Chew on This: How I prep for a Yoga Weekend

Hey guys!
So I don't know if all/any of you are aware but a few months ago I began my journey to become a 200 hr Registered Yoga Teacher (200RYT)! It's been great so far, challenging, and A LOT of growth as far as how I see myself and how I take up space in the world. I'm definitely a work in progress but I've still got a few months to go! But I'm not here to talk about my training experience (at least not yet) right now I wanted to share with you all how I prep for a weekend training.

All of the classes for my program take place over a weekend. They don't happen every week so for that weekend that you are at class you are there pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday including Friday afternoon. Since I travel a bit to get there I pack and prep for the weekends before I get there. Which include the usual things like laundry and packing and making sure I've got all of my bits that I'll need including my homework and mats (I forgot once and had to loop back to get one, never again). But for me the MOST important thing I remember is the food.

The group goal is to minimize waste so it's asked that we generally bring our lunches. So for me since I have been leaving from work on Fridays to travel there I've been meal prepping. I have pinned a million (GROSS EXAGGERATION) meal ideas. While I was writing this I also neatly sectioned all of the ideas of things I've saved for yoga meals. What I go for is generally something vegetarian, so I won't have to worry about refrigerating the meat during the day since there's usually no access to a refrigerator.
My go to is to bring one cold "salad" that will last being in the fridge and then only having a cold pack lunchbox for the day. I tend to pick vegetarian meals because I don't want to worry about meat going bad. I don't use things that would typically spoil easily, like mayonnaise or something like that. I also really like recipes with limited ingredients. I'm not a great cook so having something that's easy to make and quick because I get impatient cooking is really essential for me.

protein balls

This week I tried out a few new things, no bake protein balls, and a black bean & quinoa salad. I didn't use a specific recipe for my black bean quinoa salad so I'll give you guys a general idea of what I used.

quinoa black bean salad

1/4 cup of quinoa dry cooked in 1/2 cup of water until fluffy (I ended up adding a bit more water because it wasn't quite as fluffed as I wanted before the water cooked out)
1 can of black beans in water (I drain and rinse the beans before using)
1 haas avocado cubed
1/2 cup of cubed and roasted sweet potato (I used frozen ones and stirred them in to cook them but you could cook them fresh if you don't mind the prep!)
I mixed the black beans and sweet potato together and then added them to the quinoa while it was still on the stove. After everything was well mixed I set them back in a bowl to cool and then added the avocado in once it was cooled and that was it! SUPER easy! It also has a lot of high fiber and protein foods that keep you feeling full.

protein ball mix

For the protein balls, which will be a snack during the day, I used the recipe that I pinned. I only had steel cut oats for oatmeal, I had a bunch so I was determined to use them. I don't think it made a huge change to the overall outcome. I also didn't refrigerate the mixture before I rolled them into balls, not sure if that made an impact but they look pretty great to me so who cares! They're also really easy, 5 ingredients or something, require no prep and are finished in like 10 minutes! They're great! They have a lot of protein, thank you peanut butter, but are also super filling thanks to the flax seeds and oats. Not to mention chocolate chips!
I do sometimes bring trail mix but didn't make it this time. Overall these are super easy recipes to make that I think are really good for when you're going to need some prolonged energy release. Let me know if you try any of them!

xx
D