Get on the Path to Thinner Peace

Adding a few things to your schedule can subtract pounds

Yoga is well known for its stress-reduction powers. But what about that other bad thing many people want to reduce—those extra pounds?

 “Yoga works on so many levels for weight loss,” says Aruni Nan Futuronsky, a yoga teacher and director of the Integrative Weight Loss program at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Lenox, Massachusetts. “Most important, it teaches you to pay attention to your body and respect it, which leads to the desire to care for it properly—and that includes giving it the proper nutrition.” It also reduces stress and improves sleep, which cuts back on the kind of mindless, one-chip-after-another eating we do when anxious or exhausted.

To start slimming down, Futuronsky and Steve Hartman, director of professional training at Kripalu, recommend incorporating these activities into your week.

1. Do gentle poses. Because yoga is more about getting back into your skin and listening to your body than it is about burning calories, there’s no need to kill yourself with super-hard yoga classes—unless that happens to be something you enjoy. It’s much better to do a class that feels comfortable than one that pushes you so hard you don’t want to work out the next day. And there’s also no need to do the same type or amount of yoga every day. If all you have time for is a single Sun Salutation, that’s fine. But doing a little something every day is the best way to form a healthy habit.

2. Take a breath break (once daily). “Deep breathing oxygenates the body and stimulates the immune system, which, in turn, increases the metabolism and releases feel-good endorphins into the system,” Hartman says. That extra oxygen enables our bodies to process nutrients more quickly. A great breathing exercise that stimulates metabolism and stretches and relaxes the spine is called Twisting Hara Breath (but we call it crazy-breath since doing it makes you look absolutely crackers).

How to: Stand with feet a little wider than hip width apart, arms at your sides. Begin to rotate the hips and shoulders from side to side, allowing your relaxed arms to flop around and slap your shoulders like empty shirtsleeves. Let your head follow by looking over one shoulder and then the other. Exhale through the mouth as you twist and inhale through the nose as you come back to center.  After 10 to 20 seconds, let the twist slow to a stop. You should feel tingly and energized.

3. Eat like a monk (once weekly). It doesn’t matter if it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner, just pick a single meal and eat it alone in complete silence. Focus all of your attention on how each bite looks and smells, and how your body feels as you slowly chew, swallow, and digest. See if you can pick up on the signals your body sends when it’s had enough. What does it feel like to stop eating when you first start feeling full? What does it feel like when you overeat? Do you enjoy your food more when you eat slowly or when you eat quickly? How do different foods make you feel? The answers will help you make your own decisions about eating better.

4. Do 15-minutes of anti-activity whenever you need it. Never underestimate the effect of stress on your diet. Too many hectic days in a row can turn the healthiest, most disciplined person into a pizza-inhaling, beer-guzzling Chris Farley. Stop that from happening to you by creating a mental menu of relaxing activities that you can do on the spot with little to no preparation—taking a hot shower with a Beth Orton CD blasting, reading a beloved short story for the zillionth time, lying down on the living room carpet and watching a fish mobile spin around and around—and do it whenever you could use some distance from all of your responsibilities and obligations. Need inspiration? Light a candle, sit down, and stare at the flame. Notice how its shape is constantly changing, how it’s composed of different colors, how it interacts with the wick. For a few brief moments, just hang out and contemplate that tiny explosion of light.
 
Want to turn up the burn?
If those four techniques seem too mellow for your own fat-blasting program, check out this yoga workout.