Goals for June 12

So it's been a couple years since I've been on this blog. I'm not sure I have a better purpose for this blog other than journaling and giving myself an outlet to express the ups and downs. I'm definitely not an expert and my practice has fallen by the wayside. You know how things go. 

Right now my focus isn't even on the asanas. At the moment I'm just trying to focus on getting my body healthy because right now it's far from it. Last week I focused on drinking more water. Some days I met the recommended goal and some days I didn't come close. That's life and that's part of the journey. 

This week on top of drinking water I also want to focus on eating more fruits and veggies. I'm going to be honest and say my intake of fruits and veggies has been almost non existent. 

I know if I can change my diet I will feel better. My energy levels will rise and I won't feel like I'm having to push through each day. After I've got a better grip on my diet, I can put the focus back on asanas. I also realize I could do both at the same time, but I want to make lasting changes and I know from experience with me I can't focus on more than one area at a time or I start slacking in every area. 

Crow/Crane Pose (Bakasana)

Ok.  True confession about this pose.  I have stated before that one of my coworkers introduced me to yoga.  She was talking about the different things that they do in class and she popped into crow.  I looked at her and thought, "There is no way in..." Feel free to insert whichever appropriate adjective you feel like into that space.  I almost didn't go to the class because I was thinking if they did crow pose what else did they do?  I have never had upper body strength and forget core muscles.  Not happening.  Once I got started with yoga though, I had a love/hate relationship with this pose.  Without the love.  I also happen to be stubborn.  I was determined I was going to make this pose work.  It took months for me to even get my toes off the ground.  It is still a pose that I struggle with, but I am making progress.

One of the tools that helped me make progress was this video from Kino McGregor.  I really hadn't been using my core to lift myself because I was so focused on my lack of upper body strength.  She really takes you step by step and once I followed her directions to engage my core, bakasana was so much easier.

I didn't realize how much progress I made with bakasana until I put two pictures side by side.  The first was taken on May 9 and the second picture was taken on June 20.

Six weeks of work paid off! You can see my feet are farther off the floor and my knees are tighter into my chest.  Next step is to lower my hips closer to my feet and straighten my arms.  This just goes to show that you can make a lot more progress than you realize and it can happen quickly if you are working at it.

Instagram Yoga

Instagram has become my absolute favorite thing in the world.  Ok.  I'm exaggerating a little, but IG has opened up a whole new door to yoga for me.  If you get on IG you will find some incredible yogis. What is even more impressive is the yoga community that they have created.

One of the first things you will find when you look through IG yoga posts is that several are connected to challenges.  IG yogis host a variety of monthly challenges.  Typically, anywhere from two to eight hosts will host the challenge that targets a specific theme.  In the month of July there have been several including Flow Into July, Altruism Yoga, Suns Out Teeki Bums Out, Crazy Sexy Yoga, Independence Army, Furry Friends and Freedom Yogis, and so much more.  I mean seriously, those are just the first few that popped up on my feed when I went scrolling.  When you join a challenge, the goal is that the hosts have picked a flow or pose each day and you post a picture or video of that pose or flow each day.  While doing challenges I attempted and succeeded at poses I never would have tried on my own.  Plus, most of the hosts have been practicing for years and have taken yoga teacher training classes.  They give tips on alignment and modification.  This is a huge benefit to people that have a home practice. 

What they don't tell you when you join these is the incredible amount of support that you are going to receive from the yoga community.  In your post, you tag the hosts and you also hashtag it with the name of the challenge (i.e. if your post is for Independence Army you would put #independencearmy in your comments).  Once you've added the hashtag to your picture, anyone who searches with that hashtag will be able to see your picture (if your profile is set to public).  Other yogis that are doing the challenge will go through and like and comment on posts with that hashtag.  Complete strangers will take time out of their day to encourage you.  These challenges have been a huge help to me because there is only one other person in my life that does yoga consistently.  Seeing other yogis and their practice has inspired and encouraged me.

Now, you might think the only people that would get on IG and post their yoga pictures are the expert yoga teachers that are so far beyond you that you can't possibly do what they do.  NOT TRUE! You have everything from the experts to people who have never stepped on a mat before a month or two ago.  There are people that do yoga with their kids and people that are doing yoga to lose and people that are doing crazy yoga poses that look incredibly intimidating.  IG has everything.

If you need encouragement or assistance with a home practice, IG is definitely a fantastic resource. Maybe you already have an IG page that is private and you don't want to make it public, just make a new IG page specifically for yoga.  There are a ton of people that have a personal page and a yoga page. 

The Ultimate Yogi

One of my other big resources for starting my home practice was purchasing "The Ultimate Yogi" series by Travis Eliot and Udaya Entertainment.  When I was working out with coworkers, one of them introduced me to this series.  I am going to be completely honest with you.  If you are brand new to yoga or if you haven't worked out in quite a while this is not the series for you.  Several of these are intense and seriously demanding workouts.  You are supposed to do the workouts for 108 days and as far as I can tell they are meant to be without a break.  Of course some of the DVDs are meant to be gentler, lighter days, but I still needed to take days completely off.  I will put in the disclaimer that I was also doing this while walking several miles a day, which I don't normally do.  My body was in serious exercise overload, so that could have something to do with it.

That being said, if you have been doing yoga and are familiar with the poses or you are just looking for something to challenge you, this is it.  I saw AMAZING results EVERY single week.  It is worth the money and worth the time.  This set will take you to a whole new level physically.

So here is a quick break down of the workouts.

1. Crosstraining--This is one of my favorites.  It is a little bit of everything (strength, balance, flexibility, and cardio) and it keeps you moving, but I didn't get overwhelmed.  I had to take some breaks during the DVD, but when I finished I felt like I had not only worked out but also was a lot calmer.  I remember finishing one night right before I was going to bed.  After a quick shower I went right to sleep because I was so relaxed from the workout.  That has never happened before with any exercise.
2. Cardio--My cardio has never been great and most cardio workouts make me miserable.  I pretty much curse Travis Eliot's name during this DVD, but every week I did this routine I saw improvement.  That was a HUGE motivator for me in this program.  Every time I was getting farther before having to take a break.  If you want to see results in your abilities and cardio this is EXACTLY what you want to do.  Even more importantly, I didn't turn this DVD off after 10 minutes like I do with every other exercise DVD.  That says a lot.  Be prepared to do lots of sun salutations and variations.  
3. Strength--If I had to pick my weaknesses, strength would be number two on the list.  For me this was a difficult DVD, but once again I saw progress almost every week.  You will see lots of chatarunga, down dog, and so much more.  He really does strengthen your whole body though, upper body, abs, legs, this DVD does it all.  My favorite part is it doesn't require me to have weights or scary machines from the gym that I can't operate.  It's just you and your yoga mat.  It might sound hokey, but moving your own body weight around is more than enough.
4. Flexibility--After telling you about two DVDs that I struggled with, flexibility was easier for me.  Most people think of flexibility and think of touching their toes, but he works on your hips, legs, shoulders, back, and sides.  You get some balance and twists too. He really does hit so much in the hour or so that you work.  
5. Balance--I have as much trouble with balance in life as I do on the yoga mat. That's a lot. In my defense I have ear infections quite often.  You can't help, but have fun with this one though.  He has a great balance between challenging poses and foundational poses to help you progress.  It was definitely pretty demanding for me though.
6. Detox--You twist.  A lot.  That's about all there is to say about that. Twists help detox your body and aid digestion. He takes poses that you have been doing in previous workouts and throws in some twists for a variation of the pose.  
7. Vitality--This is another one that I really liked.  It reminded me a lot of the cross-training because it has a little bit of everything. You do a lot of backbends and it's just a lot of fun and not crazy intense. When I say backbends, I don't mean you are going to break your back trying to get into these poses.  He really works foundational poses to get you into deeper backbends.  I feel like this is probably one of my top three DVDs from this set just because it runs the gamut and you feel great afterwards.
8. Yin Yoga--In this one you do a lot of floor work.  You also hold the poses for 3-5 minutes.  They aren't crazy challenging poses, but for me holding still for that long was challenging.  I still have trouble just because I don't sit still at all during the day.  I am always multi-tasking.  This has come to be one of my favorites though and it is great if you are having a day that you aren't feeling the best or if you are about to head to bed.  I literally fell asleep on my mat one day I was so relaxed by this.  Plus it is good for beginners.  I showed this to my mom and her first response was "I can do those!"
9. Gentle Yoga--Again, one of my favorites. You are still doing the flows, but the pace is just beautiful.  It hits every part of your body, but it really gives your body a chance to relax and heal and deepen into the practice.  With some of the ladies I work with this was one of their favorites as well.  You work on everything and you can challenge yourself but it isn't as fast-paced and demanding as some of the other DVDs.
10. Mountain Pose/Pranayama--That's kind of self-explanatory.  It is a lot of mountain poses and variations of mountain poses.  It really chills you out and my shoulders and back feel amazing.  The Pranayama Breathing focuses on breath and this was the first time anyone taught me about pranayama breathing. He takes you step by step with what you need to do and this was a HUGE help.
11. Sun salutations--This DVD is only done three times during the 108 days.  The first time you do 36 sun salutations.  The second time you do 72 and the last time you do 108.  I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to do this.  I was pretty sure someone invented that idea specifically to torture me.  What they don't explain is that by the time they are done with you in the first 35 days of the workout, this isn't a big deal anymore.  If you really do the program and work your tail off with the workouts, the sun salutations are no problem once you get to them.  Ok maybe they aren't the easiest thing in the world, but they aren't evil and meant to torture you.  
12. Hard Core--This specifically targets your abs. This really was created to torture me. I swear. Ok maybe not, but that's what I decided the first time I tried it. I won't lie I didn't do so great with this one because I pretty much hate anything that has to do with your core.  As Travis Eliot says in another DVD though sometimes what we run away from is what we need most. If you do this DVD like you are supposed to (I so didn't) I can't imagine you not seeing results. 

Bottom line, this series will get you some serious results.  I can't stress enough the fact that I saw results every single week.  Poses I couldn't do the week before would suddenly become accessible.  I was able to go longer without a break on the cardio DVD.  I could tell I was getting stronger because poses like chatarunga got easier because I could take my knees off the floor for the first time.  I saw incredible results using this series.  It is by no means easy and it is not great for beginners, but he will yoga you into shape in no time IF you put the effort in.  Plus, if you listen to his words as you go through, he has great things to say about how yoga can change your life.  Hearing some of these was a huge help for me in getting rid of some of the stresses in my life.  Once again, I was learning to take what I was learning in yoga and apply it to my life.

Power Yoga

I think one of the things that really kicked off my yoga journey was the book "Power Yoga" by Ulrica Norberg.  A family member purchased this for me for Christmas and it was my first opportunity to dive past poses and exercise and into the mindset and history of yoga.  I had no idea there were different types of yoga.  I had no idea the mind was a huge part of your yoga practice.  I just thought I was stretching and doing some workouts.  None of the rest had ever been presented to me.  After reading a few pages of this book I realized there was a lot I was about to learn so I stopped and grabbed my highlighter and sticky notes.  Yep.  I'm a nerd.  No lie.

I am so glad that I did though.  I learned so much from this book and when I was done I had a million more questions.  I wanted to know everything I could about yoga.  Of course this book focuses on Power Yoga, but it opened my mind and it opened the door.

One of the best things this book did was show me that yoga was a way to calm and focus my mind.  In the book the author states, "practicing yoga is seen as an attempt to focus the mind on one point--without distraction or interruption--in order to calm and stabilize the wild monkey." The wild monkey definitely described my mind and the intense stress I felt.  My mind was constantly jumping from problem to problem and I had trouble focusing on anything.  I couldn't sit still because I felt like I had so much going on and so much on my mind.  This description struck a cord and I wondered how much yoga could really help me conquer my mind.

Another huge thing I took away from it is to pay attention to my thoughts.  As the author pointed out, "what kind of thoughts do I have about myself? What am I saying to myself?  Am I really that bad?  Would I ever say to other people what I say to myself?"  This was mind boggling for me because I have always been very hard on myself.  What got me is the last question, "Would I ever say to other people what I say to myself?"  The answer was no.  I would never treat other people the way I treat myself, so why in the world was I doing it?

The book also introduced me to concepts I would hear and learn more about like drishti, ujjayi breathing, ahimsa, and so much more.  It was a great introduction to yoga concepts and it introduced sun salutations and basic poses with clear pictures and modifications for beginners.  If you are looking for a resource to dip into, I highly recommend Power Yoga by Ulrica Norberg.

The Beginning of My Yoga

I guess the best place to start with this blog is at the very beginning, before yoga.  Before I started yoga I was incredibly anxious and high strung. If you had asked anyone in my life about me they probably would have told you I needed a chill pill.  I worked long weeks, worried about everything, and was always on the go.  Exercise was something I hated and junk food was my go to for sustenance.  I drank several cans of soda a day because I needed the caffeine to keep myself moving.  I never drank water.  I wasn't happy and my stress levels were through the roof.

One day one of my co-workers was talking about the yoga class she had been attending and how much it helped her.  She loved the class.  She offered a ride if anyone wanted to go with and try it out.  Well I was in a new position at work and wanted to get to know my co-workers better so I said I would go.  Little did I know this would be a huge turning point for me.

My love of yoga didn't begin right away.  I enjoyed the class and went once a week at first.  There were a few months where I didn't go at all.  When I came back to yoga, I had a few new resources and fell in love with more than just the poses.  I started diving deeper into the thinking behind the practices.  The more I did yoga, the more I focused on the fundamentals behind yoga, the more I fell in love with the life.  More importantly, my whole attitude about yoga changed my life. I became calmer, less stressed, my life was more balanced.  If yoga has done anything it has helped me relax and be grateful for where I am in my life.

This blog is meant to chronicle my journey and share my love of yoga.  I have been doing yoga for less than a year and it has changed so much already.  I can't imagine where it will take me from here.