For years, I have successfully avoided every fitness craze out there, from Jane Fondas legwarmers to Suzanne Somers Thighmaster, and Im planning to skip whatever gimmick comes next, such as the Miley Cyrus Twerkout.

Also, I am praying that she wont be Prancersizing with a Shakeweight.

Until now, the only regular stretching Ive done is reaching for more fried chicken, but now I am bending, breathing and dislocating with the best of them. Yes, I have discovered yoga, and my discovery is that yoga is really just the worlds worst game of Twister.

While yoga might be turn me into a pretzel, Im not going to let it tie my budget in knots. Ive found a nearby fitness studio where I can get my yoga on for less than $5 a session, and I dont even need to buy my own yoga mat, meditation pillow or yak.

Many people approach fitness with fleeting good intentions that sadly become another paving stone in their road to debt hell $26 billion of annual spending on gym, health and fitness clubs, according to IBISWorld.

To lose weight, people sign up for a $49.95 monthly gym membership, which they put on an automated credit card payment. After a few months, their self-improvement impulse evaporates, but canceling the gym charge would seem like an admission of failure. Worse, canceling a gym contract can be more torture than the worst yoga move, like some kind of Inverted Credit Card No-Refund Pose.

This leaves people sitting in front of the TVs plowing through carry-out pizza, getting nearly as bloated as their card balances. Instead of losing weight, theyre losing a couple hundred bucks a year in some kind of financially anorexic binge and purge.

To get physically fit without becoming financial flabby, carefully read any contracts with gyms, then check them out with the Better Business Bureau and local consumer agency. Even better, borrow fitness DVDs and books from the library, find videos and lessons on the Web or go for a good long and free walk every day.

Theres also no reason to go nuts on workout gear, like 30 E-Z payments for a monstrous home gym or designer workout togs. I get by just fine, thank you, in a plain pair of black gym shorts, which makes them my official yoga pants, since theyre the pants I always wear to yoga.

Whatever you do, dont use getting lean as an excuse to puff up your budget. You dont want to be worrying about money and debt when you should be concentrating on your Downward-Facing Dog pose or, as I call it, Right hand, purple.

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I'm not winded, those are just my yoga pants

Ashtanga West Virginia is hosting Beryl Bender Birch for a fall yoga retreat Oct. 4-6 at The Resort at Glade Springs.

BECKLEY, W.Va. -- Ashtanga West Virginia is hosting Beryl Bender Birch for a fall yoga retreat Oct. 4-6 at The Resort at Glade Springs.

Birch is a spiritual teacher, yoga therapist and author of several books on yoga. She has been an avid student of yoga and the study of consciousness for more than 40 years.

In the early '80s, she introduced the vinyasa flow of postures and dynamic breathing of her trademark Power Yoga method to the traditional athletic community.

With degrees in philosophy and comparative religion, Birch was one of the first Americans to teach the classical system of ashtanga yoga. In 2000, she was named by Yoga Journal as one of only seven American women in their "Innovators Shaping Yoga Today" issue.

The fee for the full workshop is $250, or $65 per session, and accounts for 13 continuing education hours for Yoga Alliance.

To request a pursuing continuing education certificate for Yoga Alliance credit, contact Barbara Stanley by Sept. 20. Email the request to ashtang...@gmail.com.

To register for the workshop or for more information on Ashtanga West Virginia, visit http://www.ashtangawv.com.

Topics covered in the workshop include yoga for athletes, discussion of the yoga philosophy and how to achieve deep relaxation.

For room reservations, call 877-814-7316 and ask for the Yoga Wellness Retreat Room Block.

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Yoga group to host retreat at Glade Springs