YOGA AND WEIGHT LOSS

By Ankita Goel

Excess weight gain has become a phenomenon in today’s age, when lifestyles have become sedentary, and food more liberal with extra calories. Today our children prefer T.V. over their friends and play, merely a reflection of their parents who also somewhere prefer T.V. over socializing or even over spending time with their children (if they spend some time surely some running around will help burn some calories). These are only a few factors, which have resulted in increasing amount of people with the problem of excess weight or obesity. Stress, wrong food habits (i.e. irregular timings for food, unhealthy (junk) food), lack of exercise, thyroid problem etc. could be some of the reasons resulting in weight gain. To lose weight, it is important to do so, not just by doing diets, or exercise programs, which are too tedious, which may yield results but which do not keep you that way. Sometimes after sudden loss of weight the skin sags making one feel worse. The best approach is to lose weight gradually and for good. Yoga offers a good solution to this problem. Yoga tones the body in a uniformed manner, unlike any ” weight loss program” which claims to decrease your butts by this much inches and waist by this much, leading to side effects. Yoga can be practiced at any age to keep the body supple. A plan to reduce weight naturally is:

Cleansing techniques: -

Kunjal Kriya (stomach wash and lung cleansing)   Basti (colon cleansing)   Laghu Shankha Prakshalan (digestive system cleansing technique)   Baghi(tiger exercise)   Yoga Asans (postures) Sun Salute (Practise 2 times and hold each pose for 3 breaths), Tree pose, Angle pose, Triangle pose, Hero pose I and II, Locust pose, Cobra pose, Camel pose, Aeroplane pose, Wind releasing pose, Child pose (sitting), Spinal twists (sitting & dynamic poses), Cat pose If you wish to work on one body part more like the hips or abdomen or thighs or arms or legs or chest you can incorporate the asnas specific to your requirement in the above plan. Yogic Asans to tighten the abdomen are: Abdominal lift, Child pose, Cobra pose, Wind releasing pose, Yogic seal pose, Spinal twist, Lying on back pose - baat pose, Naval Move Asana (lying on back). Yogic asans for arms and legs: Tree pose, Hero pose, Dog pose (face up), Dog pose (face down), Swinging lotus pose, Bridge pose (face up), Bridge pose (face down), Celebacy pose, Squat and rise pose. Yoga plan to tighten the chest: Triangle pose, Hero pose, Baat pose (lying on back), Cobra pose, Wind releasing pose, Dog pose (face upand down), Lumbar wheel pose, Spinal twist. Yoga Asans to tone up thighs and hips: Sun salute, Hero pose I + II, Triangle pose, Angle pose, Dog pose (face up), Dog pose (face down), Celebacy pose, Advanced wind releasing pose, Butterfly pose. Pranayama (breathing exercises) Yogic Breathing: Inhale. First blow your abdomen, and then expand the chest. While exhaling, first relax the chest and then the abdomen. Practise like this for 10 times. Meditation and Relaxation Focus your attention on your breathing, feel its temperature and keep your breathing, thoroughly equalised (i.e. inhale for 3 sec and exhale for 3 secs). Naturopathic treatment This can be done in conjunction with the above yogic exercise plan. For the naturopathic treatment you will need to consult an experienced naturopath.   Chromotherapy: refers to treatment of disease through sun-rays, directly or indirectly such as sun-charged water, oil etc. (i) Green water: is neutral in nature and help to reduce excessive heat in the body. (ii) Yellow\orange water - 25ml or ? cup of this should be taken twice after each major meal. It is beneficial for cases in which improper digestion and flatulence is there.   Hydro therapy: refers to the treatment of disease with water. (i) Cold shower: It should be taken after whole body dry friction, and helps in dissolving and burning fat. It also helps in cases of cellulite. (ii) Steam/sauna / Hot foot bath: They all help to reduce fat by removing toxins and morbid matter from the body. Helps to dissolve fat. (iii) Enema: This is a method of cleaning the intestinal tract, to know more about it Click Here. (iv) Water intake: 8-12 glasses of water should be taken per day. Water should be taken at least ? hour before meal .   Fasting: also helps in burning fat.   Dicto-therapy: Carbohydrates is one of the major source of weight gain. Breakfast may consist of food consisting of proteins and fat. Lunch should consist more of carbohydrates and dinner should have more of proteins. In addition increase of vitamins and minerals through vegetables and fruit will help you fill stomach and change quality of calories and reduce fat. Roughage taken in form of wheat/oat bran are highly beneficial to detoxify digestive system and help to reduce fat from body Courtesy: http://www.healthandyoga.com A popular website that helps you find natural solutions for complete health and detoxification. Discover health and beauty…. Naturally!!

Add comment January 17th, 2008

The 7 Big Health and Fitness Lies About Optimal Health And Weight Loss

One of the most successful ways to lose weight and reach optimum health is to challenge what you’ve been told. Successful people aren’t reasonable and use a ton of common sense to make their fitness work for them. The solution is to ask yourself why you’re doing something that you think will work for your health. If you don’t have an answer, then search for one. These two health and fitness lies are some of the biggest out there and challenge the status quo.

Health and Fitness Lie #6: Running and Walking Are Hard on Your Knees.

Revised: Running and walking incorrectly in poorly designed shoes are hard on your knees.

If we weren’t supposed to walk and run, we wouldn’t have legs and feet. Our bodies don’t have wheels. We have legs and feet and toes and they all play an important part in our locomotion (the way we move).

Put those feet and toes into a pair of poorly designed shoes and suddenly the foot goes dumb.

Worse, over time, we get bunions, our toes overlap, and our arches collapse. Each structural failure builds on the next, destroying our natural shock absorbers - our feet - and changes the way we walk.

I want you to find a shoe right now and take a close look at it. Compare it to your foot. Looks different, right?

Why do we need a shoe with a padded rubber heel that is over twice the width of our own human heel? Are our heels not good enough? Is our design inherently flawed?

The shoe companies have made you think that this technology transcends nature - that it is a necessity to have padded feet with monstrous heels. What they haven’t told us is that it’s causing us to walk incorrectly.

Those heels are hurting our knees, hips and lower backs.

Millions of people are in pain because there’s no one to tell them that they’ve been fed a marketing message that is fallacious. What’s worse is that our doctors and physicians have been sold on it as well.

They’re the professionals telling you not to run. Not to walk. Not to do one of the most efficient, fat-burning activity of them all. No wonder you’re confused. These are the people we’ve been told to trust.

But don’t blame them. They’re not at fault, and they’re definitely not out to hurt you.

Doctors and physicians are specialists in their particular fields of medicine. They have been trained to treat and diagnose illness. Some have been trained in preventative medicine and fitness that they pass along to their patients.

Does that mean they’re running and walking experts? Not unless it’s printed on their diploma (or other certifications). If they’re not working in their area of specialty, then chances are they haven’t done much testing and training with people to experientially know what can be accomplished by even the most debilitated people. So they pass along the misinformation they’ve heard from magazines and studies and we do what they say because - as a society - we generally believe what our doctors tell us to do.

What I’m saying is not a knock on the medical field, it is an observation. I’ll be the first to tell you that you still need to trust your doctor, but at the same time start taking control of your own health and question what you’ve been told.

Big Health and Fitness Lie #7: Set Reasonable Goals Based on Your Lifestyle In Order To Succeed.

Translation: Set the benchmark low, because there are no more important things in your life than your health.

No wonder we’re fat. We’ve put our health on the backburner.

If you don’t think that your health is the absolute most important thing there is, you better rethink your goals.

Yes, goals do work. In fact, a good portion of this book is on goal setting, visualization, looking at your past success and making your goals a reality.

But when I hear that in order to succeed you don’t have to shoot for the moon, when you could have the stars, I cringe.

Do you think star quarterbacks set goals to win 5 or 6 games in a 16 game regular season?

Do you think CEO’s tell the board that they’re planning on being just a little bit in the red?

Do you ever get in the car and head out to the grocery store, then turn around because you’re satisfied you’ve made it halfway?

Then why is everyone in the health and fitness industry telling you that you should compromise your own optimal wellbeing?

Your health and fitness should be the most important priority in your life. Without it, you cannot do ANYTHING, because you’re DEAD.

NEVER compromise your health goals. As far as I know, we only have one chance here on this planet, so don’t listen to someone who thinks you should live a mediocre and half-baked life.

I want you to make your goals big and take big action. Don’t be reasonable.

It’s your life, live it with excitement, great health, fitness and vibrancy!

This article is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni’s “The Busy Person’s Fitness Solution” which can be found at www.TheBusyPersonsFitnessSolution.com

About the author

Kevin Gianni is a health advocate, author and speaker.

Add comment January 1st, 2008