Hot and Bothered

For the first time since the beginning of the year, I weighed myself. I've been exercising a lot more as I have a gym and a pool in my building. I try and swim everyday. I've also been walking as much as possible. So it was a bit of a shock horror moment when I looked down and had PUT ON WEIGHT!!! 5kgs no less! WHAT!!?? I couldn't believe it. I mean, I never never ever expected to be teeny tiny. I'm 5"4 with boobs and butt so I'll never Kate Moss waif-esk (thank god!!!). I'm more in the Scarlett Johannsen category (although she is 9kgs lighter than me *gggrrrroooaaan*). Living in Thailand gives you a bit of a weight complex to begin with. I feel like a giant here. The girls are so itty bitty. There is not a drop of fat on them. Their frames are tiny to. I don't usually get too upset about it until I go clothes shopping and the shop assistant holds up something that looks like a moo moo.

So, instead of getting sad and mopey I decided to get off my arse and do something about it. I had heard excellent things about hot yoga. I had been wanting to get back into yoga anyway to try and regain some of my flexibility, strengthen my knees and improve my balance. Hot Yoga is pretty much the same as regular yoga except it's done in a room heated to 37 degrees. It's supposed to help detoxify your system and warm your muscles up so you can push stretches further. You also sweat like woah!!

I shopped around for a studio that had everything I needed and found it in Absolute Yoga at Amarin Plaza. I swear, it's like this place was made for me. The studio space is wonderful! Firstly, the studio is HOT PINK (no-one else finds this as exciting as I do)!!!! Secondly, all the class times are very convenient for me. Thirdly the studio is walking distance from from my house. I could go on and on listing the awesome reasons that I love this studio like how clean the change rooms are, how helpful and friendly the staff are, that they have plastic bags for your gross sweaty clothes, how they supply all the towels for you and so on and so forth. The teachers are wonderful too. Very encouraging and always will to come over and help or give advice after class.

The classes themselves are a hard slog. I both hate and love them at the same time. The teachers are fantastic at describing exactly what you need to be dog and what your body position should be. I always simile when we're doing a position and the teachers say things like "One day your knee will be in your armpit!!". You kind of think "Do I really want that to happen??". I usually do the 90 minute class. At the end of it I'm ridiculously sweaty but pretty blissed out and a little tired. I have this wonderful stretched out limber feeling which I keep for about an hour. It's totally worth doing the few positions that are a bit painful, like the half lotus OUCH!!!!

I would definitely recommend stopping by if you are in Bangkok and feel the need for fitness. The classes are a little pricey individually at 600 baht a pop but if you're here for a while they have different membership packages that might suit you and that will save you some cash.

I love it. I'm totally addicted, which is saying a lot considering how much I hate sweating all the time here and I'm now going somewhere to sweat on purpose. Oh and it turns out I haven't put on any weight. I weighed myself on the (hopefully) more accurate scales at the gym and I've actually lost 2kgs. Which means I never really needed to go to yoga anyway. But I'm glad I did!!!!