The Continuation of Yoga

From the app Yoga Studio

I don't think I posted about this, but back in March I did a yoga intensive- yoga every morning, five days a week for 3 weeks. At the end of that 3 weeks, I felt and looked amazing; toned, strong, vibrant, and calm. And then I kind of fell off the wagon and took a month long break from yoga, which was pretty sad.

Last month I started it up again, and while it feels great to do yoga a couple of times a week, I want to once again try making yoga a regular part of my life. Inspired by a friend of mine who did yoga every day in May, I'm going to try to do yoga every day in June. He also told me about an app called Yoga Studio. While it's no substitute for the awesome classes at the Yoga Loft, it's the absolute best at-home yoga I've ever seen. This app allows you to choose from workouts that have a specific part of the practice in mind (strength, flexibility, relaxation), or to create your own workouts with whatever poses you like. Once you put together a sequence, it will also suggest linking poses to make the practice you planned flow more smoothly. I think this app will provide a great way to get in some practice on days when my schedule just doesn't mesh with what's offered at the Loft.
P.S. The Yoga Loft is offering a great deal in June: unlimited 3-month yoga pass for just $159. Trust me, it's worth every penny.

With An Open Heart

Image of Wheel pose from Universal Yoga Center

Last week work was very challenging both physically and mentally, and I expect this week may be more of the same. I was so glad that I took the time to go to yoga on Sunday morning and to go to the gym today. Being physical makes such a difference in how I feel about myself and about the world around me. Each time I have a really great workout, I feel like I have contributed positively to my own being and also to the person I am capable of being in the world. 
Two memorable things happened this week in yoga- I did my first backbend (also called wheel pose), and my yoga teacher read part of the quote below, which I've been thinking about a lot. Sometimes, it is really challenging to have an open heart and to be our best selves. When we can, however, those feelings of love, generosity, kindness, and compassion that we express to those around us build on themselves. When we express our love and gratitude, it helps those feelings grow not just in ourselves, but also in our communities.

"This scarce human body is acquired after many lifetimes; don't waste this opportunity. Every moment of life is precious. Do not think of yourself as weak and fallen. That which was done up to now, understand that this was unintentional. But now, apply yourself to action fit for a human. If having become a human being you do not obtain knowledge of your Divine nature, it is as if you have sold a diamond for the price of spinach.

The world is in need of love. With an open heart, you radiate the light of love to all those around you. Remember, no impulse of love is wasted. As a lover, rejoice in your state of lovingness, and know that every being who reflects a ray of your love is enlightened by the experience. This is your essential state. It always was and always will be.

Do not allow the pervasive worldly demands of life to constrict your heart. The sun does not use the excuse of clouds to stop shining its light, for it knows that clouds will always come and go. It is your birthright to live a life abundant in love. Make the commitment today to open your heart and let your love flow. No matter what has happened in your past, you have an infinite capacity for love. Please use it, for your own sake and the sake of this precious world."-Swāmī Brahmānanda Saraswatī

A Few Technology Goals

A lot of the goals I've made this year have focused on improving my diet and exercise habits. Although I've also made a few goals about stress-reduction, as the end of the year is drawing closer, I've realized that this is an area where I could still stand to make some improvements. I was thinking about which things in my life cause me to feel stressed and which things help me to feel relaxed. In thinking about this, I've come to the conclusion that my i-phone is contributing both positively and negatively to my health, and my use of it is an area where I could make some changes.

First the positive: My i-phone allows me to download and store a ton of music. I love listening to music when I'm walking, and if I have music that I'm excited to listen to, I'm a lot more likely to walk than I am to take the bus. Extra exercise-yay! Having excellent work-out music downloaded also keeps my time at the gym fun, and keeps me feeling energetic and motivated. But I often wait until I am really sick of the music I have to download more. Why? This must be an area where I'm just really, really lazy. I have a music subscription service through Rhapsody, so I'm already paying for access to lots of music, but I'm not using it nearly as much as I could. Music is one of the things that brings me the most joy in life, and I think it would be great to keep music that I like more present in my life. Goal #48: download new music at least once a month.

Now the negative: I use my i-phone to check my work email a lot, and at times I'd say almost compulsively; when I'm waiting for the bus, when I'm waiting at a restaurant or a coffee shop, when I'm laying in bed at night. Ugh. Having access to my work email via my phone is great when I'm traveling and don't have regular access to a computer, but in my daily life, it just feels like a time and energy suck. I think the best solution is to remove the app I use to check my work email, which is Goal#49 (and is now done!).

The other way my i-phone is contributing negatively to my life is that it is putting a lot of stress on my hands and wrists- especially when I look at my phone in bed. There have actually been times that my hands have fallen asleep when I am doing this, and I know that can't be good. Goal#50 is to limit the amount of time I spend looking at my i-phone in bed to 10 minutes per night (ideally, I'd like to stop doing this altogether, but this seems like a more realistic goal for now).
I can't believe the year is almost over!! Only 2 more goals to go...

Crafty Christmas

My newest goal (#47) is to try to do a better job of using/reusing things I already have before buying new things. I, like many people in the United States, tend to buy and accumulate way more things than I actually need. Sometimes, buying things makes me feel happy in the moment, but later I feel really disappointed in myself for spending money on junk I don't need, for contributing to poor working conditions by buying poorly made mass-produced crap, and for harming the environment by creating demand for a bunch of unneeded junk. Having excess stuff around also makes my house feel cluttered. I live in a small house, and the less stuff I have the more comfortable my environment is. I think it's fair to say that having a clutter-free house greatly contributes to my over-all sense of well-being.
The other positive side of this goal is that when I am trying to reuse the stuff I already have, I feel purposeful, creative, and often have a lot fun being crafty. Last night my niece and nephew and my dear friend Kim (their mother) and I made Christmas ornaments out of craft supplies that I already had on hand- colored paper, buttons, glue, and embroidery floss. I made several more ornaments today, and I also made a garland out of felt scraps. Now I have a bunch of really pretty and unique decorations for my tree and they're all made out of stuff I already had lying around my house!

Neck Update/ 2 new Friends!

I realized I should give an update on the neck problems I was having last week. Last Monday I saw a chiropractor for the first time. I visited Andy Rosser at the recommendation of one of my co-workers. He was kind and gentle and not at all scary. Two things he recommended that have seemed to help were switching from hot packs to  ice packs (my trusty bag of edamame works great!) and using a ball to do stretches on my back muscles. My neck is slowly but surely getting better, and I am finally returning to my normal life.  It's still not perfect, but it's a lot better, and it feels great to be able to do some of the active things I enjoy.

My New (and Hopefully Temporary) Companions

This week I'm feeling a little down about my health and fitness. I have been having discomfort and tightness in my neck and back for about a month, and this week it reached a point where it has become almost intolerable. I haven't been able to meet my goals around working out or doing yoga because much of the time I am in too much pain, and it's really frustrating.
 I can remember the moment when my neck seized up; it was  after an especially stressful meeting at work, and I felt all of my anxiety and stress settling into the muscles in my back and neck. I felt stiff and terrible, but I assumed it would be a short-lived problem. Unfortunately, when I woke up the next day it was worse. Since then it has fluctuated between mildly uncomfortable and very painful. I have gotten some relief from massage, which was awesome, but after a few days it tightens up again. Right now I am trying a combination of hot packs, home massage with arnica oil,  extra sleep, stretching, tylenol/ibuprofen, and lots of water. Since none of this seems to be doing the trick, tomorrow I'm going on my first ever visit to a chiropractor (Eek! I'm scared!).  If that doesn't work, I'm going to visit my doctor and see what she recommends. So my very sad goal for this week ( goal #46) is to figure out what in the heck is wrong with my neck get it resolved ASAP.

Doing What I Love Most

Today I spent much of the day cooking and prepping food for the week, and my oh my, it was fun! I felt productive and happy, and I got to listen to lots of great music too. One of the  things I love best about winter is staying inside and making lots of delicious and healthy food for the coming week. It feels great to open the refrigerator and have so many healthy options to choose from.


Today I made:
Cinnamon Breakfast Quinoa (I substituted apples for the berries)
Quinoa Banana Pecan Bread with Cranberries (I added zest of one lemon and a half cup of dried cranberries)
Rice with Lemon, Parsley, and Walnuts (I substituted a rice-quinoa blend and adjusted the amount of liquid and cooking time)
Washed lettuce for the week
Prepped carrots, celery, beets, daikon radish, cucumbers, and red peppers for salads and snacks
Baked a delicata squash that we'll have for dinner
And there's still time to go for a second walk of the day- yay!!- winter is a cook's best friend!

Do the Best You Can and Don't Worry

Recently when I was looking for a birthday card, I found a postcard that has a message that I think is a really important to keep around: "Do the best you can and don't worry".  I can think of few phrases that hold as much personal meaning for me as this one. It is a horrible habit of mine, and I suspect of many people, to dwell on the ways that I'm not successful or on things that might go wrong rather than focusing on what I have accomplished and all of the wonderful people and experiences I have in my life. The saddest part of this habit is that when I spend my time worrying about what might happen or focus on the ways I feel like I've failed, I don't get to fully enjoy or embrace the life I'm living right now. I put the post card on my refrigerator to look at when I start to feel anxious or when moments of self-doubt start to cloud my thoughts. I kind of wish I had a whole box of these postcards so I could give one to everyone I know, since it seems like many of us could use the reminder.

In the Woods

 This morning I went for a hike in the woods, and it was absolutely magical. There was a very light breeze blowing, which kept sending the leaves falling towards the ground. They were swirling lazily from the sky, and eventually touching down with a melodic little flutter. It was spooky and beautiful. If you like to hike and don't want to go far away to get to a trail, Priest Point Park is a perfect destination. The trails are well-maintained and provide a (mostly) easy walk through woods of both deciduous and evergreen trees, and include several nice views of Puget Sound as well as beach access if you want to get a little closer to the water. The uncharacteristic lack of rain this fall has left piles and piles of beautiful leaves to look at and crunch under your boots. Knowing Olympia, this isn't going to last much longer, so get out there while you can and enjoy one of the coolest (and free!) places in Olympia.

Underwater Fun

When I was in Hawaii, I was shocked to discover how much I love snorkeling.  I have never been a fan of putting my head under water, so I thought I would be really uncomfortable. Imagine my surprise when I found that swimming is really fun when you can open your eyes and breathe under water. After I tried snorkeling once, I was hooked, and I wanted to do it as much as possible. Now, being back at home, I'd love to recapture some of the fun I had in the ocean, and enjoy some of the awesome exercise that swimming provides.  Despite the fact that I live near the sound, the water is far too cold here to swim or snorkel without a wetsuit except during the very warmest times of the year, and even then, it's pretty cold! I think I'm going to give swimming in the pool at the YMCA another chance. I wish I could wear a snorkel mask during lap swim, but I think maybe I'll just stick with goggles and maybe even be a total nerd and get a nose clip. Goal#38: Swim at the YMCA at least once before the year is over. I hope I really love it and decide to make swimming a part of my regular gym workouts.

Trying Less Coffee For a Month

Since I've gotten back from my vacation, I've been looking for ways to maintain my feelings of relaxation and well-being. Specifically, I'm trying to pay attention to the habits I have that contribute to stress and undermine my ability to feel like my best self. One of the habits I've gotten into over the past couple of years is to have a second cup of coffee around nine or ten in the morning on days when I am at work. Often, about an hour after I have this second cup of coffee I start to feel tense, and I notice myself becoming impatient and irritable. Last week, I tried not having this second cup of coffee, and I was surprised to find that even when stressful things happened at work, I didn't feel as keyed-up as I often do. Now, that may just be because I'm freshly back from vacation, but it seems like a good opportunity to conduct an experiment. Goal #36: to not have a mid-morning coffee on the days I'm at work for a month. I'll see if this continues to make a difference in my ability to maintain my cool in stressful situations, and if so, I'll plan to cut my mid-morning coffee from my daily routine.

Welcome Back and Happy Birthday Self

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted on this blog-just about 3 weeks. Happily, the reason I wasn't posting is that I was enjoying myself in Hawaii! One of the goals I made before I left for my trip was to try at least one new activity before the end of the year. In Hawaii, it was easy to meet this goal, as I tried a lot of new things. Snorkeling was my favorite new thing I tried, and since I did it without fins, it was great exercise too! I saw many beautiful fish, tons of coral, a few eels, and even some sea turtles! I also tried some new foods: Ono (a delicious type of fish that I had grilled on a salad), green papaya slaw, lilikoi (also known as passionfruit), ahi poke (raw tuna salad with yummy marinade), rambutan (a fruit that looks scary but tastes good), and laulau (in this case they were little bundles of root veggie wrapped in taro leaves). I also ate lots of fresh ripe papaya and pineapple. Lastly, I officiated a wedding, which was a very exciting and fun experience. Getting away was so refreshing and relaxing, and even though I didn't maintain some of my usual goals (going to the gym, riding my bike, eating blueberries, etc.), I feel like the mental health benefits were so great that it far outweighs any physical health benefits that I may have missed out on for a few weeks. Now I'm back and ready to start working on my health and blogging about it again, and right in time for my 39th birthday!

Hilda

A few days ago, I saw a post on Metafilter, a website I sometimes visit. The post was about a pin-up girl created in the 1950's by artist Duane Byers. The character he created is named Hilda (some images slightly NSFW), and in his paintings, she is depicted as playful, goofy, and very curvy. What struck me when I saw his paintings is how rare it is to see women with bodies like mine depicted as happy, healthy, and sexy. In fact, I can't ever remember seeing "sexy" drawings of a woman with a body like Hilda's (and mine). In many of the drawings of Hilda, she is doing active things- swinging on a rope swing, hanging upside down from a tree, riding her bicycle, etc. Her arms and legs are strong and muscular looking, but also round and curvy. When she is sitting down, she has creases in her stomach and folds on her back just like I do.  She seems happy and comfortable with herself and isn't shy about showing off her body. I wish that I had seen these drawings when I was twelve or thirteen, so that as my body developed, I could have seen that it is possible to be shaped like me and beautiful because of it rather than in spite of it. Hilda is a real beauty, and every time I see her, she inspires to me to appreciate my body just as it is.

Live and Learn

I wanted to do an update on my last post about doing yoga with weights. I woke up the next morning with a terribly sore neck and back. My neck was so stiff it was hard to turn my head. Luckily, I was able to get in to see Miracle Merey, the incredibly gifted massage therapist I've written about before. She got things loosened up and I'm feeling much better now, but it was a good learning experience for me- maybe doing yoga with weights isn't such a great idea after all. It's possible that I just slept funny or that my muscles were already taxed from working and that I just overdid it, but I think for a little while anyway, I might just stick to regular yoga. I'll guess I'll have to keep things interesting by changing the music I'm listening to or doing yoga outside.

Changes

Lately I've been noticing that my body is starting to look different than it did back in January when I started this blog. My clothes sit in different places on my body, and I can see muscles and definition where I didn't see them as much before (especially in my shoulders and legs). After a few questions from family members about how much weight I've lost, I decided to weigh myself on a proper scale. I don't have a scale in my house because I don't want to obsess about my weight, and so I hadn't weighed myself in a few months. On my last visit to the Y, I got on the scale and I was surprised to find that I have actually lost a fair amount of weight. I want to point out that I have not been trying to reduce my caloric intake or forbidding any particular foods (with the exception of beer, which I decided to take a month long break from last week). I've just been eating tons of healthy food and exercising more than I used to. After noticing that I had lost some weight, I decided to check my measurements. I recorded them 2 months ago when I ordered a dress, so I have a recent record to compare to. Since the beginning of June, I've lost an inch from my waist and hips, two inches from my bust, and (thankfully), no inches from my biceps. I hope I can keep getting strong and fit as the year continues, developing muscles where I didn't have them before, and increasing my endurance and flexibility. I'm also excited for the next time I visit the doctor for my annual blood work, etc. to see how my dietary and fitness changes have impacted my blood sugar, cholesterol, etc.

Taking An Afternoon Off From Everything

I haven't posted in almost a week. I've been busy being on call for work, and it was kind of a doozy of a week. When I am on call, even at the times when I don't get called in to work, I just can't relax. Being on call is very draining for me, and at the end of it, I always struggle for a few days to try to figure out how to recharge my internal batteries. This morning, after I was freed of my on-call responsibilities, I was feeling kind of at loose ends about what to do with my day. My body felt too sore to paddle or go to the gym, and my spirit felt too disrupted for me to believe that starting a house project was a good idea. What to do? What I really felt like doing was taking a nap and then laying out in the sun with a book, some popcorn, and several glasses of iced tea. And that's what I did. I just took the afternoon off from everything and it felt great. Being "lazy" is usually hard for me, but like savasana (the relaxation pose at the end of many yoga practices), I think taking time to relax may be just as important for a healthy mind and body as being active and productive is.

Goodbye Beer, See You In a Month

As much as I hate to do it, especially in the middle of the summer, I'm taking this opportunity to make Goal #29 giving up beer for one month. Although I really love beer, the kind of beer I like (microbrew IPA) is calorically dense (250-300 calories per 12oz beer) and relatively expensive. Since I am looking for ways to cut some unhealthy calories out of my diet, and also looking for ways to save money, this seems like a good two for one kind of goal. Tonight I'm going to visit the Co-op and stock up on lots of cold and fizzy drinks (carbonated water, kombucha, iced tea makings) so that I will have some good substitutes on hand for post yard-work summer days, which is when I think I'll probably miss beer the most.

Sunday Bike Ride

 Today I wanted to get out and enjoy the beautiful Pacific NW. I really felt like taking a hike in the woods, but due to some blisters I got breaking in new shoes this week, I knew that probably wasn't a good idea. I decided to take a bike ride instead, and as I was riding along I remembered that there is a portion of the Chehalis-Western trail near my house that is wooded and quiet, and I thought that would be a great substitute for a hike in the woods. I've written about the Chehalis-Western trail before in relation to walking, but I have to say, it is even better on a bike! The trail is flat and paved, and it winds through some really beautiful areas. The portion of the trail I was on today is kind of funny, because it is bordered in some areas by cow and horse pasture, so you do get an occasional whiff of barnyard smell, especially on warm days like today. In a few more weeks the blackberries will be ripe, though, and when that happens, the only thing you will smell on the trail is their heavenly, musky berriness. As I was riding on the trail, I looked up at the trees. With the dappled sunlight hitting their array of green leaves and needles,  they were breathtaking. I thought about how amazing it must be for people who come to the Pacific NW for the first time. I feel so fortunate to live in a place of such incredible beauty, and I hope I never take this place for granted.

Happy Anniversary!

Today Zach and I celebrated 17 years together! It's pretty weird to think that we were both in our early 20s when we got together (so long ago!), and it definitely doesn't feel like 17 years have gone by already. About 10 years ago, my mom told me to appreciate every day because as you age, time will start going by really fast, and boy, she wasn't kidding! For our anniversary, we had a  fun day hanging out and enjoying time together. The best part of the day was sitting in a park in the shade, watching bunnies hopping around, listening to the rustle of the leaves in the trees, and eating ripe blackberries from the Fremont Sunday Market.  It's awesome to be with someone who I can still have so much fun with after all this time, and I feel incredibly lucky to have such a great partner.

Breakfast In the Sound

Today after work, I went for a beautiful paddle. I saw an incredible array of marine animals, including seals (tons of them were hanging out on the log boom- they looked like a pack of dogs with bowling balls for heads!), blue herons, and jellyfish. This time, the jellies weren't the harmless moon jellies that I've written about before, but another type called a fried egg jellyfish. The fried egg jelly is much larger than the moon jelly, but has a sting that is mild, so I was careful not to fall in, but not too afraid. There were so many of them out in the sound, and they really do look like giant fried eggs floating in the water. It's a pretty weird sight to see.

I don't normally go paddling much on the weekends due to the potentially heavy boat traffic, and today was no exception. A few of the boats were zooming around really fast (despite the "no-wake" zone) and it reminded me of "THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDER! On the Ohio"- a speedboat race on the Ohio river that used to happen in my hometown. Being on a paddleboard with heavy boat traffic is kind of like riding your bike on a busy street, except you have a much bigger bike lane to ride in! At any rate, despite all the boat traffic, I was glad to have gone out. It was a great way to unwind after work and a chance to get in a good workout too.