CassandraBodzakTV

Check out my recipe for how to make a quick yogi bowl for busy nights! This is one of my favorite go -to dinners, it’s easy to throw together, fills you up and is packed with good for you foods. Making a yogi bowl makes eating healthier even easier and gives a fun name to mixing and matching your favorite veggies, grains and homemade dressing!

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked quinoa

1 avocado

2 cups of steamed mixed veggies ( you can use frozen, steam fresh bag for an easy, practical option or some fresh, chopped and steamed broccoli or cauliflower or sliced zucchini)

1 cup of black beans, rinsed and heated over the stove

Enough for two servings. In a large bowl place a scoop of quinoa, 1 cup of steamed veggies, a scoop of black beans, and ½ of an avocado sliced.  Next add your favorite healthy dressing!

 

My favorite is a simple Dijon vinaigrette

4 tbsp of olive oil

2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

4 tbsp of Dijon mustard

2 tbsp of fresh horseradish

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

(optional to add some grade B maple syrup to make it a maple-dijon)

Well, technically, it may be the second day of September but I know most of you were out enjoying your “last day of summer” yesterday and have only clicked in to full September mode today! I wanted to share with you a practice that is very near and dear to my heart and has proven very effective for my wellness + meditation coaching clients, intention setting! Since we were little, September signified a fresh start, it was the start of the school year, a new grade, new classes, new teachers and a chance to re-create ourselves after the blissful relaxation and adventure we had all summer.

WELL WHY NOT NOW?

Hey, maybe we’re a little older, JUST a little, but September always feels like the start of something new to me and I still love to imagine I’m starting the next school year of life!

So last night, I whipped out my bad ass “Manifest Journal” given to me by the ever-lovely and inspirational Kelly Bennett ( she creates them all individually and infuses them with lots of love and good energy for your manifesting). I keep mine specially for times like these and use my regular pink moleskin for the day to day breakthroughs and brilliant ideas. Regardless, you can use whatever you’d like, you can even get all crafty with it and bring paints, construction paper and the whole nine yards and make it really fun!

Now comes the good part, the actually setting intentions part. Here’s where you start brainstorming what you want to create / manifest in your life for the month ahead.

What this looks like for me is spending about 15-20 minutes in a meditation, connecting with my higher self and really asking for guidance surrounding what the next step is for me. I allow whatever comes in to come in with out judgement and then I start scribbling! I just let the information flow and allow myself to be surprised by what pops up and excited about any and everything I put down on the page. You can have one or two intentions or many, listen to what resonates with you and feels good while your setting intentions.

What are my September intentions?

Well, my overwhelming theme for this month is **FALL OF FOCUS** so everything fell under that massive intention. I’m determined to eat ONLY high vibe foods that help me stay CLEAR and focused, which means for me, no sugars and no alcohol. I don’t eat very much sugar or consume a lot of alcohol but I recently came across the saying “99% is a bitch, 100% is a breeze” and it truly resonated with me. It’s fine for my day to day life and for my clients to indulge in moderation, however, this is my FALL OF FOCUS, and that for me, means going big and really fueling my mind + body to be performing at it’s peak. And I know, even the occasional vegan cookie or glass of red wine, certainly gets me to a “less than crystal clear” place and I’m just not willing to make that sacrifice right now. It also means, earlier wake up calls because I’m at my best in the AM and creating more programs so that more people have access to my coaching than the people who are able to work with me one on one. I have a lot going on this month, creating a new online program, my first ever group coaching program is launching (details below!) and I’m finishing up my book. I’m excited to make a fresh start this Fall towards being the clearest, brightest version of myself so that I can show up as my highest self for all of you!

For more information about my FRESH START FOR FALL group coaching program, click here and email me to reserve your spot today. Class size will be VERY limited to keep it intimate and allow everyone personal access to me.

Check out my latest recipe for Shape Magazine, this Asian Broccoli Slaw Quinoa is the perfect healthy dish to bring to a BBQ this summer or just make to spice up your usual week day dinners. It’s vegan, gluten free and delicious. The perfect light summer meal that will fill you up with out over stuffing you. Watch me making it on SHAPE.com above and try it for yourself with the recipe below! Enjoy!

ASIANBROCCOLISLAW

ASIAN BROCCOLI SLAW WITH QUINOA (2 servings)

1/2 cup of cooked quinoa 1 bag of broccoli slaw

¼ cup of shelled edamame

¼ cup of shredded raddichio

¼ cup of slivered almonds

¼ cup of shredded carrots

Empty the broccoli slaw into a bowl, add edamame, raddichio, almonds and carrots.

for dressing: ¼ cup of macadamia nut oil 3 tbsp of rice vinegar 3 tbsp of sesame oil 3 tbsp of shoyu 1 tbsp garlic (fresh, chopped) 1 tbsp scallions (fresh, chopped) 1 tbsp ginger (fresh,chopped) Blend all ingredients for the dressing and then drizzle in broccoli slaw bowl till the mixture is wet but not overly saturated. Scoop about ½ cup of quinoa on to a plate and top with broccoli slaw mix. Optional garnish with almond slivers, carrots

Not everyone has the privilege of always having a juice bar or health food store near by every time there stomach grumbles and one of the most common questions I get from a lot of my coaching clients is,” what are some healthy options at places that are easy accessible to me?”. Well, get ready because I’ve decided to start doing healthy food hauls on some common spots so that you know what can be a “go-to” when you need to grab something “to-go”.  A lot of the times when we’re out or traveling we can’t get something ideal but we CAN make the best choice of what’s available to us. It’s about doing the best you can in your situation and being gentle on yourself.  Starbucks seems like one of those places that no matter where you are, you can usually find them, airports, highway rest stops, and every block in NYC, so that’s where I decided to begin! Enjoy this video where I show you how to find healthy food at Starbucks and let me know where you’d like me “haul” next!

I felt the need to write a little about PEACE this week, it’s certainly been an ongoing theme in my life recently and I’m sure it has seeped into quite of few of your lives as well with all that’s been going on in the news. As many of you probably know, on August 8th (Friday), there was a global meditation for peace lead by Deepak Chopra as well as many others around the world. I spent that afternoon, when it was going on, in yoga class doing a meditation for peace. We all envisioned what our version of a peaceful world would be and then planted that seed and sent that love and light out to the world.

My vision of peace was very simple, I saw a street in SoHo (where my yoga studio is in NYC) and just lots of people walking past each other, smiling, saying hi and just showing love and light for one another. For me, peace is really us all being able to see each other as love and realizing that the other people we meet are just reflections of ourselves. We’re all human and we’re all going through this human experience, why not send each other love and light and be pleasant (even friendly!) with one another!?

On Sunday, I got invited to a “Unite for Peace in the Middle East” event with two very special influences in my spiritual life, Marianne Williamson and Jennifer Kass. Both ladies brought up a very important point in their talks, PEACE begins with US. That is, peace needs to start with our personal experience. We need to find peace within us, within our relationships and within our lives. How can we preach about peace in the middle east when we can’t keep peace in our romantic relationships or even sometimes within our own head? Peace starts with you.

Below is a meditation that I love using on the go for those situations in life where I need to remind myself that peace begins with me. I find it very helpful when you’re out there interacting with the world and silly things come up that push you out of your peace. For me, meditation is that tool that helps me come back to my inner peace and therefore helps me spread peace in my daily interactions. Peace (and happiness) is a CHOICE we can make. Sometimes it can certainly be harder to make that choice then others but that is when it is so important to ask for help and guidance. Whether you’re asking for help from the universe or some higher power by simply saying a prayer for guidance ( for example, “please help me see this differently // please help me see this with love // please help me find peace in the situation. ” ) and that’s really as simple as it can be, or reaching out to someone like me, for an emergen-zen session so that you can get the tools to help you get back to that place of peace inside of you. The only requirement is your willingness, when you are ready to find that peace and serenity, you will be guided to it. Sending you guys love and light, I hope you try out this mini-meditation for peace and please let me know how it goes for you. I’ll answer and comments or questions below if you need some more insight or want to share your tips on coming back into your inner peace.

Check out this delicious summer zucchini pasta with vegan pesto that I made for SHAPE.com. This recipe is perfect for those hot summer nights when you want something light but fulling. Zucchini pasta is a great gluten-free alternative and my vegan pesto will have you wondering why you ever needed parmesan cheese! Splurge and buy that spiralizer or go to your local grocery and pick up a bag of shredded zucchini and fake it. 😉

It was an absolute pleasure to interview Daniel Sullivan from Tumeric ALIVE at Wanderlust Festival in Tahoe,CA. I’m always fascinated by companies creating products with conscious and the people behind them. Find out some incredible information about the balancing properties of tumeric and it’s ancient origination, how to incorporate tumeric into your daily routine and Daniel’s personal morning ritual and breath work that helps him rise to his highest self and step into his power every single day! Lots of incredible information in this interview, I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did doing it.

To learn more about Tumeric ALIVE, click here. And, if you’re interested in learning more about ego irradicator or starting a meditation journey, check out my mindful eating and meditation video here, or feel free to email me at cassandra@gosweetandskinny.com and schedule a personalized meditation session.

I had the amazing experience of going to Wanderlust in Squaw Valley (Tahoe, CA) this past weekend and I can’t wait to share with you my favorite classes and my biggest breakthrough in this recap video! Be sure to subscribe to watch all the individual videos of my favorite classes as well as exclusive interviews from the weekend!

I am still so blissed out from all the wonderful yoga classes I was able to take over the weekend, still feeling great and so inspired to up my yoga practice even more. I’m so grateful to Tumeric ALIVE for collaborating with me to go out there and cover some of the fantastic classes they sponsored over the weekend but I do want to let you know that my opinion of their amazing tumeric elixir is truly MY OWN and was not influenced. This video was NOT paid for by Tumeric ALIVE, I’m just genuinely dorking out on how much I love the stuff! 😉

If you’re interested in finding out more about Tumeric, feel free to visit their website here.

This Guided Meditation for Channeling Your Inner Rockstar is all about accessing your BEST self on a daily basis. Join me for a short visualization that I do with all my clients to help them tap in to their ideal body, ideal life and connect with the place in them that knows it is possible. You can re watch this meditation over and over again and use it in your daily practice by forwarding to the 1.30 mark and skipping all my intro chatter. I hope that you use this to help you connect to the you that’s trying to break out and live your best life. Unleash your inner rockstar everyday and get ready for some major changes in your life with this practice alone. By allowing ourselves to visualize our best self in this guided meditation, we are able to get a clear picture of what we want the future to look like and use it to inform our decisions and actions today.

So thrilled to bring you the first video in my new MEDITATION Mondays series. Every monday this summer you can expect another guided meditation from Go Sweet and Skinny TV. I decided to kick it off with a great beginner meditation called “Let-Go” which is simple but powerful for anyone at all stages of their meditation practice to unwind, de-stress, focus and connect back with their best self!

The guided meditation begins at 3.04 for those of you who are repeat customers and want to FFWD to the good stuff! It is my hope that you use this video every day to create a daily meditation practice in your life.

Please LIKE – SHARE- SUBSCRIBE if you enjoy this video and would like to see more like it. Also, feel free to comment, ask questions and share your experiences below.

Isn’t is always those pesky LAST FIVE POUNDS that we’re trying to get rid of!? I work with so many clients to help them make those small healthy  changes to get rid of those last 5lbs for good and with summer just around the corner, I wanted to share my “secret” with you! Watch this video, put this tool into action and you WILL see results! You just have to DO IT.Ready to go deeper and learn even more simple steps to start looking better and feeling great? Check out my Mindful Eating & Meditation video here.

If you enjoyed this video please LIKE , SHARE and SUBSCRIBE to GoSweetandSkinnyTV

Sponsored by my very own juicer, Samson, check out this video where I make my personal go-to green juice recipe!

Feel free to find more information about the Samson Juicer I use in the video here or my book Juicespiration ( all about creating your own juice cleanse) here.