Practicing yoga and healthy eating

There is a definite link between practicing yoga regularly and eating healthily and well. There are many schools of thought on what actually makes a healthy diet and that is for all of us to work out.

I find myself in the middle ground of healthy eating. Admittedly I do allow a small amount of dairy products in our house and we, my family and I, do eat chicken and fish. I am not so strict to not allow my children a bit of sugar but we don’t go overboard. But if you were to look at my diet 10 years ago when yoga was not a part of my lifestyle you would see something vastly different.

I feel that the yoga practice I hold so close to me now has affected the way I choose and wish to eat every day. Most days of my blessed life I begin with a sunrise yoga practice. I head out of my house, leaving my husband and kids in bed or at the table eating a sweetly prepared, and mostly hurried breakfast. Smiles and love follow me and I drive off, heading into town, the sunrise before me and bliss awaiting me at the shala.

My daily practice now takes me nearly 2 hours and I hold them dear. It is time for myself, just me and my breath to begin our day. After this time I head out into the world and I feel really great. My breath has expanded my heart and my physical body feels like it has been given a treat.

Once it is time to eat something I don’t feel like putting anything unhealthy in my body. That is a surprise for me as I grew up very sugar fixated and found joy and independence from eating what I thought of as food “I could choose”. Food that was quick and easy and generally left me feeling heavy and slow and plugged up.

A consistent yoga practice has brought a new sense of my body to me. I enjoy the feeling of food sitting simply within. The more I practice the cleaner I feel to eat. This transfers to the rest of my family also which is great. My husband is far happier to eat well and cleanly and my children are learning about food from a very young age.

It is correct and fantastic to think that my beloved yoga practice has had an impact on the way my family eats and therefore thinks. This is true. Now that I am feeling good I can pass on these feelings of bliss to them. Wonderful.

My kids now know and understand that food has an affect on their body and they are learning that they can feed themselves well and feel good. More importantly they are beginning to understand that eating rubbish food does not leave them feeling good. My daughter says to me “it might taste good on my tongue mummy but not in my belly”. Good for her, she is learning that eating well can bring about great joy.

Yoga will slowly and surely change your life in every aspect and just cannot be avoided. Food is great and a way of sharing your love and enjoyment of life. When my family and I sit down to a meal we have the shared understanding that a lot of love went into our food and we eat it up. Eaten love opens the heart. Yoga and love, are they not the same?...

Expanding your consciousness will happen through your practice of yoga. Expanded consciousness, expanded heart and a love of healthy eating make for a great basis within the soul. Eat well and enjoy...