Hello peeps, I hope you are loving my blogs. I always try my best to bring the best of my knowledge to you. My name is Kritika Agarwal. I am a wellness advisor at Healing Home Wellness. After reading all of my articles you know that I am a Yogacharya. But today I want to tell you something really important. Weight reduction! This is one thing important thing that keeps us concerned, the kind of lifestyle people have adopted, It becomes tough to maintain good health. Today I will share my journey of how I reduced my weight with the help of Yoga and Ayurveda and kept my body healthy and fit. A lot of people don’t think about obesity as a disease. But according to researchers and scientists, obesity is a complicated and chronic health condition or metabolic disorder. It is a complex disease involving an excessive amount of body fat. It is not only a cosmetic concern. It's a serious medical problem that increases the risk of many other diseases and health problems, such as cardiac disorders, diabetes, high blood pressure, and also becomes vulnerable to cancers. Obesity contains psychological, biological, and cultural components. Anybody having excess body fat or BMI greater than 30 is obese. Cure of obesity is not only dependent upon medicine but also depends upon lifelong commitment to proper diet habits, physical activity, and regular exercise.
Knowing all this, like everyone else, I did not keep my food and drink right, nor did I keep my routine right. Obesity is a curse globally; over two billion children and adults suffer from health problems related to being overweight. India has the second-highest number of obese children in the world after China. Over 5% of India’s population is now morbidly obese. It is important to eat healthy and maintain an active lifestyle.
When I came home after completing my master's, soon I started neglecting to take care of my body and health. Sleeping late at night was one of the daily activities, getting up late in the morning was tough, consuming too much-fried food, not taking part in yoga regularly, all of these reasons I started to see a significant increase in my weight. When my friends started telling me that I was putting up weight, I used to become resistant. Certainly, I knew they were right. I thought that it was a problem and I have to fix this. And I used to calm myself after thinking this. I used to think every day that from today I will not consume fried food, I will do yoga every day. I used to sleep every night thinking that tomorrow morning I will wake up early and go for a walk. But I was not able to do all this even if I genuinely wanted to, I used to have new excuses every day by which I used to convince myself that no matter what happened if I could not do yoga today, I will do regular yoga from tomorrow and eat my food in a controlled way.
But these promises were never fulfilled and as a result, I became fat. Due to being fat, my mind was not used for any work, the whole day was exhausted in the body, and laziness was at its peak. To be honest, I started feeling like I wouldn't be able to do anything anymore. To hide my fatness, I started wearing loose clothes; due to obesity I also stopped meeting people. Due to this obesity, I started feeling very frustrated. Due to obesity, I became vulnerable to more diseases. I felt like my life was over and now I can't do anything. I started going towards despair, I started becoming emotionally weak.
One fine day I reflected on my life in front of me and I started taking allopathic medicines that my obesity would be reduced by using them. But this did not happen, my condition started getting worse than before. Then one day I firmly decided that by adopting Yoga and Ayurveda, I will make my life as healthy as before. Here I want to tell you about some more such factors that increase obesity-
Causes of Obesity: There are many causes of obesity out of them such are mentioned here.
- Excessive sugar intake– Excessive intake of sugar can change the hormones and biochemistry of our body. This causes weight gain.
- Genetics– It also has a strong genetic component. Children of obese parents are much more likely to become obese than children of lean parents.
- Improper eating habits– It is one of the main and major causes of obesity. Obesity never develops overnight; it progresses from a poor diet and wrong eating habits from childhood also make people obese.
- Improper physical activity– Lack of physical activity, Asana, and Pranayam leading to people becoming obese. Make Yoga a part of your daily routine.
- Intake of Insulin– Insulin is a very important hormone that regulates energy storage.
- Excessive intake of Junk food– It is also a major cause of obesity.
- Lack of awareness about obesity– A major section of the population still lacks basic knowledge about the right nutrition, which leads to obesity.
Symptoms of Obesity: Here I want to tell you some such symptoms of obesity that you should know. Common symptoms of obesity include:
- Excess body fat, particularly around the waist
- Fatigue, which can range from mild to extreme
- Inability to perform simple physical tasks that one could easily perform before weight gain
- Pain, especially in the back and joints
- Psychological issues such as negative self-esteem, depression, shame, and social isolation
- Shortness of breath
- Skin problems from moisture accumulating in the folds of skin
- Snoring
- Sweating more than usual
- Trouble sleeping
Obesity is preventable if it is identified at an early stage. Even obesity health risks can be managed and to prevent this health condition, physical activity daily is a must. Thinking all this, I also decided, and first of all, I improved my lifestyle by adopting yoga. I made positive changes in my lifestyle and started doing yoga every day. I used to wake up early in the morning and do yoga after getting rid of my daily activities after drinking lukewarm water. I started practicing Pranayama along with subtle exercises. In Pranayama, mainly Kapalbhati, Anulomavilom etc. started practicing Pranayama daily. Apart from this, I also started doing Suryanamaskar daily. After yoga and pranayama, I focused on my food and I started eating non-fried and roasted food. Along with food and pranayama, I also took some Ayurvedic medicines like Triphala Jal, Medohar Guggulu, etc. With regular use of all these positive changes started in my health. After 2 months of regular use, I have reduced my weight by 10 kg. By the use of Yoga and Ayurveda, my other diseases also started getting cured. Now I feel as healthy as before. Yoga and Ayurveda once again filled my life with happiness.
I also want to say to all of you that obesity is such a curse that can be completely removed by yoga, Ayurveda, and willpower.