Tag: lose fat

Three Easy Yoga Floor Exercises To Lose Belly Fat

Natural Remedies

Three Easy Yoga Exercises For Losing Tummy Fat And Losing Weight

Fat stomachs can be a problem for many. Women after childbirth often need to do stomach-firming exercises to flatten their tums.  Others, because of poor diet and not enough exercise, may also develop unwanted belly fat.

Even men, both young and old, often develop flabby bellies from consuming too much sugar, farrinaceous foods and dairy products, or over-indulging in beer or fizzy drinks.

With the right kind of exercise, and sensible eating, belly fat can easily be reduced.

Here are some very easy and straight-forward exercises which you can do to firm up the stomach muscles and reduce fat.  They come from the teachings of Satyananda, who had a yoga ashram in Auckland in the 1980’s.  I studied yoga at this ashram for three years, which is when I learned  the Satyananda style of Yoga, which includes these marvellous exercises.

You will find that by doing these tummy exercises on a regular basis, even if you do no more yoga than this, a beneficial effect on your nervous system and digestion and sense of well-being will be experienced.  They will help by enhancing your breathing technique, as well as in a physical sense.

Try to practice them every day.  Start with five minutes, and build up the time gradually.  Before long, you will be wanting to add other asanas to your yoga practice.

These yoga exercises for reducing tummy fat will also help you to trim your waist, hips and buttocks.  They are also very good for toning up the thigh muscles.

First Exercise:  Rowing The Boat

Nauka Sanchalana.  A Shakti Bandha energy block exercise.

This exercise frees up the energy flow. The prana, or energy, can get stuck in parts of the body, such as the joints and muscles, or vital organs.  An energy block can cause problems with digestion, with constipation, rheumatism and the like.  I have used these Shakti Bandha exercises to cure earache caused by congestion. They also help to relieve congestion in the lungs.

Rowing the Boat exercise massages all the muscles and organs in the stomach area.  It helps to remove constipation, helps eliminate toxins, and restores a natural energy flow around the body.  This exercise is supposed to be great for enhancing the endocrine functions.

Here is how you do it:

The main thing to remember is not to rush the exercise, but build up a smooth, even movement which co-ordinates with your breathing, which should be slow and deep.

Sit comfortably on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you.  The knees should be straight if you can do that, with the feet together.

Now ‘row the boat’ by moving the hands forward to reach over, or towards, the toes.  As you move forward with the arms, you breathe out.  As you come back with the arms, rowing your boat and holding imaginary oars, breathe in.

Lean back with those imaginary oars so that you stretch the tummy muscles.

Breathe out again as you come forward with your arms to stretch out towards the toes.

Repeat until you have done ten rounds in this fashion.

Then do ten in the reverse direction.  Simply reverse the movement, so that you are breathing out as you move the hands close to the legs, reaching out for the toes, then breathing in as you take the arms upward while you bend back with the imaginary oars.

This exercise can be done by expectant mothers for the first three months only of pregnancy.

It is an excellent exercise to do AFTER childbirth.  It will help the stomach organs return to their proper places and develop muscle tone.  Note:  Do not do too many to start with, and not too soon after having your baby.  You should wait for at least a month before beginning an exercise programme, in my opinion.  Ask your doctor or naturopath for advice on when you can safely begin doing stomach-reducing exercises.

Exercise Two:  Churning The Mill

Chakki Chalana  is another sitting Shakti Bandha exercise to remove energy blockages.

For this exercise, the same breathing applies as above.  Take your time with the exercise, and breathe out slowly as you come forward, and breathe out as you move the body back.

Sit with the legs outstretched for this one.  Clasp the hands together.

Now – Take a deep breath and then exhale as you move the clasped hands forward over the right leg, down towards the toes.

Keep the movement going, heading towards the left foot.

Then, touch the left foot with the clasped hands and, breathing in, arms outstretched, bend backwards as you bring the hands up the left leg to the thigh.

Move the hands down the right leg again, as you breathe out.

Continue in the fashion, making a big continuous circle with the outstretched arms and clasped hands.

Breathe out as you move the arms forward and bend the body forward.

Breathe in as you move the body backwards, coming up from foot to upper thigh with the arms stretched outl

Try to keep the arms straight, as this means you have to bend back a good way with the arms at the top of the legs.  This bending back movement gives the stomach muscles a really good stretch.

Exercise Three:  Leg Raises.

Now, after having done the two Shakti Bandha exercises as above, lie down on the floor.

Arms loosely at the side of the body.

Legs out straight on the floor.  Releax.  Take a few breaths and watch the tummy rising with each inhalation, and falling back as you exhale.

Now take a deep breath in and hold the breath.

While you hold the breath, lift both legs slowly off the floor.

Still holding the breath, keep raising the legs upwards until the toes are pointing to the ceiling.

Now, while you keep the feet pointing to the ceiling, let the breath exhale.

Still holding the legs upward in this position, take a breath in and out.

Then take another deep breath in and hold the breath.

Slowly, very slowly, bring the legs down bit by bit until they touch the floor.

Keep holding the breath until the feet are down on the floor again.

Let the breath out, then take another deep breath in and hold the breath while you slowly lift the feet upwards again.

Do this exercise three times then stop.

This one is not recommended for people with high blood pressure or heart problems.  If you have health problems of any kind, then leave this exercise out and just do the first two exercises.

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The Apple Diet

AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY

This post is going to tell you  about the benefits of fasting on apples.

The apple diet is a cleansing diet.  The fame of the humble, healing apple goes back for centuries. Dr Max Gerson used the apple as part of his famous cancer treatment, and it is still used today by people who follow the Gerson treatment.

The apple diet is one of the simplest, one of the most pleasant, and one of the best ways in which you can detoxify your body of chemicals and slush.

Apples are such a great food. They are rich in pectin,  vitamin C, potassium and other trace elements. They have an enormous amount of good quality fiber. They have an alkaline efect on the body, so you can reduce acidity by eating an apple after a meal. Eating an apple after a meal also helps you to absorb vitamins, iron, calcium,  and other minerals from your food. Apples are great food as snacks, too;  instead of going for that pastry or cookie, you could eat an apple, or even a few slices while you watch television or prepare dinner.

Apples are great for the teeth, of course. Children should all be given one apple at least per day.

The Apple Cleanse Diet is simple: All you do is eat raw apples for a few days. You can munch away at whole apples, or you can grate the apple up,  skin and core and all. In the Gerson diet for treating cancer and other immune diseases,  a whole organic apple is grated up each morning, to have on the big plate of oatmeal porridge, which is the only cooked item used in the initial cleansing period on the Gerson diet.

Three days of  straight apple eating is a standard period for a cleanse, but if you do not feel up to it, then do only one day on the apples. You will find that each time you repeat this one day or so on the apple diet,  you get a little stronger, your resistance will improve, and tackling the diet will become easy.

You can eat just as many as you like. This is a great exercise for all those who wish to lose weight, or who have eating addictions: no need for guilt on the amount of apples you eat – there are absolutely no limits.  Eating lots of apples just on their own WILL NOT MAKE YOU FAT. You will LOSE fat instead, if you can eat apples, and only apples, for three days at a time.

Your digestive system, especially your bowels, will benefit from the bulk of the fiber in the apple diet.  This bulk thoroughly cleanses the bowel of effete matter and any toxins it may be harbouring. The honorable apple contains high amounts of pectin, especially in the pips, and peptin has a great healing effect on the tissues of the body, including the intestines.

Your nervous system will benefit from a day or two on apples.

Your liver, gall bladder and kidneys and bladder will also benefit from a few days of eating only apples. If the apple diet is done regularly, say one day a week, or three days every few weeks, then you will be gradually diminishing any toxic deposits in these organs.

The same goes for the brain: after a few days on the apple diet, you will notice that your brain is much sharper, and so is your eyesight. The nutrients in apples help feed the nerves which affect the eyesight and brain. Because the apple diet cleanses the blood, there are less toxins in the blood which feeds your brain and eyesight: this, in itself, causes a rejuvenation of brain and eyesight.

Note- before attempting the apple diet,  ask your health practitioner if you  can safely do this diet, especially if you have any medical condition for which you are getting treatment.

Do not continue the apple fast for more than three days at a time.  Apples are great food, and they are wonderful for taking toxins out of the body and healing it:  However, after using apples to restore a healthy body,  you need  to include proteins , oils and fats, calcium-rich foods, and  iodine and iron in the diet again. A normal, healthy diet which includes proteins and plenty of fresh and cooked green vegetables should follow the apple diet.

The apple diet is made most effective in its detoxification effects when a bowel wash is done. If you have never done a cleanse before, then you might have large amounts of toxins to expel, and these can make you feel sick initially. Colonic irrigation  at a clinic is a good idea if you can afford it. The more you persevere with fasting on apples on a regular basis, the less toxic your body will become.