40 Days to Fabulous? Uptown Writer Sheri Joseph decides to transform her life at Yoga One in the next 40 days with one pair of yoga pants and a clearance mat from Marshall’s…Can she do it?

Opening/The basics
It all started with a phone call. Todd the Editor calls me and issues a challenge: 40 Days of Yoga at the Yoga One studios downstairs from our offices. There’s a book we have to read, a motivational speaker, meditation, 5 days a week of yoga studio practice and a meeting every Sunday. Oh, and did I mention the fruit fast? Can’t wait for that one. “Do you think you can do it? I mean, if we set this blog up, you need to really do it. I don’t want to hear any excuses about you having a bad hair day and not feeling like going to yoga,” Todd the Editor says with sarcasm. Those are fightin’ words, since I have WAY more hair than Todd (he’s just jealous), but they are motivating. 40 days of Yoga? OK. Sure. I’m kinda fit and I like introspective thinking and meditation is like napping to wind chimes. I agree to do it even if most of my workout sessions consist of reading a People Magazine while on the elliptical machine and the last thing I read without falling asleep was a permission slip for my son’s field trip. I tell my friends and family. They’re pretty supportive. MJ goes to Wal-Mart and buys a bunch of organic produce, my friend Staci LeFleur* actually signs up for the class and even my mother says something about this being just in time for bathing suit season. My pal Walker Baggage* is skeptical, however. “Whose dumb idea was this?” she asks as she hides from her kids and smokes a cigarette. I love Walker, always looking on the bright side. She agrees to occasionally watch my kids while I go to yoga class, since they don’t have childcare there and it’s illegal to leave the kiddies in the car, if you didn’t already know that.

The opening session starts promptly at 6:30. Those yoga people seem really laid back, but they are prompt. I get there 5 minutes late and they’ve already started. We all sit on the floor of the main studio; maybe about 60 people. There are various ages. A couple of guys (Matt from Uptown is there), but mostly women. Young, middle aged, all shapes and sizes are represented. Trudi Lacey, the motivational speaker and life coach, leads the group through discussions. Question: Why are you here? I stand and say my name and that I’m doing this to gain courage in my life. Yikes! I’m surprised I was that honest.

We go through a “Wheel of Life” exercise where we list various aspects of our lives and rate them from 1-10, creating a visual representation of where an imbalance in our lives may lie. My life average is about a 6. Pretty good, but there are a few spots where I could use some work.
We get homework. For the first week, read the first 2 chapters of Baron Baptiste’s ‘40 Days To Personal Revolution,’ answer the questions in a journal, meditate twice a day…This is stressing me out! But I remember the riddle: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Trudi gives us 2 additional assignments.

1) Unclutter one area of your life--this could be a drawer. The point is to open some space for newness in your life.

2) Answer the question ‘What is the hard truth about me?’ Yowsa… So let’s go. The elephant is ready for eating. Peace, Sheri

* Sheri’s friends have chosen aliases to protect their identities

~ Sheri Joseph