January Review & February's Plan

It got up to 3°C today! Woo hoo! Of course, all that really means is the snow melts to mush that will freeze into ice when the temperature drops tonight. And then tomorrow we get more snow. Gotta love the Maritimes.

January's workouts are listed below. The month started out slow - just could not seem to get moving. Plus my evening routine has been disrupted lately - long story which I will not get into - but the result is I was having a hard time getting in my workouts. I finally started doing yoga before bed and that has worked out really well.

I was planning to write a post on this study but Charlotte beat me to it with her February Fitness Experiment. The study talks about relaxation techniques like Yoga and meditation being beneficial for weight loss. I happened to see this study after my first week of before bed Yoga and it struck a chord.

The things is, I like Yoga. When I had a gym membership, there was an excellent yoga class that I used to go to twice a week. The instructor made us work very hard - I'd usually feel about ready to collapse at some point during the class and I always ended up with sore muscles. I actually stopped strength training because I thought it would be too much, and I was still seeing the muscles on my arms & legs changing shape.

Still, there was always that little voice inside my head saying: "You must work out with weights!" So when I eventually gave up my gym membership, Yoga took a back seat. I didn't have those classes to go to any longer and I thought I wouldn't push myself as hard on my own. Plus, I always feel like I have to get in my cardio & strength training, and Yoga (and Pilates) is sort of extra...Something I will get in if I have time and I've done my "real workouts" already. Even though I know better.

Then I had my Yoga week, followed by seeing this study about relaxation & weight loss. Something clicked into place.

I was looking forward to my end of day yoga. I would go down to my warm, cozy basement and stretch and breath and flow through the poses. I would go to bed all relaxed and ready to sleep. I would feel light and limber and somehow taller.

I kept it up for a second week. At the end of each of those weeks, I saw a small drop in the number on the scale. I can't help but wonder if sometimes pushing myself so hard, stressing about losing weight is actually counter-productive?

Of course, it was only two weeks and it could certainly be a coincidence. But, since this routine seems to be what works with my schedule these days, it can't hurt to give it a little more time and see what happens. It won't necessarily be all yoga, all the time, but I am going to try and pay attention to what feels good, to not over-doing things and stressing myself.

February tends to be a depressing month in these parts - we're sick of winter, but winter is not finished with us yet. That urge to hibernate is still going strong. So I will be kind to myself. I will make time for things that make me feel good. Who knows? Maybe I'll even lose a pound or two at the same time!

January Workouts

Jan 29: Fat Burning Yoga[40 mins]
Jan 28: Treadmill Walk + Joy of Yoga[80 mins]
Jan 27: Slim Sculpt[45 mins]
Jan 26: Yoga[20 mins]
Jan 24: Treadmill Walk + 20 Min Yoga Buns & Thighs[65 mins]
Jan 23: Power Beauty Sweat[20 mins]
Jan 22: Joy of Yoga[35 mins]
Jan 21: Fat Burning Yoga[40 mins]
Jan 20: Kathy Smith Yoga[30 mins]
Jan 19: Candlelight Yoga[40 mins]
Jan 18: Slim Sculpt[45 mins]
Jan 15: Bikini Ready DVD[35 mins]
Jan 13: Slim Sculpt[45 mins]
Jan 11: Fat Burning Fusion[45 mins]
Jan 10: Yogini Workout[45 mins]
Jan 1 - 4: Clearing out spare room, painting, cleaning up, putting spare room back together. Whew!

Two more from the weekend that I thought were pretty...