SHARING OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCES BY MEMBERS OF SWADHYAYA –THE YOGA INSTITUTE ALUMNI ASSOCIATIONI ON SUNDAY, 14^TH 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.