Milestone 1: Went to my first WW meeting in 3 years
Let me begin by saying, I went to WW religiously years ago - and I lost about 3st. I've always looked smaller than my true weight (despite being overweight and with a unhealth BMI), but my highest when starting WW the first time was 12st3.5.
I attended my first WW meeting in about 3 years, and again weighed in at exactly 12st3.5. Thatw as last Friday, and let me tell you, it was nerve-wracking. It may sound silly, but I was worried my old WW leader Maureen would be taking the meetings at the Gillis Centre (not such a stretch of the imagination, as the meetings I used to attend were in Morningside) and I'd be greeted with shocked exclamations of "what the hell happened to you? You were doing so well, and now look - you've gained it all back."
Now I know Maureen would never say that, but the worry was, would people think it? Nail bitingly nervous. I even turned up on the wrong day at first; showed up on Thursday evening and had the poor wee guy at reception double check the meeting wasn’t on that night.
I didn’t stay for the meeting (for shame!) but just weighed in; I had plans with the boyfriend and I’d promised I’d only be gone 20 minutes. Now the Gillis Centre meetings are fairly new on the WW radar, and as last week was only Week 2, I think people were just getting their bearings. It was pretty quiet in comparison to the Merlin, which suited me. I ran into a girl I recognised who works in one of the cute wee shops on Colinton Road and chatted to her for awhile. It was generally quite a chilled out experience, and to be honest no one paid the slightest bit of attention as I got weighed. It’s nice to be anonymous sometimes!
Milestone 2: Succeeded in doing a backbend in yoga
I have been going to yoga on and off (more sporadically than regularly) for years, slipping in and out of it but never really committing to anything. Which is strange, because yoga has always been something I’ve been interested in.
When I was in Toronto at the end of last summer, I had the privilege of attending classes at an amazing yoga studio in Downtown TO, called Octopus Garden. This place was everything I’d ever wanted or hoped a yoga practice space to be. It was unpretentious, and the teachers were great – I really felt like I’d learned something, pushed myself, and felt a million times better after every class. The thing was, the studio was tiny, and often the classes were so crowded there was barely a gap between students. Once the class started though, all that meant nothing, and I barely noticed how crammed the room was or how busy.
The very best thing was, I finally managed to grasp meditation. Clearing my mind has always been something I’ve struggled with, but there it was achievable.
Ever since, I have been trying to find that same space again, but for some reason I’ve never been able to at any of the yoga classes I’ve attended in Edinburgh. I’ve tried studios recommended by friends and colleagues, but they’ve always fallen short somehow.
Someone recommended Union Yoga on Rodney Street to me a few months ago, and I tried a few classes but somehow, the teachers just weren’t the right fit for me. In one Ashtanga class, the teacher, a guy called Mark, was more interested in showing off what he could do rather than concentrating on poses that would fit the abilities of the students – and there wasn’t much instruction. I did attend a Kundalini yoga class there that I really enjoyed, but it wasn’t a regularly scheduled class. It focussed mostly on breathing and on mantras, so a step away from when I think of as yoga as a fitness class.
I signed up for a full term of classes at the Iyengar yoga centre near my flat a couple weeks ago, starting from scratch at Level 1. Now I realise I’m not a total beginner, but I’ve always found there were certain poses I struggled with or glossed over in my practice, and I thought it would be useful to get the fundamentals right before tacking anything more challenging.
Today was week 3 of classes, and we attempted backbends for the first time. The first pose was Ustrasana (camel pose). I’d seen it done before, but in Ashtanga and Vinyasa practice (which I’ve had experience of before) I had never attempted it myself. I’d always thought this pose involved a leaning back, but learned today it was a lifting pose. With some help from the teacher I actually managed it!
I feel like I’m making progress, which has totally put a huge smile on my face!
