30 Day Challenge

My goal for the year was to focus more on myself and take better care of myself.  The first thing I decided to tackle was to sign up at a gym by work. I wanted to workout to manage my stress and have personal time for myself each day. But, I quickly began to hate it. I've never been an athletic person. I don't like lifting weights, working with personal trainers, or being cooped up in a gym. I pretty much only like riding my bike, being outside and doing yoga... My simple little goal of taking care of myself backfired and slowly turned into- lose a billion pounds, work out for hours every day, never sit around without feeling guilty, do it even if you hate it! Ugh! So not working. 

I grew up with a family of women who, in my opinion, can get pretty caught up on the outside image. I remember being a little girl and watching my mom judge her body in the bathroom mirror. I remember my cousin trying to convince me to do this crazy diet or that crazy diet. From a young age I learned to deal with this pressure I felt by rebelling. I'm a rebel y'all. So as my goals began to morph and my enthusiasm for those goals began to wane and I started thinking, "This is stupid. Things need to change".

surprise capture by trev

So I've decided to begin a little project. I'm not trying to make more "rules" or put pressure on myself. My only interest is to learn to tune into my body, listen to what it needs, and learn to love the act of movement. So for the month of March I'm going to do a 30 day challenge. We've all heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit. That's what I'm trying to do here. Build a habit of doing things that I like to do and carving out time for myself each day. I'm going to choose to focus on one little thing- yoga- because I love it and feel that it really makes a difference in my mind and spirit. It helps me to get in touch with my intuition, teaches me to appreciate my body- it's powers and it's limitations- and helps me to let go of judgement. If you want to join in, here are my suggestions.

Practice yoga (or run, play outside with your kids, take a long walk through the woods, etc) 28 times in 30 days. This means there is some flexibility if you have a crazy weekend or get caught up with kids/work/etc.

Create a minimum amount of time you are going to practice each day. I'm going to go with 20 minutes. I can bust out 20 minutes during my lunch hour, do it before or after work, or break it up into smaller chunks. Whatever works. Your mind might want to take you to the extreme, but I urge you to pick a very small goal. That way if something comes up, it will be easy to stick to your goal. My mind works like this- "I have to work late! I have to clean the house! I guess I'll skip my practice". This way I can say- "No you can spare 5, 10, 20 minutes for yourself".

Document it somehow. We all know it's a hell of a lot easier to do shit like this when you have support and accountability. Cross it off your calender, post it on IG, email me, or journal about it. I'm going to check in here on the blog each week.

Most importantly, listen to your body. That's what this is all about right? If you are amped one day, head to a hot or power yoga class. If you are exhausted, do light stretching and meditation. Lay in savasana or child's pose for 5 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour even. Just take time to quiet your mind and appreciate how beautiful and powerful your body is!

in desperate need of a pedi...

I am planning on doing this DVD at home. Eoin Finn's Blissology pack is totally worth buying if you've got $50 to spare (or a lululemon gift card your parents gave you for Christmas). It has a different routine for each day of the week with a meditation and two workouts each day- one that's a quickie as well as an extended version. Yogadownload.com might be one of the best iphone app's I've ever downloaded. It's fairly cheep ($3.99 I think?) and has TONS of different styles and work outs. I'd also like to partake in in studio classes here and there if money permits. Youtube has A LOT of great yoga/fitness videos. You can find literally any style and any length of time. And there are a handful on Netflix (or where last time I checked). Just remember-This is not something to stress you out so make a goal that is doable for your lifestyle but will still push you to your goal. Let me know if you are gonna join me!