Living well

I have recently gotten back into my yoga and workout routine, and my body is thanking me.  It's amazing what a little physical activity can do.  I now have much more energy, I'm happier, and if I keep up my high-protein diet, I hopefully will gain back a little muscle. 

It may seem like I have this whole diet/workout thing figured out, but (shocking, I know) I'm not perfect.  I struggle with eating the "right" foods all the time.  For example, last night my husband invited his friends over for a BBQ.  While he grilled steaks, hamburgers, and bratwursts, I stuck with my vegetarian burger.  But I did allow myself a few glasses of Chardonnay, which probably did more damage to my diet than a hamburger.  Usually I have a hard time forgiving myself for some diet slip ups, but I'm trying to learn how to move on, look forward, and think about the big picture. 

A website that I've come to love, not only for it's clean eating and exercise articles, but for opening my mind in new ways, is helping me with this journey.  I would like to share and article that hit spot on with how I feel, and I hope any dog-lover feels the same way too.

Why Dogs Are the Ulitmate Yogis

By Nadine Fawell

 

Everything I've needed to know about life, I've learned from dogs. I often joke that I am like a dog: if I am unwalked, unstretched, unfed or unloved, I get grumpy, and start tugging on my leash. OK, the leash bit is metaphorical, but the rest is 100% fact.

As I tramp the parks and beaches near my house, I watch the dogs and I think about how much simpler our lives would be if we just lived like, well, dogs.

Everything you need to know about living, you can learn from watching dogs:

1. Drink lots of water.
2. Rest in the heat of the day.
3. Walk every day.
4. Stretch when you wake up, and when you have been still for a while.
5. Playtime is always good, no matter how old you are.
6. When you meet someone new, be friendly, but sniff them out and don’t get too close until you are sure they’re not going to bite you.
7. If your ears are being scratched right now, then life is good. It doesn’t matter what happened five minutes ago...
8. Greet every new day with enthusiasm!
9. Sometimes, if you don’t follow the rules, you will get into trouble, but sometimes you won’t. It’s worth pushing the boundaries just to investigate what’s possible.
10. Seeing your loved ones again at the end of the day really is the most exciting thing ever!
11. There are so many interesting smells and sights in this world: investigate them.
12. It helps to be in the right place at the right time: how else do you get the best pickings off the barbecue?
13. Be gentle and patient with children.
14. Growl when you need to, and bite if you feel very threatened. It’s not always appropriate to roll over and show your belly.
15. Be loyal.
16. How you have been treated is a direct indicator for how you will behave now, but that can change with love and the right circumstances.

Dogs are the ultimate yogis!

You can explore the rest of their website here.  Anyone interested in yoga, healthy living, and clean eating might find it a little addicting.  I would apologize, but I'm not really sorry.  Enjoy!

TRX Class

Today was my first day of Get off my lazy ass and work out plan.  Since my brother and sister arrived, other than a few pick up games of basketball and diving, I didn't really get much exercise.  Today, I tried TRX training for the first time.

Source

 After the initial confusion of where do I place my body, I felt the burn immediately.  After about 15 minutes my muscle were trembling.  I can definitely tell I've skimped on weights these last few months.  After my past experience as a personal trainer, finding a class that I enjoy is the perfect way to get back into a routine.  Now all I need to do is convince the hubby to come with me.


And for a little fun, some photos of the few days I got to spend with my sister and her husband!

Ash and I at Fusion

Hubs and I at La Parrilla Argentina

Hubs and BIL drinking a cubeta on 5th avenue

 And my beautiful sis really excited for some Häagen-Dazs Ice cream

I'm back!

I'm baaaack, said in the creepy, stalker voice.  After a fun-filled month with my little younger brother and a short visit by my sister and brother-in-law, Jade and I now have our home to ourselves again.  I'm still trying to adjust from having so much going on in our lives, to having free time again.  For instance, instead of doing anything remotely productive, I wasted a solid 2 days laying on the couch watching episodes of The Good Wife.

Source

And rather than go for a nice run on the beach, I took my new found freedom to a beach club and had a piña colada. 

Source

Although my house is very quiet, I am looking forward to sitting around doing nothing with the husband again.

Taking the advice of a 13 year old

My brother recently suggested to me that I should use a photo of Jade and myself in a wheat field as my blog background.  I have to agree this photo looks more Kansan.  What do you think?

I love these photos my Dad took of us.  Jade and I used them as "engagement photos," although we didn't exactly have an engagement.  What this photos doesn't show are the massive mosquitoes biting and sucking our blood in between our gritted teeth smiles.  Random fact:  Did you know that only the female mosquitoes bite?  Males don't.  Mosquitoes are also attracted to human sweat, so the faster I run, the more I'm attracting these blood suckers!

Just call me the new Bill Nye!

Patrick and I are off to Chichen Itza tomorrow morning.  Although I'm praying for a cooler day and some rain, I'm dreading the mosquitoes that I know will want to have me for lunch!

Diving Dos Ojos

This is the last full week my brother will be staying with us, so we tried to make the most of his time and dive almost every day.  We went on a night dive, cavern dives, and Cozumel dives.  Next up:  Wreck dive to Mama Viña. 

I love trying new adventures, and a cavern dive was something we all wanted to try.  Diving in Dos Ojos was different than any other sea dive I have done.  In many cenotes, the water is a combination of salt water and fresh water, but Dos Ojos was all fresh water, making us all less buoyant.  There is also very little light, so very few fish live in the caverns.  But there were bats! 

Here is a video of the dive.  We were not quite as advanced as this group, but you can get a good idea of what we were diving.

This cavern system is complex with many different lines you can follow.  We dove the Barbie Line and the Bat Cave.  Both were breath taking.  I have visited many caves in Colorado, but viewing the stalactites and stalagmites, fully immersed, was surreal.  It amazes me to think these caverns used to be completely underwater.  We saw fossils of the "sea" shells that used to thrive in these caves.  In 2008 scientists also found a human skeleton that was 13,600 years old.  You can read the full story from National Geographic here.

We dove with Mexican Blue Dream, and had a very experienced and knowledgeable guide.  I would recommend taking your next trip with them.