30 Day Wrap Up

I survived my 30 day challenge!
I feel like I have 26 new best friends. Through these last 30 days I’ve gotten to know these 26 postures intimately. I knew them before, but not like I do now. We’ve done a lot together through just starting out, falling to illness, recovering and finally making improvements. It’s through these postures that I’ve become better acquainted with myself. I’m much more aware of each part of my body than I was before. For instance, I knew I held a lot of tension in my shoulders, but never noticed how much it can throw my whole body out of balance, or where I store other emotions. Truthfully, I thought that was all a little bit hokey before. I dismissed yoga because I wasn’t really into meditation and getting in touch with my inner whatevers. I didn’t like sitting perfectly still. My only previous yoga experience was a class I took in college that was really boring. And none of the classes I've taken at Hart Yoga have been boring.

You may not know this, but I was once an athlete. I played ice hockey and a number of other sports. I was lucky in that where I played there was a great focus on maintaining athletes and preventing injuries, and as such there was always an emphasis on stretching before and after working out. This is a practice I have actively maintained since leaving high school, though I haven’t necessarily maintained being active. Thanks to this habit of stretching, I started yoga with an amount of flexibility. Not a large amount, but something to build on so I was not completely miserable. Through this challenge my biggest hurdle was overcoming the lack of strength I had, especially in my legs for balancing.

I was just looking through some photos we took, and I’m amazed at the progress I’ve made, that I’m still making. These are not “after” photos, I guess they're "midway" photos.

TRIANGLE:



I'm definitely getting my hips lower and holding this posture longer. The inner thighs may be screaming now, but they'll appreciate it later!

HALF MOON:



My shoulders are getting more stacked - I think I was in this posture more in class. If you notice, my hands aren't quite right, so I wasn't pulling and stretching my side as much. But either way, this one's going pretty well. Oh! And check out the back bend:



I'm really proud at how much this one has improved, and a little sad that I didn't take pictures earlier. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I've suffered from minor back pain for a long time, and I didn't think my back would ever be able to handle bending this far without me being unable to walk the next day. The spine strengthening series has helped me tremendously to improve my posture and in general handle my every day life of sitting at a desk.

My other major improvement is in Standing Bow. I'm really proud at how far I've come, since before I couldn't even balance, let alone kick my leg up and back. So here's the before and midway (I definitely have a long way to go!) [also, funny how the color of the wall changes from day to night]


I'm kicking my leg MUCH higher, and I could fairly easily be reaching forward more (yay for taking pictures!) As you can see, my standing knee still hyper-extends a fair amount, but not as badly as it used to. I think doing Yin Yang and Vinyasa helped open my hips and stretch my thighs enabling this posture and triangle to improve greatly. Just being able to balance for the majority of this posture is amazing.

Speaking of, I didn't do any pictures of non-bikram postures, but I've definitely been improving in the other classes as well. I admit I favor the steady, unchanging posture series, possibly because I can easily see measured improvement. But I also really enjoy trying new things in the Vinyasa and Yin Yang class, so hopefully in the future I'll take some pictures of those classes as well. I also am incredibly appreciative that Hart Yoga offers these class variations.

Some unintended side effects of doing yoga everyday:
- I do laundry every day. Since I only have a couple of outfits comfortable for the hot room and flexibility, and only the one yoga towel, I have to wash clothes often. So the laundry is almost all caught up, even if the folding isn't.

- According to husband-elect, I'm "very flexible in more ways than one", which apparently means I'm more comfortable varying my dinner time schedule (you thought he meant something else, didn't you?). And I possess greater patience when things don't go my way. Who knew that could ever happen.

- I stay up later and have more energy when I get home after class, but I still get the proper amount of sleep (most nights, at least)

- I'm happier with my body. Yes, I've lost a few pounds (6) and a few inches (2 inches from my waist, 1 inch from my hips, 1.5 inches from my thigh, and half an inch from my upper arm), and gained whole bunches of muscle, but after being in that hot room every day, I'm much more comfortable with me the way I am. Or at least I'm uncomfortable being too covered and stifled by lots of clothing.

Admittedly, my challenge was a bit unorthodox since I took a week off in the middle while I was sick. I think it both help and hurt me. I lost some of the momentum I had, but my glutes and thighs were getting very painful and it's possible if I had pushed through I could have injured myself. Instead, I was immobilized for at least 4 days, exercising my lungs by coughing. But I think being sick propelled the second half of my challenge to even greater heights. I came back with much more energy and drive than I had before. I was more appreciative of my healthy body and eager to stay healthy and fit.

I'm not a person who lets go of things easily. I hold grudges for a long time, I keep hoping for the impossible, and I try to control the uncontrollable. This sets me up for a lot of disappointment. I think what I gained the most from this challenge is the ability to just be. For 90 minutes each day I could go into a hot room with a wall of mirrors and watch myself struggle through these postures while looking a sweaty mess. This may not sound appealing, but it really was the best part of my day. Because for 90 minutes I wasn't thinking about anything except how to do the posture I was doing, or possibly thinking ahead to the next posture. I wasn't thinking about what bills needed to be paid, what pet needed to go to the vet, what mistakes I made at work, how much cleaning needed to be done at home, how much wedding planning needed to be done, what food I needed to eat, or how much weight I need to lose. For 90 minutes every day I could let go of all of that and just be me.

Back in the Game!!

I tried the Barney Stinson approach to illness, which is: "Whenever I start feeling sick, I just stop being sick and be awesome instead. True story." It didn't really work.

But today I was awesome! I was a rock star! Well, a drug addicted rock star who comes on stage all amped up, sings through the songs too fast, and nearly passes out halfway through the show. I started out great! I could breathe! And I rocked Half Moon and the back bend - best ever!

Then I did ok at some other things. Still working on balancing and locking my leg out without hyper-extending my knee. I had a few fantastic seconds of Standing Bow where I actually "got" the posture. Somehow it finally clicked, "Oh, right, kick UP and back." I feel like I've been mostly kicking back and trying to pull my leg up.

And then came standing separate leg Forehead to Knee. I won't lie, I was a little afraid of this pose after doing it sick. But I was ready to push through until my face started tingling and I realized my breath was nowhere near controlled. So I sat down. I realized I had limits and took a few moments to catch my breath, then jumped back in for the second set.

Which brings us back to the drug addicted rock star. During this plague I suffered through, sudafed and mucinex became my bestest friends. And since I was going to be doing a lot of breathing tonight, I decided not to give up on my friends just yet, and took a sudafed about an hour and a half before class. It did not dry out my nose as hoped, but my throat was like the desert. And then the hearburn! I'm assuming it was caused by the sudafed. A few weeks ago, I'm not sure if I mentioned this, I took Midol before class and then suffered the WORST HEARTBURN EVER. Even worse than that time I had a frozen burrito for lunch before class. So here's a lesson for you:

DON'T TAKE DRUGS BEFORE YOGA.

That probably shouldn't have been a lesson that took me so long to learn. Let the hot room and the humidity and the yoga do their jobs. Let them stretch out those cramps. Let them clear out your nasal passages. Know your limits. If you're not well enough to go to class - then don't go. Take a day off and get back to the studio when you feel up to it. Otherwise, you're going to be trying to get through the spine strengthening series without throwing up.

Even through I tried to cheat, the yoga definitely worked! I felt energized and able to breathe at the end of class! I was really worried about the time I took away from yoga to recuperate and how I might be starting back at the beginning. That's definitely not the case. Yes, there were things I struggled with tonight, but there were many times where I felt like I was picking up right where I left off.

Start of Week 2!

Whenever I've gotten the urge to start working out every day, right about now is when I would normally give up. I'm tired. I'm sore. I don't wanna. But I committed to 30 days, and I'm going to keep going! Besides, it's just one more day, and then I get Friday off!

Today was the hottest class I've been to yet! Vicki said we were up to 105!! Overall, I thought the standing series went by fairly quickly, and by then it was feeling stifling. At first I was really happy to have the fans on, and then I quickly realized they're just blowing hot air around :P But it felt good. Like a tropical vacation.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly tiny. Or even medium. I'm pretty big. There are some postures where flexibility isn't as much of a problem as my overall mass is. Sometimes my bulky thighs get in the way, sometimes my belly, and very often my boobs.

When I first started, my boobs got in the way a lot. I'm carrying 38 D's in front of me, and when you're trying to stand with your forehead on your knee and your throat choked, those things are trying their hardest to suffocate you. But I learned with some little modifications (basically trying to get my chin between them) that I could hold the pose just fine.

I'm a stomach sleeper, so generally the floor series doesn't bother me, but it REALLY did today! I was more focused on the fact that I was squishing my boobs and they kinda hurt than I was on anything else.

But since yoga is all about focusing on the positives, I can tell you that I rocked half moon today! And I went further back on the back-bend than I have yet.

I also did better with balancing stick. I'm learning that I need not to clench my toes, and I'll be able to ground down through my whole foot and maintain better balance. This will help a lot with standing bow, too. I love that the Bikram series seems to build on itself. To help keep my legs locked and maintain balance, I need to loosen my hamstrings and strengthen my quads, which just about every posture in the standing series helps you work on in different ways. Definitely felt the quads burning in Awkward pose! My hamstrings are definitely looser than when I first started, and I think my quads are coming along too, because the balancing is definitely getting better.

Tonight was also a very happy group of people! What a great way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day :D

Day 2 - Helpful Talking

Perhaps I started out too strong yesterday :P Today was still good, I just didn't feel as great as I did yesterday.

I drank more water today, but still not quite enough. Perhaps tomorrow I will implement a trick used by bartenders far and wide to get customers to drink more - the straw. Tomorrow is my off day, but with class at 10am on Saturday, I need to make sure I'm hydrated in advance!

For those who have never been to a hot hatha/Bikram style class before, one thing that really separated the class from other yoga classes for me was the amount of talking the instructor (in this case, Vicki) did throughout the class. It does two things that I appreciate: it keeps me out of my own head, and gives me constant advice to make me better. Although, there are times (like tonight during Eagle) where I'm just thinking "shut up! shut up! shut up!", not because I want to do the posture in silence, but because I just want it to be over :) In Eagle you have to twist and balance, both at the same time and I'm not good at either of those things. Wait for the day I successfully do this - you might hear some joyful screaming, you will definitely see dancing. Well, after the soreness wears off.

Half Moon went really well for me tonight. It was an example of how the continual instruction helps! Small adjustments made throughout made a big difference, so that by the end I was stretching as far as I could and feeling a good stretch rather than feeling pain from collapsing too far on one side without supporting myself.

I know I mentioned Rabbit yesterday, but it made me laugh tonight because as I was coming out of Rabbit, I noticed my upper abs were really sore and I wondered when that happened. Right at that moment, Vicki asked if I had felt something and I was caught off-guard and just said, "Ok, I guess." Maybe my face said I was feeling something, maybe Vicki can read minds. Vicki often mentions pulling in your stomach to protect your lower back, and since my lower back often needs protecting I tried to do that more and more this evening, and I'm definitely feeling it now! I hope to feel it more and more as the weeks go on!

Stay tuned for day 3! If all goes to plan, there will be some pictures of yours truly!

Day 1 - A Good Start

My first day of the 30 day challenge was a big success! A very wise person recently told me that yoga isn't about being the best or the most flexible, but about your own personal improvements and doing better than you did last time. Nothing highlights this better than being in class next to the super bendy Lexie. I even found myself watching her in awe during standing bow pulling pose as she easily kicked her leg into quite possibly a standing split. Meanwhile, I was struggling to stand on one leg while holding the other. Lexie is so talented (and such a nice person), she definitely gives me some inspiration to keep improving!

I went into class with sore shoulders and upper back. I don't have serious back pain, but I often have back aches - the product of sitting in a crappy office chair for the majority of the day. But working through the ache to stretch and improve the muscle had me feeling much better by the end of class.

I definitely struggled a little bit less than I have recently, and I heard, "Nice job, Mel" from Vicki a few times. I always love that little bit of encouragement, even if it comes 1 second before falling out of a pose. And especially when it comes during a pose I don't quite "get" (I'm looking at you, Rabbit).

I was not as hydrated as I should have been going into class, and since it was a 7pm class I have no good excuse for that! So today I'm starting right off drinking my water instead waiting until noon and only having a couple of glasses. Perhaps tonight I won't have to stop to get a drink of water quite so often.

Having class at 7pm was a bit of a struggle for me since I get out of work at 5:15 and I had some time to kill and some hunger to overcome. But it was worth it to practice with such a great group of people and get this challenge started off on a positive note.

I slept very well last night, and even woke up concerned this morning that our naughty kitty had let me sleep so well :) Today, my hips are kind of sore, especially my right hip. My back feels less sore than it did yesterday, so hopefully I can improve my posture throughout the day and keep it feeling that way. And my arms are tired. Overall, I'm energized and ready for day 2!! (We'll see if that keeps up for day 12 and beyond!)