Finding Lavana

Greetings!  It sure has been a while, so the amount of people that are still around this place has surely depleted. It's a brand new year and I have made it my goal to begin documenting the craziness that is about to go on for the next 5 or so months.  As I have made it known from previous posts, my life changed for the better last March sometime. I became extremely interested in yoga and the way it affects your body in the most amazing ways. I expanded my practice and pushed myself to go daily over the summer, slowed down at the beginning of fall and have struggled through the holidays. It has been in my head recently that I wanted to push my practice even further, so the time has come to begin a teachers training. I am unsure of where this will take me in the future, whether it will lead to leading classes on my own, or just be an extension of my personal practice, but I am excited. 

and here comes the scary part...  In order to complete the program, there are a series of guidelines that I must follow, the hardest including becoming a vegan and giving up alcohol. You can read more about the program here, but all in all I will begin charting tomorrow.  I must keep up with various parts of my life and chart daily. It is going to be a struggle. I KNOW THAT. But I am also confident that I can make it through. I am also quite sure there will be a few mess ups. A few drinks had and a piece of steak or two eaten, but I am excited. And also scared. Growing up around agriculture, I don't have a problem eating meat, drinking milk, or chowing down on a bowl of cheese dip from the mexican restaurant. I don't find eating meat to be a form of animal cruelty, but rather as a way that things are. The way that things were meant to be. That being said, I also respect that others have beliefs that differ from my own, and that is perfectly fine. Great in fact. Who wants everyone to be the same? Not I. Life is much more fun and interesting when there are different folks around.  With all that out there in the open, I am super excited about pushing myself past my new limits, learning about new food, and finding some great new recipes. I plan on sharing it all here. The ups, the downs, the cravings, the stories of new friends, weird ideas, things I don't agree with and the things I do.
I will explain more as time goes on, but for the time being I am off to down my last bowl of cheese dip. Happy New Year yall! Excited to be back and sharing my life in this space.