Health

Of all the exercise supplements that you can get, the one that gives you the most bang for your buck, without an iota of doubt, is the humble sodium bicarbonate, aka baking soda.

The alkalinity / acidity of our body is measured on a pH scale. On this scale, from 1 to 14, 7 is neutral, below 7 is acidic, and above 7 is alkaline.

Our body's ideal pH is around 7.36, on the alkaline side of things. When the body becomes acidic all sorts of health problems develop.

I'll talk first about exercise, then about general health.

Alkalinity and Exercise

When you do exercise that works your muscles they first burn oxygen in the blood stream as fuel. Once you exceed the oxygen carrying capacity of your heart/lungs/blood your muscles turn to anaerobic respiration - literally "breathing without air". Stored reserves are burned in a chemical reaction that releases oxygen for the muscles to use, and also lactic acid. As the acidity in the muscle rises it begins to fatigue. This lactic acid build up is also responsible for muscle soreness and stiffness the day after exercising.

There are two things that will increase your body's ability to stretch - heat and alkalinity.

Drinking sodium bicarbonate helps to keep the acidity of your body down. An intracellular pH buffer like Beta Alanine does the same thing on a really low level, but it's more expensive than sodium bicarb.

Alkalinity and General Health

You can read more on this subject in this article: The pH Equation & Health.

Here's a chart of Acid and Alkaline Foods.

The bottom line is: alkalize to survive.

I can say that with 100% certainty. Let me tell you my own story in this regard. After a lot of research I'm able to describe this to you, and let it be a cautionary tale:

My wife found a lump in her breast, and she didn't do anything about it. She's almost afraid of hospitals and doctors, and it's only with great effort that I'm able to get her to go when it's really necessary.

By the time she told me about it, it had grown significantly, and it was increasing in size at a rapid rate.

What had happened was that due to her diet her body had become very acidic. As a result her body drew the acidity away from her organs by building up cellulite. She then went on a fast from grains. This resulted in her body consuming the cellulite, but drawing the acidity back in.

If you want to lose weight, and especially cellulite, make sure that you alkalize your body, because cellulite is the body's natural defense against an acidic state.

The acidity accumulated in her body tissues, and the breasts are particularly susceptible to this. As a result of the pathologically acidic state a tumor began.

The doctors were not able to describe this to us, but merely told us that we had no choice but for her to undergo surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. I noted that the chart that they used to describe the situation to us had been supplied by a pharmaceutical company, and I also noted that they asked no questions about lifestyle, or showed any inclination to understand, explain, or address the preconditions that had caused the tumor. I also noted that with a small amount of product training I could also sell those products to people coming in to the hospital.

We went out and did the research instead. Yes, there are conflicting opinions and experiences out there on the net, but it's just a matter of reading through hundreds, or even thousands of them, and picking up the patterns.

That's what we did, and alkalinity/acidity came out as the common factor.

We switched to an alkalizing diet and lifestyle, juicing greens hourly, eating alkalizing foods, and dropping acidic foods.

The result was that the tumor stopped growing completely.

One of the easiest and most powerful ways to alkalize your body is by drinking alkaline water. You can get pH strips at a health food store and test the water you drink. We found that the bottled water supply that we were using was actually slightly acidic. By adding a small amount of sodium bicarbonate to it you can make it alkaline.

You can use pH strips to figure out how much to use, but I do it by taste - just enough to make the water taste "mellow". Param Satya overdid it (as she is apt to do) and her face broke out with a rash due to excessive alkalinity. You'll figure it out.

Sodium bicarb ftw!

www.foodmatters.tv

Today I struggled like a little girl in the Bikram class. Actually, girls are quite flexible, and I'm not, so I'm using that as a manly metaphor for having difficulty.

Last night I slept 7 hours, from 11pm - 6am. I went to bed so late because I waited up for Adam to arrive from Sydney, and then had prasadam with him and Prem, Vraj, and Josh.

The night before I also slept 7 hours, but from 7.30pm - 2.30am. And that day I did two classes, back-to-back, like I was drinking a glass of water.

The conclusion? As any Ayurvedi will tell you - the hours before midnight are worth twice those after in terms of sleep.

Maha-mantra wrote me a while back with this gem:

Oil massage is medicine for the vata body type,
Exercise for the pita body,
and Sleep for the Kapha.

My body type is a combination of pita and kapha, so I need to do hard exercise and sleep. My New Year's Resolution for 2009 is to get more quality sleep. Pretty spiritual, huh?

We should not pray for good health, rather we should work dutifully to maintain the body we have been given, and accept what happens as the Lord's mercy upon us.

With respect to the body our prayer should be that the Lord's will be done to our body and through our body.

There is a difference between thinking of your body, and thinking you are your body.

The right type of bodily consciousness is favorable to sustained devotional service.

Namacarya das asked for more information on vinyasa yoga and ujjayi breath. Here it is:

Vinyasa yoga - Sun Salutation:

Ujjayi breath:

Best thing to do is to go to a class. Go to a Power Yoga, Astanga, or Bikram class to learn yoga forms that will help you to sweat it out.

You've got to break a sweat every day. When your body temperature goes up enough to break a sweat the T cell production in your blood increases by a factor of 15-20. This boosts your immune system function. This is why you get a fever when your body is under attack. If you do this proactively you can avoid sickness, and more easily shake it off when it does get you.

Vaisnavas are transcendental to their body, but we have a body, and we have to look after it. Don't be "transcendental to your body" and then come with the hourly body report when you get sick. I don't want to read about your body being sick, because I don't want your body to be sick. I'd rather read about what you are doing to avoid sickness - that's something that I can follow. By all means write about it when you get sick, but please, please, please be proactive in keeping your body and soul together for the service and pleasure of Sri Sri Radha Krishna.

If you dance in the kirtan before the Deities with enthusiasm and vigor, and break a sweat each day, this alone will do wonders for your health. Dance as if your life depended on it, because it does. If that's not possible then do some aerobic exercise or vinyasa yoga with ujjaya breathing until you sweat for ten or twenty minutes. I'd rather read about you doing this, than read about you struggling for your life. Be Proactive.

Make sure that you drink enough water. If you dance vigorously in kirtan and sweat you need to replace that water and more. Failure to do this can lead to chronic dehydration, a situation that causes another set of health complications.

Drink water, sweat. Every day.

With apologies to all you pasty-skinned, calcium-deficient vegans out there ("I keed, I keed!"):

Drops of nectar from the Vaisnava Body Building Group on Facebook.

Whey protein, made from cow's milk, is the best source of protein for the human body, according to present nutritional and sports science.

Whey protein powder (isolate and concentrate) is a byproduct of cheese production. Milk is separated into curds and whey using rennet. The whey is then dried under a low temperature and turned to a powder.

Ajita Krsna points out that the rennet used in commercial cheese production is commonly made by killing small calves, then grinding up their fourth stomach. Cheese made using this rennet is not considered offerable or consumable by devotees. Instead, those devotees who do use commercial cheeses look for ones made using "vegetarian rennet", typically chemical or microbial in origin.

There are no "vegetarian" whey powders, but what we're looking for here is a "kosher whey powder" (any Jewish body builders in the house?). According to kosher dietary laws meat and milk cannot be mixed, so kosher milk products are also "Vaisnava bonafide".

US Premium whey protein isolate turns out to fit the bill. It's available in Australia, free postage, and costs only $38/kg for an order of 4kg. That's very economical. At my local organics store whey protein isolate is $54/kg in the bulk bin, and GNC, etc. carry branded protein powders for $60+ for 750g.

Manigriva, from Melbourne, pointed out Nutiva Hemp Protein Powder.

That's one for all you vegans out there, and it's also got some serious counter-cultural cred (check out The Hemp Revolution on Google Video). It has 37% protein (compared to whey protein isolate's 93%), and the bioavailability of that protein is lower than that of whey, but it's hemp man! Green all the way through.

A number of people have asked me about the "Vedic Mass" protein powder that features as the picture for the Vaisnava Bodybuilding Group. No, I didn't photoshop it. It's real. I found it by googling "Vedic Bodybuilding" as an image search.

It's made by Vedic Biolabs, in Bangalore, India. They also make "Vedic Proteen", which is a protein powder with added Ayurvedic goodness (Brahmi, Ashwagandha and Shankapushpi), and "Vedic Fat CHQ" to control weight. There are no "get immediate results from your first set within 15 minutes of taking this" claims here, it's all-Ayurvedic rasa: "Vedic Mass Builder has to be consumed for a minimum period of 3 months to get the desired results. Results vary from person to person.".

OK...

At the other end of the spectrum, here's the profile picture for an Australian body building group on Facebook.

Now that's taking it a little too far...

"But where do you get your protein from?"

How many times, as a vegetarian, have you had to answer that one?

I wrote a riff on protein deficiency and vegetarianism in the Vaisnava Body Building group on Facebook today. While I was doing that I stumbled across this article:

Is Whey the King of Proteins?

The bottom line is that whey, made from cow's milk, is recognised by sports nutritional science as the best protein for building human body - hands down.

Whey protein is easily digested and absorbed quickly into your muscles where it can supply essential amino acids required for muscle growth and recovery. Its unique absorption and high biological value means it can boost recovery and physique development better than any other protein...Whey is considered by many experts to be the ultimate pre and post workout protein because it boosts protein synthesis (making new muscle) and creates the ideal environment for muscle growth.

Where do I get my protein from? Dude, where do you get yours?

All glories to mother cow!

Tired of getting sand kicked in your face on harinam at the beach?
Sick of being a scrawny, anaemic weakling with no energy?

Now you can get the lean, toned, ripped, supple yet strongly muscled body you've always wanted to do your devotional service with, in the Vaisnava Body Building Group.

Lose weight or gain it, increase your flexibility and strength, decrease tiredness, sickness and lethargy, increase your energy levels and natural enthusiasm for activity in Krishna's service.

"You're not the body - but you might as well have a good one!"

Dead lift full pots of prasadam, attack stacks of dishes like they were going out of style, leap out of bed for the morning program in a single bound, dance, chant, and play mrdanga for hours without tiring. Tune and tone your body for a lifetime of service to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga!

Join athletes, martial artists, yoga practitioners, and other devotees interested in all aspects of physical health and peak performance. Find vital information on nutrition, share training and exercise regimes, review scientific supplementation, and we'll throw in some secret mantras to make it even more Vedic!

Join us in the Vaisnava Body Building group on Facebook.