Barefoot & On The Mat: January 2022 Happy New Year!

[luvcritters]

Cyana - I hope your farmers can weather the storm. Farmers always have too much to worry about. That's really the third time the ambulance took me without pants but the other two times someone was around to bring a pair. The ambulance guys always seem to find me on the bathroom floor. I have 4 pair of fleece lined leggings. You're going to love them.

[Paine]

This morning I did Yin Yoga on my own.

Margot, I'm so glad you enjoyed Margaret's Good For You.
I completely understand the lack of motivation to workout when you don't sleep well at night. I have no solution for that unfortunately. When that happens, I'll often do Yin Yoga or something more soothing.
The episodes of Around the World in 80 Days will be aired once a week and they just started here in the USA so the 2nd episode hasn't aired yet. We set our cable to record all episodes in the series so we will watch it at a time convenient for us. We also plan to record the 2nd season of All Creatures Great and Small. I read all of the books by James Herriot so I'm really looking forward to the 2nd season. I discovered several months ago that there is an All Creatures Great and Small museum in the UK--have you ever been there? I would like to see it one day!

Beth, all of our Christmas decorations are put away! We put them away a week ago.

Cyana, thank you for the link to the chickpea wraps recipe--it looks really good!
A couple weeks ago we started to watch "Don't Look Up" but we both decided to turn it off because we thought the writing was stupid and we weren't enjoying it. We were surprised too because we thought it had such a great cast that we would enjoy that movie more than we did.
I hadn't heard about "The Surgeon's Cut"--I will have to check that out!

[toaster]

Paine, I know a lot of people who get rid of the Xmas decor immediately after New Year's - or even earlier! I like to enjoy it more; I usually do it even later. I did get everything put away today though; only the artificial tree is still up for DH to take down.

cyana, thanks for your impressions of Don't Look Up. I heard one glowing review, but I suspect I might think it was just okay too. DH and I plan to watch Dune tonight.

RE the headaches, yes to almost everything you mentioned! I take magnesium daily and LOVE heat therapy; the shower often helps, but I use various other heat packs too. I have also used topical stuff - right now I have a combo hemp oil/menthol cream, and that seemed to help a bit. I have tried relaxing breath strategies, but I never thought of using alternate nostril breathing (which I actually like using for hiccups) or BOF. I am willing to try! Luckily though the pressure seems to have dissipated for today.

Margot, thanks for the additional info on the Alchemista practice.

Making chili - seemed appropriate for this chilly day!

[JustSandra]

Hi everyone!

No workout yesterday as it is my usual rest day.

Today's Workout: Add On Abs and Total Stretch, two short routines from Jessica Smith's Walk Strong 3.

Between my work schedule and the weather I haven't walked much the last several days, but our sunshine is back for a while and I'm looking forward to getting out and about.

Pat58: Once many years ago I went into a grocery store which was closing. Even though I knew that, it was very disquieting to see so many empty shelves.

Margot: Glad you liked Good For You! It is one of my favorite Margarets. Hmmm, maybe I'll have to do it for the next Margaret Monday.

Waving to all!

[yogapam]

A quick fly by….

Todays workouts:
~ETV: Jenny B’s live all standing
~Moon Salutations (Five Parks Yoga YT)
~300 meter swim - first time in the water in 2 years, it felt sooo good! I used my hand paddles for most of it so might feel my triceps tomorrow.
~Long walkabout, racked up over 15,000 steps

Waves to all!

[cyana]

Good Morning - enjoying my coffee and plotting my strategy for the day. Work-out wise, I'm looking to get my MELT streaming account set up and finally get started with that since it's a week-end day and I don't have to rush. I'm also thinking some ETV (a "live" episode) or qi gong (either YoQi - need to crack open my Immunity DVD, or Mimi Quo-Deemer on MFML) would be a good combo. And I need to sneak in some chores and a little bulk cooking at some point.

Paine - DH is in charge of the remote, so I'll sometimes sit down and watch things with him. In the Surgeon's Cut, not only are these physicians pioneers/experts in their areas, but you also see them interacting with patients and families, as well as discussing very personal things about themselves (no spoilers, but that last part really resonated with me). Last night we watched The Pollinators on Amazon Prime. That was very well done - featured the beekeepers who truck bees across the country to pollinate crops, as well as subject experts who discussed the things impacting bees, how conventional farming is broken and unsustainable and shows some examples of farmers learning to embrace regenerative agriculture. Nicely presented without overdoing the doom and gloom or being preachy. It was encouraging to know that young people and women are taking up beekeeping. I didn't need any more doom and gloom after talking with my produce farmer yesterday!

Beth - Over the years, I found that different headache strategies worked - or didn't - on different days, which makes management even more challenging. I also found that taking a shower could be very helpful and really think (at least for me) there's something to making sure your upper respiratory passages are fully open in order to take in maximum oxygen. When you think about it, people who have cluster headaches can be prescribed home oxygen to use. I almost purchased myself an oxygen concentrator back in my migraine days. Another thing I do is keep a bottle of peppermint essential oil on my desk and sniff that as soon as I feel headachy. It will be interesting to see what you and DH think of Don't Look Up when you watch it. The movie does a number of things well, but won't be everyone's cup of tea.

Pam - How exciting that you got to swim - I know you've missed that! Enjoy your sunshine today - none of that forecast for my neck of the woods, unfortunately.

Sandra - Enjoy your sunshine, too.

Linda - Too many people have gotten so out of touch with where their food comes from they never think about the farmers. You mentioned doing ball tai chi - do you have those cool wooden balls? I'm like a little kid when it comes to balls and rocks!

Waves to ALL.

[cyana]

I've been meaning to post this humorous cat story from WaPo:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/...tamix-hostage/

[Paine]

Strong For Life (entire Strength workout)

I had a good workout this morning doing Margaret's Strong For Life strength workout.

Cyana, I'm laughing because my DH is the remote hog when it comes to the TV. I want to see the Surgeon's Cut but I'm not sure if my DH will watch because he gets grossed out watching some surgeries on TV. For instance, he won't watch the series "Botched" because he can't watch some of the procedures. Oh, you have me interested in watching The Pollinators and I think my DH will watch that one with me--thanks for mentioning it.
I laughed at the cute cat story!

[Margot]

Hello everyone!

Today's workouts:
- Margaret's Good For You Section 2. I liked the mix of upper and lower body work.
- Karin's Hand to Heart. I've been waking up in the mornings lately with thoracic pain in the lower right side of my ribs. I think I'm just sitting down too much these days! This particular sequence had a lot of spinal rotations, which really helped take away the aches.
- Walk to our local Fishponds. It was bright and sunny, still cold but it was great to get outside the house.

Paine - We finished Around the World in 80 days this afternoon. Hope you enjoy it too. I hear that there's another series planned. I watched All Creatures Great and Small when it was filmed as a TV Series years ago. I haven't been to the museum but have spent quite a bit of time in the area over the years. It's beautiful countryside and I especially like to visit Harrogate and York. DH and I are thinking of going up there again this year, if we are able to travel. I think I should check out the updated series. I always loved that show.

Beth - Hope yoga nidra helped last night and you're feeling better today.

Cyana - Thank you for the link to the chickpea recipe. I've just sprouted and cooked some chickpeas and have some homemade hummus on hand, so may give that one a go. Yes, I have a lot of skincare to make this week. I'm using all the richer oils, such as macadamia, jojoba, kokum and mango butters, as my skin is so dry from being inside the house with the heating on a lot of the time. Your hydrating mist sounds like a good idea to lock in the moisture. The Surgeon's Cut and The Pollinators both sound like they'd be up our street. ETA: cute cat story. Cats rule!

Pam - Hope you're not too sore today from your swim. Oh... and can you please send some sun this way please.

Linda - Do you have any favourite Tai Chi instructors? I took a local class a few years ago, which was fun but I mostly do Qigong at home.

Sandra - I like the sound of a Margaret Monday. Hope the sunshine continues, so you can get out again today.

Happy Sunday to all.

[Pat58]

Good morning! Whew it was a cold one yesterday. I had a gym workout, 15 minutes treadmill then 50 minutes of weight machines and dumbbells. At home I did my own yin yoga practice.

I'll try to do some catching up tomorrow - everyone make it a great day.