Yoga Journal is my secret guilty pleasure of sorts. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s the high school locker room dude in me, but I still get uptight about people knowing that I read and enjoy a magazine that 1) is about yoga (which is still weird to a lot of people I hang out with), 2) caters heavily to women, and 3) regularly has a pink or purple cover. Much less for reason 1 than reasons 2 and 3, I read YJ at home and take Runner’s World to work just to keep up pretenses….
But behind closed doors, YJ and I have been tight for almost eight years now. Up until last year when I decided to declutter my office, I had every issue since 2001. Last year, at the prompting of my lovely wife, I went back through every single page of every issue and cut out all the articles I wanted to keep and organized them in a binder. Definitely a good project, but tearing out pages of an old friend was both disturbing and painful. I couldn’t say how many editor’s and redesigns we’ve been through, but I can say that I’ve pretty much read every article in the last eight years, and plan on reading every article for the next eight.
Even though YJ and I have basically been together as long as I’ve been married, I’ve never really cheated on her I guess you could say with any other yoga magazines. Unlike in my actual marriage where there’s a “don’t look, don’t touch” policy, I have on occasion looked and briefly touched other yoga publications on the racks at Barnes and Noble. I have never, however, walked out of the store with a copy in my hand. That would surely be cheating. It’s never really been a temptation until the other day when I was meandering through one of the PX’s (Post Exchange for the non-military oriented) at the base I live at in Iraq (yes, I am now living in hell, or at least it feels that way sometimes:) and was shocked to see copies of both Fit Yoga and Yoga + Joyful Living nestled in between your standard Muscle & Fitness type magazines that you’d expect to find on a military base. Now, my question is, if I were to cheat, which one should I pick?
Daily Cup of Yoga 
I think it’s so fascinating that both of these magazines were available on your military base. So you’re not alone, there must be other secret yogi military dudes out there!
If you’re going to cheat, I’d vote for Yoga+. It’s a more substantial read than Fit Yoga, and looks at the whole breadth of the practice.
I’d be interested in hearing more about your experiences in the Middle East… Do you practice on base, have you connected with other yoga practitioners, how does your practice help you cope with the stress challenges of Iraq???
@girlwarrior – thanks for the advice. Yesterday as I shopped at the PX I decided to just buy whatever yoga magazines they had, regardless of my initial impression in the store. Figured I’d at least give them a chance. This particular PX carried Yoga Journal (which I already had, of course), Yoga+ and YOGA Magazine. Didn’t see any Fit Yoga there. Must have been the other PX I go to. I have yet to get too far into them to form an impression of their quality or how they stack up to Yoga Journal. Plan to blog it though when I do.
Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!
Brian