Hope you all had a relaxing and energising holidays. Now we are all back to routines, back to following or establising good habits for our wellness.
As we witness the changes in nature, autumun is always a good time to reflect and revise the goals. It reminds us that change is such a beautiful thing, as we restart each season with a chance to renew energy!
It took me some time to get back to routine, to recover from summer’s indulgances and not so healthy or not so digestive friendly meals. I actually came back very tired from 5 weeks in Turkey and my digestion did not have a good time during and after these days.
So, I went back to my routines and also visited my Ayurvedic doctor and got some suggestions and reminders of how I can adapt my lifestyle to Ayurvedic style to make me feel lighter and healthier. Sometimes we need this external support for more motivation and guidance.
I am trying to tune into nature’s rythm and intelligence, and listen to my body’s needs. In summary, as I am a Vata person and as the autumn season is the time of Vata, I am back to less raw-cold-hard food. That means more cooked food then salads, no nuts/dried fruits without soaking, no over cooked-grilled-baked veggies, no raw fruits but more compotes, warm dishes like soups, stews, kitchari and porridges. You can read here and here more about how to deal with season’s changes according to Ayurveda.
Some of you have been following my journey of ayurvedic detox and weight loss in the last 6 months. You can find more details about it here. and my Ayurvedic retreat experience in Sri Lanka, here.
Getting into Fitness
Since June I have also added fitness programme, working on a programme of cardio-weigth lifting and resistance training with body weight/elastic bands. I first started with a Turkish online programme and then continued during summer with simply free online sources (Youtube, Apps, etc)! I also went to a gym in Turkey (during vacations!) for 3 weeks, worked with a coach, something I’ve been delaying for a while and never thought I could do during holidays!
In Addition to My Daily Routine
Now I have a 3 times per week fitness programme. Getting towards 50s, and (pre) menapause years, my teachers (yes yoga teachers!), have been advising me to start strength training and increase the lean muscle mass for a healthier “after 50” period.
There is a good article here explaining why, starting a resistance training after the age of 40 is important. In short, it says,
“It’s the old principle ‘use it or lose it.’ If you aren’t putting sufficient stress on your muscles as the weeks pass by, slowly you’ll grow weaker, which can make everyday activities harder to perform.Likewise, your lean muscle mass is the most metabolically active tissue in the body, so the more muscle you lose, the slower your resting metabolic rate will become, which can contribute to weight gain.One of the biggest reasons why women start to gain weight into their 40’s and 50’s is because they are losing the lean muscle that helped keep their daily calorie burn higher. If you aren’t adjusting your food intake to account for this loss of muscle mass, it will result in weight gain.”
I know that finding time, place, logistics are always a challenge yet, I found it the best to do it at home, on your best convinient times, preferably early morning before everything else starts. It is best to start with a trained coach, a personal trainer, to show you the postures and principles and then you can continue in a gym or at home, on your own or with a coach and/or in group classes.
If you feel lost in this, just start a short term trial membership with a gym and then you can decide. Now is a great time in September as most gyms are doing promtions of trials.
Don’t Over Think, Just Start!
In all exercise commitments, my motto is ” don’t over think, just start” ! If you start thinking about it, you will end up being discouraged by many many reasons why you can not start! So choose a method and go for it. If it does not work, you can always stop and revise.
