I don’t like exercise. I have a stressful life working as a computer consultant traveling around the country. My diet consists of steak dinners and anything else that suits my fancy.

At 33 I developed arthritis and 15 years later it became severe enough that I was medicating myself with 15-20 aspirin/ibuprofen pills a day. I’d still wake up at night with swollen joints, in pain. At 49, I developed high blood pressure.

I was on a downward spiral I felt I had no control over. I started taking Celebrex for pain and blood pressure medication. I became overweight and pre-diabetic and was almost wheel chair bound. In March of 2001 I had a sciatica attack while on vacation and was hospitalized. I came home limping and depressed.

At the urging of my wife, I enrolled in a Kripalu Yoga class at the Princeton Center for Yoga and Health. I walked out of my first beginners class exhausted, but it felt good. A week later I went back again. After a month, I started going three times a week, working with Deborah Metzger (founder of PCYH), Melissa Griffith and Lesley Hadley, who all had different teaching approaches. I found myself, someone who hated exercise, looking forward to my classes.

My arthritic swelling and pain diminished. My health and attitude started to improve. After a year of practice, I stopped all my medications. At my annual checkup, my doctor confirmed my blood pressure was normal, and my ‘numbers’ from various blood tests and urinalysis were normal. I was 15 pounds lighter.

This September I’m enrolling in teacher training at PCYH to deepen my practice and explore the possibility of a new career. I’m looking forward to practicing and perhaps teaching Yoga at 60, 70, 80 and beyond.

Namaste and Shalom,

Dave Fradin