My Yoga Weight Loss Journey

The Starting Point

It was tough at first because there were so many poses that I used to be able to do easily but were now difficult, if not impossible for me, but I persevered and slowly but surely the poses got easier and easier and my body started to change.

I was shocked at how weak and how inflexible I was. I didn't have the strength in my arms to push up into wheel pose, or the flexibility in my back to do camel pose.

My family and friends started to notice that I was calmer and much more even tempered. I hadn't lost a lot of weight yet though.

I had gone down to two hundred and five pounds when we first had the restaurant, mainly because I was running around constantly in the Caribbean heat.

However, once we had built up our team and I was more inclined to sit at the bar, drinking mineral water and chatting to our bar manager, I started to gain weight again and ended up at two hundred and fifty-five pounds with a thirty-eight inch waist.

By early 2019 I was getting up early, doing at least two hours of yoga, going up to the restaurant, generally getting back by 1pm and doing another three hours or so then, before heading back to work for the evening. My wife complained about being a yoga widow.

My yoga was getting progressively deeper and more intense, and my body started to feel very different.

By July I was starting to think about trying to lose weight. I was fifty-two and when I saw pictures of myself, I really didn't like what I was seeing. I looked huge.

What was putting me off dieting was our restaurant manager. He had recently gone on a diet and I would ask him how it was going every day, to which he would reply 'it's killing me'. He was less than half my age, so I figured I had an uphill climb ahead of me. He hadn't actually lost any weight at all.

Eventually I went on a diet that wasn't too strict, and I bought myself some bathroom scales so that I could track my progress.

I decided to not be too rigid about the diet as I knew I wouldn't stick to it if it was too harsh.

I cut out desserts completely but allowed myself the odd chocolate bar from the gas station shop on the way home at night. Obviously not the best of choices.

I was at two hundred and thirty- five pounds the first time I weighed myself at home.

I lost weight slowly and steadily. I did have cheat days on my diet. I was still eating meat and fish at this point, but red meat was almost gone off my radar.

I had become lactose intolerant when I turned fifty, so I had to give up dairy as well.