A Week in the Practice of a Budget Yogi- Monday

This post is the first of a short series of posts that documents a week in the life of my Year of Yoga. I call myself a Budget Yogi because I mostly do DVD's at home. DVD's are fine for the most part; I really enjoy the collection I have. Would I like to practice more in a real live studio? Sure, but but it really depends on my bank account on any given day, as well as child care, so mostly it ends up being just me, my cluttered living room, a two year old, a dog or two, a cat, and an onscreen Rodney Yee. Rock on!

Today I came home at lunch to do my yoga for the day. I only work 5 minutes or so away from my house, so sometimes this is a nice option- especially if I know the evening is going to be busy. It's also a nice break from everything to come home to an empty house and to light a candle and mellow out for a half hour in the middle of the day.

The DVD selection for today's practice was Yoga for Stamina- a nice 20 minute flow that includes my favorite Tree Pose. :) My mood for today's practice was half way between 'Totally Distracted Lets Just Do This So I Can Check It Off the List' and 'Totally Blissed Out'. My mind wasn't completely on task, but I wasn't completely unfocused either.

What I have found during this year is that I'm not going to be Totally Blissed Out everyday. Some days it will just be a check off the list- but that's ok. I'm there, I made the effort to pull the mat out and practice, and my body will get the benefit. When I'm conscious of a mindset like that, I try to focus more and be present, but sometimes it just doesn't stick. On days like those, I concentrate on the fact that I made good choices in getting on the mat, even if I wasn't totally present. What matters on those days is that I showed up.

I think life is often like that, no?

Weekly Yoga Breakdown

I haven't posted one of these in awhile, but I've been successfully completing my daily yoga. Here is this past week's breakdown. Not the most varied week ever, but I did what I needed on each day, which this week, meant a lot of relaxing AM Yoga.


Day One- AM Yoga

Day Two-AM Yoga

Day Three- Yoga for Stamina

Day Four-AM Yoga

Day Five- 15 Minute Results Yoga: Upper Body

Day Six- Yoga for Stamina


This makes six months and 2 weeks of yoga 6 days a week. Half way there!

March- Week Three- Week of Yoga Breakdown

Well, my plan was to do one of these weekly breakdown posts after completing each week, but the past few weeks, when I get to Saturday, I can't remember what I did on Monday. Sad, I know. Things are a little crazy here. I need to just write it down every day so that when I get to Saturday...I can see what I did on everyday.  I will try to do that from now on so I can give a breakdown each week instead of sporadically.

In any case, here is this week's yoga breakdown:

Day 1: 15 Minute Results Yoga: Upper Body

Day 2:  Yoga for Stamina

Day 3: 15 Minute Results Yoga: Lower Body

Day 4: AM Yoga

Day 5: AM Yoga

Day 6: Yoga for Strength

February: Week Four- Yoga Breakdown

Day 1: Yoga for Stamina

Day 2: 15 Minute Results Yoga: Upper Body

Day 3: Yoga for Strength

Day 4: AM Yoga

Day 5: 15 Minute Results Yoga: Lower Body

Day 6: 15 Minute Results Yoga: Upper Body

If I Can Do It...

Since I'm on my fourth month of yoga, but just started this particular blog, I am going to be posting some things that I wrote during the first three months of my Year of Yoga as well as my current posts. Here is one I wrote December 27th.
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For any of you out there that think that yoga is just for flexible, skinny people with lots of time and money, I would like to tell you otherwise. I am none of those things, but for two months I've had a very successful renewal of my yoga practice from long ago.

First: Flexibility

Flexible I AM NOT. I never have been. For example, in college I was in my dorm room stretching as far as I could go, when my roommate came in. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Stretching." I said.

She LAUGHED at me. "You can't even tell!" That was in college. When I was supposedly young and supple. Yeah, things haven't improved in that area as I've aged. You don't need to be bend-y. Just bend as far as you can. The benefits will still be there.

Second: Skinny

Lets just say sometimes my belly schlub gets in the way. We'll leave it at that.

Third: Money

I ain't got much. Funny how kids and pets suck all the extra funds out of you. This means that I can't really get to a 'real' yoga studio and practice very much. I have videos. I do one of them everyday. Do you need a lot of them? Not really. When I first started my practice way back when I was a poor grad student...I only had one Rodney Yee video with two 20 minute practices on it. (I also had to walk to school uphill both ways.) I did one of these two every day for months. Did it get a little boring? Sometimes, but the benefits were so great- even with just one video, that I kept it up. I'm glad I did.

I still have that video. I still use it. Thankfully now I have a few more, but you don't need a lot. There's also a lot of resources on the web. Look for them...you don't need a lot of money.

Fourth: Time

I have very little time for my practice, but since I committed to my 'Month of Yoga' in November, I had to MAKE time. Every day. Most days that meant rolling out my mat in the living room, next to the dogs, kid, and Little People farm and zoo sets and taking the time to practice. Here's a visual for you. This is from directly after today's practice:

Dog one wants to help!

Dog two wants to help!

The Little People Animals want to help!

Is it pretty? Not really the adjective I'd use. Is it peaceful, well...I've realized that peace comes from your MIND.

Take today for example. I'm sitting on my mat, trying to bend forward as far as my lack of flexibility allows, and the Sweet Baboo figures out that if he blows on the back of my neck, it makes a fantastic fart noise. That's right. There I am, trying to do a relaxing yoga sequence, and my son is making snotty fart noises on the back of my neck. Peace comes from your MIND.

Yesterday, this same kid decides that when I'm doing relaxation pose at the very end of my practice, it would be hilarious to stick his finger in my belly button. So, first of all, I am distracted by the fact that he can stick his finger ALL THE WAY into my belly button. Like, so it disappears (See point #2). Second, I have some one's finger stuck to the hilt into my belly button. Peace comes from your MIND.

So if you're interested in yoga but held back by various worries or concerns, don't worry!  I am the perfect non-flexible, non-skinny, non-money and non-time having example. So if I can do it, you can definitely do it.

The benefits are so, so worth it.

Listening to Your Body: Going for the Long Run Instead of the Now

For the last week and a half, my yoga practice looked, on paper, very boring. During the past week and a half, I did Rodney Yee's AM Yoga. Everyday. For a week and a half. And it was just what my body was asking me for. I just had to listen to it.

AM Yoga is what I call a 'Relax-y Stretchy' practice. Not too physically taxing, probably doesn't burn a lot of calories, but very beneficial nonetheless.

One day about two weeks ago, I was feeling really drained. The thought of doing any kind of yoga was not really what I wanted to think about. Was I burning out? Would I be able to continue this project? I wanted to sit on the couch. Rest. Sleep. Anything but Downward Dog or Push-up Pose.

So I did what I usually do when I'm feeling that way. I did AM Yoga. Most of AM Yoga takes place while lying down. It's so non-taxing that I can keep a heavy hoodie on the whole time. And thick socks. There's only one downward facing dog and you only stand up once. Perfect. Thank you Rodney Yee!

The next day, I felt the same way- so AM Yoga made a reappearance. Same with the day after that. Once I regained more energy, I was ready for something new, but then I pulled something in my shoulder (not yoga related) and couldn't lift my arm over my head without pain- so AM Yoga it was again. At that point, with more energy, I wanted to do something more athletic- I had calories to burn after all!

"You're going to get out of shape!", my brain told me. "All you eat is- as we speak- GOING TO YOUR THIGHS!"

I quietly listened to my brain...and then told it "to not be silly...doing too much right now would be detrimental" and again slipped AM Yoga into my DVD player. I really did want to do something a little more challenging, mostly because I felt like I needed to be burning calories (that is a hard mindset to re-set as a female, I think). BUT...I also needed to heal my shoulder. Pushing myself could mess it up more, and could put a major damper on the rest of my Year of Yoga. So despite my "I need to burn calories NOW" mentality, I went with the "I need to heal for the long run" reality. So I kept playing that AM Yoga DVD day after day until my shoulder felt better. Then I did it one more day for good measure.

I'm glad I did. Today I was able to do the more athletic (and aptly named) Yoga for Athletes by Baron Baptist. That's one of my faves and I've had it forever. Tried and true. Tomorrow I'll probably do Yoga for Stamina with Rodney Yee. Also tried and true.

My week and a half of "easy" yoga had not caused me lose strength or flexibility. It healed my shoulder fully and I was downward dogging it up on the mat today- just as strong and actually MORE flexible than before (thanks Relax-y Stretchy yoga!).

The moral to this experience: Listen to your body. It's usually smarter than you. :)