All things yoga (that I know so far)

Dear Thrifties,

I am a terrible blogger. A bad blogger, much like Erin Motz the bad yogi... 

Maybe I need some kind of schedule to get me on here but I just hate servitude! (which is created by putting things in a schedule)

C'est la vie! I'm here now with a few fun things to share. First of all thrifties, if you get into yoga, (which you should, its a very thrifty at home exercise) don't become yoga merchandise freaks.

#1 a cheap-ish mat is fine. I had a cheapo $16.99 mat from Winners for about two years and it never wore out. It just got all flattened so I needed to replace it. Whatever you do, do not buy this awful purple lotus mat by Everlast. It was a reasonable price, on sale for $29.99 at HomeSense, by no means the cheapest mat, but it has decent reviews and it is a little thicker which I wanted.

Nay nay, Thrifties, this mat is poop.


Its a sort of memory foam material, which sounds great, but it means that it becomes compacted under your knees very quickly so you feel the floor more than other mats. Also the compacting under your hands and feet make the mat all smooth so you slip a LOT. How it has good reviews on Amazon, I do not know. People who haven't had any other mat before. Just no.

So I hate to admit it, but I just went and purchased another mat. As you can see a little in my picture, the mat I had also scratched really easy, I already rubbed off the print in a few spots. My latest purchase is a mat by Hugger Mugger which is really sticky! Hopefully I don't slide around on this one! This leads me to...

#2 you do not need organic paraben free fair trade vegan mat wash. You need an old spray bottle and some vinegar. I use anywhere from 1-4 vingegar-water ratio to 1-8. Its not really a science for me and I like to know things are clean. Here is my mat cleaning kit:


Note the orange shammy thing

Here is my new mat as well, hanging on my mat drying tool...


 This mat was only $19.99 at Winners. I'll let you know how it goes!

#3 You do not need a block (large softcover book), bolster (folded quilt), or strap (jump rope)

#4 You do not need yoga dvd's. This is what youtube is for! My favourites are:

•  the 30-Day challenge on the DoYouYoga channel with Erin Motz
•   the Yogatic videos with Esther Ekhart. 

Both of these ladies do simple, easy to follow, but challenging workouts without a bunch of weird accessories. Just you and your mat. The best part of doing a lot of yoga is that you will soon know enough moves to just dim the lights, play your tunes, and make up your own routine! This is what I do on my extremely lazy days. I try to do 20 minutes every day from start to finish, including the breathing warm up and the lying around at the end (shavasana). So its not much but it definitely is surprising what a difference it makes!