Hi friends! I fell off the face of the earth with yoga teacher training and traveling every week for work (my life’s hard I know). I’ve returned with a new energy to practice yoga everyday, get my health in order, and continue to share my personal experiences with all things food, fitness, and life.
So below is my very brief thoughts on my teacher training, and some rules I like to follow when getting back in shape.
When people talk about 200 hour teacher trainings it’s always made to be this glorious explosion of self discovery, with the acquisition of a “hot” yoga body, and the ability to impart yoga wisdom on all who will listen. My 200 hr training was a pretty difficult time for me for a few reasons, I was traveling every week during the weeks of training, and my training was every Saturday and Sunday 9am – 6pm for 12 weeks. Now this isn’t to say that I didn’t love my training with Y7 Studio, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat and I gained 19 sisters that i’ll love forever (so yes the cheesy stuff does happen). I just hope to make it clear that, going to a teacher training is like the first step on an endless staircase of learning about yoga. It’ll get you on the stairs, and the rest is up to you. I would recommend a teacher training to anyone who is interested in diving deep into what yoga is about (surprise…asana is a very small part of yoga). During teacher training I gained at least 10 pounds, lost control of my eating habits, and pretty much stopped working out aside from my yoga filled weekends. I travel a lot for my job all the time, but having my weekends gone was just what I needed to completely throw me off balance and have me out here acting an unhealthy fool.
Believe it or not i’m back! With a 200 hour teacher training under my belt at that :). Here’s a few rules I like to follow to get back on the horse and get my shit in order, as the trending obsession with health and wellness grows more and more complex, I try to keep it fairly simple.
- Don’t over commit: it’s very rare that after not working out for 2-3 months you’re going to start doing two a days everyday of the week. Don’t complicate something that doesn’t need to be complicated. When i’m at my best I exercise pretty hard everyday, but I know my body is going to be mad as hell the first couple weeks so I commit to 3-4x a week when i’m first getting back into it. If I do more than that…great! If i don’t, i’m still looking pretty good from last weeks lack of any working out at all.
- Don’t start cutting out every food ever created: You aren’t going to eat 3 salads a day everyday and zero sugar after months of eating whatever you desire. I once ordered a juice cleanse after months of eating poorly, i did it for 2 days and then ordered chicken wings (that isn’t a joke it really happened). The extreme route does not work more often than it does. So be easy, have a little bread with your lunch, eat out once or twice when you’re first getting back into meal prep, cut things out as you go. I’m not saying it’s cool to keep throwing cupcakes down your gullet, i’m just saying if you do have a cupcake don’t fret, enjoy it and follow it with a healthy choice.
- Get rid of processed sugar: If you’re going to cut out anything try cut out sugar. I’m a sugar girl and i’m someone who cannot just have a little bit of something sweet, so I commit to eating fruit or dark chocolate to get some sweetness..i’m not kidding this actually works buy some fruit and eat it before deciding you need ice cream.
- Workout first thing in the morning! Though i’m not sure it ‘s normal, if I don’t workout the whole day goes to shit for me and it feels like a “cheat” day since I didn’t work my body at all anyway. So GET IT DONE in the morning, so it’s accomplished and you feel strong and ready to fuel yourself with food that’s good for you. Of course this works for me personally but might not work for everyone, but if you have time in the morning to do it I would give it a try.
- Stop worrying about everyone else: i’ve been very obsessive about what other people are doing and how quickly they are seeing progress (progress physically being strength wise or appearance wise) and it’s never good. I am here only to share what works for me to give you ideas, not to tell you what you have to do. Start trying some things out, see what works for you. Maybe working out in the morning doesn’t work for you and that’s fine! If the hour over lunch is the best time then that is the best time for you and that is OK. We look at a lot of fitness people with personal trainers (or who are personal trainers) and tons of resources at their fingertips and think exactly what they’re doing is going to work for us…turns out all that shit only works if you have the money to fund it. While you’re out here being envious of Kim K’s body, she’s at the gym scheduling her next plastic surgeon appointment. Try different classes and see how you’re body responds, just because a light jog and a green juice is what some rail thin model credits for their “rockin bod” doesn’t mean that should be your workout regimen.
- Set Goals that are good for your mental health: All that means is set goals that are nice to yourself, instead of “i’m going to workout ever day now through march so I can be skinnier and sexier for spring/summer” maybe say “i’m going to make sure I move my body every day for at least 30 minutes so that I can feel stronger and more in shape”. If you eat well and exercise your body will fall naturally shed excess fat so why make fat loss your sole purpose for treating your body well? I fully support working out for an aesthetic goal if you’re doing it for reasons that aren’t fueled by self hatred.
If yoga helped me realize anything, it’s that my body is cool as shit….at any size, with any strength, and in all of it’s various shapes. The fact that it can carry me through my life is good enough, my choice to be active and eat well isn’t about this deep desire to be thin or look like someone else it’s just to feel good and treat myself with respect. I’m working to stop worrying about the destination, stop telling myself “once i’m like this I can do that, or once i’ve practiced yoga for this long I can feel confident teaching and sharing how i’ve experienced yoga”. I’m enough, right now to do anything I can put my mind to….and you can too.
I’ll be back soon with the frequently requested SKIN post, i’m breaking it up into multiple posts because there’s just too much.
YS