I’m fat obese. I weigh 222 pounds with a BMI of 40.2%, down from the 53% BMI and 234 pounds that rocked my world two months ago. Now that I’ve thrown it out into the universe for the world to recoil in disgust from, I can release it and move on to Phase Two, whatever that may be. My fitness downfall is always due to a lack of planning. As an “ideas” person, I’m great at brainstorming an idea, implementing it and handing it off to others to complete. I can’t do that with my health.

Being fat is easy. Becoming morbidly obese, now there’s a challenge. Let me break it down for you.

CHILDHOOD
Be the only chubby, non-athletically inclined individual born into a family of sports fanatics. You earn bonus points if your mother is a tomboy who organizes neighborhood track meets in the vacant lot next to your house and you manage to avoid participating in any of these events. Learn quickly to grab your red bike and peddle off to the library when you hear rumblings from your mother about gathering the bats and mitts and calling the neighborhood children over for a game of baseball. It’s especially helpful if a sibling with a perfect physique and athletic prowess teases you on a daily basis about the way your thunder thighs jiggle when you leap a hurdle (a.k.a., a picnic table bench) during one of those neighborhood track meets. (Remember the library strategy.) This constant demoralizing banter crushes your self esteem. A crushed self esteem is one of the most critical elements in achieving a morbidly obese existence.

The New York Times recently published an article previewing a book on the rewards and risks of practicing Yoga. William J. Broad became significantly aware of the risks of Yoga through an injury and then used his curiosity to widen his perspectives on the practice of Yoga in modernity. Reading this article was great for me. As a student of exercise and human movement mechanics, it was an extreme relief to read this pertinent article. His message is simply that there are many healing presumptions when it comes to yoga and maybe that one cannot heal the body and mind by walking into a yoga studio a handful of times because it’s not suited for the vast majority of people. His research and experience give us several reasons to NOT “Just Do It”. Rather, we should listen to the body, its protective mechanisms, and question its limitations.

One of the most important aspects of the first trimester is keeping your energy level up. That’s no small feat! Pregnancy typically conjures thoughts of fatigue and exhaustion, and although nearly every woman experiences a decrease in energy at some point during pregnancy, there are ways to boost energy and keep you moving right along until you give birth.

Here are six ways to stay happier and healthier in the beginning of your pregnancy and beyond:

Now that summer is over and fall is into full swing, you might want to get your hair on a new workout routine, as in getting it into shape by cutting off some of those dead ends. Figuring out a new “do” for fall can take years off your look, and accentuate your best features. Before you ask your Stylist for the latest trend right off the runway, you should really look at your face shape and the texture of your hair to determine which style will look best on you.

What face shape do you have? That’s easy, pull all of your hair back into a tight ponytail or use a headband if your hair is short, and look straight into a mirror. Take your lipstick and outline your face on the mirror (don’t worry a little Windex will take it right off). Start by outlining your forehead, go around your cheeks, and down to your chin. Most likely your face shape wall fall into one of these categories: oval, round, square, heart-shaped or long.

Two Minutes at Our Dental Office Could Save Your Life

You may have heard in the news of Michael Douglas’ battle with throat cancer, but he is not alone in this fight: more than 100 new individuals will be diagnosed with oral cancer each day.

What may be even more alarming is that it kills one person every hour of every day, a trend that has been consistent for more than 40 years.

Growth and accessibility are the trends in Yoga now. Nowhere was that more evident than on a recent day in June − the kick-off for Virginia Yoga The Week − when over 2500 people participated in the third annual Love Your Body Day at Reston Town Center. The day began with a Flow Yoga class and ended with a closing celebration concert by Wade Morrisette, a kirtan and indie pop-rock musician and yoga therapist.

Free classes − full to capacity − went on all day. The wide diversity of classes included everything from Beginners Yoga to Rocket Yoga to Synergy Yoga for the family to a special therapeutic class of Yoga for the Lower Back. The Reston kick-off was followed by a week of more than 100 free and discounted yoga classes and events held in studios and wellness centers through out the area.

For well over a decade, the healthcare world has been looking at the link between your oral and your overall health, most often referred as the oral systemic connection. In the September issue of O Magazine, we were happy to see a medical topic that addressed going to the dentist as both an indicator and a solution. The topic was CRP and its effects on the cardiovascular system.

What is CRP? The J Journal of Periodontology reported that inflammatory effects from periodontal disease−a chronic bacterial infection of the gums−cause oral bacterial byproducts to enter the bloodstream and trigger the liver to make proteins such as CRP that inflame arteries and promote blood clot formation. This chronic inflammation is also linked conclusively to other chronic conditions such as diabetes, pregnancy complications, respiratory conditions and even cancer.