Wedding Bells

Wow it's been a while. I realized today that I turn to this blog when I'm feeling something strongly, as opposed to a daily commitment to write something random every day. Today I feel restless. One of my good friends is getting married this Saturday, and while it goes against everything I've been taught as a teenager, a growing young woman and a blossoming yogi, I'm super worried about looking slamming in my bridesmaid dress. It's an expensive, beautiful navy silk dress with a sweetheart neckline and a super tiny waist that makes my body look nothing like its normal self, but as all other women do, I keep thinking about my arms and those little flabs of extra skin we all have near our armpits. Those need to make themselves scarce on Saturday.

As such, I've been really committed to eating like a boss for the last 6 weeks (well, summer in general but more so in the month and a bit leading up to the wedding) and going to yoga whenever possible. It's been going super super well! This is the week, however, where even a salt-laden side dish can make you feel disgusting and bloated and awful, so I'm watching myself like a hawk, if only to avoid feeling gross this weekend.

Of course, as my luck would have it, this is the week where I crave everything that's ever been deemed bad for the human body. You name it: chips, chocolate cupcakes, garlic bread (read: carbs, carbs, carbs). Normally my thought process goes something like "ahh it's ok, what can one cupcake possibly do to my body that I can't erase tomorrow??" but let's not forget that it's that kind of thinking that makes us feel miserable in the first place.

Tonight's yoga class was Baptiste with Jaime, and it was one of those unique, challenging workshop-type classes where we worked up to the revered handstand all class. You cannot cop out and fake it halfway through, because while it may not muck up the entire experience, it's the next attempt that really suffers. Just like the cupcake, you cannot take one step forward and two steps back, not even once or twice (when you're really committing for a special occasion, let's not go nuts and deprive ourselves of the better things in life like fatty pastries!) because it's the mental that breaks down. It tends to deteriorate at an alarming rate, even though our arms are still strong, and our legs are still working.

In the end, cost-benefit is essential, and I keep re-learning one of the most treasured lessons: you've got to do the work. No pain, no gain.