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Posts Tagged ‘yoga’

  1. where i’ve been & happy easter!

    April 8, 2012 by maggie

    in the style of coco, here are…

    life updates

    • threw out my back at a circuit of change class on 3/22 (no, i am not a fan anymore! i didn’t go back after this – i have never hurt my back before and i did not enjoy it.)
    • started my new (old) job on monday, 3/26. it’s going swimmingly.
    • got sick the week of 3/26… i think it started that night i threw out my back, and then i was working very hard my first week so didn’t have time to rest. i couldn’t do much yoga this week – i went to 1 class tuesday night and had to walk out after 15 minutes because i was getting a splitting headache.  i was even still sick for…
    • an awesome flight school class with ragunath on 4/1. i am working on my handstand, and this class was incredible. everything, from sun salutations to the sequencing, to backbends, to anything really, had inversion options. i got into a handstand that i held for about 5 seconds which was very inspiring. since i was sick (recovering) i took child’s pose quite frequently during the 2-hour class. i did get an assist from ragunath – he is awesome.
    • lots of work last week, and still recovering from this awful cold – i still have congestion even now, nearly 2 weeks after i first got sick.
    • i’m in a choir here in NYC and we have a concert coming up on friday the 13th. i’ve been practicing for that and i can’t wait for the show. we’re performing verdi’s requiem at a church on 5th avenue.
    • i bought 9 weeks of ceramics class at a studio near my apartment. i did ceramics for 2 or 3 years in high school and took a short (5 weeks) class last spring. can’t wait to get back into it. i will have to take pictures of my work sometime. unfortunately i’m moving in ~2 weeks so it won’t be that close anymore. but they had a good price for the classes and i have to have a creative outlet like that.
    so that is where i’ve been. life has been busy in a wonderful way.

    more on flight school

    • class starting with singing/chanting all together. i was there with one of bobby’s coworkers who joins us for yoga every saturday and i was worried he might think the chanting was weird, but he loved the class.
    • ragunath gave a great dharma talk (the little speech yoga teachers give at the beginning of class – you know, setting an intention, letting go of everything during your time on the mat, etc, etc…). i am kicking myself because i can’t remember exactly what he said to us – i remember it touched me though.
    • crazy, sweaty, inversion-heavy flow.
    • savasana!

    more on ragunath here. turns out he was a celibate monk (practicing one of the yamas, bramacharya = celibacy) for 6 years in india! he has kids now.

    a meal or two

    • i’ve been forgoing meat lately in favor of veggies and tofu. not sure why – but i’m going to go with it until i get bored. i like to listen to my body and that’s what it’s craving for now. i’ve had a few amazing meals at souen – i love their macro plate. this is a plate of brown rice, chickpeas (my favorite bean they serve), kale, broccoli, kabocha, carrot, hijiki seaweed, and a tahini-dill dressing.

    times 2! the one below had some kind of white beans instead. nowhere near as good as chickpeas in my opinion.

    have you ever had a macro plate? and why do chickpeas have two names? have you ever been to flight school?

    p.s. Happy Easter! (Or whatever you celebrate.)

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,, | 5 Comments

  2. circuit of change – mindbody bootcamp [review]

    March 19, 2012 by maggie

    circuit of change is a workout studio located at 57 west 16th street (16th and 6th, NE corner of the intersection; 4th floor). i bought a groupon (d’oh*) for 10 classes at the studio a few months ago, and of course i let time lapse and now i have to use them all up by april 4th. here is the studio:

    yesterday morning (sunday @ 11am) i went to the “mindbody bootcamp” taught by the founder, brian delmonico. all of their classes are barefoot, which i think is fantastic – our feet are sensitive and should not be confined all the time. this mindbody bootcamp class had the following format:

    mindbody bootcamp sequencing

    • centering exercise at the beginning (less than 5 minutes) – sitting, child’s pose, some hands and knees stuff (i don’t remember it all)
    • yoga-ish flow with extra intensity (10 minutes?) – sun salutation variations with extra workout-y stuff like knee to nose, planks, etc… lots of abs thrown in too.
    • cardio circuits (40 minutes?) – kickboxing, abs, jumping jacks, “hit the deck”s, squat thrusts, plyometric jumps, etc… you change movements about every 15 seconds so if you don’t like what you’re doing, it’s fine because you will switch quickly.
    • centering exercise (<5 minutes) – sitting, breathing, i think i remember there being some light stretching.

    i estimated the times; i know that the class is 60 minutes total but i didn’t see a clock so i wasn’t able to be more precise in my breakdown.

    i had a lot of fun with the class. my favorite part was the yoga-ish flow. if there was a whole class of crazy sun salutation variations i would be there in a second.

    i liked the cardio circuits part as well, but i did feel like a lot of the exercises could hurt your lower back if you’re not careful (bending down to touch the ground for example). i am not a fan of squat thrusts because i don’t think they are good for your joints (unlike chaturanga, you don’t land your feet back with your arms already bent). squat thrusts aside though, the exercises brian did pick for the circuits were probably my favorites out of the standard cardio class moves.

    midway through the yoga flow i started to break a sweat, and i kept on dripping all the way through class.

    Update: I originally said I would go back, however, unfortunately, I hurt my back at a class later on during this week and I think it was because of bad form during far-too-fast squats and other exercises that could be bad for your back. I didn’t end up using up all 10 classes – I only used 5.

    have you ever tried a “mind body” type cardio class? do you buy daily deals?

    *i have vowed to never buy a groupon again. or any of those other silly deals. to be honest, i haven’t bought many of them – certainly less than 10 since they all started up a few years ago – but each time i do i end up stressing because i need to use it by a certain date, or i don’t even want what i bought anymore. daily deals are impulse purchases, and they make life cluttered. i dislike clutter. if i were to make an exception, the only reason i would buy a deal would be if i was planning to purchase that item/experience anyway.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: ,, | 5 Comments

  3. my dream kitchen + what’s keeping me busy?

    March 10, 2012 by maggie

    i have been so busy i’ve hardly had a chance to read a blog, let alone write a post, and when i checked in this morning i discovered that my posts had tons of spam comments! and they must have been going to my spam folder in gmail, because i didn’t even get notifications. craziness. so i apologize for not responding to comments until now. i added akismet (which i had on my other blog) to catch the spammers.

    ***

    what has been keeping me/us so busy?

    • nearing closing on the apartment. i think i may be a real nuisance to work with. i’m pushing everyone involved in this process because i want it to be done. hopefully we can get this squared away by the end of the month.
    • new kitchen planning. been scoping out appliances and trying to figure out a good layout.
    • yoga – i try to go 3x a week.
    • job stuff. long story short, but i am going back to my old job. it’s been something i’ve been debating basically since i started at the new one, and it was a really tough decision. i feel great about my choice.
    • trip to florida to visit in-laws.
    • i think that is mostly it!
    • eating lots of good food :)

    let’s talk kitchen planning. here is the stove i want:

    (from lowe’s)

    it’s a 36-inch commercial stove that is finally being sold for home kitchens. it doesn’t look frilly, but it has great reviews and it’s not even that expensive. that vertical door on the left is for storing baking sheets.

    and here is a washer/dryer combo that i plan on putting into the kitchen (where the dishwasher is currently):

    home depot has more expensive ones, but this one seems to be the same quality. also from lowe’s. my parents redid their kitchen a while ago using lowe’s and they were very happy with it, so i think i’m going to stick with them. another factor in my decision was that the guy i talked to in the kitchen department at home depot on 59th street was skeevy.

    here are some of my favorite kitchen inspirations:

    (source)

    (source)

    questions

    • what is more important to you, having a dishwasher or a washer/dryer?

    i think i definitely prefer having a washer/dryer. i have a dishwasher now and i end up doing most of the dishes by hand anyway. when we do actually run it, i have to clean half of the dishes when they come out. i have never had a dishwasher that really worked well. but a washer/dryer – i would do wash every day if i had one in my apartment. i currently have one in the basement of my building and i hate doing wash down there. you have to fight for the units and it’s a hassle to get everything down and back up, and the elevator is slow.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,, | 9 Comments

  4. intuitive yoga & sweating

    February 28, 2012 by maggie

    my sister (j) is visiting me and b this week. we’re heading out of town and she’s going to watch our cats while we’re away. today we went to a flow yoga class together at yoga vida and it was so fun. i haven’t been to one of dom’s classes in ages… my schedule has been weird, i’ve been busy buying a house, and i’ve been trying some other new classes at pure. but i missed dom’s class so much and decided to drag my sister (who was complaining that yoga wasn’t a good enough workout) along with me today.

    i feel like in a good class (good = good teacher) you will get exactly what you need on that day. yoga is intuitive. today’s class theme was about karma. we burned out negativity by creating tapas (heat) in the room. not that i had a lot of negativity, but i can always use more tapas.

    speaking of heat, i just started (today) using a natural deodorant so i was sweaty! the deodorant is hugo naturals mexican lime & bergamot. this stuff smells amazing. it is just a deodorant, not an antiperspirant, so you still sweat but it smells like limes.

    i noticed something interesting, too. i generally have very irregular body temperatures throughout the day – mostly i’m too cold, and sometimes i get so chilled that it takes me a long time to warm up. i always attributed this to my pcos (polycystic ovarian syndrome, a hormonal imbalance). however, today i did not experience the weird temperature fluctuations that i usually get. i don’t know if it was due to not using an antiperspirant for the first time in 15 years or just luck, but it was really nice to have a day without constant shivering. i’ll have to see how the rest of the week goes.

    do you use a natural deodorant? do you believe in karma?

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: , | 15 Comments

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