Yesterday morning, on the 1st day of May, I awoke to this:

Apparently May is fair game for snow in Colorado! Actually, even for this state, May snow is pretty unheard of – at least snow storms. Luckily, the roads were just kinda sloshy rather than snow packed and icy. I had to pick Shane up from the airport – he had been in CA for a business trip.

When I picked him up, he mentioned he was hungry, and I could always eat, so we headed to Lucille’s for breakfast:

I had the exact same thing I had last time – pan-fried trout, 2 poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, grits, potatoes, and a biscuit. I left a little uncomfortably full, but that’s probably because I’d already had breakfast a few hours earlier.

Lately I’ve been on this kick where I grab whatever leftovers are in the fridge, and then top them with two fried eggs. The soft yolk is like an additional sauce this way! Very yummy.

As far as exercise goes, I got in a little cardio at the gym (I did lower body the day before and needed to get my legs moving,) but I then headed to a later-than-usual vinyasa class, where unfortunately I ended up agitating my already agitated shoulder. I have an old volleyball injury in my right shoulder, and lately it’s been really paining me – like for more than a month now. I really need to do something about it instead of just slathering on some tiger balm.

Speaking of yoga class, I got a double dose of yoga in yesterday – by filming a video for you all! I’ve been wanting to share with you my favorite hot yoga mat and accessories for a while, and finally got around to doing it.

I’ve been hot yoga-ing for more than 4 months now. In those four months, I’ve tried to make 4-5 classes a week. For the first month, I went to Solar Yoga, a studio very near my home. It’s a boutique studio with the most incredible staff, who really make you feel like family. Then I tried CorePower Yoga for a couple months, which I also really loved because I had my choice of 3 studios to go to in Boulder, or I could venture down to Denver to meet Natalie for a class!

And now I’m back at Solar Yoga, where I’ll be staying. I ultimately chose Solar Yoga for a few reasons:

• Sense of community – Since Solar Yoga isn’t a chain like CorePower, I feel like I’m part of the family every time I step into the studio. The instructors already know me by name, and I can tell they really dedicate their heart and soul to the practice of yoga.
• The temperature – while classes are hot, they don’t make you feel like you were just dunked into a bath tub 5 minutes into class. It makes it tough to go to classes several days in a row when you sweat your insides out every single time.
• Location – It literally takes me 2 minutes to walk to the studio. Awesome.

The one thing I do miss about CP is the variety of exercises – it seemed like those instructors were always bringing a new pose I’d never heard of into class!

So anyway – back to hot yoga mats and accessories. Over the past four months, I’ve tried several combinations of mats and towels, water bottles, hair accessories, and even hair styles. Here’s what I’ve found works the best.

And if you didn’t feel like watching the video – here’s what I prefer:

Mat

I switch it up between the Manduka Pro Lite, Lululemon The Mat, and a cheapy mat from Target. I almost always grab my Lululemon The Mat for hot yoga class. It doesn’t require a towel, my hands and feet stay put on it, and it absorbs the sweat so you don’t slip.

Towel

When I bring my Lulu mat, I just bring a hand towel because that’s all I need. If I bring a different mat, I definitely need a microfiber towel. I have the Manduka Equa towel and Yogi Toes towel. Honestly, I grab whatever one’s closest. I like them both, but the Yogi Toes towel did stain my dryer a bit.

Hair

When my hair was longer and less layered, I found that putting it in two braids worked best. This way I didn’t have an annoying ponytail on top of or behind my head, getting in the way for inversions or supine poses. Then I got my hair cut. I still put it in two braids, but now it’s just a little bit more annoying. That’s where the headbands come in.

Lululemon’s bang buster headband is my favorite! It stays put and keeps my hair out of my face. It’s not the most attractive thing in the world, but then again, I don’t really care about that.

And that’s all I have for now! I could go on, but then we’d be getting into details like to and from-wear, bags, and changing methods, and that might be getting too detailed for this post

Now I’m headed off to teach a Core Blast class at the gym! Speaking of teaching classes – I’ve started utilizing the Your Trainer Paige Facebook page more. Yesterday I posted the workout I put one of my core classes through this week. I’m also planning on posting different favorite exercises from my youtube gallery, different workouts, and getting feedback from the page, so if that sounds of interest to you, feel free to follow me!

If you have any other suggestions, please let me know if the comments!

How do you wear your hair when you workout? If I’m not yoga-ing, then I’ll usually just throw it back in a bun and slap on a headband.