Adapting

A week ago today I started this blog to journal my experiences as I practice Bikram Yoga twice daily for a month.  The positive support of my journey has been phenomenal, and I truly hope you understand how much it means to me that you take the time to read about my experience.

Blogger tracks some interesting statistics about exactly how many people are coming to visit the blog, which I thought I would share:

I've been averaging just about 100 pageviews a day, with readers from ten different countries.  137 people have viewed my first entry, My First Thought, and my second most read entry is Ten with 76 views.

This being day twelve, I have settled into a pretty standard routine, though it is slowly changing as my body continues to adapt to the rigors of twice daily yoga.  I'm still waking up a couple of hours before the morning class to eat breakfast, but I have noticed that my appetite has recently decreased significantly.  This was something completely unexpected, but I am starting to quickly feel satiated, and I'm adjusting my proportions accordingly.  Even as I write this I haven't yet had dinner because I just don't feel hungry.  Instead, I've continued to hydrate, supplementing electrolytes with Elete and with and my usual coconut water.

I didn't even have much of a lunch at all.  After my morning class I was completely exhausted, but I quickly recovered without having to crash for another four hours, and went out to a flower arranging class with Chelsea from Frolic!

I cooked a few slices of bacon and had an apple before I got there, and then showed immense willpower in skipping the delicious cheeses, jam and bread, and opted to have some lovely radishes instead.  I forgot how deliciously crunchy radishes are, and they were treat enough.  Add those to the scrambled eggs and sweet potato hash that I had for breakfast and you have my entire dietary consumption for the day: 3 eggs, 1/4 sweet potato, 1/4 onion, 1 stick of celery, 2 T ghee, 5 slices of bacon, 1 apple, 4 radishes, and 33.3 fl oz of coconut water.

Because there was going to be a camera at the class, I went through my (limited) wardrobe to try and look my best, and found that many of my shirts are starting to fit too loose.  I'll say that again, just to be clear, the shirts that I regularly wear, the ones that I bought when I was at my lowest weight running, are now getting to be a little too loose on me.  The new jeans I bought myself at the end of February when I'd lost another 14 pounds are now getting a little too loose as well.  It looks like my reward at the end of the thirty days might be an investiture into some new wardrobe items.  A common phrase around my family, "there are worse problems to have."

In my routine, I find morning classes to feel markedly more difficult than the afternoon classes, and locker room chatter seems to align with my thoughts on the matter.  While I still give 100% in every class, afternoon classes just seem to be a little easier, I'm a little more loose, I stay in postures a little better, and my energy is more consistent through the end of the class.

I continue to improve in my postures.  Since that first day I defeated triangle pose, I have yet to fall out of the posture even once.  Every class, every day I conquer triangle pose again and again.  My new nemesis is standing bow pose, but I'm slowly building the balance and grip strength that it is going to take to conquer it as well.

After class I had a moment to speak with the instructor, and I really can't say enough how much I love the teachers at Bikram Yoga West Linn.  We talked about goals, targets, and where I'm going after I am done with these first thirty days.  I'm going to finish these first thirty days before I commit to anything too crazy, but I am excited for what the future has in store!

Namaste.