It’s good to practice yoga everyday however it is not enough. Alogn with the physical workout, one needs to keep a track of what they eat. Therefore, here we are with a list of 5 foods which are perfect to include in your diet when you are an ardent yoga follower.

It’s no news that yoga plays an important role in shaping your health. Be it mental stress or physical inactivity, yoga is the answer. But is it enough? Well, unfortunately it is not. Keeping the right kind of balance between the food you eat and the workout you do is extremely important for your body to show the desired results. If you a practicing yoga everyday and having all kinds of junk foods and fried meals it may not do much good to your physical health and rather makes you lethargic or sluggish. Therefore, opting for a satvik meal which makes you feel light, energetic and enthusiastic diet is a must. So, here we are with 5 types of foods which will perfectly align with your yoga regime and will boost your health. Take a look

Moringa green tea

Everyone is either a chai or a coffee lover and is guilty of sipping onto too many cups every day. Even though we love our hot beverages, they have their own positives and negatives. Switching these with a healthier alternative like Moringa Green tea gives you all the benefits of green tea with the nourishment of green booster Moringa. It is filled with vitamins, minerals and antioxidant properties which help build strength and boosted immunity. It also helps maintain bone & joint health, regulate metabolism and aid in weight management thus bringing you much closer to your desired weight and health goals. 

Dill leaves

They are green foods that are not only good stress busters but also boost your immunity. Dill leaves are especially great for women as it stimulates and regulates menstrual flow and helps with the spasmodic menstrual pain in young girls. Women who face absence of menstruation due to being exposed to cold or are anaemic can benefit from including dill leaves in their diet too. Ladies can use the same after childbirth to increase the quantum of their breast milk.

Cauliflower stem

Everyone loves cauliflower and when talking about foods to aid yoga, cauliflower is a veggie whose stem is quite overlooked and not fully used. The stem of cauliflower is often neglected but is nutritious. Cauliflower stalks are higher in fibre, calcium and vitamin C. Thus, chop those stems and boil them in a pressure cooker to use it with other vegetables, make tasty soups, or sautee them with the vegetable itself for healthy meals.

Amla

As we all know fruits are loaded with nutrients like vitamins, minerals etc. that are important for a good over-all health and well-being. The Indian Gooseberry or more commonly known as Amla is one such fruit that is highly underrated but has a lot to offer. Amla contains the highest vitamin C content (600mg/100 g) amongst the citrus fruits which helps in boosting our body’s immunity that in turn helps fight infections. Amla is one of the most versatile fruits since it can be eaten as dried amla too along with fresh amla. It has the same nutritional value as fresh ones and therefore can be stored and eaten all year as a fruit, fresh juice or powder. So go ahead and add this tangy fruit to your food and drink diet and enjoy the added immunity boost to your body.

Barley

Barley is a great superfood that contains essential vitamins and minerals and is an excellent source of dietary fibre and in particular soluble fibre. This is so because unlike many grains which contain fibre only in the outer bran layer, barley contains fibre throughout the entire kernel. So whether you are consuming barley in its whole grain form or a processed barley product, its dietary fibres which include beta-glucan soluble fibre, is available in the products which have a positive impact in improving blood glucose levels and aids in weight loss. Not only barley grains but barley water is also useful as it is said to help with kidney stones.

With inputs from IANS. 

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In this episode of Quick Takes With Bangalore Times, yoga teacher Parul Agarwal talks about five face yoga exercises which tone your facial skin and wipe away wrinkles. “All you need is to practice a few simple facial exercises to look younger and tones face,” she says.
Forehead exercises to reduce forehead wrinkles
This exercise works on our forehead lines and helps lift and tighten your forehead. Over a period of time we develop lines on our forehead. The exercise is done at a count of ten for a set of three.

Blinking eye exercise
These are for the lines and wrinkles around your eyes and helps heal the dark circles. Ten counts three sets of opening your eyes wide and then squeezing your eye. After which keep your eyes closed for ten seconds and relax.

Get cheeky
As the name suggests, it helps tone the muscle of your cheeks and also help prevent them from becoming hollow. For this all you need to do is move air in your mouth from one cheek to another and slowly release the air from your mouth.

Excercise to reduce laugh lines

This exercise is for your smile and laugh lines. And this exercise helps uplifts and smoothens the area. All you need to do smile and kiss and do it for a set of ten.

Chin tuck exercise

It is about the chin area and jaw line and this is extremely simple exercise and works on your double chin as well.

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Are you finding yourself tossing and turning in the middle of the night, unable to stay asleep? Or maybe you’ve always struggled with falling asleep, but now it’s taking hours instead of 30 minutes for shut-eye to kick in.

With a high-stress environment caused by the pandemic, the US presidential election and a world constantly evolving with debates and quarantine rules, it’s no wonder why many people are suffering from insomnia.

The definition of insomnia is “persistent difficulty with sleep initiation, duration, consolidation or quality,” according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. I know this battle all too well. Prior to becoming a certified yoga instructor and health coach, I had my own struggles with insomnia and was on sleep medication.

Determined to change my habits and improve my sleep, I took up a yoga class on a whim after a recommendation from a friend. It was a weekly class that focused on slow, deep breathing; self-acceptance; and connecting breath with movement.

After two months of doing the class, I no longer needed my sleeping medication to fall asleep. It was as if my insomnia was cured, so to speak. It has been almost 20 years since I started my yoga practice. Insomnia, however, has crept its way back at different points in my life. This reminds me to recommit to my yoga practice and deep breathing, as I had experienced its transformative results firsthand.

In fact, a regular yoga routine helps with not only insomnia but also improved total sleep time and sleep efficiency, according to research.

Perhaps you’re a skeptic on yoga, or you don’t know where to begin. I designed this insomnia yoga routine just for you to focus on poses that bring inward calm to your nervous system and allow your body to relax. Whether you do this routine right before bed, during the day or in the morning, a regular practice is what’s most important in order to help with insomnia.

Breathwork and mindfulness is also a major part of this yoga routine. Breathing in through the nose and out through the nose helps calm the nervous system. As you hold each yoga pose, think of breathing in and filling your body up with air, and breathing out to release deeper into the pose. This mindful attention to your body and to your breath, studies have shown, helps improve sleep, too.

Mountain pose

This pose allows you to start by feeling grounded and centered with the breath. It connects you to the Earth, aligns your spine and allows your body to ease into the start of the yoga practice.

Standing with your feet as wide as your hips, press down evenly through all 10 toes and squeeze your quadriceps (the large muscle at the front of each thigh) to engage your legs. Pull your naval in toward your spine. Roll your shoulders back, and allow the arms to dangle down by your sides with the shoulders externally rotated. Open the palms to face forward.

Bring the chin back so that the upper back is straight. Relax the shoulders. Take five slow, deep breaths breathing in through the nose and out through the nose. Fill up the belly and then the chest as you inhale, and release the chest then the belly as you exhale.

Forward fold clasping opposite elbows

This pose has a calming effect on the nervous system because it places your body in a position that is inward-focused. Holding on to opposite elbows also provides traction for your shoulders and neck to help relieve tension in the upper body.

Stand with your feet as wide as your hips, place your hands on your hips and slowly hinge forward at your waist. Allow your arms to dangle down, and then hold on to opposite elbows with your head in the center.

Slowly shake your head yes and no, and press the weight evenly down through both feet. Hold for five deep breaths, and then release the arms down and slowly roll up to standing.

Triangle pose

This pose opens up the inner thighs and groin which can become tight and stiff after working from home in awkward positions. This pose also opens up the side waist and low back. A tight low back and inner thighs contribute to hip and back pain that can cause you to stay up at night.

Step the feet out wider than the shoulders, and turn the left foot in at a 45 degree angle so that the toes are facing toward the front corner of the mat. Turn the right foot so that it points straight to the right edge of the mat with the right heel lined up with the arch of the left foot. Open the arms out to the sides, and turn to look over the right fingertips.

Hinge forward with the right hand, and then lower the right hand down toward the right shin. Feel a stretch on the left side waist. Press down evenly through both feet and open the shoulders so that they are stacked on top of each other. Hold for three breaths, and then come up to the starting position.

Turn the feet to repeat on the left side.

Crescent lunge

Tight hip flexors also contribute to low back pain which can keep you awake at night. By opening up the hips in a low lunge position, your body will feel more relaxed without feeling overly energized. This is a great pose if you’re sedentary or sitting all day as the hip flexors get tight from being in a cramped position throughout the day.

Step your right foot forward and your left food back. Lower the left knee onto the ground underneath the left hip. Bend the right knee over the right ankle. Reach the arms up towards the sky, relax the shoulders, pull the naval in toward the spine, and breathe for five slow breaths.

Release the arms down, and turn around to face the opposite side of the mat and repeat with the left foot forward.

Wide-leg forward fold

This is another inward-facing pose, with your head positioned below your waist and the back of the legs being stretched. This has a soothing effect on the nervous system. Stretching the back of the body also helps relieve tension from the neck all the way down the spine and down the back of the legs.

Open your arms out wide and then step your feet out as wide as your wrists. Be sure to point the toes forward. Hinge forward at your waist and allow your arms to dangle down in front of you and then place the palms of your hands down flat on the mat. Release the chin toward the chest.

Hold this for five deep breaths, and then slowly come up to standing by pressing down through your feet.

Standing pigeon pose

Another forward fold, this pose aids in winding down the mind, body and nervous system and also stretches one of the largest muscles in the body: the glutes.

Standing with your feet as wide as your hips and balance on your left leg as you lift your right leg up and cross your right ankle over your left knee. Bend the left knee and place your hands together at the center of your chest. Relax the shoulders. Flex the right foot and slowly lean forward over the legs only as far as is comfortable for you.

Hold for three deep breaths, and then slowly stand up and release. Repeat on the other side.

Flow through this sequence at any point in the day. While doing yoga before bed can help wind down the nervous system, performing this sequence at any point throughout the day will have a calming effect on the body and aid in your body’s ability to wind down when it’s time for bed.

If you have days when you’re not in the mood to unroll your yoga mat, switch things up with our five-minute yoga routine that can be done in bed! Both of these routines will go a long way toward helping you wind down for more peaceful slumber.

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