developing the habit.

Habits. We all have them - good ones, bad ones, fun ones, lazy ones.
I absolutely love the quote from day twenty four ...

If the past twenty five days have taught me anything it's probably that breaking old habits to make way for new ones is one of the most challenging things in life. I might not be perfect, but this challenge has motivated me to make a habit of doing yoga. It has given me something to look forward to and get excited about that's just for me. It is so easy to sit with our regular habits - if it works why change it? The thirty day challenge has definitely gotten me in the habit of yoga, something I am so thankful for and plan to continue long after the challenge ends!

Day twenty four started off with my final physiology exam, yay! I can't wait to have more time to do reading on yoga stuff ...
I made it to the noon class with Brittanie, which was terrific as usual! I was paying a lot of attention to my virabhadrasana series this class; attending to my leg muscles, reaching from every fiber. I'm also getting a lot more stable in my dancer's pose, probably my most favourite of all (I feel like I say that so much!). I've been finding a teensy microbend in my knee a major help - I guess I'm trained to be uber straight from all of those years of ballet!

I'm starting to really enjoy supta virasana, reclining hero. I used to feel slight tension in my lower back and no stretch in my quads. The latest helpful instruction for such cases is to engage your glutes, so if I squeeze 'em really tight it's like a miracle - instant stretch in the quads and swift relief to my lower back. I feel quite relaxed in this pose.

Another memorable part of class was during balasana, child's pose, Brittanie came around and pushed my tailbone down deeper with my exhale, making me realize just how much further I wasn't letting myself go. I love reaching a new edge every class and then inching past it, making me feel like I'm on top of the world - until it starts to get hard again, or I have a bad day.

I was soo excited to try making this vegan creamy alfredo pasta sauce! Obviously from Oh She Glows, I am a convert! I was very excited to use the 100% corn flour fusilli I'd picked up, very bright orange-coloured spirals of deliciousness! I used rice milk instead of almond milk, and allspice instead of nutmeg. The corn noodles boiled to a beautiful bright yellow colour, and the sauce smelled to. die. for. Jamie even said it was delicious! Garnish with some black pepper and a sprinkling of paprika and some parsley for beautiful colours!

I had a massive bowl because I was so famished from walking around in the chilly evening on Friday, but oh it was worth every scrumptious bite. It was hands down better than most if not all creamy pasta sauces I've had. The paprika is delicious, the creaminess from the cashews ... just perfect. In case you can't tell, I'm a pasta nut! And so far every sauce I've tried - I've loved!

Jamie and I had a nice little date night - my bowl of divine vegan goodness and Jamie's heaping plate of tantalizing spaghetti. I think I can convert him yet ...

I have to say, the online registration MYH recently started has saved my early morning practice. If I register for something online, I have to get up and go, no turning off the alarm and going to a later class. I was oh so close to sleeping past time this morning; the weather was crisp and the air was damp, and there was no way I was getting out of bed. But remembering my commitment I did it! I'm so glad I did, because the quote for today really fits my reluctance to get out of bed:

The actual fact that I got up this morning and went to yoga is a huge testament to how far I've made it in the past year. Of course I always love going to yoga, but (as I was talking about earlier) it's so much easier to stay in the habit of not going. All you need to do is get over the step of nah, I can put it off until later and that is eighty per cent of the battle! It definitely felt good that I had made the choice to get up this morning, even if I couldn't stop yawning all through class. The 10:00 was taught by the very inspirational challenge leader Kyla, and was fabulous. I remembered what she had said in her email for day twenty five ...

There are bound to be days where we just don't feel like getting sweaty, but the important part is that we do so anyway, and we are grateful for the experience afterwards. No matter where we stand at the end of our challenge, we all have hopefully created improvements (and therefore success), to some aspect of our lives.

I think that's the most important part of maintaining good habits; even if sometimes it's the last thing we want to do, practice has groomed us to do it anyway, and the body's gratitude for simply showing up is enough of an incentive.

I was definitely having a weak legs day; my prayer twist was igniting my thighs, my eagle was more of a squatting duck and awkward pose had me trembling like a leaf stuck in a vent. As thoughts of I could still be sleeping ... drifted into my head, I kept reminding myself how great it was that I did get up and come today. I had some issues with the flow - maybe just lightheaded, maybe weakness in the arms. That always seems to be my issue. I definitely need to work on my upper body strength! But my proudest moment from today was that in all of my adho mukha svanasana I found my feet flat on the floor. The stretch in my hamstrings was unreal, and I felt so proud that I was finally able to do it - consistently! The backbends we did in the standing series took me deeper than I've ever gone before, which was a totally liberating feeling. It felt like such an accomplishment to feel rooted down strong enough in my feet to bend back and gaze at the rear wall. That made me feel strong when we did camel later on too. It was so cozy being in practice today, coming in from the cold and the wet outside. A perfect way to start a lazy day inside.

Lazy is not an understatement - lunch was blue corn chips and guacamole. I still felt full from our movie snack fest the night before (I had dried cranberries, chips and guacamole) and knew I'd be cooking up a delicious bowl of pasta with some of the leftover sauce from Friday. Still enough left for one more! Can't get over how delicious it is ...

I really feel like yoga is starting to take over my life. No, not starting, it totally has. Every book I'm interested in, website or conversation I have is about yoga. It's one of those situations where I feel like I might be driving people nuts because it's all I talk about. I really hope that's not the case! I guess I'm certainly working on developing the habit! I definitely feel like I've come into something that is doing majorly good things for my life, and my outlook on life.

Well after sleepy time yoga and choking down some psyllium it's time for bed - a big day ahead of home projects: cleaning out and hopefully ditching the fish tank, assembling Jamie's new barbecue and rearranging the living room. Phew! I'm tired just thinking about it. Four o'clock class tomorrow will be a well-deserved break I can imagine ...

Start thinking about a new habit that you'd like to get into; it's never too late to try something new.

Namaste.