Our body is the most complex and durable machine ever built. Not even the most advanced robot is capable of matching the abilities of a normal five year old child. If you treat your body as your temple, it will nurture and bless you with remarkable health and happiness. Though I know that being ‘18 till I die’ is realistically impossible, I am fanatical about being fit and energetic – even when I grow old! I believe that one can control the decay of one’s body and health through various kinds of yoga, pranayam and vigorous exercise. Good habits are vital, too. I have been a vegetarian all my life. I don’t smoke and drink. I avoid cold drinks and frozen food most of the time. When I’m tired, I go for fruit juices, milkshakes and coconut water instead of tea or coffee. I also hit the gym regularly to keep myself fit. However, I still feel that I need to do more to stay healthy and keep looking for ways to increase my stamina.
My friends often wonder how I control the temptation to binge on something unhealthy. My answer is simple – I have never been the kind of person who gives in to an impulse. If I need to cut down on something or lose a few kilos, I do whatever it takes to get there. It doesn’t matter if you’re completely out of shape. Your body is tremendously forgiving and I’m sure you’ll reap the benefits sooner than you think!
What we eat is what we are!
Food! The most important part of our life. Many of you will agree that most of the people on this earth live to eat. If you are a foody, it is a boon to be born in India. This is the place where you will get to taste more than four thousand various cuisines across the country with many combinations of gravy and spices. Because of the climate, our life style and right food habits we never had to worry about weight or any related diseases. The modern lifestyle invited many such problems hence we need to rethink about the food we eat.
Let’s find out what kind of food you should eat and what to avoid for having a complete balance of mental peace, health and strength.
A must have,
Fruits, dry fruits and salads:
It is not a secret that one should eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. But very few know the science behind how and how much we should eat. Breakfast is the best time to eat fruits as the stomach is empty and the essence of fruits directly goes into your blood cells. It is recommended to eat one fruit at a time and take a break of fifteen minutes before the next one. Having a fruit juice is definitely not a good idea as you tend to lose the important fiber while filtering it. Follow our original trend of eating only seasonal fruit as they work best on your body keeping the outside climate in mind.
Dry fruits are loosing its ground in today’s modern life style. But they are the best and the shortest way of achieving a great health. If you want to improve vitality and strength, eat black dry grapes, walnuts and nuts. If you do the workouts regularly, black grapes would be the best thing to have before you start your gym sessions, which was recommended to me by a senior trainer at the gym in London.
Many of us swear by salads with different types of dressings. But remember one thing, anything uncooked creates gas in the body, it is the home for worms as mostly we don’t clean the salads with warm water and it doesn’t give any satisfaction to our taste buds. Including herbs, pepper, olive oil and ajwain or aniseeds to your salad will help in avoiding gastric problems.
Why be a vegetarian?
The human race exists since millions of years. As we evolved we invented variety of cuisines to satisfy our taste-bud. But originally, our body was designed to have fruits and vegetables only. They have a life in them in some ways and work on our body positively helping us grow in health, vitality, positivity and emotional strength. They get digested faster comparatively and have absolutely no side effects to the body.
We included grains and other pulses as we got evolved and added spices for the flavor and aroma in the food. Some of spices also have medicinal properties, which really prevents many unwanted diseases in the body.
The non-vegetarian food is high in cholesterol, fat and many unwanted properties which are damaging to the human body. Our body was never designed to digest such food as it takes almost three days to digest one piece of meat; hence it takes a toll on the digestive capacity of our inner organs. I know that half of the world population lives on meat products but then they are the ones who are suffering with all sorts of diseases. The ratio of people suffering from cancer is much higher in the western world due to meat eating compared to India which is largely vegetarian.
So think twice before eating such things as your body is not the graveyard of dead animals.
What to avoid!
Alcohol, soft drinks and processed juices
Alcohol is the most tempting liquid on this earth and the most difficult thing to leave if you have been enjoying it for years. But trust me, the world of full consciousness and awareness is much more beautiful than what you see after getting a bit tipsy or drunk. As everyone knows that alcohol is responsible for liver problems, memory loss, loss of appetite, loss of physical strength and stamina and the most important thing is you tend to invite unnecessary disputes with people which you could have avoided otherwise.
I have seen many relationships getting spoiled because of the alcoholism of the husbands in most cases and wives in some cases.
Soft drinks
Everyone knows the adverse effect of soft drinks but nobody knows how to avoid them and control the craving for it. Most of the soft drinks are as strong as toilet cleaners. Many scientists have proved that if you put a human bone in any cola drink it will melt in seventy-two hours.
It also reduces your stamina, is extremely high in sugar and highly acidic for your digestive system. I know many people who drink cola while eating which is the most dangerous thing to do as it prevents your natural acid to digest the food in your stomach thus creating problems in the immune system. It is the most common replacement to water while we are on the move but it actually dehydrates your body leaving you even more thirsty.
Processed juices
We tend to get carried away by many advertisements on processed juices which claim to be natural. But the actual life of any fruit juice is thirty seconds after it is extracted. The manufacturers of the juices have to use highly concentrated salt based preservatives to keep the juices fresh which are certainly not healthy. It increases the weight, reduces the white cells of the blood resulting in lack of stamina and is high in bad sugar.
We mostly drink juices in flights, house parties, as evening snacks, serve guests and drink after workouts. Replace it with fresh juices, coconut water, barley water, milk shakes, green tea, herbal tea etc.
Wafers, icecreams,biscuits
This recommendation is only for those who are practicing any form of meditation and want to grow in their spiritual path.
Our body, mind and soul get affected by certain kinds of food, environment, our circumstances, people we associate with and how we think. The food is the most important thing as it controls our emotional self and we tend to think and react to our circumstances in that manner.
If you have been meditating for a long time, you will surely get disturbed by any such food intake while practicing as it is exactly the opposite to pranik food which is mostly recommended by yoga and meditation gurus.
Processed and fast food
As many scientists have proved that the major reason for various types of cancer is the western lifestyle and food which is mostly processed with many chemical ingredients. Just like juices, the life of the cooked food is only two- three hours and not meant for any kind of machine treatment or acidic preservatives. The moment it gets processed, it creates cancerous bacteria which are harmful for the body.