Week 6 in review

Week Six is behind us now.  In hindsight it seems to have been even more hell-like than Week Five.  Rumors have it that Week Seven won't be any easier.


Truly, the only challenge I'm really having with Teacher Training is the forced late nights.  It's the only thing that gives me a frowny face. When I can sleep my requisite uninterrupted 7 hours a night, I can do anything.  Deprive me of sleep, and I'm a mess.


Just about every night last week we were made to stay up past 1am because of that dratted Mahabarata series that Bikram really wants us to watch.  On Thursday night he had us up until 2:30am. Defeated, I just curled up on the floor with my little airplane pillow and slept there for an hour and a half using my scarf as a blanket.  The ground was cold and hard and my back was killing me, but I was desperate to just close my eyes and be horizontal.  Not fun.  It really put a damper on the 8:30am yoga class the next morning. Thank goodness for Epsom salt baths (but that's another blog post, coming soon).


Posture clinics should be winding down to a close this week, I think.  We're on Half-Tortoise, posture 21 out of 26, so at least an end is in sight for all this dialogue memorization. What I love most about posture clinics is hanging out with these amazing people.

Posture Clinic Group Nine - best group ever!!!

Sooooo.... I'm competing in a regional Yoga Asana competition next weekend.

I'm flying to Florida next Saturday, competing as an athlete representing 

Georgia on Sunday, and flying back to LA at 5:30am Monday morning.  

Whirlwind. 

This will be my first time demonstrating my postures on stage. I'm a little nervous because I feel unprepared. But I am SO excited for the opportunity, and the experience it's going to give me.  After yoga class I try to stay on in the hot room and stretch and work on my routine for an additional 20-30 minutes twice a day.  

Playing around with advanced Standing Head to Knee. No hands.

I can hold my leg up for several seconds, but ideally my forehead needs to remain glued to my knee.

Okay, enough about that. 

Here's how I spent my weekend.

The weekends here are like a gift from the heavens.

Always so excited to be able to be outside for the first time in 5 days, and just get away from the hotel.

Saturday night we celebrated our friend Kalee's birthday.

Me and my TT Besties, Nicola and Tiffany.

Love these girls.  

This whole experience wouldn't be the same without them.

Such a fun night! Happy Birthday, Kalee :)

Sunday:

Mahnattan Beach pier this beautiful Sunday morning.

I headed back to Cafe Gratitude for lunch on Sunday afternoon.

I miss eating well.  

And we don't have restaurants quite as 

freakin' amazing as this one in Atlanta. 

menu

The view from my seat outside. 

Hollywood baybee!

I ordered an I Am Worthy and I Am Pure.

Raw. Nutritious. 

Delicious!

I can't remember what this was called, 

but it was GOOD.

So with Week Seven upon us, I am suddenly acutely aware of how fast time is passing.

I won't be here next weekend, and that leaves only one final full weekend before graduation and my flight back to Atlanta.

I miss my husband and child so much. I miss my friends back home. 

But I am in pure bliss here in this yoga bubble, sleep deprivation and all. These past 6 weeks have been like none other in my whole life. Only 3 more to go. I must remind myself to just remain in the present moment, every moment.  Don't waste time thinking about the past. Don't lose time thinking about the future.  Just enjoy right now.

Week Seven.  Let's do it!

DIY hotel room dinner - Salmon and rice salad

If you should happen to find yourself living out of a hotel room for whatever reason in the future, here's something that's easy and healthy to make. It's really yummy and will give you sustained energy. And the leftovers keep well, you can eat it cold the next day.

One can of wild caught Alaskan salmon

One pouch of Trader Joe's brown rice medley

Broccoli florets and carrots, place in boiling water for just 30 seconds

Torn kale leaves (spinach and/or chard works well, too)

Light drizzle olive oil

Juice of a whole lemon

Sea salt and fresh cracked lemon pepper

This is what the box of Trader Joe's rice looks like. 

You can find it in the freezer section

Follow the cooking instructions for the rice (microwave for 3 minutes).

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. 

Adjust the seasonings to taste. 

Eat half for dinner, and save the other half for lunch the next day.

Bon appétit! 

Over the Rainbow

They played this beautiful song for us in final savasana this morning.


I wanted to share it with you.

The dreams that you dare to dream,

dreams really do come true.

And I think to myself,

what

a

wonderful

world


 ♥ ♥ ♥

Family weekend. Love, love, love.

In my last blog post I mentioned something about 

Week Five of teacher training being called Hell Week.

Guess what. By Friday, I can attest that Hell Week 

was not a misnomer after all.  

But more on that another time.

Today I want to share some pictures of the beautiful family weekend I had. 

It's Monday today, and my SweetPea and Jonathan have left, 

but boy oh boy,

what a fun weekend we had!

Saturday at the Santa Monica Pier.

It was a foggy, chilly day, 

but we hardly noticed.

A special visit to the candy shop. 

Lollypops are a scarce treat, but that's what

vacations are for!

Toes in the Pacific Ocean.

On Saturday night, we had an impromptu date night near Hollywood.

SweetPea, crashed hard by 6pm because of the time change. 

So she slept in the car (parked right next to us while we were seated outside), while we enjoyed an absolutely HEAVENLY vegan dinner at the one and only Cafe Gratitude.

Sunday.

DISNEYLAND!!!!

A surprise trip for the girl. 

Who knew that at 36 I'd be this excited about Disney.

Experiencing magic through your child's eyes is the best part of being a parent.

Nothing can make your heart melt 

like watching your 4 year old's dreams come true. 

Her food dreams came true, too, 

when I let her eat a hotdog for lunch.

Alice and her favorite cat.

I miss them so much already.

Perfect timing for a family visit.  

Just the boost I needed as we push on through past the halfway mark.

Week Six of Nine is here.

It's as hard as ever.

Still loving it.  Every single minute.

xoxo

Namaste 

:)

Week Five and we're halfway there

Today marks the official halfway point in teacher training!! Day 32/63 and we just did yoga class 48/99.

Aptly timed that we completed Triangle pose in posture clinic today.  

Triangle's known as the pinnacle of the standing series.

Bikram came back this week. He was away on and off for the past two weeks. I missed him while he was gone, but having him here always means guaranteed late nights. Monday ended at 12:45am, last night at 1:30am. There are some ugly rumors going around that one of these nights he'll be keeping us up until the sun rises. We've started watching the epic Mahabarat series, a mandatory part of the curriculum. It has something like 94 episodes, each 45 minutes in length.  We start watching them at 11:30pm, and go until Boss says we can go to bed. The rules are: no pillows, no blankets, no lying down.  The "Sleep Police" come around every half hour or so with flashlights to prod us awake.  

Week Five is legendarily known as "hell week".  So far, I cannot speak to that.  I haven't experienced anything near hellish about teacher training....yet.  Ask me again the day after our no-sleep-til-sunrise night, and I'll tell you what I think then ;)

My teacher Rebecca arrived from Atlanta today.  She'll be here for a week. I'm so excited to have a familiar face here.

Countdown is T minus 2 days until my family arrives.  YAY!!

I've literally got to run.  We've got our second posture clinic of the day in less than 1.5 hours.  I need to deliver 2 postures tonight which I haven't learned yet.  Some people will have delivered a total of FOUR postures in one day by the end of today.  It's crazy.

Hope you're all doing well  :)

Loving California, and a weekend update

Another weekend has come and gone.

The weekends are just not long enough here

with so much fun stuff to do in the short 36 hours we have off.

Friday ended with a hugely spontaneous celebration in the hot room.

They announced to us in the 5pm yoga class that we would be having 

a surprise Friday night off.

There was a lot of jumping up and down, hugging, and cheering.

Followed by a really great class with Ashley Hooper.

30 seconds into our final Savasana, lights are off as usual,

 and then over the loud speakers come the disco beats of

Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough".

More cheering, hooting, hollering, followed by a conga line.

A great way to end the week.

This weekend I did a voluntary double class on Saturday, 

which was awesome.   There were only 20 of us in the enormous hot room, mostly people who had to do a "make up" class for forgetting to sign in sometime during the week.

It was a totally different vibe in there than when 400 of us are crammed in next to each other. Let's just say there were barn animal noises and lots of laughter during the spine strengthening series. Totally different vibe.

Saturday afternoon, rented a car. Got my brows threaded in Redondo Beach.

Took my friends grocery shopping. 

Stayed up until 1 am having a very insightful conversation with a friend upstairs.

Sunday, grabbed brunch by the beach and 

forced myself to take the day off from yoga.

It took a lot of willpower  for me to not go into the Manhattan Beach studio today. 

I gave my body a break.

And I got a pedicure.

It's Sunday night, and I'm studying for tomorrow's anatomy final exam, 

and the dialogue, of course.

This week we finish the standing series and move onto the floor series.

It was another fabulous weekend. 

But not as wonderful as NEXT weekend will be,

which is when my Jonathan and SweetPea come to visit.  

I can't wait to see them!

There will be a surprise day trip to DisneyLand that will make

 a certain 4.5 year old verrrrrrrry happy.

...

Here's what I'm loving about California:

Beaches AND mountains

So, so, so beautiful.

And I'm not even a beach person.

   The strong yoga presence.

Perfect weather: sunny skies, apparently every single day.

No humidity, no bugs, no mosquitos (no way to escape these 3 in Hotlanta).

Lots of veg/vegan/organic/raw restaurant options.

Peet's coffee.

Did I mention the weather?

I heart Cali

What I don't love about California:

Everything is so much more expensive.

Still, 

I want to move here.

Transitioning back to life in suburban Atlanta 

after 9 weeks in gorgeous California is going to be interesting...

That's what's happening.

Hope you all had a great weekend, too.

Have a great week, everyone.

Week Four

Just a little blog post to update you on how it's going here in sunny Los Angeles.

We're as busy as ever. Right in the thick of it. During our two 2 hour breaks each day, people are pretty much scrambling to shower, eat, memorize more dialogue and/or tweak their dialogue delivery based on the previous days' posture clinic feedback. If you're really savvy with your time, you might be able to sneak in a 15 minute power nap once in a while. But that's rare.

Yoga-wise, the two classes a day are what I look forward to the most in the schedule. Whereas a couple weeks ago I was frustrated and felt my practice was slipping, I'm back to giving it my all in every class.

I had started to pick up some bad habits in the hot room here - letting myself get lazy (sitting out postures, or doing them half-assed, using my water as a crutch), but since last week I've set the intention of dialing it in and getting back to being disciplined for the entire 90 minutes. It has made a huge difference in how I feel after class. I'm much happier. The harder you work, the greater the benefits. For real.

Evening anatomy classes have been good. One of these days I'll try to blog about that.

Posture clinics are a bit of a drag. It's hard to sit in a small room, on the floor for 4 hours. But it's really an important part of the training, so it is what it is. What I do like about posture clinics is the camaraderie. We're invested in each others success. Seeing our teammates going beyond their comfort zone (which is what the lead teachers make us do), and overcome their obstacles is great. We cheer each other on for our small personal triumphs day to day, and it's a nice feeling.

Well, that's about all I've got time for today. The wifi connection at this hotel is horrible. I can hardly ever connect, so in what little time I have to blog, most of the time I can't even get online.

Off to another anatomy lecture. I'm looking forward to the socializing part that comes before the lecture starts.

Hope you're all doing well.

Here's a picture of my crazy nails. Just because :)

Weekend number Three and zero days off from yoga

Sundays are our official days off here. No yoga, no lectures, no classes, no posture clinics, no nothing.

It's your time to rest, relax, go to the beach, grocery shop, do laundry, sleep, study up for the week ahead.

On Friday night our yoga class was taught by Brandy Lyn, 

the 2010 Yoga Asana World Champion.

It was the best class I've ever had in my life, 

right up there with Mary Jarvis' class.

Electrifying, inspirational, somehow life altering, if that makes sense.

On Saturday I found out that Brandy was going to be leading

 an Advanced class at Bikram Yoga Manhattan Beach. 

Holy crap. How could I pass up an opportunity like that?

It would mean 13 consecutive days of yoga (10 of them doubles) with no break. 

When you do an advanced class, you have to do a 90 minute 

beginner class first to warm up.  

5 hours of yoga on my day off.

I checked in with myself. Body feeling strong. Mind feeling strong. Let's do it!

Me and 4 other teacher trainees were there, 

along with a room full of certified teachers,

and advanced students. 

It was an incredible way to spend a Sunday.

Me with Kim, Nicola, and Erica. 

Taking a picture of ourselves in the front mirror before the beginner class.

Brandy's mom Liz taught the beginner class. What a duo.

This is Brandy, getting into a full wheel backbend.

Making it look as effortless as scratching her nose.

She is amazing.

Me doing a headstand. Inversions feel so good.

Me in Pigeon.  My first time brining my elbows together.

Yay!

Happy yogis at the end of the day in a yoga afterglow.

...

and

Dinner.

(yep)

Today is Monday. The start of Week Four.

Feeling great.  Still loving every single minute of being here. 

Have a fantastic week, everyone.

xox