What does Bikram have for us today? Just about the best weight loss plan I have ever found! Read on:
“Bikram?” It’s a timid voice from a pretty but sadly overweight teenage blonde.
“Yes, honey….Gail is it? This is your third day right? How you doing?”
“Okay – with the exercises, that is – but I’ve put on three pounds!”
“That’s good. Means you’re working hard at poses and so have big appetite. It is very normal to gain weight the first couple of weeks.”
“But I want to lose weight, not put it on!”
“You will. Don’t fright. Yoga restores all the systems of the body to natural, optimum working order. Very evenly, gradually, your body will find the balance that nature wanted it to have, and fat is not natural. So your fat will melt away over the next couple of months. That’s all there is to it. “
Gail looks less than convinced.
“I know it sounds too good to be true, but you just talk to some of the other students after class. They will tell you. Forget diets, forget I should eat this or that and how many calories does it have. Just do honest round of yoga everyday for two months. Pretty soon, maybe third week, you gonna realize you don’t think about food as often anymore, and when you do eat, you don’t want as much as before, and the sort of food you eat will change cause your body is finding equilibrium, your glands and all your systems getting stabilized.”
“But you still probably won’t lose even a pound. You will notice instead that your clothes don’t fit the same. Cause when you are doing yoga your body is shuffling things around, taking some off here, adding it there. You can almost hear it humming to itself, it is so happy, like a sculptor with a new lump of clay. All of a sudden your friends will be congratulating you on the weight you lost when you have not lost one ounce – only inches. Then, when your body decides just exactly how it wants things to be, it will throw off weight it doesn’t have any use for, but so evenly and painlessly you will hardly know it. And when it gets to the weight that is exactly right for you, it will stop and maintain itself right there. Underweight is the same, but in reverse. And with gland problems also. Proper balance and functioning of systems will restore proper weight. “
“But some people have weight problems for neurotic reasons,” says Florette.
“Didn’t I just explain weight problems are because of improper balance and functioning of systems? I am not making jokes when I talk about fixing loose screws in brains. Your brain is nothing but a system in your body. As surely as to the spine or to the toes, yoga brings balance to the brain. Also Gail, doing yoga gives you such feelings of self-esteem that you will want to lose weight and do it easily.”
* Bikram Beginning Yoga Class, Bikram Choudhury
Sounds too easy. Too good to be true. To fix your brain and lose weight, you simply go to class everyday. No diet. No food plan. No supplements. Just go to class – which is so easy – you don’t need music, you only need one set of clothes cause they have to be washed everyday, a mat, a towel, and maybe a little water! You don’t even have to get ready to go cause you can’t put on lotions – you’ll be too slippery, you can’t put on makeup cause you’ll sweat it off by the third pose, and your hair – forget that – within 15 min you look like you went swimming – so going to class is easy!
Three weeks for me and I had to put my shorts in the dryer to shrink them and I do NOT require as much food as o did a month ago! I was used to eating six times a day and always had food on me, scared I’d get low blood sugar and sick to my stomach while out somewhere. Now? I eat at 7- noon- and 5 and don’t even need a snack at night. All the changes Bikram describes above came true for me in three weeks! The only problem I can see one having is making time to get there each day, but needing less sleep actually gives you MORE hours to your day so the 90 minutes is well worth the try!
And so, another day goes by, it’s only been 3 weeks, so the jury’s still out – but, Bikram and I have once again written!
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