Day 22-30

Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
Day 27
Day 28
Day 29
Day 30

Day 22

Day 22 is done. I did it! The funniest thing I forgot to say though, was that on Day 21 near the end of class I was exhausted and disappointed in my efforts and we were sitting there with our legs outstretched and I looked down and MY SWEAT DROP HAD FORMED A HEART SHAPE!!!! Isn’t that the cutest thing!  It filled me with such delight I almost squealed to the teacher to show her.

Anyway, teacher was Shandy and god damn that woman has the most amazing body.  It’s just stunning.  She has six-pack abs, in a totally beautiful way.  I want to corner her and demand to know what her diet is like.  Although, it seems to me she’s one of those people who have always been skinny all her life.  She just looks the type.

She walked by me while I was on my back and I glanced at her legs and saw NOT ONE stretchmark or mark anywhere.  She is glorious, and you can’t even hate her because she’s so sweet and cool and obviously intelligent and an amazing teacher.

So yeah, class was okay.  My balance is completely off for some reason, it’s ridiculous.  My Eagle Pose has NOT landed (haha, little joke there to spice things up) it’s terrible, my Dancer’s Pose is at a standstill with no progress, I faltered in Warrior 3 (remember that’s my ultimate rock hard strong pose?) and let’s just forget about chair pose going into twist at the beginning.  I just can barely do it – my thighs simply won’t let me.

It’s almost embarrassing.  I feel like telling everyone around me, apologizing, like hey guys I’m really not that terrible it’s just that I’m in this 30-day challenge and…………..

that’s ridiculous! nobody cares! I’m just so damn competitive!!

Day 23

Finally! A good class!  It was lovely.  The people around me rocked and the girl beside me had the nicest, most grounded energy.  It was a sub for Shandy Rae which surprised me and shook things up a little.  The class was quiet, grounded, flowed well and I managed all the poses very strongly.  The two people who were beside me are people I had been seeing all week, so it felt so comforting to see them.

My poses are at a standstill, not getting any further in them, but that’s ok.

Day 24

Well, another yuck class.  I think it’s because I had already made up my mind that it would be a weak class before I went in.  I had been talking to my massage therapist that morning about feeling like the challenge was getting contradictory (not sleeping, not looking forward to it, poses not getting any further) and she said “maybe that’s part of the challenge, knowing that your body gets to a certain point and needs something different”.  So she told me I should take it easy in poses that I don’t feel like doing and find strength in ones that I do.  Simple as that.

This competative part of me just.can’t.do.that.  Although this class reminded me of the very beginning class I ever did – I was in child’s pose for a few poses and just straightened my legs in Warrior after a while.  Couldn’t help feeling that I didn’t really get a “work out” or burn any calories.  Maybe that’s why I try so hard too?  I know it’s my hour cardio/workout so I better make it good!

Day 25

Today was a very boring class.  Got it over with early as had to go out Saturday night.  Nothing new happened, was nice teacher who I like, felt very weak in poses.

Day 26

Okay – today definitely made up for yesterday!!  I had such an amazing class.  The class was quite packed, the lady who ignored me twice talked to me again (don’t know what’s up with her, I think she just is tired and doesn’t want to talk to anyone, fair enough), she said she saw in my Camel Pose that I “go back pretty far”.  I’m thinking – is she really thinking of me or someone else?  I don’t think I go back far at all.  I guess I will see once my boyfriend takes a picture of it!

Anyway, my poses were quite strong, and I noticed in the forward fold when you grab your big toes, I can now straighten my knees and bring my head closer to my knees.  Yay!

Also, my Dancer’s Pose I have to admit – rocked tonight.  It helped that the three guys behind me kept falling out (one actually fell onto the ground) and the girl beside me couldn’t do it for that long, so I looked the best out of all of them – ha!   But, in the second set I went so far that I ALMOST saw my foot behind my head. Oh god that was a good moment.  I almost squealed with excitement!

And, finally, my dolphin plank was the best I’ve ever done. I held it the whole minute at first, although it didn’t feel that strong and was quite tough.  But the second 30-second time I did it, it honestly felt almost effortless.  I don’t really know why, I think I just finally did it 100% perfectly for those 30 seconds.

I can’t believe in four days this challenge will be over. I feel like crying from happiness!

Day 27

It wasn’t a very good class. Teacher (the nerd one) was annoying as per usual. Class was packed.  Two girls behind me sounded like they were dying.  Classroom was actually quite cool when we started and didn’t warm up so I found it quite hard to get into all the standing poses.  All poses were weak.  I was glad when it was over.

Day 28

For some reason I was a bit stronger today.  I got a good spot in front of the mirror and for the last few days there have been so many good-looking guys in my class!  This is never usually the case, so I don’t know wassa goin on (ala Bret Michaels).

There was a new guy in the back.   Good shape, shirt off, tattoos all over.   Stood behind me in the back.  I watched him struggle angrily through the entire class and then he bee-lined it out of the room as soon as we were done.  You could tell he was so embarrassed and frustrated.

It made me realize just how difficult our class is, and how I struggled in the beginning too and never EVER thought I would ever be standing up in the front doing every single pose, and doing the poses well!!  I seriously never thought I would ever get there!

And here I am!  Doing a 30-day challenge with two days left to go.

I’m beginning to see how to do the dolphin plank pose properly now, using my core instead of my legs or lower back.  All this time I’ve been leaning back using my legs, but as soon as I pushed forward a bit I started using my core and being able to hold plank the entire time.  I love discovering the correct way to do the poses after all this time!!

It’s like little secrets that I’m gradually being let in on.

Day 29

I can’t even believe I’m typing the words Day 29. I did it, I made it!  Class was good, there was a different teacher but I like her so that’s okay.

I stood at the front and some dude stood beside me – he was quite a good yogi.

Surprisingly, I was quite strong in my poses, but just didn’t do that well.  Nothing happened in Dancer’s Pose – NOTHING.  No progress there!

I sat out second pose of Bow and second pose of Camel and had an intense savasana where my memory this time was a poignant sad memory of 1997 Christmas at my parent’s house when they lived on a remote-type island and the power went out, and my Dad made us all miserable.  I lay there in savasana and had to hold in the sobs.

I haven’t said anything yet, but I’ve been getting really, really heart-squeezing vivid memories and flashbacks coming up lately.  Probably in the last week and a half.  I want to go into detail about these but will do it in a seperate post.  I find it fascinating.

Tomorrow is my last day.  I feel great.

Day 30

My final class was great. Everything I could have asked for. It was a different teacher I’ve never had before subbing in, and she was good. My poses were pretty good.

However – there is one absolutely amazing thing that happened. I was able to bend back all the way backwards and look upside down at the back window in Camel Pose!!!

I used to be able to only do the pose this far. And this was SUPER hard for me! It hurt my neck and I thought I would never, ever be able to get farther than this into the pose.

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On day 30, however, I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden I just bent back and did something very close to the following picture, but I didn’t grab my ankles as I was too scared and surprised to!

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I couldn’t believe it! How did I do this? I have no idea. So I did it three times just to make sure I could keep doing it. It worked all three times!!

Future goal pose? This picture below:

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Can you imagine? (I can’t).

After I got up from the pose I stared at myself in the mirror with shock, and then looked around at everyone else – I felt like yelling, “Hey everyone!! Did you see what I just did? Did you see???”

After Camel Pose we were in the home stretch (literally) as we started doing stretches while we lay on our back. The teacher had no music on the entire class, but as we lay down she put on this song:

Listen to this video while you read the next part!

I started listening and I just lost it. I got so emotional and overwhelmed and the song was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT for the end of my journey. I started quietly crying and smiling and trying not to make noise while crying. I felt such elation and so proud of myself. And doing the Camel Pose so deeply made me feel like I went out with a bang!