Mindset shifts.

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After a conversation with one of my exes* earlier today, I realized that I need to up my hustle on non-massage matters. So I am digging out my old copy of Leonie Dawson’s Biz & Blog Star Workshop** and combing through that in the next week. This blog may change, or it just may get coated in multiple posts.

I’ll post a review in the next few weeks at least to say what I’ve gotten out of it and see if I actually recommend it or not (I’m sure I’m not the only one who downloads things that just stack up in the Downloads folder and never actually get used ;)).

And yeah, that’s about it, I’ve got a lot of work to do, so there’s no time to waste.

 

*If you can work it, I find exes make great-yet-distant friends. They have seen my best and worst, and even though things didn’t work out, they still like me.
**Leonie’s Shining Academy is closing to new members at the end of the month so if you want in on her genius, I’d jump on it quick!

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Your First Bikram Yoga Class

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I am trying to convince myself to go back to Bikram and convinced a friend of mine to try it for the first time. This post is everything I want to remember to tell my friend to set her up for a successful first time.

  • In class: you’ll be down to a sports bra and booty shorts. Literally all the ladies wear this, even if they are out of shape or fat. Outside of class, I layer regular yoga class clothes over my in-class outfit.
  • The night before class: fill two plastic water bottles halfway with water, then lay them sideways in the freezer, the next morning, fill the rest of the way with water. Because the water will reach room temperature and 100+ degree water is gross even when you need it. For the love, do not use a metal water bottle. If you don’t have a plastic water bottle, put down the environmental activist sword you’re dying on and go to 7-11 where you can get Deer Park liters for 2 for $2.
  • Bring your own yoga mat. I use a Jade Harmony (74″ midnight blue if you must know ;)).
    • There will an option to rent a mat from the studio, but I always feel more confident in the cleanliness of what I take care of myself. With the Jade Harmony, it’s made of rubber, so I literally take it into the shower to wash the sweat off and leave it on the balcony for a couple hours to dry.
  • Bring a large towel. If you don’t have a fancy yoga towel (I certainly didn’t until I got one in a recent subscription box), use a beach towel. The goal is to cover the yoga mat. Because you will sweat in places you didn’t know you had sweat glands, and you don’t want to be slipping on sweaty mat, and you don’t want to lay in your own puddles during savasana.
    • Again, you will probably have the option to rent a towel or two at the studio. Again, I prefer my own + the yoga towels I’ve seen have been heavily bleached, and that’s going to be too itchy-scratchy for my sensitive skin (do I act like a princess? No. Do I treat my skin like I’m one? Yessssss.)
  • Leave as much as possible at home. I didn’t always have this choice since I was hitting the studio usually after work, but since a studio has opened near my home, I’ll be treating it like I treat the gym. Which means I leave the house with only my license, an in-case-of-emergency credit card, and phones. The cards stay in my car (out of sight, of course), the phones and keys come in with me, but stay in my yoga mat bag. There probably won’t be lockers, just cubbies and the less you bring, the less anyone can screw up their karma by taking it. Because for all the yoga/hippie/woo in the studio, the reality is that, yes, even thieves go to Bikram.
    • Special note to those who wear jewelry: take it all off, even the stuff you always wear and usually forget to take off during a massage. Moist heat (+ drowning in your sweat) is nothing kind to jewelry of any sort. Look in a mirror. Do not forget that thin chain around your neck or your wedding/engagement ring(s) or … well, if you want to wear a red string around your wrist, that’s probably okay. But hey! That fitness tracker has got to go! And by go, I mean stay home and wait faithfully in the kitchen (heh). You might miss 100 steps walking to/from the car/gym, but I’m sure you’d agree its better to miss those than to lose your tracker at the studio.

Since you end in savasana and can basically lay there until the next class starts, recovery from class is pretty simple, exit the hot room, adjust to “normal room temperature,” and either layer on outside clothes to go home to shower, or use the shower at the studio (this has been the norm at the studios I’ve been to/overheard being discussed, but it may be that your studio doesn’t have showers. Yikes, those poor yoga-before-work people!) before redressing and heading out. I generally opt to throw on a shirt, pants over booty shorts optional (I have reached the age of “Idgaf if you don’t like my body size”), stuff everything back into the mat bag, and head home for a long, great shower in my own home. With my yoga mat. 😀

Despite my boredom with the 26+2 moving meditation (and my inability to do the last third of the class due to my low blood pressure), I always feel fantastic after class. It’s almost enough to keep me coming back.

(All Amazon links are affiliate links, and open in a new window! Something for me, something for you. ;))

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On social media.

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In my first post here, I think, I referenced my twitter that I had made private. Well, thanks to tweetdelete and the frustration of only being able to communicate with the people in my feed, I made my twitter public again. I’m not linking to it directly as it’s both really easy to find, and I’d like to first warn you that that’s where I try to keep my politics.

As an intersectional feminist, I lean left pretty hard. And while I’m admitting to being a feminist, I feel compelled to say that I don’t hate men, and I am not trying to be superior to men. I would like us all to be equal. If you find my twitter, you’ll notice the deliberate period between “bleeding heart” and “liberal” – I have more than my fair share of empathy and I rage/grieve/cry for everyone, I love everyone, I want us all to win, I want everything to be fair and just, and twitter is where I whine about it (ahem, mostly through reposting as other people are more eloquent than I am when I am in my emo).

 

I also periodically snark about dating, list website edits/ad postings/various business things that I am doing (Idk, I don’t have a boss, so I guess it’s just letting someone/anyone know that I am actually doing All The Things?), repost cute animals, and spew random thoughts occasionally.

 

Like this site, my social media is not a reflection of the work that I do. I very specifically try to avoid discussing politics with clients as it’s not at all conducive to relaxation. I don’t really care which way you lean politically, that’s not what I’m there for.

 

My work is my passion but it is only one part of my life.

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How to kill sugar cravings.

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So before I give you these answers, I’m going to share this story from about 2002. I thought it’d be cool to go see a naturopath who had listed allergies and adhd as issues she treated. Pretty much from the moment she saw me, she was insistent that I had an overgrowth of yeast in my system. She recommended The Yeast Connection Handbook (mine was the less attractive 2001 version). I read it, it seemed like the answers to all my problems. The hinderance is that the diet in the book is essentially meat, vegetables, and beans.* Which is hella boring.

So I was looking for other ways to eat less sugar and stumbled my way into these supplements. They are definitely super helpful. As I share them, remember that I am not a doctor, I’m not even a naturopath. Do not substitute anything in this post for medical advice. Or legal advice. Or general life advice. Always follow label direction. Do your own research. Use your common sense. I’m not liable for your actions.

Oh yeah, so the reason I want to kill sugar in my body is because that’s what yeast eats. So, your intestines are pretty gross. They are full of things like yeast, sugar, tons of bacteria, and who knows what else. Yeast needs sugar to live. So when you eat less sugar, yeast will drive the cravings for sugar because hey, it’s just trying to survive. Kill the yeast, kill the sugar, kill the cravings.

Oh, right, so taking these supplements may alter your bathroom activities as they all effect your intestines. Bodies are unique and weird,  I have no idea what yours might do, and pretty please don’t share these details with me.

Olive Leaf** – yeast murderer!*** Hero.

Caprylic Acid – yeast murderer! Hero the 2nd. Part of coconut oil.

L-Glutamine – intestinal repair people, secondary casting, never given enough credit. Yes, it’s the amino acid that’s part of protein. It’s great for muscles, blah blah blah. It is important today because yeast is terrible and damages the body and l-glutamine is the person you call when you evict yeast and have a look around after its gone. Because yeast is definitely not getting their damage deposit back.

Digestive Enzymes – the good kids used in all the examples. minor casting. they help restore the intestine to where they should have been all along, if only yeast had never shown up and tried to take over.

Now I use an enzyme formula from my essential oil company so I linked to one I’ve used in the past. If you want in on what I use currently, just send an email to everyoil@melissarocks.com – I solemnly swear to only ever send one email in reply (unless you have questions, which I’m happy to answer), and I will never share your email with anyone. Because that’s the kind of girl I am, totally selfish with email addresses.

For funsies, I also add probiotics to the list as well. Because I want to fill my gross intestines with healthy flora so there’s less room for the bad ish. I actually prefer to buy these in store from whatever natural/healthy food store that keeps them in at least a refridgerated case. Live, good bacteria, live!

The list of supplements I share the other day is one of things I’m trying or going to try shortly. This list is all stuff I’ve used before successfully. If you have questions about them, fire away. I hope its helpful to you.

*Ironically, this is also the basic diet in the 4-Hour Body, which I’ve done a few times and adored the results. However, back in the day, it was an unrealistic horror show.

**All Amazon links are affiliate links because I too would like to be a blogger posting from Tahiti. For your convenience, they all open in their own tab. They are for the most part exactly what I use.

***Read yeast murderer as anti-fungal. I like to play with the English language.

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