After day 42, I admit it, I am tired. I don’t want to be tired. I like the daily practice. In my head, I want to keep going and going on this extended challenge. I want to do 50 days and then extend it to 100 days and then maybe do 365 days of yoga. The reality is, I am tired. It is the sort of tired that doesn’t seem to go away. As I am better at yoga, I work harder, try harder classes, and my body pushes more and more. And I am tired and I don’t know how to get un-tired. I am also noticing the impact of me devoting so much time and energy to something in my home. It is messy. The boys have been busy and between me being tired and the boys being busy our home needs some attention. All that said, I am not sure if this will all work its way out and I will be able to keep going. There is something about the daily practice that really works for me. I don’t know if I have ever done anything for 50 days straight before (other than school and my parents got me there every day). I feel empowered and I love seeing the changes happening to my body. It feels so good. As far as weight loss goes, I can report I am down 10 pounds. I check daily to see where I have new muscles showing up. I am most impressed by the muscles in my back, forearms, hamstrings, and belly. I am still wondering if my triceps are getting enough workout and I think my calf muscles are smaller than when I started. They may just be well stretched and not as “tight” as before. My state of mind is solid, even though I have been feeling the stress of our busy lives. **My initial 21 day yoga challenge turned into a 200 day yoga challenge – share the journey with...
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I have been doing daily yoga for 5 weeks straight. Slow steady change continues to happen. I am still down about 6 or 7 pounds. I am noticing muscles all over my body. I went to a more advanced classes this week and I was able to follow along. I wasn’t able to do the entire class but I was able to get a fantastic work-out and I can see why those classes are so popular. The Moksha 60 class is still my very favorite. It is an amazing marker of my progress in the last 35 days. I haven’t ever done anything like this before and it is mind blowing to see what daily practice can achieve–although the word “achieve” isn’t quite right because the practice and showing up daily are my only goals. I really try to listen to my body each class. I still can’t do the postures on my knees: the reclining hero series just doesn’t work for me when I can’t sit on my heels. My knees just don’t bend that much…yet. I am working on them and hope there will be a time I can do them. When I am in child’s pose, I push back on my heels and “work on” sitting back. I am sore almost every day in my muscles. I feel so grateful to be able to exercise at this level. Especially when I think that 2 years ago we were having conversations about getting a wheel chair to use when I needed to walk a long way. I am starting to know many of the teachers and a few other people at the studio, mostly by sight. I say hello to the teachers and I am so impressed by how many remember my name. I have met a few people. It is a pretty quiet place and I don’t feel called to step out of the quiet to talk to people very often. I think about having completed the 30 day...
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I just completed a 30 day challenge at the Moksha Yoga Hamilton studio. I don’t know if I have ever fallen so hard for a brand before. This brand has stolen my heart. It all started when I found myself suddenly at loose ends with my exercise program, as I had stopped one thing and was looking for something else. I decided to sign up for 21 days of yoga at Moksha Yoga for $30. (I think the price may be even better now) I didn’t really plan to join, but it seemed to be a great thing to do and then I would have 21 more days to figure out what I wanted to do next. That was all well and good, but then they gave me a little card with prizes to be won and I figured out that if I attended 21 times in 21 days, my first month was free. Hmmm! That would be awesome! And I like a challenge. Jordan, the woman who led my first class, gave me great information about lying down on the mat when I was too hot. She helped me to feel safe and welcome and like I belonged there. I won’t talk about my yoga journey here. You can read that here if you want to. Right now, I want to talk about my experience with the Moksha Brand. After the first day, I felt like coming back the next day. I also learned that I never wanted to leave hot yoga again without showering first… UGHH! I came back again and again. Each teacher was welcoming, kind, loving, and seemed genuinely excited by my journey. This summer we went to a French Immersion Family Language School in Sancerre, France. While we were there, my family talked about the skill the teachers had of acting genuinely impressed by our French, which drove us forward and helped us try things that felt new or foreign without feeling self-conscious. The teachers at Moksha have this...
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I have been doing yoga now for 28 days straight. I started with a 21 day challenge and then signed up for a 30 day challenge that was starting near the end of my 21 days. I just completed day 28 and thought I would give you an update about what is happening with me now. First and foremost, I have lost 7 pounds. While the first part of the challenge was about tolerating the heat, now I can focus on diet, and I can make it through most of the physical parts of the yoga practice. I have added in the Fast Metabolism Diet and it is a great fit with the 30 day challenge. I am starting to feel muscles all over my body. It is exciting to see muscles growing. I am feeling peaceful toward my family and more in control of my life in spite of the huge time commitment of the challenge. I am feeling more gentle with my family–more connected with Mel. I have noticed that I am craving more time with the boys. Getting up early to do yoga and my rush into the kitchen just in time to do lunches keeps me from morning snuggles in bed and getting them up and dressed. Doing some afternoon classes might be a good idea but those times continually get sucked up by something else. The early morning class is the one reason this is successful. Nothing gets in the way of a 6:30 class. I love that! I am now able to do most of the poses. I feel strong and vibrant as I move from pose to pose and I am better and better able to participate in each one. I hear the voices of the teachers from the previous days of classes in my head as I stretch into each pose trying to get each angle right, to stretch my body to make the best possible pose. I feel like it is happening. I...
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It had only been 4 years since I last skied, but it seemed like a lifetime ago. I last went skiing with my family in New Mexico in 2009. It was beautiful snow and weather and we had a fun day. Since then I have had so many issues walking that I was sure I would never ski again. I had a couple of bad falls and then I had something happen that made walking difficult. It seems to be a corn allergy that gives me MS like symptoms if I eat it. Last year we started taking our children to Ellicottville, NY to see our friends. Our friends bought a cottage there and their daughter is close to our boys’ age. They all run around the hills in the snow, watch movies, and play hard. They have a great time together. We were there a couple of times last year–the boys and my husband snowboarded and skied two days over the winter. Each time I would stay behind and carry the boots back to the car and wish I could ski, too. I vowed to ski again. I set a goal to ski one time this winter. We made plans for 2 weekends with our friends in 2013. I found a program at Holiday Valley that is an adaptive ski program. It is called the Lounsbury Adaptive Ski Program. A way for people with “challenges” to ski. It is a 2 hour lesson and it includes lift ticket and rentals for $40. A person like me would be paired with an instructor and helped to ski. I contacted them and was so excited that I could book with them. I told them about my challenges with walking and they said, “we have sliders if you need them.” There seemed to be no excuse for me. But I was tired in January and didn’t get the session booked. I felt too busy and tired and decided to wait. I think my trepidation got...
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How did it end? I thought I would go to class today and I would stay in Shavasana but the instructor was so good, I ended up doing most of the class. Strangely, today, at the studio, I didn’t know any of the staff. All along the way, they have cheered me on and told me I am doing a great job. Today, there wasn’t anyone to say they were excited that I finished the challenge. I notice my attachment to this and realize this is a personal journey. It is my journey and it is up to me to attach any celebration to it. I realize I am feeling very happy that I did this challenge. What’s different since the 21 day challenge? I feel stronger and more peaceful than I did before I started. I am now able to be still for long periods of time and I am learning to still my mind. I love the physicality of yoga along with the slow movements. It feels so peaceful and powerful. I love the stretches. I am starting to feel like my body is stronger. I am finding muscles in new places–back, shoulders, forearms, thighs. I feel like my core is stronger than it has been in a long time. I no longer think about my back being weak as I lie on my mat. I feel strong and completely comfortable lying on the floor for an hour. I hardly feel the heat now. I feel the physical exertion as my heart rate goes up and I feel the sweat on my body but the heat feels so good now, at least most of the time. I find myself looking forward to it. In February, I started working with a personal trainer–Suzanne Conroy at Workfit. She was fantastic. When I started working with her, I could barely walk a kilometer. I could have never done this yoga challenge. With her help, I have improved to the point that I can do...
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