{"id":146,"date":"2010-10-27T00:36:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T00:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/?p=146"},"modified":"2010-10-27T00:36:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T00:36:00","slug":"so-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/?p=146","title":{"rendered":"So What&#8217;s Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well, the <a href=\"?p=136\">marathon<\/a> was over a week ago. Before then, the race was a motivating factor to get out and run regularly. Now, I&#8217;m wondering: What&#8217;s next? What do I want to do now? How do I motivate myself to do something? When I used to have a gym membership, going to the gym was easy, but I don&#8217;t have that any more. Running is great, but it&#8217;s getting too cold for that.<\/p>\n<p>In trying to figure out what do next, I thought about why I want to exercise. I came up with a list of general goals:<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-150\" title=\"choices\" src=\"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/wp-content\/uploads\/choices1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>gain strength<\/li>\n<li>increase flexibility<\/li>\n<li>lose fat<\/li>\n<li>reduce stress<\/li>\n<li>improve focus and concentration<\/li>\n<li>improve cardiovascular fitness<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is a rather daunting list of requirements! When I think about all that, I feel overwhelmed and end up doing <em>nothing<\/em>, because that&#8217;s just too much to do!<\/p>\n<p>But yesterday in my yoga class, I had an epiphany: This one activity, yoga, would actually help me with <em>four<\/em> of those six goals:<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-151\" title=\"yoga\" src=\"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/wp-content\/uploads\/yoga1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>increase flexibility: There&#8217;s plenty of stretching required for yoga, no question!<\/li>\n<li>gain strength: The form of yoga that I practice is called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ashtanga.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ashtanga Yoga<\/a>. It&#8217;s one of the more vigorous forms of yoga, and many of  the movements and poses do require a lot of strength.<\/li>\n<li>reduce stress: I find yoga to be very relaxing, and I know from experience that when I <em>do<\/em> get regular exercise, I sleep better and feel better all-around.<\/li>\n<li>improve focus and concentration: For me, yoga is a form of active meditation. On a good day, my <em>full<\/em> attention is on the yoga itself: my mind doesn&#8217;t wander to other thoughts. This is meditation, and research has shown that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/17672382\" target=\"_blank\">regular meditation improves the ability to concentrate<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now I&#8217;m very inspired! I can do yoga at home, any time, in a pretty small amount of space. All I need is comfortable clothing and a yoga mat, which I have (heck, a towel would do). I was so inspired that I started today: This morning, I did 40 minutes of yoga in my kitchen before breakfast. It felt great! So, this is my new goal: daily yoga. We&#8217;ll see where it takes me.<\/p>\n<p>So, what&#8217;s next for you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, the marathon was over a week ago. Before then, the race was a motivating factor to get out and run regularly. Now, I&#8217;m wondering: What&#8217;s next? What do I want to do now? How do I motivate myself to &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/?p=146\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154,"href":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anastasiacheetham.ca\/experiment-of-one\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}