...Spring is Here!!

                                        Time for Renewal, Refresh &Regrowth!!
A long time since last post and a lot has happened since last July...some great stuff and some not so great stuff.  Let's get the sensitive stuff out there right away....my father was diagnosed with a large tumour in his bowel last October and it is so big they can not operate.  He spent a month in the hospital and is home now with my Mom looking after him.  He is on chemo pills and just this week started radiation to try to shrink it some. He is such a strong, handsome man it has been really hard watching him suffering and wasting away.  Every family goes through it's struggles and we have been one lucky family right up to now, so hopefully he can continue on with some quality of life for a while but I do not want to selfishly watch him suffer and waste away to nothing, so when God and him are ready...I will deal with it.  Now to tie that into this blog called Yoga Dancer, here is the deal.  Dad decided that he would like to give his children a gift while he can still enjoy their reaction, so in February he gave both my brothers and myself a $5,000 cheque each to do whatever we wanted to do with it.  Well, that doesn't happen very often...to me anyway.  My father and my mother have both worked very hard all their lives for anything that they have, so I know how hard Dad had worked and made many sacrificies himself to save that much, so it makes it even that much more special to us.  Think about what it would be like if someone gave you a cheque and told you that it was just for you to do what ever you wanted to do with it...no strings attached.  My first reaction was to put it on a credit card bill or towards my son's tuition or my other son's student loan or a hundred other good causes but then I really thought about it....what would be more fitting than taking Dad's gift and spending it on the Yoga Dance Teacher Training.  He is giving me the opportunity to do what I have wanted to do for the last couple of years and better still...every time I dance, I will be thinking of him...perfect!!  My youngest graduates High School in June of this year and is off to University in the fall, so I am planning on registering for the Fall training at Kripalu.  I just have to figure out how to get there and back and I'm all set.  The Toronto training which I was planning on attending didn't work out because the dates run into the time that my daughter would be moving to University for her first year and I have to be there.  I was there for my both of my boys move to Campus so there is no way I would miss my daughter's move.  It didn't work out for TO but I am actually more excited to be going to Kripalu because I fell in love with the place when we were there on the Goddess Bootcamp. Kripalu is where I was introduced to YogaDance and I really wanted to take the training where I was totally immersed in it for the whole time...no outside world to deal with....Kripalu is the perfect place.
To bring this up to date and go forward, I am still taking Belly Dance classes at Natural Moves Yoga and Belly Dance School.  Actually my daughter and I are still taking 2 hours of classes on Monday nights.  My sister-in-law and neice decided last year that it was not for them, so they stopped going but I was so happy that my daughter really likes it and wanted to stick with it.  I had to give up the Tribal as the schedule just didn't mash with mine and I had too much on my plate and was starting to not enjoy it.  My whole point of this is to enjoy things, to feel good and when it started stressing me out I knew I had to make a change.  I think I just got so excited about things, I wanted try everything.  I needed to take a step back and focus on what I wanted.....and that is to be a Yoga Dancer.
I am still doing yoga every morning and going to Amana Institute for classes.  I am still going to Pilates at Rothesay Ballet School and although I can't attend the Monday class because of Dance, I go on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings.  I am still trying to get to the gym..Goodlife..at least 2-3  noon hours a week for either the weight circuit or one of the machines.   I am going to step things up once this long Easter Weekend of eating chocolate and great meals is over.  I am going to put a push on to feel really good by my May 23rd Birthday.  The one thing I am going to really focus on is portion control.  I am not going to deny myself anything as I don't believe that works...not for me anyway.
Here are five short term goals:
1- Yoga every day & Continue with other work outs, but work out like you mean it.....feel it!!
2- Portion Control - don't deny yourself but be aware of what you are putting in your mouth and the amount.
3- Be honest - if you are picking at the meal as you are cooking it, be aware of how much.
4- Practice dance outside of class- memorize the choreography for both the Pot Dance & Nawal's Dance.
5- Try to get to at least one Body Flow class at Goodlife each week.