ejw220

Currently I am practicing Vinyasa yoga. In fact today marks the anniversary of my first year. As far as meditation goes, I don't really practice it at all outside of the studio, however I think Id really like to start. Hoping to learn a bit from this thread and my fellow druids.

Copy and Pasted from my challenge thread Week 6 - The final Diet Goal: Eat Primal Every morning! 7/7 Thankfully i haven't found this difficult to keep going...Eggs are great and so is bacon but there is a granola I found that helped me through the last week with extreme ease and its completely paleo. its called paleonola. target goals were Grading: 100% A+| 90% A | 80% B | 70% C | 50% D | Below 50% F I slipped up a few times so Ill give myself an A +3 Con Exercise Goal: Yoga at least 2 times a week in the studio and 2 times a week at home Was able to make it to both studio classes and worked a ton at home on my core strength through planks and did a bunch of stretching , BUT if I am going to be honest with myself , I didn't actually get in anything close to a complete practice at home. Target goals were: Grading: 100% A+| 90% A | 80% B | 70% C | 50% D | Below 50% F I rarely got in 2 full practices done at home but I often got the 2 classes in studio plus stretching at home I guess that's closer to a C +1Str +1 Dex Strength Goal: Handstand Worked on the handdstand in class on Wednesday, I continues to get easier to pull away from the wall. I think I may have come close to 2 complete breaths. Target goals: Grading: 100% (no wall needed) A+ | 90% (can pull away from the wall and hold a handstand for 5 breaths) A | 80% (can pull away from the wall and hold the handstand for 3 breaths) B |70% (can pull away from the wall) C | Below 70% Fail I can pull away from the wall but I cant hold for 3 breaths. That puts me at a C +2 Str

Week 6 - The final Diet Goal: Eat Primal Every morning! 7/7 Thankfully i haven't found this difficult to keep going...Eggs are great and so is bacon but there is a granola I found that helped me through the last week with extreme ease and its completely paleo. its called paleonola. target goals were Grading: 100% A+| 90% A | 80% B | 70% C | 50% D | Below 50% F I slipped up a few times so Ill give myself an A +3 Con Exercise Goal: Yoga at least 2 times a week in the studio and 2 times a week at home Was able to make it to both studio classes and worked a ton at home on my core strength through planks and did a bunch of stretching , BUT if I am going to be honest with myself , I didn't actually get in anything close to a complete practice at home. Target goals were: Grading: 100% A+| 90% A | 80% B | 70% C | 50% D | Below 50% F I rarely got in 2 full practices done at home but I often got the 2 classes in studio plus stretching at home I guess that's closer to a C +1Str +1 Dex Strength Goal: Handstand Worked on the handdstand in class on Wednesday, Again. getting easier to pull away from the wall. I think I may have come close to 2 complete breaths. Target goals: Grading: 100% (no wall needed) A+ | 90% (can pull away from the wall and hold a handstand for 5 breaths) A | 80% (can pull away from the wall and hold the handstand for 3 breaths) B |70% (can pull away from the wall) C | Below 70% Fail I can pull away from the wall but I cant hold for 3 breaths. That puts me at a C +2 Str IN the end, I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but I did gain a few new good heating habits as well as increased my strength. I wont soon stop these paticular challenges, but i am truly looking forward to my next challenge.

Diet Goal Eat Primal Every morning! 7/7 I think this is just going to remain the normal breakfast for me Exercise Goal: Yoga at least 2 times a week in the studio and 2 times a week at home Another difficult week. I got in a great 2 hour class but the blizzard killed every opporunity i had to take another class in the studio. and with the power outage I didn't get any chance to practice at home. BUT I shoveled for 3 hours on Saturday morning and 2 more hours on Sunday morning. In the end I got a TON of core work done. Strength Goal: Handstand. Worked on the handdstand in class on Wednesday, its definitely getting easier to pull away from the wall , but I cant reall get beyond 1 breath before my legs start to fall back into the wall for support. Last week ahead of me and unless we have another 2+ feet of snowfall, I should hit my finess goals for the week.

I love how much you are rocking this challenge, and I agree based on everything you are saying about recreating your site/blog and writing poetry, you are indeed succeeding in the creative part of your challenge overall. You are writing creatively regardless of the format! From the creation of your challenge to the weekly successes, you are an inspriation!

ITs a good feeling huh? really that's all I tried to do too. Cutting back on pasta and bread, oats and such and jsut focus on veggies, meat, fruit and nuts.

Side note....My focus on eating primal obviously manged to find its way into more meals. As a result I managed to move form a 31in waist to a 30. Believe it when someone tells you that a 6pack is made in the kitchen not in the gym!!

either place is fine.....unless you have someway of moving my updates to the original thread. im fine with you keeping it here.

Week 4 Diet Goal Eat Primal Every morning! 7/7 Getting easier and easier! Exercise Goal: Yoga at least 2 times a week in the studio and 2 times a week at home THis was a FAIL week Work is kicking my butt. I managed to continue my stretching at home and worked on my plank but I only got to the studio 1 time and that was last night during the superbowl!!! It was a great class but I really was hoping to get more done this week. Strength Goal: Handstand. Planking has been making a difference. I started to catch that sweet spot in my balance while working on my handstand at the end of class last night. I feel like i could actually get this soon....but possibly not soon enough to give myself a passing grade during this challenge. Week 5 I have already scheduled my classes and my work deadline is coming up so I think, THINK I just might have a good fitness week ahead of me!

Week 3 Diet Goal: 7/7 No slip ups Added bacon back into the mix and made sure I was stocked up with almond milk. I managed to find something called paleonola...granoloa without any oats. It was great but pretty expensive. I think im going to have to figure out how to make this myself. Exercise Goals: Yoga at least 2 times a week in the studio and a couple times a week at home This week I still managed to get some stretching done at home approximately a half an hour at a time but it did it almost every day. Work ramped up alot so I had ot take my yoga classes back to back Saturday am at 7 and Sunday at 11. Its not optimal to jam them together like that (for me) but I'm glad I managed to get to both classes Strength Goal: Handstand. I began working on this at home against the wall in my tv room. it take more core and shoulder strength than I have so i started working on holding a forearm plank for 3 mins to build up that strength. It took me more than a few tries to get there (since my kids kept hoping onto my back at around 2 mins) but I managed to get to 3:28 (I smell a new strength goal for the next 6 week challenge) onto week 4!

Ahh thanks for unlocking the thread Ive been busy at work (developing video games is sometimes grueling) but I'm still plowing through my challenge Week 2 Diet Goal: 6/7 (again) Somehow i forgot that oatmeal is NOT Primal Been still eating a lot of eggs, but mixing it up as to how its presented...Some days its hard boiled, some days its fried and served over a half of an avocado. there are breakfast salads and scrambled with spinach. All in all its not too hard ot keep myself focused on eating well in the morning and making sure i'm hydrated before i caffenate. Exercise Goals: Yoga at least 2 times a week in the studio and a couple times a week at home I took a 2 hour power yoga class on wednesday and another 90 min class on sunday. the home practice is still the hardest part. the best i can seem to do so far is 30 mins of stretching. Strength Goal: Ahhh the handstand....well at the end of both of the classes in the studio I put myself up against the wall and worked on it until shavasana still no luck getting away from the wall for a good period of time but Im not going to give up!

Great week 1 progress! and yeah I hear what you are saying...waking up at 5am is brutal, I can barely function beyond feeding my newborn at 5am never mind having the mental and physical fortitude to workout!! that's something to aspire to for sure.

just booked a 2 hour yoga class for Wednesday night...I'm feeling very inspired by you all this morning!

Agreed, great job on your first week. Remember, we all have slip ups now and again just dont let them get you down. Wake up the next day and start fresh and clean.

I SHOULD do a phone reminder...Thanks for the suggestion @ Scuddle, What are you using for your home practice? I have a copy of the Yoga X DVD from the p90x series as well as a number of really good podcasts. Also Phillip Urso's "Live, Love, Teach" was recommended by my favorite yoga instructor. I'd love to hear what other people are using for their home practices.