Sylvi-progress, some exercise and yoga

Weekends are supposed to be fun and relaxing, eh? Well, I had a (mostly) fun weekend, but I don't know where the "relaxed part" went...

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My progress on Sylvi has somewhat haltered. Being out of town last week and keeping busy all weekend, hasn't left me with a lot of knitting time. I'm nearly there when it comes to finishing Sylvi though. I have another ten rows to knit for the hood, maybe a blocking of the same, ten petals to knit and sew down and some ends to weave in. And I need to find buttons. And attach them.

It sounds to be more work than I thought when spelled out like this, but in my mind I'm close to finishing...

And I really want to finish Sylvi before I leave for my vacation. I'd love to bring her to Canada. (And the US.) But that only leaves me with 9 nights and I have plans made for 2 of those. And I probably should be packing instead of knitting the night before I leave for three weeks away from home...

I also need to figure out what knitting project(s) I should bring with me on my trip... Decisions. Decisions.

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I was a slacker last week at the gym due to being away on work business for three days. (Have you checked out the honeymoon suite I got at the hotel?) Anyways, yesterday I decided to go for an hour lifting weights and working out in the machines before doing an hour of yoga. I did my usual warm up; ten minutes on a track machine while getting bored out of my mind, before going upstairs to do my real work out. And I stopped just as I got up. The place was crowded. Completely packed with people. All the machines I usually use were occupied and there was even a line up formed at two of them. No way was I going to join the crowd...

I got downstairs again and found a treadmill that wasn't occupied. I actually got through 35 minutes of walking on the treadmill before I had to get over to my yoga class. And I didn't yawn once. Or sigh. Or find it awfully boring. Miracles do happen!

Yoga was good. Better than expected. The instructor had made quite a few changes to the routine since I was there last (some three weeks ago?) and this class had a better flow to it. And I got to do one of my favourite asana; sitting forward bend! Not only once, but twice. I'm stiffer now than I was a year a half ago, but I guess my body got a thourough warm up yesterday, 'cause my forward bend was soooo relaxed and I sank into it very quickly, being able to rest my chest on my thighs and put my face down on my legs.

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A random picture of me showing the world my butt while doing yoga:

Me doing a variation of "The Plough" on a yoga retreat in France in 2007

Falling asleep with a French accent

I need a lot of sleep to function properly. Always have. Usually falling asleep comes really easy to me and doesn't take more than 5-10 minutes, counting from when I lie down in bed...I have a special routine I go through at night and I've been doing the same thing for ten years or so. More or less.

I lie down on my back. Tuck a pillow under my knees. Pull up the duvet high, making sure that all body parts are covered. Either stretch out my arms along my body or keep them on my stomach.

And then I relax. This used to be "just plain relaxing" until I got a feeling of "sinking through the mattress". Then I turned to my side and fell asleep. I do it a bit differently now, since last summer.

To make sure my body is relaxed I go through it body part by body part repeating the following sentences in my thoughts/my head:

I relax my [body part].
I relax my [body part].
I relax my [body part].
My [body part] is relaxed.

By using an "active mode" in telling myself to relax a certain body part, I sort of feel that part actually relaxing as I think about it. Repeating it three times makes for long enough to relax. And then confirming the relaxation makes it easier to wander to the next part.

I don't always go through my body parts in the same order, but I mostly do this:

feet, ankles, calf muscles, knees, thighs, hips, stomach, chest, shoulders, upper back, lower back, butt, fingers, hands, wrists, elbows, upper arms, neck, jaw, lips, tongue, cheeks, temples, forehead, eye brows and finally my eyeballs.

The funny thing is that I do it all in English. With a slight French accent.

...
...
...

See, I picked up this routine in a yoga ashram in France last summer. The male swami who did asanas with us, and also the final relaxation, had this wonderful accent with a melody that was just perfect for calming me, my muscles and my thoughts, down. These sentences are so connected to his voice, that I hear it as soon as I start.

The swami included some of the inner organs as well; such as the spleen and the pancreas. I leave those out as I feel silly trying to relax my inner organs... (The eyeballs aren't too easy either, but I need some challenges, don't I?)


How do you fall asleep? Do you have a routine?

Weekend recap

I've had a super relaxed weekend. Friday night was pizza, Olympics and Laminaria ver2.0. I'm now up to 5 repeats of the Blossom chart and there's still love. I have a strange feeling about this one, almost like when reading a really good book, I want to know how it turns out when finished but I enjoy working on it so much I don't really want it to end. You know what I mean?

Saturday was lazy morning with more Olympics, a bike ride into town with boyfriend and then a couple of hours spent in a colleague's garden, before heading home to more Olympics and the start of A Girl's Best Friend Wallet (pattern from JennaLou). I saw Pikku-Kettu's version two weeks ago and had to order the pattern myself. Update will follow!

Yesterday was mostly spent preparing for my sister and her boyfriend coming over for dinner. My darling sister is allergic to cats so we always have to make an extra effort before she comes over. Everything gets swept off with a duster, all surfaces get wiped off with a damp cloth, textiles that we can't get the cat hair off of is thrown into isolation in the walk-in-closet, all cushions on the couch are vaccumed and shook outside as well as all the rugs, the floors are vacuumed and mopped wet. The cats are taken outside to get a proper brush and sometimes I'll wipe them off with wet hands to catch as much hair and allergens as I can. I place eye drops on the side table by the entrance door and we're good to go...

It was nice seeing my sister and her boyfriend. I can't believe she's going soon. In less than two weeks there will be a huge ocean between us again. Only difference is that this time around she'll be the one on the fun side of it...

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I'm looking forward to this fall. I feel as if I'm ready for some structural changes and I feel more creative than ever. I will get back to the gym on a regular basis (and hope for my hip to behave well). I will slowly start my yoga practise at home again. I will continue doing knit night every other Thursday. I'm planning on creating a "writer's night" for myself so I can get more writing done.

I don't want summer to be over but I feel somewhat ready for fall.

Feeling better about myself

My hip isn't bothering me anymore! My upper body is not shifted to one side but completely straight! I'm not in pain! The anti-inflammatory medication I was given helped. What a relief! :)

Tonight I'm going to a yoga class and I really look forward to it. I attended one a couple of weeks ago (the night before my body shifted) and have wanted to go back ever since. Now when I'm not in pain there's nothing holding me back. I think I might leave the bike at home and use my new running shoes to walk there and back. Yes, walk. I'm not in such shape that jogging there and back would be possible. Now, that is.

I invested in a pair of proper running shoes (Asics) to use for my walks as I'm afraid my hip might start bothering me again if I walk around in bad shoes. But I also feel a slight urge to take up jogging again. As a teenager I did athletics and I focused on running middle and long distances, anywhere from 800m to 10,000m. I wasn't fast, but I had the ability to set up a pace and keep it. I think the fastest I ever ran 10,000m in was 48minutes. Trying now, I'd die if I attempted to keep that pace...

Yesterday I actually tried jogging for a bit when taking my (almost) daily walk in the evening. I felt heavy, stiff and unsynced with my own movements, but it did feel good jogging. I'm thinking about setting up some goals for myself and to have an organised run in May as a "carrot" to keep me to it when I get tired.

On another note, I've now lost 4kg/almost 9lbs since I started taking better care of myself in November last year. I haven't been "dieting" properly, but I've paid more attention to what I eat, I've made an effort to prepare healthier food, I only have ice cream on Fridays and Saturdays, I stay away from cookies and cakes at coffee time at work and take a fruit instead, I eat a better breakfast to keep me full longer... And I'm not forbidding myself anything. I know I can eat whatever I want to, but I try to think about how much I have to move to get rid of the extra calories and then I decide if it's worth the effort and time. Seems to work for me.

I also take walks. Not every day but 4-5 afternoons/evenings a week. Sometimes just for twenty minutes and sometimes for an hour. Depends on what I feel like. And the temperature. And what casette tape I have in my Walkman...

To a lot of people 4kg/9lbs isn't a big deal. And I'm not saying it is either. I'm not losing weight becasue I'm overweight. I'm losing it to get back into shape. To try and "mold" my body into something I like looking at and feel comfortable in. And I'm very happy with where I am now. These 4kg/9lbs means I've lost 3cm/1.2in around my waist and butt. I've also lost 2cm/0.8in around my hips and around each thigh. I don't think others can see the difference (and that's not the point either) but I can. And I feel it. My clothes are a bit looser and I move more comfortably in them.

Next step here is to get back into my routine of regular yoga classes (at the gym and at home), to start building muscles again and to transform the walks to jogging. I have to say that it doesn't feel impossible at all. On the contrary, I seem to be looking forward to it. This has been much easier than I thought it would be. Maybe because I'm not hurrying things or forbidding myself those tasty chocolate cakes when the urge comes by?

Rambling after Christmas

So Christmas came and went. Have to say that I've never experienced a Christmas sneaking up on me like this one did. I guess renovating and moving mess with your head and your ability to care about anything outside your own walls.

We're sort of getting there when it comes to getting the house organized. Sort of. It takes time to set things up and I admit to not being able to make decisions for hours and hours. I burn out. And I leave the box for a while, for a day or for boyfriend...

I've taken some pictures during the painting process of the house and will show you guys when it's all done...

The cats are worried and spend most of their days either hiding or walking around loudly complaining in shrieks that go directly to my heart. Skorpan seems to have a problem with urinating and I'm contemplating taking him to the vet. I'm happy they eat and drink properly. Even though they want breakfast at 4am...

Santa brought me a dressform (that I haven't assembled yet) for my knitting and sewing as I find it painful to try and see how pieces look on me, eight skeins of Garnstudio's Alpaca that I don't have a project for yet, a box of magnetic fridge poetry for cat lovers, a gift certificate for a facial and a cook book focused on things one can grow in the garden. I'm real happy about everything I received.

My sister loved the handbag I made her! She even started showing it around to let our mother and grandmother inspect the seams... Pictures of that one when I can find the cord so I can transfer from the camera to the computer. I honestly don't know what my brother and his girlfriend thought of the baby carrier I made them. I didn't see them unwrap the gift and apparently they didn't understand what it was. My brother asked me and when I told him he sort of just said "Oh. Okey. We thought it was some sort of an apron." I offered to show them how it worked, how you'd tie it and position the baby in it, but just as I offered, we were ushered to the tables for dessert and they never asked me later on... Wouldn't be surprised if it ended up in a drawer.

Remember me saying a couple of weeks ago how I was in need of changes and wanted to trim my body a bit? Well, it's going better than I had anticipated. In four weeks' time I've lost 2,5kg/5.5lbs and 2cm/0.8in around my waist. And that's including Christmas eating. I guess renovating a house, packing, moving and unpacking makes one move around a whole lot more than one thinks...

It seems like my right shoulder (the one has been bothering me all fall) has healed. Even with all the work I've been doing these last two weeks, I haven't experienced pain. I'm really happy about this as it means I might be able to get back into the gym and my yoga classes again after New Year's. I've decided to sign up at another gym (closer to our new house) and I hope I'll enjoy their yoga classes (and instructors) as much as I've enjoyed the ones at my current gym. Hold your thumbs for me, will you? :)

Well, enough random rambling from me. Hope you're all doing fine!

Yoga injury and Chocolate Therapy

I biked through the city a little before 7am today. Woke up at 430am and couldn't go back to sleep comfortably. At 530am I gave up my attempts to settle back into sleep. My right shoulder is acting up on me and has for a couple of weeks. It doesn't have anyting to do with my knitting and my sore finger joints; this is a yoga injury... When attempting head stands at home a couple of weeks ago I did something funny that made my shoulder hurt. I don't really know what happened. When thinking back, I think I was about to loose my balance and when trying to catch it again I overcompensated and put more pressure on my right shoulder. Or something. Anyways, it's been bothering me and it's gotten way worse the last three or four days. Now it aches and hurts all the time as opposed to before when it took a funny movement for it to act up.

I cancelled my yoga class this morning as I realized yesterday that I wouldn't be able to keep up. Darn. I was actually looking forward to being able to tell everyone that in the last two weeks I had gone to three yoga classes at the gym and had practised at home four times. Now I'm starting to think that maybe all that training has increased the pain in my shoulder...

Have tried putting heat on it to make it ache less but I can't say I've noticed any difference. Maybe I should try something cold? I honestly don't know when to keep aching body parts warm and when to keep them cold. Does anyone else know and care to enlight me?

Boyfriend suggested that I'd put on some "pain relieving cream" on my shoulder but the only one we had at home contained ASA and I'm oversensitive to that. Haven't had ASA since I was 6 years old and I don't know how I'd react to it now. I'll see what else I can find in the pharmacy on my way home today.

I'm glad it's Friday. Pain always makes me soooo whiney and I can't wait to go home and get msyelf a bowl of Ben&Jerry's Chocolate Therapy! A couple of weeks ago I found a couple of pints of Chocolate Therapy in my grocery store. It's apparently sold in pints here as a limited thing. I bought two pints that evening and I'm glad I did 'cause the next time I was in the store, they were all out of them. I have a 7-Eleven faily close to my apartment and I'll go there sometime this weekend to see if they have more pints so I can stack up a bit in the freezer.

The stiff blob

I haven't been practising my yoga much these last couple of weeks. I have to admit to feeling like a stiff blob. I feel tensions in my body and don't feel very relaxed. My body feels big and heavy. And I feel weak.

During spring and summer I went to the gym and practised at least twice a week. Now for several weeks in a row, I've been there once a week. They shifted the classes around a bit compared to the schedule they had before the summer and with buying a house and having to go to the bank and doing house inspections on "yoga days"... Well, less time for me in the gym...

I sometimes do a yoga routine at home in the morning before getting myself ready for work. But I admit to not being as regular as I probably should be to keep my body relaxed and free from tension. My lazy self convinces me that it's much better to stay in bed for another twenty minutes and then take a long hot shower to wake up slowly...

Have been thinking about asking boyfriend to kick me out of bed on Mondays and Wednesdays so I don't have any excuse not to do my routine. I'm sure he'd love to help! :)

It's just so stupid of me as I know I enjoy doing the exercise when I'm actually at it...

Sweaty pig doing yoga

Guess what? The sky cleared up yesterday and I got to see the sun for a couple of hours. And today the sky has started out being more blue than white or grey. :blooby:

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This morning I had my first yoga class at the gym in three weeks. And i'ts only my second class in four weeks. At the gym, that is. During these weeks, I did spend a week at a yoga ashram doing a lot of yoga asanas every day, but it's not the same as my gym yoga. Not the same...

I felt like dying in the gym this morning. My body was stiff. I had no balance. I felt dizzy everytime we stood up. And I sweated like a pig. A large one.

Wonder how long it'll take me to get back into it. To not feel dead in the middle of the class, but actually enjoy the work I do with my body and mind. I'm hoping not too long.

My gym has changed some things around while I was on my vacation (from work and the gym). They have moved machines and weights in the "muscle building section" and it's more spacious now. There's also a brand new room for yoga, pilates and body balance classes. It's a small room with cappucino coloured walls, soft spotlights in the ceiling, extra warmth, sounds proof and with the stereo in an adjescent room so it doesn't interfere with the "clean" feeling/look. Felt good being in there. Even though I wouldn't have minded some natural lighting from a window somewhere...

FO - Yoga Mat Bag

Pattern: My own

Material: An old pair of boyfriend's jeans

Comment: I needed a yoga mat bag before going on vacation. To be honest I thought it would be fairly easy finding a cheap bag somewhere for my mat but it turned out to be difficult. Instead of spending a lot of money on an ugly vinyl bag from the sport shop, I decided to make my own. Got boyfriend to separate from an old pair of jeans with holes in them and got started...

It took me about 6½ hours to make this and to go out finding some kind of thin rope to use at the top for closing. Way longer than I thought...