How many pounds have you gained since COVID hit? I don’t know anyone who hasn’t put on a few pounds, or inches, around the waist. If you’ve lost weight, it might mean you’ve simply lost muscle weight, as muscle weighs more than fat. So your scale might not be the best indicator of what’s really going on below the belt.
Traditionally, folks hit the treadmill, the gyms and the trails to lose weight. Or take up a diet plan. Maybe a little of each. While you might not immediately think of yoga as a way to lose weight, you may want to think again, as anybody can do yoga, any body type can do yoga, and there is a wide variety of yoga styles for any of these body types. You can do it anywhere you can lay down a 2 by 6 foot yoga mat, with just a little wiggle room beyond.
Either way, your living room floor is far cheaper than a gym membership, and much more reliable than the weather. As COVID keeps us home, half our work is done. We are in and we don’t have anywhere to go. Why not hit that mat? And really, you don’t even have to have a mat to do it, it’s just safer, you can go deeper and it’s more ceremonial, and with that, comes commitment. And isn’t diet and a health plan just that, a commitment?
As you practice more and more, building your strength and stamina, you may find yourself wanting to hit the mat even more (or buy one!). As the Indian sage Patanjali wrote thousands of years ago, the more you put into your yoga, the more you will get out of it. The more you practice, the stronger your muscles become, and your poses to boot. The more muscle your body has, the more quickly you burn energy and calories, which can reduce weight. Muscle mass burns more calories than fat. The more you practice as you build a stronger body, the more calories you can burn, and you may find yourself in a whirlwind of progress. Even at rest or when you sit too long at your device, logging in more hours at the virtual office, you burn more calories.
No matter what kind of yoga you practice, physical activity requires energy, so you will burn calories, how many is your choice. If you want to burn more, you have the option to try more fast-paced and challenging yoga, like Vinyasa or Ashtanga. Though if you are new to yoga, make sure you take the time to build a strong base and learn the basic poses and their correct alignment well, as when we start working at a faster pace, we can forget the little details and injure ourselves, so take good care.
I have found that slower paced yoga works better for my aging and injured body, and I have found it’s long term effects far more profound, not the shorter ones of burning X amount of calories everyday, but the ones where I instill better eating habits and cultivate a more energetic body that can go the extra mile. That’s what’s keeping the inevitable ill effects of COVID in check for me, staving off those homebound and couch potato pounds.
As I have slowed my yoga, I pay even more attention to the breath, a huge component of any serious yoga practice. With breath comes ease, with ease comes peace, and our digestion and elimination systems work more efficiently, and we are less likely to hold onto any unwanted baggage, that is, waste and toxins, giving them less time to do harm to the body. This can start a whole dynamic process, where the mind wants to put better things in the body and we build better eating habits and our energy grows and we become healthier, happier beings who want to get out and do more, and yes, burn more calories! It’s a lovely cycle in which to be.
As I have incorporated a daily yoga practice into my life for years now, not only has it inspired me to eat more healthfully, I have learned to slow down when I eat. Eating more calmly allows my body to digest food more efficiently. You will never catch me eating in a car ever again. The two just don’t go hand and hand. Even reading or watching TV when you eat is not a great idea. When you eat, you should just do that, nothing else, but eat. Moreover, remember that old adage to chew your food 32 times before you swallow? This habit means that your saliva has a chance to thoroughly break down food, better digesting it as it makes it way down through the digestive tract. That’s hard to do if you are stressed out, waiting for a light to change or taking in the constant barrage of bad news, though very simple if you are cooly sitting at a dinner table, breaking bread with friends and family.
Not rushing while you eat generally means paying better attention to the food that you do eat. You notice the nuances of the palette more and you begin to be more mindful about what it is, where it came from, and what went into getting it to your table.
Yoga has also allowed me to lighten up emotionally. I can laugh at myself more as taking life and it’s challenges so seriously can cause me anxiety. The more easily we can handle stress, the less our adrenal glands secrete the hormone cortisol, which adds directly to belly fat. I’m not saying ignore the turmoil around us, just don’t absorb it and let it become about you, because it isn’t.
Finally, I see my body differently. I don’t care what others see, I care what I see. I see what I feel and I feel healthy and beautiful. I don’t give in to that incessant need to look others up and down, so why should they look at me that way? Body image can be so destructive to the soul image. I see a more sensical physique that fits in with who I really am. A solid chick who likes her Chicken Kiev. So be it.
It takes commitment, so this is not an overnight result. Most gains from yoga are gradual, yet very powerful and long lasting. The best diets are not fad-oriented, they are lifelong plans. Yoga is a lifelong plan that plants seeds, cultivating a healthier body, mind and spirit. I’m in it for good.