exploring life by foot and fork
exploring life by foot and fork
It’s Feel Good Friday! Here’s an incredibly motivational video on a disabled veteran’s transformation from obese and assisted-walking to.. well you’ll see!
Never underestimate what you can accomplish when you believe in yourself. Never give up. Thanks MB for the share.
I can’t wait for Yoga on the Mall tomorrow! Happy DC Yoga week!
Yoga Stops Traffick is a worldwide event to raise awareness of human trafficking and garner support for Odanadi Seva Trust in India. Odanadi is an organization that has worked for the last 20 years to rescue women and children and end human trafficking and child exploitation. Visit their website and learn more about the amazing work they continue to do — www.odanadi.org.
This year the event will be on Saturday, March 10th, 2012. Watch their promo video from 2011 below:
Event details for the Washington, DC area:
I definitely plan on going, I hope you can too!
For the past year I have pretty much just been sticking to Vinyasa, Power Hour, and Budokon Power Yoga classes at Stroga. This past weekend I decided to double up on classes and attended the Dharma Flow Yoga class with Yogi Michell Stanley. I had no idea what I was getting into, but I was starting to get intimidated by the intensely lean and fit students attending the class (picture both men and women with seriously sculpted arms all practicing head stands while waiting for class to start. INTENSE).
Here’s the description from Stroga’s website:
Dharma Flow Yoga is a practice for all levels of students who wish to flow from one pose to the next with mindfulness and ease. Poses are approached from their basic building blocks to progressively challenging variations. A series of deeper balancing, stretching, back bending, twisting and inverted variations will be taught; including arm balances and inversions. Students will learn how to ignite the entire body flow of vital energy as they sweat and release stress.
The Dharma Flow Yoga tradition includes a beautiful sequence of postures stemming from classical yoga as taught by Sri Dharma Mittra. The intention is to strengthen and purify the body and mind. Deepening backbends, forward bends, and twists will prepare you to confront your edge as you train your mind to remain centered in the face of challenge.
This practice finishes with extended deep relaxation, breathing, and meditation exercises which will certainly bring deep calm and invigorating energy that students can take into their lives.
It was hard, but I felt amazing when I finished and then immensely sore the next day. Talk about a full body workout!
From Dharma Yoga Center’s Website:
I will definitely be attending this class more often. Namaste, friends.
If I had to pick one time of the year that is least popular for exercise, it’s the holiday season — meant for eating, drinking, and merriment. In order to prevent myself from succumbing to the inactivity, here is my end-of-the-year activity schedule.
| RACE | DATE | LOCATION | RESULT |
| Veterans Day 10k | 11/13/11 | Washington, DC | 53:24:00 |
| Thanksgiving Trot for Hunger 5k | 11/26/11 | Washington, DC | 25:36:00 |
| Hot Chocolate 15k | 12/03/11 | National Harbor, MD | |
| Jingle All The Way 8k | 12/11/11 | Washington, DC |
I also have 12 yoga classes at Stroga to use until 01/02/12 which means I’ll probably be going twice a week until then. It’s almost like the end of the school year when you try to burn the rest of your pre-paid swipes for meals. If anyone wants to go courtesy of me in the next few weeks, let me know! 
As a plus, I’m attending a 2 hour Hot Power Vinyasa class that’s intended to be especially beneficial for runners and athletes. It’ll be intense, but I’m really looking forward to it — particularly the day before the 15k. It’s $25 for the class and the instructor is great. Join me!
I hope you enjoy the rest of 2011 and make the very most of it no matter what you do. Just remember to DO something!
I consider balance poses to be my weakness when it comes to yoga. This may explain the lack of balance pose posts thus far. Here’s my attempt at what I like to call UHB. Trust me, it needs the acronym. UHB stands for Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana.. yeah. And in English, it’s called Extended Hand to Big Toe Pose.. yeah. Anyway, it is said that you must hold a balance pose for at least 30 seconds to a minute, and I’ve not yet been able to reach the 30 second mark before tumbling to the ground first. I only held it long enough for the picture!
How to via Yoga Journal:
Benefits:
As you can see from my face, I’m pretty focused on trying not to fall over. That in itself is the benefit of practicing balance poses. You have to be mindful of the present, aware of your surroundings, and focused on your breath. Does that sound hippie, or what? But… it’s kind of true! Physically speaking though, holding this pose is great for strengthening your core and stretching your hamstring, all the while using your forearm and shoulder muscles. Good stuff.