Who said yoga is relaxing?

I am eleven weeks into my exercise journey. It has been tough but few days have I really wanted to quit. But little small things keep irking me. For example, I feel alone in this fitness journey. I have done all the work by myself. No gym buddy to keep me coming back to the gym every week. I have no one to motivate but myself. Don't get me wrong, I prefer to workout by myself in the comfort of my own home. But I have been going to the gym twice a week in addition to figurerobics which is my cardio. I experienced a setback on Sunday. Which was day six of level one of figurerobics. I had lower back pain after doing some of the moves. Apparently this is because my core is not strong enough. So all the planks and situps (which are bad for your back) I have been doing are not enough. I felt so discouraged.
First of all, I wanted to cry because I felt so down about this fitness thing. Then I debated whether I should even go to yoga class. Which I went anyway even though all I wanted to do was to go home and cry and go to sleep. Yoga class was hard, I was surrounded by skinny people bending themselves into pretzel like shapes and doing handstands. I had to modify a lot of moves because I am a n00b at fitness. I have a "weak" core and tight hip flexors from years of sitting in front of a  desk, computer, steering wheels. Just think of all the time we spend sitting in day to day life. I like to joke that I have been training my mind and not my body but it is very true.

Now related to the title of the post I will express my frustrations with yoga.

1) It does not make you skinny! Alot of people who do yoga are emaciated from too much cardio or they are naturally thin. I have toned up very much from doing yoga but my body fat is very much intact. Yes I do cardio every week.
2) That awkward moment when you can't do the poses. This is especially frustrating in class when you feel like everyone is watching.

I'm also feeling very discouraged because I joined this site called skinnyo.com. Skinnyo is a site where uses plug in their weights and join challenges with other users. I have been putting on muscles so the scale is going up naturally. I think that some of the women on the site are "juicing" i.e. starving and their muscle tissue is being eaten away so that's why they are losing one pound a day. I might make a longer post about it but this site made me obsessed with the scale! I was working out two hours a day and drinking nasty green powdered juice (with no o.j. so it was less calories ) just so I could see that number on the scale steadily go down. I was weighing myself everyday sometimes twice a day. Then I was forced off the site when the battery in my scale died. Then the number went up after I changed the batteries. So I'm wondering if my weight was even accurate.
I started yoga because I heard the philosophy behind it was not to be obsessed with results but listen to how your body feels but I am still torn between two fitness ideologies. But I know which one I want to be free from!

Yesterday I was just feeling really uncomfortable in my own skin and I had no reason to feel that way. Remember how I said earlier in the post I felt isolated? I actually inspired another person to go to the gym. That's right, I am an inspiration but  I still have days where I need encouragement. A positive post is coming.

More on my kpop workout

 figurerobics workout 1

 figuredance workout 2

 figuredumb workout 3

figuremat workout 4


Figure robics is a korean workout dvd that is instructed by Jung Da Yeon who is a 40 yr old mother of two who got back into shape post baby. Her dvd has swept asia in popularity. However I have discovered it on the internet.

These are the four workouts that are in the dvd. I am on day 3 of figure robi (the first one). I felt awkward doing the moves at first but I am getting the hang of it. I am doing other workouts in conjunction with it so that I don't get bored. But I heard that it is recommended to do each workout five times a week for a month without adding any other workouts so that you don't gain muscle. I need to focus on getting my core stronger so I will be doing pilates and yoga in conjunction with figure robics. I will be tracking my progress on here as I go through each section.

Figure robi focuses on the lower body with a lot of squats. There are arm raises too that make my arms so sore some days.

As far as outward body changes, there are none but I can do squats without being sore for three days which is awesome.

I am starting figure robics as a part of my workout challenge. I just finished the 30 day shred and had okay results. I am discovering that you get better results the second time you do the shred. I only saw slight changes but my cardiovascular system can handle much more.

Which brings me to figure robics. I was screwing around on youtube and found out about figurerobics. I was doing HIIT training with the shred but now I'm switching to cardio to try and burn this layer of fat off that has plaqued me for years. Don't get me wrong, I embrace the curviness but am trying to get my curves in shape. I also notice that no one that posted online about figurerobics has actually completed the four week program. Well you can stay on each of the workouts as long as you want.
I want to make this blog to document my journey through the figure robics workouts.