MOVE – MEANT

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Movement!

Our bodies are meant to move, they are designed to move well and they are supposed to move often.

The next time you get up from your desk after a prolonged episode of sitting – feel how tight, stiff and sore your body feels, then sit back down and look at the angle of your legs.

It is no wonder when our legs are in a 90 degree angle for the majority of the day; at a desk, in a car, on the couch – that when we get up to stretch our legs…..

….. our calves feel tight, our hammies are tight, the glutes are sore, your back aches and your shoulder and neck hurt from being hunched over all day……

I get it – I have been where you are, and I have been there when I went back to a desk job after teaching – which was 100 times worse, after moving so often to being stationary.

Our bodies are meant to move.

If you don’t move often you will cramp up.

If you don’t keep moving your joints through a full range of motion as you age you will lose the ability to use these joints – sounds scary doesn’t it?

Well it is!

I used to do some remedial work with an elderly lady as years of inactivity had literally rendered her muscles useless, she couldn’t open her hands and could not get up out of bed without assistance.

If you want to be able to open jars, reach things up high (unless you are a short ass like me) squat down to pick things up or even do up your shoes, you need to move before it is too late.

I know for some people (heck even me sometimes) the thought of going to a gym is as desirable as watching paint dry – so find what you love, dance in your loungeroom, try something new, or try a different instructor.

Not to toot my own horn (ok just a little honk ) I recently had a lovely comment from a man new to my yoga classes, telling me that he hated yoga before, but loves it now due to the unique way I teach.

Now do not get me wrong – my style is not for everyone, and that’s ok.

Find an instructor you click with who makes you feel joyous about what you do and you will want to do it more often.

Work out what it is you love, and if it is dancing around while you cook – then do it – boom – make your meals and burn calories  – that’s a double thumbs up in my books.

Think outside the box and don’t be afraid to try out some new things, but most importantly move move and move some more.

x

 

Healthy eating – don’t over complicate it!

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I think when it comes to healthy eating, quite often people go for the easy quick take out option as they assume it is too hard to make a fast, easy and healthy meal.

Let me tell you this is not true.

The majority of my meals take 30 mins to prepare and cook (unless I get sidetracked listening to music and dancing around while I cook – which does happen often)

*Side note – dancing around while you cook is a great way to burn some extra calories and is oh so much fun 🙂

The key to quick and easy healthy meals is not to complicate it.

Chop up veggies and add fresh herbs and garlic for flavour.

If I am chopping veggies – I always chop extra so I can use them for lunch and or dinner the next day (depending on how hungry my husband is and how many left overs I can keep).

Cooking meat and veggies separately allows you to only have to cook fresh meat for the 2nd night.

Some easy meat ideas:

Fry chicken with garlic, lemon and honey.

Bake salmon just with lemon and pepper.

Fry meatballs with cumin and or cinnamon.

Fresh herbs, turmeric, cumin, garlic, pepper go a long way to making things absolutely easy, and tasty.

Here’s an easy lunch bowl I made up over the weekend (not going to lie was pretty proud of this one)

 

QUINOA BOWL

 

Cook quinoa as per instructions on packet.

Fry asparagus, tomatoes, kale with a dash of balsamic vinegar & half a small garlic cube.

Mash up 1 x avo add lemon, pepper and other half of garlic cube.

Add a bit of salmon, a few nuts

Arrange nicely for a photo then moosh it all together and eat 🙂

Self love versus Selfies

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Today I had a thought (it is important to mention that this thought after spending way longer than I should have trying to get the “perfect” selfie for an Instagram story that only stays active 24 hours)….
I wondered what sort of world we might live in if we gave as much thought and spent as much time meditating, setting positive intentions, having loving kind thoughts as we did trying to take the perfect selfie??????
Seriously I feel the world has gone out of control with selfies and looking into the camera at themselves, rather than looking within themselves for answers.
I am aware of the irony and hypocrisy of this post – but I should also mention that after 3 failed attempts I just posted it anyway and went to meditate.
I just feel the world may be a little happier, calmer and more positive if we could all find and set aside a little bit of time to reflect, to breathe to switch off.
These are my thoughts for today!
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Winter brrrrs

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While many may argue that Queensland doesn’t really get a winter – most of us here in Queensland would strongly disagree!

True, it may not (and does not) get nearly as cold as many other places in the world,but for us recently shit got real.

You know it’s cold outside when you go outside and it’s cold – haha – I saw this the other day and it just cracked me up.

With the coldness comes the lack of motivation and I get it, I really do!  Leaving a warm environment to go out and exercise can be less that ideal.

I sulked around yesterday – wondering if I could send everyone motivational quotes and just let them exercise themselves so I didn’t need to leave the house – I was only joking – sort of 🙂

However, think about this.  You exercise, you move, you warm up – madness I know….stay with me

Think about it from a mental point of view – how satisfying is it when against all odds, you don’t listen to that voice telling you to stay in bed/on the couch you – fight that voice and you win – you get out and you move that body.

Now you feel physically and mentally better, you are winning and you are getting fitter doing it.

You aren’t drinking enough water, because it’s winter and you just don’t think about it – you exercise, you drink more water.

Our bodies become stiffer in winter, we tense up and we do less exercise and we just feel worse for it – just a few stretches a day and a little bit of cardio or other exercise will make you feel amazing and help to get you out of the winter funk.

Still unconvinced – put on your big girl pants and my Nike yoga pants say – JUST DO IT!

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Less is more

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So I’m not talking about clothing – especially in Winter!  I’m talking about our lives, this constant state of busy we all seem to be exisiting in.

Sometimes in order to achieve more – we need to simply do less!

This week, my brain has been cluttered with all the many things I have had to plan and fit in.  My brain was so full that I just could not obtain clarity.

So in a bold move – in order to achieve all the many things I had to do, I did NOTHING!

I sat outside with a cup of coffee and the sun on my skin and I did nothing but sit, and think and breathe.

I sat still long enough to clear the clutter, to find the clarity I desperately needed to find, and like magic it felt as though gaps started appearing in my day.

They were of course always there, I was just too clouded to see them.

Being busy all the time isn’t productive, it isn’t something to feel proud of,  yet we all (myself included) seem to fall prey to the “How are you?” Busy! scenario.

Why?

I think somewhere along the way, being busy became a badge of honour.

Well I am here to tell you there is more to life.

We can achieve more by not being “busy” all of the time.

Take some time to think, to sit and just simply BE …..

…..and watch your life transform in the most positive and magical way.

I DARE YOU 🙂

 

11 things you may not know about me (does the 11 not 10 indicate my randomness)

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  1. I am a sponge for people’s energy – I feel this is both a blessing and curse.  It is both a weakness and a strength.  At times I absorb too much, I allow other peoples energy to weigh me down, yet this is also a blessing when I surround myself around positive like-minded people I can feed off their energy, as I know people feed off mine.
  2. I am a walking contradiction – I love to find moments of calmness, yet I attract crazy; crazy situations, people and moments and I also thrive on the randomness of this and the good crazy that I and my life is. I teach body balance, I have excellent balance, yet I am ridiculously clumsy and trip over nothing several times a day. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my hair and I rarely wear makeup or do other “girly” things, yet look out world if my nail polish is chipped on my toes it seriously distresses me to epic proportions.
  3. I am a great cook but terrible at baking. I heard once that cooking is an art and baking is a science and if that is true then it makes perfect sense to me.  I love to throw things together and create. I hate having to have exact measurement s and stir for the exact time I am told to.  I love the challenge of having a few random edible items at home and making them into something amazing.
  4. I am messy, no really I am for a tiny little person I can create mess of cyclonic proportions in about two minutes – I truly don’t know how I do it, it’s quite amazing.  My house can go from spotless to war zone in about 5 minutes.  I don’t know what I do but man I do it well.
  5. I sometimes feel like a yogi imposter – #secretnownotsosecretconfessionsofayogi – I do yoga and I eat meat, drink coffee and drink alcohol – there I said it – I do it all!
  6. I love to write, but I hate punctuation; I just finished a job in communications and marketing and don’t get me wrong I understand the importance of punctuation but I love to just let my fingers fly across a keyboard and unleash an unconscious stream of thoughts onto my laptop and see what appears (kind of like I am doing right now).
  7. I have an irrational fear of bees and birds.  Birds make me nervous – seriously I just do not trust them and always feel like they are plotting against me.
  8. I try really hard to like olives – I really dislike them – but feel like it’s something I should love, so keep trying them with not much success so far.
  9. I love it when people are kind and authentic – no really I looooove it. The world needs more of it and when I see it my heart swells open like you would not believe.
  10. I am a witch – a good witch not an evil one – I see things coming an hour, a day, a week before things happen, I sense it, I feel it, I predict it.  I don’t try to do it – it just happens.  Sometimes I wonder if I am just one of those in-tune people, other times I wonder if I am from the future – true story! I can’t switch it on or off, it is just on the whole time.
  11. I love the beach, sunsets, full moons, rainbows and anything beautiful that comes from nature – this is probably something most of you would already know – but the energy and excitement I get is something that only a few of you really would understand.  Those friends who I have literally yelled at to get ready faster as the sun is setting, my poor husband who has been bitten by mosquitos on numerous occasions as I race out for just one last look at the full moon. The work that I left in my inbox as I just knew a rainbow would appear and I had to leave the office immediately. People think I am weird but I don’t care – and something that makes me more happy than any of you would ever know is the people who send me a pic of any of these things, who know I would appreciate it, who now appreciate these things because of me, who have just stopped for a moment to appreciate – that to me is the most amazing thing.

Capture the daylight – find the magic

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The last few months I have been juggling a communications job, while still teaching yoga, pilates and body balance.  It has been hectic and I have felt tired and stressed.

Finding the time to write with a clear mind has been challenging to say the least.

My communications job and teaching job could not be two worlds further apart.

Instead of writing (even though it pains me to have put it on hold) I have been focussing on finding beautiful moments in the edges of my days.

Capturing moments of fresh air and daylight.

 

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I have discovered that when I can live outside these two worlds, when I can sit and enjoy the edges of the day, that is when the magic really happens.

Where possible I will get ready for work even three minutes earlier and using those three minutes to sit outside and just breathe.

What has been getting me through is taking a ten minute walk at lunch time, or leaving the office in time to see the last fifteen minutes of a sunset.

In the edges of the day, surrounded by nature, my brain is momentarily clear and focussed.

I can write my class plans, I can reflect and I can re-energise.

In the edges of the day that is where all the magic happens.

To those of you who have been reading my blog when I have not been updating nearly as frequently as I should, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

x

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The storm before the calm

~ excerpt from a journal written last month on a 4 day yoga retreat~

I am currently into day 4 of a 4 day yoga retreat. I am currently into 2 or so hours of a 4 hour requested silence.

It is morning, it is cold in the shade, so I sit in silence with the sun warming my skin.

All around me are tired little yogi’s reflecting, struggling to be quiet, loving the silence; I don’t know.

All I know is how I feel, and how I feel is emotional.

What I can’t figure out is why.

Being alone is nothing new, being silent and alone with my thoughts is a frequent and welcomed practice for me.

Yet being amongst 50 other people moving about not saying a word is definitely something new for me.

These past 4 days have pushed me mentally, physically and emotionally – I can’t even say why, but I can say that I feel we all need to step outside of our comfort zones several times in life, in order to feel more, be more and achieve more.

We NEED to experience some storms before the calm, the storms help us to appreciate the calm times in life.

We need to push the outer limits of our learnt and habitual behaviors.

As one of my teachers said (and is a favorite quote of mine) ‘if we keep doing what we have always done, we will keep getting what we have always got’.

I believe that nothing great was ever achieved by sitting comfortably, and not stepping outside your comfort zone.

After every storm the dust settles, the rain clears and new life is felt. You can literally feel it in the air, that change,that freshness, that vitality.

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Could we perhaps not say the same of ourselves; we go through hardships, the dust clears, the metaphorical storm clouds disappear and we survive and feel re-born, re-awakened.

We emerge stronger, more resilient.

If we are constantly surrounded by chatter, can we ever find our own words?

If we are constantly filling the silences with noise, will the noise in our heads continue to grow?

If we don’t embrace the storms, will we ever be able to appreciate the calm?

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As I said, this was written in my journal over a month ago now, and without really knowing why, I opened my retreat journal this afternoon, and as I read over my words I am amazing at the timing.

Last week was a bit intense and emotional for me, and it would appear I was not alone.

Sometimes we really do receive and read things at the exact time we are meant to, and even though these words came from me, they have helped me by re-reading them today, and my heartfelt wish for anyone reading this who is also in the midst of a storm is to trust that this will pass, the calmness will re-appear and know that you will emerge stronger than ever before.

Xxx