I've been pretty diligent about getting exercise for nearly 20 years now. When I turned 30, I resolved to getting some regular exercise. First, I did karate for 10 years. In the midst of doing karate, I also joined a gym and was good about going to the gym in addition to karate. When I took my physical fitness exam for my second degree black belt test, I would argue that I was in the best shape of my life. In terms of endurance and cardio strength, I was there. My pulse was regularly around 50 bpm, which is really low for those who know about such things. In fact, there were a couple of times when I went to give blood, and they were nervous about taking my blood because my pulse was so slow.
During this period, I also started to eat healthier and less. As a result, I lost weight. But I remained heavier than I would have liked. And heavier than made sense to me. I was eating 1,800 calories a day and exercising for an hour at a time 4-5 times a week. That's a recipe for not only being in shape but losing weight. I was in fine shape - healthy that is - but not slim.
I resigned myself that I just wasn't ever going to get slim unless I went to an extreme and really dieted for a period of time. I don't believe in diets. It seems to me that people go on these diets and then, as soon as they are done dieting, the weight goes back on. As they teach you when you're serious about losing weight, you have to change your eating habits. I had already done that. And I wasn't really happy with the idea of eating less for any extended period of time to quickly shed pounds. Instead, I stuck with my plan, which was slimming me down but slowly now that I had plateaued and my body was used to the amount of exercise and reduced calorie intake.
Then about three months ago (maybe a bit more - I have a terrible memory for time), I started doing yoga more seriously. I had been doing a yoga-like class at my gym for a while, but only once a week and not even consistently once a week. But my joints were getting achy from running and I missed the flexibility that I had once had with karate. So I decided that I would try yoga more seriously and bought some yoga DVDs. I wasn't convinced that yoga would be enough exercise - especially given that I was used to 4-5 hours of cardio a week - but I thought I'd mix it in with the other exercise.
Then I started teleworking more, and I was having trouble making myself get out to the gym. And I was working a lot of hours. The DVDs helped me still be able to get some exercise. I thought they were better than nothing, but as I said, I wasn't convinced that yoga by itself was going to be enough.
And then one day, I put on my knee-high boots. And they zipped up much better than they ever had before. There was even - gasp! - a little extra room around my calves. My legs are my worst feature. I hate them. They have always been heavy, and I was resigned that they always would be. Could it be that yoga was actually having an impact on them?
I was excited. If I could find a way to slim down, that would be amazing. I started doing yoga almost exclusively. And I've found that my socks go further up my calves than they used to as well. And the legs of my pants actually move around my legs as I walk, rather than having my legs stuffed into them like sausages.
But what truly has convinced me that yoga is tough exercise is when I stopped for a week or so. And then went back to it. I got sick and was working too much. The combination led to no exercise for about a week. Relatively unheard of in my 30s and 40s. When I got healthy again, I did one of my yoga DVDs. And was amazed at how sore I was the next day. I've done the DVDs for the past couple of days, and I really feel it. So I'm convinced.
Yoga, perhaps, finally offers me a way to be both in good shape and slimmer. I'm optimistic again for the first time in a while. We'll see what happens from here, but progress is good.
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