It’s that time of the year when yoga enthusiasts descend on the banks of the Ganga at Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh. It’s the International Yoga Festival co-hosted by the Uttarakhand tourism board, and here’s a gist of my talk there.
Nurture your hunger, don’t kill or suppress it—Yoga believes that hunger signifies yearning for higher knowledge and youth. Suppressing it will lead to a mundane existence and quicken the process of ageing. Hunger is a sign of good health and competent metabolism. The weight loss industry, however, has gone to great lengths to invent ways to mask hunger.
Count your appetite, not calories—how well the body absorbs, assimilates and excretes food depends not on the calorie count but on the ‘appetite count’. Listen to your stomach to stay in touch with your appetite. A well-nurtured appetite ensures that the right digestive juices and enzymes are secreted, leading to better utilisation of food, which translates into better weight loss.
Trust your tongue—food should appeal to your tastebuds too. The first step of digestion is in your mouth. The better your tastebuds like the food, the better your body learns to assimilate it. And what does your dietician tell you? To lose weight, eat bland food. Well, if it’s not tasty, it won’t rev up your digestion, and will only slow down metabolism.
Eat to nourish your being—don’t eat to distract yourself from boredom or depressing company. This rules out chances of over-indulgence, which is the first step to staying fit, healthy and young.
(The author’s latest book is called Women and the Weight Loss Tamasha)
