Essential Oils: Essential Oils (The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Uncovering the Healing Benefits of Aromatherapy) (19 page)

Chapter 2: Hydrate immediately to discover a weight-loss secret

Drinking water as soon as you wake-up has many health benefits, one of which is it will help you lose weight.

How? Here are three scientifically proven ways in which drinking water when you wake up contributes to losing weight.

First of all, when you drink water, it boosts your metabolism. That is when you have been sleeping for 6 to 8 eight hours, your body gets dehydrated. When your body is dehydrated, its metabolic functions slow down which means that your body’s ability to burn calories is diminished.

When you drink water, as soon as you wake up, it fires up your metabolism and your body immediately revs up its calorie-burning and fat-shedding qualities.

Another way in which drinking water early in the morning helps you lose weight is by filling up your stomach. Did you know that on an empty stomach, the body tends to confuse thirst and hunger? So, instead of quenching your thirst, you feed your hunger and inadvertently, pack the pounds which you are so desperately trying to lose.

Drinking water in the morning immediately after you wake up prevents you from overeating.

The third and perhaps the healthiest reason why drinking water early in the morning can help you lose weight is that it helps your body to flush out the toxins. Water not only nourishes your body as we will see later in this chapter, but it also aids the kidneys to flush out unwanted toxins. During a day’s activity including while exercising and while sleeping, the body expends energy by burning calories which produces toxins. Processing nutrients absorbed from food produces a lot of waste.

Your body needs to repair, replenish energy, regulate the hormones and revive itself for a new day by flushing out unwanted waste. When you drink water as soon as you wake up, the process is kick-started. Drinking water in the morning has also been known to prevent constipation and stimulate healthy morning bowel movements. It also hydrates your skin and prevents it from showing signs of aging.

All you need to do is sip.

Now, which is easier said than done? Sweating a bucketful of water in a gym or drinking one liter of water in the morning? Doesn’t it make sense to inculcate this simple habit of drinking water in the morning, as soon as you wake up?

You’ve got nothing to lose and a lifetime of amazing health benefits to gain. Losing weight is the least of them if you take a look at the other health benefits of drinking water.

Consider these facts. Your body is made up of 70% water. 85% of the cells in your brain contain water. 75% of muscles are made up of water. Your bones have 25% water and your blood is made up of 82% water. So, is there any doubt water is an important ingredient to your health?

Do you realize why you feel energized when you drink water? It rehydrates your body, stimulates your brain and your metabolic system, thereby creating a surge of energy within your body, moments after you take sip.

It’s only water.

At this point, it is important to note that drinking coffee or soda, or even fruit juice or any dairy based shake can have the opposite effect of drinking plain water.

Most bodily functions, from respiration to perspiration, raise the acidic levels within your system. To optimally function, your body’s alkaline level which includes the alkaline in your blood, tissues and muscles needs to be maintained at 7.365.

This delicate balance can be upset when you consume beverages which have acidic content such as coffee, soda, alcohol, milk or fruit juice. Water is naturally alkaline in content but there is a simple way to increase its alkaline content and multiply its health benefits.

Simply squeeze a lemon or lime in to the water first thing in the morning.

Water with lemon has manifold health benefits because it contains electrolytes such as potassium, magnesium and calcium. Electrolytes soothe tired muscles, stimulate digestion, and have high anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidation properties. It also has vitamin C which boosts the body’s immune system to prevent infection and diseases.

The result, you not only lose weight, you are less likely to catch a cold or an infection and less likely to contract chronic diseases like cancer.

Another great alkaline source of electrolytes is fresh coconut water. Drinking coconut water first thing in the morning has been proven to contribute significantly to losing weight.

ACTION PLAN

How to makes sure you start your day with hydration?

Though it may seem easy enough, many people have trouble making this part of their morning routine. After all, it’s only about drinking water, isn’t it? How hard can it be? Well, if you find yourself forgetting to follow this simple habit which could have significant weight-loss benefits, then here are a few tips which have worked for me.

• Keep a bottle of water near your bedside.
  Despite the seemingly simple and easy nature of this habit, drinking water in the morning is something you can easily overlook, especially on a busy day when you have a lot on your mind. So instead of sipping that liter of water, you could simply forget to do so and pump acids into your body by drinking coffee or a fruit juice. Prevent it by keeping a bottle of water ready by your bedside. Prepare for this before you sleep. No matter, how tired or how late you go to bed, fill a bottle of water and keep it ready near you so you see it when you wake up
  
• Put reminders all around you.
  Whether it is sticky notes or a big poster in your bedroom with large letters reminding you to drink water, try whatever works for you. In the initial stages, you will need a lot of prompting to make sure you don’t forget to sip your water.
  
• Keep a lime or lemon, a knife and a lemon squeezer near your bed.
  This is a trick I learnt from a friend I met in yoga class. In fact, ask any yoga practitioner and they’ll swear by the health benefits of drinking lime or lemon juice with water, first thing in the morning.
  
• Try the temptation and reward method.
  If you are a morning coffer or morning tea drinker, then it is especially difficult to break this habit. Another friend told me how she rewarded herself with a cup of tea only after she drank her one liter of water and over time, drinking water became a habit just like drinking tea.
  

Chapter 3: Breathe and stretch to get your blood flowing

“Whatever you do, don’t forget to breathe.” If you have attended a yoga class, you may have heard this oft-repeated reminder by the yoga instructor. In fact, one of the two basic principles on which yoga is based is breathing. The other is stretching and both are extremely beneficial for your health.

In fact, there is scientifically-sound evidence that shows that breathing and stretching regularly, especially as soon as you wake up in the morning, can significantly contribute to help you to easily shed those extra pounds.

Hard to believe isn’t it? Well, take one look at Miki Ryosuke and you will start believing it.

Former Japanese actor, Miki Ryosuke, is reported to have lost 28 lbs and shed 5 inches off his waist in just 50 days. How? The actor turned fitness guru claims he did this by simply breathing. Ryosuke calls his breathing technique the Long Breath Diet which is believed to increase muscle strength in the practitioner and boost metabolism by increasing oxygen levels in the blood.

As farfetched as it sounds, there is, after all, a solid scientific explanation for how breathing and stretching helps reduce weight.

It’s simply a matter of chemistry.

Fat is made of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen. When you breathe deeply, it stimulates blood flow. That’s why you feel this surge of energy in your body and in your brain when you take a deep breath.

When you inhale oxygen, it is carried by the blood to reach fat molecules and break them down to carbon-dioxide and water. The blood picks up the carbon-dioxide and returns it to the lungs to exhale thus creating an efficient system for burning fat.

Deep, controlled and conscious breathing as in Pranayama Yoga practice combined with deliberate stretching of your joints and muscles has been proven to produce remarkable weight-loss results.

Learn from the animals.

If you still feel sceptical about the benefits of breathing and stretching, watch the behaviour of animals, especially dogs and cats when they get up from sleep. They stretch their legs and their bodies because they instinctively know that this action helps align the spine after a long time of inactivity during sleep.

In fact, the English terms for many yoga ‘asanas’ or poses, such as downward facing dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana), cobra pose (Bhujangasana) or pigeon pose (Kapotasan) to name a just a few, are inspired by and named after the actions of birds and animals.

Two other direct health benefits of breathing and stretching as soon as you wake up are muscle flexibility and joint flexibility. When you are asleep, your body is in a state of rest and when you wake up, everything from your muscles to your organs is inert and needs a jumpstart to function optimally. Breathing and stretching provides this impetus for your body to revive and regain its optimal functional rhythm.

To get the maximum weight-loss benefits of breathing and stretching, I highly recommend you attend a yoga class and learn about the breathing and stretching techniques. Even if you cannot do it daily in the beginning, at least 3-4 times a week can be highly beneficial.

ACTION PLAN

Remember to breathe and stretch as soon as you wake up.

• Make time for it.
  It may seem literally like a stretch to set aside time for something as simple and natural as breathing and stretching but unless you commit it to an agenda, you will tend to skip it. When you get up, especially if you are in a hurry to start the day, breathing and stretching are the last things on your mind. Therefore put a reminder to stretch and breathe. If you use an alarm on your mobile electronic device, then you can include a digital reminder. Otherwise, a simple sticky note that says, ‘Breathe and Stretch,’ should suffice to get your attention.
  
• Posters to inspire you.
  Ever seen a picture of a man or a woman doing yoga. They are full of grace, beauty and strength. Now imagine seeing these pictures as posters on the walls of your bedroom. Needless to say, you will be inspired to breathe and stretch.
  
• Create a space.
  Initially, you can start by stretching in bed and sitting in bed and taking deep breaths. However, if you seriously wish to benefit, then set aside a place where you can do so freely. It could be a corner of a room or right in the center or outside in the balcony or in the open if you have a garden.
  

Chapter 4: Visit the bathroom daily to detoxify

When you fall sick and visit a doctor, you will often be asked about BM or bowel movement. Why? BM can tell a lot about how you feel. Constipation or irregular BM is a sign of an unhealthy diet or some other disorder.

Whatever you call it, BM or doing your bathroom business, it is important to do it on a regular basis and doing it in the morning, as soon as you wake up has been known to produce significant health benefits not to mention contribute to weight loss.

People who have regular BM are more likely to be healthy than those who visit the bathroom less often. In fact, the lesser number of times you go to the bathroom for a dump, the more likely are you to have weight problems.

It’s your daily detox.

When you hear the word ‘detox,’ you often have visions of drinking some bitter medicine and flushing out the toxins or giving up on certain comfort foods. Well, in the general and more popular sense of the word, this is true. Detoxing, however, in its basic sense is about flushing out toxins or unwanted waste from the body.

When you look at it, pooping, doing your business or having a bowel movement as your doctor would say, is nothing but getting rid of the waste that is produced after your body has processed food. When you eat, your body absorbs nourishment from the nutrients present in your food, and eliminates whatever is unwanted.

So, in order for your body to function optimally and for it to gain maximum benefit from the nourishment you provide, you need to regulate your BM.

Miss it in the morning and you miss it the whole day.

Most people will say there is no right time to perform yoga. Purists will say that you should do it in the morning. In fact, one of the series is called ‘Surya Namaskar’ or Sun Salutation for this reason.

Similarly, there is no right time to have a bowel movement. In fact, you can go as many times as you want. That being said, if you fail to visit the bathroom in the morning, then it is very likely, considering most modern busy schedules, that you will not get a chance to do so till the next day.

This can disrupt your circadian rhythm, play havoc with your hormones and prevent you from benefitting from physical exercise or eating healthy because your body is backed up and therefore not functioning optimally as it should.

Therefore it is important that you make sure you do your bathroom business every day in the morning. Make it a habit and part of your daily morning ritual and you will over time discover that it will help you lose weight.

ACTION PLAN

Make visiting the bathroom an important and integral part of your morning ritual.

• Hydrate.
  Drink lots of water during the day as well as immediately after you wake up to have a regular and smooth BM. If you are well hydrated, then your body’s digestive system finds it easier to eliminate the toxins along with the waste produced.
  
• Eat food with fiber.
  This means lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. Fruit juices and shakes don’t count. The water and fiber content of fruits and vegetables regulate the digestive process and contributes to a healthy BM. It also prevents constipation.
  
• Sleep well.
  If you haven’t slept well, then you will have trouble passing waste because your body gets dehydrated and also because your system is functioning at a low level. Therefore it is important to get a good night’s rest to have a good morning.
  
• Exercise.
  A sedentary lifestyle is one of the main causes of many diseases and one of the most visible symptoms of these is irregular bowel movement. When you exercise, you are enabling your body to function at its optimal levels.
  
• Eliminate stress.
  Yes, stress can cause constipation. So it’s important to relax and find peace and quiet in your busy schedule. What better time to do so than in the mornings.
  
• Read something.
  This tip may not work for everyone but I find it relaxing and soothing to read while I sit on the pot. Listening to music may work well for others.