Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Is Yoga for Me?

Most of my life yoga didn't really interest me. It seemed like it was something for super skinny, flexible people and focused on spiritual aspects I wasn't into. However, recently I find myself being more drawn to it. Sure I would love to be slim, but I would also like to be strong and flexible.

When I saw this post post on Operation Skinny Jeans last summer I wanted to be her. She looked so strong, graceful and beautiful as she did her poses in the park. She made me realize you don't have to have the "perfect" shape to practice yoga. Even though her blog is no longer active I would recommend reading through her old posts. She has some excellent things to say. I miss her blog.

Awhile back, I tried a yoga class with a friend at her gym. I liked it okay, but I was a bit overwhelmed by the more difficult poses and flow. I mostly wanted to lay on the mat and take a nap. The gym we belong to offers a couple of yoga classes and I have toyed with trying them for months, but still haven't made it to one.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been doing a little online "research" on beginning yoga. I watched some videos, read about various poses...and still didn't try it. I often get excited about something, do the research and then I guess my fear of failure kicks in and I don't give it a proper try.

Perhaps my niece read on my recent 2.0 post and saw that I wanted to pursue yoga. It wasn't long after she arrived at our house on Friday that she was talking about us doing yoga. So I pulled up some of the videos I had previously watched. (Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about yoga. I am simply sharing what we found online by searching yoga for complete beginners.)

We set up the laptop on the floor and started our first session Friday afternoon. The video we are using is Yoga For Complete Beginners - 20 Minute Home Yoga Workout! The workout itself was definitely for beginners, but still challenge me.





By the way every time I look at these pictures I get sidetracked by the floor. I love it even more every time I see it :)

On a side note, no sooner did I get the mat unrolled Zommie dashed over to claim it.
Evidently, she had a pose or two of her own she wanted to share. She takes her Downward Dog very seriously!
A website we found that had several options for beginners is Running with the Sunrise. Saturday evening we tried the poses on her Bedtime Yoga Poses post. Maybe that is why we both fell asleep during Empire Strikes Back. That king size bed is really coming in handy.

I liked the idea of doing the yoga on the bed, but in reality it feels a little too soft for several of the poses. For example, I tried the bridge and only got a sliver of daylight under my hiney. Truth is my niece had no problem putting lots of daylight between her and the bed, so I will keep working on it.

Thread the Needle. I am looking forward to becoming more flexible - mine didn't look anything like this :)
Reclined Pigeon - makes me laugh every time I hear the name.
Supine Twist - I remember my husband using this stretch in his Jiu Jitsu classes.
Since the weekend I have continued to do some yoga every day. I've done the bedtime yoga several times. While the dogs are outside in the morning, I have worked on some poses on the deck - warrior, tree, etc.

I am planning to do the video again this week. The first time I did the biggest issue was that my wrists hurt when I was in any position that put pressure on them. Apparently, they could use some strengthening. The tightness in my legs also made the crossed leg position very uncomfortable. I am looking forward to both of those becoming easier as I lose weight and get my muscles stretched and strengthened.

Now to the weigh-in...I lost 3.8 pounds. I am super excited about that. It has been a LONG time since I have put together a good week and am proud of the results. Next week's plan includes more of the same of what worked this week - tracking food, some yoga and. if the weather cooperates.some walking outside.


Linking up with Winter at Weigh-In Wednesday.


28 comments:

  1. Heck yeah on your LOSS!!!

    I love the idea of yoga, but haven't found the time for it. I'm glad you're enjoying it and working it into your daily routine. Do you instagram? there's a curvy woman who does yoga on instagram, I will find her name, and she is awesome!

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    1. I like the idea of it too...hope I can keep up the follow through.

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  2. That is an AMAZING loss!!! You go, girl!

    And I love yoga. It's such a calming practice for me since it's about control. Plus, it helps me keep injuries at bay :)

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    1. I think will definitely benefit from a class or working with a video.

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  3. I can't get the breathing or relaxation down but I do enjoy yoga. Awesome loss this week!

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    1. I hope once I get the poses better I can concentrate on breathing more.

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    1. Congrats on your loss! That is awesome! I have been looking into taking Yoga as well. Ironically, I was just talking about this with my son (who is lucky to still be alive right now)... The name of the place I have been checking out is the Dancing Elephant. While my son swears he did not say that I would be a dancing elephant, it certainly came out that way. Ah... the tact of a teenage boy.

      Using a video is a great idea... I'm going to check into that

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    2. Dancing Elephant :) Teenagers!! Let me know if you find any good videos.

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  5. Congratulations on a great loss!

    I also want to try yoga. I could really use the boost to my flexibility. But I find the pace so slow that I tend to get bored and give up after a few minutes.

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    1. I am concerned about the boredom too...I want to move on to the next pose.

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  6. Way to go on your big loss! Thanks for sharing the yoga links. Yoga's one of those things I've always wanted to try but didn't know where to start (without taking a class).

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    1. I think I might need some classes to be sure I am doing things right. We have a couple at our gym, but that would mean getting myself to the gym :)

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  7. GO YOU ON THE YOGA! I love love LOVE yoga and the beauty is that you can always modify for your body, regardless of what class you're taking. I am going tonight!!! :) Keep up the good work!

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    1. I definitely need a few modifications at this point. There is a class on Mondays and I am going to do my best to be in this coming Monday.

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  8. There's a DVD I love called Heavyweight Yoga (Yoga for the Body you have Today) that I just love if you can find it at your library or on sale somewhere. She does a great job talking through body modifications, etc, and makes things really approachable for beginners. Congrats on the weight loss and on taking on a new activity challenge!

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    1. All the videos I found online for it were promotional. Good idea to check the library so I can preview before buying :)

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  9. I love, love, love thread the needle pose. And I'm a huge fan of the regular pigeon pose, but the reclined one is good too!

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    1. Oh my! I just looked up the regular pigeon pose...pretty sure my body doesn't work that way...at least not yet :) Thread the needle does feel good and I am sure it will feel even better as I go on.

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  10. Amazing loss!!
    And good for you to find yoga, I struggle with my balance due to injuries, but love the stretching and flexibility you gain with it!

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    1. I would love to improve my balance too. I am going to have to put more work into it.

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  11. I've tried yoga (at home) and I enjoy it, but I never keep up with it. I need to make myself do it! Awesome loss!

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    1. That is the problem I have with a lot of the good changes I am trying to make - keeping it up.

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  12. You are doing great! I love your dog posing too...was he doing "downward facing dog"? I shared this at my link party, #FoodandFitnessFriday, over the weekend. I hope you will stop by some Friday and add more of your healthy posts!

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  13. Trying to finally get caught up on blogs and the like and WOW! The loss this particular week! That is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did enjoy yoga and need to figure a way to incorporate it more too. Maybe once my stitches are out and I get the green light to resume all activities, I'll dust (literally) off my old dvd again. Yay for great weeks!

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  14. Hey, I totally understand what that is like to not feel like Yoga was for me. I didn't like the idea of it and I didn't identify with what I felt the culture was. I actually did the same thing that you did and just started studying online about Yoga until I realized that I really had prejudged it.

    Irving Hammond @ Panacea CR

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