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| Hey everyone.
My name is Ellyn and I'm new to the board.
First, let me tell you a little about myself. I'm 43. Married with a 7 y.o. son. Six years ago I weighed 350 pounds. Today, I weigh 150 pounds. My weight loss journey included incorporating exercise two years ago. I started out taking Tae Kwon Do.
After getting to a basic intermediate level I started training with my black belt instructor in kick pad drills. For a year I've worked a part-time job helping obese women, re-introducing them to the wonders of a body in motion through exercise.
Recently I was offered a job in a mainstream gym. I jumped at the business opportunity as it increased my exposure and clientele.
As a result I took my first yoga class two weeks ago and was won over for life. The way I described it to my husband was this - I was in the warrior pose when the instructor came to me and held my wrist while she placed her foot on my thigh and gently stretched me. I describe it as the same therapeutic effect of a thirty minute massage in a three second gesture.
I work with clients as large as 400 pounds using my kick pad training. My recent exposure to yoga has inspired me in how this art can help my clients.
I'm excited about this new journey for myself as I take on a new form of exercise and also am excited about the future it holds to inspire my clientele. Any suggestions from you who are so experienced in Yoga is welcomed. I'm looking for floor poses that will help my obese clients with their flexibility. I am open to any information and suggestions.
Since I am so new to this I admit my ignorance and ask you to bear with me as I learn.
Thanks for reading and resonding.
Ellyn |
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| Ellyn,
Kudos!! How incredible! I have been on a journey this last year reigning in my compusive overeating disorder and dropping almost 70 lbs. I have wanted to start something like what you have going on, but I haven't known what to do to get started.
Are your obese clients able to get to the floor? Some chair exercises may be easier. There are several yoga poses that can be modified to a chair.
One book I found very helpful (and DVD) is Baron Baptiste's Journey into Power. He gets a lot of criticism for his style, but his book goes through beginner poses in full detail- alignment, use, what to avoid... and his DVD is a vinyasa (flow) style, but he talks a lot about alignment. But the first half of the book is very inspirational.
Good luck!
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| Good work on your weight loss and your job sounds really interesting as well. |
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| here is a link that I found that might give you some more information.
http://www.yogachicago.com/may05/fullerfigure.shtml
BTW....I am 104 lbs down and still going.
Lorena |
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| I hope you're a very short person. 104 pounds is tiny, tiny. Why do you still want to lose? |
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| FWIW, I read that as she has lost 104 lbs from whatever her starting point was, and still has some left to go. Not that she was already at 104 lbs and still trying to lose from there. |
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| Oh, oops, I guess I wasn't reading carefully.
Lorena, In that case, congratulations, thats awesome. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| workoutgirl - 2006-08-13 7:56 PM
Today, I weigh 150 pounds.
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| you got it.....my starting point was 285...I am down 104  |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| OK, now that I am reading the right person, how tall are you? |
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| azlorena - 2006-09-19 4:04 PM
you got it.....my starting point was 285...I am down 104
That's really awesome!! Century Club!! Congrats on your progress and transformation! |
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| Thanks Redrox.
Edited by azlorena 2006-09-20 12:19 AM
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| Your welcome. "Always celebrate your successes", I always say. You doing OK with the mental/emotional side of the weight loss? Body dysmorphia, new found attention, that sort of thing? The last few are always the hardest (not sure what your final goal weight is), but as you hit any plateaus along the way, I think it's a good time to practice "maintenance mode" strategies for finding non-scale based forms of motivation. Yoga fits in well here IMO!  All the best wishes as you continue on your journey! |
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| redrox- I've found the attention and the body dysmorphia to be one of the biggest challenges. Not only did I feel naked because of the weightloss- but also because I was stripping away all of the mental BS. With my program, I do a reading and writing assignment each day exploring my inner workings. I wasn't able to hide behind food anymore. Also, I think it's interesting, the larger a person you are- the less visible you are to society. The smaller I got, the "bigger" I got to the rest of the world. It's a little daunting at first.
Also, for me, I was in such thick denial of my true size before. Really thick. So I had the dysmorphia in both directions. It's hard for my to understand my true size right now. Now that I have brought my own attention into my body- I "feel" bigger now than I did 70lbs ago. In my mind, at least. It's messed up. BUT, other people have told me that it takes the mind about a year after goal weight to catch up with the body. So, we'll see......
104?!?! That's awesome!! |
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| I agree it is a huge challenge. Maintenance is a huge challenge, esp. at first. It's why I asked! I really wasn't aware of these kinds of things at all before. Now I believe your experiences are likely the norm of those who make a fundamental transformation and perhaps the failure to address these kinds of underlying issues speaks to the large number of those who lose, only to regain it all later. They work so hard on the physical exterior, that they don't understand about healing the emotional/mental interior. They think, "If I could only weigh X, then I'll be better." They get to X and realize that not much else has changed and its a rather empty victory. People want a finish line, and there isn't one.
FWIW, I was more in the denial of my "fat" self. So I think coming back to the athletic, thin self of my youth was a bit easier in that regard, although I still occasionally catch myself wondering who that guy in the mirror is! It's all kind of weird stuff. Gender did not provide an exemption!  |
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| Hey Ellyn
That's very inspiring! I hope to help people discover the benefits of yoga too... it is my dream to eventually open a yoga therapy center to help people with various medical problems by doing yoga.
I am not overtly overweight but I was on the plump side and ever since I started my yoga journey last year, I have never felt so trim and fit ( still have baby fats but hey, that's part of being a woman, aint it? ) and light to move!
No matter where I am at right now, I feel that I will always be a student as in yoga, there is just so much to learn and from each other.
I hope that you can share your experience too with all of us!
OM~ |
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