DAYS 1-3 of Yoga Challenge!

Day 1: Monday began my first day of this challenge. I was feeling a little groggy from working 30 hours in 3 days. I also had not run in those 3 days either. I probably should have ran on Friday morning, but it was cold, raining/snowing, and Paul had the morning off. The temptation of laying in bed with him all warm and cozy with Chica between us was just too much, and I had to give in. Well, boy did my body feel it all day. I was tired and felt heavy, and to top it off it made work go by much slower than normal. So, when Monday came around and I had to run 4 miles AND do yoga, I was not in the mood. However, I did it anyways. I did the yoga first (for obvious reasons), and then went on an easy 4 miler down by the river.

Since my favorite teacher at my gym left there is not a class that I go to on Mondays, so I did Yoga Journal's Day 1 Fun Yoga Flow. It was a 45 minute yoga flow with instructor Elise Lorimer. I really enjoyed this video and would recommend it to friends. It was relaxing, yet at the end I felt energized and ready to go run in the cold mist. My favorite part about this video however was how the flow took you all around the mat, so I felt like I was getting a small cardio workout as well. A great warm-up for my 4 miler! I also did a couple poses that I had not done in previous classes I had been taking.

I did fail on the vegetarian front. Since we still have a few meat items left in the house I did not eat dinner as a veg. Instead, I had leftovers from Sundays dinner. A delicious pasta dish with Chicken Sausage, Kale, Chickpeas, and Fire-Roasted Tomatoes. I love this dish it is quick and easy to make, and the leftovers are still even better because the sauce has gotten to sit overnight with the pasta making the dish that much flavorful.

DAY 2: Tuesday, I finally got to sleep in! However, I slept in so late that I was unable to run that morning, so I opted for a run after work(at least that was the plan). I did do Day 2 of Yoga Journal's Challenge. I did not really like this one at all. It was suppose to be a 15 minute sequence to do in the morning to help wake up the body, but to tell you the truth, there was so much laying around that afterwards I just wanted to go to sleep right there in shavasana. I had to do about 3 or 4 Sun Salutations in order to welcome the day at the end.

I ended up skipping my run this day though. I started reading The Time Traveler's Wife, and just got lost in the book and ended up reading it for 3 hours!!!! It is such an awesome book!!!! Yay for book club to give me an excuse to finally read the book (of course it was the book that I picked to read.)

So, I went to a hot yoga class at Hot House Yoga. I loved it so much that I signed up for the new student 30 day special!!!! It was finally the yoga class I had been looking for. While some of the poses were more advanced then what I am use to I am hoping that by the end of this class I can do a head stand AND a complete birds of paradise. It even pushed me to some poses that I never thought I would be able to do. For example, the tri-pod, and I even was half way with the birds of paradise (I just could not lift my leg up so I was bind ed standing up with my leg bent at the knee.) I plan on doing this for most of my 30 day challenge.

I did eat all vegetarian today though!

Breakfast: Mushroom, Spinach, and Feta Egg White Omelet. One piece of Morning Star's Veggie Sausage Pattie, and a side of fruit of fresh kiwi and strawberries.

Lunch: Chickpea and Leak Salad with a Indian Yogurt Dressing and a piece of French Baguette Bread.

Dinner: Masala Baked Tofu, Quinoa, and Indian Spiced Green Beans.

Dessert: A cup of Vanilla Ice Cream

DAY 3: I felt great today when I woke up! I did not wake up once the night before. Which is a pretty big deal for me. I credit that to the awesome hot yoga class I took the night before. I ate some breakfast of leftover quinoa with almond milk, a pear, almonds, nutmeg, and flax seed! Delicious! Then I went for a run. It was shorter than Monday, because I had to be at work 30 minutes early, so it was 3 1/2 miles. I also did Yoga Journal's Day 3 video for their challenge. This video focused mainly on core work. Since it was just 15 minutes long I plan on adding it to my daily routine. It was a great core workout. I like how my abs felt sore, but I was not doing the standard crunches.

Day 2 of my Vegetarian Diet:

Breakfast: Left over Quinoa with Almond Milk, Chopped Pear, Almonds, Nutmeg, and a sprinkle of Flax Seed. ( I think that next time I made this I will use walnuts so as to bring more variety into my diet)

Lunch: Chickpea and Leak Salad with an Indian Yogurt Sauce.

Snack: Banana and a french baguette with Nutella Chocolate Spread

Dinner: Left over Tofu Masala, Indian Spiced Green Beans, and a sliced tomato

Until Next Time....Nameste.

30 Day Yoga Challenge

I think I am going to do a 30 day yoga challenge. I got the idea for the challenge from Yoga Journal's 21 Day Challenge. I thought I would take this one step further and practice for a month straight instead of just 21 days. I was looking for something active that I could do everyday. Even the days when I work 12 hours. Since I can't run every day (well I could but, A. I don't think my knees could take it and B. I can't run on the weekends that I work) I thought this would be perfect. Plus, I am looking to extend my practice anyways. I also want to add head stands into my inversion practice. I am also doing this because I want to start a home practice. Usually when I practice at home I don't feel the same relaxed feeling I do after a class, and I want to achieve that even on my own. Yoga is suppose to be a personal practice, and I feel that if I develop my own home practice then it will help me even in class to focus on my body more, and not so much on the people around me.

Another challenge that I am going to take is a vegetarian diet. While I am doing this 30 day yoga challenge I am going to eat only vegetarian and vegan food. Lately I feel that I have been lacking in my healthy eating habits (I eat a lot of pizza). I have been a vegetarian before, but this time it is different. I want to make this more of lifestyle choice. I hope to continue this practice even after my challenge is complete. The only struggle that I see with this is when Paul and I got to Florida. For one, we will be in Miami and I am going to be tempted by all the delicious Cuban food. I wonder if I will slip up. Also, if Paul and I eat at a friend's house, and they serve meat is it rude of me to mention that I am vegetarian?

Paul and I made it through our first Montana winter!!!!! From what people have told us this was a pretty harsh winter as well. It was the 5th snowest winter here in Missoula since they started keeping records. We also broke some record lows as well. While we are still about 10 degrees below normal I will take temperatures in the upper 30's and 40's any day over anything below freezing! We also found ways to keep warm. One weekend we ventured up to Rock Creek and rented a cabin for a night. We did some hiking up there as well. Gorgeous area, pictures are at the end of the post.

This past weekend Pygmy Lush and Des Ark came to play a show in Missoula. That was amazing!!!! Best show I have seen all year. Well, I don't have much to go off of, it was only the second show I have seen in 2011. But, the show was better than the Drive By Truckers that's for sure (that was the other show I went to this year.) It was also nice to have our first house guests! We had so much hanging out, and to tell you the truth we were a little sad to see them all go.

Here are some pictures from our trip to Rock Creek as a farwell to this post....

This was our cabin that we stayed in at Rock Creek.

Chica decided that she wanted to jump in the creek at one point. She quickly found out how cold it was.