Change your diet, change your life

That’s how I look at it, anyway.  In all honesty, prior to my yoga days, I was a red-blooded American meat-eating carnivore.  Years of watching my uncles, mother and father pass away from heart disease started to turn me away from that lifestyle. 

Still,  it was a hard sell for me.  I thought perhaps if I could just cut my consumption I would feel better, and that would be enough.

Long story short, I didn’t fully buy into the vegetarian diet until I began my yoga practice. When I began connecting spiritually with my world and discovering how much lighter I felt body and soul through my yoga practice, I decided it was time to make the commitment to fully change my dietary habits.  Early on, I also had a diagnosis of breast cancer that moved me permanently away from a meat-based diet.  With my family history,  I thought heart disease would be the true enemy.  When that wasn’t enough to make me back away from the meat counter, my encounter with breast cancer surely did the trick.

But that’s not the main reason for the changes I have made. For me, the daily consumption of red meat and animal proteins just didn’t feel right any longer.  Yoga has indeed initiated a significant shift in the way I think and live.  It has made me even more aware of my body and how it responds to my diet, daily stresses and thought processes. 

The vegetarian diet I now follow works with the yoga–to give my body the light and energized feeling I get from my yoga practice.  They work together, hand in hand. 

What I now call the “yoga diet” is so important if we want to truly raise our consciousness to the level where we feel love and compassion for all living beings-including animals.

To achieve a “yoga” diet is not something that has to happen overnight.  It didn’t for me.  I began by gradually eliminating meat from my diet.  Once I had accomplished that, I slowly moved away from eggs, poultry and fish.  If you can’t make it all the way, cut back as much as you can, and you will notice a difference.  There are many heart-healthy recipes available now that are quite delicious and do not feature meat as an ingredient. 

For me, the change in my diet has “fed” my practice in ways I didn’t think were possible.  It has fueled my spirit in a very real way, and given me a more direct route to my spiritual center.  If you want to give it a try and need some moral support, let me know.  I know it isn’t easy, but it IS so worth it.