I am fasting today according to the yogic system. I fast on the 11th day after the full moon and 11 days after the new moon. Today is the 11th day after the last new moon.

In this sytem of fasting we take no food and no liquids from the sunrise of the fasting day to the sunrise of the next day, when we break the fast. It can be a little difficult in the summer when the temperature is high. I am in Croatia right now and the temperature has been over 25 degrees C. (I guesss that is close to 80 F).

One of my colleagues wrote a poem where he mentions fasting. The poem (which I have set to music) is entitled “Beatified” and here is an excerpt:

“Should I fast today, I couldn’t decide,
Found some courage felt beatified.”

Actually you shouldn’t make your decision on the morning of fasting! You can always find a thousand reasons why it would be better to eat today and fast some other day. Rather if you want to compete a fasting day successfully it is better to make your decision the night before: say to yourself “Tomorrow is my fasting day, and I am not eating anything, that is that.”

If you do this you will have strength, and you will probably not even feel hungry. Whenever I fast my hunger mechanism just shuts down.

What should you do on the fasting day? It is better to plan a day of light activities, more on the intellectual and spiritual side rather than physical. In fact the Sanskrit term for a fasting day is “Upavasa” meaning “remaining close to God.” The idea is to use the time saved (by not cooking, eating and cleaning) for spiritual pursuits.

OK, my day is nearing an end. Tomorrow I will break the fast with the yogi drink: lemon water and salt. It is a great way of flushing out toxins.

Try a fasting day soon. Who knows, you may even like it!

Smoking is no longer “cool”. Many people are trying to quit the habit, but sometimes it is not easy. If you or someone you know is having difficulty, they should look at my article Six Tips for Quitting Smoking for some starting information. The article offers some ideas on the physical, mental, social and even spiritual level.

Yogis don’t smoke. I think everybody knows that, but there are still plenty of other people who are still smoking. Shiva, the first yogi who lived 7000 years ago, said that the first secret of success is “firm determination.” 

If you want to be successful in a task such as quitting smoking you should take a firm determination or inner vow that you are going to do something about it. I recently wrote a book Start Meditation, Stop Smoking that provides a yoga guide for quitting smoking. Also I just wrote an article Five Reasons Why It Is Time to Stop Smoking  If you need some more convincing before you make a decision or vow to stop smoking then read the article, you will be glad that you did.

Someone just sent the following story to me via email. It is about maintaining a positive attitude whatever the circumstances:

Attitude, After All, Is Everything

Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”

He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”

Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes it is,” Jerry said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live life.”

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business…he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gun point by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?”

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked.

Jerry continued, “…the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘BULLETS!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead’.”

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

Losing weight is not “rocket science.” All you have to do is increase your exercise and control your eating and you will lose weight. Of course this is easier said than done, but it is possible to do it.

Many people give up the effort because they are overwhelmed with so many things to do. Don’t eat this, eat this, do this, do that and many other instructions prove to be too much. OK, if you can’t follow a whole program then why not make one change at a time in your lifestyle?

I will give you a few examples. One of my yoga students came to me and told me that he had just lost 4 kilos (close to 9 pounds) in one month. How did he do it? He just did one thing: he fasted during one day of each week of that month. That’s all he did.

If you don’t like fasting or are not ready for it, then try one experiment with food.  Give up eating foods with unnecessary added sugar such as cookies, cakes, candies, soda etc. I tried this recently and lost ten pounds. After a meal, instead of eating a sweet dessert I eat a piece of fruit. It’s possible, and you don’t have to change anything else.

And, if you are not ready to change your eating habits, then try adding some exercise to your life. Take a walk after dinner instead of sitting in an easy chair watching TV. Put on your mp3 player, get out in the fresh air and digest your dinner with a brisk walk. Walk 20 minutes away from your home and 20 minutes back. Do this every night and you are sure to lose some weight, and also improve your digestion and sleep.

Another small change you can make is to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Four liters (quarts) spread out over the day will help you to control your appetite and also help your over-all bodily functions.

If these above mentioned tips are not “doable” then try something else: do the three yoga postures which are explained in the Yoga Weight Loss Secrets ebook, twice a day. It will take you a total of forty minutes, and/or do the meditation that is described in the mini course and in the ebook. (If you want to get the ebook, then go to http://www.yogaweightlosssecrets.com )

Finally, if you are gung-ho and would like to try all of these tips on a daily basis. Then here is what to do:

1. Give up unnecessary sweet foods, and substitute them with fruit

2. Do fasting on a regular basis (see the ebook or mini course for instructions)

3. Add brisk walking to your daily schedule (40 minutes)

4. Drink four liters of water every day

5. Practice yoga exercises two times a day

6. Practice meditation two times a day

If you do any one of these things you will lose weight. If you do all of these, then your success is a sure guarantee.

As if anyone needed more reasons to stop smoking, take a look at this breaking news report:

TUESDAY, Oct. 17 (HealthDay News) — A new study finds that at least 1 in every 4 smokers will develop progressive and incurable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a much higher risk than previously believed.

COPD is a respiratory disease that results in blocked air flow to the lungs and grows progressively worse.

For this study, published online in the journal Thorax, researchers at Hvidovre Hospital analyzed data on 8,000 men and women, ages 30 to 60. All were monitored for 25 years as part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study.

At the start of the study, all the participants’ lungs were healthy and working normally. However, over the course of the 25 years, the lungs of almost all the male non-smokers continued to function normally, compared to 60 percent of men who continued to smoke.

Among women, 90 percent of non-smokers still had healthy lungs at the end of 25 years, compared to 70 percent of smokers.

Overall, 25 percent of the participants developed moderate or severe COPD over the 25 years. Persistent smokers were six times more likely to develop COPD than non-smokers.

During the 25 years, there were 2,900 deaths in the study group. Of those deaths, 109 were directly attributable to COPD, and nearly all those deaths were in people who were active smokers at the start of the study. Only two non-smokers died of COPD.

The study also found a sharp decline in the risk of COPD among people who stopped smoking soon after the start of the study. Over the 25 years, none of these ex-smokers developed severe COPD.
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If you need help in quitting the habit, start practicing yoga and meditation. If you don’t have anyone close at hand to teach you, then try my e-book, Start Meditation, Stop Smoking

I had a routine physical examination recently and the doctor was impressed with my blood pressure. Why? Because it was not too high like it is in many of the other people she sees every day. When she learned that I was a vegetarian, she became interested, making a connection between vegetarianism and controlled blood pressure.

But the real secret for my good showing on the blood pressure examination has as much to do with meditation, as it does with my vegetarian diet. Meditation is the best remedy, the best “medicine” for high blood pressure and heart disease, and I haven’t missed a day in the last 37 years.

Why is meditation so effective against one of the biggest health problems of today? Meditation de-stresses a person. Stress is one of the biggest causes of hypertension, and it is a part of everyday life that everyone has to face.

Our ancestors, the proto-human beings who lived thousands of years ago, mainly had physical challenges to deal with. If they saw a large predator, then danger messages were sent to their brains, and then more messages went to the rest of their bodies. Their bodies were made ready to either fight or flee.

Scientists call this a “fight or flight” reflex. The heart starts beating faster, the blood pressure increases, hormones are secreted. It is a useful reaction when you have to deal with a saber-tooth tiger, but what about when you face your boss at work?

When we are upset by someone at work or in society, danger signals are also sent to our brain and our heart starts beating faster and our blood pressure rises. However, we don’t usually run away and we usually don’t start fighting physically. We hold it all in, perhaps showing a smile on the outside. If this is kept up all day, the stress builds and if it continues over a long time it can damage our heart.

If you were to withdraw yourself completely from society you might be able to escape the stress, but this is not an option for most of us. However, it is possible to “withdraw” yourself two times a day and sit in meditation.

In fact, one of the important aspects of meditation is that it is a form of sense withdrawal. You sit quietly and follow instructions that will help you to forget the world around you and focus on an inner peace that is inside of you. When you become adept at this technique it relieves stress and is just as effective as going away to the top of a forested mountain or sitting alone on a sandy beach.

Meditation also helps you to slow down your breathing. Our mind is directly related to our breathing. When we are agitated or in distress we will take short quick breaths. When we are relaxed or concentrated then our breathing slows down and becomes deeper as well. Proper meditation helps to calm the mind and slow down the breathing. This combination of sense withdrawal and slow, deep breathing works wonders. Try and it one day you too will impress your physician with a healthy blood pressure reading.

A new study has found that people who live in the densest, pedestrian-friendly parts of New York City have a significantly lower body mass index (BMI) compared to other New Yorkers.

Once again here is proof that regular walking will keep you in shape. You don’t have to do jogging, running or difficult exercise. All you have to do is walk to the stores and buy your groceries and other items. That is what the New Yorkers who live in pedestrian friendly areas are doing: they are walking to the shops, walking to work, walking to the public transportation.

If you live in the suburbs it may be more difficult to do your errands and walk at the same time. If this is the case then the best thing is to reserve some time in your day for walking. A good walk after dinner is an excellent way to get exercise and also help digest your food.

Walk for around 40 minutes every day and you will stay in shape. Walk for one hour every day and you will probably live to be 100.

If you just look at someone doing yoga postures you might think it would be quite difficult to lose weight with yoga, because the exercises are gentle and you don’t see a lot of sweating or effort that is normally associated with exercise. However, there is more than meets the eye and yoga can play a part in a program of healthy weight loss. (more…)

I’ve been fasting today. I do it four times a month and am seldom bothered by hunger (I’ll explain why later). But today was different and in the afternoon at around 5.00 PM I had “demon hunger” and couldn’t concentrate on some computer work that I was doing. I really felt like eating something!

I contemplated taking some fruit, which is generally a good idea whenever you are in this kind of predicament. For example, suppose you are trying to lose weight by cutting down on high calorie snacks in-between meals, and all of a sudden you get the “munchies” well if you eat an apple or some other fruit it sometimes does the trick and your hunger is gone.

But instead of grabbing an apple, I resorted to a “yogi trick,” I drank two glasses of lemon water. I made it by squeezing lemon into the glass and adding a bit of salt and water. This lemon water drink is great for giving strength and it also works to allay the hunger. I drank and then went back to work (which includes typing this blog entry). So if you really want to stick to your fast, before you to for fruit, try the lemon water.

And remember one thing: you will not go to hell if you take some lemon water or eat a fruit. Fasting is not a “religious” act (though it has value if you use the time that you save from shopping, cooking and cleaning and do something spiritual during the gained time). Fasting will help you to maintain your health, so do your best to do it regularly (twice a month is great).

Now, I promised to tell you how I usually avoid hunger altogether on the fasting day, so I will do it. Before you begin a fast you have to prepare yourself physically, and most important mentally.

Let’s start with mental preparation. The night before the day when you will be fasting you have to remember that tomorrow is the fasting day and set your mind to it. It’s final, tomorrow you are fasting. If you have this kind of determination, then your desire to eat will not even start working on the day of fasting. It just shuts down. It is amazing but it is true.

If you don’t make this kind of mental preparation then when you wake up you will be thinking of breakfast or of eating sometime. If you decide to fast right then, on the spot, you will also think about why it might be good to eat (you can always find a reason!). And in the midst of this quivering mind-set hunger usually wins the day! So make up your mind the night before and you will be surprised at how helpful it is.

Second, and this is why I was hungry today, prepare yourself physically. The day before the fast make sure that you get enough liquids and also enough calories. My meals yesterday must have been too skimpy and that is why I got hungry. In any case the day is almost over and tomorrow I will dig into some yogurt and fruit!