I woke up this morning and crawled out of bed with conviction. As I walked downstairs and grabbed my yoga clothes from the dryer and put them on, I went to the 7:15am Yoga Belly class with Anne Jelinek to meet my teammate Tiffany for a morning class. I figure since Big Daddy’s Angels will primarily be practicing yoga as a team in the morning I should probably squeeze in a few morning classes before the challenge actually starts. I’m not usually a morning yoga person but when you are trying to coordinate 4 peoples schedule some sacrifices must be made. It took me a week to find a team and a week to coordinate everyone’s schedule. I now know the exact number of classes that I will be partaking in the challenge and have pre-registered accordingly. Team pictures were taken and published. Let the April Challenge begin!
I’m excited to find the strength to haul myself to my mat. I haven’t had the most motivated 6 months and it is a phenomenal feeling to be responsible to other people and force myself to do what I know will make a huge impact in my health, general mood and life. Its amazing to me that the simple fact of responsibility of letting people down is all it takes to get me beyond…me.
One of the things that make Yoga Belly such a beautiful space to share your practice in is the support and love that is felt in the smiles and warmth that exudes from its community. I hope you will excuse us as we clash in a Hunger Games-like fashion to compete for the title of Mr/Mrs April Team Challenge. Niceties will resume in May.
Happy Hunger Games in April everyone! And may the odds be ever in your favor.
P.S. There is still time to form your team and compete in the challenge. The prizes are amazing and may the spirit of competition inspire your practice to the next level. Team Challenge starts Monday. Dont make me erase your early entries from the log book by trying to sign in for classes over the weekend…..Right Team Awakening? lol

This challenge will be the biggest giveaway yet for Yoga Belly. Winners of the April Team Challenge will be whisked away for an all-inclusive weekend May 9 -12 filled with food, yoga and fun. Second place finishers will win a shirt and mat courtesy of Lululemon. Third place finishers will receive a free 30 day pass to Yoga Belly for unlimited Yoga classes. Registration is free, simply go to the check in desk and register your team anytime between March 20th and March 31st. Everytime your team practices together during the month of April sign in at the front desk in the registration book and receive a point. Team with the most points at the end of April will be placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd. In the event of a tie, winners will be drawn at random. Don’t forget to come up with an awesome team name since we will be tracking the winners in the studio. Best of Luck YB Family…and may the best team…..win!

Dudes! Day 20! One more day! Righteous. Do you have your last class planned out? How stoked are you? I am stoked for you all. Totes For our second to last blog I wanted to take some time to talk about a very important upcoming event we are having here at Yoga Belly.

Many of you know the insanely talented evil genius that is Jeff Lang. If you don’t Jeff’s class is what I fondly refer to as Stockholm Syndrome, as he tortures and confused you into submission then you fall madly in love with the whole experience.  60% is a passing grade in those classes. When you finally master a quarter of one of his sequences you’re filled with such pride and accomplishment you feel like you can move mountains. Outside of the practice space Jeff is one of the most intelligent people you will ever meet in your life. Also a super hipster nerd who’s sweater collection I will one day have. One day dammit! To sum it up he is one of only two people I’ve ever encounter in my life that inspires me to be a better person and makes me feel like I can as well.

Most of you have noticed that he has not been on the schedule for a few weeks now aside from his Yoga TuneUp class on Sundays. This is because his beautiful equally as wonderful girlfriend Jen has been given a very serious cancer diagnosis which will be causing him to step away from the studio for a while. Having something so serious impact one of our family member’s here at Yoga Belly we have been called into action. Yoga Belly will be hosting a fundraiser for Jen’s cancer treatment on Sunday March 10th. Kicking off at 2pm William will be leading a $20 donation Power class with a few surprise instructors making some cameos. At 4pm Mr. Lang himself will be leading a $50 donation “Intense Body Movement” aka Jeff Power class. After which we will be hosting a Wine and Cheese receptions with some fun items for sale with all proceeds going to Jen’s treatment. We will also have a masseuse on hand all day collection donations. These classes will sell out so make sure to sign up now! For those who would like to donate but not participate in a class we have set up a Donation Only event online here. We really appreciate any and all donations and are so so grateful from the bottom of our hearts.

Much Love,

Stasha

Sorry everyone. I got the flu, got better, and ran. I ran soooo far away. Had to get away! The flu was my ticket out and I took it! Don’t be me guys. Either way I am back to blog you through your last 2 days. Woooo!! You have two days left.

I know you are all tired and cranky and just want to stop. BUT DON’T! Just two more classes and you can say you have done the 21 day challenge. To reward all of your hard work Yoga Belly is hosting a happy hour just for you! Well, all the bellyites. (I am picturing you all freaking out like an episode of Oprah’s Favorite Things. You get bees! You get bees! EVERYBODY GETS BEES! Just click here guys to understand the reference. Still confused? Look up Audience reation to Oprah’s Favorite things. Actually everyone should just do it anyway. Best.Thing.Ever.) Okay Digression!!

What? Happy Hour!!!

Who? YOU

When? Friday March 1st 5pm-6pm

Where? Tied House 954 Villa St. Mountain View, CA (Tied house is a resturant so anyone can come, obviously minors can’t drink)

Alright let’s celebrate your dedication and hard work in a class/trashy fashion! The only way Yoga Belly knows how! I feel like I am going to get in trouble for saying Classy/Trashy but I will for you.

Till tomorrow!

Stasha

Yes, bellyites it is sad to confirm I am out of the challenge. What I thought was just body fatigue from practicing reared into a gnarly flu last night. I’ve spent all day switching between fever sweats and chills. Nurse bubu has not left my side or meowed despite me not having the energy to get out of bed to feed her till 8:30pm.  Yes, my primary caretaker is my cat. Don’t be hatin. I’m going to attempt to get back on the horse tomorrow but there are no promises as I feel my head might roll off my body at any moment now.

Speaking of head rolling Season 3 Game of Thrones trailer was released yesterday!! I highly recommend the show to everyone, mostly so when I make references to it you don’t all look at me like a crazy person. But also it is the best show on television pretty much ever.  Season 3 premiers March 31st at 9pm. So everyone has a while to catch up on the first two season till then. Seriously do it.

Nurse Bubu is saying I must return to bed. Wish me luck on a speedy recovery!

-Stasha

AHhhhhhh!!! How is it midnight already? So technically it is now day 16 which means I have missed two blogs for day 14 and 15. I’m sorry guys. I am totally letting the ten of you who are in the challenge down. I’m super sorry. Know I am still practicing with you. Injuries currently are: jammed right middle finger, strained left wrist, angry back, and ::drum-roll please:: a cold! yeaaaaahhhh feelin good up in the Belly! Yes we are! Awesome news? Only 6 more days! Even more awesome news? I don’t have my second job tomorrow/today (caturday) which means I get to take the 4:30pm yoga class! Sleepin in till 11am say whaaa? Hella Jelly I know.

So my challenge within a challenge started today. What is this you may ask? Teacher training!  Yes I am taking Yoga Belly teacher training this year with 11 other wonderful ladies and William. Also did I mention it’s taught by my mother? >_< I know your mind just made a spoooosh noise. I, Stasha hot mess Barr, am Edna the great yogini Barr’s daughter. Just clicked in everyone’s heads now yeah? Proud of youuuuu. I like to keep it a secret as when the Bells first opened up it was primarily long time students of William and Edna who had known of me for years but never met me. The first words out of their mouth were “OMG how long have you been teaching?”. My response “uh this is my fourth yoga class ever”.  My thoughts “I’m going to face plant a few times then cry in the bathroom post class because I can’t do anything. Please ignore me.” (Angry yoga anyone? no? Just me? :/) Now I am sure most of your are super stoked for me. “Dude teacher training with your mom! It’s gonna rock your world” Dudes! It’s teacher training, with my mom. You guys want to take teacher training and divulge your inner most secrets to your mom? yeaaahhhhh. I’ll get through it though. I hope. William? Helrp?

But you know who did take teacher training with my mom and rocked it super hard? Loran Loosli! She’s going to rock all your faces off this coming Sunday at 4:30pm for our last donation based class of the season. Want a preview? Check it out here! Most of you have taken class with her and seen her amazing practice. Now let her teach you an amazing practice! I have my last shift at my second job so I can’t go and I’m super bummed. Go for me please!

I’ll leave you with one last little inside Yoga Belly secret. You know how Edna likes to say “crawl for it! Just crawl!” in class? It’s an inside joke from my 21st birthday….there is an accompanying Youtube video.

Come find me at the Belly if you want to know the story!

Stasha, Hot Mess, Barr

Surprise! I’m still here! I am sorry for the lack of blog yesterday I had dinner plans with friends and it wasn’t until 11:30pm in Palo Alto did I realize I still needed to blog.  I attempted to download the app for my phone but it wouldn’t let me log in. We still lived though right? Still here? Still practicing? Good? Good.

8 more days! Woo! Are we finding it easier yet? I swear the hardest part of this isn’t getting the practice in it’s squeezing this blog in there somewhere. I’m in a huge time crunch at the moment and thought I could announce some fun plans we have in store for you but I realized those plans aren’t finalized. So I will leave you with a cliff hanger.

Exciting News Tomorrow!!!

Sorry for the cop out guys. At least I’m still practicing?

xoStasha

P.S. The Boys are back in town! Matt will be back at his regular time slot tomorrow night at 7:05pm last time I checked there were only 13 spots lefts in class so preregister now if you wanna get into class tomorrow

Awwwwwwww yeeeeaaaaaahhhhh! 52% done. Are you still with me Bellyites? I sure hope so.

I was talking with a regular  of the Belly today and he asked me why I’m doing this. My instant thought was “well because I’m an idiot and clearly a masochist”. I believe I answered with I don’t know. Originally I thought this would be a great way to force me to take classes from all the instructors I have not taken classes from, try out different time slots, and attempt to see Yoga Belly from a customer side. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to see the studio from a real customer side as I have been here since before we even opened. Though I have found lots of room for improvement in certain areas. I’ve only taken 2 new instructors classes and revisited two other instructors whose classes I don’t normally take. If I get super organized I may be able to fit in the rest of the instructors whose classes I have yet to take and maybe some different time slots. Fingers crossed! Then of course there is the vanity reason, “Maybe if I take one class a day for 21 days I’ll lose weight”. Pretty sure my extra curricular activities cancel out any good I’m doing to my body at this point.

What about you? I’m curious to find out the motivation behind your personal challenge and how you feel you’re doing. Are any of you learning anything about yourselves through this? How do you feel your practice has changed?  Are you having fun? Are you cranky pants comme moi? We are always pretty feedback hungry here at Yoga Belly so please chime in and let me know “How you doin?”

Tomorrow is another day!

Stasha

Oh man I just had a semi decent blog for you guys but the computer crashed and ate it! I’m already running late for a work function so no time to rewrite it. Cop-out Blog post for today. Sorry y’all.

We are done with another weekend only one more to go! I am the only one having a super hard time getting classes in on the weekend?

Is there any Belly secrets you all would like to know from me? I promise tomorrow will be better!

BFF! -Stasha

Yes fellow challenger, I cheated today. It’s true. I did practice, it was still a power class, but it was not at Yoga Belly. ::gasp:: Shock! The Horror! I had one class I could get to at Yoga Belly today but I woke up 5 minutes late which would have put me at the studio roughly 15+minutes late to class. I had a feeling Adam would not be too please. I contemplated rearranging my Saturday and Sundays so I could take the 9am class but that would have required canceling and rescheduling a number of appointments/meetings that would have inconvenienced too many people. I desperately searched for a mid afternoon class so I could at least practice today (I mean I’m not doing this for a prize right?) and on the third studio’s website I checked I found a donation based class at YogaSource Palo Alto at 2:45pm. Perfect!

I justified this two ways. One, YogaSource P.A. is where William, Aaron, and Edna really started their yogic journeys. You could say in a way it inspired Yoga Belly? I also believe, William please correctly be if I am wrong, YogaSource P.A. was the debut studio for Will’s trademark RainbowFlow. Second justifiable excuse was the instructor John Rettger. John will be a special guest instructor for the restorative yoga section of the upcoming yoga teacher training we are hosting here at Yoga Belly. BY THE WAY Teacher Training starts this coming Friday the 22nd, it’s not too late to sign up! Come on don’t you want to get certified with yours truly? If you want some more info on the program shoot us an email at info@yogabellystudio.com.

So not super cheating yeah? Okay maybe small kine, as if any of you who are actually completing the challenge at Yoga Belly would be disqualified from the prize drawing for not attending one class at Yoga Belly today. Don’t be me! I say this to everyone. Seriously ask our Tuesday evening check in girl Marino I constantly tell her to not be me. She’s also  a million times cooler than I was at her age so I think she will turn out just fine.

I feel I am rambling so I will retire till tomorrow. I have a company party for my second job tomorrow so I am hoping to get an early blog post in. Please don’t hold me to that.

Rember, don’t be me! -Stasha