Done!!!

I took two classes on wednesday so that thursday morning would be my 30th class. Im so happy to have completed it! My post on wednesday pretty much sums up my entire challenge, but I just wanted to say one last thank you to everyone for their help and support, especially Pubali, Mindy, Lauren, Natalie, Jenny, Jess, and Mike from the studio. Couldn't have done it without fabulous teachers!

Hallelujah! I did it!!!!

Day 28

I did a double today, which makes tomorrow my 30th class rather than friday. One more class! Can you believe??

This is from my tumblr blog and I was going to type up a different one for this blog out of fear of being too personal, but i felt that it was a good way to wrap it all up. I did it!!

as my 30 day bikram yoga challenge winds to a close,

ive had a lot of people ask me what changes i’ve noticed, if im going to keep up with it, etc. 

it was hard. it was really f'ing hard and there were days where i seriously considered throwing it all away and making up my entire project but i didnt. i only purposefully skipped one day and i made up for it with a double. because of outstanding circumstances, i missed 3 others, and i made up for those with doubles too. that was probably the hardest part of the whole thing. i sacrificed 99% of my life to my yoga project this past month. i gave up school for yoga. i gave up doing things with friends for yoga. i gave up my job for yoga. i gave up eating (kinda... you saw the froyo.) for yoga. i gave up hair and makeup for yoga. i definitely gave up sleeping for yoga. so, what was the point? what did i gain? i’ll tell you, the satisfaction of finishing a seemingly impossible task. and this just didnt happen at the end of my thirty day challenge. i got this feeling of pride at the end of every class. the yoga never got easier. and it neeeever will. i just got better.

everyone’s biggest question is whether or not i lost weight. i refuse to weigh myself so i cant accurately answer this. but the body i walked into class with on january 31 is not the body that is typing this today. that body couldnt hold a balancing pose. that body couldnt lift a leg in locus. not to invite you all to my personal pity party, but i hated that body. what do you honestly thing was the driving force behind this project? changing my body. yes, obviously, there was a passion and dedication for the practice, but what i really wanted was a new body. i’m so done with that stage of starving and eating gross nasty bird food just to try and be stick thin and delicately boney. i want to be strong, sexy, powerful, toned. its still a work in progress but its worlds away from where i started. theres still things that jiggle and there probably always will be, hahaha. but i dont look in the mirror and hate it anymore. i dont pick myself apart anymore. when youre forced to stare at your almost naked body in a mirror for 90 minutes a day, you better learn to love it. to answer questions about how my body has changed, i am now more toned in my legs, back, bum, and i dont have to push as hard to make my abs show up. but thats not what i care about anymore. i thought that weight loss was going to be a big part of the goal for me. but the truth of it is that i finally see everything that my body can do, everything that it is, rather than everything that it isn’t. its not about a number. i did things in those yoga classes that i never would’ve dreamed of doing a month ago. if you had told me that i was going to stick it out and actually complete 30 bikram classes in 30 days, i would’ve thought you were crazy. i’ve never played a sport in my life. this was so far out of my comfort zone.

aside from the satisfaction and pride i gained from completing my challenge, i gained self-worth, determination, self control, focus, and strength. i finally have something that is my own, and i’ve gotten pretty good at it. i didn’t give up when it got hard and i didn’t get frustrated when i wasn’t the best in the class. yoga taught me that if you’re practicing correctly, you won’t even notice what the people around you are doing. and if you do, it will only drive you to be better, never to give up. 

even though tomorrow is the last day of my challenge, it wont be my last day of practice. i might take a week off to give my body a break but i’m going to try and get in the studio at least twice a week from here on out. everyday wasnt realistic, but I’m not going to throw away all of my hard work of the past month just because the challenge is over. im finally getting good! plus, i love the teachers and regulars too much to give it all up. the hot room is my happy place, can you believe that? i never expected to hear those words come out of my mouth.

thank you to all who supported me and listened to me bitch this past month. i know i complained a lot more than i raved, but i made up for it when i started ranting like a crazed obsessed yogi. tomorrow i will step out of yoga a completed 30 day challenger. and then i will eat a donut. and then i will blog again one final time. i can't thank everyone enough for actually even reading these because if it wasnt for this blog i wouldnt have anyone to hold me accountable for the work. i'm so happy i could cry!

Day 27

Maybe I should invest in froyo.

I did another back to back double yesterday! So now I am right on track with 27 classes in 27 days. I did a 3 and a 5pm which feels like an eternity because I left my house at 2:15 and wasn't home until 7:00. Thank god most of my friends and my boyfriend are on vacation and I have nothing better to do except spend my whole day at the studio. Two days in a row of doubles is kind of rough but I just try not to think about it. I think I pace myself pretty well when it comes to doubles, like I know not to try too hard in my first class because I have a whole class to do right after. Taking 4 yoga classes in 2 days was a lot. I'm really sore today and I havent felt like this since like my first week. My back is killing me. I cant really remember anything from class thats worth talking about because I feel like I was in my own little world. I do so much yoga that listening to the dialogue isnt even necessary anymore because I hear it in my sleep so usually I just zone out and go through the motions. Its kind of nice though. Except yesterday I was so far off in la-la land that I went to sit on my feet for final breathing in the firm pose and out of habit started to pull my towel over my feet like for rabbit. Yoga brain!!

Day 26

I got another double out of the way today.. I woke up and did the 9:30am which surprisingly wasn't too bad even though it was a morning class. Now that I can set up the postures correctly, i'm starting to dislike parts of the floor series as much as the standing series. They weren't actually supposed to be easy all along, I was just doing them wrong. 

Nine West shoes I bought today made
my day much, much better.

I went shopping with Marissa all day and ate giant burritos and made it back for the 6:30 pm class. Since it was such a long break in between it really wasn't that bad except for the guy in front of me was flinging sweat everywhere and just typing this I am gagging it was repulsive and awful and at one point I wanted to barf watching it fly around him. I don't know how the woman next to him survived, I really truly dont. 

Day 25

Today's 4pm made up for yesterdays class. I held my foot up in balancing stick, held my balance in standing bow, and didnt even sit out for triangle. Today's class was really good. Today's class reminded me why I am doing this project. Tomorrow I might try and get another double over with, I dont know yet though.

Hey girl hey
 I was the first one in class so hell ya I took a selfie
Could you imagine if anyone had walked in? How embarrassing 

Day 24

I did an 8am Saturday morning which is equivalent to walking into hell and selling yourself to the devil himself and no I am not exaggerating. I woke up SO GRUMPY didnt even want to move, bitched and moaned about how I should give up now and lie about my the rest of my thirty day challenge (no one was even awake to listen). Stuffed a banana and a greek yog in my mouth (remember what I said about eating dairy before class? why don't i take my own advice?) and then ate these disgusting crackers that I grabbed without looking in the car on the way there. I'm not kidding you I'm trying to find a picture of the brand online but I cant remember what it was. They were like almond crackers or something and I thought "Oh! Almonds! Protein! These'll work!" No. Wrong. Wrong Wrong. I literally exclaimed out loud in my car (am I admitting to talking to myself?):  "these are {expletive} DISGUSTING."

I have never sat out more times during a class than I did yesterday morning. I tasted those almond crackers long after I was done eating them, let me just say. Is my 30 days over yet?

Day 23

The nail art gods are siiii-iiinging!
Thank you Victor, you are da bomb

Oops I accidentally skipped yoga to get my nails done. (It wasnt an accident) (He's really hard to make an appointment with) (I had to).
Fridays are bad enough with school and work so oh well if I skipped yoga. I'll do another double this week to make up for it.

Oh yeah, and I went back to Sweet Kiwi.
Again.