Barefoot and on the Mat - October, 2021 - Pumpkin Spice Edition!

[Margot]

Oops! I forgot to post my workouts for today:

- Body Groove - Feel Good Rave
- HealthBarre Online Group Class

I plan to do some stretching or something therapeutic later today.

Hope everyone has a fun Sunday.

[toaster]

Margot, your getaway sounds beautiful! It certainly can be hard to adjust back to real life (and all the tasks that entails) after being away.

Pam, so true, every system definitely takes a different approach.

Happy Sunday!

[JustSandra]

Hi!

Sorry to be MIA. I've come down with *another* cold, which is so unfair since I just got over one two months ago. So right now I'm just taking it easy, mainly short walks, and will try to start doing some stretching.

Cyana: Thanks for the Pointer Sisters link! Their cover of Angry Eyes shows off their versatility. I think I saw them either late 1973 or early 1974. At that time all four sisters were in the group, and I think they still dressed in their thrift store style.

Garrie: Glad you dropped by! I am happy to hear you mom is doing better.

Take care everyone!

[KarenJo]

My workout report will be short and general. Since I last reported, workouts have been a bit thin, though only a couple of days with none. I've had ear problems that relate back to a bad infection when I was 3 that made yoga seem like a bad idea, hand and knee arthritis issues that limited other things, and a couple of periods of bad smoke that left me seriously lacking in energy.

Yesterday my knee felt strained after the dog walk so I just did a bedtime stretch and meditation, plus a couple of house projects that almost count. The day before I managed a dog walk and a 20 minute session on my stationary bike to a video and a very short bedtime stretch and meditation.

This week has been a bit weird and it's left me feeling anxious much of the time. I started feeling much better yesterday after a decent night's sleep and today I feel like the stretch, meditation and decent sleep last night have really helped.

So, on Sunday we started the morning but cutting free a fawn who had caught her foot trying to jump our fence. I got to hold onto her foot and cut the fence wire while DH held onto her and tried to keep her fairly still. She'd really rubbed her ankle raw on the wire and I ended up cutting a knuckle on one of the wires I'd just snipped, so we were discussing going to the ER for a tetanus shot when my sister called. The senior living facility where my mom lives had had their first two cases of COVID on Friday, one in a good friend of my mom's. My mom had just been taken to the ER with symptoms like her occasional bronchitis but had tested positive. So I ended up crossing paths with her while I was waiting to be called and she was leaving. Found out later her friend had died Saturday night while hospitalized.

DH and I and my sister and her DH spent a few days isolating while waiting for tests and results, all negative, but my sister is again as the senior facility didn't have a way to get Mom back to the hospital for an antibody infusion after her doctors approved it, so my sister took her. In the meantime, my husband had his phone appointment about a cardiac ablation for the atrial fibrillation he's been having off and on for the last year and a half and was scheduled for that. That will be at a hospital about 4 hours away with an early morning appointment and overnight stay, so I arranged an AirBnB and dog sitting. We did get more stuff unpacked, cooked a bunch of food on Monday which made the following days easier, and put together 2 jigsaw puzzles, but it really felt like way too much in one week. Thank goodness neither of us still works.

So, given everything, I'm fine with the amount of exercise I've gotten. I'll break here and come back to chat.

[toaster]

Sandra and KarenJo, it sounds like you both could use some major ((((HUGS))))!!! Thinking of you both with the challenges you have been facing.

Just finished my training. It was a really good experience, so now I am feeling a little sad (so much for Buddhist non-attachment, haha). I am looking forward to spending time reviewing my notes; I'll also have the Zoom videos available to re-watch if I choose over the next few weeks.

Will be back later with workouts.

[KarenJo]

Took time for our dog walk and lunch. Chilly this morning so we postponed the walk. We may get rain tonight. Actually, very likely!!! Boy, do we need it.

Here are some links to things I found online about the Esmonde-White house and garden after they were mentioned here. Miranda's mother was quite something. I think I'd like her. In small doses.

Article on Sahra and her grandmother From the Toronto Star but doesn't seem to require a subscription

Website for the Esmonde-White house

A drone-view tour of the gardens On Facebook but I'm not and could get to it.

Garrie, how is your mother doing? Hope she's much improved. Sounds like you have good and grand plans. Hope you're all settled and the new place and SO feel like Home.

Sandra, so sorry you already have yet another cold. Is your grandniece bringing them home from school? That old Legs and Abs workout of Miranda's that you did recently is tough. So is the Arms and Abs workout. I bought the arms and legs VHS tape and the Total Body and Athletic Stretch one at Suncoast video when they first came out. I remember going in to look for them and being so excited to find them on the shelf. At some point I got them on DVD before the Vintage Vol.1 reissue. Probably ordered from Miranda as she didn't sell retail for very long. Karyn and I used to combine orders for free shipping when I was in Seattle.

Margo, what a lovely trip. The ocean is so relaxing and so is walking. I have Mirabai's flexibility DVD still sitting out waiting to be done. You'd think that would have suited me well during this recent period. Here is a Link To The Trailer from Mirabai's YouTube channel for anyone curious. Some days her personality is just what I want and some days not.

Donna, so good to hear about your house buying. Buying a house is so stressful and then usually it's followed by trying to get everything lined up on the same dates to move and having to actually move. So nice you didn't have to go through that or to have to change homes after so many years. A very nice birthday present to yourself. May you celebrate many more there.

Beth, thanks so much for the Hugs. Definitely welcome. I'll have to make time to go back and check out all of your links. EDGU sounds interesting. It's yoga in a chair as opposed to chair pose, right? Your yoga posts did seem to have a chair theme this week. I have the Yoga for Healthy Aging book out for reading soon. Both nice that you enjoyed the workshop so much and understandable that the corollary is feeling a loss when it ended.

Carolyn, where are you in Arizona, if you don't mind my asking? I spent the first 6 years of my life in Arizona - Tucson for only the first 6 months, then Wickenburg and Sedona with some very strong memories. Back in the late 50s so very different from now.

Cyana, I hope you got some time off this weekend and are off doing good things and some nothing.

Pat, good to see you back on track and hope you're also having a good weekend. Wave to the birds for me the next time you walk along the water. I miss being in the migration path like I was in Seattle and Davis, California. Lots of birds here but no coastal birds.

Hi to anyone I overlooked and to any visitors.

[toaster]

KarenJo, I'm not sure if this it what you were asking - Edgu is a style of spinal stretching that we did in one of our classes during the training. We did a yoga practice this weekend that used a chair, partially seated in the chair (what is usually called "Chair Yoga") but also using the chair for standing postures - surprisingly intense! And the pose I had to teach for today's training wrap-up was chair pose, aka powerful pose, fierce pose, thunderbolt pose, or utkatasana. I linked to a few of Baxter's videos on dynamic utkatasana because I wove that into what I taught (just 5 minutes).

[toaster]

Here's a quick rundown of what I did last week.

Monday Book Sale Day!
Lucy Linsmore (YT) - Full Body Calisthenics Workout

Tuesday
Balanced Life Pilates with Robin Long (YT) - Energizing Morning Pilates Routine
Caroline Girvan (YT) - Kettlebell Cardio, Kickass KB Series Day 4
Gaia (online, free) - Release Your Hips with Rodney Yee
TAUGHT at studio

Wednesday
SarahBeth Yoga (YT) - Mobility Neck & Shoulders
LEKFit (YT) - 15m Arms Workout
FitSugar (YT) - 30m Fat Burning Pilates Workout
Art of Motion Academy (YT) - Slings in Motion, Joy...
yin on own

Thursday
HDM (YT) - Inch Loss 16.5, October 2021 (about 1 hour; stopped at all 4s)
Ritual Cosmetics Global (YT) - Foam Roller

Friday
Yoga with Kassandra (YT) - 10m Morning Yoga for Hips & Lower Body
Caroline Girvan (YT) - Kettlebell Workout, Kickass KB Series Day 5
Live Zoom classes from Yoga for Healthy Aging Training:
Cardio Health Practice with Baxter
Essential Poses Practice (chair yoga) with Melina

Saturday
Live Zoom classes from Yoga for Healthy Aging Training:
Essential Poses Practice, Stress Release with Melina
Brain Health Practice with Baxter
Immune System Practice with Melina

Sunday
Live Zoom classes from Yoga for Healthy Aging Training:
Basic & Restorative Practice with Melina
Teaching each other practice

[cyana]

Quick fly by before the work week begins. I had a Paine Day today with food prep occupying a good part of the day, but hope to do something relaxing like qi gong, yoga and/or stretching before bed this evening. The day sort of got away from me!

KarenJo - You certainly had an eventful week. I hope your mom is doing OK and am sorry to hear of the loss of her friend. I'm glad your mom was able to get OP monoclonal antibiotics versus Remdesivir. as an IP. Keeping my fingers crossed that your sister doesn't become ill and that your husband's ablation is a success. Thanks for the Esmonde White garden links.

Sandra - Bummer on the cold. I know multiple people (much younger than us!) who have had multiple/lengthy bouts of respiratory infections this year (not COVID). I'm glad you enjoyed the Angry Eyes link.

Beth - LOL about the non-attachment comment! I'm glad you enjoyed your training.

Margot - I grow ginger and turmeric, but they're more like pets than food. I have to bring them in during the winter, so they grow in pots. I really need to split up my turmeric this fall. Oh yes, those distinctive orange turmeric fingers!!! I'm also fortunate that one of my vendors at the market grows large quantities of organic ginger and turmeric, so I buy most of mine from her so my pets continue to grow babies.

Pam - I've explored some Tedeschi Trucks videos on YT after you'd mentioned them previously. I like the Layla video from 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCL4o6i5934 . I would've never thought about having a female sing that one, but it really works. I hadn't seen Sting & Shaggy, but took a listen to "Englishman in New York" from the Tiny Desk concerts today - that was a fun version.

Must wind it down for the night - waves to everyone!

[toaster]

Ugh, very Monday-ish Monday here. I was covering for our director for a week while she was on a conference; she was supposed to be back on Friday when I was out. Turns out that she got very sick while away and was out Friday AND today, so I was hit with that this morning. Managing okay so far; cross your fingers for me that nothing major happens!