The one thing that has stuck with me about my first yoga class wasn't the heat, or how hard the postures were, or how self-conscious I was looking at myself in the mirror for an hour and a half, or how much I wanted to guzzle a cold gallon of water. It was how much of an dummy I felt like bringing a small face towel. "She said bring a towel, she didn't say how big. I'm sweating so hard. My mat is soaked. I'm such an idiot. "I was 270 lbs, the heaviest I'd ever weighed in my entire life. I'd been overweight my whole life, right up until that day. I'd struggled to lose weight for years, but it felt like for every pound that came off on the scale, a couple days later it would show three more.
After the second class, on the second day, I remember everything. I remember how much easier it felt to breathe. I remember actually being able to feel the blood coursing through my veins as I laid in savasana. Soon as I felt that, the only word that came into my brain was "...whoa." I started coming almost everyday, and everytime I stepped on the scale the number hardly ever went up.
263.4...262.5...260.2...
Besides the number on the scale, the changes I immediately began to notice, physically, I started craving healthier foods. I used to hate tomatoes and now I have tomatoes with everything. I had more energy, I didn't sleep in anymore. I stopped feeling lazy, and actually started becoming more active and organized in my life. And as fast as the weight was coming off, my right knee, which I'd injured in a fall years earlier, and bothered me regularly, had started to feel stronger.
And then 6 months later, 203.4...200.1...198.8...
And then, in just under a year I'd lost over 100 lbs. I was now 165, and my knee was even stronger than before my injury. When I first started, I very quickly decided that I would become a yoga teacher.
"When someone shares something of value with you, and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others." I believe in this yoga completely, and I believe that anyone and everyone can do it. I believe in all of you. And you should too.
"Never too sick, never too old, never too broken, to start again..."
