The begining...

Hello everyone out there! 

Let me tell you how excited I am to be starting this new month! So far this year I have accomplished a bunch of new goals, and I thought to myself: "How can I make November be a month full of doing new things, while still achieving my goals?". This is where the idea of doing a new yoga class, at a new studio, in hopes of finding a new me (which is quite a quest on it's own).

I realize as I'm writing this that many of you readers out there probably have no idea who I am, so how could you know if I've found a new me at the end of the month right? Well my name is Stephanie Berry and I am 22 years old (almost 23!!) I moved to Ottawa in 2006 to attend Algonquin College where I studied Early Childhood Education and graduated April 2009. Before moving to Ottawa I lived in London Ontario with my mother, Andrea, and I was a huge figure skater and synchronized skater (think synchro swim team on ice with 23 girls). When I moved to Ottawa it was going to be my first year EVER not skating... which was really quite scary to me. I cannot even begin to explain how much I loved skating, and the thought of a new city, new school, and no skating really was an eye opener. Of course we have the amazing canal every winter (which believe me, I have taken more than advantage of every winter that I've been here!) but nothing has ever been the same as skating. So I decided I needed a new passion...and following in my mom's footsteps (no pun intended) I started to run! Of course I use to run when I was training with my synchronized skating team and ran in public school on the cross country team, and have done the Terry Fox run every year of my life (even before I was born, complements of my mom!) but now I wasrunning!! I've since run the Army 5km, new years resolution run every year, Ottawa Race Weekend full marathon, Rattle Me Bones 5km, I've completed two triathlons and the list is growing! 

Here enters lululemon and yoga... I started working at lululemon this August, and was fully introduced to the art of yoga. Now I've done every fitness and spin class offered at GoodLife, including yoga and bodyflow, but the first time I went to a yoga studio and experienced the wonders of the om prayer... now THAT was incredible! I have attended quite a few classes or various styles of yoga, but this is were my new November challenge comes in! I have been working on re-vamping our community board (check it out!!) and when I was looking at all of our affiliated yoga studios and all of the types of yoga that they offer I thought: "Man, what have I been doing this whole time? I'm missing out on a LOT of cool things here!!"

So here's my goal for November:

1. Attend two yoga classes a week (on top of other fitness classes and running... of course)

2. Attend a class at a new studio each week, until I have been to EVERY affiliated studio in Ottawa

3. Attend a new style of yoga so that I can successfully choose my favourite style (or top 10 list anyways)

This might seem easy to some of you, but it will be very interesting to me to see what I can learn along the way! And one of my goals for the end of the year is to lift my leg above my head (like I used to be able to when I figure skated) without bending my knee. If you see me in the store, please ask through out the month: "Hey Steph, how high is your leg? How are the classes? Can I join you?"  I look forward to meeting new people, seeing new places, and being sore...very sore (and HAPPY to be sore)

I have one request of all you readers (you out there??) If you have some favourite classes or locations, please let me know and I will be more than willing to join you!

Happy November everyone, keep reading as I will be posting a weekly update!