Day 4 - What's So Scary About Yoga?

I have a near-pathological fear of going to a yoga studio by myself.

I can't explain it.

News flash! This is not meant to be scary!

It's not about body image; while I am striving toward a more slender, toned body, when my body is in motion, I am perfectly satisfied with its ability to move and carry me, and I am constantly amazed at the things it can do (like running 21k or doing splits with ease). 

It's not about my skill at yoga, either. I'm a novice, it's true, but I try to keep comparisons out of yoga - I don't need to compete with myself or anyone else to benefit from taking in a session.

There really is no good explanation for my fear. I think I sort of half-worry that I'll show up at the wrong time or do something so completely offensive that I'll be run out of Yoga Town forever. And that's ridiculous.

Guinness would probably be okay with going to a yoga studio alone. He likes the smell of stinky yoga mats!

So I spent nearly all of today fruitlessly labouring to get anyone I know in Kingston to come to yoga with me. And it just. Didn't. Work. So I wasn't going to go.

Does this sweatshirt give me cred?

But then I got thinking, and I realised that if I am going to be active for 365 consecutive days, I am going to have to operate outside my comfort zone once in a while. And I spend my days meeting new people, new patients, new nurses, and dealing with families and mental health problems, and god knows what else...I must be able to deal with going to a yoga studio on my own.

So I sucked it up and put on my Big Girl Lulus (which actually have become a bit TOO big recently...), threw on my varsity sweater (as though that would somehow legitimise my presence), and headed to Studio 330. I did a 1.5h Yoga for Athletes class, as taught by Bethany.

And it wasn't so bad.

Day 3 - 30 Minute At Home Workout

Today I had the fleeting thought that I would get in my physical activity in the morning. After all, I had a rare morning off because my attending had decided to round on inpatients in the afternoon instead of first thing in the morning.

That thought, however, didn't last long. I slept in for a while (which was needed and well-appreciated!), and then realised that my apartment was pretty disgusting. I share an apartment but cleaning isn't a priority for my roommate, so I knew I would have to tackle the mess if I wanted it clean, and I spent most of the morning scouring the kitchen and mopping the floor, plus doing my laundry and studying for the psychiatry NBME.

After work, I had another night full of statistics; Katelyn came over and we ate order-in Chinese while talking about confidence intervals and Mann-Whitney U tests.

Just after 9 p.m., Katelyn headed home and I did a quick google search for 30 minute at home workouts. I came up with this video, threw on some music, and got to work. Maybe it wasn't the best choice, since my abs and hip flexors were still sore from yesterday's workout, but I definitely got sweaty.

We are only three days in to this challenge, and so far I've gotten in physical activity on three days that usually would have been easy to take off because I was pretty busy and feeling a bit of stress. I'm quickly remembering how easy it is to make excuses that prevent us from being active, and I'm just as quickly remembering that it's not too hard to find thirty minutes in your day to throw on a video or make a quick stop off at the gym on the way home from work.

365 days of Sweat - joining!

Hi! I am Sarah’s friend from Undergrad. We were part of the Psychology Student’s Association and back then Sarah had really, really blonde hair!  After UofT, I moved to the Caribbean to finish medical school. I am now an Internal Medicine Resident in Rhode Island. 

I need to be held accountable. Exercise has never come easy to me, and it has taken close to 10 years for me to learn to enjoy the workout rush. Its easy to become side-tracked though, especially if you are pursuing a career in medicine. As a student, its the school work, as a resident its well... work. Internship hit me like a ton of bricks. Even on days I wasn’t at work, I was recovering by trying to find some resemblance to being a human by involving myself in normal people activities such as grocery shopping or sleeping. As a second year resident I think I am ready to make a renewed commitment to fitness. 

I am so inspired by Sarah’s 365 days of sweat challenge! Yay!  So Dec 4th will be Day 1 for me. I was on a stationary bike for 20 minutes and did 35 minutes of free weights. Today was easy because it was my day off. I am working in the ED and I have variable, weird weekly schedule. For example, tomorrow I have to be at work from 8 am to 8 pm. Will I have the strength to make it to the gym tomorrow? Stay tuned...

Day 2 - Now Imagine You've Got to Do a Hundred of 'Em!

Yup, it's Day 2! We are twice as far into this beast as we were yesterday! We have doubled our completed workouts! Life is good.

After work, I had a busy, but fun, evening - first, a Greek lesson with my fantastic Greek tutor, Olga (Γεια σας, 'Ολγα!), and then an introductory statistics session with my brilliant MBA-pursuing friend, Katie. 

When all was said and done, I wasn't in much of a mood to leave the house, so I decided to break out my lovely and eco-friendly green yoga mat (thanks, Randi!), a sports bra, and my old Ab Ripper X DVD from the P90X series. I have been through the P90X progamme a few times, including twice while I was in college and once while I was in graduate school. I was always happy with the results in terms of strength and definition...everywhere but my abs. For some reason, I had just never been able to get through the ab workouts and get those gorgeous sculpted abs I coveted.

I always found the video went a bit too fast and I couldn't quite get in all the reps with the many rests I needed to take during the workout, so today I took a different tack: instead of rushing to keep up with the video and cutting out reps, I paused the video and did EVERY. SINGLE. MOVE. Ouch, my abs and hip flexors are going to be stiff tomorrow! It took a bit longer than maybe it should have, but I think it was worth the extra time.

I think my favourite part of the video is when you're deep in the agony of V-Up Roll-Up Land and Tony says, "Now imagine you've got to do a hundred of 'em - twenty-five doesn't seem so bad!"

Thanks, Tony Horton. Ha!

- Sarah

There's always a first for everything!

Here we go!

I knew Monday the 4th was going to be a difficult day right from the start. It's exam period. I'm not eating well. I'm lazy, and tired, and upset most of the time. So obviously I thought.... 'let's go to the gym!' Not so much. Either way, today I ran and I ran well. It felt good to get those muscles moving again and take some time away from the books. I wouldn't call running my forte, but it is definitely one of my favourite aerobic activities. I always feel like i've accomplished something after a good run. This is maybe why I enjoy putting myself through half marathons and olympic triathlons. I've always considered myself an athlete, just sometimes I forget or lose sight of that drive. Here's hoping this challenge brings it out in me. 

Unfortunately it's 2am, I have no photos and a fairly boring post...

I promise once this stress is gone my posts will be looking a lot more interesting,

i'm out! 

K. 

Let the challenge commence!

I didn't really think about which way the letters would end up on camera...

Day 1:
Today is the day! December 3rd 2012 marks day 1 of the 365 days of sweat challenge! Excited? Yes. Scared? Yes. Already procrastinated and ended up at the gym at 8:30pm? Yes! We are off to a good start! It's actually a pretty good time to hit the gym, though and I was able to get my full workout in without having to fight for equipment.

 Day 1 inspiration!

When I found this challenge on the Lulu Lemon blog site, the girl doing it referred to this as her BHAG. It stands for Big Hairy Angry Goal. So not only is this an opportunity for me to sweat daily, loose some weight, de-stress and train for a 1/2 marathon and a triathlon, it has now become a BHAG! I don't think I set enough goals for myself, so this is good. I have wrapped all my fitness goals into one BHAG and it feels good. I need to bottle the endorphin rush of a post-gym session for days when I don't want to drag my lazy butt off the couch. Hopefully those days are few and far between!
So it begins. The next year of my life. Everyday will involve some sort of fitness-related activity and everyday I will sweat for at least 30 minutes. Once again, I am thankful to have 2 awesome ladies doing this challenge with me and I extend the challenge to anyone who reads our blog. You don't have to be fit to take part, just move! Who cares if by the end we don't succeed in everything we have set out today. At least we had the courage to commit ourselves to a healthy lifestyle. Heres to a successful 364 more days!

Day 1 - The Leaning Tower

I thought I'd start today with a bang - maybe a nice morning sprint or a class at Goodlife with Danya, a friend and classmate who loves Body Attack.

Lucky step machine penny = good omen?

By the time I left work, however, it was clear that that was not going to happen. I had a headache and was desperate for a half-hour nap after a terrible night's sleep (maybe I was subconsciously worried about starting my 365 days last night...). By the time choir practice rolled around, it was clear that I would have to suck it up and do a quick workout at the school gym...

First sweat!

...so I climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa...and then kept climbing. I did thirty minutes in total, and I'm going to assume that my unfamiliarity with the step machine had a lot to do with why I felt I could barely keep going by the time I'd done just 15 minutes. I really had to push through that second half!

So it was a small workout, but I don't feel bad because I know I'll be working out tomorrow as well.

27 pounds ago! (photo by the talented John Xu)

Oh! And I weighed myself at the gym. I weight 153 pounds, which may not sound great to some of the more slender 5'3"ers out there, but it means I've lost 27 pounds in the past year! I'm just three pounds away from losing 30 pounds in 2012, and just over ten pounds away from my pre-med-school weight. Mind you, I was a lot more muscular before I started med school, but I plan to be pretty muscular when this year is up...

- Sarah