Michael Stein and Angela Starks live in New Paltz, NY with their son Julian. They are both dedicated yoga practitioners and raw food advocates.


 
Michael Stein

Michael is the Director of Ashtanga Yoga of New Paltz.

He has been practicing Hatha yoga for over twenty years and has been teaching it for fourteen years. Michael's father, who taught yoga in New York City, first introduced him to the study of yoga at the Sivananda ashrams in the Bahamas and upstate New York.

Through the years Michael has studied a wide range of disciplines including Ashtanga, Iyengar, Kundalini, Sivananda, and Vinyasa Yoga. In 1994 he completed his teacher's certification at "Yoga Plus" in southern Crete. Since then he has taught at the Soho Training Center in NYC, Ignite Fitness in New Paltz, All-Sport of Highland, and has taught numerous private students.

Michael has led six Yoga Teacher Training programs and multiple workshops that stress the relationship between Anatomy and Movement. He has written numerous articles on asanas as a form of Yoga Therapy and enjoys guiding private students in finding a sequence that will be especially healing for them.

From 1993-2002 Michael and his parents owned and operated Lucky's Juice Joint, known as a "tiny oasis of vegan food and drink in Soho, NY".  A vegetarian since the age of 17, Michael began to learn more about raw foodism in 1998 which he adopted slowly over the course of about four years.  Noticing how this change in diet altered his yoga practice, both physically and mentally, he became a proponent of this "new" yet ancient lifestyle that can be used to heal dis-ease or maintain optimal health.

Angela Starks

Angela Starks is a health writer, nutritionist and yoga teacher. She is a consulting editor for Satya magazine www.satyamag.com and a columnist with New York Spirit magazine www.nyspirit.com. Her work has also appeared in Ascent, Chronogram and on numerous web sites.

Angela has a bachelor's degree in English, with various electives including the Psychology of Language. She received most of her journalistic training during her ten years at the BBC where her positions included researcher and reporter.

After gaining her nutrition qualification from the prestigious Institute for Optimum Nutrition in London, she worked as a customer nutrition advisor for Britain's largest healthfood store, Planet Organic. As a nutritionist, she counsels clients on an individual basis and hosts workshops on various topics, including Nutrition for Yoga and Eating for Energy.

Angela also has a certificate in Anatomy and Physiology from the London School of Massage, and completed two years of training in Shiatsu. She has been practicing and studying various forms of yoga and meditation for twelve years, and has been teaching for five years.

 

For information regarding private Yoga or Nutritional counseling sessions please email us nyretreats@mindspring.com or call (845)430-7402.