Weight gain?!

Hi Allison

I am hearing alarm bells ringing here! You could be salt depleted. What are you supplementing with? How often? How many classes do you normally do? Because if you’re practising a lot more now than you normally do and you haven’t changed your habits to suit then this could be the issue.

Get back to me!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Allison

I honestly believe you need to do something. Salty things may not be sufficient if you don’t know what kind of salt that is being used. For example most processed foods used plain old table salt. They label that as ‘salt’.

Table salt is sea salt with ALL THE GOODNESS REMOVED. If an ingredient is listed as ‘salt’ then you can be sure it’s nothing more than sodium and chloride. While that can be ok to keep your sodium levels up, it does nothing to promote vibrant health. You could be lacking potassium, magnesium and many trace elements.

Think of your body as a battery. It needs electrolytes to keep charged.

I am not one to take an expensive electrolyte supplement and I prefer sea salt. I love Himalayan salt and celtic salt and there are MANY other top quality pure salts with a whole spectrum of wonderful minerals in them.

If you have increased the number of classes then not only must you increase the amount of water you MUST increase the amount of salt (SEA SALT BEST) to replace all that is lost.

Your body could be right now depleted.

Up the water but also up the sea salt.

I LOVE to add a little pinch of salt and some lemon juice to my yoga water. This is a heavenly elixir and I can feel it working. I don’t know if you drink during class but make sure you do replenish your salt and water.

Let me know how you go

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Jane

That is a conundrum isn’t it? You are very active. 5-6 classes of 75 mins is a lot. You have the nutrition handled. Are you drinking separate to or with meals? That can make a difference. My guess is you ‘behave’ well! 😉

Any stresses in your life that haven’t been figured into the equation?

I realise that one suggestion I have for you could be jumping at a solution without knowing the cause (yet) but I know from great feedback from many women that the exercise with the ball that I demonstrate here is very much worth incorporating into your (almost) daily life. This is definitely worth trying. Of course it is not going to directly affect your upper arms. 😉

You are doing hot and flow. That, I presume includes push ups and planks etc. Are you doing those with knees on floor or with body straight? How is your core strength? Just getting a sense of your abilities for any other clues.

What is your experience with, and past and present frequency of a Bikram yoga practice?

That should do us for now!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Jane

Are you willing to give the ball exercise a go regardless of your core strength? The stronger your core the higher up your spine the ball will be and the more challenge the exercise is. I am sure you’ll find it interesting and even enjoyable.

I don’t think you need to sacrifice your yoga classes. On the contrary you could try all Bikram classes for a few weeks.

I haven’t got any indication of the techniques that you use for your practice. There would be poses for which you could use more energy (without strain but working with the body’s mechanisms) to make your practice more ‘useful’ in that shape-changing effect. I can’t make the assumption that you’re doing it wrongly, partly rightly, correctly on most or all of your poses. So that would take some drilling.

If you haven’t had blood work done for a while then you could go ahead and do that. The only issue is in the interpretation of the results. For example you may find out that there’s an imbalance in Iron or B12 or Calcium. That’s pretty easy to work out what to do. If it’s a hormonal issue (female-wise) then would you be the kind of person who would make a decision to take HRT based on modern pharmaceutical intervention? I read between the lines to guess that answer may be no. One thing to check on is your level of Vit D which is a big player in the health of your hormonal systems holistically. By the way, you MUST ask for Vit D to be evaluated as it is generally not done as part of a basic assay. It would not be wise to interpret your results but I can nut out some ideas with you based on my knowledge and other people’s input.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi!
I started Bikram Yoga about 3 weeks ago and have done about 10 classes. I am usually 103 lbs (I fluctuate between 99-103. I am only 5ft), I started noticing that my hands and feet were swollen and I gained 3.8lbs! I do drink LOTS of water (32oz 3 times a day at least), eat really healthy, and usually go to the gym 3 times a week. Since I started Bikram Yoga I have only being going once a week cause I was going to classes about 3 times a week. I was NOT having electrolyte supplements after (no sea salt or sports drink after/during). I went to the store yesterday and got some pedialyte and have been drinking that and noticed my swelling going down SLIGHTLY but no real weight change yet. I am going to the gym tonight and I am super scared to continue Bikram Yoga. I was REALLY enjoying it but I am small and this much of a weight gain really scared me (my rings are super tight on me). I bought 3 months unlimited so I do want to finish it. After reading this blog I am confused if Bikram Yoga will help with weight loss/toning or just maintain your weight? I believe that I am retaining water cause my sodium levels might be off (I am not 100% though). I am really hoping that is what caused such a dramatic weight increase for my size.