Tag Archives: personalized yoga

Yoga and Detox for Weight Loss

January 16, 2017Dealsayurveda, personalized yoga, self-love, yoga detoxSpiceYoga

FASTING AND CLEANSING

So I am a big fan of taking a break, a retreat.

And you know what? It’s our internal systems that need a retreat. Consuming large food portions when dining out, having irregular meal times, processing food additives and other habits tax our digestion, assimilation and elimination systems. Overworking wears the systems down, lowers our immunity and ages us.

Fasting is one way to hit pause, by abstaining from all or certain kinds of foods, to allow the body and the mind to rest and restore. This is a common spiritual practice, but also has clear physical benefits, when done properly.

Green apple on top of red apple — Apples green and red

Cleansing is a special kind of fast. It is intentional, replacing one’s usual diet with purifying herbs and tonics. The process encourages elimination, so typically, there’s weight loss just from letting go of all the built-up waste. In the process, you’d develop a stronger and more effective digestion-assimilation-elimination system.

Ayurvedic principles also support this. The belief is that diseases are caused by the accumulation of toxins in the body, or the creation of an imbalanced state. A balanced state is pure (sattvic). There is a lot of focus in Ayurveda on purification practices as a means to restore the body.

I like cleansing once a month. I’ve tried a lot of different methods, including the lemon master cleanse. I love an apple fast, as I like the crunchy tartness of green apples. These may not be for everyone though.

LIMITED TIME ONLY – Yoga & Cleanse Packages – Up to $100 of detox blends included, plus further 20% discount on additional cleanse blends, limited time only. SOLD OUT (Feb 2017 update)

5 KEY THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN A PERFECT CLEANSE

#1 A cleanse should be delicious. Choose a cleanse program that gives your body a mix of what it needs, in simpler forms, i.e. juices, porridges, soups, and with enough energy to keep you going. You need to love it to stay on it.

#2 Ease the body into and out of it.

Remove complex foods from your diet a day before and after the cleanse. Remember, we are giving the system a break. Wholemeal toast, unpolished rice, mac and cheese, all out! Have a simple soup like carrot or orange split lentil (split and polished = easier to digest = rest and recovery for the stomach and intestines) and little or no grease in your meals.

#3 Always ensure that you get proper hydration during a cleanse. Coconut water is a great natural way to rehydrate with essential electrolytes.

#4 Go into a cleanse intentionally, with love and care. The energy and intention in everything we do is so important. You shouldn’t be starving yourself for rapid weight-loss (and worse, throwing your metabolism off balance). Cleansing has long-term benefits, so enjoy the process. Be mentally prepared for it. It might help to commit to writing a short reflection daily in your journal.

#5 Stay active. Have a cleanse without hitting pause on your life. Keep your appointments, go to work. Take note that your body would likely respond to the detoxifying effects of the cleanse, so make room for that. You don’t want to start it when you have a major project deadline and a stressful week. At the same time, you want to stay active and not feel lethargic. Gentle yoga can be practiced instead of vigorous sports, and specific yoga poses can encourage detox.

YOGA & CLEANSE

We have a special offer for Yoga & Cleanse packages, which includes everything that you’d need in a perfect cleanse, combining detox yoga with personal consultation and tailoring of your cleanse blends.

$100 of detox blends included, plus further 20% discount on additional cleanse blends, limited time only. SOLD OUT

FIND OUT MORE HERE

Images with gratitude to Pixabay and Goloka.

Do Your Own Twist

July 3, 2016Tutorialhips, personalized yoga, Thursday Tune Up, twistSpiceYoga

Twists are great for keeping suppleness and tone in the trunk and for stimulating detoxification. But are you doing them right? Are you creating long-term instability in your hips when you twist?

Your spine starts from your coccyx and sacrum, which fit snugly in the bowl-like pelvic girdle, the two structures connecting together at the sacroiliac (SI) joint. Soft tissue, ligaments and tendons further connect the two.

So it makes a whole lot of sense when you do twist, to allow your spine and pelvis to move in the same direction. Some poses, like the extended side angle twist, create too much torque as the two are forced by the nature of the shape to move at cross purposes to each other – the pelvis opening one way, and the torso moving in the opposite direction.

If this pose has never felt good to you in any way, there is no need to include it in your practice. Instead, work with these variations in this video tutorial. We want to minimise the pulling apart – and potential destabilization – of the SI joint. This way, you’d enjoy all the benefits of twisting, and for a long time too!

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Study Yoga For Free

July 3, 2016From the Sadhaka's Matconsciousness, mindful monday, Mindfulness, personal practice, personalized yoga, yoga challengeSpiceYoga

I have to tell you… I am actually not a teacher; I am a student!
I’d tell you why I prefer to be a student. Student benefits rock, and you should not miss out on them too. Want to improve your yoga practice? I discovered how to learn yoga for free!

Learn yoga for free

The other day, a man came to practice in my class. He had shared about a tight IT band issue. I offered some variations to help him in his practice. I noticed that for some of the asanas, instead of taking up what I had offered, he started to make his own variations, which were innovative and new to me, and he looked completely comfortable while practising them. We had a chat afterwards, and I learned so much about IT bands! He had lived with it for years. He had read a lot of articles, researched strength and stretch exercises, and experimented with them on his body, and knew what worked and what didn’t. He was quite the expert on IT bands. I exchanged notes with him and we both left the conversation with more knowledge about this condition.

At the studios, they call me a yoga teacher, but I am a perpetual student! I learn a lot from my interactions with others daily. I improve my practice and my teaching, and its all grounded on evidence and real people with their unique bodies.

Want to improve your yoga practice and without any course fee? Ready to sign up?

I am going to tell you how to apply this!

….

It goes back to mindfulness.

… … …

Listen with curiosity and an open learning mind.

… … …. ….

Try this ‘Be a Student’ challenge this month!

1. Ask someone what they enjoy doing (keep it general or specific – it can be on their yoga practice or health regimen, or anything else!).

2. Listen keenly and let the person do most of the talking. Resist temptation to comment, layer on your interpretation or examples from your own experience.

3. Really, just listen, and let the conversation and your curiosity about the topic lead you into the topic. Ask the “how”, the “why” and all relevant questions to explore the topic as if you’re preparing for an exam! If you have doubts, challenge and query further.

4. After that, immediately make notes about the one main thing that you’ve learnt from that conversation.
Being a “student” simply means bringing consciousness and an inquiring mind into everything that we do. It is about bringing yoga into our workaday lives. In the midst of a challenging project and looming deadline, take a pause, observe yourself, ask yourself what you are learning from the process.

So this month, I challenge you to treat everyone around you as study mates. Be open and present to what you might be learning from your bosses, your staff, your interns, your clients.

It’s exciting! Do tell me what you’ve learned from this month!

I would LOVE to hear all about it and have a conversation with you over your experience! Email me!

@SpiceSadhaka

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