Yoga Fun

I've had a marginally successful week this week. I went to yoga a few times, so that was the success. I didn't eat as healthy as I would have liked, so that was the unsuccessful part. I don't even think it was that I ate so poorly, but I bought a lot of food at my work cafeteria and at restaurants... so that's a double whammy to me. Spending money I don't need to spend and eating food that isn't as healthy as something I would have prepared myself. I'm going to focus on preparing my own food next week and avoiding unnecessary spending as much as possible!

Yoga has been great! I'm finally getting to the point where I can concentrate on what I'm doing instead of my brain being all over the place. When I first started doing yoga, I felt like it was too slow for me because I wanted to burn tons of calories (I was cardio obsessed). First of all, I do burn tons of calories in a 90 minutes yoga class... easily 600, which is what I'd burn on a normal weekday run or a P90X workout. Now, I really appreciate the slow pace because it makes me relax. We all need to slow down sometimes, and now this is how I do it!

Yesterday I took power yoga, and since it was hot out, the room was over 95 degrees. It didn't bother me actually! I sweat a ton but it felt good. She did some tough moves! I'll try to explain what I thought was the toughest... forgive me if this makes no sense. Also, if you know all the true yoga terms, forgive me. I have none of that memorized!

Start in plank pose and then go back to downward dog. Lift up your right leg and then shift your weight back to plank. Bend your right knee (leg still lifted) and bring your knee out to the right so you're trying to touch your right tricep. Hold for several breaths. Straighten and extend your leg again for one cycle of breath, then repeat. I think we did 5 cycles of the bent leg portion, and then we finished in a downward dog. Essentially we were in plank for what felt like an eternity, and that was just one side! We repeated on the left, and then we repeated the whole thing with your knee bending across your chest and trying to touch the opposite elbow/tricep. Whoa!

If you're between workouts, I highly recommend going to take a yoga class at a local studio. I'm loving it!