Health - II

Fermented food will require you longer time for digestion. Like Idly which is made out of fermented base.

Our body is alkaline and most of the food that we take is acidic. Even milk is acidic! This is only a relative comparison, when compared to our body. All boiled or roasted or fried food is acidic. So body has to do extra work to convert it from acidic to alkaline and then it becomes part of body. This requires extra energy and gives rise to tiredness.

Different parts in our body have different envioronments. Stomach is acidic, Intenstines are alkaline. Motion of food in intenstines happens only if it is alkaline. Thus a highly acidic food gives constipation. Food stays longer in stomach and causes vomitting sensations. Acidic food if made to pass through the intenstines, burns out cells leading to damage of internal boundaries of intenstine.
When you turn to right and left while sleeping, you add motion of food in intenstines with help of gravity.

Since most of the food is Acidic, it leaves only the choice of Fruits, Salad and Sprouts as alkaline food. Keeping a proportion of 60% alkaline 40% acidic relieves you from acidity and indigestion.
Further it saves body's energy, which can then be used to repair its wear and tear and expand the stamina.
Alkaline food is easiest remedy that can be implimented without much preparation, one just needs to keep track of the proportion of alkaline and acidic.

All that is taken in has to either get converted in part of body or removed out of body. Any residues cause stress. Same holds true for emotions that come up.

Vegetarian diet has full width of all proteins, vitamins needed for the body. However, in a modern day life one is taking a repeated diet of selected ingredients like a daily breakfast only of idly vada or something else. Then the Veg meal doesn't give all the required nutrients. One needs to make sure that variety of cereals, grains are taken in. Dryfruits and nuts also.
As such our body has a capacity that it can absorb all the elements directly from space through breath itself. However, till we learn that, one needs to have wholesome diet!
Sometimes one can take a full dose of multivitamins, under guidance of a physician.
While building body muscles, this is necessary. Else few cramps or muscle pull pains would put you off the track to build your body.

Have a walk!

Some days ago I met Rajesh Sarma (The Kingmaker), and among other things for health fitness, he told me to go for walks. Now I am generally quite averse to walking, so I thought he meant nearby in Koramangala. He continued saying, go from Koramangala to Ashram for a satsang, by walk! :) I burst into laughter, it was surprise and strange, but interesting! I am someone who won't go without cycle from hostel to institute(and now bike), and going for a walk so far was a challenge!

And so I started out one day! It was 4:30 in afternoon. I had just finished the "Hari Om" Meditation and ensured that I had a comfortable stomach. Sun was warm.
Felt good that I knew all short-cuts.
Got to know the real definition of one kilometer. I actually measured one after another.

Saw a nice temple on the side. I used to pass by it fast on my bike. Now I went in and had a nice darshan. It was Vishnu the deity of maintainance, lying on the multi-headed snake, signifying hightened awareness.

I was heading to satsang in Ashram, not on just another walk. So the goal was pristine. I was not in a hurry, so I observed carefully all the life around. People moving around in a hurried way, eating, laughing, doing daily chores, waiting, ...
I noticed that many people on this planet still don't have proper sanitation facilities and live in slums.
The goal was noble and means were tough. The body was in constant action, but mind was quite effortless.

I realised why lacs of people travel by foot for hundreds of kilometers just to visit the place where a sage left his body, or a place where they take a purifying bath or a place of a deity. They are far from being in misery or pain, the entire intention to get close to divine is giving them bubbles of joy within, with every footstep they take. They are leaving behind their normal life, and moving towards the divine.

I had some juice and moved on for few more kilometers. Reaching Kanakpura road felt good. However it was getting dark and after some time I ate some food and took a bus. Bit tired, but not exhausted. There were nice tingling sensations in the legs, kind of energizing every cell. Legs had opened up to a new liveliness and no more aversion for walking!