Although genes play a significant role in building physique, recent studies have shown that we are able to influence this situation and show their best side. At any moment in our lives, adipose tissue cells can increase or decrease, and this depends more on lifestyle (nutrition and physical activity) than on genes.
Since the theory of genes no longer has the same weight, what determines how slim our figure will be?
If you had the opportunity to spend a day in the company of a slender person, a devotee of a healthy lifestyle, you would certainly notice a few things that distinguish him from the majority, leading a sedentary lifestyle. Find out how some people manage to maintain a slim figure and good health until they are old and try to adopt these good habits.
1. Get enough sleep and wake up naturally. Most people who lead a healthy lifestyle wake up without an alarm clock in an excellent mood, rested and with a good appetite. They have developed a fitness plan and stick to it. Such people fall asleep easily, sleep better, in addition, they have less need for sleep, i.e. to recover, they need only a few hours of sound sleep. It is known that there is a strong connection between lack of sleep and overweight (obesity). Sleep restores the strength of the body, helps to rebuild and prepare for a new day.
2. Beready. People leading a healthy lifestyle, from the evening on, prepare sports equipment and clothes the next day, plan ahead in advance the routine of affairs for a whole week, taking into account sports training. By the way, they take training as seriously as they do business meetings or social obligations.
3. Do morning exercises. Sports in the morning are more effective than evening exercises, in addition, they fit better into the daily routine. After a morning exercise, a pleasant feeling of satisfaction and pride appears, which helps to choose a healthy diet throughout the day, successfully overcome stressful situations and maintain a good mood. Morning exercise is the best start to the day, which ultimately affects the many decisions that we make during the day.
4. Plan your diet. People leading a healthy lifestyle eat strictly at certain times, plan meals based on training and know exactly what to eat and when. First, you will have to make some efforts to decide on the choice of healthy food and snacks, but do not let the food flow by gravity. If you are so hungry that you are heading to the buffet or ordering food at the fast food cafeteria, this is the first sign of an impending disaster.
5. Do not focus on failures. People leading a healthy lifestyle do not allow failures to stop them on their way to the goal - one missed workout does not turn into two or three. After a missed workout, they head to the gym and work out even more intensively. Also, you should not be particularly upset and stop the diet because of one piece of pizza or cake. You need to return to a healthy diet, exercise regularly and get enough sleep to occasionally allow yourself a little relaxation and skip training, without blaming yourself for all the deadly sins.
6. Change your lifestyle and habits. Slender people did not become so in one night - for this they needed much more time. They read a lot about fitness and proper nutrition, and do not try to transform in one day, gradually changing habits until they become a natural part of their life. As the sages said, choose the best, and the habit will make it pleasant and natural.
7. Learn to distinguish the psychology of success from useless and harmful tips "how to quickly lose weight without effort." People leading a healthy lifestyle are not led to magic means quickly and effortlessly lose weight and improve their health. They know that longevity, good health and a slim figure are not easy, and to enjoy these benefits every day, you need to make a lot of effort. Remember: if something is too good to be true, then this is not true.
8. Lose weight and save. People leading a healthy lifestyle know that one diet is not enough to lose weight and maintain weight for a long time. Fitness is the key to successful weight loss. With regular exercise, the weight achieved can be maintained for life.
9. Do not neglect positive auto-training. To maintain a good figure, you need to use the techniques of positive auto-training. It is unlikely that you will lose weight if you constantly repeat to yourself "I am fat" or "I am a lazy person." Repeat the phrases “I am strong”, “I will succeed”, “I care about my figure”, etc.
10. Set realistic goals. People leading a healthy lifestyle and following the figure always strive for realistic goals. Some want to lose weight to a certain size or parameters. Others seek to support a particular action with their behavior, for example, jogging to fight breast cancer or cycling to combat leukemia. Having reached one goal, set yourself the next one and make a plan on how to achieve it.
If you dream of a slim, healthy, strong and hardy body, choose for yourself at least one of the above habits and do not recede from it. When this habit becomes your second nature, move on to the next. Remember - the more healthy habits you have, the easier and richer your life will be, and the more you will be pleased with your reflection in the mirror.
How and when do you need to sleep?
As already mentioned above, we spend a third of our lives sleeping, so this time also needs to be spent with benefit. Most of us, unfortunately, have the bad habit of staying up late. And this is the reason, firstly, that we wake up tired and broken, and secondly, we wake up later than necessary. As experience shows, most often, evening time is spent on all kinds of nonsense: aimless wandering around the Internet, watching TV shows, useless communication on social networks. Also in the evenings, many have the habit of overeating and most often - junk food. However, any food taken late at night will be harmful to the body. Thus, if you go to bed earlier, you can solve several problems at once: get rid of the habit of overeating at night, save time and learn to get up earlier. It is best to go to bed before midnight, preferably at 9-10 hours.
But it should be borne in mind that at the same time after the last meal at least 2–4 hours pass. As experience shows, it makes no sense to try to accustom yourself to go to bed early - the habit of "hanging out" on the Internet or watching TV shows, most likely, will not allow this. Here you can apply a certain trick - just set yourself an alarm for an hour or two earlier. And get up, despite drowsiness and fatigue. And thus, by 9-10 o’clock in the evening, you simply will automatically fall asleep.
To get yourself up early, you need motivation. Just getting up, not knowing why - most likely our quirky mind, after the alarm rings, will quickly convince us that there is no need to get up anyway and you can still sleep. Therefore, make it a rule to do something useful right after awakening: meditation, asanas, pranayama, or reading spiritual literature. Morning is the most blissful time for this. Throughout the world, spiritual seekers get up before sunrise, as the effectiveness of spiritual practices at this time increases many times, and the spiritual literature read will open up new facets. The best time to awaken is the so-called brahma-muhurta. This time one and a half hours before dawn, a very gracious time. Spending it on a dream is very imprudent. So, if there is a worthy motivation and a specific business that you have outlined for yourself in the morning, getting up will be much easier.
After waking up, it is advisable to take a cold shower so that there is no drowsiness, weakness, laziness, and the desire to quit everything and go to sleep to inspect. A cold shower, as it were, “reloads” our consciousness and gives energy. So, if you got up at 5-6 o’clock in the morning (the sooner the better), then automatically in the evening at 9-10 you will want to sleep. And over time, such a daily routine will become a habit. It is important to note one point: many make one mistake. On weekdays, they observe the regime, and on weekends they give themselves the opportunity to relax and "sleep off." This is a very big mistake. The regimen must be observed daily, then the body will adjust and it will become a habit. This is the only way to achieve a healthy and healthy sleep, which will saturate with energy. What is the best time to sleep? The fact is that during sleep, the hormone melatonin is produced, which actually starts the processes of recovery and renewal of our body. According to different versions, this hormone is produced from 10 pm to 5 am. Thus, after 5 in the morning there is simply no reason to sleep - the restoration of strength and rest during this period no longer occurs.
For the same reason, do not neglect the precious hours of sleep until midnight. Before going to bed, it is advisable not to watch TV (it is better not to watch it at all), not to listen to exciting music, not to engage in active polemics with anyone and not to excite your nervous system at all - it will be difficult to fall asleep. You can read a book or practice asanas, they just stimulate the pineal gland, which produces the hormone melatonin. Inverted asanas before bedtime is the best option. As for daytime sleep, there are different opinions, but from the point of view of hormone production, recovery and rest at this time still does not occur, so a daytime sleep will most likely be a waste of time. It is best to sleep on the right side, as it blocks certain energy channels and allows you to sleep without dreams. And dreams are useless to us, since they prevent the brain from resting normally.
When and how to eat?
Experience shows that it is better to skip breakfast. During sleep, the body accumulated energy, and if you got up early in the morning and devoted your time to spiritual practice, then you accumulated energy even more. If you notice, then in the morning, as a rule, there is no feeling of hunger. And the habit of breakfast is most often imposed on us by society. There is a saying: "An animal eats three times a day, people eat twice a day, saints - once a day." And if we turn to history, more recently, people ate two or even once a day. In ancient Greece and Rome, people ate once a day. Spartans ate once a day - in the evening. Even in the 19th century, the habit of eating twice a day remained in England. So three meals a day began to be imposed in our society just a couple of centuries ago. In order to increase profits, food corporations began to promote the concept of three meals a day to the masses. In fact, in the morning the body does not need food at all - it rested, accumulated energy and, in fact, did not spend it on anything, and if you listen to yourself, then in the morning you do not feel hunger.
Ayurveda has such a concept that eating in the absence of hunger is self-poisoning, because if it is not there, then the body is not ready to digest food and it will not be able to fully assimilate. There is another misconception: we often mistake thirst for hunger. And the discomfort in the stomach, which often prompts us to eat, is often just a feeling of thirst. Therefore, with such sensations, try to drink water first and the "hunger" will most likely pass. So, it is best to skip breakfast and spend the energy accumulated during the night and during the morning practice on something positive. If you are used to having breakfast in the morning, try changing this habit. Experience shows that this is not so difficult. But the energy that after breakfast is sent to digest food can be spent on some useful things. In fact, morning is the most blissful time for all important matters, therefore it is better to plan all difficult and important tasks for the first half of the day.
The first meal is best done from 12 to 14 hours, as at this time the food is digested and absorbed best. Even heavy foods, such as nuts or legumes, are digested quite quickly during this period, so it is better to eat such foods during this period of time. It is advisable to take an evening meal before 6 pm, so that at the time of going to bed the food is digested and does not cause inconvenience during sleep. At the first meal, it is better to take fruits, as they fill with energy, and in the evening it is better to consume vegetables - they help cleanse the body. It is also worth noting that it is undesirable to consume fruits in the evening, since they will not have time to fully digest, and fermentation processes will occur in the intestine. Undesirable foods include foods such as meat, fish, eggs, onions, garlic and mushrooms. These products carry the energy of ignorance and coarsen the mind, creating not the best motivations and aspirations in our mind. The energy of ignorance is also possessed by food that is cooked more than three hours ago. Therefore, it is not recommended to cook for several days in advance. Try to eat what you can quickly cook. Moreover, the less food is cooked, the more good it is.
Spiritual practices
To maintain the body and mind in good condition, one cannot do without daily practice. As already noted, the best time to practice is morning. At this time, it is better to practice meditation, asanas and some pranayama with holding your breath in order to accumulate energy for activity throughout the day. If you practice in the evening, then it is better to refrain from some intense physical practice so that you do not accumulate excess energy before going to bed. The best option would be upside down asanas and some kind of calm pranayama with breathing out. For example, Apanasati Hinayana. Also do not neglect shatkarmas. Before going to bed, you can perform Trataka - concentration on the candle flame. It has a powerful cleansing effect for our consciousness, and evening time is the best period for its implementation. Firstly, it will already be dark, which will allow us to better concentrate on the flame of a candle, and secondly, it will allow us to clear everything that we plunged into our consciousness before going to bed. To cleanse the gastrointestinal tract, it is recommended in the morning, immediately after awakening, to perform such practices as Uddiyana Bandha or Nauli, and once a half a year to perform Sanka-Prakshalana.
The ideal daily routine (one of the versions)
So, we examined the main questions: what time should be devoted to sleep, what should be devoted to practice and what is - to eating. Consider one of the options for an ideal daily routine. Although it is worth noting that for each person the "ideal" option will be different.
- 4 – 6 hours - rise. Preferably before sunrise. Take a cold shower after lifting.
- 4 – 9 hours - yoga practice: asanas, pranayama, meditation. Reading spiritual literature. Perhaps creativity. In the morning, creativity also unfolds.
- 9 – 12 hours - work, social activity.
- 12 – 14 hours - eating. If you plan to eat heavy food, it is better to do this in a given period of time - it will be quickly digested and assimilated.
- 14 – 18 hours - work, social activity.
- 16 – 18 hours - a second meal. It is better to eat vegetables, as they are quickly digested.
- 20 – 22 hours - evening yoga practice. Reading spiritual literature. Relaxing music. Relaxing pranayama.
- 22 hours - a dream.
Such a daily routine will ensure harmonious development in all aspects of life. In this mode of the day, there is both time for practice and time for good nutrition at the right time for this. There is also a lot of time left for some socially useful or labor activity (it is desirable that these concepts coincide), which should also not be neglected. If even in spite of a clear daily routine you have an acute shortage of time, you can advise keeping a diary, and in this way you will track, over a long period of time, what you are wasting your time on. And, most likely, it turns out that you periodically spend time on some useless things. Such as, for example, films, computer games, useless communication, etc. And here is the question of setting goals. That is, the definition of that life landmark, that guiding star that leads you through life.
And here it is important to set both the global goal of life and the intermediate ones, because if there is only a global goal of life, then it creates the illusion that “life is long, I will have time for everything”, and in the little things you will spend time on things that you don’t need to. Therefore, it is important to set a goal and continue to control yourself all the time. Just try on a regular basis to relate your actions to the goals that you are facing. And honestly ask yourself, “What am I doing now, corresponds to the goals that are before me?”. Such an increase in awareness will allow us to get rid of many useless and harmful things and free up a lot of time that can be used for the benefit of ourselves and the world around us. This, by the way, is an additional motivation in the fight against addictions. Just think about the fact that we have a limited amount of energy and free time, and how reasonable it is to spend precious time and energy accumulated in the course of practice on things that are not even beneficial to us personally, not to mention the benefits to others.
