So for years now I have practiced some form of mind-body exercise. First it was Yoga, then about 6 years into my practice of Yoga, I started to learn T'ai Chi. T'ai Chi is a very different way of moving than Yoga but similar in that they are both mind-body exercises. So, I was practicing/teaching both Yoga and T'ai Chi in a Pilates studio and I began trading payment for teaching my classes for some personal Pilates sessions. Pilates is more similar to Yoga than T'ai Chi, but is still very distinct in the way it's practiced. My instructor insisted on precision! She was so tough on me - in a good way - and I am so thankful that I learned to perform all of the Pilates exercises correctly, safely and effectively! It's key when practicing this rigorous core strengthening exercise! If you get lazy, you could easily throw out your back! But if you practice correctly with precision, your back just keeps getting stronger and stronger... not to mention your entire core! So, along with Yoga and T'ai Chi, Pilates is a perfect compliment making all 3 of these the perfect combination for strength, balance flexibility and mindfulness.
I wanted to start this post out by letting the reader know how serious I am about my mind-body exercises. They serve as my "bookends" each day and I believe these forms of exercise (moving meditations) that I practice daily help me to naturally live a mindful life, give me great energy for the entire day and keep my joints, muscles and bones strong and flexible for the more rigorous forms of exercise that I enjoy. Each morning begins at 5:30 with T'ai Chi. It gently wakes my body and even if my back or other joints are really stiff, I always feel less pain and stiffness by the time I am finished at 6:00. After getting my kids off to school I love to exercise! And I mean a full-on-cardio, hour-long session! I believe that the T'ai Chi that starts my day gives me great energy for my cardio workout. Of course, I also eat a good breakfast which includes COFFEE, fruit, nuts and something yummy like toast and peanut butter (or sometimes a chocolate croissant!) Anyway, after my cardio workout (which is generally a combination of spinning on the eliptical machine and a run on the treadmill OR a swim) I practice Yoga or Pilates. I also add in a strength routine twice a week which is in my home, with a stability ball and using my own body weight as resistance. I like to do this routine before I go to the gym and it generally takes me about 30 minutes. I absolutely love my routine of cardio workouts that are bookended with T'ai Chi and either Yoga or Pilates. It's worked so beautifully keeping me in the best shape of my life. I admit, I am somewhat of an exercise addict. Many years ago (I'm almost 50) I was a NCAA Division I All-American Cross Country runner and a college coach for 10 years. It's in my blood to train like a college athlete and I am lucky that it does come easily and naturally to me. But, I weighed a lot more in the last couple years of college than I do now. So, being fit and at your ideal weight is not just about working out. It's about how you eat that's equally if not more important. I don't like to use the word "diet". It connotes restrictions and denial. I pride myself on eating whatever the he#% I want! But it wasn't always that way for me. In college I had a coach who pressured his athletes to weigh as little as possible. The "diets" he tried to put us on didn't work on me and I actually gained weight. I learned then that if you tell me NOT to eat a particular food because it's going to make me fat, I will want to eat it even more. So, he told me all of the foods to avoid and I ended up gaining more weight - even with all of the exercise I was doing at the time! I was at such a competitive level in college that it was not unusual for me to run 70 miles in a week! I had really done a number on my metabolism. My body was in starvation mode and held on to every calorie I consumed and most of it was in the form of sugary, starchy processed foods. Think, white bread and pasta, baked potatoes, donuts, cookies, pizza... I hadn't yet learned how to combine carbohydrates, proteins and fats to best fuel the body and rev up my metabolism. It was years later that I became aware of very simple changes which helped me end this horrible cycle of binging and exercising. Yes, I believe I had a form of bulimia. The more I ate, the more I exercised, the more I ate, etc. I decided that I was going to reset my metabolism but it meant I had to back off the exercise! And this is where the mind-body exercises REALLY came into play... and took my off of that horrible cycle for good!
I am a mother of 4 and being pregnant was the beginning of my mind-body exercise journey. I began Yoga shortly after discovering I was pregnant with my first child. I received a book titled, "Yoga During Pregnancy" (or something close to that) and I immediately began to read and practice the poses. I devoured the book and it became my bible for the next 8 months and beyond. I understood how Yoga helped my body during pregnancy, labor and after the birth of my child. I was calm and relaxed during labor and I was able to give birth naturally - no drugs. I attribute this to just good genes/luck but also to the mindfulness I learned to achieve with my yoga practice. The labor pains were awful but I was able to somehow observe them and allow them to help the whole process. Breathing, of course was key which I had also learned to do effectively with my Yoga practice.
I realize that I just took off on a tangent. I tend to do that when I start thinking about how and why I began Yoga in the first place. Suffice it to say that Yoga helped me give birth naturally to all of my babies and was the key to "getting my body back" after they were born. Now...on to the original point I was trying to make.
How did these mind-body exercises, over the years, help me to eat mindfully which in turn helped me reset my metabolism and end my unhealthy cycle of exercising/bing-eating and craving a diet of ?highly processed carbohydrates? The answer is, I'm not exactly sure. However, I believe, without a doubt, that it is living a more mindful life that leads us away from unhealthy and addictive behaviors. Along with my daily bookends I practice a daily seated meditation. I used to hate this so much. I am a mover and this is why Yoga/Tai Chi/Pilates feel so good and natural to me. But just sitting there!?It's so difficult! Your mind races and you get so fidgety and you want to scratch an itch or check your phone. You feel like your wasting time. It's really horrible! That is...until you just do it! And you notice these subtle changes, not unlike what you may experience with the moving meditations. I believe being still and just breathing is the perfect compliment to the breath-guiding-movements of T'ai Chi, Yoga and Pilates. There's this synergism that happens and it is transformational. I trusted these exercises enough to take a break from the cardio workouts for several years when I had babies and toddlers. I could fit in a Yoga or T'ai Chi practice in at home, during nap time but getting out on a run presented a challenge. So, I had to trust my body to re-establish a healthy metabolism with much less exercise. For me I began to naturally know and trust what my body needed to eat. Luckily, I had always loved vegetables and fruits and luckily, I had always been interested in nutrition. So, now what my body craved to eat was no longer sugary, starchy carbohydrates that I KNEW were not good for me. (I have always been one to give in to cravings!) Now my body began craving healthy stuff. I craved proteins as much as sweets and since I'm a meat eater I started to eat a lot more meat. I didn't fall for the notion that avocados and nuts were too fatty. I continued to use olive oil and butter. I knew that a food close to or in its original form had to be better than the highly processed stuff. What I didn't stop craving was fat from sources like dairy products. Whole milk became my go-to. I figured if I was fully satisfied from whole milk, whole milk yogurt, whole milk cheese, gourmet ice cream, etc. I'd savor each delicious taste and eat less than the fat free versions. And turns out, I was right. I feel fortunate to have an almost sixth sense when it comes to what I can eat and still loose weight. I now weigh 15 pounds less than I did my senior year in college while eating EXACTLY WHAT I WANT! I just know when to stop, naturally. I rarely over-eat and when I do, I don't beat myself up...I just know that mindfulness will kick in next time. I have learned to trust myself and forgive myself and I am able to listen inwardly so much better than when I was younger. I guess there is something really great about approaching 50. I've learned how to age gracefully with my bookends. I feel fit and healthy. Yes, I am back to those vigorous cardio workouts and I can afford to eat a few more calories to fuel those workouts...but I rely much more on simply being mindful of what my body needs to sustain life each and every day.
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