Tips, Thoughts, Stories
About Living Foods & Ayurveda
Dear Mamas and Mamas-to-be,
Before we dive into the recipes I wanted to chat. There is so much turmoil in the food world today, on every level from soil to plate.
In Ayurveda we talk about honoring the 5 elements in our food (earth, water, fire, air, and ether) and inviting them to become the five elements of our body and our babies bodies.
Food neurosis is one of our generation’s conundrums. Let’s put our food neurosis aside and simply enjoy the colors, textures, the variety, the life force energy of what attracts us. Whether you harvest from your natural food store, your garden or the foods, pay attention to what is calling to your sense organs. We begin the process of absorbing nutrients with our gathering our food.
This is so uncomplicated, it’s bizarre to think of needing to read anything about food to know what you need. Pay attention to what your body wants and not what your mind thinks you should or shouldn’t have.
As you walk through the produce section or farmer’s market, seat your attention in your baby’s awareness. What is your baby attracted to? What is so appealing you can’t resist? Get more of that!
Make your kitchen your friend and it will nourish you. Practice weekly kitchen sadhana (sprucing up and spiritual food prep) and your body will runs moothly.
Nourish thyself,
Cate Stillman
Food Glorious Food!
Your plasma feeds your baby. Your plasma is liquid.
We are flowing; water based. If your food is water based you waste less energy on feeding your baby. That is why my recipes are mostly juices, soups and smoothies…. and a few stews. Mushy is magnificent.
Here are some simple juice, smoothie and soup recipes to start your exploration of liquid-based foods with:
Spicy Green Lemonade (juicer)
1-‐2 apples
½ c. parsley or cilantro
6 stalks celery or 4 kale/collards
1 inch ginger (less or none if you run hot)
½ bunch kale or other seasonal greens
½ lemon
Sweet Elimination Juice (Juicer) – Great for constipation!
1 apple
6 stalks celery
1 beet
1 inch ginger
½ c. cilantro
½ cucumber
Green Vegetable Smoothie (blender)
2 cups of room temperature water
½ medium-‐size cucumber
3 large stalks of celery
2 stalks of kale/collards
1/3 bunch of cilantro
1/3 bunch of parsley (parsley can be doubled as cilantro substitute or vice versa)
Juice of half a fresh lemon
Blend ingredients until smooth. Drink while s0ll fresh.
Blue Smoothie
1 pear
1 cup blueberries
½ cup
c. green vegetable (kale, cucumber, celery, parsley, cilantro)
2 cups water
Date Energy Shake
This can be substantial snack or breakfast during pregnancy or postpartum and can be served starting right after birth! Avoid towards the end of the day.
10 medium dates, pitted and soaked
1 tsp soaked fennel seeds
12-‐25 soaked whole raw almonds
3 c warm water
2 pinches cardamom
2 pinches saffron (optional)
- Soak the pitted dates and almonds with optional fennel seeds overnight in separate bowls.
- In the morning, drain and peel almonds. If you have difficulty, pour some some boiling hot water over almonds to blanch and then ,peel them easily (slip skins while the water is still hot or they stick again).
- Blend with 2 cups fresh warm water and all other ingredients for 2 minutes or until smooth.
Yummy Raw Soup
2 cups fresh carrot juice
1 ripe avocado
2 tbsp. fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
Blend all of the ingredients together in a blender on high until smooth.
Simple Vegetable Soup for 1
2 ounces mixed vegetables (celery, zucchini, carrots, turnips, asparagus, potatoes)
½ Tabslespoon oil or butter (optional)
1 cup water Rapunzel vegetable bouillon or sea salt/Braggs to taste
Chopped parsley or cilantro to garnish (optional)
Clean the vegetables and dice and slice attractively If liked, heat the oil /butter in a pan and sauté the mixed vegetables until they are slightly softer. Place the water in a large pan or stockpot and bring to a boil. Add the vegetables, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 15-‐ 20 min. Season with tamari or sea salt, and serve garnished with chopped parsley or cilantro.
Options:
• You may blend soup after cooked with food processor or blender.
• Legumes can be soaked ,and added to the water, and cooked until almost soft before adding vegetables.
• You may add 1ounce seasonal greens, such as sorrel, spinach, dandelion watercress, or 3 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs, such as basil, fennel, dill, or tarragon, to the soup before seasoning it. Cook for 5 minutes longer, then season with sea salt or tamari.
• Replace some of the water with milk or goat milk; do this toward the end of the cooking. Alternatively, add 1-‐2 tablespoons cream or yogurt per person before serving.
• For each person, sauté 1 tablespoon rolled oats with the chopped vegetables. This makes a light, creamy, nourishing soup.
About Cate Stillman: I’m devoted to upgrading the health of our culture through making wisdom teachings practical and effective… on the mat, and in our kitchens, our yards, our communities and ecosystems. I have an agenda. I have a solid track record, and a plan for action. I fuse planetary evolutionary consciousness with dynamic, practical living foods engagement of Ayurveda and Yoga. Hang out with me and you’ll end up eating your ecosystem.
Mamabirthing is a holistic, online course designed to deepen your intuition and develop systems and skills for upleveling the wellness and the thrive of your changing family. Mamabirthing engages your soul, your body and your mind on an educational journey into your potential as a mother. This is for new mothers, experienced mothers, and prenatal/ postpartum professionals alike.
What you get with Mamabirthing:
Mamabirthing is a guide to evolve your wellness… whether you are just pregnant, preparing for birth, or postpartum. This course is centered in the rich tradition of Ayurvedic medicine, yet applied in a cutting-edge, practical way. Ayurveda has the best historical track record for honoring mothers as the midline of the species and honoring the prenatal through postpartum process as essential to a women’s long-term health.
Read more about this downloadable course here:
Or for a deeper exploration into the 5,000 year old and yet ever-evolving and super practical health system of Ayurveda, click here:
About Jessica
Jessica Jennings, MS, ERYT
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About Doulas
A doula is there to support your goals for your birth and help you achieve them, whether you are wanting a birth totally free of interventions, a c-section, or anything in between. This is your 
body, your baby, and your birth and no one else can decide what is best for you. Should you choose to give birth without interventions, an experienced support person is even more critical for both you and your partner to help you achieve this wonderful goal. Doulas bring compassion, love, and confidence to new families giving them the tools they need to begin their journey into parenthood.
When choosing your doula make sure you feel a good connection with her. It’s more important that you have a good feeling about her than her level of experience, certifying organization, or how popular she is in your community. Remember that birth is an intimate experience and it may be very long. How will you feel about spending a day or two in a room with your partner and your doula together? How will you feel about her touching you? And, how well will she and your partner work together? Trust your intuition!
Some helpful tips for what to do during early labor:
1. Rest! It’s hard to avoid the excitement of meeting your new baby, but please remember that labor can take a long time. It’s exhaustion, not pain, that often causes a woman to change her mind and opt for pain relief. If this is your first baby, you will likely think that you are further into your labor than you are. Resist the urge to “work” through your contractions and try to ignore your labor as long as you can. When you can no longer ignore it, you’re probably still somewhat early in the process and you will have saved vital strength and energy.
2. Eat and Drink! Dehydration causes fatigued muscles that have to work harder. Cramping sensations and uterine irritability are more intense with dehydration so your level of comfort is dependent on your fluid intake. A sign of dehydration is long, painful contractions with little progress. Eating will provide you with the fuel you need for this amazing journey.
3. Breathe and let go! Like hydration, oxygenation is critically important for your muscles to work efficiently. Take long slow breaths and let your body go limp like a wet noodle during each contraction or wave. Releasing tension helps the baby descend and the cervix open.
One of my primary goals is to reduce stress and fear because these emotions can inhibit labor progress, increase discomfort, and can reduce overall feelings of satisfaction about the birth experience. Another primary goal is to provide comfort measures and tools for progress. Doulas are trained in many different ways to help mothers cope with the sensations of labor. We find that each woman is unique in what will help her, so it’s important to have many options available to try. We learn various techniques to help with progress when the baby is not descending due to its position.
Remember that partners are also going through their own strong emotions of becoming parents while at the same time witnessing the person they love going through something quite intense. So not only does a doula support the mother, but she also supports the partner.
Many partners are concerned that a doula will take their place as the primary support person. This could not be further from the truth as no doula could ever provide the love and commitment of a woman’s partner. Once partners realize that having a doula allows them to support the woman they love with the confidence of not being alone and solely responsible for everything at the birth, they are all for it.
Margie Levy has been a certified doula since 2002 and has served over 275 families. It was the birth of her own two children in 1991 and 1993 that made her realize how critical support is for birthing families, and she loves supporting these families as they grow. She can be found at www.SupportiveDoula.com.
5 Things That Suck About Being a New Mom – and How Yoga Helped Me Overcome Them. #1: Isolation
1. Isolation
The blissful days with my newborn sometimes felt like I was happily strolling in a tunnel singing as I went, and suddenly I would stop and realize: I am all alone. I would look around with a meek “hello?”… and things started to feel a little… well, less blissful.
Picking up the phone to call a friend could make me feel worse – “I got the baby to take a nap finally!” did not create the kind of victory celebration I felt was deserved.
I loved my Mommy Support Group, my Mom Yoga+Baby classes, and my Mom friends I met in the park weekly. It helped a lot hearing about how others were up every two hours too, and in the quick un-restful sleep in between, they too would dream that the baby was wanting more milk and would wake themselves up.
But even then… who hasn’t been lonely even surrounded by a bunch of people?
Yoga offers a different way to look at isolation: that it is not others we aren’t connecting to, it is actually our own Self. Our Higher Self, the one that is the biggest, oldest, wisest person we can be. And that when we connect to this Higher Self, we get access to a huge network of cellular, cultural, even primal memory, intuition, and support.
We all know the short-hand for this place within ourselves: “the heart.”
But how to find it, amidst diaper changes and feedings and trying to find a moment to shower?
This is where the form of yoga – if you knew it before – must change, and why we yogis decided to create a community simply to addres the journey of “Pregnancy, Motherhood & Beyond.” We never go back to the way things were. Our hearts will always be filled with this new being. This means our center shifts, and in some ways, it can become a little murkier in there.
But the yoga can sometimes feel even sweeter, because it is so hard-won. Instead of a daily meditation practice, it’s a rare gift to have 5 minutes at some random time to sit and connect in.
So here is what to do when you do get this gift of time to yourself:
5-Minute Open-to-the-Self Meditation
Always start with a forward bend.
Then sit on the edge of a blanket, close your eyes, and let your pelvis get heavy with each exhale. With each inhale, expand the space inside from front to back and top to bottom.
The point of this is not to fix anything or change anything, it’s just to turn your awareness inward. Have a notebook nearby for the inevitable to-do’s that will come into your mind. Clear the tasks away from the screen of your mind by writing them on paper as they arise.
After this, thoughts might begin to occur to you that you hadn’t noticed before: “I’m exhausted.” Or surprising: “I can’t believe he said that!” Allow whatever arises to float away. If you feel the need to address the issue, then write it down for later. You are peeling off layers here. Keep going.
You might find little spaces in between thoughts where you find yourself resting. Can you gently keep bringing your awareness back to the spaces in between your thoughts? When we do this, the space naturally expands and you might notice the thoughts are a little slower, quieter, and even more profound.
Notice there is a pleasant feeling as you sit in the expanded space of what we call the heart. You are accessing a wisdom in your cells that has been passed along through the genes of millions of women who have done this before you. You are also accessing the bliss that is a part of who we are, no matter what the situation, what we call anandamaya kosha or the bliss body. Keep bringing your awareness into the spaces between the thoughts as long as you can. You are deeply rejuvenating here.
Around this time, you’ll see a bright light. Just kidding! Instead, you’ll probably hear those cranky sounds of your baby waking up. Allow yourself to stay for a few breaths. Let your baby experience the world without you.
Feel your spacious heart embracing this little being – and everyone else who you love, as they walk through their own sorts of tunnels. When you are ready, bring your palms to your heart and set your intention until next time: May I enjoy living in the space of my heart.
In 5 minutes you’ve shifted how you feel in the world by shifting where you are in your Self. For those days when you’re feeling alone, whether you’re with people or not, 5 minutes a day can make all the difference. Like a little window you can peak through whenever you have a moment, and feel more connected to the world all around.
Try this anywhere – right now! And I’d love to read your comments below.
Recommended Reading List
Pregnancy, Breastfeeding and Baby Care Books
Here are books recommended by members of the Ma Yoga community. Try before you buy – go to www.lapl.org and have them sent to your branch. They’ll call you when they’re ready.
Happy reading!
Books On Pregnancy and Birth
Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth – Ina May Gaskin
The Gentle Birth Method – Gowri Motha
Active Birth: The New Approach to Giving Birth Naturally - Janet Balaskas
A Good Birth, A Safe Birth: Choosing and Having the Childbirth Experience You Want, Third Revised Edition – Diana Korte, Roberta Scaeral
Birthing from Within: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation - Pam England, Rob Horowitz
Sweet Dreams - Paul Fliess, MD
Magical Child - Joseph Clinton Pearce
The Secret Life of the Unborn Child – Thomas Verny, MD with John Kelly
Meditations for Pregnancy: 36 Weekly Practices for Bonding with Your Unborn Baby – Michelle LeClaire
Mind Over Labor – Carl Jones
The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth - Henci Goer
The Birth Partner - Penny Simkin
Our Babies, Ourselves – Meredith F. Small
Birth Without Violence – Federick Leboyer
The Pregnancy Journal – A. Christine Harris, PhD
The Expectant Father – Armin A. Brott, Jennifer Ash
The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy - Vicki Iovine
Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy and Baby’s First Year
Dear Parents, Caring for Infants with Respect - Magda Gerber
Birth and Beyond: the Definitive Guide to Your Pregnancy, Your Birth, Your Family – from Minus 9 to Plus 9 Months - Yehudi Gordon (available from Amazon.co.uk with a credit card – they deliver Airmail. This book has a particularly useful A-Z Health Guide that is very detailed and became my bible with my newborn.)
The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth by Sheila Kitzinger.
Books on Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding Your Baby, Shela Kitzinger
Bestfeeding. Getting Breastfeeding Right for You, 2nd edition, Mary Renfrew, Chloe Fisher, and Suzanne Arms
Breastfeeding, Pure and Simple, La Leche League International, Gwen Gotsch, 2000
New Mother’s Guide to Breastfeeding, The American Academy of Pediatrics, Joan Younger Meeks
Nursing Mother, Working Mother, Gale Pryor
The Breastfeeding Book, Martha Sears, RN and William Sears MD
The Nursing Mother’s Companion, Kathleen Huggins, 1999
The Nursing Mother’s Guide to Weaning, Kathleen Huggins and Linda Ziedrich
The Nursing Mother’s Problem Solver, Claire Martin, 2000
The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers, Jack Newman, MD, and Teresa Pitman, 2002
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, La Leche League International
Books on Infant and Baby Care
Trees Make the Best Mobiles: Simple Ways to Raise Your Child in a Complex World by Jessica Teich, Brandel France de Bravo
The Baby Book - Dr. William Sears (or any of his other books including The Attachment Parenting Book)
The Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby (check out the E.A.S.Y. routine – saved us) — by Tracy Hogg, Melinda Blau
The Vital Touch : How Intimate Contact With Your Baby Leads To Happier, Healthier Development - Sharon Heller, PhD
The New Father: A Dad’s Guide to The First Year; A Dad’s Guide to the Toddler Years – by Armin A. Brott
Listening to Your Baby: A New Approach to Parenting Your Newborn – Jay Gordon, MD
Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer - Harvey Karp (and check out the dvd at the public library – lapl.org)
Sweet Dreams – Paul Fliess, MD
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (A La Leche League International Book) – Gwen Gotsch, etal.
Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy and Baby’s First Year
Dear Parents, Caring for Infants with Respect - Magda Gerber
Birth and Beyond: the Definitive Guide to Your Pregnancy, Your Birth, Your Family – from Minus 9 to Plus 9 Months - Yehudi Gordon (available from Amazon.co.uk with a credit card – they deliver Airmail. This book has a particularly useful A-Z Health Guide that is very detailed and became my bible with my newborn.)
Why I Love Teaching Prenatal Yoga
Why do I love teaching moms-to-be?
We’ve all heard stories of people who get terrible diagnoses of scary illnesses and they say that it was the greatest gift of their lives. They say that it helped them appreciate each day, each moment in this body.
Why does a diagnosis do this for people?
My guess is that it’s one of the first things that has happened to a lot of people in their adult lives where they couldn’t in all reasonableness blame themselves. This was something that happened TO them. Something that made a big truth super clear: WE ARE NOT IN CHARGE. That we are part of something bigger and we have a short time here and we might as well stop trying to change things we can’t.
When we learn this, we start to bring our awareness to the things that we are in charge of: our response to the world. OK, so this is what the universe is giving me. What am I going to do now?
So this is where teaching prenatal yoga comes in: people who decide to do this journey consciously, learn its lessons, and grow from the experience, are in this same, grace-filled space. They are starting to receive this great teaching: we get the pregnancy we get, and stressing out about controlling the process is not going to help.
As teachers, it is an amazing experience to be guiding people toward the ways they CAN positively affect their experience. Breathing fully. Aligning their bodies. Moving in to the higher Self. And when people do this, there is great joy to be experienced and shared. A great appreciation for each moment on this journey.
This is why I teach prenatal and post-natal. Not because it’s gentle yoga – it isn’t. Not because I think babies are really cute – ok, I do. But because I want to be there to see the light turn on in women’s eyes when they start to listen to their intuition, when they start to pay attention to not just what they’re eating but how, because there’s a new awareness of the deeper energy of things, and if it didn’t matter enough before, now there is a baby depending on them and it all MATTERS.
If you would like to learn how to teach prenatal yoga, please click here. It’s a wonderful, joy-filled weekend and I would love to have you be a part of it.
http://mayoga.com/prenatal-teacher-training/
Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga In Your Neighborhood
When I was pregnant, I taught prenatal yoga and I was so excited to have a bunch of new moms to hang out with.
What I hadn’t taken into account was that they were all a half hour from me – and with a baby, that might as well be in another city.
I realized how important it is for new moms to have community NEARBY. People who could meet me at a park at a moment’s notice. Friends who could come by when I needed a grown-up to talk to. Thus, Ma Yoga was born.
Ma Yoga teachers, trained in both the biomechanical and heart principles of Anusara yoga as well as prenatal yoga, start classes in their own neighborhoods in home studios, rented spaces and other comfortable locations.
Our classes are small and friendly, and just as much about kula – heart-filled community – as they are about strengthening and opening the body, preparing for labor and beyond, and enjoying the journey.
Join us for a free class - no pre-registration required. Just go to locations, find your class, and come by.
Here is the Los Angeles Location page:
http://mayoga.com/los-angeles/
If you don’t find one in your neighborhood, let me know. We’ll try to find a teacher and a space and get a group together for you.
Come make friends, share experiences, learn great tips and discover a stronger, more free and more joyful Self than you ever thought possible!
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
Questions to Ask Your Doctor (and desirable answers)
from Julie Freitas, Birth and Infant Care Educator
1. How long can I go past my due date befure induction? (2 weeks with fetal assessment)
2. Will I need an intervenous drip throughout labor (only if your beta strip test is positive or you want medication)
3. What are your feelings of birth with and without anesthesia? (I will support you in either choice)
4. If my water bag breaks, how soon do I need to go to the hospital if the fluid is clear? (24 hours)
5. If I choose to use epidural anesthesia, how long can I push for before a Caesarian birth is performed? (4 hours)
6. Will I need an episiotomy? (only if necessary)
7. When do you arrive at the hospital? (6-9 centimeters)
8. Will you be going out of town near my due date? (hopefully not, and if it’s at all possible, meet with partners).
9. Can I walk around and change positions during labor?
10. Can our baby stay in the room with us the entire time after delivery to have all the newborn procedures doen, or is it necessary to place him/her in the nursery?
8 Tips for Moms to Retain Your Sanity (or find it again if it’s gone)
Here are some other ideas to keep yourself sane in this amazingly challenging time:
1. Find a new-mom buddy to call and share poop and sleep stories. Nobody else is as interested in poop as another new-mom.
2. Set up a park date with a bunch of moms you know every week. At least one will probably make it there so you can enjoy some grown-up talk.
3. Find a Mom Yoga+Baby class so you can move your body while connecting with your baby, and meet other moms.
4. Find a mommy support group (I loved www.NancyBeyda.com) or a breastfeeding support group (Glendale Memorial, La Leche League, Pump Station). Go.
5. Sleep when your baby sleeps. Even if you’re not tired, lie down. Your body rests when you are still.
6. Leave the dishes in the sink. Leave the laundry undone. Ask someone to bring you a meal. Ask them to make it healthy – cooked lentils, veggies and rice is great. Make it easy to digest. Your job for now is to keep your baby as happy as possible, so let the rest go. Put a sign on the door that says “Please ask what you can do to help.” Most people want to help, they just don’t know what to do.
7. Traditional Indian culture has a saying: “The first 42 days determines the health of the mother for the next 42 years.” Take care of yourself. Or rather, ask others to take care of you (or at least the laundry, dishes, and food prep).
8. Rub yourself down with coconut oil before the shower at least 3 times a week. It seeps in to the system and is very healing for the body (only use almond oil on the baby – it’s the most gentle). Start this practice now with your baby, and when your toddler is 3 you will have a wonderful loving massage ritual to do for each other before the bath!
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