Growing up, I was never what you’d call “healthy.” I had (and still have) a deep love of carbs, especially if they’re covered in cheese, and I didn’t enjoy exercise.
The idea of going on a diet, having to ditch all my favorite foods, and be hungry and miserable all the time (like everyone I’d ever known on a diet) was so not for me. I also couldn’t ever find the motivation to grind through a work out I didn’t enjoy.
Then I discovered yoga online. I was thrilled to find a form of exercise I liked that I could do at home. However, I wasn’t that great at challenging myself, and I still wasn’t about to go on a diet.
Then I discovered the Perfect Body Yoga Program, which made getting healthy easier than I ever imagined possible.
Side note: This post was originally written about the Original Perfect Body Yoga Program, which closed to new enrollment in January 2020. However, I’ve also done the lastest version of the program, which is linked below, and I still love and stand by this program. These links are not affiliate links. I just really love this program.
Additionally, I am not a medical professional or personal trainer. The content of this post is based solely on my experience and should not be considered medical/health advice. If you have any concerns, you should consult a professional before making a health/dietary change.
What’s the Perfect Body Yoga Program?
The Perfect Body Yoga Program is an 8-week online yoga program from Bad Yogi. It’s built on the belief that the “Perfect Body” is simply the healthiest version of the body you already have.
The rest of this post is going to focus on how this program made getting healthy so easy for me (and how it can do the same for you). If you want to know more about how this program changed my life (beyond just my health) you can check out this post.
How does the program help with exercise?
Scheduled Yoga
The original Perfect Body Yoga Program comes with 12 30-40 minute yoga classes that are scheduled strategically five days a week for eight weeks. The updated program has 24 30-40 minute classes. These classes are designed to work together in a way to help you build muscle, flexibility, and endurance.
The schedule and online nature of this program makes it SO EASY to follow. You don’t have to think about anything or go anywhere. You just have to get off the couch, roll out your mat, and do the scheduled class.
I also found the 30-40 minute classes to be the perfect length. Freeing up a whole hour can sometimes be hard, but 30 minutes felt very manageable to me.
These classes meet you where you are
The classes also come with plenty of modifications. This allows you to meet your body where it’s at and grow from there.
It’s the perfect way to challenge yourself without killing yourself and it puts you in a position to grow as you get stronger and more flexible.
And yes, that means it’s accessible no matter if you’re a beginning yogi, seasoned pro, or anywhere in between.
When I started this program, I didn’t plan on being someone who can gently jog up the steps at work and not be out of breath, but over time that’s exactly what happened! And the cool part is, I never felt like I had to push myself beyond my limits to get there.
Weekly walks
There are two rest days built into the PBYP schedule. On one of these rest days, you’re supposed to take a walk. This helps get you out in nature and it works your body in a different way.
One of the more impressive things to me about these walks is the fact that afterwards, I really feel like I worked out, yet (again) I didn’t feel like I was working too hard while I was walking.
I also found that it’s pretty easy to motivate myself to walk (as opposed to running, or some other more intense cardio). After all, it’s just a walk. This makes it easy to maintain and look forward to.
How does the program help with diet?
Weekly food challenges
Each week in the original program has small, manageable healthy food-based habits to implement into your life. (For example, one week, your only goal is to drink more water).
This means at no point do you have to do a complete diet or lifestyle overhaul. Instead, you build a healthier lifestyle one habit at a time. This makes healthy living accessible and easy to maintain.
Food guidelines, not a strict diet
This was, to me, the biggest surprise of the program. I signed up because I wanted the yoga classes. Like I mentioned earlier, I’d never been one to diet, so I was fully prepared to ignore the diet info entirely.
But when I saw how accessible the food guidelines were, I decided to give it a shot. Because they really are guidelines.
The food guidelines are built around the 80/20 rule, which suggests that if you do your best to eat pretty healthy 80% of the time, you can do whatever you want with the other 20% and still end up pretty healthy in the long run.
This made healthy eating insanely accessible to me! It meant I could still eat the cheese covered carbs I loved (and other unhealthy things), but I should make and effort to eat less of them.
It meant cutting down on the stuff that’s not-so-good for you, without cutting it out completely. This meant there wasn’t any food I “couldn’t” have, I would just choose not to eat the bad stuff 80% of the time. And when I do decide to indulge, I do so guilt-free because it’s part of my 20%.
This is just the backbone of the food guide. There are plenty of accessible and modifiable tips and guidelines to help you eat better without being miserable in the process.
These guidelines made building a healthy diet insanely easy because I could focus on making one change at a time, while still getting to eat the things I love when I really want it.
The new program doesn’t have a guide, but you do get a free three months of the meal planning website CookSmarts, which also takes a lot of the struggle out of healthy eating.
No scale victories
This program puts emphasis on your health, not your size and not your weight. This is largely why I think myself and so many others were able to find success with this program quickly and with minimal struggle.
True story: During my first 2-3 times through the program, my clothing size cut in half. I went from a size 16 to an 8 effortlessly.
During this time, people kept telling me how much weight I lost. In general, I’m not a fan of this “compliment” because I don’t think it’s a bad thing to take up space, but in my case, it actually didn’t even apply.
Because here’s the thing: I only lost about 10-12 pounds during this time period. As far as I’m concerned, that really isn’t “losing weight,” especially considering the change in clothing size.
Ultimately, I cut my size in half because I got healthier, not lighter. Thanks to this program, I replaced my bad weight (fat) with good weight (muscle), which is said to take up less space but does, in fact, still have weight.
Finding a program that puts emphasis on health and not weight was truly life changing for me and put me in a position to take care of myself without developing an unhealthy obsession with a number on a scale.
You can repeat the program as much as you want!
I alluded to this already, but it’s worth noting that once you purchase this program, it’s yours for life and you can repeat it as much as you want. This makes it significantly cheaper than attending daily yoga classes and/or a gym membership.
After following this program for two years, I can tell you I definitely got my money’s worth. And not only was the program easy to implement, but it was also easy to maintain. My size hasn’t fluctuated after the initial changes and my strength, flexibility, and endurance have continued to improve.
Click here to learn more about the Perfect Body Yoga Program. And if you want to level up your home work out with a strength training component, check out the 12-week yoga and strength training version of this program.
And you can learn all about how this program changed my life in this post.