Light walks/vajrasana: Better digestion, accessible!
“You’ve been keeping tight control of your food intake, finally! But on a fine day, you find yourself presented with your favourite dish, and your mouth cannot stop watering! In fact, you cannot wait to gulp everything down and are finding it difficult to control the urge. After all, you’re starving, and the food’s sumptuous! And the inevitable happens. You overeat! And overeating might be an understatement here! You are finding it difficult to even breathe properly because you’re so full!”
Again, the anecdote might sound highly exaggerated, but you know it, like I do, very well that you and I tend to overeat more often than we may be ready to admit. I can very well remind you of the last time you overate by revealing my own experience last night! As you may think, I am a stickler about mindful eating and ‘drinking your food and chewing your drinks’ philosophy and find great pleasure and happiness in promoting this way of life. However, I am also not immune to the urge, and I gave in to the temptation to not only massively overeat but also simply swallow huge bites in no time! I did it and felt terrible for it. (I compensated for it by walking for more than an hour and delaying sleeping by two hours!)
Why would I relay my story, you ask? To tell you, dear reader, that it is difficult to eat mindfully. You surely will be able to practice mindful eating but with time. So, a good compliment to mindful eating is practising light post-meal walks and sitting in vajrasana for a few minutes. Why? Because these acts will aid your digestion and help you get over that pesky feeling of bloating, gas, or indigestion, and consequently lose weight.
Now, onto it!
Keep reading to learn
- Why you want to take ‘light’ walks and/or sit in ‘vajrasana’ pose post meals
- Benefits, of course
- One takeaway
Why take a ‘light’ walk and/or sit in ‘vajrasana’ pose post-meals
Should I get into the science of ‘light’ walking post meals or relay my experience of taking walks after every meal for over a year? Basis the feedback I have been receiving, you’re likely to appreciate the latter more, so here you go.
Taking light walks, even if as little as 100 steps, after ‘every’ meal has been the single most contributing factor in shedding those extra kilos after mindful eating and regular exercise.
To tell you more, before I initiated this habit of walking post-meal, I used to practice sitting in vajrasana for a few minutes after most meals. This also, of course, helped in digestion. How do I know that it did? Because I rarely if at all, faced any bloating, gas, or indigestion-related issues and lost weight.
Benefits, you ask? Plenty, I say
Now a bit of science because it holds its importance — taking light strolls is known to do two things — lower blood sugar levels, which spike between 60 to 90 minutes after meals, by releasing and stabilizing the adequate amount of insulin in the bloodstream. This might be good news for all my diabetic readers! Two, it helps in lowering blood pressure. For this, the mechanics are slightly convoluted and not directly related to meals but put simply, hypertension is a cause of increased blood pressure, and meal times can act as a good reminder to walk every now and then. Of course, a slew of related benefits, like burning those calories, better sleep and mental health, weight loss, mood elevation and finally, avoiding getting in an awkward situation because of stomach troubles, are a few more reasons to practice either of the two techniques.
Similarly, sitting in vajrasana has profound benefits. It is a yoga pose which says volumes already on the far-reaching impact it’ll have over and above the direct aid in digestion. But to enlighten you on the direct benefit we’re most concerned with right now, digestion, sitting in vajrasana stops the flow of blood to the lower half of the body. This increases the flow to the digestive region of the body and hence quickens the digestion process.
One takeaway
“Consider those 10–15 minutes of light walking or sitting in vajrasana as a part of your meal time. Give yourself no option, and you’ll see the magic happen”
This small addition to your mealtime routine might not seem significant. But this is exactly what counts. People ask me, ‘how can I avoid eating junk food or how to lose weight?’ You see, it’s not one thing you do that helps you achieve that washboard abs body or, if that is not you, a normal healthy self. It is a lifestyle!
Until next time,
Be obsessed with growth!
