Eating to Feel Well!

Before Yoga I had no idea just how important nutrition is and not once did I make the connection between what I ate and how I felt. I never saw food as fuel for my body, to me food was there to taste nice and be enjoyed. Now I've seen for myself just how much of an impact what you eat has on everything from the way you feel when you get up in the morning to how you think and act through out the day.

About a year into my yoga journey, I started to become more aware of my diet and how unhealthy it really was. As someone who ate meat for most of my life, I never even considered becoming vegetarian. Vegetables were not a staple in my diet which consisted

mostly of processed foods and junk. I would choose a chocolate muffin and a diet coke over a substantial meal any day of the week! But I decided that I would try to incorporate more fruit and veg into my diet in attempt to clean it up. The easiest way for me to do this was in a smoothie. I committed to drinking a green smoothie for my breakfast everyday whether I wanted it or not and I stuck to it. I noticed an instant improvement to my energy levels. After a few weeks I began to see my digestion improving, my skin looked brighter and I wasn’t really craving as much sweet food. After a few months my diet had improved a lot and I was making a lot more fresh foods instead of buying them in, family dinners became healthier and I was feeling so much better within myself. The best part was I didn’t even need to try my body was naturally craving healthier food, although I was still eating meat. Until there came a point where meat just looked less and less appealing and when I did eat it, I didn’t feel very good after so more often than not I was opting not to have it. Until I just wasn’t eating it all anymore. All I did was add one green smoothie into my diet and stuck to it and 6 months later I was a full-blown vegetarian! It just goes to show how taking one small step, making one small change, can have this amazing snowball effect in your life.

Taking a training in Ayurveda really opened my eyes, I haven’t been able to look at diet in the same way since. Ayurveda is the sister science of yoga and seeks to bring your body back to its natural state of health, happiness and well-being. According to Ayurveda, we are each made up of a different constitution of Doshas (A Dosha is the energy you are made up off) which consist of Vata (Air), Pitta (Fire) and Kapha (Earth). Each of us are a mixture of all three Doshas but with different levels of each. The food we eat plays a major role in the balance of our Doshas. At first the Pitta Dosha was playing out in me stronger than any of the other two and I learned that I was actually eating a lot of foods that were aggravating my Pitta Dosha and throwing it out of balance causing me to experience irritability. For example, I used to eat a lot of foods with, chilli, garlic, peppers and onion which can add extra heat to Pitta. Irritability is something I used to experience a lot and not once did I ever connect it to my diet. As soon as I cut these things out, I could feel the balance being restored and now rarely ever experience that same level of irritation revealing that my natural state is actually more Vata than Pitta. I recommend exploring your Dosha constitution you might lean more about yourself than you think! Try taking an online quiz to discover your Dosha!

Even if Ayurveda isn't your thing it's so interesting how your diet can impact how you feel on every level from experiencing better mental clarity to having more physical energy. Eating fresh food makes you feel lighter, brighter and alive. I'm not perfect, far from it, I still need to work on my sweet tooth especially around certain times of the month but it’s a process and I am consistently making progress. When I look back to what my diet looked like 2 years ago, I’m really proud of how much I’ve improved When you really start to pay attention to your diet you’ll begin to notice patterns and sometimes we are just eating certain foods out of habit and we need to become aware of those habits before we can change them. Like with everything your mindset is so important here because if your thoughts and beliefs don’t match up with the action you are taking then you won’t be able to create lasting change. I found the book ‘The Power of Habit’ helpful in learning more about why we do the things we do and how to change existing habits and if you are interested in learning more about eating the Ayurvedic way Sahara Roses book ‘Eat Feel Fresh’ is great and has so many amazing recipes to try!

Thanks for reading!

Love Renée x

Find my smoothie recipe and two of my favourite juice recipes below!

Green Smoothie

1 apple or 250ml fresh apple juice

1 handful kale

1 handful spinach

1 medium avocado

1 serving frozen pineapple

Fill it up with water , blend and drink! So many of my friends and family have started having this green smoothie every day and are noticing the benefits! Give it a try!

Green Juice