Wherein the procrastinator finally posts

I had a great New Year’s post! It was clever and even had some photos! I spent a long time working on it. Guess what? I didn’t finish it. Then it was New Year’s and now New Year’s is over and the post is irrelevant.

So now I’m back. I don’t have anything earth shattering to talk about or share. But I’m tired of my procrastinating, perfectionist ways so I’M POSTING ANYWAY, DAMMIT.

Ahem.

Okay, I lied. I do have three things to share. None of them really have anything to do with the other, but nonetheless:

1) I found the best natural deodorant in the world!! This also had its own post, long unfinished, of course, but you don’t need the backstory! It’s a standalone, awesome thing! Suffice it to say, I tried many, many, brands of natural deoderant. Some of them were better than others. Some of them, at the end of the day, would leave you with lavender-scented BO. Mostly, they just leave you with BO, the main difference being if the BO started at 11 AM or 3 PM. I hate being smelly! As an active person, I needed something that could keep up. And everything I tried fell on its sweaty, smelly face. Until Truly’s.

*cue herald of angels singing

This stuff! This stuff works! Yeah, it’s weird smearing the stuff on you or armpits at first, but you get over it. Find it here. Do it now.

2) Infrared yoga class. I tried this tonight for the first time. I was a little dubious, I will admit. There are a number of very crunchy health claims about the power of this heat (clean heat, detoxifies you, fountain of youth, yadda yadda). I can attest to this: it rules. If you’ve ever taken a traditional hot yoga class, this is very similar but without all the smells and the humidity. If you have access, get on that ish.

3) Frankincense oil. I got this stuff in my little essential oil starter kit. I read that it was great to use on your face. Anti-aging and all that miracle stuff. I thought, “If it’s good enough for baby Jesus, it’s good enough for me!” And oh, my. I got hooked on the stuff. I slathered it on every night. It smells a little funny, but I got right over that.

One day, I went to tip my little bottle and lo! It was empty! I skipped to the website to reorder it, and nearly shat myself.

It was a heart-stopping $75!! For a tiny, little 0.5 oz bottle!!

Before I go any further, let me tell you: there are oily purists out there and I am not trying to discredit them. I do agree that higher-quality oils are a better product. However, for $75 for a 0.5 oz bottle, you’d have to convince me that this product was being sourced from infant tears on the lip of an erupting volcano in deep Nicaragua. (Then I’d say, “What! Who would do that to an infant?! Away, you deviant!!” Of course. Also, $75 is STILL too much for that stuff.)

So I found an off-brand. Something that’s mixed with jojoba oil. And guess what? (Cover your eyes, oil purists!)

It’s rad. And for a whopping $4.99 for a bottle, it doesn’t hurt my feelings.

That’s it! That’s all I got! Happy New Year from this ace procrastinator!

Oh! The horror!!!

I’m a new vegetarian, for the most part. In the past, I’ve gone back and forth and even experimented with going vegan. This time, I’m sticking to it. And to my surprise (and horror), it’s caused a bit of a problem.

When I first got back from India, my life almost instantly turned upside down. I went through a depressing breakup, and decided to take the opportunity to move back to Kentucky (a move I had been contemplating for a while). Needless to say, I was under a great deal of stress. So when I noticed my hair dropping at a higher-than-normal rate, I initially attributed it to stress and shrugged it off.

After I moved though, and got settled in, and my hair was STILL falling out at what was now an alarming rate, I did what any normal person would do: I freaked out. Majorly freaked out.

When I finally worked up the nerve to consult the Oracle of Google, I made a discovery that would make a seasoned vegetarian shake their head:  I hadn’t been taking any supplements, ergo hadn’t been getting enough nutrients! D’oh! 

I hastened to the nearest health food store and stocked up on supplements. I now take a B-Complex (for the B-12 I miss by not eating meat), a mineral (for the zinc and iron), a Biotin (supposed to be good for hair and nails!), and a Neem (this is an ayruvedic supplement that’s good for the skin) tablet every day. It will probably take a couple of weeks for all of it to kick in, but the important thing, psychologically anyway, is feeling like I’m taking control.

Laugh away, seasoned vegetarians! Also, if you have any suggestions, feel free to comment!

 

Say hello to my little friends!

A word about the word…

Inspirational image! Imagine a gong or some chanting or something to go with it!

The word “yogi”, that is. By no means am I actually a yogi. I can imagine my Indian teachers shaking their heads at the silly American throwing that word around willy-nilly. What I actually mean is closer to “The Skeptical Sadhak”, but it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. Even “sadhak”, or spiritual seeker, would be a bit of a stretch. To trot out an old cliche, I think the best place to start is in the beginning:

I just spent two months in India studying yoga. I fulfilled a 15 year old dream of getting my 200 hour yoga teacher training certificate and am now ready to unleash myself upon the unsupecting denizens of the NYC yoga scene (if there is, in fact, a yoga “scene” – although, in NYC there are “scenes” for everyone from drag queens to young Republicans, so it’s a safe bet). I’m not really much of a “scene” kind of person, so this will be a bit of an adventure for me.

The purpose of this blog is to have a forum to explore the things that interest me, and share my findings with other people. In India, I learned a lot about holistic living that intrigued me. I also learned a lot about chakras, which I’m not convinced actually exist. I learned about ayuruvedic medicine, which fed into my slight obsession with natural beauty products. I also learned about yogis who can (allegedly!!) make their hearts stop through meditation.

I walked away from India with more questions than answers, and it’s my hope to get to the bottom of some of these, and to share what I learn on this site. I’m eager to get back to Brooklyn and get started! As my interests are quite broad (anything in the “natural health and fitness” category), and my appetite for new experiences never seems to be satisfied, this should be quite an interesting ride.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be joining my friend’s hoola hooping club (it’s for adults and I’m 99% sure there’s nothing pervy about it), looking for yoga teaching jobs, and conducting some mad scientist beauty experiments from my Brooklyn laboratory (read: home). And I’ll be posting about everything, so check back from time to time!

For now, namaste, y’all! I’m headed home!

-SY

12.7.12 Helsinki, Finland