SHARING OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
BY MEMBERS OF SWADHYAYA –THE YOGA INSTITUTE ALUMNI ASSOCIATIONI ON SUNDAY, 14TH
OCT 12 ON
‘HOW TO HANDLE OVERWEIGHT PROBLEMS’
[1]After
menopause weight starts increasing due to hormonal imbalance and metabolic
changes in the system. Family History and Hypertension also caused weight
increase. Diet control, swimming, regular exercise , Self study, self control
with proper ahar, vihar, achar, vichar helped to control weight
[2]
Mental aggression caused increase in weight. Awareness followed by efforts like
regular walk, yogasana and completely avoiding some food items like white sugar,
aerated water, deep fried spicy food, packed
and preserved food helped.
[3]
Eating food at regular interval of 4 hours, and small intakes in between if
needed, remaining physically active all the times, regular walk, and yoga
practices for toning of body, cardio vascular needs and flexibility and
strength helped control of weight.
[4]
Push up, walking, asana, and laughter helped. Had to work at mind level as
normally tendency is to eat without hunger and to satisfy taste aptitude. Long
Term abhyasa and continuous efforts to create flexibility of body and mind
resulted in favour.
[5]Stress may cause weight increase. Mind generally
revolts when given any unacceptable advice particularly about diet control. So
mental training followed by regular walk, yoga practices and doing household
work with control of quantity of food helped.
[6]
By cutting down rice, potato, sugar, oil daily walk, reducing food quantity by
50%, replacing food by fruits, salads, diluted milk, and yogurt helped.
[7]
Unless there is strong motivation to reduce weight like threat to life,
invalidity of working capacity, or professional needs like sports, acting,
dancing etc it is difficult to really reduce weight after certain age.
If
strongly motivated one can follow a balanced life to control overweight.
Most of members have been experimenting on self and followers in
various ways.Inspite of fairly balanced and disciplined life style and regular
practice of yoga and walking some were struggling with the overweight problems.
The
common observations were
[1]
Life Style related-Overweight occurs because of the undisciplined life style or
deviating from nature.
[2]Type,
Quantum & frequency of diet- Although in most cases satvic diet taken at
regular intervals with quantity limit helps but not in every case. Weight loss
achieved through dieting is only temporary and hence not recommended.
[3]
Exercise- Regular walk, exercises, Yoga Practices help to control weight but
once exercise is stopped the weight regains rapidly.
[4]Heredity
Factor- Family history of obesity has great impact and needs to be worked upon
with full awareness
[5]One
uniqueness of human beings-Each human being is unique and no common fixed
formulae works for every human being
Lastly,
Hansa ji Jaydeva advised following actions for handling overweight problems as
under:
Generally humans are
born with typical shape and size of physical structure and thermostat level is
set in each body to determine its weight. Any excessive efforts like crash
dieting or strenuous exercises can reduce immunity level and cause damage to muscles
and tissues of the body. Hence depending upon one’s need a balanced life is
needed to be lived.
Balanced
satvik diet depending upon physical activity and work, capacity to digest, age,
mental and emotional behavior pattern and habits, sleep habits should be taken
keeping in mind fitness of the body instead of too much concern about weight.
She
suggested that normally 4 meals at regular interval are necessary. Quantity
could be adjusted after observation that you feel hungry after 4 hours of every
intake. In case one feels hungry in between
fruits, lemon water could be
taken, she also suggested that full glass of liquid like ukala[ boiled herbal
tea], butter milk, soup , diluted milk can be taken before each meal so that
desire to overeat is controlled.
One should always try to take little less than
required. Vegetables, fruits, milk; yogurt must form part of daily meals.
She
was particular in advising about dinner which needs to be very light like milk/
chapati, soup/chapati, fruits/chapati .Spicy
food should not be taken at dinner time and also that one must take dinner at least 2-3 hours before
sleep.
In
order to control emotional trauma which not only causes weight gain but even
costs one’s life, one needs to divert mind away to regular healthy hobbies like
music, songs, dances, gardening, painting, laughing, walking regularly in
nature etc
She
impressed upon certain yogasanas for spine and pelvic flexibility like yastikasana,
bhadrasana, matyasana, hastapadangusthasana, naukasana and suggested for those who are not able to stand and walk –
walking while sitting and demonstrated all these asanas for the benefit of members.
She explained all limitations and showed variations for those who cannot do any
of these traditional asanas due to physical constraints.
