Yoga in the morning...pure joy

Tried a new yoga teacher this morning. It was bliss. The class challenged me but I was able to modify. My back didn't hurt and I was glowing by the end of class. The teacher, Barbara Rose Sherman was wonderful. I will be back.

Now that my lower back is feeling better after an injury in late October, I'm feeling pain free! Been working out on the cardio machines at the gym, doing yoga in the mornings at home before I leave for work and now back to yoga classes at the Santa Barbara Yoga Studio. I love taking classes here because I can walk and most classes start as the church bells across the street are singing. Very spiritual.

I have to thank my first yoga teacher Linda Grace for the knowledge she imparted to me so I can piece together my own practice every morning. Namaste.

Deadline on...

Why is it I always need a deadline? Going to St Lucia in April, so I'm hitting the gym hard. I need to wear those cute sundresses and shorts in the hot Caribbean sun. Not very yoga like.

Maybe we need deadlines to keep ourselves accountable. I know I need motivation. Maybe I just need to start fresh each day and forgive myself when I go off track. Live in the now.  But hey, two weeks, lost 5 pounds!

Can't wait to be sitting at The Reef again sipping my cocktail and getting some rays.

This past year has been full of transitions and my exercise routine went out the window. It's always the first thing I put aside and it's the only thing I should consistently keep going.  I feel so much better when I'm exercising on a regular basis. Moving forward, forgiving myself and feeling better in the moment. Bathing suit (yikes!) here I come...

Transitions

Here I am in the now. I've been away from my blog way too long. Actually, I've been hurtling through a major transition in my life since November. A new job presented itself 5 1/2 hours away from Half Moon Bay and I jumped on it.

My family and I lived on the Coastside in Half Moon Bay for the past 15 years. We raised our children there, put down roots, made friends. But the tides were pulling me back to Southern California. Family and sunshine, simply put, are what pulled me back. Our children are grown. One is in college, one has a family and career on the East Coast. Still under 50, I decided this was the time to make a change if I was going to do it. So I made the plunge, found a new job and moved to Santa Barbara.

My husband stayed behind to finish the lease on our house and tried to find a transfer within his company. He just recently arrived full-time in Santa Barbara with no transfer but a bunch of new ideas to  possibly start his own company, while looking for work. That is still playing out.

In the meantime we have downsized from a six-bedroom house to a one bedroom apartment and a 10x10 storage unit. We will be moving again in a couple of weeks to a slightly bigger two bedroom apartment. I can tell you we are sick of moving at this point and our cat is not happy with us.

Since this is my yoga blog I guess I need to tie this into my yoga practice. Let's just say my yoga practice has lapsed a bit the last 8 months. We were short money because we were paying rent on two places and we were doing a lot of commuting back and forth from Santa Barbara to the Bay area so classes were not on the table for me. Not to mention it's intimidating to me to walk into a new studio and start taking classes with teachers and students I don't know.

I did do my own home practice. It wasn't daily and not ever as long as a full class. It's hard to discipline yourself to do yoga in your living room for an hour and a half. What I did do well was keep yoga in my daily life. If I was feeling stiff at work, I'd stretch. Just doing yoga over the last couple of years has changed the way I walk and stand. I'm always checking my posture and stance. If I was stressed I'd do a mantra or do some restorative poses. Yoga is now part of me.

Over the last couple of months I started taking some yoga classes here in Santa Barbara. I've been trying out different studios and teachers. I'm coming to find out what I like and don't like. I also discovered without a teacher to guide me, I don't push myself as hard. I've lost a lot of my stamina and strength I had gained. When I left Half Moon Bay I had just started to kick myself up into a headstand. Some of that shoulder and arm strength is gone, but I'm sure it will be back soon.

More to come on my new yoga experiences here in Santa Barbara...

Yoga on the Beach

My yoga teacher celebrated her birthday by having our yoga class on the beach. What a great experience. There's something about doing yoga in the sand with the sound of the ocean crashing down that is quite energizing. I did a headstand-Salamba Sirsasana and we all did half a handstand- Ardha Adho Mukha Vrksasana with a partner's help. I went beyond my comfort zone and it was exhilarating. I love going upside down!

We used the sand as our props. If we needed a bolster, we molded it out of sand. We did savasana in reclining bound angle post-Supta Baddha Konasana using the sand to lean against as we faced the ocean and felt the mist on our faces. Best savasana ever.

We also had a wonderful pot-luck brunch. Everyone brought something. It was all gluten free. Lot's of fruits and vegetables. I even had kelp chips and I loved them.

We meditated, chanted, sang and danced! I look forward to next year. Maybe we convince our teacher to this more than once a year...:)

Busy, busy, busy...

So much for posting daily. Like yoga, this too is a practice. I need to work it in to my day. I really enjoy writing but I put it on the back-burner this summer. It's been a busy one. A quick summary:

My son and his family moved in while they transition from military life back to civilian life. With a baby in the house, our lives have changed once again. We are no longer empty-nesters with extra bedrooms available for art rooms and such. It's ok my grandbaby makes up for all that! But it has changed our daily routine.

My birthday in June/Thousand Oaks/Castle Green-lots of family fun!

Our friends, Dave and Myrnie moved to Hong Kong :(

I tried a diet of Herbalife. While I was going to blog about my experience with this and my ultimate success, I ran into some snags. I may still do a post about it. I have some in my drafts that are actually quite humorous. Needless to say, I am not doing Herbalife anymore and I am back on my Weight Watchers diet. I have that final 10 pounds to lose and really thought that Herbalife would be my miracle diet. There is no such thing for WOMEN! My husband on the other hand lost almost 50 pounds in two months on the diet. I lost 3 pounds. What's up with that? Men. Geesh.

Fletcher ball workshop in July-great class. More on this later.

Went to my dad's 70th birthday. It was a great reunion of family and friends we hadn't seen in many years. I was able to sneak in a couple of yoga practices while I was there. I love that I can do yoga anywhere.

I have continued with my yoga practice, Pilate's classes and walking throughout the summer and have maintained my weight and sculpted my body into pretty good shape. My new size 8 clothing are getting too big!!!! Exercise has become a habit for me. Finally after 40 something years. Took me long enough.

The Art of Yoga

Please check The Art of Yoga Project out. They are doing wonderful things for at-risk girls.

Discipline

I was watching the movie "Julie and Julia" the other night and Julie Powell's mother was questioning her on why she would undertake cooking all of Julia Child's recipes and blogging about it when no one was making her do it. Julie Powell said, "It's a discipline." While discussing it with her husband Powell said, "I'll cook my way through the Julia Child cook book and write a blog about it. I'll probably need a deadline otherwise it will be like everything else I do. Let's face it, I never finish anything."

I've been doing yoga and Pilates for a year this Sunday, May 9th and I feel like I've really accomplished something. I didn't have a deadline to meet, but I do need the discipline of going to something on a regular basis to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

What have I accomplished? I lost 23 pounds in the last year. I no longer bring frozen diet lunches to work. I have healthy leftovers from the night before. I started this blog. I'm in a size 8. I have muscle tone. I can actually see my abs. I wouldn't think twice about putting on a bathing suit in public. I learned to kayak. My knees no longer hurt. I feel good. I can do an hour Power Pilates class and then stay for the hour and half yoga class and live to tell about it. Downward Facing Dog is actually a resting pose for me now.

I made a commitment to myself to get healthy. Much in the same way that Julie Powell made a committment to write. In life you have to follow your muse. You have to follow that thing that is whispering in your ear, "this is a good idea." You might not know why at the time but you know you just have to do it. This is inspired action. The good thing about Pilates and yoga is you are never done. I don't have to "finish" anything. It's a part of my life now.

Rules

My son and his family will be moving in with us this summer as they transition from military life to civilian life. I personally can't wait to spend some time getting to know my granddaughter. But carving out room for three people to move in has not been an easy task. I'm glad I started early and have cut it into smaller pieces.

What I've discovered is we have too much stuff! This is a good time to downsize. Do we really need all those VHS tapes and electric bills from the early 80's? I found the manual for the first refrigerator we bought and the elusive instructions to the ice maker that never worked.

What I found hilarious was the manual for the refrigerator was in a file labeled, "Manuals, Rules and Warranties." My husband thought the "Rules" part was hilarious. It was written in my teenage handwriting when I started keeping my own files. There's a reason I'm in accounting! Some of the rules I found were for tennis, chess and some other board games. I was half expecting to see the rules for my life in there. He made me call my mom and ask her what the name of her file was for manuals and warranties. He figured they would be the same because we both get annoyed with those that don't follow the rules. I called her and she said it just said "Warranties." She threw the rules out long ago. I know what she means. I spent a lot of time in my early life trying to control everything and follow the rules, but find as I get older letting go of things makes life much easier.

When I go to yoga tonight I'm going to try and let go of not being able to do the poses perfectly and just let my body feel the benefits I do get from it. It's not always physical. Letting go of being perfect and not always following the rules lets you be yourself. It's called practing yoga for a reason. As in life, practicing anything prepares you for whatever is to come. Practicing yoga in all aspects of my life makes me whole. Thinning out our paperwork and belongings will allow more room for other things to happen in our space and life.

Namaste.

Success

Maybe it just comes with age and experience, but at some point you don't give a damn what anyone else thinks. If everyone would just be happy within themselves, there wouldn't be all the problems in the world. I just fear that we wait until we're much older to have this attitude.

I just recently wrote up my "success" story for the Studio 4 Pilates newsletter about losing 23 pounds after I joined as a member. One of my classmates thought of me and my success story when her friend wanted to start exercise but felt she couldn't do yoga because she was overweight. My yoga teacher asked what prompted me to finally start an intense exercise program? I said the bathroom scale, weight, sore knees, but the question kept mulling over in my head as I lay in savasana that night in yoga. It really was more than just losing weight because my knees hurt. It goes back to having major surgery a few years ago to have my thyroid removed and completely going through a metamorphosis. Maybe you'd call it a mid-life crisis. Whatever it was, I know myself deeper than I ever have before. Losing my thyroid helped me become comfortable with who I am, inside and out. A major change can make you take a totally different path. And you also have a choice in how you deal with that change; whether positively or negatively.

It took several years of exploration, but I'm at the right place now, physically, mentally, spiritually. My life feels balanced. So when my yoga teacher asked what prompted me to take on yoga and Pilates and lose weight, it was more than the scale and aching knees. It was the culmination of my lifetime of experience and dealing with a major crisis in my life to finally have everything make sense. Knowing that if I don't take this one little pill every day or I would be dead within 30 days really made me rethink everything. Don't wait until that moment when you can't turn back, take on life now. You never know what the next moment holds. The greatest adventure of your life happens now.

Frank Jude Boccio and Yoga Journal offers some ideas for a change-friendly inner life:

"Every morning, repeat a gatha (mindfulness verse): 'Great is the matter of birth and death; impermanence surrounds us. Be awake each moment; do not waste your life.' Life doesn't give you breathing room, but if you stop grasping for control of the uncontrollable, you can learn to breathe through it all."

Kayaking-Taking Things On

My husband looked out into the ocean with trepidation and turned to me and said, "You really want to do this?" He knows that I'm not a fan of being in the water and especially getting into the ocean and he is not a fan of exercise. Paddling really didn't seem that appealing to him. But my mind was set. I really wanted to get in a kayak and see things you can't see from the shore. I want to kayak to beaches you can't get to normally or float alongside the whales. Or take photos from a completely different perspective.

Finally past the repressed memories of my sister falling overboard from a raft when we were little. She almost drowned and my dad saved her. Throughout my childhood I thought it was me that it happened to. A traumatic event witnessed and repressed into my head. When I met my husband several decades ago, I told him I was afraid of the water because I fell out of a raft and almost drown. My family heard the story and said it wasn't you, it was your sister. I really had taken it on that it was me, although my mind knew it was my sister all along. It's taken me a couple of decades to get over that and through it. I actually swam in the Caribbean a couple of years ago and now I'm kayaking. What's next? Maybe I'll actually swim underwater again. :)

It was very empowering for me to know I had the strength and stamina to get in that kayak and paddle through waves and out into the bay exploring sea caves. I've never felt such adventure and excitement. It's about time!

Practicing yoga and Pilates on a regular basis and focusing on my health has opened new paths for me. To have my body strong and healthy has opened my mind to new possibilities. The spiritual side of yoga has helped me with visualizing those things I want to do and then taking that inspired action and doing them.

Savasana

My yoga teacher, Linda Grace, gave us an assignment Monday night at our restorative practice; challenge ourselves to do a 20 minute savasana (corpse pose) every day. Give yourself that time to relax and just breath. She said to think about when and where you would do this each day, what kind of music you would play, what props you would use. It's not as easy as you think to find 20 minutes a day to just lay still.

So here it is Friday and I have not found the time to do a 20 minute savasana a day. Well we did one last night at our Thursday class and someone asked how everyone was doing with the challenge. Only one person had tried it in the evening and they said it was hard. You keep hearing the household buzzing around you and then the rest of the family is wondering where you are and "What are you doing?" Linda Grace said when trying new things it's sometimes harder before it gets easier but to keep trying. I had even started this blog Tuesday morning about this subject and hadn't finished it, probably because I hadn't found the time to start the challenge myself.

Judith Lasatar says, "Everyone who is alive in the world has exactly the same amount of time each day." It's up to you how you use it. A 20 minute relaxation break seems like a nice thing to do for yourself. I always look forward to it in class, why shouldn't I look forward to it every day of my life?

Loss

What is the lesson of loss? To lose something is to open another spot up in your being for something else. You lose weight, you open up a spot for better health, more activity, longer life. You lose a loved one, you open up your heart to the memories that helped you become you. Often loss causes reflection on where you are in your life and you set new goals, new paths. In yoga you are opening up your heart, exposing yourself to looking at things in a new way. Sometimes it's upside down, sometimes it's from deep within, other times just being present gives you another way of looking at something. Loss is not bad, loss is growth. Namaste.

Start fresh each day

Too much wine, too many cream puffs, Gorilla BBQ and a killer martini on Sunday. Great weekend, but used all my points up for the week. Now I have to eat lettuce the rest of the week. LOL

Although today didn't start off very well either. I woke up late because we forgot to change the clock in the bedroom for Daylight Saving Time (probably to do with the martini the night before)so I had to get breakfast at Starbucks on the way in; non-fat chai and their turkey bacon sandwich. I could have gone to McDonalds. I really wanted to go to McDonalds and have a greasy sausage and egg sandwich, but I digress...Starbucks was the better choice. It was low-fat and I got my milk in for the day.

Hey I'm not going to beat myself up over indulging this weekend. A girl's gotta have fun! I figure I'll be good the rest of the week and I workout enough it all evens out. I'll just make sure to drink all my water and flush my system out and write down everything I eat. Maybe do some detox yoga, twisting it all out. My husband and I took a long walk on the beach Sunday, so that burned some calories too.

My philosophy is if I over-indulge, I let it go and start fresh the next day. Every Monday I figure out what my workout regimen is going to be and mark it on the calendar. I make sure that exercise is just part of my life, like drinking wine and eating killer bbq ribs once in awhile. It's a balancing act you have to work out with your body.

P.S. Gorilla BBQ was featured on Diner's, Drive-in's and Dives. If you are up our way, you need to go there. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Yoga Conference

I stopped by the yoga conference in San Francisco on Sunday. I dropped by just to cruise through the vendor booths and see what's available out there. I wanted to touch some of the mats and see what clothes are out there. I picked up some flyers and brochures, magazines. I peeked in on a class in progress, very cool. Next year I'll sign up and take some classes.

I did get a ten minute bodywork massage by Brenda at the meditation pillow station. Heavenly. To go inward and release all around you in the middle of a busy hotel is something everyone needs to know how to do. I also purchased a meditation pillow and buckwheat pillow full of rosemary and lavendar from her-delightful.

I purused the books and music and saw all the wonderful yoga bags available. A fun day indeed and it really didn't even cost too much money to go.