Fitness as a journey

Yesterday I went back to Bikram yoga for the first time in a month.

Let that sink in for a hot sec. A whole month. I knew it was going to be rough, but was pleasantly surprised when I was moving through pranayama deep breathing and half moon pose. I eve felt uncharacteristically strong during the balancing series. Usually, I fall out at least once on each pose, but this time I was able to hold both sets of each posture until the instructor told us to change.

And then I hit the floor. The floor was not friendly yesterday -- I had those feelings of being overheated that I used to get so frustrated by early into my Bikram experience. I made all the rookie mistakes -- wiping away sweat, fanning myself, angry at the heat. Basically, the second half of my very first class back in a month was rough -- and that's an understatement.

So I'm sitting there, feeling like death and about to go through all the should've/could've/would'ves about my last month of being away from my normal routine. But then I realized (probably one of those life-realization-right-before-death moments) that fitness, much like life, isn't a destination. There's not one moment where you achieve your peak fitness - it's about the getting there, failing, getting there again, and maintaining. The question is -- why did I fall off of my fitness journey? Why did my yoga and running take a backseat to other things? How can I learn from the past month so that, in the future, it doesn't happen again? And in the meantime, how do I find peace in where I currently am while also striving to reach my full fitness/health potential?

In my heat dillusion, I came up with focusing on that one class. I made it my goal to not leave the room - just like it had been for the very first few Bikram classes I attended.

And I am happy to report -  I did not die, and I managed to stay in the room the entire 90 minutes.

Missing my 26+2

Well, after a two week hiatus, I finally found my way back to the Bikram room last night. It was pretty rough, and I felt nauseous for most of the class.

Somehow, it is now 8 am and I am already back from my daily 26+2. As in, I got up at 5:30 this morning to get my daily sweat on.

Over the last two weeks, I've really put my practice on the back burner because I was doing other fitness activities. What a poor choice.

Yoga is something special. It combines mind and body, and helps you achieve complete health. Even after just two classes, I've realized how much I've missed my "me" time. I think it's important to have time alone with your thoughts and yourself, and yoga gives you that opportunity.

Anyways, I am definitely looking forward to being more diligent about my practice, and I kind of like waking up early and getting my sweat on in the morning. It got my day going this morning, and I am now enjoying some delicious four ingredient pancakes (2 egg whites + mashed banana + cinnamon + vanilla) and blogging for you fine people -- all before work!

Good morning!

Five tips for Bikram beginners

My Bikram studio recently did several Groupons. This is great, because Bikram yoga is wonderful for your mental, physical, and emotional health, and everyone should give it a try! That being said, I've realized there are a few things that I wish someone had told me as a beginner, and so I'm sharing them here.

If you're going to try your very first Bikram yoga class, here are five things you should know:

1. It's super important that everyone can see part of themselves in the mirror. If you're anywhere but the back row, be aware of other yogis in the class, and stagger your mat so that they can see themselves as well.
2. The yoga room is a silent place. The Bikram community is wonderful, and talking in the lobby is totally encouraged, but a lot of people come early to class to zone out, get their meditation on, or just enjoy some silence. Even if you're coming to yoga with your friends, try not to talk inside of the room.
3. It's totally okay to sit out a posture. Or seven. Yoga isn't a competition, and it's about the journey. If you need to sit down and take a breather, do it. Noone is judging you, I promise.
4. People don't wear a lot of clothes, and it's more than acceptable to join them. You know why? Because it's cool. Literally. You are sweating in a 104 degree room for 90 minutes, and you're going to feel a heck of a lot better in a sports bra and short shorts than leggings and a t-shirt. Like I said, noone is judging you.
5. Come back the next day. So maybe your first class was rough. Maybe you felt hot and sweaty and not flexible. Leave the room, sign up for the next day, and come back. Flexibility, inner peace, happiness... all of these things take time. You're never going to heal yourself physically, mentally, or emotionally unless you keep coming back.

Anyone else a Bikram yogi? What would you tell a newbie to the practice?

Bikram reflections: Days four and five of my 30 day challenge

Well,  so far I am five-for-five in my 30 day challenge, and as I'm writing this post, I'm preparing for class number six.

The last two classes have been pretty awesome. In a way I've never really experienced before, both classes felt like they went pretty quickly, and I actually kind of enjoyed every series of both of them. Bow (the pinnacle posture of the spine strengthening series) felt really strong both days, and I was kind of proud of how much better it looked and felt. Bow, just so you know what I'm talking about, eventually looks like this:

I am also finding that my practice is starting to feel like the "moving meditation" that it claims to be. I definitely am starting to fall into the rhythm of the practice, and I think that's probably what has been most helpful in making the 90 minutes enjoyable each day.

Scheduling myself time for my practice each day has been great. I love how Bikram makes me feel, how it makes me look, and that it gives me time daily to focus on myself. I'm sure I've blogged about this before, but I think that we sometimes forget how important it is to set aside time for ourselves each day. I don't just mean time to workout, I mean time to let all of our other responsibilities take a breather for a hot second (literally hot, in this case) and just let our mind have a break. We're all so busy all the time, and we sometimes forget that taking a breather is necessary too.

Here's to class number six.. after today, I'll be a fifth of the way there!!

Bikram reflections: Starting my 30 day challenge

I started my 30 day Bikram Yoga challenge three days ago -- and I am three for three so far! I'm doing my own little 30 day challenge for several reasons. Obviously, first and foremost, for my health -- to see what 30 straight days of getting my 90 minutes in the hot room can do for me. Then, it goes without saying that the competitive part of my personality thrives off of challenges. I've also been neglecting my practice a little bit lately, so it's definitely long overdue for me to kick it back into gear.

I'll be trying to reflect on my practice daily on this blog, but figured I would go ahead and combine the first three days. My three classes were all at different times (7:15pm, 8:15pm, and 6:00am), with different class sizes (five people in the 7:15 class, a full room during the 8:15 class, and then probably about 10 people in the 6:15 class), and with three different teachers. Here are my thoughts so far:

• I was really distracted during the 7:15 small class, when a gentleman was breathing really heavily throughout the practice. I did realize that this probably means I need to work on focusing on my own breathing, and not letting little things distract me.
• Holy cow is standing separate leg stretching pose hard. I always thought it was difficult (even though it looks like it would be one of the easiest poses), but after being away for so long, it's gotten even harder.
• The 8:15 class is for beginners. There's a lot of people, a lot of fidgiting, and a lot of groaning. Again, reminded that I need to work on focusing internally instead of externally.
• Conversely, the 6:00am class is for more experienced yogis. There's a lot less water drinking, and a whole lot more "class energy" propelling you through the series.
• The 6:00 class is also nice because I think it's too early for your brain to be awake. It makes it a lot easier to make the practice your "moving meditation" and control how much your mind wanders.
• I can do the whole spine strengthening series!! Yeah, it hurts, but I can do it, and I'm confident that I'll be doing locust correctly in no time :)
• Sometimes, increased humidity is worse than increased heat. More on this later, I'm sure.

Anyways, just wanted to get this up before I head to work. Always nice to start my day with a Bikram class :)

Bikram reflections: class without water

One of the instructors at my yoga studio talks about how it's been years since he's had water with him in a Bikram class. Today was actually my third class water-less. And by water-less, I mean that I brought water in (just in case), but didn't actually drink any.

Bikram legend has it that if you've come into class dehydrated, it's already too late to rehydrate yourself with just water. It's why proper hydration throughout the day prior to a class or the night before if you're taking it in the morning is so important.

The temperature and humidity conditions of a Bikram yoga room are such that you're supposed to sweat, and you're supposed to sweat a lot. If you're improperly hydrated, your body doesn't have enough water to generate an adequate amount of sweat -- your body's built in cooling system can't work the way it's supposed to.

What that all boils down to is: that water you're drinking during Bikram class is more for reassuring you mentally, not so much physiologically.

I've found that my practice without water is actually a bit easier -- instead of drinking, I take the full 20 seconds allotted to me for savasana and calm my mind. I don't think about whether or not I'm going to drink, which means I'm more able to focus on my practice.

Obviously, I'm not a professional and I'm not advocating that everyone should stop drinking water while in physically demanding conditions. What I am saying is that with proper hydration, and listening to your body, it is definitely possible to complete the full 90 minutes without water -- as long as you make sure to rehydrate after class :)

Anyone else practice Bikram without water? What did you think?

Bikram reflections: setting an intention for your practice

I really did not want to go to yoga today. Last night was rough in that my dog, Rusty, decided that he needed to wake up every two hours to bark at the door, which means my quality eight hours last night wasn't so quality. The lack of sleep combined with a pretty long shift last night meant I woke up feeling dehydrated and kind of icky (for lack of a better description).

Begrudgingly, I ate some egg whites and a couple of whole wheat waffles and dragged my butt out the door, towel and liter of water in hand.

I am so glad I went to yoga today.

Siri Om was teaching, which is always a good start, because I feel like she's talking directly to me. Knowing I was feeling kind of meh going into my practice, I really liked that she started the class advising us to set an intention for our practice.

Setting an intention is something that I definitely don't do as often as I should, but am so glad that I did today. My intention was to focus on my breathing, making sure that I was consistently breathing in and out through my nose in a calm manner.

It was kind of amazing how much of a difference this made in my practice. By focusing on my breathing, I found that I was able to complete the entire sequence, going deeper into many of the postures that usually give me issue. I didn't have a moment where I felt overheated or panicked or like I needed to quit. Honestly, this was probably the most meditative and refreshing class I've taken yet, simply because I set an intention and focused on my breath.

Siri Om continuously repeated "breath before form, form before depth" throughout the class today -- and now I can see why.

The "church of sweat"

In my free time, I prefer to read other healthy living blogs instead of being normal and watching TV, mostly because sometimes I come across some really interesting articles.

Like this one from Lululemon's blog.

It's about this new sect of people who are finding something spiritual through their sweat sessions, whether they practice yoga or run or whatever. Now, I'm not sure if it's really "new," persay, since I'm pretty sure people have been finding something higher through yoga, dance, surfing, etc, for a long time, but I love that it's something that we're starting to talk about.

I find that I almost always have some sort of self-realization, inner-peace-finding moment during my 90 minutes in the Bikram room, and more often than not during longer runs. I think that in our over-stimulated world, these times that you set aside for yourself to be away from technology and others and to just be inside your own head are really hard to come by. Of course you're going to find some sort of deeper meaning, because that time is time that you are allowing yourself to focus on your thoughts, your breath, your life.

There's something inherently spiritual about yoga; I think it's the fact that it forces you to be in the moment, to focus on the now. Being forced to listen to your breath and your heartbeat is some sort of reminder that this is your life, and you're living it. Right now, no do-overs.

More than that, I've found that exercise has made me more grateful for the little things -- the cool towel at the end of a hot yoga session, the breeze during a long run, water after a tough workout.

Obviously the "church of sweat" isn't a replacement for a real church experience, but they serve different, yet similiar, purposes. It's like one of my geography professors used to talk about -- if you want to find God, you can go to a church or you can go to the top of a mountain and watch the sun rise. Both make you appreciate life more fully, find a deeper connection, and believe in something bigger than yourself, and honestly, isn't that the whole point?

Dear Siri Om, you rock (plus a new job!)

Yesterday I had a really great Bikram yoga class with Siri Om at Bikram Yoga Fairfax. It was one of those classes where I took myself to the yoga studio because I really needed to take class to work through some stuff mentally. It was probably because I didn't go to yoga on Saturday or Sunday (poor life choices, I'm telling you), but I am so, so so glad that I went on Monday.

I think the clean eating makes my yoga practice easier. I felt so strong in all of the balancing series, and even was able to get both legs locked out in standing head to knee to the point of beginning to bend my elbows below my calf muscles. And I didn't sit out any of spine-strengthening series, which is a big accomplishment for me!

The best part of class, though, was that it was like Siri Om was talking directly to me during the dialogue. I should back up and say that taking classes with her is a treat every time because she radiates positive energy and inner peace. She is obviously so convicted in the healing power of Bikram yoga, and it's just inspiring. </end crunchy-granola talk> Anyways, during class, she talked about how your practice, and life, is a journey and that it's so important to enjoy the journey in order to really appreciate the destination.

It's pretty incredible that sometimes you hear exactly what you need to hear from an outside party who has no idea what you're going through.

In other news, I started a new job at Carlyle, which is a part of the Great American Restaurant chain. I attended an orientation tonight, and I am so excited to learn and interact with people on a daily basis -- especially since I love the food! It's really an organization full of people who love what they do and are passionate about providing fantastic service and building connections. I am so ready to enjoy this part of my journey :)

My abs are starting to show and it is very confusing.

Some crazy things have been happening in my life recently. Well, one crazy thing really. Over the last few days, while staring at myself during Bikram class (that's what you're supposed to do, I'm not narcissistic, I promise), I have begun to notice something strange going on in the general area of my abs. Something resembling the outline of a six pack? Like real athletes have? It's all very confusing.

You see, I've never had toned abs, and I've certainly never had a six pack.Not in high school when I was cheering and playing softball, not during the last time I was competing in swimsuit pageants, never. It is almost surreal, and probably the second greatest thing to happen since I started this whole yoga-boxing-running-lifting journey (number one is that my arms are getting toned. I really used to hate my arms, but that's a different story for a different time).

At first I thought I was imagining it (hence why this is the first time I've mentioned it), but sure enough, over the last week, I keep seeing the beginnings of six pack showing up.

I had a trainer once (hi Kyle!) who told me that it's 70% nutrition. Now, I've had some pretty awesome results, especially in the fitness/strength department, with exercising alone, but I really haven't been serious about my nutrition. But now that I'm starting to see results from my workouts, I really think trying to clean up my diet (not diet, clean up what I'm eating, period) might be what I need.

My boxing gym is pretty great, and I have a free appointment scheduled with a nutritionist on Tuesday. I'm really excited to discuss my goals with her and see what guidance she has for me. I think it's going to be tricky, because I really need to be sure I'm eating enough calories, especially with marathon training starting.

Sidenote: by the end of tonight, I'll have another tab on the top that's a daily log of my workouts. I typically record them on a paper calendar, but I figure I'll share them with you too!

Weekly Workouts

I've alluded to this before but: over the last two months, I've worked out A LOT. I've been lucky in that my part time job affords me the time to be able to be active as much as possible. It's the reason I've shaped up so quickly.

The bottom line is, if you want results quickly, you have to work hard. A lot. And you have to eat enough to fuel all of the exercise you're doing -- this part is the most important.

Anyways, the real point of this post is this: I really need to start planning out my workouts in order to balance all of the activities I like to do. Earlier today, I went to my gym to do an upper body workout and realized I hadn't been there in two weeks! Plus, with marathon training starting, I have to plan all that in as well. I currently have three different memberships (whoops): One to my regular gym where I run and lift weights, one to my Bikram yoga studio, and one to my boxing gym. Sidenote: I joined a boxing gym. Yes, I love it, and yes, it kicks my butt every time I go. I justify all three because they're all for different activities, so dropping one would mean I lost one area of my training.

So Wednesdays are now for planning. And I'm sharing it here so that I can hold myself to following through on each part, and so that you can get an idea of what I'm doing to kick myself into shape. So here's this week:

Thursday:

Morning: Bikram yoga

Afternoon: Kickboxing, Lower body, 3 mile run

Friday:

Morning: Boxing

Saturday:

Morning: Boxing

Afternoon: Bikram Yoga, Upper body, 3 mile run

Sunday:

Morning: Boxing

Afternoon: Bikram Yoga, Lower body, 5 mile run

Monday:

Morning: Bikram yoga

Afternoon: Kickboxing

Tuesday:

Morning: Bikram yoga

Afternoon: Kickboxing, Upper body, 3 mile run

Wednesday:

Morning: Bikram yoga, Boxing

Afternoon: I fly to San Antonio for ANTSO National Miss Nationals!!

Spine-strengthening series.

There's a period at the end of this title because that's how I feel about spine-strengthening series. I have so much hate towards it that I don't even feel like completing the thought. It's a set of four postures that I literally dread every time I go to Bikram.

I hate it so much because it hurts so bad. Which is apparently proof that I need it the most, but whatever. All I know is that when my first sweet savasana is over, I've got fifteen minutes of suffering ahead of me.

Spine-strengthening series is supposed to hurt. It's suppose to work every part of your spine, making you stronger and releasing toxins. It starts with cobra, moves on to locust, then full locust, then finishes with bow pose, which works every segment of your spine. I hate spine-strengthening series because it's the only segment of Bikram that is ALWAYS difficult for me. It really never feels easier.

Inevitably, I always end up sitting out at least one set of one of the postures. Typically, it's locust, because my arms being under my body is super uncomfortable. Today, however, I challenged myself to complete the entire series.

It wasn't easy; I cringed a lot and I forgot to keep my breath steady, but I finished the entire series without sitting out any of the postures. It still hurt, and I was still really happy when it was done, but I completed it, and sometimes that's the most important part.

I often find myself reflecting on Bikram as mirroring life. Over the last week, I've had a lot of tough classes, including a few where it was an accomplishment just to stay in the room for the entire ninety minutes. In fact, one class, I felt like I was going to be sick from about twenty minutes in onward. I must have looked crazy miserable, because the teacher came up to let me know that I "didn't have to be a hero" and that I could leave the room if I wanted to.

Life doesn't work like that.

Life is full of challenges, hard times, whatever, all of which are a heck of a lot more difficult than 90 minutes in the hot room. And you know what? You can't just quit. You can't just say "you know what, I don't feel like it today." You stick it out, you ride out the lows, and you get yourself back to the highs. Slowly, maybe cringing, but you get yourself out of the ruts that life throws at you.

And just like in spine-strengthening (which I still hate), you stick it out and it makes you stronger.

On letting go

Yesterday, I had a break through during yoga. Well, two break throughs, really. One was physical (hooray holding toe stand!), and the other was mental.

I took a class with a new teacher, and he was awesome. He made jokes, he was down to earth, and he had a really good energy about him. If I'm being honest, I went into class thinking it was going to be miserable - I had eaten Chipotle about six hours before, and was still feeling sort of like that had been the wrong decision. And still, I had a pretty major break through.

Over the past few months, I've been really struggling with letting go. I don't need to go into details, but I'm certain we've all been there before; someone we love/trust/care about treats us in a way that hurts us/disrespects us/etc. At the core, it's this deep feeling of being let down. And there's this feeling of disbelief mixed with pain, doubt, and uneasiness. It's a feeling that makes you want to throw up when you think about it, and part of you begins to question a million other things, people, feelings that you thought you understood. Over the past few months, I can't count how many times I wished that I could just erase not only the being wronged, but also allowing myself to be vulnerable.

Yesterday, somewhere between standing bow pose and savasana, I realized how silly that is. I can't control how people treat me or what happens to me, but I can control how I react to it, and I can control how it impacts me. I can take being treated poorly, learn from it, and grow into a stronger version of who I am supposed to be.

And why on earth would I want to undo allowing myself to be vulnerable? That's my way of treating each person I meet the same; getting to know them, and not letting things that have happened in the past dictate how I act towards them.

I think so many times we just want the bad emotions to go away. We want our lives to be easy, simple, always happy. But I think we often fail to realize that every emotion and feeling that we experience is beautiful, because they mean that we are alive. They mean that we are capable of feeling something deeply and genuinely.

Letting go doesn't necessarily mean forgetting or pretending like it didn't happen. Letting go means learning what you can from the experience, and using that knowledge to continue to shape yourself into the person you are supposed to be.

A bad day at yoga beats a good day without it.

Surprisingly, a lot of traffic is driven to my blog from people searching things having to do with hot yoga. Guess that means I'm allowed to blog more about it :)

Like I've said before, I love Bikram. I love it so much that I sometimes wake up at 5:30 just so I can make class and so much that it makes me sad when I have to go a day without going. And honestly, in the last month-ish, I've really had very few "bad" moments in class.

Today was a really tough day in Bikram.

I knew it was going to be hard during the first breathing exercise when I was dripping sweat halfway through the first set. My concentration was somewhat shot, and I started getting frustrated during the balancing series (the second series of the class). And then, somewhere towards the end of the standing series, I started feeling like I was going to die.

The problem really amplified because instead of concentrating on my breathing, I psyched myself out. By the time we made it to spine-strengthening series, I knew I needed to leave the room.

In 28 days, this is the first time I've had to leave, and I was really embarrassed. I felt like a failure as I regrouped myself in the bathroom, and I was still embarrassed when I got back into the room. There I was, four weeks into my practice, and I had to leave the room. I was THAT girl.

But then I realized something - and I'm gonna get psuedo deep here - yoga's a lot like life. It's really good 90% of the time, 9% of the time it's hard, and then there's that 1% of the time when you feel like you're not going to make it out in one piece. But even during that 1% - whether it was yoga class today or a rough patch in your personal life- your body and your mind get you through it, and you come out on the other side a stronger person, having learned something important about yourself.

Today was hard. It certainly wasn't the best day in my practice, but I learned something about my physical limits and something about accepting every part of my practice. There isn't really a bad day at yoga because the bottom line is, I made it to class, and I devoted 90 minutes to challenging myself.

Happy National Running Day!

Today was National Running Day, so obviously I celebrated every way I knew how:

Running four miles, having a great upper body workout, and then going to Bikram class. It turns out that it's 1.9 miles to my gym, so I took advantage of the beautiful weather and ran there, did an extra .2 miles on the treadmill, did my upper body workout, and then ran back. It was really a great run, and I averaged right around an 8:40 mile, which is a great pace for me! I can really tell that my body and fitness level are changing with the workouts I've been doing. I also got to go to Bikram tonight, and it was a really emotional class, although I'm not sure why. When I was coming out of camel (essentially a back bend when standing up on your knees), I just started crying! Apparently this is fairly normal, and the instructor told me after class that this can be a good thing since this pose especially sometimes unlocks built up emotions. Weird.

Signing up for a 5k. Surprise! I've decided that I'm running a 5k on Saturday. It's in Sterling through neighborhoods, and I'm hoping to run well.. Time goal is to get it under 30:00, which I know sounds really slow, but I haven't run one in a while! And my all time PR is somewhere around 27:00, so I'm (now not so) secretly hoping to break 27:00, since I've been running so well.

Buying a new running shirt. I got this baby in ruby red from Dick's  today, and I love it! It's kind of like a jersey, but way cuter and perfect for both Bikram and running. I wore it to yoga today with my black Nike Pro spandex shorts and a black sports bra.

 

Treating myself  to my new favorite drink at Starbucks. Since taking up Bikram, I crave water and Starbucks Passion Tea literally All. The. Time. So today, I got a trenta Iced Passion Tea with no sweetener, and added my own Splenda. I felt zero bad about it.

Telling you my favorite treadmill workout! Okay, so this is my gift to you for National Running Day. I love running outside when the weather is nice, but sometimes it's too hot or it's thunderstorming, and this workout is perfect for that! 

Time                         Incline                         Speed

0:00-6:00                      1.0                                 6.5

6:00-9:00                      1.0                                 4.5

9:00-14:00                    1.0                                 6.5

14:00-16:30                  1.0                                 4.5

16:30-20:30                  1.0                                 6.5

20:30-22:30                  1.0                                 4.5

22:30-25:30                  1.0                                 6.5

25:30-27:00                  1.0                                 4.5

27:00-29:00                  1.0                                 7.5

29:00-30:00                  1.0                                 4.5

30:00-31:00                  1.0                                 7.5
31:00-60:00                  15.0                               4.0

The thing I love most about this workout is that it's challenging the whole time, and that it's never boring because you're not really going at one pace for that long (besides the end). I love walking uphill on the treadmill because it's great for your legs and a great calorie burner. Something that I learned from Runner's World and other healthy living blogs is that whenever you're running on a treadmill, you should always set it to at least a 1.0 incline, because this best mirrors running on a road or trail.

Did you do anything fun to celebrate National Running Day? Leave me a comment!

My first two weeks with Bikram Yoga

It's officially been a little over two weeks since I began my love affair with Bikram, or hot, yoga. It's something I had wanted to try for a while, and finally bit the bullet and signed up for my first class at Bikram Yoga Fairfax.

When I arrived, I was told that my goal for my first class was to just try to stay in the room. Not exactly what I would have expected to be told before starting a yoga class.

Bikram yoga is a sequence of 26 asanas, or postures, practiced in a room heated to 105 degrees at 40% humidity. Translation: you sweat A LOT. As in, there is sweat everywhere: on your towel, in your eyes, dripping off of your body. Sounds awesome, right?

Each class takes exactly 90 minutes, and is exactly the same each time. Which you would think gets boring, but instead, is challenging in a new way every day.

Since I took my first class, I've gone back each day, with the exception of when I was out of town. Sometimes, I have to wake up at 5:30 in order to fit it in my schedule. If you know me, I don't do that. Well, I didn't do that. Bikram makes me do weird things.

I wanted to take up Bikram not only to increase my fitness (you burn up to 900 calories each 90 minute session) and flexibility, but in order to work stuff out in my head.

I notice a difference in the clarity of my thinking between days that I go to class and days that I do not.

I guess that's the most major thing I've learned from my first two weeks. I wanted to share the top ten things that I've learned with you in case you want to try it out (hint: you should). Here's the top 10:

1. Regularly practicing Bikram absolutely produces results beyond fitness. Some that I've noticed include: increase mental clarity, increased confidence (some of the asanas are pretty hard, and it's awesome when you do well in a posture), and increased self-awareness (I mean, you're literally staring at yourself for 90 minutes).
2. Sweating that much actually feels really awesome, and is pretty good for you too. Within the first week of my practice, my skin had noticeably cleared up.
3. You want to wear as little clothing as possible. I went to my first class in a tank top and leggings. Just wear the sports bra and spandex shorts - no one is judging you, and it feels so much cooler.
4. Don't go to class dehydrated. It's miserable. And if you're showing up less than properly hydrated, it's too late to chug the water in class. It goes so much better when you've spent the day drinking lots and lots of water.
5. Breathe in and out of your nose like the teacher says, not through your mouth. If you have to breathe through your mouth, you're pushing yourself too hard, and you're most likely distracting everyone else around you.
6. It's important to be aware of where you're putting your mat, and to make sure you're not blocking the view of the mirror from those set up behind you. A lot of people arrive early to set up and then go straight into savasana (dead body pose) until the start of class. This means that if you set up directly in front of them, they'll have to go through the first four postures without being able to see themselves, which is important for both focus and improvement.
7. Don't talk in the yoga room. Not even whispering. Not even before or after class. It messes with everyone else's zen/concentration.
8. Go every day, or at least as much as you can. Obviously, you'll still get the health benefits from Bikram by going 2-3 times a week, but it's about so much more than that. The working on yourself/self realization/etc is best achieved from going every day -- it means that you're giving yourself at least 90 minutes to just focus on you.
9. Every person shows up to class because they're working through something - physical, mental, emotional. Even the girl in the front row with six pack abs. Because the fact of the matter is, it's the same 26 postures each time; the only part of the equation that changes is you.
10. One of the biggest things that Bikram yoga teaches is how to have your patience beat your ego. With many of the postures, it's so tempting to just keep going to try to get to the "end result," rather than getting each smaller step right before going on to the more difficult complete posture. It requires you to know your body and your limits and to be at peace with the fact that even if you can't do the full posture during that class, one day you will be able to. It's the importance of hard work and patience and humility all at the same time.

I think a lot of us don't think that we have 90 minutes every day to spend on ourselves - our mental, physical, emotional health and well-being. I know because I used to think that too. But our mental, physical, emotional health and well-being affects everything we do - it impacts how we treat others, how we handle situations, and our outlook on life. I think Bikram puts it pretty well:

"They say the most important thing is God, water, wind, family, children, love -- all bull. The most important thing in your life is you."