Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.” ~ Peace Pilgrim 

Prior to April I was experimenting with yoga once or twice a week.  There was a free yoga class on the west side that I used to try and attend and I would take a regular class at NYSC.  When I left NYSC, I fell out of practice with yoga and in love with lifting weights.  I do however need to stretch more and would like to take yoga once in awhile.  Laying on an ice pack before bed is not a substitute for stretching.  A few weeks ago my friend Rachel asked if I wanted to try a hot yoga class with her at Equinox.  I have ALWAYS wanted to try Equinox and ironically never did due to the cost of the membership, I now pay a similar fee at CFNYC. I justify it in my mind because I love it and it's different than a typical gym.

Action shot of Rachel in Costa Rica paddling away.

While I don't consider myself a yogi, I was game to try it.  Equinox is a wonderful place, the locker room is lush and apparently the 6pm Thursday night hot yoga is the place to be.

Not the actual room but a representation of how crowded it was.

.

The Yoga class started out like any other class with the typical poses.  We were extremely close as the room was packed and I was a bit self conscious that I wouldn't be going with the flow and I would get kicked in the face.  What started nice and slow and relaxing, quickly escalated to be very fast moving and insanely hot.  I was thrilled to have a large bottle of water and a few towels as we navigated each move. Some of the moves were so slippery I couldn't believe that people were flawlessly holding them.  There were also some extremely skinny ladies in the class, I am guessing strong is the new skinny isn't their motto.

The sweat was insane with this class. I was literally dripping from my pinky toe to my hair follicles.  I actively tried to stay with each move as the instructor said them but it was slippery and frankly my yoga skills fell apart over 100 degrees.  I did get some excellent stretches in and overall a great workout. I think Yoga is hard enough without the heat so it probably wouldn't be something I would take on the regular. I was nice to spend some time with Rachel as well, we had tried to do Bryant Park yoga but the weather and scheduling didn't allow.

Post workout we hit the juice bar.  I was surprised to learn that a juice is $10.99 but I suppose if you are spending the money on Equinox you don't mind the occasional splurge.  I picked a juice called "Love at first sight" that was mostly vegetables and drank half of it while Rachel and I caught up on what's new.  It tasted good but had 20g of sugar so I saved 1/2 for tomorrow after weigh in.  I am hoping to lose another 1.5 pounds this week and have limited alcohol and food outside of the house this week and have been drinking at least 100 ounces of water a day.