Beautiful Lines

I just got the nicest compliment after yoga class tonight.  I have been diligently going to the gentle yoga class on Thursday nights for several weeks, but my teacher has another commitment for this week, and next week is Thanksgiving of course.  So, I decided to go to the intermediate class on Tuesday nights for these two weeks, just to stay in the habit of going.

I knew it would be hard.  And what's sad is, I used to go to the intermediate class all the time.  Twice a week if I didn't have to work those nights.  And I got pretty good at it.  Then I slacked off.

Now the gentle class is more my speed.  But I was determined to make it through tonight.  My teacher told me to go as easy as I needed to, modify poses, etc...  I think I kept up pretty well though.  It was certainly more strenuous than the class I'm used to.

So, after class she asked me how it was.  I was telling her how hard it was, and this woman came up to us and told me, "You have really beautiful lines in some of your poses."  I was dumbfounded.  She said, "Especially in your triangle.  I was just looking at you and thinking you look just like the pictures you see of people demonstrating the pose."  And then my teacher said, "You know, I noticed the same thing tonight!"

I was in shock.  Here I was saying how hard the class was for me, and this woman I don't even know comes up out of nowhere and compliments how well I was doing!  Yay me!

I'm definitely going next Tuesday.  And who knows, I may keep going to both classes once my gentle class starts up again!

The Whole Truth

So, I wasn't entirely honest with you all when I wrote that post about giving up caffeine and trying to get off my sleeping pills.  I didn't lie.  I just didn't tell the whole truth.

You see, there was a bigger reason I gave up all that stuff.  I was pregnant.  I'm not anymore.  If you want all the details on that, you can read about it here.  The point of this particular post is reflecting on all the healthy changes I made during those few weeks and what I plan to do going forward.

There's nothing like finding out you're pregnant to make you re-evaluate every single aspect of your life.  Where you live.  Who you interact with.  Your job, your car, your beauty products, your medications, and of course, your diet.  I've heard other people say this, but honestly, I don't think I ever lived as healthy a lifestyle as I did for those few weeks when I was pregnant.

Sure, it was hard.  Mostly the quitting sleeping pills thing.  The food thing wasn't too hard for me, because I really started craving healthier stuff.  I wanted water, I wanted fruit, I wanted nuts.  I didn't want candy or cookies or chips.

My prenatal vitamins didn't make me nauseous, as I've heard so many women say.  And I easily started walking 30 minutes almost every morning, not for me, but for my baby.  I knew that moderate exercise reduced the risk of many complications, and it results in a healthier baby.

So, all these things I should be doing for myself?  I didn't.  But when somebody else came along (however briefly), it was super easy to do all the right stuff.

And now that I've had a miscarriage, I really couldn't wait to have a big cup of coffee and an Ambien.  Okay, not like one after the other.  You know what I meant.  But I didn't do that.

I've decided that whether for me, or for some future baby I might have, I need to be as healthy as I can from this point forward.  I gave up all the medication.  I gave up caffeine.  I got into a walking and yoga routine.  I got into the habit of eating healthier foods.  I took my vitamin every single day.  And I can keep doing all those things now.

It's a little harder, because my cravings have turned back to their more "normal" state.  Like we have only two pieces of Halloween candy left.  And we only had one trick or treater.  One.

Still, I'm doing my best to keep up with my pregnant habits, even though I'm not pregnant.  I planned to live that way for 9 months anyway (more if I was successful at breast feeding).  So why stop now?  Don't I deserve it as much as the baby?  Yes, I do.