Bikram Yoga

I had heard so much about this "Heat Yoga" from friends and have been wanting to try it for a long time. Sadly the only studio for a while had been all the way across town and took nearly an hour to drive to most times of the day.

Lucky for me (And for Will)one finally opened with in walking distance of our apartment! I know! The luck! So for the first time yesterday we went in and signed up for our ten day unlimited trial. It was only 20 dollars for 10 days and the drop in class was 15 dollars. It just made sense. We went again today to ease our muscles and continue the practice.

I happen to like it a lot. Mind you not as I like vinyasa yoga. Still it literally gets you soaking in sweat within several minutes. It seems to be wonderful for rapid weight loss and injury. It is certainly challenging. I just don't seem to have the same emotional connection that I do with Flow style. Perhaps because it is more for pure fitness then it is for the ease of the soul and mind body connection, or maybe I have just not been practicing it as long.

On that note I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to try it or get physically fit. It is challenging and fun at the same time. You can feel your body releasing its toxins instantly. It has practitioners of all shapes and sizes, all levels and all ages. It was also recommended in the top ten Bikram Yoga Studios in America by 'Details'.


On a personal note, I think that this is one of the best places that could have expanded their franchises in our city. Like it or note San Antonio is not the healthiest place to live. Still places like this, resources like the newly launched Fitness portal, supplies by the Mayors Fitness Council and a variety of free activities have the potential to help San Antonio healthy and happy!

Mango Coconut water Smoothie

A perfect lunch or Breakfast on the go! Contains Fruits, veggies, protiens, and healthy fats.

Ingredients:
2 cups of fresh mango chunks
2-3 tbs of lime juice
2 cups of unsweetened coconut water
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Put all ingredients in blender and combine well.

LiveStrong 5k!

I am the one in the Blue.




Well Yesterday was my first 5K! It was tons of fun and not as hard as I thought it would be...I mean today I am soar but I could defintley do more. I completed it in 35 minutes; not bad for my first time and I will do even better next one!

So what does this mean for me? It means a lot. You see I am a dancer and what do you hear from dancers all of the time? "Dancers cant really run." It's our ankles really. Ankles have a lot of stress in them when you dance, primarily in Ballet due to the extreme stress. Well, I want to be a dancer that can run too...and apparently I can!

A healthy life style means alot to me...that is the reason why I am vegan. But eating isn't all there is to health. Working out, cardio and strength training is just as important. Still to do that you need the right food in your system, so it's nothing and everything but a cycle of health.

The moral: Half Marathon is next!

Warrior Dash

Well I found this a few days ago from a friend and am going to start training for it.

http://www.warriordash.com/register2010_central_texas.php

The Warrior Dash is a 3.2 mile run. I know, not the hard part. The hard part is all of the obsticals that take place during to run. They include belly crawling through the mud under barb wire, flame jumping, junk jumping, running through the woods with no trails, bog wading, ect. I think its going to be a whole lot of fun and I suggest that anyone around one does it. They are taking place all over the country!

Just thought I would share!

A Summer Nights Dinner

Okay so I'm trying something new right now and that is a...basically raw food medley for dinner. Lets face it; it's summer we are running around, we want to be outside (most of us) and we want to look good. After laying on the beach, or swimming, or going on long hikes for the day, the last thing we want to do is ruin all that fun but hard work off with a heavy dinner that makes us want to unbutton our jeans and do a Homer Simpson.

So what I did tonight was take a page from a raw kind of life style and put together a grouping of foods that will fill you up and do what food is meant to do: Nourish your body. You can always subsitute other foods out but make sure that you are getting what you feel your body needs. Look them up. So here is mine:

The first thing that you can probably see is that these are all some great snack foods. Grapes, baby carrots, walnuts and Hummus. What you cant see is that all of these foods have their own special powers. The grapes are amazing anti oxidants. Walnuts are chalk full of amino acids and enough omega three as a cut of salmon. Hummus is made from chick peas and is stuffed with lean protein. The baby carrots are full of vitamin A which is great for helping you sun drenched skin and eyes... among other vitamins. Top that off with a cup of fruit juice (Pure of course) and you have an amazingly good for you meal!

My Bike!

First off I would like to thank all of my friends for reading and promoting this blog! I am glad you like it so much and are liking the food on it. More so (no offense guys!) I would like to say how excited I am that my OPA and OMA are reading it! I really hope you guys like everything! Anytime you have any questions please give me a call! I love you all!

Okay well I have decided its high time to start doing more than yoga as a form of exercise. Eating well is not the only thing that makes one healthy after all. But i'm not much for the gym...they little money I have goes to my yoga classes anyway. Maybe when I get a big girl job. Instead of that I have decided to start being more active in my everyday life.

With that in mind, I will not longer use my car for anything 10 miles or under (Eventually I will make it more than that). I will use the bike that my sweet loving boyfriend got me for Valentines day! This means that I will no longer be driving to the market, to the school or anything else with a path that I could ride through. Keep in mind that San Antonio Drivers will hit me on site. Today I rode my bike to and from school. The route I take is roughly ten miles with a tonne of hills.

Not to mention that I hope to greatly reduce my carbon footprint. Right now it is 26.31 metric tons of CO2, which is pretty gross to me. But I'm hoping that by driving less and getting most if not all of my produce from local farmers will make a different in that. If you'd like to measure your own carbon foot print (And you really should just for perspective) HERE is the web site I used.

Again, though, this is meant to be a non activist blog...but consider this something that you can do thats healthy for you and healthy for the planet! The two are not exclusive at all! I know it sounds odd and rather sadistic but when you pedal your bike past a bunch of people in a drive though you get this great feeling that you are doing something out of the ordinary, well and healthy! Consider how many people that you see sitting in a car by themselves. Then consider that most of the time you drive you are not driving more than 15 miles from home. You could be burning off calories and making yourself healthier every step of that. And you could could be making the planet healthier too. Double win!