There's a Disturbance in the Force

So I got Judy's quilt done and I'm pretty happy with it.  I had planned to do an all-over pattern of daisies, but realized that it was going to take a lot more effort than I had expected.  I decided to do an all-over pattern of leaves in the center instead, but did daisies in the outside border.

I got it off the frame and then put a quilt of Tara's on the frame that I started a long time ago.  It's way behind...like five years behind.  I started it before I had the long arm machine, and I had a variety of thread colors that I used on the blocks.  Unfortunately, most of those threads were used for other projects so I'm down to using light grey, dark grey, white, and whatever else I can find.  It's been a really big bear to work on since it's partially quilted and covered with pins, which I have to take out as I go, and then try to be creative with quilting around the various blocks.  It's taking FOREVER.  Sadly, I started this project before I started my business so I don't think I can charge for it.  Tara could treat me to dinner sometime, though...right?  Right, Tara?  Hello?

A couple days ago, someone sent me a link about a guy who lost a lot of weight doing yoga at home.  It's an interesting little YouTube video...and it's only a couple minutes long.  Take a look.  I'll wait here while you do.

Back?  Wasn't that amazing?  So I said, "Dang, if HE can do yoga, even incorrectly, *I* should give it a try!"  So, I get back on the amazing YouTube machine and find someone who does an introductory yoga video.  Unfortunately, it's only 10 minutes long, and only a portion of the whole thing, and I can't find the link now...not to worry, it was all sitting on a bath towel and breathing.  I could have messed around with finding all the other links to get the rest of the vid, but I decided to go my own way and find a web site with a few poses and beginner directions.  I found one on a reputable site at Fitness Magazine and it has 12 poses for beginners.  Or it says 12, but it's really 11.  I thought that was really weird.

(image stolen from the Fitness Magazine web site)

I work on these poses, trying to stand on one foot and stretching this way and that, trying to look like a warrior or a tree or a mountain...and it felt like I wasn't doing much.  It's probably more work than it feels like but other than my inflexibility, it was pretty easy.  I noticed an odd side effect--by the time I got to pose #5, I was feeling pretty gassy.  Must be doing something, I guess... ha ha ha!  Good thing I'm all alone in here!

The only one I really couldn't do was the seated twist (#7) where you cross your foot over your knee and twist yourself the opposite direction.  I've never been able to cross my legs comfortably so that position was pretty much impossible, but I gave it a shot.  Who knows, maybe in a year I'll be able to.

To make this extra hard, I was doing these poses while watching the Sounders game on TV, so instead of gazing longingly at the ceiling, I was watching Flacko make his first goal of the year and Eddie earn his paycheck (still kinda ticked about them trading Fucito and Nagle away, but Eddie usually tears his shirt off when he makes a goal...so I guess it's worth it).  It also helped me keep time for how long I should hold each pose, and got my heart rate up while they won (wooo-hoooo!).

I went to bed late feeling pretty good, but woke up this morning with a heck of a gut ache.  Not to go into any gory details, but I had to go to the bathroom several times before things calmed down.  I didn't feel very hungry, though, so I had some toast and tea, and didn't eat a real meal until dinnertime.  Out of curiosity, I went online to see if there was any relation to yoga and gastro-intestinal distress.  Here's what I found:

Gastric disturbances are very common side effects associated with yoga. Some persons may feel flatulence, changes in stool content, passing out of more gases, feeling acidic while practicing yoga etc. In yoga experts’ view these symptoms will occur in the initial stage of the exercises and will diminish with time and moreover these are good signs for your digestion process. Like when you are passing out more gases or your stool content is increased that means your gastric system was problematic and now the yoga exercises are fixing the problems. Feeling acidic while doing Yoga means that yoga has activated your digestion process and so the food which was not being digested before is now in the digesting phase while doing the exercises. 

Well, shit...

I think I found the 12th pose...