I’ve been doing this thing the last few weeks where I’ll write myself a goal before every new week, on top of having overall October goals. So far, it’s working out pretty well for me.
The key to setting goals is to ensure they are realistic. Obviously, we all want to be dreamers every once in a while. And that’s important. But, if you keep setting “dreamer” goals every week and keep failing to meet them – that’s not going to help your self esteem.
Last week, my goal was to go for a run. It seems like a fairly easy goal until you’re nearing the end of the week and realise you’ve put it off until now. So, Friday after my Lift gym class, I forced myself to go for a 15 minute run on the treadmill before I was allowed to head home. It was fantastic.
Earlier this year, pre-COVID, I had been training for a half-marathon. I hadn’t properly ran since then. I felt so happy to tick off that week’s goal of running. Now, carrying over into this week, I’ve made it my goal to run for 15 minutes after every gym class I do, which is four classes a week.
As well as that, I set myself the goal of trying out a new gym class. On Tuesdays I don’t go to the gym because my favourite classes with my favourite instructors aren’t on. However, I figured trying out a new class on the day I’m not usually found at the gym was a good idea. Now, all I had to do was decide what gym class to sign up for.
One of the other general October goals I set is to stretch more and to do more yoga (and by “do more yoga” I basically mean “do yoga” because it’s something I never do). Question answered – I will try out a yoga class!
So this takes us to right now. I’m currently sitting in the Starbucks opposite my flat because I am MORE than sick of working from home. I thought I’d treat myself to my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season, albeit rather late into autumn.
It’s delicious. It’s creamy and warming and tastes like the memory of sitting in front of an open fire roasting smores.
Each sip takes me back to living in California, shopping with my mom around the holidays. We’d often go into kitchen supply stores (who doesn’t love a new kitchen gadget?!) like the lovely Williams Sonoma. You walk into any Williams Sonoma at this time of year and guaranteed you’ll be smelling pumpkin and gingerbread from every corner of the store.
But back to yoga. I decided I’d try out a Hot Hatha Yoga class, as the description of it on my gym app said it was a good place to start for people new to yoga. What I didn’t realise was that hot yoga was actually done in a room that feels like a sauna. I thought hot yoga meant: *BEWARE*, you will get sweaty during this! Aka, a more high-intensity yoga…though perhaps high-intensity yoga is somewhat of an oxymoron.
Let me tell you how it went…
I walked out of the women’s changing room and saw a man heading into the yoga studio. He was wearing no shoes, only socks. Darnit, I knew I should’ve left my sneakers in my locker. Oh well, he was holding the door open for me now, I couldn’t exactly turn back – he knew I was in this class now. I walked through the door and was greeted by people lying on the floor exhaling so loudly, and so in their own “namaste” zone, it felt like I’d walked in on a group therapy session. I looked for a place to put my shoes that I’d naively kept on. You could see people staring at me between breaths thinking: “Pfft, what a newbie.”
I sprinted over to a yoga mat at the back of the room, out of sight. Everyone was stretching – one girl even had her legs up against the wall while she laid on the floor. I sat there with my arms over my legs just looking around the room, pretending I was lost in my own thoughts. I was actually asking myself: “Why were people stretching pre-yoga? Isn’t the whole point of yoga to stretch?”
Finally it was time for the class to start and it wasn’t so bad in the end. Some yoga classes I’ve done in the past ask you to immediately balance your legs on your elbows and hold yourself up only using your hands. Compared to that, this was a walk in the park. My favourite part was the end. Not because it meant the class was over, but because the instructor turned off the lights as we were lying flat on the floor with our eyes closed. I could’ve totally fallen asleep in that moment.
Would I do this class again? Maybe. If I’m going to go to the gym, I usually only want to do lifting classes because then my body knows it’s been to the gym, and I also really enjoy lifting weights. However, given that Tuesdays are usually my rest day, I suppose squeezing in some yoga and letting my body have a nice long stretch wouldn’t be such a bad idea. But perhaps I’ll wait until this global pandemic is over. Hot rooms where everyone is breathing as loud as a police siren, putting their germs out into the hot air, seems like a breeding ground for illness.
Well, at least now I can check off one of this week’s goals – and it’s only Tuesday.
SEE: Sip Eat Enjoy 