It is common knowledge that human beings have eaten plants for literally thousands of years, yet it is only recently that the benefits of going “plant-based” has been propelled into the mainstream. Similarly, the ancient practise of Yoga (which also appears to be synonymous with plant-based diets), is also growing in popularity.
So what are the benefits of Yoga and eating a plant-based diet, and can they really improve your well-being?
Well today you are going to learn the story of one of the world’s most famous bodybuilders who ditched his heavy lifting and meat-based diet for Yoga and plants. You’ll also discover the exact benefits of Yoga and plant-based eating, along with the actual science behind them.
Let’s get started.
Dorian Yates 6 x Mr. Olympia
If you have never heard of the name Dorian Yates, you’ve probably never heard of the sport of bodybuilding. Dorian is world famous and known in every part of the globe for his prolific 6 Mr. Olympia (the most prestigious bodybuilding title in the world) victories. Dorian has become a synonym for bodybuilding.
Back in the early 1990’s Dorian was training in the shadows at his Temple gym and literally took the bodybuilding world by storm. Within 2 years of turning pro, not only did he win the Mr. Olympia, which was unheard of in this timeframe, but he was also a pioneer behind his then new high intensity training (HIT) philosophy which contradicted the then current bodybuilding training systems.
Rather than spending hours in the gym every day, doing set after set, Dorian’s training was VERY brief, and VERY intense. Typically he would spend 45 minutes to 1 hour max in the gym, building up to do just 1 maximum set performed under control to complete muscular failure and beyond, using 1-2 forced reps. As you can imagine, this gave Dorian and his Temple gym the most hardcore reputation in the bodybuilding world.
By the mid 1990’s he’d built his self all the way up to 310 pounds eating a TON of meat and lifting a TON of iron. Yet today Dorian is a changed man, he no longer lifts heavy weights and eats copious amounts of meat. Rather, he is now a seasoned Yogi and follows a plant-based diet.
So what brought on the change and why has Dorian now swapped heavy lifting and a meat-based diet for Yoga and a plant-based diet?
Health and Well-Being Benefits of Yoga
In his own words, Dorian says; “I feel like I have almost got a new body, that’s the benefit of Yoga”. So it turns out that your emotional state governs your physical health, or as the late Albert Einstien said; “The Field is the sole governing agency of the particle”. However, you don’t need to be a theoretical theorist to understand these types of phenomena.
Today the study of cymatics teaches us that form is frequency and frequency is form. In other words, you can think of your emotional state as the frequency or in Einstein’s terms; the governing agency of your body. Therefore if you are in a negative state of mind your vibration will change accordingly. The effect of this is that each one of your trillions of cells that makes you, you, then follow suit and vibrate according to your emotional state.
Needless to say your physical health is shaped by your emotional state and thus is pivotal in maintaining your health and well-being.
Although Yoga is purported to improve stress, anxiety, and depression, until recently the scientific community had not paid much attention to these claims. However, scientists are now beginning to understand just exactly how Yoga improves your well-being.
For example, researchers of Yoga have discovered many various benefits, including helping to regulate blood glucose levels, improving posture and flexibility and helping to keep the cardiovascular system in tune. Yoga also has been shown to have important psychological and physiological benefits such as increasing mental energy and positive feelings, and decrease negative feelings of aggressiveness, depression and anxiety, along with impacting important positive immunological responses (1).
Scientists are now making the connection between the positive physiological and immunological responses that Yoga achieves, with an improved level of health and physical well-being.
Plant-Based eating is good for your health.
It’s not just the practise of the metaphysical that will better your well-being, but also the physical. As the old adage goes; a healthy mind, a healthy body. Consider this is also true in the opposite; a healthy body, a healthy mind. While one can improve the other, pay close attention to both for maximum benefit to your well-being.
Generally speaking meats are a great source of protein, but contain too much fat and worse still, too much saturated fat. Then you have processed meats which due to their processing contain higher amounts of trans fats. Trans fats then Saturated fats are the worst types of fat that you can consume. Consuming too much trans and saturated fat is a known cause of diseases such as; obesity, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease (2).
Unprocessed plant-based foods do not contain these bad fats and therefore do not cause disease, but, on the contrary, help heal your body from disease. Furthermore, plants contain an abundance of important micronutrients such as minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, fibre and other healthy phyto-nutrients.
In fact plant based diets have been shown to significantly improve mental health, support weight loss and help in the management of diabetes. Additionally, plant-based foods could potentially improve diabetic neuropathic pain and the levels of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides in type 2 diabetes (3).
Perhaps you should take a leaf out of Dorian’s book and turn to Yoga and plant-based eating to better your health and well-being?
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