Five Things Friday
Shopping
Well I finally did it; I broke down and went bra shopping. I knew that it was in my best interest to have someone measure me so I wouldn’t end up spending hours trying on a plethora of sizes but that wasn’t the reason stopping me from going. It was sheer laziness coupled with financial reasons. I loathe bra shopping; I usually end up in the fitting room super sweaty and that makes it even harder to pull those bras on and off comfortably. Ugh! Not to mention bras are expensive and I just didn’t feel like spending the money on full price so I waited until there was a sale. I was lured into Avenue last Sunday by an email sent to me advertising $15 bras. Score! Off to Avenue I went. When I arrived I promptly went to an associate and asked her to measure me for my bra size and man was I surprised at the results. I had been wearing 44DD through 48DD (I had a stockpile of various sizes) and she measured me at a 40DD. I knew the numeric size would have gone down but was surprised the cup size hadn’t as well. For the first time in many, many years I found myself trying on bras with underwire. I think I gave up on underwire bras once I hit DD- too painful. However, now the underwire bras felt comfortable and I liked how I looked in them which was an added bonus. I bought two. I bought only two because the sale was really buy one at full price and get a second one for $15- damn fine print. So I took two and figured I would just keep my eyes peeled for future sales where I can go back and get more.
Sound Journey
After bra shopping I jetted over to the Synergy Studio for their monthly Sound Journey session. I had never attended this class before and with hockey season starting next week I thought it might be my last opportunity for awhile to go. Sound Journey is put on by Jodi Roberts and how it works is you lie on the floor, you are encouraged to bring mats, blankets, pillows, anything you would want to be comfortable, and relax while she plays Tibetan bowls and gongs. As per the usual, it is easier for me to copy the description from the Synergy website rather than try to explain it on my own:
“De-stress! Breathe! Relax!
Experience a sound journey: a guided journey using Chinese and Paiste gongs, and Tibetan bowls as the doorway into an experience of deep relaxation, de-stressing and healthy transformation. The music enables the brain to enter the theta state where all beliefs and patterns can be recognized and changed. Your body receives a sound massage for deep relaxation. Combined with your personal intentions the music and journey balance and enhance your body, mind and spirit.”
Deep relaxation is an understatement. I would say my experience was more like being in a coma. I have never been in such a deeply relaxed meditative state. It was amazing. Before Jodi started she told us we might be able to feel the effects of it for days and I certainly did. The next session at Synergy is on October 30th but she is also having a session on October 15th in the Cave Without a Name in Boerne, TX. I have heard amazing things about this cave and hope to check it out someday soon. If you want to learn more about Jodi Roberts, Tibetan bowls, or gongs check out her website: Sacred Inspiration She even has CDs for purchase on her site. It’s really some pretty cool stuff.
Smoothies
For the past week I have been drinking a smoothie for breakfast and it has been a great switch. A friend asked me to share the recipe so I thought I would include it in today’s post. @SensitivePantry posted this recipe on Twitter; I can’t take any credit for it. FYI- this recipe is both gluten free and vegan.
Chocolate Smoothie
1 cup coconut water
3 Tablespoons quinoa flakes
½ a banana
½ cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 scoop Amazing Grass chocolate green superfood
Small handful of ice
Blend ingredients until smooth. 1 serving.
Coconut water is a great hydrator; it has lots of natural electrolytes and is high in potassium. The chocolate flavored green superfood is filled with all sorts of goodies; wheat grass, alfalfa, spirulina, acai, carrots, beets, flax seed powder, probiotics, the list goes on and on. It really is a super food. This supplement is supposed to help detoxify and boost your immune system, increase energy and support healthy cholesterol levels. I can’t say whether or not it can do all it claims but I do know I feel fantastic after I drink it. Paul loves it too. This smoothie is super filling and energizing. We have even added a tablespoon of peanut butter for some additional protein and that tasted good too.
Let me say this, it is not a cheap smoothie. Yes, it is still cheaper than going to a smoothie place like Jamba Juice every day but it is probably more expensive that the normal smoothies made at home. However, it is a lot more nutritious than any other smoothie I have ever had. If this recipe interests you but you don’t want to spend so much money or don’t have/want to use all of those ingredients I would say keep the chocolate green superfood, add whatever fruit you like/have, use water instead of coconut water, omit the quinoa flakes or sub in some steel cut oats. You could even add in some yogurt. Note that the changes may make it not vegan or gluten free anymore though.
Sports
Rampage Pre-Season
Do you know what Saturday is? The first day of October- can you believe it? It’s also the first San Antonio Rampage home pre-season game. Next Saturday is the home opener for the regular season. Yes! Hockey is finally back! For those of you who don’t know; the San Antonio Rampage are an AHL team that are affiliated with an NHL team. It’s like the equivalent of a minor league baseball team in the way players move back and forth between the AHL and NHL. Last year the Rampage were the Phoenix Coyotes affiliate which means players would get called up to play for Phoenix or move from Phoenix down to San Antonio based on their performance. This year, however, the Rampage are now the Florida Panthers affiliate team. The contract between the Rampage and the Coyotes expired this past summer and for whatever reason the Coyotes did not choose to renew it. There were also other AHL/NHL affiliation contracts that expired as well so there were multiple teams up for grabs. This is a weird sports phenomenon I had no prior knowledge of existing. What does that mean for me as a fan? It means we have a completely new team. You see hockey players, just like baseball players, are drafted by the NHL team and that team evaluates the players and decide who to place in the AHL or NHL. This means when we lost our affiliation with the Coyotes we lost all of their AHL players as well. So, for this season we have an all new team with all new players. Well, actually two players off the Rampage roster from last season, Nolan Yonkman and Bracken Kearns, were free agents and were picked up by the Panthers so there will be two familiar faces to cheer for tomorrow. I will admit, I was very sad to learn that having a new affiliation meant we would have a whole new team. I had grown accustomed to the players we already had. I even met most of them at different season ticket holder events and they were all very nice. Even though it will be weird to see a whole new group of faces tomorrow it will be a fun season and I am ready to cheer them on. Go Rampage!
Phillies Post Season
Tomorrow is also game 1 of the NLDS which has my favorite team the Philadelphia Phillies facing off against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Phillies have had a great year, they set a franchise record with 102 wins and Charlie Manuel became the Phillies manager with the most wins under his belt with 646. Every media outlet I turn to is predicting the Phils to win the World Series (ha, ha MS- not your stinky Yankees) even in Vegas the odds are favoring the Phillies. That’s all fine and dandy except for one thing- the team everyone thinks will win seldom does. All this talk about another ring for the Phillies is doing nothing but making me nervous. Ugh! My concern right now is not the World Series, it is the NLDS. Hello Phillies fans- the Cards beat us six times this season and we only beat them three times. So for me I am just hoping to get out of the NLDS alive. This time of year is always crazy- the end of baseball, the beginning of hockey, college football on Saturday and NFL on Sunday- what’s a girl to do? Lol!
Are you a sports fan? Who are you cheering for? What games are you looking forward to this year?
Thanks for reading!
If My Life Had a Soundtrack…
If my life had a soundtrack this would be my theme song for the day.
Don’t you think that life would be so much better if there was some way for us to have music, our soundtrack, playing all the time? Even if it wasn’t our theme music but just music in general playing wouldn’t that be great? I know I love it when I am out somewhere and randomly hear some music playing it instantly makes me happy and makes my body want to move. One night MS and I were walking along the river and we passed by the VFW that was having an outdoor event with live music. All of the sudden we could hear them playing ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and we started dancing and punching the air a la Rocky, laughing and having a great time. That was pretty much how I wish life was every day!
What song is moving you today?
Thanks for reading!
My A to Z
I saw this on Ginger Couturier’s blog the other day and knew I wanted to do this for my blog as well. If you are reading Ginger I found the missing ‘T’! I love how you can Google anything and find an answer J
A. Age: 33
B. Bed Size: King
C. Chore that you hate: Picking up dog poo
D. Dogs: Yes, Maggie the yellow lab and Ruby the Boston Terrier-French Bulldog mix
E. Essential to start your day: green tea during the week coffee on the weekends
F. Favorite Color: Red
G. Gold or Silver: silver
H. Height: 5’5” ish
I. Instruments you play: I used to, and think I still could, play the flute
J. Job Title: Supply Chain Analyst
K. Kids: none
L. Live: Texas
M. Mother’s name: Beverly
N. Nicknames: Night Crawler J
O. Overnight hospital stays: a few
P. Pet peeves: people chewing with their mouth open, yuck
Q. Quote from a movie: “Buon giorno principessa”
R. Right or left handed: Right although I was born left handed. I broke my left wrist when I was 3 or 4 and the doctor told my mom to use it as an opportunity to teach me how to write right-handed because it is a predominantly right-handed world so I should become right-handed. Isn’t that weird?
S. Siblings: none. Paul doesn’t have any either.
T. Time you wake up: 5am, snooze until 520am.
U. Underwear: um, yes? Not sure what this is asking.
V. Vegetable you hate: I think it is the only one I don’t eat- lima beans
W. What makes you run late: it used to be not being able to find something to wear (or feeling comfortable in what I was wearing) but now it is usually because I get sidetracked talking to Paul
X. X-Rays you’ve had: numerous, not sure how many. Probably dozens- I’m clumsy
Y. Yummy food that you make: Best thing I ever made was a chocolate souffle
Z. Zoo animal: favorite is probably the koala bear or the polar bear but I love them all. Kind of wish I had my own personal zoo.
I hope you enjoyed reading through my answers. If you do this on your blog please leave the link in my comments so I can read your answers.
Thanks for reading!
Because I Am Fat
Last Saturday I attended the fourth session of my yoga seminar at the Synergy Studio. The way the seminar works is we have two instructors each week, each teaching for two weeks, but one rotates out every week. So we end up having one new teacher and one ‘old’ teacher every week, if that makes sense. For the previous three weeks we had been instructed to set up our mats in a circle and so on week four we came in and did the same thing. I set up my map between the two Susans, one whom I have been with since the first class, which has been a great spot since we all try to keep each other motivated and encouraged throughout the class. Then our new instructor arrived and told us she doesn’t want us in a circle, she wanted us in two straight lines, facing each other from across the room. This way the other instructor, the one who had been with us the previous week, could focus on the students who needed extra attention; the students sitting on the left side of the room. Then she turned to me and asked me to move to the other side of the room for ‘health reasons’ so they could keep an eye on me. That’s what she said to me, out loud in front of the entire class. This woman who has never seen me before and knows nothing of my ability level calls me out for ‘health reasons’ and sends me to the opposite side of the room. And then we begin. Yep, I was the only person asked to move. It was embarrassing.
Not only was it embarrassing it was infuriating. This lady came into the room and clearly picked me out because of my weight. I was being judged as unhealthy or incapable because of my size. That really pissed me off. How dare her. For the first thirty minutes of class I quietly went through the motions while inside my head was a raging storm of anger and resentment. I would show her. Look at me and my perfect camel pose. Look at me; I can do the bridge pose too. Look at me, the fat girl doing yoga and not needing any extra help. Suck on that skinny yoga lady…that’s what I was saying in my head.
Then it dawned on me, maybe she was right. I do not think singling me out in front of the whole class was the right thing to, that’s just embarrassing and was unnecessary, but moving me because of my weight, because I might have needed extra attention, that was probably the right thing to do. Why? Because I am the heaviest person in that class. Yes, I have lost almost 70 pounds (216.8 this morning, woot!) and yes, I workout everyday and do yoga 2-3 times a week but she didn’t know that. She didn’t know anything about me. She was being cautious and yes it sucks being judged or stereotyped because of my weight but I think she was looking out for my safety. At least that is what I hope was going on.
Here’s the reality, my reality at least, after 70 pounds weight loss I am still the fattest person, or at least one of the fattest people, in every class I take. After 70 pounds lost I am still obese and still at an unhealthy BMI and body fat percentage. After 70 pounds lost I am still being judged by strangers because of how I look. So what do I do? Do I say oh, well and think of this as a failure. Do I let the self-pity wash over me and go eat my feelings? Or do I say eff it and just stop caring what people think? I am going to have to go with the latter. Why? Because who cares? This is my journey and my life, no one else’s. Why should it matter if I am the fattest person in the room or if people stereotype me because I am fat? It shouldn’t and it should never stop me from doing the things I love, like yoga. I am doing this for me and no one else. Life gets so much easier when you stop comparing yourself to others or caring about what people think of your physical attributes and that is something I need to remember every day. I am happy with me, I love the changes I have made and the good habits I have formed, I enjoy being active and becoming fit nothing else should matter.
So here I am world. 216.8 pounds. Still obese. Still active. Doing this for me. Secretly hoping to prove yoga teachers everywhere wrong 😉
Thanks for reading!
{Semi} Wordless Wednesday: My Wolfpack
I realized today that I really take alot of photos of my dogs. Probably because I think they are cute as hell and I love them to death. It’s been easy to make it through the long stretches Paul and I are apart because of their companionship. Dogs rule!
They make funny faces when they close their eyes!
Maggie’s favorite spot is lying in the yard usually chewing on sticks or playing fetch
Ruby’s favorite spot is on Paul’s WHITE bath mat 🙂
Me and Ruby after our Sunday morning walk/jog on the river
Thanks for reading!
Shrinkvivor – Week One
Today begins Week One of the Shrinkvivor competition. This morning as I sat at the table drinking my smoothie I saw a blog post pop up from Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans (host of the contest) telling me it was time to submit my starting weight for the challenge. I had already hopped on the scale, and had Paul photograph it, bright (or I should say dark since it was 5am) and early so I quickly ran off to the computer and logged in my info. Yes! Step one finished! This morning I weighed in at 217.2 pounds, same as yesterday, and I couldn’t be happier! Please note that you can see my frog tattoo on my foot- that is a great way for me to prove that it is me on the scale and not someone else. Yay for verifiability!
Next we were asked to blog about our results and then link our posts. Unfortunately, wordpress does not allow the javascript code for the blog hop so I am going to do my best to link up but I am not sure it will work. Ugh, the downfalls of the tech unsavy. We’ll see what happens. Here are two links to try. Let me know if this works 🙂
In the post they also told us what our weekly physical challenge would be and for this week it is tracking our exercise minutes. Since this is week one and I don’t have much to talk about that you haven’t already heard in previous posts I thought I would share with you my planned activities for the week so I can see an estimate of my exercise minutes. I am not sure if the week starts today and ends next Tuesday but that is my assumption.
Wednesday:
Yoga 12p-1p – 60 minutes
Combo Class (1/2 boxing, ½ boot camp) 5p-555p – 55 minutes
Kickboxing Class 6p-655p, technically 55 minutes but when we do back to back we don’t have to do the first ten minutes of jump rope – 45 minutes
160 minutes
Thursday:
Nia 530-630p – 60 minutes
Qigong 645-8p – 75 minutes
135 minutes
Friday:
Nia 530-630p – 60 minutes
60 minutes
*I wanted to note here that this weekend we are learning a new Nia routine, Cadence, so in Friday and Saturday’s class we will dance the routine. Then on Sunday there is a 1 hour workshop where we will have a more in depth learning and review of the routine followed by another class where we will dance it again. I just wanted to point this out because four hours of Nia in one weekend is not typical.
Saturday:
Nia 930-1030a – 60 minutes
Yoga Seminar 11a-1p – 120 minutes
180 miuntes
Sunday:
Journey Dance 10-1115a – 75 minutes
Nia Workshop 3-4p – 60 minutes
Nia 4-5p – 60 minutes
Kundalini Yoga 7-815p – 75 minutes
270 minutes
Monday:
Yoga 12p-1p – 60 minutes
Combo Class (1/2 boxing, ½ boot camp) 5p-555p – 55 minutes
Kickboxing Class 6p-655p, technically 55 minutes but when we do back to back we don’t have to do the first ten minutes of jump rope – 45 minutes
160 minutes
Tuesday:
Pilates 430-530p – 60 minutes
Nia 530-630p – 60 minutes
120 minutes
Total Estimated Minutes: 1085 minutes
Now let’s see if I can stick to the plan and survive it! 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Weight Watchers Update – Week 27
So today I had my Weight Watchers meeting which of course meant I also had my weekly weigh in. Did I tell you that our last WW leader quit after three weeks? She basically left us to go be a leader at another at work location that had 80 people instead of our group of 17. That was kind of a crappy thing to do especially since she was brand new. The leader before her moved to Houston so she was her replacement. Then two weeks ago we find out that she isn’t coming back and that we may have to move (or cancel) our session because WW couldn’t find another group leader to come take over for her. Luckily, they found us a replacement and boy was I happy when I found out who it was. It was Sally, my group leader from my Saturday meetings. I love her. She is a great leader and motivator and I really missed going to her meetings. It is nice to be able to see her again and she was actually very happy to see me. She mentioned both this week and last that having me, someone she already knew, in her groups makes her feel more comfortable. I thought that was pretty cool. Isn’t it funny how things work out some times?
Well, today was a pretty crazy day for me. I woke up this morning and weighed myself- 217.2 pounds! I was ecstatic because this meant I had reached and passed the halfway point on my journey to getting to a healthy weight. I started off at 286 and am hoping to get to 150 (the top of my healthy weight range) which makes 218 is the halfway point. Score! It only took 7 months and 5 days for me to get there. Amazing! Another thing I was excited about was my WW weigh in later in the day because I knew I had lost some substantial weight over the past week. I couldn’t gauge what number I would see on the scale at my WW meeting (having had breakfast/snacks/water, weighing in midday) but I was pretty confident it would be a loss. Man was it ever. I lost 7 pounds this week! At my meeting I weighed in at 219.4 pounds, a whopping 7 pound drop from last week. That’s just crazy. That is a baby-sized amount of weight. I lost a freaking baby! I can’t get over it. LOL! Even better, I am now only 0.8 pounds from reaching my at work goal which will get me 50% reimbursement at the end of the 17 week session. Sweet!
Now I know what you are thinking; 7 pounds is too much, it’s not healthy, she must be starving herself, or something along those lines. I agree, 7 pounds is too much to lose in one week but I feel like really this is more like two weeks weight loss being reflected in one. First of all, last week when I weighed in it was my time of the month. I was bloated and that definitely affected my weight last week. Once the bloating was gone I noticed a significant drop in the pounds. Another factor is that I changed up what I was eating when I noticed I was becoming constipated and knew that what I was eating was affecting that. Once I changed my diet I became more regular and that helped a lot too. Yes, I am basically saying I was full of crap and that I pooped a lot this week. I know its TMI but if I am going to be honest with you and tell you what changed, what caused a 7 pound loss; those two reasons would be why. And no, I don’t expect to see a 7 pound loss next week or even ever again but I am happy for making good changes that helped push me through a rough patch.
Tomorrow is our first official weigh in for Shrinkvivor. I will be getting up at 4:45am with Paul so he can photograph the scale. I need to document my weekly weights for the contest and although it means getting up a half hour earlier I am ok with it. Tomorrow is my first at work lunchtime yoga class so I need to get to work a half hour earlier anyhow so really it works out perfectly. I am excited for the class and for this contest. I love that I am putting myself out there and trying new things. Old Dacia would have been too ashamed of that number on the scale to ever have participated in a weight loss contest. New Dacia knows she is so much more than that number on the scale and I hope you do too! That is the most important thing I have learned on this journey; don’t let that number define who you are or determine your worth!
Thanks for reading!
I’m a Shrinkvivor!
Yesterday, by chance, I registered to participate in the Shrinkvivor contest hosted by Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans. I had been noticing on Twitter the hashtag Shrinkvivor popping up in tweets but kept forgetting to ask about what it was. Then yesterday I saw a tweet announcing the registration deadline had been extended from Wednesday to Thursday at 12p. It was like an hour from the deadline so I clicked on the link, read a brief description of what the contest entailed and quickly registered. If I would have learned about it earlier I would have shared the info with you in case you wanted to participate. From reading the contest FAQ’s it appears that from now until November 12th there will be two main things factoring into our standings; weight loss and fitness challenges. There are actually a lot of details to this contest so if you want to learn more about it you can go HERE or HERE . Or you can just wait for me to post about it on my blog as each week passes 😉 The fun thing about this contest is that there is an ‘Exile Island’ like on the show Survivor and if you get voted off from your tribe that is where you go. The ending member of Exile Island with the largest percentage of weight loss wins a prize. So, even if I get booted from my tribe I am still participating in the challenge, just in a different manner. If, and I mean a big IF, I am lucky enough to make it through to the final seven without ending up on Exile Island then it will come down to a vote with the winner to be announced on November 17th, which just happens to be Paul’s birthday. Maybe it’s a sign.
This whole competition thing is pretty exciting. I have never done anything like this before. It seems like it will be a whole lot of fun. There are 144 people participating and they have us broken down into 20 teams. I am on the gray team. There are three other people I know who are also participating and I am thankful not to have been put on a team with them. We are required to vote people off of our team and I would prefer to never have to vote for someone I am friends with; it just wouldn’t feel right. Thankfully I don’t have to worry about that. For now I am just going to stay focused on my weight loss and exercise and hopefully I will do well enough to stay in the game for awhile. I am excited for my first weigh in next Wednesday. I hope you will follow along with my progress; it’s bound to be as exciting and entertaining as watching Survivor! Go Team Gray!
Thanks for reading!
What Will You Choose?
I hope this song makes you dance. I heard it this morning on my ride into work and of course couldn’t help but dance in my car. I think it’s a great song to lead us into the weekend and hopefully you choose to make today an amazing day! Love you guys!
Thanks for reading!
Three Things Thursday: TV, T-Shirts and Thai Yoga
TV Shows
Well fall is finally here and with that comes football, hockey and new TV shows. This comes at a time when I have finally adjusted to my scaled back TV viewing and now I am getting hit with hundreds of new shows I want to watch. What is a girl to do??? I need to make sure I am keeping my priorities in check and continue on with my evening workouts. Nothing, not even prime TV viewing, is worth me sacrificing my health. With that being said, yes I will watch TV at night, I will watch Sunday football and I will go to as many Rampage home games I can squeeze into my busy schedule. I just have to work at achieving the right balance.
So far I have this week I have watched the Biggest Loser and the New Girl. I also watched Raising Hope twice but fell asleep halfway through both times. The Biggest Loser premier had me bawling like a baby almost the whole time. I have seen a lot of discussions on Twitter about BL and it seems people either find it inspirational or prefer not to watch because it is unrealistic. I agree with both sides but I still watch. Yes, it is unrealistic for me to think I will ever step onto a scale at my WW meeting having lost 16 pounds, 22 pounds, 35 pounds, in one week. That is how much some of the contestants lost in their first week. But I am also not living on a ranch with personal trainers working out 8 hours a day. So for me, I know better than to expect to lose 5% of my body weight in a week. I like to watch BL to see people push themselves and fight every day to save their life. It was scary enough for me to put my story in a blog and show the world my weight, insecurities, doubts – I cannot imagine how hard it must be to do that on national TV. Those people pushed through that fear and that in itself is inspiring.
During the premier of BL I was tweeting with some friends who were also watching the show. We were discussing how we used to watch the BL while eating junk food. Yes, I see the irony in an obese person watching a weight loss program while mindlessly eating an entire bag of chips. That was me during season 10. Season 11, which aired last spring, helped to inspire me to get me off the couch and into the gym. Over the course of season 11 I lost 26 pounds. On Tuesday I sat and watched the BL season 12 premier and found myself snacking again. Of course, this time I had just come home from back to back classes, Pilates and Nia, and was hungry. The big differences between now and a year ago are; I chose healthier snacks (apple and ½ serving of low fat cheese crackers) and I was eating because I was hungry not because I was bored. Wow! That’s a big change for me and its habits like these that make me feel like a completely different person.
Sorry, I kind of went off on a tangent there. The purpose of this segment was to talk about some new shows, which I kind of did, but somehow I made it all about me. Ooops. I do want to mention that I watched the new comedy The New Girl starring Zooey Deschanel (LOVE her!) on Tuesday and it was fantabulous. I laughed through the whole show. It is definitely going to be one of the shows I will continue to watch regularly. I am so happy there is a show out there that makes me feel like my behavior, making up songs at random, is completely acceptable. If you haven’t seen it you really should stop what you are doing right now and go watch it. If you don’t fall in love with her character then I am guessing you were born without a heart 😉
T-Shirts
As you know, Paul and I went to Austin City Limits Festival this past weekend. On the drive up there I had asked on Twitter whether or not I should buy a t-shirt in my current size or smaller. Everyone said smaller. Paul and I decided we would buy them in his size so that way we can both wear them. Paul wears a men’s medium but when it comes to 100% cotton shirts he will buy men’s large. So, that is what we did, we bought two men’s large t-shirts. I just started wearing men’s extra-large shirts so it will be awhile before I can fit in them but when I do I will be so freaking happy. This is the first time I knowingly purchased something in a smaller size. I am thinking I might hang my Arcade Fire shirt somewhere I will see daily as motivation to keep moving. I can’t wait for the day that I can wear it and trust me there will be photos and posts dedicated to this shirt! Do you have an article of clothing you keep around for inspiration?
ACL Shirt
Arcade Fire Shirt
Not a shirt but equally cool; autographs from all members of AWOLNATION
Thai Yoga and Ecstatic Dance
This past week I tried out two new activities; Ecstatic Dance and Thai Yoga and really enjoyed them both. Friday night was ecstatic dance and I was nervous that two hours of dancing might be too much for me to handle. It turned out that I had nothing to worry about because we only ended up dancing for 70 minutes. The first half hour was spent just kind of hanging out; some of us were stretching, some people talking, others just bopping around. Then we had a brief discussion explaining ecstatic dance and how it would work, we danced for 70 minutes, and then wrapped up the class with a feedback discussion. For me, I would have liked to have had a longer time dancing, even if it was only 20 minutes longer, and I also thought that the music could have been more upbeat. Not every song but a majority should have been a little more fast-paced. I think that would have made for a perfect evening. Would I do it again? Yes, because I enjoy free dance and although I think this class could use a little tweaking it is still a lot of fun and I felt great afterwards.
Yesterday I went over to Tricia’s house for my first Thai Yoga therapy session and oh my word it was fantastic. Thai Yoga is like a cross between yoga and a massage. Basically I just laid there and she moved me around into different positions and used her body (hands, feet, whatever) to stretch out my body. When I went in I felt pretty relaxed, no tension or soreness, or at least that’s what I thought. Man I had no idea what it felt like having an actual relaxed body. I think we just grow accustomed to feeling tight and tense that it seems normal. I have never, honestly never, felt as relaxed and calm as I did after our session yesterday. Afterwards Tricia told me to drink lots of water, take a bath with Epsom salts, and that last night I would sleep like a baby and I did. I signed up for sessions on October 5th and 19th and cannot wait to go back. I want to bring Paul to see her once he is cleared from the doctor from his broken rib. I know he would love it. The great thing about Tricia is that she does these sessions based off of donations so that people who need it can afford it. She works with clients who suffer from chronic pain and her sessions are the only thing that brings them relief. For me, I wanted to try it because I know it will help heel my body from the stress of a newly active lifestyle coupled with years of neglect. I can already tell it has helped. Thai Yoga, more specifically Tricia, is amazing and I highly recommend you try it.
I know I mentioned in my post the other day that I earned my first 7 Day Chip but I just received this yesterday and wanted to share it with you. My 7 Day Chip
Thanks for reading!
thirtyfourandfabulous 