Losing weight after having a baby

Let me start out by saying that I didn’t start practicing yoga for weightloss as I was close to my goal weight when I started practicing and I tend to agree with the traditionalists at the yoga.com forums that beginning a yoga practice for the primary purpose of weight management is a bit misguided and short sighted. I do think it helped lean me out and reshape my body though and has significatnly improved my strength, flexibility and balance. Like SBD itself, which is primarily a healthy eating program with a weight loss component that naturally falls out of the process of changing your diet, weight managment is similarly a side effect of beginning and maintaining a regular yoga practice that also seems to naturally come along with the process. But the process of yoga is still just the process of yoga. It may or may not help you lose or maintain weight at all. I do think it complements and dovetails very nicely with the weight management process and helps in a great many areas of my life beyond the studio and mat, and beyond weight management.

Here are some things I think are synergistic between yoga and the SBD, or likely any lifestyle weight loss/management program.

1. Process. Ideally they are both lifelong processes. You “get better” at weightloss and weight management the more you practice healthy eating principles and adopt them as a core set of your personal practices. You “get better” at yoga the more you practice and the more you adopt yogic principles into your life. Neither one works particuarly well as a part time hobby, IMO. Of the two though, you can practice yoga asana semi-regularly and still likely gain some benefits over time. This is likely not true of eating healthy which is more of a full time deal, IMO.

2. Mindfulness. Yoga helps bring an awareness of body and mind. As we tune into ourselves in new ways, we can use that self awareness to better understand physical hunger sensations, reactions to introducing new foods and examining emotional and mental triggers to our self destructive eating patterns. In addition, as we apply “mindfulness” to our eating, we become more aware of our choices, portion sizes, and fostering a desire to eat that which supports our health and well being in a similar way that a regular yoga practice also supports our health and well being.

3. Being Present. We are often reminded to “be present” on our yoga mats. To live and practice in that moment. For every downward or upward dog we have ever done, none is exactly the same as the one we are in at that moment in time. In order to be successful at weight loss and management, we have to approach each day, each meal, each snack, each time we choose to put something in our mouths, as a new opportunity to make appropriate choices based on the conditions and where we are that day and that moment. If a particular pose doesn’t feel right or may not be available due to an injury for instance, it can and should be modified to accomodate our needs in that moment. If life intrudes on our healthy eating goals, we can modify our choices, if need be, to accomodate those intrusions. We simply do the best we can at that moment and know that there will be more opportunities for improvement at some other time.

4. Consistency vs. Perfection. I often hear in class that we don’t call it a “yoga perfect”, we call it a “yoga practice”. We have to learn to practice self compassion and allow ourselves to be imperfect and understand that it wasn’t our only chance to “get it right”. Practicing yoga regularly gives us the freedom to fail and try again another day. Practicing “eating healthily” regularly allows us the same freedoms in our weight loss/management program. The most important thing is often simply “showing up” day after day!

5. Action builds belief and belief lifts talent. Virtually every intermediate or advanced pose in my repetoire began with someone demonstrating it and me either laughing out loud or to myself with a “yeah right” type of response. The next step was simply trying it anyway and creating action regardless of results or expectations of results. If I could create consistent action, I found small enough signals here and there that led me to believe that it might be possible at some point. And once I believed it could be possible, with enough practice and effort it has generally proven true that it was. If you don’t start, you can’t finish, and if you don’t believe in yourself and what is truly possible, you won’t “get there” either. [/quote}

Edited by redrox 2009-02-16 1:26 AM