How to Fight Fat and Win with Yoga

Confucius said: "Men do not mirror themselves in running water - they mirror themselves in still water. Only what is still can still the stillness of other things." In our super-busy, hectic, often frantic, overworked, overburdened world, we do not take the time to be still and hear our self breathe. To inspire is to be inspired with the gift of life and possess an extraordinary sense of well being.

With stress reaching epidemic proportions, frantic-paced overeating is becoming the fastest anti-anxiety reprieve. With the added stressers of overwhelming work schedules and the struggling demands of daily life, Americans are carrying heavier burdens and equally excessive weight. According to Sally Squires of The Washington Post - "Even our children are more obese than in any other country, tipping the scales at 4. 7 million." There are added weight loss programs, supplementary low-fat foods, a smorgasboard of diet books and yet people are gaining more weight. With busy schedules and stressfull time constraints, Americans are injesting more food and less oxygen.

The Power of Your Thoughts on your Health are Profound. Marcella Bakur Weiner, Ph.D. psychologist and Adjunct Proffessor at Marymount Manhattan College in New York affirms: "We have developed an automatic reflexive reaction: We feel stress; we turn to food. We eat and overeat. It is automatic, meaning non-thinking. We humans make choices, little ones and big ones, hundreds of times each day. Simple decisions that determine what our lives will be. And we make them in full consciousness, using our brains and hearts to do so. Our survival depends on this." "When you're in a stressfull situation, your brain goes into "fight or flight mode", signalling your body to secrete hormones that affects your organs and tissues. Susan Conrow, Physiologist and professor at Daytona Beach Community College states, "chronic stress affects every cell in our body." The power of your thoughts on your health are profound. How destructive is Chronic stress? Your heart, lungs and circulatory system are influenced by the increased heart rate. Blood flow may increase 300 - 400 percent. Blood pressure increases and breathing becomes rapid. Blood sugar rises. Your mouth and throat may become dry. Your skin may become cool and clammy because blood flow is diverted away so it can support the heart and muscle tissues. Your digestive activity shuts down. Stress can trigger heart disease Sleep disorders and yes - weight gain. When you are stressed, your body releases powerful hormones including the major stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol can cause you to crave sweets and other carbohydrate rich foods. A cycle forms. You get stressed, you eat, you gain weight. You get stressed, you eat, you gain weight. When you practice yoga breathing, you are better able to connect inner peace from your mind to every piece of your body.

The Daytona Beach News Journal reports "the integration of mind, body, spirit that practicing yoga encompasses helped saved Suzanne Andrews life." Her breathing techniques developed lungs physically powerful enough to sustain Suzanne through a recent near-death experience after a fatal medical miscalculation caused her pulse to stop on the operating table. Today, Andrews literally owes her life to regularly practicing and teaching therapeutic yoga. On January 5th, 2005, Andrews went in for a minor surgical procedure to unblock her sinuses. While on the operating table, she experienced an allergic reaction and her pulse stopped . Trapped between life and death, the doctors frantically performed CPR and tension filled the air as her lips, hands and feet turned an eerie blue. An ambulance was called where her near lifeless body was transported to the intensive medical care unit of Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. Her kidneys refused to function and her veins were so constricted that doctor failed to get another IV into her after 3 attempts. After meditating for just 5 minutes, Suzanne Andrews kidneys began to function, her pulse strengthened and her veins opened up enough to get the lifesaving IV in. The cardiologist said, "I am an Indian Doctor and my patient is teaching me how great yoga is! Your strong lungs from Yoga really helped pull you through." The surgeon, Dr. Mirante added, " the positive attitude teachings of yoga played a major part in recovery." The Observer Newspaper notes, "Yoga had been hard on some people with disabilities until now. Suzanne Andrews teaches modified yoga classes for patients and employees. Not only has Andrews had personal experience with yoga, she has made an instructional DVD to help others." Yoga practice is at an all time high - The Yoga Journal reports that there are now 16 million people practicing yoga in the United States. Yoga may be new to us westerners, but it is over 5000 years old - and it can make you look and feel 10 - 20 years younger.

The Mayo Clinic September 2003 Newsletter reports, "yoga IS effective at relieving stress." According to the National Institue of Health, "regular yoga practice can help reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure, alter brain waves and assist you heart to work more efficiently. Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia demonstrated how just one session of yoga can lower blood levels of the stress hormone - cortisol. "Participants cortisol level were measured before and after they practiced yoga, then again before and after they sat quietly while reading or writing. After the yoga sessions, cortisol levels dropped. There was no drop after the resting sessions."