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EATING HABITS OF YOGA PRACTITIONERS

1 – THEY EAT ONLY WHEN THEY ARE HUNGRY

What a lot of people don’t realize is that there is a tremendous difference between appetite and hunger. Hunger is when you are actually hungry for food. It is when your body is telling you that it is time, once again, to acquire nutrients.

Appetite is the feeling of being hungry. Just because you have an appetite, that doesn’t mean that you are starving. Appetite is affected by a variety of different factors. For example, the smell of a particular food may trigger a desire to eat, even if you aren’t really hungry.

Many people learn as children that they must “clean their plates.” This means that they have to eat everything on their plates—regardless of whether or not they are truly hungry. This is a destructive mindset because it encourages people to force-feed themselves, which can make them overweight or obese.

There are people who eat out of a response to an emotion. They eat whenever they feel anxious, angry, sad, or annoyed. Eating out of emotion is another extension of the appetite concept. People have an appetite, suddenly, when they are facing a stressful situation. There is that infamous habit of scarfing down a pint of ice cream out of sadness or stress.

Healthy and fit people eat when they are actually hungry for food. They do not eat until their stomachs feel like “exploding.” They also know that it is not a wise eating habit to eat things just because those things are right in front of them.

2 – THEY ACTIVELY THINK ABOUT NUTRITION

Healthy and fit people engage in the wise eating habit of actively thinking about nutrition. For example, while preparing meals, a healthy/fit person might think about the most nutritious ratios of food to include in a meal. Generally, nutritionists recommend that ½ of a meal consists of vegetables, ¼ consists of protein, and ¼ consists of carbs. A healthy/fit person might take these ratios into account to create the healthiest meals.

Someone who is actively thinking about nutrition will think about the nutrition content of each ingredient as they are preparing and eating food.

There are situations where you may end up eating whatever your friends and family members are eating. Your loved ones might eat things that you would never touch on your own time. However, as a result of being around them, you might end up taking on their eating habits. Again, this is where actively thinking about nutrition comes in.

3 – THEY STAY AWAY FROM OPTIONS THAT ARE UNHEALTHY

Healthy/fit people tend to stay away from unhealthy food options. For example, fast food items have a reputation for being exceptionally unhealthy and fattening. It is the type of food that healthy/fit people would stay away from on their thoughtful eating journeys. They also try to stay away from junk food items like candy, cookies, cakes, fried foods, and whatever else.

4 –  HEALTHY/FIT PEOPLE EAT SLOWLY

It takes some time for your brain to register the fact that you have eaten enough. Slowly eating gives your mind enough time to make your body aware that you are satiated. If you devour food, you will not provide your brain enough time to register being satisfied, and in a quest to be satiated, you may eat more than you need.

It is especially important to chew slowly because the more you do, the more appetite-suppressing hormones release into your body. At the same time, there is a drop in appetite-stimulating hormones.

5 – THEY CONSUME WATER

Another wise eating habit is to drink water to stay hydrated. There are some people who eat more food or drink sugary beverages when, in reality, they are just thirsty for water. As a result, they are putting extra nutrients and calories into their bodies that they do not really need. Also, 60% of the human body is water. Water is a crucial nutrient that directly affects metabolism.

6 – COOKING MEALS USING HEALTHIER INGREDIENTS

Healthy/fit people try to cook and eat healthier alternatives. For example, many people cook with plant-based oils like vegetable oil, olive oil, and walnut oil—as opposed to animal-based fats like butter. People who consume dairy may opt for dairy products that are low-fat. Sometimes, you can just completely omit an ingredient from your meal if it is too unhealthy.

7 – THEY PREFER EATING FRESH, WHOLESOME FOODS

 Healthy/fit people make it a point to eat the most wholesome foods that they can find. Ideally, your meals should be as close to being composed of fresh, whole ingredients as possible. For example, you are much better off eating fresh broccoli that you recently bought from the store than eating packaged, pre-processed broccoli in a container that has preservatives, butter, salt, and artificial flavors added to it.

Ideally, you should be eating meals that have been prepared from fresh foods. The least processed, the healthier the food is.

You don’t need to make meals overly fatty or salty to make them taste “good.” Using the right mixture of ingredients, you can easily create meals that are tasty, satiating, and sit well in your stomach.

8 – HEALTHY/FIT PEOPLE DEVELOP A TASTE AND HABIT FOR EATING HEALTHY

People who are healthy and fit develop a taste for healthy food. They veer themselves away from the stuff that they know is worse for their health. For example, they may only have appetites for healthier kinds of food.  People may eventually develop a repulsion toward foods that are not good for them while craving healthier foods.  After a while of veering yourself toward healthier foods, you may notice a difference between how the unhealthy foods taste and how the healthy foods taste.

Develop a habit of wise eating by surrounding yourself by foods that are good for you. Stock your home with fresh, whole, unprocessed ingredients that are nutrient-dense and healthy. Make sure to bring snacks with you that are healthy so that you are not forced to buy unhealthy foods.

9 – CHOOSING QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY

Some people have it in their minds that eating as much as possible is a good thing. This is even a value that is ingrained in many cultures. “Eat, eat, eat!” is the motto of people from some cultural backgrounds. Many people have grown up in these cultural backgrounds to find themselves overweight and with health issues.

However, it is not good to eat as much as possible. When it comes to wise eating habits, you must focus on quality—not quantity. Focus on the quality of the food that you are consuming—not the quantity. Is your food nutrient-dense? What nutrients are plentiful in the food?

Eating as much as possible on a regular basis is generally not healthy, even if some people encourage it. Having such a habit will give you a one-way ticket to not being a healthy and fit person. It may even give you a variety of health problems.

10 – LOOKING AT THE INGREDIENT LABEL

Health and fit people always look at ingredient labels. Manufacturers are sneaky because they sometimes put undesirable ingredients into their food products that would have otherwise been considered “healthy.”

For example, a lot of companies put added sugar into their foods. At first, a can of peaches might appear healthy. After all, peaches are healthy, right? Well, if you look at the label and see that there are 50 grams of added sugar added to the peaches, then that is a sign that the canned peaches are not healthy.

This is also the same deal with ingredients such as salt and fat. You may purchase frozen food, thinking that it is healthy. However, upon looking at the ingredient label, you may realize that the company laced the food with butter and salt.

The ingredient label informs you about the nutrition status of a food product. You can tightly plan out your meals based on the information that you see on nutrition labels. For example, if you need more fiber in your diet, the nutrition label on a bag of flax might inform you of its high fiber content. A nutrition label that shows a higher fat content might warn you to stay away from that product.