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Thread: Yama 9, Mitahara, Moderate appetite

  1. #11
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    Re: Yama 9, Mitahara, Moderate appetite

    hari o
    ~~~~~~

    namasté isavasya

    Quote Originally Posted by isavasya View Post
    Namaste em ji and all,

    Thanks for the topic, but I feel I totally fail in this code of conduct called mitahara. I don't eat much (in fact I suffered under-nutrition for a long time), but I have a very erratic diet habit. Well, in delhi sun I don't feel like going out, so usually I eat only 1 time at 10 in the night, Even the food I eat is really tamsic, instead of water I only drink coca-cola. My food must have lots and lots of green chilly. I eat a lot of potato chips and other junk food to compensate for lack of regular diet. Can any one help me how to get rid of these problems ? I have seriously damaged my health.
    You will receive much advice on what is nourishing and what is not. This works on the intellect. Yet the senses are pulled to where they wish to go. And who is the charioteer of the senses? The mind.

    IMHO you will need the will, self-control to make the changes. This self-control will also ask self-restraint to help. Three areas need to be engaged: the head, heart and the hands.
    • The head - is your understanding of food, behaviors, what is good and uplifting in nourishment and what is not. So some study on this matter is in order.
    • The heart is the feeling and passion to stay the course. That is to start and move one's behavior to nourishing foods and environments.
    • The hands is that final action that puts food in your mouth. The hands ( actions) must be in concert with your plan.
    Now that said, one must be aware of all the six tastes -
    Sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter astringent. When all 6 are entertained correctly for one's body constitution, health prevails.
    It seems you thrive on sweet, salty, and pungent ( coke-a-cola, potato chips, hot peppers). Now how to get the other tastes as part of your diet.

    If I were in your shoes and I really wanted to change my eating habits, I would see a Ayurvedic doctor for an evaluation. Being honest with him on your intake is wise; he will also see your 'intake' by viewing you , doing pulse diagnosis, and other things. He will see what constitution you are i.e. vatta, pitta, kapha.

    More on Ayurved here on these HDF posts
    http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2356
    http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=572

    He/she then can assist you accordingly.

    food is medicine, medicine is food...

    praṇām
    यतसà¥à¤¤à¥à¤µà¤‚ शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṠśivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

  2. #12
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    Re: Yama 9, Mitahara, Moderate appetite

    This thread is one I constantly work on. After having 10 pregnancies in the course of 19 years...Well it's made my body very weak. I was born with the heart condition so it's always been rough.

    But the babies, yikes...especially the twins. I had a large deep vein thrombosis in my greater saphenous vein after the twins delivery and was very ill.

    Hard to rebound as I always had because of months of bed rest.

    I fast a lot. But, because I have some weight, it hasn't been harmful. I'm about 5'11 and 200 lbs so it never has hurt me to go a month without food.

    I make sure to take multi vitamins and drink plenty of clear fluids.

    Something happens after about day three, it's truly amazing. Things that were very confusing to me suddenly become very clear. Some of the most amazing spiritual moments I have experienced was after several weeks of fasting during the time of the Mahalaya Amavasya...I didn't even know of this ritual until this past Spring...but had been fasting on this time my whole life.

    Normally, I eat once a day too...I do drink soda, but it's caffein free and zero calories diet cherry 7-up.

    Truly, one of my only weakness in this world is a caramel granny smith (bright green) apple with nuts. I get one as a special treat when we go to Holiday World. They make it right in front of us with fresh apples.

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    Re: Yama 9, Mitahara, Moderate appetite

    Vannakkam Naya et al: I remember the one time I fasted for the six day Skanda Shasti festival ... only water. And yes something amazing happens after the 3 days. There is a definite shift in consciousness. As far as longer fasting being unhealthy, it is still a matter of debate in various nutrition and medical communities. Like a lot of stuff, you never know who to believe. I get nasty migraines from fasting now, so I haven't even tried for ten years or so. I coincidentally fasted because I'd forget to eat at school. It was the headache that told me I hadn't eaten. Does anyone have any cure for that? Maybe its the coffee. I drink about 4 cups a day, but it stimulates another health 'situation'.

    Aum Namasivaya

  4. #14

    Re: Yama 9, Mitahara, Moderate appetite

    Quote Originally Posted by isavasya View Post
    Namaste em ji and all,

    Thanks for the topic, but I feel I totally fail in this code of conduct called mitahara. I don't eat much (in fact I suffered under-nutrition for a long time), but I have a very erratic diet habit. Well, in delhi sun I don't feel like going out, so usually I eat only 1 time at 10 in the night, Even the food I eat is really tamsic, instead of water I only drink coca-cola. My food must have lots and lots of green chilly. I eat a lot of potato chips and other junk food to compensate for lack of regular diet. Can any one help me how to get rid of these problems ? I have seriously damaged my health.
    Namaste isavasya,

    Sahasranama has given you excellent advice. The most important thing he said is that healthy eating is basically common sense. You really just need to go back to the basics. Base your diet around fruits, vegetables, and grain. It's really simple. Eat a salad everyday or at least a few times a week. Eat a bowl of fruit with your breakfast and lunch. Of course there are plenty of elaborate and healthy vegetarian dishes that require a lot of work, but just start off with the basics. Just listen to Michael Pollan's advice: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

    Jai Sri Krishna

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    Re: Yama 9, Mitahara, Moderate appetite

    Quote Originally Posted by Eastern Mind View Post
    Vannakkam isavasya:

    It is really the simple things to change first. There are certain things that are harder. Going off coca-cola will have more to do with the caffeine withdrawal than the sugar. Such companies put addictive substances in their products just to get you hooked.
    Yes, they also put a lot of salt in coca cola to make you even thirstier.

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    Re: Yama 9, Mitahara, Moderate appetite

    Vannakam:

    There is quite the difference between eating in India, and eating in the west. For starters, health food and organic markets are relatively easily available here. unless you are quite rural. Our main 'cultural' item to be cleaned up is the vast quantities of meat consumption, although forty years ago white bread, and white flour were the mainstay, and you were considered a bit of an odd duck if you ate 60% whole wheat. Rice was a non-issue as few people ate much of it at all. Even then they used minute rice for rice pudding. Certainly it was no mainstay of the average diet.

    In India, availability of certain products, and organic markets are less. I found some regular plain oatmeal, and it was placed in the health food section of the store. Here you can buy it in 5kg bags, and it is still common as a breakfast cooked cereal. Yet there in India, lentils and dhals are all over. Here you have to go to an Indian import store to find many of them. Here things like chick peas were unheard of outside of middle eastern or Indian enclaves within larger cities until recently. Heck, my father was in his 70s when he first tasted pizza. He wouldn't even try papaya.

    Most of this is due to climate and growing conditions varying between places. So when someone from India, and someone from the west discuss eating, sometimes there is a cultural distance that makes it hard to find a common ground. I realised that if advice is to be dished out, we need to consider when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

    Aum Namasivaya

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    Re: Yama 9, Mitahara, Moderate appetite

    Thanks so much everyone for the suggestions, I should really implement them and not just read, though It's hard for me to mend my ways.


    Quote Originally Posted by Sahasranama View Post
    Healthy eating is basically common sense.



    Patato chips, coca cola and other junk food are obviously bad for your health, but you don't have to avoid them completely. Just don't eat them regularly. Start drinking water, green tea or water with a squeeze of lemon. Too much soda is bad for your digestive track, your teeth and your blood.

    You also say you are undernourished, if you are also underweight or overweight it may help to do exercise. Also if you have a normal weight, training has a lot of health benefits. Consider doing a sport, yoga and strength training (in moderation).
    Thanks sahashranama,

    Yes even I have read not all spicy food are really bad, about coca-cola and soda, they are the root cause of all problems for me, people get addicted to alcohol, but I am perhaps the only one who has got addicted to soft-drinks, apart from sugar that soft drinks contain, they also stimulate the brain and causes erratic sleeping habits, I think you and em ji are right, these company put some addictive. Regarding under-nutrition, I was underweight till a few years ago, now i have normal physic. I will take your suggestion of green tea from today itself. Recently I tried lemon as was suggested by another person, and that worked too, but left that after few days and again the same problem.


    Thanks yajvan ji and ramkrishna ji

    I am happy to see yajvan ji having such a faith in ancient science of ayurveda, here in India it's popularity had decreased, but now again it is on rise.
    When the light has risen, there is no day, no night, neither existence nor non-existence; Siva alone is there. That is the eternal, the adorable light of Savitri, - and the ancient wisdom proceeded thence (Svetasvatara Upanishad IV-18). :)

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    Re: Yama 9, Mitahara, Moderate appetite

    Quote Originally Posted by isavasya View Post

    but I am perhaps the only one who has got addicted to soft-drinks, apart from sugar that soft drinks contain, they also stimulate the brain and causes erratic sleeping habits,
    Vannakam: Do not worry. You are not alone. I had a colleague here in Canada who comsumed anywhere from 6 to 12 cans of Pepsi-cola daily. The store aisles here are filled with it. some people can drink as much as 2 litres in one sitting. That, even when our water here is free. I drink tap water, some people don't though.

    The erratic sleeping is definitely caffeine. I stop coffee about 3PM and give myself a 6 hour or so break. You could try that.

    Aum Namasivaya

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    Re: Yama 9, Mitahara, Moderate appetite

    I was addicted to Pepsi and Big Red (big red tastes like bubble gum and it's bright red colored) for years. I worked long nights in hospitals and was raising four small children...all while going to college.

    It happens<3

    Now, I only drink the caffein free, no sodium, no calorie versions of those drinks. It was a hard switch, but I'm six years clean.

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    Re: Yama 9, Mitahara, Moderate appetite

    hari o
    ~~~~~~

    namasté
    Quote Originally Posted by yajvan View Post

    On the other hand fast is an impediment to the acquisition of knowledge of the Self. The renunciation of acts and humility ( as measured in the worship of all creatures and consideration for them all i.e. non-injury) constitute the highest tapas.

    Yet, let me ask our HDF friends - why do you think bhīṣma-ji suggests that long fasts are an an impediment to the acquisition of knowledge of the Self?
    The answer as I see it is offered in the chāndogya upaniṣad , 6th chapter (prapāṭhaka -a lecture ; also a chapter), it says:
    The food we eat gets seperated out as three: the coarsest part becomes waste, the middling part becomes flesh and the subtlest part becomes mind.
    What we eat is composed of the tattva-s , yes? In turn we are composed of these tattva... water (āpaḥ) also seperates into 3 , waste, blood, and prāṇa. There are other elements ( tattva) we can refer to but these two are part of the story.

    Śvetaketu is now instructed to fast for 15 days, but drink water as he pleases. After the 15 days he approaches his father (as his teacher) and says what would you like my to say? His father, āruṇi-ji says you may recite the verses of the ṛk, yajur and sāma ved. Śvetaketu responds and says, I cannot recall them .

    And Why so? It is the nourishment of food that feeds the mind. Without it we are left without a vigorous mind/memory. We are brought down to one amber of a big bonfire, says āruṇi-ji.

    Śvetaketu's life force , prāṇa, remined because he drank water for the 15 days, yet it was not fueled by food so one would be bright as a bon-fire.

    Hence how fasting/food is connected to knowledge... without a strong mind, learning is difficult to achieve.

    praṇām
    Last edited by yajvan; 13 April 2011 at 04:26 PM.
    यतसà¥à¤¤à¥à¤µà¤‚ शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṠśivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

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