According to Lani Yoshimura, you couldn’t tell how much weight
she’s lost just by looking at her.
Dropping pounds has meant less to her than feeling better.
According to Lani Yoshimura, you couldn’t tell how much weight she’s lost just by looking at her.
Dropping pounds has meant less to her than feeling better.
For over a year, Yoshimura has changed her lifestyle to de-stress and maintain healthy cholesterol, blood pressure and heart levels, as well as to relieve stress-related pain in her neck and shoulders.
Her method of success includes getting more sleep, exercise and eating better.
“I’ve experienced a tremendous difference in my stress level,” the Gilroy Public Librarian said. “Largely, it’s been exercise. I still wear the same size (in clothing).”
To start off, Yoshimura started getting more sleep. Now, she’s able to sleep six hours a night. Before, she was getting three to four hours of sleep.
“I just wasn’t shutting down,” she said.
The second biggest mode of benefit for Yoshimura is exercise. She’s always been active, so exercising wasn’t hard. Her favorite form of cardiovascular exercise is walking.
On a good week, Yoshimura can walk up to 45 miles. She said she can walk up to 12 miles at once.
“I started walking again. I love to walk,” she said. “My stamina is tremendous. That’s never been a huge consideration for me. Stamina is really important to me because I’m a really active person.”
Yoshimura, 57, lives near Los Gatos and loves perusing the parks and wildlife areas while walking. Right now, she’s walking on weekends, but come summer, she’ll be outside almost every day, she said.
“It’s an opportunity for me to enjoy the scenery and birds. It’s important to clear out your mind. I think, in today’s society, we don’t do that very much,” Yoshimura said.
The librarian also works with a balance ball and undergoes acupuncture. Using a balance ball offers a gentle, easy exercise to do, she said. It has increased Yoshimura’s strength tremendously, given her wider range of motion and increased her height by at least half an inch, she said.
On the food side, Yoshimura has added more “good” fats and oils to her diet and cut down on chicken while eating more pork.
She is also a big fan of flax seeds. Every morning, she grinds flax seeds up into milk or juice. Yoshimura said the flax seeds allow her to get essential fatty acids into her diet.
To be successful with weight loss, Yoshimura suggests that people make time for themselves. For 30 minutes each day, people should “do something.”
“They need to get physical, focus their mind on something totally different. If they create a wedge, that wedge will eventually grow,” Yoshimura said. “It’s a good way, if nothing else, to relieve the tension.”
Yoshimura also suggests buying or checking out books on tape to listen to while working out, “because it’s wonderful to have someone else read to you,” she said.
Things to avoid are diets in general because “they do not work” and complying to the food pyramid, according to Yoshimura. If a person, like Yoshimura, doesn’t digest wheat well, they can’t stick to the food pyramid.
“The food pyramid is one of the worst things ever developed. It was bad for me. It’s a great disservice to many,” she said.
