My 2012 30-Day Hot Yoga Challenge: Day 11

18 Jan 2012 By Leave a Comment

Garurasana: Eagle Pose

Garurasana: Eagle Pose

I’m trying really hard not to dwell on what’s past and to not think too far ahead. But I’ve had fleeting thoughts about how 30 days is totally doable and maybe I could do more. I’m not making any promises or changes to the game plan. I’m relieved that I’m not panicking or wanting to quit at this point.

While every class is different regardless of how often you go, I’ve found that a daily class has really pushed me mentally towards truly accepting each day as it is and not dwelling on it. If I have more to give, I give it. If I don’t, I just don’t and I let it go. That was advice given to me when I started asking around about doing a challenge. Now I’m actually feeling it. The woman that gave me that advice did her 95th class of her 100-day challenge today.

She also advised me to plan my classes out just a bit at a time. Planning just a week out is working well. Putting classes on both home and work calendars is helpful and motivating. Fortunately, I have day time hours to spend so I’ve been getting my classes in even when my evenings are booked. Going forward, I’m going to keep with the day time classes as much as possible, even if my evenings are free. I like being able to get them over and done with and also not have to worry about managing my food and water that much longer. Plus it makes for a nice break in the day and I get more done at work when I return.

I still have problems with feeling competitive with people, which I really need to get over, for real for serious. Everyone’s anatomy, ability, and inclination are so different, it’s ludicrous for me to compare myself to other people, but I do. The only benefit in looking at what anyone else is doing is if I’m specifically looking for someone to demonstrate the correct way to do a pose.

I’m really grateful that I have access to laundry on a daily basis. It feels wasteful, but you can’t not do the yoga laundry every day, unless maybe it were summer and I could dry the mat outside. If I could at least let the mat air out, I could rotate two sets of clothes and towels and maybe even another mat. Then I could just wash every other day. But it’s in the single digits here in Minnesota. I’m-a have to work on that one.

It’s kinda weird to take a totally short utilitarian shower most days. I have new appreciation for the space in my own shower, the smells of my regular products, not being rushed, and having time and space for miscellaneous grooming. The number one pitfall of post-class showering in the studio is that I haven’t stopped sweating yet but I have to get dressed in my work duds anyway. In the summer, the heat prolongs my still-sweating period. In the winter I have long underwear and multiple layers to contend with. #firstworldproblems, I know.

Going into this challenge, I didn’t have any goals other than to do the 30 days. There are things that are going to happen that I just can’t know ahead of time. I know my weight just because I weigh myself every day anyway (yeah, I know). No changes there so far. I didn’t measure any inches. I feel like my pants are fitting a little differently, but it could just be that I haven’t washed any of my jeans in a while so they’re all loose.

I think my hips are very gradually opening up. A little. That’s a difficult process. Those are big joints with strong muscles and tissues around them. I’ve noticed some progress in getting my toes wrapped in eagle pose. I never thought that would happen, so that’s encouraging. I had blamed this inability to get my toes wrapped around my shin on my thick thighs but I think it’s much more a matter of my hip joints moving. It’s all about the angles. Eagle pose toes has emerged as my one pose-specific hope for this challenge.

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My 2012 30-Day Hot Yoga Challenge: Day 6, Miscellaneous Thoughts, and Some Advice

13 Jan 2012 By Leave a Comment

I named a 30-day hot yoga challenge as a goal for 2012. I didn’t want to start January 1 as I had some scheduling conflicts. And I was afraid. Too soon! Missy had to have a chat with me about external validation. I fretted over whether I could formally complete a 30-day challenge because I’d have to split my time between studios. Rightly, she reminded me it’s not about getting your name on a wall somewhere.

I started going this week as I was able to see how it felt and when I hit Day 5, I declared the challenge underway.

The only parameter is that I do 30 hot yoga classes in 30 days since that’s my primary practice. I’m not confining it to 90-minute bikram class. I’m open to doing doubles (i.e., two classes in one day) if my schedule absolutely prohibits me from attending one day. But I’m not planning for doubles. The whole point of the challenge is to make space for your practice every day. This is the first thing my favorite studio director said when I mentioned to her that I was thinking about doing a challenge.

For a couple months in the fall I was exclusively practicing a 60-minute hot hatha class that my favorite studio offers. This class starts with sun salutations instead of pranayama breathing and contains a lot more hip opening poses. When I returned to 90-minute bikram I found I could do a number of things in poses that I couldn’t do before or that were much more difficult before. Empirical evidence for cross-training! That was a delightful discovery.

My practice during this challenge will be a combo of these two classes plus a 75-minute class that’s an abbreviated version of the bikram series (two sets through the standing series, one set through the floor series). Which one I do in a day is strictly based on what is being offered at the time of day I am free to go to class.

Other, miscellany:

  • Two months of measuring my water intake via Health Month has resulted in a new normal of much higher water consumption. Daily yoga not only requires this, it actually helps me to me to keep it up. I don’t feel at all like I’m forcing it.
  • Keeping adequately fueled for daily yoga is making me pay more attention to my eating choices. I’m trying to make sure I eat enough and not sending my metabolism into starvation mode.
  • Predictably, the earlier in the day, the less flexible I am. I can feel the difference just between a 9:30 class and a noon class. This is frustrating because it makes it hard to judge progress in a pose, but I need to get in the habit of just observing it and letting it go. It doesn’t matter how it went as much as it matters that it happened. At least for the purposes of this challenge.
  • Keeping hydrated and fueled for yoga for a morning class, a noon class, and an evening class are three different things. I find the noon class to be the sweet spot between food/water prep and allowing my body to wake up and loosen up.
  • I worry about getting bored.
  • I worry about fatigue.
  • I worry about public failure.
  • I worry about not making any progress in my practice, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary I’ve described so far and more.
  • I have this back and forth with myself over whether it’s better to wear a shirt or just a bra top. Either is comfortable. The question is my attention. With just a bra top on, I spend time admiring my own abs. I’ll totally cop to that. At the same time, it’s easier to see alignment on some poses (like half moon). And it’s easier to notice when I’m not sucking in my gut like I’m supposed to (like standing head to knee or awkward pose).

I got new Lululemon shorts recently. I love them. Like, <3 them. They’re lighter than my Tonic shorts (which I also love, and which I can’t show you because Tonic’s website is not helpful that way). They stay over my butt even without a drawstring! I once bought a pair of shorts that seemed like they would and then they didn’t. I can’t be hiking my shorts up all through class.

If you’re going to invest in one piece of special hot yoga gear, it should actually be your matt/towel situation. But if you’re going to invest in a second piece of gear, get hot yoga shorts or pants. Whatever floats your boat whether it’s boyshorts or capris or something in between. I find they make the biggest difference in comfort. Wearing shorts that scrunch and bunch is highly distracting. You can get away with a variety of tops, since they just need to cover you up, not hold you down the way you’d need if you were bouncing. Performance gear does help combat the stinkies, but you sweat so much you really sweat out the worst of the stink-inducing bacteria. Think about how you smell after a really hard workout; you (and your clothes) don’t smell half that bad after a hot yoga class, even if the yoga room does a little.

So, yeah, 6 days in. So far so good.

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My Letter to the Eden Prairie City Council in Favor of a Domestic Partner Registry

11 Jan 2012 By 2 Comments

I just got an alert from Outfront Minnesota that the city of Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis in which we have lived and in which I have worked for 8 years, is considering a domestic partnership registry. I sent this message to the mayor and three city councilmembers. I sent a slightly modified version to the one city councilmember who is clearly opposed.

[Mayor/Councilmember],

I’m so pleased to hear that the city of Eden Prairie has proposed a domestic partner registry! My partner and I lived in EP for three years. We now live in Minneapolis, but we do still own a house in EP (on which we pay taxes) and I work in EP.

I just read the Eden Prairie News article re: the January 5 city council meeting. I’m very pleased to hear that the city attorney and city manager could answer some of Councilmember Aho’s concerns. There are a few more I would like to address.

As you know gay marriage is already illegal in the state of Minnesota. Regardless of whether the people of Minnesota vote to enshrine bigotry into our constitution this coming November, gay marriage will still be illegal in Minnesota.

More and more Minnesota cities are creating domestic partner registries. Eden Prairie is not exactly leading on this, but would still be far far ahead of most cities. There was so much pride and enthusiasm when EP was named CNN Money’s Best Place to Live in America in 2010. This can only add another positive to the list of reasons why.

The following reason is the most impactful to me: The primary benefit of a registered domestic partnership, at this point in time, is for a person in a DP to take advantage of DP benefits offered by their employer. A private employer. My employer, [redacted], while it was owned by [redacted] and now as it is owned by [redacted], offers such benefits and requires documentation for them. Luckily we did not need them during the time we lived in EP because my partner is adequately insured by her employer. If we had needed any of those benefits, I would not have had access to them because we couldn’t have registered anywhere. This did play a small part in our choice to subsequently move to Minneapolis.

Regarding the concern that people may attempt to mis-represent the state of their relationship in order to register, I’ll suggest that it’s analogous to voter fraud in that there isn’t actually a problem there. Not to mention that people – straight and gay – do get legally married when they are truly desperate for access to health care regardless of the actual state of their relationship with the person they’re marrying.

Lastly, the absence of a DP registry in Eden Prairie does adversely affect some residents. Enacting a DP registry does not adversely affect any residents.

Thank you for your support of a domestic partnership registry for Eden Prairie thus far.

Erica Mauter (formerly of [address redacted])

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#resound11 – Dec 31: One Word

06 Jan 2012 By 2 Comments

12/31: One Word Earlier this month, we wrote about our one word to describe 2011. Today, let’s write about our one word for 2012. What word do you want to use to describe how you will approach 2012? Will it be awesome? Will it be frugal? Will it be open? Will it be the year of yes? What is your 2012? (#)

The word for 2012 is Believe.

The way to get what you want and what is right for you is to define your dream, get a burning desire for it, and to wholly Believe, 100%, that it will happen.

There are things that I know are coming. There are things I want to change but don’t know how to change or don’t know what to change to. Things will happen that I won’t expect. It’s going to be a challenging year. I have to Believe I can handle whatever comes my way.

As an Enneagram Type Six, one of my characteristic personality traits is a crisis of self-confidence. A healthy dose of Belief will help me level up.

I want Missy and I to do a little retreat and really dig into what we want for ourselves, both short- and long-term. I want us to dream big without fear. Without getting bogged down in details. I want us to imagine our awesome future, and wholly Believe, 100%, that it will happen.

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#resound11 – Dec 30: Future Self

06 Jan 2012 By Leave a Comment

12/30: Future Self Today, write a letter to your future self to read on 12/30/12. Write about what you have accomplished. Write about who you are and who you have become. Write a wishlist. Is writing a letter to yourself too cheesy? Write about how you would like your life to be different than it is now at this time next year. Or write about what you would like to have stay the same. (#)

So I said to myself, “Self…”

You’re a chunk of the way through your masters degree. You are comfortable with where you are in your career pivot process. You’ve connected with some amazing leaders who inspire you. You’ve deepened your connections with the ones you already know. You are owning and embracing your power. You’re feeling like you can make a difference and enjoy it at the same time.

You’ve taken care of yourself physically. You feel good about inhabiting the body you have.

You got that meditation practice going and it has made all the difference in the world. You’re grateful for having a partner and friends to show you the way on this. You should be proud of yourself for becoming open to it the way you did and grateful for the gifts you’ve received from it.

All this contentment and happiness has enabled you to be available for and supportive of your family. Your wife. Your sister. Your parents. Your dog. They all loved you already, of course. They have their own stuff and their own processes and your being a part of that is important.

You’ve done some things you weren’t even expecting. Tell me about those.

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