Browsing Category: Health

What I learned from a month of daily yoga

February 1, 2017 Zoe

There are two people I need to thank at the very start of this post. The first, is the incredible Cassey Toi. She invited me to a yoga challenge at the end of last year, a month of daily yoga for January of 2017. I was honestly skeptical – I’ve never been able to stick with yoga, it has never gelled for me, and I didn’t know if I would like the woman making this series of videos. But I said yes, and I feel like my life is forever changed as a result. So first things first, hugest of thanks to Cassey for inviting me to join the #YogaRevolution – I never would have done it without you.

The second person I need to thank doesn’t know me and will probably never read this blog. But Adrienne’s series, Yoga Revolution, has helped to reshape my body and mind. Her emails were warm and inviting, filled with the deepest insights paired with the worst musical theater jokes. Her videos were the same, and exactly what I needed for each day of the journey. I have learned so much by doing yoga every day, and it’s a daily practice that I plan to continue for the foreseeable future. But why am I so grateful to these ladies? Well, my body and mind have changed so much in the past month, and it’s mainly thanks to the things I’ve learned with yoga. Here are just some of those things. Continue Reading

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5 Comments Fitness, Health

You can’t suck at yoga

January 16, 2017 Zoe

At the time of writing this, I have done 15 consecutive days of yoga. That is more than I’ve ever done before; I usually got bored and abandoned the daily yoga idea after a few days or a week. I find it so helpful to have great emails sent to me each day – a new routine, a new focus every day. It’s about more than the physical; the emotional and cognitive journey has already been profound. Even so, I was wondering if I’d stick with it once the month was over. Would I continue to find videos? Would I keep enjoying it without the daily changing routine? Parts of it are still so daunting. I struggle with many of the regular poses (like downward f-ing dog) and finish the 30 minute videos dripping with sweat. With some poses that I can only do while heavily modified, I sometimes feel like I’m not strong enough, not flexible enough.

I recently caught up with my friend Sadaf, and she commented that she saw that I was doing yoga now (she has for years). A part of me didn’t feel like I was good enough to be considered in the same league as I imagined she was in. I replied, “yeah, but I sorta suck at it”. She laughed and made the best possible comment. You can’t suck at yoga. It’s only once it came to the West that we started making it a competitive thing somehow, trying to be able to push ourselves into ever more complicated poses, outdoing the person on the next mat. It’s not about getting into the “perfect” tree, chair or crow pose, something that is mirrored in what the woman running the #YogaRevolution often says. Continue Reading

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2017 Goals Fitness Yoga

Thoughts after a week of daily yoga

January 9, 2017 Zoe

I have done yoga now and then, but never really managed to make it a part of my daily life. I’d get into it and enjoy it for a time, but then lose interest or focus on other things. Usually, my issue was boredom – how many sun salutations can you do before you’re well and truly sick of it? Of course yoga is more than that, but I’d usually find myself doing a set yoga routine for a short while before becoming bored and moving on to other exercise, which is why I’m so surprised that I’ve stuck with the daily yoga and really found myself enjoying it.

As I mentioned in my New Year’s goal post (heh, goal post), Cassey invited me and some awesome mommy bloggers to join her in a #YogaRevolution. It’s quite a cool concept; the woman organizing it has a yoga YouTube channel and this year for January she is doing 31 days of yoga. But it’s not just about the yoga, it’s also about boosting a mind-body connection. She sends daily emails to explain the videos as they come up, and each movement is beyond the pose, beyond replicating what we think it should look like, but really finding what feels good and works for ourselves and moving from there. It’s more introspective and enjoyable, while still obviously helping to tone, stretch and feel good. Continue Reading

4 Comments Fitness, Health

2017 Goals Fitness Yoga

BioNike for Psoriasis – an experiment

January 6, 2017 Zoe

I’ve had psoriasis pretty much forever. Whenever someone sees the psoriasis, they will ask if I’ve tried product X. I will usually reply with, “Yes, I’ve tried every product out there” – with so many years of trying anything I could get my hands on, I figure that’s a pretty accurate statement to make. However, I do realize that new companies and products are continually entering the market, so that statement eventually becomes false. As such, when some wonderful ladies from Dischem approached me about a new product range from a company called BioNike, I figured it was worth a try, if for nothing other than to still be able to use my standard line.

At the moment, my psoriasis is flared – it isn’t always this bad, but it’s definitely gotten worse since having Harley, and my experiments with coconut oil didn’t help. So, I was happy to give the BioNike products a whirl, especially on my forehead and ears. It’s been a couple months now, so I think I can be pretty confident about my experience. Continue Reading

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2017 Goals – Here’s what I’m aiming for this year

January 2, 2017 Zoe

2016 was a pretty big year for me. I brought my baby home and my entire life changed. I had some wonderful successes and crazy difficult challenges, but that year is over and now we’re officially in 2017. Sure, I will still get the date wrong for a few days and weeks, but it’s a new year and with the days ahead there are some big things that I want to do.

But first, let me be clear – I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I hate the very idea. You can change your life at any time, any day. You can set new goals for yourself at any point, and changing your life shouldn’t be something you wait on for a specific day or time. That said, I have some goals that I want to reach this year, and I figure that sharing them with all of you will help me focus on those core things, as well as hold me accountable. Perhaps at the end of this year I can look back and assess how well I did. Now, each of these goals will be quite big, which means that there will be subgoals involved, too. Here goes… Continue Reading

18 Comments Fitness, Health, Rambling

Emigrating Goals Health