Wednesday, April 27, 2011

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.

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