Today officially marks the halfway point of the 30 Day Bikram Yoga Challenge! One thing that has made the challenge enjoyable is having two friends come along for the journey. One of those friends is Sara. Sara is a workout fanatic much like myself. We first bonded a couple of years back when she came to my spin class while visiting NYC. Since then, together we’ve run a half marathon, competed in a triathlon, woken up for countless pre-dawn runs and gym visits and now we’re taking on this new challenge.
Sara shares with us her experience thus far as we wrap up week 2. Now Sara, take it away!
As an avid ShapinUp reader, I am honored to guest blog today.
As we are hitting our halfway point in our Bikram Yoga Challenge, I thought I would share are a few reflections:
- I actually see improvement! I am a lot more flexible than I was on Day 1. I can now tuck my left leg behind my right now in eagle pose. I also tapped my forehead to the floor in the standing separate leg stretching pose. I am excited to see what I’ll be able to do by Day 30. I feel more fit, my abs are definitely harder, and I see some cool muscle definition in my arms that wasn’t there before (which I do enjoy staring at during awkward pose).
- Work out with friends. I have always believed in this, but the yoga challenge brings this to a whole new level. It’s so much better to go to class with Amanda and Alison. Sometimes I find myself ACTUALLY smiling during those classes (normally I’m just staring at myself and praying for the teacher to open the window). I even love just seeing them on my way in our out of class. We are in this crazy thing together.
- Sometimes the yoga truck does hit you. I had my worst class ever the day after the best class ever. Right after feeling like I was getting the hang of sweating my face off for 90 minutes, I went to a class where I could barely do any of the lying down series. It happens and it sucked. At the very astute recommendation of the teacher that night, I tried hard not to analyze, woke up the next day and went to yoga.
- I still hate the heat. While my two fellow challengers seem to be adjusting to the heat, I still really hate it. I love when the window is open in class. I do everything I can to suck in the cool air. At this point, I don’t intend on doing bikram after February 20th (I DO intend to go back to my vinyasa classes at equinox)
- 5. Bikram is exhausting. 90 minutes of bikram every day is very tiring. I would say I’m in pretty good shape, too, but I’m DRAINED every night. If anyone is having trouble sleeping, I suggest some bikram yoga.
- I shockingly miss wine. I don’t drink a ton, but I still thought it would be good to give up drinking for the 30 days of the challenge. I thought it wouldn’t really be a big deal, but I do miss my glass of good red wine.
All and all, I’m pretty proud of myself for making it this far. The first half of the challenge was WAY harder than I thought it would be. Looking forward to completing the second half!
Here we are before this morning’s 7am class. Fake smiles all around.
