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Yoga and Food?

ByBarbara Valentine

Yoga is not simply an activity that we participate in. Yoga is a lifestyle choice, a culture, a state of being, a mindset. When we start on this path earnestly, we consciously choose to improve our physical state through yoga practice and philosophy. What does that mean exactly? Well, it means many different things. Let’s start with food.

Food is necessary to our very existence. To say this is a bit of an understatement, but the reality is that this is one area of our everyday life that we tend to take for granted. We require sustenance to live. However, many of us go through life giving very little thought to what we eat, beyond taste and convenience anyway. We don’t consider how a food makes us feel, unless it causes discomfort or joy. The misconception we have is that foods brings pleasure, but the reality is that the mind closely relates pleasure or comfort to the foods that we eat through memory. Did that double cheeseburger really bring you pleasure, or did you wait too long between meals and allow yourself to become overly hungry? Is that ice cold Coke on a hot day really joyful, or are you overheated and it gives you the sensation of cooling down?

Food can provide the foundational building blocks for a strong body, but food can also clog the arteries and cause weight gain that destroys the joints, dims the mind, and leads to long-term health risks. Food can be our best ally, and food can be our worst enemy. But regardless of what our relationship with food is, there is no question that food is a requirement for us as human beings.

Yoga teaches us balance and control, not only within our bodies, but within our lives. Yoga is not simply the performance of Asana (yoga postures), it is the exploration of the relationship between mind and body through breath and movement. To practice yoga is to understand and appreciate our bodies, and this inevitably leads to a better grasp of what our bodies need and what we must do to provide for those needs. Food is a huge factor in this relationship. We already know that excess food, or partaking in the wrong foods, can negatively impact the body through weight gain, and this added volume will impact your yoga practice. 

Most people that know me well and have witnessed my yoga journey (so far) will almost inevitably comment on the most noticeable side affect for me: a 60 pound weight loss, to date. This is indicative of a radically different relationship with food that I have embraced and incorporated into my everyday life. Yoga practice requires physical stamina, and sugar and cheap carbs don’t help the cause. Protein, vegetables, and water do. Of course, sugar is much more convenient and portable. But it makes me feel awful, and I now tend to avoid it. Cutting out sugar has improved my sleep, concentration, mood, and general health – this I can say with total confidence. Was it an easy lifestyle choice to make? Actually, yes it was, once my mindset changed.

Yogic philosophy embraces mindfulness. When we incorporate mindfulness in our lives, we begin to explore and acknowledge behaviors and patterns within our lives. And we come to recognize those behaviors that do not serve us. Our relationship with food is usually one of the first areas of adjustment because of the impact that our food choices have on our yoga practice and general state of mind. For instance, come to a yoga class with a full belly and you will find it is not conducive to a productive practice. Likewise, cutting too many calories and not eating enough protein will lead to physical exhaustion and muscle failure, and this will negatively impact your yoga experience. 

Yoga is not the cure all or the official guide to healthy living, but it does help to bring about an awareness of our physical being and the relationship we have with food and drink (more to come on that later). While most physical activity is healthy and beneficial to the body in simplicity, yoga requires conscious breath and focus in asana – an integration of body and mind. The effort is well worth the process.

Every yoga journey is different. However, the components of the journey don’t change. How and when we get there is a completely individual experience. All you have to do is start.

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