5 Tips to support your practice, yield optimal results

In the twenty-first century, yoga is a great blessing. In today’s hectic lifestyle, it helps us to rejuvenate and tone our body. 

At the same time, it reduces stress and paves the way for the mind to become calm and efficient.

Yoga is not just about learning and practicing asanas, it is also about selecting the right diet because food not only affects the body’s nutritive health but also influences our mental health - and this is why the foods we consume should be balanced, pure and wholesome.

Here are some of the special diets that you should give special attention to if you are practicing yoga.

1. Make detox beverages part of your life: To optimise the positive results of yoga, a strong emphasis is essential on consuming detoxing and hydrating beverages like green tea, hot water with lemon, herbal tea, turmeric tea, peppermint tea, and ginger tea. These teas aren’t only hydrating but also very nourishing and cleansing.

2. Include fresh fruits and common grains in breakfast: Fresh seasonal fruits along with milk with oats, rice, barley, amaranth, and millet in breakfast can fulfill the daily requirements for essential vitamins and minerals, plus such foods are easy to digest and can help avoid stomach bloating. Also, such breakfast helps the body to detox.

3. Space between meals: Unlike the Standard American Diet (SAD), yoga science advises minimal snack consumption in between meals. It is advised so the time gap between meals can allow the body to absorb the optimal nutrient and have proper assimilation of nutrients. This also ensures digestion is complete before the next meal is consumed which may also help assist everything from food cravings to cleansing.

4. Eat a light dinner: Yoga practitioners should have a light dinner to have easy digestion before sleep. For your dinner consume plenty of cooked vegetables, dal, cooked root vegetables at night such as carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin.

5. Eat with gratitude and mindfulness: The most important part of the yoga diet is to eat with gratitude and love and eat mindfully without mind distraction over television, mobile phone, or conversation. This makes you more aware of your food and helps you learn to eat to nourish your body instead of just eating to satisfy your cravings.