Today's blog is brought to you by the number 30 and the letter D.

D for DONE!... 30 days are DONE!

Yesterday I did "Goin' Big" Full Routine for the second time.  This is a big 80 minuter.  After working a full day and then doing 80 minutes of yoga, I conked out on my yoga mat at the end of savasana and didn't wake up for a while.

Today people at work constantly asked: "Have you done your yoga for the day yet?" "It's Day 30 Meg!" "I can't believe you did yoga everyday for 30 days!" "Which one are you going to do today?" I had hoped to fit in a morning practice today but as with nearly every day of this challenge, that simply didn't happen!  I ended up doing my very last practice of the challenge just a little while ago and since World Champion's Hips was most challenging for me in the beginning, I thought I'd finish it off right by doing that one!

       









It wasn't too shabby! To answer the question on everybody's minds....  Yes!  My hips ARE happy now!
My knees are happy too....so are my traps, and my back....everything is feeling mighty chipper these days.
I've lost about 6 inches in total and gained a ton of new muscle that certainly wasn't there before.  When I started, I would have described my body as primarily mush... but now I have actual muscle I can poke at.  I wouldn't say I lost a tremendous amount of weight that would be visible to everyone, but there is a noticeable difference in my stride, in the way I carry myself, and in my attitude.  I feel like I have detoxified not only the actual toxins in my body by sweating once a day!... but I have also detoxified any negative energy from my mind and soul.  It's like yoga has transformed my body from the inside, out.

In a weird and possibly creepy way, I feel like Eoin and I are good friends haha.  I mean, geez, we've pretty much been hanging out every single day for 30 days!  I would really love to actually meet him one day!  I have so many questions about his videos and about yoga and surfing.

I succeeded at being able to do the boat poses like I wanted.  I was even able to get a decent Crow pose down.  But Flying Crow is still looking like insanity to me and so I'm aiming to be able to do that one by the end of the summer.

lululemon has this thing called a BHAG... pronouned "bee-hag" and it stands for Big.Hairy.Audacious.Goal.  If you check out the www.lululemon.com website, there's tons of pictures of people all over the world with their BHAGs written down on cardboard.  The concept here is that the more you share your goals, the more likely you will achieve them.  So here's mine:

To get me there I will spend the next 8 weeks training for my first ever 10K race.  Now, I'm not much of a runner.  In fact, I'm probably the slowest runner ... EVER.  When it comes to the turtle and the hare, I'm very much of the turtle persuasion.  I remember even as a kid, just never being able to run as fast as any of the other kids.  But if there's one thing I do have, and certainly honed in while my mom was sick, it's the ability to endure pain and suffering.  So because of this, I know that will help me make it out on top.

Lastly, I'd love to take a moment to thank you all for reading this blog and for supporting me throughout these thirty days.  I've received endless amounts emails from so many awesome people who have started doing their own challenges, who have taken up yoga for the first time, or who have been inspired to take their fitness to the next level.  I am really happy I could be a medium for this and am pumped for the next stage in my weight loss.  So stay tuned for a second blog!  Starting tomorrow I will begin an 8 week journey to achieve my BHAG.  Wish me luck!!

Here I AM!  Day 30, happy hip-ified!

Yoga in the Moonlight

Tonight I planned on doing Goin' Big (the full routine).  I rolled out my mat in front of my TV as I've done this whole month, and then I heard someone yell from outside on the street which made me look out the window.  That's when I noticed the moon and how absolutely gorgeous it looked.  A light bulb turned on in my mind and I brought my mat outside on the balcony and did Sunset Session instead, in honour of tonight's pretty moonlight. 

I felt some great release in my traps.  This is a pretty big deal for me as I've actually been doing yoga on and off (mostly off) since grade 11 and have never felt this.  Eoin has us do this one pose that I think is called Padangusthasana... where you do a forward bend while sliding the palms of your hands under your feet so that the tips of your toes make contact with the insides of your wrists.  Someone correct me if that's not what it's actually called!  For the longest time I had no idea this posture had the ability to release tension in the traps.  If you do it right and just learn to LET GO, your head just suspends upside down in pure freedom.  It's a glorious feeling, you feel your spine grow so long and I felt like I could stay bent over like that for eternity. It made me realize that those poor muscles of my back likely spend their entire day engaged and tight like that.  Once upon a time I may have noticed that, but now it's become such a habit that the tightness has become normal.

After tonight I only have 2 more visits with Eoin and crew until the challenge is over.  I can still hardly believe its ending.  I have been receiving emails from friends telling me that they've joined me in The Pursuit of Happy Hips as well!  Super exciting news!  I hope you guys enjoy the DVDs as much as I have.  One of my favourite bits of wisdom from Eoin that I would like to share with you guys as you start your own yoga journey is: Yoga postures are like a good relationship, challenging but never torture, and they always make us grow.

On a completely unrelated note:  Tomorrow Spain plays against Portugal in the World Cup.  I am so excited!  I love watching these boys play!  They never fail to display such great sportsmanship, mad skills, and well, they're not too bad to look at in shorts either!  Good luck boys! 

 

3 days left!

I really need to get this camera cord situation figured out because without having my own camera to use, I had to creep into my sister's room Friday night to steal hers once again.  I was trying to be stealth like a ninja but instead I stepped on some of her beads (she makes jewelry), and whimpered like an injured puppy.  My spidey senses were also failing me, and I failed to even find the camera in the dark .  So I don't have any pictures for friday night's practice but I do have some for this saturday morning!

On friday night, I did Aloha Abs.  It was a very late night practice yet again and it got me to thinking that there are probably times throughout the day that are better suited for yoga practice.  I remember a friend of mine at school who is a yoga instructor saying that there are but I cannot for the life of me remember when that is.  Keeping in theme with how things normally go in my life, that magical yoga time is probably when I'm at work anyway.  I like doing my practice before bed but I truly am starting to do these at ungodly hours of the night sometimes and I want (and need) to change that up.

There are certainly days where I've come really close to not even doing my yoga for the day.  For the past 2 and a half weeks I've been having the kind of days where you honestly are on the go so much that you can hardly find a moment for yourself.  In the past, during these kinds of weeks I would normally be so exhausted that I would come home and think "sooo... my plan for today was to workout, but  I don't even have enough energy to lay down right now....so... no workout then?  Okay!"  Instead I would turn to some variation of carbohydrate and quality time with the TV and lay like a vegetable until I fall asleep.  But now, because of this blog, I don't do that.  I CAN'T do that.  Even if I wanted to!  There's NO TIME!  If I want to squeeze my yoga practice in, most days I just have to cut out that laying like a vegetable part all together.

In the beginning of this challenge, it was almost irritating to have to do that because that was my "alone" time.  But now I realize that when you're trying to make changes in your life you can't JUST add something new to it.  To keep this change functional and maintainable, you almost always have to REMOVE something old too.  In my case, it's been the cough potato-ing.  I think the key in picking something to remove is to find something that is clearly disfunctional for you and would do you some good to replace it with something more functional.

Yesterday morning I did All Downhill from The Pursuit of Happy Hips.  For some reason I'm actually tremendously stiff these days and I'm so happy I chose to do this video because it stretched me out in all the right places.  It did a great job of loosening me up!

Today I did Easy Street from The Pursuit of Happy Hips.  As you can see, I'm trying to take it easy these days.  Everyday has been go-go-go....  I feel like I've been attempting to write this blog and post it for days....wait.. I HAVE.  So with all the stress this week has brought I thought I would create a theme of peace for myself and keep things simple.  All Downhill and Easy Street aren't exactly easy, you definitely feel the burn and Eoin kindly reminds us that that burning sensation equals calories burned...which always motivates me to hold my poses longer!  But I would say that these two videos aren't as fast paced as the Hot Chocolate for example, or as the ones in Power Yoga for Happiness 2.  Tonight I did what I like to call PJ Yoga. I did yoga in my PJs.  The only reason for this is that I walked home from work in the pouring rain tonight.  I was completely drenched from head to toe and needed to be in cozy PJs.  I changed immediately and collapsed on the ground in a state of utter exhaustion from this past week.  I really had no desire to move from my position or to whip out my camera and start setting the self-timer on it so I could post pictures..... so I laid there on the ground for a minute, then sighed and said "okay, okay fine!" and rolled over to my yoga mat, pressed play and started doing Easy Street.  I'm glad I did it.  I always feel better afterwards.  Sometimes it's just hard getting yourself into gear, but it's always worth it.

If you're wondering why there are so many balloons in my pictures from Saturday morning... I threw a little birthday shindig for a good friend of mine on Friday night and didn't have time to clean them up in the morning.  I thought they'd be fun to have in my pictures though...they sure are colourful!

Flying Crow

Today is Day 24 and I did Hot Chocolate again from the Pursuit of Happy Hips DVD.  It's really cool to see how much evolution has taken place since I first tried this particular routine.  The last time I did it, it seemed to unleash some sort of anger.  I don't know where the anger dispersed to, but all I know is that it's not inside me, because I feel fantastic and at peace. 

With no risk of earthquake, I was able to FINALLY do my practice on my balcony and enjoy a bit of sunlight!  There's something truly special about doing yoga outdoors.  Almost all of my practices in Mexico were done outside amidst the smell of the trees and the sea.  In Toronto, I tend to always do yoga indoors.  It was nice to give it a go outside for a change.

It was definitely easier doing Hot Chocolate this time around.  My body is much more equipped to handle the postures done in this video... well... almost all of them.

Here's a shot of Eoin and the lovely Insiya doing this other version of crow pose...  Flying Crow Pose. The first time I saw them do this, my jaw dropped and I thought "HA!  Yeah... right... let me just hop right into that pose... sure!" Please note the intense sarcasm.
I didn't even bother trying to do the pose, I just watched in awe.  I especially  just watched Insiya because she has this beautiful grace to every posture she flows into.  Every movement she makes is just so beautiful, I can only hope I'll get to that point some day!

Here are some shots my sister took of me while attempting this pose:

Here I am slowly sinking out of the pose.....

Somehow I ended up in this position...

I'm gonna need to work on this one!

Sigh ... I'm in LOVE

I attempted to get my daily dose of yoga on the balcony today but we had a 5.5 earthquake in the GTA, Ottawa, and other surrounding areas.  Fearing an aftershock, I figured that wasn't the best place to do my yoga today.  I learned this evening however, that it's actually not likely for an aftershock of the same magnitude to take place.  So that's comforting!  I myself actually didn't even feel the quake, but know of a lot of people who felt nauseous for a while after the rumble and some people in tall buildings said they felt the entire building sway which I would imagine could be quite terrifying.  I would have assumed right away that it was the result of the G20 Summit for sure and possibly feared for my life.

The only kind of rumbling I did feel around the time of the quake came from my tummy, but I doubt that was the source of all this earth shaking excitement.  I guess this was just Mother Nature doing her thang.

After today I have exactly ONE WEEK LEFT OF MY 30-day Yoga Challenge With  Eoin Finn!!  To celebrate that I thought I would go old school and revisit "World Champions' Hips" from the Pursuit of Happy Hips DVD.

Here's a shot of me looking like a psycho while doing a new version of pigeon pose that I had actually never seen before until doing Eoin's videos.  Got a tight bum?  This will certainly help you there.  I distinctly remember having a hard time with this one the first and second time I tried World Champion's Hips.  I didn't have enough core strength to hold me up for very long, and my leg didn't necessarily feel like wrapping around like it did in this picture.  I've clearly progressed since then! 

Bridge might very well be my favourite pose.  Really gets the blood flowing to your brain, opens up the chest nicely, makes you work your arms and you get to basque in the sweetness afterwards when you lay flat on your back, tuck your knees in real tight and breathe all the tension right out of your lower back.  It's a glorious thing. 

Once upon a time I dreaded minute 40 and all the minutes that followed in this exact video.  Today it suddenly occurred to me to check the time and it was minute 49 of this hour-and-a-bit-long routine.  I couldn't believe it!  I had already long passed all the boat poses I once hated.  I mean don't get me wrong.... I'm still not a World Champion boat poser, but I can do it.  I can give it an honest go and feel the burn from it.  I also wasn't anticipating it coming because I was so focused on my practice.  I put full intention on doing all the poses the best I could, making sure my alignment was right and well honestly, I was amazed at how different my practice felt because of my new mat!

I have had the same ugly, ratty, old, nothing-special, blue yoga mat since 2001.  There are actual pieces of mat missing from it.  And I don't even own any pets...so I can't even blame them for chewing it up!  Lately while working at lululemon, I've kept staring at this new yoga mat we've gotten in the store a few months ago.  It's called "the Mat".  During this challenge I've been using my beloved blue mat everyday and while using it in Mexico I realized it is literally the same width as PAPER.  It provides no support or cushion, it's just a thin piece of mystery plastic that should probably be thrown out soon.  After doing as much yoga as I have this month, I felt the need to treat myself to a good upgrade.  So I bought myself "the Mat" yesterday and used it today for the first time. I'm in LOVE.  I'm tempted to change my relationship status on facebook from "Single" to "In a Relationship with The Mat." 

Unlike my blue mat which is made of one paper-thin layer, this new mat is made of two layers:  The bottom half is made of Rubber and RECYCLED LUON!  (that's the same stuff our famous stretchy pants are made of!).  This part of the mat provides significantly more cushion than my blue paper ever did.  The top layer of "the Mat" is made of polyurethane and has an antibacterial treatment added to it.  This is going to come in handy when I start using it for my hot yoga classes and begin pouring buckets of sweat all over it.  What I love most about it though is the polyurethane top because it uses the same technology as tennis handle grips so it's anti-slip, even when wet!

This was the main feature that I noticed changed my yoga practice completely today.  It actually made it more challenging/easier at the same time.  I'm not sure how to best describe what I mean here, but I'll give it a shot.
The anti-slip feature meant that every time I flowed into a new pose I really needed to bend harder, flex more, and stretch further than I ever did with my blue paper mat.  On the paper mat, if I didn't quite make it into the pose I could slide into it from where I first landed.  But on this mat, there's no opportunity for a quick slide adjustment.  So I find that it challenges me to set myself up for success in my next pose right from the beginning.  That's why it's a little more challenging.

Where it makes things easier is in holding triangle pose or side lunges of any kind.  With my paper mat, my feet would begin to slide into the splits and I had to find a sweet spot where the sliding would stop, or I would squeeze my thighs super hard to prevent my feet from slipping further.  With this new mat, your feet stay planted.  They set up camp and stay there.  The nice thing about that is I can stop focusing on adjusting that aspect of the pose, and pay more attention to making sure I stretch my sides deeper in Triangle Pose, or that I'm lunging low enough in Runner's Lunge for example.  I can stop worrying about sliding right out of the pose, and focus more on the pose itself.  It's a beautiful thing really!

Muscle Pokes

Today I had a chance to squeeze my practice in this morning as opposed to doing it late in the evening like I have been for the past week.  I made plans to do my yoga on my balcony so I could enjoy the beautiful view of Toronto and basque in the splendid sunshine.  That didn't exactly happen since as soon as I came strolling over to the balcony it started pouring rain and fog covered my view of everything.  Awesome.

I did Twisted Sister again.  It wasn't exactly the next video in-line, but for some reason it spoke to me.  I popped in disk number two, saw all the options and felt like Twisted Sister was whispering "Psst.  Meggers... PICK ME!" 
So I did.  It was awesome!  Now that none of the routines are no longer new, I can measure my successes by the difference in my performance from the first to the second time I do these videos with Eoin. I thought Twisted Sister was challenging for me the first time around and although I thought I went as deep as I could go in my running lunges, today I found out exactly just how low I'm actually capable of going!  Last week was nothing!

I'm noticing the effects of my practice at work too.  Carrying and lifting boxes, bending down, climbing ladders, it's all effortless motion now.  My body feels so alive and it wants to move!  As you might have read in my very first post, the main reason I gained the 50 pounds in the first place was from emotional eating.  Back then I craved food as a source of comfort.  But lately, I crave yoga and movement.  I am ACHING to go dancing.  I'm finding new curves and definition all over my body everyday.  I keep flexing my muscles and then poking at them.  It's fun.  Sometimes I do it because I don't believe they're actually there or that they're really THAT firm.  I'm at a place here, where the muscle is certainly there, it's just not showing through as much as I'd ideally love.   But I just need to be patient.  I'll get there soon enough! I just have to keep sweating once a day and enjoy the journey along the way!

Shoulder High

It's June 21st and today marks the first day of SUMMER! In honour of that, I would like to share this youtube clip of Martha and the Vandellas: Dancing in the Street.  'Cause summer's here and the time is right for dancin' in the street!!  It's one of my favourite summertime songs and always brings a smile to my face so I thought it might do the same for you.

Tonight I did Shoulder High for the second time.  It's really brief, 34 minutes, and mostly just works on stretching out your shoulders.  Very important for surfers who spend a lot of their time paddling through heavy waters.  Maybe not so important for Meighan, who has not an ounce of definition in her shoulders.  :D

As I mentioned in a past post, I have a hard time working out if I'm not going to be sweating buckets and working really hard.  Stretching shoulders and no sun salutation series does not make for a sweaty yoga practice.  Not for me anyway.  So it was a challenge for me to stay focused in my practice and it got me to thinking...

Since I've started practicing yoga, I've learned that a couple of things are crucial:

First off is Intention.  Without it, I have found you just don't reap the same benefits.  Yesterday my intention was very clear.  I was giving every posture my absolute all.  Today, absolutely all of me hurts.  It works!

Breathing is another one.  I mean obviously you need to breathe.  If you don't, you die.  So this one's a biggie.  But seriously, learning to breathe deeply and by using your diaphragm and gut instead of breathing shallow and from the chest, only brings forth positive things.  For one, it increases oxygen in your blood stream.  It also decreases stress instantaneously and calms the mind: something I'm sure we could all use a little more of!

Attitude.  Got a negative one?  Check it at the door.  You don't need any negativity in your life anyway, and certainly not while practicing yoga.  If it's there and won't go away, then don't forget your breathing!  I promise, the power of deep breathing is greater than we realize sometimes!

How would you like to improve your mental function?  Your emotional health?  How about your nervous system, musculoskeletal system, digestive, immune, circulatory, respiratory, and endocrine systems?  Yoga will do all of these things especially if you pay attention to your Posture.  Check yourself while in the poses.  Are you aligning yourself like your teacher says?  If not, are you just "I can't-ing"?  A lot of people say "I can't.  I can't!" When more than half the time... you most certainly CAN!  The better way of phrasing it is "I can't right now."  So give it your best effort, and in a few more tries, you'll be "I CAN-ing" all over the place!

There is much more to yoga than these four things though and this yoga challenge has certainly sparked my interest to find out what else there is.

 For one, I'm deeply interested in the chakras.  It is said that different yoga poses stimulate energy flow to the various energy centres (chakras) in varying and powerful ways.  This can explain why some people begin to weep in certain poses, and want to strangle someone or something in others.  The stagnation of energy flow in Ayurvedic Medicine and in Asian Medicine too, often leads to disease states.  So if all we are are bundles of energy, and yoga has the ability to unblock stagnant energy in our bodies, then that is something I'm tremendously interested in as a student of Naturopathic Medicine and want to learn more about!

The other aspect of Yoga that I am interested in lies behind the fact that it's freaking ANCIENT!  These sequences of poses were developed so long ago and each one has a story behind it... a reason for doing it in the first place and specific benefits that come with each posture.  By knowing what these qualities are, you can apply more focused intention in your practice and work towards healing every aspect of yourself: mind.body.spirit.

This my dears is why I'm so passionate about holistic medicine.  You just can't achieve the same end from a bottle of pills can you?