How To Lose Tummy Fat

by Tarveen Sahni
(Mumbai)

I am a working women and my routine is to sit in front of PC for eight hrs due to which I realised that I have gained a lot of extra fat around my stomach. Please suggest some yoga exercises which I can do at home as I don't get time to go for any fitness center.

Answer

Hello Tarveen

Yoga practice should be able to make you a fit person. With yoga you must aim to become a fit person, that way we concentrate on positive feelings of fitness instead of negative feelings when you think of weight loss. Stress on fitness and weight loss will follow. A healthy nutritious diet is a must for achieving permanent weight loss. If your age is more than 30 years, you may need changes to your lifestyle for permanent weight loss.

First, you have to set your weight loss goals. Please set up modest goals as weight loss with yoga takes time. But once you lose weight through yoga, it is easy to maintain weight with regular exercise and diet control.

Write down your plan which may include changes for a nutritious diet, reserve time for exercise, select the exercises to reduce weight etc. Remember, to reduce weight, most important thing is your determination. Make a mental picture of yourself as a slim person and try to program your mind for getting fit.

For people working on computers it is essential to maintain correct posture while working, especially take care of your back and neck. Try to keep yourself mentally relaxed at all times.
Avoid Tea/ Coffee

Yoga for weight loss.
I assume you can spare 45 minutes for yoga. I suggest you start your home practice with few simple asanas and pranayama. After a month review your performance. Once you become confident, then only attempt difficult poses.

First do asanas (say 25 minutes), then pranayama (15 minutes) and in the end relax in shavasana for 5 to 10 minutes.

Trikonasana
Tadasana
Markatasana
Pawanmuktasana
Kamarchakrasana
Janushirasana
Yoga Mudra
Sarpasana (Effective for weight loss)
Padotanasana
Bhujangasana
Shalabhasana
Pawanmukta asana
Effective Asanas for Abdomen

After a month add these
Dhanurasana
Sarvanghasana
Surya Namaskar

Pranayama
Deep Rhythmic Breathing
Alom Vilom
Kapalabhati


At Work

1. Try to stay calm and stress free. Proper deep breathing will help you to keep balanced and calm.

2. Try to sit on the chair with back straight without taking support of chair back. It will not be easy initially, but with consistent efforts, make it a habit to sit straight. This will in turn help in better breathing.

3. Even while working, take deep breaths with equal time for inhalation and exhalation. Do not hold breath. Initially try this deep breathing whenever you remember to do it. Over a period of time, it will become a habit to sit straight and breathe deeply. Also, rhythmic breathing will help you to gradually reduce your breathing rate which is good for a person with sedentary lifestyle (e.g. working on computers).

4. Whenever under pressure, close your eyes for a while and do deep breathing for five minutes.

At Home
After coming back from work, if you feel too much tired take rest in shavasana and do rhythmic deep breathing for five minutes.

Sit in vajrasana after dinner or take a 15 minute walk.


Daljit

References
yoga for weight loss
yoga diet
yoga-breathing lessons
beginning-yoga
weight loss tips