Being Healthy With Yoga

Do you constantly eat on the go, snack on junk food and indulge your cravings for sweet and highly salty foods? Have you tried to eat healthier yet feel overwhelmed by all the advice thrown at you from all corners?

Yoga, with its emphasis on eating a healthy balanced diet, offers you a variety of ways to help break unhealthy eating habits. If you regularly eat refined and processed foods, drink lots of caffeine or alcohol, red meat and fatty foods; you increase your risks of gaining weight, increasing your stress levels and depleting your body’s natural reserves as you put unnecessary strain on your cardio vascular system.

If you want to have vibrant health, be full of life and vitality then the foods you eat play a key role in helping you achieve this. Change your unhealthy eating habits and you are well on the way to living a more fulfilling and energised life.

Five Easy Ways Yoga Breaks Unhealthy Eating Habits

1. Yoga philosophy offers you a solid framework in which to choose foods to eat. From a yogic perspective, the purpose of foods is to assist your body to cleanse, revitalise, repair and build up your immune system. A yogic diet consists of foods which are eaten in as close to their natural state as possible, e.g raw or lightly steamed, whole grains, pulses, nuts and seeds, fresh fruits and vegetables. Food contains energy; therefore to gain the maximum energy you need for your body to function you need to eat foods which are nutritionally rich and bursting with energy.

2. Eat with love. Yoga encourages you to get in touch with your inner being. The more in tune you are with what is going on in your inner world, the easier it becomes for you to choose foods which reflect your natural state of being. Have you noticed that when you are angry, upset or frustrated you grab and eat foods which you usually do not eat, or you may feel so mad you haven’t the energy to stomach anything else? Whereas when life flows and you feel good, you feel more inclined to choose foods which make you feel good inside?

3. As you start to become more aware of the spiritual side of life, you develop a sense of awe and appreciation for all life. This extends to the foods you eat. The yogic philosophy of ahimsa (non-violence) recognises the sacred in all forms, including animals. Generally, yogis favour a non-meat, vegetarian diet as this causes the less harm to another being. You will notice that a vegetarian diet consists of lots of pulses, nuts and seeds; foods that are wholesome, natural and full of vitality.

4. Life is full of colour. Look around and notice the variety of colours found in fruit and vegetables. Each colour relates to the energy centres (chakras); choosing a combination of colours in your regular diet helps you have a well balanced diet that enriches your life.

5. Be present. Yoga encourages you to live in the present moment, to be fully aware of how your body feels as you breathe through your practice. When you apply “presence” to your diet, you eat with a conscious awareness and fully appreciate your meal. Instead of mindless chewing and eating in front of the television, eating with presence leaves you feeling spiritually and mentally calmer and fed.

Marketing companies are constantly inventing new and expensive fads to help us exercise, lose weight and get healthy. But if we’re really going to get results, it’s probably just best to do more and more of the things we already enjoy. Frankly there aren’t any shortcuts to good health and fitness, the only real way to be healthy is through a good diet and good exercise.

To get results, we need to commit to a regular schedule, ideally we should be doing something every day if possible. But whatever our personal circumstances, I don’t think there’s a single one of us that doesn’t find that difficult with so many demands on our time.
Of all the choices of exercise available, yoga is perhaps the most versatile, allowing us to exercise almost anywhere, without the need for any special equipment – we don’t really even need a mat.

This means that we can exercise anytime morning to night, wherever we feel comfortable, at home, at work or in our hotel room when we travel.

For most of us, the limitation of yoga, is also one of its most important aspects. To practice properly, we have to know the postures, and the correct sequence to do them. But now we can all get our own private professional yoga instruction.

Ancient practices, modern technology

The latest technology now allows us to follow video based yoga instruction, without having to buy the videos or DVDs. Instead we can access a full library of videos online at the click of a mouse. Our high-speed computers can stream the videos over the internet to our homes or wherever else we want to practice.

Convenience and quality – all the better for us

Having access to a range of different yoga routines and instructors gives us the benefits of going to class, without the hassle or its limitations. Online yoga classes give us:

Yoga instruction on demand so we can practice yoga according to our own schedules. Fit a session in before work, at lunch or in the evening – there’s no need to check your yoga center’s class schedules.
Yoga wherever you are No need to fight traffic, pay for parking or even make a special trip to our yoga center. We can just practice at the click of our mouse, wherever we feel comfortable. Even our hotel room when you travel.
Clear visual and audio instruction – Using the same technology as the Hollywood movie studios, we can get full screen, High Definition (HD) quality streaming video online. We don’t need to wait and we don’t even need to waste electricity downloading the videos overnight. It’s as convenient as putting on a DVD.
More health improving yoga poses – Having access to a library of online videos means we get a wide range of routines and a greater range of yoga poses and their unique benefits to your body and mind – just like you’d get in class.
The highest quality yoga instruction – All yoga instructors have unique styles and quality standards. Don’t let your development be limited by the instructors in your area, get access to yoga instruction like you’ve never experienced before.