3 Stars at Flow Yoga

If the instructor had been handing out stars during Flow this morning, I would have snagged three. I held three poses that often elude me.

Crow. I practice this pose off and on. Rarely do I hold it for more than five or six seconds. I've never tried to do it in class with others watching. That may have been just what I needed. I think I nearly got an 8 count. I know I got a "Very good" from the instructor. Now I just need to figure out how to prevent my knees from hurting my triceps. 

Supported Headstand (off the wall). I tried this one in class last week, but just couldn't muster a good wall-free balance. It came today, although briefly, and I was pretty excited. 

Upward Bow. I hardly ever try this pose. My arm strength, especially at the end of class is just too questionable for me to feel comfortable pushing and lifting up. I have a fear of injuring my neck. Today, my arms were feeling fresh, so I pushed all the way up from baby bridge and TaDa! I did it.

And a new goal: to get my arms into bound. I can do it ok on my right side, but not on my left.

Before class, I did my daily morning workout:

30 Day Pilates Body

Day 15 - legs

I remember reading Teen magazine and then doing this exercise (back when I really had no thighs, lol!). Oh, teenybopper days.

I ended the night with a little Zumba. It felt good to move around and get sweaty.

What would you give yourself a star for today?

Potato Chips and Fitness

There's a lot going on here in my expat world, some good and some stressful. Sometimes it feels like I just can't handle another thing on my plate. This was in my Instagram feed yesterday, and I knew it was meant for me.

When I'm stressed, there are two things I turn to: fitness and chips.

Yesterday was National Potato Chip Day! I happened to have a bag of Kettle Brand gluten free chips on hand to cope, I mean celebrate. I'm a chip lover, so I'm grateful that the international stores near the apartment carry this brand and they carry a pretty good selection of the different flavors. 

And since I can't eat chips all day (even though I'd like to sometimes), I turned to fitness to help me de-stress a little.

30 Day Pilates Body challenge 

Day 13: stretch and relax day

Not really the workout I needed, but it is what it is. Best part was this stretch. A.MA.ZING. Really good after doing reclining pigeon first.

We actually spent most of the morning at the police registration office. In China, everyone has to register as a resident in the neighborhood where you live. We should have done it after receiving our resident visa, but mrC's company didn't tell us. Our apartment agent went with us to fill out the paperwork. It was pretty painless and now we know to do it every time we renew our visa.

Today...

Completed day 7 of the 21-Day Arm Sculpting challenge. I'm getting the hang of this one. Every other day is a rest day and every four days the reps bump up. 

30 Day Pilates Body challenge

Day 14: abs

Oh my Obliques!! 

Then I walked to Pilates class. 60 minutes of the Chinese drill sergeant. The abs work today was not as intense as last week, but we did a TON of bridges. I hope I can walk tomorrow.

After class I dropped in on my chiropractor who is in the same block and got a quick adjustment. It's one of the conveniences of living in China. No waiting. Most of the time, I don't even make appointments for things like manicure, pedicure, massage. Life here is much more walk-in, do business in a face-to-face way. 

I grabbed the mail on the way up to the apartment and found a much needed note from my mother-in-law. It might have taken more than a month to get here, but the timing was perfect.

The weather has been cold, gray, and just plain icky lately, so I've been curling up in my favorite blanket and marathoning The Blacklist on Netflix.  I love shows that carry over to the next episode like this one. 

After a couple of days of chips, Netflix and fitness, it's hard to stay stressed right?

How do you deal with stress??

I Can. I Will.

When I woke up this morning, the water was not working in the apartment.  I went to investigate and saw an announcement posted in the lobby of our building. In Chinese. Super helpful, right?

Luckily, one of my Chinese neighbors came along to read it, too. We sort of had a conversation (I don't speak Chinese and she did not speak English), but by throwing out phrases like méi yǒu shuǐ (no water) and jiān (time, while pointing at my watch), she was able to tell me shí (10 - which I interpreted as 10:00). I thought the whole thing went rather well. And, the water came back on a little after 9.

Meanwhile, with no water...

Yoga Camp ended. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed in the free flow workout for the final day. I haven't been doing yoga long enough to just make up a flow on my own. Plus, I look forward to being led through an invigorating session. 

I tried to watch what Adriene was doing (she was un-mic'ed), but at times I did veer off to practice some of the poses that still challenge my strength or balance, or both. 

After my lackluster yoga session, I chose a cardio yoga workout from Booya for my 30 Day Pilates Body challenge "free day" choice. My internet was super stinky (translated that means it would start, stop, start...), and the instructor went really fast, but I was still able to get a good workout from Crossflowx. 

Most importantly, I had a moment during that workout. Since my knee surgery, I've lost a lot of strength in my left leg. The ongoing problems have made it hard to build it back up. Side plank variations on my left side are usually pretty dismal...until today! I was so excited to feel power doing these side crunches. 

This was a big milestone for me. I have been fearing that I wouldn't be able to get stronger. Today showed me that when you do the work, when you're consistent, when you have faith...you CAN reach goals, make progress, see change. It might not happen as quickly as we'd like, but it WILL happen. 

BTW, today is the last day to enter the Booya Cardio Blast Challenge. Don't miss out on the chance to win one of the awesome prizes simply by doing a cardio workout! You can signup here.

After my morning fitness excitement, I had to make another batch of banana peanut butter protein bars. They make the apartment smell so good and make a great healthy snack or dessert. 

What's your latest milestone?

This is not a sponsored post, but Booya Fitness will compensate me for signups made using my link. If you signed up today, thank you!

Embracing New Things

Life has kept me pretty busy around here lately and my blogging has suffered, but it has been for a very exciting reason. I promise to share an explanation soon!

Before I recap my last couple days of workouts, I want to share the new delicious, Lenten approved dinner I made last night. Cajun shrimp with spinach parmesan pasta. It was a hit!

I turned to yoga after my knee injury sidelined my running, but I didn't know how much I would come to love it. I look forward to walking into yoga classes now.

Wednesday: Flow Yoga class

Thursday: Mindfulness Yoga class

Both yoga classes this week showed me that my arms need work. I found a new 21-day arm strength challenge to supplement my yoga practice and help me strengthen my upper body. 

I decided to document my starting point. Here's how I looked on day 1. I'm already on day 4.

I haven't missed a day of the 30 Day Pilates Body challenge.

Day 9 - upper body

These side push-ups were new to me, but just as hard as regular push-ups. 

Day 10 - booty

Oh em gee! My booty was lit up with clams, tilted clams, and finally clams with leg extension.  

Day 11- a yoga workout (yay)

It was a nice muscle warming flow and it felt good to move through the poses with confidence.

Yoga Camp is almost over. These last couple of weeks, I've been saving the videos for days that I didn't attend a class. The daily practice has changed my body. I can now do poses (some easier than others) that in the past I couldn't or just barely did them. Camel pose from the day 29 video is one of those poses.

What's new in your life?
(recipe, exercise, workout, anything)

Double Pilates & Taco Tuesday

When I wake up in the morning, I put on my workout clothes right away to make sure I don't lose my motivation to do my morning workouts. It works most the time ;) I have to do the work if I want to get stronger right?

Reporting in on my 30 Day Pilates Body challenge.

Day 7 - abs
It felt like a quick and dirty workout. Just when I thought I couldn't take it, it was over.

I did not do my daily yoga camp video. Part of me wanted to chill after my core workout, the other part wanted to pick up where I fell asleep last night Netflix-ing Gossip Girl . Ultimately, I ran out of time to do yoga before my meeting with a friend about writing a press release for her friend's company. They hired me for my English skills, not surprisingly, a common practice here in China. Other than the occasional sponsored blog post, this is my first "job" in China.

I headed back to Vitality for another fitness class. On my way there, I ran into a friend who offered me my first scooter ride. It was super sweet of her to give me a ride and fun, but the people at Vitality are probably thinking I don't know how to tell time. Since I was early (again), I had plenty of time to check out all the magnets on the side of the beverage cooler.

The class. I took the Pilates class today. Overall, it was just what I like, challenging (including being completely in Chinese). I like walking out at the end feeling like I did something. The instructor covered everything: booty, legs, abs, arms. Her style was more drill-like than I've had here, but it helped me keep pushing when my muscles were on fire. She took a picture of the class. I did not.

We often go to our favorite Mexican place for Taco Tuesday, but since mrC was getting back from his trip I was inspired to bring Taco Tuesday home. A quick stop at the butcher and the international store on the way home from Pilates, and I had everything we needed (although my tacos are pretty simple).

Happy Tuesday friends!
Do you taco on Tuesday?