Good Belly Yoga

I love food! I spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking, trying out better recipes for my health goals. I have lots of failures (like the pumpkin pie I made from nut milk), but I learned something good: nut milk is fine, but the taste is not the same as cream. Because I experiment a lot, I have a lot of not-so-good results. However, I learn something new everytime. I take pictures of my successes, and use in my food journal.

I do not want to diet anymore. I grew a little heavier every year because of a change in my female hormones. It is normal. After menopause, I gained weight 30 lbs. I tried to please my doctors who urged me to lose that “too much weight”. During this time, I woke up every day bad-mouthing my body when I wish I could love my body.

I gave up being good and started to eat what I loved, which was vegetables, grains, fruit, and morning protein shakes. I knew I “should” praise my body for all the wonderful places it has taken me but somedays it feels like a burden, especially when I wake up.. I have been with my body all my life, and it works very hard to keep me alive. Beating up on myself is not working. I need a beating heart and the joints, strong bones, and good energy to keep me going.

My future is shaped in the decisions I make in the moment as I make them, and often my decisions come from my feelings, as well as my brain. There is a song I listen to at the end of my yoga practice: The Heart Wants Pleasure First by Michael Nyman. I found it on iTunes.

I will tell you this: if I can find pleasure in cooking and consuming healthy food everyday I will continue to use my yoga practice to create more mindfulness as I live and breathe.

I originally started doing yoga for enlightenment. It was a goal, and I got a little lost sometimes chasing dreams of enlightenment. Someday I might actually find the enlightenment I seek, but for now I am happy to be here and doing what I can to survive and thrive.