Day 36: Smile! and Day 37: breath

Last night Krista taught. Minimal inward bitching about the 6:30 time slot this time. It was a fairly small class, 7 people I think. The warm weather (74 yesterday) really keeps people away from the yoga studio. That was me last year--but not this year! I don't begrudge the time I'm spending in the studio, just helps me enjoy the sunshine that much more when I go back outside. :)

Anyway, it was a great practice, lots of fun. Krista put some music on with no words that I really like. She always says little things that make me smile, so I go into the next pose smiling and whaddaya know?! I have a great practice when I'm smiling. She's a really great teacher.

This morning, I did the 6:30 am class. I even got there early so I could stretch out. I can be really stiff in the mornings! I was the ONLY student, so Camille and I did silent practice together. She just called out "begin" at the beginning of a pose and "change" at the end. We also did some combinations where we went from one pose straight into another without a rest, then repeated the combination. (instead of: first set, rest. Second set, rest. Next pose first set, rest. etc.) The one I liked best was Fixed Firm into Half Tortoise into Camel into Rabbit. Repeat. I've been thinking about how those poses fit together so it was really fun to do them together. Camille says these combinations are from "the Advanced Series." Didn't know there was one! Anyway, I had a great practice. You have to teach yourself, remember what you've heard from your teachers, but in the silence, it's much easier to focus on your breath.

And now for the bad news. After class last night, as usual, I hopped into my car and gulped down my daily Revive Vitamin Water by Glaceau. At home, I started a load of laundry and prepared myself a typical gourmet dinner: Cheerios with skim milk. What followed was an episode that I'm sorry to say has begun to be quite typical for me in the evenings: large amounts of gas. Really bad gas. As in, my husband got home from the gym and started hypothesizing a rat had died in the wall type gas. Apparently he's noticed that Revive Vitamin Water has a similar effect on him. Since I have cereal with milk every morning to no ill effect, and I eat cheese and yogurt frequently to no ill effect, I find it unlikely I'm lactose intolerant. We had a conversation about it, and I have promised not to drink any more Vitamin Water, and see if these little episodes cease. I of course hope they do, and I'd rather give up this sports drink than lactose, ye gods, but oh. It is so very tasty. I have really conditioned myself to this fix after yoga! I have looked on the internet and haven't found any other commentary on the gas, although it turns out it's not very healthy--26g of sugar in a bottle. I knew it tasted like sugar water anyway, that it was really just Gatorade, and that the nutritional value was minimal. Suggestions about alternative post-yoga beverages are welcome. I haven't been much into Gatorade since they discontinued the Lemon Ice flavor. I also know some yoga practitioners like Emergen-C packets in water--Darcy recommended I take some to training with me. On the way to work this morning I was drinking PLAIN ol' Seattle tap water and I could smell the chlorine. Not necessarily a bad thing. The tap water where I grew up was chock full of chlorine and fluoride and I LOVED it!

I'll close today with the ingredients of Revive VitaminWater, as a sort of requiem. If you have any bright ideas which of them causes the gas, I'd be interested to know!

vapor distilled/deionized water
crystalline fructose
natural flavor
citric acid
monopotassium phosphate (electrolyte)
dipotassium phosphate (electrolyte)
ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
fruit and vegetable juice (color)
magnesium lactate (electrolyte)
calcium lactate (electrolyte)
gum acacia
niacin (B3)
ester gum
pantothenic acid (B5)
pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6)
cyanocobalamin (B12)