full effort is full victory.

I love this quote to start off day twenty seven of the challenge! It's such a perfect description of myself and what I need to do more!

I can be very hard on myself in the studio, and sometimes maybe a little more than I should be. It's hard to stop those expressions of frustration or silent berating for falling out of a pose, or not being able to go as deep as I did the day before. I've gotten a lot better at not being so hard on myself, but this inspiration really helped me to accept the fact that I've improved so much over the course of this challenge, and giving myself grief over falling out of a few poses should not be overshadowing the pride I feel when I do them and do them well.

My day started off with the 9:30 class with Henri, who I hadn't taken a class with in quite a while! It was a wonderful class, with an 'ode to Melissa' during our ab work section - basically staying in a plank position from our forearms and holding it. And holding it. And holding ... you get the idea. Just another reminder of my weaknesses, but I quickly tried to shoo that thought from my mind as I remembered to try and focus on my potential. Class went well, although I've been finding lately that in some poses I can feel it more in the front of my hips than I used to. Maybe that just means I've reached an edge and now have to push through again, but it's almost as though I feel like I'm regressing. Pigeon is always one of my favourites, especially when I fold forward to rest my head on the mat. Lately I've been feeling like I need to support myself more on my forearms because I feel more pressure in my hip of my bent leg if I lean over farther. I find it an odd and interesting development, as I am usually pretty capable of laying there for a few minutes at a time. I guess my body is just changing, and maybe it's actually moving in a more open direction and I just feel tight because I've made so much progress in the past thirty days. I'll go with that, it sounds better!
I also managed a successful binding of my Lord of the Fishes pose by reaching my arms around my back and grasping on to each other, like you can see in this video I found on doyogawithme.com. With a little coaching from Henri on opening up my shoulders, I felt really fantastic! I really like the way he talks you through something and makes sure you're doing it correctly - and then asked to make sure I was okay once I came out of it! It was a really great class!

Tuesday was a gorgeously stunning sunny summer day so of course I wanted to be outside. For lunch I made garlic quinoa pancakes again, except this time I halved the recipe and made two slightly smaller, thinner pancakes. Topped it off with my homemade pico de gallo and mmmm was it delicious!! These pancakes are definitely the easiest thing to make and just delightful for the taste buds. I'm sure any flavour combination would be divine on these savoury cakes of goodness. Thanks Kirsten for an awesome recipe!

It was off to work for the afternoon, and by the time I came home I was famished and finished off the last of my vegan alfredo with spaghetti - I got four servings out of the recipe I made! I will most certainly be making that again. And again.

I had to make up my class from Sunday that I missed, and I wasn't putting too much faith in myself to get up for the 8 am class (I'm just being realistic) so I did a practice at home Tuesday night. I started off with this totally relaxing hip opener sequence from YogaJournal, and then wound down with the night time routine that I usually do from Morning, Noon & Night yoga. It was a really serene way to end my day and I just love getting into bed feeling like I am completely stretched out. That feeling is aided by the fact that Jamie was working late that night so I literally got to be completely stretched out in bed, at least for a little while!

Day twenty nine (!!) I had full intentions of doing the 8 am and 9:30 classes back to back. It's a damn good thing I did my evening sequence the night before - I have a horrible habit of turning off my alarm and going back to sleep, so I single-handedly managed to miss both morning classes, but was able to make it to Kyla's noon class! I just had a weird feeling that I'm getting Tuesday and Wednesday's classes mixed up ... so much for staying on top of things! Oh well, either way they were both fantastic! I did feel a little wobbly on my feet that day, it took me a little while to get grounded and really into my practice, but I made it. It certainly wasn't my best practice, but I tried to really take today's quote to heart and really make the effort to feel every part of my body adjusting through each moment of the postures. I definitely notice a major difference the slower I go into each pose, I tend to be one of those yogis who can often find myself reaching to my depth kind of quickly, and then that can make me fall out a little more readily as well. My new goal is definitely to go into poses much more slowly, and feel every moment as I bring my body into the pose, each muscle fiber and joint and ligament gradually joining the conversation of body love.

Wednesday afternoon I had to make another batch of pico de gallo, as I'd finished it off the night before with a few blue corn chips. I really cannot get enough of it!! Lunch was another simple kale and garlic saute topped with pico de gallo, such an easy and quick fix and a lot more filling than you would expect!

Wednesday evening was party time! The challenge party was at the Red Stag Tavern in the Keith's Brewery, and lots of people came out! I got to sit and enjoy my water and some veggies and fruit while everyone else chowed down on delicious looking bruschetta and cheeses and chips & salsa (tortilla chips, just my luck) and beer and wine and other delicious alcoholic beverages. It was so wonderful being able to chat with everyone that I've been seeing every day at the studio for the past month, and just spend some time comparing our experiences and chatting about yoga. An inevitable conversation about farting in class came up, which relieved me to no end knowing that I'm not the only one who struggles to keep it in. We all compared coverup strategies (mat squeaking along the floor, coughing, clearing the throat, etc) and just accepted the fact that we've probably all done it at least once ... or more. Brittanie and Kyla had some prizes for everyone who had done the challenge and the cleanse, so we spent some time drawing names (which took a little while since everyone's name was in, but you had to actually be there to claim your prize. I had just finished commenting about how I never win anything, and how badly I wanted a 30 day challenge 'sweaty stuff' bag, when Brittanie pulled my name for a bag! Soo excited! There was also some moksha yoga tshirts, class passes (including a free 3-month unlimited pass!!) and more bags. Then they moved on to the cleanse prizes, which included more of the same plus the big prize of a grocery shopping trip with Brittanie. I was really hoping to win that one, because I still find I struggle a bit at the grocery store, but was still content with my sweaty stuff bag. But go figure - she drew my name, again! Of course I wasn't going to take two prizes, so I gave up the bag in favour of the grocery shopping trip instead! I am soo excited to head out sometime with Brittanie, I have no doubt it will make a major difference in my shopping choices for the future as well! Annd just to rub it in a little more, my name was somehow drawn a third time, for another prize. How that was managed I have no idea, but I was very content with my prize, and let's face it, we've gotta share the love! I had a really wonderful time getting to know everyone a little better, and can't even express how proud I am of all of us who completed this incredible month! As well as the cleansers, we've all been through such a remarkable life-changing experience and it was really wonderful to share it with everyone, and get to know some really fabulous people! Thanks to Kyla and Brittanie for putting on an awesome party, and organizing such a successful challenge / cleanse combination. I can't wait to do it all over again in October!

Ready to sleep my way into day thirty ... I can't believe we've made it this far!
Wonderful job everyone, and happy day thirty!

Namaste.