Astanga

Wow, it's a slllllooooow day in the Cybershala. I guess everyone in the States is stuffing themselves silly, hopefully on Tofurkey, but I know better. Poor turkeys! It's an ordinary day here in Canuckistan: practice, work, eat, nap, work.

My noon class cancelled, so I slept in then endured a really mediocre practice. My shoulder is feeling better, so jump back/throughs were do-able, but I bailed out of headstand early because my hands kept slipping apart. back bending felt stiff and difficult.

I'm still on my re-organisation kick. I bought two bins for storage. Princess Fur's toys will fill one and the other will be home to 'active knitting projects', though I use the word 'active' very loosely here.

I was knitting up a storm last year, then I got derailed by the heel of a sock. That heel has become the 'standing-up-from-a-backbend' of my knitting life. I can't seem to get past it. It's the gatekeeper pose to the Rest of the Sock. It's driving me nuts. One of my goals for December is to pay a visit the Knitting Lady at my favourite shop and beg for help.

If I could finish that damned sock AND stand up from Urdhva Dhanurasana in December, I wouldn't need anything for Christmas. Santa, are you listening?

Yesterday, I mentioned that I've finally adjusted to Intermediate Series. Not only are the poses feeling easier, but my nervous system seems to have settled down (no more insomnia, except occasionally on the Full Moon) and I'm no longer eating everything in sight. This is a relief, because my diet has been terrible during the transition. In the past couple weeks, I've been trying to reduce caloric intake and clean up my diet a bit.

Today, I purchased a stainless steel, leak-proof container to carry my supper in. Such a small thing, but it will make a huge difference. Because I teach most evenings, I eat on-the-go, usually between classes or on the subway. I used to forgo supper, thinking that I shouldn't be teaching with a full stomach, but I was eating anyway. I was just picking up vegan cookies instead. Might as well eat healthy!

I've also ended my dysfunctional relationship with 'energy bars'. Let's speak plainly: these are chocolate bars with some vitamins in the ingredients list. I jettisoned those cold turkey last week and I've returned to an entirely whole foods diet, no sugar during the week (I cut myself some slack on Saturdays).

Eek. Agave syrup is my BEST friend. I never thought I'd say that.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Vinyasa

This morning was a bit 'hair of the dog'. I stumbled out of bed, directly to the floor and did a series of cat/dog tilts, downward dog, a few Chaturangas and Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, more cat/dog tilts and Balasana. Then I got up.

I know, know! Yesterday, I was all “I'm not sore! I'm not tired!” Today? I'm owning it: Sore and tired. Ouch and yawn. I've almost doubled my class load from this time last year, so it makes sense. Even daily yoga practice can't ward off the exhaustion of teaching 11 classes over the course of 3 days.

Today is a day off, but by next week, I'll be teaching on Fridays too. I'll be teaching 6 days a week. On the bright side, my financial situation is about to get a lot better and that's *good* news.

I love days like this. The rain started around noon, just after the dog and I returned from our walk. I've been sitting by the window, sipping tea, knitting, and goofing around way too much on the computer, but I'm allowed. :-)

I did about a half-hour of yoga, with an easy 25 minute flowing sequence I found on YogaDownload (Moon Salutations #1 with Lisa). I specifically looked for something labelled 'beginner'. It was exactly what I needed: flowing movement with lots of hip opening. I spent 5 minutes in Savasana at the end, then did my meditation.

My meditation practice is going well. I've meditated daily for the past 21 days. Some days, I feel like it's making a great impact on my life, others it just feels like more thing to check off the to-do list. But I've noticed a few odd coincidences that I can't explain away.

For example (I've mentioned this in a previous entry) I'm losing weight. Last week the girlfriend mentioned that I looked slimmer and I didn't believe her, but then I noticed it too. It's significant. I haven't weighed myself lately, but clothes don't lie: my pants are fitting again.

I've *have* been trying to choose healthier foods, but I've been doing *that* all summer with no success. The odd thing is, I haven't increased my exercise routine in any drastic way. In fact, I'm practising less (though teaching more) and I've cut my daily walks down to 20 minutes from an hour. My diet, on the whole, has generally been healthy - at least, the stuff I eat at home is. I have an insatiable sweet-tooth though - that's my major Food Issue. When I'm out and about, I have a tendency to buy treats.

But recently, I haven't been buying treats. It's not like I suddenly developed amazing self-control out of the blue, I'm just not hungry for treats. I'm *am* hungry, but I'm channeling that hunger into meals and healthy stuff instead of cookies and brownies and rice krispie squares. I could still buy that stuff if I wanted (and I still do on occasion), but I'm not doing it as often. I didn't make a conscious decision to lay off the sweet stuff, it just sort of happened.

Here's the reason I'm going on and on about this: I checked my receipts and the purchase of 'treats' dropped off right after I started meditating again. I've been meditating daily for 21 days and coincidentally, I've lost weight during that 21 days. I'm going to stop short of saying “Meditation made me lose weight” but this has certainly given me a pause. It appears that meditation has diminished my cravings for sugar and fat and all of those 'treats' that were so irresistible.

I'll keep you updated.

Second coincidence: I've recently started back into knitting in a big way. I spontaneously looked for a knitting class because I wanted to learn to knit a toque (that's Canadian for 'hat'). I've been knitting daily since then. I checked my journals. The last two times I've developed an interest in knitting both correspond with meditation practice. Freaky!!!

So there you have it, if my experience is any indication, meditating makes you lose weight and create woolen garments. Be warned!

Restorative

Ug. I felt scattered and agitated all day, then my Lady's Holiday hit like a hurricane. I didn't do my practice in the morning. No reason - just didn't feel like it. I waited and waited and waited and finally unrolled the mat a few minutes before bed. I did about 20 minutes of restorative yoga. That's all I had in me. I meditated for 5 minutes and was asleep shortly after.

On the bright side, I clipped the dog (she looks like a show dog again).

And I finished the hat! I knit all the decreases I could, but I had to wait until my knitting class in the evening to finish (I didn't yet have my double-pointed needles and even if I had, I wouldn't have known what to do with them). I was at the class for less than an hour. Me and another woman both finished our hats early. The instructor gave us Girl Guide Cookies when we finished.

Before I left, I bought some more of that soft, wonderful wool, this time in a periwinkle blue colour. I'm going to start a second hat soon!

Vinyasa

Today, I did Power Vinyasa Flow #1 with Dawnelle, the 45 minute version. With this class, I really noticed the spots where they 'cut' things out to make the session shorter. The Prasaritas with tripod headstand were gone, but there was still a cue for Prasarita (which then led to a Toppling Tree pose). Back and forth and back and forth. Not a big deal, but a bit confusing.

So, no inversions in this sequence, which is fine because my Lady's is imminent. I noticed that the intensity wasn't necessarily higher in this shorter version (as I've noticed it being in other 'short' versions of these YogaDownload classes). All in all, it was good. I think the 60 minute version of this class may be my favourite so far. 'Advanced Intermediate' level seems to be working for me.

My entire day was just slightly bizarre. Gmail was down in the morning, which means I couldn't check to see if I had a noon class (and the students who were emailing to ask about that noon class were not getting any answers). Gmail eventually rose from the ashes and there *was* a noon class.

My afternoon youth class almost always runs (and full too, lately I've had upwards of 16 children in that one). But only one person showed up for my evening class in the park. I had to cancel it. I guess it's too cold (to be honest, it really *was* too cold). That's it for outdoor classes. I'm putting the early Saturday morning class on hiatus until we can move indoors.

This knitting project I'm working on is making me crazy. I had to rip out several rows twice in the morning, only to mess the whole thing up again in the afternoon and then discover I was doing it wrong in the evening. Rip, rip, rip. At least I'm getting good at backtracking. It's all one step forward, two steps back. Someday, I'll have a hat. Someday.

Hatha

Today was an odd day. I had the day off from teaching and thank goodness I did because I was feeling a bit under the weather. I'm not sure if this means I'm actually sick though - I often get these 'low energy phases' in the fall and winter. And yes, it could also be the New Moon, though I don't really pay attention to those things.

In the morning, I slept in, took the dog for a long walk down at the university (I let her run around off-leash, she was in *heaven*), then came home feeling thoroughly exhausted. I laid down, thinking I would rest for a bit and fell into a deep sleep. I woke over three hours later. Bizarre.

Still didn't feel much like practising, so I caught up on some work. I was reviewing a list of goals I had set for the year and noticed that 'knit a hat' was on that list. Since fall is nearly here (and boy, it felt like it today!), I wondered if courses might be starting. Googling proved me right - a 'knit a hat' course was starting up, in fact, this very evening. I very spontaneously decided to give it a go, quickly washed up, jumped on my bike and rode down the knitting shop.

Gosh, what fun! I do know how to knit scarves, but hats always seemed out of reach because of the decreasing thing. It's much easier than I thought and like all classes, I received some good tips and the teacher corrected a few of my bad habits (apparently, I've been knitting wrong for years!).

I finally did my practice in the evening. I did a 45 minute free-form Hatha practice. It's fun to do this every so often - just start practising and see where the flow takes you. I always start out thinking I'll be on the mat for 10 minutes and stay for much longer. No pranayama today. Meditation finally happened right before bed.