Trying Some New…. and My Friday Faves and Raves

This week has been all about the NEW and DIFFERENT for me…




New yoga workouts… We are really loving these ‘Dummies’ DVDS.  Beyond Basic Yoga teaches 11 poses that are slightly more advanced than those on the orginal Basic Yoga DVD, and repeats Corpse Pose. It is just the right pace for beginners like us and takes about 50 minutes to perform.    Yoga Weight-Loss Workout for Dummies is a bit faster paced. There is a 20 minute standing session and a 15 minute mat session. I was surprised how sweaty I got doing this DVD and also how great The Captain’s BOAT pose was. Not me! But I really enjoyed it.

The book, The Easy Yoga Workbook, is a good read. Lots of information about the basic poses and some good tips for doing them.

My latest breakfast obsession…  A bowl of lots of goodies such as berries, banana, nut milk, protein powder, pumpkin seeds, flax, chia, hemp.  Love it.  Who needs eggs?

This Peppermint, Ginger, and Fennel Herbal Tea by President’s Choice…. we have been really enjoying this new tea after dinner.  We normally have a couple of cups of herbal or decaf tea after dinner and then later in the evening I will have a cup of coffee so that I do not wake up with a NEED CAFFEINE NOW headache.  I love this tea.  I am a newcomer to Peppermint Tea and this one has a very peppery aftertaste…. is it the fennel?

I won these neon green Swiftwick socks in a giveaway a while back and just tried running in them for the first time this week.  The package says they are the best running socks you will ever wear. I think they may be right!  They were soaked with sweat when I took them off after my run… my feet were dry, so the wicking certainly works… and they didn’t smell bad either.  Great socks!

And we ran a new 6.65 km route, too. That is just about  4.15  miles, I think.  

And I tried something new in the kitchen this week… I had a clump of dry, hardened brown sugar that I thought I was going to have to toss out.  It was about 2 cups worth.  I googled  how to soften sugar and found some advice that suggested putting a slice of bread into a sealed container along with the sugar for several hours. So I tried it… I put a wee slice of frozen g-f bread into a plastic storage container along with the the sugar, and by the time the bread piece was thawed, that sugar was soft and usable.  Hurray.  Now the trick is to find out how to store it so it doesn’t go hard in the first place.

I read some very helpful and informative blog posts this week:

• Do you have the Over Fixing Syndrome? at Cotter Crunch
• Favorite Squat Variations at Fitknitchick
• The ART of Finding the Right Running Shoe  at Run to the Finish
• The "I Don't Want to Work Out But I Know I Need to" Workout Solution  by Nia Shanks

Anything new with you this week?

Did you read a good blog post I might have missed?