The question of a personal yoga mat sooner or later arises if you start practicing regularly. How to choose the ideal one, which will be an assistant and motivator?
Here, as everywhere, the rule "High-quality, cheap, beautiful - choose any two" works.

Let's talk about why you need a personal mat.

Hygiene

Since the classes are held barefoot, the question of hygiene arises. Many people practice on studio mats, and you need to take into account the fact that in some asanas, your face is a couple of centimeters from the mat or even on it. And then comes the desire to meet face to face with your personal mat.

Why do you need to practice yoga barefoot? You can practice in socks, but after 1-2 classes you will have to take them off.

Firstly, it is dangerous (the sock does not have sufficient grip on the mat, and the foot will slide along with the sock or inside it).

Secondly, many asanas require you to grab the big toe, which is extremely inconvenient to do in socks. In addition, barefoot classes have a health effect, and an hour and a half foot massage is not cheap, so you should not refuse its free option.

Energy and accumulated experience

The mat is able to accumulate and store the energy of the practitioner, received during practice. Standing again and again on your personal mat, you multiply this energy and accumulated experience.

Motivator

Once again there is a desire to spread out your favorite mat (since you have already bought it). A beautiful, rolled up and standing in the corner carpet beckons to spread it out and perform a series of asanas.

Assistant in practice

You can choose one that you will trust, you will know the grip, dimensions, environmental friendliness. This is an important point, because different styles of yoga have different requirements for mats. Options for ashtanga yoga, for example, are often longer and have less grip. And for hatha yoga (especially for beginners), a mat with good grip and thicker is suitable so that the joints get used to the hard floor.

Why do you need intermittent fasting?
For many people, intermittent fasting will be a convenient tool for organizing their diet and structuring their meals. Let's note right away that this is not a magical scheme from the world of fitness fairy tales. The fasting diet will not speed up weight loss by 9 times, and will not burn all the fat on your stomach. This scheme has a number of advantages that are designed to simplify the discomfort of a calorie deficit.

Let us remember that the main rule of losing weight is a calorie deficit, and various diets have only one goal - a comfortable stay on a calorie deficit, and the intermittent fasting scheme is no exception.

Here are some arguments in favor of the fasting mimicking diet:
 

A large influx of calories from food in a short period of time creates the psychological effect of a calorie surplus, even when you are actually in a calorie deficit;

Periods of fasting contribute to more strict maintenance of the deficit, that is, the risk of breakdowns is reduced;

You need to set the table, wash dishes and cook less often, as there are fewer meals;

A person learns to control hunger and tolerates it better, without confusing psychological hunger with physiological hunger;

By analogy with fasting, here a person, through hunger, has a positive effect on the condition of the organs.

Types of intermittent fasting:
16/8 - LeanGains: the most optimal option from Martin Berkhan. 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours for consuming calories. Every day the periods are repeated in the same way.

36/12 - Alternate Day: 36 hours of fasting and 12 hours for eating. For experienced dieters and people without gastrointestinal pathologies.

19/5 - The Fast Diet: 19 hours of fasting and 5 hours of eating. A little more difficult than the classic version. Will appeal to those who have very few calories per day, for example, women in the final stage of losing weight.

20/4 - The Warrior Diet: A complex protocol more suitable for athletes gaining muscle mass and those who have a lot of calories in their diet.

Examples of intermittent fasting
For example, let's consider the most popular option - the 16/8 scheme. The fasting period includes sleep. How to make the fasting diet optimal and convenient? Set the beginning of the food window at 12:00 and end it at 20:00 in the evening. The rest of the time, do not receive calories.

If the scheme is convenient for you, then after a month of 16/8, switch to 18/6. For example: eat at 12:00 until 18:00. You can put a large meal first, or you can use fractional portions during this period. We recommend starting the food window with a small snack - a "warm-up for the stomach". A small sandwich, a sweet, or a mini-portion of the main dish will do for this. As practice shows, 150-200 kcal is enough for a warm-up. Then, after 25-30 minutes, you can eat the remaining part of the daily calories.

During fasting, drink water, tea or coffee, but without sugar and secondary components with calories.

It is better to schedule training during the fasting period. If you want to eat immediately after training, then something is wrong. Take a test for sugar levels and insulin reaction.