This blog was written for those individuals that have been practicing Bikram yoga for some time and still find the room too HOT! I’ve seen and talked to some of them, dreading the class and waiting until the last possible second to enter the room, clinging to and gulping from their water bottle for some kind of reassurance and looking fearful. They know it’s going to be HOT in there and there isn’t anything THEY can do about it.

Or is there?

Good news overheated ones!! There is much you CAN do to keep your body cool in the hot room and it has to do mostly with the types of food and drinks you consume daily. Unknown to most modern people, foods do much more than energize us and build tissue.

Foods are each unique in thermal nature making you warmer or cooler. They possess a remedial action – meaning some are moistening, others are drying, others are astringent and so forth. Foods also direct their energy in the body to specialized areas, “entering” certain organs and systems. When I say “foods”, I am talking about WHOLE foods. Carrot. Cabbage. Rice. Black beans. Banana. ETC.

If you find the heat too unbearable, before, during and after class you can’t seem to cool down then take some time to contemplate your dietary habits and do a little basic body inventory (see Kalee Mund ~ Ayurvedic councillor for a more in-depth assessment). Take control of your overheated condition!

Some foods that heat the body:

fried foods

poor quality vegetable oils

red meats

chicken

coffee

hot spices (cinnamon, chili peppers, black pepper, mustard)

alcohol

excessive salt

vinegar

citrus peel

plums

tobacco

In cooking, avoid pressure cooked foods, baking and deep frying. Try steaming and simmering. Increase your raw foods. Eat less.

Now if you can’t seem to kick those foods right off, then reach for more cooling foods, especially in the meals leading up to your next class and see if that helps.

Some cooling foods for the body:

(fruits)

apple

pear

banana

watermelon

tomato

all citrus

radish

celery

bok choy

broccoli

sweet corn

spinach

cucumber

cabbage

potato

lettuce

zucchini

soy milk, sprouts and tofu

mung beans

wheat

kelp and all seaweeds

spirulina

chlorophyll rich products like cereal grasses (wheat grass), micro-algae and liquid chlorophyll

kudzu

Herbs and spices: slippery elm, marshmallow root, red raspberry leaf, flax seed, chamomile, peppermint, dandelion greens and root, nettle, lemon balm, cilantro, red clover blossoms

YOU choose your thermal nature by the foods you choose. The freedom is yours.

As you deepen your yoga practice you will revisit the food issues in your life again and again. It is part of the process and effect that yoga has on the body-mind-spirit and our relationship to the Earth. It will become more natural for you to want to put more balanced foods in your body. If in doubt, practice. Practice makes you strong. You are on an endless journey of becoming YOU!

Blessings on your path,

Tannis

Recommended reading:

Healing With Whole Foods ~ Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition

by Paul Pitchford ~