Ah... Yoga Feels Good

Today I did ChaLean Extreme and felt awesome. I lifted really heavy and felt extremely energized, but later I realized I was a bit tight in my inner left thigh and figured it was my lack of a good long yoga practice that was the cause. These past two weeks or so I've only been doing 10-20 minute long yoga practices when I normally do one hour or longer practices. Luckily, Secured Transactions was cancelled today, so I took an early train home and did Rodney Yee's Yoga Burn. That's an hour long workout, and I really felt the benefits of it. I normally dislike the Wide Angle Forward Bend, but I knew it would be great today. I was popping all over the place, that pose never felt so good, and now I feel really refreshed. I absolutely love Cobbler's Pose, so I did a few extra of those after the DVD ended, and now my inner thigh isn't tight anymore. I also practiced my Bird of Paradise after the DVD ended, and I can get my legs straighter and higher now.

I can also see the ChaLean paying off. While moving into Prayer Pose I could see good definition in my shin muscle, and even the muscles around my knees look stronger. Since my arms are stronger now, I was able to make the workout more challenging by substituting Bridge Pose for the Wheel (aka Upward Bow), and I was able to hold the Wheel stronger and longer than I was able to before. The hour flew past, and I wish I didn't have homework to do, because I would definitely through in Rodney Yee's Strength Building Yoga or stream his early version of Power Yoga off of YouTube.

Things to Remember for Muscle Building

I'll probably be updating this list if I think of new things or if anyone suggests anything to me. I've just been watching YouTube videos of people who have done Body Beast and reading up about body building in general, and I just want to start a little list of stuff I don't do well now so that way I can address these issues while I am trying to bulk up.

1.  Drinks lots of water!  I think to not drink all that much water, maybe only three cups or so a day on average unless I am doing a lot of cardio or I am going to work out in the evening. I heard that muscles are made up of like 75% water or so, so if you're not properly hydrated your muscles suffer.
2. Eat all the friggin' time! Remember to follow my nutrition plan and get the proper amount of carbs, proteins, and healthy fats. Make my meals in bulk in advance (I currently make my lunch all in one shot every Sunday), get a carton of egg whites to quickly make a breakfast sandwich in the morning, keep my blender ready to make a smoothie to go with my eggs, and prepackage healthy snacks to take to school and leave in the car, like nuts, carrots, and fruit.
3. Continue yoga poses! I want to maintain or exceed my current levels of flexibility. I hear Body Beast doesn't have much stretching in it, so I am going to have to make a committment to include my own yoga routines. This past month on ChaLean Extreme I haven't been doing so well at adding in my own yoga on the weekends like I had been in the earlier phases. My arms have been so exhausted from all of the lifting, that I am always so tired and my muscles are so fatigued by the time I put in a yoga DVD or attempt my own practice. I am going to have to allow myself a few hours to recover before attempting to do any yoga during Body Beast.
4. Check length of workout! I hear there's at least one workout in Body Beast that is a full hour long. I am going to have to check out all the times and write them down, because on the full hour long days, I am going to have to wake up at 4:30 AM instead of 4:50 AM. I also hear there is one that is really short, only around 25 minutes or so, and on that day I could sleep in a little more, maybe wake up at 5:10? Oh... that sounds so beautiful!

I Want to be a Beast!

Can't wait to start Body Beast after I finish ChaLean Extreme!

I am going to do the "lean" version of it first, then if I like it I'll do it again doing the "bulk" (or "huge") version of the program. I feel like I've gained a good amount of muscle on ChaLean Extreme, so I think Body Beast will really bring me to the next level. Since I am pre-T, I've mainly been trying to pay attention to the results cis-females have on the program, and many of them look amazing, so I'd be happy to have similiar results as them.

The eating part is going to be hard for me though. Even the cis-women I've looked at said they had to eat about 3,000 calories a day! I have enough trouble reaching my 2,000 with the program I am on now. I usually only get between 1,200-1,700 calories a day. I am going to have to radically change my eating habits to do Beast.

Ugh... MPRE Coming Up Soon

I can't believe it's almost April already, and I really have to get studying for the MPRE. I need to score 85 points to be able to take the Massachusetts Bar, and 80 points to take the Rhode Island Bar. I have a Kaplan study book in pdf format; I wish it was an actual book because I don't like reading on the screen and I can't take notes in the pages. I also have access to the Kaplan MPRE videos on their website since I already paid for the Bar Review course for Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

It's just going to be hard to study for this, and keep up with school readings, and start writing my paper for Advanced International Business Transactions which is due on May first.

I can't believe I hardly did anything during Spring break. Very unproductive....

RI Gay Marriage

I was reading an article in the Bay Windows today, which is a news site for LGBT folks in New England, and came across this article about how RI is considering gay marriage but with possibly a broad religious exemption clause. I am supportive of separation of religion and state, and I don't think religious institutions should be forced to marry same sex couples, but allowing religious institutions to deny benefits to employees in a same-sex relationships or to allow religious hospitals to deny a spouse in a same-sex relationship from being involved in the health care decisions of their spouse who is a patient there is ridiculous. What about same-sex couples who have a child in a religious school, can the school deny that one of the parents is a parent to the child and not allow them to sign off on papers, etc.? I don't see allowing same-sex marriage to be a threat to religious institutions as long as they don't have to actually marry these couples.

I don't understand how extending benefits the spouse of an employee in a same-sex relationship infringes upon their religious liberties. Giving them the benefits like they would for couples in a different-sex relationship doesn't condone their relationship.  There's some religions who are opposed to couples who are married to someone outside of the religion, so should these institutions be allowed to deny benefits to a spouse who is Muslim when the employee is Jewish and works for a Jewish institution? We need to have a nice balance between allowing religions to keep their religious freedoms with preventing them from engaging in outright discrimination.

Anyways, people like Rabbi Barry Dollinger gives me hope that maybe this will go through without the over broad religious exemption:

At least one religious leader in Rhode Island said he's comfortable supporting the gay marriage legislation because the exemption makes it clear that his synagogue remains the authority on who in the Jewish faith is eligible to marry. Rabbi Barry Dolinger of Congregation Beth Sholom in Providence said he believes that while civil law should allow gays and lesbians to marry, it must remain up to religious bodies to determine who can marry within their faith. Dolinger is also an attorney.

"Never say never, but I will never perform a gay marriage as an orthodox rabbi because it's prohibited by our main religious text," he said. "But as a person of faith, it's deeply important to me that the government stays far away from what we do. I'm all for letting people have it, and I think the government should stay out of preventing it, but we can't compel people to violate their religious beliefs.''

Geez, It's About Time....

... Gaiam has finally come out with yoga clothes for men! Still not much of a selection, and I am just going to keep wearing my girl clothes for now anyways, but I have just always been surpirsed that they had only sold women's clothing. It's like, men don't do yoga or something?

Medical Journal on FTM Top Surgery

I am posting this link for anyone who is interested in learning some more about top surgery from the view of the plastic surgeon. Here is the link, and if for some reason the article goes missing from this person's dropbox, just let me know; I've downloaded the article so I can always post it again. This article discusses different techniques and the best way to determine which technique to use in order to remove the breast tissue. It also talks about two different techniques that I've never heard of being used in the USA before.