Toga! Toga! Toga! No Wait... YOGA!

This morning in a rare mood of adventure, M asked me to show her the ways of Yoga.  Delighted, I turned to my dear friend, On Demand and selected a 15 minute beginner workout (called, amazingly enough, Beginner Yoga).  We moved my coffee table and recliner out of the way so we'd both have room to move, bend and stretch, on off we went!

I can tell you that the first time I decided I'd give yoga a try, I was pretty sure that it was a piece of cake.  "A piece of crumb-cake."  I mean, all it is is standing up, bending over and breathing in and out... and those are things that I do at one time or another every day.  M had much the same view, and looked at me like I was riding the short-bus when I told her that if she wasn't able to do everything the exercise show said, to just find a comfortable position and wait it out until the next pose.  She nodded politely, and even refrained from rolling her eyes at me, which was a nice touch.

About 5 minutes in, M started muttering things like, "You want me to do what?" and "Pfffft.  Yeah, right." I did my best to keep her frustration out of my Zen since I knew she was irritated with the size 2 model on the TV and not with me.  I am proud to say that she did give it her best, and did make it to the end of the exercise without too many Hrumphf's and "Arrrrg's.  As she was wrapping up she conceded that the exercise was just a bit more difficult than she had anticipated, and she hasn't had to bend her knees "that way" in a long time.  She did agree to give it another shot in a few days, and I assured her that with practice all the poses get much easier.

Once M was done, I then moved on to the intermediate level 10 Pound Slimdown Yoga routine.  A 25 minute workout, I thought it would be a great addition to the beginner yoga we'd already completed.  As it turns out, I'm not as "Intermediate" as I thought.  10 minutes in and I was having difficulty doing the moves, I was hot and sweaty, and just about done.  The workout was fantastic, but after not having done yoga in a couple of weeks, it was just a little too much for my tense and tired body.

All said, I got close to a 30 minute yoga workout completed and then M and I went to a local Farmer's Market for a mile walk between booths.  I was even good and refrained from taste-testing everything, although the Marionberry Pie flavored jam got the better of me.  I only had about an eighth of a teaspoon though, so still pretty darn good.

Now that the heat is starting to wane, I feel like my activity level will come back up.  It's been near 100* every day for the last week and the hell-fire has made it really difficult to walk away from the freezer section at the grocery store.  Luckily, M, K, Mr. Kawaii and I are all in this together and keeping one another accountable, otherwise, who knows where we'd be!