I have exercise-induced asthma. I had been walking for exercise, but I read an article about calculating my target heart rate for fat burning, and realized I wasn’t even reaching that level. I was only going as far as I could go and still be able to breathe, which wasn’t far enough. So, it occurred to me finally that I should deal with the asthma so I can get my heart rate up to a fat burning level when I walk.

When I was younger I used to do a more thorough yoga routine. It included pranayama, or yoga breathing exercises. And I noticed at the time that I could run through the park and still be able to breathe. I thought this was amazing. I didn’t associate it with the breathing exercises at the time, I thought it was just yoga in general. But now that I do yoga without the breathing exercises, I realize that must be what helped my breathing, my asthma. Certainly makes sense! So my plan is this: to do yoga breathing exercises before and after I walk, so that when I walk I can get my heart rate up to where it needs to be to burn fat. A-ha. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think it’s a good theory.

Another aspect of burning fat is to build muscle. The stronger your muscles are, the more fat your muscles burn. I tried weight lifting for that, but it hurt my joints and made my muscles tight. Not a great feeling. Even little one pound weights had that effect on me. Then I discovered Pilates. Woohoo! Much nicer on my joints and it includes flexibility exercises. But… it also made my muscles feel a little tight. Even though I also did yoga for stretching. I found it hard to turn my head. ?? Also my hips were starting to hurt. I have bad joints. Loose ligaments (according to a podiatrist I saw as a child). Even when doing exercises for my back or stomach or shoulders, it would affect my hips. Plus some of the stomach strengthening exercises were hurting my ribs. I kind of felt like they were cracking. So, I eventually stopped doing Pilates. I did enjoy feeling strong, I just couldn’t keep doing the exercises if they hurt my joints and bones, etc.

So, I came up with the idea of doing yoga for strengthening. There are certain yoga poses for that. Not to mention that doing the poses slowly (getting into them and out of them slowly), and doing each pose more than once per session, will help build muscle. I figure I will do the strengthening poses first, then do some stretchier poses afterwards. Yoga never seems to hurt my back or joints or bones. And I never feel like my muscles are tight after I do it. Plus yoga relieves stress and stress produces hormones that make the body hang onto fat. So, yoga will be good on many levels.

This seems like a good time to mention my favorite yoga book: Yoga for Beauty and Health by Eugene Rawls and Eve Diskin. It’s an old book, but a good one. It gives the best description of how yoga should be done and the best descriptions of individual poses that I have ever seen in a book. I don’t learn well from videos or classes. I have to have all the details and really think something through first. Not be rushed. Books work better for me. There are other good books on yoga, that one is just my favorite. In a future entry I’ll make a list of other yoga books I find useful.

And that is my total weight loss plan. Low-carb, low-fat, whole vegan foods. Yoga breathing, walking, yoga strengthening and stretching. I’ll post about how it’s going in the weeks or months ahead.

Bye for now.