Reassessing Goals

Walkywalkerson wrote: »

Thanks for the replies re : old looking skin on the face.
It's good to know that some of you saw a lot of change after a while in maintenance.
I used to weigh 150lbs in my early 30's and was happy at that weight.
But my body is a different shape now 15+ years later - so I'm unsure of how my body will look after I gained so much weight.
My starting weight was 232lbs - I am definitely not happy at my current weight of 165lbs - so I aim to lose an additional 15lbs and reassess.
I've been trying some home strength exercises as I can't stand the gym - but I'm finding it boring so it's difficult to stay motivated.
Someone on this thread mentioned yoga - that's a good idea thanks.
I'm shaking up my diet at the moment and trying new recipes/ macros as I'm in a food rut and have plateaued since January 🙄
At least I know I can maintain- so silver linings and all!
The last 15lbs is on my belly - it's not a good look!
Has anyone had any success losing fat with yoga?

Absolutely! But not directly. I started yoga not long before I stopped medicating with alcohol. So there was a big calorie difference between self-soothing with an activity that BURNS calories vs self-soothing with a substance that CONTAINS calories AND leads me to eat more and move less.

Oh, here's a good time for me to say that anyone who claims that yoga doesn't burn a lot of calories has never practiced Ashtanga

You'll get a wide range of calorie burns across different styles of yoga. I hurt my wrist in November, and while it's healing, have been doing a lot of gentle and restorative classes. These are great for my mood, mental health, sanity, etc., but sure don't burn a lot of calories.

I'm well enough to do yard work now, but still can't do Downward Dog I have PT tomorrow and thought I'd do some DD last night, but I only got as far as hands and knees and realized my wrist is still very far away from being able to support any weight.

So as to learn form correctly and prevent injuries, I recommend that anyone interested in learning a vigorous style of yoga such as Ashtanga, Power, etc., do it in a studio rather than self-directed.

kshama2001 wrote: »

springlering62 wrote: »

NYPhotographer2021 wrote: »

I do this very simple, very isolated form of core development. You can do this no matter what you are doing...sitting at a desk, lying in bed, driving, standing in line. Breathe in deeply thru your nose. Breathe out thru your mouth until you've expelled as much air as possible. Then deeply suck in your abs like you are trying to touch your abdominal wall to your back. Hold for 10 counts, then release. Do 3-5 of those. I don't hold my breath doing these. But I take small, shallow breaths. So no worries of me passing out driving the car down the road! LOL! If you really want to take it to the next level, do it while you are planking! I know I have stronger ab muscles. You just can't see them because of all the dang fat in front of them!

These are the “stomach vacuums” outlined a year or so ago by @ninerbuff and they are the bomb.

I started out of curiosity, idly doing them while walking, then longer and longer, holding them as long as I could. I feel like they’ve helped my stomach area enormously, not to mention my posture.

I was looking at apple health stats yesterday and realized I’ve gained almost a tenth of an inch in height since I started in 2018. (How does it know?!!!) At my age, it’s supposed to be heading the other direction.

Hell yeah!

cmriverside wrote: »

Has anyone had any success losing fat with yoga?

But...you know that fat loss comes through calorie deficit, right? Yoga is good for you, but it's still all happening in the kitchen.

Maybe my studio is outside the norm, but the folks who take the power yoga classes are really fit. This isn’t the yin or slow stretch type classes. These are the classes that leave you gasping for air (or not, if you’re breathing properly.). OTOH I’d say it’s a safe bet that we’re all doing other stuff, too- running, mostly, but we’ve got dancers, rock climbers, lifters. My experience has been, you get out of yoga what you put into it. It’s not like “I’m zen, my LuLus are chillin’, and I’m magically growing muscles”.

All the dedicated Ashtangis and Jivan Muktis I knew were also really fit, and yoga was all they did. But they did a LOT of it.

We’ve got a guy my age’ish who was run over by a tank while serving in the military. The treads broke nearly every bone in his body.

I just thought he was a normal but good yoga practitioner til someone whispered his story to me.

Now, any time I feel like something hurts or I’m too tired to cope, I look at his smiling face on the next mat and I am totally humbled.

Prior to pregnancy, “all” my daughter did was teach yoga. She was stacked. She’s chomping at the bit to get cleared to start again.

Day 1 here and with journey. I have enjoyed reading this. Thank you all for sharing. I really DO need to take a START photo.. ugh.

Maybe forget about a target weight and focus on a target lifestyle. Maximize your health and strength and just see what happens to your body in the process?

antigymrat wrote: »

At our age, we don't have to really worry about our faces anymore. Being fit is way more important. Leave the face worrying to the younger women.

We need a nuclear button for Insightful / Inspiring / Like / Hug.

If I could use it once a year, I’d have spent it here.