i'm going to bikram yoga boot camp...

...at home.

bikram yoga nice

I've been planning to go to the Nice Bikram Boot Camp for a few months now. Unfortunately my family's travel and school schedules get in the way of how I really want to live my life. (Kidding! But seriously, somebody has to be home for the kids!) And I suppose I should start saving for Bikram Teacher Training in October.

I still fully intend to go to Nice sometime this year. But if I can't be at Bikram boot camp in France just yet, why not create the boot camp experience here at home?

bikram nice boot camp program

My 'staycation' boot camp begins on Wednesday, March 14 and ends the following Tuesday. For the next few days my typical weekday will look like this:

• 7am: relaxed breakfast--almond milk coffee in a latte bowl, fruit
• 8am: free time--read, write, walk around the neighbourhood
• 9:30am: yoga, 90 mins
• 12noon: free time--nutritious lunch at home or a cafe, write, watch Friday Night Lights (ha!), shop and prep for healthy dinner
• 6:30pm: yoga, 90 mins
• 8:30pm: free time--healthy dinner, read, write
• 10pm: relaxing beauty treatments (more details in another post), followed by a vegan hot cocoa or chamomile tea
• 11:30pm: lights out

The yoga will be the easy part. I intend to do the morning and evening classes on Wednesday, Thursday, Monday and Tuesday, with a back-to-back on Saturday morning. I'll do the single classes on Friday and Sunday. By the end of my camp, I'll have completed 12 classes and 18 hours in the room.

How do I recreate the French Riviera in Richmond Hill, Ontario? Let's face it. I can't. But for the next seven days I will bring myself to a "Nice, France" state of mind by:

• Controlling my OCD tendencies -- let go of the everyday chores;
• Using my best things -- the good china, the nice linens;
• Limiting the use of tech stuff to 2 hours a day -- yeah, BB and twitter;
• Writing down my intentions, journalling my thoughts; 
• Preparing and eating healthy new vegan dishes;
• Making a conscious effort to be happy and kind;
• Wearing nice clothes, even if I'm just going to the studio;
• Discovering new places in the GTA -- cafes, shops, interesting sights;
• Finish reading The Corrections; 
• Indulging with a single macaron each day;
• Surrounding myself with French stuff -- music, Eiffel Towers, books. They're all over my house anyway. 

By the end of the week (which coincidentally leads to my birthday), maybe I'll have a new relationship with my body and mind. Or at least have made some progress in my Bikram yoga practice.

As if I'd been to Nice.