Yogi? Yogi in training? Yoga enthusiast?

When I was thinking of a title for this blog I decided to look up the word “yogi”. The first definition I came across said, “Someone who is proficient in yoga.” The next one I saw said, “A person who practices yoga”, “an adherent of Yoga Philosophy”, or “a markedly reflective or mystical person.” This gave me a lot to think about. Am I a yogi “In training” or am a Yogi?

If I go by the first definition I would most definitely say that I am NOT a yogi. If I went by the second three definitions I would most definitely say, “Hell yes, I’m a Yogi!” But if the real concrete definition is the first one, is anyone ever really a yogi? Is there anyone who is done learning yoga? In my experience over the last couple years, the answer to that is a super no. So for now, I’m going to stick with yogi in training,

So, why am I writing about yoga? I’ve been wanting to for a while. I’ve been thinking about writing a long ass Instagram post about what yoga and other “yogis” mean to me. But then something happened today and it made it clear that I’ve been hesitant for a reason. I’ll get to that.

I’m not a religious person. I don’t believe in the God from the Bible. What I am is spiritual. I’ve always been spiritual. I think you can find spirituality in anything. Crafting was my spiritual time at one point. Being outside in nature is spiritual for me. Smoking a cigar listening to Maynard in my backyard with my husband is spiritual. And for me, yoga is spiritual. I didn’t realize this when I first started practicing but I know now that this is something I was meant to get into.

Many years ago, like 7, I went to a yoga class with a neighbor. If you’re familiar with my health journey you’d know it’s what really started the whole thing. I loved that class. It was calming and I liked the feeling when I was done. We went the next week and I hated it. It was a different instructor and she did more cardio type yoga and lots of planks and it was tough. I didn’t go back to yoga class. But I never forgot how I felt after the first class. I had always hoped I could find that again. Flash forward to August 2014 when I met my bff, Isis. I met her through another mom and we started to work out together. I found out that she was also in the works to become the base’s new yoga instructor. I remember asking her what type of yoga she did because I was totally scarred from that second class I took forever ago. She encouraged me to just try it. I’m so glad I did. I started going to her class at least once a week and started doing more stretching on my own. She was always inspiring me to try new things. She could do a headstand so I wanted to learn how. She could do fun back bends so I wanted to try. She looked like a tear drop in bow pose and I wanted to look like that. So I started practicing. I started doing headstands and handstands against the wall whenever I had the chance. Flash forward again to now, I live 3000 miles away from her but I’ve found that yoga didn’t stay in Arizona with her. It most definitely followed me to Virginia. I even went as far as doing yoga poses in every state I drove through on my way here. You can look it up on Instagram with the hashtag #yogaacrosstheusa. (You follow me on IG right? 😉 @chrissyq02) I do yoga almost everyday now. And Isis does yoga everyday and we talk about it constantly and send photos to each other to update each other on our progress.
Here are some progress photos to show you just what yoga can do and what it does for me. It gives me something to look forward to when I have alone time. It gives me something to strive to be better at. It is making me more flexible. And when I’m doing yoga I feel that spirituality.

The top photo here was taken almost a year ago. I was at Isis’s house and I told her I wanted to try a new backbend. So I did this one. Flash forward to last week and I busted out the bottom photo.

When I was a little girl I did a couple seasons of gymnastics and one thing I remember being proud of was being able to touch my toes to my head. Several decades later I wanted to be able to do it again. Practice, practice, practice!!! Achievement unlocked!!

Then on a random day in November, Isis says she wants to do splits. She says, “We should totally do splits!!” I reluctantly say I’ll try this journey with her but I never ever imagined I would continue it and see progress. OMG!! I’ve stuck it out and look!! I’m pretty close to maybe someday touching the floor.

And now back to the beginning. Why did I choose today to write this and what is the significance of today. Well, I’ve been working on my forearm stands and doing pretty good so I thought I’d try something a bit more challenging. Scorpion pose always seemed like something fun to learn so I decided to try it today. Third attempt…

 

Of course I immediately text Isis.
Me: ISIS!!!!!!!! emoji emoji emoji emoji!!!
Isis: What did you conquer today? Tell me!!
She already knew that something exciting happened for me today. She knows me!! I send her the photo and we talk about how exciting it is and blah blah blah and then later she checked her “On this Day” thing on Facebook. Guess what she was uber excited about exactly one year ago today? Being able to do a scorpion! She had been terrified to try it but went for it and did it. Today. One year before I decide to go for it. How cool is that? My bff, my yoga teacher, my mentor, my inspiration, was in my exact same place one year ago. It’s pretty neat. So neat I made this cool photo of us! One year apart.

And you know what makes it even neater? I know, just from texting and knowing her, that she was as excited for me as she was a year ago. That’s what its like in the yoga community. And that’s something I’ve been wanting to write about. Ever since I started yoga, I started following a bunch of yogi’s on IG. You know the most common thing about every single one of them? They own their shit. They are humble. They make mistakes and fall over and they post about it. Everyone I follow has blooper videos to show off. Of course they all find the best looking poses and the best filters for a lot of the photos, who doesn’t, but in the descriptions they’ll tell you, “this was my third attempt”, “this was after a week or trying”, “this is the only time this has ever happened”. There is never a post that says, “I decided to try this today and I totally succeeded and I am now perfect.” On top of that, they are some of the most compassionate people you will ever meet (or know online). They will always tell you you’re awesome even when you fall over. They will always tell you that your pose looks perfect even when, in your eyes, it’s far from it. And that’s the kind of person I strive to be. Those are the folks I call “My people.” And of course I know people like this outside of yoga, but I think there is just a bit of something extra sprinkled on these people. And I love them for that.

I’m back?

As usual, I make a blog writing goal and then fail. I looked today and I haven’t written an entry since 2014. I think the reason my last attempt failed is because I tried to focus on crafting and art only instead of just writing. I could also blame being part of the PTA and the Girl Scout leader; I didn’t have much time for anything with those two things in my life last year. And because the new focus of this blog is going to be ME, I can also add that in all honesty, marriage was hard last year and if I was to write anything, it may not have been 100% positive. Plus, I don’t like to talk about that kind of stuff but I just did and I broke my own rule and oh well, it’s my time to write.

So, here’s a quick update on me. Since my last blog post, my family has moved from sunny and hot Arizona back to the east coast. We now live in Virginia in a great brick house about 20 miles from anything. We are testing out the country living lifestyle and we are loving it!! My daughter rides the bus everyday because we only have one car and that means I am 100% a stay-at-home mom and wife (because I literally can’t leave) and no more Girl Scouts or PTA. I don’t run as much as I used to because there aren’t any places to run around here. We live on a highway (unsafe to run on), there aren’t any sidewalks (a quirk of the east coast), and there aren’t any parks or anything within (safe) walking distance. We have a TON of land and my husband mowed me a running track, but I have come to realize that as much as I miss running, I am a bit of a running snob. Right now it’s just too darn cold, the ground is super soggy from rain and melting snow, there is still snow on the ground, and it’s cold. 55 degrees and humid is pretty ideal running conditions, not 30 and dry. Since I can’t run, I do other things. After I had been in Arizona for about a year, I started taking a yoga class taught by a friend. I got hooked. Now yoga is pretty much my life. I am always trying new things and trying to get closer to calling myself a “yogi”. When I’m not doing yoga, I’m doing other sorts of exercises, reading books, learning about all the history that surrounds us here in VA, helping my daughter find her missing lego piece, taking care of my two mutts and new cat, trying to continue to eat healthy, and busy being an admin of my health and wellness group on Facebook.

Basically, I am the exact same person I was a couple years ago, except I am a bit thinner, more flexible, and slightly more knowledgeable about U.S. history. I still do art, just not as often, so if you liked my blog for just the art, well, start to like it for other reasons. New year, new blog name, new posts! I am not setting a goal this time but I do hope to be back writing more often then before.

Oh, if you want a little more insight into the “Life of a Chrissy” (good new name?) follow me on Instagram @chrissyq02. I’m fun, I promise!

The Mud Run and Then Some

It seems I always start blog posts out the same way…”I need to blog more.” But this time I am just going to forget that I suck at keeping up with these and get right to it.

Since my last post I have done a couple paintings that I would like to share first. The first one is Sea Filly, a seahorse from the HBO show, Rainbow Fish. She is my brother’s favorite character so I painted her on a canvas for his room.

The next is one character some of you may be tired of seeing. I haven’t had enough of Frozen yet and neither had my daughter’s kindergarten teacher. She gave me an awesome gift (a replica Padres jersey) so I painted for her in return.

I have a couple projects in the works right now. I am finally doing something with my day of the dead fabric I’ve been hoarding, lol. Every time I go to the fabric store I check to see if they have anything new even if I have never done anything with the fabric. So I am finally making a quilt. I have the whole squared top done and now I just have to put it all together with the batting and back. It’s coming along great; I just have to sit and finish it. I also have plans to make a quilt with some old Harley shirts my husband wants to save. I made some burp cloths last week and those are to go with a baby gift set I am making for an old friend who is about to become a daddy. His soon-to-be son’s room is going to be Monsters Inc theme and I just happened to find a couple different fabric options. Pretty awesome and soooo adorable!! So hopefully I’ll update with those sooner than all this.

Onto the Mud Run. Here‘s my recap of last years first if you want to read that first. Go ahead, I’ll wait. 😉
So this year was definitely harder. I run a ton more regularly than I did last year, but it was still tough. First off, they had a couple new obstacles or challenges. Dad and I ran together again and were off to an awesome start.

We ran the first mile in just under 8 minutes. Then it happened. The first challenge. They had us do lunges for about 100 feet. And I didn’t half-ass those puppies either. But that was my mistake. I don’t do lunges normally so my legs were on fire the next 5 miles. So after that there is only one actual obstacle (the steeplechase) for the next 2ish miles. But those next 2 miles are an obstacle alone; hills. Nothing but uphill running. I heard someone say they call it the “Suicide Mile” or something really ominous like that. Well, I ran as much as could, walked some, but still made it the first 4 miles in about 44 minutes I think. Not terrible. Then the obstacles came. Tons of mud!! Fun of course, but remember those lunges? Oh yes, my legs sure did. Trudging through mud pits with sore thighs was no bueno. I slowed down a ton. Then we got to the slippery hill. Now this is not just a hill with mud and water coming down. This is a hill that is, no joke, straight up. Sprinklers are going and there are guys at the top with fire hoses. Saying it is slippery is an understatement. So of course the legs were giving out, so I told my dad I needed help. He grabbed my hand and pretty much pulled me up the hill while the guys at the top kept that fire hose pointed directly at me the ENTIRE time! Dad said, “No one left behind.” The guy responded with something like, “NO dry people allowed.” All I heard was, “I’m an asshole and I’m not going to stop spraying your daughter!” HAHA!! It’s all downhill running after that, maybe one or two more obstacles and then the home stretch. Here we are right before the last mud pit making a last effort to pass up those other runners.

And then the mud pit. This year we literally had to swim through it.

And then we had to do pushups. I did girly ones.

We finished in about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Last year we ran it in about 1 hour and 12 minutes. I had a mental goal to try to run it better than last year, but seriously, those lunges just set the tone for the entire race. But of course it was incredibly fun and I can’t wait for the next one.

Actually, dad and I have both talked about trying a regular race, not one of these “fun” ones, to see our potential. But my dad can just shut his mouth because he ran the same race the next weekend and killed it of course. He finished it in 59 minutes, 33 seconds, 1st in his age group and 12th overall. You read that right, 12. Out of a couple thousand people. He’s a beast!

The best part of the Mud Run? Watching my daughter run the 1K Kids Run after we were done. She is so awesome!!

This was right after she blew her daddy a kiss.

She looked so confused! So proud of that girl!!

I Make Kickass Earrings, I do Mud Runs and I Dabble in Magic.

Where to start? How about this? I DID IT! I freakin’ did it! I ran the 2013 World Famous Camp Pendleton Mud Run!!! It was amazing!

Okay, I got that out of the way. Now before you continue reading this entry, click here and go read the other post about my mini weight loss journey. It’s cool, I’ll wait…

Okay, did you read it? Did you see the part at the end about me running in the race with my dad? So you kind of have an idea of how big of a deal this was for me. I wasn’t going to blog about the race because as I have said in the past, I try to keep this blog just about crafting. But a friend convinced me and even gave me the title. I added the magic part because I thought I would just keep you updated on EVERYTHING I’ve done in the past couple weeks and I think it’s pretty cool. So… “I make kickass earrings.” You know this if you’ve kept up with the other entries, so I will skip that part. There may be a small crafting part at the end but we will see. Let’s get to the fun part.

So, I’m a runner now. I can definitely say that. I run almost everyday. My dad is so proud. So when I said that I would do the Mud Run with him it was like the best thing he’d ever heard. Now, quick back story. The Mud Run is 20 years old. My dad has been running it for the last 15 years. And when he runs it, he wins it. He isn’t always the first guy to cross the finish line, but he is damn near the front and he always places in his age group. My dad is 52, this race is a 10k (approx. 6.8 miles) and he has ran it in 44 minutes in the past. I think his best placement is 11th overall and that is out of at least 3,000 runners. He is a beast!! My friend that gave me the title (Steph at Orangespoken) says my dad looks GI Joe, “..or the Navy equivalent.” He is just awesome. And that gives me something to both strive for and be afraid of. Not so much afraid in the sense that I am going to let him down, more in the sense that I know what he can do so I may let myself down. But the days came and went leading up to that day, June 9th, and when I woke up, I was ready.

I wouldn’t say I trained for the race. When I found out it was a 10k I just thought I would have to be able to run almost 7 miles without stopping. That was sort of my personal goal I guess. As the months went by, I just never got up to that distance. I don’t think I couldn’t do it, I just get bored running alone sometimes and didn’t want to do it. That doesn’t sound like a true runner does it? But it’s hard for me because I run on the treadmill a lot with my daughter watching TV in the room next to me. I don’t want to have her sitting there all day long. And when I run outside at home in Yuma, it’s 106 degrees by 9am and I don’t want to run in that heat. I want to live. But I was consistently running 5 days a week and adding a bit of ab work in there so I was preparing as well as I thought I could. My best friend said, “You know most people start with a 5k.” Guess I’m not most people. 😉

Another goal I have had, even without a race in my future, was a bit of a superficial one. I don’t want abs of steel, well let me rephrase, I can live without abs of steel, I can live without my weight being a certain number. But what I really want is to get rid of the loose skin on my stomach. If you read my Lean, Mean post you saw that I had a 9lb baby and I’m only 5ft tall. So I have some nice stretch marks and some lovely extra skin. So my goal was to feel comfortable wearing only a sports bra and shorts to run. Let’s just get to the race part and come back to all these goals later.

So here we are, race day! Up at the butt crack of dawn to drive an hour to get there and ready to go.

The race took place at Camp Pendleton, a Marine base, so naturally there were Marines there to pose with runners.

In this photo, my dad is pointing to a very large hill. I don’t do hills. That is something I didn’t train for and I paid for it. When I am in San Diego with my parents, sometimes my dad and I will hike up a mountain. The next two days I can barely walk. My thighs just give out on me. I asked my husband about why this is because I have muscle in my legs. My legs are super muscular. He explained that there are two types of muscle. The kind that you use for quick use and the kind you use for endurance. He compared it to a guy who lifts weights or does leg presses. That guy has the type of muscle to lift massive amounts of weight but can’t run a long distance. Well, I can handle that comparison but I definitely need to work on hills.

Here we are, ready to go. And I’m just wearing my sports bra. Goal met!

This is the course. I will give you a rundown. First, you just start running. It’s mainly on the pavement to get us to the mud part. But about halfway through the first mile, here comes the fire hose. They had a fire truck BLASTING us with ice cold water. It wasn’t very hot that morning so this was shocking. You know the feeling when your spouse dumps ice water on you in the shower? I know it’s happened to most of you so you know that feeling. It’s shocking, your breathing changes. It was crazy but awesome. First mile is done and we ran it in under 8 minutes. Whoa! That is super for me. I knew I could run fast but that still surprised me. Then comes the Steeplechase. This was a small wall you had to climb over and then you land in a mud puddle. My dad flies over this no problem. I land in the mud and fall down and get stuck. So I am already completely covered in mud. So much fun. Next is the beach and that was just running on sand. Bleh. Then comes the first hill. I am doing good, I am running SUPER slow but still running. We were part way up the hill and my dad puts his hand on my back to keep me going. He tried to encourage me, “Okay, just around this corner is the top of the hill. Keep pushing it. You’re doing great.” Ya, they changed the course a bit this year so my dad had no clue what he was talking about. That hill went on forever. So I walked a bit. I had to. I walked maybe a minute and got back into it. Then I said, “So now the key is the to not look ahead.” There was a GIANT hill ahead of us. We walked up. There was no way I was going to run up that hill. I told my dad that I can easily walk up these hills faster than I can run up. I did see one dude sprinting up the hill and I may or may not have yelled a few obscenities his way. All in good fun of course. So we get to the top of this hill and there’s the cargo net. That was simple. You climb up, you climb down. The only issue here was the amount of people waiting to do the same thing. The other people definitely slowed us down. So we keep running, up the next hill and at the top is a row of hay bales we had to jump over. They put this obstacle at the top of a hill obviously to weed out the weak. But I did it. Then comes the part where I super excelled and was even better than my dad. At the bottom of the first downhill was a big wall and a mud pit. I didn’t excel yet, haha. But I managed to get through pretty good. Then they had cargo nets very low to the ground that you had to crawl under while in very wet mud. Being short came in super handy right here. I crouched down and blasted under those nets. I mean, I was running full speed and passing everyone else. I had to wait for my dad at the other end. Then came a small mud hill under another net while being blasted with the fire hose again. This hill was a bit of a challenge but the fire hose was amazing. At this point you are so hot and muddy that you are welcoming the ice water. Run, run, run some more. At this point we were more than halfway done and I feel like once I passed 4 miles, the rest was a piece of cake. Kind of like Forrest Gump said, “I figured since I ran this far, I might as well keep going.” Plus, oh I forgot. Our bibs were yellow which meant we were in the second wave of starters. The first wave wore pink. I had been passing pinks all morning. Goal met. I may not be as fast as my dad but I was faster than a large number of people. YES! So okay, running more and then we get to the mud pit/walls/tunnels. The pits are fun because you just get covered in mud. But it is also hard to run afterwards because your shoes are full of mud and they are heavy. This last wall I needed help. The wall was in a mud pit so you kind of sink down when you try to get a jump start. So I try to reach over the wall to get a grip and because I am so short, I couldn’t even reach the other side of the wall. So I got a boost. No problem. They had guys stationed there to help, plus I had my dad to throw help me over. Run through another mud pit and then run through tunnels. Excelling part two. I had to wait for my dad again on the other side because he had to crawl through the tunnels, I just hunched over and ran again. I wish there was a better way for me to describe this, but just try to get the mental picture. Maybe try to picture the difference between “Mini Me” and a normal sized person. I’m the midget. LOL! So then the slippery hill. This hill was at practically straight up. They had robes along the sides thank goodness because it was a river of flowing mud we had to climb up. I walked of course. A little more up hill and then we got to the last obstacle, the over/unders. These were horizontal telephone poles at different heights you had to climb over and go under. I showed my skills and went OVER all of them. Then we finally had a nice downhill to run. We were on the home stretch. The last mud pit obstacle.

Here we are both crawling through it. And you had to crawl. Boy did my knees get the grunt of this torture (pic later).

Here I am getting out of it. Look at that mud. This was some sort of imported mud that just cakes on and sticks to you.

And then we ran through one more pit and crossed the finish line. (we are there in the middle of the pic)

Don’t we look awesome? Seriously one of best times I’ve ever had. And I did it with my dad which makes it more memorable and awesome. He had his Garmin watch with him so if you care to see what we did, click here.

A couple days later we got the official results.
I came in at 1hour 12 minutes. I think that is soooooooo awesome! And I came in 17th in my female age group of 25-29. That is probably the biggest age group in the race so that makes me super proud. And look, 339th overall. There are at least 3,000 people that run this race each weekend (it’s so big they have to spread it out over the entire month) so I am more than happy with my results. I freakin’ did it! And on top of everything else, I am so happy that I had a small fan club there to watch me. My husband, daughter, mom, gma, mom-in-law and 2 family friends were there to watch us. And the couple days leading up to the race, my husband was telling EVERYONE what I was doing. He won’t tell people, but he was super proud of me. So that makes this experience spondiferous!! (I had to use another word besides awesome and amazing).

Here’s my knees a couple days later. At the bottom of that last mud pit was just rocks and more rocks. My poor knees. Today I think they are finally done being scabby knees. I looked like a 12 year old for a couple weeks.

So okay, the craft part. It isn’t anything I crafted but you know from my other posts that I come from a crafty family.

My dad burned this for me and gave it to me after the race. Too cool! I also commissioned him to make me a shadow box with my bib and the dog tags we got for finishing. I will post those pics at some point.

Now let’s get to the magic part. I will try to make this quick since this blog is just getting longer and longer. First let me say that these last two-ish weeks have been different for me. Being a mom is my favorite thing. One thing that changes when you become a mom is that you no longer are the center of attention. EVERYTHING is about your kid. This has been an interesting time for me because it shifted back to me for a minute. We came here so I could do the race. It was all we have/had been talking about. And now this magic thing had turned back to me as well. So while I appreciate all of the spotlight, I’m ready to get home and get back to just being Mom.

So okay, the magic thing. One of our good friends, Derek, is a magician. He’s great. He is absolutely wonderful at magic. He is doing two shows (now one) at the San Diego County Fair this month. He is doing his usual stage magic and then he has an illusion set up for the finale. Well, his assistant ended up not working out and so I offered my services. Friday night I learned the trick, Saturday we practiced, and Sunday we performed. I am not going to say that I am the best, but I am pretty darn great to have learned and performed this no such short notice. I don’t have any photos of videos of US doing the trick, but I do have a link so you can see what it is. It’s called a Sub Trunk illusion. Derek is shackled and locked in the box. I get on top of the box, lift a curtain, the curtain comes down and Derek is on top of the box and I’m inside the locked box shackled. It’s pretty freaking sweet. Here’s the link to see it. It’s done a bit different but the illusion is the same. Fast forward to about 7:00 minutes. HERE!! We are going to be back at the fair Sunday the 23rd on the Showcase Stage around 6pm-ish if you happen to be in San Diego and read my blog. Maybe someone will take photos and video this time and I can share that.

So, 2700 words later and you know a little more about me and my life. I will be in San Diego until next week and then I will be back home and getting back into the crafting stuff. So if you aren’t interested in this stuff, hang tight, the art will return.

Happy Hump Day!!!!