Completely unbeknown to me these amazing Lotuspad yoga mats have been for sale literally right down the street from me for years. I had a pretty avid yoga practice when I lived in Portland, usually doing a routine 5 days a week and alternating with weekly classes at The Yoga Center. I’ve never felt better in my life and more in shape. But when I moved to Boston in the late summer of 2005 the time I spent on yoga slowly dwindled until it became completely non-existent. My yoga mat sat in the closet collecting dust and I forced myself to try to get on the elliptical or go for a run a few times each week. Unfortunately neither of these exercises has ever made me feel the way that a vigorous yoga practice can.

Then a few weeks ago CK shared a story with me on Google Reader about how Lebron James uses yoga to give him an extra edge in his training. I took this as a not-so-subtle hint that my boyfriend was asking me to go to yoga with him. So we looked around online to find a studio we could check out. Yelp had quite a few recommendations and we finally decided to try out Om City Yoga. While perusing Yelp though we also came across some absolutely stellar reviews for a local company that makes eco-friendly yoga mats.

According to the website: Lotuspads are earth-friendly, biodegradable yoga mats with vivid saturated colors, organic dual surface patterns, and an amazing cushion and grip that will help you go deeper into your poses with comfort and style. Personally I’d like to curl up on mine and take a luxurious cat-nap all afternoon, but that would really defeat the purpose.

So far I’ve been very impressed with the mats I purchased. I picked up an “Earth” yoga mat in shades of green and brown for CK and a “Lotus” mat for myself. The Lotus mat is, of course, gorgeously bright pink. Apparently pink is said to encourage compassion. These mats are definitely thicker and much easier for me to use on our hardwood floors in the apartment. Part of the issue that I personally had with trying to start-up my home practice again was the awful wrist pain I would get from trying to hold various poses while using my old cheep mat. The quality of the Lotuspad seems to cut down on the sometimes harsh impact that I feel when I’m out of shape and hopefully this will encourage me to continue to ramp back up into a more frequent practice.

For all the moms out there you should also take note that Lotuspads makes mats for children as well. By the way, if you’re local to the Boston area you can place your order online and then have the option of picking up your mats and accessories in person at their location in Central Square. You can even connect with the founder of the company, Katy, on twitter.

I’m so incredibly excited to try to get back into yoga on a more consistent basis and I definitely owe a portion of this joy to my new Lotuspad mat. Thank you Katy!