digigirl

Today's weigh = in 149 pounds = 1/2 pound loss (see previous comments regarding how slowly weight comes off at this age!!!). Moving in the right direction, even if very slowly. Diet and Fitness Goals: Average 1600 calories or less per day to continue weight loss. - Avg calories for this week = 1629. Close enough for government work - AND that included a major splurge day over the weekend. Practice yoga at least 225 minutes each week (avg. 45 mins, 5 days/week). - 205 minutes of yoga this week. A little short, but still a lot better than the bad old days when I didn't do anything at all. Standing Split - I haven't been able to figure out a specific, measurable goal for this, but wanted to put this here as a goal to improve. I AM improving, if still far away from doing a good standing split. But, my leg goes up higher than when I started, and I'm able to hold it longer. I'm sure I still look pretty ridiculous, though! Life goal: Focus more on cooking blog and post at least once every 2 weeks. - Falling behind on this one again. Sure wish I would win the lottery so I could have time to do the stuff I *want* to do instead of what I *have* to do! Despite very small weight loss and not quite meeting my weekly yoga goal, feeling pretty good overall. My real goal in all of this is to build the healthy habits and I am definitely making strides in that direction. Almost daily yoga is becoming more and more automatic, so I am hopeful that I will get to the point where it just happens everyday without any mental struggle - like brushing my teeth. Am also making progress on eating healthy as a way of life and not allowing a "splurge day" to derail me. I just get back to healthy the next day - seems to be working. I don't love my job (though I don't *hate* it either) and wish I could figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Everyone always says to do what you love, but frankly, I don't even know what that is. And I can't seem to find a way to make money by doing yoga, cooking and playing on my computer. So that's a major life area that needs work. Still waiting for the lightning bolt of inspiration to hit. Not the best week, but not a bad one either. Happy that I am at least moving in the right direction.

Check it out - I finally got a post up on my cooking blog last week. The post was mostly about a photo re-creation challenge I was participating in, as well as the accompanying recipe. I participated in the challenge because my photography needs *serious* work and had no thought of winning, especially after seeing the other entries. But get this - I won! I'm amazed. I guess if that isn't the universe telling me to get off my butt and pay more attention to my blog, I don't know what is, huh?

Skirler - love your goal! I was walking behind a coworker yesterday. She's a bit older than I am (I would say mid-50's) and fairly heavy. She walks so slowly and heavily, as if each step is such an effort. As I was walking behind her, I was thinking to myself "Thank goodness I'm working on getting healthy. I don't ever want to be so out of shape that my own body is the obstacle to being able to move around and do what I want to do!" I'd much rather be, as you say, the graceful, strong and balanced example of a fit, mature woman. Go us!

Today's weigh = in 149.5 pounds = 1 more pound lost. So glad to be out of the 150's and into the 140's! My highest weight ever was 170 in May 2011. When I really got serious this year in February, I was at 163.5. So I've lost 14 pounds so far this year. Looking forward to getting down a bit more so I can start wearing, again, some of the cute smaller clothes I bought a few years ago (after I lost weight that time). Although the weight is coming off *very* slowly, I can definitely feel the difference in my body from the regular yoga and eating better. I feel stronger, leaner and just healthier in general. Diet and Fitness Goals: Average 1600 calories or less per day to continue weight loss. - Avg calories for this week = 1672. A little over, but I still lost weight, so it's all good! Practice yoga at least 225 minutes each week (avg. 45 mins, 5 days/week). - 240 minutes of yoga this week, plus another 120 minutes of vigorous housecleaning and general activity. Standing Split - I haven't been able to figure out a specific, measurable goal for this, but wanted to put this here as a goal to improve. I AM improving, if still far away from doing a good standing split. But, my leg goes up higher than when I started, and I'm able to hold it longer. I'm sure I still look pretty ridiculous, though! Life goal: Focus more on cooking blog and post at least once every 2 weeks. - Got one post up. Some others planned, but still struggling to find time and motivation for this. If only I didn't have to work. Working sure messes around with my play schedule, y'know?

Today's weigh = in 150.5 pounds = 1 pound lost. Man, losing weight at 45 is so much slower than losing weight when I was younger! But at least it's progress. Did well on calorie count and exercise this week. Feeling better than last week for sure. Slow going, but am still moving in the right direction, so "good job, me!" Diet and Fitness Goals: Average 1600 calories or less per day to continue weight loss. - Avg calories for this week = 1450. Practice yoga at least 225 minutes each week (avg. 45 mins, 5 days/week). - 270 minutes this week. Still trying to come up with a specific goal here. Life goal: Focus more on cooking blog and post at least once every 2 weeks. - Failing miserably. A couple of my planned projects were abandoned due to being sick last week, so I'm back to square one. I do have one post that I'm working on that I hope to have up today (finally!). Finding it hard to give attention to this when I'm spending so much time and energy on exercise and diet.

Thanks for the encouragement, Betsywhim. I do know about finding other ways to measure progress (unfortunately, this isn't my first time at the rodeo), and I do that as well, but I'm sure you know how it is - sometimes it just gets frustrating that it all goes so slow. Somebody needs to invent that magic pill that makes all the weight melt away, so I can just focus on being healthy!

Thought you all might enjoy this. This guy completely changed his life using yoga.

I'm just going to do some kind of yoga every single day. I have a tendency to have an "all or nothing" mentality, where if I can't work out for 45 minutes or an hour, why bother? So, I'm trying to train myself that even 5 or 10 minutes is still a good idea. So - this week, something every day! Unfortunately since I didn't see this until today, I didn't get my yoga in on Tuesday. Oh well - every day from then on!

A day late in posting this week's update, which is par for the course this week. Yesterday's weigh-in - still at 151.5, so no loss this week, but at least no gain either. Not a surprise, as I was sick for a few days so I didn't get my workouts in, plus I've found that my willpower goes down the drain when I'm not feeling great. Ate fairly healthy, just more than I should, and more sweets (at least mostly homemade, though). Diet and Fitness Goals: Average 1600 calories or less per day to continue weight loss. - Avg calories for this week = 1877. Too high. Practice yoga at least 225 minutes each week (avg. 45 mins, 5 days/week). - Only hit 165 this week. It's better than the American Heart Association's recommendation of 150 mins per week, but far short of my goal of 225. Life goal: Focus more on cooking blog and post at least once every 2 weeks. - still failing at this. Have some things in the works but am not getting organized enough, and finding time, to get them done. Must get motivated! Not a great week. But I just keep reminding myself that I have no deadline for weight loss - as long as I'm building the healthy habits and moving in the right direction (no matter how slowly), then I'm doing okay. Still frustrating though - want the pounds gone. Why is it, I wonder, that I can carry the weight for a couple of years without worrying about it that much, but once I decide to get healthy and lose weight, it drives me nuts that it takes so long? Stupid mind games we play with ourselves. Hopefully this week will be better.

I only just heard the word drishti for the first time the other day in a DVD I'm using. I'm assuming this is a focal point? Or is there more to it?

So true. Have you seen the movie Faster? There's a scene with this assassin in it and he does these incredibly difficult yoga poses. Then he goes to his girlfriend afterward and says "I beat yoga." Since I started doing yoga, my boyfriend and I have been snickering about that a lot!

By all means, please share your blog url as well! Would love to see what you're doing.

Good luck on that job lead!

I read somewhere that the reason they say not to do inversions during menstruation is because there is (or was?) a belief that it could cause Endometriosis. Endometriosis is where endometrial tissue (that normally only grows on the inside of your uterus and is what is shed during your period) grows in other places where it shouldn't outside the uterus, and also Adenomyosis, where it grows down into the muscles of the uterus, rather than just on the surface. I know about these because I have both (oh, joy). However, I have not found any proof or studies that show that this is a real issue with yoga, and I kinda doubt that the human body is so fragile that just being upside down would cause a syndrome like that to occur. I have done, not real inversions because I'm not that good yet, but inversion-y things like a standing split and other head-down poses and it has not affected my condition either way. Did not make it worse. If it doesn't make it worse for someone like me who already has it, then I can't imagine it's going to cause it in someone who doesn't. I think it's a myth, too. But they put that disclaimer on the beginning of videos to cover their butts.

I alternate different videos so that I do different routines on different days. I recently got the Yoga Journal 21 Day Yoga Challenge DVD, and have been working through that, so I've only done the routine with the standing split once since I posted this thread. Still kickin' my butt. It's amazing to me how different it is from one day to the next. One day I can be really solid and balanced and not wobble on the balance poses at all. And the next, I'm all over the place. I wonder what causes that? Energy levels? Stress? It's interesting but it makes me wonder if I'll *ever* really get to the point where I'm always able to do some of those challenging balance poses, since it seems like no real progress is made there. One day I'm great, but another terrible. On the other hand, I can definitely tell a difference in strength level and stamina. When I first started, Chataranga was super hard - much easier now. I still have some soreness in the heels of my hands, but that has improved a lot since I first started, too. And some of the routines that I tried when I first started that I couldn't even really complete, I can now go all the way through. Still challenging, but at least I can get through them without collapsing!