Tapping Out

Glass Bottom Boat, Negril

Had a great weekend including a three-hour yoga retreat reunion dinner at a Jamaican restaurant. Of course, I didn't get much done in the way of chores but that's the way it usually goes...

During the reunion dinner, talked with this woman, Emma, who hasn't been going to yoga lately because she's taken up Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai. Emma will be glad when she's better at her activities so that she can stop wearing long-sleeved shirts because of scratches and bruises. She also talked about "tapping out" when the fighting gets to be too much. I also like how Emma talked about her goal was to get to two yoga classes this week. I love yoga goals.

Voiced my opinion about how we should have the equivalent of tapping out in yoga and Joy piped up to saucily say Child's pose is your tap out. So funny and she's right and I do have to say that the pose of the child is one of my favorite yoga poses. I like for my energy centers to be close to the ground.

I'm also craving more yoga. I've been averaging two classes per week but my other activities don't leave much room for going to a studio so I'm planning to get with the program and get more serious about a home practice. I'm not planning on an hour-long situation but it would be nice to get in 15 to 20 minutes.

Technically None But...

Pose of The Child (On Top of Glass Bottom Boat)

So, what I forgot to mention about Erin in the previous post is that she enjoys giving massages and I just want to put this out in the universe. Erin, if you need to practice a new technique, I'm your woman!!!

One of the questions on the customs' declaration form asks how many family members you're traveling with and I found it hard to write zero. Technically, the answer was zero but part of my yoga family was traveling with me.

It was unbelievable how fast Saturday and the end of the yoga retreat arrived. I could have stayed another day or two but eight of us piled into a van and headed to Montego Bay yesterday. When we arrived in Orlando, found out that the plane had been delayed for two hours. No problem. Those two hours felt like thirty minutes since we were able to enjoy each other's company.

When I got home, had an email from Laura who said that reggae music had been playing on the radio and that she missed me already. I miss/ed her too...

Home

Little One in Front of Me

Fast forward to Sunday morning. I woke around 5:00 a.m. and tears fell. I am now used to having breakfast with at least five people and traveling with an even larger posse...

Went to the library and got Bob and Ziggy Marley CDs then headed to Jay International to get nutmeg. I cannot face oatmeal without nutmeg now. I also bought Busy Signal's Text Message which I found very amusing while the video played in a Jamaican cab. Dang, just thought about how Whitney likes to say JK (just kidding).

Rooster around 7-ish

Yoga After All

Struggled to get to yoga even though I had extra time. Others struggled too because there weren't many people in class until right before it started.

When there was still plenty of real estate, this guy put his mat precisely in front of mine. I adjusted my mat and tried not to be annoyed because it is yoga after all. It's the same way that I try not to be annoyed with the guy who works out before yoga but waits until after the class has started before he comes in.

Of course, both of those guys help to make up the troupe that creates such nice energy...

As we were in child's pose, Gloria said something about how you bring all of your energy centers to the earth. I forget about stuff like that. Can't remember the sequence but it was definitely a kind of earth salutation.

Always Ready for Child's Pose

Not only did I sleep until almost noon yesterday but I also couldn't keep my eyes open past 10:30. I slept so much that I didn't have a problem making it to kettlebell class this a.m. where Marisa went for the soft kill. Instead of 10 minute circuits, she threw five minute ones at us with the same result: a beat down a very good workout.

Marisa showed us some burpee trifecta situation. You do a burpee, squat thruster and something else.

Marisa: How did you like that?

Me: Anything that starts with burpee is not good.

Marisa: I like burpees.

Me: Freak...

Kinda regretted saying freak but I think Marisa knew that I was joking...

I love it when Barbara goes into child's pose during a break; it looks so inviting. I told Barbara that it made me think of one of my yoga instructors who said, "When you're ready to go into child's pose..." When I'm ready? I'm always ready for child's pose...

Marisa showed me how to do the high pull and I'm definitely going to need more practice. I think about stuff way too much and hesitation doesn't work with the high pull.

The 'Drea Slayer

I used to think that salmon and shrimp were the ultimate 'Drea slayers but standing at about 5'3 and 110 pounds, Kate is proving to be a formidable opponent.

Heel. Heel. Heel.

I almost checked to see if there was a dog but it was Kate's reminder for us to get our heels down while doing jumping jacks since we didn't want our calves to miss out on any action.

Kate's other chant for the night was:

Quicker, quicker, quicker.

They're already called fast feet; what more do you want Kate?

We did cardio in eight minute sets tonight and that's what almost killed 'Drea.

Suck those abs in.

Girlfriend was expecting us to do a lot at once. We were sucking and shuffling and jumping and my abs couldn't keep up.

We're going to do a lot of hopping tonight.

I was very aware of this fact as I hopped from one leg to the other.

And the thing about your tires, Kate said, they're far apart.

Of course, why wouldn't they be?

I hate imaginary tires.

We worked on our abs and glutes and it's funny how everyone, instinctively, went into child's pose at the end of the glutes portion of the program.

I feel like I'm yelling a lot tonight.

I love people who are self-aware.

Tonight, I left the push-ups alone since my arms are still sore from trying to climb that 5.8b on Sunday.

When I told Patti about my sore arms, she wrote:

No pain, no gain?

Believe it or not, I had forgotten about that expression.

We stretched on the floor after ab work then stood up. I really dug a simple stretch that just involved placing your hands in the small of your back. I also dug a kind of reverse Namaste gesture; you place your coupled hands at the top of your back. I can use these simple stretches in my arsenal...

I had Healthified Mexican Pasta Skillet for dinner. I got the recipe off of my recently delivered Eat Better America calendar. It was very easy to make and pretty tasty.