Yin and Anusara...Yoga that is

Seriously, Yoga Home Practice Guide on YogaJournal.com is making my life this week.  I love learning about the different styles of yoga, and the home practice guide is just what I need to keep my life in balance this week. 

"Practice Balance So that Your Life Will be in Balance"--A Yogi

So last night, after studying in the library until about 11:30 pm--maybe later--, I went home and tried "Sweet Surrender."  I thought the name of the sequence was fitting because I wanted a relaxing practice to help calm my thoughts and put me to bed for the evening.  This sequence was PERFECT for that.  Normally when I practice yoga, I'm all about the POWER and the FLOW classes--but at what ended up being 12:30 a.m. I was definitely too tired for that.  But Sweet Surrender is a Yin Yoga sequence.  I'd never heard of or tried Yin before, but after practicing it last night, I am definitely going to incorporate it into my iYogi repertoire.

This practice was all about stillness, calm and meditation.  The guide suggests holding each asana (pose) for 3-5 minutes.  Aside from the physical benefits of remaining in these poses for an extended time, the mental benefits of this practice is what made it super worthwhile:

"Holding poses for three to five minutes often brings up discomfort. Yin conditions you to stay with the intense sensations that arise, rather than quickly moving into the next pose. “It trains you to become more comfortable with discomfort instead of becoming alarmed."

--Andrea Ferretti, Sarah Powers, yogajournal.com

YES!  Learning how to be comfortable with discomfort has been a goal of mine over the last year.  "Feel the feelings"--that's what I say these days.  Who knew yoga could help with that too!  Needless to say I am practicing Sweet Surrender again tonight--regardless of what time I make it to bed.

Also, tomorrow morning I'm going to try "A Fine Balance."  This sequence is from the Anusara Yoga methodology.  "Anusara" means "flowing with Grace" "flowing with nature" "following your heart."  So tomorrow morning--after a short run--I will attempt to "Align with the Divine" through this sequence...and of course I will post about it :)


TOTALLY unrelated: Now Playing: Rude Boy by Rhianna

"You Look Extra Ripped"

Ok, don't really have time to be doing this right now... but I am anyway.  So it's going to be short.  Just two things really:

1.  One of my friends told me I look "extra ripped these days."  I take that as a compliment--my workouts are paying off FTMFW!!!  But in all honesty, I don't know if I'd consider myself "extra" ripped.  Most people probably would because, I must admit, I do have some guns on me.  But there was a time when I was super strong--back in college when I cheered competively.  In the interest of time, and because pictures often tell the story better:

Now: 2010

Moderately Ripped

Then: 2007

"Extra Ripped"

(That's me on the far left, BTW)

2. Today I learned about yogadownloads.com from Jill at irunieat.com.  Perfect because my busy schedule this week has me worried about sticking to my workout schedule this week--which btw is essentially the same as last week.  I also came acrossed this gem on my fave yoga website--->Yoga Home Practice Guide on YogaJournal.com.  Operation Sick Bod saved for the week! Nailed it!

Ok, I have what I hope will be an interesting, or at least informational blog planned for some time this week.  Hopefully I can squeeze it in.... And now that I've mentioned, I guess I have to make it GREAT!

A Taste of the "Foodie" Life

I love being inspired! And this week I was inspired by this -->afoodiestaysfit.com and this--->First Camera, Then Fork (also courtesy of Teri at afoodiestaysfit.com).  So today I am giving this foodie-blog-girl thing a try.

This a.m. I vacillated back and forth about trying a yoga class at this hippie yoga center downtown.  But spontaneity is the spice of life, and so I went... And LOVED IT!  More on that later.  But the point is after I was finished with what amounted to a private lesson in vinyasa yoga, I was craving a homemade smoothie.  Problem: I don't have a blender.  Well, I didn't but I immediately ran to Target and found the perfect single-serving blender for a pretty price point! $15.99 FTW!  See pic on right ---------->

Fast forward to me mixing up ingredients in my kitchen and the Blog pops into my head.  And my first "foodie" post was conceived.  So here it is:

"Ingredients"

Frozen fruit: strawberries, mangos, pineapples, Fresh fruit: bananas, Simply Raspberry Lemonade, Vanilla yogurt.

"Finished Product"

This smoothie was DELISH!  Seriously, I will never buy another smoothie out again.  Ok that might be an exaggeration.  But I loved making this at home.  It was simple and simply delicious.  Can't wait to make another one.

So after my yoga class I was also craving a scrumptious lunch.  That reminded me of Teri's blog post about the open-faced roasted-veggie sandwich (in case you missed it above).  Decided to make my own, here's how it goes:

• 
  
  roasted veggies: squash, green beans, carrots, red pepper, onion, zucchini tossed in a little olive oil, oven-roasted at 400 for about 30 minutes
• 
  
  cream cheese
• 
  
  tangy barbecue sauce
• 
  
  toasted bagel, halfed, with the center slightly scooped out.
• 
  
  shredded parmesan cheese
• 
  
  ASSEMBLY: spread cream cheese on inside of scooped out bagle, spoon a little tangy barbecue sauce over the cream cheese, pile high with roasted veggies, sprinkle with shredded parmesan.
• 
  
  FEAST

Ok, so does this post make me a foodie?  Doubtful!  Actually, I'm pretty sure it doesn't.  But blogging about food was super fun.

So my day so far has been Delightful.  Went to yoga at The Yoga Gallery where I got instruction on how to improve my practice.  We did a flow-based class on the warrior series of poses and concluded with pigeon pose.  All these poses were about alignment and opening of the hips.  After an hour and a half, lets just say my hips are feeling SUPER open. O_o.    Unfortunately now I have to turn my attention away from all this AWESOME stuff and back to studying. WOMP WOMP WOMP. 

But I see the light at the end of the table-- Graduation is May 16-17, 2010!

Maybe I'm Being a Pansy but...

...I skipped my scheduled run this morning because I did something to my ankle when I was running on Wednesay.  What you ask?  Who knows! I don't.  But what I do know is that I was walking around with a limp yesterday after running on it on Friday--and by limp I mean dragging my leg kind of like this cat.  Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration...but it might not be.

But anyway, my natural instinct was to SUCK IT UP.  "Pain is weakness leaving the body."  And that's what I did on Friday morning...and thats why I was walking around like lame duck on Friday evening.  Even still, I feel kind of like a pansy for wimping out.  But at least real pansies are pretty :)

So in lieu of the work out, what did I do?  I went to breakfast with a friend.  Yup! Sweet potato pancakes FTMFW!! They were great.  Good thing operation sick bod doesn't include any particular diet--yet.  Will determine if that is necessary at a later stage.  As of now, I just try to eat out less and eat at home more, pay attention to calories and practice portion control...

Despite the epic workout fail this morning, the day shaped up ok--at least in context.  Context = Exam Season at Worrel High aka Law School.  So I spent the entire day studying Criminal Procedure.  Well, the entire day minus a brief-interlude-that-turned-into-two-hour break. O_o *side-eye deluxe*  But anyway, I guess the BITTITHB (haha) was "just what the doctor ordered" because after that I studied for almost 8 hours straight.  WOOOSH.... Too bad I still have a million more pages of notes to consolidate into an outline for that class, not to mention another class to study for and a paper to research and write.  Did I mention the semester ends in two weeks and I have exams in three weeks?   Right.

Blog Situation = Accountability

So there are pros and cons to staying up all night creating another fitness blog:

Pros:

• Blogs are awesome!
• Fitness blog = fitness accountability

Cons

• Sleepy, tired, and sleepy
• Can't concentrate because I just want to be in the blogosphere
• BLOG HATERS--yes I said it.  And to those blog haters reading this, please click here.

But yeah.  So even though I stayed up until 1:30 working on this blog situation, blog-accountability made me get up this morning at 7am for my Friday workout-in-brief.  FTW!  Still, the treadmill run was a struggle this morning.  It was super boring.  No male eyecandy in the gym on Friday morning--unfortunate.  Right.  I need to come up with google some fun running routes in town. 

Ok.  Back to struggling to understand Criminal Procedure.  But at least I have Pandora.  Here's a link to my study-session Station---> Dwele Radio #pandora.

...another fitness blog

So I'm doing this work-out thing. You know, trying to get in sick shape for... well just for life. Decided to blog about it because that's what all the cool kids are doing. We'll see how this goes.

So here was my proposed workout schedule for this week:

• Monday: Skipped the workout (YIKES)
• Wednesday: 8am -10am 40 Minute Run + 1 Hour BodyFLOW class
• Friday: 8am-10am 40 minute Run + 1 Hour Yoga class
• Saturday: Morning run--outside if doable
• Sunday: 1-2pm BodyFLOW

I feel you judging me because I clearly skipped my workout on Monday--I feel like there was a good reason but I can't remember it now. 

Also, unfortunately my Friday workout will be less than proposed because I have to meet with a professor at 10am for a class that I TA.  So no Yoga.  DANG!  That blows my life because I was sooo looking forward to that class.  I have been taking lots of power yoga and BodyFLOW classes which I love because they get my heart rate up and are great for toning the bod in all the right places.  But I need to reincoporate some other forms of yoga because I want to improve my flexibility and poses.

Oh, so maybe you're wondering WTH is BodyFLOW?  BAM! Follow that link to enlightenment.  It's a great workout! A great addition to my iYogi repertoire.  See if they have it at your gym and try it immediately!

Ok, well that's all for now.  Hopefully I'll be back soon with more stuff to write about...oh and a better layout, some pics, more links, etc, etc, etc.

Ciao!