More than just traditional yoga, Mandy describes her workout as a hybrid that combines traditional yoga postures paired with toning exercises to deliver accelerated sculpting and to help strengthen and lengthen muscles.
Mandy's workout includes increased repetitions so you feel that Jane Fonda "burn." Translation? You get results more quickly. Since patience is not my strong point, particularly when it comes to seeing weight loss results, I already like the sound of this program. Let the yoga-ing begin. Ohmmm�
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Ohm at home
It's 7 a.m. and, armed with my spiffy new yoga mat, I head off on my journey. To the living room. As I position myself on the ground in front of the television, I can't help but feel like I�m cheating in some way. Going to work out in my living room and not at the gym feels strange. But, I press on and press play.
The first thing I see is Mandy standing with the ocean behind her in a private backyard and I can't help but wonder, could it be Aniston's Malibu beach pad? Let me tell you, there are worse places to work out.
I follow Mandy's advice to begin with her express workout, which is 35 minutes long. (The cool part is I can either do it with Mandy's verbal cues or opt for music instead). She also offers a fully loaded challenge that has additional stretches and sun salutations, but I figure I should start slowly.
I'll tell ya one thing, Mandy is mellow. The way she laughs while asking me to do calf raises almost makes me forget that she's my instructor and not a friend. Wait, aren't instructors supposed to be super scary and intense? Maybe I'm just traumatized from a past experience at Bally's Total Fitness that went something like this:
Instructor: So are you ready to sign up for sessions that will change your life?
Me: Um, I think so?
Instructor: (yelling) You think so? I don't ever want to hear those words out of your mouth again! I sense your hesitation. Don't be afraid of a better body!
And yes, that story ends with me hightailing it to my car, never to return. Unlike that encounter, Mandy's demeanor has the opposite effect: I want to work out with her. But what is an actual session going to be like?
Ah, college. Two a.m. drive-thru dashes, cold Mu-Shoo for breakfast, a Hot Pocket (or three) for dinner. And beer. Let's not forget the beer. That was the life. The lazy, couch potato life. So, at the end of four long years, I left with a diploma in hand and 15 extra ugly/unhealthy pounds everywhere else.
These days I realize that I was all sorts of delusional to think that the weight would drop away after graduation like some collegiate ball and chain I'd been lugging around. Who was I kidding? After all, I was living pretty much the same life; it was just the venues that had changed. Parking my (considerable) butt in a lecture hall was replaced by sitting at a desk all day, and Thursday night beer pong transitioned into martinis and game night. Not exactly a recipe for weight loss.
Frankly, getting thinner wasn't very high on my to-do list. Sure, I always thought it'd be nice to feel fitter and look slimmer, I just figured I'd get to it at some point down the line. Then, I happened to look -- really look -- at the ever-growing pile of too-small clothes that had overrun my closet. My "fat" jeans were now the pair I was grabbing most often. Talk about an "a-ha moment." I knew then that I had to take action or I'd run the risk of having things snowball further out of control.
This is the part where I'm supposed to say that I joined a boot camp and got lean and mean, or that I embarked on a successful cleanse and am now 100 percent vegan. Sorry to disappoint but, believe it or not, my inspiration came from an article about Jennifer Aniston and how she attributes her fit, lean physique to practicing yoga. Could yoga give me a celebrity-worthy body too? And, even if it would, could I afford it?
Yeah, not so much. Personal trainers may be fine for the celeb set but I needed something much less expensive. So, I did some research and found Mandy Ingber's "Yogalosophy" DVD workout. Ingber has been teaching yoga and spinning in Los Angeles for more than 15 years and lists Aniston among her celebrity clients. I decided to plunk down the $14.95 and commit to a month's worth of daily workouts with Mandy to see what a couple of DVDs and a little determination could get a girl. Here's what happened �
