My new Vitamix Professional Series 750

When I was successful at this years UK Yoga Asana Championships I won a £500 prize.  My aim was to buy a Vitamix.  I make green juice almost daily and have wanted a Vitamix for a long time, our then current blender was failing to actually do the job of blending, we had a lovely juicer but i prefer blending.  I decided to wait a few months till i purchased my Vitamix so i could get a deal at the Be:Fit expo show.  My prize money could easily have been spent on rent after I wiped out my bank account paying for annual's for Bikram yoga whilst also trying to cut down on work to prepare for internationals (epic fail as i have now run out of money and need to work more than ever!).  But I stuck to my guns, my money was for a Vitamix and a Vitamix I would get!

At the Be:Fit show i was then presented with an additional dilemma.  Do I want the ordinary Vitamix or the newer edition 750 which was a bit more expensive but had features i liked more.  I had to think it over for a while.  I decided that if i was spending so much money anyway i'd just buy the more expensive one.  It has a shorter but wider jug, specific settings for what you are making (juice/soup/ice cream/paste/clean mode) as well as the 1-10, and is apparently 40% quieter than a normal Vitamix.  The deal I got was an extra (smaller) jug for free.

I think I made a good choice, especially because at 40% quieter it is still mighty loud, my housemates still hate how loud it is so i dread to think how loud a normal Vitamix is.  I also like the jug being shorter and wider.  And i love that i can just put it to it's mode eg.soup mode, leave it, and when i come back my soup is perfectly ready.  After a busy day chucking everything in (i rarely follow a recipe) and then 5mins later having a warm fresh homemade soup ready for consumption is AMAZING!!!!

My diet this week has been very liquidised.  I am enjoying making everything :-)

Everyone (who doesn't have a Vitamix themselves) is like OMG at how much it cost me, but i happily spent all that money, which was mostly prize money, and I love love love my queen of blenders.  I thoroughly recommend the Vitamix 750  :-)

 

Be:Fit Show 2014 - My Little Review

I just returned from the Be:Fit show.  The Be:Fit show is an exhibition show/event dedicated to women's health and fitness, it has exhibitors, fitness classes, expert talks, fitness challenges, health checks, free samples of food, and much more.

It used to be called the Vitality Show and this year rebranded to Be:Fit and has moved from Earls Court to Old Billingsgate Market.  I have been to the Vitality show for the past two years and enjoyed it a lot and so thought i totally couldn't miss it this year too.

Overall I had a lovely time, i went with my acrobatic friend Lisa and we participated in a lot of different things.  We stayed for the whole day, arriving at about 10:30am and leaving at 5pm.

Price
Be:Fit 2014: Full price tickets were £18, we got ours for £12.50 each as there always seems to be some sort of deal or discount going on.  I did sign up to be a Vitality Ambassador, meaning if people use my code they get money off and it advantages me, sadly they only got £2 off a full price ticket and there were far better deals going on so no-one used my code!
(Vitality Show 2013 full price weekend tickets were £20, vitality ambassador code priced tickets were £10 and i sold quite a few).
So a full price ticket was slightly cheaper this year, but signing up to be an ambassador was totally pointless!

Freebies
I was slightly disappointed.  The Vitality Show used to have a free goody bag for all guests full of wonderful things, but this didn't exist this year at Be:Fit.   There were a lot of food stalls offering lovely free samples, i ate alot.  I did still get a few freebies to take home with me, just totally no way near as many as previous years.

Fitness Classes
Me and Lisa got there early and were recommended that if we wished to participate in fitness classes we needed to go and sign up for them, so we did.  The Vitality Show used to have several different areas where fitness classes happened, Be:Fit only had one area so only about 9 classes during the whole day.  This resulted in many people not being able to participate and it was a bit sad to see the long queue of people in the reserve queue for classes.  I think there totally needed to be more areas for more classes, I love participating in the different classes and would have been gutted if i had of missed out on it.  The other downside was the stairs leading to the fitness zone, i had my granny shopping trolley and stairs and a granny shopping trolley full of things is harsh.  The plus side was that the classes I did do were awesome.  I did the Beyonce Workout where we all danced, strutted, and shaked our booties, I enjoyed this class a lot.  I also did a contemporary yoga class, i enjoyed the first part of this where we did some gentle yoga asana, the dance bit for the last ten mins slightly lost me, possibly because i really was enjoying doing the gentle asana part.  I would have maybe done some more classes had i been able to.
Something else sad was that there was a whole massive bit of unused space on the floor when you went down to do the fitness classes, it would have been totally better to have utilised this space for more fitness classes/trying out things zone/etc, or at least more stalls.

Health Check
I love a health check haha, so as soon as we arrived we dashed to the Nuffield desk to make a health check appointment.  I think they booked up fairly quickly and so again this was good to get in quick early in the morning.  The health check consisted of about a 10min check of blood glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate.  I was happy to be totally healthy.
What i really would have loved is the machine that one year made an appearance at the Vitality Show.  I held onto some handles and it sent electrical impulses through my body measuring nearly everything about my body composition such as the percentage body fat in each part of my body.

Stalls
The Be:Fit show was way way smaller than the Vitality Show, so less stalls and less variety of stalls.  Me and Lisa had walked around it all fairly quickly.  I did make some lovely purchases such as some bud earphones that are the first i have ever tried out that do not fall out of my tiny ears (www.yurbuds.com), a lovely pair of leggings i just couldn't resist buying (www.bottonfitness.co.uk), and my long awaited Vitamix machine using the prize money from when I won the yoga asana championships earlier this year.
A big sector missing from the show this year was the hair and beauty sector.  I missed it.  I know beauty isn't directly to do with health and fitness, but in a way it is because a lot of us work out to make our figures look more beautiful as well as for health reasons, and when we feel beautiful we feel happy, and some people (not me as i mainly do do hot yoga) workout in makeup, and some people like me like to do our post workout baths in nice smelly bath bombs like i happily purchased at last years Vitality Show!!! :-)  Also I missed the cheese stalls, i purchase awesome cheeses every year at the Vitality Show, something little but i really missed it!  I think maybe they were trying to make it even more healthy fitness based (after all cheese is not as healthy as a granola bar), but in doing this i think that they lost a bit of beautifulness about the show.
I am happy the massage chairs were there.  I always feel slightly guilty with these as however much i would love one (they are amazing) then i know full well before i sit down that i can not budget for one, yet i sit down in denial of my budget and try it out on every part of my body before deciding that indeed i have no budget for one.

Fitness Challenges
These made my day that much brighter.  I participated in the Tribe Sports Side Plank challenge where you had to hold a side plank for as long as you could.  I never do side planks and was totally blind to my side planking abilities.  The two highest scorers of the day won a sports top, i somehow came 2nd with 4.31mins.  There was a lady who got 6 minutes, full respect to her!  I also took part in one of the Reebok challenges, when we walked past at 10.30am then it said if you took part you got a free goody bag, except about an hour later when we returned and did as many sit ups as we could in a minute there were no goody bags left and so we got nothing.  So we didn't then do the Reebok press up challenge or burpee challenge, gotta motivate us with freebies and prizes lol!  If there were more challenges with more prizes/incentives i totally would have done them :-)

Lecture Theatre and Fitness Personalities
Things i didn't do as none of them really appealed to me or clashed with stuff i had already scheduled to do.

Overall
Overall then I had an awesome time.  Though if we had of got there later and/or not been aware we had to book in for fitness classes or the health check I think we would have been totally gutted as without them then the show may as well have been free entry.  We were lucky and the reward for that was that we had a pretty good time.  Though it was slightly disappointing in terms of size then there were many good stalls and i met some lovely people.  There were too many different floors and too many stairs.  I am not sure why it changed from the Vitality Show as the Vitality Show in content and location size was superior, but i hope the Be:Fit show can grow and develop back to what the Vitality show was like for next year, and i hope they have more fitness class areas, and bring back the free goody bags!

quote

Someone could have all the technical skills in the world, but if they have no creativity their performance could be anybodies, and if they have no passion their performance dies.  Passion can not be taught or learnt, it lies in the heart and projects through every movement, and every word you speak.  It is a powerful thing.

Quote

A lot has changed in the last year.  I think it has made me a better person, it has made me see things differently, it has allowed me to grow as a person, it has allowed me to be more at peace with my own self.  I am learning to love and appreciate life more than i ever did before.

Strength

Sparkle

Lucky :-)

I am grateful for each day.  I have never had everything I have wanted, I didn't grow up in poverty but my mum worked 4 jobs to keep us afloat.  One day i came to realise that i didn't need everything i wanted to be happy, that happiness is dependant on my actions and the love i surround myself with.  That i wake up each day a roof over my head, food in the fridge, and am blessed with good health.

When you really stop to look at life you realise just how god damn lucky you really are.

Don't fake your 1 arm handstand pictures!!!

I screw my face up when i see a picture of someone doing a one arm handstand that is not being held.  I see it so often, the quickly lift my arm and take a photo shot.

BUT TO A TRAINED EYE IT IS CLEAR (mostly)

To the trained eye then you can tell in terms of body/arm/shoulder position and technique if the handstand is held or not, because to do a one arm handstand you know what happens when your body is not in the correct alignment (ie you fall...).

It shocks me that some people can post a picture of them walloping their hand off the floor and people still believe they are holding that thing !?!

Of course sometimes i am wrong, sometimes some people can hold the most wild shapes :-)  

The secret of becoming really bendy and really good at handstands...

There is no secret.  If you are dedicated, work hard, use good technique, don't over rush it, then you will improve.

There are also no quick fixes, it takes time.  For steady progress without plateauing or getting injured you will also need to work with correct technique, for example learning a bad shaped handstand, or just lifting your arm from the floor, is not going to progress you to a one arm handstand, you are better off stepping backwards and getting the shape right/doing the correct progressions and then the one arm handstand following these correct progressions will happen a lot lot quicker and consistently.

I currently teach acrobatics to two awesome identical twins.  When I first met them it was amazing because they were both identical in flexibility, their bridges were identical in shape and bend, their splits also looked very much the same (they both had and still have very good flexibility).  As they have got older then their flexibility is no longer the same as each others.  We only train twice a week.  One broke her ankle (skiing) and missed a chunk of lessons.  But she has done enough to maintain what she already has, the other has been working hard and consistently and her back flexibility is becoming really rather amazing. It is fascinating to watch. 

Me by Jason Lunn, these hands work hard to keep me upsidedown :-)

I will always rise no matter how hard i am pushed down

I love my career, I really do.  I have this passion for handstanding and performing that will always be with me.  Some people in my past have tried their best to push me down, but my passion for performing is just too strong.  I always rise.

I have had one of those careers that has not always been smooth.  It has had many ups and downs, times when i was flying and times when i felt like i was sinking.  One of the hardest moments in my performing career was when a person really really tried to destroy me, i can't and won't go into full details or name names, but this person following a day that they made into one of the worst in my life, then this person then decided to further the pain by bullying me relentlessly.  This included a lot of verbal bullying, nasty threats, calling me useless, pathetic, reducing me to the exhaustive crazy state of tears where you can not breathe 5 minutes before i would have to go on and do a performance i really didn't want to be doing but was too scared to walk away.  I forgave them, i forgive too easy, or i ignore too easily, pretend everything is fine, but then they did something else to attempt to further my misery and kick me down a few months later that is a totally separate event and story and i do not wish to discuss here but can say it had a good ending.  But you know what, although i still hurt, i still cry, i still fear, and will never forgive them for some of the things they did to me, then ultimately this person strengthened me, they made me a stronger person, they proved to me how much i love performing and how nothing will stop me doing what i love doing, they showed me i can deal with a lot more than i thought i could, they showed me who i was and that i was stronger than i thought i was.

Life can sometimes throw bricks at us, sometimes little ones and sometimes they feel like big boulders, sometimes we get so scarred invisibly inside.  But these events shape us, make us who we are today.  You can not change things that have happened, only accept what has happened, learn from it, and see how you can grow from it rather than wither.

I don't know why i am writing this, i guess it is because i want to tell the world however bad things are then if you have a passion that burns so fierce then that fire inside of you will never disappear, i love performing, it is my fire, it has at times been reduced to a small ember but it always re-ignites into a big flame that burns so bright and happy.    

My First Yoga Trip

I have just got back from my first yoga trip away, and it was amazing :-)

Yoga trips often conjure up images of a nice relaxing retreat to somewhere by a beach where you do yoga, relax, and sunbathe.  My yoga trip was a little bit different to this.  Instead of sunshine and beaches I was in Prague - a beautiful city and about 0 degrees with snow.  Instead of a nice relaxing trip i had full on intensive yoga asana training each day.  It was awesome :-)

Each day began with Bikram beginners class.  We then had sessions with 4 world champion yogis - Dev Kapil, Juan Manual Martin Busutil, Ky Ha, and Gloria Suen, plus compulsory posture training with Tereza Bonnet-Senkova.

We covered many many things over the course of the weekend and I learnt so much my head and body were filled and buzzing with new asanas and tips and progress on my existing asanas.  I achieved much and learnt much.  What a thoroughly enjoyable and amazing weekend :-)

Below is a little picture montage of me and my friends during out Prague trip.

Next weekend is the yoga asana championships, I am competing and look forward to demonstrating my asanas.  I have no expectations of myself or of others, and my main aim on the day is to keep calm and enjoy it.  What will be will be.

Event for Capita

My January kicked off performing at an event for Capita.

I performed an ambient set containing handbalance and contortion as the guests entered the venue.

 

I then performed my handbalance contortion act - Dancing Upside Down.

And here are two little warm up pictures :-)

An enjoyable event to begin a lovely January.  I hope to post some video soon :-)

2013 Review - Events and Media Work

I will not write a big long review post because I doubt anyone will read it lol, but here is a quick summary in a picture collage.  I could not take pictures at many of the lovely gigs I performed at but from the ones where i did get photos then here are a few :-)   It was a wonderful year with a lot of lovely bendy handstanding performances.

Flying from a Crane

I have just returned from a fun filled week working on the finale act of the closing ceremony of a big event.

A team of 6 core aerialists from the amazing Incandescence Circus Theatre, and 14 local performers teamed up to be taken 40metres up in the air and create an aerial spectacular.  It was a fabulous finale to a wonderful event.

 Me in rehearsals

The Social Club - Komedia - Bath

Last week me and Lisa took our duo Kurve to The Social Club at Komedia in Bath.  I also performed my solo Diamonds act here.

I rarely do cabarets because the pay is far less than my normal rates, but me and Lisa needed our act videoed and so it was the perfect occasion.

Our acts both had tremendous feedback and wow's, and one movement/dance specialist in the audience described our duo act as being like 'a beautiful moving visual sculpture'.

It was a really really wonderful night full of super acts and fabulous fun.  Anyone living in the Bristol/Bath area i strongly recommend you get yourself to this one when it is next held in March!!!

Happy Halloween

     

Me and Ky doing some bendy acro

Me and Ky decided to create some awesomeness :-)

(I hadn't actually warmed up my back yet in either of these as the main backbending stuff comes later on in class)

Photoshoot With Nick Delaney

I have some beautiful new images from Nick Delaney (www.nickdelaney.com).  Nick is a fabulous photographer who I highly recommend to anyone needing photos.

F1 Grand Prix Singapore

I have just returned from Singapore where I performed with the fabulous Incandescence for the F1 Grand Prix.  It was so fun I think i may just class it as one of my favourite events I have done and I have done a lot of events!

It is an absolute pleasure to be part of Incandescence's amazing shows, Satya who is at the core of Incandescence knows exactly how to make a show look beautiful and how she puts the shows together, costumes them, the music, the lighting, everything, it just works.  In Singapore we performed 3 different 20 minute shows - Night Circus, Cirque Surreal, and Masquerade.  The shows went down extremely well and we also had the pleasure of performing to the Royal Family of Brunei.

To add to the wonderful shows that we did then we were also in the most amazing hotel where our balcony overlooked a large chunk of the racetrack, the racing was absolutely amazing to see live :-)

Manchester Trafford Centre Contortion

This month I travelled up north to Manchester's Trafford Centre.  I performed 4 ambient sets of contortion around the shopping mall to entertain the shoppers.  It was very enjoyable :-)