Weight!
I’ve battled with my weight since I was a child. It’s hard to lose weight. I find weight all over the place and it keeps attaching to me. I’m not overweight by any means but there are times when pounds just find there way to my hips and cling, outta nowhere. Could be lack of sleep, could be the stress, and could be holidays. President’s day gets me every year! Could be, I’m not eating mindfully and not aware of what I’m taking in and what energy I’m expending to keep my body balanced. We all overindulge at times and too often we are just plain not paying attention to what we are ingesting.

Whatever the reason, I know for me, it was a lot easier to shed pounds when I had a lot of weight to lose It’s the nagging few that seem to be the headache to get rid of.
Here’s the deal, it’s all about calories. I know I have used this analogy before but calories are like a bank. You have a certain per diem to use per day and once you’ve spent your cal cash, you are done. If you over spend, cal credit, you have to burn it off by working out or you store it as love handles or lunch lady arms and really, we can’t afford that can we? The tips below are going to help you understand how to manage your weight immediately. If you have more weight to lose than a couple to ten pounds, there are many other fantastic plans to use and the below can help get you on your way. So will the help of a good program, nutritionist and ahem, fitness trainer.

I have to tell ya, getting rid of the lil lbs might actually be easier than you think. And you don’t have to call it a diet and you don’t have to do it forever. These are things that I have done to keep the weight off and maintain that weight for years!

1. For a few days up to two weeks, keep a food diary. Grab a notebook. You don’t need anything fancy. Unless, of course, you want something fancy. Only you will be lookin’ t it so don’t lie to yourself. Write everything down, EVERYTHING. All you are doing is gathering an inventory of what you are taking in. Write the time you eat as well.
From this simple exercise you will be able to see where your possible food weaknesses may be in your diet, when and what you crave and where those extra calories that added up to pounds have been hiding. After careful review you will be able to see how to tailor your diet and get those nagging pounds off of you.

2. Know your portion sizes and how many calories are in what you are eating. This will help with your food diary as well. I know you are probably thinking, I love to eat out or grab a quick bite at this restaurant or deli. The nutrition facts aren’t listed on everything so what do I do? Well, if that’s the case, there are websites dedicated to counting the calories of your favorite foods in your favorite places. If the places you go aren’t part of a large chain, you can still search out your favorite foods by plugging them into the search bars on these sites. If you know the brand name of a food, that will help. If all you know is, I ate three slices of bologna, for example, just plug bologna into the site search bar and you can guestimate by what they list by grams, ounces, pounds et al. Understanding portion sizes is very important. Many of us overdo the portions. Check your labels too. When a label says the serving size is two and you eat the whole thing, you gotta multiply the calorie total by two. Ahh, math. Remember math from school? That’s ok. No one does. You have to remember your math. I don’t want you nit picking every ounce and I don’t want to say we’re dieting but it is a great thing to know what an ounce looks like, what a real tablespoon looks like, what calories on a plate look like. It might already seem like a lot of work but seriously, after a few days of doing this, it’s like balancing your checkbook. You can monitor your whole day in a matter of minutes. That easy. And, if you know what you like to eat, you only have to do it once and keep the record for next time. Here are the sites with accurate descriptions of what portion sizes sound and look like and how to easily count your calories. Here are some sites that help you do the math without a calculator. These sites will help you do the math without a calculator.
www.diet-blog.com
www.wisegeek.com
www.calorieking.com
www.dailyplate.com
www.About.com and www.Cancer.org are also great sites that have tons of nuggets on nutrition, portion sizes and what 100, 200 , 300 et al calories look like.

3. If you are stuck on how many calories you can spend and save in a day, here’s a site that will help you figure that out. It will show you exactly how many calories your particular body needs to live off of per day. It’ll take you a minute and you can find it right here on blogspot. Just plug in your height, weight, age and activity level and boom…
Howmanycaloriesdoineedinaday.blogspot.com
For example,
I’m 123 pounds, 5’ 8’’ and ahem years old. I need about 1670 calories per day with the activity level that I have, bouncing about town, teaching etc. If I add a workout per day, I earn more calories that I can use to lose weight (don’t need to do that) or enjoy a Sarah Lee Cheesecake bite or fourteen.

4. How much protein, carbs, fiber and all that other stuff do I need in one day? At
www.healthychoice.com
you can find a breakdown of what the nutrition facts are on the back of labels, how to read them, understand them and implement the necessary amounts of nutrition into your diet.

6. Finally, are you exercising? If you feel like you are spinning your wheels, perhaps you are spinning too much and your workouts have plateaud. Mix up your exercise routine. I love working out and I love cardio. However, I get bored super easy. I need to mix up my exercise magic every few months so I don’t plateau. It doesn’t mean I have to abandon any one exercise for too long but just mix up your routines often. I think one of the things my clients like about working with me in fitness or in yoga is that we never do a sequence more than once or a few times. It keeps things interesting and keeps the muscles working hard when they don’t know what to expect.

7. Get a heart rate monitor. A really good one costs about $80 bucks. I’ve spent enough money on other types and the Polar watch is my favorite. It’ll show you how many calories you are burning as well as your heart rate whilst working out. Good deals and return policies at www.amazon.com and www.jr.com If you can see how much you are burning when you exercise, it will motivate you to keep exercising. For fun, I sometimes wear my heart rate monitor when doing the laundry or washing dishes or swiffering my living room. It’s amazing how many calories you burn just doing normal everyday activities. It all counts toward the calorie account in and output. So does that biscotti. Put-it-down!

Of course nothing is 100% accurate, not even your food labels. But these tips are as good as it gets for staying on track, understanding what you are eating and how you are exercising. Once you are in the practice of doing this, you might want to continue to do it daily. Don’t over obsess. Have fun with it. Allow yourself at least a day once in a while where you don’t focus on every calorie you eating or burning. It’s okay.
If you stick to this plan, you will notice those nagging pounds drop off you without really trying to change anything in particular. All you are doing is monitoring.

Don’t over eat and don’t under eat. Don’t over exercise if you over ate. It’s all about balance and portion. If I can do it, you can do it!
And, make sure you stretch a little before and after your workout.
And, practice mindful eating where you aren’t in front of the tv or reading or talking on the phone.
And, drink water.
And, laugh often. It tones the abs.
And, recycle.
And, call your mother.

I talk about driving a lot in my class. This isn't something I actually plan to do but something that just comes out when I'm talking about a posture or the space between, the holding, the breathing, the, 'what am I supposed be doing now-ing.'

There's a lot of yoga in driving and for some, a lot of driving in yoga.

Anyway, It's just a reference. I bring a lot of life references onto the mat. I know the mat is a great place to escape reality and the outside world. However, it's my mission to bring mat yoga into the real world and vice versa.

For me, It's important to live yoga always or mostly always, not just for an hour and a half out of the day. To tap into the inside world while I flow on the mat is a great way of observing how my outside world will be when I roll up that mat, head back home, run errands or interact socially with others. How I'll react to certain circumstances in the real world while holding even the simplest of postures on my mat is a great way to learn more about myself.

Every teacher has there thing. Like the dancers in gypsy, 'ya gotta getta gimic..." Ok, not quite like that but for me, I've always WANTED to be the teacher that can teach the most advanced postures or breathing techniques or chanting or tell amazing stories or sermons, if you will. It's in that wanting to be though, that I lose the real quality of my gift as a teacher. It's taken me a while, but I have figured out my style of teaching and although its not for everyone, I know, I teach the class I want to take, one that is physical, grounding, with an appropriate amount of philosophical, philanthropic and meditative rootedness.
My 'style', by the way, was always there without trying. It's very Buddhist, but, what I was looking for was always there within me. It's true. It's always true. Buddha is always right, just like my mother.

So, here's where the driving comes in. I'm on the road a lot. Driving in LA can be the most frustrating and anxiety producing activity there is. It certainly is for me. So as a yogi and a driver, this is my test, to remain balanced, even and calm under some of the most frustrating and somewhat uncontrollable of circumstances.
In my teaching, its important that I bring real world anxiety right there on the mat with us so we can observe, work out or change the way we react to things.
Um, that's not what I paid good money for. I don't want stress in my yoga class, I wanna feel good! I know, me too! Can we find the bliss while we are being challenged on the mat and bring it into the world when we are done? That's what I'm goin' for.
I don't know about you but how many times have you been to a yoga class where you feel amazing and then all of a sudden, someone cuts you off in traffic and your blood begins to boil and that bliss goes out the window with the sound of your car horn. Yup, me too. It happens after a great massage or acupuncture session too and it pisses me off. But alas, you haven't wasted your money or your time because that's what we are here to work out.

We are here on the mat together, working on a special sequence of postures whereas we challenge the body and the mind to be peaceful in the safe haven of the yoga studio and given the tools or the ideas to feel that same bliss whence we are placed in less safe, nowhere near as fun situations in life, like being in line at the post office. Don't get me started.

So, How's that for a yoga class? Not exactly what you'd expect but living yoga is really the test. Anyone can do a funny posture. But its what goes on in the mind in the posture that is the most important thing. Same as life. Anyone can drive on the 405, but its how we deal with one another on the 405 and what is going on within one's mind whilst stuck on the same stretch of the 405 for 15 minutes when you are late for an appointment that is the real yoga.
So, come to my class and expect a challenging workout for the mind and the body.
And look forward to a lot for a lot of stories about driving...and my mother, another source of my frustration and joy.

Um, actually, breaking up is hard for anyone. But I’m a yogi, so I should be able to remain even and calm in all circumstances, right? Wrong!! In fact, I love being my own guinea pig for the classes I teach, especially in a break up because, what better situation to use in a yoga class to teach balance and circumference.

“Here’s how not to be or what not to do, now take a deep breathe, darn it...”

Breaking up just sounds violent. It doesn’t have to be, but sometimes it is. Break-ups can hurt physically and emotionally after any length of time. Breaking up after eight years, though, it feels like a limb has been torn off. There’s a lot to be said for a relationship for which you and the other person have tried absolutely everything and are no longer growing in positive directions together or individually.

I don’t think I can ever look at any of my relationships and say, what a waste or even worse, what a bastard, I hate you or I hate men or I hate the world. That ain’t me. How could I hate my choices? Even if I broke up with someone under the most dramatic, intense, scary and what one might consider, the worst way possible, I do not regret and I do not hate. I don’t hold onto anger or resentment. I don’t hold. And by the way, if you think you know why we broke up, think again, its much worse.

I don’t know why I would have thought; being a yogi, this process might be more manageable for me. Alas, it is not.

I study yoga…A LOT. I read many books from many different traditions and I take what I can, use the tools in my life and my classes
I’m drawn to different traditions of yoga. Probably because I was born and raised Catholic and had limited exposure to those with other beliefs. Once I had met Mormons, Jews, et al, I submerged myself in there traditions and I could see that what they believed was just as valid as how I was raised. Even if I didn’t agree with everything their religion represented, I didn’t have a choice to be raised Catholic. I liked being one, but I didn’t know any different and as I grew older, didn’t agree with all that the religion represented.

Here’s the deal…religion can actually be quite simple until people overanalyze and make it more complicated. In summary, there is a divine spirit working above us. Respect one another and treat each other the way we want to be treated.

Kind of like relationships. They are quite simple, until we make them complicated by money and children and material things and our beliefs. Things get in the way of the fundamental, love and respect one another and don’t be mean.

I love working out. I love to run, climb, jump, sprint, stretch and lift. Basically, I’m a big kid that has moved out of the playground and to those places in life that are more acceptable for adults to be in and do those kinds of things, i.e. the gym. Eww.
But even as a trainer and a yoga teacher, balance is important.
Here is where my energy is being displaced amidst the heartbreak and where I need to look elsewhere to heal.
A long time ago, when I was doing the master cleanse (drinking only lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper for ten days, oy!!), I found great relief by going into supermarkets. I didn’t buy, obviously, because I wasn’t eating, but I found this great relief and satisfaction being around the plump and plentiful displays of fruit and vegetables. The colors and vastness made me feel safe and secure. It would calm me and make me feel better even though I knew I couldn’t eat any of them.
Then I had this conversation with a girl after a commercial audition. She told me that after a bad audition, she liked to walk through the isles of CVS and just look, not buy the new beauty products for sale. It made her feel better. I didn’t think about that conversation until after a long fight with my beau where after, I had to work, then had an audition then had a bag of time to use before teaching yoga to a client and a CVS right around the corner. I didn’t need anything but I walked in and began combing the isles surveying the products that promised to keep me young and beautiful forever. I was hooked. I understood why it was a good thing to shop even if you didn’t need to. There was something very controlled and peaceful and even about the environment that made everything in my life seem all right.

After the big break-up I found myself combing many grocery and pharmacy isles, listening to sad music, drinking wine alone at night and venting to my mother and anyone else who would listen. I felt like I was living someone else’s life. Until I realized that I needed to be present with all of my feelings, bad, good, shop worthy. It’s all okay and it’s a process.

My way of dealing with heart-break is a long workout where I felt depleted afterward. There was no energy left to reflect and turn inwards.

Looking at fruit or beautiful displays at CVS or Whole Foods are all ‘crazy sounding’ but very normal ways of feeling better about a situation that is no longer in our control. Beautiful displays are organized and balanced and attractive and that’s why we like ‘em.
The chemicals released from working out are the same ones equivalent to those when we are in love or eating chocolate. These are all normal and okay reactions to a situation that is sad or traumatic. Sitting in a park or being with nature and watching the breeze in the trees or dipping your toes in the sand or reading a good book or meditating or petting your dog or going to the farmers market or changing the soil in your garden or plants are all good, healthy ways of focusing your energy in order to heal from a bad experience.

Anyway, if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there is no one way, to live, believe, teach, love and for me right now, grieve. There will always be something ‘we’ disagree about and that can either bring us closer or wedge the gap deeper between us.

Whether we call ourselves yogis or not, we are constantly being tested. This world was not designed to make it easy for the mind to be peaceful always. Giving yourself a hard time for feeling a certain way is the harm, the hurt that you should avoid. Giving yourself the time to heal and in my case, the time to do weird things, is just the way to get out and back to normal.

Whether it’s a break up or some other tragedy you are dealing with, sometimes all good reason goes out the window like a fart in the wind.

The most important thing is not to deny or question your personal process of grieving. We all grieve in different ways.

Just like there are a myriad of paths to follow, the path of grieving is your own to design.
I put pressure on myself to be this ideal yoga teacher who lives a perfectly clean, healthy, positive life and drops into bliss at the drop of a hat. Then I fall. I go through my own process to heal and then I think to myself, well why wouldn’t I want a teacher who has had all of these wacky, scary challenging experience to draw from and teach from and come out of in a balanced, light good place?

Do I want the teacher who has lived in the jungles and rainforests and mountains their whole life renouncing everything and living separately from society and its challenges? Not so much. Do I want the teacher who can find Samadhi in a heartbeat, can do a perfect handstand, away from a wall and hold it for three minutes? Ok, well kind of, cause I’d like to learn.

But, I can only teach what I know and I know a lot, from life. That life didn’t include a lot of handstands away from the wall but it’s a life that included a lot of life that continues to challenge me daily on and off the mat.

One of those experiences happens to be a break up with someone I loved deeply and a love that went down a path I couldn’t support as a yogi and a person. Instead of giving myself a hard time about feeling the experience, I’m taking the time to be with myself, explore the aloneness, write, be peaceful and discover this new life. It’s not so bad.