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??

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Day 4

Nothing of interest and no good pictures. Plus, this post is coming about 12 hours late. Was really tired when I woke up this morning. Didn't give myself enough time to wake up and drink enough before class. For some reason, I dont know if it was just me, but the hot room felt like it was hotter than the depths of hell this morning. I honestly dont think there was any oxygen in that room. I sat out through one set of triangle and one set of balancing stick but I tried for one set of each and I still can not do either one of them. And I couldn't breathe. Ugh, this morning kinda sucked. I had to pee too and that was all I could think about through the floor series. So rare to even have to pee while in the hot room cause usually you sweat it all out. Came home, showered, and crawled back into bed and slept it off. When I woke up, I jumped out of bed in panic because I thought it was the next morning and I was sleeping through yoga. I can tell thats going to be my new fear on the weekends- sleeping through class. I'm going to try and go to the 4pm on sundays in the future instead of the 10am because morning classes really never go well and I dont want to get discouraged after a bad morning class. I didnt do the 4pm today because of the SuperBowl and even though the morning class didn't go well I'm glad I did it at 10am because I had a lot of fun tonight that made up for a pretty rough morning. I ate a donut for the first time in 1,000 years.... yum.:)

My breakfast before class. An apple, a banana, half an english muffin with pb (au naturale) and my own personal favorite-- a bowl of plain greek yog sprinkled with cinnamon and drizzled with honey for dipping the fruit. So yummy and at 0 fat its a much better protein than dipping fruit in pb. 

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