Seven Days of Yoga–Done!

Yesterday I completed 7 days of yoga for this challenge and I feel good that I managed to do all 7 days. Some days were short, if that’s all I had time for, but it got done and I enjoyed it. I considered continuing on for the rest of the month but my shoulders are feeling like they need a little break from all that downward dog and chaturanga-ing.. I would like to continue focusing on it though, I feel like I’ve lost a lot of strength and flexibility and if I want it back I have to work at it. Haven’t decided for sure what I’ll do, but today was Pilates which was a change but kept things in a similar vein.

After dinner I took Frank out for a walk. Everything is soaking wet because it started raining yesterday in the afternoon and kept up for most of today. Again. It rained pretty much every day last week. I am scared to go out and look at my garden, it’s probably a swamp by now.

I didn’t take my camera out at first, but I ended up running back for it (again! but this time only once). I was quite fascinated with the water drops that were everywhere. Frank was enjoying being outside, but not enjoying all the water so much. Too bad I didn’t have the camera pointed at him when he tried to step down off his perch and discovered he was cut off by a giant puddle. Kitty may be brave, but he does not like to get his paws dunked. At one point I turned around and managed to catch a deer heading into the trees.

Here are some photos – hope you enjoy!

Day 3 of Yoga

I was really looking forward to this lunch today, and it looked so good that I pulled out my iPhone to snap a photo. The reality lived up to the anticipation, too; it was a salad of leaf lettuce, cucumber, grape tomatoes and red bell pepper combined with a serving of soaked bulger that had been flavored with cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper, cumin and a little hit of roasted garlic flavored olive oil, then topped with hummus. It was oh-so-tasty, and for me, a perfectly satisfying lunch.

I've been thinking about food lately. Well, I suppose I always think about food. More accurate to say I've been thinking of food in terms of how it makes me feel. I wouldn't say that I have reached any final conclusion yet, but I've noticed a couple of interesting things. Which I fully intended to explore here, but of course things came up and now it's 10 pm and I want to go to bed. So not tonight.

I've just finished my Lunar Flow yoga workout. I have to say, enjoying Savasana with a cat purring on my stomach is not a bad way to end the day.

Day 2 of Yoga

Busy, busy, busy, but got in a short session of Hatha Flow. Always feel so good after finishing a yoga session!

New garden post up; sorry for the typos and photos that I forgot to rotate. It's late. I'm tired. There are a lot of things I like about wordpress, but once you stick a photo in, you have to take it out to change it. Boo.

Off to bed!

Seven Days of Yoga

I wish wish wish that I had spent my weekend relaxing with these guys out in the garden.

But it was another weekend of crazy. Just when you think your ducks are lining themselves nicely into a row…Well, let’s just say the ducks got ornery and changed their minds. I’ve been crazy busy and the house is a disaster yet again.

I’m a little stressed…again.

So, this is really good timing for Lynn's Yoga Challenge (and I totally titled my post without realizing that Lynn used the exact same title). I kicked things off today with a new one from Yoga Downloads - Moon Salutations Flow #1. It was definitely a great way to wind things down for the day.

I plan to have a new post up on the garden blog soon – hopefully tomorrow, but in the mean time here are a few things that have been showing up in my kitchen!

Aren’t those colors gorgeous? Lettuce, green onions and purple basil from the garden, along with some red bell peppers and tomatoes.

Sugar snap peas and a few strawberries.

A nice addition to Saturday’s lunch of leftover tofu pad thai.

And my cilantro was desperately in need of being chopped back. It was a good excuse to make guacamole last night for dinner! And yes, I am still using my Star Trek popcorn bucket from last summer to carry my garden harvests. :)

And now I need to be tucked into my bed. See you all tomorrow for day two of the yoga challenge.

I May Be Crazy

I just did my Burn and Firm Pilates DVD followed by 20 minutes of Core Yoga #1. Can't wait to see if I can actually move tomorrow morning.

Good-bye February...

February may be the shortest month of the year, but it felt long to me. It's been an extreme winter, that's for sure.



It is also the end of Yoga Month and I'm feeling like I've found my yoga-groove again.

When I first started doing yoga, it was with a DVD. I had bought a Kathy Smith Personal Trainer DVD that included a half hour yoga workout. That DVD routine was enough to make me want more.

The first class I tried was a Kundalini Yoga class that I went to with a friend. It only took one class to know that Kundalini was not for me. When I eventually joined a gym, I decided to try out the class there and was fortunate to land in a class with a really excellent instructor.

I also happened to be experiencing a serious case of "Mouse Arm" around that time. My arm hurt from wrist to shoulder and the pain would even keep me awake at night. I ended up switching to use the mouse with my left hand, which helped with the pain, but my right wrist was weak and it wanted to twist. Getting down on all fours and having my right hand flat on the floor was hard work - my arm would twist. It took a very long time to get my arm back to normal and yoga was excellent therapy.

In the beginning, the classes weren't that challenging - which is probably good considering the condition of my wrist - but as time went on they became more and more challenging. It was hard work, yet at the end of the class I would feel energized.

When I eventually gave up my gym membership, I missed the classes. But for some reason I've had a hard time working yoga into my routine at home. Now I kind of don't want to stop! So it's been a good month.

I'm not ready to give up the yoga yet, but I am going to try and work a few different things in. I'm ready to try running again. I'm going to take it slow and easy, no more than twice a week for now. Hopefully that will work out ok.

Feb 28: Treadmill walk/jog + 1/2 Gentle Hatha Flow #1[36 mins]
Feb 27: Treadmill walk + Yoga for Buns & thighs[65 mins]
Feb 25: Gentle Hatha Flow #2[45 mins]
Feb 24: Treadmill walk/jog[26 mins]
Feb 24: Power Vinyasa Flow #1[30 mins]
Feb 23: Treadmill walk + Power Yoga #3[70 mins]
Feb 22: Detox Yoga #1 + Gentle Hatha Flow #1[40 mins]
Feb 21: Treadmill walk/jog[26 mins]
Feb 19: Joy of Yoga + Gentle Hatha Flow #1[55 mins]
Feb 17: Treadmill walk + Gentle Hatha Flow #1[65 mins]
Feb 16: Element PM Yoga[30 mins]
Feb 14: Fat Burning Yoga[40 mins]
Feb 10: Treadmill walk[45 mins]
Feb 09: Candlelight Yoga[40 mins]
Feb 05: Joy of Yoga & Lunar Flow #1[50 mins]
Feb 04: Fat Burning Yoga[40 mins]
Feb 03: Candlelight Yoga[40 mins]
Feb 02: Treadmill walk + 20 Yoga for Buns & Thighs[65 mins]
Feb 01: Detox Yoga #1[20 min]



We had some warm weather this week, with temperatures actually climbing above zero. Friday night and Saturday morning we had rain and it's amazing how much snow melted away over night. It did start snowing again yesterday afternoon, and then again this afternoon. The forecast is not calling for much snow, but there is a freezing rain warning for tonight.

Looks like winter's not quite over.

Yoga Update

I have been trying out a few new yoga workouts this month. Everywhere I look, bloggers are doing workouts from yogadownload.com, so I wanted to get in on the fun! I also saw a review of Element AM and PM Yoga for Beginners at Fit Bottomed Girls which caught my interest.

I've tried three of the free 20 minute practices from yogadownload.com: Detox Yoga #1, Lunar Flow #1, and Gentle Hatha Flow #1. I haven't disliked any of them, but I will say that while doing the first two I seem to remember feeling a little awkward, but thought that maybe I just need to do them a few times to get familiar with them. I did the Gentle Hatha Flow #1 tonight and it was perfect. I had printed the pose guide, but the cuing in the audio track was perfect and I didn't feel that I needed the reference. The practice itself felt wonderful - just the stretch I needed after my treadmill walk, and I finished feeling perfectly relaxed.

So far I've only done the PM practice from the Element AM and PM DVD. While there were a few planks and downward dogs, it was mostly seated stretching. I probably need it, because I probably don't do enough of those types of poses, but I admit that I didn't enjoy it as much - I missed the standing poses: forward bends, lunges, warriors, etc. I will certainly give it another try though, now that I know what to expect, and I still have the AM routine to try.

January Review & February's Plan

It got up to 3°C today! Woo hoo! Of course, all that really means is the snow melts to mush that will freeze into ice when the temperature drops tonight. And then tomorrow we get more snow. Gotta love the Maritimes.

January's workouts are listed below. The month started out slow - just could not seem to get moving. Plus my evening routine has been disrupted lately - long story which I will not get into - but the result is I was having a hard time getting in my workouts. I finally started doing yoga before bed and that has worked out really well.

I was planning to write a post on this study but Charlotte beat me to it with her February Fitness Experiment. The study talks about relaxation techniques like Yoga and meditation being beneficial for weight loss. I happened to see this study after my first week of before bed Yoga and it struck a chord.

The things is, I like Yoga. When I had a gym membership, there was an excellent yoga class that I used to go to twice a week. The instructor made us work very hard - I'd usually feel about ready to collapse at some point during the class and I always ended up with sore muscles. I actually stopped strength training because I thought it would be too much, and I was still seeing the muscles on my arms & legs changing shape.

Still, there was always that little voice inside my head saying: "You must work out with weights!" So when I eventually gave up my gym membership, Yoga took a back seat. I didn't have those classes to go to any longer and I thought I wouldn't push myself as hard on my own. Plus, I always feel like I have to get in my cardio & strength training, and Yoga (and Pilates) is sort of extra...Something I will get in if I have time and I've done my "real workouts" already. Even though I know better.

Then I had my Yoga week, followed by seeing this study about relaxation & weight loss. Something clicked into place.

I was looking forward to my end of day yoga. I would go down to my warm, cozy basement and stretch and breath and flow through the poses. I would go to bed all relaxed and ready to sleep. I would feel light and limber and somehow taller.

I kept it up for a second week. At the end of each of those weeks, I saw a small drop in the number on the scale. I can't help but wonder if sometimes pushing myself so hard, stressing about losing weight is actually counter-productive?

Of course, it was only two weeks and it could certainly be a coincidence. But, since this routine seems to be what works with my schedule these days, it can't hurt to give it a little more time and see what happens. It won't necessarily be all yoga, all the time, but I am going to try and pay attention to what feels good, to not over-doing things and stressing myself.

February tends to be a depressing month in these parts - we're sick of winter, but winter is not finished with us yet. That urge to hibernate is still going strong. So I will be kind to myself. I will make time for things that make me feel good. Who knows? Maybe I'll even lose a pound or two at the same time!

January Workouts

Jan 29: Fat Burning Yoga[40 mins]
Jan 28: Treadmill Walk + Joy of Yoga[80 mins]
Jan 27: Slim Sculpt[45 mins]
Jan 26: Yoga[20 mins]
Jan 24: Treadmill Walk + 20 Min Yoga Buns & Thighs[65 mins]
Jan 23: Power Beauty Sweat[20 mins]
Jan 22: Joy of Yoga[35 mins]
Jan 21: Fat Burning Yoga[40 mins]
Jan 20: Kathy Smith Yoga[30 mins]
Jan 19: Candlelight Yoga[40 mins]
Jan 18: Slim Sculpt[45 mins]
Jan 15: Bikini Ready DVD[35 mins]
Jan 13: Slim Sculpt[45 mins]
Jan 11: Fat Burning Fusion[45 mins]
Jan 10: Yogini Workout[45 mins]
Jan 1 - 4: Clearing out spare room, painting, cleaning up, putting spare room back together. Whew!

Two more from the weekend that I thought were pretty...

Yoga Week

I'm not sure if it's the January blahs - maybe the cold weather is slowing me down? Whatever the reason, I've been having the hardest time getting back into my regular exercise routine.

At the beginning of this week I decided that I would find a way to fit in something every day - even if it was something small...So when my Monday evening did not go as planned, and I found it was getting too close to bedtime, I decided to pop in my Candlelight Yoga DVD. I figured a) light exercise is better than no exercise, and b) I could use a little stress relief before trying to sleep.

I always light a fire in the wood stove when we get home from work, and keep it stoked all evening. So when I went down to the basement for my yoga session, the basement was warm and toasty. I thought: this is going to be good.

And it was.

It was so good that I decided to keep it going for the rest of the week. On Tuesday it was getting late and I almost wimped out...on day 2 of my plan?...I told myself there was no reason I could not fit in a half hour of yoga. So I did.

I've managed four days in a row so far, and I plan to do another session tonight. This is the first week this month that I've actually managed to stick to a routine, which feels like an accomplishment.

Also, almostafraidtomentionforfearitwontstickbut, the scale showed a 0.6 lb loss this morning...May not be much, but I'll take it!