The following question was recently sent to me and I thought I'd share it with all of you.

"I have a question that I have wondered about and thought you would be the perfect person to get a real answer from. Can yoga practice really get a woman's muffin belly flat when she is in her 50's? You see lots of thin woman who work out, but they still have the flab on the tummy. I'm sure you can build up the muscles in the abs, but that menopausal flab down there I would imagine has to be surgically removed!!  Your thoughts?"  Jeannie W.

Good question, Jeannie.  Yoga will help build and strengthen your core, but it won't get rid of fat (unless you do lots of ashtanga, power, or hot yoga).

To get rid of fat, the first thing to do is change your diet: cutting out starchy carbs like bread and pasta, probably leaving out dairy, switching to low to no meat consumption (which contains fat, hormones, antibiotics, etc.), and cutting out sodas/energy drinks.  It's not about starving yourself; rather eat when you're hungry to keep your metabolism up, but eating healthy.  What's that mean? Fresh foods, the less processed the better.  Not having unhealthy snacks around that tempt you.  Being prepared so that when you get hungry, there's something there to eat that's healthy.  

Then add cardio of some sort for at least 20 minutes, like walking, in order to get your heart rate up to burn fat.  Walking is not only a wonderful form of exercise, it can be a meditation, too.  When you connect walking with breath awareness, it becomes yoga.  Click on the link on the left to watch a short video on walking meditation.

Finally, include yoga into your daily routine.  It could be 10 minutes of Sun Salutations each morning before breakfast.  Or a yoga class after work two or three days a week.  Another option is just to get on your mat and move or dance for 10 minutes to an hour, doing what poses your body suggests, and breathing life force (prana) into them.  The point is, just do what you can, when you can, to the best of your abilities, coordinating your breath with movement.

I think plastic surgery for purely cosmetic reasons is doing an injustice to your body by submitting it to the trauma of unnecessary anesthesia and surgery.  From a yogic perspective, it goes against the principle of ahimsa, non-violence or non-harming, to yourself or others.  People have died from having these procedures done, so please consider, is having a flat belly worth dying for?