Pumpkin Cake

Pumpkin Cake

My mom started making pumpkin cake as a healthier alternative to pumpkin pie. Keep in mind though, it is still a dessert, and let's be honest, "dessert" and "healthy" don't really belong in the same sentence. But, if they happen to work together, then great!

Ingredients:

4 eggs

2 C sugar

1 Can Pumpkin

¾ C Margarine

2C Flour

2t Baking Soda

1/2t Salt

1/2t Cinnamon

Directions: 

1. Mix wet ingredients first then add dry ingredients (mix ingredients in order above)

2. Place in a deep cookie sheet

3. Bake 325°F for 30 minutes.

Check back each day through Thanksgiving for more recipes. Tomorrow I will be posting a vegetable recipe that is a great side dish for Thanksgiving. 

Wishing you all Health, Hope, & Happiness this Thanksgiving!

Abby

Holy Yoga Retreat

Where do I even start..? Well I flew into DC the day before hurricane Sandy was supposed to hit land. I was one of the last flights that actually made it to DC. When we landed, everyone on the plane started clapping, but I have to admit, I wasn't one of them that was clapping. I wasn't too thrilled to be in Sandy's path. I wanted to go to my Holy Yoga retreat, but not in the middle of a hurricane. I've never experienced a hurricane first hand, but I've seen enough footage of hurricanes on the weather channel to scare me away. Long story short, we were on the very bottom edge of the hurricane's path, so we really didn't experience anything besides a bad thunder storm. I didn't see any damage, but we did lose power for 3 days and 3 nights. It was dark, it was freezing cold, it was wet, and we couldn't shower.  And then there was light! We got the power back for the last four days and all was good.

What did I learn?
1. Holy Yoga is all about grace. If you want to come to class and sit in child's pose the whole time, awesome! If you want to sing along to all the songs, go for it. It isn't about doing the poses exactly right, and breathing correctly. While the poses and the breathing are important, they aren't the most important thing. At it's core, yoga is about having a deeper relationship with your body. It is about recognizing the warning signals your body is sending you before they get serious. This means that if you are in a pose, and you are doing the pose correctly, including the breathing, but you are feeling pain, then you need to honor that pain. Get out of the pose and go into child's pose. GRACE. I have been in classes before where they say to go to child's pose if you feel uncomfortable, but then if you do go into child's pose, they make a huge deal out of it because you aren't pushing yourself. This has caused me to ignore the signals that my body is sending me. In Holy Yoga, we truly honor this by giving grace to all of our students.

2. Holy Yoga is a time to praise God. I'm not a singer. By that, I mean that I cannot sing. At all. Unfortunately for me, singing is the main way that the christian community praises God. So, I've never really FELT the power of praising God until doing Holy Yoga. If there is one thing I can promise you about Holy Yoga, it is that you will leave every class feeling uplifted.

3. I actually developed an appreciation for restorative classes. I am a girl that likes to sweat when I'm working out. I want my heart to be racing, and I want to feel exhausted when I'm done exercising. When I first started attending yoga classes, I was bored. I thought I was wasting my time because I wasn't sweating and I wasn't tired enough when it was over. Eventually I found power yoga, and I fell in love with the intensity of that. At retreat, we did some restorative yoga and it totally transformed my views. Yoga serves many purposes. One of them is stress relief. Restorative yoga is all about stress relief, and when it is taught properly, it brings a sense of calm that I have rarely experienced. Stress relief is huge for your health! I hope you will give restorative classes a try, instead of avoiding them like I always did.

If you want to hear more about all the gritty details of retreat, or if you have more questions about what Holy Yoga actually is, please reach out to me abby.shroka@gmail.com I would LOVE to share my experiences and attempt to answer your questions!

For information on where and when I'll be teaching my classes, visit my website. All the info is under the "yoga" tab.

I'm also on twitter @Abby_Shroka Let me know if you're on twitter too, so I can follow you.

Wishing you Health, Hope, & Happiness
Abby

Flying Into the Eye of the Storm

I'm headed to DC in the early morning tomorrow. Hurricane Sandy is also headed straight for DC, so it is very appropriate to say that I am literally heading into the eye of the storm. Why am I going to DC? I have been in the process of getting certified to teach yoga, and in order to complete my registration, I have to attend a week long retreat in Virginia. If I make it to the actual destination of the retreat, I will be fine because it is inland and south of the hurricane, it is the actual act of flying into DC that is the major concern. Do I want to go at this point? Not really. Am I scared to go, scared of getting stranded in some random state for days, getting stuck in the middle of the hurricane with no food or power for days? Absolutely. So why am I going? First, I really believe in this yoga program and all that it entails. Second, I want to complete my certification after all the studying and preparation I have done.

I used to think that yoga was all about stretching, but there is so much more to it. I truly mean this when I say that ALL people can benefit from yoga. Yes, it does help with flexibility and agility, but it also helps you to recover faster from sore muscles and fatigue, it reduces stress, helps to lower high blood pressure, it helps you repair your body from injuries, and more.

The kind of yoga I am getting trained in is called Holy Yoga. It is considered a form of hatha yoga. The  difference between Holy Yoga and "regular yoga" is that in Holy Yoga, we meditate on God, and on his scripture. What better way to start your morning, or end your stressful work day than with Holy Yoga? If you have more questions about Holy Yoga, feel free to email me at abby.shroka@gmail.com I would love to talk with anyone about Holy Yoga in more depth.

When I get back from my retreat next week, I will write a blog all about the retreat, all of the things that I learned, and all about my crazy adventure with hurricane Sandy.  I will also be tweeting during my week at the retreat (as long as there is power so I can charge my phone). So, follow my on twitter, @Abby_Shroka to get a glimpse of all the knowledge I'll be learning next week.

Exercise For Your Life

I hope you all have had a great time meeting yourself where you are right now. Isn't it so great to experience life in the "precious present" instead of letting the past bog you down? If you missed my first blog about meeting yourself where you are today, you can read it here. I know I'm being a bit optimistic about letting the past go, because in reality, it's a lot harder than it seems. Below are three helpful hints to keep you on the right track to exercising for your LIFE. 

1. Experiment to find what works for you. I once had a person tell me that he joined a gym and tried every single class the gym offered, in order to find what type of exercising worked best for him. I'm not saying that all of you need to do this, but the man has a point. I can't use running as my sole form of exercise anymore because I have too many aches and pains from running in my youth. I still run, but I do it along with other things. I love kickboxing when I'm ticked off. Nothing blows off steam like kicking and punching for an hour. Yoga really helps to relieve stress and relax me, and P90X is a great way for me to still be competitive with myself. Experiment with different kinds of exercise to find what you enjoy, otherwise you won't be able to stick with it.

2. Work with what you have. If you only have 30 minutes to exercise in a day, that's ok, you just have to find a workout that is only 30 minutes. If you have little kids that won't leave you alone for one second, include them in your exercise. Park far away so that you have to walk across the parking lot instead of parking close, if that is all you can manage in a day, that is ok. If you hate working out in the frigid winter weather, find something you can do inside instead of forcing yourself to go outside anyways. Let's be honest, by February, you will have quit going outside, so you might as well find something to do inside. Whatever your obstacle is that is keeping you from working out, decide today to get ride of it. Instead, work with what you DO have.

3. Celebrate every victory.
It's so easy for us to look back on yesterday and beat ourselves up for all the things we didn't do. Instead, focus on what you did accomplish. If you want to lose 100 pounds, celebrate every single pound that comes off. Don't say, well I lost 5 pounds, but who cares because I'm still 95 pounds heavier than I want to be. Instead, say I am five pounds lighter than I was, and I'm five pounds closer to my goal. Every single time you exercise, take a moment when you finish to acknowledge it. Remind yourself that you are exercising for your life. Celebrate the fact that you are exercising for your life.

No matter where you are today, I hope that you start to focus on where you're going. Take advantage of what you do have, so that you can celebrate every victory along the way. For more information make sure to visit my website www.abbyshroka.com. For daily tips on healthy living and exercise, follow me on twitter @Abby_Shroka

Wishing you all health, hope, & happiness
Abby

Meet yourself where you are

A lot of ex-athletes struggle to exercise. Let's face it, the glory days are behind us, so why bother right? Well, the glory days may be behind you, but your LIFE is ahead of you and that is worth exercising for. Talk to someone that has been diagnosed with cancer, suffered a heart attack, or given themselves shots of insulin every day for the last year, and they will all tell you that it is SOO worth it to exercise for your life.

Still, ex-athletes struggle to exercise. You don't have the time you used to, you don't get the results you used to, and you don't have the body you used to. This leads to disappointment and frustration. Not to mention that you have a family, a mortgage, and a million commitments to keep up with. You stop exercising for a day, and it turns into a week and then a year. How can you fix this?

Meet Yourself Where You Are Today

There was a time in my life where I could cruise through mile after mile of running at 6:00 minute pace, with no pain. Yesterday, I went running and I was not cruising, I was trying hard, and I ran only 3 miles at 8:30 pace. There are two possible reactions I could have had to this. I could have been extremely frustrated that my pace was so much slower than what it used to be. I used to react like this, but all it did was cause me to hate running and exercising altogether. Instead, when I finished my run and saw that I ran 8:30 pace I was excited. I had run 3 miles with NO pain, which is huge for me. (I have a lot of aches and pains from my glory days). I was also excited because it was the fastest and farthest I had run since I started running again. On my next run, I hope to run 3 miles faster than 8:30 pace. Even if I run 8:29 pace I'll still celebrate that victory.

So, how did I get from the attitude of frustration over not being able to run like I used to, to the attitude of victory over running much slower? I wake up everyday and I meet myself where I am that day. You have to stop wasting your time looking back on how it used to be. The reason ex-athletes stop exercising and get very unhealthy is because they can't stop looking back at their prime. If you haven't exercised in a year, meet yourself there today. Acknowledge where you are NOW, and then work to improve it. Don't just jump in a expect to be where you were at your prime. Every five years my dad "erases" all of his exercising accolades and starts over from scratch. He told me he does this so that he can continue to compete with himself realistically. He can't expect his 40 year old body to still compete with his 35 year old body, and he can't expect his 50 year old body to compete with his 45 year old body. Instead, he meets himself where he is at that moment, and goes from there.

No matter where you are today, whether you're 100 pounds overweight, haven't exercised in 5 years, or have been diagnosed with diabetes, I hope that you will look in the mirror tonight and meet yourself where you are right now, so that you can start exercising again.

Part 2 of this blog will be up next Tuesday, so make sure to check back then. If you have more questions, please visit my website www.abbyshroka.com I also just got a twitter account @Abby_Shroka so follow me if you're interested in getting daily health tips.

Wishing you all health, hope, & happiness
Abby

Waffles Made Healthy

Brunch has to be the best meal of the day. We make a huge brunch every Saturday morning that is full of our favorite breakfast foods. My husband LOVES homemade waffles. He would eat them every day if they were available. Over time, I have worked to make them healthier for him.

The first substitute: wheat flour. Having waffles with white flour (or any other breakfast carbohydrate) is a great way to ruin your day. Seriously! Those white carbs turn into sugar when digested. This causes you to have a sugar rush, quickly followed by a sugar crash. This leaves you feeling tired and lethargic for a few hours until your body recovers. There is also close to zero nutritional value, but most of you already know this.

The second substitution: change your toppings. The easiest one to change is your syrup. Getting 100% pure maple syrup is one of the best things you can do. It has natural sugars in it that your body can use for energy, so it won't cause a sugar crash. It also is free from all the chemicals and junk in regular syrup. I think it tastes alot better too, but thats obviously not a fact.

You can also substitute the butter that you put on waffles with peanut butter. This will add healthy fat and protein (from the peanuts) to your meal. It will leave you feeling fuller longer, which will ward off over-eating throughout the rest of the day. For people who try to stay away from dairy, this is a good option.

The last substitution: add fruit. Ok, I know this is technically an addition, not a substitution, but just hear me out. Cut up your favorite fruits and add them to the waffles. Cut up fruits fit great in the waffles and the fruit/ syrup mix is an awesome combination. We like to put berries on our waffles.

Even though these substitutions are meant specifically for waffles, they are still a good rule of thumb to start with for any breakfast carbohydrate. Stick to wheat instead of white, use natural sweeteners, and add fruit. Substituting your breakfast in this way will help you to stay full, satisfied, and energized all morning long. Isn't that better than feeling sick and sluggish all morning?

Make sure to check out my website for more great recipes and substitution ideas.

Wishing you all health, hope, and happiness
Abby

I Survived the Wine Drought

Hi All! I survived my 30 day wine drought! The first week was awful. (you can read more about that in that blog here) I didn't know how I was possibly going to make it three more weeks after that first week. I have to admit though, it got so much easier. By the end of the month, I wasn't craving wine anymore and I didn't even miss it. (gasp!)

There was only one time in the second two weeks that I actually got a strong craving for wine. I made spaghetti with homemade pasta sauce, and the smell of the sauce was making me crave a glass of my favorite merlot. That italian food will get me every time!

I also noticed that I didn't get one headache after the first week. Before I started this wine challenge I was getting 3-4 headaches a week at night, after drinking wine. I still got headaches in the first week that I quit drinking wine. I now realize this was my body detoxing itself. I always tell my clients to listen to your body. This is clearly my body telling me that it doesn't like it when I drink wine every night with dinner. My body can't function as efficiently when I drink wine that often.

When October 1st hit, and I was able to drink wine again, I didn't even have a desire to drink it. I still did have a drink of course, but the desire wasn't there like I thought it would be. Since then, it has been 10 days, and I've only had wine twice. Not because I'm trying to cut back, but because I just don't have the craving for it anymore. I feel really good now that I'm not getting headaches and clearly my body is happy. If my body really NEEDED wine, it would be craving the wine for me.

I really want to encourage you all to take a break from drinking wine and see how you feel. It doesn't have to be 30 days like I did, but try more than seven. Ten days is a great place to start. That is enough to get through your body's detox period and really start to feel the positive changes. I would love to hear from you about any positive changes you feel after taking a break from wine!

Don't forget to check out my website for more info www.abbyshroka.com

Wishing you health, hope, & happiness
Abby