Shocker

I am a stress eater. More precisely, I am a stress carbohydrate eater. When my stress level goes up I love me some pizza, pasta, bread and cookies. The past week or two have been particularly stressful and have included the spectacular combination of: 1) no weight lifting; 2) limited yoga on a messed up wrist; 3) more coffee than water; 4) lots-o-wine; and 5) cake, pizza, cookies, couscous, bread.


You can imagine my shock when I stepped on the scale this morning and discovered that I was down 4 pounds! I am pretty sure it must be 4 pounds of muscle from the lack of lifting, but still, there is nothing like a lower number on the scale to start your day out right…even if we know that that number doesn’t really mean anything.


So now, with the stress behind me and … ready? … VACATION in front of me, I am pumped to make the most of that 4 pound loss. This is actually the first time that I have taken vacation time from work and not actually gone away anywhere. Initially we had planned to go away, but lack of time and lack of money made that plan unrealistic. And now I am super excited for a (mostly) stay at home exercise filled vacation. The plan:


Saturday: Distance run with friends followed by and easy afternoon to get ready for Sunday.

Sunday: Bill and I are going to hike a very little mountain. Last year we hiked Mount Washington and it almost killed me, so this year I have requested a little mountain instead. Details to follow.

Monday: Super Yoga Monday! I plan on taking both Awakening Yoga and Power Yoga on Monday morning, hanging out with my Mom by the pool that afternoon, and taking YinYang Gentle Yoga that night. This should make up the last WEEK I have missed of yoga.

Tuesday: BEACH! For the first time this year. And for the second time in two years. I am way excited for this. Hopefully the day will end with another round of Gentle Yoga.

Wednesday: I actually have no plans for this day – which is great. Hopefully it features a run at some point and Power Yoga at night.

Then vacation is over and its back to the grindstone, but boy am I looking forward to a few days off. I’ll keep you all updated – blog posting should be back to its regular schedule next week. Stay Healthy!

I Need Some Ganesh Up In Here

That funky dude? That’s Ganesh. We’ll get to him.

Yesterday afternoon I went for a run. I was horrified when I realized I had forgotten my ipod at home and thus had no way of blocking out my thoughts on my run…and I have been having A LOT of thoughts lately. So many that I cannot stand to be in my head - and that is with all the yoga and mind calming exercises. I left for the run regardless and set out on my normal route – the loop that can be 3.5 miles with multiple hills and 4 miles with only one hill. At the top of the first hill, instead of continuing straight, which leads me to the normal routes, I took a left. I took the left with the intent of turning back. I was already walking by the time I reached the top of the hill and hating my hamstrings and my head, in no particular order.

I started running again at some point and was delighted to see that I had picked a cracked, root-lifted, falling apart sidewalk to run on. I am not being sarcastic – when I don’t have my head in the run, I like to be distracted by difficult terrain – whether that be sidewalks filled with people, roads with tons of cars and no sidewalks or crappy terrain - it keeps me entertained and makes the miles go by faster.

I chose an obstacle ridden path. On purpose. For fun. Obstacles are not always a bad thing. They force us to re-negotiate our path, to try harder or to change course completely. Outside of running, I have come up against some serious obstacles in my life recently. All of which I have created myself. These obstacles are the result of deliberate choices I have made which may have been right at the time but which now are obstacles waiting to be conquered…or not.

After my run yesterday I was reading this article about Ganesh. He is the bringer or taker of obstacles. I need Ganesh badly – the taker of obstacles Ganesh, preferably. Though I know that after these current obstacles are conquered or taken away, more will come to be in their place. That is totally okay – obstacles force us to re-evaluate, to make decisions and to grow. I hope Ganesh touches your lives as well, to help you grow where stagnant by putting obstacles in your way and by taking away those obstacles that are no longer necessary.

A Warning (and a weekend)

I just wanted to give you all fair warning that there is a really good chance that Run, Lift, Chant, Breathe will kind of suck this week.  I am going to attempt to post most days, but the week is shaping up to be an 'into work at the crack of dawn, stay till well past dinner' kind of week.  Fingers crossed that that is not the case, as it will mean limited yoga as well as blogging.

This weekend I managed to pack in more activities than I actually thought possible.  Friday night was a quiet night with Bill and I was in bed pretty early, followed by a 5.7 mile, 8:00am run with my sister-in-law Meri.  The run was great due to mild temps, low humidity, good company and walk breaks.  I can feel my legs are getting back into the mileage, which is great.  Its always tough coming back to running after time off.

After our run, I had a breakfast of Muesli and soy milk, hit the shower and headed into work.  Boo.  I only worked for a few hours though, at which time Meri and my nieces, as well as a few friends, met me at the office and we headed over to Indie Arts Fest!  It felt fantastic to hang out, have a few drinks, listen to music and look at art without feeling like I had to rush around.  Generally I find my weekends feel very rushed and it was nice to just chill for a few hours.  I am actually hoping to post some pictures of this event later this week...stay tuned.

Sunday morning I was up and headed to 9am Power Yoga at Revelation.  Oy the wrist.  I ended up getting a brace for it to wear on Saturday and by Sunday it managed to feel worse.  Awesome.  I did a great job of staying off it in yoga though and at the end of class Kim put a bunch of Tiger Balm on it...which seemed to help a lot.  I've actually been Tiger Balming every 3 hours or so since and, though I smell kind of funny, the wrist is definitely feeling better!  I've decided to take a break this week from weight lifting, focus on healing the wrist and upping my running miles.  Adaptability my friends.

Sunday afternoon, still staying mostly off my wrist, I headed to my friend Keli's house (stopping by my Mom's first to say hi and get some fresh eggs from her chickens!) to show her some yoga postures.  I was pretty excited about this - I love sharing yoga with anyone who asks.  We had a great time and I am super psyched that she may be attending some gentle yoga classes with me.  Yay Keli!