yoga yoga / couscous salad
Awesome moment yesterday: there was a young guy with a violin busking in the train station. At first I just walked past and got in line for a soft pretzel, but then he started playing the Super Mario Brothers theme song! I went back and gave him my dollar and told him he was awesome. Then he played the Zelda theme. Totally made my day.
Last night I did my yoga for almost an hour. It felt sooooo good, and made me really happy. I'm continually surprised at how I can go for two weeks without yoga and still not lose much ground in my flexibility. I've found, though, that when I go without for a while, my body is so happy to be doing yoga again that the poses come really easily; the next time after that, when I'm a bit stiff from the previous workout, it's harder to get as far into the poses. Which I guess makes sense. I skipped most of the seated work last night (which I'm hoping to do tonight, as a less intensive workout), focusing on standing work, balance (really need to work on this), and strength. Did squats and pushups, backbends, tabletops, navasanas, and also added an exercise that Lauren taught me involving a chair, which really works the tricep, I think it's called--the back of the arm, the part that turns into floppy wings in very fat people. This is part of my arms I'm least happy with, so if I can tone that muscle back there, I'll be really pleased. If I can tone it noticeably in the next month or so before I'm wearing tank tops regularly, I'll be even more pleased. I'm thinking ten reps a day at least to start.
I was talking to my friend Lucia on Tuesday. She's going to take a yoga teacher training course this fall, at Yoga on Main in Manayunk. We've talked about yoga before--she's given me good pointers on places to go, and she's the one who told me about the arboretum yoga class, but for some reason I didn't realize she was that serious about it. That's awesome. It's too expensive for me to afford right now, besides just being beyond my level of expertise, but I want to keep checking in with her to see what she thinks of it, and I'll try to save up and maybe consider doing it in the spring. I would *love* to be a yoga teacher. I'm hoping that if I do the arboretum yoga class for June, then keep on top of it on my own this summer to save money (it's easier for me to stick with yoga in summer anyway), then in the fall I'll sign up with a studio and really pursue it more. And then maybe by next spring I'll be ready for a teacher training. Lucia's class is 200 hours over the course of four months I think, so it's a lot of work besides a lot of money, but it's something I really want to do eventually.
Anyway, in addition to my yoga last night, I also did a load of laundry, washed the dishes, and made my couscous salad. I was surprised--it really only takes an hour or so to make, not counting the time for the couscous to cool after it's cooked. But there's a lot of steps--cooking and draining the couscous, making the dressing in the food processor, toasting the almond slivers (which I *never* thought I'd see myself doing), hydrating and chopping the figs, dicing the red pepper. I combined it all and then left it in the fridge overnight to make sure it would really be cool before crumbling the goat cheese into it--don't want it melting and smearing in the couscous. So I have that for lunch today, and I'm all excited. And there's plenty left for the next few days, too. I *love* the couscous salad!
I meant to clean the floors last night but I just didn't get to it. Hopefully I'll do that tonight. I also want to do my yoga seated work, go to the library and the grocery store, and take a nice long bath. Grocery store might take a backseat, though.
I'm making such long-winded posts lately! Aren't you all glad work is slow right now and I can keep you updated on the minutiae of my couscous salad making??
Last night I did my yoga for almost an hour. It felt sooooo good, and made me really happy. I'm continually surprised at how I can go for two weeks without yoga and still not lose much ground in my flexibility. I've found, though, that when I go without for a while, my body is so happy to be doing yoga again that the poses come really easily; the next time after that, when I'm a bit stiff from the previous workout, it's harder to get as far into the poses. Which I guess makes sense. I skipped most of the seated work last night (which I'm hoping to do tonight, as a less intensive workout), focusing on standing work, balance (really need to work on this), and strength. Did squats and pushups, backbends, tabletops, navasanas, and also added an exercise that Lauren taught me involving a chair, which really works the tricep, I think it's called--the back of the arm, the part that turns into floppy wings in very fat people. This is part of my arms I'm least happy with, so if I can tone that muscle back there, I'll be really pleased. If I can tone it noticeably in the next month or so before I'm wearing tank tops regularly, I'll be even more pleased. I'm thinking ten reps a day at least to start.
I was talking to my friend Lucia on Tuesday. She's going to take a yoga teacher training course this fall, at Yoga on Main in Manayunk. We've talked about yoga before--she's given me good pointers on places to go, and she's the one who told me about the arboretum yoga class, but for some reason I didn't realize she was that serious about it. That's awesome. It's too expensive for me to afford right now, besides just being beyond my level of expertise, but I want to keep checking in with her to see what she thinks of it, and I'll try to save up and maybe consider doing it in the spring. I would *love* to be a yoga teacher. I'm hoping that if I do the arboretum yoga class for June, then keep on top of it on my own this summer to save money (it's easier for me to stick with yoga in summer anyway), then in the fall I'll sign up with a studio and really pursue it more. And then maybe by next spring I'll be ready for a teacher training. Lucia's class is 200 hours over the course of four months I think, so it's a lot of work besides a lot of money, but it's something I really want to do eventually.
Anyway, in addition to my yoga last night, I also did a load of laundry, washed the dishes, and made my couscous salad. I was surprised--it really only takes an hour or so to make, not counting the time for the couscous to cool after it's cooked. But there's a lot of steps--cooking and draining the couscous, making the dressing in the food processor, toasting the almond slivers (which I *never* thought I'd see myself doing), hydrating and chopping the figs, dicing the red pepper. I combined it all and then left it in the fridge overnight to make sure it would really be cool before crumbling the goat cheese into it--don't want it melting and smearing in the couscous. So I have that for lunch today, and I'm all excited. And there's plenty left for the next few days, too. I *love* the couscous salad!
I meant to clean the floors last night but I just didn't get to it. Hopefully I'll do that tonight. I also want to do my yoga seated work, go to the library and the grocery store, and take a nice long bath. Grocery store might take a backseat, though.
I'm making such long-winded posts lately! Aren't you all glad work is slow right now and I can keep you updated on the minutiae of my couscous salad making??