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Well, I have lost well over a hundred pounds since starting Bikram yoga, going from morbidly obese to just a little overweight. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I’m close.

As to my diet, in the beginning I just ate what I wanted to, as I always had. That is, I wasn’t on a weight loss diet. The weight just started to fall off. But soon an odd thing started to happen. I wasn’t consciously eating better, I just found myself unconsciously making better food decisions. I never did “diet” and I lost most of that weight without it. Then about six months ago, after reading “The China Study” and watching “Forks Over Knives,” I decided to take a Whole Foods Plant Based approach to eating. I’m not fanatical about it — I still have my sushi once a week — but for the most part, I eat very differently now, very healthily. (And I should mention Gabrielle Raiz’s books on smoothies and salads have been extremely helpful.)

That’s my story. Does that help?

I have my best friend to thank for pointing me toward Bikram. Day after day, we’d have lunch together, and she would tell me the story of a 400 pound man at her studio who’d lost half his weight, how good he looked, how great he felt. I was a “mere” 325 pounds, with back pains and hip pains and depression. After listening to my friend’s story for a while, I took the hint and tried it myself. I was instantly hooked.

Of course, like so many students, I came for weight loss but stay for other reasons. I found myself eating better, being less stressed, being more meditative, being less depressed.

But I digress. You asked why we came to hot yoga, not why we stayed.

I came because my best friend convinced me of its value. And she was right.