Namaste Miami: Resurrection Post

Photo: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Oh, hey there Miami Yogis! What's up? It's been a while. Like 3 years, 4 months and 12 days since we last checked in with you. So what's been going on?

Well, right after our last blog post we fell in love and got married in a castle overlooking the Ligurian sea. No shit. Then we created two genetically superior beings back to back! Two of 'em! In two years! Do the math! We haven't slept in years, but that's par for the course, eh? Ehhh?? You feel us???


Well, welcome to the 7th Series of Ashtanga Yoga. THIS is what we get for slopping through all those vinyasas for all those years. So, what brings us here, you might ask? Follow the JUMP!

The Reality of Practicing & Teaching Yoga Pregnant, Part 1

This is not a photo of me.

The pre-pregnancy image I had of myself practicing and teaching yoga while expecting was me drinking green smoothies, practicing yoga everyday in addition to daily cardio, barre classes and a light weight-lifting regimen.

I would be glowing and gain no weight except for my cute baby bump.

Fast forward to what really transpired: I had morning sickness every day for 3 1/2 months. The only thing that remedied my constant nausea was eating, namely dairy or carbs. Exercising (or any nonessential movement) was out of the question.

This left me at the beginning of my second trimester 10 lbs heavier and more deconditioned than I had ever been in my life.  Other glorious symptoms included large patches of eczema that covered my face, neck, shoulders and arms, extreme fatigue and daily naps that left me feeling worse than before.

Some women experience severe acne outbreaks - I experienced the driest skin of my life. I felt like a fat, walking lizard rash.

To top it off, I wasn't visibly pregnant. So while I was barely able to maintain the 20 or so classes I was teaching per week, my students thought I was just gaining weight, looking terrible and out of breath all of the time.

I also thought that when I was pregnant there would be all of this wonderful reading material available that would keep me inspired - high on life and on being pregnant. Nope. Despite my exhaustive quest I was unable to turn up such a body of literature.

In fact, I was only finding things that were making it worse. Teachers who have never experienced pregnancy giving advice like this made me want to scream. The vanilla, regurgitated advice that people put out there is not helpful and at times quite infuriating. While some yogis have blissful pregnancies and are able to practice like this, I felt more like this.

The only advice I can give is to hang in there. Around week 14 I started to feel like myself again, although I don't know if I truly will ever be "myself" again after this. 

My husband's job takes him to Philly three days per week and I am still in Miami working full-time through the end of May. This blog still has it's training wheels on while I get it up and running. In these early posts I'm still really just trying to find a voice. I'm guessing this summer lots of baby-having and farmer's market-visiting hilarity will ensue.

The Monkey & The Elephant Cafe in Brewerytown

It is the coldest weekend of all eternity in Philadelphia and we're foregoing our usual coffee experience to try out a new (well, new to us anyway) haunt on Girard Ave.

The Monkey and The Elephant was suggested to us by Yelp and does not disappoint. Homemade English muffins and spreads (we got topped off with a bourbon flavored spread), great house coffee, hot chocolate and bonus - it's a nonprofit helping former foster youth navigate the transition adulthood. You can read more about them and their mission here.

We're starting to wonder if everyone in Philly has a nonprofit with a mission. In Miami, most nonprofits are just fronts to launder money or avoid taxes. Or both. This whole community integrity thing is so foreign to us. But it's nice.

Also, as we mentioned, it's cold. Like below 10˚F cold. We got this as a gift for the holidays and have been wearing it around the city. Now, that is a really good photo of the coat. When we're wearing it we ride a very fine line between looking very fancy or looking very homeless. We can tell the people of Philadelphia cannot decide.

We're heading back to Miami on Monday and it's coming down to the last few months before we make the final transition from being in Miami full time to being in Philly full time. Until then, we have some major planning to do, such as finding a doctor and a place to have this baby. Someone mentioned there is a birthing center behind a Wawa nearby? Anyone have any recommendations?

Namaste Philadelphia: #MiamiFullTime to #PhillyFullTime

I am sitting here in the perfect place, at the perfect time, to begin the perfect first post to Namaste Philadelphia.

You may know me from my other blog. I come from a land of sun and warmth. On this frigid, February day I wonder why the heck I'm here. In the Northeast. In Philadelphia. In this café. Writing this blog. Let me begin.

About ten years ago I started a popular yoga blog in Miami Beach, Florida. It was an honest, satirical look at the burgeoning yoga scene happening around me. I was in my early twenties, teaching yoga and doing the things that twenty-somethings living on Miami Beach do.

Namaste Miami was born out of sheer experience and observation. My friends and I thought it was hilarious. Others... not so much.

At the height of the blog's popularity, it would generate around 3,500 unique views per day.

As time passed and yoga became much more mainstream, the fun wore off. I had been teaching yoga full-time for a little more than ten years and was burned out. Like, beyond laughing and making fun of it burned out. Clinically. Burned. Out.

I stopped blogging about a year ago. 

Fast forward through an incredibly eventful year to now and I am married, expecting my first baby and moving from #MIAMIFULLTIME to #PHILLYFULLTIME which, to say the least, will be quite the adjustment for me. There are seasons here. Everyone speaks English. People are educated.

It's like a whole other galaxy.

My husband and I still have a home in Miami Beach and plan on spending as much time as possible there. I don't know if I'll still post to Namaste Miami but I don't feel the need to write a final "goodbye" post. Hopefully, my Miami yogis will find my Philly adventures just as entertaining as my previous ones and, over time, will build a readership in Philadelphia.

The time begins now. Nice meeting you and seeing some familiar faces, too.