My friend told me she’d learned Yoga online with something called Yoga With Adriene. “You’ll love her,” she said. “She’s not a yoga person,” she clarified.

When I looked her up, I saw she had a 30-day program for beginners. I test-watched a video. She was fun and attractive, but it wasn’t distracting. It was more in the way certain ex-girlfriends are attractive — like we’d already had a bunch of sex that tapered off until she no longer found it exciting and left me for a guy who hikes. She said she wanted to be friends, and I said okay, but we never talked, and now I’m watching her YouTube channel because, honestly, I’m proud of her. I bookmarked Adriene’s channel and wrote myself a Post-It note: “Start 30 Days of Yoga Tomorrow!”

I went to my mirror and tried to lift my toe to my ear. I made it to my waist.

Then, I bought a yoga mat. I already had yoga pants — they made me feel sexy. But I mostly used them to eat popcorn.

It was another three months before I finally stood on the mat and hit play. By the end of the Day 1 video, my confidence was up. It wasn’t so hard. I went to my mirror and tried to lift my toe to my ear. I made it to my waist. My whole body shook, and I nearly fell over. I held onto the counter and wrenched my foot up another half-inch.

Day 2: I unfurled my yoga mat and my confidence shot up even higher. Adriene was great. Just when I’d find myself shaking, she’d say “It’s okay to shake, that’s your body waking up!” and I’d think, “Yeah! My body is waking up!”

Day 7: We worked on our balance. She said “Don’t be afraid to hold onto something!” just as I was about to fall over. “Thank you!” I told the video.

Day 10: I felt like a pro. My breathing was steadier and my back didn’t hurt as much. I was taking stairs two at a time. Each day, after yoga, I went to the mirror and tried to touch my toe to my ear. I was getting closer. From my waist, I’d gotten to bellybutton.

Day 15: I barged into my friend’s apartment. “Look!” I grabbed my ankle and lifted my leg up to nearly my nipples. He glanced up from his computer and said, “New shoes?” So I FaceTimed my brother, stepped back, and said, “Look!” And he said, “Wow, pretty soon we’ll have to knock out your two front teeth.”

I completed Adriene’s 30-Day Challenge and wanted more. I began targeting different parts of my body — like my back, which twanged from working on a computer all day. Then my shoulders, which were tired of carrying my backpack. Soft abs? Yoga for abs. Stress? Yoga for stress. Trouble sleeping? Yoga for sleep. Trouble waking up? Morning energizing yoga. Neck, anxiety, sleepiness, hunger, addiction, love, despair — each time, it was “Yoga, baby!”

It’s no wonder that after two months of my Yoga journey, when I developed a pain in my hip, I looked up “Yoga with Adriene Hips.” Every morning I did my Energizing Morning Yoga followed by the six-minute hip video. I got a standing desk at work and listened to a lot of Shakira to keep my hips moving. In conversations, I’d bend over, lift one leg, and frog-crouch. When people asked what I was doing, I’d say “My hips hurt, so I’m doing yoga for them.” Then, catching the look on their face, I’d follow it with, “But I am NOT a yoga person!”