Yoga - Dance - Movement

So, I have decided that I really need to be doing yoga on a regular basis. I first discovered yoga when I added close to 40 lbs on to my side 6/125 lbs self, after I had moved in with Matt and got 'comfortable' with our relationship (and didn't know how to cook anything but frozen pizza and pasta!). I had decided to join weight watchers online and do some exercise at home. I bought some yoga videos and with watching what I ate, walking at least 30 mins to an hour a day, and doing my yoga tapes, I went down from a size almost-16 to a size 8. Then, I got pregnant. I did really good with my weight gain with my pregnancy, since I still had my WW eating habits and was now doing pre-natal yoga. After Drew was born, breastfeeding and post-natal yoga got be down to a size 8 within 2 weeks after delivery.

I did really good for the first year of being a mom with keeping my weight in check, but after I got done being nervous about having a new baby to care for (which translated into forgetting to eat, since I was so worried about making sure the baby was happy), I started to eat without reservation and NOT exercising. So, I did WW again (with less exercise and NO yoga) and got down to a size 10 and then got prego again. That pregnancy was done with NO exercise or yoga and calorie counting was out the window. Nursing was the same - I figured that I would be nursing the weigh off... which didn't work.

Now that I am 4 months post nursing my second child, I have decided that getting back down to a size 8/10 would be a good goal. So, journaling my food and adding exercise has been a work in progress. But, when I decided to put in my yoga DVD in the player the other morning, just to do a 15 minute morning stretch routine - and the fact that I felt more ALIVE than I have in the past year, tells me that conscious breathing, stretching, and focused self-awareness is what I need in order to "open my being up." It was amazing how I felt so much better! I even did it with both boys crawling all over me - and even Drew started to do it with me - so imagine what I could do for me if I actually got to have some personal time for this!

I have always been a very inward and mobile person. Not necessarily athletic. I consider myself more like a dancer. I like to move with music - controlled, rhythmic, in a pattern, concentrated, but yet creative. Music tends to make me more alive and even though listening can have a mental effect on me, but moving to it magnifies it 100 times. And I have found that if I an not able to move to music or take time to do focus movement of sorts - that a part of my psyche almost shuts down.

With this realization... a conscious effort to incorporate dance, movement, breathing and meditation into my life is imperative to my inward happiness.