Benefits of Gettin' Your OMMM On & Making it Count

Good evening!

I slept in until 8:08AM this morning, and it felt like I had slept for days. I walked out to the living room where B was sitting having his morning coffee, and after I told him about how long my sleep felt, he said, "Well, yeah. It's Sunday." In my sleepy stupor, I actually believed him for a second there. HOWEVER, he stumbled over his words (Satu-- SUNDAY) after I kept questioning him, so I knew he was wrong. He actually had me going! This would have been horrible because A) I would've had to get ready for work and B) missed my glorious day off on Saturday.

Yay, days off! I love them so much. So, while B was off working, I did my own thang. This means sitting on the couch in my housecoat, which I haven't washed in months I may add (ew, gross), drinking tea, eating oatmeal, and listening to morning indie playlists on Songza.com. Shortly after, I got my workout gear on and did some INSANITY! That shit cray, I swear. It always feels so good after I'm done, though! On the other hand, it makes you incredibly sore if you really push your limits. To be honest, I haven't gone out and ran since BEFORE my stomach bug, so that means two weeks Tuesday, and although the break is nice, I miss it! I just wish SO MUCH that it was not raining and that I had a treadmill for these rainy days. Weird to miss the treadmill, but it is so convenient for when gross weather hits (and wimpy people like myself). So, tomorrow is a rest day from Insanity and therefor it will be a run day for me. I want to get some solid miles in before the end of the month - HELLO, Holly. You have 13 days to get them in & MAKE IT COUNT. The Victoria Goddess Half Marathon is June 2nd, so I want to get my legs moving in preparation. I know I can do it, but some reassurance after some kickass runs sure would be nice.

Anywho, back to what I was saying. After I showered (you're welcome, family), I drove to my parents' house and hung out with Sarah for the day. We went to Nanaimo, wandered around the mall and checked out Chapters. I spent more money than I should have, but that happens to everyone...Riiiiight? Right, thought so. I picked up some pretty basic things like leg razors (Note: It is incredibly difficult to ACCURATELY shave your legs in a stand up shower. Welcome to my struggles), facial cleansing wipes, night cream, moisturizer, etc. etc. And then stuff that I didn't really need like a manicure kit and make up products. No runners this time, though. Actually, nothing running related, besides the RW magazine that came in the mail.

Fast forward to around 5:15PM and I was at the farmer's market.

If you can shop local and organic, I strongly suggest doing so. Not only are you helping your own community, but you are helping your body by not feeding it pesticides and harmful toxins that are sprayed over our fruits and veggies. Plus, the carbon footprint is substantially lower since your oranges or mangoes or WHATEVER aren't being transported from New Mexico. A while back I was at Thrifty foods and they were advertising "Fresh strawberries from Mexico, $3.99" FRESH? Fresh from the truck, where they have been sitting for X amount of days on their trip to Vancouver Island. Yes, that sure is fresh. I picked up a few things like bananas and oranges, then some rolled oats and pumpkin seeds.

Brief break here as I tried to make chocolate chip cookies for Brandon's lunches. Ummmm, yeah. Oops. I don't have an electric beater, so "whipping" the egg, butter, and brown sugar together didn't exactly work out as it should have. So, I had clumpy bits of butter, but of course I thought, "MEEHHHH. Who cares!" And then the dough melted into one big globby mess on the cookie sheet. Well, at least I tried. A+ for effort.

So, I did some yoga instead. I have been using YouTube a lot for yoga videos, and I highly recommend Tara Stiles. Her videos are easy to follow, clear instructions, and there is huge variety. Morning yoga, power yoga, focus on strength training, flexibility - the list goes on.

Here are some of the benefits of yoga and gettin' your OMMM on:

Check out one of my favourite total body yoga videos below from Tara Stiles:

I am certainly liking yoga more and more as I begin to practice it more regularly. It definitely helps with running and keeping things loose (hello, hip flexors), plus it lengthens and strengthens without having to pump serious iron. Of course, it's best to start off easy and LISTEN to your body. You don't want to go balls to the wall and try to do the splits on your first try. No, work up to it. A downward dog here an upward dog there and you will be on your way to being a yoga masta!

Do you practice yoga?

What is your favourite form of exercise?