Losing weight as a practice

"I don't stop eating when I'm full.   The meal isn't over when I'm full.   It's over when I hate myself."

Louis C.K.

  

The Yoga Sutras are full of direct and implied commands that the yoga process is that…it is a process.   The only thing we really do in yoga is practice again and again.   We don't really practice to get it right because we are different every time we get on the mat.  We just keep moving through it. 

Don’t you love it when your kids are gurus?  I have a son who is now a piano professor and a performer.   We never had to make him practice the piano.  He loves to practice.   He sometimes drove us crazy with his practicing.   

He has taught me that practice is its own thing.   It is its own reward.   Surrendering to the process is what works.   Of course he practices to make it perfect---he has a goal in mind but he knows he will never reach perfection and he is cool with that.   He loves the process of moving toward it.  

Think about letting go of the goal.   The practice is the goal.   Just process.  

Using yoga as our vehicle, our metaphor---off the mat, we also practice eating better and less than we can not concerned with the outcome.   We know our bodies will change.   We know that we can trust the process.   If we eat less, move more, breathe and release our stress---we will let go of our excess weight.

Let's surrender to it and love the process we are in.   How fulfilling would that be?

Maybe we can even try on a little gratitude for having weight as an issue in this lifetime.   It is so direct. It is right in front of us.   So in our face!

I trust the process of life and I am safe.

Namaste!

Dean

Eating less than you can when you want to eat more!

I have this a helpful belief that our past is not our future.  

Affirm right now that you are willing to forgive your past eating behaviors and let them go.  You move forward choosing loving, life affirming, eating habits.

Now honestly we know that old habits are hard to let go of.   If I have the habit of eating too many pistachios when it is a rainy crappy weekend like last weekend, I have to find a way to sneak up on myself and think of a new way to under eat pistachios.   

Now, I believe in gateway foods.    I have them and I bet you have them too.   Those are the foods that contaminate my intention to eat less than I can!   It seems that once I give myself permission to eat them, I’ve opened the door, and it takes a divine act to get me to stop from repeating that behavior.   I wonder how quickly I can accept that Divine help!  Instead, I start with guilt, beat myself up awhile, then I reason, I give in, I start over----blah, blah, blah.  My latest thing is I tell myself my body is craving this for a reason that it must need something that pistachios provide.   Really?   Pretty creative.

I wonder what it would feel like to not have a habit of overeating pistachios or any other gateway food?

I’ve found that I have to treat certain foods differently (I stay away from those foods and tell my brain and body, it is just for awhile so I can get myself on track and in touch with what my body really needs---it likes that need thing.)  It allows me to delay my overeating behavior and gives me more choices.   My brain also goes happy crazy with more choices!  

Let’s talk about successful people who have lost weight and kept it off---one of the number one things that they have in common is that they don’t diet.   I find that so irritating somehow but the research is pretty solid.   Even if what they are eating I would call a diet, they call it healthy lifelong eating habits that include eating less and moving more. 

They no longer see themselves as people with an eating problem or a habit of overeating.   They aren’t trying to fix anything, especially with a diet, they are simply moving forward toward a healthier body.

What do they do when they want to eat or drink something they know they shouldn’t?   Well, everyone has their own strategy but a commonality is that they already have a plan in place for avoiding traps and then a plan for getting back on track if they blow it.   They simply think about it and plan ahead.  You know that planning is important because when you get a plan, your mind goes to work to implement it.   Your mind wants you to be successful and now it has the task of finding a way to make you successful.    When we plan to succeed, something inside us wants to lead us and get us to our goal. 

So we can ask ourselves how do we best handle a situation where we want to make a healthy food choice?   I wonder how powerful and successful we will feel when we have a plan to take back the power certain foods have over us.     I wonder how quickly we can learn that saying “yes” to our health and  “no” to certain foods shows our bodies that we truly love and care for them?

Breathe, meditate, do your yoga practice, eat less than you can and love yourself.

Namaste,

Dean

The Scale

So our group, Yoga and Weight Loss, starts this coming Tuesday!  What do we do about the scale?  Remember that we aren't doing weekly group weigh-ins.

We all know the problems with the scale---good days when you are losing and not-so-good when you aren't.  The worse thing is that you can be losing and the last thing to notice is the scale!   You and your clothes notice it.   Your friends and family notice it.   Yet, the damn scale shows a weight gain of .5 ounces!  Maddening to say the least.

Eventually the scale catches up to what is going on but the time lag can be a killer.

We have the option to just put the scale aside for awhile, focus on our yoga practice, meditation (short),  eating "less than we can", and trusting the process.

We will lose weight.

Namaste,

Dean

The "D" Word!

In our four week long Yoga and Weight Loss Group Training we aren't even going to mention the word "diet."   You pick your food plan.   We will reinforce each other that continuity is the key and that means going heavy on planning.  We will plan to succeed!

However, we are going to diet in one area.   We are going to go on a "guilt free diet."   I will be suggesting that if eating something makes you feel guilty that you stop eating it for four weeks.   We feel critical about ourselves way too much.   If we can observe and avoid the cycle of guilt and shame over specific foods for even four weeks we will give ourselves the space to make conscious, better choices and ultimately go easier on ourselves.   

If we don't meet our expectations and feel guilty we're going to breathe in and out and let that crap go.   It is just weighing us down.   We're practicing forgiving ourselves.   We will start by forgiving ourselves for gaining the weight we are now losing.

Namaste,

Dean

Yoga Weight Loss Group Training

Dean’s Yoga Weight Loss Group Training

Meets Tuesday and Thursday at 6:45 for 4weeks at the WRAC in Wenatchee, WA 98801

Starting Date: September 17- October 10, 2013

Cost: $79 for the entire session, $20 drop-in

Where:  Gym and Studio

What I know:

Research shows that a regular yoga practice along with a healthy food plan can help achieve weight loss and weight maintenance.   I also know that the commitment to weight loss becomes easier in a supportive community.

You bring:

1.     A compelling reason to lose weight

2.     An openness to follow the program for 4weeks

3.     A desire to be part of a community of like-minded supportive people

What I provide:

1.     A twice-weekly group yoga practice including specific asana (postures) and pranayama (breathing exercises) with a Savasana Meditation focusing on improving your body image and achieving your weight loss goals.

2.     A simple yoga practice you do daily at home.

3.     Guidance for a short meditation practice at home.

What you’ll do:

1.     A fun yoga practice in a group twice a week and an easy, quick practice daily at home.

2.     Pick your own healthy food plan and commit to following it with awareness.

3.     Plan your meals and snacks.

4.     A short daily meditation.

5.     Breathe!

6.     Establish some simple lifestyle habits that increase weight loss and maintenance.

More on Yoga and Weight Loss

Why do some people seem to make the decision to lose weight and just do it while other people spend their life wanting to lose weight and can't get it done?   Then there are all those people somewhere in between losing some weight, gaining back, and starting over.  

Some obesity researchers say that 77 percent of Americans are trying to lose weight or avoid gaining weight yet nearly 70 percent of Americans are overweight or obese.  Discouraging and time for a deep, deep breath.   May they all be happy, may they all be well, may they all find peace.

I see and deal with so many people, including myself, who set their intention to eat healthy today and then by evening are devouring a box of cereal.   Is it true that we just have limits to our will power and it is shot by the end of the day?   However, some people can eat healthy throughout the day so it is possible.

If we look at 12 Step programs and people successful in limiting consumption, we have to admit that we can't do it alone and need a Higher Power.  We need the help of the nonjudgemental, never wavering, observer of our experience within us to help us make the decision.

Yoga, with all its craziness, is my path to my Higher Power.  For me it is through yoga that I fully enter into a spiritual relationship with my body. Yoga asks me to breathe into my body and simply observe.   Taking this moment of observation into the rest of my day is the challenge and real joy of my practice.   The more I stay with it, staying conscious of my breath, the more "will power" I seem to have and the joy of doing what is right for me. 

Making the decision to stay with MY body--through my yoga practice, with my breath, with my food choices, with my Higher Power, is both my goal and the process.

Namaste,

Dean

Breathe and release your fat!

I wonder if you've had the experience of getting to a certain weight and then plateauing.   Usually what happens is that we know what it takes to lose more and we just don't want to go through it.  We know what we have to eat to get there and how much we have to workout.

I keep running into the belief in articles and on posts that we only have a finite amount of willpower and that is why we can't reach our fat loss goals.  I'm not sure I even know what is meant by willpower anymore.    However, if power doesn't work, will or not, what if we could move the next level of fat weight by simply releasing the breath and letting go of the fat?

What if we were willing to let go of our exhale and our fear of releasing more weight?   What if we felt safe enough to do whatever it takes to get to our weight loss goals?

Being conscious of the breath is the easiest way I know to feel safer.

Before you eat---yes, anything---stop and take 3 conscious breaths.   I suggest using Dirgha Pranayama.  Breathe the 3 part breath 3 times!  If you forget
to take this simple step before you eat, as soon as you remember, stop and take 3 conscious breaths.   Commit right now to taking 3 breaths before your next bite.

I wonder how quickly this will work for you?

Namaste,

Dean