i know it’s halloween but i’m waiting on pictures until after tonight’s photo safari. these are two mei grey tank tops that i made for mei herself. if you have nothing else to do, you can look for subtle differences in ink density between the two. as for me, i’m excited it’s halloween.

i got my bikram bending done early and the cool 10 am air felt incredible. i’m usually not done so early but i wanted to practise with my friend. it got toasty today and a little rocky for me, but it was still a good class. when i started to struggle and feel weak, i went right back to six count breathing, imagining myself in pranayama. try that the next time you find yourself struggling in class.

class today reminded me of something i wanted to bring up when i practised to the bikram yoga cd a few days ago. first off, every avid bikram bender should own the cd. if you can’t make it to class, you can still practise your bikram yoga at home with the cd. it’s also the cheapest way to take class with bikram himself. you don’t even need the heat if you just accept that you’re not going be as limber and flexible like in the studio.

listening to the cd, before dandayamana-janushirasana, bikram says “wipe the hands.” this is part of the dialogue i don’t hear our veteran teachers say, but the new ones do. i think you’re supposed to wipe your hands on your shorts quickly, but i don’t do it, do you? i like to think i’m working on my bikram basket grip, but maybe i’m doing myself a bad.

also on the cd, before trikanasana, bikram says “drink your water everybody.” is there a party time that has been dropped from class? it would prolly take too much time, since people can be slow with their water. it’s so soon after party time, i can see why we don’t need it. i found it curious to hear since drinking water had been such a “hot topic” recently. oh well, these are things that make me go hmmmmmmm. see you tomorrow ~m

p.s. say happy birthday to ad-rock if you see him.

this is a nice way to start a post—another pretty picture from the farmers market a few weeks ago, i love these colours! guess what? no, not chicken butt, i did another bikram yoga double today! i saw in the comments section yesterday that jules was thinking of doing a friday double, so i decided to tag along. isn’t bikram yoga more fun when someone is rocking it out with you?

in our first class, k talked about group energy and how we all feed off of it. i think he was really saying that to the first-timer next to me. i think she had her hands on her hips for half the standing series. i was trying not to pay attention, but i think she started drinking water during pranayama! it may have been ardha-chandrasana, but not later, poor dear. she made it through class, though, that says something. she was in the ideal spot for a newbie—right next to the sliding glass door. i don’t know about you jules, but the cool air on that side really helped me during our first class.

today i din’t eat anything between classes and got so distracted talking to my friends, i din’t even get a shower. i did drink a lot of water though, thank god. second class was definitely more challenging and when we were in the floor series, i was definitely on a little rollercoaster for awhile. just like wednesday though, by the end of class, i felt brand new, alive. i had so much more energy after two classes than before. honestly, i felt like i could have done 3 classes today! alright friends, tomorrow i fist-bumped my friend that we would do the 8 tomorrow, so i wanna get my restation on. ha! that was a new word our teacher came up with today, it combines rest and relaxation. see you tomorrow ~m

i’ve only been doing a daily photograph since february, but it’s my favorite part of the site. that’s why i’m moving it to the beginning of the post, so it’s the first thing you see. i saw this free art sculpture on the way to bikram yoga this morning. my dear rss readers, this is a gentle reminder that sweat always has a little “free art” with every visit. i especially encourage you to click through and save the larger versions of my farmers market flowers. they make nice desktop patterns and screensavers!

well, that’s enough of that, tell me how your class was today. mine was a rollercoaster! oh my gosh, i got so dizzy after the first side of padangustasana, i thought i was gonna fall over. i swear i could not see anything for a few seconds. “where’s your feet? where’s your feet?” oh man, i couldn’t find my feet! i recovered before i tipped over, but there was hardly any time left for the pose.

my body recharged itself during the long savasana between the standing and floor, but then went all the way to the edge again. by ustrasana, i thought i was gonna break. in savasana i imagined myself in pranayama. six in, six out, six in, six out. i got my breath back easily and my body suddenly felt the same way it did at the beginning of class. i was dehydrated and hurting for water, but i felt strong again.

after class, our teacher said bikram yoga resets the body. that’s exactly the way i felt yesterday after i walked 900 miles. forget red bull, bikram yoga gives me wings! if you’re on a rollercoaster or just having a rough class altogether, remember, it’s not important how you feel *in* class, it’s afterwards that matters. see you tomorrow ~m

sweat friends, i’ve had a full day today. i woke up before the sun and hiked from the birdhouse to a county building for some more unemployment stuff. i was so bummed when they told me i was gonna have to come back in the afternoon for part two of the ordeal. i was gonna do the noon, but with plenty of time on my hands, i walked back to town and took the 10! there were so many teachers in class today, it was awesome.

one of our studio owners taught class today. i think our owners don’t teach very often so they can schedule more of the available teachers we have in this area. really good teachers in this area is one thing we don’t have a shortage of. i was so excited to have an s class this morning. i don’t know why, but i always discovering exciting things about myself in her class.

there was a sign on the hot room door that read “no complaining…” and explained that with the cold winds, the heater was working as well as it could at the moment. i don’t remember exactly what it said, i was distracted by the woman who *was* complaining. i think she actually said “it’s becoming an issue.” oh my god, why are you creating issues? it’s only yoga, learn to let go.

yeah, it wasn’t that hot, but after yesterday’s practise, i din’t care! i was feeling so good during practise that i decided i was gonna stay for a double. i haven’t done a back-to-back bikram yoga double since may! after i made the decision, i got a little distracted. i din’t have “in between” food or extra towels. as class went on, i started thinking about burning out too, i din’t wanna chicken out of my double, but i was really having a good class too, i din’t wanna hold back. then i remembered something important, i thought “stop thinking, just do it” and focused all my concentration on s’ words and my body. i had a very nicely aligned (for me) back-strengthening series, that was the highlight of my class! it was as close to right as i’d ever done that set of poses and i felt incredible!

i took a shower after my first class and by the grace of god, enjoyed a sample size clif bar. the studio had a basket of their new “natural protein bar,” i usually avoid these kinds of foods, but i was desperate. it tasted like a candy bar, but i was hungry. i’d only had a few strawberries and an apple for breakfast and had already walked twice as much as i was used to in a day.

the 10 am wasn’t that hot but it warmed me up nicely for the second class. my knees definitely did not appreciate the extra work they had to do and it showed during the one-legged balancing series. despite that i still had such a nice stretch. oh man, my back still feels incredible late into the evening—usually by this time, i’m back to feeling like an achey creaky old man!

how do you prepare for a bikram yoga double? today my answer is you don’t. after class, i was so energized, not only did i walk back to original appointment site, but i walked back into town again. after 180 minutes of bikram yoga, instead of feeling wiped out, i felt like a brand new man! alright, that’s enough for today, here’s a good one from the farmers market a few weeks ago. definitely click to enjoy the higher res version! see you tomorrow ~m

i planned to do the 10 am bikram yoga this morning because i had an unemployment workshop to be at across town this afternoon. since the yoga studio is super close to the transit mall, i had plenty of time to make the workshop. the best laid plans, of course and i got the studio without any shorts! not the first time, not the last. i went to the thrift store, but they din’t have anything for a small fry like me.

sweat friends, i din’t know what to do, so i walked back home. my shins are still on fire with every step, but there was no time for rest. bikram snobs won’t like what happened next, but i’m gonna tell you anyway. even though it was cold and there’s no mirrors, i practised to the cd. not the first time, not the last. i like the fast pace and it’s bikram doing the dialogue!

wouldn’t it be fun if bikram sold a cd version with emmy doing the dialogue? or any other senior teacher for that matter. it could be a “guest teacher” series of cds. it’s the same dialogue, but every teacher has a different delivery. i think it would be fun, but i digress.

all this walking has got muscles in my legs on fire. if bikram yoga exercises every muscle of the body, why does it feel like i’ve never stretched these particular ones before? it shouldn’t be a surprise that i’ve been slacking off in a pose. and of course, it’s one of the most challenging. dandayamana-janushirasana. or donnie yamana & the johnny shirasanas. or standing head to knee. of course. today i noticed that on my “up” leg, i don’t flex my foot back to my face enough. it turns out, i got a lot more flexing to do!

even without benefit of mirror or heat, you can still benefit from these poses as long as you do them right! despite the cold, it was a nice practise. i din’t get to stay in final savasana for long because i had to hoof it back to town to make my bus for my unemployment workshop adventure. here’s a gratuitous photo of me relaxing in the graveyard on the way back, tired but still smiling. see you tomorrow ~m

oh my god, that’s all i could say as i walked down the street today, sweat friends. with every foot step, my shins were on fire like you wouldn’t believe. oh man, it was so bad, i had to stop once on the way to bikram. i stopped twice on the way back, the second time collapsing in the cemetary, wet grass and all. it was actually nice to lay on my back on the ground, i would have stayed longer, but a funeral was about to start and i felt guilty enjoying the beauty of the scenery.

the 10 am was crowded today! of course i chickened out to the back row. not like it was that much better, it was a sweat lodge where i was. i started getting a little weak towards the end and drink all my water, but still only rocking the 16 ouncer. i think it’s a little peculiar that i don’t have the things that made my practise easier two weeks ago—no sweet ass bike, no 26 ounce water bottle. bikram says if you want to succeed, you have to live the hard way, so maybe i’m on the right path.

here’s another cheap dinner that i recently enjoyed. my deepest apologies to the animal kingdom, but this was super yum. see you tomorrow ~m

i couldn’t believe i was walking to bikram yoga before the sun was up this morning. it was so cold, i had on my thermal bottoms *and* my duck hunter. super overcast too, so the yoga studio was extra soupy. as soon as i got inside, i started sweating! i couldn’t get out of my clothes, and into my costume, fast enough! why do we call it a costume anyway?

crowded 8 am bikram class today! nice to see so many early benders. the bike rack looked so empty this morning. crazy to think that out of all those people, nobody biked to bikram. i’m so jonesing to get my bike rolling, but i’m clueless with my repairing. ah, the life of a broke generation bluesman trapped in a commuter’s body.

after class, i was really setting pace to get back to the birdhouse for my packers game when i ran into one of my homeless friends. he was enjoying a bag of jalapeno kettle chips for breakfast and asked if i wanted some. heartbreakers, my stomach was growling during ustrasana, it din’t take me 2 seconds to stick my hand in that bag and grab some salty goodness! i was a little taken aback when he asked me what would be a good pose for strengthening knees. hmmmmm, i thought about the dialogue really quick in my head and remembered the story about bikram tearing one page at a time out of telephone books to eventually get into supta-vajarasana. i even did a demonstration for him on the sidewalk, i din’t roll out my mat or anything, i just got on the ground and did it. i would have even hung out more, but i really did have to get to my game. that’s the one thing i feel guilty about when i hang out with my friends—i leave to go indoors. or at least that’s how people put it when they ask, “do you live indoors?”

as down as i get about walking to bikram or not having money, i know i could have it worse. despite all my downs, i’m still pretty lucky. i was so hungry after class, those potato chips helped a lot (and they were bomb-y too). then as i was home fretting about groceries for the week pd surprised me with 2 bags of veggies and fruit! mmmmmmmmm, leafy greens, potatoes and tomatoes. om nom nom. i’m lucky because my friends in the studio *and* on the street hook me up when they can! here’s a plate from last week that tasted extra good because the avocado and leafy greens were gifts from above. remember friends, when you help someone less fortunate than you, you’re doing god’s work for him. namaste ~m