One thing led to another

TRACI MANN, 40, EDINA, RUNNER AND YOGI:

Discipline improves mood

I've been traveling a lot for work, and everywhere I go, I find yoga. I just search for it on the Internet. It makes me feel so good, and if I don't do it, I don't feel good. There's something really nice about getting off a plane and feeling cramped and smooshed and then going to a nice yoga class.

Depression antidote

I moved to Minneapolis last August from Los Angeles with my husband and kids. I was very attached to my girlfriends, and I just got really homesick and was very depressed. My next-door neighbor said, "Hey, try that yoga place down the block."

Beginning a life change

I went to their beginner class, and at that point I wasn't thinking about exercise at all. I was just thinking "this is something that will help me clear my head and relax," and it really did. I'd always leave yoga feeling really good, so I started going three times a week.

I'm so not an athletic type, you just have to know that. When we first got here, we had six weeks with my son not in school and we were setting up our house and exploring cities. I'm not a stay-at-home mom, so 24 hours of kids was unusual for me. When my little guy napped, I'd go out and walk around the neighborhood. That was my only time to myself. One day I was like "maybe I'll just run for a little bit," so I ran for five minutes and it was kind of nice so I kept doing that. It started out as a walk and turned into a walk/run and then turned into a run/walk and then it just turned into a run.

Lessons from a pro

It was never my intent to become fit or to lose weight. I felt fine at a size 12, but now I'm down to a 4 or even 2. I do all this research [as an associate professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota], showing dieters can pretty much lose weight on any diet, but over time they gain it all back. Since I didn't lose weight by dieting but by exercise, I want to be a good model of that now. You actually can keep it off if you do it slowly and through exercise.

SARAH MORAN