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a review for something long coming

a review for something long coming

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no, not a review of my lack of writing blog posts, hahaha.

i finally bought an insulated running skirt! and it is the best thing ever.

for years i’ve been out running in 40º weather and layering like crazy, but whenever i’d come back, it would take me hours for my bum to warm up. i’d get home from a run, and my thighs, stomach, bum, and trunk in general was splotched red and colder than heck.

i did a little research because i always thought that the fat on your body was supposed to be a good insulator, but it seemed to be doing the complete opposite for me. turns out, there are no veins for circulation in fat! that explains a lot.

i’ve been looking at different ways to layer well, and i found some runner somewhere on the internet talking about running skirts, so i was on the lookout. i could’ve bought a cheapie, but i thought it’d be better to get something that would last.

cue winning some cash at pulltabs one night! we went to sierra (outdoor goods store) afterward, and i found the only smartwool insulated skirt in the place! and it was my size! i got it and have worn it a couple times so far this spring.

i give it 5/5 stars! i wear it over my running pants, and it keeps everything warm. plus it has pockets for my cough drops and phone!

so, if you suffer from cold-bum-itis on your runs or your winter outdoor activities and don’t want to don the snowpants, think about getting an insulated skirt. works wonders!

top b̶o̶o̶k̶s̶ titles for 2021

top b̶o̶o̶k̶s̶ titles for 2021

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i wish there were a t-word for books so my title could – WAIT. alliteration complete.

every year i set a reading challenge for myself on goodreads and this year’s was 55 books read. completed! and still going, actually. but i don’t think i’ll read a top book in the next week, so here are my top books i read this past year.

american dirt by jeanine cummins. i wrote about this book while i was reading it in january, so i will copy/paste what i wrote then: american dirt got a lot of mixed reviews last january when it was published. it was a big brouhaha because the author, while she does have some puerto rican descent and is married to an undocumented immigrant, got a lot of flack about writing about the mexican migrant experience when there are many mexican authors more qualified to do so.

so i avoided it when it came out, but then it got book of the year on goodreads, so has she been redeemed? i don’t know where we’re at with the drama, but i grabbed it from the library and am devouring it. this is a quick read and it’s from the viewpoint of the mexican migrant experience, which i think a lot of us could realize is no picnic.

world of wonders by aimee nezhukumatathil. i’m not a fan of reading poetry, and for some reason i like to think that don’t like reading a collection of short stories or essays. which is weird because there are two such books on my top 2021 list. i may have to assess my brain and tell it to pick up a collection more often.

anyway, aimee is a poet who wrote this collection of essays that connect her memoirs with the natural, especially obscure creatures, trees, not-obscure creatures. she grew up in the 80s, so i found that relatable, but from a first-gen, non-white family point of view. her writing is lyrical and lovely. this book is short and it’s illustrated. if you want a book that you can fall into and a get away for a bit, this might be it.

neither wolf nor dog by kent nerburn. i picked up this book after a recommendation from melissa, and what an excellent read. i learned more about native american indian life from this book than i ever learned in school, all 19 years of it.

kent is a white man, but like most things that are different to white people, the story needs to be told from a white person’s perspective so we can relate, and then relate. and then learn. he tells the story of the time he spent with a native elder who wanted his story told. turns out he needed kent’s story told.

thanks to this book, i read two other books this year focused on native lives, including the followup to this one.

quit like a woman by holly whitaker. this is my NUMBER ONE BOOK OF 2021!! i LOVED this book, even though it did not make me quit drinking. what she outlines can be applied to so many different aspects of women’s lives.

it was the only book i actually reviewed on goodreads this year. here’s what i wrote:

this book is required reading for ANY woman, whether you’re trying to quit alcohol, drugs, or anything else you’re addicted to. or, if you’re not trying to quit anything. her conversational (PG-13 rated) style of writing moves right along while she lays out why, as women, we need to start feeding ourselves and loving ourselves instead of losing our egos during any recovery process.

i have recommended this book to so many people.

the anthropocene reviewed by john green. ugh, john. you just make me feel.

i started watching vlogbrothers in the mid-2000s, and then started reading john’s fiction books. then hank’s fiction books. and continued to watch their 4-minute twice-weekly videos that cover the gamut of everything. and john’s videos are sometimes introspective and illuminating and hit you right in the heart.

so when he mentioned his new book release on vlogbrothers and his podcast of the same title, i downloaded a few episodes to check it out. he rates the current earth age on a five-star scale, from pennies to dr. pepper to scratch n sniff stickers to art and auld lang syne. his podcast (and subsequent essay in this book) on the capacity for wonder and sunsets just did it. he’d been holding hostage to a perfect rating, then this.

And so I try to turn toward that scattered light, belly out, and I tell myself: This doesn’t look like a picture. And it doesn’t look like a God. It is a sunset, and it is wildly beautiful, and this whole thing you’ve been doing where almost nothing gets five stars because almost nothing is perfect? That’s b.s. So much is perfect. Starting with this.

I give sunsets five stars.

billy summers by stephen king. what would a best-book list be without stephen king in it? and for those who say “dang i don’t like scary books,” you should read some stephen king because his books aren’t all scary. this one is more thriller/crime than any sort of scary. (tommyknockers this is NOT. yikes. that book scared me.)

king always keeps me engaged in his writing, especially his more recent stuff. this book is about a hitman for hire and his last job gone wrong. if you’re a king fan, you’ve likely already read it. if you enjoy thrillers but haven’t ever read king, this might be a good place to start.

malibu rising by taylor jenkins reid.

i hesitated to put this on my best of 2021 list. the story coalesces along a day’s worth of events and the backstory to fill them in. while the stories of the day and the frictions among them move the plot along, what i really liked about this book was the relationships that reid described and the closeness of the rivas siblings.

the writing is fantastic. i loved “daisy jones and the six” that she wrote, and that was the reason i picked this one up. the way she weaves a story is excellent.

 

*******

there you go! my top books of 2021. let me know if you’ve read any of these and what you think!

review tuesday: red notice

review tuesday: red notice

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i rarely review movies! but here we go! i LOVED this movie! it’s campy. it’s predictable yet not. it’s funny. it pokes fun at spy movies, heist movies, 007, indiana jones, all the action movies. it has the rock. it has ryan reynolds. it has gal gadot.

you can’t go wrong.

it’s not gratuitously violent or over the top with foul language (not that that’s stopped me from any movie), and there’s no nudity, so somewhat family friendly. it’s witty, quick, and fun.

this is the first time in a long time that a movie on netflix has held my attention the entire time. i laughed out loud. i gasped. i was not expecting certain things. it was a delight to watch! i will watch it again.

5 stars out of 5! totally recommend. go watch it.

review tuesday: birk slippers

review tuesday: birk slippers

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let’s talk about slippers for a minute. i like to have warm feet during the winter, and most of my floors are pretty much carpet on concrete, so i also need some degree of cushion between me and the floor. so while i would love to just wear cozy wool socks, i need something a little more robust.

i’ve tried the basic $10 slippers from walmart, which go flat in about 2 weeks.

i’ve tried slippers with a rugged bottom from lands end/ll bean, which are pretty good, but there isn’t much support there.

so when i got a pair of birkenstocks a few years ago, i took to wearing them around the house during the winter, which definitely helped on the support and keeping some cushion between me and the (cold) floor. but it had a toe loop, which meant i had bare feet.

last year i got a cheapo pair of birkenstock knockoffs with two straps so i could wear socks, and they had faux fur on the interior.

i will admit. these worked pretty well. i wore them with socks they held up reasonably well. but i knew that real birkenstocks use real wool and shearling in their slippers. so i checked out these bad boys:

the birkenstock zermatts.

wool felt, shearling insert, and the regular birkenstock cork support. oh man, they’re like slipping my feet into a fluffy warm cloud of support.

they aren’t cheap, but i was able to get a discounted pair from poshmark. plus, they’ll last forever. i did read some reviews that the bottoms of the slippers crack, but i haven’t run into that yet. i have only had them for about a month, so it could still happen, but i’m holding out that these will hold up.

so far, i give these slippers 5 stars. (out of 5.)

slowly becoming plastic free: a review

slowly becoming plastic free: a review

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in an effort to create less waste, even though it may seem like a half a drop in the pacific ocean in the effect it’s having, i moved a few of my household items away from plastic. let’s take a look!

dishwasher soap: while i had always tried to get the powdered cascade that came in the box so i could recycle it, i decided to give dropps a try. the packaging is cardboard, and the shipping is carbon neutral. the soap itself is plant based with no dyes, chlorine, phosphates, etc.  plus, the soap comes in those little (eco-friendly) pods. so i just grab one, stick it in the soap holder, and push start. and, i have it on auto-order, so i never run it.

dropps referral code! ($15 off a $30 order)

laundry soap: i’ve been making my own laundry soap for a few years now. i get a giant box of borax, a giant box of baking soda, and a few bars of castille soap (which comes in paper packaging). all the packaging is cardboard, and i just mix it all up in a giant bowl, stick it in a container, and it lasts me many many months. plus, you don’t have to use much. the worst part of it is grating the bar soap, but if you have a food processor, that makes easy work of that.

toilet paper: i tried a couple different brands of eco-friendly TP. it comes packaged in paper and is sourced from bamboo, which is much easier on the environment. the first brand i tried was “who gives a crap,” and while their marketing campaign is on point, their TP is not. or it’s too pointy. it’s rough and disintegrates easily. i tried out “reel” instead, and it is much better than who gives a crap. not exactly the same level as charmin ultra soft cushy bum TP, but if you’re looking for an eco-alternative, try out reel. the next time i order from them, i might get a couple rolls of their paper towels. (while i try to use cloth napkins, sometimes you just need a paper towel, like for cat barf.)

shampoo and conditioner: for the past year, i’ve used bar soap for washing my hair. i’ve tried ethique, which is super expensive, and i’ve tried minnesota-based hibar, also expensive. but for shampoo, i found that JRLiggets works just as fine for a fraction of the cost. it comes wrapped in paper and it lasts a few months. as far as conditioner, that is more difficult to come by, so i did stick with ethique for my conditioner. ethique also comes wrapped in paper. the downside to ordering the bar soap is that it may come in plastic packaging. ethique is based in australia, so they partner with amazon to sell in the US, and despite me directly contacting the bezos henchmen about my preference for cardboard, they still send me plastic. one thing i’ve noticed about moving to bar soap: my hair is a LOT lighter and a lot more flyaway-ish. i’m sure other shampoos were weighing down my hair, and this is a lot healthier. but now i’ve got to take more time to calm down the insane hair waves. OOOH it looks like they also launched a line of concentrates. i’ll have to check that out.

body soap: i haven’t used a bottle of body wash in years, at this point. i buy all my soap in bar form and make sure they’re packaged in paper. and i do buy soap made for washing your body, so it’s not harsh.

mascara: yep, i’ve even jumped on the mascara bandwagon! i got some besame cake mascara, which lives in a little tin. i use the mascara brush from my last tube of mascara, and every morning i wet the cake and put it on. i think it also helps keep away bacteria that like to fester in mascara tubes. i know you’re supposed to replace your mascara every few month because of that, and so far, i’ve been using besame for a lot longer than that. so i’ll spend the extra money. plus mascara is the only makeup i use regularly. it’ll probably even out in the long run.

face soap: i had been a neutrogena user for DECADES. but i decided to make the leap and am now using shae moisturize african black soap, made for sensitive skin. not only has it worked well, it smells great and has lasted me a long time. the most annoying part of it is that i keep it in the shower, and i sort of make a mess in the mornings when i pull it out to use at the sink instead of in the shower. but that’s ok.

deodorant: so HERE’s the interesting one! moving to a non-plasticized deodorant ALSO involved moving to a more natural deodorant. which meant a minor mindshift as far as how much i was allowed to sweat and smell like myself. about a year ago, i bought the ethique brand of natural deodorant. it was just a bar – no applicator – so it was kind of a pain to put on, especially as i got to the end of the bar. but, let me tell you a tmi story about my shift to non-aluminum deodorant. for many many years, i’ve had a bump on my right armpit that would just not go away. i don’t know if it was a permanently ingrown hair, backed up pore, or what. but it was annoying and it wasn’t pleasant smelling if i messed with it too much. after about 6 months of using my natural deodorant, the smelly bump disappeared!! i read up, and now i try to do a clay mask on my pit area once every couple weeks. it helps pull out smells that the aluminum deodorant had really been able to suppress and keep under wraps. if i skip a day, i can definitely tell. OK done with tmi, and back to review. the second brand i tried was native with the cardboard applicator, which wasn’t that much less expensive, but i can get it at target, and it works well. i tried out the brand raw sugar, and the smell was really overwhelming (unfortunately it was sealed and i couldn’t smell it in the store). then, i saw that secret had come out with a cardboard, natural version too. so that’s up next to try. NOTE on these deodorants: the smells are natural, so they are limited and unlike other deodorants. i’ve become ok with coconut, vanilla, and citrus to an extent. there are other scents like lavender and rose, lilac and white tea, herbal musk, cucumber, mint, etc. i don’t react well to florals, and some of the scents are strong, but they may work for you!

what’s next??

  • like i said, i want to try out reel’s paper towels.
  • i also need to take a look at what to do about my actual dishsoap and handsoap. maybe that ethique concentrate will be a good plan for those two.
  • then, there’s the matter of anti-wrinkle lotion for my face. i’ve got to do some research, but i might just continue on with paula’s choice. they have a deal with terracycle to take care of empties in an environmentally happy way.
  • then there’s a whole other issue with food and plastic packaging. that’s where the real waste is. what a mess!

in OTHER more inspiring news, there is a new type of plastic that is infinitely recyclable. good news! but this would require people to make sure to actually recycle it. keep it out of the dumpster, peeps!

expensive shorts: a review

expensive shorts: a review

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i grew up in a family needing to be frugal, with a propensity for instant gratification (last name starts with W – go check out the research on this). so my entire life consists of internal conflicts about things that i WANT vs. spending the money for these items. i have a winter parka that’s in its 9th winter and going strong. i also buy $150 running shoes twice a year. my jewelry is nothing extravagant or expensive. my camera gear is top notch. i have trouble justifying spending more than $20 on a pair of jeans, or any piece of clothing really, but i will gladly part with $75 for a nice meal with nate.

the mental gymnastics are really something else.

so, when i am in search of specific running gear, price is generally a mental hurdle i have to overcome.

especially when i find shorts with a long inseam in colors other than black (a rare find).

enter oiselle, a woman-owned company that makes clothing designed by women for women. i was intrigued if their shorts would be a utilitarian addition to my relatively cheap run wardrobe.

oh, and they have 6″ inseam running shorts that come in one of my favorite colors (evidenced by the matching phone case). (also, sorry for the bathroom pic – it’s the only place in my house with a full-length mirror.)

the bad news about these shorts? $62. yep, you heard that right. luckily, i had a coupon, but STILL. $62 for a pair of shorts??

besides the length and the color, these shorts have a couple other significant advantages:

1- CHECK OUT THIS POCKET.

not only is a SIDE pocket on a pair of women’s shorts with a ZIPPER, but check out the REAL ESTATE.

this pocket has more space than most of my pants pockets. my entire phone can fit in it and zip up!

2- the material is really nice. it’s soft and sort of flowy. while i was running, i kept waiting for the inside to ride up, as i expect with any sort of shorts, but they didn’t. i even spent some time deliberately trying to get them to ride up, and it just didn’t happen.

3- they are not high rise. holy cats, i hate trying to find shorts these days because everything is high rise. these are mid-rise; they sit below my belly button and stay there

4- have i mention that they’re orange?? usually the only fun colored short have a 2″ inseam, so this is amazing.

5- there were some arm warmers on clearance that i got at the same time (arm warmers are nice when it’s transition weather and you want to wear a tshirt or tank top but will have chilly arms for a bit). these were a more reasonable price and i didn’t feel bad spending the money on these.

check out the little birds on the warmers! they’re reflective! and they match the shorts! and those thumbholes! i do love me some thumbholes on running stuff.

oiselle sells more than just shorts – they’ve got sweatshirts, winter wear, wool shirts, tights, underwear, tanks, tshirts, sleepwear, etc. plus clearance stuff and a lot items that cheaper than $62 run shorts.

so, here’s a $20 coupon if you want to try them out! you get $20 off and i get $20 to spend in the future.

books of 2020

books of 2020

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every year i do the goodreads challenge, where you set a reading goal for yourself. you’d think that with a pandemic and all, it’d be easy to knock out a boatload of books this year, but i didn’t even make my challenge number, which was weeny since i set it before the pandemic (if pandemic had set in when i made my challenge, i might’ve failed hugely).

i set a goal of 55 books for the year and managed to get through 51 (a couple were rereads). but before i get all bent out of shape, i like to note that i’m a believer in the page count rather than book count. i read a lot of long books. sure, there are usually a couple shorties, but geez, a stephen king book is almost always more than 600 pages. so let’s take a look at that data first!

i really knocked it out of the park in 2016. i chalk it up to listening to audiobooks on my drives from southern mn to central mn during the four months of turbulence. oh, i also read a lot of stephen king that year.

so, what were my top books of 2020?

i have two favorites i read this year.

  1. where the crawdads sing by delia owens was my number one book this year. i inhaled this book. it was a mystery, an ode to the natural world, and just lovely. there are some dark sections (i’m ok with that). and one section that was so patronizing to couples who don’t have children (not really ok with that).  i hesitated reading this because for some reason i’m a book snob  (smut for one) and this book seemed to be super hyped up and put on every book club list. but there was a reason!
  2. the wanderers by chuck wendig was my number two book this year. totally different from crawdads, this is about preserving the human race from its annihilation in the event of a pandemic (wow, how apropos. i read this in early february!). don’t worry – this is different from “the stand”, which i also read again this year. why not read about pandemics that are SO MUCH worse when you’re amidst one? anyway, if you like some action/post-apocalyptic novel action, this book is wort the 782 (!) pages. (much shorter than the stand.)

those are my favorites this year. here’s the runners-up list.

  1. big summer by jennifer weiner. a nice beach thriller mystery read! i love her books and have read them all.
  2. book of two ways by jodi piccoult. see above about jennifer weiner – i have read all her books! this was a good book with lots of information about egyptian mythology with a weird twisty middle that made me laugh at her genius.
  3. the dead zone by stephen king. this book has entered my top five SK books! i thought it was great. it’s about a guy who gets a TBI and can see a person’s future just by touching them.
  4. leave it as it is by david gessner. gessner intertwines some biographical info about teddy roosevelt’s mission to create and bolster the national park system and his conservationist (almost) ways with his trip across the west in TR’s footsteps to several national parks. he also focuses on bears ears national park and really focuses on american indian perspective.
  5. the midnight library by matt haig. while this started off a little depressing, it turned into a lovely book of redemption with a really interesting premise of experiencing other lives you could have had.
  6. the four agreements by miguel ruiz. i picked this up because lesley fightmaster quoted 🙁 a lot from it. it’s short and small and gives guidance on how to live an authentic life. i underlined a lot in it, and i’m sure i’ll pick it up again and again.

books i expected a lot from that didn’t live up to the hype? (hmm… see i’ve just got to read hype-y books, i think.)

  1. the starless sea
  2. the ballad of songbirds and snakes (trying to give a more human background to cornelius snow just makes me hate him more)
  3. the bookish life of nina hill

i think if i want to read more books in 2021, i just need to start reading more fiction. i like to learn things, but nothing really prompts me to pick up a book like the storyline of a good piece of fiction. we’ll see how that pans out.

books i want to read in 2021?

  1. american dirt (this got a lot of good press then a lot of bad press, and now i think we’re back to good press. i’m going to borrow it from the library so i don’t give money to the author if it is back in bad press territory.)
  2. a promised land by barack obama. memoirs are as insatiable to me as fiction.
  3. we ride upon sticks – this is on my list because of a rave review of a blogger i’ve followed for 15 years.
  4. this books is anti-racist. i know this is not fiction and will probably make me learn, but it goes hand in hand with my “resolution” to do more antri-racist things
  5. in the same vein of nonfiction, i want to read something by wallace stegner.

is this the year i reread harry potter?

and when is the year i read all of stephen king in a row? (that is a huge commitment.)

yoga mat review take III

yoga mat review take III

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ah, we come upon the close of the yoga mat reviews! to recap:

i compared the natural rubber version of three mats: bmat, manduka, and hugger mugger. each of these mats cost $70-95, so i’d expect something magical from them.

the hugger mugger came in the mail on friday, and i immediately unfurled it and threw it on the floor to compare to the bmat, the clear winner in bmat vs. manduka.

first impressions? i like the color/design of the HM better – but that’s purely aesthetic.

the bmat is once again the winner on the width on this one, too. that extra 2″ – you just can’t beat that!

the HM is almost as sticky as the bmat, and much stickier than the manduka. it’s also a little bit cushier than the manduka, but not quite as cushy as the bmat. this is probably due to the fact that the bmat is 6mm and the other mats i got in its price range were 4 and 5mm.

but the HM is thicker than the manduka, that’s for sure. but bmat wins thickness, and since i do yoga on a wooden floor, i’ll take the cushier mat. i know there are some yogis who would rather have a more solid experience, but i’ll take the extra help for the knees.

so one thing i noticed on this one is how the mats are constructed. i wish i had taken note of this when i had the manduka, as well, but alas. take a look at how thick the construction of the mat is.

i can see why the bmat is certainly a better experience on the feet!

so, there is my final yoga mat review. rankings of the high-end natural rubber yoga mats:

3. manduka eko
2. hugger mugger para
1. bmat strong

if you’re ready to drop some dollars on a decent, long-lasting yoga mat, i recommend the bmat strong.

yoga mat review take II

yoga mat review take II

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because i know my father is waiting on pins and needles for this update, i thought i’d share as soon as i could.

i ordered manduka and hugger mugger yoga mats to compare to my bmat to make sure i made the right choice! today the manduka showed up on my doorstep.

i chose the eko version because that was the rubber equivalent in the manduka brand. i opened up both mats next to each other.

  1. i have to say, i like how the manduka looks compared to the bmat – the texture on the top just looks more appealing to me.
  2. but, when i stood on it, it did not feel cushy like the bmat does. it, quite frankly, didn’t feel much different than my $20 el cheapo mat that i’d been using for many years. now, the manduka was 1mm thinner than the bmat, but i don’t feel like the difference should have been as apparent as it was on my feet.
  3. the bmat is 2″ wider! that is nice. the two mats are the same length, so no real benefit either way on the length.
  4. then, i tried out a downward dog, and ho boy, that’s where the difference was. i was literally sliding out on the manduka – something i never had that bad with my el cheapo mat even. why was i paying $80 for this mat if i couldn’t even stay in a DD? no good. so then i hopped over to the bmat to make sure i wasn’t doing something weird, and i sure stuck the landing over there*.

so the manduka is going back for sure. i am glad that i tried it out though – that was the most recommended yoga mat online, and i would’ve always wondered if i hadn’t tried it. maybe it’s really good for hot yoga, or maybe there are people who like the extra challenge of staying in a down dog while sliding out. on a non-cushy surface.

but that person is not me.

now, my dad did say he was curious on the color, and while i’m ok with my choice of the green on the bmat, i think if i had to do it over, i’d get the earth rose.

but the green is fine! however, if i were to exchange this out for a longer version of the bmat, i would probably change out the color while i’m at it.

the hugger mugger mat comes on friday. review III to come this weekend.

*speaking of a sticky mat, last night i was doing my nightly yoga, and that mat is SO STICKY, that i caught the top of one of my toes on the mat and it was like stubbing it on the corner of the coffee table! ouch. i’ll have to weigh my best interests.

yoga mat review

yoga mat review

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i’ve been doing yoga pretty regularly for about 7 years. for the past couple years, i do yoga almost every day, with the average time i’m on the mat about 20 minutes (that’s the sweet spot for me). sometimes i do yoga for 10 mins, sometimes an hour. but most of the time it’s 20 minutes.

and you know what? that’s a lot of time with a piece of pvc separating me from the floor. like most people, i purchase yoga mats at a price point of less than $20. unfortunately, that’s the price point of a crappy pvc yoga mat.

over the years, i’ve had probably 5 mats. up until a week ago, i had four mats resting in the corner. one is sort of a memory foam; another is a longer mat than average (average is 68″, one inch shorter than i am tall); one is a stiff, hard mat with an odd texture that i bought based solely on color; and the last is a plain, average length, not very thick mat.

because of my hardwood floors, i have been doing yoga on two mats, with the long mat on top.

but the problem with pvc mats is that they start to fall apart.

which, on top of looking bad and creating less of a mat as time goes on, is no good for the environment!

so i started doing research on the best mat for everyday yoga use and for the environment. i wasn’t surprised that i would need to spend more than $20 on this mat.

i looked at manduka mats, which are regarded as one of the best high-end mats. their pro mat runs at $120 and 6mm thick, but is still pvc. they have a rubber mat in their eko line, but they’re not quite as thick and color selection was not that great.

i was also looking at hugger mugger but i couldn’t find anything that was what i was looking for.

then i ran across b-mat. it’s 6mm thick, 70″ long, and 26″ wide (standard is 24″). natural rubber, and a ton of color selections. i’d been pining after a green yoga mat for quite some time, so i chose the green (i was also eye an orangey-red one, but decided to go for calm over invigorating). it was $96 but i had a 15% off coupon, so do the math.

the green is more of a forest green than i was hoping for, but i do like color rather than a grey or black mat. (although my go-to mat up to now was purple.)

i’m still trying to figure out if i want to keep this one or try a manduka.

first impressions?

  1. it’s SUPER sticky. every pvc mat i’ve had is relatively ok when my hand and feet are apart. i’m always about 90% confident that i’m going to slip when i’m in wide-legged forward fold (Prasarita Padottanasana). on this mat, i am SOLID. i am not moving. and i realized tonight that that means i’ll have less stress on my wrists because i feel more confidents in moving weight to other parts of my hands because i’m not going to slip.
  2. is it TOO sticky? tonight i was doing a little bit faster flow, and moving my foot from up front to back to plank, it got a bit stuck. but if the edge of my foot getting held up a bit means less stress on my wrists and less worry about slipping, maybe that’s ok.
  3. it gets dirty. fast. and it’s hard to get clean. cat fur gets stuck to it and i can’t wipe it off. i think i need to get one of those small bristle brooms to clean off my mat. the instructions for the mat say that it should get less dirty as time goes by. fair.
  4. i can’t feel the floor. on my pvc mats, i stand and my feet can feel the floor through the mat. i feel nothing but rubber on this one.
  5. but i’m not sure how i feel about knee support yet. i sometimes put a block under my knees and i’ve used extra mats under the knees too. but i need another go at some low lunges to see how that goes.

i can see why people spend money on mats. it’s like spending money on shoes and mattresses – things that separate you from the floor. i’m going to use this one for another week or so and see if it is what i’m looking for! i actually could go for a mat that’s extra long at this point. i like the width on this one, but even the extra 3″ is good, but may not be quite enough.

if i get another mat, i’ll be leaving another review! so far, i do know that my next mat definitely will not be pvc.