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By Sheryl Wolff Kayne (reprinted From the Connecticut Post) Some people rent the newest big name release from their video store for entertainment. I use my library card to check out exercise DVD's from the public library. One day in May, the title “Fat Free Yoga: Lose Weight and Feel Great” jumped right iinto my hands. If ever a title hit home, that was it. The Man of LaMancha had his search. I have mine: To find the key that unlocks the elusive secret to losing weight, keeping it off, and feeling terrific. The story of my life. I smiled and made a wish on the promising words printed across the tape’s cover by a national health and fitness magazine: “Kundalini Yoga brings the quickest, most dramatic results.” I’ve tried so many different yogas, I was surprised to find one I’d never heard of before. I checked out the dvd for my weekly adventure in exercise, self-improvement and learning. Conscientiously, every day, I worked with the dvd until it was due back one week later. I lost two pounds, and I felt effervescently energized. In July, I spotted “Fat Free Yoga” back up on the library’s shelf. I checked it out, did it for six days, and lost two pounds again. This time I ran to the phone and called 1-800-243-YOGA to speak with the instructors, Ravi Singh & Ana Brett, in their New York studio. “I’ve been exercising along with your ‘Fat Free Yoga’ dvd and lost weight,” I told them. “We all did,” Ana said. “Ravi dropped 25 pounds when he first started practicing Kundalini yoga 25 years ago. Our students find that through regular practice, they attain their ideal weight.” As I shook my head in total disbelief, I read him my credit card number and ordered the dvd and wondered how long the weight loss would last. My weight’s been stuck at one point for two years now. Nothing’s knocked me out of that spot, until this. Kundalini yoga, also called the yoga of awareness, has been around for thousands of years. It was taught to the great yogi masters. The practice is based on breath and breathing. A unique element to this yoga is the breath of fire, a steady, in and out forceful breath through the nose, combined with specific positions and stretches, which provides an aerobic effect. “Fat Free Yoga” is organized in four, 19-minute segments with titles like: Start your engines; Fight fire with fire; No impact aerobics; Your life is in your own glands. Meditation and relaxation exercises are integrated throughout. Singh and Brett explain each activity while Ana masterfully demonstrates the moves. His tone is soothing, guiding me through to the end of the tape. Before I know it, I’m relaxed, stretched and ready to face my day.
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