Yoga+

The Best 30 Days

A Big Girl’s Take on Her First 30-Day Yoga Challenge

By: Bernice B. Bernardino

Yoga + Member since February 2011

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I took Yoga+’s 30 Day Challenge on a whim.  My friends were doing it.  And I secretly wanted to prove that yoga is not the exclusive realm of the bikini-clad, female vegan with washboard abs.  Call it a rebellious streak but I wanted to show myself and to those who fear yoga that big girls can do it too!  So I signed up not knowing how I was going to squeeze it into my schedule or how my body would react.

30 days hence, and cliché as it may sound, I feel SPECTACULAR.   My pants are no longer snug (I now have a waist, hooray!).  My blouses are a little loose (which is a welcome feeling.)  My  skin looks and feels better, and my monthly red flag no longer feels like a seven-day death sentence. (Please take note that I’m a rice-spam-chocolate person. I’m 5”3 and I tipped the scales at 163 lbs. when I began.  I am not your typical yoga girl!). I’ve also said goodbye to the upper back pains I’d normally get at the end of the week.  But how was it during the 30 days? 

It was boot camp.

You see, 30 days is a commitment.  I had to make time for it everyday, which means I would have to sneak it in before work at 6:30 am or catch the 6 pm or 8 pm classes.  This also meant rescheduling daily routines and errands. It seemed that everything centered around the challenge.  The first few days were a breeze.  The 2^nd and 3^rd weeks were more intense as I began to feel tightness in my legs. My favorite word for those days became “change!” (Yogis and yoginis would know why… J). I began to panic when I found myself struggling with poses I used to be able to do and there were days when I just had to retreat to Child’s Pose because I simply couldn’t push myself any further. I can’t say that it was easy! But struggles aside… I actually had fun. LOVED IT.  The little improvements here and there were the only boosts I needed to make me come to class the next day.  When I got home, Id find myself doing some chaturanggas (and even head stands) for practice (and also for vanity since I secretly took photos of myself hahaha!). And the temporary tightness had its blessings because on the 29^th day, things began to change! I became so flexible that I was able to do a King Pigeon pose for the first time!  Up until then, that pose was god-like to me!  The baby steps and temporary discomfort led me to a breakthrough!  I also should mention that the icing on the cake was my yoga-kada (Yoga barkada), because we’d push each other to come to class and it was a treat seeing them everyday.

The physical benefits are a given (weight loss, flexibility, balance…) but the mental gifts are tops!  It takes a certain type of patience and perseverance to come to class everyday for 30 days.  Thus, the mental benefits go beyond the yoga mat.  At home and at work, I believe I’ve become more patient and persevering.  And when everything is frazzled, I can mentally “silence” myself in a roomful of people.  All this because of yoga.

And so, would I do this challenge again?  Hell YEAH!  I really believe that anything worth having is something worth struggling for.  YOU are always worth it.  And if you are a big girl just like me, you can do this too.