Hot Yoga

Hot Yoga.

Before I start, you might want to know what in this world could have possibly motivated me to try it. I admit, it does sound kind of scary, once you get the full description. Well, I started because I do pilates at the same place. And I started that because I dance, and I want to condition my muscles. So I guess everything comes down to dance. Actually, I've heard rumors that dancers really started taking hot yoga seriously after Slavik Kryklivyy, a world finalist professional dancer, started doing it himself - and discovered that it helped his dancing.

Now, onto my experience.

And what an experience it was. I can safely say now that I know what clouds feel like when they rain water down on us below. Wow, I have never sweat so much in my life. And I never knew that you can actually do exercise in 98 degrees. Of course, it was more posing and stretching than exercise - but add the 98 degree temperature and you get a full workout like you've never done before. My first class, yesterday, felt like hell - the heat got to me about halfway, my legs and other parts of my body started falling asleep (I guess my body circulates blood less in high heat), and I didn't feel so great when I walked out of the room because the A/C wasn't on in the rest of the studio and it was still hot outside.

Today, I decided to try hot yoga for the second time. Yes, I'm crazy, two days in a row. Surprisingly, the room felt nowhere near as hot as yesterday - my body was able to adjust to the heat faster. I also knew some of the poses and their names, so I felt more confident and found that many of them came more easily to me. Best yet, at the end of the class, we were given about 5 minutes to just lie flat on our backs on top of the mats while the room cooled down. It was extremely peaceful, and I didn't want to move a muscle - and I definitely didn't want to get up and leave. When we walked out of the room, we found that the A/C had been turned on in the room outside - and it felt absolutely amazing. My entire shirt was so drenched in sweat that it changed colors. I might as well have taken a dip in Crystal Lake.

So, overall, I highly recommend hot yoga. I felt, and looked, as if I had lost several pounds by the end of the lesson. I also felt thoroughly relaxed and conditioned. I truly think I am a hot yoga addict, and I can't wait until next time.

Try it - and make sure to try it twice!

Summer. Reflections.

This has been one awesome summer. Maybe I say this every year, but I believe this has been the best summer so far, period. What's made it so special?

I'll review.

1. France + Germany (and a 3-hr bite of London)

Paris was nice. I can't say it was my favorite place ever, but it was nice. The architecture was pretty, reminding me of a mix of Amsterdam's high and narrow streets and Prague's "old Europe," antique-y mood. The people weren't too polite, though, which made it a little cold - socially. Also, whenever I tried to speak French, they always reverted to English. That was annoying - it didn't give me a chance to practice. But, surprisingly enough, when I tried hard to listen to conversations (it wasn't eavesdropping :-P), I could actually follow along much better than I predicted. Overall, there wasn't really anything in France that I particularly enjoyed - except, perhaps, the top of Montmartre. On this wonderful hilltop we visited a Salvador Dali exibition and got to see many street artists at work. It was quite a lively atmosphere, and it was much more interesting than most other parts of Paris.

South Germany was... a jewel. We first visited Saarbrucken, the town where my Dad worked for a year at the university. It was small, and nice, and quiet, and it immediately made me feel cozy. But this was nothing compared to where we went next. Our next stop was Bacharach, a town consisting of two streets that ran parallel to the Rheine river. The weather was not in a good mood and didn't feel like showing us any sun, but that did nothing to dampen our spirits. Bacharach is the tiniest and coziest town I have ever been in. The food is superb and, especially after Paris, amazingly inexpensive. The food in Paris simply does not compare. The people are much, much warmer - and, most surprising for a small town, they are incredibly up-to-date on everything and very intelligent. One of the restaurants' owners even gave me Sudoku tips. From Bacharach, we traveled down the Rheine in a boat to another equally tiny town, St. Goar. There, we explored the ruins of a 1,000 year old Medieval castle. In fact, the entire road along the Rheine that runs through Bacharach and St. Gore is dotted with hundred and thousand year old castle ruins. Just think, it took us only a few minutes to travel between castle ruins by boat - and a thousand years ago, each castle ruin was a community - a kingdom - of its own, with several thousand citizens living in the hillsides around. And all of these different kingdoms with different allegiances, only mere half-miles from one another! It's so strange to think about that, considering the sizes of and distances between the countries existing now. I guess that, in a way, this is a shrunken version of modern Europe - which is also a collection of governments that share borders with one another
After St. Goar, we visited Marbourg - the town where the Grimm Brothers went to university. We stayed at our friends' house, and I quickly made a friend of their son, who is currently in college studying chemistry and wants to study at MIT (hint hint to anyone who has MIT connections :-P). His father is a professional tourguide (and a mesuse (sp?)). He gave us a tour of Marbourg - a tiny city with a giant of a history.
From there, we drove over 8 hours down the Autobon (at 112mph, I might add - most AMAZING car ride ever) to Munich, to stay with the relatives of our friends in Marbourg. There, we were given a tour of the city by kids (in their twenties, though :-P) of the family, and by their friend - a young man who, we were later told, is apparently a genius and will someday be awarded the Nobel Prize for major accomplishments in physics. Truthfully, Munich didn't make as much of an impression as did the other places we visited in Germany, but it was still very nice. Also an interesting history, and many nice churches and views.
After Munich, we flew home - and on the way stopped in London for several hours. There, we visited Hyde Park and observed the proceedings at Speaker's Corner. A British man wearing the Chinese symbol of communism on his hat was advocating their system of government, while a few steps away from him, a black man with several bodyguards scorned America and the UK while advocating something I didn't have a chance to hear.

That was the end of my overseas adventure.

Then, I spent two pretty uneventful weeks at Cape Cod - where my biggest accomplishment was, I'd have to say, getting more tan than is usually possible in only two weeks of sun.

After that came the best part of my summer - camping at Cape Cod in upstate NY (at Lake Luzerne). I've never had this much fun there before - and the reason I was able to this time was probably because I just... let go. I was so tired of rules and regulations and self-administered standards that I simply dropped them all by the second day of camp. It wasn't anywhere out of the normal to go a night or two without brushing my teeth, or without sleeping. It was completely ordinary for us to sing until 4 in the morning until we were taken, one by one, by fatigue. It was so relaxing, drifting off into sleep - or, at least, into a feeling of blissful peace, while lying there on the beach at night, counting shooting stars and constellations, and basking in one another's company. This camping trip has been the best in my life - it just let me relax and forget everything. I feel that if anything, this has best prepared me for the upcoming school year. I can work myself into the ground with homework now without fear.

So, I feel that I'm ready now, after this wonderful summer, to start anew.

Goodbye, summer of '07, I hope for many more wonderous summers to come.

Last day of summer vacation

So, I was thinking to myself earlier today: What should I do on the last day of summer? It should be something significant, something symbolic of the awesome summer I've had this year. I spent the whole day racking my brains for something to do. I ended up going to a delicious Thai restaurant with Yulia, and then to dance.

It was a nice day, overall, but I still felt like it wasn't symbolic or significant enough to end the summer.

Then, on my way home after dance, I realized: What is most representative of my summer vacation?
Probably something I've done a lot.

And that, obviously enough, is watching TV and doing nothing at all.

So, to end this short post (which is a pretty shameful waste of space), I'll just say this:

Doing nothing ROCKS!

Life and body: a perfect diet

Like most teenage girls, weight is something that crosses my mind every once in a while. Perhaps too often for my own good.

Dieting.

I hate that word, but I nevertheless force myself into the process it defines quite often. I haven't tried any book diets or any special diet food. Instead, I get tips and advice from various health journals/websites and improvise from there.

What works best?

A combination of the following:

-Eating in moderation.
Everyone tells you this. Everyone knows this. Yet almost no one does this. Why? Because when we see a plate full of food, it's really, really hard to stop yourself in the middle and tell yourself, "That's it, I'm done. No more." It's so hard to leave half a plate of food just lying there, wasted!
Although this is the hardest thing you can do, it also works best. Eventually, if you give it enough time and patience, you won't find yourself craving the same gargantuan amounts of food as before. You'll be used to, and content with, eating smaller portions. What's the best way to get yourself into this habit, though?

-Use smaller plates.
Don't try to force yourself to leave half of your meal on the plate. It doesn't work unless you have a very strong will, and even then, it probably won't work every time. Instead, you can play a trick on your brain. Instead of using a larger plate and filling it with food that you will feel compelled to eat every last cubic centimeter of, use a small plate. When you fill it up with food, it still looks like a good, filling meal. Allow yourself to finish every last bite. You'll feel satisfied, but not overly full (oftentimes, if you feel you're still hungry after eating what seems like a reasonably sized meal, it's a false alarm - the feeling will go away in about 20 minutes). This way, you can trick yourself into eating smaller portions - just don't let yourself refill the plate once you've emptied it. I've found this works well because it's easier to stop yourself from getting a refill than from stopping yourself from finishing what's right in front of you.

-Don't eat after 7.
My mom always used to tell me this, but I never paid much attention. Now, I'm on a new diet, and this is one of the key parts.

Some good snacks to eat without compromising a diet are (especially if it's after 7):

-Nuts - just not too many. Good for making you feel less hungry, and you only need to eat 3 or 4.

-Fruits - eat as many as you want. Nothing bad, diet-wise, will happen to you if you eat a few apples, bananas, etc. when you're hungry. I like them even more than nuts - I can eat a wider variety of them and more of them. And I guess they just taste better :-)


The most important part of the diet I've found to be most successful is LESS SUGAR. I am a crazy sweet-tooth - and I've found this to be my one downfall in maintaining/losting weight. The first step is to remove desert from the daily menu. It sounds horribly cruel, but it works very, very efficiently. I once found I lost about 5 pounds in a week because I took sugar out of my diet entirely. As hard as it sounds, it's harder to do. In order to ease myself into the sugar-free diet, I still put sugar (a lot - *guilty grin*) in my tea. I also eat a lot of the sugary but low-calorie and fat-free meringue(sp?). It's delicious and takes away all of my cravings for any of my usual deserts. Then, after a while, I stop eating meringues and drink juice instead of tea. Natural sugars are fine - I just stop eating unnecessary, added ones.

Of course, nothing works better with the aforementioned suggestions than exercise. I'm a dancer, and I have to admit that I don't go to the gym much since dancing takes up most of the time I have for exercise. Occasionally, I run around my neighborhood when I'm taking a break from dance.

Oh, by the way, speaking of dance - I highly recommend it as a very, VERY good way to loose weight (especially if you combine it with a diet, or with the tips abovce). Ballroom dancing, specifically: it's really, really fun and a great way to meet people. What can be better? You're moving around, not even noticing the fact that you're burning calories, and at the same time you can be conversing with your dance partner.

Wow, I think this might actually be one of the longest posts I have ever written on any one of my numerous blogs.

Well, this about does it.

Hope it helped.