Why Healthy Eating Matters My Personal Story

Namaste lovely people! After teaching a few classes of Yogic Nutrition now at Pratham Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh, I thought it would be also beneficial to share this with a wider group of readers at Pratham Yoga Blog. Many people want to change their diet habits, want to lose weight, put on weight or just get in better shape. They try various diets, not over months, but over years –  often times without success. There are plenty of diet plans around, one unhealthier than the other, but all have one in common – they seem to be rather confusing and restricting, than to be a tasty and easy guide to a healthy body. Unfortunately, today more people are suffering from overweight and eating disorders, or general fatigue than ever before. The food industry became like a huge pot of processed food, containing tons of pesticides, chemicals, artificial colors, sweeteners, thickeners, aromas, and much more. From a Yogic Nutritionist point of view one could say that modern diet is a overload of mostly tamasic food, which effects are terrific for our system – over consumption of tamasic foods increase dullness, depression, laziness, moodiness,cloudy mind, overweight, and generally many diseases. Todays amount of tamasic food, makes a great  part of pharmaceutical and medical income, because the more tamasic we eat, the higher the bills for pills and doctor appointments. BUT the good thing is – where there is a way in, there is a way out also ! Now I come to share with you for the first time in public my personal Detox story (or at least a short version of it): My Name is Carolin, today I work as part of Pratham YOGA India, as blogger and part of organiziation, but also I teach Yogic Nutrition and Prenatal Yoga at our TTC courses. I normally teach also Hatha and Vinyasa Flow Yoga and meditative painting  (but currently I am having a babybreak). Times have not always been smooth, as I guess in all of our lives, ups and downs cross our path as a natural occurance and offer amazing opportunities to learn – if we are ready to do so. I had an awakening in 2012/13 and had difficulties readjusting to the regular patterns of society after a view major transformations in my live. I trapped into unhealthy eating habbits of mostly sattvic food. Yes, sattvic super healthy food can turn into toxin [sanskrit ‘Ama’]   – if we over-consume it. I had very hard times to ground myself during intense meditation practices and therefore tried to do so with overeating and also emotional eating. So I came to gain around 15 kg within only one year of time while eating the healthiest things of my life. I had became full vegetarian in beginning 2012 and vegan in 2013 and than even moved to raw food diet in 2014, which I stopped after only a few months. This was when my digestive system was not able to break down nutrients properly anymore, because I ate too  frequently and too many cold things. I went to see a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) Doctor in my hometown in Austria, Dr. Knoflach in Innsbruck. She was the one who directed me back to eat cooked, warm and vegetarian meals and encouraged me to do a Detox Retreat to strengthen my Agni (Digestive fire) again.   After her suggestion I traveled to Thailand where I joined an 11 day Detox Yoga Retreat including 7 days of fast!   ….and colon cleanse and 2 days pre and post raw food cleanse. It was seriously an amazing experience in my life. After the second day of fasting passed, I experienced a complete regaining of energy and felt I can move mountains. I went for daily Yoga practice, swimming and walking while having only liquids during the 7 days. I recommend such a retreat to everyone to do every 1 or 2 years. After this I promised myself to stick to healthier eating habits and daily Yoga Asana practice, and I did! So it happened to be that I lost all the weight again within 1.5 years and even now after my first pregnancy, I am back to my regular healthy weight. Which weight is healthy? This is a very individual question, i think it depends a lot on feeling comfortable in one´s body but also healthy weight is weight wich promotes good health rather than disease. Being overweight or underweight both are signs that the body is out of balance and disbalance can lead to illness in many cases.   So here are the three qualities of food that we consume according to Yogic Nutrition:

• Sattvic: all food high in PRANA (life force energy) which make the body healthy and the mind peaceful, harmonious, calm, positive such as: fruit, vegetable, grains, legumes (especially softer ones which boil fast), cold pressed oils, nuts, seeds, sprouts, non – processed, natural, fresh, organic, seasonal

                  ->     The SATTVIC diet is the one which best supports spiritual practises, it makes the body feel light                                and filled with positive energy, which is essential for a deeper Yoga Asana, Pranayama,                                                 Meditation,.. practice.  But also it has really great impact on the general well-being and health.  

• Rajasic: all food which is highly stimulating body and mind (make the mind run and body hyper): overly spicy, chili, coffee, chocolate, tea with teine or other stimulants, food which was heated to much 

 

• Tamasic: all food which makes body and mind lethargic, lazy, dull, depressed, negative: all foods which where deep-fried, frozen, canned, processed, not natural, non vegetarian foods, white sugar, pastry, meat, fish, egg, eggplant, mushroom, alcohol, drugs, tobacco

The deeper we want to go on our journey the more it matters what we consume into our body to sustain a balanced heathly life. Not only the food but also other energies we consume should be considerated. The more sensitive we become the better we can discriminate between the different effects of the food and energy we take in. It is up to us, what we choose. But we are free to choose. Take your chance!     Have a wonderful day, Namaste, Carolin