5 best yoga poses for PCOS

 Diet and exercise go hand in hand.We can not achieve the goal of a healthy and fit life just by following only one of these two.

So today i will talk about 5 best yoga poses that will help you with pcos and your overall health maintenance

1- Butterfly Pose or Baddhakonasana

2- Reclined Butterfly Pose or Supta Baddhakonasana

3- Camel Pose or Ustrasana

4- Locust Pose or Shalabhasana

5- Wide Legged Forward Bend or Prasarita Padottanasana

Now i will briefly explain the steps and benefits of all these...

Butterfly Pose

1-Sit on the ground with your feet held straight in front of you.

2-Bring the soles of your feet together.

3-Hold your each foot with hands properly and make sure to keep your elbows against your inner thighs.

4-Make sure to sit straight, inhale and as you exhale lean forward from your hips until you feel the stretch.

5-Hold for 15-30 sec and repeat 2-4 times.

Benefits

Helps in preparing for delivery.

Improves digestion.

Stretches your inner thighs and knees.

Relieves menstrual discomfort.

Improves blood circulation in lower body.

Reclined Butterfly Pose

1-Follow the first 2 steps of the butterfly pose described above.

2-Maintaining this position lie back on a bolster or you can keep anything that can match the height of bolster.You can keep your knees a bit above ground.

3-Make sure that your head neck and upper back is resting on bolster.

4-Place your hands on your belly or keep them on sides.

5-Stay in this position for 5-10 breaths and repeat 2-4 times.

Benefits

Relieves stress.

Alleviates upper and lower back pain.

Stretches shoulders,triceps,groin,abductors,hamstrings and chest.

Camel Pose

1-Keep your knees on the ground as you are standing on your knees with your legs parallel and behind your body.

2-Keep your back straight.Do not bend hip joint.

3-Now place your hands to your lower back with fingers pointing downwards and elbows facing backwards.

4-Gently arch your back in such a way that a backbend forms.

5-Lift your chin up as you are looking towards the ceiling.

6-Push your chest forwards and upwards as pressing against the ceiling with the hands in the same position as described in step 3.

7-Do not do any step beyond your limits.

8-Stay for several breaths and repeat 2-4 times.

Benefits

Posture improvement

Relieves back pain

Expands abdominal region thus improving digestion.

Improves respiration as it opens the chest.

Strengthens shoulders.

Reduces thigh fat.

Locust Pose

1-Lie down on your stomach with arms on the side of your body.

2-Rest your forehead on the ground/mat.

3-Now slowly inhale and raise your head,arms and shoulders up and look forward.

4-Now by staying in the same position lift your legs towards to ceiling without bending the knees.

5-Widen your chest across collar bones.

6-Hold for 30sec to 1min and repeat.

Benefits

Sretches belly, chest, thighs and shoulders.

Improves posture.

Improves muscle of spine,buttocks and back.

It strengthens core.

Wide Legged Forward Bend

1-Stand straight on your mat.

2-Place your feet several feet apart.

3-Make sure that your heels are slightly more apart than toes.

4-Make sure that your back is straight and your belly is pulled in towards your spine.

5-Bend forward and hinge at your hips not waist.

6-Place your hands on mat directly below your shoulders.

7-Keep your neck,head and back straight and look straight on floor.

8-Stay for several seconds and then repeat.

Benefits

Open hips.

Relief from backaches.

Relieves stress,anxiety and depression.

Increases the circulation to pelvic organs.

Conclusion

Make sure to not exceed the limit of your body for a posture as it can harm your body.

Make sure to gradually do each step avoiding jerks.

Your body flexibility will increase with time so do not force your body for a certain stretch as it can harm muscles.

Weight loss diet plan for pcos

Losing weight if you have pcos is difficult than normal situation and if you have pcos you will probably be aware of this fact but its not impossible.

Keep that in mind that the diet of women with pcos is different from regular diet plans.Now when it comes to diet it really does not mean starving.

 Especially for women with pcos do not starve yourself.Eat right food not less food.

 There are many meal plans out there but you will have to make sure to ask your doctor before starting any particular diet plan because it could be possible that the type of pcos you have is different and need something different to work on your body.If you want to know which type of pcos you have you can check this linkhttps://pcostreatment323.blogspot.com/2020/07/types-of-pcos.html

Important steps to follow before following the diet...

One most important thing for women with pcos is that you have to be close to the nature as it helps a lot.Trust me i have tried it and i have seen drastic results.You just simply have to follow these simple rules
• Sleep around 10 pm and wake up early in the morning around 6-7 am
• Sleep for 7-8 hours.Its very very important.Do not even think of following this diet as it won't work if you will not improve your routine.
• Eat whole foods
• Reduce stress.You can not even imagine that how much stress effects pcos.Its extremely bad for almost every person out there.Try to meditate or keep yourself busy in something that you love doing.
• Cut out refined carbs especially sugars and flour,rice,pasta and bakery items as they are extremely bad for you because they cause inflammation that makes pcos worse.
• Exercise 4-5days a week.Its very important for pcos weight loss.
• Do not do crash diets as they not only give unhealthy and temporary weight loss but also disrupts hormonal balance which is what we are trying to correct here,right.
• Eat as much cruciferous vegetables as you can.Spinach,broccoli,kale,cabbage etc.Vegetables are your best friends if you have pcos and are trying to lose weight.
• Eat high fibre,high protein food in your diet.
• Eat carbs that mostly come from whole grains such as besan flour(gram flour),millet,barley,buckwheat etc and from high fibre vegetables such as orange carrot,capsicum,onions,tomato etc.
• Drink plenty of water throughout the day.I Know I know you must have heard it million times but believe me its worth it.

Ok now lets move to the diet plan

Diet plan

Morning drink

As you wake up have a glass of warm water with half a lemon and a tbsp of apple cider vinegar and have it with straw(if you have any acidity issues first consult your physician before incorporating this drink in your diet) along with 6-4 overnight soaked almonds.Peel these almonds and have them.And do not add any sweetener because we do not want any artificial sweetener.

Breakfast

Now make sure to have your breakfast within an hour after you wake up not late than that.

Now your breakfast must be filling.I will tell you what i personally do and it has worked for me.

1-Take 1/2 cup of gram flour and 1/4 cup of barley flour mix them up.

2- Add some cumin seeds,flax seeds in it.

3- Add some water and make dough of it.

4- You can adjust the quantity according to your calorie intake.

Make 2 flat breads with this dough and have them with a tbsp of ghee and cooked vegetables bowl.And thats your breakfast.

Snack

Now after 2-3 hours of breakfast you can have a fruit such as a orange,pineapple etc but do not fill yourself at this moment as it will disturb your lunch.

Lunch

Time for lunch.Try to have your lunch around 1-2 pm.

Now in lunch you will have a vegetable smoothie or vegetable salad.

You can add spinach,a small piece of ginger,half apple,coriander,some mint,and some capsicum and have this smoothie.

Or you can make a vegetable salad 

Take some onion,tomato,okra(bhindi).Cook them in some olive oil or coconut oil add some pepper / salt in it and have it.

Make sure not to overcook these veggies.

Instead of okra you can have any veggies like bittergourd,bottlegourd,orange carrot broccoli,cabbage etc but make sure it has more fibre.

Note:

If you are not used to having a heavy breakfast you can always swap lunch with breakfast.

Evening tea

Have black coffee without any added sweetner or you can have green tea but make sure its a good quality green tea along with 1-2 whole wheat biscuits.

Dinner

• Make sure to have dinner at least 3 hours before sleep.

• Do not have salt in dinner.If you have BP issues then you definitely add some salt.

In dinner you will again have vegetable bowl.A big bowl of vegetables.You can have any vegetables that are high in fibre e.g...orange carrot,spinach,capsicum,okra,tomato,onions .

You can simply have orange carrots as they themselves are extremely delicious or you can have it with any of the other vegetable cooked in some coconut oil or olive oil.Just remember to not overcook them and just add pepper in it.

One more important thing is that if you have a major case of pcos and have lots of weight to lose then do not have fruits in dinner.But if you have a few pounds and your case is not that serious then you can always have papaya or kiwi in dinner.Small amounts of both in a bowl or one bowl of one of them.

Bedtime drink

Two drinks that worked for me are aloevera juice with hot water or cumin seeds tea.Now you can have any one of these.

• Add half a cup of aloevera juice in a cup and fill the remaining cuo with hot water and have it.Make sure you use fresh aloevera juice and if you do not have it always use organic good quality aloevera juice with no preservatives.

• For cumin seeds tea simple boil a cup of water with 1 tsp of cumin let it simmer for 2-3 min and have it while it is still warm.

Conclusion

Now i want to make clear here that this is what i have tried and it worked for me but it all depends upon the condition of your body.

Everyone has different issues and different tyoe of pcos so please always consult your doctor before following any particular diet or before making any changes in your diet.