Fuel your body with a balanced diet because as we all know, a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Whether you practice intense power yoga or slow-paced Yin or Hatha, a healthy diet is a key for both focus and energy to take you through your practice. Yoga strengthens our body but without protein, our muscles will be weak during practice and daily life.
It’s crucial to have a balanced diet full of vitamins, nutrition, high fiber, healthy fats, and natural sugars to keep you grounded and satisfied. To get the most from your yoga practice, here is a little guide to help you choose the right food for staying strong and healthy:
Traditional Leafy Greens
From collards to kale, arugula to mustard greens are overloaded with vitamin C, E, and K, fiber, iron, and calcium, and so much more. As we know yoga is good for the entire body and adding green to your diet can help you boost these benefits even more. Add them in a smoothie, salad, or sautéed as a side dish.
Chocolicious Raw Cacao
The main ingredient of chocolate – raw cacao is packed with antioxidants to fight diseases, magnesium to support your emotional health, and flavonoids to reduce the risk of heart diseases. Yoga has been found to help humankind live longer, happy life, and consuming raw cacao can aid benefits too.
Future Grain Quinoa
A punch of protein and energy helps in concentrating – quinoa is a great way to be healthy. It contains all crucial amino acids, vitamin B2 to help your cells in producing energy, iron for healthy blood, and magnesium for controlling sugar. It can be eaten in the place of grain like rice, or in the place of breakfast instead of oatmeal.
Fun Porridge
A great source of fiber, low on the glycemic index, and helps in lowering cholesterol – porridge is a treasure of health. Yogis with the issue of ayurvedic constitution Vata can benefit even more from porridge’s warming quality, especially when made with cardamom and cinnamon. It is easy to digest as it slows down burning and great for sustained energy.
Sweet Berries
Bright colors of berry indicate the presence of disease-fighting antioxidants. Berries spice up the taste of the smoothie. Since berries are high in fiber, they keep hunger in the bay and helps in keeping everything moving. The natural sugar in berries helps you get through your practice without crashing as high sugar snacks do.
Colorful lentils
Lentils are widely known as a fountain of youth for their anti-aging benefits. Lentils have high folate than any other plant food. Loaded with protein and iron are enough to keep you energized during a challenging yoga practice. Try Indian recipes with warming spices to keep you grounded when life becomes too much and your practice needs a little help too.
Fresh Fruits
Aside from being delicious, seasonal fresh fruits are high in antioxidants, fiber, and many more. A healthy and tasty source of satisfying your hunger pangs with variety. Their natural sugar content satisfies your sweet cravings while boosting your energy without a crash to refined sugars. You may check a local farmer’s market to have fun with all the fresh fruits you can find.
Simple lemon and water
Replace your caffeine intake with healthy lemon in water to kick start your digestive system in a healthy manner. Warm lemon water helps in alkalizing the body which helps control the development and spread of diseases. Warm lemon water helps in keeping your muscles and joint health and is highly beneficial for power yoga practitioners.
