Things you should know before reading this blog:

Things you should know before reading this blog:
Bikram yoga is hard. I know I'm weakling and whine about everything but this is seriously not some girly cop-out excuse for exercising. Its not for the faint of heart! Bikram yoga, commonly known as hot yoga, earned it's name. Over the course of 90 minutes there are 26 postures (each is done twice) that are practiced in 105-110 degree studios with speaking instruction from a certified Bikram teacher. If you weigh yourself before and after a class, you're likely to see a 3-5 pound difference. Granted, its just water weight, but still that's a lot of sweat. By the end of class, you'll look like you just took a shower. Not only is it extremely hot in the room but the postures themselves are hard. When I begin my first class, there will probably only be 5 or 6 postures I can hold correctly without taking "beginners shortcuts" (bent knees, unlocked elbows, shortened stretches, etc). It takes so much strength, endurance, and patience to do things like kick your foot over your head and hold it there for thirty seconds without falling & knocking everyone in the room down like a domino. I'll get there... hopefully. In the meantime I'll be the tall brunette laying flat on the mat like a dead man, sweating my ass off.

So what's a 30 day challenge?
A 30 day challenge is the Iron Man of Bikram. Basically it entails daily practice, every single day, consecutively, for thirty days. By agreeing to a 30 day, you're agreeing to never miss a class. Ever. Now, the yoga community is pretty understanding that maybe there might be something during your 30 days that comes between you and your yoga class. Miss a class? Fine. Take 2 the next day to make up for the one you missed. Good luck with that. My 30 day starts Jan 31 and ends on Mar 1.

Why am I documenting this?
Well I wanted a way to see how much progress I'll make by the end. I dont think my fellow yoga do-ers would appreciate me bringing a friend into yoga to take pictures for me... Nor do I particularly want my picture taken in the hot room (talk about unflattering) so I'll keep track of everything via this blog. But of course its also just so you, my lovely family and friends, can follow me through the ups, downs, bends, and twists of my very own 30 day challenge. Really, I'm so excited to watch my own personal progress through improving the postures and gain all the health benefits that Bikram is so famous for. Yes I'm somewhat forced to keep record of this so I can present my results in June but I'll try my best and keep it interesting despite all the whining and moaning that's bound to happen. Good, bad, and ugly.. What's the worst that can happen in 30 days??

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

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!
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