into it, I bet.  And you should read this!

aitelyu, the pastry crust is so crunchy!  They doesn’t falls into crumbs when you bite on it.  Now I wonder if unbleached organic flour really works wonder!

While waiting for the food to arrive, I managed to check out some wholesale handbags sold next door and thereafter, we had so much fun doing lots of silly yoga tree poses.  Hey, it’s a Labour’s Day anyway and we are dining out at Yogitree.  It’s an ‘offence’ to be serious, you know 😉 .

Stay tune for all the silly me pictures.  Till then, namaste!

Inverted Prayer

Lately I’ve notice a little balding circle where the splitting of hair is.  It doesn’t alarm me as I have been experiencing quite a horrible amount of shedding lately due to the heavy weight of long hair.  Then I got an idea.  Currently my hair is side split.  All I need to do is change them to centre splitting.  That way, hopefully it will improve the condition.  If this failed, I will cut my fringe short.  If all fail…………. (God, please don’t) will get some hair loss solution.

“You can begin in your own cupboard by eliminating processed food, trying to cook a meal a little more often, trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables.” – Michelle Obama

Picture Credit

These are the words that she told the Press on the first day of spring by breaking the ground at the White House with a shovel.  They planned to plant everything that was needed in the kitchen from herbs, fruits and vegetable plants.

I rarely follow world news or understand the wacky world of politics but this statement coming from American’s First Lady, Michelle Obama is  POWERFUL!

Coming to my own garden, even though I did not own a plot, I managed to plant a number of herbs in pots.  Let me see what are those.  I have  basil, chives, lime, oregano, screwpine, roselle and a few type of chinese herb for boiling barley.  And of course, all of them are organic and the fertilizer that I use are decomposed vegetable or fruit’s skin from my own kitchen.

It all started about 1 year ago when I felt my monthly flow is very abnormal than usual. They are superbly heavy with big chunk of blood clot dashing out like the tap water. This happened usually on the first and second day. However, subsequent days is rated at medium and low. This took me about 6 months to consult a doctor and a ultrasound scan revealed that there is a fibroid growing in my womb. And 6 months later today, after another ultrasound scan…. the result is not looking good.

Not only the fibroid is growing, the Doctor discovered more than 3 cyst growing. If you look at the smaller circle on the left, that is the cyst. They are now measuring at 33.2mm. If the cyst grow beyond 50mm, there is a need to get it remove through surgery and I am now on medication to treat anemia. Even if the cyst did not grow beyond 50mm but the anemia has worsen, it is advisable to get the cyst remove too. Now, on the bigger circle, that is my womb. A womb is supposed to be oval shape but mine is out-of-shape. That is because on the bulging part, that is where the fibroid is and they are definitely growing too!

Most women with fibroid did not develop any symptom. One out of 5 women may get this and they are genetic too. So far in my household, my mom, one of my sis, one of my cousins (she had gone through 3 surgeries and the fibroid kept on coming back!), all of them has been a victim too. I am not writing this to get sympathy. I just want to remind all ladies out there to learn to know your body, take note of body changes and go for your yearly check-up. Educate yourself on cyst and fibroid, check out articles on Google.

With this new yet horrible findings, I have increased the premium on my term life insurance quote. The fibroid and cyst does affect a little of my yoga practise especially in “Revolved Extended Side Angle” or some may called it the “Prayer Twist”. When I tried to do a deep twisting, it hurts… somewhere there… like a stone stuck between my waist and tight. But for a woman who have gone through child birth, what is there that is not tolerable?

As with many old wives’ tales, it seems there is more than a grain of truth – “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” is not a folklore anymore. I do know apple are a rich source of dietary fibre. When it comes to bowel regularity, apple’s fiber tackle the job no matter what it is. All you have to do is make sure that apple is included as one of the five portions of fruit and vegetables you eat each day.

These are the fruits combination I like:

Apple + Cucumber + Kiwi = To improve skin complexion

Tomatoes + Carrot + Apple = Improve skin complexion and eliminate bad breath

Carrot + Ginger + Apple = Boost and cleanse our system

.

With the combination above, not only your body system is cleanse, you will be surprised to notice the acne on your face may clear up eventually.  Healthy Eating, Happy Living.

Namaste!

I turned into a Flexitarian more than six month ago. During that time, I wasn’t serious about it till recently when I read more and more about meat and yoga. Even Ninie has turned a vegetarian. Hats and cap off to her. She is one truly Yogis I know. Not many people has come to the term of Flexitarian. Vegetarian adhered to 100% vege diet but a Flexitarian is semi-vegetarian diet who consume four or more meatless meals per week involving the practice of eating mainly vegetarian food but making occasional exceptions for social, pragmatic, cultural, or nutritional reasons.

For my personal reason, I do not want to give up meat entirely, but want to recognize the health benefits connected with decreasing consumption of meat and be a better Yogi. During the weekdays with my busy schedule juggling between work and family and yes, blogging! I hardly have the time to cook at home. I ate lots of raw vegetable and drank lots of juices instead of coffee.

This is an example of what my family had for lunch. We had big red juicy strawberries, edamame (green soya beans), zucchini and unagi roll. At times, we had Bak Kut Teh without the pork. Really! I have to beg the Uncle to sell me vegetarian Bak Kut Teh as he was quite reluctant at the first place.

Obviously, I felt much healthier, lighter and more flexible now.

I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the relationship between coffee, yoga and flexibility. I used to think yoga was all about stretching and flexibility. Most yoga poses demonstrate rather than develop flexibility. If you are stiff, you don’t need yoga. You need to stretch! A good stretching exercise is like how you managing weight loss with the consumption of diet pill. You have got to ‘eat right’ and not ‘eat less’. It is the same as ‘stretch right’ and the accompanying factor would be taking nutritional food.

Try to cut down on this food or maybe nil:

1. Coffee – they contained caffeine that causes our senses to be over stimulated.
2. Mucus producers – Dairy products, white rice, white sugar, refined bread, refined grains, honey

This are the two food which I know to gave you that stiff body. There should be more if you want to add on to my list.

Practise this healthy diet for flexibility:

1. Replace dairy products with soya milk and brown sugar instead of white sugar.
2. Drink more juices instead of can drinks, etc…
3. Green stuff are good for you for example spirulina, chlorella, wheatgrass
4. Vitamin C

Ever wonder why yoga teachers are so flexible? I didn’t know this but without proper stretching exercises and proper nutrients, you can do yoga poses all day long and yet still be stiff as a board… now that is super depressing!

It was a dread whenever the weekend is here.  My usual weekend yoga routine now is replaced with loitering routine at the mall and not forgetting, spending more $$$ buying more shoes! Sigh… Wondering how long do we have to wait for the classes to resume.

One of the weekend when I was loitering in Mid Valley, I stumbled upon a very interesting foot reflexology called Kenko Reflexology & Fish Spa.

The Garra Rufa fish foot spa has been an ‘in’ thing nowadays. Since we have nothing much to do, we decided to gave it a try. We just did it for fun and out of curiosity. Not a bad experience after all having your foot nibbled by fishies. Those tiny fishies you see in the above pic is nothing. You should try a bigger ones and I mean really big ones like the size of two thumbs putting together!

The fish spa is supposed to be good for those with skin problems like eczema and psoriasis. Apparently, the Dr. Fish helps to clear away scaly and dead skin by nibbling on your foot thus allowing new skin to grow. For a 30minutes session, RM38 is not cheap but it is definitely worth the experience.  The whole 30minutes fish spa included a routine of occasionally leg lifting (hey, this is part of Yogaing), lots of squealing and controlled giggles.  After a while the foot started to get the hang of these nibbling.  It is quite therapeutic I would think.

The end result – the skin is smoother and cleaner especially on the back of the heels.  I would advise you to apply some moisturizer after the session.  Not sure about you but I do felt my skin is a bit dry from all the nibbling. I would return for another experience, simply because it is such a bizarre and amusing way to have my legs exfoliated.

Want to know what is the secret of loosing weight without popping all those expensive yet not-so-safe diet pills? This is what I’ve been consuming since 2 years ago – Kenko Diet Plum.

Originated from Japan, Kenko Diet Plum helps in detoxification, loosing weight and treating constipation problems. Kenko Diet Plums are natural organic plums without any chemicals. The looks might not be very appealing but they taste exactly like normal dried plums. This is how it works, for first timer, consumed 2 plums after dinner even though the instruction says here 4 plums.

The plum which contained mostly herbs from Golden Plum, Lactic Bacteria, Garcinia Cambotia, Alexandrian Senna, Angelica keiskei(Ashitaba), Essence of Pu-er Tea help create bowel movement and perform internal cleansing by excreting toxins and faeces. Therefore, you might find yourself visiting the toilet more often after consuming the plums. What you eat will flush out the next day. It also claims to gave you a slimmer waist line. What I totally love about the plum is the way they create bowel movement especially for someone like me with irregular toilet trip. Sometimes when I over indulged (especially during CNY) or ate too much unhealthy food like char kwey tiao or red meat, I will pop one plum after dinner and the next day, you will expect some very soft almost runny stool. That way, I can eat all the sinful food as much as I like and yet I don’t put on any weight at all.

After a week, consume only one plum a day or you can alternate the intake. At this period, exercising regularly to maintained the body weight and don’t forget to drink lots of water. You should try them if you envy the slim waist line like most of the yoga instructor.

Last weekend I was fortunate (yea, I still get my pay check unlike many unfortunate working people out there) to have a little getaway with my family to Avillion, Port Dickson. The hotel especially the water chalets is truly out of this world.  Do check out the hotel if you are interested in it.  At the meantime, I’m leaving you some yoga photographs I took of the kids as we are having so much fun clowning around in various poses.

Don’t ask me why his warrior II is seen with his back leg flying up.  I never teach him how to portray, he just did that on his own!

Kids was wobbling and hopping around trying to balance themself.  lol.  You should see the way they try to keep their balance and all of a sudden, here comes the butterfly hands and they drop in the pool.  Awesome!

So I get the kids to do it one more time for the animation.  Cool!

I’m trying to catch up on my yoga at YZ this weekend as the new timetable is arranged in a way that I can hardly fit them to my schedule.  Have a nice weekend ahead and say hi to your Mom for me.

Namaste!