Barefoot & On the Mat 3/15-21: Spring Equinox Edition!

[Anny]

Carolyn I am glad you have:had that extra teaching work to make up the difference in not having your other job.

Garrie so sorry to hear about your work! One of my sons works as a freelancer and is self employed in PR; his work has dried up because of the effect of COVID-19 on businesses. Hope you are doing ok!

Beth sad to hear about your in-person yoga classes being cancelled.

Sandra I read about California’s lock down. I’m happy to find that still means that outside walks are allowed, as being outside would definitely help.

We have a ban of outside gatherings more than 500 people and inside gatherings of more than 100 with a four square metre expectation for inside gatherings. I’m still working remotely in my manager role and we are moving to online tutorials for my university classes. No lock downs yet so I am still out and about- I worked with my laptop at an outdoor cafe at the harbour yesterday afternoon, it was lovely in the sun.

Yesterday was outside walking and WATP 2 miles Express. I used light weights instead of a stretchy band and am enjoying visiting old Leslie workouts! Today I am undecided re either yoga or a Jennifer Galardi workout - I saw on GD that she is offering free workouts on Vimeo.

Glad to hear from everyone on how they are doing - hope cyana, Linda, Donna, Pam are okay.

[cyana]

TGIF!!! Sheesh, between the long work hours and coronavirus news fatigue, I'm pooped. I don't have a ton to report on the fitness front, but am finding walking to be a nice respite from the long hours at the computer, especially now that the cherry trees are bursting into bloom. The farmer's market is closed, but several vendors are doing drop-offs downtown, so I'll zip down there in the morning and attempt to practice social distancing. Hopefully I can spend plenty of time outdoors this week-end. With the recent rains the weeds have spiraled out of control. My strawberry plants are loaded with flowers, so I'm hoping to beat the birds to the strawberries this year! We ordered some groceries from Whole Wallet - DH placed the order Wednesday morning and this afternoon was the first available delivery time. I must say the whole process was easy and whomever did a good job of picking my produce (and I'm really persnickety about that). The perishable and frozen stuff was in nice insulated bags and the frozen items were solidly frozen. 100% of the tip is supposed to go to the driver. I'd definitely do it again.

Sandra and Beth - My local yoga studio has started doing classes via Zoom and they indicate that it's been working well. I don't know if that would be an option, but wanted to toss it out.

Anny - I'm sorry to hear about your son's work - so many people's incomes are being affected by this situation. Sitting at an outdoor cafe in the sunshine, overlooking the harbor, sounds wonderful.

Beth - I'm glad I had my hair cut last week - it needed it. I'm hoping to get caught up on your videos this week-end.

Garrie - Thanks for the distance hug - I'll take it. And back at you ((hug)). Hope your mom is staying healthy. I love Cathe's S&H.

Sandra - I'm glad you're in good shape despite the library closure. And I'm glad you're there to help your niece through everything that she's going through.

Paine - I'm with you on the lack of sleep and not having the energy to work out. One night this week I slept maybe 2 hours. I got up and read and went back to bed after 3 hours and maybe slept 30 more minutes after several more hours of tossing and turning. Ugh.

Carolyn - I'm glad you have some cushion since your hours are being reduced. We didn't get some of the frozen veggies in our Whole Wallet order. And what's with frozen black-eyed peas? We haven't been able to find those in six months or more. I don't always have to time to soak beans, so it's nice to have some frozen veggies on hand. My mom used to give us little bottles of hand sanitizer and I sure do miss those now!!

Guess I need to wind it down for the evening. Hopefully I'll really check in this week-end.

[JustSandra]

Hi again!

Today's Workout: I did one of my favorite Leslie DVDs -- Power Walk With Friends (a 2-miler with weights). I finished with Margaret Richard Unplugged 2003. Comfort workouts.

My first official day of hunkering went okay, but I can already see that (1) I must get in more outdoor walking, and (2) I need to scale back on reading so much social media! I'm determined to stay out of stores, etc. as long as I can. Re haircuts, I'm afraid I'll have to go through a shaggy phase before my next cut.

Garrie: A 6-foot (((hug))) right back at ya! Sorry to hear you are out of work -- hopefully for just a few weeks.

Anny: Also sorry to hear your son's business has also been so affected. One of the things I am missing most is sitting down to a simple coffee and baked treat at Starbucks. I envy your café visit.

Cyana: I definitely have "coronavirus news fatigue" as well. While it is important to stay informed, so many of the articles are purely speculative.

Waving to all -- please take care, and please keep checking in!

[toaster]

cyana I was on the phone with my mom today and she said that she saw lots of dogwood trees and forsythia blooming today--and my dad said it was 78* in Philly! It was in the 60s here but extremely windy and somewhat rainy so we couldn't fully enjoy it.

Sandra, we probably all need to decrease our exposure to social media! It doesn't help...and my mom and I joked that we are even fatigued from all the "how to cope with coronavirus" emails.

DH and I tried to watch a movie tonight but the MOD had a glitch, which happens from time to time. Hopefully tomorrow...

[Paine]

45 minute walk in Neighborhood

Greetings from the land of Teslas! Geesh, I have never seen so many Teslas in my life. I'm shocked at how many southern Californians own a Tesla. I never saw one Tesla where we lived before.

I didn't workout yesterday and didn't feel like working out today but forced myself to walk in the neighborhood this morning and it was so nice. I smelled the fragrance of blooming flowers.

Sandra, I would LOVE to see your niece video a yoga practice in your workout studio!

Garrie, like Beth, I too love the distance hugs and send you back some hugs! Sorry about your job situation.

Cyana, oh how lucky you are to live in an area with cherry trees blooming. I have never seen that in person and I'd like to see that one day.
I have tried to order things from Whole Wallet via Amazon and nothing I wanted was available. I haven't been able to find dried beans or basmati brown rice anywhere.
Here is a tip you probably already know: If I forget to soak dried beans overnight, I will do a quick soak by bringing the beans to boil in a pot of water for 2 minutes, then turn off the heat and let beans soak for 1 hour covered. Then rinse off the beans and cook with fresh water as if you had soaked them overnight.

Anny, sorry about your son's work.
It makes me smile envisioning you work in the sun at a cafe.

[toaster]

Paine, they don't have cherry trees in CA? Here they tend to bloom a bit later...I'll have to ask DH to take a drive so that we can see some signs of spring.

I just filmed a longer yoga video, about 30 minutes. It addresses the back a bit more, and I tried to incorporate some of your requests! I will get it posted later today.

[Anny]

Oh Beth I can’t wait to try your longer video!

Paine your long walk in your neighbourhood must be so nice. Is your daughter still al set for the move this week?

cyana I love the sound of the cherry trees. Reminds me of when we moved in Wagga Wagga, a small city in rural New South Wales. There were so many awesome cherry blossom trees which had been planted in the streets near the Air Force base.

Since our weather has been awesome and many people are working remotely, some of the beaches in Sydney were so popular that people swarmed there on Friday, ignoring the social distancing requirements. Sadly, some of our beaches are now closed because of this. I think we may get stricter requirements this week if people will not follow guidelines.

Yesterday I did YWA Dedicate Day 9, an active flow session. Planning on walking today.

[toaster]

Here it is for you Anny and anyone else!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0Lv5mTnVi8&t=1s

I'm doing a Google hangout chat w/my family right now...it's pretty chaotic, haha.

[cyana]

This morning I went and picked up my pre-orders from several of the farmers from the market. The city let them park along a street where there isn't any other foot or vehicle traffic. I saw a number of the regular customers - we kept an appropriate physical distance (I think Sanjay Gupta has a point that physical distance sounds so much better than social distance) and chatted and picked up our food. One of my vendors gave me a dozen eggs.

I was so pooped this afternoon, I curled up on the couch and took a nap.

Thanks for posting the new video, Beth. Hope to do that one in the AM.

[JustSandra]

Hi!

I didn't do any formal workout today, but somehow ended up taking *three* long outdoor walks! Seriously, my step counter is closing in on 20,000. But I wanted to take advantage of the pretty spring weather, as rain is returning late tomorrow. Also, one of my walks was with my niece, which gave us a chance to have a nice chat.

See you all tomorrow at next week's check-in!