December 1st, 2009 . Posted in Benefits, Food | Comments Off
I had a daily personal practice for about four months when I noticed something had changed in my relationship with food. I would sit at the dinner table, enjoying my meal, and after eating almost everything on my plate there would be this feeling, kind of like a little voice, telling me I was done. I’d put down my fork, and that was that.
I was happy with my weight when I started yoga, but it was a result of counting calories and estimating proportions. The voice was new. I finally understood what it meant to stop eating when you’re full, not when you’ve cleaned off your plate or eaten your 450 allotted calories.
So it came as no surprise that a new study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found a strong association between yoga practice and mindful eating.
The researchers found that people who were aware of why they ate and stopped eating when full weighed less than those who ate when not hungry or in response to anxiety or depression. From ScienceDaily:
“These findings fit with our hypothesis that yoga increases mindfulness in eating and leads to less weight gain over time, independent of the physical activity aspect of yoga practice,” said Kristal, who is also a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health.
What is interesting is that the study found no association between mindful eating and other types of physical activity, such as walking or running.
It’s funny that I never set out to change my relationship with food. It reminds me of a saying I’ve heard a few times at the studio: You don’t do yoga, yoga does you.
November 23rd, 2009 . Posted in Just life | Comments Off
Last Saturday I went to the farmers’ market, as I do every Saturday. I like to get there when it opens, and I happened to be 20 minutes early, so I went in search of a coffee shop. On my way I passed by a ballet studio that I’ve driven by many times, but only by walking on this particular side of the studio did I see that the walls were made of glass. The dancers were arriving, hair pinned up, decked out in the sort of clothes that dancers wear to practice. A few were at the barre, beginning to stretch and warm up their bodies.
I spotted a coffee shop, ordered a chai latte, and headed back to the market. It was a busy day, with a few new vendors and a wine tasting booth. But the hero of the day was the fennel. It is just coming into season, and I bought some the moment I spotted it. Two people stopped me to ask what I do with it. One person asked which booth was selling it. It was all about the fennel. Even the guy who sells the baguettes and raisin walnut bread commented on it.
After the market I went to my 10:30 a.m. yoga class. As I waited for class to start, I chatted with a couple of people I see every week, but really didn’t know very well.
There’s no overall point to this post, I’m afraid. It was just a beautiful day, filled with ballet, fennel, yoga, and good conversation, but I took the time to notice the details. Sometimes I forget to do that.
