Hot Yoga, Cold Day

Winter Wonderland Wednesday is already getting difficult for me. Which is the point, I guess. It's definitely cold here. Getting to work involves windshield scraping, numb fingers, and frozen ears. You'll only hear me say this once but I miss night shift right now. Garage parking suddenly seems so worth it!

Anyway, I'm here to celebrate things I love about winter. Today, I love Bikram Yoga. I can't afford a year-round yoga pass, but I don't know that I'd want to. I appreciate hot yoga more when it's cold outside. Put me in the salty, sticky air of the Florida Keys and I'm in heaven. Partly because my nailbeds will no longer be blue, but also because humidity is the great equalizer. Nice clothes? Makeup? Smooth hair? What's the point? In a tropical heat wave, my style (or lack thereof) is finally in fashion!

Striking a (Standing Bow) pose at home after class

But I digress. Few things are better than walking into a dressing room with 4 layers on, stripping down to spandex, racing across the cold concrete floor by the reception desk, prying open the door, and sighing with happiness when that wave of heat hits you. I finally thaw. Yesterday's class was especially sweaty, which was welcome after our coldest week yet. (It's hard to believe that just 2 weeks ago, I was running outside in a tank top. You probably couldn't pay me to do that this week.)

This is my 3rd winter doing Bikram Yoga and my 8th class this season. I am finally seeing improvements and I consistently try every posture, pleased to find that I can almost always hold some form of it the entire time. It's also been a great break from running, but I'm hoping that it improves my running as well. Aside from the obvious cardiovascular benefits (the high temps really get your heart pumping), yoga helps me figure out what needs the most stretching from one week to the next. I also love leaving class with quivering jelly legs instead of the board-stiff brick legs I get after running.

Hot yoga makes cold weather much more bearable.

When Upside-down is Rightside-up

I went to Bikram Yoga today and it felt SO GOOD to be back! I loved finishing a hard workout with spaghetti legs instead of brick legs. I really needed the stretch and class was even more encouraging because even though I haven't been to Bikram since last March, I can tell that running has made me stronger again. I tried every pose even though I'm far from perfecting any. And I didn't have to take a break and sit down during class at all!

In other news, I have two apples left from our trip through Nebraska City. I've fallen into a terrible habit of baking on my days off, and today I wanted to make a Ross-approved treat since he's always cleaning up after me when I work several days in a row. Enter caramel apples + cake. I used these two recipes for guidance and I'm so happy with the results!

Browned Butter Caramel

Ingredients:
4 Tbs. butter
3/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:
Melt butter in skillet over medium-high heat. Once butter is melted, begin to stir with a heat-safe spatula until the butter turns golden. Continue to stir for about 10 more seconds to achieve a really rich caramel color. Take off heat immediately and turn burner down to medium heat. Add brown sugar and place skillet back on the burner. Cook for 3 minutes over medium heat until the caramel is smooth and creamy.

Caramel Apple Upside-down Cake

Ingredients:
1 batch of browned butter caramel (see recipe above)
2 apples, cored and sliced
sprinkle of lemon juice
1 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup all-purpose and 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
6 Tbs. butter
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup real maple syrup
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract 
1/2 cup milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make browned butter caramel, pour into 9-inch cake pan (I used 12 muffin tins and had a little leftover) and set aside. Arrange apple slices in pan. Sprinkle lemon juice over apple slices and set aside.

Whisk together the dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon). Cream together the butter with the granulated sugar, syrup, and applesauce. Add the eggs, one at a time, while continuing to beat. Add the vanilla extract and then the dry ingredients, alternately with the milk. Beat until light and fluffy.

Spread over apples and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. When it's done, the cakes will look golden and the sides will start to pull away from the pan. Allow to cool for several minutes, then grab a plate or cake stand and place on top of the pan. Flip over and hope for the best. Gently tap the top of each muffin tin and carefully remove.

Sometimes things must be upside down to become right side up. In yoga and in baking!

Inspiration Board

Growing up, August always meant back-to-school shopping and browsing through catalogs at all the knit sweaters, plaid skirts, and warm tights. Every school year was a clean slate. Well, we're already into September (how did that happen?!) but I still think fall is a chance to start fresh.

Even though I'm no longer in school, I really needed to do something about my mindset. You see, I love fall. But fall means winter is coming. I do love parts of winter: the silence of the first snow, cozy sweaters, lots of hot chocolate and hot tea, sitting in front of the fireplace at my parent's house... but it all gets old after a month or so. I'm dreading going out to my car in the sub-freezing temperatures to go to work. I'm dreading hiking to my car in the dark after a long day and having to scrape the windshields. My little car doesn't handle icy roads well, and neither do I. Come January, I'm ready for SUNSHINE and WARMTH.

Inspired by another blogger, I decided to make an inspiration board of things to work towards in the next 6 months. You see, it's only September. I'm getting too far ahead of myself. And I have a lot to look forward to this winter. Like Gina said, "Fall is the perfect time of year to re-evaluate your goals and see where your priorities lie before the year ends."



Here's a look back at my 2010 Resolutions:

1) Pray daily with Ross again 
FAIL. But there's no time like the present to renew a resolution.

2) Find a church 
I think we've decided on Redeemer Fellowship. Now we just need to become regular attendees. It's taken me a long time to realize we will not find a carbon copy of our Ft. Worth church in the middle of Kansas, as ideal as that would have been.

3) Stick to a budget and use cash for most day-to-day purchases 
Most months, this is a success. Traveling a lot (and using 2 days of PTO) messed this up a bit in July and August, but for the most part we're doing well and even putting money into savings every month.

4) Make friends in my new city
This is taking so much longer than I'd hoped, but I'm finally starting to get out more.

5) Do yoga once (or more) a week while training for the Cowtown Marathon in February 2011
Yoga is not financially viable year-round right now, but I have been consistently training for a 10k this month, a 1/2 marathon in November, and the marathon in February. Come November, I'm excited to work Bikram Yoga into my training schedule again.

6) Eat at least one serving of fruits or vegetables at every meal
This has definitely improved in the past year, thanks in part to healthy living blogs I've started reading. It's good to see other active young women with a balanced mindset toward food. Also, the CSA has been a great source of local vegetables and new flavors. This summer I started to aim for 5+ servings of produce a day, but even on my lazy/low-grocery days, 3 servings is pretty standard.

7) Laugh more
I'm starting to smile more (some days it's fake it 'til you make it) and I'd like to think I'm more pleasant on a day-to-day basis, although I've noticed that my mood can be directly related to how tired I am.

8) Read more
I'm ashamed to admit that I read the Twilight series in 5 days this spring and I read all 16 books of the Stephanie Plum Series this summer. It takes me no time flat to read guilty-pleasure books. Now I've moved on to The Autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux: The Story of a Soul (the saint I was named after) and The Happiness Project (which was actually written by a Kansas City native).

9) Cook more
Given the fact that I've posted enough recipes here to justify a recipe page, I think it's safe to say I'm cooking more! 

10) Play more
Still a work in progress. I need to spend less time on the computer and more time enjoying the sunshine while it's still here.

Here's what I want to/plan to do in the next six months (that's from the beginning of September through the end of February):

1) Run a 10k, half marathon, and marathon (in case I haven't said that enough)!

2) Buy a 3 month Bikram pass this November and go at least once a week.

3) Cross-train/lift weights twice a week.

4) Continue to eat as locally as I can, even as the CSA dwindles and I rely more on frozen organic veggies and less on fresh produce. (This includes the more specific goal of taking Ross to Nebraska City this fall to pick apples, stock up on apple butter and homemade jam, and enjoying the local, seasonal bounty and the essence of being outdoors in the fall.)

5) Spend more time thanking God for the life he has given me, and loving God as much as my little heart is capable of.

6) Spend less time on the computer, get outside more, and sleep better.

7) Start saving more money for a new car (hopefully it lasts more than 6 more months, but it's time to start saving more in anticipation).

8) Attain my RNC certification. I'm taking a 3-day study course in October and plan to take the computerized test before December 15 (the day I graduated from nursing school in 2007).

I have a few other exciting goals for the next 2 years, but those are for another inspiration board another day!

If you read this far, thank you. I'd love to hear YOUR goals for the next 6 months as well! To quote Gina again, "Things don’t happen by accident- they’re always the result of hard work and the most meaningful goals are the ones that are not-so-easy to attain."

I'm back!?

When you're little and you fall down, your parents tell you to "get back in the saddle" and keep going. I had to tell myself that's what today was in my running journey. There comes a point when you need to suck it up and get back on track.

I was starting to get pretty down on myself for not running in almost 3 WEEKS! Granted, my back was killing me the first week and I went on two slow, easy runs in Amarillo and then worked WAY too much the rest of the second week, but still. I went to Bikram Wednesday and Saturday and it has helped my back a lot. It's still very tight, but I need to remember to keep going to yoga once a week to stay loose and injury-free.

Today was a slow, short run. I can tell I've lost some strength and endurance since my last good run, which is a bit discouraging. However, I worked up a sweat and defintitely got my heart rate up. I need to keep focusing on the positive. I do notice that I feel happier after working out. Like Lance Armstrong says, "What am I on? I'm on my bike 6 hours a day. What are you on?" (Speaking of biking, now that it's warm, Ross and I need to find some good routes around here!)

As I was sitting here moping about how much I've fallen behind in my training, I read through some blogs I follow and found this timely post on No Meat Athelte. (Click the underlined words to go to the link). The basic premise is, like Hal Higdon says, "Putting miles in your training log is like putting money in the bank. You begin to draw interest on it immediately." I don't know about drawing interest, but I am keeping tally of my total mileage on dailymile.com now to encourage me and prove to myself that I am (or will be, eventually) improving and building endurance. Every step I take is literally a step toward that goal.

Night Shift "Hangover"

I've never had so many drinks that I'm hungover the next day, but after working 4 shifts in a row, traveling to Amarillo, and launching another 4-in-a-row stretch with only some restless sleeping in the car beforehand, I feel that I can empathize: screaming headache, red eyes, general puffiness, and and overwhelming desire to crawl back into bed at any given time. I finished the latest string of shifts on Tuesday morning and then slept for 10 hours! I don't know how well I slept, though, because I woke up feeling even worse. Only after taking a bath, exfoliating every inch of skin, and moisturizing excessively (hospital air is so dry!) did I feel like I could partially rejoin the land of the living.

*

Then I went back to bed and slept from 11pm to 6am, only waking a few times to turn over and go back to sleep. Again, not sure how well I slept. I'm learning not all sleep is equal. However, I did feel well enough this morning to go to Bikram yoga.
I was definitely scared that class was going to kick my butt! I haven't worked out in two weeks, except for two SLOW jogs in Amarillo. I've also been eating a lot of junk and processed foods in the last 2 weeks and I'm starting to notice that something about it gives me a stomachache. My last semester of nursing school, I started getting nauseous and dyspeptic when I was really stressed-- to the point that I now throw up at the peak of stressful times. Lovely, I know. But I've also noticed that I eat more crap when I'm stressed. Maybe the stress isn't causing my stomachaches as directly as I thought... Coincidence? I think not.

*You're never too old, never too bad, never too late and never too sick to start from the scratch once again.* -Bikram Choudhury

Yoga note to self: lotion + sweat = slime. Slathering up felt great last night after a bath, but it made hot yoga a lot more slippery! Besides that, it was a great class, though. I skipped the two poses that tend to make my back cramp up the most, but I also mixed a cup of coconut water and pinch of salt into my Nalgene bottle full of water. (I "bonked" toward the end of the last few classes, if it's possible to apply that term to yoga). I don't know if it was skipping the hardest poses, the electrolytes in my water, of the fact that the room was not as hot as it had been, but class went well!
I plan to spend the rest of the day with my garden books and planting seeds. I knew it wasn't going to be as easy as "poke seed into hole in dirt and water as needed," but I never realized plants were so complicated! My cucumber seeds are currently hopefully pre-sprouting, wrapped in damp paper towels in a Ziploc bag. I soaked the beet seeds in water for two hours and I'm going to plant them this afternoon. I ordered a heat pad for the peppers (apparently, they grow best with bottom-heat around 80 degrees) and it should arrive in two days. I'm really hoping my garden isn't one gigantic failure! I'll be nocturnal most of the summer, I'm sure, but at least my plants can benefit from the sunlight, and I can benefit by eating them!

Crazy spring breakers?

My back is getting better; a week off definitely helped. Now I just need to get back into running gently and avoid anything that makes my back hurt. (I'm still not sure exactly how I hurt it. I suspect I did something wrong when I was doing an arm workout last week.) Of course, heat and this yoga stretch help the most:

*

I work 4 nights in a row starting Friday but next week, I think I'm going to go to Bikram yoga three or 4 times and then get back into running after that. NO INJURIES ALLOWED! I am GOING TO run the Cowtown next February!

In slightly more interesting news, here are some pictures from Amarillo. My camera died, but I managed to steal a few pictures from Ross' mom's camera. Emily, my sister-in-law, found this awesome recipe for German Chocolate Cupcakes and suggested we make them over spring break. I make muffins from scratch all the time, but I'd never attempted cupcakes. The batter was very mousse-like and the finished product was amazing with a glass of ice cold milk! Emily took the awesome cupcake photos:

Before...

After... yum!

Ross spent Thursday afternoon and evening playing with Legos working on a grad school project. I had to take pictures!

Check out the color-sorted bins. Apparently he sorted them like that even when he was a kid!

I guess he's going to make a stop-motion animated Lego film for his Visual Storytelling class

All in all, we had a fun and relaxing break. Back to the grind-- and cold-- tomorrow. Snow is in the forecast again!

Set Your Intentions

Most of the time, I think Bikram Choudhury is a materialistic windbag, but I have to admit there's something about Bikram yoga that I find comforting. It's a 90-minute sweat session in a 100+ degree room that never fails to kick my butt, but I love it!

First off, it's not hard to look forward to working out in a sauna-like room when it's bitter cold out! Much easier to muster up courage to leave the apartment when I'm headed to yoga than to the creaky treadmill at the big, drafty gym.

I also like knowing we'll be doing the same 26 postures in the same order every time. You know exactly how hard the workout is, so you can anticipate this and decide early on exactly how much effort you can put into it to get what you want out of it.

The teachers all learn the same scripted dialogue, so you hear more or less the same thing every class. However, different things will always stand out to you depending on the day. The point of this post is that at the start of the balancing series (the hardest 5-6 postures for me), they often say "set your intentions now," basically meaning that you need to make up your mind in that moment that you're going to put your full effort into the postures.

I tend to wimp out during the standing head-to-knee posture. I have a huge mental block against it for some reason! But yesterday I decided that I needed to suck it up and attempt every single posture, including that one and the triangle pose, which also freaks me out. I did both of them and you know what? I survived! It was a better class because of it! And my heart rate slowed down soon enough that I wasn't too exhausted to immediately go into the next posture. I know its a small victory, but it meant a lot. I realize that I need to "set my intentions" and follow through a lot more often! It would improve my confidence level, that's for sure.

Dandayamana Janushirasana (Standing Head-to-Knee pose). Ironically, it's supposed to build mental strength and improve concentration in addition to using all major muscle groups and strengthening the back.

Bikram yoga isn't for everyone, and I'm using it as an adjunct to runnning instead of treating it as the only legitimate exercise program out there like Bikram does (I'm telling you, he's one crazy guy). I'll keep going once or twice a week until the weather outside is hotter than the studio, and I'll be back next fall when the first real cold front blows in! Baking isn't the only way to stay warm through the Midwestern winter. In the meantime, I'll practice "setting my intentions" and following through!

Happy New Year (Resolutions)!

Today is 01 02 2010. Ross pointed that out and I thought I'd share. I do love numerical coincidences!

In other news, it's time for the annual New Year's Resolution list. I know some people don't make resolutions anymore because they say they never keep them. But I think making resolutions for the new year is a sign of optimism; and as Ross (and my parents) can attest, I certainly need all the optimism I can muster!

*Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle.* -Eric Zorn

Here are my resolutions for 2010:

1) Learn to think of something else besides Community Health Nursing (and Healthy People 2010) when I say what year it is. I'm sure all of Dr. Frable's students can empathize with me here.

2) On a more serious note, I would like to start praying daily with Ross again. We were good about it for a while, but the stresses of moving and our opposite schedules have definitely put a damper on this habit.

3) FIND A CHURCH! Ross and I have been out of town or both working nearly every Sunday since the beginning of November. In October, we went to 2 different churches, but didn't fall in love with either. The next one on our list is Covenant Chapel in Leawood, KS. It's a 30 minute drive from where we live, but it looks similar to our church in Fort Worth. Even better, I have a friend of a friend who attends and she went to TCU and Christ Chapel, so I know we have similar tastes!

4) Ahhh, the budget. Always fun. Again, the move and change in paychecks has thrown us all out of whack. There's no time like the present to start again!

5) Make friends. Try to ignore the pitiful-ness of this statement; it's something I really need to work on. I am very hesitant around new people and I've been told that can come of as snobbish and aloof when really, I'm just petrified of putting myself out there! I do have a fun young group of co-workers on night shift with me, and I know of several TCU alum in the area (again, friends of friends) that I need to get together with.

6) Do yoga once (or more) a week while training for the Cowtown Marathon in February 2011! Yes, Emily Gilmore and I are still training. By June, I'd like to be comfortable running 3-5 miles without a break (it's sad how quickly running fitness escapes you when you don't put it to good use). I also plan on doing the Bike Ride Across Nebraska this June 6-12. Ross' dad, my brother Daniel, and my Uncle Bob have expressed interest in going this year. I think I've just about convinced Ross, too!

This goal may sound somewhat shallow, but I really need to get into a routine of exercising again. I'm practically euphoric after a good workout and since I'm extremely susceptible to the winter blues, exercise is going to be vital to all human interactions until summer (and even then, it won't hurt)!

7) I'm ashamed to say I don't eat as well as I'd like to. I'm making it a goal to eat at least one serving of fruits or vegetables at every meal. Even this is woefully inadequate, but I have to start somewhere!

8) Laugh more, read more, cook more, play more.

*New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.* -James Agate

*The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.* -G.K. Chesterton

*From New Year's on the outlook brightens; good humor lost in a mood of failure returns. I resolve to stop complaining.* -Leonard Bernstein

*I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.* -Anais Nin (Interesting way of saying there's no point in trying... Bah humbug to this type of statement!)

*An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.* -Bill Vaughan (he has also said, "Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to.") I was up, feeding a baby at work at midnight on New Year's and Ross had fallen asleep on the couch trying to stay up :o) What does that say about us?!

Happy New Year to all of you! May 2010 find you filled with joy and abundant blessings in your life.