According to a story in London’s Daily Mail Reporter, January 21, 2009,
women who stopped focusing on dieting and instead practiced yoga and meditation enjoyed long-term weight loss.
“Women who meditated and did yoga lost an average of five and a half pounds, a New Zealand study found.
“At the end of a two-year study, women who followed a program of yoga and meditation had lost weight and kept it off, while those who focused purely on exercise and nutrition had not.
“The ‘relaxed’ women were also generally happier and healthier at the end of the study. Experts believe that reducing stress stops cravings for fatty foods and sweets.
“Study co-author Dr Caroline Horwath said ‘At the two-year mark, these women were the only ones to maintain the psychological and medical symptom improvements. The positive results are exciting, given the limited long-term success of traditional dieting approaches.’”
The study concludes that women who master relaxation techniques and integrate them into their lives get the best results.
So diets may not be the best way to release weight, after all. As most people who have dieted can tell you…duh! Chronic and yo-yo dieting are far worse for your health than some extra pounds. Besides, as we all know, meditating conveys all sorts of other delicious health benefits. Now we can add one more!
AFFIRMATIONS
As someone who is in the home stretch of a significant weight release, I can second these findings. I also believe that affirmations have helped me to release a serious amount of weight. Here are some I use every day:
• Everything I eat blesses me, and I am making good choices about what I eat.
• Every day I weigh less than I did the day before, and every day I move closer to total health and vitality and to my ideal weight.
• I am happy and relaxed, and I claim my vibrant health.
• Food is fuel, food nurtures me, food keeps me healthy.
That last one is to overrule my former habit of using food as a reward for hard work (or in truth, for any emotional reason).
How about you? Care to share your stories of weight and meditation? Please comment below.
Want to learn more about meditation? Click on any of the following links for more information:
What Is Meditation?
How To Meditate in 5 Easy Steps
Setting the Mood to Meditate
Benefits of Meditation
Expanding Your Current Meditation Practice
Why I Meditate and How It Affects Me
March 6th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Yes, I know this is true for myself and for my clients/patients. Meditation is a short and long term solution that has many benefits that go beyond weight loss and reduction of cravings. That would be enough to do it alone. I’ve been meditating daily for 20 years now, and I’ll be continuing the daily practice for sure. I don’t leave home without it
You have created a beautiful blog with a wealth of resources. I’ll be writing about it in my blog very soon!
Best,
Kara Sorensen