E-I-E-I-OAT!
Anyone ever think about how many animal poses there are in yoga?
- Cat
- Cow
- Downdog
- Pigeon
- Crow
- Camel
- Gorilla
- Frog
- Cobra
- Locust
- Dead Bug’s
And I’m sure I’m missing more off the top of my head!
I decided to do a sixty minute session today! It didn’t feel that much longer than 45, but that could be because my MP3 cut off the last 5 minutes due to a download error. I did Jackie’s Power Vinyasa #3, which was probably the most challenging I’ve done yet. I loved all the hard flows, but I’m not good at the awkward balancing poses yet (Birds of Paradise!? I don’t think so). Although I did hold crow for 3 whole seconds!! I’d give myself overall an:
- An A- for strength poses (chatarangas, planks, lunges)
- A B+ for flexibility, although I’ve improved from a C (forward bends
- A D+ for balancing poses. I am horrible at them! I mean, toppling tree is just impossible right now!
Question: I am seeking a yoga session (online) that is very challenging in terms of flow and strength and pace but not necessarily in pose. I’m not ready yet for the harder inversions and arm poses, but I do want to continue to be challenged flow-wise. Do you guys have any suggestions?
After yoga I did some cleaning and moved on to breakfast:
Strawberry Pie Oatmeal
The Mix:
- 1/3 cup oats, milk, water, 1 whole medium banana, pinch salt
- Heaping half cup strawberries, cooked in the microwave for about 45 seconds and scattered on top
- Sprinkle coconut butter
- 1/2 Quaker True Delights Banana Coconut bar
- Spoonful Naturally Nutty Cinnamon Flax PB
Butterscotch Toffee (we’re almost out!)
(I tried to use that YouBar in oatmeal today but it was just too sticky so I thew it out 
)
NOTE: I am having some annoying technical difficulties today! It’s taken me FOREVER to get this post up. One thing has done wrong after another. Ugh!
NOTE: We’re getting our new AT&T Uverse service installed from 12-2pm today, so there’s a slight chance my internet connection could go haywire on me. Just a head’s up!
ALSO: Tomorrow in Food Lab we’re studying starches and gelatinization and my professor asked me to make whipped banana oatmeal as a variation! So I’m going to eat breakfast during lab and will have a delayed breakfast post tomorrow AM. I’ll be back this afternoon, but another head’s up.
My legs are rather tired from the yoga, so I think I’m just going to take a nice power walk mid-morning instead of going running or to the gym (and because the SUN is out!) I’ll take some notes to study while I’m out there.
{ 59 comments… read them below or add one }
that oatmeal looks amazing! I really want some strawberries now. wow. yum.
Yum, strawberry oats! Looks like springtime!
That yoga sounds so refreshing!! I am with you on desiring a little sweat, shaking limbs, and flexibility … I still can’t get any inversions down but shoulder stand. And I am working on my crow, too!
Yesterday I actually just “flowed” on my own for about 20 minutes which was awesome!! I could do all of the poses I love the most. I think my only problem is I have no one telling me to hold it for a certain time point, so I never really push it to the really tough point.
Enjoy your day
Delicious oats!
Glad you liked yoga! Do you have a yoga studio near you?? It could be worth it to take a few live classes and talk to a teacher. They could give you some good home practice ideas! Don’t know of any specific downloads as of now but if I come across one I’ll let ya know!
Have a great day!
I never realized how many animal named poses there were – interesting!!
The strawberries out now are JUST fantastic! I’m loving them!
I’ve been loving strawberries lately!
Beadie (www.whatiateyesterday.wordpress.com) about some thing on Yoga Journal. com where you could make your own yoga session by looking through/choosing the poses. I don’t know much about it since I haven’t looked, but you could ask her!
Does anyone know the author of the Intuitive Eating book and can anyone recommend other books along the same line?
Strawberry pie oatmeal! Looks fantastic.
Beautiful bowl o’ oats this morning! I’m loving strawberries right now…
I am AWFUL at balance poses too. And, I can keep my legs perfectly straight during standing folds but when it comes to bird of paradise or simply lifting my leg straight out in front of me I am a crippled mess. Definitely something to work on!
Congrats on crow for 3 seconds! I haven’t gotten back to that point yet.
YAY yoga!
I’ve been craving strawberries so much lately and youre not helping with your beautiful pictures of them!!
Guess I”ll have to see if we have any good looking ones at the store yet!!
Your oats look great this morning! I’m just getting into yoga myself so I don’t think I could really help you in your quest! I have been using Rodney Yee’s Yoga for Athletes video and love it! I have another one of his called Power Yoga: Strength and Flexibility on the way which could be right what you are looking for – I’ll let you know how it is!
Strawberry Pie Oatmeal sounds like one of the pies Keri Russell made in Waitress
Yes, that bowl of oatmeal looks great!
This post is torture, I love strawberries but I’m allergic to them! It does look super yummy though!
Gorgeous strawberry oats!
Have you tried the Dave Farmar podcasts? (I don’t want to put the website because I don’t want to go to spam, but just google it). They are pretty intense and he does not give a lot of instruction/direction regarding the poses (you will be expected to know what the pose is), but if you’re up for a challenge, you should try one. I’ve tried the “all levels,” but there are beginner too if you want to start there. Sometimes there are inversions or other things I do not want to do, and so I just do my own thing.
PIE OATS?!?!?! Wowza.
Kath – That is a hot looking bowl of OATS!
Kath, first off, hoooray for holding crow! I know how scarey inversions and arm balances can be. If you want, feel free to email me and we can talk about some alternatives and poses that could build your strength and confidence in the more challenging balances and inversions. And as Brandi said, I recommend the yoga journal build your own sequence thing.
A year ago, shoulder stand scared the ever living crap out of me, now, I can’t imagine my practice without it.
Loved all the beautiful redness of your bowl today.
Your balance will improve…just hang in there. Sounds like you are really loving the yoga these days which makes me happy.
Looking forward to some Food Lab oats.
PS – Have you tried any of Dave Farmar’s yoga podcasts? I think you might really enjoy him. Ha! Just noticed Hangry Pants gave you the same advice. You should listen to that girl. Love her!
OK, this is not online, but it is a seriously challenging flow – a successive sun salutation where you hold each pose progressively longer. Lots of CHAIR so you will love it!
http://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Zone-Power-Strength-Endurance/dp/B000060MUD
Obviously it means getting a video and not using your iPod, but trust me when I say it is challenging and rewarding to get through it.
my god, I love this place
I am still far from mastering crow, but it’s fun to keep trying. Not an animal named pose, but Half Moon is one of my favorites.
I made your Mushroom Mac & Cheese and Mustard Greens and posted about it today – awesome!
You will LOVE u-verse! We had been loyal DirectTV patrons for six years (mostly for the football pack) but they said we couldn’t get DirectTV in high definition! They were rude, so we made the switch.
Love it – and it saves us $80 a month!
Your strawberry oats look divine!
Have a great power walk! I think after an hour of yoga- and hard poses- it’s good to give your body a break from hard-core cardio.
I’ve never noticed that about yoga! Tat makes it fun
Good luck with the internet!
thanks for cluing us all into your schedule today, Kath!
That YOU Bar looks quite unappealing!
Off the top of my head I can’t think of a session, a couple challenging poses are (I am an instructor by the way) warrior 3(but this is major balance), half moon(another balance based), one for strength is 3 legged dog where you are in downdog then lift one of your legs up to the ceiling. Don’t know if you have tried that before. Reverse plank is good for core strength. I have lots of poses floating around my head. Just string all the hard ones together and you can make your own great power yoga class.
Wow, your strawberry oats look fantastic. I really need to start being creative like you with my oatmeal.
Have a great walk and enjoy the sunshine and your multitasking!!!
NOTE: There isn’t really anything I need to say here, but I felt jealous that you got to have two “NOTE:”s in your post.
I haven’t been able to find strawberries that are inexpensive this time of year! Yours look delicious and I can’t wait for seasonal produce!
A pint of strawberries are $1.50 here (when on sale)! Now that is amazing.
I love strawberries with granola. Perfect!
I’m the opposite with yoga…I’m no good at the strength poses, reasonable with the flexibility, and pretty good at balance. I’ve never tried a toppling tree, so I looked it up when I saw your pose. I love it! Tree was always one of my favorite stretches and I’m glad to have a new challenging balance.
The oats combo looks delish and the strawberries are so pretty and bright red!
I can’t believe how sticky-looking that Youbar is!
No suggestions for me on the yoga…I’ve never done any downloaded classes…just the ones at the Y.
Happy power-walking!
Butterscotch toffee coffee?? Sign me up.
Your posts make me miss yoga. I used to take classes a couple times a week and then quit when they switched instructors… I miss being able to actually touch my toes!
I am not sure if this is actually true but Yoga comes from India where animals are highly respected because of the Hinduism beliefs that basically all of their gods have animal “sidekicks” lol. So it would make sense to me that they would have animal names in Yoga.
I think you should definitly keep sticking with the balancing poses they will get easier. I think yoga is constant learning experience as you learn what challenges your body at this moment. Good luck!
Love your strawberry oatmeal!
Love the name of your breakfast!
“Strawberry Pie Oatmeal”
So creative!
i’d sugggest the Dave Farmar podcasts or yoga downloads. THe ones especially on yogadownload are not challenging in terms of difficulty, but there are several points where you are flowing QUITE quickly. WONDERFUL!!
Girl, the word pie makes anything sound a million times better. Last night I had to do an assignment for a visual communications class, and I had to choose one site that was ugly and unorganized and one that was aesthetically pleasing and functional. I totally used your as the pretty one!
I noticed that you said today that you had an error when downloading your 60 minute yoga — does this happen often? I can’t seem to download either of the 60 minute yogas that’s I’ve bought… I ALWAYS get errors!
I agree with the yoga studio recommendations. Now that I’ve been doing yoga for a few months I like the downloads but I find I get more out of the classes. The main reason is that the instructor can help you with modifications of there are particular poses that are challenging for you. Most instructors I’ve had also make note of how the students are doing and tailor the poses accordingly so that they are adequately challenging without overwhelming their students. You also might want to consider getting a deck of yoga cards. I have something similar for pilates and like it because i can mix and match to get the workout I want.
I also think it helps to have reasonable expectations for yourself. Even if you’re fit in other ways learning yoga still takes some getting used to. In the classes I go to birds of paradise is one of the poses, but most of us are doing modifications.
I hate Birds of Paradise! I swear Gumby invented that pose!
I have to know! How do you read while walking? I’d love to see a picture of that! I think I’d constantly be losing my balance if I had my head down looking at a magazine?
Good job on the yoga
For a nice 60 minute session I would check out Dave Farmar’s podcasts. Just search for them in iTunes. The description will tell you what level it is, so I would pick a beginner or an “all levels” one – those are usually fairly simple poses, but sometimes he will offer options to make them harder if you want to go there.
If you’re looking for something sweaty and fairly simple, there’s a great instructor called Sadie Nardini. She has a youtube routine (broken up into 4 parts) – I made a playlist of it – http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A3D1461020B3BAA0
Hope this helps
yummy looking bfast!
yoga seems to put you in a good mood
Steve “Earth” Metz
(I KNOW, gross but whatever)
He has a great yoga class for calorie burning that is mostly fast sun salutations, chatarungas, warrior, and core work. No om-ing or twisting or anything. It’s like 16 dollars for the download but it’s totally worth it.
Here…
http://www.earthspoweryoga.com/
You can also watch some short ones on Youtube for free
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTicNQvYWGg&feature=channel
Now I am craving strawberries! They look so yummy and refreshing in your oats! You are so lucky you get to have oatmeal for class!
Right now I’m totally loving cow and eagle pose =)
hey I wanted to announce a contest I’m having on my blog for the best heart healthy recipe! (see my blog for full details)
The winner gets an amazing new kind of hot cereal that’s made right here in my town- Rokit Fuel! You can check them out at rokitfuel.com
(and “no” I’m not getting paid to say this- it’s really that good!)
This cereal really looks like something you would enjoy, Kath!
Love,
Lis
That bowl of oats looks fantastic!
hey kath! i was just thinking, those you abrs look really good, even tho they are all melty, maybe you could freeze em, or keep em in the fridge so stiffen them up or at least managable to eat
just a thought <3 love the big salad too! YUMMMO
Berries are definitely my favourite fruit for oatmeal. They don’t combine with the oats like banana or pumpkin does, but I still love em!
A suggestion re: the youbar mess: try sticking it in the freezer. Don’t know if it would work, but it might, and I know youbars are pricey (and it’s sucky throwing away good food!).
Thanks for all the yoga tips!!!!!
Courtney (The Hungry Yogini),
March 7th…more details to come!
Studio class visit is in the works
Beth ,
I have Intuitive Eating and other books recommended on my Amazon page linked on the Favorites page.
Jennifer ,
Score on the s-berries!
Kailey (SnackFace),
Awww thanks!
Mere ,
I hadn’t had it happen before. I thought I just closed the box too soon.
Michelle ,
Here’s a short demo video:
http://fatfightertv.com/blog/2009/01/how-do-you-fight-fat-starring-katheats/
Kath
Kath,
Try yoga to the people (FREE on itunes / i think their website as well). He talks for a couple of minutes at the beginning which can be skipped easily but it’s more just soothing / gets you into it. The sequences are fantastic and challllenging!!!!!!!
Amy
Check out http://www.corepoweryoga.com. You subscribe to it and there are tons of different classes and lengths and the first week is free and I don’t think you need to give any credit card info.
I go to the actual studio here in Minneapolis but do it online as well. The 60 minute vinyasa flow with Jennifer is similar to what we do in class, so challenging but not to many crazy poses.
Def check it out, its free!