Variety is the Spice of Life… a bit too cliché
Yoga Saved My Life… a bit too dramatic
So I opted for 4, 3, 2, 1…10,000
Which is exactly what I did last week- activity wise
4 yoga classes~ 3 hot yoga classes, one dynamic yoga class
3 runs~14 miles
2 boot camp classes~ 9 trillion squats and far too many
burpees
And 1 session on my spin bike~ one hour and about 22 miles
of insane pyramids
Plus at least 10,000 steps every day from walking.
*On days when I run I
still try to get in 10,000 walking steps in addition to whatever steps logged
in my workout.
Monday-
10,297
Tuesday-
25,618
Wednesday-
21,289
Thursday-
17, 402
Friday-
12,838
Saturday-
16,575
Sunday-
11,208
In case you were wondering that’s 115,227 steps. I figure
that about 25K of those steps came from running so about 90K, give or take, is
from walking. Woo hoo! That’s still an average of over 10K walking steps a day!
Last week I really tried to focus on a few things; the
basics I have been working on- tracking and getting more movement in during the
day, limiting processed foods, and getting in a healthy mix of activities and
man did I have a great week! It’s been two weeks since I started to incorporate
yoga back into my routine and it really has it made a huge difference! Now I am
going to explain why and you may think it sounds like a bunch of hooey, and
that’s cool, but for me I think it is totally legit.
1)
Yoga provides balance. It grounds me. It’s calming
focus on body, mind and spirit is the yin to my normal, hectic yang of a life.
I have been so caught up in just making it through every day that I was
starting to get easily overwhelmed. I have noticed a huge change just in the
past 2 weeks; I am much more relaxed, much more centered and much more at peace
with the craziness around me.
2)
Yoga gives me a focus. I am not sure about you
but I certainly don’t set an intention for any other activity I do. Like I don’t
set a focus on clarity or healing or peace during boot camp or a run. I just go
out and run or finish the class and that is it. For me, those types of
activities are all about the aerobic, and sometimes anaerobic, and strengthening
benefits. But with yoga I can focus my energy during my practice on an
intention which helps take me from my physical body to my spiritual body.
Although I do sometimes focus on intentions that are related to my physical body,
like an intention on healing, but you get my point.
3)
The more I nourish my soul the more I am
nourishing my body. I am about to get all hippie on you here but this is honestly
how I feel. My body is happy. Between the
yoga and the fact that I am really working on limiting processed foods I just
feel so much more satisfied. I am not thinking about food all the time. I eat
when I am hungry (still of course following my hunger cues) and I eat nutrient
dense foods so I feel satisfied and that is great. That’s what should be
happening. But the times in between the food- well yoga is really helping to
bring back a calmness and clarity that shuts up my monkey mind, especially my
often times food obsessed monkey mind. And that is so amazing.
Now don’t get me wrong, I still love all the other active
areas of my life and I don’t plan on giving them up. They provide me with so
much enjoyment on top of the health benefits it would be silly to let them go.
But after seeing/feeling the changes that have occurred in my life just in the
past two weeks well it probably goes without saying that yoga is here to stay J
And it’s about time! Yeah, I’m totally kicking myself for
waiting so long after the move to find a new place to practice but that’s water
under the bridge, right? Better late than never!
For this week-I have a pretty similar plan to last week’s.
5 yoga classes- 2 hot yoga classes, 1 dynamic yoga class, 1
kundalini class and 1 aerial yoga class- this time I am going to ask my instructor
to take some pictures for me during aerial to share with you. It is such a cool
way to do yoga!
3 runs
2 boot camp classes (hopefully, I may have a conflict
tomorrow evening)
1 spin bike session (already completed this morning. Woot!)
And my daily goal of 10,000 walking steps
I am also testing out a new recipe this week: Simple Farro& Bean Stew. I actually cooked it yesterday and it is sitting in my fridge waiting
to be eaten for dinner tonight. I am pretty excited- it smelled fantastic while
it was cooking.
Are you trying anything new this week? Maybe a new food or recipe?
Do you like to practice yoga? Do you think it is important to find
balance within the various activities you do?
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