As is well known, India is the birthplace of yoga and that is where it reaped its immense spiritual and physical benefits. As it continued to develop through the centuries, underwent various changes and variations and today has almost over 26 forms. There are many different schools of yoga as well, including vinyasa, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Bikram, and others. Yoga has been shown to be extremely beneficial for both the body and the mind since it lowers stress (something that spikes up when we push our body to conform to a new diet and enhances mental clarity. Yoga thus entails a certain diet that bring out the full effect of its meditative practices, breathing exercises (pranayama), and physical postures and practices (asanas).
Yoga unites your spiritual being with your physical and mental health, resulting in mental calm and stability. Making the decision to go on a diet entails more than just being determined and controlling what you can and cannot eat. Your dietary regimen must become a lifelong choice for it to be genuinely effective. Today, we’ll examine one of the most well-liked diets, the ketogenic diet, and explain why combining yoga with keto not only improves your body’s alignment with the cosmos but also has a number of health advantages.
Mental health well-being has been grossly overlooked throughout the ages. Unlike other physical disorders, mental health is not a direct result of internal mechanism malfunctioning, but a direct response of the soul to the outside environment’s harshness. Hormonal variations also occur as a result of how well or poorly you are feeling. survey records show that 4 out of 10 people experience severe depression, while 6 out of 10 people experience some form of anxiety. While common diseases are easily treated with medication and food, it is commonly believed that there is no treatment for stress and worry other than expensive therapy.
By expelling all the bad energy and absorbing only positive energy, yoga seeks to bring tranquility to both the body and soul. But how will doing yoga bring internal peace if you are plagued with body image issues and what people think when they look at you, and the unreasonable body standards set by the beauty industry does not help either.
When doing keto, you have to consume a very particular balance of meals in order to achieve ketosis, a process where the body metabolism procedure switches from replying on glucose to ketones obtained from fats and that leads to weight loss.
On a regular diet, the body relies on carbs for glucose, which is the primary energy source, and the fats are stored as backup. These fats gradually tend to become the reason for obesity, but if you are on the keto diet, ketones are naturally created in the liver and transported throughout the bloodstream, enabling muscles and other bodily tissue to use this as fuel. It takes a while for the body to adjust but once you pass the initial stage, the water weight is the first to go.
According to the facts, weight loss increases with increased fat breakdown and ketones production. The ketogenic diet then slowly accelerates this procedure to burn the fats faster. Obviously, your body is under a lot of stress with the withdrawal from sugar and carbs. You also have to cross out binging on your favorite comfort snacks and have to avoid eating out even because not many restaurants have keto options.
Under such havoc, yoga is the only way to calm the mind and the body down. You can wonder why not any 20-min workout or a rough sport to de-stress, and the answer would be Sure, why not? But you are forgetting, yoga is a centuries-old spiritual exercise that not only helps you lose weight but also puts your soul and body at par with the universe. And if that is not enough to convince you, then let me explain the benefits in medical and scientific terms, backed by surveys and actual experiences.
The “Happy pill”:
Dopamine, also known as the “happiness hormone,” is frequently released by a variety of foods. But not all of those foods are diet friendly and could lead to gaining a lot of weight if not checked. Dark chocolate is one such food that also happens to be Keto friendly. When doing keto, long-term treatment for depression can be controlled by following a well-balanced keto diet. It helps you shed additional pounds, maintain normal body fluid levels, and practicing yoga at the same time also enhances mental calmness.
According to studies, yoga is the primary type of physical exercise and mental relaxation that is linked to lowering stress levels and boosting happiness and tranquility in people. In fact, those who have consistently practiced a few particular yoga asanas have discovered that they have been successful in reducing their PTSD symptoms.
One can effectively manage the ordeals of life thanks to yoga’s ability to integrate and soothe all of the body’s senses at once. Some yoga asanas affect the way the body functions, which makes it easier for people to overcome their issues with sleeplessness. They are more likely to fall asleep faster and start the next day feeling well-rested, and not exhausted as opposed to people with insomnia. People who have been doing yoga for a long period of time have reported that it has fixed their sleep cycles and improved their digestion problems as well. Having a smaller meal portion complements really well with yoga.
The Body Image problem:
One of the biggest issues related to mental health is ED, which is brought on by their unhealthful eating patterns. Be it obesity or anorexia or bulimia, all eating disorders arise from the problem of overeating or undereating. It arises from either a need to pertain to the ever-changing beauty standards or extremely unstable mental health. Needless to say, Eating Disorder is a harmful condition that has plagued teens and adults for a long time and can be cured slowly with lots of therapy, patience and support.
The majority of people who follow the Keto diet do so to lose weight, and when yoga is included to the diet, the biggest benefit is a healthy eating habit that is created along with gaining mental strength. It is a slow process, but positive benefits start showing once the person puts their mind to it. Yoga and keto complement each other greatly, and if they work together their effectiveness will rise and certainly produce amazing effects.
Blood Sugar Control:
According to experts, practicing yoga asanas and adhering to a diet free of carbs and glucose at the same time is the ultimate power duo to bring your type 2 diabetes under control lower blood sugar levels even if you have high doses of metformin. A ketogenic diet controls the ups and downs of blood sugar levels in your body because it allows for no carbs. Thus, it also influences the production and use of insulin. At the same time, several yoga poses like Titli asana, also regulate the sugar levels. As we know, yoga and the keto diet both aid in weight loss, which is one of the main factors contributing to diabetes. You have to have a low glycemic index and follow a calorie-restricted diet on keto, which helps with weight loss and type 2 diabetes management.
The Heart and the Kidney:
Yoga is a fantastic way to fight against renal and cardiac illnesses. For the cardiac ailment, it helps in purifying blood and pumping it to the heart. The human respiratory system benefits the most from the breathing exercises that are included within yoga. All exercises promote healthy blood circulation and aids with weight management. but yoga makes sure that the heart is in good health by filtering the blood clean and maintaining its flow. In turn, this keeps the kidney healthy and minimizes the risk of renal issues.
The keto diet further smoothens the process because of the ketones that are produced, they become a thrifty fuel for the heart. However, it can take some toll on the kidney which is why it is very important to stay hydrated on the keto diet. Asana, pranayama, and kriya practices help maintain the health of the internal organs, particularly enhancing the kidneys’ general performance. Gentle backbends and twists massages and relieves the kidneys. The exercises facilitate the kidneys’ functioning.
Inflammation:
Inflammation is the primary cause of almost all diseases. Inflammation is frequently linked to higher feelings of discomfort and soreness in the body, in addition to whatever unfavorable side effects may be connected to an already existent disorder.
Eliminating sugar and carbohydrates from your diet is the first step towards significantly reducing inflammation. A homeostasis state is created by default when there aren’t regular glucose spikes throughout the day, which helps maintain the bodily equilibrium. Thus, the ketogenic diet can be relied upon to lower inflammation and promote a balanced condition throughout the body. This has a direct effect on the soreness and lessens it, while also combating chronic joint pain, much like the pain-relieving effects of yoga as well. Yoga will help transform your body in a state of absolute strength and stability, and you will feel fresh as an active child free of most of the pain.
Last, but not least, the CNS:
Our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are the two main subsystems that make up our CNS, with the parasympathetic system being crucial as it regulates metabolism, respiration, and digestion. According to science, keto has powerful benefits for the brain. Let us not forget that keto was not invented as a diet, but it was the treatment for epilepsy since the 400 BCE when physicians in ancient Greece discovered that withholding foods from patients suffering from epileptic seizures could cure their condition. After numerous research conducted in the 1900s, finally the meal proportions to cure epilepsy in kids was designed by Dr. Hugh Conklin. Now there is even preliminary evidence that keto can even help reduce the symptoms of early Alzheimer’s in patients and also Parkinsons. Keto also promotes the regeneration and repair of neuronal injury.
So, this diet coupled with yoga’s leisurely pace and deep breathing engages the parasympathetic nervous system and lessens the possibility that the sympathetic nervous system will be activated, which lowers blood pressure and stress levels that in turn lead to production of cortisol and trigger binging eating habits.
Your muscles will slowly get stronger over time as you continue to follow your customised ketogenic diet and yoga routine. It won’t go unnoticeable, you’ll even hear approval from people around you. One of the many advantages of yoga is that it can help tone and shape your body, and due to following it with keto, your body now has a highly efficient metabolism process and no fats are left sitting idly in your body.