Posts Tagged ‘Nia San Jose’
Posted by terrepruitt on July 30, 2009
I love these. At first I was disappointed because you can’t actually see the colors, but I looked at them again, and, I like them.
Look, you can see the tiny feet.
He’s not landing because he keeps getting chased off.
Their little feet are so cute!
I always think that we are so lucky because in San Jose, California, we get to see them for a long period during the year. And we have about eight. My friend just posted on FaceBook that she has too many to count. She has to fill her feeders twice a day. We have six feeders and we don’t fill them that much. When it is hot, it works out to maybe twice a week, but when it is cooler they don’t drink at much.
Posted in Birds | Tagged: Facebook Hummingbirds, Hummingbird Silhouettes, Hummingbirds, Nia, Nia San Jose, San Jose Hummingbirds, San Jose Nia, San Jose Workout, Silhouettes | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 28, 2009
I love coffee. I am not a connoisseur, but I love it. In the August 2009 copy of Self they touted that coffee has some amazing benefits.
The article, well, it is not so much an article as a few pages filled with pictures and facts, has one statement that says that if you want the healthiest coffee you should stick to the home brewed kind because the paper filters catch coffee compounds that can raise cholesterol.
Here are some highlights from that article. The information suggests that coffee MAY:
- assist in the prevention of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
- help your teeth with its “antibacterial and antiadhesive powers”
- reduce the risk of oral cancer by half
- help in limited cancer cell growth and DNA damage
- reduce the risk of breast cancer (in premenopausal women that drink 4 cups of regular coffee a day)
- help prevent gallstones
- reduce risk of nonmelanoma
- reduce chances of diabetes for people who drink 3 to 4 cups of regular or decaf
Information also states that drinking from 300 mg (3 cups of home brew) to 500 mg (16 oz Starbucks Pike Place Roast) in an hour could possibly make you panicky, increase stress hormones, and raise blood pressure.
Way surprising to me, it says that a shot of espresso “has less caffeine than a cup of drip does. Plus, one downside of espresso is that it may raise cholesterol.”
It also suggests to eat your cereal and dairy later, after your coffee because coffee might block the absorption of iron from fortified grains and could lower calcium uptake.
The pages reveal, along with a lot of other publications I’ve been seeing recently, that coffee helps you get through your workout. Not only does it give you a zing, it seems to block your brain from knowing your muscles are tired.
Those are just some highlights that somewhat focus on the health benefits.
Even though I teach my morning Nia classes in Willow Glen not too far from where I live, so I don’t have to get up super early, I still think I have more energy in the morning when I drink coffee. I don’t have any before I teach my evening class in San Jose, nor my late afternoon one in Los Gatos. But I feel like I need that extra “wake-up” in the morning. Do you drink coffee before your workout?
Posted in Food | Tagged: Alzheimer's, breast cancer, cholesterol, Coffee, health benefits, Los Gatos Nia, Los Gatos Workouts, Muscles, Nia Classes, Nia San Jose, Parkinsons’s, San Jose Starbucks, San Jose workouts, Self Magazine, Starbucks, Willow Glen Nia, Willow Glen workouts, workout classes | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 16, 2009
Are you bold enough? Are you secure enough? Do you have it in you? Can you admit to what you THOUGHT the lyrics were?
Well, here are a few I can share—whether they were from me or not, I won’t tell—hey, maybe I won’t tell. Let’s make this post twofold.
1–share with me some lyrics you had wrong (or that a friend of yours had wrong or that someone you know of had wrong.)
2–guess what songs these are:
A–In the Garden of Eden
B–Our Love Is Japanese
C–Painted Glove (oh, c’mon, that one is way easy)
Its too hot here in San Jose, California. I know this will work out, right? Care to play?
Posted in Entertainment, Misc | Tagged: Garden of Eden, love, Love is Japanese, Lyrics, Nia play, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Painted Glove, San Jose, San Jose Workout | 32 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 30, 2009
Where is it written that you have to walk into a workout class or a dance class and know every step? Can you point me to that grand writing? No. It doesn’t exist. Nowhere is it written that you walk in and know the steps or even that you know them after the first workout or the first class. But we still think that we should “get it” right away. Almost immediately we pull out labels like awkward and uncoordinated. Not often do we stop to give ourselves a break. Did we not have to learn how to walk, why is it that we think we must know how to move or dance?
I bring this up because I keep having this brought up to me. People say they feel like a klutz or that they have two left feet. Well, this could all be true as a feeling of what they feel, but how are they ever going to get over it?
With Nia (one of) the point(s) is to move how you need to move that day, in that class, in that moment. NOT to move exactly like the teacher or like the other students, or to be perfect or workout like it is a performance. It is to move how your body needs to move. It is to stop judging HOW you are moving and just MOVE. Yes, there are steps, there is a routine, most of the time you are doing guided movements, but you aren’t expected to know them and do them perfect. And even if you do know them, sometimes you might need to adjust them.
I understand that there is a desire to do it right, but with Nia™ we really take that saying “If you stumble make it part of your dance” to heart. No one is perfect, we are not expecting the routine to be done perfect. We are expecting respecting, respecting your body and your heart. You move, you mess up, you forgive yourself, you keep moving. It is not because you are awkward or uncoordinated no labels, take the next step. Come to class, learn, practice. Once you get the moves down then the fun really begins because then you can play with the move making it big or small fast or slow do it with ease or make it dynamic.
But you have to start at the beginning.
Honest? Want me to be honest here? After I get the gist of the routine down, I stop watching the training DVD. I refer back to it when I get stuck or want to refresh my memory or “tighten it up”. But I don’t practice to it. I don’t move like Debbie or Carlos*. I can’t concentrate on my music and the movements when I try. I have to turn them off and tune them out and concentrate on me and my workout. I have to listen to the music and sense when I am supposed to cue. I can’t learn what my body needs and get the work out I need if I am trying to do it exactly like them. I am not them. I am me. I have to pay attention to what I can do especially since what I can do in my living room is entirely different then what I can do when I teach. I have to make certain I practice the different levels so I have a chance to show them in class. When I workout to the DVD, I don’t practice level one, I am trying to keep up with Debbie.
So what I am saying is give yourself a break. We cannot all move the same. So we need to practice quieting our inner dialog that tells us we have to do it like whomever, and just do it like our body needs. It probably won’t be perfect because we are not perfect. We are there to move and improve and enjoy. So are you ready to give yourself a break and just move?
My schedule of classes in San Jose and Los Gatos.
*Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas, the people that have brought us Nia.
Posted in Exercise and Working Out, Nia | Tagged: Carlos Rosas, Debbie Rosas, Los Gatos Workout, Los Gatos Workout class, Nia, Nia San Jose, San Jose Nia, San Jose performance, San Jose Workout, San Jose Workout class, workout, workout class | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 20, 2009
I am not a Twitter expert. But . . . I have picked up a few things from a lot of people who could be considered experts. Plus I have picked up some things from just doing it.
Recently I have connected with a bunch of wonderful people who have less time than I do to spend learning about this. So, I am going to share a few things that I have learned so that I can just point them at this blog instead of typing it all out individually (on my iPhone, mind you). Now, here is the catch, this is my opinion and my perception of how it works. If you have a different opinion or you know that it works differently please kindly share. That would be very appreciated and helpful.
For my friends, here is my advice:
-Put a picture up. Anything, doesn’t have to be you if you don’t want, but don’t leave that twitter box up. That is not good. I actually have to be really convinced to follow people that have that (or I have to know them personally and understand that they just haven’t gotten around to putting a picture up).
-Fill out your bio. Put something there. If you are Nia person, tell them about Nia, if you can’t think of anything else. If you have to, read OTHER people’s bios to get ideas. I have followed people just because their bio has made me laugh. Make up something funny. List your likes or dislikes, list what you will be tweeting about, share that you like to work out, share that you loathe exercise . . . .who cares what you write, just put something there.
-Put your web address up. C’mon, you have a website because you want people to go to it. Put it out there. MAKE SURE YOUR LINK WORKS! (Ya, that is a big deal.)
-Tweet. Oh my, this is the most difficult thing, but the most important. I am still challenged by it. But do it. If you are like me it is kind of intimidating. If you are following some major people (like I am, and I mean “major” as in they are “celebs” on Twitter) their useful information can make me wonder, “What do I have to add?” So I started by retweeting other people’s stuff. Then people would retweet my tweets and start talking to me. And then I would think of something to share and bam . . . . so it goes. I still retweet a lot because there is a lot of good stuff out there that I like to share, but I also share my own stuff. I also like to tweet about stuff happening in the area of San Jose (Willow Glen) in which I teach classes.
The following is easier said than done: don’t worry so much (I still do, sometimes, but I try not to). The people that you want following you are the ones that want to see what you have to say. Right? So say what you want and you will get people following you. People will come and people will go. That’s ok.
Ok, I will continue this on Tuesday because right now, my word counter is saying that I am way over my self-imposed word limit. Tuesday I will tell you what I understand about @, RT, and DM. And of course, if you don’t want to wait, I am sure you can find all of this information out there somewhere else.
Posted in Twitter | Tagged: @, Direct Message, DM, iphone, Nia, Nia Classes, Nia San Jose, retweet, RT, San Jose exercise, San Jose Nia, San Jose Nia classes, San Jose work out, teach Nia, Twitter, Twitter Celebs, Willow Glen Nia, Willow Glen Workout | 14 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on May 30, 2009
In Nia (TM) our movement is for Joy. “Joy is not a technique or a choreographic method. It is an attitude toward the body and toward life. Joy is not just for when things in like are going well. It is an open accepting energy that accepts whatever comes its way.” (1) This is Universal Joy.
So we choose during our workouts to sense Joy and to seek the Joy of Movement. Throughout our routine we seek to sustain that Universal Joy. If we are able, we actually increase it. When we lose it or if we are doing a move that causes it to faulter, we tweak.
I think these can be applied to life. That is what I love about Nia. We have all these thoughts and ideas that we apply to our workouts, but they aren’t necessarily new and they can applied to life.
When you are doing something that gives you joy don’t you want to keep doing it? When you have joy don’t you want to increase it? When you start to lose it don’t you do something to tweak it and bring it back?
That is what we do throughout our work out. We are using our bodies to seek the sensation of Joy and if we find it and we can increase it, we do. If we start to lose it we can tweak it. Our workouts are about one’s own body and how it feels. So while you are following the teacher you are also paying close attention to yourself and making sure that you are sensing the Joy of Movement.
This is one of the things that makes Nia such a different workout. We are actually “sustaining, increasing, and tweaking” the entire time. Universal Joy. Allowing our bodies to move for pure pleasure. Doesn’t that sound like something you want to do?
(I have added an Evening class to my schedule. Teaching in San Jose (Willow Glen) three times a week; two AM classes and one evening class. Teaching at a member only club in Los Gatos in the evening once a week. Check out my Nia Class schedule on my site, HelpYouWell.com)
(1) From The Nia Technique – White Belt Manual March 2001, V3 page 2-4
Posted in Nia | Tagged: joy, Joy of Movement, Los Gatos Club, Los Gatos Nia, Nia, Nia Los Gatos, Nia San Jose, Nia Technique, pleasure, San Jose Nia, San Jose Workout, Universal Joy, White Belt, Willow Glen Nia, Willow Glen Workout, workout | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on May 23, 2009
I had been thinking about getting some henna decoration around my ankles or on the lower legs. I was thinking that would be cool since people tend to look at my feet a lot since I am a group exercise instructor teaching Nia. I had been looking for an artisit in San jose. But, then I saw pictures from a Yelp Event and there had been a Henna Artist there doing tattoos. These were the first tattoos I had seen that had sparkles and glitter on them. Ooooooo, now we are talking!
So I contacted her and started learning a bit about Henna and Henna Tattoos. First of all when the henna is applied and it is like puff paint, it is raised and thick and initially wet. So the glitter is applied when it is wet and I imagine this is done when one is at an event or a party, because then it looks extra pretty. As the Henna dries it starts to flake off and if you have glitter that will probably flake off too.
As I was looking at Henna and Beyond website I read that it is believed that putting henna on the skin started out as a way to cool people in the desert, “When the desert people of Rajasthan, Punjab, and Gujarat became aware of Henna’s cooling properties, they dipped their hands and feet in a mud or paste made with the crushed leaves of the plant. Even when the mud was scraped off, they noticed, as long as the color remained visible, their body temperatures stayed low.” This really fascinated me. I know so many women who, if this is true, might want to try Henna tattoos. If this works for some people think of how we could save on electricity during heat waves.
I went to Rachna of Henna and Beyond and had some art work done. One of the things you can do to help achieve a dark stain is to put oil or tiger balm on it. Well, I tried both—sort of. I put oil on it, but it was so light that I was afraid that wasn’t helping so I turned to some “hot sauce” that my hubby had made during his Jujitsu days.
Now I don’t know if the Hot sauce or the henna is making me cold, but it is a perfect temperature in my house and I have socks on and I just drank tea. I have not yet washed the hot sauce off, although I am sure there is not much on after sleeping, because I am still in the 24-hours-without-water-period that you wait in order to assist the Henna color to last. I am really thinking that the Henna does have cooling properties. It could be that it does for me because I have that in my head, I don’t know, but it is fascinating.
I like my decorations. I have learned a bit from this first time. Next time I will get the decoration a little higher and not on the foot. I want it on areas that move less so the flaking isn’t so bad with every movement. But hopefully I have weeks before I need to think about that. The tattoos will hopefully last two weeks. I invite you to try it and let me know if it cools your body temperature down. I would love to hear.
Posted in Just stuff | Tagged: 24 hours, exercise, group exercise, Henna, Henna and Beyond, henna decoration, Henna Tattoos, Jujitsu, Nia, Nia San Jose, San Jose exercise, San Jose Nia | 7 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on May 21, 2009
This morning as I was trying to figure out what to write about, it dawned on me that I wasn’t practicing what I was preaching about being true to myself.
I was trying to decide what to write. I want to write stuff that people will read. I am worried about people not reading it. I am worried that they won’t like it. I am worried that I am not following my own self initiated schedule of healthful on Tuesdays and Saturdays with Thursdays less in that realm. Because of all my worries I couldn’t think of what to write, I felt as if my thoughts were twisted like the most twisty Yoga pose. Then it hit me, my real intent of all of this, my blog is somewhat like a mini resume.
When people ask me about their resume or they share that they are confused because they don’t know what to put on it because they hear this and they hear that, I ALWAYS tell them to follow their heart and write a resume they would like. Some of who they are needs to be in that resume because they want to be happy at their new job. The person that is going to hire them and the place where they will fit the best will be the person that likes the resume at the company that accepts it. So if you put a little of yourself in it, then it should all work out.
So with my social media stuff I need to think the same way. I am tweeting so people will see me, and learn from me and want to train and workout with me. When I retweet something, it is something I like, so that is showing a little bit of me. Twitter is different for everyone, we all have different reasons for being there, so if you don’t like the tweets you are seeing don’t follow. I follow to learn and network, so I won’t follow you if I see tweets I don’t like. That is Twitter.
For me Facebook is more personal. I am not “friending” everyone because I like to be less business-y there. Although I do post a lot of stuff about Nia, that is just because I am practicing it and I like the way it makes me feel so I want to share with others. And I am growing my garden of Nia flowers so I tend to repost their information so that others can see what people think about Nia and maybe come try it for themselves.
With my blog I have a few goals. I want to share about events that happen in my areas, Los Gatos, San Jose (Willow Glen, Berryessa) and around, I want to entertain a bit, and I want to help people learn, but I don’t need to be all scientific as I first thought. Every time I go to write a blog with a bunch of interesting facts, I find a bunch of other sites with a bunch of interesting facts. I think that people can go to those sites if they want the science and the statistics. I will keep it simple. And you will either like it or you won’t, but I think if you like it then you will enjoy my classes and enjoy training with me.
My point is that I need to stop worrying and just start doing so that we can get on with it. I need to be me so you can see who I am and then say, “Yeah, I would like to go to her class.” So, whew . . . what a relief, now I just have to remember to actually practice what I preach. You are welcome to remind me.
Posted in Just stuff | Tagged: Facebook, healthful, Los Gatos Nia, Los Gatos Tuesday classes, Nia, Nia Berryessa, Nia Los Gatos, Nia San Jose, Nia Willow Glen, Practice, San Jose, San Jose Nia, San Jose Tuesday classes, San Jose Workout, San Jose Yoga, schedule of classes, social media, Tuesday classes, Twitter, Willow Glen Nia, Willow Glen Tuesday classes, Willow Glen Yoga, Yoga | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 25, 2009
When I was studying for my Personal Trainer Certification I came across a book I thought would be helpful, The Muscle Book by Paul Blakey. After buying it, I took another class for which this book was recommended reading. The book is also recommended reading for Nia teachers. Obviously instructors think it is helpful too. It is a good book. It is very simple and easy to understand.
It has 45 pages, it is black and white, and spiral bound. Page 4 explains how to use the book, because every page that describes a muscle has a lot of information on it. Each page gives you the muscle name and where the name originated, it explains the possible movement issues, and advises that certain actions can injure or cause pain. There are line drawing illustrations, action of the muscle, the muscles origin and insertion, and the muscle’s contribution muscle (synergists). And last but not least “Finger First Aid”.
At first I thought the “Finger First Aid” was ridiculous because the book claims it strengthens weak muscles. Then I realized that it is great instructions on massage or what I am thinking of as acupressure, because the “massage” is not of the muscle itself, but of the origin and the insertion. The book claims that massaging these areas “stimulates the circulation”.
A few times when my upper back was sore, I had my husband press the points as shown in the book and it really helped. He didn’t really massage my back, but just pressed the points and it was amazing the relief I felt.
So, I wanted to share it with you because it is easy to read, which makes it easy to learn from. I really like this book and I refer back to it often, and I am a believer now, in what Mr. Blakey calls “Finger First Aid”.
I bet you can find this book in any book store in most cities like: San Jose, Los Gatos, San Ramon, Mountain View, etc. or through Amazon.
Posted in Just stuff | Tagged: acupressure, Finger First Aid, Los Gatos Nia, muscle, Muscle Book, muscle insertion, muscle origin, Nia San Jose, Nia teachers, San Jose Nia, San Jose Persaonl Trainer, San Ramon Nia | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 23, 2009
I am so excited and intrigued by the Dance Anywhere idea, I wanted to blog more about it. It is happening tomorrow (Friday, April 24, 2009 at noon PST), so I suggest you adjust your schedule and put it on your calendar. Just think the world could look like those train station videos. Have you seen them?
Ok, so the world probably won’t look like those videos, they are obviously choreographed and probably rehearsed, but so what? How fun would that be?
If you look at Beth Fein’s site you will see (http://www.danceanywhere.org) that there are videos and pictures of past events. There are people dancing on the street, on hiking trails, in homes, and all over the world.
Unfortunately I won’t be in San Jose, where I am confident the earth will be shaking (from the collective dancing), I am going to be driving to a Nia Intensive I want to audit. But I did register so I am planning on dancing in my car. The tricky part is going to be the picture . . . . hmmmm? Maybe at noon I will have to plan a stop. I can dance where ever I stop! I think that is it! What about you? Where are you going to be? Where ever you are, stop and dance it doesn’t have to be a big dance, just join us!
Posted in Exercise and Working Out | Tagged: 2009, April 24, car dancing, Dance Anywhwere, Dancing, dancing Nia, excited, intrigued, Nia, Nia dancing, Nia Intensive, Nia San Jose, San Jose Nia, train station dances, train station videos | 2 Comments »
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