Hot as Hell

I learned several valuable lessons last night:

- Eat.
- Drink - LOTS, ALL DAY.
- You don't have to drink alcohol to get a hangover headache.
- Passing out is not a fun experience.
- 104 degrees and 60% humidity is pretty warm.
- Yoga can be very, very cardiovascularly difficult.
- Get more than 3 hours of sleep the night before.
- Low blood pressure = nausea.

You have probably derived that my first experience with hot yoga was not a good one - but that doesn't mean I'm giving up! No way. All that transpired (perspired? expired? inspired, maybe?) had everything to do with me. Why didn't I hydrate? Why didn't I have a snack? Why did I push myself past the point of exhaustion? Why am I so damn stubborn? Obviously because I'm a senseless, stupid person... But ignorance precedes enlightenment, and yoga is supposedly the path toward the evolution of the mind. I guess I'm in the right place to rid myself of my stupidity.

I'm going back tonight, of course. I'll let you decide how stupid that is!

The class itself was tantalizingly difficult but not desperately torturous - I was fine during the final savasana and lay there for several minutes, but when I got up and back into more temperate climes... It was bad. I felt like such a wuss. S (instructor) told me to breathe through my nose to slow my breathing down, but hyperventilation wasn't the issue at all. My heart rate was extremely slow (maybe 40 bpm) despite all of the exertion, and a dehydration headache slammed me like a punch to the occipital bone. I was disoriented and hypo. S realized this and brought me a carton of coconut water, which was delicious. After 30 minutes of sitting and processing the coconut water, I was able to drive.

I had planned to run a few miles after yoga, but instead went to my parents' house to visit and felt so odd that I crashed at 8 PM on the couch in my dad's office, wrapped in a down comfortor. I slept there for the entire night without waking, which is rare for me. Worried that I'd die from dehydration and physical stress, my mother came in at around 10 PM to check on me and fed me some orange juice - flash to age 6, and then I was down for the count.

I woke up at 5 AM and felt wonderful. I was sore, stretched, toasty warm and alert. I had a cup of delicious Muddy Dog coffee with my dad, and booked it home and then to work.

Natty continues to maintain that I should be doing traditional yoga rather than Bikram/Hatha in a heated room - but I've looked at other studios in the area, and they seem so... Commercial. Boutique-y. Sappy, almost touristy, attractive to overweight, middle-aged, upper-middle-class women looking for something trendy to do that displays their perfectly manicured toes while projecting a facade of athleticism. I want deep relaxation, but I also want to be made uncomfortable. I want it to be physically difficult. I want to leave and feel empty, feel like I've reached the limits of my endurance and ability. I think I can get this at Open Door - but only if I make sure to drink 8-10 cups of water a day, and eat meals like a normal person!