So today was Bikram Yoga Day 4! Note to self: do not eat pizza on a yoga day. Just don't.
Things went pretty good for the first half of the class...made it through the standing series with only a few eensy weeny breaks. At one point, there was so much sweat pouring off my face, that it went up into my nose during one of the forward bends...since my mind wonders in yoga (because I am a bad yogi), I couldn't help but think of water boarding and other various forms of torture. Torture not unlike what I was, myself, enduring.
But, of course, it is a torture that is self-induced, so I must suck it up and venture on. And venture on I did. But by minute 55 I am wanting to flee. Desperately. I am thinking up strategies to make the last 35 minutes of class go by more quickly. None of them work.
At minute 60, a guy in the corner leaves. I am overwhelmingly grateful for the rush of cool air that sweeps over my body as he opens and closes the door. These small kisses of breathable air are what keep me from vomiting on my Yogitoes/Manduka combo. Secretly I think, "what a wuss."
At minute 65, we lose another one. The teacher asks the student if she can just lie in Savasana, which is answered by a curt "no" and a hasty exit. I once again await the wash of air. Aaaah...at the rate we're going, I might just make it through. After the back bending series, I try to get back into the swing of things, but any posture that compresses my belly brings the nausea back...what the eff is up with Bikram and all this organ massaging? Gah. Slow breath. Deep breath. Bikram obviously did not eat leftover pizza on yoga days. Bikram is obviously smarter than I am. Or maybe they don't eat pizza in India? Not sure if I could eat Indian food on yoga days, either.
I do my best to not stare at the clock as I silently curse Round Table and secretly wish for more students to leave the room. By minute 80, I am home free...just a couple more postures and then I can breathe again, can move again without feeling nauseous, can stand up without seeing spots. Granted, I sat out for most of the floor series, but at least I didn't vomit...and I didn't leave the room.
And yes, I will try again tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Hey Hot Mamma!
So if you've been reading my blog (and who hasn't), you will know I started a weight-training routine about 6 weeks ago. Amazingly, I stuck with it religiously for a whole month...woohoo! Then, I went and mucked up my hands at work so I've been basically "hands-free" for the past couple of weeks (though honestly, I think I found some other excuse to stop lifting weights prior to this...can't even remember what it was...ha!). Obviously, I can still type, but can't do any gripping motions at all...kind of necessary for grabbing those dumbbells!
Anyway, I knew I needed to exercise but also knew I needed to give my hands a break. A Bikram yoga studio opened up near my house about a year ago and I finally decided to just bite the bullet and go. (Side note: Only a moron decides to start a Bikram practice in the summer.)
Days 1-3
I went for the first time last Friday on the spur of the moment...had about an hour before class started to "pre-hydrate" so it is no surprise that I felt kinda icky through a good portion of the class. I even had some panic moments in the last 25 minutes or so where I felt like I was going to suffocate if I had to breathe that hot-as-hell air for one more second. Needless to say, I spent a good portion of the class lying down or kneeling...hey, I ain't proud!
The studio owner said the nausea would become less noticeable the more I came to class, and encouraged me to return the next day. I wasn't sold on the idea until (drum roll please....) I woke up that morning with NO PAIN in my hands. Major victory here folks! So, off I went...and it was indeed a much better experience. I still sat out some of the poses, but never had that panic feeling and didn't really feel much nausea either.
If twice in two days is good...then thee times in three days must be even better...right? I woke up early (around 2:30) and rallied myself to go to the 4:30 class right before work. My original plan was to go right after I got off work and then sleep a peaceful, exhausted sleep. However, this idea was quickly pushed aside in favor of just skipping the yoga and going straight to the sleep part. I'd like to try it sometime though because it was quite the race to get showered, prettied and dressed in time for work...but I made it...soaking wet hair and all! Not sure if going right before work is the best idea as I was EXHAUSTED and feeling sick by 4am. Since I'm on light duty anyway, I decided to take an hour of PTO and ended up leaving work around 5:30am...slept all day today unit 6:30pm.
My goal is to do as many classes in 10 days as I can...I think I can get 9 classes in if I try my "go after work" experiment on Sunday. If I do that, I can be home and showered by 10am and sleep a solid 6.5 hours. That's plenty, right? That's about all I ever get on work days anyway, and I'm hoping the yoga will help me sleep more deeply. We shall see. OK, it's 12:15 in the morning and I've got plans to hit the 9:15 class...probably should think about sleeping at some point :-)
Days 1-3
I went for the first time last Friday on the spur of the moment...had about an hour before class started to "pre-hydrate" so it is no surprise that I felt kinda icky through a good portion of the class. I even had some panic moments in the last 25 minutes or so where I felt like I was going to suffocate if I had to breathe that hot-as-hell air for one more second. Needless to say, I spent a good portion of the class lying down or kneeling...hey, I ain't proud!
The studio owner said the nausea would become less noticeable the more I came to class, and encouraged me to return the next day. I wasn't sold on the idea until (drum roll please....) I woke up that morning with NO PAIN in my hands. Major victory here folks! So, off I went...and it was indeed a much better experience. I still sat out some of the poses, but never had that panic feeling and didn't really feel much nausea either.
If twice in two days is good...then thee times in three days must be even better...right? I woke up early (around 2:30) and rallied myself to go to the 4:30 class right before work. My original plan was to go right after I got off work and then sleep a peaceful, exhausted sleep. However, this idea was quickly pushed aside in favor of just skipping the yoga and going straight to the sleep part. I'd like to try it sometime though because it was quite the race to get showered, prettied and dressed in time for work...but I made it...soaking wet hair and all! Not sure if going right before work is the best idea as I was EXHAUSTED and feeling sick by 4am. Since I'm on light duty anyway, I decided to take an hour of PTO and ended up leaving work around 5:30am...slept all day today unit 6:30pm.
My goal is to do as many classes in 10 days as I can...I think I can get 9 classes in if I try my "go after work" experiment on Sunday. If I do that, I can be home and showered by 10am and sleep a solid 6.5 hours. That's plenty, right? That's about all I ever get on work days anyway, and I'm hoping the yoga will help me sleep more deeply. We shall see. OK, it's 12:15 in the morning and I've got plans to hit the 9:15 class...probably should think about sleeping at some point :-)
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
I have workout ADD
Remember when I said I was going to start Body for Life on Monday? Well, as I was cruising the interwebs looking for information about women and weight training, I came across something awesome. The Venus Index.
The VI is a workout designed to accentuate the female shape...basically the hourglass figure. You do some easy calculations based on how tall you are and voila...it tells you the ideal measurements for shoulders, waist and hips...measurements that correlate to the Golden Mean. Yes, I just got all "da Vinci" on yo ass. Ha.
One of the things I LOVE LOVE LOVE about this program is that the workouts change each time. Yes, there are a general selection of exercises but they get mixed up a bit, poke their heads in here and there. One workout may have you doing Bulgarian Split Squats...another has you doing reverse lunges. It's brilliant because I do not at all like doing the same ol' routine week after week after week.
The program also helps you figure out how many calories you should shoot for each day, and this is where I pouted a bit. I HATE counting calories, hate it hate it hate it. (Yes, that was a temper tantrum). But after seeing the amazing (and I mean AMAZING) transformations of these Venus women, I was sold. We're talking about people who worked out, ran marathons and were still fluffy. They start doing the VI workouts and watching calories and BAM...instant goddess. Well, not instant...but goddess, for sure. We're talking fitness model awesomeness here.
Happily, I found a nifty little app called "My Net Diary" that makes counting calories pretty easy. It even has a barcode scanner function so you can log your packaged items super quick. So far, I dig it. Plus, it's helping me be more accountable. I found that I was reaching for some kind of a snack the other day and thought, "Do I really want to log that?" NOPE...drank some water instead, I think. I eat when I'm bored, so this is a very good thing.
After the first workout I thought I was going to die...the muscle soreness had me walking funny for a couple of days. Powered through the second workout though, and am happy to report that I went on a bike ride today...I thought it might help to work out some of the soreness. We shall see. I've got another resistance workout tomorrow, then two days off. Joy oh joy because I work three in a row this week. Blech. Hard to workout with those long shifts and flipped around schedule.
I guess that's it! Stay tuned for more awesomeness... :-)
The VI is a workout designed to accentuate the female shape...basically the hourglass figure. You do some easy calculations based on how tall you are and voila...it tells you the ideal measurements for shoulders, waist and hips...measurements that correlate to the Golden Mean. Yes, I just got all "da Vinci" on yo ass. Ha.
One of the things I LOVE LOVE LOVE about this program is that the workouts change each time. Yes, there are a general selection of exercises but they get mixed up a bit, poke their heads in here and there. One workout may have you doing Bulgarian Split Squats...another has you doing reverse lunges. It's brilliant because I do not at all like doing the same ol' routine week after week after week.
The program also helps you figure out how many calories you should shoot for each day, and this is where I pouted a bit. I HATE counting calories, hate it hate it hate it. (Yes, that was a temper tantrum). But after seeing the amazing (and I mean AMAZING) transformations of these Venus women, I was sold. We're talking about people who worked out, ran marathons and were still fluffy. They start doing the VI workouts and watching calories and BAM...instant goddess. Well, not instant...but goddess, for sure. We're talking fitness model awesomeness here.
Happily, I found a nifty little app called "My Net Diary" that makes counting calories pretty easy. It even has a barcode scanner function so you can log your packaged items super quick. So far, I dig it. Plus, it's helping me be more accountable. I found that I was reaching for some kind of a snack the other day and thought, "Do I really want to log that?" NOPE...drank some water instead, I think. I eat when I'm bored, so this is a very good thing.
After the first workout I thought I was going to die...the muscle soreness had me walking funny for a couple of days. Powered through the second workout though, and am happy to report that I went on a bike ride today...I thought it might help to work out some of the soreness. We shall see. I've got another resistance workout tomorrow, then two days off. Joy oh joy because I work three in a row this week. Blech. Hard to workout with those long shifts and flipped around schedule.
I guess that's it! Stay tuned for more awesomeness... :-)
Friday, April 13, 2012
Long time no bloggie.
I have admitted it before...I am an awfully inconsistent blogger. And besides, I think I only have one reader (Hi Cher!), so I don't feel that much pressure to update since I chat with said reader on a pretty regular basis. That said, I am going to try to get better at updating this thing as I am really looking for a way to stay motivated as I strive to get as fit and healthy as possible. I have had a bit of a setback in this department, but am starting to get more active again. Now if I could just dust off my juicer all would be bright and sunny. One thing at a time.
As for the stupid ol' bone marrow disorder...platelets at last check were 451! ALMOST there, ya'll! I'll be very happy when they drop below 400, and ecstatic if they ever drop into the 200s...that would be amaaaazing! If they get down to the 200s, I may talk to my hematologist/oncologist about decreasing my Pegasys dose. At the rate I'm going, that may be awhile, but at least I'm not having many side effects from the meds.
Sooooo....on the fitness front, I am starting Body for Life on Monday. I did the program waaaay back in my early 30's or so...I lasted about a month and got totally burned out. Sadly, I took before and during pics, and I could actually see a change. I kick myself all the time for not sticking with it. Anyway, since I know next to nothing about weight training and there is SO MUCH to learn, I figured that starting with BFL would give me a good, basic education and that I can embellish from there.
In other fitness news...I'm currently doing the Couch-to-5K training program and I'm on week 4. My runs this week involve intervals of jogging for 3 mins and 5 mins, with walking in between. I did one yesterday (in the rain, no less!) and it was fine. About 5 workouts from now is the dreaded 20-minute jog...we'll see how that goes.
I have also started climbing again...so much fun! Getting back into the harness was tough...I had to start with the easy easy climbs, but am now back to doing 5.10a and am working on moving up to the 5.10b climbs...in a few weeks I'll be back where I was before, playing on the 5.10c routes. Woo hoo! Now if I could just master those darn overhangs, I'd feel like a stud-ette. The scary thing about the overhangs, is that when you fall off them you swing waaaaay out. Super scary when you're 30-some feet off the ground. Yikes!
Ok...gotta dash and start planning my grocery list and meal plan for my first week of BFL. I need to try to find a way to stay away from the eggs...as I recall I got totally "egged-out" when I attempted this before. Something about eggs stimulates my gag reflex if I have to eat them more than once or twice a week.
Ciao!
As for the stupid ol' bone marrow disorder...platelets at last check were 451! ALMOST there, ya'll! I'll be very happy when they drop below 400, and ecstatic if they ever drop into the 200s...that would be amaaaazing! If they get down to the 200s, I may talk to my hematologist/oncologist about decreasing my Pegasys dose. At the rate I'm going, that may be awhile, but at least I'm not having many side effects from the meds.
Sooooo....on the fitness front, I am starting Body for Life on Monday. I did the program waaaay back in my early 30's or so...I lasted about a month and got totally burned out. Sadly, I took before and during pics, and I could actually see a change. I kick myself all the time for not sticking with it. Anyway, since I know next to nothing about weight training and there is SO MUCH to learn, I figured that starting with BFL would give me a good, basic education and that I can embellish from there.
In other fitness news...I'm currently doing the Couch-to-5K training program and I'm on week 4. My runs this week involve intervals of jogging for 3 mins and 5 mins, with walking in between. I did one yesterday (in the rain, no less!) and it was fine. About 5 workouts from now is the dreaded 20-minute jog...we'll see how that goes.
I have also started climbing again...so much fun! Getting back into the harness was tough...I had to start with the easy easy climbs, but am now back to doing 5.10a and am working on moving up to the 5.10b climbs...in a few weeks I'll be back where I was before, playing on the 5.10c routes. Woo hoo! Now if I could just master those darn overhangs, I'd feel like a stud-ette. The scary thing about the overhangs, is that when you fall off them you swing waaaaay out. Super scary when you're 30-some feet off the ground. Yikes!
Ok...gotta dash and start planning my grocery list and meal plan for my first week of BFL. I need to try to find a way to stay away from the eggs...as I recall I got totally "egged-out" when I attempted this before. Something about eggs stimulates my gag reflex if I have to eat them more than once or twice a week.
Ciao!
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