Wellness Haven Yoga

Author: Umang Goel

  • Doing Yoga On The Go

    If you are a person who travels a lot, whether it be for work or leisure, you may find yourself caught up in the stress and discomfort traveling can bring on. It is important to take the time to slow down and stretch. This article points out a few tips you can use to practice some easy yoga no matter where you are.

    By Yoga Journal

    Krissy Jones, co-owner of Sky Ting Yoga, shares tips for the best revitalizing postures to practice while traveling.

    Yoga can help alleviate the aches and pains that tend to pop up when you’re on the road. Any chance you get, focus on lengthening the lumbar spine, which gets compressed after hours spent sitting slumped on an airplane or in a car, a posture that can really sap your energy.

    Try five minutes of Cat-Cow Pose to extend and stretch your lower back. Also, try hanging in Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend): Place your feet parallel and hip-distance apart, bend your knees slightly, and lower your head toward the floor, grabbing opposite elbows and allowing the weight of your head to create space between your vertebrae. Gently sway side-to-side here for two to three minutes.

    To make longer practices more feasible once you’ve reached your destination, pack a lightweight yoga mat. Don’t have your entire practice memorized? Take a free 20 to 30 minute class at yogajournal.com.

    Find more tips on how to practice yoga while traveling.

    Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoga-journal/keep-your-yoga-practice-s_b_10461282.html

  • San Ramon Yoga Sunday Workshop

    San Ramon Yoga Sunday Workshop

    Wellness Haven approach to yoga has progressed in many different ways over the years since we started. Over the course of the years, we have learned many different tools and techniques to reach the optimal yoga asana suitable to our body structure.

    Have you discovered that during yoga asanas you feel more tightness in some muscles than others leading to difficulty in stretching enough to complete an asana?

    You are not alone!

    Each one of us have varied amount of tightness in each of the muscles, some more than another. Whether it is tightness in the neck and shoulder muscles, or the various muscles on the back or the arms and the legs, unless released, it endangers the quality of our lives. We need to spend sufficient time in stretching those muscles through various techniques that eventually enable a yoga asana to completion and fulfillment. Wellness Haven Sunday Yoga Workshops  are exactly meant for this purpose. We target different muscle groups and work on releasing them through various stretching techniques using different tools.
    For example the month of July is especially targeted to tight hamstrings and we have been using kinesiological stretching approach to target the muscles in the hamstrings. We are also using straps and tennis balls to ease and release.

    At Wellness Haven we are always questioning, “How else can we open our muscles to reach the optimal position in any asana?”  It is not enough to somehow just do an asana! It is beneficial only if you are constantly monitoring your progress for we absolutely progress as we target the various muscle groups. At Wellness Haven we believe that we need an all encompassing practice as we progress in our yoga health journey – from stretching slowly to ease the muscle tightness and increase blood circulation on Sundays to calorie burning exercises on Saturdays, to relaxing and releasing and working out various parts of our bodies on weekdays.

    If you are someone who believes in a complete body progress so that you can actually see and feel the results, do not procrastinate,. Reach out to us: (925)819-6327

  • Yoga San Ramon CA

    Yoga San Ramon CA

    Yoga is not just a set of asanas as many may think. Yoga is how we conduct our lives everyday – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It is how we live, how we eat, how we relate to others and our habits.

    At Wellness Haven Yoga in San Ramon CA, we spend time listening to your health needs, before we set up a personalized program for you. We see where you are with physical fitness and start you off on the right track so that you can ease into the practice with ease. We evaluate your nutritional needs and offer recommendations for weight loss.  We evaluate your stress triggers and support you in your mental health through our very successful Breathing and Meditation classes.

    If you relate to any of the following, you are ready for one or more of our wellness programs:
    1. I am constantly stressed and overwhelmed with my daily life.
    2. I used to be slim, but after my children I have put on weight.
    3. I am suffering from join pain, knee pain, shoulder and neck pain, back pain, hip pain.
    4. I am struggling with sciatica (Sciatica refers to pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve, which branches from your lower back through your hips and buttocks and down each leg.)
    5. I am suffering from fibromyalgia (Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues.)
    6. I am suffering from peripheral neuropathy (Peripheral neuropathy, a result of damage to your peripheral nerves, often causes weakness, numbness and pain, usually in your hands and feet. It can also affect other areas of your body.)
    7. I am suffering from migraines (Migraine is a primary headache disorder characterized by recurrent headaches that are moderate to severe. Typically, the headaches affect one half of the head.)
    8. I feel weakness in my limbs and my body feels very tight.

    Reach out to us for a free consultation and evaluation and let us guide you back to the natural healthy state of your body: (925)819-6327

  • Revv Up Your Metabolism With Cheat Meals

    Revv Up Your Metabolism With Cheat Meals

     

    All of us who are health conscious and food conscious but also like having a healthy balance in life know about the wonderfully delicious ways to rev up our metabolism through conscious cheat meals.

    Leptin is a hormone that regulates hunger and how much energy is spent through food regulation. This hormone is primarily synthesized by our fat and when we eat a calorie restricted diet, leptin level in the body drops causing the body to store fat and energy when in starvation mode resulting in slower metabolism.

    To maintain a higher metabolism, continued weight loss/ fat loss, and top stay on track with your regimen, delicious, carb rich cheat meals come in very handy and support fitness, as well as feel-good strategy without deprivation. The 80/20 rule is the key top such weight loss and to keep the metabolism in jump-start mode as well as keep a handle on cravings.

    One should keep in mind that cheat meals also require a lot of discipline and when done incorrectly can take you on a downward slide ruining all well set fitness goals and plans. To keep the leptin levels regulated become very conscious of setting up day/time for cheat meals and stick to it like fast glue, with the extra caution to not splurge and binge. For those on strict calorie diet it would take just a few extra calories to raise leptin levels and rev up the metabolism. Leptin has been found to have more response to carbs than protein and fats, so to rev up your metabolism indulge on healthy carbs on cheat days, with maintenance calories mode rather than being on a calorie deficit mode.

    Want help as you reach your fitness goals? Reach out to us: (925)819-6327

    We have just the right program for you.

    https://btb.poy.temporary.site/lower-your-fat-percentage/

  • Understanding Hamstrings

    Understanding Hamstrings

    Let’s make some serious commitment to our Hamstrings for visible, lasting and fast results and through path of least resistance especially during Wellness Haven Sunday Workshops open to all Wellness Haven Students.
     
    Hamstrings flexibility is very important in our mobility. The hamstrings play a crucial role in many daily activities, such as, walking, running, jumping, and controlling some movement in the trunk. Stretching of hamstrings comes in handy in a variety of sports besides yoga.
     
    Let’s take a closer look at the anatomy of hamstring muscles.
    A hamstring is any of the three tendons contracted by three posterior thigh muscles: semitendinosus, semimembranosus and biceps femoris (long & short head). All of these muscles flex and bend the knee. The three ‘true’ hamstrings cross both the hip and the knee joint and are therefore involved in knee flexion and hip extension. All but the short head of biceps extend and straighten the hip. The short head of the biceps femoris crosses only one joint/knee and is therefore not involved in hip extension. Each originates/attaches on the sitting bones of the pelvis, and runs down the back of the thigh. There are two hamstrings on the medial/inner side of the back of the thigh, and one on the lateral/outer side; all three attach by long tendons crossing the back of the knee to the lower leg.
    Semitendinosus and semimembranosus extend the hip when the trunk is fixed; they also flex the knee and medially/inwardly rotate the lower leg when the knee is bent. The long head of the biceps femoris extends the hip as when beginning to walk; both short and long heads flex the knee and laterally (outwardly) rotates the lower leg when the knee is bent.
    Hamstrings
    Hamstrings
    Anatomy of Hamstrings
    Anatomy of Hamstrings
     
    Weakness and Tightness in Hamstrings
    Weak and Tight Hamstrings can cause a lot of pain and especially a very painful lower back. When we experience no resistance in our hamstrings we say we have flexible hamstrings.
    Some indications to the degree of tightness in hamstrings can be found through the following actions:
    – can you touch your toes with your fingertips with no bend in the knees in standing position?
    – can you touch your toes with the palm on the ground with no bend in the knees in standing position?
    – can you touch your toes with the palm on the ground, and with elbows bent, with no bend in the knees in standing position?

    Testing flexibility in hamstrings also come from the ability to reach the fingers to the toes in seated asana with squared shoulders and hips. Note that forced stretches bring a high possibility of injured lower back. This is especially evident when one tries to reach the toes in seated forward fold or Janu Sirsasana by managing to do it by compromising the body through spinal twist or move the leg to allow the lateral hamstrings to shorten.

     Learning to use Hamstrings

    Most people simply don’t know where to start when it comes to working on hamstrings flexibility and even years of stretching leaves us wondering why we are so tight in-spite of exercising, unless we learn the focused muscle stretching and flexing methods. We may all know which yoga poses stretches which hamstrings and we are listing some below for you, but focused muscle techniques are needed even before we can get comfortably into these yoga poses and we apply such methods in our Sunday workshops. For example Lateral Hamstrings (Biceps Femoris) is one of larger hurdles to the True Front Split with squared hips and stretches need to be focused on this particular muscle.

    Yoga poses for Central Hamstrings:
    Forward folds with the feet hip width distance apart will stretch the central portion of the hamstrings. These include Paschimottanasana / Seated Forward Fold, Uttanasana / Standing Forward Fold , Halasana / Plow Pose.
     
    Yoga Poses for Outer Hamstrings:
    Pasvottanasana / Intense Side Stretch), Parivrtta Trikonasana / Revolved Traingle Pose

    Urgency of Warm-Ups
    We all know how critical warm-up exercises are before any yoga asana. But even after the warm-up, the real benefit is in staying or maintaining power of the stretch. In general people do not want to stay in a stretch for various reasons such as:
    1. too much of hurry all the time is a part of their personality
    2. no real awareness of what it takes to benefit from the pose completely
    3. they do not ease into the stretch gently and slowly and only to the point that the body is comfortable on a particular day/time, and experience tremendous tightness leading them to coming out of the pose in a hurry.

    Such behavior patterns are especially who practice asanas irregularly versus at least every alternate day. Unfortunately each time they practice the asana, they have to start from ground zero. that is the very place they started the first time.

     

    Let’s lengthen our hamstrings one-baby-step-at-a-time at Wellness Haven Yoga.  Reach out to us if you really want to open up your body parts and not just ‘exercise’ : (925)819-6327

    https://btb.poy.temporary.site/wellness-haven-yoga-classes/

     
  • Secret To Healthy Living

    Secret To Healthy Living

    Secret to healthy living
    Instead of fighting with your body, learn to love it and treat it with kindness and compassion. With love, kindness and compassion, comes acceptance. When you accept where you are, you raise your awareness and your awareness becomes the guiding light to better health.
     
    Each body is unique and should be treated with respect. Remember it is never the body itself that is at fault but how we treat it. How we treat is depends on our lifestyle, which is how we sleep, eat, work, and have fun, which in turn is governed by our thoughts and life perspectives.
     
    Just think for a moment: If you move with encouraging, motivating people who actually follow healthy living, if you start taking baby steps towards healthy life perspectives, and if you have fun in the process, the rest of your life will be impacted and you will automatically be health bound.
     
    This is exactly our philosophy at Wellness Haven Yoga. We start you off with baby steps towards a healthy lifestyle that last a lifetime and adds years to your life. We initiate you into a 3 month holistic program that covers you from all sides:
    1. Healthy life perspectives, pranayama or controlled breathing practices, and simple meditation techniques that are very doable.
    If you are someone who has a difficult time staying put in one place, who is constantly fidgety, who always needs to be in some action or another, you are at a huge risk for constant stress, anxiety, panic attacks, and many other health issues. You need this even more.
    2. Yoga Aasanas to suit your body type and health.
    If you do not move your body parts, you are at risk for muscle and joint tightness and pain moving you in the category of those who are suffering from knee and back pain, and have limited mobility. Old age for such people does not look promising. You need to increase your blood circulation. You need to move your body parts through yogic exercises, no matter how gentle they may be.
    3. Healthy eating by educating you on what works for your body type. If you are always eating outside, if you are always in a hurry, if you are not paying attention to what goes into your mouth, how much and how often, you are at risk for excessive fat in your body. You need to finally take charge of your eating habits.
     
    Once you become adjusted with a simple, joyful, healthy lifestyle over the course of 3 months, you can’t help but continue it as your awareness will not allow you to go back to your previous lifestyle.
     
    Reach out to us this summer for a consultation where we can determine together what healthy lifestyle change will work for you: (925)819-6327
  • Conscious Living

    Conscious Living

    From where you are to where you want to be is a journey of conscious steps that anyone can accomplish provided there is clarity about what one wants and clarity about the action steps. As you consciously take these action steps to improve the quality of your life, you also come closer to achieving what you desire. This is conscious living.

    A. Acknowledge where you are.

    This is the first step in your journey towards where you want to be. If there is no acknowledgement of where you are, how can you possibly know which action steps you need to start with? Write down everything that you know about you that keep you unsatisfied and wanting and everything about you that prevents you from achieving your desires and goals.

    B. Boldly state where you want to be, your desires and goals.

    The second step is to know your destination, the point you want to be at, for unless there is clarity about where you want to be how will you plan the action steps that need to be taken to get you there?

    C. Start making small consistent changes in your lifestyle.

    It is very important to know that if you do not ‘clean’ your life first, the ability to achieve your dreams will remain hidden to you! See below a list of actions that help you ‘clean’ your life.

    1. Nourish yourself with ‘me’ time everyday.
      Wake up early, before the rest of the family members wake up, giving you the much needed extra hour without any distraction and to put energy and excitement in you for the day ahead. This is when you might go through some simple stretching, breathing and meditation exercises. You would have sufficient time to go through your list of things needed for the day, that you created the evening before, so that it goes smoothly. This will help you plan head and prepare before the rest of the house awakes.
    1. Plan and pack your meals for the day.
      Packing healthy, wholesome and nutritious meals, that you planned the evening before, for the day ahead will keep you energized as you stay away from fatty, sugary, starchy foods that are depleted of nutritional value and packed with toxins.
    1. Exercise to keep your body and mind limber.
      Yogic stretching, strengthening and balancing exercises, or whichever kind your body likes are very much needed to keep you limber and strong in both the mind and the body so that you can make clear decisions and physical aches and pains do not distract you from achieving what you have set out for.
    1. De-clutter your space for a clutter free mind.
      Make it a habit to throw away the not-needed papers that come into your mailbox as soon as you go through them. Pen the mail and go through them right away throwing what is not of any use and filing what is needed in the right space. Give away clothes and books and anything that you do not need keeping your space congestion free. Make your space free of dust and grime. Keeping your space free of everything that you do not need and clean will enable you to think with clarity.
    1. Clean out your To Do List Daily.
      Make sure that your To Do list is kept updated with all that you need and want to do. Whether it is paying bills, or going to the grocery store, the bank, the dentist, or the dry cleaners or a visit to your friend, take action daily and cross off your list. Keep yourself free of disappointments, frustrations, guilt and regrets by being disciplined about your daily tasks.
    1. Eradicate negativity and negative people from your life.
      Some people never want to upgrade their life and stay deep into negative behavior and actions. Clean your life of such people if you do not want to drown yourself into it as well.  Your life will not change if you do not change the circumstances and events around your life that are in your control.

    D. Formulate the action steps towards your dreams/desires and goals.
    Once your life is de-cluttered in every possible way, ideas start taking shape and life starts coming on the right track. Your path to your dreams becomes clear and you now start your steps towards achieving your dream.

    1. Plan your life keeping yourself flexible about impending changes.
      Create a master plan/action steps for your life goals, knowing that there will be changes and detours due to unknown factors.  Have all those things in the master plan that you dream of no matter how impossible they seem.
      Then each evening, sit down to plan your next day. Keeping in mind your master plan, and with the intention of checking off list items in the upcoming day ahead. This will keep you creative and productive and energetic and help you steer consistently in the right direction.
    1. Plan your free time, fun time, goofy time, getting out of your comfort time.
      It is imperative to have fun as you continue living with discipline and consistency.
      Plan to get out of your comfort zone by doing something that does not come to you easily or seems impossible.  If something does not work, change the direction of your thinking and do it in a different way.
    1. Plan a no-action, silent time.
      Never forget to take time out to do nothing, to simply be in silence for these are the times when new ideas come to fruition taking you closer to your dreams and goals.
    1. Re-look and re-plan your master plan.
      Your life master plan is but a plan. It can change. Keep an eye on it and steer it in the right direction for you are the captain of your own ship. Take your ship where your planned destination is.

    Just following the above clear and conscious action steps will take you closer towards tour dreams. If you don’t do it who will?

  • Weekly Food Planner

    Weekly Food Planner

    Nutrition plays an essential role in the psyche of a human. Healthy eating habits leads one into other healthy aspects of your life as well. Food Planning is essential to keeping good and healthy eating habits. At  Wellness Haven Nutrition and Weight Management, one of the key aspects is accountability. We track and monitor your progress, but you are the one who has the major role to play – keeping yourself accountable to your coach through tools that we make available to you through our Wellness Haven Nutrition Program for Weight Management. Those who use the tools wisely reap multiple benefits.

    One tool that enables you to structured and healthy eating is planning your food for the day, and the week.  What gets planned has the probability of getting done. Those who put the plan into action are the healthy habit forming students.

    Here is the link to one of the Wellness Haven Daily Meal Planner for your benefit.
    Print it.  Wellness Haven Nutrition – Weekly Food Planner
    Make several copies.
    Post 1 each day on your fridge after you have laid down your grocery and eating plans for the week,
    Follow it wisely.
    Reap the benefits.
    Enjoy.

    Reach out to us ((25-819-6327), if you would like to enroll into our JumpStart Your Life Program” where we not only guide you through weight managements but through Breathing, Meditation and Yoga Asanas.

  • Workout Time For Muffin Top Belly!

    This blog is devoted to just some of the yogic poses that we do in Wellness Haven Yoga Classes,  that are easily transformed into vigorous workouts for those who want more intense and calorie burning workouts. These impact all areas of the body and especially the belly! These only supplement the much needed daily yogic stretches and sequences with many asana moves in a flow like the sun salutation, the pigeon sequence, the warrior sequence, the arm balances or the crow sequence, the leg balances and many other yogic stretches that keep us fit and in shape at Wellness Haven. 

    Remember that the most critical part of losing the muffin top belly is EATING RIGHT! Losing fat weight is not about doing the right thing sometimes like joining the marathon once and feeling good about it and then never doing it again! or drinking drinking a green smoothie, but it is about changing your lifestyle gently and gradually. Wellness Haven Jump Start Your Life Program

    Problem Area: Muffin Top Belly

    Do the following exercises 3-10 times based on your stamina and experience level. Always consult your doctor first before attempting any new exercise.

    1. Bicycle Crunch: 3-10

    2. Double Leg Raise: 3-10

    3. Regular or Side Planks: 3-10

    4. Leg Windshield Wipers: 3-10

    5. Swimmers: 3-10

    6. Mountain Climbers: 3-10

    7. Leg Scissors: 3-10

    8. Double Leg Circular Rotation: 3-10 in each direction

    9. Lunges:3-10

    10. Sit-ups: 3-10

    11. Pushups: 3-10

    12. And of course do a few Sun Salutations and you are all set!

  • I am not losing weight!

    I am not losing weight!

    At Wellness Haven, we are invested in your health – your fat loss goals, your muscle building goals and your overall health goals. We go over and beyond to support you in all your wellness needs for we are with you every step of the way. When it comes to fat loss, our results are amazing for we stay with you until you have achieved it and beyond!

    We especially help those with the following frustrations:
    “I lost weight initially and now it has slowed down”
    Or
    “I am not losing any weight!”

    Many in fact do not follow the guidelines strictly and instead of eating with awareness and caution indulge in emotional eating and wonder why they have not lost weight!

    But for some others it may be that they saw amazing changes in their body when suddenly the progress stops! The weight loss is not so amazing after a few weeks of consistent weight loss!! In such a scenario when weight does not budge, instead of throwing your hands in frustration and disappointment and say in “I quit!” educate yourself and get excited about further action!

    Weight Loss Plateau is reached when you do not see a loss in weight for 3-4 consecutive weeks. It is very much a reality but there are ways to counteract it and it definitely does not mean that it will never budge.

    Let’s understand the words “weight Loss” first.

    Weight loss could be changes in any of the following weights: Fat, Muscle and Water weight.

    We measure once a week (and just once!) so that we can be disciplined, keep ourselves account table and track fat loss! Please do not weigh more than once a week and that too the best time is Monday morning! When we weigh ourselves we desire to see a loss in fat and not muscle or water weight. Most of the weight fluctuation (1-4 pounds) if you are eating correctly and exercising regularly is due to changes in water retention in the body. Those who consume high amounts of carbohydrates and sodium but drink very little water, retain a LOT of water resulting in increase in body weight. The key is to drink lots of water but stay low on carbohydrates and sodium and exercise to sweat it all out! You will lose the water weight and the result is loss in pounds when you weigh yourself. The more water you drink, the less you will retain it!

    If you stay on track with correct habits, there is no need to feel disappointed, frustrated or lose confidence ever! When you see no drop in weight for 2 consecutive weeks, know that the first 2 weeks could be due to water retention. Check your water intake. If you continue to not see drop in weight in week 3 and 4, you may have reached weight plateau despite your very best efforts.

    Weight loss plateau facts:

    1. It is common to experience 2-3 plateaus lasting many weeks as you make your progress towards your ideal weight. Why? Changing our body is never easy. You have let yourself go for so long; don’t you think you need to give it some time to get back in optimal condition? If it was that easy then there would be no one suffering from weight issues!
    2. The leaner you become, weight loss also becomes much more difficult, because percentage wise there is much less to lose! 0.5% – 1% loss in fat weight is quite a lot, and we always hope to see 15-25 loss in fat weight in week 1 and then at least 5% in 12 weeks! Trust me that it is a lot to lose! Know that as you lose weight, a smaller fat percentage loss equates to even more body weight loss!

    Example:
    Initial weight= 230 pounds
    1st week Fat % loss=1% body fat weight = 2.3 pounds of fat approximately
    New weight after losing 30 pounds= 200 pounds
    Now 1% of fat is 2 pounds instead of 2.3 pounds!

    Now you know that as you decrease in weight, it becomes slower over time!

    1. Not only does the weight loss slow down over time, it is also a fact that the leaner you become and the closer you reach towards your ideal weight, the body works harder to hold on to your fat!

    How to overcome plateaus?

    1. Re-evaluate your calories intake after approximately every 10 pound weight loss:
      As you lose weight, body metabolism also slows down. With lower body mass, the body does not require as much energy to support a smaller body frame! Re-evaluation will ensure that you are eating lesser calories than you are burning!
    2. We eat more calories than we think we are eating if we are not consistently tracking and holding ourselves accountable! This when combined with metabolism decline from weight loss leads to plateaus!
      Examples of mindless eating and creeping calories:
      – frequently eating outside prepared foods and drinks be it at parties or office!
      – not paying attention to portion control.
      TRACKING and HOLDING ACCOUNTABLE are key factors towards weight loss!
    3. Although eating right is the key in dropping weight, exercising and eating correctly go hand in hand. As we drop weight, we need to pay even more attention to eating right as well as looking at the intensity of our exercise routine. To maximize results in fat loss and muscle build program, one needs to stick to the structure and not keep jumping from one way to another ad confuse the body! Continuity in the exercise program is more important than continuous changing so that you are better able to track results. Our goal is to keep the basic structure of our exercise program the same and continuous but to progress you into a more intense routine so that you can track your health consistently.

    How to overcome tough plateaus:

    If you have followed everything to the letter and still unable to break the plateau, cleaning out the body followed by intermittent fasting method maybe needed. Also 80-20 rule in eating or eating optimally 5 days a week with some indulgence the remaining 2 days may just be what is needed to rev up the metabolism!

    “Changing your body is a marathon, not a sprint!”

    Remember that patience in anything you wish to achieve in life is a must. Some lose weight faster and others slower. Some may do it in months and some may take 1-3 years. One thing is a guarantee at Wellness Haven Nutrition: You become the healthiest you! We see to it that you do. We want your commitment, dedication and we want you to hold yourself accountable. Results are inevitable as you join in many health seeking individuals in our Jump-start Your Life Program for Unlimited Nutrition, Yoga, Breathing and Meditation Program for 3 months.

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