Yoga

Restorative Yoga is a perfect antidote for jet lag. I often turn to these poses to feel better following a flight and had the opportunity to share their power with my client Nancy last week, just back from a three week cruise around South America and jet lagged from a ten plus hour flight home. Exhausted, bleary eyed and unsteady on her feet, our typical stretch, strengthen and balance session was not what she needed. I suggested we try some nourishing restorative yoga poses instead.

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There are lots of reasons that yoga helps with weight loss that go far beyond the physical practice. In fact, calories burned alone can’t account for the the power of this ancient practice. I’m living proof. Yoga helps with all aspects of the weight issue–physical, mental, and emotional.

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Friday night I joined twelve women in a Reconnect with Food Candlelight Yoga Workshop led by dietician and yoga teacher, Beverly Price. The session began with a one hour yoga class where poses were held for what seemed to me an interminable amount of time and concluded with a one hour sharing circle complete with talking stick and a mindful eating exercise. It was a great introductory exploration of using yoga and “mindful awareness” to gain a deeper understanding of self-acceptance and self-awareness, especially as it relates to food and eating issues.

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I just finished a great weekend of yoga in Phoenix with Yoga master Erich Schiffman, who refers to his yoga as ‘freedom style.’ Close to 100 people gathered in Phoenix College’s gym to share two days of yoga, meditation and Erich’s message, which is in total alignment with my nourishing-yoga philosophy. Here are a few golden nuggets of wisdom distilled from his lifetime of yoga study and personal practice:

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How do we cultivate healthy habits and make positive changes in our lives? We have two options: we can let go of something that isn’t working or we can introduce something new that will.

For example we can stop (or severely limit) our consumption of french fries or we can commit to eating an extra serving of fruits and veggies every day. Either choice results in a more nourished diet.

To stay balanced it may be helpful to give up something unhealthy and replace it with a better choice, like substituting a side salad for french fries when eating out.

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Nourishing Yoga is a kinder gentler approach to health and fitness that focuses on taking care of ourselves, not beating ourselves up.

We tend to be so hard on ourselves, focusing on our perceived weaknesses and faults, instead of celebrating our strengths. We think that if we just keep working harder, eating less, and denying ourselves, we will lose weight and everything will be perfect.

After a lifetime of struggle, I have learned that diets just don’t work. In fact, studies show that most of us end up gaining more weight than we lost following a diet. It’s time to get off the rollercoaster of deprivation and bingeing. It’s time to take care of ourselves, find balance and stop our extreme behaviors.

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My brother recently came across the following quote from Jack La Lanne and sent it to me.

“There are more gyms now than ever, and all kinds of crackpot diets, too,” he says. “It seems like they’re all out to make money. This stuff is so simple. Like I’ve always said, exercise is king, diet is queen, put them together and you’ve got a kingdom. And, if you want to lose weight, you have to count calories. You’ve got to take in less than 2,000 calories a day or you will never lose weight. These are not new discoveries. And you have to exercise. Not necessarily to the extent that I have. Twenty to thirty minutes three or four times a week is fine when combined with a sensible diet. But work and live vigorously.”–Jack La Lanne
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I love introducing new students to yoga. I feel that it’s my duty as a yoga teacher to make sure their first lesson is a positive experience, leaving them feeling better than before they began and excited to try it again with me or someone else. It is a special gift that I get to share again and again.

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The awareness I have developed on my yoga mat has carried over into my relationship with food and eating. For this I am extremely grateful. Like so many others, I have struggled with eating, weight, dieting, exercising and body image. Caught in the vicious cycle of “good/bad” thinking, my attempts at deprivation eventually led to binging and feelings of guilt and remorse. This pattern became a way of life with only the particular approach to weight control—weight watchers, Atkins, South Beach, Fat Flush, Sommersize—changing.

Often we are stuck in old ways of thinking and acting that no longer serve us. When we finally realize this, we can begin to change our behaviors without lots of pain and suffering. My yoga practice has taught me that by sticking with the practice and getting on the mat with regularity, what needs to come into my life will and what needs to be released will be too. As a result, I enjoy a much healthier relationship with food and with myself.

When we do one good thing for ourselves, it sets up a vibration change, we begin spiraling upward, destructive desires diminish and suddenly we are motivated to do something nourishing for ourselves. Ben and Jerry stop screaming from the freezer. A desire for something healthy like a crunchy apple or something else creamy and smooth like plain organic yogurt develops.

Will I ever eat ice cream again? Yes. Emotional eating is normal. Sometimes it’s just plain fun to have a yummy ice cream on a hot day or a warm chocolate chip cookie right from the oven. The key is to enjoy these occasional treats without guilt and to be conscious if we begin to turn to food for emotional comfort too often.

If we can learn to be with our feelings and explore them, asking important questions like—How do I feel? What do I need? Who am I feeding—My inner child, my hurt ego, my sad self, my rebellious teenager, my self destructive self? How can I support myself with something other than food? What am I getting from this food? How is it serving me? How might I better serve myself?—We can begin to change our chronic patterns and develop new healthy habits, like finding ways to nourish ourselves with things other than food.

Have I mentioned that I love yoga? It’s the only form of exercise I have ever stuck with for any period of time. It’s been over ten years and I hope to keep practicing forever. I try to get to class at least once or twice a week. The rest of the time I practice on my own or with a DVD as accompaniment.

I arrived back in Phoenix recently after three years in rural Wisconsin. It feels so wonderful to be back, especially at this time of year. One of the best things about being back in Phoenix is getting to reconnect with my favorite yoga teachers and studios. My favorite studio in Phoenix, by far, is A Desert Song Yoga and Massage on 7th Street just south of Camelback. It is an oasis in the desert offering a variety of classes. The studio is relaxed and welcoming, attracting a more mature population than some of the other popular Valley studios. The owner and one of my all time favorite teachers is Mary Beth Markus. She has more than 27 years experience teaching yoga and training yoga teachers.

Kelly is one of Mary Beth’s teachers. While spending most of her time doing massage, Kelly teaches the 10:15 AM gentle class on Tuesdays, which I was lucky enough to attend yesterday. There were about ten of us in class. It was just what my body needed: a slow, gentle, yet deep, workout that stretched, strengthened and balanced me in a calm, safe, soothing, and uplifting way.

Most of the Desert Song teachers are influenced by the Anusara approach to yoga, originated by John Friend. It is a style of yoga that focuses on alignment and heart-focused intention, helping develop body awareness while offering an uplifting message to seek the good in all people and in all things. A lot of my favorite teachers are either Anusara certified or affiliated. The alignment principles have helped me learn how keep myself safe and to take care of my back in any yoga class and I always leave class feeling so much better than when I walked in.

If you live in Phoenix and are looking for a great place to practice yoga, I encourage you to give A Desert Song a try.