I Lost 20 Pounds by Spending 60 Minutes a Day Doing Yoga
Given the numerous and oft advocated benefits of yoga - benefits like lowering stress levels and increasing fitness, yoga techniques have started attracting more and more people. In the present day scenario when obesity has taken over and busy lifestyle leaves us with no time for ourselves, losing those extra pounds has become a real challenge. In the given condition it is no surprise then that people are turning to the ancient technique of yoga to fight the bulge.
But, can yoga actually help you lose weight?
Since I have grown up, I have always had a hesitation to address the issue, issue of weight loss, one because I wasn't someone with a bulge ever since and two because the topic of weight loss is a very sensitive. But when I started gaining weight, I was really pissed, I didn't know what to do - but being a fitness freak I thought of giving yoga's fitness regime a try and boy did I realize the huge transformation aspects of the ancient technique or what. Read on to know how I manage to lose 20 pounds spending 60 minutes a day doing nothing but yoga.
How it all began
All through in the high school I was an active guy in sports and other co-curricular activities, thus I never did a traditional workout to lose weight. After graduating from high school, when I was bed ridden following an acute attack of hepatitis, I was left immobile and depressed for almost eight months. All this while I couldn't find time to work out; I was gaining pounds in bed and was losing the hope of being happy ever again.
One night while searching the internet for some kind of salvation, I came across a website which suggested a few yoga exercise techniques - techniques that struck me for some reason and I wanted to just get down to do them.
The most amazing fact about the yoga exercises that I carried out in routine 60 minutes every day (after a week of practice) was that I didn't really have to get off the bed to do them. They didn't really require any type of exertion that I was restricted to. So, I could do the exercises in my comfort zone.
I started yoga as a way to treat the negative thoughts and anxiety disorder that I was becoming a slave to. I started with little breathing exercises, which made me feel better and then I steady got into other types of yoga exercises, which kept be busy for almost an hour a day. Yoga exercises were not only making me feel livelier, they were also helping me kill the time I would otherwise spend thinking negative things in bed.
The miracle change
Steadily, as I became accustomed to yoga I began including a little bit of cardio and core-strengthening yoga exercises to the breathing routine. And surprisingly, without doing any other type of exercise, but with only 60 minutes of yoga a day I BEGAN TO LOSE WEIGHT.
Then the miracle change happened - after continuous exercise for about 47 days (only exercising 1 hour a day) I was 20 pounds lighter - I was shocked to the core.
I was happier than ever, my anxiety disorder was under control, I was eating healthier, I was less stressed out and I had only positive thoughts in mind now, and this was all because of those nifty yoga exercises that I was doing. I wanted to live now, I wanted to be healthy again, and with this positive attitude and continuous yoga, my physicians noticed a drastic fall in my liver functioning tests - I was getting better. Thanks for yoga I gained my self confidence and now after 10 months I am as fit and good as ever.
A friend who knew me from before, who had seen me all stressed and depressed in bed gaining those unwanted pounds, asked me how it all happened, and I tried to recall, I tried to recall all those wonderful moments I had gaining my confidence and losing weight with yoga.
When I told my friend that it was just because of yoga and nothing more than that, he seemed horrified and bewildered as if I had told him that he would gain 30 pounds in one day J.
My two cents
With other forms of exercise and weight loss regimes, losing weight can be harsh, but with yoga weight loss is fun and easy.
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