Favorite Yoga DVDs for Beginners Over 40

Activity is an important part of the Weight Watchers Plan. It’s an important part of living a healthy life.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t born loving to exercise. Enjoying exercise is something I’ve had to work to cultivate. With practice and determination, I’ve learned to look forward to my daily walks and time on the yoga mat. They’ve become an integral part of my life.

Heck, I enjoyed the benefits of yoga so much, I even became certified to teach it. (Who ever would have thought? )

As a yoga teacher, I get asked quite often for yoga DVD recommendations. This can be tricky, since there are so many different styles of yoga and yoga DVDs for a wide range of purposes and audiences.

There are all kinds of beginning yoga DVDs out there. Some are perfect for the young and athletic, while others are better suited for more mature audiences!

As a 49-year-old yoga teacher, who came to yoga late in life as a way of coping with severe back pain and sciatica, and who specializes in providing private and small group yoga to mature women, I prefer my yoga on the gentle, slow and safe side. (At this point in my life, I don’t feel the need to try to twist myself into a pretzel or risk injuring my neck doing headstands.)

I want my yoga to help keep me strong, flexible, balanced, energized, and relaxed so I’m ready to get the most out of life.

If you’re  an older beginning yoga student looking for a yoga DVD to help get you started, here are 5 of my favorites:

1) Larry Payne’s Prime of Life Yoga- Immune Booster and General Conditioning – Level One DVD by Larry Payne, PhD, provides safe, user-friendly yoga routines, perfect for older beginners, those not currently exercising, or anyone recovering from illness and/or injury. Based on the book, Yoga Rx: A step-by-step program to promote health, wellness, and healing from common ailments, these yoga routines can help increase strength, flexibility, and vitality while reducing stress.

The Yoga Rx: Immune Booster and General Conditioning  Level One DVD, was filmed on the grounds of the beautiful Rancho La Puerta Spa in Baja, California. Yoga expert, Larry Payne, instructs you through the routines, which are taught in the TKV Desikachar style of yoga, a safe, user-friendly style of yoga commonly associated with yoga therapy.

Level One is an excellent gentle yoga practice that can slowly build strength and flexibility. It includes 20-minute and 40 minute options that are demonstrated by a fit 40-year-old female yoga student. It is accessible for inexperienced beginners, providing detailed instructions for breathing and moving. The 20-minute routine is a series of standing poses that ends with relaxation. You can choose to stop or continue with the second 20-minute routine that includes a variety of poses performed lying on your back and your stomach and concludes with more relaxation and a breathing exercise.

I get excited when I discover yoga DVDs that are accessible and user-friendly for people in their 40s and beyond. After suggesting several yoga DVDs to my 39-year-old brother who wanted to try yoga and was intimidated with the idea of going to class, this is the DVD that resonated with him. He found it challenging without being overwhelming to somebody with no previous yoga experience.

The DVD moves at a slow controlled pace, with expert instruction and soothing background music. Poses are performed in a flowing manner encouraging you to coordinate your movement and your breath into a relaxing rhythm, which is very soothing for your nervous system. Periods of rest are sprinkled throughout the routine and counter poses are provided to compensate for challenging poses as appropriate.

If you are looking for accessible, user-friendly yoga routines for your 40s and beyond you may want to give this DVD a spin.

2) Yoga Journal’s Yoga for Stress With Dr. Baxter Bell

Baxter Bell, M.D., is a California-based physician, yoga teacher, and medical acupuncturist with more than 15 years of family medical practice. He teaches, writes, and lectures internationally on stress because it addresses the underlying causes, not just the symptoms of many of our healthy conditions.

In order to manage stress through mindfulness, Dr. Baxter Bell presents two yoga practices in this DVD. The first focuses on energizing poses to help prevent stress and the second focuses on calming the nervous system to relieve stress.

The DVD also includes:

- An in-depth interview with Dr. Bell about the physiology of stress

- An alternate practice mode which allows you to practice with less verbal instruction once you’ve learned the yoga sequences

-  A built in timer that lets you practice at your own pace

- A bonus DVD-ROM feature that links you to Yoga Journal articles about stress.

I recommend this to beginners and intermediates who are seeking a stress reduction program.

3) Sitting Fit Anytime: Easy & Effective Chair Yoga by Susan Winter Ward

It’s possible to get the benefits of yoga without ever leaving your chair!

In Sitting Fit Anytime, Certified Anusara Yoga Teacher, Susan Winter Ward, guides you through simple effective seated exercises that are perfect if you have limited mobility or want to do a little yoga at your desk. All the yoga stretches, which are done from the comfort of your chair, will help relieve stress and tension and improve circulation while building strength and flexibility.

The DVD includes nine 3 to 5 minute segments that focus on:

• Breathing
• Head, Neck & Shoulders
• Hands & Wrists
• Arms & Upper Back
• Hips & Lower Back
• Hamstrings & Forward Bends
• Abdominals
• Feet
• Meditation

There is nothing particularly exciting or sexy about this DVD. The set is simple – just Susan seated in an over-sized ladder back chair demonstrating each pose while she provides detailed verbal instruction in a calm and soothing manner. The set backdrop suggests blue sky and clouds, while subtle flute/guitar music plays quietly in the background. This DVD is also available in a CD-Rom with screen saver format designed to prompt you to take intermittent yoga at your desk breaks.

This chair yoga DVD is a great way to get introduced to the benefits of yoga from the comfort of your chair or desk. Don’t be put off by the introduction where Susan is shown doing more advanced yoga poses with the chair as a prop. Nothing closely resembling these moves is included in the instructional portion of the DVD.

Highly recommended, especially for those with limited mobility who want to experience the benefits of yoga.

4) Yoga Chi For Energy by Suzanne Andrews. Read a complete review here.

5) Yoga for the Rest of Us with Peggy Cappy by Peggy Cappy. Read a complete review here.

If you liked this post on My 5 favorite yoga DVDs for beginners over 40, check out these links:

• My review of the yoga DVD, Yoga for People with Curves by Larry Payne
• My favorite yoga DVDs and Books on Yoga for Back Pain
• My post on Staying Young with Yoga
• An article on The Benefits of Yoga (Mayo Clinic)

Savvy Supermarket Strategies for Weight Loss

Weight loss success begins at the supermarket. It’s true. The supermarket can be one of your best allies for getting healthy and losing weight.

But it can be a little confusing and tricky to navigate. The key is to have a guide and strategies to help you shop smart.

First, it’s important to remember that supermarkets are designed for one purpose – to get you to buy and spend as much as possible.  Everything is carefully orchestrated down to the last detail – organization, displays, lighting, signs, smells, music, product placements, sample tastes – to entice you to buy more.

The average grocery store stocks over 38,000 products all vying for a spot in your shopping cart!

Teams of researchers, marketers and psychologists are all working behind the scenes to get you to spend, spend, spend.

It’s important to understand this reality. The grocery store is not interested in your health and weight loss efforts. You’re going to have to figure that out without their help! So Be AWARE and Have a PLAN.

It’s natural to feel caught in a battle between your best intentions (buy salmon, nonfat milk, and broccoli) and temptations (the smell of fresh baked bread, samples of fattening cheese, candy bars and soda lining the checkout aisles.)

So how do you steer clear of temptation and stay on track? How do you determine which foods to buy and which foods to avoid?

Have a PLAN, a STRATEGY, before entering the supermarket:

15 Savvy Supermarket Strategies for Weight Loss

1. Bring a written shopping list and stay focused on it.

2. Plan out major meals and add to your list all the items you need to make them.

3. Organize your list according to the layout of the store.

4. Stock up on lots of fruits and vegetables. They are low in calories/PointsPlus values and good for you.

5. Plan for a few treats so you don’t feel deprived.

6. Resist impulse purchases.  Remember that if you resist a temptation at the store, you only have to resist it once. If you bring home that temptation you have to resist it again and again every hour of every day!

7. Eat before you shop. Going to the store hungry is setting yourself up for difficulty. I used to stop at the supermarket after work, tired and hungry, and end up making terrible choices, including picking up a candy bar at check out to “tide me over” until I got home and made dinner. (Yes, it’s those behaviors, repeated again and again, that land you in Weight Watchers.)

8. Focus on shopping the perimeter walls. That’s where most of the healthy food is – the fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, and dairy. But don’t be lured into the unhealthy stuff beside the healthy stuff (caramel beside the apples, fattening dips beside the carrots). It’s another ploy to trick you into buying what you didn’t intend to.

9. Avoid the inner aisles as much as you can. It’s these shelves that are lined with lots of low nutrient highly processed products. When you are in the middle, stay on point getting what you need as quickly as you can and getting out. It’s also interesting to note that the healthiest foods in these inner aisles tend to be on the top and bottom shelves, so look high and low.

10. If you can, leave the kids at home when you shop.

11. Refuse the samples if you don’t what whatever it is they’re sampling in your house. Tasting greatly increases the odds that you’ll bring an item home.

12. Avoid coupons for unhealthy products.

13. Load up on the Weight Watchers Power Foods: fruits; vegetables; low fat and nonfat dairy; eggs; fish;  lean meats and poultry; 100% whole grain light breads and pasta; lentils; brown and wild rices; hot cereals without added, sugar, fruits or nuts; canned vegetables and fruits packed in water; tuna packed in water; canned salmon; canned beans; frozen fruits and vegetables; whole grain cereals without added sugar, fruits or nuts and with 4+ g fiber per serving; quinoa, bulgur

14. Use your PointsPlus calculator or scanner (if you have eTools) to check out the PointsPlus values of foods BEFORE you bring them home.

15. Avoid check out temptation by using the self-checkout and/or grabbing a magazine to read to distract yourself from the candy and soda and other unhealthy snacks strategically placed all around.

Remember, your trip to the grocery store can be one of the most important things you do toward achieving your weight loss goals. Your success begins at the supermarket! You just need to be smart and savvy when you shop.

If you liked this article on Savvy Supermarket Strategies for Weight Loss, check out these links:

10 Tips for Healthy Grocery Shopping (WebMD)
Healthy Grocery Shopping Guide – Smart tips for finding and buying the healthiest groceries (Prevention)
Weight Watchers Plan Friendly Grocery Shopping List (Weight Watchers)
Dr. Oz’s Supermarket Survival Guide

The Weekly Weigh-In

In my ongoing weight maintenance efforts, I find it helpful to take a few minutes to recap each week and reflect a bit on what worked and what needs improvement before planning for the upcoming week.

Life can get out of control quickly, so this little pause helps me keep it all in perspective.

As I’ve learned from my favorite Weight Watchers leaders, it’s not about perfection, but progress.

In this weekly post you’ll find a recap of what I’ve posted this week, recipes and articles on other websites and blogs that I’ve bookmarked, a plan for my week and my quote for the upcoming week.

Today, is a milestone day for me: I officially began my career as a Weight Watchers leader, with my first At Work meeting.

Enjoy!

On Simple Nourished Living This Week:

Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs with Beer and Herbes de Provence – a simple yet delicious recipe that the whole family loves (3 PointsPlus value)

Easy 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies – flourless, simple and delicious cookies that are hard to resist so be prepared to share or freeze some of them to avoid temptation (1 PointsPlus value)

Weight Watchers Individual Ham, Cheese, and Veggie Frittatas – baked in hash browned potato lined muffin cups, bake up a batch on the weekend for a quick on-th-go breakfast during the week (3 pointsPlus value)

Lightened Up Spaghetti with White Wine Clam Sauce – easy and delicious, perfect for a quick weeknight dinner (9 PointsPlus value)

Southwest Stoplight Quinoa Salad – a colorful light and tasty salad perfect on it’s own for a light lunch or alongside grilled meat or fish for dinner (4 PointsPlus value)

What I Bookmarked This Week:

Weight Watchers friendly recipes and tips from other blogs and websites that I liked and found helpful and thought you would too:

Weight Loss Tips that Really Work – Diet fads come and go, but sensible slim-down ideas stand the test of time. Here’s a collection that Woman’s Day magazine has gathered and printed over the past 75 years. I think you’ll be surprised at how timeless these tips are and how in alignment with the Weight Watchers program most of them were. I was. (Woman’s Day)

Why “Fat Talk” Is Damaging to Your Weight Loss Efforts – review of findings from a study done at the University of Arizona (RealAge)

A recipe for Lighter Almond Joys – combining crushed pineapple, coconut, sugar and egg whites into little baked macaroons that are then drizzled with chocolate, a perfect lighter alternative for almond joy and coconut macaroon lovers (Snack Girl)

A recipe for Healthier Macaroni & Cheese – that begins with a box and then substitutes cottage cheese for the butter/milk and bumps up the nutrition with chopped tomatoes (Snack Girl)

A recipe for Double Quinoa Cranberry Walnut Cookies – from the talented woman who helped me love quinoa with her lemony lentil and quinoa salad recipe (Enlightened Cooking)

A recipe for Eggplant Salad – greens, broiled eggplant, parmesan, tomatoes, and mozzarella add up to an inspired salad with 7 WW PointsPlus value (Everyday Maven)

A recipe for Naturally Sweetened Lemonade – using liquid stevia (Sugar Free Mom)

A recipe for a Skinny Citrus Margarita Sprizer - with tequila, cointreau, lime juice, orange juice and seltzer that has 5 WW PointsPlus value (SkinnyTaste)

A recipe for Best of Bridges Orange Sunshine Muffins – made healthier with 4 WW PointsPlus Value (Kitchen Parade)

A list of Healthy Breakfast on the Go Ideas (Cooking Light)

The Good & Not So Good This Week:

• I did a pretty good job tracking online with etools, only missing 2 days
• I walked Francie every day, sometimes twice
• I stayed up too late two nights and broke my rule to be off the computer by 9:00 PM. Not a good thing for weight loss as this interesting article on how Social Jetlag Contributes to Obesity in Psych Central News. When I’m sleep deprived, I get more hungry and have more cravings, so stepping away from the computer and getting my sleep is something I need to focus on.
• I successfully completed by Weight Watchers Basic Leader Training, Power Start Certification, and led my first At Work Meeting
• I went out to eat more than usual, but feel like I chose wisely for the most part
• I’ve taken a wine sabbatical for the past 4 days and am sleeping really well, when I finally get to bed.

My Expectations and Plans for the Coming Week:

• To enjoy a fun and tasty Mother’s Day lunch with mom on Sunday at Season’s 52 restaurant where each item on the menu is less than 475 calories. It’s been mentioned several times at Weight Watchers meetings lately so I’m looking forward to trying it. Have you been there and if so, what did you think?
• Enjoy my last private yoga session of the season in Carefree Monday morning
• Successfully lead my first traditional Weight Watchers meeting on Monday night
• Walk Francie for at least 30 minutes Monday – Friday and Sunday
• Do yoga at least 4 times this week for at least 20 minutes (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) My personal practice has been slipping a bit lately and I am re-committing to it this week.

Quote For the Week:

“There’s no failure; only feedback.”

Part of becoming a Weight Watchers Leader is learning to tell your Weight Watchers story and sharing a “before” picture, since no weight loss story is really complete without “before” and “after” pictures.

Since this isn’t particularly easy for me, I thought it would be good practice to share my story here with you.

So, here it goes…

Me as a Chubby Child

This is me in the early 1970s, as a chubby girl. I don’t remember ever being “little.” Just “big.” In addition to being overweight, I also towered over the other kids my age. Dad often referred to me as his “husky” daughter, a term that still causes me to flinch when I think back on it.

Before Losing 28 Pounds on Weight Watchers 20+ Years Ago

And this is me in 1991, months before finally being fed up and heading off to Weight Watchers.

Me at my goal weight

And this is me in January of 2008, at my goal weight.

As you can see, my struggles with weight began early. I was raised by an emotional eater who taught me to use food as comfort. Food – lots of it – was always on center stage, and most of it was fattening – pasta, pizza, cookies, chips, ice cream, brownies, donuts, burgers, and candy.

I went on my first diet the summer I was 13-years-old, lost several pounds, and promptly gained it back during the following school year. The next 15 years were spent yo-yo dieting – losing a few pounds on the diet-of-the-moment and then gaining them back – again, and again, and again.

By the time I finally decided to join Weight Watchers, I was living in California far from family and friends. My husband at the time was away for work a lot. I hated my job, had few friends, and took solace in food and wine. My exercise routine consisted of strolling the dog around the block and then plopping down on the sofa with a Haagen Dazs ice cream bar as a reward. My clothes were bursting at the seams and I hated the idea of going up another size.

When we went home for the holidays that year, I ran into an old friend who had lost weight and looked stunning. I asked what she had done and she said Weight Watchers.

I had heard of Weight Watchers. Heck, my mother and grandmother attended meetings for a while back in the 1970s and I seemed to recall a scale for weighing food and powdered skim milk. That was the extent of my Weight Watchers knowledge, but it didn’t matter. I hated the way I felt and was ready to take action.

As soon as I got back to California that January, I signed up. During the next 8 months I took off 28 pounds and then went through the process of becoming a lifetime member by staying within 2 pounds of my goal weight for 6 consectutive weigh-ins.

Becming a lifetime member entitles me to attend Weight Watchers meetings for free as long as I am within 2 pounds of my goal weight.

Of course, at 28, after successfully losing the weight, I thought I had the “weight” thing all figured out, so gradually stopped attending meetings.

Slowly some of the weight crept back on and I would return to Weight Watchers 3 more times during the next 20 years, before it finally sunk into my rather dense head, that paying attention to what and how much I ate were part of a healthy lifestyle that I would need to commit to forever.

It’s a heck of a lot easier to self correct when you’re 2 or 3 pounds over your goal rather than 15 or 20. And that’s what keeps me coming back. That and all the support, encouragement and great information I get from attending meetings.

Twenty years later, I can barely recall the young woman who walked into that first Weight Watchers meeting. I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished to become and stay slim and healthy. At 49 I feel better than I’ve ever felt. Weight Watchers helped me to develop a healthier relationship with food and with myself. I’m living a healthy balanced lifestyle that is free of deprivation. Something I once would never have dreamed was possible.

The best part is that you don’t have to to the Weight Watchers program perfectly to be successful. I’m living proof.  If I can do it; anyone can do it.

The End.

If you like this post on How I Became a Weight Watchers Lifetime Member, check out these links:

My Recipe for Healthy Eating
The Best Healthy Eating Plan for Weight Loss Focuses on What You Can Say Yes To
Busting Diet Myths – Eating Late Will Not Make You Fat