Yoga triumphs and musings on metabolic rates

Strike a pose

I’m proud to announce that yesterday in Yoga class I was able to do Pigeon Pose for the first time! Woohoo! I have been struggling and struggling with the flexibility required, as it combines flexibility in hamstrings, lower back, and hip flexors, each of which are particularly stiff areas for me. In eight weeks of Yoga, instead of Pigeon, I have instead laid on my back and stretched my hamstrings against the wall. It felt so, so good to finally be in the pose and feel so happy and grateful that my body is capable and is progressing.

It was almost as awesome as two weeks ago, when I was magically able to do a 90° handstand against the wall — who knew? In that pose, I was upside down looking at myself in the mirror, always a funny sight, with my feet braced on the mirror at hip level. It was also a weird moment because I could literally feel my brain flip-flopping between joy and strength and then insecurity, as I saw myself in the mirror. It was really hard to hold onto that moment of joy when my inner critic came out with ugly words. If I closed my eyes, I could feel joy and awe and giddiness surging through me, and when I opened them, I could feel the pit in the bottom of my stomach that said everyone can see you, be careful. Come on, brain, I’m trying to work on inner peace here!

Puttin’ some science on my intuition

Since last week I’ve dropped another 1.5lbs, which is also a good feeling. I genuinely feel good about the food choices that are getting me here. For the first time, I’m seeing predictable weight loss in response to eating “clean” after a weekend splurge (oh devil Brunch, get thee behind me!). As an added bonus, my husband is totally gung-ho about our meals lately — salads! Grilled chicken! He is truly a master at grilling meats to perfection. He still orders the french toast dripping with caramel-and-cream on the weekends, though :)

Before, I don’t think I had a clue (without obsessively counting calories) what was a “good” food day, the kind that would keep me energetic and full throughout the day and avoid a groaning stomach — I just kind of aimed in the general direction of healthy foods, portions be damned. I could aim for a calorie number, but it didn’t seem to have any correlation with feeling good, other than that hollow “hey, my numbers look good” feeling I get when I’m tracking my food closely. So since I’ve been eating more according to intuition and the constant-snacking method for the last three weeks or so, I’ve been curious what the actual caloric breakdown is, so here we go:

150 cals – Granola bar, 8:00 am

270 cals – Greek yogurt , 10:30 am (sometimes w/ raspberries or granola)

406 cals – Spinach salad w/ cottage cheese and fruit (7 cals spinach, 70 cals cottage cheese, 14 cals strawberries, 15 cals honeydew, 12 cals watermelon, 3 cals cuke slices, 165 cals salted sunflower seeds, 120 thousand island dressing) (This might sound ridiculously healthy but it tastes so decadent and yummy to me!)

130 cals – crackers, 3:30 pm

500 cals – marinated grilled chicken, shrimp, etc., plus salad or grilled veggies

200 cals – chocolate jello pudding with Cool Whip (latest fave dessert to use up stuff in the fridge)

TOTAL: 1,656 calories in an average day. Verrrrrry interesting. I think my intuition is working!

I know that resting/basal metabolic rate (RMR/BMR) calculators are notoriously iffy, because in looking mine up, I was given 2,020 calories by Physics Diet, 1,671 by ShapeUp.org, 1,737 by Discovery Health, and 1,720 by, um, Bodybuilding.com. ShapeUp.org gives a good explanation of how cutting calories below your RMR will slow your metabolism down in order to conserve energy for essential functions (like breathing). It’s hard to know if I’m cutting my calories too low, or hitting at the right spot, without paying someone to run a fancy machine and give me a better answer. But if my body felt too restricted, I wouldn’t be losing weight, so I’m guessing that everything is fine for now.

Since self-esteem is a muscle I have to use every day, I’ll take this opportunity to remind myself that this has been a pretty good week. I’ve felt calm enough not to be ruffled by the heat, and centered enough to have a heart-to-heart with my husband about Important Stuff, and I felt challenged and rewarded by Yoga. Part of self-esteem is taking the time to respect my body, and this week has been great for that. You know what would be pretty awesome? Taking advantage of the cooler weather this weekend to take a nice long bike ride. Let’s do it!