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!