Phair : BROGA at PeterPan Bistro

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Of course when my friends Jonathan and Queenie Phair said they were teaching a YOGA + BRUNCH at a restaurant I had been dying to go to, I said YES immediately. Mostly because… food – but also mostly because I had done an hour of the Phair’s yoga sesh before and it was intense and a new experience for me! Anyone who has taken this class will know what I’m talking about. This one was the same, from the first ten minutes, they had us warming up our wrists in the hardest ways possible! We fully just jumped right into it doing high planks on the flip side of our hands, a warm up I will be using from now on because even though in the moment it hurt, they feel so much stronger the day after already and feel like they can handle a lot more impact!

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We flowed to some amazing music, a more chill electronic style. It was amazing because there were a lot of familiar faces there including lovely Su and Mike, and also THE Brian bchanwarrior and lovely Arin who I had the chance to meet at the BYOGA community collective event! I brought my B-Mat which was perfect for this practice because it was a sweaty one. So many warrior flows, I sure felt the burn.

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We did a little partner work too, supporting the others ankles while they are in a plank, teaching them to lift up into a handstand. My wrist were beat by this point to be honest but we all pushed through it because there was too much to learn and absorb in such little time! Also I just need to mention that Queenie and Jonathan are beasts and can do crow pushups – they just effortlessly float into handstand – GOALS for real!

We took a little savasana at the end and Su explained a little about her KEY Education project which is incredible and I will have to write more about it in another post but for now you can learn about it here

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Then the smell of food started to waft in as the doors opened. I smelled potatoes. There were potatoes. And also the most amazing assortment of unique dishes like Shakshuka, Lebneh, Frittata, Latkes, French Toast – it just goes on – scones, quinoa salad – SO GOOD! I also had to have a Mimosa with Brunch because it was well deserved! We all sat down and ate, chatted, learned more about each other until it was time to go home!

Most people went home but I stayed behind with a few to take some photos in the beautiful PeterPan space. To say I wish this was my apartment couldn’t be more true. I would live there in a heart beat. My bf martin stopped by to say hi to everyone and snap a few pics of some extra stuffed yoga bellies before we all walked home together.

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What a lovely event, I love when I get to connect with so many amazing people and we can all flow and eat in the same room! Can’t wait for the next!!!

A night to remember at B Yoga’s Community Collective

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When B Yoga invites you to their first major event, you say yes. I am so happy I did have the chance to attend and practice with new and old faces. The event was a major success, as this warm practice was led by Sarah Leavens, Jonathan and Queenie Phair (Phair Yoga), and David Good. Mostly I was super excited to finally take one of the Phairs yoga classes, it was so much fun – especially when we all linked together for our Warrior flows!IMG_1676

There were so many wonderful vendors including My Inner Fie, Village Juicery, Flow Water, Kupfert and Kim, Gorp Bar, and Province Apothecary – all part of the goodies bag every one received from the event which included an amazing B Yoga towel made from Turkish Cotton! We all received hydrating FLOW water throughout the event and a yummy drink from The Village Juicery at the end of our savasana.

The music was unlike any other, the entire practice had music by DJ Carmelinda and the live serenade of local musician Matt Riggs. I must say this had to have been the best playlist I have ever heard during a practice. It just fit so well into the chill atmosphere throughout the Glass factory at 99 Sudbury (this space is gorgeous).

Brian, Su and I hanging out (Queenie in the background )

Brian, Su and I hanging out (Queenie in the background )

I love how events like this bring a local yoga community together, there were so many familiar faces like Brian @bchanwarrior and Su @schun who I had met from Instagram. We all had a blast and even got to strike a pose together before heading home. IMG_3148

What a night! I can’t wait for the next! Thank you so much Arin and B Yoga @byoganow

 

 

Toronto Yoga Conference 2016

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I had the pleasure of attending the Toronto Yoga Conference this past weekend and for my first time ever, it was amazing. I must admit, it was a bit overwhelming seeing all the brands and goods there but the amazing part is a lot of the exhibitors have samples and you can try before you make a purchase. Of course everything was so good, it was a bit hard to control myself when it came to buying everything!

There were so many things to sample and see, many yoga mat brands including Manduka, Jade and BYoga Mat! They have an amazing program at the show where you can bring in an old mat to get $10 off any new mat in the show! Below is some of my haul from the show.

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My boyfriend loves these coconut chips from Grace, we even went back on Sunday and bought more. They are really interesting and tasty, they have the exact consistency of a chip but once its crushed down and a bit wet in your mouth, you can really taste and feel the coconut-y texture! We also sampled so many juices from the show but settled on this delicious and zesty raw organic juice from Revitasize. I can’t remember what all the ingredients in this drink are, but I believe it has spirulina and grapefruit in it.  The rest are free goodies like tasty hemp hearts and fruit chewys.

We also went back on Sunday again to buy the tastiest blueberry juice from Van Dyke’s. This juice is made from wild blueberries in Nova Scotia and it was so rich and full in flavour. We drank a whole bottle the first day! It is also advised to use this instead of orange juice for your mimosa in the morning hehehe.

I had the pleasure of meeting Chris from Yoloha Yoga as well. This booth was one of my favourites for its eco friendly vibe. Everything is made from cork! They have water bottles, yoga blocks, yoga wheels, paddle board liners, yoga towels and more, all made form cork!! They also have such cute designs printed on to the products for a little artistic touch.

The Yoloha booth was fun, and I finally got to touch and feel the amazing cork products they have. I even got to try a wheel for the first time ever! It was so incredible, I definitely need to buy a wheel at some point soon – I can see so many benefits to having one. This booth was so cool that it was pretty busy the whole time I was there, I would have stayed and busted more moves on the cork yoga mat and probably attempted a handstand with that beautiful wheel if it was emptier.

I stumbled across a huge Karma sign set up at the Flow Active booth and ran over immediately . I finally got to see the whole collection in person and I must say I am SO proud to be a Karma Activist! The collection is gorgeous and the quality is amazing. This year they launched their new KarmaLuxe™ line! The latest signature innovation fabric, designed and engineered specially for Karma Athletics by a premium Italian Oeko-Tex® certified fabric mill. You can tell it looks different upon first inspection, it looks very neoprene and sturdy. Once I put those leggings on, I felt so ready to bust a move as it completely stretched around my body perfectly. I thought it looked thick but this fabric is so unique that it actually isn’t once it is on. I even had to get a size XS because the pants fit so beautifully and not thick at all! They are definitely compression pants, but I personally enjoy that in my workout leggings because it feels like ‘nothing will fall out’ haha! I typically buy workout wear for not only yoga, but also zumba and longboarding as well and these pants would work so well for everything. The Evelyn Bra was so snug and had such a cute design in the back! I need to write another blog post about Karma because there is too much to say about them!

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Printed Allyson tight in black glass shatter, size XS. And the Evelyn Bra in Charcoal, size S. Use the coupon code AsanaVanessana10 for and amazing 10% discount with Karma!

LOVE THIS PRINT!

LOVE THIS PRINT!

They also had so many other amazing new prints and designs for bras and tops. This is one collection to check out! You can see it all at karmaathletics.com and use the discount code AsanaVanessana10 for an amazing 10% everything!

After almost exploding from all the healthy quinoa, granola, juice samples, we decided our time at the show was well spent and we should probably head home to sleep the excitement off (or eat more goodies).

We decided to take the Toronto PATH, or try to at least, and found so many places to stop drop and yoga!

How trippy are those carpets? I need to go back and do some more yoga there, I was too pooped to do more than this!

Can’t wait for the show next year, I had so much fun – thank you Toronto yoga Conference for having me!!