Breathing in a Difficult Moment

I have to start by saying I DID go to spin last night by myself and my instructor kicked my butt- I went 5 miles further than last week in the same class with the same instructor, whew! I felt awesome after though so thank you for the encouragement to go. I forgot about the extra motivation that I got to add miles to my Bike Challenge. I am already past 50 miles, yay! And yes, I did enjoy that peppermint ice cream.

Today I would like to discuss an important topic in the grand scheme of healthy living: stress. Stress is something we all have, and something that, if we do not learn to deal with, can cause a wide variety of health problems including digestive problems, heart disease, depression and obesity!

My history of stress goes back only a few years. I was a pretty laid back kid/teenager. Yes, my mom occasionally referred to me as "Nervous Nellie" because of my tendency to worry about silly things, but in general I was not a stressed out person. I went with the flow, and fortunately the flow seemed to move in the right direction the majority of the time. It was only in college at some point that things began to matter more to me. Suddenly it was not just about whether I got an A on a science test, but it was about if I was able to have a career in teaching. I think student teaching was the first time I got really "stressed" in the way that causes health problems. All of a sudden I was responsible for 20 first graders and I had no idea what to do. This only got worse when I had my own classroom the next year. I had a class of 20 kindergartners, none of them particularly well behaved (well, maybe like 3 of them?), 40 parents- all of whom wanted to know if this 22 year old girl had ANY clue what she was doing (probably not!) and a principal who had a reputation for firing at least one person every year.

Now I knew what stress really was. How did I deal with it? Pretended (as much as possible) that it did not exist. Sure, there were a few minor meltdowns that went something like this "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO TEACH THESE KIDS TO READ WHEN I HAVE KIDS FLOODING MY CLASSROOM WITH THE SINK?" But for the most part I remained the calm, collected, flexible, go-with-the-flow girl I had always been. So where did the stress go? Right to my tummy. Suddenly, I began having days on the weekend where I could barely get out of bed because I felt so sick. When I went to the doctor they diagnosed me with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which I quickly found out has a strong connection with stress, go figure.

I first learned how to control my IBS through diet, but I learned quickly that in highly stressful times that alone would not fix it. In the next year and a half I tried a lot of different stress relieving methods including hypnosis and acupuncture (neither of which worked for me, but that's just me). One day I stepped into a new yoga studio and tried that as a method of stress relief. I was never a big yoga person but this studio made me feel like I was getting a real work out as I did yoga, so that kept me coming back.

The other thing that kept me coming back was the fact that during particularly difficult poses, all the teachers would discuss the idea of "breathing during a difficult moment." Clearly, this is exactlywhat I need to do during the rest of my life. In yoga (at least at my studio- not trying to be an expert here), breathing is used as a way to focus and be able to manage a difficult pose. In life, we naturally stop breathing when things get difficult and this is what we need to train ourselves to stop doing. If anything, we need to concentrate more on our breathing than ever when things are difficult.

I got pretty good at this during yoga (especially with the constant reminders from the teacher), but in life it is a lot more difficult. When I am about to be observed by my principal or in a difficult meeting with a parent, my mind is focused on my lesson, a child, and just about everything else except for breathing. But here is the thing I've learned...

It does not help me in a difficult moment to think about everything I know about a lesson, or a kid, or that teaching reading class I took 5 years ago. That only serves to add stress and jumble up my thoughts until they are unrecognizable. What I really need to do is trust myself. Trust myself that I already know all the kids in my class because I work with them and think about them for a million hours a day. Trust myself that I know how to teach a lesson because I have already gone through it in my head (and sometimes even taught it before). Trust myself that I know what to say in my Curriculum Night presentation because I know kindergarten, and I know what parents need to know. Trust myself that if I am in a situation with not a single person that I know, I will find someone to talk to or something to do, I will not just stand there looking silly. Trust myself.

Once I do that, I do not have to focus on 1 million things anymore. I can just focus on my breath. Inhale...exhale...inhale...exhale. When I focus on my breathing, I can officially calm down. Then, and only then, does my stomach and heart stop having to pay for my minds insecurities. Because really...when I am 80 will I really care if one parent did not particularly like me? or if I sat by myself at a bridal shower? No. Will I even care about that next year? Or tomorrow? No.

Last night at spinning there were some "difficult moments" at Level 18. I found myself naturally focusing on my breathing. I hope that carrying this yoga principle over into other areas of exercise naturally means I am one step closer to doing it at ridiculous meetings about YET another thing they are adding to my already overfilled plate. I can hope right?

Do you breathe in difficult moments? Try it and let me know how it goes...

Links and Yoga

It's Saturday which means maybe you have some extra time on your hands (or perhaps you are no where near the computer because you work on one all week?)...so I have some links for you to check out...

First of all, I did my first ever guest post on Meghan's blog and it's about my trip to New Zealand. You should definitely check it out and please leave some comments :) Part 2 of my post will be up tomorrow. My hope is that it convinces everyone to take some time off and take a long flight to a beautiful country (and while you are there stop in Australia, my real favorite place). I don't write a lot about my travels on this blog, but I love to travel and see new things. I asked you guys where you wanted to hear about and New Zealand won so...go check it out!

Link #2 and #3- I went a little crazy earlier today writing articles, if you are a teacher of kids in the primary grades check out math journals and if you love pumpkin as much as I do, check out healthy pumpkin ideas.

Also, you might be wondering: How is the Yoga Challenge going? Last Sunday (November 1st) I pledged to take 10 minutes every day and do yoga. Here are some observations I have had since I began:

• I have no problem with fitting in yoga on exercise rest days, but sometimes when I give an hour to spinning, it really annoys me to have to give more time to yoga.
• Doing yoga 10 minutes per day has forced me to come up with my own yoga routines and just do what feels right at the time. I like this style of yoga for a change of pace and even when I am using dvds now I find myself adapting to the poses that I enjoy the most.
• I love pigeon pose. I have to do pigeon at least once per day. Looking at photos online I think I may be doing it wrong, but everyone at my studio leans forward and puts their head on the ground while they do it, no one online seems to do that. Oh well.
• I have discovered yogadownload.com which I love. 20 minute yoga videos for free! You do have to know yoga a little bit to do these videos since they are simply audio. I like this because I am getting sick of trying to look at my computer screen in the middle of a pose, but obviously it's not for total beginners. There was something in the video I did today (Power Vinyasa Flow #1) that I had no idea what it was. I think it was called standing splits...or something splits, but frankly I doubt I can do anything with splits in the name so I just did some extra sun salutations while they went through that part.
• I totally did not do 10 minutes yesterday. I did 20 today to make up for it. I decided to change my sidebar to say "6 days this month" instead of the days in a row. I don't want to give up just because I missed one single day. I still did yoga 6 out of the last 7 days, that's pretty good.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Entering November

Hi everyone, Happy November! Today is such a weird day because I've already been up for awhile and it's only 7:10 thanks to Fall Back. I love getting an extra hour but I just want to make sure that I use it well :)

Yesterday my weekend got a little thrown off when Eric's head coach (for the football team he coaches) decided to switch up the normal weekends because of his own schedule (kind of annoying that the head coach can do that at the last minute, but anyway). Normally Eric has stuff all day on Saturday and either a quick meeting or nothing on Sunday. Turns out this week, they had Saturday off and today he has to get up early for football stuff. Eric and I had a totally productive day planned for today, we were going to do some major wedding/house related errands. However, the change in plans meant we could not do that anymore which does mean I can go to the Boston Blogger Lunch- so it's not all bad! But it also meant that Eric had to get up at the crack of dawn today so we couldn't go to Katie's Halloween Party last night. It was nice to have the night in together, but I was bummed because I feel like I've done so many obligatory things lately, I was ready for something relaxed...and I had a serious plot to wear my pink pajamas out of the house again haha. Oh well...the start of November means only a little over a month left of the football season :)

So...I have a confession to make. I have NOT been good about my work out routine lately. In fact, until yesterday I had not worked out at all in over a week. This very rarely happens to me, but here are my excuses:

1. I went away for 3 days. I brought my sneakers and work out clothes, but I got no sleep and therefore had no energy to work out.

2. I was tired and busy when I got back.

3. It was parent conferences week. I had a ton of work to catch up on and a ton of time was spent at work.

4. I got sick.

5. My knee started feeling better when I was not working out.

Even though I don't think these are terrible excuses, they are just that, excuses. Sure there were days last week when I didn't have a spare moment to work out. But there were also times when I choose to blog or do something else instead of working out. I am not mad at myself for this. I think my body, especially my knee, needed some time off. But every good break has end and so enter, my November fitness goals. I think November is a very important time to have specific fitness goals. It's a time of year when things get VERY busy, VERY cold, and nothing going on around us is very supportive of being healthy and working out a lot. It's a time for self motivation, so...

#1 Bike 200 Miles by 2010. This will include any biking outside left in the Boston weather and indoor spinning class. I will post how I am doing on the sidebar of my blog. Yesterday it was 70 degrees in Boston (freak accident obviously) so I enjoyed a nice outside bike ride. It was a bit different than my summer rides because of all the leaves...

My bike was very happy to be back out on the road, it's been at least a month since I broke it out.

And my body was simply happy to be back MOVING again! I didn't want to go too crazy since I am sick so I just biked 9 miles but that's 9 miles closer to 200.

I am also starting a Yoga Challenge for the month of November created by Leah from Simply Fabulous. The way she explains it is that we will do SOME yoga every day for the month of November. It will begin this week with 10 minutes of yoga per day, and then build on that depending on how well we are doing. Back in May I tried to do a yoga challenge by myself and it died pretty quickly, so I'm hoping the extra motivation of checking in with someone else will help me out. Speaking of that...I need to go upstairs and do some yoga before I lose motivation on Day 1!

Bringing Back the Yoga Love

In the summer of 2008 I was on a quest to ease my stress and I found a yoga studio about 4 minutes from my old apartment called Prana. For the first time ever (and yes I've tried many times before) I actually enjoyed yoga. I expected to be a bit intimidated by the yoga-types, but everyone was very nice- they didn't correct my every move, but still challenged me and, best of all, I would leave there feeling like I really had a good work out. I went consistently for about 4 months, but then I bought a house and paying $12 for yoga became a little less of an essential. Little did I know, that maybe if I had kept up the yoga- this lovely knee injury may not have happened.

Even without the house, I may not have keep up the yoga. I thought I was so hardcore back in February and March between the shred and running. I remember actually thinking to myself that I couldn't believe I would do yoga and consider that my work out for the day, psh- I was so much more tough with running and the shred obviously. So tough that I ended up injured. Good work Kelly. So tonight after my enlightening *free* consultation with an amazing running coach I dusted off my yoga mat and got all of my yoga equipment ready:

Going back to the studio was familiar, but yet I could tell it had been awhile. When I first started going there it was a very new studio, now you can tell more people go and everyone knows each other. I put on my "I know what I'm doing" face and set up my mat. We started in child's pose and I immediately knew yoga is what I need. I was so tight than even child's pose felt like an intense stretch. An hour later I felt awesome and I enjoyed every single $12 I paid for that yoga. My goal is to go 3 times per week, probably once or twice to Prana and then fill in the others with free yoga at the gym- much as I hate it, it's free and probably good for my body. I don't know if I'll ever be a yoga person...you know the kind I mean (and I don't mean this offensively to those people, I think it's great, it's just not me). But that doesn't mean I can't benefit from yoga...and insane amounts of foam rolling.

I came back from yoga tonight and made myself a late night dinner (well late for me...7:30 haha). Making dinner was more of an adventure than I was going for. Eric and I have a grill that is very ghetto. It was under $100 at Target, but in our defense we could not have a better grill at our apartment or it would have been stolen very quickly. However, we haven't gotten around to buying a new one so we still have it. It's newest problem is that it does not ignite by itself so I had to use some crazy lighter that it took me the last week to figure out how to light. Now, I should just say right now- I am deathly afraid of fire. I blame this on my first grade teacher who insisted that I could not bring my teddy bear out of the house if their was a fire because I cannot take the time to take ANYTHING out of the house (hmm, even something I was already sleeping with?). Anyway, I never lit a match until I was in college and I have probably lit only 2 or 3 ever. So here comes the girl deathly afraid of fire lighting the grill and it FLAMES UP right to my face- it was seriously scary. I am not sure if it's supposed to do that or if I did something horribly wrong but I am really happy I did not burn the house down. See why Eric needs to be home at all times? I clearly cannot be trusted to do things on my own...

Anyway, all this to grill my salmon burger from Trader Joes. My sides of raw carrots and Harvest Grains Blend were much easier to manage.

If you have not tried Harvest Grains Blend from Trader Joes you need to. It's made of Israeli Couscous, Orzo, Baby Garbanzo Beans and Red Quinoa. Yum.

Going to get to bed early tonight and probably will be sore tomorrow. Contrary to my own beliefs earlier this year, hot power yoga is indeed an intense work out and it definitely kicked my butt today. As soon as I get my new high density foam roller I'll do a review :)

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

I have a tradition in my kindergarten classroom every year. 26 days from the last day of school, we count down using the alphabet. Each day is a new letter. Tomorrow is Letter C day and we celebrate- Career Day. All the kids have to dress up like what they want to be when they grow up. In the past I never dressed up, after all- I am already grown up (though I don't like to admit it). However, this year I'm motivated to pick something else to be- just for fun (or to fall back on when I really can't stand teaching anymore). At first I thought I'd be a retired person, maybe dress up like I was going to play golf :) Even though I really don't like golf, but no one has to know that. Then I started to think about what the ideal job would be. It's hard though because every job has it's ups and downs. For example I'd love to be a travel writer, get paid to travel around and tell people about it. But then again I'm kind of a homebody, would I really want to spend my whole life traveling? When I was younger I wanted to be a writer in general. I still think this would be an amazing job. But then again I like stability and a dependable paycheck, so maybe I should just stick to teaching. If only kids could be slightly less annoying...
I don't know what I will dress like tomorrow, perhaps just myself. If I come up with anything good I'll let you know.

I'm off to a good start with my Yoga Challenge. I did a 10 minute Yoga for Runners this morning after my 2 mile run on the treadmill. I will post my results from the challenge on Fridays and if you are doing it to, comment back and tell us how you are doing!

I was actually pretty happy with myself for getting through the 2 mile run. For some reason lately I've been having more trouble with my short runs. I think because I tell myself, "Kelly it's just two miles, no big deal" and then as I'm doing it, it's still hard! Where as, with the longer runs I get myself pumped up and tell myself this is going to be long. Weird I know but oh well, today I tried to get myself pumped for the two miles. I told myself it was going to be hard because it was going to be on the horribly boring treadmill (which is not much of a stretch) so I did it. My knee wasn't too bad after, and I'm going to the doctor tomorrow so I'll know more about the knee then. I had some extra time tonight so I tried to convince myself to go for a bike ride, but it didn't happen. I need a biking buddy, it's just too boring on my own. Hopefully I'll get some motivation to either bike or swim tomorrow. For some reason I just don't feel like I get as good of a work out when I do these two sports, even though they are both incredibly hard.

I am all over the place tonight (so much for being a writer) but I was craving pizza again after my creation last week. I used basically the same ingredients (tomato sauce, summer squash, zucchini, mushrooms and black beans), but this time I decided to use Panera Sour Dough bread instead of pizza crust, yum.
Delicious. Probably going to be lunch or dinner for the next few days :)

Kelly's Yoga Challenge!

So I've mentioned for my overwhelming desire (but failure) to be a yogi. I just think people who do yoga are so strong and flexible, plus if they are really good at they have that skill I will probably never have to block out their thoughts and just focus on their breath. But, I am probably the least flexible person ever, can't block out my thoughts at all, and strength- well, it's improved due to the SHRED, but I still wouldn't say I am strong by any means (physically anyway). I'm starting to get into the thick of my training for the triathlon, which seems like a bad time to get really into yoga. However, I actually think it may be the most important time because I am putting a lot of stress on my body, the least I can do is stretch it out and build some of the important muscles I need for my training. So I've decided to challenge myself- from now until June 23rd (my last day of school with the kindergarten kids- my summer job starts a few days later) I will do at least 10 minutes of yoga EVERYDAY. No matter whether it is a "rest" day, a long run etc etc- I will do 10 minutes of yoga. I will get my yoga from the following sources:
10 Minute Videos:
Yoga for Runners
Yoga for Healthy Shins and Knees
Yoga for Triathletes
(possibly some others from Polly...my new hero)
30 Minute Video:
Yoga Sculpt (Exercise TV)- found On Demand
1 Hour Classes:
Vinyasa Flow at my gym
Hot Yoga at Prana (only for a treat since it costs extra- but its the best place ever, if you live in the Boston area, seriously- try it!)

Just to set the record straight, I am not going to list quick yoga sessions in my daily workout plans listed on the side of this blog. If it says "yoga" on a day, that means I am at least doing a 30 minute video, if not a full hour + class. I did the 30 minute Yoga Sculpt this morning from On Demand. It was awesome! I really liked it and I will definitely be doing it again. It's a lot easier for me to motivate myself to do 30 minutes in my own living room and 1 hour anywhere else :)

I'll keep you posted on how I do. If anyone wants to join me in this challenge let me know and we can keep each other on track! I might need some help not "forgetting" to do a quick 10 minute session.

Yoga: A Love/Hate Relationship

So it's 8:20 in the morning, my kindergarten kids will be arrive in 20 minutes and I decided instead of getting ready for the day I am going to blog. Hopefully I will not make this a habit. I just really had to tell everyone about my newfound yoga love.
The thing about yoga is, I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love it because it's one of the only times my body gets properly stretched. It makes me feel good, and strong (if it's a good class). Also, I have a secret (well not so secret) desire to be one of those people who loves yoga and is really good at it. Except for one problem, I usually don't love it and I am absolutely horrible at it. I hate it because I am horrible at it and if it's not a good class I leave feeling like I wasted an hour of my life (and no, I do not ever attempt hour and a half classes!). Now when I say I am horrible at it, I don't mean because I am not flexible...though that is true. I don't mean it's because I don't have great balance, my balance is okay. What I am mostly horrible at is the whole "clear your mind" aspect. The only way I can clear my mind is to be productive or doing something fun. The best way to get myself thinking about everything I SHOULD be doing is to get me in a room, sitting on a yoga mat, and telling me NOT to think. So this presents a problem for yoga. The only yoga I have ever found that I really really really loved was at a place called Prana. It is hot yoga and it's really hard!!! However, it actually did help me clear my mind a bit because I was focused so much on trying to do the poses and get stronger. I was always sore after it and I felt like I really didn't have to do anything else (work out wise) that day because I went to yoga. The only problem with that place is that it is also $15 every time you go. This might be okay if you go very occasionally, but if you want to take up a serious yoga practice, this could start to get in the way of your mortgage payment. So I always go back to doing yoga at the gym, hating it and then giving up.
Yesterday I happened to come across this link on a couple of different blogs I was looking at: Yoga for Runners. I tried it out this morning and I loved it. It's only 10 minutes, but it definitely did stretch the areas that felt really tight. Plus I love most anything that is only 10 minutes. The same lady also does Yoga for Healthy Shins and Knees which I am also going to try out because those seem to be major problem areas for me. Kind of similar to yoga, I cannot decide if I love or hate the lady who does the yoga on these videos. She is very peppy and happy. I am going to choose to love her though, because someone has to get me to do some serious stretching after all of this training! Let me know what you think if you try them out.

PS. Thanks for all the encouragement after I posted last night. I decided even if I do come in last, at least I still finish right? Don't worry though, I have no plans to give up just because I stink at biking and swimming. That's all part of the challenge.

Please Don't Rollerblade in Spandex!!!

It was back to work this week so it’s been crazy busy. I came back to find that my darling kiddos did not get out their energy over the break and instead came back more energized than ever. It’s going to be a long two months… I did start tutoring a new girl yesterday, and she is adorable. She is so enthusiastic and works so hard, but reading does NOT come easily to her. Hopefully I can change that ☺
Meanwhile training is still going on. I am aiming to run tomorrow morning (just a quick 2 mile on the treadmill) so I have been resting the knee as much as possible. Yesterday was supposed to be a strength day but I couldn’t see bike riding in the 90 degrees today so I switched and went for a bike ride last night. Some likes and dislikes from my ride:

Likes:
1. The SERIOUS biker (as in fancy bike, real biking attire etc) STRUGGLING up my hill- good at least I’m not the only one (okay fine so he was actually making it up the hill unlike me).
2. The fact that my move across town now means that my bike ride begins uphill and ends downhill (minus the insane hill that my house is on but we’ve already established, I have to walk up that).
3. Random teenagers in the center chanting “You can do it! ALMOST THERE” (must be what it feels like to run the marathon).
4. Biking, like swimming, is MUCH easier the second time around. Thank God!

Dislikes:
1. My butt still hurts. When is this going to go away?
2. Bugs flying into my mouth, ew. I don’t remember this every happening while rollerblading?
3. I am going to preface this with the fact that I am not an endless fan of men in spandex but I tolerate it on bikers. However, men should NOT, I repeat NOT, wear spandex while rollerblading. Period.

This morning I took a class at the Y called “Yoga for Athletes” (haha I know, a bit of stretch like the “student” thing but maybe after the triathlon I can be considered an athlete). I was in a serious yoga phase last summer and went twice a week to a great hot yoga place near me. However, back to regular gym yoga made me so so so bored!!! Please let my knee stop hurting- I am missing the SHRED!!! I want Jillian yelling at me, no more yoga teachers telling me to listen for my breath and adjusting my alignment!