Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Day 2: Cardio and Gratitude

I just completed Cardio and the Gratitude meditation. Ideally I was planning to get up at 0500 and complete my UY for the day. Well. . .my body had other plans. I woke up late and since today is my clinic day I had to haul tush & get to work. Given the way my day turned out I could have finished UY, finished my hospital rounds and still make it to clinic with time to spare. At any rate I did have a good day. Okay, almost a good day. I had cereal for breakfast, a Vanilla soy milk with an apple as a snack and hummus with crackers as a second snack ( no real lunch...bad girl! ). I'll do better tomorrow.

Okay, on to UY Cardio. I knew what to expect this time around so mentally I was prepared. Physically I did better this second time. I'm still wondering if Travis had a spy-cam in my workout room because all of his comments were very well placed. I only thought I was nearing death as opposed to truly being dead today. However, I did manage to figure out how to get my foot nearer to the top of the mat to start the Crescent pose series. Oh and did I mention that Vicki my Labradoodle puppy decided to help Mommy with her yoga today? Imagine doing the second cardio flow with a puppy kissing your face, lol! I just kept going and went with the flow😆.

The real surprise for me today was Gratitude meditation. I think all of the ladies can identify with the portion about being grateful for our present self. I am hypercritical of my own appearance and never quite satisfied with where I am right now. Prior to starting my practice I looked in the mirror and criticizing my " problem " areas. After the meditation I opened my eyes and looking at the same reflection the problem areas no longer looked so problematic. Giving gratitude to myself is a concept that's a bit foreign to me. I'm beyond thankful for my husband, family, dogs, home, career and the life I have. I don't often give thanks for me. Just the way I am, right now.

I also am grateful that I started this blog because I really wasn't going to do Cardio today, but I've committed to tracking my journey and hopefully entertaining others on this path of self discovery. So for anyone who has taken the time to read my random ramblings...thank you. I'll  " see " you tomorrow after Strength.

Monday, June 3, 2013

My First day on the UY path

Well. . .I started the UY 108 day program. Today was CrossTrain, Hardcore and Meditation.  This is NOT easy yoga! I was sweating buckets, and feeling muscles I forgot I had. I'm kind of new to the blogging deal, so bear with me.

I am a fairly seasoned home exerciser, and consider myself to be in fairly good shape. Here lately though I've been feeling like something was missing from my workouts. I've been bored, unmotivated  and just generally dissatisfied. I recalled a friend of mine posting sayings from UY so I got curious. I've done yoga off and on for a few years, but usually the restorative, relaxing type. Don't get me wrong...I like that kind of yoga, but my " workouts " have always been of the aerobics with weights/step aerobics/free weights type approach. This approach worked well for me in the past but just leaving me feeling empty.

Enter UY. I did start the program 2 weeks ago, but stopped due to work related drama. I decided to restart from the beginning today, June 3 and keep a blog about my experience. At least this way I can keep myself accountable & track how I feel.

Well...got up at 5AM to get CrossTrain done. One thing I have found is I simply can not do this yoga with food in my stomach. I'm fairly busy like most of us are so I need to do this first thing or it won't get done ( lesson learned from my first week crash 'n burn experience ).

I have to remind myself that I'm a beginner with this. I'm so used to being able to jump in and start at the intermediate level minimum. This fact has been quite humbling. I do find that I felt much more relaxed an in less of a hurry to do things, which is definitely something I need in my life.

I'm thinking I'm going to like this program. Well, enough for today. Now to figure out how to link this to the UY 108 Day Facebook page to share my experience with other people on this journey with me.