Astanga

I had a great moment today: I glanced at my calendar and realised that I was looking forward to every single item on today’s schedule. I realise that it might seem like such a small thing, but it’s not trivial. I don’t take happiness for granted anymore.

I finished off my yoga week with a good, but unremarkable practice. I dutifully tried to roll each Chakrasana, but had no luck until the third one. And it was so sloppy, I just skipped the last. Better luck next week. Seriously though, how hard can rolling backwards be? I obviously missed out on an important childhood skill. I’ll blame the terrain of my youth: too much ocean, too little terra. I’m a good swimmer but gravity confuses me.

My hair is starting to drive me CRAZY. I kind of suspected this would happen. Now that I’m no longer trying to look cute for anyone, there’s no reason to put this much work into it. Tomorrow, I’m going to visit the Grumpy Russian stylist and ask him to cut it all off. He wasn’t happy with the longer cut so he’ll enjoy this. No more Orangutan Hair! And it will be SO much easier to deal with in the morning.

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As an antidote to the nasty-NY-Yoga-Teacher link I posted earlier this week, check out Larry Sherman. He lost 365 pounds after he started regularly attending a yoga class. He credits his yoga teacher for ‘seeing past the fat man, making him feel accepted and loved. This video made me tear up a little bit. Kudos to the teacher, Lisa Paskel, of The Yoga Shelter.

I love happy-yoga-stories! And this one is a good reminder that all kinds of approaches and methodology can resonate with different people. Larry mentions that sanskrit and chanting (something I do a LOT of in my classes) made him uncomfortable; he felt at ease in Lisa’s class because she taught the pose names in English and played rock music. It takes all kinds!

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Some of you may be hearing from me via Facebook. I’ve decided to start using that network again. I’m on there as my ‘real name’, so I’m hard to find through a search. Get in touch with me via email if you’d like to connect (Gmail - I’m the reluctantashtangi).

Astanga

I had a good practice this morning. I felt good, my body isn’t as sore. I was kind of expecting some soreness in my legs because I was doing dropbacks against a post in the subway station yesterday. The train wasn’t coming and I had that end of the platform to myself, so why not? I wasn’t coming all the way down, just dropping my hands back and ‘standing up’ by pushing into my heels. I hope the transit constables don’t cite Ashtangi violations!

Teacher P was at the helm this morning. I really like having two teachers. Their styles and adjustments are very different. Teacher P is more laid back. My practices with him are more inward directed. He’s quick to notice if I’m carrying unnecessary tension in a pose; he reminds me to relax.
-I had a very deep Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana today and my balance was good. I remembered to restrain that wandering thumb!
-I bound my hands by myself in Supta Kurmasana and Teacher P crossed my ankles. I’m really noticing the work of my Bandhas in this pose.
-Teacher P gave me my favourite adjustment in Baddha Konasana A & B. It felt really good. There's something about laying my chest on my feet that makes me stupidly happy.
-Chakrasana was mainly absent today. I tried the first one, gave up. Skipped two and decided to really work the fourth one. Teacher R was on call by that point and she glanced in my direction, but left me to it. On the third try, I was able to find the right combination of momentum, leg placement and push through the hands to make it work. I rolled.
-Through some miracle or fluke, I managed to lift up and jump back without touching the floor with my toes. Just once, but WOW! I think it had something to do with bending my arms a little and shifting my weight forward. I learned this in Kino’s workshop, but this is the first time I was able to put it into practice.

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It sounds a bit crazy even to me, but I think adding the Whey Protein smoothies to my diet has made a huge difference. I swear I felt better after drinking the very first one. The smoothies boost my daily protein consumption to 70g (from 40g). If I’m going to continue working this hard in my practice, I need this. I’ve definitely noticed that don’t get those ‘snacky’ urges anymore and I’m better able to avoid junk food.

I’ve been carrying raw almonds around with me and if I get hungry, a small handful takes care of it.

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Last night, I dreamt of cookies.

I was in a huge room filled with tables and these tables were covered with numerous cookie-filled trays. There were cookies of every conceivable variety: sugar cookies with the coloured sugar sprinkles, shortbread-y cookies with fruit centres, gingerbread cookies, chocolate cookies and some others that I didn’t get a chance to sample.

Yes, I was eating them! The sugar cookies were particularly nice! I was moving from table to table, munching.

And as I was eating these Dream Cookies, a single thought kept intruding: “Whoa, this is SUCH a bad idea. If I keep eating these cookies, I’ll never be able to bind Marichyasana D tomorrow!”

I woke up happy! And I was able to bind in Mari D just fine ;-)

Astanga

I had a better practice today. The Shala was very busy. I imagine there must be cycles for this sort of thing, times of the month when just about everyone shows up, and other times when no one does. It’s kind of interesting to observe the ebb and flow.

Teacher R was in charge for most of my practice. She’s very detail-oriented:
-My elbows are angled too wide when I have my hands on the waist in Prasarita Padottanasana B. I think bringing the elbows together stretches the shoulder and preps the body for Prasarita C.
-Why, why, why does it seem *harder* to hold my big toe in Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana if the thumb is on the big toe? Am I getting more leverage with just the two fingers? Anyway...I need to work on this because I’m STILL doing it.
-Lots of Driste Penalities today! I lost count and I don’t tend to have a wandering gaze at all (mostly because I can’t see much without my glasses). Teacher R has an eagle eye for the flickering eyeball. She doesn’t miss a thing!
-Backbends were tough because my quads still hurt, but I worked hard to root down through my heels.

I managed to bind Supta Kurmasana on my own today, with crossed ankles and everything! Teacher R has a knack for getting me into this pose. Yesterday, she tied me up like a package and helped me lift up. I was able to stay there and exit (very, very sloppily) on my own.

The Battle of Chakrasana continues.... I’ve regressed; I’m back to not being able to do it at all without assistance. I think I need to push up through the arms, but I can never seem to remember to do that when the moment comes. My brain malfunctions when I’m upside down! It forgets to think!

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I was feeling absolutely atrocious all day yesterday. I had a mild headache, fatigue and an overall sense of yuckiness. I struggled through my classes, came home and went to bed early. The extra hour of sleep did help, but this really got me wondering about my diet.

Some of you may remember that a few years ago, I was practising Calorie Restriction Optimal Nutrition (CRON) very seriously. I carefully tracked my diet each day, logging everything I ate in order to ensure that all my nutritional needs were met. I kept my calories levels lower than average, which helped me manage my weight. Although it was sometimes challenging to avoid junk food, I was never ‘in the dark’ about my nutrition and my diet was never better! I felt great when I was on CRON and my weight was ideal.

Then a bunch of things happened: I was very sick, briefly hospitalized (from a super-bug I picked up doing temp work in a hospital) and I was put on bed rest. I also started a relationship right around this time. For a few months, my diet and my yoga practice were put on the back burner. The yoga came back, but the diet kind of stayed in limbo. I made some noise about going back to CRON a few times, but never really followed through. It’s challenging to maintain a strict diet while in a relationship.

Recently, I dusted off COM (the diet tracking software I used to use) and I started logging my foods again. I was surprised to find that my diet isn’t bad overall - that is, when I manage to avoid the junk food! I’ve been a vegetarian since my early 20s. Although I flirted with eating fish for a short time last year (the girlfriend liked salmon), I quickly went back to a vegetarian diet and I’ve stuck with that since.

I’ve made a few changes. I’ve added a green smoothie with Whey Protein Isolate in the evenings to boost my protein level. This is a great solution to the ‘supper problem’, a dilemma I was usually ‘solving’ with Clif Bars. I teach every night so it’s not possible for me to eat a meal (I eat my main meal at lunch). The smoothie works great as a meal-on-the-run and it doesn’t affect my practice the next morning.

I noticed that my teachers add ‘Emergen-C’ packets to their water bottles at the Shala. I purchased a box and I’ve been adding a packet to my post-practice water every day. It has electrolytes and various vitamins.

And one more thing: I’m avoiding sugar. It’s hard. I LOVE SUGAR. But I’m avoiding it. Pray for me.

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Finally, there’s an interesting discussion going on over at Autumn Lotus Yoga, spurred by a question I left in her comments the other day:

How to Get Thrown Out of a Yoga Studio: What would *you* do if you were attending a class that was poorly taught, to the extent that students’ physical limits were ignored and injuries could occur?

There’s much food for thought here, in terms of teaching, Ahimsa and swallowing your bile when you see another teacher instructing students in a way that invites harm.