Soaking in the Sun

More like this:

I’m getting in all the sun and beach I can before I leave for home/school/fall–>winter. Although in moderation, of course, because I’m slightly terrified of the sun and it’s damaging effects on my skin!!

I know I am taking the beach for granted right now. I know I’m going to get home and one day want to bike down to the beach and realize I can’t!!

Backtrack 8 hours…

This morning I woke up and had a pre-hot yoga GM+ 1/2 of a Kashi Dark Mocha Almond bar! I didn’t want too much bulk but I needed fuel at the same time.

I biked to Jiva Yoga Center ~1.5 mi. away. One of the group fitness instructors here (where I’m interning) teaches the class at this studio…Maggie says she’s great so I wanted to see what she was all about. Plus I love to sweat!

For those of you who don’t know what hot yoga is…

Taken from About.com…Hot Yoga is a series of yoga poses done in a heated room. The room is usually maintained at a temperature of 95-100 degrees. As you can imagine, a vigorous yoga session at this temperature promotes profuse sweating which rids the body of toxins. It also makes the body very warm, and therefore more flexible. 

On my way to the studio is my FAVORITE spot on the island…

If only you could hear the birds chirping. So relaxing.

Alright let’s get down to business….

It was more like HOT DRIPPING-SWEAT-IN-A-SAUNA YOGA!!! Meaning…I loooooved it!

It was life-changing! I kid you not. I was pretty nervous going into it–90 min.–what if I couldn’t handle it? I’ve done 20 min. Yoga Downloads, and 60 min. Dave Farmer podcasts and 60 min. classes at school but 90 minutes and 90 DEGREES!?

I arrived at the studio (so cute!) and sat down (…and immediately started sweating, haha). I found myself observing people and comparing myself to them, unsure if I was going to make it out alive. She told us to set an intention. She said that if it was to get a good workout, fine. So that was my intention. I really tried thinking of something deeper but it didn’t come to me.

It didn’t take long for me to get INTO it. The whole session felt like half an hour!! I’m usually itching with attention deficiency and checking the clock multiple times especially after the 40 min. mark but this time I was shocked when I saw the clock 10 min. before class was over!

For once in such a looong time, nothing mattered. Since 2 years ago, I’ve become someone that can’t let go, can’t live life freely. But I wouldn’t ever see these people ever again. It didn’t matter what they could do that I could not. It didn’t matter what my life would be like a year from now. It didn’t matter what I was going to eat for lunch….it didn’t matter that sweat covered my yoga mat!!! NOTHING.

Midway through, I looked down at my leg and saw 5000 streams of sweat rolling down. I looked at my right shoulder and sweat coated my entire arm. Believe it or not, I FORGOT A TOWEL!!! Thank goodness they had towels there

The release was magical. So much negative energy fled my body. I’ve never experienced yoga beyond building strength and relaxation but today–I felt the healing!

I loved being in a room with people that weren’t afraid to breathe loudly and sweat buckets and let it all go. Not a judgment in sight.

~~~~~~~

Afterwards I went to Publix right down the street—looking like I had just gotten out of the pool—and picked up some goods to fix up lunch.

I sauteed tomatoes, red peppers, and baby bella mushrooms:

All on a Honey Wheat Flat Out Wrap plus crumbled feta cheese:

As I was making lunch, Mike (the culinary intern) brought back today’s lunch served at the kitchen. I couldn’t figure out which one to eat–so I ate BOTH. I was FAMISHED!!!

I combined the food he brought (chicken, cous cous, flatbread crackers, salad, squash, hummus) with mine for a HUMONGOUS meal.

You can go ahead and add about 5 more flatbreads and 3 spoons of cous cous to that! It was heaven in my mouth!!

Then I biked down to the beach and weaved around 129382903 people. I’ve never seen so many people down there before! I found a quiet spot to do some reading, writing, and thinking. Then I biked back on the road (bike path) because it was high tide and no room for me on the beach!

I came back for the other 1/2 of the Kashi Dark Mocha Almond bar and some almond butter+banana.

The almond butter baking is happening tonight–for real this time! I’ll post about it in the morn! Goodbye weekend

Tagged as: Chicken, Cous Cous, Feta Cheese, Granola Bar, Hummus, Mushrooms, Red Peppers, Salad, Smoothies, Squash, Tomatoes, Wrap