Success with Yoga

Just wanted to share the fantastic experience I've had losing weight, getting in shape and getting my head straight with yoga. This is especially for people who dont have a lot to lose, and getting toned is the main issue. For a couple years before I turned to yoga last November, my weight would not budge from the mid-to-high-140s. It didn't matter what I did, my body was not changing. I used to go through spurts of doing a lot of cardio in those days - sometimes I went through periods where I was going consistently to the gym 3-5 mornings a week for 45 minutes or so at a time. When I was younger (I turned 40 this year), this kind of regimen, along with reasonably watching my diet, would have me dropping weight left and right. But in recent years that was not working for me anymore, and I felt I was getting sicker and more out of shape all the time. I was weak, had so much cellulite, and had sore, inflamed areas all over my body.

All that changed after last summer, but something bad had to happen first. I suffered a couple of injuries in quick succession - first I severely sprained an ankle; the next week, I had a freak accident where I fell on both knees in the middle of a street so hard I damaged some of the cartilage in one knee. I was SO DEPRESSED. There I was, already struggling with my self-image and weight, and now to make matters worse, I could no longer run. I stopped exercising completely for a couple months and just focused on healing. But the healing wasn't happening fast enough and in November, my weight was creeping ever closer to 150, and I was nowhere near being ready to run again, and I knew I had to do something.

In November I found myself reading an article about yoga online. Remembering that I'd been curious about yoga for years and always meant to try it, I realized now was the perfect time. I live in a city where yoga is VERY popular, so it was not hard for me to find a studio. The first few classes I took were hot yoga (not Bikram, but still in a heated setting), and the style was "power yoga," which is basically vinyasa with maybe a slightly greater emphasis on strength-based poses. Let me tell you something, if you think yoga is all about relaxation and stretching, you are mistaken!! I thought I was going to pass out during my first class! It was the hardest workout I had ever attempted in my life, and I was absolutely terrible at most of the poses. But I came away from the experience thoroughly exhilarated because I recognized an opportunity: yoga is so hard that to be good at it, you HAVE to be in great shape. So I set my mind then and there on getting good at it. I would achieve my goal of getting in shape by focusing on a DIFFERENT objective, and that's exactly what's happened. It seems obvious in retrospect that this is possible, but I was so obsessed with weight and numbers for all my life that I had missed seeing this simple but important truth.

In the months that followed I kept doing yoga, 2-3 times a week. After the first month, I found a different studio closer to my office, the convenience of which made it easier for me to stay committed, and I kept right on going 2-3 times a week. Though the other studio does not offer hot yoga, I was still doing vinyasa yoga, and I was still dripping sweat during every class, so it was plenty hard. Slowly, I started getting stronger, and steadily, the pounds came off, too. In November, I weighed 149. Today, I weigh 131.5. I've always considered 125 my "ideal" weight - anywhere between that and 135 I feel great, and lower than that and I start feeling underweight. I am shocked and pleased that after so many years of struggling and losing hope, I am on my way to achieving my ideal weight almost effortlessly. I know I'll get there because I love yoga and I have no intention of quitting. After all these months, I still have quite a ways to go - years, probably - before I'm as strong as I want to be. But I am way stronger than before and so proud of my progress so far.

A couple things I wanted to mention before I go is that the benefits of yoga have gone well beyond simply losing weight. I have gained muscle mass, and as a result, I am more balanced and less "klutzy" than I used to be. My feet have gotten stronger, which is something others getting a little older might be able to appreciate. I love music, but attending concerts was getting to be a painful experience because my feet would start hurting so quickly. Yoga will strengthen your feet so you can be on them longer! I love going to concerts again! The second, last, and most important thing is the mind benefits you get from yoga. I've gained control over what was an increasingly serious issue with anxiety and I''m able to handle stressful situations in my life with greater ease. It's hard to explain why or how this happens; you kind of just have to experience it for yourself.

Well, that's it - for a while I have been wanting to put my story out there to hopefully inspire others, and this seems as good a place as any! Thanks for reading, and if this gives hope to just one person out there, it was worth the effort. Namaste.