Seven Days of Yoga; Week 20

Can I just start by saying I am so ready to have my weekends back?! I haven't slept at home on a Saturday night in 3 weeks. This weekend I'm at a yoga workshop in South Bay, which isn't exactly a free weekend, but at least I get to sleep in my own bed and I don't have to unpack on Sunday night.

Last Sunday we were driving home from SD and I got just carsick enough that I didn't want to partake in any kind of physical exertion after we got home. I met my mom, sister, grandma, and aunt out at the mall and spent a few hours with them. It was nice, but it didn't give me the energy I would have needed to workout. 

Nothing in Particular

made with the a beautiful mess app

I don't usually do this, but I just wanted to take a moment on my blog and wish everyone a happy weekend. I'll finally be spending an entire weekend in my own bed instead of a hotel room on my in-law's spare room. I feel like I've been so all over the place. I mean, I almost literally have been all over the place.

So happy weekend to all y'all.

One Mile an Hour

Yesterday it took me a full hour to drive one mile. I wish it were one of those instances when I could have just walked, but unfortunately, I had to get myself and my car all the way back to the Valley after this one mile at 3pm. At one point to combat getting cut off, I let my car get so close to the one in front of me, I quite literally had a mini panic attack that if I lifted my foot up off the break even a centimeter, I would hit them.

I had all these thoughts while I was sitting there in my car; why didn't I just stay near the dentist and have some late lunch? I could have gone shopping and leisurely walked around World Market, or maybe found an alternate route down to Culver City so I could have dinner with my husband after he got off work.

But I kept coming back to the same thing. "No point in imagining the what-ifs. I am here now. There is no getting out of it..."

Seriously, no way out. I was stuck. 

And just as I was thinking that, an ad came on the radio - which up until that point had been going straight in one ear and out the other. I couldn't even enjoy my favorite songs. - Some local news channel was going to monitor one woman's heart rate/vitals during her daily commute to see how the stress of driving in LA impacted her health. 

And there I was sitting in my car, heart beating so hard in my chest I thought for sure you could see it, and I remembered that I have more control that I was allowing myself. 

After unfurrowing my brow (it's a daily battle against aging), I took a slow intentional inhale - felt the air enter and fill my entire body - followed it up with an easy relaxing exhale, and repeated. 

With each slow and intentional breath, I could actually feel my heart beat slow. It stopped pounding with such ferocity and settled back into my chest. 

I was almost on the freeway now. With each lane that merged with ours, traffic moved a little bit faster. Once I was actually on the freeway, I was home in less than half an hour. 

I know I've talked about the power of breath before - how in our most stressful times, we can take a mental step backwards, shut off our brains for a moment and revitalize ourselves with breath, but yesterday was one of the purest reminders of that. Even when we feel totally out of control, we can bring ourselves back to center. 

Kitchen Adventures; Spaghetti Squash Bolognese

I know! I know! It's the second Tuesday in a row I haven't been breaking down yoga poses for y'all. Did you notice? My days have been jam packed. I haven't found the time and the light to take the pictures for the posts. Hopefully I'll have a chance this weekend and we can get back to it!

This week we're back with round 2 of easy peasy no hassle dinner standards. Though, if we're being honest, I've been eating some crazy lazy dinners lately - lazier than this baby. We're talking scrambled eggs, a tortilla and salsa, or the most random one yet; one egg, one avocado, a bowl of strawberries & blackberries, and sauteed brussel sprouts.

The last few weekends have been rough for me. My (usually) healthy eating habits have been thrown out the window in favor of ice cream, margaritas, pita chips, and cake. It means that baking bread, muffins, or any kind of yummy dessert option is completely unappealing during the week, whereas a month ago, I would have been all for throwing together a batch of blueberry ricotta muffins and having them for breakfast all week. Right now greek yogurt and berries are my breakfast BFFs.

Spaghetti squash is one of my favorite go-to dinners.

Seven Days of Yoga; Week 19

Don't judge my resolution

Sunday all I managed to do was buy myself a couple of new pair of sunglasses. Between flying back home, getting out to my mom's art fair, celebrating come semblance of cinco de mayo, I was just too dang tired. Kind of a lame excuse, but it is what it is.

Monday I got back to my home studio for the first time in weeks. First time in months back in Wayne's Power Yoga class. It was great. The class moved at a perfect pace. There was a really fantastic energy in the room. He focused on shoulders, which I kinda needed after last week, so that was awesome. I worked my ass off and sweated a ton.

Tuesday I convinced my sister to finally activate her Groupon and come to Pure Barre with me. She has pretty much the same stance I do - it's boring. We both felt like we would be sore the next day, but the actual process of getting to that point was excruciatingly boring at times. It was nice to have someone to commiserate with.

Wednesday was a big big BIG day. I thought I might take power yoga between the two classes I subbed, but I need to go home and put my head back on after feeling not great about my first class. And you know what happened after that. I walked around the studio a lot. Does that count as exercise? No? Dang.

Thursday I though for a second that I might get up early so exercise, but I ended up only getting up early enough for a leisurely breakfast. When I got home from teaching my class later, I was also feeling very leisurely, so the relaxing continued.

Friday I got home from work and jumped right into Kenpo X. I wore shoes this time. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I don't usually wear shoes when I workout at home. It's EXTREMELY rare.

Saturday I had this fantasy that I would get up early before we drove down to SD and go for a run, but I was kidding myself. Seriously.