A Morning At Home

I had a lovely sleep last night with moisture filled eyes so I skipped the studio practice, cranked the heat, turned on Patrick Watson and started Pranayama.

There is something so satisfying about practicing at home - the music - the choices - the silence - all add different challenges to the practice while keeping me very relaxed.  I am able to get a good sweat going through my standing poses and my spine warm enough to get into some deep back bends.

I do miss the cleansed feeling of walking out of class - having sweat out a bucket of moisture and toxins.  And I miss the challenge of Standing Head to Knee and Standing Bow - the teacher's voice telling you that you MUST! - I just can't seem to hold those poses for a minute in my living room.

I used to carry guilt when I would not go to yoga class.  I would feel as though I was cheating myself and letting down my fellow yogis and my teachers who expect to see me every morning.  LW said something very insightful to me on Sunday, that I should do what I need for now and that when I'm ready, go back to the studio and see how feel and where I am in my practice.  I think I'm going to listen to him, for once :-)  

Dry Eyes and Counting Calories

So, after practicing two lovely mornings in the hot room I've noticed that my eyes have been terribly dry at night.  I wake up and they hurt to open - I stumble to the bathroom and blindly put drops in them.  I am attributing this to the yoga; 1) Because my eyes were not nearly this dry before my first class back. 2) They had been keeping their moisture at night until I started my classes again. 3) The lovely Jane told me that at teacher training her eyes got super dry from practicing twice a day. 

So, I didn't practice this morning.  I dragged my sorry ass out of bed and did a quick 20 minutes of stretching until rushing off to catch the bus to work. I'm going to see how my eyes fare tonight.  If they feel better, I'm going to do my at home practice and leave the hot room for another day.  If they are the same, I'm heading back to the hot room, baby.

On another note - I am trying to get back to healthy eating - just over 1700 calories a day if I don't do any workouts or yoga.  Today was hard!  But, as long as I don't cave between now and bedtime, I think I will have gone over by only 37 calories and that includes a scotch on the rocks.  So I'm pretty pleased with myself.  Work is the worst.  When I'm not super busy I get bored and then what do I want to do?  EAT! 

Sometimes I think to myself that I shouldn't worry about the calories but you know, it keeps me focused.  If I stray and eat cupcakes all day, I'll write it down but I remember it and I especially remember how I felt when I was munching.  So, I'll just take it one day at a time.