Downward Facing Blog

ok ok, if you know me at all you’d know that I’m really the last person to address yoga for weight loss, buuuuut when my editor at Bangkok Post suggested this title I figured I would make a go at it. After all, it’s a legitimate and worthy goal. This should probably appear in the next week or two (on Thursday’s MyLife supplement.

Oh, and in case you did catch my foot arches article in the post, the pictures are WRONG! I’m embarrassed actually. The photo for what is incorrect is listed as correct and vice versa. Also, that’s not virasana… sigh. I’ll live. What is it they say? Say good or bad, doesn’t matter, just as long as they spell your name right. So where we go, and even if weight loss isn’t your concern, read to the end as there’s some good info about breathing and eating. Mucho love. Adrian Cox

The yoga butt

A question I hear all the time is: “will yoga help me to lose weight?” For certain reasons I hesitate to answer with an immediate yes, although nobody really sees many fat yogis running around. Weight loss sells though, in fact, when pressed for business, studios and gyms make yoga advertisements using hot, sexed up girls to prey upon insecurities. They even promise losing X number of kilos per week or to sculpt you a “yoga butt”; what is now a somewhat infamous quote made years ago by an American fashion model.

Personally, the only weight problem I’ve struggled with was keeping it on, although there does seem to be a growing, mysterious relationship between age and weight persisting longer than it used to. Regardless of age, physical activity, or diets however, there are only two known factors in weight control: how much you move, and how much you eat.

Before I launch into the mechanics of weight loss through yoga, you should know that the aim and benefits of yoga are much more profound than simply a sexy, fit body. Yoga can give you a new perspective in life, and a sense of wellbeing, happiness, and self-actualization. Ultimately, to attain yoga is a radical shifting of awareness in which we identify with what is transcendent, beautiful, and unlimited and free ourselves in the process. To that end, many yogic paths have developed, only one of which involves bodily contortion. The postures which people now associate as “yoga” itself are really a small aspect of the whole practice. Nonetheless, an excellent entry point into higher states of consciousness is through the body. Yoga is a mind body discipline which aims at unity, harmony, and balance, the objective of yoga is never simply to loose weight. It’s to balance your weight. If you have big bones, no matter what you do, you’ll never look like Kate Moss. You do however stand privy to a whole litany of positive side effects, maybe even becoming unreasonably happy.

How you can balance your weight

To reach your higher potential, and slimmer figure , you obviously must manage both your expression and also your intake. That means, how much you do yoga, and what you eat- both in terms of food, and impressions.

When we are breaking up the sloth of inactivity, getting moving is the hard part. Just how bad do you want to change? As I like to say, the hardest yoga pose is the “getting on the mat posture”. Simply do that four times a week, and in a month you will not only be more fit, firm, you’ll feel amazing inside and out. You might also get addicted to yoga and in the process, find that you’ve generated new, positive habits. An amazing side effect of conscious yoga practice is that with time, you will find yourself craving healthier foods. Addictions may drop away, I’ve even experienced this myself. An explanation I use for this phenomenon is that in yoga you will cultivate more awareness for the sensations inside your body. This in turn results in your ability to hear the body’s own language and what it actually needs for food.

 In the science of yogic medicine- Ayurveda;  excess weight is a problem of excess water and earth elements. There are five elements: space, air, fire, water, and earth. To get earth and water to reduce, we must move up the scale to increase fire and air. Foods also move along this scale, sweets for example are considered to be composed of the elements of water and earth, whereas raw vegetables and fruits have more of the air element. Yoga too is conceived of as a kind of fire which heats the mind  through sacrifice or penance. Simply put, just get yourself to the yoga mat!

In class you will practice standing postures such as triangle, reversed triangle, and side stretch which reduce the earth element,  and in turn help with weight loss. However it’s the attitude that you take inside the yoga which makes the most difference. If you carry around a few extra, simply think of putting stronger effort in to the practice– increasing the element of fire. Fire transforms one thing into another, and through the mental fire, you too can transform yourself into a new shape, and even a new life.

A secret to eating less

A secret to how you practice, is the way you breathe when you do yoga. Contrary to the way most yoga is taught, the breathing should be slow, and minimized as much as possible. Here’s a tip, if you finish practice and you feel very tired and hungry, then it’s highly likely you were gasping in lots of air. What is going on here? When you take a lot of oxygen into the body, it turns the blood alkaline, which manifests as a craving for acids, ie; FOOD. However, if breathing is minimized, the blood stays more acid, and the result is a light body, less need for rest, and less appetite. Minimized breathing is not the same as holding the breath however, conscious breathing is the central aspect to all practices of yoga, just slow, and minimized.

For me, yoga is the most significant work we can do in our lives. Physically, no matter how much yoga we do, we will still get old and die. Mentally and spiritually however, a regular practice of yoga and meditation can create such radical wellbeing that when we do finally achieve the illustrious yoga butt, we ultimately look less in the mirror and more inside ourselves, where the real happiness is.