Community News
Cultivating Mindfulness

Spring is in the air and now is the time to plant seeds and reap the benefits throughout the year. Mindfulness is a seed that you can plant and practice daily in your lives. Mindfulness is cultivating the seeds of awareness, paying attention, and noticing what nourishes or depletes us. Mindfulness also includes non-judgment and self-compassion and enjoying our precious life. Some seeds you can sow are choosing to experience greater calmness, responding vs. reacting to stressful situations, operating less on automatic pilot. Explore the mind-body connection and ask; what am I noticing in this moment and what am I feeling? Trust your inner wisdom as you make decisions and healthier choices. Gratitude and taking the time to be of service to others, listening, and a caring attitude are all seeds of growth. Allow yourself to shift some of your patterns, perspectives and sow more seeds of contentment.

Bernice Parent
La Vie Mindful
www.laviemindful.com

Pet Health

Want to get fit while hanging out with your dog?

No longer do owners need to choose between going to the gym and spending time with their own dogs. These classes are the first of their kind to be offered in Winnipeg and are designed for humans and dogs of all fitness levels and all fitness goals. Our goal is to create an environment where each individual team can be nurtured and supported in getting fit and having fun together, all while building a beautiful connection with each other. These classes can be used for socializing puppies and adult dogs, connecting with your dog, creating family time, getting an overweight dog in shape, having fun while burning off the dogs’ energy and the list goes on and on!

Contact Grassroots Canine today to get started on a new leash on life!

Shalin Hustad
www.grassrootscanine.com

Book Club: The pH Miracle

Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health
by Robert O. Young, PhD, and Shelley Redford Young.

Never count calories, fat grams, or portion size again! Your body’s pH balance is the key to optimal health, weight, mental clarity, and overall vigor. Strike the right balance by nourishing your body with certain foods to create an alkaline environment, and say good-bye to low energy, poor digestion, extra pounds, aches and pains, and disease. This innovative program, proven effective over decades, works with your body’s chemistry to revitalize and maintain your health. Now completely revised, updated, and expanded, this classic guide includes the latest research and reveals the secrets of an alkaline-based diet (think plant-based, non-processed whole foods). Learn about how to remove toxins and balance your life with the incredible health benefits of this program.

Clean Eating: Spring Masala

Help balance your digestive system.

Ingredients:

1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. cardamom seeds
2 tbsp. coriander seeds
1 tsp. black peppercorns
1 tbsp. yellow mustard seeds.

Dry roast seeds together in a cast iron frying pan, until mustard seeds start to pop.
Grind all seeds and spices using hand grinder or mortar and pestle into a fine powder and store in an airtight glass jar.
Great on steamed vegetables, stir fry, soups, popcorn.

Kalee Mund
www.kaleemund.com

Made in Manitoba: Rawnata

Need a light, healthy snack to munch on during your coffee break?
Try Rawnata Hemp Snackers, available in chocolate, vanilla, and goji. Hemp Snackers are crunchy energy bars that supply protein, fibre, and Omega 3’s.

Need a healthy cracker that contains no flour?
Flax Crackers may be the solution! Pair them with cheese, gourmet jams, gourmet mustards, salsas, and hummus for a wonderful treat.

Rawnata is a modern twist on the Latin name “renate”, which means “reborn”. Rawnata is a Manitoba company that focuses on utilizing raw flax, hemp, and chia seeds. No flour, no additives, no preservatives and no empty calories. We use nothing but raw organic seeds, other nutrient-dense and purposeful vegan ingredients to renew and energize you. Ingredients are sourced locally, where and when possible.

www.rawanta.com

Positive Change

You probably have things in your life that you would like to change. It is easy to approach this desire to change from a position of negativity and hostility. We say to ourselves, “I’m going to kick this weight problem if it’s the last thing I do” or “I refuse to be stuck in this lousy job forever.” What we don’t realize is that negativity steals our energy. Running away from something rather than moving toward something leaves us drained and depletes our motivation. That’s why it’s often easier to lose weight once you start to see physical results. Our minds shift from thoughts like “I don’t want to be heavy” to “I want more of this getting thin stuff”. Make a list of things you would like to be different in your life and try to phrase your goals in a positive way. See how much more empowering it is to focus on what you do want rather than what you don’t want.

Tiffany Prochera
www.tiffanyprochera.com

Transform your Life for a Better You!

When those Spring winds blow it signals time for change. Embrace this Spring as a new adventure, an opportunity to learn something new about yourself. What if you could sample a class or learn about a teacher before committing funds to a series? The 7th annual Spirit Seekers at Fort Garry Hotel March 20-22 is a great place to sample a variety of workshops, expert authors and teachers. Enjoy it as a weekend retreat, a single day or class to awaken, energize and reconnect. Have some fun and get a psychic reading from one of 15 different readers varying from angel, tarot to flame. Net proceeds from the Psychic Fair benefit CancerCare Manitoba where all funds raised stay in Manitoba. Browse the marketplace for all your books, tools and jewellery needs. View this year’s exciting program at www.muddywatertours.ca

Cupping Facial

Women in Asia, Russia and Europe have been utilizing negative pressure facial cupping for rejuvenation and youth maintenance for 5000 years. This gentle, but effective treatment makes you look and feel youthful and radiant. It tones your facial muscles and reduces under eye puffiness. A natural face lift that improves the blood circulation to your facial muscles. This treatment also increases circulation and nutrients to the skin, increases lymphatic flow, and reduces inflammation. By increasing blood flow and circulation to the skin, your skin will regain its youthful appearance.

Benefits may include the following:

  • reduce puffiness
  • minimize dark circles and facial scars
  • lift muscles and jowls
  • plump lips
  • minimize under-eye bags
  • reduce sinuses

    It gives your face a lymphatic drainage and increases circulation, resulting in a clearer, cleaner, more even complexion with such beautiful colour you will forget to wear makeup!

    Current Expressions, currentexpressions.ca

Practice Balance

Balance came a lot easier when we were kids, tightrope walking across a log, or leaping one-legged in a game of hopscotch. As we get older and spend much of our time walking on land and sitting down, we begin to slowly lose our steadiness. Like strength, balance is one of our use-it-or-lose-it skills and the cost if we fall likely won’t be a bruise or scrape but rather a break.

Whether you’re 65 or 35, the time to practice balance is now, and you can begin, today with the brand new Body Balance class at Curves.* The body balance poses require you to focus on and engage your core, so the bonuses are that they’ll help you strengthen your abs, hips, and lower back and improve your posture. Better balance not only helps prevent falls, it can raise your quality of life.

*Scheduled workouts and classes vary.

Curves Southdale, curves.com

Book Club: Disease-Proof

by David L. Katz, MD, MPH.

The skills you need to slash your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and more—by 80 percent. Though we may not realize it, our behaviour has tremendous effects on our health, well-being, and even gene expression.

In Disease-Proof, renowned preventive medicine specialist Dr. David Katz reveals that we can reduce our risk of any chronic disease:

  1. Choose wisely from different classes of macronutrients (complex carbohydrate, lean protein, and healthy fats).
  2. Create a healthy plate with the proper ratio of foods – half veggies, one-quarter whole grains or a starchy vegetable, one-quarter lean protein.
  3. Exercise portion control so you don’t accidentally overeat.
  4. Figure out how to satisfy your emotional needs without food by doing something else that soothes or excites you.
  5. Get in the right frame of mind before you eat and expect to be satisfied by a reasonable amount of food.
Kalee’s Golden Milk Recipe

Creamy, faintly sweet, fragrant, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, deeply nourishing, warming and perfect for cold winter days.

Ingredients:

½ tsp Turmeric powder or fresh turmeric root
¼ tsp Ginger powder or fresh ginger root
½ tsp Cinnamon powder
¼ tsp Cardamom powder
1 or 2 Dates, chopped
2 tsps. Ghee (clarified butter)
1 cup of Milk of your choice (make sure its good quality, organic milk or nut milk, best thing to do is make your own nut milk to insure no unwanted additives)

Directions:

Pour the milk (whichever you choose) into a saucepan and add the spices, dates and ghee. Turn the heat to med-high and warm the ingredients together until little bubbles begin to creep up the sides of the pot. Turn off the heat and cover the saucepan for about 3mins allowing it to steep. Pour into a cup and serve warm.

Note: there should be no need to add any other sweetener as the dates will have sweetened the milk while warming. But if you do need to add some honey.