My Newfound Passion....Bikram Yoga

I have found a new love in my life...Bikram Yoga. For those who don't know, Bikram Yoga is a 90 minute long series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises, each preformed twice. This series is done in a 105 degree room, kept around 50% humidity. Does that sound miserable to you? Well, I'm not going to lie, it is. 105 degrees is freaking hot. You pour sweat, get dizzy, mentally curse your teacher and would do anything to just get out of the heat. However, once the 90 minutes is over and you've stepped out of the hot room (what Bikram Choudhury himself calls the "torture chamber"), you can't deny just how amazing you feel. Plus the benefits of practicing this form of yoga are numerous.

Benefits of Bikram Yoga

• Tones and strengthens all major muscle groups down to the bone
• Increases balance, strength, and flexibility
• Builds cardiovascular strength & respiratory balance
• Promotes weight loss (the general consensus states that one class burns around 700 - 800 calories)
• Strengthens and restores all systems of the body
• Reduces the risk of sports injury and accelerates recovery time
• Heavy sweating helps detoxify the body
• Increases concentration and focus power
• Improves productivity & energy level
• Reduces the effects of stress
• Makes your skin glow
• Brings all systems into perfect balance, mind, body, and soul

With benefits like those, how could you not want to try it? :)  Anyhoo, my journey with Bikram began when I bought a Groupon to the Bikram Yoga Lexington studio for a month of unlimited practice for only $30. After a little bit of Internet research, I convinced my sister, Lindsay, to go with me and we went to our first class on March 8th. Man oh man. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. When the teacher tells you at the beginning of your first Bikram class that your only goal for the 90 minutes is to just manage to stay in the room, you know you're in trouble. LOL.

I managed to preform the different asanas for about half of the class and spent the other half sitting on my mat and towel, dripping sweat. Poor Lindsay just laid on her mat for about 80% of the class with her eyes closed, looking like she was about to die. However, about 10 minutes after class ended, we both noticed we felt wonderful and, surprisingly, invigorated. We came back the very next day and it was remarkable how much we both improved and how much more of the class we were able to complete, even after a mere 24 hours.

We've been attending Bikram yoga classes together for over 2 weeks now and I have already started to see some benefits. I have always had extremely dry skin and needed to apply lotion several times a day. Since practicing Bikram, I've noticed that my skin is much softer and far less flaky. I'm now only applying lotion once a day, in the morning after I shower. I've also noticed my posture is improving. The 2nd half of a Bikram yoga class is spent on the floor, doing different spine strengthening and stretching poses. I can tell these are really paying off and are reshaping my spine. I'm normally terrible about slouching while sitting and standing, but I'm beginning to notice that my back is beginning to ache when I'm NOT standing up straight now.

However, last night during my "regular" weekly yoga class, I noticed the my most remarkable improvement to date. When we went into our first downward-facing dog of the night, my heels sunk right into the ground. I was blown away. I've been practicing yoga for several months now and my super tight hamstrings have always been an issue for me. In downward-facing dog, my heels always hovered about 2-3 inches off the ground, no matter how much I stretched and pushed back my hips. We did several more down dogs throughout the class and each time, heels on the ground. I even tried another out on the living room rug when I got home just to make sure. Yep, still happening. I'm super impressed that just 2 weeks of Bikram yoga has helped loosen up my hamstrings so much.

Downward-Facing Dog....my heels now look like this. Haha.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding Bikram yoga and it's founder, Bikram Choudhury, such as the fact that he patents and franchises his brand of yoga, his type of yoga doesn't focus on enough on the spiritual aspect of the practice, etc... I for sure do not agree with all of Bikram's principles (I'll save that for another post), but I can assure anyone who is looking for an intense workout that makes you feel amazing afterwards...Bikram yoga is where it's at.

Benefits of Drinking Lemon Water: A Trial

Wow. I'm horrible at blogging. Like really, really terrible at it. I promise to write more, then don't. One of my plans for the new year is to really try to document more of positive changes (mentioned in the earlier post) that I have planned for myself.

Anyways, today I want to talk about something small, easy and yet incredibly beneficial, that I've started doing for my health. For the past few days, Jason and I have both drank a glass of warm lemon water immediately upon waking up. Lemon is a type of "super" fruit as it is a rich source of vitamin C and it also contains vitamin B, riboflavin and minerals like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium as well as proteins and carbohydrates.

Here are a few of the health benefits of drinking lemon juice:


- Good for stomach and liver

Lemon can help relieve many digestion problems when mixed with hot water. These include nausea, heartburn and parasites. Due to the digestive qualities of lemon juice, symptoms of indigestion such as heartburn, bloating and belching are relieved. By drinking lemon juice regularly, the bowels are aided in eliminating waste more efficiently. Lemon acts as a blood purifier and as a cleansing agent. The intake of lemon juice can cure constipation.Lemon juice acts as a liver tonic and helps you digest your food by helping your liver produce more bile and flush out more toxins. It also eases the amount of phlegm produced by your body. It is also thought to help dissolve gallstones.

- Beneficial for skin
Lemon, being a natural antiseptic medicine, can participate to cure problems related to skin. Lemon is a vitamin C rich citrus fruit that enhances your beauty, by rejuvenating skin from within and thus bringing a glow on your face. Daily consumption of lemon water can make a huge difference in the appearance of your skin. It acts as an anti-aging remedy and can remove wrinkles and blackheads. Lemon water if applied on the areas of burns can fade the scars. As lemon is a cooling agent, it reduces the burning sensation on the skin.

- Good for Weight Loss

Lemon water can act as blood sugar stabilizer that keeps metabolism up and weight loss moving along. Drinking lemon water first thing in the morning upon rising can stimulate the body’s natural cleansing and detoxifying processes.

- Controls High Blood Pressure

Lemon water works wonders for people having heart problems, owing to its high potassium content. It controls high blood pressure, dizziness, and nausea. While lemon is an acidic fruit, once it interacts in the body it becomes very alakaline, balancing acid levels throughout the body, creating a more stable enviroment, which in turn lowers many ailments such as high blood pressure.
- Good for treating Rheumatism

Lemon is also a diuretic and hence lemon water can treat rheumatism and arthritis. It helps to flush out bacteria and toxins out of the body.

- Acts as a blood purifier

The diseases like cholera or malaria can be treated with lemon water as it can act as a blood purifier.

Anyhoo, after much research earlier in the week, I decided to give drinking lemon water a go. Yesterday morning, immediately upon waking up, I stumbled down into the kitchen and squeezed the juice from one whole lemon (my research indicated that those weighing 150lbs and over needed to use the juice from an entire lemon to achieve the maximum benefits while those under 150lbs only need to use the juice from 1/2 a lemon) into a warm glass of water. Then I chugged it down. I really like the taste of lemon, so that wasn't a problem for me, but I was gagging a bit, mainly due to the fact that I'm not used to drinking a large amount of water that early in the morning. Today, it was much easier drinking the lemon water and I'm sure it will only get better from here on out as it becomes routine. Be sure to drink the lemon water on an empty stomach and wait about 30 - 60 minutes before eating breakfast. Oh, a quick tip if you start doing this, after drinking your lemon water, immediately brush your teeth as the acidic juice can be damaging to your tooth enamel.

Since I'm only on day two, I can't report if I've noticed any significant changes or not from drinking the water, but I can say that I really have felt less bloated (TMI?) than I ususally do throughout the day. So who knows, I'll report back more as I get further along.

Resurrection!

Geez, I went more than a year without a blog post. FAIL. I get on here all the time to check other blogs I follow, but haven't even glanced at mine in forever. Well, today I've decided to resurrect it from the dead. First I went back and read over my old posts. W.O.W. It's amazing to me how much my life has changed in the past year. Notable ch-ch-ch-changes that have taken place:

• I mentioned in a previous post that Jason and I were house hunting way back in April 2009. In late October of the same year, we found our dream house. I had mentioned that we were looking for "with at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a decent sized yard. Also, we'd prefer a basement, but that's not a necessity". Well, we found all that and more at an amazing price. On December 18th, 2009 we became the proud owners of a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 2 living room, 2,400 sq. foot home with an enormous backyard, huge double-leveled deck and a full basement. LOL. Being a homeowner has proven to be a massive amount of work, but let me tell you, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Good riddance landlords, rentals and throwing away money!
  


• Also in December of '09, Jason proposed to me. :) It was completely unexpected and my exact first words to him when he got down on one knee with a ring were "What? Really? Are you serious?" Haha! We both knew we'd like to get married at some point, but I never expected it to be anytime in the next couple years. Now the big day will be October 9, 2010....only 46 days away!
  


• Looking at another old post, I no longer work 4 jobs. Haha, I can't believe I did that as long as I did! Actually, later that fall, I was in fact working 5 jobs at once when I taught a class at EKU. Fortunatly, all that ended in January of 2010 when I was hired by the Justice and Safety Center at EKU as a Research Analyst. I quickly quit all the other jobs (except the teaching) and now work M-F, 8-4:30 and make much more with one job than I did with all 5 other jobs combined. It's a wonderful job that I've been at for almost 9 months now with great people, work, hours and benefits. I couldn't have asked for a better way to begin my career.
  

Anyhoo, I want to use this space to begin tracking my progress with big changes I've been making in my life over the past year and new goals including, but not limited to:

• Work we're doing on our new house


• Up-coming married life (wow, that trips me out just thinking about it!)


• My new healthy living lifestyle and weight-loss


• My continued spiritual journey of finding love and happiness in myself, my family, my friends, the world, the environment and the Universe


• My on-going study of astrology.


• My future plans to pursue a law degree.


• Up-coming travel plans we're working on


• And any other randomness that enters my head.

Stay tuned...I have big things eventually planned for this blog. :)

A Few Things I'm Enjoying...

Totally ripping this idea off from the lovely ErinPatricia, because I have nothing else to blog about. Here are some things i'm currently enjoying:

House Hunting!

For the past few months, Jason and I have casually discussed buying a house together. Obviously, this is the best time to buy a house right now with interest rates and overall prices at an all-time low. This past week, we've discussed it in a lot more detail and yesterday we really began the initial stages of house hunting.

Right now we rent, basically throwing away $650 each month, money which we could be using to pay a mortgage on a house we own instead of just borrow. Last night we calculated different loan/interest rates/down-payment options online and found that for homes in our price range, our monthly payments would be anywhere from $400 - $600/month! We found a list of foreclosed homes in our area as well as other houses we were interested in from different realtor's websites and went out driving around. We found two we absolutely loved and a few more that we want to tour.

As I know next to nothing about owning my own house and how to go about the process, i've been reading different articles and researching online most of the day, trying to inform myself. There is so much information out there and so many different options to pursue. Fortunately, my sister's fiance's step-mom is a realtor, so we have someone close to answer our questions.

Like I said, we are just in the initial stages right now, but we are both committed to the idea and if a good opportunity comes along, we will definitely jump on it! The next steps are to keep looking to get a feel for what is out there on the market and to meet with my bank to discuss loan options. Since Jason and I arn't married (yet!) the house will most likely be in my name as I have the better credit score. We definitely want something not too old with at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a decent sized yard. Also, we'd prefer a basement, but that's not a necessity, Jason just wants somewhere to party. LOL. For all those friends in the Richmond area, keep your eyes peeled for us!

Yay Jason!

I just wanted to take a moment and let my bebe know how proud I am of him. It has been almost 3 months since Jason quit smoking. He did it cold turkey and when I say he quit smoking, I mean he QUIT smoking. Actually, it was more of him kicking smoking in the ass and throwing it out the door packing. He just decided one day that he was done with it, smoked the rest of his current pack and never bought another one. He hasn't had a single cigarette since that day.

It was amazing watching him quit. He claims he barely had any cravings, minus one night when we were drinking, and wasn't moody or irritable at all. He said a lot of it being so easy had to do with the fact that I didn't smoke and we spend so much time around each other...but seriously, this man has amazing will-power. Also, he just decided it was time to start paying attention to his overall health and well-being.

I just wanted to let everyone know how well Jason was doing with the quitting process and to remind him again how proud I am of him. For those of you that don't know, I'm extremely anti-smoking, almost to the point of being a bit militant about it. It's just so funny now to watch Jason react to the disgusting smell of cigarette smoke the way I do and to hear him complain about his clothes stinking after being around people smoking. But anyhoo, great job Jason and I love you!

Hi, my name is Erin and i'm a work-a-holic.

So I currently have 4 part-time jobs. LOL. I know, crazy me. But this past January, those ever pesky student loan payments kicked in and I have a boyfriend who has a very seasonal-type job. When Jason makes money, he makes GREAT money. But when work is slow, he makes next to nothing, and all that goes to his child support. So i'm by far the "breadwinner" of the family, paying the majority of the bills. Don't get me wrong, Jason's fabulous. He does all the cooking (something I'd rather die than do) and helps out with cleaning and all that jazz and he does get paychecks, we just never really know when and how much.

Anyhoo, thus the reasons for me needing to work quite a bit right now. Since last July, I've been employed as the DMC Project Coordinator for Madison County, Kentucky. Basically, I do statistical analysis and technical report writing for Eastern Kentucky University and the Department of Juvenile Justice looking at disproportionate minority contact amongst juveniles. It's a fantastic job and pays quite well at $18.75/hour, but it's only currently part-time at 24 hours a week. I work this job Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays from 9 - 5pm.

On Thursdays and Fridays from 9 - 5, i've just started a new gig at the Pyramid Society in the Kentucky Horse Park. The Pyramid Society is an organization dedicated to the breeding of Egyptian Arabian horses and my good friend Rachael is employed by them. She mentioned their need for part-time office help. This past week was my first week and I really am enjoying it so far. Although I'm just doing basic office work like faxing, mailings, copying and database management, i'm finding the job fascinating. I know next to nothing about horses and it's been very intriguing learning about the stunningly beautiful Egyptian Arabians, a breed unlike any other horse i've ever seen.

For the past 2 months, I've been working Friday night, Saturday night and every other Sunday night at Hardees. Yes. I said Hardees. Fast-freaking-food. Ick. But, hey it's money and in all actuality, it's not that bad of a job. I work backline so I don't have to deal with customers (after 4 years at Wal-Mart I don't ever want to deal with customers again, thank you very much!), it's a very clean fast-food restaurant, and the store i'm at has excellent managers. It's mindless work, but is really helping me out with the student loans.

The fourth and final job is my dictating which i've been doing since last summer. From 2001 - 2006, I was a medical transcriptionist for a Urologist here in Richmond. All this experience qualified me to dictate documents and interviews for the Kentucky government. I get to work from home and it pays over $50/hour, so needless to say, it's one heck of a job. However, the work tends to be a bit sporadic, so I can't always rely on it to pay my monthly bills each month.

Well, that is what's going on in my work life at the moment. I'm working my butt off and am pretty worn out, but I've been watching my savings grow each paycheck and it feels pretty great. I'm still on the full-time job hunt (I didn't get that Master's degree for nothing, darnit!) and a few of the places i've applied look promising. But let me assure you, once I finally get this elusive full-time employment, i'm dropping all this other stuff like a bad habit. LOL.