Category Archives: Weight management

Yoga has a way of making you slimmer! – Stress is directly linked to putting on the pounds

Even from practicing the more gentle styles, Yoga has a way of waking up your intuition about your own health and well-being, it helps you get a handle on what your body needs to be healthy and feel good. Yoga requires your full attention and concentration to move through the poses and to hold them, and over time a regular Yoga practice will sharpen your ability to gauge how hungry or full you are.

STRESS IS DIRECTLY LINKED TO PUTTING ON THE POUNDS!

Stress is like your own personal bodyguard that launches into defence mode, in trying to protect you it unleashes the hormones Cortisol and Adrenaline. The fight or flight hormone Adrenaline gives you an instant shot of energy so you can face a conflict or get away from it altogether, but Cortisol is more like an over-protective mother whose mission is to feed and nurture you and is the reason you want to eat during these particular times of stress. It makes you want to eat everything in sight and the easier to digest the better. That’s because it requires foods high in fat and sugar, energy sources your body can access fast! Some scientists believe that Cortisol also messes with the signals that control appetite and feelings of fullness, which is why being stressed out may make you crave dessert even after a big meal.

To make matters worse, when stress causes your Cortisol levels to stay high, it can have long-term detrimental effects on your weight because it encourages your body to store fat, particularly in your belly.

Yoga can help by reducing stress which then reduces Cortisol levels!

Please follow and like us:

Weight Management

Regular Yoga practice can also help in Weight Management. Some poses stimulate sluggish glands and increase their hormonal secretions. The thyroid gland, especially has a big affect on our weight because it affect body metabolism and some poses such as the shoulder stand and fish postures are specific for this. Also by practising Yoga there is a reduction in anxiety which will help to reduce anxious eating. Finally Yoga poses induce continuous deeper breathing which gradually burns many of the calories already ingested.

As yoga continues to stimulate the flow of positive health within you, you will notice other changes, your tastes will alter, you go off food and drink that you once thought you could not live without. Once you start feeling good about yourself, you stop wanting to harm your body with junk foods, eventually you will regard them as toxins. This is Yoga’s way of naturally encouraging you to eat foods that are beneficial to your body.

Please follow and like us:

40 ways (& days) yoga heals

Day 2
Strengthens muscles: Muscle weakness contributes to numerous problems including arthritis, back pain and falls in the elderly. Many of the physical limitations people associate with aging including weakness and progressive disability are due to loss of muscle (use it or lose it) – dubbed Sarcopenia – degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass. Studies have shown that even people in their 80’s can make rapid gains in function when they adopt a regime to build muscle. Asana practice not only strengthens muscles, but does so in a functional way balancing strength with flexibility. In addition to strengthening muscles Yoga appears to build endurance and delay the onset of fatigue.

Please follow and like us: