Vegan Vanilla Chocolate Layered Birthdaycake

This is a birthday cake, that is not only made easy but it also tastes so delicious. It is better than any present and it will be the cake on the table, no mater how many other non vegan cakes are there. Let me give you the recipe.

I got that recipe on a blog online, however the cake had to be soy free, so I changed some ingredients. In the end, the whole thing is now even easier to make.

Here we go:

Ingredients for the cake:
2 1/4 cups (360 ml) almond vanilla milk
3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (230 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (110 ml) canola oil
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups (250 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
4 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for the frosting:
1 cup cocoa butter
3 cups powdered sugar
3 Strawberries
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup almond vanilla milk

Instructions:
- preheat the oven to 350 degrees °F
- grease 3 x 6" or 8" inch cake pans
- in a large bowl mix the almond vanilla milk with the apple cider vinegar. Let it activate for 5 Minutes.
- add the oil and vanilla extract.
- in a separate bowl mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cornstarch. Sift the dry ingredients into the big bowl peu a peu while using an electric hand mixer.
- divide the cake batter evenly into three pans (leave 1/3 in the bowl and mix it again with the cocoa powder)
- bake for 22 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- let the cake cool down completely.

- For the frosting, blend strawberries in a blender with almond milk, mix liquid cocoa butter with strawberry - milk paste and powdered sugar. If it's too liquid, add more powdered sugar, if its too dry, add more almond milk.
You can decide if you want to use cocoa powder for a chocolate frosting or strawberries for a pink frosting. I made 1/3 pink frosting and 2/3 chocolate frosting.

Vegan Dog Cookies

If you feed your dog vegan dog food, you might have a hard time with dog treats. The ones you find in pet shops are not vegan at all, they contain meat and all sorts of slaughterhouse waste (I checked some ingredient lists that even said bonemeal or liver).

Time to make your own dog treats/dog cookies. Its easy and cheap!

You simply need flour, baking soda, peanut butter, oats and carrots. I'll add the recipe down below.

Some people say, dogs shouldn't have peanut butter. I use unsalted peanut butter, and my dog goes crazy when I have one of those dog cookies in my hand. I mean, I am not a vet, but that little dog treat made of simple ingredients can't be unhealthier than what is mixed into regular dog food (gelatin, artificial flavors, thickeners, ...).

As I said, our dog gets a vegan dog food, the brand is Natural Balance. I add a link if you are interested. In my opinion, dogs can digest everything, and I'm sure that they get all the nutrients from that vegan formula - that we usually feed with rice and veggies. In fact, her breath smells way better since she is on the vegan formula, than when she was fed the non vegan dog food with turkey and beef. Just logically I would not feed a cow to my dog, because she wouldn't be able to hunt and kill a cow. I think the cow would be able to protect herself and kill the dog if she had to.

In my opinion, a cat can't be fed vegan (just as a side note) - some people do it and they say it works. Thankfully I don't need to think about that.

Also, as the dog is still hunting rats every once in a while, I wouldn't call her a "vegan" dog. She is plantbased, everything else is up to her. If she catches a rat, she can eat the rat. But most of the time she doesn't even want to eat the rat after catching it.

Here the recipe, try it out, no matter if you have a vegan dog or not. It's a simple and delicious cheap homemade snack that helps you get your dog's attention during a walk or a hike. 

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup oat flour (simply blend oats until they are flour-like)
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/3 cup peanut butter unsalted
1/2 cup grated carrots

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare a cooking sheet with parchment paper.
Simply mix everything together in a big bowl. It needs to become a slightly sticky dough and hold together. If it doesn't hold together, add a little bit more peanut butter (or water) and it its too sticky, add a little bit flour or oat flour.
Form little bits your hands and place them on the cooking sheet. Depending on the size of your dog they can be smaller or bigger.
Bake for 10 minutes (depending how small they are, they will be cooked faster). If the bottom of the cookies gets brownish, they are done.
Let them cool down completely before giving them to your doggie.

The Vegan Volcano

I posted something similar on my german blog and ever since, I have the urge to repost it on my english blog. This is about the "Vegan Volcano". 

Disclaimer: Ok, sit down, or hold onto something, because this is the fu**ing truth, and yes, I am going to use swear words. If you can't handle the truth or if you can't stand the use of swearwords, please don't read this. 

My background: Just recently, I celebrated my 8th year of being a vegan (Vegans call this veganiversary, mine is on August 21, 2017). And to be honest from the very beginning until now, I had ups and downs being a vegan. Here are different stages that I went through in these past eight years: At first, I was the "Super-Vegan" that couldn't be more vegan. Vegan as fuck. I wanted my friends and my family to become vegan too, I tried to veganize them. I wanted to save the whole world. Then there were times where I was the vegan:"as long as I am vegan, I am doing enough - I don't care what anybody else eats and supports." It went that far, that I turned meat on a bbq for my friends while they were standing beside me. I couldn't care less, the only thing I was looking at, was my own plate. 

I know deep down (especially since I am in this yoga thing where everyone talks about peace and love and ahimsa and shanti shanti shanti) that everyone thinks for himself/herself. And no - I don't want to force anyone to live his/her life like i live my life. Why? Because I myself made that decision free and without anyone talking me into it. Nobody attacked me or pointed a gun to my face and said: "Go vegan or else I am going to kill you." Deep down, I know that you can not force anyone to do anything. They have to want to do it. 

Trust me, if I can say one thing for sure, this is it: I have never physically or psychologically felt better than after making the change to a vegan diet. The health benefits alone are simply amazing: My skin was smoother, my digestion is easy, my mind is clear. As far as I can tell, I feel like I am mentally stable. I don't get upset easily, I am smiling more than being in a bad mood or stressed. You know, it just feels good, not to rely on animals when it comes to filling my fridge. Not to use animals for the taste and the satisfaction. Really, even my physical activities and my energy level improved, ever since being vegan I was active, I trained for triathlons, I ran, I cycled, I hiked, I did yoga. And after eight years, I don't have a lack or protein, b12 or died because of an iron deficiency. My teeth are good, my hair, my nails. 
I am thankful for not leaving a big ecological footprint: Are you aware of how much water is used to produce one fucking hamburger? 660 gallons btw. Are you aware of how much wheat and oats a cow gets before she is big enough for the slaughterhouse? Its 100 pounds per day! Do you know that there are still 4 children dying every minute because they have no access to food?
I am so thankful that I made the connection and living a life while harming the environment and the planet as less as possible. Just by not taking away the egg from the chicken, the milk from the cow and the fish from the ocean. 

One story, just because I was vegan when I was still in high school. We had some sort of religious education and I still remember sitting in the class room thinking to myself: "What the fuck am I doing here - I am fucking wasting my time." These stories that we've read in that old and dusty book called bible just didn't make any sense to me at all. Why should I pray? Hope for the good? Going to church every sunday and repeating the same stupid words and hoping for a better world, but not changing a single thing?! Do you understand this? 
This is a question for anyone that still believes in christianity, or islam or buddhism, or any other religion: Do you think god/buddha/allah/[whatever you call your god] would be proud of us, sitting there and praying but not doing anything for a positive change in the world? 
Seriously I never had respect for these people; wasting there precious time praying and kneeling down and hoping but not doing anything actively. In fact, where I grew up, people used to go to a restaurant and have meat or fish after church. What the fuck?

Long story short: In the last eight years, going vegan was the best decision I ever made in my life. I never regretted it. Never. Its a win win. For everyone. The planet, the animals, my health, for everyone. 

And yes, there's my ego that just wants to yell the message and tell everyone how awesome they will feel and how good it is. My ego just wants to make everyone go vegan. But I am who I am and I am not you. So if you are not vegan and if you are not planning on becoming a vegan, that's something that I will accept. I see the world from my perspective. For you, not being a vegan might make more sense. I have to accept this.

And then there are these moments where my vegan volcano just explodes. Like, when I am at a coffee shop and I order a matcha latte with soy milk (which in most coffee shops is more expensive than a regular cow's milk matcha - even though it should really be cheaper, because the process to produce soy milk is far easier than raising, feeding and milking a cow, making it pregnant and giving it medications, ...); well my matcha latte arrived on my table, it looked beautiful and it had a nice milk foam, but later - as I am talking to the barista, she tells me that there is milk powder blended in the matcha powder. Hello?! This is crazy - in my opinion (please tell me if I'm wrong) I should be told while ordering, that there is milk powder in the matcha blend, especially when I ask for a milk alternative (soy milk). What about all these people with a dairy intolerance? It's fucking 2017 and we are not in the middle age anymore. And if someone wants to tell me now, that not every coffee shop knows about the existence of veganism - no. They offered vegan cookies and advertised them with a vegan tag.

It's fucking stupid and these situations make me angry. It seems like us vegans always have to be nice to everyone and respect their decisions to still consume animals but vise versa nobody really seems to respect our decision. 

Think of this: If someone lights up a cigarette beside me, nobody would roll his eyes because I walk away so I don't have to inhale the stinky cigarette smell. If someone sits down beside me and starts eating a donair and I walk away because I am disgusted, everyone calls me a "militant vegan". What the fuck?

But vegans are a little group of hippies that want to save the world. We have to be quiet. Peaceful. Never mention that we are vegan. We are not allowed to talk about slaughterhouses and animal abuse at the table because that is not polite. It makes Omnivores' (Omnivore is someone that still consumes all sorts of animal products) food taste shit. "Please don't tell me this, I don't wanna hear it!"

One day I was wearing my sea shepherd hoodie and some guy came over and said: "Did you know that the first ever sea shepherd boat sank right at the start or their mission to Japan?" He laughed in my face. I looked at him, and asked him if he thinks that this is funny. When the titanic sank, nobody was laughing. He explained, that just another "peace organization" of a little group of hippies that tried to change something, failed. I simply said, that he can enjoy these facts as long as there is still fish in the ocean. Well, again I was the stupid vegan girl that can't laugh about a joke. Why so serious?

Another stupid question that I got asked a lot in the past is: "Is it ok for you if I sit here by you and eat my sandwich with bacon and cheese?" No, I don't fucking force myself to be vegan everyday, I am not a victim. I don't cry myself into sleep because just another sad day passed. Imagine me sitting down at the same table with meat eaters and asking them: "Hey guys, is it ok for you if I sit down here while eating my vegan burrito or do you emotionally feel attacked by that?"

Just a quick message to everyone that still consumes animal products: Please please please inform yourself. Get the facts about how many animals die, and how many resources they use. What it does to the world, what it does to the health. Inform yourself. It's so easy to laugh. When you laugh, you feel stronger and that helps you. But instead of joking about it, think about this: If you want to have kids, then please leave them a planet where they have a good life. Where they don't have to fight for food or water. And please show a little bit respect for the ones amongst your friends or family that live a vegan lifestyle. They have heard all the stupid jokes about vegans and veganism already. It's nothing new, and it's just funny for you. Most vegans don't fucking care what other people think about them. 

And for me personally: I don't care what you eat. I care about your diet as much as I care about your sport activities, the car you drive or how you wear your hair. I don't have to care about you later. I don't have to pay for your chairlift when your arteries are stuffed and your liver is done because of detoxing all the shit. There is only one reason why I still fight for more people eating a vegan diet: The world. Scientists found out that the only way this world will make it into the next couple centuries is by changing the lifestyle. Do it for yourself and your body and health. Do it for future generations. Do it to save resources or do it for the animals. 

And yes, this might be a little rant but I needed that. And I can do it. This is my blog and I know my readers. They don't take it personal. If you took anything personal, I apologize. I just can't be the peaceful yogi all the time that says namaste and shanti to everything. You know - if someone attacks a little kid on the street, I fucking do something against it. I just hate injustice and I will never be tired fighting for it. 

Like bananablondie said in her video (please watch this, I am so with her in every aspect): You know, if you don't wanna be vegan. Don't be vegan. I will still love you. But you should at least have to good sense, to be slightly embarrassed about it. 

Glutenfree guilt free Streusel Oat Bars

Here's a recipe that you should definitely keep in mind next time you are craving something unhealthy sweet and naughty. Why? These incredible oat bars are vegan, gluten-free and low in fat. They are made with natural ingredients only and no white sugar is used. Give them a try, you won't even take a lot of time. They are done in less than 40 minutes and you probably have all the ingredients at home!

I used blackberries for the topping, because I'm lucky to live in a neighborhood full of blackberry bushes and it's the season right now to pick them. But of course, you can substitute with any other sort of berry, like raspberry, strawberry, cherry, - you can even use the frozen berry mix from the supermarket. 

The crust is incredible, the use of oats makes me think of fresh granola, I just love the smell in the kitchen after opining the oven. I'll definitely make them again sometime around christmas and add cinnamon to the crust. That will be amazing.

I don't want to talk about how amazing this recipe is for too long. Simply try it and convince yourself.

Here is this simple and quick recipe:

Ingredients: 
4 cups of oats (doesn't matter if you use quick oats or big whole oats / you can substitute 1 cup with coconut flour or almond flour. That will make it amazing)
1/2 cup almond butter
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup maple syrup (alternatively use xylitol sugar and dissolve it in 1/3 cup water)
12 oz blackberries (or any other berry)

Instructions: 
1. Preheat the oven to 320 °F (180° C). Prepare a regular pan with parchment paper.
2. Process oats in a vitamix or a food processor until you have flour. 
3. Combine oat flour in a bowl with salt, and coconut/almond flour if you substitute.
4. Add the coconut oil, almond butter and maple syrup to the bowl. Use hands or a spoon to combine until the mixture comes together.
5. Set aside 1/3 of the mixture for the topping. Use 2/3 of the mixture to distribute in the parchment lined pan (1/2 inch thick crust works well in my opinion). Pick crust a few times with a fork. 
6. Bake crust for 10 minutes.
7. Add blackberries to food processor or vitamix and just pulse a couple times. Its nice to keep a "berry texture".
8. Remove crust from oven and add the berries evenly on the crust. Crumble the reserved oat mix as "Streusel" on top. Bake for another 15 minutes. 
9. Remove from oven, let it cool or enjoy them warm with some vanilla ice-cream.

Plastic reduction tips

I wanted to write this blogpost for a long time. I don’t think a lot of people are aware of this topic: Plastic. I feel like, every time I start to discuss it with someone, most people just roll with their eyes. They think: Let’s focus on what is actually important, plastic is not on their list.  

I don’t want to sound negative in this post, however I think it is relevant to talk it out. 

The fact is: I try to avoid plastic as much as possible. I’m far away from being a perfect example. My toothbrush is made of plastic. And some foods I buy are wrapped in plastic. My shampoo comes in a plastic bottle.

Still, I find myself turning around in the supermarket in slow motion – and I feel like an alien.

The fact, that almost everything is wrapped in plastic is shocking. And if there are loose oranges or avocadoes in the supermarket, people still go and get plastic bags to transport them. I don’t understand this behaviour. I really don’t. Especially when it comes to something like oranges and avocados, fruits and vegetables that we peel before we eat; there is not even a hygienical benefit to putting it into a plastic bag! Why is a cucumber wrapped in a condom? Why? 

It makes me wonder, there must be a big marketing going on behind the scenes. Maybe people think that their fruits and vegetables are “brand-new” if it comes wrapped in plastic. Maybe they like it because they think that nobody has ever touched it before they after unwrapping it. Which is not true. Someone does the picking, the assorting (finding the moldy and bad veggies), someone does the quality management. Lots of people can have their fingers on your cucumber, before it gets wrapped in its condom.

Maybe its just that soft, straight, see-through shiny feeling that we like between our fingers. It makes us think that we buy is a high-quality product. Wrapped for us. Like a birthday present. 

Whenever my boyfriend and me go shopping together, I have a really good time. We have fun, only picking the fruits and vegetables that you can buy loose without any plastic. We almost always find everything we need, or else we simply substitute things (like picking sweet potatoes instead of a plastic bag full of normal potatoes). These exchanges don’t harm our creations, our meals. In fact, sometimes it even tastes better. We like the change and we like the feeling of not supporting the plastic industry. We transport our veggies and fruits loose in our own textile shopping bags that we like to reuse. Here in Canada, they use the concept of “un-packed self-service fill up stations” where you can bring your own container and fill up your customized amount of products, like nuts, seeds, noodles, rice, herbs and spices, oats, wheat, anything. I love that concept. No plastic garbage is created, unless you rip off a new plastic bag to fill it up (which is totally against the beautiful concept).

When we arrive at the cash register, we see lots of people with lots of single plastic bags. One for the tomatoes, one for the bell pepper, some people even stuff them with products, that are already wrapped in plastic! It’s unbelievable. 

If you think I am overexaggerating then read this collection of facts: 

• On average, a plastic bag is used for 11 minutes.
• An average European causes more than 100 kilograms of plastic, every year.
• In the oceans there are over 100 million tons of plastic swimming right now. Of course, sea life is affected by this. Fish, and all other sea animals struggle and die out because of this. Birds that catch fish are affected too. Scientists found plastic in seagulls and sea eagles
   for example.
• Once plastic is produced, it wont disappear. Actually, it takes 500 years till plastic rottenes.
• One tube of toothpaste may contain up to 10% of microplastic. 
• Plastic often contains a softener, bisphenol A. Its scientifically proven to cause cancer, asthma and infertility. 
• Only 11 out of 100000 substances, that are used for the production of plastic in the last decade, have been analysed.
• The plastic industry in Europe only makes over 500 billion Euros every year. I didn’t quite find the number for north America and Asia but it must be at least equal.

Isn’t that shocking? What kind of world did we create for our children and grand-children? 

If you want to improve your plastic consumption (and at the same time save some $$$); here are some of my tips:

• Recycling: You can re-use all plastic bags that you have at home right now. If they are dirty, wash and dry them. Use them, as long as possible, now that you have them. 
• Prepare for your shopping trips: Set aside some textile shopping bags and some of the smaller plastic bags that you already have at home and take them with you when you go shopping. 
• If you go shopping unprepared (or you forgot your bags at home) here is a lifesaver: Just grab a cardboard box (you often find those at the fresh veggies or fruits), it should help you carry your groceries to the car. Bonus: while heavy plastic bags often rip, these boxes hold way more weight!
• Collect your organic garbage in a separate bin. Order garbage bags online that are made of corn starch, they will just disappear with your vegetable and fruit garbage.
• This one is for all women: Use a mooncup/lady cup/menstrual cup instead of tampons. Ok, its made of silicon but it will last a long time and you save so much plastic garbage by simply not buying tampons anymore.
  For all mamas: Use textile diapers for your baby. These diapers are made to reuse. You can put them in the laundry. This is also a lot cheaper.
• Topic: Toothbrush/Toothpaste: I use a toothpaste that is made out of natural ingredients only, it comes in a little glass jar and it whitenes the teeth. Also there is the option of purchasing a toothbrush that is 100% recyclable, its made with wood/bamboo, check it out here. Its not a lot pricier, and you get a good quality.
• Getting fresh veggies and fruit: Check online if you find a local market in your area. You will not only get good quality from local farms, but also support the local vegetable farmers. Also its nice to eat “with the season” and adapt a little bit to what is available right now. Sometimes you get good deals on these markets as well. 
• Water bottles: If you want to avoid buying water bottles, consider getting one nice metal water bottle, that you can refill. I cant drink tap water where I live (it just doesn’t taste good to me) so I got 2 15 litre bottles that I fill up, either in the supermarket on a fill-up station or in the nature by the creek (we found a natural quarry nearby).
• Replace takeaway articles with re-use articles: Use a metal bottle instead of plastic bottle, bring your own coffee cup to starbucks instead taking a plastic cup. Cheap, There are even straws made of glass or metal that you can put in the dish washer. Get one good razer instead of single-use razers. By the way, here is a trick to use razorblades longer than just for a week (up to a month): Simply use an old pair of jeans to sharpen it: With slight pressure, move the razorblade in opposite shaving direction over the jeansfabric. 
• Have a backpack or shopping bags with you when you go to get new shoes, clothes or books. The cashier almost automatically puts them into a plastic bag. 
• Check your clothes and avoid (unless its sportswear) polyester. Polyester is plastic. Use tencil, cotton or linen instead.

Please share this with your friends and your family. It is really important that we all do steps in the right direction now. 

*The links added just serve as inspiration. There are no affiliates attached, I don't get anything if you make a purchase.

Moist and delicious fat free vegan Bananacake

Ok this is the best vegan fat free Bananacake I've ever made. Even if you are not vegan, even if you don't care about fat, check this out!

The batter alone is so tasty and I love the simplicity of it. Adding cups of liquid butter used to gross me out, so this is my new alternative for a fast and easy cake.

This is actually a diet cake, considering there is no fat in it, I calculated the macros. 

I really like the texture of this goodie. The inside of the cake turns out soft and moist - almost gooey - (not dry at all) and the outside will be nice and crusty. 

It will be very sweet if you follow my recipe, so you might as well use less sugar. 

Also you can leave out the cocoa powder, but hey, isn't that marble effect just perfect?

But first to the recipe:

For one bread tin you will need:

4 ripe bananas (middle to bigger size)
2 cups white or whole wheat flour
2/3 cups white or brown sugar
1 Tsp liquid vanilla (or substitute with vanilla powder/vanilla sugar)
4 Tbsp water
1 1/2 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
4 Tbsp cocoa powder
optional: cocoa nibs or chocolate chips, nuts, raisins

Directions:

1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees F°. Depending on your pan, you might have to grease it, or you use a baking sheet.

2. mash the bananas with a fork. Add the water, vanilla and sugar. Mix until it is smooth and creamy.

3. add the flour, baking powder and salt and then mix everything with a handheld elective mixer. You can add the chocolate chips, cocoa nibs or nuts now.

4. pour 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan.

5. add the cocoa powder to the rest of the batter, blend it in and pour the chocolate batter into the pan was well. It will give you a nice marble effect in the end.

6. bake for 50-60 minutes. (Do the toothpick test, as every oven is different)

And now to the macros: One cake will give you

421g Carbohydrates, 8g Fat and 41g Protein and a total of 1,785 Calories (just the basic recipe, if you add chocolate or nuts you will have to add those). But hey, compared to a classic cake recipe, this is pretty awesome. 

Everything has changed. Yoga Teacher Training

I used to think quite different, when someone started to talk about yoga.
Yoga. That weird thing describing an activity somewhere in between Massage, therapy and some Buddhists sitting on round pillows meditating. I didn’t really get the point...

- You are not sweating.
- You are not burning fat or calories
- Its for people that can’t do ‘real sport’
- Meditation is a waste of time
- People are sitting and singing songs in a weird language and hugging trees
- Its only for housewifes that need a soft activity between their shop at whole foods and getting new eco sandals made of recycled bamboo
- Its for hippies.

Yes – these were the thoughts a few years ago.
I already went to a yoga class occasionally at my local yoga studio, and I guess my impressions were confirmed. Yogis waiting in the studio for the teacher to start the class, stacking cushions above each other, sitting cross-legged in the room enlightened by a lot of candles.

All those props, bolsters, blocks, straps, pillows, blankets, cushions – not for me. They are only for old people and everyone that is not flexible. In my first years of yoga, I never got any props. Because I’m not an unflexible loser. And I didn’t chant with the others. I was more coming back for the flow. Breathing and moving in a symmetric way, Inhaling and moving forward or upward, and exhaling while moving back or down. I liked that dynamic.
And that’s how I found ‘Power Yoga’. Power Yoga doesn’t contain chanting, or meditation. This is purely about the activity. Moving, creating heat in the body and the room, sweating. I never stayed in a pose for too long, so the alignment was more or less unimportant. The teacher guided us through the flow, anything beside that was pointless.

And I still love Vinyasa Power Yoga flows. They are very detoxing, emotionally and physically, you are so in the practice and the flow, that you will forget all those thoughts that are in the mind, like “What will I have for dinner?” “Do I have a dress for Annes Wedding?” and “Do I look fat in these leggings?”
Especially in the winter, when its dark, cold and wet outside, this is one of my favourite indoor “Sport Activities”. And if you don’t believe me, try it. This definitely deserves the undertitle “Sport”.

In my 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training, I learned to love the asanas, the mula banda, the meditation and the philosophy behind the yoga tradition. This training made me understand that there is so much more behind the single asanas, that we store emotions in postures and in parts of the body. It made Yoga so much more interesting and Yogis so much more vulnerable. There is a reason, why we all come back to our mat again and again. Why we go through flows, and why we hold postures even if it gets uncomfortable. And yes, it will make us stronger and more flexible and like in any other activity, progress doesn’t come over night.

With my Yin Yoga Teacher Training with Bernie Clark I got to know the other – until now hidden – side of Yoga. The Yin Tradition. Yin, the opposite of Yang is the introverted, feminine and mysterious Yoga, whereas Yang is the extroverted Power Yoga.
And every Yang needs a Yin, so I want to share with you, what I learned in this Training:

Staying in a Yoga pose, becoming still and holding it over time, does not make you sweat. But it does something to you. Yin Yoga is designed to affect our body in a deeper, slower way; we put stress on our bones, ligaments, we stretch our fascia, connected tissues and organs.
While Power Yoga and all other Activities that train our Cardiovascular System (like running, cycling, sweating, swimming) prevent our heart muscle from slowing down – yes the heart is a muscle and we need to train it – yin yoga is crucial as we get older: We all get stiff. Yin Yoga actually stretches and loosens our inner organs, tissues. Imagine an old person with a walking aid (walker or walking stick) – running and cycling would have helped him to stay fast, but Yin Yoga is what keeps him upright.
Mostly its not a lack of muscles that curves the spine in old people, its stiffness in the ligaments and connected tissues and nerves.
It takes a certain amount of time to get the “creep”: You have to stay in certain poses for an amount of time to loosen. Some effects, like a deep stretch in the muscles, will be found after a minute. In order to put enough stress on the bones, you might have to stay for up to 20 minutes in a pose. Stress has a very negative connotation. But its actually very healthy, because it will send the information to the body to rebuild bones (so they don’t get hollow when we get old).
Yin Yoga is hard work. Trust me. In one week, I participated a Yin Class every day in the morning (between 90 and 120 minutes long) and my body is tired, like you can’t believe! I feel like my spine is worked quite a lot and I have even lost some weight. Probably some water weight that was stored in unnecessary places in the body and finally got released. Also I had quite a detoxing process happening in my body.

Yin Yoga asks for a good anatomical understanding. I believe, the smaller the class is, the better. As a teacher, I would want to have enough time to check in with my students, help them and hand them props. Oh yeah, one thing that I wanted to say about props: I love props. Seriously, from avoiding them, now I feel like I need a shopping cart when going to the shelf with the props. I want them all. Especially sandbags are quite helpful to intense some of the Yin Poses, like Sphinx.
Everybody is different. Every body is different. Bernie Clark showed me again (I remember these differences from Kreg Weiss’ Workshop) how people have totally different bone structures and how it affects the asanas. Not every pose is good for everyone. And not both sides of the body are equal. Sometimes we need to support one leg/knee/shoulder/hamstring with a prop and the other side not. Every body is different. And every day is different. That’s the magic about Yin Yoga.

I can highly recommend to try it out. Find a studio that offers Yin Classes, and be open to 90 minutes stretching and stressing the body. If you don’t want to miss out on the sweaty part, then simply find a day where you can sign in for a power yoga afterwards.