Saturday, November 27, 2010

Zen Moments of Road Rage.

Yesterday it was slow at work so we decided to call it a week a few hours early and left the office at 3 o'clock. This meant that I had plenty of time to get to the 4p yoga class. I wasn't strung out or stressed - in fact I had been having a pretty chilled out day at work.

I made a pit stop at the fabric store and picked up some supplies to make a Christmas gift for someone, and then off to yoga I went.

The class wasn't packed, the temperature was perfect, and the instructor was fabulous. I felt great when I walked out the door and into the rain. I will admit that I was pretty hungry but not to the point of starvation.

I got in my car and started to pull out of the parking lot. When I got to the stop sign there were 2 cars that had obviously been in a VERY MINOR fender bender pulled to the side blocking the traffic. The people from the car's were in the Wendy's parking lot - not one of them was smart enough to actually pull their car into the parking lot with them to let traffic go by at 5p on a Friday.

The car in front of me was obviously baffled at exactly how he/she was supposed to use the steering wheel to maneuver around the parked cars. I mean there were only 3 lanes and we had a green light - it's pretty complicated I know.

Then came the guy who pulled into the middle of the intersection and just sat there through our green light instead of pulling around the parked cars. We sat at the intersection like this for 3 full rotations of the light cycle before..... I finally lost it.

All of the calming breaths. All of the downward dog sighs. All of the inner peace in shavasana. Gone. I laid on my horn. I didn't just press it once. I put my fist to my horn and kept it there until all the cars moved. Then I rolled down my window and shouted at the people in the parking lot.

Probably not my most yoga-inspired moment - but it felt just as good as the class I had just finished! 

- Brianne

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The Moaner.

I am still rockin' my hot yoga 5 days a week and lovin' it. I had a brief lapse in class attendance due to conflicting social engagements but I have returned with a vengeance - and although I won't hit my 20 class quota this month I am still going to give myself a little bit of LuLu for beating last month's record 16 classes. I think that's fair.

I've been trying to work on blocking out the other people in the room - with marginal success. I have stopped looking around the room so much and try only to look at myself or at nothing - but there is still one thing that can make my blood boil -

* The sign on the door says "This is a SILENT room" - so when people come barging in the room having a full-on conversation while everyone is lying in shavasana it makes me want to hit them. This might be the kickboxer in me coming out, but seriously most time I have to force myself not to sit straight up and glare at them like they were stealing my cookies.

The other day the woman in front of me kept flicking her toes together while we were in shavasana - I call her the fidgiter. After a few moments though I was able to drown out the sound of her toes flicking together by my head - gross. I made sure to get a good look at her and her mat so that I can stay away next time.

I really think that yoga has been helping me relax, among many other things. I feel better and I don't stress as much and I sleep great. But last night I was schooled by the woman 2 mats over on yoga-enjoyment. I call her the moaner.

It started during salutations with an "ahhhhhhhhhh" on the exhale. A bit much, but not entirely absurd. By the time the warrior series was over, her exhales had become more like "oooooohhhhhhh" - still a little weird, but maybe she was getting in some good stretches.  The weirdest parts came during pigeon and final shavasana... the moans that ensued would rival any climax scene from your favorite porn film. The humming of the "mmmMMMmmm" had me laughing so hard on the inside I had to bolt out of the room after class so I could full on laugh.

I love my hot yoga. But apparently not as much as The Moaner.

- Brianne

Friday, November 5, 2010

The Billy Miner Pie - Brianne

Last night we had dinner with Carrice and Toby at The Keg.  We had gift certificates that were burning holes in our pockets so we spared no expense.

It isn't often that I will order dessert at a restaurant.  Usually I am so damn full from the ridiculous portion sizes that most restaurants have - but the portion sizes at The Keg are actually pretty realistic. You don't get a lot of meat, but you get some fan-freaking-tastic meat.

After I devoured my garden salad (vegetables first) and then my Filet Mignon topped with crusted blue cheese - there was still room for dessert. In hind sight there were probably at least 800 calories in this monstrosity - and I ate the whole damn thing save for 3 bites at the end.

No guilt. No regrets.

Monday, November 1, 2010

One small step for Brianne....

One giant step for my waistline! 

This morning I slipped into a pair of Levi's jeans that haven't fit in a long while. They aren't quite my skinny jeans, but they are a huge step in the right direction! Next I will conquer the Silver jeans, and then finally the Guess jeans that haven't fit in 3 years. That's right "skinny clothing drawer" - I'm coming for you!

What surprises me is that 1) we had a pizza and poutine dinner on Friday night 2) I drank an entire Growler to myself on Saturday and baked up some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and 3) last night we scarfed down halloween candies while watching the Sunday night HBO lineup. 

How is this even possible? I am going to give full credit to Hot Yoga. And since it's been working so well for me, I am also going to take up my yoga studio's "30 Day Challenge" for the month of November. Last month's sticker count was only a whopping 17 - I can do better than that.

The Moksha Yoga studio is challenging its members to come to all 30 days worth of hot yoga classes for this month and I am going to giv'r shit. My goal is to do 25 at least - and for reaching this goal I am buying myself whatever I want from Lu Lu Lemon. Wish me luck!