Jane Huff nearly quit the very first day.
Laying on her sweat-drenched towel, she thought to herself ‘oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?’
She couldn’t breathe, and was panting through her nose. Panic started to set in because she wasn’t breathing properly.
This was Feb. 1, 2010.
Huff is not the type to jump into something without researching it first. But looking back now, she figures not knowing was a good thing.
On Monday, Huff completed an impressive feat, her 365th consecutive day of Bikram yoga, also known as hot yoga.
Hot yoga is practiced in rooms where the temperature is around 40 degrees Celsius with a humidity anywhere from 40 to 50 per cent. Each session lasts 90 minutes.
The room is heated to warm and stretch the muscles, ligaments and tendons and induce sweat.
The warm muscles stretch further, thus reducing the risk of injury and the heat increases the pulse and the body burns more calories in its efforts to stay cool while exercising.
The 45-year-old Huff has always been fit and active, even cycling across Canada in 1987.
Huff was looking for something new and different to help rekindle what she called her declining motivation to hit the gym.
She loves weightlifting and running, but for whatever reason, her usual drive was fading and she knew she needed a challenge, preferably something new and hard.
After hearing her sister mention her hot yoga experience — the words ‘awful’ and ‘hard’ were in the description — Huff decided to give it a try, signing up for the 30-day challenge at Bikram Yoga Langley.
The fact she had already signed up and paid for 30 days proved to be a good thing after the shock of her initial class.
Had she not already committed to the month-long challenge, she very likely would have quit.
“There is probably a good chance I would not have come back because it was that difficult for me,” she says now, with a laugh.
“You think you are fit and strong and you go in there, and that is wiped away.
“Your ego is gone completely.”
Huff was amazed at the physicality of the practice.
“You think yoga, you don’t think the workout of your life,” she says.
One thing was certain: no matter how difficult that first class was, Huff was determined to finish the 30-day challenge.
But a funny thing happened. Huff finished the 30 days and loved it. She joined some fellow classmates who decided they would make it a 60-day challenge.
“Eventually you do learn to control your own breathing, and all the distracting thoughts and anxiety, you learn to control that,” she says.
Another month went by, and Huff still wasn’t satisfied.
“By then I was totally hooked and wanted to do a 100 (days),” she says.
This time, she was alone.
After that, it was one day at a time, and before she realized it, Huff had gone 250 consecutive days of practising hot yoga. Having gotten so far, it only made sense to make it an even year.
When people hear what she is up to, the prevailing question is why would someone want to do this?
“I didn’t really think I would enjoy it as much as I did,” she says. “I think it is just because you feel so fulfilled after every single class.”
Completing the sessions gives a sense of accomplishment.
“Now I feel I haven’t done anything unless I have gotten through that class,” she says.
Huff varies when she goes in for her daily session. That is made easier by the fact the yoga studio is open from early in the morning to into the evening after normal work hours.
She even went in on Christmas Day, and was joined by family and friends.
The streak is not without sacrifices.
She hasn’t gone on any sort of holiday or left town the whole time. That in itself is not that big a deal, especially since Huff runs her own small business in Abbotsford and also has an insulin-dependent cat.
And even after completing her 365-day string of perfect attendance, Huff plans on keeping it going.
“I can’t stop cold turkey, I will probably go through withdrawals (in my) system,” she says with a laugh.
“I still feel like a beginner, I still feel like I haven’t mastered (it) because it requires strength, mental focus, flexibility, all of these things you think you have, but you really don’t until you try this particular type of fitness.”
But when she does choose to take a day off, Huff envisions treating herself to a day at the spa.