Days 215-221…yogafit level 4 and getting cleared to run again!

Do I always start off my posts with pictures of the dogs?  ….yes, yes, I do…

Nothing beats sunny days and puppy kisses!

And cute puppy naps!

I am SO excited to run our yoga mala 108 sun salutations event tomorrow!  We are going to bring in the spring and hopefully get the warm weather back since we had a freak snow storm Monday night!

I made a quick whole foods stop on my way home before yoga Wednesday night…needed to buy lots of yummy food to prepare me for my 4-day YogaFit Level 4 training in Boston!!!

Day 1:

A beautiful view from our conference room…

Love me some free shirts:)

The training was at the Boston Hyatt Harborside and the views were amazing!

I really really enjoyed learning basic Sanskrit for the pose names.  I forgot how much I LOVE and excel at learning languages.  I would really love to learn even more Sanskrit and am once again dedicated to relearning Spanish and at least one other language in my life.  I am having so much fun going over the pose names in my head and learning the unique pronounciations.  I am excited to bring some of them to my classes as well!

My dog sitter sent me this funny series of photos that totally sum up the pups…

Chloe’s stick…

Jack’s stick…

I got home from the 2 hour drive around 830, made lunch for the next day, then slept and woke up once more at 5am to beat the traffic and get there by 7…

Another lovely day!

Delving into the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras…LOVE love love the yoga philosophy part of teacher training.  I have always been drawn to sutra 1:33, “MAITRI KARUNA MUDITOPEKSANAM SUKHA DUHKHA PUNYAPUNYA VISAYANAM BHAVANATAS CITTA PRASADANAM.
By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.”  Now that I can pronounce the Sanskrit, I am really considering getting the script for this as a tattoo…I feel like it is such an important lesson to remember every day…

I absolutely loved the vinyasa classes each day!  Day two was the day of backbends…my specialty!!!  I may not be able to do handstands or headstands or crazy hip openers, but give me a chance to drop from standing into wheel or flip a downward dog to wild thing and I’m there!

Day three brought another 5am wakeup, and I made it to the 7am bonus class!  Day 3 also brought the need for some extra caffeine…

I’ve had these malas hanging up in my room for I dont know how many years…I dont even remember where I got them from!  Sadly they are somehow missing one bead, so they are a 107 mala!  Oh well, I still think they are pretty and I love the mysterious aspect that I have no idea where they came from!

Watching the sailboats on the harbor took up my afternoon…

More Sanskrit!  So much fun!

During break we took a little walk on the water…so gorgeous out, even though it was pretty cold…

I have a problem with taking too many pictures!

Of course I needed to do some crazy yoga poses while we were outside…who doesn’t do yoga in the 30 degree weather?

Onto day 4!  It was amazing how fast the weekend went by.  A 4 day training seemed so daunting, but it was the last day before we even knew it!  This had a lot to do with our instructors, Tracy and Lisa…they were truly amazing and inspirational each step of the way!

Day 4 is inversion day…and with orthostatic hypotension, I can’t really go upside down.  But I totally love this halfway up modification we learned in level 3, so I stuck with this for the practice.  All the benefits of an inversion without the passing out lol.

Another photo shoot followed lunch…my friend Ashley and I had way too much fun coming up with crazy poses to do in front of the city skyline…

Fun partnering poses!

….annndddd TADA!  My Level 4 certification!  Now I just have Level 5, retrain level 1, Yoga for Seniors, Yoga Back , and I think one other one-day workshop and I will have my 200!  I’m getting there!  It will happen:)

Now onto other random things from this week…

Runner’s World sent me this great article on strengthening exercises…this one for shin splints looks awesome and I definitely need to build more lower leg strength so I can’t wait to try it!

First day back after Level 4….I was planning on an easy day with some cardio, but my friend needed a last minute Pilates sub, so I jumped in!  With some green tea, I was ready to go and it was fun to incorporate some new moves into the class I had learned this weekend!

I had such a good idea on carrying multiple yoga mats for our event on Monday night…I felt like a genius…

I don’t know why I got such a laugh out of this, but I paused the Biggest Loser finale at a random moment when Allison Sweeney looked like a zombie and texted it to my friend Katie and we laughed about it for a good ten minutes….

Freak snowstorm …really?!?!?!

I’m trying to make an effort to eat REAL dinners most nights of the week.  Usually I just eat a snack for dinner, but I am trying to incorporate more healthy proteins into my dinner now.

 

This picture summed up my entire day…

Wednesday came with a trip to the orthopedist to make sure I wasn’t developing a new stress fracture in my leg (yay I wasn’t!)  The doc helped me to figure out how to change my gait to avoid putting pressure on the outside of my leg and how to stregthen around my knees to avoid the pain I’ve been getting.  I’m hoping I get through the half in April with no injuries!

Days 173-175…wonderful weekend…puppies, yoga, art, running, and food!

 

It’s finally FEBRUARY!  And my homecoming calendar says it’s about 4 1/2 months til hubby comes home!:)  E’s birthday is this week and I feel so bad I don’t get to spend it with him…his last deployment he had leave for his birthday week.  Although, I would much rather have this shorter deployment and no leave time…9 months is a lot better than 11-12!

We had a HUGE windstorm this week that knocked down a lot of branches.  The doggies thought that toys had miraculously fallen from the heavens and had a super fun weekend with all the debris.

Since it was a heck of a lot colder this weekend than it had been all week, and since I was exhausted from getting back into the swing of teaching yoga/dance almost every day, we had a LOT of snuggle time this weekend…

Can you find me in the last picture?  I’m hidden under two big pit bulls…snuggle monsters attack!

Saturday was another fun filled class at the studio and a fun picture afterwards since I wanted to show E I wear the bracelet he got me when I teach…lapis is such a calming stone, it is a great way to have a relaxing class. I have also become obsessed with tiger’s eye this week…I’ve been wearing my old bracelet made with tigers eye and it really does seem to bring a sense of clarity and peace. I can’t explain it, but I’m totally becoming obsessed with precious stones!

We also installed a new door lock since our old one was literally getting blown open by the WIND…not super safe.  I told hubby now he can tell everyone that he left for a deployment and his wife changed the locks on him…

Chloe dragging an entire tree branch across the yard…she must be able to pull 3 times her own weight…

I had the genius idea this weekend to rip up the ugly linoleum in our bedroom…but underneath the tile and on top of the wood is a gross felt-like layer that is NOT coming off.  So sad…whoever did the flooring in this house was an ass.  They covered up all the hardwood with horrible adhesive and linoleum…no sheet in between to save the wood floors.  So frustrating.

Yesterday I went to teach my normal Sunday class…and I waited and waited….taking random pictures of the studio…

And random pictures of my mat…and my feet…

But no one came!  Then I remembered a) it was about 20 degrees and most of my clients walk to class, and b) it was apparently Superbowl sunday…..

So I drove over to the gym and jumped on the treadmill for an easy 4 miles!

It was a great run!  I averaged a 10min/mile pace, but I did intervals.  Started out at about 10:50, then 10:30, then 9:40, then 9, and for the last half mile 8:30!  I am new to the whole speed work thing, but progressively going faster as I go longer seems to work for me…not sure if there is a real name for it (thought I should since I’m a personal trainer and have now been running for 7 years…oooops).  I felt amazing afterwards though!

More cute puppy time after the gym…I couldn’t help it, I was a crazy obsessive doggy mom this weekend!:)

I also got a chance to do some fun yoga art….I love doing pieces of art around favorite quotes.

I added it to my fireplace collection…although I dont know how happy E will be to come home and find his sports memorabilia moved and my paintings in their place!

For a small extra bday gift for E, I saw this quote on pinterest and thought it would make a cute painting…I’m going to attach ribbon to it and hang it up in our room!

Last night’s dinner was one of my easy favorites…wild brown rice with broccoli and carrots, mixed with Trader Joe’s refried beans, and salsa.  Quick, easy, and perfect winter comfort food!

I have been eating more and more calories lately….in an attempt to be healthier and get my metabolism back to wear it needs to be after years of restricting and dieting.  It’s a hard process, but I’ve found, as I have at other times in my life, that running is the best thing to do when you want to regulate your diet.  For me, running helps put me in touch with my hunger…I know after I run that I need to fuel my body and that my cravings are because I actually worked hard and need the food.  Getting back into heavy weight training and running have made me look and feel so much better…and overcoming the vitamin deficiencies I had been struggling with has been amazing.  However, it never gets easy seeing the numbers on the scale go up….which is why I’ve been making an effort to only check my weight once every week or so.  Today I realized I have officially gained 15 lbs since last summer…but I know that I look so much better than I did then.  I’m not saying I don’t have room for improvement (2 desserts some day isn’t the healthiest option!)…but I am a strong believer that you can be healthier and happier at a heavier weight.  I just need to keep reminding myself that having energy, running distance, lifting heavy, and looking and feeling great have nothing to do with numbers on a scale and everything to do with being a balanced, healthy, strong person.  I may still struggle sometimes, but I’m getting there!

And as the perfect ending to this post…remember, sometimes you just need to hide your face, bury yourself in the corner of the couch, and hide away from the world for a day…oh, little brown dog, you are ridiculous…

Days 163, 164, & 165…last semester begins!

This is the last first week of grad school!  I will be done in the spring!  Of course I’ll still have to get a few more credits for my licensing, but my master’s will officially be done as of June 2013! 

It was a bit of a stressful week getting everything ready for the students to retrun…finalizing the fitness schedule, going to meetings, getting back into the swing of things at my internship, and teaching yoga at my other studios…as well as going to my first classes of the semester, which I think are going to be great! 

The fun part is planning a big yoga workshop I will be leading Monday about setting healthy intentions for the new year, using yoga and art…these river rocks with reminders of our intentions are going to be one of the art projects, along with a nice journal to keep track of the healthy goals we make!  Not sure how many students will come, but I think it will be fun anyway!

My dogs are so bored with the cold weather lately, that they just sit on the couch and kiss each other all the time…Chloe looks so annoyed…

My mom sent us this cute card for Valentine’s day…I LOVE sappy Valentine’s cards haha.  Yes I am still 8.

My old roomies had a fun Texas roadtrip that I couldn’t get time or money for, but the other day in the mail, I got 4 postcards from their trip all at once…it felt nice that they were thinking of me even though I couldn’t be there!

With this frigid weather, I’ve gotten creative with my outfits.  Hubby bought me this scarf in Kuwait last deployment, and I’ve been using it as a shawl/head wrap to deal with the cold.  My friend from school called it my ‘babushka’ like old Russian ladies wear haha.  Her and our other friend were laughing at me, but tempered it with, “No no no…that’s totally your style…very unique..very Theresa…” …haha not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but I’ll take it!

Last night I taught a great Yogalates class…7 people in our nice small studio…great workout and great energy!

Tonight was personal training…I forced my very running, functional training-oriented client to do a bunch of difficult yoga stuff just to change things up.  She enjoyed the challenge, but I don’t know if I have her completely hooked yet!

Since I’m trying to readjust to working til midnight again this semester, I have decided to get my mid range training runs in on these nights in preparation for the half in April!  It really helped the night go by and gave me energy so that I don’t even feel like it’s already 11pm!  (Might also be because I just ate blueberries and a sugar cookie…need to work on my post-run nutrition…I always just want SWEETS after I run…anyone else have that issue??)

All in all I was happy with my run…4 miles, but feeling great the whole time!  Started out slow because my hip had been bothering me for a few days, but it felt okay, so I was able to do some speed work, alternating between 10 min pace, 930 pace, and finally 830 pace…going to faster intervals as I neared 4 miles.  I don’t know jack about speed work and make up my own drills as I go, but it was fun to push myself to go faster as I got more tired!  All in all it was a great workout!

On being healthy…

So I’ve alluded to my history with body image issues and eating issues on here a bit before, but I wanted to post a little update.

After a week of a little relapse into feeling really negative about myself, and definitely not eating enough at all, I actually are a lot today. Like a lot. Probably 1700 calories maybe 1800. But it felt good. I’m proud of myself. I had the energy to teach yoga and do one of my old badass lifting routines. I have decided on staying super healthy and keeping up my energy and workouts even if I’m gaining on the scale. Logically, I know the only reason I’ve been gaining weight is that my body was practically in starvation mode for a long time, and so now even eating a ‘normal’ amount is going to have me gaining weight for a while…but I know that after a while I will even out and finally be healthy.

I need to keep a level head and focus on my health and getting muscle rather than being starving and weak for the sake of being thin. It’s gonna be a struggle after so long focusing on restricting calories and being thin but I miss being strong and having energy. I just need to focus on that right now.  My goal is to have the energy to run another half marathon this year and to get my strength and muscles back.

Day 108 – a yoga and ballet quadruple header:)

My morning started out wonderfully…teaching my teacher/staff yoga at 7am, then girls’ relaxation group yoga at 8am at my internship…what an amazing way to start the day!

After interning, I ran to the grocery store, and errand I’ve been neglecting for a while…once the cold weather hits I get super lazy about errands!  While there I got a text that our studio’s yoga teacher was sick and they needed a sub for the class before mine tonight at 630.  My supervisor okay’d me leaving early, so I decided that teaching THREE yoga classes and one ballet class in one day was a fabulous idea and said yes!

The rest of the day became an excuse to indulge in some cravings since, you know, I totally NEED those calories for the back to back classes tonight 😉

The sunbutter didn’t even have a chance…

Neither did the giant lunch, huge dessert, or half a tub of Trader Joe’s dried figs…yummm! 

By the way, can you tell how frazzled I’ve been the last few weeks?  I have never been super organized, but I have when I start to look super messy…and right now THIS is my desk at work…uhoh…

I am spending my next 30 minutes cleaning, then heading off to teach Power and Tone Yoga at 630, and Ballet Body at 745…so excited! 

Honestly, I just need to find a way to teach yoga all day every day for the rest of my life and I’ll be completely content:)

Namaste, everyone!

Day 90-care packages, yoga, sunny day:)

 

What a pretty morning!  It was so great to wake up to NO snow,  and some bright sunshine to take its place!

I sat outside with the puppies and they were totally soaking up the sun!

So adorable how they choose to sit together!  I LOVE these little babies so much.

I spent the morning cleaning up the house, took the pups for a short hike, but my eczema was really bothering me so we couldn’t go too far…my poor hands hurt holding the leashes!

I was so happy to get to talk to hubby today online for a bit and figured I’d send him his Thanksgiving care package, even though I really don’t have much to send…he got a WONDERFULLY designed hand crafted Thanksgiving drawing, as well as a fun note documenting all the wonders of the care package…

A sleep mask, a book, sunflower seeds, coffee, and ‘mother fucking snack packs- pudding in a cup!’  Haha…I dont know what possessed me to get so excited about sending pudding, except that I love how excited he gets when he sees them on sale at the store, so I thought it would be fun to make a big deal about sending them!  I hope he likes it!

After running some errands and trying to get things ready for my YogaFit training this weekend, I did a nice relaxing candlelight yoga session.  I am feeling SO amazing with my yoga every day challenge!  I loved the feeling of doing yoga at sunset with just candle light…it changed the whole mood and focus of the practice.  I felt awesome after.  30 minutes of yoga since I’m sore from yesterday and gearing up for this weekend’s classes!  I am super excited, and just a little nervous since I will be staying at a hotel alone and since it’s hard to find good food I can eat while traveling.

(Real life food allergy confession…I bought organic baby food to eat this weekend in case I can’t find any places that serve things I can eat during the training…yes, that’s where I’m at in life…)

Check out my other blog entry today where I documented a day in my life of food and meals!  I think it’s pretty nifty:)

 

Food for Friday!

With all my talk of fitness and food on here, I realize I haven’t posted much about what I actually eat!  With so many allergies, it can be hard to eat nutritious and filling food that actually tastes good.  I wanted to share a typical day’s worth of meals so that anyone else with allergies or following a vegetarian/gluten free lifestyle can get some healthy ideas:)

First comes breakfast!

On a typical day I’ll eat sunflower seed butter with a rice cake if I’m in a rush.  On the rare mornings I have time, I’ll make my favorite Berry Mash!

Berry Mash Recipe:

1 1/2 cups frozen berries (raspberry, strawberry, blueberry)

1/2 cup applesauce

1 1/2 tablespoons almond butter

cinnamon

2 tablespoons flaxseed

Heat berries until they are warm and mash-able, mix in other ingredients…it’s really that simple and oh so tasty!

Next comes LUNCH….

I was vegan for a while, but after my aforementioned battles with a severe and recently diagnosed vitamin b12 deficiency, alone with pretty bad eczema, I have been adding fish and eggs into my semi-vegetarian diet.  Today’s lunch was pan-seared wild

caught tuna from Trader Joe’s , seasoned with dill, salt, and pepper, along with a healthy portion of steamed broccoli, all topped off with red and green salsa!  Delicious!

For my evening snack/dessert….

…I made my famous Pumpkin Mash, which I’ve written about before.  Pumpkin puree, applesauce, almond butter, chocolate chips, and cinnamon, all melted together to form a wonderful, gooey, delicious dessert!  In love with this.

During my evening yoga practice I was craving some tea, so I made a new flavor I bought today at Whole Foods from Republic of Tea!

Green Rooibos Tea with Plantain and Coconut!  Oh my goodness…SO SO good!  I am addicted after just one cup!  (Also note the wonderful mortar/pestle and plantain smasher in the background that my dear friend Ashley got me from the Dominican Republic…I think they are so neat!)

I’m not all that hungry tonight, since my only workout was a short hike with the dogs and 30 minutes of my own yoga practice…I’ll probably have a nice snack of a few figs (my FAVORITE snack) along with maybe a rice cake and some sunflower seed butter (the Once Again Organic Sunflower seed butter is AMAZING!)

So this is a typical day of food for me…usually adds up to about 1300-1400 calories.  If I do a hard workout, I’ll add in a little more for dinner…usually carrots and hummus, maybe two rice cakes, or some veggie sushi!  What does a typical food day look like for you?

Day 53-intern, beach and hippie snacks

A very random day. woke up and did more state testing help at my internship. Came home to even more wonderful painting that my aunt has been frantically helping with all week! Since I’ve been under the weather for a while she is helping with all the stuff I don’t have the energy to do. How nice!

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I also want to say I was a little in love with my fall outfit today:)

Later we went to the beach when the weather cleared up a bit.

I wrote hubby a long letter in the afternoon and now I’m at work til midnight. Yawwwnnnn! Think I’ll hit up yoga at 8 to get my workout on and find some focus. Then onto my hippie dinner of rice cakes and sunflower seed butter! This has been my go-to breakfast and snack food all week!

Other Blogs I Am In Love With Right Now…

Tranquility du Jour…a great blog about being fabulous while also being an animal activist, yoga teacher, and kick-butt business woman!  Love this…

Eat Run Repeat… A great inspirational blog on eating right, running, and healthy living in general…

Healthy Tipping Point…all around inspiring woman…tips on nutrition, fitness, life, parenting, and life in general…really motivating to read!

Meals and Miles…another great fitness and nutrition blog with some awesome recipes!

Heather Eats Almond Butter…yeah, I have an addiction to fitness and nutriton blogs, but this one is amazing!

Another military wife blog I found on my favorite forum MilitarySOS, nice to read about someone else going through military-related things…

There will be more later, but seeing as I’m at work (SHHH!!!) and only had a short break, I can’t do much more at the moment;)