My Big Yoga (and Hula-Hooping) Weekend!

Okay, this is a food blog. But every once in awhile, I like to check in and talk about my workouts. As any regular readers have probably read a million times, I've been dealing with an ugly case of runner's knee since completing the Little Rock Half-Marathon in March. It's getting better, and I'm able to run a little. And one of these days, I WILL run a full marathon.

But the key to staying fit during an injury is to stay active! So I'm still working out six days a week, even though I'm not doing as much running. And two of my favorite workouts are yoga and hooping! And this weekend, I got a couple of fun opportunities to do both. On Friday night, Co-Motion Studio — the hooping studio where I take classes — held a glow-in-the-dark yoga/hooping event called Glo-Motion. It was two 30-minute yoga sessions, one 30-minute hooping class, and a hooping dance party all done under a blacklight with lots of glowsticks and glitter. Kind of a dream come true, right?

My friend Pam and I got all glowed up with glow necklaces, bracelets, anklets, etc.

Our friend Nicole was there doing glow body paint for people.

Here were her designs! Love the Buddha and the lotus!

After painting everyone else up, Nicole painted a unicorn on her own face. She's so talented!

Here's Co-Motion's co-owner/hoop instructor Chloe in her awesome unicorn horn!

And Co-Motion co-owner/hoop instructor Adriene, who did the organizing for the second annual Glo-Motion.

Before we got started, while everyone was getting all painted up and stuff, Pam and I chowed down on these Vegan Rainbow Glitter Cupcakes from Cassi's Pink Diva Cupcakery. I picked them up on my walk to class, since Pink Diva and Co-Motion are both down the block from my house.

Finally, it was time for class! We started with a vinyasa flow yoga class led by LaurieJean.

Then we had a basic hooping class with Adriene and a hoop yoga class with Meredith. We followed that up with a hoop dance party to tunes from DJ Intuigroove. I brought my LED hoop for extra glow fun, but the batteries were dying so it would only flash red and green instead of the rainbow colors it's supposed to flash. Oh well!

On Saturday morning, it was time for more yoga! Lululemon hosted a FREE yoga class at the Levitt Shell in Overton Park. Before I left home, I had a quick PureFit Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip protein bar.

It was HOT outside at 9:30 a.m. Probably around 95 degrees. Cassi and I joked about how it would be like hot yoga without the room and the ridiculously high membership fee.

I got to wear my new Vegan Plant Proteins tank from my pal Katie's (of Vegan Noms) new vegan workout clothing company, Vegainz! Next time someone asks me where I get my protein, I'll just point my shirt. ALL THESE FOODS, yo. Anyway, y'all should check out Vegainz Clothing Co.'s sweet-ass workout gear. A portion of the proceeds goes to animal welfare orgs!

Before class started, Midtown's new all-vegan I Love Juice bar handed out free samples of juices, ginger shots, and watermelon slices.

The class — a combo of vinyasa and kundalini — was led by Delta Groove Yoga's Olivia Lomax. I'd never taken one of her classes, but I absolutely loved her teaching style. And there was live music by Sibella. The class was purely magical. And the hot sun beaming down on us really made me feel so alive. I definitely prefer outdoor yoga over indoor yoga, no matter how hot it is outside.

Aw, yoga! Such a lovely weekend. Namaste!