kefir | Fitness is Sweet

Hello everyone! I had my first Bikram experience today! But first, let’s work our way up until that point. I began the morning by scarfing down a protein bar before an abs class at the gym. Oh how I have missed this class! I’m pretty sure my core got weaker during school only because I didn’t go to this class. I followed that with a fairly quick workout in the weight room: 2×5 minutes on the rowing machine, then back lunges/lunge jumps, single leg RDLs/heel raises 3 ways, and weighted plank (a 35 lb plate on my back). Upon arriving home, I made myself some chai tea and began hydrating like crazy in preparation for yoga.

Since the yoga studio’s website recommended not eating within 3-4 hours of taking the class, a meal wasn’t exactly an option.

Then, I picked up my yoga friend and drove down to Mountain View Bikram Yoga. If you’re in the area and looking to try hot yoga, they have an awesome deal where you get a 10 day pass for only $20 if it is your first time at the studio! The atmosphere of the studio was very welcoming. The instructor introduced herself to us and gave us an overview of what to expect in the class. The class was heated to 95 degrees. She explained that the Bikram classes are a series of 26 poses, and each class follows the same sequence. Then, we were ready to go in!

My first impression was that it was HOT. I tried to tell myself “hey, I’ve played softball in much hotter temperatures!” My biggest advice for first timers-don’t let it get in your head. If all you are thinking about is how hot it is, you will feel like you are suffocating. Focus on the integrity of the poses, and do what you can. Also-it felt much cooler closer to the ground.

The first half of the class was standing poses, and the second half was on the ground, and much slower. Given my lack of flexibility, I generally like the ground poses because they really stretch me out.

Also, the instructor turned the heat up at the end of the class, which I was definitely feeling.

My overall opinion? It wasn’t life changing, which is kind of what I was expecting. At the same time, I did survive. I think my friend and I are planning to go back, although this wasn’t my favorite type of yoga. I like power or vinyasa yoga better-the poses and sequences are just better for me. I think my favorite is power yoga in a somewhat heated room (80-85), when it is just heated enough to make me more flexible.

I had a good experience, and this was an awesome yoga studio. I don’t think I’d make this a regular part of my yoga practice, but that’s not because of the studio or my experience-it just isn’t exactly my thing.

After class, my friend and I planned to drive down to my college and hang out in the fountains (I swear this is a normal thing! The fountains are even chlorinated!). I promptly turned in the wrong direction, and didn’t realize it until I was a few cities away. On the plus side, we passed a Panera Bread once and decided to stop in driving back past it.

I ordered the Fiji Chicken salad, with a piece of whole grain bread. Yum!

We arrived on campus and decided that frozen yogurt sounded just about right after our hot experience.

After our yogurt, the wind picked up and we nixed the fountain idea and just lounged around in the shade (because I burn sooo easily). It was so nice to catch up! We left just in time to beat most of the rush hour traffic, and then it was dinnertime!

I made Jenn‘s Baked Falafel.

I put my on top of a Greek style salad, complete with garlic hummus and Tzitziki sauce. Did you know Fage (the green yogurt brand) makes the sauce? It was good too!

The Falafel were delicious, and it was a perfect meal to have with my vegetarian sister home!

For dessert, I filled a glass with cereal, kefir, sunflower seed butter, and blueberries.

And now, I’m settled down watching the Giant’s game. It’s sad how much I missed during the school year!

Have you ever done Bikram? What are your thoughts on it?

Hey guys! I actually writing this post Saturday night, but I’ll delay it until tomorrow. That way I’ll be all caught up in case things begin to get busy (they should get busy- busy studying).

First off- HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all the mother’s out there, especially my own, who has put up with me through a lot.

Also, to all mother’s out there: make sure you’re not the only on taking pictures! Many years from now your daughter may be writing a blog post for which she will have trouble finding pictures of the two of you together.

Although she does not know it at the time I am writing this post, my sister and I are surprising her my coming back for lunch! I’ll let you know how that is tomorrow!

There are a few things I want to touch on about Saturday. First. It was very unproductive. And I skipped some events because I wanted to get things done. But that wasn’t great. It’s ok though, it was only Saturday. Some R&R is necessary.

Brunch. I have a love/hate relationship with it. The food is really good, but it completely messes up my entire eating schedule for the day. This may be why I struggle with eating well on the weekends. I went with half of a whole wheat bagel, toasted with cream cheese and eggs, plus a salad with guacamole. Half of a waffle was also consumed, although it went unphotographed.

Brunch always leads me to snacking. Which causes problems. I had a big grand workout planned, but I kept eating and then having to digest. Here are some snacks:

Greek yogurt, cranberry orange quinoa, and cocoa sesame seed butter. Citrus+chocolate works, right??

Blueberry-pomegranite kefir, zucchini bread (from the freezer), and sunflower seed butter.

Numerous other snacks included bananas with sunflower seed butter, and granola with a protein bar. Dinner was just meh but here it is:

Well guys, this is it. It is the ending of an era. That’s right, I’m finally getting over my sunflower seed butter and my yogurt obsession. Since ditching some of the sugar in my diet, I don’t find these items as enjoyable. Or maybe consuming 10,000 jars of sunflower seed butter in a quarter is too much. I’m not sure. But I’m feeling ready to move on. It’s not that I dislike these things, but they don’t hold quite the same level of joy for me as they did in the past. :'(

I may try plain yogurt and see if that is more appealing. But as it is, I only have a bit of yogurt remaining anyways. I guess I’ve been more into produce lately: fruits and veggies. Produce kind of shaped how well my week went last week; I focused more on eating fruit and veggies, and it helped me eat more healthfully overall. Which takes us to the next topic of conversation.

As any normal American, I don’t eat as nutritiously on the weekends as on the other days of the week. For me, starting Monday on a positive note is crucial, and sets the tone for the week. Last Monday, I really focused on clean eating, and ate mostly fruit and veggies (minus the pizza that may have slipped its way in). As a result, I felt great the whole week, and had no difficulty eating well. Which is why I want to try something different this Monday. Before I say anything. let me first iterate that it is not necessarily something I believe in, but just want to give a try. A juice cleanse! I was inspired when last Monday I tried Trader Joe’s Green Juice and actually enjoyed it. It is a bit sugary (from the fruit) so the plan is to mix it with a more unpalatable and veggie heavy drink. I wasn’t sure whether to blog about this, but since it’s only a day, it’s not really going to change anything anyways. And the idea has always intrigued me.

But on to the title of the post! Lately, I’ve been finding workouts online and writing them on Post-its. I regularly take these post its to the gym with me when I work out, but they get really rumply and crinkly and gross. So I decided to laminate them with tape!

Most of them are WODs, and I thought it would be easier to have them in one medium, together. The ultimate plan is to make some type of pretty poster to put on my wall that I can stick all of them to for easy access when I want to pick one for a workout. I haven’t figured that part out yet, but I’m satisfied with the finished cards!Most of them came with names, but I gave names to most of the ones that didn’t for ease of reference. For example, the one I did the other day that featured pull-ups, push ups, and squats I titled “Popeye” because it killed by arms for several days after. And Popeye has huge arm muscles, right?