In Pursuit of Happy Hips!

I never thought I would have a reason to blog about anything in particular...but I suppose the day has come... so here we go!

I should probably start this by going backwards first.

It's August 20th, 2004 and my mother has just passed away from stomach cancer. She fought long, and hard for 8 months but enough was enough and the cancer took its toll in the end. Before her official diagnosis, she had actually seen her family doctor on a monthly basis for six months. She complained her symptoms were getting worse each time, and this doctor continued to do nothing more than to give her over-the-counter Prevacid to alleviate her symptoms. No diagnostic tests were ever ordered for six entire months. By the time they were performed she was found to have metastatic gastric carcinoma that had spread to her liver, peritoneum, and lymph nodes. Her oncologist told us that there was no curative option in this situation and that chemotherapy may prolong her survival for a maximum of 3 months. Survival beyond this time period was said to be "highly unlikely".

Being the remarkable fighter that my mother was, she survived 8 months of "chemo-Tuesdays", as we used to call them, of grueling, intense, pain, and suffering, and taught me a lifetime of lessons in the process.

While she was sick, I was an absolute machine: waking up at the crack of dawn, doing my daily rounds as her daughter/nurse then heading off to classes and labs to complete my Biochemistry and Psychology degree. I would come home and continue my duties and then squeeze in some study time from 11pm until 2 or 3 in the morning. I did this for months.

It wasn't always awful and depressing. She was actually doing pretty well in the spring of 2004. We all thought she would beat it. She thought she would beat it. She was gardening, and singing, and dancing again. Old friends had re-entered her life and brought so much joy and love into our home and the remaining days of her life. She was the happiest I had seen her in a long time. But around this time (June), that summer, everything fell apart. To give you an idea...she weighed 180 lbs or so before her diagnosis, by June of 2004, she weighed 70 pounds, by the time she died a few months later, she weighed 60lbs.

Watching her literally waste away like this and eventually die, took its toll on me. It took its toll hard. I jumped, no... leaped, onto the "Eat-Away-Your-Sorrows" train, gained 50 pounds in the process and delayed every aspect of my life. I was 18, and instead of taking time to discover who I was, fall in love, travel, enjoy life, maybe get into a bit of trouble here and there.... I just ate, put up doors over my broken little heart (and then nailed boards all over those doors), and can't say I traveled much or enjoyed life at all for the remainder of my undergraduate career. I certainly didn't get into any trouble. I didn't have the energy for it anyway.

As August creeps up, it's going to be 6 years since she's passed away. In that process I have done a lot of soul searching, a lot of growing up. I've completed that Biochem and Psych degree and am 2 years shy of being a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine. I've learned about resilience and what it means to pull yourself and others out of a hard place. I've also learned to finally just LIVE... anyone who knows me even a little bit, knows I've definitely done my fair bit of traveling too!

The one thing I haven't done yet is take off those darned 50 pounds that came with all that sorrow.
For the past 4 years now, I've lost 5 here, 10 there, gained 5 back...10 back.... lost 15... gained 5.... it's been oh so fun. But enough is enough.

I've been working as an Educator for lululemon athletica in the Briar Hill store in Toronto, Canada since October. With all the free in-store yoga and pilates classes, plus access to awesome yoga studios all over Toronto, I've lost 20 pounds and for the first time in a while...dare I say it.... it's actually staying off.

So now that I've fully thrown myself OFF the "Eat-Your-Sorrows-Away" train, I am jumping onto a new one.... the... "Let's-Lose-That-Last-30-Pounds" train.

So finally, the real purpose of my blog:

I am challenging myself to 30 days of Yoga with Eoin Finn.

I've got the DVD "The Pursuit of Happy Hips with Eoin Finn and Elite Athletes".

It's 4 different routines, each one is an hour long.
My plan is to do one of those routines, every single day, for one month, and write about my experiences as well as post pictures of my little journey.

We sell the DVD at lulu and it's been playing on a big TV screen in the store for months... many of the postures leave me staring with my mouth open... so I know I'm in for quite the journey here. After watching clips of this video day after day at work, I decided it's finally time for me to try it out myself!

The goal of this challenge isn't to lose the entire 30 pounds in one month, but to at least kick start the process. June, July, and especially August tend to be hard months for me personally, so I think the title "In Pursuit of Happy Hips" is quite fitting here. Hopefully, come July, both my soul and hips will be a little lighter, and a little happier too!


Wish me luck!

p.s. I have no idea how to "blog" so hopefully this thing will get fancier as I go.