Week 8

This week has been a pretty rewarding one. Just by consistently showing up on the mat everyday, we continue to improve and have even starting practicing some fun yoga moves on our own time. Over the weekend, we decided to enjoy a beautiful day out at the beach and of course practiced some of these fun yoga moves in the soft sand. We both practiced what felt like a million handstands, but were not able to hold them long enough to snap a picture. Before we knew it, an hour had already gone by, so we decided to play around with some other moves. The next morning, we both woke up feeling sore all over, which was pretty nice. Just by playing around and having some fun at the beach, we got a good workout in. Here are some pics Gio took:

This Supported Headstand is one of my newest accomplishments! Also known as Salamba Sirsasana, this pose tones the abdominals, strengthens the neck, arms, shoulders, legs, spine and lungs, improves posture and digestion, stimulates the pituitary and pineal glands, allows a healthy, pure blood flow to brain cells, calms the brain and helps relieve stress. This is my new favorite pose. It makes my body feel so amazing. As I hold the pose, I can feel the blood leaving my feet and making its way down my body just like when you flip a rainstick upside down. I continue to practice this headstand every morning and night, sometimes venturing into different variations of the pose.

This Wheel Pose backbend is one that I first ventured into during Week One and Two of The Ultimate Yogi. Also known as Urdhva Dhanurasana, this pose strengthens the arms, wrists, legs, glute muscles, lower back, abdomen, and spine, stretches the shoulders, chest, lungs, hip flexors and wrist flexors, increases energy, is therapeutic for back pain and stimulates the thyroid and pituitary glands. When I first started this program, I struggled to push up into this pose and could only hold it for a few seconds. If you compare this picture to the one I posted during those first two weeks, you can see the vast improvement I've made here. I'm now able to arch my back a lot more, completely straighten my arms, get up onto my tippy toes and have been trying to crawl my hands closer to my feet every time I practice. I am even able to get into this position from standing, called Standing Chakrasana.

Here's one more pic from the beach where I was playing around with a variation of Salamba Sirsasana. It's really fun testing my balance in this pose while strengthening my lower back and shoulders. Definitely going to continue practicing this to improve my back arch.

After a beautiful day at the beach, we went to publix, grabbed some ingredients and went home to make cauliflower pizza. This was our first attempt at making this, and it came out really good. We made it with non-fat mozzarella cheese, spinach, tomato, tomato sauce, turkey pepperoni and cauliflower crust. The entire pie was about 700 calories with only 15 grams of fat. Much healthier than your average pizza pie, but just as delicious!

~ "Do your practice and all is coming"~

Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois