Today's installment will cover some of the most frequently asked questions I get from people who have decided they are ready to get started. These are MY opinions/advice. If you disagree with advice I'm giving, feel free to let me know in the comments below. I'm not a doctor or fitness pro. I'm just giving the info I used to make my own progress. I've been reading & studying about these topics for about 11 years now. Do you own research, and consult with your own trusted sources.
Q: How do I get started?
A: Go to www.ddpyoga.com and purchase one of the DVD packs.
Q: What can I do while I wait for my DVDs in the mail?
A: Head over to www.teamddpyoga.com and register. You'll find awesome forums, tips, recipes, and all KINDS of other stuff to help you get started, and keep progressing. If you have questions, chances are it's already been answered there. You'll meet great people all trying to help each other. There are also some great Facebook groups to get motivated, and help keep accountable. Links below...
DDPYOGA Facebook Group http://goo.gl/Ir0mrC
DDPYOGA MEMBERS ONLY Facebook Group http://goo.gl/AA2X0J
Q: Do I need any additional equipment?
A: Yes, you will definitely need a heart rate monitor & a yoga mat.
HRM: I've been recommending this HRM by Polar - http://goo.gl/74hhuR - It does exactly what you need it to do, doesn't have a bunch of features that you don't need, and it's only $40.
Yoga Mat: I bought mats at TJ Maxx for my nephews for $12. The quality was surprisingly good for such a low price. Don't get one of those stretchy/spongy pilates mats. It's not the same. When I started, my knees hurt too bad to even kneel on a yoga mat, so I bought this - http://goo.gl/b3ypVF - If you go this route, you'll want a towel (maybe even a yoga towel) to keep from slipping. It doesn't absorb sweat well.
Optional Equipment: Along the way I started some additional stuff, but none of it is required. Yoga blocks are nice, but you can just use a chair or something to help yourself balance. Having a nice mat towel keeps me from slipping when I'm drenched in sweat toward the end of a session. Mat spray helps keep your mat from stinking and getting grungy, but you can probably use Febreze for the same effect.
Q: Do I really need a heart rate monitor?
A: Yes. Yes, you do. That is the only way you'll know if you're getting the maximum payback from the effort you're putting in to your workouts. If your heart rate is too low, you'll know you need to work a little harder. If your heart rate is too high, you'll want to ease up a little to stay in that optimal fat burning zone.
Q: I got my DVDs today! What do I do first?
A: Read the guide that comes with your package. That guide contains all the info you need. Topics covered include: Workout schedule, Nutrition guide, List of the workouts, ideas to keep you motivated, and much more.
Q: Wait, you just said nutrition guide. I thought this was a workout. Do I have to diet too?
A: First, you're not going to "diet". In my opinion, that word has been ruined by the fitness/weight loss industry. The word diet now refers to something people do for a short period of time, usually restricting certain food group (low carb, or low fat), or ONLY eating one type of food (juice cleanse, etc). "Dieting" will leave you in worse shape than you were before you started. Because of how they work, you will lose some lbs if follow them, but the day you go back to eating "normally" (the way you did BEFORE the diet), you'll start to gain that weight back along with more. They are not sustainable, and they don't work.
When the guide, or I, say diet, I'm referring to original meaning. Perhaps better referred to as changing the way you eat. It's sort of cliche, but getting fit/healthy/losing weight really is 20% exercise 80% how you eat.
Q: If weight loss really is 80/20 diet/exercise, why do I even need to exercise?
A: Believe it or not, you don't want to lose weight (you may, but stay with me a second). You want to lose FAT.
You can make progress by only changing how you eat. If you're only dieting, you are likely losing muscle mass in addition to fat in the process. If you fall off the wagon and go back to your old eating habits, you'll be weaker, and the fat will come back even quicker.
You can also make progress by eating the way you have been, and adding exercise to the mix. If you only exercise and keep your diet EXACTLY the same as you had been, you will start to gain muscle, and lose fat (provided that the way you were previously eating was a maintenance amount, and you weren't gaining fat). Part of the problem is people (speaking from experience here...) tend to say, "Wow! I worked out really hard! The treadmill said I burned 650 calories walking 60 minutes. I guess I can get a jumbo order of fries instead of large since I burned more calories than the difference between the 2." Stated this way, it seems funny, but lots of people, myself included, have used this faulty logic.
If you add exercise AND change your eating habits, you turbocharge the process. You'll be losing fat at the same time you're gaining muscle. The more muscle you gain, the better you start feeling, and the more active you get. You'll start to feel good, and you might decide to park in that spot that's 50 feet away from the front door at Walmart instead of driving in circles for 30 minutes looking for that #1 spot.
Q: Did you follow the diet guide provided?
A: Yes, and No. I did read it, and most of it was the same information I already knew from years of reading about this topic. Without getting into it too much in this short Q & A, I knew the approximate amount of calories (and macro splits) I needed to progress at a rate I'm comfortable with. For me, that was 1400-1600 calories/day in the beginning. (I didn't eat dessert back then). Since I don't have any food allergies or other health issues that may affected weight loss, I didn't choose to do gmo/gluten/dairy free. I did start to lower the amount of sugar and processed foods I was eating daily, but I still eat dessert every day. That may not be good advice for you though, so talk to your doctor if you need more help.
I also never liked vegetables (potatoes and corn were my favorite veggies), so I started to make myself eat a SMALL amount once a day. It doesn't take long until it started to be tolerable. Now, I can taste the difference between the really processed garbage and fresh ingredients. I actually enjoy fresh fruits and some veggies.
I highly recommend keeping some kind of food journal. There are awesome apps out there like myfitnesspal and others that track your calories, macro nutrients, and more. I don't advise using their workout tracking though. If you set a goal for yourself of 1800 calories for example, then you enter 1 hour of yoga, it will calculate the number of calories it thinks you burned during your workout. Let's say it says 450 calories. Now, it will add a NEGATIVE 450 calories, leaving you to eat 2250 calories. I personally just set a calorie IN goal, and worry about my own workouts. As long as I'm doing my DDP Yoga every day, and keeping my heart rate in MY zone, I'll know I will progress.
Q: The guide says I should take photos of myself with my shirt off (or bathing suit/whatever). Is that really necessary?
A: Yes! You don't need to share them with anyone, but you'll be so glad in a few months when you go back and compare how much progress you've made. Numbers on the scale are one thing, but when you can actually SEE for yourself how different you look... it's just an awesome feeling. If you're shy, take a set like that for yourself, but also take a set with normal fitting clothes so you have something you can share more publicly.
Besides pictures, I recommend you track your weight (once a week at most). If your scale tracks body fat/muscle percentage, that's good too. (I got this one for $40 on Amazon. It works nice, and you can track with an app on your smartphone - http://goo.gl/4HXqVq ) I don't think the percentages are accurate, but I like to use it to see the trend. There are times I don't lose any weight, but the fat % drops, while the muscle % increases. When you "plateau", this is likely why. I'll cover this more in depth during a longer post.
Take measurements, the day you start and every 30 days after. I track neck, chest, stomach, thigh, calf, bicep, forearm, wrist. Again, you may have times when you lose nothing, but your belt suddenly needs to go in a notch.
Track as many things as you can. It will keep you motivated when you notice progress in one thing you're measuring even though other things seem to have stalled. You just have to keep pushing...
Q: I'm concerned that yoga doesn't mesh with my faith (I get this a lot from friends at church). Is there anything that I should be concerned about as a Christian?
A: Well, it ain't YOGA. This is DDP Yoga. All the spiritual, new age mumbo jumbo garbage is out. There's no meditating like a happy tree pose here. All the yoga poses have their names changed. You're not worshiping the sun here, you're doing lunges and burning fat. The only things that I could see ANYBODY having a problem with are these... in a couple workouts you're doing a row or similar exercise, and DDP says something like "push all the negative energy or emotions out". Then when you're pulling, he says "pull all the positive energy or emotions in.". Other than that, he says butt a few times. On the extreme workouts (the ones created later on a separate disc), he says ass a few times. As in, kick ass, or something like that. You say worse words when you stub your toe in the middle of the night.
If you're offended by either of those things, you blow other things out of proportion too.
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Hope this helps! If you have questions, feel free to comment here, or contact me via private message.
One last Q & A...
Q: I'm already in good shape and my diet is really good. I run/lift/play sports/etc. Is there any reason I should consider adding DDP Yoga to my regimen?
A: Oh. Yes. Here's why...
The rest of that answer, coming soon....
You can do this. You can OWN YOUR LIFE!
Hit the share button if there's something that helped you, or you think may help someone else.
BANG!
-CJ
Great info. Thanks
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