Doesn’t it seem like the girl walking in the mall next to you is skinnier than you are; and then sometimes to really make life intolerable, while you’re standing in the Fat aisle shopping for potato crisps, a twenty-something vision sweeps past, holding one of those low-fat yoghurts, wearing a navy blue ankle length dress, on a body that looks like it belongs to an eleven year old. Instinctively, you put the crisps back and patting them lovingly, you walk away dramatically.
How many times has it happened to you, ruined your appetite, destroyed the buttery popcorn at the movies, killed the tantalizing flavors of chicken tikka pizza. Countless times for me, till I decided I didn’t want that anymore! Enough! I yelled to myself one fine day. I shall not be licked!
And so began a beautiful relationship with my fitness routine. I shall share with you some of the delightfully rewarding fruits of my labors. It began with a great book written by Anita Goa, about this amazing system of fitness. I read it through and through deciding somewhere after the first twenty pages that what was being described here was something I wanted to try out. I went out, bought myself an exercise mat, a stretchable exercise band and downloaded some soothing yoga music. Equipped with all this I embarked on a journey of self discovery.
Aerobics for building some endurance
Beginning with fifteen minutes of aerobics for building some endurance I then explored the realm of Pilates and yoga practice. I’ve never been a great believer of weight training, but I decided teeny tiny weights of 1 kg couldn’t hurt much. I looked up some Pilates routines aimed at slimming the body and toning up those dreaded abs. Next step I looked up some basic Yoga postures for beginners and incorporated them into the routine as well. The Yoga was meant to promote flexibility while weights and Pilates was meant to build up strength.
With all this information secure in my mind, I set out to design my perfect, centered regime. Aerobics, which was primarily composed of dance moves to my favorite upbeat numbers, took up 15 minutes, during which time I could feel my heart pumping like crazy and my breath dancing the jig!! Boy, was I pumped up!! Next I took to Pilates; doing all things needed to slim the body into a sculpted shape like plank and side plank as well as all manners of crunches imaginable!! This lasted for twenty minutes. Then finally, I would lean into my Yoga routine, nice and easy.
Yoga breathing
Yoga breathing is the single most relaxing thing you can engage in. And it gives you an acute awareness of your lung capacity. There is a cleansing quality about breathing deep and exhaling deep. You truly feel like you’ve expelled all impurities. The postures though a simple sequence had me breathing hard and flexing harder. Sun salutations are a repetition of postures that help lengthen your hamstrings and release stress in your lower back as you progress from the downward dog into the plank and then into cobra pose. A fascinating fifteen minutes left me feeling like my body had been wrung free of all toxins while being pulled longer at the same time.
So folks, fifty minutes a day, four days a week, and I grew into a sculpted goddess. You know what the best thing was, people asked me what I was doing to my skin, and all I could say was, “breathing right” because truly, that was all I was doing!!! I looked younger, my skin glowed and my clothes sat so well on me my dress-maker felt convinced her tailoring skills had improved (self-love!).
I hereby invite you to try this and with it eat healthy. The occasional cheat like eating a couple of crisps or having a pizza with coke won’t affect you as much as it does now. I eat what I like, in quantities that give me the feeling that I have eaten but not stuffed myself, and I simply make sure that I snack healthy. Snacking unhealthy in between meals on a daily basis, is the single most culpable act against yourself you will ever perform. So, snack on an apple, or a peach, and not on fries or doughnuts.
So, friends, go out and invest in your body, buy a mat, some good yoga music and some helpful CD’s to train yourself in the art of Pilates and Yoga, or join a health studio that teaches mixed program fitness and you’ll be making the best decision of your life.