Yoga 20110

I just read Run DMTs 2011 year-long recap and sat thinking for a few minutes about what has changed for me this past year.

My office moved, my older daughter became more social, we launched Digital Running…

But the biggest impact on my year was Yoga.

I’ve been practicing yoga for about 8 years. I got introduced to yoga in an odd way. A friend of mine makes music for kids. She’s also been practicing Yoga for most of her life. She decided to put the two passions together and make a video for kids of Yoga put to song to help children learn yoga. She asked if my daughters would like to be in the video. The teacher in the video was Haris Lender, my first Yoga teacher, and now the owner of Kidding Around Yoga, a company that teaches adults how to teach yoga to kids. She has programs for yoga instructors and non-yogis alike – anyone who spends time with children, she has CDs and an adult yoga DVD and lots of fun ways to teach yoga to kids through interactive stories that incorporate yoga poses.

In December 2010, a woman approached my graphic design company about putting together a logo and website for her new Yoga studio. The studio is less than 2 miles from my house. We bartered a bit, and suddenly my occasional yoga practice done in front of the TV  or with my MP3 player in the back of Wendy’s karate class became a regular practice with a teacher, a class, and a mirror. There was more time spent on yoga, more sweat because of yoga, more of my friends joining me at yoga, and I finally stuck my crow pose. I learned more about bandas and mastered a calming breath I can easily slip in to when necessary. I’ve learned a lot more about my physical capabilities and imbalances. I can pinpoint my physical and mental ailments. I know what it means to focus with intent.

I feel more complete when I practice yoga. Yoga is to my workout what my husband is to my marriage.

I think anyone can do yoga at any point in their lives. And I wish everyone would give it a try! Sometimes it’s fast, sometimes it’s slow. Sometimes it’s calming and sometimes it’s invigorating! Each teacher I try – whether in person or on TV – leaves with a little golden nugget I add to my practice. Something they say just sticks with me and reminds me to spread my fingers wider or picture the crown of my head as a many-petaled lotus flower reaching for the heavens.

I don’t have a New Years Resolution this year. Instead, I focus on a different intention each time I practice yoga. It’s much more refreshing and consistent. I much prefer to focus on small goals for the moment than large goals for the year.

I did not suddenly find yoga this year, but I was able to dedicate much more time, energy and focus on yoga this year, and I love the benefits!

just for fun…0

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Laughing all the way1

Last week was the Jingle Bell Run. My morning workout buddy, B, met me by the St Pete Pier for the 2.9 mile wanna-be 5k. I’d like to say we were laughing all the way, but the last 3/4 I really pushed and could hardly talk. It felt good though to be able to tell myself “You’re almost there, just keep giving it your all until the finish line,” and then actually following through with it. I don’t always listen to my own voice in my head. I’ve given myself a small challenge – not at all running related. Every once and a while I get about 6 grey hairs. I have stopped pulling them out. Just to see if I can keep the promise to myself despite the temptation. Then maybe I can ignore my mother in law’s amazing fudge. Or push the final mile instead of the final 3/4… if you can’t trust the promises you make to yourself, what can you believe in?

Speaking of Laughing All the Way… I’m working on some family photos cards. I send New Years Cards for 2 reasons:
1. we’re not Christian, so we don’t send Christmas cards.
2. Almost everyone we send a card to the kids get a gift from, and they have to send a Thank You note anyway, so this doubles as a thank you note.
Our photos for the card came out OK, but there’s not a great one of the 4 of us, or a great one of the 2 girls together. So I’ve been playing in Photoshop with these…

******SPOILER ALERT******

4 Darrows but Brian not quite smiling

Card #2 starring Wendy with a cast on her arm

Card 3 backed by a photo I took of Alice

We decided “Laughing all the way” was too Christian. Actually, the song Jingle Bells has nothing to do with Christmas – the lyrics are about a sleigh ride. But don’t try explaining that to an 84-year-old Jewish great grandmother!

Saturday I ran with a friend from yoga. We did almost 3 miles and ended back along the water where there was a yoga for charity class, all money benefiting sharks. I love outdoor yoga when the weather is nice. There was a light mist in the air which kept me cool, and had the sky been a bit bluer it would have been perfect. But we got to see white pelicans out in the Bay during class, which are apparently rare. And everyone got a blue marble, so we’re now all part of the Blue Marble Game. I know who I want to pass mine to!

can you find me?

That night Brian and I went to a Grinchmas party and I saw “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” for the first time. Yes, the cartoon, for the first time. It’s an annual party but I am usually socializing or popping in and out with other parties to attend. This time I plunked myself down and watched the movie!

Sunday I took a friend out shopping. In May I lost a dear friend to cancer, and her 14 year old daughter was in desperate need of new underthings. 5 hours later she got 7 bras, 11 pairs of panties, some clothes, some holiday gifts, and I had a few items too. We had Bra 101 lessons: wear dark under black, wear nude under white, wear the right band size so hopefully you don’t sag in the future, wear a sports bra that does it’s job, bras shouldn’t dig or poke, etc. I think she was relieved to not have to bra shop with dad.

In the evenings, my girls are busy with studying for midterms, science fair, history fair and the like. I’m planning winter break and Ragnar Florida Keys. Therefore, I’ll have to try to get all AM workouts in this week. This morning was 75 mins core yoga, and I think tomorrow is boot camp in the park. Off I go to plan the circuit! Other than running, what’s your favorite outdoor workout?

This is not good for you…0

… but the kids will thank you for it!

We forget about dirt pudding. But then suddenly every couple of years we remember again and the whole family needs it. This was Thanksgiving dessert, and then I made it over the weekend for a Cross Country party, and I’ll make it next week for a soccer party — because I know the kids will love it, and sometimes I just don’t want to be the mom who bring the apple slices and grapes.

Dirt Pudding Pie Recipe

Ingredients

• 32 chocolate sandwich cream filled cookies (real or fake Oreos)
• 2 TB butter
• 2 pkgs JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding (the small ones.)
• 2 cups cold milk
• small tub thawed COOL WHIP – lite is OK

Directions

1. Crush 24 of the cookies. Melt the butter and mix with the crushed cookies to make crust. Press into bottom of 9 or 10 inch pie pan or springform pan.
2. BEAT pudding mixes and milk with whisk 2 min.; spoon half into crust.
3. STIR COOL WHIP into remaining pudding; crush remaining cookies and stir into this mixture. Spoon over pudding layer in crust.
4. Refrigerate until ready to serve (At least 20 mins)

For an added touch, you can put a few gummy worms coming out of the “dirt”.

Brian wants to try this with peanut butter Oreos, but we haven’t yet. If you do, please let us know how it tastes!

Video of our TN Ragnar Relay Experience0

For the 2011 Tennessee Ragnar Relay, Brian and I put together a team of total strangers from the web for 200 miles of overnight relay running.  Anything could have happened, but in actuality it couldn’t have gone much better. Brian was a little hopeful that one of the team members would not show up so he could be a runner instead of a driver/captain. But everyone came. We had a dedicated driver in Van 1 whose wife was in that van, and Brian drove Van 2 while I was his navigator/sidekick.

I was a little concerned about drama in the vans. We had some friends in a stressed out van one time and they did not have nearly as much as we did on the race. But everyone got along and even became friends, signing up for future races together. They taught each other how to Tweet, shared secrets about pre-race meals, and celebrated each others Road Kills on the side of the van. There may have been a vinyl-cling skeleton whose member got longer – like Pinocchio’s nose – only skeletons don’t have noses if you know what I mean.

The only bad part was when my sleeping bag went missing and I was frozen when trying to sleep. But since we only had about 3 hours to sleep, it wasn’t that big of a deal. The foliage was gorgeous, the finish line was a great area, and the rolling hills were a nice change from Florida (because I did not have to run them.)

Here’s how it all turned out in video form:

If you like that video even a little, please, please, please vote for it by clicking HERE. Scroll BELOW the sign up form (you don’t need to fill it out) and click the little “vote” square underneath our video labeled by “by Brian”. We’ve got a solid hold on second place, but we need the win for a free entry into next year’s TN Relay worth $1200. Do it now. Pretty please.

I’m so excited that this relay went so well, and the feedback was word for word what we had hoped for.

“All I had to do was show up and run.”

“It was so nice not to have to think about where to be – when, and just let you handle the logistics.”

“You really thought of everything and it was great having an experienced team captain.”

I could not have written better lines for our runners to say! And they liked our Drink Chia too! (Chia is totally the way to go to hydrate, avoid colds, and keep from getting those post-running headaches.)

Our Florida Keys Ragnar Relay team is full, but we’re headed to Arizona for the Del Sol Ragnar Relay in February and we’ve still got a few spots left on that team, so sign up soon if you’re interested. And we just announced that we’ll be putting together a team for Cape Cod in May, so you can gather friends and get in on the ground floor for that one.