Tag: wellness

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Eucalyptus Oil is Magic

So, I’ve been a bit more sniffly than usual these past few months.  No!  I am NOT allergic to my kittens no matter what Mr. Man says.  Anyway, I’m a little out of practice with my allergy abatement protocol and was suffering more than I needed to be.  One night when I was determined to do better about my bed-time routine, I noticed a forgotten bottle on my nightstand – Eucalyptus Essential Oil.  Oh yeah!  That will help.  So, I grab a cotton ball, place it on that pretty seashell that Mr. Man brought home from one of his Baja trips, and hit it with three drops of eucalyptus oil.  Ah, that smells nice.

When I wake up the next morning, my sinuses are clear!  Like I could breath through my nose!  First thing in the morning!  Eucalyptus oil, I love you.  I’m so sorry that I forgot about your magical properties.

According to Wikipedia, Eucalyptus oil contains a chemical called cineole which among other things may have antibacterial effects on the respiratory tract.  So it may have more than just a placebo effect on my sinuses.  Another chemical component, eucalyptol, gives the oil its cooling properties.

Eucalyptus oil can applied topically, but I would recommend diluting in a carrier oil if you want to use it on your skin just to be extra safe.  If you wanted to play with blending your own essential oils, you could make a sore muscle soothing blend with four drops of eucalyptus oil, two drops of ginger essential oil, and four drops of rosemary essential oil in a base of four teaspoons of a carrier oil like almond or grapeseed oil.

Eucalyptus oil is used in as a flavoring component in things like gum or cough drops.  However, it can be toxic and I would suggest that you DO NOT want to ingest it.  It can be dangerous for children.  It can also be dangerous for cats (I think that most essential oils are not good for cats) so be careful about how you use it around your furry friends.  My kittens haven’t had a bad reaction to my nighttime routine, but I am careful to keep essential oils away from anything that they could get on them and/or ingest.

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Indoor Cycling, part 1

I love to watch the Tour de France on TV every July.  The drama!  The metaphor for the human condition! The scenery!  I totally get why folks like to spandex up and ride bicycles for miles and miles outside in the fresh air, but cycling as a sport is something that I prefer to participate in as a spectator.

I do like ride my beach cruiser around the neighborhood.  Sometimes I’m going somewhere that is just a little too far to walk, or the parking situation is too much trouble.  But serious outdoor bike riding is not for me.  The two big reasons why are: 1) the ground is hard; and 2) cars.

I do like to ride bicycles inside.

I first tried indoor cycling about 16 years ago.  I have never been a cardio person and cycling is super challenging for me. The great part back in those days was that there really wasn’t anyway for anyone to know if you weren’t keeping up.  I could just dial the resistance down or slow my pace or both when I started to feel like my lungs were on fire and my heart was going to explode.  I still got stronger as time went along and could maintain an increasingly greater levels of effort but I certainly wasn’t ever keeping up with the class.

I credit indoor cycling classes for helping me discover the beauty of morning workouts.  I think that it’s a great way to start a morning workout habit because you don’t necessarily need to be fully awake to do it.  I mean, there’s not a lot of coordination or balance involved.  And usually the room is pretty dark.  You can get half-way through your workout before you realize what’s happening.

My current cycling routine is Wednesday mornings at 5:45am and Saturday mornings at 8am with Rachel.  There is a great camaraderie in her class and once I had started showing up regularly, I was warmly welcomed into the tribe.  Which is great and all except it’s not like the old days when no one really knew what you were doing.  These bikes light up!  Blue = easy, green = moderate, yellow = hard and red = breathless.  So everyone can tell who is keeping up.   Fortunately, everyone is very supportive and we really just judge each other on whether or not you show up.

Rachel’s class is very different from other instructors.  She has us  grind it out at various moderate-to-hard (green and yellow) intensities for long stretches with occasional bursts of red sprinkled in (last Saturday was 28 minutes straight through before any recovery, then repeat).  It’s a different kind of mind game to hold pace for those long stretches.  I’ll tell you, I still remember the first time I kept up on a six minute hard hill.  Something clicked over somewhere around the four minute mark. I don’t know how to describe it, but all of a sudden I wasn’t just surviving anymore.  I’ve been a Rachel groupie ever since.

I will tell you all about Rachel’s Great Cycle Challenge of 2018 in a future post.

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Back to the Bar (Method)

Last week, I headed back to the bar (method) for the first time in a few months. I love the Bar Method. It was the only workout that I did for five years and I enjoyed every moment of it.

I call Bar Method my “middle-aged lady workout” because everything about it is very civilized, elegant, and no-nonsense.  Bar Method studios are known for their spa-like atmosphere.  Every one that I’ve ever been to is calming feeling and nicely lit but my local Bar Method in Long Beach is for sure my favorite.

The workout is not easy but the classes themselves are also very civilized and elegant.  The exercises are designed to be very safe and very toning.  There is an focus on posture throughout the entire class that gives regulars a very elegant carriage. And there is stretching integrated all throughout class, which is something that tends to be given short shrift in a lot of other group exercise classes.

I credit Bar Method for ending the war that had been going on between my thighs and my bum for years.  You might know what I’m talking about: it seemed like my thighs were trying to grow their own bum at the top of my legs and my bum was doing everything that it could to hang down low enough to hide it.  One significant result that I noticed after doing Bar Method for just a short while was that my thighs and my bum went back to minding their own business (which was greatly appreciated).

I had been feeling like I needed a bit of a re-set.  What I was craving was a good stretch and to give my posture a tune-up. I found some time in my schedule that coincided with one of my favorite instructor’s class time and decided to pop in.

When I walked in to the studio, I was so warmly welcomed by the owner, Jo, Geanna, the instructor that I thought I was going to have class with, and SURPRISE! by Bar Method Master Instructor Heidi Revay (I don’t know if that is an official title, but that is what she is to me).  She was in town visiting and was going to teach class.  Wow! That was a fun surprise.

Pretty much every Bar Method instructor is toned and poised, but Heidi is more like a goddess. She is not only beautiful and elegant but she has this amazing energy that is loving and nurturing and demanding all at the same time. I feel like I work harder than I would naturally want to in Heidi’s class because she can see what I’m capable of and expects me live up to my potential.  Making the effort is my tribute to her goddess energy.

Part of what makes Bar Method so civilized is that you can have a really great workout without sweating your brains out. You’re not generally going to ruin your blow-out or your make-up. I tend to sweat pretty easily when I exercise, but I have never gotten as drenched in a Bar Method class before as I did in Heidi’s class that day.  It was not cute. Fortunately, I didn’t have a blow-out or any make-up to worry about.

When I left the studio, I felt that I had gotten the re-set that I was looking for and a little bit more.  I’m looking forward to going again this week. It’s nice to be back at the Bar (Method).

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Jade Roller

I have a confession to make, I love a good skincare gizmo (even though I have a hard time rationalizing spending money on them).  I am completely devoted to my Clarsonic. When my mom sent me a T3 hair drier, I couldn’t imagine why anyone would ever spend that much money on a hair drier – until I tried it and my hair was suddenly smooth and shiny and bouncy and amazing.  I’ve been close to springing for the NuFace a couple of times but have managed to talk myself out of it so far.

When I heard about the jade face roller, I had to learn more.  Here is what caught my attention about this gadget: 1) it is very low tech, so no need to worry that it’s going to crap out before I feel like I got my money’s worth out of it; 2) two words: facial massage. I found one on Nordstrom but wasn’t feeling the $60 price tag and didn’t buy it.  Then it occurred to me to look on Amazon and tada!  You can get one for around $10!  That is a no brainer, buy! *caveat – a $10 jade roller may not actually be jade.

My gadget came with a bonus nifty scraper wedge thing but no instructions.

I’ve never searched for beauty videos online, but this seemed like the time.  I watched a few and found one that was reasonably instructive on youtube (here’s the link).

Basically, you apply a serum or oil of your choice to help the roller glide better and it’s supposed to firm and provide lymphatic drainage (ok, sounds good). Conversely the jade roller allegedly helps the product penetrate the skin so that’s a win.

I think that when I use it, my skin is softer and it really is a nice little massage. I found that there is a lot of tension just above and along my eyebrows and I like to get after that (I’m sure that it will lift and firm my eyelids and help smooth out my elevens…or not, it still feels nice).  The little roller side is for use under your eyes. It’s nice and cool and I can see an immediate reduction in puffiness when I use it there (don’t press hard).

It hasn’t rolled away all my wrinkles, but it does feel firming. I think that if I bothered to use it every day for a week or a month or something that I might notice a difference. For the time being, I’m just using it for a little treat a few times a week.

Have you tried the jade roller?  What do you think? Do you know what the scraper thingy is for?

What is your favorite skincare gadget?

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Wisdom, Kindness, and Love

My journey with yoga began twenty years ago.  Yoga is ubiquitous these days, but in 1998, it was just starting to become widely accessible.

I haven’t maintained a regular yoga practice but every so often, I find my way back to my mat for a period of time. I’m sure I would be much closer to inner peace and never having back pain if I could maintain a regular, daily practice indefinitely. That’s ok though, yoga welcomes me back every time and seems to give me what I need at that time.

I started taking yoga at the Bally Total Fitness in Huntington Beach.  The Sunday morning step instructor started offering yoga immediately after step class (yes, I was a step aficionado and I had the cankles to prove it). Gosh, I wish I could remember his name!  He was a very sunny and bright spirit who was in the process of yoga training and wanted to share his journey with us.

I loved the opportunity to stretch and move in different ways.  I studied Pilates in college as part of my dance studies so for me, my first exposure to yoga was evocative of that discipline (the intent and breathing is different but I’m sure that old Joe was influenced by ancient India somehow). For me, it was a non-threatening way to work on strength while retaining the flexibility and balance that I had developed through dance.

A few years later, my friend at work invited me to join her for a yoga class after work.  We headed WAY into downtown Los Angeles (this was in the days that no one lived downtown).  The class was a revelation, it was fast moving and energetic and transformational.  I felt like I was attacking my practice with a sense of fearlessness.  There wasn’t time for fear, you just kept moving and when you were finished, you realized that you had done things that you never would have thought you could.  The owner/instructor always closes her lessons with, “wisdom, kindness, and love. Namaste.” Wherever I find myself, I still like to always close my practice with, “wisdom, kindness, and love.”

About two years ago, I was procrastinating with making a decision, nothing life-changing, just a little thing that was important to me.  One day I decided to go to a random yoga class.  Somewhere in the middle of class, that anxious feeling in my chest that had been hanging around for months went away and I knew that it was time and that I was making the right decision.  How does yoga do that?

Currently, I do yoga at my gym. Usually but not always twice a week.  The class is billed  as “ yoga for athletes,” which is not a how I would describe myself these days and I was nervous to try it. But it was on the right day at the right time, and turns out is just right for me right now. The instructor is very straightforward and the class is only 50 minutes, which is long enough for me anymore. We don’t do inversions or crazy back bends or arm balances and I don’t need those things right now.  It is challenging and strenuous, but energizing.

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Its official, we’ve begun!

The plan is that Mondays will be dedicated to health and wellness topics – exercising, eating right, inner peace, moisturizing…that kind of thing. So today’s post will be a sort-of intro to this topic.  Here is where I’m coming from when it comes to health and wellness – I like to exercise but I am in terrible shape; I love to eat vegetables and do a good job at drinking a lot of water but I also love cheese, tortilla chips, and adult beverages; I try to take good care of my skin but I love to spend time in the sun.  I’m trying to do all those things that are supposed to be good for you but maybe not all the way.

When I was growing up, I loved to move and be active. There was soccer practice and ballet lessons along with the general running/climbing/bicycle riding around the neighborhood – all the kid things. When I couldn’t get outside, I would roller-skate in the house or put on Leo Sayer and dance it out.

I studied dance in college and earned a bachelor’s degree in it. I supported myself through college by teaching ballet to children. Throughout this entire time, I also spent 8-10 hours a week rehearsing and performing with a local dance group (we called it “modern” dance, but these days I think it would be considered “contemporary”). I was spending up to 8 hours in a dance studio on any given day.

After I left the dance world, I joined a gym and stayed fairly active.  Those were the days of Stairmasters, when step aerobics was still a thing and indoor cycling was just getting going. It was always a fun time to take my rollerblades down to the beach and cruise the bike path from Sunset to Huntington Beach. I discovered yoga around that time as well.

At some point several years ago I noticed that I wasn’t moving anymore.  All I did was go to work and sleep. My clothes didn’t fit, I couldn’t lift anything over shoulder height and I couldn’t actually turn my neck when I was driving.  Even though I’ve realized that I have to prioritize taking care of myself, I’m still trying to come back from how far I let myself go.

I’ll be writing about the ways that I like to try to keep active (here’s a hint, not running), my fitness goals and milestones, and the other things that I do to try to take care of myself.  I might use this forum as an opportunity to experiment with new things (I’d love to try rock climbing and wouldn’t it be nice to have a regular meditation practice). I hope this will serve as some sort of inspiration for you to try some new good-for-you thing. At the least, I will feel accountable to keep striving for a healthy lifestyle because I’ll have to tell you about what I’m up to!