40 Days of Yoga – The End…For Now

I survived 40 days of yoga and lived to tell the story. Sounds like a cheesy t-shirt slogan. But, to the delight of those around me I powered through and even came home with a smile on my face and a skip in my step following the last class.

I'm done!!

I have to admit, the last few days were a bit ridiculous, squeezing in missed classes on top of the rest, but c’est la vie. And now that I know that I can mentally, emotionally and physically endure yoga every day of the week it will be more difficult to come up with a lame excuse to not continue this new lifestyle. Although, after taking a few days off, I plan to adopt a three/four times per week schedule instead of seven. I figure I should set an achievable goal that I will be happy with, rather than a far-fetched one that might just irritate me.

In the future, if I decide to do something equally as challenging, I intend to find a few buddies to go through it with. I did meet a few people through this process and I started recognizing most of the people in my classes, but it is a bit difficult to make friends with someone when they are all twisted up and focused on a dot on the wall as they hold their balance.

I wish there was more of a 40 Day community with weekly group classes and advice on how to support the lifestyle of a super dedicated yogi – ie. Overuse, injury, nutrition, rest, etc. Maybe this would have contradicted the theme of personal exploration?

In the end, it was well worth the kick in the pants and while I complained a little loudly at times, I enjoyed the process and hope it wasn’t too unbearable for those who were naturally dragged along for the ride.

Yoga and I will soon resume our relationship after a brief hiatus. We just need some space from each other for this thing to work! I am pretty sure it is in the cards though, as my lover and I have just secured a new abode about a block away from the Semperviva City Studio at Broadway and Maple. I think we are meant to be…that yoga and I.

Read Full Post »

40 Days of Yoga – The Final Crunch

So the other day my boyfriend joked that my new home is the yoga studio. I didn’t laugh. It’s really not funny. In the last 48 hours I have been to the studio four times. Today is day 38 of 40 days of yoga.

I have done everything in my power to attend a class each day for the 40 Day Yoga Challenge. I have traipsed back and forth in pouring rain in my brand new winter jacket and dragon-printed gumboots, orange yoga mat bag slung over my back. I have sucked up my morning hate-on to attend a handful of early classes, arriving at work glossy and gross (we have a gym with showers, thank god). I have groaned and moaned, rearranged my schedule and asked that no one request my presence until after 7pm during weeknights.

This guy has the right idea!

Despite my diligence, I missed three days. Thankfully Semperviva allows participants in its 40 Day Yoga Challenge to make-up the missed days by tacking them onto other days. Now that the final week has set in, I am pushing myself to make-up those missed classes and hit 40 classes in 40 days. I figure that I am so close I might as well push through and sleep all weekend.

On both Sunday and Monday I did two classes each day. I am pretty sure my grumpy morning vibe and terrible agonizing faces kept the instructor of Monday’s AM class steering clear of my side of the room. By mid-afternoon yesterday I was falling asleep at my desk, chin in my hand, head resting against my computer screen. It was a post-lunch sugar crash combined with a terrible dehydration headache. Two things I was hoping to get better at during this challenge were eating breakfast every morning and drinking the eight or ten glasses of water I should be drinking each day. Evidently I have failed at both.

I walked into the evening class after work and was met by Callie [one of Semperviva’s instructors] and her giant, beaming smile. “You are almost done Jenn!” she grinned.

Up until that moment I had planned on spending the class ‘meditating’ in Savasana (Corpse Pose) – the pose of total relaxation. Maybe it was Callie’s contagious energy before class, or perhaps a bit of my own ego taking over, but I managed to muster up a few more kilojoules of energy and flow through class alongside everyone else.

I spent the rest of the evening drinking glass after glass of water…and even managed to prepare a stew in my crock pot at 11:00pm, to spend the night dreaming sweet dreams of spices and simmering beef. At least I don’t have to cook now for a few nights.

So, with the final three days left, I have one class tonight, one tomorrow and two on Thursday. I need to go prepare my water-drinking, breakfast-eating strategy. Good luck to all those doing the challenge! I am really, really, really looking forward to the Thursday night wrap-up class.

Read Full Post »

Forty Days of Yoga – Justifying a Miss

Last week it happened. I missed not one, but two yoga days in a row during my 40 Day Challenge. Lucky for me, I can make them up by tacking them onto other days…which means I will have to do two classes on two different days (about three hours of yoga each day). Can one get sick of yoga?

I was on this fantastic roll, feeling good and like I was taking control of my health and shaping and moulding a new me. Then I let that new me drop. But after kicking myself over it, I started to think about the reasons I am doing this – health, exercise, flexibility, “me” time, decreasing stress levels and for sure bloody happiness.

Friends catching up in the rain.

I blame my first miss on one of my best friends in the world. She has been doing her Masters in Amsterdam (tough life right?) and she recently came back for her sister’s wedding. With huge family obligations taking up her visit home, I had to take whatever time slot I could get or risk not seeing her before she returned to the capital of sex and legal pot.

So we reserved our Wednesday evening for hours of chatter, drinking and eating. Unfortunately I had scheduled a dentist appointment for that morning, so AM yoga was also out. And really, that’s just life. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, there just isn’t going to be enough time in the day.

In the end, I think I covered off all those reasons I am going to yoga, without going to yoga that day.

Health – I had my teeth cleaned. That’s healthy right?

Exercise – my friend and I walked all over downtown in the pouring rain so that she could ooh and aah over the ‘beautiful’ high-rises so full of architectural delight, that are missing from the A’daam skyline – her words, not mine ;).

Flexibility – I did some serious neck stretches in that dentist chair. They put TV’s on the roof for you to watch, but then they hover over you as they clean your teeth so you can’t see past them anyways. How much sense does that make?

“Me” time – I didn’t need to be alone to have ‘me’ time. This night was all about me and my girl!

Decreased stress levels – Believe me, we were babbling brooks of chatter, heightened by a half litre of Kettle Valley pinot. There was zero stress.

Happiness – If you could only have seen us skipping like little girls through the rainy streets of Vancouver on a Wednesday night, great big goofy smiles stretched from ear to ear…

I don’t want to decrease the importance of this 40 Day Yoga Challenge I am on, because through it, I am building the foundation for a new, healthy me. But that night it just didn’t compare to what I had lined up. And I knew I would be back.

…just not the next day either. I had to recover from my night out.

Stay tuned to find out if I ever make up those two days of yoga before the end of the challenge. Only 10 days left!

Read Full Post »