Project 21 ends and 40 Days Level II begins

So I did 11 days of Project 21. I pulled my neck last Monday and had to stay home from work. Todd stayed home to help me move around (yes, it was pretty bad...I could not move my neck in any direction. Just holding it up hurt.) Thanks to some muscle relaxers, I was back at work on Tuesday. I have taken an entire week to rest, and I made it back to yoga today!

So Level II started last Thursday. The first meeting was on Wednesday, and it was great to see old friends from the Level I group and meet some new people. Yea!  OK, let me introduce you to the Level II challenges. :)

6 days of yoga per week
Meditation twice per day
Healthy foods and a journal to keep track
Reference the 40 Days book from level I
Read A Complaint Free World
Read Three Minute Meditations
Journal about different topics each week

So tomorrow will be the end of week 1 (the theme is PRESENCE). Here's how I did:

1 day of yoga (due to neck issues)

1 meditation (5 minutes) - well...this is a real challenge for me. I will work on it during week 2.

My food journal is actually showing me that I will ALWAYS indulge if sweet are available (ie- today's cakeball and LARGE Celebrity Bakery cookie (shaped like a wedding dress...super cute), along with student birthday m&m cookie from JD's Chippery (I ate 1/2...I always save some for Todd, although clearly, I didn't need the 1/2). I do consciously choose healthier options most of the time. It's a good challenge to have to write it all down. I don't want to write burger and fries, and I feel good writing sushi or salad or fish.

I read all of A Complaint Free World this weekend...it is pretty inspiring! It challenges us to go 21 days without complaining or gossiping. As you know, I'm a teacher. Gossiping is hard to escape. So I put on a bracelet (my nephew Nathan made one for me for Christmas - it says "See light in the darkness. Love, Nathan" - perfect!) and every time I complain out loud, I move it to the other wrist. Join me and try it out!
The book is a very fast read, and I really like the message it sends. There are stories to read about others who have been successful with the challenge. Anyway, I highly recommend this to everyone.

We wrote in our journal about:
5 things that have changed in my life since I started yoga.
What I complain about.
I'll post about those later.

I like the meditation book, but I am not done with it yet. It's good so far though...and I am determined to bring meditation into my life!

The presence theme...being present for others does take some effort. I spent the weekend in Austin with some girls at a friend's bachelorette party, and we had a great time! I think I was present for the girl of honor. :) Todd took me on a date last night. We had a nice dinner at Avanti on McKinney and were present for one another there. I try to be present for my students at school. Although, it's really easy to want to ignore half of what 12 year olds say...I won't lie. Not that it's all dumb stuff...but lots of silly stuff, for sure. :)

Man, an ant just bit my arm. (as I move my bracelet because typing is basically saying something out loud- you can "hear" me)
OK, goodnight!

Project 21 Days 7, 8, 9

Despite my slower week of yoga, I managed to get onto my mat on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. I fell into the "I can catch up later" idea-- when really, if I'm going to do 21 days of yoga, I need to just do it. Not plan on doing it. You know? If only I could apply this thinking to doing my Masters assignments. Another whole weekend working on it.

I did spend some time shopping today! It was so fun to go to Anthropologie in Highland Park Village and peruse the shelves and see what was in. I ended up buying a super cute apron for myself, a button down shirt for myself, and a very cute skirt for myself. :) Hey, remember that I gave up Anthropologie for Lent! Today was my first day back...ahhhh, it was like a breath of fresh shopping air. I just love that store!

OK, gotta get some sleep before tomorrow's 9am class and all day of reading and finishing my week 2 assignment. Night, friends!

Project 21 - Days 4, 5, and 6

No lie, my friends! I have done 6 days of yoga thus far! SIX!
Oh, yes. I made it to yoga on Thursday, Friday for the Hour of Power, and this morning at 9 am with Janie...my left hip was talking to me all through church today.

OK, so my computer is on the fritz. I was working on my masters assignment, and I had to redo it about 5 times (no exaggeration- seriously, I was in tears, it sucked so badly). I downloaded a free security program (Google's! I LOVE all things Google, so I am not going to comment on whether or not it is Google's fault. Because Google can do no wrong. It (Google) is amazing and so are all of their awesome products and applications. But that's another post. My hubby is going to fix this machine. So have a great week, and I'll see you on the flip side! (Wha? Seriously, I don't know where that came from...I've never used that phrase; even when it was cool, I wasn't saying it. What EVS.

Yep, I don't ever say that one either. ANYWAY....)

No downward facing dog today

I had a 7:15 meeting this morning and a late day at work. Yoga tomorrow, my friends. Sleep tight!

Project 21 - Day 3

I made it to the 5:00 class! It was great. Hard, but really, I wish the whole day felt like I felt after that class. Happy and amazed that I could push myself into a triangle twist with both arms lifted and my heart shining up.

OK, so I decided to tackle a new recipe tonight. I got a Williams-Sonoma Salad cookbook from a friend at work (thank you!) and found a chicken and orzo salad. It's actually the first recipe for me to try from this book (as well as the first recipe listed IN the book), and I've had it a while (I won't say how long). Anyway, it calls for cherry tomatoes and baby spinach, so I thought it sounded tasty and healthy. Yum! Plus cherry tomatoes (the super sized ones) were on sale at Newflower Farmers Market. Look at them! Don't they look so good? I put a cutie orange next to them to show some scale. (And yes, I took these photos...with my phone...and uploaded them to my laptop via Bluetooth. Call me a techie!) I ate two of them while I was cooking and saved a few for lunch tomorrow. I also used Organic Girl's Baby Spinach, which boasts being "washed three times so you don't have to." OK. I guess we'll find out how Todd and I feel tomorrow because I didn't wash them, and it seemed to turn out alright, even though everything in my head about fresh spinach said, "Just wash them! Remember the e-coli outbreak?" (Was it even e-coli? I'd have to look that up. I just remember something about spinach and another thing about peanut butter. Back to the recipe. All you have to do is cook the orzo, add a pesto vinaigrette dressing that is super easy to whisk together, and then toss the ingredients together, and voila! An orzo and chicken salad adorns your dinner table.

It was delicious! We both liked it. The pesto was even just pesto in a jar, which is not my first choice, however, it was also on sale and was quite YUM. (W-S recommends pesto in plastic containers on the shelf, which are homemade [and I'm sure very obviously more fresh and  tasty than the jar we bought (really?). OK, maybe more fresh, but our jar was again, quite tasty! I'm all for fresh food; don't get me wrong.])

I will be bringing leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Now, while I'm on an uploading kick, check out this photo of me in our nephew's new go-cart. Yes, they get all kinds of cool toys. And here's one of Todd. We had fun riding in it!

Project 21 - Days 1 and 2

OK!
I started Project 21 on Saturday with a killer class by Karen. Man! I could not get up on Sunday. So I slept in. :) And I went today at 6:30 and had a great class. So if I do all 21 days in this 30-day period, that means I need to go 5 days a week, and 6 days one of the weeks. I'm going to try to go every day this week (minus yesterday). Yow.

The idea behind Project 21 is that it takes 21 days to start a habit. I like that. Usually people talk about quitting bad habits, rather than starting good habits. What good habit do you want to start? Join me on my 21 day journey!

All proceeds from Project 21 go to Eagle Rock School in Colorado. We sent in charity ideas and drew one out of the hat on Saturday to kick off the program. Yea!

Now for some sleep. We are making NASA Mars Landers in class tomorrow, so I need some good rest. (Getting a full night's rest would be another good habit to start.) Have a great week!

40 Days Victorious

CELEBRATION!

The 40 Days of Yoga ended pretty well. (It actually ended a couple of weeks ago. I'm just posting late.) Our last meeting ended with us talking about what we took away from the process. Here were my thoughts:

1.) Physical improvements

I'm WAY stronger in my arms than I've ever been, even more so than the barbell class I used to take at the gym. Who's ready for Spring? My arms are! (I would totally post a cute top from Anthropologie here, but I gave it up for Lent. Not joking. I was slightly obsessed.)

2.) Exercise as a priority

My thighs are tighter (another physical improvement). I have pretty strong legs, but I've never called them "tight." When I was a kid, I did ballet and jazz, and they were probably tight then, but who cares or notices when you're 12? No one does, and it's so great! Then you turn 15 and you...kind of...care. Marching band (yep, I said it) kept my legs lean in high school, only I really didn't appreciate my slammin' body then because I only KIND OF cared. Then you go to college and care a little more, but you're not even into your twenties enough to feel the need (or appear to need) to work out yet. After that, you graduate and decide to join a gym. So you start working out a couple times a week to keep the weekend beverages off of your thighs and midsection, but you can still do Taco Cabana or pizza late night after dancing (which counts as a work out...maybe even two if you go out twice in a weekend...highly likely in my case). THEN you turn 30. And you think, "What HAPPENED?" I found myself upping my work out schedule to 3 days a week for maintenance...maintenance of sanity and to keep my body healthy. 

Now I'm 34 and I dance less. I go to Taco Cabana late at night less because I go dancing/out less (don't judge the fact that dancing is so closely linked to TC). And ok, I still eat pizza. I want to care about my health. And my husband. And my job. And my masters. We don't even have a dog, so kids would clearly rattle our schedule. Todd and I believe that making exercise part of our lives now is so important to the health of our future family. Both of us chose to make exercise a part of our lives after college, so it has become something that we love to do after 10 (ok, more than 10) years. We both spend a portion of our budgets on it. (Yep, separate "fun budgets." It's the best thing ever when I buy shoes and he says how awesome they are!) We talk every day after work about who is working out, what type of exercise we are doing, and then what we want to do for dinner. I know that having kids is going to change EVERYTHING, so for now, we are concentrating on our lives NOW. And right now, we can keep our exercise schedules a high priority.

3) Being non-reactive

The 40 day program taught me to control how much I react in life. Think about how reactive you are during the day. I spilled my coffee!! Crap!! Anger sets in, and I'm shorter with my students in the morning. That's a small example. I have been hit with some really cruddy days lately in my personal life, and if I were to react to them like I used to, I'd be a basket case. We all have our hardships in life, and my beliefs tell me that there is something good in store! Yoga practice has helped me to take things in, allow them to sit for a while, and then react less or differently or not at all. I ought to measure my blood pressure, actually. It runs in the family. Here's how yoga helped me: For 75 minutes, I push my body into postures, some of which are enjoyable, and some of which are down right HARD. It doesn't really matter if I'm "good at yoga"...there is no real measure of good or bad when it comes to yoga. The mere fact that I CAN do yoga with my body is something we celebrate at practice! The mirrors are covered so I can concentrate on my own body. I take from practice what I need for that day. Some days I need child's pose. On really powerful days, I can actually get into crow. (YES! FINALLY!) With the poses, I used to find myself wanting to quit or make it easier on myself. My legs would shake, I'd sweat like crazy, breathe uncontrollably, and think the teacher was so hard. (In kickboxing, I'd actually verbalize this--"OH MY GOD I'M DYING" -- a little dramatic, yes? Todd helped me turn that phrase into "THIS IS WHERE CHAMPIONS ARE MADE! He's so positive, it's sick, isn't it? :) I love it!) But the teachers at Yoga Sport are so GREAT. They guide you in the difficulty of a pose and tell you to just let that leg shake and just breathe through it. I concentrated on breathing long, full breaths, and after the shaking ended (ie-after the pose ended...for sure, I will shake the WHOLE time I'm in a pose some days), I'd tell myself how cool I was that I not only survived, but that I held it out! Letting myself not react on my mat transferred to parts of my life. Taking things in stride. That is one big victory.

3.) Perfectionism denied

I was in a meeting with some teachers yesterday, and the counselor described some students as "paralyzed perfectionists." I tend to be a perfectionist. I think I show this "paralyzed" characteristic sometimes. I went into the 40 Days thinking I could do all parts so well. Practice 6 days a week, eat healthy foods at every meal, meditate twice a day.... Well, my high standards were setting me up for disappointment really fast. At the beginning, I'd get down on myself for not going to the studio or for snacking on Valentine's candy. I'd miss entire days of yoga...all parts - practice, nutrition, and meditation. But I always made it to those weekly meetings. I would go when I could and told myself to be happy with that. Toward the end of the program, I learned to be OK with whatever I COULD do. I don't have to do it all. But what I can do, I'll do well.

Besides that, my nutrition portion could have been much better. Todd and I eat out A LOT. And we love it! We do try to cook more, but we do not say we eat out too much. We just enjoy that we CAN. Anyway, it's something I'll work on more next time. Meditation. What meditation? Yeah, that was the hardest part for me, even though I imagine it to be the most restorative part. Again, I'll work on it. What I did get out of the program was enough to keep me coming back for more! I'm already ready for the next time!

https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/asp/home.asp?studioid=2938

We celebrated by practicing together in our new cute pink tank tops that say "If you can, you must," and then changed into dry clothes to visit the wine bar downstairs, Winetastic. We had a great time getting to know one another more closely and of course, drinking yummy wine!

I am ready for the next 40 days. In fact, Angela is doing a Level Two class in May. I am going to sign up tonight! In the mean time, I've signed up for this:

Project 21: The New Challenge Returns

• April 10th – May 9th
• Attend 21 classes in 30 days
• Vote for your favorite charity

SAT FLASHBACK:
The number 21 refers to
a) The age when you can legally drink
b) A card game
c) The name of a television show from the 1980s starring Johnny Depp and Richard Greico
d) none of the above
This spring at YogaSport we want you to choose “d) none of the above,” and redefine the number 21! Research shows that it takes 21 days to develop a habit. By creating a yoga habit, you’ll not only impact your own life but also the lives of those on the other side of the globe. Starting on Saturday, April 10th, commit to taking a total of 21 yoga classes in 30 days. Challenge yourself, reach out to others, and be in awe of what flourishes. The proceeds go to a charity that will be drawn from a raffle on the first day.

Last year, after my 1 week for $15 trial period, I started with the 21 Day Project with proceeds going towards Africa Yoga and to help spread the teaching of yoga in Africa. Really cool.

I've come full circle. Yea!

Look forward to my (more frequent) blog posts about this year's Project 21!