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Have you ever seen fat yogis? Here I am no. Lean, young (and you can’t tell how old they are), with a gleam in their eyes. What are they doing to themselves! Do they really just stand in asanas (as yoga poses are called) and that’s it? Or are there any secrets? We learn it from Head of Sidersky Yoga Studio, YOGA23 coach Elena Siderskaya. She met yoga at the age of 5 (now she is 31), her father is the famous Andrey Sidersky, one of the founders of yoga in the Soviet Union.
“Just let’s not expect a quick result from practice,” Elena immediately warns. – When you lose weight with the help of enhanced workouts in a fitness center – yes, after two to three weeks you can see the effect. But as soon as you stop making efforts, the weight will come back. Why is this happening? Because they removed only the symptoms. Yoga, on the other hand, works with the underlying causes of why we get fat, repairs the entire body as a whole, in other words, restores health. Yes, it’s not fast. But the result will remain with the person for life.
The benefits of yoga for the figure
And yet, when to expect a result if a person decides to lose weight with the help of yoga? It is clear that everyone has different constitutions, metabolism … but at least approximately.
– In my practice and the practice of my husband (he is also a yoga trainer – Approx. ed.) There were cases when people lost weight after 3-5 days of training, and lost from 3 to 10 kilograms. But it was the excess water and everything that had been stored in their gastrointestinal tract for years, – says Elena.
The next noticeable result should be expected no earlier than six months later. Experienced instructors even forbid their students to stand on the scales during this period: because the weight jumps, the whole organism is reconfigured. And there is no need to worry about this. The weight will go away – all you need is to keep exercising. And then your body will cease to be loose, it will tighten up and the skin condition will improve.
The third stage comes after a year or two years of intensive practice. During this time, a real yogic body is formed, lean, beautiful. Not with inflated muscles like a bodybuilder’s, but with dry and long ones. But this is more for men. You won’t see women like that: skeletons with bones. Proper practice will get you to your ideal weight.
How often do you need to do yoga to lose weight? Again, this is for your instructor to decide. During training, there is an attack on the muscles – we essentially destroy them. After that, the body restores and strengthens the muscles. If we do not give the right time to rest, then he does not have time to do this – the tissues are destroyed, fatigue sets in. General recommendations are as follows: you need to do yoga at least 3 times a week. And it’s better if it’s an hour and a half lesson.
So how does it work. Why we lose weight with the help of yoga – we sort it out point by point:
1. Improves metabolism
And this is not a temporary acceleration for the period of the lesson or, for example, for two hours after it. No. This is a change in general: both the speed of metabolic processes and their quality. A person begins to notice that he began to eat much less food. It really is. And all because the body is now working not sluggishly, but to the maximum. He takes not 15% of the vitamins and nutrients from potatoes, but shoves the rest down his thighs and asks for supplements. He absorbs everything. And he doesn’t need anything else.
But how exactly does metabolism improve? For what?
“To a large extent this is achieved through breathing,” says Elena Siderskaya. – But not the way we breathe in ordinary life. We are talking about pranayamas – breathing exercises in yoga, which are also included in the classes. During these practices, the body begins to absorb oxygen most efficiently and release, respectively, better carbon dioxide. This process starts the metabolism, it is very important for the health of the walls of blood vessels and internal organs. Just understand, here we are not talking about the volume of inhaled or exhaled air. These are special practices and can only be shown on a mat.
The second point, because of which the metabolism improves. In yoga, we do not pump only external muscles that give the body texture. Thanks to asanas – we work with deep muscles, they hold the skeleton and are connected with internal organs. They start doing better. Including the gastrointestinal tract, where food is processed, broken down, digested, etc. If the system works as it should, then you will get the maximum effect from food. But if it’s bad, the cells will not get enough of what they need, and you will want to eat more and more.
2. Grow and strengthen muscles
The muscles in the body are like a cauldron. They consume a lot of energy. Asanas, on the other hand, work out almost all muscle groups, there are a lot of them. They, in turn, like in a cauldron, burn all the food they receive and the fat that has accumulated in the body.
3. The body is cleansed
With yoga, the cleansing system begins to work better. And the point here is not that we ate some kind of muck. After all, cells also emit waste, they themselves die, bacteria and viruses that our body fights against die. All this garbage must also be removed. The lymphatic system does this, yoga “stimulates” it. But along with the lymph, the liver, kidneys and intestines should work well. If there is a plug somewhere – toxins and toxins will accumulate, do not expect weight loss. That is why we say that yoga improves the whole system. And how quickly it depends on the neglect of each individual organism.
4. Eating habits are changing
So, we begin to torture the body with long workouts. What does our body do? He quickly adapts to this and understands that in order for him to survive and get the maximum nutrition, he needs certain foods. This is where eating habits change. Someone leans on milk, someone on vegetables and fruits. Here it is important to listen to yourself, take care and, of course, follow the rules of nutrition (more below – read the “Yogic rules of nutrition”) – this helps to lose weight.
5. Relieve stress
We just eat it. And yoga helps to cope with stress. But how does she do it? The process starts while working with attention! For example, you are in an asana and your task at this moment is to track your sensations in the body. But only! No thoughts about what you cook for dinner tonight. Agree, it’s not easy. But over time it starts to work out. Yogis also achieve concentration of attention during meditation: when you need to keep your attention and not “hover in the clouds”. What, in the end, does this lead to? To awareness, reactions become adequate, a person is no longer knocked out of himself by a kilometer traffic jam or a mess in the nursery. He becomes calmer. There are pranayamas that help remove the fuss of the mind and even out the emotional state, calm the nerves.
So there is no mysticism here – continuous practice.
Terms of supply
Everyone, I hope, understands that without a special diet, waiting for weight loss effects is reckless. Do yoga and eat only raisin buns? Oh well…
“Although following any dogmas kills yoga as such,” clarifies Elena Siderskaya. – If a person suddenly decides that now he eats exclusively plant foods – this is a dogma. Yoga is about awareness. That at every moment we decide what we need and what is right now. And this does not apply to the choice of food (they also differ in quality, and well-made bread is very useful for some). Here the rules are much broader.
1. Drink 100 ml every hour
At least set an alarm clock – but you should drink clean water throughout the day constantly. Small portions every hour. The most effective is 100 milliliters. This volume is best absorbed at a time by the body and cells. Anything more will already be an additional burden on the kidneys. Plus you will run to the toilet more often.
Why every hour. Doctors say that a person should not be thirsty. That is, you should not bring yourself to this state. If you’re thirsty, then you should have done it two hours ago. It is better to saturate the body with water evenly during the day than in the evening, before going to bed, to make up for this shortage. You can, of course. But then at night you will either wake up in the toilet, thereby violating the quality of sleep, or your bladder will suffer and endure until the morning. And so it wears out. You don’t want to deal with urinary incontinence later, do you? So, in the evening you can drink two hours before bedtime. But in the morning, after waking up, at least how much.
2. Tea and coffee “in the red”
On a smartphone, you can install an application such as water balance. It is calculated based on height, weight, physical activity, daily routine. And you are encouraged to drink a certain amount of water – very convenient. And there is one caveat: when we drink clean water, the percentage is added. Milk and juice are also a plus. But tea, coffee and alcohol take away these percentages. That is, they also remove water, which we may not drink at all during the day.
3. Breakfast should be hot
This is necessary to start the process of digestion and metabolism. So, you are awake. Be sure to have breakfast within an hour so that your brain receives glucose (if this does not happen, it will get out and take it, for example, from the liver, thereby destroying it). Why Hot Breakfast? Cold yogurt, for example, lies in the stomach until it reaches the right temperature. And time goes by … Therefore, the best solution is porridge from whole grain cereals. But please don’t boil it in milk. You can add it at the end and bring to a boil. Then it will be “lightened” milk, which is well absorbed. If you cook with milk, you will get a heavy product for digestion, as if adding cold. It is good to add melted butter to the finished porridge. Maybe fruit. But according to Ayurveda (ancient Indian medicine): raw cannot be mixed with non-raw. Fruit can be stewed or thrown into the porridge while it is still cooking.
If you have a workout in the morning and you can’t have breakfast, drink a glass of water with honey, this will support you and your brain. And, of course, yoga will help you lose weight.
4. “Eat, the sun is still high!”
The time when you can safely lean on food is lunch, when the sun is at its zenith. During the day, the “fire” of digestion is switched on to the maximum mode. All the food you eat will be digested and absorbed. Nothing will get to your sides (hooray!).
5. After 18 – you can!
But dinner should be easy. Even so: it must be drunk! And the statement that you can’t eat after 6 pm is complete nonsense. It all depends on your schedule. If you go to bed after 23, you should definitely treat yourself to a late dinner! You can fall asleep with an empty stomach, but you can’t sleep with a feeling of hunger. Therefore, you can eat cream soup, but it is better to drink a glass of milk with honey or cocoa with cream. In an hour and a half, the stomach will be freed.
6. Golden principle
And another important rule for those who want to lose weight with yoga. Solid food must be drunk, and liquid food must be eaten! You must chew your food thoroughly so as not to miss the moment of saturation.
Meditation while eating
How not to convey – the secret of a Zen Buddhist monk
So, we have already understood that yoga helps to be calm, conscious, and, therefore, saves us from uncontrolled eating. Well, it’s time to learn meditation! To do this, it is not at all necessary to leave for the Himalayas. Vice versa! It is best to meditate in a normal environment. The famous Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thit Nhat Khan even introduced the “Lessons of Household Meditation” when we practice while washing dishes or walking. Losing weight is best suited for meditation while eating. There she is:
Mindfulness with food is an important practice. So, we turn off the TV, the family gathers in the kitchen and we act together for five to ten minutes, setting the table and finishing everything that needs to be done. When the food is on the table and everyone is seated, we practice breathing: “Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. We repeat three times.
After breathing and smiling at each other, we look at the food and look at it for a few seconds. “Each piece contains a piece of the sun and the earth. Imagine we can see and taste the whole universe in a slice of bread! Contemplation of food before the start of the meal and mindful eating will bring a lot of happiness, ”the monks will assure. Let’s add on our own: and you won’t pounce on food and swallow it at once. And that means you will feel full in time!
What exercises are best for burning weight
These are all inverted asanas: starting from simple “Slides”, ending with tilts while standing or sitting. They are very good at weight loss. Further, when your muscles get stronger, you can move on to “Plows (legs behind your head). Excellent exercises on one leg, on two. For example, “Tree Pose”, “Warrior Pose”. They improve the functioning of the lymphatic system and the gastrointestinal tract, and involve the stomach. You can do these asanas one after another, you can stay in one for more than 18 seconds.