Starr, Author at Grunts and Glam

I stumbled upon the featured photo (pictured above) in a Facebook group and found it so striking that I couldn’t resist reaching out to find out more about the woman in the image. Her name is Nicci Morris, and she’s a writer, editor, entrepreneur, yogi and new mom who makes it a priority to find daily zen amid bedlam.

I asked her to share her tips for practicing yoga successfully, making time for workouts even with a baby, finding peace when life gets hectic, and how she brings foodies together in the name of love.

How has fitness played a role in your life? Were you active as a child or did you get more involved in pursuing your well-being as an adult?

I was relatively active as a child. I ran track and played softball for a little while. I wish I had been more active though. I was more into writing and reading. As I got older, I became more interested in fitness and health. I earned my certification as a fitness trainer in my early 20s. I plan to do so again this year. Yoga instructor certification is also on my to-do list. I fell in love with yoga in 2010 and have been delving more into my practice since then. I tried Kemetic yoga for the first time last year and I definitely felt a deep mind-body connection. I plan to explore that deeper.

What’s your diet like and why does it work for you?

On a good day, I eat 100 percent plant-based. Complete veganism is my goal. I was raised eating meat so it’s a work in progress. But for ethical and health reasons, my goal is to get to the point where I don’t consume any animal products. Since I had my daughter, Amina, last August it is more important to me than ever that I am as health-conscious as possible. I want to be in great health for her and I also want to give her a good, clean start with plant-based nutrition.

Green Smoothie Instagram — Photo Via Nicci’s Instagram.

You’re big on morning smoothies. What are some of your favorites and why do you start your day like this?

I love smoothies. I am an early-riser, but I am so not a breakfast person. However I look forward to my morning smoothies. I keep them to a ratio of 50 percent greens, 30-40 percent fruit and the rest is nuts, chia seeds, hemp hearts, oats etc… for fiber, protein and healthy fats. Add water to get the consistency you desire and blend away. They’re filling and I’m energized for hours afterward. I can’t get enough of my NutriBullet.

Do you have any food weaknesses? If so, how do you find balance between binging and exercising self-control?

For me, it’s not so much about managing the type of food as it is about managing my emotions. I am an emotional eater/non-eater. When I have allowed my stress to get the better of me, I have struggled with over- or under-eating. Neither are the answer, so I work to keep that in check and have more patience with myself and others on this journey called life.

Credit: www.bluetreasurephotography.com.

How have you been able to balance new motherhood with a zen lifestyle, work and keeping up with your practice?

Let me start by saying it is not easy. But I believe a happy mommy leads to a happy baby. I have to take great care of myself to take great care of my daughter. I have had to swap frequent 90-minute hot sessions for shorter unheated sessions at a studio closer to my home, on demand via cable and poses and stretches when and where I can.

I was not thin to begin with, so I only gained about 20 pounds during my pregnancy. I lost most of that within the first couple weeks after I had her. But I found that everything had changed. I’m still figuring out this post-baby body because I am exclusively breastfeeding and plan to for at least another six months. Just drinking enough water and eating the right foods requires serious planning.

There was an incident late last year when I allowed myself to become extremely upset. I actually felt the adrenaline and cortisol kick in and I felt the negativity of that situation move through me. The next few days I noticed a dramatic decrease in my milk production. I know it was a direct result of that stressful situation. That hit home with me and I’m so grateful for that life lesson. Never again will I allow stress – especially centered around something over which I have no control – to affect my health.

Is there an ideal body type for practicing yoga?

I’ve been the largest woman in the studio and I’ve been the smallest woman in the studio. I’ve been the only black woman in the room and I’ve been in classes where nearly everybody was black. None of that truly matters in life and it certainly doesn’t matter in yoga. Yoga is about union with your divine self. Everybody can benefit from this ancient practice. If we all did nothing more than center ourselves and remember everything can be accomplished as long as you have time and breath, the world would be a much better place.

What advice do you have for potential yoga newbies?

My advice to the newbies is to breathe deep and focus on their journey. Remember that the person in the front of the class who moves from tree to toe stand with such ease and grace was not always able to do so. Focus on your practice and your connection with your divine self. If you do that on a consistent basis, the rest will come.

But I also have advice for the instructors and the people who have been practicing for years. Be kind. Be patient. Make your studio/classes inviting and create an environment that allows new students to peel back the emotional and physical layers as they begin their practice.

While there might be books/videos that help people, I think the soul-to-soul connections work best. I also believe we benefit from having an instructor. There have been times when I was ready to go deeper into a pose, but for whatever reason I didn’t realize it. A good instructor can help you make adjustments and also push you to take your practice to another level when you don’t even realize you can.

If you run across a less-that-ideal instructor (I have and it wasn’t pretty!), don’t let that sour you. Try a different class or a different studio. You will find the right place for you.

Explain the concept behind your site, LoveandFood.com.

The mission of LoveAndFood.com is simple: To help people develop rewarding relationships by cultivating the deep connection between love and food. It’s online dating for food enthusiasts. I happen to believe people who love to cook and eat tend to be the most passionate, nurturing and thoughtful people around. Yes, I’m biased…

But seriously, I think of LoveAndFood.com as the modern-day twist on meeting the love of your life in the grocery store. In addition to the ability to search, flirt and chat with other members, we will also have meetups in larger markets across the country. It will be a great way to meet other singles and to support non-chain restaurants.

What are your goals and intentions for 2014?

My goals are to love well, eat well and live well.

The only thing that matters is the thing that doesn’t change. The only thing that doesn’t change is love.

Namaste.

Visit www.niccimorris.com for more information about this fierce yoganista.

Check out last week’s Grunty Crush, Chrissy K. Fit.

Food

Chipotle Tofu Sofritas Coming to New York, New England

ByStarr

Be still my beating heart.

Chipotle’s tofu sofrita’s are expanding to New York and New England, yes! According to the Huffington Post, who reached out to the company, the vegan option is coming to new territories starting March 3. It’s already available in over a dozen states and nearly 40 percent of Chipotle restaurants already have the Sofritas burrito.

It looks like this:

There aren’t many moments when I’m not craving Chipotle (I do control myself, though). I always go for the gluten free (I’m in a battle with gluten that I’ll discuss later) vegetarian option, which leaves me with the veggie bowl and the same ingredients in rotation, so it will be nice to have a different veggie option.

To put things into better perspective, you know how Kel feels about orange soda, right?

Shout out to the 90s kids for understanding that one but that’s how I feel about Chipotle.

Better late to the party then never!

And now we wait to see which NYC branches get them first.

Dance

Beyonce x West African Dance Workouts For Killer Abs

ByStarr

I am professing my love for West African dance in this digital space, and hopefully convincing you to take some classes in the genre. I have been obsessed with body isolations and rhythm since I was a child (it’s in my blood), so I was thrilled when I finally started taking African dance classes at age nine. I was a stiff wannabe ballerina until then.

There’s something about drums (especially the djembe) that just moves my soul. I like all types of music but I really need drums to feel it entirely. A lot of my feelings about West African dance (and music) makes so much more sense to me after having gotten a DNA test that showed me to have ancestry from Ghana/Ivory Coast (the latter being the birthplace of mapouka). Now that I know, I want everyone else to know it too.

Speaking of knowing, I found myself in a conversation with a pole dancing colleague who lamented the fact that she couldn’t twerk and I suggested that she take some African dance classes. Not only is it a fun workout as long as you get out of your head (because there is no counting, you just dance until you hear the break), but it’s great for the abs, for creating better body isolations (which is great for hip-hop and break dancing), and also for your rhythm.

Don’t believe me? Then take it from Beyonce. It has been months since the video for “Grown Woman” began circulating but I am still in love with it because of the African influence (Beyonce also did this with “Run the World Girls”) and I’m sad that no one (outside of my friends and I) seems to care enough to talk about it. So…

Watch the entire video, or skip to the part with the beat switches at 2:35.

Pepsi Exclusive Premiere: Beyoncé Grown Woman… by elhadji91

I got my entire life at 3:50. That type of isolation is not easy, and a reminder that I still have some work to do.

In related news, check out these ladies from the Congo killing it with contemporary-style African dance.

It’s bigger than “twerking.”

Man, listen…

Do this for a few months, eat well and see if your waist doesn’t almost disappear with abs poking out, to boot.

Features

Grunty Girl of the Week: Chrissy K. Fit Spreads Workout Sunshine

ByStarr

I met Christine aka Chrissy K. when I lived in Chicago. The AFFA and SCW-certified group fitness instructor taught many of my pole dancing classes at Flirty Girl Fitness. She also teaches strengthening classes, sculpting, cardio dance, interval training with plyometrics, and fusion classes at various fitness facilities around the city. Chrissy is the type of instructor that you’d want to be friends with. She’s knowledgeable, fun, friendly, supportive, and all of the above is why I continued taking her pole dancing classes and occasionally stretch classes too.

Her newest endeavor is “Chrissy K. Fit,” a series of YouTube videos where she provides quick workouts that can be done while watching TV. Get this: It was inspired by Scandal. I caught up with her to chat about how she stays positive, in shape and motivated to spread joy through an active and healthy life. She’s fly, down-to-Earth, wise and snatched! Get into her!

What inspired the launch of your YouTube page, Chrissy K. Fit?

Every Thursday night I would be conducting classes at the gym and the numbers were always lower than on other days I taught. I remember saying to myself, “I wonder if they’re all at home watching Scandal. “ I then thought, well if they’re going to be at home at least they could work out on the commercial breaks, and that’s how Chrissy K Fit on YouTube got started. With every Quick Fit Tip segment I try to add a skit of humor attached along with helpful fitness information. I like to add the laughter because getting fit and exercising should be fun and something you look forward to.

How did you get involved in living such an active lifestyle?

I have always been athletic. I was a major tomboy growing up, and was involved in many sports. I ran track in high school, was a part of the cheer leading team and have been a professionally trained dancer since the age of 17. I was a dance instructor for various different schools in the city of Chicago when one day, a friend of mine needed a substitute for a class she was teaching at a fitness facility. She called me in, I taught the class and was hired that day. I became exposed to a different side to fitness and have been in love with health and fitness ever since. That was over eight years ago.

You teach many types of fitness activities but how did you get into pole dancing?

It’s funny you asked. I had no desire what so ever to teach pole dancing. I just simply wasn’t interested. The gym that I worked at needed more pole instructors that knew how to dance, so they asked me to learn. When I started learning I was shocked at how incredibly strong and fit you had to be to execute some of those gravity-defying moves. With my natural competitive nature, I began to train hard just to prove to myself that this was something that I could do.

What’s your diet like?

About 80% of the time I eat clean. Fresh fruits and veggies lean meats and protein; I don’t eat pork and very little red meat. I drink water all the time. The other 20% I have my carbs, sweets, etc and even then there are good carbs and dark chocolate.

Do you have any food weaknesses? Is there any particular thing that you absolutely have to eat, even if it’s bad for you?

Yes, my weakness is carbs. I love breads, pastas, doughnuts you name it. I try to eat those things in moderation and substitute pastas with spaghetti squash, and breads with nuts like, cashews or pistachios. All things in moderation! I believe in having self-control over daily urges. Get a hold of your self [laughs]. But when I do from time to time give into those urges you better believe I hit the gym extra hard that week!

In terms of getting a fit body is it more important to workout or to watch what you eat?

They go hand in hand. It is 100% important to work out consistently and 100% important to eat clean consistently to get and maintain a fit body. You can’t have one with out the other. Granted some people are naturally fit, but for the average person they must do both.

In terms of mental wellbeing, you’re very friendly, cheerful and peppy. What keeps you in a happy head space?

I received great advice from an older woman a long time ago. She seemed very much at peace and content. I asked her the same question and she told me to not let anyone or anything get me so upset that I couldn’t function or live my life. Ever since hearing that I applied that advice to my life and over all don’t take things to seriously. It doesn’t mean I don’t have to deal with things, but I refuse to let it dictate my own personal happiness. Plus I do things that make me happy and surround myself with positive forward thinking people.

How do you take care of yourself whenever you feel sad or doubtful?

I address those feelings and allow myself to feel them, after about no more then an hour I say “ok time to move on” and I begin to think of solutions and answers as to why I feel that way and ways to pick myself up. It’s not fair to your self to ignore your emotions, but you also have to come up with a healthy solution to pick yourself back up.

What advice would you give people who want to start a fitness journey but may be apprehensive?

My advice would be to simply just do it. I would tell them that I met so many wonderful people and made great friendships along the way when I just went for it. No matter what is holding you back size, motivation, time, it’s all an excuse and you will be so proud and happy that you got started. You can do it!

Fun Facts About Chrissy K.

1. Starting on March 7, 2014 and every Friday afterwards she is teaching a 5p.m Cardio Dance class with current hip hop and billboard music and a 6p.m class called “Late Night” Chair Fit at a gym called Vie Custom Fitness. The first class is free at Vie, and anyone can register at Vie Custom Fitness.

2. She has partnered up with a company called Unicity that offers natural products that help lower cholesterol, with controlling blood sugar levels and Diabetes, and Natural Energy and Natural Focus Products. She takes these products and speaks highly of them. Two of her favorites are the Unicity Matcha for natural energy, and Unicity Matcha for Focus. Find out more at chrissykfit.myunicity.com.

3. Chrissy’s favorite get ripped foods are lean meats (she eats no pork and very little red meat), protein shakes with flax, veggies, all natural oatmeal, very little sugar, lots of water, eggs and nuts.

Instagram: Chrissykfit1

Twitter: Chrissykfit1

Facebook.com/ChrissyKFit

*Want to be a Grunty Girl? Send an email to Starr@gruntsandglam.com explaining why you’re grunty in a few sentences, along with your social media networks for consideration. There are no other rules. You can be short, tall, skinny, thick, black, blue, wide as all outside, a newbie on a new journey or as advanced as an Olympic athlete, as long as you’re an inspiration. You can also nominate friends.

Workouts

Andia Winslow’s Beautiful Black History Tribute Through Workouts

ByStarr

It’s safe to assume that Andia Winslow had a cool childhood. She is the granddaughter of a Tuskegee Airman who was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor but also had a passion for fitness that he shared with her. Winslow has carried that passion for fitness into her adult life in a way that is magic.

Today, Winslow works as a trainer and group instructor at the Sports Center at Chelsea Piers and she she honors her grandfather’s and other ancestor’s hard work with The Legacy Workout, just in time for Black History Month. The Black History-inspired workout features moves that we’ve probably seen before, but with names like Tuskegee Fly Sit-Ups, Mae Jemison jump squats, and lateral raises inspired by Thurgood Marshall.

“I’m inspired by these people, and I’m honoring them,” Winslow tells Well and Good NYC. “I think the big thing is that we are always trying to get people to understand that being active is a wonderful gift to yourself, and these things can inspire you to move in ways that aren’t traditional.”

An excerpt from The Legacy Workout’s website reads:

Thurgood Marshall (b.1908 – d.1993) was a Civil Rights Pioneer, Presidential Medal of Freedom Awardee and, in 1967, he became the first African-American Justice of the Supreme Court. He is most recognized for Brown v. Board of Education (of Topeka) —the 1954 ruling that ended de jure (legal) racial segregation— in which he fought for equal protection under the law and challenged the precedent of “separate but equal” established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

Enter Lateral Raises whose anatomical focus is the shoulder(s), one of the most mobile joints in the human body. Its range of motion makes the shoulder responsible for important functional movements —pushing, pulling and lifting— but also makes it highly unstable. But upon some shoulders balances the weight of the world as was the case with our contemporary Titan, Thurgood Marshall who stood at the borders of mobility and stability. His scales of justice helped to engineer one of the greatest social transformations in American history. Stand that ground.

There’s also a sweet video demonstration that opens with a popular quote from Audre Lorde about self-preservation. You know the one. Check it out:

This is how I like to learn!

And yes to Nina Simone’s “See Line Woman.” Yeeeeesssssssss!

Do yourself a favor and keep up with this woman @AndiaWinslow.

Wellness

Eight Ways to Stick to Your New Years Resolutions

ByStarr

This is the time of year when New Years Resolutions are forgotten and people resume their regularly scheduled shenanigan-filled schedules, but you can still win…if you want to. For years, I’ve been that person who would jump on the resolution bandwagon, fall off then beat myself up because I hate not seeing goals come to fruition, but eventually I started revamping how I did things and it seems to be working.

My problem was that I viewed resolutions like fads. Everyone set them and then forgot about them before first quarter ended. However, after some self-reflection I realized that seeing my resolutions as on-going goals–longterm and short–was a better way to set foundations for improvements that I wanted to make in my life. Instead of starting on January 1, I began applying ideas whenever the inspiration struck and started taking steps toward getting more involved in the process and not the instant gratification of the end result happening in the blink of an eye. Solid progress is like a garden, you must be mindful and tender in fostering its growth.

Here are eight tips for making life improvements a reality.

1. Be Patient

I struggle with this one every day. There are so many things that I feel that I should have accomplished by my age that I haven’t, and I beat myself up about them a lot. I often have to reason with myself about the fact that some things take time and some things can be accomplished swiftly but it all takes strategy. In the meantime, it’s important to reflect on what you’ve already done, what you feel positive about and be grateful for those things. It can take the edge off you beating yourself up about what you lack.

I wish it were that simple because I am the queen of ripping myself to shreds but I promise to be better about showing gratitude this year.

2. Focus on the Process

Get lost in the journey and don’t harp on the end result. Focusing on the ending is a fast track to frustration and therefore quitting prematurely, especially if you don’t see the type of progress that you’re looking for in a specific period of time. Take it slow, be present in the now but keep the finish line in the back of your mind. Even short term milestones can be rewarding.

3. Set Goals and Cultivate New Habits

Think of goals and intentions for your personal development (whether it’s career, family, etc) and develop realistic habits that can eventually and gradually become part of your every day life. Keep practicing until they become second nature.

4. Be Kind to Yourself

Don’t beat yourself up (once again, I should be taking my own advice). If you fail, try again and keep trying until you start to achieve success or until you reach a point where you think you should reassess what you want and what you should be doing in order to win.

5. Be Authentic

When you’re posting that selfie of yourself in the mirror at the gym with hashtags like, #Gymflow and #beastmode, are you working out because you want to or because it’s the obligatory “I have to work off that holiday weight and show people that I go hard thing?” If it’s the latter then you’re only wasting your time with something that won’t fulfill you.

6. Stop Comparing Yourself

There’s a popular quote floating around that goes, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I don’t know who said it but it’s so true. One of my goals moving forward is to force social media breaks on myself whenever I feel myself hating on someone who I think may not be as talented or who has what I think I should have or who I feel doesn’t deserve what they have. That is a toxic mode of operation. It drains your energy and redirects your focus toward building destructive habits, which means you don’t make any progress at all. Remember that people only post snippets of their lives on social media so it may seem overwhelmingly good or like their success happened overnight but in reality, you don’t know their whole story or journey. As far as people who seem less talented getting all the glory, even if you are smarter or faster or more creative, their reality isn’t going to change yours so put those tunnel vision glasses on and focus on your lane.

7. Don’t Share Everything

Sometimes all it takes is one naysayer who doesn’t get your vision or who has no visions of their own to convince you to be stagnant. These are the people who when you tell them you want to take up ballet say, “But you’ve never danced in your life?” or, you say you want to go to Japan and they reply with, “But what about the radiation? or “But you don’t speak Japanese.” That’s why you shouldn’t always share your intentions. It may be OK to share some but be mindful about what you reveal.

8. Try Again

You may have quit at the moment but if there’s something that you really want to accomplish then start again. Every day you wake up is a new opportunity to refresh and refocus.

That’s what I have for now but did I leave anything out? How do you keep yourself on track?

Workouts

Don’t Sleep on Those Stability Ball Lower Back Workouts

ByStarr

Do not neglect your back when you work out. I repeat, DO NOT NEGLECT YOUR BACK WHEN YOU WORK OUT. You back is the bridge, it supports your core which supports your entire body, therefore you need to strengthen it!

Most of us tend to workout without putting much thought to toning our backs but it’s extremely important. I learned this after a car accident where I hurt my lower back (which was already prone to being sore) and having to go to physical therapy. I slacked off once physical therapy was over and started ignoring my back again but got a swift kick in the butt once I later started working with a personal trainer. She was adamant about me doing supermans, which I absolutely hate but they’re worth it.

If you want to step it up a bit beyond the superman then get a stability ball (they sell them at places like Target for under $20) and put in that work. Here’s a demonstration from Chrissy K. Fit.

Interviews

Algebra Blessett is Addicted to Aerial Silks

ByStarr

We’ve all seen Pink flexing her aerial silks skills at the Grammys and various other performances but she’s not the only fly singer with a passion for aerial arts. Enter Algebra Blessett. The Grammy-award winning Atlanta native recently released her newest album, Recovery, but she also knows how to fly.

She defies gravity in the video for her lead single, “Nobody But You,” as she dangles alongside special guest Chef Roble on the silks (pictured above). Her silks moves is the perfect complement to the airy but soulful nature of the song and it’s hard to not be mesmerized.

She got into silks after receiving a gift certificate to a trapeze school a few years ago. Once there, she saw beautiful ribbons dangling from the sky and just like that her passion was ignited.

Naturally, I asked her about her skills during a recent interview and what fuels her love affair with silks. She also shares a recent milestone in her practice and gives advice to potential newbies. It goes a little something like…

What sparked your interest in aerial silks?
I’ve always been a fan of the arts. I’ve been going to Cirque du Soleil since they started just to see it. I really didn’t even put two and two together until I actually took that class. Per the video I had been doing it for a year and a half or two years but the first time I performed it on stage, I couldn’t have been doing it more than 9 months, which is not safe at all [laughs].

How often do you get to nurture that part of your passion?
When I’m not on the road I try to find places out of the city. There’s a place here in New York that I go to when I have time but there’s different training things you can do without having to be hanging from the air. You have to keep your stamina up because once you don’t do it for a while, it’s like not running for a month and then trying to do a marathon.

What do you love about it?
The pain [laughs]. You’re in all this pain but then after you heal you’re stronger so I love the end results. I’m infatuated with the progress and I love learning new moves. You know how it is, you’ve taken trapeze, so it’s like, once you figure out the things that you can do in the trapeze you can do the same thing in the silks.

What was the last victory achieved in your progress with the silks?
Doing a wheel down like, knowing how to actually wrap yourself in it and then role down to the ground without holding on. That’s fun.

Any advice for the curious about why they should try it.
Try it and if you find something that you love don’t get discouraged and go at your own pace. A lot of times, you’re in a room with other people that are working out much faster and they’re advancing much faster; some are slower but it’s kind of like yoga, you really advance at your own pace because your body is doing so much work and you’re moving parts of your body that you’ve never used before but you figure out your pace and go at your pace and learn it and stick with it.

Read more about Algebra Blessett’s new album over at The Hollywood Shuffle there’s definitely playlist potential on her album.

Misc

Why is This Skinny White Chick in my Yoga Class Staring at me?

ByStarr

Now that I got your attention, let’s talk about pathological racism. It’s rooted in thoughts so deeply ingrained in our psyches that sometimes we don’t realize it until we’re confronted by a trigger that throws us off our equilibrium. That seems to be the case with Jen Caron, a woman who wrote a piece for XO Jane entitled, It Happened To Me: There Are No Black People In My Yoga Classes And I’m Suddenly Feeling Uncomfortable With It.

The piece was Caron’s attempt at acknowledging her privilege as a “skinny white girl” and how she had been so self-absorbed that the thought of true all-inclusivity hadn’t occurred to her until a “fairly heavy” Black woman appeared in her yoga class–something that according to Caron happens almost never–and sat down behind her.

She writes:

It appeared she had never set foot in a yoga studio—she was glancing around anxiously, adjusting her clothes, looking wide-eyed and nervous. Within the first few minutes of gentle warm-up stretches, I saw the fear in her eyes snowball, turning into panic and then despair. Before we made it into our first downward dog, she had crouched down on her elbows and knees, head lowered close to the ground, trapped and vulnerable. She stayed there, staring, for the rest of the class.

The writer continues explaining that she “had no choice” but to look at the woman every time her head was upside down (Side note: If you’re truly involved in your practice, you’re not thinking about the next person). She has seen people freeze in class before but it was impossible for her to stop thinking about this particular woman. Eventually, the Big Black Woman began staring at Caron, and her frustrated despair and resentment was now allegedly directed toward she and her “skinny white body” (Another side note: Big Black Woman probably wondered what the hell this weird White girl was looking at).

This is where the author gets really uncomfortable:

I thought about how even though yoga comes from thousands of years of south Asian tradition, it’s been shamelessly co-opted by Western culture as a sport for skinny, rich white women. I thought about my beloved donation-based studio that I’ve visited for years, in which classes are very big and often very crowded and no one will try to put a scented eye pillow on your face during savasana. They preach the gospel of yogic egalitarianism, that their style of vinyasa is approachable for people of all ages, experience levels, socioeconomic statuses, genders, and races; that it is non-judgmental and receptive. As such, the studio is populated largely by students, artists, and broke hipsters; there is a much higher ratio of men to women than at many other studios, and you never see the freshly-highlighted, Evian-toting, Upper-West-Side yoga stereotype.

I realized with horror that despite the all-inclusivity preached by the studio, despite the purported blindness to socioeconomic status, despite the sizeable population of regular Asian students, black students were few and far between. And in the large and constantly rotating roster of instructors, I could only ever remember two being black.

Girl whut?

Yes, this is a blunderfuck. The piece reads in summary like a spoiled rich White (and skinny) girl who was so sorry that the fat Black girl struggled with yoga (as if yoga isn’t a challenge for everyone), but even more contrite about the fact that the girl was probably intimidated by her beautiful white splendor, and she didn’t take the edge off by doing her om’ly duty by helping out, whatever that would have entailed.

I have been the only Black girl in a yoga class on occasion and have been stared at and found myself wondering if the constant gazes I got from a few patrons was because of my race and/or because my body type was different from that of the other girls. In my culture I’m considered “thick,” which is a good thing (think along the lines of Biz Markee’s line, “9/10 pants and a very big bra”). In some other cultures, I’m probably fat. It’s all subjective but I digress. I don’t struggle with yoga so if anyone were to stare, that wouldn’t be the issue but I mean mug sometimes when I suspect that someone is perceiving me as this Other to be pitied because yoga isn’t for “us.” I’ve found myself wondering if I was just being hyper sensitive in such instances but this XOJane piece validates my suspicions.

I was exasperated after initially reading the piece, and not just with Caron. Where was the editor in this? Editors are responsible for seeing the writer’s vision and helping them to convey it in ways that are thought provoking and informative yet this seemed more vapid, arbitrary and along the lines of…click bait.

But let’s take the armor off.

Most people probably practice the more popular forms of yoga (It wasn’t made clear in the XOJane piece but I think the writer in this case does Vinyasa) for vain reasons i.e. they focus more on the body not the mind, but yoga’s universal ideologies are all-inclusiveness, harmony, kindness and patience.

I think Caron’s point in this essay is to acknowledge that this Black woman’s presence in her yoga class forced her to confront the Lily White safe bubble she had been living in. It seems that the writer was regretful about the fact that she had been ignoring anything seemingly Other and that she had never allowed herself the chance to learn about life from another perspective.

She concludes her tale with:

The question is, of course, so much bigger than yoga—it’s a question of enormous systemic failure. But just the same, I want to know—how can we practice yoga in good conscience, when mere mindfulness is not enough? How do we create a space that is accessible not just to everybody, but to every body? And while I recognize that there is an element of spectatorship to my experience in this instance, it is precisely this feeling of not being able to engage, not knowing how to engage, that mitigates the hope for change.

Admittedly, I forced myself to continue reading beyond the second paragraph and when I did, I couldn’t stop hearing it in my head as if it were coming from Cher from Clueless. It came off as offensive and condescending and my initial reaction was, “Here we go with White people trying it again.” Then I got over my ego, read it again and I appreciated the writer sharing her perspective. There are several people who have these thoughts but they usually don’t share them out of fear of getting backlash, because they don’t know how to get the words out, or they don’t care enough to be enlightened, and so they just stare at the Others in their classes. The only way we can actually have a progressive conversation about race is by being honest with our conditioned way of thinking, and by listening…really listening to each other and using opportunities like this as teachable moments.

It’s disheartening that several of the responses to this woman have been snarky attempts to roast her. Yes, her message could have been conveyed better and again, the editor is partially to blame for that but now is the time to educate.

It’s important that we open progressive dialogue with those who seem willing to learn, even narcissistic racists. It doesn’t make you any less self-serving as a so-called progressive when you use what could have been a genuinely teachable moment to ridicule someone so let’s all keep that in mind in our efforts to make progress in how we all think in terms of race.

P.S. BOOM!

I’m still working on my salamba sirsasana (headstand) but damnit, I am arriving!

Beauty

Models Own Offers 50% Off the HyperGel Collection

ByStarr

You ladies who may know my writing from GangStarrGirl.com know that Model’s Own in one of my favorite nail polish brands. It’s a UK-based brand that I got to experience firsthand during a visit to London last year. I encourage you to check out that link after you read this so that you understand how serious this request is.

Ok so…

Y’all know that the pound murders the dollar, so when you’re a fan of UK-based products any sale counts. Feast your eyes on this:

This is #HyperGel collection, the newest from Models Own. These polishes are said to give the appearance of UV Gel, without curing under a light, once dry. They’re not out yet but the brand hasn’t disappointed me thus far.

Models Own is planning to offer limited quantities of all 10 #HyperGel polishes for 50% off during an impending sale that will only happen if their Facebook Page reaches 250,000 likes before midnight on January 31 (individually they’re £5 each which is probably about $8).

This benefits all of us. Go forth and like!

Yah!

Author: Starr

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Models Own Offers 50% Off the HyperGel Collection