NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Over the last few years, yoga pants have made their way from the ashram to the forefront of everyday fashion and everyday life. For investors, it's a tough call on whether or not the style is just a trend or something greater and investible. Wall Street has fallen victim to such trends in the past, and the strength of the concept is debatable. Based on online search indications, I predict strong sales and demand for yoga clothing companies this holiday season.

Lululemon Athletica (LULU) was among the first on the scene for both investors and consumers. The company leads the yoga apparel market. A number of competitors, including Nike (NKE), Under Armour (UA) and Gap's (GPS)Athleta, have moved in to compete for market share. The Street has debated the severity of this competition for years; it seems that at this point, every brand is winning.

I'm always looking for unique and underused tools to determine company and brand strength.Over the last couple of months I've started using Google (GOOG) Search Interest as a barometer for brand strength, and have found some success personally. The numbers on the graph reflect how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time.

Below let us take a look at the relative search interest on Google for the keywords "yoga pants" over time.

The above chart was created using the Google Trends tool. Since 2011, the relativesearch interest for yoga pants skyrocketed. Since then, interest for the product continued on a steady path upward. A score of 100 represents the highest recorded level of interest for the keywords. Since pulling back earlier this year, interest for yoga pants surged again to highs. In November, a score of 85 was registered. Google expects a reading of 90 in December.

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Yoga Goes From Spiritual Quest to Clothing Trend

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro $929.00

The Yoga 2 Pro combination laptop/tablet is a superior experience in either role, and its ultra-high-resolution display is awesome. But the dual design slightly compromises the typing experience.

Lenovo has come darn close to creating the perfect laptop/tablet combo design with its 3-pound, $1000-plus IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro. It brings Windows users a better-than-Retina display, has speed to spare, is sturdily constructed, and is remarkably thin for a dual-role design. The only thing missing is Lenovo's famously excellent typing experience.

The first thing you'll notice when you boot a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is how silky, yet sharp everything on the screen appears. Even putting your eyes right up to the display, it's extremely difficult to spot the gaps between pixels. That's what happens when you put 4,560,000 (3800 by 1200) pixels in a mere 13.3-inch diagonal space. Movies, text, iconswow. Aside from the glare produced by the touchscreen glass, it doesn't get any better.

The Yoga 2 Pro's 3200-by-1800 pixel display is a joy to work on.

The Yoga 2 Pro sports double-jointed hinges that allow the display to flip 360 degrees for use as a tablet. Since it's only 0.61-inch thick, it doesn't feel as awkward in that role as previous convertibles I've tested have. The design also lends itself to being propped open with the keyboard portion serving as base or kickstand. Flip it on end, and you can use it on a desk or table in portrait orientation as well. The Yoga 2 is currently available with a silver-gray or clementine-orange upper shell.

The very thin Yoga 2 doesn't have a whole lot of space for ports and switches. Indeed, the power switch on the front right (in laptop mode) is about as tiny as you'll find on a laptop. The only thing tinier is the Novo button next to it that initiates recovery operations when pressed to start the unit.

Tent mode takes great advantage of Windows 8's touch-oriented user interface.

The right side also has the screen-orientation lock, the volume rocker button, a headset jack, and an always-on USB 2.0 port. The left side has a USB 3.0 port, a mini-HDMI port, and an SD memory card slot. The Yoga 2 has 802.11 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, but the Wi-Fi is only 802.11b/g/n, not the newer, faster 802.11ac, which may cause regret in the future. There's no ethernet port, so you'll need a USB adapter if you need to work tethered.

Our review configuration came running Windows 8.1, with a Core i5-4200 CPU, 4GB of DDR3/1600 RAM, and a 128GB Samsung SSD as core components. A number of configurations are available, with the beefiest model on Lenovo's site sporting a Core i7-4500U and a 512GB SSD for $1500.

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Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro review: Great performance and a better-than-Retina display

I honour the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells. I honour the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light and of peace. I honour the place in you if youre in that place in you and Im in that place in me and theres only one of us ~ Namaste

What starts out for most as a physical practice, slowly becomes a mental practice, said Kezia Tatton, yoga instructor at Yoga Shala in Port Elgin in an interview last week.

The 23-year-olds yoga journey started when she was 15 and took her first class with her mother.

I was having a pretty rough time and not really enjoying the whole high school experience, explained Tatton. So my mom got me into yoga and that helped me to find who I was; helped me get into a more confident self.

In Sanskrit, yoga is to yoke or bind and is often interpreted as union or a method of discipline.

Yoga to me is that mixture, that connection you get with your mind and your body, Tatton said.

What yoga did for me was give me a connection between my crazy teenage hormonal mind and my body, she explained. Once you get into the classes and start your breathing, you start to feel more relaxed. It brings you to the connection so your brain and your bodys actually start talking to each other and you really start evaluating the way youre feeling.

Tatton was practicing regularly during high school, and what was once just an activity she did with her mom, became her passion.

It was my personal escape, she said.

This then gave Tatton the courage to do yoga teachers training. While writing in her journal in Feb. 2008, she wrote down that she wanted to go to Yandara Yoga Institute in Baja, Mexico and made it her goal.

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Yoga: more than just poses

WHY not try purple leggings for asanas?

The yoga room in the iconic residence of architect Lorenzo Calma overlooks the swimming pool and the sculptural tropical foliage. The gentle sounds of water gushing from the spout of the roof can be heard while his daughter, Lorena, chants Om and sacred Sanskrit verses.

Her hatha yoga class is all about relaxationlots of meditation in repose, traditional poses held for a minute with coordinated breathing and thoughtful pauses between each position.

Weary of the intense materialism in America, designer Lorena Calma chucked in her Balenciagas and Blahniks for ashram cottons and scrubs. She gave up her position as design director for Gap International, handling the UK and Japanese markets, to become a hatha yoga proponent.

It was but logical for her to develop her own yoga line.

Yoga is my life. I totally transformed in the past four years, says the younger Calma, wearing a yellow bamboo T-shirt which she designed, plus off-white drawstring pants.

Top houses

Calma acquired a degree in fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology and studied tailoring and art at Polimoda in Florence, Italy. She worked as assistant designer for top fashion houses such as Calvin Klein, Kenzo, Valentino menswear and Emmanuel Ungaro and, finally, as design director for Gap.

Designing in Corporate America was not what I had in mind, she says. Youre confronted with the reality that its a business, not art. Students in fashion are not made to understand that. The reality of fashion in America is that you need to surviveto sell and to merchandise. I wasnt excited about that part.

STRETCHABLE cotton-blend tees hug the torso while the shorts dont bunch up while working out.

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Lorena Calma ditches the NY fashion world–and discovers bliss in yoga

CATHLEEN MARIE WILLIAMS, 1950-2013

BLADE STAFF

Cathleen Marie Williams, 63, a provider relations specialist for Paramount Health Care who formerly worked with senior citizens, died Thursday in her home.

Her son, Pete Clark, said she died in her sleep in her home in Berkey from an apparent heart attack.

Mrs. Williams had worked for Paramount Health Care in Maumees Arrowhead Park. She had been employed 13 years for the firm as a provider relations specialist, a position that sprang from previous jobs in health care.

She loved her job. She liked the people she worked with. She liked traveling to the different sites she was sent, Mr. Clark said.

Mrs. Williams met her husband, Dr. James Williams, a dentist, through Paramount.

They were married in May, 2009, but had been together since 2005. Dr. Williams died in 2011.

The former Cathleen Lowe, she was born Sept. 6, 1950, in Cleveland. She graduated from Brush High School.

She continued her education at Kent State University, where she studied art history and art education. She transferred to the University of Toledo after she married David W. Clark. They were married from April 18, 1970, to Sept. 25, 1986.

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Berkey woman worked for Paramount

Bases Laded Winter Camps

Current and former area high school baseball coaches Rob Johnson (WFHS), Scot Green (Rider), Terry Wolf (Holliday) and Kyle Sims (Henrietta) will be hosting Bases Loaded Winter Camps. Other camp instructors will be Diamondbacks minor leaguer Chase Anderson, Oklahoma States Gage Green and Seminole States Joe Dell Williams.

Pitching/catching camps will be held Jan. 11-12 for ages 6-12 (9 a.m.-noon) and ages 13-18 (1-4 p.m.).

The camps will be held at Henriettas indoor batting facility next to the high school. One camp session will cost $50 and two camp sessions will cost $ 90. For more information, contact camp coordinator Scott Williams at 580-421-4610.

Titans Baseball Tryouts

The Premier Titans Summer Baseball Program will be holding tryouts on Jan. 18-19 at 1 p.m. at Henrietta High School. The tryouts are for high school baseball players only. For more information, contact Don Patty 940-631-8186, Scot Green 940-224-9213 or Kyle Sims 940-257-1110.

Hamilton Park Tennis

These are some of the activities at Hamilton Park Tennis Center:

Junior Academy Program: year-round junior development groups for players of all levels.

Academy Levels: Level 1 (advanced beginner through lower intermediate) Monday through Wednesday, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Cost is $72 per month. Levels 2 and 3 (upper intermediate through super champ) Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 5:30 to 6:45 p.m.; $90 per month.

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Community calendar (Dec. 16)