I've always wanted to be a centerfold

Help me get to the West Coast, y'all.
Yoga Jounal along with Athleta (totally cool fun durable work out and street clothes) is sponsoring a talent search for the next YJ model.  The winner is flown to California for a photo shoot and treated like Julia Roberts from Pretty Woman (minus the currency for intercourse).  I am no beauty queen or pretzel but I could be a centerfold with clothes and I doing my darndest to live - REALLY live a Yogic life.  It's my soapbox, my soul and my passion.  My light.  Here's the photo I sent in.  Because it's far from perfect but a very good effort, I hope it's enough.  I think it makes me real.  Somehow I became a first round finalist.

I could've sent this one in but I needed to shave (my armpits).  The only good part is my neck screams:  I'M ALMOST 43 and nowhere on the site do they ask your age.  That could've given me an edge. 

(Date wrong on photo.  Husband took pic during Ohio State Basketball Game.  That's sayin' Something.)

YOU can give me an edge.  Vote for me.  Please, please, please.  Send me to Cali.  Make me a centerfold.

Go to the link below and click once everyday until April 15.  Taxes are due that day and your vote for a 40-something gal who wants be share Yoga in the most massive way.

 
http://talentsearch.yogajournal.com/view/1908

I would do the same for you.  In honor of my request to get something I am going to actively give something away everyday until April 15.  I'll fill you in next time.   Give, give, give and you shall receive.

Boo-yah!

Boo-yah (Urban Dictionary)
The way people from the Southern US say; "great" or "fantastic". Mostly the male portion of the population. Most frequently used when a positive accomplishment has taken place. 

Here's why the boo-yah's are poppin':

I'm clean.  Here's the detox down low:  I ate a river of brown rice and lentils and a wagonload of fresh, whole, beautiful, colorful fruits and vegetables.  No diary, no sugar, no white flour, no preservatives, nothing with legs.  Yes nuts.  Yes raw almond butter.  I know you are thinking she so drank her Pinot Grigio out of a bag in the loo and hid it behind the bidet. Nope.  I did let the coffee slide however.  I had a cup in the morning and saved probably $412.00 per week by not going to Starbuck's.  The caffeine made me nice hopefully it didn't pollute me.

What I learned 

It takes 21 days to break a habit.  I no longer need or crave sweets or think it's okay to eat cookie dough and pretend it didn't happen.  I have moved ahead of my carb addiction.  Boo-yah! This is now crap to me instead of heavenly goo that makes all my problems go away:

EVERYONE needs a rice cooker. 
I wouldn't have survived this process without this:  (not the actual brand I bought, but mine was from Target for $39.00 and worth every cent.)

My version of detox was really a mild one.  People go all out and drink only premade green drinks for a number of days like my sister.  She was all like "Wow, I can't believe you did this for 21 days."  "This is hard." 

Reality check:  I did chew.  Mastication is not over-rated.  It wasn't nearly has hard as the hard-core detox programs.  Mine was a pre-school version of it.  My sister's was a graduate degree from Harvard.

The point:  Anyone can and should clean up their diet.  It was hard for me since I once wished out loud that scones were good for you.  I feel better, more focused, my skin has improved and I don't buy gummy worms to eat in the car on the way home from Kroger anymore.  An all around good time AND I'm saving money.  Do it.

 Oh, and I finished my Yoga Teacher Training. 

Pop some boo-yah's.  Tell me something good. 

Here's Chaka Khan singing that song.  (Tell me somethin' good)  Look it up on itunes.  It'll get you going.

Not me

It took 42 years.  I am figuring out know who I am not...

I am not a long, lithe fast runner but that doesn't make me a fat, slow wanna be.  I still love to run (sometimes)

Not me

I am not a ballet dancer - long, lithe, light, bony sticking glass in my belly so I can feel something (i.e. Black Swan).  I am a dancer.  I am never more electrified (almost) than when a good base and clear floor space opens up.  Baby got back - and pelvis and hips and shoulders and goo in every cell when the music starts.  I get lost and please don't find me.

Not me.

I am not a pretzel.  I am a Yogi.  You are too whether you  know it or not. That's a whole other post. 
I AM NOT TOXIC.  Or at least in 21 days I wont' be.  My friend Kathryn and I are detoxing together starting today. 
No flesh.  No dairy.  No processed foods.  No white flour.  No white sugar.  No caffeine.  No alcohol.  Yes lentils.  Yes fresh fruit and veggies, basmati.

I will check in during this journey often during the next 3 weeks.  I won't lie or pretend it's something it's not but I will have utter faith that in my moments of really, REALLY wanting M & M's, I will get me some Eminen and dance my face off.  I am not Meg Ryan.  (hiding her stash and looking for it in the trash.)  Trust me.  I trust Kathryn and we are in it to win it.  Have a great day.

Me in my new purple jacket.

(in my mind.)

What are you not?

Good God, no excuses...

Why wouldn't you practice Yoga everyday if this counts?

Day 19:  3-6-5 Yoga

After consulting my friend Kathryn, I decided that Viparita Karani (Legs up the Wall pose) with Pinot Grigio balancing on the abdomen counts for my daily Yoga.  My meditation consisted of deep breathing at a stop light with the radio off.  I took a walk with my luscious 7-year-old fully present loving her and the rhythm of our steps.  I practiced real Yoga without twists, binds, arm balances, or inversions.  I can do this for a year.  Mostly, I plan to go deeper longer stronger in asana but if this counts there really is no excuse.  For God's sake. 

Jon wants to know if he can wear boxers during class to be closer to his om.  I ask if he's ever been in a Bikram studio where there's om  wagging everywhere.

I think I was behind him at a class in Annapolis.

He was wearing less.

We're all friends.  Wear what you want, Jon - just do it. 

Day 20:  15 minutes of meditation.  15 minutes of asana.  Dropped to chaturunga in my office.  Losing focus but coming back.

Are you coming back?

3-6-5 Dang Good Time

I'm in.

Yoga everyday for a full year.  One of my teacher training buddies invited be to be a part of this 365 Yoga challenge.  This little e-community of crazies meet up on Twitter or in our blogs to check-in everyday to report our Yogic experiences.  Total fun.  This is day 17 (duh! check the date) and I am NICE all day long.  I wish the 11 hours of practice over 3 days I just completed as part of my TT (not tee-tee or titty, get your mind out of the gutter) counted but that's the beautiful thing about Yoga - 15 minutes or 180 it's all Yoga and it's ALL GOOD.  Being with your Yoga in a conscious way every day will lead you to closer communion with your higher purpose, God, love. 

Come on in.  The water is warm.  Rich full deep breath.  Rich full deep life.

Do you want to join us?  You won't regret it.  Comment or email me and I'll help you chime in to our Collective Om.

Not into this, cool.  I honor all of you for who you are.  But you really can stop and just breathe for one minute everyday.  It's a dang good time.

This weekend we did a billion of these:

Ustrasana (Camel).

And 6 million of these...

Urdva Dhanurasana.

Then I did this...

3-6-5.  Come on.  Will you do it?

Collective soul

Please read this.  With holiday gift certificates I made a hefty trip to Barnes & Noble.  I read this treasure in a day and was left with a hefty trip.

Surely, I am late on the scene with this novella published in 2002.  I am inspired and so happy to know of our individual significance to the collective good and that we are really a part of the Collective Soul.  And they're hot.

For God's sake who wouldn't want to be a part of that?  Lessons learned...

We are where we need to be. 
We have everything we need.
Seeking is good.
Love will support your Personal Treasure.
Camels aren't as trustworthy as horses.
Falcons are cool.
When we are our true selves we are enough and supporting the collective soul.

Stop gagging and get out there and be you.  This year find out who that is and...

Get that tattoo if you want.
Run a race.
Be kind.
Be present.
Be quiet.

And, please read The Alchemist.  I just bought The Little Prince for my younger children will be reading it out loud and collectively crying for the tenderness of our humanity.

Today at Bikram I DID THE COOLEST CAMEL.  I SAW MY OWN HEELS UPSIDE DOWN.  Trustworthy or not.  Give me my camel.

Lastly...

Frozen mud slide

Have you ever had a frozen mud slide?  It's kind of a dessert drink, like a milkshake with hooch.  If we lived in Europe where there's no drinking age it would be on sale at Friendly's or Dairy Queen.  When I was in college like the child I was I ordered one when a professor of mine asked me out on a date.  He was a journalist, slick and cool.  He ordered some sort of high-end scotch.  I felt really stupid.  I haven't had ordered one since.  I have had one all over my face however for almost two years. 

I recently had an ellipse done on my left eyelid and eybrow area as part of a scar revision process.  It was a simple v-shaped slice and reclose to relieve droop.  It wasn't a real lid-lift (blepharoplasty) but I am here to tell you it's made a world of difference.  Not in how I look but how I feel.  Since my first Mohs surgery in Feb. 2009 where I had a honking skin cancer removed that left me with 53 stitches across my forehead I have felt like I had a landslide of mud creeping down my forehead extending into my left eyelid. Scar tissue, nerve damage and the like. I didn't know how annoyed I was by it until I wasn't.  The minute my doctor pinched the skin on my eyelid together after excising the droop I wanted to celebrate with hooch.  I wish I had that frozen mud slide to drink.  I heard the professor I  had that drink with in Spring of 1990 died young about 10 years ago.  So what they say is true (and I know from experience)

Only the good die young.

I want to die good and old and with frozen drinks and friends nearby.  Dancing my way to the grave happy and centered.  I am planning on it but going with the flow of this beautiful life.

Here's me contemplating my trek to oldness right after my mudslide was removed.