Sanskrit Scares Me: The Yoga Challenge: The Challenge Begins Tomorrow (For Reals Though)

This has been a doozy of a year. After spending the first month being heavily pregnant (I gained 50 lbs.), my husband and I welcomed a son at the beginning of February. Five days later, he had a heart transplant. We brought him home when he was a month old and have been navigating doctors' appointments, medications, hospitalizations, and house arrest due to low white blood cell counts (even for an immune suppressed kid), all while trying to figure out how to be first-time parents and trying to get back on our feet during all these crazy experiences.

Like I said, this has been a doozy of a year.

I've practiced yoga sporadically in the past and attended weekly prenatal yoga classes during the bulk of my pregnancy (before I got too bulky). After I gave birth and got the thumbs up from my doctor to start exercising, I wasn't sure where to start. We were on house arrest because of my son's low blood counts to going out to a gym or classes wasn't an option because that could expose me to germs I could bring home to my son that could cause him to be hospitalized again. I tried a Zumba video from YouTube and discovered two things:

1. Zumba instructors look cute and sexy doing the Latin dance-inspired moves.

2. I look like Elaine from "Seinfeld" when I try doing the Latin dance-inspired moves.

Thumbs and all.

For a while, I did yoga every day but, as usual, I got distracted. I also got discouraged because I was trying to use yoga primarily for weight loss but from what I understand from talking to other regular yoga practitioners, weight loss tends to be a side effect but it's very slow and I am very impatient. And somewhat lazy.

Amy Schumer is my spirit animal.

At this point, I've lost most of my baby weight from a diet of stress and sleep deprivation but I need to make some changes. I know a lack of sleep is kind of par for the course of having a baby but I want to be healthier and try to get some of my anxiety under control. Plus, for shallow reasons, I wouldn't mind toning up my remaining squishy parts.

Yeah, I said it. I want to be a hot yoga chick. I can be honest about my superficiality.

So herein lies my challenge: practice yoga every day for a year.

Why bother to blog about it? Why not just do it? Because I suck and I need accountability. In addition to blogging about my daily practice (at least 15 minutes--I have a baby and can't necessarily promise more), I'll post periodic pictures to track my physical progress. I'll also try and post about not just the poses but the effects of yoga on me physically, mentally, and possibly even spiritually.

So here we go. Even though tomorrow is December 9th and a more logical starting point would be January 1st, the challenge begins tomorrow. I'm not great with new year's resolutions and if I start yoga tomorrow, I can justify the copious amounts of eggnog I plan on consuming over the next three weeks.