Love the cats...but could I get a good night's sleep, maybe?

We had a rough night last night. The kittens, finally truly at home here, decided that our bed would be a good place to try sleeping. Not so much sleeping, really. More like walking on our heads, licking our faces and nibbling our noses and fingers. Loki is a biter, you see...just in play, and not hard, but certainly a rude way to be awakened.

My wife and I didn't get much contiguous sleep. She's in bed already tonight, and I'm heading that way.

Aside from the feline nocturnal shenanigans and their groggy aftermath, today was a good day. I went for a nice long walk this morning, taking advantage of the slowing Summer pace of our morning routine, and stretching my usual thirty minutes to forty or so. It took a little while to work the stiffness out of my muscles and joints, but before long I was moving fast and enjoying it.

Yoga this afternoon was a mixed bag. I love the Ashtanga class. I get a GREAT sweat and stretch my muscles to a languid, deep, peaceful state. But, there are a series of poses that I find really, really hard to get into. The whole series of muscles, from my calves up through my hamstrings, through the glutes and into the lower back, are very tight. So much so that I can't sit up straight with my legs flat in front of me. Ninety degrees ain't happenin'. More like 100 or 110 degrees. This makes all of the forward bends on the floor, and many of the standing forward bends, really challenging. It just hurts to get started with these poses. My hamstrings prevent me from getting enough into these poses to even feel them in the muscles they're supposed to be stretching. Often, as today, I end up feeling discouraged and frustrated about two thirds of the way into the class (when we get to these poses). So it's about forty minutes of empowering poses I can do and enjoy, followed by fifteen minutes of frustration, missing that bliss feeling very much and wishing my hamstrings would let up already. By the time the Savasana rolls around for the last five minutes or so, my mental state is frazzled. What should be deeply relaxing is instead a five minute fight to get past the negative emotions and find my center again.

I do love the class. And I know, intellectually, that the more I do this the looser my hamstrings will get. But emotionally, it feels like I should be further along after months of practice. I'm frustrated with my body.

Right now, my body needs sleep. My eyes are closing, and it's time to heed the call.

Tomorrow is another day. A walk in the park while my daughter attends her ballet class, then back to the house to prepare for a family reunion in the afternoon. I'm looking forward to all of it very much.

Food log:

Breakfast: peaches, nectarines and grapes, with a little French Vanilla yogurt, granola and ground flax seeds.

Lunch: leftover salad from last night, half a quesadilla

Dinner: a slice of leftover pizza, steamed zucchini, a glass of milk

Snacks: blueberry crunch snack pack