I love jawbreakers. Pixie stix, black licorice, fire balls, Neccos, and remember those wax soda bottles and wax teeth for Halloween? I was eating some of this stuff well into my 30s, I’m not gonna lie to you. All while knowing that adult onset diabetes runs in my family. My mother had it and I developed gestational diabetes while pregnant with my daughter Zoe, so I am a prime candidate. It didn’t help that in Z’s prime childhood years, I was working at an old historic house museum in Vienna, Virginia that featured an old-fashioned candy counter filled with jars of classic candy. And I got to order the stuff, so I expanded our collection. I loved that job. We always had candy at home. Z was thrilled, and so was I! Spoiler alert, I was passing on these bad habits to my daughter. I knew I had to nip it in the lollipop bud.
I knew then that I shouldn’t indulge, but I just couldn’t control my emotions enough to say no. Candy was my crack. Luckily, it just so happened that when I was working that museum job I discovered right around the corner a yoga studio that specializes in Korean yoga. I had dabbled in yoga in art school, but then in my late 20s and early 30s I became interested in body building and spent my time burning off those sugar calories at the gym. I loved my time there and I learned so much about the body through classes and working with trainers. But there was something lacking, I wanted to go deeper, not just into the physicality of my body, but into the mind behind it, the intellect, the emotional and soulful side. It was actually a trainer at the gym who recommended I again pursue yoga. Because despite all that body strengthening, I still was not in control of my emotions and all that emotional eating. So I thought, why not? Give it a whirl. I signed up for classes at that little studio on Main Street around the corner. I loved being back on the mat, and while I ultimately decided that that particular studio was not for me, yoga WAS.
I was hooked. A new addiction! I started reading instructional guides and classic yoga texts and began a serious home practice that dove-tailed perfectly with my burgeoning home jewelry business. I joined another studio close to home and the more I practiced, the more I wanted to practice. Yoga, the mindfulness and the breathwork that naturally come along with it, all help to lower stress levels which ultimately may lower blood pressure and my blood sugar levels. And my want for candy.
Moreover, diabetes and thyroid conditions often go hand in hand, and hypo and hyperthyroidism also run in my family. Many restorative inversions like Legs up the Wall or a supported Shoulderstand can help stimulate blood flow to the thyroid gland and may have positive effects on thyroid function and thus sugar metabolism. Weight management and regulating thyroid hormone levels in the body are both key in combating diabetes and yoga is shown to have positive effects on controlling these conditions. Vinyasa sequencing like Surya Namaskar, also known as Sun Salutations, whether they be strong and powerful or light and gentle, can effectively burn calories and work off pent up energy, regulating sugar levels. While I am not a big fan of the more vigorous and pumped up styles of yoga, I love incorporating gentle and mindful pose sequencing into my practice. Many classic yoga poses stimulate abdominal organs, like Balasana (Child’s Pose), Apanasana (Wind Relief Pose), and Salamba Bhujangasana (Sphinx) three of my favorites, improving digestion and elimination. Yoga has immediate effects and more long term ones, and like me, once you start, you may find yourself wanting more.
As I continue my yogic journey, cutting out sugar has become easier and more natural for me. I realize that it’s not just the obvious, the jawbreakers, it’s all those hidden sugars as well, the breads, the pastas, and simple carbohydrates building up my sugar levels all the more. Anyone with a serious yoga practice understands that it takes time, it’s a slow and steady buildup to hone your skills and knowledge of what yoga is, what it can do for you and how you want to apply it to your lifestyle. As you progress, you start paying more attention to other areas in your life, like your diet, your thoughts and moods, your behavior. Developing a committed home practice has given me the courage and discipline to follow through on a realistic course of action to watch my bad habits, both on and off the mat, for this is the real beauty of yoga, conveying mat lessons into our daily lives, replacing bad habits with good ones, creating more harmonious relationships with ourselves, our food, our environment, and those around us.
Yoga is THE sweet life!