Tag Archives: yoga

Authenticity

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DSC_0003I am SO HAPPY that I teach yoga! It just struck me – again – this morning while I was teaching how much I really really love what I do. And I am so grateful that I am in a situation where I can do it. For so long I worked in a career that I really didn’t love. I felt trapped and dreamed of doing something else but WHAT? That was always the question.

Do you know what I mean?

  • You just KNOW you cannot continue to work in a job that isn’t truly you.
  • But you’re not sure what “truly you” means.

For me, the situation was that I had a corporate job that fit in with what I thought was expected of me. It paid me really well and gave me the status that I thought I was supposed to have. All of my friends were from that world – we would talk about work outside of work and we had our own little corporate-speak way of communicating with each other. I lived in a big house and ate out 4-5 times a week in really nice restaurants. I shopped at expensive stores and outsourced boring tasks such as housecleaning, laundry, and washing the car.

On paper, I would think to myself, my life is fantastic. But why then did I feel bad?

I know now – I felt bad because I wasn’t living authentically.
I wasn’t living the life that I really wanted to live, that I am meant to live.
I wasn’t being the person I truly am.

The question then became: what kind of life do I want? And of course, who am I really?


au-then-tic-i-ty: the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity, devotion, and intentions.


My path of self-discovery began with my yoga practice. What was at first just a physical activity (maybe YOGA will help me lose 10 pounds!) evolved into a journey of learning about my Self. I learned to quiet my mind, to look inward rather than outward for the answers to these questions.

Eating whole natural foods was and is an essential key. Who I am and what I want becomes clear when I am eating well and able to think clearly. It’s next to impossible to find your authentic self when you are constantly in a haze of sugar, caffeine, chemicals, meat, and dairy.

And best of all, the unfolding of ME is continuous as I am constantly transforming :)

PS there’s a beautiful almost-full moon out tonight. I hope you can see it too.

My new blog :)

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HI!

I’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time so YAY I’ve finally done it!

My name is Julia and I’m a yoga teacher in Northern Virginia. For the last six years I’ve been on a journey of improving my health and have had amazing results and a lot of fun along the way! These days I get a lot of questions about what kind of exercises I do and what I eat, and so this is my way of sharing that info in the hopes that someone out there will find it useful :)

So this site is for anyone who is trying to trying to lose weight, get in shape, eat better, and / or find peace with themselves. In this blog I plan to:

  • Write about what I’m eating these days
  • Share my exercise tips
  • Record my recipes and my forays into the thousands of cookbooks that I already have
  • Mention anything else that comes up – this will likely include stories about my two dogs Marty and Rosie and life lessons that present themselves as I go about my business

Some things that interest me and that will probably make their way onto this blog:

  • Dogs!
  • Running – I am passionate about running :)
  • Being 40. Yep I just hit the big 4-0 in February. Really it has been just fine. But I am noticing changes in my body and it’s really hitting home how important it is to STAY HEALTHY.
  • Yoga! As I said about I am a yoga teacher and I have my own business called Double Dog Yoga. I have a separate blog for my business – I was blogging there about food and stuff but I think now it’s best to keep the two separate. Anywho, feel free to check out my other blog to read about yoga in the news and yoga tips and info by clicking here.
  • Cooking – I try to cook dinner 4 or 5 times a week. Sometimes it’s a big deal dinner and sometimes it’s a quickie. Either way I’ll share.
  • Baking. I LOVE to bake! Unfortunately that doesn’t match my goal of staying under 125 pounds. So that’s a bit of a struggle.

Ok that’s it for now. I’ve filled out my bio so if you want to learn more take a look :)