Frank Photos at the End

Lately I have been trying out this novel idea of doing things I enjoy and not doing things I dislike. I sometimes find myself forcing myself to stick to an arbitrary schedule (I only go to yoga one day a week because I have too many other fitnessy things to do!), when in reality, I can cancel a spin class for another yoga class whenever I want. Sometimes I want to spin 5 days in a row. Breaking useless rules I have created myself has been freeing. And it's also made me feel a little silly. Why did I come up with all these restrictions in the first place?

My favorite Dancing Dogs Yoga teacher Zach taught three evening classes last week instead of the usual one. I went to all three of them because I could. That's me on the right with the pink sports bra in fish pose. I'm feeling a whole lot more flexy this week. I went to the Friday night Power Beats class for the first time and it was weird to hear music while doing yoga but I didn't hate it. I found it much harder to be present and my mind kept wandering. The playlist was [insert fire emoji].

Yesterday we took the dogs to Sweetwater Creek State Park for the first time and hiked the 3 mile yellow trail. Daisy Mae was a real trooper and only needed carrying up one hill. Dachshunds are much heartier animals than many give them credit, and a dachshund mix like Frank can handle even more exercise. 

My friend Jamie from Rukus has inspired me to start doubling up my spin classes. She doubles all the time and still comes in first place during her second class. It makes more sense for me to double because it allows me to attend my class goal (4 classes a week) in fewer days since I am capable of two 45 minute spin classes. This frees me up for more yoga (see above.)

With the Open finally almost over, I felt comfortable going back to CrossFit. I took my first regular weekday CrossFit class and did a normal WOD for the first time in months. I was able to run, doubleunder, burpee, and deadlift pain free. While I did have to scale the deadlift weight from 155# to 105#, my form looked pretty damn good, even at the end of the workout. I'm looking to go to CrossFit once a week for a bit and get my fitness back. I got Fran cough 4 minutes into a 27 minute WOD. I am a shell of my former self. [insert crying emoji | insert laughing tears emoji]

Frank is extremely photogenic and open to modeling work. Please DM for details.

If You're Happy and You Know It, Touch Your Toes

I took for granted being able to touch my toes until I couldn't touch them anymore. Baptiste yoga has a lot of sun salutations and I got quite familiar with my shins. There was very little difference between my forward fold and my half forward fold, but at least I was able to show up to yoga class.

My precalculus class conflicted with my Monday night yoga class at Dancing Dogs Yoga, but last night I was able to return for Zach's class. His class is my favorite. Miracle of miracles, I could touch my toes. I could forward fold and touch the mat. I could jump back into plank for chaturanga. I was even able to flip my dog and hold a side plank. And then I did a wheel.

Maybe my consistent hard work and dedication to healing has paid off. Maybe it was my new cork B Mat yoga mat. It gets grippy when you sweat on it, making it perfect for sweaty hot yoga.

I don't think my back is magically cured. I still feel it several times a day and I make sure to ice it before bed. I've started to sleep with a pillow between my knees because I am a side-sleeper and I've noticed a difference in my posture since I started doing that. Regular movement from walking to class, spinning at Rukus, and yin yoga has been helpful. I started Be Better group training with Sarah Furman last week and we are focusing on our posterior chain. Taking time off from lifting was needed but I think just 2 days a week has already been beneficial.

New yoga mat feels.

Dancing Dogs Yoga now has yin yoga on Sundays with Alex. I highly recommend Alex's class because I love yin yoga and she's a lot of fun to be around. Yin yoga has you hold poses for 2+ minutes with the assistance of props. I find lying on a bolster in half pigeon to be a great way to cap off a weekend, and it doesn't hurt that I usually head over to Superica for a margarita on the way home.

Dancing Dogs Yoga

This summer I have enjoyed going to Dancing Dogs Yoga, a Baptiste yoga affiliate studio located on the Beltline at Studioplex Alley. A few years ago, I was on a business trip in Saratoga Springs and the meeting ran over (what's new), forcing me to miss my Bikram yoga class. The studio offered to let me attend the Baptiste class instead and I fell in love with the practice. Now I live a 10 minute walk away from a fantastic Baptiste studio and I'm pretty sure it was meant to be.

I started off by signing up for the unlimited intro month and then signed up for the Yoga 101 series. I HIGHLY recommend taking this workshop. It meets every Wednesday night for five weeks. Steffi breaks down the components of the practice and teaches you so much in such a short amount of time. I think it's helpful for anyone interested in Baptiste yoga, even if you've been practicing for a minute. So many things clicked for me for the first time during those sessions. You can get the series plus unlimited yoga for $75, or $50 for just the series.

Today was the first day I was in the studio since July. Even though I woke up feeling stiff with a sore back (possibly because I fell asleep on the couch binge watching Veronica Mars season 3 yesterday), I realized that I had so much more strength and mobility now than I did in June and early July. This gives me so much hope that I am finally on the right track for a full recovery.

School starts on August 26 and I plan to attend DDY every Monday evening. My favorite instructor Zach teaches the Monday 7:45 PM class. Other teachers I really enjoy include Shelley, Shannen, and Steffi.

DDY offers both class packs and memberships. You get a significant discount if you join before your intro month or Yoga 101 ends. I bought a 20 class pack at 20%, giving me a $60 savings.

A Thank You Letter to Greenville, SC

Dear Greenville,

Thank you for making my days a little bit brighter after a week that was awful personally and professionally. Thank you for welcoming me to your beautiful city and for letting me get outside in nature. Thank you for having good food and a kickass hot yoga studio. I will be back.

With love and gratitude,

Allie


Last Sunday I drove up to Greenville, SC from Atlanta because I was presenting at a conference. The week prior, I had to cancel yet another vacation, been forced to work on my days off, and my relationship hit the skids for what is probably for good this time. I have a stressful job because I like my job and enjoy solving problems. I don't want a stressful boyfriend because I don't like stressful boyfriends and the way he treats me has been my problem. A two and a half hour drive is a good time to do some self-reflection. I ended up listening to Barbell Shrugged instead. Is anyone else frustrated by the Shrugged Collective podcast channel? What if I only want to listen to certain podcasts? Can I filter for them? Or do I have to seriously sit their and add only Barbell Shrugged to my queue so I don't drive someone off the road trying to find the good stuff?

Here are some highlights from the trip.

Exploring Yoga

One of my 2018 goals is to attend 50 yoga classes. I want to increase my flexibility and fix my janky shoulder. And I need to relax. I have had several trying months. My anxiety and stress reached an unbearable level to where my coping method has become to do nothing. Like actual nothing. Sit on the couch with the tv on to repeat television and reset my alarm over and over again telling myself just 30 more minutes nothing. I have decided to do more by committing to less.

I started the New Year with a few classes at Be Hot Yoga. It's bastardized Bikram but the only thing you can get in in-town Atlanta.

I've discovered that I like vinyasa, power, and flow classes. When I was in Austin last week I stopped by the newly opened Yoga Pod studio. It's located in Arboretum Crossing, which is apparently in/near/somewhat close to Far West Austin. I think means the bougie burbs. I liked the studio a lot.

I went to podFLOW2 taught by Bryce Valdez. "podFLOW 2 classes, set to music, are dynamic and accessible, offering more challenging postures and variations based on the fundamentals of the podFLOW1 classes. Teachers bring their own creative element to podFLOW 2, resulting in diverse and inspiring classes. Each class focuses on proper alignment techniques and safe and intelligent sequencing progressions." podFLOW2 wasn't super advanced. If you've attended a few yoga classes in your life, you could keep up.

Last night I tried Infinity Yoga in Old Fourth Ward, Atlanta. I live nearby, I've heard good things, and they have a $20 new client special. I went to Infinity Flow taught by Ashley Lorenzo. Infinity Flow is described as, "powerful dynamic flowing sequences with music! Many skill levels come to this class so many options are given, however knowledge of sun salutations and solid all around fitness is recommended for this class. Be prepared to sweat and have fun! Classroom temperature is WARM (between 82-87 degrees)." It was an advanced class. My body doesn't contort in those directions. But I had a good time and I'd go that class again.

The Hot Yoga Spot

Work travel is in full swing and this week I find myself in Saratoga Springs, NY. The Hot Yoga Spot is minutes away from my hotel and I've enjoyed two classes there. One was a real 90 minute, actually did all the postures twice and all of the savasanas in between the postures Bikram Yoga class. I loved it. It's practically impossible to find a real class anymore.

The other class was called Baptiste Yoga. I only went to it because I didn't get out of the last conference session to attend the Bikram class, but I ended up really liking it. It's in a heated room but not as hot as Bikram. There are a lot of sun salutations and I haven't done downward dog in like 5 years so my shoulders were on fire.

Everyone at The Hot Yoga Spot is really nice and welcoming. They have two studios - one for Bikram and the other for their other yoga classes and their barre classes. It is clean and I couldn't find any stinky carpet. I think we all know how grossed out I am by carpet in general, let alone carpet that people sweat on for 90 minutes.

Parking can be a little confusing. There's a small lot across the street slash behind the studio. There's also Saratoga Springs downtown public parking a short walk away.

The new student unlimited week special is $25. They let me take advantage of it even though I don't live locally.

Be Hot Yoga

I have spent the month of April going to Be Hot Yoga on Ponce De Leon Place, which is right off of the Beltline near Ponce City Market. It's a super close walk for me and right near the doggie daycare Frank and Daisy Mae go to. (It's called Spot for Dogs and we HIGHLY recommend it.)

I've been thinking about getting back into Bikram yoga for a while. I've been to a few different studios in NY and Houston, but I've never had a regular practice. The boyfriend has been doing Bikram for 7 years, and whenever I say I can't sleep or feel stressed or pretty much anything at all, he tells me that yoga and juicing would fix that. (I'm 99% sure he's not a dirty hippy.) Turns out that Bikram makes me wide awake and I haven't been able to fall asleep after any of the evening classes. Oops.

The nearest Bikram studio is in Marietta and I am not about that OTP life unless it means Chinese food. Be Hot Yoga is right down the Beltline from my apartment and most classes follow the traditional series of 26 postures, although some are combined to meet the 75 minute class format. Some instructors take some artistic license with the series. More about that later.

March 2017 Goals

March was a hard month. My grandmother died the last week in February and I really miss her. Honestly, it doesn't seem real yet. The Open started the same week, and it took a lot out of me both physically and mentally. It was the first year where I could do almost all of the movements Rx, but I just didn't do them that well. There was no glorious feeling of getting my first toes to bar or my first chest to bar pull-up. It was just heavy. I felt heavy. I felt like I was competing against other people at my gym instead of against myself. I wasn't particularly proud of any of my scores, except for the last workout. I didn't expect to get a muscle up. I wanted a 95# snatch but I didn't believe I could do it, which probably prevented me from doing it. But 17.5 was my jam. I said it was going to be similar to 11.1/14.1 (snatches and doubleunders) but with thrusters, and I was right. I really should have bet some money on that prediction. I finished 10 rounds for time of 9 thrusters at 65# 35 doubleunders in 12:07. That's a pretty good score for recreational CrossFitter in case you were wondering.

I needed a vacation in March. Not travel for work (I was gone most of February), but an actual left my computer at home and turned off my phone vacation to somewhere warm. The boyfriend and I had vacation plans that didn't come to fruition. I'm not going to air our dirty laundry because he's a very private person (apparently not everyone keeps a blog on the internet?), but I was pissed. I was pissed in a "don't fucking call me from Florida!," stay out all night and not answer my phone, maybe won't call you for your birthday kind of pissed. I just need a few days on a beach, but pool season came a little early so I've managed.

The good news is I didn't kill him! I even announced that he now has a Bonus Birthday and we celebrated at Beetlecat in Inman Park. For two people who grew up on the water, the price of oysters in this city is a little mind-boggling, but the food is good. Like I grew up in Oyster Bay. I'm still not sure how to live landlocked, or what's so great about a lake created by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Bonus Birthday dinner

Daisy Mae celebrated her 4th birthday on March 10. She's back to walking and running and being her absurd little self. She loves to wear party dresses. Before you roll your eyes at me, come over here and watch how excited she gets when I pull one of her dresses out of the drawer. And then see what happens if you try to take it off of her.

Fitness and Nutrition

CrossFit Goal: 49/200 WODs. I did 17 WODs this month.

Not CrossFit: I went to Be Hot Yoga on Friday and purchased a 30 day unlimited class pass. I ran 2.3 miles.

Macro Tracking: I've tracked every day but I'm still pretty lax on the weekend.

Water: I'm averaging around 80 oz of water a day, not including the water in my shakes, coffee, or BCAAs.

Daisy Mae's birthday cake

Happiness

Church: I went to church 3 times and I officially joined as a member on March 19. That was an incredibly great day. I am so thankful that I have found a church community that feels like family.

Call a Friend: I didn't really feel like talking to anyone. I'm not good with sympathy, and I get awkwardly direct when facing difficult times, such as the loss of a loved one. However, I did catch up with an old friend at Moe's and Joe's. It was good to see him.

The return of my Parliament Light dress, just because it makes me happy.

Bikram Yoga Roslyn

Two years ago, I was visiting my parents in New York for a couple of weeks and I went to Bikram Yoga Roslyn. It was a really rough time. I had recently been attacked, and I had stopped sleeping. Not sleeping will drive you insane. I was fighting a lot with my then boyfriend, I knew I was getting laid off, and I felt like I had wasted a year of my life in Atlanta by not making any friends. I walk into the studio, not knowing anyone, and I met Keith. He made me feel so welcomed and I really needed a friend that week.

Keith and I have kept in touch and we got to practice together on Saturday! He really is the best because he got up at the ass crack of dawn to go to the 7:30 AM class because I had an early afternoon flight. Mary Griffin taught class and it was lovely.

Hot Yoga in Houston

I was in Houston for work last month and my colleagues sent around an email chain about going to hot yoga at YogaOne. Only Kaitie and I ended up getting up at the butt crack of dawn to make the 6 AM class but I'm glad we went.