Your journey to weight loss will be smooth and effective if all your friends were to go along with you. These friends are none other than your internal organs — liver, kidneys, heart, intestines and glands. These unseen “friends” are your drivers who are going to help you cruise through the course and attain your goal of good health. In all weight loss regimes there is extreme focus on burning calories by keeping the body moving frenetically. Hardly any attention is given to what is happening inside the body.
It is a classic case of “out of sight, out of mind”. The science of yoga looks at weight loss from the inside because weight gain is the result of all these friends having lost touch with you. If they are brought back into your life and are pushed to take on their individual roles and functions effectively, your body would be a transformed mechanism. Not only would you lose weight but your “friends” would make sure you never gain it back.
Yoga as a science possesses the know-how to keep the body healthy. So let us understand each of these friends separately and why it is important to look after them well to lose weight and other health benefits.
LIVER LAMENTS
The fat burning ability of the body has a lot to do with the health of your liver. It is the main organ that processes calories. When it is unable to metabolise fat and sugar, they start piling up all over the body. They invade the heart, harden the arteries and brain, and speed up the ageing process. As the liver accumulates excess fat not only does the waistline increases but so does the risk of other health hazards.
A healthy liver has the ability to breakdown fat into energy while a neglected one begins to restore the fat as triglycerides (if you get a blood test done your triglyceride levels will be up). A fat storing liver is further compromised by a hormonal upheaval (more leptin and less adiponectin creates insulin resistance in the liver, blood sugar rises and also gets stored as fat in the liver).
When stress builds up in the liver it triggers an inflammatory response and cortisol, the stress hormone further contributes to the abdominal fat build-up.
LABOUR OF LIVER
The liver has many jobs assigned to it. What it does for the body is nothing less than a labour of love. It filters the waste or toxins from the blood rendering it clean. It supports the process of digestion with bile production, required for the absorption of fat and water-soluble vitamins and minerals. A healthy liver filter also regulates blood cholesterol levels.
LONG LIVE THE LIVER
A choked and clogged liver is a recipe for disaster. To de-stress the liver you have to consistently engage in some form of exercise. When muscles need more fuel, the liver is pushed to metabolise excess fat and sugar, and redirect the calories to the muscles. Lack of exercise is a killer as the liver having nowhere to take its elevated fat and sugar content starts dumping it back into your digestive tract. This makes the food you eat your enemy.
YOGA IS THE LIVER REJUVENATOR
The practice of yoga is extremely beneficial for stimulating, strengthening and de-stressing the liver as well as the digestive organs, and in settling the hormonal issues.
Yoga postures place natural pressure on the liver helping it release impurities. There are several cleansing techniques or yogic kriyas that are excellent for detoxification and unclogging of the liver.
The simplest and most effective kriya is Kapalbhati. It has to be practiced for a minimum of 15 minutes regularly. However, start with 5 minutes and build up to 15 in a week’s time.
Kapalbhati
Sit in any meditative posture. Start with inhaling deeply and then exhaling forcefully and rapidly through the nose. Keep your eyes and mouth closed, facial muscles relaxed with the focus on the mid-point between your eyebrows.
For a healthy liver, diet and lifestyle changes will also need to be made.
Caution: Consult a yoga expert and a doctor before starting any yoga practice.
PRACTICE OF THE WEEK FOR A HEALTHY LIVER
1 Ardh matsyendrasana
2 Parivritta badha parighasanana
3 Dhanurasana
4 Naukasana
5 Kati Naukasana
6 Upavishta parivrtta konasana
NEXT WEEK: Yoga and subcutaneous fat.
This is an interactive series, in which we will bring you practical tips that you want to get on daily living, inspired by the vision of yoga. Write in to tabloid@gulfnews.com with your questions and doubts about how to enhance your lifestyle through yoga. For more information, call 800-YOGA (9642) or log on to artisticyoga.com
