21 Days of Yoga - Day One

Every  year on my birthday, I like to set goals for myself for that year of my life. This year, at the ripe old age of 26, I've decided that I want to actually start getting back into shape, increase my flexibility again, and learn how to do a head or hand stand. How I've decided to do this? Well, a little bit before my birthday I bought a series of classes online for 21 days of beginner yoga from DailyOm. It's now almost 6 months after my birthday, and I finally decided to actually start taking those classes.

Day one was not what I expected. I've taken yoga classes before in actual studios (if you're in NJ check out Yoga Dosha in East Brunswick; Phebe's warm vinyasa basics class was amazing), but I really wanted to try to get a bit more practice in at home. Day one at home was nothing like what I remembered from the studio. I decided to try the extended class (20 minutes) while my boyfriend drafted his fantasy league team. The first 10 minutes was entirely crunches and other floor exercises; not the relaxing stretches I remembered, but definitely a good work out.

Although not what I expected, I'm going to keep trying with days 2 - 21 before I give an overall review of the class.

Some things I learned: I'm way more out of shape than I thought, and I look absolutely ridiculous trying to even get into basic head stand position (which no, they did not cover in day one but I decided to see just how far from my goal I am after the lesson).

What I love about yoga is that no matter what level you're at, there's zero judgement; just instructors who want to help you grow as a person and are so excited you've decided to try out their passion. I've seen some of my sorority sisters post photos of themselves in various levels of yoga (from beginner to instructor), and it inspires me to actually get out there and try to achieve my fitness goal for age 26.

That said, there are definitely still times that I feel absolutely ridiculous trying to reach some of the yoga positions. Since I bet that all of us have been there, below are some of my outtakes from Day One (shout out to my boyfriend for taking some of the pictures without laughing at me). See you all in 21 days! Here's hoping I look at least a little less silly at the end.