Vinyasa

This morning was a bit 'hair of the dog'. I stumbled out of bed, directly to the floor and did a series of cat/dog tilts, downward dog, a few Chaturangas and Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, more cat/dog tilts and Balasana. Then I got up.

I know, know! Yesterday, I was all “I'm not sore! I'm not tired!” Today? I'm owning it: Sore and tired. Ouch and yawn. I've almost doubled my class load from this time last year, so it makes sense. Even daily yoga practice can't ward off the exhaustion of teaching 11 classes over the course of 3 days.

Today is a day off, but by next week, I'll be teaching on Fridays too. I'll be teaching 6 days a week. On the bright side, my financial situation is about to get a lot better and that's *good* news.

I love days like this. The rain started around noon, just after the dog and I returned from our walk. I've been sitting by the window, sipping tea, knitting, and goofing around way too much on the computer, but I'm allowed. :-)

I did about a half-hour of yoga, with an easy 25 minute flowing sequence I found on YogaDownload (Moon Salutations #1 with Lisa). I specifically looked for something labelled 'beginner'. It was exactly what I needed: flowing movement with lots of hip opening. I spent 5 minutes in Savasana at the end, then did my meditation.

My meditation practice is going well. I've meditated daily for the past 21 days. Some days, I feel like it's making a great impact on my life, others it just feels like more thing to check off the to-do list. But I've noticed a few odd coincidences that I can't explain away.

For example (I've mentioned this in a previous entry) I'm losing weight. Last week the girlfriend mentioned that I looked slimmer and I didn't believe her, but then I noticed it too. It's significant. I haven't weighed myself lately, but clothes don't lie: my pants are fitting again.

I've *have* been trying to choose healthier foods, but I've been doing *that* all summer with no success. The odd thing is, I haven't increased my exercise routine in any drastic way. In fact, I'm practising less (though teaching more) and I've cut my daily walks down to 20 minutes from an hour. My diet, on the whole, has generally been healthy - at least, the stuff I eat at home is. I have an insatiable sweet-tooth though - that's my major Food Issue. When I'm out and about, I have a tendency to buy treats.

But recently, I haven't been buying treats. It's not like I suddenly developed amazing self-control out of the blue, I'm just not hungry for treats. I'm *am* hungry, but I'm channeling that hunger into meals and healthy stuff instead of cookies and brownies and rice krispie squares. I could still buy that stuff if I wanted (and I still do on occasion), but I'm not doing it as often. I didn't make a conscious decision to lay off the sweet stuff, it just sort of happened.

Here's the reason I'm going on and on about this: I checked my receipts and the purchase of 'treats' dropped off right after I started meditating again. I've been meditating daily for 21 days and coincidentally, I've lost weight during that 21 days. I'm going to stop short of saying “Meditation made me lose weight” but this has certainly given me a pause. It appears that meditation has diminished my cravings for sugar and fat and all of those 'treats' that were so irresistible.

I'll keep you updated.

Second coincidence: I've recently started back into knitting in a big way. I spontaneously looked for a knitting class because I wanted to learn to knit a toque (that's Canadian for 'hat'). I've been knitting daily since then. I checked my journals. The last two times I've developed an interest in knitting both correspond with meditation practice. Freaky!!!

So there you have it, if my experience is any indication, meditating makes you lose weight and create woolen garments. Be warned!