Send to KindleMy last post in this series ended with me saying that I’d briefly cover the years 2003-2019 in the next post (which is this one).
Having been kicked off of Atkins, there was a positive and negative consequence. On the positive side, eating bread (and all things wheat) again was a joy. On the negative side, maintaining my weight was once again a struggle.
I yoyo’ed up and down, never ballooning fully, but gaining way more weight than I had hoped or expected. Eventually, each time, I’d knuckle down and lose the weight again (or at least most of it, most of the time). We are talking about 16 years here, so there was lots of time for the never-ending roller coaster ride.
In 2015, we moved from NY to VA. Nothing was going to change for me in terms of eating or exercising as a result, except that it did. Our goddaughter had just given birth to her second child and she was on maternity leave.
She knew that I had taken private yoga lessons in NYC and suggested that I join the gym that she was a member of and take some yoga classes with her. I was mortified at the thought of doing yoga with other people around (other than my personal teacher back in NYC), but I can’t say no to my goddaughter (or rather, I rarely want to!).
So, I joined the top gym in our area (the first time I’d ever joined a gym). In NY, I had been doing traditional yoga (some form of Hatha Yoga). Even though I had been doing it for a while, I was barely a beginner, and many poses were still very difficult for me.
The first time my goddaughter called to suggest a class, she said that there was a class called Yin Yoga. She had never done it before, but the description simply said Slow Yoga, which certainly sounded good to both of us (slow for me so that I wouldn’t have to keep up with the fast transitions in many classes, and slow for her, given that she was still recovering from childbirth!).
It turns out that neither of us had a clue what Yin Yoga (simply Yin from now on) was all about. Sure, the transitions are slow. That’s because each pose is held for three to five minutes. That can be challenging even for simple poses, but can be excruciating for more difficult poses.
That first class was both murder and exhilarating. It turns out that our teacher was amazing, and always gave alternatives to every pose (in particular the difficult ones). I’ll give one example.
Pigeon Pose done fully (by someone who can do it) is one of the loveliest poses in Yin. A first attempt at this pose is highly unlikely to be fully achievable (even for a few seconds, let alone for three minutes!).
Our teacher suggested that a good modification for those not able to do the full pose was to use yoga blocks to lift up the torso. She showed three different positions for the blocks to alter the height of the torso (taking pressure off of the knee and back). I needed the highest elevation to do the pose, but it worked (and was still painful!).
I enjoyed it so much that I continued going to her classes twice a week, often without my goddaughter attending. I also started going to a more traditional Hatha class early in the morning a few times a week that was labeled Yoga for Beginners (and thankfully, it was taught by a wonderful teacher as well).
Backing up a bit… On the day that I took a tour of the gym (before signing up), the salesperson told me that a new membership came with three free trainer sessions. That was another thing I thought I’d never do in my life. But, when I formally joined, I availed myself of those sessions.
While I didn’t continue with paid lessons once the free ones were done, I thoroughly enjoyed those lessons and continued going to the gym 4+ days a week and separate from the yoga classes, did a bunch of machines and free weights that the trainer taught me how to use.
So, out of the clear blue, I became a gym rat. That made handling the weight fluctuations a little easier, and I generally felt healthier than I had in decades.
This continued all the way until Covid hit. My last day in the gym was March 5th, 2020 (oops, I said this post would go through 2019, so that should have had a little spoiler alert next to it).
I was still going to Yin classes (with the same teacher!) twice a week, and was able to do the full Pigeon Pose (no blocks) and hold it for 5+ minutes, without any trouble.
The next post will cover the years from 2019 to 2022.
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