Fifty by 30 from Anna of Curvy Yoga

2011 is going to be a great year for me; I can already tell (i.e. I’m calling dibs and hoping it works). For one, it’s the year that I’ll be welcoming my thirties with open arms.

Yes, open arms, not a tiny waist (as I was originally hoping).

You see, about a year and a half ago I decided that what I wanted more than anything, what would make me feel and look fantastic, would be to lose fifty pounds by my thirtieth birthday. I considered thirty by 30, and while that is catchier, it just wasn’t the grand gesture I was looking for.

So I set about on my gazillionth diet with the bright eyes and hope that come with such endeavors. In the first month, I’d lost almost ten pounds. I was golden!

Who needs a year and a half when clearly I’d be done in five months? Fifty by 29, here I came! (You might want to cover your eyes here if you still think diets work. Things are about to get ugly.)

Except, not.

I stuck about where I was, sometimes losing a pound here or there, sometimes gaining a pound or five there. I tormented the heck out of myself (which is basically the point of dieting, I think). And for all that anguish and self-doubt and inner criticism, I got…basically nothing. Well, at least nothing that I was expecting; I did get something quite unexpected, though.

I stopped caring.

Now, hang with me for a second before you start imagining me languishing my life away. I stopped caring about dieting, which is really different from stopping caring about my health.

I finally realized, after more tries than I can even count, that if 20+ years of dieting haven’t worked, maybe the problem isn’t me. The problem could be (wait for it) the diets.

Crazy, I know!

I started off my new diet-free life by actually looking at my body. That might sound simple, but it wasn’t something I’d done in awhile. I was used to doing things like getting dressed as quickly as possible. But then I just started looking at myself–in a full-length mirror. And I noticed that, hey, the mirror didn’t break!

Once I made it past that milestone, I attempted a few others. As a curvy woman who practices and teaches yoga, I often felt ashamed when my belly prevented me from going very far in certain poses. So instead of letting that guilt keep me down, I found a way around it–literally. Now when I’m doing a forward bend, I lovingly take hold of my belly and move it a little.

Yes, you read that right: I touch my belly! And once I started touching my belly, former winner of My Most Hated Body Part, all kinds of other things were possible, including a new goal:

Loving my body and treating it well by 30.

(I don’t want to jinx it, but I think I’m gonna make it.)

Anna Guest-Jelley is a bit of an anomaly: a curvy woman who practices and teaches yoga.  Despite not dreaming of putting her leg behind her head (without going to the hospital, at least), she learns/practices/teaches yoga because of its transformative powers in her life.  For more Curvy Yoga goodness, visit Anna’s website or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.

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