Tag: yoga

Health & Fitness

Dubuque Yoga Festival – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

heather

Who am I kidding??  There was no bad OR ugly.  It was just good.  Great, even.  Amazing.  Awesome.  Just really, really bonkers good. Since I’m running out of adjectives, I will start from the beginning.

This was the inaugural year for the Dubuque Yoga Festival.  The organizers, Scott and Julia Theisen, are the owners of Body and Soul in Dubuque, IA.  They did an absolutely amazing job.  I mean, I’ve never been to a yoga festival before, so I can’t compare it to other yoga festivals, but I can compare it to other conferences and conventions I’ve attended.  The organizers did a great job of, well, organizing!  The rooms were clearly laid  out, the agenda was clear, the programming was fantastic, the lunches on Friday and Saturday were thoughtfully planned,  and the entertainment on Friday night was very fun and engaging.

I attended all 3 days of the festival.  On Friday I spent the day with Max Strom learning about “Inner Axis Essentials.”  I took TWELVE pages of notes on his class.  Friday night we went to the evening ceremony which consisted of a keynote address from Sadie Nardini, a yoga/dance/costume runway show that was super colorful, very beautiful, and perfectly done, and a group dance done by people who just oozed rhythm. They were mesmerizing to watch.  They cast on a spell on me to the point that I actually got up and danced some crazy line dance with the rest of the crowd.  I did not do it WELL, mind you, but I did it. 🙂  It was super fun.

I started Saturday by attending a Kundalini Yoga session at 5AM.  It begin with a 20 minute chant, followed by a 30 minute asana practice, and closed by several other chants. It was interesting to attend, but once was enough for me! Saturday I took a class from Sadie on creating your best yoga class ever.  Then I attended a class  on Raise Your Vibration (using Kundalini yoga) during which I shook out all my bad energy by dancing like I have not since I went to a rave in high school.  Saturday afternoon I took another Sadie class, Learning to Fly.  She helps you use physics to do inversions – bending the elbows and pushing the hands into the earth to push the body up into the air.  I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the two hours, but I had 2 or 3 moments of clarity where I felt the lift of flight.  I practiced her techniques a bit more this morning and was able to hold my crow for longer than I ever have before.  With more practice, I think I will eventually be able to float. 🙂

We closed out the day by attending a gong ceremony.  What is a gong ceremony, you may ask?  Well, let me tell you!  The attendees circled their mats around 4 or 5 humongous gongs and several crystal bowls.  After an introduction encouraging us to close our eyes and meditate on the sound, we laid back on our mats and were submerged in rolling waves of sound. You could feel the sounds crest and fall over you.  It was unlike anything I’ve experienced.  We were there for an hour, but I think 30 minutes would have been just right.  By the end of the hour, I was very uncomfortable from laying on the hard floor, so my mind kept wandering off the sounds.  However, if you ever get a chance to go to a gong ceremony, DO IT!!

By the time the ceremony was completed, we were utterly exhausted and hungry.  We went to a delicious Ukrainian restaurant, Europa Cafe.  After eating lots of delicious food, we retired to the hotel to watch Mean Girls.  Don’t judge!!

Sunday morning we got coffee and breakfast at a great spot, Jitters Cafe.  They only had breakfast paninis.  When I asked if they had gluten-free bread for the panini, they said, no, but they could add the panini fixings to a spring green salad for me.  Perfect!! It was so tasty.  After breakfast I went to a session on balancing chakras. WHOLE LEE COW.  She showed us how you can measure someone’s chakras by dangling a necklace with a heavy fob on the end over the chakra.  Depending how how it spins and what direction it spins, you can tell the state of that chakra.  I was watching the teacher’s arm very closely to see if she was moving the necklace and causing it to spin. It really didn’t look like it.  I want to try it.  I need to do more research on chakras and see what science there is behind it. Truthfully it kind of freaked me out – not in a way that I was scared of it, just in the way that I felt as if I was seeing magic. 🙂

After that session, I was supposed to go to Sadie’s Core Transformation class.  But I still felt rather wrecked from the Learning to Fly class. I thought that Max Strom was teaching a chest and shoulders class at the same time, so I decided to go to that instead.  Well, once he started talking, I realized that I was sitting in a workshop on forgiveness!  There was no yoga to be had!  I considered slipping out the back to go to Sadie’s class instead, but that seemed really rude.  Plus the room had a huge wall of windows overlooking the tree-lined bluffs along the Mississippi. It was a beautiful room, and a wise man with lots to teach was speaking. I better stay.  I am so glad I did!  The workshop helped me realize that I am holding on to some things that I did not realize.  I got shit to work on.  That is FO SHO.

The day closed at 12:30 with a ceremony that involved us all sitting in a big room holding hands, sending positive energy to the person next to us, and then sending love to the whole universe.  Yes, yes. I know it sounds hippy dippy.  But man, was it so nice to be around that kind of genuine positivity for 3 days.  Everyone was happy, smiling, helpful, and glad to be in that space and time.  I absolutely loved it.

I will write more about what I learned in the upcoming days.  This blog post is already getting too long.

Oh!  Shoot. I wanted to give some words of advice for others who may be attending their first yoga festival.  BRING SOMETHING TO SIT ON!!  Sitting cross-legged on your mat for 3 days gets to be very uncomfortable. Pack a meditation cushion or yoga block or something.   Also, bring snacks!  None were available around the festival.  And dress in layers.  The conference rooms were wicked cold.  Several attendees brought blankets with them, and they were smart to do so.  And socks.  For the love of God, bring socks.

Ok, now I’m really done.  How about you?  Have you ever been to a yoga festival? Is this what they are usually like?

Take care and talk to you soon!

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness

YTT – Observations

heather

To obtain our YTT 200 Hour certificates we have to practice teach for 10 hours, and we also have to observe other certified teachers for 10 hours.  I began my observation hours today by watching Shannon, one of the co-owners of Indigo, the studio at which I’m doing my YTT training.

I go to Shannon’s vinyasa class almost every Wednesday night and Saturday morning.  These classes are very energetic and challenging – exactly the kind of yoga on which I thrive.  However, during YTT Shannon talks often about his lunch-time class, and it sounded like a totally different ball game – a bit slower paced and not quite as intense. As a beginner teacher, I think I will feel most comfortable teaching a slower-paced, more beginners-type class, so I wanted to check this out.

I took today off since I had YTT this weekend – I needed a catch-up day.  So I went to the noon class at Indigo and watched Shannon. I learned so much!

1.  First of all, I was amazed by the capabilities of the crowd.  I would say that at least 50%-75% of the class was past 60 years-old, but Man!  They were a flexible, sociable, impressive bunch of yogis.  Several of them were way more bendy than me, and they had flawless form.

2.  The “feel yourself grown taller through the crown of the head” cue is amazing.  Whenever Shannon used it (in Mountain Pose or Vira I or II), I literally saw everyone grow an inch taller.  Take that, gravity!

3.  People are happy doing yoga.  Everyone seemed happy to be in that space, there with their friends, taking care of their bodies, doing something good for their flesh and spirit.

4.  It’s easier to see bad alignment when you are looking at a group of people versus just one person.  It provides comparison, which is very helpful.

5. I at least have *some* good instincts.  One woman looked as if her knee was bothering her. I wanted to give her a blanket for some extra padding, but I didn’t want to interfere with the class.  Eventually Shannon came over and gave her a blanket.  Validation!  I was right. 🙂

6. I wrote down all the asanas that Shannon used, and I’m going to borrow his sequence and use it as a template for some practice teaching.  The sequence I have been using is made up of poses I am very comfortable with – asanas that are pretty easy for me to explain. I’ve been shying away from using poses that are a bit more complicated. Borrowing Shannon’s sequence will help bust me out of that comfort zone.

So one hour down, 9 to go. I plan on observing at least 5 different teachers.  I think it will be really interesting to examine everyone’s styles.

Next Wednesday I start practice teaching a real class at Indigo – eeeeeeek!  Technically one of my co-YTTers will be the primary teacher, and I will be the assistant. It’s still nerve-wracking though!  I’m excited and super nervous.  I hope I don’t pass out. 🙂

Take care, have a most excellent evening. 🙂

Health & Fitness

Breaking my teaching cherry

heather

I did it. I finally kinda sorta taught someone yoga.  My friend Marta was gracious enough to let me come over this morning and “teach” her some yoga. I say “teach” in quotation marks, because it was more of a conversation than teaching, but I’m still counting it!

Since it was just the two of us, I was super informal. I started out by teaching her about ujjayi breathing, which is a fundamental part of vinyasa yoga. Despite it being an integral part of the practice, Marta had never learned it before in any of her yoga classes!  We then moved on to a very simple, basic practice – cat/cow tilts, sun salutations, vira I and vira II, lots of planks, chaturanga, spinxes, etc. We did some bridges, twists, inversions, and then corpse pose.  During savasana, I gave her a little neck and face massage, and then I did this relaxation technique that one of our YTT trainers taught us.  While the student is laying on the floor, you pick up their legs and slowly swing them side to side (in a figure 8) as you lower them back to the ground.  It feels amazing.

So, how did it go?  Here are my observations.

1.  It’s really hard to remember right and left!!  I don’t know if I will ever be able to mirror, meaning if I’m facing a class, I will be moving the right side of my body, but I’ll need to instruct the students to move the left side of their body. How can something so simple be so confusing??

2.  It’s much harder than I anticipated to demonstrate yoga whilst also explaining to the student what they should be doing. It was easy for me to get out of breath.

3.  It’s a good idea to initially practice with someone who is as patient and easy-going as Marta! I lost my place a few times and stopped and sat down to explain things, and she was totally fine with that.

4. Despite doing quite a bit of yoga and reading a TON about yoga, when you are trying to explain to someone else HOW to do it, a lot of the information flies right out of your head.  I think I’m going to update my class notes with a couple of key cues to use for each pose.

5. I thought the sequence that I wrote up would last about an hour, but boy was I wrong! It was about 1/2 that, and that was with us chatting a bit during the flow.  I need to think about how long to stay in each pose. I think I moved us through them too quickly. My struggle is, it’s hard to keep track of how many breaths we stay in a pose because I’m talking during them!

Overall, I really enjoyed sharing what I’ve learned with Marta.  She said she enjoyed it too because in all the classes she’s taken, no one has really shown her individually how to do the pose or explained to her the proper alignment.  I think that’s just a byproduct of going to classes with lots of other people. Even in classes labeled for beginners,  teachers don’t spend a lot of time explaining things.  It DOES disrupt the flow, but I think that for people just starting out with yoga, it would be really helpful to get the mechanics down before doing a truly flowing sequence.

It was a good experience.  I need more practice though.  For our YTT program, we have to do 10 hours of community teaching. But I want to do more one-on-one teaching with my friends and family before I go out and teach strangers!  Also, teaching Marta helped me realize that I really need to study anatomy more. I know the basic muscle groups, but it would be nice to look at a person and understand what the muscles and bones are doing beneath the surface.  So much to learn!

 

Uncategorized

An auspicious start to 2015.

heather

Two very nice things happened to me yesterday that lead me to believe that 2015 is going to be a most excellent year.

1.  My hair has been annoying me lately.  As fellow curly girls know, it’s very difficult to find someone who understands the fickle temperaments of curly hair.  It has a mind of its own and is horribly inconsistent. Some sections can be quite curly while other sections on the very same head are only just a little wavy.  I went 1.5 years without a haircut – partially to let it grow out, and partially because I just couldn’t find anyone who really understood my hair.  Well, my ends were getting so nappy that I was cutting them off instead of trying to comb through them, so I went ahead and got it cut.  And…I lost all my length and was back to where I started 1.5 years ago.

Well, several years ago when Tim and I went to Minneapolis, I got my hair cut by a Deva-trained stylist.  It was the best haircut I ever had, and it looked great for at least a year.  But, I couldn’t drive 5 hours every time I needed a hair cut, so I eventually went back to a local person and ended up making do.  However, I started researching Deva stylists again and found one in Mount Pleasant, IA, of all places!  Since I took Friday off work, I figured it was a good day to try her out.  Her name is Martha, and she owns Aurora Salon.

I loved her!  She is a fellow curly girl (beautiful Bottecelli curls!), so on top of all the Deva Curl and Curl Artistry training she has been to, she personally knows the issues we have.  She cut my hair dry, curl-by-curl.  Before washing my hair, she asked me what I thought. I wanted a little bit more of an angle, which she happily put in for me.  Then she washed and conditioned my hair, giving me helpful tips the whole time.  Then she put in leave-in conditioner, gel, and used clips to give me some lift at the crown, and put me under a dryer for a few minutes.  She finished off the style with the Deva blowdryer, and I ended up with perfectly curly (non-frizzy) hair.  I was actually happy enough with how my hair looked to not have to go home and re-style it immediately.  Here is a bathroom selfie after I styled it this morning to give you a general idea of the cut:

FullSizeRender

Martha charges only $45 for her curly cuts, which is literally 1/2 of what most Deva stylists charge.  She also gave me a few small clips to use in my hair.  Super sweet!  I’m hoping this cut will grow out well (I would really love to get my bangs as long as the rest of my hair), but when this cut grows out, I’ll definitely be trekking to Mt. P again.

And on to the second thing that gives me hope for 2015:

2.  I ordered this bracelet from HollaForMyMala on Etsy.  The description said it’s supposed to help calm the Monkey Mind, which I have in spades lately, and it’s also supposed to increase confidence.  The shop owner was unbelievably nice!  She sent me an email and asked for some background on why I wanted the bracelet.  I told her I’m starting Yoga Teacher Training soon and am really insecure about it (since I haven’t been practicing yoga for long).  When I got the bracelet yesterday, she included a handwritten 2-page note with encouragement (she is also a yoga teacher).  She gave me some great advice and comfort. She also gave me an extra gift – a beautiful solar quartz stone.  The bracelet and the stone come with little sheets that tell you the powers/benefits of the stone.  The bracelet is super beautiful, but unfortunately it’s  really snug.  I emailed her this morning to see if I can get it made bigger.  Here’s a pic of the mala and the stone:

IMG_7575

As I said, 2015 is off to a good start.  Hopefully these ladies like to drink cold beverages with warm hands because I’m sending them both a coozie as a thank you gift. 🙂

Hope your 2015 is off to a great start as well!

 

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness

Writer’s Block

heather

Why is it that whenever you actually have a bit of time to write, you can’t think of anything to write about?  All day long I get these random thoughts and ideas for things I want to get on paper, but then, I stand at my computer, and…blankness. I stare at my nails, contemplating removing the polish.  I think about doing homework.  I think about sleeping. I think about doing dishes. I think about doing anything but staring at a blank computer screen.  So I just start typing and see what comes out.

I haven’t written for TWO weeks!  It’s not because I’ve been lazy, I swears!  I went to Florida for 6 days for work.  While on the trip I got to go to the Magic Kingdom.  It was an interesting experience, and I’m glad did it once, but once is enough!  The older I get and the better I get to know myself, the more I realize that waiting in line for a train to take you to a park where you can wait in line to get in, where you can wait in line to sit in a car and look at electronic creations move and sing and dance is not really my cup of tea.  For the time and money, I would much rather be walking, hiking, biking, or lazing in some natural space with trees or oceans or mountains.  But, again, I’m glad I’ve done it once so I won’t always wonder, “how much better would my life be right now if I had gone to The Magic Kingdom?”  Now I know.

I’ve also started the edX Science of Happiness class.  It’s a very interesting class and very well done. I’ve already learned tons of good stuff :

  1. Happiness is found in freedom from desire (Stoicism, anyone?).
  2. The pursuit of happiness can entail struggle, sacrifice and pain. In fact those experiences are necessary to be happy.  Yin and yang.
  3. The more positive experiences you have, the more open you are – you physically SEE more things.  You see the bigger picture and are more creative.  Happiness biologically changes you.
  4. If you think happy thoughts before a test you do better on the test.
  5. People replace 1% of their cells each day.  Every 3 months we replace 100% of our cells.  It takes about 3 months to form a new habit.  ????
  6. We get used to things that make us happy (hedonistic adaptation). My MacBook will not keep me happy forever.  🙁
  7. Sources of happiness:  exercise, sleep, sense of achievement, social connection & kindness (aka I need more good friends).
  8. Touch is super important to happiness and health.  Our culture deprives us of this.  I need to move to Puerto Rico.
  9. Behaviors that indicate divorce: contempt, criticism, stonewalling, defensiveness.
  10. Behaviors that help relationships:  humor, gratitude, forgiveness, disclosure (accept the emotions of others instead of pushing back).

And that’s just from the 1st two weeks.  I’m already a week behind and not likely to catch up anytime soon.  I’m not going to sweat it, though. I will learn what I will learn.  It’s a fantastic, very interesting class though.  It should be required learning for every human being.  🙂

Yoga is going well too.  I signed up for a 30 day yoga challenge at www.DoYouYoga.com.  It helps me do a little bit of yoga every day (10-15 minutes).  Plus, the instructor, Erin, is super fun and pretty.  Pretty people keep you coming back!  I’ve also been to several classes at Indigo Wellness with several different teachers. It’s very interesting to see all the different teaching styles.  I read somewhere (probably on www.mindbodygreen.com or www.doyouyoga.com) that you should write after every yoga class to help you get more out of it.  I’ve yet to do that – always in a rush to get home, I guess. But I see the value in it.  At each class I learn something, whether it be a new pose, or a style/method I liked or didn’t like.  Writing these impressions would help me remember them.

And on to the final topic I usually cover in my posts – food.  I ate a bunch and drank a bunch in Florida that I should not have eaten or drunken.  I’m trying to get back on track this week.  I tried this new recipe:  Sweet Potato & Leek Omelet.  I have bad, bad luck with omelets, so I made this into a scramble and served it with bacon and kale chips for supper. It was deeeeeelicious.  I’ll definitely make this again.

And that’s my update for now.  Sorry it’s a little incoherent and scattered, but that’s life right now!  Hope you are having a fabulous day!!

Books, Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo

Spring Fever Medley

heather

Yet again, it’s been more than a few days since I’ve posted.  I really have no excuse other than I’ve been both really busy, and when I’m not really busy, I’m really lazy and don’t feel like doing anything.  So…yeah.

I’m sure you’re not interested in the stories of me being lazy, so I’ll enthrall you with the stories of me being busy.

I made FOUR new recipes last week – all from the Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals cookbook.

1. Buttery Eggs & Leeks with Bacon p. 17.  This was simple meal consisting of leeks sauteed in butter over scramby eggs (with coconut milk in them), topped with bacon bits.  Very simple and very delicious.

2. Greek Salad with Lamb p.81.  This was a simple romaine salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives, and ground lamb mixed with spices.  The recipe calls for fresh spices, but they are too expensive this time of year, so I used dried.  It still turned out very tasty.  Tim LOVED this salad.

3. Pork Chops with Shredded Brussels Sprouts p.95.  This was another ultra-simple recipe.  You shred a pound of brussels sprouts in the food processor and then cook them in a sh!t ton of olive oil.  So easy, but so good.

4. Cauliflower “Arroz Con Pollo” p. 109.  This recipe was more work than the other three, but since you can chop everything (onion, jalapeno, garlic, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, and cauliflower ) in the food processor, it goes pretty fast.  This made a TON of food, and it turned out really tasty.  The recipe calls for saffron, which was $12.99 for a tiny bottle at HyVee, so I subbed paprika and turmeric for it instead.  From what I’ve read, nothing but saffron will give you the flavor of saffron, but I wasn’t willing to spend $13 to test that out.

That leads me to an observation I’ve had after being paleo for 2 years.  At first, I felt as if I had to go out and buy all these expensive ingredients (ghee, sesame oil, coconut aminos, spices, avocado oil, etc. etc. etc.).  However, as we’ve settled into our pattern of eating healthier, we’ve found that as long as we have olive oil, some meat, and some veggies in our fridge, we can eat pretty good!   Eating this way can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.

And, as I mentioned on the outset, life is starting to get busy again, so I’m trying to go with the more simple recipes that make leftovers.  On the docket this week is Coffee Ancho Short ribs (which are currently slow-cooking in the Nesco and making our house smell amazing), cowboy breakfast skillet, brats & homemade kraut, paleo meatloaf and salmon with salad (FYI – Target has wild-caught frozen salmon on sale this week for $9.99 – $3 cheaper than normal!).  Oh, and I’m going to be decadent and make Paleo Fudgy Brownies.  I’m kind of scared to make them because I think they are going to be crazy delicious, and then I will have to eat them all.

Now on to what’s been making me busy besides making and eating food.  Let’s see.  Work is busy, which takes away my mental energy to do much of anything else in the evening.  BUT I have gotten some things done.  I’ve been making water kefir, for one thing.  So far it hasn’t been turning out – the water is still too sweet after the fermenting process.  However, the instructions say it can take up to 3 weeks for the grains to really get activated, so I just need to be patient.

I also finished Mindset which was an awesome book that really made me look at myself and my abilities/talents in a new light.  I don’t want to write a review because this post is already getting too long, but take my word for it and read it.  It’s a good perspective-shifter.

I also went to an official yoga class for the first time in 6 years!  I’ve been using the yoga app on my phone, but going to a class is so much better.  It’s great to get teacher feedback. My iPad can’t tell me if my form is bad.  I really enjoyed the class.  Even though it gave me a good workout for my core, legs, and back, it was still very calming.  Maybe it’s just psychological, but after only one class, I already feel as if I stand up straighter!  We are going back on Monday.  We are scheduled for Wednesday too, but Tim and I might try a spinning class instead.

We’ve been trying to swim too, to prepare for the tri in 4 months.  We joined the Y, and it’s been really difficult to find times where there are open lanes.  There are a lot of water walkers at the Y, we’ve found.  It’s getting frustrating.

And, well, that’s about it.  Tim and I are doing a 4 mile run in about an hour, so I should go get ready for that.  Hope you are having a great Sunday!

Health & Fitness, Product Reviews, Uncategorized

Bike Path Etiquette and Other Randomness

heather

The Teem and I just returned from the jogging on the bike path.  We both had really good runs, but my tranquility was spoilt by my annoyance at the cyclists who kept whizzing by me super fast, without even a grunt to acknowledge that they were speeding up not a foot away from me.  I wasn’t wearing head phones or anything, but I still didn’t hear them until they were right up on me.  If I  would have taken one little step to the left, I would have been creamed.  How hard is it to say, “On your left?”  Dummies.

But, despite the whizzers, it was a still a great morning to be out there.  I’m steadily building up my endurance.  I ran a mile, walked 1/2 a mile and ran a mile back home.  I came home and did this quick little yoga routine to stretch out.  I love this routine – it takes maybe 3 to 5 minutes, but it does a great job of stretching out muscles.  I need to find a new yoga mat, though.  I got a cheap Gaiam mat from Target a couple of years ago, and it’s too thin and makes my feet & hands sweaty.  It’s almost impossible to do downward dog with sweaty hands and feet.  Laura and I did pick up a good mat tip at class on Monday night.  Instead of rolling the entire mat up into a tube, fold it in half first, and then roll it from the folded end.  This ensures you always know what side of the mat touches the floor (and your face), and it also prevents the ends from rolling up once the mat is laid out.

One of my motivators for jogging is a recent purchase of some good workout clothes.  I typically shy away from spending money on nice exercise cloths because, really, who am I trying to impress?  But I have a problem with my running shorts riding up, and I read that if you have a shorter inseam in your shorts, it actually helps.  I thought I would give it a try.  I went to Dicks and spent $90 (of course nothing was on sale) on these items:

Nike Fit Dry Running Shorts

These cost $28.  They are super light and have a convenient inside pocket for keys/tissues.  They have mesh on the sides to keep you cool and a non-restrictive elastic waistband.  They are pretty short, but not too short.  They stay where they are supposed to stay too.

Nike Dri-fit Running Shirt

This shirt is also is super light and breathable.  It has a nice unrestrictive fit, but still has an attractive cut – it’s not boxy at all.  The cool mint color doesn’t attract the heat of the sun like my black gear. Plus it perfectly matches my running shoes.  When I wear it, I actually look put together.  I love this shirt, but I think it’s too pricey at $30.

My final purchase was a running skirt.  Yes, that’s a right.  A running skirt.  I’ve been eying them ever since last summer, but when I tried to buy one at Dick’s last year, they were all out of black larges.  Dicks is ALWAYS  out of  the most sensible colors and sizes.  Which is why I bought these three things immediately without waiting for a sale.  If I waited, I would be stuck with a S or XL in fuchsia.

The skirt is a Reebok Play Dry Medium skirt.  The closest one I can find is here.  Mine is all black  mesh, with grey, very light shorts sewn in to it.  That is one thing that frustrates me about Reebok.  It’s really hard to find the EXACT thing you want online.   If you find a Reebok item you like in the store, buy it, because you will never be able to find it again.

The skirt was $25.  I’ve run in it 3 times, and it works great.  I had Tim run behind me to make sure the shirt doesn’t kick up in the back and show too much junk and stuff.  He says it stays where it’s supposed to.  It’s very light, modest, and fashionable.  I think I could even wear it for casual clothes.  Maybe.  If I start wearing skirts.

If this new gear keeps me motivated to keep jogging, it will be well worth the $90 investment.

I was wondering if I would be able to get myself to exercise today at all.  Yesterday Tim and I embarked on a massive house-cleaning exercise.  We were having company over at 6, so we started up around 10AM.  I worked on the bathroom first.  We often light candles and matches in our bathroom, and all the soot and match residue has been steadily accumulating and mixing with the moisture of the shower for the past 6 years on our white bathroom walls and ceiling.  We have made a couple of half-hearted attempts to clean up the black stains/mildew, which only resulted in worsening the appearance of the bathroom.  Instead of uniformly grimy walls, we had swaths of lighter grimy walls, set off by darker, grimy walls.  So yesterday I drug the ladder up from the basement, mixed some TSP substitute with bleach and set to.  It was a hot, sweaty, frustrating job (the ladder is almost bigger than our bathroom), but it was worth it.  Our walls are 95% white again. I couldn’t get the stains completely off some areas.  Our only solution is to repaint the walls.  But it looks way better than it used to:

That corner in the upper left used to be disgusting.

I am super sore, though, this morning, from contortioning my body into awkward positions and from bracing it against the ladder steps.  My back is rather jacked up, but running didn’t bother it at all.

Tim also removed the door separating our kitchen from the basement stairs.  We leave this door open always anyway, so Lucent can get to the litter box in the basement.  The only purpose the door served was to annoy me – when the door is open, it partially blocks the basement stairs.  I always run into it while carrying things up and down the stairs.  Last weekend, while I was negotiating around the door with basket full of laundry, I stubbed my toe on the steps and tripped up into the kitchen.  Not only did my toe hurt like a mother, but I was also super embarrassed ’cause I tripped.  While I was cleaning the bathroom, Tim surprised me and removed the door.  I am amazed by how much more open the back entry-way looks now.  Once we paint the basement stairwell and the closet that used to be hidden by the open door, it will look awesome.

All-in-all we had a very productive Saturday.  Our friends came over at 6, we ate Tim’s delicious (and healthy) chicken tortilla soup, guacamole, and macho nachos, and then played a rousing game of Settlers of Catan.  I was totally in the running to win (despite being repeatedly attacked and robbed by Teem), when our friend stole my Largest Army victory points, flipped over her secrete Discovery cards and stole the show.  It was still fun, despite losing.

Our guests brought delicious treats for dessert – turtles made of pretzels, Rolos, and pecans.  They were super tasty and cute.  I say “were” because all of mine are now eaten.  We have 3 left, and I’ve reserved them for Tim.


So goes another weekend, way too fast.  I wanted to plant some vincas in my pots today, but I went to Green Thumbers at 11, and the parking lot was packed to the hilt.  I didn’t feel like pushing an unweildy cart through narrow lanes of flowers, clogged with the after-church crowd, so I drove through the parking lot and came on home.  Maybe I’ll sweet talk Tim into picking up some flats of vincas and impatiens for me during the more sane week-day hours.  At least I pulled out all the pots from the garage (gingerly tapping each pot to scare out any mice or other creatures who had taken up residence over the winter) and rinsed them out with our mice-eaten hose.  Get me some dirt and some flowers, and I’m good to go.

Hope you had a great weekend, too!

Health & Fitness, Movies, Uncategorized

Yoga my head into the ground

heather

I had a very positive day yesterday.  I started off on the right foot by drinking two cups of delicious fresh ground 8 O’Clock Columbian roast, one cup of twiggy Traditional Medicinals Dandelion Root tea and by eating rolled oats with cinnamon, raisins and ground flax.  I was bursting with healthy energy, so I headed to the gym and did 35 minutes on the treadmill, working up a shirt-drenching sweat.  Tim put all sorts of excellent hip-hop and electronic music on my eyepod that kept my energy flowing – stuff like this awesome song with the best bass beat ever:

I always play my iPod on random, and a few Kid Cudi tracks came up, and maybe even some Robyn?  Anyway, it was a mix made to train my body and soul.  After the treadmill action, I headed out to Ultimate Fitness to catch the 11:15 yoga class.

Sara had us do all the usual poses – mountain (where you get in touch with the earth), tree (where you try vainly to balance on one foot whilst keeping the rest of your body on one plane), cobra, downward dog, etc. She tried some intermediate moves too; she had us do boat, or at least I tried to do boat. You do this pose by sitting on your mat, with your legs stretched directly in front of you. You scooch your hips back, so that you are sitting on your sit bones and not rolling back on your butt. You place your hands behind your back for stability and then lift both legs off the ground. It sounds so easy, but it’s insanely hard for me. I can only lift one leg at a time, and I can’t even keep the one leg off the ground for more than 10 – 20 seconds. Sara makes it look as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. It’s just insane.

Fortunately, she closed with savasana, the corpse pose. In this pose, you lay on your back, with your legs flat to on the ground, knees and feet pointed upward. Sara walks your mind through your whole body, relaxing each muscle as your thought touches it. Once you’ve relaxed everything, from the skin between your toes to your inner ears, you focus on your breathing. You imagine your breath coming into your body like waves coming on to the beach. With each exhalation, the wave retreats, taking with it some of bad things residing in your body. I was telling Tim today, that yoga is the kind of thing that works well for those who believe in it and probably not at all for those who don’t. I guess I’m a believer because it always makes me feel better when I go, at least until the day after. I might have pushed myself too far yesterday, because today I am pretty much sore EVERY WHERE. But, I still feel positive about it because I can feel myself standing straighter, and I feel much more tuned in to my body. It feels less like a mysterious package surrounding my brain and more a part of me.

After yoga Tim and I went to Major Art and Hobby where I got my Prang watercolors and brushes and erasers and rulers for my Architectural Drawing class that starts on the 16th. Major Art and Hobby always seems very poorly stocked to me. Maybe it’s my Americanized custom of always seeing plenty of everything. But, despite appearances, they had everything I needed, sans cold press watercolor paper and a masonite drawing board. The paper will come in this week, and I found the board at Hobby Lobby – it looks exactly like the drawing boards we used in high school. I can’t wait to slap some paper on that board, tack it down with masking tape and have at it.  My drawing desire was re-awakened Saturday morning when I drew up simple plans for a tea box the Bennzy Boos is going to make for us. I forgot how relaxing it can be to draw rulered lines with a pencil on paper with a nice tooth. Ahh… the little things in life.

After Major Art & Hobby, Tim and I hit up Great River, had a couple of pints, headed to Evergreen for a T-square (they were closed), and picked up some wings at BWW for supper. I tried the mango Habanero sauce, per a friend’s recommendation. It is pretty sticky but very delicious. It took about an hour for my lips to return to their normal color. We watched Zombieland while eating supper. It was actually a pretty unsettling movie to watch while eating chicken wings. As I was ripping chicken flesh off the bones – orange, sticky sauce all over my face and hands – on the television, human beings were ripping entrails out of fellow human beings, while projectile vomiting black mucusy syrupy disgustingness. Besides the aforementioned graphicness, the movie was actually pretty funny in many parts. The Bill Murray scenes alone make the movie worth watching. Woody Harrelson was my favorite character – nice and insane. I didn’t like the girls in the movie – the idea that they could snooker those two guys so completely multiple times seemed t0o far-fetched to me.  I think it’s definitely worth watching, but it’s no Shaun of the Dead, not by a long-shot.

Today has been a very mild day so far, which is what I needed after all the exercise and exciting art supply shopping yesterday. Tim and I are sitting here in the computer room; he’s tagging pictures and being very patient with me as I try to get WordPress to do what I want it to do. Yep, the Teemz is good people.

So, it’s back to work tomorrow. Another weekend come and gone in a flash. I can’t wait until Robots take over the world and start treating us like beloved pets. They will give us jobs, so we don’t completely lose purpose in life, but we’ll only have to work 3 days a week, and the rest of the time we can pursue hobbies and play awesome iPod games created by our cool Robot leaders. I can’t wait for the future.  Please note, Google, that I capitalize Robots to show respect.

Health & Fitness

I so tired

heather

I think I may have overdone it.  I went to the gym at 4:30AM yesterday morning and did leg weights, 15 minutes on the Precor, and 15 minutes on the treadmill.  Then last night I went to a Yoga Fit class.  It was a HARD class.  Who knew that stretching could make you feel so horrible the next day.  Then, this morning, at 4:30AM I went to the gym and did 50 minutes of cardio (alternating walking 5 minutes and running 5 minutes).  By 3PM today I was feeling pretty checked out.  Maybe if I get into the habit of doing this weekly, though, I’ll get used to it, and I’ll be able to fully contribute at my job all the way until 5PM.

Despite my increased level of activity, I haven’t lost any weight.  I was up to 150 this Fall, and I’ve moderated now at 147, which is the weight I’ve been for ages.  I have a hard time dipping below that threshold though.  Just when I start to feel thin and vibrant, I’m sidelined by PMS.  All my clothes feel tight, and I feel gross.  That lasts for like for 10 days, so 1/3 of the month.  Totally unfair.

On a bright note, I read today that having a big bum, hips, and thighs is “healthy.”  Yes, it’s true.  I read it right here.  I have lots of  “slower burning hip fat” which is a good thing, according to Dr Konstantinos Manolopoulos.  So, what I’m taking away from this article is that my body is totally fine the way it is – all 147 pounds of it.  I’m still going to work out though.  It does really make me happier.  It makes me feel superior to non-exercisers too, which is nice.  Yes, I’m a bad person – a bad person with good fat.

Health & Fitness

Hatha Yoga

heather

I am off to an excellent start today.  I woke up, ate oatmeal for breakfast (mixed quick oats with a  banana, raisins, ground flax and cinnamon), went to the gym and did upper body weights and 40 minutes on the Precor, then went to hatha yoga at Ultimate Fitness.

My friend Laura and I have done yogalates a few times (a mix of yoga and pilates).  I didn’t anticipate hatha yoga being that much different, but it really was.  The instructor for this class was a lot more instructive.  Her directions for the poses were very descriptive and precise.  It made me feel more comfortable that I was actually doing the pose correctly.  She was really good at walking your mind through your body, too.  She would say, “Feel the energy start at your toes, move through your arches, your ankles are relaxing, etc.”  With each new instruction, I felt that part of my body do as it was told.  It was so interesting, albeit a little spooky.  This yoga definitely focused on the mind-body connection more than the yogalates.  I like both types – this yoga helped me feel more centered and in tune with myself, but the yogalates worked my muscles (especially the abs) more.

I really enjoy doing yoga, but for some reason it’s super hard for me to actually get myself to the class.  The only reason I made it there today was because I met Laura and another friend there.  I am still mystified by how difficult it is to make myself do something that I really enjoy.  I blame inertia – a body at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.  Laura and Melissa are going to be my outside force.  We’re supposed to meet for class again next Saturday.

Two things about the class that I didn’t like, however, was 1.  It was SUPER cold in the room.  Granted, it’s only 8 degrees outside, but coldness goes with yoga like restraint with David Hasselhoff.  2.  This guy walks into the class, and chuckles as he sees how crowded it is.  “I love this time of year” he says with an air of disdainful superiority – New Years resolution wannabees was his attitude toward us.  He obviously doesn’t understand the true spirit of yoga (do no harm) or he would have kept his loud mouth shut.  I know this guy from my old job – he is an arrogant, obnoxious blowhard, so I shouldn’t have been surprised at his comment.

Anyway, despite the cold and the dash of obnoxiousness, I still really enjoyed the class. I’m already looking forward to going back next week.