Tips for Losing Weight

Archive for October, 2009

While pregnancy can be an amazing experience for women most struggle after they have given birth with the responsibility and financial burdens of their new family member. Typically these mothers should be applauded for doing all this for the benefit of their child but they do so at a cost to themselves by losing control of their weight as their lifestyle changes and sometimes so does their hormones and metabolism. If this sounds like you then here are some tips for losing weight after pregnancy.

No matter what your drive to exercise might be the fact you need to be there with your child limits your options for exercising. However, there are many options you can implement to use your time creatively to get some exercise. A few examples include:

Eating is also a real problem when you have a child, the time you took to cook good food has been replaced with caring for a baby and it always seems easier to get take away or something canned, quick and easy from the fridge or pantry. While nothing can give you more time here is a tips for losing weight after pregnancy: use your time more wisely buy making bulk lots of good healthy food when you have a chance and freeze the rest to be eaten later. You can spend an extra half an hour one day to save many hours in other days and you get good (if reheated) food. Also the temptation to snack is very high when running around being a mother and this does not have to stop, just make sure you get rid of the chocolate and instead keep some fruit and muesli bars to replace them!

Of the four dimensions of our being, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual, in this article I will cover the Physical Dimension which is most important for the reduction of Kapha and the correlating reduction in weight.

Weight Loss Tips from Ayurveda:

1. Ayurvedic Diet for Weight Loss:

Obviously an anti-kapha diet is the place to start when looking to lose weight. This means eating lots of fruits, vegetables, spicy foods and whole grains.

2. Exercise for Weight Loss:

The following Ayurvedic guidelines should be followed for proper exercise with regard to weight loss:

* More Exercise the Better: Kapha’s qualities of fixed, dull, heavy, soft and cold are all negated via exercise. In other words, the more exercise you do the more you reduce Kapha and therefore fat in your body.

* Exercise Without Excessive Strain: According to Ayurveda, Kapha individuals need the most vigorous exercise, but at the same time, the exercise should never be extreme. Find a good balance between doing too little and over doing it. Breaking a nice sweat is good, but being totally breathless is probably too much.

* Be Consistent: A Kapha body type has a propensity towards weight gain so you need to make exercise a daily part of you life. The hardest part will be to get the exercise program underway. Once this is done Kapha people tend to be very determined and steady, so they will be able to adhere to it long term. Getting started though is another matter for Kapha types and usually requires shock treatment. In the spirit of shock treatment, understand that by NOT exercising and NOT losing the weight you are putting your longevity and quality of life at risk. Enough said, start today!

* Yoga for Weight Loss: Yoga offers an excellent way to include holistic exercises into your fitness program. These exercises will not just help you lose weight, but will also help your overall health and well-being.

* Post Exercise Diet: After exercises do not drink cold liquids. This period is key as you are trying to increase the metabolic fire in your cells so they burn more calories and drinking cold liquids at this time will negate this important benefit which exercise bestows.

3. Hard Physical Work to Burn Calories:

According to Ayurveda reduction of Kapha is promoted by living a physical, active lifestyle. In today’s age of technology, computers, TVs, TiVO, internet, etc, manual labor is getting more rare for people to do. So you need to consciously incorporate physical work into your life. Whether that be mowing the lawn, tending to the garden or shoveling snow, it is important to not live a sedentary live of watching TV and eating twinkies.

4. Massage Therapy to Reduce Fat:

There are many treatment modalities in Ayurveda of which massage is highly recommended. In the context of weight loss and reducing Kapha, strong massage with light oils such as mustard or flaxseed is helpful.

5. Sleep Guidelines for Weight Loss:

No napping or going to bed early. If you want to reduce Kapha and weight remember you burn more calories when you are awake and being active, than when you are happily snuggled under the blanket.

The above recommendations will surely help you with your weight loss goals and in addition to helping you get slim, they will also make you more healthy and fit.

Anorexics suffer from a disorder that causes them to have distorted mental images of their body’s causing them to stoop to unhealthy levels to lose weight it very unhealthy and can even be deadly if the anorexic does not get the help that they need.Everywhere we look, the vision of a beautiful woman always seems to be one who is waif thin. On television or in the movies, any celebrity over a size 2 is considered “fat” and is ridiculed endlessly by the media and other outlets. This kind of thinking has lead to an influx of girls who feel that they need to be thin or die trying. The ideas to lose weight fast like anorexia are popular with teenage girls who think that it is a glamorous way to be skinny, but they do not realize all of the bad things that this disease can cause.If you are planning to go on a diet to lose weight fast, it is best to eat a healthy, balanced diet. By following a healthy diet of lots of fruits and vegetables, a small amount of proteins and a small amount of complex carbohydrates each day and getting plenty of exercise, you can lose weight much faster than you think you can. There is no need to jeopardize your health over shedding a few pounds. If you are serious about getting thinner and healthier, you must do it in a healthy way. Yo-yo dieting and following severely restrictive diet plans can cause irreversible damage to your metabolism and the functioning of your organs. In severe cases, this way of losing weight can even cause death.Before taking such drastic measures to lose weight, look around at other weight loss plans that are much healthier. Losing weight doesn’t have to be deadly. There are many safe diet plans out there to choose from that work with your body to burn fat and calories. There is no magic thing that will make the weight disappear. It will take discipline and dedication, but it can be done.You cannot simply become anorexic just because you think that is the way you want to lose weight. Anorexia is not something a person can turn off and on. It is a disorder that requires professional treatments and is not something to take lightly. If you feel like you are fat when you eat, have stopped eating all together, hide your food so that others do not see that you are not eating, vomit after eating, or other signs of anorexia, please tell someone and get professional help immediately.