Let me tell you something: I am not a fabulous cook, and I’m not the healthiest girl in the world. I am constantly searching for the next health related book or article. Today, I think I am bringing you something a little better-rounded health-wise, spirit-wise, and mentally.
Tara Stiles’ new book Make Your Own Rules Diet has some of the coolest and easiest vegan recipes I have encountered. I am a big fan of smoothies, and the book has a fine variety of easy to make smoothies. There are over 50 recipes in the book, and what I love about them is that there are no scary steps, no expensive ingredients, no fancy equipment. It is all affordable stuff.
When Tara pitched this book online, I was a little skeptical because she said she focuses on three things: your yoga mat, meditation cushion, and kitchen. I was kind of amazed by how this book transitions between these three aspects of health seamlessly. She writes in such an amazing, truly liberating, tone. There is no preaching, no strict rules, just simply what works for her and suggestions for what may work for us.
Okay, so we have talked about the yummy recipes. Let me tell you about the meditation bit, because that is also something I did not think would help at all. It turns out that I did not have a clear understanding of what meditation is: it is just focusing on your breath and setting an intention for your meditation session. Now, I still really suck at meditation, but I feel like we all need this quiet time, this “me time.” So, it is not a very farfetched idea for good health. In fact, I think it may increase awareness of our bodies a little more and make those trips to the fridge less frequent; you will know when you are hungry and when you are just bored.
I wanted to save the yoga for the end, because I am a huge Tara Stiles fan. I have her yoga books (this is her first food related book), watch her videos, and own her DVDs, and I just have to say that she is, by far, one of the coolest and most humble teachers I have encountered. In the book, Tara talks about having an eating disorder when she was in dance school. She then talked about how yoga helped her get out of this rut. Tara did the same to me when I was recovering from my own eating disorder, and I know she will help you with achieving health. She is fun. She is all about practicing with ease instead of trying to put your leg over your head or something scary like that. She includes yoga routines in this book, and I have to say that the poses are mostly easy, but there are scary ones in there (only one or two, though).
I bought this book because I want to become healthy again, and regain my confidence. I also bought it because I wanted to know if Tara could be a help for our Chic Vegan community, and, it turns out, she can! She has free videos online – just look up Tara Stiles and you will find lots of her many videos. Her books are inspiring and will help make your New Year’s resolution plans actually achievable. Check this book out, check out this teacher. She is great. And, while she is not 100% vegan, she promotes veganism so much. It’s really inspiring.
Enjoy!
Photos from TaraStiles.com
Nice post….