Tag Archives: yoga

come build me up // come shed your light

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I love new year’s. I love a new start. I love a new planner. I love a chance to start fresh, keeping in mind everything that happened last year and beyond. I love organizing things and organizing life into months and years is just so convenient, don’t you think?

Last year I made some new year’s resolutions, and some I kept and some I didn’t. I’m reupping several, therefore, to hope to make them this year, and adding some new ones for good measure. I like the idea of vague goals for some things (more free time) and concrete goals for others (300 miles to run). So without further ado, here are my goals.

  • read 52 books (I read 26 last year, half of my goal, but double the year before)
  • find more free time for walking, wandering, laughing, sunshine, giggling, and Scrabble (guys, I am the queen of overbooking, in case you didn’t know)
  • run 300 miles (I ran 107 and 2014. Let’s hope this summer isn’t hella hot and I can actually run outside from May to September, or find a gym to join I like)
  • do an unassisted headstand (which goes hand and hand with more yoga and killer arms and shoulders, please thank you)
  • move (we have been trying to move for literally four years, and I can feel in my bones 2015 is the year of the house)
  • reevaluate my recipe wheelhouse (the thing about having a food blog is you tend to make things either once or over and over and over again. If I feed Corelyn chicken quesadillas one more time I think she’s going to leave me, so we’d better find some new fun things Jeff will eat that are also healthy – and quick!)

Here’s to 2015. Here’s to adventuring and friends’ weddings and camping and sunshine and running and laughing and playing and fun. Happy New Year, lovelies – may your first weekend of the year be as cleansing as mine.

xo

 

let those stories go.

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Last night you guys, I went running and it was freaking awful. I was so slow, my calves hurt, I kept having to stop and walk, I was hot and cold and sore and tired for no reason. It was only a two mile run and I should have been able to bang it out at my normal pace, and I just knew I was moving terribly slowly.

When I got home, I was tired and grumpy and frustrated, but I knew it all stemmed from my lack of yoga practice lately. When I was talking to T recently, she said something to me about how she always assumed I did yoga because I loved it so much. And I DO love it, so so much, but sometimes you get in a rut. You go to bed late for a week in a row, you get a cold that you can’t shake, and when you get home from a long day at work you want to watch TV or curl up with a book, not sweat it out on a mat.

But the thing is, watching TV and reading never do for my BODY (or, let’s be honest, even my mind) what I need them to. I’m not suggesting they be given up, and I think I’ve written this same post over and over again, because it’s always a struggle. But when I get back to it, and I get into a groove, and I get into a flow, I always, always think, I’ve missed this. So I did a yoga class I do a lot, and I was much more relaxed when I was done.

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I got out of work early tonight because the power went out at work, and I was excited because that meant I could catch up on an episode of Law & Order:SVU (I think I might be the only person who still watches this show) AND fit in a yoga class before I had to hop in a car for a few hours off to our Palm Springs adventure.

In the video, which is taught by my fave Canadian, Fiji, she says something that really stuck with me. It’s a video for injury prevention for runners – and she’s talking about injuries, and she says, “Don’t judge yourself for anything that’s happened, any injuries that you may have had. Let those stories go.” That meant a lot to me. Because sometimes when I am training for a race, I sabotage myself you guys. (Doesn’t everyone?) I obsessively track my pace, I am upset when I am slow, I chide myself for being hungry or tired or cranky when I should be training, I panic when I get sick and I’m off a week on my training.

But why? Isn’t this race in a few weeks for me? For my body? To keep me fit and healthy? The only person I want to beat is my 2012 self – which I believe is doable. But you’re always working on getting better and beating yourself up (at least, for me) doesn’t work. You have to be in the moment, in the today, and do the best you can with what you have. That’s all anyone can do. I will have down days. I will have amazing days. I will run 3 miles and have it feel like nothing, and run 1 mile struggling every single step. But coming to the mat – and hitting the pavement – and actually DOING something is what matters.

Show up. Let those stories go. Be here. Be moving forward, always.

Happy Friday folks. Hope you’re in your happy places.

your legs are teenagers.

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yogaHey, y’all. This week marked the last week I had in my old office before we embark on a journey to a new office further north. In preparation, I went to my last yoga class for a while with one of my fave teachers, Jay. I’ve been going to Jay’s classes on and off for a few years now, and whenever I’m in his classes I find myself laughing, and repeating what he’s said as a personal mantra – because his words are funny, but more importantly, true.

In my class with him on Wednesday, he declared that your legs are teenagers. “Your legs, they’re babies. They’re worse than babies, they’re teenagers, ready to stop doing what you told them the minute you take your attention from them.” We had our legs up the wall, and we were in a restorative class seeing as how it was the end of the month.

I love the restorative class once a month as a reset and a reward to a hard month. August was especially rough, having been so hot and having so many changes coming up. So I was glad when I arrived and we spent five minutes in some awesome, delicious poses. There was someone I’d never met in the class, and he kept saying, “So, this is active, my legs are active in this pose?” and it reminded me of how much learning I’ve done since I started doing yoga.

Common reactions I get from people who don’t do yoga when I tell them I do yoga four to five times a week are, “Don’t you get bored? Isn’t that just laying around on the floor? Do you chant?” No, no, and sometimes, are the answers. Yoga comes in many forms and speeds, but it is never boring and it certainly isn’t just laying around on the floor. Even in restorative yoga you’re focused on your body’s position, keeping your hips just so or your legs strong (you gotta watch those teenagers).

Whether you’re doing Iyengar yoga, which focuses deeply on alignment of the body and getting your body to work for you, or you’re moving through Vinyasas for thirty minutes, you’re still giving your body so much – and you’re focused on how your hips align with your ankles, and keeping your collarbone wide and your chest open.

When the ninety minute class was over, I told Jay I wouldn’t see him for a while, since my office was moving. I gave him a big hug, and I teared up as I walked to my car. I know that not going to this class means opportunity for something else, but it’s always sad to end something that makes your whole soul sing.

I can’t wait to find a new class to go to and commit to, but in the meantime I’ll be watching those legs and making sure that I don’t let them do whatever they please.

Thanks for a great practice, wherever you are, Jay!

 

i have the yoga police on speed dial.

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We’re cruising into the fourth of July weekend and I am looking forward to a three day weekend of BBQs, beaches, and relaxation. I have gotten my wedding dress back where it belongs (in a shop, rather than my closet where it will almost certainly become ruined) and things are moving along swimmingly on the wedding front, so I am feeling ready for a summer filled with fun, preparation, cooking (always), and seeing some friends along the way.

Last night I went to yoga and worked, for an hour and a half, on my thigh muscles and psoas muscle. I love a vinyasa class, but I can’t help coming back time and again to Iyengar, which focuses on postures in yoga, really bringing your awareness to what your body is doing at the actual moment it’s doing it.

Iyengar is a great choice for me for when I’m being taught by a physical teacher instead of doing a video at home. My teachers keep me honest, make me work for a pose, make me understand where my body should be, and why, and how. I love learning alignment and I can pull that through to my home practice because I know how something should feel and that helps me get myself into poses I thought were unobtainable.

Last night, as I hung out in shoulder stand with my thighs activated and working to keep my legs straight, my yoga teacher Jay proclaimed, “Firm those thighs…I have the yoga police on speed dial.” I love that he keeps us laughing, working, committed, and aware that our bodies are on as good as we make them be. I love finding strength in myself I didn’t see, but that he did, all along.

This summer, I hope to make more advances in my yoga practice as I train for a 10k in the winter. I’ve always found that balancing between yoga and running makes me feel the best, because too much running is hard on my feet (too much yoga, I find, is never a problem.)

What are y’all’s favorite yoga types and classes? I am always looking to deepen my practice and I am open to suggestions!

I hope this weekend is full of getting outside, maybe some yoga at the beach, and definitely sunshine, sea, and delicious foods. Have a great holiday weekend, everyone!

be each other’s light in the dark

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Happy Thursday, you guys!

Tonight it’s raining in Los Angeles (thank the Rain Gods) so when I went for a run, I left my music and headphones at home, gave Jeff my intended course, and headed off to run a mile and a half, part of week two of my 5k training.

Turns out when I run without music Radio Lab, I run much faster. I shaved 1:40 off of my pace, and although I definitely could tell I was running faster, I didn’t realize it was THAT much faster. Like, PR for my mile faster. Which is exciting because this time around, doing yoga EVERY time I run, I am not fatigued every other day when I head out, and my legs aren’t getting tired like they were before, because they are stronger, and looser, and better.

So, dear rain, thank you for falling over me as I ran, keeping me cool, forcing my personal best out of me, focusing me on my pace and my breath and the air around me.

And thank you, yoga, for keeping my legs prepared to move my body.

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Namaste // Happy Friday // Happy Rain // Happy Life.