Failure... no we don't set up for failure

As you read these you will realize that chronology is not followed. hehe. Chaos reigns.

April 2013:
It was finally time for me to embark on the thirty day challenge. I had said that when the semester came to a close I would do my thirty days and see what that would do for my body. What is 30 day challenge you may ask. Well there seems to be a culture at the hot yoga place to attempt to do a large number of days of consecutive hot yoga. This means that you either can not skip days or you need to double up. If you have ever attempted hot yoga you know this is a major accomplishment. When I first started hot yoga I could only tolerate once a week.

So now I was at that point and had to decide when to start. The plan was to do the 30 days before Wakarusa Music Festival, my yearly mama escape from reality and responsibility. The semester would be coming to a close, my teaching responsibilities would be coming to an end and I could focus on doing this each day. For the last few months I had been building up to this.

I was at Sumits Hot Yoga and I asked one of my great instructors, Emily, "So, being a mom, it is really hard to make it to 30 days in a row. You know kids stuff. Does anyone ever do a 30 in 32 days?". Her incredible strong and inspirational response was " Failure... no we don't set up for failure." She was so right. I had to dive in for 30 days. I had to embrace all that I needed to do and fit this in. If it meant doing doubles so be it. I was committed.

I am going to continue writing about these 30 days while I also build the history that lead me to this time.

Day 1: Very much like most days. I was used to doing three to four hot yogas a week so no big whoop. Emily asked me if that was going to be my first day. My answer ... depends on tomorrow.

Day 2: OK feeling a little sore today. I did the 5:45 on a friday which was a candle light class. Cool but it was harder to focus on my reflection. Harder to balance during the standing series. I got used to it as the class went on and it was actually rather cool. Not real flame of course. Just like LED lights.

Day 3: Saturday had to do an afternoon class. Kid stuff to do in the morning. My Son was showing a poster at a science show. Totally cute and worth it. Did the afternoon class. Felt good. I had done three days in a row before so not a big deal yet.

Day 4: First time I have done four days in a row. It was good. Honestly started the monthly monster so had to take a few breaks. The great instructor Sarah suggested taking it easy on myself during that time. It was actually hard to force myself to take breaks. I kept wanting to jump up and get back into the flow but I knew that the break takes discipline too.

Got home on Day 4 and spent two hours work in the back yard. We have one of those intex above ground pools. Last winter we had no snow and the most mild of temperatures in years. So, this winter we figured we would just leave the pool up and save ourselves the hassle. Well, turns out this winter has been long, cold and snowy. Moral of the story is that the pool was full of yucky, smelly, scary water. So the boys and I spent two hours bailing out the remains of the water that the pump could not remove. The thing that amazes me about this is that I don't hurt. By all that is holly I should really hurt. I mean I should be in traction. Instead I feel a little pain in my right hip but no big deal. I must have dumped out 100's of pails of water and tossed them, twisting, lifting and no big pain. Definitely in much better shape then I can ever remember.

This is what amazes me about this yoga. You are using your own body weight to grow your strength and it is so effective. No bow flex or free weights yet strength growing with every move. Flexibility, stamina, health.

The dude that is one of the owners at hot yoga asked me today how much I thought I would lose during my 30 days. I am not sure but I am very excited to find out. Not so worried about the lbs, More about inches and health. I am already doing so well.