Seven Days of Yoga; Week 4

Week 4! I got tagged to Stop, drop and yoga this past weekend. I'm working on my handstand, yo!

Wednesday I was back at Power Yoga. I'm currently loving boxing Tuesdays followed by Power Yoga Wednesdays. The only tough part is that my shoulders are so sore and tired from boxing on Tuesdays that by the time I get to yoga, a vinyasa sounds like a terrible idea (basically a very slow tricep pushup into a backbend instead of pushing back up). I did this little insta video to show you.

Thursday night I didn't have a class to teach, so I just did a quick jog at the gym- 3 miles then some stretching, then home. It was lovely and exhausting.

Friday I woke up super early to take my car in before work. Instagraming ensued. I was wiped out, but later that night I had a good bit of energy back. Hubs convinced me to do some weight lifting with him. Shoulders mostly, which was killer. He also has a plank program he calls 7 minutes in hell... meh. It's just 4 one minute planks with one minute breaks in between. The breaks felt like cheating. It was kind of a cool wake up call for me though. It made me feel very strong.

Saturday morning I was up early again for antigravity yoga. I don't know if it actually is, but it feels harder each time. Later in the afternoon I went back to the gym with my honey. It was leg day. Have you seen all the ridiculous memes about leg day? I don't even remember what I did. Kettle bells, squats, burpees, mountain climbers... something with curls and a plyo box. Lots.

Sunday morning I went to boxing. It may be a little much for me boxing twice a week, but I only have two more weeks of it, so I'm gonna get the most out of my groupon. :) Sunday we did 15-20 minutes of ab work before we even put on our gloves. Then at the end of class, we did 5 solid minutes of lunges. The next day my glutes and IT bands were crying.

As of Monday morning, I was determined to hit the gym hard that night - after the weekend of eating I'd had - but on the drive home I decided to take the night off. I hadn't had a real rest day in a while, so hubs and I took the night off together - picked up a roasted chicken from Costco, watched our shows, did some light stretching, and went to bed early. It was needed and refreshing.

Tuesday night was more boxing. Week 3 at the FFF. It's killer, but I looooove it. This week we had a small class, so he focused on teaching us technique for the beginning part  of class. Then we got into cardio power boxing. It can be brutal, but I still love.

How was your week?

Kitchen Adventures; Zucchini Bread

While the hubs was out of town on a business trip not so long ago, I bought a whole mess of vegetables to devour in his absence.

I thought I was making decent headway with them, but I think somewhere in my brain I thought he would be gone for longer. I barely made a dent in those vegetables. Even now he's been back for over a week and we still have kale and zucchini and spinach from my market haul.

Something needed to be done with all the zucchinis. I started to worry that they would go bad (despite our freakishly cold fridge which keeps things good forever without freezing them most of the time)

Just for Fun; A Picnic in January

This past Saturday afternoon, we had a plan. We were going on an afternoon adventure to Venice, where we would explore and have dinner - had a reservation and everything. 

Then my honey proposed an idea. What if we... didn't? We could stay on our side of the hill and have a picnic. There would be wine and cheese and yummy snacks, and we could watch the sunset. 

What can I say, I'm a sucker for a picnic.

January Cure; Week 4

January is almost over, but the cure will go on into February. As long as there are projects to do around the house, I will be "project"ing.
Here's how things are going...

Living Room
Replace the front door knob/handle (in progress, the wood is filled, but now we need to sand and paint)
Replace the garage door knob (relies on the completion of the front door since we're just moving the knob)
Fix wobbly coffee table legs
Tile around the fireplace

Seven Days of Yoga; Week 3

Wednesday night I was back in power yoga. I wish I could take power yoga more often, but I also want to do pretty much everything on the planet and Wednesday nights are when yoga works best into my schedule. I had another excellent yoga practice this week - not quite as zen/amazing as last week, but another week of challenging poses, great breath control, lots of strength and flexibility.

Thursday night I taught my class, as usual, but earlier in the evening I had enough time to run through X2 Core. I had kind of a weird moment motivationally - thinking about how I can burn 300 calories in 30 minutes running and burn the same 300 in 50 minutes of X2 Core. It can be hard to rationalize, but I had to remind myself that all the core strength I was building would help me burn more calories resting, whereas running is mostly just an "easy" calorie burn. 

Friday I got up a little early and taught a morning class. Then I packed up my yoga gear so I could give Ashtanga another go-round. It went better. Perhaps because there were a lot of beginners in the class so I felt like I could just do what felt right for me and didn't feel pressured to wrap my arms around I don't even know, but it was good. No injuries. :P

Saturday morning I got up and went to antigravity yoga, which is still a blast. We didn't take pictures this time, but decided as a group that class was definitely harder this week. It's a good workout, but mostly its just fun, so I decided to go to the gym and run on the treadmill for a bit later in the afternoon. 3 miles. I also taught a private yoga lesson in the afternoon. 

Sunday would have been my last mommy & baby class on the weekend, but since I had made the announcement that we were moving it to Wednesday, everyone changed their plans to come on Wednesday. So I met my honey at the gym and went to boxing. Whooo!

Monday morning was my first weekday morning class at the studio. It feels so great to finally have my own flow class on the schedule. That night I went over to my friend's house for a private yoga lesson. I was able to do most of the practice with her, which was really nice. So I managed to get in some exercise that day. I have the coolest job, by the way. It's the freaking best.  

Tuesday night I was back at boxing. Lot's of boxing lately. When I bought the groupon for this place I didn't think I'd be able to go on Sundays for a while, but now since we moved my class to Wednesday, I'm getting in boxing twice a week. I partnered with a giant and very strong person this week. He really challenged me. It was cool. Forced me to pay attention and land my punches.

How was your week?

Doga; That Time I Did Yoga With My Dog

A little while back, I was contacted by Dogvacay.com about trying a yoga practice with my dog. I've heard of this before, and actually, one of my cousins is a dog behavior therapist (like the dog whisperer), so I decided to give it a go. I love yoga. I love my pup. Let's combine this business!

I immediately found myself facing obstacles. I was googling and googling and couldn't find good yoga poses to do with my dog. Lots of poses involved picking them up... umm.. my dog weighs over 70 lbs. I'm not gonna hold her under my arm in triangle pose. Just. Aint. Gun. Happen.

But I thought we could try some of the sitting and stretching poses. Panda loves to take over my mat whenever I practice at home, so I thought it shouldn't be a problem to get her to come sit with me.

3 Fitness Tips for the New Year

Howdy folks!
It's 2014! I know, I guess I'm a little late to the party on that one seeing as it's almost February. We all know one of the most common resolutions people make for the new year is to get in shape or lose 5 lbs or eat less sugar, well, I decided I might be able to help a little bit. As we come to the end of January, I hope you won't lose your motivation. The key to getting in shape is to stay with it - make it part of your lifestyle.

Since I am a yoga instructor and it's part of my job to stay fit, I thought I'd share some little nuggets of wisdom I've gained over the last few years becoming a "fit person"

Do something active every day
It seems like a no-brainer, but for some people it can be a real struggle. I'm not even talking about big things. You don't need to go work your butt off in a gym for an hour every day to get fit. Start by going for a walk. Do you have a dog? Take them on a 20 minute walk. Try a 10-15 minute circuit before bed. Do some pushups. They are one of the few exercises that work your entire body. Maybe try some burpees. My hub's favorite used to be telling everyone to do calf raisers in the shower. Start with 20 and do more as you feel stronger. I'm pretty sure they're to credit with why my calves look how they do now. Other less "exercisy" things? Gardening. Rearrange furniture. Walk up and down the stairs 20 times.

January Cure; Week 3

Another week of glorious home organizing and repair projects for you to read about! I'm really having so much fun with this. While I'm working I blast my favorite songs, have the robots clean the floors, and dance around the house.
Then that feeling of satisfaction when I cross an item off my list is so much more fulfilling.

I did some list tweaking, actually added a few things that should have been on it from the beginning, but didn't write down.

Living Room
Replace the front door knob/handle (in progress, the wood is filled, but now we need to sand and paint)
Replace the garage door knob (relies on the completion of the front door since we're just moving the knob)
Fix wobbly coffee table legs
Tile around the fireplace

Seven Days of Yoga; Week 2

I started my week of fantastically. Since I skipped my workout Tuesday, I was bound and determined to get to Power Yoga on Wednesday. Holy freaking smokes. It very well may have been my most intentioned, focused, strong, balanced, flexible practice EVER. Everything was there. The only negative was that there were some teacher trainees assisting in class and they came over a couple of times to "adjust" me. I wasn't even in the pose yet. Give me a second. Sheesh. ANYWAY, it was an incredible class. Such a great reintroduction to my mat for 2014. I miss just being a student sometimes - having other people lead the practice and just do what they say.

Thursday night I taught my beginners. I ended up doing a lot of class with them, so I counted it at my exercise that night, and I felt good about it.

Friday I cleaned my house. I wasn't feeling very good most of the day. It was oddly refreshing to just stay home and clean. Awesome facebook posts about Cinderella with robots ensued.

Saturday morning I got up stupid early (though really it was the same time I get up all the other days)  and went to anti-gravity yoga with my mom, sister, and friend. It was SO fun. I love it so much. I'm so excited that I have a groupon and can go 4 more times before I have to start paying $20 per class. That will mean I start going a lot less.
It was really fantastic. We had such a great time flipping and jumping and swinging around.

Sunday I taught Mommy & baby yoga in the morning. Got a halfway decent little ab workout in there. Later in the afternoon we went to the gym. I didn't have a lot of energy, so I just walked on the treadmill for a half hour before running a quick mile and heading home.

Monday night my honey was getting ready to catch an early Tuesday flight, so - in solidarity - I went to bed crazy early (9pm) and didn't have time between work and sleep to get in a workout.

Tuesday night I activated a new Groupon and went to boxing - new place, same instructor. I was so excited. Since I've been teaching Mommy & Baby yoga on Sunday mornings I've had to miss boxing all those days. Tuesdays are one of the only nights I consistently have off, so I designated this night at "boxing night"... at least for the next few weeks.

Reading in 2014

A lot of my blogging friends are out in the universe posting about all the reading they did in 2013 or hope to do in 2014. I've decided to follow suit in a way.

For recapping purposes, here is what I read in 2013...

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

That's some quality reading right there, bub. I'm also (per my kindle) 25% of the way through Lost at Sea by Jon Ronson. I wish I could say that I read more, but 2013 was kind of a crazy year. I didn't have as much "layabout" time as I've had in previous years and I'm not even a little upset about that. I like that I've been busy/active.

Going into 2014, I've set the bar quite a ways higher...

30 x 30; Tackle the "Pants to be Fixed" Pile

It's a little ridiculous that I had to put this on my 30 x 30 list in order to get it done. All these pants needed new buttons or repaired seems or something.

The pile just kept getting taller and taller.

These jeans need a new button. This waistband got torn up by an old washing machine. These shorts have a split seam...

Kitchen Adventures; Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies

I almost called this post "Shut Up and Eat Your Cookies"... no lie.

And now to how these cookies came about...

January Cure; Week 2

We're wrapping up the second week of the January Cure!

This is what's left on my list and where I stand with them:

Living Room
Replace the front door knob/handle (in progress)
Replace the garage door knob (relies on the completion of the front door since we're just moving the knob)
Fix wobbly coffee table legs
Tile around the fireplace

Currently; January 2014

Currently, I'm...

Reading...
Still slowly making my way through Lost at Sea. I'm also considering picking up the Divergent series. I heard it's really good, so I'm thinking about it. Any suggestions one way or the other?

Watching...
I'm on the Downton Abbey bandwagon and I love every second of it.
Being Human is back tomorrow! True Detective starts soon. It looks amaze-balls. What else? Archer. SHERLOCK!

Listening to...
I did some exploring through my music library last week and I found there has been an unfortunate lack of everything I loved in late high school/early college. So I've been majorly binging on decade old music - Fiona Apple, Dirty Vegas, old Foo. It's magic.

Kitchen Adventures; Vanilla Berry Protein Smoothie

I knoooooow! It's winter. Why would you want to drink a cold smoothie? Umm... because it's 80 degrees in Los Angeles this weekend and all I want to do is workout, soak up the sun, and drink refreshing smoothies. No joke. That's all.

At Costco, they sell giants bags of mixed frozen berries. My hubs likes to just toss a whole mess of them in a bowl and have them as a snack, but me... I like to blend them up with vanilla protein powder and almond milk.

Seven Days of Yoga; Week 1

Here we are again! One week into 2014 and starting from scratch. I've decided to start posting these recaps on Fridays now instead of Sundays. (Did you notice?) Since the first week of 2014 began on a Wednesday, it only felt appropriate to end the week with my workout/yoga recaps. They'll be Wednesday to Tuesday instead of Sunday to Saturday. NBD. Who needs to be tied down to the beginnings and endings of weeks per the calendar anyway? ;P

Wednesday I woke up on the early side and did my 108 sun salutations... I told you about it already, but, ya know, I'm telling you again.

Thursday I taught in the morning and then I taught in the evening. I was wiped out after I finished teaching that night, so I plopped myself on the couch and that was that.

Friday I had this great plan. We were kicked out of our building so it could be tented at noon, so I was going to go home, work out, and then shower in plenty of time to meet and have dinner with my friend Erin. HOWEVAAAAH, when I got home I sat on the couch and couldn't get up again. I almost didn't want to go meet Erin. I could have taken a nap and been perfectly content.

Saturday we made it to the gym in the afternoon, but were both still feeling majorly tired. My theory is that we ate too much sugar over the holidays and our bodies are trying to detox. Sugar gives you energy in the moment, but makes you lag in the long run (food for thought). ANYWAY, I managed a measly 2 mile treadmill run on Saturday afternoon and then I came home and did a round of "set/sprint/plank/plyo/jump" from P90X2. It's so much easier when you didn't just do the entire plyocide workout beforehand. Haha.

Sunday hubby and I took power boxing together. It was brutal... like, whoa. I think I almost passed out at one point - needed to lean on my bag, but we both felt so great after class.

Monday morning the building was still not ready for us to go back to work, so I went to Cardio Barre in the morning and took class from my friend Chelsea. It's amazing how many "fitness friends" you make when fitness plays a bigger role in your life. Class was great. I struggled some, but not a ton. Had to take a break during abs because straight legged bicycles are no bueno. I think/hope I'm starting to get my energy back.

Tuesday night I taught power yoga and then I tried to get myself motivated to work out after, but I had some technical difficulties during class, which left me in a major funk. So, I just tried to eat a healthy dinner and went to bed early.

How was your first week of 2014?

30 x 30; Reupholster the Kitchen Chairs

Did you see my post on instagram over the weekend? If you did then you know that updating the fabric on these chairs has been on my to-do list for over 3 years. *cough cough* closer to 4...

...when my parents nabbed this table and chairs at Salvation Army and gave them to me as a Christmas gift in 2009. (TWO THOUSAND NINE!!!)

When they gave them to me, my mom said something about how they thought I could reupholster the seat cushions. I hadn't done anything like that since I was 14 or 15, but I thought it was a great idea - a way to make this used dining set a little more my own.

January Cure

This time last year I was diving head first into Apartment Therapy's 10 ways to be happier at home. I did periodic check-ins (week 1, week 3) through the month and even focused on it in a guest post on my friend, Alyssa's, blog.

The biggest thing I learned in my journey being happier at home was not that I will love my bedroom if the bed is made, it's about how I feel about my bed being made, how I feel about doing the dishes or the laundry or picking up around the house. If it makes me feed good or accomplished then I will be happy there, if I resent doing the dishes, no matter how sparkly clean it is, I will grumble when I walk into the room. 

Seven Days of Yoga; Last 3 Days of 2013

On the final Sunday of 2013, I scooted on over to the gym for 9:30am Power Boxing. I love how that class makes me feel. What a great class to end my last weekend this year! Such amazing energy! Whooo!

Monday I had a ton to do - lots of NYE prep - so I planned my evening, allowing plenty of time to get back out to the grocery store for last minute supplies (marscapone and andouille sausage - not for the same dish) and I did Plyocide in the dining room. I felt like I majorly overate that day. I blame the holidays. There is still sugar everywhere and I still want to eat all of it.

Tuesday (NYE) was a crazy day, but I was determined to get in a good long run before OD'ing on heavy holiday food back at the house. So, I got all my stuff together the night before and ran ON THE BEACH ON NEW YEARS EVE. I win. California weather is the freaking best. I ran 5 miles and then run/walked one final mile back to the beach house. It was so incredibly beautiful and I spent most of the run recognizing how unbelievably lucky I am to be able to just show up at the beach in this beautiful weather and fun along the ocean as the breeze keeps me cool and dry.

Now that 2013 is over and I'd like to start fresh with a new series of recaps in 2014, so next weeks recap with be Wednesday to Tuesday.

That's all for now, folks. How was your week? Get in any good workouts before the end of the year?

New Year's Day; 108 Sun Salutations

I know it wasn't THAT long ago, but I feel I need to ask; remember how in November we did 108 sun salutations over 12 days?... and how when I posted about it, I mentioned I might maybe get up and do 108 all in a row on January 1st, 2014?

Well...

I did that. 

Kind of.

Yoga Photo Challenge; Week 4 Recap!

As we neared the end of the photo challenge, we lost a couple of people. Don't worry though, I still love you dearly. ;)
I had some fun this week. I even posted a video for my hip opener on instagram.