Ayurveda
Ayurveda and Your Ideal Weight – PART II
Part One of this article explained the Ayurvedic and doshic principles of your ideal weight according to your unique combination of vata, pitta and kapha doshas. Ayurveda teaches that balanced weight is achieved through awareness of the way that the qualities of the doshas affect you. It then explains that your lifestyle and dietary habits should create harmony among the doshas. When there is excess of any dosha, it can manifest as excess body weight.
Excess Body Weight and the Doshas
KAPHA: The water and earth dosha of kapha has heavy, dense, slow moving or static, cold, wet and oily qualities. Excess kapha slows metabolism, obstructs circulation, and accumulates surplus fat tissue and water. According to Ayurveda’s principal of ‘opposite actions create balance,’ the qualities of light, clear, mobile, warm and dry should be employed to reduce the exaggerated characteristics of kapha that can manifest as excess weight.
Kapha reducing methods include:
Dietary: Eat a variety of warm, light and stimulating foods, using primarily pungent, bitter and astringent tastes - Avoid sweet, cold, oily, rich, heavy and excessively sour or salty foods - Have three easily digestible meals each day with the more complex meal at lunchtime - Reduce or eliminate snacks - Drink warm or room temperature liquids to thirst - Drink herbal teas that are warming, stimulating and cleansing
Activity: Sun Salutations at Dawn - Energizing Yoga - Active Dancing - Bicycling - Running - Brisk Hiking - Team Sports - Weight Training … Stimulating, Heat-Building, Vigorous, Strengthening
Daily Routines: Vigorous dry brush massage - Abhyanga (self-massage) using a light amount of warm oil, like almond oil - Breath of Fire - Walking meditation or breathing movement - Warm bath or shower with uplifting aromas - Energizing mantra or chanting … Be spontaneous and open to new experiences
PITTA: If the fire and water pitta dosha becomes in excess, it’s hot, wet, mobile, light and sharp qualities can encourage kapha to increase and accumulate in an attempt to balance pitta. This explains why Ayurveda teaches that there is not one method of weight management that works for everyone. If you were to use warming and stimulating foods, exercise and herbs to reduce the kapha weight caused by excess pitta, pitta would increase even more and kapha would increase accordingly. The appropriate methods to reduce pitta induced weight provide qualities that are cool, dry, stable and heavy.
Pitta reducing methods are:
Dietary: Eat cooling and cleansing foods, favoring those with sweet, bitter and astringent tastes - Avoid salty, sour, hot spicy, oily, and fermented foods, as well as stimulants - Have three regular meals with largest meal at lunchtime and frequent room temperature water throughout the day - Drink herbal teas that are calming, cleansing and cooling
Activity: Calming Yoga - Tai Chi - Walking - Expressive Dancing - Hiking - Swimming - Water, Winter and Indoor Sports - Double’s Tennis … Non-Competitive, Cooling, Grounding, and Centering
Daily Routines: Thorough dry brush massage - Abhyanga using a moderate amount of cool, sweet oil, like sunflower or coconut oil - Cooling Shitali breath (sipping breath in through mouth ) - Peace to All Beings meditation - Guided relaxation - Cool shower with calming aromas - Calming mantras - embrace serenity and calmness
VATA: If the ether and air vata dosha is in excess for an extended time, the vata qualities of cold, dry, light, quick and irregular movement can provoke kapha’s stabilizing ability to enter and accumulate as excess weight. The effective approach to decrease vata produced weight includes the qualities of warm, heavy, wet, slow and stable. The methods that reduce vata are used to help maintain a healthy weight for a vata types or to lose weight that stems from excess vata stimulus.
Vata reducing methods are:
Dietary: Eat warming, nourishing and comforting foods, with an emphasis on the tastes sweet, sour and salty - Avoid bitter, cold, fermented, and raw foods – Eat mostly cooked foods - Have small meals with regular snacks and warm or room temperature liquids - Drink herbal teas that are warming, grounding and nutritive
Activity: Balancing or Restorative Yoga - Tai Chi – Qi Gong - Walking - Swimming - Pilates - Ballet - Gardening …Slow, Rhythmic, Grounding, and Centering
Daily Routines: Light dry brush massage – Abhyanga using generous amounts of warm, sweet oil, like sesame oil - Alternate nostril breathing - Mindfulness meditation - Creative visualization - Warm baths with grounding aromas - Grounding Mantras - Spend time in Nature - Establish steady routines around eating and sleeping
Ayurveda teaches that in a state of doshic harmony you will experience the true health and happiness that result in your ideal weight.
Disclaimer: This article was written for educational purposes only and is based on the tradition of Ayurveda. It is not intended to treat, diagnose, prescribe or heal any health condition or to replace standard medical treatment or advice.
Denise O’Dunn, president and founder of Balance & Bliss Inc., is a certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, Licensed Massage Therapist (ma58502) and yoga teacher. She received her degree in Ayurveda from the Florida Vedic College and is a professional member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association. She can be reached at [email protected] or visit www.balanceandbliss.com