“Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light.”
If you haven’t heard of it before, Ayurveda is the traditional medicine of India that emphasizes balance in the body through diet, lifestyle, exercise, breathing, and cleansing. Rather than focusing on physical “detoxing” and fitness, Ayurveda maintains the mind and body are inextricably connected, and the mind has more power to heal and transform the body than physical dieting and fitness ever could.
When it comes to losing weight and boosting our metabolism, we tend to focus on fad diets and supplements rather than thinking about our breath. Surprisingly, the breath plays a major role in fat loss and metabolism.
Taking 15 minutes a day to just breathe a little deeper could help aid in weight loss!
Fat is made up of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. When oxygen makes its way to the fat molecules, it breaks them down into carbon dioxide and water. The blood filters out the carbon dioxide and gives it to the lungs to be exhaled. Oxygen also thins the blood, which lowers your blood pressure and speeds up metabolism. That’s a pretty cool perk for something the body does on its own.
It’s a Sunday after a long weekend, meaning all I want to do is veg out, order a pizza, and fall asleep watching reruns of How I Met Your Mother. We all know that expression you are what you eat, and lazy Sundays have a tendency to turn even the health conscious gym-rats into useless bloats. With a long workweek ahead, Sundays are important days for the body to reset and unwind. If you want to look and feel your best at the start of the week, stay away from these tempting indulgences…Read about it here!
“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”
Sometimes I find trips to my hometown mentally exhausting: the schedule is random, family members start asking the “when are you coming home for good” questions (answer: I already am home. I don’t live here anymore), trying to squeeze in visits with every family member and close friend, and accepting all the changes that have happened since the last visit. This was one of those times and I felt pretty overwhelmed by the end of the day and felt it was the perfect opportunity to practice some yoga.
(A before & after journal of emotions the day I went skydiving)
On Friday I went to lunch with a friend. He was a mutual friend, so I felt uncomfortable at the beginning. I didn’t know what to say. Would he bring him up? Would he ask what happened? I launched into nervous chatter about travel and faraway places. That’s my go to – places I want to see one day. The future is easy to talk about.
He wasn’t uncomfortable, and he did bring him up. He asked how I was doing, the way most people have been asking, and I gave him the answer I give everyone now. ”Great. Just getting into the swing of things.”
And then he told me all the reasons why I should be happy.
SINCERELY, LIZ B 