Monday, January 15, 2007

Yoga

I suspect that yelling at my daughter to be quiet because I am doing yoga, and damnit, it’s supposed to be relaxing, is missing the point somewhat. Okay, I didn’t add the damnit part, and it was mostly crying out in surprise because some music very suddenly came on the computer loudly, but I still think I was missing the point. However, when I got to the last part where you are supposed to just relax and she started to talk, I was able to very calmly say “Not now,” and, amazingly, she waited. The boy did the yoga with me, (and much better, I might add--limber little 4 year old bodies do these things better than mommy bodies!). He told his sister that she should do it too, because it is healthy. He even asked if we could do it again sometime!

I did yoga tonight for a couple of reasons. First, I have been doing well with cardio and weight-training, but I don’t have much flexibility training in my workouts. Also, because of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I had the kids tonight, which I normally wouldn’t on a Monday, so I couldn’t go to the gym as easily. I have been doing so well with my working out lately that I didn’t want to skip tonight entirely and it gets dark too early to go for a walk after work, so yoga seemed like the best choice.

I am really surprised by how difficult it is. Because people say that it helps them to relax, I always have this image of yoga being calm and relatively easy. It isn’t really very easy at all. I found myself having a lot of difficulty with the slow breaths I was supposed to be taking at a few points, because the poses were very challenging. I am already sore, and I even took a nice warm shower when I was done. Oh well, that must mean the exercise is having a good effect on my body and I am sure it will get easier as I keep practicing.

The last reason I wanted to make sure to get some exercising in is the terrible eating I did at my parents’ house tonight. My grandmother had cooked cabbage in some water, which was fine, but she had also added ham hocks. I love cooked cabbage, and my grandmother is so happy when I eat her cooking, but all the ham grease was a bit heavy on my stomach. I also ate a light caesar salad, which had cheese, egg yolk and anchovies in the dressing. Not a lot, but still. And if this all wasn’t non-vegan enough, I ate chocolate chip cookies (made by the girl and my grandmother) AND a couple of mini-Twix bars. See what I mean about the junk food mecca? So, not a vegan night at all, but it could have been much worse. I didn’t eat any actual chunks of meat, and the salad really was the best of a lot of bad options. The candy and cookies were just weakness. Still, one not so great night is not the end of the world, and at least I did the yoga to make up for it, right?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We have a saying in our house: If mama's not yoga-ing, nobody's happy.

My one yoga class a week fuels me for the next seven days and I am a wreck without it. I've never felt that way about any other type of exercise, and I am so so so thankful I found this class. Here's to you get your peace on too!