Day Thirty: I actually cried.

This is all I have in me for a post tonight. Will let it all sink in and recap tomorrow:)

xo

Fifteen minutes after my 30th class:)

Day Twenty Nine: Hardest. Class. Ever!

I can't believe that it took me until my second last day of the HYC for me to be in Chris Rurka's Hot Fusion class! First of all, I heard every single word he said, so I'm already thrilled. And secondly, this practice kicked my arse!!! Tonight's class doesn't even register on the sliding sweat scale. How do I explain this? You know my new dry wick wear from Lululemon, the stuff where the angels take the sweat away? Well I was pouring sweat so much that my sassy red top turned burgundy. BURGUNDY! Gross!

Anyway, really fun class - a nice new spin on the stuff we've been doing. And he was really encouraging throughout the class so I really appreciated that. It was like when the French instructor touched my foot - doesn't take much to cheer me on:)

So the combos we had tonight were so different than what we've been doing that I was exhausted really early and could barely keep up. Again, I was soaking wet about five minutes in, and my mantra morphed into "Holy Sh*t! Holy Sh*t!" For sure people heard me. I couldn't help it. At one point, my mat was bunched up like an accordion and I was slipping around like a newborn calf and being all squeaky - I was the one who sounded like I was making balloon animals. If there was any oxygen getting to my brain, I would've had the clarity to have been embarrassed!

So very happy with tonight's class. It makes me feel like even though tomorrow is Day 30 (Eeeeek!) of the HYC, I want to learn so much more and there is an infinite amount of room for improvement. I can get so much stronger and I must have a bit more grace left in me somewhere that is just screaming to get out:) I'm excited to keep going. (Don't worry...I won't blog about it everyday;)

I'm beginning to see examples of how hot yoga is affecting me mentally. I really am much more calm at work..because normally I'm a prize bi....,but enough about me. As great as the emotional and mental benefits are...and I'd say the emotional vs. the physical is aboout 50/50...I still can't help but be thrilled that I think my bum is getting nice again:)  Bah ha ha.

I'm sorry about this post. I had a giant glass of wine and I think I'm bombed. On a Monday. In bed. Nice.  In all fairness, my alcohol tolerance is for sure way down. They should tell you that before you start and maybe I wouldn't have gin and tonics in my water jar!

Good night, All.

Justy

xoxo

Days Twenty Six/Twenty Seven/Twenty Eight

Ok, I stand (on one foot) corrected. Restorative Yin is not the easy class I had counted on.

It all went terribly wrong. Had to do a double header again yesterday to make up for a day I missed so thought I'd take the "easy meditation class" as my second class of the day as to not overexert. First of all, this class was packed and I literally got the last spot in the studio. So I had to tiptoe in, trying to dodge corpsing bodies and - get this - tea lights (!) to get to my spot. Anyone who knows me knows I don't do well near open flames in a semi-alert state so that nullified any relaxation I was going to achieve that afternoon. For people whose hair hasn't been set on fire by a candle, however, I could see how the set up of the studio would have been stress-reducing.

Here's what I have to say about this class. You know how in *Eat, Pray, Love. we all enjoyed the Italy part because it was all about food and indulgence and then once she gets to India we all checked out because we couldn't relate because she's being so ridiculous? "Oh why can't I sit in the right hand of God?! Oh boo hoo!" And there's that part where she's at the ashram where she's holding a pose for hours and it's not even a particularly difficult one, but she's losing her mind and screaming in her head and having crying meltdown hissy fits? Dumb right? Well that was me doing "The Pigeon" yesterday afternoon for 5 minutes. I'm not even kidding. An hour and a half class of holding the same intense stretches for an unreasonable period of time - and I was going berserk. At one point we were holding a runner's lunge for what felt like 3 hours and in my head, I heard a starter's pistol go off and I treated my pose like the "On your marks!" position for a sprint and nearly took off out the door!  I don't know if I actually screamed out loud, but in my mind I sounded like a maniac. And this lady (a guest instructor - I didn't know her) meant business. I liked her voice, as it was very calming and she had cute funky hair.  Little did I know she was actually a master of torture. The poses lasted FOR HOURS...and just when you thought it was finally over...OTHER SIDE!! And then when that side was done and you thought it must be time for a break - AGAIN - but this time deeper with chanting. CHANTING!!! It was like The Attack of the Well-toned, Flexible Zombies!! We literally hadn't even left the laying down position yet and I had so much sweat running off me I thought I was being water-boarded. So when the chanting started, I was pretty much inconsolable. I no longer could tell where the sweat ended and the tears began. All I knew is that I was one salty pool of terror. And then my next biggest fear became a reality after the torture session - an extended period of the napping. Like, 20 minutes of it. And knowing that I can't hear a whole lot of what's being said around me...it's very easy for me to drift off. And I did. Probably five times. And one time my own snoring woke me up. I even had dreams. Gah!

Finally after a round of chanting that would've put the Vienna Boys Choir to shame, we were free. I staggered from the room and I was by far the sweatiest and most disoriented person coming out of there. And perhaps I may never fully understand what happened to me in that room that day, but I think I may belong to a cult now.

So no. Restorative Yin does not = lame.

So the good news is, after that class I was officially caught up. The HYC ends on Tuesday and I just have to do one class per day for the next three days and I'll be golden.

Today I went to a nice respectable noon class of Moksha. Brendan is an instructor who I have had classes with many times and if I have accomplished anything during these past 30 days, it's thanks in large part to him (and others of course). But I'll talk more about that in my Finale Post of Self-Indulgence on Tuesday!

Anyway, I know for a fact that I could practice yoga for the next 30 years and still have room for improvement and growth. But it's a pretty disconcerting feeling to have two of what you consider your "most rad poses" corrected on your third last day of the challenge. And like, not just little tweaks. I've been doing them completely wrong. Poses that you do every day...and I've been free-styling the whole time. I think I'm the Shaman Baboon in Lion King holding up the new little cub king when in actual fact, I'm doing nothing more than vogueing very slowly. How did I let this happen?? Well, add it to my goal list I guess: 1. Become fluent in French. 2. Do your hobby right.

So, was putting on my coat and boots after class and putting another check mark next to my name and I cannot believe this myself, but I was one of only 5 or 6 challengers that were on track!! Out of about 50 people! Holy crap! I am so happy and so proud of myself right now it's ridiculous. There's still two days for everyone to catch up, but still...that's really cool:)

So that's the weekend, Folks. Two days left and it looks like smooth sailing.

Good night, All

xoxo

*Even though I totally feel Elizabeth Gilbert's pain in the ashram...I still think she was being a flake and the part where she's in Bali was dumb. Who does she think she is?  And I'm sorry - I know Oprah says we're supposed to love this book and be enlightened, but I thought the whole thing was an indulgence in silliness.  And also, I didn't think "Texas Richard" was that funny. I did, however, think the part where she cried with joy eating pizza in Naples was very realistic. I liked that part.

Days Twenty four and Twenty five: In the Homestretch:)

Last night was our annual Candy Cane Gala - one of two signature events for the Foundation. So that meant a 630 am yoga class yesterday, which I completely blagged because I had so much on my mind and a long day and evening ahead of me with the Gala and all. I find I don't do well with weekday morning classes. I anticipate the day too much and I find it hard to focus. Weekends are fine because my brain pretty much shuts down about 2 pm on Friday afternoon anyway. So even though I felt I didn't really do a great job in yesterday's class, in reality I feel like I did two hot yoga classes. One at 630 am, and one later on in the day when I struggled into my SPANX in preparation for the party. My biggest fear in life is that someone somehow video taped that - well the only word for it is "procedure" - and posted it on YouTube. That was the biggest workout of the day by far and it took about 40 mins for my face to return to its normal pallor.

Very late night last night after a day of walking around on concrete floors at the Convention Centre, so needless to say, yoga this morning didn't happen. Took the morning off of work and indulged in a lovely lie-in. Rolled out of bed around 11 am and went to our CEO's house for our annual staff Christmas get together. It's a much-anticipated afternoon of wine and Butter Chicken - which I enjoyed very much. We all ate ourselves into the ground and everybody wanted naps afterwards. Honestly, I could barely keep my eyes open...and the thought of going to an evening yoga class seemed impossible. But I did it. I hit the 8 pm "Karma Class", which was a good one to take because maybe no one really minded that I was sweating curry.  Yes...I was THAT person today. But I did it and now I only have one class to catch up on to put me back on skedge.  Tomorrow I'll hit a 10 am and then a 2 pm "Restorative Yin" class. I think it's pretty easy going. Last week I saw the people coming out at the end of that class and everyone was a little older and no one was sweaty.  Sounds like the perfect double down catch up class to me:)  So maybe it's cheating a little. But it still counts!!!! $50 says I fall asleep during it.

Nite All!

xoxo