What's inspiring me this week

Happy Tuesday! Here's what's inspiring me this week (all pinned on Pinterest. You should follow me!)

A bad day at yoga beats a good day without it.

Surprisingly, a lot of traffic is driven to my blog from people searching things having to do with hot yoga. Guess that means I'm allowed to blog more about it :)

Like I've said before, I love Bikram. I love it so much that I sometimes wake up at 5:30 just so I can make class and so much that it makes me sad when I have to go a day without going. And honestly, in the last month-ish, I've really had very few "bad" moments in class.

Today was a really tough day in Bikram.

I knew it was going to be hard during the first breathing exercise when I was dripping sweat halfway through the first set. My concentration was somewhat shot, and I started getting frustrated during the balancing series (the second series of the class). And then, somewhere towards the end of the standing series, I started feeling like I was going to die.

The problem really amplified because instead of concentrating on my breathing, I psyched myself out. By the time we made it to spine-strengthening series, I knew I needed to leave the room.

In 28 days, this is the first time I've had to leave, and I was really embarrassed. I felt like a failure as I regrouped myself in the bathroom, and I was still embarrassed when I got back into the room. There I was, four weeks into my practice, and I had to leave the room. I was THAT girl.

But then I realized something - and I'm gonna get psuedo deep here - yoga's a lot like life. It's really good 90% of the time, 9% of the time it's hard, and then there's that 1% of the time when you feel like you're not going to make it out in one piece. But even during that 1% - whether it was yoga class today or a rough patch in your personal life- your body and your mind get you through it, and you come out on the other side a stronger person, having learned something important about yourself.

Today was hard. It certainly wasn't the best day in my practice, but I learned something about my physical limits and something about accepting every part of my practice. There isn't really a bad day at yoga because the bottom line is, I made it to class, and I devoted 90 minutes to challenging myself.

How to lose weight the healthy way

The first picture is from May of 2011, two days after I graduated college, and following my dad and I running the Historic Half. The other picture is prior to my most recent 5k, this past Saturday. The pink shirt is the same!

In a year, I’ve lost 25 pounds, two sizes, and have cut my body fat significantly. It’s been slow and steady, but I figured it might be time to blog about it and share some of what’s worked for me, in case someone out there has a few pounds to lose, and wants to do it without compromising their health or sanity.

Here's what’s worked for me:

1. Don’t expect it to be quick, and don’t get frustrated if you’re only losing 1-2 pounds a week. I think TV shows like the Biggest Loser make us feel like if we’re not losing pounds by the double digits, we’re failing. In all actuality, that show creates an unrealistic environment – unless you’re working out hours upon hours a day, being fed a regulated diet, and have lots of fat to lose, it’s just not going to happen that quickly. Patience is a virtue, and studies have shown that when you lose weight slowly, you’re more likely to keep it off.
2. No food is off limits. In the past, I had found that when I looked at certain foods as “bad,” I wanted to eat them All. The. Time. Instead, I eat what I want, when I want it, in moderation. If you’re eating well 80% of the time, the other 20% of the time isn’t going to derail your progress. At the same time, your health/fitness is 70% nutrition – what you eat has a huge impact on how you feel when you work out, how well you sleep, and, obviously, your overall health.
3. Figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. I like carbs and I like sweets – I could never give up either, so I don’t, because if I did, I’d fail. The same goes for fitness – find activities you enjoy doing, and you’ll be more apt to do them. I love running, I love lifting weights, and I love yoga, but if you love Zumba or swimming, you should be doing that.
4. Don’t just rely on the scale as a progress monitor. If you’re lifting weights, you’re probably gaining muscle, which weighs more than fat. Plus, some people just aren’t capable of weighing a certain amount (like I’m just never going to weigh 115 pounds, it’s not going to happen). I had my body fat measured to compare overall fitness levels and also just use clothes as a way to measure progress.
5. On that note, be realistic, and know why you want to lose weight. Like I said, I’m never going to weigh 115 pounds – it’s just not going to happen. I’m also never going to look like Natalie Portman, because we’re just not built the same. Realistically, I want to be fit enough to do the things I love. I want to be toned and healthy, because being fit helps me enjoy life more.

Anyways, after I saw the picture from Saturday, I figured it was time to share. Leave a comment if you have other tips!

Fake Food Friday

Part of being passionately curious includes loving to learn. In an effort to learn as much as I can, I’m currently working through the books I own that I have yet to read. I’m sure you have them too – books you bought with the intention of reading, books friends leant you, books you bought for school and never got around to reading… After going through pretty much everything I own, I went ahead and separated out the books that I own but haven’t yet read.

The first one I tackled, and finished on my ride to Rhode Island last weekend, was Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food:



I really enjoyed this book, and learned a lot about the development of the Western diet, the way our obsession with nutrition (taking lots of vitamins vs. just eating food to get nutrients), and ways to eat in order to live better and healthier. It definitely made me want to pick up the rest of Pollan’s books; I enjoy his writing style as well as the content.

Anyways, at the end, he provides food rules to follow – one of which is to just eat food. Food, not “food.” The way he puts it is that if your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, it’s not food. For example, did you realize that most breads in the supermarket today have tons of ingredients, most that are unpronounceable? Even whole grain bread? Or that skim milk isn’t just milk, but also additives to preserve flavor? In the last week, I’ve spent time reading food labels, and it’s definitely pretty eye-opening.

Which brings me to today. Last night, I was in the grocery store picking up a few things, and I came across this:



Kelloggs Krave. Obviously a “food,” and not FOOD. Inspired by my find last night, I bring you Fake Food Friday.  This may or may not become a regular feature, but I thought it’d be interesting to break down what Krave is, and isn’t.

I would guess that Krave is pretty tasty. I say I would guess because I didn’t actually purchase it, but in theory, it sounds like it could be a crunchy, delicious treat. It also sounds like it would make Cookie Crisp or Reeses Puffs look like granola. I mean, those at least spell their names right. I also kind of want to write Barbara’s and ask them to create chocolate-filled Peanut Butter Puffins (the world’s most perfect cereal). I digress.

Anyways. This is the nutrition label:



130 calories! It almost seems like a dieter’s cereal! Until you realize that it’s only for 3/4 of a cup (let’s be honest, nobody eats only 3/4 of a cup of cereal) and that it only offers two grams of protein. Which means you’re going to krave, errr crave, more pretty quickly.

The ingredients list has over 30 ingredients. Some of which I can’t pronounce. And the first two ingredients are Chocolate Flavored Filling (read: sugar) and sugar. Plus four different artificial colors. WHY on earth do we have a need to artificially color our “food?”

Last lesson from this edition of FFF": if you have to add the vitamins and minerals, it’s probably not Food. And Krave? Krave is definitely “food.”

Plus the font on the packaging reminds me of an alien.

Should Fake Food Friday become an ongoing feature? And more importantly, has anyone tried it? Is it tasty?

Happy National Running Day!

Today was National Running Day, so obviously I celebrated every way I knew how:

Running four miles, having a great upper body workout, and then going to Bikram class. It turns out that it's 1.9 miles to my gym, so I took advantage of the beautiful weather and ran there, did an extra .2 miles on the treadmill, did my upper body workout, and then ran back. It was really a great run, and I averaged right around an 8:40 mile, which is a great pace for me! I can really tell that my body and fitness level are changing with the workouts I've been doing. I also got to go to Bikram tonight, and it was a really emotional class, although I'm not sure why. When I was coming out of camel (essentially a back bend when standing up on your knees), I just started crying! Apparently this is fairly normal, and the instructor told me after class that this can be a good thing since this pose especially sometimes unlocks built up emotions. Weird.

Signing up for a 5k. Surprise! I've decided that I'm running a 5k on Saturday. It's in Sterling through neighborhoods, and I'm hoping to run well.. Time goal is to get it under 30:00, which I know sounds really slow, but I haven't run one in a while! And my all time PR is somewhere around 27:00, so I'm (now not so) secretly hoping to break 27:00, since I've been running so well.

Buying a new running shirt. I got this baby in ruby red from Dick's  today, and I love it! It's kind of like a jersey, but way cuter and perfect for both Bikram and running. I wore it to yoga today with my black Nike Pro spandex shorts and a black sports bra.

 

Treating myself  to my new favorite drink at Starbucks. Since taking up Bikram, I crave water and Starbucks Passion Tea literally All. The. Time. So today, I got a trenta Iced Passion Tea with no sweetener, and added my own Splenda. I felt zero bad about it.

Telling you my favorite treadmill workout! Okay, so this is my gift to you for National Running Day. I love running outside when the weather is nice, but sometimes it's too hot or it's thunderstorming, and this workout is perfect for that! 

Time                         Incline                         Speed

0:00-6:00                      1.0                                 6.5

6:00-9:00                      1.0                                 4.5

9:00-14:00                    1.0                                 6.5

14:00-16:30                  1.0                                 4.5

16:30-20:30                  1.0                                 6.5

20:30-22:30                  1.0                                 4.5

22:30-25:30                  1.0                                 6.5

25:30-27:00                  1.0                                 4.5

27:00-29:00                  1.0                                 7.5

29:00-30:00                  1.0                                 4.5

30:00-31:00                  1.0                                 7.5
31:00-60:00                  15.0                               4.0

The thing I love most about this workout is that it's challenging the whole time, and that it's never boring because you're not really going at one pace for that long (besides the end). I love walking uphill on the treadmill because it's great for your legs and a great calorie burner. Something that I learned from Runner's World and other healthy living blogs is that whenever you're running on a treadmill, you should always set it to at least a 1.0 incline, because this best mirrors running on a road or trail.

Did you do anything fun to celebrate National Running Day? Leave me a comment!

My first two weeks with Bikram Yoga

It's officially been a little over two weeks since I began my love affair with Bikram, or hot, yoga. It's something I had wanted to try for a while, and finally bit the bullet and signed up for my first class at Bikram Yoga Fairfax.

When I arrived, I was told that my goal for my first class was to just try to stay in the room. Not exactly what I would have expected to be told before starting a yoga class.

Bikram yoga is a sequence of 26 asanas, or postures, practiced in a room heated to 105 degrees at 40% humidity. Translation: you sweat A LOT. As in, there is sweat everywhere: on your towel, in your eyes, dripping off of your body. Sounds awesome, right?

Each class takes exactly 90 minutes, and is exactly the same each time. Which you would think gets boring, but instead, is challenging in a new way every day.

Since I took my first class, I've gone back each day, with the exception of when I was out of town. Sometimes, I have to wake up at 5:30 in order to fit it in my schedule. If you know me, I don't do that. Well, I didn't do that. Bikram makes me do weird things.

I wanted to take up Bikram not only to increase my fitness (you burn up to 900 calories each 90 minute session) and flexibility, but in order to work stuff out in my head.

I notice a difference in the clarity of my thinking between days that I go to class and days that I do not.

I guess that's the most major thing I've learned from my first two weeks. I wanted to share the top ten things that I've learned with you in case you want to try it out (hint: you should). Here's the top 10:

1. Regularly practicing Bikram absolutely produces results beyond fitness. Some that I've noticed include: increase mental clarity, increased confidence (some of the asanas are pretty hard, and it's awesome when you do well in a posture), and increased self-awareness (I mean, you're literally staring at yourself for 90 minutes).
2. Sweating that much actually feels really awesome, and is pretty good for you too. Within the first week of my practice, my skin had noticeably cleared up.
3. You want to wear as little clothing as possible. I went to my first class in a tank top and leggings. Just wear the sports bra and spandex shorts - no one is judging you, and it feels so much cooler.
4. Don't go to class dehydrated. It's miserable. And if you're showing up less than properly hydrated, it's too late to chug the water in class. It goes so much better when you've spent the day drinking lots and lots of water.
5. Breathe in and out of your nose like the teacher says, not through your mouth. If you have to breathe through your mouth, you're pushing yourself too hard, and you're most likely distracting everyone else around you.
6. It's important to be aware of where you're putting your mat, and to make sure you're not blocking the view of the mirror from those set up behind you. A lot of people arrive early to set up and then go straight into savasana (dead body pose) until the start of class. This means that if you set up directly in front of them, they'll have to go through the first four postures without being able to see themselves, which is important for both focus and improvement.
7. Don't talk in the yoga room. Not even whispering. Not even before or after class. It messes with everyone else's zen/concentration.
8. Go every day, or at least as much as you can. Obviously, you'll still get the health benefits from Bikram by going 2-3 times a week, but it's about so much more than that. The working on yourself/self realization/etc is best achieved from going every day -- it means that you're giving yourself at least 90 minutes to just focus on you.
9. Every person shows up to class because they're working through something - physical, mental, emotional. Even the girl in the front row with six pack abs. Because the fact of the matter is, it's the same 26 postures each time; the only part of the equation that changes is you.
10. One of the biggest things that Bikram yoga teaches is how to have your patience beat your ego. With many of the postures, it's so tempting to just keep going to try to get to the "end result," rather than getting each smaller step right before going on to the more difficult complete posture. It requires you to know your body and your limits and to be at peace with the fact that even if you can't do the full posture during that class, one day you will be able to. It's the importance of hard work and patience and humility all at the same time.

I think a lot of us don't think that we have 90 minutes every day to spend on ourselves - our mental, physical, emotional health and well-being. I know because I used to think that too. But our mental, physical, emotional health and well-being affects everything we do - it impacts how we treat others, how we handle situations, and our outlook on life. I think Bikram puts it pretty well:

"They say the most important thing is God, water, wind, family, children, love -- all bull. The most important thing in your life is you."

Blog redesign coming!

Hi readers! I'm sure there must be a few of you still, despite the fact that I a) haven't blogged in over a month, and b) am no longer CDC Jen.

Just wanted to drop a quick post to let you know that I'm working on a redesign/redevelopment of my blog. As a hint to the new direction I'm taking it, I'll leave you with this:

Passionately curious has a pretty nice ring to it, doesn't it? :)