30 Days of Yoga - Success

Well folks, I made it to 31 yoga classes in the last 31 days. Yeah, the challenge was only for 30 days, but why not make it a full month instead of just 30 days? Plus it turned out that the yoga studio I decided to go to had scheduled a 30 day challenge as well. Perfect timing/coincidence if you ask me. They had a chart on the wall where we got to track our attendance with gold stars. I guess those elementary school years of getting gold stars next to your name for being good stuck with me. And being the overachiever that I was, I got a lot of gold stars. Most of this past month I attended class at 6 a.m. throughout the week and then a mid-day or afternoon class on the weekend. As I had mentioned, the morning class I attended was called Wake Up and Salute the Sun. It's what I would refer to as slow flow, as intense as you'd like to make it. We had a core group of 5-6 of us that showed up on a daily basis. I could tell who was there when I first arrived just by their cars. One of the women drove a orange sedan, whereas the guy who had excellent and super consistent Ujjayi breath drove a silver SUV with a yoga studio sticker on the bottom left corner of the back windshield. Anyways, we bonded over waking up so early every morning and started to feel like the non-regulars were intruders. Our class doubled in size on the Thursday and Friday before Memorial Day weekend because everyone was trying to get their gold stars. When class dropped back down to its regular size, we kept talking about how we were so surprised when there was that many people that early in the morning. It's always nice to feel like you're a part of something, and that's one of the things I enjoyed about my 30 Days of Yoga.

Another good thing about this challenge was my mood. As I mentioned in my Paleo f(x) Recap, one of the big topics was stress and how to manage it. Stress is something that all of us experience and how we handle that stress makes all the difference. Daily yoga definitely helped me with my stress management. Not only did spending at least an hour every day trying to clear my mind and focus only on breathing (while struggling to balance) give me some peace of mind, but I also found myself making time to be calm and relaxed. I took more walks. I read a book. I went to the library for some quiet time to focus. I spent more time with my friends one-on-one, and I called some of my old friends to catch up on life. I felt happy more often and one of my coworkers even commented on how I was smiling more frequently. I don't know whether this was a result of just the yoga or the fact that I was making time every day to be physically active and get a good sweat on. I made physical activity a priority and I want to continue to do so. That may mean that I'm not quite as social with friends as I might like to be, but I can notice the difference between my health and mood now and what it was a month ago.

I do have to admit that not everything improved; my flexibility was one of those things. I swear that some of my muscles feel tighter now than they did a month ago. My hamstrings and calf muscles in particular feel like they got shortened somehow. And my previously very open hip flexors now feel sore and achey often. I don't know how that all happened, but I think that part of it was pushing my body harder that I've pushed it in a while. It may also be that my form improved thanks to daily practice. My instructor said that my form got better over the weeks, and she attributed my recently developed knee twinge to my improved hip placement in Warrior 1, and there's the fact that I'm a woman... with hips... and these yoga poses were originally designed for men, who don't have hips that put extra strain on the knee joints. The solution was easy though, I just modify the pose a bit so that my heels don't quite line up, and voila, no twinge. 

So all things considered, would I do it again? Definitely. Did you make it through the 30 days? How do you feel? Are you ready for another 30-day challenge? Good, because I'm doing a Whole 30 starting June 1st. So let's jump from one challenge to the next. Let's do it!

30 Days of Yoga - Day 11 and Getting Outside

If you've liked me on Facebook, you've seen a few posts over the last 11 days about how I've been enjoying daily yoga. I've attended 12 yoga classes in the past 11 days (I doubled up on Monday). I feel as though my mood has improved drastically; I've found myself smiling and dancing about and just generally feeling peaceful when I'm alone. I don't know if I can attribute this solely to yoga though. I've been trying to spend more time outside in the sun by going for walks or jogs. My doctor recently told me that I'm vitamin D deficient, something that's been happening with greater frequency to everyone these days thanks to long work hours, and even more at-home time in front of computer screens, so I've been trying to get outside as often as possible. This means that instead of heading home and plopping down in front of my computer or tablet to watch a TV show, I'll cook, or go for a walk, or read a book, or clean my room - things that will make me feel calm and relaxed. In general, I've been trying to be more active, watch less TV, and make plans with friends that don't just revolve around food or alcohol.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've heard more and more people I know express feelings of discontent about being in constant contact with people. In today's world of cell phones, tablets, laptops, and an endless supply of messaging apps, it's hard to take time alone to just relax and sit quietly. During my freshman year of college, I took an English class that was really a philosophy class with some writing assignments thrown in. We had to write a paper on space and how technology interacts with space. Basically, what I wrote was that while cell phones and computers make it easier for us to stay close with friends and family that live far away, it also creates distance between people who live near each other. What do I mean? Well, think back to your last social outing or the last time you had someone over to your place. How many people were on their phones? Texting? Tweeting? Checking Facebook? Probably quite a few. I know that I'm guilty of it myself. Why do we feel the need to post on Facebook that we're having fun with a friend? Instead I think we all need to just be in the moment: enjoy time with friends and be fully invested in that friend/moment. I hate it when I'm talking to someone and they keep checking their phone waiting for a response from a different conversation. Hello!?!? I'm right here, in your face... talk to ME! Not that electronic box glued to your hand. That's one thing that yoga touches on: fully being in the moment. Appreciating the time that you have and focusing on yourself. I think all of this technology has caused people to lose their communication skills. I sometimes find myself feeling awkward when someone gives me their full attention. To have someone fully listening to you and being invested in your conversation is a very personal and intimate feeling; it makes you feel special and important. And instead of allowing ourselves to be a part of these types of interactions, we post on Facebook, and only feel special if someone likes or comments on your status.

So for this past week, I gave up some of my vices: TV, chocolate, Facebook messaging, and alcohol. I think the hardest one was chocolate. Not really because I was craving the sweetness, but mainly because eating chocolate at work gives me a reason to get up from my desk and walk over to raid my co-worker's stash of candies, and look at something other than my computer screen for a little while. Also, instead of using my personal Facebook account, I've tried communicating directly with friends, like phone conversations. Sure, sometimes it's inconvenient times to talk on the phone, like maybe during work hours or when you're at dinner with that special someone, but I get more joy with a phone conversation than I do with a texting conversation. For instance, while I walked back from yoga yesterday morning, I called one of my Atlanta friends and had a 20ish-minute conversation catching up with him. I was happy, talking excitedly, and bouncing around, all while gesturing wildly to myself and all of the random people that drove past me on the road. We could have had the same conversation via texts, but it would have just been my thumbs tapping away at the phone, it would have taken a lot longer to get all of words across, and I wouldn't have had the same satisfaction nor would I have been able to convey emotions or my happiness as easily. 

I urge you to try changing your routine a bit this week. Turn off the cell phone. Go for a walk instead of watching your favorite TV show. Or even better, go for a walk with a friend. Let me know how it goes!

30 Days of Yoga - Day 1

Day One of 30DoY (30 Days of Yoga) is a go! After snoozing my 5:30 a.m. alarm for 10 minutes, I made the last minute decision to go to a 6 am "Wake Up and Salute the Sun" yoga class. Luckily, the yoga studio is only 5 minutes from my home, so I had enough time to roll out of bed, throw on my yoga clothes, grab my yoga mat, and stroll into the studio. It was calming, yet made me sweat... just a little. I guess I'm used to my Krav Maga Flex class which consists of super-intense yoga/boot camp, where we may start out with rolling partner push-ups, move to partner stretches (your partner literally sits on you to help you stretch more), next to splits, and then on to inversions (this past week we worked on hand stands). So a hour-long class of upward/downward dog, sun salutations, warrior 1 & 2, forward folds, and boats isn't all that challenging. But I will say that while Flex is humorously too intense for most of us, the morning class is a great way to start the day with a peaceful and calm attitude. Now I just need to figure out how to turn off my brain and focus on my "practice." And how to maintain that calm throughout the workday. It's only day one though. Let's see how I progress over the month.

How did your first day go?

30 Days of Yoga

On May 1st I'm starting 30 days of yoga. Why? you ask. Well, I've been attending a yoga class at my Krav Maga studio for the last few months. It's only once a week, but I love going. I more regularly attend Flex than I do the actual Krav Maga classes. I guess I just haven't been in the mood to hit people lately. Anywho, I'm super stoked about starting a month of yoga. I want to get more flexible, and yoga is a nice joint-friendly, surprisingly tough workout. When I did yoga last summer, I swear I ended every class soaked in sweat. And let me tell you, maintaining an inverted pose while your hands keep sliding away from your center of balance is not an easy task.

So I'm doing 30 days of yoga. Are you with me? Email me and let me know! Let's do this!

Update (30APR2014): If you're looking for free online yoga videos to do from the comfort of your own home, there are a bunch of website that offer free videos, such as doyogawithme.com or myfreeyoga.com.

Happy Easter!

Yeah, I'm a day late, but I hope you all had a fantastic Easter.. if you celebrate it. If you don't, you can at least enjoy all of the candy that's now on sale. Except if you're hard-core Paleo that is. In which case, go buy yourself a high-quality dark chocolate, like this bar of 75% Cacao Fearless Chocolate that I found on sale at Whole Foods. The two (yes, only two) ingredients in this bar of chocolate are organic cacao and organic cane sugar. Sure, we try to stay away from added sugar, but if you're going to have a bar of chocolate, aim for the stuff with the least amount of sugar, and go for organic. They also have a 85% cacao bar.

Anyways, in honor of Easter, I decided to cook myself a yummy breakfast. Because what's Sunday morning without brunch?

Veal Chorizo and Artichoke Scrambled Eggs

1/4 lb chorizo-flavored ground veal (Click here to find a chorizo seasoning recipe)

1/4 cup artichoke hearts, chopped (you can use frozen or marinated artichokes)

1/4 cup frozen cut leaf spinach, thawed

2 eggs, whisked

1. Heat a pan over medium heat. Break the ground veal into small bites and add to the pan. Heat until thoroughly cooked.

2. Toss in the artichokes and spinach, then add the eggs. Cook for a few minutes until the eggs are done.

Serve with a side of sweet potato hash browns and a small glass of blueberry kombucha. Happy Easter!

And in exciting news for today, I convinced myself to do the Chest and Back P90X workout today after work. I also have finally managed a headstand. I got myself up and held it for 20 seconds without using the wall for support. Huzzah! I'm super excited about it! I never knew I had a goal to do that, but after practicing inversions with my Krav Maga yoga class, that goal just developed. And today was a good start on my way to doing a handstand. I feel productive. And enthused. But now, I'm going to go to bed and get my eight hours of sleep. Sweet dreams, y'all!

Lead with your rice?

See this BBC article on USA rice. I know this is a couple months old, but still... in case you didn't have enough reason not to eat rice, apparently some of the rice you can find here in the United States contain 20 to 120 times the provisional total tolerable intake (PTTI). The high end of that range applies in particular to children among groups who eat a higher than average amount of rice, such as those of Asian or Latin background. For the average adult, the levels of lead in rice can be 20 to 40 times higher than the PTTI.

Who'da thunk?

And in other news... my candlelight yoga class tonight was intense. Seriously. Do you know how odd it is to have sweat dripping up your chin while your arms shake in downward dog, downward dog split, and dolphin poses? I definitely never thought that yoga was sweat-worthy. Sure, sports involving lots of cardio = sweating, but yoga? Really? And of course, I'm dripping sweat to the point that my hands and feet started slipping on the yoga mat. Fortunately my arms and legs didn't splay out so that I belly-flopped onto the mat. Ah, the little things in life...

I checked my mail after I got back from yoga. My mailman/woman/person was probably furious with me for letting my little mailbox get so full. But as a nice surprise for me, I got a package in the mail. And what was in this wonderful little package? A new pair of spandex yoga capris. Super soft ones. And I love my spandex so much that I actually started talking to it. Word-for-word, this was what I said to my spandex capris: "Oh! Look how soft you are! Helllllooooo, lover!" Yes, I'm weird. I love spandex. I think I truly realized this love when I started rowing back in college. And since then, I would willingly wear spandex whenever possible. Sadly, I don't think that work would be too cool with that, but man would I like to. Ah, the comfort that I could feel while sitting at work all day every day. But then my company doesn't give us standing desks, why would they let me wear spandex to work? I'll work on it...

P90X - Day 18

Hahaha. Day 18? Yeah. Yoga did not happen yesterday. I tried to wake up early. I really did. But I had my first FE Review Course on Tuesday night, and didn't get to bed until past by bedtime. I mean, class goes until after my intended lights-out time. Yes. It's ridiculous that I try to go to bed by 9. I haven't had a bedtime that early since elementary school. Anyways, I didn't get up until 5:35, so I skipped working out before work with the intention that I'd workout after work. That didn't happen either. I put in ~12.5 hours at work yesterday so by the time I got home I was exhausted and didn't feel like doing anything. Instead, I ate a poached egg, a sun-dried tomato and chicken sausage, and some sweet potato fries while watching season 2 of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix and cross-stitching. Did I mention I love cross-stitching? Well, if I didn't, now you know. I started working on a cross-stitch pattern that my mom bought for me in China a couple years ago. So the instructions are all in Chinese, which I definitely don't read. I think I can figure it out from the pictures though. Maybe. Hopefully.

I know you're all worried that I missed a workout, but don't. I'm going to make up the yoga workout this weekend.

In totally non-Paleo news, but maybe interesting facts for some of you... Yesterday I was talking with someone about the benefits of having a pet, and how cats are handy because they are more self-sufficient than dogs. She-who-shall-not-be-named then told me yesterday that you can get leukemia from cats. My initial response was, "What are you talking about? If cancer isn't contagious between people, how do you expect to catch it from a cat?" I referenced the plague and how rats can transmit the disease between humans, but that the plague was transmittable via human-to-human contact as well. So I decided to look it up once I got home and found this from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine website:

Can people become infected with FeLV? 
Epidemiological and laboratory studies have failed to provide evidence that FeLV can be transmitted from infected cats to humans. Regardless, FeLV-infected cats may carry other diseases. At greatest risk of infection are elderly or immunosuppressed people (e.g., those with AIDS, or receiving immunosuppressive medications such as chemotherapy), infants, and unborn children. It is recommended that pregnant women, people with suppressed immune systems, the very young, and the very old avoid contact with FeLV-infected cats.

That says to me that you cannot catch leukemia from a cat. Cats can infect other cats via bodily fluids (saliva, nasal secretions, urine, feces, etc.), from bites, or during mutual cleaning. Research done! So there!

P90X - Day 10

Yesterday, I slept through my first two alarms, or at least don't remember turning them off. I woke up from a dream involving some of my Houston friends and some of my high school friends. We were all at the beach, but we weren't actually in the water. The beach itself was sloped as if on the side of a dune, and we were sitting on this slope just watching the water, as if there were some show going on. A storm rolled in and we all took off running toward the front of my high school (because only the front of it somehow got transported to the beach). I remembered to grab my umbrella (why did I bring an umbrella to the beach?) as I ran for cover. Once out of the rain, I went to grab my car keys, realizing that I had left my purse on the beach. All but one of my friends had piled into a car, clown car style, and had taken off. My one remaining friend had grabbed my purse and I was literally fighting my way through the crowd to get my purse... and then I woke up. I was pissed. I was so close to getting my purse back. And I really wanted my purse.. to the point that I was knocking people over the head with my umbrella. When my third alarm went off, finally pulling me out of the world of sleep, I immediately wanted to go back to sleep so that I could finish the dream and get my purse back.

Because I was behind schedule, I skipped working out in the morning and instead just got ready for and headed off to work. I did P90X after work, which is much harder for me. I get lazy in the evenings. But last night was non-lazy night. First I did P90X Shoulders and Arms, and then I did P90X Yoga. Yeah, that's right. I just did 2 hours and 45 minutes of exercising yesterday. Go me! And I did lots of laundry. Boy, was I busy.

My eating habits are terrible right now. I didn't spend the time that I needed this past weekend to prepare food for the week. Breakfast yesterday was some blueberries and almonds. Lunch was pulled pork that I had bought from Whole Foods the night before. And dinner last night was some plantain chips. I was full, but just didn't feel great, especially after the workouts.

So something that make me chuckle yesterday was an email that my boss sent me. He's in Glasgow for meetings right now, so I had emailed him about upcoming days off. Here's his response:

Again??  But you just took off!  How is all the work going to get done?  The project will shut down without you!  The world will come to an end!

Okay, now that I have done the obligatory whining.  Sure, you can take off.

I'm glad he has a sense of humor.

P90X - Day 4

Yoga. Oh my gosh. My least favorite of the P90X routines. I know that yoga is supposed to calm the mind or something similar to that, but it doesn't quite work that way. A full 90 minutes of yoga can be exhausting and exhaustingly boring. And when I'm already tired and wanting to go to bed, it really makes me want to crawl back under the covers. I do enjoy the end of the yoga when Tony tells me to do Corpse pose (a.k.a. lay flat on my back and breathe) and then tells me to roll onto my side into the position that I normally sleep in. I finish off yoga feeling calm and ready to go back to sleep, the former of which goes away shortly after getting to work, and the latter is not ideal for waking up in the morning.

It was a later start than I intended, because I fell asleep after my first alarm, despite being half-awake for 10 minutes before my 5:00a.m. alarm went off. So I didn't roll out of bed until 5:30a.m. when alarm #2 sounded. I debated just getting ready for work and skipping yoga, but I knew my schedule for the day and I knew that I would end up not doing yoga at all if I didn't do it yesterday morning.

Here's what I ate yesterday: 

Breakfast (@8a.m.): 1 tbls almond butter, dark chocolate (healthy breakfast? not so much.)

Lunch (@12:30p.m.): Rack of lamb with balsamic glaze, Brussels sprouts, and mixed greens

Snack (@2:30p.m.): Fruit Tray for my birthday celebration at work. Yeah, it's a week late, but I like to keep the celebrations going for as long as possible. I've already gotten a request from one of my friends to have a one-month anniversary celebration of my 25th birthday. I think I may have to oblige. (OMG. I'm 25, how did that happen?)

Dinner (@6p.m.): Chicken and Vegetable Soup
Happy Hour (@7:30p.m.): Gin and tonic

		Goal	with Exercise	Actual
Calories	kcal	1,330	1,612	1,345
Carbs	g	183	221	147
Fat	g	44	53	49
Protein	g	50	60	68
Calcium	g	100	100	22
Fiber	g	15	19	20
Cholesterol	mg	-	-	164
Sodium	mg	-	-	965
Sugars	g	-	-	87

So a random annoyance of mine is when people who are clearly not handicapped, nor have their hands full in any way, decide to use the automatic doors provided for physically disabled individuals. Is there a reason why they can't push or pull the door open by themselves? Are they too weak to open the door? Well, I can recommend some exercises and weight-lifting they can do to improve upon their upper-body strength. I know that the doors at the entrance of my office building are a bit on the heavy side, but they're not that difficult to open. Though I have had co-workers comment to me about how strong I must be to barely break stride in order to open the door. "You must workout a lot." True story. Still I feel that if you are an able-bodied individual, you should stop being so lazy and open your own door. Just saying.

And now for a random tidbit of knowledge: How to get a boy into your room according to Mad Men, Season 1: "The light fixture in my room is out... could you change it for me?" Smooth. I'm sure the poor fellow had no idea (yeah, right...) what was going to happen after that.

Steak with Zucchini "Pasta"

Last night I cooked up some steak and paired it with zucchini that I had sliced julienne-style with my nifty mandoline. It's really sharp btw, and I've got the cuts to prove it. I seasoned the steak with some blackened seasoning. Below and to the right are the zucchini that I used. That's one massive zucchini (the above picture is maybe 1/4 of the large zucchini). I grabbed the largest and the smallest one from the local farmer's market just because... and I picked up some grass-fed steak.

The pasta sauce was way easy but I'll share it anyways...
Basic Pasta Sauce
1 can organic crushed tomatoes
1 can organic tomato paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp parsley
1 fresh tomato, finely chopped (optional)
1 tbls EVOO

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a medium pot. Once hot, add the onions and garlic, cooking for ~4 minutes. Add the tomatoes and spices. Cover and cook for ~20 on low heat to incorporate the flavors. Uncover and cook on medium heat until you reach your desired pasta sauce thickness. Or... you can let the pasta sauce sit overnight in the fridge for flavor incorporation. Up to you.


Despite the fact that I worked just over 12 hours yesterday and I really just wanted to go home and go to bed, I convinced myself to do 30 minutes of yoga. So it wasn't very intense exercise, but I still did it. Give me props. Plus, I haven't had any sugar or fruit in over 48 hours and I have yet to tear through the office searching for dark chocolate despite my current stress level. And I've been resisting the pear that's been staring at me from my desk. Go me!

I really want to try this recipe Pork Avocado Cream Enchiladas. If you're nice, maybe I'll let you sample it with me.

Yoga and your wrists

From Wesleyan University student blog

P90X yoga may be my least favorite of all of the routines. In general I like yoga, but doing 90 minutes of yoga can be a bit tedious and boring. I'm not a huge fan of the holding a pose for an extended period of time, and some of those poses are virtually impossible for me. For example, twisting half moon (shown to the right), is quite unpleasant. Somehow you're supposed to balance on one leg with the other parallel to the floor. Then you have to twist your upper body toward the leg which your body weight is resting on. Whenever I do this, my hip decides to lock up and I start to fall over. Did I mention that this is a weekly occurrence? And that it's painful? I know that my yoga time is supposed to allow me to clear my mind and focus just on me and my breathing. But how many of you can really clear your mind when your quads start to shake and your hips ache?

Downward dog is the stepping stone to many of the other poses. We start with sun salutations and chaturangas, push up to upward dog, and make a pit stop at plank before continuing on to downward dog via a military push-up (keep those elbows clenched to your sides!). From downward dog, we raise one foot off of the ground and swing it through to runner's pose. Now this is the juicy cream filling part of the symphony that is Yoga X... From runner's pose we can go to Warrior One, Warrior Two, Reverse Warrior, Warrior Three, Triangle Pose, Right Angle Pose, etc. The bane of my existence (as I mentioned above) stems from Warrior Three.

Downward dog brings me to the topic of wrists. Is there a way to strengthen wrists so that those dogs, chaturangas, and tables are less painful? An article from Bodybuilding.com lists wrist curls, reverse wrist curls, wrist rolls, and wrist rotations as wrist strengthening exercises. I think I need to find the time to do this... if anyone finds a Time-Turner like Hermione had, please let me know so I can borrow it from you... Thanks bunches!