Yoga Challenge Recap

So our 30 day unlimited yoga ended today 2/5 and I wanted to do a recap on how many times I (Christine, feel free to edit for your #s) went this month....*drumroll*....9! Yes, only 9. I actually was aiming for 10-12x which comes out to be 2-3x per week but it ended up being more like 1-2x for me. A bit disappointed but in all reality, it was pretty tough trying to make their classes as their last offering is 7:30 on weekdays. I usually don't get out of work until 6:30-7 on average, so it has been difficult for me to make weekday classes. I was supposed to go to my final class yesterday (Saturday) as I am proud to say I made every Satruday 1:45 Vinyasa Flow 2 class for the past 4 weeks, but I had a doctors appointment and errands to run prior to my 10 day trip to Taiwan, so I opted to skip it...bad me!

I'm headed to Taiwan this Thursday, 2/9 until President's Day on 2/20. I am super stoked for the trip and excited about all the yummy things I will devour...which means I will probably come back a bit more plump. @_@ Hopefully the walking will partially offset some of that :) I'll try to do some push-up, sit-up, and squats during downtime as well!

I liked Viv's January recap so I wanted to do one as well:

January Recap:
I agree with Viv in that I did not gain or lose weight. I am a bit surprised and disappointed as I went from doing absolutely no exercise to yoga classes 1-2x per week and cardio (elliptical) 1-2x per week. Although the scale does not seem to show much progress, I do however feel better. I feel a bit stronger and I feel like my endurance is higher for cardio activity. Yoga also helped me feel stronger and more flexible - sometimes on the day after a yoga class, I feel like I can take bigger steps when walking. These little improvements are okay for the first month into this resolution but I think I need to step it up some more (after I return!).

Recap on this week

To make up for being semi-lazy last week, I had to rev it up a bit more this week and was pretty successful, at least by my standards. Here is a schedule of what I did:

Sunday - NADA + Chinese Dinner (no bueno day)
Monday - Elliptical 40 mins
Tuesday - Elliptical 20 mins
Wednesday - Elliptical 20 mins
Thursday - Vinyasa Flow
Friday (today) - Missed my 6:15pm yoga class. No thanks to work...(another no bueno day)
Saturday -  Vinyasa Flow

I was active for 5 of the 7 days during the week which has been the MOST I've ever worked out in years, which I'm ashamed and embarrassed to admit. My goal is to do something active at least 5 days per week.

On Thursday evening after yoga class, I stopped by Trader Joe's and picked up some salad and had it for dinner. I also bought some really delicious spicy peanut dressing last week, which is why I am even able to eat salad (I'm not a salad girl by any means). Unfortunately, I find salads very unfilling and usually end up hungry shortly after...and regretfully snacked on a bag of Pirate Booty Aged White Cheddar puffs (they are so delicious!). Maybe if I had some grilled chicken or some sort of protein, it would have been more filling...

Yoga Challenge

Well, on the topic of Yoga, Christine and I purchased a deal of one month unlimited yoga at YogaWorks for $49 with a $25 gift card. We both started our first class this past Friday, 1/6 at the Union Square location. We took the 6:15pm class so I jetted out of work at 5:30pm. The class was....dare I say, easy? Maybe because most of our yoga classes have been in some sort of heat, be it Hot Vinyasa or Traditional Hot Yoga/Bikram, this one felt easy. A bit too chill for my liking. I was a bit bored and almost fell asleep at one point! Even regular vinyasa flow at YTTP St. Marks location would have me breaking a sweat. I did not sweat at all on Friday and trust me, I sweat easily.

I plan on doing yoga at YogaWorks at a minimum of 2x a week. Hopefully more to get my money's worth :) I went Saturday as well for the 1:45pm class. Unfortunately Christine could not join me because her lazy butt did not wake up until 1pm. I think she went to a later class though :) I plan on going every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday until my membership expires (Sunday, 2/5/12).

For my $25, I used it on my very first official yoga towel. I've been using regular bath towels but now I feel like a legit yogi :D I sweat a lot and have clamy hands and feet so a towel is quite useful for me when I do yoga. It has little beads on the bottom to prevent slipping! The best part is that the very first one I was attracted to was this bright orange color which happened to be 40% off retail of $60 (hefty IMO for a towel!). So lucky! :) I ended up supplementing another $14 bucks for the towel for a total cost of $39 with tax.

Yogitoe-tally Yours,
Amy

Unexpectedly Productive // Challenges

For most people, yesterday was the first day back to work after the long new year weekend. It was quite a busy day and I was trying to crank everything out as fast as I can because I needed to leave by 6pm for a friend's birthday dinner at 6:30pm in LES (Happy Birthday Diana!). We had a really nice meal and finished dinner relatively early at 8:30pm. I was motivated to workout after dinner since all factors seemed to have worked in its favor:

1. I was in the LES and YTTP St. Marks was a short 7 blocks away and I knew they had a 9pm class
2. Andrew was playing basketball at 9pm and wasn't going to be home until later
3. All my dinner buddies (good job Christine and Diana!) had done yoga prior to dinner, so it made me want to do it too/feel guilty

So I went for the 9pm Vinyasa flow class and was very proud of myself. It felt so refreshing (also because it was not in heat as the past few times we did yoga - it was all hot vinyasa or traditional hot yoga/bikram)! It was such a productive day for me. The only thing was I crashed after I showered and paid no attention to Andrew. He was not a happy camper haha.

Productively,
Amy

P.S. Did I mention how hard it is for me to workout at home even though I have an elliptical in front of the TV?

The machine is normally parallel to the balcony, but because of the Christmas tree, we had to rotate it to face the window to save space. So should I blame it on Christmas, the balcony, or the socks/miscellaneous items cluttered all over the machine? Sigh! So close yet so far. Requesting the tree to be taken down soon! But working out on the elliptical is kind of boring. Help! How do you do cardio at home/gym without being bored to death?

Cheers to a Fitastic 2012!

Happy New Year!!! I am so excited for the fresh year for new beginnings and new challenges. Clearly fitness is one of our top priorities. I know it will be challenging when things get busy and we are all trying to juggle a million and one things, but we need to keep in mind that health is arguably #1. Without health, we cannot do any of the things we do day to day. However challenging this will be, I also believe it is going to be a lot of fun because we are doing it together. I trust that even if we have to drag our feet to yoga class, we will feel amazing physically and mentally, and thank ourselves in the end :)

Exercise:
Vivian and I were supposed to meet for the 2pm Hot Vinyasa class at the 38th Street location. Diana wanted to do it too but she wanted to aim for the 10am/12pm class. Being that yesterday was NYE, I knew that wasn't going to happen :). Hey, at least I was being realistic. Vivian couldn't make it so I ended up by myself.  To my surprise (and delight), the class was pretty empty! I thought it was going to be packed with everyone's new year resolutions. Guess everyone had a little too much fun last night!

Diet:
I ate relatively healthy today. I wasn't hungry for most of the morning and afternoon because I ate so much pasta last night at 3am. Eeeeeek! So far, I had an apple, 3 strawberries (they were awkwardly bitter), some (by some I mean like 12) chicken cilantro MINI wontons (from Costco), and snacked on some ricesnack things and Special K out of the box (Mom, can you please buy some milk??). We are having hotpot tonight so that's going to be a wrap. I'll try to stay away from having too much fatty beef :) I don't want to deprive myself of all yummy things - it's about the balance.

Cheers to 2012!
Amy

P.S. - I had an amazing New Years. Thanks for the party invite Christine<3 (and Kevin)