Yin Yoga Weekend!

Amazing two days learning so much about the human body and learning to find your new edges while still working within the limits your bones and physical make-up allow. Keeping the body fluid requires keeping your joints and ligaments mobile and flexible. That’s what Yin Yoga provides.

Your hips may not be tight- your bones and joints may legitimately be limiting your range of motion. However, you can still work to keep the natural mobility you have, even if it isn’t as wide or as open as you might like.

Your body is your body. It doesn’t need to look any other way than what it truly is to the best it can be. Yin yoga is about your body taking the shape as suits it, not bending your body into a pose to look like something or someone else.

Love your body, know it’s limitations and keep striving to make it the best it can be!

Bonus- a beautiful weekend at the beach!

On November 24, 2013, this number was 229.1.

5 months later and this was the number on my scale this morning. I’ve now lost 33.5 pounds. It’s taken a lot of work and discipline, but in some ways, it has been a very natural change. I still have more weight to lose, but I’m so much closer than I was!

Stay focused, even if you get off track. The results will come.

Chocolate PB&B Freeze from fitempress.com

Tasty treat for the Summer heat. Chocolate, peanut butter, banana and 175 calories - how can that be wrong? I blend mine in a Nutribullet - just takes a few seconds!

nbcnews:

Record time! Kenya’s Jeptoo wins Boston women’s race

(Photo: Timothy A. Clary / AFP - Getty Images)

Rita Jeptoo won the woman’s race for the second year in a row with a course record of 2:18:57.

Continue reading

Congrats to Rita!!!!

Getting ready for my Yin yoga workshop this weekend.  My goal is to keep my food intake pretty light and healthy.  Lots of water, firing up the NutriBullet for smoothies and exercise. 

I’ve stagnated in my weight loss the last few weeks, so my goal this week is to get things kickstarted again!

Saturday Yang and Easter Sunday Yin - Flywheel 75!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Saturday was yang-y: kettlebells, spin, late Easter dress shopping (yes, I still buy an Easter dress every year!)   Threw in a little bit of Yin yoga just to wrap up the day, but at that point I was so worn out I could have fallen asleep!

Today was sunrise service and then relaxed the rest of the day!  It’s all about balance right?

Flywheel is doing a 75 minute class this week and that sucker was already completely full within an hour!  I’m waitlisted so here’s hoping I’ll still get in.

I feel so blessed right now.  Sure, there is still so much more I want to do and see, but I’m also grateful for where I am right now this moment. 

Don’t ever get so focused on your goals that you forget to be happy about what you already have now!

Blessings to all!

Blessings to all for Good Friday!

Heat, Juice and Balance

Hot Yoga = Amazing

I’ve been juicing today so I had to sit down a bit more than usual but class still felt wonderful. 

The juicing last week didn’t go too well, but I’m doing it again the next few days.  However, this time it’s more “primarily juicing.  I still eat solid food - light food as much as possible - but right now going cold turkey just makes me more stressed about food, and then I make some INSANELY bad food choices out of hunger.

Everything is about balance and doing what works for you while still being healthy.

This is my race (or yours) - no one else has to dictate what is right or wrong as long as you are doing what you know to be right for your body and to allow you to meet your long-term goals.

Sidenote: The shower after hot yoga class is the best ever!

(photo source)

Some Like It Hot....

3rd Hot Yoga class today (I’m counting the Warm Yin yoga class I took on Tuesday) and it’s official - I love it.

Don’t get me wrong - it is killer and there are seconds I wonder what the hell I’m doing there, but I love it.  The heat, warm loose muscles, sweat and best stretching ever just does it for me.

Not to mention the shower you take afterwards - best feeling ever!

Now the black girl hair issue - well, I’m going to get my hair done tomorrow.  The sweat is no joke.  No chance of saving it.  I see some girls in there with their hair hanging down and I wonder how they can survive it.  I pull mine up and use a sweat wrap band - but that’s more out of habit than anything.

Hair aside - the feeling and flexibility of hot yoga is worth the hair repair afterward.  I strongly recommend it if you’re hesitant or nervous about taking a class.  Don’t be intimidated!

P.S.: Juicing is not my thing - I’ll do a more formal update but let’s just say I haven’t been able to stick to strictly juice - and upon further reflection, I think I’m okay with that.

JUICE!

Alright - I’m ready to DTOX!  Planning to do a 3-day juice cleanse this week to get my body reset.  This past weekend was fun, but I’m sure all the alcohol, coffee and brunch food took their toll. 

3 days of juices - let’s see how this goes…. I’ll post my experiences here so you all can share my pain.

Aqua Cycle Review

Finally was able to try the Aqua Cycle class in NYC this weekend.  My initial impression is sadly just lukewarm right now.  We arrived just as class began so I didn’t have a chance to get settled and adjusted beforehand.  Then the pedal came off my bike an the new bike they put me on was wobbly like a table with one leg too short.  And there was a lot of additional upper body arm work that wasn’t terribly useful in my personal opinion.

All THAT aside, I think I still liked it enough to go back and try it again the next time I’m in town.  Being in the water definitely added a new dimension to the usual spin class, and I think once you are able to get the hang of the changes you have to make in your positioning to be able to pedal smoothly underwater, the more enjoyable it will become.

The basics:

Cool studio - very small with a reception area upstairs.  Steps lead downstairs to a locker/changing area where you can store your things and 4 or 5 shower stalls so you can shower away the chlorine after class (shower gel, shampoo and conditioner are provided - but it is all peppermint - holy mint batman!)

As far as equipment/gear, all you need is a bathing suit.  Many are in the racing type suits you see athletes wear, but basically any swimsuit will do - no one cares.  The glasses are same-sex, men and women have different classes, so no worries about being ogled.  The studio provides towels and special swim shoes.  You can also buy water there if you forget to bring your own (which I did).

Then you jump into the pool, grab a bike (depending on the class it can get a little crowded) adjust the seat and follow the instructor who teaches both from her own bike in the pool and standing out of the pool.  The only thing that is really unusual is at certain points during the class, you go into what they call “4th Position” where you keep you feet in the pedal straps and hang off the back of your bike holding onto the seat.  I’m not sure I buy into what benefit that has, but it is at the very least an exercise in balance and arm strength.

At that point, it becomes a lot like a regular spin class except for the water (ha!).  It can be difficult to spin smoothly at first - you have to really squat to be able to keep your legs pedaling, but all the better for your legs right?

Final Review:  Intriguing enough to try again.

(Note: photos are not mine - I just didn’t have a chance to take my own but wanted to give everyone at least some idea of how it looks)

FitEmpress Fitness Philosophy: SPIN - LIFT - BEND

I try to do other things as well that I find interesting, but my three core fitness activities are:

• Indoor Cycling/ Spin


• Strength Training


• Yoga

What are your favorite activities?

Warm Yin

So I just found a Warm Yin Yoga class.  It’s at 6AM and across town, but the concept of doing Yin in a hot yoga room is too much to pass up!

Rachel Frederickson, The Biggest Loser, and Losing Weight Fast

When season 15 Biggest Loser winner Rachel Frederickson stepped out on stage for the final reveal to show that she’d dropped 155 pounds—going from 220 to 105—the Internet basically broke.

Everyone had an opinion about her weight loss. Frederickson herself later admitted that she might have lost too much weight too quickly. Now the 24-year-old’s in the spotlight again, this time for gaining 20 pounds. “I’m at my perfect weight,” she told Us Weekly.

I’m glad to hear she gained back 20 lbs.  Her final show weight was just disturbing to me personally.   If anything, this shows that weight loss is a journey, not a destination.  Losing physical weight is just part of the process.  The mental road is much tougher. Good luck to Rachel!

Rachel Frederickson, The Biggest Loser, and Losing Weight Fast

Going to Aqua Cycle this weekend!!!!!

Check back in for a review late this weekend.

UPDATE - 30.9 lbs and 15.5 inches lost since 11/24/13

Keep track of my weight loss and activity stats at FitEmpress.com!

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irvrawr:

those are not mine , but i love the 26 sequence pictures , it helps a lot to see how they are done.

namaste

Hot Yoga Update

Today was my first hot yoga class. 

How was it you ask?

In a word:  AWESOME

As I sat in the sauna at my regular gym earlier today, I thought, if I love sitting in here, I’m sure I can handle a yoga class right?

I hadn’t entirely convinced myself, even as I sat on my mat in the already warm studio a few hours later.  But when class started, I went with it and loved it!

The key - it wasn’t a “flow” class.  No jumping from one position to another.  I know for many, the more active ashtanga/vinyasa styles work best, but I like finding my poses and holding them.  Sinking into my body and my thoughts (and a little pain occasionally as my body stretches).  That’s why Yin is so wonderful for me, and today, I added Hot Yoga to my list.

After just a few minutes in a regular flow-type class, I would be screaming in my head to escape.  Today, everything just came together.  It was tough, don’t get me wrong.  And I was literally dripping sweat - to the point that my fingers started to prune & pickle like I’d been in the bathtub too long.  And there were a few moments where I felt a little bit dizzy, not much, but enough to make me sit down and drink some water.

But I loved the feel of the heat, pushing my body to find the pose and correct alignment.  Breathing and concentrating.

Another thing, similar to spin class- everyone is too focused on themselves to notice or care if you are doing something right, wrong or not at all.  If you need to sit down, or hell, lay down, do it.  No need to feel intimidated.

Technically, there isn’t much added benefit to hot yoga vs. a regular yoga class - you don’t really burn more calories or detox that much through the extra sweat.  But it made me feel great and very refreshed.  Something I never have gotten from other yoga practices outside of Yin.

So here’s a new addition to my fitness regimen.  I said I hated spin - now I love it.  I said I’d never do hot yoga - now I know how wonderful it can be.

Always be open to new things - you may find something you’ve been missing that you didn’t even know you wanted!