Forward Bend

I know that I promised you that I would tell you all about my new studio in the big city this week but I had to tell you about my last day at the old studio.

You have to realize I am from old Scottish ancestry and we are known to be cheap!!!!  Sorry no I mean TRIFTY!!! as my mom would say.  I saw a really great deal for Mothers Day and thought now I can pay my mom back… hehehe.  It was an awesome deal, $49.95 and you get a month of unlimited yoga and the mat and towel service.  I am saving $50.00 for one month.  Now that spoke too me and that is what I like to pay for gift and I also I get to pay back my mom…..hehehe.  After all she was the one that bought me my first month (because the stress she said) and she has been saying that she should also go… But has made all kinds of excuses (now she has none).  Yay!!!!

So to start it out right I gave her the gift before we headed to the big city but she wanted me to come alone with her for the first time.  Like a fool I thought why not I have been going for three weeks.  I should be able to handle this with some kind of dignity.  Wrong!!!!   We get there and they (they instructor) took a real liking to my mom….  And I really think the pretty instructor (skinny witch) still remembered the phone incident as she asked if I had left my phone outside…..  So there you go I have a really red face even before we start, and my mother is giggling like schoolgirl.  How embarrassing!!!!!!

I now have the breathing exercise down and the half moon is ok my arms aren’t straight yet but they are just about there.  I see the improvement and isn’t that what you want.  I still feel such a relief when we go into a back bend, just changing your arm position…. Then we go into the forward bend…..

Well I can’t grab my ankles no matter how hard I try I have to grab my calves just to try and stretch forward.  I glance over and guess what my mom is grabbing her ankles and bending forward.

Oh my!!!!  I am hating life at that moment my mom is doing better than me…  Yes, I know that we are not suppose to measure are performance to any one else.   But this is her first time, and she is my mom!!!!   Not fair at all!!!!

Well the rest of the class was no better I struggled the whole way through as usual and she just breezed through it…. Oh ya, she was sweaty but she got all the way through with out resting…..

Later when I got home I realized that I have had ten years of sitting behind a desk, writing…. Not doing hardly any exercise and she has had 10 years of retirement exercising every day….  So no, wonder she is in better shape than I am….

Needless to say she loves, loves her gift…..  In fact when her month runs out she has just decided that she will be taking a year membership out.  As, with me her arthritis doesn’t hurt as much and she feels a happy tiredness.

So for Mothers Day I would suggest you look into the Mothers Day Special at The Bikrams Yoga New Westminster studio.  The package is 49.95 and you also receive one month unlimited membership and the towel and mat package.

Illustration done by Jeanne Marie

Backward Bend

The Journal of one student doing Hot Yoga

Well here I am again and it is week three and we are moving this week: HELP!!!  Yes as I said in my first blog we are moving from a very small town to a very large town and this is the week….  But it is at the end of the week so I can get in three classes.

I have decided that I will do three classes this week, as I have been taking it easy on myself (or you could say I have been a little lazy).  My instructors have noticed that I am coming fairly regular so that is ok.  They are helping me do the exercises just a little easier… Which is good as I am not at all flexible… So today we are going to talk about the backward bend.

The Backward bend is right after the half moon and is classified as part of the half moon, backward bend and forward bend pose.  So you do the half moon and when your arms are falling off and only then. The instructor tells you to drop your head back and bring your arms back.  Oh YA, I forgot, you are to be bending your back as while.  But you are so relieved that you really don’t have to hold your arms up any more that there (I swear there is a big SIGH of relief) all around the room. Or maybe I am just imagining it. Hehehe

I am thinking this is awesome I can do this when there is a phone ringing somewhere close.  OH NO, there a phone in class….

There isn’t supposed to be a phone!!!!!  It is still ringing!!!!

Oh no what is my phone doing in class!!!!!  I really don’t remember bringing it into class!!!! And it is ringing!!!!!

What am I going to do!!!!!  Can I melt into the floor!!!!  Oh ya,  I am melting and top of that I am SO EMBARRASSED!!!!

I dash out of the class (not suppose to do that) with the teacher yelling at me (didn’t think that little thing had such a big voice) and I didn’t even look at who was on the phone I just turned it off, and threw it into my locker….  Then dashed back into the class….

Such a big NO!!!! NO!!!!   But really the teacher was really nice she just asked if the phone was turned off and that I would remember to not bring into class next time….

How embarrassing….  Oh well the rest of the class went well, and I am going to get my mom a Gift Certificate and a Mat and Towel Special for mothers day.  It is only $49.95 for a $62.00 value…  Will give her some of her own medicine…hehehe.

See you next week when I check in and I have my new studio in the big city.

Cartoons are done by Jeanne Maie.

illustration by Jeanne Marie

Ok I have been going for a week now and low and behold I have dropped a whole pound….hehehe  It is not much but it is a pound… Man it is hard I am so tired.  I have to remember that it will take me a while to get use to actually exercising again.  But this blog is about me trying to do the half moon pose….

The half moon is the second position in the group of 26 positions.  We are to put our arms over our heads and interlock our hands and release the forefingers.

Then gaze into the mirror and kept your arms over your head with your elbows locked… Then you hold and you hold and you hold…. I think forever.  Oh ya, you are suppose to stretch your side… and lean over…

Oh my, it gets harder and harder every time.  I know it doesn’t sound hard but it is so hard.  I can’t even lock my elbows yet.  Then the instructor tells you to lean back kept your arms by your ears… and don’t forget to keep your weight on your heels….

Well all I can do is keep my arms up for about 30 seconds… and then they feel like they are falling off…. And don’t forget you are sweating buckets at this time…

All I can think of is that there are only two more positions after this and then I can have a drink I have to keep that in my mind and kept going…  Oh what we do to get into shape.  Is it really worth it?????  Will I live to see the end of the class???

Oh man it is a good thing I am still new as the teacher doesn’t really bother me and all I want to do is survive this class….

But you know I do survive and I have started to feel better…. I am starting to notice little things.  My balance is getting better.  My arthritis in my hands is not hurting as much; in fact I just realized I haven’t taken an aspirin for the pain for the last 3 days.  So that is just awesome….

It has been a full week now I think that I will invest in a nice mat and towel as I am starting to feel a little better about going and some of the girls were telling me about this great towel and mat service that they are offering.  I think I will look into that as while.

See you next week when I check in…

I would like to start this Journal  with you knowing that I am a middle aged and that I am 50 lb. over weight, and have not exercised for the last 10 years.   Also my husband and I were in the process of moving from a small town to a city.  For the month before are move we lived with my mom.  Now I love my mom very much but man was I stressed.  So my mom bought me an 1 month unlimited  package and said that it would be good for me that I should go…. I still laugh at that part.

So I went to the website which told me to were shorts and a loose top, come 20 minutes early and to be well hydrated. “What is well hydrated”  I thought?  Which I didn’t have a clue what it meant, you would have thought that I would have had the brains to realize what I was getting into with that statement.  I got into that big room and low and behold it was nice and HOT in there. Nice!!!  They don’t call it hot yoga for nothing. Well that was the start. I laid down on the mat and thought this is great I am getting nice and warm and it is not to bad. Well the yoga instructor walked in and we started…she informed all the new people (which was me) that the object of the first couple of classes is to just and stay in the room and if we get faint we must not pant as we will get worse. When we get really tired we should lay down in the Savasana or Dead Body Pose. I really should have run at that point but I am stubborn and when I was in school I was a jock and we didn’t run from a little exercise.

So we started to breathe and it was only 10 times breathing in and out with two sets, I have never been so hot and drenched with sweat. I was soaked and we had just started and there was another 85 minutes to go… oh my, I am in trouble. But I managed that day to stay in the class I actually managed to do most of the standing aerobics portion of the class only laying down for the last couple. I also managed to do some of the laying down postures and of coarse by the end was really good at the Savasana pose…

When I was leaving the studio some of the girls were drinking Cocos-Pure which is a great coconut drink and said that it really helped to refresh and renew your body. So why not and give it a try? I went home that day with the feeling of accomplishment and well being… but most importantly I slept like a baby for the first time in months… It was so wonderful.

illustration done by Jeanne Marie: www.jeannemarieng