Never gonna see me cry the last goodbye

Well .. well I have been putting off that last post but here we go , before the 100 day challenge I was in a pretty down spot, after getting back from teacher training a put on a significant amount of weight and I had been gaining while I was working 60 hours weeks and stress plus the late night eating and huge amount of sleep deprevation = weight gain.Well just wanted to break down the main things that have changed over the past 100 days ,in the beginning I was rather fearful about being an intstructor and was wondering if I would ever make it into a job , i think at this time I taught 9 classes by this time, in January alone I was able to smash that amount and had really found my groove in teaching and it has become very comfortable teaching and it is always a challenge because you must teach differently depending on who is attending the class , for 6 am `s the majority of the people already know what to do so only small minor details are needed .

The whole job situation has changed a huge deal , I did drop my over night job before I left for Vegas and finally dropped my job at Safeway which had me unhappy for quite some time, coincidently I was rewarded with more classes then I could have imagined, the real decision of why I did quit safeway honestly came down to the money or happiness question and sure I would be saying goodbye to benefits and the fact because I was there for so long the raises came fairly fast and the amount kept going up , but there was very little mutual respect involved , in the end..... best decision I had made!

Putting yourself first is probably the number 1 thing I have learned from Biggest loser , but since qutting safeway I have had time to actually getting quality work outs in and room to take power naps in between to help me reach my full potential for work outs. Anyways crew this is only the beginning I am about to leave for Laos/Thailand and I plan to take advantage of healthier and non greasy food (the luxury of not having so many fast food places) and thanks to Jessica I will have P90x with me on my trip, I plan to really kick it into a second gear when I get back. Anyways thank you to all who have supported me through my journey, I will be starting a new blog shortly.

"with the realization of one`s potential and self confidence in one`s ability, one can build a better world"

Day 100: Reaching the Century Mark!

Extreme final day of teaching on day 100, teaching 4 classes and the first day for the 100 day challengers, lots of positivity and lots of new faces , after a trip to the gym and the opening ceremony I was set to teach the hardest class of the week in terms of cardio and heat... the 90 minute hot flow. Class started off with some gentle stretching just to get the body adjusted to the heat and then it was ready to roll , started off the class with something very similar to javamukti and then we went on to do some loundges and lots.. lots of chattarungas before the second water break I challenged the class to take a three minute mediatation before getting started up again , started doing the option of one legged and people just started getting really tired so we did a little bit of dragon flow in the hot room to ease the tension. I had turned off the heat for a bit and turned on fresh air people were still down and there was still a good 30 minutes left, so I told everyone to take savasana and only at that moment I gave permission to go grab water if they would some ... 75% of the classes bolted and sure took their time getting back, the reminder of the class we just took advantage of the hard work we had done and just kept on the floor, it was really fun , I wonder what the future of 90 minute hot flow will hold, I would love to teach it again despite the heat and did receive lots of positive feedback. For the class at Donald I got to help out my good buddy Erica get over a not so great day , then came the celebration of us catching up of whats going on and lots of junk eating.... gooood times , finish off the night doing poses in the hot room and taking pics , what a rush!


The final shout out goes to the entire 100 day challenge crew, so just to make sure I don`t end up writing a novel , I will describe my relationship with the fellow member and then state current friendship or just something I ve learned about them that I did not know before hand.
In alphabetical order

Amelia: First saw her around the studio during the 30 day challenge and then later saw her on the printed out schedule doing her dancer`s pose at this point the only time we had really talked is when she came to my first yoga class and then we saw little of each other once the waverley studio opened.

Blythe: First thing I remember about my first encounter with Blythe was that I super shocked to hear how old her kid was, I thought she was my age (so congrats on the fountain of youth thing), our only other encounter was me serving her at safeway.

Carolyn: I don`t think even think we could be considered acquaintances at this point.

Colette: Already a good friend to me via Moksha and always one to have concern if I spend to much time in the hot room :)

Ella : Very little encounters while we energy excahngers

Erica : Super cool girl I met her on her first day in training saying hello Erica and Paula asked if we had already met , I said nope I just read the calendar :) ,we started talking more once we learned we had a mutual love for the o.c

Jessica: Very little talk prior to me leaving before Vegas and started sharing some decent laughs before the challenge begun, very cool how this is all started based on her facebook status

Joy: I only knew her as Emily`s babysitter , I don`t think we had spoken a word to each before the challenge.

Kendra: Another one of the friends that is part of the Colette circle that I did not know of prior to the challenge.

Kelly: Always full of energy ,I cannot picture this girl ever being mad

Lane:only talked to her moderately while she was an energy exchanger and was actually suprised to see she had returned to be apart of the studio

Lisa:Actually never spoke a word to each other , just awkward stair downs , yeah you know it Lisa!

Melanie:Was inspired that I joined this group of 100 day challengers that she invited herself in , at this point none of us knew who she was

Melissa: My first encounter with Miss Thang was in grade 9, would see each other randomly every 2 and half years or so and then started talking once this challenge has started

Mika:First encounter was when she was working a karma , we have casually talked since and have always enjoyed good laughs around the studio

Myriam: Super fun person to be around when we had energy exchange shifts on the same day , she was very happy when I finally was able to tie up the extension cord

Paula: First kind of started talking to her at pro aggresive fitness when we had a free week a boot camp during the 30 day challenge.

Sally: First met her through Colette, did not really know who she was prior to the challenge

During challenge

Amelia:Started becoming a regular attendee of my class and found out awesome that during the last stretch of the challenge I would see her everyday via both studios and also really really cool she got engage during challenge time.

Blythe: starting coming to many of my early mourning classes , always the second one out of savasana so she can rush to work , always great to have her there

Carolyn: I always have a good laugh with this girl around and she ended up becoming and energy exchanger , during the challenge so how cool is that! now I see her during the mournings after I teach

Colette:Just became that much closer with this friend always great to have her around ,I just don`t get to see her around the studio as much as I use to.

Ella: Very fun person to be around and I got to meet her baby... TWICE! Glad I got to talk to her more during this challenge

Erica: Had a not so great day final day of the challenge and then she took my class and told me she felt great , felt awesome to help a good friend

Jessica: Probably the person who has gone through the most change , very excited she got accepted into teacher training, prepare for tears my friend

Joy: Started talking to her around day 70 and beyond when she started regularly attending 6 am `s

Kendra: Very fun to be around and enjoy good laughs when she attended the 80s class

Kelly: Always see this girl upstairs either as an energy exchanger or doing ashtanga

Lane: I always see this one at least twice a week and is one of the few who is actually younger than me , Very awesome that she got her family involved in coming and overall a great person

Lisa: Probably I ve grown closest with when you consider the very first starting point , I think for classes attended with a fellow member she probably leads the way and very cool how she love the straight edge!... but not really

Melanie: Very cool how she was willing to donate an entire work of pay to the power of movement funraiser, a very hard worker and I still can`t believe she had four kids

Melissa: We talk wayyy more now compared to the grade 9 days , no more awkwards stare downs of hmmm i think I know this person... do they remember me? She pulled super brave to make her very first hot flow class my 90 minute

Mika: not to play favorite but probably the funnest person to work with at the desk , it seems nearly impossible that she lets stress get to her , plus it s always an opportunity to talk about her twin sister

Myriam: I do hope I see her around again

Paula: We now work out at the same gym and she always up for a good chat whenever were both at Donald.

Sally: I thought it was pretty funny at the beginning of the challenge she had fear of being fired as an energy exchanger

Final reflection will come soon , thanks for everyone who`s been reading my blog , but this is just the beginning!

Day 99: The Excelence of exsecution

Awesome start to my day ,I got to see Tom at Pan am and he really pushed me on stairs during this work out. Got to have a wicked nap after and then got a call from Ryann asking if I wanted to teach 90 minute hot flow , very excited I was considered to fill in which now brings day 100 to me teaching 5 classes in one day which will break my old record.Spent the rest of the day enjoying a good relaxing time and went on to do class with Sherri and taught the last 2 karma classes tonight, it was very fun and I ran into someone who had a crush on me in grade 5 , how random! and that was not a typo!The only little sour note I had is that I seem to have an annoying pain in my right shoulder which is more annoying then painful so I didn`t go to the gym today , we shall see if this is just a minor set back.

Special shout out go to the one and only Bunny, Christa Van Walleghem , one of my biggest supporters since I started going to Moksha , always carryimg a giant smile and had always been there to encourage me when it comes to setting fitness goals. Part of the reason why I actually started blogging was because of her , she sent me the site that would help me be more aware of my work outs and eating, I couldnt really stick to the fitday.com but I would recommend it. When I did havet doubts about my working out she sent me a message that kept me motivated

Christa Van Walleghem February 12 at 9:32am: hey sweet pea! How is life? How is your challenge going? Send me the link to your blog! I would love to read it. My challenge is going well thus far! yay. I had a CRAZY dream 2 night's ago that we were at Boxing together - we were partners doing drills, but we were in SUCH AMAZING shape!!! It was like we reached all of our goals. We looked insanely hot! I was like DAMN YES! This is a dream , and it is going to happen! heheh
Have a great weekend!
C
I plan to remember this message and keep up with my workouts when I am gone to Laos/Thailand and hopefully we will work out together when I come back , you shall be the final piece of the puzzle that helps me win fight club, always be you and don`t ever change.

Day 98: Now it`s time to shine, put it all on the line! Gonna take what`s mine!

Major teaching today starting off with a group of 8 freshly turned 18 year olds lineing up to get into my 6am class,pretty packed for a 6am but overall great atmosphere there`s even someone who bought a five class place and looks to see when I am teaching , I guess she will need a bigger pass:). I went to the gym afterwards and then went home to take a quick nap and then head to boxing the original intention was to do sleep til 11 30 but turned into sleeping in til 3, perfectly ok I had tons of energy to teach the 4 pm class which many of my good friends so we went with the intention of not taking life to seriously forget about your work day and have fun, also note that we had a solid big man roster in attendance , Matt who is 6`4 280, Eric 6`1 300 and Joe! plus me added as YO TEACH! then we got a new rise in all different types of people attending yoga.

The rest of the night after one of my best classes went like this , went on to do hot flow with Ryann where I was sweating extreme bullets here next up was teaching a 90 minute moksha which had a pretty low turn out but it left room for more hip opening since we had more room to work with and then closed off the 9 pm with a nearly sell out crowd pretty the class with some intense work , no real deep back backs and room for deeper stretching to prepare for bed, Simply Flawless

The shout out goes out to Phil and Ry, my very first encounter with Ry was March 26 2008 and actually super surpise she let me film inside class, that was actually so wicked of her considering I could of been just one of those people who simply comes to the studio for the one week intro and is never heard from again, good thing that this wasn`t the case. My first encounter with Phil was about a week and half later and word had already spread about my film ,I was thinking who is this guy and then I am like ohhh Ry`s husband and he just recently got back from T.O I believe. With strong encouragement from both I continued with my yoga practice and less than a month in I was informed that I would be member of the month, I ve decided to include that profile in here and it`s really intresting to see how the studip has changed since
http://launchbox-emailservices.ca/mail/display2.aspx?SID=b5775cad-03fb-44f3-a772-68ee49b4e0af&N=1100

hmmm rule 3 for 30 day challenge
3) Please limit yourself to 2 classes per day as a maximum. Too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing as our bodies need rest!
I like to call this one the Marc rule, though at times I am sure I had caused them concerns for my health and wellness they have always stuck by me and I remember 3 months in Ryann asked if I was thinking about doing a teacher training , I thought she was nuts and that at time hot yoga was all about physical practice and making my arms look nice but as my practice grew, yoga has allowed me to stay connected with life and I am glad to have such great people I consider family being such a big part and influence on my life. In February Phil said "hey marc you`ve been teaching lots lately , pretty soon you won`t need that safeway job" I honestly that wouldn`t happen for awhile but it eventually did about a month ago and life had been pretty smooth sailing since, this has allowed more time for me to put myself first with work outs which have been awesome since I am no longer around a high stresses environment, with the big change in employment,I am almost that much closer to reaching my fitness goal I set out to set 2 years ago(except this time i don`t plan to drop all the weight in 2 months), there is no way I wouldn`t have made it as far as I did without these 2 , I will continue succeed and make my moksha community proud because the last I would want to is dissapoint.

Day 97: I hear voices in my head , they come to me they understand, they talk to me

Well.. well a very awesome start to 6am , with a nice packed class for Moksha flow , not one negative comment recieved , the only real negative thing is attachments to receiving complements because I know one day I will have someone dislike my class and we were taught at training to practice non attachment, because things do indeed change.I ate a little bit of chicken that could of possibly been left out the fridge a bit too long , decided to take a power nap before going to boxing... well I woke up and felt dizzy and was really debating whether to go , well I did and totally got my a$$ kicked by Sue.I did feel great after and took a little break at home watching the classic steven seagal film Under Seige,went to the gym for a bit and took a wicked class from Ali, the unfortunate thing is my sickness from the chicken started kicking in and I felt super dizzy, well i made through class and oh Look who`s teaching the 90 minute right after , well I did something I usually don`t and I took and ibuprofene , when it finally kicked 20 minutes later I felt like teaching and really brought in some crazy positive energy towards the class ,especially since it was Kam`s bday.

The shout out today goes to the self proclaimed Queen of Mean Lisa Mackenzie , extreme . intense and type A! This one has always been a supporter of the Marc blog , even ended up making an account just so she could comment on my blogs , with an account she has began her own blog on be the change. A very important part of my guide to fitness our very first encounter was her telling me and my friend how to punch and my friend had since feared her and has never returned to pan am since. An extreme Jillian Michaels indeed I wonder who the poor person will be that gets paired up with her for fight club haha kidding but seriously, she made it out to my very first class and when she had doubts about moksha , I delivered a great class on a music sunday that got her loving it again , it`s unfortunate I can`t take her class anymore but she still points out when ever i am late when it comes to noon boxing class , I for sure would of made it as far without this intense boxing trainer , i hope to take this with me ,with my month disadvantage at fight club , BRING IT

Day 96: I came to play

Back on track had a nice sleep in til 10 am and went for a hair cut , officially paid to be in fight club and got my boxing on , was approach by someone that asked me how much weight I`ve droped and I ask if he reads my blog(I assumed because he was phillipino and James listed at least three flips that read my blog) but apperently he just remembered me from last summer.Later on during the I made it to studio right before 4pm but suddenly got really sleepy and kind of jsut wanted to chill in the sun ... so I did for 20 minutes went to the gym at pro agressive for the first time and then went on to do a great class from Clancy(she didn`t even say the word JUICY) this led to my first nose bleed of the challenge, could of been from the one legged chattarunga or just too much increase in hot sauce from eating Pho! all was well after and I got to have a nice relaxing night .

Shout out goes to Nena Buduhan, my very first encounter with Big sister was meeting her through my brother 11 years ago watching the blair witch project in Kent`s basement... the next encounter was Robin`s hot flow in 2008 shortly after she got back from teacher training, we totally had one of those I know I `ve seen that person before. I didn`t start really talking to Nena until I started regularly attending hot flow tuesdays and thursdays the old days with head stand and crazy balancing poses, gooood times. Always a fun person to take classes with and often tendency to make jokes at each other before , after and during class and out of the studio just a great overall person to be around , she has been a huge infulence on my practice and teaching and I was very happy to have her in my class Sunday mourning, it`s like how smiles are contagious well so is Nena :0 , never take life to serious or might miss the enjoyment

Day 95:Hurts so good

The easter monday started off great with a 6am class with a pretty big turn and plenty of non regulars attending and I got to leave really happily , feels nice to feel appreciated and respected at a job :), I had the intention of going to boxing at noon but instead I watched the alvin and the chipmunks with the intention of hitting boxing and the gym after 4 pm moksha with Ryann, class was awesome! with Ryann pulling some marc and decided to do Eagle pose twice! I d prefer pravrita uttkatasana . After the class I had a couple of friends unexspectely show up to the studio I was super happy to see them but a little dissapointed I was not the one scheduled to teach their class , after I said my goodbyes and see you laters , I got asked to teach 5:30 which I gladly accepted so everything ended up working out well except for the fact I didnt end up goin to the gym and boxing for 3 straight days.. man that easter bunny will get his.

Special shout out goes to Monica Dominguez she has always been a supporter of me ever since I started at Moksha, she was of the first people to come up to me and express how impressed she was with my dedication to practice and overall fitness changes. She really had her hopes set that we would both do the Toronto teacher training together which would of been really cool but it all worked out in the end :) , I keep hearing from other people that Monica always says positives things about me (when Mirna was in the 30 day challenge she told Monica that she was the next Marc)and she made sure to make it to my first class which gave me a great boost of confidence going into teaching , always someone i can feel free to talk to about anything and I`m sure the same goes both ways. Always sending outs words of encouragement she said my video motivated her to run a marathon which is something i have left to do on my to do list... one day , the only unfortunate thing is now with two studios I barely get to see her but it`s all good I got to spend a solid 3 hours catching up with her at Mirna`s baby shower which made that seem nothing but good despite canada`s men hockey team losing to the U.S. So i thank you Monica super great to see you take my class the other day,stick with being you.