I called it Awesome 10
It all started in the beginning of this year when I was browsing the Chinese horoscope with the interest to know what lies ahead for me in the Year of Dragon. Something catches my attention is a recommendation for me to take up Yoga in order to maintain my health condition. It was also a recommendation from my family doctor to consider Qigong or Yoga after the year end medical review. Coincidently, I also received Groupon from a few Yoga centers.
I always have the perception that Yoga is a very gentle exercise and cannot relate to weight loss or health improvement. I started to read and google to understand more about this sport and this include a couple of visits to different Yoga Centers before we make a decision to pursue.
When we step into Platinum Yoga, we asked to view the facility and their offers. Despite their short tenure, absence of bathing facility and size of the center, we decided to go with Platinum. I guess at that time, it is our gut feel and instinct.
We proceed with the purchase of Groupon voucher and started our Yoga adventure. Our first yoga practice is Anti Aging. You probably can tell that we are not the young and punk group with our choice of yoga. We were late for the first lesson and being new to Yoga, we just do copy and paste and I remembered vividly that it was Sun Salutation. It was extremely embarrassing because most of them in the class are so good except for the 3 of us.
What kept us going was the instructor. For every pose that we do, he care to explain the benefit and the correct way to do it. I was pretty much attentive and find it very interesting to know the benefits. I tried making friends with those who are very good and soon realized that they have been practicing for months and some even years.
I started practicing every other day and felt so great after each practice. I perspire a lot and began to feel more alert, and somehow have a sense of achievement. Soon we exhausted the Groupon offer. At that time, I was contemplating whether or not to continue with this new ‘adventure’. I ponder over my medical report which does not turn out to my expectations. A couple of options clouded my mind and one of which is to take it seriously and set a goal for myself i.e. to lose my body mass and see an improvement in my next medical review.
I eventually landed myself with a year membership plus 50 sessions of personal training. Why personal training? Given my past 2 experiences with personal training, I always find it very effective and especially for those who are not so disciplined to exercise. With this, it goes to say that the trainer must be good in Yoga, understand what works and what don’t works for the individual, encourage and motivate the trainee to move forward. Therefore it is never easy for both trainer and trainee.
Finally, the yoga journey began just one week before the lunar New Year. I practiced almost 6 times a week with 3 PT sessions. I must say that these poses are never easy for me. It makes it even tougher especially with the amount of long standing body fat and size. What actually kept me going were the trainer and instructors. They are extremely friendly, helpful and encouraging. Their love and passion for Yoga is well demonstrated during classes especially during PT. He will always come up with modifications or introduce other yoga tools such as ropes, belts and blocks to help us achieve the poses in which we have difficulty so as not to demoralize us.
Inches loss is visible when I clothed myself in office attire. My family and friends are very encouraging. My son of 9 years old join me once a week more for the fun of it. Soon, my daughter of 15 years old began to enquire about Yoga and has now joined me during weekend and school holidays. She loves the hot yoga so much that she can even forsake her sleep on Sunday and commute by public transport to do her practice. I am very amaze and proud of her.
After 11 weeks of Yoga practices, I lost 10kg in weight, my blood pressure reading has improved and there is a high possibility that my doctor will reduce the dosage as it now falls before the normal reading of 120/80. The result is extremely encouraging and basically it just raised the bar a little higher to achieve another set of aggressive goal. Kudos to all at Platinum. Specially thanks to Anil and Manoj for all your words of encouragement.
