February 2021, Barefoot & On the Mat - "The February sunshine..."

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"The February sunshine steeps your boughs and tints the buds and swells the leaves within." ~William C. Bryant

Happy new month all! A lot of the February quotes were kind of depressing, but I like the idea of february sunshine; may we all see a lot of it.

If you are new here, WELCOME! We are a long-running checkin that has gone through many name incarnations. We are united in our love of exercising without shoes, everything from yoga to Classical Stretch/Essentrics to barre and more. Lurk or not, post your workouts or not, even wear shoes or not!...it's all good here.

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Back with some replies from yesterday and earlier today (Pam, you are an early riser!).

cyana, that is sad about Captain Tom in the UK; I remember hearing that story. I hope he is okay! Thank you for the vaccine info.

Sandra, it seems like Jessica's rotation was working for you, so it certainly makes sense to continue.

Paine, I think we are going to be in the midst of these "unprecedented times" for some time yet; disruption is becoming the norm.

Pam, glad you liked the meditation! I did have a pretty consistent week last week; no migraines and a slow work week helped.

Classes start back up at the college today. This week will still likely be slow-ish, as classes are remote this week; move in for students has been delayed until the end of this week, with in-person classes (there aren't many) resuming next Monday. But I might have some clients start to return this week.

[Pat58]

Thanks for starting the check-in Beth! And for choosing a sunny quote things are miserable enough all over. Are you scheduled for a big dump of snow?

It's a real Moan Day around here. The storm got upgraded for me. I was at Stop & Shop last night and one of the worker's phones started bleeping with a message that schools were closed. (Mr. Roll Eyes) I was going to go into the office for half a day, but the plows woke me up at 3:30 this morning. Oh well!

In the exercise arena I finished up Jane Fonda's Easy Going Workout with the warm up, barre, cardio, lower body stretches and cool down. I was a little sad about not being able to jump anymore, especially since it's hardly a jump-y workout, but just went with my low impact version and had fun with it. I used to love those old school aerobics before all my joints went on strike.

Working on my February calendar. I do not foresee much outdoor walking so plan to use more of Lucy's shorter sessions and make an effort to complete the Be Your Best challenge, knock off a few episodes of Bellyfit TV2, and make an effort to increase Pilates/barre/fusion because my back has been really bad this week. And PT - roll eyes - has been very deficient.

I hope everyone has a good day and if you're in the blizzard zone, stay safe and keep your power on!

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Pat, surprisingly, we are supposed to miss much of the snow here; sometimes being a bit inland helps (although other times we get the "lake effect" snow ). It's been snowing steadily but lightly.

Thanks for the info on the free Embodied Goddess program! I signed up but unfortunately, I am getting an error message when I try to access. I sent Bellyfit a FB message to try to work it out.

And I hope everyone in the snow zone stays safe & warm too!!!

[Paine]

Perfect Pilates Body with Angela Speir (Core Blast workout)
Ballet Beautiful Classic (Bridge Series workout and Inner Thigh workout)

Egads, the workouts I did today were really hard for me. I had to press pause numerous times during the Ballet Beautiful workouts. It's disheartening because I used to be able to do those workouts straight through with ease.

Beth, thank you for starting our thread for February!

Pam, I think my strength will come back IF I continue to do strength based workouts more regularly. This past year I've been so dispirited that I've done more Yin Yoga rather than strength workouts. So we will see how this year progresses.

Cyana, that's sad about Captain Tom. I'm sending healing thoughts to him.
I think the elimination diet would be helpful to see if a certain food is causing you health problems. It's tough to stick with a strict elimination diet so I admire your ability to do so. I'm laughing about the mushrooms being censored, LOL! I love roasted whole button mushrooms. I think your exercise plan for February sounds good.

Pat, stay safe in that storm!

[yogapam]

Good morning, & here’s hoping February brings us closer to spring & closer to freedom!

Beth - Thanks for starting us off! I find the BellyFit website can be slow and glitchy at times. I seem to have to log in and then go back to the home page before I can access my purchases.

Paine - You are moving & stretching, I think that’s what counts!

Waves to all!

[JustSandra]

Oh no!

Beth, I missed the new February thread -- my deepest apologies!

I'll go over to the one I started to tell people Never Mind....

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Sandra, I am sorry I scooped you! I looked for a thread this morning and didn't see one so thought I might as well get us started.

Pam, I was able to access Alchemista on the Bellyfit site, but maybe I'll have to do something differently. I will keep trying!

Paine, I can't tell you how many workouts I used to be able to do with greater ease!

[cyana]

Today:
Holden - Qi Gong for Anxiety
Holden - Day 1 of the 30 Day Challenge
Essentrics TV - Shoulder Release with Gail

I'd hoped to do a full length Essentrics practice, but ran out of time. Gail's short shoulder practice fit the bill and she was standing on the beach - sigh - so jealous! The practice felt really good, so I'll definitely do this one again.

Oh, and Lee taught class today. Unfortunately it's not one that works for me time-wise, but it was good to see that he was well enough to be back on the schedule.

And in MFML news, Clive has a new practice this week - hooray!

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Thanks again to Pat for the alert about Bellyfit Embodied Goddess being offered for free - I did the first routine today and I loved it! (BF did respond to my FB message to say that there was a technical glitch that they fixed.)