Oh Hells Yeah I Went to that Yoga Class!

Whew. I am beat. It has been a long week of lots of working out, and I am TIH-RED. My stairclimbing buddy ditched me Wednesday, Thursday and she will be gone today, so I am very impressed with myself for sticking to it alone. Everything hurts, as much as it did when I first started working the stairs.

So, I went to the yoga class last night and loved it. Firstly, I forgot about men. Oops. There are men in the class, and this threw me into a bit of a last minute nervous spell. Okay - shake it off. No one has time during class to watch you twist and contort on the mat. The class was small, which was comforting at first, but again, really doesn't matter.

It's not 'hot yoga' but the studio was about 90 degrees. Yipes. That took a little getting used to, also. And while I knew the session is Tu/Thu, I forgot this meant I would have missed the first class, so I went into it a little behind. Had to introduce myself and my experience, etc. all by my lonesome. I found myself feeling self-conscious because of my weight, being new, and inadvertently saying I hadn't done yoga since 2004, which made me draw my own imaginary conclusion of "before I got fat." Oh, I was fat, then, too, it's just no fun being the only fat chick in the room.

The community center offers a gentle yoga class for "people of size." I considered looking into it, but decided against it. I love yoga. When I was doing it before, I was obsessed with it. I don't want a "just like yoga" class - I want a real yoga class. I'm not saying the community center class isn't - I just wanted to go right to the source. My friend has used this studio (at another location) for years and loves it. She's very into the mental side of it, too, and so I had a high level of comfort going into it.

All that said, I suck. Wow, have I ever lost a ton of flexibility over the years. I knew that, but it was eye-opening to see once I got on the mat. There's not a whole heck of a lot of difference between my downward facing dog and my plank pose! Rigid!!

I'm just not bendy, and my hamstrings are super tight. I will be a long work in progress! But I had a blast, and I was dripping with sweat and dying for the class to end - no, dying for the opportunity to do corpse pose at the end. I can absolutely rock the corpse pose - I have an innate ability for this one:

I talked to the instructor, a very nice, relaxing and entertaining guy, after class. Coming on Thursdays only will be a bit problematic, because I am missing half the instruction. He said we will work through it and I will just be playing catch up, but it's not a race. He said my attitude is great and it will be fine. Yeah, my attitude is great because when he came over to guide me into a twisty pose that I was nowhere near approaching, I started cracking up when he was offering instruction.

In short, I did feel at a disadvantage by joining the second class, but it will be okay. It can seem overwhelming at first, but I had my bearings by the end of the evening. The class is a higher level beginner class than I was hoping for, but it was a tough work out and I will love it. Did love it. I was initially looking for more of a yoga pose type class - moving from pose to pose working on stretching and flexibility. This class is a variant on my old Ashtanga yoga classes, which were a fast-paced series of poses done in order at a fairly rapid pace. This class is slower paced than the Ashtanga (for now, anyway) but is the same sort of thing: sun salutation, warrior series, etc...moving, moving, moving through a series without stopping.

Tonight, I am bowling with friends, because I'm just such an active person, I couldn't bear to sit around on a Friday night and have a quiet dinner and drinks. Oh no, I'm a restless spirit, I have to keep moving, moving, moving in order to be at ease. (Pardon my brainwashing, haha, I am trying to reprogram myself!) This is the first time I've been bowling since surgery, I'm looking forward to it! I will also try a beer, although I've tried three cocktails now since surgery, and all three times, after just a sip or two, my sleeve has said, "Nope. Not taking that - give it away, you're not having any!"

p.s. - one of the bestest things about yoga class? New clothes! Wow, do I ever need some workout clothes that fit me! My pants were falling down, my t-shirt was sagging low, exposing my breasts on any of the bending poses - I felt like I was wearing a tent!

p.p.s. - I think I'll have a  fun shopping weekend. I need new underwear, too, all my granny panties are riding up HIGH on my back now, and I'm having to roll, roll, roll them at the waist. I'm experiencing many super-fun benefits of the weight loss!