Unconventional Love – Daily Prompt

Today’s Daily Prompt is all about unconventional love:

Over the weekend, we explored different ways to love. Today, tell us about the most unconventional love in your life.

I don’t know if it qualifies as “unconventional” but I love the way I feel doing yoga.   I have posted lately about yoga and how empowered I feel, how amazing I feel when I do it.  It seems fitting that I found this website: Decolonizing Yoga… all about making yoga inclusive and accessible to everyone.

They have articles like “Welcoming the Curvy Yogini”  and “Yoga: Not Just for Skinny White Girls” and “Project Bendypants: Practicing Yoga while Fat”

Do you know how much I truly LOVE these articles? 

There’s videos for how to make yoga accessible for people with larger bodies.

There’s articles about why yoga should be fore everyone.

There’s a whole lotta information for people like me.  People who want to practice yoga but are afraid of going to the classes with all the thin people.

People who look like this:

I already modify most poses where necessary.  I’m good at making it possible to stretch the way I need to.   But there was a “SQUEEEEEEEE” of excitement when I found that website… because *I* am not alone in my desire to be flexible at my size.

I freaking LOVE it

This Trendy "Strong is the New Skinny" Thing (and what it could mean for the next generation of girls)

Reblogged from Sophieologie:

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*UPDATE: Here's a PG-Version of this blog post, for those of you who wish to Spread the Strength among those of innocent ears*

First of all, hi everyone. It feels like I haven't blogged about anything sociologically substantial in a while, and I might be a bit rusty so please pardon the potentially poor prose.

Anyhoozle.

Now that I've graduated from McGill and no longer have to whittle away the hours of cushy student life by blogging nonsensically about sociological things, what have I been doing with myself?

Read more… 2,508 more words

Yoga is for SKINNY People

*ducks and hides behind the couch until everyone calms down*

Yes, I said that.  No, it’s not what you think.

This is me doing the Bharadvaja’s Twist pose:

 

This is how a skinny person looks doing the Bharadvaja’s Twist: 

 

And that is how I *want* to look doing it.

I love this particular stretch.  I used to be able to do it fairly well.  My belly gets in the way.

What I love about yoga is that there are variations no matter what size or shape you’re in.

PROOF

 

So yoga is for skinny people – but when anyone does it on a regular basis, there’s all sorts of benefits.

I love yoga.   And eventually I’ll be able to do the Bharadvaja’s Twist the same way as the lady above.  AND I’ll be able to run like Arthur.

In the meantime… I do it anyhow… because I love how I feel when I do it.

Yoga and piriformis

Oh yeah.  That’s the stuff.  Yoga is going to be my new obsession…

Yesterday, talking about piriformis, I had a couple comments about making sure that’s what it really is,  getting a second opinion, seeing a physio and in general, just be sure I’m not doing more damage.

This morning, I got up and did some yoga.   Actually, as I type, I”m watching the remainder of today’s yoga workout.. they’re very… fit… people

I don’t know if you remember, but I have a yoga set called the “Blissology Project”

So I’ve always had the ‘start at the beginning’ mentality.  I can’t start yoga on a FRIDAY… the program is Monday – Weekend!!!  So for all the time I’ve owned this dvd set – I’ve never made it to Friday.

Friday is strengthen and stretch.   I figured, why not? Jump right in.   Don’t wait until Monday.  Let’s go! Got up and put the dvd in right after I made coffee.

It hurt.  I’m not going to lie.  I had problems doing the poses.  I stopped part way through.   I was looking for an all over stretch, not a strengthen & torture my abs workout.

Don’t get me wrong – I want to strengthen.  I want to do this.  But I want to get my body back into it and stretch the piriformis.

So I’m enjoying watching the yogi’s do the workout I’ll try again next Friday.

The poses I did complete helped enormously.  There may be other issues in my hip and leg – but for now, the stretching and movement seem to be the solution.

I woke up in pain… and now I’m not after the little bit of yoga I did.

Crap – they’re doing my favourite pose.   I’ll have to do that one before getting ready for the day.

But anyhow – for now it seems I’m heading in the right direction.

I’m kinda shocked though – how much I *can’t* do anymore.  I’ve lots a LOT of flexibility and a LOT of what I had when I was exercising on a regular basis.  Time to get that back.

 

Piriformis

So for a couple weeks I’ve been having this pain in my hip.   The pain would be sort of an achy pain something bearable but occasionally sharpening up to something I couldn’t really handle.

I figured… I’m getting older.  It’s arthritis in my hip.  I’ll move past it, keep exercising, keep some range of motion, don’t let it seize up and keep me immobile.

The pain got worse.

Then it got worse.

Then it travelled down my leg, into my knee, down my calf and into my ankle.

I stopped moving.

It got worse.

It hurt more.

It would leave me breathless, unable to walk on my right leg, unable to think.

It would wake me in the middle of the night.

Finally, I gave in and started taking the opiates left over from my deceased husband because I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t handle the pain.  (There were 3 left – I took half at a time)

Today, I saw my doctor.   Explained the pain.   He told me what it was.  I couldn’t remember each time I went to look it up.  It just kept skittering across my brain to be lost in the cobwebs of my short term recall.

Finally remembered.  And looked it up.

Turns out its something that I can do something about.  It’s something I can do something about by doing something I love doing – yoga.

Piriformis syndrome. 

I’m not convinced that what’s going on for me is piriformis syndrome – but I’m willing to do yoga for a while and see if it helps.

The pain is causing me to not move.  I don’t walk far, I don’t skate, I don’t do much of anything except hurt.

So I’ll do something about it.   Yoga – which I want to do regularly anyhow.

The stretches to help with the piriformis are stretches I already like to do anyhow.

The reverse pigeon is fantastic – there’s an awesome variation in this video

The pigeon is great too - this article gives a great outline of how to stretch as well as how to strengthen.

So what does this all mean?

It means that the pain in my ass has now travelled down my leg.   Also, it means that I have to do yoga more often (like every day) to stretch this muscle out.   Finally, it means that I can fix this – it’s not too late – yet.

I’m starting to understand what Mark went through.  I can’t imagine living with this level of pain in my ENTIRE body, all day, every day, for years.   I don’t want to and unless I do something about it – I will.

Time to get stretching.

Pain

There are several people who have been credited with saying something along the lines of:

Nothing changes until the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of change.

It’s easy to stay the same.  To follow the same course.  To do what you’ve always done.  Another saying I’ve heard (and used) frequently:

If nothing changes, nothing changes.

If we don’t change anything, everything will stay the same. 

If I get up every morning at 6.30am and choose to sit on my computer instead of going for a run, my weight will stay the same.

If I consistently choose less than healthy foods over fresh, raw, unprocessed foods, my health will stay the same (or slowly worsen).

If I stare at the same load of laundry for a week, my house will never get clean.

If I change nothing, nothing will change.

It’s easy to stay stagnant.  Just don’t do anything.

I have been stood up 3 times this last week for my morning run.   2 times this last week, instead of going for a run anyhow, I’ve sat on my computer and played around.  2 times this last week I’ve done nothing different than the days when I DON’T have a running partner.

My weight hasn’t changed.   My energy levels haven’t changed.

Today was day 3 of being stood up.  I didn’t run.  But I did other exercises – spent 20 minutes on core work.

Today I changed something.

Tomorrow, instead of staying in bed until last minute, I’ll get up and put on one of my dvd’s.

Tomorrow I’ll change something.

I can’t do fitness only when I have a partner.  I can’t do exercise only when someone is cheering me on.  I need to do it for myself, by myself, regardless of whether I have someone to run or walk with.

Before Mark died, I exercised for him. he was there to encourage me, to push me, to keep me motivated.

Then he died.

I stopped moving.  Every part of my life stopped.

Slowly, ever so slowly, I got back into movement because friends have been encouraging and supporting and pushing me.  But lately, I’ve been bailed on.

I can’t rely on someone else to be my motivation.

Last night, a friend came over, and we chattered about exercise, motivation, and I realized.. I HAVE to do it for me.  I HAVE to do it because I need to get fit and healthy.

I hate seeing myself in a mirror.
I hate seeing myself naked.
I hate the way my belly and butt look in the pictures that were taken of me that I get so many compliments on.
I hate constantly being mistaken for being smaller than I am.
I hate the way my belly flops on the top of my thighs when I walk or run.
I hate the aches and pains in my hips and joints for no good reason.
I hate walking up a flight of stairs and being winded.
I hate not feeling good about myself.

 

I felt good about myself until I actually saw the pictures.  In my head – I am much smaller than in real life.

The pain of staying the same is OVERWHELMING compared to the pain of change.

200 squats, 8km & 1-3/4 hours.

That was my morning.

Today was the Vancouver Sun Run – I was registered for it, I had planned on doing it, then the Boston Marathon bombings happened.   And my running buddy got paranoid.

We agreed to do 10km around here… but the nearest trail is 8km so we opted for that.

We also have the April Squat Challenge going on still.    So rather than do the 8km, THEN do 200 squats, we decided to do 50 squats every 2kms or so.

Between the dog roaming, the kids stopping and slowing us down, the squat breaks… we were out there for an hour and 45 minutes.

My thighs hurt, I have a cramp in my butt and my shoulders hurt.   I am foggy tired, but feel OH so good  And proud of myself.

I made the boys come with – they need to do family walks, and they live a little too sedentary of a life.

Overall – good start to my Sunday…  Now to go grocery shopping and get my meals planned for the week.

Gonna lose 10lbs in the next month.   Tomorrow I’ll post weight and measurements…