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 YOGIC
DIETARY RULES
PRACTISE MITAHARA
This means you should eat to fill only one-third the
capacity of the stomach, leaving one-third empty for
fluids, one-third for air.
Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a rich man and
dinner like a pauper.
Having a hearty breakfast ensures that your body is
prepared to absorb nutrients at around 2 to 4 pm when
absorption is at its peak. This ensures you are not
starved for nutrients. An obese person is often eating
nutrient-deficient, calorie-dense food.
Dinner should be light and very early in the evening,
between 6.30 and 8.30 pm.
Over-loading the stomach when the body is beginning
to wind down for the day means the calories are not
going to be burned, but stored up. You are also creating
a toxic condition that encourages ailments.
Prefer fibre-rich, natural foods like whole grains,
fruits, vegetables, legumes to refined flours, oily
food and meat.
Fibre blocks fat absorption, slows the movement of food
down the digestive tract, keeps hunger at bay. Natural
foods mentioned above are low-calorie but nutrient dense,
helping to further control hunger pangs and blood sugar
fluctuations which trigger eating disorders and cravings.
Avoid snacking. But do not miss meals. Don't fast in
the hope that you will lose weight.
Every mouthful counts and snacks are just a person's
attempt to beat boredom or thirst. On the other hand,
fasting puts the body into the starvation mode, making
it store fat for emergency. So you actually end up gaining
weight when you skip meals.
It is essential to sit in vajrasana (thunderbolt pose)
before and after each meal, from five to 10 minutes
(avoid if suffering from knee pain).
Acupressure points (called vajra nadi) are activated
in this pose where heels press against the buttock.
Also, blood flow towards the legs is blocked. This gets
re-directed back to the digestive system, powerfully
boosting digestion and metabolism. Since obesity is
often due to sluggish metabolism, vajrasana is a great
yet effective way to facilitate weight loss.
PRANAYAMA
OR BREATHING PRACTICES
Bhastrika (bellows breathing) and Kapalabhati (skull-cleansing)
pranayamas encourage hyperventilation of the lungs.
They stimulate breathing which, when it is sluggish,
weak or under stress, lowers the body's metabolic rate,
creating the vicious cycle of obesity.
These heating pranayamas need to be balanced by cooling
ones such as sheetali (cooling breath) or seetkari (whistling
breath). Apart from cooling us down, these power our
ability to handle stress and depress hunger pangs.
MUDRA
MAGIC
Mudras work on the homunculus man in our brain. This
is a biological term for the brain map for various regions
in our body. These mudras may be used during meditation.
Surya Mudra
Press down ring finger with thumb for each hand. Sit
with this mudra for three to five minutes daily to experience
the slow burn. You will actually feel the heat throughout
the body (Avoid in case of BP, heart problems, but is
therapeutic in diabetes and obesity).
Linga mudra
Interlock fingers. Hold out left thumb. Circle it with
thumb and index finger of the right hand. Hold for three
times daily, three minutes each time. You must balance
the heating effect of this mudra by consuming cooling
stuff like lots of fluids, citrus fruits, low-fat yoghurt
to avoid dehydration. (Avoid in high BP, but therapeutic
for those with respiratory problems, low BP, obesity).
 ASANAS
Overweight people may find it difficult to attempt difficult
poses. So being with the series of joint-releasing poses,
also called pawan-mukta (energy-releasing) asana series.
This clears the body of toxic overload, stimulates lymphatic
drainage - all of which are under siege in an overweight
person, affecting their digestion and making them chronically
hungry because they are starved of nutrition despite
their calorie dense food.
When the joints are loosened, after a few weeks, move
on to surya namaskar or sun salutations (avoid if suffering
from acute knee problems or back ache). Energy levels
will peak. Sun salutations should serve as warm-up,
slowly increasing the number of rounds, to up to 12
at least. You can now dispense with the pawan muktasana
series.
At the same time, while introducing sun salutations,
start with lighter poses which work on acupressure points
for weight loss. These include gentle dynamic and healing
poses like kati chakrasana (standing twist), trikaya
tadasana (swinging tree), dynamic dwipada pawanmuktasana
(rolling version), chakki chalanasana (similar to seated
boat-rowing), supta vajrasana (lying thunderbolt pose),
ustrasana (camel), marjari (cat stretch), pranamasana
(seated head-bowing pose and simhasana (lion pose)).
Since obesity creates conditions for other problems
like backache, knee pain, blood pressure, sugar problems,
neck pain it is essential to removes these problems
from the body. The above pose ensures the obese person
can continue with a programme of sustained weight loss
without aggravating inherent pains.
You need to do these practices in a dynamic fashion,
starting with ten or so, increasing counts steadily
to 30 or more, when stamina and energy start going up
with practice. Several of these poses are designed to
suppress the hunger centrer in the brain, stimulate
digestion by applying pressure at the abdomen, wring
the liver (which stores fat) and work out the gentle
faschia or subtle muscle mass so there is true fat-burn.
The stretches are designed to remove the lactic-acid
and toxic build-up in the tissues, further boosting
weight loss.
After four weeks of these gentle poses, you can advance
to the classical weight loss poses such as sirsasana
(head asana), viparita karani (inverted pose), kandarasana
(shoulder rest pose), paschimottanasana (westward facing
forward bend), matsyasana (fish), chakrasana (wheel),
bhujangasana (cobra), salabhasana (locust), dhanu (bow),
ardha matysendra asana (half-spinal twist), padahastasana
(forward bend, standing), ardha chandra asana (crescent
back-bend), trikonasana (triangle). In the beginning,
you may do some of these dynamically, to perk up energy
and fat-burn. Or do three times, with rest breaks, till
you increase stamina.
After six weeks you can increase stamina in each pose,
to half-a-minute or so.
After three months, you may progress to holding poses
to one-minute - you may do this dynamically or in a
static manner, depending on your individual stamina
in each pose.
After this six months, you must keep upping your stamina
in each pose, going easily up to three minutes in certain
poses, like viparita karani. Back-bends may be tough
to hold for so long at this stage, but you can still
increase the duration by taking breaks and ensuring
you do not just get into a pose and get out cosmetically,
but learn to hold it for longer.
Progress in yoga is judged by your ability to breathe
evenly in a pose as you learn to hold it for longer.
At this point, your weight loss is assured.
 MEDITATION
When resting at the end of the sadhana, introduce the
practice of yoga nidra or sleep of yoga. This is full
body awareness. This helps with controlling hunger and
out-of-control emotional eating binges. Antar mouna
is another such meditative practice but it is more difficult
to practice and also needs to be done seated.
POINTS
TO REMEMBER
- Your
programme must last a minimum of an hour for effective
weight loss.
- You
must practice pranayama with equal loyalty for effective
results.
- Rest
in between asanas, when you begin to feel breathless.
The rest-breaks get the blood cleared of lactic acid
build-up.
- When
you emerge from the rest-breaks, resume with a full-body
stretch called yastikasana, which further clears up
your blood and boosts weight loss.
- Breathing
sequences are very crucial to maintain, in yoga, for
reaping full benefits.
- Never
break practice even for a day if your goal is weight
loss.
- Do
not attempt poses erratically. Practice will ensure
your stamina not only peaks but you avoid those silly
injuries.
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