Top tips to remember from yoga centenarian Indira Devi

Indira Devi is one of the brightest personalities of the 20th century. One of the first female practitioners of yoga, she is credited with popularizing this teaching worldwide.

Indira was born in Riga, but perceives India as her homeland, where she was reborn, and Argentina - the country where she spent the last years of her life.

Embracing the entire philosophy of yoga, Indira popularized the teachings among a number of celebrities. It is believed that she introduced yoga to Hollywood, with Marilyn Monroe, Greta Garbo, Rita Hayworth among her students.

Indira's life is extremely colorful: she goes through a number of vicissitudes, often changes the countries in which she lives, becomes a mother six times, speaks 12 languages, survives a civil war, but all this makes her a strong and wise woman.

Devi died in 2002 in Buenos Aires, having lived to be 103 years old.

Online yoga with Milena Goleva

We will introduce you to some of the golden rules that this woman follows and advises in her book that these are the basic principles of nutrition.

1. In the morning on an empty stomach, drink a glass of clean water at room temperature, you can add a little lemon. Hot water or herbal tea with lemon and honey is wonderfully refreshing on hot days.
2. Never drink water with ice, especially after a meal, because it disrupts the natural process of gastric juice circulation and interferes with digestion. This habit of drinking ice water is America's national sin against good digestion.
3. Drink 5 to 8 glasses of water a day. During the day we release about 2.5 liters of liquid. Deficiency of water in the body is the cause of many stomach problems, constipation, intestinal obstruction, and also liver and kidney dysfunction.
4. Do not drink water during meals, but half an hour before or 2-3 hours after. Drink the water in small sips, not all at once.
5. When boiling water, some useful elements are lost, so to "revive" the water, pour it several times from one container to another. This will have a more invigorating and stimulating effect, which is otherwise absent from "lifeless" water.
6. Eating fruit is more beneficial than drinking it as juice.
7. Prepare fresh juice from carrots, radishes, and beets and add some of the green leaves of the vegetables to it.
8. I do not recommend that you consume alcohol, tea, coffee, cocoa and chocolate, because caffeine and theobromine are highly arousing stimulants.
9. Milk is a food, not a liquid. It should be taken in small sips, otherwise it may cause an upset stomach.
10. Remember: the body is not fed by what we take in, but only by what it can digest.
11. Choose precisely the food that "fits" you best - just like you choose clothes that fit you. Experiment with different foods and combinations until you find which foods work best for your body.
12. Avoid "dead" food - canned goods, processed rice, white flour, refined sugar. Do not indulge in sweets and sweets, and also limit vinegar.
13. Chew starchy foods very well. Starch is converted into glucose under the influence of saliva, and if it is not well soaked with it, it remains in this form in the stomach and decomposes for several hours.
14. Toasted or older bread is better. But do not take liquids with bread. Let the teeth do their work.
15. Do not eat more than one serving of starchy food at a time. For example, if you eat rice, give up bread, potatoes and pasta in the same meal.
16. If you have a problem with intestinal peristalsis, make such a menu that you do not consume starch and proteins together, especially with products containing sulfur - such as peas, cabbage, eggs, turnips, etc.
17. Do not throw away the water in which you cook vegetables. Drink it or use it to make soup. Potato water, for example, is very useful.

Meditation: How to eat and achieve the ideal weight and body by Milena Goleva

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