Did you enter to win a rad yoga bag yet?

Today in yoga class I got to do one of my favorite poses, RAGDOLL.  When the teacher says to take ragdoll, I always get a big smile and wish we could hold it for minutes on end.  I don’t know why I don’t do it at home more often.  I hold all my tension in my neck and shoulders, so in ragdoll I can literally feel my vertebrae separating, oooh ssoooo good.  Have you ever done it? If not, do it NOW.

1) Stand with your feet about hip-width apart and parallel to each other.

2) Bend your knees slightly, and slowly fold forward from your hips as far as you can comfortably go.

3) Interlace your arms so that your elbows point down below your head, and allow the combined weight of your upper body, head and elbows to stretch your spine toward the floor.

4) As you exhale and become more relaxed, your elbows will get closer to the floor.

5) To come out of the yoga rag doll pose, bend your knees and put your hands on your thighs to add support when you lift your upper body to the starting position.

You can see a demo here – http://www.ehow.com/video_4945389_yoga-rag-doll-pose.html

Today in class we did a pose I had done before, but forgotten about. It’s a lot like ragdoll in that it lets you stretch out your back and neck well. 

1) Stand with your feet about hip-width apart and parallel to each other.

2) Bend your knees slightly, and slowly fold forward from your hips as far as you can comfortably go.

3) Place your hands facing backwards, as you see in the picture, or you place your hands unders your feet, palms facing up and press down to deepen the stretch (like the instructor in the pic)

Goood stuff!  I love letting my neck hand and tick tocking it from side to side to get all the stress out.  What is your favorite stretch/destressing yoga pose?

We liked Sherlock Holmes, I thought it was very well done.  We also watched “500 Days of Summer” tonight and it was really cute.  I love good movies!

Good morning and Happy Sunday my dear Bloggy friends.  I am heading to an hour of power yoga soon!  But this morning I have a great giveaway for you.  Don’t forget to enter the Funktional Spa Giveaway that is over this afternoon. 

You know how when Xmas rolls around, you are always excited.  It’s fun to get presents, its fun to see your family and friends and celebrate your own traditions. But how often do you really get a gift you love? I mean sure, you l like the stuff you told everyone to get you, I mean you picked it out, you love that you got gift cards to go shopping b/c you love to shop, but how often are you taken by surprise by a gift that shows the gift giver really gets YOU?  I was lucky enough to get just such a gift this Xmas.  Look at this yoga bag my sister Tina gave me:

Isn’t it just gorgeous?  A true work of art. I get a ridiculous amount of compliments on this bag when I go to yoga class  The designer is Jaya from Green Trunk Designs, those great pictures are hers, the ones I took just didn’t compare. She hasn’t had her Etsy store up for very long, but boy I hope she goes far b/c these are just one of a kind.  And guess what!  She’s giving you one!  Yep.

All Green Trunk Designs items are designed, sewn, photographed and packaged by Jaya in her home in New York, where she lives with her husband and coaches cross country and teaches fitness classes at her church. All of her items are made to out of eco friendly, vintage, upcycled, and repurposed materials.  How cool is that!  It’s pretty being green.

So now on to the contest.  Visit Jaya’s site and look at the EXCERCISE MAT BAGS and leave me a comment telling me which one you would want if you win.  Make sure to leave the titles of the bag you like best.  Want an extra entry?  Just Facebook, blog or Tweet about my contest and leave me a separate comment (again with your fav bag, just put entry #2, I want bag XYZ) telling me you did so.  I will leave the contest open until Saturday Jan 30th at Noon.  Good luck!

I’ve been meaning to do it for awhile, but today I finally headed to the free yoga class that LuLuLemon stress offer on Saturday.  I have a race tomorrow, so I won’t be able to make my usual Sunday yoga class. 


I had never been to the LuLuLemon store here in C-land. Its actually called a studio, they haven’t committed to having a full blown store here.  Not sure there is enough of a market. However they have this studio shoved in a luxury apt building.  Aside from the residents, who are mostly old, who shops there?  Not the best marketing plan, but whatever, FREE YOGA!

They have different teachers from the area each week, which is a great idea.  I think with yoga it’s very important to go to classes with different teachers, you get so much more out of seeing different styles.  Today’s teacher, who teaches at 1-2-1 fitness as well, was really good. The class was jammed pack. I mean ridiculously tight, I felt like a sardine. I am not used to having someone right on top of me when doing yoga. It’s not so great.  You can’t get into a lot of poses well. IT’s even hard to reverse swan dive.  And let me just say, without picking on anyone in particular, that before you go to a packed free yoga class, wash your feet and brush your teeth. I was so distracted by bad smells that I couldn’t really get into my breathing.  Yuck.  There was a really bad coffee breath near me.    Ugh.  I am not sure I will go again.  Well, scratch that, I will go again if I can’t make my normal Sunday lass b/c I want o make sure I get a yoga class in weekly.  How about you my fellow yogis, where do you go to yoga?  At a gym, a yoga studio?

*Don’t forget you still have 2 days to enter my AZC Designs headband giveaway, scroll down and do so*

Good morning Bloggy friends. I love Sundays because I start my day with an awesome power yoga class at my local Urban Active. They are lucky to have a really talented teacher, I really like her style. Today she was telling us to breathe in with love, love for yourself.  Such a great idea. I try really hard to think positive when I do yoga. I will bitch about one thing though, the stupid gym took my beloved class from 75 mins to 60, boo on them.  And they started it at 9am, instead of 9:15 and the daycare opens at 9, so I will bea little late every time.  Whatevs. 

You know what I really enjoy?  The Dancing Warrior vinyasa. Do you know it? If not you can check it out here:
http://websiterite.com/uploads/Dancing_Warrior.pdf

I love Warrior 2, I always feel very strong and balanced when I am in this pose.

From the yoga journal online:

(veer-ah-bah-DRAHS-anna)
Virabhadra = the name of a fierce warrior, an incarnation of Shiva, described as having a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet, wielding a thousand clubs, and wearing a tiger’s skin

Step by Step

Stand in Tadasana. With an exhalation, step or lightly jump your feet 3 1/2 to 4 feet apart. Raise your arms parallel to the floor and reach them actively out to the sides, shoulder blades wide, palms down.

Turn your right foot in slightly to the right and your left foot out to the left 90 degrees. Align the left heel with the right heel. Firm your thighs and turn your left thigh outward so that the center of the left knee cap is in line with the center of the left ankle.

Exhale and bend your left knee over the left ankle, so that the shin is perpendicular to the floor. If possible, bring the left thigh parallel to the floor. Anchor this movement of the left knee by strengthening the right leg and pressing the outer right heel firmly to the floor.

Stretch the arms away from the space between the shoulder blades, parallel to the floor. Don’t lean the torso over the left thigh: Keep the sides of the torso equally long and the shoulders directly over the pelvis. Press the tailbone slightly toward the pubis. Turn the head to the left and look out over the fingers.

Stay for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Inhale to come up. Reverse the feet and repeat for the same length of time to the left.

*****************************************************************
I am very excited to have another Somethin’ Pretty giveaway for you.  Yoga Grrllie graciously sent me one of her gorgeous yoga mat bag covers for one of my lucky readers! The one I have to give away is very similar to this, they are extremely study and well made, you will be the envy of all the other yogis in your class!


Yoga Grrllie is actually LaRae, a yoga and pilates instructor and she has her own website and you can learn a pose of the month there. Look at all the other fun items she sells!

Aromatherapy pillows:

Adorable aprons:


Ready to enter?  All you have to do is visit LaRae’s shop and leave me a comment telling me something you learned, it could be your favorite item, where she’s from, whatever, just make sure you check out her wares.  Want an extra entry?  Just facebook or blog about this contest, make sure you leave a separate comment if you do.  I will pick a winner using random.org on Friday afternoon.  Good luck!

*Did you enter my Natures Gate giveaway below?!?  Check it out*

The title today is a nod to a brain infiltrating song off of Harper’s favorite toy, this thing:

It’s by Fisher price and if you have a kid around a year old I suggest you go buy it stat.  It actually has 4 legs, its a table, I take 2 off so she can play on it b/c she can’t stand on her own yet.  We walk around singing the songs off her toys and Yo Gabba Gabba all day long.  I’m sure some other moms can relate.  Harper just started crawling a few weeks ago and boy has life changed. It is so much more work. I have to constantly be following her around to make sure she doesn’t do something stupid. And believe me they always try to do something stupid.  Stick fingers in outlets, eat dog bones, pull lamps down by their cord, etc, etc.  Good times, I wouldn’t trade it for the world!

It is another horrifically snowy day in Cleveland and I just don’t feel comfortable taking her out in it. How bad would I feel if I got into a wreck with her in the car. And besides when I was pregnant I very gracefully crashed my car into the garage while backing out of it.  I am not allowed to wreck the car again or the husband might just divorce me.  Joking of course.  He can’t divorce me b/c then who would do his laundry and scoop the cat litter?  I decided I need edsomething warm for breakfast today as opposed to the green monsters I’ve been doing, enter:




I have been meaning to try this stuff for awhile. It was very good, very hearty and has lots of different grain textures. I mixed in natural PB and pumpkin butter. Very good.

I am really sore today so I wanted to do a stretching DVD, unfortunately my On Demand didn’t have any. But I found something really great under Family workouts.  The Goodnight show is on Sprout TV and it teaches kids yoga!  How cute. There were 2 of the workouts on my On Demand, they are 7 mins each. I went ahead and did them while Harper watched. I think that when she is older I might just have to do yoga with her every night before bed as part of our nighttime ritual!  Such a good idea.  Nina, the instructor explains the moves in cute ways, like when you swan dive down, she tells the kids to bend over from their hips and smell the flowers and you do moves like airplace while pretending to fly around side to side.


Next I wanted to get my blood pumping, but I wanted something mindless and easy so I could keep an eye on Harper and even incorporate her if possible, so I decided to do a walking DVD that was also listed under Family Workouts.

It was about 30 mins and supposedly you walk 2 miles.  It has very basic moves, walk in place, kicks, side to side jumps, hamstring kickbacks. I really got into it and acted silly and entertained Harper while I did some old school aerobics. I even picked her up and bounced her around while walking in place.  It was fun! 

Shortly after this she went down for a nap and I took the dogs out in the yard and we played ball. Which is more like a search and rescue mission right now b/c they can’t find the ball very well in the snow.  After we lost 3 balls I called it quits. It’s going to be like an easter egg hunt out there when the snow starts to melt, there must be 20 tennis balls in our yard.  When we came back inside I noticed that my wet dogs smelled like farm animals, so I decided some baths were in order.   Both dogs and my cat Sara got baths.  Now everyone smells good!  We sleep with our dogs, so I wash them a lot, who wants to cuddle with a stinky dog?  A lot of people don’t wash their cats, but I do.  Sara gets very staticy and dandruffy in the winter, a nice warm bath with head and shoulders shampoo makes her look like a new cat.  If you have a cat, give it a try!  If you have a hard time holding them wrap a towel under their armpits and hold them up with that while you just suds up below their pits.  A good time had by all, hardy har har.

Since the weather outside is frightful I had to settle for yoga at home today.  Nothing wrong with yoga at home, it’s just that I adore the Sunday yoga class at my gym, the teacher is amazing, its very rare that you can get a real yoga workout at the gym.  I scrolled through my options from Exercise TV and ended up with this:

Hmmm…oddly enough you don’t even do the that twist during the workout!  It was a pretty good DVD, 51 mins, nothing too difficult or new to me. It breaks the workout into segments – cardio and slow burn.  During the cardio you go through various vinyasa’s quickly to get the blood flowing and heart rate up, during the slow burn you hold poses longer.  I was impressed by how well the instructor explained the moves, very descriptive.  Nowhere near as good of a workout as I would have gotten at the gym, but most of that is probably due to a 8 month old hanging on me and a dog at my feet.


After I was done I was starving and was craving some comfort food. I really wanted tuna noodle casserole, but we were out of noodles. So, I threw 1 can of Campbell’s healthy request cream of mushroom soup, 1 can of tuna, 1/2 cup of Uncle Bens Whole grain brown rice and a couple handfuls of organic frozen veggies from Costco into a bowl and microwaved for 5 mins.  It turned out wonderful.


I wanted a little something more so I had some of my favorite chips.




Have you ever tried these? They are seriously delicious.  So good you don’t even need to dip them in salsa. 

Last night Gary and I watched:
I disagree with the headline, it’s no where near funnier than Borat, but it is 115 mins of non stop laughs. Mostly in horror. Lots of penis in this movie people and many, many butt sex jokes.  We definitely laughed a lot though.  Watching Paula Abdul sit on furnitue that is really mexican dayworkers had me in stitches.

Since it was so short, we also watched
I really liked this movie.  It was the right combo of suspence and action. I love me some Denzel.  He can do no wrong in my eyes.  John Travolta is hit or miss in my opinion. You forget that he is a really good actor b/c he goes and does such shit movies like Old Dogs or Wild Hogs. He did great as the villian in this movie.  Two thumbs up.  I hear the original is much better, I will have to check it out.

I’ve only been without sugar for a day and I am already missing it.  Gary is eating peanut M&Ms, grrrrr.

I love yoga, I truly do. Sometimes I think I love it more than running, but to be good requires a lot more dedication. I wish I got the chance to do it more often. I am very lucky that a truly talented teacher works at my gym on Sundays.  She led a great 75 min power yoga class this morning and there is no better way to start the week if you ask me.  I got to hit some of my favorite poses:

Half Pigeon, for you runners out there, this is the best hip opener, I always feel so much looser and more limber after a good minute or two in this pose on each side.


And Wheel. I can’t do headstands, but I love arching my back as far as I can and getting into a good solid Wheel. Bridge is good too. I don’t have enough arm strength to hold this pose for very long, but I get better each time.  For some reason this pose always makes me think of being a little kid and doing back bends in gymnastics classes.


Also I learned something interesting from this particular teacher that I never knew before. Whenever I would do downward dog I would work really hard to make as much space as possible between my hands and feet and really stretch my body down.  But she said that you should be able to go from table top (all fours) right up into down dog without moving your hands or feet in order to do the pose correctly.  So, that was a big change for me and I am working to perfect my down dog.



In the new year I really hope to fit in yoga 3 times a week. That’s a big leap because at best I’ve done it once a week, but its something that makes me happy.  When I leave a yoga class I feel truly relaxed and I genuinely feel good about myself.  Yoga makes me feel pretty, that may sound kind of stupid, but I bet some of you can relate.  It teaches you to appreciate your body and what it can do for you.  I am not the religious type, I don’t really pray, but I love taking the time in Savasana to really meditate on all the good things in my life. Its easy to take for granted that you have a home, a nice husband with a job, a beautiful healthy baby girl.  Those 5 mins of acting like a corpse let me reflect and thank the universe.

How about your bloggy friends, do any of you do yoga? How often? What’s your favorite pose?