Spending Challenge, Day zzzzzzzzzzzz

Here's my revelation of the moment. This challenge is BORING.

My yoga challenge was awesome, because I was pushing myself to do something that I normally love to do. Easy peasy. This challenge is all about denying myself something that I normally enjoy. I wouldn't necessarily say that I love spending money on lots of random things, but it does give me a certain amount of pleasure in the moment.

Also, the yoga challenge provided me with instant gratification. I was calmer, and more flexible, and got to feel all proud of myself for getting up at whatever-o-clock to get some me time. This time, there's no real reward from day to day. It's actually more like a punishment, in that I am not getting something that I want. Although, I do anticipate being very proud of myself when I finish it, and I will definitely need some sort of material reward. Maybe I finally can get one of those yoga mats I keep eyeing!

I know, I know. Big picture, big girl panties, all that stuff. I'm going to keep doing it, of course. But I want the world to know that I'm doing it because it's good for me, and not because it's fun. Like going to the dentist. Not anyone's first choice, but a necessary one.

Checklist:

Jan 6-7 (Week 0): Starbucks 1/1 possible days; Lunch from home 1/1 possible days. (See what I'm doing there? I'm not counting weekends. Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater! I will have to rethink that, and either put a whole helluva lot more effort into weekends than I normally do, or extend the challenge to 30 work days.)

Jan 8-11 (Week 1): Starbucks 0/0 possible days; Purchased lunch 3/3 possible days so far, and I'm going out for lunch with my colleagues on Friday. Which means I'm not going to make my lunch goal this week.

Related Reading: Check this out! One of my totally awesome girlfriends has started her own blog, on a similar topic: Things I Did Not Buy. As the title suggests, it's about things that she thought about buying, but didn't. There must be something in the air. :)

Spending challenge - who's a clever girl?

Well, not me, apparently. I *just now* had the brilliant idea that this challenge probably exists out there on the internet, probably in multiple forms. Draw up a budget, stick to it. Surely I'm not the only one who has trouble with this sort of thing, and I bet there are tons of resources out there to help me through it. And likely in a more structured manner than what I've been doing.

So that's my goal for this week, to find a good budget challenge, and get it set up.

As for the current version of the challenge - so far so good. I have started making notes of the things I want to buy, as they occur to me. I'm not tracking the little impulses, but the things I would actually spend time thinking about, researching, and then potentially buying, if not for the challenge. I wish I could say I'm surprised at how many there are, but I'm not - I know I spend too much. I wouldn't have set this goal for myself if I didn't, right? :)

So, nothing new to report right now. Just a couple of insights into the blindingly obvious!

New Year, new challenge

I have kind of fallen off the yoga bandwagon in the past month - not entirely, but I'm certainly not as dedicated as I was when I was doing the challenge. I blame December, with all its crazy busy-ness and lack of routine. But I have kept up with my spinning, and I did a 60-minute Spynga class on Dec 31st, and a 90-minute class on Jan 1st, and I got up early yesterday to do a home session, so I'm not off the mat entirely. I'll get it back.

And I have also decided on a new 30-day challenge: no unnecessary spending. I tend to go through money like water, especially at this time of year with so much Christmas spending going on. (One present for DD, one for me. One present for DS, one for me. And so on.) My debt load is pretty manageable, so I'm not too worried about that, but I really think I could do better when it comes to buying things. So, here we go: 30 days of no unnecessary spending, starting tomorrow. (I would start today, but I just bought myself a book I've been wanting, as a way of tiding myself over!)

Of course, this all depends on my definition of "necessary," and history has shown that I can be pretty liberal with that one when it suits me. :) So I'm going to lay out the rules beforehand.

First, the easy ones:

100% Necessary (buy as needed):
~Food from the grocery store
~Diapers, wipes, formula for the baby
~Yoga/Spinning classes (necessary for my mental and physical health. I just purchased a 10-class pack, so I should be okay for the duration of the challenge.)
~Medications for anyone in the family

0% Necessary (and therefore not allowed):
~Clothes, shoes, scarves, jewellery for myself
~Books or magazines for anyone in the family (including e-books)
~Toys for the children
~Yoga accessories (I have an unhealthy obsession with yoga mats, even though I don't actually want a new one. This will stop me from looking at them, and will free up some valuable brain space!)

And I have a third category for Planned Treats. These are things that are not strictly necessary, but which I buy a lot - and this is where the challenge really comes in. I don't think I will be able to eliminate these things entirely, but I should be able to cut down quite a lot.

~Starbucks. I love Starbucks. And I'm also lazy, so I am perfectly happy to buy a new coffee every day, rather than making it myself. So for this challenge, I will limit my coffee-and-cookie purchases to no more than twice a week. The rest of the time, I will make coffee at work or at home, and buy cookies from the grocery store.

~Lunch from the cafeteria, Tim Hortons, etc. I would love to be able to eliminate this entirely, but I don't think that's realistic. I'm working against a habit of almost a decade, of buying my lunch nearly every day. Honestly, I would say I bring my lunch from home no more than a couple of times a month. It's unhealthy and it's expensive, but like I said. I'm lazy. So I don't think I can quit cold turkey - that's more of a challenge than I'm up for right now.

So I will limit my lunch purchases to three times a week, and bring lunch from home at least twice a week. This may not sound like a lot, but it is a big improvement from what I've been doing. Once the thirty days is up, I will re-evaluate and try to bump it up even more.

And like before, I will blog about it at least once a week. Mostly to keep myself honest, but also as a way of thinking about and working through any issues or hurdles that come up.

Yoga Challenge, Day 30 - DONE!

I did it! Thirty classes in thirty days - or actually, thirty one classes in thirty days, because I decided to consider last Tuesday's third class as a bonus. :)

During that time, I also did seven spinning classes - including last night's, which involved a four-minute, an eight-minute, and a twelve-minute climb.

The whole point was to fit yoga into my regular life, without sacrificing too much of anything else. And I did it! The only time I missed a workout without making it up was the time there was a massive subway delay on my way to my spin class, and it took me an hour to go two stops. Other than that, I did everything as scheduled.

Whatever else I am, I am strong, and fit, and a whole lot bendier than I was thirty days ago!

Here's the rundown on the rules:

~30 classes in 30 days - done. Plus a bonus class, and of course all that spinning. :)

~Each program at least twice, and no more than three times - done.

~Long video (45 or 60 minutes) at least once a week - done. And that's not including my lunchtime sessions at work, which are also 45 minutes or so. I'm giving myself a bonus here too, since I did a long session at home the one day that lunchtime yoga was cancelled. So I actually did the long programs twice a week, every week.

~No more than one missed/made up session per week - nope. I did my best, and was fine Monday through Friday, but weekends were a bit of a struggle. I only missed (and then made up) four sessions through the whole program, so I did not too badly, but they did happen more than once a week sometimes.

~Blog at least once a week - done. I was definitely more enthusiastic towards the beginning than the end, but I did get it in at least once every week. Next time, I may up the ante a bit, and aim for twice a week instead.

So basically, I exceeded my own expecatations in every area except the missed/made up part. I'm very pleased with myself, I think I've really accomplished something here.

I'm going to keep it up, too. Tomorrow, I'm going to treat myself to one full day of no yoga. Although we'll see if it ends up being a treat - I might really want to do it! I find myself waking up a few minutes before six o'clock most mornings anyway, ready to get up and stretch. So I may have to treat myself to something like "doing whatever my body wants to do, even if it involves waking up early." :) Then I'll make sure I do one on Friday, and one this weekend, and I'm going to start this challenge on Monday with my good friend PZippy.

I'm looking forward to this one - it's going to be a whole different experience. For one thing, you're not expected to practice every single day. The goal here is to create an intention, and and to practice mindfulness every day, even if you don't practice yoga every day. Also, the physical practice is the same every day throughout the month - this is to give you time to really learn the poses, and to work on them at your own pace as you become more familiar with them. The goal is (eventually) to turn off the DVD and experiment with holding poses longer, more repetitions, whatever makes you feel good. That will be interesting for me - as I said earlier, I'm very externally motivated, and tend to feel that I need to follow the instructions exactly. So it will be good for me to expand my mental horizons as well.

Onward and...well, not upward exactly. Maybe onward and downward, as in downward dog. :) Definitely going onward, in any case!

~namaste~

Yoga Challenge, Day 24: Into the Home Stretch (ha!)

Only a week left in my challenge now. And I'm definitely feeling better than I did on Sunday, now that the end is in sight. I'm still enjoying myself, but I'm looking forward to moving on to other things as well - more on that later.

In the meantime, I think now would be a good time to review the DVDs I've been using.

AM Yoga for Your Week, by Rodney Yee.

This one is by far my favourite, and the one I have used the most. It has five different 20-minute segments - I love the twists and the hip openers, like the standing poses and the forward bends, and could live without the back bends.

My only complaint is a minor one. There is no advance notice of the props he's using, so all of a sudden he'll say "pick up your strap", and I'm sitting there thinking "What strap? Where did that come from?" and then I have to either scramble around or modify the pose. Obviously, this problem disappeared as I became more familiar with the series, and as I remembered to plan ahead for my practice each day. :) But even so, a note somewhere indicating which props are used would be helpful.

This is a pretty easy series, and I don't think it will be too long before I outgrow it. But it will be good to keep around, for those days when I just need a quick twenty minute stretch break at some point.


Warrior Yoga, by Trudie Styler and James D'Silva

This DVD includes two vinyasa sequences, which are identical but for length - one is 50 minutes, one is 25.

I find this one a bit more challenging, for a couple of reasons. I do struggle with vinyasa a bit - I tend to like a bit of a slower pace, with more time to settle in to a pose before moving to the next one. There are also a couple of poses that are completely inaccessible to me, such as the Standing Splits, and the Marichyasana (never mind impossible, that one just looks painful!).

But on the whole, I'm really enjoying it. Apart from those two poses, the rest of them are right within my skill level, and I am getting better at the flow part, as much as I grumble about it. Clearly, the challenge aspect is good for me. There are also a couple of meditations on this DVD, which I'm looking forward to trying once the 30-30 challenge is over.


Yoga Burn, by Rodney Yee

I was really nervous about starting this one - the word "burn," and the language in general, seemed very aggressive to me, and a bit more yang-ish than my usually yin-ish self would prefer. But I tried it, and you know, it's not that bad! :) More vinyasa, but again the poses themselves are not too difficult for me.

The DVD itself is a bit of a nuisance, though. The only menu options are English and French, and for some reason the practice itself starts in the middle of a "chapter" after the introduction. So you can't skip straight to the practice, you have to scan through it and watch closely for the point where the sample poses end and the practice itself begins. Again, it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but there certainly would have been easier ways to set things up.


Yoga for Urban Living, by Hemalaya Behl

This was the first yoga DVD I ever bought. It has three sessions: Morning Quickie, Evening Bath, and Daily Connection. The morning and evening sessions are about 30 minutes each, and the Daily one is an hour.

The morning session starts with some breathing exercises, then some very gentle "opening" of the joints - roll your wrists, roll your ankles, etc. The sun salutations start about fifteen minutes in. The beginning is a bit too slow even for me, but on the other hand there's no reason I can't skip ahead to the good part if I want to. This is something else I struggle with - I tend to feel that the practice is set up a certain way for a reason, and therefore I have to follow it as written. Next time I'm going to be all rebellious and go straight to the sun salutations - look at me go!

The evening session is designed to be relaxing, and it certainly is that. It's a series of seated postures and twists, followed by a good long Savasana with a blanket. I love it. Again, this will be a good addition to my regular practice, once the challenge is finished and I have a bit more flexibility with my routine.

I did the Daily Connection session on Day 4, and I have to confess I don't remember much of it - there has been a lot of yoga in the meantime! I'm deliberately saving my second run-through of this one for the end, as a bit of a benchmark to see how far I've come in the past thirty days. I do remember that she wasn't always consistent with her lefts and rights, so there were places where the soundtrack didn't match what she was doing on the screen. I'm easily confused, but I'm sure I can figure it out. :)


What's up next? Well, I'm pretty sure I'll need some more videos, before I get too familiar with the ones I have. More vinyasas might be a good idea, to keep pushing out of my comfort zone a bit. And I'd like to find a good yin yoga DVD as well, and push myself in the other direction, towards holding poses longer than I normally would. The great thing is, once the challenge is over, I'll have the whole world of yoga open to me again, and be able to try all sorts of new things!

Yoga Challenge, Day 22 (Part 2): Yoga with a Three-Year-Old

These are some of the questions my daughter has about yoga:

• What's his name? (meaning, the person on the video)


• Why isn't he talking?


• What's the music for?


• What's a strap? Why do you have a strap and he doesn't?


• Why does he keep saying "good" all the time?


• Is this my left leg, or my right leg?

Doing yoga with her has been a whole new experience for me. First, I have had to re-evaluate my definition of my own yoga practice, and assume that it will be a shared practice at least some of the time. And also, in this case, that the exercise is not necessarily the point - the quality time with my daughter is at least as important as my own practice.

I spend so much time actively parenting her - getting her to and from day care, making sure she brushes her teeth, talking her down from tantrums, and so on. So it's really lovely to be able to just hang out with her, and to do something we both enjoy. I know she won't always want to do yoga with me, and I also know that there will be a time that she will be actively embarrassed by the fact that I do yoga in the livingroom. So I am making the most of this time that we do have, every single minute of it.

And besides. She has invented a new pose. When I lie on my back in Savasana at the end of the practice, she lies on top of me and we put our arms around each other. She calls it the "hug pose."

Why would I not want to do yoga, when this is what happens at the end of it?

Yoga Challenge, Day 22 (Part 1): Three Classes Today!

Yes, three. I am going to be Gumby by the end of the day.

This time yesterday, I had only one class planned - my regular Tuesday lunch class. Then Monday kind of got away from me, as it often does, and I decided to skip my 30-30 class and make it up this morning.

Then, when I went to sign up for my usual Tuesday evening spinning class, it was already full. And I decided that because I had the time scheduled already, it would be easier to substitute something else, rather than showing up at home, messing with DH's Tuesday routine, and re-negotiating the time for another day. And my studio conveniently has a yoga class scheduled for the same time as my spin class, so that's what I decided to do. One, two, three, yoga!

And do I ever need it. This morning, I was not feeling very yoga-y. I had planned on doing a more challenging vinyasa flow, but decided I wasn't up for it, so I did a gentler back bend series instead. And I wasn't really up for that either - there were a lot of modifications and child's poses in my practice this morning. I was definitely feeling better (and stronger) by lunchtime today, so we'll see what happens this evening - either way, I expect to be sleeping very well tonight!