Vegan by Valerie

Yoga Week Challenge: Days 1-4

Hi everyone!

I have some awesome recipes to share with you (for Mexican Layer Dip, Fudge Mint Brownies and Double Chocolate Coconut Macaroons) but I promise I’ll get those up soon.

I wanted to tell you about something crazy fun I’m trying this week.  A local yoga study, Core Power Yoga, offers a free week of unlimited classes to those who have never attended the studio before.  I know a lot of bloggers will do 30 day yoga challenges, etc., but for me 7 days of straight yoga – and mostly hot yoga, for that matter – is a lot!!

As some of you may recall from previous posts, I first took yoga as a for-credit class in college and I hated it!! It was super slow-moving, I didn’t care for the instructor and I fell asleep in class.  I didn’t ‘get’ what everyone liked about yoga.

Fast forward to the summer of 2009.  I started going to the occasional weekly yoga class because I heard that it is good for marathon runners… sounds good to me! It took me a while to warm up to it, but eventually I started really looking forward to yoga classes.  I could see myself improving, and although I’m still way too Type A for my own good, I did notice myself becoming more calm and centered.

Over the past year I have attended yoga 1-2 days a week, and would go more if my schedule was more accommodating.   I have always been curious about the free week at Core Power Yoga, and since I am off work for the summer it seemed like the perfect time to try it out!

Surprisingly enough, the first day I went – Saturday - I actually dragged Mike there with me!!! He has absolutely zero interest in yoga, but after hearing me sing yoga’s praises, he finally gave it a shot.  (Mike, if you are reading, I am so proud of you for going and for being open-minded!!)

Day 1:  After running 9 miles earlier that morning on 3.5 hours of sleep, and because Mike is a beginner, we started with the C1 level class.    It was too ‘beginner’ for my liking, but it was a great pace for Mike.  They didn’t take poses as deep as I would have like (updog instead of chattarungas, no full expression of tree pose, etc.)  However, it was a lot of fun to attend class together – something I’ve always wanted to do!

Oh… and after returning from class, something inspired me to attempt what has previously been Mission Impossible:  a headstand!!!!!

Guys, I have never even attempted a headstand before.  It hurt the top of my head (yeah I’m a wuss), so I just never even tried.  But all of a sudden, in the comfort of our home I decided to go for it.  I realized that I was placing my head wrong and when I adjusted the placement of my head, all of a sudden I was able to pop right up!  I can only stay up for a matter of seconds, but I was SO proud of myself.  I haven’t felt that good about a physical accomplishment since my first push-up!

Day 2: On Sunday, I woke up with a bit of a headache… but I only had a small window of time to work out before we left town for the day, so I made myself go to a Hot Power Fusion yoga class.  Hot Power Fusion was 75 minutes and was HOT!!!!! I found out after the fact that it was heated to 101-103 degrees….. yikes.  I am naturally a heavy sweater and I do not like the heat and do not like to sweat, so this was very, very challenging for me.

It was incredibly difficult, but I did find that it got slightly easier as the time went on.  And I felt great once I was done!

Day 3: On Monday, I went to a Sculpting class.  I knew that the class would be using hand weights, so I kind of assumed that it wouldn’t be heated…. WRONG!  It was, again, insanely hot.  It was only 60 minutes, but it was even more challenging that the Hot Power Fusion class.  As much as I like to challenge myself, I left thinking that I never, ever wanted to go to a yoga sculpt class ever again!

Oh, and then after the class was out I fanned myself off and went to an hour-long spinning class…. somehow it was actually EASIER than usual….. either it seemed easier by comparison to the yoga sculpt class, or the sculpt class made me feel good about my abilities… either way, I rocked that spin class!

Day 4: Today (after a 5 mile run + 1 mile walk), I attended a Hot Yoga class.  (Hot Power Fusion yoga involves movement between poses, whereas Hot yoga is just static poses, but is heated even hotter – above 105 degrees).  From the moment I stepped into the room I began counting down the minutes on my watch!  However, like Power Fusion Yoga, it got sliiiightly more bearable over time, but not much.

Although I can’t say that I ever enjoyed the fact that it was ridiculously hot, I do have to say that the heat allowed me to get incredibly deep into certain poses, much, much deeper than I ever have before.  And that felt awesome!!!

Being home in my airconditioned living room, I look back on the last four classes and say that I am actually a bit excited for the next class tomorrow, but once I’m actually in that hot room I always change my tune… we will see how tomorrow’s class goes.

In the meantime, I’m going to go practice my headstand

What was the last thing you did that surprised you – it could be a physical challenge or anything else!

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