Nutrition, health
Kitchari is a relatively simple dish, easy to digest, which warms the body and calms the mind. It cleans the digestive system and suits well for a mono-diet of a few days. In Ayurveda, it is suitable for all doshas. Perfect for the winter months, especially after the holidays to rebalance the body after some abuse 😉
It is a mixture of lentils and rice, cooked with vegetables (organic, local and seasonal to do well) and Indian spices. The preparation of the dish takes a little time, but one can cook a little more to consume it over two days.
Add fresh chopped ginger and all the spices (depending on taste: cumin, mustard seeds, coriander, turmeric … or mix of curry ready!). Then the same quantity of rice and lentils is added in twice their volume of water (the quantity of water depends on the personal tastes).
According to the vegetables selected, they will be added cut into pieces at the beginning or a little later, depending on their cooking time. After a few minutes of cooking on high heat, cook over low heat, stirring with love from time to time until the ingredients are completely cooked.
Recipe ideas are numerous on the Internet, I have no favorite or advise for you, it will depend on what you have on hand and your inspiration of the moment!
Nutrition, health
New term trendy those days, orthorexia is the obsession with healthy eating. As its Greek root may indicate to some of you, it is a pathology. A pathology that could well affect the yogi of modern times as well …
Indeed, if it is proven that balanced food allows one to have a body in harmony, focusing only on this aspect of life is to reduce ones Being to its purely physical part. If the mind is constantly preoccupied (= “occupied before”) with what to eat or not, how to prepare it, how to have an fare environmental impact etc., the objective to eat well to reach peace and harmony of spirit fades away.
It is therefore a question of harmony, of balance between what our body claims, what is good for it and what our mind wants to give it.
Each person is different, there is no universal talk applicable to all . It is therefore up to the yogi to listen to his body, to make experiments to get to know himself and find the food that suits him best, while enjoying!
Nutrition, health
I have already told you that we become what we eat, no? Happy food, happy mood. But what do you mean by “happy food”?
For the yogi, it is the food filled with Prana, the one that has been fed by nature, sun, natural water, rich soil etc.
This food is not difficult to identify, it is the one that is easy to digest and eliminate from our system. By observing what is going on within your body in relation to what you are eating, you will probably find that plants are the best answer to this definition … but only your body can confirm it.
So be curious, get to know the foods that make your body happy, and most often avoid those that make it grumpy!
Philosophy
For the yogi, Prana is the vital energy. It is the equivalent of qi or chi. “Pra” means “before”, “na” “breathing”. Prana is the energy that precedes all life according to yogic tradition.
Without Prana, no life then. Thus we shall leave this earth by an expiration of the last little Prana which kept us alive until then.
Prana is found not only in healthy, untreated food, but also in the air we breathe. That is why some yogis claim to have lived several years by feeding exclusively with Prana (no physical nourishment!)
To fill up with Prana is to fill up with vital energy.
The next time you are in a place that seems to be loaded with this Prana (in the forest, by the sea, in the countryside, in a park, by a lake, in the mountains etc.), try to fill up yourself: take several deep inhalations while thinking of this Prana vibrating around you that enters your lungs
Hold the breath for a moment and then exhale by letting the Prana spread in all the cells of your body 🙂
Nutrition, health
Think about it for a moment: what are we made of? Bones, muscles, organs, tissues … all made up of billions of cells. These cells are alive: they need energy, vitamins and minerals to grow, function and communicate. And their source of nourishment comes from the process of digestion.
Indeed, digestion is most of all the transformation of food ingested into molecules assimilable by our body.
So our body is made up of what we offer it: I become what I eat!
So if I give him “happy food,” my body becomes happy, if I give him “grumpy food,” he becomes grumpy! And when one knows the link between body and mind, our mood is necessarily impacted: happy food, happy mood!
