Sunday, October 12, 2008

Week four finished




It’s Saturday and I don’t have much to say in terms of what happened today. I am spending the weekend memorizing dialogue, preparing for this week. We went to Wal-Mart last night so I don’t have to think about that cutting into my day. Class this morning was taught by Marlyn, who leaves today. She had brought her son who looks like he is in his early teens with her for the week. If she wasn’t teaching she was taking a class, and on occasion that meant doubles. Her son also joined the class on the floor series, so the last half hour of class. During class she was taking pictures of us in different postures, sometimes it meant holding a posture a little longer than normal but no biggie, anything for a good picture right?
I thought since I don’t have much to talk about today I would talk about how I am holding up physically. Not that that will give me a lot to talk about, I am actually holding up really well in terms of muscles. I am waiting for the week to come when my legs feels tight and I can’t touch my toes, I’ve heard it happens. I have not had any soreness really anywhere yet. The only thing I have felt, and it has only been this week since my massage, is my hip. I knew before I left that it was out of alignment and I think the massage therapist put it back or something because it was playing tricks this week. I didn’t let that stop me though, I worked through it, but it also helped that it wasn’t an intense pain, just a discomforting feeling.
The one body part I have felt the most has been my arms though. Some mornings they feel so weak I don’t even want to hold them up for awkward (straight out in front of your body). After eagle (after awkward, third posture which brings fresh blood to the arms), I always feel better. Other than that, like I said before my body is loving this yoga. I am going to give credit to my after class swims in the salt pool. I think the swim has really helped me stay loose, and allows the salt to soak into my body after sweating it all out.
As far as sleep goes, I have learnt to accept things just as they come. I am not taking sleep for granted because it is hard to come by these days. I don’t think about that night or moment when we are there until 2am. When I go to bed I am just thankful that we got to bed that early because it could always be worse and could always be later. I remind myself that the weekend is just around the corner, whether it is one day or five days away. I know that on Saturdays we have class then lunch and then I can have a nap. Let me tell you I was out cold today during my nap. Eleni left the room and I didn’t even hear her when the door slammed shut. When I woke up I was so groggy I just thought to myself, “I could totally sleep for another couple hours”. Then I wondered if I sleep that much if I will be able to sleep tonight, so I opted to get up and procrastinated into studying.
Emmy told us the first week of training that the people who have a little extra ‘cushion’ on their bodies will do better during training. She said that the body only holds enough energy to allow a body to work out at the same rate consistently for sixty minutes. After sixty minutes the body uses the reserves (fat) and converts it to energy to use for the rest of the time. The people who came here with the muscled out or really skinny bodies seem to be the ones that have struggled the most over the last couple weeks. Bikram has even made comments to people in class about eating more food. He said one day, ‘I thought the hotel was making better food, why does it look like you stand under the x-ray machine. I see your bones, this is not healthy. It is not possible to live the healthy life if you are just the bones walking around’.
I have also talked to two people who came here as vegetarians. It was suggested to us the first week to drop all eating habits and eat what you can, they directed this straight to the vegetarians. Rajasgree wanted them to consider eating meat while here to ensure they are getting the proper amount of protein for the amount of exercise we are doing. Eating was not my biggest concern coming here, getting sick from the food weighed a little on my mind though. A buffet is included in our stay so it can’t be avoided and I am not going to complain because it is one meal I don’t have to worry about. I am trying some of the new food they put out on the buffet. It seems I have always been able to find something to eat though. If all else fails and the Asian cuisine Bikram has convinced them to cook doesn’t work there is always the old favorites to choose from.
At the time we eat, the buffet is actually considered the breakfast buffet. Every day there is always cereal, toast, bagels, eggs, oatmeal, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and French toast to choose from. There is also the omelette/egg bar where they make you eggs the way you want them. Since I find eggs so yummy, I have stayed far clear of that counter. They also have a quesadilla bar where they make little mini quesadilla’s with your choice of filling. I make my way here usually once a week. They have ground beef, mushrooms, potatoes, green peppers, and corn as fillers to choose from. The buffet also has some lunch items too. It usually consists of three or four Asian dishes that change daily. Consistently there is a meat (chicken, beef or pork), seafood, veggies, and rice or noodle dish to choose from. The buffet also has some Mexican dishes to choose from, I don’t even look what is under those lids anymore. Usually it is beans, or Samos’s (?), tacos, beans or lentil something. There is also a salad bar with fresh green salad, fresh fruit yogurt, tomatoes, and prunes. The daily salads change every day too, anywhere from pasta, rice, lentil to potato salad. And I can not forget to mention the chocolate milk they have every day and the fresh juice. They have cantaloupe, grapefruit, orange, and mango juice daily that tastes like you put a straw directly into the fruit. In between the juice and milk fountains there is the biscuit section. They have an assortment of coffee cakes, cinnamon buns, muffins, buns, struddles, and biscotti’s.
Lol, well I didn’t expect to get into that much detail about the silly buffet but since I have to endure it every day I thought I could mention it. So now you know all about it, and more than you wanted to.
My evening was spent reviewing dialogue and watching for the president. They set up metal detectors all around the compound at every entrance. There is also army looking guys walking around with machine guns and photographers walking around just waiting to take a picture of him. The Olympic committee is also here so I think it has something to do with that. I met a guy from Toronto in the elevator and he said Mexico is trying to get the Olympics that is why he is here. He is from Toronto and saw me after class one day with my yoga mat, he stopped and asked about the classes and all the yogi’s walking around. His face lit up when he found out there are over 300 of us here. He said I always see all these young people walking around with smiles on their faces all the time and it is so cool to see. He told me he wasn’t going to come to a class but he was going to stop by and peek in to see what it is all about and that it would neat to see 300 people practicing at the same time.

The picture is of all the trainees doing camel posture. How cool is this picture?!

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