Time heals all wounds . . . and sometimes yoga can help

It has been a while, again, since I last wrote anything here. On my road to fitness and healthy living I have, yes, started doing yoga. And fallen absolutely in love with it. I have done some at home yoga videos in the past, back in the dark times of teenager-hood, and always felt a kind of kinship with the stretch and pull of yoga asanas, but never really connected with it. I was a swimmer (I still am, and always will be) and that meant that the pool was my home. I always felt that I was not truly alive unless I was swimming, and while yoga or pilates was a great way to stretch and lengthen, it was never really a lifestyle or fitness routine that I took to. Now, some ten years later, along comes my friend A, who has introduced me to so many things and people, not limited to our shared friend family and alcohol, but also to Erin Motz's 30-Day Yoga Challenge.

Erin Motz calls herself a Bad Yogi because she'll eat the occasional burger and isn't pretentious or focused too much on Sanskrit or instagramming difficult poses. How she describes the Bad Yogi philosophy:

Bad Yogi^TM n. [baad yogee]

1 a renegade yogi who indulges in the occasional burger, has never been to a shakti dance class, and admits to not always knowing their asana from their elbow.
 

usage: you are one bad yogi, and damn, we like you

She's the sweetest and most delightful yoga instructor ever to grace a video and her connection to doyouyoga.com has been what drew me into the practice of yoga. I just really love her take on it, and the way that she leads the classes. I also signed up for myyogapro.com, and I'm totally looking forward to that coming out soon.

I'm on day 6 (just finished my practice for the day!) of the challenge and I can already feel the difference. Besides noticing an ability to stretch more and improved posture, I feel an awareness of my body and my self that I did not have before yoga. It is really well described in this article: 8 Signs That You're Going Through a Transformation. I really feel like a new part of my life is opening up. I find myself making healthier choices. I walked past the giant bag of M&M's at the office all week, and I only had a small handful twice. Maybe 20 candies in all, and in the past I would have polished off so much of that bag it would have been unbelievable. I did have ginger snaps from Trader Joe's that a friend brought me back, but they were pretty healthy, and I could only eat a few at a time because they were super gingery. Delicious though. But I just did not want super unhealthy things. Don't get me wrong, there were a couple of days that I ate more than I should, and one day I totally had a caramel Coolatta from Dunkin' Donuts, but I'm only human and I needed caffeine on a long day.

Speaking of caffeine, I think yoga is even helping regulate my sleep and energy levels. There is all sorts of research that I have been reading about that says that yoga helps balance cortisol levels and other things to do with blood pressure and sleep and calmness, and I can say, even in just a week, I can absolutely feel it. I would be interested to take my blood pressure and see if it's down any. I have not lost any weight that I know of, but it is still early days, and I only did a few days of swimming this week. I think maybe three days, so not as much calorie burning.

I'm using my old pink flowered yoga mat from when I was younger, and boy has it seen better days. Our cat decided many years ago that the yoga mat was an excellent scratching post, so it tends to shed little bits of itself every time I unroll and roll it up. It also has been used for a week, and I realized that I have sweated and stood and laid on it, and it's kind of not as clean as I would like it to be. So I looked up how to clean a yoga mat, and found a whole bunch of recipes for yoga mat cleaners. I read Delightfully Tacky on a regular basis, and I love everything she does, so when I noticed that she had a yoga mat cleaner recipe, I knew that was the one that I was going to have to try.  So when I was at the Mart of Wal I purchased two little spray bottles in the travel section (one's pink and one's blue, yay pretty colors!) and some witch hazel. I filled the bottles about 2/3 of the way with distilled water (because we have well water and it can make things smell funny because of its high iron content) and then the rest of the way with the witch hazel. I then put a few drops of tea tree oil in each bottle, and then in one bottle a few drops of lavender oil and in the other bottle I put a few drops of peppermint oil. I'll experiment and see which combo I like the best. They both smell pretty good!

In the Land of Knitting, I have been making progress, although I do not have any pictures of that progress, sadly. I am almost done with the green cotton tank from the Spring edition of Knitscene. It's the Amazonite tank, and I really like the pattern.

My version is a lime green cotton and viscose yarn (Shine sport from Knitpicks a few years ago) and I think I might have made it a little too wide, I'm not a small girl, but I think I might have had a moment of body image issues when I worked out which size to make. Or I was whupped by the gauge goddess, which is always a possibility.

I have also been working on a pair of socks for me, and one for my mother. Her's are black, with some wool and silk I purchased from KnitPicks a month or so back. I like it, and I've made her a pair in this wool before, and she liked them. I put ribbing all the way down this time, to make them a little bit different. Also, they're a little bit bigger, so hopefully they will fit her better. The socks that I am making for myself are sort of a heathery and striped affair. I really like them.

Work is going excellently. The firm hired two new attorneys, which meant an expansion into the office next door, which meant that I was able to move from the main reception area into the office abandoned by one of the attorneys. It's a little closet of an office, but it's my very own until I leave, and I love it. I have a door that I can close when the guys in the main area get too loud, or when I have to make phone calls, and I can spread out a bit. It's just nice. I really do like it at that office, and I am so thankful for AmeriCorps, and the opportunities that the program gives us.

I don't have too much other news, the yoga thing is probably the most exciting thing, lately. It's been a wacky and weird few months, but hopefully (I know, I say this every time), hopefully I will write more often. Or at least sooner than 5 months!

Have a wonderful day, a beautiful weekend, and enjoy life!

The Hummingbird Wars

I have been studying out on my front porch, prepping for the GRE's, and have noticed something rather unusual. There are three hummingbirds trying to eat at our feeder, but they seem incapable of sharing, and so are engaging in all out war for control. I had no idea that hummingbirds, when they battle, spread out their tiny little tail feathers and making this really loud clicking and humming sound. It's both adorable, because they are so tiny, and also terrifying. I have been trying to get a picture, but they move so fast that it's almost impossible.

I did, however, get a picture of the road where I run:

If you look carefully, you can see the moon!

 I'm trying to take some more pictures, as my new job, although not a "creative photography" job, still is going to involve me taking pictures all day, and I want to feel more comfortable with a camera. I know that these are from my phone, but that's because I can't seem to get my good digital camera to turn on. I've tried new batteries, I tried new high tech batteries, nothing. It was turned on, and then the batteries died with the lens open and extended, and now nothing will turn it on. It's very frustrating.

I found Mr. Weasley's car!

 So for now, just cell phone pictures of things I see, and places I go. The car picture comes from an area of the road where there was this ancient house that had all plants growing in it, which sadly (or fortunately, I suppose, for the people who lived across from it) burned down this spring. The car is hiding in the bushes, and I can't help thinking that the Flying Ford Anglia of Harry Potter fame gave up on England and flew itself to America after the Voldemort was defeated, and found a new home in our woods.

It's that time of year again, time to hay the field!

The farmer down the road has started haying in all of the fields around our house. He seems to be the only one who owns a haying machine and baler. But it's entertaining to watch them go up and down, and end up with the big round bales of hay.

But, where will I sleep?

Last night, I walked into my room to get ready for bed, and found this bundle of adorableness. It was interesting sleeping with both cats on the bed. What you can't necessarily see is that they are about a foot up from the bottom of the bed, and manage to take up almost the whole width of where they are sleeping. Good thing I sleep curled up anyway. Good thing for them, I mean. They were just too cute to remove from my bed.

Well, once they're felted, they'll look like something, right?

Behold, my latest knitting project. French Press Felted Slippers for my mom for Christmas. Hopefully! They're almost done, the last bit that is on the needles is the final bottom of the foot, so hopefully I'll be able to get that done tonight, seam them up sometime soon, and felt them. Not sure if I want to risk doing that in our washing machine, or just go down to the laundro-mat and felt them there. I guess I'll decide that once I've seamed them up. Also, looking at the photo, the color of the yarn is much more teal than blue. This picture, to me, looks like a royal blue, but the yarn is actually a nice teal. It's Patons' Classic Wool Roving, in case anyone wants to know.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I leave you with this: a photo of my cat judging me for waking him up to shove a camera in his face. You're welcome! :-)