Another year of yoga

2014 saw me do three (or two depending on who you ask) things

1. Travel a lot for work and figure out ways to cope with that schedule wise

2. Do yoga whenever possible while home and figure out ways to adjust that into the schedule

3. Do the usual things at home when possible (San would give me a D- for that this year.. the kids might give me a B- given they are partial to me)

Travel for work is not a topic for this blog till I start my next gig whenever that might be. The usual things at home do get a blog post or two with a lot less frequency.. that leaves Yoga!

This is an engineer trying to summarize yoga stats. So this post has to have some graphs and charts!

As usual the goal was to try and do Bikram Yoga at least 200 times this calendar year and yet again, I fell short of that goal. Yoga is a process and one gets the benefit as long as one tries in all sincerity. So from that standpoint, will give myself an A+

Can honestly tell myself that I went to the Yoga room at every possible opportunity this year. Given my travel days, the 50% attendance this year is like a 80+ % attendance. It was better than last year.. (just realized that the graph for last year was overwritten by mistake).

For those math geeks, the reason for the double lines is that on some days I did two classes and that messes up the graph.. 

This year it was 181 classes since Jan 5th.  Last year it was 194.. Next year.. again the goal is to go 200 times.. It may be time to find hotels close to Bikram Yoga studios in my travel locations. 

Now for the weight tracking..

Started off flat. After the India trip the weight that was added on seems to have stayed permanently! Either that or the weighing machine had some midway calibration issue when we came back from India and we replaced the battery. It is now holding steady at 149+/-1 lbs when last year it was 143+/-1 lbs for the most part. 

Going to keep collecting this data. Someday someone who decides to do research in Bikram Yoga and weight stability might use this data! 

This year, there was one special "posture clinic" class that I got to attend in October. When I walked into the studio that say and saw that there were only five people who had shown up for that special 2 hour class with the head teacher at BYSJ, was expecting to have the class cancelled. Michelle showed up inspite of her busy schedule organizing the California Yoga Championship and spent more than the alloted 2 hours teaching the five of us little things to remember that improved our postures. 

Something she said that day stuck with me. She said "look at yourself in the mirror. You might not like everything you see there. Some of you look conflicted all the time. It is time to let go of things that you don't like and improve on the things you like when you stare at yourself!"

Today I went for the last class of 2014. Looked at myself in the mirror and saw two people. There is a nice do-gooder spiritual guy on the one side fighting a vice presidential asshole on the other. One of them has to go or a better compromise has to be reached. 

There is also the guy who is happy to just be in the room giving his 110% who has to reconcile with the guy who is perpetually unhappy with falling down, losing the breath or have a symetry mismatch.

Sharing two pictures taken by Jr. this year. (It is good to take pictures of yourself every now and then to see little details)

This is my favorite pose. It takes me all my will power to do this pose knowing that within a few seconds we are all going to be flat on the floor. Can only raise by body clear off my right toe. On the left toe, it is not perceptible. 

The other pose that has frustrated me this year is the Camel pose. Have fallen forward and almost hit the ground more than 10 times this year. Something has to be fixed somewhere. 

Jr. snapped three photos of me doing Camel pose from three different angles. This is a collage of those three shots. The symmetry is off. Something that you cannot realize while doing the pose because you think you are doing it right when reality is far off..

The good thing is that there is no deadline to get any of this to perfection as it is a moving target. It is a "process" and "eventually" this body will find the right balance. 

My FIL asked me last week "Sundar, you are going on all these hikes. Has the yoga helped make things easier? Are you feeling younger?"

My sincere answer was "I am growing older and my body is dealing with that. Yoga is maintaining a status quo! It is not helping me get younger.. but it is helping me not feel older. It is relative!"

Not saying this will work for everyone or this is easy. It has worked and continues to work for me. Maybe it is a good match for my personality and somehow improving on the same routine day after day is something that I can accept as a challenge while others cannot. Maybe the SPC charting guy in me with a manufacturing quality mindset is a perfect match for Bikram Yoga. It is possible.. 

but work, it did! 

Thankful that there is a Yoga studio within 10 minutes from home which stays true to the original Bikram Yoga where a guy like me can still get continued encouragement from teachers and fellow students!

Here's to 2015 and the continuation of the "process"!

Wishing all of you a wonderful 2015. May the next year bring you all that you desire that you know in your heart is actually good for you!

The yoga front..

When we first started going to Yoga, 80% of the classes we(MIL and me) attended were 5:30 AM classes.

Somehow between her going to India and me taking up a new job, switched to doing Yoga in the evening. 

Now, I have officially become an evening Yogi.. even on weekends! 

We start off with 100+ % attendance with the 60 day challenge, work very hard to keep it going till about the 100th day and then watch it taper off to a steady 75%. 

Then summer comes, other outdoor activities, travel will compete for time and before you know it, the end of the year will see the graph repeat itself. 

Well, not this year, or so I tell myself. 

So far though, the data I track shows that it is almost one for one compared to last year. 

and here is the interesting part.. my weight after coming home after class (or at 6PM if I miss class) over time.

Looks like the weight over time tracks too. Given I am a creature of habit, maybe the factors that all go towards the weight (food, exericse, travel, etc. ???) change for me over time in a very systematic way? Do not know. Will track it for a few more years and we will see if that is true. 

One would think though that in winter months the weight will increase because of less outdoor activity and in summer it would decrease. This says the opposite. I am wondering if there are others out there who have tracked their weight with a fixed exercise regimen and seen similar trends. If you know of someone or such data, do let me know!

For now, the Yoga continues when it can!

RESPECT

When we do Bikram Yoga, the teachers sometimes say "Take a large step sideways.. at least 4 feet.. don't worry about slipping on the carpet. If you do this right, and use your inner thighs, Bikram says you can do this pose on ICE!"

Most teachers laugh when they say that knowing that it is difficult enough not to slip on a sweaty flotex carpet. 

We visited Lassen Volcanic National park for the long weekend. We knew there was going to be lots of snow there from the live webcam that the park service provides! 

While the kids were dreaming of snowball fights I was planning to do Triangle pose on ice. Wanted to give it a shot.. why not?! 

When we went there the first evening, it took some time getting used to 8000 feet elevation. On the second day though, did give it a try. There were jokes from the group about Daddy Narayanan getting arrested for indecent exposure on the mountain tops wearing only his yoga short shorts. 

It was not exactly a slab of ice.. it was still snow. Given that I had already walked barefoot in that snow for some time and my feet had lost communication with my brain, it was easy to do. Not my best triangle.. but first one on snow. 

Now I know why the teachers laugh.. 

Did try to do a bow pose with the same level of success. 

Doing Yoga in a hot room on a flat mat is sooo much more easier than doing anything in freezing snow or ice. They say that the sages in the Himalayas sit through these conditions for days. The monks in Tibet go sit with just a loin cloth for hours. There must be some trick I am missing..

In any case, have increased respect for those monks and sages who can actually sit there for hours. I spent at the most 30 minutes barefoot walking to some locations and posing a few times. 

Will post pictures from the trip soon..