Yoga literally means the union of your mind and body, where stretching meets deep breathing techniques. Studies say that even light forms of yoga can help you lose weight, prevent premature aging, and promotes weight loss in those who are obese. All you have to do now is find the right yoga class, be comfy with specific poses that are therapeutic for you, or you may just buy a DVD so you can do yoga even at the comforts of your own home.

What Types of Yoga Promote Weight Loss?

1. Ashtanga

This type focuses on vigorous poses that are great for losing weight. Those who practice this are the most dedicated students, though beginners are encouraged to join the program. This type of yoga is ideal for those who want to practice it at home.

2. Hot Yoga

If you have migraines or history of heart disease, you might want to get yourself checked first before you join a class. By the word itself, this type of yoga is done in a hot room which can make you sweat like crazy in a matter of minutes. Room temperature is set to 105 degrees F or 40.55 Celsius. This type may make you lose weight temporarily because you will lose water weight. It is not permanent though and you may not burn a lot of fats.

3. Power Yoga

This type of yoga combines cardiovascular activities with traditional yoga. Workouts can be intense, which makes it an extremely popular type when it comes to weight loss. This type is challenging and beginners are encouraged to try gentle yoga poses first.

Still, nothing beats your good old brisk walking, running, or swimming when it comes to burning calories. Yoga may not offer huge weight loss benefits, but it can give you all those fitness benefits that can help you live a healthy life. Yoga is great for your muscles, no doubt! Yoga can give a person a better awareness of his or her body, making her choose only those that are healthy, which contributes to overall weight loss. Namaste!

Get in Shape 3 : How to Lose Weight With Yoga

What exactly is Metabolism? It is actually the rate on which your body uses its energy… to burn calories. Then, there is this so-called Resting Metabolism which measures just how many calories your body needs to keep it working to its optimum. You can compute your BMR or Basic Metabolic Rate by multiplying your body weight by 10. So if you weigh 150 pounds, that means you have a total of 1,500 kcals ( calories ) a day. That’s what you need to take to keep you healthy each day. More than this will mean weight gain.

Natural Ways to Boost Your Metabolism

Know that many factors affect your body’s metabolism, like hormonal balance. Age and bad habits can slow your metabolism down as well. For this reasons, you need to:

1. Eat Breakfast

Skipping the most important meal of your day will just slow you down, sending your body into a starvation mode, where it reserves energy than use it to burn calories. If you take less than 1,000 calories a day, it will also trigger this mode and you lose your battles with weight after all.

2. Eat Smaller Meals

Instead of chowing down a huge meal that takes time to burn off completely, you may indulge yourself in frequent, smaller portions. This will help keep your blood sugar stable, giving your body a stable supply of energy to burn off calories. You can eat six meals a day, instead of the usual three. This will help you avoid the risk of overeating. Also, dinner should be the lightest meal of the day and take it 3-4 hours before you sleep.

3. MOVE!

A simple walk can truly do wonders to your body. Always get the opportunity to walk, while you can. You can also indulge in aerobic exercises each morning to prep you up all day, or you may do weight training or resistance workouts 2-3 times a week. Keep in mind that the more muscles you have, the more you burn calories and fat. Variation is the key in doing an exercise routine so you won’t slack. Your muscles need a nice challenge to help it work at its best. Don’t just overdo it and stop when the routine hurts.

4. Hydrate

Water is life and drink eight glasses each day to help the process of burning those calories and unwanted body fats. It can be a refreshing treat as well.

5. Do Energy Work

Energy work is channeling the energy pathways of your body to help you become healthy. You can balance your body’s energy through yoga, tai chi, or qigong with gentle yet effective movements that opens up your energy channels.

6. Get Quality Sleep

For your body to work well, you need to get quality, undisturbed sleeps at night. You will truly wake up feeling revived each day. Having problems getting a good night’s sleep? Try listening to binaural beats before you go to sleep. A simple breathing and meditation exercise will help as well.

7. Avoid Bad Habits

From alcohol, bad foods, to drugs – avoid these at all costs since it doesn’t only wreak havoc in your body’s metabolism, but it can also lead to serious injuries and diseases.

Overall, you need to have a total commitment in living a healthy lifestyle if you want your body to maximize its metabolism. You can always choose natural, safe, and effective supplements to help you along the way. If you’re obese and you are having a serious issue with weight loss, you can always get an expert advice on how to keep you healthy, for life. Be Energized!

Walk Away Your Calories:

The answer lies closely to your hormones than you can ever imagine. Hormonal imbalances just add inches to your waistline, and make you look older by taking away years from your life. Dr. Randolph, an internationally-acclaimed medical expert, has quoted this from his book with co-author, Genie James, entitled, From Belly Fat to Belly Flat. Many people have been telling their physicians that they feel something’s wrong with their hormones and many of these concerns are dismissed. The truth is, many suffer the plague of hormonal imbalances and find it hard to lose weight. They are gaining it, than losing these unwanted fats.

What exactly is hormone all about? Hormones are powerful compounds controlling every aspect of you and your physiology. Hormones control your emotions, appetite, metabolism, muscle size, energy levels, and even your desire to exercise. Feeling sluggish lately? You might as well blame it on the hormones.

Just how do hormones make you fat? It’s simpler as it sounds, and hormones can simply prevent fat to breakdown, or worst, hormones can stimulate insulin and cortisol levels in your body that makes it impossible for you to lose weight. Women are mostly affected with hormonal imbalances, specially during puberty and menopause. The fluctuations in the body’s estrogen and progesterone levels can cause many problems other than weight loss, like irregular periods, memory loss, bone density loss, hair loss, low libido, unexplainable weight gain, mood swings, and thyroid function imbalances. For this reason, both estrogen and progesterone levels need to be balanced in the body.

How can you correct hormonal imbalances? You can avoid foods that can make your estrogen levels go higher like dairy or meat. You can also consult your doctor to have yourself tested and see if a solution can be made for you. If you like natural solutions, all you need to do is get quality sleep to restore and bring back the balance to your hormones. For this, you can use aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, cognitive behavior therapy, meditation techniques, and sound therapy to help you sleep better at nights.

When stubborn belly fat doesn’t seem to melt away with the usual diet you are taking, it’s time to check out your hormones and learn natural, healthy ways to give you that perfect svelte you have always dreamed of.

Here’s a Video from Ask Dr. Berger:

The fitness and weight loss industry have been playing on the idea of spot reduction and muscle toning. Who wouldn’t want an easy way out to looking healthy and fit – not to mention beautiful? Unfortunately, there is just no easy way out. Even cosmetic surgery can give you an instant sculpt, but after a few months, you’ll likely to come back for more. Just how much are you willing to pay to get that perfect figure? Remember, vanity always come with a price and for your own good, let it not be a very high price to pay.

So, before you pull out the cash ( or the card ) to invest on the latest weight loss and fitness hype, here are things you need to know in getting a flat abs:

Myth 1: Spot Reduction or Spot Toning

I have been a victim of this promise of instant flat abs and I turned out more frustrated than I used to. Spot toning exercises that targets the specific ab muscles are the biggest fallacy ever made. The reason why we have extra ab fat is due to our genetic makeup. It is our body’s survival mechanism, of storing fat and energy, protecting us from hunger. Our midsection is also the core of our body’s gravity, making us balanced. That’s why it is where our bodies’ mass is concentrated the most. The only way to lose weight and have a perfect svelte is to increase one’s metabolism that will burn those belly fat. Running or walking is still the most effective and simplest way to do so.
Remember that spot toning doesn’t mean that spot is free from fats.

Myth 2: The Weight You Lose Will Never Come Back

There are many fad diets, exercise machines, and diet pills which all promise an instant reward: Weight Loss for good. The truth is simple, there is no such thing as permanent when it comes to weight loss. Your body is always evolving, where new cells replace the old ones each day. The only way to keep fit is to manage your weight and your healthy lifestyle. In fact, there are people who have gained weight after an expensive operation. Just because you had lost a few inches on your midsection doesn’t give you the right to loose your guard and give in to your unhealthy food choices. Your body is a living vessel that converts what you take in into energy, so you better be good at counting calories.

Myth 3: Ab Exercises are Great for Toning the Ab Muscles

Doing sit ups and crunches can raise your body’s metabolism levels, helping you burn calories or those fat and sugar stored in your muscles. Your bloodstream already carries these fats and sugar and it’s easier to burn fats in your blood by working out your muscles. However, stored fats found in your abs are different and much harder to burn. Doing ab exercises will help you be fit and it will help you have a good posture, increase your core strength, and lowers your back pain. But to burn more fats, your body needs to do more than just ab exercises.

The only way for you to have the flat abs you dream of is to have a sense of discipline. Slowly but surely, with the right diet and a good cardio at least an hour a day, you’ll help your body metabolize all those unwanted fats and pounds. Dedication is the only solution, coupled with healthy choices , to keep your fat sizzling away – for good!

A Video On The Muscle Tone Myth:

Not all water are made equal and the best way to benefit for maximum health is to drink up alkaline or ionized water. Since pure water comes at a pH level of 7, your ionized water is higher than that. Lower the levels, and you also expose yourself to the risk of contaminants and acidity that can wreak havoc in your body, causing you to be sick.

Drinking water can be frowned at by many due its taste, due to trace chemicals like fluorides, chlorine, etc. In fact, drinking pure water has been practiced since the 60s in Japan, and has been a standard of practice in hospitals up to now. There was even a research done on 30 cancer patients who have recovered with drinking pure water. Unbelievable? Maybe not. Our bodies are made of 70% water and it is only logical to drink up and replenish.

Water for Weight Loss – For Real? Last year, a research presented on the obesity conference in Phoenix have shown that those who drank 2 glasses of water, 20-30 minutes before meal, lost weight faster than those who didn’t. It is really tough for our bodies to know if it’s hungry or thirsty. Most of the time, you’re just thirsty. If you’re craving for unhealthy foods, try to drink up a glass of pure water.

Water is the very potion you need to lose all those extra pounds and it’s everywhere. This nature’s weight loss mineral is your ticket to a perfect svelte. We also get water from the foods we eat, so the usual 8 glasses of water a day can really be lesser than that. Fruits, vegetables, soup, and low-fat dairy are all great water-based food.

Some will suggest drinking cold water to force your body to burn more calories as you drink up. Water helps not only in suppressing your appetite that makes you feel full, but it also helps your body metabolize fat. When you drink water, you help your kidneys function well. If the kidneys are water-deprived, your liver then will take up the slack. This means double time for your liver and slowing down of your body’s metabolism rate.

With this written, the next time you want to grab your favorite food, think twice. Perhaps, you’re just thirsty after all.

Love Water… for HEALTH!

How Much Water Do You Need to Lose Weight?

The mind is always the seat of control and what your mind sees, the body will justify it. If you can’t imagine for once how you would look like or how you want to look like after all those weight loss solutions you’ve taken, then, there is no way to guarantee success.

Positive visualization plays a very vital role in everything we want to achieve, and it’s not only beneficial in the matter of weight loss. It is sad that losing weight has become an unhealthy and, sometimes, a fatal obsession for many who want instant results. So, they turn to fad diets and pills that promise them that perfect svelte.

This, then, creates a negative thought that there’s really something wrong with your body, and you become more anxious and feel – deprived. That’s why we see the same people going over and over in this cycle that sabotages their plan, and their sanity as well.

Meditation is an easy thing to do and it only requires some time for you to be free from the routines of your daily life by simply appreciating the moment. There are many places where you can meditate. In fact, you can just play an inspiring music at home and sit in that solemn corner that will awaken the inner Buddha in you. You can even use essential oils to help you feel relaxed.

Try this Simple Visualization Technique:

Close your eyes and breathe deeply, slowly. Can you smell the scent of those healthy foods that will help you in your weight loss goal? Can you taste them? Imagine yourself standing in front of your mirror. How would you want to look like? Appreciate that beautiful person in front of you and feel your fingers touching your tight and lean muscles. Now, think of your family and friends. Imagine the surprise in their faces when they see the new you. Can you hear their praises?

Visualization must evoke the five senses into believing the image is real. When this image is planted in your subconscious, the conscious mind will do its best to achieve it. It has been one of the oldest techniques used by the wise men and women throughout the ages. There are visualization techniques that can guide you in having a rhythmic breathing, which is essential in meditation.

Nothing beats the wonderful gifts of nature that’s available for us to enjoy. You can just take a time off and appreciate all that surrounds you, which will give you that positive feeling of harnessing your very own Zen.

I’ve found a nice guided meditation piece that anyone can listen to:

You have the power to succeed in your weight loss goals… Believe it!