School Started!

Now normally I'm always a little excited for school to start, but this is my last semester so I'm ready to be done!  I was only a few credits short for my degree so I decided to take a few fun classes to fill up my schedule.  Fun is a very loose term here since they're still school classes... :)  Along with them being "fun," these classes were picked to help me in my fitness journey!  I am taking a nutrition class and a health and wellness class!!  I'm excited to learn information that I can take with me for the rest of my life.  I will be sharing what I learn as well as challenge those that read my blog to take this journey with me (just without the homework and exams!).

Hoping this will be the most beneficial choice I've made in "filler courses" since I started college!

Restless.

It's been almost 2 weeks since I rushed to the ER with blood gushing from my finger and I haven't picked any exercise back up.  There are still possible complications with my finger.  (waiting on x-rays to see if it's fractured, and possible nerve damage...)

I keep seeing posts from the Shrinking Jeans ladies that talk about excuses, and time to go, and stuff like that and it's making me impatient.  I want to get back into it.  I want to get back on track, but I'm afraid of the pain that might come with the heart pumping and the blood flowing.  The throbbing and the pain if I do something just a bit off and I might hurt my finger.

I'm ready to be all better.  I want my finger back so I can type with 10 fingers... And I want my finger back so I can take normal showers (without the plastic bag around my hand) after a great workout!

I wish everyone that's reading luck to keep on truckin' with their journeys and remember that it's important and once you get into the swing of things, you miss it when it's not available to you. :)

Boo Boo.

Well, it's about that time for me to have some kind of accident considering I'm terribly clumsy just like my mother.  This time around I managed to carelessly cut my finger right open.  It was bad enough to require an ER visit and several stitches.

Needless to say, I'm not going to be able to continue with the Yoga challenge until the throbbing and pain kinda subside in my hand.  No downward dogs for me. :(  Good luck to all those ladies still participating for the surprise at the end!!  I'll get back into the groove as soon as I'm on the mend.

Wed Weigh In and Flow Yoga Revew

Well it's that time again!  The first Wednesday weigh in during the yoga challenge!  I'm proud to say that I'm just shy of losing a pound already :)  I'm in no hurry and I'm doing a much better job listening to my body this time around.  I give it what it wants but I ask of things in return.  It seems to be going great so far!

My weird cravings for healthy food are still going strong.  I'm taking 2.5 cups of chopped veggies with fat free ranch to work every day as well as half a sandwich on TOP of having either soup or a salad for breakfast (lunch for normal people that don't work nights) and then a usually semi healthy smaller portioned dinner.  The snacks and the smaller meals just kinda happened.  I realized that I was making myself sick with my dinners because they were just too much so I cut back and in doing so, it triggered my NEEDS VEGGIES switch inside me.  All in all I'm very pleased so far.  I go to bed happy and I don't wake up starving anymore.

And now.  For the newest attempt at a yoga dvd.  First off, let me explain how I went about buying all my dvds.  Heather from The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans wrote an article about yoga poses and I asked for recommendations of dvds.  So I started searching for the ones she suggested, and I started sifting through all the reviews I could find.  Then I branched out by looking at the "we also recommend" section Amazon loves to put on each page to entice you to buy more.  I was looking for beginner stuff since... ya know... it's been like 9 years since I last did yoga!

What I came across was a light smattering of different difficulties and routines for different purposes.  Once I decided on what types of routines I wanted, then I read most if not all of the reviews for each dvd.  The majority of all the reviews seemed to be positive and there were some in super depth about the different moves and how they liked the flow of it, etc.

Today's review is on a Hatha and Flow for beginners dvd.

In reading the reviews written for this particular dvd, I was skeptical to get it.  Everyone raves at how good this guy is.  (He's got at least 4 dvds with this company)  But about every 3rd or 4th review, I'd come across THIS DVD IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS!  I just brushed them off like, pfft, you don't know, maybe you're just too lazy for some of the moves!  How wrong I was.

I tried out the Flow segment this evening.  This routine is designed for building muscle, weight loss, strength, etc.  It started out pretty easy, he was very explanatory with the moves, almost step by step what to do with each arm or leg.  This was very helpful!  Then he starts getting into the downward dogs and the chaturangas and the cobras.

Here's where it starts to hit ya.... that you've made a huge mistake.  He's very big on repetitive moves to teach your muscles what to do.  The problem with this is he moves WAY too fast.  You're up then you're down, and up and down.

Then, the harder moves happen.  I didn't mind the warrior poses.  I actually prefer to do those in a nice flowing motion instead of holding it for too long.  After this, it turns into a full blown upside down ab-fest.  My balance isn't there yet.... I can't be on two appendages while throwing the others in the air and then crunching over and over and over fairly quickly.

I had to stop the dvd at 19 mins in when he FINALLY did his first child's pose.  The quick and difficult moves were painful and nauseating. I finished up my 30 mins doing movements from the AM PM dvd to calm myself and relax!

This dvd is NOT for beginners and that's a shame.  I'll probably end up WATCHING the Hatha routine instead of doing it just to see the difficulty level.  This will be a dvd I will need to progress up to but once I get here, I'll have killer abs!

Hope everyone else is going strong on whatever challenge they're participating it, whether it be with Shrinking Jeans or with themselves :)

PM Yoga Review

What better time to try out a PM yoga routine than after a 12 hour day at work?  I decided that I wanted to see how relaxing the second routine on this dvd actually was.

I must say that it was way more relaxing than I anticipated.  It was very low key.  Focusing on breathing and flexibility most of the time.  It's designed to open your body up and let out the stress from your day and for the most part it did its job.

Here's my problem this time around.  Breathing.  Man oh man, it takes so much concentration and control that I end up straining myself rather than relaxing through the breaths in and out.  I find myself only using my lungs instead of breathing deep in my belly and that restricts my air and strains my lungs.  I know this is something that comes with practice, but right now, it's all I'm noticing rather than the good that's coming from the yoga.

One thing I did learn a while back that helps in the final minutes of a routine is about breathing in pilates.  We were taught how to breathe into our problem areas, sore spots, tight spots, etc.  This comes in handy in most of the more relaxing yoga positions.  Utilizing that breath can make all the difference.

Hope others are still going strong in this challenge and I can't wait to try out another new dvd to see how the styles differ.

As a side note, I've started eating ridiculously healthy out of nowhere.  Way more than when I was TRYING to eat healthy.  My body has been screaming for munchies and sammiches, so I appease it with half a turkey sammich with fat free ranch (since I hate mustard AND mayo).  As far as munchies go, I find myself not wanting chips or junk food as often.  I've started bringing carrots, celery, and cucumbers along with more fat free ranch as my munching food.  It is keeping me super full as my meals are slowly transforming into the smaller more frequent meals that they should be.  Here's my downside that I just CAN'T figure out.  I'm always hungry.  I know when I'm content, or even full, but my body is still telling me it wants to consume stuff.  I normally chew gum to trick my brain into thinking  I'm eating but that just hasn't been doing it lately.  Here's hoping I can figure out why there's such a major disconnect between my brain and stomach.  I'm just glad that I'm eating less junk and more healthy and it wasn't even intentional!

Day 3 of Yoga: AM for Beginners

Well, time to brush off the yoga mat and get back to it!  As mentioned before, I finally got my dvds in to try and I'll be giving a 2 part review on it since it's an AM/PM yoga for beginners.

Right off the bat it's 100 times better than the youtube video that I did two days ago.  It had a slower and more relaxed pace to it.  It was also very forgiving toward modifications if you need them.

The AM starts of with a decent warm up instead of 2-3 mins of breathing.  You go through some breathing and downward facing dog and some planks before moving on to the harder moves that take more concentration and more intentional breathing.  The cooldown was decent as well.  It doesn't end in savasana but you do sit and breathe to focus and get ready for your day.

All in all, I feel much better about this workout.  The moves felt less forced to a beginner.  I only had one struggle and that was in Warrior 3 pose.  My left leg is just not stable enough to handle it yet but it'll come.

As far as muscles go, man my arms hurt something fierce, and it's mostly from the downward dog and not the planks!  My ankle is the other part of my body most affected.  I have a weak ankle with tendonitis on the outside of my foot and yoga tends to pull my foot in rather than it pushing out.  So I may end up needing to wear my brace during the day until my ankle gets stronger or adjusts to the moves.  I can't wait to be sore tomorrow.  To feel the muscle groups that have long been dormant and to know that I'm doing it to better myself. :)

I will be trying the PM half of the dvd after work tonight to see how it helps get rid of stress and helps you find balance after after a long day.

Day 2 of Yoga

Well I must say, I felt ok when I woke up yesterday after doing yoga at 2 in the morning.  I knew I had worked muscle groups that didn't know they existed much less ME knowing they existed.  But they weren't sore yet... YET.

I woke after 3 hours of sleep yesterday and my body decided that it was pumped and ready to go for the day.  My insistence that I had to be up until 1am for work didn't dissuade it's decision.  So I got up, I cooked, I worked on my blogs, I made my FB page. And then I ran errands before I had to head out to day #9 of 10 days straight at work.  By the time I got there, I was feeling some sore muscles.

After about an hour of work, man, I was ready for some advil, a heating pad, and my bed.  I'm not sure if it's because the video I used wasn't truly for beginners or if I did EVERY move just a tad incorrectly.  I ended up having to go home early because of the excruciating pain I was in.

I must say, after a real night's sleep, it definately feels like the 2nd day out of a rigorous workout.  I'm sore and it hurts, but I'm stiff in all the right places too.  This experience, while I whine about it, is a good reminder to not push yourself too hard.  At the time, I didn't know how much I was exerting myself.  Surely it would be just like any other new workout, just a few sore muscles and I'd get back on that horse and try it again the next day.

Lessons learned:  Even though it's yoga and food is important in your diet when doing these exercises, protein is still terribly important for those muscles that are now covered in micro tears that need to be healed fast and properly.  I did not even think to mix a protein shake.  I drank some water yesterday but not nearly enough.  Water can help those aching muscles too.  And last but not least, proper rest.  I did not stay in Savasana as long as I should have because I was being trampled on by 4 different animals and I was ready for bed.  There's no point in doing a set of yoga if you're not going to take the time to enjoy it and follow each step to the best of your abilities.  Had I laid there a bit longer, I could have taken the time to breathe into the places that were the most sore and that might have helped the next day.

Patience and taking it slow are highly recommended.  I just got my new yoga dvds last night in the mail so I will be trying out one of the beginner routines after a few more hours of sleep but before work.  Hope to break up the stiffness in my muscles so that sitting in a chair all night long doesn't kill me again. :)