A Good Diet Plan for Yoga

A healthy exterior always starts from the inside. While you may have taken yoga classes to build a flexible, muscular body and strong core, optimal health is just as much about what’s on the inside. A good yoga diet plan can help you promote healing, balance and inner peace.

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What is a Yogic Diet? 

As the name suggests, the yogic diet is a special diet plan based on the yogic principles of cleanliness and purity (saucha), non-violence (ahimsa) and a state of equanimity (sattva). Created by Yogi Bhajan, it involves eating whole, unprocessed foods with sattvic properties that boost energy and help you create a mind-body balance.

Just as athletes need to eat a healthy balanced diet to enhance their athletic performance, yoga practitioners need to follow a yoga diet plan to promote spiritual and physical health and be consistent with yoga philosophy.

What Makes a Right Yoga Diet Plan? 

Lots of yogis and yogis, mostly beginners, think that switching to a proper yoga diet plan will instantly help them get rid of their physical and mental problems. The first thing they need to know is that even though it’s touted as a diet, it won’t help you temporarily or quickly fix your weight loss, improve your yoga flow, or eliminate anxiety.

We bet most of you are thinking right now, “Okay, this is like following a healthy diet at the gym while keeping your expectations low. But what exactly makes up the right yoga diet plan?” Therefore, you should see the principles below as solutions to an overall healthier yoga lifestyle.

According to the principles of saucha, ahimsa and sattva, your proper yogic diet should include:

• Vegetarian foods

• Sattvic foods

• Organic foods (free from chemicals)

• Fresh foods

• Eaten at regular intervals

• Fasted for at least a day

The health benefits of adopting a yogic diet are numerous and comprehensive. This diet is not only about what you eat, but also how you eat and the overall lifestyle you lead. By following the principles of a yogic diet, you can experience better physical, mental and spiritual well-being. Here are some of the key benefits:

• Increased energy and vitality
  The yoga diet emphasizes fresh, whole foods that are packed with essential nutrients. By nourishing your body with healthy plant foods, you promote a balanced flow of prana, or life force energy, increasing your energy levels and increasing your vitality. This can lead to increased productivity, better focus and a greater sense of overall well-being.
• Improved digestion
  A yogic diet promotes foods that are easy to digest and high in fiber. This can help relieve digestive problems such as bloating, constipation and indigestion. Incorporating foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes can promote a healthy gut and ensure smooth digestion.
• Weight management
  Following a yoga diet can be an effective way to manage your weight. This diet encourages the consumption of nutrient-dense foods while avoiding processed and unhealthy options. By focusing on a balanced intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and plant-based proteins, you can maintain a healthy weight and prevent weight problems.
• Detoxification
  A plant-based diet emphasizes eating foods that are clean, natural and toxin-free. By eliminating processed foods, artificial ingredients and chemical additives, the body can go through a natural detoxification process. This helps in cleaning the digestive system and removing accumulated toxins from the body.
• Inner peace
  The yogic diet encourages the consumption of sattvic foods, which are believed to promote inner peace and harmony. Sattvic foods are known for their purity and lightness and include fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and herbal teas. These foods are believed to have a calming effect on the mind and promote clarity and focus, making them ideal for those looking to enhance their meditation and yoga practices.

How to Follow a Yogic Diet

Starting and following a yoga diet can certainly be challenging. It’s best to go slow and ease your way into it. Start with one or two changes and see how you feel. Slowly explore and add more changes as you can. Most importantly, make sure these changes don’t create stress or imbalance in your life.

• Eat fresh seasonal foods
  A yoga diet consists of whole, fresh, seasonal foods and organic, locally grown foods and as close to their natural state as possible. Try growing your own vegetables in a garden or container, shop at farmers markets, or buy directly from local farmers. Buy fresh produce in season and avoid processed and packaged items, even if they are organic. Expired and canned foods should also be avoided.
• Be vegetarian
  A plant-based, whole-grain diet is essential for yogis. Fortunately, vegetarianism and veganism have become quite popular, making it much easier to go meatless when shopping, cooking and dining. Nuts, dairy products, leafy greens, and legumes are great sources of high-quality protein in a vegetarian diet.
• Avoid chemicals and stimulants
  We are exposed to chemicals almost everywhere – in the air, in the water and especially in the junk food we eat. One of the goals of hatha yoga is the purification of the physical and energetic body. Therefore, the reduction or elimination of chemicals and stimulants is encouraged. If possible, avoid processed foods, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, alcohol and tobacco to move towards a healthier lifestyle and create clarity in your body and mind.
• Eat at regular intervals and allow space between meals
  Apart from the first meal of the day, it is important to keep at least five hours between meals. This will allow your system to fully digest your last meal. When you eat at regular intervals, your meals will taste better and you will be less likely to overeat. It would be best if you only eat when you are really hungry and not because of stress or boredom.
• Eat two hours before asana practice or sleep
  To avoid the discomfort of a full stomach during asana practice, it is important to keep your meals small and light. It is also important to eat at least two hours before practicing yoga.
• Make lunch the biggest meal of the day
  Ayurvedic theory says that the digestive fire is strongest at noon and encourages the consumption of the largest meal at noon. Raw vegetables and hard-to-digest proteins are best for a yogi’s midday meal. Small amounts of fat should come from healthy sources such as nuts and seeds and cold-pressed olive oil or high-oleic safflower oil.
• Eat mostly cooked foods at dinner
  Yoga diet recommendations recommend eating cooked dinner as it is easier to digest than raw food. Cooked food is much easier for the body to digest, allows for faster absorption and allows you to rest more after eating. Try to eat as many cooked vegetables as possible with dinner. Include comforting soups and root vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, winter squash and beets.
• Emphasize healing herbs and spices
  The yogic diet emphasizes medicinal herbs and spices such as turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, fennel, mint, basil, cumin, parsley, coriander and black pepper. This spice offers many benefits to your body, including aiding digestion, alkalizing the blood, boosting mood, reducing anxiety, and promoting cleansing and healing. If you want to make your diet more healing, work on adding more of these healing herbs to your meals. You can also use some of them in herbal teas. While you can purchase tea bags with pre-mixed herbal blends, making your own herbal teas by steeping fresh or dried herbs in hot water can give you a stronger and more customized brew. Avoid hot peppers such as jalapenos or cayenne pepper as they can be too stimulating to the body and can disrupt the calm and balanced state that yoga strives to achieve. Instead, opt for milder spices like paprika or mild chili powder to add flavor without overwhelming your system.
• Eat with mindfulness and a positive attitude
  Your attitude towards food is more important than the food itself. In our fast-paced world, it’s hard to think of food as a spiritual practice. Therefore, yoga teaches that food should be an act of love and gratitude; you take nourishment from Mother Earth and you should honor that. Mindful eating can help you avoid mindless munching or overeating by helping you focus on what you’re grateful for and what you’re not. When you develop peace with food, you can begin to learn how to eat mindfully, control how much you eat, and understand what your body needs to maintain balance and health. Being mindful of what you eat can lead to weight loss, a healthier heart, a peaceful mind and a longer life.
• Consider fasting
  The concept of fasting should be considered in the context of a yogic diet. Fasting is the practice of abstaining from food and/or drink for a period of time. The purpose of fasting is to purify the body, seek a spiritual goal, or express devotion to a chosen deity. Different methods of fasting also vary in their requirements – from abstinence from all food and liquids to abstinence from only certain foods, for example. Fasting is not recommended for people with digestive problems or a tendency to gain weight. Fasting for more than a few days is not recommended as it puts excessive strain on your body’s systems.

Want to learn Yoga? Want to become a Yoga trainer? Start your journey today!