Week 10 - Part Two

72 Sun Salutations later, cycle two of The Ultimate Yogi is officially complete. If you watch the video below, it shows the entire flow of one single Sun Salutation.. now times that by 72.

It was definitely a hard class that really kicked my butt. I found my body fighting with my mind, and had to really push myself to make it to the end. Repeating the Sun Salutation flow 72 times gets very repetitive and once you lose track of what number your on, it just starts to feel endless. The one thing that I kept telling myself was that each Sun Salutation I pushed myself through, represented a day of the program that I have overcome, and that the sole purpose of this class was to celebrate the 72 days of this amazing mental and physical journey that I am on. That is what truly helped push me through the class. I am so grateful for the past 72 days, but I am happy to put them behind me as I start cycle three and make my way to 108 days!

With the start of cycle three, there is the start of another new weekly schedule:

1. CrossTrain

2. Strength

3. Balance

4. Yin

5. Cardio

6. Vitality

7. Mountain Pose

I am really sad to be losing Gentle and Flexibility class.. Gentle has honestly been one of the most amazingly soothing classes I've ever taken. I know that when I complete this program, I will be doing Gentle yoga every night before bed. It's the perfect gentle stretch for my body that leaves me completely relaxed and almost sleeping at the end of class in Savasana. The Flexibility class I will miss because I feel that it has brought me the most change. After only doing the class a couple of times, I am now almost able to fully do a split. I have become so much more flexible through this class which has allowed me to do some of the fun poses that I have ventured into on my own.

Although I am sad to see the Gentle and Flexibility classes go, I am thankful that I get to replace it with Yin Yoga and am so happy to have it back in my life! Yin provides deep intense stretches while also being a very calm and relaxing class. It leaves me feeling so amazing without ever having to break a sweat. I am looking forward to CrossTrain coming back too. I love how this yoga class dabbles between balance, strength, flexibility, cardio and stamina. I really enjoy it and the class just flies by. 

I honestly feel that this program has changed my life. I don't know how I would've made it through this semester of classes with such heavy workloads without it. In moments where I wanted to scream, I was able to find calm and keep my  mind clear. If I couldn't do this on my own, just by immersing myself into a yoga class, all of my worries and stresses would just float away. It has made me so much happier throughout my daily life and I am so thankful for that. I've even noticed that my body shape is changing and getting much tighter. It's making me feel so much more confident with myself. I don't have to hide or cover up my body in fear that I am being judged, which is truly liberating. My mind, body and spirit are all in alignment, and I am feeling on top of the world. With just a week or so left of school, I am ready to take on cycle three and complete this amazing 108 day journey over the summer.

~ "Your life is a sacred journey. It is about change, growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step along the way" ~

Caroline Adams

Week 10 - Part One

It's officially the last week of cycle two of The Ultimate Yogi, and I am feeling amazing! My flexibility, balance and arm strength have improved so much over the past few weeks and I'm having fun trying out new poses. For the first time, I was able to hold a Forearm Balance (Pincha Mayurasana) for a couple of seconds, but not long enough to snap a picture. I continue to work on it every single day because I am determined to master this pose. This weeks schedule is slightly different than the past few.

1. Balance

2. Strength

3. Flexibility

4. Detox

5. Mountain Pose Series

6. Gentle

7. Yin

8. 72 Sun Salutations

Next week, I will let you know how the 72 Sun Salutations go. I am very nervous but excited at the same time. Repeating the 36 Sun Salutations at the end of cycle one wasn't that bad, but doing double will definitely be a challenge. This class is a celebration of how far I've come, and each Sun Salutation represents one of the 72 days we have completed thus far.

After yet another great week of yoga, I decided to take it outdoors to the nature walk again. This has become one of my new favorite places; especially when the sun is setting. I love coming here with Gio at the end of the week. It's very relaxing, and we happened to spot some turtles, squirrels and gators which was pretty cool.

This is a variation of a Supported Headstand (Salamba Sirsasana) that I've been playing around with. During Week 8 I went in depth about the benefits of this pose. This variation adds a deep lower back stretch and each time I practice this, I am able to arch my back and bring my leg lower and lower.

This pose is an intense lower back bend for me. Two-Legged Inverted Staff pose, also known as Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana, increases flexibility of the lower back and spine, soothes and relaxes the brain, massages and strengthens the heart, increases lung capacity and stimulates the pineal, thyroid, adrenal and pituitary glands.

I've recently tried Mermaid Pose for the first time, and I love it. For me, it's an easier version of One-Legged King Pigeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana) which I am unable to do right now, so I'm hoping this pose will help me get there. Mermaid Pose opens the heart, chest and shoulders, strengthens the core and pelvic floor, stimulates the organs of the torso, stretches the lower back, hip flexors, quad muscles, groins, chest and shoulders, challenges balance and improves mobility in the spine and hips.

Supported Shoulderstand (Salamba Sarvangasana) improves digestion, tones the legs and booty, stimulates the thyroid glands and abdominal organs, reduces fatigue, stretches the neck and shoulders and helps relieve stress and calm the brain.

Here is Monkey Pose (Hanumanasana), AKA the splits. I have improved a lot in this pose which I last discussed during Week 7. I'm so close I can taste it! This pose stretches the hamstrings, thighs and groins and also stimulates the abdominal organs.

Lastly, is a Seated Forward Bend, also known as Paschimottanasana. The last time I posted a picture of myself in this post was Week 4, and I can definitely see the improvement. Instead of grabbing my feet, I now use my yoga block to get a deeper stretch, and am slowly working my way towards a flatter back. This pose provides many benefits. It stimulates the liver and kidneys, soothes headaches, anxiety and fatigue, improves digestion, stretches the hamstrings, spine and shoulders while also calming the brain and helping to relieve stress.

This program has helped me view life in another light by introducing me to such a beautiful practice. I have become so much happier and stress free through yoga and have had such a fun time throughout cycle two, venturing further and further into this yoga journey. Next week, I will sum up cycle two, talk about how the 72 Sun Salutations

went and give you a peak into what cycle three holds.

~ "When ego is lost, limit is lost. You become infinite, kind, beautiful."~

Yogi Bhajan

Week 9

With Week 9 complete, we are just one week away from 72 Sun Salutations to kick off the third and final cycle of The Ultimate Yogi. We continue to dig deeper every time we step on the mat for class, but it is starting to feel sort of repetitive so we are definitely looking forward to cycle three to switch up the schedule again. I can't wait to get the Yin and CrossTrain classes back from cycle one. They were two of my favorites and I've really missed them over the past few weeks.

This week, Gio and I planned to go stand up paddle boarding on Saturday. I was really excited to try and do a Salamba Sirsasana (Supported Headstand) on the paddle board, but it ended up being rainy all day so we had to cancel our plans. Today ended up being a beautiful day and after I finished up my homework load, Gio and I went on a nature walk to soak in the fresh air. I couldn't resist doing some stop, drop and yoga on such a perfect day. 

There's something very calming to me about doing yoga in nature. It makes me so grateful and appreciative of all of the beauty around me, while helping me rid myself of negative thoughts and the daily stresses of life.

I love that every day, I am one day closer to becoming the Ultimate Yogi, but I feel that the end of this journey will just be the beginning of something bigger. I look forward to digging deeper every day through my practice and can't wait to continue exploring my body even after this program is over. There's so much for Gio and I to discover in yoga which got me to start looking into yoga books. 

I came across one called Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kaminoff which seems really interesting because it helps you see each movement in a completely new light. With detailed pictures/drawings and expert instruction, the book shows how each muscle is used, how breathing, the spine and body position are all fundamentally linked, as well as how the tiniest alterations of a pose can enhance or reduce effectiveness. It's definitely a book I am considering purchasing as this program nears its end.

Overall, its been another great week of The Ultimate Yogi. The most valuable thing I learned this week is how important and beneficial it is to take a moment to step back, inhale a deep breath and absorb the beauty in the world around you. It's always a major plus to have someone by your side to enjoy it with you.

Week 8

This week has been a pretty rewarding one. Just by consistently showing up on the mat everyday, we continue to improve and have even starting practicing some fun yoga moves on our own time. Over the weekend, we decided to enjoy a beautiful day out at the beach and of course practiced some of these fun yoga moves in the soft sand. We both practiced what felt like a million handstands, but were not able to hold them long enough to snap a picture. Before we knew it, an hour had already gone by, so we decided to play around with some other moves. The next morning, we both woke up feeling sore all over, which was pretty nice. Just by playing around and having some fun at the beach, we got a good workout in. Here are some pics Gio took:

This Supported Headstand is one of my newest accomplishments! Also known as Salamba Sirsasana, this pose tones the abdominals, strengthens the neck, arms, shoulders, legs, spine and lungs, improves posture and digestion, stimulates the pituitary and pineal glands, allows a healthy, pure blood flow to brain cells, calms the brain and helps relieve stress. This is my new favorite pose. It makes my body feel so amazing. As I hold the pose, I can feel the blood leaving my feet and making its way down my body just like when you flip a rainstick upside down. I continue to practice this headstand every morning and night, sometimes venturing into different variations of the pose.

This Wheel Pose backbend is one that I first ventured into during Week One and Two of The Ultimate Yogi. Also known as Urdhva Dhanurasana, this pose strengthens the arms, wrists, legs, glute muscles, lower back, abdomen, and spine, stretches the shoulders, chest, lungs, hip flexors and wrist flexors, increases energy, is therapeutic for back pain and stimulates the thyroid and pituitary glands. When I first started this program, I struggled to push up into this pose and could only hold it for a few seconds. If you compare this picture to the one I posted during those first two weeks, you can see the vast improvement I've made here. I'm now able to arch my back a lot more, completely straighten my arms, get up onto my tippy toes and have been trying to crawl my hands closer to my feet every time I practice. I am even able to get into this position from standing, called Standing Chakrasana.

Here's one more pic from the beach where I was playing around with a variation of Salamba Sirsasana. It's really fun testing my balance in this pose while strengthening my lower back and shoulders. Definitely going to continue practicing this to improve my back arch.

After a beautiful day at the beach, we went to publix, grabbed some ingredients and went home to make cauliflower pizza. This was our first attempt at making this, and it came out really good. We made it with non-fat mozzarella cheese, spinach, tomato, tomato sauce, turkey pepperoni and cauliflower crust. The entire pie was about 700 calories with only 15 grams of fat. Much healthier than your average pizza pie, but just as delicious!

~ "Do your practice and all is coming"~

Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois

Week 7

Week 7 has been a week of great improvement. Last week we we're falling all over the place doing the yoga Balance class, but this week we were able to hold some of the poses that we weren't able to before which definitely made us feel more confident. It's crazy how each week we can see so much improvement in ourselves in our classes and our daily lives. This week, I would like to focus in on the Flexibility class. Below is a video to get a feel of what the class is like:

This class pushed us into some deep stretches which we both really enjoyed. It definitely put our flexibility to the test and when we woke up the morning after class, we were extremely sore in our shoulders, groins and hamstrings. Below are some photos of the various stretches and poses we did in class:

This class has become one of our new favorites and we can't wait to see how much our flexibility increases throughout The Ultimate Yogi program. 

We feel our bodies improving every day and have even starting practicing new poses we would like to achieve on our own. I've been practicing forearm stands a lot and every day I notice myself getting closer, while Gio has been practicing some cool arm balances. Once we reach our goals, I will be sure to post a picture. In the meantime, we are now in the midst of Cycle Two and feeling better than ever!

~ "Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self." ~

The Bhagavad Gita

Week 6

The first week of cycle two has certainly been an adventure. We were able to try out some new classes which I discussed a few posts back that were very challenging but fun at the same time. I felt really strong going into this week and am loving the arm strength that I am gaining. Gio took the latter half of the week off because he got his wisdom teeth out, but is recovering very quickly. The one class that really stood out to us this week was Balance. It was definitely on another level from the previous classes we've been doing. As we challenged our balance, we were falling all over the place and laughing, but kept trying regardless of the amount of times we fell. It was our attempt at not letting our egos get in the way. Here's a peek into the class:

The way that Travis challenges our balance in this class helps develop a sound body, mind and spirit by working with both hemispheres of the brain. As he says, "Physical equilibrium leads to mental and emotional equanimity." We definitely underrated this class but are excited to conquer it throughout cycle two. Below are pictures of various poses we attempted in class:

This is Floating Pigeon Pose, a variation of a standing Pigeon Pose. It not only challenges your balance, but also lengthens the back, strengthens the shoulders, back and legs and opens the hips.

This is Crow Pose, also known as Bakasana. It definitely took us time to get here, but was pretty cool for our first attempt. I've been looking forward to learning arm balances, so doing this in class was really fun. This pose improves balance, strengthens the wrists, forearms, and abdomen, stretches the upper back and opens the groins.

This is a Warrior III Variation, also known as a Virabhadrasana III Variation. This pose challenges your balance, strengthens the entire leg, ankle and foot as well as the back and shoulders, provides an amazing shoulder stretch, lengthens and supports the back while also working the abdominals and improving posture.

This week has been new and exciting for both Gio and I, and we cannot wait to grow and conquer the challenging yoga classes throughout these next five weeks. We are taking on cycle two one day at a time, and are well on our way to becoming The Ultimate Yogi.

~"One becomes firmly established in practice only after attending to it for a long time, without interruption and with an attitude of devotion."~
Yoga Sutra

Week 5 - Part Two

The fifth and final week of the first cycle was really great. The schedule this week was slightly different from previous weeks. It was:

1. CrossTrain and HardCORE

2. Cardio

3. Strength and HardCORE

4. Mountain Pose Series

5. Gentle Yoga

6. Yin

7. Sun Salutations

The Gentle Yoga class was amazing. After being pretty sore from the first three days of the week, this slow yet constantly flowing class was exactly what Gio and I needed and has become our favorite class yet. We cant wait to add it to our routine for cycle two of The Ultimate Yogi. The class gave our muscles the time to repair and heal themselves while also helping us reduce our stress levels. We really enjoyed the slow pace of the class which helped introduce us to some new poses and motions. Throughout the class, the instructor kept us focused on alignment as well as our breathing techniques as we explored the variety of yoga poses we were experiencing. Here is clip on what this class was like:

Mid-week, I went to a park near my neighborhood, found a really peaceful and beautiful spot right next to a lake, and practiced some yoga moves in the sun. I usually do yoga in a dark room so this was a very different environment but it was really great. I had the best time and felt so calm and happy. Below are some pictures from that day:

Feeling the warmth of the sun and taking in the beauty around me made these Warrior poses truly special. In the first picture I am doing Warrior II, the second is Warrior III and the third is Reverse Warrior. I love doing these poses as a sequence because it helps me lengthen my spine, stretch my ribs, burn my quads, and challenge my balance and core. With this first cycle coming to an end, being at the park practicing poses on my own was a great way to celebrate my accomplishments. Speaking of accomplishments, since losing weight was one of my goals from the start, I'd like to share that I have lost a total of eight pounds throughout these first five weeks of the program. Here's a before and after picture to see my progress:

I am loving watching and feeling my body change. Everything is becoming tighter, my arms, core and legs are becoming stronger, my balance is greatly improved, and I am getting more and more flexible each day. Gio is loving the benefits he is gaining through this program as well and his new found flexibility is really helping improve his mixed martial arts performance. We have both acquired a new sense of calm which is making us much happier overall. With the first cycle of The Ultimate Yogi done and gone, we enter cycle two with high hopes and determination and are ready to take our yoga practice to the next level. I would like to leave off with this beautiful quote from Caroline Adams Miller, as we say goodbye to cycle one:

~"Your life is a sacred journey. It is about change, growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step along the way. 

You are on the path exactly where you are meant to be right now. And from here, you can only go forward, shaping your life story into a magnificent tale of triumph, of healing, of courage, of beauty, of wisdom, of power, of dignity, and of love."~