the weight loss chronicles

more musings from moi
about the body journey,
fitness, etc



I had been going to the gym three days a week to go on the weight machines, prior to The Lockdown. I even fitted in one last workout the day before isolation. I loved my gym workout, much to my surprise. I was very, very beginner, though. Which I accepted. I had all sorts of immediate benefits. I was so happy about it all.

And I had in mind that I would do the cardio machines in the cold, wet days of winter, as well. Until then, I decided that I'd do walking outside every other day that I wasn't at the gym. Ha! Silly moi, I did not do the walking. I just didn't. 

Then came self isolation. And I had to rethink everything. We didn't know how long it would be before we could go back to the gyms. The gym culture is so big in this country, which I think is great, I really do. I worked for years in gyms, teaching yoga, and I saw some fantastic results for so many people. But I didn't want, at that time, to be going and doing other classes and the machines. 

In my isolation during lockdown, I pondered. One of the great things that I got from yoga, and very quickly, was the ability to be able to sort thoughts and feelings out logically in my head, without emoting on it all. Go back through happenings and put them into sequence, to look at cause and effect. Now, I know that for many, this is naturally easy. But I (obviously) had to acquire it. Honestly, some years this ability just went out the window, but, overall, yeah, it's been part of me for a long time.

What I pondered was to do with health, weight, and fitness. When problems started, and the tendency for them to re-emerge from time to time. Why and how they came, and developed. Going back, going back more, until I found the original cause and effect. I 100% recommend doing this. Sorting oneself out is so rewarding and empowering.

And, interestingly, I finally remembered a health situation from childhood, something that I was born with. And it underlined exactly how my body would react to stress, and food. What was behind most health issues I'd had during my life. I had a "well-I-never" moment. 

And then, with my yogic knowledge, I set about creating a small do-able daily plan, to manage it. I went back to what I was doing before the gym, but with some changes:

Each morning I get up early:

  • I do some chiropractic stretches for my back, about two minutes
  • followed by yoga flexibility moves (I know a gazillion of these), for five to eight minutes
  • about ten minutes body tone with one kilo weights, and sometimes two hundred and fifty gram weights on my ankles. I alternated between pilates (hard), moves from an old Tony Little video that I remembered (nice and easy), old fashioned yoga leg waving stuff with some arm and shoulder moves that my sister, Geri, taught me (easy), and some little known yoga sculpting moves that I came across in the 1970s (hardest)
  • then specific yoga breathing to reduce inflammation
  • meditation
  • and a walk. I've noticed that people who work and/or walk outside in all types of weather, have better resistance to viruses than the rest of us. When the lockdown is over, I'll be buying a big strong golf umbrella and a raincoat

In the evening I do some yoga: 

I went back to old fashioned floor traditional yoga with rest periods between each pose, to reduce stress and inflammation. Followed by meditation.

(I'll keep all of this up for a while, as I'm really too neurotic about viruses to go back to the gym just yet. I'll rethink it all maybe in a month or so) 

Now, how does this all relate to weight? Everything that I'm doing is for health reasons, and weight is included in this. I'm working on cooling my body. And reducing stress and the inflammation caused by it, which is my body's stress response. When I am stressed, I overheat. Which causes the inflammation. My weight is around my middle, which is the classic stress depository, and it is inflammation. I'm really happy with how I'm going right now, and am resisting my normal overkill with exercise, that I can't even maintain for even a week. 

Does anyone have any thoughts or resonance with any of this?









Comments

  1. How interesting - I have a friend who has mad fits of starting things like the gym or dance or walking with pole things or... and she often gets terribly enthusiastic and wants me to join these things with her (an hour and a quarter on the bus to even get to Glasgow - hmmm Ill think about it), she never keeps to them (so an hour and a quarter on a bus to find G didnt show up - it has happened, often) and to be honest I am not so different in mindset - so I KNOW the signing up for things has to be a considered move in my head. Gyms can be wonderful places but really I know I wont, I just wont - whereas I have recently started yoga (on zoom) with a local teacher/practitioner and am loving it. Now why would I find yoga so therapeutic - well the signing up for all sorts of classes is not me, art classes yes but the gym and what not I find stressful as it is all about matching and meeting external goals (go higher, go harder, go faster, go better) whereas (so far) yoga has been the opposite - permission to meet nothing set by anybody else and the blessed emptying out of the inner head space is really amazing. I go for my walks and enjoy the yoga, I don't need any more critical voices than the baggage I carry around already so really it comes down to what we need and maybe that is something we get better at discerning as we age and can just cut out the stuff that isnt for us...

    My weight also settles around my middle by the way, I do know that certain food choices really affect how I feel - the partner is a bread-monster and quite frankly I know that doesn't work for me, so I think it is also reasonable to assume that certain exercise or mental health therapies forms work for our bodies and minds as well.

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    1. Yoga is nice that it is so for the individual. It's so good that you found something that suits you, and a good teacher. I never wanted to travel long distances to go to a gym, it seems silly to me. And yes I agree that with you, that all of those external goals are really stressful.

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  2. I think it's great that you are doing this routine on a regular basis. I keep saying "I should, I need to" but, so far, I haven't. However, some day, I will!

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  3. I understand, Bless. Some mornings it can take me 2 long coffees just to get started, but I always feel so much better afterwards, so I just keep doing it all.

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