Yoga: Rediscovering My Personal Practice

Elizabeth recently wrote an awesome post about attending her first Yoga class. If you haven’t read it, here is a link. I told her that I would also post a little about my own experiences with Yoga but it took me a while to determine what I wanted to share. I figured that it would be best to start with what I’ve recently been struggling with and go from there. So, what I have been struggling with? Well, I moved.

I didn’t just move away from my friends and family. I also moved away from my “home” studio, the place where I felt safe in my practice. Often when I travel, I try to drop in on a Yoga class and I enjoy going to new places. I especially love traveling to attend workshops with new teachers because I appreciate diversity in studios, teachers and styles. But once I could no longer attend classes with the teachers that I had come to know and trust on a daily basis, my practice began to suffer. Continue reading

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Allergic-Contact Dermatitis!

hand-dermatitis

I wish that I had taken a picture of it–. Wait, I’m kind of glad that I didn’t. You see, I’ve been struggling with allergic-contact dermatitis the last few months and it hasn’t been pretty. It started with a little itching around my knuckles and then quickly spread to an inflamed, irritated outbreak that covered both of my hands. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I had come into contact with an allergen. However, it did take me a while to narrow down exactly what was causing the dermatitis. Drum roll, please. Ladies and gentlemen, it was the laundry detergent!

It started while I was out of town, visiting friends and relatives. So, I’m sure you can understand why it took me a while to figure out. But the dermatitis followed me home. As it turns out, I’d stopped and picked up laundry detergent late one night on the way home. I knew I’d have to do laundry because I’d been gone for two weeks only to find that the store was out of my usual brand. I grabbed an alternative without thinking about it. Of course, the dermatitis only got worse and eventually I had a crack develop between my fingers that actually started to bleed. Ugh.

Once I realized it was the laundry detergent, I had to go about the process of re-washing everything. My clothes, towels and bedding all got another run through the washing machine. It took a couple of weeks for the dermatitis to disappear, but it did! My hands are now back to normal and I am feeling some serious gratitude. Along the way, I also found a couple of products to be rather soothing for my inflamed skin. Continue reading

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Fruit Arrangement

Have you seen those amazing edible fruit displays you can order as a gift?  They’re awesome, particularly the ones that involve chocolate.  Anything with chocolate makes it all the more spectacular.  Well, the fruit display I made didn’t have chocolate for one reason; I’m extremely health conscious and couldn’t bear the thought of….oh, who am I kidding.  I can’t lie.  I burnt the chocolate.  I did.  It was the true definition of a “travesty.”   Tears were shed and I needed to have someone fan me with an extravagant fan.  A bit dramatic?  Perhaps.  Well, I marched on despite the loss of the chocolate I intended to use for the strawberries and although the beauty of the arrangement didn’t quite match that of the pictures in the magazines, it still came out successful. Continue reading

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Iced Tea and Orange Popsicles

After making iced tea cubes with Elizabeth, I happened upon a cheap set of popsicle molds at Bed Bath and Beyond. The mold caught my eye for a number of reasons. The first was that the handles had an interesting shape that seemed to catch runoff. The second reason was that the handles were colorful. The most important reason, however, was that it was an incredibly, triple-digit level, HOT day. So, of course, I bought the mold and promptly made myself a few popsicles.

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Healthy Living

My weight has been the main focus for me since it has always been a major issue.  I always thought I was ready to take on the challenge of losing weight and gaining control of my eating habits, but I never truly was ready.  I knew how to eat properly but could never bring myself to last very long on the healthy lifestyle plan.  I also knew that I wasn’t going to have long term results with a fad diet.  My habits were going to need a complete overhaul.  When you’re working full time and fast food is so accessible, it’s difficult to break the cycle of getting a quick bite to eat and getting back to work.   Continue reading

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