I tried Bikram yoga for the first time in November, about 10 years behind everyone else. Nonetheless, I fell in love with it. Sweating that much has to be a workout…I googled it and I burned 1000 something calories for my weight (the website was OBVIOUSLY totally valid) in one class, and I didn’t even have to run anywhere! Curvy people in spandex (only applicable in Midwest classes), skinny people in spandex…it was a workout free for all! Could this be? A workout I liked? This was too good to be true!

30 days after that first class reality hit…My $30 all-you-can-Bikram-for-a-month membership was up! How quickly a month passes…So I went to the website of my Lincoln Park yoga studio to look up what my next yoga package would be only to be shocked by figures such as $15 a class (the price of a new shirt from Forever 21!)…$150 per month?! In this economy??? As a newlywed who’s ever dependable credit card had been yanked from her hand (smartly) by her husband, there was no where to turn.

Bikram withdrawl was soon to follow. I said things like “Someone will get me Bikram classes as a Christmas gift, then I will go back”. “I will have 3 less Miller Lites at the bar and use that money to pay for Bikram!” Unfortunately, these were empty promises to myself, and I did not feel the 105 degree warmth for the month of December or January.

Then, one fateful day in February I wandered in to a Best Buy that just happened to be down the block from my Bikram studio. I was looking for a gift to buy for my husband who I had been especially unpleasant with (OBVIOUSLY a result of lack of Bikram) when I stumbled upon the Nintendo Wii Fit. He wanted to get back into shape, he looooved the Wii and this combination was the answer. What a totally selfless gift to give my husband!Or so I thought.

Little did I know, the Wii…the video game that I despised and my husband stared at for hours on end… was the fix to my yoga deprivation. I decided to try it one day as an excuse to skip the gym. That is the day I stumbled upon Wii Fit yoga. With 15 yoga poses that an ever so encouraging trainer works you through, how can you go wrong? No one can see that I’m really not flexible, or that my downward dog is a disgrace. I roll out of bed in the morning, stumble into the living room, press a button and presto….I’m in my own personal yoga class!!!! The Wii even tracks my balance and tracks my posture on poses! I can hardly wait until the summer when it actually is 105 degrees and I have my own personal Bikram studio in the comfort of my own living room!!! I don’t even have to be frightened by that first breathing exercise….

One day, the stock market will go up and I will feel the warmth of a Bikram studio. Until then….Wii fit, $100 dollars until you break it. Bikram yoga, $150 per month. Beat that Suze Orman.

http://www.amazon.com/Wii-Fit-Nintendo/dp/B000VJRU44

Original Post 3.31.2009