8 Tips To Eat Better If You Do Yoga

To complement the benefits of yoga on physical and mental balance, it is important to improve your diet. Choosing organic ingredients and avoiding processed ones are simple keys to eating better.

Regular yoga practice increases physical and mental well-being. Although the reasons for following their routines are very varied, in general they seek to achieve a healthy relationship between the body and the mind. Did you know that you should eat better if you do yoga?

Although you get many benefits just by practicing the exercises, proper nutrition is essential to achieve the desired balance. This not only allows you to achieve a healthier weight, but also helps improve performance and quality of life in general.

For this reason, if you have just started yoga, or if you plan to do it, you should know some guidelines to improve your diet. While it’s not about sticking to a strict or dangerous regimen, it does suggest some changes to be healthier.

The best tips to eat better if you do yoga

There are many eating habits that allow you to eat better if you do yoga. Although the followers of this discipline have designed dozens of special diets, the general recommendation is to follow a diet based on ingredients of organic origin, without falling into extremes or restrictions. What can you keep in mind?

1. Make gradual changes

It is very difficult for you to change your diet overnight. Especially it can cost you if you are used to some addictive products.

Therefore, if you want to eat well permanently, you will have to do it gradually.  It is important that the change is not abrupt for your body.

2. Avoid skipping meals

One of the rules to eat better if you do yoga is to keep the main meals at the usual times.

Some diets suggest fasting as a way to lose weight. However, it is highly recommended that you have a good breakfast and have at least two snacks between meals.

3. Eat hot spices

To improve your diet when doing yoga, you should limit your salt intake. Then, to replace it, you can make your preparations with hot spices such as cayenne, ginger or black pepper.  

These not only enhance the flavor of your dishes, but also have nutritional properties that improve your health and weight.

4. Avoid restrictions

There is no room for nutrient restrictions on a yoga diet. In fact, these meal plans follow the guidelines of a balanced and complete diet. While they do suggest avoiding foods such as processed and refined foods, in general they allow you to eat “a little of everything.”

Make sure you take in all the macronutrients and micronutrients through:

• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Whole grains
• Lean meats and fish
• Nuts and seeds
• Low-fat dairy
• Healthy oils like olive

5. Eat seasonal foods

A simple key to start eating better if you do yoga is to choose foods that are in season, such as fruits and vegetables. Because they are organic and low-calorie ingredients, they are ideal for satiating hunger without gaining more weight.

Plus, they are packed with nutrients and antioxidant compounds that help flush toxins out of the body.

6. Limit the consumption of rajasic foods

” Rajasic” foods are those whose composition can affect the appearance of physical and mental stress. For this reason, when it comes to doing a yoga diet, it is recommended to limit your intake as much as possible. The most consumed are:

• Onion
• Tea and coffee
• White sugar
• Chocolate
• Sugary or fizzy drinks

7. Avoid tamasic foods

Another variety of foods whose consumption should be moderated or avoided are those known under the name of “tamasics.” Due to the nutritional composition that characterizes them, these foods and drinks make your body appear lazier.

Included in this category are:

• Red meats and sausages
• Whole dairy products
• Mushrooms
• Alcoholic drinks

8. Eat slowly

If you are practicing a yoga routine, you are clear that its main benefits are the feeling of calm, well-being and balance. However, if you want to maintain that tranquility at all times, you will have to improve the way you eat.

Taking adequate time to eat your meals, and especially chewing them well, will be key to avoiding slow and heavy digestions. Try to enjoy each bite so that you feel more satisfied and lighter.

In summary, to eat better if you do yoga you should try to base your dishes on natural and low-calorie foods. In the same way, you will have to avoid any extreme or restriction.

Although you should avoid some ingredients, in general you can eat everything that brings you well-being and balance.