Here
are eight Ayurvedic tips that can naturally and gently guide you toward
holistic and healthy weight loss, without the use of chemicals, processed food,
or extreme diets.
1. Drink a large
glass of warm water with organic lemon first thing in the morning. This boosts
the entire digestive system and gives you a fresh start to your day.
2.
Exercising enough to break a sweat is suggested as a daily morning
practice for healthy weight loss; 45 to 60 minutes is ideal, but even 30 will
do. Find an activity that you can do for the rest of your life, or at least for
the foreseeable future.
3. Find
five to 10—or more—minutes of peace and relaxation in the morning. Mind-body
practices like yoga, meditation, and qigong elicit a relaxation response in the
body. This helps to alleviate stress, one of the main causes of weight gain. It
also puts us in a more present state of mind, allowing us to be better
decision-makers as our day proceeds.
4. Eat three meals a
day, with no snacking. Food is a fast-burning fuel, and when your body is given
a constant fuel line, it forgets how to burn fat. Have breakfast, a
medium-sized meal, between 7:30 and 9:00 am. Have lunch, your largest meal,
between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. Have dinner, your smallest meal, between 5:30 pm
and 8:00 pm, when your digestion is weakest.
5. Eat with the
season, and preferably the region. Through the long, hot days of summer, Mother
Nature offers us fruits and fresh vegetables to keep us cool and energized. In
the fall and winter, the bounty consists of root vegetables, stored nuts, seeds
and fruits, heavier meats and cheeses, and stored grains to insulate us from
the cold. In the damp days of spring, nature brings us berries, green leafy
vegetables, and sprouts to cleanse us from the heavy and acidic winter diet.
When we eat as much organic and local food as possible, and feast on seasonal,
whole foods, our bodies naturally digest and assimilate nutrients.
6. Experience all six
tastes. In Ayurveda, we recognize six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent,
bitter, and astringent. Be sure to incorporate all six tastes into your daily
diet. Sweet, sour and salty tastes are anabolic, or building, in nature and
need the pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes, which are catabolic, or
burning in nature, to balance them out. Too many sweet, sour, and salty tastes,
as seen in the Standard American Diet, can cause fast weight gain. Foods that
are bitter, such as leafy greens; pungent, such as spicy chili peppers; and
astringent, such as pomegranate seeds, offer healthy counterpoints to the
building nature of the sweet, sour, and salty tastes.
7. Move a little after
each meal. Going for short walks after each meal stimulates digestion. It’s
most important to go for a walk after lunch, preferably 10 to 20 minutes at a
moderate pace. If possible, lie on your left side after walking for 10 minutes
to further aid in digestion.
8. Go to bed with the
sun, and rise with the sun. Tapping into our natural circadian rhythms creates
a major hormone-balancing effect. Anthropologically speaking, our ancestors had
no reason to stay up late at night. They would have slowed down when the sun
went down, and maybe sat around a fire or a candle for a while before calling
it a day. The screens that we stare at late at night cause stimulation in the
brain that keeps us awake and wired after our body naturally wants to slow
down. Two hours before bed, start to limit your screen time. Go to bed before
10:00 pm, when we get our second wind. Obtaining a proper seven to nine hours
of sleep a night gives the body time to reset for the next day, and helps
maintain healthy levels of cortisol (a stress-response hormone that causes
weight gain).
These eight steps can
have profound effects on your life. However, it’s vitally important to meet
yourself where you are, in order to maintain sanity and not create more stress.
Decide if this plan is something you want to take on full throttle, or if just
a piece or two could be incorporated into your routine at this time. It’s okay
to begin with small steps. Slowly but surely, the wisdom of Ayurveda can help
lead you toward stress-free, healthy weight loss.