Beth Shaw - YogaLean Poses and Recipes to Promote Weight Loss and Vitality-for Life!

Beth Shaws YogaFit

YogaLean

This book proposes a program of diet and exercise recommendations for the reader to follow. However, you should consult a qualified medical professional (and, if you are pregnant, your ob-gyn) before starting this or any other fitness program. Please seek your doctors advice before making any decisions that affect your health or extreme changes in your diet, particularly if you suffer from any medical condition or have any symptom that may require treatment. As with any diet or exercise program, if at any time you experience any discomfort, stop immediately and consult your physician.

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A Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Original

Copyright 2014 by Beth Shaw

Introduction copyright 2014 by Pam Peeke, M. D.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

B ALLANTINE and the H OUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

YOGALEAN is a registered trademark of Beth June Shaw.

YOGAFIT is a registered trademark of Beth June Shaw.

L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING-IN -P UBLICATION D ATA
Shaw, Beth
Yogalean : poses and recipes to promote weight loss and vitalityfor life! / Beth Shaw.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8041-7855-6 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-8041-7856-3 (eBook)
1. Hatha yoga. 2. Reducing exercises. 3. Weight loss. 4. Vitality. 5. Health. I. Title.
RA781.7.S43 2014
613.7046dc23 2014024647

www.ballantinebooks.com

Photographs by David Young-Wolff

v3.1

Let the beauty you love be the thing that you do.

Rumi

..

For the past twenty years I have had the blessing of doing what I love. From my living room and the trunk of my car in 1994 to offices in three cities and a presence on six continents, YogaFit has grown. This book is dedicated to God, the Universe, a Higher Power, my Angels, my grandmother Olga, who said that moderation was the key to everything, my mother, June, who introduced me to health and fitness at a young age, and my partner, Esra, for support, courage, and love.

..

SWAMI AMAR JYOTI

a fter accepting the invitation to write the foreword to Beth Shaws YogaLean, I spent some time contemplating what it really means to be lean. I discovered that there are many complementary layers to this concept of lean, each one contributing to the building of a holistic foundation for optimal health and wellness.

Some may hear lean and conjure troublesome memories of enduring countless diets in their quest to achieve the Holy Grail of becoming thin. Scale-hopping and obsessing about how to wedge yourself into a size-subzero pair of jeans are clearly not the goals of YogaLean . Merriam-Webster defines lean as physically strong and healthy, as in a fit athletic body. To clarify, the goal is not an Olympic career. Rather, YogaLean is about each person taking on the project to become as mentally and physically resilient as possible, to survive and thrive joyfully throughout a life of stresses and challenges.

Lean also means to be flexible, inclining from a vertical position, which is the very essence of yoga poses. Physically, youre exploring the extraordinary bounty of flexing, stretching, and strengthening opportunities that yoga gives you. Mentally and spiritually, youre battling the typical dissociation of mind and body that so many experience and that can ultimately lead to self-destructive behaviors, self-abandonment, and a lack of inward awareness. The YogaLean philosophy is a call to action: to cease self-desertion and instead to lean deep into yourself. This is accomplished through the regular and daily practice of this mind-body lifestyle plan, one in which you fearlessly lean in and challenge yourself, much like former Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg suggests to women seeking career growth in her book of the same name.

Eschewing the traditional diet mentality, YogaLean presents a holistic, integrative blueprint based on yogic history and principles. Critical program components are science-based. For example, research now shows that the regular practice of meditation results in astonishing organic changes both in the brain and in how the bodys genes direct metabolism. Neuroimaging studies have shown thickening of the brains cortex in people who meditate regularly, which increases integrative and cognitive thinking. Epigeneticists, who study how genes communicate with one another and commandeer the bodys mental and physical functioning, have noted that meditation leads to precise changes in this gene expression, resulting in decreased inflammation and increased mental performance, especially under stressful conditions. Other scientists have discovered that meditation can increase the cells lifespan, thus increasing longevity. Metabolism specialists have noted a profound and sustained decrease in the stress hormone cortisol following the regular practice of yoga.

Part of honoring the mind and body is to use both. Therefore, physical activity is an integral element in the lifestyle template. Embracing the bliss of movement reinforces the importance of staying connected with the body. This is a serious challenge for stressed-out people, running frenetically 24/7 on the gerbil wheel of overcommitted and overwhelming daily life. Its time to jump off that spinning wheel once and for all and create a new way to live, cherishing and being eternally grateful for each breath we take.

Fueling the daily practice of mindful living with tasty, satisfying, and life-giving whole foods is critical to a healthy lifestyle. New challenges include the need to make the time to shop for, prepare, cook, and gratefully savor each meal. Its a battlefield out there, with endless temptations to skip cooking and instead consume manufactured food-like products that are not natural and pose serious threats to your ability to initiate and maintain healthy behaviors. For example, science has revealed that there is a strong association between certain foods and addiction. Among the chief offenders are processed sugary/fatty/salty food product combinations. Researchers have discovered that, as in drug abuse, were literally hooked on products like refined sugar. Further, studies published in peer-reviewed journals have demonstrated not only that sugar ignites the brains reward center in an identical fashion to cocaine, morphine, and heroin but also that, given the option, animals prefer sugary/fatty foods to these drugs. Finally, a milestone study showed that in animals, refined sugar is more addictive than cocaine. Being mindful of every mouthful brings this addictive cycle to a screeching halt.