Making the Cut: Yoga

I'm going to be straight up honest with you, I am not a yoga person. Or at least I wasn't. I was one of those people who was all about the more intense programs that makes you sweat and struggle to catch your breath. The ones that push you farther than you thought you could go.

But as it turns out, yoga does the same thing. Yoga pushes. Yoga challenges. At least it does for me.

Since August, I have been doing intense programs from Jillian Michaels' Body Revolution to Moms Into Fitness: Pretty Fierce Weight Loss. They were both long, intense programs that challenged me. And I surprised myself each time with my ability to push and rise to the challenges put in front of me. And as I have talked about many times, I started those programs after my first miscarriage. I needed something to focus on. And losing ten pounds was a bonus for me. I felt amazing.

But I was beginning to wonder if this was the right course for me. I had a second miscarriage during Body Revolution and since my body has been completely out of whack. I have had cycles that have lasted 27 days. I have had cycles that have lasted 61 days. My hormones completely out of balance. And we were still struggling to get pregnant.

So I made the decision to change my approach to exercise after I finished Pretty Fierce Weight Loss. I was going to do something less intense, just for awhile and see if it helped. At this point I was willing try anything as we are quickly approaching the year mark since we started trying.

I finished Pretty Fierce Weight Loss and decided that during the month of February I was going to do a beginners calendar from blogilates, but I had two weeks to fill first. So I decided to fill them with some different workouts I found on YouTube. And the first thing I found and decided to try was yoga. I found a Jillian Michaels' yoga and hated it almost immediately. So that went out the window.

But then I found a different channel, Yoga with Adriene, and gave that a try. And although I was still uncertain and I didn't hate it. It didn't get me huffing and puffing and sweating like I was used to, but it still challenged me. It was different. This was about being in tune with my body. This was about deep breaths and challenging my body to move slowly and precisely. It was just different.

Soon however that hate turned into like. And that like turned into love. Sure I missed the sweating and the massive endorphin release I got each time I completed a 30 minute hard-core workout. But there was something energizing about this. There was just something I liked. It forced me to slow down and let myself be in that moment. It forced me to do something that I didn't do on a regular basis. I have my mantras that I repeat to myself as I take my deep breaths which is calming to me. Basically it was exactly what I needed when I needed it.

So did it get me pregnant? At this point, who knows?! It's too early to tell. Do I think it was the magical key to that? No probably not. But did it help me? Yes, it did. Do I still hate yoga? Definitely not. In fact yoga is definitely going to become a regular part of my life now.

xo, B