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Yoga
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siderea wrote about starting yoga, I'm feeling a little inspired at the moment.
I love exercise. I'd forgotten how much. And I got back to it about 18 months ago wheneanja and I started at a little local yoga studio.
I don't think there was a single class when I wasn't the fattest woman there. For the first several classes, that embarrassed me a bit, but nowhere near the level of embarrassment I'd get at other types of exercise.
There were a couple of factors playing in to the lesser embarrassment/no embarrassment. The first was that the classes were just difficult enough that no one did every pose perfectly. They also emphasized the idea of "keeping your concentration on your own mat" which meant that most of us weren't looking at each other most of the time. It helped.
Side note, there was one Thursday night class when the teacher wanted to experiment with holding the poses longer -- beginner classes don't just modify some of the poses they usually don't hold them as long -- and wanted to make sure we had the props we needed to keep things from being uncomfortable. The pose was the one that's often called the butterfly pose and it's preparation for cobbler's pose which is preparation for lotus. Essentially you sit with your feet together, knees out. It's a groin opener.
We had a couple of women in this class who were skinny and pretty flexible and who didn't keep it to their mat. I'd caught a couple of glances and giggles at me and overheard at least one comment about too fat for yoga. I don't know if the teacher caught the remark, but I do know that she knew my strengths (believe me, the flexibility in my hips is a genetic gift) and this pose played to them. I hit the pose perfectly without props. I was the only person in the room to do so (that includes the teacher). The girls kept to their own mats afterward. I never heard another comment.
I lost a little weight, about 20 pounds over the year.
I've been trying to manage a sun-salutation every morning, and I find that my body will also crave other poses.
When my dad got sick, I asked my sister to get us a membership at the YMCA (she'd made the offer earlier, I wasn't making demands). She never got around to it. Mom offered me a membership at Curves. I wasn't interested because there was no possibility of swimming, but Dad found a swimming solution for me. So I tried Curves.
I haven't lost any weight. But while I was with my folks, I was eating more than I've eaten in ages because we ate out every night. I didn't gain any weight either. I've lost inches, and I feel stronger than I have in years (at least physically).
Now that I'm visitingjerminating, I'm walking, too. There are walking and running paths just up the street and I've used them nearly every day. I seem to cover about a three mile area. I can hear the birds sing and the water burble and smell the freshest air I've been around in a good long while.
I like using my body. I missed this part of me. It's good to have it back.
siderea wrote about starting yoga, I'm feeling a little inspired at the moment.I love exercise. I'd forgotten how much. And I got back to it about 18 months ago when
eanja and I started at a little local yoga studio.I don't think there was a single class when I wasn't the fattest woman there. For the first several classes, that embarrassed me a bit, but nowhere near the level of embarrassment I'd get at other types of exercise.
There were a couple of factors playing in to the lesser embarrassment/no embarrassment. The first was that the classes were just difficult enough that no one did every pose perfectly. They also emphasized the idea of "keeping your concentration on your own mat" which meant that most of us weren't looking at each other most of the time. It helped.
Side note, there was one Thursday night class when the teacher wanted to experiment with holding the poses longer -- beginner classes don't just modify some of the poses they usually don't hold them as long -- and wanted to make sure we had the props we needed to keep things from being uncomfortable. The pose was the one that's often called the butterfly pose and it's preparation for cobbler's pose which is preparation for lotus. Essentially you sit with your feet together, knees out. It's a groin opener.
We had a couple of women in this class who were skinny and pretty flexible and who didn't keep it to their mat. I'd caught a couple of glances and giggles at me and overheard at least one comment about too fat for yoga. I don't know if the teacher caught the remark, but I do know that she knew my strengths (believe me, the flexibility in my hips is a genetic gift) and this pose played to them. I hit the pose perfectly without props. I was the only person in the room to do so (that includes the teacher). The girls kept to their own mats afterward. I never heard another comment.
I lost a little weight, about 20 pounds over the year.
I've been trying to manage a sun-salutation every morning, and I find that my body will also crave other poses.
When my dad got sick, I asked my sister to get us a membership at the YMCA (she'd made the offer earlier, I wasn't making demands). She never got around to it. Mom offered me a membership at Curves. I wasn't interested because there was no possibility of swimming, but Dad found a swimming solution for me. So I tried Curves.
I haven't lost any weight. But while I was with my folks, I was eating more than I've eaten in ages because we ate out every night. I didn't gain any weight either. I've lost inches, and I feel stronger than I have in years (at least physically).
Now that I'm visiting
jerminating, I'm walking, too. There are walking and running paths just up the street and I've used them nearly every day. I seem to cover about a three mile area. I can hear the birds sing and the water burble and smell the freshest air I've been around in a good long while.I like using my body. I missed this part of me. It's good to have it back.
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