April 2020 Yoga Cross Trainers: We can all use a little zen these days!

[sherry7899]

This morning I did :

Yoga Upload morning yoga/meditation
Soul Sweat with Maria "Cleansing" 55 minutes

My calorie burn is still lower. I don't know why. It is weird.

Tomorrow I plan to do a Yoga Upload hour long yin practice. I can't do cardio four days in a row.

Kate, thanks for the meditation link. I will definitely check it out.

Jackie, I hope you will pop in when you have time.

Margot-I hope everything is okay. I miss you

Pat, that is good you could still get your shot. I hope you are not feeling sore. I've had many "force yourself to do it" days lately!

Pam, you are doing great with exercise!

I woke up early enough to exercise in our finished basement before my DH came down to work. It was so nice to have space to move without worrying about running into a wall or my recumbent bike! I use an upstairs spare bedroom. I can't use our family room because I will trip over our cats, and the thick area rug is lousy for dance cardio, even with wearing those sock things over my cross trainers.

I hope everyone is doing as well as they can be. I've been stress baking and cooking. I am trying to keep up with exercising and moving so those things don't end up on the scale! On Wednesday I racked up 11,000 steps (including my workout) and I only left the house to go to our mailbox. Yesterday I got a little over 9,000 steps . I am at almost 7,000 steps at about 1pm, so I should hit 10,000 steps today.

Hugs,
Sherry

[KateTT]

Pam: Sounds like you are in the same boat as we are in Minnesota. The news says 38 out of our 50 states have issued Stay-at-home orders. I wish the rest would - maybe we could get ahead of this thing?

Pat: Things are good in MN although we got rain/sleet/snow overnight and the temps dropped to 23. Everything is coated with ice and slick as heck! Glad I don't have to drive anywhere. One good thing is we have 5 acres of wooded land, so at least I can go for walks in the woods.

Sherry: Hang in there girl!! Stress cooking is ok as long as you don't eat it all. ;-)
For me, the thing with meditating is to not beat myself up if I can't concentrate. With everything going on, my mind races at a million miles an hour! Sometimes I just can't focus but I keep trying.

Yesterday I did Eoin's Pursuit Happy Hips Championship Hips. Oh my that was glorious. Some harder poses, but such sweet Eoin stuff!!

Today I pulled out Shiva Rea's Yoga Sanctuary CD. I LOVE this one. My favorite practices by Shiva. Not all flowy like she usually does. There is Solar and Lunar practice. I did Lunar. Slow, mellow piano music, great for the end of the week.

Take care my friends. We're all in this together!

[yogapam]

Today’s activities:
~another hour gardening....tilling & weeding....my back wasn’t especially happy after
~Virtual Essentrics class
~Walking Online Workouts: 30 min walk
~My favorite yin poses

Another isolation day down..... Our eastern provinces, Ontario & Quebec, are being hit hard with this virus. We aren’t bad out here thankfully, but that could change. Every province has shut right down with stay at home orders. I hope all your states will do the same, Kate, I was surprised to hear only 38/50 have so far.

I’ll get to more personals tomorrow, waves to all!

[Margot]

Hello everyone!

I’m happy to hear everyone is keeping safe and well. I was so sorry to hear you got laid off from your job Kate and your husband too, Pat. I’m sending good vibes your way. May this situation be over very soon.

Aww… bless you Sherry, I miss you all too. DH came down with mild COVID-19 over 2 weeks ago and I caught it from him. We were disbelieving at first, as we’d been social distancing and taking all the usual precautions. We think he caught it from his last visit to the grocery store, when the store was crowded with panic-buyers and before the stores had started only allowing a certain number of customers into the store at one time.

We both had very strange and different symptoms about a week before the dreaded cough started. I’ve been studying herbal medicine lately and had already made a lot of tinctures, cough syrups etc as well as having a lot of herbs on-hand for making teas and to add to meals, which really helped. To be honest, apart from a single cough about 4 -5 times a day and feeling tired and a bit dizzy now and then, we don’t feel that sick. It’s affected my lungs more than my DH’s, due to having pneumonia and lung damage last year but I’ve been doing a lot of stuff to clear them out (expectorants, deep breathing exercises, energy work, diaphragmatic stretches) and it seems to be working. We’re also making sure to watch something uplifting on TV every day. I had to stop watching the news so much as it was making me emotional and more fearful.

How life has changed so much over the past few weeks. It all feels surreal. Here in the UK, we can only leave home to get food or meds or to go outside once a day to exercise. Of course, if you have the virus, you cannot leave home or come into any contact with anyone not living in your household for at least 14 days. I’ve got lots of projects going at the moment, so it’s not that bad.

Exercise-wise, I’ve been taking it low-key; a daily qigong practice and some gentle yoga. Lee Holden has put out some terrific classes for the lungs and immune system recently. Yesterday, we went out into our garden for the first time in 3 weeks to get the veggie garden ready for planting. It felt so good to breathe in some fresh air and enjoy the sunshine. We even saw a male pheasant strut through the yard while we were out there. Last week, a big fat grouse was sitting at our back door, as if he were waiting to be let inside. Lucky for him, we love birds. If he'd been at our neighours' doorstep, he would have ended up in the pot! :-(

This morning I did:
-ETV Jenny’s 30-minute class. Hmmm… not sure about this one.
-Nia – Joy (did about half of it before I got bored)!

I need to go and get lunch ready but will be back later.

Waves to all!

[Pat58]

Happy Saturday. It's nice out here, I'm going for a walk after vacuuming.

Yesterday featured Strong for Life by Margaret Richard, the full hour. I seem to be falling out of love with Maggie. I only reached for it because I could do it in my pajamas.

Margot it's so nice to see you, thanks for visiting. I wish you continued recovery from the COVID virus and best wishes with your natural remedies. How scary to think that your DH caught it from a simple store visit. Here in the northeast USA we are at the point of limitations on numbers in the stores. They made the aisles one way too. Most places have "senior hour" early in the morning which has been a boon for me. Non-senior hour has men, who I'm noticing in the teens to 50s, many seem to have not heard about social distancing. Our governor has shuttered all the playgrounds and the last time I went to the beach, a police cruiser was in the parking lot.

Wow Sherry 11,000 steps!

Kate, your woods sound nice and safe. Brrr though! I forgot about Yoga Sanctuary, thank you for mentioning it. I'll have to dig it out.

I've got to done my mask and hit the coop. Hello Pam, Jackie, Cyana and anyone else who visits.

[JackieB]

Hey everyone...

Lots of the same here in MN. Gosh yesterday was so gloomy with a wintery mix...so glad the sun is out today. I taught a class on Zoom and took a walk. If any of you want to take my class, give me a holler.

I've started quilting again. Kind of mind numbing....sure there is a lot to do here but the household chores just never end. I felt like I should pick up a hobby again.

I'm hopeful all this will end. Not sure what "normal" will look like. Hoping all of you are staying healthy and doing the best you can!

ETA...Margot...wishing you continued recovery!

Hugs to you all!

[yogapam]

Hello everyone!

Today’s activities:
~Functional fitness, sweeping, mopping, cleaning, & organizing - DH and I did another cleaning binge, he vacuums and I clean. I completely emptied my little studio & did a number on it. I have a steam mop, which I love, & I did all my yoga mats too. I have a 6’ round mat, a couple of sticky mats, & cushy Pilates mat.
~Neighborhood walk
~Ellen’s Power Express - I like this one, 15 min of high rep/low weight with basic compound moves
~headstand practice
~MFML: Yoga Detox & Energize - This was lovely & twisty.

(((Margot))) - I’m so glad you and your hubby are recovering!

Pat - We we’re cleaning twins today, hope you got your walk in!

Kate - Yoga Sanctuary sounds lovely, I haven’t done a Shiva practice for ages.

Jackie - Enjoy your quilting!

Waves to all!

[Pat58]

Good morning! Well we made it through another week! Here's to a safe new week for all of us and our families.

Yesterday I walked at the beach. It was so beautiful. Later I tried a Pilates offering from Glo but ended up doing my PT instead. I didn't realize what an athletic routine it was. All good.

Waves everyone.

[cyana]

Happy Week-end. I'm not sure what was worse this week - the mental or physical fatigue. I'm having to force myself to take some virus news breaks, as I'm a long-time news junkie and it's hard for me to turn off (still having a limited degree of success, I must admit, despite previously declaring my intent). Yesterday I was exhausted and ended up taking an afternoon nap and feel better today. We've been short-staffed for the past 3 months, which hasn't helped (not a great time to be recruiting/hiring). While I'm permanently remote (working from home), my employer has been proactive in keeping up with public health recommendations and having all non-essential people work remotely. Our team has a weekly call that serves as much for support and humor/goofiness as for business.

I ventured away from home to the farmer's market pick up yesterday. Everyone was practicing social distancing and the farmers had your pre-orders bagged up so you could grab and go.

While the body weight/cardio work-out I did early in the week was fun, I spent the rest of the week doing more nourishing practices - lots of breathwork and gentle movement. Anyone else notice they aren't breathing fully when they're listening to/reading the news? I've loved playing around breathwork for years, so I notice when I tighten up. I'm planning on some qi gong, yoga and hopefully a walk in the pollen cloud today.

((Margot)) - I've missed you! I'm so sorry to hear that you and your DH were sick. Were you able to be tested for COVID-19? Our infection numbers would go through the roof IF people were able to get tested. I have a friend who is convinced he had the virus back in February and said he'd never been so ill, and he's a healthy, cross fitter. I've been making elderberry syrup, which has been fun to play around with. I laughed at your comment about the grouse who was fortunate to be at your back door instead of your neighbor's!! Lee has been putting out some nice classes. I haven't had a chance to listen in on the "Tea with Lee" sessions. I tried the first one, but couldn't get through and haven't had a chance to listen to the recording of the call.

Jackie - It's good to see you and I'm glad to hear that you're well. Yuck that winter is hanging on in MN. Our temps dipped last week, too, just as I'd started thinking I might be able to put my (dormant) ginger and turmeric plants back outside. You'd asked what I was doing in the kitchen recently, I've been making this seed cracker recipe from Lisa at Downshiftology: https://downshiftology.com/recipes/u...seed-crackers/ You can toss it together in a flash, play around with the seasonings and then let the oven do it's thing.

Pat - I second the wishes for another safe week for all. Hooray that you were able to walk on the beach. Hopefully you had it all to yourself.

Pam - I'm thinking some therapeutic cleaning would be good today, starting with the kitchen. A steam cleaner is still on my wish list.

Sherry - How's the new washer working out? You had some impressive step counts and it reminds me (yet again) that I need to find the instructions for my ancient pedometer and put the new battery in it.

Kate - Thanks so much for the meditation link. I took a quick peek and it looks like he has lots of good information there. I may have mentioned this previously, but I used to pack "In Pursuit of Happy Hips" when I traveled on business to counteract Coach Airline Seat Butt Syndrome!

Stay well friends!

[Margot]

Good morning everyone!

Hope you all had a good weekend. Yesterday we were able to go for a walk on our nearby common land. There's so much open space there and yesterday there were very few walkers and only one family of cyclists. It was a bit windy but felt so great to get back to walking again. I also did Lee's 5 Elements and Aprille's (YR) short yin sequence 'Hip to be Square(d).

This morning so far:
- Body Groove - 4 of the new single songs in German with 2 new instructors. I'm loving these; not too hard but lots of fun.
- CS1306 - I'm really liking Miranda's new series so far and I'm glad I re-subscribed.

I plan on doing some qigong and something from MFML tonight. We'll also go for a walk this afternoon, as the sun is shining.

Cyana - Like your friend, I've wondered if I had the virus last year, or at least a very close match to it. Just before I caught it, we had been staying in a self-catering cottage and there was something very odd about the place; air fresheners had been placed throughout, masking some kind of odour. Also, the owners living next door, who were supposedly very friendly, never ventured outside their house, yet cars were coming and going all week. Still, it's just speculation on my part! Yes, the wonders of elderberries. My DH had low WBC count, so we were building up his immune system with elderberry syrup/tincture, along with some other stuff. I enjoyed 'Tea with Lee'. He solved a mystery for me. For the last couple of weeks, I've started yawning within a few minutes of starting my practice and it takes me several minutes before I can stop. He said this is a sign of the body cleansing, clearing and detoxing. I'm seeing this as a positive sign!

Jackie - It's so nice of you to offer your classes online to your students. Have fun with your quilting. It's jogged my memory that I should finish my embroidery of a kingfisher that I started about 25 years ago!

Pat - Your beach walk always sounds so blissful. Btw, I did my Reiki 1 in February. It was an amazing experience and I'm looking forward to doing the next level when this is all over.

Pam - I take it you're not a keen gardener too? I like the planting but weeding is the pits. After hours of hard grind and backache trying to rid the garden of weeds, they invariably pop up again a few weeks later. I've also been spring cleaning and decluttering one room at a time. It's very satisfying.

Sherry - Baking is my stress-reliever too. Every day, I'm wondering what I can conjure up. Yesterday, it was some healthy brownies and vanilla extract; today it's homemade yoghurt and crackers.

Kate - A thanks from me too for the link to Stephen Proctor's website. I need to get back into a daily meditation but good intentions do not always turn into reality! I'm so impressed how you've managed to keep going with a daily practice for so long, without missing a single day!

Here's to a healthy, happy week for us all!