Yoga Vibes

Last month I started a challenge. While it's not labelled as a challenge, I saw it as one - 30 days of yoga, how on earth will I be able to do yoga 30 days in a row? How will my bones and muscles not die? Also I have the balance of a three-legged goat. But I wanted to gain flexibility on my quest to lose weight before bridesmaid duty and it's free! So I rolled out my yoga mat and started on my first day of annual leave. 

I had done bits and bobs of yoga before and a few bikram yoga classes but the problem I had with classes was that I felt super incompetent. WTF was I doing, I had no idea. I needed to start from the bare bones of the thing, which is exactly what I did with 30 days of yoga with Adriene. Adriene is such a great teacher, easy to follow and just the right amount of chatty and fun. She also gives you options for harder positions, from complete beginner to really advanced, so you can go where you don't feel like you're hurting yourself (too much). Her passion for yoga is so strong that you can't help but feel passionate too. For the first seven, I did it in my room in front of my wardrobe mirrors to check my posture and position to see how it matched up with the video. Once I felt confident in telling what felt right and wrong didn't need the mirror to know how my posture was. And now I feel like I could go and absolutely boss a class. Kinda. 

As I mentioned before, my main quest was to gain flexibility and if I lost a little weight along the way then great. And I did both. I don't own scales because I just know I will be that person who becomes obsessed with the numbers and weigh myself after every meal so instead I just go by how I feel in my clothes. While I haven't dropped a million dress sizes I have definitely lost weight around my waist and toned my bum. Win. Also I can now, to paraphrase Lil Jon, bend over to the front and touch my toes. In fact, I can bend over to the front and put my fingers under my toes with my legs straightened. Double win. 

The best thing that's come out of this foray into trying out yoga is the fact that I want to keep going, I genuinely look forward to pulling on my stretchy pants, loading up the next video and diving into my first forward fold. I've finally found an exercise that I love doing, which is a big deal for lazy ol' me. I sweat and I burn but I don't see it as a task, I relish it and reward myself with savasana at the end. Savasana is just the best. Do it even if it's just for savasana. 

Give it a go and I dare you to not love it.