Friday, December 28, 2012

Just call me Aspen Namaste Moon

It is almost 2013! That is amazing to me! I was sitting here having lunch a nice Pear and Feta Salad! I saw the reciepe in the Prevention Magazine this month so I grabbed a few small pears from the produce market and I already had some Feta from Trader Joe's and bagged salad so i tried it out. De-lish!!!
Anyway I was browsing online and came across the Whats Your Yogi name posting! For fun I figured mine out...Aspen Namaste Moon! It fits! LOL

I added Bikram Yoga back to my workouts for 2013 because a friend of my from high school mentioned he tried it after I talked about it and how hard it was but he stuck to it! I told him that was awesome!! But it made me think dang I ain't been in a minute myself! Even before surgery! Honestly I think I went to Fusion Yoga in Seattle and maybe one more class with my Sorors in the spring of 2012! Nada since!

2012 has been hectic but with all good things and I feel like 2013 the journey of wellness as I call it will fall more so into a spiritual context instead of it being so physical. So I think yoga is an excellent addition and main stay for my upcoming year.

With that being said yall know I love a party so I invited people to go with me, my sister, and my Mom last Sunday and two friends came! I know I have discussed Hot Yoga before but because I am a bad blogger I don't tag my post properly for easy locating. LOL Apologies!

Anyway, I went Sunday evening and this was unlike any other Hot Yoga class I have taken before. The instructor was very laid back, kinda casual and she just walked up to the front of class when it was time to start. Some introduce themselves, ask if anyone is new, give a mediation before opening up the practice, warn you about the fact that your mind will wander away, etc. Nope! Not her! She just hit the radio and started playing reggae music.

In all honesty I found that a little jarring lol I like the meditation type music. I mean I'm Jamaican reggae music is to party not meditate! LOL

The room is typically between 99 degrees and 105 degrees. So while your body is adjusting to the heat and all those thoughts about how hot it is now I am at war with my hips trying to groove to the beat!

The poses were not difficult and I was able to do most! I opted out of the head stand and back bend however.  :-)

While I was in class I thought about so many things I tried to keep my focus but my medition was one of prayer to God thanking him for health and life. So everything some random AKA thought or dating worry or greedy craving crossed my mind I drew my mind back to being grateful.

The instructor made a suggestion that when the thoughts comes, because they will, try to mentally wipe them away and clear your path again. Now I have sooo many thoughts so quickly gently wiping something away wasnt working for me. So I started to think about that video "Wipe Me Down" You have to sit through about 2 minutes to see the visual but it is worth it! LOL the first time I saw the video I thought it was genius the way the screen was wiped away so that's my new!

Bad thought? Wipe me Down! Negative self image? Wipe Me Down! Wandering mind when I need to be present? Whip Me Down! I see myself sliding the idea away quickly! And it is gone and it worked!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mywxTIM-iPY

The Hot Yoga class was helpful to reset my mind and be aware of my mind's tendency to not be present. I started thinking about what I would eat after class? Will I take pictures? Did I answer that email? When is the next meeting? Did I wrap that gift? Just everywhere other than in that room. Life can be like that for us. Never fully appreciating where we are and being anxious about the next step which totally puts us in a place of being worried and that isn't good for the mind or body.

My goal is to do hot yoga every week. So just call me Aspen Namaste Moon!!!

I put an invitation out there to the Sorors in my Facebook workout group and 9 said they would come! That's awesome! Support is sooo important so is accountability! The likelihood that I will miss that workout is slim to none!

I was asked to be an accountability partner by a Soror and I told her we can hold each other accountable! I don't wake up happy and excited every day! And I guess I give that impression. I tend to begin my day with uplifting quotes and good thoughts to GET my mind my right! It doesn't come that way! Some assembly is REQUIRED!

That's why Weight Watchers and other groups work for me because we feed off each other. There is no way I can pull anyone along on this journey! We have to own it and hold each other up! So she understood and I told her to jump in the group and post her workouts! And she did! And so did I! I don't like to do stuff all willy nilly BUT I did not do a workout plan for the week so that helped me to focus! So what my week looks like!

Fri: Rest/Massage * Can't wait!
Sat: Kickboxing & Teadmill * 30 mins
Sunday: Treadmill & Eliptical and Bikram Yoga
Monday: Spin & Kickboxing 
Tuesday: Spin & Treadmill *30
Weds: Chizel It with my personal trainer 
Thursday: EBoard meeting 
Fri: Dinner with Sorors in DC then bowling with Sorors and the Ques That's my plan for the week!


The first of the year is coming don't wait until then! Get a good workout in this weekend! :-)

Check back soon!!!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

The BGR Little Black Dress Challenge!

I know I have been MIA for a longgg time! But I am back and I hoped yall missed me :-) Sadly I had a minor or what should have been a minor procedure that turned into a nightmare! Thank God I am ok and for the most part back to 100%

I hope you all have been well! I had a great Christmas with friends and family and I am looking forward to the new year! I hope you all had a great holiday too and are looking forward to all that 2013 has to offer! I had a really amazing 2012 and I am working on other aspects of my journey as I have often said this is a mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical journey.

I found a new church home. I am really excited about what I am learning and how I am growing at New Psalmist Baptist Church.

I won a big award I am very proud of that was given by The Daily Record. The award is called Leading Women and it identifies women age 40 or younger for the tremendous accomplishments they have made so far in their career. We were judged on professional experience, community involvement and a commitment to inspiring change.

Oh the health and fitness front I am feeling good. I had a great workout this week. I did everything from Spinning to Extreme Kickboxing to Swimming!! I know right!!!


I felt really inspired to jump back into my workouts because of the Black Girls Run: Baltimore~ Little Black Dress Challenge! So the group leader posted the idea of this challenge and I loved it!  The goal is to find a dress (either buy a goal dress or dig one out from your closet) that doesn't fit the way you would like it to right now and take picture of it (or you in it) and post it to the group and then we will have a "reveal" date in the spring to see how far we have come to reaching that goal! I have two nice black wrap dresses that kinda fit but if I could lose these 20 pounds they would be perfect!



So I got to making a Vision Board!!! So as you can see I plan to put in some WERK!!! I placed my goals on the board and so far so good! I have done 2/3 days of walk/jog run goal, I did Hot yoga on Sunday, I am drinking my water, praying daily and journaling more. I am getting on my clean eating and weight lifting next week.

My vision boards are like my children so I try not to pick favorites but I must say I realllllyyyyy love this board a lotttttttt!!!! :-)

Well its back to the lab a.k.a. the gym tonight I plan to do spinning and 30 minutes on the treadmill!

I packed my breakfast, lunch, and even snacks! Its only 10am and I already had 32 oz of water and I am working on my second serving! Oh and I am going to work on my new affirmations for 2013 based on the Joyce Meyer book "Change Your Words, Change Your Life"

Today is a good day!!! I'll check back soon!