Mood Swings

I haven't been blogging lately because I just haven't felt up to it. We are having a lot of stress in our family lately due to starting the process of putting our house on the market. The economic downtown, particularly in housing, has had a significant negative impact on us. Moving in normal times is usually a nerve-racking event, and these unique circumstances make it even more anxiety-ridden.

One of my unhealthy coping mechanisms is to eat continuously. Without thinking, I am constantly popping food into my mouth whether I am hungry or not. It is a bad habit to keep my hands busy and it calms me down ... until I finish whatever snack I grabbed ... and then I reach for something else. Not a good move.

I am continuing to exercise, which helps, but without my usual enthusiasm. My workouts are lackluster and I unfortunately find myself making excuses to cut my routines short or even skip them altogether. Yikes. Bad news.

Hopefully, I will keep pushing through, and will experience an upswing. The important thing is to keep trying and remember that everyday is a new day, and every moment offers opportunity and choice.

Today's workout:
50 min. run (5.7 mi)
35 min. resistance training
50 min. yoga

It's a Sunshine Day!

Today was a gorgeous day in Columbus, Ohio. My kids and I were able to take advantage of the terrific weather and spend some time outdoors on the playground. Because of our schedules today, I wasn't able to get to the gym. However, it was fun to get in some physical activity by playing the playground funnel ball game. It was a wonderful reminder that exercise doesn't have to take place in a gym.

On the playground, this is a fun game to play with your friends. It involves a lot of teamwork and interaction and promotes socialization. I was playing by myself (and with my one and a half year old) so I was running, throwing, and catching. The game helps build hand-eye coordination and is a confidence builder for those kids who are not super talented at basketball (like me!)

Fluid Fusion

Lately I have been straying from my traditional yoga practice a little bit. While I still incorporate yoga into my weekly workouts, I have been adding ballet and pilates as well. While these are usually more "body" and less "mind" focused than yoga, I find they have similar benefits.

Each of these types of exercises creates lean, strong muscles and uses your own body as a resistance as opposed to dumbbells or other weighted devices, machines or props. Each practice improves balance and builds flexibility with low impact.

Because there are not many of these classes available at my local gym, and I do not have the time or resources to travel around to all the different studios and gyms in the area to find the different kinds of classes that I am interested in, I have begun checking out different DVDs from the library to explore different kinds of movement and exercise. Even though some of these are dated, the workouts being demonstrated are still useful and legitimate.

The video I tried today, Sarah Picot's More than Mat Pilates, adapted Pilates movements that are typically performed on a reformer machine to the mat. The exercise routine was intense without being rushed, and with varied movements that focused on strengthening the core muscles.

She laid out several principles of Pilates that her workout was based upon:

• Breathing. Similar to yoga, Pilates recognizes the importance of the breath and synchronizes movement with the breath. However, unlike yoga, you inhale through the nose, but exhale through the mouth.
• Naval to spine. This alignment was practiced throughout the workout.
• Imprinting. This terminology means for your body to relax, your spine to be neutral and there not to be any space between the floor and your back. Imprinting creates balance in your body.
• Articulating your spine. While yoga encourages practitioners to keep a straight spine, in Pilates, you often curve your back. As you curve your back, you focus on moving one vertebra of the spine at a time. Articulating the spine helps to restore fluidity in movement, creating flexibility and reducing back stiffness.
• Flow. As in vinyasa yoga, this Pilates workout moves smoothly from one exercise to the next, in sync with the breath.

Reading Now: My Stroke of Insight

I just finished reading an amazing book recommended to me by my yoga teacher, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. Dr. Taylor is a neuroanatomist who suffered a massive AVM stroke in her late thirties, and this book records her detailed memories of her actual stroke experience, as well as the significant changes in perception that occurred as a result of the stroke.

Because of the stroke, much of Dr. Taylor's left brain was damaged which caused her to rely on her right brain much more heavily. The book discusses the divergent ways in which the right and left hemispheres of the brain allow us to perceive the world, and the different functions that are managed by each side.

Dr. Taylor's mind opened her up to a whole new way of looking at the world. Here were some of the interesting points that stood out to me from her experience:

• "Most important, I had to be willing to try. The try is everything. The try is me saying to my brain, hey, I value this connection and I want it to happen. I may have to try, try and try again with no results for a thousand times before I get even an inkling of a result, but if I don't try, it may never happen." (italics in original, p 94) "For a successful recovery, it was important that we focus on my ability, not my disability." (p. 118) Dr. Taylor found that reaching for small goals and celebrating small achievements and living in the present moment ultimately allowed her to accomplish more difficult tasks and allowed her to see the enormity of her progress, made in tiny increments, over time.

• " ... the experience of Nirvana exists in the consciousness of our right hemisphere, and that at any moment, we can choose to hook into that part of our brain. ... peace is only a thought away, and all we have to do to access it is silence the voice of our dominating left mind." (italics in original, p 111) "To experience peace does not mean that your life is always blissful. It means that you are capable of tapping into a blissful state of mind admidst the normal chaos of a hectic life." (p 159) We can all achieve peace of mind.
  

• We can decide the person who we want to be. We don't have to be angry or irritated or short-tempered or mean. We can release judgment and competition and criticism. We can open ourselves to our more intuitive, expressive, and accepting right mind and embrace compassion instead of negativity. In reconstructing her self and re-learning who she was, Dr. Taylor decided to forgo the competitive side to her personality in favor of a more open demeanor.

• We are constantly making choices about how to respond in any given situation. If a certain episode triggers a knee-jerk response, our system has 90 seconds to let that emotion wash over us. After 90 seconds, we have the ability to release that initial reaction and engage in a more open, empathetic approach. We can learn to observe our body's triggers, responses, emotions and thoughts and choose the way that we want to express ourselves.
  

• When we act positively, we send out positive energy which then attracts positive energy to us. In this way, we can help shape our own world to be more pleasant.

Taylor's book is truly a "yogic" way of looking at life - through her experience, she found herself literally feeling one with the world around her. Viewing her life through her right brain helped her to see everything in a completely new way, and realize that we all have access to seeing the world through those eyes, if we just - in her words - "step to the right".

New Workout Discovery: BalleCore

Since the instructor who taught "Ballet Body" at Lifetime Fitness has left, I have been looking for a similar workout to replace that class. It provided a wonderful lower body and core workout that was completely different from any other gym experience I have had.

In searching around, I stumbled upon this book at my local library, The BalleCore Workout by Molly Weeks. Weeks has a background in ballet and pilates and has developed an exercise program that fuses elements of those genres with hatha yoga. The program emphasizes strength and flexibility, and is based on a foundation of core stabilization, relaxation, focusing on the breath and using efficient, fluid movements.

I visited the website for BalleCore, and the instructors are spread out on the coasts, with no Midwestern representation. I would love to experience a class ... but am not sure that will be happening anytime soon. The website offers two props for sale, a bar and a band. As far as I can tell, the bar seems helpful, but you could easily use any body bar that you already have and your yoga strap is perfectly suitable for the stretches and exercises using the band.

I practiced some of these movements this evening and will probably be integrating them into my regular workouts more often.

Today's workout:

60 min ladder interval run + cool down walk (6.87 mi)

40 min BalleCore

Thinking about Time

As I get older, from time to time I think about the process of aging. While I am quite happy with my life, I find these thoughts uncomfortable. When I watch the Olympic athletes or see new actors appearing on the scene, I realize that I am older than many of them, despite the fact that I often still feel like a college student.

Luckily, living a healthy lifestyle keeps my body feeling almost as young as my spirit. Although I definitely have some "creaky" joints in the morning, exercise keeps me fit and capable. Running keeps my body moving and active, resistance training strengthens my muscles and bones, and yoga helps me to destress, cope with anxiety and stretch my body.

Exercise has been shown to fight the aging process in numerous ways, including decreasing wrinkles and helping to unclog arteries.

While the physical changes associated with aging are somewhat straightforward, it can be harder to face some of the more esoteric questions. A recent Yoga Journal article asked, "Have you accomplished what you hoped? Can you address your regrets in the time you have left? And what if you can't?"

These are difficult questions. For me, I try to value each day and recognize the moments that I have with the people I love as special. I keep my goals and dreams in my mind, even if they are not immediately attainable, and use them to move my life in a direction that will help me accomplish those desires. In the end, I try to live a life that I can be proud of, and do the best I can.

Today's workout:

65 min. hill interval run (6.78 mi)

30 min. resistance training

60 min. yoga