The Bikram Journey

I started the week off right with a GREEN Smoothie. Typically I don’t make drinks for breakfast because I feel that I won’t be full, which really means that my mind doesn’t think I’m full because I didn’t actually chew anything.  So not the case yesterday.

Into the Vita:

• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2 medium banana
• 1/2 cup fresh mango
• 1 large handful of spinach
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
• 2 ice cubes

Mixed for all of about 10 seconds and then poured into a glass. It was delicious and totally filling. I had a few pieces of dried mango on the side, but this breakfast kept me full all morning. I guess I may be able to drink a meal after all. Although, I’ll have to do more research to test this hypothesis, because it could just be a fluke.

Moving right along I came home on my lunch break to play with Olive and eat. I whipped up a quick kale salad.

Kale, tomatoes, cukes, bean sprouts, avocado, TJ’s goddess dressing, nutritional yeast and SS(sea salt)&P.

I put the idea I mentioned in my last post into action and made mashed kabocha as a side.

I simply cut the rind off and chopped the kabocha into small chunks then boiled it for about 6 minutes. Once drained I mashed it with a fork and added SS&P. It was awesomely sweet and the perfect side to go along with my salad.

The Bikram Journey at BikramYogaRichmond

I had put off taking a Bikram class because I already pay for a gym membership where they hold yoga classes for free and I felt feel the $20 (walk in rate) per class was kind of steep. But then I decided that working out is basically my entertainment (people pay $20 for movies and popcorn, right?) and it would totally be worth it.  At work I tried to convince a few people to attend a Bikram Yoga class with me- no takers so I decided I would just have to embark on the journey alone. There were a couple other newbies who arrived for the class at the same time I did so I wasn’t actually alone, which was nice. But WOW, what an intense workout. I was SO sweaty I looked as though I just jumped into a pool in my workout clothes-  seriously, I don’t think there was a dry spot on my body. I tried wearing my heat rate monitor throughout the class to see how many calories I burned but because my heart rate didn’t stay up the whole time it didn’t stay connected and just kept beeping -”check belt”, this was annoying me so I’m sure it was annoying others (Opps!). I read online that you burn 1000-700 calories, but I don’t think my heart rate stayed up enough to burn that many- I’m thinking more along the lines of 400-500.

Overall, I really enjoyed the class. I did miss the soothing music that usually played in yoga and I found the instructor’s calls for the poses was fast paced and some what rigid (think Yoga bootcamp style). Since it was my first time I don’t know if that is how it always is or if that was just my instructor’s style. BUT oh man, Afterward I felt like I had just finished running 10 miles and walking out of the heated class room into the lobby felt heavenly! Seriously, one of the best feelings eva. This might be too much info, but one thing I found really interesting is that my legs and feet had skin flaking off during the class. It was pretty disgusting but I guess smooth skin is another benefit of the class…

I’m pretty sure I’m going to be going back for more very soon!

Once home I was starving so I quickly ate before showering…

This salad was the only thing I took a picture of but I like I said, I was starving so I after the salad I also had 2 fig newmans, grape nuts with skim, homemade dried mango, and LOTS of water.

Then I took a much needed SHOWER!

Tagged as: bikram yoga, green smoothie, salad