Outside Bikram class!

My studio had a 60 minute Bikram class outside at a local street/art/food fair today. There were about 100 of us set up on a closed off street between some downtown buildings. And IT WAS SO AMAZING!!!!

I hope I can post a picture soon. Since I was busy practicing and getting ooh and aaah-ed at by bystanders, I wasn't able to snap any myself :)

The most AMAZINGEST thing of all was doing the Half Moon back bend outside, going back, way back, all the way back... and seeing sky, sky, skyyyyy, and then people upside down! So cool :)))

I hope it inspired some watchers to come and try a class soon :)


EDIT: And here is a photo of us doing Balancing Stick  :)

And another one in Full Locust:

A Story about Healing and Bikram Yoga

Healing from a severe back injury... after years of other training methods only brought partial relief... finally being completely free of pain, 20 years after the injury... Is this a miracle? A fairy tale?

I would say it's neither. It took and still takes a lot of work (90 minutes in the hot room, several times a day, is serious work!), but Lisa did it!

Thank you for sharing your wonderful story of Healing, Lisa! It's very aptly titled Why I will do Bikram yoga until the day I die.

Namaste :)

Hotel Room Yoga

Oh my gosh, after 10 days away from the hot room, I was going insane... back unhappy, skin unhappy, hair unhappy, tummy unhappy, mind unhappy. Paired with days packed full of trainings, project work, more work during "breaks", and business dinners, I felt like crap.

Time for Hotel Room Yoga. I set up some towels and tried to practice in front of the mirror which was not well positioned at all... and of course the heat was missing... oh well, I made it work.

After 90 minutes of Bikram's voice from my iPhone, I was feeling happy and healthy again. Yay!

(You can buy Vol1 Standing & Vol2 Floor Series here or on iTunes. You will get a complete 90 min class given by Bikram Choudhury himself!)

What do you tell prospective (Bikram) yogis?

A few colleagues have recently asked me about Yoga. They are interested in improving their health problems and have heard that yoga might just be the thing to try. They have heard that I'm "into yoga"
and want to get a feel for it.

AWESOME!!! Come with me, we can go today! It'll be awesome, we can go every day! ... Hmmm, maybe that's not the right approach. I'm not going to lie, in the first few months I might have said that to a few people and scared them off. I was super excited about Bikram Yoga (still am!) and I wanted to share it with everybody! NOW!!

Thing is... not everybody is ready and pushing them in this stage is counterproductive. I have learned that quite a while ago. Today another colleague asked me about Yoga and said "But you do Bikram Yoga, right? That will be too much for me with the heat and all." What would you have said to the person?

I didn't want to overwhelm him with information, but I wanted to make sure he feels welcome to try. He will NOT be the only one who is new to this/feels too hot/cannot touch their forehead to their knees. I calmly told him why the heat specifically helps us (stretch and heal our bodies & deal with circumstances beyond our control). I also informed him about the beginners special (two weeks unlimited for 25$). If he is interested and ready for it, he will research himself or ask me again. I do not want to push it on anybody :)

So what do you tell people who are interested in (Bikram) Yoga? Do you try to "sell" it?

Regional Yoga Asana Championship

On Sunday I got to watch the Regional Yoga Asana Championship. The winners get to compete in the National Yoga Asana Championships in March. It was amazing to see a variety of yogis and yoginis perform their routine on stage. Young, old, big, small, long-time and short-time practitioners, they were all inspiring and amazing and left the audience feeling positive. We couldn't help but smile and root for all of them while they demonstrated their strength, concentration, hard work and determination.

Participants get judged by experienced teachers on physical strength, stamina, balance, flexibility, breath, concentration, and grace. You see, it is not about being able to perform picture-perfect postures, but about diligently working with your body and mind. The focus for the participants is not to compete against each other, but rather to show what they can achieve with yoga. It was very apparent that the participants and the audience were rooting for everybody to show off their personal best!

BTW, these events are organized by USA Yoga (a non-profit organization) and are meant to raise awareness about Yoga Asanas (the physical part of yoga: practicing postures). USA Yoga is working to get Yoga Asanas qualified as an Olympic sport! Now THAT would be the greatest way to increase awareness throughout the world! *crossing fingers*

★ Congratulations to all participants and ★ 

★ Thank You for sharing your practice with the world! ★

★ Winners, good luck in the Nationals! ★

Now let's get to the eye-candy... check out the winners, male and female :)

 Allan Santos

Jennifer Cohen (?)

_______________

PS: This is the 2011 International Yoga Asana Champion, Joseph Encinia. Watch til the end... it's worth it!

For more information about the championship, check out USA Yoga.

Resolutions

When everybody around me seemed to be talking about New Year's Resolutions, I've started thinking back and I can honestly say that I've never made any before. When I though about it some more, I've come to realize that I probably never will make any, either. Not because I'm so perfect already (ha!), but because I'm a very self-reflective person. I think about and re-think my life/relationships/goals/yoga/nutrition/everything all. the. time. If a change is needed, it is implemented as soon as possible. I don't see a reason to wait for a new month/moon/year.

Recent plans/changes/resolutions or whatever-you-wanna-call-its:

• Green smoothies: drink as often as possible, at least one per day. (The challenge: having fresh ingredients at home, preparation time.)
• "3 days on, 1 day off" Bikram yoga schedule (The challenge: lack of time/funky work schedule, balancing quality time with myself and/or my partner.)
• read more (The challenge: same as with Bikram class.)
• cook more (The challenge: same as with green smoothies.)

Sooo, the common challenge seems to be time-related. All of these things are quite time consuming (what isn't, right?) and I have recently added 1.5 hrs driving time to my work days, sooo... Yes, I often have to prioritize and no, I have not been able to achieve all of those goals satisfactorily in the same week. But that's life or at least: that's my life. I'm not going to beat myself up about it, because ultimately, all those goals are supposed to make my life better and not more stressful than it already tends to be.

Maybe I should have added another major goal: balance.

Namaste :)

Green smoothies

Hi Everybody!

My boyfriend and I have a new thing... green smoothies! We all know that in our modern lives, many of us eat too much processed food. There are many people who try to turn this around by eating vegetarian, vegan, raw, or who knows what else. The idea behind the green smoothies is that not only are they raw, they also contain a lot of leafy greens of which we usually eat too little of.

Anyway, after a couple of months playing with the smoothies, here is an update!


Literature: My BF and I loooove this book Green Smoothie Revolution by Victoria Boutenko. It contains a lot of information, some scientific insight, years and years of personal experiences from her and her family, and a ton of recipes. Great mix for when you're starting out with smoothies! My BF and I now refer to the author as "our friend Victoria", as in "No, don't put broccoli in it. Remember, our dear friend Victoria says is not good in smoothies because of the starch!" Love this book. It's an easy read and it really made us enjoy more and drink more smoothies!

Recipes: We pretty much stick to Victorias principles - keep it easy, limit the number of ingredients to 3-4. Use 2 different fruits (ex: bananas, frozen berries, avocado, pineapple, mango, etc), 1 green (ex: spinach, kale, chard, wheatgrass, etc), and water. Try to use more green and less fruit as you get more experienced.
 ☆ My favorite: raspberries/strawberries, avocado, spinach, water.
 ☆ His favorite (he likes it sweeter): mango/pineapple, banana, wheatgrass, water.

Frequency: Our goal has been to drink at least 1-2 smoothies per day. Some weeks we do well, some we fail miserably haha. It all depends on how busy we are and how much time we spend at home vs. out and about (eating out, traveling). My BF has tried an "all-smoothie diet" for 3 days or so and really loved it (see Benefits below.)
We drink the smoothies as snacks, not as meal replacements. Although sometimes we will replace a meal with a smoothie. We don't have strict rules. A smoothie will keep you full for a while, so it is definitely possible to replace a meal with a smoothie.

Equipment: At first, we didn't want to spend money on a blender in case we end up not liking smoothies. We tried using a food processor. It was kind of messy and the smoothies didn't get very "smooth". It was OK, but not ideal. We liked the smoothies though, so we started researching blenders. The best of the best cost 400 US$ and up (Vitamix, Blendtec). We decided on a much cheaper one (40 US$) that got very good ratings by consumer reports. We are very happy with it. The smoothies get super smooth and the motor shows no signs of burning out. (We try not to run it for longer than 30-60 seconds at a time. Also, always use enough liquid to prevent motor burnout.)

Benefits: Now, for the most interesting aspect. What benefits did we experience? I definitely feel a difference, even when I just drink one large glass of smoothie per day. I feel lighter, happier, just plain better! It also meshes really well with my yoga practice and his workout routine, fueling us with all the nutrients we need.
When my BF did the "all-smoothie diet" for a few days, he felt so amazing! He said it just made him so energetic and he realized that "regular" food makes him fatigued. It made such a difference for him that his colleagues (who didn't know he was doing any special diet) asked him what was going on with him, because he came across as so energetic and happy! Amazing, isn't it?
We definitely feel it, when we skip our smoothies. For example, last week we moved, and between our three households, there hasn't been any time to make smoothies. My BF and I have both noticed that we feel grumpy, our bodies are not happy with the food we put in them, and we just feel tired and blah. We both can't wait to get back to a more regular smoothie routine! :)

Thank you, Victoria! Cheers!

Meeting the Boss (a. k. a. Bikram Choudhury)

Saturday was the big day... Bikram (the guy, not the yoga) was in town and it was time to meet the legend!

He held a lecture and patiently signed our books. Here is mine:

And he was even available for a hug! Sorry for the goofy editing  :D

This is how I roll

I've mentioned it a couple of times... work is kinda crazy at the moment. I don't know when I have to work the next day and where. I'm just kind of on stand-by and the 60-hr week last week didn't help either... blah.

Anyway, this is the result of my vagabond lifestyle...

Why yes, I do have a laptop, a case of water bottles, an oscilloscope, yoga clothes and yoga towel, random food items, dress shoes, and more electronic measuring equipment in my trunk. Doesn't everybody?

Two yoga mats and yoga clothes drying on my improvised drying rack. When I go to yoga and then
straight to a customer, I hang up my wet, sweaty clothes on the hangers... not ideal, but better than having them rot in a bag in my car for 10 hours.

Yep, just trying to make it work...


PS: I'm trying my new blogging app for the first time. Hope this post doesn't look wonky.

Bodies.

I finally got to see an exhibit of plasticized bodies. It was fascinating and interesting. I learned quite a bit about bones and body tissue. More importantly, I gained a deeper understanding of the things that I knew already.

I recommend visiting one of these exhibits to anyone with an interest in anatomy. I've always loved anatomy (I'm a mechanical engineer after all and our bodies are mechanical masterpieces) and my yoga practice has fueled this interest even more.

No photographing allowed within the exhibit, so you will have to make due with me tickling the poster-body :)

Amusement Park Yoga :)

Hi All! Just a quick pic from my fabulous week of vacation awesomeness :)) Yay!!! (Can you tell I'm loving my week off?)

PS: This is me in Camel Pose in front of one of my fave rides at Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH.