Unlocking the Hidden Spa Secrets of India

If you think about Spas, especially with respect to the treatment methodologies and practices available then undoubtedly the place to go to for some of the world's finest treatments would be India.

India as has once been described is one of the Spa worlds greatest trust funds. When you consider it; that is not that an unusual description especially for a country that gave us such a wealth and breadth of wonderful treatments.

It is amazing quite how often treatments have originated from India and gone on to be in such demand worldwide. The leading ones including the following: Abhyanga, Shirodhara, Yoga, Meditation, Ayurveda, Doshas and Chakras.

Yet the surprising thing about this is that despite the wide variety of treatments that have originated from India, the whole concept of spas and western-style health resorts almost definitely is a recent phenomenon with regards to India.

It was said in the old days that if you wanted to steam, all you had to do was step out into the baking heat of the Indian summer and the fat and cellulite would pour off you in a few minutes. That having said that there were always the centuries old tradition of the various therapies practiced at Hindu ashrams (monastic retreats) throughout the country.

These offered a wide variety of holistic and life enhancing treatments such as Ayurveda and Yoga amongst others. However, modern day India has joined the western worlds demand for more and more exclusive and exquisite treatments with a vengeance.

Today, there is nothing you cannot get in Indian Spas and to be quite frank they do it by and large a lot better than most elsewhere. From packaged contortion, aromatic rubs, aura imaging and herbal body pummelling all are available aplenty within the fast growing market for Spas in India.

However it has to be said that it is the traditional Ayurvedic Spa treatments that flourish like a cottage industry in the southern state of Kerala that really encompass and represent India.

Like the vast range geographic and climatic differences that make up India the treatments are accordingly wide and varied. In Ananda, high up in the Himalayas where a wellness sanctuary situated in a restored royal palace in the Himalayan foothills claims to have the world's oldest billiards table you can get the benefit of therapeutic treatments based on traditional Ayurvedic and yoga meditation.

From here you can drop down to the historic valley of Indias sacred Ganges River at Rishikesh where each and every day at Sunset you can witness the Ganga Maha Aarti, a 90 minute ceremony of music and chanting that takes place at an ashram on the bank of the river so there is plenty of relaxation for mind as well as soul!

For the more selective jetsetter travelling within India are a chain of Hotels dotted throughout the north and west of the country managed by Oberoi Hotels. With Wellness Spas provided by Banyan Tree they are much favoured by corporate travellers especially.

In a lot of cases the Hotel industry has benefited in a rather weird and roundabout manner from Indias emergence into a twenty first century democracy. When british rule was abolished in the late 1940s and India gained independence, the large number of Maharajas that had benefited rather well from british rule had their vast incomes from land taken away from them and by and large left with only their real estate or palaces.

The far seeing and forward thinking amongst them realised that there was income and profit to be had from converting these incredibly impressive palaces into modern day hotels and the luxury hotel and spa market in India took off with a vengeance.

It has not looked back since.

Scott James writes regularly on travel issues and more on the above can be found at India Holidays , India Travel and Indian Recipes

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Discover How To Lose 100 Pounds And Keep It Off Without Going On A Diet

You are staring at your umpteenth bland plate of salad or bowl of cabbage soup, while hubby and the kids tuck greedily into mouth-watering dinners. Does this sound familiar? How about the frustration of seeing the pounds you have just lost, reappearing out of the blue and bringing along a bunch of uninvited friends? What if you could discover how to lose 100 pounds in one year and keep it off permanently, without once taking a peek at a diet book or popping a weight loss pill? These 9 tips are all you need for a running start.

1. Stop The Couch Potato Syndrome

Every extra bit of activity helps you to lose weight and revs up your metabolism. Get going now! You don't necessarily need an expensive gym membership, an elliptical cross trainer or a stair climber. Why not try a dancing, yoga or pilates class? Or what about a swimming session, a brisk walk or a fun bicycle ride? Any activity is acceptable. Just choose something you will enjoy doing, otherwise you will soon be coming up with excuses to skip it. Exercise for half an hour five times a week and you will be burning roughly 98,800 calories extra every year (around 380 calories per day). The calories burned will vary according to your body weight, the workout you opt for, and the level of intensity. This vital step will make up to 28 pounds disappear over a period of a year.

2. Kick The Tea and Coffee Sugar Habit

Are you dumping teaspoon after teaspoon of sugar into your beverages without thinking? By reducing your sugar intake by one teaspoon in three cups of tea or coffee per day, you will save 75 calories daily. This adds up to 27,375 calories every year, or around 8 pounds of body weight. Your taste buds will soon adjust. In fact, within a week or two, you will begin to detest overly sweet tea and coffee.

3. Skip The Whole Milk, Take The Skim Milk

While on the subject of tea and coffee: Did you know that whole milk has a fat content of 4%, whereas skim milk comes with less than 0.5% fat? This reduces one cup of skim milk's calorie count to 86, compared to whole milk's 149 calories. Switching to a cup of skim milk a day will reduce your calorie intake with 60 per day. In one year, this is a further 22,000 unnecessary calories. This translates into 6 pounds weight-wise.

4. From Full-Fat Yogurt To Fat-Free Tubs

Why not exchange the 6 ounces of full-fat yogurt for 6 ounces of the fat-free variation? This will take away another 100 calories every single day, without a noticeable change in taste. Taken over a year, the count is a whopping 36,500 calories. There goes yet another 10 pounds of flab.

5. Hold The Mayonnaise

You don't have to cut this delicacy out completely. Just be somewhat less generous with it. If you can reduce your daily intake by 1 tablespoon, you will bank another 90 calories a day, or an astonishing 32,800 calories per year. Who's game for dropping another 9 pounds of body weight? All this while you still indulge in your regular, healthy recipes.

6. Way Less Wining

Say no to 4 fluid ounces or roughly 120 milliliters of wine a day, and you will reduce your diet and nutrition plan's calories by 100 a day. Tot these up and you reach 36,500 calories per year. That is another fairly easy to maintain 10 pounds in one year.

7. Stop The Soda Streams

While on the subject of beverages, you may want to take a look at those cans of sweetened soda guzzled down without a thought. A single 12 ounce (355ml) serving daily comes at a yearly calorie cost of 65,700! Breaking this habit will take care of 18 pounds of flab and fat. In fact, these numbers are likely to be even better, as many servings these days are more in the 20 ounce or 42 ounce region. Measure out 250 cups of sugar, and you will see what you or your kids gulp down in a year. Is that a scary thought, or what?

In addition to the weight you will lose, your digestive system is likely to function more efficiently. You will also have a less acidic body, making your insides less of a breeding ground for ailments. Your wellbeing will improve drastically once your body's PH gets into a more normal range. You will also support your dentist less regularly. Don't worry, you won't die of thirst. How about drinking some ordinary water, fresh veggie juice, or one of the refreshing, unsweetened iced teas on the market? You body will see this as much needed health news.

8. Preserving Your Health

Another simple to implement change is to swop your twice-a-day two teaspoons of sweetened jam or preserves for one of the tasty low-sugar alternatives. This trims another 64 calories a day, or 23,360 calories yearly. Do you choose a jam jar body, or 7 pounds less in the flab department?

9. Potato Chip Pounds Or Popcorn?

Every time you crunch through one small bag (1 ounce or 28 grams) of potato chips, you add 150 calories, with loads of fat and no fibre. In contrast, 1 cup of air popped Sour Cream & Chives popcorn is fibre-rich and fat-free and weighs in at only 50 calories. This is another massive saving of 100 calories. If this swop happens just 3 times a week, you have taken off 15,600 calories in a year, or 4,5 pounds.

None of these changes are huge, but the results can be life-changing. Best of all, they can be sustained without hardship. By taking a look at what you eat, you should be able to dream up at least another 10 tips to cut calories. By doing so, you will be creating your own easy-to-manage weight loss diet plan. You will also be setting a sensible example for your kids, demonstrating that the diet-treadmill isn't the one they should be trying out.

So, stop doing the diet. Just do the math. Implement a few smart, sensible choices and you will have a workable, long-term weight loss plan.

Best-Juicing.com: Get the FREE Fat-Burning Secrets Series, and read the Juicing For Weight Loss article at Best-Juicing.com - by Rika Susan of Article-Alert.com, where she shows you how your day job can become something of the past. Copyright of this article: 2007 Rika Susan. This article may be reprinted if the resource box and hyperlinks are left intact.

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