No more yoga at 11am!

I was so hungry.  I was nauseous because I was too scared to eat anything substantial before class.  Since I've worked the past few days, I woke up early, and stayed up all morning without eating!  Which is the worst thing for my body that I could do.  I mean, I've been reading The Hunger Games, and because of that chick's misgivings in life, I've been very appreciative of the plentiful feasts that are available to me, daily, but not eating for a few hours in the first part of my day is sickening.  I just can't function and I just don't have the energy to do Bikram!  I did suck it up and eat a banana and a hard boiled egg before 10, but I was seriously wondering if I should just skip class with that smearing all over my GI tract before I massaged them in the compression poses.

As always, the 11:30 class was not packed.  There were about 8 of us, and Lauren kept shooting directions at me in class.  It was helpful, but it made me frustrated that she was paying attention to me while I was feeling so sluggish. There was a whole lot of wobbling and putting my foot down going on, as opposed to properly balancing on one leg.  I really didn't put my all into the practice today, it was so difficult to stay upright while I was feeling so tired.  Not only was I exhausted and faint from not eating, the three shifts in a row that I worked over the past three days were really physically draining!  My body felt like it was made out of clay, and throughout the class I did try to lock my knees more than I usually do, but the muscles used for that were super tired in the following poses, so those were performed pretty haphazardly.  Oh, except boat pose!  I am still feeling it in my back.  Might as well try hard for 1 out of 26, right?

So note to self, no more 11:30 class unless I happen to wake up starving at 6 am.  Oh, something weird: the guy next to me in class was drinking chlorophyll!  Is that beneficial to humans?  I thought it was just for photosynthesis in plants?  Did I miss something in Plant Bio?

And another note (last one): Happy Spring!  Hope you got your free Rita's like Colleen and I did!  We waited at the Rita's in the Harbor for probably an hour.  But it was worth it, especially because I also got the second Hunger Games book Catching Fire on that same trip.  Cheers to sunlight after 7pm and no coats!

Can I claim redemption?

Because I made a Bikram commitment, I am regularly feeling guilty when I have the opportunity to attend class, but do not go.  With my rotating schedule, I can't go at all on days I work day shift, and night shifts make me battle between the need for sleep or for yoga.  Sophie's choice.  As you may have noticed from previous posts, I frequently hook class.  But today I think I am on the road to redemption, because already, I ran 4 miles to train for my Cherry Blossom 10-miler on April Fool's Day (of all days, who am I kidding?) and then went to a work meeting.  I have penned in Bikram tonight at 5, so anyone who invites me to happy hour will get a big fat NO, today.

I'm now taking a quick break from reading The Hunger Games, so I wanted to take a moment to discuss Bikram and its effect on one of my life's passions: food.  It sounds silly, but I love food!  Like, I get excited at the sight and smell of new dishes, pure joy, even happiness from tastes and flavors.  I moan while I eat and say over and over how good my sandwich is as I'm eating it.  I love cooking and learning about food and ways to prepare food (you can check out some of my favorite food blogs for recipes on my blogroll).  If you want to explore new restaurants in the area, I'm your girl.  I once got turned on when my friend's boyfriend started going over his exotic grocery list to make authentic Pho.  Anyway, that's how much I love food.

I think Bikram has changed me.  I was looking for new recipes on Pinterest today, and recipes that I would normally be excited about making, like "Oreo stuffed cheesecake brownies," now make me want to vomit.  Skimming the recipe for sugary frosting for these gorgeous fudge chocolate cupcakes for work on St. Pattys Day practically throws me into diabetes.  The other night at work I ate broccoli cheddar soup and I almost puked afterward because it was super cheesy, a quality I would have moaned over not long ago (in the good way).  And heavy foods like when I had sausage, eggs, and home fries for breakfast sent me straight to the toilet!  Not to mention, when I drink, I can guarantee an hours-long to days-long hangover.  These days I've been obsessed with salads and making different salad dressings from scratch.  I've been frequenting Baba's on Fort Ave because hummus and falafel have been my best friends, along with wraps and basically any raw, crunchy veggies.  Not that I'm against healthy eating, but I'm sad because I think my body can't handle anything greasy, fatty, or heavy anymore!  They just make my stomach hurt and when I go to yoga later, my body sends out a big "f*(k you" while I'm doing Locust pose.  Bikram may be right about the practice "regulating" one's body, but its encroaching on one of my body's greatest gifts: my GI tract of steel.  Hmph. 

Hot weather = no hot yoga :(

Whenever I work night shift, I get super ambitious and think I can do tons of things during the day because I am not technically working during the day.  I always plan to go ot the gym or run, or go to yoga once I get home, before I settle for bed.  On Monday I went to an evening class and then I planned to come to yoga every morning for the 9:30 class, and I have been 0 for 3 so far.  I don't even have to work tonight, but instead of going to yoga like I planned, I decided to go to brunch with my fave work girls since we were all on our last night.  Whomp.  I even planned everything out so that around 4 am-ish I'd eat my oatmeal so it would hold me over until after yoga.  I ate, but I did not go to yoga because by the end of my shift, my body just knew that I am weak and will always choose my bed (or more food) over suffering the heat.  I do know that once I'm in class I love it (love is termed loosely here) but its soooo hard to get there.

Spring shopping has gotten the best of me, too!  I feel like my credit card company should send me a thank you note!  Since its been bordering 80 degrees everyday this week, I've been loving the weather, and of course am realizing I absolutely need more spring wear.  And clothes for Miami next week, and clothes for work meetings, and clothes for sitting on my couch in the springtime.  And duh, shoes to match them.  Then, when I finished perusing the clothes, I got to the "activewear" and realized I need more yoga clothes because I now launder sweaty clothes 3 times a week versus when I used to do laundry twice a month.  Mann I went crazy in that store because they had the cute booty shorts with the drawstrings that I've been obsessed with since I realized they existed.  And might I say my butt looks pretty good in the booty yoga shorts, after only a month.  Holla!  But imagine what it would look like if I had gone 3 more times this week!

What a weekend!

This weekend was the first gorgeous weekend of the year, so obviously I did a few things that made my body HATE me...like drink a hubcap margarita from Nacho Mamas and dance my night away Friday night.  ughhhhh don't ever do it with only 2 ppl.  Insanity...and tons of new friends...in the questionable way.  So my body just said "f7&G#@2 you!" all day on Saturday.  And with the refreshments come the eating.  While drinking, I am always so hungry!  I have been known to inhale a whole pizza on my own before anyone even has a chance to realize I bought one.  Its amazing how much I love food, and how I can concoct some random recipe at any given time from what I have in my refrigerator.  Its like I stock a goddamn kitchen (its good for the wallet, just not my buddha belly).  Handy for times Papa Johns is closed by the time I come home.  These are also the moments I get mad that I don't have more of an affinity for prepared "ready to eat" food.

And what is ironic, is that my Friday evening Bikram session spurred all of this madness.  I went to the 5pm session with Sarah, and I felt so good after class.  It was my first class with Sarah, who also happens to be the owner of the studio.  I'm not gonna lie, I was flattered when she said she has seen me in class, and also felt charmed when she kept saying my name in class!  I'm sure she does it to all new students, but whatever.  Brings me back to my super-student days in grade school when I loved being called out in class for good behavior.  This night I realized that my body was waaay more flexible than when I started, as in the bends, my forehead freakishly just banged up against my knees with no effort at all.  I also realized that all the sit ups in between the floor poses are actually really refreshing for my body.  After my heart pounding savasanas, the sit up brings a flash of energy in a non-nauseating way.  When I flip over for all the floor poses I feel pretty agile.

So I energetically dragged Lauren out Friday night because I just had to go out!  God bless her.  So we danced, went crazy, and then did not see the light of day on Saturday.  I was still talking crazy at 7:30 am when I woke up in the morning, singing this:

You're welcome.  And yes, I do often wake up in a burst of song.  Totally the song of the weekend.

Sunday I wanted to redeem my lazy crunk ass and went to the 11am class.  I was super surprised and excited when Lauren said she wanted to come with me!  Girlfriend spent the whole weekend with me, and I was not expecting her to want to go to Bikram.  She is the friend I thought of during my very first class, as I sat in the heat and roasted.  After spending a lot of time with her in the past year or so, my Lauren impression includes: "I'm hot!  It's so hot!" and I thought she would hate it.  But whatever, I love that she at least wanted to try my new obsession.  Especially because, so far, none of my friends have wanted to come exercise in 105 degree rooms and sweat for 90 minutes!  I know she was really nervous, but she did really well for the first few poses.  Then she up and ran out of the room with her mat!  I know she was feeling nauseous, but I felt soooo bad that she left.  I kept thinking that maybe I should go out and leave with her?  After all, we weren't halfway finished the standing poses and there was a lot left.

But I'm a jerk, so I kept going.

This particular class I paid more attention to the locking of the legs in the standing poses.  Until Sarah pointed it out to me in class, I didn't realize I wasn't locking my knees properly...which means I haven't been doing any of the standing poses properly this whole time!  Horror!  But I know better now and I felt pretty good when I could still do the new, corrected versions of these poses.  However, the best part is that Lauren came back into class!  We were doing the floor poses and thankfully, those are way less difficult to do when your body is in panic-I'm-going-to-vomit mode.  So she finished class with me and we felt fabulous afterward!  We ate BLTs in hippie town (I know, there would be a Bikram place here, right?).  It was sooo fortunate that we saw Wanderlust on Saturday night.  If you haven't seen this, it's the Jennifer Aniston/Paul Rudd movie about a hippie commune, with styles and ambiance akin to Hampden and its kitschy shops and restaurants.  FYI, Hampden is fantastic to just walk around in with your post-Bikram sweat if you don't happen to shower right after class.  So attractive.

I think I got it now

After the crappy class I had last Thursday, I was scared to go back Friday, so instead of Friday class, I went grocery shopping all morning and went to happy hour and a friend's show on Friday night.  My body, surprisingly, was ready to party, but not to imbibe.  That was a first, but I was able to wake up earlllly on Saturday for the 9am class.  Henri was the teacher and I love him!  He doesn't talk too much and he really speaks only when necessary.  He was awesome and I felt like I did so awesome on Saturday and today!  I was really getting into all the bends.  Today, my face touched my knee with no effort at all, and I was able to hold standing head-knee the entire pose!  All the extensions felt great, and I didn't feel like I was burning throughout the entire class.  I actually felt comfortable, is that weird?

On a side note, I'm watching Burlesque and I really can't finish this entry right now, because live singing and dancing is my jam.

First day back in almost a week

Bikram kicked my ass tonight!  Ughhh!  At first I started strong, I felt really good and limber until Triangle pose, and then I started feeling dizzy and nauseous.  Once the compression poses came, I felt like I was going to upchuck the buffalo chicken dip I ate earlier today.  I knew that was a bad idea, but I need to go grocery shopping, like whoa.  I probably shouldn't have eaten all those Oreos with Cool Whip either.  Live and learn.  I feel like I should eat nothing but lettuce based meals for the rest of my life!  Tonight I probably sat down for at least one of the sets in almost every pose.  Weak!  I even stayed in savasana for some of the floor poses.  I felt so bad, but I stayed in the room, and rationed my water until the end of class.  I think I even stopped sweating at one point and I felt like as soon as I took my last gulp of water, the sweat just came pouring!  I'm attributing this to working three day shifts in a row and then having an early meeting today.  And eating some super cheesy and heavy foods earlier.  I hope I'm not such a yoga baby tomorrow:(

However, there was still a learning moment!  Since I sat out for some of the poses, I observed some of the [obviously] advanced students in the class.  People actually had their foreheads on the floor for the standing leg stretching pose!  I didn't think that was possible because I just feel like I'll fall forward and crack my head open.

In related news, what do you think about yoga becoming an Olympic event?  Read CBS article here!
I feel like yoga is so widely practiced, so there are many practitioners who have exemplary control of their minds and bodies.  How would one step up your practice to the Olympic level?