Avocado Chicken Salad

Kieran and I embarked on one of the most unusual experiences of our lives the other day. We became first time floaters. What is a floater you ask??? Oh man…you’re in for a treat…get ready to be turned onto the most relaxing activitiy of your life.

Basically, you get into a pitch black tank, with 800 pounds of Epsom Salts, dissolved in 10-12 inches of water. Once inside the tank, you lay back and instantly start floating. Float tanks facilities offer ear plugs, so if you use those you won’t be able to hear anything either. The water is the same temperature as your skin, so after awhile, if you’re able to be still, you can barely feel the water around you. It seriously feels like your floating around…in space.

The tank provides sensory deprivation and it’s exhilarating! It makes sense if you think about it…we live in a society of sensory overload. If we’re not working on a computer, we’re watching TV, or glued to our iPhones and tablets. Floating robs you of any external sensory input….which allows your brain to “chill out”…and let’s the creative side of your brain come out and play.

Before my first float, I watched YouTube videos, of people floating for their first time. Afterwards, everyone looked like they were glowing….they looked so happy and relaxed. A lot of people said they felt euphoric, full of energy, yet completely relaxed.

From what I researched, it’s best to attempt to meditate and completely let go, but it’s near impossible on your first float. At least it was for me….. I had a hard time relaxing my neck and arms because I could feel the pressure of the Epson’s salt holding me up (I read that’s normal your first time).Don’t get me wrong, overall my first experience floating WAS relaxing, but brain was fixated on the foreign sensation I was feeling, floating around in salt water.

Speaking of salt, there is so much Epsom Salts dissolved in the water, there is no chance you’ll drown, so if you’re relaxed enough, it’s safe to fall asleep. I suspect if float a few more times I’ll be so relaxed I’ll be able to pass out, but during my first float I had TOTAL monkey mind. My brain jumped from one topic to another, additionally, I was mesmerized by the light show my brain was putting on inside my head! After 5 minutes of floating, my brain showed me images that looked like stars, so I pretended I was traveling through space. I also saw swirls of color, mostly purple, some blue, and occasionally green. It was REALLY trippy! Throughout my float, my thoughts often drifted to Kieran, and I couldn’t help but contemplate what he was experiencing in the tank (we floated in separate tanks at the same time).

I later found out Kieran had the song “I don’t Fuck With you”, by Big Sean, stuck in his head for the first 20 minutes. He was floating around, singing to himself, “I don’t give a fuck….I don’t give a fuck.” Just imaging Kieran floating around singing that song to himself makes me die laughing.

Both Kieran and I felt a little sluggish after the float, which I read was normal your first time too, but that feeling was soon replaced with mellow, happiness. Kieran and I were giddy the remainder of the day, we laughed, more than usual, and basked in our merriment. Floating was an amazing experience, both Kieran and I can’t WAIT to do it again!

The most interesting thing I learned about floating are the health benefits of doing it!

Here are some of the health benefits attributed to frequent floating:

• Promotes total calm and peaceful relaxation
• Eliminates fatigue
• Improves sleep
• Alleviates stress (mental and physical)
• Energizes, rejuvenates and revitalises
• Increases motivation, diminishes depression, anxiety and fear
• Facilitates freedom from habits, phobias and addictions
• Stimulates left/right brain synchronization
• Shifts brain waves from beta to lower frequency alpha, theta and even delta
• Creates mental clarity, alertness
• Increases creativity, problem solving
• Heightens visualization
• Expands awareness
• Decreases the production of cortisol, ACTH, lactic acid and adrenaline
• Increases production of endorphins
• Speeds up rehabilitation and recovery
• Relieves pain (arthritis, migraines, injuries and so on)
• Improves circulation and distribution of oxygen and nutrients
• Reduces blood pressure, pulse, heart rate and oxygen consumption
• Improves athletic performance
• Helps prevent sports injuries, speeds healing process

Sold yet?

And weirdly, after floating, I had a strong urge to eat healthy. I did good for my mind, I wanted to follow suit and do good for my body too!

The day before the float, my co-worker, Paul, told me he had a chicken avocado salad for dinner the night before. After the float, I remembered my conversation with Paul, and thought noshing on chicken and avocado sounded like the PERFECT way to end our peaceful, and relaxing day. Kieran and I bought the ingredients and enjoyed a fabulous chicken avocado dinner for ourselves. Avocado’s may have a lot of fat, but it’s a good kind of fat. If you google the health benefits of avocado, you’ll almost get a list as long as the health benefits of floating!

I decided to go an unhealthy route and use mayo instead of greek yogurt in the salad. I hardly ever make my food with mayo, and was craving the mayo-y tang. If you REALLY want to be healthy, push the jar of mayo aside and reach for the greek yogurt, you’ll skip out on a shit ton of fat!

Looking at my other posts, I realize I frequently post a lot of recipes with a TON of ingredients and a TON of steps. Mostly because I try and cook from scratch when I can, but this recipe is super simple. It’s extremely easy to adapt too, honestly, just eating this salad with chicken, avocado, lime juice, and salt would have been delicious! You could serve the salad with pita bread, or other sandwich bread, but really…all you need to do is serve this salad with a fork….and it will be gone in 1 minute…..30 seconds if you’re hangry.

I know cilantro is an herb people either love or loath. I’ve read there’s a scientific reason for that, which I’m too lazy to talk about right now, but I’m sure subbing parsley for cilantro would taste wonderful.

I added the celery to give the salad some crunch, and added the tomato to give the salad some color and a hint of sweetness. I also added green onion because I love the taste…fuck it 😀

Anyway, with summer right around the corner, I highly recommend adding this salad to your repertoire.

Enjoy friends!!! Don’t forget to find a float tank near you…you’ll thank me!