Days 151-153: Saving Sunlight

Day 151:  On Saturday morning my gal pal, Jenny, and I went to Kindness Yoga in Cherry Creek for a “kinda hot” yoga class.  Thirty minutes into the class the instructor asked me if I had ever practiced that type of yoga before (I have, lots of times), after that, my ego clouded my mind with thoughts of doubt in my practice.  I have been practicing yoga for two years and my ego felt defeated.  I had to hold back my thoughts and remind myself that yoga is not about skill level, it’s about being able to quiet my mind and look deeper inside.    Realllllll deep….. 🙂

Day 152: Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of a horrific event that shook my life, the lives of my friends, co-workers and a close-knit community.  There were feelings of extreme sadness, fear, doubt, bewilderment and every other emotion on the spectrum.  March 11th would now be marked as a day that changed the lives of many loved ones and my own self.

I walked two miles into lululemon and thought about all of the emotions that I felt one year ago.  The fear rushed back into my body quicker than I imagined, but it was replaced with a sense of peace in knowing that this year has come to a close.  Regardless of the closure, there is no manual on how one should feel when going through a traumatic event.  The feelings still overwhelm me to think about, so I tackle them one by one…at an incredibly slow and manageable pace.

So how did I sweat on that dreadful one year mark?  I practiced yoga with six other lululemons and with an outstanding instructor, Roger Martin-Pressman.  Roger talked about daylight savings and the theme of our class was how to “save sunlight” in our lives.  It seemed incredibly fitting, seeing as how last year it felt like sunlight was briefly taken away.  He said that in order to bring light into our lives we have to be able to embrace the dark.  Embrace the dark- sometimes that’s incredibly hard to do.  Without the dark, the sun wouldn’t be so welcomed and spectacular.  Although there are some things that take place in life that we will never understand, I can find peace in loving the light and knowing that beautiful souls in heaven contribute to the light the warm our lives.

Day 153:  Today Mike and I skied in Keystone for two hours in the morning and then came back to the hot sunny Denver and hopped on our road bikes for ten miles.  Ski boots + riding shoes (in the same day) =  #coloradorocksmyworld.

Days 119 & 120: All For The Pudding

Last week I signed up for a week-long bootcamp at Tran’s Fitness.  What this bootcamp entails is going to one class everyday for a week at this studio and riding my diet of sugar, alcohol and bad carbs.  Yesterday was day one of the bootcamp and I went to my first ever “tread training” class.  It was high intensity treadmill work with various interval weight training.  Are you confused?  I was too at first.   After I got it down, I was able to concentrate on my intensity and try to calm my thoughts of how sore I would be the next day.

As for my diet on day one?  It was a success, no sweets, carbs or alcohol.  In all fairness, the alcohol thing is easy for me…it’s the sugar withdraw that really makes me shake.

Day 120:  FOUR MONTHS DOWN, eight to go!   Staying focused on how much I have already achieved makes the upcoming eight months seem a lot easier.   1/3 of the way through and I still feel great, in fact, I feel better about a lot of things in my life than when I started (which I was not sure would be the case at the beginning).  Today Mike and I drove up to Keystone and skied for a little over two hours.  It was all that my body could muster up in 8 degree weather.  For those of you that do not ski that often, I would just like to throw in a gentle reminder that it was 8 degrees before adding in the wind that you feel while going 20 mph* down a mountain.   Mike and I split-up before we started so that we could both concentrate on our own skill level of skiing/boarding.  It ended up being a good thing because I think he would have left me in mountains if he heard me say “my face is freezing” as many times as I was thinking it.

And an update on the diet today?  Welllllll, just one hiccup.  We went to my favorite deli in Dillon and they had gluten-free bread pudding (my willpower did not stand a chance!).  Mike and I split a piece of that sans-wheat-heaven without any guilt.  I wish I could say I feel bad, but I don’t.   Primarily because I didn’t think twice about my new sugar limitation, but also because I do not allow what I eat to make me feel anything other than what it is.  That was a piece of happiness, that made my day a little sweeter than before….and that’s all.

Sidenote:  If you happened to notice that we did not make it to day #2 of the bootcamp then I will explain why:  we wanted to ski and it was the only day in the foreseeable future that we could.  Sorry bootcamp, the mountain air always wins in my book!

*I have no clue if I ski that fast.  I just thought it sounded really, really badass.

Day 106: Together, We Ski

Mike and I woke up this early this morning to head up to Keystone Mountain for his first time boarding in nine years. I have to admit, I was pretty nervous that the majority of the day was going to be spent on the bunny hill.  Thankfully, that is not what happened. 

He took one run down the bunny hill, then we went down a 3.5 mile green run and from there we headed to the back of Dercum Mountain for his first blue run of the day.  We hung out back there for a few runs and then made our way back to the front.  Everything Michael does impresses my socks off, but today he impressed my ski boots off- and that’s hard to do!  Nine years away from the slopes and he was tearing it up.  No more magic carpet bunny hills for him (thank goodness!).  Soon enough we will be perusing blacks together with no problem at all.  If only I could figure out the right way to tackle bumps…

Days 75 & 76: Merry Christmas!

“This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone.” – Taylor Caldwell

Day 75:  On day 75, aka Christmas Eve, I went to Pura Vida gym and squeezed in as much intense cardio that I could in one hour.  I started out running for 30 minutes, then switched to the big stair-stepper machine for 15 minutes and ended out the hour with 15 minutes of bicycling.  I was a hot sweaty mess afterwards.  I definitely had to squeeze in a nice shower before the evenings candlelight service

Before the church service started the Pastor came up and asked me what the best part of my day was and I immediately got tears in my eyes and said, “skyping with my fiance.”  He just put his hand on my shoulder and told me a joke.  Next he shook my hand and said, “my name is Michael.”  Of course I already knew his name, but the way that he said it made me smile with all my heart and made me feel like my Michael was right next to me for the next hour.  At one point I imagined him whispering something funny in my ear to make me laugh.  Even though I was physically alone last night and today, I could feel all the love in my life to the point where I was overfilled with gratitude.

Day 76:  On a sentimental holiday I like to treat myself to lots of sentiment.  Of course I chose to go skiing at my favorite mountain, Keystone Resort.  Only 38% of the mountain is open to ski right now, which made me a little apprehensive to make the 75 minute trek up.  However, it ended up being more than worth it.  My skis were happy to find fresh powder in a few spots, nicely groomed trails in others and loads of happy skiers ready to chat about anything.  I skied for three hours and called it quits once I felt my thighs quiver on my last run.

Although I was not quite sure if I would love skiing on Christmas day, I may have stumbled upon a new tradition.  Hopefully in the years to come I will have hoards of family and friends with me to celebrate after a day on the slopes!

Merry Christmas everyone!  *As a side note, I am really hoping that my fiance (in the scuba diving picture above) knows how to spell my name and that “Besty” is just a fun play on words!*

Day 63: Home Again

Everyone has a place where they go to get recharged.  My place is in the heart of the mountains, primarily Keystone.  I lived there for two years out of college and it was a good experience, but not great.  I still cannot pinpoint why this is my place of peace, yet I am drawn there when my soul needs some extra happiness.

You can get to Keystone two ways;  by taking 70 West to Silverthorne and then cutting through Dillon or by taking Loveland Pass.  When I lived there four years ago I was terrified of taking Loveland Pass.  It’s huge, cliff like, icy and filled with  hitch-hikers wanting a ride to the top of the Pass (to ski/board down).  Today, I chose fear and took the high road because I was in need of having my breath taken away from me because of something so naturally beautiful.

I skied Keystone’s barely there snow for two and a half hours today.  I even made it a point not to wear my headphones while taking the chairs/gondola and strike up conversations with my fellows skiers.  Lately I have noticed that the more chatty I am with strangers, the happier I feel, even if the talk is minimal

Here is a list of what I learned from my fellow ski-goers:

• I learned that when Polish men say “bear” it sounds like “beer” and that makes for an awkward conversation.
• Two bro-brahs that smell like weed will in fact light up a joint every time they ride up with me (without fail).
•  That when you love your high school sweetheart you should marry them.  This came from a man who never stopped loving his and reunited with her at their 40th high school reunion.  Thanks for the tip, don’t mind if I do!
• The same bro’s judge whether you’re cool (aka they can smoke next to you on a lift) based off of what your goggles look like.  Note to self: buy the world’s dorkiest goggles
• Lots of Hoosiers fans live in the high country.  By the way, who isn’t a Hoosier fan right now!?
•  The Continental Divide (that’s located close to the mountain) brings in a lot of wind which unfortunately makes a lot of snowstorms miss Keystone Mountain (I don’t know if this is true, but the man seemed smart so I thought I should pass this along).

After my soul was drenched in mountain love I met up with an old friend who reminded me simply that, “as long as you’re having fun in life, then you’re winning.”  Continuing on my high from my friendly meetup and my day of winning, I headed to my favorite bakery in Silverthorne, Blue Moon.  I ordered my old favorite belly-busting jalapeno bagel with jalapeno cream cheese and happily ate while driving back down to Denver and into my improved and lovely life.