yoga

A ROCO Ray of Sunshine

As the music rises to a crescendo this fine Friday morning, let the congregation say ROCO! Yes, my friends, it is time. You have made it through another week. It may not have looked like any other week prior, but you made it nonetheless. So lift your glasses and shake your asses because the Rev. SteelerShyner, along with the congregation, says ROCO.

Don’t ya just hate it when a short work week feels like it took six days? I know that I sure do. I don’t even dislike my job. I mean, the people are nice, the work is easy (I guess if I had to complain about something, it would be that), I can wear whatever I want, and no one ever microwaves fish or burns popcorn in the microwave. Win. But this still did feel like a long week. Perhaps that’s because we threw a tropical storm/baby hurricane into the mix. Truly it was just a lot of rain and a little wind. At least in my area.

Ok, back to this weekend idea. Usually, folks say “I’m gonna start this new thing on Monday” but I said who’s got time so I got back to my meditation this morning. Meditation is one of those things that really does not take a large amount of time, but it does make a difference when practiced regularly. My logical mind knows this, and yet my monkey mind always has a million reasons why I don’t have those 10 or 15 minutes. Well this morning, I threw a banana over in the corner to occupy the monkey so I could get my meditation on.

Something I’ve been struggling with recently is keeping focus. I kind of only notice it when my workouts slip. Or, I guess I only do anything about it when my workouts slip. This morning I started a Finding Focus course. 30 sessions. Monkey mind would say ‘you don’t have 30 days to try to focus; you need to focus today’ but the reality is that if I don’t start today, in 30 days I’ll be in the same place as I am right now. That fucking monkey is a real asshole.

In the course of today’s meditation, we did some visualizations which were interesting. For the most part we were placing focus on different areas in the body, most of which aligned with different chakras. Chart below if you’re curious. Link below that for more info.

https://7chakrastore.com/blogs/news/chakra-char

What was interesting this morning was that during my visualizations, I’m shining a bright white light on these areas. We did the sacral, heart, throat, third eye, and crown. Every time, chakra work is different, or at least it is for me. If I had to take a guess, I’d say that both my sacral and third eye chakras are blocked, but oddly enough, my crown chakra is wide open and brighter than a motherfucker. Now, I could look at that in two ways. Either all of that crown energy is going to dissipate because I haven’t gotten my third eye open, or all of that crown energy is going to combust and shit is gonna hit the fan, the walls, the ceiling and everywhere else. Considering that it could go either way or some other crazy way, perhaps I’ll just do some work on that third eye.

Even with blockages, it was easy to find a mantra for focus. I’m a motherfucking ray of light and I radiate love. I’m a motherfucking ray of light and I openly receive love. I’m a motherfucking ray of light and I speak honestly and with clarity. I’m a motherfucking ray of light and I see clearly. You see, all the years I’ve been doing yoga actually did sink in. When I am able to be fully clear, I’ll be a motherfucking ray of light and oh shit she’s back. So yeah, there’s that for me to look forward to and for you to be concerned about, lol.

In the meantime, I think I’m going to go ahead and get back on my focus train. The bills are getting paid but I think I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me enough that I could be paying them another way if I simply applied myself for once in my fucking life. So here I go. I’m putting Shyne all over that shit.

Have a great weekend!

The Journey Does Not End

First off, I just love this song. Secondly, because I don’t really watch much TV any more and I didn’t know anyone still made videos, I had no idea that this existed. I also don’t watch movies so I don’t even know what, if any, movie this is from. Plus, it just went along with today’s theme.

And what is today’s theme, ladies and gentlemen? Why, fitness, of course. And I don’t mean fitness this whole slice of pizza in my mouth. I’ve been active ever since childhood. I come from that generation where in the summer, you got up early, ran around the neighborhood playing hard all day, probably stopped for a snack at some point but maybe not because there was just too much playing to do, and went home before the streetlights came on. Weight wasn’t something I ever thought about and that’s a good thing. Flexibility is also something I never thought about. That is not a good thing.

In early adulthood, I worked in a lot of jobs that kept me on my feet, be it working outside or working in a restaurant. That was in the days before Fitbit. I can only imagine how many Fitbits restaurant warriors are going through these days (or pre/post pandemic). Again, never thought about exercise. When I moved on from restaurants but stayed within hospitality, I did slip up for a little bit and put on some pounds, but I lost it all again and kept it off because we were hella active in our roles.

Once I left hospitality and ventured into, eww, corporate America, I stopped moving around as much. There were work lunches and snacks and all kinds of crap. I slipped again. It was the fact that I was going to meet up with some old hospitality buddies that had me look at myself and say, “Oh girl, we better do something with *points to my body* all of this.” And so I did. I saw an infomercial for a program that looked like fun. It said that it was full of dance. I didn’t have to get on the floor. It didn’t take super long per workout. I pulled the trigger and ordered it. That program was Hip Hop Abs. And that was thirteen years ago.

Fast forward a couple years and I’m still doing the corporate America thing. I haven’t fallen off the deep end by any means, but I’m getting married soon and of course I want to be on top of my game. I was willing to do what it took. And what that took was a 12 week program called P90X. I looked fan-fucking-TASTIC on my wedding day. It’s true!

Hawt

For a while I rotated between the programs I had. Then I joined a gym because it was SUPER cheap through my job for a REALLY nice gym. I stopped lifting weights and instead went to Zumba twice a week in the evenings and did yoga for 75 minutes three times a week. And pole, and trapeze, and hike in the summer and snowboard in the winter. Right, I was a little active.

I think it was about this time that I was introduced to Beachbody On Demand. I already knew that they had churned out a couple programs that I had already done. I saw that there were more programs by the people that I already had done their programs. That made it a pretty easy decision to go ahead and sign up. All of the signs were there: the per year cost was less than the gym even with the steep discount, no travel left a few more morning minutes, my favorite yoga instructor was leaving, I was already set up for a home gym that was collecting dust. It’s early 2017.

There is literally a plethora of programs that fit everyone and I’ve been running through them. I think I’ve gone through a total of 20 at this point, and they keep releasing programs. I’ll never be bored.

Over the time that I’ve been doing these programs, I’ve been on social media. Now and then I would post about doing one of the programs, and, inevitably, a Beachbody coach would reach out and ask me if I was interested in becoming a Beachbody coach too. Four years of no thank you to whomever asked, but I kept doing the programs.

Well, after all those asks, I finally said yes recently and now, I am a Beachbody coach. But what does that even mean? Truthfully, it means different things to different people. Some folks get in to have play money, some work at it to make it their full time job. I’ve heard people are making 6 figures at this. But that’s not it for me. I don’t care if I don’t make any money at all. I really don’t. I have a 9-5 that takes care of that. What I do want is to keep exercising and reaching my goals and I want to walk alongside you in your journey to do the same. I want to encourage you. I’ll kick you in the ass (virtually) if needed. You want me to nag you? I can. But none of it happens if you don’t take the first step and sign up.

Is it free? No, it isn’t. But it also isn’t over-the-top expensive. I bet that you go to Starbucks or McDonald’s or even WaWa twice a month. Yeah, so for the cost of that twice a month over the course of a year, you could be working out with me and a whole bunch of other people. You could be getting into the best shape you’ve been in for a while. You could be putting yourself into a position where, when you do go into Starbucks or McDonald’s, you won’t feel bad about it at all because it’s a treat from the work you’ve been putting in. And you’ll see results. You don’t need to be a slave to the scale. Your clothes will fit differently. You’ll have more energy. But you know, that’s just me talking after doing this for more than ten years.

Ok, last bit because I’ve gone and gotten long-winded. I just started as a coach and already, I have had an insanely cool opportunity. I got to chat with Shaun T, who created that first program I started with, Hip Hop Abs, and his hubby on their weekly Wine Night IG live. The fun levels are off the charts. So yeah, you could join me at the Virtual Fit Inn. Cuz the Fit Inn is where we get it in. And maybe one day you’ll be talking to a Beachbody trainer on IG live. Til then, lemme know if you’re ready to sweat. And here’s a chat screenshot.

Shhhhh!

OMG SHUT UP!

Awwwww shit. Two days in a row! And that means absolutely nothing. Even though it’s likely that I’ll make it through the week, weekends have been and continue to be my downfall. That’s truly terrible. It isn’t as though my job is so stressful that I need some major relaxation on the weekends.

Sidebar: Remember yesterday I was talking about AWESOMESAUCE bosses? Well, today, current boss emailed me this morning with kudos on a catch I made a couple weeks ago that the customer’s IT dept hadn’t caught. In the thread, she had even stated that I found it. If you’re in corporate America, you know that this isn’t the norm, unfortunately. Again, big ups to the current boss lady. Who will probably never see this.

I fall into these habits of just lazing around the house. I mean, after I teach and we grocery shop and clean the house every other weekend. The couch is my mortal enemy (and the new one will be here in the next 60 days so I will have a new comfortable battle to fight but that’s another story) and I struggle to escape its comfy grasp, however I know that I can prevail.

On to today’s topic: silence.

I’m going to go ahead and guess that most people live in either the silence camp or the background noise camp. Or perhaps you have a preference for different situations. Personally, I’m pretty strong on team STFU. Oooh, I wonder if this preference correlates with the setting in which you grew up. I’m a country girl and I prefer silence. Hubby is a city boy and prefers background noise. Has this been proven yet or am I just science-ing it up over here? SCIENCE!

It isn’t like I never want sound in my life. I’m not that strange. Cooking? Cleaning? Dancing? Working out? Movement in general? Yep, pump up the jams. Working? Reading? Sleep? Please shut it all down. Even right now, as I write this, I have music in my headphones and that’s probably why it’s taking me well over an hour to finish this one post. I get sidetracked because I’ll hear a lyric and go off on a tangent and get sucked into some YouTube or other hole and forget what I was doing. Hey look, a squirrel!

I started to chastise myself about jumping around from topic to topic here, but stream of consciousness is how I do things. Perhaps if I can get back into the groove of writing regularly, I’ll start to make sense again, but until then it seems like these posts will just be brain dumps. *shrugs*

And with that, on to the next topic, lol. Back in July, I completed a 100 hour yoga training in a facet of Ashtanga yoga called Rocket yoga. I kept up with my practice fairly consistently through August but then I fell off. I’ve been focused on weighted cardio for the last few months, but my body has been looking for something different. I had a, wait for it, limiting belief (yeah, only some people will get that but that’s ok, it’s for those that do, lol) that I couldn’t get both done because there simply wasn’t enough time in my day.

Well, the lie detector test revealed that this was a lie. When I simply sat down and wrote down the things that I wanted to do and the time in which I had to do them, I found that I did indeed have time if I just stopped fucking around.

In case you aren’t familiar, Ashtanga and Rocket are not what most people think of when they hear yoga. It is, of course, the same poses that one would traditionally see, but the sequencing is different and specific and kicks you square in your lily white ass. Notice I said YOUR ass because I didn’t describe MY ass. In regards to MY ass, it was sore along with many other parts of my body after jumping back in to practice. But after three days back in, muscle memory has kicked back in and I’m feeling less sore and more floaty.

The plan is to keep hitting up the yoga for this month and then add the weighted cardio back in when we hit the new year. You might not know me, but I know me and I gotta add stuff in a little at a time or I blow the whole thing up and go back to zero. If you remember yesterday I mentioned my eight things to do daily. I hit them all but one yesterday. Aiming for all of them today. Wish me luck and come back tomorrow to see how I did. 🙂

It’s. My. Life.

 

It’s my life
It’s now or never
I ain’t gonna live forever
I just want to live while I’m alive

Sometimes, we (meaning I), just completely forget this. It is my life. I’m not gonna live forever. And I do want to LIVE while I’m alive.  It really literally isn’t now or never, but figuratively, it might as well be.

Last night I was handed some interesting news regarding my job. Nothing bad, just something that may cause me to be way more “in front” than I was planning to be quite so soon. While my job has been new and exciting thus far, things are gonna ramp straight up to overdrive next month.

After I had some time to absorb this news, I started thinking about my own well-being. I started thinking about the things that I’ve seen others do that I want to be able to do. I started reminiscing about the things that I used to be able to do and my body balks at them now. And I started thinking about how if I didn’t make a change, there would be no changes forthcoming.

Typically, I would have this revelation and then say to myself, OK! We’ll start this on Monday. But that’s how I would usually do things and the usual way hasn’t been getting things done. I decided to start this morning. During the week, I’m always up at 5 to get my workout/yoga in before I start work. I slack for a while and check Facebook/Instagram/email/Candy Crush before I get moving. Then before I know it, I’ve wasted too much time and I haven’t gotten everything done that I wanted to do.  Yes, I’ve wasted too much time to complete things in an almost 3 hour window.  Moral of the story: smartphones are the devil.

With this newfound (ha!) insight into my life, I figured I would try something new. The devil was to stay on its charger until AFTER I finished all the things I needed to do and it could come out to play when it was Instagram time. Whaddaya know, it worked! This morning I got my groove back with Cize (Shaun T), then probably bruised up my core with my weighted hoop, and finished it off with some yoga focused on the second chakra as it is Sacral September after all. Know what? It felt great! Something as simple as leaving that fucking phone alone left me all kinds of time this morning. Even enough time to buzz and gua sha my leg.

Buzz = using my magic wand to loosen up muscles and gua sha = something similar to Graston which you’re just gonna have to look up on your own. You’re welcome. You learned something today.

Even though it’s only been one day, I feel that I am now on the right path. I can start to believe that I am exactly where I need to be. This path of putting down the electronics and getting on the mat and being more present is where I need to be. A little more fit and a little more happy is where I need to be. I can see the path I should be on to meander around where I need to be and perhaps those branches that lead to where I can go.

I’m a work in progress, even at 41 years old. I’ll probably always be a work in progress and that’s ok. If you’re not making progress, then what are you doing? Question I had to ask myself. Do you need to ask it of yourself? Are you where you need to be? Do you know how to get there? Do you even want to? These questions – and many others – can only be answered by you….or the next episode of Soap. ( I SO hope that the theme song started playing in your head!)

Until the next time, all 4 of my readers, I hope you find all that you are seeking.

Ha! Hoo Ha!

Ah yes, the kung fu. This song was number one on the charts somehow when I turned 21. I am NOT that old.

So, hey, September already. Summer is pretty much gone and snowboarding is right around the corner. Someone wanna explain where all that time went? Please?!?!

With August came a new job. First month down and it’s been interesting to say the least. First time working in a true startup. I have so many ideas but I really have to try to dole them out a little at a time. I can be overwhelming. 😀

Now I’m mostly into the swing of things and I’m taking multi-tasking to a whole new level. It’s kinda crazy but fun. And keeping on that multi-tasking idea, I’ve gotten back on my yoga mat. I’ve been pretty disconnected but I’m working my way back. I’m spending this month focusing on the sacral chakra, where creativity and emotions lie. I’m hoping that opening that bad boy up will help with my writing processes along with some other issues that need to be addressed. I’m ready. After doing nothing all of August thanks to injury, it’s time. Cardio with Shaun T every day, yoga every day, handstands every day, or at least attempts at them. Hopefully I’ll come away with something that makes it all click a little better on Saturday’s handstand workshop.

While it’s only September, and the beginning of it at that, can I tell you that I’m getting excited for Christmas? I know, I know. It’s way too early to even be thinking about Christmas and usually, I wouldn’t be. However, since we moved, I now have an absolute shit-ton of space which means I can put up both the tree AND the village this year. Bradford Exchange is not helping my problems by showing me stuff like this:

download

In case you didn’t know, I just love me some collectibles. And if your decision is to hate on the Steelers, that’s your business, please just move it along. I won’t be using this space to defend myself or whom I support. Anywho, it’s a big Christmas year this year! I still don’t want to deal with presents (and we mostly don’t), but I’mma decorate the shit outta this house.

Other notes of interest, to me at least, include that I should have some more fun photos at the beginning of next month. I swear that one day, I will get better at being in front of the camera. I need to learn to relax out there (I should probably just have a beer first) and try to enjoy myself…and stop looking at the photographer. Photogs around the world likely just can’t stand working with people like me, lol. Totally uncomfortable, face-making, no pose having, only look good when I’m guffawing with a totally open mouth people. That’s me.

You’d think that I’d have more to talk about, but no. So with that, I wish you a great day. It’s hump day after all, Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike. Peace!