Rick Warner does a tree pose as the sun rises. He said the pose is much easier to do in the sand.
Rick Warner and his wife, Kerri, enjoy a trip to Dublin.
John M. Bottorff, D.C., C.C.S.T., is a 1981 graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic and a second generation chiropractor. He is certified in Chiropractic Spinal Trauma. He is a triathlete and an avid cyclist, runner and swimmer. He can be contacted at Bottorff Advanced Chiropractic at 362-8833 or online at www.Cvillepainrelief.com.
According to the results of his physical checkups the last two years, this week’s Health Hero is losing an unexpected 10 pounds every six months. Rick Warner's secret is that he has done little more than to participate in a yoga class two times a week.
Warner has been a history professor at Wabash College for the last 18 years. He grew up in Vermont and attended the University of Vermont, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in religion. From Vermont he went to California, where he worked as chef for a decade. He went back to school, obtained another bachelor’s degree as well as master’s and doctorate degrees in history. Warner’s job search brought he and his wife, Kerri, to the booming metropolis of Crawfordsville. Kerri is a teacher at Nicholson Elementary School. The couple has been married 32 years.
The culture change was good for Warner.
“Small towns are nice, down to earth and the people here are open minded,” he said. “The city schools are pretty awesome.”
He believes professors like himself look for quality of life issues when choosing a place to work and live.
Crawfordsville has two dedicated yoga studios with heated bamboo floors.
“They are different in the style of yoga they do and that’s a very good sign,” Warner said.
He favors the Yin style yoga, which he describes has a person holding poses longer versus hot yoga where the room temperature is elevated markedly and the movements are faster.
It was the comfort factor that kept him out of yoga. Warner, who is 61, was concerned about exercising with a group of women younger than him. Yoga has a stronger number of female participants although those numbers are changing. Two years ago, he learned about an all-male class at Quest for Balance on Highway 231 South and decided to jump in.
“Some people don’t want to try it because the poses look difficult, but yoga is about working with what you have,” Warren said. “I have short arms. An ‘eagle pose’ doesn’t work well for me because of that and so I do what I can. There are no expectations.”
In fact, Warner said comparing yourself to others or extreme effort are anti-yoga in philosophy.
“You learn to appreciate yourself as opposed to being self-critical,” he said of a great lesson in today’s world.
Warner believes it is his self-awareness that has allowed his weight loss. “Allowed” in the sense that he has become more aware when he is full and has stopped overeating. Warner spent time in Vietnam and realized quickly that there are no fat Vietnamese. A Vietnamese student of Warner’s made the observation that Vietnamese eat until they are almost full. Americans eat way beyond that point.
A humorous example is when Warner who loves to cook, asked the student for one of his mother’s recipe. Warner said, “The instructions read, “will feed eight Vietnamese or three to four Americans.” He explained a common Vietnamese dish is based on boiling mainly vegetables in a beef-bone broth with small slivers of beef with fruits for dessert.
Warner started his journey weighing in at 268 pounds and is now 228. His continued weight loss plan is to be aware when the normal satiety response given by the nervous system tells him to stop eating. Coupled with yoga and other exercise as he sees fit is a plan to get ahead of deteriorating health.
“I say it often,” Warner cautiously expresses. “The space between feeling bad and a motorized cart is very short. It can happen before you know it.”
See you in the gym.
