Tartan Yogi

Happy New Year to all, may it be fabulous and bendy ;)

I had a great break - Christmas with the family and then a trip to Skye with 10 friends. Skye was amazing, I could sit and look at the views all day. We were a few miles from Uig, right on the coastline and it was beautiful. We got to do lots of wallking and I did a bit of yoga, although not as much as I would have liked (but then I never do!).

I managed to have some nice practices at the parents as well, my cotton mat is really getting nice and worn in now and the grip on it is great. Maybe David Swenson is right when he says the sticky mat changed the way we do yoga because of the traction they lend to your hands and feet. On a cotton mat the dynamic is totally different, which is interesting.

I am taking it easy this week as I am finding it really hard to be back at work and I think being surrounded by loads of people has drained me a bit. So a weekend of yoga, spring cleaning and pyjamas I reckon. Rather excellently the husband got a complete set of The Sweeney (seventies police series, man there are some great clothes in it!) so am working my way through them all.

I have also made no resolutions, other than coming up with a workable yoga schedule. I AM going to make it to morning mysore, I am. Starting next week the plan is 2 morning mysore classes and one full led primary plus a couple of home practices a week. I am also going to go to the gym a couple of times a week as I need to get my cardio fitness up for a walking holiday we are going to do. We are thinking of walking the West Highland Way (Glasgow to Fort William) which will be something to aim for.

Right, I suppose I should do some work, how rude of them to expect me to concentrate at the beginning of the year!

I got a dehydrator for Christmas from my parents and I have been using it over the weekend. I made some dried chestnut mushrooms to go into miso soup when I can't be bothered cooking and some onions for the same purpose. It really is a great invention. I am going to do some apple slices in it today, they taste just like sweets. It is amazing how intense the flavour gets when you dry things. Did you know that you retain around 95% of the vitamins in fruit and veg when you dehydrate them as opposed to canning! Oh no, have become a dehydrator bore :(

Am looking forward to practice at home tonight. My new schedule starts today with practice at home on Mondays and at the weekend and mysore on Tuesdays, Thursdays and the led primary on Fridays. I am going to try really hard to get to the morning mysore classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays but am going to break myself in gently this week (as it were) by doing the talk through tomorrow and then mysore on Thursday night. Next week will be morning practices.

I am anticipating some sore muscles tomorrow due to only practicing a couple of times last week coupled with a long walk and a couple of trips to the gym. I hope I haven't lost any poses, mind you it isn't like I haven't practiced at all, just not as much as usual. I have to remember to not get too attached to asana. Although my back really needs some ashtanga at the moment.

Rather excitingly the husband got a DVD recorder for Christmas so he has been transferring all of my VHS yoga vids onto DVD. It is great as it means the quality of some of them won't get any worse. And I have used a couple of them so much this is starting to happen! Poor old fuzzy David Swenson and Richard Freeman...

I am also starting to spring clean the flat. I already have some bags of stuff for the charity shop. This year I am going to make a real effort to wear all the clothes I have rather than buying things I don't need and to recycle everything. It is a shame we don't have a garden really as you can get cheap compost bins from the council. Mind you I would probably build one if I had a garden.

I am definitely going through a reorganisation at home and work as befits the new year, I quite like organising (I suppose that is why I am a project manager) and it will mean that at home and work I will have a nice tidy space to be in.

I made some dehydrated apples and they really are the tastiest things ever. Even friends who think dehydrating is a bit weird have come around to the idea. Carrots work well too especially dipped in hummus. Sadly though I have been unable to eat anything for the past 2 days as my IBS has flared up again. I have had 2 days off work to recover and feel almost back to normal, although I am a bit knackered.

[By the way Graeme, the dehydrator came from Amazon. I got an L'equip one and it is great as you can get more trays for it if you need to and you get fruit leather sheets too. Also the temperature is adjustable in case your friend wants to keep the temperature to raw food levels! You can get smaller ones, but in the UK they are hard to find. Most of the sites I looked at were in the States, so I got my dad to get the one on Amazon to save any hassle.]

Weirdly although I have been off ill, I have still managed to practice every day this week and even more weirdly I seem to have cracked buja pidasana in relation to bringing my head to the floor and then coming up, rather than my customary falling over when trying to come up pose! It may have only been a one off though, we will have to wait and see.

Actually I think the yoga helps out the stomach thing, so definitely going to practice through it. Am looking forward to my rest day on Saturday (a moon day) though as I stupidly went to a body pump class on Sunday and totally overdid the weights and have had muscle ache ever since. The yoga has helped in that respect too. It really is interesting how doing conventional exercise shortens your muscles.

Right, must go and drink some more tea, seems to be the only thing I can stomach at the moment!

I had great intentions yesterday morning, I was going to stay at work and get some stuff done to make up for my time off and then I was going to yoga. Cue a call from the husband who needed help buying some shoes after work (he doesn't really do shopping, bless him!) so it all flew out of the window. We got the shoes, then got some chips and I ate mine with lashings of garlic pickle when I got home and then went to bed. I am a yoga disgrace.

Oh well, today is another day and I am going to leave work as early as possible and then me and Richard Freeman have a date in my living room. I was going to go to the yoga centre, but I have really enjoyed my home practices this week and as I am still feeling a bit under the weather I just want to be at home. So much for my new schedule. Oh well, Monday is the start of another week.

I think my project for the weekend is to try to make some cookies in the dehydrator. I saw some good recipes on the Living Raw Foods website so I might try one of them. It is a funny thing this raw foods idea, I am all for the idea of eating lots of fruit and veg, but I do wonder if a 100% raw diet is really achievable, it probably isn't for me anyway. Especially in Scotland where the weather is cold most of the time. I suppose for me I just like the idea of finding another way to eat fruit and veg and those dried apples are damn tasty (right, will stop going on about them now, am starting to sound evangelical)!

I guess it all comes from growing up with hippy parents who had a small holding and grew their own food and I pretty much grew up on fruit and veg. Actually I think one of the reasons I am a veggie is due to watching my dad *look away if you are squeamish* killing chickens for us to eat by breaking their necks. But at least I have an appreciation of where food comes from. One day I will have a garden where I can grow my own food and then dehydrate it. Actually I have thought about growing mushrooms in the flat, might be something to look into.

Gosh, that was a bit of a tangent into how I grew up, must be the approaching full moon making me reflective or something. Either that or I am skiving from doing any work, which is a far more likely explanation ;)

Another Monday morning wishing it was still the weekend. Over the weekend the husband and I were talking about going to Canada for a visit, the husband has decided that India is out as I would be in 'yoga land' and not paying enough attention to him. Which I suppose is fair enough really (and I hear there are some good places to practice in Toronto anyway ;). And we do have time off to fill with an adventure. Good things to think about when it is grey and horrid outside.

It is funny that this blog really reflects that I have a monkey mind which jumps around all over the place. The yoga helps, but I guess it is hard to triumph over your irritating personality defects!

Anyway, I went to the led primary class yesterday, got some great adjustments, especially in supta K where I am almost beginning to see that I will be able to bind my hands. I have no problems getting the legs in the right place behind my head, but the hands are the real problem. I wonder if I need to bend my legs a bit more to get the room for the hands because they are already pretty far over the shoulders. I also managed to come up from bhujipidasana again, so it wasn't a fluke, hoorah!

Am off to mysore tonight, which should be fun. My arms are a little bit tender from yesterday though as the teacher had us hold in every chatarunga, and I mean every one! My friend remarked that the teacher was a bit like a drill seargent (I think she likes teachers that are a bit more light hearted!), I quite like that kind of teacher to be honest, makes it challenging. Not that the series isn't challenging enough already ;) Although I think she was just a bit annoyed he told her off for drinking water in the middle of class. It is funny as it is not something I have done for so long you get used to not drinking, and I think it does make sense as it does interrupt the flow more than anything to do with internal fire. It is interesting where people's boundaries are as to what they think they can cope with physically, mind you I like strong adjustments and the discipline of ashtanga but it did take a bit of getting used to.

Sadly I didn't manage to make cookies in the dehydrater over the weekend, but I did make some excellent mushroom crisps out of these massive mushrooms. They are going to be excellent with some hummus. I made some parsnip crisps too, but the husband poured salt over them and ate them all in one go. So much for food preservation!

Actually that should be the evening, but hey ho. I had a great mysore practice last night. The teacher asked me if I had been practicing a lot as I was having a good stretch day, unfortunately he asked me when I was in supta K, not the best pose for having a chat.

I could actually get a little more movement in my arms in supta K yesterday which all goes to show (and I am sure this sounds like stating the bl**dy obvious!) that regular daily practice is the way to go to progress. Sadly bhujipidasana has deserted me (cue being stuck on the top of my head being unable to get up, not elegant at all), but it was nice to have it for a couple of practices. Maybe it will come back for a visit sometime soon.

Tonight I am taking the husband to the gym after work so am going to do the 45 minute Swenson short form before bed, better than nothing and to be honest I am a bit achey so could use a rest ;) Mind you I suppose that is when you should keep on practicing as it does help the muscles to feel a bit better again, but it isn't as if I will be doing nothing. Man, I am the queen of justification today!

I wonder how the husband will get on actually, he does lots of swimming and walking, but is kind if anti-gyms. Which is fair enough, after all I am still undecided. This is a man who thinkg treadmills are pointless as you are better off going for a nice walk, he is right though. Plus treadmills are very difficult to stay on. I prefer the cross trainer myself, quite relaxing and not so hard on the knees.

I hope he likes it though and joins as it will be nice to do something active together. Although we are planning a walk up Ben Lomond at the weekend so there is that too. Right, enough waffling, gym here I come.

We made it to the gym last night, husband and I, and we managed about an hour workout which was pretty good considering he hasn't been to a gym for a looong time. I had to go home and do some yoga though! I am compelled to do it now, my body needs it or it starts to go haywire!

For some unknown reason I have decided to do the Race for Life, a race round Arthur's Seat (i.e. a bloody great big hill) in aid of Cancer Research. As my grandmother died of breast cancer I think it is an excellent cause to huff and puff round Edinburgh for. Although to be honest I really hate running, but I am going to do the training and see how I go. So long as it doesn't get in the way of yoga I will be happy. It will be quite nice to do some training for the run with family and friends too, unlike with yoga where my family think I will bore them to death if they mention it. Actually come to think of it that is probably a fair comment.

Am off to see the Narnia film tonight and then home for a self-practice. Will have to make sure I get a banana or something first as otherwise will end up eating dinner at 10 at night, not good for the digestion. Speaking of which I ate the mushroom crisps I made in the dehydrator last night with some mushroom pate, they were so tasty. I will definitely be making them again. I want to try making some linseed crackers too as they sound good. I am basically trying to find some sort of effective crisp replacement!

Am looking forward to practice tonight, bring it on!

I have just been reading the Ashtanga ezboard, why is everyone always so grumpy on there? I think I might stop reading it, all of the interesting things seem almost hidden by people getting into post wars about who is wrong about what yoga is.

Anyway, I am very glad it is the weekend as I can have some reading, walking and yoga time. I just got my first issue of The Idler magazine and it is really interesting. It is about money this month and there is a great article about credit and the idea that it is an abstract concept.

Home practice was good last night, I managed to work out why bhujipidasana goes wrong, if you don't have the feet far forward enough when you come up out of it, it goes a bit wrong. So I adjusted my feet and bingo, popped up like a jack-in-the box. I am definitely improving in supta kurmasana too, which is good. As I was practicing yesterday I was thinking how odd, I could be practicing these poses for the rest of my life. I wonder what they will feel like in 10 or 20 years time. Who knows, I might not be doing Ashtanga then, maybe I will have deferred to Iyengar, you never know!

I am really tired today for some reason, I think it might just be having my first full week back at work after the holidays. Wouldn't it be nice to work part time and do yoga the rest of the time. That is my goal actually, one day anyway!

I have discovered the best tea in the world, it is called Bengal Spice and is so tasty, it might be my new coffee substitute.

Practice was good over the weekend, although I went for a long hill walk on Sunday and managed to take all the skin off my heels as I was wearing the wrong shoes. Class is going to be fun without being able to put my heels on the floor! Luckily I got some very jazzy animal print plasters for Christmas so hopefully they should avoid me sticking to the floor, yuk!

I am having a bad week though, really to do with a good friend of mine. Well someone who used to be a good friend, but who lately only seems to criticise and drag me down so I am trying to see less of him. On a practical level it seems to me that you should avoid people like that, but then I wonder if it is because he is feeling not so happy at the moment and is taking it out on me. I guess when you are old and married like me, you can expect to not see your single friends as much, mainly because he just wants to go out and drink and meet people and I am happy at home and also because I don't see the pleasure in going out and getting drunk anymore (damn this yoga malarkey!).

Oh well, maybe it is just a phase or something. We need to sit and have a chat about it really, but I am not so good at that.

I am off work on Thursday and Friday, hoorah, four day weekends should be the rule!

I am having new windows put in today and the men are working around me, it is quite cold without windows oddly enough ;) It is quite exciting though, hopefully it will make the flat much more noise-proof, perfect for my home practices.

I didn't practice last night as I was too nervous of the window men coming. I do get jittery at things like this, nervous excitement I suppose. So I spent all evening moving things away from the window and made the workmen some shortbread (oh God, am sooo turninig into my mother!) and made some curry. I totally forgot it was Burn's Night last night too, so will have to get a haggis for the weekend instead, a veggie one though! They are quite nice really, lots of nuts and spices.

I got some more apples to dehydrate too yesterday, the husband is worried that he is turning into a fatty so I am going to make him some to take to work to have instead of chocolate. He isn't a fatty though so I don't know what he is worrying about!

So my ladies holiday is here meaning three days off practice anyway, I think I might do my Iyengar routine instead though to keep everything ticking along. I'm not sure I can last four days without practice, the husband reckons it makes me go a bit mad when I don't practice as I have all this extra energy so that is usually when we argue about pointless things like the washing up.

And I have been thinking about this friend situation, maybe I need to try to be more understanding. I guess I forget that I am not the centre of the universe sometimes! I need to show a bit more loving kindness to the people I am friends with generally as I can kind of lock myself away in my own little world.

At work yesterday we were looking up our Chinese astrological signs because it is Chinese New Year in a couple of days, I am a fire snake apparrently. Must look up what that means!