Fashion or Foe: Keeping an Arm's Length

I'm addressing this message to anyone who is in charge of making shirts. What is going on with sleeve lengths? I bought one long sleeve shirt this year (at deep discount) that had decently sized sleeves. This shirt pictured is not it! I tried on many shirts and tossed them aside because they fell halfway to my fingers. Length isn't the only problem. I'm also seeing a lot of sleeves that have weird shapes, bell, pouf and my favorite, any variety of cold shoulder. I cannot stand for this anymore. Where can I buy a sleeved shirt for the winter that ends somewhere at my wrist and goes straight down?

Beauty Tuesday: Vitamins on My Face?

I am a fan of vitamin c. The singer,  known as Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick, had some great songs in the late 90's. For the purposes of this blog, I'm taking about the actual vitamin. I've been taking a supplement every day for over a month since my family got the flu. It tastes a bit metallic, but it can be an amazing immune booster. Last month,  I read about seems for the face that have concentrated vitamin c. I picked up one a few weeks ago to see what all the fuss was about. Overall, I'm not sure I get it.

After some research,  I picked up Clinique's fresh pressed vitamin c daily booster at my local Ulta Beauty. For my first try at
a serum, I was willing to pay less than $20.00. With an attractive price of $19.50  at any location with a Clinique counter, it seemed perfect. At the store, there were two packages, one with a vial and a package with 4 vials ($75.00). The idea of the multi-pack is to use one each a week. I'm not a "vial each week" committed to my face. after three weeks of using vitamin c mixed with moisturizer at night, I'm not impressed. My skin seems a little softer than an average January day, but I can't see or feel a difference in my face.

Yoga Week! - Let's Twist Again

The Pose: Seated Spinal Twist

How Its Done:
You begin crossing one leg flat (left) out in front of you. The next step is bend the opposite leg (right) at the knee and cross over the flat leg. The bent knee should reach toward your opposite hip. The arms will then support and tighten your form. Now the right knee is bent and you rest your left elbow on the outer side of the knee at a 90 degree angle. The right hand goes on the floor, on your right side and behind your body. You turn your torso and head toward the right also. It resembles what I like to call a "reclined Cleopatra."

What I Learned:
Sometimes when I do twists, I feel my body caving in to get more of a twist. This is the exact opposite of what you are supposed to do to make a twist work! The key to making this pose work is to keep youe body open. Your shoulders  need to be open (think shoulder blades touching). In order to keep the form and strong stomach,  I realized I need to keep my flutes (butt cheeks) flat against the floor. This will establish a stronger base and help you twist much further.

Yoga Week! - The Squat Problem

The Pose: Goddess Squat

What I Learned:
I am good at many poses, but I squat like a hippo. I will never be successful at "getting low" as the great Flo Rida would say. I can get into a  hovering position, but my body can't commit fully because I have tight hips. I tragically have come to terms that I will never be a sumo wrestler. The pose reminds me of a sumo pose because you stand with legs squatted to each side and arms turned up like balancing the scales of justice.

Self-Reflection: In all seriousness, I'm now going to talk about what I learned in doing the pose. I've learned a lot about myself. One of the tenants of yoga is not to compare what you're doing to what anyone else is doing. I firmly believe that. I also know that my hips are extremely tight and a little observation (of my fellow yogis) helps me greatly. I am a visual learner and adapt well to and something about modeling my movement after someone else's is very helpful. This comes from my background in theater. Any actor worth their movement class has learned from sitting on a bench and watched others.

In the Pose: What have I learned from squatting? I learned first that my calves are pretty strong. For someone with 5 feet of total length, my calves take up decent real estate on my body. They also get easily knotted up. My solution for this has become to foam roll my entire legs after class. The foam roller helps to break up little cranky muscles. In essence, the more I squat, the more my muscles will build strength.

Yoga Week! -Making Triangles

The Pose: Triangle (Trikonasana)

What I Learned:
Triangle pose is a great stretch for the back, legs and when done properly, the arms.  With legs wide open, you bend from the waist to one side (the right, then left). Your right arm reaches for your ankle and your left arm extends into the air. I always thought my lower arm supported my body. A recent adjustment by my instructor changed my view of this pose.

The teacher told me to release my ankle-grabbing hand to see if I was still in the form. I began to cave slightly. She tapped on my abdominal muscle, indicating that should be used to keep the form. This is really a core workout! For the last few weeks, I go into triangle and immediately dangle my lower arm to make sure my stomach is supporting my weight.

Yoga Week!- Pose and Learn

Hello and Happy New Year! I'm kicking off 2018 with posts about yoga poses. It's time for a new focus in my practice. Please note, these are not just my favorite poses, but they are definitely ones that have taught me a lot.